For My Kingdom

A Frozen Fan Fiction

Chapter Twenty-Three:

Love is Complicated

Author's note: Small time lapse. :) Felt appropriate. Just letting you know.

Entering the monument of ice seemed to Alex like entering a tomb. Once he was over the threshold, the roar of the storm outside was far away and it was as if he was in a whole new world. A very quiet world. An almost eerie world. The silence unnerved him. His fear for Elsa's safety and the knowledge that she was somewhere in this still fortress deeply distressed him to the point that his sword felt heavy in his hands and the cold seemed to affect him more than ever. He wanted to call to her, but the castle appeared to act as a vacuum. Any attempt he made at saying anything to disturb the quiet was futile.

The sound was soft and distant, but Alex heard it as if it were right next to him. He looked up to the ceiling where he had heard the noise. It had sounded like footsteps. Quiet, rushed, petite footsteps. With an equal sharing of trepidation and motivation, Alex wandered up the stairs and farther into the castle. He found it hard not to appreciate the beauty of the flawlessly carved ice in the remarkable creation he found himself in, but his heart still pounded restlessly against his ribcage and he had to work to keep his breathing steady. Every step he climbed was a step closer to conflict.

It came too soon.

As he reached the top of the stairs, the room just before the balcony opened up before him with the beauty of a spotless, white ballroom, but his heart stopped.

Charlotte had left Elsa's view several minutes prior. Her voice muffled with rags, Elsa couldn't make much more sound than a whisper. Anna was coming. The idea didn't surprise Elsa with how stubborn she was, but somehow the witch knew. What was this magic that the woman possessed? Though it seemed not much different than her own, there was more to it than Elsa could have ever dreamed. It seemed less like magic and more like a wicked sort of witchcraft.

Somewhere nearby, Elsa knew Charlotte was waiting. Waiting for Anna. Warm tears froze to Elsa's cheeks. The traitor Gulbrand was right about another thing. Whatever spell was cast on her by Charlotte, did not work against her sister. Elsa was scared of what would happen to Anna, because she loved her. It took five minutes of being half buried in ice for her to realize that. Everyone else could go to hell, but she loved Anna... and now she was powerless to save her.

A set of urgent footsteps approached the room, and Elsa's head turned fast enough to crack her neck. What she saw both relieved and frustrated her. In the doorway was the imbecilic prince.

"You idiot!" she shouted through the rags. She continued to shout muffled obscenities and orders to go get Anna away, but like the moronic hero-player he was, he just kept coming.

Alex rushed toward Elsa in a daze and started trying to break up the ice around her with his sword, unsure of what else to do in that situation, but after a few fruitless moments of stabbing at the floor he finally noticed Elsa's stifled screaming. Sheathing his sword, he removed the rags that gagged her and revealed the full fury in Elsa's face.

"Get out!" she whispered angrily. "She's still here! Warn Anna away!" Elsa grimaced as she struggled in the ice. It looked like she had little room to do even that. "JUST GET OUT," she ordered again, her voice almost a hiss.

The venom in the queen's voice didn't go unnoticed by the prince. His heart felt weakened, but he knew he wasn't just going to leave her to die. "I'm not leaving without you, your majesty."

"You...!" Elsa began, pulling out her cache of foul names from a dusty shelf in her head, but was silenced with the sound of approaching footsteps. The burning anger was filtered with frustration and an ever so slight hint of fear.

"I actually am quite happy with how this is turning out."

Alex spun around, wielding his sword defensively. The woman he saw just a few yards to his left surprised him. Though he knew Charlotte was cursed with eternal youth, he didn't expect her to look quite so young. She was just a girl. Just a girl except for the matured malice that flashed in her eyes.

"Charlotte..." he pleaded, slowly sheathing his sword. Only true love can thaw a frozen heart, but Elsa still had some love in her. Maybe Charlotte did too. "I know this isn't you."

Charlotte's demeanor didn't change much. The cruel amusement was now laced with hints of mock pity. "And who told you that? The troll?" She chuckled. "That old fool doesn't know a thing about me. What did he tell you? True love thaws frozen hearts?" Her gaze wavered toward Elsa. "Love unrequited isn't true. Good luck."

Alex shook his head a little and stepped toward her. "You were selfless. You loved everyone. I know that you're still there."

With an unbelieving shake of her head, Charlotte snorted a little as if she genuinely thought something was funny. "You're right, Elsa." she laughed, looking in the direction of the queen. "He really is an idiot." Looking back to the prince, the woman's face lost all trace of even malignant humor. "That 'me' you so stupidly speak of..." she spat out each word with malevolent diction, "died a long time ago with my f-"

"Your true love," he asserted. Alex gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, knowing this plan had a very high potential for blowing up in his face.

