Let's see how long it takes you all to figure out why this chapter has the title it has.

Chapter 6

The storms picked up again as they all got further up the mountain. By sunset, it was swirling, howling white once more. Kristoff and the Nisse both suggested they stop once they reached Wandering Oaken's, and Anna, somewhat reluctantly, agreed. The trading post master had built an inn onto his store and sauna to handle the increased flow of visitors, and this had enough vacant rooms to accommodate them all for the night. Anna laid in her bed, Kristoff snuggled against her, and sighed. She looked up at the darkened ceiling.

"Hey," Kristoff murmured. "Maybe you should go to sleep? We've got to get up early tomorrow."

"I know," Anna said softly. "But I can't."

Kristoff said nothing for a few moments, and Anna wondered if he had nodded off. So it surprised her when his voice drifted into the darkness. "Are you afraid?"

Anna did not answer right away. She took some time to consider her own soul. But finally she admitted, "Yes. I keep telling myself that we'll be able to get Elsa back. But after everything you and the Nisse have said... I'm not so sure."

"We'll at least try," Kristoff said. "I promise, we'll try."

"It's just... I remember the look she gave me, Kristoff. Just before she told me goodbye, before she blew away. It was so content. She seemed so serene. I didn't expect that at all."

"Remember what the Nisse said," Kristoff told her, even though he knew it probably didn't make her feel better. "The Winter is strong. It probably already had its grip on Elsa. But..." he rolled over and looked up at the ceiling with her. "But I think she must still be in there somewhere. Elsa's got incredible willpower. If anyone can come back from what she's been through, it's her."

"That's what I think," Anna said, rolling to her side. "It's what I hope," she said extremely quietly.

"What?" Kristoff asked.

"Nothing," Anna said. She yawned. "See you in the morning, Kristoff."

"You too," Kristoff said. He reached under the covers and gave her hand a squeeze. "It'll be all right." He wasn't sure of that, but he felt it was important to say.

"Wake up!" The thumping of repeated pressure on the covers was enough to jar both Kristoff and Anna into waking. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

"Brbl?" Anna gurgled, a trickle of drool coming from the corner of her mouth. "What time is it?"

"It's two hours past sunrise, you lazy humans!" the Nisse shouted, stomping up and down on the bed. "It's Christmas Eve, you slackers! I have an eternity of work to do tonight! If we're to go after your sister, we must leave at once!"

Anna sat bolt upright in her bed. "Christmas Eve..." she whispered. It was Christmas Eve. Tears sprang to her eyes. She had spent most of December looking forward to her first Christmas with her sister in more than a decade. "Elsa..." she whispered.

"Anna?" Kristoff said, sitting up beside her.

"We have to go," said Anna, vaulting out of bed, slipping her boots on. "Where are they, Master Nisse?"

The Nisse stood up on his toes and began to spin, the blanket shifting under him. He finally pointed up and to the far left. "That way," he said. But then he took several steps back, and began to clutch at his chest.

"Whoa!" Kristoff said, grabbing at the Nisse to keep him from falling off the bed. "What's wrong, guy?"

"I..." the Nisse still clutched at his chest. "I feel in my heart... I feel her. I feel the Queen. I feel..."

"What?" Anna asked, boring into him with her eyes. "What do you feel?"

The Nisse leveled his beady eyes on her. "I feel... cold."

"Aww," Elsa cooed, voice dripping with icy sarcasm, "England's still trying to run their factories." She smiled haughtily. "How quaint."

She reached up onto the globe that was floating in the air. It was made of ice, and was shaded various levels of white based on how heavily the snow and ice were falling on various parts of the world. She reached up into the North Sea and dragged her fingers down across the British Isles, bringing two thick columns of cold wrath down upon them.

"Corona is blanketed," Skadi said, glancing at one of the icy mirrors. There were dozens of them floating in the air around the throne room of Elsa's old ice palace, and each of them reflected a scene in a different part of the globe. Though different, at the moment all the mirrors showed similar scenes: carpets of white, the air filled with driving snow.

