Note: Originally the reunion scene was just gonna do the movie version until I decided to peak into an aspect of Elsa's story we didn't get to see in the movie and something I've been interested in. I hope my gamble worked out

Everything in this place echoed. There were no carpets or curtains to catch the sound so it bounced endlessly off the walls, answering itself over and over, until it wore itself out and dissipated. Anna walked in to the constant reverberation of her own footsteps.

Everything in this place was dark prevented any starlight or moonlight in through the walls. It was a cold darkness, a very lonely darkness. There was empty space in all directions where nothing but sounds moved.

Minding the ice she walked through the grand foyer. Even in its hollowness, she could see the beauty in every perfectly formed peak and pillar of ice. A glorious fountain sat in the middle of the room. This place was beautiful, but that's all it was.

She kept moving, her breath proliferated the air in front of her as she walked up the stairs. From above the foyer looked like it belonged in a museum, a monument long passed its heyday and long missing the life that once populated its space.

"Elsa," she whispered. It bounced, to no answer. She kept walking

When she turned the corner to the second floor she found what she was looking for curled up on a block of ice, meant, apparently to act as a bed. Elsa was asleep, curled tightly into herself, in the far corner of the room, her face to the wall and her back to entrance. Anna looked around. Everything here was empty too, just the person, clad in shimmering blue and silver, she may as well have been a part of the palace itself.

Anna tiptoed closer. Elsa was hugging her knees to her chest, her gossamer cape draped over her like a blanket. Was it meant to be a blanket? She was without a pillow either. Her eyes bounded back and forth under the lids and she was frowning.

What a sight it was. In the darkness of an empty room, within an emptier palace, slept a queen, a hard slab of ice for a bed, with no blanket or pillow, no light, no fire, no other human near her for miles and miles.

Elsa, alone.

Anna began to weep. She kneeled down beside Elsa quietly and softly, gently placing a hand on her exposed shoulder. She was so cold underneath Anna's warm hand. She dipped her head to rest against her sister's back. Her tears were the only heat in the room. In that instant she forgave her sister all her trespasses. She understood it all in one second of entering into Elsa's silent sanctuary. Dark and hallow, concealed away in the night, no bed, no comfort, no warmth or help, safely tucked away from the world and the world barred from her.

Elsa stirred. She turned calmly to Anna as if she already knew who was there.

"I dreamed about you," she slurred out, half yawning, blinking herself awake. "You shouldn't be here."

Anna raised her eyes, shimmering to match the walls around, to her sister's. Elsa sat up slowly, furrowing her brow at Anna's tears. She looked about the room and then back at Anna, wiping a tear from her cheek. She understood.

"Anna, don't cry," she said, "This place, this life, is my choice."

"I came to bring you home," she choked out, burying her head into Elsa's lap.

"My place is here," Elsa said.

"No, it's in Arendelle," Anna said, "And I'm not leaving without you."

Elsa had not been startled by Anna's presence. Perhaps it was because she dreamed of her only seconds before. But that did not mean she was pleased to see her here, either.

"Anna," she whispered, cupping her sister's face to look up at her, "My place is here, where I can be who I am without hurting anyone."

"You would never hurt anyone," Anna insisted.

Elsa grimaced. She released Anna and stood, walking towards the balcony where moonlight was trying to break through into the room.

"Everyone's capable of at least some evil Anna," Elsa said. If the evil was unintentional, she wondered, was it still evil? What if you could not control the destiny laid at your feet, where you still accountable? Was it your fault you were born?

"What happened Elsa?" Anna said, standing to follow her, "To us, what happened when we were kids. One minute you were my best friend, the next I only ever saw the outside of your door. What am I missing? What don't I remember?"

"You wouldn't remember," Elsa said, "They made sure you didn't."

"Tell me," Anna said, "I have a right to know now. What happened?"

Elsa looked at Anna's reflection in the ice. She nodded to it.

"Did you ever wonder why your hair looked like that," Elsa said.

"I was born with it…"

"No, you weren't."

Anna looked at the reflection then too. Elsa stared at the offending tuft of hair, pale from tip to root.

"What happened?"

