Ever since the night Anna looked down in dazed disbelief at the two bodies she had just created, a handgun wobbling in her hands as a shiver shot down her spine like a bolt of lightning, she couldn't say she had known many moments when she had been in anything even resembling a good mood. As for the few times she had felt something other than misery and an inescapable sense of doom, those had proven to be all too fleeting. Happiness in Frozen Heart was like clutching a living butterfly in your hands, so fragile that even the slightest involuntary fluttering of the fingers could crush it in an instant.

Still, she found herself in the best spirits she had been in for quite some time as sat in her cell flipping through an illustrated edition of Treasure Island she had taken from the prison library, almost allowing herself to feel confident about how things were going for her. Giselle had agreed to be her "bitch" the very instant she had asked, wavingt her fists around with the sort of enthusiasm normally reserved for small children riding mechanical horses outside of grocery store parking lots. She wasn't sure how much her "ownership" of her was going to benefit her in the long run, but if it kept Merida from being able to use her for whatever demented exploits she had in mind, it was worth it as far as Anna was concerned.

"You do realize you're a fool if you're expecting for Bloody Mary to be okay with this, right?" Rapunzel's voice was monotone and almost barely audible, but she was at least eating, even if it was just a bag of pretzels she had tucked away in her stash somewhere. "She's going to take this as a declaration of war."

"Aren't you the one who normally tells me I'm too much of a 'doom and gloom' girl?" Anna wasn't even reading the book so much as skimming over the pictures (which was just as well, since it appeared the last thirty pages were missing anyway).

"I'm also the one with current possession over you. As such, I would appreciate if you had the decency to ask me permission before getting any toys of your own."

"Yeah, well, Giselle mentioned something about how it was 'destiny' for her to be my slave or something, so I guess it couldn't avoided." She put the book aside and placed her hand on her chest with mock obedience. "But don't worry, I'll remain ever your loyal and most humble servant."

"You mistake me for someone who's in the mood for comedy right now. Besides, you're always complaining that Giselle makes like zero sense to you."

"I figure she's like a Magic 8 ball. Shake her enough times, and eventually you'll get an answer that you like."

"Christ. I think I might prefer you when you're in more weary spirits." She took one of pretzel sticks and loudly crunched down on it. "And you just assume Bloody Mary is going to be perfectly peachy about all of this?"

"I can take care of myself if I have to." Anna fleetingly pulled her shiv out of her pocket before stuffing it back in. "Look, for the first time since I got here, I feel like I have the upper hand. That's a good thing, right?"

"If you want the truth, I don't care what happens to you." She poured the salt from the bottom of the bag in her mouth. "You've proven completely invaluable to me as a 'bitch,' since you were supposed to help toughen up my reputation around here since you're a lifer and all. Fat chance of that happening, since you're too stupid to live."

"Ouch. I'd be bluffing if I said I wasn't a little offended there. Look, I'm sorry about your husband, but we are in prison. Bad things happen to people like us."

Rapunzel took the recently vacated snack food bag and crumbled it up. "I've been in prison my whole life."

"Yeah, sure, everyone says that about their childhoods. Doesn't make it literally true."

"No, I mean I have been in prison my whole life. Not officially, of course, but growing up, let's just say I rarely got out of the house. And by rarely, I mean at all."

She tossed the bag on the floor. After a day spent breaking her back cleaning, Anna felt an instinctive need to pick it up and dispose of it at once, but resisted the urge.

"When I was a little girl, my mother told me that I had a very rare medical condition. A weak immune system, or so she said. If I went outside, even for something as simple as getting the mail, I could get extremely sick and die. She was never cruel about, I suppose. Gave me anything I asked for...well, anything except a pair of shoes."

She looked down at her feet.

"I guess that's why I never miss having footwear, unlike many of the girls here." She chuckled morbidly. It felt so unnatural to hear Rapunzel laugh in such a mundane manner.

"So what happened, like, a doctor cured you when you grew up with some vaccines or something?"

"Oh, I never had the condition. She was never my mother, either. Turned out I had been kidnapped as a baby. God knows what her motives were. Must've had a hair fetish or something, since she never let me cut it. Anyway, one day my future husband happened to break into our place. I think he imagined we were richer than we actually were. I caught him trying to steal the television." She chortled again, this time with a hint of affection. "I wasn't going to let him do that. I watched soaps like an old housewife, and I wasn't about to lose them because of some burglar I had never met before. So I cut a deal with him. Either I call the cops, or he took me away with him. The rest is history, I guess."

