Ludwig stared at the back wall of his cell, drowning out the sounds of those passing behind him. Although the bed was set up to have a sleeper facing the bars, Ludwig had moved his pillow to the foot of the bed to spin himself around. The last thing he wanted to acknowledge right now was the condemning stares of his coworkers as they walked by. There were already a million thoughts turning in his mind, of how he got into this mess, of how he allowed it to happen. But most of all, he thought of Madeline.
Or should it be Mathilda? He could no longer keep it straight.
The bitch had seduced him, plain and simple. He still didn't understand why he was targeted, if it was merely a fortuitous circumstance on her end or a part of her master plan. Nonetheless, Mathilda had played him like a fiddle, and Ludwig fell under her spell. He had convinced himself that he was in love, and that she was warming up to the idea of loving him back.
He should've seen the red flags. He should have paid more attention to Madeline's shock at his sudden proclamation of love when refusing Lovino's offer to walk away. He should've been suspicious of Madeline's aversion to meeting Gilbert. He should've been wary of Madeline's unusual interest and support of Mathilda Jones. He should've ended it before she dragged him into a life of crime, only to dump him on a heist.
Ludwig was jolted from his thoughts by the bars opening behind him, and he sat up to see his brother entering the cell with a pair of handcuffs.
"Get up, Ludwig," Gilbert ordered, "It's time to go."
"Where are you taking me?" Ludwig asked as he rose.
"The county prison," Gilbert bluntly answered as he clasped the cuffs around Ludwig's wrists, before ushering him out of the cell. Bella and Kiku silently stood by, waiting to escort the brothers.
"Just keep your head down, Ludwig," Bella advised as Ludwig reached her side, "Don't give the others any reaction."
Gilbert led the group down the hall, while Kiku and Bella stayed close behind Ludwig. When they reached the open area, Ludwig briefly glanced up to see Eduard and Lenka pausing their conversation to watch him go by. They did not say a word, but Ludwig could feel their piercing glare fanning the flame of his guilt.
Ludwig looked down at the floor again, focusing on Gilbert's feet in front of him to avoid accidentally looking up again. It felt like an eternity, walking along the same pattern of tiles down the halls, before they finally stopped by the vehicle checkout. Ludwig could hear Gilbert asking for keys and paperwork at the counter, and briefly glanced around the room.
If there had been any point of no return, it was certainly in this room. He should not have gone upstairs to find Madeline last night. He should've gone with Natalya and the others into hiding. He should've listened to their testimony of Madeline's betrayals. He should've believed them.
Ludwig felt Kiku give him a nudge, making him notice that Gilbert had left the counter and was opening the parkade door for them. He turned and followed Gilbert outside to the parkade, where various police cars, trucks and vans were waiting to be used. His brother led the group to the left, walking past a section of cars before reaching a row of vans and watching them closely.
"Here it is," Gilbert declared, pointing at the licence plate on the back of a prisoner transport van they were approaching, "Let's get him in."
Kiku and Bella nudged Ludwig towards the van as Gilbert unlocked the back door and opened it wide. No words were said as Ludwig stepped up into the back compartment, lined with a metal bench along each side. Ludwig veered to the right side and sat on the bench, keeping his head pointed down while the others briefly spoke outside. He didn't bother looking up as one of them joined him in the back, and the door was shut to leave them in darkness.
After about a minute, the vehicle started up, and whoever was driving turned on the back compartment lights. Ludwig looked up, and frowned in suspicion at what he saw. It was protocol to make sure that criminals were never left alone with a police officer with whom they have a personal relationship. And yet, the officer sitting with him in the back of the transport van at this moment was his own brother.
"Just sit tight," Gilbert instructed as they felt the van back out of its space, "We're going to be here a while."
Ludwig could tell that the albino was deliberately avoiding eye contact, so he turned his head back downwards as the vehicle shifted gears to move forward. He tried to clear his mind of any thoughts, focusing on the shifting of gears and the movement of the vehicle. This worked well for a little while, but another sound kept him from his meditation. Eventually, Ludwig looked up and determined the source.
It was also against protocol for an officer to have their shoulder radio turned on while transporting a prisoner, and yet Gilbert was listening to dispatch during this ride. Ludwig closely watched his brother as the reports came through with small matters to be attended to.
