A/N: More plot development and a few hints at what's REALLY going on. Oh boy oh boy. I'm sorry this wasn't up earlier today, but as I didn't have it written, I couldn't very well post a blank chapter. I JUST finished this segment ten minutes ago, and I'm midway through the vicious throes of a violent headcold. I feel like my skull is being squeezed in a vice and a truck is driving across my sinuses, but I had to update for you guys to help push myself through this mess.

I would like to thank all of my readers and reviewers, new and old, with honorable mentions to NoblePlatypus, Demented Jocosity, and LaraAelric for your wonderful repeat reviews. Thanks for sticking with me, guys and girls. There is...one more "dark" scene scheduled for this fic (now that I've had two with reasonable success), which actually only came about as a brainstorm earlier today. I may decide to eliminate it, but I think it'll drive everything home for everyone with all that's going on. Aaaah, I've both said too much and said absolutely nothing at all! Nevermind, go read Chapter 11.


This Calling

Chapter 11: Strike For Love

Calm waters surrounded the crown jewel of the Arendelle fleet, the frigate Opus. The crocus blew mighty and adamant in the breeze, green petals on a blue canvas that tossed about as the gusts changed. Anna stood at the bow of the ship, eyes trained on the scout ahead.

"Princess, it is suggested that you retire for the night. You should be as rested as possible in case we run upon the Spaniards."

"They don't frighten me," she said. Her voice had a lilt that betrayed none of her inner emotions, something which unnerved the bo'sun. He cleared his throat, crossing his dark-skinned arms that rippled with hardened muscle.

"The captain has asked that you return to quarters for the night. It is too dark for you to see, and far too dangerous for the last member of the royal family to be on the upper deck."

"I don't care what the captain has asked nor how dangerous it may be."

The same quiet lilt. He felt trepidation as he tried once more.

"Princess, this is not-"

"Return to your post, sir. I don't have time for your groveling."

The hairs on the back of the bo'sun's neck couldn't have stood any higher. He'd finally figured it out: the sudden change in her attitude, her loss of emotion, her toneless remarks, it was all part of who she'd become as a result of losing her sister, possibly forever. He felt a dark sense of foreboding that seemed to expand and contract with her unhurried breathing.

She didn't care. She had lost all feeling toward the outside, apathy oozing from her pores like the sweat he'd work up on a hot summer's day. She didn't care one iota, and it scared him far more than the omnipotent darkness that hung dank in the eve.

He strode away, leaving Anna to gaze at the sea.

xXxXx

Elsa awoke in a cage, the room around her tossing back and forth as she struggled to ascertain her bearings. A face swam in front of her view; she blinked at it with bleary eyes.

"Have you come to kill me now?" she rasped.

Juan sighed. "Thank Dios you are alive." He dropped her gaze and knelt before her, tipping a small waterskin toward her mouth, from which she pulled a lengthy draught. He let his eyes roam across her naked back, still red and chapped with the scabs from his lashing.

"How long was I out?"

"We've been on the ship for an hour or so, by my judgment. Queen Elsa of Arendelle...I..."

He sniffled, hot tears striking the back of her limp hand with wretched anger.

"I am an unforgivable swine, y por dios y mi madre en el cielo I cannot continue under Hans!"

He had only whispered the words, though the impact they drove into her ears was enough. She forced her eyes open further.

"You drugged me, raped me, chained me up, forced my hand into cooperating with this lucid dream, beat me to a shred...and now, this?"

"Rape? You were raped?"

Elsa blinked. Didn't he know?

The expression on Juan's face grew several shades darker. "That...bastard. That...that..." He spat at the floor, seeming to grow sick to his stomach.

"Queen Elsa of Arendelle...I cannot lie to you any further. Y-you may hang me for my crimes against you when this is all over, but...that hijo de la puta madre left me no other options!"

She waited while he caught his breath.

"I...I must tell you everything, your highness. I must. And you must listen, and quickly. We don't have much time. Prince Hans...he is the devil! He is some new kind of monster, the kind you could never be. He is ruthless, bloodthirsty...He came to my kingdom and spoke of a horrible witch in the north with the power to freeze the world, asking my father for help in destroying her. My father told him to leave.

