Aqua and Terra walked up the mountain until the brunette's hair turn half white. He fell to his knees in shivering from the cold.

"Terra!" Aqua kneel by his side. It wasn't much but Aqua used her cape to wrap it around him.

"Aqua... It's okay..." He cupped her cheek and she teared up.

"No! No, it's not!" She looked around and saw a small cave. She threw his arm around her shoulder and helped him get out of the frigid cold by bringing him inside the cave."I'm the one who did this to you!"

"It was an accident..." He sat down and leaned against the wall. "Aqua?"

"Yes?"

"Can you... Can you please stay with me?" He asked and she sat by him. She gasped when his hair turned white. He closed his eyes and sat upright, away from the wall, and tried to do his best to curl up underneath Aqua's cape. His head fell in her lap. "A-Aqua... I'm cold..."

"I know... I know, and I'm so so sorry for this Terra! This is all my fault..." She whimpered and hugged him. "Terra, please don't go... You're the only one who was there for me when I needed someone..."

Terra weakly smiled at her, cupping her cheek with frozen fingers. "Aqua..." She put a hand on top of hers and sniffed, tears streaming down her face. "I... I have... Some to... Tell you..."

"Y-you can tell me anything!" Aqua whimpered again. Terra couldn't swallow the lump in his throat and he started to feel his skin near his heart freeze. He winced. "Terra, what's tell me! What were you going to say!"

"I... I..." His cheeks were beginning to looked frostbitten and ice crept on his cheeks. His breath hicthed in his throat and lowered his hand to his side. "Aqua, no matter... What happens... I will always... Love you... you were everything... to me... Even to the last resort... I still... love... you..."

"What? Terra you do?" She asked and he half nodded.

"Always..." He breathlessly said and was slipping away slowly.

"Terra! Stay with me, please!" She cupped his cheek, "Don't die on me, please! ...I love you too!"

"Love... you..." Terra smiled and drew his last breath before his skin turn fully into ice. She gasped as she couldn't believe how fast this was happening.

"TERRA!" She shouted out and cried into his shoulder and hugged his neck. "Terra, please come back! I need you! I love you! Please be back!" She whimpered and lifted her head up, staring at his sleeping, icy face. She whimpered and cupped his face. "I'm sorry Terra... Please come back to me... if I deserve it." She whimpered and leaned her forehead against his and tears fell on Terra's cheeks. "Terra... I'm sorry..." She kissed his lips, even if it didn't mean anything now. After ten seconds, she pulled away and hugged him tightly. "Terra... Come home..."

Starting from his heart, it started to unfreeze. He body got warmer as did his heart started to beat again. When she heard that, she pulled away and icy particles floated up in the air. Terra breathed in deeply and raised a hand to his head.

"Aqua...?" He looked at her with his cobalt blue eyes, happy teras now overflowing her sapphire blues.

"Terra?" She asked and he smiled. "Terra! You're alive and awake!" She hugged him tightly and he hugged back. "Terra..."

"It's okay. Just knowing you love me back, that makes me happy." He kissed her passionately and she wrapped her arms around his neck. His arms snaked around her waist. The kiss lasted for about five minutes before they pulled away. Both of them stared at each other until Aqua said something.

"Can you walk?" She asked and he shrugged. She climbed off his lap and let him stand. He stumbled a bit and she caught him. After he stood straight, he smiled at her and nodded.

"Thanks, your majesty." He thanked her and her smile saddened a bit. She looked to the entrance and walked to it, looking out to the storm waiting beyond the cave.

"I suppose I'm not queen, now that I've ran away..." She sighed upon the cold air of the cavern. "Maybe we should continue on? You know, since we can't go back..."

"Of course..." Terra grabbed her hand and rubbed the top of her hand with his thumb. "Oh, and Aqua?"

"Yes?"

"You'll always be queen." He put her cape back on her.

"Are you kidding? We are never able to return-"

"I didn't mean that. I mean the queen of my heart."

Aqua's heart felt as it skipped a beat and heat rushed to her cheeks. Those two sentences made her flustered and shyly quiet.

