Chapter 11

This was bad, very bad, without their employer, what were they supposed to do, only he could give them instructions on what to do next. The four of them were seated inside 'The Hovel' and Jack was pacing back and forth. Bow was talking quietly with Elsa and Dragon was watching Jack. Jack glared at the two girls,

"What the hell are you doing taking this so calmly!? Nearly all of your local team has been taken hostage along with ours, our employer if you remember Snow Queen, is also in jail and we need him for instructions! How are we going to pull off this giant assassination if we don't have the man power or the information we need?!" Jack started to yell and shout. Dragon simply stood up and walked over to him. He stood in front of Jack before slapping him across the face. Jack was frozen for a moment before glaring at the brunette boy.

"Sorry, you were going into hysterics and a slap across the face is one of the best cures." He smiled and shrugged, "I was expecting that something like that would needed for one of the girls, not you mate," He gave a grin, while the two girls laughed,

"You enjoyed slapping me didn't you, you talking fishbone!" Jack growled, trying to look menacing and in the other's eyes failing due to the large red handprint that was on half his face. Dragon pretended to think,

"Oh, of course, it's not often that I can do that after all, always defending yourself, killing people and stuff, you don't really get a chance to get a hit over hysteria, that's what makes it great!" Elsa tried to hold back her giggles while Bow snorted and laughed her head off. Jack raged and started pushing him around,

"Oi! Leave him out of it, yer Winter boy!" Bow stood up and rushed at Jack, effectively knocking him to the ground where she started to pummel him and they continued to fight, rolling around on the ground. Elsa rolled her eyes and stood up walking over to the still seated brunette, pulling on his arm to get him on his feet,

"I must admit the fact that this is happening without a growing fight occurring all around us is unusual. Not to mention the fact that Bow just did that for you," she smiled, teasing the slightly taller guy. His cheeks turned slightly pink as his jaw tightened, Elsa gave him an impish grin and walked over to break up the fight. Bow was by now, winning the fight and Jack was nearly going to either scream that he was sorry, or for help from the other two. Elsa quickly pulled Bow off,

"Okay, Bow, that's enough, I think he'll remember not to mess with you," Bow simply stopped and grinned, "Thanks for not taking my pummelling of your boyfriend too hard," she went and sat on the nearby table, Elsa shrugged, looking at Jack,

"I can't really judge can I, I nearly killed him twice in the past," the two turned around to look at her, "It was before we knew each other was each other," She elaborated,

"Yeah cause that makes sense," Bow said sarcastically, Dragon stared at the two of them,

"Actually, why didn't you put it together sooner?" he asked, "You two were dating and in love and suddenly out to kill each other, what gives?" Jack and Elsa look at each other,

"We didn't recognize each other," Jack stated, Bow snorted,

"While she can use that excuse, because of your extreme changes in physical appearance, that doesn't work for you, as well." Jack threw his hands up,

"We didn't see each other for 8 years, do you know how much a person can change in that time? I barely recognized my sister! Then we were in the Ice kingdom, where it's cold, snows all year round. Not really the best idea to walk around in the same clothes here. And they all wear hoods, low to try and block the cold and snow out, then there are also people that but charcoal on their skin around their eyes to fight the glare of the snow in sunlight." Elsa nodded,

"Plus while I knew he was traveling; I didn't expect him to appear in the first place I stowed away on. It was just weird. And he probably thought I was still back here all this time," Jack nodded,

"I certainly didn't think you would become an assassin by profession," he added. Bow looked at the pair of them, before sighing,

"I give up, you talk sense into them," she turned to Dragon. He looked at them,

"I see no point, they will use every excuse they can to fight, and Jack's change in appearance to become pale and white hair and blue eyes won't help our point, besides with the lack of food and sunlight the two of them looked like they were citizens of the ice kingdom, they are all pale and have little pigment, it made them ideal to work up there after all, they didn't stand out like you or I would." Elsa and Jack grinned in success, Bow scowled heavily.

