What goes up, must go down.

Ralph thought that, by now, those words should have etched themselves in the scars he had accumulated over a decade in the construction business. But apparently, they didn't, and now he paid the consequences. Cracks split through the ground at the creature's impact, and the biggest one of these tore right beneath the man who threw it.

Then Ralph disappeared from the surface world. As he fell, instinctively, he reached out and grabbed the first thing, the nearest thing, that mattered. An instant later, he hit the ground on his left side. He screamed. Something had shattered in his shoulder, and the pain spread out to every nerve in his body. He was paralyzed.

And it wasn't over. With nothing to stop it, his body shifted and started to roll down a slope. He squeezed his eyes shut.

But if there was a singular fortunate thing to happen in this disaster, it was that plenty of snow had managed to land before he did, obscuring the smaller rocks and providing the least amount of cushioning. But boulder-sized sediments still found a way and pierced through the white blanket. In the end, all he could do was try to keep his head out of the way.

Ralph had been through through his own share of bad falls, but this one took the cake. Finally, his bruised and battered body finally came to a stop on the slate. He was facing upwards, but that's all he knew. Consciousness was fading fast.

He slackened his arms, releasing the little figure trembling against his chest. He couldn't even open his eyes. All he could manage was to release some air from his lungs in the sound of a question barely louder than a whisper.

"Anything broken?"

Aside from some bruises, Vanellope escaped the fall unharmed. The sheets that had originally provided her warmth had become her shield, the layers padding her against the worst of the rock slide.

She told him so. And then, lifting her head and seeing the utter blackness around them, she brought her hands to her face.

"R-R-Ralph. W-What are we g-gonna do?"

Stinkbrain couldn't answer. He simply lay there, unresponsive to the world, his shallow breathing the only evidence he was still alive.

The ground cracked and shuddered at the force brought upon by a landing snowman. A great gap replaced the ground where a refugee used to stand - the woman next to him had been luckier, instinctively leaping aside and making it just inches away at the edge.

There wasn't time to watch her reaction to the loss. Suddenly, the storm's ferocity intensified, howling and slamming against them more than ever. Rising slowly, Marshmellow reared its ugly head, eyes gleaming, as if recognizing something much more powerful than just a scent in the air.

Anna was the first to realize what was going on. Leaving Kristoff to shout words of comfort to Sven, she leapt over to the back of the sled and took her sister by the arm.

"Elsa! Elsa, calm down."

But Elsa couldn't. Her eyes were locked on to her creation.

The name 'Marshmellow' couldn't have been more wrong the way it looked now. The beast had grown more than half than its original size - composed of more dangerously sharp ice crystals than snow. It was just seething powerful magic all over - her magic.

Elsa had gone up to the mountains hoping to tame her creation, or at least to send it far away where it could hurt no one else. But seeing it the way before her now, even she knew that 'control' would be an impossible dream.

It was clear there was only one thing they could do now to stop Marshmellow. And, with all these refugees around, it needed to be done now.

Brushing Anna's hand away, she stepped off the sled.

"Elsa, what are you doing?!"

She did not look back. Instead, she lifted her head to meet her monster's harsh, malicious eyes, putting one foot in front of the other, closing the gap between them. "Let me take care of this, Anna. He won't hurt me."

That was a lie. Only she could feel the magic that had taken on a life of its own inside the creature. It was hungry. Desperate for more. But it made no movement - why would it need to, when its prey was doing all the work by coming closer?

Princess Anna watched her sister halt next to Kristoff and the reindeer. She could see from her sister's profile that she was telling them something - but the words that were lost to Anna, almost deafened now by the storm.

Her knuckles turned white on the backrest of the sled's passenger's seat.

Then her sister stepped in the space directly between the monster and the sled.

For a moment, Anna remembered a time when their places had been reversed - just a few months ago, she had been the one standing between a a falling sword and Elsa. The similarities unsettled her. And its was proven for good reason, as she saw Kristoff silently retake Sven's reins.

Grimly, he looked back at her. Anna leaned forward and listened.

"She's going to try to thaw the golem. But if it doesn't work... If something happens... I've been ordered to turn back without her."

Elsa raised her hands high above her head and tried to focus on the little things she cared about. Her sister, her friends, the castle staff, the citizens of Arendalle. The parents that tried so hard to love her despite all the suffering she was born with. She thought of Olaf, the happy-go-lucky snowman that filled the castle with stubborn joy, brightening her day despite the tiresome deeds and duties of her lifestyle.

She remembered all these things, and felt the warmness in her heart swell up through her arms and into her hands. Relief mixed in with her emotions.

The countercurse was going to work.

Yet the moment it noticed its joints beginning to glow and slate sliding off it's torso, Marshmellow knew what Elsa was up to. It vaulted three meters forward, crashing down once more. The ground rocked beneath the queen's feet.

Uncertain sparks flickered from her fingertips. Elsa struggled to keep her thoughts warm and steady, daring not to tear her eyes away for one second.

I'm not alone.

Marshmellow leaned closer, hands reaching out. It was only a few feet away now. The ice and crystal shards weren't falling from its body fast enough.

Her breathing changed - shallow, frantic now.

Calm down.

She wanted to run. To escape. But she couldn't - and not just because she had people to protect, but because her feet had failed her, refusing to move from the spot.

Calm down, Elsa! You know what love feels like. You can do this!

Marshmellow's hands were at each of her sides now. Elsa did not even want to think about what could happen if it decided to slam its hands together - but, of course, she couldn't help it.

Oh no.

Tears started welling up in the back of her eyes. The warm glow disappeared - everything was dreadful again, and so, so cold. Somewhere behind, Anna was shouting, calling out for her. Elsa couldn't understand, but she hoped that Kristoff was holding her back from getting involved.

Marshmellow's magic began to reconstruct itself. It grinned. Swinging both arms outwards, it seemed ready to flatten the woman it once served - but not before one last chance to get as much power as it could out of her. It spoke in a booming growl.

"YOU... MONSTER."

Inexplicably, here was a loud noise - or, to be more precise, a cacophony of a dozen bangs, like a ship's cannons had gone off all at once just twenty strides away. Elsa staggered and, subconsciously, threw her arm upwards. This saved her life. A fresh plate of ice sprung right before her and protected her from the flying shattered shards of what was once Marshmellow.

There, not too far across, stood a tall blond woman surrounded by men wearing the same armor of Sir Felix, smoking artillery in their red and gray gauntlets. There were other people behind them as well, fright obvious in their heavily-bagged eyes. The rest of the refugees.

The next thing Queen Elsa of Arendalle knew, the crust beneath her had finally given under the stress. She fell into the earth.

Yet as she descended into the dark with the risk of death so very close at hand, funnily enough, it was Marshmellow's last words that burned the strongest in her mind.