A/N: So this is the chapter where Jack comes in; he's kinda useless right now not going to lie. Thanks to those of you who have reviewed so far; it actually makes me ridiculously happy when people review (I may have stopped breathing a little bit the last couple times) so THANKS!
"Elsa?" Pitch's voice drawls somewhere behind me and I scowl.
"Go away," I hiss back. I've been walking all night, trying to escape my home, my kingdom, my life, and all because of him!
"Come now, Elsa, you can't possibly believe I would do such a thing on purpose."
"Everything you do is a slight against me, why should I not blame you?"
"Someone's a little full of herself." he mutters and I turn to glare at him. "You know Elsa," he continues, "perhaps if you didn't act so rashly these things wouldn't happen." I halt abruptly and suck in a deep breath of cold air. I look away as I try to think of a reason why he's wrong but can't. "Don't you see what I've done for you, Elsa?" he asks and I feel him lay a strong hand on my shoulder. Slowly he turns me to face the kingdom that was once mine. "That was never your home, Elsa, they never accepted you; not even Anna would let you be free." He removes his hand and I can feel him take a step back. He's right again, and I don't even have the energy to deny it anymore; he's always been right. "But, I've always accepted you, Elsa. That's why I set you free."
"Set me free?" I mutter before looking down at my hands; the tattered cloth of my glove still hangs around my wrist, and has been encased in a thin layer of ice.
I've never been free, never even thought it was possible, but that never kept me from wanting it. Now I'm left wondering if such a thing is really possible. Once more I look up towards my former kingdom, and in my mind I see all the people who never loved me, and never appreciated any of my sacrifices. I think of Anna who gave me nothing but looks of utter hatred after all I'd done for her.
I feel bitterness harden over my heart the way that blood hardens over a wound, and I think, Screw them! I take hold of my gloves, the manacles that contained my power, and yank them off. Gripping them in one hand, I hold them out at arm's length and stare at them as I think, It's my turn to be free, and I freeze the silk garments to solid ice. Throwing them to the ground, I watch them shatter and splinter into a million glittering pieces.
Gasping in alarm over my own actions and look towards my naked hands smiling as it sinks in. I've done it! I think and begin to laugh in giddy relief; I've done it! I'm free! I hold out my hands and let a few snowflakes flutter out of my fingers, and then a lot, until snow is flooding out of my hands. Raising my hands I let the wind and snow fly upward and circle around me as it spins into a glorious storm, and then as I look towards Arendelle I send that storm flying out in all directions.
"So this is freedom?" I whisper with a small smile as I watch the storm consume my kingdom and the fjord. With yet another wild laugh I reach back and pull the pins from my tightly bound hair. It was a style I stole from my mother, just another way I tried to mimic her, another way to try being perfect. Now it's been released into a billion loose strands that fly and whip around my face in the wind. Still chuckling, I reach back my hands to smooth it down.
"So, Elsa," I hear Pitch's voice behind me and stop laughing. "Now that you're free, what do you think you'll do first?" I pause for a moment before slowly turning toward him. I open my mouth to answer but before I can say anything I spot a frozen pond behind him, and just beyond it I see a mound of snow. Perfect, I think as I begin to stride towards it.
"Elsa?" Pitch asks in a confused voice as I walk past him and begin making my way across the pond. "What are you doing?" I stop just on the other side of the pond and twist my head around to look at him.
With assurance I tell him, "I'm building a snowman."
Rising from the darkness and to the surface I see the moon. I see its light expanding and glowing on the other side of the ice sheet. I'm pressed towards it by an angry and intense cold that chases away the numbness within me. I am pushed against the ice sheet for a moment before I'm pushed through it; I move through it seamlessly, like a ghost, and the moment I'm out I take my first breath since I don't even know how long. It's in that moment that I wake, and it's in that moment that I know I am free. I've been in that lake for far too long, and as a result being removed brings a certain discomfort, but I'm free and that's what makes it better.
