Note: Sorry in advance for how incredibly dark this is.

I do not own Frozen. Please review, comment, or criticize. Most of all, enjoy.

In the Old World

Chapter 10

A strange, horrible tedium had developed over the last week. Anna would sit in her dank, dark cell, someone would eventually slip a tray of food beneath a slot in the bottom. She'd eat, pass out, and wake up in another room, where she was bombarded with information that somehow managed to glaze over her while it was told to her. She wasn't quite sure what that all was, but what she retained was all things she had no interest in. Ideas of power, dominance, culling, and the disease of society. She'd once tried refusing food, and an Acolyte had simply entered and shoved a needle in her arm which had much the same effect.

Sitting on her cot, she devised a plan.

Cordas gazed through the bars, at the scattered food and not a hint of the captive princess. He noticed the tiny mirror he'd always said ought to be removed was shattered, and there was an odd stain…

He quickly threw open the door and ran-

The serving tray came up from the opposite side of the doorframe and smashed into his face.

Anna gave the Acolyte a few more whacks for good measure, then checked his pockets. She found a key ring, and slid a small dagger off the man's belt. If only he'd had a map. But she knew she'd figure something out.

Daud gazed at the burning wreck of a small ship from the infirmary full of men clutching bruised faces, cut arms and crushed unmentionables, and had to shake his head in wonderment. One little princess, who hadn't even gone through the process of Awakening, out of her cell with nothing to start but a key ring, a dagger, and hours to wander carefully. She'd found a great deal more since; almost a dozen of their people were in bed with terribly painful wounds, and they were rushing to keep a fire from spreading across the docks. Among other things.

What might she do when she had her powers? Daud was fairly certain the usual rhetoric and methods wouldn't work in keeping her under control. Solstice might convince the girl, but she was far away, training and strategizing in the Monastery. He'd have to make do with who and what he had on hand.

"Prepare the pit." He said. "And tell Galmorn to be prepared to conduct an Awakening in three days' time. Make sure to stipulate that this particular subject is needed alive and sane."

Anna was roughly roused the morning following her attempted escape, and the first thing they did was throw a bag over her head. She was lead down several twisting, turning halls, before she was roughly forced to her knees and the bag was removed. Anna gazed for second a gaping hole in the floor before she was shoved in the back and fell down into it. There was a loud creaking and banging as a metal cover was thrown down over the hole.

"Leave." She faintly heard a voice say. She recognized it. It was the man who took her from the palace. She gazed up through the few holes in the cover, and saw him standing on it. "If it is any consolation, I'm sorry about what must come next. But, distasteful as I find this, I also recognize its necessity. We can't very well let someone like you still think escaping is a good idea, especially after you undergo the Awakening." The man sighed. "Regardless, I'm sorry for what you're about to go through. I can only hope you come out of there with what little of yourself you can salvage."

He dropped a tiny, burning blue pellet down through one of the holes, and walked away.

The pellet was just below eye level when it exploded, and several shards struck her cheek. The force of the explosion blasted her back against the wall of the pit, and she shut hey eyes against the pain. She felt a small heat light itself in the pit, and quickly grow. She opened her eyes and saw a raging torrent of blue fire sweep across the pit and engulf her. It hurt, burned like nothing she'd ever felt, for a few seconds, before the flames withdrew around her back, leaving her… somewhere else.

She wasn't in the pit any longer. She was somewhere else. Some giant, empty black void of nothingness. She walked through it, wondering just what was happening, when she heard something.

The clopping of hooves, and the dragging of wood. She turned and saw Kristoff, on the sled she gave him, loaded with ice, Sven pulling while munching happily on a carrot. The void around her slowly transformed into a snow-covered mountainside, late at night. She had no idea how this was possible, but she didn't quite care the moment. She ran towards Kristoff and Sven when a sound stopped her.

A low, yet piercing growl.

A wolf burst out of the forest and leapt up, catching Kristoff's arm in its jaws and dragging him off of the sled. Sven somehow shook the reins off and kicked the wolf clean off his friend. Five more charged from the trees behind him and dragged the reindeer to the ground, while another three pounced on Kristoff.

