Author's Note: Whoopsies, looks like the violence kinda seeped into this chapter as well. Just thought to warn you guys. Oh, and a trigger warning for a brief allusion to suicidal thoughts at the very end.

…You guys are free to hate me after this chapter, just sayin'.

Secrets that They Keep

"Excuse me, uh, Mister Bjorgman, correct?"

Kristoff whirled around at the inquiry, almost tipping over the tray of food he was bringing for Hans – who had sequestered himself too eagerly after the stint in the sitting room earlier, a shame the pleasant enjoyment everyone shared in there was cut short – to come face-to-face with a wild-eyed Westergaard brother. The twelfth one, the one who got his fingers chopped off. Er… what was his name again? Hans had too many siblings, not to mention that Kristoff didn't really care to know any of them other than their quirks.

Hans' family continued to prove his stance that reindeers were much better than people. Older brothers especially.

"That would be me," Kristoff answered the prince. "Um… Prince…"

"Aleksander. Hans likes to call me Sander for short."

"Why? 'Cause of your abrasive personality?"

"Huh?"

"Given the… subtle hints that Hans was displaying back in the meeting room earlier, I'm guessing that you have every reason for me to ignore you and be on my way to deliver this," Kristoff bit in annoyance, lifting the tray slightly to indicate his interrupted task. Aleksander blinked a few times in shock, but shook it off and scampered to follow Kristoff when he continued his journey through the castle corridors.

"Oh… that. Uh... May I join you, perhaps?"

"Hans would rather be alone right now, so sure, why not?" Kristoff made sure to emphasize the sarcasm in his statement.

"I just want to make sure he's okay, and you're the only one brave enough to be near him after the queen gave her orders."

"Which you yourself aren't following."

"I know… and usually I would happily avoid whatever confrontation might come my way, but… I'm worried sick for him."

At this moment, another of the Westergaard siblings came to cross paths with Kristoff. The disturbingly apathetic one who gave off an air of nonchalance. Rasmus. Yes, that brother he remembered.

"Elias is missing," Rasmus said, cavalier.

"Rasmus, I'm not in the mood for your 'observations,'" Aleksander huffed.

"Not an observation but an announcement. He stole my favorite dagger from my trunk," Rasmus stated as he passed by the two to continue his procession through the hallway. "If you see him, I give you permission to stab him with it."

"I'm also not in the mood to get between whatever disagreement the two of you are having."

When Rasmus was out of sight, Kristoff sighed and said, "Is there no one normal in your family?"

"There's King Pieter, to an extent. And the married ones," Aleksander answered. "Though Holger and Anders toe the line to being abnormal. I think their children keep them from being true nut-cases, at least."

"What's got him all... strange, then? It's like trying to find humanity in a statue."

"Oh, Rasmus? Believe it or not, he used to be the 'Mister Go-getter' in the family. I remember that there were days he was just so busy with studying and trying to help out Holger in the hospitals, I wouldn't see him for weeks. But he was okay with it, happy to be busy, even."

"Hard to see that now, so what happened?"

"Father fell ill, and then a few weeks later, Mother did as well. It was... weird, actually, seeing everyone in the family trying to handle our parents' sudden deterioration in their own ways. It brought to light a lot of things in my brothers I never really saw before. Some good, some bad.

"Holger and Rasmus were the two who never left their sides, trying to find a cure and to make them comfortable alongside all the doctors. While Holger handled the added stress fine, Rasmus just... shut down. He has his moments still, but he tries not to care about anything, since he feels like 'caring too much could kill a person.' Anders escaped into his work, to the annoyance of Magnus, which ended up with the two of them dueling it out to settle on where Anders' 'true priorities' should lie. The twins just continued to live in denial. Pieter, Lars, and Niels – Pieter especially in leading them – tried their best to keep the kingdom from crumbling and our family from destroying itself."

"And what did you do?"

