Chapter 20

Intrusion of Castle and Mind

Everyone was outside the courtroom, ready to put there plan to rescue Elsa and Kira and stop Lars into action. Gideon and Anders were busy putting down last minute preparations in getting an attack plan down when the storm ceases. Kristoff and Jase were busy putting together any supplies they would need; swords, knives, rope, bows, and the like. Anna was sitting by, trying to get some last minute warmth in before they went in. Olaf brought Gunnolf and Marshmallow, both waiting anxiously to beat up some pirates.

Much to Isaac's disapproval, he could not come along, there only being 7 capsules.

"I don't feel right waiting this one out. The man responsible for Craig's death and is holding Elsa captive is in there and I'm not there with you to catch him. Are you sure we can't fit two people in those things?"

"Sorry buddy, doesn't work like that."

Isaac looked down, not pleased about this. His best friend, his brother, his last brother for that matter, was going to where he might not return, and he wouldn't be there to have his back.

"Just, be careful, OK? If I have to tell your mom that you died and I wasn't there with you, I'll never forgive you!"

"Hey, your talking to the man who survived having his brain froze by Gregor. I think I can handle it."

"Yeah yeah, keep playing that card, see if it helps!" he joked. Jase smiled, slightly. The smile slowly faded to a frown when he thought about Elsa, trapped in there. "You'll get here out" said Isaac, reading his friend's thoughts. "Just don't do anything reckless, got it?"

Jase nodded. "Sure bud."

"Alright, is everyone ready?" asked Gideon, dressed in light battle armor, not too much to catch attention.

"Ready" said Jase.

"Ready" said Kristoff.

"I was born ready!" exclaimed Anna.

Gunnolf and Marshmallow just growled, indicating they were ready. Anders walked around, passing out the capsules.

"Alright, you all know what to do. Let's do this. On the count of three... One, two, three..."

Everyone crushed there capsule.

"East courtyard of Berglian castle!" they said in unison. In a series of poofs, they were gone.

Elsa sat in her cell, not knowing what to do. She could feel dizzy, her mind slipping.

"The elixir" she thought. Immediately, she sat up, walking up and down the cell, hoping to fight it off. She found it hard to balance, the room spilling, the shapes and colors of the cell twisting and contorting. She was finding it hard to stand up as she leaned against the wall. As the room continued to spin, she found herself collapsing to the floor, seemingly in slow motion. She was fading in and out of consciousness as images and shapes started forming in her mind. Suddenly, she hear laughing. Suddenly, a grand room began to form around her. There was snow on the ground, and two little girls were playing.

"Hold on!" said a little girl's voice excitingly.

Elsa flinched as she saw her much younger self play with little Anna, shooting out magic for her to jump on.

"Catch me!" cried Anna excitingly, jumping from snow drift to snow drift as little Elsa made them. At first Elsa smiled at the memory, seeing them so happy. Then, she frowned, knowing what happened next.

"Wait!" called little Elsa.

Immediately, Elsa moved, trying to stop the disaster, to catch Anna, only to realize they were mere memories, ghosts of her past as Anna phased through her. Anna screamed in delight as little Elsa slipped on her ice, falling back.

"Anna!" little Elsa screamed as she shot out ice to try and catch her.

"No!" screamed Elsa, unable to change the outcome of this memory. She watched as Anna was hit with the magic, falling to the floor below. Immediately, little Elsa ran to her sister, picking her up in her arms as her a streak of her hair turned white. Little Elsa began holding her close, calling out for her parents, the whole room icing over in her panic.

Elsa stood there, reliving one of the worse nightmares of her life. She watched as her parents burst through the doors.

"Elsa, what have you done? This is getting out of hand!" Yelled her father as they ran forward. Elsa watched him more carefully this time as Idun picked up Anna.

"She's ice cold!"

"I know where we have to go!"

Elsa watched as her father left the room to find the book. Elsa now knew the history behind the book, where her father got the map, the fear that was already planted by Lars. She watched as he returned, picking up Elsa as they left to the stables. He picked her up as she cried, not knowing what was going to happen to Anna. Did he love her? Or was he just putting on a show for his family. This time, she knew what was going through his head. She was nauseous at the thought.

"Elsa?"

She heard a familiar voice. The room transformed once again, this time turning into one of the more familiar hallways in the castle. Then, she saw her. It was Anna, older Anna, dressed in black, knocking at the door to her room. The look on her face broke Elsa inside.

"Anna?" she asked, but Anna couldn't see nor hear her.

"...please, I know you're in there..."

Elsa remembered this tune.

"...people are asking where you've been..."

