Frozen III: Zenith

Chapter 7

Olaf and Sven top a tall hill in the mountains. Down on the other side, temporary tents are pitched, and a makeshift village operates in its nervousness below.

"Do you see Grandpabby?" Olaf asks Sven, looking around.
Sven responds by running down to the miniature city. They are basically ignored by the populace as they stroll through town.
"Maybe he'll find us," Olaf comments, looking around.
"Olaf?" Mattias asks from behind.
"Oh. I was right," Olaf says to Sven. "He did find us."
"Why are you here?" Mattias inquires. "Is everything all right?"
"Well, it's an apocalypse. You know," Olaf speaks.
"I took it upon myself to take care of the people," Mattias informs. "I've been kind of the king for the last while now."
"Well, I have something for you," Olaf gets to the subject matter, handing Mattias the note from Kristoff. The general reads it out loud:
General Mattias:
There is not much time to write, so I'm just gonna say it. Don't come back unless we find you first. I give you control and custody of the kingdom of Arendelle until this threat is over.
"Wow," Mattias looks up. "Did not see that coming."
"What are you going to do?" Olaf asks.
"We're going to survive," Mattias declares.
"Right..." Olaf responds. "So, what exactly is your plan for that?"
"Well, much as I want to go and fight for Arendelle, I have to stay here. Not here. Somewhere safer."
"Where?"
"Inland. Deeper into the mountains. We got this place set up pretty quick; I think we can get it taken down and moved even faster."
"Mass evacuation?"
"Is there any other way?"
*~*~*~*
"We're almost there," Grandpabby declares as the group turns a corner in the woods. For the first time, they can see Arendelle, or, rather, a smoke-covered fjord.
Grandpabby faints, and the Trolls all fall down.
"Grandpabby!" Anna holds up his head.
"Anna..." Grandpabby says weakly. "You have to go on without us."
"Wait, what?"
"Our magic is all that kept us from being merely rocks. Now, our magic is almost gone, used to keep Arendelle underground."
"No, no, no, you can't die on me!" Anna tries to verbally keep him alive.
"Anna," Grandpabby gets Anna's attention. "I have waited till the last moment for this. So you would not let it get to your head. Anna. I told you about your parents... because..."
"Grandpabby? What is it?"
"...Because you... can control... Hellion... fi--..."
Grandpabby falls into a pile of rocks, and the other Trolls do the same. They are gone.
"No, no, no, no, Grandpabby," Anna tries to put the rocks back together.
"Anna..." Jack tells her sentences in one word.
"I know," Anna fights back tears.
"We have to go on without them," Jack acknowledges. "He said so himself."
"Then we run," Anna declares. "Into fire."
Anna and Jack start running for Arendelle, the latter carrying his trademark staff. What is behind them is behind them, and what is ahead is inevitable.
*~*~*~*
The sun has almost completely set. Black smoke covers nearly the entirety of the fjord and is beginning to creep up the cliff faces and mountain walls.
Anna and Jack emerge from the trees on a mountain behind the houses on the steep cliff.
"There's Elsa," Anna finds her sister, a faint blue glow inside the dense smoke.
"I'm coming with you," Jack tells Anna. "Any world without Elsa is one that I don't want to live in."
"Is there any stopping you?" Anna inquires.
"No, there is not," Jack denies.
"Fine. Let's go make sure Elsa is okay. Watch each other's back."
Jack makes a slide of ice going down the cliffs. He and Anna slide down the mountain, Anna much more awkwardly than him. After a fast five seconds, they reach the bottom.
"Where is she?" Jack asks, trying to evaporate the smoke with snow from his staff. Like Elsa, he cannot.
"Over there!" Anna points to the blue glow.
Jack runs for Elsa, and Anna goes to follow him when ropes around her arms restrain her.
"Anna!" Jack turns around.
"Go to her!" A struggling Anna commands Jack.
