Wow, thanks for all the follows, guys. Also like to thank my three reviewers thus far. I would really appreciate some more reviews though. I love reading them and I would love constructive criticism or any thoughts or what-have-you. And so many favorites already too? C'mon, you've only read the first chapter! What if you hate the ending? ;) Thanks anyway, though. All the attention is much appreciated.

Hopefully this chapter is not too boring. It's mainly setting up the plot and sadly there's no Anna. I'm excited to write more of her gang life!

Oh, and since I didn't do this last time: Frozen and all associated names/characters do not belong to me… Blah, blah, legal mumbo jumbo.

Chapter II

A frantic knock on her door drew Elsa from her still-lasting state of shock and she moved off the couch to answer. She knew it was Kristoff, and she knew he would have no trouble breaking her door down if she didn't answer in five seconds.

She had remained sitting on the sidewalk for a good five minutes after her encounter with the robber girl. Only when she heard police sirens approaching did she move to pick herself up. Peering around the corner, she saw three police cars pull into the parking lot to confirm her theory that it had been the convenience store being robbed. She knew she should go make her presence known, to tell the policemen she had been a witness—and almost a victim—but something else inside of her just wanted to get home. So, against her better judgment, she did just that.

"Why didn't you tell the police?!" Kristoff balked as she recounted the story to him. "Elsa, you could've been killed! You saw the robber's face! If anything, now they know that someone knows exactly what happened! What were you thinking?!"

"I don't know!" Elsa couldn't help but snap at him. "I was in shock, alright? I just…wanted to get out of there. I just wanted to get home."

Kristoff sighed heavily in order to calm himself down. Gently, he wrapped an arm around Elsa and pulled her into his side.

"I'm just glad you're alright," he whispered. "You don't know how scared I was when I got your text. I nearly shit myself."

Elsa laughed. "Classy," she quipped.

"In my defense, you could've just ended the text at 'come over, we need to talk.' There was no need to include the part about a gun to your face. Do you know how many laws I broke trying to get over here as fast as I could?"

Now Elsa just rolled her eyes. "I think the cops will have their hands full with the robbery tonight. Even if you were seen blowing through all the red lights, I doubt they would have pulled you over."

Kristoff turned serious then. "Do you know if anyone was hurt?"

Elsa just shook her head no. "I'm sure it will be online tomorrow if there was."

"I'm just glad you weren't," he said, giving her a squeeze. "Don't scare me like that again."

"It's not like I asked for a robber to put a gun to my face," Elsa deadpanned.

"You know what I mean!" her friend replied with a scoff.

XxXxX

Elsa didn't get much sleep that night. Despite how much she had tried to hide it from Kristoff, her encounter had left her shaken. After all, it was a very similar situation in which her parents had been killed. The only difference was that they had faced a drug addict while she had faced off with a very unnerved robber.

Oh, she was also still alive, she thought somewhat bitterly. There was that too.

She also couldn't help but let her thoughts linger on her robber—wait, her robber? The girl had been so young, surely she hadn't gotten into that situation on her own free will? But she had a gun, Elsa, her more logical half cut in. A gun that was aimed at your face.

Something inside of her knew that the girl would have never pulled the trigger though. Elsa had heard the fear in her voice as she addressed her. She could see the gun shaking in her grasp, as if she couldn't believe she was holding the offending object. Elsa had seen the fear in her eyes; she was in way over her head. There had been compassion swimming in those turquoise irises as well; it was like she almost felt sorry for Elsa, or maybe for the person she had just robbed, but likely not shot. Elsa felt as though the gunshot she heard was either a warning shot or someone else had been present. For some reason unbeknownst to Elsa, she believed with all her heart that the girl was innocent.

Well, as innocent as a girl carrying around a gun and participating in robberies could be, anyway.

Elsa huffed in irritation as she rolled over in bed. If she was completely honest with herself, she was scared to close her eyes and attempt to sleep. She feared she would dream about her encounter and perhaps end up dead. Maybe the girl wouldn't be so fearful and forgiving in her dream and shoot Elsa on the spot. Or worse, maybe she'd end up dreaming about her parents; about them being in her place and having to watch them be murdered before her own eyes. What if, instead, they jumped in front of her to shield Elsa, and took the hit themselves? She didn't know if she'd be able to live with herself if that were the case—even if it was just a dream.

Groaning, Elsa rose from the bed. Sleep was not going to come tonight, she just knew it. Oh, well. At least she worked at a place surrounded by coffee.

Thinking about a steaming cup of coffee made Elsa's stomach rumble and it was only then she realized she had never eaten anything. Upon returning home she had immediately texted Kristoff and had sat in a catatonic-like state until his arrival. Upon his leaving, she had simply fallen down on her bed in attempts to sleep.

Elsa stumbled her way into the kitchen, grabbed a slice of leftover pizza she had happily found and another box of chocolate milk, and plopped herself down on the couch. She lazily turned on Netflix in attempt to find something to put her to sleep upon finishing her "dinner."

Sleep eventually found Elsa and she surprisingly slept through the night without any nightmares. Of course, sleeping on the couch all night meant waking up with a stiff back, but Elsa would have to manage. Thursday meant she had work in the morning this time, as all of her classes were in the afternoon, so she hastily made her way into the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day, the events of last night settling in the back of her mind.

Kai, of course, had heard about what happened last night; although he was unaware Elsa had been right there in the middle of it. It had been the first thing out of his mouth as she walked in that morning. He and another employee, Olaf, had been talking about it all morning. Elsa decided it was best to leave her involvement out of their conversation. Kristoff worrying over her was all the worrying she needed. After all, it wasn't as though she had been hurt.

