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Okay, I'll let you guys move onto the story now:)
Chapter 20! YAY!
More to come hopefully very soon!

-birdywings

20

One With The Storm

Elsa

"If you can't escape the fear, then you must embrace it."

My body tenses at the voice, the icy hollowness in it sending a chill through my body while its words travel in the air, the wind whispering them in my ears, sending them to echo off the walls of my head.
There is something about it. Something familiar about its cool emptiness that I am certain I have heard before, but from where I cannot recall.

My hands begin to tremble within Jack's palms, our fingers still interlaced with one another even as we slowly swivel to face the source of the voice with his arms still wrapped around me, our feet sliding on the ice beneath us.
My breathing ceases as my gaze slowly trails across the expanse of ice between us and our unknown presence before my eyes finally inch their way to his face.

He is shrouded in dark robes, the fabric pooling around his feet, hanging loosely against his pale, grey skin and, as I stare into his piercing gold eyes-the color like the sun when bleeding out into dusk-I become petrified as all my worst nightmares play out before my eyes in the glowing gold of his pupils.

Images flash before my eyes, each one more frightening than the last.
I'm surrounded by a crowd, their hands gesturing toward me as they cry in fear or shout with hatred at the top of their lungs, leaving me to drown in this ocean of people with every voice plunging me further into the dark abyss yanking me under.

The scene shifts, each person melting into the next until a new scene takes shape.
Anna stands before me, her eyes ablaze as she points at me, her voice filling the area with sound as she yells at me. But my thoughts are muddled and clouded, my ears clogged, making her cries sound muffled to me.

Make it go away. Make it all go away.
I sink to the rough ground, my hands clamped over my ears as I rock back and forth on my knees.
Makeitgoawaymakeitgoawaymakeitgoawaymakeitgoaway.

My surroundings dissolve around me, evaporating into the next image.
I slowly glance up, my hands quivering against my temples as my gaze lifts to find Jack's head of tousled white hair above me, his blue sweatshirt hugging his shoulders as he stands there, his back to me.

"Jack." I breathe, my voice desperate.

He doesn't speak or even turn around. He only takes a step forward, lengthening the distance between us by that much more.
My chest grows tight and heavy, the weight almost like he is stepping on me rather than the ground beneath him, and I have to struggle for air as he takes another step away from me.

I place my palms on the ground and pull myself along, my dress sweeping the ground behind me as I drag myself forward after him, trying to reach him. But his back still faces me as he continues to walk away like I'm not even here. As if he is completely oblivious to my very presence, showing me no indication that the Jack Frost I love is still there.
That my guardian still remains.

The image dissolves into my first fear, which then bleeds into my second and then melts into my third before cycling back to the first again, the scenes on constant replay within the golden strip of his eyes, leaving me to watch, unblinking, breath held, and frozen into place with fear.
It is the most frightening thing I have ever seen, yet I cannot bring myself to avert my eyes.

I become oblivious to my surroundings as I lose myself in those golden rings. I even forget Jack, who's hand is still linked with mine, his chest pressed against my shoulder blade, and I can just feel his body grow rigid against mine, the muscles flexing beneath his smooth, creamy skin as his chest rises and falls with his breaths.
I don't even blink when Jack's hand slides under my chin, coming to rest on the side of my face as he draws my cheek to his chest, but my body is as numb and dull as my scattered thoughts, making the contact feel distant as it fails to reach me.

I listen to his heart drum within his rib cage, the sound so close yet so far, and I force myself to concentrate on its rhythm as I rest my hands on his chest, my right palm just over his heart.
My eyes flick up to find an illegible expression in Jack's features as he gazes at the man opposite us with intense focus.

"Who-Who are you?" My voice quivers, the words rising from within my trembling body as I glance at the man, who remains silent and motionless. Not like a statue-stiff as stone-but more like a lion hunting for its prey through the tall, thin grass.

The man gives an icy, hollow cackle, his head tilting back slightly as the sound rises from deep within his figure, from the very depths of his hollowed form, his entire body jerking forward with it.

"I am quite astonished you don't remember Elsa," He tells me, his tone calm as his every word sends shivers down my spine. "After all, I told you so didn't I? I warned you." He says with a cold smile that reaches all the way to his eyes, his grey skin wrinkling a little at the corners as he reveals a mouthful of gleaming white teeth almost as bright as Jack's.

I freeze then, my body stiffening at his words, and it dawns on me why he voice is so familiar to me.
I've heard it before.
In my slumber.
In a dream.
In a nightmare.

"Pitch Black." I hear Jack utter just audible enough for me to hear.

My head whips around as I stare up at him, dumbstruck. "How do you-"

But I don't get the chance to finish my sentence as Pitch heaves another cackle, the sound like the terrified cries of children.
"Oh my dear Elsa, old Jack here and I go way back." He says simply.

I feel Jack's grip tighten around me, his body stiffening as his fingers dig into my skin and I have to clench my teeth to keep from crying out.
"What do you want?" He spits at Pitch, his voice cold and harsh, a side of Jack Frost I have never been acquainted with until now, and it scares me almost as much as Pitch does.

"Oh, it is not what I want, but who." And with that, Pitch raises his hands, as if embracing the sky, and out shoot three black shadows spiraling into stallions with the same piercing gold eyes, but without the white in them.

