Author's Note: Sorry that this chapter's a little late too. I don't really have an excuse though, other than that I couldn't put my thoughts onto the screen.

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It was incredibly early the next morning by the time Ludwig awoke again, still pitch black out and only handfuls stars starting to disappear out of the sky. Cora had been licking him, anxious for her master to revive after the state he appeared in. The gray cat clearly didn't like seeing strange men burst into her home, dropping her master rudely onto his bed before storming out, heading off for who knows where. She gave them a hiss to show that she wouldn't want the likes of them coming around again.

When Ludwig finally recovered from bitter unconsciousness - which Carmelo and the other elites did not help by injecting him with drugs that would put him under longer, not that he knew about all of that - Cora immediatley started grooming her master and rubbing her fur up against his strong arms and torso, making sure that he was alright and safe. After petting the cat for a little while, Ludwig looked around, still trying to grasp what happened. The memory of fear still pounded in his bloodstream, thankfully, though, it was slowly fading out of his mind. He knew that he was being told to stay in his place by his master, but...he also knew that if he followed through with the order, it meant that he couldn't associate with Feliciano anymore.

He wasn't sure why he was letting a rebel float around in his thoughts, but Ludwig felt that he would be more regretful if he stayed in his proper place and watched scientists play with human DNAs like a game rather than helping Feliciano in some way. He would be labeled a traitor. He'd be betraying his brother and Lili. His parents were killed by rebels, Lili's brother was killed by rebels, and hundreds upon thousands of people had been killed by rebels. However, he could see why the rebels wanted to kill, after the horrible mutations and drones that were created from their friends and shipped out to fight in battle against them. Besides, Ludwig thought it was time that he did something himself for a change. But what?

Cora continued begging for his attention through rubbing and purring all against him. He smirked, giving in and addressing the only woman he'd ever need. Letting his thoughts go helped him to the think more, and he remembered something that Zabek once told him. He said that before drones, mutations, and otherwise could be shipped over to a dispatch base to send off to the front lines, they had to be given some sort of chemical that would help them adapt to the outside world. He knew very little about it, except that it was frequently distributed by the nearby, and largest of the bases: the National Army Dispatching Capital Base, though most of the people still in the Capital by now called it just "The Capital Base".

Pulling off the employee card that was clipped to his coat, which hadn't been pulled off by whoever took him home, he smiled at the information that had been updated to the card. Now it said that he was the official apprentice of Head Scientist Shawn Kaminski. Whoever was in charge at that base would probably be willing to trust someone of that rank, especially if he mentioned the possibility of more drones being shipped their way. He felt better realizing that he was still okay betraying the Nation for the good of Feliciano and his poor people, even being able to drift back into a nap to last until the sun came up behind the horizon.

Abandoning the lab coat at his apartment, he decided to head down to the Capital Base with a nice looking suit and a briefcase, though he had the employee card safely secured in his pocket. Showing the card to the guards outside, he easily was given an escort inside, assuming from the information he gave the two guards - the escort was taking him to who he needed to speak to about getting his hands on the drugs.

The escort pointed out the different sectors of the base as they were walking through the halls, and he chatted, "I'm glad Mister Kaminski finally sent someone down here, the Major's been waiting around for some new drones." He paused and asked, "You are here about shipping out more drones, right?"

Ludwig replied, "I wouldn't be here to get a supply of the drugs if I wasn't."

"Good, good, the Major will be quite pleased."

"Do letters from the front lines come through this department?"

"Why yes, we typically check over our mail and run it through here before we send it out."

In the Nation's society, there was limited censoring for mail and other forms of communication, but now Nation was at war, the censorship was a lot more active. Gilbert, Lili, and himself, were always careful to talk only about themselves instead of any doubts of war. Ludwig could sense that the two of them were tired of fighting the war, but they couldn't exactly say that without the censors getting them.

The escort asked, "Is there any mail you've been expecting? I can ask for someone to check."

