Now this chapter was a toughie. Aside from the reenactment of a couple of certain scenes from the movie, it also contains scenes of what I believe happened before and after Elsa removed her winter curse and what led to the film's celebration ending.
It's not official material, just something I thought of. I'm sure lots of writers have their own versions.
I hope I did it well.
After returning into the castle, Anna was given a full-scale checkup by the royal medical staff because of her former frozen state, ordered by Elsa herself because she was concerned for Anna's well-being. The examination took place inside the castle's medical room.
"I'm alright, Elsa. Really, I am." Anna said, trying to convince Elsa that this was unnecessary.
But Elsa said nothing to cease the treatment and continued watching as the doctors thoroughly inspected the princess from head to toe in a manner similar to how one of the rock trolls, Kristoff's adopted mother, inspected Anna to see if she was perfect for Kristoff for a wedding they cooked up before the reason for their visit was explained.
"I have no sicknesses, fevers, or injuries of any kind on me. Well, my hand's lightly bruised from punching out Hans, but that's totally different and he had it coming!" Anna said.
The doctors paid no heed as they were told to keep inspecting no matter what Anna said.
Elsa burst into giggles at her sister's protests, earning her a glare from Anna in a non-angered way.
"You think this is funny, Elsa?" she asked.
"I don't think it's funny, Anna. I know it's funny. You're acting just like your goofy, old self again, just the way I remember and like. Besides, I want to be completely sure you're healthy since . . . well, you know."
"Since the heart-freezing and ice statue thing?" Anna asked.
Elsa hung her head down. "Yes, that." she said as her tone and face changed from happy to sad.
Anna sensed Elsa was experiencing a guilt trip and Anna mentally scolded herself for bringing the issue up.
Without looking up, Elsa said, "Anna, I'm so sor-", but was cut off by Anna.
"No no. You don't have to apologize, Elsa." Anna said, mimicking what Elsa said to her at the ice palace when she tried to apologize for the argument at the coronation and Elsa cut her off too. "I know you never meant to freeze me or Arendelle. You didn't have much control over your snow powers and those two things never would've happened if I hadn't pushed and scolded you for not letting me marry Prince Horrible. If anyone should be sorry for what went on around here, it should be me. Besides, after what he would do in the following days after, I'm now glad you rejected my attempt at marrying him."
Elsa looked up at Anna as she said this. It was exactly what she said to Hans before Anna thawed back to life.
"I hope I hurt him hard enough to remind him to never try something stupid like that again and he'd better not return because I'll be more than willing to give him another black eye to go with his current one! Perhaps that would make him go blind since, you know, you need eyes to see." Anna said, making her hands into fists and kissing them as both a little joke and a promise to sock the prince if he showed his face around Arendelle territory in the future.
Anna's hope of never Hans Westergard again was under her assumption that he would be banished from Arendelle now that the snow had melted, which Elsa had in mind of doing since he had to be returned to the Southern Isles since he was still of royal blood. She had no intentions of keeping him as a prisoner anyway.
"I hear that. What you did to him may not have been princess-like of you, but after all he's done to the two of us, you had every right to do it. I bet his family will laugh at his misfortune when he is sent back, which is what I intend to do later in the day." Elsa said, her mood perking up again.
"Hey, since you're queen and all, maybe you should make it legal for citizens to hit Hans if he ever sets foot on our homeland. You could call it the 'Hit Prince-Hans-Of-The- Southern-Isles-Law' or the 'Anti-Hans Law'." Anna suggested. She knew it would never come true, but still, a little humor now was in order.
Anna and Elsa laughed at the younger girl's joke suggestion.
The doctors finished with their checkup and gave their report to Elsa.
"Princess Anna appears to be free of any ice-related effects, Your Majesty." one doctor said.
"Told ya so!" Anna said to her sister.
Elsa had to give her that since she was right about being clean all along.
"I thank you doctor and all of you for your services. You may leave now and Anna and I will do the same to prepare for today's big event." Elsa said.
"With pleasure, Your Majesty." the doctor said. They all bowed to her and departed the medical room and so did the queen and princess.
As the girls explored the castle halls, Anna returned to being serious.
"Before that medical exam thing, Elsa, I was told that after I froze trying to save you, all of Arendelle accepted you back as queen rather than form a witch hunting mob and chase after you in spite of my death and Arendelle's problem. and you did your best to help everyone make it through. I was also informed that you put a funeral for me aside in favor of helping the people. Normally, some might find that to sound cold, no pun intended, but you did it for the sake of everyone who tried to survive your winter curse thingy and I think that was very caring of you to do, by which I mean the helping the people part."
"You really think so?" Elsa questioned.
"Oh, I know so. You put the needs of others ahead of your own and I'm glad you did it. That's why you'll be known forever as the greatest queen in Arendelle's history, perhaps the greatest queen in the whole, wide world to ever live." Anna assured.
This instantly washed away Elsa's guilt of skipping Anna's funeral service now that she was right about Anna approving her actions when she returned to power.
"That's also what Olaf meant when he told me the same thing when I was still alive and that's what thawed me when I threw myself in front of Hans when he was seconds away from killing you."
The girls shuddered at the memory and it only happened mere hours ago.
Elsa lead Anna into her bedroom and Anna finally got a glimpse of it after all the years of never being able to enter. Anna wondered how Elsa was able to maintain her sanity while being cooped up inside this place and Elsa figured her little sister deserved to look inside now.
"So this is your room." Anna said. "I've always wondered what it was like all this time."
"Yes. Do you like it?" Elsa asked.
"Like it? I love it." said Anna.
Anna noticed the flower in Elsa's hair.
"What's that, Elsa?" she asked and pointed at the rose.
Elsa knew what she meant and took the rose out and held it in front of her.
"Oh, You remember Kristoff telling you about Hans using a child as leverage to force me into killing us before you woke up after thawing?"
Anna, though shaken by that statement, nodded. It was one of the reasons she plowed Hans' groin with her foot in revenge aside from trying to kill Elsa.
"Before you thawed, I was out helping the people when that girl approached me and gave the rose to me as a peace offering and told me she loved my magic and didn't care about the trouble it caused and wished for me to remain queen. Her family and everyone nearby saw the whole exchange and she hugged me to further show that she didn't fear me at all. Most of the villagers exchanged 'aww . . .!' looks from seeing that. You know, like what you say when you see something cute like a baby or a friendly animal."
Anna was deeply touched by that. During the Great Freeze, even that little child comforted Elsa during her darkest hour and proved to everyone that Elsa was no monster prior to what that idiot duke said when Elsa revealed her abilities.
"Aww, that's so sweet! I wish I was thawed out sooner to see that. Good thing I injured Hans' big-boy spot for using her to get to you." Anna said.
Elsa nodded. "Told ya so." Elsa said, proving her point from her statement.
"There's something else I gotta know." Anna said and Elsa eyed her.
"What's that, Anna?"
"I thought you wanted to stay in the mountains for the rest of your life when I found you there. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're home again and back to being the queen, or should I say 'Snow Queen' because of your amazing ability to, you know, make it snow out of nothing whenever you want instead of waiting for it in the form of the real winter season and it makes perfect sense and . . ."
