Warnings: major character death, violence, blood and gore, suicide.

Chapter 21: Endgame

"Stay close to me, Anna. I need you," Elsa breathed, as they stood among the trilithons at the edge of the Enchanted Forest, the spirits' sigils carved like wards in the stone above them.

Anna sighed happily. "I never get tired of hearing that."

Elsa smiled briefly, squeezing her sister's hand. "It's time." She gazed at the horizon, contemplating everything that had happened these past few years. Hugging Anna at this very spot after dying in the depths of Ahtohallan. Falling in love with her. Even after all they'd been through, and the terrible danger they faced, she wouldn't trade it for anything, for a moment less than what they had. A small smile crept to her lips briefly.

The grasses in the amber fields waved in the breeze as the Deathlord's army approached, a dark cloud across the ground. Elsa closed her eyes and reached out with her magic. Bruni. Gale. Jotun. Nokk. Mother. Be with me, please. Give us your strength to win this day. As if to answer, the wind whipped around the sisters.

Across the expanse, she heard the hoarse shout of the Deathlord's chief minion echo.

"Behold, the lord of death! Fifth spirit, tremble before my master's greatness! If you surrender now, he promises you and your companion an easy death!" bellowed Yaqub's voice.

Elsa smirked and reached into her magic. In an instant, Yaqub's body turned solid blue, frozen in place, his rotting flesh turned to blackened ice. "If you want me, come and get me, Deathlord. Stop sending your minions to talk us to death." She flicked her finger, and Yaqub's body shattered into tiny ice shards, crumbling away.

Green fire answered her call, but Elsa was prepared this time. Instead of ice, she raised a wall of solid rock from the ground, and the fire dissipated against it with little damage done.

"So, the little girl has finally realized she has more than one power," thundered the Deathlord. "Good. It will make my victory that much sweeter when I rip each element from your broken body and devour it before your eyes." He raised the staff of Al-Fyniq and summoned a giant rock monster, boulders ablaze in green flame, and commanded it to attack Elsa as his troops swarmed around him, rushing towards the elemental obelisks.

Wind and ice washed over the field, freezing many of the enemy soldiers in place and beginning to erode their bodies, the same way Elsa had defeated the Deathlord's cavalry. The fiery stone golems shoved their way through the ice, their fire dampening but not extinguishing. Elsa furrowed her brow and cast more energy into her ice storm.

Anna felt her sister's tugging at her energy and closed her eyes. Behind her eyelids, she saw face after face swirling in an emerald mist and realized she was seeing the life energy that the Countess had drained into the necklace, now within her. The Countess hadn't told them the truth; there were thousands of faces in her mind. How many souls had she consumed in her hundreds of years of existence? As Elsa drew power from her, she saw one of the faces grow dim and slowly drift into smoke. That gave Anna a benchmark of how much she had to lend Elsa to win this fight, the power of a thousand lives or more.

Realizing the wind and ice had no effect on the stone golems, Elsa wove another spell, and vines leaped from the earth, grasping the stone golems and tearing them apart. Broken, the green fire faded away and the earth swallowed up the errant stones back into itself; the ice that had frozen the foot soldiers dissipated and they began their march forward again. She returned the Deathlord's elemental attack with one of her own, giant chasms opening up under the battlefield and swallowing hundreds of the Deathlord's soldiers.

"I will have you yet, fifth spirit!" seethed the Deathlord. A gout of flame burst from his staff, molten rock and fire spewing at Elsa. The remaining vines burned away, as she countered with a beam of pure frost, the two streams of energy negating each other while surrounding her and Anna with ring after ring of razor-sharp icicles to keep the foot soldiers at bay. Where their energies collided on the battlefield, nothing survived. The air shimmered with energy and the soil melted back into lava, so intense was their contest of powers.

A column of soldiers circled around behind Elsa's position and flung themselves onto the ice spikes. Body after body impaled themselves, breaking the ice slowly, until a carpet of corpses paved the way for a few riders to make their way to the center, to the sisters.

"You cannot defeat me, little girl!" taunted the Deathlord. "Do you know why? Do you know why your magic cannot beat mine? It is because we are the same, Elsa!" he sneered, mocking her name. An ill wind filled with black, choking ice blew towards the sisters, threatening to blind them, but Elsa anticipated it and poured sand on it, forcing the wind to the ground.

