They had to let go of each other's hands in order to traverse down the narrow, winding staircase to the levels below, though this turned out to be a blessing as it left Anna's hands free to wrap around herself against the chill that had started to creep through her light summer clothes as they made their descent.

It seemed to grow colder still with each step they took, though Anna wasn't sure if it was due to Elsa or the gloom of the dungeon. Perhaps it was both.

As they passed by the empty cells to reach the end of the corridor, Anna realised that the dungeon wasn't nearly as horrific as she had imagined it would be, though it still looked like a pretty miserable place to spend any length of time. The stone seemed to leech the warmth from the very air, every slight noise felt too loud against the stifling gloom, and every breath seemed like a struggle. Anna felt a chill run through her at the thought of spending any longer down here than was strictly necessary, and she almost pitied Hans considering somewhere like this would be his home for the considerable future.

Almost.

One of the cells they passed seemed a lot draughtier than the rest, though Elsa quickly ushered Anna past before she could get a glimpse inside to see why. She guessed it was where Elsa had been kept prisoner and so didn't press the issue; Elsa hadn't wanted to go into a lot of detail when recounting her side of the story, and Anna was doing her best to realise when it was simply best to leave well enough alone with her sister. Now seemed like one of those times.

The guards escorting them stopped in front of one of the cells near the end of the corridor; these cells were unlike the ones they had passed in that instead of heavy wooden doors set into stone, the entire front wall was nothing but bars, offering the residents no privacy whatsoever.

Anna's eyes immediately found Hans, her chest suddenly constricting even though he was facing away from them and simply resting on his prison cot. Perhaps that was even why it was so unsettling; despite everything, he was just… here. Hans wasn't plotting, or laughing evilly to himself, but stretched out and staring out of the window, like a normal person. He even had his boots on the bed, she noticed. Would he have done that if –

No. She'd drive herself crazy if she let herself start thinking about all this again.

Thankfully one of the guards broke Anna out of her thoughts by announcing their presence. "The queen's here to see you. About your condition." His tone was clipped, authoritative; they never spoke like that to Anna, and she couldn't help but wonder how the prince felt being addressed as if he were no more than a common criminal.

"I'm fine," He intoned, not even looking round at them. It was so different from the grand bows he had given them before that Anna couldn't help but roll her eyes. It was funny how people behaved differently when they no longer cared.

"It would seem that may not be the case." Elsa stepped a little closer to the bars, her newly re-gloved hands clasped in front of her.

Anna had been trying to steel herself for his gaze, willing herself to not fall apart when she inevitably came face to face with those eyes she'd once thought dreamy. She needn't have worried herself, however, as Hans kept his eyes fixed either firmly to the floor or to the window, which she could see gave a very clear view of the docks.

"And it would seem that you have been misinformed."

From this angle Hans appeared to have a full head of that familiar, striking auburn hair – not a hint of white to be seen. Though perhaps that was why he was keeping his face turned away from them – a rather poor attempt to keep the white strand in question hidden from view. The guards had said that he'd been trying to conceal it.

"The guards have told me about your situation, and I'm inclined to trust their word over yours."

He still didn't turn around, but Anna saw him clench his jaw as if he were physically holding back a (probably biting) reply.

"Hans?" Anna stepped forward "We just want to check your hair, that's all."

His head turned a little at the sound of her voice, and she could see that his expression was not as blank as she'd first assumed, shock painting his features. She supposed she was the last person he'd expect to visit him down here.

"Why are you here?"

Maybe it had been a bad idea for her to accompany Elsa. At least her sister had the excuse that it was her duty to look after prisoners, but Anna didn't have any sort of political reason to actually be involved in any of this. God, why had she come here, he'd probably think that –

"Here to have a good laugh? I suppose I deserve it."

She blinked. Now that hadn't been what she was expecting. She would have thought he'd think a little better of her than that, but then he probably judged everyone by his own miserable standards.

"No, that's not why I'm here. I'd never do that, because unlike some people here, I'm not a horrible excuse for a human being."

"Oh, so you just came down here to insult me? I suppose that's a little better."

"I'm here to help check if you're dying or not." She crossed her arms, thinking he might be at least a little grateful that after all he'd done they were still willing to check up on him.

