Natalya sat on a barstool at the kitchen counter, unsure of who she should be keeping a close eye on. To her immediate right, Antonio and Toris were busy making dinner, moving around in what seemed like practiced coordination. To her immediate left, Ludwig sat at the dining table now after coming in from the balcony, and was staring blankly ahead as he seemed to still be thinking about what happened. Madeline was laying across the couch and watching the television, which was showing the news reports on a low volume. Ivan was the furthest away, having hardly moved from the computer chair where he watched the monitors all day.
Natalya's gaze returned to the couch, and she frowned in confusion. She could remember that Madeline had been involved in her conversation with Feliciano and Feliks the previous night, but she had drank too much vodka for her to be able to remember it now. It was the oddest part of the conversation to have forgotten, as Natalya could distinctly remember telling the boys what she told Mikkel and Romulus, as well as there being enough concern to prepare the safe house. She had a feeling it was something suspicious that Madeline had done, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
"Drinks, anyone?" Toris asked for the room to hear, distracting Natalya from her thoughts.
"Water, please," Ivan replied from his chair, with Madeline and Ludwig echoing the request.
"How about you, Natalya?" Toris checked as he opened a cupboard and reached for glasses.
"I'll have water as well, please," she answered.
Toris brought four glasses out and placed them on the counter, before reaching into the fridge, pulling out a water pitcher, and bringing it to the same counter. As he poured the drinks, he slid them gently towards Natalya.
"Could you please hand these out, Natalya?" he requested.
Natalya nodded as she grabbed the first glass, rose from her seat, and brought it to the table for Ludwig. She then grabbed the next two glasses from the counter, went around the table, and dropped one on the coffee table in front of Madeline. She continued on to where Ivan was sitting at the computer, and placed the cup beside him as she glanced at the monitors. There were police reports and scanners filling the screens, and the report he was focusing on the most had their sister's mugshot attached to it.
"Is Katya okay?" Natalya asked.
"Yes, and so is the baby," Ivan responded, "It says here that she reported her pregnancy when they were booking her in at the station, so they got a medical examiner to give her a check-up to make sure the trauma hadn't caused any problems. She was even able to use this as grounds for getting better treatment in her interrogation with Arthur."
"She spoke to Arthur Kirkland?" Ludwig checked, "What did she tell him?"
"She told him everything about how she was involved with both the Dragon Triad and the Vargas twins," Ivan reported, "She chose to cooperate in exchange for a shorter sentence on her crimes of association to the mobs. Although Feliciano's testimony advocates her innocence, Arthur is still quoting 18 months in jail for her."
"With 18 months in jail, she'll have to give birth in prison," Natalya realized, "Since I would be on the run, and Yao is dead, my little niece or nephew will be taken away from her."
"What about Feliciano?" Madeline inquired, "What has he said?"
"Feliciano spilled the beans about what Natalya told him last night," Ivan continued, "He revealed how he and Feliks were given the same spiel that was given to Mikkel and Romulus last year. Once his interrogation with Gilbert was completed, Feliciano's file was changed to restricted access."
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Natalya moaned, "How do you bastards know about that?"
"Natalya, what did you tell them?" Ludwig probed, "What are you guys talking about?"
"I told them that Ivan is my brother," Natalya revealed, "Our real family name is Braginski, but Katerina and I have been using our mother's maiden name for a few years now. Ivan used to work for JCI as a software engineer in their R&D department, before having an affair with his boss, Mathilda Jones-Kirkland."
"Mathilda Jones-Kirkland?" Ludwig grasped, "You're the researcher that ran away with Mathilda Jones-Kirkland?"
"Now you understand why I don't trust police officers," Ivan remarked, "Especially one whose brother is leading the hunt for us."
"That's also why I can't trust my own brother anymore," Natalya blamed, "As long as these fuckers are evading the law, Katerina and I will be watched for any leads we can provide on their whereabouts. According to Antonio over there, Arthur Kirkland is the asshole keeping our records so heavily flagged."
"Much to our displeasure, Ludwig, let me assure you," Ivan claimed, "My dear sisters were never supposed to be involved, it was only supposed to be myself, Mathilda and Antonio. I do regret that this hurt my sisters, but it ended up being part of the price I had to pay to make sure Mathilda was also free."
"Why would Mathilda need to be free?" Natalya refuted, "What could you possibly be getting her away from that would justify fraud, embezzlement, treason, and all that other bullshit?"
Natalya heard a thud behind her, and turned to see that Antonio had stabbed the cutting board with the butcher's knife.
"Mathilda nearly killed herself in her pursuit of freedom," Antonio defended, "The only way anyone could ever understand what she went through is to face the lows she faced, and come back stronger and braver than she did."
"Tell me, then," Natalya challenged, "What has she gone through?"
The room was silent and tense as she glared at Antonio, and he took a deep breath as he removed the knife from the cutting board and set it down.
"Despite being born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Mathilda has never been free to live her own life," Antonio began, "Her father decided everything about her life, including marrying her off to Arthur and restricting what was seen of her in the public eye. After the death of Andrew Jones, Alfred took over with a bit more leniency, but was still overprotective of his sister. Arthur Kirkland, on the other hand, proved to be even worse than his father-in-law, and the dominating asshole wanted to control everything Mathilda did."
