Both teams awoke the next morning to clear skies. A crisp breeze whistled through the cracks and crags of the North Face as bright rays of sunlight reflected off the packed snow. Ludwig lifted the hood of his bivouac sack and was rewarded with a shower of powdered snow. The wind must have blown a fine layer of the stuff over them as they slept. Gilbert also met the same fate as tried to exit his bag. A string of incoherent words followed by several curses filled the early morning air. The younger brother chuckled to himself as he rolled up his bag and watched Gil flounder on the ground in an attempt to get snow out of his clothes.

"You'll cause an avalanche doing that, brother," Ludwig said.

"But it's cold!" the elder brother whined, but his erratic movement stopped.

Once they had their things packed away, the two ate a quick breakfast of stale biscuits and jerky. Ludwig melted down enough snow for them to each take a few sips, and Gilbert took a quick bathroom break. He tried to act normal about relieving himself on the side of a mountain, but the experience always made him feel self-conscious. The elder Beilschmidt was just finishing up when he noticed the motionless forms of the Austrians on a not too distant cliff.

"Hey, what should we do about the others?" he asked as turned back toward the brothers' bivouac site.

"Who? The Austrians?"

"Yeah, they haven't woken up yet."

"Leave them. Gives us the upper hand."

Gilbert's expression tightened. "But what if they're...?"

Ludwig knew what his brother was trying to say. Many climbers have fallen asleep on a mountain to never wake again. "Then we'll come back for them on our way down."

"That's cold, West."

"There's nothing that can be done about it now."

The words were barely out of Ludwig's mouth when one of the Austrians moved. The thin layer of snow covering the moving person's bivouac sack fell to the ground, and Elizabeta Héderváry stepped out of her bag with a stretch. She caught sight of the brothers and gave them a cheeky wave before nudging her partner awake.

"There, nothing to worry about." Ludwig turned back to his supplies. "Pack your things so we can get started."

"Yeah, yeah." Gilbert let his eyes wander over the female climber for a moment longer. Finally, he pulled up his hood and helped his brother break camp.

"Hey. Roderich. Hey, get up!" Elizabeta poked the dark haired man with her foot repeatedly.

Unintelligible groans came from within the sack, but Roderich did not emerge.

"C'mon, lazybones! The Germans are going to get a leg up on us!"

He didn't bother to respond this time.

"Roderich?"

Elizabeta knelt down and carefully brushed the snow from his bag before pulling the hood back from his head. She had to hold back the gasp that threatened to come out at the sight before her. Dried blood caked one side of Roderich's face making it obvious where the blood had trailed down from his head. His violet eyes rolled around his head without being able to focus on anything, and a dark, ominous stain had appeared overnight on the hat he had worn to sleep.

Doing her best not the hurt him, Elizabeta gingerly peeled back the hat from his forehead. She couldn't contain her gasp this time. The wound Roderich had received from the falling rocks was much worse than he had let on. A deep gash had opened on his head and had turned a strange black color. Blood had matted his hair into the cut, which was only dry in a few parts, while pus and other fluids leaked out of different spots.

"Oh, Roderich," Elizabeta said in the faintest of whispers. "We have to go back down."

"No! We're...we're not going back!" the bleary eyed man insisted. His gaze finally focused on his partner's face. "We can't...no!"

"You need a doctor! You can't even go on like this!"

In the blink of an eye, faster than Elizabeta thought was possible in his condition, Roderich had her pinned on her back. "I'm not letting...those uncultured swines...beat us to the top! I. Will. Not. Lose!"

To her, there was as much crazy coming out of his mouth as there was spittle, but she didn't dare oppose him. "Okay, we'll keep going, but if you start to feel sick, we're going back down."

The crazed look left his eyes as he accepted her words. It took them a good ten minutes to pack up their things, eat a light breakfast, and begin their climb. By then the Beilschmidts had a comfortable lead. The brothers had already started to make their way across the second ice field when the Austrians arrived. Roderich hadn't said a word since the conversation earlier, and Elizabeta was worried. He couldn't continue for long with an injury like that. It was only a matter of time before something happened that would end their climb for good.

