Author's Note: So who's ready to find out just exactly what Rapunzel has been planning all this time and what cause could inspire so many young women to pledge their lives to protecting her? I think it's time you found out.

This chapter picks up roughly four and a half years after the previous chapter.

Cover Art for the story is by the incredibly talented Trixdraws from DeviantArt. Thank you again, Trix! Official art for the story is by the wonderful Giulia! Links to both artists and their works can be found on my bio here. Please see Chapter 1 for my Standard Disclaimers!

Feel, Don't Conceal

by Jo K.

Epilogue 2: Coronan Storm

When your world is crumbling down I can make it better

When you're lost, need to be found, I will look forever

Just keep me close, there is no storm that we cannot weather

However high however low I will face forever

For you

-Kerli, "The Lucky Ones"

—O—

"Corona looks amazing from up here!" Anna shouted as the sprawling port of that country's capital stretched out below them.

It had taken several hours of flying time, but she, Elsa and their two daughters Elin and Erin had finally arrived at Rapunzel's home. Laughter and giggling from behind the two of them, in their usual seats atop Icescale's back with Elsa seated snugly behind Anna, indicated their four-year-old daughters were enjoying the view and ride as much as their two mothers were.

Elsa looked over her shoulder; Elin and Erin were both gleefully looking down and to their right, securely held in their side-by-side seats just behind her by several straps made from Elsa's ice. The two girls had inherited Elsa's powers as well as her and Anna's immunity to the cold, so they suffered no discomfort from the magic ice forming their seats or the ice dragon's body.

"Are you two enjoying the view?" Elsa asked over the slight breeze brushing against them, much milder than would be expected in the midst of the storm surrounding them and propelling them at speeds much faster than Icescale could achieve on his own. The storm clouds did nothing to hinder the visibility of the dragon's four riders, but it served quite well to thoroughly conceal the creature and its riders from the city below.

"Yes!" answered Erin, waving her arms, with Elin simply nodding, neither girl taking her eyes off the sprawling array of buildings, ships, streets and people laid forth beneath them.

"I'm ending the storm," Elsa said to Anna, who nodded in reply.

"Yeah, don't want to dump any snow on them during summer," Anna replied lightly. "Corona isn't used to snow like Arendelle is. They'd probably panic."

With a wave of Elsa's hand, the swirling winds and flakes of snow surrounding them vanished, although the thick cloud cover remained as they approached their destination.

In just a few minutes, Anna had skillfully guided Icescale over Rapunzel's castle; as the dragon began its descent, wings flapping lazily despite its size, it finally emerged below the blanket of clouds that had obscured its approach. Anna and Elsa noted that the castle's guards and staff were already rapidly arranging themselves into formation across the courtyard, awaiting their landing. In less than a minute, Icescale's taloned paws were resting on Coronan stone, and the dragon settled into a low crouch to allow his riders to disembark. He had only been visible below the cloud cover for a few seconds before he had been settled behind the castle's walls.

As per their custom, Anna slid off the great beast's back first, her boots landing on the castle's flagstones with a light thump. Her glittering green gown shimmered in the afternoon sunlight as she turned to catch Elsa, likewise resplendent in a soft blue gown of the same magical ice that glistened and swirled with each tiny movement. Both gowns were sleeveless, revealing fair arms for both queens, with Anna's accentuated by her freckles; both gowns hugged each queen's body tightly enough to show off their figures before separating into long slits at each knee. Once both of them were on the ground, Elsa dissolved the restraints holding each of their daughters in their seats; instantly the two scrambled to slide down the dragon's back, with Elsa and Anna each catching one cackling daughter, helping them to the ground where both girls made a point of awkwardly smoothing down the long skirts of their matching lavender dresses, just as Elsa (and, to a lesser extent, Anna) had done.

Anna and Elsa both quietly smirked at the young princesses copying their mothers' actions, but neither said anything. It was rather adorable, after all.

"Elsa! Anna!" cried a familiar voice behind them, prompting all four Arendellans to turn just in time to see a rapidly-moving blonde figure running toward them.

"Hi Zel!" Anna said happily as Corona's Queen threw her arms around both her and Elsa, thankfully slowing her approach enough that she didn't send all three of them tumbling to the stones of the courtyard.

"Ooo!" Rapunzel whimpered as she released the two of them from her embrace. "Those dresses are colder than I remember!"

"Well, it is summer here," Elsa said softly, a smile on her face.

"Oh, and your daughters are sooo cute!" Rapunzel said, kneeling down and shifting her attention to the young princesses. As she did so, her customary accompaniment of handmaidens, four young women veiled and sheathed from head to toe in sky blue silk save for their eyes, finally caught up to the spirited Coronan Queen, spreading out to flank the royal contingent in a semi-circle. Elsa was sure she recognized the dark, vigilant eyes of Selma, one of Rapunzel's most trusted bodyguards, regarding her from behind one veil, but she couldn't recognize any of the others hidden behind the trappings of quiet handmaidens.

"Now which one is Elin, and which one is Erin, pretty little princesses?" Rapunzel asked cheerily as she regarded the two girls smiling shyly as they shifted back and forth in front of her. "The last time I saw you two, you weren't walking yet!"

"I'm Elin," said Elin, lifting her hand slightly. "And that's Erin," she added, gesturing to her sister.

"Then hello, Princess Elin," Rapunzel said, delicately grasping Elin's little hand, then shifting to regard Erin. "And hello to you, Princess Erin," she said, doing the same for Erin and getting a soft giggle in return. The girls still had Anna's blue-green eyes, more of an emerald in the afternoon sunlight, but they had Elsa's platinum blonde hair, faint hints of freckles and fair complexion. "You two are very beautiful young ladies," Rapunzel said honestly.

Motion at Erin's right pocket drew Rapunzel's eye, causing her to start slightly when a tiny silvery-white reptilian head no bigger than her thumb poked out from the depths of the dress's pocket. "Oh!" Rapunzel said with a curious face. "What have we here?"

"It's Snow," Erin said softly, blushing lightly.

"It doesn't look quite like snow to me," Rapunzel said, eying the curious creature's head and long, sinuous neck. It bore more than a passing resemblance to the massive ice dragon resting beside them, although it was much, much smaller.

"No, her name is Snow," Erin said more firmly. Emboldened by Rapunzel's curiosity, the girl reached down into her pocket, allowing the tiny ice dragon to crawl out of the pocket and up onto her hand. Erin lifted her hand up to give Rapunzel a better view of the small creature, whose body was small enough to fit comfortably in the girl's hand, although the miniature dragon's head, neck and tail all extended past the area of her palm. Its wings rested snugly against its back, again eerily like that of the full-sized dragon they had ridden earlier. As Rapunzel watched with glee, the tiny dragon stretched its neck and tail tightly as it yawned, followed by its wings doing the same for several seconds before it settled back into a seated position on the girl's hand, resting its head on her fingers.

"That... is... adorable," Rapunzel said slowly, a grin stretching across her face.

"Mine's named Sleet!" Elin said suddenly, producing a tiny dragon of her own which she held up for Rapunzel's inspection.

