AN: I'm back with another story. This one's a Canon!AU where Anna gets a letter from Elsa, explaining why she did what she did, after she runs away. Armed with this new insight, will Anna still go after Elsa or betray her? Frozen is owned by The Walt Disney Company.
Everyone watched as Elsa ran across the fjord and into the mountains. She was too far away now. Anna looked at one of the guards. "Should I send a search party out to find her?" he inquired.
"No, because chances are, She probably doesn't want to be found", Anna said firmly. She was right because when you have been isolated as long as Elsa was, you eventually become used to the isolation forced onto you and that's exactly what happened with Elsa. Anna and Hans walked back into the castle where Hans made it apparent he had more than just one thing on his mind.
"Guess that means we can marry now, right?" he asked, hopefully.
"No. Elsa was right, I shouldn't marry a man I just met. Good night, Hans", Anna said and left the dumbfounded prince in the hallway before returning to her room. She thought about what happened to Elsa, her sister and what had made her become so cold and unloving recently, more importantly, what SHE had done to make her that way. Part of her anger at Elsa was because she wanted the truth after being fed nothing but lies from her parents and not getting anything out of her personally. However, salvation would eventually arrive in the form of a letter, addressed to Anna, from Elsa, delivered by a servant.
"I had explict instructions to deliver this to you after this moment", he said.
"What is it?" Anna inquired.
"A letter. It explains everything. We're sorry for deceiving you, your majesty, It's just that your father was very strict on not wanting your sister's secret coming out", the servant said. Anna thanked the servant, who left the room. She sat down on her bed and unrolled the parchment to read the letter. The letter said the following:
"Anna, we've all done things that we wish we could take back but we can't. The one thing I wish I could take back was the fact I injured you with my magic."
Anna stopped reading in shock. NOW it made sense why Elsa isolated herself from her. She continued reading:
"It was that night I realized that while my magic could bring joy to people, it could also harm them, like it almost did you. Papa had to take us to the trolls to heal you and they altered your memories to make you forget about my powers. Papa had the idea of using gloves to suppress my magic but as a precaution kept us seperated. The reason why I never told you about my magic was because I was ordered not to at the time because you were too young. He wanted me not to get emotionally involved with you and to do that, he kept me in my room most of the time, away from you. We also wanted to find out how to control my magic but the trolls were too vague in their instructions, leading Papa to do the above."
Anna could not believe what she was reading. She stopped reading for a second to take in the couple words on the paragraphs and silently cursed Adgar for taking away their childhoods because of one simple fear. She read foreward to the part with the accident.
"After I accidently injured you, I yelled for Momma and Papa. Papa came in, screaming 'Elsa, what have you done?! This is getting out of hand!' He thought I hurt you intentionally when I didn't. I couldn't tell him what really happened because I was too scared to do so and I wasn't asked what really happened. I'm sorry, Anna, I didn't mean to hurt you."
Having read that portion of the letter, Anna's anger at their parents grew for how they handled the aftermath of the accident, blaming Elsa for the incident when she was clearly not at fault for it. She kept reading, looking for further answers.
"You have no idea how hard it was to keep up this facade. I never hated you, Anna, I just had to keep you away because of my powers and Papa's teachings. Also, just so you know, I did try to fight him over my not seeing you but he was insisant that I suppress my emotions. As we got older, I asked him at one point if it was okay if I revealed to you my powers as, in the times I was allowed out of my room, I saw how older you were getting and I felt you were ready to know. However, Papa didn't think so and he remained firm in his decision to keep you out until you 'came of age' but I think it was more due to the fact he didn't think you would be trustworthy with such a secret and spill it to others who may want to hurt me".
To say Anna was surprised was an understatement. Elsa did try to challenge their father but his own fears were too strong to break down. Anna knew that Adgar, himself, was emotionally repressed as well, always coming off as a little stiff and stilted whenever he talked, almost as if he was hiding something and it only got worse after the sisters were seperated. Anna remembered how Elsa interacted with her at the coronation party and she came off as a little stiff and stilted, like she was afraid her powers would leak out if she spoke normally. While Anna knew that some of the fears Adgar held were indeed legitmate threats like the people's fear as well, particularly people who were prejudiced towards magicial beings like Elsa and wanted them perscuted and he didn't want to risk the possibility that Anna could eventually spill to someone which could lead to it, she could comphrend the seriousness of the situation and thus not spill it if she was told. Anna also realized that Elsa still remembered that night as it truly happened while her memories were altered so that she could be the one who could save the kingdom and Elsa if whatever happened indeed came to pass in some way, shape or form after the 13-year isolation. She kept on reading, coming to the reason why the letter was composed.
"After failing to convince Papa to tell you about my magic and possibly undo the spell the trolls placed on you, I composed this letter. I intended to give this to you in person, that is, until Papa caught me and he was beyond angry I was out of my room. He carried me back to my room and gave me the worst thrashing for it, unable to fathom that keeping us seperated & you locked out of the loop was indeed wrong. You help me control my powers, Anna, it is love that controls them. I realized that upon reading a book about emotion based powers, which was among the books Momma & Papa had sent to my room to keep me occupied. On Page 9, it mentioned something about emotion based magic and the person who helps keep the magic in check who's the 'rock'. I had hoped that if and when we saw each other again, I could tell you everything".
