Authors Note: Hey everyone! Sorry about the lack of a post monday & tuesday, I had a series of huge storms roll in sunday night/monday morning and my power was knocked out for two days! Among that, I will not have a post tomorrow. I have a medical scare going on right now, not virus related. Depending on how that goes tomorrow, will depend on if I have a post friday. Just wanted to keep you all updated!
Also, trigger warning for this chapter: mention of rape.
The darkness felt alive as it abated around them, cold and hollow. Keahi shifted to look at the mouth of the cave only to find it completely absent.
"Well, shit." Keahi grumbled, turning to Saphire to realize she was missing as well. A hiss of air escaped her as she twirled around, trying to find her footing but it was so dark she couldn't get her wits about her. "Saphire!" She shouted, only to have her voice echo like she was deep down in a narrow hole.
Her voice bounced around her, resounding and getting louder until she finally had to cover her ears at the static sound of her own voice.
Just as it all began, it stopped. And the silence was deafening. She didn't know what she preferred more, the unbearable refracting sound or the silence.
Keahi spun, the sound of her feet clicking into the darkness. She flicked her hand. Blue fire ignited there before a cold gust swept through and extinguished it.
Laughter started around her and the darkness lit enough to reveal a woman. At first, it was a silhouette until she sauntered towards Keahi. Keahi's brows knit forward and she anchored herself, hands in front of her glowing hot as the figure continued towards her.
Just the soft clicks of boots bouncing eerily into the abyss.
A flash of light blinded her and she winced, opening them and stumbling back when the woman appeared in front of her. It was the same figure she and Elsa had seen in Ahtohallen before it crumbled.
She was taller than Keahi by a few inches, standing at least six feet. Her eyes were a stark silver, with speckles of black ore throughout them. But her hair was as dark as night and her skin as white as snow. A laced bralette barely covered her chest. What looked to be black chains criss-crossed her stomach to her rounded hips where shorts that looked to be the same material as her bralette scarcely covered anything.
She was barefoot and everything about her was sultry and dangerous. The woman smirked as she walked around Keahi, like a panther to its prey. She traced a finger along Keahi's shoulder.
The feeling sent an unpleasant shiver down her spine and Keahi hit the woman's hand away. "Are you the Queen of Nifelheim? Hel?"
The woman stopped in front of her, putting a long fingernail on her lip where she sucked on it and smirked. "And if I am?"
"What did you do to my brother? And what do you two plan on doing?" Keahi demanded. The woman was creepy as sin, but she wanted to get the answers she came here for.
This isn't exactly what she had in mind, but…
Hel tilted her head, her pupils dialing into small dots. An eerie smile spread across her lips, fangs piercing her lower lip as she bit it there. "How cute. You'd be a lot cuter if you weren't so stupid."
Keahi stiffened, igniting her hands, which were quickly sniffed out at a flick of Hel's wrist.
"Oh, calm down. Your brother made choices that led him here. His insanity is his own, as is every. Single. Choice." Hel purred, "You're like a fish aching for the frying pan. Thinking you can help someone who doesn't want the help. Tell me, little guppy, how does it feel?"
"What?" Keahi edged, flinching when she came near but not moving away. Even as Hel leaned into her face with a fanged smirk.
"To be one reason for your brothers insanity? To be one of the things he regrets most? If he didn't save you, he'd be on a beach somewhere, emotions intact. How does it feel...to leave a vulnerable friend to the wrath of monsters?" Hel took a step to the side.
Images played throughout the darkness, wisping memories of ships and blue oceans. Images of an old tavern wavered into view, of two men and Saphire backed into the corner.
Keahi's eyes dilated and anger erupted in her chest as she reached out. Only to have the mirage of memories swish away. They came back, with a broken and beat up Saphire on the ground with her clothes tattered and torn.
Keahi's heart lurched and sadness ebbed through her as she held her hand up to the image just as it flowed away once more.
Her hands dropped so heavily to her sides just as Hel came up behind her and coiled her hands on Keahi's shoulders. Her lips just inches from Keahi's ear. "That's right. That pain and guilt you feel...that anger. I want it. I love it. Don't resist it and give it to me. It's what I thrive on." She whispered huskily.
