Uuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… I know I update slow but please here me out, the first book is almost done (Lord I feel slightly accomplished). I wanted to do three parts in this update but I've decided to save all the good stuff for next update.

PS: I got a little overly creative with the Russian swears so please don't translate if it's going to get either of us in trouble. This is T for a reason.

...Part 30: Breaking In….

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

Maya Angelou

….

Sneaking into the enemies' camp was less than challenging for Kiku's skills, considering the abnormal amount chaos going on their base. The area was surrounded by pine trees, which made hiding extremely easy; the soldiers' attentions were everywhere due to their panic. It was child's play to sneak in unnoticed, but maneuvering amongst the crowd was much more difficult.

The men were all paranoid beyond measure, causing them to flinch at the slightest movement. Kiku had no idea how he was going to get past them, let alone find out where they were hiding his friends. The Japanese man sighed; his options were few and his chances slim. Yet, he had to at least try to find the captured nations; they'd been alone long enough.

He was currently hiding the highest part of a pine tree next to what he guessed had been a coffee shop at one time. Gazing down at the chaotic mess below him, Kiku wondered where they could possibly be keeping their captives. He remembered Toris had mentioned that the nations had been held in the school's basement before the Lithuanian had left. He wondered if he should check the basement first, but quickly decided against it. The likelihood of the Russian's keeping their prisoners in the same cell they originally attempted to revolt from seemed highly improbable, especially as said revolt ended in the death of their commander. Kiku sighed to himself as he silently slipped down a few branches to listen to the soldiers better.

Almost instantly, as he was settling on the branch, a man burst through the school building in a raging fit of furry. Kiku would have barely paid him any mind, if it wasn't for his uniform. The man was dress differently from the other soldiers; dawning a shorter jacket then the Russian uniform standard. His boots looked much cleaner than the others, letting Kiku guess that either the man was either one to duck from dirty work or someone with high enough authority to be able to avoid it. By that theory, Kiku wagered that the latter was more likely, as he would be able to get away with the lack of proper uniform with respectable authority in such a small base. Despite his colossal height, the Japanese man figured that his age would be somewhere in his twenties by the quick pace at which he walked and the abnormally spiky style of his hair. Keeping that in mind, he estimated his ranking to be a lieutenant, as he highly doubted one could rise in ranks any faster than such in a time of absolute war. But the way the sea of panicked men parted for him made Kiku believe that the man had gained there respect in some way. With this in mind, Kiku quickly jumped down another branch to get a better look.

The man sauntered quickly off down the road, the other soldiers sensing his foul mood and diving out of his way. One or two of them, older, seasoned veterans, looked the younger man with slight confusion, as if such a mood was abnormal for the man to have. Of course, Kiku figured it couldn't be too uncommon if the soldiers all ready new the signs of when he wasn't to be stifled with.

Kiku nodded to himself, believing he had the man pegged. Since he figured that the man was most likely holding a major role in the Russian's base, Kiku decided to follow him.

"Ebaln!" Kiku heard the man curse loudly in Russian, "Opezdol! Kon' Pedal'nii! Niegadzai! Chort tzdbya beeree! Unbju!"

The Japanese man didn't have time to translate what he figured was rather foul language on the man's part. He continued stomping and cursing his way through the camp, grabbing the arms of a few unfortunate men and demanding to know if they had seen someone. Kiku archived the name 'Isaak' in his mind as he leaped off of the tree and gracefully landed on the roof of the nearby residential house. He watched the man carefully, trying to identify what exactly he was doing.

He was obviously looking for someone, Kiku took a guess that it was someone very close to him by the way he searched for this 'Isaak'. Thinking of what the man could possibly be doing almost made him lose his train of thought, until a brief quip of his conversation with one of the men caught Kiku's attention. He didn't catch what the man had said to his fellow soldier, but he quickly caught the man's response.

"Long hair tied back, with a lab coat and a bag?" he asked briefly, receiving a nod from the other, "I think he said something about treating the prisoners in the basement, or something."

Kiku stopped, and went over the man's words. He didn't have much time to do so, though, as the man he has been observing skidded off. The Japanese man quickly made the choice of following him to see if he would give him any leads as to where this 'basement' was. He watched from the roof as the man turned around to the side of the building, and approached the two guards standing in front of a storm door.

.Part 31: ….

I do have an older brother! But you know, he and I have always gotten along. We've always had different aspirations.

Jennifer Stone

..

"What do you mean I don't have goddamn access, I'm the goddamn first lieutenant!" Aleksey lashed out at the two large guards before him. The other two men were easily twice his body weight, but still the larger men shivered as the normally happy chipper man they had grown used slipped into a fit of abnormal rage.

"Commander Belarus has ordered us to stand guard," the braver of the two piped up, "No one gets in or out."

"Oh?" the lieutenant gave them an eerie, annoyed kind of smile, "Well have you let any exceptions pass by?"

"No, sir," they said in unison, "Not even the doctors can get by right now."

Aleksey could practically feel the veins in his forehead throb, "Really? And have any doctors tried to get past?"

"Just one," one of them offered, "Some little runt trying to get in."

"And what did this runt look like?" Aleksey asked in the most menacingly sweet tone he could.

The men, blissfully unturned to their superior officer's slowly building rage, quickly offered a description, "Brown hair, tan skin, kind of funny looking if you ask me-"

Aleksey glared, "Where. Did. He. Go?"

