So sorry! I know it's been a really long time since I updated but I have reasons; I've been busy, I've been having major friend drama lately, it's the holidays and there are things that needed to be done, and a whole list of other reasons that I don't feel like getting into. Also, one more quick note. My parents have just sprung this on me so I'm not exactly happy about it, but we will be gone July 17th to July 28th. A pretty long time. I am trying to update even more so I can finish my both my fics before I leave, because that would relive a lot of stress. And though I don't have that much more left to write, it's still a significant amount and I probably won't make that 'deadline.' So unfortunately, the completion of my fics has pretty much been pushed to an even later time. Just wanted to let you know. All right, enough talk, enjoy:

I wasn't really conscious, yet somehow just very aware. Aware of what was happening. I was being carried. On some sort of stretcher. Every now and then I see mountains and snow before my eyes flutter shut once more.

After a bit of being carried I feel myself fall onto the ground. My eyes weren't open, but I was paying attention anyway.

"Who do you think they are?" the voice of a girl asks. She sounds very far away…

"Dunno…" Another girl answers, she sounds a little more sharper and clearer. "Wonder though…four kids out in the middle of no where…"

"You don't think they know, do you?" The first voice gasps. "I heard about the cops using children to do investigation. What if they know about us? Do you think they do?"

"Pfft, no. Why would they know about the FQ?" The second voice chuckles. "You haven't been working for her long enough, Amy. FQ doesn't ever leave a trail."

I start loosing consciousness again. I can feel myself slipping away…

"Guys –er- gals, I just got a message from FQ, she wants us to bring them directly to her." Someone else says. It sounds like another voice of a different girl, but I can't tell. My hearing is failing…I am gone once more.

--

I don't know how much longer it is, maybe hours, maybe seconds. But suddenly I'm dumped onto a hard floor. It's cold. I think its ice.

"Who are these people?" I hear another voice. It's s girl's voice, yet again. She speaks slowly, deliberately, coldly. This is a girl who expects everyone to listen to her and always gets her way. This is someone that could intimidate anyone. She has an air of authority and arrogance about her voice. And yet, she sounds familiar, almost.

Amazing what you can tell from someone's voice.

I open my eyes. I see my friends and we all look at each other, not saying anything. We're all awake. Just starring at each other and ignoring the conversation going on around us. And I was right. We're on a patch of ice, laying down, starring at each other.

We must've been freed from our binds, because I am able to sit up. I clutch at my head, feeling a bruise form. Must've hit it on the ice.

As one, the four of us look around and gasp. We're in an ice palace. This place looks like a castle. With medieval decorations, columns, huge elegant chandeliers, and all other sort of beautiful little touches. But everything is ice. Not just covered in ice, everything is ice. It's completely made out of ice. I can barely believe me eyes. I feel like I'm dreaming.

"Bring them to me." I hear the cold voice once more. I turn around to see more ski masks. Of course, it's not a floating ski-mask monster like I thought before, but a person. They're just wearing a ski mask and I can't see their face at all. There are five of them. They push our backs and we march forward, not sure what else to do.

We moved along the length the of the room, eventually reaching a dip in the ice, forming a bit of a hill. At the other end of the hill at the very top, with a carpeted staircase leading up to it, was an ornate ice throne. It was then that I got my first real look at Icicle.

She looked just like the picture I had seen months ago. The same plain face as Ember's, but yet so different. Her eyes were a light shade of blue that was so pale it almost looked white. Her hair was long, sleek, and platinum blonde. Also so light that it almost looked white. Her face was caked with too much blue make-up and black mascara. She was extremely pale, and her nose was some-what crooked looking.

Surprisingly enough she was also wearing what I had seen her wearing in the picture. That being a dark blue "Eskimo" outfit that hat had been cut to mini-skirt length, and had fury white trim. The outfit had a hood but she wasn't wearing it, and, in the same color, she had on gloves and high heels.

I knew it was Icicle, just because I recognized her from the picture. But at the same time, I was slightly confused. Who was this FQ person we were supposedly being brought to?

I pushed the thought from my mind. We were here for Ember. I looked back to Icicle. She was sitting on the throne, furiously working on her right nails with a metal nail file. She didn't seem very attentive to us. I glanced around a bit. Throughout the entire room, every two feet or so, were more ski-masked covered people just watching us. Standing completely still, reminding me of the guards at Buckingham palace. I could tell from the bodies of these guards that they were all young girls. And they were wearing a similar outfit as Icicle, only a little more practical and less fancy.

Icicle stopped filing and looked up at us. Her creepy eyes sending a shiver down my spine. She went back to her nails.

"Who are these people?" She asked coldly.

"We found them at the decoy base." A girl from behind said. "They must know we who we are."

"Well of course they know!" Icicle snapped. "Do you think I'm stupid or something? I'm the one who made the decoy base, Ruth."

"My apologies miss." Ruth said softly.

"What do they want?" Icicle asked, sounding annoyed.

"We have come to…ask you for help." I say nervously.

"Oh? And who might you be?"

"I…I know your sister." I answer instead of saying my name.