"It wasn't until after Andrew's death that Mathilda demanded to work for JCI," Ivan took over, "She wanted to get out of the house, and do something with her life aside from being Arthur's trophy wife. The boys eventually gave her a managerial role in the R&D department, on the condition that she retire when she started bearing children for Arthur. After she became my new boss, Vash started a rotation of security personnel to find a personal bodyguard for Mathilda, and Antonio was one of the candidates."
"It was a few months later that everything went horribly wrong," Antonio narrated, "Mathilda hadn't been feeling well, and stayed home from work for a couple days. I had been on the shift that day, and after she had been left alone for a while to take a nap, I went in to check on her. I found her on the bathroom floor, puking blood into the toilet and losing consciousness. On the counter was the pregnancy test she had taken, along with the two bottles of whiskey she had chugged back after seeing the positive result."
"She discovered she was pregnant, and her response was to chug down two bottles of whiskey?" Ludwig put together, "Why would she do that?"
"The answer is simple, she didn't want the child," Ivan elaborated, "Her role at JCI was the only freedom she had in her life, but the agreement was that she'd give up the position when she became pregnant. She had become frustrated with how she had no control of her life, and decided she'd rather kill the child before Arthur found out. The easiest way she could think of was to give herself alcohol poisoning, at a level toxic enough to trigger a miscarriage."
"She nearly also took her own life in the process," Antonio pointed out, "I nearly had to explain to Alfred, Arthur and Vash how she was able to kill herself while under my protection. I'm the one who called for the ambulance to rush her to the hospital, and I'm the one who waited in that hallway to find out whether or not she would recover. Arthur scolded me for leaving her unattended with the whiskey, but Vash backed me up on the grounds that I had saved her life with my quick reaction."
"And the child?" Natalya asked.
"Whether it was from the alcohol itself, or the trauma to Mathilda's body when the doctors saved her life, there was enough damage done," Antonio reported, "By the time the doctors noticed the pregnancy hormones in her blood test, Mathilda had already miscarried. When the others were told, Arthur immediately accused Mathilda of sabotaging her own pregnancy, claiming that Mathilda knew she was pregnant and killed his child."
"But she did know, didn't she?" Ludwig countered, "You said the pregnancy test was on the counter with the whiskey bottles."
"Before she lost consciousness, Mathilda instructed me to destroy the evidence," Antonio revealed, "She insisted that Arthur could never know that she was pregnant, so I had slipped the test into one of my pockets before calling for help. I nearly told Vash the truth, but when I saw Arthur's reaction to the blood test results, I dumped the evidence in the garbage instead. That bastard was more disturbed about the child being miscarried than about his wife nearly committing suicide. I kept my mouth shut, and Mathilda refused to explain why she nearly killed herself."
"Because of that incident, Arthur was determined to prove that Mathilda had become clinically insane," Ivan picked up, "While she was still recovering physically, Arthur had multiple psychiatrists put her through rigorous mental disorder tests. She passed all the tests with a clean record, with the only noted exception being her refusal to say why she pounded back that whiskey."
"Arthur became far more abusive to her during that time, and I had to keep stepping in to protect her from his wrath," Antonio recounted, "Despite Arthur's insistence that I get fired from my employment at JCI, Mathilda convinced Vash to let me stay on as her personal bodyguard. While I worked for her, she gradually came to trust me, and I became her confidant. She told me everything about her life, including how much she hated it and wanted to run away from it forever. I started falling in love with her, and I considered whisking her away from her sorrow many times, and giving her a much happier life elsewhere."
"Why didn't you do that, then?" Natalya asked, "Why did you have to drag my brother into this?"
"Although Mathilda is grateful for how I saved her and protected her, she is unable to return my feelings," Antonio professed, "When she resumed her work at JCI, the R&D department became her safe haven in this world. Ivan had welcomed her back, and was willing to listen to her and help her recover. Their work relationship turned into a friendship, which then became an affair. It didn't take much longer for Ivan and Mathilda to win each other's hearts permanently."
"While Antonio kept her safe and alive, her affair with me allowed her a taste of freedom," Ivan supplemented, "She was finally able to defy her husband and her family in some way, and she flourished in her confidence and strength. Before long, she knew exactly what she had to do to earn complete freedom. If she wanted to be free to love me without any objections, she had to get Arthur out of the way. I suggested that she could simply divorce him, and that she had strong arguments for domestic abuse. However, Antonio's repeated claims of defending her from Arthur's rage lacked evidence, and were already being dismissed by Vash and Alfred. She eventually decided on something far more sinister. She wanted Arthur dead."
"Did she try to kill him?" Ludwig asked.
"She tried more than just that," Antonio amended, "Her plan became more complex as she realized how much she hated her life. Arthur obviously had to go, there's no question there. As for Alfred, while he overprotected her in every other part of her life, he turned aside when Arthur was hurting her. She considered simply drugging them both at dinner and taking 100% control of JCI, but then she opened her eyes a bit further and found a bigger mess."
