Back at it again after a very long hiatus!

And to apologize profusely, a long first chapter. Well, it's decently sized, I suppose.

So much has changed since I last updated; it's been about 7 months and I doubt any of my original readers are still reading. If they are, I'll tell you that I plan to finish Buried Within soon. Right now I'm working on a few projects, and approaching graduation, so I'm a little (okay, a lot) behind. My apologies.

Anyways, this is a new project of mine that I'm hoping will be as much of a success as The Last Breath was. I think that this one will be a little darker than The Last Breath - while it did have some dark moments, I tried to skip over what I could. This will be a little bit more realistic and as a result, slightly darker. Hopefully it's just as entertaining! And this time I'll try to include a little something for every Hetalia fan out there - regardless off your OTP.

Truth be told, I don't want to start another FRUK vs USUK war. That was rough.

So enjoy this new story! It's a little more mystery and crime than before, but as you know, I try to remain diverse!

Thanks so much for reading! I'm back again and I will be for a while. Thanks for your patience, you guys, I appreciate you all so much!

What's my tag line again? Oh, right.

As always, reviews, favourites, follows and feedback are all greatly appreciated!

Enjoy!

- luvlani88

"Are you completely sure about this?" The voice asked, sounding more doubtful than pleased. The albino smirked, a sure sign of mischief while his fingers drummed on the desk impatiently. "You don't trust me?"

"Only because I have to." The person on the other side of the TV screen didn't seem happy at all, and frowned at the albino with narrowed eyes. "You realize what all this means, don't you? You realize this isn't what we thought."
He nodded, and then grinned, his crimson eyes brightening even in the dark of the room. "I know. It's better than what we thought, isn't it?"

The woman sighed impatiently, rolled her eyes, and then said, "I hope you're prepared for this. Don't underestimate anything, and more importantly, don't overestimate yourself. Even you have blind spots, you know."
"Everyone has blind spots." He waved his hand as if to brush off the mere thought. "Besides, I will be ready. Just give me time-"
"This isn't just about me anymore." She snapped. "For now, in this city, yes, I'm your only superior. But if this is bigger than what we initially thought, you'll eventually be dealing with bigger things than me. And once you get there, there'll be no guarantee I'll be able to help you. Do you understand?"
The albino said nothing. He stared at her.
"Do you understand?!" Her words were sharper.
The edges of his lips lifted into a mischievous half-smile. "I understand." He said. And then, "And for the record, I'm awesome. I don't overestimate myself."
It was her turn to smirk. "Yes, you do."
"No I don't."
"You're such a child."
"And you love me anyways." He grinned cheekily.
She rolled her eyes again. "Whatever. Good luck. Contact me when you've got them all."
"That'll be soon."
"I know."
The video feed ended and he was left staring at a blank, dark TV monitor. For a moment, he stared at it without any expression, before a slow smile spread across his face.
When I've got them all. He thought. Better get started then.

"Why did you call me in?" Ludwig asked his older brother who walked ahead of him with a quickened pace, skimming through a file as he hurried. Gilbert barely glanced back. "You'll see, don't worry."
As Germany weaved around the other members of the police and investigation force in an attempt to catch up to his brother. At least his hair made him easy to spot. "What's this about, Bruder?" Ludwig pressed, but Gilbert only grinned as he made his way to the small set of stairs leading to the semi-floor. The semi-floor of the HQ was made up of two rooms; Gilbert's office and a conference room that had been affectionately nicknamed the fishbowl due to it's massive floor to ceiling windows that took up one entire wall, giving the occupants inside an amazing view of the city.
Gilbert ascended the steps and Ludwig paused before following him. When they entered his office, Ludwig shut the door sharply behind them. "Is this a new case?" It was the only explanation that had for his brother's odd behavior. Occasionally, Gilbert would call him when he had a new case that was unique, one that stood out from the rest. Ludwig was always more than happy to help with the investigation, but why the mystery this time? What was different?
"Sort of, yeah." Gilbert shuffled through a few files on his desk before picking up a small stack of thin file folders and turning back to his little brother. "This one's pretty intense though. You sure you're up for it?"
Ludwig stared at him in surprise for a moment. Never before had his brother asked him if he was up for it. This was serious. "Of course." He answered, and he hoped he was right.
The albino grinned with content. "Good. Then in that case, there's some people I want you to meet." He brushed past the blonde and reopened the door.
"I'm working with a team?" Germany asked, but the question seemed to fall short of Gilbert's ears, probably due to his selective hearing.
Instead, the strode over to the fishbowl and paused with his hand on the door handle. "Come on." He was smiling, and his eyes shone with excitement, a look that was ever so familiar to Ludwig. Gilbert turned the handle, opened the door and disappeared inside.

