A torrent of memories flooded through Anna's mind.

Her first session with Drell had been both a triumph and a disaster. Their first sparring match- a contest initiated for the sole purpose of gauging Anna's potential- had ended with the Arms Master walking away with two broken fingers thanks to a lucky blow. Yet Drell hadn't punished her. He had actually been pleased. It was at that moment that Anna truly began to believe that she had a chance to become a skilled warrior.

Drell had trained her intensely over the next several weeks, but he had never been harsh. Anna's pride when he had deemed her fit to compete in tournaments had been eclipsed by her despair at the prospect of leaving the Queen and her Castle behind, but she had still been honored to receive his approval.

That honor had been tempered by the shame of lying to him about her magic. As it had turned out, however, he had known about it almost since the beginning. Anna's relief had been palpable when he'd assured her that her bravery and loyalty to the crown made her a more than worthy student, superhuman abilities or otherwise.

Since the beginning, Drell had supported her. No matter who criticized her, the Arms Master had always been eager to come to her defense. When her past as a criminal had come to light, Drell had barely batted an eye.

Anna had come to him as an unskilled and frankly terrified woman who had just received her first glimmer of real hope in over a decade. Under his guidance, she had been forged into a skilled and confident swordswoman- one capable of utilizing her magical abilities to their greatest extent. No one save Elsa herself had done more for her.

And he was a traitor.

Only her desire to keep Kristoff alive prevented Anna from revealing her hidden knife and hurling it into Drell's chest. That, and the faint hope that maybe, somehow, this was all a misunderstanding.

"You...you're...you?" It was all she could manage.

Drell nodded. His expression was not what Anna would have expected from a mastermind who had just managed to corner a great enemy. He seemed sad...almost reluctant. But underneath that sorrow, the Knight could perceive a fierce conviction that would override any lesser emotion.

"There is no mistake, Anna. For months, I have directed efforts to end our Queen's life. I never wished to see you share that fate. If you listen to what I have to say, there is still a chance to avoid such an end."

Anna's hands shook with rage. "Why?!" she hissed. "Elsa is a great Queen; she's never hurt anyone who didn't strike her first! Arendelle has become the greatest country on earth under her reign! Why the fuck would you try to kill her?! Is this all some mad power grab? Or are you just a sexist homophobic bastard like all of the others?!" the Knight spat.

Drell gazed into her eyes with a calm yet firm glare. Behind him, his twenty co-conspirators remained at the ready.

"You don't understand," he began. "This has never been about such mundane concerns. I don't care that a woman is in charge...or that she loves another woman. This has never been about self-interest. The simple truth of the matter is that Elsa has to die."

She should kill him right now and damn the consequences. Anna's fingers itched to claw at his throat...no. For the sake of Arendelle, she had to wait. The second she made a move towards Drell, the Knight would have over a dozen crossbow bolts heading for her direction. Even with her speed, she probably couldn't dodge them all. Not in the dark.

"WHY?!" Anna demanded again. "You...you tortured me, and for what?!"

Drell frowned. "We had nothing to do with what happened in Lucrania," he assured her.

"Yeah, right!" Anna shouted back.

"I understand your anger. Elsa presents herself as a loving, selfless Queen who would do anything for her kingdom. It is a convincing facade, one that fooled us for many years. But it is all a lie. Anna, you don't have the slightest idea of what she truly is."

The Knight stared at him. "What she is?" Anna questioned, a twinge of uncertainty now settling beside her anger.

With a sigh, the Arms Master nodded. "It's best that I start from the beginning. Humanity has existed for tens of thousands of years. This you probably know. What you are not aware of is that for the vast majority of that time, mankind was not alone. In fact, for most of its existence, it did not even control the earth."

Anna's eyes narrowed. She wanted answers, not folk tales. "And who did?" she questioned impatiently.

"Gods and goddesses. There were hundreds of them, each had control over a certain element, and all were immortal and unkillable. We do not know where they came from. But we do know that for thousands of years, mankind developed slowly under their careful watch. Until the Cataclysm," he continued.

