A/N: There is now an FAQ page. Find it on the description above, or go to my tumblr and put (slash) FAQ at the end of my address. Please refer to it before asking me any questions about this story. If the questions have already been answered, I won't be answering them again. As much as I love your reviews and questions, it's getting hard to answer the ones I've already done. Thank you for being awesome! =D If your question wasn't answered in the FAQ, I'll answer it as soon as I can.
Also, I know I said I would do the RotBTD fic. But I've been more inspired for this fic! D: Sorry! I'm not going to let the other one die, I promise.
Police Department
June 10th, 2013
11 a.m.
FLOP. Folders hit the desk loudly and Eugene jumped, jerking up to look at Ana who, by the way her eyebrows were narrowed, was definitely irritated. He slowly closed the folder containing The Big Four's information and sat back.
"What's up?" he asked, crossing his arms. She bit her lip and sighed, "I couldn't find anything on the other members of the Big Four. Nothing! There's nothing. No hints, no clues, no trace!" She ran a hand through her short feather-cut black hair, "it's so frustrating."
Eugene glanced at the folders and then back up at the agent, "I thought you knew stuff about them already." Ana twitched, refusing to look at him. He continued, "I was told you had insider information on them. Stuff no one else knew…" He leaned forward, "was that a lie?"
Ana glared at him before relaxing and sinking into the chair stationed next to his desk, "no. It wasn't a lie… per se." She shrugged, "I do have information on the Big Four. But it's… not really that helpful." She looked down at her hands, "it's a touchy subject."
His eyebrows rose and he nodded, "things like this usually are. If we are going to find anything out about these guys, we gotta share information." He leaned even closer now, his honey-brown eyes serious as he whispered, "So what happened?" Ana stared into those eyes and felt her resolve weaken, for a moment they flashed blue in her mind and she shook her head. "It's-"
"Agent Fae, Detective Fitzherbert," The voice of Eugene's boss snap their eyes away from each other and they looked up. Walking toward them was the overly serious man who ran the department, and behind him was a ridiculously tall, handsome agent with a sharp black jacket and black hair. "This is Agent E. Aster Bunnymund from the CIA. Aster, this is Eugene Fitzherbert, my top detective and-"
"Ana Fae," Aster interrupted, "I know."
Eugene watched as Ana's eye met Aster's green ones and felt slightly uncomfortable, "Ahem." He cleared his throat, breaking their eye contact. "Hi, I'm-"
"Eugene, the detective. He just said," Aster shook Eugene's outstretched hand, "nice to finally meet ya, mate." The thing that threw Eugene more than the tension between Ana and Aster was the fact that this guy had an Australian accent. He wanted to laugh, but knew that it wasn't professional, especially with his boss right there.
"Right, yeah. Nice to meet you," Eugene sank back into his seat.
"Good to see you three getting alone. I'll leave you to it." Eugene's boss left them alone and Aster turned back to Ana.
"Catch me up on the case then," he said rather bluntly. Ana looked stunned and a bit hurt at his brush off, she shook it off and turned to Eugene, "we've been looking through the old thefts to see what was there, and so far we have found nothing."
Aster nodded, "of course not. He's smarter than that."
"Wait, what? You know Jack Frost?" Eugene asked in confusion. Aster looked at him, "I've met him, back before I realized who he was." He glanced back at Ana before holding Eugene's gaze, "it's a bit personal. And I'm assuming Ana's said nothing about it, so I won't."
Eugene blinked rapidly, "I'm missing a ton of stuff then. And I seriously think it should be shared!"
Ana sighed, "perhaps later?"
Eugene stood, "if you have information that can help with the case, you are obligated to share." He hissed quietly. Aster's eyebrows went up.
"Pretty boy's tougher than he looks," He said impressed.
Ana looked down, "let's go somewhere else, okay?"
Once the door was shut and locked Eugene turned on the two agents, "okay, spill. I want to know what is going on."
