Chapter 10! Trying hard to make it a weekly update. Sorry if this has some grammar errors, I have no beta. Enjoy and please review~

A tall blonde muscular German stood at the map laid on the table in the main library. Steel blue eyes observed the details. The villa was old, but maintained because the French idiot is all fancy pants to Ludwig. He huffed and trailed the attack with his finger and kept running the statistics. "It should work," murmured the German in an accented voice.

"You sure Luddy?" Red eyes appeared and looked slightly worried, "I do not want to hurt anymore here, we are family." Out of the corner of the Prussian's eye did he see the Russian vampire move to take a seat at the table. "Well, a loose family, ja?" smiled Gilbert as he patted his brother's back. The Prussian loved to irritate his brother and he could see his baby brother twitch a bit and tense up. "You'll get to your sister-in-law!"

"Then she'll tame you down a bit. Thank Gott, because Mattea always beat some sense into you." The younger looked down at his older brother, who was bit red in the face. "'Tis true. She always had you on leash and un collar like dog. You obey her every command, especially when she had a baby in her womb.:

"She did eh? Nobody could tame me~" Gilbert yelled loudly, "Because I am totally awe-"

Arthur walked in and looked at Ludwig, "What is this plan of yours?"

"Arthur you totally interrupted my awesome spe-" Arthur waved his hand in front the the albinos face and made a "shh" sound at him. "That is totally uncool of you-" Emeralds blazed a thousand suns into Gilbert's pale soul before tantalizingly turning back to talk to the more mature brother. "And I thought you were more pissy without sex for centuries." A porcelain hand swiftly slapped Gilbert across his face, though the hand that belonged to said vampire was still talking to Ludwig. "Totally unco-" a gloved hand reached out punched the older in the head, though not as hard as the Brit's smack. "Pick on Gilbert day?"

Purple eyes looked up before smiling lightly, "Ohhhhhhh," whispered Ivan, "I did not be getting the invitation." Red eyes glared at the older vampire, "If true that now is the 'Pick on Gilbert's Day' then I want to be in the picking on you." It was clear that this form of speech clearly ticked Gilbert off, it was evident in how his ears twitched a little; even the albino's body tensed slightly.

The other two vampires were discussing pros and cons of the situation and using memory of Francis' villa. Not to mention thinking of quick backup plans that could help if Francis knew where they would attack when they did, or if it was just Gilber attacking. Because if Gilbert was captured then Ludwig would go and attack, once Ludwig was captured the Italian twins would go. Without their prime tactician then Arthur would gather a mini army and go to get the two Germans, yes Arthur considered Gilbert a German, and Italian twins back. "So," Arthur began, "Attacking through Francis' bedroom with a few and then another group going through the dungeon portion." Meeting steel blue eyes and a head that nodded did Arthur smile, "Cleaver. A diversion, but high practical and forthseeing to anyone that is old like he and I."

"But do not forget he is freaking nuts," Ludwig chimed in, "He is alone and due to that he like u- . . . A feral dog or wolf. Francis is not on top of his A-game, as the American's put it, and really never has been since I've met him. Not to mention everytime I've seen him since the first meeting he has seemed to lose a bit more of himself." The younger German sibling was being nice putting into terms of how, well, just how far the old French vampire had gotten in his age. "I mean he even forgot had a daughter."

Arthur blinked slowly. "He has forgotten," the English vampire blinked unbelieving, "He spoiled that child rotten when he found out he had a child. Hard to believe that he forgot about her." Ludwig nodded, closing his eyes to look more serious.

That information amazed the vampires that were in the room currently. The French vampire always devoted create love into his children, whether biologically or by blood linkage. It was common knowledge that Francis had a child a few hundred years ago with a mortal woman; no knows why Francis would have relations with a human, or a woman. However, Arthur knew that the woman looked liked him, but just more feminine, darker colorations to her from one of her parents, and eyebrows not at the caliber that his were. He had met her once while being captured once by Francis back in the day. The woman bore him a child that didn't look a thing like Francis, she looked exactly like her mother; sadly, she caught the happy, flirtatious flair that once belonged to the Frenchman. It didn't matter that the child looked nothing like him because Francis gave her everything she ever wanted and was always there for her. It was during that time that the vampires that knew of Francis and were on any terms with him saw how happy and sane looking he was.

