Later that night
Another busy day for Arendelle had ended, this one being a surprisingly productive and lucrative one for the kingdom given the current times. More trade had come into the kingdom over the last week, a decent increase from previous times as some territories outside Arendelle were wishing to continue things as they had been before. What was more, there had been some positive benefits outside the kingdom. There were some rumblings over in America and it looked as if it was going to end in fighting soon. Whilst it was not nice to think about war happening, it could not be denied that it would take some pressure off of Arendelle and allow other countries in that area to resume trade with them. With the US out of the picture, there were hopes that other countries in Europe would soon decide to grant some sort of leverage to the Norwegian kingdom, possibly rejuvenating the economy and getting everything back on track to before.
Within the castle walls, as everything turned down for the night, Anna crept out of Elsa's room and quietly shut the door, wincing a little as it creaked loudly. When she closed it, she walked down the corridor to the window at the corner where Kristoff and Olaf were waiting, the latter of who was looking outside as dark clouds gathered overhead, the storm seen earlier starting to make landfall in the bay area.
"She asleep?" Kristoff asked.
Anna nodded. "Like a baby." She answered, having practically carried the queen from her office where she had fallen asleep at the desk to her bedroom, this being among the many times it had happened over the last few weeks. "She's actually heavier than she looks," she added, prompting a giggle from the boys.
"I thought women didn't like when their body weight was talked about?" Olaf inquired.
"Ah see, Olaf, only women can talk about that with others," Kristoff informed him.
"Really?" he paused. "But, what about if we … take away the chocolate that came today?" His face lit up. "Yeah, that'll make her lighter."
Kristoff and Anna could not suppress their grins as they looked at each other. Olaf and his innocence. Even in the worst of times, even when the whole world seemed against them and things were incredibly dire, the little snowman always managed to lessen the blows of trouble and bring about a smile on the faces of those around him. It would not surprise them if Olaf was the one who helped them see through all this to the very end.
"I'm sure that's a good idea, Olaf," Anna said with a smile. "Anyway, why don't you go pick up a book to read from the library?" she suggested. "Me and Kristoff will be with you soon,"
He jumped up and nodded excitedly. "Alright. Maybe I'll pick out something academic. Like Dante's Inferno! How about that one?! Yeah!" He began muttering jovially as he wandered off down the corridor in the direction of the library.
Kristoff and Anna watched him go happily. He was like a young child to them, a handful at times, but they were glad he was part of their family.
"Can't imagine it here without him," Anna said.
"Me too," Kristoff agreed and sat down on the windowsill. "So, did Elsa manage to speak to you and apologise?"
Anna shook her head as she sat down next to him. "No, she was asleep the whole way from her study to her room." She sighed. "She's working too hard and stressed out about everything," she added worryingly.
"We all are," Kristoff put his arm around her and pulled her close. "But we'll get through this, Anna," he reassured her. "And besides, she told me earlier she didn't mean to upset you with the way she spoke to you."
"I know," Anna sighed and looked up longingly at the bedroom door, wanting to go and join her elder sibling and sleep next her, to hug her, to hold her and reassure her that she was always there for them, that everyone here was. She could even do that now if she wanted, there was nothing stopping her.
Yet, something just stopped her, like even thinking about such a thing was beyond comprehension, a forbidden thought in an uncertain time.
"I just … I just feel like she's going to shut me out again," Anna said sadly. "I don't want that to happen again, Kristoff. Not after more than three years."
Kristoff pulled Anna into his lap and hugged her and she hugged him back, resting her head against his chest, sniffing and letting out a small sob. Hearing such things broke his heart. He hated seeing Anna like this, seeing her fear that things would go back to the way they had been before the Eternal Winter. That was among her worst nightmare, second only, and worst of all, to being alone completely. Kristoff too feared history would repeat itself, and what was more it was possible that if such a thing was to happen again, it would be rendered unfixable, the loving bond that had come to symbolise the royal family becoming a shattered link, a fragment of what had been unending love, now seeped in bitterness and hatred.
I won't let that happen he told himself. For both of them.