The two soldiers looked to each other, finally caught on to the man's inner, slowly seeping rage, "I think he was headed to the infirmary," one said, staring the tall, shaking man.

"Are you sure?" he pressed.

"H-H was talking to himself when he left," one nodded.

The lieutenant didn't say a word as he left the pair in front of the door and headed off for the school building. To be honest, the infirmary probably should have been his first

Aleksey wondered why he was even panicking as much as he was; Isaak was a smart man. He wasn't as street savvy as his elder brother, but he did know how to get his way and, much to Aleksey's pride, take very good care of himself. He was a doctor after all.

Of course the famous Mallory stubbornness wouldn't let him give up on goals easily, so Aleksey knew very well that his brother wouldn't be swayed into any plan he had for him. If the younger Mallory had been pigheaded enough to follow his coat tails into war, Aleksey figured there was little he could say to help him.

Regardless, Aleksey stomped his way through the hallway in the main building, pushing aside startled troops and confused doctors as he approached the small makeshift medical area. He made a sharp turn into the door way of one of the two rooms they had dedicated to medical care.

Said room was currently swarming with doctors and nurses, all running about preparing medicine for the inevitable battle that was to come at sunset. After quickly scanning the room only to find a distinct lack of the trademarked Mallory chaos, Aleksey quickly grabbed the arm of the first attendant he could find and pulled them aside. The busy medics could spare one man for a moment.

"I am looking for a Dr. Isaak Mallory," he told the startled doctor, "Do you know where I might find him?"

"Eh?" the short, mousy man looked up at him, "Isaak? He just came in a little while ago and borrowed some papers. I think he's in the attendant's barracks. Why do you need him?"

Aleksey sighed to himself, glad that visit with the group of scurrying war doctors would be shorter than with the guards, "Thank you very much, comrade, it's a personal matter."

With that, Aleksey left the room just as quickly as he entered and raced across the hallway, feet barely touching the floor as he cleared the distance between the doorways and entered the attendants' barracks.

The housing for the bases on site medics was just as drab as the rest of the men's quarters were, with a few exceptions, such as storage for personal equipment and paper work. Since the base was smaller, there was only a few doctors in comparison to most. Nurses retired to normal soldier's barracks or, in more pressing cases, in the spare room set aside for patients under observation. But the doctors received their own separate quarters beside the infirmary in case of a medical emergency. Because of this thought, they had taken some old student's desks and set them up inside of the room for the doctor's file records on and other such paperwork. Due to them having more to claim as a living space then the other soldiers, most of the doctors had small bits of personality strewn throughout their area, from pictures of home to small flower pots. The room itself, at the moment Aleksey walked in, was mostly empty with the exception of one man in the far left corner of the room, digging through a bag beside a bed.

"Na huy…?" the man mumbled to himself as he threw a loose sock out of the bag to continue searching, "I know it's here somewhere…"

"Did you check that hollow cavity in your head yet?" Aleksey called to him from the door way, leaning against the wall and looking at him silently.

Isaak jolted up at the sound of the familiar voice from across the room, only succeeding in banging his head against the wall as he did. The doctor feel over onto the floor ever so gracefully, limbs crashing into his cot and desk beside him. "A-Alek?" he asked, getting view of the tall man once he regained his composure.

"One and only," Aleksey smiled, "And don't call me Alek."

"Oh, of course not," Isaak started to stand hesitantly, stilled slightly startled by the sudden appearance of his older brother, "You damn, smart-aleck."

The elder scoffed to himself before clearing the distance between them and helping the shorter man up, "Oh be quiet, stupid little brother," he laughed as he pulled him up off the ground and crushed the other man in a bone shattering hug. Isaak allowed the other to pull him into a tight embrace, too stunned to argue against his insane sibling at that exact moment. Despite the rather odd timing for the other to magically show up, it did feel rather nice to have his brother by his side again, nuts or not.

"Why was I not aware of your presence on the base?" he asked with a solemn once they separated.

Isaak glowered once he was back on his feet, "I was moved to the base around two months ago; how I am supposed to know? And sense when were you here anyway?"

"I've been here, idiot!" Aleksey rolled his eyes, putting a hand on his hip, "I am first lieutenant around these parts."

"And whose wise idea was that?" the doctor raised an eyebrow at him.

Aleksey flicked his brothers nose playfully, "None of your business, stupid brother. I am here, and that is all that matters."

The doctor was once again engulfed in a crushing hug, though this time he chose to fight off his brother with a swift elbow to the rib, knocking the wind out of him and sending him to the floor.

"Gah…" he moaned as he got off of the ground, "Why must you hurt me so?"

"Don't make me hit you again," Isaak rolled his eyes, "Now that our little reunion is over was there something you needed, smart-aleck?"

"My dear little brother's safety from all our most treacherous enemies," he said dramatically, pushing his glasses back on his face, "And what are you looking for, since you seem so inclined to demolish your belongings."

Isaak sighed, "One of my procedure manuals," he admitted, feeling that hiding anything from him might just tempt him to look for it himself, "Can't remember the exact protocol for a necessary treatment for a patient in certain circumstances."

"What circumstances?" Aleksey asked, intrigued.

The doctor looked to his older brother for a moment, considering his options, "Will you promise not to panic?"

"I'm your older brother," he reminded, "It's my job to panic. Now spill, what are doing?"

"Right," Isaak sighed, realizing he had no choice. So, he simply looked at him, "I need to come up with protocol that will get me into where were keeping the prisoners."