"NO!" Anna screamed and ran forward, scrabbling at the ground for a stick, or a rock. Anything that would help her fight off the wolves. She charged towards the one on top of Kristoff, and brought the rock she'd grabbed down on its head.

But the rock passed through the wolf, and the ice cutter beneath it. Everything around her slowly dissolved into the void, and she was left on her hands and knees, wracked with terror over what she'd just seen. The worst part was, she'd seen all this before. She'd had nightmares about exactly that.

The blackness beneath her shifted and changed again. She was standing on ice, in the middle of a slowly calming blizzard, a frozen ship visible on her right. She knew this. This was the fjord in Arandelle. But it was frozen. And that meant…

She turned, and saw Elsa, lying on her knees in anguish, Hans standing behind her, sword raised.

Anna ran forward, intending to stop the prince, to do anything she had to to stop…

They were getting farther away the closer she tried to come. Never so far that she couldn't see, in terrible detail, what was happening, but far enough that she could never reach them. The sword descended in agonizing slowness. She seemed to be getting closer now, at an infinitesimal rate, but closer nonetheless. The sword was almost on Elsa, Anna a hairsbreadth away from seizing Hans-

Ice shot up around her body and she froze solid. She couldn't move, but she was horribly aware. She could still see perfectly. See the sword pass through Elsa's…

The ice around her shattered and she collapsed, screaming in anguish as the world around her dissolved into the void once more. She laid on the floor, sobbing softly, until she felt a cold, soft hand brush against her cheek. She looked up, gasping her sobs out, and suddenly her spirits lifted.

Elsa stood before her, smiling warmly and holding out her hand.

Anna shot up to her feet and threw her arms around her sister. Elsa returned the hug gladly as Anna let out a joyful scream into her shoulder. They slowly pulled away, still keeping a grasp on each others hands.

And it was then Anna noticed something seemed… wrong. Elsa felt cold. Unnaturally cold, even for Elsa. Her eyes, especially her irises, seemed… hard. Almost reflective, like glass.

Or ice.

Anna looked down at the hands she held. A light sheen of ice was growing over them. Elsa's smile took on a slightly sadder appearance, as the world around them resolved into the palace courtyard in the middle of winter, a snowy air blowing through it. Elsa slowly began to pull away.

"Esla?" Anna asked fearfully as the sheen of ice crept up her sister's face and hair. Elsa released one of her hands, and the snow-filled winds grew in intensity. Elsa's released hand was caught in the winds, and as Anna watched, the fingers of the hand slowly grew incredibly blue and clear. They turned to solid ice.

"Elsa, no!" Anna screamed. Elsa released her other hand, and the winds grew all the greater, nearly blotting out Anna's view of her sister as more and more of her began to turn to ice. The same sad smile was on her lips. She backed away, ever so slowly. Anna tried to force her way through the now gale-force snowy winds to reach her sister, who she could see was nearly entirely turned to solid ice.

She reached out just as the last bits of her sister were consumed by ice. Freezing tears began to roll down her face as she grazed her sister's frozen cheek.

Elsa's form cracked and exploded into a thousand fragments that melted away into a billion snowflakes before they were swept away on the winds. Anna had the distinct impression that she heard a softly whispered 'goodbye' from the snow that whirled around her.

"ELSA!"

She'd fallen to her back, sobbing and clutching her shoulders and squeezing her eyes shut, praying that this nightmare would end.

She opened her eyes to the sight of Hans, leering over her in her bed. She screamed and Kristoff was suddenly there, charging through the door and tearing the former prince off and throwing him into the nearest wall. He charged the prince when Hans reached into his belt and thrust his hand out with lightning speed. Kristoff stumbled back and sank to the floor, a knife buried in his chest.

Hans approached her again and wrapped his hands around her throat.

Anna forced herself off of her bed and out of Hans whirling around into-

Elsa's bedroom door. She slammed into and fell through the threshold as the door gave way. She picked herself up off the floor and saw…

Kristoff lay shirtless in Elsa's bed, his bottom half beneath the covers. A pale hand ran through his hair, a content smile on his sleeping face.

