Flashforward

Elsa flexed her wrist, watching the barrel of the gun. Her lips pressed together in a thin, firm line as the temperature plummeted in the room. One wrong move and it could all be over. One wrong move and everything that she was trying to protect, everyone she was trying to save, could be lost. That was more terrifying than the gun pointed at her head.

Only the warm hand gripping her arm, and the person it belonged to, kept her rooted. Kept her calm.

Elsa refused to lose again. This time, she had too much to lose.

"No, Elsa –"

She closed her eyes and stepped forward.

Chapter One: The Interview

Anna couldn't quite believe what she was doing.

She checked her phone again. And again. No new messages. She could've used the distraction. Huffing out a sigh, she straightened her white blouse and adjusted the length of her pencil skirt for the millionth time. The fabric was scratchy against her pale skin; Anna hadn't worn anything formal since – well, she never wore anything formal. She had only worked in cafes and bars, where the uniform was 'comfortable' or 'black'. This was her first time applying for an office job, and she wanted to make the right impression; which meant acting like someone other than herself.

The clock ticked on the wall, and Anna could feel it against her skull. Just as she was about to ask the receptionist for an update, the door to the interview room swung open.

"Anna Arens?"

"Yes!" Anna jumped up, ankle collapsing against the heel of her shoe. She wobbled as she extended a hand to the curly-haired man at the door. "Me is that. I mean, that is me. Hi. How're you doing? I'm fine, thanks for asking." She hesitated. "Although you didn't ask, did you?"

He stared blankly, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "I'm Olaf Mann. Would you like to come in?"

"Sure. Yep. Okay."

She laughed awkwardly and squeezed past him. As he shut the door behind her, Anna turned to the interview panel and immediately gulped down air. Woah, they were more intimidating than she had been expecting. The woman on the right looked straight through her with half-moon spectacles and a haughty expression that screamed: I already don't have time for this. Next. In the middle was a small man with a handlebar moustache, a backcombed hairpiece, and the face of a peacock. His blazer was tagged with dozens of military badges. Olaf Mann took the last seat on the left and, with a delicate smile, gestured for Anna to sit opposite.

She almost knocked over the plastic chair when she sat down, but tried to recover by quickly crossing her legs. She folded her hands on her lap and forced herself to keep them there. Fidgeting wouldn't look professional. She had to look professional. It was vital that she looked a pro.

This was the most important job interview of her life.

"Anna, this is Gerda Fabel, from HR, and Richard Weselton, a stakeholder in Styre. As for me, I'm a senior researcher, and here today acting as a neutral observer. We'll take it in turn to ask questions." Olaf smiled again. Despite his jovial tone, his face was stoic. "Are you ready to begin?"

Anna opened her mouth to reply but was quickly interrupted.

"Anna… Arens?" said Gerda. "Are you a relation of Elsa Arens?"

Anna's cheeks reddened. Oh dear. She wasn't expecting to be figured out that fast. What should she do, tell the truth? Lie and take a chance? The seconds were ticking away, and she looked guiltier with each one. There was only one thing for it.

"Ah, yeah. Yes." Anna cleared her throat. "Elsa is my sister."

"I didn't know Elsa had a sister," Olaf said with a frown.

Ouch. That stung.

"I'm sorry, but" – Gerda flicked through pages Anna assumed was her application form – "you didn't disclose you had a personal relationship with a member of staff."

"I didn't think it was important," Anna put in.

"It can be a criminal offence to lie on an application form. This is a government job, Miss Arens. There can be no accusations of collusion."

"Yes, but – but – I can explain – it specifically said on the form personal relationship. I haven't had a personal relationship with my sister for thirteen years. Or any kind of relationship with her, really." Trying to diffuse the rising tension, Anna added, "I haven't seen her. At all."

"You haven't seen your sister in…" Olaf paused, his eyes widening. "Thirteen years?"

"That's correct." Laughing without humour, Anna said, as if it explained everything, "She's a stinker."

Weselton's military badges clanked as he shuffled forward. Perhaps the chair was too large for him. "Estranged family members are exempt from the personal relations protocol, Gerda. I knew of this and I allowed it."

