Why hello there

I bet you thought this fic was dead didn't you

(On a serious note, I'm trying to write as much as I can, but since I've been working my way up the food chain at work and have a lot more responsibilities, my time is bananzas. I want to crank out chapters as much as any of y'all, so don't worry about it being abandoned.)

WARNING: Brief mention of suicide.

Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen.

*BANG*

The door slammed open. It smacked against the wall like a cannon, and Kristoff jolted awake from his semi-sleep, jumping so hard in his bonds that he nearly cut off his numb wrists with the rope that bound him to the pillar. He tried and failed several times to get up before his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Stig and two other men he didn't recognize sauntered into the room. They wore layers of thick furs to stave off the freezing cold from the top deck, and frost caked the sweat in their hair.

"What do you want now?" Kristoff said. "Don't you guys have something better to do? Like jump off the ship maybe?"

They ignored him and surrounded Elsa's cage. Elsa growled and backed into a corner while one of the men worked the padlock on the door.

"Hey, leave her alone!"

"Piss off, boy." Stig opened the door and dragged Elsa out by her ankle. It had been a few hours since the last time Crow came in to drug her, so she had the energy to struggle, slurred and shaky as the determined effort may have been, when the other men each took one of her bound arms and forced her to stand.

They shoved her towards the door, but Elsa dug in her heels and bucked. She promptly received a fist in her abdomen that turned her into wheezing putty in their hands.

"Stop it!" Kristoff tugged against the rope choking his wrists. "Don't you guys have an ounce of empathy? Look at her! You're torturing her!"

The man on Elsa's right shrugged. "You've been hangin' in that castle too long, lad. This ain't nothin'."

Stig crouched next to him and ruffled his hair. "Oh, don't look so blue, my boy. The cap'n invited her fer somethin' special! Won't harm her one bit." He headed for the door. "Maybe he'll invite you later for some on-board entertainment too, eh?"

Stig and the two men bellowed a laugh as they forced Elsa into the hall, the door slamming closed and leaving Kristoff in the dark again. Alone, this time.

Kristoff stared at the door. The creaking boards and incessant ocean waves crashing against the ship's wooden hide muffled any discernable sound that would tell him where they were taking her.

Kristoff hung his head, trying to ignore his cramping stomach and the freezing cold crawling under his skin. All he could could do was wait, now. Wait and pray that their rescue would arrive faster than whatever Crow had planned.

Just…hang in there, Elsa…

Chaos ruled the deck above him. There were bangs and shouts and jeers enough to make Kristoff's insides curl. He tried not to imagine what was happening out there.

He didn't know how long he'd been left by himself. He tried to count the seconds, but minutes turned into eternities once the shouting started.

Nearby voices and heavy footsteps grabbed Kristoff's attention.

"…three on our tail. What the hell's he thinkin'?"

"Shut your trap. If the boss wants to shake 'em, he will. You and I aren't paid to make those calls."

The door slammed open again, but this time, Kristoff was prepared enough to not flinch. Though, he couldn't help but shrink away from the lantern thrust into his face.

"Well, well, ain't you lucky, blonde boy!" They cut through the rope at Kristoff's wrists and dragged him to his shaky feet. "The cap'n requests your presence!"

Kristoff tried to punch him, but the blood was only just starting to return to his hands, so he barely swung in the right direction.

The men laughed. "There, there, now, it's alright," one of them cooed. They grabbed his arms and dragged him through a narrow hallway and up a steep flight of stairs. "It'll all be over soon…"

They tossed open the door to the top deck, and everything that Kristoff had heard through the floorboards came crashing into him in visceral clarity. He tried and failed to block out the jeering and the shouting and the howling that rang in his ears. The sunlight seared his irises from gods know how long he'd been kept below deck, and he stumbled forward with closed eyes, nearly slipping on an icy part of the deck. A freezing breeze sucked the heat from his body, and he shivered despite the glare of the late afternoon sun. Salt, booze, sweat and blood stained the air and assaulted his nose.

His captors dragged him towards the blaring yells. They must have entered a crowd, because there was something around him that was blocking some of the freezing wind. The ship lurched over a high wave before dumping itself back into the water, and most of the crew seemed to have lost their footing because the shouting suddenly paused before becoming laughter.

That's when the growling finally became noticeable—the rolling snarls and exhausted yelps.

