Chapter 9

E-73 stood rather awkwardly, having been led by unknown hands into a large, unfamiliar room. About twenty others were already there. It was freezing, although she was certain that it was summer outside. Or maybe she had lost track of time. Not surprisingly, this place didn't have windows; the walls and the dome-shaped ceiling were made of cold metal. When the masked guards left her, she looked around at the others. Although they all had known each other for a very long time, all were silent and stiff from nervousness. This wasn't scheduled. Nothing goes unscheduled in this place. Something was wrong. Her ears perked up to the crackle of a speaker. A deep voice boomed across the room.

"Kill."

What?

"This is your final task." There was a dreadful pause. Only the buzz coming from the speaker was audible. The voice started again.

"This is for the completion of the experiment."

Confused, she looked around at the familiar faces surrounding her. They had spent years in this hellhole together- they were almost like family. This couldn't be happening. Nobody was moving, terrified of what they had just been ordered. The speaker wasn't off yet either.

"The last one alive," it continued, "will be rewarded-"

Freedom.

Then they lost it. Freedom- what they had been craving, longing to get for such a long time- was right there, within an arm's length. All they had to do was to reach for it.

She felt bodies changing, that rush of adrenaline inside of her body, the ice hot coldness building up from the inside. The gush of wind, the tearing of flesh, the sounds of agony, the metallic scent of blood-

Elsa woke up with a start. She was breathing heavily, her body covered in sweat. It was the nightmare again- the same one that had haunted her for a very long time. Although all her memories were fuzzy and hard to remember, this one incident was engraved deep in her head. She could recall it crystal clear; the voice, the bloodshed, and the remorse that stabbed painfully afterwards. Ninety nine percent of her life she was lied to. There was no such thing as freedom. Once the killing field was over, she was drugged to sleep. The next thing she knew, she was chained up in a cell with a single barred window, her body connected to multiple tubes. They never let her gain consciousness. It was an endless repetition of sleeping, surfacing and being drugged back to sleep again. All she could recall now was a huge bearded man, the terrifying white lab jackets and the ear-splitting howling of the wolves. Whatever thing they injected into her did a very good job in ripping away her memories. The harder she tried to cling onto them, the faster they were taken away from her. It had made her into an animal. A savage.

Trying to steady her breath, Elsa looked up at the girl fast asleep on the bed next to her. A smile crept up her lips as Anna erupted in a giant snore. She was her everything, the first one to treat her like an actual human being. She felt that warmth blossom inside her chest in her presence. The warmth that she hadn't experienced in such a long time.

Elsa climbed out of her mattress, and glanced outside the window. It was still dark, but with a silhouette of an unpleasantly familiar car on the driveway. Her eyes narrowed.

What's he doing here?

Trying hard not to wake the sleeping redhead, Elsa slipped out of the room- making sure she had locked the door from the inside.

Anna woke to the click of the door. She didn't even realize that she had fallen asleep; the mere presence of the blonde in her room made her heart flutter in ways that she couldn't quite understand. She had closed her eyes and evened her breath, pretending to be asleep, while she felt those soft, warm hands lightly wrap around her own. Even when she was certain that Elsa's eyes were trained on her face, she had tried to remain still for what seemed like hours.

"Elsa?" she croaked, turning in her bed to look down at the mattress on the floor, only to find that Elsa wasn't there. Anna sat upright. "Elsa?" Trying to comb out her hair with her fingers, she looked out the window.

Is that a car out there? Looks a bit familiar. It's past midnight though. What…

An unpleasant face flashed through her mind. Why on earth would he be here at this time of the night? Wait, was he responsible for the missing Elsa?

Right then, she heard a thump right outside her room. Alarmed and scared to the bones, she retreated to the corner, managing to find Kristoff's baseball bat which she held onto tightly.

"Anna, you in 'ere?" a drunken voice trailed into the room, "It's me, Hans."

"I kinda need to talk to you, like, now-"he continued, pressing on the locked door, "-but I'm gonna be patient and wait for you out here like a gentleman." Anna hesitated. This guy didn't know what he was doing. But she needed to find Elsa. Taking a deep breath, she burst open the door. Hans was standing right there front of her.