"Of course!" Icicle yelled, jumping up from her chair. "You're Raymond! No, Richard. No, no…Ra…Raimundo! Raimundo! You're Rimundo, are you not?"

"Yes…how do you know?"

"Ember told me of you, of course. Couldn't help brag about how she'd "roped a man" as she said.…Yes, These must be those monk people. What were the names? Kimiko, Omi and Clay? Something like that?" My friends nod. "Yes, she mentioned you three as well. Quite the little devil, isn't she? Robbing you blind. So sad…so sad." Icicle didn't sound very sad or sympathetic. "Well what is it that you want? You had better not be wasting my time," Her voice went back to being sharp and intimidating. "I don't like it when people waste my time."

"We want…er, I'm sorry, I have to ask, are you FQ?" I just couldn't push the question out of my mind.

"FQ? As in frequency?"

"No...as in, like, a person. Um, a girl person." I started to feel stupid after I said it.

"Well I certainly don't know who she is." Icicle said switching the file to another finger. It was starting to annoy me that she was being so blatantly rude.

"Um, FQ is an abbreviation for Frost Queen. Some of us came up with the nickname" A small girl said from Icicle's left. "FQ is, you."

"That…is The most retarded thing I have ever heard." Icicle replied with a taste of venom in her words. "As of now I am docking five hundred dollars from all workers every time someone says FQ. Honestly…frequency…"

"Noted, M'lady." The girl replied. It suddenly dawned on me that not only did Icicle insist on being called the queen, she acted like one to. I had remembered Ember complaining about the way her henchmen (the "ice dancers") had just blindly worshipped and praised her, but I never imagined it was this bad.

"Ahem," Icicle said clearing her throat and looking back to us. "You wanted my help with something."

"Yes, yes…we want you to help us break Ember out of jail. She's going to…she's going to be executed. And I am going to save her…I love her." I explain.

"Yes, yes, I am quite aware of the prison situation." She said with out remorse. "Ahem, so let me get this straight; you want me and my workers to sneak out in the middle of the night, fly all the way to China, break into a prison facility, get Ember and fly her back here to Alaska. Is that what you're saying?" She was purposely trying to make us feel uncomfortable, and doing a good job. For someone who was really just a young teenager she spoke like she was some sort of goddess.

"Well…yes."

"So, I, the Ice Princess, am just supposed to drop everything I am doing, hop on a plane and save my sister who was dumb enough to be caught? Yes, is that right? That's what you want me to do?"

"Yes." I said confidently.

"Okay, okay…sounds like you're really passionate about this. Trekking all the way to Alaska and all. And finding our organization, bravo, really. I applaud you."

"So…you'll do it?" I ask my hope starting to rise.

"No." She said smirking.

"What? Why not?"

"Just what am I getting out of this deal, Raimundo?"

"I…I…But they'll kill her!"

"So?" I almost fell over backwards. How could anyone be so low?

"So? She's your sister!"

"So? Make your point already."

"You're just going to let your one and only sister, your identical twin, DIE?" I scream at her.

"Yes." She said, faking sweetness and clasping her hands together. "Why should I just drop everything and save her? What am I getting from this?"

"She would save you if the situation was reversed!" I yell.

"Would she?" Icicle's challenges me, leaning forward in her throne. "Are you implying that you know my own sister better than I do? Because, dear little Raimundo, you don't. Now, if you really don't have anything to offer me to save her, I am perfectly fine letting her die. Can't say I really understand why you came to me. I'm sure she told you how we don't have the best relationship. Now, get out of my sight, you're boring me."

The girl behind us starts to pull us away, but she only has a good grip on Omi and Kimiko, and Clay and I break free. I march up to the stairs leading to her throne.

"You're just going to let her die because we won't pay you? Is that what you're implying?" I mimic her boldly. "You are a heartless person!" I wanted it to insult her, but she doesn't seem very phased.

She snaps her fingers and the girl holding my friends let them go. Then, very quietly she gets up and walks over to me. She's towering above me, but I'm sure that with out her very high-heeled shoes that I would be taller or the same height as her.

She bends her body slightly so that she's right in my face.

"No. Not heartless." She leans in a little more closely and whispers to me. "Just a person who is very…very…cold." With the last word I close my eyes as she blows frost on my face. I blink a few times getting the ice crystals off my eye lashes as she goes back to the throne and sits down, very lazily.

"Now, get out of my sight before I have you forcefully removed. I'm not interesting in saving Ember. Get out."

The guards start to close in on us.

"Wait!" I shout. "What…what if we make some sort of deal?" The guards pause and turn their ski-mask-covered heads towards Icicle. She shifts in her seat and crosses her legs.

"I'm listening." She says folding her hands together.

"Well…"

I had this whole elaborate description of Icicle's home, but it became just a chapter of details and nothing else. So, I decided to leave it somewhat vague so you can use the best tool you posses to create a picture in your head. That tool being your imagination.

Now, not to nag or anything, but I've noticed a LOT of people have stopped reviewing this fic. If you're busy or on vacation, then fine, but if you're not, I really do appreciate reviews. Even if it's just criticism! So please, take the two minutes out of your day to tell me what you think. For this chapter I would especially like it if you told me your thoughts about Icicle…