It was cold and dark when Elsa opened her eyes. She could not see anything around her, but she felt the ground under her knees. She remembered flying for the North Mountain to search for Anna. Nothing after that came to her.

"You're awake," the magician said somewhere in the dark. She'd know his voice anywhere.

She wasn't surprised.

"Where am I?"

After a pause, several torches whooshed to life with flames, lighting the cave around her.

"We're inside the North Mountain."

Hans stood poised against the wall to her left, his arms folded against his chest as he studied her.

Elsa's head ached. So many questions, but she had to pick one to start with.

"Why did you pretend to be a prince from the Southern Isles?"

His chuckle undid her, but she kept a straight face. "I had to be a royal to get anywhere near you… but a royal no one would pay much attention to. The thirteenth son in line to the throne of a kingdom overseas… I got lucky."

Elsa cringed. There was nothing lucky about it.

"The whole scheme," she said. "Getting engaged to Anna, trying to kill me…"

"I wasn't actually trying to kill you," he interrupted. "I was testing you. I wanted to show you how strong you are. Your sister got in the way, but that doesn't matter now."

Elsa trembled as she rose to her feet, fixing Hans with a glare that was rather fiery for the snow queen.

"Anna could have died. How can you talk about her so callously?"

"Elsa," he began, patience ebbing from his tone. "She's nothing like you. Don't you get it? You were born with an impossible gift. Don't you wonder why?"

She faltered at the question. "I've never thought about it," she said.

"Liar." He smiled. "I can tell you that magic like yours hasn't been around for centuries. It has to be passed down directly by someone else with power. But your father didn't have magic, did he?"

"Why does any of this matter?"

She didn't like the frenzied way his eyes lit up as he strode toward her. "A miracle like this has only happened once before… that I've seen." He took her face in his hands and made her look into his eyes. "You look so much like her. It's no coincidence."

Her?

Elsa shook herself free and backed away. "What are you talking about? You… Hans, is that even your real name?" He nodded. "What is it you want? Why have you brought me here?"

He did not look discouraged by her questions.

"To finish what I started with you by my side."

She shook her head. "What did you start?"

"You remember the stories I told you. About the hunter and his wife."

Elsa thought through her memories of late night stories. She ignored the fact that the magician's visits had been so inappropriate.

"I remember all the stories," she admitted.

"That one was real."

Elsa gulped as she tried to process where Hans was going with all of this. It had been a while since he told the tale. When the hunter lost his wife, she transferred her magic to him, which he then used to conquer her father's kingdom. Then he went after the surrounding nations. One by one, he cut the throats of each ruler to take their magic for himself. Finally, the last remaining kingdoms had had enough and banded together against him.

"What does that have to do with any—oh…? Oh… but you can't be him. He was supposed to be sealed off somewhere."

"I can leave. Just not for long."

She quirked one eyebrow.

"I'm always drawn back to this doleful cavern. But you, Elsa… your magic is strong enough to free me."

That made her laugh. She understood why he had paid so much attention to her now.

"What, free you so you can go take over kingdoms again? I don't think so!"

"I won't need to. I'll have everything I need." He looked at her meaningfully, and she cursed herself for the way her body reacted.

"No! I'm not your dead wife. I'm me."

She was satisfied to see him taken aback by that. Then, his features softened.

"I know that, Elsa. I know you better than anyone from watching you all these years."

"That's just creepy!"

Disgusted at this point, Elsa turned to look for the exit.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

She paused and looked back at him over her shoulder. The firelight made his hair look so much redder.

"My magic is limited because I'm sealed here. But I was able to work out a fail-safe for if you refused to help me."

Elsa felt a chill run through her as she whirled around to face him. "What fail-safe?"

"Anna's friend, the ice harvester." Hans reached into his white tailcoat and drew out a glass snowflake. He begin to fiddle around with it much to Elsa's growing confusion. "If this snowflake shatters, it'll activate a little spell I cast. And unfortunately, to undo it, I would need him right in front of me."

Elsa frowned. "What kind of spell?"

"He'll think he has to kill Anna."

Even before her next heartbeat, Elsa turned away, her eyes wide with horror at what he'd done.

"But—"

She hesitated.

"If you free me," he said. "I'll go to them. I'll stop it."

Elsa's face contorted in her rage. "How could you do such a thing?! If you knew anything about me, you'd know how dear Anna is to me!"

A peculiar look crossed his face. "I know."

The queen scoffed. "What? You're jealous of sisterly love?"

He remained impassive as his fingers twitched and then released the glass snowflake. Elsa jumped back and watched it shatter on the ground.

"I can't make you love me, Elsa. But I can make you release me. What's it going to be?"

"I-I…!" Elsa dropped to her knees and tried carefully to piece the snowflake back together. She cut herself in the process, blood dribbling over the broken glass. "I don't even know how to free you!"

He dropped to one knee beside her, carefully taking her chin into his hand. With the other, he brought her cut finger up to his lips and sucked the blood away.

She meant to recoil, but she was paralyzed for a heartbeat by scorching heat within herself. Then, when her brain caught up to her body, she tore her hand away from him and glared.

