Elsa had never believed herself to be afraid of heights. Come on, she'd conjured her ice palace at the highest peak of the tallest mountain in all of Arendelle's domain, for crying out loud! But her palace had had walls and railings to keep her safe. This horse had neither walls nor railings. For that matter, it didn't even have a saddle. No bridle, no stirrups, nothing between her and a long, long drop to the ground below that was getting further and further away by the second.

She had no idea when it had happened, but suddenly she became very aware of the fact that her arms were latched around Axel's waist and hanging on for dear life. Speaking of which, seeing as he was the only thing keeping her on the horse, she had to wonder what was keeping him on the horse. After all, as previously stated, there was no bridle. On second thought… best not to think about it. Her nails dug into the fabric of his cloak at his chest, flecks of frost creeping out from beneath her fingertips. She could feel the wind tugging at her ponytail as she squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face into his back. The warm scent of leather and burnt timber filled her nostrils.

It was… oddly comforting...

"Gonna need you to loosen the grip just a tad there, Snowflake. Loving the enthusiasm, but you gotta let a man breathe," she heard him say, feeling the words rumble through his chest. With some effort, she relaxed her arms, but just barely. "Ah, sweet, sweet oxygen! Now, if I were a big nasty looking to shake things up in this town, where would I- Ah ha! There!"

Against her better judgement, Elsa turned her head so she could peek one eye open.

Yup. Immediate regret.

Thebes was a massive city, stretching as far as the eye could see. The buildings below seemed tiny as they rushed past in a blur beneath their feet. Swallowing hard, her gaze followed to where his finger pointed. A few blocks over from where they flew, a gargantuan dust cloud was billowing up from what seemed to be a sizable opening between several large structures. There definitely appeared to be some sort of disturbance going on there.

Spotting it at the same time, their steed winnied and swooped around.

Oh dear lord, it wasn't about to-

She felt a sharp jolt as the horse took an abrupt dive straight for the indicated location. All perception of gravity became completely lost on her and the awkward feeling of her stomach trying to rise up into her ribcage was far from pleasant. The wind battered against her ears as her mount raced downward and she screwed her eyes shut once more, her hold on Axel tightening tenfold. To hell with his selfish desire to breathe! He gave up that right the minute he'd forced her into this whole mess!

She waited for it all to end. For their inevitable, bone-crushing demise as nothing more than bloody stains splattered across the flagstones. Only… it never came. One second, she was feeling movement all around her, was hearing the shrill rush of air... the next, all was still and there was nothing to be heard beyond the gentle thump-thump of a heartbeat against her cheek.

Strange… was this what death felt like?

"Aw shucks, I'm flattered. Didn't know you cared so much!" Axel's voice chirped.

At that, her eyes snapped open. They were no longer airborne, the horse's hooves resting atop solid ground once more and the buildings now back where they belonged, stretching high overhead. With a start, she realized she was still hugging the life out of the redhead, despite the now total and complete absence of imminent death. Feeling her face heat in embarrassment, she snatched back her arms and jerked away from him before shoving herself off the stallion, choosing not to even dignify his statement with a response.

As her boots met earth once more, she did her best to hide the slight wobble to her knees while she dusted herself off with a tiny scowl. She refused to look at him as she heard his feet hit the ground as well beside her. Then there was a loud fwoosh followed by a brief burst of air hitting her back.

"Hey hey hey!" Axel shouted and she turned just in time to see the horse take off into the air once more and fly away. He frowned, using a hand to shield his eyes against the sun, watching the creature disappear behind the city skyline. "Well shoot, our pinto just flew the coop." He looked to her and she returned his gaze with a blank stare.

He shrugged then began to walk, "Eh, probably nothing to worry about. Hopefully it's just looking for the next target while we wipe the floor with this one. Speaking of," he glanced around the gigantic, eerily empty city square that he now stepped into, the only remnants of the previous upheaval they'd spotted being the last few traces of dust settling, "where is this thing? How are we supposed to clobber it if it's too chicken to show its big ugly-"

"What's this 'we' business you keep going on about?" she cut his words off sharply as she jogged to catch up and stand in his path. "I'm only here because you made me come with you, but there's no way I'm letting you drag me any further into this madness! You got yourself into this, and you can get yourself out! The only thing I'm interested in is rescuing Anna!"

