The two Westergaard princes stepped over the threshold of debris in the doorway with little concern, their colourless eyes glinting wickedly as the two guards tried to hold them off from entering further.

The princes did not move as woodenly as they had the last time Anna had seen them. The witch had improved her puppetry, or perhaps, the brothers were now completely under her influence and obeyed without question. Their appearance remained much the same, still the sickening pale blue skin, and still the layer of frost coating their bodies, this time though, their eyes were a solid white, devoid of any colour.

The guards fought the two men, but it was a lost cause. Elsa had been right, the palace guards were no match for the power the witch possessed. The abnormal increase of strength in the princes left the guardsmen at a severe disadvantage.

A scream caught in Anna's throat as one guard was run through almost immediately by a prince's blade. It happened so fast that Anna wasn't sure exactly what she had just witnessed. Anna watched in terror as the guard fell, crimson spilling in a pool around him. It took a moment for her to register it was blood. She had never seen such quantities before, nor had she ever seen a man die in front her. She stood numb, unable to move as the macabre tableau played out before her.

Someone was shouting at her from across the room, away from the scene that kept her immobile, but it barely registered to her ears. It was like being dunked into water, hearing only muffled voices from the surface. She could not tear her eyes away from the battle at the door.

"The key, Anna! The key! Get the key!" the voice screamed at her. "For God's sake, Anna, get the key! It's right there!"

"The key," she repeated dimly, trying to make sense of what was being said to her. It was hard to concentrate when everything around her seemed so surreal. Slowly, and in a daze, she turned her head towards the voice. It was Hans shouting at her from the cage.

Common sense came flooding back once she had averted her eyes from the carnage by the door. The key! Of course! Hans was still locked in his cage. She frantically scanned the floor in the direction Hans was desperately pointing. She saw the key ring lying halfway between the cage and the bedroom door. The head guard must have dropped it when he had rushed back to help hold the door.

Anna moved, adrenaline finally kicking in and putting her body to motion. She dashed towards the key ring. Something wet and warm splashed across the side of her face. Blood. Out of her peripheral vision she saw the head guardsman falling to the floor. She was now alone with the two princes unless she could get to Hans and free him.

It was certainly a risk, and Anna had to bank solely on the fact that Hans would help because he needed her alive. Without her, Hans would suffer the same fate as his brothers or worse. She had to trust that he was innocent in this whole matter.

The two princes advanced on her as she dove towards the key, her body dropping just out of reach as one prince made a clumsy grab for her. Snatching the key ring from the floor, Anna rolled out of the way as the other prince brought a sword down. She scrambled up and bolted towards the cage, clutching the key for dear life as she ran.

The locked cage door faced the back of the room, which presented Anna with another unfortunate disadvantage. She would have very little time before she became trapped.

Anna made it to the cage and rounded it quickly to the locked door. Her small size and speed became an asset against the two brothers, who were much larger and slower. She recovered much quicker than they from their botched attack. Her heart pounded as she shoved the iron key into the lock, and turned it, never taking her eyes from the two men.

The princes advanced towards the cage slowly, one going on each side in an attempt to corner her. Any direction she tried to move, a prince was waiting. They moved carefully and purposefully, ready to grab at her whichever way she decided to run.

She had wasted too much time now and had effectively trapped herself behind the cage. Suddenly, one prince moved quickly, lunging towards her in an attempt to spook her and have her run right into the other. Either way, she would be caught now. If not by the advancing brother, then by the other one she was being herded towards.

Their flaw had been in ignoring Hans. He reached through the bars and grabbed the waiting brother, yanking him towards the cage. He snaked his arm around the man's neck and held him tightly in a choke hold through the bars, giving Anna an out.

"Run!" he shouted, gripping his brother's neck savagely.

Hans didn't have to tell her twice. She bolted the moment the opportunity for escape presented itself.

