The family had little time to recover from the shock of Ina's powers before Elsa was speaking again, something like a plead bleeding into her voice.
"N-no," She stuttered, falling away from her daughter and nearly tripping over a shattered ice shard. "Stop saying that. You're not a Queen, you're my-"
"Your what?" Ina interrupted, crossing her pale arms over her chest, once again annoyed. "Your daughter? Your princess? No. I don't want to be those things anymore- I never did."
"Stop, Ina, You're acting like a little kid." Cyril piped up, half stepping so he was closer to Ina, and could block Elise from her view. Ina turned her dark eyes on him for a moment, before letting them skim back to her mother, ignoring him.
"You know," She started, lifting a finger to point at Elsa. "You always knew that I wanted to be Queen. But you never stopped to ask me why, or try to help me. You never cared about what I wanted. You still don't."
"Of course I do," Elsa denied, stepping forward and resting her hand on Ina's arm. The young girl jerked away, just far enough so her skin no longer made contact with Elsa's. The Queen tried not to look offended, but instead continued on. "Ina, I've always wanted you to be happy. But . . . but becoming a Snow Queen won't change anything. It won't make you happy. Please, Snowflake, just come home." Elsa let her hand hover over Ina's for a moment before the image of her recoiling presented itself again. Then she let it drop.
"That's where you're wrong," Ina shot back, something unfamiliar lingering in her voice. "It's changed everything. I've never been happier in my entire life. This-" she gestured to herself, "-is the real me. This makes me happy. I'm never going back to the way I was. Ever."
Elsa fumbled for a moment, trying to think of something else to say, while Anna clasped onto Kristoff's arm. He looked down at her and she hurriedly began whispering to him.
"Kristoff, I have a bad feeling. I want the kids to go." After a moment, she added, "now."
Kristoff watched her fearful expression for a moment, and it unnerved him. But finally he nodded, and turned to grab Cyril's elbow.
Elsa, meanwhile, had tried once again to convince Ina to come home. "Ina, I know how hard your father's death had been- it was hard on me too. But we can work all this out at home- we can talk, we can-"
"I don't want to talk!" Ina yelped, sounding like a whining child. Elsa, startled, paused. It gave Ina enough time to advance. "You just don't understand, do you? I'm not "little princess Ina" anymore. She's long gone, dead and buried somewhere along the way here! Your daughter- your princess- doesn't exist anymore. Only you're dear Snow Queen Elsa."
When Ina had first said "Snow Queen Elsa," Elsa had thought the young girl had been referring to herself. It took her a few moments before it sunk in that Ina meant herself. Elsa the Second- a name she seemed to always have distasted for, but now welcomed.
"Cy, take Elise and get out of here." Kristoff hissed in his oldest son's ear. The younger man turned to him, as did Elise, but neither moved to leave. Anna watched them, willing them to exit, trying to focus on Ina and Elsa at the same time. But Ina didn't pay her any mind- and neither did Elsa. Their eyes were only locked on each other.
Anna stepped around the spikes- they were almost up to her shoulders- and walked slowly, cautiously, towards her sister. She felt Kristoff's gloved hand try and wrap around her upper arm, but she had moved to far so he wasn't able to get a good a good grip, and she continued forward. "Elsa," She said slowly, carefully, in a way one might use to an animal that was about to run. "I think we should go."
For the first time since the spikes, Elsa turned towards her sister. But only for a second. "No," She replied, sternly, stunning Anna to stillness. Then she turned back to her daughter. "I'm not leaving without Ina."
"I told you already," The younger blond said, her voice slipping from behind a clenched jaw. "It's not Ina- it's Queen Elsa."
"I am Queen Elsa!" Elsa replied, her voice taking on something close to a laugh. "You are my daughter! Princess "Ina," Elsa- not a Queen! And especially not a Snow Queen!"
"Elsa." Anna stepped towards her again, her hands already out to reach for her sister. Elsa didn't go towards her, but she didn't try to stop her again.
"Come home, Ina." Elsa begged. "Please."
Dark, empty eyes looked Elsa up and down. Elsa had noticed only minutes before- could it really have been only minutes?- how dark Ina's eyes were. Only how empty they were could shock her more.