He felt a few wet spots on his chest and gently lifted Anna's head up, seeing fresh tears run down her face.
"Hey, don't worry," he spoke softly, kissing her forehead. "I promise everything'll be alright."
Anna sniffed, her teal blue eyes looking back at his brown eyes with hopeful pleading, begging that he was right. "You sure?"
He nodded. "Without a doubt," he reassured her, wiping her tears away with his thumb. "Besides, as Sven would say-" he cleared his throat. "Keep your chin up, Anna! Bad times will pass!"
The princess giggled at her boyfriend's Sven voice. As ridiculous as it was, it was comical and made her laugh. She even remembered once how she and Kristoff had a 'Sven voice-off' some time ago, which ended in them and Elsa, who had been watching on one of the rare moments of peace given the last fourteen months, laughing so hard they were in tears. Anna and Kristoff smiled at the memory. It had been a brief spell of light in the sea of darkness and uncertainty plaguing them.
If only more moments like that were here now.
Behind them, the storm continued to swirl just beyond the bay area, the distant rumbles of thunder and the brief flashes of lightning filling the air, adding a sort of tranquillity to the uncertainty around them, knowing that nature carried on as normal in the ever changing world of man.
She shot up from her lying position on the floor, sweat running down her forehead, chest heaving as she surveyed the dark scenery around her. Though it was dark, aside from the orangey/yellow glow coming through her window, she could make out the posters of her bed, the desk and mirror opposite it, the dressers, the curtains, the-
Her head stopped and looked back at the window, taking in the strange glow properly. What is that? Why is it-
BOOM!
Elsa screamed as the room seemed to leap and she fell to the floor with a thud. Around her, pictures fell off the walls with loud crashes, the mirror fell and smashed, the curtains came undone. From somewhere inside the castle, more crashes and thuds rang out. She picked herself up, breathing heavily as she tried to recover from the shock.
"What the hell?" she muttered to herself.
BOOM!
The room shook again, though not as violently as before, but Elsa still had to grab onto a poster to prevent herself from falling over. She rushed over to the window and threw the doors open and walked out onto the balcony, feeling warm air rush past her into the room, almost burning her skin and blue ice gown.
What she saw before her put her at a loss for words, though she wanted to scream out in panic.
Arendelle was burning, not one section or neighbourhood, literally the entire city was on fire. Some buildings had collapsed, others being heavily damaged. The docks, being some of the most developed in the city, were a pile of ruins, along with the houses opposite and around them. The large trade and naval ships that were normally moored there lay wrecked along the shore, their masts cracked or broken, some with their bows sticking up into the air as if they were dying people reaching out for some, any kind of help. Others were broken down the middle, both the bow and stern drifting across the violently shaking water. Elsa looked down and saw the walls of the castle riddled with large holes like something had walked through them, the towers were smashed or partially wrecked, their rubble scattered across the ground in the courtyard. The bridge to the castle was gone, only the ruined ends of what had been one of the city's most recognizable stone constructions remaining. Even the countryside in the surrounding hills behind Arendelle and around the bay, all of it was burning. The panicked cries and screams of the dying filled the air. The glow of the flames made the area look like partial daytime, the heat from burning city and sections of the castle feeling like the whole place had been turned into an oven. Overhead, flashes of lightning filled the air and thunder boomed out across the land.
Elsa could not believe her eyes, wanting to break down and cry at the sight before her. It was like King Priam weeping upon seeing Troy be burned to ruins, the coming of an apocalypse, the end of civilisation as she knew it. The shouts of men, the wails of women and the shrieks of children chilled her to the bone like those of the damned being tortured and were to be so for all eternity. In short, it was like hell had come and Arendelle was ground zero.
Why is it like this? What the hell is going on?
She got her answer when a series of heavy footsteps rang out from nearby, each approaching boom gradually getting louder, quickly overtaking the noise of the storm. A large silhouette walked through Arendelle, the sound of wood crunching and smashing palpable, screams and cries filled the air. Some gunshots rang out, but they were in vain. Despite the darkness, Elsa could see this thing was enormous, its tail dragging along behind it, the huge spikes on its back, the-
Wait. If it has …
No!