The other brother wasted no time dashing after her as Anna ran towards the exit. She heard crashing and clanging behind her, and made the mistake of turning to look. She lost her balance, slipping in the blood pooled by the door. She hit the floor painfully, and came face to face with one of the dead guardsman. She scurried to right herself as the brother advanced on her, sword drawn high.

It was sheer reflex that she reached for the sword of the fallen guardsman. Feeling the steel in her hands, she brandished it poorly in front of her as she tried to keep a solid stance. The prince chasing her laughed.

He batted the sword from her hands as one would bat away a fly. It knocked from her grasp, and clamoured pitifully to the ground. Out of options, she backed away, slipping in the slick pool of death spilled at the door, trying in vain to prolong the inevitable swing of the prince's sword.

The sword came down just as the blur of a man intercepted it, and Anna heard the clashing of metal before she recognized Hans in front her, wielding a sword and keeping the brother at bay.

Immediately, Anna searched for the second prince. Someone would have to be on the look out for the other one while Hans fought this one. She saw him trapped in the cage Hans had previously been imprisoned in. Somehow, Hans had managed to get himself out while trapping his brother in. The weaponless man was railing against the bars like an animal. Anna flinched as the iron bars seemed to bend against his weight. It would not hold him for very long.

It was an unnatural amount of strength the princes possessed, and by all accounts, Hans should not have been able to counter it. The guards had not been able to. Yet, here Hans was, holding his own against their last assailant. With a growl, he launched an attack against his brother that was almost too quick for the eye.

Anna gasped as the prince's sword arm was suddenly disconnected from the body, and flew lifeless through the air. It hit the floor with a thump, much like the sound a log would make hitting the ground, followed by the crash of the sword it held. Anna stared in shock. Hans had cut off his brother's arm. Yet, there was no gore, no blood. The wound was solid and clean. Frozen, Anna realized. The prince was frozen solid through and through.

The lack of appendage did not stop the prince. Hadn't even hindered him, aside from moving towards the discarded flesh to reclaim it, and the sword. It was in that brief moment when the attention was off of them that Hans was shoving her out the door in retreat.

"Go, go, go!" he urged, the panic clear as a bell in his voice. The last Anna had seen of the inside of the room was the brother seemingly reattaching his arm, as though it was nothing.

"Did you see that?" Anna asked in disbelief as they ran down the corridor.

Hans didn't answer.

"His arm!" Anna elaborated on the verge of hysterics. "He put his arm back on!"

"I saw," Hans answered preoccupied. He stopped abruptly at a door in the darkened hallway.

Anna almost tripped over her skirts coming to such a quick halt. "We can't stop, we have to get to Elsa, to Grete—"

"Here!" Hans said to himself more than to her, as he pushed the door open. "In here."

"They're coming," Anna cried. "We can't hide! We have to get out of here!"

Hans wasn't listening. He yanked her through the doorway just as the princes emerged from the room down the hall. They'd been spotted and had very little time as the two men followed after. Hans shut the door and locked it for all the good that would do.

The room was doused in darkness once the door was shut, save for two vertical slits of light where the curtains met on the twin windows on the opposite wall. Anna heard Hans move away from her, but couldn't see where he went. Moments later, she heard him whisper to her in the darkness.

"The window, Anna, quickly. Go open up the far window, curtains and all, then come over here. Fast as you can, now hurry!"

Anna gave a nervous glance at the door before doing as she was told. She had no idea what Hans was planning, but at this point she had little else to rely on. She had no ideas of her own, and at the very least, should they be caught again, Hans could match his brothers in a fight.

She pulled back the thick curtain on the far window, and moonlight softly illuminated the room. The window latch moved easily for being in an unused wing of the castle, and Anna had no trouble opening it up at all. The air was crisp but calm, the night sky clear. Such an oddly peaceful night for all the horror that had transpired.

With the room now dimly lit from the moonlight, Anna could see Hans waiting for her at a side wall covered in elaborately carved wood panelling. One panel was uncharacteristically darker than the rest. As she approached Hans, she could see that it was not in fact darker, but actually an entrance way. A secret passage within the walls.