"I..." Aleksander avoided Kristoff's eye contact in shame. "...was a terrible brother to Hans. While we were a lot younger, Klaus, Elias, and I decided to just... ignore him one day. The charade ended a couple years later, but the hurt still lingered. So when tragedy happened when we were all adults, and when things didn't look like they were getting better... the wounds were brought up again. Instead of doing the right thing... the three of us just... ignored it, hoping it would resolve on its own. But it didn't. He ended up pushing us further away."

The two fell into an uncomfortable silence after that, Aleksander looking like he wanted to say a lot more, but was too afraid to continue.

"Well, go on then," Kristoff grumbled. "What else do you want to say?"

"You're close to Hans, right?"

"What makes you think that?"

"You call him 'Hans' for starters. Also, you're not a servant, so that bowl of soup looks a lot more suspect."

"Okay, sure, I'm close to him."

"Good." The prince grinned widely. "He tends to have a lot more enemies than friends, and to hear that he's actually doing a lot better here than at home is…" He trailed off as the two heard the faint echo of a desperate, piercing scream.

"Guards! Intruder!" came the undeniable voice of Prince Hans.

"Why aren't there guards around here?" Kristoff wondered aloud, dropping the tray of food as he dashed to Hans' room, precious seconds falling away as he pushed his legs to reach the servants' wing.

Why did castles have to be so big?

Another scream, and as he got closer, Kristoff could make out the sounds of a struggle and the rumbling of another man's voice. Yelps of pain radiated out to meet him as he barreled his way through the hallway.

The room was finally in sight, the handle that was supposed to be keeping it shut was mangled beyond repair.

Prince Rasmus' strange announcement that Prince Elias' whereabouts were unknown and that he was carrying a weapon around flashed in Kristoff's mind.

Elias was the one who brought up Klaus' death.

None of that sounded good.

Kristoff fell into a tiptoe to the room and sneaking a peek through a crack in the doorway. The soft patter of footsteps behind him signaled that Aleksander followed him. Through the limited field of view provided by the door's gap, the ice harvester's heart leapt to his throat.

Blood. On the walls. On the floor.

He wasn't sure if he was glad or worried that he couldn't see what state Hans was in. Was that even Hans' blood? Maybe it was someone else's?

Kristoff flinched away from the doorway when the bright daylight within the room disappeared, the sights inside completely obscured in blackness as if a curtain was placed in front of the door to prevent Kristoff from witnessing what was happening.

"What's going on?" Aleksander hissed in a whisper. "Is Hans alright?"

Just as Kristoff opened his mouth to respond, the door splintered into a thousand pieces as a body rocketed through the wood and bounced against the wall on the other side of the hallway to come to a rest next to the pair.

"Elias?!" the twelfth prince gasped, gawking at the crumpled form that lay before them.

"We should run," Elias groaned, whimpering as he held a mangled arm close to his torso.

###

In contrast to the disastrous first-impressions of Hans' brothers, the customary meal Elsa and Anna shared with them was going a lot more smoothly. Possibly because King Pieter was there.

Or maybe they still feared Elsa. It would prove useful if it continued to be effective, but she hated fear. Whether it was herself feeling fear, or anyone else, it was all the same when it came to her negative sentiments on the emotion.

Nevertheless, it was strange how Pieter's presence changed the brothers' composures in the dining hall. There was nothing rather remarkable about the king that pointed to why the princes behaved themselves better: no intimidation, no exercises of authority, no demands for respect. Even the traits that Elsa possessed that enabled her subjects to respect her authority were absent in the eldest Westergaard brother: he had an air of uncertainty and doubt that enveloped him instead of confidence and wisdom to lead. In fact, if Elsa were to be completely honest, she wouldn't be surprised if King Pieter was a "push-over" as Queen Rapunzel had mentioned during the visit to Corona.

"Their deaths were hard on everyone," King Pieter said, twisting and rolling a corner of his napkin between his fingers, eyes distant. "They were ill for months, and they just… never got better. It hurt all of us to see them like that, but years later, I'm glad to see that most of my siblings have been able to find their places in the world through that event."

