The ship creaks as it rises beyond the crest of a wave. Spray washes across the deck, drenching the men struggling with its topsail. Huddled in a thick coat beneath the vessel's wooden planks, Princess Anna fights off the rising tide of nausea bubbling in her stomach with thoughts of seeing her sister again.
"But they won't...they can't reach us, right?" Anna mutters for the tenth time.
"Shh!" Rapunzel hushes, keeping her eyes fixed through her window on the three small vessels bobbing up and down in the waves. Measuring less than fifty feet in length, the boats slice through the waves with ease, unlike their hulking ship lurching and swaying in the wind.
"I think they're getting closer, are they getting closer?" Anna asks, clasping and unclasping her hands, as she stumbles around on the uneven floor, "does this ship even have guns?"
Rapunzel frowns and nods. Her cousin's chatty nature had kept her on the edge recently; coupled with her repeated bouts of risk-taking, she began to question whether they were even cousins in the first place.
"Look, just let the crew handle this and everything's gonna be alright," Rapunzel mutters.
"But I can't-"
Rapunzel whirls around and scowls, "Do you have to do everything by yourself? I've been a princess for way shorter than you have and even I let people take control of things-"
"Well, it looks like they're going to be here anytime soon," Anna comments.
A deafening boom sends a shudder through the hull, followed by another. Rapunzel recovers her balance to the sight of two plumes of spray erupting between their pursuers, but the vessels resume their chase without a hitch.
"They're in range-"
"There's no way we're going to hit those boats, not when they're this small and this close," Anna scowls, before shouting, "I'm going to stop them from boarding us!"
"But it's raining-" Rapunzel starts, only to hear the cabin's door slamming behind her in reply.
Anna ignores the seawater creeping up her dress as she scurries across the rain-soaked deck towards the bridge. The howling wind sends the vessel and its occupants lurching to its side as a bolt of lightning flashes across the skies. A peal of thunder crackles above the noise of unrelenting rain, followed by the boom of cannonfire. Anna recovers her balance and clings to the bulwarks for support as she staggers into the bridge. Inside, the ship's Captain peers through his telescope before sighing and turning to his First Officer.
"There's no we can shake them, the royal vessel wasn't built for speed."
"What do we do then? The Princess is onboard. We need to account-"
"There'll be no one to account for, we'll be dead before sundown-"
Anna decides she's heard enough of the exchange, and clears her throat before the two officers.
"Gentlemen! What's this I hear about death and dying? Don't we have the means to fend off these seafaring barbarians?"
The Captain whirls around and raises an eyebrow at the rain-soaked Princess by the door.
"Your Highness," he says with a bow, "the ship is in danger, we are at risk of being boarded. May I suggest you hide yourself in the hold with Princess Rapunzel while we busy ourselves with this affair-"
"Well, we have to do something!"
"Princess Anna!" the First Officer says, "Listen, this is our fault, we never anticipated the Alliance would've pursued us. Now, let us undertake the burden of unraveling ourselves-"
"No!" Anna snaps, shaking her head and sending flecks of rainwater on the carpet, "This whole thing is my fault! My sister would never ask this much of our only ally in the south, had I been the one to fall ill. Maybe I'm stupid, maybe it's love that causes me to engage in such foolery, but we're in a tight rut now, and I hope you'll allow me to help."
The Captain and First Officer glance at each other, before turning to her, but the Princess speaks first.
"Actually, no! I'm helping whether you like it or not, you don't have a choice," she scowls, before sticking a tongue at them. The mood in the room is broken by the noise of shattering glass, sending both men ducking for cover.
"Shit!" the Captain shrieks as bullets rip into his cabin's ceiling. Anna crumbles to the ground and shields her face from the wooden splinters flying through the room. The sudden explosion of noise slams into her and sends her heaving for air. Unable to comprehend what's happening or shake away the panic prickling beneath her skin, Anna doesn't react at the hand wrapping itself around her boot and dragging her across the room like a rag doll.
"Get away from there!" the First Officer shrieks, tugging at Anna's weight, "They're within range!"
"Look, they're after me," Anna gasps, edging herself from the shattered windows with rain pouring through them, "I'll just surrender myself to them; just make sure Rapunzel makes it to my sister-"
"They're not after you!" both officers snarl at Anna, "Do you even comprehend how many Kingdoms want a piece of Rapunzel?"
