A/N: Hey everyone! I just want to thank you again SO much for all the follows, favorites, and reviews! They really do inspire me to keep writing. In fact, I decided to update tonight because of the-compulsive-tea-drinker's review. You did beg, so here's the next chapter, just for you!

"Don't you dare shoot my husband!" Rapunzel shouted almost like a war cry as she rushed into Hans' camp from behind the hill. She brandished a big pickaxe in front of her, though she really had no intention of hurting anybody. As long as she could distract them from shooting Eugene, she had completed her mission.

It worked.

All the men turned toward her and did the last thing she expected: laughed.

A man stepped toward her, his red hair and evil grin making him easily stand out. Hans.

"Look at you, Rider's little pet," he laughed.

"Pet?" Rapunzel felt an uncharacteristic surge of anger and annoyance sweep through her. This pretender had no place talking down to her. "I'll have you know, sir, that I am the Princess of Corona."

The camp was immediately silenced, though Hans didn't stop grinning. "Princess or not, conspiring with a murderer is a punishable crime."

"The only murderer here is you!" She pointed at him. "You came to Arendelle only to kill the Queen and take the throne yourself!"

"Oh really?" he chuckled, unfazed. "Then why haven't I killed her?" He gestured to a man who was holding the Queen in his arms. Her eyes were closed, though her chest slowly rose up and down. Alive.

"Stop!"

A panting Eugene stepped into the light of the fire. "Take me, Hans. You can do whatever you want with me. Just let her go."

Hans turned to him. "Well you seem to be singing a different tune than you used to. I don't like it. You're too soft now."

Rapunzel watched Eugene with apprehension. His eyes flicked to hers for only a second, but she understood the message: run.

"But," Hans continued, "I must uphold the law of Arendelle. A thief, and an escaped one at that, must be contained, as well as any conspirators." He focused a smug look on Rapunzel, though no one else could see it.

Rapunzel steadily glared back at him, and stepped to the side so that she could clearly see all the men around the campfire. "Please, everyone, just listen to me. Elsa and Anna are my family, and-"

"Enough talking!" Hans cut her short, turning to face his men. "Seize them."

Eugene looked desperately at Rapunzel, mouthing "Run" with a wide-eyed and urgent gaze. She wanted to listen to him, but she also didn't want to leave him. She wouldn't leave him.

There was a hesitation among the group, and Rapunzel could only guess that it was because she had told them of her royal standing.

Hans balled his hands into fists at his sides. "As ruler of Arendelle, I order you to seize them."

Rapunzel looked at Eugene. Now was her last chance to run, but he must have known that she had made her decision because he glanced down with his eyes and then looked up at her. He repeated the same gesture two more times, frantically, as Hans' men were finally beginning to stir.

Then she saw it; the glint of the frying pan's surface in Eugene's grasp behind his back. She nodded her head just barely, tightening her hold on the pickaxe. A soldier came toward her with a coil of rope around his shoulder, arms out as if to grab her.

But Rapunzel was ready.

She thrust the flat end of the pickaxe into his gut, forcing him to double over and collapse onto the ground. With another swing she swept the weapon's wooden handle down against his head, knocking him out cold.

Hans leapt forward with a sword, blocking her attack toward his stomach. Rapunzel, finding the pickaxe heavy and clumsy in her hands, was no match for Hans' mastery with a sword. He disarmed her in mere moments and pointed his sword at her throat.

"Enough, Rider," he said carelessly, as if he had planned for all this to happen in the first place.

Rapunzel looked past Hans to see Eugene freeze in place, the frying pan poised over someone's head. With a hard stare he lowered his arms, and two soldiers nearby promptly tied his hands behind his back.

"That's a good boy." Hans sneered at Eugene, whose glare only hardened.

Hans walked around Rapunzel to tie her hands in a similar fashion to Eugene's. "Go search over the rise and see if they left anything in the shack," he ordered to no one in particular. "And tend to the few wounded. We'll be on our way shortly."

"By the end of tomorrow, I'll be King," he muttered under his breath, so only Rapunzel could hear.