Love Endures Chapter 7: Soul Of The Dragon

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YES! I FREAKIN' DID IT!... Hi everybody. So I bet you're either wondering where I went or you're ready to destroy me; well I have an explination! In short, my computer broke on me sorta kinda. The monitor stopped working, and the operating system needs to be completely wiped and blah blah blah, I'll let my friend do the tech stuff... -. – Anyway, sorry for such a long wait; here's the next chapter!

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Year 2025, in Yami Tsukino's apartment...

"So I didn't get your name when we came in, may I learn?" Elsa asked Yami's wife, the young woman with the long black hair, before she quietly took a small bite of the pizza slice that rested in her hands, letting her taste buds revel in the euphoria of what was her absolute favorite food in the future.

"Tsukino, Sachiko..." The woman, evidently named Sachiko answered, all while she patiently tied her extremely long black hair into a crude pony tail, securing it with a small band that had a tiny black cat bauble on the band. Since it was so long and fell in front of her face, she would often resort to such tactics when she ate. "And I can be safe in assuming you're the fire breathing idiot's girlfriend from the past? Elsa if I'm not mistaken-..."

"Fire breathing idiot? I am yes, but why the bizarre nickname for him?" Elsa asked more in curiosity than anything else. While she would normally get offended at someone saying something so negative about her fiancée, something told Elsa that Andrew had done something to earn the nick name whatever it was.

Yami and Andrew who had both been laughing quietly as they had their own unrelated conversation finally realized that the latter was the topic of the females conversation, which resulted in their attention drifting over to Sachiko as she spoke.

"Because whenever we have a Halloween party he always somehow ends up burning either a small hallway of my 'old home' down or he ends up getting wasted and tries to blast all of my guests. This year was probably the first time he hasn't obliterated the buffet table with his fire, and that was just because he was healing from his little missile experience." Sachiko explained with a sarcastic smirk appearing on her face as she listed off the different ways Andrew could be a massive thorn in her side.

"Hey! Hold on! I'll accept the first two as my fault, but come on, I always burn down your buffet table because you always serve the weirdest shit on the fucking planet!" Andrew interrupted desperately, knowing that Sachiko wasn't exactly telling the ice queen the full extent of the story.

"It's not that weird..." Sachiko mumbled, averting her eyes to the pizza pie which had 4 slices missing from it's overall structure. "You know that in some cultures what I served is considered a rare and valuable dish enjoyed by men, women, and children alike, no matter who they ar-..."

"You tried to serve us raw deer legs you crazy bitch! What culture eats raw deer?!" Andrew hissed in what sounded to be hostility, however upon closer inspection by both Elsa and Yami it was evident that Andrew had the smallest of smiles adorning his face, giving away the true nature of his statement.

"You're such an asshole; you keep acting like one and I'll have to rearrange your face to match that description." Sachiko smirked right back and laughed, before she took a slice of pepperoni from her pizza and with a flick of the wrist, sent the slice of meat flying towards Andrw's face, hitting him directly between the eyes with a small splat that sounded like a glob of water on a slab of glass.

"You know, if I didn't know any better I would think you hate each other." Yami chuckled, before glancing down at his phone only to notice that he had received quite a few missed calls from a phone in japan, and when he finally glanced up at the number he noticed who it was from. "Looks like they finished the marriage ceremony... Want to talk to them Dragon?"

Andrew nodded and pulled himself off of the couch, followed shortly by Yami, both walking towards the kitchen shrotly afterwards. "Sure, I haven't spoken to any of your friends in a while; it'll be good to hear from Yuka now that she's acting like an adult, even if it's only for a day. I'm still surprised she waited until she was in her late twenties to marry though."

"Well not everyone can just find people like we did." Yami commented, before glancing over to the entrance of the kitchen where they had come from. "Perhaps I should tell them not to eat all of our dinner."

"Yeah good idea... But still, I'm engaged to a queen, you married a former... Well you know." Andrew countered with no small amount of sarcasm dripping from his voice like venom.

