Disclaimer: Frozen and it's characters are copyright to Disney
Chapter XI: "You'd take that from me."
Anna lounged at home, sipping coffee and channel surfing when there was a knock at the door. Flipping the TV off, she quickly grabbed her rifle, which was leaning against the arm of the couch, and carefully tucked it out of sight behind the couch cushions before getting up and heading for the entrance to her home.
The redhead cracked the door open, peeking out to find a tall man standing outside. He was well groomed and dressed in a suit, with neatly trimmed sideburns and sharp features. His voice was smooth, "Ah, good evening. Sorry to bother you. My car broke down outside, and I was wondering if you might have a phone I could use-"
"Don't have a cell phone?" Anna interrupted.
"I do," he raised the object in his palm, waving it with an sheepish smile. The screen was dark, "Unfortunately, the thing died on me." He raised a hand, scratching at the back of his dark red hair and flashing her a charming smile.
The girl hesitated. She looked behind him. Sure enough, there was a car off the side of the road a short distance down the road past her driveway. He seemed harmless enough.
"Okay, hang on," she closed the door, retrieving her phone from the kitchen, then returned to find him with his hands in his pockets, looking suave. Too bad he couldn't hold a candle to Elsa from her current mindset. She offered him her phone, the number for the local repair shop already keyed in, "Here."
The man took the phone and tilted his head gratefully, "Thanks." He pressed dial and held the phone up to his ear. Anna watched from behind the door as he talked to the repair shop about picking up his vehicle.
Elsa was almost half way there. She had been flying at full speed through the trees, clearing fallen logs in a swift leap and tearing through the dense brush, unstoppable, for three miles now. It was getting dark, and her sense of dread was rising. She mentally berated herself for being so stupid. That day outside the general store, when Anna had stopped to look around...
She wouldn't let Anna pay for her mistakes. Not any more.
Kristoff finally passed a field that marked the fact that he was a third of the way to Anna's. He was sweating bullets and his lungs and heart were straining, but the adrenaline in his system spurred him on. Then luck struck him. Olaf was riding past him in the opposite direction, and he kept running full speed, even when the man slammed on the breaks, threw his vehicle in reverse, and rode backwards beside the man. He rolled his window down and stood up in his seat awkwardly, shouting above the rumble of the engine, "Holy fuck, where are you going in such a hurry!? Get in, man!"
Kristoff didn't stop, instead reaching over and yanking the door open, jumping in as it moved, "Get to Anna's!" He fell into the seat, gulping greedily for air and slamming the door shut. Olaf bricked the breaks again and swung the wheel around, sliding across the road to turn and head back the way he came.
The man standing in Anna's doorway hit the 'end' key and handed the cell back to the girl, "They said it'll be an hour. I don't suppose a handsome stranger could convince you to let him in? This heat wave is murder. I might die out there."
There was a time a little more than a month ago that Anna would have liked that saucy smile he was giving her. Now it just bugged her. Still, it was still incredibly hot outside. With a sigh, she opened her door fully, stepping back. The sun wasn't even quite down yet, the moon wasn't out. She was being a little paranoid.
Anna gave a little flourish, "Alright, sure, Mister Handsome Stranger."
The man chuckled, stepping inside and offering her a hand to shake, "Hans Westergard."
She flashed a fake smile, shaking his hand briefly and closing the door behind the man, "Anna. Please, come into the kitchen for coffee."
"That would be great." He grinned, enthusiastic as he followed at her heel and took a seat at the table as she grabbed a clean mug, pouring him a cup.
When she set the cup in front of him, he winked at her, "Thanks again. You're a true hero."
Anna scoffed at the idea, "You have no clue."
He cackled more softly this time, shifting in his seat, "So, how is it, living out here? I bet it's lonely."
The redhead shook her head, a bit disarmed by his observation, "Uh," she paused, "Sometimes."
That was strange. Why had she confessed that?
"Well, at least it's quiet. I used to like the quiet."
Anna actually found herself a bit interested. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. "Used to?"
"Oh, you know, we all change throughout life. Our personal tastes and all."
"I know what you mean," she agreed, taking a sip from her own coffee.
He took a swig from his, "Still, Arendelle seems nice enough."
"You're just passing through?"
"Oh, I've been hanging around. I'm," he seemed to be searching for a word, "on vacation, I guess is the tactful answer. But really, it was a suspension from my job. My life." He sighed, a solemn look crossing his face before the grin returned, "I'll have it back to it soon though."
The pair fell into quiet, Anna looking down into her cup of coffee, "That's good. I know what it's like for your life to be upended, but eventually, things get back to normal. Right?" She was asking herself as much as him.
Elsa's lungs stung, her chest hurt, her limbs burned, head pulsing, but she couldn't stop. She pushed herself to her limit, never missing a step as she tried to draw on the moon and the change to feed her stamina. Closing the last three miles to Anna's house saw the reward of the treeline, the end of the forest that led to Anna's land. The sight pulled on her deepest reserves, and she redoubled her efforts, kicking up dirt and debris behind her until "Finally!" she breached the open air.
