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: Elements of this chapter were inspired by a certain mission in Batman: Arkham City; hope you like the result.

The Frozen Fox

The worst part about knowing that someone was hunting Anna was knowing that she couldn't do anything about it. After the first bounty hunter had been dealt with, she had no idea if she should be concerned about another one showing up any time soon or if she could let herself relax. The only thing she knew for certain was that if King Runeard wanted her dead, he wasn't going to restrict himself to sending just one assassin after her, but how long he'd be prepared to wait to send out the next one was something she couldn't anticipate.

She had kept an eye out for anything about the damage that had been done to the church, but there was nothing in the newspapers about the event. She assumed that the fact that the church had already been basically abandoned was the main reason nobody had apparently cared about the damage, but she had to wonder if Runeard was even aware of her particular 'victory'. Obviously it wasn't the kind of question that she could ask the king as either herself or Zorro, and she didn't want to even try and find out if Elsa knew anything about this latest turn of events…

Elsa…

Anna wasn't sure what it was about the princess, but the more time she spent with Elsa, the easier it felt to just talk with the beautiful young woman. Anna had always found it easy to talk with people, to the extent that even Joachim and Elena had complimented her ability to persuade people to share things with her, but there was something about Elsa that made Anna feel particularly comfortable…

She shook that thought off; as pleasant as it was to consider her friend, since she had no reason to believe that Elsa was involved in anything going on right now, she would focus her attention on her more immediate plans. She had been making progress keeping track of Runeard's efforts to move things around the kingdom in secret so far, but she had decided to check the tower where he kept the records and make sure nothing had changed since her last visit.

The best thing about dealing with an arrogant foe with a hatred of magic was that the king never seemed to think about the simple explanation for how Zorro found out his information. Anna wasn't sure if Runeard had some means of deflecting magic that he kept relying on, but so far he hadn't done anything to improve the physical defences of his castle beyond shifting around the patrol schedules, and since Anna was always careful when infiltrating the castle that wasn't much of a challenge. She could make her way along the city's rooftops to a point relatively close to the palace without anyone being aware of it (apart from maybe stirring someone awake if she landed on a rooftop close to a bedroom), and from there she had a few tools that could let her cross the distance from the final rooftop to the tower.

Crouching in her usual position opposite the tower's largest window, Anna launched her grappling hook towards the roof, taking a moment to confirm that the hook had made contact before she swung herself over the gap. Grabbing the edge, Anna hauled herself into the tower window, relaxing as she walked through the shelves and cabinets towards the area that she identified as the place where Runeard's men kept their private records. Anna had to be careful when studying these records, drawing a careful balance between noting down important information and not responding to everything she found in case she tipped them off about where she was finding her information.

Opening the cabinets, Anna began to quickly flick through the papers, thoughtfully noting some of Runeard's planned upcoming movements. There was nothing to clearly indicate that he was planning any further relocations of magical artefacts, but the talk about checking the guards around a particular old estate was something she might check out later. There was also some reference to troop movements Anna would have to look into further in case he was hiding something further behind them. There was no sign that he was planning any kind of coordinated campaign right now, but she had to be prepared for the idea that the king was planning something that was less obvious than usual.

Satisfied that she had nothing urgent to worry about even as she also had a few points of interest to consider, Anna headed back for the window, smiling as she clambered out and slung down towards the nearest rooftop-

Looking back on the event in hindsight, Anna felt that it was the first time she had truly appreciated the wider purpose of the cape beyond creating a dramatic impression. She always remembered Alejandro's first lesson that one of the more subtle advantages of the cape was to throw off attackers and make it hard to see her body, but she hadn't truly appreciated that insight until she heard a gunshot go off while she was flying through the air on the end of her whip. Quickly flicking her weapon free, Anna fell towards the rooftop she had already been heading towards, rolling forwards to lie flat against the ground as she looked herself over. It didn't take long to confirm that she was uninjured, but it took her a few more moments to find the hole in her cape created by the gunshot.

In a dark way, it was almost fascinating to realise that she was able to analyse the likely angle of the shot and thus use that to work out where she might find her attacker. The streets below were lit up by gas lamps, but that wouldn't be enough to see her from down below and shoot her in that particular manner. To have shot her from that direction, her attacker must have been watching her from somewhere up above, so must have known she would visit that particular tower. The fact that one of King Runeard's agents had worked out what she was doing was worrying, but she would hope that just like the previous assassin she'd dealt with, this man was an independent contractor who was just being paid for it, rather than someone who was actually loyal to the king and might have shared this information with someone else.

So, Anna mused, quickly assessing her options, assuming that the assassin didn't share everything with the king, I may still have a way out of this.