"Touché, I'm assuming we can leave you two here with that pizza and still find it here when we get back right?" Yami laughed as he asked Sachiko and Elsa such a ridiculous question. Not only was Sachiko absolutely obsessed with the food, but if Andrew's stories were to be believed than Elsa was as well.

"Of course." Sachiko purred back with a voice that was practically dripping with syrupy sweetness that would have set off alarm bells in any single females mind, no matter their age or relative awareness of the situation. Unfortunately neither Yami or Andrew were female, and so the obvious lie hidden behind Sachiko's words that was so evident to Elsa flew over the heads of both soldiers, completely undetected by either of them.

Once both Andrew and Yami had vanished into the kitchen, Elsa slowly turned to Sachiko, who's own eyes had trailed over to the half finished pizza that sat temptingly on the table, enticing both young women like a chest of gold to a greedy pirate. It was then that Elsa finally noticed Sachiko's face, which was twisted into an insane smile. "You aren't going to be saving that pizza are you?"

"Nope." Sachiko answered simply, before ripping a new piece of pizza from the already half eaten pie, taking away half of the slice in one large bite.

Elsa sighed and smiled, before following closely in Sachiko's actions. "Yeah... Neither am I."

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Back in Arendelle...

Glasses clinked and jokes were told as the Blue Moon Tavern's usual crowd poured in from their long day at work, all eager to share an ale with those that they spoke of as friends. There was one individual there completely alone; a young man that appeared as if he hadn't even reached his 20th year of life. It was Morton; and he appeared as if he was just about ready to fall over in his chair.

After finding his way out of Arendelle castle, Morton made a beeline for the nearest pub, and Blue Moon Tavern just so happened to be the winner of the nearest Tavern award.

Morton was quite familiar with the tavern, although he would never admit it to anyone. When he was a child he and his father had visited Arendelle on a diplomatic meeting with the then king and queen of the kingdom. At one point Morton had decided that he was bored of the constant meetings, and after sneaking out of the castle he had found himself in Blue Moon Tavern.

Suddenly, while Morton was preoccupied with both his thoughts, and his 4th drink of that hour alone, a mysterious hooded man slowly slunk into the bar, moving in such a way that it was plainly obvious that every single move he made was intentional, and was made with a seems of purpose. As quick as he could, without drawing suspicion from the other bar patrons, the hooded man shuffled over to the chair next to Morton, making the smallest of noises to alert the blonde guard to his presence.

"What'dya want?..." Morton asked, never even bothering to take his eyes off of his drink, although that did not stop his hand from subconsciously shifting towards the sword he received from his father.

"I think you know why I'm here child..." The hooded man whispered, tilting his vision over to Morton's sword, chuckling when the young man in question grasped the hilt of the blade. "You need to come with me... You need to fulfill the destiny that your brother once held..."

"My brother? I would never sink to his level..." Morton growled lowly, before taking a large drink from his mug, slamming down the container with a loud thunk afterwards. "You can just forget it... Go and look for someone else to be your puppet... Cause I'll be damned if that'll happen to me..."

"You're no more than a dog... Your brother was twice the man that you are..." The hooded man sneered, snatching the ale out of Morton's hands, before throwing it to the ground. By this point, the rest of the bar had taken notice of the exchange between the two men and had quieted down significantly in order to catch any of the hushed argument.

"Well look where that got him? Where is he now? Oh that's right; he's dead, buried by the thing he sought out..." Morton hissed with venom in his words as he leapt to his feet and moved around the hooded man intimidatingly.

"Exactly why we'll be needed a new monarch..." The hooded man laughed, calmly pulling himself to his feet; even going so far as to carefully his the chair he had been planted on back in before turning his gaze to Morton once again. "And guess who's next in line, eh? Come on Morton, you know what you have to do... You have to come with me now."

