Chapter 8: We All Wear Masks
The next day after Jacob's birthday, Elsa was sitting in her office filling out some paperwork. She enjoyed being queen for the most part, but stuff like this could be a real pain in the ass and extremely boring. She has of course become quite the workaholic ever since she first took the throne last year and there were even times where Anna had to force her to stop so she can relax, eat, or sleep. Anna came into the room which made Elsa stop as she saw her goofy sister walk over to her desk. "Whatcha doing?", Anna asked. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm doing boring paperwork.", Elsa answered. "That's why I'm glad I'm just the princess who doesn't need to do stuff like that.", Anna teased. "You still have to do some occasionally since you're second in line around here.", Elsa said back. "Yeah, but it's nice not as much.", Anna said. Kai then came into the room and said, "Anna, Elsa, you two have a visitor who wants to speak with you.". "Tell them we'll be with them soon.", Elsa said as she was focused on getting her work done. "I don't think he'll like that answer.", Kai said who seemed a little on edge. There was a good reason for it too as in came Black Mask. Elsa got up from her chair and started to create ice magic in her hands as she was getting herself ready for a fight. Anna did the same by balling up her fists. "You two can relax, I didn't come to fight. At least, not now.", he said. "What the hell do you want?", Anna asked with attitude. "I actually was hoping to talk to your sister alone.", Black Mask said. "Like Hell, you are! Anything you say to her, can be said in front of me.", Anna said as she wanted to protect this psycho from hurting her sister. "It's fine, Anna. You and Kai can go.", Elsa said. "But, Elsa..", Anna said before Elsa cut her off. "I'll be fine. I can take care of myself.", Elsa said. Anna knew she couldn't argue with Elsa once her mind's made up. She trusted her, it was the guy in the ebony skull mask she didn't trust. She and Kai left the room and left Elsa and Black Mask alone together. Elsa was slightly afraid as this guy who has been proven to be unstable and unpredictable could pull a gun out on her at any minute. "You seem unsettled, Queen Elsa. Is it because of my mask?", he asked. Roman then took off his mask so they can talk face to face. "That better?", he asked as he held his mask in his hands. "No, actually worse. You looked nicer with the mask on.", Elsa mocked him. Roman became slightly infuriated with that smartass remark, but decided to let it go as he wanted her alive for the moment. Even though he hated his parents and their fake wealthy lifestyle, the mannerisms they taught him still rubbed off on him as he tried not to resort to violence straight away. "Clever comeback. Even though I am a crime boss and have been known as a cold-blooded killer, I still know how to compliment a lady and I meant it when I say you truly are beautiful. I can see why your boyfriend is drawn to you so much.", he said. "Are you trying to flirt with me because I'm already spoken for? Also, I can do way better than the likes of you.", she snapped. "Just giving you a compliment as I have dated girls just as pretty as you are. I'm also trying to be reasonable with my demands from last night.", he said. "Excuse me, but there's nothing reasonable about you and your men storming into my castle, my home uninvited and demand I give away my throne and my family's legacy to you?! And for what reason? All because you lost your status in Gotham as its top crime lord? Jacob gave us the rundown of your origin story last night after you left.", she said. "He did, did he? I'm sure he also told you about how the Joker ruined me. Even though he's dead, I know I can never get back to where I was in the underworld. That's why I wanted to leave Gotham for good and start somewhere new. I didn't want to go to any of the surrounding cities as they had superhero problems of their own. Then one of my men who worked for Scarecrow last Halloween told me about this place and I thought it sounded appealing to become an actual king after I dethrone you.", Roman said. "In case you're not aware, I have superpowers too.", Elsa said as she made snowflakes flurry from her hands. "I know, but neither you or your family honestly seem like too much of a problem. I know you made asses out of those crazies from the city before. Unlike them, I'm not psychotic.", he told her. "Well, I think you burning your parents alive says that you are.", Elsa said. "Hey, that was never proven to be my doing.", he said. "Well, did you do it?", she asked. "Well, yeah. I'm just saying I was never convicted of that.", he said. "No matter what, Arendelle's citizens will never follow you.", she said. "I beg to differ as I can be very persuasive.", he said. "By that, I'm sure you mean threatening to hurt or kill them if they don't listen to you. Am I right?", she asked. "Pretty much.", he answered. "That's why there's no way in Hell I'll hand over my kingdom to you. Because you won't be a king, you'll be a tyrant. Which is something, Arendelle never has dealt with and I'll make it so it never will as long as I'm around.", she said. "That's why you won't be around when that happens.", he shot back. He looked over and became intrigued by a type of tribal mask that was on display on a table. Ever since he was young, he grew to love masks and their concept because of how his parents put on masks so to speak to get in good