Hans' head was bowed, looking into his own cup, staring at his reflection in the dark liquid. He scoffed slightly at her question, giving a weak shrug, then closed his eyes and started chuckling to himself.
Anna looked up at him, narrowing her eyes, smiling a bit in spite of the strange topic, "What?"
"It's just," the man shook his head, his voice quiet and wary, wearing a small smile,"I'm wondering..." He paused, drawing out suspension as he gradually reopened his oculars, slowly raising his gaze to meet hers, "What is it Elsa told you about me?" The smile spread suddenly, splitting his face as he snorted another small laugh.
Hans watched jovially, able to see Anna mentally connecting the dots behind her eyes. "Oh, so she has told you about me then. That's a surprise. She usually lies."
"Lies?" she repeated in a breath, staring blankly ahead.
"Of course." He said as if it were obvious. She noticed him tilt his ear sightly in her direction to listen, then he glanced over her shoulder toward the hall that lead to the entrance before continuing, holding her gaze again, "But I think I'll just let you ask her." The man motioned with an open hand for Anna to look behind her, and she turned with mounting horror to do as he suggested.
The sound of the front door slamming open against the wall echoed nosily through the house, the pounding of footsteps against the hardwood floor traveling towards them. Elsa staggered into the room, gasping and gulping, struggling to breathe as her heart jack-hammered and her chest squeezed painfully. The sight before her set her face aghast.
There he was. Hans. Sitting with a smug smile and a tilt of his head behind Anna, at the side of her dinner table, with a cup of coffee in front of him.
"Wow, you ran all the way here?" The red haired man broke the silence with a cocky squawk. "You have to be tired, and here I was, hoping for a real fight from you."
"Keep him talking while you catch your breath." Elsa's instincts commanded her.
"What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" he shot back with sarcasm, slapping a hand against the table, "Good question. Tell me this first, what do you think you're doing here?"
Elsa's gaze bounced away with uncertainty, but she remembered where she was quickly and returned her attention to him, "Tracking you."
That answer made the man show all his teeth, a chortle slowly bubbling up from within his gut that sent a shiver down Anna's spine. Elsa just tensed.
"Yeah, I knew you would think that, you clever bitch. You weren't though. Ever since you chased me across the Canadian border a year ago, I changed my tactics. I've been looking for just the right place to lure you into an ambush. This little podunk was the perfect area-"
Elsa became aware of rage replacing fear.
"-To lure you in and spring a trap."
The woman's breathing was beginning to even out, her face cooling very slightly. Still, she was now full of a new rush of adrenaline, and it kept her sharp.
"There was no sign of you for weeks. How?"
"You should know. Wolfsbane. I always wondered why you used it back then, and now I know. It's awfully hard for you to find things when they leave no scent behind, right?"
"Imagine my surprise when you turned out to have two weaknesses. Instead of just getting you when you were growing sure of yourself, you went and dragged innocent little Anna into this. And then, you fucked her and abandoned her."
Elsa clenched her fists, sucking her teeth as her nails pressed bloody crescents into her palms.
"But," Hans waved a hand dismissively, leaning back in his seat and looking away from her, deliberately mocking the threat she posed, "That's not what this is about. This is about me warning Anna about you. I think she deserves to have the truth, don't you?"
The blonde didn't speak. She looked like she might blow a gasket. Anna was watching Elsa like she had experienced the deep wound all over again. Her eyes were glassy, lashes wet. Fear permeated the depths of those aqua pools, but Elsa didn't dare take her sights off the man.
"Is it true?" Anna murmured helplessly.
Elsa lunged to go over the table at Hans' throat, but he jumped to his feet with an angry snarl, flipping the table at the woman with a tremendous force that swept her off her feet and sent her sprawling. Anna yelped at the abruptness of it all, suddenly finding herself being yanked from her chair and gripped tightly around the neck, held in the fold of the man's arm. With his other hand, he took hold of her face, backing away from Elsa as she heaved the table off of herself and stumbled her way back to her feet, falling into an offensive stance.
"Let me guess. She said I was either a lunatic or an escaped criminal?"
Anna's world froze. She was suddenly cold.
"A... criminal.
Elsa growled viciously, baring her teeth as her canines elongated.
"Well, I'll tell you the truth, since she won't."
Hans leaned in and pressed his mouth against Anna's ear as he squeezed her cheeks, whispering harshly, "She's the criminal."
Anna let out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding, "Wh-what? Why?"
At that, Hans sneered, his previously handsome mask dropping, eyes burning with hatred, "Because," he paused, spitting, "That bitch infected me!"
What little resistance the girl was putting up melted away.
"She took away my fucking life, just like she took away yours."
