Chapter Twenty Five

"How?"

"I think the better question here, dear brother, would be 'Why?'"

"No." Emil shook his head. "I meant, 'How?' as in 'How could you have received help from people like them?'"

Lukas thought for a moment. "I still think 'Why?' would've been a better question; as in, 'Why did God curse me with not just an encounter with them, but also a reunion?' I honestly thought I was never going to see them again, and I was content with that, but-"

"Buono tomato, buono tomato, buono, buono OOH! Tomato!"

"-seems like I was wrong."

"Hey, Lukas!" a very possibly drunk Mathias beckoned at him with a nearly-empty bottle of beer in his hand. "Come join us!"

"You're underage," was the icy rejection.

"Oh, come on!" Gilbert was not helping in the least, his boisterous voice slurred from alcohol and his cackling laugh interrupted by hiccups. "Stop being such a party-pooper, Lukas. The whole point of being underage is to drink!"

Alfred whooped, slinging an arm around Mathias's shoulder as the two continued their drunk duet. "…The Mediterranean Sea, too! O sole mio!"

"Oh my God…" And Lukas was not impressed. He could feel a migraine building behind his eyes the longer he spent in the awful singing and insane laughter.

A weak chuckle sounded behind the two brothers, and Lukas felt Tino gently pat his shoulder. "You'll get used to it," he reassured.

"And I dread the day I do."

"It'd mean that you've practically become one of them." At least Emil understood. "But Tino… What are they doing here? I mean, I know that we're planning to save the prisoners and destroy the lab here in Australia, but I doubt we'll be getting anything with them like… this." He gestured at the men dancing and singing in the spacious hotel room, flourishing the bottles of beer Alfred and Matthew had transported along with the BTT and half of Vladimir's stock of weapons.

Tino's smile slipped away, his expression blanking as he looked away, eyes uncertain. "Give them two days, Emil. The first day is for rejoicing: the gathering of the army, the preparation of pride; the second day is for forgetting: the possibility of death, the failure, the lost, and everything that will change when we set out for war the next day. Between the two days will be when we plot." He suddenly forced cheer back into his voice. "Well, that was what we did before, of course. I guess they just wanted to stick to tradition. After all," now his tone was almost bitter, "things are barely different now than from three years ago."

Emil blinked, and the two brothers exchanged a look, but then shrugged. What specifically had happened three years ago did not affect their current situation.

Though later, Lukas thought that he should've asked.

Four days passed between the first day and second. 'The day for forgetting', Tino had called it – more like 'the fling before the battle', Lukas thought – and this time, the former scientist joined in the drinking.

Emil was asleep, but Lukas could hear the others laughing in the adjacent room, the music booming, and he found himself staring at the maps and notes strewn over the desks and couches.

"Lukas?" Their neighbors were too loud.

"Go back to sleep, Emil."

"Not until you do too." Fine, that was fair. But then- "You don't have to go, you know." Lukas spun around and found Emil with his knees drawn up to his chest, one small hand running up and down his mutilated arm. "I know you hate this. You can stay here; we'll get in, get out, and you can wait for us outside. Mathias is there, and so is Gilbert, and all the others will be backing us up. You don't need to worry."

Lukas was silent for a long time as he gathered the papers and stacked them into a messy pile. He was staring at the top sheet – a map of the lab – when he finally said, "I've always wondered why our grandparents didn't take us in. We used to live in Norway, and I met them there, once. They were waiting in the hospital before you were born, and still waiting when mother woke up and was holding you in her arms. Then they were arguing, and a few months later, we moved to America. I never saw them again, but when our parents were killed two years later, I knew that they were still alive, yet they didn't take us in, even though they were our only family left."

Emil didn't understand why Lukas was suddenly telling him this, but he didn't protest. This was the first time his brother had told him anything from the past, and he was going to soak it in while he could. "What about now?" he asked, just to keep him talking.

