Author's Note: Buckle up everyone, the ride is about to begin.

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Paranoia is a most ruthless stalker, for it damns its victims whether or not they are truly in peril. The vigilance it demands is unwavering, a burden that can't be shaken. Worse, the senses exacerbate it; imagined shadows and murmurs trick the mind, inciting more fear and causing a runaway terror.

In spite of purpose-built stealth joints and limbs and feet with the finest shock absorbers, Ashley couldn't shake the feeling of being heard. Each minute scrape and shuffle seemed thousands of times louder than reality, amplified by cavernous ceilings and metal walls.

'Shit, focus.'

An unfamiliar noise echoed through the room. Nir eyes darted up, desperately reaching for anything, silently praying that nothing would be found. In a flash, ne switched to the infrared spectrum, then to the x-ray spectrum to peer through walls. A sigh of relief came; the walls and air ducts were empty. For the moment, cargo containers and various steel beams were the only company to be had in this place.

Most of the stasis pods were safely tucked away inside the freighter. The few that were left were being loaded, one by one, into their respective slots for the trip. The Swift was a long, sleek autonomous transport vessel. Despite her autonomy, she came with crew amenities such as a food synthesizer, a bathroom and a small fusion reactor to keep the whole thing running. Missions such as these often necessitated a guard accompaniment, especially when carrying such valuable cargo. In the cockpit, everything was being double-checked. Previously, a system had been installed that scrambled and diffused life signs from prying eyes. With the flick of a switch, it hummed to life. Success. The minor victory helped Ashley's nerves calm down for a moment. The ease was short lived, however, as it was interrupted by an important call. Across the line a modulated voice asked with impatience: "Is everything ready to go? Our window is closing."

"Yes, yes, I just need to get ahold of my guards so that nobody boards us in transit."

"Keep me updated," the disembodied voice said.

'So far, so good. Time to call Anna.'

The line was initially silent, and when Anna did finally respond, it was just a series of incoherent mumbles.

"Anna... did you just get up?"

"No way, I've been up for hours!" she replied.

"Yeah, and I'm a well-adjusted member of society. Totally not a neurotic mess."

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Dreams faded, and Elsa rose through the layers of consciousness from the most contented slumber she'd ever known. Enveloped in the fuzzy, surreal infancy of wakefulness, she rolled over onto her side and grasped onto something. Whatever it was, it was supportive and pleasant.

Eventually, when the slough of sleep faded, she opened her eyes. Just another normal day on the station. One look out the window and her familiar companion, steadfast and blue, floated in the infinite void. Space was serene, taking the edge off the morning's rise.

She shot up in place, no alarm had woken her. 'Oh gosh I'll be late!'

When she went to look across the room at her clock, something caught her attention. Her bed was sagging to the right! Investigating, she pulled off the sheets and promptly felt like an idiot. Anna was next to her, and the sight of her beloved was a clear reminder that she was not, in fact, really in space. Memories from the blissful night from before came rushing back, warming her heart and another, more intimate place, giving her a morning buzz more potent than any coffee.

The trickery of the illusory world scarcely made an impact compared to the comfortable proximity to her love. Elsa plopped back down and pulled herself closer to Anna, softly kissing the back of her bare neck. She started playing with Anna's impenetrable forest of hair and wondered how she'd managed to sleep alone all these years.

Anna started shuffling, mussing up the bedsheets. Lazily, she rolled until her discombobulated, slack-jawed face could be seen. The slumbering cyborg began to mumble as something unseen began to disturb her. Distracted by infatuation, Elsa nearly jumped out of bed when Anna started talking.

"No way, I've been up for hours!"

Elsa gave her a curious look, cocked head and all. "What are you talking about Anna?"

Anna giggled before responding. "Hang on a sec," she said, raising her hand until her index and forefinger rested upon her temple. She turned to Elsa with wide, endearing eyes and said, "A call on my infolink, hold on sweetie."

Elsa, her thoughts racing, found herself guessing at the identity of the caller. If it was Kristoff, Anna would be much more excited, her tone would undoubtedly be more familiar, and the subject of his date would have already come up.

Anna inhaled sharply. "Really, all of them? Already? Wow, you're fast!" She nodded her head, looking off into the distance as she listened. "Can't you have a droid do it?" Ever so slightly, she frowned at the response, "Oh, I see. Dang. Well, I'm not sure. I've been thinking a lot about it but I... I have to ask Elsa. Call you back in a sec."