They were silent for a while. Elsa didn't deny it. The man's eyes flicked away from Elsa when he felt Anna tremor, and that was all she chance she needed. She lunged again, this time closing in from a low angle, Hans backpedaled, and Anna followed her own instincts, clumsy as they were, and grabbed Hans' elbow and wrist, chomping down as hard as she could. She was surprised to find that she could break the skin.
The man let out a scream of sheer fury, and Elsa caught him by his open shoulder, digging her fingers into the flesh as she yanked him away from Anna, and flung him toward the counters, where he fell back over his own feet and slammed into them.
"Anna, run!" Elsa barked as she went at Hans again, who regained his footing with startling speed.
The girl didn't need to be told, and had already taken off in a mad dash for the living room. She crashed into the couch, fetching her rifle before running out the front door and around toward the back.
Hans turned as Elsa dove at him, swinging his arm with a meaty fist that packed against her cheek with the sound of raw steak being beaten, sending her staggering back and hitting the wall with some force, her cranium crashing into it hard enough to dent the drywall. Her head wobbled, but Hans didn't come for her again, instead bashing his way out the rear exit into the dark and making a break for Anna's barn.
She didn't waste any time in getting to her feet, though she wobbled and stumbled as she gained back her pace, breaking out of the door after him with enough power to jerk one of the hinges free from the frame.
Anna had come around the corner just in time to see Hans break into her barn, the cows and sheep spilling out in a raging flood. She had her gun raised, but when Elsa came storming out, she shouted for her attention, "Elsa!" and threw out her hand to point at the building.
Elsa disappeared from the spot with blinding speed, having regained her composure, and pursued her target into the large structure. Anna took off after her, though she was several hundred feet behind the woman by the time she vanished from sight.
She stopped sixty feet out and raised her gun, listening closely to the ruckus from the barn. There was a loud bang, and then inhuman sounds poured through the wooden walls; snorts, snarls, gurgling and growling. Anna didn't waver; she didn't even flinch. There was a slight thump from up high on the upper level, and the redhead adjusted her aim, planting her feet more firmly.
Silence. Tense, terse, dreaded silence.
Elsa and Hans exploded from through the front wall of the barn from the loft, tumbling end over end until they landed with a sickening crunch, Elsa beneath Hans. The loud crash and horrible collision with the ground did cause Anna to jump back, worry for the blonde filling her to the brim. Elsa struggled to move, dazed from the impact.
Hans reared back on his knees, straddling the woman's hips, and threw back his head to let out a howl of pure, unbridled agony, hands stiff and close to his chest as his fingertips gushed blood around razor sharp claws. His fancy suit was torn from his elongated limbs and the expansion of his muscles, and a fine ring of muddy-red fur had grown around his face and over his forearms. The man fed his pain into his anger until he found himself able to draw back an arm, preparing to strike Elsa. The action prompted Anna to aim as swiftly as possible.
The blonde's head was whipped to the side by the force of Hans' blow as his claws slashed her across the face. Elsa screamed and tried to roll and press her face into the dirt, arms flailing wildly as she blindly swung for him.
"Hans!" Anna called out, the man whirling on her. He caught her aiming for him and leapt into action in a fraction of a second, bullrushing the girl as his claws glistened with Elsa's blood under full moon.
The redhead thought she would have more time, but the sight of the monster charging her caused her to fire prematurely, and she missed, turning and dropping to her stomach as he jumped, hands outstretched for her. Hans' waiting paws cleared her by a hairs breadth, sparing her from being gutted like a fish, but he still struck her bodily, and her landing knocked the wind out of her. Hans slid on all fours, skidding to a stop before rising back to his feet and turning slowly to face her.
He glanced to Elsa, who lay with her wounds pressing into the Earth, gripping at her face as blood poured through her fingers. Anna finally caught a gasp, and looked up to see Hans approaching her, hovering menacingly over her.
His malformed mouth looked about to speak when he was suddenly swept off his feet, the air being knocked from his chest this time. Kristoff slammed into the man from the side, catching Hans' flank with his shoulder and letting loose with a mighty yell as he pushed. If Anna wasn't feeling so thrashed, she might have laughed at the look of surprise on the monsters face.
The feeling of triumph didn't last long. Hans dug his feet into the ground and stopped Kristoff cold, bigger than the blond man at this point. With a roar of his own, Hans took hold of his new target's shoulders, claws piercing the man's arms as he reared back and slammed his head forward, catching Kristoff's brow with his forehead.
Blood gushed from the gash on the blond's face and into his eye, and his hand flew up to cover the wound as he stumbled back onto his butt, rolling onto his elbows and knee's. Hans stepped in close and drove the end of his foot into Kristoff's ribcage, the force of the kick lifting the smaller man from the ground and dropping him limply. Kristoff coughed painfully.
Hans then began to pace back and forth in front of Anna and Kristoff, waiting a few seconds, watching the trio. Then he spoke, "I'll tell you more, Anna." His voice lisped like his tongue couldn't fit in his mouth and saliva spurted from between his jagged teeth, "You don't have any real friends here." He said it as if he had sensed her victorious emotions when the blond had pounced on him. "What did Kristoff tell you about what he was here for, hmm?"
