Finally, she had gotten rid of him. No matter how many times she defeated him effortlessly, Frye continued to demand a rematch. Hour after hour, she continuously beat him into the ground. He never stopped. Afraid of seeing him collapse due to exhaustion, she at last managed to break away by saying she had an appointment to meet with Elsa. Ignoring his protests as she hurried out the room (claiming to be running late) was undiplomatic, but it was better than the controversy that would ensue if he was found unconscious.

Now, to find her Queen.

\

Elsa couldn't believe her eyes. She'd been lured into a trap...by Evangeline no less. How? Why? The spymaster had proven her loyalty a dozen times over. She'd protected Elsa's parents from several threats, devoted herself to stopping Drell's conspiracy, and fought beside Anna to bring the mastermind to justice. She couldn't be a traitor.

"Good work, young one," Evangeline said to Kayla. "Now, go keep watch for any...unwelcome distractions." Nodding, the servant girl bowed deeply to Elsa before leaving through the door they'd came in.

"What the hell is going on here, Evangeline!?" Elsa demanded, still struggling desperately against her magical binds. Whatever they were, their presence was neutralizing her powers. Try as she might, the Queen could not create a single snowflake.

The spymaster smiled before dipping into a low bow. "History, Your Worship. After thousands of years of chaos, we are bringing order to this world. For countless centuries, we have waited for your return. Now, at last, that moment is upon us."

A dozen men and women had accompanied her; they now filtered throughout the room, standing around the restrained Queen in a circle. As Elsa watched incredulously, they began to speak in a deep, unfamiliar language that the monarch had never heard before. White smoke continued to spread throughout the room.

"They're reversing the spell," Evangeline explained. "The one that destroyed you, in this very room, thousands of years ago."

The Queen was utterly horrified. And as Elsa's mind rapidly connected the dots, her terror only grew. "You're trying to bring the Goddess back," she breathed. "The one I'm a reincarnation of. You...you've known, just like Drell did."

Evangeline smiled. "I've devoted my life to protecting you, Your Worship. Our ancestors have preserved throughout the centuries, waiting for the chance to serve you again. Although I must admit, I'm surprised you've known the truth. We believed that none of the Goddess's memories remained within you."

"I didn't. Anna had...visions of the past. The past that Drell spoke about. That night was the first we learned about any of this crap." Her mind was still spinning. She had so many questions. And so much disappointment. All this time, her best agent had been...

The monarch sighed. "Enough games. Who are you people? And what the hell do you want?"

"You know some pieces of the story," Evangeline replied. "We are the Faithful. When you ruled the earth, we were your trusted and loyal lieutenants. But from within our own ranks, a rebellion grew. The traitors ambushed and all but destroyed your magnificence," she explained, her voice filled with pitch black venom. "But there is so much more than Drell's watered down tale to your real history."

Remaining silent, Elsa continued to glare at her spymaster. Around the room, the chanting continued. The white haze was growing ever stronger.

"There was a war between the gods, after which you were the only one who remained. Yet only a few know this: you were not a bystander, Your Worship. You were the instigator. You knew, as the gods squabbled over their spheres of influence, that this world needed a single, firm hand to guide it. The disagreements between the King of the Gods and his critics provided the perfect opportunity. Discreetly, you engineered a very interesting fate for the human girl he loved. When he raised her to his side regardless, as you knew he would, the dissenters could take it no more. The spark was lit. And as the world was plunged into war, you proclaimed your neutrality."

Elsa's heart lurched. She...she had been an evil goddess? Started a war that all but destroyed the planet just so she could rule over the ashes? Bile rose in her throat. She and Anna had believed her past self to have been a peacemaker, one who had tried to maintain order after the other gods had been banished before being unjustly betrayed. But this...

"You knew of the King's weakness: his sentimentality. The war would not end until the gods were banished, and you patiently waited for the King to realize that doing so was the only way to preserve humanity. In preparation, you created barriers strong enough to protect you from his spell. And when it was complete, the world was yours for the taking."

