"Take cover!" Kristoff screamed, diving behind a tree, just before a wave of heat and flame went ripping through the air past him. Even with the tree to protect him, he still felt his eyes dry out and his exposed skin tingle with the heat of the passing inferno. He heard debris rain down around him as the camp was scattered into the air, and then all was still. He peered around the tree and tried to take a headcount, to make sure everyone was okay, when the air was rent by a piercing scream. He whipped his head around to see Heins, covering Elsa, with angry red burns all over his back, visible through his charred shirt. The flames had been brief, and Kristoff prayed that the burns weren't too serious, but they would be painful. Looking around, he could see pale and scared faces poking out from behind rocks, logs, and stumps. Anna had fallen to her knees in the middle of the charred remnants of their camp.

"Look alive, people!" Kristoff shouted, leaping out from behind the tree and sprinting towards Anna as fast as he could. "Whoever's functional, help anyone who's not!" There was a flurry of motion as three or four of them ran towards Heins, two more following Kristoff, and he didn't see any more than that. Please don't let her have killed anyone, thought Kristoff. He knew she had been off that morning, more than usual, more than even this particular brand of usual. Anna had gotten to her feet and ran towards the horses.

"Anna, no! Stop!" She leapt onto one of the horses and burned the strap holding it to the tree, then took off across the fields. Not this time. He looked back at the two who had followed. It was Alan and Silas. "Go back! Help them! I'll get Anna!" He heard shouted words of encouragement as he hacked through another of the straps and leapt onto the now free horse.

"Bring her back, Kristoff!"

"Don't let her get away!"

"Go, Kristoff!"

He pulled his mount around and urged it forward, after Anna. She had already pulled ahead of him by a quarter mile or more as he bent low over the mane, riding harder and faster than he ever had, wishing he still had Sven.

Anna didn't look back, and it didn't seem that she had yet realized she had been followed. Kristoff used this to his advantage, closing the gap to fifty feet or so before she looked around. Her face was stained with tears. "Anna! Stop! Please!" Kristoff cried, urging the horse faster, but she just turned around and dug her heels into her own, and began pulling away again. She was lighter, and a better rider, and Kristoff knew if he didn't do something, and fast, his horse would tire quicker than hers, and he would lose her. He stood up in the saddle, craning his neck to see as far as he could. There was a stream ahead, no more than a shallow ditch cutting across the plains, and Anna hadn't seen it yet! It ran at a diagonal to where they were running now, so if Kristoff angled to the right, he might be able to cut her off. He changed course and galloped as hard as he dared. The horse was beginning to slow, it was not used to being driven this hard. "Come on," he urged it, running a hand over its flank. "Come on!"

Anna reached the river, and as Kristoff had hoped, angled along it and continued her flight. Don't look over here, don't look over here… They were only a hundred feet apart, and she still hadn't noticed his redirection. But how to make her stop? Kristoff had an idea, but it was a very, very bad one. Please let this work. Kristoff took his feet from the stirrups and stood in the saddle, absorbing the horse's movements with his legs as its hooves pounded the earth. Fifty feet, forty feet, thirty feet, he was practically in front of her now, twenty feet, her eyes went wide and she yanked on the reins, but it was far too late for that, ten feet-

Kristoff fired his legs, pushing his horse off balance, but not enough to slow his leap straight for Anna. He twisted in midair so that he was flying through the air on his side, coming in behind her. He wrapped both arms around her midsection and jerked his body back, pulling her backwards and sideways off the saddle with a scream. They fell through the air for a long time, before-

SPLASH!

They landed hard in the stream in a wild tangle of limbs. Kristoff felt something jab him hard in the stomach, and the air escaped his lungs in one big bubble. He pushed off the bottom and surfaced, standing waist deep in the water, hacking and coughing. Anna was staggering away from him, drenched to the bone. She was almost to the shore. Her back heaved in stuttering breaths.

"Anna!" Kristoff shouted, or tried to. He hadn't yet caught his breath. She spun around to face him, standing ankle deep in the water.

"Stay away!" she cried, sobbing. "I mean it Kristoff! Stay away!"

"No," he replied, stepping forward.

"Stay away from me!"

"No," he said again, taking another step forward.

"Stay away!" She held up her hand, and a ball of flame shimmered there. Kristoff stopped and looked at it.

"Are you going to kill me, Anna?"

"I don't want to hurt you…"

"You won't." He took another step.

"I already have! I almost killed you all! Stay away from me!" The flame grew a little brighter. Her face was contorted with anguish.

"No." He stepped forward again. They were just ten feet apart now. She threw the ball at the water just in front of him, and a geyser of steam erupted there. Kristoff didn't flinch.

"I'm not safe!" she screamed at him.

"No, you're not," Kristoff agreed.

"Then stay away! Don't get yourself killed!"

"No."

"Why won't you leave me alone!?"

"Because I love you." He stepped forward again. They were five feet apart.

"Kristoff- I love you too- that's why you need to stay away!" Tears were pouring down Anna's face, and she was pulling at her hair, looking beside herself with anguish. "There's something wrong with me!"

"Let me help."

"It's too dangerous to be around me!" She conjured another ball of fire. Kristoff cocked an eyebrow at her.

"If you're going to kill me, do it. Because that's the only way I'll stop." He took another step forward. "I'm never abandoning you again, Anna." Anna's hands were trembling, then the ball of flame vanished in a wisp of smoke.

"You idiot," she said. Her voice was shaking. "Why won't you stay away?"

"Because I'm your idiot," he said, taking a final step forward. They were almost touching now. He reached out towards her hand, but just before he touched it, she drew it back.

"Is Heins okay?"

"... I think so."

She looked at him, looking more helpless and exhausted than Kristoff had ever seen. "How can I face them?" she whispered.

"Anna… what happened isn't your fault."

She stepped back like she had been slapped. "How can you say that?"

"Was it Elsa's fault that she caused the Great Freeze? Or that she froze your heart?"

"No, but-"

"But nothing." Kristoff cut across, stepping forward to close the gap once again. "Elsa needed your help to fix all of that. You don't have to do this alone, Anna." He reached for her hand again, and this time, she didn't pull away.

She looked up at him with watery eyes. "Why are you doing this?" she whispered.

Kristoff shrugged. "I had a very good teacher."