Jack glances at Elsa then back at Anna. Ond starts leading Anna away forcefully.
"Now! Be with her! You can win this!" Anna yells as the distance between her and Jack grows.
Anna and Ond disappear into the smoke. Jack is flustered, not knowing what to do. He ultimately decides to check on Elsa and through the smoke to the ice dome.
"Elsa, are you okay?" Jack asks desperately, trying to see through the opaque ice.
"I'm fine," Elsa's muffled voice assures from inside. "Where's Anna?"
"Someone kidnapped her. She said to check on you." He tries to break the ice with his staff, but to no avail.
"Wait, what? Who kidnapped her?" Elsa wants to know.
"I couldn't see. She said-- the smoke--"
"Go! Go find her while there's still time! Before Arendelle comes!"
"Errand boy," Jack says to himself, running back in the direction he had seen Anna taken.
*~*~*~*
"We have to move faster," Mattias says, noticing the rising smoke a few miles away.
"What do we have to do?" Olaf is ready for the call of duty.
"I hate to not obey royalty's commands," Mattias confesses, "but you go with the people. I'm staying behind with a few fighters. We're the first line of defense."
"But Kristoff said--"
"I know what he said! ...I know what he said. But I think this is the next right thing."
"Are you sure, General, that no one is more qualified than I am?"
"You've had more time with the ins and outs of the government than any of us."
Olaf shrugs. "If you say so."
Mattias grabs a nearby helmet and spear and gives them to Olaf.
"Can I trust you with these?" Mattias confirms.
"Is the earth flat?" Olaf responds with a question.
"No, it is not."
"I said that wrong. Yes, you can trust me."
"Then go. You're the last one to leave."
Mattias looks around to make sure everyone is gone except for him and five others.
"Go, Olaf. Arendelle is yours."
*~*~*~*
"Let go of me!" Anna demands as her kidnapper violently forces her inside the castle gates.
"Look to your right," Ond commands calmly. "What do you see?"
Anna looks and sees Kristoff, tied up, and still unconscious.
"Kristoff!" Anna calls, trying to escape.
Hans pulls on the ropes, tightening them around Anna.
"It's no use," he tells her. "He's unconscious, and you can't escape. It's over for you."
Anna kicks backwards, striking Ond in the shins.
"You didn't think I'd take care of that?" He asks Anna, walking her into the castle. "I took the liberty of making myself entirely invincible from any foolish moves. Give up."
Effortlessly, despite Anna's struggles, Hans forces the queen deeper into the castle. They go down a flight of steps, reaching three doors. Ond, pushing Anna into the wall, kicks down the right door. As Anna gets up, Ond regains control and moves her down the steps. At the bottom are ten doors. Ond, not releasing Anna, kicks open the fourth door from the left and pushes Anna inside the room on the other side. He takes the ropes and puts them on a hook, freeing himself to open a hatch on the floor. Down below the trapdoor is an empty room, completely dark. Ond takes Anna, removes the ropes, and pushes her down the hatch. Anna falls ten feet and lands hard on the compact dirt surface.
"Let me out!" Anna commands with all the fury in her being.
"My revenge is almost complete," Ond declares, laughing maniacally and, for the first time, throwing back the cloak's hood, revealing his face.
"No..." Anna whispers to herself seeing the evil's face.
"It's been a while, Anna," Hans grins with all maliciousness the world can muster. "Seven years, you had me in prison. I could only go outside to clean the stalls. But I spent that time wisely, building my strength and making friends of other prisoners. We hatched our masterplan, the Partici Jailbreak. I alone survived, and have come back to finish the job."
"Why do you have to be like this?!" Anna screams at him.
"Ah, face it, Anna," Hans removes his gloves. "This has been designed perfectly for you to suffer. You saw your husband unconscious, and he's about to die; you saw your sister waiting for a fight that will end the world if she dies, which is a real possibility that I will facilitate; and you're about to die a slow, painful death in this cell."