More lies. Anna's heart pounded against her chest, and she made to move, but froze when Hans growled a single warning.
"You think he's protecting her, but he isn't. Sure, some ken protect the ones with the change, but not him. He's taking a test to be accepted by the caern."
He smiled, gums exposed by his bulging jaw, a string of drool dripping from his mouth, "He's here to make sure she kills me. Her fucking victim. At the behest of their leader." He finally stopped pacing, "And if she doesn't?" He snorted, animalistic, "Then he'll tell them, and they'll kill her."
Anna realized this whole situation was a whole lot more fucked up than she had ever fathomed, her gaze locked on the ground in front of her.
When Hans groaned and writhed, she glanced back up to him, his form pushing further into the change. He shook his head, eyes taking on a golden glow as he let the change take him fully. A final cry of glee and rage and sorrow, and Hans shuddered, bestial. When he finally looked at Anna again, Hans was gone. All that remained was the monster.
He was about to come for her, his body poised to strike, when there was a rustle in the grass a few feet away. The beast spun to try and dodge.
Elsa soared past him at breakneck speed on all fours, half-changed herself, blood painted in streaks down her face and neck, into her torn shirt, though her wounds had partially closed. With her mouth agape, she caught the two outer fingers of Hans' left hand when he turned, and then his tail, sheering them clean from his body.
When she stopped, she spun in a fury to face him, his fingers and tail still caught in her mouth, the bloody stubs sticking out between her teeth. The bestial Hans let out a screech that had Anna covering her ears, arching his back and howling at the sky in livid, savage anguish. The monster's gaze snapped to Elsa, and the very sight of her snarling, cold stare and gleaming teeth clutching his extremities sent him reeling, dropping to all fours as he made a break for the woods.
The pale beast dropped it's mouthful of body-parts, cutting the air with an enraged roar as she sped off after the fleeing culprit.
Once they were halfway to the trees, Anna heard a voice call from behind her, "Anna!"
Kristoff groaned from where he lay in the grass a few feet away.
"Anna!" Olaf's panicked voice came again.
Anna felt herself sitting up, turning to face the man as he approached her from behind, dropping to his knee's next to her and taking her shoulders, "What the fuck is going on!? Are you alright!?"
The redhead flinched when she moved her right leg. It was sore. She ignored it and pushed on, moving to stand. Olaf helped her up, and she looked into his eyes, "Give me your coat. It's chilly out here." He didn't ask, obeying without question. She slipped it on and bent down to pick up her gun with another wince, "Olaf, go home. I know you're worried, but I can't explain right now. Please."
He hesitated. God damnit, he had gotten half way home from dropping off Kristoff, who had also told him to go home before he swerved the truck around for the second time that evening and rushed here to help.
He would just have to trust her. He sighed and, looked her square in the face with a reluctant nod, "Be careful." Her friend then turned and booked it back to his vehicle. If anything happened to her, he would hate himself forever, but something about her tone of voice brokered no argument. He hoped to Hell and back again that she would be okay.
Anna was glad the man didn't argue. She didn't want him to go through what she was going through. She was suddenly determined to take Hans out for the sake of protecting Olaf from exposure. With that thought spurring her on, she made as hasty a rush as she could for the treeline, limping after the pair of beasts who had disappeared in the forest.
Elsa was two hundred feet into the inky blackness of the woods before Hans struck, swinging a massive branch from behind an oak like a baseball bat. The blonde woman dropped to her back, and the monster stepped around the trunk of his ambush point, raising the branch over his head to chop downward at her.
The woman kicked the inside of the beasts knee, hearing a vicious snap as she rolled to the side, then pushed back over her shoulder, rolling again to land gracefully on the balls of her feel. Her leg muscled bunched, ready to spring, and she launched herself up at an angle, flying through the air past the man. She caught him in mid-flight, claws leaving a wake of nasty gashes across the side of his head, shredding his ear and sending him spinning.
Hans roared as his rage flared, using the momentum of his spin to bring the branch around again. This time he clocked her at an upward angle against the side of her own cranium, knocking the pale creature from clear out of the air to hit the ground several feet away with a jarring thump.
Elsa tried to push herself up, but fell to her back instead, head lulling back and forth as she struggled to focus.
Heaving for air, Hans snorted confidently. He had her.
His head twitched and he groaned and grunted, working to form words through his bestial tongue, "Ahhhh. Victory. Vengeance."
Elsa's eyes rolled back in her head before slipping closed, the change beginning to leave her, too disoriented to respond to the pain of reverting.
