I am so sorry that this has taken me so long. I have been incredibly busy with graduation and I have been working on some stories in other fandoms. I hope you don't hate me for taking this long.

Hans leaned against the winds and snow slapping his face. He glanced over at his companion, in awe of how unfazed she seemed by the awful weather. Her eyes were narrowed and, though her hair blew out behind her in flowing curls, she easily glided over the ground.

She had slowly become worked up again as they traveled closer towards Aedan's supposed lair. He had noticed first the air swirling slowly around him in brisk currents and when the snow started to fall he realized that her emotions must be running wild again.

He wrestled internal with herself over what to say to her. A part of him wanted to come completely clean. After all, this might be his last chance to tell her the real reason why he knew where Aedan kept camp, to tell her that he had almost gone there not long ago when he was purposely conspiring against the queen. There were so many secrets he had kept from her. He imagined her reaction to his telling her that they had slept together and figured that that might be akin to her about one millionth of what her reaction to all his other secrets might be.

Elsa stopped suddenly.

Hans whipped around quickly and opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong.

Her eyes were closed gently and her hands were clasped in front of her. She took a deep breath in through her nose and then opened her eyes to find him staring at her. After what seemed like a brief moment of confusion she gathered her composure and said quietly. "Look." She nodded her head ever so slightly towards something Hans didn't see until he turned around.

When he did he saw nothing. "I don't see it." He sighed.

"Look closer." Elsa sounded so calm.

Hans squinted and noticed in the distance a hint of glowing orange. It was so subtle that no one who wasn't looking for it would be able to find it. Once he saw the light, it flashed slightly and then everything around it seemed to magically come into view. Hans realized that the snow had stopped started to feel the warm air wash over him. The orange light was now flooding from what was clearly the mouth of the cave, which was still slightly difficult to see due to its being surrounded by billowing thick dark smoke. Hans swallowed hard. "Um, Elsa?" He turned questioningly towards her, his heart rate speeding up.

"I knew this day would come." Elsa's voice floated over to him as if she were in some sort of trance.

"You expected to find a bursting with orange colored light and have to squint through the smoke to see you enemy?"

"He is fire." Elsa gazed at him as if it were obvious. "What did you expect?" She arched an eyebrow in a way that was so utterly Elsa that Hans almost laughed. But then her neck turned back to the scene ahead. "Let's go."

"Wait, what?" Hans asked in alarm, grabbing her arm before she could start moving. She glared at him and shook his hand away. "You're just going to go in there with no plan, no army, no-."

"Hans, we have less than twelve hours." She spat. "Do you know how long it takes to organize an army? Oh that's right you don't." She huffed. "Besides I have a plan."

"What is it?"

"You aren't going to like it." Elsa sighed, still not looking at him. "I'm going to distract Aedan. Then you are going to rescue Anna. Once you two are both safe I-. I am going to hand myself over to him."

Hans groaned. "Not this again. He said that once you found his hide out he would set her free. That doesn't mean you have to deliberately give up."

"Are you stupid, Hans?" Elsa asked honestly. "Do you honestly think that he'll let her go after everything that she's probably seen? Do you really think he is going to just free all those people? In what world has any criminal been psychological stable enough to have sympathy for innocent people? People like Aedan, people who manipulate people for their own benefits, they don't have feelings." Tears were rolling slowly down her cheeks. She blinked. "They have twisted hearts."

Hans thought for a moment, the thoughts of everything he had done and how close he had come to ruining the lives of this woman and her sister. The only thing that had stopped him was his lust for the queen. Was Elsa right? Was his whole heart twisted too far in the wrong direction to ever be healed? He tried to push her words out of his mind but it sat in his brain like a rock weighing down on his skull. "Fine." He managed to say. He was letting her destroy her own life. If only she knew that he was the real monster. "But Elsa, just know that…" He didn't really know what to say. "You aren't a monster. You have so much good in you. You are an amazing person and-." He was silence as her lips brushed against his. They touched him so lightly he could barely feel it.

"Thank you." She said when she pulled away. "Now let's do this. I'll go in first. Give me a fifteen minute head start before you go in."

They walked the rest of the way in silence and parted without saying goodbye.

Once Hans was alone, he let out the air that he had been holding inside for all that time. He fell to his knees in exhaustion, and allowed himself a few moments to pull himself together.

"Hey you." A voice said behind him. He looked and saw a familiar looking tall blonde man towering over him.

"Excuse me?" He asked, furrowing his brow.

"Are you a guard?" The man asked.

Hans shook his head slowly.

The stranger visibly relaxed. "Thank goodness."