"I heard all of this at the local tavern; I left the throne because I didn't want to be a royal any longer. There was too much pressure, too many expectations, and I hated it. So I left the kingdom and entered the common world, still in the empire but away from my father's watchful eye. That was many months ago. My sister had left with me, believing she was like me and not made for royal pressures. I didn't ask her to come; she insisted.

Hans found out from the locals that my sister and I had been missing from the royal court. He found the right people, paid off those he needed to, and found my home. He took my sister, Maria, the one you made the snowglobe for. He took her, kidnapped her away from us...from me...and told me that the only way to get her back was to go back to the kingdom and murder my mother. I...I was so scared for Maria, I had no idea what to do."

"Did you kill her?"

Elsa had regained enough feeling in her limbs to drag her body up against the steel bars of the cage, finding comfort in the cold metal against her searing back.

"I couldn't! Not my mother! But I...didn't have to. She took her own life. I don't know why, only that she did. I simply told Hans I did it, and he let the gossip spread throughout the kingdom. I was framed for her death in exchange for getting my sister back.

"I couldn't go back to the Empire, not even as a commoner; people would have eventually recognized me and would condemn me for a crime I didn't commit. So I left with Hans, the power in his hands. He still had a hold on Maria. He...still does.

"He sent me from the Southern Isles to drug you and bring you back, or else Maria would suffer terribly. He made me swing the whip, or else Maria would be tortured as well. He holds my sister over my head and torments me with promise of her torture and undoing, and all I can do is beg him not to do it."

Elsa blinked. All it took was to imagine Anna in Maria's predicament, and she softened. "Then...why are you conspiring with him?"

"I have no choice! I have nowhere to go, nobody to trust. He has my sister back on the Isles, the only thing I ever held hope for in my life. She's a good girl, Queen Elsa, and it took a month of persuasion to see her in Arendelle for the first time in months. She's grown so much, so very much, and I haven't been able to see it because I'm always doing what he asks, praying that he doesn't hurt her."

Elsa was reminded of her beating. The wounds hurt less knowing they had granted mercy to a defenseless little girl. She let out a low sigh.

"And you couldn't tell me sooner because He would have known."

The man nodded, his lithe frame broken and disheveled.

"Who..." She swallowed.

"Hans. Hans did that to you, your majesty. He told me to do it, and I refused. I...I could not..."

It was only a small comfort that she wasn't talking to the man who defiled her. "I see. Where is this ship going? Arendelle?"

He nodded. "He sent his brother Franz there to lure your sister out. If his plan went accordingly, she would have been surrounded by his ships in the darkest part of the night. By now, she should be shipwrecked and aboard one of his vessels as your bait. We are sailing to confirm the destruction of the ship, and so that he may take her as his personal hostage against you. He wanted to do this in front of you and force you to watch him put the shackles on."

Elsa ground her teeth together. "And them I'm expected to freeze out my own kingdom with Anna under his lock and key, is that it?"

Juan nodded again. "It is a cruel plan, and it has many flaws, but it is what he has decided, and so long as he has hostages, we are powerless."

Thunderous footsteps clattered down the stairs. A swarthy man with a ruddy complexion approached Elsa's cage, not even passing a glance at Juan. He fiddled with a ring of keys and popped the lock open.

"Her Royal Highness is expected on the bow by Prince Hans. You," the man pointed at Juan, "are to be escorting her."

Juan offered a curt nod. "Her Highness is cooperating with the threat of her sister. She'll do as we ask, won't you?"

Both men looked at her expectantly. Juan's face was hard, but his eyes were soft, pleading with her. She nodded once. The large man grunted and left.

"I hate to do this to you, Queen Elsa. But I have to ensure that they believe I am with them."

"And who are you with, then?"

"You. You are the only hope for saving my sister, and for my redemption under dios."

Elsa blinked. "Do you have a plan?"

"First, dress yourself, your majesty."

She looked down, aware for the first time since awakening that she had been stripped of all clothing. The dark splinters from the wooden whipping post still jutted from her skin, little black pimples across her chest, breasts, stomach, and thighs. The jagged gash across her left thigh leered at her like an ugly red snake, black and blue clots attempting to scab across the wound. She shivered, her mind finding humiliation at being exposed before the man and gratitude at his decency for not staring. She formed a long, icy dress that covered everything south of her chin, save for the shackles over her hands and feet.