"What did she find?" Ludwig encouraged.
"About four years ago now, there were massive riots when Alfred and Arthur completed buying out the government," Antonio explained, "As she watched the news coverage, Mathilda realized that JCI itself had become a tyrannical force in the world, oppressing freedom from everyone. As long as JCI existed, everyone would be subservient to it. She came to realize that her own freedom could not be achieved if she didn't help achieve freedom for everyone else."
"That's why she tried to destroy the company?" Natalya connected, "She simply wanted her freedom? Did she really need to take it to such lengths?"
"She went to the lengths necessary for her situation," Madeline justified, "To be free, you need to clear your name of association to your brother. To be free, I had to forsake my family's fortune and run away from home. To be free, Mathilda has to get her brother, her husband, and JCI out of the way. We all have to fight for our freedom somehow, and while I may have succeeded in my own quest, you and Mathilda will not succeed until all those bastards are out of the way."
"You knew about all this, Maddie?" Natalya charged, "You knew the truth about these fuckers the entire time?"
"Ivan and Antonio have told me their story, yes," Madeline confirmed, "As for Mathilda, I have yet to meet her, but I know we are certainly kindred spirits. What I went through for my freedom is a piece of cake compared to her troubles, and I understand the way she must see the world. Mathilda deserves her freedom, and I will help her get it if I can."
"Even if it means that Katya loses her freedom?" Natalya criticized, "It was because these idiots got caught and ran away that we became associated with the mobs in the first place."
"You're completely right, Natalya, they are partially to blame for what has become of Katerina," Toris agreed, "However, we already have a plan for getting her out of her jail time, and we could use your help."
"Getting Katerina out of jail time?" Natalya repeated, "How do you plan to do that?"
"We will organize a jailbreak," Antonio declared, "We will free Katerina, Lovino, Feliciano and Elizaveta from their cells."
"You want to stage a jailbreak at police headquarters?" Ludwig asked, "Are you out of your fucking minds?"
"This is a contingency plan we've had prepared for some time now," Toris illustrated, "It can easily be done with our small group, and we should be able to pull it off before the others get shipped off to county prisons. We know that Arthur will have them wait at the station until Monday morning in case he thinks of any more questions over the weekend, so we'll need to act before then."
"How would you do it?" Ludwig grilled.
"We will need two people to break into the holding area to break out our four prisoners," Ivan described, "Everyone else will carry out a diversion upstairs to keep the police occupied on the other floors of the building."
"That will be awfully difficult to pull off," Natalya commented, "Especially with only the three of you doing it."
"That's why we could use your help," Toris proposed, "If you and Ludwig agree to help us, the rest of us can cause a more effective distraction while you break out your friends. Once the task is done, the two of you and the prisoners can flee to that safe house you claim to have been preparing for this exact contingency."
"What about Madeline?" Natalya asked, "What would she be doing?"
"I'd be upstairs helping with the diversion," Madeline explained, "We'll still have our phones as well, so I can go into hiding with them after, and then we can arrange to meet up after the dust settles."
"What if we are found downstairs by my old colleagues?" Ludwig pointed out, "As you can probably imagine, I don't want to shoot them dead."
"We have a special gun you could probably use," Toris suggested, "The T-101 shoots tranquilizer darts that only take 3 seconds to knock out your victim, and they'll wake up 20 minutes later."
"And what makes you think you can get me to agree to this suicide mission?" Natalya challenged.
"Ivan is preparing your USB right now, the one with the clean slate that I promised you," Antonio mentioned, "You could take it as soon as it's done, of course, and run off on your own. However, I could also have Ludwig hold onto it, and hand it over after the two of you have broken the others out. That way, instead of only using it on yourself, you can also use it on Ludwig, Katerina and everyone else."
"You did say it yourself, after all," Ivan reminded, "It would be a shame for our little niece or nephew to be born in prison, and be taken away from our beloved sister."
Natalya glared at her brother as she ran the scenario through her head. Once again, they had clearly thought of every detail to their plan, and the prospect of breaking Katerina out of jail was far too alluring. She had the feeling that the diversion upstairs could involve mischief, but Ivan had swore he never intended to hurt his sisters. As long as they made it to the safehouse with no harm after the fact, they might never have to speak to Ivan or Antonio ever again.
"If we agreed to help you, when would this jailbreak happen?" Natalya inquired.
"We were hoping to get Ludwig's advice on it," Antonio replied, "We have the entire weekend in which to make it happen, surely he would know when there are the least officers in the building."
"Sunday night is when it should happen," Ludwig advised, "Tonight and tomorrow will be busy, and not as many crimes happen on a Sunday night. The Sunday night crew is also less likely to recognize me if I'm there."
"Are you agreeing to do it, then?" Madeline asked.
"Only if Natalya agrees as well," Ludwig said, "Either way, I need her help getting to the safehouse and hiding in the shadows after everything is said and done. For the time being, I'll stick with her on what we do next."
"How about it then, Natalya?" Ivan put forward, "Will you help us, or not?"
As she felt the entire room watching her, she finally made up her mind.
"God damn it, we're in."