The second ice field took much longer than the first to cross. Both teams were tired, and to make matters worse, the ice was harder to cut than before. As the altitude increased, the temperature decreased, which meant the ice was much more frozen here than below. Ludwig found himself stopping to catch his breath more often than the day before, and Elizabeta felt as if she were dragging a dead body behind her. She turned around occasionally to confirm that that was not actually the case. It was hard to see Roderich's face with his hood up, but he was very much alive.

Vash also noticed the climbers' difficulty through the telescope he had all but claimed as his own. "The Austrian team appears to be struggling," he said to Lili. He focused the lens on the straggling climbers and watched for a moment in silence. "There's definitely something wrong with one of them. It's the male. What was his name? Richard? Rodney?"

"Roderich," Lili clarified. She worried for the dark haired man, but her heart thought of another. "How are the brothers?"

"Doing quite well actually. They are currently in the lead and making good progress. I'd say that they'll probably reach the top the day after tomorrow if they continue at this pace."

"The day after tomorrow!" Lili gasped. She knew the trip would not be short, but bivouacking twice more before even making it to the top was quite dangerous.

"Do not fret, dear sister. They have the support of the German nation at their backs."

Vash's words did little to soothe her. She clasped her hands together tightly and stared at the formidable North Face. The words of a short, but sincere prayer formed on her lips. She thought about the climbers and the awful challenges they've faced, and would still have to face. Mostly, she thought of Ludwig. She prayed that he would come back safe in one whole, warm piece.

As Lili's prayer ascended to heaven, Ludwig's ice axe descended on something embedded within the ice. He pried the adze free and brushed some loose snow out of the way. A corner of something red and definitely manmade peeked out of the ice. Ludwig used his gloved hands to pry away at the cracked ice and dig a little deeper. What he saw made his blood run cold.

"Brother, you should see this."

"Can't you just tell me what it is? You've been standing there for too long. Let's keep going."

"No, you need to see this."

With an irritated sigh, Gilbert began cutting his own footholds to join his brother. He paused on occasion to pull out a crampon. A snide comment was about to fly from his mouth, but when he saw what Ludwig had found it caught in his throat.

"Is that...what I think it is?"

"Yes. One of the Bavarian climbers. They never did find the bodies."

"Just our luck, eh West?" Gil jested, but there was no smile on either of their faces.

The two wordlessly got to work freeing the body from its icy tomb. It wasn't long until they uncovered the second body as well. Both brothers had understood the risk in what they were attempting to do, but the reality had not sunken in until this moment. Until they saw the fate of those who tried what they were doing, the possibility of their fate being quite similar had seemed rather absurd.

"Hey...what...are you two...doing?" asked a breathless voice. It had been quiet for so long that the Beilschmidts had forgotten about the Austrian team. Elizabeta panted behind the two and watched as they continued to uncover what appeared to be two bodies. A sudden realization came to her. "Those are...your fellow Bavarians...aren't they?"

"Yeah," Gilbert answered in a low voice. He hadn't bothered to look at her.

She watched for another minute before moving closer. "Let me help."

The brothers made room for the woman, and the three spent the next hour painstakingly chipping away at the ice encasing the climbers. Roderich remained motionless on the snow beneath them and dripped blood onto the blanketing of white. His wound had reopened some time during the climb, but no one had noticed. At long last, the Bavarians were freed and bundled into their bivouac sacks. With a few final words of a prayer from Ludwig, the men were released down the mountain face. The three watched until the bodies were out of sight, buried in the rocks they so desperately wanted to conquer.

"We should climb together from now on," Ludwig said to the tired woman. She had finally controlled her breathing, but fatigue showed very clearly on her red, wind burned face. "There is strength in numbers."

"I agree," she said softly.

But in reality, the two groups joined to avoid ending up like their fellow climbers. The truth was hard to overlook when it caught them straight in the face. If they had any chance of getting to the top, it was through a combined effort.

"Let's keep moving," Ludwig suggested. "The weather doesn't look like it'll hold for long." He watched dark clouds begin to gather in the sky and block out the sun. Dark clouds also began to gather in his heart, and he didn't like the feeling at all.