He needed to be saved.
Kristoff scoffed angrily. Yes, he loved his mother and father with all his heart. Well, the parts not devoted to Anna, but...
Hans? HANS?! Hans?!
It's like his parents were purposefully trying to mess with him. It was the kind of thing they were good at; saying one thing, then getting another.
Still, this was beyond having to clean his room. (Er... cave). This was dangerous. And what would Elsa say when she heard about this?
Or Anna?
For the thirtieth time since Kristoff had boarded the ship, the desire to leap from the blasted thing into the sea, almost overwhelmed him.
He sighed. Hans had to be saved. This was non-negotiable.
At least the sea was smooth and calm. He wondered what would have happened when they found out where he went. Kristoff spoke to himself in an imitation of Anna, "Oh, hey, where'd you go, Sweetie? For carrots? Milk?" "Nope, went to bust your evil ex-fiancee' out of prison." "That's nice honey. Oh, and I'm never speaking to you again."
Kristoff growled in annoyance at his daydream. For the thirtieth-first time, the urge to cast off the ridiculous crown in his hand almost overwhelmed him. The trolls were clear; put the crown on Hans, and wait. That was all the instruction he was given. Not that it made him feel any better. Being raised amoungst magical beings had exposed him to a fair amount of the subtle-arts. And they almost never worked the way the user intended. Kristoff hung his head, annoyed at his ignorance. How was a silly wooden crown supposed to solve anything?! Still, he wasn't the kind of guy to sit around moping. He'd return to his cabin and wait to for the ship to dock.
"Whups!" He bumped into a female figure as he was turning.
"Oh... hello, handsome!" The women preened up at him.
As unused to female attention as he was, Kristoff knew better than to be rude. He helped the woman to her feet. She was... odd. Old, but with a young face.
She had black hair, and dark shading around her eyes. Her lips were thin, and deep red. Her long, red nails gleamed like bloodied daggers in the sunlight.
"Sorry about that ma'am," he apologized, "Let me help you up..."
He picked her up easily. It never failed to amaze him how much smaller women were.
"Ma'am? I'm not that old! Oh, that's unnecessary. But there is one thing I can do..."
"How may I be of service?"
She chuckled lightly, as if he were some sort of amusing animal, "Oh, darling... you already have. Oh bo-oooys!" She sing-songed.
Two men approached. Twins, it seemed, the primary difference between them was that one of them had an eye-patch. They both eyed the woman warily.
"Relieve our friend here of his crown," She daintily pointed with her finger. Kristoff clutched it protectively.
The two, regardless of how much they feared her, exchanged looks of doubt.
"It's... wood."
"I can see that, yes," Her voice was cheery, but quickly loosing it's happy quality.
They both leaned towards her, "But... that makes it worthless..."
She snapped, "Do you honestly think I dragged the two of you out of prison for a worthless crown?!"
As she screamed, she aged. Kristoff watched in horror as her skin lost its glowing quality, and sunk into a pale, wrinkled heap. Her once pitch-black hair turned snow-white as she screamed.
"Now get the crown!"
Kristoff was no fool; he knew danger when he saw it. Dodging past one, he ran as far as he could to get away from them. Unfortunately, being on a ship meant that he was unable to get very far from her. There was only one choice; to go below decks.
But being below decks was a different matter entirely. Still, judging from the expression the twins had, maybe an unconventional move was the best one. It was dark, and confined. But neither of those were the reason Kristoff didn't want to be down here. There really was only one reason, with one word attached;
Hans.
Yes, the wicked prince of the Southern Isles was on board. His ship had been detained due to unnecessary complications in the diplomatic process. Elsa had eventually grown weary of seeing his ship in the harbor, so she sent him on his way to some friends in Corona.
Hopefully they could at least store him whilst she tried to jumpstart the diplomatic crisis. Kristoff told her he wanted to go along to 'keep an eye on him' but, in truth, his father had sent him to look after Hans. Look after, they called it. More was going on than he was allowed to know. His father was being secretive, more so than usual, and his mother wasn't being very clear either.
"Hans can't win, he can only lose."
At first, those had been words of comfort. Now they were ominous. Win? Lose? Since when was he still contending for anything. Nevertheless; Kristoff obeyed. There was only one catch: Hans had to willingly put the crown on. Kristoff had told him to, and he declined. Then Kristoff begged. Then he threatened. All he got were more 'no-s'.
"Fine!" The ice man huffed, stomping away. Hours later he stomped back down the stairs, two villains in pursuit.
"Finn!" Said the one with an eye patch.
"Yeah!?"
"Grab him!"
Kristoff kept running to the cage. Hans was propped up in the corner, his eyes focused on something far away. He ignored the commotion without much regard.
"Duck."
Kristoff felt a bucket collide with the back of his head.
"Bad job ducking, peasant."
Kristoff grit his teeth, frustrated that he had to deal with Hans' superior attitude. It was bad enough he had to rumble with these two thugs.
"Jake!" Finn grabbed Kristoff around the stomach and banged his head into the ceiling. The ice man grunted before bringing his fist down on the back of his opponent. Though the thugs were tough, they hadn't wrestled rocks when they were younger.
A fist collided with Kristoff's face.
"Ow..." He said calmly. He then reared back and delivered his own, sending Jake into the bulkhead, "Okay, let's rumble."
It was a draw. In the cramped cabin the blond use his superior strength and mass to keep the thugs from beating him too badly, but he wasn't strong enough to incapacitate either of them.
Then she came down.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Mother Gothel hissed, "Unbelievable," She drew her dagger, pointing with her free hand to the deck, "down."
Kristoff released both the henchmen. Finn and Jake both gave him parting blows, but the blond's eyes remained on the blade.