"…heard it was the Royals…"

That caught Elsa's attention. Interest piqued, she walked up to Olaf, who was now discussing the events with a random patron.

"What about the Royals?" she asked.

Olaf turned to face her as the patron held up a newspaper and pointed to a headline.

"That robbery down the street last night," Olaf said, his cobalt eyes glinting, "It was the Royals' doing."

The Royals was the city's most notorious gang. While the city had other gangs, none were as big as the Royals and none were as well known. The Royals were known for causing a lot of trouble. Most of it was just harmless pranks or lowly misdemeanors. Now, apparently, they had stepped up and committed their first felony in a long time.

Then another thought struck Elsa. That innocent girl had not only been involved in last night, but was part of a gang, too? The Royals, no less? No way.

"Was anyone hurt?" she then asked. "How many were involved?"

"No one was hurt, thankfully," the patron answered. "The cash register was emptied as well as several patrons' wallets being taken, but everyone escaped uninjured."

"The paper says there are five suspects," Olaf continued. "They were all male and they all split up once the manager got the balls to chase them out with his own shotgun."

All male? That wasn't correct, Elsa thought. Even if that girl had been trying to make herself look like a boy by hiding her hair in that hat, she had been way too small and lithe to pass for the opposite gender.

Elsa decided to keep that information secret as well.

"How do they know for certain it was the Royals?" was Elsa's next question.

The patron opened the paper and pointed to a picture of a giant, purple R spray painted on the floor of the store.

"They do that wherever they go," the patron explained. "They're all over the walls of buildings, the sidewalks, even people's cars. They're rambunctious, that lot. And now it seems as though they've stepped up their game."

"This gang's been around a long time," Olaf added. "The last time anyone was killed by their hands was over a decade ago. That isn't to say they have been sticking to simple vandalism since, though. While robbery may be new, they have burglarized before and have several arson records for some old, vacant buildings. Not to mention all the drug charges."

How had she not known all this? Elsa knew the Royals existed, but she had thought it was just some small group of juveniles, not this rough and tough syndicate it now appeared to be. Again, that girl was in on all of this? Why did Elsa seem to care so much, anyway?

Easy, this is my major, she thought. Of course I care about this kind of stuff.

But that girl? She cared about that girl this much simply because she was mixed up in it?

Sure, Elsa decided. Nothing more to it.

"Don't leave out all the assaults," the patron cut in. "They may not have murdered in ten years, but they can still be violent."

There was more?

"I know," she heard Olaf agree. "I heard one time they found a witness to one of their arsons and they beat the guy within an inch of his life to keep him quiet."

Elsa felt sick. Briskly excusing herself, she hurried to the bathroom, Olaf and the patron watching as she went.

Once securely inside, she locked the door and slid to the floor. Last night was still such a blur, and now it had become so discombobulated that she was having trouble making sense of everything. She had really survived an encounter with the infamous Royals and had come out unscathed? She thanked the high heavens she had run into that girl and not the four other guys she had been with last night. Who knows what would have happened then.

That girl. She kept coming up. What if she went back and let it slip that she had run into someone? She had run into someone and let them get away. Elsa shuddered, not only for the danger she could possibly be in, but for the girl's sake as well. Would they punish her for letting her nerves get the best of her? Would they hunt Elsa down and make sure she kept quiet?

Elsa didn't even know she had been crying until a knock at the door shocked her back to the present and she blinked, letting several tears slide down her cheeks.

"Elsa?"

It was Olaf.

"Elsa, are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine, Olaf," she answered back, managing to keep her voice somewhat under control. "Just… N-No, it's nothing."

"Okay," Olaf didn't sound too sure. "Kai was just curious."

Shit, Elsa cursed. She was at work. She had been caught slacking two days in a row now. Standing up, she wiped her eyes, hoping to get herself under control. She wasn't usually like this; she was always so calm and controlled. What had happened to the Ice Queen?

Trying to push everything but work back into the recesses of her mind, she decided she'd just talk to Kristoff again when they met for class later.

Opening the door, she was surprised to find Olaf still standing there.

"Was it something I said?" he asked cautiously.

Elsa actually managed to laugh at that. Olaf was so nice. Only fifteen, he was easily the youngest worker on their staff and Elsa absolutely adored him.

"No, Olaf," she reassured him. "No need to worry."

"Good." Olaf smiled. "I don't like it when people are sad."

XxXxX

"It was the Royals?" Kristoff questioned her at lunch later that day, equally as shocked. "Are you sure?"

"It was in the paper, Kristoff," Elsa told him. "I saw the picture of their R right there."

Kristoff slouched in his chair. "You really did get lucky last night."

"I just don't understand why I didn't know more about them," Elsa said. "I mean, I knew they existed and I knew they had a bad reputation, but I thought all of their crimes now were low-key. How long have they been assaulting people? Aggravated assault is easily a step up from a misdemeanor to a felony."

"And now they've added robbery to their list of felonies," Kristoff added. He then shrugged. "I don't know, in all honesty. Maybe they have a new leader? Perhaps he's making the gang more violent for his own kicks or some other motive."

"It's not like we even have any other rival gangs for them to compete with!" Elsa exclaimed. "I'd understand the step up if they were trying to outdo someone, but all the other gangs in town are really small. I mean, all they get caught for is drug possession."

Kristoff just sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Again, I have no idea."

Elsa matched his sigh with one of her own. "Great. Now that I got all caught up in this, I'm obsessed."

Her friend chuckled and patted her back. "You're just still reeling from last night," he assured her. "Give it a few days and it will blow over. But promise me you'll be more careful at work from now on. Day or night."

Elsa just nodded, still too overcome with thoughts.