Frozen
"Oh...Anna, no, don't look at that!"
It's too late; the fractal on the wall shows a moving image of the former queen of Arendelle succumbing to icy tendrils all over her body. The memory of Elsa tearfully squeaks 'Anna' before the cold takes over. A burst of magic leaves memory Elsa's hand, the same magic that gave Anna the answers to the past, at her expense.
Present Elsa can't bring herself to even look at Anna yet; already, she hears the pained gasps and fluttery breaths at her side. Of all the things Ahtohallen had to offer, this is what it chose? The moment she died?
"Anna?" Elsa cringes as she dares a glance in her sister's direction. She wanted to broach this topic some other time, not now, not so soon after it happened. She's still processing it; she froze, the living embodiment of ice and snow, frozen in the bowels of Ahtohallen.
And Anna didn't even know. All she knew in that dark cave was that Olaf's life force was fading fast; Elsa's couldn't have been far behind.
"Oh, Elsa," Anna claps a hand to her mouth, halfway between nauseous and heartbroken. She's barely breathing, tiny puffs of air giving her lungs the bare minimum to survive. "Y–you...you were...you-"
"Oh, sweetheart," Elsa guides Anna's face to her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
Mercifully, the memory ends, and the fractal becomes blue as the sea ice the walls are made from. Anna trembles; it could either be from the chilling revelation, or the chilled air. Either way, Elsa thinks quickly, takes their mother's shawl Anna brought with her, and wraps it around the queen's shoulders.
"Come here Anna, I've got you."
"You—you froze," the flat, toneless way Anna states the obvious chills Elsa's heart.
"I know, but I'm here now. I'm okay," The blonde's fingers run desperately through Anna's hair.
There's a silence so deafening Elsa can't even hear herself think.
"You...died."
"It's in the past," Elsa hugs her sister so tight their faces are touching. "It's not what's happening now."
"The one–one thing I was always af–afraid of," the queen chokes through the words. "Th—the one thing, and I wa–wasn't there."
"Anna, look at me," Elsa entreats, her stomach twisting at the sight of tears in her baby sister's eyes. "Please."
Anna does as instructed. Her chest is heaving, her jaw slack with horror. She reaches out to Elsa's forearms, gripping them just a little too tight. The blonde suppresses the pain, concerned only for the pain in the heart of her sister.
"Keep your eyes on me," Elsa is a few seconds from panic herself, and every syllable she speaks reflects this. "This, right here, is now. That was then."
Anna's eyes do not leave her sister. The redhead opens her mouth, but no words come out.
"Stay with me," Elsa's voice steels when Anna's fails her. "I'm here."
The queen's legs shake, her knees give out. Both sisters land with a 'thud' against the icy floor.
"I lost you," Anna's voice is hardly above a whisper. She's trembling so hard, Elsa begins to fear it may be hypothermia or shock. Or both.
"Anna, you need to calm down. You're shaking."
"I lost you!" the hysterical wail sends a wave of chills down Elsa's spine. It's several moments before the elder sister recovers her wits.
"It's okay, baby girl. I'm here," she soothes, encircling Anna in a warm embrace once more. "I...went away for a while, but I'm here now, I promise."
Anna slumps, her palms and Elsa's hands on her arms just barely stopping her face from making contact with the floor. She shuts her eyes, biting her lip so hard she's surprised she hasn't drawn blood. Anna looks up; the glow in the ice creates a blue halo around Elsa's head.
"I lost you," she bores her teary eyes into Elsa's. "But...you're here. You have to be. You promised."
"That's right, I promised," the elder sister furrows her brow with determination. "We do this together."
Anna's face falls, a few earnest sobs tumble out. She blindly reaches for her big sister, who is already closing what little distance there is between them. Elsa wills her tears to freeze in place for the moment.
"Shh. Come on, it's okay," the elder sister rocks Anna in her arms. "Let's get out of here. We need to get you warm."
Elsa draws her closer. She tucks the shawl into Anna's cloak, making sure her neck is fully covered. She brings up Anna's hood. The queen swipes her sleeve beneath her runny nose, chest quivering with each shaky breath. She gasps upon seeing the crystalline tears frozen to her sister's face. The moment Anna touches the icy drops, they slide down Elsa's cheeks as water. While moved by the warmth of her little sister's gesture, Elsa remains attentive to the task at hand.
"H–here, lean on me," a soft bidding helps the younger sister rise. "We're leaving."
Elsa calls out the siren's song as they near the mouth of the cave. The sea water rises to form an ethereal, liquid horse.
"Nokk, take us back to Arendelle, please."
The Fifth spirit entreats the Water spirit successfully. Nokk lowers their head with a soft neigh, as if they know the pain Anna is going through. Elsa helps the queen upon the Nokk, then takes her seat at the front. Freezing the horse would only increase Anna's chills, so she decides to go bareback. It's not a long distance, anyway. Anna's arms wind around Elsa's waist. A firm 'hiyah' gets the water horse's hooves pounding the ocean's surface.
"Anna, I'm so sorry you had to see that," the elder sister turns her head as far as she can while maintaining her grip on the Nokk. "We'll be home soon. Just hold on a little longer, okay?"
Anna nods with a sniffle.
"You're okay," Elsa soothes with a brief pat to Anna's knee. "Hold on tight."
Closing notes: I'd like to think that Anna is the only one (other than Elsa herself) who is truly capably of thawing Elsa's ice. It would have to be intentional, though, it's not just because of her body heat. To be clear, in this particular instance, Elsa freezes her tears because if they fell, it would be like getting pelted with drops of ice water, and she doesn't want Anna to get sick/feel any more discomfort.
This will probably not have a continuation. Some of these need to end on a note of uncertainty.
Also, I think the 'baby girl' thing is a little much, but I think when Elsa is truly panicking about Anna's mental state, she'd probably throw in more terms of endearment, both for her own sanity, and to soothe Anna.