"Girls..." Elsa said softly, leaning over toward her daughters. "We told you to keep them put up, because not everyone might be comfortable with pets in the castle."

"You know, I have a chameleon as a pet," Rapunzel said, blithely ignoring Elsa.

"What's that?" asked both girls simultaneously, their voices almost ideally synchronized as curiosity lit up their faces.

Rapunzel grinned, her face beaming up beneath her thick honey-blonde hair. "It's a little lizard that can change colors without magic!" she said with a low voice, as if she were sharing a secret with the two girls. "His name is Pascal!"

The small princesses' faces grew wide with surprise. "Without magic?" asked Elin, her eyes big.

"Can we see?!" Erin added quickly.

"I bet he'd love to meet you two later!" Rapunzel replied with a nod and a pat on both girls' heads.

"I bet he'd like to play with Snow—" said Erin.

"—And Sleet!" finished Elin.

Rapunzel grinned. "He probably w—" she said, then stopped abruptly. She turned to look at Anna and Elsa. "The little dragons wouldn't try to... eat Pascal... would they?" she asked, her face slightly pale.

Elsa shook her head, the hint of a grin on her face. "They don't have to eat, Zel."

"Oh, good!" replied Rapunzel.

"The girls' inherent magic feeds them, in a sense," Elsa continued. "So Pascal would be safe."

"Unless the girls told them to eat him," Anna added, only barely keeping a smirk off her face when she saw Rapunzel turn pallid once more.

"Anna!" hissed Elsa, poking her wife in the ribs. "That wasn't nice."

Anna started laughing, shielding her left side from any more pokes from Elsa. "But it was funny!" she said, still giggling.

"Not very nice," Rapunzel said as she slowly stood, staring at Anna, but after several seconds of maintaining a hurt expression she inadvertently giggled herself, touching off a tittering fit of laughter between the blonde and her redheaded cousin.

The laughing continued until a light tug on her skirt prompted Rapunzel to look back down at Elin and Erin, who were gazing up at her with solemn faces.

"We wouldn't let our dragons eat your Pascal," Elin said carefully.

"Promise," Erin added, equally as serious.

"Awww," Rapunzel cooed before bending over and gathering each little princess in a gentle, dignified hug, being careful to not jostle either tiny dragon in the process. "Then I think Pascal would love to meet each of you," she said, her green eyes gleaming.

—O—

"Thank you both for coming for this," Rapunzel said as she, Elsa and Anna made their way along the open-air walkway over the castle gardens, lush green spreading below them, with flashes of colors from flowers and fruits of all types.

After going to check on Rapunzel's son Edgar, now five years old, Elin and Erin had asked to stay and play with the quiet, slightly withdrawn young prince. His playroom was bright, open and airy, situated near the top of the royal family's tower. A rope ladder neatly stored next to the largest window rested quietly; despite its lack of use, no dust or cobwebs could be found on it, and the handmaidens watching Corona's young prince personally inspected it each day as part of their regular duties. ("In the event of an emergency," Rapunzel had smoothly said as she showed her cousins the playroom, but knowing what Rapunzel had gone through growing up, Elsa and Anna had simply nodded their heads and accepted her rationale for the ladder without argument or comment.)

"Thank you for making sure the children are someplace secure," Anna replied, minutely adjusting the position of her swordbelt, worn despite the elegance of her long gown. Her sheathed sword and covered shield were both in their usual positions, ready for use at a moment's notice.

In addition to three of Rapunzel's handmaidens present in the room with Edgar, two guards were stationed at the door opening onto the walkway they were currently crossing, with another two guards at the tower's base, where it joined the castle's main floor.

"I'm sorry again for asking the two of you to be here," Rapunzel said yet again, for at least the fourth time since Anna and Elsa had arrived.

"Zel..." Elsa said softly, reaching out to gently grasp Rapunzel's right elbow as they walked. "You and Corona were there for us when we needed you several years ago." She smiled as they stopped, Rapunzel's face downcast as she turned to look at Elsa. "Anna and I are more than happy to be here for you when you could use our help."

"Absolutely," Anna added, putting her right arm around Rapunzel. "If the nobles really are going to try something today following your proclamation, you'd better believe we're going to be standing right beside you."

"Thank you," Rapunzel said, closing her eyes to try and arrest the tears that were building behind them. "It's been so long, building up to this, gathering support as quietly as possible, trying to make sure that when the change comes, it can instituted and protected swiftly..."

She opened her eyes and looked at her cousins—one of the most unusual marriages she had ever heard of, but the way they loved each other wasn't just visible, it was tangible, a warmth that lifted hearts and gave inspiration to those who dared to dream the impossible.

"I wish my parents had been strong enough to do this," Rapunzel said sadly.

"It had to be you," said Elsa gently, reaching out to grasp Rapunzel's left upper arm. "You've seen that there can be a better way."

"And you're stronger than they were," added Anna, playfully bumping Rapunzel with her hip while being careful not to touch her with her covered shield. "It has to be you to do this, Rapunzel, just like it had to be Elsa and me changing Arendelle."

Rapunzel smiled warmly as she reached out and covered her cousins' hands with her own. "I hope I can make as successful a change in my country as you two have in yours."

"You've put years of planning and effort into this," Elsa said. "I think you'll have most of Corona supporting you."

"But not all," Rapunzel said grimly.

"Yeah, but those people have already been trying to kill you for years," Anna said. "It's about time you struck back at them in a way that can bring about real change."

Seeing their cousin's resolve waver slightly, Elsa and Anna both leaned in and hugged Rapunzel tightly.

"You can do this, Zel," Anna whispered.

"We believe in you, and we'll always support you," Elsa added quietly.

Hugs from both of her cousins made her laugh softly, the warmth and comfort from her counterparts easing the sting of losing both her mother and father in the last four years. "At least the children should be safe. They have three Whispers with them, and I've ordered the tower locked and sealed at the main floor entrance. The guards outside that playroom are two of my most loyal." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry you had to bring your daughters with you, although it is nice to see them again."

Elsa smiled. "They definitely have too much of Anna in them for us to leave them alone for a few days. They have a tendency to get into mischief."

Rather than dispute Elsa's words, Anna just grinned. "And when you mix Elsa's powers with my restlessness, you get a..." She turned to Elsa. "What's the right word?"

"Disruptive," Elsa suggested.

"That's a good word for it," Anna agreed cheerily. "A disruptive combination. Although chaotic would work, too."

"As would terrifying, according to some of the castle staff."

Anna's face shifted to careful neutrality. "The wolf thing?" she asked Elsa, her voice lower than usual.

Elsa nodded simply in return. "Yes. The wolf thing."

Anna shivered once, a motion not lost on Rapunzel, remaining silent for a few seconds before she gave Rapunzel a squeeze from the hug in which she still had her cousin. "So!" Anna said, injecting cheer back into her voice. "You ready to do this?"

—O—

The large assembly hall, filled beyond capacity with nobles, commoners, merchants and three times the usual contingent of guards fell into eerie stillness almost instantly as Rapunzel stepped into the room. Prince Eugene, her husband who had foregone any new or fancier titles after Rapunzel's ascension to Queen, stood from his seat beside the podium to greet his wife as she ascended the steps atop the stage, then he once again took his seat.

