I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack~

Erik:*screams in terror* Just kidding

Me: He's been behaving. Yeah, so I don't really have much banter planned for this chapter, since it-

Henrik:*covers my mouth before I could spoil it* Geez, Nony, you're always telling us not to spoil the stories & here you are being a hypocrite

Me: *glares*

Sig:*Sighs* Hetalia does not belong to Nony. If she did, *indicates the glaring contest between me and Henrik* it would basically look like that

Me: Sig!

Erik: Hlaupa, frændi, hlaupa! (Run, cousin, run!-Icelandic) (Yes, I know Erik is Norwegian (you would too if you read the end AN in a previous chapter), but he speaks exactly four languages, Icelandic & English being two of them)

I pull Ida to the side. Before she can say anything, I put my finger to my lips to signal that she should keep her mouth shut. I pull out my phone, dialing a way too familiar number.

"Hallo?*"

"Vash, I think I found Raivis," I quickly explain what I'd seen, leaving out Ida. Vash doesn't have to know that an eighteen-year-old girl managed to break into my fortress of a home.

"I'll be there with Elizabeta, Tino, and Berwald." He ends the call.

The sound of a door closing pierces my ears. I glance over my shoulder to see that Natalya had re-entered the house. I turn back to Ida. Her eyes scream terror.

"What's happening?" she asks nervously.

"An investigation," I explain. "You may not want to be near here at the moment."

This prompts her to run towards Soviet Street. She really cares about her brother if she's still going to the Soviet House.

I stalk silently towards the house that Natalya went into. I peer between the cracks of a boarded up window to see Natalya conversing with Katyusha, the latter standing over a small form curled in the fetal position. Raivis.

I hear the sounds of sirens, knowing that my collegues have arrived. The first one I see is Vash. The blonde Swiss man jogs over to me.

"Are they in there?" he asks.

I nod, scooting over so he could look inside. He squints through the crack. A displeased look crosses his face.

"That's them all right," he finally says.

Tell me something I don't know, I think bitterly.

Vash whirls around to face Elizabeta, Tino, Berwald, and...Mathias? Why is he here?

"Hey, Lukas," the boisterous Dane greets me. He answers my unasked question. "I came to make sure you were alright. Arthur said that you had a headache earlier."

I sigh. There's no way of Mathias not shoving his nose into my buisness.

"I'm fine, Mathias," I snap.

"If you two are finished, Elizabeta, Tino, Berwald, and I are heading in," Vash remarks, clearing his throat.

"I'm coming in with you," I declare to eveyone's surprise. They didn't expect me to offer so quickly. Or at all, for that matter, since it's not my job. "Raivis will only trust me." To be honest, I don't know how much he really trusts me anyomore, considering Eduard's death.

Tino nods in agreement. He's seen the Latvian's reactions to me. He persuades the others to let me come in.

"You can come," Vash sighs, finally giving in to Tino's infamous puppy eyes. Everyone gives in to those large violet eyes. "Just stay behind us."

Everyone, save for Mathias, who we forced to stay outside, pulls out their guns. Once ready, Elizabeta knocks sharply on the door, announcing, "Open up! It's the police." More like four cops and a member of the crime lab. No answer. Elizabeta knocks again, harder. Still nothing. "If you don't open the door and come out peacefully, we'll use force!" Nothing.

Elizabeta glances at Vash, who nods to signal that we should go in. Elizabeta steps away to make room for Berwald. The large Swede kicks the door in with his heavy boots. The door falls off its rusty hinges. Berwald, closely followed by Elizabeta, Vash, Tino, and myself, rush into the house. We find Katyusha and Natalya near the back with a sobbing, bloodied Raivis on the floor.

"Freeze!" Elizabeta yells.

Katyusha whirls around, shocked to see the five of us with raised guns.

"I'm sorry!" the silver haired Ukrainian cries, much to our own surprise. "I only wanted to end their pain." Tears stream down her face. "They'd all had such miserable lives that weren't improving. I didn't want them to suffer anymore."