"I know," said Elsa, her icy mouth twitching in a smile. "And here's... Westleton," her voice took on a vicious snarl, and she spread her fingers apart in the air. Westleton was immediately hit by sleet so vicious and thick it was like spears of ice slashing down from the sky. "And the Southern Isles," she snarled, flicking her finger. Glaciers began to sprout in the lakes and fjords of the Southern Isles, began to grow at speeds that put their named pace to shame. Elsa's spirit soared as her winter- as she- expanded. Soon all the Northern Hemisphere would be submerged in infinite cold and white. Then perhaps she could even make the Southern Hemisphere bow to her whims. She could-

Why?

"Hmm?" Elsa twitched her icy head. "Did you say something?"

"No, My Queen," said Skadi, continuing to pace the icy floor.

Odd. Elsa had sworn there had been someone talking. But she soon allowed herself to see and hear from her trillion snowflakes once more, taking delight in the wintry wrath she was visiting on-

What have these people ever done to you?

A flicker of red light, like the sun refracted through a single snowflake, pulsed through Elsa's icy body. She twitched, and all around the upper half of the world, the snowstorms briefly faltered.

This doesn't build respect, something in her said. And fear only leads to hate. Isn't that what mother always said? Winter should be beautiful, not terrible.

"I..." Elsa whispered. She flickered red again.

None of this escaped Skadi's attention. "My Queen," she said, "the snow is dwindling."

Elsa's expression grew hard again, hard and cold. "We can't have that," she said, and she bent her will upon the world once more. The snow and ice and cold redoubled, pressing further onto the hapless lands and peoples. The memory of the voice lingered, but the echo of human concern- of sympathy- was blotted out by her overwhelming urge to dominate. The Winter's voice was too strong in her, a constant refrain in her head. Rule. Triumph. Break their will. And if she truly wanted to do that... "I wonder," said Elsa.

"Yes?" Skadi said, a smile coming to her face.

"I can bow all these peoples, all these nations," said Elsa. "But how do I break them?"

Don't do it!

"Suppose I just froze the entire sea?" Elsa thought aloud. "Or better yet, the whole ocean?"

Skadi's eyes bulged. "You can do that?"

"Yes," said Elsa. "But I'll need to focus. I'll need my whole attention on it. Can I trust you to look after me while I concentrate?"

"Of course, My Queen!" Skadi said, a note of glee in her voice. "I'll see that you're not disturbed."

"Very good," said Elsa. "Watch the mirrors. Let me know if anyone comes this way." And she began to focus.

The Nisse spun on his toes around and around and around until he stopped sharply and pointed up, yet again. "That way!"

"Right up the North Mountain!" Kristoff shouted, and flicked Sven's reigns to the right. "Let's go, buddy!"

"I knew it!" Anna cried. They all had to shout to be heard above the roaring snowstorm. "I knew she would be in her palace! We have to get to her!"

They went as fast as they dared. The snow made it hard to see more than a few feet in front of them, and Kristoff, wary of Sven's safety and their own, didn't push their pace near as much as Anna would have liked. She knew they had to be safe. But Elsa! Elsa was in danger, she knew it! They had to get to her.

It was nearly noon when they finally came close to the peak. Anna stood in the sleigh, narrowing her eyes against the driving snow. "Elsa!" she cried out, her voice barely carrying. "Elsa!"

"She can't hear you!" Kristoff shouted. "Sit back down!"

"Elsa! Elsa!"

Skadi stepped from side to side, surveying the ice mirrors reflecting surroundings. She paid particular attention to one that showed a view of the North Atlantic. It was slowly, tediously, but deliberately freezing over, hardening into a layer of ice dozens of feet thick. She spared a glance back at Elsa. Her icy body pulsed white from the strain, her hands extended in front of her, fingers curled in effort.

But then she glanced back at the mirror reflecting the North Mountain. "My Queen!" Skadi cried. "We are being approached!"

"We are?" Elsa asked.

"Yes," said Skadi. "Can't you see it?"

