A/N: Warning: Chapters 24 and 25 will get kind of violent! I tried not to make anything too major, but for those who are averse to violence, it's a step up from the rest of the story so far. Another fair warning: please do NOT send hate if I kill off your favorite character. I will delete any such reviews.
"Elsa! Aðalbjörn!" called Anna. The former two stopped dead in their tracks and turned around to face Anna, flanked by the rest of the group.
"What will we do now?" Anna wondered aloud.
Aðalbjörn, with angry tears in his eyes, snapped, "I want that traitor elf sentenced to death."
"Don't you think that's a little extreme?" said Kristoff. "What she did was bad, but let's move on. We have Arendelle to take care of."
"Kristoff is right," said Anna.
"I think we should attack Hans," said Thor. "Clearly he won't leave you or your kingdom alone."
"No," said Elsa. "Arendelle will not attack anyone today. My first priority is to let all the kingdom know that I am home and they are safe. Then I'll deal with Hans and Heiðrúnn."
"Plotting against me, now, are we?" said a cruel voice. The group turned to face Hans, who closed in on Elsa. "Well, I won't give up yet. Not until the throne of Arendelle is mine."
"Hans, don't," Elsa pleaded.
"You heard Elsa," said Aðalbjörn, stepping between his lover and Hans. "Leave us alone."
Hans punched Aðalbjörn, causing him to crumple to the ground. He got back up, though, and grabbed the tops of Hans' arms, emitting just enough fire from his hands to make Hans howl in pain.
"Yubaba! Guards!" Hans shouted.
At Hans's call, thousands of spirits appeared behind him. There were blue man-sized frogs, women dressed in salmon-colored bathhouse uniforms, and lots of different animals, all with weapons pointed at the group. And in the center of the group, flanking Hans, was a witch who looked exactly like Zeniba.
"Yubaba? Zeniba's sister?" whispered Thor.
"Oh no," gasped Anna. "Kristoff, do you think Lin and Kamajii are in there?"
"I don't know," said Kristoff, "but we can't worry about that now."
"No. I'm not with Yubaba. I'm on your side. And Kamajii is at the bathhouse," said a voice from behind Anna. She turned around to see Lin, who held a spear in her hand. "Yubaba forced us to come along with her on an errand, but as soon as I overheard what she was planning, I started collecting as much information as I could. They're preparing to attack your kingdom. Are you prepared to fight back?
Elsa stiffened. Once upon a time, when she'd had her powers, she'd have fought back without a second thought. But after her traumatizing time with Hans, she just didn't feel very brave anymore.
"If I have to," she said, "but couldn't we try talking to them first?"
"Elsa, attack them! You've done it before!" cried Anna.
Elsa stared at her sister in horror. Didn't she understand that she needed to get back to her kingdom?
"Ultimately it's her decision," said Kristoff. "And once this starts, we'll have a war on our hands. And we do need to get the kingdom in order. It's been missing a queen for four years."
"Fighting back is the only way to protect our kingdom!" Anna countered.
"Someone help me!" Aðalbjörn shouted. He and Hans had each other in a headlock, and Hans could easily throw him and pin him to the floor.
"Get off of him," snarled Thor, coming from behind Hans and shocking his arms until he could no longer stand the pain and let go.
Hans said to his brother, "You are worthless. You had no chance of ever getting the throne. You won't be able to help your friends, so why try? You are worthless."
"That is not true," said Thor.
Hans shrunk back at Thor's steady demeanor. He faced Elsa instead and drew a sword out of his boot.
"I don't have a sword!" cried Elsa.
"Well, that's too bad," said Hans. "For you, anyway."
Then, sword in hand, he lunged toward Elsa.
"No!" cried Aðalbjörn. He shot his hand out toward Hans, emitting a red-hot beam of fire. With a swing of his sword Hans deflected that fire toward Elsa. But Aðalbjörn shoved her out of the way, and before anyone else knew what was happening, he fell to the ground again, clutching his chest.
"Aðalbjörn!" Elsa got up and darted to her lover's side.
"My chest," he moaned. "It feels like it's burning!"
"What have you done?" Thor demanded of Hans.
Hans pointed to Anna, who was standing over Aðalbjörn and crying. "Why don't you ask Anna?" he said. "I think she knows."
"You struck him, didn't you?" said Thor. "You struck him in the heart with his own fire!"