Anna took her bedmate by the hand, locking their fingers together. She gave Elsa a solemn look and let out a shallow sigh before starting. "That was Dr. Lancaster. All of the patients have been patched up, and they're in stasis waiting to be taken somewhere safer."

To Elsa, that was good news, for sure. But that didn't explain what required asking her for something. "That's great! What does it have to do with us?"

"We've been asked to escort them during the journey. I didn't want to accept without asking you for permission."

There it was, as strong as ever. The call to duty, to help others. It clashed against her inner fears, multiplied by the stakes. Going back to safer, mundane work would be impossible now that she'd been bound to Anna by love. She sure as hell wasn't going to let her go alone.

"Yes.. tell Ashley we're going, and that we have to make a stop first."

Anna nodded in agreement, her face taut and serious. She gave Elsa's soft cheeks one last gentle caress, then made the call.

Cool, wet droplets splashed down milky white skin, cleansing in a rejuvenating cascade as they flowed down Elsa's face. Before her in the mirror, a reflection of herself stared her down. During her staring, she noticed a subtle movement, and to her delight it was Anna.

The most intriguing thing struck Elsa as she continued to groom herself. With Anna alongside her, something previously obscure became clear – they both had almost identical facial structures! She kept scuttling her eyes away every time Anna shifted, putting on what little stealth she could. With every tiny window that opened, she gazed upon the face of her love.

'Funny... I hate my face. But on her it looks so good. How the heck does she do that?'

Upon deeper reflection, it made sense. During her studies she briefly touched upon one theory of sexual attraction, where people of similar phenotypes were drawn to each other. And drawn they were, there was no hiding that, not even miles of cover-up would hide her blush.

"Hey, see something you like?" Anna quipped.

Pulled out of her gawking, Elsa replied. "Eek! Sorry Anna, I just... you're so.. I mean..."

"Aww, I must be rubbing off on you." Anna said, lazily going for the mouthwash. Her hands were way-off target, and she tried to grab the bottle long after it had slipped away from her.

"Anna, are you ok?"

Vacantly, Anna slumped over. "Ugh, no I didn't regenerate last night because I didn't sleep in my own bed."

"I don't understand," Elsa said.

"Oh... my bed has an inductive regenerator. It uh... recharges me."

'Of course!' Elsa thought. Those limbs of hers weren't going to power themselves. "Is there anything we can do to jump-start you?"

"Yeah," Anna started, her lifeless arm flopping like a limp noodle, vaguely pointing to the exit. "In the kitchen there are some energy bars and emergency glucosal packets. Could you get them for me, please?"

"Sure... they'll get you to full power?" Elsa asked.

"Nah, but it should get me to the ship, which will have a regen unit."

Elsa took the limp bionic hand in her own and placed a tender kiss upon it. "No wonder it's drained, all that vibrating last night must have used a lot of power!" She gave Anna a steamy look, then promptly ran up the stairs, hopping with glee. When she came trotting back down the stairs several minutes later, something about Anna's voice wasn't quite right.

"Come on Kristoff, please?"

The pain in Anna's voice hooked into Elsa's heart, pulling her down faster.

"I know, and I think she's fabulous Kris, I really do. But we could really, really use your help." Anna paced anxiously, twirling her hair with one hand. Her eyes narrowed and her lips curled in a rather distressing manner. Ending the conversation, she turned to Elsa and said "I really hate Kristoff's new girlfriend."

"What makes you say that?" Elsa replied, handing over an energy bar.

"My gut tells me. That, and she's sexy. Too sexy. Like a succubus or something."

'Ignore that your girlfriend just called someone sexy.' The instinctual flare of jealousy, though potent, was short lived. After all, she wasn't exactly in danger of losing Anna to this mysterious stranger.

"I asked Kristoff to come with us, and she was being super possessive. I don't know what her deal is, but every time he came around, she'd drag him off the line.

"I don't know anything about relationships Anna, but it might be better to let them do their own thing."

Anna's puffy cheeks ballooned while she chewed enthusiastically on her energy bar. While she munched, she took the liquid energy packets and stowed them inside tiny storage slots in her legs. In between bites, she managed to spit out "Fine, but I don't have to like it."

"Come on, we need to get to my dorm room so I can pick up some things."

The stout metal door slammed into the frame a little harder than she had meant to. Security had run Anna through the wringer, going so far as to freeze her in place with a forcefield until nearly all of her augments were turned off. Each sense they took from her felt like a fresh pair of shackles, or a bag over her head. It was terrifying to be so blinded. If it weren't for Elsa's soothing intervention, she might have started a fight she couldn't finish. Angrily, she groaned. "Everyone here keeps looking at me like I'm a freak!"