It was clear Anna was going to force her to confess it. She wouldn't take just putting the pieces together and being done with it. She looked at Elsa defiantly she wanted to hear it aloud, from the lips of her sister. Elsa swallowed. She owed Anna this much.

"I struck you," she whispered, "I was trying to catch you but you went to fast," Elsa said, "And for the smallest moment before you went unconscious, you looked at me with such…betrayal and sadness and disappointment," Elsa swallowed away the threatening tears, "And I held you and you were always so warm and suddenly you were cold like ice and freezing and felt just like me…"

She dropped her head and did not look at Anna, but caught a glimpse of tears in the girl's reflection in front of her.

"They took away the magic, and made you forget," Elsa finished promptly.

She recalled the very small form in her arms. She had felt the warm slinking out of Anna's body, abandoning her to Elsa's cold and harmful care. Every time she closed her eyes she could see it and feel it and remember it and—

Oh no.

Elsa saw flurries of snow overhead. Not now, not again. Anna had noticed too.

"Elsa, listen to me," Anna said, "We can fix this. Come home with me and we'll make everything right."

Wait a minute…something was wrong.

"Make…what right?"

Before Anna could answer they were interrupted by the pattering of feet and a voice.

"Anna it's been a really, really, really long minute," said a voice. "And you didn't come to get me so I decided to just come in now, hope that's okay."

Elsa's eyes widened as she saw what was unmistakably a snowman, not two feet off the ground, walking in, talking, smiling, all of his own accord. She knew him immediately and he practically screeched when laid eyes on her in the dim of the room.

"I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!" he yelled, rushing into the room, sliding right up to Anna's side.

"Olaf?" Elsa gasped out. She may not be able to stop the tears this time.

There he was. The snowman who danced with Anna and craved warm hugs, her childhood friend and one companion, stood right before her. His eyes were so bright. His smile was so pure. She looked at her hands. Had that light truly come from her?

"You built me," he said sheepishly. "You remember that?"

"Yes," she said, quickly wiping away a tear before it even fell.

"He's just like the one we built as kids, we were so close, we could be that way again," Anna said.

"No, we can't. And now you know why."

"Elsa."

Elsa waved her hands to open the balcony to the moonlight and the mountain air. In the very distant horizon a haze of light told her Arendelle was alive and awake. The wind lightly brushed the snow capped pines down below the tree line, and the snow glowed a perfect white against the black sky.

"Elsa if you're scared it's okay, we'll work on it together," Anna said, "We don't have to be best friends again right away. But I need you to come home. Because I'm starting to get the feeling you don't know…"

"What?" Elsa turned around quickly, "What do I not know?"

"It's Arendelle…" Anna said, "You sort of…set off…an eternal winter…everywhere."

Everywhere. No, no, no. She couldn't have, she was here, the magic followed her, she made sure it would follow her and leave Arendelle be. But…

Your power is beautiful Elsa but you must learn to control it. It will only grow...

Was she truly capable of that as well? The ice castle, Olaf, and an eternal winter for an entire nation all from one person? In one hand she held life and the other was death. How did she reconcile that? She created as she destroyed and endangered as she sheltered.

"You can fix it," Anna said carefully.

"No I can't! I don't know how!"

The snow was falling harder and faster now. What of Hans? Was he back in Arendelle living this calamity? Or had he managed a way back home. What would he think of her now, the what he once loved who set an entire kingdom to frost with one panic attack.

The snow was beginning to circle around her like the eye of the storm. Anna was saying something through the wall of flurries but Elsa wasn't listening. Nothing could be worse than this, nothing could ever feel this horrible, her heart was racing, her breath was shallow and fast and she might pass out.

You're not safe here…

Anna placed a hand on her shoulder. Elsa slapped it away reflexively.

Then the worst came.

Anna grunted and fell to her knees, Elsa turned to see it and she knew what happened without having to be told. Anna was struck. The nightmares of before came creeping into the present. Everything was crumbling…no, that was the creaking of the ice above their heads.

Elsa had veins because they were bursting. She must have a heart because it was splintering. She had lungs that were crumbling. She had tears that were freezing. Every horror of her every nightmare splayed out before her eyes.

