Phantom Agony
Chapter Seven: Icy Consequences
As soon as Elsa entered the room, she paused. Her plan was to be direct and make Anna listen; however seeing Anna standing in the middle of the room looking slightly horrified made her gulp in uncertainty, "Oh Pharis..." She heard Anna say to her horse, "This is my fault..."
Elsa watched as Anna sighed heavily and the stallion nudge her sister. In the little light in the room, she noticed that white of her sister's hair was fading slightly as Anna pet the horse sadly, "So think this was something else she tried hiding?" Elsa winced at the heavy implication. Taking a deep breath, she coughed.
However Anna did not turn around as she said, "I should have known you wouldn't listen. You never did."
"Please don't shut me out again." Elsa pleaded as she raised her hands, "I don't want to fight with you."
Anna turned around at this, "Well I don't want to talk with you." Anna responded, however even as she said that, she knew it wasn't entirely true. It was if the fight in her was weakening as she just stared into the hurting eyes of her sister.
"Then the least you could do is listen to me." Elsa stated firmly refusing to back down as Anna took a seat in the middle of the room trying to avoid the ice spikes. Pharis also sat down watching Elsa warily, "Do you remember what you said to me? In this room?"
Anna looked at her sister and sighed, "Elsa a lot of things were said in this room. What's the point?"
Elsa nodded back, "True, but one thing sticks in my mind. Do you know what that is?" Anna looked at her curiously so Elsa responded to her own question, "For the first time in forever, I finally understand."
Anna just looked at Elsa, "That's it? You 'understand'?" She made air quotes around the word.
Elsa approached her and sat down in the middle of the disaster area. She internally winced as Anna scooted a bit further away, but also was relieved when she saw that Anna was willing to listen, "Yes, there was also something else that you said: 'For the first time in forever, I will be right here'." Elsa looked deeply in Anna's still slightly dark blue eyes, "You said that to me Anna. You promised me that you would be there, but honey you were always there for me. You never left me, despite me telling you to."
Anna sighed and got up followed by Pharis. Elsa watched as Anna crossed her arms, "You are right. I never left, but I finally did and you came after me."
"What are you talking about? Of course I would come after you." Elsa spoke her voice pained as she stood up, not following Anna's train of thought.
Anna wasn't looking at Elsa, but chose to pet Pharis, "The fight we had during your coronation ball. Remember what you said to me?"
Elsa narrowed her eyes at Anna in deep thought. So much happened that night, that it was all one big mess in her mind after she revealed her powers that she genuinely did not quite remember the fight word for word; only that she did not bless the marriage, "Truthfully? Not word for word."
"I told you I couldn't live the way we were living, you shutting me out and having the gates closed. You responded with: 'Then leave'." Elsa winced as Anna mimicked her voice. In fact as Anna said it, the fight did come back to her, "So now I leave and suddenly you care? Or is it that you are feeling guilty?" Anna asked looking at Elsa.
Elsa stood up again and said, "Both." Anna raised an eyebrow and just stared at her, "You are my little sister. Of course I love and care about you. I isolated myself for you. All I wanted was to protect you and do right by you."
However instead of feeling better, Anna was starting to get mad, "Shouldn't you have at least talked to me about it instead making decisions for me?!"
"Yes we should have, in which case you are right. However listen to yourself! You are being a hypocrite!" Elsa fired back matching Anna's temper.
"How so?" Anna demanded as she stepped away from Pharis and towards Elsa.
"You left! You ran away just like I did."
"For a completely different reason! To show I am more than capable of protecting myself! You ran because you made a mistake. A little bitty mistake!"
"Anna, setting of an eternal winter is not little. It is major and you know it."
"Well it didn't need to happen if you would not have bottled it up for thirteen damn years for something that was completely my fault!" Anna finally yelled out.
Elsa was stunned into silence. She thought this was her fault? That made no sense, "You think this is your fault?"
Everything that Anna was feeling came out and she finally felt the pressure in her head and heart releasing as she started yelling, "I know it is! Gods you think I was pissed that you kept my memory of our real childhood and the accident from me?! You think that is what all of this was about?! Elsa that was only like half of it!"
"I-I don't understand..." Elsa stuttered totally off guard.
"Really because I thought you said and I quote: 'for the first time in forever, I understand'." Anna stated a bit sarcastically.
Elsa was getting annoyed and it was starting to show...literally. Frost started to cover the ice walls around them, but neither sister took any notice, "So then enlighten me please." Elsa bit out through clenched teeth.
"If I have to spell it out for you, then it is not worth it. I think this conversation is over." Anna stated firmly although a bit sadly. It was then Elsa noticed her sister's hair was less white and more of her normal strawberry blonde hair, "Elsa, please go back home, your life awaits and Arendelle needs you." Anna finished as she faced away from her sister to look at the scenery.