"You remember that girl in Washington? You never found her body. That's because I ate it up." He cackled, a series of snorting grunts, smacking his lips wetly, quickly and repeatedly in a comedic display of eating something tasty. Elsa closed her eyes, trying to ignore the imagery. It made her... hungry. "When I'm done with you, Elsa," he paused, tilting his head as a thick line of drool slid down his chin and hung from his lip, "I'm going to eat Anna alive."
That snapped Elsa back to reality. Golden eyes suddenly jumped to attention, wide and alert, locking onto Hans' eyes with a raging inferno of anger. It was quiet for a moment as he realized those eyes had changed. When they opened, the whites of her eyes were black as pitch, the equally dark outer edges of her iris separated from the sclera by a fine, jagged thread of fiery red.
His smile fell, eyes wide with horror. His blood ran cold in a way he didn't think he could experience anymore. It made him feel human. Before he could even smile bitterly about the irony, he heard the faint canter of laughter coming forth from the near-human woman (claws, leaner muscles, and pointed ears aside), who was sitting up when he next blinked, her head bowed. It started out slow, giggling, growing in fervor and cadence, volume finally reaching a fever pitch when the woman threw her head back, positively howling with jovial, gravelly cheers.
Elsa's mouth was unusually large, but not malformed, her teeth pointed, white, gleaming; inhuman, but not those of the animal. The next instant he blinked, she was on him like a terror, the insane and echoing laughter gone in an eerie silence as she slammed his back hard against a tree several feet behind him. She had him by the fur on his chest, her grip so tight he feared she would tear it right from him, and his flesh along with it. He was still bigger than her, though she was tall, but it didn't seem to matter, any struggle he put forth infantile compared to the raw strength she demonstrated. She leaned in close, yanking him down so she could whisper to him, her voice rough like sandpaper, low, a humming growl, "Do you think I haven't eaten people, Hans?" She grinned, sounding pleased when he began to tremble in her grasp, "Don't you know why I'm called a monster, even among my own people?"
She leaned back slightly to watch his adam's apple bob when he gulped, letting his imagination try to fill in the gaps of what awful things Elsa had to have done to be feared by other monsters. Her grin didn't waver in the slightest, letting him hang for his trespassing on her very source of purpose; Anna, who was sweet and beautiful like the mythical Orpheus, taming beasts with her determination and a song. After another full minute of letting him stew in trepidation, she breathed the answer, mouthing the words slowly and clearly to him, "I'll eat anyone. Even other werewolves." Some far away part of her sadly reflected on the time Anna had thought she was joking when she said that human tasted bad. If only she had been.
He didn't have time to panic or fight. Elsa turned and hurled his weight with enough force to do exactly as he'd initially feared and ripped out a chunk of fur and flesh from his chest. However, what he hadn't expected was that with her other hand, she would grab hold of his remaining ear and jerk it straight from the base of his head, severing it by tearing it from him.
The beast let out a squeal of fright and agony, shrieking like a pathetic animal as he crashed into the next nearest tree, head cracking back against the wood hard enough to fracture his skull. His feet hit the ground first and they slid out from under him as his body failed to respond to his will, the desire to flee. His head rolled forward, chin against his chest as Elsa began to approach him with an aloof casualness in her step. She was taking her time now.
The pure aura of horrifying pheromones the woman permeated the air with caused him to call enough strength to turn his eyes up to meet her gaze.
Her voice rumbled, harsher, louder, "You think you're a monster, Hans?"
The beast sobbed and rolled to the side, using his last ounces of willpower to try and crawl away. He was like a worm compared to the monster that came to tower over him.
Elsa was utterly without pity. She stomped onto Hans' back and he let loose another cry of despair as he felt his lower body go numb. She had broken his spine.
The last clear words he heard with his ruined ears when he tried to turn, looking at her from the corner of his eye as tears spilled down into the dirt below.
"Don't make me laugh."
Elsa opened her mouth wide and lunged for his throat.
Animal screams rang out through the chill of the night, continuing to echo eerily even after the source abruptly stopped. Anna had heard several before, but the last one sent a shiver racing through her body. She hoped it wasn't Elsa.
Why did it have to be so goddamn dark in these woods? She picked up the pace, risking further injury to reach Elsa sooner, clutching her gun desperately.
It wasn't far until she stumbled on the blonde, barely making her out in the moonlight peeking between the treetops.
The woman stood with her back to Anna, head bowed, looking at a large stain of blood on the leaves at her feet. The redhead stopped, rooted to the spot. Where was Hans?
The pair stood quietly, and after a while, the crickets finally began to chirp. Elsa slowly lifted her head and turned to face Anna, eyes blinking blue, and Anna knew where Hans had gone. What was at Elsa's feet weren't leaves. They were shreds of clothing. The bloody hand print at the side of the blonde's neck and face, and dark smudges around her mouth told the story. The girl wanted to be horrified. She wanted to be appalled. She wanted to want to run away and hide.
But she wasn't any of those things. Quickly fumbling to flick the safety on her model 70, she then dropped the gun and broke into a limping run, leaving Elsa stunned when she threw her arms around the woman's shoulders, crashing against her in a fierce hug, crying out in sheer relief, "Elsa!"