"They're terrified Anna. They can't know you're any different than Hans."

"But I AM different!"

A twinge of sorrow bit at her. Being looked at like a freak? An outsider capable of anything? Where had she felt that before? "I know. They looked at me the same way all the time. Especially when I told them that we're a couple."

There it was. That look Anna had when she was of unmitigated conviction. That look that never failed to bolster everyone present. "We have to fix this," she commanded.

Elsa's icy cool stare met her partner's in turn. Behind it, undertones of unease just barely shone through, subdued but present. "We will. I just need to finish transferring these files from my tablet to my wearable, grab my armament, and we'll be off."

"Your armawhat?"

"Oh wait till you see this!"

A devilish grin came across thin lips. Elsa slunk down, dragging her hands across the metal cabinet and popping it open with an upbeat flick. From the soft, porous foam she extracted her ESD rifle. It gleamed with a shimmer in her hands, light flowing off the long, smooth barrel.

"Whoa... you have a... what is it?" Anna asked, eyes wide in excitement as she studied it.

"It's an ESD rifle. I wanted to name it 'Sparky', but I actually believe that's a better nickname for you."

Anna pulled her head up from looking at the rifle, beaming at her new moniker. "Aww, I like it. But not as much as I like you, Snowflake."

The pair headed out the door, and Elsa locked it behind her, though she had little to return for. As they jogged down the hall towards their destiny, the computer in the now empty room displayed the results of the almost complete genealogy scan.

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Passing through the threshold of a massive overhead door, Anna's heavy footfalls reverberated through the vast space before her.

"Whoa."

"Impressive," Elsa added.

The two nearly jumped out of their skins when the door came crashing down behind them. No sooner had the echoes faded, than they were accosted by their paranoid comrade.

"Were you followed? Goodness, Anna get some dampers installed in those giant clunkers of yours!"

"Hey! My feet aren't big... are they?" Anna asked.

"Your feet are fine, sweetie," Elsa reassured.

Ashley hurried them to the ship, eager to get underway. "This is the Swift, ladies. She'll take you out of New England, past the national border into Autoria, then finally into Heartland. After that it's just a hop and a skip to Titania Haven in Colorado."

Anna nodded in earnest, but Elsa was far less enthusiastic. "... How are we supposed to get past border crossings? Won't scans show that we're transporting people?"

"Come on inside," Ashley started. "I'll show you the ship and explain everything. Then you can get underway."

Elsa took stock of the vehicle, losing herself in the flowing aerodynamic curves and pitch black windshield. The interior was satisfying in a different way, neat and trim without being barren. In the cockpit, she teased herself by slowly sliding her hands barely above the controls. Just because it was an autonomous vessel didn't mean she wasn't going to salivate over plotting the course and monitoring the systems.

"Snap out of it snowflake," Anna said, stealing her attention. "We've gotta go over the systems."

"That's Captain snowflake to you, Miss."

Anna chortled. Ashley just stared with a none-too-pleased expression.

"Oh, maybe I'll just mutiny, Captain." Anna retorted with a cheeky smile.

"You two can flirt later. Time is critical." Dr. Lancaster leaned over, activating the helm and related cockpit controls. "The 'cargo' is obfuscated by a series of rhythmic EM pulses making them look like power cells. The refugees are shielded by a thick layer of heavy metal, and they're all hooked straight into life-support systems. As long as you keep them powered, everyone will arrive in one piece."

Gesturing into the holographic display, ne pulled up a hidden sub-menu dedicated to stealth operations. "If you get boarded, which won't happen, hit this panic button. Make sure you're both in the cockpit first! It'll lock out the cockpit, fill the rest of the ship with anesthezine gas, turn on a cloaking device and boost you the hell out of Dodge."

The heaviness of Ashley's stare wore down on a concerned Elsa. "Don't use it unless you really, really mean it. I'm serious."

"Right," Elsa replied.

Back by the loading ramp, cutting through the dust in the air, Ashley stepped out of the ship and spun around to face the two entrusted guardians. "I won't be going with you. I have some business to take care of here. Oh and Anna?"

"Mhmm?"

"Be as diplomatic as you can. Heartland isn't a bad place, but it's less aug friendly than here in New England."

"Got it."

"Good luck, girls." Ashley said, walking off to send the ship on it's way using a control panel across the room.

