FINALLY! FINALLY I GOT THIS DONE!

...Yeah, this is really late. I am so sorry, you guys. It's the end of the semester, finals are in full gear, and...I haven't exactly been in the most stable place emotionally. And Frozen is something that really stirs up the feels. I'll try to keep on schedule better from now on. Summer break's in two weeks, so hopefully that won't be a problem! I hope you guys enjoy!


The monorail didn't travel to Hollywood Studios; instead, there was a 'bus.' Whereas the monorail had been small and streamlined, this was very large, clunky, cube-shaped, and from the looks of it, a bit on the rickety side as it pulled to its stop. Thankfully, though, the crowds for boarding it weren't quite as hectic.

On the other hand, the ride was a lot noisier, even with the music playing inside the vehicle. There seemed to be bumps in the road frequently. And there was no scenery to look at whatsoever! Nothing but trees, road, trees, road… Anna tried to distract herself by listening to the music. It was the song from that ride Elsa liked. It's a world of laughter, a world of tears… How cute! She started to bob her head along.

Finally, the bus reached its destination. Elsa and Anna stepped off one after the other, making their way into the park. What a strange atmosphere this one had. Not the traditional feel of the Magic Kingdom, nor the futuristic vibe of Epcot… If anything, it felt like somewhere in between. Moreover, there wasn't any one place that people gathered around; the crowds were more spread out, which certainly made Elsa feel more comfortable. Around that time, Anna noticed the centerpiece of the area.

"Look at that!" she pointed. "It's…a giant wizard hat?"

"Looks like it," Elsa nodded. It was a very fake-looking hat – which wouldn't have been surprising, but she had heard no stones were used to make Cinderella's castle, even though there appeared to be many. If the architects here could replicate stone texture, was fabric really that much harder? Still, it was an impressive sight, with the blue and gold contrasting very nicely.

Anna noticed the swirls at the sides. "Are those supposed to be Mickey's ears?" she wondered.

She pondered this. "I guess it couldn't be anything else."

"Is Mickey a wizard?" she asked herself, putting two and two together.

"I-I suppose," Elsa answered. "He never mentioned that…" She had to admit, being ordered around by him would've felt a little better if she had known he would be participating in the fighting as well. She wondered how much power he had. For someone who was in charge of this entire place, it had to be quite a lot…

Anna was fascinated by the idea. She was learning so much about magic here. Wizards and princesses and fairies… Were they made of magic, too? Elsa certainly wasn't, of course. But she had made Olaf, who wouldn't be able to exist otherwise. And Mickey and his friends also seemed like something that couldn't exist without some sort of magic. It was all so interesting – could it be something she could help Elsa with?

Soon enough, they both ran out of thoughts to keep themselves busy with. "So what should we do first?" Anna asked.

"Well…" Elsa unfolded and glanced over the map. "Oh! There's a tour of some sort." She wasn't exactly sure what 'backlot' meant, but it surely couldn't be anything too out there. "That could help us get a better feel of the place."

"Sounds like fun!" she agreed. They followed the map, heading to the place where the tour started together. Navigating around here was a lot more difficult than the other two parks; supposedly it was split up into areas, but you could barely tell one apart from the other. Was that where the tour started? No, that was some sort of stage show. Maybe the one next to it? Nope, that was a playground! At this rate, Elsa was starting to believe they were hopelessly lost…

And just when they were about to give up, there it was, clearly marked by a sign in the front.

Anna smiled. "I knew we'd find it!"

"You were the one who kept trying to wander off somewhere else," Elsa replied, rolling her eyes.

"Hehe…" She grinned sheepishly. "Well, it could've been anywhere! I had to check out every place!"

"Sure you did." She smiled, putting the map away.

"Anyway, are we gonna go in or what?"

"Of course!" Elsa was about to step inside, but Anna strutted right past her, apparently in more of a rush. Silly Anna, she chuckled to herself. So they made their way through the queue, which came across as very bland compared to the other ones they'd seen. Every once in a while, a poster would be hanging on the wall. For different plays? No, probably movies. There was no way those sorts of effects could happen on a stage. They discussed each one they passed, trying to interpret the story from its poster, but didn't have much luck. Hopefully when the tour started, they'd get a chance to actually figure it out.

