Ok, so this chapter killed me. umm, yeah this is a third re write so i hope it works out. Massive thanks to the person who pointed out my spelling errors. Cant tell them in person cause it was anonymous. Anyway, yeah. Were at the sort of halfway point here. ENJOY! More info at the bottom. And as always, massive thanks to whoever faved, watched, and reviewed. I still need the help, I'm a newbie.

Ch. 9 Past Revealed, Blood Shed.

There were four people in Matthew's basement, three were standing and waiting for the fourth to say something, while the fourth was trying to die. Really, he was trying to bury himself under the throw pillows on his new couch. Oh man did his head hurt. This all started so stupidly. Yong Soo had asked him a question in the middle of the hallway where anyone and their mother could hear, and the only thing he could thing of doing was drag him to his house, regardless of school or protests from the other party. When they got to his house, he tried calling Koaru but Koaru wasn't answering his phone, so he called Romano to tell Koaru to come to his house, and when Koaru got the message, Romano tagged along and now the four of them were in his basement when they should be at school.

Matthew stared at Yong Soo, waiting for the Korean to oust him to the two….well one person who was out of the loop here.

"How the hell did you figure me out?" Yong Soo jumped at the sudden, somewhat muffled, question.

"I-It was easy for me because your moves were so stylized. Last night I saw you on the rooftops, and you moved the same way in the school da~ze!"

Matthew blinked, the words sinking in. "Wait, so you figured out my identity from just five, maybe six minutes of me running around last night, and connected that to me in Hetalia? Damn you're good."

"Figured what out? What the fuck are you two bastards talking about?" Romano shouted.

"M-Matthew?" Koaru turned to his best friend, who was sprawled on the couch, looking half dead.

"Could you please explain, Koaru? I think my brain exploded twenty minutes ago."

"Uh, well. You see." The brunet was shaking. He could barely get a sentence out.

The Canadian sighed. Tomas was going to kill him, but there was no other way.

"I have no powers. Never have, never will. And I'm not the only one." He sat up. "Koaru doesn't and neither of you do, right?" After that, the tension in the room just got thicker.

"K-Koaru? You don't have powers?"

"I-I was about t-to ask you the same thing brother."

Matthew laughed breathlessly "Wait," He pointed at the two brothers, "You two live in the same house, yet you didn't know that about each other? Does this entire CITY have problems with communication?" The Canadian threw his hands up to the heavens. Why was everyone so scared of being a normal human? It wasn't like the freaking plague!

"Ok, what the fuck is going on?" Romano tapped his foot.

'Time for a big secret' Matthew thought grudgingly. 'Tom is really going to kill me.'

No going back now, "I am a member of an organization called 'Devil's Advocate'. Our main goal is to try to keep as much peace between the heroes, villains, and the humans as we can. You can think of us as the peacemakers of this world. Devil's Advocate is run by the vigilante Shadow Stroke, a man who works out of Bladde City in Scotland. Koaru joined us a few months ago. Most of us, practically all of us, are normal, true blue humans. No powers, no magic no nothing. Nothing except the skills we learn and teach each other.

"I joined because I had the chance to taste the excitement and joy that my cousins do every day and that they take for granted. Now I go out every night until around three and make sure the two sides in the school don't do anything too stupid."

Romano was the first to break the silence that followed. "So you have no powers…yet you've beaten up some of the strongest and dangerous people in Hetalia. Makes perfect sense to me."

"Yeah, I know I have a death wish, bit it's not without its perks. The cash being number 3 on the list."

"Cash?" Romano questioned. "You mean this…thing you're in pays?"

"Is Bismarck a herring? Governments, organizations, underground movements, hell even some heroes or villains will pay for my skills. And the job pays stupidly well. Like $20 000-and-up-a-job well. Trust me, you are never out of work with this career."

"So, how did you find this organization?" Yong Soo asked.

"This all really started last March, when I went to visit my cousin Fin in Ireland. I… got lost looking for his house and…"

The streets were dark and the half moon shined down on the city. Down the alleyways, running feet tripped over garbage and boxes. Matthew didn't look back as he gasped for breath. A gang of thugs had been following him for 20 minutes and waited until the Canadian had been alone to strike.