"There you are! I missed y-"He whined, only to be cut off by the furious redhead.

"Where's Elsa?" she insisted. The man raised his eyebrows.

"You mean the blonde chick? I dunno, she's not with you?"

"Stop playing. I know you took her, where is she?" Anna asked again in a threatening tone.

"I have no idea. And I don't kidnap girls." Anna pondered the honesty in his voice.

"Then why are you here in the first place?"

"I just needed to talk to you." It was impressing how he managed to speak, when he could barely stand upright. Anna glared at him.

"This better be urgent," she scowled, storming out of her room, "If you had something to say, you can do it outside."

It took a while for the drunk man to catch up with the redhead waiting outside in the front yard. He flashed a sick smile at her direction as he stepped closer.

"Anna, I like you," he slurred, stepping forward, "I could marry you." Anna staggered backwards, frowning at the uncomfortably close distance. He smelled sickeningly of alcohol and smoke. But he didn't stop, until her back hit the side of his SUV. It happened so fast that she didn't even see it coming- Hans slumped forward, his hands snaking up her bare waist inside her shirt, tongue sliding inside hers as their mouths collided. The man howled in pain as the girl got to her senses and kicked his crotch with full force.

"W-What the hell is wrong with you?!" she screamed, infuriated by the sudden- intimate, contact. She backed away, desperately trying to get out of his reach, only to stumble and fall backwards on her rear. The man, now angered by Anna's assault, was closing up on her.

Then she heard the low, menacing growl.

Anna looked up to find a slender frame in the shadows of a nearby bush.

"Elsa! What are you doing? Get outa here!" she screamed. Hans merely smirked.

"Ahh, who is this?" he jeered, "It's Anna's little puppy!"

It was the first time Anna had seen Elsa like this. Her whole body was literally shaking from anger, as she stood with her back hunched. The growl only got louder and louder. Even in his drunken state, Hans managed to figure out that this was a bad timing for his sarcasm and hesitated. The girl's uncontrollable anger was bursting out from the inside. But was it just her, or was Elsa…changing?

The pair watched in fear and shock as the blonde grew, until she was twice as big as an average man. Her skin bubbled as snowy white hair covered the rest of her body, red seemed to sprout from the back of her eyeballs to glaze her icy blue eyes, deathly claws grew out of the huge hands- and standing before them was a beast. A huge, white creature, with eyes that emitted a deadly, red light.

Anna felt goosebumps crawling up her arms as a sudden chill took over. The air fogged up as she breathed in disbelief. She couldn't find her voice. She could merely watch, as the wolf-like creature closed in on the man, who was now furiously backing away, tripping and scrambling back to his feet again. Managing to find a stray rock the size of a fist, he pitched it at the creature's head- no luck. It merely huffed and charged at him, and with a single strike, his body flew across the yard like a stuffed animal and fell halfway across the concrete road unconscious. The creature stomped towards him.

"Elsa…?"

Anna whispered. It stopped abruptly, turning at her direction. Anna held her breath, horrified, as the thing looked at her straight in the eyes. It was then that she realized that there was something more inside those glazed eyes; fear.

"E-Elsa… Stay. Stay," stammered the redhead, trying hard to hide the tremble in her voice. Slowly the creature's breathing evened, its white hair seemed to shoot back into her skin, and its whole frame seemed to shrink- until all that was left was a girl, with the same white hair, and the same fearful eyes. Her tense eyes shot towards the unconscious man, terrified of what she had done, then back at Anna. Anna could only watch as the horrified girl took off, running away into the darkness, her blonde hair flailing behind her.

A/N: Thanks to all my wonderful followers & reviewers! I couldn't have come this far if it wasn't for you guys, really. Some of you might have questions about this chapter, but don't worry, I'll settle everything that's confusing you as the story continues. This particular chapter was the one of the 'big' chapters I had in mind since the beginning, and although it didn't turn out exactly as I expected, it was really fun to write. Hope you liked it, and don't forget to leave me a review! :)

I have a huge test coming up in November, so I really can't write until that ends. But I'll be able to update much more regularly after that. Wish me luck!