She remembered this day all too well. The day Anna needed her the most, and she wasn't there. When Anna's whole world fell apart, and all she had was her estranged sister, whom she hadn't seen much in so long.

"...They say have courage, and I'm trying to, I'm right out here for you, just let me in..."

Elsa walked up to the shadow of her past, wishing she could change it.

"...We only have each other, just you and me, what are we going to do?..."

As Anna slid down, Elsa did likewise, sliding down next to her sister.

"...Do you want to build a snowman?"

Elsa tried to hug her, to comfort her, but she just phased through the shadow, leaving Anna alone, nothing changing. Elsa remembered what she experienced on the other side of the door days later, the depression, her detachments, the mistake she almost made*. Elsa watched sadly as Anna cried away, alone. She felt stupid for not thinking she could reach out to her, guilty for diving into her self pity while Anna mourned alone.

Around her, the room changed again, everything swirling until she found herself before herself in her ice palace. She was loosing control as Anna tried to help her, but she just tried shutting it out.

"...I caaannn't!..." she sang, the magic leaving her in a wave, striking Anna in the heart. Elsa put her hand to her mouth, for she never did see the strike hit Anna, her back being turned. She gasped as Anna fell to her knees, followed by a gasp from her past self.

In another instance, she found herself in a familiar cave, Anna held captive, while she herself was thawing Gregor from his prison.

"Stop it!" she called out, trying to stop the visions.

In another instant, she was striking Anna with a pillar of ice while she was under the influence of the dark mirror, reliving the horror her sister experienced and the malice on her own face.

She was attacking her friends as evil Elsa in her ice palace, sending her friends and family running for cover.

"Stop it!"

Elsa was cowering in the corner of her bed, with brown hair on her head as Anna tried to comfort her when she lost her powers.

"Stop!"

Elsa finished telling a heartbroken Jase, ring in his pocket, that it was over.

Elsa's powers were redirected, striking Anna in the heart, not more than a few hours ago.

"No!"

That was it, in the course of a few minutes, she relived some of her worse memories; times of failure, and weakness.

Then she heard it, a faint, clicking noise, like boots stepping across ice. She turned around, seeing a figure take shape. He was tall, handsome, displaying the posture of a nobleman. Then Elsa saw his face, which was anything but noble.

"Wow, you really are a screw-up aren't you?" said the Prince of the Southern Isles.

"Hans!" Elsa snapped.

Outside in the east courtyard was quiet. No one has been to this isolated place in the palace for days, and there was no need to. It was used to store carriages and other equipment that would otherwise be stored outside. It was well inside the castle walls, so securing it was unnecessary. That is, unless you can teleport between two points in an instant.

seven puffs of smoke appeared, with Kristoff, Anna, Jase, Gunnolf, Marshmallow, and Anders appear from them. Not used to the experience of moving from one place to the other, they were dizzy at first, stumbling on there feet.

"Whoa, alright, that was..." Anna covered her mouth, nearly throwing up from nausea.

Jase was leaning against a tree, the world spinning around them leaning against a tree for balance. "I'm never doing that again!"

Being made of snow and having no biological attributes that would leave them sick, Marshmallow and Gunnolf stood there, confused by there friends behavior.

"Are you guys OK?" asked Marshmallow.

"No problem big guy!" said Kristoff. "Just give us a second.."

After a few seconds, Kristoff was the first to recover. Traveling up and down high altitudes on a regular bases apparently made him resistant to the experience for changing locations in an instant. He looked at the castle before them. It was still dark out, and morning was no more than a few hours away. "Is everyone ready?" he asked, helping Anna to lean up. Suddenly, she was over taken with a violent shiver, forcing him to hold her up. Another portion of her hair turned white, to his horror.

"Anna!" he exclaimed, trying to hold her up. After a few seconds to get her bearings back, Anna was able to stand under her own weight again.

"I'm good" she said. "I mean, I could be better, but, yeah, let's do this."

"Alright" said Anders. "We'll take you as close to the dungeons as we can before we have to split up."

Kristoff nodded, then looked to Marshmallow. "OK buddy, you're with us, Gunnolf, go with Gideon and Anders to free Kira."

Both the snow giant and wolf nodded in agreement.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Elsa backed away as Hans came near.

"No, you're, you're dead! You died!"

"Please, Elsa" Hans snickered. "I'm as real as you imagine me to be. I nearly had you three time, surely I'm a permanent resident of your subconscious by now?"

"No! You don't belong here! Get out!"

The shadow of Hans memory didn't budge. "Look at you, still the frightened young women I met at your coronation."

"No! Just..." she hesitated. "Get out of my head, you're not real!"

