A/N: Here we are, sorry about the cliffhanger! I meant to have this up yesterday, but it ended up being hard as hell to write this chapter. I had this one completely planned out, but describing what happened was tough, and I hope it's up to par. Thanks for sticking with reading this thing! All feedback is appreciated.

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." -Albert Pike

Elsa couldn't see anything.

There was white all around. There were sounds everywhere, a cacophony of omnipresent noise, unable to be filtered. Time stood still. She couldn't move, couldn't think. Everything inside her stopped while the rest of the world moved around her. Her stomach fell, her heart was going to rip out of her chest. If there were tears in her eyes they were washed away with the water flying everywhere around her. She wasn't sure if she was crying, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Anna...oh gods, Anna...

The storm was raging – more than that. It was a rabid, wild thing, tearing into the wood of the ship underneath her feet. Thunder boomed and it shook her down to her bones, the deck shuddering as the surrounding elements crashed together.

Lightning held onto the thunder, releasing it as it hit water and crashed into wood. The sound ricocheted off cloth, off skin and bone as it was stolen by the wind. It was a turbine of motion, pulling at the tiny floating island, pulling against the metal of the anchor that was so tenuously holding the entire contraption to the ground.

Thunder met lightning, met water, met wood, met sound, met steel, met earth, met...ice?

Her breath caught. Ice.

Ice.

She wasn't some drifter in a storm.

This was her storm to control.

She vaguely heard a man yelling behind her. She should have heard what he was saying as it was yelled almost directly in her ear, but she understood nothing. What he had to say didn't matter. He could do nothing. She looked down at her hands. Maybe she could.

Maybe.

Elsa ran the the railing where her sister had fallen moments before. She looked down into the raging waters, churning in a frenzy, waiting for yet another sacrifice from the deck above. The queen held onto the railing, digging her nails into the soft wood, then summoned her power. She pulled the stopper on her magic, let it flow through her completely, let it utterly consume her. She took one last, shuddering breath.

She jumped.

Anna could only see water.

It was cold, so cold. She was moving, constantly. Her legs and arms failed as she tried to stay above water, but it was to no avail.

Wave after wave crashed against her and pulled her under. Time and time again she fought to the surface for just one more breath. She would suck it in greedily before being covered by another blanket of wet, wet coldness.

Her lungs were burning, the only source of fire the entire world around her had to offer. She pushed herself up with her arms and legs, but they were growing stiffer, weaker. She crested the surf for another watery lung full of life, but was turned upside down by the wave that fell across her.

She tried to swim to the surface again, to air, but no matter how she moved she seemed to be getting further from the surface. Her limbs became lead, her dress a heavy weight entombing her body. She was slow, too slow.

She became dizzier. Her body had been whipped along, ruining her strength.

She could barely think any longer. Was she moving up? She tried to take another breath, pulling the surrounding water into her lungs. She choked, trying another breath and another, but there was no air to be found. Just the bitter, bitter freezing water.

She always figured she'd die cold.

A smile almost lit her face, then. It was to be expected. She had taken her sister, an ice sorceress, as her lover. Her earliest memories were always of snow, of ice, of cold. She was familiar with the bitter chill in her bones. She had been frozen before, was this really any different? The cold had always been a part of her life, why would anything change in death?

A wave of frigid power moved through her. Not ice, not water. It wasn't anything tangible, but it was there. And as it passed through her, it was freezing. The cold of the water had been a small brisk wind, but this...this was an avalanche of biting frost running through her.

The water around her turned to slush, and then...there were arms around her.

She couldn't see, her eyes remained close, but she didn't need to see to know who it was. A body – her sister's body – wrapped around her, holding onto her for dear life. She just didn't know how much life she had left. She clutched the woman holding her with the what little strength she had remaining, and took another breath.

Water. Nothing but water.

The world went black.

Elsa saw blue.

It was moving around her, swirling everywhere. Blue met white as foam ravaged across the surface of the water and disappeared as she dived lower. The water underneath was less blurry the deeper she went, but the night was dark and she couldn't see more than a few feet in front of her.

Her lungs burned and she used her power to propel herself up, catching air in her lungs above the waves before diving again. She kept moving, kept searching, but there was no light to see by. The sea was as vast as it was oppressive.

She strained her eyes, desperate for a glimpse of her sister. Her power pulsed out, transforming the water around her into slush. She knew it must be cold. Elsa couldn't feel it, but her sister could. She knew Anna could only survive minutes in waters like this.

Several had already passed.

The fear gnawed at her, she couldn't think clearly. She resurfaced for air two more times, but barely managed a single breath each time as she was choking on her own tears. She stopped moving, trapping herself in an ice cocoon. She needed to think. But how? How could anyone be found in this? A person was like driftwood, and the ocean was infinite around her.

She was crying, she was seething. It couldn't possibly end like this. She would not allow it. Screaming her frustration, she sent her power out in a flurry around her in every direction, destroying the shell of ice she had created to protect herself. She could sense the ice as her power moved along its ridges, could feel her magic as it hit the ship, freezing it in place. Shecould feel the anchor, feel the detritus all around the ruined hull. Her power rushed out of her and she sensed every particle, every droplet of water, every splinter it touched.

She sensed Anna.

The woman was near her, further down in the water. She was sinking, but Elsa knew exactly where she was.

She lashed out with her power, creating an iceberg behind her, forcing her body in Anna's direction. She reached the younger woman in seconds and grabbed onto her, wrapping her entire body around the princess. She felt her sister's arms grip her weakly, then the chest that was held against her own expanded.