"All my focus is bent on the ocean," said Elsa. "Who is it? How great is the number?"

Skadi turned back to the mirror. She watched the lonely sleigh come closer and closer. She grinned. "It's an army!" she said. "The people of Arendelle have marshaled all their fighting men to come stop you!"

"Fools," Elsa muttered. "Deal with them! Wipe them out!"

Skadi bit back a laugh. "As you wish, My Queen!" She burst into a snow flurry and blew away.

Killing, now? You're not really going to let her do that, are you?

"Yes," Elsa said, the Winter howling in her mind. "I can't be disturbed." She bent her will once more upon the endless ice. "This is how it has to be."

They were on the slope leading to the stairs leading to the palace; Anna recognized the ascent. Suddenly the snowstorm amplified, doubling or tripling in strength. "Ack!" the Nisse spat, finding it hard to talk without snow flying into his mouth. "This blizzard has grown even worse!"

Anna leaned into the snow. She could hear... something. There was a murmur on the wind. The snow seemed to speak. And its voice was familiar. "That's no blizzard!" Anna shouted. "That's my sis-"

A wall of jagged ice came shooting right at the sleigh. It veered to the side, throwing Anna, Kristoff, and the Nisse out into the powder. Anna rolled to a stop and nearly missed being impaled by a spike of ice; she jumped to her feet and drifted backward, and was almost stuck through by yet another spike. Only the Nisse leaping forward to tackle her out of harm's way saved her. She sat up in the howling storm. "Okay," she said, "maybe that isn't her."

The ice wall began to crack and splinter into pieces... very large, very regular pieces, that knitted themselves into arms and legs and torsos and horrible, howling mouths. Great colossi began to lumber out of the wall, their clawed hands shambling back and forth as their mighty legs churned through the snow. "Oh, boy..." Kristoff rumbled under his breath. He ran to where Sven had skidded to a stop, piling into the back of the sleigh. Digging frantically through hooks and saws and hammers, his hand at last clenched around what he sought. "Go down the slope, Sven!" he yelled, pulling the axe from the sleigh. "Wait for us there! Get to safety!" With a look of fear, Sven complied, and Kristoff brandished the axe toward the approaching ice giants.

"You're a fool..."

"What?" Kristoff swung the axe around toward where he had heard the voice.

"This is the Queen's realm..."

"Come out and show yourself!" Kristoff bellowed, cocking the axe behind his head.

In response, he caught a glimpse of a large figure, a figure with the curves of a woman, sliding through the snowstorm on icy skis. He chased after her, but she had vanished. He did, however, find himself within range of Anna and the Nisse. His heart skipped a beat. They were running from the ice giants, the Nisse dragging Anna behind him as he moved the fastest his small legs could carry him.

"Hurry!" the Nisse shouted, pulling Anna away from a huge, swiping claw. Anna suddenly tripped. The ice giant hurled itself at her, its claws came down-

And suddenly she was a hundred feet away from all of them, the Nisse clutching her tightly. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Did you...?" Anna glanced from the now further off ice colossi back to the Nisse. "Did you do that?"

"Of course!" the Nisse said proudly. "How do you think I get from house to house on Christmas Eve! Not by walking and climbing and stumbling, I can tell you that much."

The wheels spun fast in Anna's mind. "Can you... get us past them?" Anna asked. "Can you get us closer to the ice palace?"

"I suppose I could," said the Nisse. "But why?"

"Kristoff!" Anna cried. "Kristoff, where are you!" She had to yell at the top of her lungs over the howling wind.

"I'm here!" Kristoff shouted, running toward her. "We have to stop those things!" He brandished his axe at the ice giants, coming closer and closer.

"We have to get to Elsa!" Anna said. "She's the one behind all this!" She turned back to the Nisse. "Master Nisse, get me past those giants! Get me as close to the palace as you can!"

"Why?" the Nisse asked, fear in his voice. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to talk to my sister!"

Elsa's heart was cold and dead. Well, she didn't have a physical heart any more, but the space where it might have been was frozen solid with apathy and contempt. She would crush everything in her path, because that was what Winter was meant for. That was what she needed to do.

