Chapter 20: The Ice Queen.

"Hello, my dear little sister." Elsa said as she stared down at Anna from the top of the stairs. The redhead noticed that, similarly to Percival, she looked almost exactly the same as when they parted ways; even her spiked and boyish hairstyle was the same. And her rather astounding ice dress now seemed to be slightly more detailed, and with a deeper neckline, but other than that she looked exactly the same.

The most obvious difference though, was that now she was wearing a blue crown, similar to Anna's, that appeared to be made entirely out of ice.

Seeing her like that gave Anna mixed feelings. Mostly because that woman up there, staring arrogantly down at her, but with such love still hiding behind her cold mask, was definitely her sister, and not some evil cold-hearted murderer.

And she would have preferred if she'd instead encountered a monster completely unredeemable and lacking any hints of humanity. That would have given her a clear villain to fight against. But this… just seeing her made her feel like she was going to get sick.

"You know? I remember you being a lot more talkative." Elsa chuckled, still wearing her smug smile as she descended the stairs and stopped several feet away from Anna. "What happened? Did your husband cut out your tongue?" She asked semi-seriously when Anna didn't answer due to the fact she was still trying to figure out if she was going to treat Elsa as her sister or as the evil Ice Queen. At the end, she blurted out the first thing she could come up with.

"I-I don't talk as much anymore. Queens don't do that."

"But you're not the legitimate Queen, are you?" Elsa said, though Anna couldn't tell by her tone of voice if she was being serious or just messing around with her. It didn't help either that she started walking in circles around her as she blatantly eyed her. Like a buyer trying to evaluate if something was worth their money.

"Well, I've got the crown, so…" Anna shrugged, not so convinced about her having such title herself.

Suddenly, Elsa took the crown from her head, contemplated it for a moment and then threw it away. All before Anna could even process what was happening.

"What crown? I don't see a crown on your head." She said with malice. "You are a princess, my little sister. You always were and always will be." She had such an evil glint in her eyes, Anna thought for a moment that she would kill her or something, despite how calm she had been since she arrived. But no. When she spoke again, the evil glint was gone. "Now come on, go to your room and rest from your journey. Percival will show you. See you at dinner." And with that, she disappeared through a door, not even glancing at her again.

As Elsa had said, Percival escorted her to a room in the upper floor of the castle that had just one big bed made entirely of ice with a mattress made of snow, but which was covered in warm furs. Despite Percival claiming it was hers, it looked to be already inhabited by someone, judging by the many clothes and various items strewn around the floor. When she questioned him about it, he said it was Elsa's room and that she'd be sleeping with her sister.

This seemed more than a bit weird to her, but she decided not to question him, in case Elsa was listening somehow and took offense on her reluctance. Instead, she decided to take a nap. Her legs hurt quite a lot, considering she'd just climbed a mountain, and so she decided to ignore the fact this was Elsa's bed and as a result quickly fell asleep.

It was a dreamless sleep, and the furs provided her enough warmth, to the point it was so comfortable she didn't want to ever get up. And so, it wasn't much of a surprise when Elsa had to wake her up by putting her very cold hand on her back, under her dress. The princess instantly jumped at the contact, completely waking up in a second. First, she looked around searching for an attacker and trying to decipher where she was. Then she saw Elsa and glared at her.

"What the hell, Elsa?!" She yelled angrily. "You could have just shaken me awake, or called my name or something."

"Come on, we both know those tactics don't work when it comes to you, sleepyhead." She replied with a barely contained smile. Anna only pouted at this and mumbled an angry answer.

"What was that? I didn't hear you." Elsa asked, obviously having fun seeing her sister so angry about the way she woke her up. Anna glared at her, holding her gaze for a couple of seconds in which Elsa was sure she would snap at her. But the anger soon was buried under a whole pile of resignation and sadness, as Anna reminded herself that it wasn't wise to fight with the Ice Queen.

"I'm sorry." She said bowing her head. "I shouldn't have yelled at you." She was looking to the ground, so she didn't see when Elsa pursed her lips and frowned at her answer. But she did hear her sigh, and what she said next.

"Come on. Dinner is getting cold." And saying that, she took her hand and led her to a small table for two in the middle of the room that already had two sets of dishes and cutlery also made entirely out of ice. There was also a candle to provide some light, a turkey and a bottle of wine.

One of the chairs was covered with furs, but the other wasn't. It was clear for Anna which one was for her, and yet Elsa sat on it, leaving her to either eat standing or freeze her butt off. At this, Anna remained where she was, wondering if she should tell Elsa that she sat in the wrong chair, but then she reminded herself that this was Elsa's palace, and she could very well sit wherever she wanted, even if cold didn't affect her, but did affect Anna. And so, the redhead sat on the icy chair with little to no protest, only flinching slightly when she felt the cold chair suck in the heat of her body.

Elsa looked surprised by this for a moment, but covered it quickly, instead proceeding to cut a leg from the baked turkey that was on a big plate in the middle of the table. Anna was expecting her to just place the leg to her plate, but to her surprise, she took the rest of the turkey and left the leg, immediately proceeding to eat like a barbarian, failing to use the knife and fork.

Anna was very surprised by this, and briefly wondered if her sister had truly lost every ounce of humanity and had transformed into a savage beast. But then she concluded she was just acting like a misbehaving brat, and shrugged. Who was she to object about the way an evil sorcerer ate? She wasn't that hungry after all. A leg would suffice.