"That's no reason to kill anyone," Vash snaps.

"I was trying to help."

"But you murdered three teenagers who still had a chance to make a difference in the world," Tino says, attempting to take control. "They all had friends who were devastated to learn of their deaths." I know that he's including himself as a friend. He did know Eduard. I won't forget the look on his face at the apartment that Toris, Eduard, and Raivis had lived in after Eduard's death.

"You don't know anything," Natalya hisses. I'd almost forgotten that she was there. She points an accusing finger at a semi-concious Raivis, glaring at us. "It was all his fault. He brought this upon them as he did his former families. He brings nothing but bad happenings. I told Anya and Katyusha to get rid of him the day bad things began happening to us."

"What do you know about the boy?" I question, stepping forward a bit.

"None of your buisness, paŭzun.**"

"Piedod. Tas viss ir mana vaina***," Raivis croaks. "I brought this on everyone. Toris, Feliks, Eduard." He takes a shuddering breath. "They're dead. And it's because of me."

Raivis. My heart sinks hearing his voice so weak.

Natalya moves towards Raivis. Vash lets off a warning shot. "Don't move or the next one is through your head."

Natalya, swift as a cheetah, grabs her own gun, pointing it at Raivis. I can't believe this is coming down to a standoff.

"Get out or the boy dies," she snarls.

"You plan on killing him anyways," I remark. "Why?"

Katyusha, still crying, answers, "His first family sold him to a Russian mafia to ensure their safety. They then abandoned him to the mafia, but someone else found and took him in. The mafia is trying to track him down. If he's dead, the other families can stop living in fear." What?

"That's no excuse for muder," Elizabeta says, vemon lacing her words.

"Shut up!" Natalya snaps.

Katyusha slowly trudges over to Elizabeta, tears still streaming down her face. She holds her hands out, much to our surprise, in surrender.

"I was wrong. I shouldn't have killed Toris or Eduard. I only listened to my sisters," she sobs. "I'll atone for what I did."

"You didn't kill Feliks?" Vash inquires.

Katyusha shakes her head.

"Who did it then?" Tino asks.

"It was Natalya, wasn't it?" I pipe up.

Natalya growls in response to Katyusha's near inaudible "yes."

Elizabeta reachers for her side, removing her handcuffs. "Yekaterina Braginskaya, you are under arrest for the murders of Toris Laurinaitis, and Eduard von Bock as well as the attempted murders of Nicolae Illiescu and Raivis Galante." She pulls Katyusha's hands behind her back, slapping the metal cuffs around them.

Out of fury for her sister's betrayl and the fact that they were caught, Natalya redirects her aim and begins shooting. Vash, Elizabeta, Tino, Berwald, and I manage to duck for cover in time. Katyusha hides behind the stairs. We fire back in retaliation. Unfortunately, we have to be careful as to not catch Raivis in the enraged Belarusian continues firing in any direction she spots us.

Vash cries out.

I avert my gaze from the crazed blonde to check on Vash, who's on the other side of the room. A line on blood oozes down his arm, soaking through his uniform. The look he shoots me says that it's not as bad as it looks. A graze wound. I accept his word, turning my focus back onto Natalya. To my, and robably the rest of the team's, horror, Natalya decides to continue her original plan to shoot Raivis.

"Elizabeta! Berwald!" I call. "Back me up!"

"You better not be doing what I think you're doing," Vash warns between gritted teeth.

"D'n't d' 't," Berwald says.

On pure impulse and adrenaline, I rise from the floor behind an overturned table to hurry to Raivis's side. Vash and Tino cry out for me to stop. Berwald and Elizabeta get up to back me up.

I can't let him die. I broke one too many promises already.

A single shot rings out.

"Lukas!"

*Hello (German)

**Creep (Belarusian)

***I'm sorry. It's all my fault (Latvian)

And that, my dear readers, is my favorite cliffhanger of this fic.

Erik: *shudders* R & R