Anna realized she was babbling and cut to the chase. "But what made you want to come back to Arendelle after you . . . threw us out?"
Elsa swallowed. She disliked being reminded of what she did to Anna, Kristoff and Olaf back there, but it was in her and Anna's personal history now and it can never be erased. Because she no longer wanted to keep secrets and Anna felt the same way, Elsa was willing to tell Anna what brought her back, though it wasn't going to be a pretty story.
"I didn't want to return at first. I wanted to remain there in my ice castle to keep you and everybody safe from my magic. After I expelled you, Olaf and Kristoff from my temporary getaway, which is something I've regretted doing then and still do now, a group of my own palace guards and the duke's soldiers, all led by Prince Hans, arrived eventually with the objective of finding me and probably you too. My snowman guardian, the one I summoned to make you leave, fought them off while I watched from behind the main castle doors unseen.
The duke's men spotted me during the fight and I ran to the castle's top floor with those two chasing me, both armed with crossbows. They eventually cornered me in the balcony room and I begged them to stop and leave me alone, but they refused to listen and they shot at me with their weapons."
Anna gasped in horror.
"I used my magic to thwart them off and just kept coming at me. As my battle with them progressed and they wouldn't stop fighting me and leave as I wanted, I realized that it was either them or me and so I snapped and fought back in anger.
I came close to killing the two until Prince Hans and the guards entered the room and saw what I was doing. Hans convinced me to stop and spare them and I did after realizing what I almost became and I was terrified of it.
Then one of them tried to shoot an arrow at me, but Hans stepped in and quickly deflected the shot by aiming it at the ceiling. That caused the chandelier decoration above me to detach and fall. You remember seeing it from when you were there, right?"
"Uh-huh." Anna replied.
"I fled in time from being crushed to death, but the impact it made when it landed on the ground pushed me off my feet and knocked me unconscious, allowing Hans and the guards to capture me and take me back to Arendelle.
I later woke up inside the castle dungeon wearing steel mitt shackles on my hands because they thought it could stop me from using my ice magic, which it didn't as I will explain in a moment. Hans paid me a visit a minute later and I asked him why he brought me back and he said he couldn't just let the duke's assassins kill me. I asked for you and he said you hadn't returned. He then pleaded with me to end the winter and bring summer back, but I told him I couldn't do it and I asked him to tell the guards to release me and he said he would do what he can and left me alone in the dungeon cell.
Eventually, Hans returned to my cell with some guards at his side to fetch me because, according to what they told me after accepting me as queen, after Hans left me, he charged me with treason against Arendelle and sentenced me to death."
Anna began to grow angry.
"Ironic, isn't it? I lived alone in my room for thirteen years, then later in life, I wanted to be alone in the mountains and then I was left alone in the depths of my own dungeon. Honestly, from the way Hans handled that man with the crossbow, I believe he did it not to save me from the assassins, but to have the chandelier crush me to death and make it look like an accident at the same time as part of his original plan of taking Arendelle while secretly taking credit for killing me. With me out of the picture, he could have easily pinned my death on the duke's men since the guards were witnesses and the duke himself for ordering it, which is kinda true as it turned out that he really did order his bodyguards to kill me when he sent them with Hans' search party, and the truth of what could have happened there would have died with me and nobody would ever know."
Now Anna was scared and angered that Arendelle's very own then-misunderstood queen and her only family was attacked, almost murdered, caged up and almost wrongly executed.
"How could they do all those horrible things to you, Elsa?! How could they put you in the dungeon?! You're the queen and that wasn't right at all!" she asked angrily. The thought itself infuriated her to the core.
"They were under Hans' command. He was Arendelle's regent when you and I were gone, remember?" Elsa told her. "Besides, it was his idea actually. I was informed that during the time I was unconscious and was brought back to Arendelle, most of the castle staff, Kai and Gerda included, strongly opposed Hans' choice to place me in the dungeon. Kai and Gerda suggested that I be put in one of the rooms instead because they believed that the dungeon would bring back my depressing memories of the years of staying in my room all day, every day, but Hans refused and did the deed anyway. He also locked away the two assassins the instant we returned, which I admit was the one thing I believed he did right until the events that transpired out there today."
Anna knew Elsa was right and she felt really stupid for leaving that bastard prince in charge of things. All the things he could have done with that kind of power. All the possible horrors he could have subjected upon everybody. There were worse things he could have done to everyone else besides the royal sisters.
"I was in the castle when you were. Good lord, Elsa! We were together in the same place, but separated by the dungeon and the library! Hans turned his back on me at that point. He said that nobody would ever love me and he put out the library's fireplace to speed up my freezing illness while confessing his reason for being in Arendelle and said he was going to kill you to look like some big-shot hero before trapping me in the library to freeze to death! But luckily, Olaf found me in time and re-lit the fireplace to keep me warm and alive longer. If it weren't for him, I would've never been able to prevent Hans from killing you out there."
Elsa gasped and her heart jumped in her chest. She couldn't believe Hans would say those horrible things to Anna and that he denied her any heat to make her freeze faster. She could have searched for Anna when she freed herself from the dungeon, but she was too focused on fleeing Arendelle in her own emotional blizzard instead. While grateful to hear Olaf helped her (which also explained how that guard and servant from before were able to have lit torches in their grasps to light the village fire pit), Elsa was starting to feel like a terrible sister at that point for not bothering to look for Anna and her snowflakes returned.
Anna saw the snowflakes and knew what it meant, but she didn't mention anything about it because her mind was focused on the fact that Elsa was jailed in her own home's dungeon and almost died unlawfully. The thought infuriated her.
Imprisoning and executing a monarch was possible sometimes. It's happened before in other parts of the world.
Still, Anna felt that what Elsa had been put through since the discovery of her powers was wrong and immoral, locking her away and putting cuffs on her for something she was born with and not in control of. She never chose to have her ice magic, it just came with her from the moment she was conceived. That was like punishing someone just for being from a rival kingdom or being related to a criminal or a murderer or something else similar to those things. The hypothetical person was not at fault for someone else's misdeeds or because another country disliked his or her homeland and assumed that all people from said disliked homeland were evil, just like Elsa's capture and incarceration was simply because she had something nobody else had and judged her without knowing all about it first.
Anna also blamed herself for Elsa's misfortune in the dungeon. As Elsa put it, she named Hans as Arendelle's regent in her and Elsa's absence and with that kind of power, Hans was able to make whatever decision he wished, which explains the imprisonment.
As for the capital punishment part, Anna remembered Hans saying that he planned to kill Elsa and Anna now knew he meant in the form of execution before switching to how he nearly did it in the then-frozen fjord.
Elsa resumed her story starting with how she was able to evade her unjust death sentence.
"As I was saying, I froze my cell and literally broke out just as they entered to get me and Hans went after me in the blizzard caused by my stress and fears. He told me that I could not run from what I did and I told him to take care of you if you were ever found as I intended to flee Arendelle forever and never return. But he said that you had already returned and froze to death before anything could be done and that it was all my fault.
