The rest of the night for Elsa consisted of various, vague questions from the cops, "check ups" from Rapunzel, and drifting in and out of consciousness. After the two officers were satisfied, they gave Elsa a card with a number of the detective on her case contact in case she "remembers anything else". Kristoff saw them out and waved them off dismissively. He spent the rest of the night in a chair outside the room, dozing, not quite awake but never totally asleep. Anna spent her time either with her sister or at the nurse's station, talking and laughing with Rapunzel.
"Wait, wait, he was dressed how?", Rapunzel asks.
Anna leans on the counter, " oh my God, Punz, he was in a full suit and his dress shirt under it made his eyes look so good. They were dark, mysterious, and so dreamy. He had some sort of cane, but it wasn't out of place. The way he held himself was just so ugh!" She groans wantingly and catches her rambling.
Matching her lean on the counter, Rapunzel giggles, "sounds pretty cute, wish I had seen him."
Bragging, Anna smiles smugly, "well you missed your chance! I already gave him my number."
Rapunzel raises her eyebrow, "not wasting any time, huh?"
"Considering the daydreams I've had today, I-", stopping herself, Anna tries to salvage the secret her mouth just revealed, "I, uh, I need a guy in my life."
A sly smile sneaks to the surface of Rapunzel, "been having some rated R thoughts? I was the same way before I met my boyfriend."
"Somehow I doubt it's the same…", Anna hesitates to go into anymore detail.
Rapunzel smirks, "pfft, trust me, we all have those thoughts. Mine were always at the worst times. One time, when I first started nights, I was dozing in a chair back here and bam! Was smack dab in the middle of a dream that I was doing one of my patient's sons. Couldn't look him in the eye for the rest of the night."
Laughing hard, Anna replies with a story of her own, "that's nothing, I was in class! It was the last five minutes and I just ended up typing random things on my laptop cause I was bored. When I reread what I wrote, it was like reading porn. I even freaked out, slammed my computer shut, and the entire class turned and looked at me. Easily the most embarrassing moment of my life."
Rapunzel, laughing as hard as Anna had, says, "oh man, tell me it was a hot teacher dream."
"N-not really", Anna blushed.
Rapunzel puts her elbows on the table, rests her head in her hands, and scoots closer to Anna. Her eyes intent on Anna, begging her to continue.
Feeling her ears start to burn, Anna brushes her hair behind one, "it was someone I am really close to. It was a bit of a shock to think of them in that way, and even though it felt good, I couldn't help but feel guilty."
"It's only a dream", Rapunzel stands up straight again, "might as well just enjoy them when they come."
Anna half laughs, thankful Rapunzel didn't press her any further for information, "anyway! If you have a boyfriend, why would you want to see the guy I was talking to?"
"Hot guys are hot, duh!", Rapunzel says jokingly. She pushes some hair out of her face, "besides,there's nothing wrong with window shopping as long as I don't buy anything."
Both girls erupt into muffled giggles. As they gossip, Anna couldn't hide her grin. It's been so long since she had a normal friendship. The girls chat, smile, and laugh the night away. From time to time, Rapunzel pauses their conversation to check up on her patients, and Anna,to slip back into Elsa's room for a bit.
Anna sits down next to her bed, brushing some blonde hair out of Elsa's face.
Stirring ever so slightly, Elsa turns towards her sister and mutters sleepily, "hey."
"Hey yourself", Anna whispers, "how are you feeling?"
Trying to sit up a bit, Elsa groans, "ever shake up a can of soda then pop the top? My head feels pretty much like that."
"Poor baby", Anna says as she leans over and kisses her sister on the forehead. Sitting in silence for a moment, Anna works up the courage to speak her mind, "Elsa… what happened out there?"
Elsa grimaces and turns her head away, "I don't really want to talk about it."
Grabbing her hand, Anna pleads, "Elsa please, everything over the past week has been so not you. Normally, you are so strong, you fight your way through every day and never let anything bother you." Anna weaves her fingers into Elsa's, "but in less than seven days, I've seen you in such a different light. It's like I'm not even looking at my sister anymore." Lacing her words with double meanings, Anna kisses her sister's fingers one at a time.
"Anna, you can't begin to imagine just how much that hurts", Elsa broods.
