Walking out across the fjord, Nathan stopped on the ice where he could get a good view of Arendelle. Overhead Aputsiaq stopped expelling a thick fog and landed on top of Arendelle's castle to unleash a roar into the sky. Her very touch was freezing the castle over, causing spikes of ice to shatter windows as they burst out from the inside! Servants and Nobles all screamed and bolted from the castle to seek shelter. Only to be caught up in the blizzard that was slowly growing outside making it almost impossible for them to flee into town. Leaving them no choice but to stay outside the castle during the storm as the castle froze shut behind them. Lifting his hands, Nathan bitterly stated under his breath. "You want me to fall, Arendelle? Watch me fall!" Lifting his hands, he let go of his control and let his power surge as his anger mixed with his pain until he was numb to everything around him. The blizzard swirled around him like a twister of snow and with it came a snowstorm like nothing Arendelle had ever seen. Arendelle started to become buried in snow with every minute and the snowflakes whipped around in the wind, stinging the faces of those that they hit from the force of them. Aputsiaq even added to the storm by blasting ice beams around to blow holes into homes with smoking fires. Any trace of warmth, she took upon herself to snuff out.

Nathan heard people screaming but felt numb to their pain. He felt nothing. He had no sympathy for people that held none for him. They were all cruel and as bitter as the cold in the storm. This was what they deserved. They'd taken everything from him. Their fear had driven his parents away. Their cruelty had killed the only man that he'd loved. They were never going to stop. So, he was going to end it. He didn't care what happened from here. Just as long as THEY got what they deserved! They didn't want him to be happy or give him a chance. So, this was only fair. The world was cold and unforgiving. He had learned this and now they would know it too. From the castle walls, guards started yelling out over the blistering wind. "FIRE!" Arrows whizzed through the air toward him, but the wind easily blew them away from him. The cannons went off with loud 'BANGS' but as the cannonballs soared toward him, he raised a hand and imagined himself crushing them with his hand. Causing the cannonballs to frost over and burst before reaching him. Narrowing his eyes on the wall, he pointed his fingers toward the castle walls and send thick ice spikes toward the cannons and archers.

The archers screamed and ducked as ice spikes impaled the walls and people that didn't take cover fast enough. The spikes that went for the cannons went into the ends and collided with the reloaded ammo, causing them to explode. Bits of the castle wall crumbled under the explosion and more people screamed as they were caught in the blasts. Seeing Nathan get attacked, Aputsiaq let out an aggressive roar in response. Her attention turning from the town toward to the castle walls instead. Leaping off the castle, she circled the castle grounds, blasting the courtyard and walls in ice. The soldiers screamed and tried to shoot her, but the arrows that made it just bounced off her icy body. While the cannons that remained fired at her and merely chipped her hard icy body. Provoking her into a frenzy that resulted in her crushing cannons and encasing soldiers in solid ice from her icy breath. Nathan watched the carnage without a trace of enjoyment or sympathy. He just wanted this to be over. He wanted Arendelle to be crushed under the snow and then he would go look for Mark's body. For the first time in his life. He felt truly free. He worried about nothing. He didn't care what his power did or who it hurt. There was no one left that he cared about.

Nathan turned his attention to the fjord, disgusted by the ships from other kingdoms. He was tired of human things that cluttered the natural beauty that Mark showed him. So, raising his hand, he cracked the ice beneath the ships and sent spikes into the hulls of the ships to watch them sway and sink. The people on the ships screamed and tried to flee from them, but Nathan didn't care if they didn't make it or not. The people that made it tried to run away across the ice, but as the ships sank, they tilted to their sides. Their masts smashing into more ice. People screamed as the ice broke apart under their feet, causing them to plunge into the freezing water. With every ship that he sank, he waited until it was under the water completely, before snapping his fingers and freezing the surface back over. He saw the people trapped beneath the surface but turned his back on them to move to the next ship. People on the other ships, began to flee as they saw what he was doing to the ships in the fjord. Resulting in Aputsiaq leaving the quiet castle grounds to chase them across the icy fjord. In a few cases, she leapt onto a ship, her weight crushing it and sending it beneath the ice before she leapt off to stomp across the ice to make it harder for the people to flee.

