Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; the elements taken from Frozen are obvious, and while this version of Zorro is taken mainly from Mask and Legend, I've incorporated elements of his history from other adaptations. Even the original idea for this fic was inspired by the artwork of shishyoukai on DeviantArt, although I have created my own narrative for it; the artwork only inspired the idea of a certain sister becoming Zorro.

Feedback: Always appreciated

The Frozen Fox

Anna knew that it was too early to be sure of her progress, but so far she felt that her efforts to infiltrate Arendelle high society were going well. Her debut at the party had given some of the upper-class women an example of her work, and she had already received a couple of requests to do some work for them, while her personal connections had definitely earned her further points with Runeard.

She might dislike the idea of using Don Montero as an 'in', considering everything he had done to the original Zorro, but Anna couldn't deny that the deception was useful. There was no evidence that Don Montero had ever been directly associated with the Knights of Aragorn, but at least Alejandro had been correct when he suggested that Montero's fundamental agenda was one that would align with the Knights' own agenda.

Admittedly, it was unlikely that the Knights would be particularly interested in recruiting a dressmaker to their inner circle, but the important thing was for her to play up her connections back in America. The Knights' initial plan to destroy the country may have been defeated by Alejandro and his family, but the de la Vegas all doubted that the order would just give up that easily. Anna was looking forward to finding the balance between taking subtle action as Zorro against the Knights' operations and seeing what she could learn about their activities as 'Anna Menzela'. It helped that she already had a very comfortable 'in' given how easily she had found herself conversing with Princess Elsa, but she couldn't rely on the princess as a source of information alone (and that wasn't just because she didn't like to imagine that Elsa was the kind of person who knew and accepted what her grandfather was doing to her kingdom).

It was a pity that her more personal objective of tracking down her birth father had essentially died off early in her efforts, but Anna had to acknowledge that she just didn't have that much to work with. Her attempts to do research on her family had depended on the idea that she would be able to find information about her mother's departure from Arendelle once she arrived, and so far the only thing she'd found out about that time period was that the princess-consort had vanished around the same time. There was nothing to indicate that anyone had even reported another disappearance back then, so she had to assume that her father just wasn't interested in her even if he'd ever wanted to be part of her life. Considering how her mother skimmed over the details of her past before coming to California, Anna got the impression that there hadn't been much of a life to miss even if there hadn't been all these other problems, so there probably wasn't anyone or anything worth finding out more about even if her father was still alive.

In any case, she had more immediate matters to focus on right now than trying to find a man who clearly hadn't wanted her in the first place. Anna hadn't been planning to intercept that young man's attempt to break in to the prison, but when she saw someone sneaking in through a rear entrance during her latest patrol, it seemed like as good an opportunity as any to make Zorro's more official debut.

Getting inside had been simple enough once she found an open window, and from there it was just a matter of going down until she found the prison level. Either she would make contact with a man who was acting against Runeard's regime or she'd be able to prove herself as an ally when something went wrong, and while she hadn't been expecting the trolls, it had still been a good chance to prove herself. She wasn't ready to start carving Z's on things just yet, but once she had made a suitable impression on King Runeard's forces, she was going to make sure they knew who they were dealing with.

Or at least, who I want them to think they're dealing with…

When she saw Kristoff approaching the small copse she'd chosen as their meeting place on the outskirts of Arendelle, she was glad to see that her choice of location had served its secondary purpose. Given how tight Runeard kept a grip on things in the city, anyone able to even get outside the city in the first place had to be good, so the fact that he hadn't hesitated when Anna gave him her chosen location said a great deal about at least his confidence in his own abilities.

Even after seeing the man make his way towards her location, Anna remained in silent observation until he was actually among the trees. She didn't see anything to indicate that Kristoff had been followed, and she had spent some time training her night-vision so that she could escape being taken by surprise, but Alejandro had always made it clear to her and Joachim that they couldn't take anything for granted. The life of Zorro meant always being prepared for the moment when things could turn against them, and that included being prepared for even the unlikely possibility of an ambush.

Satisfied that Kristoff was alone, Anna took a moment to make sure that her mask and cloak were appropriately secure before she jumped down from the tree to land a short distance away from the young man. Even when prepared to accept him as an ally, Anna allowed herself a slight smile when her landing didn't draw his attention; it was good to know that her training had paid off.

"Glad you could make it," she said, indulging in a nonchalant smile as Kristoff spun around in shock to see her.

"How did-?" he began.

"I have my ways," Anna replied, her voice once again the deeper tone she had trained herself to use when wearing the mask.

"OK…" Kristoff said, looking uncertainly at her for a moment before he nodded in acceptance. "OK, so you're… Zorro?"

"That is what the people call me," Anna said, giving him a grin and a semi-formal bow.

"The people?" Kristoff repeated in confusion. "But… I've never heard of you…"

"The people back in California," Anna clarified.

"California?" Kristoff looked at her with renewed surprise. "How- what are you doing over here?"

"I have history with those behind King Runeard's campaign," Anna explained, keeping her tone grim as she reflected on the tales that Alejandro and the others had told her about these particular enemies.

"What?" Kristoff looked as though he wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly. "You… there's someone behind the king?"

"To be clear, he is a very high-ranking member of that organisation, but he is still part of the group rather than its overall leader," Anna explained. The young man's expression made it clear that he didn't entirely believe what she was telling him, but he at least clearly wanted to hear what she had to say. "I have no clear evidence of this organisation's presence in Arendelle at this time, but my sources have confirmed that they are involved."

"Your… sources?" Kristoff repeated uncertainly.

"I have friends who have been aware of this organisation for some time and done a great deal of work in tracking them down," Anna said. She privately regretted deceiving a potential ally like this, but so long as she was vague about the scale of her 'friends' she was just giving Kristoff the opportunity to imagine that she had a larger support network than she actually did rather than outright lying to him. "It was decided that the time had come for me to take a more active role in opposing King Runeard's actions over here, but you may consider me available to assist with whatever you and your local allies have planned as well."

"That's… good…" Kristoff said with an awkward shrug that Anna recognised.

"You don't have a clear plan of resistance, do you?"

"I mean, we're trying to keep people safe, but we can only do this from underground, so… well, there's not much we can do without making it too obvious what we're up to," Kristoff said, confirming Anna's theories about the limited nature of the current resistance. "We've got a few internal contacts to let us know if the king's doing anything particularly dangerous, but there's only so much we can do to react to that stuff without tipping him off that we have that kind of insight in the first place…"

"Which is something you don't have to worry about for long," Anna smiled as she indicated herself. "Consider me your new field agent."

"Field agent?" Kristoff repeated.

"The next time you get a tip of something significant about to take place, pass it on to me and I'll act accordingly," Anna smiled. "Nobody will know who I am, so you won't have to worry about your agents being exposed, and I have a suitably developed reputation that it won't be hard to present the idea that I found this information myself."

"You think you're that good?" Kristoff looked sceptically at her.

"You do not develop a legendary reputation by being easy to predict," Anna responded with a more casually teasing grin. "In any case, if you have knowledge of Runeard's forces planning something in particular, be assured that I would be happy to be of assistance."

"Well…" Kristoff said, his expression hesitant but his features thoughtful as he looked at her. "It's not exactly… we don't know it's Runeard's forces for sure, but there have been a few strange attacks taking place over the last few weeks that we think are part of his own efforts…"

As Kristoff kept talking, Anna allowed herself a private smile at this tentative show of trust. Just as the young man had said himself, what he was talking about didn't sound immediately relevant to Runeard's goals, but if they each had a sufficient understanding of their mutual enemy, there might be something there worth pursuing…