A/N: Here it is! I know it's late, but it's hard to write when a family member is in the hospital. Thankfully, everything is fine now, and the finale can begin.

These chapters were fun to write, but also very difficult. The next three chapters after this one will be released every four days; if you want to wait, that's more than fine, although I wouldn't mind a comment on each chapter if you have something to say.

Thank you all for sticking with me!

"How are you holding up?"

Rapunzel groaned. "How do you think?" she demanded, making no effort at all to hide her frustration. "Father has kept me confined to quarters for months, I'm going to go into labor any day now, and my husband is risking his life on another continent against a cult of mages prophesied to rule the world."

"He'll pull through. He always has," Thomas promised, sitting on the bed beside her. The Crown Prince of Corona had recovered significantly over the past weeks, though it would still be a long time before he would be able to hold a sword once again. Whatever vicious curse had been set upon him had been dispelled instantly by True Love's Kiss, leaving a swelled throat behind.

The Princess sighed. Her 'eternal' optimism had long since reached its limits. "I should be there with him," she said. Her body turned to face the room's large window. Somewhere, across that moonlit sea, Anna and Eugene were fighting for their lives. If they were still...no, they had to be.

"You should," her brother agreed, coming to stand beside her. "But you can't. Elsa wasn't courteous enough to wait to enact her plan until after you were pregnant. You've done everything you could."

Rapunzel said nothing.

"I didn't like him at first, you know," Thomas admitted. "And it wasn't because he had been a thief, not really. I think I was just...jealous. I'd been searching for you my entire life, scouring the entire kingdom, and suddenly this ragged young man turns up at our doorstep with you in his arms. He was your hero, after having known you for days, and I was nothing but the brother who had lived in luxury for decades while his sister suffered. It felt like I failed you."

The Princess leaned into her brother's shoulder. "You did everything you-" she stopped herself, pausing to offer him a brief smile. "Thanks. I see your point. Sometimes we just don't get the chance to be the hero; it's just the way it works." She sighed.

"Sometimes I-" Thomas froze, staring out across the sea in utter mortification. Rapunzel, following his gaze, saw the source of his horror immediately. A wave of blue magic, stretching from one end of the horizon to the other, was accelerating across the ocean. In its wake followed a vast array of storm clouds, swallowing all light they touched.

"No..." she whispered. In the brief time Rapunzel had left, her brain realized what was happening.

Thomas's hand gripped her arm tightly. They should hurry...end their lives to avoid an eternity trapped in ice. But even now, her mind refused to accept that her future had been obliterated. Her child...

The wave of magic consumed them, leaving only a pair of statues behind.

\

Even with her speed, it was nearly twenty-four hours before Anna arrived at the outskirts of the capital. Thanks to her superhuman endurance, as well as the trolls' energy restoration tablets, the Knight arrived nearly at the peak of her strength.

A constant snowfall had blanketed the entire country; now, there were several inches already deposited on the ground. Anna's instincts told her that Arendelle was in the middle of the night, but in this weather that mattered for very little.

Anna's breath hitched as her eyes beheld the silent city. Any sign of light throughout the streets had been extinguished, but the tragedy before her was all too easy to see. The Palace in the distance glowed with a blue ethereal light; the Goddess was no doubt providing illumination for herself.

She wanted to see her triumph.

The Knight had been well aware of what she was going to face, but that didn't make the reality any less heartbreaking. Statues of peasants, shopkeepers, and nobles alike dotted the streets, each as cold and lifeless as the last. Judging by the varied expressions on their faces, most hadn't been aware of the vile magic bearing down on them.

She forced herself to weave through the garden of sculptures. A man and his wife walking hand in hand, an old woman sitting on her porch, two children frozen in a game of tag...all of them were depending on her. Anna couldn't help but pause as she happened to pass by the statue of one of the city's nobles, a middle-aged woman who had always been sure to look upon Anna with her sharpest glare of contempt.

Her sense of dread only grew stronger as she approached the Castle itself. Although Anna had not walked through its halls for over a year, part of her still considered it home. Once, it had been Anna's source of warmth, nourishment, and comfort, the only time in her life she had ever truly known such luxuries. Now, all that awaited her was a Goddess in possession of the woman she loved.

