AN: I'm a little surprised that no one else has tackled this idea yet. I have the whole thing outlined and I may or may not get around to finishing it. Reviews will certainly help. No one knows how far it'll go…

"Your Majesty, you must get below deck! The storm cannot be tamed!"

Elsa ignored the sailor's pleas as she concentrated, mustering the full breadth of her power in ways she had not done since her coronation. A layer of frost crept across the planks beneath their feet as a great floe of ice spread out from their vessel, attempting to anchor the ship amidst the roiling waves. All around her men were shouting and crates were sliding to and fro. Harsh rain stung like needles and the wind battered them mercilessly.

With a jolt the ship seemed to secure itself atop the iceberg Elsa had created. There was a shout from above, and the Queen of Arendelle looked up to see that one of the sailors had fallen while trying to climb one of the masts. Her arm whipped up to catch him in midair with a slide of ice that deposited the man safely onto a snowbank on deck.

Before Elsa could even catch her breath, the thunder roared with renewed intensity, as if the storm itself had sensed her defiance and now sought to crush it. Massive waves churned beneath them. The air crackled as a bolt of lightning struck the iceberg that kept them anchored, illuminating it for one terrible moment before it began to crack. Then came another bolt. And another. The ice crumbled and the wind howled with triumph.

This was no ordinary storm.

"Queen Elsa!" The sailor scrambled towards his liege but slipped on the icy deck, his fingers grasping for the hem of her dress. "The ship is lost! We've never seen anything like this! You must save yourself!"

"No!" Elsa cried stubbornly. "I am in command of this expedition! Your lives are my responsibility!"

Responsibility. It was to escape her responsibilities that she had embarked on this long journey to the far flung reaches of the world. She should have known that they would find her even here, even now. Elsa shut her eyes against the wind and rain as she prepared to do battle with the storm once more.

It was a mistake to have ever left Arendelle.

It had all started when Anna had found her passed out at her desk in her study, at some ungodly hour, surrounded by paperwork and melted candles. Elsa had awoken to a warm hand on her shoulder and a pair of blue eyes filled with concern.

"Elsa," Anna whispered. "Elsa, you promised me you wouldn't do this anymore."

Elsa forced herself upright and stifled an undignified yawn with one hand. "I'm sorry Anna. Time just got away from me. I thought I should finish reviewing the new taxes tonight, considering all the trouble they'll be causing the rest of the kingdom." She glanced balefully at the remaining pile of documents. "I suppose I might have bit off a little more than I could chew."

"A little?" Anna put her hands on her hips. "Elsa, you're going to work yourself to death like this! You've been at it night and day. Somehow you still find time for me, and I appreciate that, but I know it's been cutting into your sleep so don't even deny it. It's not healthy. When was the last time you took a break?"

Elsa shook her head. "You make it sound like spending time with you and Olaf and Kristoff and Sven is some kind of hardship."

"Hardship? No. Exhausting? Uh, yeah!" Anna smiled wryly. "Elsa, there's nothing wrong with taking time off for yourself. You deserve it."

"No I don't." The words slipped out in a whisper before Elsa could catch herself.

Anna's eyes widened, then hardened. "Is this about the eternal winter? I thought we were past this. Elsa, having some alone time doesn't mean you're shutting me out again or abandoning the kingdom. I know you know better than that. Talk to me."

For some reason Elsa could never refuse that firm tone in her sister's voice. She looked down and took a deep breath.

"Part of me misses it," Elsa admitted. "Not the loneliness, or the isolation. Never that. But that first night on the North Mountain, when I let my powers go… it was intoxicating. I can't even describe the sense of freedom. The wonder. The discovery."

"The adventure." Anna expression lit up with understanding.

Elsa nodded. "It kills me inside because to get that feeling I had to hurt everyone else. I had to hurt you. And now I can never get that feeling back, but I want to, and I know it's selfish so the guilt just eats away at me until I bury it all in work."

For a moment Anna just looked at Elsa with thoughtful sadness. Then she drew herself up with all the regal bearing of a true Princess of Arendelle.