"Now?" Lukas picked up the map and examined it. "They're dead as well. We saw it on the news in the orphanage, but I don't think you remember. Six years ago, they were killed in a terrorist bombing in a hotel in Rome. Our grandfather was a millionaire, you know. But when he died, we didn't get anything."

"Somebody took it?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I think he invested all his money into his company, but not long after he died, the company collapsed and disappeared."

"So that's why-"

He was cut off. "Six years ago, not long after the bombing, a company called UDW began to thrive, leeching off of other businesses, headquarters popping up everywhere."

Emil stared at the older boy for a moment and then flopped back onto the bed, bouncing once before settling, his crippled arm flung over his eyes. Silence took over as the two brothers listened to the laughter from the people in the other room – killers and sinners and beasts donning human skins – and wondered if they were actually weeping.

The final day was dedicated to hangovers and reviewing the planning, but then dusk began to fade.

And the game was on.

Lukas could feel two guns tucked on his belt, hidden by his black hoodie. There were two knives in his sleeves, one more in his boots, and several harmless flash grenades hidden in his pockets. Mathias, Gilbert, and Tino (who was coming only because he was most familiar with the lab and he had thrown a tantrum when they suggested he stayed put) were just as well equipped, perhaps even more, while Emil was only handed a gun. Everything else had been thrown back into the box of weapons by Lukas.

"That's not fair."

"Life isn't fair, little brother."

"But I only have one."

"And that's one too many."

But it was Emil who had to go first, vanishing on his seat in the small truck, squeezing through the walls and doors.

"Cameras are disabled," announced Francis cheerfully from the back, where he continued to tap away on the computer. Antonio, sitting in the driver's seat, flashed a thumbs-up to the invisible boy, and moments later, the previously locked clinic doors clicked, a little boy pulling the double glass doors open while four young men casually strolled in.

Alfred sniggered from his seat in the truck, sharing a glance with Matthew. "Those Underworld nerds wouldn't know what hit them."

But they did.

The moment the 'Staff Only' door swung shut behind them, stranding them atop four long flights of dimly lit staircases, the atmosphere changed. Suddenly, silence was crucial, and any weapons were automatically within reach.

Emil had gone ahead, much to the displeasure of Lukas, and Gilbert was the first to head down, quick and light as a ghost, Tino not far after him. Mathias drew in last, after Lukas was halfway down the first flight of stairs, his footing feeling clumsy and loud compared to the others.

The first blood was spilled right outside the door leading into the white hallways of the lab, and Lukas tried to ignore the warm corpse slumped against the wall – limbs splayed halfway across the hallway, an ugly slash underneath his jaw splitting his throat open – and the blood that stained his boots and left crimson footprints across the marble floors.

The first room was marked '50', and Tino swore quietly under his breath. "They upgraded the security around the prisoners; we'll have to go the long way."

Gilbert swerved once into a hallway and was met by a dead end. "Crap, already lost. Tino, the head is yours."

"Follow the numbers," Tino instructed. "We'll have to split up later. Emil is heading towards the prisoners to inform them of the situation; Francis should be dealing with their restraints. I will find the doctor, while the rest of you make sure the path is clear for everyone to escape."

"Roger," Gilbert and Mathias said automatically, while Lukas simply nodded.

"Then let's go."

Lukas's healing leg throbbed slightly when they broke out into a run, numbers flying past them, leading them through the labyrinth of doors and halls.

An unfamiliar voice: "What-" Blood sprayed, and Gilbert was already grinning, giddy with bloodlust.

A door clicked open, a footstep clacked, and a gunshot echoed through the air, Mathias's gun smoking. Before the corpse hit the ground, a scream had reverberated through the air, coming from inside the office.

Lukas did not look back, but he heard Mathias wrench the office door open and aim three more quick-fired bullets. Moments later, his reassuring presence returned, just as Tino broke off in a different direction.

"Follow the numbers!" Lukas reminded Gilbert, and the continued down the cold, writhing, waking halls.

He arrived as a whisper of a breeze that ruffled Felik's hair and dried Feliciano's tears.

