As they stepped through Julian's portal, Anna let loose a sigh of relief. Who would thought that a simple trip to attend the wedding of their friends Hiccup and Astrid, accompanied by their new friends Asami and Avatar Korra, would have led them to a brief reunion with their gargoyle friend Brooklyn, a desperate escape from an empire made up of broken worlds and ruled by a powerful and sadistic tyrant, and defending a school/orphanage of peculiarly gifted children from unseen monsters that wanted to eat them. Of course it was a shock to both her and Elsa that there was someone who even Julian was afraid of, let alone that this person would end up capturing and torturing her, but in the months since Julian had entered their lives she and Elsa had seen and experienced so much more than the years prior combined that Anna felt like they shouldn't have too surprised by that point. They even had their own dragons now, something that they didn't even imagine prior to their parents' return after being lost at sea, and since they had dropped Asami and Korra off during their brief stop at Republic City not long ago Anna was looking forward to literally blazing her way to Thunderhead's nest and giving him a big hug.
Due to the improvements Julian had made to her technique she was able to form her portals in mid-air using the moisture in the air, no longer dependent on running water. It was challenging to think of Julian as a woman since when she first entered their lives she was a man. However, because some timey-wimey disruption had inflicted this apparently permanent change on Julian, and since the three of them were apparently the only ones who remembered their first meeting that way, Anna figured that she might as well try to get used to it.
The moment Anna stepped clear of the portal she realized that something was wrong. Even when it was winter the castle was still nice and warm inside. However, even though it looked like Julian's portal had let them out into the hallway of the upper level of their castle it was so cold here that Anna had to use her power to go full human torch just to avoid end up a shivering, teeth-chartering mess. Thankfully much like Elsa and the cold, the heat from Anna's flames didn't harm her, and she had learned enough control that she could sheath herself in them like this without even singeing the hem of her dress, the latter she was most grateful for since she hasn't learned how to use her power to rebuild any part that burns away the way Elsa has and she was sure she would end up wishing she could reduce herself to ash just to escape that humiliating situation.
Still it was more than the extreme cold that was giving Anna the chills: the way the giant icicles hung down from the walls and ceiling, filling the corridor and making it nigh on impassable, filled her with a sense of recognition that she couldn't put a finger on that just made her feel all the more uneasy. Then Elsa, who had exited the portal behind her, wrapped her arms around herself, and in spite of her apparent resistance to the cold Elsa shivered as she said, "Julian, are you sure that you have brought back to the right moment?"
Julian, who had reached though the portal to pull out of it a heavy cloak before it closed, proceeded to drape it over Elsa, her hands lingering on Elsa's shoulders longer than necessary as she said, "I thought so, but nothing feels right around here. I'm thinking that Ming's torturers have done more damage to me than I initially thought."
Elsa's and Julian's words confirmed what Anna was feeling: the reason why this all seemed familiar to her was because she in truth had been here before. In fact hallway was the one where the room Hans had locked her up in to freeze to death (at least such was his intention) while he led the guards to execute Elsa for her "murder".
However, things here weren't exactly the same as Anna had remembered them from back then. For starters, while the hall was filled with icicles the window she and Olaf had broken out to escape the castle was still intact and closed. Then, when Anna looked into the room Hans had locked her in back then she was shocked to see Hans still in there, frozen in position with a dagger raised. Who had frozen him there, and why did he have a dagger? She never saw him with it, and when he attacked Elsa he used his sword. None of it made sense.
As she was trying to figure out what it all meant Anna heard a sound towards the end of the hallway. When she looked Anna saw the most distressing sight yet: Kristoff, standing next to the door leading to the next wing, frozen. The possibility that this was not her Kristoff didn't even cross her mind as Anna ran straight for him, her panic causing her flames to burn so hot that the icicles in her path melted away before she was in arms reach of them. When she reached Kristoff the ice that surrounded him had melted, and Anna's relief at seeing him still alive caused her flames to die back down to a thin sheath around herself.
As Kristoff caught his breath his eyes settled on Anna, and looking as confused as she felt Kristoff asked, "Anna? Is it you, I mean is it really you?"
"It is, but it isn't: it's complicated, but basically I'm Anna just not likely the Anna you know," Anna explained to him, "Why are you have, Kristoff? Who did this to you?"
"Uh, you did," Kristoff told her, "or rather someone who looks like you did."
