We actually posted within a few days of the last chapter, which NEVER happens! Thank you for sticking with us.

We also want to clarify that we're not taking any of the Disney sequels into account, just the original movies, and pairings will reflect this. Most of the sequels suck (especially Pocahontas 2 and Mulan 2) so we'd like to pretend they don't exist.

Now, without further ado, here's Chapter 7!

Back in District 2, Mulan's parents, along with Shang and several other family friends, stood silently in the town square amongst the sea of other citizens. A heavy feeling hang in the air, as if each and every individual, not just Mulan, had been stabbed in the stomach themselves.

It would be an understatement to say that Mulan was beloved in the eyes of District 2. Everyone admired her bravery, brilliance, and fierce loyalty to her people. It was every parent's wish for their child to possess the same filial piety as Mulan did for her parents, and it was each child's desire to learn to fight as well as she did for the army. To learn that she would die in this abhorrent form of government torture was sickening to all. This was the girl who had saved them all and yet would have to die such a painful death at such a young age.

Shang stood amidst the crowd. He saw several people tearing up, overwhelmed with emotion. His own eyes were dry, but it took a lot of self control to achieve that. His mind screamed at him to do something, anything, to stop this, but he knew that he could do nothing. Why, of all people, did it have to be Mulan? Why did she have to die? Why was she so selfless? Shang couldn't bear it. First he had lost his mother when he was little, and then his father to the war, and now he was going to lose Mulan to the Games, all within the span of twenty years. He didn't know if he would take any more.

A heavy weight settled in his stomach as he agonized over things they had planned to do together: places to visit, furniture to buy, toasts to make—things he had once dreamed of doing with someone he truly loved, but now would never become a reality.

As each thought became more and more painful, an idea came to mind. He could at least ease her pain before she died, since there was nothing he could do to save her. Hardening his jaw, Shang made his way up to the stage.

"I know we all love Fa Mulan, right?" he began, scanning the crowd which chorused "yeah" half-heartedly, devoid of all hope.

"She's the person who risked her life to save us all. She's the brave soldier who charged against Shan Yu when all hope seemed to be lost. She's the one who came up with the plans to both defeat the Huns and enter the palace to defeat Shan Yu. If it weren't for her, we'd all be living under the Hungs right now, here in District 2." Shang spoke passionately , having to stop to compose himself.

"She's our heroine, and it isn't fair for her to die like this. I know it's asking too much for us to get her the Aplexia medicine from the Capitol to heal her, but the least we can do is pool our money and buy her pain medication, so that she can at least die in peace. All of us here, every one of us, owe her our lives, so why shouldn't we give back? If we all donate a few dollars, we'll have enough for it. I'm going to start by donating my life savings." Shang rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills, dropping them symbolically into his container. He watched as Mulan' family came up and did the same. Soon after, a person close to the stage reached out and dropped in a thousand dollars. At the sight of the amount of money, Shang's jaw nearly dropped; the man must have been extremely rich. But when he saw the person's clothing it dawned on him that he was just an ordinary citizen with a normal yearly salary of $1,500.

Another man approached the stage. He opened his hand to release a wad of bills, and from Shang's point of view, he would have pinned the total at no less than $1,200. Suddenly, everyone in the crowd was swarming to the stage, most contributing sums of money that were equal to ten-months' salary. Shang surged with gratitude at the touching gesture. For the next few minutes, he stood silently, in awe of everyone's generosity. He thanked everyone repeatedly, repeating the words over and over again to each person who was willing to give up their own money, and he watched as the container slowly filled up with the hard-earned money of District 2 citizens. When the last person had finished making their contribution, Shang returned onstage and counted the money out loud. His face broke out into a smile, the first one in what felt like forever.

"Thank you so much for your generosity. We have enough—" he started, cut off by a cheer that rippled through the crowd. "—for bandages… as well as Aplexia!" He swallowed with a great effort as another deafening cheer erupted, a cheer that showed that Mulan had all of District 2's support behind her.

Pocahontas silently rattled off every cuss-word she knew as she gingerly set Mulan's head down. The poor girl kept muttering and twitching like she was having a nightmare, but Pocahontas didn't dare wake her up in fear that being conscious would be more painful. She ripped a thin strip of cloth off the rim of her dress and wrapped it around Mulan's torso, hoping that it would stem the bleeding, only to watch in horror as the cloth almost immediately soaked through with blood. Gulping, she reached over to grab the blanket, and wrapped it tight around Mulan. Pocahontas swallowed the cry that threatened to escape her as she stepped outside of the cave and picked up the bow and arrows. Might as well get some food, she thought dejectedly. A little moan came from the cave, and Pocahontas turned around. Her heart throbbed painfully at the thought of Mulan dying while she was away, cold, in pain, and alone. Please let an angel come, she thought, not for the first time since the Games had started.