Sadik sniffed the air and bared his teeth into a grin. "I smell smoke."

Kiku reached out with a hand, and a wind tangled his fingers into a gentle, reassuring hold. "Emil," he murmured.

"I promised." His voice was airy and breathless, barely there but audible. The hold disappeared but Emil was there, fuzzy around the sides at first, before slowing solidifying. He was no longer wearing the white lab clothes, but had on simple shorts and sneakers, a jacket thrown over a T-shirt. "I'm going to get you out."

Ludwig furrowed his brows and lifted his hands, which remained heavily cuffed. "How?"

"Somebody is working on it right now. He's hacking the lab computers and he'll release your restraints." Then Emil paused, surveying the room. "Where is Arthur?"

The hopeful atmosphere dispersed faster than smoke on a windy day, and the Tank's inhabitants exchanged unhappy looks.

"He's dead." Feliks was the one who spoke, staring almost defiantly at the younger boy. "He burned himself out while trying to, like, save you."

Dead…?

"No." Emil breathed. "I…"

"You practically killed him."

"Feliks!" Sadik shook his head sternly, his lips pursed. "That's not true and you know it. It doesn't matter anyways. Not anymore. The dead is dead, there's no changing that. No one can bring someone back from the dead."

Emil opened his mouth to say something, but his earpiece crackled and he froze, a finger over the device to ensure he caught every single word that came over.

And in the end, there was only one single word: "Unlocked."

Right on cue, there was a prominent click, and Ludwig watched in amazement as the heavy metal cuffs around his wrists and ankles sigh as they loosened and cracked onto the white tiled floor.

The blonde flexed his fingers, rotated his wrist, and took several small, easy steps forward. "Incredible," he breathed. "I feel so light." The electric bars barely affected him as his broad hand closed around one thick metal pillar, and with a simple jerk of his hand, the metal bent and was pulled out of its sockets in the walls.

He dropped the bar, letting it clatter to the ground, silencing reigning afterwards.

And then Feliks threw back his head, and laughed.

They had just arrived in the E-wing, making it turn after Room 8, when the wall quite literally exploded.

Gilbert cursed and retreated several feet, nearly knocking into Lukas, who found himself suddenly sandwiched between the other two blondes when Mathias failed to brake soon enough.

"What's happening?" Mathias hissed at Gilbert, who was peeking over the corner through the dust when a very familiar voice cried somewhere in the flying dust, "Wait a moment!"

"Emil!" Lukas pushed himself to the front, squinting through the haze to see several dark shadows stumbling around. Several people were cursing as they walked into walls and debris, but his brother heard him.

"Lukas?"

"Everything going according to plan?" Gilbert called.

"Probably!"

There was the sound feet slapping against the floor, the dust rippled, and Lukas was suddenly engulfed in an invisible hug. Happy, hopeful laughter rang next to his ears, and the invisible person who had grabbed him so unceremoniously released him from the suffocating embrace, but kept two hands planted on his shoulders.

"You must be Emil's brother!" The voice sounded delighted, like a child receiving dessert, and Lukas thought he saw a flash of brunette and a brilliant smile, golden brown eyes washed bright with tears long shed.

"Yes, but who-"

"We've heard so much about you!" And Lukas could see him now, color leaking into empty space in front of him to form lines and shapes that pieced together into-

"Feli!" Two people were emerging from the settling dust, coughing and calling. One was a young Asian man with hollow cheeks and bony limbs, legs shaking as he struggled to remain upright despite the support of a tall, muscular blonde with ruffled blonde hair and piercing blue eyes narrowed in concern and irritation. "Stop running around by yourself! It's not safe-"

He froze very suddenly, and there was a choked gasp behind Lukas, Gilbert taking one step forward, then another, tentative and slow. "West…?"

"Gilbert?"

"West!" And then the albino was running towards the man, bloodlust forgotten as he launched himself into his younger brother. "Holy shit, West! You're alive! You were here all along? Oh mein Gott, ich vermisste dich so sehr!" He sank into rapid German, and Feliciano was there to take the frail Asian from the overjoyed brothers.