About 5 men were running after him, 'Don't look back, just keep running and don't look ba-WHY DID I LOOK BACK?' Matthew tripped over a sewer grate and landed face first into the dirt and grime on the ground. Heaving for air, Matthew stumbled to stand. The large man of the group brought a crowbar down on his skull, Matthew able to move his head enough so that the metal weapon wouldn't hit his temple.

The world was spinning, he felt like he was about to die. So young and he would die here? He hadn't even been to a Stanley cup finals game yet, hell he hadn't even finished half of his bucket list and why was he thinking of Internet memes? Seriously, it's like the worst time to think about something so trivial. And of all things, Internet memes? Couldn't he think of something less stupid? Great, now that was all he could think of.

Another blow didn't strike, instead, a black and red streak flew overhead and began to take down the gang members. After all of them had been administered a good punch or kick, they ran away, yelling about 'Shadow'-something.

"You ok there b'y?" The red haired man kneeled down in front of the blond.

"Y-yeah, my head hurts though. T-Thanks." If he was thinking straight, Matthew would have probably watched what he said. After all, he had just come out of nowhere. But a crowbar to the head does not equal perfect thought process.

"No problem. I'll bring ye to a hospital. Lets just get a look at ye from under that hood." The man pulled back his sweater's hood and gasped.

"Matta?"

Wait, he knew that voice. "T-Tomas?" The Canadian's head was still swimming.

"MATTA! IT IS YOU!" He was now being squeezed to death by a vigilante who sounded like his oldest cousin. "Matta! It's been years! You've grown so much!" Ok, this was getting weird. "Why ye must have been 10 last time I saw ye." The redhead pulled off his domino mask, unveiling a pair of hazel green eyes and a sharp face. Yep that was his cousin. Matthew's vision was clearing now, and he was face to face with his eldest cousin Tomas Kirkland wearing a spandex suit. What on earth was going on? Last time he talked with Tomas, he was working as a desk jockey for some company. Not prowling the streets looking for criminals.. "Ye look so much older now. Let me get a good look at ye. Oh! Your arm! When did that happen?"

"When did wha- WHOA!" There was a long slice down his left bicep, bleeding through what was left of his shirt. He must have gotten it when he tripped.

"Come on, I'll take you to my house and we'll fix ye up."

Tomas' 'house' was more of a palace. Matthew pulled off his shirt and looked around the room he was in. Seriously, it looked like a cross between the Batcave and Tony Stark's house. There was even a butler!

Tomas hung up a phone on the wall."I called Fin, he'll be here in a half hour, that ok?" Matthew nodded.

"Here you are Master Kirkland," The older man brought a first aid kit and hot drink. "It will help the pain Young Master."

"Uh, T-thank you." He sipped the drink, the creamy mix slid down his throat with ease.

"Thanks Alister. Ok b'y, lift your arms."

Matthew did as instructed and winced.

"They really are scum, ganging up on ye like tha'. I swear, this whole town's goin' to hell in a hand basket. And ye too nice to use yer powers on em too." Matthew bit his lip. The action did not go unnoticed. "Ye… DO have powers, don't ye?" Tomas stopped wrapping the bandage.

Matthew looked away, "Oh, Matta." Tomas stood up, making himself eye level with the Canadian. "Why didn't ye tell me?" His voice was barely a whisper, but with the acoustics of the cave, it was easily audible.

"I-I've TRIED telling all of you, b-but I just… I-I just-" Matthew buried his face into his cousins shoulder and just let himself break down.

"Hey, hey, it's ok Matta it's ok!" Tomas rubbed his back, calming the Canadian down. Matthew wiped his face, hiccupping a little. "Matta," Tomas stared straight into Matthew's eyes, "let me tell you a secret."

"After that, stuff happened, and I wind up traveling all of Canada during the summer pulling jobs for clients, then I come back here and keep up my work." Matthew stopped to catch his breath. "Any questions?"

"W-Was this always here?" Koaru piped up, looking around the basement.

"No," Matthew turned so he was supine, and flung an arm over his eyes. "The CEO of Alex set it up a few days ago after he heard of me being Grim Reaper."