"Right, that does it then. Elsa, you're going on an adventure!"

Elsa chuckled at the well-intentioned absurdity of that declaration until she noticed the determined glint in her sister's eyes.

"Anna, you can't be serious."

"Oh I'm serious! You know that diplomatic expedition we've been planning to the far reaches of the world? I'm thinking that the Queen should lead it herself. See new sights. Eat new foods. Discover new lands and peoples. Spend months far away from this stuffy old palace!"

Images of exotic lands and undiscovered wonders rose unbidden in Elsa's mind. Hope fluttered in her chest at the thought, but she quickly suppressed it to spare herself the inevitable disappointment.

"That sounds lovely, but I can't afford to abandon my duties for even a week," Elsa protested. "The business of the kingdom will not wait. The people are counting on me and—"

"Aren't you forgetting that the kingdom has a spare?" Anna jabbed a proud thumb at her own chest. "Leave it to me! I'll mind all that business while you're away."

"Anna, I don't think—"

"It'll be fine! I'll have Kristoff and Olaf and all of your advisors to help me." Anna paused and suddenly looked uncertain. "Unless you don't trust me?"

"No!" Elsa said quickly. "No it's not that. It's just, I'd worry about you, Anna. I never want us to be apart again. I swore I would always be there for you."

Anna stepped forward and pulled an unresisting Elsa into a hug.

"Oh Elsa. Remember when I used to sit outside the door to your room?" Anna said gently. "It was only a couple inches of wood that separated us then, and yet it felt like an ocean because you wouldn't open your heart to me. Now you have, and I promise that no matter what distance lies between us, we will always be close."

Finally allowing herself to believe it, Elsa looked up and smiled.

"Thank you Anna."

For months the trip had been everything Elsa had dreamed of. They had sailed beyond Corona, beyond the Southern Isles, beyond the boundaries of reliable maps and into the lands of rumor and legend. She had seen lions and apes on the savannah. She could've sworn she had seen mermaids frolicking below the surface of the water. The open ocean was vast beyond imagining and for the first time since the eternal winter Elsa truly felt free.

Then they had set course for the fabled Imperial City of China, which was to be the furthest and final stop on their long voyage. As they entered warm, tropical waters, the ocean had turned vicious with an abruptness that stunned even the most experienced sailors. There had been no almost warning before the black clouds and the black waves, as dark as ink, bore down on their vessel.

Elsa panted as she lifted her hands to freeze another wave solid before it could swallow them. This only created a dangerous obstacle in their path, and the sailors struggled mightily to guide the ship around it. More waves slammed against the new iceberg, which began to splinter under the pressure, showering them with dangerous chunks of ice. Elsa swept her arms overhead and intercepted each falling projectile with globs of tightly packed snow.

It couldn't last. Elsa had never figured out whether there was a limit to her powers, whether her magic could actually be exhausted, but it was becoming clear to her that even if her magic was infinite her body was flesh and blood and would tire like any other. The storm, her adversary, would never tire, and there were no limits to its power and its fury. On the edges of her consciousness Elsa became aware of another magic at work in this storm, with wrath but no cunning behind it, something primordial and elemental. She knew with chilling certainty that it was a magic greater than hers. It perceived her, and judged that she did not belong.

The ship and its crew would never be safe so long as she remained aboard.

"I'm sorry, Anna," Elsa whispered.

Ignoring the shouted protests of the crew, Elsa flung herself overboard and raised her arms in a final gesture of protection. A massive sphere of ice enveloped the ship, shielding it from the wind and waves, with enough water inside to keep the vessel floating upright no matter how great the upheaval outside might be. It was strenuous work for the work of an instant, but Elsa's fear had once brought about an eternal winter, and in that moment Elsa was very frightened indeed.

Her heart broke for Anna, who had lost their parents to a storm at sea and would now lose her sister in the same way. Elsa hoped the girl would not blame herself.

Then the Queen of Arendelle hit the water, and was instantly claimed by the ocean. She no longer had the strength to struggle as she sank into darkness. The last thing she was aware of was the sensation of being carried along with surprising gentleness by a warm current, destination unknown.