"Then why the hell are you bringing me...her, back? Someone so evil and powerful that they all but destroyed the world for their personal gain?" Elsa demanded.

Evangeline scoffed. "Evil? You're a Queen, not a child. Morality is a concept created by the weak. Strength is all that truly matters in this world. The Goddess was one of the most powerful gods, and the only one with the fortitude to abandon the shackles of 'good and evil'. Your new world embraced that philosophy; power determined one's place, not ethics. Under your reign, the natural order was allowed to thrive."

"You're sick," Elsa spat. "Brainwashed by the 'Order' you were born into." These teachings had obviously been passed down by the Faithful for thousands of years, each successive generation indoctrinating the next.

"Soon, Your Worship, you will understand. Drell's group was misled from the very beginning. The prophecy was given to the Faithful soon after you were betrayed. The rebels believed their spy managed to find a copy. They were wrong. The Faithful had suspected a spy hid within their ranks from the very beginning, and thought it prudent to restrict the truth to only the most trusted members. A distorted version of the prophecy was given to the rest of the order. The rebel spy was one of those fooled," Evangeline explained.

The white smoke continued to spread.

"The real prophecy reads such as this: Two thousand years shall pass. And in the land of the golden flower the goddess will be reborn. Clothed in human flesh, beget to a King; first of his name. In her prime, her sires will fall, and the crown will mark her. But she shall return weakened in body, and wiped in mind. Yet, when the Goddess is returned to the place of betrayal, the latter will be restored. And when her domain has spread to the far corners of the earth, the world shall know divinity once more."

Elsa's eyes widened in shock. Drell's version had never mentioned anything about her mind being erased. And this version made terrible sense. So...they were trying to restore her mind. The mind of an evil and powerful Goddess.

\

"I believe she went searching for you," Marisol said. "She was heading towards the underbuilding. I do hope you didn't injure Frye too badly...

"Not at all, Your Majesty," Anna replied. "When I left, he still wanted a rematch. Other than his bruised pride, he's fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must find my Queen." With a final bow to Marisol, she turned and left the office.

Suspicion gnawed at her mind. Why would Elsa have been led to the basement? Anna had never been near there. And if there was ever a place to ambush someone like Elsa, underground would be the perfect place.

No. Her overactive mind was just being paranoid. But then again, if she was wrong, there would be no harm in looking into the situation. Wearing a frown of grim determination, Anna took off hurrying for the staircase.

\

"It doesn't matter what you do," Elsa proclaimed. "I'm never going to turn into some power-crazed zealot. That's not who I am. And when I get out of here, you're going to pay," she promised. "I will not allow myself to be possessed by anyone, past-self or otherwise."

Evangeline shook her head. "You will not be possessed, Your Worship. All that will occur is that your memories will be returned to you. You'll remember both of your lifetimes. And once you recall the past, you will be thanking the Faithful for our efforts to restore you."

"Never," Elsa snarled.

"You'll remember that power is the only real constant in the world," Evangeline promised. "The Goddess ruled over all of humanity, which was only natural, given her nearly incomprehensible power. But there was a hierarchy under her feet. Wealth and privilege all meant nothing. Only those with the Gift were valued by the Goddess; all the others were obligated to serve them."

The Queen's eyes narrowed. "Magic," she intoned, and Evangeline nodded. "But you don't have..."

Elsa stopped. In an instant, Evangeline's body (clothes and all) vanished in a haze of black mist. Half a second later, she appeared several feet to Elsa's right, looking none the worse for the wear.

"I control the power of darkness, Your Worship," the spymaster revealed to the shocked monarch. "On the surface, it is a humble ability. I can use the power of shadow to teleport within a short distance. But imagine the possibilities. With my weapons skill, I can strike from anywhere...from all directions...simultaneously. And none save yourself could ever hope to touch me. All of us..." she gestured to her still-chanting compatriots..."Possess some sort of magical skill. We've kept the bloodlines of magic alive, and with much more success than Drell's pathetic band. We have our share of Ungifted in our ranks, of course, but they know their place and serve their superiors."