Estranged. The word sounded out of place in the context. Anna had never thought of Elsa being her estranged sister before. That wasn't right. She hated it.

"Oh." Gerda stopped shuffling her papers. "Apologies, Mr Weselton. I wasn't aware."

He gave a single nod and turned to Anna. "Miss Arens, as you know, members of Styre are currently voting on who they want to be the next party leader. The role you're applying for is Personal Assistant to the Party Leader. Do you believe you'd be able to conduct yourself in a manner which is politically neutral and democratically sensitive?"

"I do," said Anna, despite not knowing what half of those terms meant.

Weselton looked as if he was satisfied.

Gerda did not.

"Miss Arens, your CV is… colourful. You were a waitress in your last job, correct?"

"Yes."

"And you were fired?"

"Yes." Anna realised she said it with a smile. She grimaced. "In my defence, a customer was harassing me. My manager conveniently didn't see him grabbing my" – she frantically searched for a polite alternative to ass – "grabbing me, or how he stalked me the whole night asking for my number. He did, however, see my fist connecting to the customer's face. More than once."

Olaf adjusted his glasses. Weselton made notes. Gerda simply stared.

"Before that, Miss Arens, you were a barista for a coffee chain."

"That's right."

Gerda sounded tired. "And you were fired."

Anna felt the room close in. Scratching her neck, she said, "Aha, yeah. Maybe. Quite possibly. Once again, though, technically not my fault. How was I to know the gallons of milk were going to explode if I –"

"Miss Arens, when we asked your manager for a reference he responded with, 'No. Never. My pet goat could do a better job.'" Gerda said it in such a dry tone that, in any other situation, Anna would've found it funny.

She was losing them. She could see it.

Time to bring out the smarts.

"This job is different, though. Right? I won't be making coffee, or taking orders, or dealing with assholes – I mean, difficult people, will I?"

Anna looked expectedly at them.

Olaf tilted his head slightly. "Well…"

"What can you bring to this role, Miss Arens?" Weselton interjected. He peered over the table at her with such intensity that Anna flinched. Her hands found their way to her sleeves and she started tugging on her cuffs.

"I'm good with spreadsheets. I'm a good communicator. I can process a lot of information in a short time." She thought about it some more. Come on, she told herself, I had this answer planned. You only have one shot at this, Anna. This might be your only chance to ever see Elsa. God knows she hasn't responded to any attempts you've made to reach out. You need this. "I'm reliable and loyal and I always give one hundred percent." She looked at Gerda. "And I know I've made mistakes in the past, but not this time. I've learned from them and I've gotten better. I can promise you the same with this job, too. If I make a mistake, I promise to do better."

When she finished, Anna saw something in Gerda's eyes soften. She heard Weselton's pen scratch across his notepad which had to be a good sign, right? Or was he writing 'no, no, no, no' across the page?

Meanwhile, Olaf tapped his chin as he considered her. "Miss Arens, where do you see yourself in five years?"

Boy, that hit her in the gut. With a sister, she wanted to say. With someone special, and a good job, and a family. With everything she didn't have right now.

Instead, she said, in the steadiest voice she could, "I see myself the same, but better. That's all we can aim to be, isn't it?"

Olaf nodded and smiled. When Weselton put down his pen and Gerda looked at the desk, there was a silent confirmation between the three of them that the interview was over. No one wanted to ask further questions. Anna's shoulders slumped and her eyes felt scratchy. Somewhere along the way (maybe it was being fired from every job she'd ever had, maybe it was not being able to answer a single question logically) they had given up on her.

All of Anna's hope fell in shards at her feet.

Olaf got up to open the door and she quickly muttered her thanks. Once they were outside the room, Olaf extended his arm to shake her hand.

"Nice to meet you, Anna." He leaned in and whispered. "I think you did well."

Perhaps it was because he could see the tears in her eyes that he decided to be generous, or maybe because he knew he would never see her again. Either way, Anna felt a harsh resentment swirl in her stomach. With nothing left to say, she did her best to smile. She waited for Olaf to retreat into the interview room before walking as fast as her stupid heels could carry her. On she went, past the receptionist, out of the entrance and down the busy city street.