The Deathlord cackled. "Do you understand yet, child? I am also a fifth spirit! I control the same powers you do, only I have the power of death as my ally!" A wall of green fire raced towards Elsa, who swiped her hand in front of her and blocked it with a thick wall of snow. Unlike ice, the snow absorbed the fire more easily and melted into the earth. With another wave of her hand, her snow turned into raging fire, a burning red wave racing towards the Deathlord.

Dimly, Elsa heard Anna scream.

The first rider over the wall of corpses was Kristoff, riding atop the undead Sven. Both of their corpses lacked eyes, hollow black sockets staring at Anna as they approached. Anna repeated the words of healing that came to her yesterday, her hands limned with golden light again. She thrust her hands out and a beam of light impacted Kristoff's chest.

The corpse slowed but did not stop. Anna pushed harder, willing her powers to break Kristoff free, and restore him to life. More maniacal laughter echoed across the battlefield. "So you are the source of the fifth spirit's power, little redheaded child. How delightful! After I consume her, I will drain you as well! Save your energy for me - you cannot heal a corpse with no soul," the Deathlord snickered at her before turning his attention back to her sister.

Anna screamed wordlessly and her light brightened, cracking the corpse of Kristoff from within. Sunlight fractured his skin, breaking the body apart like a dam threatening to overflow. In one final burst of light, Kristoff's body shattered, leaving only black sand in the air.

Anna fell to her knees, exhausted from the effort, and was knocked flat on the ground by another corpse soldier, this one wielding an ugly, curved knife with sigils carved in the handle. Anna blinked. The knife bore the sigils of the elements. She rose from the ground to intercept the wielder but missed grabbing his sleeve by bare inches.

Elsa turned, a moment too late, and felt the knife rip into her solar plexus. Heat and pain radiated from her core like lava from a volcano as she looked into the face of her attacker, her hands around the hilt. Blood stained her clothing, spreading slowly across her abdomen.

"Hans!" she growled through gritted teeth as she sank to her knees.

"He can't hear you, fifth spirit, though he did harbor quite a bit of animosity towards you before he died," mocked the Deathlord, walking closer, savoring his victory. "I'm not sure what you did to him, but he was willing to gamble his life to deal the killing blow to you. I can feel his soul in me, and what's left of him is satisfied. I kept my word to him after all," he grinned.

"ELSA!" Anna crawled over to her sister, cradling her once more. "Let me… let me heal you, let me fix thi-" Anna's words seized in her throat as the Deathlord gripped her by the neck and lifted her off the ground.

"Hush, child. Do not interfere, and I will grant you an easy death." With his free hand, the Deathlord gripped Elsa by the throat, lifting her bloody body high. He bared his teeth to reveal rows of sharp fangs and a forked tongue. "Now, fifth spirit, it is time for me to consume you before life leaves your body. Give me your powers. Give me everything."

The Deathlord brought Elsa's face close to his as if to kiss her.

Anna closed her eyes, her head swimming from the lack of air. What could she do to save her sister before she was… violated by this demon? Before she could act, Elsa gasped out one final word.

"No."

With her remaining strength, Elsa robbed the Deathlord of his prize by pulling his inscribed dagger upwards into her heart. She knew his endgame, to steal her powers, and she knew that her death would save thousands of lives, perhaps more. Her last conscious thought was Anna. By denying the Deathlord his victory, she hoped he'd be distracted enough for Anna to escape. I love you, Anna. I'm so sorry, but I have to go. Take this chance and save yourself.

Elsa died.

The Deathlord howled. "NO! I will not be denied your power, spirit! I will not be denied my victory!" He tossed Anna aside, then threw Elsa's body to the ground, ripped out the knife, and stabbed her again, blind with rage. "I will not!" he stabbed once more, "be denied! I will not lose to the spirits again! I will-"

Anna shrieked, words failing her entirely, seeing Elsa's corpse being mutilated by the Deathlord. She stumbled to her feet, her body wanting to flee but her heart wanting to stay. Rage and sorrow warred in her soul, pulling her apart.