"Well, I meant to strike Elsa," said Hans. "Only Björn was too stupid to get out of the way."
Thor shoved Hans and pinned him to the ground. He took out his wand and whispered venomous words. Then, with a wave of his wand, he rendered Hans immobile.
"What did you do?" said Anna.
"I put a death spell on him," said Thor. "Soon he won't be bothering you anymore."
"Thor, how could you?" sobbed Elsa. "I said we weren't attacking anyone."
"Oh yes we are," said Thor. "Nobody hurts my brother and gets away with it."
"I am your brother," croaked Hans from on the floor. "And you just tried to kill me!"
"Brother, indeed!" Thor took his talisman from No-Face out of his pocket. "A real brother would never turn on me like you and all of our family did. You're just as bad as they are, you know? I don't care how they hurt you. And you won't get Arendelle. I will stop you."
And with that, Thor shoved his talisman into the air, and the sky turned purple. Lighting bolts shot out of Thor's hands and crackled in the sky. Deafening thunder followed soon after. Rain and hail began pelting everyone. Anna gasped as she remembered what Zeniba said about thunder signifying the start of a war.
"He's just called a war on them," she whispered to Elsa.
"Thor!" shouted Elsa. "Now Arendelle is at war!"
"I know. Elsa, I'm so sorry. I just got so angry at Hans."
Elsa's heart misgave her. She'd feel like attacking Hans, too, if he didn't terrify her.
"They're attacking the palace!" shouted Kristoff. Hordes of frogs and Yuna had indeed begun flooding into the palace.
"Kristoff, Lin, and I will go after them!" said Anna. "Olaf, get on Sven's back, and you two stay out of sight!"
Olaf hopped on Sven's back, and Sven galloped off into the woods.
"What about Aðalbjörn?" said Elsa. She was kneeling beside her lover, who was clutching his chest and moaning in pain. His hair had turned crimson.
"The fire is spreading faster in him than the ice did in me!" cried Anna. "What will we do?"
"I'll stay with him," said Thor. "Maybe I can cast some kind of spell to cure him."
"Good idea! We're going now!" Anna called as she, Lin, and Kristoff bolted towards the palace. Elsa, crying now, stood up and turned away from her lover to face Hans and…Yubaba.
"Well, well," Yubaba chuckled. "Looks like lover boy here's down. Fair's fair, I guess, since Hans is going to die. He didn't conjure up nearly the business I would have hoped for. Oh, well, at least now all the money he did raise is going to go to me. But since your lover's done for, don't you think you might as well join him?"
"N—" Elsa started to protest, but it was too late. Yubaba had already sent a disc of deadly white magic cavorting in her direction.
"You won't get away with this, either of you!" a voice shouted. A white-clad blur shoved Elsa out of the way of the magic and crumpled to the ground from its impact, landing a few feet away from Aðalbjörn. Even while he was in excruciating pain, Aðalbjörn immediately recognized what the blur was.
"Heiðrúnn? How did you know to come here?" his voice was no more than a whisper, but he reached out toward the fallen elf. She did the same to him, and their hands would have touched had they been an inch closer together.
"Hans tied me to a tree, but I escaped when the storm started. I knew that meant a war was going on, and I had to help you."
"Thank you. I'm sorry."
"No, I am. Aðalbjörn, I'm so sorry. I never intended for things to end like they did. Hans sent me on a mission to keep a boy from his lover. My heart broke when I saw the boy was you."
"What do you mean?" asked Aðalbjörn.
But it was too late. Heiðrúnn took one last breath and was still. Had she not done what she did, it would have been Elsa who succumbed to Yubaba's magic instead.
"Heiðrúnn," sobbed Aðalbjörn. "She gave her life for Elsa, and I wouldn't even let her explain herself. I guess I'll never know why she betrayed me now." Smoke rose from the floor around him in response to his anguish, and he clutched his chest once again.
"Lie back down," said Thor, placing his hand over Aðalbjörn's. "Let me try another spell on you."
"I can't leave her now!" shouted Aðalbjörn, reaching toward Elsa.
"I know," said Thor, trying to sound calm for his friend's sake. "I'll do all I can."
"Or," said Yubaba to Elsa, "You can come work for me. You won't remember him. In fact, you won't remember anything at all. What's your name? Elsa, is it?"
"Don't you DARE!" screamed Thor, having heard from Zeniba exactly what Yubaba had done with her workers' names.