A gasp shoots from Anna, "oh, God! I'm so sorry, I completely forgot about your arm."
Elsa rolls her head back towards Anna, tearing up, "you really think this is about the cuts on my arm?"
Something flares up in Anna's chest, a feeling she can't describe. It hurts so bad, it feels so unsure, so angry, so guilty. "I was gonna call you tonight…", Anna confesses.
Elsa looks up at her sister, her beautiful blue eyes clouding with sorrow and pain.
"Right before I got the call from the hospital, I was thinking about you and I wanted to talk to you, maybe if I was on the phone with you this wouldn't have happened", Anna fidgeted in her seat. She starts rubbing her thumb against Elsa's palm without realizing it, "you are my hero, Elsa."
Confusion and pride swirled on Elsa's face, "what do you mean, Anna?"
"I thought back to when Mom and Dad…", refusing to let her confidence fail her, Anna bites her lip for a split second and continues, "there was some time where I thought our family was over. They were going to come and take me away from you. We had no money, no real jobs, and no idea what we were doing."
Reaching up with her free arm, Elsa's hand shakes violently under its own weight, "Anna… I didn't want you to worry about this."
Anna closes her eyes as Elsa gently strokes her cheek. The tremors, ripping through her sister's arm that is straining just to reach Anna's face, break her heart. "Every day I sat in my room and cried. I cried because I didn't have my parents. I cried because I was scared. I cried because I was so damn weak." Holding Elsa's cool hands against her own burning tears, Anna cries, "You stood up El… You stood up and said, 'nope, not me and not my sister'. I want to be that strong… I want to stop sulking."
Elsa's hand feels so good against her skin.
"And it took me till now to see that you were in the same boat I was. You cried just as hard, mourned just as long, and hurt just as bad", Anna folds her fingers into her sister's other hand and looks her sister in the eyes, "the only thing different, you had someone you needed to protect. You bottled everything up. All your emotions, you jammed them deep down and made sure no one saw them, not even me."
Elsa's face looks so beautiful, even wet with tears.
Breaking down, Anna's mouth starts getting ahead of her, "you deserve so much more in life. You deserve to be happy! I told myself I would be your hero now, and I don't even know where to start." Anna's tears in free fall, she laughs at herself, "bang up job I'm doing, three hours in and you're in a hospital bed… I love you so much Elsa, but all I do is take away your chance at a happy ending."
Elsa's entire body cries out every time Anna touches her.
"You are so stupid…", anger seeping from Elsa's voice.
Her words strike Anna's heart like a bullet, "w-what?"
Elsa clenches her fists weakly around Anna's fingers, "you think you're taking away my happy ending? You're going to just sit there and say it's your fault I got hurt? You are doing the exact opposite of what you wanted. You're still sulking!"
Anna never saw her sister like this.
So passionate!
So assertive!
So... alive!
In this moment, the power flowing through Elsa's words strikes every chord of Anna's heart. Her voice, like a wondrous sort of music, carries to Anna's soul as it resonates through her being. Despite the berating and harsh tone, Anna is taken aback most by the zeal being displayed by her enervated sister.
Elsa continues her tongue lashing, "how was anything that happened tonight your fault? Hmm? Tell me!" The rage inside Elsa causes her powers to press against her skin. Her speech and breathing becomes more and more erratic, "it's not your fault, Anna! It's hers!"
Anna's adoration shifts to confusing concern, "what? Who are you talking about Elsa?"
"Her! Whenever I am asleep I see her. She's like me, only angry… Sad… She's every emotion I pushed aside. When I was asleep, she was there, taunting me, she showed me such awful things." Her hands began to frost a bit on Anna's, "she made me watch you struggle… She made me listen to you cry out my name in agony. She made the piece of my heart that you keep glowing with your light flicker and die, along with you." The temperature in the room starts to drop and Elsa's grip becomes firm.
Anna holds on to Elsa dear life, visibly shaken at how quickly her surroundings are changing, "I am fine, Elsa! It was only a dream!"
"No! No, it wasn't. Something inside me is fighting to get out." Elsa's psyche flaring out with her powers. In hysterics now, she starts to sit up in her bed, "I am trying so hard to keep it locked away! You don't even understand how many times I've watched the life fade from your eyes. How many times I fought and lost. But I never gave up. I'll never give up! Because you are the reason I was able to even wake up. Your voice was what lead me through the darkness and gave me the strength to keep going."