Anna gasped in shock. THAT was the reason why Elsa wanted to speak to her alone, she was going to reveal her powers and explain everything to her yet Anna thought that Elsa was intruding in on her own happiness, hence why she lashed out at her and sowing the seeds for the winter to be struck and unknowingly increasing her own fear, fear of hurting Anna, fear of defying their father, fear of being found out, fear of everything really, all because of that one simple fear. "What have I done?" she asked herself. "What have I done?" Elsa was right, she never really did know what love actually was and mentally berating herself for thinking she was in love with Hans, she read the last part of the letter.
"When my attempt to give you this letter in person failed, I gave it to a servant with explict instructions to be delivered at some point if my powers are revealed. Please, Anna, find me and we can be a real family again and I will tell you everything in person. Love, forever and always, your sister, Elsa".
Tears began to form in Anna's eyes. Elsa never did hate her. Her coldness was merely a facade to suppress her emotions and empathy to prevent power leakage. She didn't ask her pardon, she didn't curse Elsa, she cursed their parents as while they had good intentions and some of the fears that drove their decisions were legitmate but their insistence on keeping Elsa isolated, emotionally stunted and seperated from Anna caused exactly what was happening. Anna knew she was also at fault as well as if she had just accepted Elsa's invitation to just talk privately, none of this would have happened, accepting the reason why she didn't accept the invitation was because she thought they were still on the subject of her engagement to Hans, hence her insistance on having Hans in on the conversation, which, again, set the lead-up to the events that caused the winter. Anna also noted that the way the letter was worded particularly at the last bit with Elsa's usage of 'Find Me', which held a hidden second meaning. While it DID refer to the obvious, it also referred to the REAL Elsa, the one that existed before the accident occurred and before she became consumed by fear. Wiping the unshed tears from her eyes, Anna made her decision. She was going to go after Elsa however, there was the unanswered question of how would Elsa react to her presence: Would she (A. react with joy, (B. fear or (C. Stiff and stilted. Given how Elsa was trying to suppress her emotions for so long, it would probably be C but then again, she never knew that. Most importantly, where in the world would Elsa run off to? The last she saw was Elsa running into the mountains so, naturally, that would be the place for her to go. Anna remembered Elsa always had a fascination with the Northern Mountains, a place to go for some alone time and peace and quiet.
"My horse!" Anna ordered to the servant. He complied and delivered her horse. Turning to Hans, she said, "Our engagement is off, Hans. I'm not ready for marriage just yet". Hans accepted her terms but on the inside, he was scowling. "However, you will oversee Arendelle in my absence", she further said.
"On my honor", he said, turning away to smirk at himself before reassuming his facade of Mr. Nice. "Should I send someone with you?"
"No. I caused this problem. I'll go alone", Anna said, thinking that Hans would give that person alternate orders to kill Elsa on site and possibly Anna as well. Hans accepted her terms and watched her ride off. Luckily for her, the fjord had frozen over so it was easy to take the horse across the frozen fjord into the mountains. Once this was accomplished, she needed to figure out which way Elsa went. Luckily that was there as well, via Elsa's footprints and cape marks, leaving a trail for Anna to follow. Finally, she came across the mountain that Elsa claimed for herself, which was a LOT easier to spot, considering that an ice castle was sprouting up on it. Anna approached her sister but observed her from afar, comparing her gracefulness to the stiffness in the castle. Here, she could be who she WAS, not who their parents and the public wanted her to be but here's where problem 2 presneted itself: How could she convince Elsa to come back home without causing another argument? Should she apologize or demand an apology from Elsa or should they both apologize, seeing that they were both in the wrong at some points? The letter was essentially Elsa's apology but why would she be the one to apologize? Anna now understood why Elsa did what she did. Elsa did a little twirl and noticed Anna standing there.
"Anna? What are you doing here?" she asked, abiet apprensively.
"Finding you. Elsa, I'm sor", Anna started to say but Elsa cut her off.
"No, I should apologize for pulling away"
"I understand why you did. In your letter, you explained why. You just wanted to obey Papa, regardless of how wrong he was to keep us seperated", Anna said. "However, I still have to apologize for my blow-up at the party. It was wrong and inconsiderate. So, if it makes you feel better, I broke it off with Hans. The reason why I blew up was because I saw it as we were still on the subject of Hans because there was no indictation you wanted to talk about something else", she added, trying to justify her actions, but Elsa would have none of it.
"Anna, don't you dare try to justify your behavior. I DID give you an indication when I said alone", Elsa said, trying to keep herself in check.
"I know that now. So, will you come back?" Anna asked the kicker question.
"No", Elsa said and generated the Snow Queen dress.
"Elsa, please, stop living in fear. You said in your letter you know how to control your powers now", Anna pleaded with her sister. "You found the secret when Papa never could. He was fearful and misguided. You don't have to be those things. I can help you, you said so yourself in your letter. I keep your powers in check. You don't have to keep your distance anymore. Please, come back with me", she further pleaded. Elsa now had a choice: Should she return with Anna and maybe face perscution for her magic or stay in the mountains where she could be who she is. She knew the kingdom needed its' ruler and Anna needed her sister. She will not pull away this time.
"We'll go together", she climbed onto Anna's horse and rode across the fjord back to Arendelle. The queen had returned, the winter was lifted and Anna's true memories, thanks to Elsa, were eventually restored.
AN: This fic was born from a question I had in my head that what if Elsa had written Anna a letter explaining why she did what she did. It's true that Anna did deserve explanations as to why but wasn't getting any from Elsa and their parents (and, on Elsa's end, it can be easy to infer that Adgar basically ordered her to keep her mouth shut) because of their own personal fears and that formed the cornerstone of the fic. R&R!