Elsa and Anna quietly took positions back and to the side, flanked by a half-dozen of Rapunzel's Whispers in their sky blue silks. As Elsa watched Anna's eyes scan the vast crowd, she reached out and took Anna's fingers in her own, shifting their hands to allow them to clasp together in quiet support.

Rapunzel stood silent at the podium for long seconds, looking from one side of the room to another, her hair gleaming and shining as if it were real and not a carefully crafted wig. Finally she began to speak.

"By this point, I am quite sure that rumors have made their way from Corona's northern border to the south, and back again," she said calmly. "It is time to put those rumors to rest.'

As she spoke, expressions in the crowd seemed to fluctuate with each syllable she uttered. Anger, hope, fear, joy, shock, all seemed to flit from face to face to face across the crowd.

"Today, as Queen of Corona, I, Rapunzel the First, hereby establish a new house of Parliament, composed entirely of Corona's workers and 'common' citizens," her voice adding dark emphasis on the word common. "This legislative body shall be equal and counterpart to the existing legislative assembly of nobles, with the goal of representing those people who have been largely ignored by Corona's nobles over the centuries."

Loudly whispered voices at once hissed through the large hall, punctuated by shouts mostly furious but rarely jubilant, until a sharp crack from the podium instantly silenced the assemblage once more.

Rapunzel stood at the podium, a frown upon her face and a wooden gavel in her right hand hovering over the podium in case another rap were to be needed to restore order. After a tense few seconds, she placed the gavel down once more. "The new House of Workers, as it shall be called, will be populated by representatives chosen by the guilds, by towns and villages, and by Corona's working families themselves. Larger guilds and towns will be allowed two representatives each, while smaller guilds, villages and family clans will have one representative each.

"I have already been working with groups across Corona to list different guilds, regions, towns and villages which shall have representation in this new House. Beginning this week with the capitol of Corona itself, we will begin the process of electing these representatives; such elections will be expedited by a team I have assembled for this purpose, protected by Corona's army to prevent any parties from tampering with the process."

Rapunzel paused a moment to let her words sink in before taking a deep breath and continuing. "I believe it evident that all of Corona's citizens deserve an active voice in the country's affairs," she said firmly. "I have personally witnessed countless plots and intrigues by the supposedly 'noble' families of Corona which have crippled, killed and ruined thousands of innocent lives. It is far past time that this country's nobles have a counterweight to help offset their political maneuverings and restore some reason and common sense to our legislative process."

"Such changes will cripple our parliamentary process!" shouted a gray-haired man from near the front of the room.

"And by 'parliamentary process' do you mean anything other than backroom deal-making, hired assassins and outright bribery?" Rapunzel shot back, her voice as cold and sharp as a iron dagger. "I have endured more assassination attempts that likely even you know, Duke Levesque! I have watched my father die a slow, crumbling death as a result of poisoning, and my mother follow him from heartbreak!" Her green eyes flashed dangerously as she regarded the man, who had once again sat down, apparently trying to make himself as small as possible at the moment. "I make a point to kiss my husband and my son every morning and every night, simply because I do not know if that will be the last time I ever see either of them alive!"

Breathing, movement, even time itself seemed to hang on the monarch's shocking words.

"It is time that this foolishness of grudges, rivalries and ambition finally be brought to heel!" Rapunzel said hotly. "I will also be amending Corona's tax code, so that the nobles and landowners pay more in taxes and duties, while the working people pay l—"

"The nobility has been the heart of Corona for a thousand years!" shouted someone from the crowd.

Rapunzel faced in that direction. "Yes, a heart which treats the rest of the body with contempt and disregard," she said. "It's time Corona was given a different path, to heed different voices which might do a better job of leading it toward a better future for all of its citizens, not just a fortunate few."

"You overstep your authority, Your Majesty!" came a shout from the first few rows. Almost immediately the rows parted, revealing a group of three nobleman, all sumptuously attired in brightly colored silks and scarves. They did not take a step forward, nor did they possess any weapons, but it was quite obvious their demeanor was hostile at best and threatening at worst.

"Duke Valeras," Rapunzel said icily. "Duke Olazabel, Baron Berbett." She regarded the three older men with a cold smile. "In Corona, my authority is absolute. Have you forgotten that?"

"It's no secret why the common folk adore you," sneered Valeras. "You pander to them, like feeding scraps to hungry dogs."

"I refuse to engage in such an insulting analogy when we are talking about people, not dogs," Rapunzel said angrily. "The people of Corona have helped your families accumulate lands and fortunes for centuries. It's time you began treating them better, and the crown of Corona will actively support them having increased say in their own lives."

"I think not," said the Duke, a rather out-of-place grin on his face.

Rapunzel blinked at the man's audacity. "If you're planning on overthrowing the crown, Valeras, you seem to have misplaced your weapons. And your army."

The older man only smiled enigmatically for nearly a minute, with everyone in the assembly hall, including Elsa, Anna and Rapunzel growing incrementally more uneasy by the moment. Finally he cleared his throat. "The best weapon I have against you, Your Majesty, isn't one that is worn at the belt."

Rapunzel simply at him for several seconds before the meaning of his words hit her with the force of a mare's kick. "Oh no," she gasped breathlessly.

—O—

The sudden commotion outside the doors to the playroom didn't do much to disturb the three children constructing a castle out of wooden blocks; the two tiny dragons flitted about, and Pascal sat atop one of the castle walls, his coloration a soft tan to match the wooden blocks. The soft scuffling sounds did succeed, however, in setting the three "handmaidens" on alert.

Isabelle, the youngest of the three Whispers, moved to position herself between the three children playing and the door to the playroom, while the other two young women moved toward the door. Despite their training, all three of them jumped slightly when the door to the playroom flew open to let two guards run into the room.

"We must get the children to safety!" blurted one of the guards, a sword brandished in his hand. "There's been an assault on the tower!"

Isabelle was already moving to gather the three royal children when Katarina, always calm even in the worst of situations, said, "What's today's code word?"

The sound of her friend's voice broke the spell of panic that had seized Isabelle, and she stopped and turned to see the two guards now standing completely still, facing the other two blue-garbed handmaidens holding station just inches from the two armored men... but squarely positioned between them and Isabelle and the children.

Silence loomed heavily for several seconds as the two men and the two more experienced handmaidens coolly regarded each other. And then the two guards—who were not the same two guards previously stationed outside the playroom, Isabelle now noted sourly—lunged forward.

—O—

"I assure you, Your 'Majesty,' you have more to worry about than just your son."

Rapunzel glared at the Duke so intensely that most of the crowd had begun actively moving away from him. However, in addition to what appeared to be his co-conspirators, a gathering of roughly twenty men had formed a loose phalanx around Valeras. In response, the Whispers standing with Anna and Elsa had begun to carefully, slowly move forward, closer to their Queen. All eyes were on the standoff brewing between the two Coronans, so almost no one noticed Anna quickly place a kiss on Elsa's cheek, briefly share a knowing look with her wife, then quickly and quietly slip out of the ballroom.

