Love Endures Chapter 4: The Past Is In The Past
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Um... I can explain... Put the guns down I have an excuse, I swear!... Phew... Anyways, the reason that this chapter is so late is basically because real life got in the way and will continue to be in the way for the next month and a half, so in that time chapters will unfortunately slow down a bit (But Not Stop!). So without further ado, on with the chapter!
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"Roc, I swear, if my boots aren't in my hands in the next 30 seconds, I'm going to find you and show you the true meaning of pain!" Alyona roared as she stomped up and down the great halls of the castle in her bare feet, using her powers every few seconds to lift up drapes to see if she could spot any trace of Roc's whereabouts, and while it had proven to be far from successful as of yet, she had no intention of stopping in her relentless search to recover her combat boots.
She had only been in the castle for a night, and Roc was already up to his usual pranks that almost always ended up with him in harm's way, most likely by his own prank, and Alyona was going to make sure that such a trend would not be ending on a prank pulled on her.
A sudden shuffling noise from the now closed door of the room that she was searching in immediately caught Alyona's attention; someone outside was walking around, and whoever they were, they weren't exactly going out of their way to be sneaky by any means. Charging up a gale blast in her palms, the black haired Russian aimed her hands towards the door before letting loose a blast of wind that blew the door open into almost a dozen different pieces, causing the person behind the door to fly into the wall with a loud grunt.
With a wicked grin, Alyona charged her palms full of power once again, and began to slowly stalk towards the fallen man who she had assumed to be Roc, ready to beat him like a wet mat until he gave up her footwear.
"All right Roc, give me back my fucking boots before I-..." Alyona drifted off, while her face receded to one of less hostility when she realized that the man that she had sent flying into the wall was not Roc, but was in fact a young guard that appeared as if he was no older than her, with golden hair resting on top of his head, while rather prominent freckles peppered his cheeks. Alyona sighed, flicking the unconscious man on the head in a rather half hearted attempt to awaken the poor guard. "Hey buddy, are you conscious? C'mon wake up, I have to find my stupid friend..."
Alyona was fairly sure that she had received a small struggled groan from the guard in response, causing her to frown in sympathy before she gently placed the guards head on the floor before pulling herself to her feet, while simultaneously clearing her mind so that she could pick up even the slightest of sounds that the thief of her boots could be causing.
That's when she heard it, a small shuffle from the other room, the only room in the entire wing that she hadn't checked as of yet; the royal art gallery. No more than a few moments later another sound was hear, this time a hushed curse in a voice that no doubt belonged to an adult male.
"Gotcha!" She yelled, letting another blast of air loose, rendering the door in front of her as fractured and broken as the one before, only this time the man laying defenseless on the floor was her originally intended target; Roc, and her combat boots clutched in his arms. Just as she had suspected. "Sneaky bastard; give me back my boots right n-..."
Alyona suddenly cut herself off, causing Roc to glance up at her to find the young woman's eyes filled with fear, while her entire body collectively shook like a leaf that had been thrown into the breeze. The room around her appeared as if it was melting into oblivion, only to be replaced by a torrent of smoke and flames, while the sound of Roc calling out to her was quickly transformed into the petrified cries of woman and children, along with the sounds of hundreds dying around her.
Alyona bit her lip as she watched her friends and family desperately fighting tooth and nail against what appeared to be immeasurable hordes of faceless soldiers, all of which were infinitely better equipped than the men, women, and even children fighting futilely against them.
One by one Alyona watched as entire family were stuck down. First her father, who had been wrestling with 2 faceless soldiers was blindsided by a third and shot while he struggled to get off of the blood-soaked dirt. Next was her older brother, stabbed to death by multiple soldiers that had dog-piled on top of him and set upon him with their knives. Next her mother, then her baby sisters, then her aunts and uncles. They were all being slaughtered before her very eyes without even a hint of remorse or even hesitation from the soldiers with no faces, and certainly no compassion in their souls to speak of.
The image carried on in its cruel torturous ways for what felt like a hundred years before the walls of the castle suddenly began to re-materialize around her, while Roc's voice slowly but surely became audible one again. She was back in Castle Arendelle; not on a war torn battlefield. That was in the past.
