Hey everybody, sorry it's been so long, but here is the next update. Please enjoy.

Chapter 24. Normal POV.

Utau and Yaya had been deathly silent since the guards stood beside them, Utau always looking at the shoes, hair covering her face, Yaya staring blankly ahead of her, close to tears. The youngest Calothstine had also been silent, leading them towards his brother's room, occasionally glancing back to give a half encouraging look. But the two girls just ignored him.

So it was quiet the whole way to the bedroom. No maids or servants scuttling about, no hearty laughter that was sometimes heard from the stables when the stable boys joked around. Nothing. Just a painful, long silence, and their echoing footsteps.

Aaron led them up the spiralling staircase; hand on rail, absently dragging it across the metal as he walked up the stairs. Once they reached the top, he led them through the long hallway, sparing no glances toward the marvellous paintings (all most likely worth a fortune, Yaya had thought).

Then, they reached a door. It was a double door, different, considering all the other doors they had passed were single. It was taller too, and wider. But, other than that, it was the same dark burgundy that coloured all the other entrances before this one.

Aaron knocked lightly, and a moment later, an enter was heard. But, unlike all the other times, Roderick's voice was slightly louder, more strong. Like it had an almost physical effect to those who heard it. His voice was powerful.

Aaron, glancing back, one last time, opened both of the double doors.

The first thing Utau and Yaya saw were their four friends, looking almost guiltily at them. Then, they noticed the well-muscled guards standing around them, looking down upon them, arrogantly. Only after another lingering gaze at their friends did the two girls look at Roderick, and the look was dark. Slowly, Aaron walked in, winking at Marionette who gave him an eye roll, and stood beside her, smiling slightly at his older brother, who grinned back, wolfishly, at him.

Yaya and Utau followed in, cautiously standing beside their friends, who gave another apologetic look. Utau managed to muster up a smile and shrug slightly at Amu, Rima and Kairi, but gave a more neutral look to Kukai, who looked down at his feet, frowning. Yaya remained the same, looking as though she might cry any second, but was making an effort not to. Utau put a comforting pat on the brunettes shoulder. Roderick looked around the room, and sighed, shaking his head slightly.

"I'm sorry it came to this." Roderick said quietly, shooting a half-apologetic look towards Yaya. Roderick sighed and, and looked at the general group, eyeing each one of them, before grinning widely, carefree, as thought the past weeks of sickness had never happened.

"But, on the other hand," He said, almost giddily. "It may prove very fortunate." He thought for a second. "For me, for you…and for the country."

The thieves looked at Roderick, puzzled, but attentive.

"But, before we discuss this matter, perhaps we should go down and join your other three friends." Utau's eyes widened just a bit, but she kept her shock under control. She looked at Yaya, who looked back, tears no longer in her eyes. The two realized now. They had a choice.

"But, we didn't do anything!" Utau said, putting on her best distressed voice. The whole room looked at her, surprised. Yaya, in an instant, put on a very convincing face. Eyes the perfect mix of worry and confusion. Roderick looked taken aback for only a moment before he regained himself, eyebrows quirked up.

"You mean, you aren't part of this?" He asked, disbelieving. Utau and Yaya looked at each other quickly, before they looked at their long time friends and accomplices. Amu stared back, utter confusion on her face, and Kukai gave Utau a hurt look. Rima had her mouth parted slightly, heart racing, and Kairi looked at Yaya with almost pleading eyes, otherwise remaining calm.

These are our choices. Yaya thought helplessly. There isn't anything else we can do. Stay or leave.

Utau spoke first, voice quavering, ever so slightly.

"No." She began. "We aren't part of this. We don't even know what this is about." Utau turned to look at the younger Calothstine.

"Aaron, what's going on? I thought we came to look at the library." Aaron looked back, startled, and looked at Roderick for help. His older brother shrugged, looking just as shocked.

"I, uhm…I don't…" He fumbled with words for a bit. "You mean you aren't thieves?"

"Thieves? Aaron, we barely know them." Utau said bewildered. Aaron looked back at Calothstine. Roderick looked at Amu, confused.

"Are they not your long time friends?"

Amu's heart began to thud, and her palms started to feel sweaty. Now she had to make a choice. She looked at Utau and Yaya, then back at Roderick.

"No, we've only just met them." She glanced at the two again, not quite sure if she made the right decision. Roderick nodded, and looked at Aaron.