Anna would have to approach carefully. Despite the one advantage she carried, surprise was her best chance. Fortunately, the Knight believed that she knew exactly where she would find her target.

\

Elsa stood at the balcony of her bedroom, relishing in her victory. Countless glowing snowflakes had been released throughout the Castle and its grounds, allowing the Goddess to see the fruits of her labors. In the grassy field below was the confused mob of Palace residents, many of whom would never awake again. Beyond was the capital city itself, devoid of mortal life for the first time in centuries.

She couldn't help but bask in her triumph. This was a goal she had been working towards for millennia. It had begun with a single murder: the girl who had somehow won the heart of the planet's undisputed ruler. The war that had followed had ended with only one true victor: the Goddess of Winter, but her reign had been cut incredibly short by the actions of a band of traitors.

This was to be her final victory. Her power, having been festering within the energies of the world for an age, would return greater than it had ever been. She would never fall prey to the trap that had once consumed her. Elsa's second reign would be absolute and eternal, the culmination of thousands of years of cunning and strength.

She could feel her magic rushing across the earth; after having prepared and nurtured it for months, the ritual had become a virtual extension of herself. The wave of energy had gathered speed as it traveled across the planet, and nearly the entire world had already been overtaken. Only minutes remained before it was complete.

At last.

The Goddess had been patient, ruthless, and, above all, observant. She had been the only one to see that the mortal girl's death would bring the King's rule crashing down. Love had been his weakness, but only she had been cunning enough to realize how to take advantage of his only vulnerability. And although much had changed over the millennia, her skills of perception had never left deserted her.

So when a sign of life appeared below, Elsa recognized it instantly.

\

After creeping through one of the Palace's numerous side entrances, Anna slowly made her way through the building's empty halls. The Castle was devoid of any ice statues; for some reason, all of the residents seemed to have been gathered in the entrance grounds before the ritual. Why, Anna couldn't fathom, but it gave her a straight path to her destination.

The Knight moved as silently as possible, one hand holding her sword and the other tightly grasping a knife. But there was no sign of Elsa on any of the lower floors, as she had expected. The Goddess would want to view her triumph from a vantage point, after all.

She moved even more carefully though the upper floors. With every step that brought Anna closer to her destination, the beating in her chest ratcheted up another notch. Was she really about to kill the woman she loved? Now that the moment had come, it didn't seem real.

Then her mind called up images of the statues below, of Eugene's face frozen in horror, and imagined Elsa trapped in a prison of her own for decades. Yes, Anna was going to do this. She had to.

The open door confirmed her suspicions: the Goddess was sitting in Elsa's room. Of course, it had once been Anna's room as well. Technically, it still was. The Goddess had no right to the throne of Arendelle, and any edicts she had issued were null and void.

Not that it mattered. It was wishful thinking, nothing more. Still...what Anna wouldn't give to share that bed with her Queen one last time, relaxing as the sun slowly crested over the horizon...

Her heart froze as she finally beheld her enemy. The Goddess was facing away from her, standing on the balcony and staring out into the storm beyond. There was a straight path between the two women, and Anna's knife was in hand...

Forgive me, Elsa.

The Knight's arm whipped forward, hurtling the knife forward with all of her speed and strength. Anna knew she should feel triumphant as the blade sang through the air, but there was nothing save for-

A wall of ice sprouted between the two women. It intercepted Anna's knife less than a yard from its target, cracking heavily at the point of impact but standing firm.

Then the barrier dissipated in an instant, sending the now inert knife to the floor with a useless clang. In its place were two large spikes of ice, each speeding through the air towards the Knight's body.

Anna jumped, rolling in mid-air and narrowing dodging both projectiles. No sooner had her feet touched the ground then she was beset by a large wave of cold air. The Knight braced her body against the impact, but she was still sent sliding back several feet into the hallway.

Her back hit the wall with no small amount of pain.

A second knife forced the Goddess to break off her attack. Elsa leaned to the side, easily avoiding the blade, and retaliated immediately with a massive blast of ice.