~

They trudged up the snowy terrain of the mountain. The cold wind blew fiercely all around them, but she didn't care how cold it was; all she could think about was the look on everyone's faces, especially Piri's, when they discovered her powers and Vexen calling her a monster. Everything that she and Terra had feared would happen have now become reality.

"Hey, Terra?"

"Yes?"

"Can you wait  at the foot of this hill?" She asked and he raised an eyebrow, but nodded nonetheless. She sighed and the storm seemed to calm down a bit. She walked the hill and sighed, looking around.

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight,

Not a footprint to be seen.

A kingdom of isolation,

And it looks like I'm the queen.

The wind is howling like the swirling storm inside.

Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried…

She thought back to how for the past 12 years, Aqua and her father tried very hard to keep her powers in check; but now it all seemed that all their efforts were for nothing. If he were still alive, he'd have seen the disappointment her daughter had become.

Don't let them in. Don't let them see.

Be the good girl you always have to be.

Conceal. Don't feel. Don't let them know…

Well now they know!

There's no point in hiding it now, she thought as she looked at the glove on her other hand. Aqua pulled it off and discarded it as she let it blow away in the wind.

Aqua decided to test the powers that she had concealed over the years. She started off by conjuring little snowflakes in her hands, and then she created a little snow duck, the same one that she built with Piri, Ven, and Terra when they were little. As she created large swirls of snow into the air and onto the slopes, her powers felt more natural to her.

Let it go, let it go,

Can't hold it back anymore.

Let it go, let it go,

Turn away and slam the door!

I don't care what they're going to say

Let the storm rage on.

The cold never bothered me anyway.

She undid the clasp on her cape and let it blow away in the wind without a care. At the bottom of the hill, Terra saw the cape fly away and ran towards where she was.

She walked up the snowy terrain and laughed at how far she was now from the kingdom and from her fears. They left so much behind, but she was so relieved that she didn't care.

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small

And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all.

Approaching a wide ravine, she smiled as she thought of a way she could get across it.

It's time to see what I can do

To test the limits and break through.

No right, no wrong, no rules for me.

I'm free!

With a thrust of her hands, she formed a stairway made of snowflakes that didn't seem like it would hold. She ran up to her creation and when she went up the first step, that part of the stairs turned to solid ice. Aqua's face brightened up at this and climbed further up, extending the stairs to the other side. Terra stopped at the bottom of the stairs and watched in amazement and astonishment.

Let it go, let it go!

I am one with the wind and sky!

Let it go, let it go!

You'll never see me cry.

When she reached the other side, Aqua focused her powers and stomped her foot, creating a giant snowflake of solid ice on the ground beneath her.

Here I stand and here I'll stay.

Let the storm rage on…

Channeling her powers further, Aqua raised the snowflake up and created walls around her. Her confidence grew even more as she made a magnificent palace of ice all around her. She finished off her creation with a beautiful ceiling and an elegant chandelier hanging from it.

My power flurries through the air and to the ground.

My soul is spiraling in frozen fractal all around.

And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast!

She took off the crown and looked at it with slight remorse, but then confidently tossed the crown away.

I'm never going back,

The past is in the past!

Aqua undid her tight bun and let her blue hair hang loosely to the middle of her shoulder blade. Light and snow swirled around her as she used her powers to transform her dress into a beautiful white floor-length strapless gown and a long laced cape attached to the back of her dress.

Let it go, let it go,

Then I'll rise like the break of dawn!

Let it go, let it go!

That perfect girl is gone!

She walked out onto the balcony, taking in the view of the sunrise and casting aside her troubling thoughts. After so long, Aqua was now free to be herself without fear, no longer feeling that her powers were a curse or a burden.

Here I stand in the light of day.

Let the storm rage on!

The cold never bothered me anyway.

Setting her resolve to never return to Radiant Garden, Aqua turned around and walked back inside her palace, shutting the doors behind her.

Terra stood in looking at the ice palace. He couldn't find the words or even function properly. He didn't know what he saw from her display but... Wow. Well, at least she was happy now.

He shook off his dumbfounded state and carefully walked up the stairs, following her into the newly made castle.