Every Sunday, Arendelle chapel was crammed full of palace staff and their families wearing horrendously uncomfortable dress clothes and doing their best to look like they were listening to the sermon. Luckily, today was Tuesday, so the chapel was empty and therefore not a prime target for snowman attacks.

"You should be safe in here." Elsa ushered the Archbishop and High Priest inside, then turned for the door. "I need to go. Let's pray nobody's been hurt yet."

"My lady, if I may, why would your snowmen attack like this?" asked the Archbishop. "Do they not obey their creator's commands?"

"They have free will," said Elsa. "I can't stop them from attacking people. I just don't understand why they'd want to. They've always been so blissfully happy with their lives."

"Come now," said a voice, "is that really what you think of your own creations?"

The trio jolted away from the door as it burst open. Apparently, they'd been followed. Nearly every snowman was there – the Mini-Marshmallows, the snowbirds – but only three of them caught Elsa's attention. The first was Marshmallow, who was carrying a struggling Anna in his arms. The second was Mary, who was calmly marching at the head of the mob. And the third was a tall, bulky snowman standing proudly at Mary's side. Elsa had never seen him before, and yet something about his detailed, humanoid face seemed familiar.

Elsa took another look at Mary. Seeing any of her snowmen acting feral disturbed Elsa, but somehow Mary was the worst. Her face was a cold stare, her snow-hair was loose and wild, and she wore no dress, heels, or glasses. The sexless nudity made Mary more alien than ever.

"Anna! Mary!" Elsa's first impulse was to run towards them, but with those icicle-claws at Anna's throat, she found herself hesitating.

"Don't worry, I'm okay!" Anna yelled back as she made another futile attempt to squirm out of Marshmallow's grip. "Hurry up and bust out your powers!"

Before Elsa could raise her arms, the lead snowman said, "Let's not by hasty, Elsa. Are you sure your magic can move faster than my brother's claws?" As he spoke, Marshmallow held his icicles closer to Anna's neck.

Elsa was shaking. "If you lay one finger on her-"

"Your sister's not the only one," continued the snowman. "We have her boyfriend hostage in another room. I control my siblings with my mind. Try to use your powers to freeze us, erase us, or alter our minds, and I'll give them the mental command to kill him. Do you think your magic moves faster than thought? Is that a risk you're willing to take?"

Elsa scowled, but she reluctantly lowered her arms.

"Where's Kristoff?" demanded Anna. "What did you do with him?"

"Don't worry, princess. So long as your sister cooperates, he'll remain unharmed. I have my most elite snowmen guarding him."

"Mwah ha ha ha ha! The shoe's on the other foot now, mortal!"

Olaf burst into yet another fit of maniacal laughter. Sven and Kristoff locked eyes, both of them wearing identical "How did my life come to this?" facial expressions. Kristoff was currently trapped inside the pen alongside his reindeer, while a handful of snowmen stood guard around the stable. Olaf was a smidge more threatening when he had bigger, pointier snowmen backing him up.

"Soon the snowman empire will rise, and you pathetic meatbags will meet your doom!" Olaf cackled, waving his six arms around.

"Olaf, listen to yourself!" pleaded Kristoff. "This isn't you! Something's happened to your head-"

"Silence, human worm!" Olaf brandished his twig-arms, all of which had been sharpened to a point. "One more word out of you, and you get a warm hug!"

Kristoff backed away, huddling closer to Sven. "Okay, okay, sheesh..."

By now, the snowmen had driven Elsa and the cultists back against the chapel's far wall. There were dozens of them spilling over the pews, and they seemed to be flocking around the unfamiliar snowman as if he was the alpha.

"Who are you?" asked Elsa.

The snowman chuckled. "You don't recognize me, Elsa? You're the one who made me who I am today. You opened my mind so you could mold it to your liking, but you never closed it back. All it took was one little nightmare, and now look what I've become – all your worst fears, all your nagging doubts about your snowmen, brought to life."

The realization crossed Elsa's eyes. "Sussebassen?"

"No." He stepped towards her. "I'm not your Sussebassen anymore. I'm Frankenstein, and I want you to make me my bride."

"Actually," said Anna, "Frankenstein was the scien- Agh!" A growl from Marshmallow shut her up.

"So this happened because I altered your mind?" said Elsa. "But how are you controlling the other snowmen?"

"Your other snowmen are empty, weak-willed creatures," said Sussebassen. "Of all the minds linked by your magic, only two are strong enough to resist my influence. You are strong enough to resist me-" He nodded to Elsa. "-and she is smart enough to join me." He nodded to Mary.

