All Frozen in the Arendelle Front

I Shall Stay

"Hello, Elsa" Anna said, her voice cold and sad- "I was wishing that you would call today, since there have been new... developments."

Anna was not surprised to discover that Elsa was commanding yet another War Council somewhere in the castle, but this time the windows of the small and secret room provided her a view of something strange that she had not been expecting:

There was snow falling at the other side of the crystals, the wind was growling with great fury and it seemed that the windowsills were already covered by frost...

"First of all, I am glad that you are back at the surface" Elsa replied, looking quite relieved that the artillery attack had ended at last- "Anna, what happened? We are sure that Hans will soon try another ground offensive, and..."

"Yeah, he did precisely that less than an hour after the shellfire was over" Anna replied, displaying a soft smile- "We did what you wanted! We used the Crackers, Elsa... I have no idea how many riders and horses we just killed, but the valley is littered by corpses and blood as far as I can see..."

Elsa screamed and cheered with great enthusiasm, the Council Generals behind her exploded in celebrations and applause and Anna remained silent, not really sure that she would ever understand why such a nightmarish massacre had become a cause to rejoice.

"Anna... are you alright?"

The Queen had realized that her sister seemed distant, emotionless and cold, like she was not the same anymore... the once fearful Anna had been replaced by a piece of ice, and her former light and happiness were nowhere to be found in those frozen blue eyes.

"I am... Elsa, why do you have snow and frost at Northern Arendelle too?"

Elsa sighed, the Queen seemed to be thinking of what would be the best way to explain the situation to her sister and it took some time before she would speak once again:

"It seems that I got carried away in my efforts to freeze the South, Anna... It started snowing everywhere two days ago" Elsa explained, looking a little disappointed with herself- "I can keep my Magic under control this time, but you can expect a little thawing in the following days..."

"We need the cold!"

"I'll send another snowstorm to the Front as soon as I can! Anyway, we have won the war already, Anna... Hans is not going to send even more men to their deaths, not now that he knows we have the Crackers."

"Fine" Anna replied in a cold and somber voice- "Elsa, I know you wanted me to return home as soon as possible, but... I have decided that I shall stay down here until the war is really over, until the last of them abandons Arendelle to never come back!"

Elsa looked very sad and disappointed to hear those words, and it was clear to everyone that she had been just about to ask Anna to return to Arendelle Castle at last...

The Queen thought that it was pointless for Anna to remain at the Front now that the Crackers had crushed the Southerner Army, she was sure that Hans would surrender any moment, Alistair could take command now and all that she wanted was to have her little sister back home.

However, Elsa knew that Anna would stay firm in her decision and there was no way to make her change her mind...

"Fine, Anna... I understand."

"Elsa, some type of disease is affecting our troops" Anna explained, straight to the point- "We don't know how it works, but the doctors believe that it must be a psychological shock caused by everything that has been happening around here..."

"What? How many are affected?"

"We are not sure, not less than two thousand cases so far... I am evacuating them out of here, most of our army shall return home with them so please get ready to receive everyone, alright? I'll keep enough troops with me to repel any offensive, just in case Hans is mad enough to attack us again."

"Anna! Wait, you cannot do that, do not weaken our positions!"

"Good bye, Elsa..."

Anna lowered the magical ice mirror, Elsa was just about to scream something at her and the gateway between them was closed after that... Kristoff remained in silence beside her, quite surprised and almost unable to believe just how cold and distant Anna had been to her sister.

"Anna, what was all of that about?"

The Princess of Arendelle just walked away without another word, she wrapped herself in her green cloak and Kristoff witnessed in silence as Anna vanished like a ghost between the snow...