"Hans of the Southern Isles." Hans extended a hand.

"Kristoff…" The man smiled and accepted the hand, shaking it enthusiastically. "Of the… Over there." He gestured to the vast white blur of snow that was the mountains. "I live in those mountains."

Hans suddenly fell forward as the force of something large and furry jammed into his back.

"Sven!" Kristoff cried. "Manners."

"So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Hans asked cordially.

"I came to rescue someone." Kristoff replied, gazing at the mouth of the cave. "That fire guy kidnapped the woman I… like. He took the woman I like."

Hans nodded understandingly. "I see. You do know that it's a suicide mission going in there, don't you?"

Kristoff bit his lip, looking down. "Yeah, I figured as much." He swallowed and readjusted his eyes to be staring straight at the frightening fog of smoke.

"Do you really think this woman would want you to put yourself in danger trying to save her?" Hans frowned, following Kristoff's gaze.

"Maybe." Kristoff shrugged and narrowed his eyes in determination. "But sometimes when you care about someone, you'll do whatever you have to in order to save them, even if it means going against their wishes."

-o-

Elsa ran her fingers along the intricately carved stone as darkness poured in around her. Her vision had completely disappeared when she entered the cave. She had expected to find something slightly more infernal, bursting with flames and lava, but had instead been surrounded by pitch black when she had slipped past the guard.

She almost tripped when she came to a staircase hidden in the darkness. She grabbed for a railing but found nothing but empty air. A vaguely smoky scent floated into her nose as she reached the last step and it was so hot that she thought she might double over and vomit.

The thought briefly occurred to her that there could be another reason that she was feeling nauseous that had nothing to do with the heat.

She shook her head and tried to stare straight ahead, but was once again caught off bow how blindingly dark it was. Her eyes had been unable to adjust and she shivered at the thought of Anna being dragged through this prison to her fate.

No, not her fate, Elsa decided. Her sister would be safe soon. Just as soon as Hans came in to rescue her, Anna would be safe. Everything would be fine. Well, not everything. Elsa knew that the likely hood that she herself would make it out of this alive was slim to none.

She squinted, hoping that perhaps she would be able to see what was lurking out of her line of vision. She didn't catch much considering that she couldn't make out anything that was more than a few inches in front of her nose.

She started to hear noises. They were soft at first, slight crackling sounds that fizzled and spat like fire. In fact, when she thought about it she realized that they probably were a hissing fire somewhere in the depths of the cave. Perhaps if she could find the source of the sound she would be able to find her nemesis. She closed her eyes again and focused, like she had back when she had felt the presence of the lair.

When she opened them, a small line of arrows that had been previously invisible spread across the floor, which she now saw was lined by skeleton heads. How creative, she thought sarcastically as she followed the pathway, though her hands started shaking. I've never heard of finding skeleton heads in a villain's secret lair before.

Humored a bit by her own joke, Elsa continued forward, her feet patting along the pathway, her stomach churning nervously with each step she took.

Suddenly she collided head first with a cold, hard stone wall. How was anything in this place cold? She peered around and saw to her horror, the same group of groaning people that she had seen sketched in molten writing on the rock. Her hand flew to her mouth and she struggled not to gasp. She squinted and managed to make out Anna, who looked strikingly unfazed by her captured state.

Her sister was chatting animatedly with the woman who was tied up next to her, and though her arms were bound in metal chains that completely constricted her movement Anna's face was lit up excitedly as she spoke.

Elsa sighed in relief at Anna's state. That was her mistake.

As if by magic, or actually by magic, a hand grasped her on her shoulder and yanked her downwards. She plummeted through the floor which seemed to drop out from underneath her without warning. A loud crash boomed in her ears as smoke and flames rose up around her and whomever it was that was pulling her towards the center of the earth.

With a crash, her body slammed against the ground, her head knocking against a rock. Everything went blurry for a moment, but she gritted her teeth and fought not to lose consciousness. When things started to come back into focus she saw him.

Aedan had completely transformed. His previously brown hair was now a charcoal black, his eyes had darkened into a deep scarlet color to match his robes which flew in swirls around his domineering figure.

Elsa swallowed down the bile which had risen in her throat. "Hello Aedan." She managed to say, though her whole body was now aching from the fall.

"Elsa, how lovely to see you." Aedan towered over her now crumpled body. "I didn't expect you to arrive so soon. Though I suppose Hans-."

"Don't you dare bring him into this." Elsa spat, still struggling to breathe.