"I think you better work on that death spell, Thor," said Hans, who was standing over his brother and Aðalbjörn with a huge smirk on his face. He didn't have a scratch on him.
"Shit," Thor muttered, but otherwise pretended not to notice Hans. He'd already let him get him angry enough to start a war. He would not let Hans get the best of him again. Instead, he tended to Aðalbjörn, trying failed spell after failed spell, ignoring Hans' taunts that he should just give up now because he didn't know what he was doing. Eventually Hans saw his taunts were getting nowhere and went to stand by Yubaba's side. Elsa's eyes widened in horror.
"Elsa," croaked Aðalbjörn, whose voice was reduced to almost nothing, and whose vision was going black, "you can fight them. I know you don't want to, but I know you can. You think you can't because you're scared of Hans. Don't hold onto the past. Forgive Hans. Forget him, and fight for Arendelle. You can do it. I'm here."
At these words, Elsa's mind raced through a flurry of flashbacks. She remembered revealing her ice powers, and letting go of the past and coming to accept them. She remembered working in the bathhouse, meeting Aðalbjörn and falling in love with him, and how they had helped each other. She remembered what she had said to him that day she remembered her name, that sometimes you have to let go of the past. Aðalbjörn and Anna were right. Elsa squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember her powers, all the while thinking as hard as she could, I forgive you, Hans. I forgive you, Hans. I forgive you, Hans.
She erupted into a cloud of white scales, which drifted into the air like a million rose petals. When the transformation was complete, in the Snow Queen's place stood a magnificent white dragon with ice blue eyes. Those blue orbs bored into Hans's own eyes, daring him to try to force her under his thumb again. Elsa drew her long white neck back and roared a shower of ice crystals, which rained down on Hans and Yubaba, rendering them unconscious.
"Ískristallar," Aðalbjörn whispered. "She got her powers back!"
"Keep still," said Thor. "Time is running out!"
But Aðalbjörn didn't listen. "Let me give her one more kiss, before they wake up," he said, using the last of his strength to get up, run to Elsa, and throw his arms around her huge white neck.
"Elsa, I love you," he said. "I'm sorry I didn't get more time with you. But at least I found you, and you got your powers back. You are so beautiful and brave, and you can do anyth—" The fire in Aðalbjörn's heart made it impossible for him to stand up any longer, and Elsa lowered her muzzle down to his level. "As I was saying," he croaked, "you can do anything." He kissed Elsa's muzzle. "I may not be here to remind you anymore, but Anna will be. And Kristoff and Sven and Olaf and Thor. Let them remind you. Thank you for helping me with my powers. I'm glad I was able to help you remember yours. I love you."
With these words, Aðalbjörn's eyes closed. The last thing he saw were Elsa's dragon eyes, gleaming like two brilliant ice crystals.
A/N: First of all, I am SO sorry for not having updated in so long! Life happened, and for the longest time I honestly had no idea where to go with this fanfic. But I'm going to finish it! Hopefully soon!
I'd like to extend a huge thank you to maripaz6 for sticking with me all this time. Thank you, you are freakin' AWESOME! :D We're in the process of writing some Spirited Away/Frozen oneshots since this archive needs more love (ahem…) ;), so check those out and review! And don't forget to check out Elsa's Story, too!
I'd also like to respond to the guest reviews I've been getting. First of all, thank you for the attention you've invested in this archive. We really do appreciate the views. Just please don't steal my pen name (or anyone else's) and pose as me (or anyone else) in a review. And thank you for keeping your last couple reviews on this story respectful. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, though, so don't be afraid to come at me with that. But don't worry, your last couple reviews were not disrespectful at all :).
One guest review asked me to describe Elsa's new ice dress. Well, I don't want to give too much description, because I'd rather leave it up to you guys' imaginations. I honestly thought I'd just stick with her Frozen ice dress for this story. But if you really want to imagine a different dress, here's one: deep, turquoise blue on the skirt for her spirit name, and a white bodice with silver crystals in the shape of a dragon to represent, well, her dragon powers. And she has a little blue dragon necklace, too. :) No cape, though, because it wasn't "serious" enough for Hans while she was working in the bathhouse. Why don't you drop a review and tell me what your version of Elsa's new dress looks like? I'd love to know.
Lastly, thank you to anyone who viewed any of our stories. You are all awesome!
-madamasharpless24601