"A coalition fleet of ships friendly to our cause—that of restoring the nobility and, eventually, the throne of Corona back to its glory and rightful elevated station—is already present in Corona's harbor. At my signal, they can devastate those vessels still professing their misguided loyalty to you and your reign in minutes."

"And what will you do then?" Rapunzel spat. "Bombard the city you claim to love?"

"I imagine you will capitulate before things escalate to that point," Valeras said smugly.

Rapunzel locked gazes with the elderly Duke for long seconds before abruptly—and disquietingly—smiling broadly. "Have you met my cousin Elsa, Duke Valeras?" she said sweetly, with more than a hint of venom dripping beneath the tone of her words. She turned to look over her left shoulder; catching Elsa's eye, Rapunzel gave her a brief nod.

As Elsa began to walk slowly toward the platform, many of those in the crowd began moving back and forth, trying to get a better view of the woman walking toward the platform from behind Queen Rapunzel; due to the decorations, guards and platform itself, she had been partially obscured, but as soon as the pale, striking blonde began climbing the few steps to the platform, a buzz of discussion erupted through the assembly hall.

Now Rapunzel's smile was positively wicked. "You might have heard of my cousin, Valeras. She's more properly known as Queen Elsa, the Winter Queen of Arendelle," she added as Elsa stopped beside Rapunzel, her expression as she regarded the Coronan duke as biting and cold as an Arendelle glacier. Rapunzel leaned forward across the podium, internally laughing as Valeras suddenly became the least popular man in all of Corona, with all of his supporters scurrying away, a few falling over backward in their haste.

"Now, shall we talk about that fleet of yours some more?" Rapunzel slowly spoke, as a thin smile began to stretch across Elsa's face.

—O—

The first two blows from the blackguards wearing hastily donned uniforms of Corona's castle guards, taken from the dead men who had been stationed on the first floor, missed.

The first two blows from Rapunzel's Whispers did not.

As the newly-deceased bodies of the first two attackers fell to the floor, bleeding from stab wounds to their throats, an angry rush of men surged into the playroom, daggers and swords drawn as they charged the two Whispers facing them.

Isabelle immediately picked up Prince Edgar, who latched onto her neck and shoulder tightly, and grabbed Elin's hand. "The window!" she whispered loudly to the three of them, all wide-eyed with shock and fear; Elin grabbed Erin's hand with her free one, and together the four of them ran to the window and the escape ladder positioned beneath it—only to skid to awkward stops as a burgundy-clad brigand interposed himself in front of the large window.

Elin and Erin actually tumbled to the ground at the sudden stop, their tiny dragons fluttering their wings quickly to hover momentarily, before descending to their masters, Sleet landing on Elin's heaving chest, Snow on Erin's right shoulder, with both dragons worriedly nuzzling each girl's face in an attempt to calm them as all three children began to cry loudly. Isabelle quickly placed Edgar next to the two princesses where they were sprawled against the wall; she then drew a dagger and turned to face the man threatening her.

"You don't have to die too," he said, his voice infuriatingly calm as he spoke to her, a cruel mockery of a middle-aged father or uncle showing kindness to a younger relative.

Isabelle swallowed, her heart pounding in her chest. She looked toward the other Whispers, only to see them now lying lifeless on the floor, amidst the bodies of four or five men wearing the colors of the Castle Guard scattered around, with at least another half-dozen still alive and standing over their bodies. Blood was seeping around all the still-warm bodies, a gruesome curtain of crimson uniting them all in death and spreading ominously across the floor.

She turned to face the man again, only to catch a glimpse of motion just before his fist landed squarely on her left temple, then all was blackness.

—O—

As their babysitter Isabelle dropped to the floor after being hit by the strange, scary man, Elin and Erin both quickly scrambled to their feet, despite their tears continuing to fall. While their tears weren't frozen solid like their mother Elsa's, they were cloudy and cold to the touch were anyone to check. But they were determined not to let this man and the other scary men in armor with swords hurt Isabelle or Edgar any more. Their mommies were brave during scary times, and now they had to be brave too.

The soldiers crowded around the three children, with Edgar, already traumatized from previous assassination attempts against his family, curled up behind the two princesses; he had pulled some blankets over himself in an attempt to hide that had no real hope of succeeding but was the best recourse his terrified five-year-old mind could muster.

"We weren't here fer the two of you," said the man who had struck Isabelle as he looked down at the twin blonde girls, "But might as well take you with us. You must belong to somebody important, to be up here with the Queen's brat."

Elin and Erin both stared at the man, doing their best to channel the steely glare they had seen their mother Elsa make when she was very angry. Their little hands slipped together, Elin's right into Erin's left, as they stood between the raiders and their target, the quivering boy still huddled beneath the blankets next to the wall.

Before anyone else could move, Sleet fluttered up from behind Elin, perching lightly on the girl's left shoulder as it curiously regarded the man looming over the three children, as well as the other men that had crowded into the once-happy playroom. Snow quietly lit atop the blanket covering Edgar, watching the events intently.

"Never seen anything like that," the closest man said curiously as he regarded the strange flying creature. "Guess we'll just have to take you with us too. Somebody ought to pay good money for somethin' like you." He bent over slightly, extended a gloved finger toward the baby dragon's head, which slowly stretched out toward the approaching finger.

"Careful," said one of the men behind him. "Might bite the end a' your finger off!" Guffaws erupted from the group of raiders despite the tense situation.

The man grinned at the joke. "That's what the glove's for," he said, stopping his finger just inches away from the curious dragon, its head slightly smaller than the gauntleted digit. Despite it being late summer, the man's breath seemed to frost in front of him; the incongruity of it registered weakly with him, but he was too busy focused on the silvery-white creature in front of him to appreciate the temperature in the room slowly but surely dropping just yet.

The dragon gave the metal gauntlet and the finger it encased two sniffs, then it lifted its snout to look directly into the man's eyes with a quizzical expression. At this point all eyes were on the amusing interaction between the man and the tiny ice dragon, so no one appreciated the twin glares of two sets of blue-green eyes as the Arendellan princesses stood perfectly still, waiting.

The man smiled as the dragon tilted its neck slightly, looking the man directly in the eyes as it gave him a toothy grin. "I think he likes me!" he said. "Mebbe I'll just keep him."

The tiny dragon's mouth opening and vomiting a glistening white spray of ice and frost directly into his face was the last thing the man would ever see.

—O—

As the screaming raider fell to the floor, his face and eyes burned irreparably from the intense magical cold, Elin and Erin both unleashed their fledgling powers, nowhere nearly as strong as Elsa's but still formidable, instantly plunging the entire room into subfreezing temperatures that continued to plummet. Erin lifted her free right arm, pointing at the door as a wall of ice materialized over the opening, sealing the room off; Elin echoed her sister's actions with her free left arm, sealing the window.

