Elsa growled in frustration and spat an icicle at the ground. Beads of sweat – liquid sweat – were rolling off her cheeks and crystallizing on the jagged floor below. If only her damn hands weren't tied up, Elsa thought. Then she'd be able to do it.
She stared at her side, which had fascinated her ever since the octopus nurse healed it. The hyenas had torn her shirt there, so she had been able to examine the former wound in detail.
It was fully healed. Not even a scar remained, and Elsa didn't feel any different on that side of her body than she did on the other. There had to be something the octopus was doing that Elsa was not. The nurse knew exactly what to do to reconstitute Elsa's side, organs and all. Surely there was something Elsa could do to the same effect as that woman's potions?
Elsa had created life from scratch before. She should be able to revive it just as easily.
If there was any time Elsa would be able to work her magic, it would be now. She had been almost comfortable ever since the nurse fixed her up – the chains were still gnawing at her wrists and ankles, but the cold didn't bother her. It energized her, now, having that arctic air trickle into every part of her lungs. Since the octopus treated Elsa, she had felt in the freezer as powerful as when she had first left Arendelle.
There was one stark difference: she was in chains. She had no freedom of movement this time, and the fact that she was fully healed made it that much more aggravating. She couldn't unleash her magic as she pleased. She couldn't move her hands in a motion fluid enough to do anything useful. She had tried shooting ice at the lock of the cell and at her chains; she had tried conjuring a second Olaf to break her out; she had tried, most recently and for the most number of times, to revive Anna. Nothing worked.
Elsa rattled her chains viciously. Nothing fucking worked! She felt power coursing inside her just as it had in the ice palace, but it was as if the chains themselves were retarding Elsa's ice. She threw her hands furiously at Anna's corpse, willing life to be breathed into it.
Nothing.
She was on the verge of tears. Elsa had never felt so bottled up. She couldn't do anything. In Arendelle, she had locked herself up in her room; all she had to do to grasp freedom was literally walk out the fucking front door.
Now, Elsa was certain she couldn't break free. Jafar had probably magically reinforced the chains after Elsa's outbursts during the Tournament fights involving Anna. She was going to either die in this goddamn cell or, just like Anna, die during the Tournament.
Even if she could escape, what would be the point? Her parents were long dead, and now her sister was too. How would she tell Kristoff that she let his wife die?
Fuck. That man's world almost revolved around Anna as much as Elsa's did. He'd be crushed. Maybe Mulan should have lopped off Elsa's head too – it'd be easier than going home without Anna.
Elsa gave Anna's corpse one last stare. She'd been going at this for days… maybe it was about time that Elsa gave up. She sent one final, pitifully weak beam at Anna, in memory of trying to revive the corpse.
Elsa jumped out of her skin, then, when the corpse breathed.
• • •
Anna set her head on the stone next to her and suddenly clutched her chest in agony.
The girls stopped their bickering over whether or not that woman who came in was to be trusted. Even Cinderella, who, understandably, was still not very friendly towards Anna, seemed worried.
For the briefest moment, Anna's organs took turns screaming in pain, and then everything was fine. Her body felt a little different, but otherwise she was fine.
"Are you alright?" Eilonwy asked her.
"Yeah," Anna mumbled, unsure of what the hell just happened. "Yeah, I think I am." She looked at Snow, who had been down here the longest. "I could feel my corpse being violated."
The thought of it terrified Snow, who, from her expression, had never seen anything like this happen. "Violated meaning…"
"Meaning that something else took over my corpse," Anna said. "It feels like I don't have a body anymore."
"I can't imagine any of us still have a connection with our bodies," Eilonwy countered.
"I felt something," Anna insisted. "Something destroyed what felt like my body, and now I feel hollow. Not just dead, but hollow."
"Maybe something that happened to us right when we died took a while for you," Pocahontas suggested. "But none of us had that reaction you just had…"
Anna shook her head. "No, you would have known if that same thing happened to you. I'm telling you – something stole my body from me."
