When she entered his castle, he was ready for her. Ready for the way that she snuck in around the back. Ready for the way that she thought she was being clever by trying to throw him off and taking him by surprise. But no one surprised him. Ever. And she'd be shocked to find that she was the one who was about to be taken advantage of. Which was why he was ready for her not in his tower, but rather in his Great Room, sitting, patiently waiting for her. He'd watched her through his crystal ball as she made her way into his grounds and through a back door and finally had sighed when she realized she couldn't find her way to him through the halls and winding stairs that always seemed so simple to him. He supposed that was what happened when one lived in the same place for over a hundred years...

"Rumpelstiltskin?" she'd cried out. He watched her yell it in the ball, but he'd heard the voice only because it was so close to him. She was lost, obviously, but if only she'd pursued him a bit longer she would have found her way in just as he figured she'd planned to. "Are you here? The door was open…"

The door was unlocked, it wasn't open, but she'd helped herself anyway. "End of the hall, first door on your right. Come on in, dearie."

"My name is Joan," she explained as he forced the image in the ball away. The last thing she needed to know was just how close of an eye he'd been keeping on her. That crystal ball was one of the secrets of his trade, he didn't know everything in the world, but tools like that helped it seem like he did. Not that anyone needed to know that. "I was hoping you could help me." The girl paused as she finally rounded on him. He'd been sitting with his back to her and now, for the first time, she was finally looking at his face. "Is there something wrong with your skin?" she questioned before looking horrified and confused. "Not that it looks like anything's wrong with your skin. You know, I have a cream..."

"Your name isn't Joan," he interrupted. She stared at him in shocked, but he only chuckled as he rose from his seat to circle her menacingly. She was a rambler. That was valuable information; valuable insight into the princess. It told him she was one of those people that said exactly what she thought before thinking it through, in other words the opposite of what he did. He'd heard that it was possible for opposites to attract but personally he found those kind of people could be terribly annoying. Fortunately for her, they could also be incredibly helpful. Loose lips certainly had their place in his toolbox.

"You see, uh, names are my stock and trade, dearie, and yours is...Anna of Arendelle," he proclaimed. Silence. He loved it when the talkative ones were speechless, when they ran out of things to say and he instead took command of the conversation. Talkative, but easily submissive. More helpful information. "No need to keep secrets from me. I know more about you...than you think," he insisted sneaking closer and whispering it into her ear.

"So…you know why I'm here?"

"You want to know why your parents ventured into this strange land," he pronounced without a bit of hesitation. It was just a guess based off of the image the crystal ball had shown him, but he knew by the look on her face it had been a good one.

"My sister thinks it was because of her, but I know she's wrong. Can you help me?"

Oh…poor, sweet, naïve girl. Wasn't she just the typical Princess; she wanted so badly to believe in the best of everyone. This was going to be fun in more ways than he'd seen. She was only making his job so much easier.

"As it happens, your parents paid me a visit on their journey," he explained. "It would seem when one needs answers, I'm the place to go."

"What answers did they seek?" she chirped with desperate curiosity.

"Well, I can't just tell you, dearie," he smiled. "You see, aside from names, I also have a penchant for making deals."

"A deal? Sure, I'll make a deal. I'll do whatever it takes to help my sister."

He let out a gleeful laugh at her willing words. "Whatever it takes?" Heaven help the pure of heart! "Oh, I love it when they say that."

Into his hands he summoned up a potion, one that would act as an antidote to the potion he'd had Pirithous give to the Apprentice yesterday. It was ironic, he supposed, that this temptation was in reality a rescue mission. But what she was doing wouldn't matter, only what she thought she was doing. And this was the best way to judge for himself just how pure that heart of hers was.

"At the foot of the dark mountains lives a very old man...prickly sort, probably eats children for breakfast. I want you to put this in his tea," he answered handing the small vial over to her.

And that was when he noticed it. The touch of their fingers was barely half a second but it was long enough to sense magic about her. Not in her, not like her aunt or her sister, but on her, around her. It was touching her. Not Elemental Magic, it was something more genuine, something light, something pure.

There!

Around her neck, proudly displayed for him, there was a snowflake necklace. It held power. Power like he'd seen once in the ribbons her Aunt had so carelessly traded for an urn that now sat in the North Valley. How had he missed that when she'd come in? It was so obvious. The magic within it pulsed and called out to him. Now that he saw it he didn't know how she'd been here as long as she had without any hint of it. He wanted that necklace. The Dark One wanted it for his collection, it was a powerful piece of magic! Suddenly it was difficult to keep his eyes on one task. Baelfire, the hat, and the necklace…he wanted them all. The question was how to get them…

"What will it do to him?!" Anna questioned a second later, drawing him back into the conversation. Yes, with it displayed so out in the open she was probably not aware of what she carried, of what was in her possession. He would prefer to keep it that way.

He smiled, happy that she'd asked her question and unsurprised that she had as well. One didn't get to be pure of heart without questioning stupid decisions. He would have been concerned if she didn't ask questions it. He wouldn't have been able to answer in the way that she wanted.

"Sorry, dearie. That's not part of our agreement. Oh, speaking of which...our contract!" With a snap of his fingers he summoned the piece of paper which unfurled before her as well as a quill. He laid it out before her on the table and located the important part. "Sign here, and I shall tell you why your parents came to see me. Do we have a deal?"

She looked the paper over nervously, suddenly lacking the bubbly nature and easy air she'd had earlier. Good. She felt tortured over it. She felt the weight of what he was asking her to do, she felt it was wrong. That was precisely what he needed.

Suddenly she gasped and took a step back as she looked at the vial in her hand. "Nothing…bad will happen…will it?" she asked with a weak smile.

Tortured already. He appreciated it just as much as he appreciated that necklace she wore. He wanted nothing more than to have her out of this place, to get on with what she needed to do, to allow him his options in acquiring that jewelry.

"As I said, that's my business! It's information you don't need to complete your business which is information about your sister. My business for your business…that choice is yours!" He offered with a devilish smile. He was vague on purpose and he knew that she thought she knew why. Nevertheless, the bubbly and naïve, smart but foolish Princess from Arendelle, did exactly as he said. She played perfectly into his hands as she took the quill and signed her name to the contract.

So, if it isn't entirely obvious at this point, I confess that I'm not a fan of the Frozen episodes. However, I am proud of how the Frozen chapters came out in this fiction. It was a different feeling writing it here rather than for Moments. You know, in Moments, Belle was friends with Anna so it had to have a somewhat positive spin, but in Chronicles what helps is that it's allowed to have a completely different tone. Rumple confesses several times that he doesn't really have a deep love for Anna finds her annoying and mouthy. And of course he certainly won't have a love for the events that follow meeting Anna, so the cool thing about that is that I didn't have to pretend to like it. I could kind of channel the "this is dumb" feeling and found that it made it work really well and I actually enjoy reading these chapters 10x more than watching it just for that reason! Hopefully that came through beautifully here and if you are one of those people who dislike it right along with me, you'll find some joy in relating to Rumple!

Thank you Grace5231973 and Alarda for the reviews you left on the previous chapter. I'm sorry about the opening to this chapter. Can we all just agree at this point that sometimes there were stupid decisions made? Come on people, why is Anna appearing at the left side of the door when we know the entrance to the castle is on the right? Peace and Happy Reading!