"Gilbert Beilschmidt and Lili Zwingli."

"You're the younger brother of the lieutenant, then?" The escort was awed.

"Yes, and Lili is like family to us."

"Oh, I know about the two of them. Everyone does. Certainly, I'll deliver you to Major Teague, and I'll head down there to retrieve anything from them."

"Thank you, sir."

The dark corridor continued on until the escort stopped in front of a door with a hand scanner. He pressed his palm to the scanner, and the light went over the entirety of the hand, allowing them entry after processing who the hand belonged to.

Inside was an army unit practicing in combat training, with several high-looking officers to supervise their progress. At the sound of the door opening, the officers peered back, saluting to the escort as he did to them.

"Major Teague, this is the newest apprentice under the Head Scientist Shawn Kaminski," the escort introduced Ludwig, holding out his upturned palm in front of the man.

Teague stepped forward and smiled in delight, "Ah, it's about time I heard from him again! How is your master? Well, I'm hoping?"

Ludwig nodded politely, "As well as he can be."

"Good to hear, well it's my pleasure to welcome you to the Capital Base. Take a walk with me." He stepped over away from Ludwig, motioning for him to follow him to a more private corner of the room so that the other officers could supervise the training, and so they could talk more freely. "I'd normally send someone else to speak to you in my stead, as these people mean a lot to me, but for the apprentice of Shawn Kaminski, I'm willing to make an exception. I've been introduced to you as Teague. What's your name, apprentice?"

"Beilschmidt. Ludwig Beilschimdt."

"You're related to Lieutenant Gilbert Beilschmidt, aren't you?"

"Yes sir. He's my older brother."

"Well he's a damn fine soldier, perhaps a tad extreme but a damn fine soldier. You ought to be proud of him."

"I am sir, he and Sergeant Major Zwingli do the family proud."

"Ah yes, she's one hell of a soldier as well." His voice dropped to a lower tone and said, "I've heard that your family has had a many of losses, I'm sorry for any suffering your family's been through."

"War is war, Major. Even I've had a taste of it."

"You were out on the battlefields?"

"Only for a month, sir. I was pulled out of the war to become to an apprentice."

Teague clapped, "I'm glad to see a former soldier in our building."

"I'm not worthy of such praise. I even have the uniform to return."

"No, no. Keep it as a reminder to what your family sacrificed for us. All of your family."

"Yes...well, I'm here to receive some information and a new shipment of the drugs that are distributed to the drones who are scheduled to come here."

"Certainly. What information are you in need of?"

"Well, I was told by Master Kaminski that they were needed for drones that who were ready for dispatching, but what exactly does it do?"

"Ah, I see. Well, the chemicals in the drug basically helps the immune system adapt to the outdoors and helps the drones be ready for working again. With all the procedures and drugs that the drones get in the labs, it often deteriorates their immune systems and makes them weaker. This strengthens them up by using the mental capacity that they're currently at."

"Their current mental capacity? What does that have to do with their immune systems?"

"Well, we want our drones to stay drones, so the chemical's other purpose is to basically 'lock in' their mental states. It can be changed, but the more droned that they are, the harder it is to do so. A regular human's mental capacity can function normally, but a drones will stay locked into the 'droned' state. And, it's a lot easier to use on the drones, because you have to keep giving them the shots in the supply, and they're said to be pretty painful. A drone wouldn't flinch at the pain like a regular human would, and it's enough pain to grind your teeth at."

"That's very interesting. May I be given a supply for the lab?"

"Why of course, Mr. Beilschmidt. I'll have one of the lesser officers escort you down to the supply room. The hospital normally sends the drug over to us for us to give to trusted scientists, but they really should just start sending them over to the lab through the tram tunnel," he shrugged with a laugh, "anyway, I'll let you go get what you need. I'm sure you have better things to do than stand and talk with an old war dog."

"Thank you, sir."