Kristoff's stomach sank. Oh, gods, don't tell me…

He forced his eyes open. They burned, straining to identify his surroundings even though everything had a painfully bright halo around it.

It seemed like every crew member was huddled on the main deck. There were men stacked on boxes and clinging to the braided ropes reaching the frost-covered sails. The deck was vast and left plenty of open space around the thick ring of men boxed about the center by the mast.

Kristoff tried to blink his eyes and get a better look at what they were surrounding, but a heavy hand smacked his back and his face met the deck.

Crow's laughter boomed above him. "Good gods, lad, stiffin up!" He grabbed the back of his shirt and lifted him back to his feet. The ebony-haired man was layered in furs, and frost littered his patchy beard. "And here I thought you were a knight of all things. Turns out yer so lightweight that a kiss of the wind might send ya off yer feet!"

Crow smacked his back. Kristoff gritted his teeth and had to brace his arms on his knees to keep from falling again. "W-Where's…" He coughed several times, steeling his nerves to the cold. "…Where's Elsa?"

"What, that 'ol beasty? Don't worry ya head about her. You'll see her in a bit." Crow slung his arm over Kristoff's shoulder, and Kristoff shrunk away from the alcohol on his breath. "I've been waitin' a long time fer that monster ta get her dues…"

"She's not a monster."

Crow pulled away and gave Kristoff an appraising look, and it took all Kristoff had not to look away. He could feel tears in his eyes from the sun burning them the longer he stared.

"Is that so?" Crow slowly drawled.

"Elsa is not a monster," Kristoff gritted with more conviction. "You are." Crow's lip drew into a thin line. "Where is she?"

Crow smirked. "Oh, there's no need to be so worried about her." His hand twisted a handful of Kristoff's tunic and pushed him towards the crowd. It parted easily for Crow, revealing a semi-large pit where large cargo might be stored. Its giant grated doors were flipped open and tied down to the deck. "But since you want to see her so badly…"

Crow shoved Kristoff into the pit. Kristoff was too exhausted to stop himself from landing flat on his back. He saw stars and gasped on nothing as the wind came back to him.

A clatter of metal next to his ear. A dagger. Kristoff sloppily picked it up and looked to Crow as he got to his feet. The captain was well over a dozen feet above him, and dozens of faces stared down at Kristoff.

"Hey, what's—"

Kristoff's words drowned in his throat. Icey fire blossomed from his chest and pumped hard through his blood, making his skin ripple and his hair stand on end.

Something trembled through Kristoff's body, like the quakes of the earth when standing on unstable ground. It reverberated through his bones and made his muscles freeze taut against them. The trembling crawled into his ears like grinding stones, rolling up and down in a silent message—a threat—that made his shoulders instinctively rise to protect the back of his exposed neck, bringing his arms towards the trunk of his chest to make himself smaller.

Sweat beaded his brow, and his skin grew hot in the freezing cold. The jeers and shouts turned to mush under the weight of the trembling. All of a sudden, Kristoff was a boy in the mountains again, treading into a territory that nature did not welcome him into.

It wasn't until the trembling crescendoed into a thunder that boomed through him like the rolling snarls of an avalanche that Kristoff realized he knew this feeling.

He was being hunted.

"Have fun, boy!"

A roar blasted from the shadows. Kristoff barely had his wits about him enough to spin around and face the giant maw lunging towards him. He covered his throat, and thick canines sunk into his forearm instead of his windpipe. His cry was forced from him in a pained gasp as he was slammed into the ground, pinned under several hundred pounds of muscle. Hot breaths and snarls consumed his senses, and his world jarred as he was yanked back and forth, the shrieking grate of claws gouging wood near his head keeping him from any real semblance of concentration.

He thrashed and scrambled to free himself. He used the dagger, mostly on reflex, to hack at whatever he could reach. The blade stiffened multiple times like it was hitting something, but it wasn't until several excruciatingly long seconds later that the dagger caught hard into something, sinking in to the hilt. His arm was released with a howling whimper that nearly deafened him.

"Ha!" Crow's mocking voice floated from somewhere above him. "Aw, ain't that the sweetest thing. She gave ya a love bite cuz she missed you so much!"

A chorus of laughter and whistles followed his words, but Kristoff didn't comprehend him until he had shoved himself up against the far wall of the pit, cradling his injured arm and stabilizing his adrenaline high.

