The years dragged on, but not Prince Hans. He pushed, studied and drove himself up through the ranks of his father's navy.

At first, it was to win his family's respect. By happy chance, he found he loved life on a ship, loved working side by side with men who loved the Southern Isles and the sea as much as himself. The exhilarating sound of the canons, the pursuit of pirating ships and enemy fleets were all part of a rewarding adventure he'd not trade for anything. But when he was promoted to Commander and his brothers, save for Felix, still sniggered and spoke poorly of him behind his back—those who were home and didn't outright pretend he didn't exist, that is—Hans realized that it would be best to make himself happy. He would never be king. With eleven rival brothers between him and the crown prince, there also would not be much opportunity to marry into wealth. It was just as Felix was always telling him; nothing would ever be handed to him save for their mother's love.

Of course, his mother's favoritism did nothing to improve his relationship with the others.

Father was bedridden half the time, stark raving mad the rest. The drop of a hat could set him off into violent tirades about anything ranging from the wars to thieving servants to cursed merfolk. No one wanted to be around the king for long, not even the royal physician.

The oldest four brothers—Bjorne, Jacob, Reuben and Kenneth—kept pushing for their mother to talk the court into Bjorne's coronation, but she wouldn't budge just yet.

The fifth son, Christian, had not been home in half a decade, not since he'd entered the monastery. Quite befitting his name, Hans always thought.

Robert had already married and borne children. The rest of the princes served alongside Hans, though Felix was more of a help whereas the twins and Emil competed for rank.

Before Hans knew it, he was twenty-one when he was honored with the tile of Admiral. Felix was just about the only one in the family who congratulated him. The others just seethed with envy... but only until they concocted a plan to get Hans discharged from service.

They drugged his drink on the eve of an important dinner with ambassadors from Cendrillon.

Later, Hans assumed he'd only been meant to embarrass his family so terribly that his mother would be forced to strip him of his rank in the navy at least.

No one could have predicted the worst of it. The scene at dinner was awful enough. He had, quite effectively, humiliated his family in front of the ambassadors. Then, he'd stormed out of the palace and into the village, all the way to port. The rest was just... fuzzy bits and pieces at the docks. Dark water. Tangled in ropes. A splash and struggle. Felix had apparently come after him. Of course. It was always the eighth prince who came to the youngest's rescue.

If only Felix had just stayed with the others that night... then he... then he might not have...

But it was all for naught. Years of hard work, trying to prove to his brothers that he was worth something, were all for nothing. He'd let them get the better of him. And poor Felix, always trying to stick up for him when he wasn't even worthy... poor Felix was the one to suffer for it in the end—an end Hans couldn't even remember.

The brothers tried to have him blamed for murder. But the queen wouldn't have that. She might never speak to her youngest son ever again, for some part of her feared that perhaps Hans was responsible for Felix's drowning. But she couldn't bring herself to try her youngest for murder.

Instead, he was indeed stripped of his rank, discharged from the navy and encouraged to find a wife as soon as possible so that his family could be rid of him.

Maybe, just maybe there was hope for the queen, Hans hoped as an Arendelle guard approached him with Elsa out cold in his arms. Heavens knew Hans was the last person who could refuse giving others second chances... after everything he'd put his brothers and parents through.

He winced inwardly as he thought of Felix.

Queen Elsa's darkness at least seemed within her control. She hadn't wanted to hurt Weselton's men; Hans had seen that. If it hadn't been for his plea, though...

And where was Anna? She was the only reason he'd come out to the North Mountain. He'd expected to find the two deep in debate—perhaps the redhead actually trying to drag the queen from her icy exile.

Instead, the queen had had her ice golem waiting for intruders, and Hans's fiery fiancée was nowhere to be seen.

"What now, Your Highness?" the guard asked. The mountain's winds picked up, blowing powdery snow across the party of men who looked to him for guidance.

Hans's attention snapped back to the cold reality. His princess was missing. The queen was out of control. Arendelle still needed his leadership.

"We bring Her Majesty home..." Hans answered.