"What was her name again?"

Ludwig looked at Arthur for a second, "I believe it was Michelle; Francis always called her 'Chella." Arthur nodded and looked at the other vampires in the room.

There were the major vampires of the world. All of them resided at his manor for the majority of the year due to the low amount of sunlight, the vampire friendly home being welcoming, and the fact that they felt safe being with Arthur, whether friends or peers with him. There was Ivan Braginski from Russia, a vampire that was close to thousand years of life and a bit, well, intimidating and possess a few loose screws in the head. Sitting on the bookshelf was Yao Wang, a androgynous vampire of China that was almost Arthur's age. If Arthur remembered correctly those two had a thing going on that started a few hundred years ago, before he and Alfred got together. The German or, if you are the albino, and Prussian brothers hailed from the region that became Prussia, first, and then German; both were around five hundred or so now. Gilbert was pale as a ghost and eyes that matched the most purest of rubies; Ludwig had a pale blonde head with cold, hard steel blue eyes, matched his country's industrialism in the 1800s, and stood a bit taller than his brother with more muscularity as well. Sadly, there were the Italian idiot twins, Feliciano and Romano; both twins were afraid of their own shadows and didn't do much besides cook and cry because they had inherited their territory in Italy from their father, or their grandfather as they put it. From Spain there was Antonio Fernández Carriedo, a vampire that was reaching his six hundred and eighth birthday; most other vampires knew him as happy go lucky vampire, unless you were Gilbert, Ludwig, Ivan, Francis, or Arthur who knew that happiness was from finding his lover. Lastly, there's the stoic Kiku Honda of Japan, great military leader of the last generation of the samurai and "distant" relative of China. And they all supported Arthur Kirkland, one of the world's strongest and oldest vampires; he was born in a pure vampire bloodline and was a wielder of magick, a common trait of the Kirkland family that he mastered the best out of his four other brothers.

"Is everyone here?" questioned the Brit.

Doing a headcount with his index finger and sighs a bit. "We're missing the two idiots." Pinching his nose and sighing more, "Can we just continue without them? They are not that important, they'd most likely tell Francis before helping us more. Damn scaredy-cats."

"Mate, you are mated to one of them. So you have to deal with it." Arthur sighed and looked around and wondered why he had those twins in his state of address, then again he was jealous of the two twins because they had their lovers. "May we make this soon so that I may go back to tend to Alfred?"

"Ah, right," Ludwig turned to the very detailed and labeled map of Francis' villa, "So, following the color coding there vi- . . . Will be two teams. The first team, the blue team, will be the team that acts as the diversion, while the other team, the green team, will be invading to get Mattea. Afterwards, once we have Gilbert's bride we must all quickly leave back to here because I was thinking of thinking of finally getting rid of the Frenchie by calling in the hunters.:

Now all eyes were on the younger brother. The hunters were, as stated by their name, hunters that hunted vampires. The practice began without the vampires ever knowing, but when they attacked it was clear. A lot of the hunters were raised into their families after the first hunter in their families, which most vampires believed to have started by a vampire hurting or killing said family member or part of the family. Then there was the case of half vampire children, children conceived with one vampire and one mortal, which is what most vampires believed to be the cause the hunting society to arise. However, as of now they were headed by Abel De Jong and his sister Anri De Jong. Both of which leave the little English manor alone because they keep to themselves and are all old enough to not kill so much, which most at the English manor tend to feed on willing donors.

"Sounds reasonable I guess," Arthur did not know if that was the best idea.

