DISCLAIMER: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

Well? the doll asked. Aren't you going to get rid of me?

"No," Elsa muttered. "Not yet." Folding her arms, she froze the lock on her door without breaking her stern vigil. The button eyes glimmered, as though her adversary was laughing.

Go on. Set me ablaze again. She'll just make another.

"I know." That was what the ancient books had said. Then again, they also said the Beldam only came for children. "I'll just burn that one too. And all the others."

In front of your sister?

So it knew what was holding her back. "I'll tell her everything," Elsa said, glaring. "She'll listen."

The buttons glimmered once more. If you can manage it.

"Of course I can."

And what makes you believe that?

Elsa paused. "Because...because she knows I love her."

Prove it, then.

"Elsaaaaa!" Olaf was jiggling the door handle. "Mom, I think something's wrong with your door!"

She melted the ice and opened the door. "What is it, Olaf?"

"Anna wants to talk to you!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, she's in the library! Come on!" he added, hurrying back down the hall.

Elsa looked back at the doll and smirked. "See?" Locking the door behind her, she rushed after Olaf with words of reconciliation already on the tip of her tongue.

The doll laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Anna, I'm sorry," Elsa said as she pulled open the library doors. "It's not your fault, you didn't deserve to…" She trailed off. "Anna?"

The room was silent and gray, as though something had snatched away the evening light. All the candles had gone out, and a healthy blaze was now crackling in the fireplace. Olaf stared at it, head cocked and brows furrowed.

"She didn't leave while you were gone, did she?" Elsa asked him.

"She said she was gonna wait right here!"

"Calm down, Olaf," she told him, choking down her own dark thoughts. "Why don't you go check her room?"

The snowman nodded and ran off. Once he had gone, Elsa knelt in front of the fireplace. There couldn't have been anything lit while Olaf was here. Anna wouldn't dare. Picking up the water pitcher, she put out the flames. Through the hissing smoke, a flash of light blue stood out from the gray of the ashes. A scrap of Anna's dress, caught between two bricks in the back wall. Wait, the back wall?

Her bare hands froze the embers as she crawled into the fireplace and pulled at the cloth. It budged an inch, and crumbs of mortar came with it. The semblance of a dark room could be seen through the cracks. Crawling back out, Elsa grabbed the poker and began to stab between the bricks. By the time she freed even one, her palms were sweating and her breath came in short gasps. Lighting a match, she stuck her hand through the hole and peered.

It was a tiny room, empty but for an ornate mirror. The wind seemed to faintly scream through the creaking boards. Elsa paused at the sound of it. As she listened, it rose and fell in a steady rhythm. "Elsa...Elsa…!"

She dropped the match and had to light another. This time, she turned it towards the mirror. The glass was covered in fog that seemed to emanate from its center. Almost as though someone was breathing on it -

Then a familiar hand slammed onto the surface from the inside. "Elsa!" Anna pounded on the glass twice, and tiny cracks spread out from her touch. When her fist met it a third time, it shattered. The pieces tumbled to the floor, leaving only the mirror's wooden back. At the same, her shriek was choked and cut off.

Elsa screamed and jerked backwards, falling onto the rug. Every inch of her was trembling, and frost was covering the room. Stumbling to her feet, she ran from the library with the awful sight still flashing before her eyes. Not until she collided with a servant did she realize she had even moved. "Is something wrong, Your Majesty?" the girl asked.

"Lay out my riding clothes. Tell the stableboy I want my horse saddled and bridled at once."

"Queen Elsa, it's nearly nightfall."

"I know." She started to walk away, then turned back. "The doll in my room. Get rid of it."

"Shall I burn it, madam?"

"Take it apart first. Thread by thread."

Black clouds covered the night sky, but it would have been no brighter otherwise. The only light came from the glow of Elsa's ice as it left a trail behind her. Her brown horse galloped across the bridge, through the town and into the forest. The cloak of her red and black garb billowed out behind her. "Faster, faster," she kept whispering.