The guard looked down fearfully at the royal sleeping in his arms. When he moved to pass her to Prince Hans, Hans had to hold back a rebuke. It was, after all, only natural for the man to be frightened of something he didn't understand. Hans might have been wary if he had not seen for himself the fear on Elsa's face. The woman was not a killer. She was afraid... of herself.

Something he could relate to all too well.

The men moved around him, those who had reached their horses already mounting up. Hans took a single step toward Sitron and stopped.

"Anna..." he murmured. The only reason he'd come out here... and the only reason he'd come to Arendelle.

His mother had sent a servant to him with the invitation to the Arendelle coronation, since Queen Marianne hadn't spoken to him directly in over a year.

"The queen says you are to represent the Southern Isles, Your Highness. There will be all manner of eligible ladies there, among them the queen and her sister themselves. You're to find a fiancée... or... you're not to come home."

The last bit had been a difficult message to bear, but Hans accepted the invitation with a graceful smile and dismissed the man afterward without a hint of agitation.

Inside, of course, he'd felt turmoil.

Unlike certain brothers of his, Hans had not spent much time or interest on the opposite sex. All his life, he'd been too focused on himself to have time for... that. And so, he hadn't a clue about women. He'd made sure to reread some Shakespeare and other romances before his departure. None of his brothers made the trip with him, thankfully. So there was no one from home to compete with on his mother's assigned 'mission'.

A mission was how he'd thought about it... until he literally bumped into Princess Anna. Their first meeting had been sweet... and chaotic. And while Hans didn't have any experience in courting, he was fairly certain that Anna was different from any woman he would ever meet. It was her open and goofy nature that immediately caught his interest along with how she qualified just about everything she said to reassure those she spoke to. Not to mention, hearing her humble, But lucky you, it's just me.

In that one meeting, the girl had shared a little of her soul with Hans, whether she realized it or not. He immediately felt that she was someone he would want to spend more time with, and he only became more certain of that when he found her again at the coronation ball.

He'd worried that she might find his proposal too hasty, but she'd accepted him. She'd handed herself to him.

Just like that.

Of course, Queen Elsa's refusal to give her blessing followed by the unnatural blizzard sort of put a real damper on everything.

Hans looked back toward the North Mountain, wondering if Anna might still be there. Perhaps they'd missed her.

"Wait!" Hans called out to the guards still on foot. He carefully handed the queen off to one of them. "I'll catch up in a moment. Go on ahead."

The guard with the queen handed her up to one of his comrades already on horseback. They all glanced back toward Hans before following orders.

Weselton's two men lagged behind before coming to a full stop and staring Hans down. The prince glared at them, remembering the way they'd gone after the queen. If he hadn't stepped in, Elsa would've been caught by that arrow, possibly dead.

"I don't know whether you were acting on orders or on your own, but if you make another attempt on the queen's life, I'll make sure you pay for it," he warned them. "Now, go."

The two brutes exchanged grumpy glances, though they looked worried enough about how Hans might make them pay that they turned away from him and followed the train of Arendelle guards down the side of the mountain.

Again, Hans looked back at the mountain... and froze. Every thought of the Arendelle sisters and the kingdom itself was temporarily knocked from his mind as he saw a familiar apparition standing at the remains of the steps leading up to Elsa's castle.

A memory, one long ago put aside as a frightened child's imagining, slithered back into his present thoughts. It was the magic woman who comforted him at the haunted cove.

As he watched her approach, he wondered if he should be glad to see her. Yet he was sad as well, for the woman's presence, her mere existence meant he couldn't be with Anna. He wasn't sure how, but he knew this.

She stopped inches from him and greeted him with such a kiss that it chilled him to the bone. It was nothing like the chaste kiss she'd given him as a boy. This nearly knocked him off his feet. But he felt strangely calm, eventually melting into her kiss. He wasn't sure how much time had passed when she pulled away and studied him.

"You mustn't forget about me," she said.

Hans shivered, unsure whether he was affected by her voice or by the cold.

"I'm preparing the mirror that will allow you to rule the northlands beside me."