"No!" Anna yells with anguish.
"Do you want to know the truth about your parents?" Hans evilly inquires.
"I know everything, demon!" Anna shouts up, trying to jump out.
"Connect the dots," Hans remains calm. "Your parents were sick because the king and queen poisoned them."
"It's not true!"
"Look the facts in the face, Anna. Your first parents were killed by the king and queen for their crimes, and they adopted you out of guilt. It was the first and only time they had anybody executed, because of crimes so heinous and deadly that they didn't even deserve to live." Hans shrugs. "Have a good rest of your life," he adds, grinning evilly at Anna, the same look he gave her when he betrayed her seven years ago. He shuts the hatch, blocking any light from reaching the cold, dark cell below.
"No!" Anna screams in pain to no avail. "No! It can't end this way!"
She falls to the ground, acknowledging defeat. She lays on her right side, wrapping her arms and hands around her pulled-in knees.
"Please," she begs to no one. "It can't end this way. No. Please. It's not true. None of it is true. This can't be it. It can't end this way."
All the pent-up emotion in Anna pours out. Anger at Hans for his villainous deeds; fear of the deaths of Kristoff and Elsa; fury at the story of the past Hans had told her; worry that nothing could save her now; and, worst of all, how everyone was going to die, and she could not do anything about it. She sobs, not knowing what else to do. Every tear, it seems to her, represents someone she loves or protects, and each leaves her control, as if they had never been hers in the first place. This is it. All she can do is wait for herself to give out. Even if she wanted to do something, she could not. No one knows where she is except Hans, and he is not going to tell anybody. Nothing can happen except the passage of time. With every crying, lamenting breath passes a moment during which Hans is closer to the ultimate revenge and the Hellion returns to enslave everything.
"No... please..." Anna begs between sobs. "This can't be happening. It can't end this way."
*~*~*~*
The Next Right Thing (Reprise)
Anna:
"I can't be there
To help.
I've been left here to
Suffer and die.
Nothing matters now,
'Cause this is it.
All I can do is lie here
And cry.
To be freed from this low;
To relive times so long ago;
To do the next right thing."
*~*~*~*
"No," she can hardly speak. "I've done all I can. There isn't a next right thing."
She cries again, knowing that, save a miracle, this is it.
*~*~*~*
Hans walks swiftly through the halls of the castle to the courtyard as day comes to a close.
"Unhand me!" Kristoff commands as Hans draws his sword on his stroll to the tied.
"Give me a reason," Hans tries him.
"I will make you pay," Kristoff threatens. He backs himself against a wall to use as a brace and stands up.
"Pathetic," Hans chuckles. "You think you still have a chance to live?"
Hans runs to Kristoff and swings the sword for his neck. Kristoff easily ducks away, and proceeds to ram his shoulder into Hans, throwing the former prince into the wall. Hans lets go of his sword, dazed after the sudden action from Kristoff. The mountaineer sits by the sword and grabs it with his hands behind his back, cleverly maneuvering it to cut the ropes. Once his arms are free, he effortlessly gets his legs loose. He picks up the sword and points its sharp edge at a fallen Hans.
"Give me a reason I should let you live," Kristoff tells Hans.
"I've kidnapped Anna, and I'll tell you where she is if you don't kill me."
"I want an insurance policy," Kristoff declares, tying Hans's hands behind his back. "You will take me to her yourself, and any funny moves and you get the sword. Got it?"
"I got it, mountain man," Hans agrees. "Let me make it easy for you. She's in the dungeon."
"I'm bringing you with me."
"Fine."
Kristoff and Hans move quickly through the castle to the dungeon. Down the first flight of steps, down the second, through the right door, down the last staircase, and inside the fourth day.
"Anna, are you in here?!" Kristoff asks frantically.
"Kristoff?!" A surprised voice sounds from below.
Kristoff ties Hans to one of the other doorknobs.