What Kristoff was saying didn't make sense but Anna was saved from coming up with a response when Elsa approached them, Julian a half-step behind, and her sister asked, "Wait, you're saying that Anna froze you and Hans, not me?"
Kristoff turned his attention to Elsa, and after a couple of blinks he said, "I don't know about Hans, Your Highness, but after I brought Anna back here and returned to the forest Sven convinced me to come back. When I got up here Anna's hair was mostly white like it was when I left her, but her eyes... they were blue like ice, and her smile had no warmth, and in that moment I knew that I had gotten back too late and her heart had frozen. I was shocked still, and when Anna approached me she froze me where I stood, saying that it wasn't personal but she didn't want me to get in her way."
"That doesn't make any sense," Anna said, "I never had that kind of power. Back then the only thing that happened when my heart froze was that I was frozen into a statue."
"And you froze Hans's sword," Elsa added, "shattering it with such force that Hans was knocked out for a bit."
"But that was your power, not mine!" Anna countered to Elsa before turning towards Julian and asking, "Wasn't it?"
"Initially, yes, but I made it clear back when we first met that you had potential," Julian clarified, "Perhaps the difference between you and her is that you fought against the changes happening to you, fought to stay human and alive, while she embraced them. Maybe she had no reason remaining to stay human."
If Anna was going purely by her own history then this would make sense. However, going on the assumption that she had been held in the same room Anna understood that her variant had already dealt with Hans before she encountered Kristoph in the hall, so if it wasn't Hans that she was after then who else... "Elsa!" Anna then turned towards the nearest window and crashed through it into the snow that she knew would be piled up outside.
"Anna, what's wrong?" asked Elsa, who had followed her out along with Julian and, apparently, this world's Kristoff.
"Anna's after Elsa," Anna called out as she charged through the blizzard, her cone of flames keeping her from becoming entirely snow-blind, "If she's feeling anything like what I felt then she's currently lost, feeling hurt, abandoned and betrayed, and she's totally given up on love, sisterly or otherwise. I might have too were it not for Olaf, but he probably didn't get a chance to free her from the room before she got out on her own, so now she's going to confront Elsa. I don't know what she's going to do exactly, but judging by Hans and Kristoff it's probably not going to be good."
Anna continued to charge towards the only definable shapes that were not parts of mostly buried ships, and it wasn't long before she saw this world's Anna and Elsa. Anna barely recognized her variant as she had never seen herself when her hair was as white as Elsa's, but the other Elsa was a mirror of her own, much like the one they had encountered before leaving Storybrook. It wasn't possible to hear what was being said from this distance with the wind, but Elsa seemed to be pleading with her sister while Anna was yelling at her. It wasn't long before the pair of them were unleashing ice blasts at each other, the clash of energies causing Anna to lose sight of them for a moment. When it cleared, the blizzard dying down as well, Anna was shocked to see Elsa standing stock still, a frozen statue, as the other Anna simply walked away.
"How... How could you?!?" Anna found herself yelling, her surrounding flames shooting up over twice her height like a flare. She knew that it wasn't her Elsa that she saw frozen before her, but her heart reacted like it was. For the first time Anna felt like she could relate with how Elsa felt when she saw her frozen, and the fact that someone with her face did this deliberately to their sister and doesn't even seem to care was especially shocking to Anna.
Unfortunately, with the blizzard winds no longer blowing and Anna's voice carried perfectly, as the other Anna turned towards her and glared as she asked, "Who are you supposed to be?"
Anna, still upset with her, retorted, "Who do you think!?" as she formed a fireball in her hand and hurled it at her double. It soared just past the other Anna's ear and landed harmlessly in the ice where it bored a hole, and Anna's double gave her a smile that would send chills up the spine of even the hardiest of heroes like Thor as she said, "Interesting. Sounds like fun, I'll play with you a bit, sure!"
Anna's variant started gathering ice power in her hand as Anna prepared for a larger fire blast, but before they could engage Anna felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked over to see Elsa giving her a comforting smile as she glanced quickly at the other Elsa and said, "Why don't you let me entertain her for a while? There's something more important that you should be taking care of."
Anna felt very concerned quite suddenly, and she looked into Elsa's eyes as she pleaded, "Elsa, no! You can't! Didn't you just see what she did to her Elsa?"
"I'd listen to her if I were you," the other Anna said in agreement, "You should walk away while I'm feeling generous, and take her with you."