Hoping that she wasn't about to make a mistake, she carefully raised her head over the edge of the building to look at the surroundings. Her hat and mask should conceal her from view if she was careful, and she was fairly sure she knew the direction that the shot had come from, so if she was right…

Bingo, she smiled, as she took in the disused clocktower a couple of blocks away. It was the only building tall enough to offer the kind of perspective necessary for someone to pull off that particular shot, and she was fairly sure she could see someone moving on the other side of the glass that served as the clock face. Her enemy must at least have an idea of where she was since he made that shot, but at this distance, no matter how fast he could aim his gun, and no matter how many bullets he had for his weapon, Anna guessed that he would still take time to load it…

Hoping that she wasn't making a mistake, Anna picked up a loose stone lying on the roof beside her and tossed it over in another direction. As it hit the rooftop of another house, Anna saw the figure in the clocktower run off in that direction, allowing her to come out of hiding long enough to jump across the gap between houses and land on another rooftop. She heard a gun go off as she jumped, but Anna was able to keep herself low and stay out of sight as she moved carefully along the roof, now closer to the clock-tower while still hidden from view. Judging by the sound, if she recalled Alejandro's lessons correctly, her enemy was using an elephant gun, which meant her earlier thoughts had been correct; no matter how fast he could aim and fire he would still need a few seconds to reload between shots, and he would have to look at what he was doing to be sure the shells went in the right way. Now that she knew where he was, if she could keep this up…

Repeating the same process as last time, Anna tossed something off to the side and then ran for the next gap as her unseen attacker fired. She still had to make another jump to get to the small tower that was her target, but this time she was close enough that she felt reasonably sure her opponent wouldn't be able to spot her approach. This close up, and based on the height of the tower and the direction that she'd tossed that last rock in, he would be looking in a different direction, so as long as she was careful when making her approach, this could work…

Taking a lot of risks on this one, aren't we? Anna thought to herself, but pushed that thought down. It wasn't as though being Zorro was ever a completely safe role, and considering that she'd been taken by surprise by the initial attack she felt that she was doing a good job keeping her head right now anyway. Her mind made up, she raced across the final short distance between her current position and the tower up ahead, leaping up to the side of the wall and beginning a careful ascent. The tower structure was rough enough that it wasn't too hard for her to get her fingers into the walls and advance carefully upwards until she had reached the nearest large window.

Moving her hands to either side of the window ledge so that nobody inside could see her fingers, Anna moved her hat to hang around her neck before she carefully peaked over the side. As she had hoped, the room on the other side was empty, but from what she could see of the tower exterior there was still another level above that must be the shooter's current location. Carefully climbing into the window, Anna took a moment to assess the current floor and then made her way towards the steps up to the next level, smiling as she heard footsteps pacing on the wooden floor above. With her would-be assassin clearly unaware she'd made it inside, he had no reason to expect that she was about to attack him, which meant that she was about to deal with this particular problem.

Carefully making her way up the stairs, she smiled in relief as she looked over the edge of the stairs and saw the man with the gun standing at a nearby window, his back to her. As she had anticipated, the man was still looking in the direction of the stone she had last thrown, which meant that she still had a chance to turn this in her favour. Moving quickly, she climbed the last few steps and moved up behind the man, grabbing him by the neck and hauling him away from the window.

"Now-" she began, before the man managed to hit her in the face with the barrel of his gun. The blow wasn't enough to do more than daze her, but that loss of control was enough for her opponent to get out of her grip and turn to face her. He raised his gun once again, but Anna grabbed the weapon out of his hands and threw it off to the side, shifting into a combat stance. As Anna had hoped, the shooter was strong and healthy, but he was no more than average size and his hand-to-hand skills were limited. Without his gun as an option, his attempts to fight her off hand-to-hand were basically doomed from the start, as Anna didn't even need to draw her sword to deflect his first few blows before she had him pinned to the wall.

"As I was saying," Anna continued, her voice low and her tone casual even as she was prepared to squeeze if the man proved uncooperative. "Shall I assume you were hired by the king?"

"Among others," the man replied, a bitter edge to his words at least assuring Anna that she wasn't barking up the wrong tree.

"I don't suppose you know who else?"

"Hired discreetly," the man responded with a slight smirk. "All I know is that there were others; whoever gets you gets the bounty."

"I see," Anna said, glad that she had confirmation of that theory even if it wasn't exactly positive news. "Well then, if you know nothing more about the other hunters, and I doubt Runeard gave you any particularly useful information, that leaves me with one bit of business."

Leaning back while keeping the man pressed against the wall with one hand, Anna pulled a short blade out of her belt and then stepped back to punch the man in the face. The blow wasn't enough to do more than disorientate him, but that disorientation allowed Anna to grab both his wrists and force them together against the wall. The gunman tried to struggle against the grip, but he didn't manage to free himself before Anna slammed the blade through his hands, smiling in grim satisfaction as her enemy screamed in pain.

"The price of your current life choices," Anna observed with a grim smirk at her opponent as she pulled the knife out of his palms while he fell to the floor. If she recalled her lessons in human anatomy, the blade shouldn't have done enough damage to render the hand completely useless, but it would certainly not be capable of the kind of fine control needed if this man tried to continue his current line of work. "We had better not meet again."

Leaving the man mumbling in pain as he bit his own lip to suppress his pained screams, Anna grabbed the man's elephant gun before she leapt from the roof, hurrying back along the route that would take her back to her shop. She was undecided if she would keep the weapon for her own use or just as a trophy of this particular victory, but the important thing was that she'd dealt with another killer, and this time she'd avoided killing her opponent.