The Storm

Chapter 6: Promises

A/N: Terribly sorry for the very long wait. Family issues had me in the wrong state of mind. More notes at the bottom.

EDIT 17/8/14: Minor edit

Saying that her lungs were aching would be a huge understatement, instead Anna found it more fitting if her lungs were the target of a ferocious dragon. A fearsome dragon, that found ease in subduing hundreds of knights and destroying poor girls' lungs. Yeah, maybe I should cut down on all those fantasy books. Shaking her head in attempt to regain focus, Anna soon realized that she had not reached the intersection up ahead yet.

"Aw c'mon!" Anna cried out in frustration. Apparently during her mind rambling, she was so distracted that she had dropped the pace. "I ramble even in my head how embarrassing," Anna mumbled to herself. This was surely a big deterioration from last year. Anna was certain she came third in that 2 Kilometer race. Was it just last year? Okay so cut down on those books and chocolate...Yeah not happening anytime soon Anna joked to herself.

She settled for jogging instead of running, her legs could only do so much before they gave out. As she journeyed on, she lost track of time and became confused with her surroundings. Anna had never been here before, and the darkness of the night made it all the worst for her. The task of following the prominent trail of frost became mindless for Anna. There was no thinking, just doing. And followed she did, onto a new street and the next and the next. Because at the moment, Anna feared to let her mind think.

Anna slowed down when she noticed the lighting of her surroundings dimmed. Looking around, she found herself in a dark alleyway with a fence further ahead. The trail of frost continued up to that fence, where it just stopped.

The trail of frost had ended at a dead end. Anna squinted her eyes down the dark alleyway to assess the fence where the trail ended at. It was a very tall fence, almost reaching the roofs of the adjacent buildings. But height was least of her worries, Anna was more focused on the barb wire at the top. She was tempted to climb the fence even if it meant earning a good number of injuries. This was a mission to amend things, to seek the truth and to get back her remaining family member. And something like a barb wire fence was not going to stop her. But the fact remained, the trail had stopped. A trail which Anna knew would lead her to Elsa had abruptly ended. What point was there in climbing that fence when she did not even know if Elsa was on the other side? Where did she go?

Feeling defeated and crushed, Anna slowly backed out of the alleyway and onto the street. In that moment, Anna felt horribly cold and alone. She unconsciously rubbed at her bare arms, both to warm herself and to rid herself of that empty feeling. She tried distracting herself by studying the stores before her. The store to her left was an old valentine store and the one to her right was an ice cream parlor. Both were obviously closed this late at night but their neon signs were left on, announcing the 'True Love' and the 'Ice Palace'. Judging from the names, it came to no surprise that the condition of the stores were anything but pleasant.

Suddenly filled with despair, Anna clutched tightly at her skirt. It was a desperate attempt to assure herself that she was not lonely, loneliness did not bother her. Maybe she just took a wrong turn, maybe even Elsa was just at home. Yeah, she did promise she would come home when the time was right. Promises.

It was sheer luck that she had managed to make it onto the roof with just a ripped sleeve. The numerous metal abominations that lined the store's wall was sure to have impaled her somehow yet Elsa managed to avoid any injuries. Her left sleeve was a regrettable cost but not the least critical, Elsa suspected she would have to face more serious damages soon. In fact she had long accepted the fact that her road ahead was just going to get worse in some way or another. That was pretty much how she managed to convince herself to get on the roof in the first place. She could not run forever, and this spot was the best she could think of. Although Elsa really wished for a good hand wash at the moment as her delicate hands were incredibly dirty and she had been running those very hands through her hair in habit.

The sound of hurried footsteps snapped her back into the moment and Elsa just barely managed to hold in a startled squeak.

Elsa peered cautiously over the parapet to see a similarly exhausted person down below. It was Anna to be more specific and the sight of her sister had her emotions swirling out of control. And if her emotions were out of control, so would be her powers. With no possible sense of control to be had if she continued to stare, Elsa pulled away and dropped onto the roof on her back. Her breathing picked up again and Elsa battled to remain silent. It was a futile attempt in her opinion, the beating of her racing heart was so loud that Anna had to be deaf to miss it.