…Elsa?

He wiped the sweat and blood out of his eyes and stared at the silver and white tiger limping away from him.

Kristoff's mind was a mist of pain and the instinct to fight and flee, but that didn't stop his heart from falling into the pit of his stomach. "No. It—It can't be…" He shook his head. "Elsa…?" he said, his voice so faint that only the Elsa he knew could have heard it.

Elsa rounded on him, crimson eyes filled with a bloodlust that Kristoff noted with a slight bit of terror looked exactly like Skadi's, stripped of any semblance of humanity and exposing primal instincts like they were a raw nerve. She bared her teeth and made a hiss-like snarl that turned his legs into concrete. Their crowd 'oood' and jeered, and she bristled under their attention, snarling through her pants. Dribbles of foam slid down her panting maw, and her fur was knotted and faintly stained in multiple places. She cradled her right paw to her chest, trying not to move the shoulder that had his small dagger plunged into it.

Kristoff's chest ached. "Oh, Frosty…what did they do to you?"

Elsa snarled at him, ears flat against her skull.

"See, boy?" Crow said above the roar of the crowd. "She's a beast. It's a simple truth, and ain't nothin' gonna change that. Here." He tossed Kristoff another dagger. Kristoff fumbled to catch it with his good arm, though the blood on his palm from keeping pressure on the wound made his grip on the hilt flimsy at best. "Only one of you is comin' outta there. Take my advise and strike for the heart." He laughed to himself. "Oh if this ain't karma at her finest…"

"I'm not going to kill her!"

Crow shrugged. "You say that now."

Kristoff looked back to Elsa, instinctively backing up when her roars and thrashes shook the floorboards beneath his feet. The men above them poked her with long staves, trying to anger her into fighting Kristoff instead of licking her wounds.

"Hey! Fuck off!" Kristoff yelled.

Crimson orbs locked onto the shout. Elsa rose into a coiled crouch—shaky and drugged and injured as it may have been—and circled him, her mouth parted and her lip curled.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah…" He put his hands up in mock surrender, though he still held the dagger and could barely move his other arm. "Woah there. Come on, Elsa. It's me. Kristoff. I'm your old pal, remember? I—"

Elsa lunged, but the move was drugged and telegraphed, and Kristoff just managed to side-step it. He wasn't so lucky at dodging the swipe she made as she landed, and he gritted his teeth as her claws raked across his side.

Kristoff gasped, clutching his ribs with his injured arm and backing away. The wounds there were long but thankfully not deep, but that didn't stop them from turning his tunic red and pooling with the blood from his forearm.

This…this was really it, wasn't it?

It was him or Elsa.

And it looked like Elsa was already gone.

Skadi was dead long before Elsa fought her. Kristoff thumbed the dagger in his hand. And Elsa had to put her down, too. He looked up at his friend savagely snarling at the men surrounding them. It wasn't worth living like an animal…

The jeering men jabbed Elsa with another stave, and she turned on them. She jumped and dug her claws into the wooden wall of the pit, nearly clearing the distance between them with just three paws. She snapped at them, nearly catching someone's foot, but a bottle smacked her face like a melee weapon and shattered in a shower of glass. She fell back into the pit, failing to land on her feet. The ground shook with the planks nearly bowing under the blow.

"Leave her alone!" Kristoff yelled. He cursed himself when his side ached, pain racing through his whole being. He nearly fell to his knees.

"You should be thankin' us, you pisshead! The she-beast'll kill ya quicker if she's pissed!" They howled with laugher.

Kristoff looked to Elsa. She limped into the other corner, glaring between the men and Kristoff while she picked bits of glass out of her bloodied pads. Her eyes darted to every movement, frantic, terrifying, and terrified.

Kristoff looked to the dagger. He laughed. Well…if Anna knew that I came out of this and Elsa didn't, I'm DEFINITELY dead in that scenario.

He smiled wryly, tossing the dagger. It clattered to the ground, and he kicked it away. It hit the wood near Elsa, and she jumped at the sound, snarling what must have been an exhausted roar. She limped between him and the broken glass.

"Heyyy, Frosty. It's me. Kristoff." He knelt down, and she paused to hiss at him before pacing again. His heart threw itself against the cage of his chest, and sweat dribbled thickly down his face. All of his instincts to run—to survive—were screaming at him to get up, but he didn't stop lowering himself until he was completely on his knees.

