Chapter 19: What Lies Beneath

Elsa stood quite still, arms crossed and a less than enthused expression on her face. Through the one way glass she could see the same small child that she and Anna had allowed Olaf to bring here. He was sitting perfectly still with a blank expression on his face, one that might have been unnerving if it wasn't so painfully familiar to her.

"Can you tell me why exactly you called us here for this, Felix?" Elsa managed to mask the irritation in her tone, but only just. "It's not exactly an area we specialize in."

"I called you here Agent West." Felix turned to smile at Anna and Kris in spite of his insistence on only Elsa coming in, "Seeing the others is always a pleasure though."

"You never know, she might need back up." Kris piped up, returning Felix's smile.

Anna chimed in, doubt heavy in her voice. "For a child?"

"Unfortunately I believe this is a job for West alone." Felix's expression turned thoughtful, he even went so far as to tap his chin. "The child won't eat, won't talk to anyone-"

Elsa interrupted with a wave of her hand, "And just what am I supposed to do about that?"

Felix hesitated, a split second of nervousness flashing across his face. "You, well, you're aware that you and the child share some traits. I thought if he spoke with someone similar he might-"

"Might what, Felix?" Elsa nearly snarled the words, anger bubbling in her chest at the thought of being used as a pawn. "Might be more amenable to the idea that he's never going to see his family again?"

"Els." Kris stepped forward, a gentle hand on her arm.

It was a warning, but even the balm of Kris' soothing tone didn't take the sting away from knowing what was to come. She wanted to tell him that she knew, that even though she hated what had to be done she understood, but instead Elsa held her tongue and stepped toward the door.

Fingers closed around Elsa's wrist, effectively stopping her in her tracks. Then Anna's voice came from behind her, barely above a whisper. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"It doesn't matter what I want to do." Elsa snapped before softening her tone and glancing apologetically at Anna. "Sorry, what I mean is that it's what has to be done. Whether I like it or not."

With that said Anna held on for a few seconds more before letting her grip fall away. Elsa stepped into the hall, shutting the door behind her and taking a deep breath as she approached the very next door. She had heard the speech before, she couldn't count the number of times it replayed over and over in her head when she had first arrived here, but that didn't make it any easier to deliver the news to a child. She let loose a heavy sigh and put on her best, most friendly smile before entering the room with the child.

"Elsa!" He crowed, bouncing excitedly in his chair as she joined him. "I'm so glad you're here, they won't listen to me. Can you tell them it's past time for me to be home? My mom will be mad."

The words wrenched her stomach, but Elsa maintained her calm smile and redirected the conversation as best as she could. "Are you saying you don't want to learn how to use your special powers?"

The boy's brows scrunched together, the wheels in his little head turning as he weighed his options. Then, after a long silence, the boy shook his head. "I want to go home. "

Elsa's jaw tensed as her smile fell a little. Of course, it couldn't be easy. Elsa could continue trying to convince him, spend hours plying him with offers of money and cool stuff, a life of popularity and happiness...but the truth had to come out sooner or later, and having already been through this herself, sooner felt like the better option.

With a gentleness that she wished someone had shown her on her arrival, Elsa explained "I'm so sorry, but that's not going to be possible."

"W-what?" There was a sharp inhale of breath from him, the sound of a child about to begin crying. "W-why not?"

"It's not safe for you at home anymore." Elsa attempted to sound soothing, but she knew the pain he was feeling all too well. "It's not safe for your parents either."

She gently patted his knee, then retracted her hand to her own lap. The gesture felt hollow when she saw the look on his face, the quick rise and fall of his chest. Here it comes.

"Why not?" He demanded, hands balling into fists on his lap.

"Because of what you are." Elsa gestured to the boy's leg, then held her hand up and allowed change to ripple through it before reverting it back. "What we are."

"I wanna go h-home." The child sobbed, barely intelligible through tears and snot. "Take me h-h-home!"

