Howdy! It's been a long time since i put a chapter up... more computer issues... blah blah. So here it is :D Thanks for reading guys and feedback is always a welcome thing, as long as it's nice and/or helpful in some way! Read, review, enjoy :)

"So… what should we do now?" I asked Kiku, who was just sitting down after making us both a real breakfast.

I could see the wheels turning in his head, quickly conjuring and rejecting ideas as they frantically tried to put out an answer that would be the solution to this whole mess. "I'm assuming that you already know we must defeat Ivan..." he finally murmured.

I nodded before giving a huge yawn and stretching my muscles. "Yeah. If I ever want to live peacefully in my house."

He gave a long sigh and rubbed his temples. "Well then, first we must come up with an idea on how to do that. And it won't be easy convincing the others that he's guilty of these crimes, either. Ivan has always treated them very well and they barely know you."

Surprised, I looked up. "Ivan said the same thing…" I informed him. "Right before he dragged Yao off to have sex."

"U-uhm…. Yes…."

He seemed embarrassed by my bluntness, though I wasn't really sure why. It made me wonder if he had ever said the word "sex" out loud before in his life. Just as I was about to ask, his dark eyes lit up with what I was positive was his idea, the one that would solve this whole problem.

"Ivan controls them all by brainwashing, I'm sure," he said, speaking faster due to his excitement. "Maybe if we could find a way to reverse the spell he uses, WE could be the ones to control them! Then we can fight the war that he has waged with you, with every angel we can find on our side! It would be perfect, and you wouldn't need to try and convince anyone!"

"That sounds a little dark…" I told him, uncertain. I didn't really want to take anyone's mind from them.

His bright energy didn't ebb. "Well, it is a little, but without them there is you and me alone against the whole of the angel and demon populations."

"But my cats," I informed him. "They'll help us too."

This threw him a little, but he shook it off, his silky hair bouncing around on his head. "Don't you see? After we have gotten them on our side, we will fight the battle and then they won't have to remember anything happened at all! After Ivan is gone, we will free their minds from ever being controlled again!"

Maybe it was the pleading tone in his voice, or the whole desperate look about him that changed my decision. Either way, I knew, after he claimed we would free them, that he had me. "Okay. So how do we get the brainwashed angels on our side?"

A knowing smile flashed across his face, accompanied by relief that I was finally giving in. "I have connections."

Those "connections" turned out to be the only other person in the whole angel flock who hadn't succumbed to the powers of Russian hypnotism. Someone that I had worked with for a long time. Someone who believed in unicorns, fairies, and other various creatures that were said to be nonexistent. Someone who I hadn't known practiced black magic until now.

Arthur Kirkland.

We were standing outside his house now, knocking on the door fervently. If we were to follow through with any of this slightly demonic plan, he had to agree to help us with it. Luckily, Kiku had assured me that he and Arthur were good friends, that even when everyone else shunned Arthur's craziness, he had taken him in. So the Englishman owed him one. Or something like that…

"Yes, yes, what? I'm coming!"

We froze, both in mid-knock for a moment, before straightening up as the door swung open. He looked like he always did when he came to work, very cleanly groomed (if you ignored his eyebrows) and well-dressed and kind of like he had some enormous stick up his butt. The second he spotted the two of us, both slightly frantic and panting, he leaned against the doorframe in instant suspicion.

"Can I help you?" he asked a little grouchily, looking back and forth between us.

"Please," Kiku started, before giving a bow and explaining the rest. "We need a favor."

Sighing, he straightened up. "Very well, come in and explain then."

We followed his orders and were shown to a sofa, where we both sat, relieved that we had made it this far. Kiku took up the lead of the conversation, thankfully, because this was a very comfortable couch… it made me really tired.

Setting his brow sternly, the Japanese man began to talk. "I'm very sorry to impose on you like this so early in the morning, but it's urgent. You see, Heracles has made a discovery that could very possibly put all of the warrior angels in danger quickly. He has found that our leader, Ivan, is not only our director in fighting demons, but is also the demons' director in fighting us. He's the king of angels and demons, a mixture between the two, something that could very well be disastrous if ever he should decide to send them onto us unexpectedly. So Heracles and I have come to the conclusion that we must fight and destroy him to eliminate the threat."

Arthur, who had remained surprisingly quiet throughout the explanation, finally broke in. "And just how are you going to do that? Even you must realize that everyone but the two of us is being controlled with a spell that that bloody Russian git conjured up! It would take immense convincing to get them to revolt!"

"Hai, and this is where we require your assistance. You see, we were hoping that, possibly, you could have some sort of spell that… that would reverse Ivan's and send the angels into our allegiance instead of his? Of course I realize that there are several angels that, even with the most powerful convincing, will not switch sides, such as Yao and Gupta, but regardless, we would be much more powerful if we were an army of more than three and some cats."

Obviously confused by the cat comment, Arthur opened his mouth to ask before deciding otherwise and closing it. After awhile of staring intently at the beige carpeted floor, he looked up at us again, his green eyes burning with a kind of fiery passion that I had only ever seen when he was angry. "All right," he said, agreeing. "But on one condition. When we defeat that wanker, I want to be the leader of the angels. If I'm going to waste so much magic on this, there had better be a damn good reason why."