"Cataclysm?" Anna repeated impatiently. She must humor him. She had to learn his motives, no matter how deranged they might be.

"An appropriate name if there ever was one," Drell muttered. "The gods had an established hierarchy, a King ruled over them just as mortal rulers lead humanity today. As you might expect, not every god and goddess remained pleased with the situation forever. You see, Anna, the gods often mated with mortals. It was both expected and accepted both as a form of enjoyment and a means of having children. However, they were not supposed to marry them. When the King took a human as his Queen-Consort, a large faction used this as an excuse to rebel."

Anna's fists clenched even tighter. "Sounds familiar," she hissed.

Drell nodded in acknowledgement of the point. "Regardless, the war was brutal. The gods could not be killed; the only way to take one out of the picture was to imprison them...and that was not easy. Due to the sheer difficulty in securing victories and their unthinkable powers, the world was devastated by the conflict. Humanity's population was halved, all mankind could do was hide in the caves and pray that those they had worshipped did not destroy them."

Her mind flashed back to her journey with Kristoff. Hadn't he mentioned something about gods warring? It seemed like such a long time ago.

"A small number of gods, both loyal and rebel, were captured and imprisoned, but it was clear that the world would be utterly destroyed long before either side could claim victory. Under the King's orders, the loyalists combined their power and opened a portal to another dimension...banishing both themselves and the rebels from the earth forever. The rift was nearly irresistible, and every single god and goddess on the planet was drawn into it. All except for one."

Holy. Shit.

Anna instinctively knew that he was telling the truth. She had seen the events he now described. Her dreams...had they been real after all? They were finally making sense! Anna's first vision had been of a world in flames, nature literally at war with itself, until a booming voice demanded that the fighting end. Later, she had dreamt of a single powerful being resisting the pull of a 'rift' while her compatriots were removed from this plane of existence.

"Where did they go?" she couldn't help but ask.

Drell shrugged. "The details are murky. Perhaps the realm of the afterlife, or the realm they had originally come from. In the end, it doesn't matter. All of the gods and goddesses were banished from the world forever. Save one. She was an ice goddess, Anna. She'd been neutral during the war, but its aftermath left her the unquestioned ruler of the entire planet."

"What was her name?" It couldn't be Elsa. The Queen had been born twenty four years ago; it was well documented. She had not lived for thousands of years. It was impossible.

"She did not have one. Many gods did not; they chose to be referred to only by their element. It reinforced their dominance over mortal kind, don't you see? Anyone addressing her would have simply called her 'Goddess of Winter.'"

Anna glared at him, the anger rising again. "And what the hell does any of this have to do with today?" she demanded.

Drell held up a placating hand. "The Goddess ruled over humanity for hundreds of years. No one could hope to challenge her, and humanity continued to have its destiny controlled by a greater power. Fortunately, in ruling the world, the Goddess sowed the seeds for her own destruction. To wield power effectively, delegation was required. She chose to favor a specific group: those who could wield magic. Usually this power was only witnessed in mortals who were descended from the gods themselves, but on rare occasions a god was also known to gift supernatural abilities to a favored mortal with no divine ancestry. The bloodlines descended from the gods still flourished during Winter's reign, and she had her pick of powerful lieutenants."

The Knight said nothing in response. This all seemed like a folk tale, but her dreams...Could this traitor finally provide her with some clear answers?

"Most served her fanatically, delighted by their authority over their fellow man. But a select group eventually conspired against her. They knew that humanity could never reach its potential until mankind served no hire power. It was not easy. All of their magic combined could never hope to rival that of the Goddess in an open confrontation, even discounting her immortality. But after decades of research, they managed to craft a spell with the power to end her reign. Seizing the element of surprise and catching her off guard, the mortal rebellion trapped the Goddess and successfully destroyed her corporeal form."

Another dream clicked into place. Anna vividly remembered the sight of the tortured woman as her betrayers seemingly erased from existence. Despite Drell's words, Anna knew they weren't heroes. What they had done, what she had seen...had been the work of monsters.