"Purge?... Did It just happen again?..." Roc asked, using the chair that rested beside him to lift himself off of the ground once again, making sure to keep a few feet away from Alyona, just as a safety precaution that would result in more minor more than anything else, just in case Alyona decided to take revenge for her lost boots once again, or at least more than she already had.
"Y-... Yeah... I-..." The young woman stuttered, clutching at her head as if she was suffering from a massive splitting headache, yet the tears threatening to escape from her eyes and travel down her cheeks like streams of liquidized sadness. When Roc noticed this, he attempted to reach over to comfort his friend, but she quickly withdrew from the hand, grabbing her boots from the floor before she hastily said, "I-... I have to go, I... Bye..."
Before Roc could even think to say anything more to Alyona, she had already spun around and had taken off at full pelt, leaving Roc to clean the mess that the young woman had made with her powers. However Roc was not the only one watching wind wielding Russian girl running through the hallways in a grief stricken panic. Behind the door that Alyona had originally entered the room from, the young guard that she had blasted into a wall stood there gazing into the room with a look of concern etched into his face.
With the grace and stealth of a mouse, the man quietly entered the room and snuck past Roc, who was on his knees cleaning up the mess, before he deemed it safe enough to follow the mysterious new visitor's trail, for what he wasn't sure, but something inside of him, something primal and heartwarming urged him on to realize that he needed to see if she was alright, before he felt completely sick to his stomach from these thoughts. He had to know who this mysterious girl was and why on earth she had broken down the way she just had.
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"I swear if this baby doesn't come out on its own soon, I'm going to push it out!" Anna whined immaturely while Andrew and Elsa helped her down the hall, each weighed down by one of Anna's arms, giving her an element of stability that she would never have normally possessed in her pregnant state. While her stomach was cumbersome however, it did nothing to deter her nearly limitless affinity to speak. "Put me down! I don't need help; I mean it, I know Kung Fu!"
"Congratulations, Elsa and I have super powers, and you're pregnant, if you tried to kick me you would just end up falling on your ass. You might as well just enjoy the ride back to your bedroom, because you aren't leaving the castle until you're... I dunno-... Not pregnant anymore." Andrew explained with his usual sarcastic brand of humor that only he seemed to possess, while Anna stuck her tongue out at him in a futile attempt to both insult the young man and just maybe getting him to loosen his grip just long enough for her to make a break for it.
Having grown bored of being forced to stay in her room alone, or around the castle if a servant, or Kristoff and Hannah were with her, Anna decided to take it upon herself to break out of the castle to continue helping the rest of the kingdom in the rather laborious task of helping to set up Christmas decorations. No one could really blame her in truth, for this was the first Christmas that she would be celebrating with Elsa in over 13 years, but it still didn't excuse her from the one glaring issue of her extremely large belly. It had been a challenge to even walk down the steps for the poor princess, and her luck had only grown worse when she had decided to grab a canteen of water from the kitchen that that she wouldn't grow thirsty during her walk around town, only to be caught by Elsa and Andrew, who had merely come to the kitchen not in search of her, but rather to make themselves some tea. Boy had that confrontation been awkward.
"But that's not fair! Everyone else is out there decorating for Christmas, I want to help them!" Anna whined fussily, planting her feet into the ground in a pathetic attempt to halt her captor's progress, but in the end only served to further constrict her. After she had put her feet to the ground, Andrew silently decided that he had, had enough of his soon to be sister-in-law's immature behavior, which resulted in him lifting her into his arms, not only increasing his pace, but stopping any chance that Anna had of escape. "Put me down, put me down, put me down!"
"Anna, you just need to calm the hell down, I'm not going to let you go until we get to your room, which I'm considering locking so that you don't try to escape again. I mean come on, you're pregnant, you should know what is and is not good for your unborn child at this point..." Andrew explained bluntly while Anna glared at him and Elsa strolled beside him, ready to freeze her sister's feet in place, should she acquire any funny ideas involving escape. "And besides, even if you did wriggle your way out of my grasp, you still aren't able to run; we would catch you in seconds."
