Neutralizing Assist and Recovery Knight 16: I don't own Frozen or any Characters.

Rating: T

Pairing: Elsanna

Words: 2,004 (Sorry another long one)

Characters: Anna, Elsa, Arendelle.

Summary: Why did Elsa put Anna in the cell? What has changed since landing on Elysium?


It tore Elsa's heart out to put Anna in that cell, but with the ground crew coming on to resupply the ship Elsa had to. Also with the way that the Knight Commander acted when she requested that Anna be returned caused Elsa to think he knew something was going on between them. It might have been simply the way she acted around Anna, but something just wasn't right.

"Aren how is the ship running?" Elsa asked.

"The ship is at optimal running capacity, why?" Aren responded, but Elsa ignored it as the ground crew started bringing in boxes of supplies. She allowed the ground crew to do their job as she went back up to the flight deck.

"Aren were you listening to the conversation?" Elsa asked as she sat down in the chair.

"Was I not supposed to?"

"It's fine that you did, but do you know what we are doing?" Elsa asked with a smirk on her face.

"Yes I have already plotted the fastest way back to Laguna Prime. The extra boosters will run out of fuel before we complete the trip, but it will shorten the time to simply twenty four hours," Aren reported and Elsa nodded her head.

Elsa then brought up a command holo and a keyboard to type into it. It was a way to communicate with Aren directly without voice commands. It was also a way to look at Aren's code to see if anything was changed recently. On Laguna Prime Aren received an update to link to the nanites that they had received on Laguna Prime and they got resupplied at the same time. It would have been the perfect time to place a listening device or some sort of monitoring device on the ship.

Elsa brought up the update that Aren had received and looked at the programs that were installed. A little box popped up on another Holo next to the one Elsa was working on. Can I help you find something? Aren asked in text.

Have you been transmitting recordings of conversations that Anna and I have been having to the Castle? Elsa typed as she looked at the program list. Now Aren was an AI and there could be things in her memory that would prevent her from answering truthfully, but Elsa had also installed a black market program that ran in the background of Aren that would record all data that she transmitted. So in the end Elsa could find out if Aren was lying.

Elsa looked over at the holo and Aren was silent and that spoke volumes. Elsa then went into Aren's files and saw that large update that they received on Laguna Prime. Thankfully Aren always backs up her files before installing a new update.

"Aren I am going to restart you as we have been on a mission for a while and I just want the ship to have a good restart before we take off again," Elsa said out loud as a member of the ground crew walked onto the flight deck. Elsa took the document showing the transfer of food and approved.

"A restart isn't necessary Elsa I am working normally," Aren answered, but Elsa was dubious as she watched another Holo of the ground crew leave. She clicked to have the ramp close and then set Aren to restart with the old files. The entire ship went black with the exception of the one holo that Elsa was working on and several back up lights. It would run for days if the ship lost power. She was able to quarantine all the files that Aren received from Laguna Prime forward. Elsa made sure to leave Aren's memory files in place and hoped that she would be able to tell Elsa the truth now that the files were uninstalled.

After a few minutes all the holo's started to light back up and then one popped up next to Elsa. What happened why was I restarted? Aren asked as her voice interface was one of the last things to boot up.

Were you sending information about my conversations with Anna to the Castle? Elsa asked again.

? Yes I was. Why was I? Aren asked and Elsa just had to nod her head.

I believe that you were installed with software that was making you spy on me on Laguna Prime. Elsa answered and she saw that Aren was almost completely restarted.

I have detected the malicious software in the files Elsa and I have performed a ship wide scan. I have found several recording devices in the cargo hold, food storage section and near the exit ramp. Aren reported as she was once again fully on Elsa's side.

Go ahead and lift off and get us into hyperspace on our way to Laguna Prime. Only after will I disable the devices. Elsa then leaned back and hoped that Anna wouldn't be to upset about this whole thing. Now though they had to find the device in order to make sure the final two members of the Children of Aria didn't do anything stupid.

It took Elsa nearly an hour to find all the bugs that had been installed and that was with Aren's help. It was amazing that the Castle would spy on her, but Laguna Prime was a hot bed for anti-Alliance groups. It was probably standard protocol to bug every ship that landed at the Castle. Now Elsa was outside the prison door smoothing her cloths as she was kind of nervous to open it again. Hopefully Anna would understand.

As soon as the door opened Anna looked up and she had a look of sadness on her face. Elsa felt like she had daggers in her chest at the look and she gave her a little smile hoping it might send some of the sadness away. She then pulled out the cuff's control and hit the button that unlocked the cuffs on Anna's wrists with a loud CLICK.