Anna was almost at a loss for words. Assuming this story was true (and there was a good chance it could've been made up in order to win sympathy points from her), then Rapunzel had been through more shit in her life than Anna had ever pictured for her.

"What happened to your mother...I mean, to the woman who kidnapped you?"

"She fell off a balcony, and that was the end of her. Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust."

Anna knew better than to ask if she had been pushed.

"Anyway, Flynn and I had our fun. Got married. Got locked up. But no one ever got hurt...well, not really. Not until now."

She exhaled with enough force for a small whistle to escape her lips.

"I can handle being in prison. At least I know exactly why I am here. But being a captive for my entire life and being oblivious to it? Well, that a kind of Hell I've had to learn how to live with."

Before Anna could fully process everything Rapunzel had just confessed to her, a sudden, loud buzzing sound dominated the cell block violently. This must not have been a terribly uncommon occurrence, however, as all of the other inmates started placing their hands on their heads like clockwork. Rapunzel drearily managed to get on her feet to do the same.

"Should I know what's going on?" Anna whispered, imitating what the others were doing.

"Probably a shakedown."

"A shakedown?"

"Yeah, you know, when they search the place for contraband. They could be searching the cells, ourselves, whatever they feel like doing. Luckily, I don't have anything important in here other than junk food and sauce packets."

Oh, shit. Anna had the shiv in her pocket! Alarm took over her mind as it desperately ran around in circles trying to come up with a solution. Within moments, she heard the growling of dogs as large canines on leashes were being drug in by officers, along with the discreet yet distinctive stomping of boots.

"Well, ladies, I'm sure you all know how this works. I'm going out for the evening, and want to have some reassurance you're all going to behave yourselves while I'm away. But since I'm feeling generous, I won't have any of you taken out of your cells and strip searched...unless I have to."

Anna couldn't believe it. It was Elsa! Apart from the one time she had caught her in the middle of the night, this was the first time Anna had seen her sister in the cell block. She appeared to be carrying herself with even more authority than usual (compared to when Anna "chatted" with her in the yard, when she looked disheveled), her eyes closed and her nose stuck up in the air as she marched. The only contradiction to be found with her having total control over everything was that her gloves were on (though this only would've been noticed by those who knew her personally).

Her observations of Elsa were were halted abruptly by an absolute onslaught of organized chaos as soon as all of the cell doors had been opened. Anna found herself forced roughly against the wall by a guard who firmly bound her hands together behind her back with plastic ties. She let out a small cry, as they actually felt quite sharp and dug into her flesh a little. Her entire body became a waterfall of perspiration as she silently prayed that no one would search her pocket, doing her best to stay as motionless as possible as a dog sniffed ominously around her bottom and legs.

"Nice doggie," she muttered nervously, petrified that the animal might bite her. She could feel her breast pressing up against the shiv tucked away in her pocket, and she became worried that if she squirmed too much, it might be enough to make it fall out and expose her (the shiv, not her breast). Finally, after a matter of seconds which felt like hours, the beast grew bored with her and moved on to Rapunzel, who seemed to be taking all of this like just another day at the office.

Still, her heart rate did slow down slightly, as she figured that the worst part must be behind her. The guards, to her relief, were only looking around the cell, and apart from some of Rapunzel's Arby's packets (which a particularly unpleasant-looking officer greedily placed in his pocket), nothing was being confiscated by them.

"We found nothing noteworthy, ma'am."

"Very good. That's certainly a change of pace around here, I must say. Go pat them all down and call it a day."

Pat them down?

Oh SHIT!

For a split second, Anna thought she might feign a fall to the ground in the hopes that the shiv would fall out of her pocket and slide out of her bed, but this potential scheme was immediately brought to rest by the hands of a guard firmly feeling around her body. She held her breath, not wanting to provide even a hint of fear that might give her away, but it wasn't enough. The officer reached into her pocket as was surely standard procedure, and pulled out his prize.

"Ma'am, come in here. We did finally find something."

Anna's heartbeat began clashing like cymbals as her sister entered the cell.

"Look, warden. It appears to be a weapon of some sort." The guard was holding up the shiv with such pride that it might as well have been a winning lottery ticket.

Else glanced at the plastic makeshift knife before placing her eyes on Anna.

"Good work, officer. Take it and place it in the evidence drawer, then put this bitch in the hole."