Elsa listened to the whole exchange with her eyes rolling like marbles inside her skull. The love-talk nearly made her sick, and the situation she was in didn't help. She glanced up from the ice that held her captive for a moment and suddenly the sick feeling brought bile to her throat. Just hidden from the view of Charlotte and the prince was a wide-eyed Anna and a confused and incredibly scared Olaf. Swallowing the lump in her throat and fighting back revealing tears, Elsa urgently tried to mouth as clearly as she could: Go now. Please! But Anna continued to stand frozen in the doorway while Olaf gawked at the kindling inferno between the girl he had met a few days prior and some man he had never seen before in his life. It seemed pretty exciting and important.

A mass of ire clouded Charlotte's eyes. "I wonder how much better you'd fare, you bumbling fool." A misty ball of magic appeared in her palm. "Something I've learned over the years..."

Alex's whole body stiffened with tension. Almost of it's own accord, his sword slid from it's sheath, but Charlotte looked unconcerned. She continued to speak as if he held a mere tree branch. "Once a heart is already half frozen, one more solid hit home is all it takes. So don't worry, my dear." she said, winking at Elsa. "It'll be fast."

With a hoarse yelp, Alex lost his grip of the sword. Without warning, the hilt became so cold it burned his skin.

Whatever had glued Anna to the spot just outside the door dissolved in a flash. Suddenly she was running into the room.

For Alex it all happened as if time had slowed to a crawl. The ball of deadly magic left the woman's palm and he sidestepped into it's path. At first the ball seemed to only pass through him with no harm, but then it was like ice began to crawl through his veins, slowly and painstakingly inching from his heart and into his lungs until his entire chest was heavy with cold.

Elsa watched in shock as Alex fell to one knee with one hand clutching his chest. Initially he looked unharmed... until a stream of white weaved into his mousy, brown hair. Something inside Elsa seemed to break just then. Her breath came faster and a deeper, more despairing fear flooded into her as if someone had opened her vein and poured a pitcher of it right into her blood. But there was something more. A sort of heat seemed to rise from within her to battle the fear. She almost felt feverish, but not like she did after she was poisoned. It was an impassioned heat.

"Oh, Anna, dear!" Charlotte turned to where the princess stood, vulnerable, just a few yards away. "How kind of you to join us... And you brought the snowman!"

Elsa squirmed in the ice and was surprised to discover... she could. Millimeter by millimeter, the ice was melting around her. She tried to concentrate on keeping the ice beneath her frozen as she became able to move. She was in a small pool of frigid water, but the cold never bothered her anyway. "Alex," she whispered. The prince shivered and started to stand. "No, stay down..."

Alex looked at Elsa. He felt so cold, but her eyes had a plan. He stayed down. His breath came rapidly in small white puffs in front of him and his muscles quivered painfully. Already his hair was almost entirely streaked with white.

"Wow, this is great!" Charlotte exclaimed, clapping her hands together as if her life was being made complete at that very moment. "The whole family is here! I'm your aunt Charlotte!" An icy gale blew in through the room from the balcony, slamming the heavy doors behind Anna and Olaf.

"What do you want?" Anna demanded. It was the first time Anna had spoken, and by the sound of her voice, it was obvious why. Her voice was hoarse as if she had been sobbing the whole way up the mountain and the cold, mountain air couldn't have helped.

Walking forward, Charlotte replied with cruel honesty, "Well, love, I intend to leave you all as nothing more than blocks of ice alone in this lovely monument to Elsa's freedom, melt it to the ground, then take my rightful place as queen." With a smile, she held out her palms on which were two swirling magicks. "Would you like to go first, your highness?"

Elsa was finally free. The ice had melted enough around her that she was able to move enough to get out. With great force of will, she lifted the ice beneath her until she was standing on a level playing field with everyone else (maybe slightly above). Anna's eyes flickered toward her in shock, but to her credit she hid her emotions from Charlotte. Elsa looked down at Alex, he was curled up into himself and, though he seemed barely conscious, his body trembled continuously. His hair was completely bleached of color.

Elsa loudly cleared her throat, turning Charlotte around to face her. The witch's eyes widened to see Elsa standing on solid ground with her own magick hovering lightly on her palm.

"But you're not in love with him!" Charlotte cried in a disbelieving screech. Her magic spheres spun into solid ice and crashed into the floor.

Looking down at the pathetic prince briefly, Elsa smiled at Charlotte. "Love is complicated."

True to the witch's word, almost instantly as the magic entered Charlotte's chest ice overcame her and soon she was no more than a frozen statue in a monument to freedom.

Author's Note: THAT was quite the f***ing relay race of a chapter. You have NO idea! So many character perspectives. Damn!