Her lips pursed in a thin line, the Snow Queen stands atop the hill with her back to Arendelle. Beneath her gaze, the men of Weselton gather in their lines; flags fluttering in the breeze and armor glistening under the noon sun. Standing upon the mossy outcrop, Anna stares ahead at the town of Helga - occupied and ransacked, its inhabitants persecuted and torn from their loved ones.
All because of her.
"You're unusually quiet today," Elsa mutters, looking over at her sister with braids flopping beneath her grey cape.
"M-maybe I'm just afraid," Anna says, wrapping the cloak around her body.
"You don't strike me as the fearful kind," Elsa says, "besides, I won't let them hurt you, I promise."
I'm not afraid of dying, Anna thinks, I'm afraid of losing you.
The thought hangs from her lips like the last dew drop of autumn before it's frozen over. Anna struggles with the conflict within her, and all she manages is a glare at Elsa.
"Oh, don't look so glum," Elsa prods, "we'll be home for supper, won't we?"
"That depends entirely on you, won't it? I mean me," Anna mutters, before shaking her head, "Us, I mean-"
"We'll do this together," Elsa says, trying to control the temperature in her hand as she lays it on Anna's shoulder, "I'm not leaving there without you."
"Me neither," Anna says, sighing in relief as the words leave her lips.
"You sure you know the way through the ravine?" Elsa asks, "Those boulders are pretty huge to transverse-"
"Not a problem!" Anna quips.
"That's more like it," Elsa says, pinching her sister's freckled cheeks, "you're gorgeous when you smile."
"You're...you're gorgeous too," Anna murmurs, swatting away her sister's arm, "I'd better get going, time isn't on our side today."
With trembling lips, Anna marches off towards her destination, still questioning the intent behind Elsa's words. Regardless, she purses her lips and maintains a tight grip on the sword buckled to her hip. Lying on the edge of a rocky outcrop, lies the ravine; the one breach in Arendelle's undulating terrain that the Duke's cavalry couldn't defend.
Anna's boots crunch against the gravel as the rocks narrow into an entrance. She sucks in a deep breath, before squeezing into the ravine. Funneled into a confined space, the wind picks up around her, whipping through her dress like a thousand chilly fingers urging her on. Anna stumbles against the spiny rocks, before picking herself up and plodding through the moss-ridden ravine; barely a shoulder's width wide at its narrowest. It takes Anna a full hour of trekking through the rocks with the wind whistling in her ears before she spots the boulders.
With gritted teeth, she clambers over the first one; struggling to maintain her grip on its surface, smoothened by the elements. Despite her success, the second one stands nearly two yards tall, and a proper foothold eludes Anna's efforts.
"Grr," Anna growls, before bracing her shoulders against the stone and pushing with all her might. The rock displaces from its mossy seat, sending a trickle of cold sweat slithering down her cheek. With a heave, the boulder budges under the girl's immense strength, until it begins rolling. The rock's rumbling is drowned out by a thunderous booming in the distance, evoking a smile from Anna's face.
"Alright, just a bit more," Anna mutters as sleet pours from the sky above her, "I don't want to miss the fireworks."
The pair of soldiers wrench the man from his daughters. Amidst a flurry of kicks and blows, he relents to their gauntlets as they drag him along the blood-stained townsquare. Raising his bruised head, he catches sight of the anvil with an axe leaning against it. The stench of blood invades his nostrils, and at once he renews feeble attempts to shake off his captors. Despite his struggle, the soldiers make short work of his broken body, tossing him on the anvil head-first.
"Execute!" Karl yells over his daughters' screams. One of them breaks free from the soldiers' clutches, but slips on the blood-stained cobblestones. In the ensuing tussle, his wife shoves the soldier holding her back, before rushing to pick her daughter up. A soldier kicks the two in the teeth, sending them tumbling over and over. A cowhide whip crackles through the air as Karl coils the leather around the girl's throat. Wrenching her from her mother's bosom, he draws an axe and marches towards the two. The blood-caked axe glimmers in hues of silver and crimson as he raises it into the sunlight, and with a grunt, Karl swings hard.
Shards of frozen metal spray the ground as sleet-laced wind swirls around the courtyard. The maelstrom picks up around the stunned soldiers, allowing the family enough time to break free and run into each others' arms. Prince Karl shields his eyes at the snow biting into his face, and when he opens them, a smirk graces his face at Queen Elsa, strolling into the town square like it's her palace courtyard.
At once, rows of rifles point towards Elsa, but the trembling fists clenching them betray the weakness in their hearts.
"Greetings, Queen Elsa-" Karl starts.
"I demand to know the reason for this impudence!" Elsa shrieks, "You have invaded Arendelle's territory without cause!"
"You must have misread the note," Karl scowls above the whirling wind, "I remember asking for an audience with your sister, not with you!"