"No... I won't do it..." Morton spat, drawing his blade in a flash of steel hitting the dusk light that permeated through the windows; all while the other attendees of the bar watched on in morbid fascination. It was a rare treat to see a protector of Arendelle fight, much less in a one on one duel, to the point that some had even begun to secretly place bets amongst themselves; although the bets were placed mostly in favor of the hooded man, mainly because Morton was extremely inebriated.

"Oh, you are such an arrogant fool... I think you'll see rather soon that you don't exactly have much of a choice in this situation, child..." The hooded man countered, drawing two small hooked swords of his own that seemed to give off an almost erie glow to them. "You were dishonored by those who should call you an equal and a comrade... Think; if you come with me then you could see those parasites hang by their own intestines... You could obtain the girl who you sought after today... She would be yours to do as you please..."

"Alyona isn't some trinket to own and manipulate... Although you wouldn't know anything about treating others with kindness would you?" Morton growled with his teeth bared. He neglected to mention the previous threats of death to his fellow guards however; a detail that did not go un-noticed by the hooded man, he decided to drop it however, instead raising his blades, ready to fight.

"Come then child... Prove to me that you would be a better warrior than a prince!"

Before either duelist could make a move however, a sudden shriek was heard outside, followed by words that no one in the entirety of the Blue Moon Tavern, even the hooded man who appeared just as surprised as everyone else, was prepared to hear.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

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"Princess Anna... Get it off of me... Please..." Alyona growled menacingly, referring to Christopher, who had taken an interest in the Russian girls hair, and was now yanking on it as if he was pulling on a length of rope that contained riches on the other end. Normally Alyona didn't mind children in the slightest, after all she may be a ruthless soldier, but at the same time she was also a 17 year old girl. However this baby was really starting to get on her nerves, with it's content pulling of her hair and screeching like a banshee.

"Oops! Sorry..." Anna apologized, before she reached over to save Alyona from the not-so-fear-inducing 'monster' that had a vice grip on her hair. "And it's Anna, don't worry about all that princess stuff."

Alyona however seemed completely unmoved by the attempt at socialization on Anna's part evident by her lack of shift in tone or emotion; truly displaying the training she had received when under the control of the old Russian armies. The training that sucked her dry of emotion.

"Why not? That's what you are, therefor that's what you should be addressed as princess..." Alyona mumbled disinterestedly, gazing out of the window longingly, watching as the clouds slowly float by in the daytime sky, signifying the passage of time in Arendelle. Eventually the young Russian redirected her attention back to Anna and her children. "Am I wrong in assuming such things?"

"No you're not unfortunately... According to Elsa it's the proper thing to do but I can't say I love it..." Anna explained, knowing that Elsa secretly despised it quite a fair amount as well. However with Andrew's reappearance Anna was relatively certain that Elsa would be making an exemption to that rule, since Andrew wasn't married to her yet, and therefor not technically a royal. Would you mind just dropping the titles when we aren't at a public event or political meeting? If it's not too much-..."

Alyona's soft and calm chuckles eventually caused Anna's blathering to vanish into the abyss of silence, overcome by what sounded like abnegation of all things in Alyona's voice. "Sure... No problem Anna..."

"...May I speak freely Alyona?..." Anna eventually whispered after noticing that Alyona had become quite a bit more withdrawn since the formers children were brought into the world. Not a moment afterwards though, she regretted her decision to speak up, but knowing that she wouldn't be able to take her inquiry back, instead decided to do the next best thing. "I mean if it's okay with you of course... You obviously don't have to answer if you don't want to, it's just that I'm a little... Well very curious-..."

"What is it?" Alyona asked without even batting an eye at Anna's continuously flustered state.

"Why are you so... Reserved... Around my children?... I mean it's obvious you like them but you still seem to be so hesitant to even smile around them... What's wrong?..." Anna asked, biting her lip when the last word drifted out of her mouth; bracing herself for the sarcastic remark that would not doubt come. It never did arrive however.