I'm hovering in the cool night air; floating slowly towards the bright circle of the moon I am broken from my trance by someone's voice.
"Elsa?" I look down and glance about for the source of the sound and that's when I see them.
There is a white haired woman striding across the frozen pond with an expression like she has a job she's happy to do. A crown crouches in the tangle of her hair as it blows out behind her head and the ice responds and glows beneath her feat. Though she walks directly towards me, her clear blue eyes don't appear to see me.
Somehow I understand that I'm here because of her; I don't know how or why but I know that this was in some way her doing.
A little way behind her I see a tall dark figure with glowing yellow eyes. This man, I assume, must have been the owner of the voice I heard.
The woman, Elsa, nearly runs into my feet and I have to lift them to keep her from hitting her head. She passes beneath me and I slowly turn towards her back as I float to the ground. She seems very unobservant.
"What are you doing?" I hear the man say behind me and turn, but he is looking past me towards Elsa. I turn forwards again to see that she has stopped before a mound of snow on the other side of the pond. She turns her head to look back at him.
"I'm building a snowman," she declares and I notice her voice holding a certain 'and-that-is-that' quality. The words do not appear to match the tone.
I hear the man's footsteps behind me and turn in time for him to walk through me. There isn't even a trace of resistance, as if I were nothing, as if I wasn't even real. I shiver at the feeling and stare ahead of myself in stunned silence as I watch his back moving away from me and towards Elsa. I am real, aren't I? I wonder in shock and confusion.
"Are you serious?" asks the man incredulously but Elsa ignores him. Without saying another word she proceeds to kneel down in the snow and build a snowman. Several moments pass before she is finished and stands up; as she takes a step back to admire her work, I observe the strangest snowman there's ever been. It might have looked normal if not for the oval shaped head, and what looks to be a set of buck toothed teeth.
"What is this?" asks the man.
"A goodbye," she answers before slamming her foot into the ground. A circle of ice forms beneath her feat, and separates from the ground to lift her into the air. "I'm letting her go." she smiles; "thank you, Pitch."
She crouches down upon the icy platform, and soars away with it on the wind as white tendrils of hair flow out behind her. The man, Pitch, smirks to himself as he watches her go.
"You're welcome, old friend," he mutters even though she can't hear him anymore. Suddenly he disappears in a spattering of dust and is gone.
What just happened? I wonder as I stand there for a moment bewildered and alone. A woman just swooped in, woke me from the pond, didn't acknowledge me or what she'd done, and then flew off again without rhyme or reason.
There is sudden movement at the edge of my vision causing me to startle and look towards the snow mound where Elsa had been a moment ago. The snowman, I realize blinking in alarm, the snowman is moving, why is it moving? I watch the strange, outlandish creature beginning to skip and sing around the frozen pond. It skips through me and I shudder; floating into the air so it can't do it again. I can do nothing but stare in shock as I watch it from above.
Ok, I think finally, what's happening? This is weird. I briefly wonder if there's a way to get back in the pond and away from this world.
Finally I decide I should follow Elsa; maybe if I can get her to actually acknowledge me she can answer my questions. So I fly off in the direction I saw her go and hope I can catch up before I lose her.
Lying stretched out on my back as the disk of ice carries me through the air I reach up to push some hair out of my face and find my fingers brushing the cool metal of my crown. Sighing I pull it from my head and hold it up to look at it. I forgot about this little symbol of my royalty and looking at it now I find myself tempted to hold onto it as a keepsake, to remember all that I've left behind, but then I wonder why I would want to remember. Those memories hold nothing but pain, and it's not like any of it matters anymore. So why do I want to keep it?
Somehow I know that a small part of me wants to cling to it, just in case, but I'm never going back, am I? Just in case, that small part of me insists.
No, I think back to it, no, I'm letting go of Anna, that means I'm letting go of Arendelle, letting go of being queen, letting go of being that perfect good girl, and if I'm letting go of all that then I don't need this crown.
