Anna was unsure where she was when she started to regain consciousness. Everything looked blurry to her.
"Aw, does sleeping beauty need a little kiss to wake her up?" Someone kissed her on the lips and as her vision cleared and she saw who it was, she tried to leap back in revulsion but was brought up short by a chain around her waist. It was Prince Hans. He grinned at her. "Lucky you. I finally gave you that kiss you wanted so badly from me."
"Come over here and I'll give you a kiss to remember." She snarled as she tugged on the chain. It didn't move.
"Thank you, but I'll pass for now." He grinned. "But I have someone who will be glad to take all the kisses you can give him."
He stepped back to reveal Ivan, standing there drooling at her. Ivan declared. "I like babes that fight. It makes what happens later more fun."
"They don't call him Ivan the Mad for nothing." Hans proclaimed. "I think I'll watch while you two play."
"No you won't." A woman's voice proclaimed behind him. He was shoved aside and one of the most beautiful women Anna had ever seen swayed into view. She had long, flowing red hair and every curve was revealed in a slinky silver dress that clung to her every contour.
She caressed Prince Hans on the cheek. "You handsome, have to step through the wardrobe and go to the palace in Arendelle and set things in motion to destroy Queen Elsa." She smiled at Anna and there was no warmth in it. "I have an announcement you should enjoy. Your sister has found her true love." Anna gasped and stared at her. The witch mockingly said. "She and Georg are so much in love and so very happy."
"Well good for them." Anna declared.
"Actually it's good for me, you spoiled little brat." The witch retorted. "The better for us to kill your cow of a sister."
"You take on Elsa and you'll lose." Anna snarled back.
The woman smiled. "I gave your former lover Prince Hans an amulet with some magic powers and he's going to turn that love to hate. A war between fire and ice." She grinned maliciously. "Won't that be nice? Your sister and Georg are living on borrowed time and the loan is coming due. But don't worry as you won't be lonely." She gestured at Ivan who drooled at Anna and fingered his knife blade.
Lisbet growled at Hans. "What are you waiting for? Go and kill them now."
Anna gasped. "No!"
"Oh yes." Prince Hans smiled at her. "It'll give me a great deal of pleasure to make Elsa suffer for sending me back home in disgrace for such a little reason."
"You tried to kill us." Anna snarled at him.
"As I said, such a little reason." He pulled his gloves on. "I'd love to stay and see you suffer but fun calls me." He waved over his departing shoulder. "Enjoy yourself until I get back." The door shut behind him. A moment later there was a rumble as he stepped through the wardrobe.
Anna tugged at her chains and found they were locked tightly around her waist. She glared at the woman. "Who are you and why are you doing this to us?"
The woman made a little mock bow. "I'm Lisbet. Some have called me a witch because I have powers. As if any woman who has more powers than men is somehow evil. I hear that they even called your sister a sorceress when she first showed her powers."
She suddenly snarled. "Your sister. How I hate her. She got all the help, love, and encouragement she needed when she displayed her powers, but when I displayed mine we were driven away." She turned and looked out the window caught up in the past. "When my older brother Eric took me to the palace seeking help, he foolishly thought that such a loving king and queen who were so concerned about a daughter rumored to do snow magic would certainly help his poor afflicted sister."
"Instead of being helped, we were ordered to leave at spear point by the guards. They denied that Princess Elsa had any magic and that the gates were being closed until further notice. The doors were literally slammed in our faces and we were left to get along as best as we could."
Anna had never thought much beyond how the enforced seclusion of the castle was affecting herself. She'd not given any consideration to those who lived outside the closed gates and now she could see that some of the effects hadn't been pretty. By isolating their daughters her father and mother had also locked out people who had needed their help with unintended consequences. She was afraid that her parents had deliberately chosen to keep others who could do magic away from Elsa and that the guard's orders had really come from her father and mother.
Lisbet gripped her hands so hard that they went white. "Eric died trying to protect me and to this day I can still see his blood-soaked body. And they took me to what they considered a proper place for a grieving twelve year old who claimed that she could do magic. They took me to the madhouse."
Anna quailed. A madhouse? That was no place for a child. She could see herself at twelve locked in a room with gibbering and howling adults. No wonder Lisbet was insane.