"Anyway, back to the mission, what do we do?" Jack asked, Elsa pondered before shrugging,

"We already know what we are supposed to do, we just go ahead and do it, we don't need guidance from Manny to go ahead with it, we are professionals,"

"But, we have to change plans, we were all going to go and do this as a giant team together, between Assassins and Murderers, now this happens, should we get him out first, or not, what should we do?" Jack pointed out, Bow replied quickly,

"No, we can't get any of them out, so long as they are in prison they are innocent, we do run a tight ship, no paper work is kept here longer than 2 days, then it's burnt. And between those two days, people memorize and draw up the stuff in places it can be hidden in, little doodling's in a notebook, an abstract child's painting, whatever, but we still have some people on the outside Winter, it isn't just the four of us, we may need to call in other people from other areas and be stretched thin until we get our people out or new members, but we can manage. For the people in prison, for this mission, that's the safest place for anyone. Manny won't be looked at as someone who caused it as he was away on a trip and only a day passes and he is in prison, so no one will think he has anything to do with it. For him, it's ideal, and the guards only grabbed everyone cause they thought it was a brothel, which is against the laws." Bow pondered for a moment, "Is it just me or is it weird that this profession isn't as illegal as being someone who sells their body?" Elsa shook her head,

"It's not just you," she replied, "The laws from the old monarch were clearer on this, now with the Emperor, his wish and command is the law, and so he can change them around, I guess he had someone kill the royal family and changed the laws so he wouldn't be killed himself. But he couldn't change the laws too much so he just made loopholes and removed others for his own skin. And we are going to use his loopholes to save our skins and get rid of him, the plans he gave us will need to be looked over, we weren't expecting the castle to change as much as it did with the amount of guards in that place. But I still think that we won't be able to get many people in either way." Elsa then stood up, "But seems not much is going to get done, come on Winter, we will need to go and see your sister, see if we can go to the parade with her, see if we can cut off the head of the snake tonight, the sooner we complete this mission, the sooner I can see my sister again." Jack stood up and protested,

"That's not a good idea! We still need a plan on how to get past all the guards in there, and we still have people in there, if we attack on the first night, won't it look even more suspicious and then we may get found out and dead!" Dragon made a killing motion across the neck and a noise to accompany it, "Yeah, thanks Dragon boy," Elsa turned to them,

"I thought you would understand, I haven't seen my sister for a while, and when I left, she was taken from her life by the person who tried to end mine. I don't understand why Hans would do that but the longer she is his prisoner, the more danger she is in, we don't even know if he is planning on killing her or not, after he has an heir and the throne. There is no one that can get her out of that horrendous prison she is in except me, and I fear for her," Elsa stared at the three of them, "I have to get her out of there. And the only way is to kill them all." Jack quickly scooped her up in a hug, knowing that Anna was one of the most important people in Elsa's life, he knew that she would go through hell and back for Anna, that Elsa would rather cut off her own arm than let Anna bare any pain. Jack held Elsa to him carefully, as the girl trembled, she had latched on to him tightly, and if those wet patches were anything to go by, then she was in tears, letting all her emotions often kept bottled up out. Slowly, he rocked back and forth, running a hand through her hair, in attempts to soothe her. It had been a long day after all. He noticed Bow and Dragon Whisperer were awkwardly looking around, trying to avoid looking at the bittersweet moment. Eventually Elsa recomposed herself and Jack let go. She turned to Bow,

"I'm going in tonight, if I can kill Pitch, that's good and if not, I can get an idea of the guards nighttime work," Bow grimaced,

"That's if you don't get caught," Elsa rolled her eyes,

"I'm a top assassin, I don't get caught easily,"

"You're meant to have someone in there that will have your back,"

"Who better than Old Man Winter here?"

"I am standing here you know," Jack commented,

"It won't be easy, if you get caught, there's no chance we will get you out before the sun rises on your death day,"

"The danger is what makes it fun," the two girls had a stare down, Dragon and Jack watched,

"Is this normal?" the brunette asked in a low voice, Jack nodded,

"yeah, they are battling points without words, it can get pretty big quickly,"

"Well who wins?"