Anna stares at them with widened eyes until the truth sinks into her mind. Sure, she could destroy ranks of armed men, or lift a tonne with her bare hands, but Rapunzel had tears that could heal the sick. After all, she knew hope was a gift men would gladly slay each other over.
"W-well, w-what can I d-do to help?" Anna stutters.
The captain crawls on his knees through shards of broken glass and ventures a peek over the edge. His subordinate consults a map torn across its center and shouts over the din of rain and musket fire, "Buy us some time! If the winds are in our favor, we might be able to maneuver our way into Arendelle's waters. Hopefully your navy will be willing to assist-"
Anna shakes her head; she knows it's pointless, but the shouts of enemy sailors attempting to board forces her to reconsider, and she hauls herself to her feet. The captain staggers onto the deck and yells, "Hold on!" before yanking hard on the steering wheel. The ship lets out a mighty creak before lurching sideways, sending all its occupants tumbling across the floor. Along its hulls, the rows of rope ladders strung up by Weselton sailors whip about in the sudden maneuver; dropping its assailants like flies into the water. A sickening crunch ensues, before the vessel nearest to the ship's bow gets crushed beneath its hull. Sail and tackle scatter into the sea, but the relentless assault resumes as soon as the Captain's desperate maneuver concludes.
"Oh god, please don't do that again," Anna mutters, wiping a mix of vomit and rainwater from her sleeve.
"Anna, look!" the captain hollers, pointing at the head peeking over the ship's bulwark, while keeping an iron-grip on the steering. A musket's glint flashes across her eyes; Anna rips off the nearest object she can find: the cabin's door, and flings it across the deck. The wood explodes against the bulwark like thunder, sending Anna's would-be killer into the waves below.
"Holy shit! the captain exclaims, keeping an eye on the waves ahead and another on the sight of Anna pulling off the cabin's other door. She hauls the enormous plank of wood to the bulwark as though it was a pillow, and hurls it at the dozen-odd men climbing up the ship's sides. A chorus of screams erupt as the wood scrapes them off like barnacles, scattering them into the sea.
"Portside!" the first officer hollers, before the crackle of a blunderbuss cuts off his voice, and splices his throat into two. Anna whirls around to the sight of no less than a dozen sailors clambering over the sides. The girl claps her hands over her ears, trying in vain to drown out the chorus of muskets and pistols erupting in plumes of flame and smoke. Throwing herself to the deck, her feet slip and slide on the rain-soaked deck as she makes a poor attempt to clamber for cover between the shards of wood exploding around her.
The captain frowns at Anna cowering behind the main mast; with a grunt, he yanks the steering hard to port before slumping over the wheel with blood dribbling from his chest.
"No!" Anna shrieks, watching the Captain's fingers scratch at the wood. The life ebbs from his eyes, and with it, Anna sees her hopes of saving Elsa evaporating into the storm.
"Fool," the captain whimpers, breathing flecks of blood and rainwater from his lips, "I told you to fucking save the Princess-"
The ship dips over the a wave's crest, sending Anna to the bulwark where she comes face to face with yet more men attempting to board her ship. The flashes of lightning in the distance cast a glow on the tumultuous ocean; its fury rife in Anna's eyes. It all appears so real, so close to her trembling chest when she tries to figure out why, and then she realises.
This was how her parents died.
Did they even know they were going to die? Did they have time to whisper their daughters' names into the rain-soaked air before the sea swallowed them? Her thoughts paralyse her for a moment before a hand closes around her neck and flings her across the deck. The girl's body leaves a dent in the planks before she cocks her head at the enormous man from Weselton bearing down on her with an axe. His first strike hits between her legs as she slithers between his. With a tug of her wrist, she pulls the kneecap from his socket, leaving him howling on the deck.
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Rapunzel," Anna mutters her cousin's name like a prayer as she yanks the axe from the wood, "please be alive."
A bullet whizzes past her hair. More sailors clamber over the bulwark and stomp their way through the flooded deck towards the axe-wielding figure cowering against the door.
