CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Strangled In The Crib

The Hand of the Queen exploded upon impact.

Elsa held on to Anna as they fell. Her mind raced as she tried to think of what to do; her arm extended, with hardly a moment to aim, and she froze a few platforms off the falling wreckage, changing them into the shape of an icy slope, padded with snow to soften their fall. They slid to a stop near the edge of the slope. Anna was still glowing, still in a trance from before.

Another screech came from above. Elsa glared at the sky. That monster would not take Anna again. She'd defeated the Snow Queen, hadn't she?

Nothing could stop her.

As soon as it emerged from the purple smoke, she pitched an ice spike through one of it's leathery wings. The beast cried out, as if in pain, and it crashed into the platform before Elsa.

It was time. Elsa still had no idea how to go about saving Aurora, but a good start would be to get her out of that mechanical body. Her promise to Maleficent would be fulfilled. Her promise...

She looked back at Anna, who was gradually coming back to herself, and then slowly approached the unmoving bird. She put out a hand to touch its giant head. The body started twitching violently and rose up on its knees, damaged wings outstretched as far as they could, claws swung back to strike its enemy.

Elsa jerked back, and an ice lance ran through the heart of the beast, staining the snow red as its body met the ground with a gargantuan thud.

Elsa ran over to the bird, desperately trying to cut the leather open with an ice dagger to release the person inside. It was Maleficent all over again, Anna all over again. How many people would she hurt without meaning to?

Anna may have been the most important person in her life, but Aurora was the most important person to Maleficent. She'd wanted to help her if she could, though she never thought she had a chance of doing that until a few moments ago. Once again, she'd failed to do the right thing. Once again, her magic had become something destructive. How dare she even think for a moment her powers could bring anything other than pain?

The leather stitches holding Songbird together were slashed open, and Elsa peeled the pieces back, revealing a face. Blue eyes were frozen open, snow white hair fell loose from the familiar pair of braids.

The woman within Songbird tried speak, but freckled cheeks cracked as they moved, and nothing came out but wet coughing as blood dripped down her chin.

Elsa screamed and collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, slamming her fists repeatedly into the solid ice beneath her, until her own blood splattered from reopened wounds, mixing with that of—

She couldn't think the name, as though her mind hit some wall at the very idea—

Hands grasped her and held her from hurting herself any longer. Anna was calling her name, but Elsa couldn't hear it.

"I murdered you." Elsa sobbed, horrified.

An ice spike slammed through the heart of Songbird - except Songbird wasn't some mindless beast, it was her sister, it was Anna—

Elsa retched.

"No, that wasn't me."

"Look at her face, Anna!" She choked out, shaking herself free from her sister's grip. She raised her hands into view, forcing herself to look at them. "I really am a monster..."

Anna grasped her hand. "Elsa," she said. Her other hand brushed her sister's cheek. "You're not a monster."

"I—"

"I love you," Anna interrupted. "This was—it's been stressful, and she attacked us—"

Elsa shoved the guilt and self-loathing down. Her sister wasn't free yet, this was just a reminder. They needed to do something to erase Columbia from Anna's history, wipe the slate clean.

Anna deserved a better past.

"Anna," she said. "I need you to open a tear."

"Where?" Anna asked. Elsa's heart clenched. Her sister didn't even ask what Elsa planned - Anna's faith in her was absolute.

That was just another reason to change things. Anna deserved better than a sister with bloody hands and a cruel magic.

Anna deserved better than her.

They were in a hall, similar to the one in the castle Elsa entered before reaching Columbia, similar to the dark, empty hallways of the castle of Arendelle. Only this hall seemed to go on forever, and on both sides of the walls were countless unlabeled doors with either side lit with candles to grant minimal light.

"There are so many of them..." Anna breathed, sounding like she was about to cry.

"Where will they take me?" Elsa asked as she was lead down the hall.

"They can take us to...well, everywhere. Every when. All we have to do is choose."

"Anna...you really should stay here."

Anna looked up at her older sister. "You never abandoned me, Elsa," she said, her eyes bright. "Never once thought that I was...too much trouble, or too obnoxious, or wanted to give up on helping me. You've been the best sister ever, and I'm not gonna sit here and abandon you, either." She slipped a hand in Elsa's. "We're gonna do this together."