"That's easy, whoever's will is weaker, the first to break the eye contact loses, and I have to say, Snow Queen has been winning these arguments for a long time, I still remember the stare off over the last chocolate between her and her sister."

"Who won?"

"Neither, I grabbed the chocolate and ate it to both of their dismay." Dragon gave a laugh. Jack grinned,

"Did you pay for it?"

"The chocolate? No, but the taking and eating it, definitely, I learnt something, never get between them and their chocolate. It's not worth it." Jack gave a shudder while Dragon continued to chuckle. They turned their attention back to the two girls, who were still staring, well, glaring. Elsa had moved to stand as stiff as a board while Bow had folded her arms across her chest as if in defiance. Jack glanced between the two, he spotted the little twitch, it was only a matter of seconds, and the victor of the battle would emerge. Bow finally looked towards the corner of the room, lowering her head in defeat and her arms fell by her side. Elsa smiled and turned to Jack,

"Come on, we need to go and get your sister, the head to the parade, the celebrations and the parade will go on into the night for a while and we can slip away and get into the castle, see if we can get rid of Pitch and get anyone out." Elsa walked out grabbing a rug sack on her way to the door, Jack quickly following,

"Do you feel as if this is the point where it seems nothing else can go wrong for them, but it will?" Bow asked after a few moments of silence, Dragon turned to her,

"Like if it was a story and they were the good guys and this is one of those trials before the end with a life and death struggle between the forces of good and evil, and then evil king dies, good triumphs, bells ring out or happily ever after?" he asked, Bow nodded,

"Exactly, except if I know life, it never ends at a happily ever after, or good triumphs, I think we may need to keep an eye out for them." Dragon nodded in agreement,

"We don't have the man power to help them though," he mused,

"We don't need to go with them, just watch out for them, we won't need many agents, and we have some young blood that could do with espionage training that we could use for a small team. We would only be watching of course and maybe if we see a chance, rescue some of the others," Dragon looked at her,

"How many of your men didn't get grabbed?" Bow shrugged,

"We are looking at the younger ones that are assistants on missions and don't need to come here at all, then the older ones that train them or do other stuff for us, I know a great lady who goes and chatters and talks to people and no one notices her, because she is a little old lady, great source of intel." Dragon stared at her,

"How does that work? She sits in broad light, talking to people who could recognize her and no one notices her?" Bow grinned,

"Assassins are about blending in, we wish to be looked over, and the only people looked over more than an old lady knitting, is a group of kids running around causing a ruckus. Think about it," he did, "What about your men though?" Dragon shrugged,

"We have a lot of people in prison, so I'm going to have to ask surrounding areas to lend me some men for the next few weeks, it will be lucky if I get a handful I think, this area is looked over a lot for murderers," Bow shrugged,

"We'll have the man power we need, hopefully this will be finished within the week and all your men will be back unharmed." He nodded,

"Well, if we are going to watch them later, we might need to get a move on, you collect your trainee and I'll find a spot we can see everything but we won't be." She nodded, and walked towards the door, pausing for a moment.

"You know, I know you were different from most murderers, but I never thought that we would get along, or work well together. Until those two came back, everyone here was prepared to kill for a job to get any money," Dragon nodded,

"Times were rough, in here, it was becoming a case of kill or be killed, everyone looking out for only themselves, if they hadn't come when they had, who knows what would have happened," Bow smiled slowly,

"I just want to know, if after all this, will everything be the same as it once was? Murderers against Assassins?" Dragon laughed,

"I don't want it to be, and I don't think those two winter freaks would either," Bow turned to leave,

"I don't think I want to go back to the old ways of rivalry either," she murmured as she left. Dragon after a few moments, left, making his way to the castle.