He blinked down at her a couple times, then his lip curled with a soft tch as he folded his arms behind his head and strode past her. "You're still on about that? Look, Larxene is probably long gone by now, that ship has sailed. What are you so mad about anyway? You wanted to go to other worlds, didn't you? Well, here you are, courtesy of yours truly. Now just look at it this way: the quicker you get on board and give me a hand with all of this, the faster it'll get done. And the faster it gets done, the sooner we can figure out our next best step."

"That's not good enough! My sister-"

He rounded on her, "Your sister can wait! Whatever plans the Organization have for her, they won't act on them until they have all of the New Seven Hearts! But there are people who need our help, right here, right now! Gah, you're a Princess of Heart, for Pete's sake, act like one!"

She bristled at that and squared her shoulders. "I don't know what it means to be a Princess of Heart or how one is supposed to act, and I don't care! I also don't care about these people, let someone else save them!"

"We both know you don't mean that! Come on, you're better than this, you have to be! It's who you are as a Pr-"

"Stop saying who or what I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to do! You don't know me, you don't-"

She was suddenly silenced as he clamped a hand over her mouth and held a finger up to his lips with a soft, "Shhhhh!"

Nostrils flaring, she swatted his hand away. "Don't you shush m-"

His palm was covering her lips once more. "I said quiet!" he hissed, eyes darting about before glancing over his shoulder. "...do you hear that?"

At first, the only sound her ears were met with was a breeze rustling through the trees and other greenery decorating the courtyard's edges here. But then she heard it. A distant tap tap tap of feet pounding against the ground, the noise faintly echoing off and around the surrounding buildings. She looked past Axel, following his gaze to the far end of the square. There, having just turned a corner to come into view, were a couple of children coming straight for them. A girl that could be no more than eight or nine years old and a boy that was even younger. They certainly seemed to be in a rush to get to wherever they were going.

Turning away from her to face them, Axel cupped his hands to his mouth and called out to them, "Yo! Squirts! Seen anything strange or out of the ordinary around here, like, say, I dunno… a grotesque abomination of horrors and suffering?"

They didn't respond, just kept running. Elsa squinted at them.

...something was wrong.

The little boy tripped over his own sandals and fell, propping himself up on his elbows and glancing behind him, panting with his eyes wide. His friend stopped, but only long enough to bend down and grab his hands, jerking him back up to his feet, her own feet scrambling frantically as she almost fell backwards herself. Then they were on the move again.

Wait… they weren't trying to get somewhere... they were trying to get away.

That's when she became aware of another sound. A low, droning buzz that was far off, but fast approaching and getting louder. It suddenly erupted into a deafening roar as behind the children, rounding the same corner they just had seconds ago, rushed a vast, scarlet swarm of what appeared to be strange insects. They flew quick, spreading out like a dense fog, with still more flooding in behind them with no apparent end in sight. The cloud snaked about in the air, swirling around trees and bushes before moving on, leaving all in their wake stripped bare all the way down to the roots.

Axel's eyes widened. "Oh… there it is."

Elsa managed to tear her gaze away from those things to look at him. "That's the Evil?!"

"Well, it's certainly not good!"

Her brow furrowed. "But… which one could it even be?"

He shrugged. "Hell if I know, but best guess? Starvation? Famine? Gluttony? However you want to spin it, that thing has a serious case of the munchies. Seems to be eating the whole city out of house and home! Did you see what it did to those plants? They never even stood a chance. Hate to see what'd happen if it catches up to those kids."

A tiny gasp escaped her. "You think it'd… eat them too?"

"Don't particularly want to find out. Alright, Snowflake," he rolled his shoulders and gestured her forward with a crook of his neck, "it's showtime."

"No."

His spine snapped straight at that, as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. "No?!" he asked incredulously, turning fully to look at her now.

