"You know, every time we talk, I feel like you've added someone else to the list of people you're convinced want you dead. Do you fancy yourself that important?"

"You didn't hear the incoherent string of words coming out of her mouth!" Anna was trying to braid her hair back into pigtails after her shower, but with no mirror available to her in the yard it proved to be no simple task. "I mean, she was talking crazy...well, crazier. Has she always been like that?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Rapunzel laid herself down in the dirt and began doing crunches, the chain attached to her leg jingling slightly as she did so. "But she's completely harmless, I promise."

"You say that about like everyone here."

"There you go being all needlessly dramatic again." She was grunting in between sentences, though Anna couldn't tell if she was already breaking a sweat or simply covered in baking grease from her shift in the kitchen that morning. "Giselle's just...air-headed. She's not insane. And there is a difference."

"That sounds like a polite way of trying to shut me up."

"Oh, you know me, Anna. I never tire of talking." She was now attempting sit-ups, a bit of belly coming out from under her shirt as she let out increasingly louder grunts. "Giselle just believes she can see the future, that's all."

"Sounds perfectly sane." Anna had given up on her hair, and was now trying to get some dirt out from under her fingernails. "And who gave her that idea? The distinguished Dr. Felix?"

"That's part of it, I guess. It's kind of a long story."

"Well then give me the edited-for-television version." The bench she sat on had a needlessly harsh surface and was taking a toll on her bottom's comfort, so she wanted to take some time to pace around before it was time to return to her cell.

"The short version is that Giselle had a dream which came true."

"Oh, a prophetic dream." She flicked a small bug off of her thumb. "How ominous."

"I'm being serious. Giselle dreamed one night that there was going to be a fire. And the next day, Crazy Frog accidentally set the kitchen ablaze when her chicken tenders burnt. Later that afternoon, Giselle went to the shrink, and ever since then she's seen herself as fortune teller."

"So a smoke alarm went off and some quack gave her a pat on the back for having a nightmare." Anna got to her feet, folding her arms to keep herself warm during what was an unexpectedly chilly afternoon (she didn't think her sister was to blame). "But that doesn't explain why she gave herself that title after seeing him. Did she ever tell you what he said to her?"

"She said he told her that she had a very special talent." Rapunzel turned her body around and began doing something resembling push-ups. "One that she should be thankful for."

"Isn't that what all of those bozos are paid to tell their patients? That's hardly enough to give her a convincing resume as an oracle."

"You make fun, but the girls seek her out. Well, some of them do. They crave advice from her. Hope she can provide them with warnings over prison brawls and when nutraloaf is going to be on the menu."

"That's like almost literally the definition of cult shit. Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll go try to enjoy my last moments of mental stability before Dr. Felix gives me a lobotomy."

Anna left Rapunzel to her exercises, muttering to herself as she drug her ball through the dirt, which slowed its friction down respectively and made moving it around much more difficult. The sky was cloudly today, which may have given the afternoon a gloomy overtone but did at least mean she wouldn't get any sunburn (her nose was still a bit red from the last time she had been outside). She found it rather surreal being outside when in prison. The tall walls which taunted her with their barbed wire and electric fencing were also responsible for restricting the movement of air, so wind wasn't able to blow through the courtyard much, causing the sensation of Anna feeling even more caged than she already was.

She hobbled along without any particular intention or purpose, occasionally having to stop and tug on her chain with her arms whenever her ball got stuck in a small ditch. She maintained a wary sense of caution where she walked since the yard was crowded, and she had no desire to bump into an inmate who was looking for a fight. The last time she had been out here, of course, she had managed to encounter both Merida and Elsa, but luckily for Anna neither of them appeared to be around today, so she guessed they must've had more pressing matters at the moment than bothering her.

Regrettably, the same couldn't be said for Officer Kristoff.

"Afternoon, my lady." He was slightly short on breath, presumably because he had spent some time searching through the endless mass of stripes to find her. "May I ask how you're doing?"

"I would think the answer to that question would go without saying." Anna had no inclination to deal with Kristoff, who may have been kinder to her than most of his peers were, but still had a habit of speaking to her in a patronizing manner. Perhaps that couldn't be helped. She was the bottom of society, after all.