"Fuck this-" Anna scowls, slamming the door shut behind her and sticking the axe through its handles. Soaked to the skin through her thin clothes, Anna staggers down into the hold and tries to remember which cabin Rapunzel was in. It takes her several tries before she finds the right door, and when she does, Anna recoils from the sight of her cousin wielding a frying pan over her head.
"What the-"
"Jesus, Anna, why didn't you knock? I almost put you out for good-"
"A frying pan?" Anna asks, before shaking her head, "Never mind, we've just been boarded."
"I'm ready for them," Rapunzel answers, tightening her grip around the iron handle. The rain beating on the window forms a plan in Anna's mind, but she questions her cousin's willingness to pull it off with her.
"Um, Rapunzel, they'll be here any second, help me beat them off if they ever come in here, alright? Let me try to figure something else-"
"Yes! I was born ready!" Rapunzel exclaims. Anna recovers a length of shipping tackle from the cabinet and loops one end around its leg. She measures out a rough length and ties the other end around the only chair in the room, before crouching to a knee and tying a loop around her cousin's ankle, without raising her attention. The girls gasp at a thump on the door, but Anna finishes tying up the rest of her knots.
"They're in 'ere!" voices echo outside. A double bed screeches against the wood as Anna drags it to the door with one arm. Pounding erupts against the door, and the rickety bed sways as the attackers attempt to force their way in.
"Great! That should hold them off-" Rapunzel says, before noticing the interlacing rope now strewn across the room, "um, what's all this rope for?"
"Look, I'm sorry, but there's no other way, we're outnumbered," Anna mutters over the noise of splintering wood.
"What?" Rapunzel gasps. She tries to untangle her foot from the knot Anna tied around her ankle, but the Princess clamps a hand down on her.
"Please don't tell your father I did this-"
"Did what?"
With a heave, the door gives way from the weight of a dozen men jamming on it. Their advance overturns the frail bed in between them and the princesses, but Anna takes two steps towards the window, dragging an enormous dressing cabinet behind her. Wedged between the door and the wrecked bed, a bulky sailor attempts to clamber into the room.
"Um, Anna?" Rapunzel shrieks, cracking her frying pan across his head, "Whatever it is you were planning to do, can you please do it now?"
With a grunt, Anna hurls the cabinet through the window, sending shards of glass and wood flying into their faces. The loops catches around their feet and drags them through the gaping hole. A scream pierces into Anna's eardrums as she struggles to maintain a grip on the rope, before the chair catches in the window's shattered remnants. The rope goes taut; Rapunzel screws her eyes shut when the weight of the cabinet sends them swinging around the hull. Anna whips out a knife and slashes at the rope.
A loud crack ensues as the rope snaps, sending the pair plummeting towards the sea. Rapunzel dares open her eyes for a fleeting second, before screwing them shut again and flailing her arms about. She catches hold of Anna's dress and clings onto her for dear life, expecting to have the freezing sea swallow them in its icy jaws. A violent thud on her head drags a gasp from her lungs, and she leaps to her feet on the deck of an enemy vessel.
"Oh my god, Anna!" Rapunzel cries, watching the princess hack away at the bits of rope tying the ship to theirs, "What in the blazing hell was that?"
"Get to the bridge!" Anna yells as she struggles with the ropes, "There might still be enemy sailors onboard!"
Rapunzel whirls around towards the bow; the cold sends a shudder into her bones, but even worse to come, she spots a silhouette looming towards her behind sheets of rain pelting the vessel.
"Who the fuck are you?" the voice booms. The boatswain appears before Rapunzel, his seven-foot tall frame sending Rapunzel buckling to the deck. He tosses his cigar into the rain and draws a cutlass, ready to snuff out the blonde's life.
"Um, Anna?" Rapunzel shouts, backing herself into a corner, "Anna?"
"One second!" the princess cries as she struggles to saw a hefty length of tackle with a knife.
"No, no! I d-don't have a f-fucking second!" Rapunzel screams, before an enormous hairy arm reaches into her hiding place and drags her onto the deck. The man's arm sends her sailing into the rain, and when her face slams into the wood, a trickle of blood leaks down her chin.
