Sorry for not updating. Long story short, work life has gotten busy and there was an incident where I felt personally violated at my job and lost my spirit to write. Needless to say I am trying to get started again, but for now here is something…

Rescue Me

Chapter Nine

Dinner was unusually quiet. No one had spoken a word as they picked at their first course. Anna was deep in thought as she stirred her somewhat uneaten soup, and Kristoff along with Elsa were silently observing her. Something had changed, but they didn't know what exactly. Kristoff coughed a bit and shot Elsa a look, which she clearly understood, "So Anna," Anna looked up and paid attention to her sister as she took a sip of her wine, "how was your afternoon?"

Anna grabbed her own wine glass and took a sip herself before answering, "Good. It was quiet." Lie, major lie but necessary. When she had gotten back from the Dark Castle in the woods, she had gone right to her room and closed the door; sitting in silent mediation about what she had discovered, and what she had gotten. Needless to say then, it wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth.

Elsa nodded and Kristoff spoke up this time, "So then you had a good ride?"

Anna mentally slapped herself for her carelessness. Of course the guards would have noticed her rushed exit and told them, "Yes I did. Pharis and I did the obstacle course for a bit."

"That's good to hear. I was worried about how you would feel reading those terrible books." Elsa stated casually, but there was still a knot in her stomach as she watched her sister's reaction.

Kristoff paused in mid motion of scooping some soup onto his spoon and carefully watched his fiancée. He sent her a look of apology, but she waved him off, "It wasn't so bad. I'd rather know for sure what happened and why I am having relapses so that I can get a better control of myself in the future." Then she pondered for a moment, "Or rather what to avoid so as to not trigger a reaction."

There was silence for a moment, but Kristoff cleared his throat, "So you are not upset with me? I know I promised you-"

"No, in fact I am thankful." Anna said and she meant it. It made lying easier than fully trying to hide her obsession with the books, "I mean I know I could have told you the truth," she started again as she looked at Elsa, who wore a hurt expression, "I was just afraid you'd ask too many questions and that you wouldn't give them to me."

"Of course I would have had you told me that Shepard said you should have them." Elsa stated as the staff came around to clear their places and bring out a new course for them, "As for the questions, yes I would have asked you about it however if you didn't want to talk then I wouldn't have forced you to."

Somehow Anna doubted that, but she did not voice her thought. She had wanted to say something back to her sister, but a small flash of distain went through her and seemingly haunted words came to her, "You left me to wander this place like a ghost!" She heard her words echoing in her mind as her hand paused from reaching for the knife, "Anna?" Anna jumped and looked at who called her name. It was Kristoff, "Are you ok?"

Anna shook her head and reached the hand that was going for the knife to her forehead, trying desperately to block out a new onslaught of memories, "Yes, I am sorry. Just tired I think."

"You had a memory didn't you?" Elsa asked, denying Anna's lie. They were starting to become a bit more fluent at reading Anna's facial expressions and analyzing the look her eyes get. It was scary, yet useful for these types of situations, "What was it?"

Anna closed her eyes, the words becoming louder and images become violent with each echo. She wanted to lie, but the words came on their own accord, "We are in the dining room, yelling at each other." She now had her head cradled in both her hands. She pauses and then it hits her as she snaps up and looks at her sister, "I slapped you."

Elsa and Kristoff exchange looks, as Elsa responds slowly, looking away from him, "That was the fight we had before the war…well your first war technically."

Anna nodded, now all appetite lost as she pushed her plate away. More yelling came to her and involuntarily she said, "We argued because I was still mad at you." She wasn't looking at Elsa, but at her uneaten roast beef, "I felt you were ignoring me again, but yet it was misguided anger. I was angry at myself; I ended up running away soon after that." Then looking up now, she sees Kristoff and Elsa watching her closely, "You two came after me and brought me back to the castle when I had gotten injured in the woods, real or not real?"