The German followed him in without hesitation.

When he walked into the fishbowl, he paused just a few feet inside the room. The wall on the opposite side of the room and half of the adjoining wall to the left was all windows, and let in the warm rays of the early morning sun. The room really did resemble a fishbowl.
There were two things that Ludwig didn't recognize in the room. The first was sitting at the conference room's long table in the centre, his hands folded nicely on top of the table with a straight posture and a fresh cup of tea in front of him. He wore a white lab coat with an insignia on the left breast pocket; gold and white streaks... Ludwig recognized it as the insignia of the laboratories downstairs, the city's most prized medical and forensic research facilities. Underneath he wore a green and white checkered sweater vest. What stood out even more was the blonde's strong, dark eyebrows that reflected a slightly irritated mood, as if it wasn't already obvious in his green eyes.
The other surprise stood with his back to the window, but glanced behind him as Ludwig entered. His eyebrows were normal-sized, and in the orange glow of the sun, Ludwig could see longish dark blonde hair with soft blue eyes and a shadow of a beard. Rather than a lab coat, he wore a casual tan suit with a dark blue button-down shirt. His eyes held a playful and almost charismatic gaze.
"This is my little brother," Gilbert said in english as he let the files flop onto the table. "Ludwig Beilschmidt. He's part of the team too."

Team? Ludwig thought. So he had been right, there would be a team of them. But for what?

He turned his attention back to the two new-comers. "Bruder," Gilbert said as he gestured to the man in the lab coat. "This is Arthur Kirkland. He's a scientist down in the labs."
The man named Arthur's expression softened somewhat as he nodded and stretched a hand to shake Ludwig's. "Forensic expert." He corrected in a British accent. "Pleasure to meet you."

"You too…" Ludwig replied, his voice trailing off. Forensic expert? He pondered. What was going on?

"And this," Gilbert gestured to the man by the window. "Is an old friend of mine. You may not remember him, though. This is Francis Bonnefoy."
Francis Bonnefoy turned completely around to shake Ludwig's hand. "Bonjour." He said with a smile and a French accent. "The pleasure is all mine."

Ludwig wasn't sure what to say to this, so he just nodded. "I'm sorry," He said as he pulled away. "It's nice to meet you both, but can somebody please explain to me what's going on?"
Arthur put down his tea cup as he looked up in surprise. "Oh, I would've expected that you already knew seeing that...Francis!" He snapped suddenly, and Germany turned to face the frenchman in surprise.
He didn't understand why Arthur had suddenly yelled at him, until Arthur followed up with, "Give it back to him."
With a sigh and a somewhat apologetic smile, Francis produced a watch from behind his back. Ludwig's watch, to be exact. "Don't worry, I wasn't going to keep it." Francis smiled as he handed it back to a stunned-looking German. "Just wanted to see how long it would take you to notice."