Soon enough they joined a small crowd, which was directed to a balcony standing over an artificial pond. It was especially hot today, and the very sound of flowing water was so refreshing… At least, Anna thought so; Elsa always managed to keep cool, for obvious reasons. At that point, a bunch of people were called up to stand on the platform set over the water. The crowd started to dwindle a bit.

"And you!" a worker shouted. "Come on up here."

Anna blinked. "Wait, me?" she asked, pointing to herself.

"Yes, you! Who else would it be?"

"Oh, okay!" She hopped down over to the platform. She got to be part of the show! How exciting! She waved to Elsa as she stepped into the little compartment that was there, and her sister laughed, waving back.

She started up a nice conversation with the host of the show, when suddenly the strange bucket machine nearby filled with water and threw it all onto her! The current was powerful; she tried to block it with her arms, but that didn't accomplish anything. Finally, when it wasn't being pelted anymore, she was able to breathe again and open her eyes.

Of course, she was sopping wet now. She turned her eyes to the audience, who were in a mixture of applause and laughter, but mostly applause. Elsa looked like she wanted to laugh, but was trying hard not to. And soon, Anna was laughing along with them. It'd caught her off guard, but at least she was cooled off now!

There were a few more fancy tricks that they showed off – blasts of water, portions of the pond being set on fire and then put out in an instant. Then the show came to an end, and Anna was allowed to go back into the crowd as they walked to the next part of the tour.

"Are you okay?" Elsa asked her as they reunited. "That looked a little painful…"

"Oh, yeah! It was fine!" Anna giggled, starting to squeeze the water out of her braids.

They boarded a tram that took them through the rest of the area, so the breeze helped her dry off quite a bit. Still, this water had a strong smell to it, and that didn't fade as easily. Elsa was grateful that she wasn't called up. Who knew what could happen if she was pelted with a bucket of water like that? It'd probably freeze in midair as soon as it touched her. That would be a sight to see.

As she thought about that, the car started to shake. Something was lit on fire before a torrent of water made its way down the 'canyon' next to them, splattering directly onto Elsa. She gasped as she immediately became drenched.

Anna stifled a laugh. "Guess I'm not the only one to get soaked today."

"Guess not," Elsa muttered, smoothing her hair back out of her face. Not even the other water rides had been this wet! Well, maybe that Splash Mountain was, but they hadn't been able to ride it. Not that it was much of a bother, actually. Anna was right, it was pretty refreshing.

After that the ride was peaceful, with various costumes and items on display. Anna didn't recognize any of them from the movies they'd seen. This place sure seemed to have a lot of them. How much time would it take to watch them all? Those first few had taken almost the whole night…

When the tour ended, Elsa found herself feeling tired already. Now didn't seem like the time for another thrill attraction – not that those were much of an option anyway, noticing how far the lines extended. "Maybe we should do something more relaxing now," she suggested.

Anna looked at her. "That wasn't relaxing?"

"Not when there's water flying at you at a moment's notice."

"Yeah, that makes sense." She stopped to think about what they could do. There were a lot of different rides around, but none of them really gave off a relaxing vibe. Then something caught her eye – it was a little statue of Mickey, wearing the same wizard hat that was in the front of the park. Anna pointed to it. "Look! It's Mickey again."

"Oh, yeah." That didn't surprise her – after all, Mickey was more or less everywhere here. It was the sign placed below him that interested her. "The Magic of Disney Animation…"

"What's animation?" Anna asked.

"It usually means…movement. Activity." Though the meanings of words did change over time. She had a feeling that wasn't quite what was being implied here.

She smiled. "That sounds like fun! Wanna check it out?"

"Sure, why not?" she shrugged.

As they made their way into the seats in the first room, they were greeted by a movie screen. The screen, however, was smaller than usual, with the remaining space taken up by what looked like an artist's workshop. What did art have to do with all this? And there were various drawings hung on the wall as well, some of people they recognized.

Soon, the lights dimmed and the movie started. A familiar character walked onto the screen. "Mushu!" Anna exclaimed. The dragon and an unseen narrator started a discussion about the art form of animation…apparently a sort of art that was used to make a lot of the different movies. Sequences of motion were drawn and then rapidly switched in and out to create the illusion of moving pictures.