"I know this is difficult to hear, but this place will eventually feel like home. The people around you will feel like family, with enough time."

"No!" The boy was shouting now, he practically leaped out of his chair and grasped at his head, "No, I can't stay here!"

Elsa was on her feet in a second, prepared to jump in at any sign that the child might hurt himself unintentionally. High emotions in a young, inexperienced werewolf were known to force transformations and one misplaced claw could result in a serious injury.

"Breathe kid, just breathe for me!"

"NO!"

Elsa started at the guttural, almost primal sound of the word escaping the child's throat. Something wasn't right with the way he sounded, so Elsa took a step back and remained on guard as she assessed the situation. It was obviously a difficult time for him, and children weren't exactly readily able to cope with extreme change so easily, but something about that sound felt off.

"You can be like a superhero, just like you said. But superheroes need secret identities, so you have to stay-"

Then, the child screamed. It wasn't a word this time, just a sound filled with frustration and rage. Elsa attempted to reach out, but when the child's head raised Elsa's heart sank. His eyes had begun to go dark and in seconds his irises had gone entirely black, but the change didn't stop there.

In a truly terrifying display the child's skin began to gray, and where his small, blunt teeth had once been were now a row of jagged, crooked teeth. Most frightening was the speed with which his limbs elongated, growing far too lengthy for the size of his torso in a matter of seconds as he rocketed to well over six feet tall.

A ghoul. Elsa felt stupid at being so easily tricked, but the fact of the matter was that this being had to have devoured a werewolf child to be able to wear his skin. Nothing has changed, something is still wrong in Arendelle.

While she hadn't anticipated being trapped alone in a room with a literal flesh eating monster, it wouldn't be the first time that Elsa had been forced to to bluff her way out of a tight spot. "Finally decided to shed that disguise? Took you long enough."

"You could have said something sooner." The ghoul grumbled, brushing off his arms as if he were covered in dust. "Wearing a skin suit too long gets uncomfortable."

The callous sentiment put a sick feeling in Elsa's stomach, but like the professional she was she swallowed past that and offered a chair to the ghoul. "Please, take a seat. I've got some questions, if that's alright?"

Looking mildly pleased with himself, the ghoul sat. His limbs were too long for the chair now, his knees bent and rose far higher than they should have. The sight was unseemly, but it wasn't her first encounter with one of his kind and Elsa knew that she needed to gather as much information as possible from him while he was feeling generous.

"Could you tell me a little bit about how you came across a werewolf child?" Elsa asked calmly, tilting her head a little, "You're familiar with what we do here, I'm sure, and I find it difficult to believe that we would miss a child in the city."

"Not the city." The ghoul shook his head fervently, "I know where the boundary lies."

"The forest then?" Elsa asked, making a mental note to circle back to where they found the ghoul. "What would a child be doing out there?"

The ghoul shook his head, thin lips pulling back in an eerie, toothy grin. "Not a child. Children."

Elsa paused, exhaling a slow breath and leaning back in her chair. Children shouldn't be in the forest, and for an inhuman child to have not only been there, but somehow been captured by a ghoul and devoured was almost unheard of. The odds had to have been astronomical.

"You'll have to forgive me, but I can't envision a scenario in which a gaggle of children simply walk into that forest." Elsa said it as politely as she could, hoping to keep the lines of communication open while calling out a possible lie. "Could you elaborate a little for me? Help me understand?"

With a surprisingly sweet tone, the ghoul began his tale. According to him a new structure had appeared in the few months since his last venture to that portion of the forest, and that little building was packed to the brim with children of varying ages. He had simply lured the first one he could from the confines of the building and devoured him.

Elsa tapped her middle finger against her leg, thinking hard about her response. "Did you know what he was?"

"Of course not!" The ghoul asserted firmly, "You think I wanted to lose control of my body? It's not like they have any kind of nutrition information on them."

Nodding along Elsa tried to appear understanding, "But you eventually did end up in the city. Well past the boundary. So how did that come about?"