"Give us a moment," Elsa said curtly to the other Anna before turning to her sister and saying, "Yes, I saw. However, I doubt that she had yet trained with a thousand-year old gargoyle well versed in sorcery, nor a 112 year old master of the elements and his mentors. That Elsa surely hadn't defended several other lands against invasion, and I'm certain that she hadn't tamed herself a dragon. Most importantly I'm convinced that my other had held back because she didn't really want to hurt her sister. While I don't intend to hurt her either I also don't intend to hold back and let her hurt you."
"But we'll stand a better chance of stopping her if we work together," Anna argued.
"But we can't," Elsa said aloud as she hugged Anna, then soft as a whisper into Anna's ear Elsa said, "Look, I think that the other Elsa can be saved. Your other had struck her with a wide blast, overwhelming the focused blast my mirror used. I think that made the blast miss her heart and that you can thaw her out with your flames, but her sister is not going to stand by and let it happen unless she's fully distracted. She's likely to be wary of me heading towards her sister as she, like you, reasons that I can get rid of this ice and snow, so it has to be you."
Anna could see that Elsa had a point, but she shook her head and said, "She's too dangerous for you to face alone."
"But she's not alone," Julian said as sparks of electricity arched between the splayed fingers of her raised hand, "So long as there's breath in me I swear I won't let any harm befall her."
"I'll hold you to that," Anna said with a fierce look of warning, then her gaze softened as she looked back and forth between Julian and Elsa and said, "Just please be careful, both of you."
"We will. Now go!" Elsa told her sister, who whirled around and took off towards the other Elsa without another word or looking back. Elsa then focused back on the other Anna, and with a fierce grin she asked, "So, 'Anna', do you want to build a snowman?"
Returning the fierce smile, the other Anna replied, "Why 'Elsa', I never thought you'd ask." And once more the peace of the frozen fjord was disrupted by the crack of lightning and the clashing of opposing Arctic fronts.
Anna raced across the ice, feeling somewhat amazed that she hadn't started to slip and fall yet. Still Anna knew better than to look a gift stroke of luck in the mouth, especially with time being the essence. Even if she believed that Elsa would win her fight without fail, and after seeing what her mirror opposite was capable of Anna couldn't help but fear that her sister might lose, there was the possibility that something could go wrong simply because the fight stretched out too long. Maybe either Elsa or Julian might make a mistake that leaves them vulnerable and the other would get hurt or worse trying to protect them, though the scenario that was even more likely is that while running interference they might get pushed against the wall enough that they conclude that it's not worth risking their lives to try and keep the other Anna alive, in which case her sister might consider it a blessing if she was to remain frozen. Of course there was also the possibility that her taking too long to get to the other Elsa would essentially result in her simply defrosting a corpse, but that was all the more reason for Anna to get to her quickly.
In what seemed like far too long but in reality was perhaps less than a minute Anna got to where the other Elsa was frozen in a position that would have been painful to hold were she still flesh and blood, which is probably one reason why Anna never took up ballet. However, what Anna had to do now was likely infinitely harder than holding the pose that this Elsa was in. Anna knew from her lessons, as well as the free reading that she did when she was especially bored, that if she warmed this Elsa up too quickly that the expansion could cause her to break and shatter, something which would kill her as surely as if she was a gargoyle in her stone sleep. Of course by the same token Anna couldn't take too long to warm her sister's double up or she'd end up just as dead. So what Anna had to pull off was to create an environment in the middle of this unseasonably cold weather where this Elsa could warm up evenly and slowly but not too slowly, all while warding off any stray ice blasts that might come her way and making sure to not melt a hole in the ice beneath their feet, so no pressure.
Surrounding the two of them with a cone of flames, Anna made sure to keep it a couple of feet above the surface of the fjord. This not only allowed the cold air to refreeze what part of the fjord had melted but it also helped to regulate the temperature within, which once Anna had shed her fire-suit she'd determined was just below a comfortable room temperature. At first Anna thought that she had the temperature too low that reviving this Elsa was just a pipe dream.Then the ice cracked and flaked off Elsa's mouth, revealing a somewhat pale yet more natural skin tone as it worked to draw in breath. The cracks then spread further and even more ice flaked off, reminding Anna even more strongly of the gargoyles' awakening at sundown, until her sister's double was free from her icy shell and Anna had to catch her to keep her from falling backwards onto the ice.
