A/N: Welcome back! Thank you all for being so patient with me. I had a great vacation, but it almost feels good to be home in a sort-of strange way... by the way, just a note, if you ever get a chance to go on a Disney Cruise, I highly recommend it! :-] Anyway, as promised, here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: Do I look like I own Frozen? Because I don't!

"No!" Johan yelled. "That's impossible! There's no way!"

"With all due respect, Captain, what makes you think it would be Noah?" Elsa asked.

"We found him sneaking around last night by the graveyard," the captain explained. "He was approaching another man who got away before we could capture him. They were undoubtedly up to no good or they would not have been in an area that is restricted at night."

"I heard the voice!" Noah yelled. "I heard the voice and I was going to confront the threat!"

"Be quiet!" the captain scolded him. "We noticed then that he matched your description of the man you saw, Your Majesty. Are we correct?"

The guards made Noah look up at the queen. Elsa looked into his eyes. They were filled with fear, rather than with hate and anger like before. But they still seemed like those same, hazel eyes that had stared her down on the beach.

"I don't know," she said as she backed away. But as she thought about the voice, she realized that Noah's voice was at least similar to it if not identical.

"Well, we couldn't prove anything either way!" Johan said desperately. "Not unless we were to prove he's a mind manipulator!"

The room went silent for a moment as everyone took this in. Johan knew that if he was wrong, then he had just given his friend away. Everyone in Landvik knew that the legends said that every mind manipulator is born with a scar-like red mark on the back of their head at the bottom of the hairline.

The captain took a deep breath. "Should we check for the mark, Your Highness?"

Johan looked into Noah's eyes and saw pure panic looking back at him. He didn't want to believe it, but he could tell that Noah was hiding something.

Reluctantly, Johan slowly nodded his head. The guards holding Noah pushed him down and made him bend his head over.

"No!" Noah yelled.

One of the guards pushed back Noah's scraggly hair, revealing a distinctive red mark outlining the bottom of his hairline.

"No," Johan whispered. "It can't be."

Captain Gunnarson glanced at the prince with a look of shock and sadness. "Your Highness?" he said softly. "Shall we put him in a cell?"

Johan took one last look at his friend and closed his eyes as he nodded swiftly. "I'm sorry."

The guards took hold of Noah and started to drag him away.

"Wait!" Noah yelled, struggling against them to try to get the last word in. "Okay! It's true! I have the power! But I never hurt the queen! Or anybody else!"

He gave in as the guards dragged him out of the room toward the dungeon. The remaining people in the room stared after him, shocked and horrified.

Johan turned around as he heard Julie start to cry. She pushed past Leah and Isak and ran out of the room.

"Julie?" Johan said as he began to start in her direction. Anna placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him though.

"Let her go," she said. "Let her mourn by herself."

Johan nodded, and the captain cleared his throat.

"I'm truly sorry about Mr. Jacobsen, Your Highness," he said. "I hope you forgive me for putting you through this. I was only doing my job."

The prince nodded solemnly. "Thank you, Captain," he said. "You are dismissed."

The captain did an abrupt about-face and exited the room. The remaining six people glanced at each other and dispersed as they left the throne room. Leah and Isak went to their room, Anna and Kristoff went to her room, and Elsa led Johan to her room.

As he sat down on Elsa's bed, Johan's thoughts buzzed like bees in his head. He couldn't believe that Noah was behind all this; he just couldn't, and he wouldn't. Noah was his best friend, always there when he needed him. How could he have been playing them from the beginning, especially when 'the beginning' was when Noah was only eight years old?

Elsa sat down next to him and placed a hand on his back as he held his head in his hands. She didn't say anything as he stared blankly in front of him. He shook his head in utter disbelief.

"It can't be him," he said. "It just can't be. I've known Noah for fourteen years, and he would never do anything to hurt any of us."

"Johan?"

"He's like family to us-"

"Johan?"

"-I just can't believe-"

"JOHAN!"

"What!?"

He looked into her big, blue eyes and could see the sadness in them. She could also see the tears forming in his eyes. She placed her hand on his cheek and shook her head at him.

"Please don't start crying," she begged. "Because then I'll start crying."

Johan chuckled and hugged her to his chest. "Alright," he said. "Don't worry; I'm gonna fix this."

Elsa smiled and looked up at him. "That's one thing I've always loved about you."

He smiled. "What?"

"You never give up over anything!"

He laughed and gently kissed her lips. They sat there on the bed in each other's arms for several minutes until there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Elsa said.

Leah walked in and smiled sadly at Johan.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," he replied. "What's up?"

She took a deep breath. "I think we should go talk to Father about this," she said. "Maybe there's something that we can do."

Johan shrugged. "Can't hurt," he said. "Let's get Julie to come, too."

He kissed Elsa goodbye and followed Leah to Julie's door. He took a deep breath before gently knocking.

"Julie?" he said. "Leah and I are going to talk to Father about Noah. We were hoping you'd come with us."

There was no response. Just a muffled cry from the other side of the door.

"Julie?" Johan called again. He tried to turn the handle, but it was locked. "Julie, open the door!"

"I want to be alone!" Julie cried.

"Julie, I know you're upset, but you can't stay in there forever!" Leah said.

"Just go away!" Julie yelled. "Leave me alone!"

Johan and Leah gaped at each other, speechless against their sister's grief and powerless to help her. Johan shook his head and started for the king's study, motioning for Leah to follow him. They barged in to find their father pacing the floor.

"Father, you can't let them do this!" Johan yelled.

The king sighed. "Johan, I-"

"Noah is like family to us!" Leah said, cutting him off. "You can't let them lock him up!"

"I was just as shocked and upset about this as you were," the king said. "But I don't know that there's anything I can do."

"You're the king!" Johan said. "You must be able to do something!"

"I can't let my personal feelings over this get in the way of the facts!" the king said, looking out the window instead of at them.

"But Father," Leah begged, "you don't actually believe that Noah-"

"I don't know!" the king yelled, frustrated. He got a hold of himself, took a deep breath and sighed. "I don't know," he repeated calmly. "I don't want to believe it but all of the evidence points toward him!"

"Father, we don't have much evidence to begin with!" Johan said.

"He's right," Leah agreed. "We might not be able to prove him innocent right away, but we can't really prove him guilty right away either."

"What exactly do you want me to do?"

"I want a private detective here on this case," Johan concluded. "As soon as possible."

The king sighed as he saw the determination in his son's eyes.

"Please," the prince begged. "For Julie's sake."

"Alright," his father said. "I'll make sure a detective is here by tomorrow morning."

Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63