It was difficult to tell, but it seemed like the ghoul's expression darkened before he spoke again. "They weren't alone out there, the kids. Somebody was guarding them. Noticed one was gone and came across me ripping his-"

"Spare me the theatrics, please." Elsa recoiled at the start of the gory details, shaking her head. "Somebody saw you, and?"

"They came after me, shouting something about losing a subject?" The ghoul made an unusually human gesture, shrugging his shoulders as he continued, "Test...subject maybe? I don't know, and I don't care. Now, you have your information, can I go?"

There it was, the request to leave. The ghoul had no clue that he was the first of his kind noted to have consumed a werewolf and been affected by it, no idea that S.N.O. would be all too happy to keep him in custody for study.

With a wry smile, Elsa shook her head. "Oh, yeah, no, that's not going to happen."

"What?" The ghoul exclaimed, jaw hanging slack in shock. "You're joking. I told you what you wanted to know and-"

"And you would have been better off starving to death than eating that kid and ending up here, I'm sorry to say." Elsa explained, then crossed her arms over her chest. "I suggest you comply with their orders, it makes things a lot less painful."

With perfect timing the door to the room burst open and a small team of people dressed in heavy armor rushed in, subduing the stunned ghoul with little difficulty. Elsa watched in silence as the guards skillfully fitted a muzzle over the ghoul's mouth, protecting them from his bite, and led him roughly from the room.

Expression stoic, Elsa stared back at the false window where Felix was likely still standing there and observing. She had to hand it to him, he had assembled a strike team much more quickly than she expected, but even more surprising was the speed with which Kris and Anna joined her in the interrogation room.

"Well that was..." Kris began, but couldn't seem to find the words.

"We have to find those kids." Anna said fervently, a fire in her eyes as she addressed Elsa. "I bet you anything that kid is in the file, and if he's not then he will be soon."

Anna likely wasn't wrong, but with the current, somewhat fragmented state of affairs within their team Elsa wasn't sure if it was in their best interest to take on this mission right now. Hesitantly Elsa looked to Kris, searching him for some sign of what she should do. In spite of an apology having not been spoken between them Kris still looked as he always did – ready to follow Elsa into fire the moment she asked.

When her gaze shifted to Anna Elsa was met with that same excitable determination still burning in Anna's eyes. Unlike Kris' calm, supportive energy, everything about Anna's aura was chaotic. She was a swirling mass of righteous energy waiting to be unleashed on the unfortunate perpetrators of this strange kidnapping spree.

"Oh, fine." Elsa sighed heavily, looking briefly up at the ceiling before settling her eyes back on the one way glass. "We will be accepting mission HR-176, Felix, so pull it off the logs."

The sound of a speaker scratching to life in the room came first, followed by Felix's voice, "You got it, Agent West."

XXX

The work attempting to locate the supposed building hidden among the trees had been intensive to start, but the lack of up to date satellite imagery was making things all the more difficult. With a grand stretch Anna leaned away from her computer screen and sighed dramatically as she feigned dying by falling limp in her chair.

"Have you died again?" Kris asked in monotone.

"Please tell me you found something." Anna groaned, reaching up to rub at her tired eyes.

"As expected, no records of structures being built anywhere near the forest, let alone within it." Kris sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking defeated. "But why lie about something like that?"

"You think he was lying? Elsa seemed pretty certain that he was telling the truth."

There was a hint of bitterness in Kris' tone when he responded, one that Anna hadn't heard from him before. "Yeah, well, we've all been wrong about Elsa before."

Anna half smiled, a confused chuckle escaping her. "What makes you say that?"

Kris' expression sobered instantly as he made a valiant attempt to back pedal, "What? No. Say what? I didn't say anything-"

"Yeah that's the most convincing thing I've ever heard." Anna rolled her eyes, 'reviving' herself and sitting up in her chair. He may not have been entirely specific but the strain in his voice told Anna that things were still difficult between he and Elsa. Time to help fix this. "So, you two haven't made up yet I take it?"