Elsa looked down the hall, and saw two figures walking side by side.

"It's us..."

Anna accepted the change of subject with a shrug. "Not exactly."

As they got closer, Elsa realized her sister was right - though one figure wore the same clothing as she did, he was very obviously not a woman. And while the other figure was a woman, and clad in the same blue-and-white garments as Anna, her hair was a dark brown, and cut short.

She was looking at the man with a calculating gaze.

Elsa didn't know how she'd mistaken the pair for her and—

—she glanced up, having expected to die. Rather than the cold steel of the blade she anticipated, her vision was filled with blue ice.

Anna.

She scrambled to her feet, suddenly slipping on the icy ground. "No!" she cried, throwing herself on her sister. "No, no, no!"

She didn't deserve her sister's sacrifice, she never wanted it! Never wanted anything other than for Anna to be safe—

Elsa shook the vision from her head, ignoring the trickle of blood she could feel coming from her nose. The pair had vanished, and Anna was looking at her, obviously worried.

"I'm fine," she assured her sister, and to distract herself from Anna's concerned face, she opened a door at random.

Of course, it led back to the ballroom at Arendelle castle. She'd never wanted to go back to that room. Not after what happened that night…

She remembered it clearly, though, and to her horror she realized that she was now re-living it.

It was dark and the only light came from the blue moon peeking through the windows, shining down on a fluffy snow covered dance floor. From the center of the room came giggling that struck fear into Elsa's heart. She looked behind her and saw a little pigtailed girl leaping from the top of a tall mound of snow.

"Catch me!" She laughed when she reached the height of her jump.

Elsa's heart lurched, and she tried not to do it—

"Anna!" Elsa cried, blasting magic to create a softer landing for the girl. Instead of cushioning her sister's landing, she missed entirely. Her magic struck her sister in the head, causing Anna to fall limp into the snow.

Instead of running to Anna like she had before, Elsa shrunk back into herself, terrified of hurting the girl more if she touched her.

"Elsa? You know I'm okay. You don't have to cry."

"I hurt you, Anna."

"By accident! Mistakes happen, Elsa, nobody blames you—"

"I blame me!"

"Then why are you showing me this?" Anna demanded, tears threatening to fall. "don't need to relive this! I can take us away from here, we can move on and be happy..."

"We have to find the Snow Queen."

"She's dead, Elsa!"

"In one world, in one time. But that's not enough. She hurt you, Anna." Elsa pushed the door open.

On the other side there was a woman, cradling a young sleeping Anna in her arms, the white streak in the child's hair evident. She'd said she was Elsa from the future, and that she came back in time to save Anna before she froze to death. Elsa, thinking it was the only way, naturally handed her sister over to her savior. It was best for Anna's own safety if her older sister stayed away from her.

The woman stood in front of a glowing portal, clutching onto Anna protectively. She spoke firmly, but kindly.

"I'll take care of her, Elsa. It's safer this way, I know what I'm doing."

"I...will I see her again?"

Her older self chuckled. "Maybe. If you can learn to control your powers."

"I will," Elsa said stubbornly.

"We'll see."

"Wait!" Elsa called. The portal ahead of her was closing, inexorably. Anna was awake now, one chubby fist stretching out for her sister. "How will I be able to find you once I can control my powers?"

Her older self laughed once more, but Elsa could hear its dark edge now, sharp like a blade. "I was never this naive, was I?" She paused a moment for a wicked grin to fill her face. "Anna is mine, now, like she was always meant to be."

"N-no!" Elsa rushed forwards, grabbed Anna's hand. "Give her back to me!"

"It's too late," her older self said. "She's mine. She will always be mine."

And the portal snapped shut - Elsa watched as though in slow motion as Anna's hand slipped from her grasp but didn't quite go through the portal in time, her pinkie finger sliced cleanly in two by the sudden reappearance of the castle wall.

"No!" she cried, staring at the bloody finger on the ground. "Anna, no, please, no!"

Forgetting for a moment, she cried out for her parents. But they didn't come (wouldn't be coming, she reminded herself, not ever again), and there was no one to hold her as she wept.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... Anna, I'm sorry..."