Behind him, the two little ones had made it about halfway across the square, and the look of being just about ready to pass out from exhaustion was plain on their faces. The sky ever darkened as more of those bugs filled it. Every now and then, the things would veer off course to reduce another shrub down to nothing, which slowed them down, but not enough. The swarm was fast closing the distance between itself and those kids. Elsa looked from the terrifying scene to Axel, meeting his exasperated gaze. Her own anger had drained from her, now replaced with a burning deep within her chest, shallow breaths, and a tremor in her hands. She was quick to hide it by curling her fingers into fists.

He scoffed. "You're telling me you'd sit on the sidelines and do nothing rather than lift one measly damn finger to help th-"

"No, I can't!" she shouted over him, looking down and squeezing her eyes shut. "I can't! I can't help them! My powers don't help people, they only hurt them!"

His head rocked back at the outburst and he blinked. You could see it in his face, he was now connecting the dots. "...is that what this has been about this whole time? You think you can't help because you're afraid you'll hurt them?" She said nothing, just kept her eyes averted. "C'mon, you've used your powers to save others before, haven't you? What about when the Heartless invaded your castle? Didn't you say you used your magic to fight them off and defend your people?"

A bitter frown twisted her lips and she shook her head. "Everyone had already fled. I could fight without fear of harming anyone."

He raked his fingers through his hair with a frustrated growl. "You didn't seem too shy about trying to put me on ice when we first met."

She winced. "...I thought you were a Heartless."

His head tipped to one side. "Even after my hood was knocked back?"

"Especially after your hood was knocked back."

"Ouch."

She turned her back to him. "You better hurry. Those children need you. I'd only make everything worse."

"...nope. Not good enough." He suddenly grabbed her by the ponytail and tugged, causing her to yelp and stumble backwards. His grip holding firm, she had little choice but to follow awkwardly in reverse as he all but dragged her further into the square, grumbling, "We don't have time for your little pity party, so I'm gonna need you to put on your big girl pants and goddamn help me cuz I can't do it on my own."

Giving her a half-spin and a tiny shove, he released her and she staggered to a stop, facing the kids and their pursuers once more. She rubbed the fresh sore spot at the back of her head with a grimace and looked to him. "But-"

"No buts! Now listen up and take some notes. School's back in session." He raised his right hand, staring down at his upturned palm before his expression hardened and he gave a slight shake of his head. Then he flung out both arms in opposite directions, summoning his chakrams in whirling bursts of fire. "Lesson Two: Get Over Yourself and Save People!"

With that, he took off running, leaving Elsa gaping after him. The children were so close now, but those creatures were mere inches behind them, practically tickling the hairs at the backs of their necks. Flames ignited and swirled down Axel's arms, setting his weapons ablaze as he yelled, "Duck!" He chucked his arms forward, one after the other, flinging the chakrams through the air. The kids only had a split second to react, bending down and not breaking stride as the two searing metal rings whooshed through where their heads had just been. Then the weapons collided with the thick cloud of insects in a fiery explosion, frying a large chunk of them and sending their smoldering husks to the ground. The chakrams then emerged from the smoke and ash, shooting straight up and leaving a trail of flames in their wake that shaved off the front runners of the swarm and temporarily blocked the legions behind them, giving the children some much needed breathing room.

"Go, go, go!" Axel barked, waving the two kids through as they ran past him before he pointed to Elsa. "Get to her! She'll keep you safe!"

"What?!" she snapped. The children made a beeline for her, the girl doubling over to catch her breath upon reaching her side, the little boy's knees giving out as he toppled forward and crashed into Elsa's leg which he immediately clung to. Elsa's wide eyes darted back and forth between them a couple times before shifting back up to lock on Axel. "I did not agree to this!"

"Sorry, can't hear you over the sound of my own heroism!" he called back with a half-smirk, reaching out his arms in front of him. "Eat this, pests!" he shouted and from his palms burst enormous gouts of flame, puncturing holes deep into the chaotic mass of those vile critters. His hands moved in sweeps and arcs, causing the fire streams to blur with the motion and scorch pathways through the swarm. Any time the insects would try to close in on him, he was quick to shift the flames to cut them off. Meanwhile his chakrams still burned bright and darted about as if they had minds of their own, dancing circles around each other, weaving their own twisted trail through the multitudes and sending more of those bugs up in smokes.