The Queen's mind reeled. This was too much to take in all at once.

"Kayla," Evangeline continued, "Has an ability perhaps even more impressive than my own. With a single touch from her hands, any animal becomes her devoted slave...and gains increased strength and speed."

"The wolves who attacked Anna," Elsa gasped. "How...how much have you been behind?"

"Far more than you could ever imagine, Your Worship. We have agents in nearly every nation on earth. Drell's followers were nowhere near as widespread. They believed us gone, never dreaming that we had continued in greater form than their pathetic order could ever dream of. From the day of your birth, Your Worship, we knew you were the one we had waited for. Although the prophecy expressed certainty, we intended to bring it to bear as soon as possible."

In her prime, her sires will fall. No! These people had...they'd killed...

"Your father fit the description of a King, the first of his name, of the land of the golden flower. And so our agents, myself included, protected him and his wife. When they bore a child, and that child exhibited the power of ice, we knew you were the one. The prophecy said that her sires will fall in her prime, and so we kept them alive and protected them from all threats until you turned eighteen. Then, during their final voyage, one of agents on board sacrificed himself and destroyed their..."

"You killed my parents!" Elsa bellowed. She reached her hands forward, itching to close them around her spymaster's throat. Her entire body shook with rage. Not since Anna's rescue from Lucrania had she felt such hate. And all this time...all this time she had trusted the woman in front of her. The mastermind behind the deaths of her parents.

Evangeline nodded. "All that was left to bring you here, the exact spot where you had been betrayed. We knew we had to be careful; one mistake could set us back decades, and we had thrived by being discreet. Eventually, we found two willing traitors in the Royal Guard. Once we had you, we would have brought you here. But someone got in the way."

"Anna," Elsa hissed.

The spymaster scowled. "For months she's been both a thorn in our side and our greatest asset. She kept you alive, but also prevented us from helping you realize your destiny. We tried to kill her during her journey, though Drell's group did send the first group of men. The assassination plot during the Solstice was them as well. But we organized the conflict between Albion and Lucrania, simply to buy time and keep you distracted. Jocasta was one of our agents."

These people better hope that she never got free. Elsa couldn't think of a punishment worthy of those who killed her parents and tortured her beloved, but she would gladly spend the rest of her life trying to find one.

"To assure you of my loyalty, Jocasta was 'captured' by my agents. I was the one who had her killed, of course. She was loyal to our cause, and understood that her failure to obtain information from Anna warranted such a punishment. The entire time, however, I was trying to protect you from Drell's group. We knew why they wanted to kill you, but not who they were. After the uprising they organized, I was forced to work with Anna in bringing them down."

Elsa remembered how Anna had described Jocasta's hatred of her...almost as if it was personal. "If she was protecting me, why the fuck did you try to kill her?" the monarch demanded. "Especially since she was better at it than you ever were! She has powerful magic; by your standards, isn't she someone who would be honored?!"

"Anna was always a threat. We knew that when once made our move, she would use all of her abilities to stop it. Why do we hate her?" Evangeline asked icily. "Her magic, Your Worship, doesn't come from your healing abilities. It exists because of the romantic attachment between the two of you; a phenomenon weaved into the fabric of the world by the King of the Gods at the behest of his most pathetic followers. The very nature of her powers is a perversion. And we all know that you...the real you, would never have even deigned to look at her. She defiles you with her touch."

On any other day, this would have been a major revelation, but at the moment Elsa really couldn't care less.

"I helped her stop Drell, yes. I'm not stupid; it was a golden opportunity. But after he was defeated, I sent my men to go find her. Not to save her, but to finish her off. I knew there was a chance she might survive, and it turns out that I was correct. Still, it doesn't matter. We were not certain how to get you to Eldora, especially with Anna protecting you. Then, Daniel Frye won Eldora's Grand Tournament."

