A/N: Wow I didn't think I would have such a great response to this fic. I've already had so many people follow and favourite this, thank you so much! it helps to spur me on and want to keep writing, especially when I get to a sad part like this... I'm so sorry for putting you all through this next part but it is necessary for the plot, just keep telling yourself, its going to get fluffly soon!

WARNING: this is an elsanna fanfiction, meaning incest, so if you don't like, don't read. Also swearing, violence/trigger.

I don't own any part of Frozen, only my own ideas.

Chapter 3: Rising from the ashes

"Faster Sven!" Kristoff shouted as he kept Anna propped up against his side while at the same time holding on to the reins. He had a sudden overwhelming feeling of Déjà vu but he didn't have time to wonder why, he had to get Anna back to the castle and fast. The weather had quickly returned to normal after that peculiar wolf disappeared, the temperature dropped and it looked like some storm clouds where forming as was usual for a winter in Arendelle. Everything may have been returning to normal, all except for Anna. Kristoff had to grab his jacket from the back of the sleigh to wrap around Anna to protect himself. Anna was still burning up and every time his skin made contact with hers, searing pain shot through him leaving him with several bright red burn marks.

Kristoff looked down at Anna worriedly, she hadn't stopped shifting around as if trying to get away from something, and her face was scrunched up as if she was in terrible pain. "Don't worry Anna, were nearly back, we'll get you help soon" he whispered softly trying to comfort his best friend, returning his attention to the path he could see the castle rising on the horizon, "See, you're nearly home hang in there, Elsa's waiting for you".

The Queen was oblivious to Kia's attempts at asking if she was alright, she was too busy watching the storm clouds forming. She could also feel herself returning to a much cooler body temperature, she didn't even have to try her powers to know that they would once again work like they did before. Elsa watched as the people below her shared small celebrations at the temperature drop, but she couldn't help feel that something wasn't right. What had caused it in the first place? And why had it so suddenly disappeared?

She turned around abruptly which caused both her and Kai to jump in shock. "Queen Elsa is something the matter?" Kai asked once again backing up to give her some room.

Elsa put a hand up to rest against her chest where her heart was beating rapidly, she took a calming breath and answered, "I don't know Kai, I get the feeling something isn't quite right" she glanced back out to the mountains before returning her attention to the servant.

Kai looked confused but simply said, "well everything seems fine to me, nothing bad has happened and if it had you would have been the first to know".

Nodding in agreement Elsa seemed to calm down. Of course he's right, she's the Queen if anything were to happen she would have been informed straight away right, right? Trying to contain her anxiety she composed herself and relieved the man of the papers he still held before walking towards the doorway. Kai followed after her with the plates from the Queens untouched meal. "Are you going straight to the kitchens now?" she asked the man trying to distract her thoughts.

He nodded, "Yes, don't feel obliged to accompany me, you have your duty's to attend to your majesty".

"Nonsense, I have to speak with the staff about preparations for the ball we will be hosting in Prince Eldric's honour anyway, so I may as well walk with you" Elsa retorted with a wave and continued walking along side Kai.

He nodded, "Very well, I do hope this Prince Eldric doesn't out stay his welcome, I don't want him around you or Anna longer than he needs to be".

Elsa laughed and shook her head at how protective Kai was being, after their parents passed he had taken it upon himself to look after the two girls and make sure they were alright. Kai started laughing along with the Queen lightening the dark tone from earlier. However the short moment of happiness was interrupted by loud worried voices, and they both stopped laughing instantly and just listened. The voices grew louder until they were shouting, Elsa couldn't understand what half of them were saying until she heard one of the guards shout, "Someone get the Queen, Anna has just made it to the front gates".

"Anna" she whispered in a terrified voice, what could have possibly happened to her sister? Etiquette and formality thrown out the window, Elsa ran full pace down the halls towards the front doors. She past many people nearly running into half of them, but none of them commented on her behaviour, every single one of them worried about Anna as well. She had made it to the front doors and was looking out into the courtyard, she was stopped dead in her tracks. There just inside the gates, was her sister sat in Kristoff sleigh. Nothing seemed wrong, other than the fact she was screaming in what could only be excruciating pain, her face scrunched up and her arms flailing all over the place trying to find some sort of comfort from her agony.