The Knight leapt towards the ceiling, and the ice slammed into the floor beneath her. Carpet and wood careened in all directions as the surface all but exploded under the impact. Realizing what was about to happen, Anna braced her legs as she fell through the newly created hole. For a brief moment, the Knight was weightless.

Crash!

Her legs slammed into a wooden surface- a long meeting table- all but breaking the structure in two. Anna had landed in one of the Castle's auxiliary conference rooms; an open door to the hallway outside filled the room with more than enough light.

The Knight scrambled away from the hole in the ceiling, jumping off the table and raising her sword in preparation for the next attack. Her opponent, however, seemed in no hurry to continue the fight. Elsa descended comfortably into the conference room, two icy jets of air beneath her feet slowing her fall.

"How?" The Goddess demanded, feet touching down onto the floor. Only a handful of meters separated them now. Still on guard for any offensive, Anna met the older woman's eyes. There was rage there, certainly, but also genuine curiosity. The question that drove it was all too obvious, but it was one to which the Knight did not have the answer.

Anna shook her head. "You tell me. Things have changed, and I know the truth now. You're not Elsa. You're the Goddess of Winter, possessing her body in order to return yourself to power. But maybe you aren't as in control as you'd like to be. Maybe the real Elsa is still in there, forcing the ritual's magic to pass over her divine consort."

The Knight's mind was a whirlwind of emotions. Her elation to once again stand in front of the woman she loved battled with the despair of seeing her consumed by such a hateful entity. Anna's hands began to tremble in fear and exhilaration as she realized that the confrontation that she had awaited and dreaded for so long had finally become reality.

Her enemy sneered. "The woman you loved never truly existed; her consciousness was absorbed into my own the moment I returned to this world," the Goddess replied calmly. She glanced at her palms, as if contemplating how she would wipe Anna from the face of existence. "Wishful thinking will not save you now. Nothing can."

"You don't know why, do you?" Anna demanded. "You don't understand how I'm here. Or, deep down, you do, and you're just trying to convince yourself. If Elsa is gone, how do I still have my powers? I bought your lies once. It's not happening again. Elsa, keep fighting! I know you're still in there. You saved me from the Goddess's storm, from her ritual...maybe you even stopped her from killing me that first night. I need you, Elsa! I always have."

Anna's best chance for victory had come and gone. But if the real Elsa could reassert her personality, even for a moment, it would give the Knight the opportunity she needed to…kill her. It doesn't matter; anything is better than an eternity trapped with that monster. It's what she would want…

The Goddess smirked. "Anna, you truly are the most worthless Ungifted I have ever come across. Yes, you did need her. What were you without her? A dog, wandering the streets and stealing scraps from your betters. You should be grateful to me, Anna. If not for my Faithful, Elsa would never have owed you gratitude for her rescue. Instead of another miserable five years of thievery and begging, you enjoyed the only comfortable months of your entire life."

Anna's fingers didn't shake twitch with fury, nor did she close her eyes in shame. "Yes, you're right. I couldn't survive without her. Now I need her again, and the rest of the world does too. Rapunzel, Eugene, Thomas, Marcus, Lenna, millions of others...death will be a mercy for them if we don't beat her here and now."

"That's curious. If I do recall correctly...minutes ago, you attempted to assassinate her with a knife to the back. Perhaps you don't love her as much as you claim," the Goddess intoned.

"Anything is better than being your puppet!" Anna retorted. "I-"

Why is she not attacking? Why is she letting me say whatever I want? The questions that finally occurred to her only had one answer: the Goddess was stalling. How much more time was there? If the ritual finished- it was game over.

Anna's knife was deflected out of the air by a lazy flick of Elsa's wrist, and the blade harmlessly clattered into the wall. The Knight moved forward to charge, but a platform of ice materialized under the Goddess's feet- swiftly lifting her back through the hole in the ceiling.

"Seconds remain, Anna," Elsa called from above, allowing the platform to wink out of existence. "Why fight you at all? Once my divinity returns, you will not present the slightest threat to me."

Anna leapt back through the ceiling, but Elsa was already sliding down the hallway, her feet gliding across a sheet of ice. "I can feel it Anna. Three seconds remaining. And my power has finally..."

Nothing happened.