The hue grew sinister as the walls started glowing red. The castle creaked and cracked and searched to destroy, pumping red and purple. This was her beating heart, closing in around her. This was the prison of her mind.

"Anna!" came a man's voice.

Oh great.

In came a man, about Elsa's own age, bulky and tall. He rushed over to where Anna was struggling to get to her feet.

"Who is this? No, never mind it doesn't matter," Elsa said. She just wanted them gone.

"I'm fine," Anna insisted quickly, "I'm not hurt."

It seemed to be true enough. Anna was standing and her hair remained its constant copper hue.

"This is why you need to leave," Elsa pleaded, "Bring me back to Arendelle and it will only get worse."

"I am not leaving without you. I won't leave you here alone..." Anna said through glistening eyes.

That's when a crash sounded downstairs and all four of them simultaneously bolted towards the stairs to see. Below were two burly men, wielding crossbows, brushing debris from their shoulders and arms. Elsa's door was demolished into pieces on the ground.

"Those are the duke's men," Anna hissed. "Did Hans send them…?" Anna asked confused.

But Elsa understood what Anna did not, or rather she was willing to accept a crueler truth while eying the weapons in their hands. They were not here with the same intentions as Anna.

"No, you were followed," Elsa said. She pulled Anna and Kristoff back and gently nudged Olaf behind her. "Listen to me very carefully," Elsa said, "You need go out on the balcony and stay there quiet."

Elsa was shaking. She knew what these men wanted and all she could picture was Pabbie's prophecy of her devoured by a fearful crowd. If Anna was not here she would have took off running long before.

"No," Anna said resolutely.

"Anna please there is not a lot of time."

"I don't care."

"Anna."

"Elsa."

"I am your queen."

"Not here you're not."

"I am your older sister, and I am telling you to hide."

They had wasted too much time though. She heard the men behind her. She sighed and placed herself directly in front of Anna.

"We're here to take the queen back to Arendelle," said one.

"Yeah, well get in line," the blonde man said. He stepped a bit in front of Elsa, glaring at the duke's thugs. She was liking this mountain man more and more.

"Our orders come from His Grace the Duke of Weselton," the other said dangerously to the man.

"Well I'm here with the Princess of Arendelle and you can—"

The man stopped short when he turned to gesture to Anna, Elsa turned around and saw why. Anna was shivering and her hair had burst into pure white in many places. Elsa's heart sank lower and lower and lower than she ever imagined possible.

You're lucky it wasn't her heart…

"Anna," Elsa whispered but she dared not touch her. She did not reach out to comfort her, to try and keep her warm, or hold her as she did those years ago. She knew what happened next and where Anna needed to go. "You need to take her to…" how to say this without sounding crazy, "At the base of the mountain. There's a volcanic spring. You need to take her there."

"I know," the man said, "I was there."

Elsa raised an eyebrow to him.

"You don't understand," Elsa said, "You have to—"

"I know," he cut her off. "Trolls," he whispered.

Elsa's eyes widened but she didn't argue. Fair enough. She'd ask later, if there was a later for her. She watched the blonde man lift her sister up into his arms, Anna was in too much of a half daze to really protest.

"We'll keep her safe Elsa!" cheered the little snowman, "You can count on me!"

Elsa smiled at Olaf, genuinely, smiled at him. Then she dared a glance at Anna.

"I will…" Elsa swallowed thickly, "I will see you soon, Anna."

The man looked at her, eyes locking they both knew she was lying. He looked at the thugs and then back at Elsa, understanding what she intended. Get her out of here, she can't see this. He looked at her with sympathy, with condolence, but mainly with reverence. He nodded.

"If you see a man," Elsa said, "Named Hans…just, tell him…" Tell him what? He knew it all, he saw Elsa laid bare. But he'd never heard the words out right, never heard her say directly to his face the three words he deserved to here. "Tell him I'm sorry I never told him in person."

The man nodded at that too, understanding.

"Keep her warm, and make sure she's safe," Elsa said the man as the duke's men allowed him to pass. They did not want witnesses. She watched them disappear from view as Anna craned her neck to look back at her sister, growing farther and farther away. "Tell her I love her," Elsa whispered as Anna vanished from her view. Anna had never heard that either.