Frye. That was the man who had challenged Anna. "So?" Elsa demanded.

"He is one of the Ungifted within the Faithful, but he knows his duty is to serve those with magic, and, above all, serve his Goddess. His victory and previous loyalty allowed him entry into Eldora's Royal Guards. From there, he used his access to slowly poison the King over a space of several months. It's a rare concoction, but one some of the Faithful are practiced in creating. It causes gradual heart problems, simulating natural illness, all while slowly killing the victim with gradual doses. Once he was dead, we knew you would be invited here. All that was left was to distract Anna, which Frye is currently doing, and then lead you to this room. A rather anti-climatic end to thousands of years of preparation, I suppose," Evangeline noted. "But it will be well worth it.

So, these people had killed Marisol's father. Was there a death they hadn't caused?

"It's ironic, isn't it?" Evangeline asked. "After all her efforts, Anna has accomplished nothing. All she did was delay your rise for several months. And now, all her victories and struggles are going to be rewarded by the betrayal of the one person she loves."

Elsa's hands trembled with rage. "No matter what I remember, I will never hurt Anna."

"The real you will despise her. She is weak, foolish, and about as intelligent as a rock. The only reason she's had any value to you is because of her stolen magic. I look forward to seeing how you punish her. Killing her or forcing her back out into the cold...I wonder which you will decide is more fitting?"

All around her, the white smoke was closing in.

"Evangeline," Elsa snarled. "You should just kill me now. Because if I get free, the rest of your life is going to be spent in perpetual agony. I won't care if you're defenseless...if you're crying for mercy. You'll be begging for death, but death will be too merciful for you. If you had wanted to awaken the wrath of the Goddess, then you have succeeded," she hissed.

The spymaster simply smiled. "If you ever deem me worthy of punishment, Your Worship, once your memories have returned, I will gladly submit to your will. Your power gives you that right. But I do not think you will be angry with me for much longer. Honestly, I would not be surprised if you rewarded me for my efforts. All my life, I have looked forward to being your humble servant."

All of the room was covered in white haze now, and all of it seemed to slowly be converging on Elsa. The chanters, their faces barely illuminated by the dim glow of torches, were looking on with fanatic eagerness.

"I'd never agree with your actions...your worldview. If I'm the reincarnation of someone so evil, how could I be so completely different from my past self?" Elsa questioned.

"Are you? Are you really? You murdered King David in cold blood. You kill those who oppose you without a second thought. You were even willing to use your power to bully two countries into obeying your authority. Your true nature has been tempered, yes, but it still shines through when it needs to. The upbringing you received from your pathetic parents is no doubt responsible for subduing your true personality. But once your memories return..."

They were so certain that she would convert to their side. Lead their side. What exactly was this spell doing? Would it allow her previous personality to possess and take over her body? Or was it merely going to return her memories of a previous life? If so, and as disturbing as that would be, it would not alter Elsa's entire personality and convince her that might made right.

At least, she hoped so.

If Elsa became what they wanted her to be, the consequences were unthinkable. The entire world would be unable to stand against her. If she became evil, what would happen to Arendelle? Her heart lurched. What would happen to Anna?

Would she be able to stop me?

"What then?" Elsa scoffed. "You 'restore' my mind, then what? We take over the world together?" The Queen wasn't sure how this information would be useful, but if she somehow got out of this, anything was possible.

"No. You will assume your rightful place as Empress of the Earth. The Faithful will resume our roles as your lieutenants and servants. Magic users will again stand above the Ungifted masses. And every country on earth will learn how meaningless the concept of freedom truly is. The world, of course, will have to be punished for rejecting your rule, though that punishment will be left up to your discretion, of course," Evangeline explained.

