Chapter 16 - Anna
Ariel Barnes sat by her daughter's bed as she watched Melody cough up blue gunk into a bucket, her skin and hair very pale. She sighed, knowing that without the cure, Melody would have to hold for as long as the coughing fit would last.
It had been two hours since Elsa had left her alone in the apartment, having gone off to find her husband Eric. She looked out of the window, seeing darkness beginning to fall and snow blow in the wind.
She looked down. "Elsa, Eric where are you?"
Melody spluttered. "Mama... it hurts."
Ariel stroked her daughter's head, smiling at her softly. "It's okay... everything will be okay, little one."
Melody smiled, looking into her mother's eyes. "I miss daddy... is he coming home soon?"
"I hope so," Ariel said. "Those bad man in the armour seemed to have gone, so I'm sure we'll see daddy soon."
At that moment, Ariel heard a knock at her door. She got up and walked out Melody's bedroom, arriving at the door, opening it to see Elsa standing there. "Oh, Elsa! Thank god, you're back."
Elsa merely looked on at Ariel, her hair in a tangled mess and her eyes sore from crying. "Hey, Ariel."
Airel sighed. "What's wrong? Has something happened?" She then looked to either side of Elsa. "Where's Eric?"
Elsa gulped, not knowing how best to deliver the news of Eric's fate. She had to tell her now, before she left, otherwise she couldn't forgive herself. "Ariel... Eric's gone. He... he's dead."
Ariel teared up. "What?" she denied. "No... he can't be gone. I don't believe that!"
"I'm so sorry, Ariel," Elsa said, before handing her friend the ring Eric had given her on his deathbed. "He... asked me to give this to you."
Ariel gazed at the ring before holding it close to herself, sniffling softly. "Elsa... thank you."
"You... probably shouldn't tell Melody this right now," Elsa said. "Things are going to be busy for a while."
"I know, I know," Ariel agreed. "What about you? Where are you going?"
"I'm going to find Snowflake," Elsa merely responded. "I was told of somewhere I could find her. I have to go alone."
Ariel hugged Elsa, crying into her arms. "Promise you'll be safe?"
Elsa smiled. "I'll try my best Ariel, and I'll bring Snowflake home too."
As Elsa started to turn to walk out of the apartment, Ariel then spoke again. "Wait... before you go... when Eric died," she sniffled again. "Did he die in vain?"
Elsa shook her head. "No, he died taking a bullet for me... like a damn hero."
Ariel smiled. "A soldier until the end."
Elsa nodded. "A soldier until the very end... and you know what his last words were? He said he loved you."
The redheaded widow sighed, nodding. "Take care out there, Elsa. Be safe."
"I will," Elsa promised, before leaving the apartment.
xXx
A few hours later, Elsa was flying over the wastes in Hans's helicopter, recently fixed up by some of the mechanics in the militia. On her instrument panel, was a navicomputer, stolen from one of the enemy tanks and not far from where her position was, would be the location she would find her beloved Snowflake.
Elsa held onto the control stick tightly, hoping to find Snowflake safe and sound, but she knew that wasn't true.
She was the prisoner of the vile Dr Frollo, the man who had turned her into the blue-skinned girl Elsa knew her as today.
A scowl formed on her face. Tonight would be the last time the Jotun Group would ever taint a life in these wastes. No more, Elsa vowed silently.
She was wracked with fear, worry, guilt, among other things.
Eric was gone, Ariel was broken, her new home would need to be rebuilt, the woman she loved was the prisoner of an evil doctor and her other best friend was his prisoner as well, but Elsa would save them. She couldn't save Eric, but she would save Snowflake.
She sighed, wondering what would happen if her sister could see her now. If Anna was here, they would have teamed up to save Snowflake together, to stop this nightmare once and for all.
She shed a tear in her memory, knowing that she was most likely long gone, much like their parents.
Eventually, the device in front of Elsa started to beep, telling her she had arrived.
Elsa pulled the stick backwards, as the copter slowly descended to the snow below, landing on a plain of thin ice.
She climbed out, flashlight in hand and wearing a woolly parka. The storm made things barely visible, as usual, but Elsa knew where she was going.
Just up ahead, was the entrance to a large bunker, where Elsa assumed Snowflake would be held. She walked to the door of the bunker, seeing it was open.
She descended down a flight of steps, seeing the bodies of a dozen Jotun soldiers around her. Clearly, the good doctor had been cleaning house.
There was a faint light in the room, power barely keeping the corridors illuminated. The walls were thick, plaster peeling off from their skin.
She kept making her way through the halls, not wanting to be here too long. The only thing she had on her mind was getting Snowflake and getting out of this place, hopefully, with Dr. Frollo dead, never to harm anyone again.
As she closed her eyes, breathing slowly to ease her nerves, she imagined her sister being with her, holding her hand and telling her it would all be okay.
"Anna... if you can hear me," she prayed. "Make sure I make it out of here alive."