Elsa and Jack had left the hovel, making their way through the streets back to the house that Emma was staying in, though house was probably a bit of a stretch. More like a place that gives shelter. Jack sighed, he had no idea that the money he and Elsa were sending was barely keeping his little sister healthy and safe, he thought he had been sending a surplus. Then again, so had Elsa.

"What are we going to do?" he sighed, "even if Pitch and his family don't live after tonight, there is still a case of this problem isn't going to solve itself." Elsa hummed next to him,

"Well in my personal view, these problems never were going to be solved overnight, and removing the head of the problem is our job, but the country won't be repaired overnight, there still will be heaps of problems, the castle is all about showing the wealth of the nation, and at the moment, all the wealth is in that castle. I don't know how much has been used for their own benefit but I do know that this needs to be fixed and soon." She glanced around at the sorry sight around them, "Before it gets worse, I won't let these people suffer any longer," As the sky grew dark and night approached, they came and went from Emma's home, walking quickly to see the parade and to keep warm, Elsa could tell that the cloak she wore was not particularly warm and originally for someone else, judging from the fact that it seemed a couple of sizes bigger. After a drab and grey walk through the poorer parts of town, they reached a street that was brightly lit and full of people. There were people in drab garments that seemed out of place in this street that was lit up brightly and colours swarmed around, in a range of vibrancy and patterns. The pair stared around,

"Do you remember our last one together? We came and watched the different people walk in costume, and perform, I still remember the dragons. We ate hot food and ran around, and you two danced together to the music that played in the square, that was the last time I heard you both laugh so freely. And remember Kristof gave Anna a necklace with a little wooden flower on it, his head seemed like it was on fire and she accepted it and then pulled him around to the game stalls, just having fun?" Emma sighed, a ghost of smile on her lips, "And then it all changed, but it's nice to remember happier times," Elsa and Jack exchanged a glance over her head, could she know what they were planning to do tonight, they didn't tell her, "Okay, as it's your first night back, I shall insist that you treat this as a date, I'll find some of my friends and join them, I'll see you back at the house. Bye!" the small girl turns and ran off, as if she had planned this, the two stared off in the direction she ran, quickly losing sight of her in the crowd,

"Well…that made it a little easier for us," Jack rubbed the back of his neck,

"Yes, she did, but I guess that she just wants to not be the awkward third wheel and not be babied by you here, she isn't 8 years old anymore, but it does make our job of slipping away a lot easier,"

"She'll be demanding details of tonight later from us won't she?"

"Course, I am the big sister figure in her life after all, only natural she is going to tease you and demand details from me, or at least try and gush about it, Anna was always the romantic, Emma had her head screwed on right, she is sensible,"

"…Why do I feel as if you are making me out to be overprotective of her?"

"Because you always were, I remember that bully shoving her in the snow and later he mysteriously had a black eye, a split lip and a broken arm."

"He fell out of a tree, I remember him saying,"

"He never even glanced at Emma again, and around you, he shook in fear,"

"He really did fall out of a tree…" Jack protested, Elsa fixed him a look, "…after I convinced him to climb it and made my point I pushed him, so he did fall out of a tree," Elsa sighed and rolled her eyes,

"Why did I date you again?"

"Cause I love you?"

"Sure, let's go with that…" Elsa teased, "Come on, if we should get up on the rooftop, we'll be able to see the royals and Anna going by easier, and be able to go to the castle faster." Elsa pulled him into an alley that was off the street and less crowded. Scaling up the wall was no problem, and from the rooftops, Jack had to admit they had quite the view of the parade, though it seemed to be more about how rich Pitch was and that they were all at his mercy. Then the royal family, seated in an open top, horse drawn carriage, Elsa focused on the people seen waving to the crowds, instantly picking out Hans and Anna. There were also all the royal brothers that were to be accounted for. Pitch was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, seems that we are ready for the next step, let's get going." the two started to run across the roof, quiet and swiftly, Elsa heard Jack call out to her,

"Race you there?" She only grinned and ran harder, extending her muscles as much as she could to jump further and run faster, glancing across the roofs to Jack, he didn't need much encouragement. In a matter of minutes, they were outside the walls on the east side of the castle. This side the wall had fewer men, and the ground patrol took longer as they walked through the streets instead of having a fast paced route, this was the side that had many blind spots, and because the walls were high, with buildings near, climbing was a lot easier. Elsa launched herself at the wall, gripping onto a stone, gritting her teeth to stop herself from yelling, one of her nails had been torn off. Jack gave a muffled grunt from the impact as he landed further along on the wall. The two quickly climbed, going over the top.

