The young woman stood in the silent room. The only think breaking the heavy quiet was the rasping, shallow breaths of the man at her feet. He lay in an awkward position with blood gushing horrifically from a wound in his chest. As he raised his pleading eyes to the girl standing above him, she looked at her hands, which were still tinted a shimmering blue color. The man slowly raised a shaking hand to the thick icicle impaled in his chest. The young woman, looking from her hands to the blood that was pooling on the floor, sank to her knees. She watched in horror as the life left the man's eyes, but was startled out of her emotions when more soldiers burst through the icy doorway.

Hans stopped short when he saw the blood and the body of The Duke's henchman. Near the balcony on the other side of the room, there were shards of ice, signs of a scuffle, and skidding footprints scratched into the icy floor- up to the edge of the balcony. Now, the young woman was scrambling from her knees to stand and face his small army. Seeing the blood, Hans lost any remorse he might have had in killing this witch. He set his face in a determined, intimidating glare. She had just murdered two men. To kill Elsa now was completely justified.

Standing, Elsa ran her shaking hands through her white-blonde hair. She watched Hans step forward with his sword drawn. The love of Anna's life. Come to kill me.

"Queen Elsa," Hans said, taking another step into the icy room, "We don't want to do you harm. Come with us peacefully, and everything will be much easier."

With these pre-planned words, the group of soldiers fanned out, blocking the door and brandishing their weapons menacingly. Hans's words were just words. The men could care less if Elsa died at their hand. She wasn't really their queen, anyway. Not to mention the fact that she was an evil sorceress.

"How funny it is that you're all of kind words at my coronation, and once my powers are revealed, you want to kill me," Elsa accused, "I can see past your words, Hans. There is no coming peacefully. You're here for my blood."

The young queen tried to keep her voice even and strong, despite the fear that she felt. Concealing her true feelings was something she was good at, though.

"Anders," Hans addressed the man on his right, "Fire."

The young soldier aimed his crossbow, took a breath to steady himself, and fired an arrow directly at Elsa's heart. The lethal arrow did not find its mark, though, as Elsa raised a sheet of ice to stop the arrow in its deadly path. Elsa stood poised, waiting for the next attack, her hands tingling with cold power. Hans made a hand signal and two more archers took aim and fired. Elsa speedily raised both hands, stopping both arrows inches from her face with two jagged ice sheets.

Hans could see that arrows wouldn't work while Elsa had this advantage. He signaled for the men to stop shooting any arrows, and after a pause that filled the crystal room with tension, held his sword ahead of him and bellowed, "Charge!" His men stormed forward into the room.

Elsa's stomach dropped as the men charged closer. True, the sheer ice made it difficult for them to move at top speed, but they were closing in. Think! Almost at the last second, she slammed her foot to the floor and willed a slab of ice to rise beneath her feet. It was not as beautiful as when she made her castle, but it was not about aesthetics. This was life or death. And she wasn't going to give up her newly acquired freedom quickly. As she rose up, she found slight amusement in watching the men's faces. They didn't expect this!

Hans was disgusted, but not disheartened. True, Elsa was out of their reach momentarily, but she had trapped herself, and it was only a matter of time before they could reach her.

"Grab the ice picks! Get rope!" Hans commanded, and his men sprang into action.

"Good luck with that!" Elsa taunted, though her mind was racing with plans for escape.

All too soon, though, the men were making their way towards her frozen perch. As half a dozen men crested the top of the ice pillar, Elsa flung her hands ahead of her and created a tall mound of snow. Suddenly, an image of a very similar mound of snow surfaced in her mind. The memory of that night hit Elsa like an avalanche. Anna! Oh, Anna, I'm so sorry! She replayed the scene in her mind yet again, as she had for years. Anna continues to jump, but Elsa can't keep up. She slips on that blasted ice and as Anna jumps into thin air, Elsa fires another blast of snow. It hits Anna in the head and she goes tumbling to the ground. Anna! Elsa snapped out of her memory as soldiers closed in on her. Clearing her mind, she leapt from the ice to the snow, and created another snow mound ahead of her. She leapt onto it and then jumped to the ground.

"Don't let her get away!" Hans shouted, "Shoot! Shoot her!"

The handful of archers took aim and fired a volley of arrows at the blonde woman. She had chosen to get ahead of the arrows and out of their way, rather than spend more energy producing ice, and as arrow upon arrow missed her, the plan was working. Anders grabbed his last arrow, loaded his crossbow, aimed, and fired with all of his concentration. Time seemed to stand still as the soldiers watched the arrow fly towards Elsa. She turned and looked over her shoulder as the arrow sped at her. She waved her hand for an ice shield, but it rose too late. The arrow lodged itself in her left shoulder and time no longer stood still.