CHAPTER 5

For the first time since discovering Elsa's powers, Princess Anna was afraid. Elsa had only lost control of her powers to this extent three times before. Once at her coronation, again in her ice palace when she struck Anna's heart, and again on the fjord when Hans had told her that Anna was dead. Since then, Elsa had maintained impeccable control of her gift. Anna knew that something terrible had to have happen in order for Elsa to lose control like this.

It had began when Anna noticed the storm outside beginning to grow unnaturally intense. She immediately feared for her sister's safety. She ran to Elsa's study, catching the attention of several guards, whom she ignored. She had only noticed that they had followed her once she got to the door of the study. When Elsa didn't answer her and the door didn't open, Anna panicked. Elsa had promised to never shut her out again, and the locked door only helped to make her even more concerned for her sister's safety.

A guard had told her to stand back, which she did, as he put all his weight into the door, finally dislodging it. Anna pushed passed him as soon as the door was open and gasped at the sight she was greeted with. Elsa was kneeling before the now-destroyed portrait of their father, face in her hands and snow and wind coursing around her. Anna ran to her sister's side immediately, disregarding her own safety.

Elsa was inconsolable. Anna had no idea what had happened, but it was obviously something terrible. She wondered what could break Elsa so badly as she held her, trying to console and relax her. Eventually, the storm died down and Elsa stopped crying. She helped the distraught Queen over to a sofa and laid her down. Elsa succumbed to the exhaustion almost immediately, and as she fell asleep, Anna heard her finally speak.

"What are we gonna do?"

"What are we gonna do about what?" Anna had replied, but the Queen was already out cold.

Now Anna stood amidst the result of her sister's outburst, and she was genuinely afraid. Not of Elsa's powers, but of whatever could have caused this.

She began cleaning the mess that the storm had caused in Elsa's study. It was a good distraction from her fear, but Elsa's question remained burned into the front of her mind.

Anna collected and reorganized her sister's papers, stacking them neatly on the desk. She then turned her attention to the now-torn portrait on the wall. She had found Elsa under the painting and began to wonder if her father had anything to do with this.

An epiphany struck her and she jumped up. "Papa's journal!" she exclaimed. Elsa had said she was going to read it. She must have found something in it that caused her to get upset. Anna rooted through the rest of the study, eventually finding both the journal and another page of paper nearby it.

She picked up the journal, which was lying open to a page stained with what she could only surmise to be teardrops. 'This must be the page Elsa had read earlier.' she thought to herself. Anna cleared the snow from Elsa's chair before she sat down at the desk and began to read.

Anna's eyes grew wide with horror as she made her way down the page. She couldn't contain the tears that had formed as she finished the journal entry. Putting the book down, she turned her attention to the document that was lying near the journal. As she read it, the tears began to flow freely. Distraught and unsure of what to do, she walked over to her peacefully-sleeping older sister. She gingerly placed Elsa's head in her lap and cried quietly as she stroked Elsa's platinum blonde hair. The words from the document plagued her mind, causing her to grow more and more upset.

"Oh Elsa, I don't want to get married. I only want to be with you. How could Papa do this to me? To us?" Anna asked aloud.

First her father had kept them separate for thirteen years, and now this? It was too much to process. Too much to understand. The revelation of her betrothal would change their lives. She didn't want to leave Elsa for some man. Sure, she knew Prince Mattias, they were playmates when they were much younger. But that was fourteen years ago. How could she know what to expect from him? Plus, she didn't love him.

She stayed with Elsa for several more hours, wondering what to do the entire time. She could just say no to the marriage, but it was a legally binding document. There could be severe repercussions if she did. Arendelle and Ørnhavn were allies, but if she refused the marriage, that could change. Arendelle might be put in danger. Worse, Elsa might be put in danger.

Plus, if she left, Elsa might not be able to control her powers anymore. The Queen had willingly admitted to her that it was the love they shared that allowed her to maintain control. Anna couldn't leave her sister, but neither could she think of a way to get out of the contract. She was a Princess, after all, and had a duty to her Kingdom to fulfill the agreement. She cursed her new-found sense of responsibility.

Princess Anna argued with herself out loud, caught in a moral struggle between her duty as Princess and her devotion to her sister. She only quieted when Elsa stirred, not wanting to wake the exhausted Monarch.