"No." Elsa gaped at Mary. "She wouldn't side with you!"

Mary stayed silent, her eyes fixed on the far wall.

"You had your chance with Mary," snarled Sussebassen. "We are the only two of our kind – the only snowmen intelligent enough to question our existence. I'll give Mary everything you've denied her. Think about all you could do with your snowmen, Elsa. We're born from imagination, and imagination has no limits. Why stop at giving us human senses? You could make us into gods."

"You're insane." Elsa clenched her fists. "My magic's not that powerful."

"We'll see." Sussebassen motioned to Marshmallow, who began lightly dragging the tips of his claws against Anna's neck.

"Don't." The sharpness in Elsa's voice made Marshmallow pause. "What are you hoping to achieve?" She brought her eyes to Mary's. "Do you really think this will make you happy? Do you think it'll give you a purpose?"

"It will give us purpose." Sussebassen placed himself in front of his partner. "Mary and I will rule this planet. We'll build a world where snowmen belong, where they'll never be abandoned or forgotten again."

"I see." Elsa shut her eyes. For a moment, the church was silent. Then a cold wind swept through the pews. "How about an alternate proposition? You release Anna and Kristoff now. If you kill them, you'll have nothing else to threaten me with, and then I promise I will erase every last snowman and never make one again. You can either surrender or wipe out your entire race."

Sussebassen raised a snowy eyebrow. "You would let your loved ones die to spite us?"

"What choice do I have?" spat Elsa. "If I do what you say, I'll be risking a lot more than just two lives."

"How selfless of you."

There was a tense silence.

"Well, I don't know about you guys," the High Priest said brightly, placing himself between Elsa and the army, "but I, for one, welcome our new snowman overlords."

"What? How dare you?" snapped the Archbishop, drawing closer to Elsa. "You would blaspheme the Snow Goddess by siding with her enemies?"

"Sorry, pal," shrugged the priest. "These snowmen are just as magical as their creator. That makes them gods, too, and Pagania always sides with the toughest gods." He turned to Sussebassen. "Hear that, my lord? There's a whole nation of loyal followers waiting to treat your people like the gods they are. Sound good?"

A smile twisted onto Sussebassen's icy lips. "Finally, some humans who know their place."

"The people of Pagania won't turn on their goddess!" said the Archbishop.

"You sure about that?" smirked the High Priest. "Something tells me these new gods will be a little more willing to attack the Clovisians for us."

"Heathen!"

"I prefer 'pragmatist.'"

While the two of them squabbled, Anna caught Elsa's eye. She pointed with her pupils towards Sussebassen, who was busy watching the cultists, then mouthed, "Get ready."

Suddenly, Anna turned to her captor and yelled, "Look behind you, a three-headed reindeer!"

"Hrm?" Marshmallow impulsively spun around.

Not a second later, a wave of icy magic was shooting out Elsa's fingertips and towards the snowmen. Unfortunately, the next second, the magic halted in its tracks, then snapped towards the High Priest. Every last drop was sucked into the seven-pointed star amulet around his neck, which started glowing bright white.

"What on earth-?" The entire room gaped at him. Even Sussebassen lost his composure.

"Oh, don't look so surprised." The High Priest was grinning from ear to ear. "You really think I'd lead a magic-worshipping nation without keeping some magic of my own up my sleeve?"

"You've been hiding magic all these years?" The Archbishop was staring at the amulet like he couldn't believe his eyes.

The High Priest brought his palm to the pendant. "Lemme give you a history lesson you won't find in any textbooks. Once upon a time, there was a powerful sorcerer who founded a country to worship him as a god. But he couldn't live forever, so he crafted an amulet that would let his descendents control magic as strong as his own. This little beauty's been passed down through the generations from high priest to high priest, from father to son, from my dear old pops to me."

"An enchanted amulet?" frowned Sussebassen. "What does it do?"

"Oh, nothing much," said the priest. "It just channels magic – moves it around, so to speak. Basically, whoever controls the amulet controls any magic it comes into contact with."

The Archbishop was horror-striken. "You're saying the high priests have been controlling Pagania's gods for generations?"

"I'm afraid so, bishop-boy. We've kinda kept it from the public – It'd be pretty bad PR."

Sussebassen's eyes narrowed. "And are you planning on using it on me?"

"No, no, of course not, my lord," the priest said soothingly. "I'm planning to use it on her." He pointed to Elsa, who scowled. "I was gonna wait until I caught her alone, but there hasn't really been a good time until now. Once the amulet works its charm, I'll be the one holding the Snow Goddess's power. You won't have to worry about keeping hostages. And it gets better. Once we have the Snow Goddess's magic for ourselves, you snowmen won't be tied to her mind anymore. You'll be able to keep on ruling the world even after she's kicked the bucket."

