NOTE: If you are new to this trilogy, read Ghost King, Snow Queen (on my profile) first, otherwise this will make little to no sense. ALSO, if you came for ElsaXNico, you will be bitterly disappointed, because there will be none. Try not to let the door hit you as you leave. But if you decide to stay... Congrats. And no, they won't ever do anything romantic with each other or ever develop feelings for each other. They consider themselves to be brother and sister, thank you very much.
ALSO, if you did not get it... Nico and Elsa... Honey, they gay. They both gay. They gay BFFs. Elsa like girls; Nico like boys.
Elsa's fight against Khione wasn't over quickly. Not even close.
The fight—no; battle—took a month. A whole month.
The battle between mother and daughter raged on for four weeks, nonstop. They were both stuck in the world of fighting the other.
Elsa poured the love in her heart into her powers. Khione poured her fear into her moves. Elsa thought of Nico and Anna, using the love she felt for them as strength. Khione thought of her fears, using that. As a result, Elsa's powers were more calculated, strong, and held Khione off extremely well. Khione's powers were barely under her control.
As Khione got weaker—and she did, as the fight wore on—Elsa got stronger; somehow absorbing Khione's powers and essence. The platinum blonde wasn't even aware of this, while the raven headed girl was painfully aware of what exactly was happening.
On the dawn of the last day, Elsa blasted Khione down, pinning her there with a couple of ice pick sharp icicles.
As the Arendellian princess looked at her mother, who looked so weak and vulnerable trapped there on the ground, fear apparent in her eyes, Elsa knew that she could not directly kill Khione. She just couldn't. She was better than that. Or did that make it worse? She didn't know, for life was difficult and confusing. So were morals and ethics, at times.
"I'm so sorry it had to be like this." Elsa whispered stepping forward. Her hands rested at her sides. "I don't want to kill you… But I must. It has to be this way. I'm sorry… Khione." Elsa lifted her skirt enough to expose the Stygian ice dagger. She took it in both of her hands, holding onto the handle, the blade pointed down. She knelt, and then stabbed it into the ice floor with such ferocity that she sunk the blade all the way down to the hilt, and nearly forcing the whole thing into the ground. Once it was in the floor and cracks began to spread, she stood up straight, her face stoic.
She knew that she had to do this for the demigods of the world. For those at Camp Half-Blood. For Nico. And for Anna, even though her sister wasn't a demigod. Elsa didn't care though. Anna was connected to Elsa in a major way. Khione most likely wasn't above hurting Anna if needed. She'd proven that she wasn't above hurting Nico. Elsa couldn't take any chances.
Like Nico had told her on her thirteenth birthday over a year previously, skeletons did indeed rise from the giant cracks in the ground that the Stygian ice dagger created and spread along. An army soon rose from the cracks.
"First task, kill Khione." Elsa called back, sinking into Norwegian. "Second task will be assigned once she is dead." The blonde closed her eyes and bowed her head, whispering her apologies to Khione over and over again as if it were a prayer. She knew that it didn't change anything, but the least that she could do was apologize for this.
When she opened her eyes, the army was holding Khione still. They were stone still. They seemed to be waiting for something. They all looked expectantly at her.
"Oh…" Elsa breathed. "Me… I have to kill her…" She bit her lip, knowing that it had to be done by her. She squeezed her eyes shut briefly before creating an icicle in her hands. It was long and sharp. Khione hopefully wouldn't even feel a thing. She opened her eyes and aimed for Khione's heart. Elsa threw the icicle like a javelin.
Elsa turned away as she heard the scream, and moan of pain. Soon, there was silence. Elsa looked back towards Khione, and was nearly sick. There was so much blood… So much… It was so thick too…
"Release Khione." Elsa ordered the army of the dead. "Find the Boreads and hold them in the throne room. Wait there with the Boreads for your next orders." The skeletons filed out of the room, leaving Khione's dead body, covered in blood on the floor. Elsa knelt down by the body. She reached over and closed her mother's unseeing cold and dark eyes. She covered the body with a thick layer of ice. She placed her hands over the frozen body, turning Khione to ice under it. The goddess was no more.
Using an icicle sharp as an ice pick, Elsa shattered the ice, and then gathered it all up in her skirt. She walked through the rooms and finally found a door. It was summer outside. Elsa placed the ice on the roof and watched what was left of her mother melt into a mere puddle. She turned and walked back to the throne room.
Boreas sat on his throne, looking disturbed at seeing his sons being held by the skeleton army.
"Thank you for not destroying the army, grandfather." Elsa said tiredly. "They're mine, and a limited supply for a limited time." She turned and faced the sons of Boreas, hate in her facial expression.
"What are you going to do to my sons?" Boreas asked in French.
"Getting revenge." Elsa replied emotionlessly in Norwegian. "Making them pay for all that they have done to me."
"Elsa, don't." Boreas pleaded. "You can kill Khione. It was prophesized anyway. Just don't kill my sons." She turned and gave him a dark look.
"You know what they did to me." She growled. "They had a choice. I've already dealt with Khione. If you would like to find her and say your goodbyes, she is a puddle on the roof. These two violated my rights as a person, and I would like to make them pay for what they did by killing them. They deserve it."
"Just forgive and forget." Boreas begged, getting up from his throne. "Elsa, granddaughter, I am begging you. Let them live. I will teach them better."
"They know what they did. They made a conscious decision every time. They took Khione's offer." Elsa hissed, a look of warning in her eyes. "They've been alive for a very long time. They should know not to do what they have done to me. Because of your daughter, whom I have killed, I lost everything. These two helped. Because it was them who actually did the horrible things, I will let you live, Boreas. You did not do anything to me, except let them do what they wanted to me. Grandfather, next time you have children, teach them better. Don't spoil them. Teach them some goddamn discipline. Otherwise, I will be the first to destroy them limb from limb." Elsa warned. "After all I have suffered through; I deserve to have at least this." Elsa turned back to the sons of Boreas. Her uncles.
Elsa's eyes narrowed, and the look on her face and in her eyes darkened. She stepped forward, grabbing the throat of Zethes, cutting of his air supply.
"I should teach you what it's like." She hissed into his ear. "To be stripped of your rights, and convinced that you are less than human. But I'm not like that." Elsa made a rather large knife out of ice in her hands. She stabbed it into Zethe's neck. She felt ichor ooze out of his neck. She kicked him in the chest until he hit the ground. She waved her hand, and he turned to ice. She'd used the same tactic she'd used with Khione on Zethes. Then she moved onto Calais. She just killed him, and then turned him to ice. Elsa, again, gathered up all the ice bits, and threw them on the roof to join Khione's, though she dismissed the skeleton army before leaving the throne room.
This time, she watched as they melted. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
After everything, she felt that she earned at least this.
All three of Boreas's children were dead. All of them had taken part in Elsa's torture. They had left deep mental and emotional scars that Elsa had ignored for the day. But the scars resurfaced as she watched the ice melt.
Elsa collapsed to her knees, crying. She wept for everything that had happened to her. She needed this. She needed time to let it out. Elsa cried into her skirt, her forehead resting on her knees; her arms wrapped around her legs. The ichor rubbed off onto her skirt, but it still stained her hands.
"What now?" Elsa whispered, looking up to the sky. "Where do I go? What do I do?"
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