"Pascal!" Elin abruptly shouted; she released Erin's hand and ran back over to the blocks, where she spotted the small chameleon perched motionless upon the same wall of blocks. He looked dangerously ashen as she quickly but carefully scooped him up and ran back across the room, trying her best to negate the intensifying cold around the small creature but not having much success.

Erin had now raised both her arms, pointing them at the half-score of brigands who were mostly attempting to flee from the supernatural storm and break through the crystalline sheet of ice filling the doorway, blocking their escape. While most of them were pounding and chopping at the ice, the wall was thickening faster than they could chip away at it, and their movements were quickly growing slower and more ponderous as snow began to coat their bodies and a vortex of arctic wind began to whip through the room.

Elin grabbed the blankets covering Edgar, exposing him to the swelling cold as she lifted them up, still cradling Pascal in her left hand. "Come here!" she practically shouted as she dragged the blankets over to where Isabelle lay unconscious on the floor. As the cold swept over Edgar, it jarred him back to lucidity; he scrambled to his feet, following the blankets as much as anything else as he began to shiver in the worst cold he had ever felt.

"Scoot up against her!" Elin said as she dumped the blankets on the unconscious but still-breathing handmaiden, her normally soft voice now having the edge of command to it. She pulled out the collar of Isabelle's silk top, then gently placed Pascal down the woman's shirt against her bare skin.

As Edgar clambered down to lay against Isabelle, Elin hurriedly draped the blankets over both him and Isabelle. "Scoot up against her, but don't squash Pascal," she said firmly. "I put him down her shirt so he could get warm!" The boy nodded right before Elin threw the blankets over his and Isabelle's bodies, then she began tucking the thick blankets beneath them on all sides.

As her sister worked to protect Edgar and Isabelle, Erin watched as one of the attackers turned and started toward them. She grimaced, but she had to protect Elin and Edgar and Isabelle. She concentrated on focusing her power around the man, her expression sad but knowing as she saw the ice start to coalesce around his body. Within seconds he was motionless, encased in a thick shell of ice. Looking at the rest of men, only a few of them remained capable of movement, as feeble as it had become. Most of them were either collapsed on the ground or rigid where they stood.

Satisfied that their attackers had been neutralized, Erin turned and ran over to where Elin was tucking the blankets around Isabelle and Edgar. She immediately began helping her sister until they were satisfied that the two humans and one chameleon were as well-protected as they could be from the cold.

The two sisters crawled on their knees over to each other, falling into each other's embrace as they allowed themselves to cry once more. Wordlessly they both tried to stop the storm, to work together to reverse the cold in the area around them without thawing their attackers, but the cold refused to yield. Too much had been summoned with too little control, and there was far, far too much terror and anguish in their young hearts from what had just happened for them to regain control of the now-howling blizzard.

—O—

As Anna and three castle guards reached the door to the tower, they saw two other guards yanking on the large door as hard as they could, but something was holding it fast. As the two guards saw the others approaching, they turned to reveal faces reddened and frantic from their efforts to open the door.

"It's chained on the other side!" one guard gasped.

Anna stepped forward, drawing her icy sword as she did so. "Open it as far as you can," she said firmly, immune to the bitter cold that began to radiate outward from the sword's exposed blade, beginning to glow a soft blue-white, shimmering along the length of the blade.

The guards gave her a nod, then they both seized the door's handle and heaved backward, opening a sliver of a gap between the door and frame. Anna slid the blade of her sword into the opening, then sliced downward. As the blade came into contact with the chain, the metal links instantly froze and crumbled, snapping the chain. The two guards pulling on the door tumbled backward as the massive wooden door suddenly swung open.

Even before the two guards stopped rolling, Anna had stepped into the small antechamber holding the base of the spiral staircase that wound its way up the tower. A group of three men wearing slightly mismatched and ill-fitting livery of the Castle Guard was facing her, but they seemed to have been caught off-guard at the door actually being breached; each of them had a sword belted at his waist, but none of them had a weapon prepared.

That proved a fatal mistake for the first man, as Anna's icy blade sliced his chest open as easily as a chef cutting a tomato. He fell to the ground, scarlet crystals of ice spilling out of his torso as his blood froze even as it spilled out of his chest. She continued her charge into the room, using the momentum of her forehand strike to drive her blade into the chest of the second guard, simultaneously piercing and freezing his heart and lungs with the blade's magic.

The third drew his sword and moved to attack, but his second step caused him to skid as he stepped on a patch of ice that was rapidly spreading across the stone floor. His skill was sufficient to get his sword into a guard position to block the coppery-haired queen's strike toward his head and chest, but the sight and sound of his sword shattering into tiny glittering shavings at the contact between the blades caused him to jerk backwards reflexively in shock. His feet shot forward at the sudden movement, and he fell down and backward hard enough to send a jolt of pain up his pelvis into his back.

He tried to push away from the furious woman with flashing green-blue eyes closing on him, her steps calm and steady as the shimmering emerald green fabric of her ballroom gown swished and swayed with each one of her measured steps. However, there was no traction to be had with his leather boots, and when his hands contacted the bitterly cold ice covering the floor, they immediately stuck fast, despite his frantic attempt to tear them loose.

The woman never spoke as she stopped just out of his reach; she extended the sword to point directly as his head, but she made no further attempt to actually touch him with it.

Suddenly he felt a chill deep in his mouth and lungs that was more intense, more terrifying than anything he had ever felt; he gasped and weakly croaked as the air in his throat solidified and froze, his throat trying futilely to swallow against the solid mass of ice growing and spreading through his airway and lungs. He jerked in a desperate spasm of a dying man, eyes growing hazy, then dark as ice encased his entire head in a solid globe.

As the ice block entombing the dead man's head struck the shiny floor with a dull thunk, the contingent of guards standing just outside the anteroom all remained entirely motionless at what they had just witnessed.

"Stay here," Anna said over her shoulder, not bothering to look behind her at the astonished guards. "I don't want any of you to die." Without a glance back, she turned and ran to the staircase, then up it, the glistening ice following her up the steps, coating the floors and walls as she went.

—O—

"The noble houses will be merciful to you if you abdicate now, Your Majesty," said Duke Valeras, his voice still oozing with smugness and contempt, but some of his edge had been blunted as Queen Elsa had joined her cousin atop the stage. "Exile for you and your low-born husband, but you can keep your lives."

"And my son?" Rapunzel said, scarcely believing how far Valeras was willing to take this attempt at a coup.

The grey-haired man smiled, without even a hint of cheer behind his thin lips and white beard. "Well, as a potential heir to the throne, despite the taint of his lineage, he would have to remain where he could be... managed."

He turned to Elsa. "As for you, Queen Elsa, the noble houses certainly bear no ill will toward you or Arendelle. We would certainly prefer to remain allies with you and your country."

"Oh, would you?" Elsa said, matching the Duke's fake smile with a cold smirk of her own.

"Corona's internal politics do not have to impact relations with Arendelle," the duke continued. "My coalition will allow you and your, ah, wife safe passage out of Corona, with an escort to ensure your safety while we restore some reason to this great nation."

He turned to his left. "Weselton, would you have any problem with your ships providing Queen Elsa safe passage back to Arendelle?"