Ludwig nodded, "Ja, they have been looking for Francis for a long time as is, so why not sweeten our little balance with them and hand them one of the most infamous vampires in history." The steel blue eyes looked around, "We just have to leave due to the fact that we are not promised sanctuary at Francis' manor because we were never guaranteed safety away from here. Just a precaution." When looking around and receiving the nods from vampires around the room the younger German took that as sign to continue. "So, on z-the blue team we will have Arthur, Ivan, Gilbert and myself."

"What Luddy, why am I on the diversion team?" questioned the older quickly, "This is my mate we are talking about now. I want to get her myself."

"Because Francis would think it suspicious if you were not with us, mainly Arthur. Why would you, Mattea's mate, not be confronting Francis when it is the reason we are going there." When the older sibling thought about it for a moment he nodded in understanding. "Now then, the green team will have Antonio, Kiku, and Yao. Feliciano and Romano will stay here to watch the manor and Alfred, along with Ivan's sister." Ludwig looked at the Russian with a sorrowful look in his eyes because he had just reminded Ivan that he only had one sister left after the attack from the hunters, who were tipped by Francis despite the fact that it was Francis framing the Russian siblings for his crimes.

Ivan looked hurt, he looked down for a second and clenched his fists before looking up. "We will be taking the opportunity of killing the Frenchmen if we see the chance?" There was a darkness to Ivan's eyes, something that was not a good sign for those he had set his mind on hurting. "I want my revenge for my sister, Yekaterina, if I am allowed to take the chance."

"Now you speak flawless English," murmured Gilbert.

There were some thoughtful looks around the room before all settled on Arthur to make the call. He looked at them with his arms folded across his chest. "I daresay yes as long as you can land a shot without him hurting you significantly or killing you." Arthur sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "He is older than me and he did force myself to turn against my genes. So you holds some power over me and the rest of you because of his age." It was the dark truth that most didn't want to remember that Francis had turned Arthur, despite the fact that Arthur was going to be a vampire after his genes decided to allow it; with the kiss of Francis against his genes did Arthur have to obey Francis to some caliber, his blood craved to appease Francis at times. "I do not think I will succumb to his desires to use me as a weapon against you all, but I do not know. He is maniatic nowadays and I cannot predict his moves so easily."

"Then maybe Arthur should stay here." Yao spoke up, "You stay and we take one of your brothers. They are naturally going to be stronger than Francis due to lower vampires' blood to appease the pureblood and the fact the purebloods can control some lower vampires." A few nodded in agreement, but one did not.

Hollow eyes stared at the ground slightly and his voice was very soft. "But this fight is between Arthur-dono, not Alastair-dono or Seamus-dono or Dylan-dono," those hollow eyes gazed up and appeared like empty brown glass, "Francis has hurt Arthur-dono many times over and is attempting to do it again. Why not allow Arthur-dono to break free of this himself, not give the credit to one of his brothers?"

"But it is his brothers that have the right beat the living shit out of Francis for taking their little brother away from them," reminded Antonio, "This would give those three some peace for the past." Kiku listened and nodded before resuming to look at the floor, staying quiet. "I would personally prefer is mi amigo Arturo would chose whether he fight or his hermanos fight for him." Everybody twitched a bit at the Spanish because most didn't know enough besides a few of the love based words of the language, but no one could bag on Antonio for his use because he had some brain damage dealt to him awhile back.

All eyes shifted to Arthur, who bit his lip. "I . . . I do not know. I suppose because of the power I have I should fight, but because of this power I shouldn't due to Francis controlling me. Not to mention that my brothers would adore the chance to beat up that Frenchie."

"Then we be of the compromise?" smiled Ivan, "You be coming with your older brothers!" This time Gilbert threw a book at the vampire's head, who just "awww"-ed at the feeling and looked at everyone. "What say you Arthur?"

Sighing and wondering himself the old vampire clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I will ask my brothers for their help and they will chose to my fate of going or staying." With a nod the old vampire left. After a few minutes everyone left, but two vampires.

