Alex makes his way through the dark halls, keeping to the shadows of the overcast sky. Careful not to look out of place, he slips off his hood and eases up his step. Turning the corner, he is curious as to why all of the dignitaries and servants seem to be filing out of the royal study. Alex pulls one of the servants aside, and asks them the whereabouts of Princess Anna.

"The princess was returned safe sir. We're giving the prince some privacy with her now that she has returned." The servant marches off without another word.

The foreigners and servants walk away from the study, down the halls to the dining room and the servant's quarters, respectively. Alex, now left alone in the hall, begins to walk towards the dungeons. "At least the princess is safe, now let's see about the queen."

Alex nearly turns the next corner when he hears the door lock, stopping dead in his tracks, he knows something is wrong. He creeps back towards the study, no light shining under the door like it had been when he had left. He presses his ear up against the wood, making sure to not make a sound, and hears Prince Hans' voice on the other side, in a tone unlike his usual calm, respectful nature.

"But then she doomed herself, and you were dumb enough to go after her..."

What the hell is he talking about? Alex presses his ear closer to the door, "All that's left now is to kill Elsa…" Alex stumbles back from the door, the prince's words confirming his suspicions. The princess was dying, and Hans had taken the opportunity to seize the throne from her sister. *He's going to leave her here to die!*

Alex gasps due to the revelation of Hans' scheme, but also due to the sound of a wobbling vase. He watches as the glorified dust collector falls off the table. He reacts quickly enough to catch it, the vase mere inches from the ground. Damn, I've still got it. The smug look on the man's face quickly washes away when he hears Hans approaching the door. Still hopeful for the Queen's life, he decides to walk down the hall, in the direction of his well-armed apprentices.

As Hans exits the room, gloves back on, he looks down the hall to see Alex hurriedly turning the corner, his signature hidden blade reflecting an irritating glare in the prince's eyes. "Could he have been eavesdropping?" he mumbles to himself. Hans then turns to see the vase still slightly shaking on the table. Hans examines the vase to see a fresh hand print in the dust.

Hans' face turns a dark shade of red, obviously not wanting to have to deal with the experienced fighter. "Executing the queen as my first royal act would've been nice, but an Assassin will have to do..."

Alex sprints down the long hallway, making sure not to alert any guards of his presence. He soon comes to a spiral staircase, where he finds the boys circling up. The man, somewhat relieved, hisses down to them, "Come up here! Quickly!"

The brothers pick up the pace, skipping a stair with each step. "What's wrong now?"

"I don't know, but I think we're about to find out."

As the two reach the top of the steps, Alex immediately begins walking back down,"Boys come with me, there's something very wrong here."

Bryn, concerned now, asks, "What's going on?"

"Hans is trying to overthrow the kingdom, he locked the princess up in a study and is on his way to execute Queen Elsa, we have to get to her before he gets the chance. The dungeons have got to be near the bottom of the castle, so going anywhere upwards is the last thing we should do." He reaches the bottom of the staircase to find magnificent suits of armor lining the walls.

Bryn cuts him off, and begins to make his way back up the steps, "You two can go for the queen, I'll go for Princess Anna, where is she?"

"No Bryn, she's…"

Before Alex can tell him of the princesses' presumed fate, his knees buckle, a crossbow bolt driven deep into his right shoulder.

"Alex!" Bryn catches the wounded man, and looks up to see his brother racing up the steps, to defend them from the guards circling down, swords drawn.

As Ares draws his sword in his right hand, and holds a set of throwing knives in his left, he scans the upper floors, no crossbowmen to be seen. "I don't see the shooter!" A guard lifts his sword to take a swing at Ares, hoping to keep the advantage of the upper ground. He blocks the first swing, only to have his blade knocked out of his hands by a kick to the chest. Disarmed, Ares jumps over the railing to the bottom, and picks up his sword again. He takes a defensive stance, and hands one of his knives over to his brother.

Bryn takes the bolt, cuts it down with the blade, and examines the wound as best he can without hurting his mentor any further. "Fuck, it's bad Ares!"

"Bryn... get up."

Bryn looks up to see the suits of armor climbing off of their pedestals, their spears outstretched towards the trio. The brothers look up to see Prince Hans walking down the steps, sword drawn, yet not completely hostile towards them.

"We can take this fuck, just say the word and I'll cut him in two." Ares winces at his brother's arrogant yet bold words, "No... There's too many, we need options."

"We can't just leave Alex here to fend for himself, fighting is the only option we have!"

Ares scans the area, and notices the red and white warpaint behind the suits of armor, and the cross on the prince's neck, "They're Templars."

Before Bryn can reply Hans finally cuts in, "You're outnumbered, let's not be stupid here, just surrender and we'll let you live. You'll see your master again, behind a cell maybe, but alive."

Bryn's voice fills with anger at the Templar's brash words, "Die you son of a whore!" He sprints towards Hans, but before he can get anywhere, his brother yanks him backwards by his cloak, "Don't be a fool Bryn, you're just going to get yourself killed!"

"What the fuck do we do then Ares?"

"...S-surrender?"

"You can't be serious!"

"Fucking look at Alex, Bryn… He needs help!"

Hans interrupts the two, "Yes, listen to your brother Bryn, you two can still live to see another day, but only if you surrender your weapons, and come quietly." The younger Assassin looks to his mentor, who was still pressing the wound as best he could with his ever weakening hands. "Alright… Alright."

Bryn finally retracts his blades and slides off his bracers, tossing them at the prince's feet. Ares does the same, and drops his sword to the ground, the rest of his knives gone, now attached to the wooden shields of some of the guards. The suits of armor rush forward, and begin to guide the now unarmed assassins towards the dungeons below, jabbing at them with the tips of their spears.

"I'm glad this didn't get more complicated than it had to be," Hans says as he lifts Alex by the hair and slits his throat, dropping his limp body to the blood-soaked floor.

Bryn tries to break free, screaming for his mentor, and Ares quietly stands there. Tears begin to fill both of their eyes as they're marched off towards the dungeons, their cries muffled by the sounds of the storm, raging on in the background of it all.

Hans cleans his knife on Alex's clothes and turns to his thugs, "I have to go tell the dignitaries Anna has died, now collect the body and throw those two in the dungeon. I'll see about them once I have taken care of the Queen."

As the two brothers are each thrown into a cell, the iron bars slamming violently behind them, Bryn immediately gets up and begins to bang on the barred window separating their cells. "Ares get the fuck up! We have to get out of here!"

Ares slowly gets up and takes a seat on his makeshift bed, "Calm down Bryn, save your energy. We don't know how long we're going to be in here."

"We can't just give up Ares! We have to tell the brotherhood!"

"There is no brotherhood to tell anymore!"

"There would be if you hadn't fucking surrendered! It's your fault Alex is dead!"

Ares quickly launches out of his bed, grabs his brother through the small window and slams his face against the bars, the only thing keeping them from each other. "I said stop! There is nothing we can do about it now! It's out of our hands..."

Tears begin to fill his eyes, and Bryn shakes his brother's hands off him, "How can we just sit around and wait to see if something happens? Alex would want us out there, taking the fight to the Templars! You're pathetic..."

They both sit back, tears in their eyes, without saying another word.