Juan helped her stand, offering his body as her crutch. Her left leg refused to support any weight beyond that of her foot, and even then it growled its resentment.

"I will give you a signal, Queen Elsa," he whispered, jabbing his finger into her lower spine. "When I do, you need to break free of the shackles, whatever it takes. I can handle the scum of the Isles if you'll help incapacitate everyone else. We can free our sisters and leave victorious if we just try."

Elsa nodded, willing herself to stay awake. The agony threatened to take her consciousness.

"On your signal," she murmured.

xXxXx

Anna knew something was amiss moments before the situation was compromised. She gazed about, drinking in the vast blackness of the unmoving sea.

"Stop the ship," she said. Immediately, the sails were drawn.

"What is it, princess?"

The captain had appeared at her side, leaving the unnerved bo'sun to tend the wheel.

"Something is wrong," she replied.

"It's very dark out. Is it possible we'll run aground?"

"Not that kind of wrong. Something deceptive. I can feel it."

Her hair began to stand in the dead air. The captain stepped back.

"Your hair is floating."

I don't care.

From far off, she heard the tiniest pinpricks of sound, the telltale swish of moving water, unnatural in the darkness. She turned toward the offending noise.

"Captain, prepare the cannons. A ship approaches from the bow, on the starboard side."

She whirled. "And another, off the port side of the stern. Keep the men quiet but get our arsenal ready."

The man disappeared below deck. Frantic, hushed scurrying broke out beneath the floorboards of the deck. Anna continued turning this way and that, listening for any sound in the night.

"Princess, the arms are ready. What exactly are you feeling?"

Her braids had begun to unravel, held aloft by nothing. Her hands, normally tanned with cinnamon-dusted freckles, were pale, the freckles black as pitch and far more volatile. Clouds overhead blocked the moonlight, but her eyes glowed a clear blue, the pupils fully dilated and black as infinity.

"There are two ships off the starboard bow, one off the starboard stern, two from the portside bow, and two more from the portside stern. We have one scout directly ahead, and a possible ship behind. Most of them sound like frigates or large warships. Have the guns ready."

Without warning, cannonfire lit up in a ring around their ship just as the sky in the east began to lighten. Heavy iron slugs smashed into the ship, splitting timber and blowing men to pieces. Anna stood at the bow, proud and unmoved.

"Fire at will."


I like this Anna. It may seem out of character, but I have a reason, I promise! Life is all about...balance. And that's all I'll say on the matter.

I may extend this fic longer than I had originally intended. I have a foreseen "ending," but this might all just be considered one booklet of a much larger piece of writing. Maybe I'll have more Elsanna smut in the future. Maybe I'll add in more fluff. And maybe I'll kill them both. I haven't decided yet, though there wouldn't be much Elsanna if one of them were dead, right? Just...be ready, because I very well might start a second fic along a similar thread to this one, using the same storyline and development progression. There is so much more I decided I could do with this...so very much. Which, I guess, means you wonderful people are free to do spin-offs if you'd really like. I'd enjoy reading other takes on where this story could go...once I finish this one, of course. I predict ten chapters or less until I reach the conclusion; it's a short fic, meant as a quick, powerful read. Plus, I'm experimenting with my new adverb-minimized style while getting back into the general swing of writing, so I don't want to rush into something and overdo it or leave myself high and dry...

Also, I'm attempting to build Elsa's Ice Palace out of Lego blocks! If any of you are curious as to what it looks like, I'll post a "link" to my Flickr at the end of Chapter 12 (because FFnet doesn't allow links to be posted, which means I'll be spelling it out). OR, if you're really interested, PM me/review and say such, and I'll link you right in. I update there almost as frequently as here because my mornings are empty, so I have the opportunity to make a lot of progress in building and scheming. Only if you're really curious, though; I don't wanna force anyone.

That's my spiel. I love you all, my gentle snowflakes, and I'll see you again soon in Chapter 12! ~Kyttin