"De-extinction?" Tiana said when Elsa brought her the article she wrote two days later.
"Tiana I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. I'm a journalist not a science fiction writer." Elsa replied.
"So your telling me these nuts actually have a secret lab in their basement where they are trying to bring back long extinct animals from the dead?"
"I saw it with my own eyes." Elsa said "You going to print the story or not?"
"Oh I'm printing the story." Tiana said "Do you know how many papers are going to sell when people see that there are loonies are there trying to bring Jurassic Park to life? By the time this is done and the Guardians are brought down the two of us are going to be more famous then the duo that brought down Nixon."
"Why do you say the two of us?" Elsa said "I'm the one doing all the hard work, I'm the one risking my life hanging out with these people, all you do is run the story. If anybody is going to be famous after this is over it's me."
"Yes but this is my company, my paper." Tiana said "I am the one who assigned you this assignment and am the one who decides if the story gets printed or not. I am your boss, which means I am in charge of this whole assignment. You do the hard work yes, but I bark the orders. It's like when a army goes to war. There are the ground troopers who are in the center of the battlefield who does all the fighting. Then there is the general who organizes the battle and tells the soldiers when to attack, where to attack and when to fall back. Now tell me Elsa should the soldiers who did all the fighting be the only one who gets the credit or should the general who organized the battle and was in charge of the whole mission also have a share in the credit?"
"The general should have a share of the credit." Elsa mumbled between clinched teeth.
"Exactly Elsa." Tiana said putting a hand on Elsa's shoulder and having Elsa look her straight in the eyes. "Now I am your general and you are my soldier. I am in charge of this battle you are waging. So don't you ever try to undermine my authority or think you are the only star player here. That type of attitude is what gets people dishonorably discharged, you here.
"Loud and clear." Elsa mumbled again.
"Good." Tiana said releasing her hand "Now if you excuse me I got a paper to run. And since you did such a good job on this story I am going to award you the rest of the day off. Enjoy your day off Elsa."
"Thank you mam." Elsa said in what had to be the most forced thank you she ever gave, she couldn't believe just how much Tiana was undermining her. Tiana was acting as if she gave Elsa the assignment from the beginning when in reality Elsa had to beg Tiana to let her take this assignment in the first place. But now since Elsa has been reporting the story Tiana has used it as a means for her own personal gain. Tiana didn't even want Elsa to take the story because of how dangerous it was. But now she is acting as if she ordered the whole damn thing from the beginning. Elsa couldn't believe how bad Tiana was disrespecting her and if Tiana wasn't her boss Elsa would have half a mind to lay her fist right square in Tiana's nose.
Needing someway calm down as well as someway to fill in the rest of her day, Elsa decided to hop in her silver Honda Civic and go visit her dad at the office. Usually she would walk to her fathers office but considering that since she got back to New York they got hit with the first snow storm of the year she found the weather a bit miserable to walk in. She hadn't talked to her dad since she first told him about her taking on the Guardians and she figured visiting her dad would get her mind off of her problems.
Sergeant Winters was sitting at his office desk sipping on his third cup of coffee for the day reading Elsa's latest story on the Guardians when he looked up and saw his eldest daughter walking up to him.
"Your taking your lunch already?" Sergeant Winters asked
"Actually no Tiana has given me the rest of the day off as a reward for doing a good job on the investigative reporting."
"Well I don't think theirs anybody more deserving." Sergeant Winters said "So, what have you discovered about them now."
"Come on now dad, you will find out in tomorrow's paper I ain't going to spoil it before it's out otherwise what's the point of printing it."
"Fair enough." Sergeant Winters said "However I do have a question. You obviously know where these people's lair is. You would have to in order to get a story out of them. Also if you know where they are hiding there is also a good chance you have seen one of their faces or at least have a name of one of their members. Would you mind spilling out their locations?"
Elsa was a little surprised to hear her father ask that, surely as a cop he would know just how dangerous of a question he was asking. Still without trying to show signs of fear, she took a deep breath and replied
"Dad let me tell you something. Imagine you are on the very top of a tower and attached to the tower is a wire that attached to another tower a few feet away. And you are being forced to walk across that wire with no harness or safety net. You would be very careful and cautious walking across that knowing that one slip up would mean sudden death. The people I am messing with is like that wire, I have to be very, very careful with what I expose, because if I mention anything to you or in the paper then they will track me down and murder me."