"I'm coming, Anna!" Kristoff runs back into the room and opens the hatch. He breaks the door of its hinges and lowers it for Anna to grab onto. She tightly grips the doorknob and outer edge so Kristoff can pull her up.
"Oh, Kristoff!" Anna hugs the mountaineer, crying. "I thought I'd lost you! I thought I'd lost everybody! I--"
"Don't say anything," Kristoff commands. "I'm here for you."
Anna's shaky breaths echo in Kristoff's head. Slowly, breath by breath, Anna stabilizes physically and emotionally, as if every time she breathes, she gets back a part of what she believed she had lost.
"Has Arendelle come yet?" Anna asks Kristoff once she has regained her strength and will.
"Not yet," Kristoff replies.
"Then we need to get ready," Anna declares. "To fight."
"Wait, what?"
Anna runs upstairs. Kristoff follows, noticing that Hans is gone. But Hans is not his concern. Stopping Anna is.
"Any way we can help Elsa," Anna tells him, "we're going to help. I'm fighting."
"She's the only one who can beat this guy," Kristoff argues. "She can do it herself. I can't lose you."
"You need to be ready to protect our people if Hans goes after them," Anna runs through the halls.
"Hans!" Kristoff remembers. "I left him in the courtyard. He could be anywhere!"
They quickly ascend a spiral staircase.
"If Arendelle gets anything going for him," Anna opens a door, entering a wooden room. "You have to keep our people safe."
Anna opens a wooden chest as Kristoff walks in behind her. She finds a sword in its covering inside the chest. She unsheathes it, its metallic sound echoing.
"Anna, this is crazy," Kristoff warns his wife as she grabs a shield to go with the sword in her right hand.
"Are you thick?" Anna asks Kristoff, shoving the weaponry at him and going back to rummage through another chest.
"I'm just saying," Kristoff tries to explain, "You can still run. Let me fight. I can't lose you again."
"No," she says strictly, not looking up from her search. "We stand our ground. We defend everything we've worked so hard to earn. He won't win."
Anna throws a helmet over her shoulder, which Kristoff catches, despite his arms being full.
"It's a suicide mission," Kristoff informs, growing angry.
"Not if no one gets killed," Anna says. She shuts the chest, stands up, and looks out the lone window as the sun's last rays go out.
"Anna, I know you're the queen and all," Kristoff argues, "but this. This is crazy. You can't take on this guy."
Anna turns around. Kristoff sees the worry mixed with determination in her eyes. For the first time, he feels true fear.
"It's all going to be okay, Kristoff," Anna says, trying to keep her cool to maintain her husband's current level of anxious calm. She walks right in front of him and takes the helmet. She polishes it with her sleeve's end at the side of her wrist, and puts it on Kristoff's head.
"What if it's not?" Kristoff wonders aloud. "What if everyone dies?"
"We're not going to die," Anna says, shaking off the possibility. Looking Kristoff squarely in the eye, she commands, "I'm going to help how I can, and you can, too. You're going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. We're all going to be fine. No one is going to die. Now let's go and finish what we started."
The ground shakes violently. Anna and Kristoff fall.
"I'm back..." an evil voice declares from everywhere and nowhere.
"Let's go," Kristoff says. He runs out of the room, trailed by Anna. He breaks a window with his sword, allowing smoke to fill the hall. He jumps out and is caught by the wind.
"They're going to help!" Anna recognizes what is happening. She jumps out, as well, slowly descending to the ground in front of the castle. Kristoff touches down next to her.
Suddenly, the smoke clears. In an instance, a split-second, it is all gone. On the other side of the village, Elsa evaporates her ice protection. Near the castle, Jack stops running.
"Ah," he turns, seeing Anna and Kristoff. "There they are."
"Bro!" Kristoff calls, seeing Jack.
"What up, bro!" Jack calls back, running to catch up with the royal couple.
"Keep talking!" Elsa yells from across town.
