Can't stop Fire

"Fix it?" Elsa repeated, the word sounding alien on her tongue. Her chest heaved, the translucent cape fluttering behind her as if caught in a personal storm. "No one can fix it. I tried to conceal it. I tried to hold it in. And now..." She looked at her hands, which were trembling. "Now I’m free. But I have to be alone."

She looked at Anna, her expression softening into painful longing. "Please, Anna. You have to go. Go back to Arendelle. Enjoy the sun."

"But that’s the thing!" Anna blurted out, stepping out from behind my heat shield, her hands clasped pleadingly. "Elsa... there is no sun. Arendelle is deep in snow."

Elsa froze. The air in the room seemed to shatter. "What?"

"You kind of... set off an eternal winter," Anna explained, her voice small. "Everywhere."

Elsa’s face crumbled. The powerful Ice Queen facade cracked, revealing the terrified girl underneath. "Everywhere?" she whispered. "But... I can't stop it. I don't know how!"

Panic took over. The castle reacted instantly to her distress. The walls turned a jagged, violent shade of amber. The floor spiked. A whirlwind of snow erupted from the center of the room, swirling around Elsa, creating a vortex of razor-sharp ice.

"Elsa! Just breathe!" Anna shouted, trying to run forward.

"Stay back!" Elsa screamed.

She thrust her hands out. A wave of jagged ice spikes erupted from the floor, racing toward us like a serrated shark fin.

Kristoff yelled, diving to the side. "Look out!"

I didn't dive. I didn't run. I stepped in front of Anna. I slammed the tip of The Solar Zenith into the ice floor. BOOM.

A dome of heat exploded outward. When Elsa’s magic hit my perimeter, it didn't crash; it hissed. The deadly spikes turned instantly into slush, then water, splashing harmlessly against my boots. The blizzard swirling around the room broke against my aura, unable to penetrate the sanctuary of warmth I controlled.

Elsa stared, her eyes wide. She had never met anything that didn't freeze. She had never met resistance. "You..." she gasped, backing up the stairs, throwing another volley of ice shards. "Why won't you freeze?"

"Because I burn hotter than you," I said calmly.

I pulled the Keyblade from the floor. "Kristoff, keep Anna back," I ordered.

"But-" Anna started, her eyes filled with tears.

"I need to break her panic," I told her, my voice low. "Trust me."

I began to walk up the stairs. Elsa unleashed everything she had. She wasn't trying to kill me, but her fear was lethal. She hurled blasts of arctic wind, walls of snow, spears of diamond-hard ice. I walked through it all. I swung the Keyblade in lazy, precise arcs. Swipe. A wall of ice evaporated into a cloud of thick steam. Slash. A barrage of icicles turned into warm rain.

I was a walking catastrophe for her world of stasis. Every step I took left a puddle of water on her pristine stairs. The steam rising from my body created a fog that obscured me, making me look like a demon of fire ascending her throne.

"Stop!" she wailed, retreating to the top landing. "Don't come closer! I'll hurt you!"

"You can't hurt me, Elsa," I growled, cutting through the last barrier of snow.

I reached the top. She was backed against the balcony doors, cornered. She looked at me, this tall stranger wreathed in steam, unbothered by her worst nightmare. She raised her hands for one last blast, aiming right for my chest.

I moved faster than the ice. I stepped into her personal space. I reached out and grabbed her wrists.

HISS.

The sound was loud, like a hot iron dropped into a bucket of water. Elsa gasped, her eyes rolling back in her head. My hands were scorching hot against her perma-frost skin. The shock of the contact short-circuited her magic. The blizzard in the room died instantly, the snow falling harmlessly to the floor.

"Look at me," I commanded, gripping her wrists tight, pinning them to her sides.

She **** her eyes open. They were a stunning, crystalline blue, swimming with tears and shock. She was panting, her breath coming in visible puffs that vanished as soon as they hit the heat radiating from my face.

"It burns," she whimpered, trying to pull away, but she was weak against my strength. "You're burning me."

"I'm thawing you," I corrected. "You've been cold for so long, you think warmth is pain."

I leaned in close. I could smell her, a crisp breeze of winter air, and the underlying scent of a woman beneath the magic. "You think you're a monster?" I whispered, my nose brushing hers. "You're just full of fear and doubt that needs to be drained."

Down below, Anna watched with wide, unblinking eyes. She saw the terrifying Ice Queen, her sister who had shut everyone out, trapped in the grip of the man who had saved her earlier. She saw the way Elsa’s body sagged, not in defeat, but in overwhelmed surrender.

"Let me go," Elsa whispered, though her hands stopped fighting against mine. Her knees were trembling. The heat from my body was soaking into her dress, penetrating the layers of ice she wrapped around her soul.

"Not until you melt," I said.