Stepping out of the crowd of people packed together on the side of the room to Elsa's right and Valeras's left, the short, thin figure of the elderly Duke of Weselton took a few steps forward in a direction split between Valeras and the platform bearing Rapunzel and Elsa. He looked toward Arendelle's Winter Queen, and behind his thick glasses and white eyebrows, he flashed a quick wink at the blonde monarch, which her sharp eyes caught.

"My fleet would certainly have no problem with providing Queen Elsa and Queen Anna safe passage to wherever they might choose to sail," the Duke of Weselton said slowly, his voice still just a hair deeper than would be expected for his petite frame. "But... that would have to wait until we have received your fleet's surrender, Valeras." He turned as he finished, allowing his white mustache to turn up at the end as he smiled broadly. He felt a warm sense of satisfaction as he watched Valeras's face slowly twist and contort as the man processed his words.

"Wh-what?!" Valeras sputtered as his face began to flush.

"Her Majesty Queen Rapunzel was afraid some of the nobles would attempt something like this at today's ceremony, so she contacted me several weeks ago and voiced her concerns. When you approached me less than a week later and proposed your attempt at a coup, I was quite happy to play along with you and your little coalition in the interest of protecting one of Weselton's best trading partners."

"Passing our plans on to this low-breeding bi—"

The sound of a crisp slap cut the Duke's words off abruptly, as he fell to a knee from the impact against the side of his left cheek. He looked up to see Rapunzel herself standing in front of him, her face lightly flushed and her emerald eyes seething with fury. "Regardless of what the next few minutes hold for your coalition, Valeras, the next guttural insult you level at me will be the last words you ever speak," the Coronan Queen hissed. "Even if that means I execute you myself," she said, leaning over the kneeling man as she finished her sentence.

The older man looked up at the young woman standing over him, murder dancing in his intense eyes as he weighed his options, but the cold smile that slowly, dangerously crept across Rapunzel's face put pause to his thoughts of violence.

"Try it," Rapunzel whispered harshly. "You'll find me much more dangerous than you think, I assure you."

As the two continued to lock gazes, Rapunzel felt no need to reach for the dagger concealed on her thigh, nor for either of the surreptitiously sharpened hair sticks arranged in her honey blonde hair, deadly weapons hidden in plain sight beneath colorfully jeweled butterfly-shaped bases. Instead her hands, strong from years of climbing and exercise, twitched in anticipation of wrapping around the man's throat and choking the life from his treacherous body.

"Even if you kill me here, it won't save your reign," Valeras said; however, his voice wavered slightly, its previous confidence now conspicuously lacking. "My fleet has orders to attack within the next two hours, unless my flag is raised atop the castle."

"Well, we can't have that now, can we?" Rapunzel said, sarcasm thick in her words. "Elsa, dear?" she said, lifting her head and speaking over her left shoulder while not taking her eyes off Valeras.

The crisp clicking of heels on the stone floor marked each of Arendelle Queen's steps down the platform's front steps and toward the two of them. Once those clicks stopped just behind Rapunzel, the Coronan monarch pleasantly said, "Would you please be kind enough to remove the threat of this man's fleet, dear cousin?"

"It would be my delight, Rapunzel," Elsa replied politely. "Do you have the harbor secure, Duke Weselton?" she asked, looking at the elderly man.

Weselton smiled and tipped his head lightly to Elsa. "Of course, Your Majesty," he replied. "My ships have the harbor sealed off, as we had planned. There will be no reinforcements joining the fighting, brief as it may be."

Elsa gave the man a smile. "I don't plan on there being any fighting," she said confidently. "Thank you again, Your Grace."

"Of course, Your Majesty," replied the Duke, offering a slight bow in reply. "Always a pleasure to deal with you, your gracious wife and your most charming cousin."

Elsa turned her attention back to Rapunzel and Valeras. "Now, Zel?" she asked.

Rapunzel nodded, her eyes fixated on Valeras as the old man visibly grew more desperate by the second. "Yes. Now."

—O—

As Anna reached the door to the tower's playroom, she almost smiled as she saw the sheet of ice sealing off the door. But then she felt the raging storm blowing inside the playroom, and her heart dropped into her throat.

It's out of control. The girls will be fine, but Edgar...

She tapped the ice wall with the tip of her sword; instantly the wall crumbled into snow and frost, tumbling to the ground and out into the hallway. A vortex of white and silver whirled dizzyingly inside the large playroom, a microcosm of cold, bitter fury and fear that was dangerously uncontrolled.

Anna stepped inside, closing her eyes as she felt her hair toss in the swirling winds. Please calm down, she thought firmly. You've done what was asked, now it's time to go.

She felt the winds slightly slow, but the air remained thick with sleet and heavy, wet snow that was now several inches deep on the floor; Anna would have been ankle-deep in the snow had it not lifted her up in respect, keeping her boots from so much as getting wet. She swallowed and concentrated. Thank you for protecting our daughters. But others remain in danger, and I must keep them safe as well. Please release them and this room from your embrace.

But the storm stubbornly refused to yield. It had been borne of Elin's and Erin's fear and fury, and it was not in a reasonable mood.

Anna gritted her teeth and opened her eyes. The room's white opacity shimmered briefly, then gave way to her vision, allowing her to see clearly despite the blizzard. The bodies lying cold and still on the ground were noted, but the lack of movement (and lack of any of them being children) kept them low on her priority list. After scanning the room, she spotted Elin and Erin huddled together in the far corner of the room, next to a pile of blankets that thankfully looked more than large enough to shield a small child.

She lowered her sword but didn't sheathe it as she quickly crossed the room, her steps quick but sure as the layer of snow on the ground steadied her feet. When she reached her daughters who were quite obviously sobbing as evidenced by the jerking of their bodies as well as the whimpering cries, she placed her sword on the ground beside her and leaned forward, putting her arms around them both.

Both girls briefly jumped, but their mother's embrace held them both tightly, and after the momentary shock gave way to realization of who was holding them, they both fell against her.

"We tried to stop the storm!" Erin wailed weakly, her voice hoarse from crying.

"We really did!" added Elin, her throat equally strained. "But we couldn't!"

"We put Edgar and Isabelle beneath the blankets to keep them warm!" Erin said, and Anna felt her heart leap at those simple words.

"Good," she said, trying to inject confidence into her voice. "That's very smart of you both. But you have to stop the storm now."

"We can't!" Elin cried, her voice cracking.

"Yes you can!" Anna said firmly, giving both girls a squeeze. "Don't try to stop the whole storm, not at first. Focus on just right here, around us and around Edgar and Isabelle. Just this one area."

Both girls looked up at her, two sets of eyes identical to her own, save for the wide pupils and panic in their eyes.

"Girls!" Anna said sharply, making them both jump. "Close your eyes, and think about each other." After a second, they did as they were told. "Think about your mother and me. Think about me holding you two right now, at how you feel now that I'm here." She lifted her eyes, keeping her head and body still as she glanced around at the storm. "Think about being at home, about sleeping in your bed and playing in the snow. Think about Sleet and Snow and Olaf and how much they love you, and how much you love them."