"We've little time left," he whispered, steering her through the entrance. He followed after, softly closing the panel behind them. It made the barest of noises sliding shut. The moment it was sealed, they were encased in absolute blackness.

The narrow passage was not meant for two people side by side, but Anna welcomed knowing that Hans was right there beside her. It was an odd comfort, knowing she was not alone in the darkness, but knowing that she was also with a man who had once left her for dead.

Still, beggars couldn't be choosers, and Anna was not one to complain. She wasn't sure how badly she'd panic if she lost track of Hans in the dark, within the walls of an unfamiliar palace. It was better to be with him than not.

She jumped, inhaling sharply when she heard the brothers enter the room. The familiar crack and splintering of wood almost had her shrieking, had it not been for Hans quickly covering her mouth with his hand.

"Not a sound," he cautioned with a low whisper in her ear. Anna nodded, regaining her composure as best as she could. Hans kept his hand over her mouth anyway. She didn't protest.

Heavy footsteps moved quickly to the opposite side of the room. Everything happening in the room could be heard clearly from behind the panel where they hid. And if Anna could hear everything in the room, it meant she could be heard in the passage.

"Shit," one said to the other. "They've gone out the window."

"Do you see them?"

"No. It's Hans though. He could have gone anywhere or nowhere by now. I'll take out here, you check the rest of the rooms. He'll have to duck back in somewhere, I'll wager. The princess is still with him."

"Unless she fell." One sniggered.

"We'd have heard the scream. Now go."

Footsteps thumped across the floor back to the door and disappeared down the hall while the quick rustle of the other slipping through the window could be heard.

Hans didn't move right away. He remained as still as a statue for what felt like an eternity to Anna. She wasn't about to say anything, let alone even move unless Hans did. When he did finally move, the hand that had been covering her mouth grabbed her hand firmly. He slipped past her deeper into the passage way, beginning to make his way though the dark, and leading her by the hand in silence.

It was the most dreadful feeling in the world having to rely on someone she didn't trust, but Anna had to believe that Hans would keep her safe. If anyone had come after the two princes to find her, they would have no idea where she was, or what had happened. No one would know to look for her in a hidden passageway.

Her stomach churned as she followed Hans through the pitch-black passage. She'd never be able to find her way back if she lost Hans. Anna had already lost track of how many turns they had taken. He was leading her through what felt like a labyrinth of twists and turns. She was starting to question if Hans even knew where he was going, but she didn't dare ask. How anyone could navigate without light in here was beyond her.

Anna's mind was still reeling from the events that had transpired. With no conversation between Hans and herself, she was left with her own thoughts. She swallowed the rising lump of fear in her throat. Those guardsmen were dead, and Carol…

Anna squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the tears. If anything had happened to poor, dear Carol…

Hans slowed his quick, quiet pace, and Anna accidentally stepped on his heels. For the first time since they had entered the passage, he let go of her hand. Panic seeped in from every corner of the dark the moment her hand was empty of his. She knew she was being irrational, but she needed to know she wasn't alone. That tiny physical comfort of knowing she had company, even if it was Hans, was the only thing keeping her from completely breaking down. She reached her hand out in front of her for Hans, only to find him gone.

"Hans?" Her voice sounded shrill in the still of the absolute blackness.

"There's a bit of a drop here, you're going to have to jump down," he said quietly, his voice not that far ahead of her. "I'll go first."

"I can't see where I'm going!"

He gave an exasperated sigh. "It's fine. About seven paces. I'll be right there at the bottom. Just inch until you feel your feet at the ledge and come down."

With that, she heard the flap of his tailcoat, and the soft thud of Hans landing on his feet below. Anna gulped, slowly shuffling forward, tentatively sweeping her foot out to graze the floor before stepping.

It's fine. It's fine. It's fi—

'—One that should not be!'

Anna inhaled sharply, doubling back in fear. That voice, it was right beside her, right in her ear. Cold dread washed over her like ice water.

They were not alone in here.