"Humanity was free, but the essence of the Goddess endured. It was scattered to the wind, incapable of any thought, but it endured. It has slowly regained its strength over thousands of years, until it was strong enough to take human form. Elsa is the Goddess of Winter reborn, with full recollection of her past, and soon she will act to place all of humanity under her rule once again," he declared.

Her mouth gaped open in shock. For now, she was willing to believe most of his story; his tale coincided too closely to her visions to be mere coincidence. But Elsa as a Goddess? It seemed impossible.

Or did it? Anna had compared the Queen to a deity several times in the past. Elsa's powers were almost beyond human comprehension. And it wasn't hard to believe that something so beautiful possessed a degree of divinity.

"What makes you think it's her?" the Knight questioned. "Her powers? Just because she has strong magic doesn't make her a Goddess! You would kill an innocent woman based on mere suspicion?"

Drell shook his head. "No. We are entirely certain that she is the one. Anna, I doubt you know this, but throughout history, there have been a handful of individuals blessed with the power of prophecy. They could not look into the future voluntarily, but at times they would be overcome with premonitions of events that were yet to pass. One such individual was born a year before the Goddess's fall, descended from an unknown god herself. She was born to remnants of the Goddess's loyal servants, and to them she reiterated a prophecy that has shaped my entire life."

My last vision...

"Two thousand years shall pass, and in the land of the golden flower the Goddess shall be reborn. Clothed in human flesh, beget to a King, first of his name. In her prime, her sires will fall, and the crown shall mark her. She will return weakened in body, but if her domain spreads to the far corners of the earth, the world shall know divinity once more," he said gravely. "Our spies learned of this prophecy, and we became an Order determined to prevent these events from occurring."

Anna couldn't believe her ears. "You waited for two thousand years because of some young girl's mad rambling?"

Drell frowned. "Anna, throughout history, no prophecy issued by a Seer has ever proved wrong. The girl who said those words made several correct predictions during her lifetime. The words are clear; the Goddess would reincarnate, and there is nothing we could do to prevent that. There is hope, however, that we could stop her from achieving domination."

"By killing her," Anna hissed.

"Yes. My ancestors waited for millennia, passing down their knowledge to their children and keeping their bloodlines of magic alive. In recent years, with the time approaching, we based ourselves in the two countries that fit the description of the 'golden flower,'" he revealed.

Anna's eyes widened. "Arendelle and Corona," she breathed. Both countries used a golden flower as their symbol.

"We gained positions of significant power and influence in both countries, trying to position ourselves as close to the royal families as possible. Unfortunately, two individuals born in roughly the same stretch in time were potential candidates," he said. "The Goddess of Winter was capable of far more than ice magic. She was known to have a particular affinity for healing magic, like several of her compatriots."

"You weren't sure if it was Elsa, or...Rapunzel," Anna realized. "Why not just kill them both in their cribs? Why wait this long to make a move?"

The Arms Master grimaced. "We did not know which one was the Goddess. Our 'conspiracy', for lack of a better word, was unmolested for centuries because we never took any action that would bring scrutiny down upon us. Killing one of the Princesses would have increased the security of the other tenfold and brought the wrath of two superpowers upon us. Besides, the prophecy mentioned that the reincarnation's parents would die and leave the crown to her. Fighting a prophecy has never succeeded; our only chance was to work with it. Only the last line mentions an uncertain outcome, and that is where we knew to focus our efforts. We would wait for the Goddess to assume the crown, then strike before she could dominate the earth."

Anna shook her head, utterly bewildered and still fuming with rage. "Why wait five years after she became Queen? You even had her in custody when I saved her the first time; you could easily have killed her then."

"That was not us. We would have killed her had we gotten that chance. But that first attack had nothing to do with our Order. It was likely a simple ransom scheme. Neither did we have anything to do with that business in Lucrania; I would not have allowed you to be tortured," he claimed forcefully.

"You tried to kill me!" She didn't believe him for a second.

The Arms Master sighed. "With great reluctance, yes. I never wanted to hurt you, Anna. I trained you out of a real desire to help you; I had no idea that by doing so I was providing Elsa with her most powerful protector. You had planned to leave the Castle after your training was complete, remember?"

Anna did.