Anna leaned against the bus stop and dug out her phone. She tapped on her most recent contact and let it ring.

"Anna? How was it?"

Oh no. The tears had started.

"It was awful, Rapunzel." Anna's voice cracked, as it always did when she was upset. "Why did I think I qualified for a job like that? I made a fool of myself. I don't even know how I got an interview."

"It can't have been that bad –"

"I almost told them about the milk incident." When Rapunzel inhaled at the comment, Anna squeezed her eyes shut. "My one chance and I ruined it. I ruined it. All I wanted was –" Stopping herself, Anna wiped her nose on her sleeve. "Sorry to put this all on you."

"No, Anna, don't be silly. I'm here for you." Rapunzel sighed. "We'll work this out, okay? We'll try another way."

Anna was quiet for a few moments. Where do you see yourself in five years? That question had alighted something within her. A longing for something she'd never had. With an aching chest and tears drying on her cheeks, she muttered something under her breath.

"What was that?" Rapunzel asked on the other end.

"What if there is no other way?" Anna wondered. "What if it's time to give up?"

She had expected a tirade of complaints, or enthusiastic encouragement, or at the very least, mild disapproval. No. There was only silence.

It spoke volumes.

"Maybe it is time to focus on other things. Think of yourself for a while." Rapunzel's voice was low, timid.

It snapped Anna's resilience in half. She lowered the phone from her ear and held it against her chest. Listening to the hum of traffic behind her, Anna stared at the Styre Party Offices like she was looking into the heart of a dream. Her sister might be somewhere in there. She was closer than she had been in years. Anna remembered the day two years ago when she'd seen her sister on television, addressing a journalist as an elected representative of Arendelle. She wouldn't have recognised her if not for the name printed on the screen. Anna's heart clenched painfully at the memory.

Why would her sister disappear at the age of fourteen? Why had their parents just accepted it? How did she show up so many years later as a politician?

It didn't make sense. They'd been so close.

But hadn't she, over the last thirteen years, tried to contact her sister through friends? Social media? Letters?

Had she gotten anything in return?

Standing there, outside Styre's offices, applying to a job for no other reason than for a chance to talk to her sister, was answer enough.

"Anna? Are you still there?"

Rapunzel's voice echoed against her chest. Blinking, Anna returned the phone to her ear. "Sorry, Punz. I'll see you when I get home."

Anna hung up, slipped her phone in her pocket, and turned her back on the building.

Elsa felt cold.

The metal against her skin was lifeless. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, taking deep breaths to stay calm. Even after all these years, it never got easier.

"Ready?"

Elsa peeked through her eyelids to see a handful of people surrounding her. Always the same faces. She focused on one person though, and one person alone.

Elsa held out her arms for her.

Maren avoided all eye contact as she attached the electrodes to Elsa's arms and placed her hands into the metal cuffs. They had to pretend not to know each other here. They had a working relationship and nothing more within these walls.

It wasn't exactly working, was it?

When Maren finished, her brown eyes met Elsa's for the briefest of moments. Elsa felt her heart stutter in her chest. Maren stepped back and another, less pleasant, face took her place.

Steeling herself, Elsa observed him with a mask of pure apathy.

"We're trying something a bit different this week, hm?" said Richard Weselton. "Orders from the top. Just in time for the big announcement."

Elsa didn't look at him any longer than she needed to. When he bowed out and returned to the machines, she closed her eyes and braced herself.

"Sorry," Maren whispered, as she always did, and pulled the lever.

A/N: Politics. Frozen/Disney. Corruption. Betrayal. Conspiracies. Romance. Angst. Fluff. It's going to be mega.

You don't need to like politics or know much about political systems for this story. I've simplified and generalised as much of a democracy as I could; two political parties (Styre and Endring) vying for votes to win a majority. If you understand that, you're all good. I promise you'll find out everything you need to know as we get further into it. Reviews would be appreciated!

Cx.