Ina opened her mouth to argue once again, but she suddenly stopped after a small laugh started bouncing off the icy walls- echoing. The sound of a second voice shushing the first sounded next. Anna and Kristoff both stilled, and their gazes met each other's.
"No." Elsa groaned, whipping around to face the entrance as the two boys entered.
Tom's dark curls were freed from his hat, which was clamped tightly in his fist. Sver was clinging to Tom's back, his arms wrapped in a chokehold around the older boy's neck. A piggyback ride. The boys' eyes were filled with amazement until they landed on the ice spikes and their parents' terrified expressions.
"Tom-" Elsa stepped towards her boy, before catching herself and remaining put.
"We told you to wait outside." Anna reminded; her voice tense. Her fingers tightened on Elsa's arm, making the older woman wince.
"I . . . I'm sorry," Tom stuttered, straightening his back and forcing Sver to release his neck. "I needed to talk to her, and I didn't want to leave Sev outside-"
"Everyone needs to talk me, hmm?" Ina cut him off, stepping towards her brother. She looked him up and down, one eyebrow raised. "Hello, baby brother."
He straightened his spine even more, tightening his fingers into fists. He took a deep breath as he took in Ina's new appearance for the first time. "Hello, big sister."
"Tom, take Sver and go outside." Elsa demanded, pointing at the door.
"No," Anna argued. She glanced down at her son, and then her nephew. Finally, she let her blue eyes slide to Cyril's. "Cy, stand with them."
The older boy nodded, and complied. Sver tilted to look at him. "Hi." He said lightly. Cyril all but ignored him.
"Ina, come home." Tom exclaimed bluntly. He brushed a few stray curls out of his eyes after he said this, waiting for a respond he knew would come. What she said wasn't what he expected.
"I'm not Ina anymore." She stated calmly, if not a little annoyed.
Confused, Sver piped up innocently: "What does that mean?"
Elise moved from behind Cyril so she could rest her hand on Sver's head and shush him. His brown eyes met her own, and he frowned, but stayed silent. Ina watched them, though Tom was still talking to her.
"What does that mean?" He asked, though Ina shook her head. She was tired of explaining herself.
"Lease?" She sighed instead. "Would you come here, please?"
Anna and Kristoff's eyes both flew to Elise, whom blinked in surprise. Cyril stiffened, and though he shook his head, Elise stepped towards Ina anyway.
"Alright . . ." She said captiously. In all honesty, she was too afraid to really deny her cousin. She slipped around the spikes, which still separated the other kids from the adults, and moved, towards her cousin. Ina met Elise halfway and looped her arm through the younger princess's.
Ina looked back at Tom, finally, and smiled sweetly. "It means," She proceeded to answer his question. "That your sister is gone. Long gone. All that's left of her is me; your Snow Queen." She didn't give him any time to process it before nodding towards Elise. "and her Right Hand, Princess Elise."
Anna and Elsa both staggered back in surprise at the same time. "No!" They gasped, Anna in shock and Elsa in anger. Anna, because she couldn't never see Elise helping Ina like that, and Elsa because she hated Ina was involving Elise like that.
Elise shook her head, her short braids swishing around her face. She tried to pull away from her frightening cousin, but to no avail. "Ina, I-"
"Elise won't help you." Elsa argued.
"I won't let her help you." Anna added.
Elsa looked out of the corner of her eye and noticed that Sver was no longer with her son and Cyril. She didn't have much time to dwell on it, as she was once again distracted by Ina.
" "Won't let her help me?" You're making me sound like a bad guy, Auntie." Ina laughed, though her tone was laced with seriousness. Elise tried to free her arm from Ina's, and the older girl finally freed her. Despite the sudden release, Elise stayed put.
"Only because you're acting like one." Anna responded, placing her hands on her hips.
Ina let out another loud peal of laughter, bumping her hip against the surprised Elise as if they were old friends sharing a good joke. "That's funny!" She noted after a moment, and tilted her chin so they could clearly see her entertained expression.
"No it's not." Kristoff countered, reached for Anna's hand.
Ina shrugged. "To me it is."
"Well not to us." Tom added, breaking his temporary silence. "Stop treating all this like a game, Ina. It's not."
"Oh, but it's so fun." She sneered.