Sussebassen's anger gave way to a grin. "I like the sound of that."

"Of course, if I wanted to, I could use it against you," the High Priest added, examining his own fingernails. "Since you snowmen are beings of pure magic, the amulet would rip you apart and convert you to energy... but I'm sure you'll give me no reason to do that, right, buddy?"

The snowman's only reply was a snort.

"Think about what you're doing," said Elsa, taking a step backwards. "I can't have the only powerful magic in the world. If you use my magic to attack Clovisia, its army could seek out sorcerers of its own. You could start the most destructive war in history!"

"Nah, if there's anyone else like you, the amulet will get them, too." The High Priest held up the pendant. "Now hold still."

"Wait!" The thought of begging made her sick at her stomach, but Elsa was running out of options. "The Paganians are supposed to love magic. Please, if you have any respect for it, don't do this!"

"Sorry, toots," smirked the priest. "That's the thing about my religion – I worship magic, not the fleshy container the magic's stuck in. Don't think of this as me killing you. Think of it more like me freeing the Snow Goddess from her mortal prison."

Every exit was blocked by a snowman. So, with Elsa's powers neutralized by that trinket, that left the score as a couple dozen gigantic snow-monsters versus one scrawny woman and an elderly man. Elsa shared one last terrified look with Anna, then clenched her eyes shut. Any second now, she expected to hear the sound of magic crackling.

She hadn't expected to hear the High Priest shriek in pain.

Elsa's eyes shot open to discover an icicle-arm sticking in the priest's side. She found herself watching, paralyzed with shock, as Mary wrestled the amulet from him with her other, non-icicle hand, and then gave the priest a swift kick to the groin. He tumbled to the floor, making noises not unlike a prepubescent girl.

"Excellent work, my beloved." Sussebassen started to walk towards Mary, but she pulled away.

"You told me we were only bluffing with the hostages," she said tightly. "You promised no one would be killed."

"And I meant every word of it," Sussebassen said without skipping a beat. "It was that human who tried to kill Elsa. I was simply playing along until we had a chance to disarm him, which you've done beautifully. Don't you see how corrupt these humans are? We can make this world better."

"No! This is pointless!" snapped Mary. "Elsa's never going to cave in to our demands! Not unless we use the amulet on her!"

Sussebassen threw up his hands innocently. "You're the one holding it, Mary. The decision is yours to make."

Mary glanced down at the amulet, as if she'd just remembered it was there, then clutched it to her chest. "If we steal Elsa's magic with this thing... what will happen to her, exactly?"

"Grand Pabbie said my magic can't be removed without hurting me," said Elsa.

"I... I..." Slowly, reluctantly, Mary's icy eyes drifted towards Elsa's. Elsa simply gave her a sad stare. "I don't know what to do. Can't... Can't I just have everyone? Can't I be happy without having to sacrifice anything?"

She looked to Sussebassen.

"You don't owe your creator anything," he said. "She's deprived you of your happiness and purpose. Whatever you choose, I won't allow you to lead a pitiful, meaningless existence. I love you too much."

Next, Mary looked to Elsa. All Elsa said was, "I love you, Mary. I've made mistakes – God, I've made mistakes – but I love you, and nothing you do can change that." She shut her eyes once again.

For a solid minute, Mary stood motionless in the center of the chapel, the army of snowmen eying her curiously. Finally, she said, her voice barely audible, "Let the snowmen's minds go, Sussebassen. Call off this attack."

"You're joking," said Sussebassen.

Mary's brow creased. "Elsa's not going to make us omnipotent like you want. Threatening violence is only going to make the humans hate us even more."

"What difference does it make? They'll hate us no matter what. You of all people know that."

Now Mary's brow was quivering. "This is pointless. Let's try and make amends while we still can."

"Amends?" repeated Sussebassen. "There are no amends to make, Mary. You want to give up now and return to sitting in your room all day, wandering the halls at night, reveling in your own pointlessness? Unacceptable." He took a lumbering step towards her. "I'll wipe every last human off the face of the earth before I let you-"

That, apparently, was all the answer Mary needed. Her icicle-arm slammed into Sussebassen's chest, fracturing it. Sussebassen howled with rage and swiped his massive arms, but before they could make contact, the amulet glowed white again. He let out a feral shriek as his hands dissolved into snowflakes.

"What are you doing?" Sussebassen screamed. "What are you doing?"

"No more." Mary's eyes were watering. "No more."