"Oh, boy," Anna says in a loud voice, "it sure is unmanly that Jack hasn't proposed yet!"
"I'm man enough!" Jack plays along.
"Then why haven't you proposed yet?!" Kristoff helps.
Elsa turns the corner of a building and sees the group.
"Elsa!" Anna calls, running to meet Elsa. They hug on impact.
"Assuming we walk like normal people?" Jack asks Kristoff. The guys walk to the girls.
"If I may break up all the reunion," Kristoff begins, "the smoke is gone without cause."
"But we're together again," Anna responds.
From under the ground of the town, a shadowy, menacing, devilish figure emerges. It stands twenty feet tall and is made of nothing except air. It is humanoid, different in terms of having longer fingers and no eyes. Where there would be eyes are empty holes, the backdrop of the mountains being seen through them. The color of the demonic being is pitch black, darker than regular black. It looks like it is out of a cartoon, a twisted, dark cartoon.
"Are you..." Arendelle begins, "... the Snow Queen?"
"Elsa's not the queen," Anna tells Arendelle, stepping forward. "I am."
"You don't look like someone who would be the Snow Queen," Arendelle guesses. "Your hair is red."
"I'm the one with the snow powers," Elsa stands by Anna.
"And I have them, too," Jack steps in front of Anna.
"It was prophesied," Arendelle informs. "An old legend, stating that the last Hellion would meet the Snow Queen in a battle for control of the Magic Lands, and the winner would be proven to have the power to control the world. Now, I'm here. The final battle has begun."
Arendelle shoots dark purple fire at the suspicious people below, who all dive away in time.
"My weaponry," Kristoff realizes. "It's melted."
"Elsa, how can we help?" Anna yells, loud due to urgency.
"Don't," Elsa calls back. "Go to safe ground."
"No! We're all fighting with you!" Anna argues.
"I'm not letting you get hurt," Elsa proclaims. "The water will keep you safe."
"Wait, what?"
Water comes into the streets and wraps around Anna's ankles, pulling her back into the fjord.
"Kristoff!" Anna calls on her retreat.
"The wind will give you air," Elsa informs Anna.
Kristoff tries to run after Anna, but he cannot keep up with the water. Anna is pulled underwater. She swims to the surface, realizing she is breathing normally. She reaches her hand for Kristoff to pull her out, but, while her hand gets above the water's surface, the water still surrounds her, keeping her from feeling or touching the air. Kristoff attempts to grab Anna's forearm, but she slips from his grasp easily.
Meanwhile, Elsa, dazed but unhurt, looks around for Arendelle. Everything is quiet. Aside from splashing in the distance, no sound comes from anywhere. It is as if nothing had happened.
Suddenly, a shot of purple fire hits Elsa in the back. Falling down, she sends a desperate blast of ice in the direction the fire came from. Again, all is silent.
Out of the blue, Arendelle rises from the castle courtyard and advances out, as if a ghost. Elsa shoots ice at him, impacting him in the heart. He stumbles, but regains his footing. He sends a stream of fire at Elsa. She dives to avoid it, but it hits a building behind her, engulfing it in flames. In no time at all, the fire spreads from house to house, store to store, building to building. All of Arendelle is covered in flames.
Elsa sends ice into the flames to extinguish them. Whatever she sends has no effect; if anything, they make the flames angrier. Elsa shoots ice at the fire destroying the building behind her; it does not work. She sends a flurry of ice and snow in every direction, effectively covering the village. Unfortunately, the fire absorbs the cold.
"It's just like what you were doing earlier," she tells herself. "This is your time to shine."
She sends ice into the fire once more, each blast temporarily defeating the flames before more heat arises on the ashes of the extinguished.
Arendelle sends fire from his palms in Elsa's direction, striking her. She falls back on the ground by the fire. Moving her hair to prevent it from sparking by the nearby flames, she gets up quickly and tries to retaliate, sending snow at Arendelle. He absorbs it with fire in his hand.