"As your father and as a cop I can offer you protection, I can have a dozen cops guard you wherever you go."
"That won't do you any good. I have seen what they are capable of, their training, their skills are far more experienced then even yours. I'm sorry dad but I cannot give you that information. You will just have to do your own detective work and figure it out yourself."
"Elsa, come on..." Sergeant winters begin to say but Elsa got up and headed for the exit.
"No!" Elsa snapped as she got up "If you care about my safety you wont ask me to spill information like that again. I don't care if they are terrorist or if they are on the top of your most wanted list. I have my own life to take into consideration here!"
Then Elsa stormed out of her fathers office, chewing herself out for not knowing that her father would try to get classified information from her. She couldn't expose their secrets, because if she did she was dead, and not even her own father would be able to protect her from their wrath.
She was just reaching the police station exit when Anna walked in and bumped into her. Causing a white bag to drop out of her coat pocket.
"Oops, sorry Elsa, didn't see you." Anna said
"Anna, what are you doing here?" Elsa asked
"Oh Kristoff is at work and I was needing a ride home and it's to cold to walk. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at work."
"I have the rest of the day off. I'll give you a ride back to your apartment."
"Awesome, thanks sis." Anna then reached down to pick up the bag that she dropped when Elsa noticed a green looking plant substance in the bag. She didn't need to even ask what it was, she knew exactly what it was and she instantly snatched the bag out of her hand, grabbed Anna by the arm and marched her to the ladies rest room.
"Hey what are you doing!" Anna demanded but Elsa didn't say a word until they were inside the bathroom. Then Elsa pushed Anna into one of the stalls and locked it behind the two of then before pressing her against the wall and bringing the bag up to her face.
"Are you fucking stupid!?" Elsa asked "Bringing this marijuana into a police station? Do you want dad to find out about this?"
"Give me that back!" Anna said reaching for the bag only to have Elsa pull it away out of her arms reach. "That is none of your business."
"How long have you been using this stuff?"
"For about six months now." Anna said "Kristoff has a friend who hooks him up with it. He introduced me to the stuff and I have been using and selling it ever since. You better not tell dad."
"You do realize this is illegal here in New York right."
"I needed the money." Anna said "I work at the damn phone company for god sakes. Eight dollars a hour just isn't cutting it."
"Let's just get out of here before you are seen with this." Elsa said handing the bag back to Anna and forcing her out of the bathroom and out of the police station. Once they were inside Elsa's car Anna took out the bag and rolled her up a joint and lit it up.
"Thanks for not ratting on me Elsa. I owe you one." Anna said as she brought the joint up to her lips.
"Are you really smoking that in my car?" Elsa gasped.
"Is there a problem?" Anna asked
"Well let's see here, if I get pulled over for anything and the cop see's you with that guess what, we both get in trouble."
"You worry to much sister."
"You are smoking a illegal drug in my car, and you accuse me of worrying to much?"
"What are you going to do about it huh Elsa, you are not my boss, nor a cop, you are just a reporter who makes a living nosing into other people's business that you have no business nosing into."
Elsa had heard enough. She instantly stopped the car, drug Anna out by her shoulders and drug her to a back ally before slamming her against a dumpster.
"Elsa, what the hell?" Anna gasped. Shocked and a little terrified over Elsa's sudden burst of violence.
"Now you listen here you ungrateful bitch!" Elsa said as she slammed Anna's back against the trash can with such force that it made a loud banging noise "These past few days I have been threatened, beaten, bound to a chair and interrogated, as well as forced to watch as a man was ripped apart by sharks. And you dare to accuse me of being nosy? Do you have any idea what its like to be in my line of work, to receive death threats if I step out of line once!? You have no clue what I go through because all you do is sit on your ass for several hours answering annoying peoples calls then sell weed to a bunch of street thugs afterwords. So don't you dare disrespect me or my work ever again or I swear the next time I see you with a bag of weed I am going drag you by your braids straight to dad and drop the bag of weed at his feet and make you answer for it. Do you understand me!"
