CHAPTER SIX

The Beach

She wasn't breathing. They hit the water hard, but she hadn't been under for very long, so why wasn't she breathing? Even when Elsa leaned her ear over Anna's mouth, there was nothing coming from it. No water, no air, no adorably awkward comments.

"Anna! Oh Anna, no." The tears were coming again. She gently cupped her sister's face with her shaking, damaged hands. "No… please, no." She couldn't be… No, she couldn't. Pinching Anna's nose shut, Elsa put her mouth over hers, exhaling deep breaths into her over and over, and pausing only to breathe herself.

She did that for several minutes, hardly noticing how much more the ice raft was wobbling as they floated nearer to land. Elsa lost track of how many times she tried to revive Anna, but when she took a moment to check the rise and fall of her chest, Anna began to cough up water.

"Anna?" Elsa nearly forgot to breathe herself, upon realizing that Anna was still alive after all of that.

The young woman unattractively spat out the rest of the water onto the ice, rolling onto her side, groaning. Elsa wanted to throw herself onto her sister, and hug her as close as possible and never let go. But of course, to her, there was that lingering reason not to do that. Just the same, she helped her sit up straight.

"Are you alright?"

"I… think so…" Anna whispered, trying to get her bearings, one hand instinctively clinging to Elsa's shirt.

Having a weak moment, Elsa held her a minute. It's not like she could make the ice float faster. She needed to take this opportunity to make sure she had Anna with her. Just a moment to thank goodness that she was alive and well, and by her side at last. But then right behind that thought was the rude reminder that they wouldn't be safe until they were far, far away from that damned city. Getting Anna out of there where the Snow Queen could never chase her or find her again, that had to be Elsa's next step. Hugging would have to wait.

The ice raft, which Anna did not question much to Elsa's relief, wriggled more vigorously as it floated ashore. Melting under the warmer water caused it to practically sink under them when they reached the sand. Anna took a shaky step onto the beach, most of her support from Elsa holding her up, barely taking notice of the stinging on her own healing wounds. She supposed the salt from the water was not going to help any. But she could dress her hands properly as soon as they got their own airship.

Comfort came wafting back to Elsa in the form of a familiar delicious scent, coming from the fair attractions scattered around the public beach, where plenty of people sunbathed. She didn't comment on it, but it did cause her body to relax against Anna, who was supporting herself just fine, but stayed tucked under Elsa's arm anyway.

Anna inquired, "What is that amazing smell?" She took a deep breath through her nose, Elsa joining her to get a better whiff of it.

"Chocolate," they said at the same time, causing each other to laugh. Normally one would jinx the other, but Elsa felt too good in a long time to demand silence from her sister.

"Could we get some, Elsa? Please?" Anna asked, giving Elsa big puppydog eyes.

What Elsa would give to get Anna some chocolate. If only she had extra money to get some. She only had enough for two tickets to get on an airship. It wouldn't do to rob it, and letting her be aware of her pathetic state wouldn't help the situation. Instead, she hoped a distraction would divide her attention to something better. "They have better chocolate elsewhere."

"Oh yeah? Like where?" she said skeptically, as if no other chocolate was better than the chocolate closest her.

"Like…" She quickly recalled the French-themed items in Anna's gilded cage of a room. Elsa had an idea of a place Anna would rather be. "Like Paris."

"Paris? Are you saying we can get to Paris? How?" That certainly grabbed Anna's attention from the tempting purchase.

"We'll take an airship there. And once we're there… I'll buy you more chocolate than you know what to do with."

Anna frowned, as though seriously considering the offer. "I don't think Paris is made entirely out of chocolate," she said, still serious.

A smile tugged at Elsa's lip, which made Anna lose what little control she'd had, and burst out laughing, suddenly forgetting all the danger they were just put in barely an hour ago, and playfully pulling the older woman along by her uninjured hand. Elsa felt herself smiling again, and did her best to keep up with Anna's enthusiasm. She wished it could be like this all of the time.

It would, she assured herself. At least, it would as soon as the danger of the Snow Queen had passed.

Unfortunately the poor girl's mood had been doused upon encountering many off-putting posters of the queen that were scattered about the place. Elsa wasn't sure if Anna had seen the face of the queen before, but she could empathize with her discomfort. Elsa squeezed her hand a little, in hopes of reminding her that better times were on their way. Anna smiled up at her, soon after getting distracted by shiny trinkets being presented by… the Bjorgman twins. Again.

Kristoff spoke first. "The bird?"

Then Krista. "Or the cage?"