As one ship tried to leave the fjord with all the breaking ice, Aputsiaq purred loudly before diving into the water and swimming seamlessly beneath the surface. When she reached the fleeing ship, she burst up from the water with it in her jaws. Her icy fangs piercing into the haul, before snarling as she sank back into the water with it. Nathan turned his eyes on the last ship, when a voice behind him called out. "Nathan!" Nathan slowly turned around to see Hans. Hans held a shiny blade in his hands, telling Nathan coolly. "We both want the same thing. Arendelle has caused us both great pain. I don't care if you level it, but I must ask. What will you do next?" Nathan stared at him blankly, asking numbly. "What do you care?" Hans took a cautious step toward him, answering in a heartfelt tone over the rush of wind. "Because I care about you, Nathan. Once Arendelle's gone, you'll be filled with more isolation. More pain. I've foreseen it. Let me help you." Nathan shook his head, stating out loud and clear. "I don't want your help! I'm done with you all!" Hans inched a bit closer, telling him hopefully. "What if I told you that Mark is still alive?"

A few minutes earlier, across the fjord, Mark rode down the steep hill and out across the fjord. The harsh icy wind struck his face like a thousand stinging bees, forcing him to pull his bandana up over his nose. Donner snorted and grunted, his hooves thundering over the hard snow covered ice. The fog surrounding the fjord was so thick that everything was just a blurry white haze before him. Shaking the snow from his face, he tried to keep Donner running toward the castle. It wasn't until he heard the ice that he looked up and saw a ship capsizing and the ice released the ship on one side. People on the ship screamed and tried to jump off or were still within the bowels of it as it rolled overtop of them. Mark kicked Donner harder, yelling out in a panic as the ice broke beneath them and the ship's deck lowered over them. "FASTER, BUDDY!" Donner picked up his pace to go as fast as his legs could take him. Mark couldn't breathe as the ship drew closer and closer over them and the ice sank under Donner's hooves. Risking a leap, Donner cleared the stern of the ship just as it crashed into the ice behind them. The ice under Donner's back legs sank, prompting Donner into another run of panic across the cracking ice.

The issue was then made worse, when Aputsiaq stomped after a group of people, leaving large bits of broken ice in her wake. Mark tried to steer Donner around the broken bits, but upon leaping to a patch of ice, it began to sink under their weight. Sinking too far to make the jump to the next patch of ice and unable to stop from the wet ice, Donner slide to the end and bucked him off. Mark yelped tumbling roughly across a strong and intact part of the ice, while Donner slide off the patch he was on and went headfirst into the icy water. Rolling up onto all fours, Mark screamed out over the wind. "DONNER!" Scanning the surface, he didn't see him, and the surface was quickly sealing back up! Removing his pickaxe, he started to smash the thin layer of ice that was trying to seal over the surface. Then reaching in the water, he splashed his hand around to get the attention of Donner if he was lost beneath the surface. Seeing the antlers burst up through the surface, he grabbed them and quickly pulled his head up above the water. Donner coughed and grunted, but Mark helped pull him out. He was thankful that reindeer had thick winter coats that could handle getting wet in freezing water. Donner shook the water off himself, then slowly laid down to pant heavily.

Giving Donner a kiss on the nose, he told him with utter relief. "Oh, thank goodness..." Mark stayed by him, trying to get his bearings on how close he was to the castle, but he couldn't tell. Everything in the distance was lost in the thick fog. Shaking his head, he whirled around to see Aputsiaq dive into the ice, listening closely as the water beneath the ice bubbled and churned under his feet. Following the sound, he looked in the direction she was headed in, faintly hearing Nathan's and another man's voice on the swirling winds. The wind made it hard to pinpoint the location of them, but he listened for only where the voices started and not where the wind blew the voices too. Patting Donner, he told him reluctantly. "Stay here, Buddy. Catch your breath." Donner grunted, but Mark could only hope that he understood. Struggling to walk across the slippery ice, Mark kept his arm up to protect his eyes from the wind as he searched and listened to them. When he finally was close enough to see Nathan and the other man, he called out as loud as he could. "NATHAN!" Nathan slowly turned his head to look at him and Mark gasped softly to himself. Nathan's eyes were a glowing white and his skin was covered in crystalized frost as if they were elaborate glowing white tattoos. His every breath puffed before his face, but it wasn't from heat... he was exhaling pure icy breath.