The force of the winds immediately around them began to slow, allowing Anna to see the ice on the soft yellow walls and the nearby window began to thin, light behind the large window becoming more apparent as an ovoid glow through the frosted barrier.

"Good, girls, good," she said softly, smiling at how they were working together. "Think about how it feels when we play with you, when we pillow fight and make fortresses out of the cushions of the chairs and sofas. How it feels when Elsa and I pick you both up and hug you, and tell you we're proud of you when you do well on your lessons and your training."

The winds had nearly died, and the snow was once again falling more or less vertically, thinning out as it did so. The inches of snow covering the furniture, blanket and floor also began to thin, and as her sight penetrated the coating of snow over the bundle of blankets, Anna felt relief when she saw a jostle of movement beneath those blankets.

She swallowed. "Think about each other," she said tenderly. "Think about how much you love each other, at how good it feels to be together. About how you'd do anything for each other, and how no one could ever come between the two of you."

With a rush of wind, the storm disappeared throughout the room, taking the snow and ice with it.

Warmth crept down Anna's cheeks as she looked up, Erin and Elin doing the same as they followed her movement.

"We did it! We made it stop!" Erin squealed, voice still raw and hoarse but unmistakably happy. She and Elin immediately wiggled forward beneath Anna's arms and hugged each other tightly, bodies quivering with relief.

"We did it together," Elin said softly, trying to rest her poor voice.

"Yes," Erin replied proudly.

Anna stood and took the few steps to the irregular lump of blankets on the floor, now bare and dry once more. She grabbed at one end and began tugging, working the blankets loose two at a time until she could see the incredibly welcome sight of Edgar looking up at her, held tightly in the silk-covered arms of one of Rapunzel's handmaidens.

"It's safe now," Anna said, offering a smile to the two of them. "Elin and Erin have stopped the storm."

"They put us under these blankets," Edgar said, his voice slightly raspy, "to protect us from the cold."

"We knew it would be harder to stop the storm than to start it," Erin said quietly, nervously toeing the point of her flat shoe into the rug covering the floor.

"Ohh," Isabelle mumbled with a slow groan as she began to stir.

"Shhh," Anna said, kneeling over to examine the girl's reddened left face, removing her veil as she did so. The girl was already starting to have some swelling over her left temple and around her left eye. "Elin," Anna said, smiling as she felt her daughter step closer. "Can you carefully cool this woman's face? It should help with the pain and swelling."

Looking into her daughter's nervous eyes, Anna gave her a reassuring smile. "You can do this. Just a little bit, just like you were going to cool off your tea when it's too hot and you want it cold."

Elin nervously nodded once, then she turned and gently laid her small hand and short fingers on Isabelle's left temple and cheek. She carefully pulsed cold into the Whisper's skin, numbing the throbbing pain that had firmly settled into the woman's head and face.

"Thank you," Isabelle said weakly, smiling as the pain eased, replaced by a welcome numbness that extended into her teeth on that side.

An odd expression crossed her face as her mouth twisted in a quirky manner. "I think something's in my..." she mumbled as she pulled out her shirt's collar, peeking down to see what was tickling her chest.

When Pascal ran out onto her nose, despite her training, poor Isabelle screamed.

—O—

"Keep your eyes on me, girls," Anna said as she led the way out of the room.

"Yes, mama," the two little blondes said at once, trying not to glance around the corridor gleaming with frosted ice and littered with bodies, some fully frozen solid and others only partly so, but all equally cold and still. They wordlessly followed their younger mother as she walked purposefully down the corridor to the door leading to the breezeway, carefully keeping their eyes from drifting to the carnage around them.

Isabelle was carrying Edgar, not holding a knife in her hands due to the lingering patches of ice on the floor as well as holding the young prince. She watched with a numb fascination as the ice seemed to crawl across the floor as they approached it, with it parting and sublimating into thin air once the Arendellan queen and princesses passed over it. She had heard Queen Rapunzel talk about her cousins' powers before, but hearing stories about such occurrences was entirely different from seeing them happen with one's own eyes.

As they exited the tower through the breezeway door, Corona's summer heat washed across Isabelle's body with a comforting warmth. She didn't dare stop and savor the moment, though, because the two little princesses and one determined queen ahead of her continued to set a quick pace. She held Prince Edgar a bit more tightly and picked up her footsteps—only to nearly run over the two small princesses, who had come to an abrupt stop behind their younger mother.

"M-my apologies, Your Highnesses!" Isabelle stammered as she briefly teetered over the two young girls, waving her free right arm awkwardly as she struggled to maintain her balance while holding the young Prince. She succeeded in arresting her forward motion finally, only to nearly have her legs give out from under her entirely as she glanced to her right, toward the city's main harbor.

The entire harbor was encased in ice, the hundreds of vessels both small and large inside it held fast in a wintery still life composed on a scale much larger than that of even the largest painting.

Anna's eyes quickly scanned the vessels firmly secured in the harbor. Those visibly flying a combination of flags surreptitiously marking them as loyal to Rapunzel still lightly bobbed up and down; all other vessels were entirely motionless, rendered such by coatings of ice that had grown up, around and over the sides of the ships. Not only did the icy shells hold those ships in place, it also covered the openings for their cannons.

A muffled yet still powerful crack resounded from the harbor; Anna quickly located a ship that was now smoking and jerking as the noise of an explosion continued to rumble across the bay. "Looks like someone decided to test their cannons against my wife's ice," she said calmly.

The two girls between Anna and Isabelle both giggled at their mother's comment, as if anyone daring to challenge the Winter Queen's power was not only foolish but comically ridiculous for doing so.

The report of another explosion drew Isabelle's attention back down to the harbor, in time to see a rapid string of explosions combine to decimate the previously-damaged warship. The icy berth remained intact as the blast from the ignited powder magazine deep inside the warship pulverized the vessel and its doomed crew, timber, fabric and flesh alike blown into the air from the explosion. Smoke and flames continued to lick upward as the debris began to fall back to earth, with the icy berth, still undamaged, catching and retaining most of the warship's burning remnants.

"Let's get back to the assembly hall," Anna said, reaching down to run her fingers lightly across first one daughter's pale blond hair, then the other's. "Your mom's going to be happy to see you two." She smiled as she looked over at Edgar. "And your mom is going to be extremely happy to see you, little prince," she said happily, getting a bashful smile from the shy boy.

—O—

When the guards securing the open entryway to the assembly hall parted to let the five of them in, Anna leading the way with her icy blade once again safely returned to its sheath, a squeal of happiness drew everyone's eyes to the two little girls running toward their other mother, blond hair trailing behind their heads and lavender skirts flapping as they ran across the marble floor.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Erin and Elin both squealed together as they ran, homing in on Elsa, who knelt to meet them, arms opened to gather them in. They threw themselves into her arms, Elin on Elsa's left, Erin on her right.

"I'm so glad you two are safe," Elsa whispered to them. "Your mother and I were very worried when we realized that we had put you in danger, when we thought we were keeping you safe."

"We saved—" Elin started to whisper loudly, only to be gently cut off by Elsa's fingers over her lips.