Anna waved back, hungry for adventure. "No sweat, we'll take care of eve-"

A massive fireball of an explosion blew the hangar door clean off its hinges. The entire building shook from the force. Concrete chunks and rebar tore through the air as hot, blistering ballistics.

'Shit!' Elsa thought, reaching for her weapon. She fumbled with her hands by her side, cursing as the memory of the rifle sitting in the cockpit came back to her. Heavily armed, augmented soldiers poured into the hangar, hungry for a fight. The loading ramp closed at an excruciating pace, made only more agonizing by the realization that the soldier on point had their sights trained straight for her.

The rifle came up, a finger ever so gently easing into a primed trigger. Millimeter by millimeter, it squeezed inwards, pushing against the threshold that would unleash spurts of hot death.

Elsa felt herself being pushed out of harm's way by a powerful force. As she flew to her right, gravity pulled her on a downwards arc, and she slammed into the wall hard enough that consciousness briefly left her. The last thing to be seen as the door came to a close and the ship took off was Ashley ducking behind a crate, hopefully out of harm's way.

Eventually, the gunfire-induced ringing in Elsa's ears subsided. Slogging through the disorientation, she gritted her teeth, pulling herself onto her knees. Her heart stopped when she looked up to see the form of Anna, limp and lying on the ground near where Elsa had previously been standing. Upon her stomach, a single bloodied hand lie palm-down.

"ANNA!"

Furiously she dragged herself the meter or so across the floor of the now speeding freighter. Fleeting memories flashed before her eyes. Each tender caress, every kiss and cuddle, compressed into mere moments, an involuntary reaction to the realization that they may never come again.

Silence. Horrifying eons of torture.

The first indication was the gentle expanding and contracting of Anna's chest with her breath. Then, Anna's eyes locking with her own. Finally, a reassuring smile and a grasp on the hand.

"I'm fine, snowflake. Just a couple of bullets."

Anna flipped over the hand on her stomach to reveal 3 flattened bullets, accompanied by only a meager pooling of blood. "My dermal armor caught them just fine. The wounds are skin-deep."

The strength drained from her, and Elsa let herself fall, her head landing on Anna's chest. She choked on broken sobs, whimpering pathetically. Strong, supportive arms cradled her. Slowly but surely, Anna massaged her back to a coherent state.

Anna, still running her fingers through Elsa's hair said, "Ugh, I really gotta regenerate. I've had enough of today."

"You're telling me," Elsa replied, rising to her feet and offering Anna a hand. She took it happily, and Elsa pulled until her savior was on her feet. The journey was nowhere near stable at first, wobbling and off-balance. Before long though, she'd gotten Anna's arm over her shoulder and was guiding her to the regeneration chamber. Gingerly they hobbled along, sneaking enamored, furtive glances to each other the entire time. Anything to get a glimpse of that immaculate face.

Anna stepped into the chamber, and Elsa quickly followed up with a kiss on the forehead. "Thanks for saving me again. I swear I'll return the favor."

Anna gave a deeper, more forward kiss straight on the lips. "I know you will, snowflake. Are you sure you'll be okay alone for a few hours?"

"Yeah... I'll survive," Elsa started, her eyes darting up. "Definitely gonna keep my gun with me this time though."

"Good idea," Anna said, gently caressing Elsa's cheek in her hand. "I love you."

And with that, she laid back, closed her eyes and let her tech do the rest.

Back in the cockpit, Elsa finally got some alone time with the ship. The plush black leather seating sucked her into a trance, and she hummed to herself contentedly. Refreshing gusts of wind came out of the vents, keeping the summer heat from being oppressive. Curiously, she flipped through the ship's manuals, reading up on the food synthesizer options, adjusting the driving route, and half-heartedly skimming over the entertainment options. All systems were go until she noticed the upper deck's door open on the camera view.

'Please no stowaways...' she thought, reaching for her weapon. Holding the handle firmly, she tried to regulate her breathing with limited success. Just before she left the room, she stopped, turned back and set the lights to full intensity before leaving. Shaking, she tried to force herself to stand tall.

Frantically, she scanned the room taking in every detail, audio and visual alike. Just a hint of a footstep sounded off by the stairwell, and in an instant her rifle was armed and ready to fire. Before she could get her finger down on the trigger, a tiny flash of light popped into existence on the floor at the end of the hall, and like a scared animal engulfed in blinding light, she froze.

