Operation Phoenix

Chapter Thirty-Two

Elsa sat across from the Runner's captain as he read the letter delivered by the black feathered bird just hours before. She hadn't gotten to it right  away, she'd been busy sorting out another ordeal in her office. One of her workers dropped it off while she was signing off on a few papers, and she'd assumed it was from Gothel, screaming about her Runners letting a criminal go. It was only when she'd opened it did she realize what exactly the paper was.

'Your people have murdered in cold blood, for that they are being punished accordingly. Any protests or rescue attempts will be taken personally, and will result in further penance.

Sincerely,
New World District
Ursula.'

Jack couldn't think straight, his hands shook and he thought he might vomit. He knew the conditions New World subjected their people to, but the idea that his best friends were suffering beneath King Black's boot only made him shiver. He wasn't afraid of a lot, only a few things because he'd seen enough to be calm around some of the scariest of situations. This, however, made him ache deep inside himself. His shoulders rose and fell with intense speed as his eyes became unfocused. He wondered what they were feeling, what they were doing, what they were seeing. He'd been so scared that they were dead, he hadn't even considered that something like this could've happened.

Jack's throat started to tighten, and he set the paper down on Elsa's desk once again.

"They're alive." Elsa breathed in relief, closing her eyes and holding her gloved hands together ferociously. She'd been so afraid, so scared that her children were dead, that even them being at New World was a relief to her. She could only imagine what they were experiencing at that moment, which only succeeded at burying a lump deep in her stomach. She worried that they were squabbling in the dirt just like New World's citizens, but she resolved to pushing those thoughts away so as to not make herself become more afraid—to be anything less than a leader.

Jack stood, panting, pacing, his head reeling with the thoughts of his girlfriend and his brother. The anger he felt inside him at that moment was greater than any emotion he'd felt in a long, long time, the need for a fight, the need to protest boiling up until he felt it in the backs of his eyes. His back tensed and his diaphragm expanded, like a fire burning in a hearth that had only been lit with the reddest of coals. It was like a tiger was trying to escape from his ribs, like the world's demons threatened to reach out and engulf everything around him. With the scariest calm demeanor, he turned to Elsa and whispered in the darkest tone he could muster, "We need to start a revolution."

Elsa's eyes widened and she seemed to back up, though she was sitting. She stared at the darkness about him, the determination that rose up into the air like a fog. She could feel his anger as it resonated through the room and nearly choked her as she sat there, in shock. Jack had joked about fighting many times before, but sitting there, staring at him as he glared from the window at her, she knew he was being serious. The rock in the pit of her stomach flipped and she gripped her gloves tightly. "What are you talking about?"

Jack scoffed and began pacing again, only succeeding in making Elsa more uncomfortable. "They terrorize us! They murder people, they take what we have so we're too afraid to move! We've seen how they treat their people, that isn't a district it's a dictatorship!" He hissed, his hand bunching up into his hair as he pointed out the window towards the distant trees.

"Jack, that is a... very dangerous suggestion." She breathed, her eyes narrowing as she spoke.

"What choice do we have? They're-they're killing and kidnapping people! They're murdering and torturing their subjects and we just turn a blind eye? They just took our Runner's against their will and their leader's orders which is against United law!"