With a kiss to the tall ashy blonde did Ivan leave his love to go lay down. He was hurting from the fact that he had to remember that his sister was dead because of an enemy that had to make his mark on all the vampires somehow. The other lover looked at the Japanese man sitting on the floor. "This battle will decide a lot of our fates for the future," whispered Kiku. Yao walked over and placed a hand on his relatives back. Kiku closed his eyes and pressed into the touch slightly. "Why did you bring me back?"

"Because, aru, you were and are my last known blood relative. Our blood has survived close to a thousand years without coming to an extinction. How could I not save you, Kiku?"

Opening his eyes Kiku stared at the ground. "I was dead by the time you found me. I was crossing over and you pulled me back. I have no one and nothing to keep me here. Like Ivan has you and you have Ivan. I do not have that." It hurt Kiku to say it, but he couldn't help it anymore. "Please take this back and let me cross over." Pleading eyes looked back at the older vampire.

"I can't, aru," Yao said as he caressed Kiku's face. He missed seeing emotions on the young man's face, like when he was alive. "Even if I wanted to, I can't because I see you, aru, as my little brother." It was hard to see Kiku try to kill himself on many occasions, or to see the lifeless eyes that never regained any reanimation of emotion. "I am sorry for cursing you like this, but I would never have changed this from happening. I promise you that your special one will come to you soon."

"My wife is dead. My child is dead! My grandchildren could pass off for my great-grandparents if they are alive.," Kiku snarled as he sat up and looked at Yao with anger, "Let me trade places with you on this mission so I ca-"

"Can what?" yelled Yao, "Sacrifice yourself? Attempt to be killed before you time?"

"My time has passed! I should have died during the Battle of Ueno! With my men!" spoked Kiku, which was him yelling. "I was dying! I had accepted all that had come to me, I had my honor!"

Yao made himself look big and his eyes seemed to flicker black. "Your honor will put you in the ground. Death is not the answer and you have more purpose than that stupid war that occurred during you mortal years. You will see, Kiku, that in time you will think of your wasted years of this depressing mental set as foolish and childish. Aru. Now, go drink some blood or sit near the water garden or take a bath and think. This life is not a curse, but a second chance for you to live. Live not as Kiku Honda, a samurai during the Boshin War, but to live as Kiku Honda the person you were supposed to be if you were not born during the time period you were, aru. You will see Kiku." Yao left quickly, feeling hurt that his little brother wanted to kill himself still.

"See what Yao? Can you not see that I am hurting? That this is not what I want or have ever wanted." Kiku stared outside and looked at the cloudy English sky with broken sunlight.

Arthur walked quickly to his room, many thoughts running through his head. He walked into his office and opted to send an email to his brothers because he did not have much of a mind set to argue with brothers left and right or to stop the bickering. It took about five minutes to type up an email and to send it to his three brothers.

"Old bastards,

If you want a piece of the Frenchie then come here within the next day or so. If you do not then do not come at all. It is time to get rid of him.

-Arthur"

Nice, short, and simple. Arthur made it straight to the point. He knew that Alistair, Scott, would want to have a go at Francis. The Brit knew that fact down to his very bones. Getting up and stretching Arthur went back to his bedroom. He heard Alfred before he saw him; hearing his lover's heart beat fast enough to alert the Brit that the American was up. Smiling and going in Arthur saw Alfred turn his head to him and smile lightly. "Love," Arthur breathed.

"Arthur," Alfred blinked. The American reached out for Arthur in want.

The vampire walked forward and into Alfred's arms willingly. Arthur missed this. He curled into the touch and pressed against Alfred's body, wrapping his cool arms around Alfred's waist. "Missed you so much." Alfred began to pet the sandy, shaggy locks. "I love you and, Gods, did it hurt every single time you slipped through my fingers."

Alfred listened and kept petting and running his fingers through the locks of hair. "Not your fault. Not in one aspect." Alfred layed back down and held onto Arthur, liking the feel of the vampire's weight on his body. "I died that first time because I wasn't strong enough for the birth. Times were different and birthing was extremely dangerous." The American remembered giving birth, the pain. One of his hips had broken from the pressure and the weak feeling of being on death's door from the substantial loss of blood. "The second time it wasn't your fault at all. Nor mine," Alfred whispered. "I-I remember being tortured; Charlie was killed in front of my eyes. Then the house was in flames; hot licks of the flames eating away my body."