But just when she was about to take said leg, Elsa beat her to it, and quickly proceeded to devour it. Despite having still most of the turkey on her plate. Anna remained still, with her hand extended towards the now empty plate, before retreating it and putting it on her lap. She bit her lip wondering if she should ask Elsa for a small piece of turkey. Maybe she'd even have to beg! But she refused to do that, at least until she was about to starve to death.

Instead, she eyed the bottle of wine and the two glasses that had been set, and decided that, if she couldn't eat anything, she may as well drink something. So, she took the bottle of wine and opened it. She carefully eyed Elsa, but she appeared to be oblivious of her actions, and she decided to pour the liquid into her glass. But… nothing came out of the bottle except a chilly mist. Judging by the layer of frost now covering the bottle, it didn't take Anna long to realize the wine was frozen.

She fought the urge to scream in frustration, and instead just crossed her arms over her chest and leaned on the backrest of the chair, holding back the bitter tears of anger and frustration that burned inside her eyes, making her vision blurry. She would not cry. She was sure that was what Elsa wanted, but she still had some pride left. She was a Queen.

A Queen with no power, no heirs, prisoner of an evil witch, and with no realistic chances of killing her. What kind of Queen was that? She deserved to be treated like crap.

But convincing herself of that was more difficult with the bitter cold burning her back and butt. With her hungry stomach twisting painfully and reminding her she hadn't had any food since morning. And with her sister eating like a beast without a care in the world.

No. She didn't deserve this. She deserved to be treated better by her sister, since she was the one who helped her escape so many years ago. She deserved at lest some food and wine, damn it!

And so, before she could stop herself, she got up, knocking the chair down with a loud crash, and placing her closed fists upon the icy surface of the table.

"Stop!" She yelled at Elsa before she could think better about it. Her sister put down the turkey's leg she had been holding and stared up at her in amusement. This, only enraged Anna more. "I don't know what sick game you're playing, but I don't want to be a part of it! You hear me?! And if you don't wipe that smug smile off your face and give me something to eat and a chair that isn't as cold as your heart, I swear to God I will beat you to death if it's the last thing I do!"

Elsa, however, just kept smiling as she calmly got up from her chair. For a moment there, Anna thought she had crossed a limit and was about to be turned into an ice statue and remain forever as an ornament in her sister's palace, but then the older woman did something unexpected.

She started clapping.

Anna was so surprised by this that for a moment she did nothing. She didn't yell, she didn't hit Elsa, and she didn't laugh either; three things she desperately wanted to do at the same time. She just stared at her sister wondering what was going on until said sister spoke.

"Finally!" She exclaimed with a huge grin. "I was fearing our parents and that pathetic excuse of a man that you call husband had somehow managed to kill your fiery spirit. But thank God there's still some of the real Anna inside that boring shell!"

"Uh… what?" Anna asked, more confused than ever. She had barely changed in the last few years, hadn't she?

"Come on, Anna. You've been acting like a beaten puppy all this time." Elsa answered rolling her eyes.

"I have not!" She protested, blushing hard because deep down she knew it was true.

"Yes, you have." Elsa simply answered. "Even when I took your crown and said you weren't queen, you didn't even utter a word of protest."

"W-well…" Anna started, silently cursing herself for stuttering. "Can you blame me? You're the evil Ice Queen! I'm not going to fight you and end up dead." At her words, Elsa's face reflected something reassembling hurt, but she hid it quickly as she simply shook her head and sighed.

"Yes, I'm the Ice Queen." She accepted. "And you are my sister. Did you really think I'd hurt you?"

"I haven't seen you in years! I didn't know what to expect." Anna protested. "And besides, you've treated me quite poorly since I arrived."

"That was just so I could get the real you out from all those layers of repression." Elsa quickly defended herself. "I knew something was wrong ever since I greeted you and you didn't even answer. I figured all you needed was to let out all the anger you've been building up all these years."

"That still didn't give you the right to… t-to eat my food and freeze my wine." Anna answered, as tears threatened to fall when she unintentionally recalled how frustrated and powerless she had felt in that moment. Elsa quickly seemed to realize that, because she tried to hug her, only for Anna to flinch back before she could lay a hand on her. The older sister pursed her lips at this, but didn't comment on it, and didn't try to hug her again.

"I'm sorry. You're right." She admitted apologetically. "I haven't been around humans very much recently, and I forget they tend to get mad at me when I do things like that." She sighed, obviously hurt by Anna still staying away from her and looking at her like she was a dangerous animal. "Come on, I'm not as evil as they say. I promise."

"You're not?" Anna asked skeptical. "So you haven't killed hundreds of people? You haven't frozen Arendelle? You don't have an army of snow monsters? You didn't kill our father?!" With each question, Anna's tone became more and more accusatory, and her expression angrier and more devastated. When Elsa stayed silent, Anna's anger grew even more. "Answer me!" She yelled, and Elsa even took a little step back at the outburst. However, she composed herself quickly and walked past her and towards a balcony that Anna hadn't seen before because the doors that led to it were closed. There, she opened those doors and stepped into the cold air of the night, looking at the stars with sadness and pain.

"I did." She said after a moment, and honestly, if Anna hadn't gone after her and wasn't standing just two feet away, she wouldn't have heard her. "I am a monster, Anna." She admitted, gripping tightly the railing until its previously smooth surface was covered in frost and spikes. "But I'm not going to apologize." She then continued with an angered voice, as she turned to look at her with a glare that could have turned her into an icy statue. But didn't. "Because I've only hurt those who made me into a monster."

And with that, she pushed past Anna and exited the room, not even saying goodbye.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you liked this chapter, because I enjoyed very much writing this evil-ish version of Elsa XD. As always, please leave a review and favorite/follow if you haven't. That always help me write more

Thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.