What he said devastated me and I collapsed to my hands and knees and the blizzard subsided for the moment. I was so distracted by the false news to notice Hans had drawn his sword and raised it in the air with the intention to kill me.
It was there that you stepped in and took the hit for me, which is also the unfortunate part where you . . . turned into ice completely. Hans was incapacitated from the effect of hitting your frozen form and I turned around, saw you covered in ice and I placed my hands on your face, begging for you to recover and thaw, but you didn't and I literally cried on your shoulder."
Aside from the emotion snowflakes, Elsa began to tear up at the memory, but she still kept telling her story to Anna, struggling through the painful memories.
"Olaf, Kristoff and his reindeer friend were standing close as I sobbed over you. Then the guards and dignitaries approached me and told me that they saw everything and realized Hans' true intentions. They apologized for everything that happened to me, gave their sympathies for your death, informed me that the citizens were also now aware of the truth about Hans and me and pleaded with me to reclaim my position as queen even though the winter was still present.
I was in disbelief that they wanted me back in spite of what my magic had done. I thought all of Arendelle hated me even more and wished to finished what Hans could not, but that was untrue. While I was still upset and in mourning, I accepted their offer and I walked back to the castle with them.
Every single person all over Arendelle offered their condolences, paid their respects and sided with me like the guards and dignitaries did, not caring about the weather and expressed their admiration for me and my magic.
When Hans was seen being brought by the guards to be placed in the dungeon for his crimes, the people immediately turned their backs on him, in two ways if you know what I mean, and renounced whatever hope and allegiance they had to him and no longer saw him as their king, just a lonely, evil prince and a liar. I assume he probably would have suffered a beating by them similar to what you gave him were it not for their their wish to respect my grieving time.
After returning as queen and taking some time to grieve for you, I tended to the people who were affected by my magic. I was asked if a funeral service for you would be held and I said to reschedule that for later because I didn't feel right about tending to my needs first and leaving them to fend for themselves since I was the reason Arendelle was a complete mess and they allowed me back into their lives. I know it sounds cold, no pun intended, but doing my things first seemed selfish to me."
Touched by that, Anna placed her left hand on Elsa's shoulder, the one without her special braid.
"Elsa, it's okay. I was dead already and you didn't wish for anyone else to join me. What you did was perfectly understandable and noble, just like I said earlier. If it were you that died instead of me, which choice would you have wanted me to have done first? Tend to the public's emergency needs or arrange a memorial service for you?" Anna asked hypothetically.
Elsa thought about it, remembering her own hypothetical view of what Anna would have done if roles had been reversed.
"I would have wanted you to help everyone first." she answered.
"See? We both have a similar way of thinking when it comes to things like that. At least you did lots of good out there when I was temporarily gone."
Elsa smiled at Anna's choice of words. She knew she did what was right even if one half of it sounded wrong.
"I have another thing I need to ask and I know you hate remembering it." said Anna.
"What?" Elsa asked.
"How was Hans able to order you to be executed? I mean, I may have made him a regent, but I don't think he was allowed to sentence people to death. Only a king or queen, our parents back when they were alive and as of three days ago, you, have the power to pull that off and Hans was most certainly no king since he never married either one of us to be one which is what he said he wanted all along."
Elsa bit her lip, knowing that the answer to Anna's question was going to really make Anna erupt like a raging volcano, but she told her anyway.
"Actually, according to the dignitaries, Hans told them that you and him exchanged wedding vows right before you 'died' in the castle, which made him Arendelle's new king and that allowed him to overthrow me and condemn me to die."
The words left an unholy taste in her mouth and she braced herself for Anna's upcoming verbal wrath.
"WHAT!? He said I married him and that I died before it actually happened!? That's just . . . that's just so downright degrading, evil and humiliating! I mean, I was foolish and naive to want to marry him back when I thought he was kind and caring, but after his backstabbing betrayal of me . . .! Ohh, that makes me so mad, I want to hurt him even more! I want to stomp on his unmentionables over and over and over again until he's unable to pee or have children, god forbid!" Anna said in a fit of rage. Just thinking about it made her want to break something out of fury other than Hans' bones.
Elsa knew her sister was just venting and she did not blame her as she predicted this would happen. But she had to get her to stop her fit before she did or said anything regrettable, kind of like what Elsa felt and almost did during the Weselton men's assassination attempt on her and it was something she did not wish for Anna to go through.
"Anna! Anna, please calm down! I know you're mad at Hans for that! I am too, but we can't let what Hans did get to us or he wins regardless of his current status!" Elsa told her angry princess sister.
If Anna had magic too and the negative side of it was triggered by her emotions like Elsa's own powers were, the room would be in a big, frightening mess right now.
Soon, Anna was calm and back to her old self.
"I'm, I'm sorry Elsa. I don't know what came over me. It just infuriated and hurt me inside when I heard you say he married me in order to have you killed." Anna said in sorrow.
Elsa embraced her in a comforting hug.
"I know, Anna. It's alright. You were just letting out your inner pain. It also hurt me the first time too."
The two sisters sat down to ease the tension.
"I think the reason you wished to marry Hans so quickly was because you went without anyone to enjoy life with for a long time and you were so desperate for companionship, you were willing to enter marriage to fill the void. I think it's my fault you wanted to wed him because I avoided you all those years which made you lonely." Elsa said, her head lowering and her eyes staring at the floor.
Anna hated hearing Elsa blame herself for that and refused to believe or say it was true and that it was her fault, although the only thing she had to admit Elsa was right about was her reason for wanting to marry Hans. She was lonely for years because Elsa refused to come out and play or talk to her and when she met Hans when she got older and spent time with him, comparing their so-called love to being an open door or whatever the hell that was, she finally felt a sense of belonging and having someone to talk to and have fun with again and that is what blinded Anna to Hans' true personality.
"I don't care about that anymore Elsa and it's not your fault. You were inexperienced with and terrified of your powers and you shut yourself away for my safety. While you're right about the part of me being lonely for years, I shouldn't have let it influence me into making a bad choice that would have proven even more dastardly and stupid than it already was." Anna said to her.
Elsa wiped her eyes as she was shedding tears again.
"I know how sorry you are for everything, Elsa, but I don't blame you for them. You're my sister and my only living relative left in the whole world and I will never, ever be angry at you for the years of ignorance and stuff. Like I said back out there, I love you and I always will until the day I die, by which I mean of old age when I become an old woman in the future and not . . . forget about it." Anna assured.
"Thanks Anna. I love you too and I always will until we one day rejoin mother and father in death."
Anna thought that was beautiful, or beautifuller as she put in during the coronation. What a joy it would be to one day see their parents in whatever afterlife they were in and be happy for eternity. But until then, they would enjoy their young lives on earth while they still can. All the bad things that happened in the past is in the past and living in the now and making a great future for themselves and the people of Arendelle was all that mattered.
After a short pause, Anna asked. "So what plans do you have for today now that everything is right as rain again?