"W-what?" Arthur's head snapped to look up at Alfred, "What did you say?"

"I wasn't killed by some random coal slipping out of the fireplaces grasp and onto the rug. I was murdered."

The Brit looked at Alfred and sat up on his legs. "Please tell me." Arthur didn't know this, not all of it. He knew that Alfred's death wasn't randomized by chance like the fireman had said it was, but he never knew exactly.

"It was hard then, to move because I was still weak from giving birth to Charlie a few weeks prior." Alfred started.

Arthur remembered that day.

Looking at the mid-wife, a donor thankfully, the old vampire watched her go inside. She kept him outside of their bedroom. There, the vampire waited eight long hours after Alfred's water had broken, around 4 in the morning. It was odd feeling the rush of water. Arthur was happy though. He couldn't wait to see his child and with the midwife there to help Alfred there would less worry in his heart. However, he yearned to be with Alfred. He didn't care about his crushing grip on whatever he could hold or the whimpers, sometimes or most of the time, yells of pain and blaming the older vampire for this.

"Please, I want Arthur!" Alfred had begged that many times throughout the day. Each time it became weaker and weaker. There were shouts of pain and gasps with whimpers. It all drove Arthur up a wall, keeping himself occupied was hard. He was able to crochet the baby a whole new onesie with a hat and booties by the time he heard the midwife telling Alfred to push. Grunts echoed around with the midwife supporting Alfred the best she could. By now Arthur was pacing around and nearly clawing at the door, but his worries dispersed as a loud screech rang throughout the little flat. Arthur was at the door in seconds; his unbeating heart swelling with joy at his child still screaming and whimpering on the other side of the door. He could hear Alfred's breath slowing to a normal rate and his lover groaning a bit at the few contractions left for the afterbirth coming out.

Waiting patiently, more so than he had earlier that day, the midwife opened the door after a few minutes to allow Arthur in. The midwife had some blood on her, but to Arthur's relief upon seeing her and the bed there wasn't nearly as much as the first time Alfred had given birth. Emeralds started to wander further up the bed to Alfred's form. The American was laying on his side with an arm draped around a small bundle. Arthur walked carefully and quietly over to Alfred. The older vampire took into account the fact that Alfred was pale, sweating, and looked beyond exhausted; the baby had rosy red cheeks and pink skin, thatch of blonde hair, and had a heartbeat. Arthur sat besides his loved one and rubbed the younger's lower back. "Love," Arthur whispered and kissed Alfred's sweaty forehead.

Alfred eyes blinked opened slowly, it was clear that he was exhausted for there were dark rings under his eyes. "Arthur . . ." breathed Alfred, "We have a boy . . . A baby boy . . ." Every word seemed a bit labored.

"And he's beautiful, just like his mo-papa," smiled Arthur as he ran his fingers through Alfred's sweaty hair, "Rest now love. You are exhausted and you have earned a well deserved rest." Alfred closed his eyes and exhaled deeply in agreement before falling asleep almost instantly. "My love, you gave us the most beautiful thing that could show anyone that we are in love . . . The fruit of our love." Arthur carefully maneuvered the baby out from under Alfred's grip and held the small bundle with care. It felt odd for the vampire to hold something so small, so fragile. The heavyweight in his arms was like a furnace compared to his cool flesh, but he could see the resemblance of the baby, his son, to him and his mate. "Hello my son, my baby boy," Arthur felt odd speaking to the bundle because he knew the baby wouldn't understand him yet, "You have no idea how happy I am to finally meet you. I have waited so long for you and your mother."