At that moment, the Countess' words echoed again in her mind. "Life energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only moved from one living being to the next… you can give rebirth to someone if their soul has not yet left their body… remember the price you pay for using it…"

Pay. The Deathlord would pay.

The face of an old woman appeared to her, dressed in ancient garb, flowing robes as black as night. The woman whispered in Anna's ear, in her native tongue, but Anna understood her as clearly as if she were having tea with her in the palace. Vér a vér, a lélek a lélek. Annyira fájsz, hogy meggyógyuljak. Meghalsz úgy, hogy éljek. Az élete úgy végződik, hogy kezdődik az enyém. Elítélek. Meghal!

Anna's eyes opened, her irises glowing fiery, bright red instead of teal. She rushed forward, one hand grabbing the kneeling enemy by his throat, her impossibly strong fingers crushing flesh and cartilage. With her other hand, she reached down and placed her palm on her sister's unmoving, bloody chest. Anna shouted the words the woman whispered to her in righteous fury.

Blood to blood.

Soul to soul.

You hurt, so that she heals.

You die, so that she lives.

Your life ends, so that hers begins.

I condemn you.

DIE.

The Deathlord wailed in agony.

Bright green energy poured out of his body as every soul he'd devoured broke free from his control. The energy of tens of thousands of souls flowed through Anna's hand and changed color over her heart to a bright golden color, the color of the first rays of sunrise, as she poured life energy into Elsa. The knife's handle glowed, the sigils shining with the colors of each element as the blade expelled itself from Elsa's chest and the wound sealed.

What was left of the Deathlord quickly disintegrated. Flesh melted, sinews snapped, bones crumbled, and in one final gasp of anguish, the corpse exploded in a flare of white light. Both Anna and Elsa glowed with the brightness of the summer sun, their bodies surrounded in white light. Anna's eyes were suffused with golden light entirely. She cradled Elsa's body in her arms, waiting patiently.

Elsa gasped, her eyes snapping open.

"…Anna?"

"Elsa!" Anna hugged her sister tightly to her.

"You seem to be in the habit of repeatedly saving me," Elsa chuckled as the light surrounding them seemed to sink into their bodies. She looked around at the plains. The Deathlord's army was reduced to black sand, Gale's winds already sweeping them away. Scattered weapons and armor littered the field, along with piles of clothes and rags, but nothing else remained. Anna picked up the remains of the Deathlord's belongings, the dagger, and a satchel.

"There's nothing I'd rather do more than save you, sis," Anna laughed. Her heart still felt like it was shining as bright as the sun. Long ago, she'd wondered what more she had to give to her kingdom, and today she found the answer in herself. She'd done it. She'd brought Elsa back from the dead, and defeated the enemy bent on enslaving her kingdom. For the first time, she felt like the weight of the crown was light upon her brow. She'd earned the right to wear it by freeing her kingdom and her love.

Elsa hugged Anna tightly. "Come on, let's get everyone back from England," she giggled.

The sisters sat in the dining room of the palace as staff bustled around, helping citizens get re-situated and putting supplies away. Kai and Gerda directed what seemed like endless flows of people up and down the halls.

At the table, over a simple meal of some flatbread and smoked salmon, Mattias and Yelana listened as the two royals recounted the tale of their fight to defeat the army of death.

"Incredible, Your Highness," said Mattias, shaking his head. "To think that an entire army was stopped in its tracks by two people, one of whom came back from the dead! This will be the strangest chapter in Arendelle's history books - and it looks like I didn't need to recruit all those soldiers anyway!"

Elsa smiled. "I'm sorry about that. I know how hard you worked to get everyone ready, but this was a case where-"

"Hey, I get it. I really do. They always say that the only victory that matters to a soldier is surviving, and it's true. Besides, what could we have done, Your Highness? Eight hundred men with conventional weapons against what? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? We would have just been more casualties of war, more soldiers to fight against you." Mattias shook his head again more vigorously. "I'd rather not aid and abet the enemy, even unwillingly."

"Besides," Yelana spoke up, "It wasn't just two ordinary people. It was the fifth spirit, the guardian of the forest protecting us," she spoke reverently, looking at Elsa. "And of course, Your Majesty, who it would seem is a different kind of spirit magic entirely. Perhaps it might be wise for you to consult the spirits in Ahtohallan and learn what just happened?"