Despite his efforts, it seemed to Elsa like he was hardly making a dent in their numbers. Gnawing her bottom lip between her teeth, she glanced down at the kids once more. She wanted to tell them to go, to run, to get as far away as humanly possible from this place. But one look at their tired faces and she knew there was no way they could even take so much as another step without collapsing. They hadn't had enough time yet to rest and regain their strength.

Elsa lifted her gaze once more and that's when she spotted it. A gigantic mess of those things had managed to break off from the rest, shooting off like a tendril from the main body. They were coming straight for her and the children. She inhaled sharply.

She had to do something!

Hearing her heart pounding in her ears, she looked down at her hands.

But… what if… what if one of the children got caught in the crossfire? What if her magic struck them in the head and they fell unconscious and defenseless? What if ice pierced their heart and their whole body froze over solid? What if she hit any other number of vital organs that could cause repercussions she couldn't even begin to fathom? What if-

Taking a deep breath and releasing it, Elsa silenced her fears with a scowl.

Don't think, just do.

"Stay behind me, little ones," she ordered fiercely before lunging forward a step and slicing a hand up, fingers splayed. A glacial barricade erupted from the ground before her, rushing up just in time for the swarm to slam up against it. Some of the insects immediately splattered on impact. Most however slid around to the left and right of it, like a turbulent river being forced to part around a boulder. The swarm charged past her and the children on both sides, their buzzing disturbing the air and making her ponytail fly in the unnatural wind they were generating.

The creatures were so near now that Elsa could see that they were actually not insects at all. They were nightmarish little things that had no eyes, no bodies, no legs. No, their entire being was wholly comprised of nothing more than a pair of small, gnarled wings attached to a ghastly mouth filled with rows upon rows of jagged teeth. She shuddered as she watched hundreds of the little monsters pass her by. Perhaps Axel's theory as to which Evil this might be hadn't been too far off.

The two halves of the airborne army to either side of them curved inward and merged together once more behind the kids. Then the swarm swooped around into an about-face and surged back towards the three of them.

"Get down!" Elsa heard herself shouting, her hands thrusting out in front of her before she could even allow herself to question the action. The children did not need to be told twice, immediately throwing themselves to the floor even as a barrage of frozen spikes launched off from Elsa's fingertips. They streaked through the air, over her charges and straight into those monsters, ripping them to shreds.

She did not let up on her assault, gritting her teeth as she rapid-fired more sharp icicles into what seemed to be a never ending stream of those things, just barely managing to keep them at bay. At last the tiny beasts determined this was getting them nowhere and those still intact veered off, dispersing and spreading out to try to ambush her and the kids from all sides. Elsa struggled to keep up, slinging icebolts left and right, taking out any of these smaller clusters that got too close.

When she felt something brush against her back, a chill ran down her spine and her heart nearly stopped. They'd managed to break through her guard! She'd failed! This was it, the-

"Look at you go, you're a natural! A pro! Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Elsa stiffened, then glanced over her shoulder to discover it wasn't the swarm at all, but rather a certain familiar redhead standing back to back with her. Axel didn't look at her, his focus remaining zeroed in on roasting these demons to a crisp. However, she didn't miss the smug little grin tugging at one corner of his lips. She made no reply, but couldn't help a tiny smile of her own as she looked straight ahead once more and returned to shooting off frost blasts, taking care to not hit the chakrams whenever they rushed passed in a sizzling blur.

She was pouring every last ounce of concentration into the task at hand. She didn't allow any other thoughts to get in, no emotions whatsoever. Nothing else existed in her mind but the next attack, followed by the next, followed by the next. She couldn't let herself get distracted. This was extremely delicate and one tiny mistake could spell utter disaster. Everything she had was going into remaining calm, cool and focused. It… was actually not unlike the meditative state she'd been learning to adopt during Merlin's lessons. Perhaps the old wizard really had known what he was talking about.