Crow laughed. "Oh-ho, this should be good. Hey! Whatcha gonna do, boy?! Play dead and hope she won't want ta play with ya anymore?!"

"Shhh…Everything's going to be okay, Elsa. I promise." Kristoff spoke as softly and evenly as he could even though his voice shook. "Listen, I know that they hurt you, but I—"

Elsa roared and stiffened like she was going to attack him, testing his reaction. Kristoff cringed into himself, cursing his cowardice and trying to shake the terror of making himself so vulnerable. He bit his cheek as he struggled to keep his lip from quivering.

He tried to smile, his eyes struggling to meet hers. "I-It's okay, you know." His voice broke. "Whatever happens isn't your fault. I know you would never hurt me. J-Just…promise me that you'll tell Anna how amazing and brave I was once you figure out how to blast your way off this ship, okay?"

Kristoff put his hands out, and Elsa paused, snarling with each tense exhale.

Crimson drowned anything and everything around her. The humans. The wood. The glass. The sky. Even the piercing sounds of their cries and shouts oozed into her ears like thick blood. The air was hot and tart on her tongue, and she stared towards where she tasted blood that was not her own.

She had tasted this blood before. It was from an enemy, then. He had hurt her.

Her…

Not her but her…

The other one.

Her mate.

*SMACK* More shouting. A throat in her jaws. Hands grabbed her neck—she was used to this feeling, they cling to her and struggle before they go limp. She waited for the struggle. The beating pulse of the human's jugular thrummed violently against her tongue, and she could almost feel it through her entire being with how hard it beat against it, like it was trying to beat her away since its host would not. His sweat and fear coated the back of her mouth.

She could do it. She remembered very well how to do it. She remembered how to bite down a bit more, and she would be done. She remembered this part—the part a hunter must play with its prey.

But he didn't struggle yet.

She remembered this blood.

She…remembered her.

…She let go.

Kristoff gasped and clutched his throat as he was dropped against the wooden boards. He patted his neck to assure himself that it was still there before he laughed aloud, a handful of manic tears choosing to stream from his eyes. He slowly—slowly—sat up, high on the adrenaline of almost having his throat ripped out.

He stopped laughing when he saw Elsa backing up, blue eyes staring at nothing and everything until she hit the wall. She not-too-gently ripped out the dagger from her shoulder with her teeth, probably worsening the wound. She swung her head and ground her skull against the floor like she was trying to get something out of her ears, and her thick paws curled into the wood and over her head repeatedly.

Then, she was suddenly smaller. Smaller and blonde and much too pale for this kind of sunlight.

Kristoff smiled and crawled towards her on shaky knees, his bleeding arm clutched to his bleeding side. Elsa grabbed her matted braid and curled over herself in a tight ball, not noticing or not caring that he was closer. "Hey…Heyyy, that's it. Nice and easy." Kristoff dared to touch her non-bleeding shoulder, and Elsa pushed herself up and looked at him with arctic blue eyes.

"K…Kristoff…?"

Kristoff laughed, grimacing when his laugh shot searing hot pain up and down the whole left side of his body. "Hey there, bud. How are ya?"

"I…" Elsa shook herself. It took an unnecessarily long minute for her pupils to contract into focus. "I'm…'M sorry…"

"For what, this?" Kristoff gestured to his side. "Ah, this is nothing—"

"'S HORSESHIT! BRING 'EM UP!"

Kristoff and Elsa sat up at the booming shout, but neither had time to get to their feet before their audience descended into the pit and closed in on them.

A large hand on Kristoff's back yanked him away. Elsa tried to pull him back, but two men grabbed her arms and forced her onto her back with a pained cry as her shoulder hit the wood, another man snapping a collar around her throat.

Kristoff saw only stars of pain as he was jostled and tossed. He jarred to a stop when he was thrown onto the deck above the pit. There was a resounding CLAP as the giant grated doors to the cargo pit were swung back over the large opening and bolted down.

Someone picked him up. "I'll give ya this, boy, you sure know how ta put on a show. Had that monster like putty in yer hands," Crow said. He yelled to another cluster of men that were walking towards them. "Get her ready, boys! I've had my fun."

"She's not a monster," Kristoff gritted.