Five seconds passed. Ten. "You," the Goddess whispered. "With you still alive, the ritual can't be completed. Well, I suppose you'll have your fight after all. I suppose it is fitting," Elsa smiled. "Humanity's last stand. You're truly the champion they deserve: a homeless, starving wretch who has watched friend after friend die in front of her. All fighting against an inevitable victory foretold millennia ago."

The Knight frowned. "I'm a Lady of Arendelle, and its rightful Queen Consort. The real monarch hasn't revoked those titles. She promised me that this Castle and this kingdom would be my home for the rest of my life. Remember Elsa? You promised to keep me safe! Do it now! Break free! Stop her ritual!"

"That's not possible," her enemy claimed. "It's out of my control now; I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to. The only way to free the world is to kill me, and that's simply not going to happen." The Goddess smiled, lifting her arms.

The corridor was consumed by a storm of ice.

Anna dived to the side, landing back in the royal bedroom an instant before a hail of spikes careened by the doorway. Her heart, the only thing standing between the Goddess and the return of her unlimited power, was racing furiously. If the Goddess was telling the truth (and Anna had a feeling she was), even freeing Elsa from her possession wouldn't be enough to end the ritual.

One of them would have to die.

A conflict that had waged for millennia had now come down to this final moment. Humanity and its enemy were in the same situation now. Each side had a single warrior left on the field...mismatched as they were. And when one fell, everything that champion stood for was doomed to destruction.

And apparently, I'm destined to lose.

Anna didn't want to die; no matter how much suffering she had been through, life had always been precious to her. That yearning to live had only grown after having a taste of a happy existence, as fraught with danger as it had been.

But the one thing that frightened her more than death was living on in a world without Elsa.

How has it come to this? Had their love always been doomed been doomed from the start? Perhaps in a world manipulated by the Faithful, a future in which they both survived had never been a possibility. The thought had her heart pound in frustration.

It didn't matter. The two women and the love they shared were inconsequential compared to the fate of the entire world. It was why Anna had already thrown a knife at Elsa's back, and why she would try again.

Focus, Anna.

The Knight had learned from experience. Fighting Elsa in the confined space of their bedroom was not a wise move. The Goddess swiftly arrived in the entryway and immediately let lose a powerful blast of ice, but Anna had already leapt out the window and was once again clambering down the brick wall into the inner courtyard. Judging by the sounds of chaos above, their bedroom furniture had not fared nearly as well.

No sooner had she landed than a storm of icicles erupted above her head. Anna dived to the side, wincing as she watched the vicious projectiles cut through the thin layer of snow on the ground and dive into the grass underneath. She rolled onto her feet, readying another projectile.

Elsa was descending on a floating platform of ice. Eyes widening as Anna threw her knife, the Goddess leapt off the platform and calmed her short fall with another two icy jets of air. As her feet touched the ground, Elsa lifted her hands.

Two giant snowballs were hurtling towards Anna's position. Caught somewhat off guard, the Knight swerved to the side and dodged the first before bracing body in anticipation of the second.

SLAM! The attack exploded into a cloud of white powder. Anna was elated to come off with nothing more than a small ache in her arm- before realizing that she had done nothing but weathered a distraction.

Elsa's hand was pressed against the snow. A large wave of magic radiated out from the point of contact, transforming the snow on the ground and converting the courtyard into a rink of ice. The new surface spread beneath Anna's feet, making controlled movements all but impossible.

But Anna had been thinking of this fight for months; she had a trick or two of her own ready. The Knight jumped into the air, angling her sword at the ground and slamming the point into the ice as hard as she could manage.

The extra-hard ice of Anna's blade cut through Elsa's hastily created rink with incredible ease. Flowing with the forward momentum, the Knight placed one foot of the hilt of her weapon and allowed herself to glide across the courtyard.

Thanks for the skiing lessons, Elsa.

She covered much of the distance between them before the Goddess realized what was happening. Only a few meters separated them by the time another hail of icy spikes erupted from Elsa's fingers. Anna pushed off from the ground, extracting her blade and rising several feet into the air. She deflected the storm of projectiles with a whirlwind of strikes, and came down at the Queen with a finishing slash.

"Enough!"