Elsa thought about it.
"Well, I was thinking about throwing a big party in the courtyard and castle to celebrate the end of winter, the return of summer, your resurrection and my return as queen of Arendelle."
"Ooohh! Sounds like fun! When does it start? Who'll you invite?" Anna asked eagerly.
"Tonight and everybody! Well, everybody except four certain people who are to be expelled from our kingdom today. I'm also thinking about cutting off all trade with Weselton because of the duke's persecution and regicide attempt against me, at least until he's no longer in power and someone more thoughtful and understanding of people like me, assuming there are others with magic like myself, replaces him as the new duke of his country. I don't want the current duke murdered, of course, but . . . oh you know what I mean, silly." Elsa said when she realized she was starting to babble like her strawberry color-haired sibling.
I guess it runs in our family. She thought humorously.
"Indeed I do." said Anna.
Kai later showed up to check on the royal ladies and Elsa gave out the instructions she wanted carried out that she told Anna she would do.
"At once, Your Majesty and Highness." he said and departed to have Queen Elsa's wishes fulfilled immediately.
"So, tell me. How does it feel to be queen again?" Anna asked.
"It feels incredible! I used to fear being handed this job one day because of my powers, but now I love it!" Elsa answered.
"Speaking of your powers, what about the fact that everyone knows about you having them?"
"Boy, it feels so good to no longer have to hide them anymore. That and keeping my queen status at the same time makes life worth living again!"
"Good for you!" Anna said and they hugged again, something Elsa is now happy to finally do when she felt she could not before and left the room.
"From this day forth, there are to be no secrets from us." Anna said.
"Okay. No more secrets ever again." said Elsa.
"We should start getting ready for your party, Elsa! P-A-R-T. Why? Because we just gotta!" Anna said, making Elsa chuckle from her way with words. That was the silly Anna she missed all these years and now she was back and better than ever.
While both sisters were happy that everything worked out for the better and they could finally live their lives in peace and prosperity, Anna still had some unfinished business to attend to before Elsa's party plan could begin.
Anna refused to inform Elsa about it because she knew her elder sister would try to talk her out of it and Anna wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible.
Hans Westergard, the Duke of Weselton and his hired bodyguards, were placed back inside the dungeon. Each man was placed in separate cells in response to the recent event outside.
The two guards who were incapacitated earlier were retrieved from the dungeon and given the same medical inspection Anna had for their injuries. Lucky for them, it was nothing serious, just a headache and bruising which should disappear soon and they would be able to return to their jobs when fully recovered.
Hans spent most of his time in his cell laying down on his stone bed because of his groin injury thanks to Princess Anna. He never walked around because doing so caused him discomfort and pain. His eye was swollen and now as black as an olive and his throat had a red-colored boot sole print, two additional injuries placed on him by Anna as retaliation for his deeds.
The duke learned everything that happened outside and while he was a little glad Anna was alive again, he was also disappointed that Elsa survived and is still in control of Arendelle. He scolded his bodyguards for their failure of bringing Elsa inside the dungeon to kill her and scolded Hans for lying to them again and ruining their plan with his personal vendetta against the sisters.
The prince never said a word to him or at all. If his hands were not rebound in the hand shackles that held him before the breakout, he would have made a "blah-blah-blah" motion with his hand as a mockery of the duke's constant nagging and inability to shut up, just like his former fiance.
The dungeon doors suddenly opened and in stepped four guards, each armed with spears, swords and crossbows.
"Get up now! On your feet!" their leader said aloud. The man's voice echoed throughout the dungeon.
Each guard separated to gather a prisoner and hauled them out of their cells and faced the captain of the guards.
"What now? Did the queen send you here to taunt her victory at us instead of coming to do it herself?" the duke asked the guards.
"No. We are here because by order of Her Majesty Queen Elsa of Arendelle, for your crimes against the kingdom's royal family, all four of you are officially banished from the kingdom of Arendelle indefinitely and you will be penalized to the fullest extent of local law should you ever return to Arendelle territory." the guard leader declared.
"I thought she refused to banish us and preferred to keep us here." said the duke.
"That was when Arendelle was covered in Her Majesty's magical snow and she did not know how to remove it. Now that she has, it is now possible to send you on your way as the queen commands."
"Move it!" one of the guards said harshly. The guards escorted the prisoners out at crossbow point, ready to shoot them down if they tried anything.
Almost all of the civilians got a glimpse of the four men responsible for trying to ruin their home and their royal queen and princess. They were either ignored or scorned by every man, woman and child.
Some yelled insults at them, others said they should be turned into ice statues like Anna was, but never thawed.
Soon, the guards brought the captives to the docks and forced them to march to two ships that were set to sail them to their homelands.
Hans tripped and sprained his ankle and yelled in pain. But the guards took no pity on him for his recently-received injury as they picked him up roughly like it was nothing. Hans had to limp to his ship from there.
When they reach the ship that was meant to depart for the Southern Isles, one guard took hold of Hans due to his limping, boarded the vessel, aggressively tossed the disgraced prince inside a holding cell onboard and slammed the cell door shut and walked away.
A bucket landed on Hans' head when he was thrown in and he took it off and looked around. He didn't need mind-reading powers to know what agonizing fate awaited him when that ship reached the shores of the Southern Isles. He hoped his injuries healed fully by then because he was going to need his strength to deal with his brothers.
Not only would he face serious punishment by them for what he did in Arendelle, he was also in for endless, deep humiliation when they learn that their youngest brother had suffered a vicious beating at the hands, and feet, of a woman, and not just any woman, a princess.
Not only would they never let him live it down, but perhaps neither will the entire nation. For years, even centuries long after he's dead, people in the future will forever remember and hate Hans Westergard as the wicked prince who got beat up by the princess of Arendelle for usurpation and murder.
"I will return this scoundrel to his country. We shall see what his twelve big brothers think of his behavior." said the French dignitary who was also the operator of the ship. He was wearing bandages around his arm from where Hans stabbed him during his fourth and final attempt against Anna and Elsa earlier, courtesy of Queen Elsa.
"Arendelle thanks you, m'lord." Kai said.
He was about to ask if his arm will be okay when they both heard the sound of the Weselton duke complaining about his exile and turned their heads to observe. The duke's bodyguards were present, but remained silent.
"This is unacceptable! I am a victim of fear! I've been traumatized!" he said to the guards.
He then feigned injury to gain sympathy and get his escorts to change their minds about going through with forcing him on the ship. It was just another trick to see Elsa and say only he knew what to her.
"Ahh! My neck hurts! Is there a doctor that I could see . . .?
He noticed the guards were not buying his act as they stared at the duke with a shared look on their silent faces that appeared to say, "Do you take us for fools, old man?"
With his act having failed, the duke returned to his grouchy self.
"No? I demand . . . to see the queen!" he yelled, sounding similar to how he spoke to the other guards who earlier prevented him from going anywhere near Elsa and dragged him to the dungeon for speaking insultingly about her.
Kai took this opportunity to speak to the duke with a grin of mischief on his face.