Suddenly the tide of battle appeared to take a shift. It felt like the swarm was beginning to lose interest in them. Perhaps it had only been looking for an easy meal and this was far more work than it had bargained for. Whatever the case, a silent signal seemed to pass throughout the ranks of those fiends. Any that were still scattered rejoined the main horde as it made an abrupt serpentine loop and darted off, trying to make an escape.

"Oh no you don't, you nasty lil anklebiters!" Axel snarled, slashing a hand out sideways. Flames burst forth from the cobblestone, stretching high and cutting the swarm off. It swerved, trying to bypass the roadblock, but more towering jets of fire emerged to block its path. The foul creatures kept shifting to adjust course and the flames kept surging up to meet them, arcing around in a huge blazing circle that eventually encompassed the whole courtyard.

Elsa had to act swiftly. It wouldn't take long for those things to realize they still had a way out that was simply straight up. She motioned the children to her, urging, "Quickly, little ones, get between us." They scrambled to do as they were told, huddling down in the middle with Axel and Elsa to either side. She glanced down at them from the corner of her eye, her lips pressed into a grim line.

Please… don't let me hurt them.

Breathing in slowly, she banished the last of her doubts. Then she threw her arms out wide to both sides and swept them in to cross over her chest. An arctic cyclone swirled up from the ground in a tight ring around the four of them, reaching up towards the heavens. Freezing, tempestuous gales laced with frost and serrated ice crystals rent the air around them and whipped their hair about, hardly a hairbreadth away from tearing at their skin. Narrowing her eyes, she flung her hands forward and the frigid circle expanded, charging out and away from them.

Catching on right away, Axel looked to his own ring of fire and whistled, beckoning it with a jerk of his chin. The inferno only seemed too eager to comply, rushing to close in with the wall of frost. Caught within the rapidly shrinking space between the two deadly elements, the swarm twisted and turned, racing upward to freedom. But it wasn't fast enough. Flames and ice met in a head-on collision, catching the demonic mass in the middle as they slammed together and exploded into scalding, hissing steam that burst outward, spreading everywhere.

The swarm was no more. It appeared to have been totally obliterated and for a few seconds, a hush fell over the square. Then through the haze, a black miasma could be seen suddenly shooting up into the sky. It hit a point high above where it bent and curved back down into another part of the city, as if being drawn in by some unseen force. Weaving a chilly breeze to begin dispersing the steam and keep it away from the children, Elsa watched the smoke-like substance disappear over the horizon with a frown. "Was that…?"

"The Evil getting sucked back into Pandora's Box?" Axel supplied, his eyes tracking it as well. Then he grinned down at her and shrugged. "Here's hoping."

Her lips parted but whatever she had been about to say was lost, replaced with a soft oof as something gently thumped against her stomach. She looked down to discover the little girl hugging her around the waist. It was muffled by the fabric of her coat, but there was no mistaking the tiny, "Thank you," that accompanied the embrace.

Elsa froze, unsure of what to do, her eyes darting about. She slowly lifted a hand, reaching towards the girl's head to give it an awkward pat, but stopped short. Her fingers curled as she retracted her arm against her chest and leaned back slightly.

She was at a total and complete loss for how to deal with this situation.

"Up top, little man," she heard Axel say and she glanced over to see him squatting down in front of the boy and holding a hand out in front of him. The little one gleefully smacked his own palm against Axel's - an odd exchange, at least to Elsa's eyes, but one that seemed to bring a huge smile to the youngster's face. Axel returned it with a chuckle, ruffling the boy's hair. Watching the two of them, Elsa felt the barest hint of a flutter in her chest, causing her brow to furrow before she just shook her head.

Well, at least he seemed to be good with kids.

...probably because he was nothing but a big man child himself.

Holding up a finger to the boy, Axel said, "Now I got a job for you two, and it's super important so listen close. Go find a real good hiding spot and stay there until the coast is clear, got it?" He straightened back up as the boy nodded enthusiastically before turning to scamper off. The girl at last disentangled herself from Elsa and ran to catch up with her friend.