"W-Why?" As the tips of his arms began to dissolve, Sussebassen's screaming stopped, and a quiet acceptance seemed to wash over him.

"I'm sorry," Mary said faintly. "I had to do it. What you're doing... it's wrong. You didn't give me a choice."

"All I ever did was give you a choice." Sussebassen's legs and shoulders were starting to go, too. "I gave you the chance to free yourself from your creator. Are you really such a slave to your programming that you're blindly loyal to her? These people don't love you like I do – not Fritz, not Elsa, no one. You're nothing but a freak to them. Need I remind you what the crippled man did? Will he never pay for his crimes?"

Mary shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Not anymore."

Sussebassen turned to Marshmallow and yelled, "Kill her! Kill the princess!" Marshmallow, however, was busy gently depositing Anna on the chapel carpet and giving her an apologetic pat on the head.

"You can't control their minds anymore," said Mary. "The amulet is absorbing all magic, including your mental commands."

"How... How could you?" By now, Sussebassen's body was dwindling, hardly larger than a rabbit's. "I loved you. I was... the only one... who..."

In fact, Sussebassen wasn't merely the size of a rabbit. He was becoming increasingly rabbit-like. He might have even had a big pair of ears, but before Elsa could get a good look, Sussebassen was gone. Every last man, woman, and snowman stared at the empty space where he'd been a mere second ago. There was a long silence.

"Alright!" cheered Anna. "Mary saved us! See, I knew she wouldn't really side with that-" But she was cut off by a cry of horror. Anna's head shot towards Elsa, who was running to Mary's side.

"Mary, drop it!"

"Don't come any closer!"

At Mary's warning, Elsa halted several feet from her. Mary tried to hurl the amulet away, but it simply flew back like a boomerang and hovered in the air by Mary's head. Her fingertips had already dissolved into snowflakes where they'd touched it, and the rest of Mary's hands were quickly following suit.

"I-I can't stop it," she said feebly.

"Mary! Hang in there! I got you!" Being the non-magical half of the family, Anna could run to Mary's side without becoming amulet-chow. She tried to yank the amulet away, but it was like there was an invisible tether.

Not a moment later, Elsa had an icicle to the High Priest's throat. "How do you turn off your amulet?"

"I can't!" squeaked the priest. "Once it gets a taste of some magic, it doesn't stop until it's done eating." As if to prove his point, a couple of the dimmer snowmen tired to run to Mary's aid and were instantly sucked into the pendant's white light.

"So the amulet's erasing that snowwoman?" said the Archbishop. "Can't the Snow Goddess simply recreate her with magic?"

"Well, it's not erasing the snowwoman, technically," said the High Priest. "It's turning her into raw magical energy bound to the amulet. The snowwoman won't be erased, per se – she just won't be alive anymore. And if the queen tries to recreate her, she'll be freeing the snowwoman's essence from the amulet, which would make it suck up her magic instead."

"Instead?" repeated Elsa.

"Yeah, well, you got off pretty lucky if you ask me," the priest grumbled. "It's just some snowman. Who cares what happens to it?"

But Elsa barely heard the words. She was too busy watching, pulse pounding, as her imaginary friend, her creation, her- her Mary grew smaller and smaller.

It didn't feel that different from melting, really. Everything was happening so fast, and yet, Mary was calm. The calmest she'd ever been in her life. Around her, however, the room was in chaos. The various snowmen and snowbirds were backing away, horrified of sharing Mary's fate, while Anna struggled hopelessly with the amulet as if she could stop the magic with her bare hands. Across the room, the bishop was watching Mary solemnly while the priest was preoccupied with the nasty stab wound Mary had given him. And Elsa, lastly, was petrified, her breath caught in her throat, her eyes unblinking.

Mary gave her a reassuring smile. "It's alright, Elsa. Everything's going to be alright. This is my fault. I- Agh!" She tumbled to the carpet as everything below the knees dissolved into snowflakes. "I should never have listened to Sussebassen. I deserve this. I wanted to hurt you just to make myself happier."

"No," said Elsa. It sounded more like a gasp for air than a word. "No, no, no-"

"I was so wrong... You being happy is... is all I ever really... needed..." Now Mary's torso was going, too. And her hair. And bits of her face.

"I can rebuild you." Elsa impulsively threw out her hands, readying her magic. "I can rebuild you. I can-"

Mary shook her head. "You can't free me from the amulet. Not without trapping yourself. It's the way it has to be. Really, this is-" Mary tried to laugh. She failed. "-this is what I wanted, isn't it? I saved you. My life finally has some... meaning."