Real or not real, the game that Shepard had invented so that any question Anna (or anyone in the palace that they come across) asks, they could correct them or confirm their theory. It had been a long while since anyone (Anna included for the most part) had asked them a scenario, but occasionally one person would have a lapse in memory and they would have to correct them, "Real." Kristoff answers instead of Elsa, even though Anna was now looking at her sister, "You and Elsa had some trust issues to work out due to-"

"The accident with her magic, and inevitably the Freeze." Anna whispered as she looked away now. Shaking her head, she pushed her chair away, "I am sorry, but I am not hungry."

"Anna?" Elsa questioned as she was getting ready to stand up herself, "Please do not leave."

Anna looked at her sister and saw the pleading look in her ice blue depths and then she shifted to look towards Kristoff. Against her better judgement, she relents and sits back down, pulling her plate close to her again, "Ok." Anna says and looks down at the food that still seemed to repulsive to her.

Elsa and Kristoff looked at her, however before they could talk to her further someone beat them to it, "Hello!" Their heads turned towards the voice, and they saw Olaf hopping in.

"Olaf." Anna said relieved for the interruption as the ever happy snowman entered the room.

Hopping up on the seat next to Anna, completely unaware of the tense atmosphere he infringed upon, Olaf smiled, "So how is everyone doing on this lovely evening?"

"Good." Anna stated quickly as Kristoff and Elsa were both beginning to speak, "We are doing swell. How about you? What have you been up to?"

Olaf gleefully started talking about his adventures around town, his stick arms moving in frantic manners to emphasize each point and show his excitement. Anna smirked inwardly, knowing just the right questions to ask to keep the animated snowman talking. Out of the corner of her eye though, she could tell that underneath their calm exterior, Kristoff and Elsa were put off and annoyed, however she knew that if she could just survive dinner everything would work out in her favor, and she could go back to her room…

As it turns out, dinner was longer than Anna had anticipated. Seriously, coming from a creator who could barely talk to anyone, Olaf sure did have his mouth going a mile a minute. If Anna had to guess, it would seem that when Elsa created Olaf, she must have accidently added all the wishing of being able to talk to someone (namely Anna herself) into the little snowman.

Flopping down on the bed, Anna sighed mournfully. At least she avoided Elsa. When the dessert plates came out, she was called in for a meeting with Lord Halstead about some last minute trading paperwork. So that left her alone with the snowman and Kristoff. Coincidently, Olaf had left them alone not soon afterwards to go wander the castle a bit, then it had just been her and her fiancé. Lifting her hand in the air, she looks at the ring that Elsa had helped Kristoff get. By using her ice magic, she had recreated their mother's ring and gave it to Kristoff to get forged.

Smiling sadly, Anna lowered her hand. Kristoff had tried to get her to open up a bit more about her minor relapse, but right now being the coward that she was, she feigned fatigue and left him at the table. There was a sudden pang in her heart, but she pushed it aside and rolled over so that she was on her side. Leaning down, she reached for her satchel and pulled out a small vile before rolling back over on her back, thoughts drifting to the same thoughts she had before going to dinner reliving the conversation that had occurred in Alastair's laboratory:

He had taken the vial and dipped it in cloudy white water that was sitting in the caldron, "That'll do it?"

"Not yet. We must make this personal, and since your love is strongly connected to two people…" Alastair reached out and pulled out two strands of Anna's hair and adds it to the solution.

When she was done rubbing the now plucked area of her head that he took the strands from, she asks slowly, "So, if I drink that, I'll no longer love them?"

He smiled lightly as he swirled the vile, "It'll be like when you didn't have your heart. You will not be able to feel anything for them."

"Won't feel anything for them?"

"You will be numb to them. Love is the most powerful magic. The cure must be extreme."

Anna eyed the vile a little more, instincts and hairs on the back of her neck raised, "'Extreme' sounds like an understatement."