Millimeter by millimeter, the expanding wave of light cascaded upwards, revealing at first mechanical feet, followed by legs and by the time it had finished, a very familiar face had de-cloaked before her. A face that looked none too happy to be staring straight down Elsa's barrel.

"Elsa, it's me! Put that thing away!"

"I thought you weren't coming with us!" Elsa exclaimed.

"I wasn't, but the bullets started flying and it was the safest way out."

The awkward silence continued long after the two had settled into the cockpit, watching sleek, high-tech skylines fade to more subdued suburbia. Finally finding the strength to talk about the terror in the hangar, Elsa spoke up.

"I'm beyond lucky, Ashley."

"Oh?" came the response.

"To be alive. In the firefight, Anna saw one of them gunning for me before I did. S-she... took bullets for me."

"Wow," Ashley said, slamming back into the plush seating. Under hushed breaths, ne mumbled: "Maybe I was wrong..."

Elsa queried "Wrong about what?"

"I saw the way you looked at me when we first met. Must've confused the hell out of you, being new to Earth and all."

Elsa found herself unsure of how to respond appropriately, opting for silence and a shrug.

"Nah, it's fine. Thing is... I got burned. Bad. By love," Ne turned away, slinking down a bit in recollection. "When I was a man, I got shit for being aggressive, and insensitive. When I was a girl, fuck me, I hated the way everyone treated me as a pretty little thing to be doted over. Made dating a nightmare."

"and that made you..." Elsa trailed off.

"Completely, 100% androgynous. No recreational equipment whatsoever. Downstairs or upstairs."

Elsa cupped her hands over her mouth, sucking in air. "That's so drastic. I can't imagine being driven to do that."

A sigh, and more weariness. "Of course you wouldn't. You and little miss cyber-savior are head over heels for each other. But for some of us..."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so insensitive," Elsa replied, wringing her hands and staring at the floor.

"Nah, I'm not gonna rag on an alien for not reading me like a book. Besides. The two of you are pretty cute. Maybe I am just cynical."

Pain seeped outwards from the impact point, stinging heat burned all over. Blood flew outwards, launched away from where titanium knuckles had smashed into jawbone.

A commanding, feminine voice spoke with venom, "I won't ask you again. Where are they going?"

"What's the matter? Couldn't even triangulate a call?" the prisoner asked, turning his head and spitting blood onto the floor.

No response but a contemptuous snarl. From the shadows a tall, dangerously handsome figure emerged, placing a hand on the assailant's shoulders.

"Now now, haven't you tortured this poor kid enough?"

"Admit it, you enjoyed watching."

"Are you so weak that you only fight shackled opponents?" Kristoff interrupted, pulling against his restraints. Stress alarms blared in his ears, warning that his wrists were being overloaded, but he persisted regardless.

Hans wrapped his hands around Kristoff's chin, pulling the captive's face up.

"You don't understand what's coming, Mr. Bjorgman. Everything is going to change, and I'm going to be the key."

"You're full of yourself."

A sarcastic chuckle, not from Hans, but from Clarice, came forth. "Why do you think he's worth my time but you aren't shit?"

Kristoff tore his eyes off of Hans, staring daggers at the seductress who'd betrayed him. "Oh yeah? Let me out of these and we'll see if you can take it any better than you can deal it."

Hans shot Clarice a look that Kristoff couldn't quite place, and walked over to her. Intimately close, he whispered something in her ear, and upon hearing it she stepped back. Her eyes searched his for a response, and finally she nodded before turning for the door, her metal heels clacking all the way down the hall.

"Tell me Kristoff. Do you think animals know what's best for them?"

"I don't think it matters what I think."

"Surely you opine," Hans remarked, one hand in the crook of his elbow, the other held outwards, palm-up. He turned away, staring thoughtfully into the distance. "Look at all those 'naturals' out there. They use up more space than we do, burn far more energy. They demand the world on a silver platter, but refuse to change themselves to achieve it. Then they turn around and say we're the problem because we're 'unnatural', or 'unfairly privileged.'"

The sheer malicious, willful ignorance was staggering, and unlike his wounds, it nearly caused him to hurl. "They're practically an endangered species. We owe it to them to co-exist peacefully."

Kristoff saw a nervous tic on Hans' face, the tip of what could be a far larger emotive iceberg. He whipped around, mania consuming him so fervently that one might swear they could see it in his eyes.

"I'm going to cleanse this world. All will be perfect. Trim, efficient. You have a choice. You can join me, or be as obsolete as those scraps you call augments."