The frost from Elsa crystallizes on Anna's skin, she winces from the pain. Panic spreads through her as she pleads, "Elsa, please calm down."
Elsa sits straight up, her voice getting rougher with each passing second, "this horrible town took everything from us. Our lives, our safety, even our parents. I am not going to let that happen again. Never. Again."
The door slams open, Kristoff stares dumbfounded at Elsa. Her eyes illuminated blue, her face twisted and unrecognizable.
Fear massing in Anna's face as she gazes upon her sisters disturbing, distorted expression.
"I will stop this town from hurting anyone again", Elsa's gaze never strays from Anna's, "if it means releasing that other person. If it means becoming Mal. Even if it means freezing this entire godforsaken city into a solid block of ice."
"ELSA!", Kristoff screams, running to tackle her. The second he impacts her, a blue surge of power blows Anna's chair back a few feet and the glow in her eyes extinguishes. Elsa lays lifeless in Kristoff's arms and he screams, "Rapunzel! Get in here we need help!"
Anna stares, wide eyed, at her hands. They are red and painful like she had stuck them in snow for too long. Small clusters of frost still cling to her skin.
"What's going…", Rapunzel rushes into the room and surveys the mayhem.
Kristoff places Elsa back on the bed, "she just went insane, her powers are out of control, and something is wrong with her."
Running to the bed, Rapunzel grabs Elsa's wrist and waits for a second. "Oh God, her pulse is very weak."
Anna lifts her head, eyes wider than ever, and watches in silence.
"What do we do?", Kristoff asks, "CPR?"
"She's going to need something a bit more powerful if her magic is running rampant", Rapunzel pulls her hair to one side and wraps it around Elsa's wrist.
A thought finally runs through Anna's mind, and it tells her one thing. She's watching her sister die. Tears stream down her face, and she screams, she screams louder than she ever has in her life.
Kristoff, using some of his own abilities, jumps up, closes the door, and has his arms around Anna before a second goes by. He claps a hand over her mouth to muffle the screams.
She start to struggle against him, reaching and squirming, trying to get to her sister. Her muzzled cries changing into desperate attempts to call her sister's name through Kristoff's hand.
"Any time now, Punz!", Kristoff says, getting smacked in the face for the third time.
"Okay, I'm ready", Rapunzel slams her eyes shut and concentrates hard. For the second time in the night, the room is filled with the candescence of magic. Rapunzel's blonde hair radiates and she begins to sing, "flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine."
The energy in the room shifts slowly as Rapunzel's magic begins to overtake Elsa's. Anna stops wrestling to get away, observing something she, once again, couldn't understand or explain.
"Heal what has been hurt.", Rapunzel's melody and hair bathes the room in warmth, "change the fates' design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine… What once was mi-". Her singing stops abruptly and she digs the heels of her palms into her eyes. "What is this!? Who are you!? What do you want?", she calls out and swings a hand in front of her wildly, assaulting an invisible person.
Her hair loses its luminescence and the room becomes still. Not one of them moves a muscle. Finally, Elsa inhales sharply, and her body relaxes against the bed. Rapunzel pulls her hands from her face, panting. She glances at Kristoff and Anna, then down at Elsa. Creeping closer to check her pulse, Rapunzel lifts Elsa's wrist with her fingers.
"Her pulse has stabilized", she says with a shaky sigh.
Anna pushes away from Kristoff and runs to Elsa, "I'm sorry", she wails. "I'm so sorry", Anna hugs Elsa as she crawls into bed with her, "it's all my fault."
Rapunzel staggers forward, but Kristoff catches her, "whoa there, you okay?"
"Y-yeah, just been a while since I used that much power on someone", she used one hand to hold onto Kristoff and the other she placed on her head.
Glancing back at Anna, who had curled against Elsa, holding her sister in her arms, he asked, "what did you see?"
Rapunzel looks directly into Kristoff's eyes, "everything went black and there was a small blue light… Then I heard it, this chilling voice. It was like someone whispering terrible things in my ear, 'hate me... fear me… give me that one… little… push…'."