with the big whig life. "That's a cool looking mask right there. Nice to see you already have my kind of decor around the place.", he said as he continued to look at it. "My grandfather got that from a tribe called the Northuldra decades before I was born.", she said. "You know, the guy who told me about this place and about you that was with Scarecrow when he abducted you listened in on the conversation you two had when you talked about your life story and I must say, you and me have a lot in common.", Roman said as he turned to her. "How's that?", she asked. "From what I understood, you hid behind a mask so to speak most of your life. In your case, it was wearing gloves so no one would realize what great power you had all because of a little incident with your sister as kids. That led to your parents telling you to conceal who you really were because they thought it was best which is what led to this kingdom becoming a ghost town for years and you hiding yourself from everyone, even your own sister. My parents did exactly the same thing to me when I was a kid. They told me to act like the perfect rich kid which is far from who I really was. They also pretended to be snobby assholes to get in good with upper class life when they were in truth, rotten to the core when nobody else was around. They made my life Hell and kept me from being with the woman I loved. That's why I killed them.", he explained. "Most people think masks hide who we truly are. That is true that they do, and that was the case with you as your gloves hid who you are. But I believe they can also free the soul and help reveal what our true faces look like. Take Batman for example, That damn clown believed that whoever Batman is under that cowl is the mask and when he does have the cowl on, that's his true face.", he said. He then held up his mask in front of him. "Take mine for example, I carved this from my father's coffin which remade me into who I am today. Whenever I wear it, I like to think that's my true face. And I made it into a skull face so that way my enemies will look into the face of death itself right before I off them.", he rambled on. "I'm sorry, but is this speech going anywhere because all the other villains from Gotham gave speeches like this and it's nothing new or original.", Elsa said as she continued to be smart with him. "My point is that if you don't give me what I want, Death is what you and your family will be dealing with.", Roman threatened. "You have one more day to decide if you want to do shit the easy way or the hard way. I'll be back around this time tomorrow.", he said as he left the room. Jacob was on his way to her office as soon as Anna and Kai told him about her visitor. Roman put his mask back on his face as he was walking down the hall and stopped when he ran into the queen's lover. "What are you doing here? Where's Elsa?", Jacob asked angrily. "She's back in her office. Although, it won't be her office for much longer. It'll soon be mine just like this whole kingdom will be mine.", he said with a sneer. "I swear to Christ if you lay one finger on her...", he trailed off before he was interrupted. "You'll do what? Whether you work with the Bat or not, you still can't do shit. Like it or not, all of you assholes better be packing your things as you'll be evicted tomorrow. Now, get out of my way.", he said before giving the kid a nasty shoulder bump as left. Jacob made his way to her office and saw her looking greatly concerned while sitting down. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?", he asked with concern for his love. "No, we just had an uncomfortable chat is all. He's hellbent on declaring this kingdom his. He's willing to be gentle and patient for now, but he'll take it by force if he needs to.", Elsa said. "That won't happen. We'll just have take him and his gang down before he comes back.", Jacob told her. "Looks that way, but don't you think maybe we should get in touch with Bruce so he can help us put this guy in his place like he has before?", she asked. Jacob thought about doing that, but deep down in his heart, he wanted to prove to Batman that he can handle a situation like this on his own without his help. "No offense, but I don't think we need to bring him into our shit every time we have a problem. Besides, he's busy enough as it is with taking care of his city. This is our personal matter that only involves us and the kingdom, nowhere else.", Jacob said. "That's true, but I kinda also have a feeling you don't want to rope him into all this because you want to prove we can take care of Black Mask on our own. As a way to prove yourself, right?", she said. "You know me well.", he said to her. "Indeed, I do. Maybe we can try to take care of this ourselves, but I just pray we don't make things any worse. Especially the fact the well being of Arendelle is at stake here.", she said. "Well, he has to be hiding somewhere around here. Do you have any ideas where he can hide himself and all his men?", he asked. Elsa thought for a moment as she knew Sionis and his society most likely couldn't hate in any of the houses or buildings in the kingdom. "I think I have an idea where he might be hiding. On the outskirts of the kingdom, like back in the woods, there's an old church that hasn't been used in decades. That place is large enough to house a bunch of guys.", Elsa suggested. "Okay. I'll tell the others about this and we'll all go there tonight to put a stop to Sionis before he comes back.", Jacob said.