"Oh, I have a message from the queen." he said and took out a big scroll and read what it said aloud.
The duke took a quick peek at the scroll as Kai spoke.
"Arendelle will henceforth and no longer do business of any sort . . . with 'Weaseltown'!" he said smugly to the duke, knowing that his mispronunciation of the name of the duke's home, (which he did intentionally this time unlike last time when he introduced Elsa to the duke and mispronounced Weselton by mistake, irritating the duke who then corrected him.) would greatly annoy him which he was going for and it worked.
"Weselton! It's Weselton!" the duke whined as he and his goons were taken aboard. The thugs went without resistence while the duke wiggled and squirmed, prompting the guards to lift and carry him onboard by force.
Kai mockingly waved goodbye to the duke and left the docks to rejoin the castle and help prepare for Elsa's upcoming celebration event.
Anna stood in the library with several guards summoned by her. They also happened to be the same guards who imprisoned Elsa and attempted to help Hans carry out his execution sentence intended for the queen earlier.
She intended to have a word with them about those events and she wanted to get it off her chest while she can. She knew that they were on her and Elsa's side once again and that they were duped into believing and helping Hans seize control of Arendelle like everyone else had, but unlike Elsa, she could not forgive them until she heard their side of the story first.
"You summoned for us, Princess Anna?" one of them asked.
Anna sat on the couch she previously laid on when Hans turned on her. Although the room brought back the dark memories of that moment, she chose the place for the quick, private meeting to show them what transpired inside.
"Yes, I did. I called all of you in here to discuss the treatment that was bestowed upon my sister during the winter crisis."
She put her bubbly personality aside and spoke in a serious manner to reflect her mood.
The guards knew Anna wasn't happy aside from the way she spoke.
"Elsa doesn't know about this meeting because I knew she would try to stop me if I told her. Although she and I made it our personal policy to never again hide secrets from each other, this will be, what I hope is, the final time it will ever happen now that things are repaired, so let's get down to business and quick as Elsa's celebration is to begin tonight and I do not want to miss it."
Anna cleared her throat.
"Now, I know all of you have decided to remain loyal to her again now that everything's out and she and I are appreciative of that, but before the winter faded, she told me earlier about the invasion of her ice-built castle in the mountains and what happened there. She says you and Hans dragged her back here to the castle after she was injured and incapacitated and you chained her down in the dungeon like some wild animal on Hans' order when he was the kingdom's regent.
Then she told me that Hans said he and I married each other before I supposedly died and that our so-called marriage made him Arendelle's new ruler and that allowed him to overthrow Elsa whom you imprisoned and he pressed phony baloney treason charges against her and sentenced my sister to die. What disturbs me besides those things is the fact that nobody had ever even bothered to check on me to confirm if I was truly dead as he said, which I never was in the first place.
In case you're all wondering what happened here before the thing on the fjord, Hans betrayed me right here in this very spot by refusing to kiss me to break my freezing heart curse that my sister unintentionally brought on me at her mountain castle. That's right, I was there before you and I begged her to come home with me and help her work everything out. I even told her about what happened to Arendelle which she was unaware of because she didn't look back when she ran away and this frightened her even more. When she told me to leave and I refused, she poofed up a giant snow creature to literally throw me out of her castle because she thought she was too dangerous to be in public and infecting my heart with it fully convinced her of this. Hans confessed that he came to Arendelle to marry either Elsa or myself to claim our throne and he admitted to me that if he did wed one of us, he would then stage a little accident for whomever he married, then secretly kill the surviving in-law to ensure there was no one else in line to take the crown and rule Arendelle all on his own. He wished to be king here or in some other kingdom if he had bypassed Arendelle because he said he could never obtain the throne to his own homeland due to him being the thirteenth in line there and had to marry elsewhere to achieve his goal.
He proceeded to shut the window to seal in the cold air, put out the fireplace and the candle to prevent me from staying warm and decrease my chances of survival and proclaimed that he would kill Elsa and save Arendelle from the winter curse, even though I'm not so certain that Elsa's death would have actually ended her winter mishap if he or the duke's men were to succeed in killing her and I don't ever want to know. Then he exited the room and locked the door, trapping me inside and leaving me to die alone."
The guards had stunned looks on their faces.
"I screamed for someone to help me which nobody did and I tried to open the door, but I was too weak and was getting weaker by the second. Just when I thought I was finished and Hans would get away with murdering Elsa and stealing my and her kingdom, Olaf, her other snowman who is much friendlier than the one at the North Mountain, opened the door from the outside and found me shivering to death. He re-lit the fireplace with a wooden match and helped me over to get warm. After he helped me escape the library, we ventured outside the castle grounds and onto the frozen fjord where I hurried to reunite with the ice harvester Kristoff Bjorgman because Olaf made me realize that Kristoff loved me and I hoped he was the one to break the curse that was killing me.
I saw him at a far distance and I was going to rush to him and save myself at last when I heard the sound of a blade weapon sliding and I saw Hans standing over Elsa, holding his sword and preparing to kill her. With only seconds to spare, I dismissed Kristoff in order to save Elsa from being killed. The last thing I remember was standing directly between Hans and Elsa, holding my hand out to block his attack. Then the next thing I knew, I woke up with Elsa and Kristoff kneeling over me and, everyone knows what happened next and I shouldn't have to explain it.
I know leaving Hans in charge was my idea after I left to find Elsa and bring her back after our little spat unleashed her magic and I admit it was stupid of me to want to marry Hans instantly without fully knowing him, which is part of what made Elsa freeze everything without her knowledge of it and run off. But still, like I said a minute ago, what you and Hans did to her during the crisis has been eating away at me and while Elsa told me she forgave you for that, I'm not so certain I can without an explanation. As princess of Arendelle, I demand to hear your side of the story."
Anna was not usually the rough, demanding type, but at this point, she wanted to know the full details of Elsa's capture and treatment and refused to let them leave until she got what she wanted.
One guards spoke for the rest.
"Your Highness, we're really sorry about those things, we truly are. We were under Hans' orders then since he was the kingdom's regent. After you left to go after Elsa, your horse later returned to Arendelle without you and we feared something bad may have happened to you and Hans decided to go find you and the queen and bring both of you back and we accompanied him for the mission."
Anna remembered her horse running away after she fell off.
"When we reached her ice construct, we got in a dangerous scuffle with her snowman creature and during that battle, the duke's men snuck past to pursue your sister without us. After we defeated the snow monster, we ran into the castle and saw what Queen Elsa was doing to the duke's men with her magic. She had one of them pinned against a wall with ice spikes and the other was being shoved off the castle's balcony. Her Majesty was dead serious on killing them, although like Hans said later, their assassination attempt on her earned them her wrath and we sort of agreed with that. But we assure you, Princess, that the attempt on Queen Elsa's life was their and the duke's idea, not ours. Our mission was to only find you and the queen without harming her.
Hans told Elsa to stop what she was doing and it worked, but then one of the duke's men tried to-"
"Yes, yes. I know all about that part. My sister told me all about it earlier. I don't mean to sound pushy, but I'd appreciate it if you'd just skip to the part where Hans lied about my death and our fake marriage and tried to use his false authority to have Elsa killed." Anna said.