"Made up." Kris scoffed and leaned back in his chair, ruffling a hand through his already messy hair. "Not sure how I can do that."

Anna's brows came together in confusion. "What could you have possibly done that she couldn't forgive you for?"

Kris made a grumbling sound and crossed his arms over his chest defensively. "Don't really think I can tell you that."

The wheels in Anna's head began to turn. She found herself thinking back on the night she had run into Elsa, the remnants of tears on Elsa's cheeks and the photo of Elsa and her former teammate slash lover. Kris had said something to her, that much was clear, but what could have possibly gotten them to the point at which Elsa would cry? Or to the point where Kris might think he couldn't be forgiven?

For Elsa to have let Anna see her crying and then reveal so much personal information about herself something major had to have been said, but what? Resolutely Anna put on her most disinterested face, determined to figure out just what happened between Kris and Elsa that night.

"She said something strange when we got back from town, you know." Anna said, careful to speak calmly so Kris wouldn't suspect that she was still prying him for information.

With a curious expression Kris glanced up at her, "Yeah? You guys did find a kid that you both thought was a werewolf. Not every day that you find such a young one, I'm sure she did say some weird stuff."

"No, not about that." Anna feigned a thoughtful look, one that she hoped would look like she was struggling to remember the words (though she hadn't been able to fully put them aside since Elsa had spoken them). "We were talking in the garage and I guess we were out there a while. She said we should get inside before you 'got the wrong idea.'"

Anna made sure to make air quotes around the last bit and make a face for emphasis, then shrugged her shoulders and spun her chair back around before beginning to scroll through images of the forest again. From behind her she could hear the gentle squeaking of Kris' chair as he shifted in it. For a long while there was silence between them, save the gentle rocking squeaks, but eventually Kris sighed loudly.

"You know-" He let out another frustrated sound, "Nope. Not going there."

Excitement welled in Anna's chest as she realized that her plan to wheedle information out of Kris was actually working. She just had to keep pressing the right buttons and he would break soon enough. Anna left a strategic silence after his outburst, even going so far as to click on her mouse a few times as if she had no interest in what was going on. Then, she struck.

Anna hummed, as if she were bored. "What's there to get the wrong idea about anyway?"

"You mean you haven't noticed?"

The words were out of his mouth so quickly that Anna was a little startled. There was no need for Anna to pretend this time, she really wasn't sure what he was talking about

"Noticed what?"

Nervously Kris glanced over his shoulder at the door to his room, tightly secured and shutting them off from the rest of the house. It was like he was taking stock of how sturdy the door was, maybe considering the thickness of the walls or calculating how softly he would need to speak for Elsa not to hear him in passing.

At last he quietly muttered, "How she teases you all the time? How she, how she looks at you?"

"How she looks at me?" Anna parroted, raising a brow at him and laughing. "You mean with disdain?"

"I swear, you two are the most dense people on the face of this planet." Kris growled in a rumbling, frustrated tone, "I thought she had a thing for you, okay? And I made the clear mistake of saying something about it and she-"

"I'm sorry, you thought she had a thing for me?" Anna gestured at her entire being, "Have you even seen me?"

"Listen, I've known her a long time and the last time I saw her..." Kris paused mid-sentence, his head tilting to the side and his eyes narrowing. "Wait, why did you say it like that?"

Anna glanced away from Kris for a fraction of a second, an involuntary reaction that confused her just as much as Kris' suggestion had. "What?"

Kris' eyes burned like fire as he stared at her, seemingly reaching deep into her soul in search of the answer he was looking for. Then, he grinned. "Oh Anna..."

Anna tensed at the sing-song tone of his voice, she nervously repeated herself. "What?"

"I have asked you so many times, and you always argue about it." Kris' grin was becoming unbearable, "You like her, don't you?"