She finally made her way into the central chamber of the bunker, her eyes meeting a familiar sight. The chamber was large, a gigantic laboratory. There were various tables filled with equipment and tools and two large tanks were inside the room.
In one of the tanks, Elsa could see Snowflake, various wires and tubes inserted into her body, pumping her with the Rime serum and the in the other tank... Elsa couldn't see. It was a metal shell, virtually opaque. Elsa could only fear what was inside there.
Elsa walked to the tank with Snowflake inside, gently tapping the glass between them. "Snowflake? It's me, Elsa!"
Snowflake weakly opened her eyes, her face virtually lifeless. "Elsa... no... run... before it's too late."
"No," Elsa refused, her hand on the glass. She stared at her love, trying to think of a way to free her. "Is there a switch for this chamber?"
"Yes, but you shouldn't bother," Snowflake argued. "You need to go... before the doctor comes back."
"I'm not leaving you," Elsa told her. "Now, where's the damn button that opens this thing?"
Snowflake sighed. "I think it's on the front somewhere. Not sure though."
Elsa then fumbled across the front of the tank, before finding a large lever marked release valve. She pulled it forward and the massive tank opened up. Blue fluid spilled out as Snowflake dropped the floor in a heap, the tubes and wires she was hooked up to falling free.
She panted. "Thank you... but you still need to go." She looked at her worriedly, as Elsa sat by her side. "You can't stay here."
"Not an option, sweetie," Elsa said, before kissing Snowflake's lips.
Suddenly, they heard a slow clapping from the other side of the room. Dr Frollo then entered, smiling at them and holding his hands behind his back. "A touching reunion, my dear."
"Dr Frollo, I presume?" Elsa remarked. "Let Snowflake go now. You've already caused enough suffering. Surrender and maybe justice will be swift for you back at Ground Zero."
The doctor chuckled. "Oh my dear, I have no intention of surrendering nor going to that awful place, not when my greatest experiment is about to reach its conclusion."
Snowflake then grabbed her chest, coughing heavily as she collapsed, gasping for air. "Aghhhhh!"
"Snowflake!" Elsa exclaimed.
Elsa watched in horror as Snowflake coughed up more of the blue goop she had done before, her skin and hair turning fully blue and white, her eyes glowing a soft blue as icy fluid replaced the blood in her veins. A few patches of ice then formed on the floor itself beneath Snowflake's hands and feet.
Snowflake looked at herself, screaming. "What... did you do to me?!"
"The ultimate evolution of the Rime Serum," Dr Frollo explained. "A being that can not only adapt to the cold, but thrive within it and control its awesome power."
Elsa growled. "You'll pay for that you insane bastard!"
"Please, Elsa, if you knew who Snowflake really was... you'd be a little more grateful."
"What?" Elsa asked in confusion. "You know who she really is?"
Dr Frollo chuckled. "Oh, indeed I do. Do you remember when you were a small child, when a group of raiders attacked your home village, taking your younger sister Anna and leaving you for dead?"
"What would you know about that?!" Elsa snarled.
"I know that your sister was kept as a slave by the raiders for a few years... before they eventually sold her to me." Frollo smiled. "She became my first and best test subject. Of course, the name Anna was never used for her. I preferred her to have no connection to her former life, and as such, I erased her memory several times and bequeathed her with a new name... Snowflake."
Elsa's eyes widened. "No... you can't be serious... Snowflake is Anna! She's my sister!"
"Alive and well," Frollo said. "It was a surprise to me to find out you were indeed her sister, but after what Hans told me of you, it wasn't hard to put the two together."
"I'm... Anna," Snowflake muttered, upon realising her true identity. "I've been Elsa's sister this whole time?!"
Elsa sighed. "I am grateful for that part," she admitted. "But for all the other crimes you've committed, Doctor, you will pay for that dearly."
Frollo looked down, rather disappointed in her. "I hoped I wouldn't have to do this, that you'd see the light and join me... but it seems you've left me no choice."
He then pressed a button on his wrist, and the door of the tank to Snowflake's left opened, revealing a very familiar face to them both.
Inside was Kristoff, his skin blue and his hair chalk white. He'd been clearly infected with Rime, his muscles also noticeably bulkier than before. He grunted, wincing awake and looked at Elsa with red, menacing eyes.
"I believe you know my other test subject," Dr Frollo stated.
Elsa looked in horror at her former friend, now another victim to the doctor's insane ambition. "Kristoff?"
Kristoff grunted at Elsa, pushing her aside in an aggressive manner, growling at her like nothing more than an animal.
Dr Frollo laughed. "How adorable. But futile. The serum in his blood has drained him of most of his cognitive functions. He's a mindless brute, plain and simple, and the perfect means to deal with you."
The doctor then started to leave the room, hoping to make his escape.
Elsa tried to run after him, but Kristoff blocked her path, pushing her to the floor. She grunted looking up at Kristoff. "Kristoff, snap out of this! You can fight the serum!"
"Elsa!" Snowflake called to her, climbing to her feet. " I'm going after the doctor, you try and hold off Kristoff!"