"Y...yes" Anna stuttered in complete horror at this rage she had never seen from Elsa before.
"Good." Elsa said releasing her grip before marching back to her car.
"You can walk home for all I care." Elsa said as she drove off leaving Anna to walk in the snow alone.
Elsa swore she broke a few speed laws getting home but she didn't care, she was in such a sour mood that all she wanted to do is get home and be by herself for the rest of the day. When she did get home she slammed the door behind her, locked it shut, through her purse across the room and kicked off her shoes, throwing them in the exact direction as her purse.
Life for Elsa hadn't been the same since she got back from Australia, since she got back it seemed like the world was the enemy, her boss cared about her writing for her own fame, her father cared more about getting info from her then her safety, and even Anna treated her like garbage when it came to her precious weed. Elsa's world had been turned upside down and there was nothing she could do about it.
Elsa went to the bedroom of her one bedroom apartment and changed out of her work clothes and into a tank top and shorts, more like work out clothes but at least it would be comfortable. As Elsa finished changing she looked at her reflection in her bedroom mirror and oh how she wished she never took this assignment. How she wished Tiana been more forceful in preventing her from getting involved. Then she would still have a good relationship with her sister, her father wouldn't be bugging her on classified information and her world would be like was before all of this started.
Angry at herself, angry at the world, and feeling completely broken Elsa let out a loud scream and in a fit of rage she grabbed her bedroom mirror and threw it across the room. The mirror hit the wall right next to her bed and as the mirror shattered Elsa squatted down to the fetal position, buried her head in her knees and cried.
"What am I going to do?" Elsa sobbed "What am I going to do."
What Elsa didn't know was that her entire apartment had been bugged with tiny camera's fitted with microphones so that the Guardians could see and hear everything that went on in her apartment. It wasn't just her apartment either that was bugged but also Elsa's car and work office so that the Guardians make sure she played by their rules.
As Elsa was sitting in her bedroom sobbing. Jack and Rapunzel watched from Rapunzel's office as the two of them squared off in a game of chess.
"There was a few minuted where Elsa visited her father at the police station." Rapunzel said as she captured one of Jack's pawns with her knight. "Do you think that she may have spilled some secrets."
"Trust me Rapunzel I highly doubt she told them anything." Jack said moving his bishop in to capture Rapunzel's knight.
"How can you be so sure." Rapunzel said as she made her next move.
"Because Rapunzel, you see how broken she is?" Jack said pointing at the screen where Elsa was still weeping. "you can tell by just looking at her that she knows she is beaten, and that she has no reason to tell our secrets."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because breaking people is what I am good at." Jack said "How do you think this organization got so big Rapunzel. I had to work hard breaking people so that they had no choice but to fight for me. It wasn't easy but with a little bit of brainwashing and a lot of persuasion this organization has now became of the most feared terrorist groups in the world. And once I am finished breaking Elsa, our group is only going to grow bigger."
"You didn't have to break everyone." Rapunzel said "I joined on my own free will."
"Yes Rapunzel I know you joined on your own free will. You was just a computer geek fresh out of Harvard with a longing to be more then just a I.T worker. You came here wanting to make a difference with your skills and now you have became one of our most important pieces. I feel with a little bit of hard work Elsa can be like that too."
"How?" Rapunzel said "She is a journalist and she is trying to expose us."
"As I said, breaking people is what I am good at." Jack said, setting his pieces up for a check mate. "I have already exposed her family for what they are, shady and full of secrets. And Elsa's boss is revealing herself as a ego hungry jerk who cares about her own gain then her employees. She is already on the verge of snapping. All it's going to take is just a little bit more push, just a little bit more exposing of the world for what they really are. Then once she sees the truth, once she has nothing else to believe in, then..."
Jack then forced Rapunzel's king into a trap, allowing him to move his queen up and put her into checkmate."
"Checkmate." Jack said and Rapunzel knew that he said that for more then just the game.
Don't you just love dark creepy Jack. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review and follow and favorite if you like.
Till next chapter.