A/N: Damn, been a long time now. Sorry for the wait; just a damn annoying lack of inspiration and a whole over-abundance of frustration. Hopefully, things should pick up again.

Ice and Dragons

Chapter 6:

Outbursts and Cruelty

Without a thought to my own safety, I blast off of the floor of the palace, my jump- powered by my magic and muscle- leaving a large, crackling crater in the ice behind me as I shoot upwards towards the stalemate above. I hit the ceiling, cracking it but not breaking through. I see the silhouettes inside jump, causing a crossbow bolt to miss the intended target and clip something off in the distance above. Shortly after, I see the smaller figure- most likely Elsa- make a mad scramble towards the doorway, only to be thrown across the floor from the impact of something large and heavy. The shockwave shatters the damaged ice I'm below, dumping a load of jagged ice onto my head, tossing me back down a few feet before I regain control and accelerate upwards once again. Moving fast, I don't even notice as my wings are ripped and torn from the jagged ice in the opening. All I cared about was saving Elsa- even if she did decide to remove me from the world, she was also the first person to really treat me like a PERSON besides Anna; she was also the only one who might know the loneliness of being the last of your kind.

I blasted into view, scaring the living daylights out of the two thugs and Hans. They had clustered around the fallen Elsa after the men got free of their predicaments.

I was landing just as Hans pulls back the string on his crossbow, the bolt aimed squarely at Elsa's head. From my vantage, I could see she was unconscious.

I didn't like that; not at all.

I exercised my will, burning old Japanese Kanji runes into a strip of cloth hanging off my body. Though not made of treated paper like is normally required for that runic language, it worked nonetheless, the translocation script flaring with green light as it warped reality and swapped two objects.

A flash of green light and soon I was kneeling where Elsa had laid, and Elsa was slumping, limply to the floor where I had landed- our general posture translated through as well, it appeared.

I had no time to ruminate on this.

The bolt flew from the bow, and I screamed in agony.

It had torn through my thin scales just over my right arm, punching into my chest on a deep angle between my clavicle and what would be a shoulder-blade on a human. It drove itself in, and the burning pain sent me from my kneeling position straight to face down on the floor, my right arm and wing useless, their tendons cut and my body bleeding internally.

I finally managed to look up, nearly screaming from the pain it caused me. I wish I hadn't; I saw Hans look at me in disgust, while one of the brutes simply slung Elsa over his shoulder and walked out, the other following.

Hans walked over, cracked ice crunching under his boots lending an ominous tone to the proceedings. He arrived next to me, smirking.

"Well, well. Who would have thought that such a beast could even think, let alone reason well enough to consort with a freak like her? Well, it doesn't matter. I wasn't going to shoot her, you know. I was going to take her back to Arendelle and then have her executed for the murder of her sister. But lucky me, you come barging in through the floor. You startled me into firing, you see. When you switched with her, all you did was give me EXACTLY what I needed! So."

He leans down, giving me a shark's grin- all teeth and malice, no cheer. "I guess all I have left to do is get to the castle and kill the Queen! But first, I think I will have some revenge on you for taking such a chunk from my plans."

He leans over, and takes my sword from my waist, scabbard and all. The loss hits me like a physical blow; in a way, it was. It was bonded to me, and the loss stung me, drained me.

Hans looked the sword over, ignoring my thrashing and screaming, giving it a wave as If to test its quality. His self-satisfied smile threw me into a rage, and I wildly struck out at him, sweeping his legs out from under him. He hit the ground with a solid thud, scrambling away from me, sword still in hand.

His smile now a malicious sneer, he sheathed my sword, strapping it to his waist in place of his old one, which he tossed over the edge of the tower negligently.

"Well, that wasn't a nice thing to do! I think I need to punish you for that." He paused a minute to think, pacing back and forth in front of me, grinning as he mumbled ominous sounding things under his breath. Stopping and snapping his fingers, his grin slid from his face to be replaced with this look of pure rage and ugly hatred. The sudden, unexpected change startled me.

His words, however, matched his new visage. "I think that I will end the good Queen myself with your beloved sword. How about that? I was going to have her executed by beheading, but I think being drawn and quartered by my order and by your sword will work nicely."