Arthur rolled his eyes at him as Gilbert explained. "He's a con-artist and an expert pickpocket." He said as he poured himself a cup of coffee from the coffeemaker on the table in the corner of the room. "He could probably lift your shirt of your back and you wouldn't notice until you got home."
Ludwig stared at the Frenchmen in awe. A con-man…! "How did you-"
Before he could question him, a knock came at the door. The group turned to regard a rather tall and well built man with a light coloured scarf around his neck and a long tan trenchcoat with dark pants, shoes and gloves. "Am I late?" The giant asked. Despite his intimidating demeanor, his voice sounded quite innocent and had a Russian accent.
"Nope. Did you just get off the plane?" Gilbert asked and the Russian nodded. "Come on in. This is Ludwig, my awesome younger brother."
The Russian went right up to Ludwig, who instinctively backed away slightly, and held out a hand. "Ivan Braginski." The Russian introduced himself.
"L-Ludwig Beilschmidt." Ludwig responded, wincing a bit at Ivan's firm grip.

Gilbert jabbed a thumb at the Russian. "This guy's the brawn of the operation." He explained, as if it was necessary. "Weapons expert."
Ivan's content smile didn't waver as he sat down at the table, nodding to the others in greeting.
"Anyone else?" Ludwig muttered, shaking his head.
As if on cue, an asian man hurried into the room, carrying a sleek black laptop in his arms. The man wore a light blue dress shirt and dark pants that matched the colour of his hair. "My apologies, Gilbert-san." He said with a thick Japanese accent. "I am so very sorry that I am late."

Arthur answered instead. "You're not late, Kiku. We've just barely started."

Before he could respond, Ludwig said, "Hang on, I'm sure i've seen you before." He murmured. "Have we met?"
Kiku bowed to him respectfully. "Ah, you must be Gilbert-san's younger brother." His smile was humble. "My name is Honda Kiku, or in english, Kiku Honda. You may have seen me around before. I work in the Hive."

The Hive was the closest thing to the underground world in the HQ. It was essentially an underground computer district, with computer experts and tech geniuses bringing in tons of streams of information, which is why it was usually known as the Hive, with the workers bringing in info to the queen , or in this case, the HQ. It was further underground, several levels down from the labs. Ludwig had never been down there, but he knew of its existence. On more than one occasion, investigators sent messages, usually names of suspects down to the Hive, which would send back up all of the information that they had on whoever they were suspicious of. It was like a bank of data and info, and for a moment Ludwig wondered what secrets the laptop that Kiku was carrying held. He had never met anyone who worked down there. Not until now.
"Ludwig Beilschmidt." He introduced himself, and Kiku bowed again. "It's very nice to meet you, Beilschmidt-san."
"Ah, please, call me Ludwig."

As Kiku settled into a seat beside Arthur, Ludwig turned to Gilbert. "Does everyone know who I am?"

Gilbert offered a small shrug in reply.

"Dudes!" A loud voice suddenly startled the occupants in the room, as another man entered, this one with dirty blonde hair, glasses perched in his nose, a light grey shirt and jeans. "You have no idea how bad the traffic is outside. Like seriously, not cool." He carried a pink box in his hands and set it down on the table before plopping himself unceremoniously into a chair.
Arthur scowled at him. "Could you be any more rude?" He snapped, although the American with the box of donuts didn't seem to hear nor care.
Gilbert grinned as he patted the American on the shoulder in greeting. "Alfred Jones." He nodded to him. "Strategist and bomb expert."
Bomb expert? Ludwig stared at him. Is he on a bomb squad? Is this a bomb squad?!

Alfred glanced up. "Oh, hey. You're Gil's little bro, right?"
When Ludwig nodded, Alfred smiled. "Nice to meetcha, dude." He said before opening the donut box and taking out a chocolate glazed donut, which in the next moment had a bite mark in it. Arthur and his eyebrows continued to frown at him.

"So," Gilbert said to the room, and Ludwig suddenly had a bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, his brother would call the room to order and somebody could explain to him what the hell was going on. "We're just waiting for-"

Ludwig's hopes of normalcy were shattered with a sudden knock.

At the window.

The group turned to regard the asian man with dark hair tied back into a ponytail, hanging upside down in front of the window. His head and chest were visible, but his arms and the rest of him were hidden by the top of the window and the ceiling.
"What the hell?!" Ludwig exclaimed.
The man, clearly asian and unbothered, pointed to the window and Francis went over to it. As the Frenchman's hand touched the latch to open it, the asian man disappeared. "Who is that?!" Ludwig exclaimed, somewhat angry that nobody else seemed bothered by the sudden appearance of a man hanging upside down on the outside of a building.