She shook her head, horrified beyond belief. I-It can't be!
As if on cue, a pair of immensely glowing blue eyes appeared near the top of the enormous silhouette. Almost simultaneously, a huge flash of lightning rippled across the sky, lighting up the entire area for a second or two. Brief, but it confirmed Elsa's worst fear.
N-No! Please, it can't be!
This could not be … him, right? The creature growled, looking down at Arendelle, the city toy sized from is perspective. The huge clock tower that stood in the centre of the town was largely undamaged and remained standing, as if some kind of defiant warrior refusing to bow down to the demonic creature laying waste to his home. With a snarl, the huge creature spun round and the tail knocked the building clean over; another chorus of screams ringing out as debris flew in all directions. Elsa could only watch in horror at the destruction, mind racing with how something like this could happen, why something like this was happening. Those poor people! Everything they've ever known is gone, and … and …It was then the shape turned towards the castle, its glowing blue eyes staring right at the massive structure with a look of fury, in particular at …
Elsa winced and shrank back away from the edge as the creature seemed to focus directly on her. Growling, it approached the castle, the balcony she was on shaking with every step as her peripheral vision increasingly became filled with its sheer size. Her arms raised subconsciously, but instinctively, ready to defend herself.
As it came closer, the glow of the fires and the flashes of lightning overhead realising her worst fears.
It was him. The creature once deemed the 'Protector of Arendelle', the one who had saved it from the Kraken and Ebirah and Battra, who had fought a demonic goddess and saved the world from her power, who had come to be obsessively curious about its monarch and even save her from certain death, who was, in short, a natural wonder. He was now nothing but death, a destroyer of worlds, the apocalypse incarnate.
"Godzilla!" Elsa breathed.
He stopped just short of the castle, his huge form seeming to dominate the sky, glaring down at her like a dragon meeting its arch nemesis and was raring to tear them apart. Thousands of thoughts raced through her head. Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Sven! Kai! Gerda! I have to save them. Why is he doing this? Why is he being so aggressive? What has he become?!
A growl made her look back up at Godzilla as he bared his teeth, a clear animal sign of saying that he was not going to back down, he wanted to fight.
"Godzilla!" Elsa cried out, arms, now at the ready, yet she feared using them, feeling ice sweep across the balcony. "Please! Stop!" she begged desperately, feeling hot tears in her eyes. "It's me! It's Elsa!"
He just growled at her, either not hearing her words, or not caring of what she had to say. As far as he was concerned, this was a potential threat, and he was going to make sure it did not pose a problem for him in the future. He was going to eradicate it here and now.
Overhead, the clouds seemed to come alive as lightning forked out across the sky, the booms of the thunder in unison with the strike they came from. Elsa could feel her fingertips tingling, a sort of energy running through her like blood, a feeling unmatched even by her ice powers.
What is this? W-what's happening?
A loud charging sound erupted before her. She looked, her eyes growing wide with terror as she saw a blue light run its way from Godzilla's tail, which was now hovering above the ground with the tip pointing upwards, and up his enormous dorsal plates towards his head. His eyes grew brighter, rivalling even that of the sun at the break of dawn. His form became more pronounced in the darkness as he began to rear back.
Elsa had seen this before, and it meant only one thing.
"No!" she cried out. "No! Godzilla! DON'T!" she screamed.
Her fingers crackled loudly, energy surging through her veins. Somehow, she had no idea how, the storm was raging inside her, but it was about to be unleashed.
With a loud WHOOSH, a jet of blue flame shot out towards her.
Simultaneously, lightning flew out towards the gigantic behemoth before her.
The world seemed to explode with a series of loud CRACKS, then explode in a blinding white light. Sound became obsolete, sight useless. Elsa felt herself falling, heat rushing around her body, embracing her. Someone screamed her name, but it sounded distant.
Is this what death feels like?
She felt herself land on something soft, but she did not know what it was. Blackness overtook her sight and she passed on into uncertainty, the sound of cries of her name echoing in her ears.