Although this time, it wasn't so sarcastic.

As night fell upon the arena, Elsa gazed out of a window in one of the turrets of her castle. She looked out at the forest and snow-capped mountains, then up at the starry sky. It was beautiful, really. Despite being artificial, the sky and full moon made the castle glint in the most magical way. She heard the anthem begin to play, and watched the succession of dead princess's pictures light up the sky. At the end, a rather morbid message flashed across the sky: Three left.

Already? Elsa smiled. From the moment she had been reaped, she had known that this year's Games was going to be much shorter than past ones. With half the usual number of tributes and even fewer tributes with actual brains, Elsa had known that this was going to be easy for her. In fact, it was almost too easy. Almost as easy as building a snowman…

Wait! Don't the gamemakers always make sure everyone has a reason to return to the Cornucopia at the end? Elsa wondered. She replayed some of the awful scenarios the Gamemakers had come up with in previous years in her mind — a pack of wild dogs chasing the tributes, lightning that burned down supplies, volcanic eruptions that destroyed shelters, and countless others. Maybe they won't bother this year, she thought hopefully. There are only three of us left, they wouldn't try to hurt me now and ruin the finale. But her attempt at reassurance wouldn't chase away the nagging feeling that she was being too optimistic.

Choosing to ignore it, Elsa returned her gaze to the stars, remembering when she and Anna had done the same thing.

Anna…

Elsa wondered what Anna thought of her quick return to isolation and of her plan to use Aurora. Anna had fought so hard to make everyone believe that Elsa wasn't a monster and wouldn't use her powers for evil, and it may have been true back then. But over the past few years, Elsa could feel herself becoming more and more isolated. The people had accepted her, yes, but there was always a certain mistrust between them. Anna was always a condolence, but she was spending a lot of time with Kristoff. And Olaf was always off playing with the children in the square. Elsa had been stressed for a while now, and she had been struggling to resist the urges to just put her kingdom and her old life in the past and leave. And now? Now, she was participating in the Hunger Games, impatiently waiting for the deaths of her fellow tributes like they weren't living, breathing, beings with families.

Like they weren't someone else's little sister.

Elsa had tried hard to keep the promise she'd made to Anna; she wouldn't kill everyone the second the Games started. She would only kill as many people as needed to return home. But now there were only three of them left, so surely she could make a move, right?

Elsa slept fitfully that night.

Well, at least until she heard the terrifying sound of ice being crushed, and awoke with a start.

Pocahontas returned to the cave empty-handed. She had refused to look up at the faces if the victors as they flashed ominously across the sky, but she did stop, just outside the mouth of the cave, to gaze up at the sky as two solemn words flashed across the sky: Three left. And soon to be two, she thought miserably, her thoughts returning to Mulan, lying down in the cave and barely managing to cling onto the last threads of life in her body. Pocahontas turned and pressed her forehead to the rough stone of the mountain and sobbed quietly into her hands. It was all too much.

And with her eyes closed, she didn't notice the giant fireball that went streaking across the sky in the direction of Elsa's ice castle.

"Ahhhh!" Elsa shrieked as she scurried to look out the window. There, she saw a giant ball of fire laying in the wreckage of the left wing of her castle. Elsa knew that it was impossible for the castle to burn down, but it was definitely possible for it to be knocked down, so she had to get out, fast. Screaming in fury, she turned and ran down the stairs, almost reaching the door when another fireball blasted her backwards. The fireball smashed into the wall and rolled until it came to a stop in the wreckage, casting eerie red and orange light on the blue-purple ice. The castle started to fill with smoke, and coughing, Elsa staggered through the hole in the wall, but not before a third fireball crashed into the wall behind her, sending shards of ice flying in her direction. Elsa felt one particularly sharp piece rip open the skin at back of her leg as she escaped into the woods. When she could go no further on her injured leg, she collapsed to the ground, hot tears streaming down her face. She created an ice bubble around her leg to help catch some of the blood that was flowing down it. How ironic, she thought bitterly, that I should be injured with the very element that has always been my greatest source of power.

And for the first time in forever, Elsa wondered if she really could be defeated.

Whoosh! Pocahontas glanced up sharply as a flaming ball of fire streaked across the sky. She turned her attention to Elsa's castle, noticing for the first time that it had been attacked by a giant fireball and another one was currently making its way there as well. She watched in awe as it crashed into the glistening ice castle, illuminating the sky. Pocahontas smiled inwardly. Then, she finished watching Elsa's castle be destroyed by three big balls.

The next two days crawled by. Pocahontas had successfully killed two squirrels (two!), then fed almost all of the squirrel meat to Mulan. Elsa scrounged around the woods, killing animals with quick shots to the heart. And Shang fought unrelentingly with the Capitol to send in the supplies he had purchased.