"You're in cheerful spirits. Is it because of that nice fresh uniform you have on?"

"I'll concede that having non-stained pants is an improvement. But why'd they take the time to stencil my inmate number on this one?"

"Gives the girls who work in sewing something to do, I suppose." He reached down to his belt to remove a ring of keys and began searching through it. "Have you gotten the hang of reciting it every morning yet?"

"What, my number? I wouldn't be able to tell you if I did." She held her hands out, assuming that Kristoff must be about to cuff her, but he remained occupied with his hunt. "The blonde guard who does role call in the mornings almost always skips me. Maybe she thinks I'm too thick in the head to be able to remember ten digits and doesn't want to embarrass me."

Of course, she guessed the guard had other reasons for not addressing her (reasons which involved Elsa), but she wasn't about to get into them in passing conversation, and certainly not with Kristoff.

"Who told you that the inmates have to recite their entire numbers every morning?"

"My cellie, of course. Why?"

"Because she's pulling on your chained leg. Most prisoners just say the last six digits. Like a social security number. I would imagine it's much easier for you gals than your friend's suggestion, though I must confess I've never been on your side of the bars."

"She's more like an acquaintance," Anna muttered, feeling like a moron for taking Rapunzel's word on such matters now. "Do tell me, how does a nice guy like you end up with a job in which he gets to boss women around all day and put them in chains?"

"I guess it's just my charm," Kristoff chortled, annoyingly, finally locating the key he was looking for and, to Anna's slight surprise, bending over and unchaining her ball.

"You're taking away my toy? What, have I been a bad girl who needs to be punished?"

"Only a week inside and you've already mastered the fine art of jailbird sarcasm. But no. I'm tasked with taking you to your therapy appointment. No toys allowed in his office."

Anna was saddened that her hands were immediately placed in cuffs by him after he said that. Still, it was nice to finally be free of the heavy accessory which had been dragging her down for so long, even if it was for only one useless therapy session.

The problem was...she had become so used to walking with the ball's added weight that she found she felt somewhat unbalanced without it. Her right leg had developed more strength than her left, and soon the young convict was stumbling along, nearly tripping at least twice as she was drug to the office for Dr. F.I. Felix.

She felt a sudden gust of distortion hit her in the face as soon as she entered. Apart from some bars which were placed up against the windows, there was nothing about the waiting room that gave away that it was part of a prison. There was a smooth carpet which felt unreal on her feet having not stepped on one since her last trip to court. The walls had a few framed paintings of landscapes on them, which looked nice even if their lackluster condition indicated that they were purchased for cheap at various flea markets. Less pleasant, however, was the smell, which somehow stank worse than her cellblock due to what must've been an absolutely ridiculous overuse of air freshener, giving the entire area the aroma of an older woman who was overly generous with her use of perfume.

There was something about it all that almost felt like poison to her senses. This was too close to a taste of the outside world, a world she was never going to be allowed to enter again for as long as she lived. Was this Elsa's way of teasing the inmates? Of giving them a peek out a window that was no longer theirs to climb out of?

"What's your name, miss?"

Anna came back to herself. Once again, she had gotten lost in the silly little maze that was her mind, and found herself facing a skinny woman in a blue office outfit who couldn't have been more than four feet tall, wearing glasses which looked far to large for her eyes.

"I'm...I'm sorry, are you talking to me?"

"Do you see anyone else here, miss?"

"Pardon me. I guess I was expecting you to refer to me as 'inmate' or 'bitch' or one of the other kind words the staff here usually addresses me as."

She darted her eyes towards Kristoff, the only guard who was currently in the room as far as she could tell, but he appeared to be preocupied with a Reader's Digest (which was probably several months old, if the office's reading material was anything like the prison library's).

"I just need your name, miss. That's all. And I'm not talking about the number on your shoulder."

"Oh, it's Anna. Anna Ander...I mean, pardon me, Anna Christian."

The receptionist did some typing on her computer.