Ana sat down across the table from him, "it was a while ago… back when I first became an agent, I met a boy. He was actually a teenager at the time, around seventeen. I saw him sitting on the street corner as I was walking home, and at first I was frightened. I wondered if he meant me any harm, but as I passed he didn't even lift his head to look at me. After that, I couldn't stop thinking about him, and the next day he was in the same spot. I hesitated to talk to him and I finally did…" she shook her head, "I said, 'why are you sitting here on this corner, kid? Are you homeless?' and he looked up at me, his hair was stark white and his eyes a blue, like no blue I'd ever seen. He said, 'something like that.' And smiled at me, as if it were perfectly normal.
"Of course I couldn't just leave him there, so I offered him some tea and we went into my house." She paused watching Eugene's face for a reaction, but he didn't say anything and she kept going, "after talking to him, I asked him where his family was and he told me he lost his entire family and had no where to live. He'd been living in alleyways and on street corners. I knew I couldn't let him stay on the streets, though my better judgment told me not to let him stay. So I offered to let him rent out one of my rooms. He said he couldn't pay any money, and I told him that if he helped around the house until he could find a job, he could stay. And he did." She shrugged, brushing a piece of invisible lint from her pant leg.
The silence that filled the room after she finished speaking was awkward, and the group seemed lost in their own thoughts, until Eugene spoke, "And… that boy was Jack Frost?" He looked at Ana. "Wow, how did you find that out?"
Ana stood, "let's just say it was a hard lesson learned." She marched to the door of the room and opened it, "I hope that helps, detective." The door shut behind her and Eugene faced Aster.
"It actually doesn't."
Aster sighed, "why not? you know he has no family. His name is most likely an alias."
"Most likely? Of course it's an alias! I mean, Jack Frost is a mythological creature. He's the king of winter, the guy who makes summer turn to autumn and winter. He's not real." Eugene stood up, "but Jack, this kid, Jack is real. And if Ana is protecting him, she's obstructing the investigation."
Aster smirked, "oh, believe me. She's not protecting him. She wants to catch him just as much as you. Some things are just a bit too personal to tell right now." The agent opened the door for Eugene. "Just give her some time, she'll come around."
Eugene sighed, "Alright."
The Hideout
June 10th, 2013
11:30 a.m.
"Are you 100% sure?"
"Listen, if I weren't 150% sure, I wouldn't have called you up here to talk about it." Hiccup ran a hand through his hair and sat back, looking at his leader. "Well? What do you purpose we do?"
Jack smiled, "I propose we catch our little thief the way she caught us. We're going to set up a fake heist, and if she's as smart as she thinks she is, she'll come."
"What about… our connections?" Hiccup whispered, knowing full well that Merida or Rapunzel could be eavesdropping. After all, Hiccup had called Jack up to the room and shut the door without any real explanation as to why. "I'm worried that they will get in the way."
"That was a long time ago, right?" Jack patted Hiccup's shoulder. "Don't let it get to you."
"Alright." Hiccup swiveled his chair before asking, "Jack, when do you think they will realize the Mona Lisa is a fake?"
Jack turned to face his friend, "hopefully not for a few more weeks."
"Jack," Hiccup sat forward, leaning on his knees, "why did we steal - er, attempt to steal the Mona Lisa? Why was that one so important? You took a huge risk with it when we could have gone after something less high profile and still had our names in the paper. So why the Mona Lisa?"
The white-haired youth froze with his hand on the doorknob, before answering, "it is a call out to an old friend." Jack opened the door and left. Hiccup watched him go in puzzlement. What old friend what Jack talking about?" He scratched his head and sighed.
"This is getting complicated," he muttered.
The Hideout
Same date, same time.
"Punzel," Merida sank down onto a chair, watching as her blonde friend worked like a master of the old arts on a canvas.
"Yes, Merida?"