For a moment Anna just stood there, looking into the apparently sleeping face of someone who looked so much like her sister that she was struggling to convince herself that she wasn't. Then the other Elsa's eyes fluttered open and blinked a couple of times to focus, then her lips tugged up into a smile and a familiar voice in a hopeful tone asked, "Anna? Is that you?"
"Not exactly," Anna told her, deciding it would be better to be honest with her from the start.
"What do you mean?" the other Elsa asked, looking confused as she got her feet back under her.
"Well it's kinda complicated, but to sum it up..." Anna explained to her, then with a wave of her hand she thinned the cone of flames so that the other Elsa could see through them to the battle taking place between Elsa, Julian and the other Anna, saying, "Over there is your Anna."
For a moment Elsa's double just silently watched as the conflict raged on the frozen battlefield. Anna was sure that this other Elsa had many conflicting thoughts and feelings watching the sister she was so fond of viciously unleashing icy attacks against someone who looked just like her. Eventually this Elsa sighed and said dejectedly, "So it wasn't a dream. I lost her, the Anna I loved is gone."
Anna realized that the smart and easy thing to do would be to confirm that her Anna was lost to her. Then the three, and possibly four, of them could work together to take her down as she has grown far too dangerous for any one of them to handle alone. However, just as soon as the thought occurred to Anna she immediately rejected it. If Anna had been interested in the easier path then she would not have pursued Elsa when she fled up to the North Mountain and had the guards go after her instead. She would have went to Kristoff to save her from the ice taking her over instead of throwing herself in between her sister Elsa and Hans's blade looking to claim her life. She wouldn't have chased the pirates who kidnapped her sister all the way to Pixie Hallow. And when Elsa had suffered life-threatening burns Anna certainly wouldn't have offered to be the catalyst to a spell that would save her sister's life, and yet she did just that. That's because family means so much more to her than taking the easy route, more even than her own life.
"Not necessarily," Anna told this Elsa, who looked at her in surprise, "Your sister might be acting this way because her heart is frozen, so she's not feeling things the way she normally would. If we can remove the ice from her heart then she should go back to the way she used to be more or less."
"And do you know how to do that?" this Elsa asked, looking a bit more hopeful.
"Only what the trolls told me," Anna explained to her, "Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart."
"An act of true love?" this Elsa asked.
"It worked for me," Anna confirmed, "Now that you're okay I need to go and help my sister and her girlfriend, and we'll find a way to help your sister too." Anna then back to where her sister and Julian were fighting the other Anna, leaving behind the other Elsa who was murmuring, "Love... will thaw."
Elsa and Julian were catching their breaths while huddled behind Elsa's shield of ice, which she was using for both protection and support. "This Anna may not have much in the way of technique yet," Elsa gasped, "but she's got energy for days."
"Thanks," the other Anna said with a smile that was not so friendly, "Being cooped up in the castle for over 10 years left me a lot of pent up energy, and now I finally have a chance to cut loose!"
The other Anna reared back with an ice blast, but just as it left her hand it was intercepted by a fireball where they both exploded into a thick hazy cloud, and when they looked where it came from Elsa saw her sister jogging towards them with a smile, saying, "I'm back! Hope I didn't miss all the fun."
"Anna!" Elsa cried out, though whether she was glad to see her sister returning or anxious because she hoped she would stay away longer even Elsa wasn't sure, "Does this mean...?"
"Everything's good now, so I came back to stretch my legs before we head on home," Anna answered her, keeping her response cryptic enough that her mirror didn't pick up on what (or rather who) she was speaking about yet her sister would understand.
Well I'm glad you came back," The other Anna chimed in, "Your sister certainly held out longer than mine, so maybe there was something to that additional experience of hers. However, I found the fight to be a bit one note and boring, so I'm hoping that you can spice it up a bit."
Anna gave her double a smile as she said, "I've been trained by the Evil Queen and the Wicked Witch of the West, so bring it!"
It looked to Anna that her mirror opposite did indeed intend to bring it, so even with her heart frozen she must have been as much of a hot head as Anna herself was, but that suited Anna just fine. If they can get this Anna to exhaust her energies by goading her into attacking then perhaps Julian can come up with some clever means of drawing the ice out of her heart.