"The hell you mean? Are ya serious, lad? Yer gonna tell me that she—" He pointed to Elsa, who was being chained. "—isn't a monster even after she nearly tore yer throat out? Is everybody in Arendelle this thick?"

"She's not a monster! You made her act like one!"

Crow sneered and tossed Kristoff into the hands of a few of his crew, and they quickly tied his hands behind his back, not caring to be gentle about his injuries. "Well cry and moan about yer morals all ya want, but it won't change anythin'." He strode to Elsa, and Kristoff finally noticed the ball and chain they were chaining to the manacles at her feet.

"What are you doing?"

Crow turned and smiled at Kristoff's wide eyes. "Isn't it obvious? We're gonna see how long she can hold her breath. The trench in these parts goes down fer miles."

"What?!" Kristoff yanked at his captors, the pain nearly blinding him. "You can't be serious!"

"You'll be next, boy." The men finished securing Elsa and dragged her to her feet. Crow leered over her, and she glared at him. "You'll sink so fast that the ocean'll crush the air from yer lungs before you can scream. Such a painful way to go. It's a shame. I'm sure the princess will be simply heartbroken. Hopefully she won't break from losin' her toy. She has enough loose screws as it is."

Elsa struggled to raise her head, weakly growling. Her voice was hoarse and breathless. "Don't…talk about Anna."

"Aw, that's cute. Did you get a lil' attached to her 'cuz she brought you home and took care of you? Don't tell me you think she actually loooves you. I know that bitch screamed it ta the heavens when I brought you in, but there's been plenty more stupid shit to come outta her mouth."

"Don't you…dare call Anna a bitch."

"Ha!" Crow laughed and held her by the collar of her ruined tunic. "You're an animal, lass! Did livin' in the city with all the normal people make ya forget that? If that whore ever let you do more than hump her leg like a bitch in heat, she'd go down as the princess who got fucked by a beast! Havin' her own father screw her would be less shameful!"

Elsa tried to snarl at him, but it slowly receded. She ducked her head, still glaring, but beginning to fail to hide the tears welling up behind her eyes.

"You're a coward, Quade! You know that?!" Kristoff yelled.

Crow turned to him. "What did you call me, boy?"

"Are you telling me that after all of this—" He jerked his head around where the pit once was. "—you're going to kill Elsa by drowning her? I mean, I knew you had no honor, but come on. Even bastards like you have to have standards—" A punch in his gut silenced him.

"Shut up, kid!"

"No, no, no, the boy has a point." Crow tossed Elsa to the ground. "Set her loose."

"Boss, what about—"

Crow glared. "I said, set her loose."

Two of the crewmen gave each other side-long looks before unlocking the manacles from Elsa's wrists and ankles. Elsa struggled to stand, but before she could gather her bearings, Crow side-swiped her with a hard punch to the jaw.

Kristoff struggled. "What the hell are you doing?!" He tried more to get free, but all he got were more hits and a sour gag in his mouth.

"You were meanin' ta say I should give her a fightin' chance, didn't ya? Well, here's her chance." He kicked Elsa in her stomach while she was down. "Oh-ho, thanks for the suggestion, boy. This is much more fun."

Crow sauntered around Elsa's downed form. "Come on, lass, where's yer fightin' spirit? I've seen you tear men apart with half as much fuel as you got now." He watched her catch her breath, struggling and failing to push herself up on her hands. "Don't ya remember? You didn't even hesitate." He picked her up. "Ya went right for the kill."

He tossed her away, and a dozen hands caught her and tossed her back, throwing her to the ground. Crow stalked towards her while Elsa crawled to her knees.

Elsa wiped blood from her split lip. "Y-You're wrong."

Crow sneered. "Am I?"

Elsa finally managed to get to her feet. "I didn't…I didn't mean to."

"Ya didn't mean to?" Crow grabbed Elsa's collar and dragged her forward. "Of course ya didn't mean to. You're a bloody beast. If something has a pulse, you'll kill it. That's how nature works," he spat, driving his fist into her stomach. Elsa held her middle and wheezed, falling to one knee but refusing to collapse, shaking with the effort. Somewhere behind her, she heard Kristoff's muffled curses.

"I'm not…," Elsa gasped, her words barely coming between her pants. She coughed several times and shakily straightened to her full height, challenging Crow's glare with her own. "I'm not…*huff huff*…an…animal."

