CHAPTER TEN

Complicating The Narrative

The man said nothing more, and ran away through Fink Manufacturing, looking back at Elsa, as though checking to see if she was still there.

"Oh my gosh, Elsa!" Anna shouted.

In a panic, Elsa rushed over to her. "What? What's wrong?"

She sighed, realizing the lack of emergency. Anna had scared a few years off her life by yelling like that. All she was pointing to was a poster.

"You...you died!" she exclaimed.

Elsa stared at the poster. On it was her picture, with a solemn expression and her fist high in the air, blue magic surrounding it, all on a background of red. It read "Elsa! Martyr of the Revolution".

Memories she couldn't remember having before all came flooding into her mind at once. She remembered long ago when she first joined the Vox, slowly destroying Columbia from inside, to kill the Snow Queen and free everyone from her clutches. She remembered leading the Vox.

Whiteness framed Elsa's vision again and she staggered from the lightheadedness. Her ears rang, and the sound shot through her skull to give her a crushing headache. Too many memories fought for room in Elsa's head. The pressure inside built up more and more. There was pain. There was nothingness.

She heard Anna call her name, felt her grab onto her to hold her up to keep her from falling. "Elsa, come back to me, please!" Anna exhorted. "We-We need to find Merida! Get our airship, remember?"

There was a warmth on Elsa's upper lip, so she reached up to rub it off. Blood had spread from her nose onto her hand, and she looked at it for a few moments. She gathered herself as she tried to to shut out the pain and prevent herself from going mad. She tried to remember her purpose, that Anna was the most important thing, and that keeping her safe was the priority.

Anna.

"Yes… I remember…" she mumbled. She lifted her head and continued to walk, with some assistance from her ever-concerned sister. Anna wouldn't take her eyes off Elsa for the duration of their walk. She was no doctor, but she was quite certain a bloody nose wasn't a good thing.

Elsa had to reassure her that she was fine and that the migraine or whatever it was subsided. Anna didn't look convinced, but pressed on with her, hanging onto the hem of her shirt for fear of being separated, and out of habit.

Up ahead stood crowds of people with fists in the air to mirror Elsa's poster, chanting "Vox!" to the sky. The two sisters looked up and saw a large zeppelin. It was hideous, which was the only way Elsa recognized that it was theirs. Its only improvement was that the picture of the Snow Queen was replaced with a large video of Merida's face looking upon the city, her voice shouting over the loudspeaker to her allies down below.

"Elsa Vår died for this day!" Merida crowed to the people. It dawned on Elsa that part of what she felt moments ago was pain, nothingness, as though she had died. Or at least, it was what she imaged would be the closest thing to death. This was not only a reality where people deemed her as a revolutionary hero, a leader of the Vox, but in fact this was a reality in which she had died fighting for them.

"Now is the time to stand true to her cause!" Her words roused up the already cheering crowd. "We're goin' to the factory, and we're not just gonna burn it down!"

More cheering erupted from the revolutionists. Elsa had to give it to her, she was a very motivational speaker. She could have ruled her own country if she wanted to. Maybe, once she rose to power, everyone in the city would have better lives from then on. That was good for them, but they needed to find her. Merida said she was headed to the factory, so that's where they had to catch up.

Running through the town and masses of rioters, Elsa noticed more and more that people revered her as a hero. Countless posters of her clung to the walls, people cheered her name, even though - or perhaps entirely because - she was supposedly dead in this world. It was, in mildest terms, disorienting.

She might have been a queen in former times, but this was becoming dangerously close to religious zealotry. After all, the people dead in the streets had been killed in her name. And this was nothing she wanted. It was something the Snow Queen would want. With a little hope, once she and Anna were gone, this place would just be a distant memory.

Since all of the buildings that weren't on fire were still in the same places as before, the two sisters ran into the same elevator that would take them up through the factory to Hans' office.

From the windows of the elevator car, they could see a better view of the city. It was very much in chaos, but there were people celebrating the uprising. Music could be heard through gunshots.

It was a very conflicting feeling. On one hand, the people were getting the rights they deserved. On the other, they were acting like the people who treated them this way to begin with. Elsa feared it would just be another vicious cycle, only the people on the opposite side of the spectrum would be wrongfully mistreated and abused for their differences.

Anna was quiet for a moment, Elsa suspecting she was a bit terrified of the rioting, until she spoke up.

"In this world… you're a hero." she bit her lip. "Can I have an autograph?"

Elsa's brow creased. "For one, you haven't got anything for me to sign. And two, I'm not a hero."

Anna's face brightened. "I've got a solution to number one!" she announced, gesturing at the top of her corset.

Elsa's face flushed, and she shook her head emphatically. "No." She should have probably mentioned the lack of a writing utensil for the sake of sparing herself that moment.

"You're the hero Columbia deserves, but not the one it needs right now."

"Anna, please be quiet."

The phone within the elevator car rang. She was willing to bet it was Hans calling her to beg her to protect him from Merida's wrath. If only he had been nicer and didn't try to kill her before.