"Stop doing that!" Elsa snapped. "Do you have any idea what you've done? What's happened to Arendelle, to the fjord? Do you even care? What would your father think?"
Ina sucked in a breath, and the humor drained out of her. "Don't bring him into this." She whispered.
But Elsa ignored her protest and plowed on. "He'd be disappointed in you- you have to know that. He'd hate what you're doing and want you to fix it. He'd want you to change."
"No." Ina whispered, shaking her head. Elise noticed Sver's absence as well, but thought that it wasn't an appropriate time to bring it up.
"I know I'm disappointed." Elsa continued. "I know how your father thought; I know he'd never approve of what you're doing. He'd want you to stop it. He'd-"
"Stop it." Ina groaned.
"-He'd completely hate what you've become! He wouldn't see you as his daughter anymore," After a moment, Elsa added: "But it seems like that's what you want, isn't it?"
It all happened so fast. Ina let out a frustrated cry and whipped back to face her mother, a blast of ice coming with her. The magic shot towards her parents, all her anger forced into it.
Elsa and Anna didn't have time to react before Kristoff was screaming for them to get down. It couldn't even have been a full second later before he was jumping through the air, his arms circling around Anna's waist. They both fell, and toppled over Elsa, taking her down as well.
The force of Kristoff hitting her knocked the wind out of Elsa's chest, but she sucked it back in with a gasp as her skull made contact with the icy floor. She could hear Ina's power collide with something, perhaps the wall, and fall back to the floor, though she couldn't see it.
The sound was deafening. Ina's magic seemed to make a horrible, indescribable noise- like shattering glass or a strong winter wind. It caused Elsa's ears to ring, but it was only worse a moment later when the large crash sounded as well.
Someone groaned- had it come from Anna or Elsa herself? The Queen wasn't sure, but of course, she wasn't sure of anything as her head spun. Pain was radiating from where her head had made contact with the floor, but she tried to ignore the pain as she shoved Anna off her, and held herself up on her elbows.
The only thing that pierced Elsa's hazy mind at first was Ina's satisfied laugh. She couldn't possibly be happy with what she had done- could she? Elsa was sure that she could hear Elise as well, saying something, but she couldn't figure out what.
Elsa though she heard someone call her name- maybe Tom? She could see him out of the corner of her eye, his face twisted into one of panic.
"Are you alright?" Kristoff was asking Anna, his hands tight on Anna's upper arms. He glanced at Elsa as well, raising his eyebrows to indicate the question was for her as well. They both nodded.
"I'm fine." Anna coughed, and waved her husband away.
"And . . ." Kristoff paused before lowering his voice. "and the baby?"
Elsa must have been hallucinating- she wouldn't be surprised. What with Ina's announcement and sudden power outburst, Elsa would expect to go insane eventually. But she must have hit her head a lot harder than she thought, because she was sure Kristoff had said-
"The baby's fine." Anna snapped, dusting off her skirt.
Baby?
"You're pregnant?" Cyril asked, too surprised by his mother's statement to keep his focus on the problem at hand. To be honest, everyone's minds slipped from Ina to Anna. Slightly irritated by the "attack" from her husband, Anna just nodded.
"Wow, Anna." Ina crossed her arms over her chest, her voice oddly playful. "I thought you were too old for that."
"That's not important right now-"
Elise's scream suddenly pierced the air, shocking everyone back to the current situation.
"Sver!" The princess cried, pointing a mitten-clad hand at the wall. More specifically, where the wall and floor met, where Ina's powers had crashed. Where a large ice sheet, sharp and spikey and shattered, laid- with a small figure trapped underneath.
"Oh my god." Cyril whispered. He covered his gaping mouth for a moment, stunned.
Everyone was stunned.
"Sver!" Anna cried, struggling to her feet. Elsa held her breath, her stomach rolling as she watched her sister run to the broken heap of boy that was crumbled against the wall. Elsa couldn't see his face as he was turned away from her, but the limbs that weren't blocked from Elsa's view by the ice were sprawled out like a ragdoll's.
Anna collapsed beside her son, pushing the large ice sheet off of his limp body. "Sev . . ." She gasped, pulling him into her lap. "Sev, baby boy, wake up." Anna's voice wavered, and her fingers were trembling.