She felt the ice water enter Anna's lungs. Elsa was in her element, frost and cold and ice and water all around her. She felt the water as her sister choked on it, she sensed the stagnant water sitting in the younger woman's lungs, could feel the water around the two of them stop moving as Anna stopped struggling.

Elsa gripped her sister's hair, pulling the woman's face to look at her own. Her lungs hurt, she could feel the press of the water against her lips and nostrils, felt how much it wanted to take away what little air she had.

She couldn't feel Anna.

Her face was blue, lifeless. Unmoving.

The Ice Queen made a decision. She didn't know why she did it. Maybe it didn't matter why. Nothing else could be done. She gathered her power. All of it.

Every bit she could manage.

She let loose the floodgates. He power poured from her chest, filling up her entire body. More than she knew she could handle. She summoned every bit of power around her. All of the ice and slush and cold she could pull from the water and the storm, she held onto. She grabbed onto it with her will. Her mind was focused, more sharp than it had ever been before.

She could see, feel, know everything her power touched. It was pure clarity. Everything stood still. The storm around her stopped. The wind died. The seas calmed. The universe itself waited to see what she was going to attempt.

And in that single moment of clarity, she made the decision to die.

Her power was her life, she couldn't live without it. Everything she was and could ever be was deeply entwined with her ability to cast her gods-given element. So she gathered what she could of it, every bit of power that she could possibly ever summon was at her fingertips. And she thrust it away.

At Anna.

It hit the woman's shoulder first, and traveled along her spine. The woman's body would not give in. Elsa pushed, and nothing. She slammed her power against the younger woman over and over and over. Until finally, the princess's body failed. Elsa directed the power through her sister and into herself. She gathered more of her will as the power passed through her own body before pushing it back towards the princess.

A moment passed, then ten. Then twenty. Elsa's power was a singing pendulum in the water, pushing between herself and Anna. The power wasn't freezing the younger woman. Elsa knew, somehow, that it wouldn't. She became aware of Anna like she was aware of the ice. Anna was her power. She could feel her sister absolutely.

Elsa's power swept away the water in the princess's lungs, used it to clear her own mind and the woman's she was holding. She could feel Anna coming to, and she knew that Anna could feel the magic coursing through her own skin .She knew that her sister was also reaching that same moment of clarity. Second after second passed, and the two held each other in a sway of ice and cold and pure, freezing magic.

Then Anna tapped into it.

Elsa had no idea what had happened, or how. She could feel every bit of her sister, knew the woman down to her bones, and suddenly knew that Anna could tell the same things about her. The tension of Elsa's magic continued to grow, the pendulum of power moving between the two, growing faster and faster.

Anna was completely coherent. The sisters stared at each other, unsure of what was happening but forcing the power back and forth between the two of them, whipping through their bodies. The pace quickened and soon it was a ball of light and darkness and cold, and they couldn't tell which of them held onto it when. They were both in control.

Elsa grew weaker as she tried to force it fully to Anna, attempting to push the entirety of her power at the younger woman. She would die without it, but Anna would live. She had to be certain. The queen smiled sadly and let it go completely.

Anna's eyes went wide, and suddenly a voice rung through her mind. It wasn't spoken aloud, but rung though every fiber of her being. 'Elsa!'

The power ripped through her. Anna held the two of them together, and forced the power to stay in place between them. It was like a living thing, writhing, aching to be released. The princess held it steady, somehow, hanging the ball of pressure in between them, forcing it in place. Elsa, at long last, retook her part of the burden, and felt her strength return, her mind clearing once again. Anna took Elsa's hand in her own. She raised both of their arms towards the surface, a smile on her face, and released her hold.

Elsa was moments behind. The magic the two were holding blasted through the water and out into the open air. The sun was shining above their heads. The storm, it's power used up by the sisters, was utterly gone. The two surfaced, and the power above them burst out, then fell to the water as a fine powder of snow.

The queen held onto her sister, treading water. Anna was breathing hard. "Elsa?"

She squeezed the younger woman tight. "Anna."

"Elsa, I feel...there's something..." The princess put her hand to to water and gasped as the water underneath turned to ice. Elsa felt her chest go cold as it happened, could feel the power being drained from her body as the younger woman froze the water. Anna pulled back, frightened. Elsa put out her own hand to finish what the younger woman started. She created an island of ice, then pulled herself onto it. Once she was up, she put out a hand to her sister and pulled her up as well. Elsa grabbed onto the younger woman again once they were both afloat on the island, holding Anna in her embrace, tears falling from her eyes.

The princess held onto her sister just as dearly, needing to be close. The two stayed entertwined for minutes that felt like an eternity.

Elsa looked down at the princess once she was able to control her emotions, gasping softly as she took in the sight of her younger sister. The white streak in her hair was back, as well as small, white snowflake-fractal scars on her shoulder, peaking up from her dress. "Anna. You, you're...using my power? But how?" Oh, gods, Anna. I'm so sorry.

The younger woman looked at her strangely. "What are you sorry for? You saved my life."

Elsa's eyes furrowed. "I didn't say anything, I was just thinking...I -" The queen's eyes widened. Oh. Oh hells.

She directed her thoughts to her sister, 'Anna, can you hear me?'

The younger woman squeaked. "Elsa! You're in my head!" 'How the...'

The older sister blinked once, twice. Then she started laughing. 'Well, this will certainly make life interesting.'

Anna stared at her sister, her eyes wide, mouth gaping. As the situation sunk in, the amazed look turned into a wide smile.

'Oh love, this will be fun.'

Elsa just shook her head, laughing, and pulled Anna closer to her. She looked up, and saw the sun.

'I'm just glad you're alive.'