PHASE FIFTY-EIGHT

"There is something bothering you…" Francis pointed out, as Alfred sighed at the discovery of another empty room, he glanced down the hallway, to see the door at the end of the hallway was open, and Matthew, Gilbert and Yao had disappeared.

"Please, try to not say too much," Alfred mumbled.

"I only say what people think," Francis pointed out, "it's just that people don't like hearing it coming from someone else, it suddenly makes their issues and insecurities much more real, some people even feel embarrassed and exposed, not that I blame them…"

"But, I just don't want to hear it," Alfred replied, checking the next room, only to be disappointed by the sight of another empty room. "I don't want to know what you think about this."

"Heh, I rarely say what I think. Besides, it's bothering both of you…" Francis mumbled, "Neither of you know what to do about these feelings that keep creeping up on you. It all ignited when one acted on it, and wasn't prepared to take the weight of what would follow. He wants to escape from everything he held inside; he pushes it away and hopes it'll go and let him disappear…"

"You're not saying what's in my head…" Alfred pointed out.

"I know, but you want to have some kind of glimpse into how he's feeling." Francis explained.
Alfred tightened his grip on the doorhandle, not denying Francis' point. He finally opened the door, only to see a face staring back at him from a tray in the room that sat next to a bed, where a figure laid still underneath the white covers.
It was a doctor; that was obvious from his white coat; the doctor reached into his coat and pulled out a small gun.

"You… You're not supposed to be out," The doctor whimpered, overwhelmed with fear as his hands shook as he pointed the gun at Francis and Alfred.
Before Alfred or Francis could act, a figure with black hair slid out of the bed, before drawing out a blade and holding it against the doctor's neck; in shock the doctor dropped the gun.

Kiku's eyes were frenzied and furious, as he grumbled in his native tongue, before forcing the terrified doctor to the floor.

Francis gasped with horror, putting his hand over his mouth as he and Alfred entered the room. "The operation…"

"What happened?" Alfred asked, confused.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" Kiku growled angrily into the petrified doctor's ear.

"Kiku, what's going on, calm down…" Alfred muttered, walking closer to Kiku and his hostage.

"They've done something to my mother! They measured her blades! They could only do that if they had her! WHAT DID THEY DO TO HER!?" Kiku cried, as a tear finally ran down his red cheeks.

Francis knelt down before the doctor's face, staring intensely into his eyes, "he knows, he knows what happened to her, but he's too scared to say it out loud. He wasn't there, but he knows of it… It…" Francis suddenly froze, and his eyes widened, before he glanced at Kiku as his lip quivered.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Kiku wheezed, pressing his blade into the doctor's neck, drawing a little blood.

Francis stumbled back, before tripping and landing on the ground, as though he was terrified of the images flooding his head, "it's how they learned what to do with you. They took her blades…" Francis bit his lip, fighting the urge to talk.

"Keep going." Kiku ordered.

"But…"

"Keep going. Where is she?"

Francis sighed as he closed his eyes, "they took her blades, however, her arteries severed during the operation…. Kiku, I'm so sorry…"

Kiku's eyes widened with the realisation of what Francis was meaning, and at this point the doctor was crying from the fear.
Alfred closed his eyes and looked away as Kiku began to tremble. Kiku lifted his blade from the doctor's neck, only to push it through the doctor's back, where the bloodstained blade protruded from his chest. Kiku cried loudly as he pulled his blade out of the limp doctor, letting him fall to the floor beside Kiku's knees. Kiku's white arm-sling was stained with blood and blood ran down and onto his black shirt. Francis crawled towards Kiku before pulling him in for a hug, coaxing Alfred to join him. Kiku cried loudly into the Frenchman's shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably as Alfred patted his back.

"We need to, oh…" A new voice mumbled, as Matthew appeared before the door, glancing into the bedroom, seeing the sad sight of Kiku crying on the floor beside a bleeding doctor, whilst being comforted by Alfred and Francis.

Gilbert walked past the door with Ludwig's arm hooked over his shoulder, using his brother as a support to help him walk; Ludwig glanced into Kiku's room and caught a glimpse of the mess within. However, Gilbert kept moving, determined to give his little brother a place to sit as he recovered from his drowsiness.

"Shhh…" Francis cooed to Kiku, petting the top of his head and listening to his sobs and thoughts of pain, "It's going to be ok… We can act on this now, you are stronger than them, and you can take back the honour that they stole."

Kiku kept his eyes looking towards the floor as Francis and Alfred helped him to his feet, he could no longer think about anything other than the despair that had consumed him. Images of his mother flooded his minds and coerced the tears to continue flowing; she was all he had left… He didn't know where his father or siblings lived, he knew nothing of their lives after he and his mother left to live in Kyoto to conduct his training. She taught him tradition, she taught him strength as well as respect, now it was as if that had all been taken away from him. The years of isolation and protection had built him, and now the removal of his blade and the death of his mother built onto the weight against his aching heart.
He could barely remember walking down the hallway, tears blinded him and the beating of his own heart deafened him from everyone else's words of comfort.

Everyone fell silent when Kiku, Francis and Alfred joined everyone at the reception, well aware that something tragic had happened, but were too afraid to ask. Lovino narrowed his eyes as he continued to search through the receptionist desk.
He moved along the long desk and opened every drawer, each time he was left disappointed with only the discovery of plain notepads, calculators, staplers and other pieces of stationary. Until he opened the middle drawer and stared at a piece of paper, frowning he lifted the paper and began to read.

"I think I found a map!" Lovino exclaimed, breaking the silence induced by Kiku's cries, Lovino continued to read the shabbily drawn map. "It has the lobby, carpark, breakrooms…"

"Can it be of any help?" Yao asked, peering over Lovino's shoulder to glance at the map.

"I don't know…" Lovino muttered, he looked away from the paper to notice Francis, staring at him intensely, as though he was reading a novel. Francis ushered Kiku to the red couch that faced away from the desk, allowing him to grieve peacefully. "What are you looking at?"

"The map," Francis pointed out, "it could be useful."

"Well, if you think so, you can hold onto it then," Lovino pointed out, handing the piece of paper to Francis, finally allowing the Frenchman to see it with his own eyes.

"What are you suggesting we do?" Gilbert pointed out.

"We should allow Ludwig and Kiku some time to recover, there's no way they're ready to go out. Ludwig is slowly getting his strength back… and Kiku…" Feliciano pointed out, as he held onto Ludwig's shoulders, allowing the German to bend down and touch the floor with his fingers; stretching his back and arms. The Italian sighed as he stared at the back of Kiku's head, overwhelmed with sympathy, he fought the urge to run over and tackle the Asian with hugs and promises that everything was going to be ok, however, he questioned whether it'd help at all, besides, he knew that Ludwig would fall to the floor if he were to lose Feliciano's support.

"But we can't be here too long, surely they know that something is wrong now. Who knows, they could have an entire army massed outside." Arthur pointed out, leaning his hip against the receptionist desk.

"Can we really go through another fight again?" Ivan asked, "Even with our powers, they still knocked most of us out with gas."

"What if we destroy their ability to do that before we attack them?" Alfred asked.

"A fight is inevitable… However, we need to figure out what we're going to do after that, how we're going to get out of here," Yao pointed out.

"We're defiantly better prepared for a fight this time, we can do things that we couldn't do before," Arthur explained.

Francis frowned as he glanced over at Matthew, whom sat quietly on the couch across from Kiku, before looking at the map again, his mind became occupied with ideas and plans for escape, "I think I have an idea."