"Wait what?" Elsa asked stunned as the frost started retreating, "You think I am just going to let you stay here alone?"
Anna shook her head and then face Elsa again, "I am not alone. I have Pharis and Marshmallow...well for the most part. Besides everything we have said brought things in a new perspective for me. Proof is in the hair." She then looked at an icicle and saw how her hair was now like it was before the day before: predominantly strawberry blonde with white highlights.
"What?! No! That is out of the question! You wouldn't leave me, and I am not leaving you! Hear me?! We are not leaving you!" Elsa yelled.
Anna was starting to get frustrated, "I know you mean well, but leave me be Elsa. Please. You, Kristoff, Olaf, Sven and all of Arendelle will be better off in the end." Anna finished quietly.
"Anna how can you think that?!" Elsa demanded furiously, "We would not be better off! Now I demand you to tell me why you think everything that has happened has been your fault!"
Before Anna could retaliate further there was a loud crash, yelling, and a roar. Elsa and Anna spun around just as Sven came bounding into the room with Kristoff and Olaf on him, "We have a problem." Kristoff said just as another angry roar echoed through the palace.
The ground started shaking as there was pounding and crashes coming up the stairs, "Yea, Marshmallow is a bit mad…" Olaf said looking behind them towards the door, "And he is coming this way."
No sooner did Olaf say that, Marshmallow burst into the room with a deaf defying roar. They all backed away as he stormed over to them. Elsa summoned her magic and created another wall of ice, but he managed to mash through it with ease, "LEAVE!" He roared at them.
Anna looked behind them and saw they were drawing ever closer to the balcony. Elsa was trying harder to create stronger ice walls, but Marshmallow was breaking them just as fast as she was creating them. Anna could see that they were running out of room and getting closer to the edge, "Oh we are so done for." Kristoff stated. Then he turned to Anna, "Anna, I love you. I really do and I am so sorry for everything."
Anna was not paying attention to a word Kristoff said, nor did she hears Olaf sighing in admiration and his declaration how he enjoyed their friendship and summer. All she could see was Elsa trying harder to fend off the snow-monster. Suddenly it hit her! She could see one of many memories that were taken from her. Looking behind them, she looked down and saw the drop into the canyon and then she looked out, she could see the entrance where the stairs started. Thinking quickly, she knew that Marshmallow needed to be distracted. Heart racing she saw the ice spikes and quickly broke a rather large one off, "Anna what are you-?" Kristoff started to ask as she broke another large piece off and handed it to him.
"I am sorry to Kristoff. I am sorry for the way I reacted, and while it might take me a bit to trust you and Elsa again, I need to know…do you trust me?" Anna asked.
"Yes. Always." Kristoff stated. Sven stood at attention and Olaf saluted her.
"You can count on us." Olaf stated.
"Good. First thing. Do not back up any further." Looking behind them she saw their faces pale slightly and they nodded.
Then Anna approached Elsa, "Elsa-?"
"Ok Anna, now is not the time for talking." Elsa said her voice strained as she was still trying to inhibit her snow-monster, although she wondered why Anna was not panicking any more.
"How much time would you need to create a slide?"
"A slide?" Elsa asked not looking at her.
"Yes the thing we used to play on. In the ballroom?" Anna asked, "You made it out of ice and we would land in snow piles…remember?"
"Now is not the time to go down memory lane Anna." Elsa stated.
Anna groaned in frustration and shook her head, "I am not trying to! I am telling you to make a damn slide while Kristoff and I distract him so we can slide down it!"
"Are you crazy?!" Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf shouted while Sven and Pharis looked at her.
"Does anyone else have any other brilliant ideas?!" Anna asked. Not receiving an answer she then said, "Didn't think so!"
Looking at Pharis she saw that he was still panicking and immediately she made him look in her eyes. Once the horse saw a look in his rider's eyes, he knew that he had nothing to be afraid of…yet at least. Seeing that Pharis understood her look, she mounted him and whispered in his ear, "Remember how we pretended to be knights and we would have jousting tournaments with the scarecrows?" Pharis nodded and all Kristoff could do was stare at her in wonderment, "Well now let's see how that and all our trick training paid off." Then she looked at Kristoff, "You go left and I will go right!" She yelled over the violent roar, "Elsa as soon as we distract him, you make the slide!"
"Anna-" Elsa groaned out.
"I trust you Elsa." Anna said. Elsa did not need to look at Anna to see the faint spark in her eyes. Elsa closed her eyes as that night came back. They played on a slide she had created that night, Anna leaping from snow pile to snow pile. She slipped, hitting her sister in the head. Then here she could feel the panic rising as she heard Anna begin to count, "One," Elsa took a deep breath, "Two," Elsa reopened her eyes, new determination beginning to bubble, "Three!" Out of the corner of her eye she could Sven running left and then Pharis running right. She spun around to face the balcony just as Kristoff and Anna hit Marshmallow in the legs with their icicles.