"That doesn't matter," Elsa hisses, flashing the signet ring on her finger, "I am the ruler of Arendelle, and you will obey my instructions-"
"Well, I am the King of the fucking world, you bitch!" Karl yells, eliciting a gasp from the townsfolk, "and I will only negotiate with that wretched whore, Princess Anna of Arendelle!"
Elsa raises an eyebrow at the Prince's words. She struggles to feel some sort of indignation at his insult, even a mild annoyance, but all she can think of is how puzzling it is that a grown man could be so mad at Anna.
"I'm not letting you anywhere near her, you monster," Elsa snarls, retching at the blood and severed heads around her, "the Southern Isles will pay for this genocide!"
"And she be let off for the massacre of my brothers?" Karl screams back, his cheeks flushing red with rage.
"That is no excuse to kill innocent people!" Elsa yells, materialising a seven-foot long ice-spear in her right hand. The soldiers around her back away from the icy shaft, topped with a tip glistening in the sun.
"We're beyond that now," Karl scowls at her, "the blood on this floor belongs on Anna's hands."
"I will kill you if you dare murder another one of my subjects," Elsa threatens, pointing the spear at him.
"Why don't you give it your best shot then?" Karl sneers, "If you're so damn powerful and mighty-"
The ground quakes with frost, and a scream pierces through the air as Elsa hurls the spear towards him. With a crunch, the weapon shatters a split-second before it would've impaled his armour. Elsa gasps at Karl still standing, flanked by jagged ice crystals. She tilts her head over his shoulder, and staggers back at the monk approaching behind him. Hunched over beneath his monastic garb, the monk's staff smoulders with heat, as if possessing some unseen power it's incapable of containing.
"You didn't think your magic would be limitless, did you?" he sneers, uncovering his head, "Ice Queen?"
"Wait, what-" Elsa gasps.
A scepter wrought from ice and magic appears in Elsa's hand. Every bit of her power enters the wand, before it thunders from its tip in a dazzling display of ice that sends a shockwave of frost surging from it. The magic slams inches away from the Prince and his protector, bursting into shards of foggy ice, but leaving them unscathed.
"You have wielded your sorcery for the last time, today, witch," the monk cries, jamming his staff into the ground. Flakes of ice peel from the area surrounding them, spreading a noticeable warmth dispelling Elsa's magic.
"That's...impossible," Elsa gasps.
"Only God should have the power to control the elements," he snarls, "your so-called magic is an act of blasphemy condemnable-"
"Oh, save it, would you," Elsa mutters, before turning to Karl, "only a coward hides behind the powers of another, my sister is twice the noble you are, Karl."
"I won't repeat myself again, I will only negotiate with Princess Anna," Karl scowls, pointing a finger at her, "now, step aside, or you will have a taste of the cruelty you've inflicted upon your people."
"This, ends, now!" Elsa yells, slamming her scepter into the ground. At once, the sky lets out a rumble in tandem with the quaking surging through the ground. Bricks pop from their place in chunks of ice, and snow begins swirling around the Queen in a vortex of hail and ice. The very light itself around Elsa dims, focusing into a singular point of brilliance and utter cold stacked on her scepter. With a grunt, Elsa hurls the scepter at Karl; the icy magic streaking towards him like a bolt of lighting.
Elsa's scepter explodes inches from Karl's face with a crack booming through the entire town. A shockwave blasts Elsa back from the monk, sending her body ripping through the bricks, eliciting a chorus of gasps from the onlookers.
Pain rips through Elsa's body like a thousand needles. She grits her teeth and tries to rise and face her attackers, but her muscles give way and she falls flat against the ground. Craning her head to the side, her heart begins to pound as she watches Karl approach her with a drawn sword, slick with the blood of her own people. Her vision goes fuzzy. A ringing noise erupts in her ears as blood trickles from her mouth, but still she can hear the Prince's muffled voice saying, "I'm going to finish what Hans should have done to you a long time ago."
With each inch Elsa pushes herself away from him, agony races up her spine with the ferocity of a furnace. Icy crystals blossom from her palms, but already, she sees a sphere of warmth around Karl; each step he takes melting more and more of the frost coating the square. Contempt glistens in Karl's eyes as he stares at Elsa's broken body beneath his feet. He raises his sword, only to be cut off by a scream from across the square.
Karl spots the glinting javelin a second before it cuts his cheek. Bearing down on him like a raging bull, the horse's rider lets loose another spear sailing through the sleet-riddled air. This time, he flings himself away from the spear's path, only for the horse to run him over at full gallop. Unaccustomed to the lightness of its rider's weight, the horse tumbles over Karl and throws its rider onto the bricks. A plume of red hair flutters from her cape as she tumbles, raising a gasp from the townsfolk.
"It's Princess Anna!"
The girl leaps to her feet and kicks Karl hard in the face. His helmet clatters against the bricks. Blood leaks from his nose. At once, he yells, "Now, you fool, use the fucking urn!"
"Anna, no!" Elsa screams, watching the monk pull an urn from his cloak, "Get away from there!"