"Shut up and get on with it. I'll die before I betray Anna."

"Is that so?" Hans asked, spitting with contempt. "The future is not so easy to predict."

Under the vast, open Colorado skies, Elsa took a cautious step off of the loading ramp. Before her, flat wheat fields reached out to her natural vanishing point and beyond. Shivers danced down her spine and across her skin, leaving waves of goosebumps in their wake.

The sheer enormity of the space served as a harsh reminder of just how cosmically small she was. As though her mind had been read, imminent hyperventilation was interrupted by a reassuring hand on her shoulder, the faint sound of servos within a reminder that she was as loved as could be. Anna's little mechanical mannerisms were a powerful hypnotic sedative.

Boots clanged against steel plating, reverberating through the craft. The two lovebird smugglers turned around. Anna lit up immediately. "You're awake!" she cheered.

All of the freighter's 'cargo' stood before her. The man standing closest stretched in place, bowing his arms out and craning his head. "Yeah. Feels pretty good, aside from a crick in my neck."

Triumphant, Anna fought the urge to pump her fist into the air. Instead, she just cheerily offered: "Awesome, let's get you set up in your new home!"

Titania Haven was a massive underground complex, consisting of 45 meter tall concrete domes connected by tubular railways. In the 1950s, back when the United States was a unified nation and on top of the world, several missile silos were built with the purpose of housing and launching the most powerful ballistics available at the time. Then, like everything else, they became obsolete.

Later, during the late 2020's, the world was first wrestling with how to get augmented and natural people to live with each other. As the nation split, the heartland harbored the most traditionalist mindset, eager to accommodate people who didn't want to run headlong into the future. At least not as fast as the world around them.

The effort to drain the underground launch base of over seven decades worth of groundwater and rainfall was a truly monumental one, but it was only the harbinger of things to come. When the transformation was complete, it was a fully operational, self-sufficient city underground. Certain technologies were banned, particularly mechanical and nanotech augmentation, but it was far from luddite territory, and the new arrivals fit in perfectly.

The scorching heat of the day had finally died down, the radiant sun had begun its slow descent past the horizon, the lower edge nearly kissing the ground. The summer heat warped its image in fluctuating waves. Above, the edge of the starfield encroached further upon the dying daylight, and Anna studiously observed every constellation. Ever since their night on the river, she had downloaded every star-chart she could find, eager to discuss them in earnest with her love as equals, instead of just an excited dilettante. Sitting on the roof of Titania Haven's elevator entrance, she let her legs hang into the open air and mindlessly swung them back and forth.

Comfortably within earshot, Elsa perched high upon the Swift's upper deck. Holding her arm out in front of her, a disappointing flurry melted just as fast as it had appeared. Adding extra flourish didn't help. Something deep within, a kind of heavy mental baggage was weighing on her spirits.

"What's the matter, snowflake?" Anna asked.

Elsa threw her head back, staring at the heavens above. Her voice cracked as she cried aloud. "I'm such a failure!"

"Oh absolutely not, miss!" Anna replied, jumping off the rooftop and landing on the Swift. Looking down, she cringed a little at the two dents she left in the deck. Nevertheless, she stepped up to her distraught love, enveloping her in a tender hug from behind. "You're my perfect angel who fell from the heavens," She put her head on Elsa's shoulder, and whispered, "You're not a failure."

"But I just... I can't calm down. My ice just won't work!" She looked down at the ground, a pitiful frown upon her face. "I can't do anything right."

Right away Anna felt what was wrong. "You're scared, aren't you?"

"What if I ruin everything? One mis-fire and my curse goes haywire." Even as she spoke, her skin crawled with disobedient, erratic power. 'What if I can't save you?'

The sweet response flowed to her ears, like a river cleansing fears."I know what you need," Anna said.

"What's that?"

"To let it go."

Without another word, the cybernetic woman gave Elsa a mischievous look, barely dragging her lower lip across her upper teeth. Excitement finally overtaking the pull between them, Anna jumped off the ship, and skipped off into the building. As she rounded the corner, her fading voice could barely be heard exclaiming "Ashley, do we have a chem lab here?"

'A chem lab?' Elsa's stomach churned. She tried to shake the thought of Anna's good intentions creating the next scientific accident. Disappointed in herself, she took in the sight of her own hand, manipulating it so she could see it from all angles. 'What am I doing wrong?' Trying again, she out a deep sigh, let her hand drop down to her side and started the process over, balling up energy in her solar plexus, feeling it grow and pulse. Soon she was channeling it through her, feeling it pool, ebb and flow.