In a house nearby, watching through binoculars sat Dragon, Bow and a small black haired girl with many scratches and patches covering her not too clean clothes. Bow said to call her Glitch. Dragon watched them climb and once they were over the wall he let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding,

"Their in." he said, Bow nodded before munching on an apple,

"What now? We wait?" Dragon nodded,

"Yeah, now we wait,"

I would like to say that the start of this chapter was heavily inspired by a comment made by isawaliciaARROW. I hadn't really thought about it deeply until I saw their comment about how they hide each other and I hadn't put much thought into it, so I realised 'Plot Hole!', and I feel a point needs to be made. So I went back through the story and made some small changes so far to the first 3 chapters. If you wish to reread that is fine, if not, that's also okay because the changes aren't heavy and won't affect the story. I'll let you know each time I edit a chapter if you wish to go back and reread. But let me explain something. The last time these guys saw each other before the ice kingdom was 8 years ago in their time this has been mentioned a few times, or it may just be all in my notes. Obviously I skipped over it. Do you know how much a person can change in appearance in 8 years especially when they are younger? Where I live, under the age of 18 you have to get a new passport every 5 years while adults are 10. I think it's stated somewhere the rough ages, if I didn't they are in their early 20s so those 8 years, both of them went through drastic changes, because puberty. Then Jack changed cause of a chemical even more. So if there are any other points like that, please leave a review so I can pick up on it, this story doesn't have a beta reader, so it's not polished and probably has parts that I know, but aren't in here. I am relying on you guys to ask about points you don't understand, I only ask that you make clear what you are asking about in the right place, like if a problem in chapter 4 is strange, leave a comment at the end of that chapter not chapter 7, as an example, otherwise I can't find the problem and get confused. I get confused easily. It would also help if you gave an idea of where the problem is (quoting text or summarizing the point helps a lot) then my job at finding the problem is easier and isn't left as it is, confusing other readers. I can't read something as if I have never read it before, so as I have the advantage of knowing extra stuff that probably won't end up in the story, there are going to be huge gaps in knowledge, and that means also understanding.

In other news:

I failed, I tried to make a fluffy moment and completely failed. This is why I never write romance. Anyone got any pointers and tips? This is probably the most romantic it will get in the story, because come on, I'm writing a story that has the main characters try and get rid others, not much room for romance, but I felt that Elsa is a girl that feels things deeply, her fears especially, think about it, she froze her entire kingdom because of her fears. But I failed the romance. Oh well. Yeah, this was fun.

I am free from school! Nearly, I have another…2 weeks and a couple of days before I'm finished for the year I think. I still have astrophysics that I need to get done…but at least you weren't waiting a long time right? My schedule is a little less hectic for a couple of weeks, so I'll be writing, this story, maybe some more for story bunnies, and that texting one I'm doing…but still, this will take a little to finish yet. But we are definitely over the halfway mark.

I plan to get another chapter out soon! I actually have a plot outlined and I keep reviewing it, so then I can tie earlier stuff into it. However, it doesn't contain all details just main plot, not subplot.

This was originally meant to be one of the shortest chapters in the whole story, and I think it's now one of the longest! It's about 5 pages. Wow…well action wise it's the shortest, but I feel as if this chapter was more of a conclusion before the final battle, from here on out, it's business as usual. I had a lot of fun with this chapter, it feels more light hearted, and I think it may because of Jack. I didn't really think until this chapter that he wouldn't be all business and I realise he was OOC…a lot. Can't judge me, first story!

Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter!