(A/N: Once again, don't start here! This is the Sixth story in the ongoing Cryomancy series! Start at the beginning, which you can find through my profile page. And, as always, thanks for reading!)

It was still a far cry from the penthouse that Elsa had lived in when she'd first arrived, more or less, in the 21st century. It was certainly nothing like the castle she'd grown up in. And yet, the two bedroom apartment, just a stone's throw from the Maryland border, felt more like a home. She now lived with her sister, in a way they hadn't done since they were children, and with them even closer than then.

There were days when Elsa wondered what it would have been like if she had never entombed herself in the Arendelle Glacier. If she had continued to be a queen in her own time, never knowing about the things that would come in the future, she would have... she would have. She didn't know. It was something she tried not to think about, but it popped up in her head anyway.

She stared at the most recent cypher she'd been tasked at solving. Which was fine, she liked puzzles, but she hadn't managed to decode this one yet. Both cyphers and the messages were making both Elsa and her sister very nervous. They were a combination of suggestions to "Get to know" their fellow agents, combined with paranoia about how not to trust anyone, including Agent Sitwell.

Especially Agent Sitwell. He was the one who set her these assignments. She was supposed to crack this one before he got back from his special assignment at 'The Hub', and preferably as soon as possible.

Anna had gone for a run, probably down by the Smithsonian. Possibly to test herself against Captain Rodgers, though Elsa tried to convince her sister that the comparison wasn't good for her psyche. After all, if there was one thing Elsa understood, it was putting impossible demands on one's self.

Elsa stared out the window at the Washington DC skyline. It had only been... what? Nine months since Anna had been freed from the ice? Maybe a bit more than a year for Elsa? But for all the changes, it might have been a lifetime ago. She could still remember thinking that she'd been condemned to hell when she'd woken up n that desert. She shoved the thoughts aside, and returned to work on the cypher.

It was longer than the previous assignments. This, in theory, should have made it easier to solve. Maybe it had some sort of double lock to it? Her notepad had become a mess of jumbled words and phrases, and she was staring at it. "What did it all have in common?" She asked herself. But she could think of nothing. There was nothing in English in common...

"Sitwell, you nut!" Elsa exclaimed aloud. What if it was a code for another language? Like Norsk? With this fresh idea, she threw herself back into code breaking. As it turned out, that was the answer. It still wasn't a complex code – cypher – she corrected herself, but unless you could read and write Norsk, one didn't have a prayer of solving it. But since she wasn't versed in Modern Norsk, she ran into other problems, she had to turn to an online dictionary to figure out what some of the words meant.

She didn't even like computers that much, Anna liked them more than she did. That wasn't true... Anna liked games. Anna liked to be challenged. She liked games that she could improve on. She said that "match three" gem game relaxed her. She also liked her stories, which was why she stuck to that silly horror series. Panicking after one such scream from her sister, Elsa had taken to demanding to know before Anna started to try to survive more nights.

Her sister came in as she was muddling through the translation. Anna had also changed since arriving in the twenty first century. Not emotionally, of course. Elsa didn't want to think what kind of catastrophe could change Anna emotionally. But the training they'd had over the past several months had changed her, had changed both of them. Elsa was no longer the woman who would get tired just jogging a few city blocks. Anna, well, still hadn't forgotten how she'd embarrassed herself in front of Kristov at the North Mountain in Arendelle. She'd thrown herself into every physical activity that either Natasha Romanov or Tony "Task" Masters could think up, and it was beginning to really show. Anna had been thin before, the ideal, in the past. But it certainly wasn't Anna's ideal now, she was a bit a larger all over her frame, and she was proud of it.

"So," Elsa said, "Was Steve there?"

Anna shook her head. "No," she said. She looked over at the table where Elsa was working. "Let me clean up, and I'll join you."

"I've gotten most of it," Elsa told her. "Same old Sitwell. I swear he's fully intent on making us paranoid."

"More of the 'Learn about your fellow agents, but don't trust them...' ilk?"

"Mostly. There's some banter in the middle, which I think he just added to make it easier to translate. This last part's different, though. It says that 'Report compromised. Insight data on the Lemurian Star. Recommend'..." she frowned. "GB?"

"Initials maybe?" Anna suggested. "Or maybe it represents something else?"

"Possibly," Elsa agreed. "And then it lists a number. Ten digits."

"Phone number with an area code. We've seen that before, " Anna said. "Going to call it?"

"I think we have to. Maybe he's timing us," Elsa pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number. "Hmph. Voice mail," Elsa grumbled, rolling her eyes. She gave the requested message, then hung up the phone. "That was exciting," Elsa complained. "Now what?"

"Well, if you're looking for some excitement..." Anna began, slyly.

Elsa looked at her grinning sister for a long time before responding with the single word of "No."

Anna gave her a mock look of dejection. "Let me clean up, then maybe lunch?"

"Lunch sounds good."

They didn't have the next day off, but as they walked into the Triskelion, both of their cell phones went off simultaneously. They looked at each other before taking them out. The message was brief and to the point. "Come and see me in my office. N.J. Fury."