The corners of Elsa's mouth turned down as she stared after their retreating forms. "...do you think they'll be okay?"

"They will be as long as we do our jobs right!" Axel pumped his fist before planting it on one hip. "One down… how many more to go? Who knows! But that's half the fun!" He started walking as he glanced skyward. "Now where'd the glue factory on wings disappear to?"

She moved to follow but with the first step she took, a sudden pain shot up her leg, causing her to hiss out a surprised, "Ah!"

"Huh?" he quirked a brow at her before looking down, his eyes immediately going wide. "Wait, hold up! You're bleeding!"

"I…?" she followed his gaze to where she saw a rip at an inner edge of her coat. Beneath it, blood seeped from a hole that had been torn into her leggings just below her left knee. Both eyebrows shooting up her forehead, she murmured, "But when…? I didn't even feel it."

Axel squinted down at the wound, muttering, "Yeah, adrenaline can do that, but you're gonna start feeling it now for sure. Guessing those pesky gnats managed to take a bite outta you. In any case, we need to fix you up first."

"We don't have time for that. I can walk on it well enough." She strode forward, poorly concealing a cringe with each step. "See? I'm fine."

He tsked, rolling his eyes. "You are not fine. Come here." Grabbing hold of her wrist, he led her over to the nearest stone bench at one corner of the courtyard, Elsa grimacing the whole way.

Stopping in front of it, she turned to face him, "But-"

"Sit." Axel's hands went to her shoulders, pushing down and forcing her to do as he ordered. He then kneeled down before her, folding the shredded flap of her coat out of the way before taking gentle hold of her ankle and lifting it up towards him for closer scrutiny of the injured shin. The familiarity behind such an action caused Elsa's cheeks to warm and she tried to wrench her leg from his grasp. He did not let her go however and in fact hardly seemed to notice her attempt to free herself, simply mumbling, "Hold still now, this'll only take a sec."

Elsa groaned, "But there's more important things to be worrying about! You said the faster we saved this city, the faster we could begin the search for Anna." Again, she tried to yank her leg back. Again, his fingers did not budge.

He shot her a dull stare. "Okay, not exactly what I said, but we can circle back around to that later. You won't be much good to your sister if you bleed to death. Dunno if you know this, but see all this red stuff here? You generally want more of it inside of your body than out."

Hands gripping the edge of the bench tightly, she snapped, "Then use your power to cauterize the wound so we can stop wasting time on this already!"

His head jerked back and he blinked. "Cauterize the… you can't be serious!"

"Every second we argue over this is one more second Anna remains trapped in the Organization's clutches, so yes," she looked at him, eyes hard, "I am serious. Do it. Now."

Axel tipped his head to one side as he studied her for a moment, expression unreadable. Then he shrugged, "Gonna hurt. A lot."

She glanced away and closed her eyes. "Just get on with it."

"I mean a lot a lot. We're talking scream inducing pain. Tear jerking pain. Mind numbing pain. On the pain scale of one to ten, it's a fifty-seven. The grand high king of pains. Pain to end all pain. The kind of pain that-"

"Would you get it over with already?!" she bit out, face scrunching in irritation. She could practically feel her leg tingling in dreaded anticipation.

"But we're already done."

At that, her eyelids flew open. She looked at him sharply and he just smirked back. Then she looked down to her shin. The gaping rip was still there in her pant leg, frayed edges stained crimson, but the skin beneath was now unmarred and whole once again. It was as if the injury had never happened in the first place. She stammered, "It's… But… What… How… How did you...?"

He raised his palms, fingers waggling, "Magic hands!" At her blank look, he laughed, drawing himself back up onto his feet and giving a dismissive wave. "Just a simple cure spell, no biggie."

"A simple…?" Perhaps she should have been more shocked to learn that such healing powers existed and that Axel had them at his disposal no less. But by now, she had been introduced to so many different kinds of magic that it was beginning to no longer phase her. No, instead of awe, what she was feeling now was annoyance. "You mean you could have done that the whole time?"