"Really?! Is that so?!" Crow threw his hands up and charged towards her like a caged beast. "Tell me, how could anyone with a shred of humanity do what you did ta all those people?! And Benji!" He savagely grabbed her tunic and yanked her into his reddened face, their faces mere centimeters apart. His fist shook like he was trying to strangle the fabric in his hands. "Benji was just a kid, dammit!"

The deck was suddenly quiet.

"I…I was a kid, too." Elsa dared to bare her teeth and grabbed Crow's wrist. Arctic blue glared into milky grey irises. "Do you think I wanted to be there?" she snarled hoarsely. "Do you really…you really think I wanted to fight?"

"What, are you expectin' me ta feel sorry fer ya?!" He threw her against the mast, and Elsa flopped to the ground. Crow grew redder when Elsa dragged herself to her feet, refusing to stay down. "You're just as heartless as ya were then!"

"I didn't…have a heart back then. They took it from me. Even when I had nothing, they took everything from me." Elsa leaned against the mast for support, but she didn't let her trembling stop her from crouching in a loose fighting stance. "I wanted to die—I tried to kill myself dozens of times—but they wouldn't even let me do that!"

She pounced, closing the distance between them with a surprising amount of sudden energy.

Crow caught the blow she was aiming towards him, and they grappled. "Bullshit!" He threw her onto the deck again. Elsa landed hard on the floorboards, and even the crew quickly shuffled well away from Crow as he charged towards her. "You cut down anyone who got in your way without lookin' twice! Don't you dare tell me you had a moral compass when you gutted that boy like a fish!"

But Elsa was quicker to get to her feet this time. "What part of everything don't you understand?! I didn't even have control of my own mind!"

Elsa practically jumped up, and Crow was too blinded by rage to react to her fist. It was quick and hard and cold against his jaw, and he stumbled back, not quite falling from the force.

"I knew I was a monster." Elsa spoke down to him even though Crow was standing. "Even now I feel their blood on my hands and hear their screams when I'm alone." She looked at her hands, making fists before her injured shoulder twanged in pain, and it fell limply to her side. "Don't think I was so naïve to believe that I didn't deserve punishment for what I did. Even when I got out of there, I kept trying to kill myself, but I couldn't. I don't know if I was too weak to do it or strong enough not to. Most of me hoped you would catch me and just end it all for me. Quite frankly, you'd be doing me a favor.

"I had every reason to die, but now I finally have a reason to fight." Elsa rolled her shoulders and held up her fists, ignoring the searing pain. "I have someone who is the home, family, and freedom I never had. I've worked so hard to get where I am, and I won't just let you take that from me!"

Elsa charged with fists ablaze, but Crow met her with a roar of rage, quickly disarming whatever assault she had and slamming her to the ground. He pinned her under his weight, blow after blow raining down on her.

"Why! Won't! You! Die!" Crow finally stopped, one hand on Elsa's throat and the other pulled back. He sneered with white-hot anger when Elsa tried to uproot him, though her efforts were reduced to minor struggles. Her eyes—defiant, determined, and alive—met his, and she clawed his arm and tried her damnedest to bite him. Even now he couldn't break her.

"Damn you!" Crow yelled. He gave her one last brutal punch before he stood and furiously walked away. He pointed to a handful of the frightened crew, and they shrunk away from him. "Lock them up! Now!"

One of them dared to speak. "But…But, boss—"

"I said NOW!"

It was night when Elsa was dragged onto the deck again. She couldn't tell if it was the same day as when she passed out. It could have been several days later for all she knew. Time blended together like the blood of several wounds.

The moon was high and full, and it made the mounting waves look the the rolling shoulders of some great silver beast, throwing their boat about its back in the darkness. Moonlight reflected off of frost and sea foam like they were their own sources of light.

Elsa was shoved forward, and Kristoff yelped and cursed a few feet behind her. She growled and would have bared her teeth if not for the muzzle.

Stig kicked the back of her legs, forcing her to her knees before Crow. The captain was pacing and shouting—nearly howling his fury into the night air as he glared across the waves. Several of his crew were about him, one man having the rather strange job of opening and closing the shutters on a large lantern in timed intervals while another man at his side leaned on the railing and looked through a large scope.

The man with the scope turned to Crow.

"Well?!" Crow yelled.