As Francis opened the window as wide as it could go, Ludwig watched as the man swung himself into the room, backside and feet first before twisting in mid-air to land facing the group on his back haunches, one hand planted on the ground. It had to have been the most graceful act Ludwig had ever seen, and what was almost even more graceful was the way he rose up from the ground in the next instant, as if what he had just done hadn't been at all potentially life-threatening. He wore dark jeans with a white shirt, and a dark blue jacket swung over his shoulders. At first Ludwig thought he had a cigarette in his mouth, but instead he realized that it was just a stick of pocky.
"Dude, what happened?" Alfred asked. "Train was delayed?"
The man placed himself swiftly into a chair and rolled his eyes. "I hate talking the train, aru. It's too dirty!" His accent was clearly Chinese, and his voice was almost childlike in an adorable fashion.

Gilbert stepped in before Ludwig could say anything. "Yao Wang." He introduced the two. "My little brother Ludwig. Bet you can guess what he does." Gilbert chuckled.
"Fly through windows and scare people to death?" Ludwig asked, only half-kidding.
Yao smiled as he pulled out his cell phone. "I'm a martial artist. Gilbert calls me a ninja, aru." He glanced distractedly at his phone, complete with a Hello Kitty case. "I can get in and out of places with no problem, aru."

Mein Gott…!" Ludwig suddenly felt the need to sit down. "Well, now that we're all here, can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" He exclaimed as he sat down in a chair.
The albino shook his head as he sat down. "We're still waiting for Feliciano."
"Who? Hang on a second." Ludwig paused. "Has everyone here been briefed on this but me?"
The others looked around at each other for a moment before nodded and murmuring various forms of 'yes'.
Wow. Ludwig thought and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright...Who else did you say we were waiting for?"
"Feliciano." Gilbert repeated. When Ludwig blinked at him, Gilbert took a breath and said, "Vargas."
Instantly, Germany's eyes widened. "Vargas?" He repeated in awe. "As in, the Vargas?"

"Not the Vargas, obviously." Gilbert laughed. "He's long gone."
"But then how…?"
Gilbert smirked, his eyes glinting. "He had a son."
"Feliciano~!" Francis exclaimed suddenly and hurried with open arms to meet the young man who entered the room last.
Ludwig stared at him in awe as the young man named Feliciano smiled.

He wasn't particularly tall and not very short either, and his hair was a tawny colour with a bit of auburn to it. He had a slight natural tan and caramel amber coloured eyes with long dark lashes and full lips, and in his hands he carried a box of what looked like more pastries. Feliciano was dressed in dark blue dress pants and a white button down shirt with a matching dark-blue jacket, casual yet somehow still elegant. It was obvious he was Italian, not just from the name but also going on his bright and happy demeanor, his tan, and his expensive looking clothing, which could only be Italian.

In short, the young man at the door was quite beautiful.

"At last, you've arrived, mon dieu~" Francis hugged him tightly.
"C-ciao, Francis." Feliciano struggled under Francis' tight grasp. "Sorry I'm, uh, late." He gasped as Francis finally released him. His voice was an adorable pitch with an Italian accent. "I brought breakfast~!"He smiled to the group of people as he sat down beside Francis.
After a few minutes of chatting and passing around breakfast pastries,coffee and the donuts that Alfred brought, Gilbert finally called the meeting to order.

Ludwig glanced around at the group of people, all happily eating and eager for their task. He had been offered food many times, but he declined. He had already eaten, and quite frankly, he was too agitated to stomach anything.
Who are all these people? Ludwig thought as he glanced around the room. They're so...different.

"Alright, here's the deal." Gilbert said finally, and Ludwig sat straighter, eager for answers.

The albino stood at the side of the room, in front of the large TV screen mounted on the wall.