I roll over and peer over the edge of the ice platform to look down at the snow drifts far below. I hold the crown out over the edge but hesitate as I stare at it and everything it represents gleaming in my white knuckled grip. I'm still clinging to the hope that I can go back to that cage, and at that thought I become a bit disgusted with myself. The past is in the past, I remind myself firmly and let my hand fly open.
The crown falls and immediately its gold glint disappears into the storming white abyss. Instantly I'm filled with regret, and wish I could take it back. I curl up on the platform telling myself, no, no, you made the right choice, you're happy about this choice.
Suddenly I'm not so sure of myself anymore.
"Don't feel bad," I tell Hans as he drinks hot chocolate in bed, "I've been suffering from this illness for years; you get used to it."
"Thank you, Anna," he says in a rather dreary voice. He now has a white streak in his hair to match my own; however, he doesn't appear to have a welt of any sort. Instead his once green eyes have turned a startling blue, or they would be startling anyway if they weren't partially clouded and veined with white.
Apparently the blast damaged his vision, and now he refuses to look anywhere but down, or out the window. A storm still rages on out there thanks to my sister; I'm almost certain she's trying to kill me.
There is a knock at the door. "Just a moment," I tell Hans and walk to the door. Opening it I see before me the Captain of the Guard. "Mitchell, I told you not to disturb me until my sister's been found," I remind him in a warning tone.
"Yes, Princess Anna, I remember," he replies breathlessly, "but the search party has returned, and they've found something we think you're probably going to want to see."
"What is it?" I ask.
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me, princess," he says working his jaw. "It'd be better if you came see it yourself." I have half a mind to be annoyed by his evasiveness, but my curiosity wins out.
"I'll be right back," I tell Hans, but he only nods.
Mitchell leads me quickly to the courtyard where the search party has gathered. I have to wait inside the door while he goes out to get the thing they found. He returns a few moments later with–
I give a startled scream and kick the snowman over. Its body parts slide off in all different directions at the force.
"Careful, princess!" the captain reprimands as he picks up the pieces and puts the snowman back together. The snowman, seemingly unaffected, continues on chattering like nothing happened. Slowly I begin to recognize the little creature.
"Olaf?" I ask in amazement as I remember me and my sister making this very snowman. Olaf stops and turns to stare at me.
"Who are you?" he asks.
"I'm Princess Anna."
"Do you know him, princess?"
"I– no, I just–" I stammer as I shake my head and stare at the snowman, "How?" I ask finally. No one else but my sister could have made him, but why, and how? Was it possible my sister still loved me after all?
"We don't know," replies the captain. "its a real mystery."
What I couldn't wrap my mind around was why Olaf? Surely if she was going to start animating snowmen she would make some sort of snow army to make this storm complete. Yet, here was Olaf clear as day sitting before me, because she chose to bring to life some sort of sentiment from our childhood instead.
No, perhaps she wasn't the monster I assumed her to be after all. Had I judged her too harshly? Maybe she had some sort of side to this I hadn't thought to consider before. Was it too much to hope that my sister loved me all along?
It's not a moment later after realizing this that I reach a decision. Turning to the Captain of the Guard I tell him, "I'm going to go up the mountain to search for my sister myself."
Long after Arendelle is out of sight, I bring the ice platform to a halt, and turn to look back at my view of the mountain range.
I allow the circle of ice to widen and thicken as I compel long peaks to extend from it to the ground, in order to hold it up. More peaks grow up from the circle and into the sky meeting in a point at the top. They stretch wide and join together into solid walls as a chandelier grows from the point like a giant thistly flower. Before long, I have built an entire castle of ice, complete without doors save for the ones on the balcony. A chasm separates my castle from the rest of the mountain and I find it to be sufficient protection from the rest of the world.
I'm home, I think, I'm safe.