But... but...

The voice- her voice, her old voice- was weak and feeble.

"Please, get me past the giants!" Anna said. "I can stop this! I know I can!"

The Nisse glanced up at her. "But you could be killed! I won't have the end of Arendelle's line on my hands."

"Master Nisse," Anna knelt down and put her gentle hands around his shoulders, "please, please do this for me. Trust me. I love my sister. I know her. She'll stop this. I know she will."

His beady eyes peered into hers for a long while. She bit her lip, which was horribly chapped from the cold, and waited with unease in her heart. But at last the Nisse nodded. "Very well. I'll jump you past the giants. You'll have to hold your breath, though, or it will be quite nauseous for you."

"Okay!" Anna said. "I'm ready!" She sucked in a breath.

"You!" the Nisse pointed at Kristoff. "Don't you die on me, boy! I'll be right back!" And the two of them vanished-

Only to reappear far behind the ice colossi. They were at the foot of the stairs leading up to Elsa's ice palace. The snow there was a wall, so thick that Anna could stick out her hand and touch it. "Go back and help Kristoff!" Anna cried. The Nisse nodded and vanished. "Elsa!" she shouted. "Elsa!"

The Nisse reappeared next to Kristoff. Whether from courage or foolishness or both, he had decided to engage the nearest ice giant. He spun around its swiping claws and hacked at its ankles with his axe, chopping away chunks of ice that destabilized the great being. "Allow me!" the Nisse cried. He snapped his fingers at the weakened ankle of the ice giant and what was left of it blew away, causing the thing to tumble to the snowy ground.

"Nice!" Kristoff said, holding out an open palm. The Nisse slapped it, and the two shared a glance worthy of comrades in battle.

But their glee was short lived. The ice colossus flexed its massive leg, and new ice sprouted where the old ice had been chopped off. In short order, the foot and ankle had been regrown, and the great giant roared as it heaved itself back to its feet. And this was all while the other giants- there were five more- had borne down on Kristoff and the Nisse. The two of them dashed away, Kristoff swinging his axe wildly to throw off the pursuit.

Anna took a moment to look back on all this. Then she faced the staircase and its wall of snow. "Elsa!" she shouted. "Elsa, please, I know you're in there! And I know this isn't you! The Winter's taken control of your mind! But I know my sister is still in there, and she would never want to hurt anyone! Especially not the people she cares about! And not random strangers who have never done anything to her, either! Stop this, Elsa! I believe in you!"

The snowstorm around Anna intensified. It was so cold. It was shockingly, offensively cold. Cold enough to drive Anna to her knees and turn her lips blue. "Elsa!" she still shouted. "Elsa, I love you! I love you more than anyone else in the world, even Kristoff!" She put her hands to her mouth and shouted at the top of her lungs into the snowy mess. "Elsa! I love you! Elsa! Elsa! ELSA!"

"ELSA!"

"Anna!" Elsa gasped.

Her whole icy body suddenly lit up red, like light refracting through a snowflake. Like warm water bubbling up through a layer of ice, something came up out of the depths of Elsa's soul. Warmth. Light. Love. Closeness. Memories of the laughter of her friends, memories of the smiles of her people, memories of the tight, happy embrace of her sister, the person she cared about more than any other in the world. She imagined Anna's smile as she beheld the Christmas tree for the first time. She imagined Anna's sorrow as Elsa disappeared into a burst of snow. And she imagined Anna's shock, Anna's horror, Anna's sadness at witnessing what her sister had become.

"Anna!" Elsa gasped, and the Winter in her was quieted, her own self, her true self swirling like a hot breeze into her icy body. "Anna!" She looked at the floating ice globe. She looked at the mirrors reflecting wintry devastation around the world. "What have I done?" Elsa gasped. "What am I doing? What am I doing? Anna, forgive me!" She stretched out her mind and peered through her trillion eyes, heard through her trillion ears. No deaths. Thank God! No deaths, not yet. But too many people suffering. Too many people trapped. Too many people on the verge of starving or freezing or falling into despair. "Stop!" she shouted, sweeping her arms wide in one great arc. "Stop! Stop this at once! Stop!"