"Guys!" And there was Emil, completely unharmed save for pale hair dusted gray and watering eyes from the dust that had flown up when Ludwig punched through the walls. "The exit! That way!"

"What about Tino?" They were already heading towards Room 1, and Lukas was worried when the scientist didn't appear. He went after Oxenstierna, didn't he?

"Who?" There were some things that Mathias just couldn't remember.

At Tino's name, one of the prisoners from the lab – a young man with shoulder-length blonde hair and cat-green eyes – cried, "No!"

"He'll be fine!" Gilbert grinned, gesturing at everyone to move down the hallway towards the exit.

"No!" The blonde's eyes were wide with panic now. "No! I knew it! I should've told him! Liet-"

"Feliks, we have to leave!" The strange, masked man tugged desperately on the blonde's hand, making their towards-

"Stop right there!" And then there were guns, so many barrels and bullets pointing at them. At the head of the silent army that had slunk into the hallway through the exit they were heading towards, was a familiar blonde woman, cold blue eyes narrowed and harsh. Behind her were several short rows of men and women wearing the same white lab coats, but handling their weapons just as professionally. "Hands in the air! Drop your weapons!"

Three pairs of guns clattered to the floor, and no one else other than Gilbert, Lukas, and Mathias had a weapon in their hand. Their hands were in the air, their stances frozen; the moment they moved, they would all be punched full of holes. Natalia's eyes jerked from one person to another, giving them all a piece of that ice-cold glare. A muscle feathered in her jaw when she noticed Ludwig's freed hands, Emil's clothes, the hole in the wall, and Mathias. All in all, however, Lukas admired her self-control.

Several pairs of eyes glanced at the other end of the hallway; was it possible for them to escape to the next corridor and escape through the other exit?

Mathias, the one nearest to the edge, blinked, then stared at the guns and assassins with a baffled expression. He furrowed his brows, probably trying to recall what had just happened that led them to this situation.

Then very suddenly, his eyes widened, his jaw slacking dramatically, and Mathias gasped, pointing towards the open staircase behind the small army. "Zombies!" he shouted, then spun around and tried to bolt.

The oldest trick in the book, and no one was fooled. Their attackers did not even bat and eye, though several grips on guns tightened around the trigger; if they were in another, safer situation, Lukas would have face palmed; no one else tried to escape, though they appreciated the gallant effort.

However, their appreciation also dwindled when Mathias took two running steps and slammed straight into-

"…"

-a giant of some sort, towering over everyone with a cold blue glare behind square glasses perched on a strong nose. Doctor Berwald Oxenstierna did not even budge an inch, and did not even blink when Mathias stumbled back onto his rump, staring up at him with an awestruck expression. "Are you a titan?" he whispered.

"No." If Oxenstierna had more emotions in his voice, he would've been sarcastic. "I'm Levi."

"Hehe," Mathias chuckled, swallowing hard, his grin strained. "You're a funny guy." Then there was a click, and the smile slipped off faster than the safety on the Doctor's gun.

"Interesting." Oxenstierna grabbed the front of Mathias's shirt, hauling him up from the ground and keeping him in a strong hold with the barrel of the gun pressed again his temple, but it wasn't him who spoke. A young boy emerged from beside the large form of the Doctor, pale blue eyes bright and expectant, lips stretched into an ugly smile, and Emil bristled. "You all did better than I thought you would." Then he clapped his hands and laughed. "But well, I guess you have to be really good to go against the entire world. It's sad that you couldn't be even better."

And that was when Lukas realized with sinking clarity that the Underworld had been waiting all along.

Hi! Another wonderful morning after a sleepless night. I tried to hurry up for this one, I really did. It turned out kind of bad, but hey! If there's one thing that I've learned from this chapter, it's that I'm horrid at writing action! Well, Finding Mathias is ready, thank you for reading, and have a nice day.

But before that, remember to review! Thank you!