Before the conflict could start anew, however, a familiar voice cut through the Arctic air calling out, "Anna, stop!" Because this voice came from behind her Anna felt like she knew who it was, and indeed when she glanced over her shoulder it was indeed this world's Elsa. However, while Anna had hoped that she would come along to talk down her sister Anna had hoped they'd have more time to wear her sister down beforehand.
Of course it was rather obvious to Anna why her other wouldn't have expected her sister to show up here, so it was no surprise when she narrowed her eyes and said, "Elsa?"
"Look, I know that you're upset with me, and you have every right to be," the other Elsa said to her sister, "When I was isolating myself I was trying to protect you, but I realize that I could have handled it better. After we lost our parents I could have explained it to you once we both had time to grieve, or when you climbed North Mountain to get me I could have told you then, but I didn't and for that I'm sorry. But our people shouldn't suffer for my mistakes, and you had come after me because you thought that I could stop this freeze. While I'm not confident I can do it on my own, perhaps together..."
But it soon became clear that the other Anna wasn't listening too closely to her sister, as after looking thoughtful for a moment she locked her furious glare on her firey counterpart and yelled, "You! You did this, didn't you you firebrand!? You ruined everything you stupid... meddlesome... IMPOSTER!!"
With that outburst the other Anna cast a focused, narrow ice blast straight at her, and Anna could tell that this was intended to be a killing blow. However Anna wasn't concerned as she had developed a move using Hiccup and his shield as inspiration that she was sure could ward it off. Anna's confidence soon turned to shock and despair when, as she was bracing herself to block the attack, it was instead intercepted by Elsa who had dived across her field of vision and took the blast square in the chest. Her breathing started up again when she heard the sound of the ice shield being dropped and shattering and a pair of footfalls, including her sister's, rapidly closing in on her, but knowing that this was this world's Elsa didn't make it any more pleasant seeing her sprawled out on the ice, frost spreading across her face and arms like a sped-up reenactment of what Anna herself went through in what seems like a lifetime ago.
Even more shocking, however, was the reaction of this world's Anna. Given how she had already attacked and frozen her sister once already Anna didn't expect to see her counterpart's face fall into despair at seeing her sister the unintentional victim of her latest attack. Nor had she expected to see her mirror race across the ice, outpacing Julian and her own Elsa, and put her sister's head in her lap before the others could catch up. That Anna tearfully called out her sister's name and stroking her hair, fretting over the frost increasingly covering more of her sister's face and arms and paying no heed to her own hair returning to its strawberry-blonde shade nor the frost receding and vanishing from her own body. Eventually the other Elsa's eyes fluttered open, her lips curled up into a smile as she reached up to cup her sister's face and in a weak voice say, "There's my sister! I was so afraid that I would never be able to see you again, but I'm so glad that it worked. I'm very grateful that I can see you one last time."
"No! don't say that!" Anna tearfully protested, "Why would you do that!?"
"I couldn't let you hurt them and end up regretting it for the rest of your life," the other Elsa replied with a kind smile, her voice growing weaker, "I love you too much to let you become someone that you're not."
Anna heard a stirring in the still air and looked up to see the people previously frozen there were moving there, likely because it had been their princess who had froze them and not their queen or anything else. Some seemed to be sympathizing with princess's pain while others condemned her, largely the Duke of Weselton and his men, but this world's Anna didn't heed any of them as she lowered her head into her sister's shoulder and sobbed, "I'm sorry Elsa, I'm so sorry!"
"I'm sorry too. I'm sorry that I shut myself away for all those years. I'm sorry that I kept to myself and made you feel for even one moment that I didn't love you. And I'm sorry that I won't be there for you when you find your soulmate, I won't get to hear you yelling at me that I spoiled your children rotten, and that we won't get to sit and watch the sunset together as we tell our grandchildren tales from our youth," this world's Elsa told her sister as she stroked her back soothingly, then she pushed her up by the shoulders to look her in the eyes and say, "But you need to be strong now, our people are going to need you now more than ever."
"No Elsa, I can't!" that Anna disagreed tears streaming as she pulled one of her sister's hands up to her face, "I can't do this without you!"
"Yes, you can," that Elsa retorted, her voice barely a whisper as she raised her other hand to gently cup her sister's face between them, "You're so much stronger than me in so many ways, and much more compassionate, so I know that you'll be a great queen. You'll be fine, so don't worry about me: the cold never bothered me anyw..." The rest of she was saying got cut off as her transformation into an ice sculpture was completed, a peaceful smile on her face.