"What do you mean, it's unfair? We paid for this to go to Mulan and it will." Shang fought to keep his voice under control.

"I'm truly sorry, sir," said the peppy receptionist, not sounding sorry at all. "But the higher-ups don't approve of sending in this drug."

This lady was getting really annoying. She wore too much makeup, wore a shirt like it was a dress, and she had needed help opening 'Safari' on her computer. She had no idea what she was doing, and nothing annoyed Shang more.

"Fine!" he said. But then an idea came to him.

"What if you put this at the Cornucopia?" he asked, trying not to sound too desperate.

"Hmmm…" the lady said. She sat there contemplating.

About a minute later, Shang asked, "Um, could you check with your boss, please?"

"Oh, of course! I'll be right back!"

"All right!" Caesar Flickerman's voice boomed out over the arena. "It's that time! As I'm sure you know, I'm here to offer you the chance to get something you desperately need. And this year, we have supplies and much-needed medicine awaiting you! So, with open arms, I invite you to the Cornucopia at sundown!"

"Medicine?" Pocahontas's eyes lit up as she looked at Mulan. The girl was sickly pale and shuddered with every shallow breath she took. A chance to redeem myself, Pocahontas thought eagerly. For the past two days, she had attended to Mulan, using water to cool her down and fire to keep her warm and trying to stop any signs of infection that appeared in Mulan's wound. Getting up, she was stopped by the soft touch of a callused hand.

"Don't go." Mulan said, pleading with her eyes. "I'll die anyway."

Pocahontas felt a pang in her chest. "You don't know that." she said. "There's still hope, and as long as there's hope, I'm going," she said firmly. Pocahontas grabbed the bow and arrows and headed off towards the woods.

Pocahontas had gotten considerably better at shooting, and could actually hit her intended targets now, but she knew that she'd have to grab that medicine first, or Elsa would take it. She reached the Cornucopia faster than she wanted to, so she crouched behind a clump of bushes and watched the sun sink lower into the sky, until finally it was dark and a table lifted up out of the ground.

Elsa saw the big backpack with her name clearly sewn into it next to the smaller pack that her fellow tributes desperately needed. She crouched, ready for Pocahontas to make the first move.

And, like Elsa knew she would, she did.

Pocahontas sprinted to the pack as soon as the table stopped rising. She picked it up and sprinted back in the direction of the mountains. She was surprised that Elsa hadn't shot at her yet.

Whoosh!

There it was. But Pocahontas had anticipated the shot, and she started to run in a zig-zagged path. Then, after keeping that up for almost a minute while Elsa pursued her, she felt the first ball of ice on the back of her thigh. Pocahontas gasped. The pain from the ice was unlike any she had ever felt. It consumed her leg, and she could feel an extremely sharp pain and a numbing ache, both at the same time. Nonetheless, Pocahontas kept going. When she began to run out of breath, she loaded an arrow with shaking hands, stopped, and turned. As expected, Elsa stopped as well and held out her hand, preparing to shoot. A second later, Pocahontas felt a ball of ice hit her shoulder. However, she had already fired an arrow before the ice had hit her… right at Elsa's shooting hand.

The arrow made it's mark, and Elsa screamed in agony, crumpling to the ground.

Pocahontas had counted on Elsa not being used to being the one in pain, and she turned and ran, putting a good minute between them. She sped up, running faster than she ever had, and finally reached a clearing at the foot of the mountain where the mouth of the cave was visible. Pocahontas fumbled with the pack, her hands turning blue as she did due to the wound on her shoulder. She tied the strap of the pack around an arrow and fired it into the cave.

She hoped it didn't hit Mulan.

Then, hearing Elsa's uneven footsteps approaching, she spun around and headed off along the edge of the mountain. She prayed that Elsa had not seen her shoot the pack into the cave.

But above all, she hoped that when Elsa killed her, she made it quick.

Elsa slowed after half an hour of pursuit, then came to a full stop. She could no longer shoot ice from her injured hand. She fell to her knees, sobbing. No ice powers!

Who was she without them?

Pocahontas. It was all her fault!

It was impossible to describe the dueling feelings inside of Elsa right now. She felt hopeless. Completely and utterly hopeless. She had been so close to going home, seeing Anna and Olaf and all of her people. She had had so much confidence coming into the Games — she had a huge advantage over her opponents after all. But now the thing that made her unique was rendered useless and it was likely she would never make it home. She could not help but feel a burning sense of fury, directed at Pocahontas, for squashing that confidence she had felt. She would make her pay for what she had done.

Feeling new resolve, Elsa got up and started searching for food, vowing to direct all her anger and fury at Pocahontas.

Poor girl won't know what hit her.