• • •
Elsa gaped at her sister's body sputtering to a start, rising to its feet with tremendous effort, its breathing irregular and strained, its joints crackling like ice crunching underfoot. The head had some change of expression, but the eyes refused to blink. It remained disconnected from the body.
"Anna?"
Her sister didn't respond. Some familiar sound was radiating from Anna's body, but Elsa couldn't quite place it.
"Anna, it's me. It's Elsa."
Even Anna's head didn't respond. And the body kept making that sound… it was like rapidly forming ice, the type Elsa had last heard clearly when making her ice castle near Arendelle.
"You should probably get your head back on." Elsa was getting damned uncomfortable as it dawned on her that she had technically created a zombie out of her sister.
Anna didn't move.
Why did Anna feel so cold? Elsa felt the same energy of ice as she did around Olaf – Anna's head and body seemed to be not only frozen, as the other corpses were, but actually madeof ice.
It was upon having this realization that Anna's body began to peel. Not just the skin, as it would with a sunburn – Anna's entire body was being pushed out by the crystalline skeleton, which quickly filled the cracks with opaque white snow.
Elsa's heart sank. Gone was that fluttering hope that she had actually succeeded in reviving her sister. Elsa didn't have that ability – how the hell had she convinced herself that she did?
No, Elsa could not bring back the dead, she told herself. She could make life out of ice and ice alone. And Elsa had done just that – she had created an ice monster inside of Anna's corpse. Just like Olaf, just like Marshmallow… but inside of Anna's corpse.
She killed the thing growing in Anna. Elsa didn't have to love it to make it melt; instead, it escaped in a dry, powdery snow that puffed from the neck of the head and the torn skin of the body.
Damn it, she was crying. She had truly believed for a moment there that Anna was alive again, only to be harshly reminded that her powers destroy the people she loves. Of course she couldn't save Anna. She was already dead, and Elsa's powers of ice were therefore useless.
Anna was dead. Fucking hell, Elsa would never get used to telling herself that. Anna will always be dead. From now until the end of time, Anna is dead.
• • •
"I'm not fucking sure about this…" Hades paced across the room, reviewing the notes Maleficent had scrawled on some scrap piece of paper.
"It's rather simple," she repeated. "I perform your duties here, you take over Olympus. You'll need someone to take over full time once you're on top, won't you?"
"I guess…" Hades stared at Maleficent. "Babe, this is sweet and all, but you're not a God. I don't think you-"
Maleficent drew her foot long claws on her left hand and embedded them into a nearby column. "I think I can handle myself."
Hades sighed. "It's worth a shot if it gets me out of this shit hole."
Maleficent smiled radiantly, green smoke trailing from her mouth and nose. "Wonderful."
• • •
Belle had to admit to herself that she was immeasurably terrified, even though she had acted so determined in front of Adam. She wanted him to know that she was sure of what she was doing, and that she was completely serious.
She was only one of those things. She could be serious as all hell, but it wouldn't change the fact that she'd be heading into battle literally blind, with an army on her side powerful enough to warrant a full scale defensive from the enemy.
All assuming the King and Queen of Corona would lend troops to someone who shot their daughter.
Belle shook the thought away. How the hell would they know that? And besides, of course they'd want to help rescue their daughter, wouldn't they?
She was still eager to act, of course. Belle wanted nothing more than to destroy those monsters who had captured and killed so many innocent girls. But the exact logistics of her plan were beginning to worry her. Rapunzel's parents could deny them an army; Belle could forget some piece of the route and slow down the trip; the army could run out of ammunition before winning the fight.
And of course, Rapunzel might already be dead by the time Belle reached the Tournament gates.
• • •
God damn it, Mulan thought to herself. She had, until today, felt herself becoming desensitized to the suffering wrought by the Tournament. Hell, she had started to enjoy some of it – it made her feel as if she were at war, and it sure as hell energized her. There really was only one thing Mulan still hadn't gotten over.