"What does it matter, anyway? My ship will be fixed soon and I'll be out of your hair in a few days, problem solved."

Anna frowned. What kind of attitude was that?

"I think," Elsa's steady voice cut in, "that if we sent you home with a frozen heart and you were found on board your ship frozen solid, it wouldn't really reflect all that well on us as a kingdom, especially as we've already sent word to your brothers that we're letting them decide your punishment. You know full well that it could be seen as an act of war."

Hans looked as if he'd narrowly avoided rolling his eyes before replying.

"I'm nowhere near important enough for my brothers to even consider waging a war in my name, especially against someone with the power to freeze an entire kingdom."

"Considering all we have to work with on that matter is your word, I don't think we really want to risk it."

"Believe what you want, but it won't change the fact that you're wasting your time here. I mean, you're hardly holding me up; I've got nothing but free time, but if I were you, I'd be out enjoying the sunshine after the abominable weather we've just had. You never quite know when it'll be back, after all…"

Anna could see in the slight shift of Elsa's shoulders that Hans' jab had affected her more than she was trying to let on, and felt her mouth press into a hard line as she fought to keep quiet. Elsa could take care of herself;, she didn't need Anna blabbing nonsense threats on her behalf, not when she was cool and collected and could shoot ice, besides.

"Be that as it may, we're not leaving until we've sorted this out. It's also nice to hear that you're not looking to waste our time as Anna and I don't want to be down here any longer than we have to be, so I trust you'll be giving us your full co-operation."

Anna's lips twitched into a smirk. Yep, Elsa could definitely handle herself.

Hans said nothing, instead merely looking back and forth between the two sisters as he ran an exasperated hand through his hair. The movement pushed his hair back slightly, revealing a previously hidden streak of white at the base of his scalp.

"See! You do have a white stripe!" Anna pointed at the offending streak victoriously. "Just like mine."

Hans merely sighed, his arm dropping to his side.

"That doesn't prove anything. I'm probably going grey early from the stress of everything. Single-handedly running a kingdom during an enchanted winter that no one was prepared for can do that."

Trust Hans to find something like looking after people in need 'stressful'.

"And I suppose attempted regicide doesn't even count as a form of stress, does it?"

"And what would you know of stress? You ran off leaving everything to me without so much as a backwards glance. I was the one having to calm people down and eke out food supplies while you were off blundering around the mountains."

Anna started forward, only to find Elsa's arm blocking her path as she sent Anna a warning glance. It was probably for the best. The last punch she'd given Hans didn't really solve anything, and had left her wondering if she had just ended up sinking to his level. Anna was increasingly glad that she wasn't down here alone; at least this way she had someone with her to stop her from doing something stupid.

"Prince Hans, I want to make it clear that we are trying to help you. You might at least be grateful, considering that you hardly deserve it after the crimes you committed against us."

"I didn't ask for your help, and I certainly don't need it."

"Why are you being like this?" Anna couldn't help but cut in again. What was he up to? "You saw what happened to me! You could die!"

"And if I do? What would it matter? What would it matter to you?"

"It would matter that someone died when I could have saved them! Obviously, this isn't something familiar to you, but most people have some sort of conscience about this sort of thing."

"Actually, I don't have a problem saving things at all. I just only bother when the person I'm saving is actually useful."

"Anna!" Elsa had stepped in front of her again, her voice considerably less even than usual. She widened her eyes in warning, before indicating for her sister to step to the side.

Fists clenched, Anna marched a few paces away from the cell, throwing one last dirty look at Hans before being cornered herself by Elsa, whose calm expression had given way to something ominously close to what Anna would describe as 'thunderous'.

"You said you would leave if he got under your skin. You promised me."

"I'm not – I'm not upset. I wasn't lying when I said that he'd done everything he could to upset me when I was freezing. I just don't understand why he's doing this." She crossed her arms, willing her hands to stop itching for another chance to give Hans a good punch. "Is it a trap? Is he going to let himself get sick and then tell everyone you froze his heart on purpose?"