"Then I must apologize to you, brother, for implicating your friends, and of coarse, to you as well, ladies. Aaron, please escort them out, or show them to the library, if they still wish to see it. I apologize again."

Aaron nodded and quickly walked over to the door, opened it, apologizing to Utau and Yaya as they walked past him and out of the room.

After another long minute, Roderick sighed and looked back at the remaining thieves, who looked even more shocked than before.

"Well, why don't we head down to the basement now?"

…..

"I can't believe you thought we were thieves, Aaron." Utau and Yaya walked briskly towards the mansion entrance, both not even sparing a glance towards him.

"I'm sorry, Abigail, I just thought you were with them, I wasn't-''

"Thinking? Fine, just fine. You were trying to protect your brother and money and all that. Fine." They reached the door, and Utau opened it, ushering Yaya out, past the guards, then following closely behind herself.

"No, I just, I don't know." He sighed, frustrated. "Would you at least let me accompany you back to the hotel?"

"I think that would be a bad idea." Utau turned to face him. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Aaron, but if you'll excuse me, I have a dignity to restore. Goodbye." She eyed at him coldly, and caught up to Yaya, not looking back once.

After they were a good ten meters away from the gates, the looked at each other and shared a small nod.

…

The walk to the basement, much like the walk up to Calothstine's room, was silent.

Finally, after going down the long flight of stairs, and swerving through the many hallways, Roderick stopped. He stopped in front of a plain looking door, identical to the other hundred that were placed around the mansion. Instead of taking a key out, Roderick waved his hand, briefly, over the door. Though confused at first, the thieves quickly came to the thought that he might've used some sort alchemy to lock the door. They glanced at one another.

He opened the door, and began to chaperone the group down stairs, internally cringing when the third step made a loud groan. Finally, he turned a small corner, others following closely behind, and stepped to the side, Marionette doing the same as well. The guards dispersed themselves closely around the staircase, and Aaron joined them, partly out of breath. Everybody turned to look him, and he just sighed and shrugged his shoulders. The four peered around the corner, cautiously, but was somewhat relieved when they saw their friends, peering up curiously, Nagi reading a book, Ikuto eating a slice of apple, and Tadase was roused from his light slumber. The three looked up with mildly surprised faces. Amu looked at Roderick, making it a question.

"By all means, go ahead." He said quietly, waving his hand towards the three young men. "We thought you might need a little time to…catch up."

Amu smiled gently, but her eyes remained cold. Then, she walked briskly over to Ikuto, a worried look on her face.

"Are you alright? You haven't been hurt, or anything, have you?" She said, almost whispering. Ikuto shook his head lightly.

"Nope," He said, popping his 'p'. "I'm alright. Hm, you actually look worried." He smirked at her, but she ignored it.

"Of coarse I would be." She answered, a-matter-of-factly. "I was worried for all three of you."

"But you came to me first." He challenged playfully. She gave him a glare, trying to hide her blush.

"You know what, I think I'm going to go check on Nagi now, thank you very much." She turned, and started to walk, but a firm hand pulled her back.

"Wait, Amu." His voice was lacking its usual teasing tone. When the she turned to look at him again, her expression softened.

Ikuto's face held an anxious look; his mouth parted slightly, his eyes worried. He said nothing for a few seconds, only staring at Amu, hand still on her wrist. Amu looked back at him, into his eyes, slightly shocked from his actions.

"Yes, Ikuto?" She asked with a false indifferent tone.

"Thanks." Amu gave him a puzzled look and he smiled softly. "For coming to check on me."

Amu said nothing, just for a short moment, before walking over to Nagihiko, who was being given the second degree from Rima. Ikuto stared after her.

Amu approached cautiously she saw Rima, jabbing a finger at Nagihiko's chest, an enraged look on her face. Amu sighed, Rima was also the one for dramatics, she thought, as she placed a calming hand on her petite friend's shoulder. Rima looked up at Amu and frowned.

"Now, now, girls, I wouldn't be so fast to put blame on the boys." Roderick interrupted, a small smile on his lips. "After all, who was the one who started this game? Who was the first to touch me with their poison?" He glanced at Amu and Rima, and they looked away, grimacing.

"Let me be straight with you," He continued. "I can either have you locked in jail, for poisoning, fraud, theft, who knows, I could probably write a pretty impressive list of things. Or you can earn your freedom, and possibly even my respect, by playing one last game with me." The thieves looked at him in attention.