Aedan chuckled and began pacing the floor. "Hans is an interesting case, I will say. But people like him, they always do what's in their best interest in the end. I always knew he'd turn."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm merely saying that there is more to that prince charming then meets the eye." Aedan smirked.

Elsa tried to lunge at him, but her body was so weak from the force of the ground and she still couldn't see completely straight.

"I must say, Your Majesty, that I admire your effort to hide your true form." Aedan produced a small flame in his hand that began to slowly grow as he spoke. "You've done an excellent job keeping your monstrous side from your sister and her husband." He paused for a moment, extinguishing the flame, and Elsa realized that this man knew everything about her.

"How do you-?" She started to ask.

"How do I know?" He cut her off. "I know because Hans is…" He paused and looked her up and down. "No, I'd rather save that bombshell for when I really need it." He grinned and turned away from her.

Elsa frowned in confusion. She honestly had no idea what Aedan was talking about.

"I can't say I blame him." He said. "You are an extremely attractive woman with many alluring features." He approached her, bending down and forcing her to make eye contact with him. "I might have done the same thing."

"Done what?"

"Don't act so innocent Elsa." Aedan deadpanned. He stood up, and nudged her gently with his foot. "Now, get up."

"I can't." Elsa said after trying quite hard. "Every part of my body is hurting."

"Oops." A smile touched the corners of his lips. "Here, let me help you." He extended a hand to her, which she watched cautiously.

"Why would you help me?"

"Because if you can't move, how will I fight and kill you?" Aedan's eyebrow rose slightly, as he made what he clearly thought was a joke.

"Why are you like this?" Elsa clutched her side and when she pulled her hand away she realized she was bleeding.

"It is true what Anmut said, I had been his friend since a very young age." Aedan began, his voice echoing off the walls. "I had a similar experience to yours with him actually. You know, accidently striking someone you care about with your powers."

Elsa's mouth fell open. "You hurt Anmut by accident when you were young?"

"Yes actually." Aedan continued. "My family took a similar approach to yours, locking me away in my bedroom for quite some time. Fear consumed me day in and day out. I was a scrawny little thing, very different then I am now. Everything I lost, I lost because of Anmut, and he didn't even realize the magnitude of what he had done. They erased his memories of my powers as well, you see."

"I was always told that fear was my enemy. For years I waited for my mother and father to remove the chains that bound my wrists and ankles and just let me be free. Finally, I decided I was done. I realized that the fear of others was not my enemy, but my friend. I could use fear to control people. I could evoke fear in the people I had once loved, and force them to give me something that was much more rewarding then love; power."

Elsa gulped, feeling a bit of pity for the man. "That's-."

"A complete lie." Aedan laughed. "Did you really buy that?"

Elsa didn't speak.

"I was never mistreated as a child. I lived a luxurious life filled and was spoiled sick. Unlike someone else I know, I hid my powers from the moment I was born. No one my family or my inner circle of friends even knew they existed. I have no heart wrenching backstory nor touching motivations for my wrong deeds." He ran his fingers through his black hair. "The reason I want to kill you is because there is only room enough on this planet for one strikingly powerful being. You presence on this earth is holding me back. Neither of us can live while the other survives."

Instead of taking his hand, which was still outstretched, Elsa pushed herself to her feet and found her face inches from his.

"My, you smell good." Aedan smiled. "Kiss me."

"What?" Elsa asked in alarm.

"Kiss me." Aedan said simply. "It's really not that difficult." He wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her face into his, jamming their lips together.

She squirmed, not succumbing to the passion of this monster. But he was unrelenting, pulling her body up around him and forcing himself onto her.

"Get off of me." She breathed as his tongue slithered into her mouth.

She felt her back hit the wall and realized what Aedan was trying to do.

She gripped his hair in her hands, feigning interest and starting to wrap her leg around him. As his lips moved to her neck and started progressing dangerously down her body, an icy dagger extender from her fingers and she poised herself to drive it straight through him.

But her hand waivered. She couldn't do it. She was unable to end his life.

Something changed in his expression and he reached up behind him and grabbed the dagger form her hand, snapping it in half.

"You thought I wouldn't feel the presence of magic, did you?" Aedan asked furry blazing in his eyes. "You know, for a moment I was considering not ending you but now… You've reminded me what a threat you are. I have no choice. I'll have to end both you and your sister."

Before he could say anymore, a block of ice shot out of the floor and threw Aedan across the room. He would have slammed into the wall if fire hadn't exploded from his feet, guiding him safely to the ground.

"Honestly, Elsa, I'm glad you made the first move. It just proves my theory that you are as bad as I am. It will make destroying you a lot easier." With that, a dark orange fire ball appeared in his hand that grew at an incredible speed until it was the size of her head. Flicking his wrist, he sent the ball flying towards her.