"Anna?... Tell me... Would you defend your children, even if it meant putting yourself in harms way?" Alyona asked, wrapping her arms around her body protectively, as if she was trying to ward of some form of invisible monstrosity that only she could see, although the air of competence and self reliance. Anna couldn't help but to admire her for that; this girl was a warrior that rivaled any man she knew.

Anna didn't even need to think for a moment before supplying her answer. "Of course... I would do anything for my children..."

"Well my parents didn't..." Alyona muttered, the grip around her own body tightening considerably. "We lived in a small mountain village, and we were one of the poorest and most burden ridden families in the village... My parents would often do anything they could to obtain money... So when I turned 11 and my little sister turned 9 they began to sell us..."

"Sell you? How can they sell you more than once? Did they buy you back or-..." Anna trailed off when she finally realized exactly what Alyona was not so subtly insinuating with the word 'sell', and the horrible truth hidden behind it. "Oh... I-... I'm sorry for asking..."

"Don't be sorry... You weren't the one who did those horrible things to my sister and I after all... Unfortunately she didn't live through the experience as far as I know... One day an influential official that represented a nearby city requested one of us for the weekend... I was out working in the trails so my sister... My sister was taken instead... I never saw her again..." The young Russian soldier could no longer hold back her tears as the memories of her sister's smiling face invaded her mind, her tears sliding down her pale face like drops of toxic water. "Thats how I found out about my powers... I got so mad... I... All I remember was waking up with wind and electricity coming out of my hands..."

"So you were slaves?..." Anna asked, while she subconsciously clutched her children tighter in her arms as her mind swam with the horrible thoughts that based themselves around her own children being subjected to such treatment; or torment rather. "That's really just horrible..."

"No... Not exactly slaves... But we were pretty goddamn close to it..." Alyona growled, her mind swimming in all the possible ways that she could possibly kill every man, and even the few women, who had taken advantage of her and her sister. Each and every painful way she could think of however, still was not suitable for such scum of the earth; Alyona knew this for a fact.

Meanwhile Anna, who had grown silent, was secretly tempted to jump up and hug her new friend. Alyona had gone through hell and yet she was still standing, still fighting even though he had more of a right than anyone else Anna knew to surrender and disappear. Perhaps, Anna thought, that is the true definition of the word strength; to refuse to give in, just because you've already won your own battles, no matter how hard they may have been. "But... That still doesn't explain why you feel uncomfortable around my children-..."

"I feel uncomfortable because I dread to see their innocence ripped away from them... Past, present, or future, the word is a dark place, and I learned very early on that sometimes having a childlike innocence can be one of the only things that you can possibly hinge your sanity on..." Alyona explained, before her shoulders visibly slumped, a sigh escaping from her lungs, as her spirit finally gave out.

"...So anyway I was wondering... Who was that guard that came in with you when I was giving birth?" Anna inquired with the plainly evident desire to change the subject of the current conversation, although Alyona decided to let the obvious nature of Anna's shift go; after all it would benefit no one to continue on their current path of debate.

"Oh... He said his name was Morton, he found me sitting in the hall and offered me some bread." The young Russian explained without a hint of emotion in her voice, almost as if she were attempting to hide her true emotions, although whatever those emotions may have been, Anna certainly couldn't tell what they were.

"Did you ever get a last name from him by any chance?" Anna asked without even batting an eye at Alyona's cold demeanor towards her. She couldn't blame the Russian girl after all, she had probably gone through hell and back when she was a child, at least if what Roc had been telling them was true, especially considering that she had fought beside people that were 5 years older than her, and they were considered to be extremely young soldiers.

"I don't think I did now that you mention it. Why?" Alyona asked, finally getting Anna's attention back onto the conversation at hand. Unfortunately Anna had been musing to herself for so long that she never actually fabricated a response to Alyona's question, which resulted in her sputtering out the first question she could think of.

"I'd just like to thank him personally is all, he did me a huge favor after all." Anna replied, not entirely lying in her response. She definitely did want to think this guard, even if he was only doing the job he was trained to do.