It was such a sickening worldview. How could Evangeline had pretended to be normal for so long? How had Elsa's own past self ever believed such nonsense...such malevolence? This couldn't be allowed to happen! Despite herself, Elsa found her eyes staring at the door, hoping Anna would burst in and save her once again. Even if the Knight couldn't overpower the entire cult by herself, all she would have to do was slash through Elsa's magical binds. Then the Queen could do the rest herself.

But Anna didn't appear.

"First, of course, we must awaken your true power. This ritual will only be enough to revitalize your mind, not your strength. The prophecy is clear; when your domain covers the entire earth, your godly power will be restored in full. Drell's prophecy mentioned the same thing, but with one key difference."

Elsa stared at her, fists still shaking with rage.

"The version we gave to the rebels said that if your domain covers the entire earth, your powers would be restored. As spoken by the Seer, however, the line was: when her domain covers the entire earth. Seers are never wrong, Elsa. Not once in history have their prophecies been wrong about anything. So take heart, the future is inevitable. We will succeed. You will manage to bring the entire earth under control, and your godly power will awaken," Evangeline promised.

The Queen said nothing.

"The future, Your Worship, has already been written. And it is going to be your future."

A/N: This is a twist I've been looking forward to for a long time. Jocasta's comments about how Elsa's real nature and that soon she would reveal her true self? Foreshadowing. Evangeline's emotions rising when she sees the letter from Eldora (letting her know their plan to kill the King succeeded)? Foreshadowing. Anna's musing that someone with Elsa's powers but evil would be a disaster in Chapter 33? Foreshadowing. Anna's dream of the prophecy in Chapter 50 containing words that Drell's version never had (wiped…returned…betrayal)? A hint that his version was missing something. Evangeline 'hurrying through the darkness' to get behind Drell? Her actually using shadow teleportation. Kayla starting to address Elsa as 'G…' during the uprising? A hint that Kayla knew about her divinity (she was going to say 'goddess' in her moment of panic before catching herself.) Elsa musing that 'there's more to Evangeline than a dutiful servant if one looked hard enough'? Foreshadowing. And, of course, the fact that the first group of kidnappers could not kill Elsa implied that there was more than one conspiracy. The sun setting behind Anna and Elsa as they left Arendelle…

I'm sure there's some more there, but I enjoyed putting in little hints so much that I might have lost track. If you guys find anymore, I'd really appreciate it if you could remind me. Anyway, I really hope it all came together nicely.

Responses:

Guest 1: Thank you!

DimmensionalLover: A lot, as it turns out.

Awesomenessunleashed: Nope!

HeavanGliders7765: Who is supposed to be dead? Evangeline? She never died.

Shtoops: Did you know this?

LittleGia: Actually, this is a different order. They're even worse.

RR: Case of crossfire.

3Gs: Break might be a good word…

WinterWolfDragon: Are you sure about that?

Strab: Excited?

Arekanderu: It gets worse!

Lionhart: This still would have happened. They'd be married, but it wouldn't have prevented Elsa getting into this situation.

Frost108: Yay!

BreeBear98: Still mad?

: Foe, although she would disagree.

Guest 2: You may have guessed that, but I don't know if you guessed what they were up to.

CoolNickNack: Yes?!

TaniaHylian: Far from over.

Technicalitiesshiznfallacies: Oh, I can do worse.

SummerStormWar: If she learns of this.

Syrathia: Still unsurprised?

Banana-Viking: Thank you very much! I love your stories as well.

Shadowfax321: Drell's rebels weren't necessarily evil. These ones are.

ClaireCooper: Good to see you're getting better! But if your recovery depends on emotional stability, take a break from reading this.

MCLMM: Sort of…

Kyoko-nyaa: Anna was upstairs, being distracted.

Guest 3: Never! Here it is!

Tithi: Doing my best!

ObsessiveImaginings: I enjoyed that!

Chas3 MaHat: Thanks! Not giving any details on the ending!

Mahmed: Sort of, not quite. Evangeline was behind that attack, but she's certainly not a good character.