As the frozen platform approached its destination at a glacier pace, Anna had to keep lifting her feet up one at a time in order to keep them from getting too chilly, being extra careful not to slip off as she did so. Unlike her sister, the cold definitely bothered her, and she couldn't help but feel the slightest hint of relief when she was able to step off the elevator and onto the top of the prison's walls. This reprieve from her anxiety was extremely short lived, however, as there really wasn't much room for her and Merida to move around at all, with a garden of barbed wire dominating the scenery around them.
"It's kind of cute how they think this is enough to keep us inside." Merida intentionally pricked her finger on one of the sharp tips, releasing a tiny trickle of blood. "It ain't like a few cuts are going to deter someone desperate enough to git out of here."
"Yeah, well, escaping doesn't do a girl much good if she bleeds to death doing so." Anna was folding her arms to keep warm, as even without her bare feet stuck on the snow anymore, it had become a rather cool night.
"Oh, are ya ever not a party pooper! Can't ya look on the bright side fer a change? I bet ya thought we'd be two stiffs by now, but thanks to me brilliance, we're about to be home free."
"You didn't have to do that to Elsa!" Anna couldn't help herself from speaking out, not after the excessive cruelty she had just been an unwilling part of. "I never would have consented to this deal if I had known you would do that!"
"Oh, yes ye would have. Or did ya forget about yer lovebird Rapunzel?"
"She's not my...she's not anything like that to me." Anna let her arms down as her shoulder wound was starting to upset her again, the pain suddenly so blistering that she had to bite her lip to suppress a yell.
"Girlfriend, best mate, it's all the same thing, lass. Point is, ye would still be helping me arse out right now even if I had murdered yer sister."
"And what if my sister is right? What if your father has deserted you, and we're both just stuck up her like sitting duckies?"
"Ya shut up! Dat was just hot air coming out of yer sister's windpipes, ya hear me? She don't know nothing about me father, and neither do you!"
Anna decided it would be best to stop tempting fate and shut her mouth. Merida was still carrying a lethal weapon, after all, and appeared to rapidly becoming extremely distracted. She began pacing around, the untied laces on her stolen boots flopping around with each step, her head tilted upwards as though waiting for God to answer an unholy prayer.
Anna looked at the sky herself, not to seek out the alleged helicopter, but because it dawned to her that this was the first time she had seen the stars since her arrival at Frozen Heart. As a little girl, she had genuinely believed that you could actually scoop them up if you got close enough to them, and now she felt like they really might be within her reach despite being billions of miles away. What if she actually could leave prison? What would she do with her life?
She didn't let herself dwell on these questions for long. Even if they were to by some miracle pull off this insane escape, what would happen then? How long could two wanted murderers seriously be expected to last while on the lamb? The answer was obvious: it would be impossible to maintain their freedom for more than a few days before they were inevitable caught again. But that would be enough time for Merida to do still more mindless killing.
And the more Anna thought about that, the more she thought about Merida pressing her foot down on Elsa's head. She thought of her helplessly laying there, her neck at the mercy of a woman who had no moral compass, and still maintaining her composure just to ensure her sister's safety. It didn't matter if Merida's father was coming to their aid or not. If no airborne escape came to their rescue, then she would just use Anna as leverage once again, threatening her until she forced Elsa to open the prison's main gate up for them so they could just stroll on out.
And she watched Merida, walking back and fourth aimlessly, seeming to hardly notice or care that Anna was even there. She kept muttering to herself, the words slurring into each other so much that she sounded like a drunk at a bar insisting that she was sober enough to drive. Anna imagined Merida fresh out of prison, walking to the road and waiting until a car was close enough for her to shoot the driver and their family just so they could have a getaway vehicle. She predicted that wouldn't be enough for Merida and that she would also shoot everyone at a gas station when the time came to fill up the tank. A never-ending trail of bodies until the law finally caught up with them. Carnage without any point outside of Merida's sick sense of humor. Lives ended for the sake of a handful of days outside of a cell.
And the more Anna thought about it, the more it wasn't worth it. She couldn't let Merida get away. She couldn't let her keep doing as she pleased simply because she could. She couldn't allow that after what she had done to Elsa, to those guards, and even to her. She couldn't forgive Merida for using Rapunzel's life as a bargaining chip, or for orchestrating the violent attack on her that cost her the ability to walk. Her arms balled up into fists with rage, and even now, Merida paid her no attention, as she was hopping up and down with anxiety waiting for something that Anna now knew was never going to happen. She then resumed her wandering around, her laces still flopping around with each step she took.
Anna's mind went to poor Rapunzel, stuck in a detention center for the physically disabled. She wondered if it was worth risking her friend's safety for what she was about to do. But she couldn't chance it. She had to make sure that Merida wouldn't hurt anyone ever again.
Before she could stop herself, she lunged forward, stomping her foot down on one of Merida's loose shoelaces and tripping the lifer in the process.
"AUUGHHH!" Merida dropped the gun, flailing her arms around desperately as she tried to regain her balance. Anna seized the opportunity and slammed her body into her torso, grabbing her by the hair and shoving her chest into the barbed wire.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YA DOING?!" The bleeding prisoner was violently squirming around to break herself free, but Anna had other plans.
"Time to go and visit your mother!" And with one shove, she pushed Merida over the edge. Anna was able to get a fleeting look at the unspeakable terror in her eyes as she realized what was about to happen.
"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Merida's screams filled the sky as she plunged to the ground far, far below...where Elsa's icy spikes were waiting to greet her.
Anna collapsed to her knees. She wanted to look down at the body (or what was left of it), but her vision suddenly started to fog up and her mind felt incredibly fuzzy. The gunshot wound was taking its toll now that all of the madness had ended, and she became incredibly weak. She laid down, staring at the heavens above her that she would never enter as she lost all consciousness.