Elsa focused her magic and allowed it to flow out of her hands. It shot diagonal, and out into the snowy embankment where the stairs were at, "ANNA LOOK OUT!" She heard Kristoff's voice.
Her heart froze as she turned back to see one of the ice pillars falling and Anna charging forward without any time to take a different course of action. However Elsa saw Anna's eyes narrow and giving a command, she watched in amazement as Pharis jumped over the pillar, "Elsa hurry up!" Anna yelled seeing her sister had stopped, "I do not know how much longer we can distract him.
Elsa turned back to the slide and saw that she was only half way away from the balcony, "I do not know if I can!" Elsa yelled.
"Come on Elsa! You built this palace in what? Two minutes you had told me?! You can do it!" Anna yelled back as she and Kristoff tried to keep Marshmallow away from the Snow Queen.
With a new state of mind, Elsa continued her work. She tried to block out the noise the best she could with her magnificent creation crumbling around her, "Are you done yet?!" Kristoff yelled, "Because we are out of ideas!"
"Yes!" Elsa yelled, "Anna! Done!"
"Kristoff go!" Anna yelled over to him.
"What?! No you go first! Elsa and I will continue to distract him! You go!" Kristoff yelled back over to her as Marshmallow took another swipe at them.
"You are closer! You go!" Anna yelled charging at Marshmallow to confuse him.
Before Kristoff could respond, Elsa created another wall of ice between Kristoff and Marshmallow and then between Anna and Marshmallow on the other, "Go Kristoff! She is right! You are closer!"
Kristoff and Olaf looked at the Queen and Anna. She gave him a light smile and he returned it, "Ok."
"Once I lower the wall, you make a run for it." Elsa ordered.
"Right. See you at the bottom." Kristoff said.
"Good luck!" Olaf waved. Elsa lowered the wall and Kristoff made Sven run for the ice slide and once they hit it, they were gone.
Now it was just Anna, Pharis, and Elsa against Marshmallow. Anna and Pharis were on one side Marshmallow was in the middle, and Elsa was closer to the slide. Marshmallow looked between the two and let out an aggravated roar, "Elsa go!" Anna yelled.
"No!" Elsa yelled back and created another ice containment, but Marshmallow kept breaking it, "I will hold this and you go! Quickly!"
"NO! I got us into this! This is once again my fault! Now let me fix it!" Anna yelled. Pharis reared back as ice shards were flying around.
All around them the room was starting to crumble and suddenly there was a loud crack. They watched in slow motion as another large pillar toppled over causing a large crack in the floor.
"Anna please! None of this was your fault! Not any of it!" Elsa yelled, "Now go! I do not know how long I can keep this up!"
"But if I had not been so selfish we would not be here!" Anna yelled, and for some reason Elsa knew that this was not the only event that Anna was talking about.
"Really you want to talk about this now?!" Elsa yelled in aggravation, "Just go Anna and let me handle-"
But suddenly at that moment, Marshmallow pounded his fists to the floor causing the large crack in the floor to give way and suddenly the ice palace was literally coming apart as the large hole appeared causing Marshmallow to fall through it, "ELSA!" Anna yelled as she watched the distance between her and her sister get larger due to her side crumbling the fastest.
"ANNA!" Elsa yelled. She was frightened and now of all times her powers would not work, she was frozen…with fear.
The snow in the room, blinded her and the sounds of destruction were all around. She had no way of knowing her sister and the horse were safe. She could feel the floor on her end beginning to give way and knew she had to get out, but she could not move. Her body was paralyzed, that is until she heard a yelled, "YA!"
Then out of the blinding swirling snow and destruction she saw Anna and Pharis leap over the hole and made it to the other side, and before she could react her sister grabbed her and through her over the horse and in break neck pace, they ran down the ice slide. However Elsa looked behind them and watched as her majestic creation was coming apart…along with the ice slide and it was breaking apart fast, "Anna…" Elsa began to speak while poking her sister on shoulder.
Anna turned her head and saw what her sister was seeing, "Ah crap!"
Looking forward she could see Kristoff's pale face, Olaf yelling something, and Sven burying his head in the snow. Everything to Anna went quiet and she estimated the distance. Closing her eyes she focused on one thing and one thing only. When the moment came she yelled, "Pharis! Jump!"
"What?!" Elsa yelled, but did not have time for anything else. The horse narrowed his eyes and listened to his rider. Just as he could feel the slide breaking beneath him, he leapt forward just as it fell apart. Kristoff and Olaf watched as the princess, the Queen, and the horse went airborne and then watched as they made a magnificent landing right in the snow.
Anna made Pharis slowdown to a walk and brought him back around to where Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven were. No one moved and no one made a sound as they watched the last bit of the ice palace disappear into the chasm below.