And across the world, across the whole of the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter stopped. Snowstorms collapsed and dissipated. Ice blasts were halted. The freezing of the ocean came abruptly to a stop, and what ice there was cracked into huge chunks and floated in the water newly freed. Glaciers dissolved. All that was abnormal and strange, everything Elsa had done, was withdrawn as much as was natural, until where there was normal Winter, there Winter was normal- and no more than that.

"Anna!" Elsa cried, satisfied that she had halted her own damaged. "I'm coming, Anna!" She burst into snow and flew away.

Anna was buried in deep snow when Elsa appeared nearby. She dug herself out, and when she looked around she noticed how warm she felt. It wasn't really warm, of course, but compared to the horrific temperatures of the rest of the day, this was downright balmy. And she noticed that the storm had stopped. She smiled. "Elsa..."

"Anna!" Elsa shouted. Her voice carried on the wind.

Anna turned around and around in the snow, but she saw nothing. Just a mist of sleet and vapor surrounding everywhere.

"Anna!" Elsa shouted.

"Elsa?" Anna asked. "Elsa, where are you?"

"I'm right-" she was abruptly halted when Skadi slid up to her on her skis.

"My Queen!" Skadi said, a look of fury on her face. "You've stopped the storms! You've stopped the freezing! Is something wrong?"

"Something was wrong," Elsa said, her voice growing hard. "I listened to voices that weren't my own. But no more! No more freezing! No more torture! No more causing fear!"

"But My Queen-"

"Enough!" Elsa snapped. "Wait for me until I've spoken with my sister!"

Skadi grit her teeth, but she nevertheless bowed, her frozen body shaking. "As you wish, My Queen." And she skied away.

"Anna..." Elsa whispered, walking across the snow toward her sister. As she did, the wind began to pick up. Snowflakes began to spin through the air. "Anna," she said. The temperature around her icy body began to drop. "Anna," she said sweetly. The wind howled.

"Elsa..." Anna said, turning all around her as the snow once more began to fall. It wasn't a normal storm- oh, no, the snow and ice spun around her in a vortex, picking up speed, dropping in temperature as Elsa got closer. And Anna still could not see her. "Elsa? Elsa, I'm here!"

"Anna!" Elsa said, running forward.

But Elsa burst open. She got within a dozen feet of Anna before her icy body broke apart into a flurry of snow, and the closer she got to Anna, the stronger the personal storm around her grew. Anna stretched out her arms, trying to grab for her sister as the swirling snow forced her eyes shut. She knew she was there, she knew it! If only she could feel her. "Elsa," she said softly. She was losing feeling in her feet and hands.

"Anna!" Elsa shouted, trying to wrap arms she didn't have around her sister. "Anna, I'm here! I want to come back!"

"Elsa..." Anna said softly, falling to her knees. She stretched her gloved hands out for Elsa, but she still wasn't there. All she saw was snow and ice. "Elsa..." It got colder and colder. The snow spun faster and faster. Her cheeks turned blue. "Elsa, please... please stop..."

"I'm trying..." Elsa said, willing herself to be solid, to be warm, to be human. But all she was was a storm. "I'm trying, Anna, please stay with me!"

"Elsa..." Anna stretched her arms out again, fingers flexing against the howling wind. She rolled over onto her back. She was numb everywhere, so cold she could scarcely move. "Please..."

"Anna..." Elsa said. She stretched out what she thought were her hands toward her sister, but all she had were bursts of icy wind and snow.

"Anna!" Kristoff's voice cried as he barreled into the snowstorm. He picked Anna up off the ground and rushed the other way with her. Elsa, panicking, followed, and the storm that had swirled around Anna now pursued Kristoff with Anna in his arms. "Hold on, Anna!" Kristoff said. "We have to get you out of this storm!"