"A mirror?" he asked, confused.

"Yes. I need the mirror to make you immortal. But it's no easy task... the more I come into contact with it, the more I lose myself. So... be patient. Don't let your heart betray you."

Her caution wrapped around his heart like icy tendrils. He felt... strange. Just a moment ago, he was desperately worried about Anna after her horse returned alone to Arendelle. But that was weakness—the same human weakness that made him forget about the kind ice woman who comforted him when his brothers were cruel.

Anna... Anna brought out that weakness in him.

"How did you find me?" he asked. He felt an inner part of him snarl at himself, for he knew he'd asked the question to buy himself some time. Anna was out there somewhere. What if she was hurt? With the blizzard, it was only a matter of time before she could freeze. He had to get her home.

"I've known where you were ever since we met, Hans. It's part of the magic when I kiss someone. They become... mine, in a sense," she answered.

"But I forgot about you..."

She chuckled at that. "We both know that's not true. You could never really forget about me. And now, you're certainly incapable."

"What do you mean by now...?"

He thought of Anna with a broken ankle in the dungeons of the ice palace. Perhaps the queen had locked her away in irritation. With Elsa incapacitated, she wouldn't have been able to warn them not to leave Anna behind.

Something like sharp claws dug through his thoughts, sweeping panic over his freckly princess aside. Hans shook his head, startled when his vision started to flicker. When he could see clearly, he looked back at the Ice Maiden... and smiled.

"I promised I would come for you when you were strong enough. Do you think that time is now?"

He wanted to shout at her to leave. But that part of him grew dimmer and dimmer. He was unable to control himself as he smiled and knelt before her.

"Yes, m'lady. I hope so... and I would be happy to prove it to you."

By burying my weakness at all costs.

The visions faded and Anna found herself alone in a void. She wept for young Hans, for the boy who couldn't help the evil in his eye nor the cruelty of the brothers who should have sensed something was wrong with him. She cried for the prince who'd tried so hard to rise above the past only to lose the one person who'd stood up for him all that time. She leaned over on her knees and wiped at her eyes, trembling as everything she'd seen revealed the one thing she'd wanted to know: why.

A familiar voice interrupted. "I didn't show you all of that to see you waste time crying about it."

She sniffed and looked up, startled to find another Princess Anna looking down at her. This Anna wore her blue dress and black bodice, the clothes she'd gone traveling in during Elsa's blizzard.

"Who... how...?" she stammered, wiping the remaining tears from her face.

Then she remembered the Ice Maiden's attack, the falling chandelier.

She choked.

"Am I dead?"

The darkness around them warmed and transformed until the two of them were beneath a tree. This startled Anna somewhat, but she knew if she weren't dead, she must be dreaming. She stood and looked around what appeared to be green fields all around, with black horizons in every direction. Yet she could see clearly as if it were day.

"Dead? No. But you're in another mess. I've been trying to help, but you haven't been listening," the other version of her snapped.

"Erm... sorry..." she mumbled. "But I'm a little confused. So, I'm not dead... and you're me?"

Her double shrugged and sat on a backless stone bench that materialized beneath her. She patted the empty space next to her for Anna.

"Not exactly," she answered as Anna, somewhat mystified, took a seat next to her. "I'm more of a reflection of you."

Anna groaned. "I'm in a coma, aren't I?"

Her reflection giggled and slapped her on the shoulder. "Anna... do you remember how you broke the curse over Arendelle?"

She nodded, although she wasn't sure what that had to do with her several current predicaments. "An act of true love. Although, at the time, I was just trying to protect Elsa..."

Her mirror self nodded. "And do you understand where Elsa's power comes from?"

"Welllll... the visions I've been having have shown me bits and pieces of the Ice Maiden's story. I know that Elsa and I are descended from a baby she cursed. Our great-great-grandmother had the same magic as Elsa, so I can only assume that the curse was to suffer the same kind of power the Ice Maiden herself has."

"Ah, so you have been paying attention. Good!"