"Elsa? It's me, Anna," Anna's voice rang out in the silent night, immediately silencing Elsa's thoughts. "Elsa, are you there?" Anna called out again, voice ever hopeful. Elsa cursed herself for being so weak at just the sound of that voice. One minute her whole body was in full blown fight or flight mode but at the mere sound of Anna's voice Elsa relaxed. Not that she allowed it however, so her body resorted to seizing up.

Anna's voice grew more pained with each cry but Elsa chose to remain silent and to cower in the shadows. It was hard, very hard to do so. The desperate cries pulled at her heartstrings but her mind was set in stone. Both her hands were pressed firmly at her chest, in effort to keep her heart in place.

"Elsa!" Anna called out again, her voice breaking "Elsa, please!"

Elsa let out a silent whimper when her tears began to flow. She fought to keep her resolve, she fought to stay strong. Half of her was relieved when Anna's footsteps signaled her leave. Her other half however was crying out for Anna to stay, to just have her presence.

This needed to end, and soon. Elsa immediately brought up in her mind the most preferred places and methods. Toxic chemicals, medicines, heights, sharp materials. Research to these were done just days after her parents death. Although she never did find the courage to carry them through and as such they remained just a part of her knowledge.

This time however, the only thing holding her back was a manila envelope tucked in her inner coat pocket. She deeply regretted her decision to lose herself in the party rather than attend to this issue. The moment she had read one of its contents after receiving it after her meeting, something had to be done. But by choosing instead to lose herself in the party and to…..flirt with her sister, things just got worst. That's all your ever good for anyways, you never could do anything right Elsa thought to herself.

With a slight tremor, Elsa withdrew the manila envelope where it was stored alongside Anna's letter, and carefully extracted its contents. Said contents were a key, a worn letter, a financial report and an old navy blue book. Even though she had seen them before, she was still puzzled at them. Oaken, a member of the board, had given it to her in the most frightening way ever. The man was huge, and to have him rush up to her and practically shove the envelope into her hands scared her senseless. What's more, the man told her sternly in a whisper that it was for her eyes only. After succeeding in the transfer he took off, an impressive feat for such a large man and left a shocked Elsa in the hallway.

She only had time to read the financial report beforehand, and was deeply troubled by what she saw. Again she held it before her, skimming through it to make sure that she was not exaggerating the facts. The report depicted her family's finances and what it showed was not good. Money was disappearing. There are an immense amount of wire transfers to unfamiliar accounts every month. It was not enough to put a serious dent in their finances but it was alarming nonetheless. She made a note to sort this out immediately. It would be incredibly irresponsible and inconsiderate of her to just leave and left this problem untouched. Because most importantly, it was her family's finances and Elsa had screwed up too much to let them down again. This problem would affect Anna as well, the thought caused her to shudder. If she was going to leave, the very least she could do was to secure her sister's future.

Elsa decided to move onto the other contents of the envelope. The worn letter caught her attention the most and so she went for it, delicately opening it with careful hands. Once it was unraveled, she read:

Dear Elsa,

First of all, it is important that all the contents of this envelope remain for your eyes only. This is a very important factor, in fact this envelope could have been in your possession earlier if not for your isolation. Instead of explaining in great detail, the financial report should summarize what I'm trying to say. You are the only one able to fix it, and I pray that you do it quickly. The key is for your father's safety deposit box, I trust you know where. The diary's your father's as well, read it well.

Regards,

Doctor Pabbie

So many questions pooled in her mind when she finished reading the letter, like who was Doctor Pabbie? Why must the envelope be such a secret? And what safety deposit box?

The last question was quite a big one, Elsa always thought that she knew as much about their family as her father but it seems that she has been proven wrong. Safety deposit boxes sounded like a thing that should have been disclosed in some way or another. Her father had told her a lot of things, so why hide this one?

Seeing as there was no answers to her ever growing amount of questions, Elsa decided to make a move.

Cautiously, Elsa peered over each parapet of all four sides of the building. She silently thanked the vents on the roof with her that provided a decent cover of steam. When she had deemed it safe, Elsa gripped the store signage with both hands and eased herself down onto the street. Elsa grimaced when she caught sight of frost that she had left on the store's sign but brushed any worries away when she inspected the sign as a whole. The 'Ice Palace' already had a winter themed sign and her frost blended in perfectly. She scanned the streets one last time before taking off. There was a promise she had to keep to her family, to Anna. Promises.

Duke swatted away at the multiple arms that refused to cease their assault. Yes I am fine, yes the bandages are okay, yes I am not dizzy...oh for crying out loud I'm standing right here having a phone call! Obviously the paramedics chose to be oblivious to the facts right there in front of them and it irritated him to no end. He had given up verbally arguing with them and instead resorted to physical means. Besides he had suffered worst, not that he wished to go through any of it again. The best he could do however was to swing his free arm about as his mind was occupied with the far more important issues. Like how on earth did Headquarters come to learn of their situation this fast? Not to mention the DDI had been informed as well and found it necessary to call.

Martin Wolfe, Deputy Director of Intelligence CIA, an aggressive man by nature and so was his family. Wolves that was for sure. Duke never met him in person but from what he had heard, meeting that man would be the last thing on his list. But now this phone call would seem to bridge the gap Duke had placed between them. And if their conversation was anything to go by, Duke did not want to know what it was like meeting Martin in person.

"Listen here agent Duke, I don't give a wooden nickel if you have to learn how to turn into a green monster just to stop her! I want her caught and in our possession," Martin demanded furiously, something that Duke was used to but it certainly was unpleasant.

"We are doing all we can sir-"

"And it's not enough agent. I don't care how you do it, but I want it done,"

"I understand sir but I-"

"You were lucky today but you absolutely cannot let something like this happen again," Martin bellowed into the phone.

Duke silently agreed. They were lucky, very lucky. The helicopter crew suffered severe injuries to their legs among others but they were alive. The men in the Echo Two Mercedes were rendered unconscious with multiple fractures but they were alive. And most importantly he was alive. There were injuries, such as a sprained wrist. On his good arm unfortunately but at the very least he could walk away from it all. But the best thing? No mess. No mess at all. Apparently just a few minutes after his collision, the ice had started thawing. The emergency services barely managed to get all the wreckage onto dry land as the ice thawed completely leaving the sea as it was. Additionally it had all occurred at night resulting in zero witnesses. Zero publicity. He could not have wished for better.

"Now agent, I want it done now. And next time, you better not make a damn scene. This better not make it into the public," Martin warned with the same irate tone, bringing Duke back to reality. It had an effect of vexing Duke himself. In an effort to calm himself, he decided to take a seat on a nearby bench. He took that moment to compose himself, there was no use in getting angry over a bloody phone call.

"With all due respect sir, this situation is harder to contain-"

"Agent Duke, do I have to remind you what this means to your career? Because if you really are incompetent for this assignment, I have a list of other people who could replace you," Martin threatened and Duke responded.

"No sir! Not at all, that would not be necessary" Duke replied hastily, his voice reaching a higher octave. He was not expecting that man to pull the career card. As much as he hated him right now, Duke had to admit that Martin was of higher authority and possessed accursed powers over his career.

"So cut the crap and sort this out! I'm engaging all available assets and placing them at your disposal. But if you so much as screw this up-"

"I won't sir, and that's a promise,"

There was silence on the other end and Duke wondered if he had gone too far by cutting the DDI off.

"Agent Duke, started field work in Beirut 1982. Swift promotions with high distinctions and multiple recommendations. Served aboard in numerous campaigns and missions. Station chief in Budapest. I could go on and on with this file in my hands but I won't. Question is, are you the same person?"

Duke felt the insult stab deeply into his pride, a precise hit. "Yes sir," Duke replied with restrained venom. There was silence yet again on the end and Duke was at this stage very agitated.

"For both our sakes, never make a promise that you can't keep Agent Duke,"

The sudden change in tone caught Duke by surprise. So much so that he did not realize that the line had been cut a good whole minute. The Deputy had sounded solemn, grim and even agitated. And all Duke could think was, why? The question immobilized him, the confusion racking his brain. He sat there in stunned silence with the phone still to his ear as the paramedics finally got to work on him proper, voicing promises that he will be fine. Empty words but he heard all of them. Promises.

A/N: Family issues really threw a spanner in the works, so to say. A billion apologies to all you readers, it really is disappointing for me not to live up to standards.