As the guilt gnawed at her gut, as anger heated her veins, she felt the murky depths of darkness grab hold on her legs. Pulling her down into its muddy depths as her eyes heated and the ground below her rumbled with blue fire.
Hel just laughed, "Yes. Darkness is that lovely disconnect. The one thing that feeds like a leech off of all those sad, depressing emotions. I love it. Feed it to me." She pushed.
Keahi tried to fight against the sour anger that sweltered like a sickness inside her. Saphire has gotten hurt through all of this, an innocent bystander in Crows plan. If it wasn't for him…
She swallowed past the burning of bile in the back of her throat. She was tired of blaming herself for the toxic mess her brother had grown into. At what point did she finally condemn him for every action he has taken?
Her fire crawled over her body, enveloping her in blue flame as it shot out across the darkness. Black speckled the beauty of her blue flames. That darkness ebbing at the edge of her consciousness.
"Your fire is just destruction, anger, and heat." Hel gloated, her voice holding too much pleasure in this little game.
She sounded like she had already won.
Keahi's vision blurred crimson, but her fire stopped spreading. She clutched her hands so tight, her fingers burnt into the pads of her hands. Everything in her shook, her muscles straining to fight against the anger, the veins along her arms bulging as she tried to retract the growing expanse of her flames.
She wouldn't allow Hel to use her like this. To poke and prod at her insecurities and to make her doubt herself enough to allow Hels darkness to control her.
She had a reason to fight and strive for the future. Elsa, Pips, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, Sven. Her family. And her friends, Jarrah and Saphire.
Knowing what she knew now, she couldn't just allow herself to fall. She had to keep going.
"You're wrong," Keahi's voice was gravel and coarse. "The darkness is what has us reaching out. It connects us together."
Hel sneered, practically growling. "The darkness is the epitome of fear and isolation. Succumb to it like your brother!" She shouted.
"It's sad that you think that. The darkness is what makes us reach out to others in the chance we have someone to connect with, to the share in those burdens. It's what makes us vulnerable. And it's what makes us human. If we can fight past it..we can truly live." Keahi sucked in a deep breath, closing her eyes to concentrate past the raw anger and guilt.
She finally reeled in her fire, sweat starting on her brow as she staggered from the exertion of the invisible fight with herself. She opened her eyes to meet Hel's cold gaze. A smirk came to Keahi's lips. "I have reasons to fight. I have Elsa's love to nurture me. Pips to care for. And I have to help Saphire past her darkness. Now get out of my way." Keahi leveled her gaze with Hel.
She grit her fangs together, "I'm coming to turn the world as cold and dark as Nifelheim. And Arendelle will be given to your Brother to do what he will."
Keahi took a step forward as Hel took a staggered step back. "I'll meet you at the gates." Keahi whispered, her voice grovel and threatening.
Hel paused, for once, she didn't look so confident as she spat, "I'll save a special place in Nifelheim for your charred soul."
Hel erupted into a spark of soot and smoke, the darkness scattered. Light from the mouth of the cave flowed back in and she saw Saphire standing with tears in her eyes.
Without thinking, Keahi rushed over and took Saphire into a hug. At first, Saphire didn't hug back but eventually, her arms trembled as she wrapped them loosely around Keahi.
"I'm so sorry. Why didn't you tell me?" Keahi whispered. Pain stung at her heart like an angry wasp.
Saphire was silent. "I didn't want anyone to think I was weak." She finally muttered, sniffing before she broke into a sob. "I didn't want you, or Jarrah, to look at me like a pathetic victim." She said between sobs.
Keahi hugged her tighter, a knot in her throat but anger in her gut. Why couldn't she see the signs that her friend was hurting? Instead, she had just brushed it off as Saphire being jealous. Instead of a cry for help.
Once Saphire calmed down, Keahi pulled back enough and pulled Saphire at arm's length so she could look at her. "Saphire, you aren't a victim and you aren't to blame."
"Then what am I?" Saphire asked hotly, swiping furiously at the tears that stained her cheeks.
"A fucking warrior, Saphire. That's what you are. And don't you ever forget that."