Anna blinked several times and slowly turned toward her reflection with a raised eyebrow. "Paying attention...? Are you responsible for the dreams I've been having?"

"It's my way of trying to repay you."

"Repay me...? For what? Why would I be trying to repay myself?"

The other Anna looked out into the fields, pondering. Anna shivered as she realized they really were identical, except for the calm aura her reflection had while Anna herself felt bewildered.

"You tilted the scales back, Anna. For so long, my magic has been used for too much evil. It had poisoned me over time. But your act of true love woke me up."

Anna sat in silence, her brow furrowing more with confusion.

"Unfortunately, I must ask for more of your help. The Ice Maiden, she's... trying to do something that ought never have been done in the first place. She's trying to make me whole again."

"You're..." Anna paused. "The truth mirror. You're the truth mirror?"

When the mirror nodded, Anna almost fell back.

"Okay. Okaaaay. You're a magical entity, so I shoudn't be all that surprised that you can talk to me and show me visions, but... I still don't understand... can't you stop the Ice Maiden yourself?"

"I've tried. The same way I've tried with others who abuse my power, but... she's found a way around that. She's been using others to put the pieces back together. I even tried hiding Hans from her. But she had marked him... and her past self recognized it. An oversight on my part."

Anna gulped. "So... what happens when you're whole again? And what does she want with Hans?"

"I imagine that she wants an immortal companion," the mirror answered. "As for when she makes me whole... well, I won't be able to stop her from however she wants to use my power then. She'll control destiny itself. The past, the present and the future."

Anna's breath caught in her throat. A being like the Ice Maiden... in complete control of everything? Her hands gripped the edges of the stone bench, her knuckles going white. To top it all, Hans would be trapped by her side for... well, forever if she made him immortal.

She let out a determined sigh and stood up from the bench, turning toward her mirror self.

"How do I stop her?"

Queen Elsa sat at the sleeping noble's bedside, her hands trembling over the book in her lap as she fooled herself into thinking she could read at a time like this. Her eyes glossed over the words—a history of the northern kingdoms—but her mind wasn't absorbing any of it. It was too busy panicking, though at least she managed to keep her power in check.

It was simple arithmetic. Someone had poisoned Lord Harald before he could share whatever his urgent news was. Yet why couldn't Elsa decide whether it meant Harald was not the threat she worried he was?

Had Harald come to plant another seed of poison in her ear, or had he been trying to warn her?

Why was she even questioning it?! The fact was that whoever poisoned him did not want Harald to get his message to her. Anyone who was willing to poison a messenger couldn't be good news.

Elsa shifted uncomfortably in her chair as she realized once again that the person was likely loose in the castle. Could it be one of the other nobles? A servant who'd seen how much stress the noble had caused their queen as of late?

She shook her head, clapping the book shut and running a hand through her pale hair before she set the book down on the nightstand.

The sleeping man suddenly shot up in his bed, gasping and staring with his eyes wide in terror. Elsa shrieked and jumped back in her chair, her heart hammering against her chest as Lord Harald turned toward her and grasped for her hand while he looked wildly around the room. When he confirmed that they were alone, he stared at her.

"I meant for your letter to get out, Your Majesty... I truly did... but he must have thrown it out."

His hand squeezed around hers, making Elsa bite her tongue to keep from yelling at him. She gently pried his fingers loose and dropped his hand away from her as she looked at him squarely.

But she could not hide the fright in her own eyes as she asked, "Who's he?"

Olaf was so excited to hear of Kristoff's return that the first thing he did was to hunt down Sofia and persuade her to bake a batch of 'Welcome Home!' cookies. They were just plain sugar cookies, but Olaf planned to cheer, "welcome home!" when he delivered them. Hence, 'welcome home!' cookies.

Sofia blinked at this logic, but she said nothing as she got the ingredients gathered and convinced Chef to help them.

"Hey, Olaf. You want to shape these guys like reindeer? Kristoff has a reindeer, you said... so I thought—"

"Yes! Ooh, yes!" Olaf interrupted Sofia, his eyes going starry with enthusiasm.