This storm? Elsa thought. Her heart- or what she felt was her heart- broke. She tried to look down, but she had no hands. And she had no eyes, just snowflakes that saw and heard. She wasn't even a single figure, not right now. All she was was snow. All she was was Winter. She slowed her pursuit of Kristoff. At last, she came to a stop, allowing him to get further and further away.

"Is she all right?" said a strange little man who popped into existence beside Kristoff. He joined him and they both began to run away.

"She's so cold!" Kristoff told the little man. "We have to get her back down the mountain! We have to get her to warmth!" Then he yelled at the top of his lungs. "Sven! Sven, buddy! Get up here!"

As they got further away, Elsa's icy body began to reform. They were a hundred feet away by the time she was solid again, and she could faintly see Sven pull up to them, fastened to the sleigh. They loaded Anna into the back, and Kristoff piled into the sleigh with the little man beside him. A distant whip of the reins issued against the snowy rock, and the sled made a wide circle before turning and moving away.

"Why?" Elsa said, her voice one of absolute despair. "Why?"

"Haven't you figured it out?" Skadi's voice sliced through the snowy silence. "Don't you understand? You can't be close to people any more. You're not fit for the company of humans. You're over them, above them, beyond them."

"I don't want that!" Elsa snapped, turning around. Her body began to pulse with red light. "There's no point in having all this power, all this freedom, if I can't be with the people I love!"

"You don't need people to love any more!" Skadi snapped. "You have the Winter as your lover. The snow and the ice are your friends! That's all you need!"

"Maybe that's all you need," Elsa said, "but I need more. I'm not just some Winter spirit. You said I was more whole and complete than any person who had joined with the Winter before, and that's because there's so much of me left in me! I have to love! I have to live! I have to laugh and cry and smile!"

Skadi scowled down at Elsa. "You can't, My Queen. You're not permitted."

"Than I don't want any more part in this!" Elsa said, turning away. "I want to end my union with the Winter. I want to be human again."

"You can't!" Skadi yelled. "You can't! I've waited too long!"

"I hate to disappoint you," Elsa said, "but I must. Goodbye, Skadi." And she...

… Wait, what was she doing? Elsa wracked her mind. How, exactly, had she joined with the Winter in the first place? She recalled standing in the snowstorm, looking up into the night, and... breathing, somehow? There was a breath involved, she was sure of it. But the details were so hazy. She scarcely remembered how it had happened. But maybe breathing was the key. She took a deep breath...

Nothing happened. She breathed out as hard as she could...

Still nothing. "Skadi," she turned back to the great jötunn.

Who smiled cruelly down at her. "What's wrong, My Queen? Can't break the union?"

"No," said Elsa. "I don't know how. Please tell me."

Skadi bounced her head from side to side, peering down at Elsa with her deep blue eyes. She bent over very slowly, until her face was right next to Elsa's, and said, very viciously, "No!"

"Please!" Elsa pleaded. "Please, please, I don't know how to do it! Please, you've got to tell me!"

"I shall not!" Skadi bellowed, rising to her full height. She loomed over Elsa, huge and cold and terrible. "I have waited too long for someone like you to come around! Too long my Winter has been without a proper mistress, without someone to command it fully! And now that one has appeared, I won't lose her just because her feelings happened to crop up at an inconvenient time!"

"Please!" Elsa said, her voice almost a sob. "Please!"

"No!" Skadi snapped, turning and walking away. Elsa grabbed for her heel. Skadi shook the smaller woman free so that she sprawled into the snow. Skadi glanced back over her shoulder. "Pitiful. Pathetic. No, My Queen, you will remain joined with the Winter. I shall never, ever tell you how to return to your human form, and you will stay united to the cold and snow until you realize that it is your destiny to make Winter strong again! And if that takes ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years while you watch everything you know and love wither and die, so be it!" Skadi burst apart into a flurry of snow that billowed away on the wind.

Elsa sank to her knees. She did not, strictly speaking, cry. Her ice body had no tear ducts, so no liquid fell. But she sobbed. She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, shoulders wracking with terrible grief, as afternoon gave way to evening, and the sky turned slowly dark.