A massive burst of freezing air exploded out from the Goddess. The gust slammed into Anna's chest, knocking the wind out from the Knight and completely reversing her momentum. She landed on the ground, sliding across the icy surface for several meters before coming to a stop.

"Will you ever learn, Anna? You are nothing. You were born with nothing and will die with nothing. Now."

The Knight got to her feet just as Elsa sprayed her right hand forward. A storm of icicles erupted from her palm, racing towards Anna in a continuous stream of death. Hundreds of the icy daggers were splitting through the air, each smaller and faster than the Queen's usual projectiles.

Anna's blade was a blur as she attempted to shield herself from the onslaught. Her sword intercepted many, and the Knight managed to dodge most of the rest. But not all. The icicles were too fast and too numerous.

Aah! Explosions of agony erupted on her limbs as several icicles managed to score glancing blows on the desperate Knight. Trails of red spilled into the air as the icy blades ripped through the edge of her skin. Elsa was slowly walking forward, continuing the assault without a hint of hesitation.

Gritting her teeth, Anna briefly lifted her right foot off the ground before driving it hard down into the ice below. Shards of silvery glass exploded from the point of impact, several nearly cutting through the Knight's legs. Still deflecting the brunt of Elsa's assault with her blade, Anna spotted the largest piece of ice that she had launched into the sky.

Her free arm whipped forward, grabbing the heavy shard out of the air and hurling it at her opponent. The Goddess's arm broke off from the hail of icicles to create a barrier of ice. Anna's attack shattered harmlessly against it.

But the Knight had already taken her chance to run to the edge of the courtyard. Fighting against Elsa in the open was clearly a losing proposition, and Anna had no desire to continue being cut to ribbons. She closed her eyes and threw herself against one of the Palace's windows, trusting her enhanced durability to protect her from the glass.

Crash! Anna landed in one of the parlor rooms on the first floor of the Castle and immediately took off running.

An explosion of ice erupted behind her, the edge of its cold blast nipping at Anna's heels. The Knight raced ahead, desperate to get a chance to regroup. Fortunately, she knew a good hiding place.

The time she had spent exploring the Castle was serving Anna well. More blasts of ice followed her, slamming through everything in their path- even the numerous walls that defined the Palace's labyrinthine structure. The entire building seemed to shake under the impact of the blows, but Anna's speed allowed her to gain some precious distance from her opponent.

Anna raced through the corridors and up several flights of stairs, and it wasn't long before Elsa had clearly lost track of her. She couldn't help but smile as her destination finally came into sight. Sprinting through a final archway, Anna found herself once again in the Palace's massive library.

The Knight finally came to a stop near the far end of the room, having put several rows of tall bookshelves between herself and the entrance. Breathing heavily, she noted that a dim glow still shined through the room's large glass windows. It was enough to provide her with a modicum of light. And as her adrenaline began to ebb, Anna found her attention drawn to the wounds etched throughout her body.

Anna's skin, though hardened by magic against any hostile force, was marred by more than five cuts scattered over her body. Only one, left by an icicle her left calf had completely failed to avoid, was relatively deep. The Knight breathed a sigh of relief as she processed that none of the wounds were fatal- or even crippling.

But gods, they hurt. And with blood still seeping through more than one, they would weaken her even more over time. Anna healed quickly, but these cuts would not vanish for at least several hours.

As she stared at the red liquid slowly running down her leg and onto the once plush carpet, Anna's mind turned to Elsa. The Queen's powers were certainly weaker than they had once been. No Creations had arisen to challenge her, and the constant cyclone of wind that usually shielded Elsa in combat was noticeably absent. Most telling of all, no massive storms of ice had been launched against the Knight.

But she still doesn't have a scratch-

BOOM!

The glass windows shattered as a massive blast of compressed air slammed into the Castle's exterior. Anna attempted to shield her face as shards of glass and freezing wind ripped into the room, but it was only by sheer luck that she wasn't impaled.

Elsa was floating outside of the Palace, supported in the night air by a levitating platform of ice. The continuing snowstorm whipped around her, but the Queen paid it no heed. There she stood, surrounded by her element- it was a sight that would have once taken Anna's breath away.

In fact, it still did.