She picked up the phone, once again refusing to be the first to speak. There was no one there, strangely. "Hello?" Nothing. "Hans?"

Nothing.

"I saw ya die with my own eyes, Elsa." It was Merida.

Elsa remained silent out of habit to protect herself. She gathered her courage to speak to the girl, and remind her of their deal. "I brought you the guns you wanted. Now you need to return my airship. That was our agreement."

"I don't know what you're talkin' about. My Elsa died for the Vox Populi." The younger woman hissed over the phone, sounding angry and hurt. "You're either someone prancin' around using her name, or you're a ghost." It was a shame Elsa couldn't count on her to be superstitious so as to claim to be her own ghost.

"My Elsa was a hero, a legend. She was a story to tell yer children. But you? You just complicate the narrative."

The phone's line was cut.

Of course Hans had to build his office at the topmost building of his whole dominion. It suited him since he thought he was the most important person in history (even when there were so many higher places in the world). Elsa wouldn't doubt it if he even thought he was more important than the queen he so eagerly worked with. Circumstance would have two mad power-hungry individuals destroy each other in the end.

When the elevator stopped at the top, the entire office had expectantly been looted. The giant clock tower located near the center of the building had blood stains splashed around it, probably from brawls between the Vox and the queen's faithful soldiers. Hans and everyone else working under the queen may have been despicable, but they did not deserve an ending as terrible as the one they were dealt.

"Elsa, look!" Anna shouted next to her, pointing at the clock tower. The two girls ran up to it, seeing what was behind the glass. It was Merida and Hans, and she was holding a gun to his head. His hands were raised and tears were rolling down his face, which was contorted into ugly sobbing. Merida looked like she was near tears too, her hand shaking as she held the gun.

While she was shocked to see the young woman brought to this, Elsa hadn't noticed that Anna ran away from her side.

"Anna!" she called, looking frantically for her.

"Over here!"

The blonde ran around to another side of the clock tower where she found her red-headed companion pitifully attempting to jump up to climb into a vent that was far too tall for her to reach.

Part of Elsa wondered how long it would take for the girl to notice that jumping wasn't going to get her any closer to the vent, but the merciful part of her walked over to give her a boost up. She didn't even question what Anna's plan was, but she would go along with it.

The younger woman clumsily pulled herself inside. "Go distract Merida for me!" She ordered.

And just how was she supposed to do that? Crazed women weren't exactly easy to fool.

Despite her doubts, she ran around to the back of the clock where she last saw Merida, and knocked on the window. She was still there, but now boldly holding the gun to Hans' temple.

"How far are you going to take this, Merida?" Elsa yelled. "It isn't meant to happen this way!"

"Not if I have any say in it!" She yelled, keeping her eyes on Elsa, but keeping the gun on Hans. "This is what needs to be done! The only way-"

Anna's hand shot out from the dark behind Merida, who gasped loudly.

"Whoa! Hey, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Anna said, putting her hands up. Elsa nearly had a heart attack from that foolish act. She may not have known what Anna was going to do, but she could have gotten herself shot in an instant pulling a careless stunt like that.

"Who are you?" Merida demanded, the gun never leaving its prisoner's face.

"I'm… Anna." she waved a little, for whatever good it'd do. Unknown to her, her sister was screaming at her in her own head. "Listen, Merida… you… you don't want to kill Hans."

"Oh I don't, eh?" She pressed the barrel harder into his flesh. He winced and trembled, and snot was streaming down his lips. It was most unbecoming.

"Yeah! I mean, look at him!" the slightly taller girl waved her arms at him. "He's so pathetic right now. You've literally brought him to his knees. You've won! Don't you think it'd be, I dunno, pretty satisfying for him to just live with the shame of being such a nincompoop?"

Merida laughed and took her gun away from Hans' head, continuing to send mocking glares at him. "Yeah, yer right, there is a lot of amusement in that."

What was even happening right now? Did Anna just talk Merida out of killing someone? Was it on purpose or a fluke? Both of them were laughing it up, making friends with each other, and Hans was - Hans was grabbing the gun from Merida's hands, his previously-sobbing face a mask of control.

He showed no reaction as he, very calmly, shot Merida twice in the head.

Blood splattered across the window, across Anna, and the three stood in shocked silence as Merida's body slumped to the floor.

"You...you killed her," Anna said, haltingly.

Hans shrugged. "She was a rabid bitch that needed to be put down," he said, looking at the gun in his hand. He motioned to the window with it, seeming not to recognize Elsa. "Same goes for the rest of the Vox. Uncultured, filthy swine - only good for cheap labor or the chopping block."

"How could you-"

"Oh, give it a rest! Your...companion...is no saint, either. How many did she murder before the Peacemakers finally put her down?

"Elsa is no murderer!"

Hans shook his head, an easy smile on his lips. "Anna, Anna. Your friend over there has likely murdered more men and women than I. She barely even has to think about it, does she, with those vigors of hers."

