Not. Anna.

\

The glare of the magical light was gone.

Two seconds passed before a shocked Anna slowly lowered her arms. Her body still drew breath. The Knight glanced down at her hands- still flesh and blood. Utterly relieved, Anna turned to her fellow rider...

Her relief instantly morphed into horror. Eugene was gone. In his place stood a silent statue of ice, its lips contorted into a mournful frown. The horse underneath him was a statue of its own, frozen in time unless the Goddess ordained its release.

The sensation of cold beneath her legs informed Anna that her mount had been frozen as well. Her head whipped around to stare at the distant horizon. The ever-expanding wave of magic was still visible, traveling onward in its inexorable quest to freeze the entire earth. Dark clouds followed in its wake; large flakes of snow had already begun to fall around Anna.

I...why aren't I...?

Anna was Elsa's consort. Was that why the magic had left her unscathed? Or had the real Elsa somehow managed to protect Anna from its wrath? Perhaps both had played a role.

If I'm not frozen, maybe the ritual can't be finished. The Goddess won't be able to reclaim her full power, and life will continue on. It was possible. Anna could find a place to hide and wait for the magic to take its course. At the end of the day, she would be safe from the Goddess's wrath, at least temporarily. Maybe the ritual would fail, unfreezing the earth and allowing Anna and her allies to flee to the other side of the world.

But it wasn't a chance she could take.

It was very possible that a single life remaining wouldn't interfere with the ritual's success. And if its goal was to mask all other energy with the power of winter, then was Anna really standing in its way? She was the consort of the Goddess of Winter, and perhaps Anna belonged to that element just as much as the frozen statues beside her.

And even if the ritual failed, it wouldn't be the end. The Goddess could always try again. If Elsa was free to leave the Palace, Anna couldn't evade the Goddess and her agents forever. Eventually, she would die, and the Goddess of Winter would store up her power for a second attempt.

There was only one course open to her. For the first and last time, the Goddess was vulnerable. The Faithful, like everyone else, had been frozen. Her abilities were not as powerful as they usually were. And judging by the speed of the magical wave, Anna had enough time to reach the Palace before the entire world could be consumed by ice.

And then...

It would come down to the two of them. A Goddess seemingly ordained by prophecy to be triumphant against an orphan peasant girl who had happened to be in the right place at the right time. Every battle ever fought by the Goddess and the Faithful, from the orchestrated uprising against the King of the Gods to the attack on the trolls, would come down to this.

One on one. Winner take all.

Anna only had a single ace up her sleeve. And even while weakened, Elsa remained the most powerful sorceress on earth. A rematch between them was titled heavily in the Goddess's favor, even without factoring in the weight of prophecy. But it was the best chance humanity would ever have to avoid an eternity of subjugation and enslavement.

The Knight would have given anything to have another option. But if she received the chance to kill the Goddess...Anna would have to take it. Elsa would certainly rather perish with her possessor than watch for eternity as the world was subject to the Goddess's whims.

This world had done little for Anna. But there were still thousands- millions -of people out there who deserved to live full lives free of the tyranny of the Goddess. Anna had to try and save them. She was the only one who could.

When the time came, Anna hoped she would have the strength to do what was right. For deep down, she knew that only one combatant would survive this final confrontation.

Time to change the future.

A/N: Well, I'm sure everyone knows what's coming. Climatic battle. The end. It's been an incredible journey we've all taken, and I can't believe how big this story has gotten. I've been looking forward to this climax for a long time, and I hope you all find it satisfying. That said, I have to warn everyone that the ending has been finalized in my mind for years now, and it won't be changing.

I plan to release the finale next month: A series of chapters that will drop once every two or three days. Due to the need to avoid spoilers, I won't be doing any review responses until further notice. I never would have gotten this far without the support of all of my readers, so thank you!

PS: Yes, the Not Anna... at the end of the chapters was Elsa willing Anna to be spared from the ritual, knowing that it was the only way either of them would have a chance.