The taller woman staggered a bit, straightening her posture as she set her hands soaked in red against Anna's back, holding her with great care. It would stain Olaf's coat, but that wasn't even a passing wonder. Anna tightened her hold and pressed her face into the crook of Elsa's neck. The blonde released a breath she hadn't known she was holding, fully wrapping the redhead in her arms and squeezing firmly, pressing her eyes against the girls shoulder.
They could only afford a minute, Anna hopping back and relaying in a hurried voice that Kristoff had been hurt, turning to rush back for the man. She took hold of Elsa's hand, interlocking their fingers and taking the lead, setting a fast pace, weaving between the trees much quicker than before.
When they breached the treeline into the open, they pushed into a run at the sight of someone kneeling over the unconscious Kristoff. It was Olaf, returned again. The man just didn't know when to give up. When they came to stand over the blond man and Anna's friend, he was gently slapping the bigger man's cheek, "Hey, Kristoff, come on, man."
Kristoff's eyes fluttered. In a tired rasp, Elsa spoke up, "Get up or I'll eat your share of breakfast."
The dazed man blinked, squinting at his cousin as he lifted his head slightly from the ground, then groaned in pain and rolled onto his side, hands lifting to hold his aching cranium, "Oh, man, my head."
Everyone relaxed, finally feeling the full effect of the horrible events of the night being over. Sure, three of the four of them had taken a significant thrashing, but they were all alive, and it was over. At least, that was how it seemed for a while. There were still a lot of things yet to be said.
After Olaf had helped get Kristoff inside of Anna's house and comfortable on the couch, Anna convinced the man to finally go home and rest. He was reluctant again, but this time, fully complied. Kristoff napped on the sofa for the last couple of hours before sunrise, assuring Anna that he was fine to sleep, and that it helped the healing process.
While Olaf remained, Elsa stayed out of the reach of the porchlight, hiding the newly formed scars that marred her features, though they weren't gauchely visible. She didn't want to risk the man's sanity by making him ask questions she just couldn't bring herself to lie about again, after all. Once he was gone, she walked into the house, following Anna's scent to the kitchen. Anna was washing her hands in the sink from cleaning the gash on Kristoff's forehead for him.
Elsa stalked up behind her, quiet as a corpse, and gently set her hands on the girls hips. Anna didn't startle.
The redhead had one question on her mind to start with. She reached out and took the dishtowel tucked into the handle of her fridge, drying her hands, then slipping the corner under the water before turning to face the taller woman. Elsa lifted her hands just enough to allow for it before replacing them right where she wanted them. Anna moved cautiously and began to wipe the blood from around the blonde's mouth, unsure if the scars were tender.
"Can you tell me why Kristoff was so angry before?"
The pale woman sighed. No more lies. "We're not supposed to be with humans the way I was with you. And in my position," she paused to let the redhead wipe across her lips, "It's considered... well, something similar to treason. I was already on thin ice for infecting Hans. Killing him was supposed to save me from being banished."
Supposed to. Anna hung on to those words. She didn't want to ask what happened if you committed treason while "on thin ice", but maybe she would have the chance to find out later. When she was done wiping Elsa's mouth and chin clean, she moved up to her nose, eyes, then her forehead, "Why did you fire at me that day?"
After a while, Elsa spoke again, "I realized while we were apart that killing Hans wouldn't make the fact that I had stolen his life go away, even if he was a miserable wretch as a human. I realized," she paused, closing her eyes as Anna neared completion of her task, "That I had done the same thing to you."
Anna lowered her hand and tossed the now stained rag to the counter-top, turning again to face the woman and resting her hands in crook of Elsa's elbows with a tender squeeze.
Elsa continued, "There's a difference between you and him though. You aren't infected."
A mental image of Elsa picking bits of Hans from her teeth flashed through Anna's mind. She didn't even flinch.
"You can leave wonderland, and never have to experience anything like this again. You'll grow up, you'll love somebody, you'll have kids. It will take time for you to get there, but I can give you back what I took from you."
Anna finally looked up into Elsa's eyes, holding her gaze. She wanted to tell Elsa that she was her life, but that wouldn't be true. She just didn't want to acknowledge what she knew the blonde was telling her. Instead, she settled for trying to form one last, thin thread that would tie her to the woman. "Tell me about your life."
Elsa stared at her for a moment before answering, glancing down and away, "I grew up in a different caern from the one I consider mine. I had never been outside of one until two and half years ago. I was raised," shaking her head in disagreement with the term, "Groomed, really, to take up a position of leadership in a caern, and was traded to the one we came here from when I was ten. They educated me thoroughly, showed me how to fight, and how to control the change. Then, when I passed my rites..." She stopped, seeming to reflect for a few seconds, "They made me into a monster."
She smiled bitterly, "It was just a little bit at a time, so slight I couldn't even see the change. Just like with silver. Poison."