She looked down at the cuffs and back up at Elsa several times. She then held out a hand to help Anna stand up from sitting on the bed. "Elsa what is going on? I am so confused," Anna asked as she took Elsa's hand and allowed herself to be pulled up to a stand.

"I'm sorry I put you in here, but the way the Knight Commander was acting I thought someone might have bugged Aren," Elsa explain as she led Anna out of the cell.

"Did they?" Elsa pointed at a work table as they headed threw the cargo hold. It was full of the now disabled bugs "Wow. What about Aren?"

"There was also some malicious software on Aren as well, but I was able to find and remove it," Elsa explained as she led the way up to the bedroom that Anna had stayed in before. "Now I have to ask you to please help me. I need to know what happened while I was in that cell and where the rest of the device is." Elsa sat down at her usual spot at the desk in Anna's room and she sat down across the desk.

Anna was silent for a while as she looked across the table. "Has meeting me changed you at all?"

It was an odd question and one that she probably already knew the answer too, but Elsa answered anyway "Yes in ways I don't totally know or understand yet."

"If you were your original self what would you have done?" Anna asked and Elsa didn't really like where this was going. Anna was still convinced that the Alliance was bad and needed a change and was probably trying to show Elsa that it needed a change. Maybe the Alliance did need to change in some way, but this device was from a generation ago and it wasn't the best way to change it.

There was another reason that she didn't want to say and it was because she was afraid that Anna might look at her differently if she knew just what Elsa was capable of. Anna's eyebrows went us as she waited an answer. "I'm afraid that if I tell you that you will think differently of me. So let's just say that I would get the information from you by starting soft and becoming quite hard and painful in the end," it was becoming so easy to tell the truth. Thankfully the truth has many different forms and she was deft enough to answer the question truthfully without actually going into specifics.

The look on Anna's face spoke volumes and she was probably still convinced that the Alliance was in the wrong. "I want more specific than that," Anna asked and Elsa dropped her face in her hands.

"Aren give Anna a brief summary of interrogation techniques I use," Elsa didn't want to say what she did out loud as the thought of it made her feel worse.

"I don't advise this Elsa," Aren replied.

"I swear your AI is just jealous of me," Anna scoffed and stood up turning away from the desk.

"I don't advise this because I think telling you might cause Elsa as much harm as telling you," Aren replied and Anna spun around with a confused took on her face.

"Aren please summarize for Anna," Elsa said again.

"To start you would appear to be a friend with the only way to stay alive. You would give them extra rations and hope that they will open up to you quickly. It works thirty five percent of the time and after three days of that if they don't help then you move on to starvation. After five days without food you bargain with them by offering food for information," Aren started with the usual cases on longer time tables.

"If starvation doesn't work then you turn out the lights and turn down the temperature in the cell. Leaving them alone in the cold black room for several days if necessary," Anna's face began to change from nonchalant to something new that Elsa hadn't seen before. Maybe anger?

"After several days in darkness still doesn't break them then you begin to introduce pain," Aren thankfully stopped there as the look on Anna's fast was clear disgust. It wasn't the acts that caused Elsa so much pain, but the way Anna was going to look at Elsa from this point forward. It would probably never be the same again. She had no delusions that she didn't do bad things, in fact she knew she did things that people would call evil. It was that she did them in order to protect people it was for the greater good.

She stood up and headed out the door. "You still can freely move about the ship if you want," Elsa said as she stepped out of the door.

"Now do you see why I think the Alliance needs to change?" Anna asked in her soft tender voice. No anger or disgust was in her voice, but Elsa knew it was there somewhere.

"No. I would gladly do all the terrible things I have done in the past again if it meant to save the citizens of the Alliance. It is being laid bear with no armor or lies to protect me that I can't stand to look at you," she then turned to look back over her shoulder. "I have no illusions that the things I do could be considered evil, but I do them to protect people like you. It is the only thing that keeps me going." The look on Anna's face was a mixture between shock and disgust. Elsa went into her own room and pulled a bottle out from the bottom drawer of her dresser. It was too bad she couldn't get drunk, but at least she could hope the taste would distract her as this gift was the most expensive bottle of liquor she could find.


I will post a new chapter every Tuesday, Thursday and am adding Saturday until the end of the story. Please review and leave comments. Constructive or deconstructive any feedback is welcome.

Deviant Art:

Fanfiction: ~kain772

Tumblr: .com