Elsa wondered at the Southern Isles' monarch, mainly at how… relatively normal he was compared to the rest of the Westergaards, Hans included. There weren't any snide remarks coming from him, nor any hints of an ulterior motive, nor any discrepancies in his temperament that belied untrustworthiness. He seemed safe, transparent. Everything the rest of his family was not. What one saw in the king, well, it appeared that was what they got.

Okay, so he was a bit on the touchy side, since a harmless, teasing joke from Anna earlier seemed to offend him. At least he seemed able to keep his feelings in check.

Still, his transparency was baffling. Pieter was talking about the death of his parents with complete strangers. Even someone like Anna wouldn't talk about something as life-changing and tragic as that with Kristoff until after their third month into their engagement. At least the king didn't seem too bothered by sharing, nor answering whatever questions anyone had.

Ah, the word she was looking for to describe the king was "insecure." Despite being open, it was as if he was making himself vulnerable and wasn't aware of it.

"Is it true that you don't want to marry?" Anna asked.

"That is correct," Pieter affirmed. "I believe that there should be love in a marriage. I wouldn't want to put anyone through the torture of being married to someone that wouldn't be able to love them back, at least not in the way they deserve."

"So you really don't fall in love with anyone?"

"I'm guessing Hans told you all this." Pieter grinned in amusement. It faltered slightly, but considering the subject of the conversation, Elsa didn't look into it too deeply. He was probably trying to save face. "I'm also assuming he told you of my horse riding accident."

"Yeah… uh…"

"Hey, tell 'em what happened," one of the twins spoke, waving his fork around energetically. "Pieter here can really tell a tale when he wants to, but for some reason he always gets tight-lipped about the accident."

"Ib, it's King Pieter, remember?" the other twin cut in, elbowing his lookalike.

"Does it look like I care, Ian?"

"Behave yourselves, you disrespectful louts," Magnus threatened. "I'm sure you'll care about how Queen Elsa feels about the both of you when she tosses you out of her kingdom to fend for yourselves. And you forget about our eldest brother's sensitivities."

"Well, speaking of sensitivities, where is Rasmus? Or the latter portion of the terrible trio, Elias and Aleksander? They're missing out on all the food."

"Missing out on a meal should be the least of your worries," Rasmus stated monotonously as he glided his way to an empty chair around the dining table after his lackluster entrance into the room. "Elias stole my dagger, and Aleksander is trying to make nice with the princess' beau, with what seemed to be food for Hans."

Anna coughed on a bite of food she was in the middle of chewing as Elsa turned her head to Rasmus in a start. Magnus straightened in his seat in alarm.

"Kristoff's going to Hans?!" Anna sputtered after gulping down the obstructing morsel properly.

"Elias has a weapon, and you're not worried?" Magnus fretted simultaneously, his outburst overlapping with the princess'.

Rasmus shrugged and laid his napkin on his lap. He picked up his glass of water and sipped it nonchalantly.

Crack!

All heads turned searching around the room, wondering where the loud noise was coming from. Elsa pushed herself away from the table and out of her seat when it came again.

"Keep going! Move!" came the hurried, muffled shouts from Kristoff outside the dining room door.

"For the love of God, just keep going Aleksander!" commanded another voice, peeved. "If you want to soak your breeches, do it in here!"

The doors opened, and in spilled Kristoff and Prince Aleksander supporting a limping Prince Elias, an arm clearly broken in several places. Kristoff threw the door shut behind them.

"Oh my goodness! What happened!?" Anna shrilled, rushing to their aid. The seated brothers followed suit and took the wounded Elias aside to assess his well-being.

"This is the dining room, Elias! We've led them here, of all places. Now we're all going to die!" Aleksander wailed, body convulsing in terror. He dropped to his knees and covered his eyes with clasped hands, lips moving frantically in a desperate prayer.