The man shrunk into himself. "T-They said yes…cap'n…"

Crow wore into the floorboards with his stomping pace. "Those cockswaddling brotherfuckers will eat shit when I—!" He stopped when he saw Elsa and Kristoff. "Tell them they can fish it out fer themselves," he told the man with the lantern. Crow waited for the man to start moving the shutters on the lantern before he turned on Kristoff and picked him up, haphazardly cutting his hands free while he dragged him to the edge of the railing.

"Hey!" Kristoff shouted as he struggled. "What are you doing—?!"

Kristoff didn't get another word in before Crow threw him into the ocean.

Elsa writhed in her bonds, twisting and screaming as much as they would allow her too. Pain from her movements made everything flash white, but she was too numb for that to stop her from trying.

Crow grabbed her tunic and dragged her to her feet, shaking her until she stopped struggling. His voice lowered to a growl. "Listen here, lass, and listen well." He pulled her so close that she had no choice but to look him in the eye. "Killin' you right now wouldn't be enough to make you pay for all you've done. I have thirteen years of sufferin' to repay you for, and I intend to give them back before I send you ta hell." He yelled at Stig. "Set her loose!"

Stig undid the manacles at Elsa's wrists and ankles. Elsa grabbed the wrist holding her tunic once she was free. She stared at Crow with dumbfounded confusion even as he tore the muzzle off her face. "You're…You're letting me go?"

A swift punch nearly threw her from his grip. "Don't you dare mistake this for mercy!" Crow snarled. "I'll let you go home and enjoy your whore—let ya get nice and cozy with her—and when you think all is well, I'll cut her open from cunt to brains."

Elsa bared her teeth and dug her nails into his wrist. "I won't let you touch her."

Crow smiled gleefully. "Oh-ho, I was hopin' you'd keep that fire. It'll make it all the more fun to see it die as I cut down the life you say you've worked sooo hard to get. And after you're beggin' for death, I'll give it nice and slow." Crow tightened his grip on Elsa's tunic until it constricted her airway, and he ground his teeth in her face. "If you get yerself killed doin' some dumbass shit before then, I swear by the gods, I will dig you out of the deepest pit of hell you're burnin' in and tear you apart."

He stood on the railing, one hand holding a sail's rope and the other dangling Elsa over the frothing ocean. Elsa clung to his wrist on reflex, the crashing ocean waves turning her hearing to near static.

She could see the blonde mop of hair that was Kristoff drifting away from them. And beyond that, she saw several lights, like lanterns that blinked like the man beside Crow had done.

The grip on Elsa's tunic loosened. She looked at Crow. He smiled.

"'Til next time, beastie."

He let go.

Elsa fell through a thick cloud of seamist and plummeted deep into the freezing ocean. She only had a split second of stillness before she was churned in the torrent of waves. She kicked for the surface, and when she felt air, she breathed, panicking when she got a lungful of ocean water.

Up became left and down became right as she was shoved beneath the waves and dragged into the undertow of the ship. The ocean spat her out the other side, and she pinwheeled in mild water, too exhausted and in too much pain to move immediately. The moon was a blurry coin above her.

No. Not like this. She had come too far to have only come this far.

She kicked and kicked but got barely anywhere until a hand grabbed her scruff and yanked her skyward.

She coughed and gagged as she met the surface. Kristoff's arm clung around her like a chain and anchored her above the water. Kristoff shivered like a leaf in a hurricane wind, and his teeth loudly clanged in her ear.

"W-What the f-f-fuck?! Really?! T-This is how he wants to k-kill us?! L-Letting us f-freeze to death in the f-fucking sea?!" Kristoff yelled into the night air. He looked down to make sure he still had Elsa in his arm. He was quickly loosing feeling in his limbs, and he could almost not feel her there, warm as she was. "C-Come on. Stay with m-me, Frosty. W-We're gonna be ok-kay, you hear me?"

Elsa weakly paddled and nodded. "K…Kristoff…" Elsa coughed, pointing towards the lights.

Kristoff's eyes followed her finger, and when he saw the lights, his smile nearly outshone them. "Ships! S-Ships! T-Those are s-ships!"

Elsa stared at the lights for a long second before she smiled, the small feeling of happiness feeling so foreign at that point that she nearly started laughing.

"A-Alright! Hey! Ov-ver h-here!" Kristoff waved his injured arm as best as he could.