Teague looked over to the officers and called, "Corporal!" At once, a slimmer man with short blonde hair looked over his way and headed over towards him, raising an attentive salute. Teague introduced the shorter man, "This is Corporal Kirkland, he'll show you the way to the supply room."

Kirkland nodded, "Come along."

The Corporal led him from the training room back down another long corridor, and like the original escort and Teague, he began chatting him up, though Ludwig could tell he was more hesitant to make small talk. He spoke after a couple minutes, "You're brother is one of the Lieutenants, right? Gilbert Beilschmidt?"

"That's him. Were you one in his company?"

"No, my eldest brother knew him. He was a lieutenant as well."

"Do you have multiple brothers? How many serve in the army?"

Kirkland sighed, "All of them did. I had four brothers, three older and one younger. They're all dead, killed in combat."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"War is war, and war isn't without it's losses..."

"I understand. I have lost a lot of my family as well."

"Please don't spread the word, but this war is making me hopeless as well as sick," Kirkland cringed, "Have you seen the things that they send down here and pretend that they're human? A drone may look like a human, but that's no bloody human to me! And the mutations, are the scientists in that building smoking something?! It's like the product of some kind of nasty game that they're playing!"

"I'm somewhat surprised you were able to say all of that to the apprentice of the Head Scientist in the whole Nation." Kirkland had to stop his thoughts for a minute and process everything that he said. By the time he was finished, his cheeks were practically blazing with embarrassment. Before he could stutter out some sort of apology, Ludwig chuckled and responded, "It's alright, Corporal. I have the same opinion on the matter."

Kirkland sighed, cheeks still flaming and his voice more hesitant, "I just can't believe that the place I've entrusted as my home, the thing that my brothers all died for, and the government that I'm serving...would become so ugly and disgusting, even in wartime." This Corporal had no idea how much the two of them had in common, at least with their opinion on the Nation. They had lived here for so long, brought up to believe how glorious this haven on Earth could be, and have the government's war decisions dealing with their prisoners and people just burn it all away.

"Do you ever think about deserting the Nation? Leaving and going someplace else?"

Kirkland looked stupefied, "I can't just leave the country my brothers died for! Besides, where else is there to go?" Incredibly, but sadly, true. He stopped short at one of the doors, surprising Ludwig for a minute, until he remembered why Kirkland had been leading him around to begin with. "This is where the shipments are stored," he opened the door for him, but didn't go inside, "Major Teague normally gives each person who comes here five crates. One crate has enough medicine for one person. I'd best be heading back to the training room."

"Would it be wise to leave me here alone?"

"Look, I'm not going to call you a bad person for following your orders, but I'd rather not get near something so vile."

"Then you don't have to worry about anything, Corporal Kirkland. The one crate I need is for special purposes."

The Corporal blinked in curiosity, but didn't push the matters any. He merely furrowed his thick eyebrows together and sighed, "It isn't any of my business, so take what you need and leave." He murmured before turning to head away, "Two minds like ours are dangerous if we mingle; and, after my brothers, I'd prefer to stay away from danger."

Ludwig smiled after he was gone. Dangerous? He never would have considered that his mind would be labeled "dangerous". But he didn't think that man was just making something up, Kirkland may have seen ugliness in the army, but that wasn't enough to do things that were similar to what he was doing now. He was still sitting in the birdcage like Ludwig once was, and he hadn't met that person that would trigger him to fly away.

Feliciano, in a strange way, had become that trigger for him, so he owed it enough to him to see that he was returned to the strength he once possessed, and that he was free. He took one of the cases and headed towards the exit, grabbing a couple letters from that escort on the way out, ones that were labeled from his brother and Lili. But he put that on the back burner, and focused his thoughts back on his mission. Once Feliciano went back to how he normally acted and he had these drugs in his system, he could go home and turn the tides of war for the rebellion.

This was why getting the medicine was so important.

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