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: There's a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference here, but I will affirm in advance that there are no plans to feature Slayers or anything else from the mythology of that specific show in this series; the show just inspired a particular scene.

The Frozen Fox

The only truly challenging thing about being Zorro was when her instincts told her something that Anna couldn't understand at first.

She would be a fool not to acknowledge that there was something suspicious about Prince Hans- anyone who associated with King Runeard merited her attention because they were working with the king in the first place- but she couldn't shake the concern that there was more going on than the obvious. Hans spending time with Elsa could be a simple matter of him being of the right age to bond with her, and even King Runeard couldn't deny that Elsa needed to spend some time with people her own age, but Anna had this feeling about him that she didn't entirely like.

For the moment, Anna had to focus on her latest self-appointed mission. During her recent search of the castle, she had found reference to an upcoming shipment of 'dangerous materials', and had made it a personal mission to drop in and find out what this particular shipment was all about. She appreciated that it could turn out to be nothing more than books expressing opinions that Runeard didn't like, but the de la Vegas had made it clear that societies repressing knowledge was never something that should be condoned. Whatever the reason Runeard didn't want those books to be available for others to read, that basically guaranteed that Anna should do her best to ensure that at least she could read them and find out more for herself, which meant intercepting the shipment.

She appreciated that this strategy would only work so many times once she started out, but for the moment there was nothing wrong with keeping the strategy simple. Having confirmed the route that the cart carrying the material was going to take, Anna just had to take her horse (equipped with a few extra bags) and wait at a suitable point for the cart to pass by. The shipment was being sent along late at night, so she didn't have to worry about being seen so long as she was careful, and at this point it was best to gradually 'encourage' awareness of Zorro beyond the upper classes as she established herself. California had grown used to Zorro's reputation as a larger-than-life figure who could walk into large crowds and dispatch enemies single-handedly, but Anna needed time to develop that kind of legend here in Arendelle. Training had been useful, but she couldn't depend on that alone if she wanted to make an impression.

Admittedly, waiting late at night like this had its disadvantages, and she'd need to make sure she delegated enough work around the store tomorrow to avoid showing just how tired she was, but Anna was confident that she could make it work. She was starting to appreciate the advantages of the de la Vega men acting as rich playboys, but she had to find her own way to make an impact as both of her identities in this situation. The route had been traced and she'd been careful to choose her moment to intercept the cart, so now all she had to do was wait for it to pass by and move in.

She wished that she had been able to find something to do to keep herself occupied while she waited, but that was the problem with this kind of stake-out. When she only had a small window of opportunity to intercept the cart, she couldn't let her attention be taken off the road. She had been taught a few mental exercises to keep her focus in situations like this, but she only had so many of those she could do before it got repetitive.

The next time I do something like this, I'm going to time it better so I don't have to wait this long for the target…

Finally, she saw the cart approaching along the road, the moonlight providing just enough light to see despite the distance from the main city and her own eyes better adjusted to the darkness. As she'd expected, the cart was relatively small with just a few boxes on the back, guarded by a couple of soldiers sitting at the front of the cart.

"Let's go," she whispered to her horse, flicking the reins and starting her approach. As she'd previously planned, the trick at this point was to go slowly enough that the soldiers on the cart didn't hear her until she was too close for them to stop her, but not so slow that the cart moved too far ahead. She had to pick up the pace as the cart began to move further along, but it didn't take long for her to reach her target, discreetly approaching the cart from the back.

Once she was close enough, she stood up on her horse's back- a particularly tricky manoeuvre that she'd been very proud of mastering the first time she'd done it back in California- and jumped carefully into the cart. Moving quickly from one end of the cart to the other (fortunately there were only a couple of crates for her to 'worry' about), she drew her sword and took up position just behind the two soldiers before giving a polite cough.

"Hello there," she said with a grin. The soldiers only just had time to turn around before Anna punched one of them in the face with her free hand, subsequently moving her sword to hold it against the throat of the next soldier.

"Stop the cart," she said firmly, her voice the deep tone she was growing used to putting on as Zorro.

"Who are-?" the soldier began.

"Zorro," Anna said, moving her sword slightly so that the tip of the blade pressed against the man's shirt (she didn't want to press directly against his skin and risk cutting him if the carriage jolted). "I will repeat; stop the cart."

With that repeated command, the man swallowed anxiously and pulled back on the reins. As the cart came to a halt, Anna gave him a brief smile of thanks, drew back her sword, and then slammed the hilt down on the top of the man's head. As the man slumped backwards in his seat, Anna checked the back of the cart and smiled to see her own horse had remained in step behind the vehicle, waiting for her to return to it.

"Good job," she smiled at her trusty ally, walking back to the horse and picking up a few of the bags hanging down from the saddle. "Now, let's see what we're working with…"

With the bags slung over her shoulders, Anna turned her attention to the crates in the back of the cart, switching her sword for a small blade as she opened the lids of the boxes to examine their contents. The first box contained a few strange amulets and statues that she guessed had some kind of magical or cultural significance that eluded her at the moment, but the next couple of boxes contained various leather-bound books.

"Huh," she mused, picking up a book from the top of one of the boxes and opening it at random to read the contents. "Librum incendere-?"

She jumped back as there was a sudden burst of fire from the book, Anna slamming it shut in shock. When the book didn't catch on fire itself, Anna opened it once again, the pages falling open at the same point she had just read from, revealing that there were no singed pages or any trace of the fire she had unwittingly started.

"Huh," she said again, lost for anything better to say as she studied the apparently magic book more carefully. "So… it's that easy?"

She had never thought about just how easy it was to do magic, but the notion that someone just had to read from a book to do something like that…

As much as Anna hated to concede that Runeard might have a point about anything, the notion that it could be that simple to cast any kind of spell was something that might actually be a reason for people to be concerned about. She objected to the idea that someone had the right to suppress knowledge on this scale just because they felt they had the right to control what people knew, but she could at least acknowledge the dangers of certain knowledge getting into the wrong hands. She was still going to keep these books for herself, but she'd be careful about redistributing them once this was all over.

Maybe Anna didn't have the right to make these kind of decisions, but if she was going to keep Arendelle safe that meant making sure it didn't end up destroying itself once this was over. These books could be dangerous in the wrong hands, but she certainly wasn't going to allow someone like Runeard to decide who those hands would be.

"Small start, but every little counts," she said, looking reflectively over at her horse. "Let's get this stuff somewhere safe; we have a few other raids to plan for."

As the horse gave an affirmative neigh, Anna turned her attention back to the cart. Taking the whole cart would risk leaving more distinctive tracks, but if she could move enough of these objects back to her previous hiding spot before these men regained consciousness, that should at least give her more time. The bags and the trees would keep everything protected from potential water damage, and from there she could work out a suitable place to keep everything once she didn't have to worry about Runeard's forces finding her once they realised what had happened to this delivery.

It was a small blow against the king, but the important thing was that the fight against Runeard's corruption had begun; all Anna had to do was keep it up…