At this Anna's other completely fell apart, collapsing on top of her sister's frozen form and sobbing uncontrollably, telling her that she's sorry and that she loves her, begging her to come back and to not leave her alone. Anna then glanced over at Kristoff (which she had to remind herself wasn't her Kristoff) and saw him reach out to the other Anna like he wanted to comfort her only to drop his arm back to his side. Likely her literally freezing him out has made things awkward between them and Anna found herself hoping that they could find a way to close the distance between them again.
This brought her thoughts to her Kristoff, whom she hoped had made it back home together with Thunderhead and Aurora after she and the others were ripped away from them mid-transit and dumped on Mongo. Before that things had been awkward between the two of them as she had been reluctant to kiss him or even hold his hand as she was afraid that if she had gotten too heated emotionally that she might burn him literally. Of course since then Korra had taught her some techniques that had improved her subconscious levels of control, and even though she found herself blushing when she imagined how those techniques were developed she regardless felt confident enough to try and resume a normal relationship with Kristoff again when they returned.
Anna then looked up at the balcony to see the Duke of Weselton looking awkward. At least he wasn't trying to drum up support for the "lynch Princess Anna" movement, but Anna couldn't tell if her other's mournful cries had truly touched him or not. She recalled that back home it took his attempted invasion of Arrendale being thwarted and trade relations with Weselton resuming (in exchange for his being banished and forfeiting his title due to his aggression against the crown) for him to finally understand that the kingdom wasn't being held hostage by a "wicked witch queen", so Anna wasn't about to advocate for this one to be trusted just yet.
Anna then looked back at her other still in the throes of grief over her sister, noting that except for her position and the expression on her face that this Elsa now looks rather identical to how she had after her sister froze her the first time, making Anna wonder if she could bring her back for a second time. While Anna would have loved to bring about a happy result for those two she was acutely aware that this last time this Elsa took her sister's blast in the heart, whereas in the previous assault the possibility of that vital area being hit was in question. Her uncertainty on whether anything short of an act of true love would work caused Anna's flames to flicker, catching the attention of the other Anna who immediately latched onto her like a drowning woman as she tearfully pleaded, "You! You brought my sister back before, didn't you? Please, I beg of you, please bring her back to me again. I'll do anything, you can use me for kindling if you need to, just please save her!"
The pain and desperation in her counterpart's voice made Anna wonder if it was worth the risk to at least try, but before she could be persuaded Anna felt a hand on her shoulder and looked to see her sister smiling as she said, "That will not be necessary. Look." As they all watched in amazement the other Elsa changed back from a frozen statue into flesh and blood even faster than she had frozen moments ago, and the other Anna's joyful laugh was cut off by a hiccup as she ran over and tackled her sister with such exuberance that Anna was afraid that she might have cracked her head open on the ice or at least broken a rib. In fact the other Elsa groaned as she sat up again, blinked quickly a couple of times, then looked down at her sister still clinging to her and said, "Anna?"
"Elsa, you're alive!" the other Anna cheered, laughing, crying and hiccuping all at once, "I'm so glad!"
"I am, but how?" the other Elsa asked in confusion, checking herself over like she still couldn't believe it.
"It was your act of true love," Anna explained to them both, tossing a fireball back and forth between her hands briefly before extinguishing it for emphasis, "When you sacrificed yourself to save your sister from her own rash actions you not only thawed your sister's frozen heart you also saved yourself from your own."
"Anna put me through the same kind of scare when she threw herself between Hans's blade and myself," Elsa continued off of her sister's statement before turning her glare in Anna's direction (with only a glint in her eyes telling Anna that she was only half-joking) and saying, "By the way, I'm still looking for the ideal way to pay you back for the grey hairs that you gave me that day, so prepare yourself!"
The other Elsa looked around somewhat troubled before saying, "But everything's still frozen."
"Well you're still alive, not that dying would have likely helped matters any," Julian told her, "I heard from a certain ex-Sorcerer Supreme that removing a dead man's, or dead woman's, spell can be rather troublesome."
"But you already know what to do, don't you?" Anna added with a smile.
"Yes, I suppose that I do," the other Elsa acknowledged with her own rueful smile.