Anna whirled around and through the door's threshold again and found herself standing in the middle of Elsa's ice palace. But it wasn't the palace she'd seen. This was dark as night, the walls glowing with an unearthly red power, spikes extending from the walls and ceiling, the ice itself a blue so deep and dark it was nearly black.

Anna turned to the sound of doors opening, and saw Elsa storm through, her ice dress reflecting the darker colors of her palace, the tiny crystals glowing like red stars. Her face was… alien. Terrible pride, fury, sadism, and a hundred other things Anna knew Elsa would never feel, yet seemed horribly suited to this new her burned on her sister's face.

"Elsa, what's-" Anna began to ask fearfully. She was interrupted as Elsa quickly formed a ball of black ice in one hand and launched it into Anna's chest, blasting her off her feet and sending her skidding on the slick floor. "Elsa, please-" Anna tried to say, gasping against the incredible pain in her chest.

Elsa conjured a large block of ice, hovering in the far end of the room, and sent in flying, slamming into Anna's head and sending her tumbling down the steps. Elsa fired bursts of magic into the steps as Anna fell, causing edges to leap up and hit her, or grow jagged and cut her. Anna slowly crawled to the center of the room, and got unsteadily to her feet.

Elsa walked to the edge of the upper floor and waved her hand contemptuously, creating a floating, rotating dais of ice that she stepped on and lowered to the floor below.

"Elsa," Anna said fearfully as her sister slowly approached her. "What's happened to you?"

Elsa replied with a smile that all but said 'You deluded, simple fool.' She raised her hands and released a torrent of snow and sleet and hail, directing it all at Anna, who could face it only for a few seconds before she had to turn her back to it. She could feel Elsa walk closer as the storm grew fiercer around her, feel the sadistic smirk on her sister's face. She curled her right hand into a fist, and leapt up, aiming a powerful punch.

Elsa reached up with one hand, a layer of black ice growing over it, and caught Anna's punch. Anna felt her knuckles crack against the ice coating, and tried to pull her hand out of Elsa's grip, but she couldn't. A wicked smile growing on her face, Elsa slowly curled her fingers around Anna's fist, her grip growing tighter, applying more and more pressure to Anna's already weakened fingers. Anna was gasping in pain when Elsa suddenly clenched her hand into a fist, crushing Anna's hand between her ice-covered fingers.

Anna screamed in agony and dropped to her knees as Elsa threw her hand out of her grasp and turned around. As Anna held her broken hand and cried furious tears onto the floor, she looked back up at her sister. Magical power glowed in Elsa's palm, and a long, jagged piece of ice grew from her hand. She curled her fingers around it as the magic faded, and turned back Anna.

Elsa seized Anna by her collar and dragged her up, holding her several inches above the floor. She waved the jagged icicle in front of Anna's face before she drew it back and plunged it into Anna's chest. Anna gasped as the sharp point drove through her and just barely poked against her heart before Elsa yanked against the icicle, breaking off the rest, but leaving most of it embedded inside Anna.

Elsa dropped Anna to the floor and reached a hand out, magic energy glowing between her fingers. Anna could feel an inhuman cold grow within her from the icicle, and slowly spread through her. Raising her unbroken hand, she could see her fingers freezing before her eyes.

She cast one last terrified, sorry, forgiving look at her sister's savagely smiling face before she froze completely solid.

Okay, yeah. It won't get this bad again, I swear. Well, it probably won't. Okay, I make no ironcald promises.

This was both much longer, and a much quicker update than usual. But I'm not too sure if I'll be updating next week (cause classes start on Monday) and I didn't want to consign the hallucination to two separate chapters. Chapters also (unless I really have good thing that I don't want to split going, like the hallucination) won't stay at this length. We'll stay at around 1,800 words per chapter, usually. Cause 1,800 is easier on all of us.

I fear I must admit, Evil Elsa was a guilty joy to write.

Also, a word on the actual schedule. I'm revising my previous statement; I'll be devoting myself more or less fully to this story during my forthcoming quarter, so I can get it finished in as timely a manner as possible. I don't think working on two stories at once (or in quick succession of each other) benefits either work.