When Sorrows come, they come not single spies, But whole Battalions.

-Shakespeare, Hamlet, IV, 5

July 31st, 1840

The Dungeons, Royal Palace

Anna's gut feeling worsened as she entered the ancient stone corridor that was the entrance to the dungeons with none other than Captain Edvard, who insisted he be the one to escort her down to Elsa. Something to do with getting a briefing or some such, the Captain of the Guard had said. Despite the tense but honest look on his, Anna still felt something was up.

"Captain, please let me go!"

The aging Guard Captain gave her a warm smile. "Don't worry your highness, I've done over a dozen of these over my career, and that's not counting drills. You're in no danger."

"You don't understand, something is up. I mean, what's up with all the mercenaries running around?"

"That's been accounted for, your highness. Every one of the auxiliaries assigned to the garrison has been approved by me, except for Widstrom's personal detail. And the Queen's own made sure they were disarmed before they went anywhere near the Queen."

"I hope you're right about this."

The two entered the Charge of Quarters room, where a number of Guardsmen milled about, standing post. They quickly snapped to attention upon seeing Captain Edvard, relaxing only when he ordered 'at ease.'

"Report, Corporal."

"All quiet here Captain. Nothing has gone in through that door, nor out."

"No reports?"

"No sir."

"Any noise?"

"No sir. The dungeon door muffles noise, but we'd hear gunshots sure as hell."

"Good. A little unusual for Hvitstrom to be so quiet for so long, but not unheard of. In any case, be sure to log my deposit into the log book, Corporal."

"Of course, sir."

"Carry on."

With that a Guardsman opened the dungeon door, queueing the Guard Captain and Anna to head into the dungeon, the door locking behind them. Anna felt a little disorientated as her eyes shifted from the bright, well-lit CQ room to the dark of the dungeons, where only the cell entrances and checkpoints were lit.

Her sense of dread getting worse, Anna was eager for a distraction. "Captain, what's going to happen to Kristof?"

"Nothing, naturally. I know about the trolls and Kristoff's upbringing, so naturally I am aware that he is no spy. He'll be free to go as soon as this emergency is over."

"Good."

A few moments of silence resumed, as the pair traversed the empty corridors that cut between likewise cells, before eventually nearing the end of the block. There stood a large group of men, some guardsmen, some mercenaries. The area being somewhat well, lit, Anna recognized Sergeant Hvitstrom, head of the Queen's own. He looked deeply troubled.

"Captain! I requested to be informed of Princess Anna's securing before she was to be brought down!"

"I am aware of the Sergeant, but I wanted a brief from her Majesty on the situation." The Captain looked about the room, before returning his gaze to Hvitstrom. "Where is the Queen, by the way?"

Hvitstrom began to look panicked, especially as boot steps began to approach. "It doesn't matter; we need to get Princess Anna out of here now!"

Growing defensive, Captain Edvard began to accost Hvitstrom. "What is going on here, Hvitstrom? Where is the goddamn Queen!?"

The footsteps came around the corner, revealing to be a number of Widstrom's men. Their eyes locked in on Princess Anna, their target acquired. "It's her- seize her!"

Hvitstrom turned to Edvard, screaming as he drew his revolver, "GET HER OUT!" In reflex all of the men in the room drew and leveled their weapons and began to fire rapidly. As black powder began to burn and fill up the room with smoke, Anna had difficulty seeing and breathing the already stale air. Stunned by the turn of events for only a moment, Captain Edvard quickly seized Anna and began to flee.

However, he only made it a few feet when Anna heard and felt bullets flying past and soon the Captain was slammed by a bullet, tumbling to the stone floor. Gasping his last, Edvard reached up to the Crown Princess, trying to gesture her in a shooing motion. "Princess… run…"

Horrified to see a man die before her, Anna froze in place, only moving when a revolver's bullet landed itself into her leg. Crying out in pain and buckling at once, Anna fell to the floor as the gunfire died down. She gritted her teeth and forced her head up, only to see Widstrom's mercenaries mopping up in a hurry. The Queen's own had killed more than they had lost, but they were simply swarmed. As shouting began to be heard back towards the entrance of the dungeons, two mercenaries quickly seized Anna and began to roughly drag her deeper into the dungeons. As she slid through the room, she felt the back of her dress become sopping wet as it mopped up all the spilt blood. The last thing she saw before being pulled through the door was Hvitstrom's corpse slumped up against a wall, his dead eyes staring at her sadly. And then, darkness.

…

Elsa sat alert ever since she heard the sound of gunfire, both worried and relieved simultaneously as the gunfire meant either her imminent demise or rescue was upon her. This was not lost on their sentry Nils, who had up to this point sat casually with his rifle cradled, but now stood rifle in hand looking about. Granted, the risk of an escape was diminished when Gerda and Dieter had been sent back to their cells, but the mercenary was a professional: he was taking no chances.