"Enough of that, you nitwit," Elias scolded, kicking Aleksander over from his position on the floor. "They're not after you."

"What is the meaning of this? They? What are you talking about?" Elsa demanded, her voice turning up a few pitches in fear.

"It's Hans, he's gone mad!" Kristoff answered, eyes widened in alarm. "The pixies are here too. I don't know what happened—"

The door to the dining room shattered open, splinters of wood flying around the room and spraying onto its inhabitants.

"Hans? O-oh my..." Elsa gaped, stumbling back when she saw the horrific state that the thirteenth prince was in. Anna was a lot less verbal, but much more vocal than her sister in the high-pitched, shrill scream of terror at seeing him.

There was a dark aura that pulsed in wisps around Hans' form, obscuring the hallway behind him. His attire was tattered and torn, revealing large gashes in his skin that seeped blood into the fabric and dripped onto the floor at his feet. His eyes were wild, the shocking green of his irises completely washed out his pupils as they swept across the room and landed on Elias, Hans' control over his own body obviously absent. In his hands was the scythe.

His hand, oh God, his hand...

Elsa gagged, acrid bile rising in her throat when she saw the mangled mess of severed tendon, muscle, and veins that hung from the gaping puncture wound in his hand, the white of bone peeking through the injury.

If there was ever an image that Elsa might have imagined how Death would come knocking on their door, Hans embodied it at that moment. Gone was the man that caused her heart to flutter wildly as they danced, a moment they shared not too long ago.

Was Hans still in there, somewhere? Was this the catastrophe the trolls had warned them about?

"There he is!" a tiny, shrill voice rang through the air. "Get him!"

Hans charged at the brothers surrounding Elias, the sickle blade of the scythe flashing through the air.

Before it could tear into any of them, Prince Magnus drew his sword and deflected the scythe. Another riposte from the saber-wielder and the harvesting tool was knocked out of Hans' hands.

"Ooh, a swordsman!" another tiny voice sounded. In a flash of magical light, a group of pixies manifested themselves before the people in the dining room. One of them moved her hands, causing Hans to emulate her same movements as she chucked, "Go get 'im, Hans!"

The scythe lifted itself off the floor and was once again wrapped in the prince's hands. His emotionless face grimaced in pain at having to summon the scythe.

So Hans was still in there somewhere, and they were using him as their puppet!

The pixies might have taken his destiny and messed with it for their own nefarious reasons, but she was not going to let them take his own free will like that, not when they were so clearly in her sights.

Anger flurried within Elsa, fueling the blasts of magical ice that flew from her fingertips to fly with precision. The pixies darted out of the way, save for one who grunted at the impact and fell to the ground in a frozen wad. The ice shattered as it impacted the floor, the pixie within shattering along with it.

She could… She was able to kill them? Weren't they supposed to be immortal?

"It's the Snow Queen!" a pixie cried.

"Let's see her try that one with our puppet here," another taunted. "See how she likes having people she cares about shattering into pieces."

Hans swung the scythe in Elsa's direction, but its blade got embedded in a thick wall of ice.

"You idiots, focus on our purpose here!" a male pixie scolded, the only one in the group it seemed. "I hate being in the mortal realm for any amount of time. Unless you want to end up like Briryn over there, I suggest we just kill the homicidal maniac and go!"

The male pixie waved his hands and yanked, causing Hans to do the same to the scythe and freed it from the ice.

"It's the king! The king is here!" a pixie squealed in fear, pointing to King Pieter.

"Stop this madness! You must rectify this immediately!" the king commanded the pixies, though the confidence in his voice was lacking.

"We only mean to stop this one from killing the harvester," one pixie explained nervously, finger shuddering as she pointed to a supine Elias. "We do not intend to interfere with our magic, which is why we are using your brother's instead."

"Fix this, and get out!"