"No, no, no-" Rapunzel stutters, holding her arms in front of her at the boatswain with a cutlass over his head, "this is not - this is a mistake, I don't want to - I don't want-"
A violent crack blasts into her ears as a barrel slams into his head. He drops his cutlass and staggers backwards, before a tiny figure darts beneath his hulking frame, hauls him over her shoulders, and tosses him into the waves like a rag doll.
"Perfect," Anna mutters, picking up the boatswain's cutlass and cutting the last rope tethering their vessel to the ship. With a loud creak, the boat disengages and veers on its original course.
"I had to see it to believe it," Rapunzel comments as she gets up and follows her cousin into the bridge, "what do we do now? I just lost one of my father's royal ships."
"I'll ask Elsa to make you ten ice ships like these," Anna says, forcing a weak smile at Rapunzel, before reality sinks in and steals it from her, "if she's still alive."
"We'll make it," Rapunzel adds, placing a hand on Anna's shoulder, "you've come so far, we have to."
"Um, Anna?" Rapunzel shrieks, clinging onto the bulwark, "Aren't you supposed to be slowing down, like, I don't know, now?"
The lights of Arendelle's capital, earlier appearing as tiny dots, now loom into view as the vessel slips into the fjord. The strong easterly wind fails to let up, and their ship steals through the night in between the dozens of ships docked in the harbor.
"The lighthouse is signalling us," Anna mutters, keeping one eye on the solitary light flickering in the distance, "I think it means slow down."
"Yea, so-"
"I don't know how!" Anna exclaims, tightening her grip on the wheel, "I only know how to go left and right!"
The ship lets out a crunch and jerks to the side as it grazes a dock. Before they're able to react, it rams full speed into the beach, ripping several yards through the sand before crunching to a stop. The impact sends the cousins crumbling to the floor, showering maps and debris on them.
"Well, that happened-"
"Christ, Anna, are you like this all the time?"
"No time to waste!" Anna exclaims, untangling herself from the wreckage, "We've got to get to Elsa!"
The cousins emerge from the boat, only to be knocked back from a fireball exploding across them. Anna leaps her knees and screams, "The ships! They're still in pursuit!"
"No!" Rapunzel shrieks, "I thought we lost them at the Fjord's mouth!"
"Go, go, go!" Anna urges, taking her cousin's hand and leaping onto the beach. Another cannonball whizzes over their heads and slams into a house, reducing it into a pile of rubble.
"Didn't my- Wasn't there supposed to be...like a navy or something?"
"There's no more military left in Arendelle, long story!" Anna exclaims, spotting a horse tied to a fence.
Rapunzel opens her mouth to protest, but a pair of strong hands wrapping around her waist steals her breath momentarily, by the time she opens her eyes, her legs are straddled on a saddle, with Anna perched before her.
"But, but, but," Rapunzel stutters, "won't they be docked here like, I don't know, within an hour?"
"Well, let's hope we reach my sister within an hour then," Anna mutters, digging her heels into the horse.
With a loud neigh, the horse takes off towards the castle with a thunderous gallop. Rapunzel clings onto her cousin, burying her fingers into the girl's firm muscles. Drenched and shuddering from the rain and cold, she tries to attain some sort of warmth from Anna's body, but none comes to her.
Anna's trembling fists clutch at her dress as she dismounts the horse and scampers up the steps. With one hand, she shoves open the castle's main door and strides past the guard.
"Um, halt!" the guard shouts as he sputters awake, "Intruder!"
"Shut up, it's me!" Anna scowls, stepping closer to him, "And with me is Princess Rapunzel of Corona, we're here to see Queen Elsa-"
Without waiting for a reply, Anna pulls her cousin by the arm and races up the stairs. Within seconds, they arrive at Elsa's bedroom, only to be greeted by the royal physician's downcast face.
"Your highness, you're, you're back!" he says, taking a glance at her drenched dress, "But, I'm….I'm afraid I have some bad news."
Anna's heart plummets at his words; she clutches at the doorframe and gasps for air, not from exertion, but from pain searing through her chest.
"S-she's dead?" Anna asks, looking at the rug and dreading his answer.
"Her Majesty stopped breathing not more than half an hour before you arrived, the Bishop is on his way to make atonement. I've sent for Kai to perform your succession-"
"No, no, no!" Anna screams, her anguish echoing through the halls. The doctor recoils as her fist collides with the wall, and Anna's voice betrays none of the rage pounding in her head, "It...It can't be!"
