Hans saw his opportunity right then and there, as they stood before her, in her palace of ice.
Had he been here for a different reason, or under different circumstances he could have stopped to admire the austere peaks and jagged but not uneven edges and other geometrical shapes and contours that made up the fortress around them.
But here he was, trying to save a kingdom which wasn't even his own, freezing his royal highness off and trying to calm an unfairly aggravated queen.
"Don't be the monster they fear you are!" He tried desperately. Anything... he would say or do anything right now to stop her would suffice.
At last, he provoked a positive reaction, he noticed. Her stance dropped and her eyes widened. She looked into his eyes with an ocean of emotions all at once, and he was taken aback. She wasn't the same queen that harshly told him he couldn't marry a woman he just met... nor was she the one who told her sister to simply leave if she couldn't stand it anymore.
Looking at her in this desperate and vulnerable state, of shock, and panic, he saw nothing but a trapped animal who longed to be free...
Freedom... it was something devoutly to be wished... He thought of soliloquies he'd memorised as a child, but shook those from his mind. Why now of all times he should be reminded of his gloomy past was beyond him when he had a far more important matter on hand.
Then, just as she appeared to be about to say something in reply, it caught his eye... the brute whom she'd pinned to the icy wall was still able with his weapon, and about to fire.
Thinking quickly, Hans rushed over and aimed the arrow away. He'd come here to kill her by his own means, it was true, but seeing that glimmer of himself in her... he wasn't ready to let that happen just yet.
However, his actions could be more accurately described as being thinking to fast as opposed to quick thinking. A deafening creak threatened their ears and it took a moment for the still stunned queen to realise what was happening. The royal guards ran for their lives, grabbing the other men as best they could as the sharp and angrily pointed chandelier came crashing down.
"NO!" He screamed, and for the first time in his life, he put someone else before him. He was not ready to let her die. He and his calculating mind, and his deviant intellect saw too many opportunities, and too many possible outcomes in that one brief moment of eye contact.
He leaped behind her to try and help her hurry out of the path of the shards as they came crashing down.
He didn't realise that it would be the last thing he'd ever do.
XxXxXxX
There they sat now, cold and frigid, but not quite dead... not just yet.
Hans awoke groggily and then his stomach fell when he noticed to pool of blood beneath him, which lead his eyes to the slender form beneath his own.
Their bodies were tangled, but not uncomfortably, as he lay halfway across her, he on his stomach and she on her back. She was awake too, which he could only tell by the quite sobs that emitted from her throat which was gently grazed.
He tried to get up, assuming... or hoping at least, that the blood was hers but he screamed in agony as he sliced open his already impaled legs even further, and jammed his lower back into a spike of ice.
She jolted beneath him and hissed herself, and she limply held out her arm to cushion his fall.
Their slowly beating hearts rested against each other. With each breath, their heart beats would slow even more so.
"Hans..." she whispered shakily, "I could have made it across... you didn't have to..." her voice cracked a little. But no resentment was present in her voice. Although a little defeated, of course.
He wanted to scream, he wanted to crush her, and forcefully remove the gift of life from her body. He wanted to further her suffering and enjoy it, watching her scream and writhe beneath him...
He wanted to make her pay... for this feeling he was suffering himself. He didn't want this. This was NOT what he had in mind.
He could have let them kill her and be over with it, and he might've lived on never knowing that if he looked into her eyes that one time and saw her true self, that he would have finally found...
"Elsa." he stated.
He scooted as carefully as he could, and rested his head by her shoulder, thoughts of what dreams might come once they'd finished their journey on this sorrow laden mortal trail.
He states her name, not as a request to gain her attention but rather as a confirmation of why this course of action was both completely worth it, and yet it was completely the opposite.
She calms herself a little at the slow movement and then unable to crane her neck enough to meet his gaze she resigns to resting her head atop his.
"I'm so sorry, Hans.. I... This is all my fault." She began.
"I just wanted to run away... and not hurt anyone anymore..." she admitted. an icy tear solidified and fell to his face. He sighed and winced as the movement pained his freshly aggravated wounds.
They were impaled in several locations, most notably their legs and stomachs. They wouldn't have a lot of time to go, but then there was the temperature. It slowed their blood flow and so instead of an instant or at least quick death, they both would be forced to endure it.
"Elsa, don't be afraid. You don't need to be anymore." he assured her, accepting his own fate after having come to a conclusion.
She made a small noise, as if refusing to accept such a thing. He sighed and gingerly brought his badly cut arm around her and stroked her hair, painting it with tiny streaks of red under his touch.
"When this is all over, the summer will come back... and then you won't hurt anyone again. Ever again." He began. her panicked breathing began to slow and he breathed onto her shoulder.
"No one can hurt you anymore either." He added.
"Hans?" she asked, "Why are you so ready for this? How can you be so calm?"
He smiled softly and simply replied, "I had it coming. If anything Elsa, I deserve this more than you..."
She shakily lifted his face up with her slowly numbing hand. She would endure this death longer than he would. Her resistance to the cold would make it harder for her to go that way.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
He then explained it to her. He explained everything to her that there ever was, from his family, to the marriage, and everything in between that he'd been forced to change as the events around him did.
"So... You were after my kingdom the whole time?" she breathed, to shocked and to weak to muster up the anger she knew she should have been feeling.
"Yes, essentially, but like I said..." he had to take a moment to gather up the strength to continue his speech, "When I finally saw you, standing there, like you were trapped, like you had nothing left... I saw myself in you. I couldn't kill you, and I wouldn't let them." He chuckled painfully at the irony.