Elsa closed her eyes in exasperation. "I hadn't even thought of that, I just thought he was being difficult….like a child throwing a tantrum when they don't get their way. But this could be so much worse! The people have just only started to trust me again and I –"

"No no no no no! I didn't say people would believe him! Just that he'd try it. Everyone knows what he did, and anyone would be crazy to listen to him. Besides, the guards have all seen us offer him help too."

Elsa let out a slow breath. "You're right… of course no one would believe him. Sorry, I'm just still so…" Her eyes roamed the room as she sought the words to explain herself, but upon catching the eye on one of the guards, Elsa quickly snapped up straight, her previous words forgotten. "A-anyway, surely he's worked all this out too? Why would he try something like that when he's got to know that no one's going to believe him?"

"I don't know! I'm just trying to understand why he's refusing our help when it could kill him! It has to be something sneaky. I don't think he'd give up just like that."

"Well, no matter what he's up to, we can't just ignore it."

"I wasn't saying we should. But how are we supposed to know if his heart's frozen if he won't even talk to us about it?"

"I don't know. It's not like we can force him. What are we going to do, torture him for his own good?"

"Wait…now that you've learned how to thaw your ice, do you think maybe you'd be able to do that to his heart? If it works then the problem's solved, and if it wasn't frozen to begin with then no harm done!"

"Don't I get any say in this?" A voice behind them suddenly cut in. "Because I'd rather not have her anywhere near my heart, thank you very much."

Anna whirled around, hands on her hips. "Have you been listening to us this entire time?"

"I can't help that you talk quite so loud. If you wanted privacy you should have stepped a little further away… or perhaps learned to speak more quietly…"

"Just ignore him. Anything he says is meant to hurt, not help." Anna turned back to Elsa, not even bothering to move any further away. Let him listen.

"No, he's right. I could make it worse. That is, if that's even the problem. I might have struck him in the head, and if that's the case then he may be okay. But if I start using my powers around his heart, I could actually end up freezing it when it was fine before. I only just learned how to melt ice; it's far too risky for me to use my powers on someone when I don't know what I'm doing."

"Hmph." Anna blew a wayward strand of hair away from her face as she considered this. "Are you able to maybe, I don't know, sense it or something, instead?"

Elsa rubbed at her forehead tiredly before replying. "The thing is, even I don't know that much about it. I can… cause it. But I wouldn't say I'm an expert at identifying frozen hearts,"

"Experts…? That's it!" Anna's frown melted away as she grabbed her sister's sleeve excitedly. "Elsa! The trolls! Back when you struck me with ice, Kristoff took me to the trolls and they knew straight away that it was a frozen heart! They'd know, for sure! If anyone would know what's going on, it's them!"

"The trolls?" She echoed, staring past Anna for a second. "The trolls! Yes, of course! Anna, you're a lifesaver!"

Perhaps quite literally, if this whole thing wasn't a trick and Hans did actually have a frozen heart.

"They might even be able to remove any ice magic still left inside of him," Elsa mused, starting to look a little more hopeful.

"Wait, trolls?"

The sisters turned back to the cell to see Hans staring at them with a rather bemused expression on his face.

"There are some trolls, up in the mountains, who are rather well-versed in magic. They'll be able to sort this mess out once and for all."

"Trolls," He repeated, apparently still not grasping the concept.

"Yes, trolls. And they're actually somewhat practiced at spotting these things by now, so if you're making it up then they'll know."

Anna realised too late the implication of her words, but Elsa's wince disappeared before Anna could reassure her

"What would I even be making up? It's everyone else who keeps insisting there's something wrong with me."

"I'm not going to pretend I know how your mind works but if we can be sure of anything, then it's that you're up to something. I was just warning you that we're prepared for your tricks this time." Anna jutted her chin into the air, hoping she looked at least a little bit threatening.

"Consider me officially warned," He said, leaning up against the bars. "I'll make sure any attempts to hoodwink you are especially devious and cunning this time around, so that I'm not immediately scuppered by your obviously superior powers of observation…"

Anna opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind (who acted like this with people trying to help them, anyway?), but was stopped short by Elsa quickly steering her back down the corridor, her hands still not comfortable touching anyone for long, even with her gloves on.

"He's just looking for a rise. He's probably bored out of his mind in there and you're the best entertainment he's had in days."