A snort escaped him as his hands moved to rest on his hips. "Hey, I tried to do that from the get go, but you," he bent down to her eye level, "are too stubborn for your own good sometimes, you know that? I'll say this for ya though, Snowflake… you got moxie. You were ready to burn that wound shut if it meant saving your sister faster." He smiled at her, "Anna is very lucky to have someone so determined coming after her."

"I…" Elsa felt a faint blush creeping up her neck and she quickly broke eye contact, looking to her feet. "...she'd do the same for me."

A neigh suddenly rang out from above. They both looked up to see that the flying horse had returned and was angling in for a landing. It blurred towards the ground, slowing at the last second with a flutter of its wings to alight gently upon the cobblestones a few feet away from them. Nickering urgently, it glanced from them to its back then at them again, seemingly impatient for them to remount.

"Looks like our ride's here. Sounds like it knows where the next baddie is too." Axel faced her once more. "So how 'bout it, Snowflake? Ready for round two?"

There was the briefest of hesitations, then she nodded. "But don't think the discussion regarding the rescue of my sister is over. As soon as this problem is dealt with, we're picking that right back up."

He hummed a soft chuckle. "Looking forward to it," he said, before offering her a hand to help her up.

One corner of her lips turning up, she took it.

A/N: Would you look at that? It would appear that mayhaps the ice begins to thaw, if only a wee bit xD Still a long way to go with these two, but it's a start! And hopefully you liked the first of the Evils out of Pandora's Box that they faced! Starvation seemed like a nice easy one for them to start off against, especially while they were still working out a few personal issues xD And hopefully I was able to make it abundantly clear that Elsa didn't really mean what she said, she DOES care if people get hurt by these things, she was just scared about ALSO hurting people herself if she tried to help, so she was saying some pretty un-Princess-of-Heart-like things not because she actually felt that way, but just because she was panicking and trying to get out of the whole heroing thing Axel had roped her into xD Anyway, like I said last chapter, we're not gonna see all of the evils they face - I feel like that would just be a lot of chapters with fight after fight after fight and that could get real old, real fast xD (if this were happening in the video games on the other hand, I picture it just being a gauntlet of mini bosses for the player to fight, which I think would be kind of fun!). So yes, most of them are gonna be off camera, but not all! Stay tuned!

MUCH praise and MUCH worship to the resplendent and wonderful Daughter of Kyne and ScarletEmperor for being fantabulous betas for this chapter! Also, special thanks to Spiderfan626, Daughter of Kyne, TheCrazyAnimeFan, ScarletEmperor, and SoraKairiRikuNamine for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews! Your feedback is always appreciated and your support really means everything to me! You all give me so many smiles, I'm not worthy!

Fun Fact: More things I found in my research into Pandora's Box - some versions of the myth have the Evils escaping in the form of a swarm of moths that attack Pandora. So me making the first evil take the shape of a swarm of... well, not moths, but still... a SWARM of SOMETHINGS was kind of a nod to that. Sorta. In a way. If you turn your head and squint xD On another unrelated fun fact note, you know when you're playing a KH game and whenever you start a new world, those fancy lil world logos pop up on the screen? I originally had this idea for this story that I wanted to include in each planet's first chapter a world logo like those, but in ASCII art xD However, apparently FFN's system is not a fan of ASCII art and the second you click "Save" on a chapter doc, that ASCII art gets obliterated into an unrecognizable blob of letters and special characters. So yeah, that idea was a big fat no go xD It wouldn't have really added anything to the story, I just thought it woulda been neat! I'm probably not even the first to have the idea - maybe you've seen other authors here who have successfully managed to pull such a trick off in their KH stories? If so, let me know, I'd like to pick their brains!

Anyhoo, thanks again for reading, I super duper appreciate it! See you at the next update, lovelies! Which... unfortunately will be a bit of a wait, cuz you know me and my writing at the speed of molasses! But I'll do my best to have it ready for you guys as soon as I can! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Reviews are to a fanfic author like claps to a pixie - they give us LIFE! So if you see that it's been a while since I've updated this story, who knows, your review maybe just the kick in rear I need to get me back on track! Much love and peace out!