Thirteen years and she still remembered the trail like she'd ridden it yesterday.

The Valley of the Living Rock was silent when Elsa careened into it and dismounted. "You have to help me!" she shouted. "Please…"

The stones rumbled, then came rolling towards her in a single mass. Stopping at her feet, the trolls unfurled themselves in unison and stared at her with curious eyes. "It's the queen!"

"Anna's in trouble," she said, moving through the crowd to look for Grand Pabbie. "Something…something's taken her…"

"I know." Grand Pabbie was behind her, his face weary. "There is dark magic about. The Great Lights have vanished."

"Can't you stop it?" Elsa asked, kneeling before him.

The troll shook his head. "It has grown beyond my control. I fear it may be too late for your sister. Unless…"

"Unless what?"

"I sense that it fears your power. You must find a way to stop it, Elsa."

"Me…?"

"Hurry!" he commanded. "It becomes stronger by the moment…" He suddenly doubled over with a cry, and the other trolls did the same.

"W-What's going on?" Elsa said.

"Too...late...for us," Pabbie said through gritted teeth. "Go…"

With stilted, jerking movements, the trolls slowly curled up and turned back into rocks. "Hello?" Elsa asked after a few seconds of silence. "Sir?"

No answer.

Her hands were shaking even more now, and she could barely pull the reins. Clouds of snow whirled around her and the horse, blinding them both. Her worry was transforming the light snowfall into a blizzard.

A wolf howled in the distance. The horse stopped, its ears pricking up. Elsa stiffened with it. "No, no, no…!"

Whinnying, the horse bucked her off and went galloping away through the forest. "Whoa! Come back!" Elsa shouted, but her voice was already lost to the wind.

She looked around. Ice was weighing down the trees, the river had frozen and the snow was piling up in drifts. For the first time, she shivered.

"Mrrow."

In front of her, sitting on one of the snowdrifts, was a black cat. It stared at her with large blue eyes and disdain. Tsk, tsk, it would probably say if it could talk. Unacceptable.

She returned the look. "I suppose you wouldn't know where my sister is." Great, now I'm talking to a cat.

It tipped its head, then turned and sauntered away. When Elsa remained where she was, it popped back into view and meowed at her again.

"Um...okay…" Standing up as best as she could, Elsa trudged after the creature. The snow was up to her knees now, and her dress was feeling heavier with each step. "Any idea where we're going?" she called out.

The cat paid her no mind. It wound its way around trees, through snowdrifts and bushes, farther away from the kingdom. The door must be here somewhere...a-ha!

Elsa watched as the cat hurried towards an especially large drift sitting against the base of a tree. Brushing at the snow, it uncovered a sizable rabbit hole and forced its way through. The wind was starting to pick up, so Elsa followed. "Hello? Anna…?"

It was a dark, dank cavern, yet larger than she had thought. All she could see were the cat's eyes, and those soon vanished. "Wait up!" she muttered, crawling after it. The little cave stretched into a narrow tunnel. Dirt soon covered her hands, gnarled roots in the ceiling pulled at her hair and the cat was nowhere to be found.

"I don't need your help!" Elsa finally snapped. "I'll find her myself." She started trying to turn herself around, inching a few more steps down the tunnel as she did so. "Won't be that hard getting home…"

The floor of the tunnel didn't so much dip as it dropped away entirely. When Elsa put a hand out behind her to steady herself, she felt only air. Confused, she whipped around, and then she was dropping with it.

The cavern opened up into a wide pit, and Elsa's screams echoed off the walls as she tumbled down. She spun as she fell, grasping at roots and colliding with rocks. Ragged hands seemed to leap from the shadows and stretch towards her. She found herself going hoarse from yelling. It could have been seconds, or maybe it was hours. All she could process was down, down, down…

...and then it stopped. Elsa's remaining breath was knocked from her, and she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. Her vision blurred and swirled, then it seeped away and left her in the dark.

Next chapter: Hey, remember how this is supposed to be a crossover?