Anna nodded to the Northuldra leader. "We'll be doing that shortly, once everything is all put back in place here. Thank you for your help and for being so willing to let Arendelle's people come into your lands, Yelana. It was wonderfully gracious of you, and I'm sure it caused some alarm."

"Some, perhaps, but our people still remember the debt we owe you personally, Queen Anna, for breaking the dam and freeing our land. We will be repaying that for many years to come," smiled Yelana. "Well, we should be taking our leave. We all have much to do as we clean up from this… event. May the spirits and the sun guide you wisely, fifth spirit. Báhcet dearvan."

Yelana and Mattias stood, bowed, and left the sisters to eat the light repast quietly. "It's a shame you can't conjure food, Elsa," Anna smiled saucily as she put down her salmon sandwich. "Imagine what a useful set of spells that could be!"

Elsa rolled her eyes. "If I could conjure food, we'd literally do nothing else, I'm sure. Especially if it were chocolate," she smirked. "Yelana is right, though. We should visit the spirits and learn what happened to us, what we should do next."

Anna walked over to Elsa's chair and perched herself on her sister's lap. "What we should do next is relax and recover. You died, Elsa! I- that's not something I'm going to be able to just put aside and come back to later. We… I need some time to hold on tight to you." Anna put her arms around Elsa's neck and kissed her forehead.

"I did die, but I knew I would be okay, Anna."

"How? How did you know, because I sure didn't?"

"Because I had you at my side the entire time." Elsa pressed her lips to Anna's tightly as she pulled her out of the dining room by the hand, towards their bedroom.

"Hello, Mother," Anna said quietly, the walls of the hall of memory sparkling blue with frost.

Iduna's image looked down at the sisters, smiling. "Hello again Anna, Elsa. We are happy you've come, and we imagine you have questions." The crystals in the floor shone with the happy voices of the spirits as well.

"Yes, we do have some questions. I assume we don't need to tell you what happened?" asked Elsa.

Iduna's image shook her head. "All is found here."

"That said," Jotun's voice rumbled in the chamber, "we owe you a great debt, the two of you. You did what we could not, what we did not, many generations ago. You defeated Al-Masih ad-Dajjal."

Elsa nodded. "We did - together. What was he? He said something…" Her brow wrinkled at the Deathlord's taunt. Was he truly a fifth spirit? If so, how did he fall so far - and was that a fate she might share?

"He spoke the truth, Elsa," said Iduna. "The creature you fought, Al-Masih ad-Dajjal, was once someone else. Long ago, he was a fifth spirit, as you are. He was born into this world with our gifts and blessing, to protect and look after nature and humankind. But he grew ambitious. He desired power, the power to remake the world the way he thought it should be."

"When we chastised him, he rebelled. He took up arms against us, tried to defeat us," said Nokk's high-pitched squeaks. "In turn, we spirits imprisoned him in purgatory, hoping that he would realize the errors of his ways. Instead, he turned against life itself, growing to worship death. He believed that only in death could people be free of our powers and influence."

"Why did he want my powers?" Elsa asked, hugging her sister tighter to her.

"His powers were fading. The more he traded with death, the weaker he became in the elements. The powers of life and death are not compatible with the powers of the spirits," said Gale's wispy voice. "That is why Anna's powers and yours are separate. They could not co-exist in the same person. When Al-Masih ad-Dajjal embraced death's powers, they slowly began to ruin his elemental powers. He sought to re-empower himself by devouring yours."

"Is that why you didn't kill him?" Anna wondered aloud. "You imprisoned him instead of destroying him?"

"Yes, Anna, just so. We do not hold the power of life and death. That is beyond our gifts to give to a fifth spirit when he or she is born to this world," Gale whispered again.

"So… where does my power come from, then?"

Nokk laughed musically. "From life itself, Anna. Just as Al-Masih ad-Dajjal's power came from his alliance with death, yours comes from life, life energy. The Countess explained to you as much, what you are capable of, and the price you must pay to use your powers."