Lisbet continued. "There I met mad, old Granny Goodnight, who knew some witch lore and she initiated me into the covens. And I've never looked back." She stared stonily at Anna. "I tell you this not to elicit sympathy but so that you will know why I hate your family so much."
Anna decided she had nothing to lose. "And is that why you hate the First Prince of the Southern Isles so much that you wanted him burned alive?"
"I see Georg has a big mouth. If he wasn't going to die in combat with your sister I'd have to make him suffer for that." Lisbet declared. "No. It's an entirely personal reason involving promises to wed not kept because I was a common woman as if you, a princess, could ever understand that."
"I understand more than you might think." Anna replied. "There are certain things all women have in common."
"Well, I don't." Lisbet declared. "If you're referring to caring, love, and things of the heart. I am done with that as it makes you weak just like the little idiot Rufina who's sitting in the glass lamp box above you."
Anna looked up and Rufina sadly looked back at her from her cage. "Oh, Rufina." She said sorrowfully.
Lisbet chuckled. "She deserves no pity. In order to protect her father from my wrath she does everything I order her to do. She's now my slave."
She leaned forward. "What I want from you is your power amplification so that no one in the world will overcome me again."
"I can't control it and even if I could I'd not let you use it." Anna retorted.
Lisbet smiled. "Let's see how you feel about that after Ivan gets done with you." Ivan grinned as Anna shrank back.
Lisbet turned away. "I've wasted enough time on you. Ivan, entertain her, but leave her mind intact." She opened the door and turned back to Anna. "Whenever you're ready to cooperate just let me know. And by the way Hans is going to show Kristoff you're dead. So no true love will be riding to your rescue this time. There is no help for you, Princess." The door shut with a slam as Ivan stepped forward.
Lisbet had no idea how wrong she was.
In the Ice Palace the Snow Queen looked up with a frown at the shouts coming from the valley below and echoing off the mountain walls. What were her close neighbors the trolls up to? She'd better check this out. She gestured and cross-country skis appeared on her feet. She pulled goggles over her eyes and dug her poles into the snow.
With a blast of snow swirling behind her she shot down the mountainside, easily jumping small and large crevasses and then taking the moguls like an expert. She came to a cliff hundreds of feet high and didn't hesitate. She shot off the snow plume at its top and then sped in a skis jumper's tuck through the air.
When she gracefully landed she'd beaten the world and Olympic records by nearly a thousand meters and her form would've earned her a perfect 10. She sent packs of reindeer running in all directions as she sped through the valley. Ahead of her the snow ended.
She grinned and flicked one finger and a snow lane formed ahead of her down the mountain. She shot down it and as she did so she threw back her head back and shouted her joy to the world. Life in winter was for her worth living to the hilt.
She saw the line of marching trolls and sped to the front where she braked in a graceful curve throwing snow so that it landed just in front of the lead trolls. She slid her goggles down and smiled at them.
The trolls all stared and blinked. Grandpeppy pushed his way to the front followed by Grandmommy. "Elsa?" He got a shake of a head in answer.
Grandmommy stepped up beside him. "You're Elsa but you're not at the same time. You're her daughter." She got a radiant smile in reward.
Grandpeppy frowned. "Weren't you Elsa's guardian once? Marshmallow?"
"Once, but I have a new name and a new role." Her musical voice replied. "I'm Elsa's newly created daughter and since I wear her abandoned crown and she gave me the Ice Palace I am now the Snow Queen whose coming has been foretold by you."
The trolls all looked at each other, blinked, and then went to their knees. "Snow Queen."
She chuckled. "Get up. Let's not be so formal. You're my friends." They rose and stood expectantly.
She looked over them, taking in their weapons and the puffing lizards loaded down with the red crystals. "You're marching to war." It was not a question but a statement. "Who do you make war on?"
Grandmommy spat to the side. "The evil witch, Lisbet. She used the evil prince Hans imbued with her foul magic to kidnap Elsa's sister Anna, enslave Olaf's fiancé Rufina, and nearly melt Olaf to death."
Grandpeppy stepped forward and held out his hand with the small snowman. "I'm barely keeping him alive. Can you do more?"