"Am I not real either?" asked Another voice. Elsa turned, seeing another figure appear, much shorted than Hans, with a distinct mustache. It was the Duke of Weselton.

"Look what your sorcery has brought upon us!" he snarled. "There was no such threats to our society before you showed up!"

"I did nothing to insight any of this!" defended Elsa.

"You didn't have too, trouble just follows you wherever you go!"

"Just look around" said another voice. Elsa turned, seeing Gregor, the Ice King, materialize before her eyes. "It was you yourself who freed me, a threat to your people."

"I had no choice then" Elsa said harshly. "You held my sister hostage!"

"That's pretty much a theme with you, isn't it?" asked another voice. It was feminine this time, and strangely, eerily familiar. Elsa turned, seeing herself approach her. It was her doppelganger, the evil version of herself that manifested when she was infected with the Dark Mirror. Her hair was spiky, her dress bearing that high collar. "How many times have you hurt her now? I believe you're on number 4?"

Elsa had no reply.

"What's the matter Elsa?" asked Hans. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Look at her!" added Gregor. "She lets something, anything get under her skin, and she falls apart."

"Wouldn't father be so disappointed!" snickered evil Elsa.

Elsa turned to glare at her, but only hurt came from her eyes. She had no defense as her defenses faltered.

"Your own father didn't want you, what a pitiful excuse for a queen" said the Duke.

"It still baffles me how someone with so much power can be so, fragile" said Gregor.

Her former enemies began closing in on her, instilling panic in her.

"There she goes again, a little intimidation, and she looses control" said Hans. "Perhaps her father should have just gotten rid of her."

"Stand back!" Elsa snapped.

"Why?" asked Gregor. "What do we have to be afraid off? You? Of such an easily broken creature?"

"She can't even commit to marriage! How can something so easy for nearly every woman on the planet be so hard for you, the most powerful woman on earth?" asked Evil Elsa as they closed in on her.

"No! I'm not weak!" Elsa cried out.

"Really?" asked Hans. "We're not even real, and yet you cower from us!"

Elsa hunched over, trying to drown out the voices as they inched closer to her. Elsa tried to run away, making a bee line through her former enemies, but one by one, they would re-materialize in front of her.

"Where are you going?" said Hans as he popped up in front of her. Elsa immediately changed directions.

"What's the matter? Scared of a little commitment? Ha Ha!" mocked evil Elsa, again blocking her path. Elsa ran blind, not knowing where to go in this shapeless void.

"Weak!" said the Duke.

"Unwanted!" said Hans.

"Fragile!" said Gregor.

Somehow, Elsa ran into a wall made of ice. She turned, only to find two more walls on either side, with her enemies quickly closing in on her, trapping her.

"No! Leave me alone!" Elsa cried, falling to the floor, panic taking over.

"Uh oh, carful, she might freeze somebody!" mocked the Duke.

They begin laughing, closing in as Elsa crouched down, trying to shield herself. Every once of dignity left her as the elixir further poisoned her mind. She felt her will, her dignity, her bravery and confidence leave her as she descended into panic. Her enemies, taking on more shadowy, menacing forms, closed in around her. She thought for sure she was going to loose her sanity...

Then, in one instant, there was a bright, comforting light flashing out between Elsa and her tormentors.

"ENOUGH!" cried a loud, familiar voice. Immediately, the shadows regained there shapes, cowering back as the light took on a humanoid shape.

"Depart from us darkness! Be-gone!" cried the feminine voice, familiar to Elsa, but to bright for her to make out a face. Elsa's former enemies stood there, not daring to come further as the figure grew brighter. Then, one by one, the faded into nothingness, back to the harmless memories they once were. Elsa cowered there, afraid to look up. She honestly didn't know what to expect, and she was afraid to look up. She felt her mind continue to slip, the properties of the elixir taking its toll. Then, the bright figure dimmed down, to a point she was recognizable. She extended her hand down to Elsa, moving slowly as to not startle her.

"Take my hand, Elsa" she said in a warm, comforting voice. "I can help you fight this, but you must take my hand." Slowly, Elsa looked up. She immediately recognized the friendly face.

"Joan?"

The angel smiled, keeping her hand extended. "Come, I need to show you something." With the slightest hesitation, Elsa took her hand...

* For more insight into this, read chapter 3 of my Frozen One Shot Series (Warning, it is pretty angsty)

I was going to leave it just before Joan showed up, but then I thought, I already did enough to you guys the last major cliffhanger I put, I figured I should leave you on a happy note.

Wanli8970: Just curious, what is your story with these OC's you keep describing?

Thanks for all of you for reviewing!

-Batman