Elsa felt her stomach drop and her heart ache, "Anna!" she shouted, tears streaming down her face as she ran to her sister, leaving an ice path in her wake. Everyone who was trying to help stepped aside allowing Elsa a clear path to her sister, who was still thrashing about in the sleigh, the only thing keeping her from hurting herself was Kristoff holding her with a grimace on his face.

Elsa didn't understand why Kristoff looked to be in pain too, her sister isn't that strong, until she reached his side. She saw the harsh scorch marks on his arms and hands, but how had he gotten them? She went to take her sister from him when he deliberately got in the way and hissed, "Wait, be careful her skin is burning, you'll hurt yourself if you just touch her".

What on earth was he talking about? Was he insinuating that her sister had caused those burn marks on his skin? That was preposterous she thought and went to touch her sister anyway, but stopped when her hand was just above the surface, she could feel the heat that was radiating from Anna. How had this happened? Shaking her head, this wasn't the time for questions she had to help Anna, covering her hands in several layers of ice she scooped up her sister into her arms. As soon as she made contact, the ice started to melt causing large amounts of steam to radiation from the area. She had to move Anna quickly before the ice melted completely.

Once Kristoff was certain Elsa wouldn't be hurt he let go of his best friend, and followed quickly behind the two girls. Anna had stopped screaming when Elsa picked her up, now only whimpering in pain, seemingly the cool ice easing her suffering. Elsa ran back into the castle with her sister cradled in her arms, she made her way quickly up the main staircase her end goal, Anna's bedroom.

She looked down at her baby sister, a tear ran down her face and landed on Anna's, it sizzled up as soon as it made contact. Trying to hold back her emotions Elsa whispered, "Oh Anna, what's happened this time?".

After all the previous excitement the castle seemed like a ghost town now. The only people around were the servants and Kristoff. The town's people had decided it would be best to not crowed the castle while Elsa and the others tried to figure out what had happened to Anna.

After getting Anna to her bedroom just in time, (as the ice had completely melted from Elsa's hands when she was lying her down onto the bed) the servants started to go over the usual medical procedures while they waited for the royal doctor to arrive. Elsa took Kristoff aside into an empty room and asked him to tell her exactly what had happened. It took him nearly half an hour to fully explain everything that had happened, from the mysterious wolf creature, to the link between Brisingr and the heat wave, and the supposed 'gift' he had given Anna.

Once he had finished explaining everything, there was a few seconds silence and then, "that fucking bastard!" Elsa slammed her fists down onto the desk in front of her, ice exploding around them on impact. Kristoff jumped back at the sudden change in emotion from the Queen. Elsa moved away from the desk and started pacing, muttering to herself, "a gift! Ha some fucking gift! Anna is lying in the next room fucking burning alive and I can't do anything about it!".

Kristoff wasn't used to this kind of behaviour from the usually calm and collected woman, he had especially never heard her use profanity's before. He calmly stated, "Hey we don't know there's nothing we can do to help, we just have to think rationally about this, I'm sure there's something we can do".

Elsa stopped her pacing and took a deep breath before rubbing her temple with her fingertips, she nodded before agreeing, "You're right Kristoff, I just need to calm down and think this through, the doctor hasn't even seen her yet".

Kristoff slowly made his way to Elsa's side, he placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her, "See, don't get all stressed out, that's not going to help Anna out is it?" the Queen shook her head in response, Kristoff continued, "Good, now you go and see how she is and keep me updated, I need to go and find Sven and Olaf before they start causing trouble, but any change and you let me know right away" he made his way to the door.

"Of course, thank you for bringing her back Kristoff" Elsa spoke with gratitude.

Kristoff smiled, "any time" and before she could say anything else he left the room and disappeared down the hall.

Elsa followed soon after him and returned to her sister's room to see how things were. As she entered the room she noticed that the royal doctor must have arrived while she was talking to Kristoff because he was just finishing talking with Gerda when she walked through the door. She made her way over to the two of them and asked, "So what's your diagnosis doctor".

He looked up at the Queen and simply replied, "Not good I'm afraid, as you know your sister is running an extremely high fever, none like I've ever seen before, she has no other symptoms of an illness, therefore the only treatment I can recommend is lots of fluids and try to get her temperature down" he sighed and wiped his forehead with his arm, "But since it seems she's going to be out of it for the next few days, we can only hope her fever breaks before it's too late".