In a flash of light, the terrorizing group of pixies disappeared and Hans crumpled to the ground, coughing and trembling in weakness. Elsa rushed to his side, assessing the extent of his injuries, witnessing them healing rapidly before her eyes. A glance at the torn-up hand indicated that the same phenomenon was happening. She cupped his face in both hands, checking his eyes to see that they were back to normal.

Hans pushed her away, groaning in pain, and growled in an accusatory tone towards Elias, "You tried to kill me!"

"So?" Elias bit defiantly.

"I told you I didn't want this to happen!"

"You still don't scare me. Come on, do the same to me as you did to him!"

"Elias?" King Pieter asked with a shocked and hurt crack in his voice. "Why?"

"Why? You know why! He killed Klaus, and all of you are just going to let him get away with it! You above anyone else should know—"

The audible smack of the king backhanding the eleventh prince pierced through the air, silencing the prince's outburst. Everyone in the room stilled at the display. Even Elias' jaw slackened in surprise as he lifted his good arm to touch a hand to the reddening flesh of his cheek.

###

When the world went dark, Hans wasn't aware of what was going on, except that he felt his body was moving without his own provocation and that he could still hear what was going on. He knew he was powerless to stop whatever was happening around him to Kristoff, Aleksander, and Elias. He knew that the pixies were pulling whatever invisible strings he possessed for them to control whatever was happening to his body. He knew what was going on in the dining hall.

But he didn't focus on the repercussions or the aftermath of his tearing through the castle when the pixies left. His mind couldn't believe what he had just witnessed with his own eyes.

Pieter hit Elias. Pieter hit Elias.

Hans gaped at his eldest brother, blindsided at the act of corporal punishment that he had never even knew that Pieter was capable of. The brothers knew this was a big deal, since Hans had never seen the twins with such serious expressions before, never even seen Rasmus close to tears in such a long time, not since the death of their parents.

Rasmus hadn't shed a tear during their parents' funeral.

Elias finally composed himself, his face twisted in anger and… betrayal?

"You know you won't get away with it, Pieter," he accused.

"Don't bring up Klaus again, do you understand?" Pieter ordered, ignoring the accusation as tears streaked down his cheeks. "Not to me."

Oh. Hans never knew how Pieter took the news of Klaus' death. It seemed that the eldest hadn't moved past it quite yet. He wondered how Pieter felt about the truth behind it, knowing that Hans was responsible for his death. Did his brother forgive him?

Guards marched into the dining hall, likely hearing the commotion, but Hans wasn't paying attention when Elsa ordered for Elias to be sent to the dungeons with a doctor to tend to his wounds, or when he was carried by a few of his siblings to be propped up in a chair.

There was something bothering him about Pieter.

Why were the pixies afraid of him? What did meek, sensitive, innocent Pieter do for them to fear him?

"King Pieter," Hans said, astounding himself in his ability to remember formality in a stupor. "Why are pixies afraid of you?"

"I… don't really know," Pieter said, eyebrows scrunched together in bewilderment. "This is a good thing, perhaps?"

"The way I see it, yeah," Anna said, handing Hans a borrowed glove from a guard to replace the one that was likely back in his quarters. He took it gratefully and slipped it on without hesitation.

"If only you were there before I made that deal with the pixie," Hans sighed. "Maybe all of this could have been avoided."

"But you liked keeping secrets from everyone," Pieter said. "And secrets often lead to worse things down the road." The king regarded him at arm's length, eyes still brimming with sadness. "It cost us dearly, most of all you, but to see you continue to pull through is encouraging. I'm glad to have put you under Arendelle's custody."

"The guards…" Hans murmured, remembering the lack of security patrolling the area around his room. "Elias said there weren't any guards around my room when he attacked, and there weren't any around when I called for help."

"That shouldn't have happened," Elsa said.

"And there was the fact that the convict that was supposed to be executed earlier died in his cell without anyone noticing what happened."

There was something disconcerting going on. Something huge, and it felt like he was completely out of the loop.