By the time Anna came rushing back, Elsa had long since given up. Lying face-up on the ship's upper deck, she hoped to find inspiration in the cosmos above. The endless void was foreboding, threatening to consume all without purpose or remorse. It wasn't the image itself that unnerved her so, but rather her inner shadow self reflected back at her. Her own mortality, weak and frail. No amount of frosty neurological novelty would change that she was an electrical pattern trapped in a minuscule, fragile meatbag. A meatbag whose time was eternally ticking away into senescence, if someone didn't kill her first.

"... Elsa?"

Unfailingly, the voice pulled her out of her turmoil. '"Sparky!" Elsa cried, running over to the railing, She leaned over to see Anna beaming back at her.

"We cooked up a surprise for you. It should help you... find yourself. Jump on down! I'll catch you!"

She didn't need to be told twice. A short fall and a thud later, she was in her lover's arms. She batted her big blue eyes back up at Anna and quipped, "... a bridal carry, eh?"

Anna retorted with a sassy look. "Aaaaanyway, like I said we have a surprise for you."

Ashley interrupted, holding up a flashlight-sized metal cylinder with a flanged port on one end. "Well, since you can't use deep brain stimulation like we can, we had to get creative. This hypospray is loaded with a psychotropic drug of my own design. It's a tryptamine that will hit your 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B receptors, as well as a bunch of other targets."

Perplexed, Elsa asked, "What does that mean, exactly?"

Anna lit up, bubbly and excited. "Well, first it'll give you a rollercoaster ride of feels, then you'll slip into a trance where you can find yourself."

Neuroscience was an alien language to her and yet even she knew that tampering with the signal pattern in her brain was altering the very fiber of her being. What if she didn't make it out of the experience intact? Would she even recognize the woman who comes out the other side?

"How do I know this is safe?" she asked.

Ashley, eager to defend nir creation said, "It's got a fairly short half-life so if you freak out you can just wait and everything will go back to normal. Even so I've got a benzodiazepine in another hypospray if shit really goes south."

Ashley's colorful vocabulary notwithstanding, Elsa was sure her companions had her best interest in mind. Clearly they'd undergone a great deal of effort to make this, just for her. Still, she was reticent. Her experience with psychotropic drugs began and ended with caffeine and modest amounts of ethanol.

Sensing this, Anna put a hand on her shoulder, "I'll be right by your side."

Looking up to the sky, Elsa caught one last glimpse of the moon above. 'Home,' she thought. The pale, luminous moon that was her bedrock - was always with her, even this far away. No matter what changed, she'd always have it to find strength from.

"Alright. I'll do it."

The cool jet of compressed air puncturing her skin didn't feel like much, she didn't even flinch. It was just a tiny pinprick of pressure. 'No going back now,' she thought.

All seemed normal, at first. Anna had chased her around a bit, tickling her and playing hide-and-seek all around the lone building on the plains. Pinned to the brick wall, the slick paint wicking heat off of her fingers, she protested playfully as kisses descended upon her. Giddiness took over, an unsuppressable smile grew across her face. And then, while she was taking in Anna's immaculate face, she could have sworn that everything got just a little bit brighter.

"Whoa."

"Hmm? What is it Elsa?"

It was a question without a trivial answer. Try as she might to construct a response, there was nothing succinct enough to describe what she felt. Sure, there were some physical changes but how to describe them? Maybe just a twinge in the stomach, a flicker of nerves?

"Something just changed. I don't know what but..."

Anna saw that her girlfriend's pupils were as wide as dinner plates and nodded in understanding. "Want some space?"

The response from Elsa was anything but immediate. All around her, the world was showing hints of novelty, despite looking unchanged. An impulse was entertained, and when she leaned her head to the side, looking past Anna, yet another revelation came.

"Oh... sorry, I just noticed," she started, her words drawing out ever so slowly. "The stars aren't moving l-like they should." She clumsily swatted at the sky before her, nearly falling forwards. "The distant ones are moving just as fast as the… um close ones when I move my head."

Stepping backwards a pace or two, Anna gave her an endearing smile and said: "Sounds cool!"