"Such a predictable fool," the Goddess scoffed, the words easily carrying through the vacuum where the windows once stood. "Frightened and desperate, where else would you go but here? The first place you and your precious Queen truly bonded. It would be amusing were it not so pathetic."

Anna gritted her teeth and braced for an attack. "You're right," she admitted. "This was the first place I was actually happy. I think...I think it was when you agreed to play my game of choice that I first began to fall for you. Do you remember, Elsa? Here was the most powerful woman in the world, agreeing to subject herself to what she considered a children's game simply to make a homeless peasant girl smile. How could I not fall in love with you?" She allowed herself the smallest of grins. "The frozen chocolate certainly didn't hurt either."

The Goddess's gaze drifted down towards Anna's feet, resting on the splotches of blood that had been engrained into the carpet. For a brief moment, the only sound in the world was the snow still whipping through the night sky.

"That woman is gone, Anna. And you-" Elsa's arm surged forward, but the Knight was prepared for an attack. She leapt into the air as several shards of ice zeroed in on her position. Anna's momentum carried her over the nearest large bookshelf; she landed behind it as the spikes embedded themselves into the wood.

Okay, I have some cover in here. If I can maneuver- her thoughts were cut off as a brutal gust of air invaded the room. The next second, her world was nothing but confusion and pain as the bookshelf fell backwards.

The Knight instinctively raised her arms to protect herself, but the force behind the gust was too great to oppose. The bookshelf slammed into Anna's body, knocked the Knight onto her back, and pinned her to the floor. Anna's muscles exploded in pain, even as books and dust rained down onto her form.

No! Anna would not die like this. Ignoring the protests of her limbs, the Knight lifted the bookshelf several inches and rolled out from under it. She looked up into the sky to see Elsa zooming into the library, her feet skiing across a trail of ice fifteen feet above the floor.

Anna dived to the side as a pillar of ice erupted from beneath her position. Her hand found a large table leg- without thinking she hurled the structure at Elsa. A wall of ice appeared in the middle of the room, easily deflecting the attack, but the distraction gave the Knight time to dive behind another bookshelf.

She would be found within seconds.

If I try to fight her in the open, she can just bombard me with ice until I'm dead. But if I face her using cover, she can just knock it right back down on top of me. Even if I get close, she'll just knock me away with a blast of air again! How do I beat her?

Anna knew the answer. With surprise having failed, there was only one way.

"You know, Anna, I think that table you destroyed was the very same one you utilized to play with the Queen," Elsa intoned. "Perhaps that time together didn't matter to you as much as you profess it to. Then again, it was the only time in your life where you ever won at something."

The Knight darted out from behind the bookshelf. "Actually, not true," she asserted. The Goddess's eyes swiveled to meet her own, but no attack was launched. "I never admitted it, Elsa, but by the time we left for Eldora...you were better at checkers than me. I was happy to have taught you to play so well. It was only fair; I learned so much from you, after all. Letting me live here wasn't enough- you showed me how to do it with dignity. It was the one thing I never thanked you for...I was always so impatient..."

"You are talking to no one," the Goddess intoned. "Elsa cannot hear you. She was banished from this body long ago, and nothing you can say will change that. It is just you and me, deity and peasant girl. Your mortal Queen is gone."

Anna frowned. "Then why aren't you attacking me?" the Knight demanded. "You don't really seem like the talkative-"

Bang! Anna spun to the side as two large balls of snow flew in her direction. With a well-practiced movement, the Knight reached down for a knife and hurled it at the Queen. Precious few of the projectiles remained on her belt.

Elsa deflected the attack contemptuously, flicking a quick burst of air at the blade and forcing it off to the side. Anna used the brief distraction to vault over several bookshelves and sprint for the hallway, again feeling a large explosion of cold erupt just behind her.

The Knight ran through the corridors, putting on as much speed as she could muster. Her body had been battered and bruised by the collapsed bookshelf, and its numerous cuts had only grown more painful. Anna reached the central staircase and dashed down a level in the nick of time- a blast of ice had the entire flight of stairs crumbling to dust a moment after she passed.

By chance, she happened upon the doors of the Grand Ballroom. Well, it's as good a place as any.

