Chapter 2

The Answer Lies Within You

A.N. Disclaimer (because I forgot to do one last chapter): I do not own Anna, or indeed, Frozen in general. That right belongs to the Walt Disney company. This fanfiction is done for pleasure alone. If you want to pay someone, pay them.

Anna slowly opened her eyes and sat up. It was still night out. Anna was confused, as she had always been a deep sleeper. She didn't usually wake up in the middle of the night. Stay up until the middle of the night, sure (quite often), but not wake up. And when she did, she usually wasn't as wide awake as she felt. She patted her head. Her braids were still undone, but her hair was lying (mostly) flat, instead of the horrific bedhead she usually got after a good night's tossing, turning, and nearly falling off the bed. Anna may have been a deep sleeper, but she was not a quiet one.

Anna noticed something odd about the sky outside, and quickly got up and ran to the window. What she saw there was a completely dark sky. There was no moon, and only one star, the star she had wished upon that night. However, the room was as light enough to see, even if everything did look a little flat.

Anna's confusion at this was interrupted by a knock on the door. Wondering who in the rather empty castle would want to see her at night, she got up and answered the door, and gasped in surprise.

It was Elsa.

She was exactly as Anna remembered her sister, in the formal wear that Anna had mostly seen her sister in for the last few years. The only difference was that she had no gloves.

While Anna stared wordlessly on, Elsa took the time to introduce herself.

"Hello, Anna. I see that I have surprised you. I believe that I must assure you that I am not your sister. I merely look like her. Elsa is not here. You may call me the Guide."

A very surprised Anna asked her: "Who are you? Why do you look like my sister? What's going on?"

The Guide smiled. "We are in your mind. Although, mind is perhaps not the correct word. Soul, maybe. Or then again, maybe not. The exact nature of this place is a mystery, even to me. Anyways, this is you. It's where all the different aspects of you live. Everyone you meet here is you, including me. I am your guide through this place. And as for why I look like Elsa, let us merely say that you must respect your sister very much to choose her as your guide through your soul."

Anna was quiet for a few moments (small miracle). This was a lot to take in. She finally took a deep breath and asked the Guide:

"So, why am I here? I don't remember dreaming about this before. Although, there was this one time when I was five, and I sort of remember a castle, but I'm pretty sure that dream ended up with me learning to fly by dancing to a folk song I had stuck in my head. Or maybe that was the one when I was eleven. I get them mixed up sometimes."

The Guide smiled in that gentle, knowing way of hers. It was odd, now that Anna thought about it, but she rarely saw that expression on her sister's face. Elsa had smiled when they were little, but not usually like that, and lately, Elsa hadn't smiled much. Anna continued to hope that the coronation would get her a chance to fix that. Elsa looked so beautiful when she smiled.

The Guide walked over to the window, where that one star twinkled in the sky. She looked at it for a little, and then faced Anna and said:

"You wished upon that star to know why Elsa was so frightened. The answer lies within you, and I am here to guide you to what you seek, under the light of the star that granted your wish."

Anna was interested and excited. "You mean, I'll finally be able to really talk to her about what she's scared of, instead of just extending the invitation and hoping for the best?"

Anna was pretty ecstatic. She'd attempted to reconnect with Elsa during her childhood, but she had always been rebuffed, and she had eventually stopped trying (mostly). Now, though, she had an actual chance, and she was definitely taking it.

"All right," she told the Guide, "Lead me on."

The Guide smiled again and crossed to the open door, where she beckoned to Anna, and Ana followed her out into the hall.

The hall was also different. The windows were still as shuttered as Anna remembered, and no torches burned to illuminate the hall, but it was lit by the same uniform dusky light as in her room. The light came from everywhere, and so without shadows, most things looked somewhat flat. It was strange.

The Guide explained to Anna: "Somewhere in here is the reason why Elsa is frightened. One of your personas probably knows where it is, so we should search for her first. And, you should always remember, you can never know Elsa before you know yourself."

Anna asked the Guide: "So, what does that mean?"

The Guide looked ahead and said: "It means we have a journey ahead of us. Let us go on."

The Guide and Anna walked down the hall. As Anna followed her, she looked back at her room and noticed something.

"Why is there ice around the door?"

And indeed, there was ice. There wasn't much of it, but it was definitely there.

The Guide responded, looking at the ice with a troubled expression: "I do not know."

Anna shrugged, filed that interesting factoid away for later, and she and her Guide continued walking. The walk was quiet, and Anna hummed a traditional ice-harvest song that kept getting stuck in her head to keep the silence away. After she'd finished the song, she asked the Guide:

"Um, I'd like to know, where are we going?"