"I'm sorry, Elsa," the other Anna said, remorse heavy on her voice as she glanced back and forth between her sister and her own hands, "I really want to help, but it seems that when my frozen heart thawed my power went with it."
"I'm just grateful to have you back," the other Elsa said as she gave her sister a warm embrace, "Besides, as your firey twin kinda pointed out, in a roundabout way you already helped me figure out the key to fixing this."
"Really?" the other Anna asked in confusion as Sven trotted across the ice to join them "What was it?"
"Love!" the other Elsa said as she raised her hands, palms turned skyward, and the other Anna and Kristoff gaped in astonishment as all of the snowflakes, those hanging in mid-air as well as those piled high on the ground, quickly and gracefully rose back up into the sky. Of course Anna and Elsa had experienced this event firsthand before they had met Julian, who had witnessed it en route to Arrendale, but the spectacle was no less delightful as dangling icicles didn't melt so much as they evaporated as did the unseasonable storm clouds overhead, allowing the warm summer sun to shine on the kingdom again. Then, just like Anna remembered, before the ice they were standing on got too thin a sunken ship rose out of it to give them a stable platform rather than falling into freezing water. Finally all of the snowflakes gathered into the formation of a giant snowflake before scattering and vanishing entirely.
As the other Elsa lowered her arms her sister came up and placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "I knew you could do it." Anna was glad to see the relationship between the two sisters was back on the right track, but something still felt off to her. Of course Hans wouldn't have been there as they had left him frozen in the castle. Now it was likely that Hans had thawed out around the same time as everyone else the other Anna had frozen, but Anna doubted that either she or her counterpart would have shed a tear despite how slugging that jerk off the boat had been the highlight of her day after Olaf...
As the realization hit Anna conjured a ball of bright flames in her hand, startling everyone else present as she used it to illuminate the shadowy areas of the ship she was checking as she called out, "Where's Olaf? This query the others for a second before they too looked around for the elusive snowman... all except for Kristoff, who was rubbing the back of his neck as he responded, "Um, earlier I saw him in the castle wandering towards the kitchen. I called out to him but I don't think that he heard me, and I couldn't chase after him because I was too busy looking for you... or rather Anna."
"He probably went to make Anna some hot tea and got himself melted," the other Elsa said with a sigh, "As soon as we return to the castle I'll find him and sort him out." Anna sighed in relief, both at the realization that Olaf would be fine but also, judging by the tone of his response, that Kristoff and the other Anna would be as well. Her counterpart still sounded rather concerned, however, as she asked, "But what if you bring him back and he's not Olaf anymore?"
"You don't have to worry about that," Anna assured her, "It so happens that water contains memories no matter what form it's in. So even if Olaf's been fully reduced to a puddle, or even evaporated a bit, as long as your sister can find him she can bring him back just as he was." Anna then glanced over at Julian, who confirmed that she correctly remembered what they had been told back in Storybrook, and that answer seemed to satisfy and assure her double so Anna left it at that.
Like in her previous history, the ship they were on had drifted away from the pier before getting frozen under the ice. However, with Julian there this time around to electromagnetically control the rigging and the mooring lines they got the ship docked faster than back then. Then, once Kristoff got the gangplank lowered both Annas disembarked, followed by both Elsas and finally Julian, Kristoff and Sven. Of course the other Anna had argued that her sister should get off first since she was queen. However, it turned out that both the Elsa of this world and the one who came here with Anna and Julian were equal in their stubbornness as the other insisted that Anna be the one to proceed first, claiming that she had already pronounced her queen. Based on her own experience with her sister Anna believed that the real reason was that the other Elsa was afraid that her sister would vanish like a bubble on a needle the moment she let her out of her sight. Of course it took Elsa several weeks lighten up on her overprotective behavior, becoming tolerable and even a bit endearing not long before Julian first arrived in Arrendale, so Anna chose to just let it be.
Not long after Anna and her other had stepped off the gangplank and walked down the pier to allow their sisters to disembark as well Anna could hear the sound of rapid footfalls echoing loudly in the castle courtyard ahead, followed by a voice that Anna could tell that her other also recognized and similarly didn't care for as it said, "Stop her! Somebody stop her!" Sure enough Hans then came barreling out of the the castle's front gates, sword drawn. Anna wasn't sure if he was coming after them or if he was trying to get away before anyone found out what he tried to do, but it seemed like he hadn't seen them right away as he turned towards them and continued running as he bellowed, "The princess is even worse a monster than her...!" Finally Hans saw them and skidded to a halt, eyes bugging out of his skull. Anna could only imagine that it was his bafflement of the unusual sight before him that stayed his hand from attacking straight away as Hans said, "What the...!? There's two of you now!?"