The same slender man in purple entered the cell, popping a green pill on the way in. His shadow dragged on the stone behind him, eerily askew based on the light sources in the cell. Mulan remembered his voice all too well.
"Can you ladies hear me fine?"
Mulan was able to nod, thankfully. God knows what he would have done to her otherwise. The other two girls nodded as well.
"Good." The man turned to point, and for a dreaded moment Mulan feared she would be facing his wrath once more. He instead pointed to the brunette. "You!"
The girl spoke something to him in some European language.
He chuckled. "You already know why I'm here, don't you? You remember what I did to her, Rapunzel?" The man pointed at Mulan.
Rapunzel nodded. She looked so defeated already – that interrogation must've left some mark on her.
"I've learned since then. See, when I worked on Mulan, I did too much too quickly. She died."
Rapunzel stared at an obviously alive Mulan.
"We had to bring her back," the man continued. "But for you… I won't kill you, Rapunzel. It won't be as painful as what I did to Mulan."
Mulan caught sight of his shadow peeling away from its proper place.
The man stood taller, looming over a Rapunzel visibly shaking with fear. "What you did is inexcusable. Colluding to help a princess escape – I'm going to have to do this for a long, long time."
His shadow jumped out of the floor and into his hands, and the few candles which lit the room flared purple and green. He spun in place to face the Mulan and the Arab with fire brewing behind his eyes.
"Pay attention, girls. This is what happens if you try to escape your final fights."
The man threw his shadow at Rapunzel, whose skin immediately broke at the impact site. The shadow then split into a million pieces and burrowed under Rapunzel's skin in all directions, forcing a web of raised welts and shattered skin to erupt all over the poor girl.
Mulan stopped watching and tried to drown out the screams. It was familiar, yet entirely different. Mulan had been tortured spiritually, or something of the sort – that is to say, she felt pain, but nothing actually happened to her physically.
This girl was being ripped apart. Not killed, but just barely so.
Mulan didn't care to check what had just been hurled at the cell floor with a resounding splat.
• • •
"You got it?"
"Absolutely," Maleficent answered.
"Okay, babe," Hades said. "I'm gonna leave it to you for a day and see how shit goes down." Hades was still a little unsure of whether or not Maleficent could pull off running the Underworld, but she did have a point – if he ever wanted to rule Olympus, he'd need a replacement.
"You'll be working on grander things in the mean time, I presume?"
"Yeah," Hades confirmed. "I've got some recruiting to do."
• • •
Maleficent let out a sigh of relief when Hades left. Thank Zeus – she didn't have to act disgustingly agreeable. To a point, of course – Hades liked it when Maleficent fought him every now and then, but he liked to be in control more often than not.
She had to be honest, Hades's job was great and all, but was severely lacking in scope. He didn't, for example, have the power to reap souls at will. Maleficent knew that she would need the skills Hades's job required eventually. It would serve her well to put her genuine effort into this little internship she had earned herself, especially while she was on Hades's good side.
But Maleficent envisioned much grander things for herself in the long run, and saw her current position as temporary Lord of the Dead for what it was – a temporary position, a stepping stone on the way to true power.
• • •
"Oh fuck no…" Meg cursed, scared half to death by the man who, without warning, appeared before her.
"Hey there, dollface," Hades said. "Miss me?"
***Author's Note***
So Elsa tries and fails to make an Anna zombie, and every additional second that Belle takes is literal torture for Rapunzel. Most of the other villains are in the Tournament for the money, but Maleficent doesn't seem to care about that at all… so why is she involved with the Tournament?
Oh yeah, and Round 3 is starting up next chapter! This means we might be closer to the end than the beginning of this story – if there are loose ends or characters I'm neglecting, please let me know :)
Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing! There are three girls left – how are they going to be paired off?
