Chapter 3

After Anna nearly drowned chasing after her monster of a sister, Hans put on a show of carrying the unconscious princess through the castle, attending to her, making sure to use gentle gestures such as kissing her lightly on the forehead. The maids practically swooned. A knight in shining armor, their faces said.

Hans really didn't have any intention of taking especially good care of the misfit princess, so if she just so happened to die while he was "tending" to her, he could easily have said that they had said their vows before she had passed. All he had to do was sit back and let nature take its course.

So that's what he did. He sat with her through many hours of the night, watching her pained and pale face as she writhed in her sheets. However, upon seeing the sweat begin to dampen her face, Hans began to feel a little curious. Hadn't she fallen into frigid water? Why was her body reacting as if she had a fever?

He didn't have long to wait before Anna began moaning quietly. More than a little startled, Hans stood up quickly, making the chair he was sitting in fall over with a loud crash. Anna, startled awake sat up with a cry.

"No!" Hans barely had time to hit the ground before the wall of flame that erupted from Anna shot past him.

"You're kidding me! Two freaks in one family? What are the odds?" Leaping onto the bed, he made quick work of restraining Anna's flailing limbs, hands pressing down on her arms to keep them in place, straddling her so she couldn't roll away.

"Get off me!" she screamed, eyes wide with panic, her hands beginning to heat up in her frenzy. "Elsa! Elsa, help me!" Cursing to himself, Hans let go of her arms. With one swift movement, he slapped her across the face.

"Get a hold of yourself!"

The flickering flames died away, her hands cooling rapidly as she took in lung fulls of air. Tears pulled in her eyes as Hans stood back carefully. She curled into a small ball, shaking with sobs. "Elsa."

It wasn't long before she fell back asleep, too exhausted to keep her eyes open any longer. Smelling something burning, Hans looked over to see that while he had been spared the fiery blast from before, the drapes had not.

"This is going to be a long night."

-line break-

Anna woke up the next morning feeling stiff but considerably warmer. When she turned her head, she had to squint against the bright light that was pouring in through her window. A figure was beside her, silhouetted against the bright sunlight.

"Elsa?"

The figure moved and she could see that the person sitting beside her bed was not Elsa. "Not quite," Hans said, smoothing her bangs away from her face. Anna smiled to herself, the feel of a smooth hand on her face bringing her a feeling of familiarity.

"Has anyone found her?" She almost missed whatever it was that flickered behind Hans' eyes. If she didn't know better, she might have mistaken it for disgust.

"No. And frankly, no one wants to try," he sighs, almost as if he can't believe that no one would search for the missing queen.

"Why not?"

Hans gave her a look that Anna couldn't help but feel more than a little irritated about. "You do remember her shooting ice last night, right?"

"Of course I do but she's my sister! She could be in danger!"

"I doubt that, Anna. The Queen proved herself very capable of taking care of herself." Anna was surprised by Hans addressing Elsa as "the Queen" instead of "Elsa" or even "Queen Elsa."

"You don't understand-" she tried to sit up but Hans placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, keeping her in place.

"Anna, do you remember anything from last night?"

Confused, Anna tried to recall last night's events. "Well obviously, I remember Elsa leaving a-and falling in the water...I don't really remember anything after that."

Returning his hand to her cheek, Hans rubbed small circles into her skin. "Oh, honey, you set the drapes on fire."

Anna leaned away from his hand, bewildered. "W-what? What do you mean? It's not like I could have just gotten up and lit the drapes on fire!"

"You didn't have to," Hans paused, looking her deep in the eyes, "Anna, you set them on fire. You're like Elsa."

Silence stretched for an uncomfortably long moment. And then Anna laughed. She laughed so hard she doubled over and had to take a few more minutes to compose herself, still giggling as she responded. "I think I'd know if I was like my sister."

"Anna, I saw it happen." He held up one of his hands, showing off the pink puckered skin. "I got burned."

"Oh god! I'm so sorry, Hans!"

"You didn't mean to."