"With what?!" Elsa exclaimed, seeing a fist being swiped at her, ducking for cover. "It's not like I'm tough enough to take him on!"
"Just... hold on there!" Snowflake replied, running down the same corridor Dr Frollo had run down. As she ran, her feet made little patches of ice. She slipped, sliding around on her ice, catching her balance on a nearby railing.
"Woah!" She cried out. "This is gonna take some getting used to."
She then saw the doctor up ahead, heading towards the stairwell at the entrance of the bunker. She panicked not wanting to let him escape.
She thought of a barrier, blocking his entrance to the stairs, trapping him in the bunker. She hit her fist on the wall, suddenly seeing a stream of ice course across it, creating that very barrier to block the doctor's path.
Doctor Frollo looked on in amazement and horror at how fast Snowflake's powers were adapting. "No... this can't be happening."
Snowflake scowled, rage filling her body. "This is for all the lives you've taken, doctor, all the ones you ruined, the ones you hurt including mine." She snarled. "YOU WILL PAY!"
The doctor screamed in terror as Snowflake threw her fists towards him, a series of icicles shooting out and pinning into his body, holding him on the wall.
He groaned in pain, before twisting his neck to look at his creation, smirking. "I always knew you had potential, Anna." He chuckled. "How ironic, the creation turning against the creator."
Snowflake growled. glaring into Frollo's eyes as the life faded from them, his body going limp. She sighed, knowing that he and his kind wouldn't hurt anyone again.
She ran back to the main lab, seeing Elsa being kicked around by Kristoff.
"Elsa!" She exclaimed, trying to run to Elsa, only for Kristoff to get in the way. He tried to swipe at her, but Snowflake managed to duck under him, sliding along the floor on a patch of ice.
"Did you deal with the doctor?" Elsa asked her.
Snowflake nodded. "He's dead... but what do we do with Kristoff?"
"I'm open to suggestions!" Elsa exclaimed, as Kristoff charged at them both.
Snowflake then thought for a second. She was slowly making sense of the powers the serum had given her. She had the ability to manipulate the cold itself, ice, snow, all of it. At that moment, she realised what she needed to do.
"Elsa!" She exclaimed. "Get Kristoff into the chamber I was in!"
"How?!" Elsa demanded. "He's not exactly cooperative!"
"Just trust me!" Snowflake told her.
Elsa ran towards the open chamber that Snowflake was in, the wires and tubes still laying out on the floor and inside of the pod. She turned to face Kristoff, breathing softly.
"Okay, big guy!" She called to him. "Come at me!"
Kristoff roared, charging straight at Elsa.
"Now!" Snowflake shouted.
Elsa jumped to one side, avoiding a severe collision with Kristoff. She turned, seeing Kristoff fall into the chamber, becoming tangled in the wires and tubes, grunting and growling in pain.
Snowflake rushed to Elsa's side, helping her to her feet. "You okay, sis?"
"Sis?"
"We are sisters, right?" Snowflake remarked.
"Let's... talk about that later," Elsa responded. She then looked at Kristoff, their friend helpless in the pod. "What are you going to do with him?"
"Simple," Snowflake said. "I'm going to take that stuff out of him."
"Wait... what?!" Elsa exclaimed. "Snowflake, can you do that?"
"This Rime stuff... it's pure cold," Snowflake explained. "Every cold touch, every icy shiver, all that is Rime and I can control all of it... at least I think I can." She then walked over to Kristoff, placing her hands on his skin.
She closed her eyes and shushed Kristoff. "Shhh, it's okay big guy. Let me take it away from you."
Suddenly, the rime started to evaporate from Kristoff's body in a steamy, gaseous form. The steam started to enter Snowflake's body through her pores, being absorbed into her body.
All the while, Kristoff was shrinking, his body returning to its normal state, his hair going from white to blonde and skin from blue to pink.
Elsa's eyes widened in surprise. "You... you did it, Anna."
Snowflake stroked Kristoff's cheeks, the blonde man awakening in front of Elsa and Snowflake, feeling very confused. "Elsa?... Snowflake?"
"It's Anna," she finally said her own name. "I'm Elsa's sister... it's nice to meet you."
"F-for real?" Kristoff wondered. "I... don't believe it." He chuckled, sitting upright. "Oh man... my head hurts." He then looked down at himself. "Okay, what the fuck is going on here?! Why am I naked?!"
Elsa laughed. "It's good to see you back to normal, Kristoff."
Snowflake put her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's find you some clothes."
"Right, clothes," Kristoff stated. "Probably should find some pants first."
Elsa sighed, running to Snowflake and hugging her tightly. "I finally found you, Anna."
Anna smiled. "Come on, sister," she said happily. "Let's go home."
xXx
Author's note: A Happy Reunion indeed! Just the epilogue to go and this beautiful fanfic will be all done. Thank you all for sticking with this story and the creative AU I came up with Matty. You're all amazing, but for now, let's skip forward a little bit shall we?