"I-..." Anna drifted off as she bit her lip. As much as the young princess hated to admit it, Andrew had quite a full proof system worked around her at the moment, and the only one who would be able to veto the process was standing next to Andrew nodding her head with a smile on her face. Realizing that she had lost the battle for freedom, at least for the moment, Anna sighed and signed herself to being carried back into the captivity of her room. "Fine... Just take me back already... But don't think that I'm through trying to get out of here yet!"
Andrew couldn't hold back his laughter, "Wouldn't dream of it."
Eventually the two sisters and Andrew finally found themselves in Anna's room, and so with about as much grace as a dead cat, Andrew dumped the pregnant royal onto the bed and threw the covers over her, forming a small molehill in the sheets thanks to Anna's stomach.
"Alright Anna, Andrew and I will go and see if Hannah and Hope can keep you company, but we have to get to work on some trade agreements. Do I have your word that you won't attempt elopement again?" Elsa asked, suspicion high in her vocals, only earning an all too innocent smile and nod of understanding from her younger sister. "Good... I'll be back to check on you in a few hours. Don't you dare leave that bed again."
"Fine 'mother'..." Anna groaned prompting Elsa to smile and nod reassuringly before she turned to leave, choosing to ignore Anna's immature comment for the time being, with Andrew following her close behind. Anna huffed in resignation before flopping her head onto the pillow. She needed a book, but when she glanced over to her dresser she was grief-stricken to find that all of her books had been taken back to the castle library by one of the servants. Anna let out a low growl; this was going to be a long day.
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Alyona felt as if her feet and legs were on fire, yet the last thing would have crossed her mind at the moment was her current physical state. She couldn't stop running; stopping would mean that the dark thoughts and images would creep into her mind once again, the thoughts that plagued her day in and day out. No matter what she tried, the thoughts would return in a matter of hours; there was no escape for her, all she could do was run and run, until she could run no longer.
She was in a quiet area of the castle near the guard barracks when her legs finally gave out from under her, causing her to land face first on the expensive looking carpets below her with a muffled grunt. Alyona groaned into the carpet quietly before she crawled over to the nearest wall, which she leaned on and buried her head in her hands, steeling herself for the thoughts of darkness and despair that would soon come to engulf her mind in misery.
"Um... Miss?... Are-... Are you alright?..." A voice broke Alyona away from her thoughts, prompting her to shoot her gaze up to find the guard that she had knocked over with her powers earlier standing in front of her, although that quickly changed when he decided to sit next to the black haired Russian.
At first Alyona was quite tempted to shoo the guard away; after all he had no right to interfere with her private affairs, but just as she was about to send him away, something in mind her cracked and she began to speak as if she didn't even possess control of her own body. "I'm fi-... No, but you don't need to concern yourself with it; it has got nothing to do with you or anyone else here..."
"I'm going to concern myself with it... Everyone deserves to be as happy as they possibly can be..." This comment caused Alyona to glance up at the boy, which in turn gave her the first proper look of the guard. She was correct in her first observation of his golden blonde hair, but what stood out quite well was not his hair, or fair skin, but rather his sea blue eyes that appeared as if they were sapphires soaked in an angels tears. However, looks were not something that Alyona cared about, not that the boy was astoundingly good looking at any rate, just average. She had conditioned her mind to one of survival over the 17 years of her life, she saw physical beauty as nothing more than that; looks, nothing that aided in survival now-a-days.
The black haired Russian sighed loudly, crossing her legs and her arms in a subconscious show of withdrawal. "Listen, you need to go back to your duties-..."
"No... Not until I know what's wrong." This guard was beginning to irritate Alyona, however her mood quickly changed when the guard pulled out a large loaf of bread that appeared as if it was still warm from the oven that it had been created in by its chef. "Here, have some bread; I made it myself in the kitchen a few minutes ago, so it should still be pretty warm."
Alyona was about ready to curse the guard to hell. How on earth did he know about her one solitary weakness when it came to food. It looked amazing she had to admit. The crust was browned but not quite burnt, and it appeared as if it would melt in her mouth the moment it touched her tongue. "I-... Fine... But don't think you're getting through to me..."