While continuing on her way, the Guide said: "That is a good question, Anna. We are searching for where the answer is, and it may be anywhere."

The Guide looked at Anna, gave a rather embarrassed look, and admitted: "In other words, I do not know where our destination is either. We are simply exploring in hopes of finding it."

The pair continued on their way down the hall, their feet making no sound on the soft carpet. The rest of the hall was quiet, and empty. It was almost too quiet, the kind of quiet that gets on your nerves. Anna was not a quiet person. She didn't really like the quiet. So, she decided to fill the quiet, again. She asked the Guide:

"Who are you, really? I mean really. Other than 'the Guide', I mean, I know that, but you said that everyone here is a part of me, and I just want to know which one you are, you know? Ack, this is getting awkward... I'll just shut up now."

The Guide shook her head: "No, it is a good question, and one I really should answer. Anna, I'm your self-knowledge. That is why I am the guide- I am the part of you who knows about this place."

Anna then asked: "So... you look like Elsa because I subconsciously chose her as my guide? Why?"

The Guide answered the question and turned it back on Anna: "Because you trust her, and you look up to her. Now it is my turn to ask; why?"

Why, indeed? Elsa had always been more graceful than her, more elegant, more... princess-y. She was that unreachable star, a shining example of everything Anna should be.

But... she hadn't been a very good sister. They'd been close, long ago. But that had been when they were five. They had played together, built snowmen out in the fjords together, did everything together.

And then, they hadn't. Elsa had rebuffed her invitations. She had hid herself away in her room. They lived in the same castle, but barely saw one another. Elsa had never been there for her. When she was lonely, stuck in the castle all the time, Elsa hadn't played with her. When her parents had died, Elsa hadn't comforted her, in the darkest days of Anna's life. Elsa had locked herself away in her rooms, and metaphorically pushed away Anna's hand when Anna reached for her.

Of course, finding out why Elsa behaved that way was why she was here in the first place. But still...

"Um, Guide? If you're not Elsa, then can you do something to make yourself not look like her so much? See, I'm here to find Elsa, and it's kind of disconcerting to have her with me the whole time. So maybe you could take off your dress... wait, on second thought, don't do that... well, do something to your appearance."

The Guide smiled. "Of course, Anna. How about I let down my hair? It would be easy enough, and distinctive. Elsa does not let her hair down, as far as you and thus I know."

The Guide undid the bun she wore, and swept the resulting french braid through her shoulder. "That better?" she asked. Anna nodded. A thought caught her mind.

"You wanted me to come to that conclusion, didn't you?"

The Guide shook her head. "I just asked the question that was waiting to be asked. I did not know what your conclusion would be. But if questions are not asked, answers are not found. And I am made of answers."

The Guide was certainly happy to have answers, as she smiled contently and hummed the same song that had been stuck in Anna's head. And, come to think of it, Anna was happy too, or at least calm. Really understanding why she was there had lifted a heavy burden from her, and now she was clear to focus single-mindedly on finding Elsa.

She should not have thought that. The Universal Laws of Irony still existed, even in this strange world, and when Fate was tempted, it would respond.

As Anna and her guide turned a corner, Anna saw herself, sitting down by a door with a sad expression on her face. The Anna by door was wearing the mourning clothes that Anna had worn after the death of her parents. Indeed, she looked exactly like Anna had when she had begged her sister, one last time, to come out and help Anna get through that troubled time after her mother and father had died. But Elsa had not answered, not come. Not returned Anna's friendship.

And Anna had buried her parents alone.

A wave of sadness overcame Anna when she saw herself as she had been then in those dark and lonely days. Anna had hoped that it was past her, but still the wounds in her heart from when her parents died ached whenever she was reminded of the time.

When the black-clothed Anna noticed Anna and the Guide, she smiled. But it wasn't a happy smile. It was more a gesture of resignation, an acknowledgment of bitter irony. It was disturbing for Anna to see that expression on her own face, and she hoped that she would never see it again. Anna didn't do resignation. She didn't do despair. There was always a strand of hope in any situation, and as long as it was there, Anna would grab for it.

The Anna in the mourning gown got up from her position at the door, and bowed to Anna and the Guide. She then said: "It's nice to see you, Anna. Tell me, is it true that your worthless sister has brought you here, into yourself?"

A.N. Yes, the 'through her shoulder' thing was intentional. It refers to how when the actual Elsa let down her hair during 'Let It Go', the animators just could not get it to go over her shoulders, so they ended up having to phase it through the shoulders and use sneaky angles so that no one would notice.