It started with a missing person.
And a dead body.
The War of the Lost Swords had ended just one week earlier and the kingdoms of Agrabah and Syracuse, who had fought side by side, were collecting their dead and bringing them back home. Every soldier who enlisted had been accounted for- either dead or alive.
All but two.
One was missing and one was dead. Neither had a confirmed identity. They knew of the two men who were not accounted for, one of them was the unclaimed dead body. The other was missing; most likely a prisoner of war.
According to the summons Eric held in his hand, his brother, Gaston, was one of them. The summons instructed Eric to go to the castle in Syracuse to identify whether the body was, in fact, his brother.
The following night the prince of Syracuse, Proteus, was hosting a ball to find a wife. Eric was to go to the ball, find Prince Proteus, and determine whether Gaston was dead or missing.
Imprisoned, not missing. The War had been against the kingdom across the sea, Arendelle. Arendelle had declared war on Agrabah, Syracuse's greatest ally. Syracuse and Agrabah won the War, so it was no surprise that Arendelle would take prisoners.
Eric and Gaston had both enlisted in the War. Gaston had enlisted out of love of killing; Eric, out of duty as the captain of the royal navy. They hadn't fought side by side, though. Eric and the navy were positioned on ships along the sea border of Arendelle as reinforcements; Gaston was on the battlefield. Maybe if Eric had fought alongside his brother, he could have saved him from whichever fate had befallen him.
Not that Gaston had ever needed Eric to save him. Gaston was a skilled warrior; brave and strong, he feared nothing. While Eric was a skilled fighter in his own way, he was nowhere near as strong or courageous as his brother.
As Eric reread the summons, he sank down in his kitchen chair. There had to be a mistake. It seemed impossible that Gaston had been killed or taken prisoner. No man has ever been able to best him; except a warrior from Agrabah named Sandor Clegane (known to most as The Hound). The Hound was the deadliest man in the two kingdoms, but he fought on the same side as Gaston and they had been friends for years.
If Gaston was dead or imprisoned, it was not a result of the war. Something happened on that battlefield and the sick feeling that had settled in Eric's stomach told him exactly what happened: Nightmares attacked.
Nightmares were demon-like creatures who prowled the earth, terrorizing and killing humans. Gaston, the Hound, and the king of Agrabah, Mathayus, were part of a group of warriors called the Black Scorpions, who trained most of their lives to hunt and kill Nightmares. If something had truly happened to Gaston, Eric would bet his ship that the Nightmare King, Pitch Black, was behind it.
XXX
Flynn Rider was dead. His older brother, Sinbad, knew it the second he read the summons he received from the king of Syracuse. The summons stated two soldiers were unaccounted for and there was an unclaimed body, which meant one soldier was dead and one was likely taken prisoner. The king and prince of Syracuse needed the body to be identified so they knew which one of their soldiers was being held prisoner in Arendelle.
It seemed impossible to Sinbad that Flynn could survive fighting in a war. Flynn was a thief, not a warrior or soldier. Any one of Arendelle's soldiers could have easily killed Flynn and now Sinbad had to return to the one place he swore he never would so he could identify his brother's body.
The summons said Sinbad would be granted a pardon for the night and no guard would try arrest him. But, it wasn't the guards Sinbad was avoiding, it was Proteus; the prince he had been friends with once upon a time, whom he has not seen or spoken to in three years.
It had been even longer since Sinbad had seen Flynn. The brothers had a falling out many years ago after a mistake committed by Sinbad left them orphans and they were sent to live in the Agrabah orphanage. When Sinbad turned eighteen, he was released from the orphanage and he went to Syracuse, hoping to find a good job so he could make a home for Flynn when he was released. But Flynn was still angry with him and when he was released he stayed in Agrabah, living in the streets and stealing to survive. To him, that was a better alternative than accepting help from Sinbad.
Still, Sinbad stayed in Syracuse in case Flynn ever changed his mind. That is, until Prince Proteus betrayed him. They hadn't been friends long, but the betrayal wounded Sinbad enough to leave Syracuse on the pirate ship that had docked there for supplies.
Sinbad had not seen Flynn since he left the orphanage and had not received word of him since he left, until this summons. Sinbad had intended to one day return to Agrabah for Flynn, but somehow time slipped away from him.
In the three years since he left, Sinbad has acquired a ship and has become an infamous pirate captain; a legend among other pirates. A title Sinbad wore with honor. But, pirates were not welcome in Syracuse or Agrabah and guards were ordered to arrest any pirate on sight. Though Sinbad was proud of his legendary status, he knew Flynn would not be and would be more likely to turn him in then join him. So he never went back and vowed that he never would. Proteus' betrayal had left a scar, but Flynn's would be a wound so deep, it would never heal and it would devour him until there was nothing left.
But, now Flynn was dead.
Sinbad crumpled the summons and threw it across his cabin, with an inhuman, mangled growl. Before their father was killed, he made Sinbad promise he'd look after Flynn. But, he left Flynn and now he was dead. If Sinbad had not been so selfish, if he had gone back to Agrabah instead of boarding that ship, he would have been there to fight by his brother's side in the war and he could have protected him. If he had been there, maybe he could have even stopped him from enlisting in the first place.
If…
If…
If…
If he hadn't screwed up in the first place, their father would not have been killed, Sinbad and Flynn would have remained brothers, and Sinbad would not be on his way to Syracuse to claim his brother's dead body.