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

AN: Like with the last chapter, this one draws some inspiration from a level of Batman: Arkham, although in this case the game is Arkham Origins.

AN 2: I apologise for the delay in posting this chapter; it was proving complex, so I decided to focus on other updates first.

The Frozen Fox

Checking out potentially hostile territory the day after dealing with another assassin might have been a risky move, but Anna liked to think of it as keeping the enemy on their toes by doing the unexpected. Even if the assassin from last night reported his confrontation with Zorro to the king, Runeard couldn't know exactly what she had found while in the tower or how she would respond to it, so she would stick with her plan. After a few hours' rest to recuperate from the fight once she got back to her shop, followed by a relatively quiet day at work keeping the shop in order (no major orders right now, but she'd spoken with a few customers and sold some standard clothes), Anna set off on her horse almost as soon as the sun went down, eager to keep up her current 'momentum' and hopefully keep her potential assassins off-balance.

Admittedly, she wasn't sure what she would find at this estate when the notes just said something about changing guards, but since Runeard wouldn't have guards stationed at an estate just for the sake of it, it was at least worth checking out. Once she was within sight of the estate, which was well-lit even this far out in the country at a late time of night, she tied her horse to a tree a reasonable distance away before she set off towards the house. She didn't want to draw more attention to herself by approaching on horseback, and covering this distance on foot would be simple enough.

Giving her horse a reassuring pat, the rope tied loosely enough that she could call him if it was needed but not so loose that he'd run off, Anna walked towards the house, carefully studying the building as she got closer. There were definitely people walking around inside based on movement in the illuminated windows, and she even thought she glimpsed someone moving around on the roof, but she couldn't see anything to suggest that this house was an active military stronghold of any kind. Either Runeard was keeping this under the radar for some reason, or Anna was following some kind of convoluted trap he had set up for her.

Still, whichever option it turned out to be, Anna didn't have much of a choice but to follow this up and see what she could find. When she was basically one woman mounting a campaign against a kingdom, particularly when the local resistance needed a suitable boost to make an impact themselves, anything she could find or do was a potential next step in weakening Runeard's authority. She hoped that recent events would lead to Kristoff making contact with her again, but she understood why the local resistance hadn't been doing much recently. When they knew nothing for certain about Runeard's wider agenda, it was reasonable enough that the existing rebels wanted to remain discreet and focus on trying to keep others safe, even if Zorro took a more aggressive approach most of the time.

Approaching the house, Anna smiled thoughtfully as she assessed the building. There were still no obvious clues about what this place was being used for, but if she could get inside, she might still find something. After taking a few moments to assess the building, she made for a suitable-looking open window on the second floor; high enough that it wouldn't be the first choice for anyone on the inside to expect a break-in, but not so high that it would be difficult to get inside. Clambering up the wall wasn't especially difficult with her training, and opening the window was simple enough; it wasn't even locked on the other side.

Nice and easy, Anna mused as she carefully slipped into the room, only to curse herself for that line of thinking. If there was one thing that Alejandro had always stressed when dealing with this kind of infiltration, it was that getting cocky and overconfident could lead to further problems. She had been fortunate to get this far inside, but she was inside a potential enemy stronghold and didn't know what she was up against. Making her way carefully through the empty room, only a couple of chairs and a table stopping her from dismissing the room as abandoned, Anna carefully opened the door and slipped out in the corridor, only to feel something strike her leg below the knee.

"Oops," an unfamiliar male voice said from off to the side, as Anna looked down at her leg in time to see something vividly green slip down her boot and hurry down the corridor. Looking up towards the source of the voice, Anna saw a man standing a short way down the corridor, wearing casual clothing under a long brown cloak that made him look a bit like a monk.

"Yours?" Anna said, remembering to keep her voice low as she indicated the green snake hurrying towards the other man, who crouched down slightly to allow the snake to slither under his sleeve.

"Naturally," the man said with a smile, raising his robe to reveal a collection of knives and bottles underneath. "Poisons of any kind are a speciality of mine, but with you… this felt like a more appropriate method of elimination."

"I'm not dead yet," Anna said, struck by a sudden sense of weakness even as she focused her attention on the man.

"You're good, I won't deny that," the man looked at her with a satisfied smirk. "However, when I saw which way you were approaching this house, it was relatively straightforward to anticipate where you would enter, and then it was just a matter of waiting for you to come out."

"And you think… that… will stop me?" Anna glared at the assassin, fighting to stay standing upright despite the sudden tremor in her legs.

"Oh, don't worry," the man grinned at her. "My scaly friend couldn't kill you outright; the king was very clear about the fact that he wanted to question you before he actually dealt with you, if you follow me-"

"Shut. Up," Anna said, drawing her sword and pointing it at the man's chest, glad that she had enough control that the blade wasn't shaking. "Antidote. Now."

"What makes you think-?" the man began with a cool smirk.

"Poison experts… keep antidotes," Anna affirmed, glad that this man was giving her a reason to discreetly use him for support that he couldn't question. "Especially if-"

The sound of footsteps coming towards her position reached Anna's ears, forcing her to move back and run down the corridor towards the approaching steps. This might be a risky move when she'd just been poisoned, but if she didn't act quickly Anna knew that she wouldn't be in any kind of state to defend herself later, so it was best to cut off potential reinforcements as soon as possible.

"He's heading your way!" the man called out, momentarily confusing Anna before she reminded herself that everyone believed Zorro was a man. As she turned a corner and found herself standing at the top of a large flight of stairs, Anna smiled as she saw only half a dozen soldiers hurrying up towards her. The odds could have been better given her condition, but the problem with using a fancy house like this as a trap was that it gave her more than a few options for dealing with problems.