There was a pregnant moment of silence, then "Wait, YOU'RE THE FUCKING GRIM REAPER?"

"Bit louder Romano, a deaf reindeer in Lapland didn't quite hear that." Matthew sighed, overlooking Romano's shocked expression. Matthew thought that his second identity would have been obvious. "Anything else?"

"Um... How did you figure out I have no powers? I've never told anyone that." Yong Soo asked after fidgeting for a moment.

"I snuck into the deans office one night. All non meta humans in Hetalia have horrible marks in every elective. So I searched the filing cabinets for the worst marks in options. Between the four of us, we have the worst grades in Hetalia history." Matthew explained. "That, and I took a leap of faith. Unfortunately, the four of us seem to be the only non Meta's in Hetaila, but at least we know now that were not alone." The four of them exchanged the same look of relief.

Matthew stood up, brushing off some dust. "Now here comes the complicated part. You guys all know my deepest secret. I'm trusting you with not only my life and identity, but also the secrets and lives of every other Devil's Advocate agent. Which means you have two options. One, go about your daily lives as if nothing happened and know that if you tell a soul about what I have just said, you will have a blade through your throat in a matter of minutes. Or two," Matthew extended his hand. "You can join us and experience things that you could never do on your own. So, what's it going to be?"

If anyone gave you the chance to become something that was deemed impossible, would you take that chance? Would you risk so much just for a taste of excitement? Wait they're teenagers, OF COURSE THEY WOULD!

"Alright, I'm in." Romano held Matthews hand in a death grip.

"Me too da~ze!" Yong Soo clasped the two hands in his own. Koaru simply nodded and placed his hand on top of the growing pile of extremities.

The blond let go of the breath he was holding. Matthew seriously thought that it wouldn't work. "Well now that that's settled, I have a call to make."

11:00 PM Van Der Meer Household.

Bella was scouring the Internet for any trace of Grim Reaper. She had found videos on YouTube, pictures on every photo site, even some artist's renditions on DA! There were forums arguing about him, she even printed the newspaper article about him.

She wasn't obsessed, but she was getting close. Right now Elizaveta and Kiku had been called in to help her get some more dirt on this guy. Well, right now they were pairing him up with well known hero's and villains.

"Ooh! This is a cute pairing!" Elizaveta said, pointing to a digital artwork on the screen. In the picture, Grim Reaper was pinned against a wall by one Alfred F. Jones, and was having his face eaten off by the American.

"Yeah, it is, but I'm looking for one that has his hood down." Bella said, tapping her fingers on the desk.

"Bella-san, why are you so interested in this Grim Reaper?" Kiku asked, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

(Superhero/villain Bio: Kiku Honda. Age 16. Super powers: Empathy. The ability to sense and change others moods. It's more useful than you think. Weakness: He needs to control his emotions or else his abilities will grow out of control, this can be used to your advantage by getting him to feel an emotion strong enough that he cannot think. Note: A master swordsman, he is trained in the art of meditation and is hard to get angry, but once you do, it is hard to calm him down.)

"He saved me, remember? I just want to thank him, and see him again. He's just so… oh what's the word?" The Belgian screwed her eyes shut in thought.

"Sexy?" Elizaveta prompted.

The two girls started to giggle while the Japanese teen simply smiled.

"Yes, but I was going to say secretive." Bella looked back at the computer. "I just want to know what's under that hood."

"Oh well, unless you want to go out at three am and be a damsel in distress, I think you have to deal with just the photos. Or hey! Kiku, why don't you draw him without the hood. You can just guess and see what happens."

"Hai, Elizaveta-san, but I am not sure it will be accurate." Kiku pulled out a sketchpad and began to draw.

Bella thought of something even better. "Actually, Kiku, you still owe me a birthday present, don't you?"

"H-Hai, but you haven't told me what you want."

"I have a request then. You think you can make me a comic with Grim Reaper and Alfred? It really is a hot pairing."

"Certainly. Uh, w-what will the rating be?" Kiku wasn't one to turn down a friends request for his art, but it would be a bit weird to draw one of his best friends intimately with an anti hero.