The pistol rose, pointing through the glass at Elsa.

"And while the Snow Queen wants you alive - well, DeWitt's died once already. Another one won't hurt."

Elsa frowned - DeWitt? - while Anna lunged forward - there was a crack as the pistol fired - and Elsa opened her eyes, slowly, as Hans slumped down. Anna held the gun limply in one hand as Hans smiled, teeth bloody.

"You see?" he said. "You're both killers." He coughed. "Just like me."

Anna dropped the gun.

"Anna?" Elsa called. She knocked on the glass. Her sister had been forced to bloody her hands. Elsa felt like bashing her head against the window that separated her from her only family. Gods, she'd failed at the one protection she thought she could give her sister. She really could do nothing right.

Hardly reacting, Anna opened the window. Elsa clambered through as soon as she could, reaching for her sister.

"N-no!" Anna said, her voice hitching. "Just...just don't touch me. Not right now."

Elsa withdrew, her heart shattering, as they made their way to the zeppelin in silence.

N48, E002

The coordinates were set, and the next stop was Paris. It was a relief, but Elsa was still keeping a sharp eye on the sky. That was, until Anna appeared from the back room, wearing new clothes. She stared at her a moment, trying to see if Anna wished to talk about what she'd done. Anna's head was low, her eyes stayed away from Elsa's gaze, but she could tell that while she was changing, she had been crying.

"I wanted to get the blood off…" she said softly, barely louder than a whisper.

Instead of her conservative attire, she was now wearing a white corset and a blue bolero coat.

Her clothes were obviously not the only thing about Anna that had changed. Hans may have deserved a death worse than the one he got, but Anna should not have been the one to give it to him. Elsa could tell how much it was horrifying her that she had been driven to kill. She, herself, remembered being forced to kill after the raffle. It didn't matter whether she had intended for it to happen or not, it didn't even matter if it was an act of survival, she would never be able to live with herself because of it. It appeared as though they did have something in common.

But Elsa did not want to share these somber feelings with Anna. She wanted to keep her sister from them, even if she couldn't keep everything else from happening to her. If Elsa let her sister fall into the same pit of despair she was in, she wasn't sure if she would ever be able to get out. She wanted to make her happy.

Anna deserved to be happy.

"Your clothes look nice," Elsa finally said after a moment. "Very fashionable."

Anna grunted, not really in the mood for compliments.

They remained in silence, looking out the front of the zeppelin. Elsa would talk to her about it if she wanted to. Pressing her would only drive her to mourn someone who didn't deserve it. After a few moments, she noticed Anna beginning to relax back into her normal state. Naturally, her distress was still visible in her eyes, but less so. She was working things out in her head. When she finally looked directly at Elsa, the older woman smiled at her, assuring her that everything would be okay, and that she would be able to move on from all of this.

If only she could convince herself to do the same.

It was when Anna took a deep breath and sighed, easing into a comfortable spot at the helm, when Elsa finally noticed some things about Anna's new clothes. She wasn't wrong, they were very pretty and fashionable, but the coat, along with her bird brooch, made a perfect square frame of her chest that attracted Elsa's eyes to the soft dip in the center.

Anna noticed her looking and smiled at her shyly, "What?"

She looked away a moment, to collect her mind, and to keep Anna from noticing her blush, even though she was certain she already saw it. She looked back up to Anna. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you," she said, fidgeting with her hands. She patted the dress down.

She looked very grown up. Elsa pushed aside her improper thoughts for the moment, even though she was pretty sure Anna wanted her to think them.

Though, she reflected, Anna didn't know that she was flirting with her sister.

She found that she couldn't push aside her obvious attraction to Anna. She supposed thirteen years of segregation would do that to a person. But then again, feeling all sorts of love for the girl didn't seem that wrong to her. Despite Elsa's own feelings, she felt it best to tell her the truth. Anna's reaction to the news of their relation would determine everything.

"Now that…" She started, catching them both silently staring at each other. "Now that we've got a moment, there's something I-"

A black shadow whisked by the front of the zeppelin, shaking it with the turbulence. Elsa's immediate thought was that it was Songbird after them. The shadow emerged from the clouds, circling them, proving that Elsa was unfortunately correct in her speculation. She grabbed the controls, hoping that moving any of the levers would make it go faster to outrace the bird. An egg-shaped vessel filled with air would not have a chance of going any quicker than it was already flying. Anna rushed over to help her.

"Where's the high speed button?" Anna yelled, searching for the imaginary button among all the dials of the control panel. "There's always one somewhere!"

"This isn't exactly that kind of-"

The horrific screech of Songbird forced Elsa's attention to the window, just in time to see it crash into the ship head on. Its claws broke through the window and clung to the side so it could drag them down. Elsa managed to hang onto one of the levers, but Anna was left being tossed around the cockpit. They tried reaching for each other, until the entire ship slammed into the ground - Elsa's head slammed into the wall - and everything went black.