But her time had run out. Even as Anna kicked open the ornamental wooden doors, the Goddess's latest blast of ice exploded not two feet behind her. No! Gods... Over a dozen tiny shards of ice found their way into her back.

She stumbled onto the hard floor of the ballroom and fell to her knees. The icicles now in her flesh were each no larger than a long needle, but they were sharp. Anna could feel warm blood starting to flow down her back, melting the splinters of ice that had cleared its path and sticking to her shirt.

Swish! Anna rolled to the side as large spikes of frost converged upon her location. Every step made her body scream out in protest. She had to do it soon. She simply couldn't fight for much longer.

"This is where we had our first dance- it was the first time you stuck up for me in front of the nobles," Anna said, her sword slashing through two more large spears of ice as she spoke. "If you don't do something now, this is going to be where I die. Elsa, please! I don't want to die at the hands of the woman I love. Haven't I been through enough pain already?"

Elsa was walking into the ballroom now. The Goddess seemed in no great hurry. Either the true Elsa was indeed fighting back in some manner, or the Goddess was simply taking the time to relish in a victory she considered inevitable.

If the past several months had taught her anything, it was that the Goddess of Winter was not one to take chances.

This was her opportunity. Elsa was on the ground and had paused her assault. Anna dropped her sword and brought her hands to the three remaining knives on her belt. One. Two. Three. The blades were launched into the air less than a second apart.

The Goddess sidestepped the first and deflected the second. But as she moved to avoid the third, Anna's fourth projectile had been thrown into the space between them.

Her ace in the hole.

In addition to his cover-spell, Pabbie had given Anna two other bottles the night the Faithful had attacked the trolls. The Knight had only used one during that battle. The other had remained in her pocket, charmed not to explode while in a confined space, and it was now time for its fire to be unleashed.

It was the same make as the spell that had obliterated the old troll and two of the Faithful's mages. The Goddess, distracted as she deflected by avoiding Anna's final knife and accustomed to not considering the Knight's projectiles any real threat, failed to notice the tiny glass bottle until it smashed into the ground before her feet.

A devastating inferno instantly exploded out of the remnants of the bottle, consuming Elsa and encompassing nearly half the ballroom. The columns of flame persisted for several seconds, turning all they touched into ash.

Anna sank to her knees. It's finally over. There was no joy in that realization; even the thought that millions across the world were unfreezing couldn't bring her relief. Any remnant of Elsa was gone, and the world seemed emptier than it had ever been.

"Fool."

Anna's mouth gaped open in pure horror. The inferno was dissipating to reveal a small cyclone of ice and freezing wind. Standing in the center of the miniature hurricane was Elsa. The Queen's skin was singed with blackening ash, and long trails of smoke could be seen flowing from her hair. But she was very much alive.

And virtually uninjured.

"Did you really think the parlor tricks of an old troll could stop me?" the Goddess demanded. With every word she spoke, the flames smoldered lower. "I have performed feats of magic that have made the entire planet tremble, made deals with beings more powerful than you could begin to comprehend, and weathered assaults that would have reduced this entire Castle to dust. I will keep your lover imprisoned for eternity and remake this world as your corpse rots in my dungeon!"

Elsa's hands whipped forward. The cyclone of air, now a torrent of frost and smoke, reformed into a massive gust of wind. Anna was lifted off of her feet before she could even think of resisting.

SLAM! Her body hit the far wall of the ballroom with a sickening crunch. But Anna didn't need to hear the sound to know that at least one bone had been broken. A surge of pain sprouted in her left shoulder, its tendrils spreading down her arm and across her neck.

But the blast had done her an enormous favor. The entire room shook under the force of the attack and the walls, already weakened by the inferno, partially gave way under the weight of the ceiling. With a mighty roar, the middle portion of the room caved in on itself, and the two combatants were separated by a wall of rubble and cloud of dust.

Anna's sword had been swept up in the gust, and the Knight was fortunate enough to spot the blade only a meter away from her feet. She picked it up gratefully; it was now her only weapon.

It wouldn't be long before Elsa found her way through- the chasm of rubble was already being buffeted by blasts of magic from the other side. Anna's only option was to run.

So she did.