"Do you think Jack's lost his touch?" Merida placed her hands on the chair, leaning forward, shoulders hunched, "I still believe in him and his abilities. But I feel like something is drawing on him. Ever since we lost the Mona Lisa, he's been different, almost distant."
"And cold." Rapunzel added, her brush lowering from it's soft strokes. "Yeah, I noticed." She tucked stray strands of hair behind her ear and turned to face Merida, "Jack has a lot of stuff in his past that he hasn't told us about. I wish he could trust us."
Merida nodded, looking down at her boots, "why do you think he doesn't?"
Rapunzel shrugged, wiping her hands on a towel and taking a seat next to Merida on a separate chair. "Who can say?"
"I think it's because he's been hurt. Someone hurt him and made him feel like he couldn't trust again. Remember when we first met him? He was always so fun and excited. Then he started to disappear for hours at a time, and when we planned to meet up, he would be late or not come at all."
"I remember. That was a long time ago… a long time before we found this place." Rapunzel gazed up at the bright ceiling dazzled with an array of paintings she had done over the years. "I'm glad we found each other, and I think that someday, Jack will tell us his secrets." Rapunzel smiled at Merida, "just not right now."
"I kno'…I just worry about him," Merida replied. The older girl wrapped her arm around the red-head, "I know you do." She whispered, giving the girl's shoulders a squeeze.
Police Department, Calif.
June 10th, 2013.
1 p.m.
"Sir, we just received this." The man summoned Eugene and his team into the room where a TV was and inserted the DVD, "this is from almost two weeks ago at the museum which is supposed to be hosting the Mona Lisa. There was some suspicious activity that day, and after reviewing their security footage, they noticed that nothing seemed amiss, but then they saw this…" The man pressed play and the screen came alive with the back door on the museum.
"It's the back door, so what?" Aster said, crossing his arms.
"Wait for it, sir." Suddenly the video feed blipped and the back door burst open, and a masked girl came barreling down the steps and across the parking and out of view.
"What was she carrying?" Eugene asked. "It looked like a painting."
"One more moment, sir, I promise you will love this." The door opened again and to their surprise, Jack Frost appeared and stood on the steps, clearing looking for the girl who had just seconds ago, come through that door.
"Oh my gosh…" Ana whispered.
"They stole the Mona Lisa." Eugene said, shock written all over his face as the screen blacked out.
"According to the footage, it looks like that girl stole the painting, which for the moment we are assuming is the Mona Lisa," Eugene was now sitting on the edge of his desk talking to his colleagues. "So, there must have been some sort of scuffle, because Jack looks a little out of sorts when he exits and disappears. Now we need to know who that girl was."
"I know who she is," Aster said as he tossed a file down on the table, "her name is Astrid Hofferson, a.k.a Stormfly. She's the leader of a group of thieves who call themselves 'the Dragons.' They've committed several thefts in the past few years, and Astrid has a quite a record for stealing."
"How do you know it's her?" Eugene asked gazing at the picture in the file.
"Same height, same build. And witnesses said they saw a blue sports jeep zip out of the adjacent parking lot to the museum at around that time, a blonde was driving." Aster rested his hands against the desk behind him, leaning back. "Enough proof for ya, pretty boy?"
Eugene glanced up, ignoring the comment, "Blue jeep… why does she drive a jeep of all cars? It's not like they're cheap." He lowered the case file onto the desk. "Do we know who else is in the Dragons?"
"We know there are five in total, but we have only identified three, one being Astrid. Others are Snotlout Jorgenson a.k.a Hookfang, and Fishlegs Ingerman a.k.a Meatlug," Aster said.
"Why do these kids have such terrible names?" Eugene asked, looking disgusted.
"Snotlot is the descendant of a clan of Vikings, according to his Tycoon of a father."
"Wait, Snotlout's father is a business Tycoon? No wonder he sounded familiar." Eugene muttered. "So, taking a shot in the dark, I'm going to say The Dragons have a beef with the Big Four."
"And they just had their first tussle," Ana said, crossing her arms.