"Oh, I see. You're the one the warden ordered here. Please come with me."

"Ummm...okay." Anna had expected to have time to wait and collect herself before she was forced to talk with a total stranger about personal matters, but she of course had no say on the matter, and followed the receptionist across a very small lobby to a doorway with a nametag on it which was overpowered by an enormous yellow smiley face that was taped up above it.

"Ma'am, there's no guard here. Is that...on purpose?"

"Dr. Felix believes that having a guard present creates tension within the inmate's state of mind. I disagree with him, but then again, I don't make the rules. But do anything foolish and I promise you'll be a dead woman before you so much as blow your nose."

She gave Anna a light spank and then walked off. Anna wasn't sure if she should feel threatened or amused, but it didn't matter as she had no intention of killing anyone today (however tempting it might be in the case of Rapunzel).

She entered the office, still feeling strangely uneasy without her ball, which she had to guess she didn't have simply because the people here probably didn't want their carpet damaged by any chains being drug across it. Like the waiting room, apart from the barred windows, there was nothing here to suggest she was in a correctional facility. There was a small chair with a box of tissues on it (just like she had seen in every TV show involving a therapist ever), and opposite it sat a small man with a notebook and brown, slightly curly hair.

This, she concluded, must be Felix.

"Salutations, Ms. Christian. Why don't you have a seat?"

She did so, reluctantly. Felix's voice had an air of someone who was more polite than he needed to be, and Anna always found herself wanting to punch those kinds of people.

"Well, then, let's get on with the formal introductions. My name is Dr. Felix. If you have a problem, I can fix it. Or, at least that's what it says on my business card."

"Hello, Felix." Anna decided she wasn't going to pretend that she wanted to be here. "Let's try to get this over as soon as possible, okay? I've got more important things to do, like clutch onto the bars of my cell door for a few hours."

"Oh, a joke. I like that. Humor is very healthy, that's what I tell everyone. Laughter truly is the best medicine, as they say." He chuckled. Politely.

"How is this going to work?" Anna placed her feet on a footstool in front of her, which felt cheap and itchy, but still beat the cot in her cell which was normally her only option for such behavior. "Like, are you going to ask me some questions, and then I have a good cry, and then you make everything better?"

"Oh, you're a girl full of questions. I like that. That's healthy, you know, if handled right."

"Look, doc. I don't want to be here. You probably don't want me to be here. So let's cut to the chase. The warden wants you to put me in my place, correct?"

"Your sister, you mean? Well, she did ask for you to be here..."

Anna's jaw instinctively dropped.

"Oh, relax, girl. I'm staff here. Everyone knows about your family tree. But relax. Your secrets are safe with me."

Anna felt herself become relaxed, her mood instead returning to grouchy.

"So if I rant about her, you'll tell her everything she wants to know about me, right? I bet that would amuse her greatly."

"Oh, you have it all wrong." Felix continued to speak ever so politely. "I'm your therapist, Ms. Christian. And even though you might be in stripes, that doesn't mean I'm going to go blabbing about anything you say to me to your sister who is also my boss. Unless you, I don't know, tell me you're going to kill her or something, anything you say remains between you and me."

"Is that what you told Giselle?"

"I'm sorry, who?"

"Giselle. Sunshine. The crazy woman who thinks she can see the future or something because, so I've recently heard, you told her that she could."

She allowed herself a triumphant grin, feeling as though she were placing Felix in an uncomfortable position that he wouldn't know how to get out of. Maybe he'd stop being so irritatingly polite now.

"Oh, you mean the Phillips girl. Sorry, I'm afraid I'm not much good with first names. My noodle lets them slip away from me like butter on a fresh biscuit."

Great, polite and folksy.

"Well, if she's been telling people about our visit, I guess I can talk with you about her. Of course I'm not sure what words she's been using to tell the story, but the truth of the matter is, she's right. She can see the future."

Anna stretched her feet out further.

"So you are the nutcase I guessed you were. Though, indulge me, exactly why would you think something as crazy as that?"

"Oh, I'm not a nutcase. Though my wife might say otherwise. She works here, you know. Guard. Tall, blonde, gorgeous. You may have met her."