"You're probably all wondering why I brought you all here, from literally all over the world. And I'll get to that. But instead of the awesome me talking too much, I'm going to let someone else do all of the work."
From his pocket he produced a small silver remote. When he clicked the on button, the screen illuminated, and a face stared back at the group of people.

It was impossible not to know who she was. If the light brown locks of hair and green eyes didn't give it away, it was the flower shaped pin in her hair and the luxury office setting behind her.
"Mayor Hedervary?" Francis raised an eyebrow.
Gil and her are old friends… Ludwig pondered, as if trying to come up with an explanation for all of this. But what does the mayor of Pangaea have to do with any of this?

"Liz." The albino greeted the mayor. "I've got them all."
"Excellent." the mayor offered a small smile in greeting, but her face soon grew serious. "You're probably all dying to hear more details about the case."
What case? Ludwig suddenly felt very uninvolved with the entire fiasco. Nobody had given him any information. In fact, he had only just learned about the case's existence in the first place.
"Is it true that it's worse than you thought?" America asked suddenly, ignoring Arthur's glare. "I heard it's pretty bad."

Before the Mayor had a chance to speak, Gilbert spoke up. "Oh, sorry, wait a sec."
"What, Gil?" Mayor Hedervary rolled her eyes.
"I didn't tell Ludwig." He said, glancing at his little brother, who at that moment felt more than relieved that his brother hadn't completely forgotten about him. "Start from the beginning."
Thank you. Ludwig thought, relieved.
Mayor Hedervary nodded. "Of course. This case isn't anything relatively new, but it's escalated to point that we've decided is more than we thought we could initially handle." She explained. "You're familiar with Pangaea City's crime rate and statistics, yes?" She asked Ludwig.
The German nodded. "Relatively small, with minimal first degree homicide rates." He recalled. "More petty crimes and a few break-ins, if anything."

The mayor nodded. "That's correct. The City has excellently low crime stats, which, as you know, is impressive for a city this size with so many diverse social groups."

Ludwig frowned. "So then, what's this about?" He asked, feeling oddly informal. "What do we have a case on?"

Mayor Hedervary paused, and bit her lip. "Ludwig," she said carefully. "Have you heard of the X Nation?"
The German raised an eyebrow. "The X Nation?" He could barely remember what little he had heard of it. "It's just a small gang, isn't it? They used to commit regular crimes. Like a mafia, but not as big or as organized...Only a few members-"
"So you've heard of it?" the Mayor cut him off.
Ludwig blinked. "Well, yes."
"In that case," the Mayor said. "Forget everything you've ever known about them."

"...Mayor Hedervary?"

"I'm serious, Ludwig. Everything we thought we knew was incorrect if not dead wrong. The X Nation is more than just a small gang. It's larger and more powerful than we thought. That's why we've called all of you in. Gil and I have made a decision, and it involves all of you. Gil, hand him the file."
Gilbert slid a file across the desk to the German who picked it up eagerly and opened it only to find a few pages inside. A few notes were taken. "All we know," the Mayor continued. "Is that they've been killing and we can't see a pattern to it."

Ludwig squinted at the words on the page to be sure that he was seeing it properly. The top of the file page said "The X Nation", followed by the usual basic information that legally had to be written with a case file. The pages within described a few homicides, an included pictures of the bodies that were found. As Ludwig skimmed over the information, he looked surprised.

"A signature." He said. "They carve an 'x' into the victim's bodies…" He stared down at the photographs, and triple checked the notes in the file to be sure he wasn't mistaken.

Arthur cleared his throat. "Ahem, are these carvings made before or after the time of death?"
"It varies." Gilbert explained. "The first two were left after, but the last was made before. All three bodies are down in the morgue. We were hoping you could take a look."
Arthur nodded. "Of course."
"So," Ludwig looked back up at the mayor. "This gang has been killing recently. What does that have to do with us?"
The Mayor shook her head. "We think it may be longer than recent. We might have just never noticed before. And also, this isn't just about Pangaea City."