"I had hoped that you would have left by then; I wanted you out of harm's way. But during our first assassination attempt on the night of the Winter Solstice, you proved yourself a significant obstacle to our goal. My lieutenants ordered their men to kill you during that journey you made into the wilderness, and again during the infiltration of the Palace. I still did not want you dead, but as the leader of this Order, my personal qualms could not be allowed to override our mission. Reluctantly, I sanctioned their attempts. Had they succeeded, you would have been given a merciful end and a proper funeral," he assured her.

Her mind raced. His explicit admission that he had ordered her death stung, but now he had confessed that he was the leader of this group. Finally, she had discovered who was behind this whole mess. And now, Anna had a chance to stop him.

Anna could believe that they weren't behind the kidnapping attempt, but she knew that he was lying about their ties to Lucrania. Jocasta had clearly been working for the conspiracy. Anna could tell that he was trying to win her sympathies...why else would he tell her all of this? His men could shoot her right now. She might be able to dodge the bolts, but Drell didn't know that. As far as he was concerned, she was completely at his mercy.

"To finish answering your original question, we waited because we were still not certain which Princess was the Goddess. Both were now grown and well guarded. Any attempt on either of their lives was likely to fail, and would bring the wrath of both countries down upon us. The Order wanted to be certain of which was our true target before we acted. Elsa was the only one of the two with ice powers, but as history has shown us, the fulfillment of prophecies often defies the obvious."

"What made you decide?" Anna questioned.

Drell inclined his head slightly. "You. Mortals descended from gods have been known to both be capable of healing and possess ice magic, and that magic has a chance to be passed on to their children. But only a Goddess could pass on magic to a previously Ungifted mortal. No one has ever come into their abilities following the age of five, and as I trained you, it became clear to me that you were developing magical abilities at a rapid pace. Even before you first met Rapunzel. That left only one possible culprit. We struck during the Winter Solstice, and you know the rest."

Oh yes, she did.

"And you're the one responsible for the rebellion during the Summer Solstice?" Anna inquired. She had to gather as much information as possible before they acted.

"Yes. With our numbers diminished, I worked with Ambrose Durron to organize an uprising. I gave him access to knowledge of the guards' patrols and the keys to the Palace's armories. I also gave him my most powerful warrior-" he indicated Rohan- "For the assault. I did not sympathize with his cause, but I was willing to use it for the Order's ends."

Anna's mouth gaped open. "That...doesn't make sense. You fought during the rebellion! On our side."

He nodded. "Only Durron knew of my involvement. In the event that the attack failed, I could not risk my complicity becoming known. To the mercenaries, I was just another obstacle. I resolved to guard a friend, Lord Arald, a good man who knows nothing of my true affiliations. By sheer chance, we were cornered. The Queen herself intervened. I tried to call her back- both to prevent her from going off and turning the tide and to give me a chance to catch her by surprise. It didn't work."

Anna bit her lip thoughtfully. Drell hadn't spent much time alone with Elsa, and he had never been armed during those moments. With Anna herself, it was another story.

"You could have killed me anytime you wanted," the Knight pointed out. "Why didn't you just stab me in the back after a practice session?"

Drell grimaced. "Even if I succeeded, doing so would have exposed myself to the Queen. You were a powerful obstacle to our goals, but my position was too important for me to reveal myself. And...I never wanted to kill you."

The Knight sighed. There had been enough talk.

"So why tell me this?" she demanded. "You could kill me right now. Why not just get it over with?" Anna tensed, waiting for the bolts to fly, but Drell's accomplishes remained almost motionless.

"To offer you a choice. I know you are a good person, Anna. You want to do the right thing. As misguided as your efforts to protect Elsa were, they demonstrated your valor and loyalty. I do not fault you for your actions, damaging as they were. But now you have a chance to make up for your mistakes. Anna, the Queen has been using you from the beginning. The Goddess only desires domination; she does not love you. It is your looks and your powers that she appreciates. Once her strength has returned in full, sexual slavery will be the best you can hope from her. She will never treat you as an equal," he warned forcefully.

Anna said nothing.

