Elsa sprinted down the ice bridge that further materialized with each flick of her hand. The humble Arendelle ship floated quietly in the chaotic harbor. She hoped Anna was already there, safe and hidden in her cabin.

Her growing hopes were squandered as the view of the deck became clear; Southern Isles soldiers had boarded the ship, preparing to greet her with the pointed edges of arrows and swords. The queen stomped a foot onto the surface of her bridge, creating a towering ice slab that pushed them away before they could react. The slab persisted, ceasing only after the frustrated soldiers had been moved across the deck and pushed overboard.

Elsa took a weary step from her bridge and onto the wood of the deck.

A shaky breath in the tense calm.

She took no solace in silence. The darkness of night could shroud anything.

As she suspected, opposition charged towards her from either side, brandishing their killing weapons. Without hesitation, she pulled clenched hands into the air, awakening formations of ice spears that rose from the deck, ensnaring some soldiers within its circle of teeth. Patches of ice appeared under unsuspecting boots, sending attackers crashing to the ground. The rest were simply pushed off the deck like the others. Faced with her incredible finesse and power, they weren't much of a challenge.

After easily dispatching all the attackers, she picked up her skirt and ran below the deck and into a deeper darkness, devoid of the moonlight. She wandered through the interior of the ship, eventually finding a few soldiers gathered around a door. A Corona guard had been left unconscious in the corner.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The soldiers were attempting to break the door down, crashing their forceful sword handles and balled fists into bolted wood, taunting the person trapped inside.

"Come out, princess! You can't stay in there forever. Prince Hans wants to say hello!"

Elsa heatedly pointed a finger downwards, freezing their feet together in one solid block of ice. With confused yelps, they struggled as Elsa moved a hand to push the block of ice to the corner, out of the way of the door.

"Hey! Get us out of this!"

"I don't think so."

She turned away from the guards, who were now trying to hack away at the ice with their swords to find little success. She knocked on her sister's door.

"Anna, please, I know you're in there! Let me in! It's Elsa!"

The door flung open. Anna stood in her beautiful emerald and crystal dress, her face shimmering with fresh tears.

"ELSA!"

Anna hopped on her sister, her arms wrapped around her desperately. "Hans is back. He knows I'm here."

"I know, but I'm here now. I'll make things right. I've got you, Anna."

Anna buried her face into Elsa's shoulder. She whispered through her silent tears. "I don't know where Kristoff is. You have to help me find him."

"I will, Anna. Rapunzel lost Eugene too, but we'll find them."

At that thought, Elsa remembered Rapunzel and Merida were supposed to be following behind her. Distracted in her quest to save Anna, she never checked to know where they were. Suddenly worried, she pulled away from her sister.

"I left Rapunzel and Merida alone. I need to go find them. You stay in here Anna, I'll make sure you're safe."

As those words left her mouth, Anna's eyes wandered beyond her, frozen, transfixed on some frightening sight while her body tensed in Elsa's hands. The queen turned behind her, met by another Southern Isles soldier and the barrel of his pistol aimed directly at her head. Sensing his finger easing the trigger, she fell to the side in a desperate dodge, pulling her sister along with her.

BANG!

The gunshot rang out. The bullet lodged into the wooden boards of the ship walls behind her, inches away from where Anna had just been standing.

Elsa flew into a rage, shielding Anna completely within an icy dome. Whipping back, she froze the gun solid and onto the man's hand. As he squealed at the sudden cold, she sent him full across the interior of the ship with a blinding and mighty blast. He landed unconscious into a pile of barrels.

Another alerted soldier entered the doorway but seconds later, armed with a crossbow. He fired it at the dome around Anna, but the deflecting ice sent it ricocheting across the room. With furious movements Elsa created an icy dagger and flung it at the soldier, barely piercing his armor. Realizing the failure, she blasted the crossbow out of his hands, and with another flash of ice thrust him backwards to the pile of barrels on the other side of the ship, along with his fellow soldier.

No more mistakes this time. Elsa was out for blood.

Effortlessly, she created a dozen more ice daggers, much more sharp and lethal than the last. She suspended them in the air around her, quivering with fury, and waited for any sign of movement like a lion poised to pounce on its prey. At last a figure appeared in the doorway, and she let her weapons fly.

Except- No.

She quickly pulled her hands back. The daggers stopped in midair, dropping to the ground with a crash. That is, all except one, which had embedded itself perfectly in its target's thigh. The figure dropped to the ground in pain.

Anna wildly pounded on the ice dome with her fists.

"KRISTOFF!"

Elsa couldn't move, unsure of what to do. This was her fault. It always was.

She solemnly turned to her sister, timidly glancing into the utter terror in her eyes. The dome around Anna melted. Elsa stood motionless as her sister ran past her and kneeled down to Kristoff's side, providing him aid.

"You're going to be okay! Please Kristoff, we'll get help for you." But Anna was shaking her head, staring at the ice dagger still stuck deep into Kristoff's leg. Anna was about to pull it out, but Elsa dissolved it before she could.

"I-I'm sorry Anna. I was just trying to protect you."

Anna didn't acknowledge her. She ripped off a large strip of her dress and tied it around Kristoff's wound, trying to bandage it and stop the bleeding. Elsa could hear footsteps on the deck above them. They weren't out of danger yet.