"No, she definitely wants the bird."

"What are you? A broach expert? The cage is much better."

Anna looked back and forth from the two siblings, more specifically what they were holding, and then showed them both to Elsa. "Which one should I get, Elsa? You pick one for me, and you can have the other one, so we'll match!"

They were, as the twins had said, two broaches, similar in design. The left one was a beautifully stylized cage, the right one was a similarly designed bird in mid-flight. Neither symbols appealed to Elsa at all, nor would they for a long time. "You can have the…"

Now Elsa was reading too far into this. The cage was symbolic to Elsa for many reasons, none of them good. And the bird was really no better. But she supposed at least birds represented freedom in some cultures… "You should have the bird."

Anna smiled and put her broach on, and then put the other on Elsa. She seemed very proud to be part of a matching set. She thanked the Bjorgmans.

"Should've picked the cage." said Krista as they both walked away again.

"What's wrong? Sore loser?" Kristoff asked with a smirk.

Krista scoffed. "Hardly. But I don't trust her judgement." Elsa could barely hear them carrying on as she looked at Anna showing off her broach to her. Taking a moment to appreciate how precious she was in that moment, swaying in place and silently asking Elsa's approval.

Shrieks of panic came from behind them as people rushed to the edge of the boardwalk. Elsa was prepared to make a break for it with her sister in tow, but it didn't seem that people were crying because of her. Anna turned to try to see what they were looking at, and let out a breathless gasp. Smoke was rising from behind the clouds in the distance, to reveal what they had been hiding.

The angel statue in which Anna was held captive had been demolished. It's head was completely missing, most of the upper body was damaged, and the smoke was streaming in thick clouds from the interior. Elsa wished that the entire thing had collapsed, but looking at Anna, she wondered how she felt. That had been her home this entire time. Truly, it was a cage disguised as one - but the difference did not seem of much importance to Anna, who stared at the statue in disbelief, her hands fidgeting.

It would do neither of them any good if they stayed. So Elsa ushered her into the amusement center. Everyone was still on high security, doing close inspections of the guests, patting down even the least likely of people to cause trouble. Policemen were angrily yelling at children, the elderly, and everyone in between. There was no way she was getting through. Anna might, but there was no way Elsa was letting her out of her sight now.

She continued down one of the halls. Hopefully they could get around the crowds and just get onto one of the zeppelins without anyone noticing who they were. Elsa did not want to draw attention to them by doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. But the only door leading away from them was locked when Elsa tried opening it. Obviously, they'd have to find another way.

Anna jumped in front of Elsa, pulling a hairpin from her gingery locks, and started fiddling around with the door knob.

"Anna, what are you doing?" she whispered.

"I'm eating marshmallows, what does it look like I'm doing?" she sassed in a playful manner before pushing the door open. "Voila!"

"Where on earth did you learn to pick locks?"

"Eh, you know," She swung her hips confidently, looking ridiculous in the process. "When you're stuck in one place with nothing to do, you can get pretty bored. Plus, I, you know, tried escaping plenty of times too."

The two of them slipped past security and scurried through the amusement facility, passing right by folks who were too busy having a blissfully good time, not even noticing the catastrophe outside. They finally reached the ticketmaster to get on an airship, but he was too busy chatting away on the phone to give them service.

"Excuse me, sir? I would like two tickets for passage to the First Lady airship." He didn't pay her any mind. She looked back at Anna, who seemed surprised that Elsa of all people would be denied help. Anna shrugged and Elsa turned back to the clerk.

This was most annoying. Elsa normally didn't care to be waited on hand and foot, but to deliberately be ignored by someone on the clock was simply a bad trait to have in the customer service department. She had no idea that the people of Columbia had such terrible work ethic. She dinged the service bell.

"Can you help me, please?" Again, she was ignored. And so she began impatiently tapping her fingers on the table. She could've sworn she heard him mumble something about a bird, and Elsa immediately felt that something was wrong. Just the word "bird" began to make her paranoid.

"Of course, ma'am," the man said, finally turning to her. "Sorry about the wait!" Elsa cried out in pain as the man stabbed through her right hand, pinning her to the table.

"Elsa!" Anna cried seeing what the man did to her. She ran to Elsa to help her, but a man jumped her from behind.

"Anna!" She had to save her. She braced herself and pulled the knife from her hand. Blood poured from the wound onto the floor. Anna did well fending off the first agent, punching him and kicking him where it hurt and knocking him to the floor. But the instant Elsa saw a man from across the room whip out a rifle, she flicked her wrist and pinned him to the wall with spears of ice.

