Adventures of John: Return to Arendelle

Chapter 1: Prince No More

We all know that at the end of Frozen Prince Hans gets thrown into the broom closet of a ship heading back to the Southern Isles so he will face justice. Happy ending right? Wrong. Hans never ended up facing justice. When he returned to the Southern Isles, his eldest brother, the king, held a mock trial, in which it was ruled that he had not done anything worth punishing, as he technically didn't succeed in killing either Elsa or Anna, and Han's brothers actually admired their brother's ambition in nearly taking over Arendelle. In the end he left the trial with little more than a time-out and some wounded pride.

But wounded pride can be a dangerous thing, when it belongs to someone such as Prince Hans. Inwardly he swore that Arendelle would be his, and that both Anna and Elsa would pay for humiliating him and taking away what he thought to be rightfully his. After all, had it not been for Elsa losing control at the party, his plan may very well have eventually succeeded, and he would have been king of Arendelle. He plotted, and soon devised a plan that would give him revenge on not only the two princesses, but his stupid, faithless brothers as well.

Hans began making allies in the Imperial Church. The Old Empire, which had once stretched across all of the known world, was long dead, but the Imperial Church remained the greatest power in the land. So he gained support within the Church, shaking hands with Bishops and Ministers and having secret meetings with the leaders of the Imperial Inquisition.

While he did this, he also joined many business ventures, eventually being appointed by his eldest brother as the Minister of Trade. He negotiated many trade agreements, including becoming particularly close trading partners with the Dukedom of Weselton. He soon amassed a great fortune, and quickly set it to work. He bribed Church officials, gaining even deeper access and greater influence.

He spread a tale throughout the lands, a tale of his struggle against the evil Snow Queen. He told how he had fallen in love with a beautiful princess, but when her older sister learned of their romance she flew into a rage, revealing herself for the wicked sorceress she was. She froze the land to punish them, and would only thaw it if they ceased their romance and never saw each other again. The young princess sought to reason with her sister, but when the witch discovered that she refused to stop loving Hans she froze her heart. The young princess fled back to Arendelle, where Hans had been caring for the people in her absence. True love's kiss had been able to save the princess from death, but her heart remained frozen. The Snow Queen had one, purging all love from her sister's heart. She then thawed the land and forced Hans to return home in shame.

This story was completely fabricated, of course, using small portions of the truth to make it seem more real. Those that had been in Arendelle at the time, including the various foreign ambassadors, knew this to be false, but not everyone did. Several nations closed their ports to trade from Arendelle, and the tale quickly spread of the evil Snow Queen. But this was only the beginning. With the stage set, he began the most important stage of his plan.

One of Hans's brothers, the fifth in line for the throne, fell ill. The whole of the Southern Isles searched for a remedy for the dying prince, but nothing worked. It was not long before he died of his illness. He had a lovely funeral, but the only one whose sorrow was real was the sixth brother, the fifth's brother's twin, who had always loved and respected his brother. Of all the brother's, they had been the closest. The next day he was found dead, hung from the rafters, a suicide note in his breast pocket. Another funeral was arranged, and there were many false tears. And no one yet suspected the true cause of the two brother's deaths. No one knew the truth of their deaths. No one outside of the family even knew of the time the fifth brother had put a filthy rag in Hans's tea, making him sick for weeks, or that the sixth brother had defended the fifth, saying that Hans was lying about it being the fifth brother's fault.

Several weeks later, when the deaths of the fifth and sixth brothers where just beginning to fade from everyone's minds, the seventh and eighth brothers got drunk at a pub. Very drunk. On their way back from the pub, they were assailed by ruffians. Drunk as they were, the two brothers could barely get their swords out of their scabbards, much less defend themselves. The two brothers were brutally beaten to death, all of their valuables stolen. Most quickly wrote this off. Very few knew that these two brothers had beaten Hans as a child. And no one other than he knew how long he could hold a grudge.

Two months later, the king was holding a banquet which all his remaining brothers attended. While in the midst of making a toast, the eldest brother was shot through the throat by an assassin's crossbow bolt. The hall quickly erupted into chaos, and by the time the guards were able to quiet things down, the assassin was long gone. An investigation immediately began to discover who it was that had killed their beloved king. During this investigation, an officer of the Inquisition discovered letters of correspondence that indicated the second, third, and fourth brothers had conspired to kill their elder brother. After a speedy trial, all three of them were executed for treason.

The ninth, tenth, and eleventh brothers, who were triplets and rarely went anywhere without each other, never made it to the trial. They vanished into the night, as if they had become invisible. They were never seen again. Those who watched Frozen might remember that three of Han's brothers pretended he was invisible for two years. These were those three. Now there was only one brother standing between Prince Hans and the throne of the Southern Isles.

The twelfth brother confronted Hans in his study three days after the trial. "I know you did it Hans," he stated. "Practically the whole kingdom knows it."

"I don't know what you mean Samuel," Hans responded, signing an agreement for a shipment of weapons to be sent to the Southern Isles.

"You killed our brothers," Samuel told him. "Don't try to lie. I know how they treated you."

"They treated both of us that way, if I remember correctly," Hans pointed out, pushing himself out of his chair.

` "That's why I'm here," Samuel said, showing Hans a slip of paper. It was a ticket to a far off chain of islands, far to the west. "I'm leaving, Hans. You know that I never wanted the throne. I never wanted all that responsibility." He sighed. "So I'm leaving. I've liquidated all my assets and am sailing away, never to return to the Southern Isles. I'm leaving the throne to you. Just promise me one thing."

"And what is that?" Hans asked impassively.

"Please, in the name of our friendship, in the name of all we did together, please be over with it. You've gotten what you've wanted. The kingdom is yours. Just promise me that from now on you will be the best, the fairest, and the kindest ruler you can be." He sighed. "Can you promise me that?"

"I promise," said Hans without inflection.

"Goodbye brother." With that, Samuel left the Southern Isles. The following week, Prince Hans was crowned as the King of the Southern Isles. Many realized who had killed his brothers, but with the backing of the Church, no one said anything against him. The kingdom rang with the cry:

"Long live King Hans!"