Then the man holding his sister and the snowman were gone. Elsa stared down at the two large men before her, crossbows itching at their sides to be raised.

"I take it you're here to kill me," Elsa said slowly, readying her hands. She did not intend to die. She intended to distract them long enough to run. Chances of that working however...

"No," one said, "That'll come later."

All three moved at once. Elsa began running, they began firing, ice began shooting. It was a very delicate dance the three of them were in. They circled her like lions and she kept her hands raised at either side, ready for either to move or both at once.

"We're taking you back to Arendelle," the one on the left said. "Alive."

"Well you'll find that a difficult endeavor gentlemen," she said. She tried to muster all the confidence she didn't feel into her voice.

That's when one moved and Elsa was quicker. She pinned him to the wall, spires of ice surrounded him and held him there, hanging off the ground. One spike in particularly stretched up from the ground to graze very close to his throat, inches away, then centimeters. She was drawing blood now, red running down the ice like a growing vein.

And it felt good. She created blizzards with the flick of her wrists. She built castles to rival every royal palace in the world. She brought life where there was nothing with a few waves of her hand. She was above these men who fired at her with manmade weapons. They wanted to hurt her because they could not understand her and could not control her and their master desired what she had. This was power beyond a crown and birthright, this was true power. She was life and death in nature, the fallen angel ruling on Earth. She had wings where they only had legs. It wasn't her fault it was theirs. They were the weak ones trying to bring her to the ground. She was winter incarnate. And his is how she'd prove it.

"Well, well," said the man behind her, "The sorceress bares her teeth and they are sharp."

No. What had she done? She dropped the man. She dropped her shoulders, she lowered her hands, she felt her face loosen. She looked at her reflection in the ice beneath her feet. What was she becoming? Where would she end if she didn't stop? Whose face was that looking back at her? What would Anna say? What would Hans say? What would she herself say?

Was hers the origin story of a villain?

That's when she abandoned it all and ran on pure instinct, no goal, or destination, only primal fear of them, of their arrows, of herself.

She didn't make it very far. They snagged her right in the shoulder and she yelped, groaned, and gasped all at once. There was an arrow in her shoulder, burrowed deep, bruising, and burning her all at once.

She hit the ground, hard. She slammed the ice and felt her head spin. Something red stained glassy ground. Was that herown blood? It must be. It felt surprisingly warm.

"Utmerket," she groaned into the floor.

Her limbs felt useless. Something might be broken. They pulled her up, yanking her to her feet. The broke the arrow. It felt like someone tried to tear the muscle of her shoulder right from the bone. The point was still wedged in, yanking on her nerves and tissue. She screamed.

"Oops," one said.

"Bare ta meg," she mumbled, losing consciousness under the pain, eyes watering.

"Your language sounds like a horse shitting," the other said.

"Fokk deg," was the last thing she remembered saying.

After enough yelling, the duke agreed to release Hans from the chair. His hands were still pinned behind him, but he was free to pace as he liked through the cell. He wore holes into the stone over the few days he was locked down there.

He tried a few times at throwing his shoulder into the door, hoping the cold made the hinges brittle enough. But it never broke. Your dungeons are impeccable Elsa, I hope you're quite proud. He'd bruised himself, torn his clothes, and even broke skin in places trying to force his way out of his restraints and from his cell.

This morning was different though. He heard more movement, louder movement that, based on the hushed tones and constant shushing, was trying to be quiet. He peaked out through the crack between the door and the wall.

Two men. Two large men. The duke's men? One of them was carrying a bundle. The more he looked at it the bundle looked disturbingly human shaped. It was. Wait…He pressed closer to the gap, his face was flush to the wall. He saw a braid of hair like silver.

"Put her in this one and get the cuffs," one hissed to the other.

Elsa! He almost shouted it. If he had a free hand it would have covered his mouth. Was she alive? She had to be, they were locking her up. She was unconscious but alive. He'd accept alive for now.

They put her in that cell thinking Hans had no idea she was there. He had to get to her.