Go to her, Elsa thought. She tried to make her limbs obey, but they wouldn't. All she could manage was rising to her feet, but little else. She could do nothing but watch as Kristoff rushed over to his wife and youngest child. He won't be the youngest for long . . .
Silly as it was, with her hazy mind, Elsa didn't realize the danger of the situation her nephew was in. All she could focus on was the fact that her sister was having another baby. And she didn't tell Elsa, she just kept it a secret.
"You're having a baby." Elsa said carefully, as if testing the words.
Elsa heard Ina scoff somewhere behind her, but her eyes were locked on Anna's own- they were horror filled.
"We have to get him back to Arendelle," She decided, her voice pleading. She ignored Elsa's statement, focusing only on her injured son. "Elsa, please, we have to go!"
The gears in Elsa's mind started turning, her sense slowly returning to her, and with it, the assumption of what had happened: Ina had tried to hit Elsa with her powers. Kristoff had protected them both, knocking them out of the way, but unknowingly putting Sver in its path at the same time. The memory of the young boy disappearing momentarily earlier sprung up- he must have gone to stand with his parents without any of the adults knowing.
"No . . ." Elsa gasped, stumbling backwards for a moment. Her eyes flew to her daughter's. Ina was smiling. A sick, twisted smile that seemed hauntingly childish. Her daughter, her lovely young daughter, had hurt her cousin.
Elsa's stomach rolled again, and she feared she'd vomit from the shock.
"We have to go." Kristoff whispered, reaching to take Sver from Anna's arms. Her eyes flew to his own, panicked, before she pulled the little boy closer to her chest. She looked so young, so scared, as she rose to her feet, struggling to support her unconscious son's weight.
Elise tried to step around her cousin, rushing forward towards her mother. "Mama-"
"Don't." Ina warned, thrusting her arm out in front of the younger princess. Elise stilled instantly, but her eyes stayed locked on her parents. Her worry was quickly escalating towards fear. Elsa noticed, and hated how Ina was acting. She wasn't acting like the Ina she knew at all.
"We have to go." Elsa agreed finally, taking a step farther from her daughter. Ina watched, always preventing Elise from leaving. "Elise," Elsa mumbled, trying to force her voice to a calmer tone. "Come on, we have to get Sver back to-"
"She's not leaving." Ina interrupted, placing a hand on Elise's arm to prove her point. The younger girl's eyes flew to Ina's in a panic. She opened her mouth to argue, but Cyril's voice cut her off. Silently, she noted that Tom was no longer in the room- he must have left.
"We're leaving, and we're taking Elle with us." He pointed his chin at his sister as he said this. "C'mon, Elle."
"I-" Elise began, but then she stopped herself. What could she do?
"Ina, please." Tom begged, his focus flying from Sver to his sister to Elise and then back to his mother.
"We have to go!" Anna screamed, and Cyril finally realized the depth of the terror in his mother's eyes. He gazed down at his brother, injured. His eyes flew to Elise's then, and she somehow looked defeated. They had to pick between his siblings, and he knew who they had picked.
"We'll come back for you." Kristoff promised, his voice filled with regret as he hurried Anna and Sver from the room. Elise nodded, her shoulders slumping forward, while Ina only looked triumphant.
Elsa watched as her family quickly fled, their attention locking onto Sver's health. She remained a moment after, so it was only her and the two princesses left.
"Ina," The Queen said slowly. "please. I still need you to come home. I know you'll do the right thing."
Elsa couldn't help feeling like she was wrong. But what choice did she have? All she could do was trust her daughter. It was all she could rely on.
Elsa slipped out of the room, the sound of Elise calling her name and Ina's laughter trailing after them.
Haha *hopes you all won't kill me because I said I'd update sooner but didn't* so, hi! Sorry for the long, er, hiatus. It was simply because of laziness, in all honesty. And this chapter was pretty hectic- I think because there were too many people in one scene. It'll calm down a bit later, I promise. But it was a long chapter. If anything was a bit confusing, message me and I'll explain it. I'll probably explain everything in better words in the next chapter anyway. I didn't like how this chapter turned out, honestly. Maybe, one day, I'll fix it. I don't know.
I'll hopefully update sooner, but things are getting busy so…HOPEFULLY. I don't know…