"I can see it in your eyes; you believe what I have told you. Do you want to see humanity crushed underneath her feet? Once she attains full strength, there will be no stopping her. Her powers grow by the day; soon she will act to conquer the entire world. And if that happens, her divinity will be returned in full. How, exactly, we do not know. But the prophecy is clear. If Elsa gains dominion over the entire world, her former strength will be completely restored. Nothing on earth will be able to so much as wound her," Drell said.

The Knight stared at him, at a loss for words. There were still so many questions. Where had these gods come from, and where had they gone? Was Elsa truly one of them? And why exactly had she had these visions of the past? Did it have something to do with her connection to Elsa?

"Elsa has used you. Once your value as her protector is gone, she shall either toss you aside or keep you by her side as a slave. Humanity itself will be enslaved forever. The Order has failed; what you see before you is almost all that remains. You could save the world so easily, Anna. All you have to do is put your personal feelings aside," he intoned.

"You want me to kill her," the Knight said.

"Yes."

Anna took a deep breath. "I don't want to. But...I believe what you've said. I've had dreams...visions, that confirm you're telling the truth. I know your Order wouldn't have survived for long as it has, and sacrificed so much, if defeating the Goddess wasn't so important. For the sake of the world...I'll do it."

Drell shook his head sadly. "I wish I could believe you. But I'm afraid it will not be so easy." He turned to his men. "Bring him forward," the Arms Master ordered.

The masked prisoner was shoved forward by his captors, bringing him parallel with Drell. Seizing the captive by the arms, Anna's teacher reached down and removed the mask.

Gods...

"General Kale!" Anna gasped. Her constant adversary was kneeling in the snow, his eyes filled with utter fury. Only the gag that covered his mouth prevented a vicious stream of curses from cutting through the night.

"Yes. A few hours ago, he was taking a quick trip to the city. It was easy to neutralize him. Queens have protection. Generals are not so fortunate," Drell said.

The Knight's eyes widened. "And why is he..."

"A test," the Arms Master answered forcefully. "It will take far more than words to convince me that you are willing to betray the Queen. Kristoff is young and innocent, and we both know his death would not serve anyone. Kale, on the other hand, is a powerful warrior who could very well escape our grasp if left alive. His death would also destabilize the Castle, making it easy for you to eliminate the Goddess and escape unharmed."

"But..."

"Kill him," Drell said firmly. "I know who you are, Anna. You would only kill someone if you truly believed in the cause. Strike him down with the knife you are no doubt concealing in your sleeve, and I will be confident in your change of heart. Otherwise...well, I'm not a fool, Anna. You can't expect me to accept your word without proof. So do it. Right now. Give him a quick and easy death."

Anna's hands started trembling. Her bluff had been a desperate one, and she knew it had been too much to hope for that Drell would buy it. Evidently, he was a fanatic. But that didn't mean he was a moron.

Her eyes met Kale's. She could see something fierce in them. Was it fear? Or was he telling her to do it, to sacrifice him to gain their trust and take them down? Anna didn't know, and it didn't matter.

Drell was right.

"You got me," she admitted bitterly. "I won't kill an innocent, even if he is an ass. You're monsters! All of you! Elsa might very well be a reincarnation of a Goddess. So what? Just because she has power doesn't mean she's going to oppress humanity. Elsa would never do that! Even if she is a reincarnation, that doesn't mean she remembers her past! She doesn't even know she's a Goddess! You just fear what you don't understand. I saw what your Order did to the Goddess. You burned her to death! No, it was worse. You disintegrated her. And for what? Assuming control of a ravaged world that probably desperately needed some order? You-" she extracted her knife and pointed it at Drell- "Are nothing but a traitor. I will never betray Elsa, Goddess or otherwise. And she would never betray me."

Anna didn't think that Drell was completely wrong. Elsa could very well be a Goddess reborn. But while her traitorous mentor believed that the Queen remembered her past and endeavored to conquer the world to restore her powers, Anna knew that nothing was further from the truth.