"Look, maybe I can try," Rapunzel says, dropping to her knees by Anna's side and holding her trembling frame.
"C-can you?"
"We didn't come so far for nothing, it's worth a shot."
A wave of heat brushes against their faces as the doctor lets them into Elsa's bedroom. Covered with a thin blanket on the bed lies Queen Elsa, as still as a rock without a breath left within her. The tears spill from Anna's eyes before she even reaches Elsa's side. Even in death, the searing heat refuses to leave Elsa's body, and a hissing sound forces Anna to drop her sister's hand as she picks it up. The realisation sets into Anna and she crumbles by the bedside, burying her face in her hands.
"Look, Anna," Rapunzel whispers, pulling the redhead into her arms, "it's not over yet."
Despite the outpouring of grief within the room, Rapunzel's eyes remain bone-dry. She rises to her feet and tries to feel some sort of sorrow from the dead Queen lying before her, but the situation appears as contrived to her as Gothel's motherhood, like she's here just for her powers. Still, her heart softens at the sight of Anna sobbing by the bedside. Everything Anna had ever done was for the one girl lying before her; such was the power of her love.
Rapunzel purses her lips, and wonders if she can ever love anyone as much as Anna loved her sister.
"Anna, I-I c-can't cry," Rapunzel whispers, running a hand through her hair, "it's not that I'm not sad, I feel awful, b-but I-I'm just not feeling it."
"Please, Rapunzel, you have to," Anna begs, clasping her trembling hands around her cousin's fingers, "please." At once, she feels every ounce of her cousin's grief going into her body, but her eyes remain as dry as a desert.
"Anastasia did something to me," Rapunzel says, pulling her cousin's fingers to her neck, "squeeze me here."
Anna lets out a gasp at her suggestion, "But, you'll die!"
"Well, don't squeeze too hard," Rapunzel suggests, "you want to choke me, not strangle me."
A moment of doubt flashes through Anna's tear-soaked eyes, before her teeth grit in determination.
"For everything, thank you," Anna whispers, as her arms begin to flex, "and I'm sorry."
Rapunzel flinches at the grip tightening around her neck; at once, she scratches at her cousin's fist, trying in vain to break the vice-like grip cutting off her breathing.
"Fuck," Rapunzel sputters, "let go of me!"
Strength leaves Rapunzel's body, she goes limp and Anna pushes her down into the rug; the sheer force of her grip sending ripples down her forearms and exerting an unnatural amount of force into her cousin's neck. Rapunzel's hands make feeble movements, slapping at Anna's face and shoulders in a vain attempt to stop the choking. The look flashing through Anna's eyes reveals a deadly truth.
You made a mistake coming here, she'd gladly kill you to save her sister.
The pain proves too much to bear, her hands clutch at Anna's dress until it rips beneath her panic-induced strength.
"You're killing me," Rapunzel attempts to enunciate, but the strain on her neck makes saying anything impossible.
Maybe it's the fear of death, or the realisation that Anna wouldn't stop until she's saved Elsa, but a solitary tear brims from her eyelid and dribbles down her cheek. At once, Anna releases her grip and touches a finger to her cheek. Before she's even able to allow the stars to fade from her eyes and sit up straight, Anna flings herself to Elsa's side and touches a tear-stained finger to her sister's forehead.
Both cousins shield their eyes as light blossoms through the room, starting with tendrils of brilliance that sprout from Elsa's body in a series of radiant needles. The warmth in the air lifts, replaced by a swirling mildness, and as the light passes, a chill descends upon them.
"Elsa? Elsa?" Anna gasps, grabbing her sister by the shoulder and shaking her. The searing heat from earlier fades into warmth, no different from the warmth she felt from her body during their shared moments of passion. Her heart leaps as the Queen opens one eye, and then another. A groan escapes Elsa's lips; she touches a hand to her forehead and lets out a few raspy breaths.
"How long was I-"
"Elsa! You're alive!" Anna exclaims, hopping up and down on the bed.
Despite her joy, the next three words from her sister's lips sends her heart plummeting so far she feels like she'll shatter into a million pieces at once.
"Who are you?"