The guard cleared his throat and did as told.
The castle guards waited outside of the meeting room where the duke of Weselton and the foreign dignitaries waited. All of them had relocated there to give Hans and Anna some privacy to work things out with Anna's new problem.
They heard the duke mention they would all freeze to death and that action against Elsa must be taken.
As the men inside carried out their conversation, the guards saw Prince Hans walking and approaching the room without Anna. He had a sad expression on his face, meaning that something was very wrong.
"Prince Hans. What troubles you? Where is Princess Anna?" one of the guards asked.
Hans said nothing and entered the meeting room.
The dignitaries and the duke started speaking to Hans. The guards couldn't help overhear everything.
They heard Hans say Anna was dead, frozen to death by Elsa's magic.
"Her own sister?" the duke asked with worry.
Everyone was surprised that the duke showed concern for Anna after all the things he said about her when Elsa's powers were revealed.
The guards expected Hans or one of the dignitaries to say to the duke, "What do you care? You accused her of being a sorceress and plotting Arendelle's destruction with Elsa." But none of that was said.
"At least we got to say our wedding vows right before she died." Hans added. Due to their romance for one another, to everyone in that room and out, it made sense that they married and to top that off, his new, yet short-lived marriage to Anna officially made Hans Westergard the new king of Arendelle, succeeding the late King Agdar, Queen Idun and, as of right now, Queen Elsa.
"Prince Hans, Arendelle looks to you." said one of the dignitaries. They all gathered around Hans, waiting for him to speak his first words as king.
"With a heavy heart, I charge Queen Elsa of Arendelle with treason and sentence her to death." Hans said sadly.
Everyone gasped and so did the guards. The only one not affected by this new order was the duke. He had wanted to get rid of Elsa and it looked like it was about to happen.
"You are doing the right thing, Prince Hans." he said.
"That's King Hans to you now, duke. You will do well to address me as such from this point on." Hans sternly told the old man, remembering his earlier treatment of Elsa and Anna, even though he secretly didn't care. "You should consider yourself lucky I haven't locked you up with your bodyguards after they tried to murder the former queen at her mountain retreat which I assume was your idea."
"I sent them to help capture Elsa, not kill her! How was I supposed to know they would do such a thing in my absence? I may not have liked her for her magic, but that did not mean I wanted her dead. I also did not wish for Princess Anna to die in spite of my behavior toward her because of Elsa's sorcery. If she were still alive, I would most certainly apologize to her for what I said to her." the duke lied. Well, for the first part while the second part was probably true.
"And besides, aren't you about to do the same thing they did?"
"What your men did was unauthorized and unjustified. She was still the queen when it happened, meaning that what they did then was attempted regicide and I gave them explicit instructions not to bring any harm to Elsa, but did they listen? No, and they nearly paid for it with their lives if I had not stopped Elsa from killing them. Because Elsa killed her own sister and plagued Arendelle with that magic of hers, that makes her eligible for capital punishment as or so I believe and, not that I like this, which I don't as I said the words 'with a heavy heart' before passing out the sentence, I also have reason to believe that her death may eliminate her winter spell over the land. When I went to visit her in the dungeon, I asked her to end her spell and she said she could not do it. I don't know if she meant she could not or would not, but either way, it's done incredible damage to this nation and it claimed a life just recently. It is the duty of monarchs to protect their kingdoms and Elsa failed when she had her chance. Now that I am a king myself, it's my duty to save Arendelle from this winter plague as well as prevent my original homeland from suffering the same fate if this winter reaches there and the only way to do that, as well as getting justice for the late Princess Anna and my wife, is to eliminate Elsa via capital punishment, starting now."
With that said, Hans stood up from his chair and walked out of the room.
He gestured to the guards standing outside. "You, come with me. I shall need your help with Elsa in case she puts up any resistance, which I'm certain she will."
"Your Majesty, are you sure you wish to go through with this? Even Princess Anna would have probably rejected this decision."
"Believe me, I really don't want to do this, but like I said in there, Elsa has given me no choice and it's the only way to free Arendelle from her curse. Besides, I'm not entirely sure, but I believe Anna would have done the same thing if I were the one to perish by Elsa's hand rather than her even though I admit it would be more painful for her since they were sisters. I should know, I have twelve brothers back in my homeland and if one of them had magic and abused it to the point of killing like Elsa did, I'd feel the exact same way." Hans said.
Shaking off the news inside the room, the guards followed Hans to fetch Elsa for her execution. However, deep inside themselves, they were getting a strange feeling that what they were helping Hans do was wrong and that they shouldn't go through with it.
Even though Anna was gone, Elsa was all that was left of their previous king and queen and if their eldest daughter was dead, their family linage would be extinct.
But Hans Westergard was their new king now and they had to obey his commands now that Elsa was deemed a traitor, a murderer and stripped of her title and their only other heir was deceased because of Elsa.
However, one of the guards strayed away from the group and decided to go check the library to see if Anna was dead. He watched his comrades and new king walk away to the dungeon, none of them noticing he was gone. He had to see for himself to make sure they were doing the right thing as the duke said.
What he was doing was considered disobedience and treason to the crown and it could earn him a fate in prison or something else, but a nagging feeling in his mind wouldn't go away until he went through this. He figured what King Hans didn't know wouldn't hurt anyone and that it couldn't be treason as long as he didn't get caught.
The lone guard approached the hallway leading to the library and discovered the hallway filled with large icicles. Another part of the former queen's magic.
He squeezed through, being careful not to hurt himself.
When he made it to the library, he found its door already open and when he looked inside, he didn't see Anna anywhere. She was gone.
This makes no sense. If Princess Anna is dead, her body should be here because this is where she was last seen. Where is she? The guard thought.
Hans said she was dead, but her body was gone. He also saw some snowy footprints on the floor. He crouched down to look at them more closely and recognized them as Anna's footprints from her boots. Hans wore boots too, but his were different in size and type. Dead people do not move about.
Something was wrong here.
The guard was beginning to believe that perhaps it was a good thing he deserted his post because were it not for that, he would not have been able to make this discovery.
Hans may have perhaps lied to everyone about the death of the princess.
The man also thought that Hans may have also lied about his marriage to Anna as well because the guard certainly didn't remember there being any religious servant in here to conduct a wedding for them which was how most marriages were performed. Without a licensed priest, bishop or minister around, like the one that crowned Elsa queen a few days ago, it was not possible to marry people.
Because of these uprising suspicions and the possibility of Anna still being alive, the guard suddenly realized that Elsa was about to be executed for a murder that never happened at all! She was in mortal danger!
Just then, Kai and Gerda appeared.
"Good lord! What are you doing here? Where are Princess Anna and Prince Hans? Weren't they supposed to be here breaking Anna's dangerous issue?" Gerda asked the lone guard.
The guard then took a second to remember that these two were not around when Hans told his story to everyone else in that other room.