Lowering his arm, he yanked down his bandanna and called out to him. "Nathan, listen to me. I know they've hurt you... but you can't let this storm consume you! If you become what they fear you are, you will lose who you are! You don't have to be afraid, Nate... not everyone will accept you, but you have to accept yourself. You are who you see yourself as, Nathan. No one else matters. Prove them wrong!" Nathan stared at him blankly and Mark crept closer to him, pleading out in his most loving voice. "Nathan, it's not THEIR fear that has made your power unstable. It's yours." Nathan turned to face him better and the fog and swirling wind suddenly came to a stop. Snowflakes hung in the air like they were frozen in time and the fog rolled away and cleared up to reveal everything around them. Mark couldn't take his eyes off Nathan though. Nathan's eyes narrowed on him as he uttered out. "Mark...? You're alive...?" Mark nodded, extending out his hand as he asked him hopefully. "Nathan, let's go home." Nathan started to reach out for his hand but stopped as he turned his eyes on Hans. Nathan's voice turned bitter when he asked sternly. "Hans...? How did you know that I thought he was dead...?"

Hans sighed heavily, shrugging out reluctantly as he pointed his sword at him. "You are a real pain in my ass, you know that? I keep trying to kill you. I tried to make it look like an accident. I tried to make it painless... but fuck it. I want what is MINE! So, I'll be taking your heart now!" Mark saw Hans' body lift an arm to plunge the sword toward Nathan, but there was something wrong with him. His body was moving stiffly, and his skin was taking on a birch tree bark like appearance. Nathan raised his hand toward Hans, his hand misting with frost that he was about to blast Hans with. Mark wasn't sure what to do, until Stig burst from a wooden compartment in Hans' stomach. The changeling magic that Stig was using had weakened enough that Hans' body was turning back into a tree log. Nathan's magic was going to hit the wooden shell, while Stig was lunging out for Nathan's chest with a knife! Rushing in between them, Mark yelled out. "STIG, NO!" Mark felt the sudden burst of ice hit his back, his skin freezing over as Stig slammed unexpectedly into his chest. Stig fell to the ice roughly, his tiny body getting knocked out from the collision. While Nathan jumped back at the sight of what he'd done.

Just as the last of Mark's warm breath puffed out, Mark's eyes drifted to the raised sword in the wooden Hans' hand. Watching an image flash before his eyes of an older man yelling out at him angrily. "Magic has no place in this world! Your authority will not dethrone me! I'm a king! You're a monster!" Mark saw the man lunge that very sword at his stomach, before everything went black. Nathan staggered back, looking down at his hand in shock. Putting a hand to his chest, Nathan gasped out as grief flooded him. "Mark?!" Creeping around him, Nathan's hands shook as he put his hands on either side of his face and pleaded out. "Mark...? What have I done...? I didn't... I'm so sorry! Mark...? Mark, please don't leave me!" Nathan put his forehead to Mark's, starting to cry as his heart broke. His grief flooded him and overwhelmed him. When he'd thought he'd lost Mark the first time, he let his heart twist his pain into anger. He hadn't let his grief sink in. This time, he couldn't point blame on anyone except himself. The regret of not just leaving with him cut him to the core and the pain of his own actions shattered him.

Wrapping his arms around Mark, he cried against his shoulder and tried to keep himself standing upright. All around him the snow that had been hanging in the air, slowly drifted to the ground now but no more than that fell. Leaving everything in a sudden cold silence. The few people that lingered on the ice stared at him with worried faces, while Aputsiaq stood very still on the shore with a grim expression. Her wings and tail drooping as her eyes and sweet demeanor faded back to normal. Donner even limped over, his head hanging a little. Unable to keep standing, Nathan slowly sank to his knees before Mark but hugged his waist as he closed his eyes and cried more. It was only when Donner let out a low bellow that Nathan looked up. To everyone's shock, Mark's glossy ice body began to glow a little with a soft warm light from his heart before he began to thaw. Nathan sat back on his legs, staring at him completely perplexed by what was happening. Mark thawed, then coughed. Nathan reached up to touch Mark's hand, watching it shimmer with a golden light with traces of the rainbow like it had in his vision. His skin was even warm to the touch.

Mark's hand gently took Nathan's hand, prompting Nathan to look up and ask him in a voice that was both relieved and confused. "What are you?" Mark slowly kneeled to Nathan's level, answering in a startled voice of his own. "I don't know..." Reaching out with his free hand, Mark brushed Nathan's dark bangs off his tear streaked face. Giving him a warm smile, when he stared into Nate's eyes and told him lovingly. "I can see those beautiful brown eyes of yours again. Are you alright?" Nathan briefly glanced down at his unfrosted skin, before hugging Mark as his response. He still couldn't feel the cold, but he felt... more like himself again. To Be Continued...