But something about that didn't make sense. All the figures they'd become acquainted with so far, they had been real, living people, not paintings or pencil sketches. The movies were basically the stories of their lives. But…was it all really made up from scratch? How was that even possible? It had to all be real, Elsa had met the proof in person. And yet…there was still a lingering doubt…

"Elsa?" Anna whispered. "Is everything okay?"

"Hm? Y-Yes, everything's fine, Anna…" She certainly hoped everything was fine. It wasn't anything to get worked up about, was it? Either way, she needed to calm down for the sake of having a good time.

There was a pause. Anna spoke up again. "Elsa, are they really drawings?"

"I-I'm not sure," she mumbled.

"Are we drawings?"

Her eyes widened. All this time thinking about everyone else, it never crossed her mind that it may affect them, too. Could they be creations of these people as well? Fabrications made for entertainment? … "No, that's ridiculous," she replied, trying to sound confident.

"Are you sure?"

"I…no. I'm not," she sighed.

"Hm…" Anna looked back to the screen as if nothing had happened. Elsa tried to relax as well, though it didn't come as easily for her. She needed something else to distract herself with, to get these thoughts out of her head for at least a little while. Luckily, at that moment, the movie ended, and the audience was directed into the next room.

Various exhibits and games were plastered around on the walls and floors; this didn't seem to be a guided portion of the tour. Anna immediately went to try a game, so Elsa, not knowing what else to do, checked out the art on display. There were several designs for different 'characters' in a display case…that made her feel uneasy again. Maybe the exhibits weren't going to help, either. There was a bench nearby, so she sat down and took a deep breath, just watching Anna play a game or two…

"Ow, hey!" The new voice startled her, and she looked down to see a very short little girl…whose foot she'd inadvertently sat on.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" She was about to move to a different spot, but before she could get up, there was a flash and the girl seemed to…fade from existence altogether. She gasped, but a moment later, she was back, albeit sitting more toward the bench's edge.

"Geez, try to watch where you sit, lady. I coulda gotten squashed under your butt," the girl pouted. She noticed the stunned look she was getting from her. "…What?"

Elsa tried to relax again. "W-What was that?"

"What, that?" She smirked proudly, her body distorting strangely as she did so. "Oh, it's just a little thing I do…

"Well…that's very interesting," she responded, not sure what else to say. Was this another person with magical powers of some sort? In hindsight, she felt bad about how she'd reacted to it; it seemed hypocritical of her.

But the little girl shrugged it off. "So, I take it you're new here."

She blushed; was it really that easy to tell? "Yes, that's true," she replied.

Thought so. Suddenly she stood up on the bench, extending her hand to shake. "I'm President Vanellope von Schweetz. Nice to meetcha!"

"Oh, nice to meet you too." She returned the handshake – hers was tightly gripped and full of energy. "I'm Elsa…Queen Elsa, of Arendelle."

"Ooh, a queen! That's new," she grinned. "Not one of the evil types, are you?"

"W-What? No! Of course not!" She was almost offended she would suggest something like that, and then she remembered where she was. Evil queens were kind of a thing here, weren't they? "I mean, I certainly don't consider myself to be evil…"

"Good enough!" Vanellope interrupted. Elsa sighed to herself in relief. At least she was making a good impression. But before she could continue the conversation, she heard a strange noise. It sounded like footsteps. But they were very loud footsteps, and they only seemed to get louder…

She was startled from the shadow that suddenly loomed over them. Her glance drifted upwards…and her mouth gaped open. This man was enormous. At least, she assumed it was a man. It looked almost more like a caricature of a man. His shoulders were each twice the size of his head at the very least, and his hands may have been even bigger than that.

But his face didn't calm across as threatening in the slightest. In fact, it looked very calm right now. It was only then that he noticed the other woman sitting next to his friend. "Oh. Um…hey there."

"…Hello," Elsa answered after a while, trying not to show her apprehension.

"Ralph!" Vanellope exclaimed, leaping onto the man's shoulders like it was nothing. "You got some stuff for me?"

The man – Ralph, apparently – rolled his eyes with a smirk. "Yeah, I got your stuff," he answered, grabbing four or five different chocolate bars from his shopping bag and tossing them in her direction. She caught them effortlessly, and tore the wrapper from one.