"You're avoiding my question." Anna didn't want for Felix to start telling a polite story about his married life, even though the thought if him having a "tall, blonde, gorgeous" prison guard wife was a rather surreal concept to her.

"Oh, of course. Yes, well, there's not much to say about it. Giselle has magic. Just like your sister. She has it on a level that's not nearly as powerful as Elsa's, of course, and for years she didn't even know she had it."

"Wait, magic? Like are we talking Weather Channel powers here?"

"Oh, no, far from it. Not all magic is related to snow and such. Did your sister ever tell you that?"

"I never bothered to ask her."

"Well, what Giselle has is the ability to get vague visions into the future. There's a clinical term they're using it for these days. I believe what they call it is 'Foresight' or something, which sounds a little more ominous than it needs to."

Anna wasn't sure if Felix was talking out of his polite butthole or making some level of sense.

"Even if that were true, why wouldn't she know about it until just recently? And why wouldn't I be hearing about such people in the news?"

"Oh, because she always had these visions when she was asleep. She wrote them off as dreams. But then what happened is that when talking to her, I found out that she had a dream about her arrest a few nights before the police caught her. What she believed to be a nightmare was actually her Foresight kicking in. Her dream had everything that ended up happening to her: the apartment building she was caught at, the alarm going off, the owner of the place having dark hair, even the gender of the cop who arrested her. The vision was vague, but it came true all the same."

"I'm sure many people who break into houses for a living have dreams in which they go to jail. What does that prove?"

"It was one of many such instances she had. And she's had more of them since she got sent here. The fire in the kitchen was what confirmed my theories. She had a dream about flames within the prison walls not long at all before then. That was simply too specific to be seen as a coincidence."

"Even if you were right, what does it matter? Giselle's stuck in this place for years. What good are her fortune telling skills going to do?"

"They can do plenty of good in terms of the research of magic and those who possess it. Your sister and her are some of the only people with such gifts that I've encountered. Fergus Pharmaceuticals has especially been interested in such patients. With proper treatment, Giselle could be capable of predicting storms or even terrorist attacks before they happen."

Anna blinked.

"Fergus Pharmaceuticals? As in the same Lord Fergus who gives money to this prison?"

"Oh, the same one. You're a bright gal, you know that? Good with names. That's a healthy thing. And yes, this prison would almost certainly not be able to keep its doors open without him. Well, perhaps keeping its doors 'locked' would be the more appropriate term."

Anna was finding that Felix's story was having much more credibility than she expected if the father of Merida of all people was so invested in it.

"What could he possibly want with her? I mean regardless of whatever 'magic' she may or may not have, the girl is still insane!"

"Insanity is a frame of mind, Anna. And it's not my concern why Lord Fergus wants to do research on such things, but I'm sure he has perfectly decent reasons for it. The man's something of a humanitarian, you know. He was instrumental to ending the death penalty in this kingdom. You owe it to him that you didn't get a visit to Old Man Sparky."

He chuckled. Politely.

"Forgive me, miss. I do believe I went and made something of an off-color joke there. Now, we are running through our time, so maybe it would be best if we talked about something else?"

Anna felt like pressing Felix more on everything he had just told her, but decided it might be best not to press her luck, especially involving discussions on someone as prolific as Lord Fergus.

And besides, telling him about what Giselle had whispered to her in the shower might not have been a good idea.

"Why don't you pick a subject for us?" Anna folded her arms, returning to her cranky mode.

"Okay then. Well, since you seem so down in the dumps, why don't we try talking about your sister? You must have a lot on that subject you'd feel good just getting off of your striped chest."

"You don't want to discuss the reasons I got a life term for?"

"Oh, you mean the nasty business involving that Hans character? Yeah, I think that would be best saved for another visit. That's what we call a loaded baked potato at my house. Unwise to eat it all in one bite.

Anna sighed. What did she have to lose if she talked about her sister openly with someone who wasn't her rotten cellmate with a certain affection for blackmail for a change?

"Fine, I'll play your game. Let's talk about Elsa."