The Arms Master's head fell. "I expected as much," he said bitterly. "I knew it was a pipe dream. I wanted to give you a chance. But I see where your heart lies, and we both know you're too dangerous to capture. With you out of the way, Elsa will be vulnerable, and your death might give us an opening to attack. I'm...sorry, Anna."

Tears forming in her eyes, the Knight looked up to the trees and gave a slight nod. "So am I," she murmured softly.

The first two arrows split through the night, slamming into Kale's two captors before they even realized they were under attack. By the time they crumpled to the ground, a third arrow had already sliced through the neck of one of the crossbowmen. Around him, the snow went red with blood in a sickening contrast.

Panic seized the ranks of her enemies, even as a stunned Drell ordered them to fire. Eight shots were launched in Anna's direction, but they were released in surprise and haste. Impressing even herself with her speed, the Knight dived to the right and avoided the bolts.

Overhead, the archers were firing again.

Anna would have been willing to sacrifice her life for Kristoff, but she had seen a way to sidestep the choice entirely. Just for once, she was the one who had the trap. The blizzard had provided her with the perfect opportunity. As soon as Evangeline had overcome her initial skepticism of Anna's story, the spymaster had agreed to position herself and two of her best archers high in the trees prior to the meeting. Clad in heavy white winter coats and mostly buried by falling snow, they were all but impossible to see during the night.

She was still risking her life, of course. But this way, Anna had a chance. And if they succeeded, the Queen's servants could accomplish far more than saving one man's life. The conspiracy would all but end.

If Anna and her allies survived.

Another round of arrows hissed through the air, killing two more crossbowmen and one of Kristoff's captors. Anna charged forward, raising her knife and hurling it at the ice-harvester's remaining guard. He crumpled to his knees the next moment.

Then Drell was coming at her from the right. The Knight was unarmed now, but she was far from helpless. As he thrusted at her torso, she leapt to the side and avoided the blow. Before he could even think about recovering, Anna lashed out with her fist and punched him in the chest. The impact carried him several feet through the air, but the snow cushioned his fall. She turned to the left-

Shit!

Three of the remaining crossbowmen were firing at her. Caught off guard, all Anna could do was sway her body to the right. Two of the projectiles swept by.

The third embedded itself in her left thigh.

Pain! Forcing herself to act, Anna gritted her teeth and extracted the bolt. Warm blood flowed onto her hands, but the bleeding was not as bad as it would have been for a normal woman. It hurt like utter hell, but she had not been dealt a mortal wound. Not yet.

The agony actually did her a favor. It consumed all of her mind's excess focus, preventing any flashbacks from materializing. Her brain had no time to conjure up images of the past when it was too busy processing the pain of the present.

A swordsman leapt forward, bringing his blade down in a vicious downward cut. Before the metal could reach her shoulder, the Knight's hand darted out and seized his wrist. Bringing her overpowering strength to bear, Anna redirected the momentum of his attack and forced the conspirator's weapon into his own gut. Paying no mind to his screams, Anna extracted the blade and claimed it for herself even as he collapsed into the snow.

Several feet away, Drell was beginning to recover. Kristoff, still masked, was wandering around all but helpless, but Kale had tackled a crossbowman to the ground. Despite his wrists still being tied together, the general was all but pounding the other man's face into the cold, hard ground.

Anna ran forward, ready to make the Arms Master pay for his treason. Emotionally, she wasn't prepared to kill him- not while his betrayal was still sinking in. It didn't matter; as the leader, he needed to be brought in alive if at all possible, and Anna was more than happy to knock him unconscious.

WHOOSH!

The next second, Anna was flying through the night on a powerful gust of air. Of course! The air mage- Rohan- was still alive and he...

Slam! Her body came to a hard stop and she crumbled against a tree trunk. Any normal warrior would have been knocked unconscious with a few broken bones at the very least. As it was, the Knight's entire body throbbed with pain- it was a growing chorus to accompany the powerful note of agony that still flared in her thigh.

Then he was standing over her, the air whipping around him as he moved as fast as Anna ever could. In his right hand was a long, thin blade that now angled for her prone body.