The lights continued along, not coming any closer.

"Hey…H-Hey, wait!" Kristoff waved frantically. "HEY! OVER HERE! HEY!" His freezing lungs were starting to seize up, and his wounded side burned in the salt water. "Nononono! Come back!"

Elsa brought up her palm and glared at it, praying to the gods for the first time in a long time. She felt the cold beneath her fingertips, and she closed her eyes and tried to manifest any of her power that would listen to her.

Kristoff paddled as best as he could, but just as his muscles were giving out on him, a weak burst of chiming light shot into the air and burst into a shower of snow a few dozen feet in the sky.

"Yeah! T-That's what I'm t-t-talking about!" he cheered. "Good job, Ice B-Block! D-Do it again!"

"Gimme…a se…a second…" Elsa panted, somehow more exhausted than she was before.

It took longer than Kristoff would have hoped, but the few bursts of magic (Elsa could just barely manage two) got the ships' attention. His heart fluttered with the beginnings of hope when, as it drew nearer, it turned out to be not just two, but three ships—two smaller militant ships escorting a larger boat.

A rope was thrown down to them, and Kristoff did his best to get a loop fastened so that they could be carried up. He sent Elsa up first, and the shape-shifter was too exhausted to protest.

Elsa collapsed onto the deck as she was hauled over. She laid on her stomach in a panting, sopping heap just catching her breath and clearing ocean water from her lungs.

A chorus of whispers—mostly suspicious or cautious, not malicious—grew around her, and she instinctively took a headcount of her new crowd by picking apart their different scents without opening her eyes. Everything about the scents was foreign. They were heavy with grass and coffee and plants that she had never smelled before.

It wasn't long before she felt a heavy weight splash onto the wood beside her. A stiff hand touched her back, and she dragged her eyelids open to see Kristoff.

She didn't have long to look at him, though. Something pink slid into Kristoff and enveloped him in a tight hug, nearly crushing him against the railing.

"Kristoff!"

Elsa's eyes widened, suddenly alert.

That scent…

She pushed herself onto her elbows, her mouth parted. Joy like she hadn't felt in a very long time blossomed in her chest.

That scent: leather and chocolate and fresh dew grass—

Anna?

Elsa turned to the princess, but—

…it wasn't Anna.

The brunette in Kristoff's arms pulled away and sat on her heels. "Oh my gods! I'm so sorry! Are you hurt?!" She picked and pulled at his clothes and gasped at the wounds and stains of crimson that she found.

Kristoff shoved her away. "Hey, what are you—" His jaw dropped, and he stared. "G-Goldilocks?! What—What the hell are you doing here?!" He all but shouted, though his face split into a huge smile. "How did you get here?! Wha—" He pulled her into a hug before wincing and letting her go again.

Elsa stared at the two of them, Kristoff and the not-Anna. The girl smelled like Anna. Like Anna. Not quite her. Now that it finally rolled over her tongue, the scent was clearly not Anna's. It was just similar. A mimicry.

Elsa shuffled away on her hands, but when she hit someone's legs, she spun and snarled, even though she could faintly hear his—the soldier's—apology. He and the other—the many others—stepped away from her.

Their scents changed, and Elsa's head swam. She could smell their fear now.

"E l sa…r e … o k ay…" Elsa thought she heard Kristoff speak, but it was like he was talking through water. Everything was blurring into scents and sounds. Black danced at the edge of Elsa's vision, and she struggled to keep her eyes open.

No…not…not now… Elsa shook her head, but her exhaustion was caving in on her. The lanterns on the ship gave her only silhouettes to look at.

Then, there was someone in front of her. They must have been only an arm's-length away, because their face was the only thing that had any clarity in its features.

They started talking, and Elsa smiled, her consciousness threatening to vacate her. She recognized that curved brow and small nose and singular dimple on the right side.

Anna…

"—bad. We have a doctor on board, though, don't worry. And—Oh, where are my manners?" The not-Anna extended her hand and offered a smile that curved almost like the one Elsa called home. "Hi, my name's Rapunzel. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Black finally consumed Elsa's senses, and she let herself fall into unconsciousness with Anna dancing in her thoughts.

What's this? A cliffhanger? In my fanfic?

In my defense, I don't do it on purpose…The arcs between chapters just happen to do it some(most)times.

Hope ya enjoyed.

-REKA