Her sister rightfully screamed in horror, and Elsa continued to counter-attack them by hurling icy magic at them, and this time not to simply frighten them into running away. They would never run away. They wouldn't stop coming after them until Elsa was dead and Anna was captured. And Elsa had to protect Anna from them.

More men fell at Elsa's hand. But when the coast seemed clear, Anna was no where to be found. She frantically searched for her. They couldn't possibly have caught her, could they? Elsa ran up the stairs, breathing heavily.

"Anna!"

"Stay away from me!"

She looked up and Anna was running… from her. Anna was afraid of her, and afraid of her curse. That was one of Elsa's biggest nightmares come true, and it finally happened. She knew she should've concealed her powers. They were nothing but trouble, and they always have been. They brought her and Anna nothing but grief and no good ever came from them.

As sorry as she felt for Maleficent, she wished that she hadn't forced her to use her ice magic. After years of not using it, suddenly bringing it back to practice seemed so natural.

And killing those men seemed so easy. It was easy.

Oh where was Anna? Elsa had to make this right between them. But would Anna understand? Would she forgive her for being this way? Elsa would never have forgiven herself, so she would not expect Anna to.

Elsa hadn't noticed herself crying until finally catching up with her sister outside a trolley.

"Anna!" she yelled, continuing to run after her as she dried her eyes on her sleeve. "Can I talk to you please?"

"No!" she spat, running inside of the cockpit.

When she finally reached her, Anna was pitifully attempting to get the car moving, pulling on the lever incorrectly. Elsa sighed, and pulled it the way it was meant to, by squeezing the break and then moving the bar. The gondola started. Anna would not look at her. Her back was turned, her arms were crossed, and her shoulders were hunched up. A position that Elsa was much too comfortable in.

"I can't believe you did that," Anna whispered. "They're all dead..." She whipped around, glaring with fists clenched, her face scrunched up with disgust. "You killed those people!"

Elsa winced. "Anna, I…"

Anna's breath was trembling when she shouted, "You're a monster!" She shoved her, a bit stronger than Elsa was expecting from such a small woman. She stumbled back a bit, trying her best to not show the hurt on her face. Anna finally saw her true self, and it struck hard, and cut deeper, and hurt worse than any of Elsa's injuries thus far.

"And what did you expect would happen, Anna?" She did her best impression of a big sister, her chin held high, eyes half-lidded. It was a pathetic attempt, but she managed to keep the calm in her voice.

"What?"

"Do you understand the expense that people went through to keep you locked in that tower?" Elsa paused a moment as Anna pondered her question. Elsa did not want to justify the terrible use for her powers. But she had no other choice. She continued, to make a point.

"Do you think they're just going to let you go? Do you know what might happen if they bring you back, now that you know what they know?" Her voice broke at the thought of her being caught, and what would happen if Elsa allowed it.

She sighed, and continued once more. "To them, you are an investment. And you will not be safe until you are far away from here."

With tears welled in her eyes, Anna looked to her sister, desperately looking for an answer. "What do they want from me?" If only Elsa had the one answer she wanted.

"I don't know… but I won't let something like… that… happen ever again." And Elsa meant it. They wouldn't stop chasing them. But she was going to avoid being driven to kill.

There was silence between them. It wasn't a comfortable silence. But Elsa believed that Anna understood that serious actions were taken to keep her trapped inside. She just hoped that she didn't blame herself for it. None of this was her fault, and it never was. Elsa wanted so badly to wipe the tears from Anna's eyes, but she wouldn't dare touch her.

Finally noticing the excruciating pain, Elsa hissed softly and looked at both of her damaged hands. One was burned all the way up her forearm, and the other was still bleeding from the stab wound. This world was merciless on her hands. Both felt terribly raw from constant vigorous use and not a day's rest. Elsa never liked her hands, mostly because of the magic, but for once she wished that they were back to how they used to be.

"Oh my gosh, Elsa!" Anna exclaimed. "Your poor hands…" She reached her own hands up to take Elsa's, but thought better of it. The younger woman kneeled down to one of the drawers of the gondola and managed to find a first aid kit. She properly cleaned, disinfected, and dressed the older woman's hands in gauze wraps. Hopefully in time her hands would go back to their normal form.

Elsa silently thanked her, letting Anna hold her hands. It was a simple gesture, but one that meant the world to her. Minutes passed and the younger sister pulled away, for fear of making it worse. Her darling Anna could never make anything worse. She could only make everything better, as far as Elsa was concerned.