This is the newest chapter for the story. Sorry I haven't been updating when I said I would. But I have no school today and tomorrow so I hope to get another chapter up here. Either for this story or my other one. I hope you enjoy it! Please read and Review!

~13th Writer

POV: Rose

Have you ever been in an extremely awkward situation? Just standing there next to someone you should be able to talk to but you don't? Well, that description pretty much summed up the next five minutes of my life. Aleksa and I stood awkwardly next to each other in a thick metal elevator just waiting for time to pass and for us to reach our destination. The only good part about it was that one wall of the lift was made of one way mirrors, so I was able to see the outside (though it didn't do much good with all the rain). So I faced the cold metal doors and held a guardian stance. I felt like I was in the CIA rather than the FBI.

Earlier I had gaped at the exterior, the building itself was extensive and the architecture itself was gorgeous too. The main building (the one we were currently in) was twenty-five floors above ground and eight below. The upper levels were made completely of shatter resistant one way mirrors; I was told that the sublevels were steel and concrete reinforced. Then there was the second building – the one that many weren't privileged enough to know about – was down the street. This building was fifteen floors above ground and ten below with similar architecture to the main building's. And then there was the Alchemist division. Apparently only three people in the whole FBI were privy to its existence (other than the people who worked there). The head of the FBI: Special Agent Smith, The head of the Seattle division: Special Agent Laughlin, and Aleksa. And then there was me, the girl who wasn't supposed to be here at all but was because her sister thought it was a good idea.

There had been a double ding in the elevator signaling that we had made it to the sublevels a few minutes ago, but now time seemed to move even slower with no outside light and only the artificial one that reminded me of the infirmary. I was watching the red numbers on the elevator change every few seconds. We were currently on B7 – scratch that – B8 when Aleksa finally decided to talk to me.

"When we get in there we need to act as human as possible until they give you an ID badge. Please Rose I'm begging you, don't screw anything up."

"How can I possibly screw it up? I'm not supposed to talk remember."

"No, when we get in there you will have to speak unfortunately. You will be brought into interrogation with one of the senior command agents. They are going to ask you a few routine and simple questions. Just slip on your guardian mask and answer them honestly."

"Even if they ask me if I've ever committed murder?"

"Even then, you answer honestly. You say no."

I looked at her like she was crazy. "I'm sorry you do realize that I'm a guardian right?"

She laughed, she flat out laughed at me. "Yes I do. But think about it, that's not murder. That's like when soldiers are sent into war. Their killings are not considered murder because it is for a cause. Everything we do is for a cause."

I simply nodded, I disagreed on her stance but I needed the line for now. I could- no - I would remember that.

We stepped off the elevator at sublevel B13 and into a room filled with nerds mussing around on computers. Row after row analysts worked busily trying to fix the United States' and global problems. At the front of the room was a giant screen that occasionally flipped from what each computer was doing. I looked up to see pictures of two girls on the screen. Above their faces in bright red letters was the word missing.I looked away from the screen to the only person in the room that I knew.

"Is that part of a kidnapping case?" The sorrow and defeat in my voice evident.

"Yes," said a new voice. I turned around to see an authoritative looking woman. She was tall with strawberry blonde curls that reminded me of a teenage Shirley Temple. "And it is classified."

"If it is 'classified'" I made air quotes with my fingers. "Then why do you have it on the screen for the whole world to see?" The sarcasm was thick in my voice. Of course the whole world couldn't actually see it, just the whole room.

"Rosemarie," I was quietly scolded. I whipped my head around to look at my sister. She had a look of fear in her eyes that a mother must have when her child has gotten themselves into trouble. I wouldn't actually know the look because I had never seen it with my mother, but one could assume.

"If you would follow me this way we can move forward with questioning and maybe get you a visitors pass." The woman spoke again with an authoritative tone. We walked down a dimly lit concrete hallway until we reached a door. I watched as Aleksa walked down one door farther and entered a room. The woman opened the door and spoke, "Take a seat on the right side of the table please."

I walked into the room and sat down on a hard cold metal chair. Was this how this whole place was: hard and cold? I felt like I was in the mind of a strigoi. I watched the woman sit down across from me and open a file. Her posture was nearly perfect and a bored expression on her face.

"Please state your full name for the record please," she said. I watched her take out a notepad with pre-written sections. Her pen hovered over the first spot as she waited for my answer to her question.

"Rosemarie Hathaway."

"Rosemarie, I am Special Agent Laughlin. I am the head of the FBI division here in Seattle." She stopped shuffling with her papers and looked up at me. "I am going to ask you some questions. They should be relatively easy and you should answer each question with complete honesty." She looked back down at her paper and made a mental checklist of sorts as she spoke again. "Some questions will seem irrelevant and will be for control purposes, others will be relatively invasive into your personal life." She made eye contact once more and plastered a cold expression across her face. "Let's begin, shall we?"

I nodded and she began her inquisition, "In what month were you born?"

"March," I replied stiffly. I felt like I was going through a mission debriefing. Cold room, Stupid questions people already knew the answers to, and my guardian mask.

"Have you ever committed a crime?" She never even looked up from her notepad. I found this extremely rude.

"Have I ever committed a crime, or have I ever been convicted of a crime? These are two very different things." My smart remark made me smile, but I knew it would make my sister sweat. It also seemed to piss off Ms. Not-So-Special-Agent sitting across from me.

"Please answer the question with a simple yes or no."

"Well I have sped on the highway, so I'm going to have to answer yes to that."

She sighed deeply and shook her head as she flipped the page in her packet of questions. There seemed to be a hundred or so questions, that I answered all either flippantly or seriously.

"This is our final question Rosemarie," her voice seemed exhausted, where as I felt as though I was back at the academy with Kirova. Every moment of this gave me a high. "Yes or no," she had been clarifying on how I should answer certain questions for a while now, "have you ever committed a murder. By definition, murder is an intentional killing of another human being."

Instantly I relaxed. Human being, no I had never killed a human being. "No."

"Thank you. We have concluded here. Agent Mazur will escort you to an area where you will await your results." She left the room and Aleksa walked in.

I stood up to leave when she pushed me back into the chair. "What the hell was that? I am sticking my neck out for you here and you act like a defiant teenager in interrogation. I told you to take this seriously and answer everything honestly. At least you got half of it right."

"Did you not hear the way she was talking to me? Her voice was degrading, as though I was a child! 'Yes or no Rosemarie' it was infuriating!"

"I don't care if she hit you in the face or not! You should have taken it and continued on as though nothing happened! This is the human world Rose, here you're nobody. You're not the big shot who discovered that strigoi could be changed back. You're not the girl who was bonded to the current queen. You're just a nineteen and a half year old girl!"

She sat down across from me after her rant. Her arms were folded on the table and her head fell into them. I put my hand on her forearm and looked at her sternly – though she couldn't see it. "I'm sorry Aleksa," and I was. She had tried to get us to where we needed to be. She got us close to Sydney who can get us close to Adrian and I probably just blew every shot we ever had at that. "I screwed up. Maybe if I talk to her she'll understand that I was stupid."

Her head lifted and she looked at me with defeat. "That won't change anything. Come on, let's go to the break room. I'll make you a latte while we wait."

Chapter 9 Concluded! I hope you enjoyed it! Again I'm sorry for my lack of updates! Review please, I love the feedback! I really am going to try to make Saturdays my regular update days if I can!

~13th Writer