"This is happening in other cities?" Ludwig asked.
"In other countries." The mayor explained. "Maybe even worldwide. We're not sure yet. Flip that page."

He did as was told and found himself staring at a map of the world, with several red dots placed in seemingly random places. "Mein gott…" He muttered as he scanned over the map. "One in Greece, two in Spain and one in South Korea? How do you know this isn't just a copycat?"
"The carvings are the same. The exact same." Alfred observed as he pushed his glasses farther up on his nose with a finger, flipping through the pages of the file folder with the other hand. "And I somehow doubt that a couple of dudes in South Korea and the Mediterranean has heard of this. I hear it's been kept quite so far.
"There could be more of them." Gilbert said, and everyone in the room glanced up at him in surprise. "We're not sure, yet." He explained. "We're trying to compile information. The Hive is working day and night, but the carvings in the chests are the only things we have to go on. Also, um…" He glanced at the Mayor, and the two exchanged hesitant yet knowing looks.
"What?" Ludwig pressed. "What is it?"
Before Gilbert could say anything, the Mayor spoke. "We captured one of the group's operatives." She said.
"Captured?" Ivan repeated.
Mayor Hedervary nodded. "Just a hitman working for them. We captured him a few blocks away from the last crime scene. A neighbour heard screaming and called the police. Shot him in the leg while he was running. We couldn't find anyone else, but it was obvious that he wasn't the only one involved."
Francis leaned forward. "You interrogated him, yes?"
"No. Didn't have a chance to." She replied, and spoke quickly to ease their confused expressions. "A few officers picked him up and he just started talking. Told us everything he knew on the spot. But right in the middle of a sentence, he was shot. It was a sniper on top of a roof, but he got away. Somebody wanted to keep him from talking."
"A sniper? Wait," Ludwig frowned. "What did he say before he was killed?"

Mayor Hedervary frowned. "That they were blackmailing him with his mother and father. Also, he mentioned a leader."
"A leader of the group?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.
The mayor nodded. "He said he hadn't seen the leader, but he was powerful apparently. Kept in the shadows, but deadly. And that's where you all come in."
The group was nearly silent, awaiting their instructions eagerly.
It was Feliciano who spoke up first. "You want us to find the leader?"
"We want you to bring down the whole group. Finding the leader will be essential to that."

Yao made a small huffing noise. "It's not so much a group anymore, is it, aru?" He said. "It's a mafia."
"Hang on." Alfred sat back in his chair. "Let's be honest, for a sec. There's powerful mafias in the world that span across borders. There's one centered in Asia and another centered in South America, isn't there? And there's…" Alfred's voice trailed off before he stopped himself. He looked distracted for a minute before continuing." We can't be the only ones after these guys."
"But for only a handful of murders?" Ivan pointed out. "On a worldwide scale, its minimal."
Mayor Hedervary cleared her throat. "They've been causing other problems too. Damaged power grids, cargo ships, it's like they've been vandalizing the world."

"And we have to take them down." Ludwig said finally. "We have to find the leader, find out what they want, and take this mafia down…?"
Gilbert nodded with a grin. "Exactly! It'll be awesome! That's why we specifically chose all of you for the job. You'll make a really great team."
The Mayor agreed. "As a team, you'll be well-rounded." She explained, now with a smile. "And of course, you'll have the support of Pangaea's finest."

"Well?" Gilbert said suddenly, looking expectantly at his little brother.
Ludwig blinked at him. "Well, what?"
"Are you in?"
Ludwig stared at his brother for a moment, and then glanced around at the room filled with strangers, his new teammates. His gaze dropped to the case file on his lap. This what not at all what he had expected to walk into this morning, and yet...

"Yes." He said finally. "I'm in."

"Pangaea City." The man said carefully.
The figure at the desk looked up slowly. "Pangaea City…" A hum of approval came from the person. "A diverse hub of cultures and societies from all across the globe in one city. Of course."

Glancing back up, the figure said, "Get me as much information as you can on this new 'Team'.