"Boys, be a dear and steal that memory crown for me."
Finn acquiesced. Mother Gothel turned the thing in her hand over and over.
"Beautiful... do you even know what this does?"
Kristoff slowly shook his head, staying silent. The dark woman was about to explain when a voice came from the cell.
"..."
She sighed, "Oh, Hans, you know how I hate-!"
"The mumbling, I remember..." Hans stared at her with shock, "...mother?"
The young prince stepped forward, eyes wide in the light, searching. It was her, "Mom?!"
The ex-queen smiled, "Hans! My dear boy... how have you been? Good? I hear you've been busy," She then turned away, "Get rid of the smelly one."
Finn and Jake exchanged looks.
"The blond one."
"Ooooh!" Kristoff wrestled them for a moment. Hans was doing something most thought impossible of him; he was truly shocked.
"MOM!" He ran to the bars of his cell, face alight with joy, "I thought you were dead!"
She shrugged, "Well... it could have been worse. I could have stayed dead," She sighed, looking her young son over, "And have I taught you nothing? Control, control, control. Be dangerous-"
"And stay on the roll," Hans completed, "What are you doing here?"
"Selecting a proper wielder. Let me ask you; if you had just one thing in their with you, what would you want?"
Hans snorted, "...sword. Or a key. Or chains of decent size."
Mother Gothel smirked proudly, "One moment, I want the troll-son to see this."
She handed her son the blood-red blade through the bars. Immediately, it glowed. It then re-formed into a razor-sharp sword.
"Whoooooaa..." Hans gasped.
"What do you say?" She chided him.
"Thanks," He said, smirking. With a single blow, his blade with through the bars. With another, he carved himself a hole. Once done with the weapon, it turned into a chain on his jacket, "Ooooooh! I like this!"
He stepped out. Kristoff's eyes were blank with shock, "How-!"
"The Man of the Moon made mortal bearers three,
A shield or a blade or a secret for me,
First you shall find 'neath an ancient tower's tree,
Second to get for valor from men stony.
Shield and blade clash and dash heart's the key,
'Til only one mortal left to wield the two be,
The fear or love rule the world for a thousand and three."
The woman smiled darkly at her rhyme, "Time's up, and happily ever after is going out the window once my son and I get our way... ha ha ha ha!"
Then the wooden crown went onto Kristoff's head. The world went black as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
Across the waves in Corona...
Flynn Ryder, aka Eugen Fitzherbert rose late in the day. He sighed to himself.
"I know why the caged bird sings," He whined, "'Cause it was all he could do out of a list of acceptable things."
He hummed a song to himself as he poured a bowl of cereal for one.
"I cannot remember the days gone by,
Nor should I, can I say why,
'cause I'm just an average, ordinary guy."
Without thinking, he sang the next verse,
"The Man of the Moon made mortal bearers three,
A shield or a blade or a secret for me,
First you shall find 'neath an ancient tower's tree,
Second to get for valor from men stony.
Shield and blade clash and dash heart's the key,
'Til only one mortal left to wield the two be,
The fear or love rule the world for a thousand and three."
He finished the cereal, but did not bother to get up.
"What's the point?"
That was the problem, after all. He'd had nothing to do for almost a year now. The one thing he did have to look forward to was proposing. Rapunzel, at this point in his life, was not just his dream, but all he had really.
Is this all there is to life?
He'd spent so long on the run, dodging patrols and scavenging for food he barely took a moment to consider what would happen when he didn't have to do that anymore. It's not like he had a lot of great skills. Sure, he could scale walls, do acrobatics and pick locks, but none of that did him any good when he wasn't a criminal.
And he wasn't a wanted criminal, which was the problem in the first place. Eugene needed something to do.
The cottage he was currently staying at was provided to him by Rapunzel's extremely generous parents. They took care of things he daren't even ask of them, and all without expecting a single 'thanks' from him. It was all too much.
They found some of his old possessions from his childhood; his collection of Flynn Ryder books, his teddy bear, (Mr. Bonkers was never so clean!)
Eugene picked it up. His collection of books came, from all places, the palace. After losing her little girl, the queen had dived into her stories seeking solace in faraway places. Her collection grew and grew until it overflowed the large castle library.
So, the queen had picked up some of her old favorites and dropped by the orphanage. Eugene had listened intently as this visitor had read each book in a clear voice. Everyone had paid such attention. She had a way of commanding attention like that. He'd wanted it so bad; to be adored and not poor.
When she got up to leave, her Rider books stayed.
The boy, hoping they would be worth something, grabbed them and took them to his room, examining each one for magic properties.
He knew it was wrong. And he got caught.
"Don't bother hiding, young man," A severe female voice warned. Eugene turned to find her stern gaze softening. This child had no parents, just like… "They're yours," The elderly queen then turned and left. Eugene ran away for the first of many times. He left out of shame. Here was someone who was willing to give something to him he had tried to steal. Ironically, he would steal something even more precious to her about ten years later.
He wondered where the queen came from, and what she was doing at the orphanage. For years and years he had read the books, never exactly sure why they mattered to him so much, nor why he couldn't bring himself to throw them away.
"It chose you," A voice said.
Eugene bolted around to see a rock behind him.
"What? How-!"
The rock started moving, "There is no time, Eugene, and very little choice in the matter. My time has come to a close. Your time has just begun."
Flynn stared at the troll, and said, "Huh? What are you? Some kind of animal, or…?"
The troll rolled his eyes, preparing to 'troll' the young man. Instead, he asked "Do you love her?"
Flynn laughed, "Of course I love her! Wait, why does that matter…?"
With a flash, the pendant in the creature's hand started to glow…