I freeze in place. I can't comprehend his words; the total barbarity just escaped my mind for a moment.

Then the impact of what he was saying hit me.

I lost it. My world greyed out from the rage and fear I was feeling- I couldn't tell you what happened next if my life depended on it. All I recalled was anger, and hearing what were most likely my roars and screams of panic echoing through the ravaged beauty of the Ice Palace Elsa had erected.

There was a lull in the grey; it could have been seconds or centuries, but I slowly slid back into my right mind, and come to my senses. I regain my sanity in time to see Anna placing herself between me and Elsa; she and Elsa had apparently awoken; hours must have passed from what I could see. The sun was low in the sky, but we were still in the tower. I tried to move, but a sharp line of searing agony burned through my shoulder and back at my attempt.

Needless to say, I stopped moving and started listening. Anna was speaking to Elsa, explaining something, but Elsa was in the middle of a maelstrom of ice and snow. Her distress was palpable; I could even smell it, due to my heritage.

"Anna, I can't! I would only hurt Arendelle if I came back. I can't stop this winter, Anna, I don't know how!"

Anna was having none of Elsa's negativity. "Elsa, you have to! We can't last; we were in the middle of summer- nobody's prepared for this! You CAN stop this winter Elsa, I believe in you! You just need to come back- we can figure it out! You, Mathias and can certainly-"

Elsa had a very violent reaction to this suggestion. I could feel the void in my chest deepen at her response, as the storm in the room reached new heights.

"Anna, he LIED! He's some sort of THING, a Dragon I think! They only hoard treasure and people; they have no real care for us! Just GO! I don't... I CAN'T speak of this anymore. Anna, please!"

Anna just got her stubborn up. She advanced into the whirling snow, somehow pushing through it to get to Elsa. When the Queen saw this, she shied away, her fear whipping the storm into new heights, a plume of blue, icy magic rising from the circling winds.

"Elsa, I TALKED to him- he's nothing like that! He told us about himself, he shared what he was and his life! You can trust him, Elsa!"

This statement brought Elsa's inner turmoil to the breaking point.

"…. No, I CAN'T, Anna!"

And with that, a powerful, snowflake- shaped eruption of magic blasted outwards from the center of the storm, cracking the walls and striking Anna square in the chest, bringing her to her knees. The other remnants of the magic swirled about the room, ricocheting off the walls. They avoided Elsa, and Anna was in a void of them, but I was not so lucky. The magic, released in fear and emotional distress, homed in on one of the sources of the caster's feelings- I was struck, not once but thrice in the chest, the angry, blisteringly cold magic burrowing deeply into my heart, settling there like a cancer.

Elsa looked on in shock; Anna stood, shakily, staring at Elsa in betrayal. "Elsa, w..why?!"

Elsa couldn't even look. She turned, facing the torn open portion of the tower while throwing an icy stream of snow and animating force into the floor. Still looking away, the distraught Queen just gave out these four, sad words.

"Please, just leave me."

As she spoke, a large, icy-spiked figure emerged from the spot of snow she had thrown. It quickly moved forwards, grabbing Anna and I in each hand before heading down the icy staircase. On the way down, the golem paused a moment to retrieve the still-unconscious Kristoff, although the cold of the snowman's hand quick brought him around. He flailed franticly, all the way out the front door up to where the snowman unceremoniously tossed us into a snowbank with a surly "DON'T COME BACK!".

I landed on my injured side and back; the agony of both my wings and injured torso wrung a pained scream from me, and I could feel the ice in my heart respond to the cold as well, creeping outwards slowly.

Anna looked ready to attack the snowman, but Kristoff held her back, and convinced her to help me rather than provoke the giant Iceman. As they levered me out of the snow, I shivered violently in time with Anna. Kristoff took one look at us, and made the only decision he could.

"We need to see Grand Pabbie. Now."

He shuffled us off into the forest. My pain addled mind wouldn't register the movement I saw until later, and I wouldn't understand what it was I DID see until after that.

I saw three men, one familiar and wielding an even more familiar blade. They were heading up to the broken Ice Castle.

I would regret missing that detail for quite a while.