Elsa stared at the message. "Did... did we do something wrong?" she asked tentatively.

Anna was already a third of the way down the long lobby toward the elevators. She clearly thought she was going to be given some kind of special mission, and couldn't wait to hear about it. Elsa gave her oblivious sister a hard look, then jogged to catch up with her.

Anna had an elevator open already, and was positively impatient for Elsa to catch up. After the doors closed, Anna looked up and almost shouted her enthusiasm. "Director's office!"

"Arendelle, E and Arendelle, A approved for special meeting at Director's office," said the cool mechanical voice.

"Did you hear that?" Anna asked, bouncing in place. "A special meeting!"

"I heard," Elsa told her, a lot more soberly. "Anna, this isn't necessarily a good thing."

For a moment, Anna glared at her sister. "It's also not necessarily a bad thing!" Anna said, crossing her arms, refusing to let Elsa's cautiousness dampen her enthusiasm.

"Relax!" Both of them said together. There was a brief pause and both of them processed the timing, and then they both smiled.

For a change, nobody interrupted the elevator trip up to the office. Or maybe Fury had some sort of special code that kept people destined for his office from being stopped along the way. In Elsa's opinion, this was a fantastic power to be earned at almost any cost.

When the elevator's doors opened, the girls stepped into Fury's office, they found him already in discussion. Fury looked past his other guest to the girls, then back at the agent sitting in front of his desk.

They had a moment to look around the wide open office. Windows filled two side of it, the sunlight giving it an almost ironic feeling of openness and airiness. The home of the premier spy in the United States, and probably the world. A large monitor took up the third wall. The desk sat near the windows, covered with folders, reports, its computer, and a coffee cup. One still couldn't shake the feeling that Fury knew exactly where everything was, though.

"So, that's the upshot, Director. This ISO-8 would probably be an incredible source of power... I mean, it still is, but it's rarer than vibranium. So it's not worth worrying about." A folder was pushed across the desk.

"Thank you, Agent," Fury said. "You can go. I see my next appointment is here."

The agent bowed without a word, stood, and nodded to the girls. A moment later, the elevator clanked open, and they were alone with the director.

Fury stood from behind his desk, walking towards the sisters. "Now," he began without preamble, "I received some recommendations from Agent Sitwell before he went off to the Hub."

Elsa could feel herself freeze under the scrutiny of that one eye. She had thought he'd looked like a pirate a year ago, and that gaze had grown no less imposing. Anna had reigned in her excitement to appear earnest, yet calm.

"Neither of you are really suitable for undercover work. Not that this is a surprise, you're both far too recognizable, not to mention you'll always have a telltale accent." He turned to Elsa. "You have been showing remarkable progress with your natural talents. But you're still dependent on your bracers. That needs to change. That starts right now. Turn them off."

Elsa turned rigid, her eyes locked into Fury's single visible eye with a look that was pleadingly desperate. She simply could not trust herself not to lose control. The bracers had become part of her, and she had accepted them. He knew, right? He knew what had happened before she had them... right?

Anna could see her eyes widen, and without taking her eyes off Fury, gave her sister's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Now, Elsa. Lift them up so I can see them. That's an order."

Slowly, almost snail like, Elsa lifted her right arm, and deactivated the bracer on it. Then the left bracer.

Anna didn't need to see when Elsa deactivated the second bracer. She could feel it. The temperature dropped immediately. The air conditioner clicked off in confusion. She could hear Elsa's breath quicken. She dropped the pretense, and took her sister's hand in her own, trying to give out the willpower she needed to control the fear and doubt.

Fury said nothing. He was waiting for something. Maybe the heat to turn on.

After a few minutes, the temperature slowly began to return to normal.

"A good start," Fury said. He turned to Anna, "As for you, you need to realize when you're outmatched. Sometimes the task's going to be too difficult, and you need to be ready to admit it and go around, or get out of dodge."

Anna nodded, but her eyes displayed their mutiny.

"But that's not why I asked you here. You haven't followed followed a standard SHIELD agent path to start with, throwing yourselves directly into the fire back in New York, so why start now? I'm putting you onto the active roster, effective immediately, Level two. That doesn't mean you're actively on assignment. It also doesn't mean you're going to slack off on your training. If anything, it's going to get harder."

His eye met Anna's. "That also starts now. You wanted new challenges? You'll get some. You're spending today in the training simulators. We're going to teach you to fly everything from our new barges to the Quinjets."

Elsa could see the stars in her sister's eyes.

"As for you," Fury continued, turning back to Elsa, "We're ramping up the training a bit more, but you've already got something you're working on."

The temperature dropped a few degrees in acknowledgment.

"That's it, for now," Fury told them. "Anna, you're to report to Natasha at the sims. She's requested this," Fury said. "Elsa? Mr. Masters is waiting for you. Dismissed."

They turned and headed back to the elevator when Fury spoke up. "Oh, and one more thing. Elsa?" She paused and turned back to him. "Good job on those cyphers."

"How did he know that?" Anna asked on the way down.