She furrowed her brow, continuing the argument in her mind. She knew the options, knew the possible outcomes of each one, and knew the dangers that some of them posed to her Kingdom and her sister. Her lips trembled as she came to a conclusion, sobs threatening to find their way up from her throat.

Anna sighed deeply. It was going to be a long night.

The sun was going down before Elsa finally awoke.

Her eyes slowly opened to see her sister looking down at her and smiling. Anna had refused to leave her side, and Elsa smiled weakly at how faithful the Princess was.

Anna leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Elsa's head when she noticed her sister was awake.

"Hi." she whispered. Despite her own internal conflict, she was still worried about Elsa's well being. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Elsa stretched, tensing the muscles in her arms and legs. "Yes, now that you're here." she replied.

Anna let out an exasperated laugh. She could tell her sister was lying through her teeth. No one could possibly be okay after an outburst like that. No one could be okay after learning that they could lose the love of their life. Knowing this, she wasted no time addressing the elephant in the room.

"Elsa... I read Papa's journal... I know about Prince Mattias. About the... betrothal..." She shuddered as the word left her mouth, fresh tears forming in her eyes.

Elsa frowned as she suddenly sat up. She wrapped her arms around the visibly distraught Princess; it was her turn to provide comfort now.

"Anna..." she began, speaking softly into the redhead's ear. "We will fix this. I won't let this happen." Anna could sense the panic growing in her older sister's voice. "There must be something I can do here. I'm the Queen, dammit. I can have the document declared invalid, get the deal struck down, erase it from the records. It'll be like it never even existed! My advisers-"

Anna cut her off before she could finish the thought. "You're advisers will never agree to that, and you know it."

Elsa drew back from her sister. She knew Anna was right. Her advisers care only about what is best for the Kingdom, and voiding a contract with Arendelle's closest ally was not it. Elsa cupped her hands around her lover's face, looking directly into her eyes. Anna placed her own warm hands over Elsa's cold ones.

"Anna, I can't lose you again. Not after I just got you back." Tears began falling from the Queen's eyes.

Anna wiped a tear from Elsa's cheek and exhaled, expression turning stoic. "Elsa... I have to do this. You know it, I know it. There is no getting out of this." Elsa began breathing heavier and faster as Anna continued. "I'm a Princess. It's what is expected of me. And of top of that, I have a duty to the Kingdom to go-"

Anna noticed the ice creeping up the walls as Elsa stood up violently, cutting her off with a shout.

"Duty be damned! Arendelle be damned!" Elsa punctuated each curse by throwing her arms to her side, casting shards of ice that hissed and cracked menacingly as they struck the walls.

Now hyperventilating, the Queen looked at her sister. She saw fear in the Princess's eyes. Anna wasn't looking at the ice, however. Her eyes were locked on Elsa's. The Queen realized that Anna's fear was not for her powers or her anger. No, Anna wasn't afraid of her; she was afraid for her. The realization brought Elsa back from the brink, and she concentrated on dissipating the ice she had cast out.

The ice receded, and Elsa fell to her knees. Staring at the floor, she meekly spoke.

"I can't lose you again, Anna. I wouldn't survive it."

Anna jumped off the couch and fell next to her sister, taking the distraught woman into her embrace. Anna was shocked by her own sense of duty, and she couldn't imagine how Elsa felt about it. She chuckled cynically at the thought. Never in a million years did she expect to be the one with the swelling sense of responsibility to her Kingdom.

She shifted her focus back to the trembling woman in her arms. Watching Elsa break as she had was heart wrenching. She gripped her older sister tighter as she whispered into her ear.

"Don't worry, my Elsa. We'll fix this. Together."

A/N

Well hi there everybody. Here's another chapter for you. A little shorter than the last one, but it's something.

I've been pretty awful to our girls in these chapters, and I can't forgive myself. We've got one more serious chapter, and then I'm gonna pour on the fluff. YOu deserve, Anna and Elsa deserve it, I (don't) deserve it.

Again, reviews are encouraged. I can't get any better unless you let me know how badly I suck, so get to it!

Thanks for stickin with me so far!

( ˘ ³˘)

-Cosmic