"Well his uniform has an M stacked on top of a W as the knights crest, know any names like that by any chance?" Alyona asked, recalling how when she had been out in the hall with Morton eating the bread he gave her, she couldn't seem to take her eyes off of the strange symbol.

"Well... I can guess that the M symbol stands for Morton... But there aren't many W names out there... There is Wyrmgath, but I don't think that there are any Wyrmgath nobles remaining besides the king himself since his son and daughter died... Then there's Weselton but other than the Duke himself I've never met anyone from that kingdom... Hans never mentioned any of the Westerguard's having blonde hair, and Morton looks younger than Hans, so that can't be it... Wrotheart could be a possibility as well... But it could also just be a little known name as well..." Anna explained, raising a finger from her closed fist each time she listed a new name. "Did you ask who his parents were or if he has any siblings?"

"No... Why wouldn't something like that mat-..." Suddenly, before Alyona could even finish her question the wall that connected to the outside world exploded in a cloud of dust and gravel, exposing three large knights that were covered in steel armor enveloping them completely from head to toe. One wielded crude sticks of dynamite that he healed up menacingly in an attempt to frighten the two young woman. Unfortunately they had not been counting on Alyona being there, and before they could even think to light another stick of dynamite, the young Russian used her powers to push them back out of the hole that the blast had created, causing them to fall back down to the ground along with their ladder; down 3 stories. "ANNA GET BEHIND ME!"

Unfortunately, seeing as how Anna was still quite debilitated from giving birth only about 12 hours before-hand, her preparation time was increased quite substantially, leaving her in a vulnerable position until Alyona could lift her to her feet carefully, the babies sleeping crying loudly as they were jostled around in their mother's pale arms.

Suddenly, before either young woman could raise a hand in defense, the door that linked to the inner castle flew open with such force that the large wooden door sailed across the room, slamming into the wall with an ear shattering bang. Upon turning around with her powers flaring, her hands aimed towards the door, Alyona was surprised to find not a small group of attackers, but rather Elsa, who's face was engraved with worry.

"Elsa?..."

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A few minutes earlier...

Elsa couldn't stop running until she made her way inside of her castle. When she and Andrew returned from the future they were astonished to find that there were small bands of knights were attacking Arendelle relentlessly. Although as Elsa ran though the streets, using her powers to shield her from any incoming attack, she began to notice that the knights were carrying no battle standard, and their armor bore no noble symbols that gave away their allegiances, if they even had any to speak of besides themselves.

It was quite the sprint towards her castle all things considered. After Andrew had forced the young queen to go on ahead without him, he had thrown her his gun, a gun which she instantly recognized as the glock that she had fired before she had been flung back into the past 6 months ago. Upon realizing what she may have to use it for, Elsa immediately developed an instance knot in her stomach that denied her the ability to focus on a task such as aiming, and so she decided instead to make a full tilt run to the castle under the defense of her ice barriers.

It took a few minutes of constant running, but Elsa was finally able to make her way into the castle courtyard, where a group of her archers eliminated any soldiers that had been chasing her, sealing the great doors of the castle almost immediately after the queen had stepped through the gate.

No sooner had Elsa stopped running that her voice radiated throughout the courtyard, barking orders at the various soldiers preparing for battle. Some had been sharpening blades, while others had been loading their new singleshot pistols, yet every single soldier dropped what they were doing the moment the queen called their names. "Barthol and Deridrick, go search the outer walls for any wounded men. Helgoth, go support the archers. And someone take me to my sister!"

6 men jumped to their feet at once, the first three going off to do the tasks that they were instructed to do by their queen, while two guards stood on either side of Elsa, while yet another took up a point position in front of her, leading her into the castle which as far as the guards knew, hadn't even suffered damage from the attackers as of yet.

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...Which brought Elsa to where she was now; standing in front of Alyona and Anna, who had her children in her arms.

"Elsa?..." Anna asked when she finally noticed that her elder sister was both alive and well, and in the same room as them; which brought a wave of relief on the princess almost immediately. She also knew that they were far from safe however. "What's going on? Who are these people?! And where's Andrew?!"