He told the servants what happened, his suspicions and what was going to happen and they gasped in horror after learning everything.
"My god! Princess Anna could still be alive and Queen Elsa's about to be killed over nothing! We have to stop them before they make an irreversible, tragic error!" Kai said.
"Go inform the duke and dignitaries about what I just told you two! I will handle saving our queen!" the guard said. Yes, he called Elsa "queen", now that he was aware that Arendelle was now under the rule of an illegal king and Elsa was the true ruler after all.
The guard rushed out of the library to tell the others while Gerda and Kai ran to deliver the shocking news.
The dungeon entrance door opened and in stepped Hans and his new royal guards, here to collect Elsa and carry out her sentence.
One guards placed the key in the door's tumblers, twisted and pushed the door by the handle. But it wouldn't budge. It was the right key, but something was wrong.
They noticed the handle starting to freeze over and realized that the woman inside was the cause.
"Careful! She's dangerous!" one guard said.
"It won't open! It's frozen shut!"
"Open it!"
They heard and felt rumbling sounds coming from inside the cell and by the time they barged in, the cell was destroyed and Elsa was gone. A large gap exposed the outside and frozen fjord and Elsa was nowhere in sight.
Hans merged ahead to see for himself.
"What now, Your Majesty?" one guard asked.
"Wait here and protect the others. I shall see to the prisoner myself."
"But won't she try to harm you with her magic, Your Majesty?"
"Maybe, but perhaps there is a part of her I can reach into to convince her to return and face her punishment with dignity. If anything happens to me and I am not back by sundown, you are to evacuate the kingdom's residents immediately. Do you understand?"
"Yes, King Hans." said the guards.
"Good." Hans said and departed the cell through the new hole to hunt for Elsa.
A minute after Hans was gone, the same guard who left to check on Anna returned to them.
"What's going on here? Where are Hans and Queen Elsa?"
"Elsa has escaped her cell and King Hans has left to retrieve her and she is no longer the queen. Where were you? We thought you were with us."
"I snuck off to the library!
"You left your post?"
"I had to and it's a good thing I did because I have just made a recent discovery about our new king! He is not who he claims to be!"
"What makes you say that?"
"Princess Anna is not in the library!"
"We know because she is dead, killed by the hands of her own sister."
"No, I mean she's not there because her body is not actually nowhere to be found! There are footprints inside the library that suggest she is still alive!"
"Impossible! King Hans said she was dead!"
"Well obviously, it was a lie! If Princess Anna is dead, why would she not be in the place where she was last seen? I am telling you, that woman, our own queen, is innocent of any wrongdoing and we almost made the mistake of killing her!"
The guards became silent and only the howling wind was heard from the gap in the cell.
"What are you saying?" another guard asked frantically.
"I'm saying that Hans is not our king! He lied about what he said back in that room! Princess Anna was never dead! She and him never became husband and wife because there was no holy servant around to marry them and he was, and still is, trying to commit double murder and regicide in order to steal the throne and take Arendelle for himself! Don't you get it!? Hans Westergard has tricked us all and has planned this from the minute he came here!" the returned guard finished.
"Do the dignitaries and the duke know about this?"
"They will. Kai and Gerda happened to find me inspecting the library and I informed them of my suspicions about Hans and of the two monarchs merely being victims of his diabolical plot!"
"Good god! It all makes sense! What fools we were! How could we trust Hans and turn on Elsa without any actual evidence! Come, we must find a way to save our true queen and stop Hans, who is a prince once more!"
Now that they were on to Hans' plot, the guards immediately defected from Prince Hans and were once again allied with Elsa.
Queen . . . Elsa.
Because they were not wearing clothing to protect them from the cold blizzard outside, caused by the now-current queen as a result of her own fears, the guards raced out of the dungeon and went to see the dignitaries and duke.
By the time they got there, they saw Kai and Gerda standing with the foreigners who now had looks on their faces that told the guards they knew everything.
"They know?" the guard asked the servants.
"Yes, they do. We informed them what you told us in the library." Gerda said.
"How could all of us have been so blind!? Queen Elsa and Princess Anna have been betrayed by King . . . sorry, Prince Hans, and he was attempting to steal the kingdom from them all along! That is a mere outrage!" the French dignitary stated.
The others agreed with him.
The duke remained silent during the chatter for reasons only he knew. But he was surprised about this startling news as everyone else.
"Where is the queen? Has Hans already . . .?" the Spanish man asked.
"No, he has not, thank god. Her Majesty escaped her cell before we could reach her and is out loose in that blizzard which we believe is triggered by her stress from what we almost did. Hans is out there trying to finish the job and we pray he does not succeed. We have also severed all loyalty we had for Hans and are now back with Queen Elsa. She is our queen once again." the guards said.
"Well, what are we doing standing around here for?! We must go after them immediately!" the Irish dignitary replied.
Everyone agreed and prepared to venture outside the castle to rescue Elsa from Hans.
Although still silent, the duke accompanied them, wanting to see what would happen.
So Hans deceived everyone the entire time as part of a ploy to take the throne of this kingdom? Even I admit that was rather cold and vile for him to do. He betrayed the people the entire time he stayed here and yet he had the gall to threaten me with treason when he would eventually do the same after he brought that witch back. Nevertheless, in spite of his actions, I really hope he does kill that monster who once served as Arendelle's ruler for a day. Like he said, Anna deserves justice from her sister's actions and that is what she will get. The duke thought.
The guards hurried to the armory to collect crossbows to hit Hans from a distance in case they can't reach him in a close one. They were going to take him out via the tower, so they can get a better visual of the scene outside than just charge at him with swords and spears.
They and the dignitaries and the duke scrambled to one of the balconies and when they did, the guards began to scan the harsh blizzard for their target. Because Hans was still royalty where he's from, they had to shoot to wound. That is, unless he proved to be extremely hostile in which in that case, they would have to kill him to save the lost queen.
From there, the French dignitary also saw what they thought they'd never see again.
Anna was moving blindly into the fjord, shouting something that could not be heard. Was she shouting for Elsa? Hans?
"Look! It's Princess Anna! Dear god! She really is alive! Our guard was right!" said the French dignitary.
Everyone eyes the wandering princess and were in shock at seeing her. Hans did lie about her death after all and their suspicions about Hans now made perfect sense. He really was a vicious man and he used his royal position to get rid of Elsa and Anna in order to rule.
"What is she looking for?" the Irish dignitary asked.
"Either the queen or her assailant."
They stopped when they spotted two other figures standing far from Anna and they were not Elsa or Hans.
The figures were the unnamed man and his reindeer companion who brought Anna back to the castle. Whoever the man was, they had a feeling he might have something to do with Anna's reason for being out there in the blizzard.
Just then, the blizzard storm paused. Snow no longer flew in all directions and just stood in place, making it easier to see the whole fjord.
While the people on the balcony could now see their princess running toward the stranger, they also caught a glimpse of Elsa kneeling on the ground, seemingly in pain which perhaps is the reason the storm had stopped, and then there was Hans, towering over her with a sword in his right hand.