Anna reached up to cup the woman's cheeks, guiding her mournful blue pools to meet hers again.
"Until one day, I found that I could stop the change from taking me completely, balancing on the thin wire that separated those two parts of me; an intelligent being and a wild abomination, becoming tangled until there wasn't a difference any more."
Elsa pursed her lips. She wanted to go on, but was afraid. Anna could feel it. So to give the woman courage, ignoring all that that she was aware of, she leaned up to offer a kiss of reassurance. When Anna pulled away, Elsa couldn't hold back the small but telling smile that crept onto her features. The two simpered at one another before the blonde's smile finally faltered and she looked away, "When I turned twenty, two years and seven months ago, the council arranged for a test at the behest of our leader. I was put into a situation where it was impossible to escape without killing my opponents, but..."
The woman shuddered and closed her eyes, and Anna dropped her hands to the woman's shoulders, where she rested her head as she leaned against her. Elsa's arms slid around the redheads waist, "I didn't just kill them. I let the change take me, completely; unchained myself. I became something else. A real monster. Not just a werewolf with a bad nature. Evil.
I didn't want to be that, so after a while of putting up with the council encouraging the behavior, I ran away from home, just like a petulant child. That's when I met Hans."
At that admission, Anna leaned back, tilting her head at the woman but waiting for her to explain, "I knew there was a small town near to the caern. He took me under his wing and I helped him commit petty crimes. Breaking and entering, theft, small-time gambling scams. It was mostly harmless. He said I was 'amazing'. I was so 'good', that no one ever caught my slight of hand.
Of course, we were both getting drunk on confidence, and after about half a year, he wanted to step up the game. I didn't and said I would walk. 'I'll kill you,' he told me, flat out. I dared him to try. His motivations sound obvious in retrospect; once you have power, you'll always want more." Elsa's thoughts lingered on the thoughts of her hunger for a few seconds.
"But my mistake? I was just plain stupid. I knew what I was capable of, but I denied that what had once been 'it'... the monster, and what had once been 'me', had become one-and-the-same. Hans made his move. He cut me. I cut him. I bled into his wound just because I could. Then I left him there."
Shame was written openly on Elsa's features now. "When I realized that I had left him to that kind of fate, Anna, I killed the whole town. Sixty people. I ate and ate and ate until I thought I would burst, and I was still so hungry."
She ran her tongue across her lips. Maybe she expected Anna to recoil or grow sick, but she just continued to watch the woman intently. "I only returned to the caern because I thought they would execute me. They debated it for a while, but ended up deciding against it. I was too good of an 'asset' to lose." At that, she scowled, scoffing.
"So I was sent to find Hans and kill him, and they lied to me, telling me that it would prove my loyalties still remained with the laws of the caern." Her expression was dark now. "They baited Kristoff, knowing he wanted into the caern- tricked him into being my 'parole officer' because they knew I wouldn't kill him, even if I hurt him. And I still had the authority that came with being the leader's chosen apprentice. They knew he would respect my decisions as long as they were in line with their goals."
Elsa looked at Anna, meeting her eyes of her own volition at last, "I lied to you the way they lied to me. I took your life away the same way they took mine." With a sad sigh, she lifted a hand to tip the girl's chin up, brushing her lips across the redhead's, "I won't make you a monster."
Anna frowned, hesitating only a fraction of a second before throwing her arms around Elsa's shoulders like she had earlier that night, squeezing her, clutching her like she would disappear. Elsa hugged her tightly in return, and Anna tried to ignore the pain, both emotional and physical.
The sun was finally beginning to peek over the horizon, visible from the window above the sink, and Kristoff complained as he stirred and rose from sleep to sluggishly drag himself to the kitchen, seeking the women. He stopped in the doorway, and Anna expected him to be mad. Instead, he took up a glum look, eyes gloomy as he looked back and forth between the pair holding one another.
Reaching up to rub the sleep from his face, he blinked a few times, sighing heavily, "I'm going back to the house to pack our bags, Elsa. It's going to be a long day." He didn't say anything else, just standing up a little straighter and heading for the front door.
Anna's aqua eyes fell back on Elsa, questioning, but calm.
"I can't stay, Anna."
Something about what she had learned during the night had changed the way she accepted Elsa, though she wasn't sure what exactly it was, and she was too tired to argue. Instead, she opted for taking the blonde by the hand and leading her to her room to lay on the bed while Kristoff was gone. She left her door open, sitting on the end of the mattress and scooting back until she could rest her head on the pillows, never letting go of Elsa, guiding her along like she had several times before. There was no guess as to what to do. The blonde snuggled up to Anna, resting partially on top of her as the redhead closed her eyes, laying her head on the girl's shoulder, hugging her waist. The girl wrapped her arms around the woman's neck, holding her without reserve. Their eyes closed, and they sighed as they drifted off.