"I'm not sure... They don't have any visible alliances to speak of... Most of the active duty soldiers are either assisting the citizens in escaping or are fighting the attackers..." Elsa explained as she walked over and used her powers to seal off the large gaping hole with a thick layer of crystal clear solid ice. "As for Andrew, he went off to help in the fight-..."

"Wait, you let Andrew go and fight them?!" Alyona yelled suddenly with such force that it cut Elsa off mid-sentence, an action that shocked her to such a high degree that she nearly tripped over her own to feet, but was just barely able to keep her balance thanks to her years of training in how to walk in high heels; turns out that training was good for more than just parties.

"He insisted, I didn't want him to but-..." Elsa attempted to reason, trying to deny that Andrew would be in any real danger. However upon seeing Alyona's terrified expression, the young queen realized that Andrew may not be the only thing that Elsa should be worried about.

"This isn't good, we need to go, NOW!" Alyona shrieked at the top of her lungs, pulling both royal sisters out into the hallway, running towards the entrance of the castle. "We need to get to the docks! Maybe we'll be able to get a ship to get us out of Arendelle!"

"W-what?... Why?" Elsa asked, the fear growing substantially inside of her like a tidal wave of darkness and sickening foreboding air. Upon seeing the sick look on Elsa's face, Alyona stopped for just a momen tin order to explain the situation to both royal sisters.

"Because Andrew shouldn't be fighting! He knows that he shouldn't be near combat and the idiot's done it anyway! I can't believe this!" Alyona growled, nearly pulling her hair out as the collective stress began to manifest itself as small visible gusts rushing around the room; the air a tinge purple, most likely just another trait of Alyona's powers.

"What?! Why not?! He seemed fine!" Elsa protested, before rushing over to Alyona, grabbing onto her shoulders and shaking her with such force that Anna almost suspected they were fighting for a moment; although that suspicion was quickly expunged when she reasoned to herself that neither young woman would chose a time like this to have an argument or altercation of any sort.

"When he stopped that nuclear missile something happened to him... Something bad... If he fights too much he'll-..." Alyona was suddenly cut off mid-sentence when the floor around them began to violently shake, as if caught in an earthquake and an earth-shattering roar was heard across the land. The roar of a dragon. "No... No, no, NO! We have to go!"

It only took 2 short minutes of full tilt running for the 3 young women, along with the two babies, to make it outside to the courtyard, however upon making it outside both royal sisters immediately stopped in their tracks as they glanced up to observe a sight that they never though they would see in their lives.

Above them, standing proudly in the light of the moon that somehow appeared as if it were only a backdrop was a massive red and black dragon, standing guard over the walls of the kingdom, blasting massive towers of fire onto the unfortunate attackers that were spotted by the mythical beast of destruction. Even the ships were not spared the great dragon's wrath, as they lit ablaze like they were no more than dry leaves thrown into a bonfire.

Obviously satisfied with the amount of the destruction, the dragon proceeded to turn away from the kingdom, but as he turned, he glanced towards the castle, spying Elsa's ice dress. Without even giving the 3 young women on the ground the time to move, the dragon roared at what felt like ear shattering volumes, causing most of the residents of Arendelle to fall to the ground, clutching their ears in pain.

"Elsa..." Alyona whispered without even a hint of fear after the roar had died down, causing Elsa to shift her gaze over to her Russian friend. "...I think you need to look at that dragon's eyes..."

Hesitantly, Elsa obeyed her friend's directions, changing her focus to the dragon who towered over them like a giant. It was then she finally noticed something distinct about the dragon's eyes. They were gazing her her with love.

"No... Please don't let it be you..." Elsa whispered as her vision was clouded with tears. "No... Andrew?..."

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One last note, today I learned that I have an infection that's going to be keeping me in bed for a few days (No, I won't tell you what type, nosey...), so I'll be able to write more then, it's just a matter of finding a computer to publish it on until this one is fixed for good. Until next time my minions!