Anna saw her other look at her and smirk as she said, "You thinking what I'm thinking?" which Anna returned as she said, "Pretty sure that I am." They then turned back towards Hans and glared as they as one said, "The only monster here is you!" Anna then drew back her right fist as her counterpart brought back her left before they simultaneously punched him in the jaw so hard he flew backwards off the pier to land on the cobblestone road behind him, his knocked-out tooth landing on his breast. Cheers then erupted from the balcony overhead as the two of them slapped each other's hands in a gesture Julian would inform her later was called a high five, something that wouldn't become commonplace for at least a hundred years later.
The other Anna then looked back up to the balcony, her face expressing her concern and regrets, and her sister came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder as she asked, "Anna, what's wrong?"
"They all saw me, what I did to them, to you" the other Anna responded softly, "I'm afraid that they won't forgive me. Maybe I shouldn't be forgiven."
"After that standing ovation I don't think that you have to worry about that too much," Anna assured her as she placed her hand on her other shoulder.
"But if they can't then we'll leave Arrendale," the other Elsa chimed in, causing her sister to look surprised as she said, "Wait, 'we'?"
"Of course," the other Elsa said with a gentle smile, "I just got my sister back, which is much more precious to me than any crown. I wasted 15 years that we could have spent together by holing up in my room, I'm not going to let a little thing like banishment rob me of any more."
"But our people..." the other Anna fussed, but her sister cut her off and said, "...will be fine. We're descended from Vikings after all, and our ancestors were said to have fought dragons, so I think that given the time they could find someone else to lead them." Anna couldn't help but grin at this, wondering how those two would react if they knew that not only were the tales true but that some of them actually tamed and rode dragons, that she and her sister had dragons of their own. As Anna's longing to get back to Thunderhead grew again she heard the other Elsa continue, "Anyway, I think that your twin has the right of it, so unless we hear otherwise we should just focus on making sure that neither Hans nor the Duke are in a position to cause us or Arrendale any more problems."
The other Anna seemed to accept that argument, and honestly it resonated with Anna herself as well. Why worry excessively about something that hasn't happened and may never? The other Anna nodded her understanding before turning to Kristoff, awkwardly gesturing towards Hans and timidly asking, "Sorry, Kristoff, but would you mind bringing him inside to the palace guards?" Kristoff gave her a lopsided grin as he roughly picked Hans up like a sack of flour and draped him backwards on Sven's back. Almost immediately Sven hit the disgraced prince with such an odious fart that Anna would have guessed that he was part skunk, but while Hans coughed and gagged for a bit he didn't rouse into consciousness.
After everyone had a laugh at Hans's expense the other Elsa took her sister's hand and started to lead the way to the castle until she realized that her sister's double and her companions weren't following, upon which she turned back to them and asked, "Um, would you guys like to join us inside?"
After glancing at her sister for confirmation Anna turned back towards them and said, "We appreciate your invitation, Your Highnesses, but we must decline. Now that your home and family is safe it's time for us to get back to ours." The other Anna then surprised everyone when she released her sister's hand and quickly embraced her double, with the other Elsa turning it into a group hug. Anna didn't know if it was wrong or narcissistic to think that it felt good to be hugged by herself, but she soon decided that she didn't care as the other Anna shed a tear and softly said, "Thank you, for everything."
Anna had trouble keeping her tears contained as she pulled back from the two of them and smiled as she said, "You're welcome."
Elsa then came up and put an arm around her sister's shoulders as she looked at the others and said, "You guys take care of each other now."
The other Elsa then retook her sister's hand as she said, "We will. Thank you."
Elsa then walked over to Julian who'd just finished forming a portal behind them over the pier, and in a gesture that was perhaps more intimate than any kiss touched her forehead to Julian's as she said, "Let's go home." As Julian smiled in response Elsa took her hand and together they walked through the portal. Anna then gave one more smiling glance and wave over her shoulder before facing the portal, and in her head she saw Kristoff's face as she softly said to herself, "Home." Anna then stepped through the glowing entrance, shortly after which the portal faded and vanished like a summer mirage.