Time was starting to play devious tricks on her. There was no telling when it happened, but she found herself sitting down, staring out at the horizon. Hints of chromatic aberration were showing in her view, her fingers held aloft split into red and blue channels ever so slightly at the edges. She waved them in front of her, watching the after-images trail by. In an instant, nothing mattered. Not the past, not the future, not even the present. How absurd everything was! Doubling over in fits of laughter, she giggled until she could scarcely breathe. Her lungs complained but the waves of euphoria cascading over her drowned out their protests.

Nearby, Anna watched the madness unfold, enjoying equal parts nostalgia and knowing bemusement. A wry smile came across her face as she watched Elsa double over, so consumed with laughter that tears streaked down her face.

Once again, the winds of volatile emotions shifted. Incessant fits of laughter gave way to a calm, serene peace unlike anything the novice psychonaut had ever known. Tranquility consuming her, she relaxed onto the ground beneath. Overhead the stars themselves bobbed upon a placid sea of infinity. Reality began to fade away, crumbling into oblivion. Soon there was nothing left but that beautiful electrical pattern that made up Elsa, surrounded by fantastic color-shifting rainbow fractals. The ego was in limbo now. A psychic hammer far, far above threatened to plummet and shatter it into as many fragments as there were stars in the sky.

How long she stayed like that was impossible to know. Hours, eons, millenia, possibly even seconds. There was no difference. Reality was nothing more than an infinite, fantastically surreal space of morphing patterns. Self-repeating, self-similar, and all-consuming.

'What even is an 'Elsa'?'

In the swirling theater of visual memory, a scene began to play out. Though reality was far from here, and all perceptions were warped, it was not mistakable for reality. It was far too vivid for that. A great schism formed, on one side terrifying mechanical undulations, swarms of mindless drones consuming without thought or care. On the other side, a paradise, neat and orderly yet free to explore where harmonious states were achieved despite radical differences.

What was the difference? The spiritual signal pattern swam through the vision, trying to decipher. The struggle was immense, but the fulcrum point of the two futures was found.

'The difference... is me. My choice.'

Everything went cold, as it was bound to from the moment this all began. A fragment of identity returned, the first piece of the shattered ego restored.

'My ice!'

Something utterly primal, seated deep within the soul flared to life. Amazingly, it was stable, not once threatening to spiral out of control. All across what felt like a body, chakras aligned, flowing with unbridled power.

She staggered to her feet, stumbling against a decimated equilibrium. Through great hardship, she finally managed to stand. The colorful psychedelia no longer consumed her vision, fading into background noise.

Her stomach tied in knots, flopping all over itself, and along with it her body shivered. Whether it was from the cool night breeze, her nervous system being swarmed by frost, or just the anxiety of hallucination she did not know. But her shattered ego was coming together nicely, a deep spiritual strength as strong as a rock was the foundation underlying it.

The visceral feeling that had flared up from before was now a rhythmic pulse, a connection to some part of this real universe from which her power flowed. She balled it up in her hands, and dutifully it swirled into frigid thermal voids.

One violent expulsion later, and jagged, spiny shards covered the ground before her. The flow-state promised by the psychedelic drug had finally arrived. The stars and energies aligned, and with one mighty push, a beveled, hexagonal platform hoisted itself out of the ground, propelling the icy queen several meters into the air. Every time she channeled her power into the world, a shiver-inducing wave of euphoria hit her, setting off goosebumps and erupting her vision into vibrant color around the edges.

Overwhelming, utterly unchained bursts of winter whipped across the open plains. Back in the sober world, Anna hugged herself. Even her bionic arms were feeling the chill. More than just the weather was affecting her. The love of her life was finally finding her stride, coming to fruition as a grown, focused adult. And that was even more beautiful than the immaculate ice sculptures that now adorned the empty landscape.

Even the jaded, pessimistic neurologist who thought ne'd seen everything was moved. No one was immune to the radiance of Elsa's fulfilled soul as it beamed out into the night.

Back within the slowly rebirthing mind, sobriety was beginning to peek over the horizon, along with the rising sun. She was beginning to tire, her powers had ravenously consumed her energy reserves. Caught in a hazy fog, and blinded by the light, something resembling an angel appeared, scooped her up in arms, and descended back to the solid earth below. Once there, it didn't take her long to realize that sleep wasn't going to happen - the tail of the trip would keep her awake for hours. Despite that, it would be a sedated, restful state; a waking dream.

No horror, no dystopian future could claim her now. Destiny had stared her in the face, and she had dared to fly higher than Icarus to grasp it. Tomorrow, she would return to the tumultuous northeast to do her duty and save her kind, but for now she collapsed into cradling arms and rested to the sound of mechanical heartbeats.