"Yes, well he'd better get used to being locked up and bored, because that's all that's waiting for him for a very long time." She made sure to raise her voice for the last part, wanting to rub it in a little bit. It was the least he deserved, really.

"Don't bother with him. Even you taunting him is giving him far too much fun."

"Fun?"

"The guards don't talk to him, you see. He's probably desperate for someone to talk to, even if you are only reminding him how long he's going to be locked up for."

"They don't talk to him? At all?"

If she'd stopped sooner to think about it, Anna would have realised that of course guards wouldn't stand around chatting to prisoners all day. They were there to be punished, after all. But she'd been so busy trying to avoid thinking about Hans, that when she invariably slipped up, she always found herself focusing on the locked away part rather than realising that it went hand in hand with being alone, too.

Well, actually he wasn't alone at all, was he? He was being ignored. Thinking back on her own past, Anna wondered if that was worse.

"No," Elsa shook her head as they neared the foot of the dungeon steps. "Guards aren't supposed to engage prisoners unless they really have to. No talking allowed."

It suddenly felt as if all the air had left her lungs, leaving a strange yet familiar ache in its place. No, this couldn't be happening, she tried to convince herself. She couldn't actually be feeling sorry for him.

She shouldn't.

And yet…

"So… they're basically acting like he's invisible?"

"Well, that's one way of putting it, I suppose. They let him know when his mealtimes are, or if he has visitors… and if he's in trouble they listen to him, but for anything else then they just ignore him." Elsa shrugged and turned around, starting to head back up the winding staircase.

"Oh."

Anna couldn't help but think that Hans being treated as invisible for years was what caused all this mess – what made him so desperate for a throne – so what good would even more years of being treated the same way do? She supposed as a punishment it was fitting, but would he learn from it? Be a better person? Maybe that wasn't even the point. Maybe he'd just be left to rot in jail for the rest of his life.

Anna didn't quite know how she felt about that.

She realised she had been dawdling at the foot of the stars with a start, and hurried to catch up with Elsa back in the far more inviting palace corridors.

"Elsa?" Anna's heart leapt a little to see that her sister had been waiting for her, rather than just walking ahead.

"Hmm?"

"I'm not sure if I ever told you what Hans' brothers did to him…"

"What he said they did, you mean." Her tone was a little sharper than usual, so much like when she would tell Anna to leave her alone.

Anna took a deep breath and carried on, ignoring the scratchiness at the back of her throat.

Things were different now. It was okay. She was loved.

But Hans wasn't.

"They ignored him. Pretended he was invisible. For years."

"And what's that got to do with anything?"

"Everything! Listen, Elsa, you didn't see him that day. It didn't sound like he wanted to be king for the title or the power… it was like he wanted recognition. He said he wanted to be the hero."

Elsa snorted.

"I know. I know it's stupid, but… what if all those years spent being ignored are the reason he is like he is? What if him being locked up doesn't fix anything because all the guards do are act like he isn't there? What if he just gets worse?"

Elsa stopped walking and turned to her sister, her face stony as she gripped at her upper arms.

"This isn't about fixing him, Anna. This is about punishing him for what he did."

"But how will that make anything better? It won't undo what he did."

"No, it won't. But neither will letting him go. In fact, that would make him worse, because then he'd think he could get away with whatever he wants."

"I didn't say that we should let him go, I just -"

"You just what, Anna? Thought that you'd try and get me to feel sorry for him too? Well, forget it. I know you're tough but he hurt you, and he hurt you badly. Someone needs to stay mad at him for that."

"But…" Anna hated how small her voice sounded in that instant, hated that she and Elsa were arguing, and that it was about him, of all things. But she couldn't just let this happen without at least saying something.

"But what?" Elsa sighed, her face softening and her shoulders dropping as her grip on her arms loosened.

"I don't know. I don't know what we should do, but I do know that this isn't right."

Elsa took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a few moments before replying, making sure to look Anna dead in the eye as she did so.

"Both of us were locked away for years because I hurt you accidentally. I think it's the least he deserves for doing it intentionally."

Anna opened her mouth to reply but Elsa had already turned and swept away, looking back only briefly to call out, her voice heavy with warning:

"I'll see you at dinner."