Mulan saw a blur shoot over her head. She limply reached her fingers out towards the mysterious object. She summoned all of her remaining energy to heave herself so that she was within six inches of the package, and weakly dragged it towards her.

Her fingers, slippery with her own blood, struggled to open the bag. She fumbled with the zipper as she forced her eyes to stay open.

Hold on, she could hear Shang's voice in her head. Hold on. Mulan jerked open the zipper…

… and found nothing.

"Would you care to explain the meaning of this?!" Shang yelled at the Head Gamemaker, Mr. Ratcliffe, as his anger and panic combined to lose all of his self control. He had been the one to travel to the Capitol to purchase Mulan's gift, and had been allowed to watch the live feed of the Games in the Capitol Theatre alongside Mr. Ratcliffe. Shang, initially, had been surprised at the privilege, but now he understood that Mr. Ratcliffe had only wanted to witness his reaction in person.

"Good afternoon to you too, mister Li Shang," Mr. Ratcliffe replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I see that you are back to your old cheerful self."

"This is cheating!" Shang yelled, ignoring his comment. "This is corruption!"

"How, may I ask?"

"You know very well exactly what I am talking about!" Shang spat. "We bought it! We bought the Aplexia! We even put up with your stupid, fucking ways and put it in the Cornucopia instead of delivering it straight to her, and as it turns out you didn't even put it at the Cornucopia like you promised!"

"Oh, but I did," Mr. Ratcliffe said with a sly smile. "Just not in her bag." There was a moment's silence.

"You," Shang began.

"Oh, yes."

"So you mean that—"

"I mean that Elsa currently has a backpack with bandages and the Aplexia in it, and Mulan has the pack with Elsa's 'gift' in it, which is the lovely element of oxygen, since her sponsors didn't send her anything."

Shang stood up angrily and stalked out of the building, using up all of his remaining self control to stop himself from punching Mr. Ratcliffe in the face.

Think, he forced himself. What would Mulan do?

At those words, a lightbulb went off in his brain, and Shang ran as fast as he could back to the sponsor center.

"I'd like to buy a gift, please," Shang said, holding onto the leftover money after buying the Aplexia.

"How much money do you have?" the lady at the desk inquired.

"Twenty thousand."

"What do you want to buy? You have enough for everything except medicine."

Pocahontas started to climb back up the mountain, worried that Elsa would be pursuing her and that Mulan would be needing her. She heard something move behind her and immediately turned around, but in her haste, she tripped over a twig and face-planted onto the ground. Pocahontas dropped an F-bomb as she landed on her injured arm, before scurrying to her feet, terrified to face Elsa.

An innocent silver parachute lay at her feet. Pocahontas let out a small sigh of relief along with an awkward laugh.

Getting herself together, Pocahontas picked up the parachute, fingering it gently as she did. Since the fabric had patterns of swords on it, she could tell that it had come from District 2. She allowed herself a small smile. She had initially been afraid that Mulan's entire district would loathe her because of what her presence had prompted Mulan to do, and injure herself while doing so, but even if she could do nothing about her ally's state, at least her ally's district accepted her as, in a way, a friend.

Taking a deep breath, Pocahontas turned the parachute over.

"Huh?" she said aloud, confused. In her hands was a small, circular metal object. Inside was a small arrow, centered on a circle with the letters "N", "S", "E" and "W" written on it. As much as it confused her, the object seemed familiar. Pocahontas racked her brain. There was no way the tiny circle could be food or medicine, and unless it was designed to be of some hidden lethal use, it was definitely not a weapon. She stared at the object in her palm for a few more seconds, when suddenly it occurred to her.

"Wait a second!" she exclaimed out loud in her 'eureka' moment, not caring that she was talking to herself. She had seen one of these before. She closed her eyes, recalling her days back in her village when white settlers had invaded their land and almost waged war upon her people.

Pocahontas opened her eyes in a flash. She remembered now. It was the spinning arrow from her dreams, the one John Smith had told her was called a compass.

Pocahontas looked down at the compass, fingering it tightly at the memory of John. As always, its arrow was pointing north, in the direction she had just come from.

Am I supposed to follow the arrow, the same way I did before? she thought, even more confusion settling in. Isn't that where Elsa is?

Pocahontas figured that District 2 wouldn't have wanted her to get hurt, or worse, killed, especially since Mulan desperately needed her right now. But what if they hadn't intended for her to follow the arrow? But then again, why would they have sent her a compass if that weren't the case?

Maybe there's something going on that I don't know about, Pocahontas thought. Maybe Mulan needs me to go north.

Mulan…

An image of her weakened ally flashed into her mind, and Pocahontas knew what she had to do.

Pocahontas started at a walk, which soon became a jog, and within seconds it turned into a full-on sprint northwards, towards Elsa.