The sword shone stark against the deadly blue snow all around them. He brought the ornate weapon up in the rising arc that would swing down, hopefully crushing the queen's perfectly slender, white neck.

Everything slowed down exponentially for Westergaard as though it were a memory being played in his head. Elsa lay in a sobbing heap in the eye of the storm that had covered the fjord. Anna continued to stagger toward her sister, surprisingly gaining speed despite her frozen limbs. Kristoff could no longer hear anything but the howl of wind and the raging fury of the icy snow. He had begun to fear he had lost Anna forever.

Hans' lip had turned up in a horrifying sneer as his arm finished the swooping arc and began its decent. However, his eyes read a completely different story. They were distraught, as they tried to convey a message that was not being seen. There was no evil gleam in them, no wicked desires, no harmful intent. They were panic stricken, but of course no one else saw because Elsa had her back turned, Anna was closing the distance between her sister and the impending sword and Kristoff was helplessly lost in the middle of the tempest. The blade remained on its course, coming ever closer to the pristine skin of her majesty. Anna was finally between the two; holding up her right hand as the final stages of the freeze set in her limbs, capturing her body in a perfect statue of terror. The sword hit her icy fingers and shattered like a mere icicle crashing to the ground.

Elsa swirled around and the second her eyes fell on her sister she gave an anguished cry that barely escaped her lips. Her body's response came in the form of a burst of magic. The magic escaped as she held her hands to her heart. This burst was like a tsunami of glass shards that grew till they looked like giant masts on a man-of-war, each pointing skyward. A tortured scream was swallowed by howling wind.

Elsa clung to her younger sister and as immediately as the blast had escaped her hands the storm stopped.

The blast covered a significant circumference around the two sisters. Kristoff and Sven were just outside this ring when the storm immediately subsided. Kristoff knew in his heart that something terrible had happened, when he heard a wail his fears were confirmed.

"I'm coming Anna!" He yelled as he tore an axe from his belt and began scaling the icy wall that separated him from the siblings. He finally made it up and over the top, sliding down without hesitation. He hit the ground running, his axe ready for a fight, ready to kill. What he saw stopped him in his tracks.

Elsa had draped her arms over her sisters frozen figure and she was sobbing. Kristoff felt the wind knocked out of him as he slipped to his knees. She was gone? She couldn't be! He barely had the chance to tell her what he felt….

"Anna!" Elsa sobbed. The sound tore from her throat. Her tears fell as the life Kristoff had only ever dreamed about began slipping away in front of his eyes. He leaned forward holding himself on all fours, tears no longer threatening but instead spilling down his cheeks. In his fury he balled his fist around the axe in his hand and in one swift motion he swung his fist into the ice. He did this again and again till the axe had lodged itself so deep in the ice he could not pull it forth again. As his tears blinded him he began to beat the ground with just his gloved hand.

"She can't die! Not now dammit!" He spat into the ground as the tears mixed into the snow. When he realized that tears was not the only warm liquid falling into the snow beneath him he sat up dazed looking at his broken hand. Blood. He saw blood, he felt blood, and he wanted blood.

The eternity that followed was a gut wrenching silence. All that could be heard was the barely falling snow. It was the sound of an ice drop forming into something beautiful before falling to its tragic death below, to be trampled by the wayfarer and his oxen or melted by the warmth of the poor man's fire.

As Elsa and Kristoff sobbed to themselves something began to change. Anna's jacket was turning from a crystalline ice blue to its original fuchsia. The warm colors spread till the ice began thawing around her face. At long last her body became flexible again.

Anna returned her sisters embrace. Elsa looked up a mixture of horror and confused joy on her face.

"Anna! Y-you're…"

"It looks like I'm ordinary ol' me again!" Anna smiled. The two embraces as Kristoff stumbled to his feet. The sound of Anna's voice awakening him from his shock.

"You're alright!" he choked, tear stains on his face. Anna broke from Elsa's embrace and turned to Kristoff.

"I guess." She said quietly. Kristoff shook his head, blinking back another stream of tears that threatened to overflow. Before Anna could do anything he had wrapped his strong arms around her small frame and held her close as though he would never let her go again.

"Don't ever bloody be the hero again!" he rasped. Anna couldn't help but smile.

She was shocked at first but after a moment she sunk into his warm embrace and just relaxed for what seemed like the first time in forever. She wasn't alone. The two finally let go of each other and turned around to look for Elsa. The queen was not there.

Anna and Kristoff looked around for a frantic second before they spotted her. She was on the far end of the gladiatorial ring of ice that she had created during the blast. She was slowly walking toward something; or someone that is. At this realization, Kristoff and Anna both dove for the axe that was buried in the ice. Kristoff reached it first and with a rush of strength he forgot he had, he pulled it from the fjord with his good hand. Anna huffed and gave him a jealous side glance.