"You've probably heard of the whole South West ordeal, but what you don't know is that the artefact that we're fighting over is something called the World Egg. Nobodies quite sure what it does, and there have been many fairytales written about it. All we really know is that it has a massive amount of energy, dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands." Calothstine paused for a second.

"And you think that your hands are right?" Rima asked, raising her eyebrow. Roderick chuckled lightly and spread out his hands, almost shrugging.

"Am I any more wrong?"

Rima gave him a calculating look. "I'm still deciding that." Nagi gave her a warning glance, hoping she wouldn't start giving attitude to their captor. Roderick chuckled again, and continued.

"Well, a little while ago, one of the mining companies equally owned by us and West found a box, possibly containing the World Egg. We had a little disagreement as to who should hold on to it, so, in the heat of the moment, West took of with it.

"Over the past few weeks, I have been bombarded with leaders and officials, discussing many political routes on how we could proceed with this. That is until West decided to kidnap my mother." Roderick and Aaron shared the same displeased face.

"She is one of the very few that are powerful enough to unlock the box, and I believe they have captured her because they, yet, are unable to do so. Thought I find it hard to believe that they will get her to do any sort of thing, let alone keep her in captivity. But, when they had kidnapped her, they also broke a sort of treaty we had that kept us from fighting. Now, I have been asked by senators and nobles alike to join them in a conference in the West's Camera Dei Piedi*, to keep us from breaking into war, and to help find a more…peaceful solution." He half-smiled.

"I'm planning to go to mother's city first, to see if she has, indeed, escaped and returned to her home, but after that I will travel over to the conference." It was silent for a short while, before Kairi spoke up.

"Where do we fit into all of this?" He asked, pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. Roderick grinned.

"I'm glad you asked. You see, when I'm visiting the two cities, I will be followed around by guards, nobles, and, of coarse, spies. There'll be endless dinner parties and meetings, which hold very little consequence. They limits my freedom of movement, and I won't be able to get the information I need if I'm always being engaged.

"They will be expecting me to arrive with Marionette, a small entourage of guards, my butler, and my secretary." This puzzled the thieves.

"Why does Marionette have to go?" Tadase asked, brows furrowing together. Roderick grinned at Mari, who looked in the other direction, sighing.

"That's right I haven't told you, have I?" He draped his arm, comfortably, across her shoulders. "Marionette is my fiancé." There were a couple gasps, and a what heard from the two girls. A smirk came from Marionette.

"It is tradition in our family that, before marriage, the woman must serve as a servant under the man for a year, and vice versa, the man must serve the woman." He explained. "So, I will need two of you to pose as Marionette and I, and we will pose as your servants, therefore giving us the freedom we need to move around without being caught. Also, we will pass by my mother's city rather quickly, only visiting her estate at night, so none of the locals will recognize me as the butler." They nodded in understanding.

"Who will pose as you two, then?" Rima asked. Roderick studied all of them, until his gaze locked with Ikuto. He looked at him for a bit, then to Mari.

"What do you think, Mari, looks enough like me, right?" Mari smiled and shrugged.

"As close as we'll get, I suppose. But, if you're really asking, I'd say he might be better looking." She jabbed him with her elbow playfully, and he gave a soft 'hey' in reply. She looked at Ikuto again, and smirked. Then she looked at the two girls.

"Well, it'll have to be Amu, since Rima's to short." Rima half-glared at her, and Mari shrugged back. Amu looked at Ikuto with wide eyes, and he grinned back at her, draping his arm around her shoulder in a similar way Roderick had. Roderick chuckled.

"I'm sure you two will be just fine." He said quietly, and gave them all a moment to absorb the whole situation. After a minute of thinking, he spoke up again.

"So, are we all in agreement?"

The thieves looked at each other, doubt and worry in their eyes, and in the lines of their face. But, if you managed to look deeper, there was almost a sort of competitive determination that came from inside them, eager to accept the challenge. It would test their acting and ability to deceive. It was almost as if taking on the challenge would prove themselves to be great thieves. Perhaps even the best, they thought. So with their unsure thoughts withering away, they smiled and shrugged at each other.

Why not? It said. They looked back at Roderick and nodded their heads, excitement already building up in their minds.

We've got nothing to lose.

*The House of Standing

Hope you all enjoyed that, tell me what you think, any ideas?