The pair dozed for a few hours, soaking in each others presence while Kristoff took his time getting home, packing their backpacks, and returning. He woke them with surprising gentleness, lightly knocking at Anna's door and holding up her bag for her to see before setting it by his feet, voice quiet, "You might want to... clean up a bit more before we hit the road."
Anna's eyes fell shut again, so Elsa gingerly slipped from the bed and stepped into Anna's private bathroom to scrub the blood from her arms, neck and shoulders. Her hands proved more difficult. It had been so thick that it would take weeks for the color to fade. She came back out for a second to grab her bag, stripping off the shredded remains of her clothes and putting on a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt. The redhead turned her head to watch Elsa as she pushed her feet into her backup sneakers and knelt to tie them.
The girl looked at the woman's face closely, tracing the four pale scars that ran from the right side of her face above her brow to her left jaw. God, Hans had hit her hard. Elsa was lucky to still have those deep, striking eyes that stupefied Anna every time.
"Small miracles."
She didn't want to think about what was coming, so she focused on Elsa while she secured the shoelace on one foot, reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear before she moved to fix the other. Even doing something so ordinary, Elsa was- "Incredible," Anna breathed.
The woman looked up at her, and Anna tugged at Olaf's coat to make herself more comfortable. Elsa flashed that brilliant, stunning smile that took away the redhead's breath, standing and moving over to her, reaching out a hand to the girl. Anna reciprocated, and their palms met, fingers weaving together. "I'm not." She paused, swallowing hard, eyes looking a little glassy, "But you make me wanna be."
Anna felt a lump wedge in her throat and her own oculars grew misty. Those words weighed on her more heavily than any love confession or blackhearted lie. Her cheeks flushed, making her freckles stand out.
Elsa sighed almost imperceptibly. Anna looked beautiful.
They lingered for another minute or two, and Anna realized what had been so bitter sweet that morning when they lay naked in the hay.
This was what it was. Their hands parted, and Elsa waited for Anna to stand before moving for the door to the girl's room, picking up her rucksack and slinging it over her shoulder.
Anna watched the ground pass beneath her feet as she followed the blonde out onto the porch, Kristoff waiting at the bottom of the steps with Sven at his heels, a bookbag slung securely over his own shoulders.
They stopped on the deck, standing quietly for a moment before Elsa turned to face her.
Anna looked up from her sneakers directly into Elsa's eyes, shining pools of aqua glassy once more, "Please don't go."
Elsa smiled. It was small, it was tired, but it was real. It promised affection and trust. "If I could take back all the lies I told, I would."
"You don't have to go." Anna pleaded with a watery voice.
"Anna, I have to do this. Killing Hans didn't undo what I did to his life. And staying here won't undo what I did to yours."
Anna sobbed bitterly and angry tears streaked down her cheeks, "This isn't fair." She shook her head in fierce denial, messy hair tussling wildly, fists clenched at her sides.
The two missed the hiccup from Kristoff as he turned away from them and marched a ways out, to the end of Anna's driveway, swallowing the lump in his throat as he battled through both love and hate. He stood out there, blinking back tears, shoulders hunched, fists planted stubbornly on his hips waiting for his cousin. He knew what awaited Elsa when they returned, the answer to the question Anna had been afraid to ask. Sven sat silently beside him, leaning his head against the man's leg.
"You're right," she sighed, "It wasn't fair. None of this was fair to you." Elsa stepped in closer, reaching up to brush away one of the heavy drops escaping the girls eyes and cup the redheads cheek, "This is the only way to make it right."
The girl shook her head, "It isn't right." Elsa didn't take her meaning, though she seemed to think she did.
Elsa lowered her hand from Anna's cheek, holding her palm face up between them. Anna studied the hand extended to her for a moment before slipping her fingertips across the woman's palm until they kissed the heel of her hand. Her touch lingered lightly before she took hold of Elsa's hand, squeezing her palm and looking back into those striking blue eyes.
Elsa's eyes flashed golden, and she smiled one last time, squeezing back. And they stood there. Quiet. Then, Elsa slowly let go, turned, and walked away.
Anna's hand hovered in midair for a second before she let it drop, trying to remember the feeling of Elsa's warm and elegant fingers wrapped around her palm. She watched as Elsa stopped at the end of her driveway, patting Kristoff on the shoulder and smiling up at him. That stunning smile. Her cousin wiped angrily at his eyes with the back of his one hands. The redhead distantly heard Elsa's voice, "Don't be afraid, Kristoff. Even on your own, you'll be fine."
Her cousin smiled a regretful smile, mirthless. The blonde motioned with a nod of her head, and began to walk up the road. Kristoff followed close behind, and Sven after him.
Anna watched until long after they had disappeared beyond the horizon. After a while though, she bowed her head, turned, and walked back inside of her house, letting the door slam shut behind her.
Even if she got back to living life, it would never be the one she had before. It had been irrevocably changed.
A/N: That's the end. Will post the epilogue tomorrow.