Her survival instincts kicked in. Anna's blade swept through the air; the two swords met an inch away from her side. Despite her awkward position, the Knight's strength was still far greater than his. Pushing his blade back, Anna forced him to jump away from her sweeping attack.

She climbed to her feet, the lake at her back now. Anna needed to finish her opponent off quickly...how long could she go on with this leg? The Knight charged forward-

WHOOSH!

Anna was flying through the air again. Then...cold!

Her body impacted painfully with the lake's freezing water. Only the fact that it was early in the winter saved the Knight from an icy death. Her sword slipped from her grip, but she managed to climb her way to the surface despite the painfully low temperatures that surrounded her. With two mighty strokes of her arms, Anna propelled herself to the opposite shore of the lake and waddled her way back onto solid ground. Shivers were sweeping through her entire body.

Anna's heart skipped a beat as she saw that Rohan was already running across the lake, his powers somehow keeping him aloft above the water.

Terror clenched at her chest. Could she win? Probably not- not with her injuries. And she wasn't even armed! No, Anna's best chance was to run...to lead him away from the ongoing battle and hope that Evangeline could pull through on her own.

Anna didn't like her odds. Judging by how quickly she'd seen him run, Rohan's top speed equaled hers on a good day. But now, she was wounded and freezing. He was not. Yet it was the only chance she had.

Panting heavily, the Knight turned in the opposite direction and began to run.

A/N: So there you go, many questions answered. I'm glad to see that I caught everyone by surprise with Evangeline and her archers; no one guessed. I encourage you all to read the second half of the previous chapter again, several things will be seen in a different light. That painting gave Anna the idea to use the archers, and she had anxiously looked up at the trees to make sure they were still covered by the snow. The 'limbs beneath' did not refer just to the tree limbs but the arms and legs of the archers.

Responses:

YuriLover24: Yup!

Guest 1: Do you still believe that?

Guest 2: That would have been way too obvious.

WinterWolfDragon: I wouldn't be too certain of that.

Valathe: How was this for a plot twist?

Lionheart: You called it! But did you know why?

Sedryn: I hope it makes sense now. He didn't know she would be a threat at first, and killing her while they practiced would have blown his cover.

Shadowglyder: She DID ask Evangeline for help.

PascalDragon: It was a good idea!

FreelanceBum: He's still alive and kicking!

Syrathia: It's a tough call, to be sure.

DimmensionalLover: She's not as surrounded as it seems…

Guest 3: Hahaha…oh you were serious.

Scott g: It's not that hard. You can create an account, upload documents, then post a new story. You should give it a try!

Guest 4: How about this?

Moose: Thanks! Gotta keep you on your toes!

ASnowQueen: Unfortunately, Elsa is still on the other side of the country.

3Gs: Yeah…

Arkeanderu: I don't think I'm bringing in more crossovers, but you never know.

FrenchToastPumpkin: Thanks! I try to keep it unpredictable!

Strab: I hope so!

Cooksiez: Probably not the way you expected.

Shtoops: Time will tell.

Speca: Hopefully it makes sense now.

JPElles: Always a pleasure to write! When it's not painful…

SummerStormWar: Elsa is too far away to intervene right now.

ClaireCooper: How was he a douche before?

Claowyn: Yay!

Malekoydaerb: That's a very good point about Drell and Anna.

FirstMovement: Yes, Anna had a plan! And I love cliffhangers.

Wildsasquatch5: It will probably be mentioned.

Frost108: Thanks!

Guest 5: Already working on a fic now, and doing one with the same premise but just a role reversal doesn't seem like that good of an idea for me to write. It's a very interesting scenario though, and if someone wanted to use that idea for a story I definitely wouldn't mind.

Darthcadeus: Thanks! Right now I'm feeling for Anna.

Guest 6: Exactly what I was going for!

Sedryn: Here's a partial answer…

3Gs: We know what Anna's are, sort of. Elsa's are a different story.

ObsessiveImaginings: I don't know, it sounds familiar.

Mpsantiago: I've got one more planned.

DVINM: Excellent analysis. The one point where you're a bit off is that Anna did find a way to make one of those decisions not as bad as it might have been. It was still a huge risk to take.