"Stay here, I'll get rid of the soldiers and find everyone. We'll get help for Kristoff, Anna. I promise."

Elsa left the couple and slowly shut the door behind her, watching as they were cloaked by the shadow of the door. She stared at the door for a while, contemplating how she could keep anyone safe with the powers she possessed. With a sigh, she pointed her finger on the knob and froze it shut. At least this way no one could get to Anna but her.

The queen made her way back onto the deck, where she found Rapunzel warding off a handful of attackers with a crossbow, surrounded and cornered not far off the end of the bridge.

"There you are Elsa! A little help here, please?"

Elsa's ice knocked the soldiers off the deck, less forcefully than before. Rapunzel responded with a questioning look.

"What's wrong? Did you find Anna?"

"Yes, but… I made a mistake. She's safe though. Now we just need to find Eugene and- wait, where's Merida? Wasn't she behind you?"

"I don't know. I thought so. But soldiers are coming on board with more grappling hooks. And your ice bridge is pretty convenient for them."

Elsa nodded in agreement and glided to her bridge. She raised her hands up, prepared to destroy her creation and send the weight of ice crashing into the water.

"Wait! Merida's on it!"

Rapunzel was right. Instantly identifiable, the red-head was moving slowly closer towards them. Something didn't seem right.

"Hurry up, Merida! I need to destroy the bridge!" Elsa called out.

"I don't think you want to do that." The voice that replied was definitely not Merida's. It was obvious she wasn't alone.

Nearly concealed by her bush of hair was Hans, stepping behind her with a sword up to her throat and hand over her mouth.

"Hans!" Elsa's hands began to gather ice in the air around them, ready to form into a weapon. Hans calmly interrupted her.

"I don't think you want to attack me, Elsa. You'd be endangering an innocent life after all." Hans motioned his sword to point at Merida before returning it to her neck, making his intentions clear; he was using Merida as a shield.

"You're a coward," Elsa sneered.

"I prefer to think of it as using leverage."

"How did you get an army? We sent you back to face punishment in the Southern Isles, not start a war."

"Well, let's just say I can be very persuasive." The confidence that Hans exuded boiled Elsa's blood. He didn't deserve to be in such a position. Not after what happened on the fjord.

"Oh, but Elsa, why aren't you at Arendelle? Shouldn't you be protecting your people?"

Elsa paused, pondering the meaning of his statement.

"From what?" Her eyes widened. Hans couldn't have planned this. Not her leaving for Corona. Not the fall of three kingdoms.

Hans delightedly watched as her face twisted in horror, connecting the dots. "From my army. I had a feeling you might leave if you caught word of a war fleet heading to Corona. I had one prepared to attack once you left the dock."

"No. You couldn't have-"

"You left your people defenseless Elsa, as you always do. You never deserved to be their queen."

Elsa looked at Merida, standing paralyzed, a somber statue. The girl's eyes filled with shock. Elsa had left her mother in Arendelle, and now she couldn't even promise Merida her mother's safety. The queen shared in her shocked silence, unable to act, unable to move. All she could do was make mistakes.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel called out, breaking the harsh stillness. A Southern Isles ship had anchored parallel to the Arendelle ship, carrying away a shaken Eugene to its brig.

Without warning, the neighboring ship shot cannonballs into theirs, repeatedly and unmercifully, concentrated into one area of the hull. The relentless blasts deafened the air. Elsa, covering her ears and squinting through the smoke, caught sight of where the impacts were. She felt her heart drop.

They had hit Anna's cabin, and she had trapped them in there.

Elsa ran in the direction of the blasts. Soldiers from the other ship were swinging from ropes and into the large hole they had made into the side. Elsa threw jagged ice knives again, cutting their ropes with extreme precision, sending the invaders into bay and away from Anna. She was successful at warding them off, gaining hope she could hold them long enough to get into cabin.

An incredible pain pierced into her right arm.

Arching over in intense agony, she winced as she held up her arm to discover an arrow shot into it, sending a trickle of warm red blood running down and contouring the ice crystals lining her cool blue dress. Elsa turned to suspect Hans, finding he was still standing in the same place as before, smirking at the sight of her suffering. Instead she traced her eyes back to one of Weselton's guards, standing behind him and lowering his crossbow.

Elsa squinted through her watery eyes, her vision now blurred by pained tears. She could see soldiers swinging across, taking Anna and Kristoff back to their ship. She could hear Anna's voice screaming for help.

Gritting her teeth, Elsa stood back up and gripped the shaft of the arrow, pulling it out with a sharp cry. She let her injured arm dangle by her side, using her good one to create another bridge that led onto the other ship, this time crude and ugly in her abandon of pristine and immaculate structure. Her control faltered under pain and desperation. She clutched her arm in hand and shakily started making her way across the bridge.

Half-way across she whispered to herself, her chin high, "Don't worry Anna. I'm close."

But she wasn't close enough.

"Fire!" she heard a captain yell. Cannons had fired, aimed at her bridge, destroying the last hope she had in front of her eyes. Ice and fire danced in a beautiful deadly explosion, sending glimmering icy shards into the air. It took the floor that supported Elsa out from under her feet.

Elsa closed her eyes, falling unconscious into the cold water below.