Ice erupts around Elsa's feet as she realises what's about to happen, but the noise of thunder drowns out her pleas. With her back to the monk, Anna lifts Karl by his armor and flings him across the ground. A second ticks by as Elsa, still screaming for Anna to get out of the way, watches him open the urn. A snowflake drifts across her sight, partially obscuring Anna standing over Karl with sword in hand, poised to strike. Fire rages through Elsa's bones. She'd be stuck in that urn forever, the thought flashes across her mind, but so would you. None of the pain dampens Elsa's resolve as she props herself on a knee. She hesitates for a second, before remembering the words on her lips - I'm not leaving here without you.
"Get away," Elsa grunts, ignoring the pain ripping through her insides, "from my sister!"
A flash of light erupts from the urn. Flexing every muscle in her body, Elsa lurches toward the monk. She swats the urn from his arm, inadvertently putting herself in the light's path. The whirling noise sends Anna spinning around on her heels, and she drops her sword at the sight of Elsa's being reduced to a cloud of ice and snow.
"No! No! No!" Anna screams, realizing too late what Elsa had done. The girl flails her hands in the snow, trying to catch enough of the ice to bring her sister back, but it's too late - Elsa's visage disappears into the urn in a flash of light. In the stunned silence that follows, it takes a few seconds for the crowd to realise that Queen Elsa just done. The realisation sends Anna crumbling to her knees, and as the swirling snow dies away, her sobbing becomes audible.
The soldiers lower their rifles, but Prince Karl shifts towards Anna's sword lying against the bricks. The blade scrapes as he picks it up. Karl grits his teeth and lunges at Anna, but the Princess's ears detect the whistling metal right at the last second. She catches his wrist in her palm and snaps it with a twitch of her hand. A clattering noise echoes across the now-silent courtyard as Karl collapses to the ground, clutching his broken arm.
The crowd flinches backwards as a roar erupts from the depths of Anna's guts, "Murderer!"
"No, please, I swear - I never intended to-"
Ignoring his pleas, Anna snatches his sword from between his feet. A fan of crimson splashes across the snow as Anna slashes Karl's throat. Even before the Prince has finished thrashing about, Anna turns the sword onto the monk. His head tumbles to the ground, followed by what's left of his body. The urn slips from his lifeless hands and shatters into shards of porcelain, dispelling wisps of magical energy into the air.
"No," Anna gasps, grating her fingers through the spilled snow as though they were mere ashes of Elsa's existence, "you didn't...you couldn't-"
Amidst the silence hanging in the air, a breeze picks up through the town square, blowing clumps of snow away from Anna's hands. A whimper escapes her lips, followed by a cry echoing through the town. Soldiers and peasants remove their helmets and hats at the loss they're witnessing; all around, not a dry eye to be seen.
A gust of wind blows the sleet from around Anna, save for the clumps rapidly melting away in her hands. Before long, only the moisture from her tears are left in her palms. Behind her, a chill endures within the cloud of sleet, and as the wind picks up, it forms into a cloud swirling and whirling in a spiral. The plume radiates a faint light as it grows in height, until it resembles the figure of a grown woman.
The crowd gasps.
Anna whirls around at the lightest of touches to her shoulder. A pair of piercing blue eyes stares into her tear-soaked ones, and she throws herself into Elsa's arms.
"No, it can't be," Anna cries, weeping into her sister's shoulder, "I saw you go in-"
"It's alright," Elsa whispers, running her fingers through Anna's hair, "you're safe now-"
Anna grasps her sister's ice-cold hands, pressing her lips to each one of her knuckles as though she were still in a dream.
"Why did you...why did you save me?" Anna asks.
"It doesn't matter," Elsa says, grasping her sister close to her heart, "I c-couldn't stand by there and watch you die."
Anna bunches her hands up in Elsa's gown and she waits for her sister's next words.
"I couldn't bear the thought of losing you."
Elsa's words throttles her memory to the sight of Hans poised over Elsa with sword in hand. Only one thing could've spurred her to stand in his way without a single thought for herself.
Love.
Anna's heart clenches as her sister's lips tremble against her shoulder. Pulling herself from her arms, she gasps at the tears streaming from Elsa's cheeks.
"You d-didn't have to," Anna stutters, wiping them from her face.
"I told you I wouldn't leave without you," Elsa whispers, choking back a sob, "a Queen keeps her promises."
"I didn't...didn't think," Anna says, her heart aching at how wrong she was, "that you would."
"I'd do it again if I could," Elsa says, "a million times over, only for you."
The sound of a horn echoes through the air, followed by the stomping of hundreds of boots forming up.
"The army's still here," Anna says, pointing behind her.
Elsa cocks her head over Anna's shoulder, before marching towards the soldiers pouring into the square. Anna watches as her sister approaches the senior officer in charge, recognizable by the feathers on his helmet. The pair exchange a few words, before he salutes the Queen.
Elsa returns to Anna's side with a smile on her face.
"What did you say?" Anna asks.
"It's over," Elsa says, as soldiers begin streaming from the square, "let's go home for supper."