Greetings and Happy Holidays FF writers and readers.

I must apologise for not updating this FF for over a year. Other commitments outside of FF plus new and other unfinished projects have taken up my time with this. Rest assured, this one will not be forgotten and will be completed.

So let us continue with it.

Driving back to the station was not the easiest thing on this night considering what had just happened; everyone was in a state of shock and fear. Not a word came out from anyone, not even Merida and Megara who were sitting next to each other with the latter shaking in her seat. Rapunzel was on Eugene's lap and resting herself against him as he wrapped his arms around her and was staring ahead at the seat as if in a trance. Aladdin and Jasmine were sitting silent with their hands intertwined, fearful that one of them could be carted off next. Aurora was sitting behind Philip, both of them silent as statues, though Philip was nervously searching the land around them as they went, fearing that whatever it was that struck Anna was going to suddenly appear out of the trees and go for them too.

All of them had one thought that prevailed in each of their brains: What were they to tell the others? What could they tell them? Oh yes, Anna was struck by some UFO and we decided to leave her there! Oh yes! Elsa would be really proud with them! They were still regretting leaving her there, but right now they just had this feeling that going back was going to be a big mistake. Who knew what that thing could do to them? For all they knew, it could be lying in wait for them to come back. That would then make them think of the next worse thing; what if it did wait for them, even with the others? Would they be a match for it? Unlikely.

Yet on they drove; on and on with not a word being passed between them. For a while they had been like this that you think, dear readers, they would have been taken to a land where they would journey on forever in darkness, never to see the light of day again. That was really what it felt like for a brief moment until lights were visible through the trees ahead.

"Alright, we're almost there," Philip broke the silence, his voice sounding on edge as he glanced back at the others and then at Aurora.

"What are we gonna tell them?" Rapunzel asked as she sat up, looking at them.

Aurora let out a heavy sigh of regret and fear as she looked back at her. "We'll just have to tell them straight up, won't we?" she replied.

"They won't believe us," Megara piped up, a look of loss in her purple eyes.

"How can they not notice Anna is missing?" Merida asked her.

"That's not what I meant! What I meant was they'll think we've done something to her. They'll think we've abandoned her … or worse, killed her!"

"No they won't!" Rapunzel spoke up fiercely, shooting to her feet. "They will believe us. Elsa wouldn't think we'd do something like that to her sister."

"But if Elsa doesn't believe us," Aladdin said, drawing all eyes, apart from Philip's, to him. "You know she'll freeze us."

"She won't." Jasmine reassured him. "Look, whether she or the others believe us or not we have to get them to come with us back to the spot where that thing was. If we can do that, then we can at least show them where she was when we ran."

She was right, they could all see that. But still there was this nervous feeling within each of them over the coming reactions the others would hold towards them. There was no doubt that once they told them what had happened to Anna they would be angry, no, furious to say the least. And what then? Would they believe them? Or would they think that they really had …? Oh, it was too horrible to even allow it into their minds.

The bus began to slow as it turned a final corner and came down a short road to which a large clearing was visible and three other buses were parked with their occupants scattered around them. Most were engaged in conversation with one another whilst others waved to the oncoming vehicle, expecting to see their friends bound out of the bus and give them one last chat before they all retired for the night.

Elsa, among the latter, watched it pass and come to a halt a few metres away but quickly spotted that something was missing.

"Where's Anna?" she asked herself as she eyed the vehicle but then mentally hit herself for not knowing her sister's personality. Of course, knowing her she's probably hiding and gonna try and surprise me!

Well, a surprise she [Elsa] would give her in a moment as she walked over to the bus with Snow White, Ferdinand, Taran and Elionwy following close behind.

However, just as they reached the bus, the doors opened and the group came to see that all of them had a rather shocked, frightened even, expression on their face. None of them were talking and they seemed to grasp the railing behind the door and step out of the bus into the open air with a real sense of apprehension as if it was going to kill them. Rapunzel still had her head buried on Eugene's chest as he led her out of the vehicle; neither of them making eye contact with Elsa or the others. Merida was shaking a little and Megara just looked down at the floor with wide eyes as if terrified to make eye contact with people.

For a moment those watching, and it quickly came to the attention of the rest of the group when they saw the last bus had returned, only looked on with uncertainty at the new arrivals. Why were they acting like this? What was wrong? Did something happen? More importantly, where was Anna?

"Uh guys?" Shang piped up, walking over to Philip and Aurora. "You okay?"

"Yeah, you look like you've been scared out of your bodies," Cinderella added in a concerned voice. "Did something happen?"

Philip and Aurora just looked at each other anxiously and then back Shang and Cinderella, as if asking themselves: How do we tell them? Will they believe us?

"Guys?" Cinderella asked, her voice now becoming much more apprehensive. "Is everything okay? Did Merida and Megara fight again?"

"No!" the two aforementioned girls snapped vociferously, looking up at Cinderella with big glares on their faces.

"Then what happened?" Elsa's more authoritative voice came as she walked past and stepped onto the bus. "Where's Anna?" she asked them.

At these words, those who had just exited the bus exchanged nervous glances with each other, now having to confront themselves with the reality of asking themselves that question: Should we tell her?

"Guys?" Elsa's voice came at them, now more demanding. When she got no answer, she quickly jumped back into the bus and searched along the vehicle and looked in and even under every seat but found nothing. Now full of worry she raced back down the bus and stepped out. "Okay guys, is this some kind of joke? Because if it is, it's done."

None of the group spoke as Elsa looked at them, impatiently and worryingly awaiting a reply. Each wanted to speak but were too afraid to do so. Then again, who would not be? How could they tell her that Anna had been zapped by … by a …

"Well?" Elsa snapped, looking at Rapunzel and Eugene and marched over to them. "Guys, what's happened to Anna?"

The couple looked at one another for a moment with a lost expression over what to do before Eugene sighed and explained everything to Elsa and the others. As expected, Elsa was not at all pleased with them.

"Wait so you're telling me: Anna was hit by some laser from a UFO and now she's lying out there alone?!" she exclaimed and Eugene and Rapunzel nodded. "Well, why did you guys run?!" she asked them angrily.

"Elsa we were scared!" Aladdin defended them. "What else could we do? We thought it was going to kill us!"

"But you still left her there!" Elsa snapped back, her face reddening with anger and the temperature around them began to drop and ice formed around her feet. Then, her look of anger was replaced with an expression of utmost fear and panic. "We have to go back! We need to find her! She could be in pain for all we know!" she cried.

"Elsa calm down!" Elinor intervened and tried to rest her hands on her shoulders but the young woman shook herself out of her grasp and continued to assert the need to go back and ensure that Anna was safe.

"No, she's right." Rapunzel spoke up. "We need to go back and get Anna. Now! C'mon!"

With that, she and Eugene, who she was pulling along by the arm, and Elsa rushed back into the bus. The rest of the group decided it was best to follow suite and piled into that and the neighbouring vehicle. Within less than a minute both vehicles were speeding down the path back into the forest.

Despite their determination to find and retrieve Anna, none of them knew what to expect.