"Don't doubt yourself now, dearie. Love makes us sick, haunts our dreams, and destroys our days. Love has killed more than any disease. Do not believe me? Look at what it did to you and your family. Need further proof? You read the book on how Hans had cast the curse. Think that love is still a gift? No. This cure is a gift." He said as he emphasized each point with motions and voice full of passion as he looked at her and then held out the vile to her, waiting for her to take it.

Anna swallowed and was about to reach out for the vile, "Wait, you said that you had multiple conditions. My silence was one, what are the others? What's your price?"

Alastair looked at her and smiled, holding up the remaining of her hair in between his fingers of his other hand, "These'll do."

"What do you need of my hair?" Anna said as she re-stretched out her hand to take the vile from him.

"What do you need of it now? It's been plucked from your head." He said as a giggle escaped him, eyes shining in dark amusement, "Do we have a deal?" Anna hesitates a moment longer, but relents and takes the potion from his hand, "I thought so. Drink it in good health, Princess Anna of Arendelle." With that he waved his hand and Anna found herself outside in the cold frigged air next to Pharis and Kiba, the Dark Castle nowhere to be seen.

Shaking herself back to the present, she eyes the vile and clenches it in her fist. Taking a deep breath, she is about to reach to uncork it when there is a knock on the door followed by, "Anna? Do you want to build a snowman?"

Elsa…Anna mentally groans, but puts the vile back in her satchel before answering the door, "Are we really building a snowman?"

"We can if you want. That little meeting with Lord Halstead was short, and besides…" It was rare for Anna to see Elsa unsure of herself in this moment, and it was times like this that she is starting to believe in Alastair's words, "I missed you today."

"I missed you too." Anna muttered, and looking back quick at her satchel, she nods and looks at her sister, "I'd love to build a snowman."

Elsa smiled and reached for her sister's hand, Anna grasped it and together they walked down the hall. Around the corner, Olaf and Kristoff appeared, "What are we doing again?" Olaf asked slowly looking at the Ice Master.

"Searching for anything that seems harmful to Anna." Kristoff responded as they snuck over to Anna's door.

Looking around, he turned the handle and together they snuck inside, "Isn't this an invasion of privacy?" Olaf asked hesitantly as he closed the door behind him, "Like isn't Anna going to get seriously upset with us?"

Kristoff hesitated as he stood in the room, on the one hand he did not want to invade Anna's privacy and risk the potential bodily harm from his feisty (and deadly) princess; however on the other he was done with the secrets. Secrets that could especially destroy any chance of a future that they could have together, "We are doing the right thing. Anna needs help whether she wants it or not."

Olaf looked unsure. When he had left, he had really started wandering the castle, but then he ran back into Elsa and they started talking. Elsa had told him everything that was going on with Anna, and just as they were about to head back to the dining room, they ran into Kristoff and together the three of them came up with 'Operation: Distract Anna'. Now though as he watched his friend start looking through Anna's things, Olaf couldn't help but feel that this wasn't really the way they should be helping Anna, "I do not know, this thing we are doing seems wrong and the wrong thing done for the right reason is still the wrong thing." Olaf said softly, but still got to work helping Kristoff.

Kristoff paused as he reached for the satchel that was on the ground by Anna's bed. Olaf's words hit him and he felt instantly ashamed, "You are right." He withdrew his hand and looked at the snowman, who stopped looking at the book, "Come on."

"We are done?" Olaf asked confused as he closed the book and placed it back on the shelf.

"We are done. We have to think of something else to help Anna." Kristoff stated as he opened the door and let Olaf out first, "She just started trusting us again, and if she did catch us doing this, then that could…no will destroy that trust. We'll have to get her to open up some other way."

They closed the door and started to walk down the hallway. Olaf was quiet for once as he processed Kristoff's words, "So do you have any thoughts?"

"No." Kristoff answered slowly, and somehow something told him that he had better think of something soon, because they were running out of time.