With a laugh, the guard held out the bread with one hand, which Alyona took with a silent nod of thanks before she took a huge bite of the loaf, letting the confection melt in her mouth, just as she had predicted. She couldn't help but to let out a small sigh of pleasure and delight.
"So you like bread huh?" The guard's chuckle broke Alyona out of her trance, prompting her to casually glance over at the young man as she chewed. Eventually he worked up the nerve to ask a question that had been niggling away at the back of his mind, despite the simplicity of the request. "So... Can I get a name?"
"I don't know, that really depends whether or not your parents have already named you." Alyona sarcastically quipped with a small grin on her face, her good mood that she held previously returning in what seemed to be a single instance. "It's Alyona; you can call me Aly or Purge, everyone else does. I assume I'll be learning your name in turn?"
"Oh!... It's... It's a stupid name..." The guard fumbled out his words, unsure if he should reveal his true name or a fake one to this girl, but once he began speaking, something in his mind just denied him the ability to cease his mouth. "My name is Morton I hate the name..."
"Why? It's no different than any other name in the world, there is no reason to be ashamed of it..." Alyona attempted to comfort, although her face fell as her eyes became quite downcast, contrasting against what she had said previously before she whispered something so softly that even she barely heard it.. "At... At least your parents loved you..."
"Yeah well... It's not exactly all that fun since I get mad fun of by pretty much all of the other guards every time they see me..." Morton explained, completely oblivious to what his new companion had just informed him of under her breath. "So I just try to use my name only when I need to..."
"They have no right to do something like that, I'm sure that-..." Suddenly Alyona was silenced by a shriek of pain coming from the royal quarters of the castle, a scream that felt as if it had shaken the foundations of the fortress. Without even thinking, both Alyona and Morton shot from where they were sitting in the direction of the scream. The direction of Anna's room.
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Both Elsa and Andrew laughed softly as they fell onto the bed wrapped in each other's arms, their lips meeting soon after in a flurry of kisses and hickeys that silenced their laugher in favor of physical affection. After dropping Anna back off in her room, the queen and her love decided that the best course of action would be to continue the latter's training in diplomacy and general politics, but around halfway to Elsa's office both she and Andrew found themselves hungrily making-out next to their bedroom, and so they decided to take it in there, so as to not cause one of the servants to have an aneurism from such a blatant public display of physical affection.
"So..." Andrew began in between kisses, letting his hands run through Elsa's hair while she purred lovingly. As he continued to speak, Andrew watched as Elsa buried her head into his chest, a blush forming on her face. "I see you're quite comfortable looking... It would be a shame if something happened... I dunno like... This!"
Without giving Elsa a chance to react, Andrew quickly flipped her onto the bed, positioning himself on top of her, while her arms were pinned above her head, rendering her helpless under her lover's desire.
Suddenly, a loud bang from the door startled both Elsa and Andrew, prompting them to shoot up off of the bed to their feet in both surprise and embarrassment. When they turned to the doorway, they were surprised to find not a guard or an assassin, but a startled and panicked Alyona and a blonde guard, both panting in the doorway, both with their eyes nearly bulging out of their heads.
"Alyona?! What the hell?! What's going on?!" Andrew asked with a hint of anger and distain lacing his words, although Elsa appeared as if she was far from angry; rather she was more concerned with what Alyona informed them of next.
"It's Anna! We have a serious problem going on in her room!" She growled, before stomping over and grabbed both Elsa and Andrew's hands and began to lead them out of the bedroom, before tugging them down the hall to where loud blood curling screams could be heard. Elsa tensed, there was no doubt that the screaming girl was Anna.
"What?! What's wrong with my sister?!" She ordered, her heart beating so quickly that she felt as if it was about to burst out of her chest and run down the hall much faster than her legs could carry her.
"Her water broke! She's having her baby!"
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Annnd cue the dramatic music! I promise, pinky promise, that the next chapter will be full length again!... I really have nothing else to say today so... Leave a review if you want to. Until next time my minions!