"Mature, of course. What else?" Bella had a shit eating grin on her face.

"H-hai." A red tint made its way across his cheekbones. 'I should probably not tell Alfred about this then.' He thought.

"Hey Bella, where's your older brother?" Elizaveta asked. The smell of pot was rather faint in the house, meaning Lars was out.

"He's probably at that warehouse again and he'll come back high as a kite. Why?"

"No reason. Oh! That looks so good Kiku!"

Same Time, Warehouse District

'Another night out, and another catastrophe to face.' Reaper mused in his head. In the west side of town, he had seen a bunch of trucks go through the downtown area earlier that day. And if working this gig for 6 months told him anything, white trucks with tinted windows equaled bad news.

Outside the main doors of the building were groups of people, watching as others unload the trucks. Each man was wearing a black outfit with a crest on the right shoulder and held a h caliber gun. All of them well trained with nothing to lose.

"Serge's men" Reaper mumbled. He himself had never seen the big boss in person, but he had been beating up enough of his henchmen and a few of his right hand men to figure out he's pretty badass and most normal people wouldn't mess with him.

He clutched his waist. The last time he clashed with a right hand man of this organization, he received a nice line up his chest. It was a rookie mistake that night too, but one he wouldn't make this time. Phantom pains fluttered down his chest and back. There was no good reason why baddies always had their hideouts lined with concrete, what was wrong with drywall?

As a side thought, sometimes Reaper felt like introducing some of the more stuck up metas (Cough Alfred cough) to some real danger. Wouldn't be so tough with bullets spraying at you. Maybe he could hit Al with a taser later, just for kicks.

But why we're they here? This city was marked as neutral territory, no adult metas, villain or hero, could plan anything here. Due mainly to the fact that both sides agreed to not harm any new metas until they had a grasp on their abilities, so no real villains pulled any shit here. Them even being inside the city limits was a massive breach of that agreement.

"No time like the present to find out." Shadows blanketed his form, making it easy to move into the building. "Man they have bad security. Only three guards and no motion sensors? Who do they take me for?" Reaper felt insulted. He was used to so much higher security, 300 goons, semi automatic weapons, cameras, lasers, that sort of thing. Not three dimwits with pistols. At least it would be an easy mission.

Two rooms of sneaking through shadows and three knocked out guards later Reaper was on the light fixtures in the main room, stalking one of the last guards on patrol.

"The boss'll want this set up tonight." A right hand man had just walked in with a good 20 men. "Serge worked hard to get this thing here, so we cant get caught."

'To~o late' He pulled out his throwing blades. Whatever they were planning, they weren't gonna get that far now. Four of the goons were carrying a steel crate with a high tech lock. It looked like a retina or fingerprint scanner. Meh, he could just blow it up and that'll be the end of it.

Something sweet assaulted his nose before he could throw an exploding blade. Marijuana smoke.

Behind one of the crates was a serene looking man, who smelled like he just came from the third day of Woodstock. And Reaper only knew of one guy who would be that high, Lars Van Der Meer.

Head, meet a new friend, Mr. Light fixture. If this guy was caught, he was going to have about 20 more places for smoke to come out of, courtesy of Ak-47's. Reaper sighed, time to add another job onto his growing hero/villain resume: rescuer of stoned morons!

Gracefully dropping down two meters away from Lars' hiding spot, Reaper caught the Dutchmen's eye. He held up a finger to his lips, telling Lars to stay silent. He nodded, his smoke addled brain finally telling him 'Danger'. Lars had only just noticed the scary looking men with guns and other various weapons a second ago.

Reaper moved a few feet up so he was beside Lars, and slowly moved in front of him.

'What're you doing here?" Hissed Reaper.

"I always come out here, I didn't expect anyone else to be here tonight." Lars whispered.

'At least he wasn't playing hero.' Reaper thought bitterly. "C'mon, we've got to get you out of here."

"Ok boss, it's all set up." One random goon said.

"Good. Now lets get out of here. No doubt those goody goody heroes will be poking their noses in this." The right hand man turned, and Reaper stopped breathing. He was looking directly into Reaper's eyes.

