"What?" It was the only word Elsa could manage as she stood there, shaken to her core.

"I can't make it much clearer than that can I?" He sighed, holding his arms out to their surroundings. "Just, take care of this place please. I heard some people talking about building something here. If you could declare this spot off limits or something?" He turned his back on her and began to walk. "I'm sorry I have to leave so soon. I really am."

"Why did you do it?"

He turned around again. "Why wouldn't I?" He seemed genuinely confused. "They ruined my life Elsa! All of them! It was justice. Nothing more, nothing less."

"You killed them! That's not justice!"

"I was never able to live my life Elsa. I just taught them what it felt like."

"I struggled with my powers too Áno. I - I can't believe you would do something like this!"

"Because you don't know what it was like!" Elsa opened her mouth, hurt, before he rushed to explain. "I know how you felt growing up. Really, I do. But you had a home, servants, parents who tried their best to help you. A sister who never gave up on you, even after you kept yourself away from her for nearly her entire life. But I had nothing!" Elsa had never seen him lose his temper, even when he failed in their exercises on this very spot. Even then, he had directed his anger inward. "Everyone treated me like a freak. My parents threw me out as soon as my powers first showed themselves. As a child! My grandparents tried to take it out of me before they gave up too. Everywhere I went I was just a monster. So what if I tried to make things even?" His chest heaved. "Goodbye Elsa."

He turned away but Elsa interrupted him.

"I won't let you get away."

She was flexing her hands and Áno could see a slight bend in her knees. He smiled softly.

"I was going to ask you about the dress actually. I guess you knew this would happen?"

Elsa looked down at the ice covering her body. He was correct. Despite what she'd told Anna, she had privately been afraid that the other girl was correct and had prepared herself accordingly. Removing her gloves had been the first step. Remolding her old coronation dress into this form had been the second. She looked up to see Áno standing directly across from her, also in a battle stance.

"Yes."

She didn't know who struck first. There had been a burst of ice in one direction and an answer fired in the other. Soon the air was filled with the bitter cold, the grass and trees the unintended victims of their conflict. Ice grew haphazardly all around them from every missed blast. Elsa jumped to the side as yet another soared past her. She fired one of her own, aiming for his feet. Áno was doing the same.

As she fought, she waged another battle in her mind. How did this happen? How could this man, who had come from nowhere yet helped her so much, have been this... murderer? He had called himself a monster, just as the Duke of Weselton had her on the night of her coronation. Anna had convinced her that she wasn't. She just had to do the same for him.

She brought her left arm up in a slashing motion, drawing an invisible line from Áno's right hip to his left shoulder and an arc of ice followed suit. His eyes widened as he brought his left hand up the same way. Both forces clashed in the air, forming a shining 'X' before dissipating. Elsa seized her initiative and brought both of her hands together, now fueling a huge beam of magic towards him through the lingering fog of their last clash. Áno brought up his right hand and did the same. Both of their energies clashed in the middle, a small sheet of ice quickly forming between them.

Áno's left hand rose in the air as his eyes narrowed. Piles of snow formed on the earth around him before rising. Legs solidified, then torsos and arms, helmeted heads, then swords. Five soldiers stepped forward.

"Just leave me be Elsa!"

"I won't let you harm anyone Áno! Not in Arendelle, Weselton or any other country you run away to!" She grimaced under the force of Áno's strength pushing against her as the soldiers advanced.

Then came a hideous sound. Both spellcasters turned in shock as a reindeer burst from the woods, its arrival masked by the sounds of their battle and the thundering in their ears. Sitting atop it were two people: a blonde man dressed in black and a princess. Sven lowered his head and charged directly at Áno who immediately raised his left hand again. This time, a thick sheet of ice burst from the grass. Elsa saw the reindeer's eyes widen as he crashed through it, landing in a heap in front of Áno, the pair on his back tumbling to the ground also.

Áno raised his hand for a third time and a giant shard of ice grew in the air, directly above the reindeer's head. He roared with anger as he brought it down.

"Die!"

A pick dashed the ice to cold splinters. Áno looked up in surprise as Kristoff followed it up with a left hook. He brought his left arm forth, another crude dagger arcing sideways towards the ice cutter who met it with his own weapon, shattering it as he did before. Another punch met its mark.

Elsa stumbled forwards as Áno turned his attention fully to the other man, the beam dissipating in a burst of light and wind, holding out a hand to stop Anna when she ran towards her. She looked up to see more ice forming at Áno's fingertips. The ice soldiers were now focusing their attention on the newcomers.

"Kristoff! Back!"