To her dread, it was a number of Widstrom's men who entered, followed by an even worse sight: a pair of thugs dragging a bloody Anna down the hallway. Elsa leapt to her feet, going as far forward as her shackles would let her.

"Anna!"

Widstrom quickly appeared, greeting the recently returned group with berating. "What the fuck happened, you imbeciles!? The whole castle must have heard that!"

A senior contractor answered, struggling in between breaths. "I don't know! The fucking guard captain showed up with the princess and they all just turned on us out of nowhere!"

"Fuck!" Widstrom paced about, thinking on his feet, before turning back to his men. "What's Anna's status?"

"She's shot in the leg, sir. If we wanted her as a hostage, we'd have to carry her out."

Elsa gasped in horror at the news, before beginning to gently sob. "Anna… no…"

Widstrom drew his baton, striking the bars of Elsa's cell. "Shut the fuck up!"

Elsa whimpered silently, before Widstrom continued. "Fuck, how much time do we have!"

"Not long. We locked all the doors behind us and blacked out the lights, but they'll have keys and lanterns. We need to buy time if we want to escape through the secret tunnel."

Widstrom pondered for a moment, before turning to his men. "Put the Princess in the chair."

Obedient to the man that pays their salary, they obliged, before Nils asked "What for, sir?"

Widstrom sighed as if steeling himself, before answering. "We need road blocks."

He drew his knife, positioning it across Anna's neck with one hand as he violently grasped Anna's hair with the other. Up to this point Anna had been fazed by her blood loss and the multiple blows to her head from being dragged through cobblestone, not to mention the shock of being dragged through blood and gore, but the imminent threat to her life caused her to struggle ineffectually against Widstrom's hold of her. Recognizing what was about to happen, Elsa screamed an unearthly wail just before Widstrom ripped the knife across Anna's throat, splitting it wide open.

Jerking Anna's head down as he released his grasp, he turned to the mercenaries. "Nils, Robert, Reinhardt, you stay back and finish off the Snow Queen. Everyone else, with me. We are leaving this shithole."

As Widstrom's troops began to file out except for those chosen to be her executioners, Elsa stayed transfixed on her sister's last moments. As the blood flowed heavily out of her second mouth, Anna reflexively reached up with her hands trying to close the wound, gripping the two 'lips' so fiercely that her nails scratched and drew blood. Before long she began to slump back in her chair, kicking the loose gravel like stone beneath her chair. In addition, she made a horrifying sound, a mix between screaming and gurgling in between her gagging and choking. Even the men left behind to kill Elsa could only watch with stone faces, ignoring their assigned duty. After a what seemed like an eternity, Anna's shuddering and kicking stopped, her light blue eyes fixed on Elsa, appearing sad for her sister but somehow relieved that her final moments were with her sister. Then the light faded from them, and they became cold and lifeless.

Anna was dead.

Elsa posture slumped, as she began to tremble ever slightly as the tears openly flowed liked rivers off her cheeks. The sound of guardsmen several doors away shook the gaze of her would-be murderers, refocusing them on the task at hand.

"Alright lads, let's get this done and rejoin the others." The trio leveled their muskets at Elsa, as Nils spoke again. "Hold still, my dear. You'll be with your sister shortly."

Elsa was at this point so overcome with sorrow and anger that she did not even have the power to collapse, instead she could only stand there numb, facing her oncoming death. However, her powers were mysteriously absent externally, much like they had been two weeks ago on the lake…

…the first time she lost Anna.

But unlike then, a burning like sensation overcame her, like that of an appendage submerged in ice water too quickly (though she had never felt that sensation in her life), except this feeling covered her whole body. In short, she felt as if a terrible blizzard raged inside of her. As so, her vision tunneled, as her mind became fuzzy with blinding, hateful anger.

To her killers, there was no sign, other than her eyes starting to glow blue, a glow that also lit her streaming tears.

"Say goodnight Snow Queen. Fire."

The trio squeezed their triggers, causing their rifles to fire.

…

Apologies to anyone who became… emotional due this chapter, but it is rated M for a reason. I was tempted to put a warning in… but where would the fun in that be?

No this is not the end of the road (Or is it?)

#Glensunderthedumpster.

Too Soon?

Also, shout out to the artist Coeur,who drew a beautiful piece of artwork, one that has proven to be a major piece of inspiration to my writing, as I literally wrote this entire arc based around the one moment captured in the picture, the moment being the end of this chapter. As fitting, I decided to use that picture as the cover for this story. If you wish to see more of their work, feel free to PM me and ask for a link.

See y'all next time,

O7 Dragunov