No one said anything for a while. The other two didn't seem to mind, but with Elsa being the odd one out at the moment, she felt like she was making things more awkward just by being there. Well, she couldn't let that last. She made an effort to actually say something. "Er, pardon me, but I don't think we've had our proper introductions yet."

"Oh, right!" Vanellope hopped back onto the bench, bouncing around like she weighed nothing. "Ralph, Queenie. Queenie, Ralph."

"Queenie?" Ralph raised an eyebrow.

"My name is Elsa, actually," she corrected, standing up and instinctively reaching out for a handshake. "Elsa, queen of Arendelle."

"Oh, a queen, huh?" His eyes widened and his cheeks reddened visibly; it happened a lot with people who weren't used to being around royalty, Elsa had found, but on someone as rough-and-tumble looking as him, it was funnier than usual. Her smile became more genuine now. "W-Well, it's very nice to meet you, your majesty," he continued.

It was at this point that she was starting to regret initiating a handshake, as one of his hands bigger than her own head reached out to respond. Yet when he did grasp her hand, he was surprised at how gentle it was. Maybe firm for a person of normal size, but from him, she'd been expecting a lot worse. "Glad meeting you, too, Ralph. And Elsa's fine."

Ralph calmed down a little, seeing she wasn't intimidating like he'd thought a queen would be. "So, is this your first time around here?"

"Well, yes," Elsa blushed. It must've really been obvious if two people had noticed it already. "I guess it shows, huh?"

"No, it's just I've never seen ya around before," he replied.

"Oh!" Another sigh of relief came. "It is quite a bit to get used to," she added. "My sister's been taking to it a little better than I have."

"You have a sister?" Vanellope muttered, just swallowing a mouthful of chocolate. "You never said anything about that!"

"I never got the chance to," she pointed out, half laughing at how hyper this girl was. "Yes, I do have a sister. She wandered off somewhere a little while ago…"

Just as she said so, Anna came running back over. "Elsa! You wanna do some shopping, or…" It was then that she noticed the giant standing right next to her. Her eyes widened to saucers. "Whoa."

Ralph smirked. "So. You're Elsa's sister, I take it?"

"Uh, yeah…" She looked at her sister. "What the heck happened while I was gone?!"

"Oh!" She stood up again. Of course she'd have to clear things up. "Well, this is Ralph, and the little one is Vanellope."

"He's huge!"

"Yeah, everyone says that," Ralph chuckled.

Anna tried to grasp this new concept. How could a person so large even function in daily life? "How did you even get through the door?"

"Well, I'll tell ya, it wasn't easy…"

"I'm so bored!" Vanellope suddenly whined in the middle of her second candy bar. "Why don't we go do something fun, Ralph? We shouldn't be sittin' here all day."

He shrugged. "Well, okay. What do you wanna do?"

"Let's go on the rock coaster!" she exclaimed, throwing her fists in the air.

"The rock coaster again?!" he rolled his eyes. "We've done that three time's already."

She smiled. "Well, you know what they say. Fourth time's the charm, right?"

"Nobody says that, Van," he replied with no particular mood in his voice.

"Well, I just did, didn't I?" she pointed out.

"That doesn't count."

"Does too."

"Does not."

"Does too."

"Does not."

"Does too…"

Anna was quickly getting bored of this conversation too, and she watched people walk out the exit doorway when she saw a building that intrigued her. It wouldn't have stood out much…except she saw a poster of her and Elsa on the side of it. That was weird… "What's that over there?" she asked, interrupting their little argument.

Vanellope looked up. "Aw, that's your place now?" she asked, seeming a little disappointed. "It used to be ours."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Uh…" Ralph tried to find the words to explain. "Well, that's the place where other guests come to meet us…I mean, you."

"Really?" Anna perked up. They could meet so many people that way. "That sounds like fun!"

"I guess it could be fun…" Elsa had already done a few 'meet-and-greets' as queen, and normally they got quite tiring after a while. But this place had different rules, different expectations. She wondered if she could be a bit more relaxed this time around.

"Wanna go see it?" Anna suggested.

"Sure, I don't see why not," Elsa shrugged.