"Hans is going to kill the queen! Somebody shoot him now!" one guard said aloud.
The same guard who broke away and discovered the truth first took aim and prepared to fire an arrow directly at Hans when he stopped upon seeing Anna rushing right over to the two and placing herself in front of Hans to prevent him from striking his fatal blow on Elsa.
Anna was seen turning into an ice statue at the very last second just as Hans struck her outstretched, frozen solid hand with his sword and a shock wave erupted and knocked the traitorous prince off his feet and on the ground unconscious.
For a long time, nobody said a word. They were in much shock and horror at what they just saw. The princess had just frozen and died for real after trying to save her sister from her evil fiance and they felt that part of these events are their fault for judging the new queen too early just because she had ice powers that nobody had ever heard of. It was no wonder she hid herself away from society since her childhood. She feared what the public's reaction to her magic would have been if it ever got out and she was right. It made her exile herself from the kingdom, it got her captured, imprisoned and almost executed and her only family paid the price to keep her alive.
They saw Elsa look up and see for herself what has become of Anna and stood up to face her. Elsa appeared to grasp her sister's frozen face, muttering something incoherent and then she was seen dangling over Anna's frozen body and crying for her.
The unidentified man and his reindeer approached and stood by observing, along with a little snowman who appeared to be alive and was also watching the sad scene.
The dignitaries and castle guards stood silently, observing the tragic sight. Now they felt very stupid and guilty for what Elsa went through and look how it turned out for her.
The duke looked on wordlessly. Mixed feelings clouded his brain. The only person he felt bad for was Anna since she had no magic. Elsa, not so much.
Now that the truth was exposed and Anna was truly gone, there was only one thing they could do at this time and that was to go down there, apologize to Elsa for everything and bring her back to the castle and hope she will resume her place as Arendelle's queen again and restore order with their help since they owe her.
Elsa was a good person all along and they let their judgement get the better of them and now they were eager to make it up to her
Their story ended there and Anna was still sitting, taking in what she was told. Her blank face made it difficult for the guards to tell what emotion she was feeling, although it was obvious she was feeling negative due to the nature of the explanation.
"Your Highness? Is there something wrong? Would you like a refreshment?" the speaking guard asked her.
In Anna's mind, she was feeling a combination of anger, betrayal, sadness and relief. Anger because of what happened to Elsa when she was not around. Betrayal because of not only Hans, but of what the guards nearly did to Elsa right before learning the truth. Sadness because of what she believed Elsa felt from the sight of her own guards turning on her, the guilt and emotion Elsa felt when she struggled to cope with her loss and of what life in Arendelle would have been like if Hans had killed them both and became the king forever and possibly ruling over the people, servants and guards with an iron fist and then relief because of the fact that his plan was foiled and even in the winter and after her short-lived passing, everyone still believed in Elsa, let her resume her reign, treated her fairly and now that the winter was gone, their belief and loyalty to Elsa has strengthened further and is beloved by the people now and it seemed it would last for the rest of her life and beyond.
"Your Highness, please say something. We're getting worried." said the guards.
After a few more seconds of silence, Anna broke her silence.
"So . . . you defected from Hans after you discovered his plot?"
"Y-yes, Princess." the guard leader said nervously, thinking she might be angry, which she was a little.
"And you tried to shoot him with an arrow before he could strike Elsa and before I put myself in front of him to stop him?"
"Correct, Princess. We stopped when you were near him and we couldn't risk hitting you."
Anna silenced herself again to give it some thought.
"In the aftermath, after we escorted the queen back to the castle to recuperate, we brought Hans in the dungeon and placed the same shackles Her Majesty wore earlier on him. Even though Queen Elsa never actually told us to do the latter part, we did it anyway to show him how the queen must have felt when she saw them on her hands. When Hans told us to restrain her after the incident in the mountains and had us place her inside the dungeon cell with those god-awful shackles on, even we were uncomfortable with our part in those. Nevertheless, Your Highness, we are deeply sorry for everything and we want to remain on good terms with you and your sister."
Anna gave it some thought again.
Then she stood up.
"Thank you for telling me the truth about everything. You may leave now." she said.
"At once, Your Highness." they replied and departed the library.
"Ah! Don't close the door. It . . . reminds me of what happened in here earlier today."
"Oh, of course, Your Highness." the leader said and they disappeared and Anna was alone in the very room she nearly died sooner.
She paced around, thinking. She figured that, like herself and Elsa, everyone else in Arendelle were also merely victims of Hans' lies and scheme just as much as them. He used his charm, looks, wit and royal status as a prince to slip by and all four of those things made him above suspicion due to the fact that authority figures were, most of the time, unsuspected for wrongdoing simply because of their positions until it's too late if one actually does the crime and someone sees. How were they supposed to know Hans' business of being here?
The guards did admit to feeling uneasy about proceeding with Hans' intention to execute her sister when she was a prisoner and once Hans' dark side was suspected and exposed, they did try to stop him from committing one of the biggest and most devious crimes in Arendelle's history and dragged him to the dungeon after he failed once they discovered Anna was still alive (for the moment) and Elsa was the opposite of who Hans and the duke said she was. They were the real monsters, not Elsa.
As for the forgiving part, Anna remembered Elsa saying that she pardoned the guards for their actions during the winter crisis and refused to punish them for it even though she had the power, both royal and magical, to deliver it because to Elsa, they were mere pawns of Hans' plot and therefore were innocent for it unlike the one who actually started it.
In other words, Elsa let it go. If Hans were king and someone defected from him, he would have, without a second thought, order that person jailed or executed with no second chance whatsoever. As Olaf said to Elsa, Hans would have made one terrible ruler here or perhaps in his own country were he selected to be king.
Elsa may have been quick to forgive the guards for their mistakes, but Anna was different and for her, this was going to take some time. While Elsa admitted she was sorry for all Anna went through during their childhood and teenage years, Anna had no need to forgive Elsa because there was nothing to forgive. Elsa was so afraid of her growing powers, she was willing to seal herself away to protect Anna, their parents and the kingdom. It was heart-wrenching and depressing for the family, but Elsa did it out of love, even the part where Elsa had her literally thrown out of the ice castle after making the mistake of freezing her heart, all for her own safety, and that's why Anna immediately refused to be angry with her for it. Elsa was just scared and confused then and that was no reason to hate her.
After several minutes passed, Anna came to a decision.
Aw, what the heck. I'll cut them a break. It's only fair. After all, they figured Hans out and they at least made an effort to stop him before I did. Today's supposed to be a perfect day anyway and I don't want to spoil things later on with a grumpy mood. Plus, beating the stuffing out of Prince Chump of the Southern Isles felt so good. How I wish I could do it again. I wonder if I should have hit him hard enough to make him cry. That would've been great to see. She thought and left the library to prepare for tonight's occasion.
Well, the four villains have been kicked out for good, Elsa and Anna have made amends with each other, explanations have been given and everyone can move on.
Only one more chapter to go and I'm finished. You can pretty much guess what it will contain. The ending will also take place at night rather than day because I was at a night party and it inspired me to write it that way.