They charge right for us, and before I can even react, I am thrown to the ground, my shoulder slamming into the ice, causing pain to shoot up into my arm.
I reach over to cradle my arm and perhaps attempt to rub the pain away when Jack's hands grasp me by the elbows before he yanks me to my feet, the rapid motion causing my head to grow light and fuzzy while my vision blurs as the lights and shadows once again dance across my eyes.

"Look out!" Jack shouts as he tackles me to the ground again.

I watch, dazed, as a silhouetted cloud of crows comes swarming towards us in a large cluster, their constant flapping wings sending feathers into the air while their squawks ring in my ears, drowning out Jack's voice as his lips move, words I cannot hear emerging from his throat.
He takes hold of my wrist, gripping it tightly as we ascend into the air, leaving the swarm of crows behind us.

He pulls out his staff, aiming the G-shaped tip down at Pitch standing below us before causing ice to erupt from the end.
Pitch does not even flinch in the slightest. With a simple wave of his hand, a thin wall of shadows sprouts from the ground and acts as a shield for him, and he simply waves it off dismissively with a cold and amused smile.

I am hit from behind, the attack causing my body to grow numb and beyond feeling as we are plunged through the air, our bodies hurling toward the ice below. Jack's hand still holds mine, and I feel my fingers enclose around his as we tumble through the air, the wind whistling in my ears.
I can't catch my breath. We're falling too fast.
The wind suddenly picks up and cradles our bodies before setting us down on our feet.

I stumble slightly, trying to regain my balance as I ignore the sharp pain shooting through my backside.
Jack rests a hand on my shoulder, trying to meet my gaze as his lips move, but there is still too much ringing in my mind to hear his words.

In a flash, blackness comes sailing toward us and strikes Jack in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground.
A cry catches in my throat, clogging up my airway and I can't breathe, yet I am suddenly filled with energy and am propelled forward by anger as I charge at Pitch, flicking both hands in his direction, causing icy spikes to rise from the ground at his feet and impaling him by the edges of his robes to the side of a mountain.

I approach him, breathless and shaking with rage, but he only laughs coolly at my blazing eyes.

"Good Elsa, good," He says. "Now that you have tapped into your anger, you must use it to control your abilities."

My eyes narrow at him, my nostrils flaring as I shove him against the stone with a burst of ice when out of the corner of my eye, I notice another shadowed stallion racing toward me and I am too late to react.
I wheeze for air, the impact knocking the wind from my lungs and sending me to skid across the ice.

I am too numb to move.
The ringing continues in my ears, reaching my mind as I glance up, blinking back the darkness encroaching my vision to see Jack darting through the air as he dodges Pitch's advances and retaliates with strong ice blasts. But Pitch avoids them with little effort, making each evasion look easy.

I prop myself up on my hands, straining to rise to my feet but quickly sink back to the ground, coming once more face to face with my reflection in the ice.
I stare into my eyes, the blue endless and losing, but not yet lost.
There is still a chance.
A chance for Arendelle.
A chance for Anna.
A chance for Jack.
A chance for me.

I leap to my feet, biting down on my lip to contain the moan of pain rising in my throat.
I glance up in time to see Pitch strike Jack square in the chest with a silhouetted crow, the impact send Jack hurtling toward the mountainside.
Something within me shatters as I watch his head snap back against the rough stone before his limp body tumbles to the ground motionless, like a rag doll.

With an angry cry, I fly at Pitch, my arms outstretched as ice sprouts from them on all ends, sending flurry after flurry at him, making it difficult for Pitch to keep up with my advances and not long passes before a blast strikes him in the face, causing him to lose his balance and stumble to his knees.
I glare down at him, my chest heaving with my every breath and my body aching with numbness.

He chuckles as he swipes as his lip as if he has blood trickling down the corner of his mouth.
"Excellent Elsa." He says, his voice still calm and at ease.

This only angers me more, and I raise I hand for another attack when I hear the faint sound of someone calling my name through the roar of the blizzard raging around me.

"Elsa!"

Anna.
My hand halts in midair as the tension rises in my body and builds in my chest.
My eyes shrink into their sockets as I tremble at the sound of her voice.

Pitch gives another laugh below me. "Ah, it seems we have found what makes the ice shatter," He says, a cold smirk forming in his features. Everything he does is cool with cruelty. "Let us discover just how much damage I can create."

And with that, he shoots up into the air, heading straight for Anna.
No.

I lunge across the ice, watching Pitch out of my peripheral vision as he prepares to strike.

"Elsa!"

Her voice rings in my ears.

"Elsa!"

I blink back the tears as they sting at my eyes.

"Elsa!"

I make a leap through the hazy blizzard surrounding me, but for once, not taking me with it as I propel myself into the abyss before me, my destination shrouded in the misty wind. But I am not afraid.
Not this time.
I will not allow myself to be lost to the storm anymore.

Darkness flashes before my eyes and something strikes me in the chest, stinging my body at the contact, the pain so sharp I don't even feel the effect of hitting the ice afterward.
A tear escapes my eye and slips down my cheek.
But it is not a sad tear.
It is not sad.
I am not sad.

For the first time in years, I am at peace.
As I am one with the storm.