"All right, then! Let's go see how they have it set up." Ralph got up as Vanellope leapt onto his shoulder again. He led them to the small building, which, by the looks of things, was still under renovation. Dust filled the air, and most of the walls were completely bare. All that was set up there, it seemed, was a paper cutout depicting Elsa's ice palace.

"Wow…" Elsa breathed out in surprise. "That's really accurate."

"It looks like you could walk right into it!" Anna exclaimed, reaching out for the palace 'door' like she could open it right there.

Vanellope giggled. "Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" As far as she knew, word of mouth was the only thing that kept her story going. And Anna and her friends had been the only ones to see the palace up close. Her worries from before made their way back to her main train of thought again…

The little girl showed more concern now. "Hey, is something wrong?"

"Elsa?" Anna placed a hand on her shoulder, but she wouldn't answer back; she was too deep in thought. When she really connected the dots, it all made sense. The arrangements, the publicity, the way this world was built…it all led to the same conclusion. A light snowfall started in the room before she realized it.

Ralph's eyes widened. "Van, did your friend ever say anything about making snow?"

"…Nope," she shrugged, more amused by this phenomenon than shocked. That must've been a real fun thing to have!

Anna sighed. "Elsa, please tell me what's wrong."

Seeing how her powers were reacting, she made herself calm down enough to speak. "I guess this means we're not real after all…" she muttered.

"What? What gave you that idea?" Now she was really confused. "You said before…"

"I know what I said before!" she interrupted, louder than she should've. "I was wrong then."

"Oh…" Then that turned everything on its head. Were they like, characters in a movie or a storybook, then? What did that even mean? Someone drew them both on a piece of paper and let them do their thing? Or was there more to it than that? What about the rest of the world?

Though Anna didn't think of these little questions as anything more than casual thought, obviously Elsa wasn't taking it as well. As much as she tried not to create anything else, the floor they stood on was already mostly white.

Ralph tried to remedy the situation. "Hey, if you wanna talk this out… I mean, I'm used to this kinda thing."

Elsa finally spoke up again. "I-If you and I aren't real, then what else isn't? Did anything that happened to us really happen?"

"Of course it did," Anna smiled, trying her best to comfort her. "We have our friends and servants to back it up."

"But wouldn't they be controlled, too?" The wind picked up a bit now, and Anna was starting to doubt herself more as she followed Elsa's thoughts.

"Well…" There had to be a bright side to all of this. There always was. "You're thinking for yourself right now, aren't you? And as long as we're happy, does it really matter?"

"I…I don't know!" Now instead of falling gradually, the breeze disappeared altogether and the flurries that had been spinning around the room abruptly dropped to the ground. At least she could manage to relax a little. The idea of being a drawing, something only meant to amuse people, it really hit her hard. But still, she couldn't bring herself to believe that she had no free will, that her life was one big set-up, as plausible as the idea sounded. When everything was boiled down, it was all too important to reduce to something like that.

Anna gave her a second to breathe. "Feeling better?"

"A little," she answered. And yet, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she had been manipulated into coming here, that these people knew just how to toy with her emotions and get her to comply with whatever they wanted. "Anna, do you think we got tricked into getting involved with this? All these stories, and this battle…"

It only took a few seconds for her to give an answer. "It doesn't seem like a trick. Everybody seems to want to take care of us good." But then, who was she, the stupid girl who fell for the psychopathic prince without a second thought, to decide that? a malicious voice in the back of her mind reminded her.

Elsa sighed, letting the snow dissolve as she looked over to Ralph, who hadn't said anything for a while. "I'm sorry for this little…incident. Do you mind if I step out for a while?"

Ralph was still half speechless. "Uh…sure! Take your time," he managed to force out.

"Thanks." And with that, the queen stepped outside once again. Anna followed – she had to, her sister had the map – though she tried to keep her distance in case she accidentally set her off. She seemed to have a knack for that, saying the wrong thing at the worst possible time. She'd tried hard to get better about it, but she doubted she was making much progress…

Elsa seemed exhausted right now, so now didn't seem like the time to continue their conversation anyway. They hadn't eaten anything in a while. Maybe surprising her with snacks would help her perk up! So she skipped to the nearest food kiosk, hoping she was doing the right thing this time around.

And not far away, a young woman watched from the shadows, waiting for the right moment to get her attention.