The girl chuckled and said, "All right. But I need you to fetch the cookie cutter from the storeroom."

"Leave it to me!" the little snowman yelled, bounding out of the room before Sofia could tell him which shelf he'd find the cutter on.

Olaf sprinted out of the kitchens and into the downstairs hall, frolicking all the way to the end where he turned a corner and knocked directly into a pair of black boots. The impact sent him rolling backwards, his head, body and legs coming apart. With a pained groan, he quickly put himself back together and looked up at the man he bumped into.

"Sorry about that!" Olaf said, smiling at the blonde stranger. "Are you lost?"

The stranger hid something away in his coat pocket and shook his head, looking darkly amused about something. Olaf was quiet for a moment, deciding that the man must just be shy.

"All righty! Excuse me, then!"

Then he darted around the man and was back on track for the storeroom. The door was open, which wasn't odd since servants frequently stopped in for anything they were low on, especially kitchen staff. Olaf entered the room and circled around before he realized he'd forgotten to ask Sofia where the cookie cutters were.

"Silly me!" he chuckled, waddling back out into the hall.

Then it hit him like Marshmallow's fist. The stranger in the hall was not a stranger. He'd seen him before... more than once, though he only realized it now.

With a yelp, Olaf ran for the nearest stairwell to the upper levels of the castle, the 'welcome home!' cookies momentarily forgotten.

A/N: Whew, getting closer and closer to the conclusion here. I'm still deciding whether to make the final chapter a two-part thing or just one chapter. Before I start answering questions, I want to address a few things.

So... the truth mirror's not really evil. But people can be corrupted by power... and supernatural beings are even more susceptible to it.

It was the mirror that sent Hans back in time to hide him from the Ice Maiden. But as she says, she underestimated the Ice Maiden's power. When the Ice Maiden kissed Hans as a boy, she sort of 'marked' him. I guess you can think of it as creepy spiritual imprinting, so that she'd be able to watch over him and find him when he was worthy of ruling beside her.

But how did the mirror act on its own when Hans didn't even have the mirror fragment in his eye at that time? Well, in a way, the mirror left its own 'imprint' on Hans before the fragment was removed from his eye. Its power left a mark on him. That's why he touches his eye still every now and again.

And Hans was in the fjord when he traveled through time. If you think about it... water is the oldest mirror there is. And there's definitely some mystery I'm deliberately leaving around the truth mirror, but... all I'll say is that it's not evil, it's really powerful and it would be bad if someone like the Ice Maiden had complete control over its power.

Now to answer some questions!

Did the kiss mess with Hans? Oh, it definitely did! HCA's Ice Maiden and the Snow Queen both have the Kiss of Death. The first two kisses just mess with your head... and in this story, her kiss definitely puts Hans under her sway.

Why is Anna having those dreams? It's the mirror showing her the past so that she can understand what's happening with the Ice Maiden. Because Anna defeated the mirror's power with her act of true love, the mirror's no longer as tainted as it was after years of being used for evil. So it's kind of like a thank you gift from the mirror. Though for the longest time, it just confuses Anna.

Will their actions affect the future? What do you think? 😉

Does Hans love Anna? I think there are definitely different kinds of love... and I think Hans loved Anna enough early on for the Ice Maiden to view it as a threat. That's why she shows up again at the North Mountain. She feels her hold on Hans fading when this freckly, warmhearted princess shows up in his life and catches his eye.

He was kissed as a boy. Is that what he meant when he told Anna better not to be kissed if it doesn't mean anything? Yes. Though he's not really sure himself that kissing her would have thawed the ice in her heart anyway. I guess none of us will ever know. 😛

They're in the past. How does the Ice Maiden know Hans? Can she travel through time and space? She doesn't know him in the past. She's actually drawn to the ball because of what he stole from Volco. But she does recognize her mark on him—the fact that she's kissed him, which intrigues her of course, because she's not met him yet.

Thanks for reading and leaving nice comments etc! Hopefully this chapter answered a lot of your questions and wasn't too much of an infodump.