Olaf piped up. "Please help me, Elsa. Rufina and Anna need me,"
She smiled. "I do look like Mom, don't I?" She waved a hand. "All right, Olaf, but don't make this a habit."
"Oh wow!" He exclaimed as he grew to his normal size and the cloud raining down snow reformed above his head. "I have my personal flurry back." He knelt and kissed her hand. "Thank you. Thank you."
"Do you join us in our war, Snow Queen?" Grandpeppy asked. Several of the trolls gripped their crystals tighter and growled.
She growled back. "Yes. She attacked Aunt Anna and my brother Olaf. For these evil acts alone the witch has earned war with the Snow Queen and all of the world of winter."
"We would be proud if you marched with us." Grandmommy declared. All the trolls cheered.
"I would be glad to do so, but there are things I must do first. Lay siege to the witch's walking house and do not let her escape. I'll be bringing with me the one who will destroy her and her evil minion." She slipped her goggles back on and gripped her ski poles. "Farewell until we are victorious."
She sped away down the mountainside with the cheers of the trolls ringing in the valley. They took up their crystals, flicked the reins of the snow lizards and marched on singing. "The witch will fall, now the witch will fall."
Elsa couldn't believe how completely she'd fallen in love. Inside her storm was finally quiet and all she felt was peace and happiness. They were just outside Georg's rooms and they hadn't been able to stop kissing goodbye. Each kiss became a hello and then needed another goodbye.
Finally, she knew she had to get back to being the Queen and broke off the kissing. "You are simply amazing. Whenever I hold you the storm inside me just vanishes. Is it due to our powers cancelling each other?"
He took her hand. "I believe its love. I loved you from the first day I saw you and it happened then. You made me love you so much although I wouldn't admit it at the time." He kissed her hand and then looked up. "At first I too thought it was due to the opposite effects of our powers. Fire does melt ice and ice when it melts quenches fire. But I think the real key is the love we feel for each other. Fear and anger can drive our powers but the love we feel calms them. As long as we share love, then our storms will be quiet."
She kissed his hand in turn and then stepped back as she held his hand. "I have my responsibilities as Queen but after they're done I want to take up right where we left off."
He squeezed her hand. "As do I. Until later, my love."
After leaving Georg at his quarters Elsa headed for her rooms closely followed by the seneschal. She felt like she could fly so strong were the emotions surging through her. She, who had for so many years hid out of fear, had finally taken the love into her life that she had thought an impossible dream. She wondered if anything could wipe the smile off her face. She immediately got an unwelcome answer to that question.
She turned at her door and proclaimed dreamily. "I'm in love, Kai. I'm getting married to Georg."
He bowed. "My hearty congratulations, Your Highness, and may I be the first to congratulate you on your resolution of the problem."
She frowned. "What are you talking about, Kai? What problem?"
"Why the forced marriage of course. This way by marrying a man who will be dead in two years you yourself and the kingdom will all be free in two years." He bowed. "Well played, my Queen."
She started back in shock and then rage rose to the fore. The temperature fell immediately and ice began to creep along the walls. "How dare you, Kai. How dare you call me a liar!"
He went white. "My Queen, I did not."
"Yes, you did." She said coldly and felt the storm inside her trying to get out. "I just told you I was marrying for love which is the only reason I'm marrying Georg and you dare to tell me I'm a heartless harpy planning to use him and discard him. How dare you judge me so!"
Snow burst forth and the walls turned white with frost. He was shivering both from cold and fear when he went to his knees. "Forgive me, Your Majesty."
The fear in his eyes gave her pause. She remembered all his years of faithful service and that allowed her to access the calm and draw back the ice. "You are forgiven. Never do that again."
She started to enter her rooms and then turned back to him. "Kai, I am marrying out of love, no matter what any gossips may declare. I expect to never hear these accusations again as long as I live and I expect you, my oldest friend, to see that such lies are not entertained in this castle." She shut the door. The good mood was soured and the bad seeds had been planted.
Somewhere unseen an invisible Hans smiled. "Oh, I'm having such fun manipulating these fools." He slicked his hair back. "Time for the main event."