The option Anna chose was basically the crudest option, but in her current state she didn't have the time to try something more sophisticated. Grabbing at the cabinet closest to the top of the stairs, Anna waited until she could see the guards coming up the stairs and then tipped the cabinet over while kicking it down the stairs. The cabinet was too large to fall all the way down the stairs on its own, but once Anna had tipped it over the books and dishes inside the cabinet fell out of the interior cupboards and struck the approaching guards. None of them were large enough to stop the guards completely, but the barrage was enough to let Anna vault over the cabinet herself.

With the guards already off-balance, it was easy enough for her to take down the nearest two with a spinning kick (it was overly dramatic, but it got the job done) before she punched the next closest one in the head. Even as it became harder to focus through her current disorientation, Anna still had enough focus to strike another attacker with the edge of her sword, sending him falling backwards into the fifth advancing guard as he clutched his injured arm. Recalling a trick Alejandro had shown her and Joaquim in the past, she used her cloak to grab the last guard by the leg and trip him up, watching in satisfaction as he struck one of the other men who was already trying to get up. Jumping forward, Anna delivered a final kick to the last guard who was trying to get back up from where he had been knocked down by his associate earlier.

With the initial attack ended, Anna found herself feeling even more exhausted as the initial thrill of the fight ended, leaving her even more aware that she wasn't going to last much longer if she didn't find an antidote to the poison. Scrambling back over the fallen cabinet, she ran back along the corridor and around the corner, relieved to find that her earlier attacker didn't seem to have moved along much from where she had left him. The man seemed to be shocked at the sight of her coming back for him- he must have assumed the guards would be enough to stop her- but Anna knew that would only give her so much of an advantage. Putting on an extra burst of speed as she fought against the growing sense of weakness, Anna managed to grab the man by the shirt. She might be struggling to keep her body upright, but she smiled in relief as she felt the snake moving beneath his clothes. The animal might be trained to return to the assassin when it was released, but if she could provoke the serpent…

Even with her hazy vision, Anna saw the moment her enemy bit his lip to stop himself letting out a pained scream as his own creature bit him somewhere under his shirt. Hoping that she hadn't just made a mistake, Anna pushed the man away from her and watched in satisfaction as he reached under the shirt to pull out the snake and throw it into a nearby room, slamming the door closed with one hand as he reached into his pocket with the other. Seeing him remove a small bottle, Anna grabbed the hand holding the bottle before stabbing the man in the arm, pinning him to the wall with the thin but strong blade. The man let out a scream and fell to his knees as Anna stepped back, holding the bottle out in front of her.

"Antidote?" she said, making her voice clear despite the ever-increasing urge to fall down and essentially let her own poisoning take effect. The man was weakly reaching for the sword in his arm, but he nodded in cautious understanding as Anna flipped the top off the bottle.

"Half and half?" Anna asked, shaking the bottle slightly as she looked at her attacker. This approach might be a risk, but she was guessing her enemy wasn't prepared to die to fulfil this particular contract when he had no reason to specifically want her dead. Once the man had nodded in response, still shaking in pain from his injured arm, Anna swallowed half of the bottle. The liquid had a distinct tang to it that she didn't like, but she certainly started to feel better as she felt the substance go down her throat.

Anna was ashamed to admit that a part of her was tempted to just take the whole bottle and leave her would-be assassin to die, but whatever this man was, as Zorro Anna had promised the de la Vegas that she would uphold his reputation as a man who only killed when absolutely necessary, and she wouldn't break that promise just because it would be easier. After making sure that the bottle still contained a good amount of the antidote, she held the container up so that her attacker could see what she was about to give him before she tipped the rest into his open mouth.

"Right," she said, stepping back as the last of the liquid went down the man's throat. "You had your shot at me, and I countered it; will I have to deal with you again?"

"I'm not getting offered enough to try something like this again," the poisoner responded, eyes briefly flicking towards his injured arm before he turned his gaze back on her. "Besides, after taking a beating like this, nobody would blame me for staying away from you for a while."

"Good call," Anna smiled in approval, before her expression shifted to a glare as she pulled her sword out of the wall and the man's arm. As the man fell to the ground clutching his freshly-bleeding arm, Anna gave a final kick to the man's head and then stepped back, assessing her fallen foe and satisfied that he was properly unconscious. "But there's no harm in making it clear."

It hadn't been as productive a night's work as she might have hoped, but she had at least dealt with another of Runeard's assassins and left another chink in his grip on Arendelle. Whatever Runeard's larger-scale agenda in hiring these killers to deal with Zorro, if Anna could deal with them all quickly enough, it may lead to Runeard making more mistakes on a larger scale.

As for the assassin himself, Anna wasn't going to kill him when he was unconscious, but she wasn't going to go out of her way to help him or his men out either. She was fairly certain she couldn't expect this man to spend any time in prison when he'd been hired to attempt this attack by the king of Arendelle, but she doubted that this particular assassin would be taking any further action against her. Even if Runeard forgave his failure, the man's arm would be basically useless for at least a couple of weeks and would take another couple of months to get back to normal, which would be more than enough justification for him to leave Arendelle and abandon Runeard's contract.

Unfortunately, dealing with assassins and exposing traps wouldn't be enough to stop Runeard's unknown wider plans, and she still had no clear long-term strategy beyond 'interfere where possible'. Kristoff and his contacts in the resistance were helpful in finding targets, but she needed to find some way of exposing the true extent of Runeard's corruption…