"What are you trying to say, Hans?" Kristoff asked.

"I think… perhaps all of this is related? I didn't bring this up earlier since I thought he was just crazy, but the convict was convinced that he knew information that he believed to be important. He kept going on about this 'Order' and needing to get back to them—"

Elsa and Anna gasped, exchanging grim glances with one another.

"Prince Hans…" Elsa breathed, pulling over a chair and settling herself onto it slowly. "What I am about to tell you, all of you, must not leave this room. These events prove that we don't know who is involved, and the fewer people that know, the better it is to keep track.

"The Council and I, Anna included, were told of a group of assassins trying to attack individuals in high positions of power, those among royalty and nobility predominantly. Their attacks have been increasing, and in hearing about your brothers' endangerment, I suspected that this group is involved. They call themselves the Order of the Lynx—"

Upon hearing this, King Pieter flinched and stiffened in discomfort.

"You've heard of them?" Elsa asked the king.

"They were involved in my horse riding accident," Pieter admitted.

"Oh, so now you're coming clean about it," Jakob jabbed. "For all your transparency to everything, that's the only thing about you that you've kept under frosted glass."

"That's because it's best to actually keep this one secret, little brother. A member of the Order of the Lynx approached me years ago, trying to have me join their cause. When I refused, they warned that they had an agent within our own family and that if I let their existence become known, I'd lose more than the horse that threw me off as they slaughtered it as I was riding it, and the subsequent inability to have children after that event."

"So… Elias is the one they were talking about?" Aleksander gasped. "That can't be! He's no assassin. He can't even tell a lie right!"

"Are you sure about that? He tried to kill me, after all," Hans pointed out, the fact that one of his brothers wanted him dead angered him.

"Hans, listen. It can't be Elias. He's irrational and easily influenced. He can't plan something like this."

"Oh? And what about you Aleksander? You sound like you know too much!" Jakob accused.

"Shut up, Ib. Stop trying to start a fire where there's no kindling. You knew my whereabouts this whole day, and you know that I hate violence, not to mention that I lost a few fingers when they attacked us last time!"

"Then what about Magnus? Don't you think it's incredibly suspicious how he's always paranoid?"

"You dare insinuate that I would double-cross my family, Jakob?" Magnus barked, offended. "You were so quick to point fingers, perhaps it is you we need to watch out for!"

"Enough, all of you! This is why I've kept this information to myself. There's no way we could tell who's the traitor or not," Pieter said, pointing a scolding finger at each arguing brother in turn. "I didn't want us all to turn on one another when I've tried so hard to keep our family from falling apart all these years."

The commanding atmosphere that was put forth from Pieter was a side of the king that was rarely seen. When it happened, it was always short-lived, since he never had enough nerve to continue. Pieter trembled in agitation and covered his face with his hands.

"Please continue, Queen Elsa," the king said after composing himself.

Elsa blinked a few times in surprise and obliged, "As it continues to be apparent, even with your confession King Pieter, we know nothing about the Order. If things continue as they are, there isn't a leader in all the sovereign nations that is safe. Which is why a summit must be held so that we can all address this growing concern in unison."

"You mean… all the leaders in one place? Preparing for something like that could take years."

"It's best a few years later than never, King Pieter."

Pieter pulled his mouth into a thin line, contemplative. "I, King Pieter of the Southern Isles, will gladly join you, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, in this endeavor."

The two monarchs reached out and shook hands in agreement. Pieter drew his hand back suddenly, gasping and holding it close to his chest. Elsa flinched and did the same, grimacing in discomfort.

"Ah! That smarts," Pieter hissed, shaking out his hand. "My apologies, Queen Elsa, if I offended you."

"It's alright, I think I am still somewhat shaken from earlier. My magic feels a bit imbalanced right now," Elsa murmured, brushing aside the awkward handshake.