They were both back at Arendelle castle, the normal one with fewer doors. They were specifically in her bedroom, which was blanketed in snow, and had snowflakes floating in place in the air. The only things around were bland pieces of furniture and a bed that all suffered from weather damage that they weren't built to withstand. Elsa had put herself in this room because it was the only place where she hadn't been with Anna. Everywhere else had terrible memories that she wanted to shut herself away from.

"You locked yourself away in this room," Anna realized, her voice soft. "Until one day, they came to you." She motioned where the large triangular window had been; in its place was the familiar circular shape of a tear. On the other side of it was the silhouette of a tall, stocky man and a bulky blonde woman standing on a frozen lake with their reindeer-drawn sled.

"And offered you...what, a chance of redemption? A chance for us to be together?"

"Both," Elsa said, and walked through the tear.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she'd felt walking through that first tear. Her mind had gone blank, her vision turned white, her energy was sapped, and it felt like her entire body simply shut down and restarted itself.

She collapsed onto the lake's surface.

Her vision was so warped, Elsa could've sworn she saw two men. No… one man, and the other was a woman. She could barely comprehend what she was saying, but they were definitely one woman and one woman.

She shook her head. Some part of that last thought had come out wrong.

Before she could try again, the man took Elsa's right hand. The woman ran her fingers over it. The feeling was almost entirely numb over the snowflakes, but she could still tell.

"Looks like she branded herself."

"I'll never understand people."

Elsa tried her best to wake up completely, but her vision was still framed with white, her ears were ringing, and her head felt empty and painful. She almost couldn't even remember her own name. Once that came back to her, other names returned, voices and memories started flooding back all at once.

"Anna… Anna…"

"She remembers her sister," said the man, who Elsa now knew was Kristoff. "They said that she'd try to make new memories from her old ones."

"Worked for me." replied Krista, shrugging.

Elsa fainted.

"Elsa… wake up." Anna urged.

Elsa blinked, slowly. She was in the back of a sled. Anna was sitting next to her, and Kristoff and Krista were driving the reindeer. This was where it started…

"I let you go…" Elsa whimpered.

"At least you tried getting her back." Kristoff chimed in. Elsa ignored him. It didn't matter that she'd tried to undo something she already did. That she'd done it at all meant that she was simply incapable of taking care of Anna. Her sister didn't need her anymore. Anna never needed her in the first place, either the Snow Queen or remained as herself.

The only reason why Elsa had ever needed to protect Anna...was herself.

Elsa swallowed. "There's only one way to keep you safe from her. From me."

"What are you saying, Elsa?" Anna asked, putting her hand on Elsa's knee.

If this was a matter of 'when', then she'd have to go back in time far enough to when she was born, but Anna would still exist and live on without her. Back when she was already born, but Anna had not yet been born.

"We have to strangle the bitch in her crib." The words flowed from somewhere beyond her, they sunk through her mind like stones in a river.

Jack—Delta—Ryan—Booker—

The names and thoughts and voices roared through her head in a kind of static white noise.

"Elsa, you don't—"

"I understand now, Anna. I understand everything. I hurt you, and this is my penance. My sacrifice, for you." The younger woman stared at her, wide-eyed and frightened, shaking her head in protest. She only ceased when they locked eyes. Elsa reached to her sister and stroked a lock of red hair behind her ear. "It's alright, Anna."

"No it's not!" Anna cried, taking her hands in hers. "We're together now, we can go to Paris, we can—"

"And yet we're not together," Elsa said. "You remember the castle. There are an infinite number of universes where I lose, where that other me keeps you and locks you away. I've seen the monster she turns you into, Anna, and I have to protect you from that fate."

Elsa smiled, sadly. "And if I'm lucky, you'll never have to live in a tower for thirteen years."

"Have lived?" interrupted Kristoff. Krista slugged him, hard, on the shoulder, and he shut up.

"There has to be another way," Anna protested.

"She was right," Elsa said. "There are no happy endings, not for me. But maybe I can make one for you."

"Any ending without you can never be a happy one," Anna said, her throat dry. "I need you, Elsa."

"Open the tear, Anna. Send us back to when the Snow Queen is born."

"No! I'll find another way, Elsa! I can't live without you!"

She froze in mid-speech, her face tight with emotion, and time froze with her.

"Lives," said Kristoff.

"Lived," said Krista.

"Will live," said Elsa.

And the world disappeared.