Her mind racing, Elsa conjured a wall of frost the melted upon contact with the fire. However, the water splashed quickly downwards, extinguishing the flame with ease.

Confusion and fear flashed for a moment over Aedan's face, but he quickly regained his confidence and sent another swift attack in her direction. This one was in the form of a fire blast that burst from his finger tips and streamed towards her.

She dodged the blow and raised her arms. Two icy hands sprouted from the ground behind Aedan and curled around him, restricting his movement completely. A gust of wind blew up from behind her, flying towards where Aedan was now rendered motionless.

Before the wind could reach him, however, the man's whole body turned bright red like metal over a fire, melting the ice away, and he whirled around the power he had collected in his muscles concentrating into a molten arrow the formed in his hand. He shook it and the back of the arrow exploded like a rocket and went zoom straight towards her.

She dropped her hands, which had been moving the wind, and attempted to conjure something to block the arrow, but it was too fast. It was headed straight towards her stomach. Her heart skipped a beat and time seemed to slow down for a moment as she realized the possibility of what being hit in the abdomen might mean. Not fully thinking, her hands flew in front of her midsection to protect it from the blast.

She felt the impact of the burning arrow hitting her hands with an immense force as she was thrown backwards against the wall behind her. As it pushed against her, her wrist hyperextended backwards and she screamed in excruciating pain as she felt the bone shatter. She used her last bit of strength to create a block of ice that blew the arrow away from her body. Her head slammed hard against the wall and she thought she might have broken her skull.

If she had thought she was in pain before it was nothing compared to this. Her vision was clouded by dark black spots. She blinked, attempting to get rid of them with no avail and saw that her hands were now scorched and burned, one of them limp from having been broken.

Aedan walked over to her. "I thought this would be more of a challenge." He mused, circling her slowly. "But then you went and did the stupid thing by shielding your middle with your hands. You do know that they are your source of power, right?"

Elsa just looked up at him, her aching neck barely able to stretch far enough to meet his gaze. She could feel involuntary tears rolling down her cheeks from the amount of pain she was in.

"I mean honestly, why in the name of god would you do that?" Aedan asked, genuinely annoyed. "You ruined all the fun. I mean sure getting hit in the stomach would have sucked but at least you still would have had some fight left in you. You are the first opponent I have ever been remotely close to being evenly matched against."

She gritted her teeth.

"There was absolutely no reason for you to-." Aedan stopped mid-sentence and narrowed his eyes. "Wait a second."

Elsa stared at him, unable to speak.

"The plot thickens." Aedan licked his lips and grinned. "You're pregnant aren't you?"

She didn't even have the strength to shake her head, she just bit her bottom lip and directed her eyes to the floor.

"This is an interesting twist." Aedan's face lit up. "I never thought the day would come when I would face a nemesis so powerful yet so vulnerable."

"Aedan-." Elsa tried to spit out the words but choked on her own saliva and fell into a coughing fit.

"I will say that the presence of another life at stake will make killing you slightly more difficult." Aedan admitted. "But it's nothing I can't handle. And when I'm done with you, I'll order the guards to behead your precious sister. Everything will go according to my plan."

"You said-."

"That I would free her if you turned yourself in?" Aedan finished for her. "Actually, I said that if you didn't turn yourself in, I would certainly kill her. I never said anything about sparing her if you did what I wanted." He explained. "See, that's just the thing, you fell right into my trap. And now you, your sister and your baby are all going to die because of your mistakes."

Suddenly, the wind around him started swirling in a circle. He cocked his head to one side for a moment, and the gust sped up until it was practically a tornado racing around him. He tried to create fire but the wind had knocked the oxygen out of him, making it impossible to form a flame.

She had taken away his source. He was suffocating, the color draining quickly from his face as he fought for air. Elsa managed to get to her feet, her balance wavering before she stood tall. Raising her hand, she allowed the wind to blow even stronger, watching as Aedan helplessly struggled to breathe and clutched his neck. Just as his eyes started to flutter shut a voice cried out from behind her.

"Elsa!"

Elsa whipped around to see Anna who was trembling, her mouth gaping in horror.

Thank you for the feedback on the last chapter. It really helped me with the decision making, though I honestly still haven't decided yet. The hardest thing about writing this chapter was accidentally mixing up Aedan and Anmut's names. lol. Anmut may or may not be in the next chapter. I dunno, we'll see. I am sort of winging it at this point.

I have set up so much stuff and now I have to resolve all of the problems I have created.