Elsa shivered, the bitter temperature finally getting to her. She had to tae the time to really think about this all. His family's disownership of him, and then his subsequent fall into darknes was by far a little more dramatic than having powers that forced you to become a recluse your whole life, but the difference was that unlike his brothers, Anna still loved her. She loved her so much that unlike Hans, Elsa was going to be leaving someone behind that never judged her, or tried to push her away.
"I guess, the only thing I truly regret is never getting to tell my sister that I loved her before I sent her away... the way I did." She said.
"Hans, do you think we could have been different? If I didn't have this curse? If we had met first, instead of Anna?" she asked.
"I don't want to think about what could have been, Elsa." His grip feebly tightened around her and he sighed again.
"All we have is now... Anna will be fine without us both. She's resilient." He decided.
"If she could be so optimistic after losing her parents like that... plus the isolation... i'm sure she can move on." He closed his eyes and then whispered, "at least you'll be missed."
He kissed her jawline gently and then added finally, "And when this is all over, Elsa, we'll finally be free. Both of us." and with that he rested his head next to hers and smiled at her, a genuine smile and stroked her hair for the last time.
XxXxXxX
Kristoff didn't know when, or how, but for some reason the gods must've been against them.
"The-The fjords..." he mutterd before crying out, "SVEN STOP!"
they skidded to a halt and then they stared out into the horizon where the kingdom of Arendelle was slowly melting.
"Anna? Anna, wake up! The kingdom is thawing! The fjords are too dangerous to cross.. I... I don't know if we can make it in time." He shakily informed her. He was trying with all his might to will away the tightness in his chest and the hot tears which were forming against his eyes.
She craned her neck and gasped at the patchy blocks of ice that were scattered around the unfreezing waters.
"W-we have to get help..." She whimpered, too weak to panic.
Eventually, Sven and Olaf decided to make their way back to the north mountain. For his safety, Olaf was to try and go find Elsa to see why the summer was returning, and Sven accompanied him for the protection and speed.
Kristoff and Anna watched on with heavy hearts, knowing if they didn't reach Elsa in time, Olaf would probably melt, and for nothing too.
Anna shivered heavily under her cloak and Kristoff held her closer still to him.
He patted her head and smiled at her sadly. "Well, I have to say... after all this ice, I think I oughtta find a new profession." He joked. But inside it was true. Before this, ice had been his life, but now as he witnessed Anna as she was, her hair streaking violently and her face growing paler by the second...
"Anna, I think..." He never finished his statement though because he was distracted when the girl in mention brought her arms up around his neck and said,
"Shhh... Kristoff, It's okay. I'll be fine. I'll be with my family at least." she said.
Her statement startled him to depths unknown and he couldn't fight it. He broke down and cried, "But, I don't want to lose you! I... I just" He took her face in his hands nand with all his hope, he pressed his lips against hers and prayed to whatever was out there that this might work.
Although she happily returned the kiss, she would grow no warmer. He drew away and shuddered despite the temperatures rising.
Anna let her arms fall her her lap and she shrugged, "For a reindeer hermit, you're a good kisser." she giggled.
"Anna.. wait..." He tried desperately, his voice creaking with panic and grief all at the same time.
"I'm not ready for you to go! I finally found someone better than Sven.. and..." He trialed off as Anna, true to her nature, fell into a fit of laughter at his extremely honest claim.
"Well, in that case I leave Sven to take care of you in my place, you big baby." She mock punched the side of his face and then nestled up next to him as the cold began to fully take over.
"Best... day... ever!" She whispered, a smile on her face as she solidified in his arms.
He was beyond crying now. He simply sat there with an odd sort of composure, and sighed.
"If you say so." He replied.
XxXxXxX
Elsa watched from afar as her sister's soul made haste in returning to the land of the living. It wasn't Anna's time to go, but she at least got to see her before they were truly separated.
"Take care of the kingdom!" she called, seriously, before adding, "And please don't marry anyone you meet! Please!" She sighed.
"I won't! I've already got someone in mind anyway!" Anna called back before evaporating from the false existence that surrounded them.
From the hardly-there shadows of the Ice palace, which had become their final resting place, Hans finally stepped out. He was unable to face her, and was truly stunned to see that such a simple act of sibling affection could possibly do what it just did!
"You think she realised I was here?" He asked caustouusly as though she were still around.
Elsa shook her head slowly. "Not unless she took note of your grizzly corpse lazily slapped across mine on the floor." she joked darkly.
Taking a look at the scene before them she decided it was too depressing to have lying in the middle of her ballroom.
Who would've known there was life after death, when all their lives they had been waiting, desperately for the finality of it? But regardless, if they should be forced into afterlife of sorts, then at least let it be comfortable.
"We could stay her and haunt the north mountain... spook the citizens into superstitious hysteria for her. Think she'd handle it well?" Elsa added.
Hans raised his translucent brows to nearly his hairline at the odd comment, tossed his way so casually, "You're more twisted than I thought, Elsa..." he muttered.
He stepped towards her and then placed his arms around her wasit, and her hand gingerly rose to cup his face as they looked out into the horizon as dawn broke once more, and he said with a grin, "We can go anywhere now, and do anything. Elsa, We're free!"
She smiled down at the sight of her previous kingdom, now led by a better queen than she and then turned to her new kingdom, and more specifically it's 'rightful king'. She placed a gentle kiss on his lips and replied;
"I suppose we are."