Words refused to form in Anna's mouth, her mind couldn't even process a real response for him. "How could I possibly like someone like her? She's rude, condescending-"

"Hey, you're not a treat all the time either Anna!" Kris interjected, looking offended on Elsa's behalf. "Besides, she's also strong, and self-sacrificing-"

"She's my boss!" Anna interjected, but Kris was still going on.

"-and do I even need to mention how hot she is?"

Anna could feel the heat creeping into her face and try as she might she couldn't fight it back. She couldn't even argue her point further for her mind raced back to the night she had accidentally seen far more of Elsa than she intended to, sending Anna into a spiral. Of course Elsa was attractive, but so were plenty of other people that Anna didn't have feelings for!

"I, well, it's not like she would-" As Anna floundered in embarrassment the emotion quickly gave way to a confused frustration, causing her to snap back at him. "Aren't you two still fighting? Why are you wasting your time talking her up to me as if there's even a chance?"

Kris' expression sobered, the irritating grin slipping down into a thoughtful frown. "Point made."

Anna breathed a silent sigh of relief, internally thanking her own quick wit for cutting Kris off before he became too insufferable. Yet as the heat of embarrassment faded the memory of Elsa's tear stained face crept into her memory.

Elsa had been crying openly just moments before seeing Anna that night, she hadn't bothered to hide it, and Elsa had even offered so much more information about Merida than Anna had ever hoped to know. But why? How could Kris suggesting to Elsa that she might have a thing for Anna have led to all of that?

After a brief silence, Anna sighed. "So, what? She got mad when you said she liked me? How did you get from there to Merida?"

By the way Kris was looking at her it was clear to Anna that he wasn't sure he should be saying more about what had been said between he and Elsa. Then, it clicked in her mind – Kris didn't know that she knew about Elsa and Merida. Of course he wouldn't want to betray Elsa's trust, even when fighting his loyalties still ran deep.

"I know about them." Anna confessed, hoping that might ease Kris' mind and let him speak more freely. "She, well, she told me the night you guys fought."

With a defeated sigh, Kris rubbed at his neck. "I brought up how close you two had gotten. She got defensive and I thought maybe she was feeling guilty. I told her Merida wouldn't have wanted her to be alone forever, that's all."

Defensive. Of course Elsa had been defensive. Why wouldn't she be? Kris had accused her of having feelings for someone clearly below her station. Who wouldn't be in that situation? As sure as Anna was about that, something felt like it twisted in her stomach as she mulled over the truth of it.

Anna cleared her throat, trying to release some of the tightness that had suddenly gathered there. "That definitely explains why she was crying, I-"

"She was crying?" Kris demanded, getting rapidly to his feet. Panic showed clearly on his face and his next words tumbled out quickly. "I have to talk to her, right now."

"Kris I don't know if-"

Kris was out the door before Anna could even finish her sentence, leaving her to wonder whether or not she should have pressed him for information at all. It hadn't resulted in much good, except that Kris seemed to be on his way to apologize to Elsa. Elsa, who clearly had such an aversion to Anna that she had deemed it an insult for Kris to even suggest that Elsa might care about Anna.

With Kris gone the weight of the information she now had truly began to settle on her mind, bringing with it a strange feeling that Anna struggled to pinpoint. She knew she wasn't disappointed knowing, how could she be?

I don't have feelings for her, so why would I be disappointed?

Still, the odd uneasiness of the now clearly defined line between she and Elsa wasn't easy to swallow. Things had been ambiguous at best between them until now, and in spite of Anna's protests about the constant teasing she couldn't say that she wouldn't miss the thrill of not knowing for sure.

If things had been different, what would have happened? Anna thought to herself, swiveling in a slow circle in her chair What would she think of me then?

Anna laughed aloud at herself, at the absurd reality that she was sitting here daydreaming about something that should have been so trivial when the lives of children were hanging in the balance, waiting for her to find them. Still, in spite of the pressing issue at hand, Anna couldn't shake the intrusive thoughts about what she might have lost.

a/n: Posting a little early this month, enjoy!