She fired a bolt of ice at Áno's back just as he brought his palm to Kristoff's chest with one hand. His stumbling prevented him from seeing the giant snowflake she formed above their heads for a brief moment with her left. He roared again, surrounding himself with a flurry of snow that he pushed outwards. Kristoff flew back and crumpled on the earth. Anna screamed as the wind buffeted her and Elsa, who gritted her teeth and held her ground, bringing her palms together again to hold off Áno's resumed assault. His held his left hand parallel to the earth, palm down, and more soldiers sprouted from it to answer his call. Some converged on Kristoff while others marched on the sisters. He quickly found himself dazed, defenseless and completely surrounded.

A large bang echoed through the glade as one raised its sword.

Kristoff had brought an arm up to shield his face. When no blow came he looked up to see one of Áno's knights standing before him.

Without a head.

He heard several other shots. With each a knight stumbled. One lost its arm. Another crashed to the floor, unable to support itself with a single leg. He pulled himself to his feet as a third crashed into the grass where he had lain, fragmenting upon impact. And from the trees another faction emerged, men dressed in Arendelle green, hidden perfectly among the shadows. They were all armed.

"Muskets..." Áno looked at the guards advancing on his own army, their lumbering swordplay no match for the firearms. "They brought muskets.." Realization hit him hard. With a snarl he turned to Elsa, her face partially obscured by the beam of ice connecting them. Arendelle's Queen noticed two things as he did so.

First, that Áno had so far been distracted both times they'd matched their powers this way, initially by building his ice men, then by the various interruptions they'd received.

Second, he had only been using one arm while she'd been using both. Only half of his strength.

She then noticed two more facts. Áno had brought his left hand up to his right, now mirroring Elsa's pose perfectly. He was also looking directly at her, brown eyes locking with her blue.

Giving her his full attention.

The change was immediate. The small sheet of ice dividing them immediately shot towards her. Elsa stepped back involuntarily, desperately trying to find some purchase against the assault. Small streams of ice separated themselves from her beam, lashing at the ground around them, mirroring her inner turmoil, but to no avail. The sheet met her hands, enveloped her wrists, moved up her arms, covered her torso, her legs.

Her head.

Anna shrieked and immediately ran to Elsa's side, no longer restrained by the intense cold and stray sparks of ice her sister had been generating. Áno stood in shock as he gazed at the still face.

"No..."

The sounds of battle faded entirely.

"I - I didn't mean it. Elsa..."

He wanted to run up to her and beg for her forgiveness, even if she was in no position to offer it.

"I'm so sorry..."

But there was another bang and a figure of ice shattered too close for him to ignore the world any longer. He saw Anna clutching her sister's body, ignoring the biting cold. She would never trust him to help. And there was something else, wasn't there?

"Get him!"

The guards. The deaths. Of course. Áno turned around. His forces were all but defeated and the strong arm of the law was slowly circling him. In a few seconds he would be surrounded and he couldn't trust himself to escape without hurting anyone else. Not anymore.

For the first time in years he felt his control slip as his eternal anger finally gave way to another emotion. One he never thought he would ever feel. He couldn't even name it.

Regret? Fear? Shame?

"I'm sorry Elsa..."

He turned and ran. The magic was already leaking from his body so he forced it obey him, holding his arms out to the earth. An archway formed around him as he made his way through the narrowing gap in the guards' formation. A man raised his musket and fired. The bullet scored a fearsome wound in his shield but was quickly healed by rapidly spreading ice. The men gave chase, calling out to each other.

None of this mattered to Anna, who hugged her sister's body even as she felt her skin go numb. She heard heavy footsteps and looked up to see Kristoff standing over her. She spotted a mass of fur in the corner of her eye: an unconscious Sven.

"Help me Kristoff. She just needs an act of true love, right? What did she do for me?" She turned to the mass in her arms. "Please Elsa!" She turned, hoping Kristoff would have any ideas and was horrified to see him raise his pick once more. She reached out but was too late to stop him smash it into Elsa's back.

"What are you doing?"

"This isn't her ice Anna!"



She looked again, wincing as Kristoff brought it down a second time. She struggled to maintain her rapidly escaping composure. Her own frozen form had retained her features, even those of the dress she had worn. This form was instead a crude shell, obliterating anything that could be recognized as belonging to her sister. It was bulky and only vaguely resembled a human. It was a jagged spire, with a long protrusion that had been Elsa's arms.

Then she heard something. Something that removed all doubt that this ice was different while turning her blood cold faster than any magic.

Elsa's muffled scream.