"Not right here," Elsa admonished Elin softly. "Tell us after this is done, when we're in private."

"Yes, mother," Elin said, remembering that they were in public, in a room full of people who expected them to act properly, like young princesses rather than excited girls.

"Good girl," Elsa added with a warm smile. "Now we have to support our cousin Rapunzel, so go watch over Prince Edgar."

"Is he really older than we are?" whispered Erin, trying to keep her voice low enough to not be audible to others. "Because he acts really scared."

Elsa sighed lightly. "Edgar has been very sheltered his entire life, because there have always been people who wanted to kill him and his parents, even before he was born. He hasn't had the opportunity to learn to be brave and strong like the two of you have."

"He also doesn't have any powers," Erin whispered.

"Your mother Anna doesn't have any powers either," Elsa said firmly but just quietly. "Do you think she gets scared?"

"No," Erin said somberly. "I don't think mama gets scared of anything."

"Ever," added Elin seriously.

"Ever ever," added Erin.

Elsa smiled. "Don't ever think less of anyone because you have powers and they don't," she said seriously but softly. "Neither of you has had to go through what Edgar has suffered growing up, and he has no one to be with him the way you two have each other."

Elin and Erin quickly exchanged a knowing glance with each other, then they looked forward again, their gaze cast down where Elsa's left knee rested on the ground. "I'm sorry, Mommy," Erin said, her voice just above a whisper.

"I forgive you," Elsa said gently. "The two of you are still learning, and your mother and I love you both." She placed quick kisses to the forehead of each girl, frosted lip prints lingering on their pale skin for a second after each kiss; the acts of affection made both girls grin and giggle. "Stay between your mother and me until this is over," Elsa whispered.

As she stood, she saw Anna had moved to stand with the three of them, apart from everyone else. Elsa gave Anna a wink, receiving a sly grin that made her heart leap with a surge of giddiness, despite the gravity of the situation. She then turned to once again regard Rapunzel, whose angry emerald gaze had never left the treacherous Duke, who seemed to have grown even more flushed over the last few minutes.

"The threat of your fleet has been neutralized, Valeras," Rapunzel said sternly. "My son is safe. Your would-be accomplices have fled your side." She held the older man's gaze, watching as his hands flexed minutely. "You would have killed scores, possibly hundreds of people, in your attempt to overthrow my crown, all because y—"

His sudden lunge forward caught most of the people watching the drama off guard, but Rapunzel calmly stepped forward and out with her right leg, using her motion and Valeras's own momentum to drive her left knee into his abdomen. She spun behind the man, hooking her left arm under his chin as she lifted her left knee to press it into the middle of his back, driving him forward to the ground while using his body to cushion her own descent. He hit the ground with a painful thud, the impact and Rapunzel's weight on him from behind combining to drive the breath from his lungs.

Rapunzel used her leverage to pull upward and back on the man's head, causing him to groan in agony as he felt his neck begin to break. Then she caught the eyes of her small cousins, standing with their mothers, looks of shock on the girls' faces contrasted with sad determination for her older cousins.

As Rapunzel watched, tightly maintaining her position and just an inch away from snapping Valeras's spine and ending his life, she saw the looks of alarm on Elin's and Erin's faces give way to a cold, aloof composure that no child should ever have in the face of such grisly action. She shifted her face to look at her own son, his face tightly buried in Isabelle's shoulder.

After a moment of deliberation, Rapunzel began to relax her body's pull on Valeras, then she released her grip on his head without warning, causing Valeras's head to surge forward, his forehead striking the marble floor hard enough to render him unconscious. She took in a deep breath, trying to still the tremors of adrenaline still coursing through her body without much success.

She pushed upward off Valeras's limp figure, standing and turning to glare at the crowds still present in the assembly room. "You threatened my child," she said to the motionless man, still shallowly breathing, her voice controlled but deliberately loud enough to be heard easily throughout the room. "That is a line you will never cross again."

"Take this traitor to the cells," she called out to the closest pair of castle guards. "No trial is necessary, as he has already admitted his guilt. His execution will take place tomorrow." She looked back over at Elsa and Anna, but it was on the two little girls standing between them where her eyes settled. They continue to watch her, studying her every word and movement, their blue-green eyes piercing the distance between her and them.

She shifted her gaze to her son, who was now looking directly at her, his dark eyes tearful; even at this distance, she could see the shining tracks of tears down his face. I can't spare you from this harsh world forever, but I will spare you while I can, she thought to herself, closing her eyes to sear that impulse into her mind.

She opened her eyes, finding her cousins and allowing herself to smile once more. As she walked to them, Isabelle hurried forward, handing Edgar to Rapunzel as both mother and child reunited once more. They hugged each other tightly.

"Rapunzel!"

The room turned to see Prince Eugene come back into the room from the door leading to the main hall.

"The harbor has been evacuated, and Valeras's ships have all been captured by Elsa's ice," Rapunzel's husband said as he placed his arms around his wife and son. "One of the ships tried to blast its way out of the ice, but they only managed to blow themselves up."

"And the ships will be salvageable?" Rapunzel asked.

"Well, yeah, except for that one," he replied, a grin crossing his face.

"Not quite the time for teasing, Flynn," Rapunzel said softly, but a weak smile crept across her lips in turn.

Eugene smiled as he nuzzled his wife's neck, trying to relax her tense posture and rapid heart rate. "I love that you still call me that," he whispered.

Rapunzel closed her eyes and let herself begin to relax in her partner's embrace. "Mmm, you'll always be that sweet outlaw to me," she whispered back to him before placing a soft kiss in front of his ear.

As they watched their cousin and her husband continue to hold each other, Anna and Elsa drifted into each other's embrace as well, their two daughters standing before them. "Isn't love sweet?" Anna said tenderly, sinking against Elsa's right side.

"It is," Elsa agreed, reaching forward with her free hand to caress Erin's shoulder; wordlessly, the girl and her twin sister leaned back against their mothers as they held hands with each other, Elin trying not to laugh as Sleet tickled her leg with his twitching tail inside the pocket of her dress.

Elin looked to her left, catching Erin's eye. Sharing a thought, the two girls leaned against each other, still clasping hands tightly, securely in their mothers' embrace and with each other. All was right with their world.

—O—

Author's Afterword: This particular chapter ran a bit longer than I was expecting, so you're going to be getting an extra epilogue! I had planned on putting another story set several years ahead in this chapter as well, but as long as this one has gone, I think it best to go ahead, post this chapter and put the next slice of life in an entirely new epilogue. As such, we still have two more chapters to go before it's all wrapped up.

For those of you who are fans of The 100, I've recently found a terrific story here called "Hedatu," by Red Hope. There are a few grammatical errors in the form of improper or awkward synonyms sprinkled in some chapters, but otherwise the story is typo-free and extremely well-written. It's definitely a Clexa story, so if that piques your interest, I highly recommend it. I've found it entirely readable even with the synonym errors, which strike me as some of those typos that spellcheck just can't catch. If you're a Clexa fan, it's worth checking out.

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you soon!