Elsa looked from the doctor to her sister and back, she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes and when she spoke her voice cracked, "That, that can't be it. There has to be something else we can do!".

Gerda put her arm around Elsa's shoulder to try and comfort her, but it only seemed to make it worse, the tears now freely flowing down the Queens face. The doctor had a pained expression when he stated, "I'm sorry your majesty, but there simply isn't anything else that will help your sister" he made his way to the doorway and stopped, he meekly repeated, "I'm sorry" before continuing on his way out of the castle.

She had no time to prepare for those two simple words. As soon as they fell from his lips, Elsa simply couldn't hold herself up anymore, she fell to her knees and allowed her emotions to spill from her very being. Not fully aware of the world she only just comprehended that Gerda had ushered everyone out of the room so that it was just Elsa and Anna.

Only when she heard the door close with a thud did Elsa look up and notice she was alone with her sister. She jumped to her feet and rushed to her sister's side. Collapsing to her knees once again she let the tears stream down her face. Anna was still whimpering in pain and Elsa couldn't bare to standby and do nothing, she covered her hand in ice once again and caressed her sister's forehead with the cool substance. Anna's whimpering was reduced to a soft occasional groan, the ice clearly having a positive effect on her.

"Shh it's ok now, I'm here Anna, I will always be here, I'm never going to leave you again" Elsa softly cooed to her baby sister as she continued to do the only thing she could to help ease her suffering.

True to her word Elsa didn't leave Anna's side for the next three days, except when absolutely necessary to her own health. At first servants tried to get her to continue on with her royal duties by bringer her paperwork or letter's from their upcoming visitor Prince Eldric, but Elsa just ignored them and continued to look after her sister, and eventually they just stopped bothering her.

Anna's condition thankfully didn't get any worse, but it also didn't get much better. The first day it seemed her temperature was dropping when she stopped moaning in pain and started to shift as if waking up. Elsa couldn't help but get her hopes up that her sister was going to be ok, for them just to be crushed again when Anna let out a piercing scream and thrashed about wildly looking for some form of comfort.

Elsa held her sister down so she didn't hurt herself, sobbing silently as she did so partly due to seeing her sister so vulnerable and partly due to the burns now on her hands. After a minute or so Anna calmed down again and stopped moving around, the Queen deemed it safe for her to let her sister go sure she wasn't going to hurt herself.

What Elsa saw next she couldn't believe and couldn't explain. A strand of Anna's hair glowed white hot for a few seconds, then faded to reveal a now dark red colour instead of the regular strawberry-blonde. She didn't understand it, but could only put it down to being related to the magic that wolf had used on her sister.

The rest of the day passed by uneventful, and so did most of the next, until the same thing happened. Anna screamed in agony and moments after she had stopped, another strand of her hair, (this time on the opposite side) glowed white hot before fading to a dark red.

On the third day Elsa didn't know if she could handle this anymore, watching her sister being destroyed from the inside out. She wished there was some way she could just stop all of Anna's pain and suffering, take it instead of her, her sweet innocent sister didn't do anything to deserve this. Elsa's heart was slowly breaking, she had only just got her sister back, and now she was going to be snatched away from her in such a cruel manner. She couldn't do it anymore, the whimpering, the burning skin, not even being able to caress and comfort her sister.

Then Anna started screaming again. Elsa screamed along with her and finally she broke down. On her knees next to Anna's bed side the once proud, regal Queen bawled her eyes out and hid herself from the cruel world around her. Oblivious to anything at this moment, she didn't see when a strand of Anna's hair running from the middle of her forehead, glowed white hot just like the others and faded to dark red. She also didn't notice that Anna was no longer whimpering or moaning in pain. Or that Anna's skin was no longer radiating heat like before.

Anna started to stir on the bed as she slowly returned to reality. She groaned as she felt how stiff she was from lying on a bed for three days straight. Raising her arms to her face to rub her eyes, she then stretched as if waking up from a long nap. When she opened her eyes though, she was very confused to see her sister on the floor shaking from sobbing so hard.

Not knowing exactly what to do in this situation, she reached out her hand to touch Elsa's shoulder.