After a few moments, he turned and left through the door.

But not before he threw an explosive less than ten feet from the two.

Beep

Reaper stared wide eyed, and turned to Lars. The blond gave him the same look.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

'Oh…Fu-'

BOOM!

Light exploded in Lars' vision. His ears were ringing and his skin was on fire.

Once the lights had cleared from his eyes, he wiped the ash from his eyes. Other than a few first degree buns on his feet and legs, he was ok. But something was blocking his vision, looking up, he saw who it was.

Lars gaped at the figure above him. Reaper, THE Reaper had just shielded him from most of the blast. Something wet fell on his cheek. The ash blond wiped his face and brought it to his eyes. Blood. Dark, ruby red blood coated his fingertips. Reaper leaned all his weight on the crate behind Lars, propping him up. He was breathing heavily and calmly. Rubble fell a few feet away, and the two could hear footsteps and voices outside.

The hooded teen looked behind him and turned back to look at Lars. "Pant, A-Are you gasp ok?"

That made him snap out of the trance he was in and find his voice. "Yeah. Y-yeah I'm fine."

"Good" His head dropped down onto his arms. The voices were getting closer, "We need a distraction. Can you use your powers still?" Lars nodded. "Alright," Reaper swallowed hard. "I need you huff to do two things. One, create as many shadows as you can without making them look conspicuous. They'll be back to see if we survived, so we need to stay hidden."

"And two?"

Reaper paused. "Manipulate my mind so I don't feel pain."

Lars had had some odd requests for his abilities, but using them as a pain-killer. That was a new one. "Why?"

"There's a chunk of metal that could be used as a tire iron embedded into my back. We cant get out of here unless you follow me, and I can't get out of here when I'm constantly cringing from pain. Good enough answer?" Reaper snarled. He was bleeding out a good 2 pints every ten minutes and this guy had the gall to ask WHY?

"Alright, sorry." Lars closed his eyes, and within seconds, the pain in Reaper's back disappeared, and the entire warehouse was covered in shadows. Just in time too, the doors flew open and Serge's men came flooding in.

"Good. Now we just…" Reaper grabbed Lars' hand and sprinted behind a support beam. Waiting a moment as a goon walked past them, he sprinted to the next one. Now all they had to do was get out through a window and they were out of there.

The rubble made a good ladder for Lars to get up to the open window. Just before making it outside, Reaper turned and threw an exploding blade at the crate, actually completing his mission.

Two blocks away, Lars and Reaper gasped for breath. Sirens blazed through the night.

Reaper turned and glared into Lars' eyes. "Let me give you some advice, stop smoking pot in a ware house. It's bad for your health." Reaper stepped forward so he almost touching the other. Fisting the older teens shirt, he finished "And it just might get others killed, not just you!"

With a click on his communicator, Reaper's new motorcycle came speeding up and stopped in front of them. Turning his heels, the cloaked boy straddled his bike and sped off.

Leaving Lars to deal with the cops.

"He got away boss. Damn kid's too good at that disappearing act of his."

"It does not matter right now. What matters is he knows I'm now working in this town, and he will try to stop me. Anything that we lost tonight is inconsequential."

"Right boss. You want us to follow him?"

"No. You will not even come close to capturing him. Besides, he will come back."

"Fine. My boys will start cleanup and get to work on the next plan then."

"One more thing. When the boy strikes again, I want him brought to me, alive."

General Winter turned off the phone. Tonight had been a true testament to the boy's skills. It was obvious that he was still going through training, but after he had completed it… General Winter smirked. The young man had such power, locked away, laying dormant just waiting to be tapped into and used. Even if he was simply human.

He turned again to stare out at the city. "You cannot run forever. Sooner than later, fate will catch up to you," He placed his left hand on the glass and smirked.

"Matthew."

Ok! so we're halfway done! next instalment is intermission. But this is a bit different. NOTICE! If you want to know who's powers are what, please leave a comment telling me so. The next chapter will be the Bio's of everyone, a lot of Koaru's Fun Facts, and a playlist just in case you want some fitting music. Anyway, leave a comment telling me what you want to know specifically, and thank you so much for waiting and reading so far!