Smiling, Hans rose and stood over her. The cave around them began to tremble. "That was all I needed. A taste of your magic. Now, let's go."

She watched dumbly as he stretched one hand out to her.


"That was wonderful!" Olaf cheered, clapping in the seat of Kristoff's sled next to Anna. The little snowman was referring to what a large family it turned out the ice harvester had. Kristoff had seven uncles on his father's side! Most of them had children by now ranging from babies to Kristoff's age. They threw such a party when good old Edo and Airi's long lost son turned up. As it turned out, Kristoff's mother was from a faraway kingdom, not Sapmi. His uncles were sorry, but no, they didn't know anymore about her than that.

But what gifts they sent back with Kristoff and Anna! There were knives and cups with elaborately engraved reindeer horn, beautiful clothing, tin wire bracelets and other fine jewelry. Anna's favorite was a basket woven from birch root. She imagined packing sandwiches in it for picnics with Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven.

"Right?" She giggled. "Your Uncle Anton was hilarious! He should be a comedian. Do the Sami have comedians?" she said as Kristoff dug into their packs for a carrot to feed Sven. They were about three hours out on their journey home now. The trip would take a few days. They planned to stop in Tarfala for the night to pick up Gerda. Then, they would set out again in the morning. "How many hours to Tarfala again?"

There was no answer. Anna exchanged a look with Olaf. Kristoff was being awfully quiet.

"Kristoff?" Anna turned back to look at the sled and found Kristoff towering behind her with one of the Sami knives drawn. She screamed and jumped aside as he made a downward swipe toward her, burying the knife in the sled seat between Olaf and Anna. Olaf yelped and jumped from the sled. "Wh—what are you doin—AAHHH!" She barely had time to jump off the sled as he jabbed the point of the blade toward her chest. "Kristoff?! What gives?!"

Sven grunted with worry, looking back and forth between the two as Olaf clung to one of the reindeer's legs.

"Sorry… Sven… I have… I have to kill her… put her out of her misery…" Kristoff murmured, his eyes wide.

Anna backed away from the sled, looking to her other friends for help. The reindeer snorted and bit at Kristoff's sleeve to try and keep him from approaching Anna.

"Run, Anna!" Olaf howled, looking helpless.

Anna yelped and fled into the forest, bewildered and terrified. She leaped over logs, trekked over rocks and grasses, scratched her arms and face on scraggly branches as she squeezed between bushes and trees in the hopes of losing her pursuer. She had no idea what was controlling Kristoff, but she was certain he wasn't himself.

She didn't know how long she'd been running before she began to tire. But she didn't dare stop. She stumbled through a cool brook and turned when she heard Kristoff's shouts.

Fearful that he had gained on her, Anna hid behind a tree across the water, trembling in wait. She'd just watch for him to pass and then she could turn around and circle back to the sled.

If anything, it seemed Kristoff was under some kind of spell. How or why, those were the questions. If she could just get to Tarfala, to Gerda… they could send word back to Elsa. Elsa would know what to do. She bit her lip and felt her eyes grow hot with tears as she had flashbacks to Hans leaving her for dead. But it made no sense for Kristoff to suddenly attack her.

Minutes passed without Kristof running on ahead of her. It was possible that he crossed further down the brook. She looked up and noticed how the sky had gotten a little bit darker. She would have to get to Sven while she could still see where she was going.

Her heart thundered in her chest as she crept around the tree… to find Kristoff there waiting for her.

Anna screamed as he pinned her against the tree.

"I'm so sorry, Anna…" His hand trembled as he held up the knife. Anna looked into his eyes and saw him try to fight himself. But the knife was already coming toward her.

Suddenly, a hand clasped Kristoff's arm, halting him.

"Hans?!" Anna screeched, floored that the day had just gotten that much worse. But Kristoff, he'd stopped…

"Anna."

Her eyes darted to the left. Elsa walked up from behind Hans, her brow furrowed.

"Elsa?!" Anna gasped. "What are you doing here? What's he doing here? How did you know to…"

Elsa shook her head. A simple signal. Now was not the time.

"Is it done?" the queen asked.

Anna glanced back and forth between her sister and ex-fiancé.

What on earth…? She frowned, puzzled by Hans's presence when he should have been back in the Southern Isles, preferably in a prison cell.

Hans shook his head. He brought his thumb up and dragged it once across Kristoff's forehead. The ice harvester let out a sigh, expelling a glittering mist from his mouth as he collapsed with a groan.

"Kristoff!" Anna dropped to his side to check his pulse. She glared up at Hans. "What did you do to him?!"

Hans ignored the fiery redhead and turned back to Elsa. "Now it's done."

"What's done?! Elsa, why are the two of you here together…?"

Anna pulled Kristoff into her arms and glared at the other two, vowing in her heart that she would protect him.

Elsa merely looked back at Anna, her blue gaze growing steadily sadder.


A/N: Yeah, Hans is a diiiiii…ahem.

It was kind of fun to write Kristanna for once… even if in this particular instance, it entailed Kristoff trying to kill Anna, lol.

So, I'm a dirty rotten liar and will be brewing up ONE more chapter for this fic. That will include ending and possible epilogue. Thanks for reading/reviewing. ^_^