Small lids fluttered opened and blinked at Arthur's form, a small smile formed on the peach lips. The vampire blinked in amazement before grazing the baby's cheek with his finger. The baby squirmed lightly and kept looking at Arthur. "You have your mum's eyes." It was true that the baby's eyes were a light shade of blue, but Arthur knew the eye color may change. "You're beautiful," Arthur smiled as he held the hot weight to his chest, relishing in the warmth. This made it real, holding his son made it all real to the old vampire. "Charlie," Arthur whispered against his son's forehead, "Your name is Charles Allen Kirkland and you will most likely be the most spoiled child this century has ever known," smiled Arthur in glee at that thought.

"I remember that day very well," Arthur said quietly, "You did so well and we had a healthy baby boy, Charlie . . ."

Alfred nodded and missed the child that his former body carried and birthed. His brain remembered the warmth of his son, his son's weight in his arms when Alfred held him, and he missed the flutter kicks his former body had with Charlie was within his belly; now Alfred's body craved that feeling. To have it back, despite how unnatural it was to the human world for a male to conceive, carry, and birth a child. "Yes, Charlie. I wish I wasn't so weak after the birth because then I could have at least ran away from him and kept Charlie and I safe." Arthur looked at Alfred in wonder. "It was him, Arthur. It was Francis. He made me watch as he killed our son. That Frenchie," Alfred shook his head and held it with a hand, "I failed our son . . ."

"And I failed you," Arthur said so quickly that he didn't realize he said it, "I should have been there and I was not to protect you and Charlie." Blue eyes looked deeply into emeralds. "I will not fail you again or our children. This is swear because I love you and I cannot have you torn from me thrice." Alfred looked down, but Arthur took hold of his lover's chin and lifted his head up before kissing him deeply. The kiss was like a seal that showed Alfred that Arthur meant was he said. "Francis will die." Arthur stated after the kiss had ended. The older vampire proceeded to hold onto his younger lover. "I will never let you go, as I will never stop loving you."

Fangs sank deep into pale skin; a hoarse scream escaped parched lips. Matthew gripped his dirtied sheets hard, a way to cope with the pain. At this point of time he knew that no matter how much he begged that this man would not leave him alone or stop. "You w-won't get away with th-thi-this," stammered Matthew.

Biting down hard and sucking deeply for a few seconds before ripping away, earning a yelp from Matthew. Licking his lips and moaning at the taste slightly. "Virgin blood is always the best mon cheri," Francis praised, "A rarity in this day and age." Licking up the blood that began to run down Matthew's back and moaning lightly did Francis sigh in relief. "I have gotten away this," Francis motioned with hand around him, "For centuries. My family is long dead and my adoptive son hates me. My friends betrayed me, so I betrayed them. I have committed so many crimes and yet nothing has stopped me. Not humans, not vampires, and not hunters. Even your mate will not be able to stop me." Francis leaned in and smiled, "I will destroy your mate and your twin's mate before I destroy your twin. Then you will be alone and my personal toy."

Matthew thrashed a bit, which wasn't much due to how weak he was at this point in time. "You'll pay for your sins. We all do in the end," Matthew breathed out. Closing his eyes Matthew felt the vampire sink his fangs deeply into his neck again. It hurt, but the pain was starting to go away. Maybe he would die here and it would all end. That would be nice.

"I will put a stain on you and your soul to the point that Gilbert will never touch you again." Francis kept biting and baring his fangs deeper into Matthew's flesh and kept sucking more and more blood out. It was when Matthew's heart was barely beating that Francis pulled away and slashed his wrist open before offering it to Matthew's parched lips and mouth. Pushing his wrist in hard to ensure that his blood seeped in enough and that none was wasted. It sent a spark of glee through Francis as he felt the small tugs and pulls of someone feeding on his wrist. "Good." It was only a few minutes before the very old vampire pulled away his wrist and left the soon-to-be corpse to change.

Matthew stared at the wall and clenched his chest as he felt his body warming up. Why did this happen? What about mom and dad? Alfred? All Matthew had were his thoughts and he blinked as memories ran through his head, but his final thought kept repeating itself. Where are you? Gil?

The waning beats of Matthew's heart stopped.