Kiku and I exchanged a glance and a shrug.

"It's yours," Kiku said, smiling. "And welcome to the alliance."

Looking pleased with the way this had turned out, Arthur stood up and brushed invisible dirt off himself. "Perfect. Now, there are a small handful of spells which have been going through my head, but I've yet to try them to see if they actually work, so I'll need a few days to practice."

"Of course," Kiku told him. "We must plan immediately what we are going to do so that this will not fail. If it does, it could be the end for the entire population of fighters that we know."

Since I had been quiet this whole time, I had to interject my thoughts. "Um…brainwashing everyone seems like a little much though… if there are people who will agree without that happening, shouldn't we just ask them to join?"

"And alert the ones who won't be swayed by us to the plan?" Arthur said critically. "Absolutely not. They must all be brainwashed again because they were stupid enough to fall for it in the first place!"

I gave a small sigh, wondering how I was getting out sadisticated by these two. They both had such cute faces… Maybe evil came naturally to the small and cute. To me, it just seemed like too much effort on their part. Arthur had said he didn't want to waste magic; wouldn't it be less of a waste to ask people first? But I did see his point. Surely someone would tell Ivan of our plans before we could get halfway through them. Like Sadiq. Even I wasn't oblivious to his feeling toward Gupta, and wherever the Egyptian chose to go, he would follow him. Everyone was driven by incentive.

Because I couldn't seem to help it, I continued to fight for my side. "You won't even ask Alfred?"

The Brit flinched a little before giving an awkward laugh. "Why on earth would I want to ask that idiot to be on our side? What's he got to do with this?"

"Well… I just thought that since you two are dating that it made sense."

His face reddened and he gave me his trademark scowl. "We are NOT dating. Besides, he's just as moronic as the rest of them for letting himself get sucked under that bloody Russians spell, despite what I told him… He refuses to listen to me. So, no, Alfred will not be joining the three of us."

This time, I shut up, aware that I had upset him with my words. The last thing I needed was for him to refuse to help us because I couldn't help stating obvious things that hadn't quite been accepted by the people/ parties involved. Which is exactly what Kiku's next look told me. And it wasn't like I wasn't having my own issues. My mind couldn't help but jump ahead of itself when it came to the attractive man beside me.

"Right, so I'll call you when I've found the correct spell…" Arthur muttered unhappily. "Until then, figure out what we'll be doing once we've gathered the angels to our side. How we'll be declaring war against someone who may possibly have unlimited demon power. Mind you, I can barely summon one, so this could get rather ugly despite having the others on our side. I just hope you're prepared for this. Good day, Kiku, Heracles."

Taking this as our dismissal, the two of us left, ignoring the angry sounds behind us as someone bounded down the stairs and broke something.

Feeling Arthur's love woes more than he could ever know, I stared longingly at Kiku's empty hand as we walked back to his place. Thankfully, he was too immersed in his own thoughts to notice when I lost my control and made a grab for his hand, only to have him move it at the last second as he turned to talk to me.

"That was… not very friendly," he informed me, obviously talking about the Alfred thing. "We don't want to make an enemy of him."

"It slipped out," I told him sadly. "I just thought that since they're together, he would want to ask him instead of controlling him."

"When put that way, it sounds like a much more logical thought," Kiku told me, the smile returning to his face. "But you must think through these things better."

I nodded, agreeing to try. We rounded the corner to where Kiku's house was, talking lightly about our options in going about this, when Kiku froze, hand on his waistline.

"What?" I asked, surprised.

He looked infuriated and was staring toward his house intently. "I have another visitor."

Slowly and quietly, he withdrew what I saw was a shiny, powerful katana from a sheath I hadn't seen and stepped forward, me trailing a few paces behind. We slunk toward his home, low and silent, until we were at the front door, looking into a perfectly empty space. Frowning, I looked down at the smaller man to ask if he could have imagined it, when I heard a small footstep behind me and spun.

"Guys, don't freak out so much!" said Sadiq, inches away from my ears. "I just came for a visit."

I heard Kiku's suck in a breath, shocked, before he re-sheathed his weapon and turned to face the Turkish imposter. "I'm starting to not be able to tell the difference between friend and foe," he stated. "But I'm glad that it's you."

"Yeah, gee, I'm glad to see you too. Anyway, I actually came here for a reason that wasn't to pick on the Greek bastard, for once. Really, it's more important than him or you or, sadly, me. It's about Gupta… See, I'm actually sort of worried about him."

Kiku's eyes widened and I could tell we were thinking the same thing. Did Sadiq see that Ivan was controlling Gupta? Did he realize that all his friends were just being brainwashed?

"How so?" Kiku asked. "What seems to be the issue?"

We held our breath collectively as he ordered his thoughts.

"Well," Sadiq muttered, obviously upset, "I like him and stuff, but there's something that's really bothering me about him! Something that's making it so I can't ask him out!"

"And that is…?" Kiku prompted.

Sadiq gave a massively disappointed sigh. "I think Ivan is fucking him."