Ignoring him, Anna continued. "This is what Elsa felt all this time! That's why she hid! She thought she'd hurt me like I hurt you. Oh god, I can't believe this!"

"Anna-"

"I have to find her! Maybe she can help- she'll know what to do-"

"Anna!" He grabbed her face with one of his hands, forcing her to look him in the eyes.

"You aren't going anywhere. Especially now that I know what you can do," he smiled, though it was a cruel smile that made Anna's stomach churn.

"Hans, what are you talking about?"

Hans let go of her face, taking a step back and closing the drapes, making sure the only light was from the few candles around the room.

"I really can't believe my luck. I figured I'd make you my pretty little wife, and you'd just so happen to have a tragic accident. But this- I couldn't have even dreamed that you'd have such a power!"

"Hans, no, you-"

He turned his back to her, facing the closed windows. "Oh yes, Anna. With you in my possession, there really isn't anything stopping me from taking over Arendelle. I could even become king over my brothers!"

"What makes you think I'd help you!" she spat.

Hans turned around slowly, that sickening smile retuning to his face. "Of course you will. Or I can just as easily replace you with Elsa."

"No!" she launched herself at Hans, he caught her, holding her up. She looked up at his face with pleading eyes. "Please no. I'll do whatever you say, just don't hurt Elsa!"

"That's a good girl."

"What are you going to do with me?" Anna was almost afraid to hear the answer but she had to know.

"Well first we need to see what you can do."

-line break-

I didn't even know we had dungeons, Anna thought to herself as Hans led her through a dank corridor. One of the few servants that had stayed in the castle over the years led them down, glancing every once in a while at Anna.

"You're sure everything is okay, your highness? Are you well enough to be in such a place?"

Anna nodded quickly, feeling Hans' arm tighten around hers. "I feel perfectly fine!"

The servant nodded to herself. "I was sorry to hear about the Queen. I hope she is found soon."

For the first time in a while, Anna smiled and it was genuine. Here was someone else that was worried about Elsa as well, despite knowledge of her freezing Arendelle.

"Thank you."

The maid stopped a few minutes after their exchange. They appeared to be in a big open room, lit only by the four torches in each corner of the room. The walls dripped with unknown liquid and the air was dank and cold.

"Sir, please remember that the Princess is still recovering and should not be in the cold for too long."

Anna felt another wave of warmth well in her chest at the woman's concern. Hans' smile was tight as he nodded. "Of course not, I wouldn't dream of it."

And with that, she left, heading back the way they had come. With a jerk, Hans released her, nearly sending her into a heap on the dirty floor. She scowled at him. "Watch it, would you!"

"First thing on the agenda, I want to do a little experiment," he glanced towards the shackles on the back wall.

"What kind of experiment?"

There it was again, that creepy smile of his. It made Anna's skin crawl. What had she ever seen in him?

"I want to see how you fare against the cold."

"Wait what?"

And that was how she found herself chained to the wall in the dark dungeons for three days.

It was dark and cold and Anna had lost feeling in her hands not long ago. The stones beneath her were clammy and unforgiving. So to keep herself from panicking, she talked and she sang. Sometimes she pretended she was talking to Elsa.

"I'm so sorry for not listening to you. You were right, I didn't know Hans and look where that got us."

"Exactly where I wanted you," Hans answered, striding back into the dim light with his own torch in hand.

"Took you long enough to come back, I was beginning to wonder if you forgot about me," she glared at Hans as he smiled.

"Aw, I missed you too, sweetie."

"What do you want?"

"Well it seems average cold doesn't seem to affect you much. But I've come to try something else."

"Just get it over with already."

Hans crouched down to her level. "So impatient!" he tutted. "You know, Anna, I've been to a lot of places. And sometimes I hear things, legends, rumors things of that nature. I've even heard things of human beings possessing affinities for elements. And there are quite a few theories I'd like to try out."

Something glimmered in his hand, the light from the torches reflecting off the object. Anna only had a moment to register what it was before the blade was dragged across her skin.

A/N: Oh wow, that escalated quickly. But there will be fluff ahead, I promise! Please review!

-My Name is Birdie