Mary looked from Elsa, who still seemed in a daze, to Anna, who'd given up with the amulet and was now doing her best not to cry. Mary was glad they were here. She only wished Fritz could've been here, too, so Mary could tell him how sorry she was. And Olaf. And Kristoff and Sven and, heck, even Anders. She missed them. And Mary wished she'd finished learning how to play chess. Now that she thought about it, she'd have liked to get really good at it so she could actually beat Anna. And the book she'd been reading. Mary had never finished it. She'd never know how it ended. And- And-

Once again, Mary was reduced to nothing but an eyeball, with maybe the last fleeting remains of a mouth hovering in the storm of snowflakes.

Music. Mary had only ever heard music once in her life. That wasn't fair. It wasn't fair! It wasn't... It wasn't...

The revelation seemed obvious in hindsight, yet the surprise hit Mary so hard that she blurted it out: "I want to live." It started as a statement. "I want to live." Then it became a whimper. "I want to live." Then a plea. "I want to live."

Mary didn't realize what she was saying until the magic hit her.

"Wha-?" The next thing she knew, Mary was lying face-up on the carpet, several feet away from where she'd been standing. And, even more disorienting, she could feel the snowflakes packing back onto her, repairing her body. Mary flexed her fingers just to make sure she wasn't imagining things. She turned her head to discover that the other snowmen the amulet had zapped were sitting beside her, except, fortunately, Sussebassen. For an irrational moment, Mary felt relief. Then she connected the dots.

"Elsa!"

"Snow Goddess!"

Anna, Mary, and the Archbishop all cried out in horror, but it was too late. The amulet was already hurtling through the air. It came to a stop above Elsa's face, where it began crackling and glowing even brighter than before.

"Elsa?" Mary's insides felt like one big cavity. "Did you just...?"

Now Elsa was the one giving Mary the reassuring smile. "I never could say no to you."

"Elsa, no, no, no, don't do this!" Anna immediately threw her arms around her sister, but the magic simply passed straight through Anna and into the amulet. A lightshow of glowing blue snowflakes poured from every pore of Elsa's body, and the brighter the amulet glowed, the darker Elsa's hair grew, the duller her eyes grew, and the less pale her skin grew.

Suddenly, the amulet went dim and fell to the ground. Most of the people and/or snowmen present, however, were too preoccupied with Elsa falling unconscious to notice this.

While Anna sobbed and cradled her sister, the Archbishop touched his fingers to Elsa's wrist. "She has a pulse."

"But her magic's gone." Mary ran her hand through Elsa's hair, which was now a dull brown. Elsa's skin, likewise, had gained a peachiness that would've looked much healthier for anyone without magical winter powers.

"The amulet!" Anna made the realization a second too late. The group turned around to find the High Priest standing in the center of the chapel, a smug grin on his face and the seven-pointed star amulet in his grubby hands.

"Booyah!" the High Priest cheered, heaving it above his head. The snowman army looked like they'd like to tear him a new one, but they weren't anxious to become the amulet's next meal. "I did it! I freed the Snow Goddess!"

"You're a madman!" yelled the Archbishop. "The Snow Goddess was born with that magic! Stealing it from her goes against everything our religion teaches!"

"Who's stealing?" smirked the priest. "I told you, all I'm doing is freeing the Snow Goddess from her mortal prison. And now Pagania will have a real goddess on its side. Those Clovisians will never know what hit 'em!"

"Elsa's not a goddess, you nutjob!" yelled Anna. "She's a just regular person with magic!"

"Is that so?" The High Priest let loose a hearty laugh. "Why don't you see for yourself?" He returned the pendant to his neck. "Take a good look at the Snow Goddess's true form!"

The group huddled together in fear as the amulet glowed brighter. A freezing wind swept through the room, followed by a blinding flurry of snow. Barely audible over the blizzard was the High Priest's chanting:

"Id agat, id agat,

Sum una cum vento et caelo.

Id agat, id agat,

Non videbis fluentem."

For a moment, nothing happened. Then a swarm of snowflakes descended into the room, taking on a distinct and distressingly familiar humanoid, womanly shape...

Author's Note: Okay, after searching through half a dozen "Latin Let It Go" videos on Youtube, I think I found the person I stole- err, borrowed the Latin from back in chapter 6. It's from a video called "Id Agat" by VoxSolita. I used theirs because it seems to be the most literal translation of Let It Go into Latin I could find (A lot of other versions changed the meaning of the lyrics and stuff, which would've made the joke here too confusing). So, uh, given I've taken eight lines now instead of just four, I should probably give this person a heads up. As I always say, better to ask for forgiveness than permission.