Anna paused. In the battle against the Deathlord, she hadn't felt her powers draining, but she also had no idea what she was doing with these abilities. All she knew was that the faces she saw when she was healing Elsa and using her powers against Kristoff were gone, but the hunger that the Countess warned her about hadn't arrived yet.

"The Countess said I have to feed off life energy for my powers to work, and I sure used a lot of them to battle the Deathlord. Why don't I feel the need to go all…grrr?" she asked, miming a vampire monster. Elsa stifled a giggle at Anna's theatrics.

Iduna's image looked to the crystals in the floor, as if seeking answers or approval from the spirits. Her eyes turned to Anna. "You did not use your powers to defeat the Deathlord, Anna. You used his. You took the energy of the tens of thousands of souls he had enslaved and you ripped them free from him. When you consumed his power, you transmuted it from death to life. Death and life are opposite sides of the same coin. That is how you brought Elsa back from the dead and destroyed the Deathlord's army - by stealing his power and his life."

Anna teared up. "I didn't… I never wanted to be a killer, to take someone's life. That's not who… what… not something I ever wanted to be. I just- I had to save Elsa, and then this old woman whispered something in my ear, and she said I could bring Elsa back, and I don't remember- oh god, what did I do?" Tears flooded Anna's eyes at the thought of her harming anyone, even an unrepentant mass murderer.

Nokk's peals filled the room and a soft blue light suffused Anna's body, calming her emotions and cooling her. "You did what was necessary, Anna, to save thousands more lives. You took one life to spare your entire nation and many other nations. It is not hyperbole to say that you may have saved the world, and you will find the reward commensurate."

Both sisters echoed, "What reward?"

Iduna spoke. "Look inside yourself, Anna. Do you see the faces of the lives the Countess stole?"

Anna shook her head.

"Elsa, do you feel different after Anna revived you?"

"I do, yes. Lighter. Happier. I feel like she cleansed me of something, took away something that was haunting me."

"She took away the death energy that Al-Masih ad-Dajjal had been poisoning your dreams with when she wrested his power from him. His hold over you is broken, and you are free of death's embrace," said Iduna. "That is the reward Anna has given you, and has earned for herself in turn."

"I don't understand, Mother," Elsa said, puzzled.

Anna's eyes widened and she inhaled sharply, a grin threatening to burst through the calm on her face. "Is it true?"

"Yes, Anna. You know the nature of your powers, the blessing and the curse they confer upon you. Old age, illness, and death may not claim you. In resurrecting Elsa with Al-Masih ad-Dajjal's own power, transmuting it from death to life, you have granted her the gift of eternity as well. Barring extraordinary circumstances, you will both live forever, in all that entails."

Anna squealed with delight and charged into her sister's arms, squeezing her tightly. "This means we can be together, Elsa! I never have to watch you leave me! Oh god, thank you, thank you spirits!" She breathed a sigh of deep relief. Knowing that she'd never have to watch Elsa age, wither away, and eventually die lightened her heart more than anything she'd ever experienced. They'd be together, literally forever.

"Injury and illness may still cause her harm, Anna, but as long as you are with her, you can absolve her of those burdens as well." Iduna's image smiled upon them.

Elsa took her sister's hand and kissed it, inhaling Anna's subtle warm scent. "We promised that we'd do this together, and now it looks like we will." She smiled at the thought. The lingering guilt of hiding away from her sister for thirteen long years suddenly evaporated at the thought of spending many, many more years together. "Together."

Author's Notes

This, or something like this, is how I wish Frozen 2 had ended. We would have understood the nature of Elsa's powers for real. We would have seen what they could really do. The lyrics implied we would - show yourself, step into your power - and the elemental spirits all made themselves a part of her dress. So, what happened?

I don't know. I suspect we will never know, beyond what's already been published. But that was the motivation for this entire story, to see what else Elsa could do.

When I watched the clip from Ralph Breaks the Internet and the different Disney princesses spring into action, all we saw of Anna was doing some sewing with a mouse. That's the best our favorite princess/queen could do, in Disney's eyes? Talk about stereotype. Fine. We fixed that in the story, too. Now Anna has usable powers.

This is the official end of the story, at which point we will veer from canon. There's an epilogue coming shortly, and then at least two one-shots that have been completed, and possibly a longer story set within the same universe.

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