"Are we honestly not going to discuss what in all the heavens happened to the door? Or even with Hans, for that matter," Anna said. "That cloud… thing was terrifying."

"Don't look at me, all I could do was hear what was going on," Hans deflected when the room's inhabitants turned to him for an explanation. "And from my point of view, it sounded... not very good. Did I…?"

"You didn't kill anyone, if that's something you were worried about," Kristoff offered. "You obliterated the room to your door, too, though it's hard to tell if it the pixies were responsible for that. Elias was tossed out like he was nothing, which explains his current injuries."

"Barriers… would be broken…" Hans remembered the land's warning. "Who knew that would be literal?"

"Can you do that again?" Christian asked, a little too eagerly. He cringed when the others gave him irritated looks. "I just want to be sure the pixies were the ones responsible for that, not Hans, okay? Sheesh."

"No, I will not try to do that again, Ian. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't even know where to start."

"Well, what about that scythe thing you could do? Anders mentioned it a while back. Maybe it's related?"

"I don't want to even think about doing that. To be quite frank, all of this is just making me a lot more anxious being around all of you, so if you'll excuse me, I need to be alone right now." Hans stood from his seat, clenching his hands into fists to hide their tremors as he left the dining room without another word.

"Prince Hans," Elsa called out, chasing him as he made his way down the hallway. Hans politely halted his steps to allow the queen to catch up.

"My apologies, Your Majesty, but I must refrain from being around you for now. Especially…" he trailed off, not wanting to admit the new problem that had arisen after their dance in the sitting room. He swallowed the sudden urge to break down into grief, keeping himself composed as he continued, "Especially since it's become apparent that the land does not enjoy the fact that my… 'simple infatuation' with you has developed into something… something more. It seems that my heart doesn't belong to me, and that I'm not allowed to give it to anyone else."

The crestfallen look that Elsa gave him at his admission forced him to look away. It meant that, yes, Elsa did feel the same way, despite everything. All the more reason why it was more heart-rending than he wanted it to be.

All of this… it was just unfair. It would have been okay if he was the only one to be affected… but to know that Elsa would hurt just as much?

Hans would rather die than to see her heartbroken.

"I… understand," the queen whispered, voice breaking. Hans nodded slowly and turned away to leave, to escape before he had to face the harsh reality even longer, but Elsa stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Please don't let this defeat you. Don't give in to whatever ideas this might give you."

He stilled, eyes boring into hers when it felt like she was reading his thoughts.

"I know you want to be alone," Elsa continued, her voice still low. "And I'll give you your privacy for now, but I expect to see you tomorrow." Then she added with an even smaller voice, fearful, barely audible, "Alive."

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. I promised you a performance at your sister's wedding," Hans said, falling back into his long-unused mask of 'Prince Charming' and hating how unnatural it felt. "I can't do that if I'm dead."

With that, Hans pulled away from Elsa, leaving her alone in the middle of the hallway.

He would ensure that it would be the greatest performance he'd ever played. Not just to elevate his reputation and stance in Arendelle, but to make it his final act in a chapter of his life that was too good to be true, to signify that his days of bliss were over.

For the good of everyone – especially for Queen Elsa – Prince Hans' frozen heart needed to turn to stone.

Author's Note: Ack! Please don't hurt me! It's not over yet!

Well… it will be, in a few more chapters, it looks like.

Ah! No! Put down that pitchfork! I promise there's a light at the end of the tunnel, just don't hurt me. :(

I know this is a bit jarring to put this here, but since the final brothers' names have been mentioned:

Lars — Story: "The Gardener and the Noble Family"; Character: Larsen (I changed it to Lars to make it sound more first-namey. You could only imagine my delight to know Lars is actually one of the names of Hans' brothers. I swear, it's only coincidence.)

Niels — Story: "A Story from the Sand-Hill"; Character: Niels the Thief

I thank each and every one of you that left a review! Feel free to hate me for this chapter, however.

Especially since I'm not sorry.

I've got… plans.