"An available unit is needed at Westminister Tower on Blanshard Avenue," dispatch suddenly requested, "There has been a series of dropped 911 calls from the Kirkland law firm."
"Dispatch, this is Lieutenant van Ryn," a reply was relayed, "I am a block away from Westminister Tower, I can check on the law firm."
"That's enough of that," Gilbert muttered as he reached for his radio and turned it off.
"I'm surprised you left it on for so long," Ludwig commented, "Isn't that a breach of conduct?"
"Like you're in any position to call me out on breaking conduct," Gilbert retorted, finally making eye contact, "Do you even know how many laws you broke at Mathilda's side?"
"For fuck's sake, Gilbert, I didn't know it was her," Ludwig insisted, "How many times do I need to say it?"
"You still knew your girlfriend was a criminal," Gilbert countered, "You should've told me about your relationship when I arrested her. We could've teamed up to track her down after Toris paid her phony bail. We could have gone down in history as the pair of detectives who captured the nefarious Mathilda Jones-Kirkland! But no, you thought you were in love."
Ludwig sighed heavily, he knew there was no justifiable reply for that.
"Don't you realize how much bullshit you've put me through in the last few days?" Gilbert continued, "I was there with Vash when we found the security recordings of you and Mathilda in front of the bank vault. I begged Roderich for the chance to bring you in willingly, and what do you do? You climb out a seven-story window and run away!"
"I'm sorry," Ludwig tried to apologize.
"You better not think for one second you're getting out of trouble by saying sorry," Gilbert scolded, "The moment I saw that shot of the kiss, I knew you were in deep trouble. It was only made worse by Feliciano's explanation of how she may have drugged you with a sleeping serum."
"He told you about that?"
"Of course he did, that was his supporting argument for why Madeline couldn't be trusted," Gilbert revealed, "When we arrested the Vargas twins, we found three of those vials on them. Feliciano explained that the first two had been used on them personally, when Antonio betrayed the Vargas clan last year. He found the third vial on the floor in the bedroom where you had spent Thursday night. The labs checked out the vials, it was indeed the same sleeping serum from the black market."
"He was right," Ludwig professed, "I should've listened to him."
"It sounds like you should've listened to a lot of people," Gilbert nagged, "Instead, you were a fucking idiot, and now the rest of us have been fucked over as well."
Gilbert's commentary was interrupted by the van shifting gears to park and turning off, before three loud bangs against the wall dividing their compartment from the driver and passenger up front.
"That is Bella's cue," Gilbert clarified, "We're here."
Ludwig listened closely as inaudible yelling happened outside, accompanied by the front doors of the van being opened and closed. He then looked over to see that Gilbert was removing his loaded police belt.
"What are you doing?" Ludwig asked.
"You really don't deserve my help," Gilbert chided as he placed his police belt on the floor at his feet, "The only way to get you out of this bullshit was for me to go down with you,"
Before Ludwig could ask what that meant, the locks turned and the first of the back doors swung open. He couldn't see who was behind the other door, but Gilbert responded by raising his hands and kicking his belt towards them.
"Easy there, gorgeous," Gilbert assured, "There's no need for trouble here."
"Still doesn't mean I can trust you," a very familiar voice answered, before the woman leaned into the van with her gun pointed at Gilbert, "And don't call me gorgeous."
"Natalya?" Ludwig gasped, "What are you doing here?"
"What does it look like we're doing, you dumbass?" Gilbert snarked as Natalya reached in and took away the police belt, "We're breaking you out of jail!'
"Wait, he didn't know the plan?" Natalya checked, looping Gilbert's belt over her shoulder, "How did you know to use Ludwig's phone to contact me, then?"
"The short story is that I made a deal with the devil," Gilbert informed, "The long story will have to wait for later."
"That story better be a good one," Natalya accepted as she swung the second door open, "Come on out, you fools."
Ludwig turned to his brother in confusion, only to receive a nod and a gesture to leave the van first. Ludwig rose to his seat and moved towards Natalya, who had turned away to look at something outside the van.
"We're all good," she called out, "You can let them be."
Ludwig lowered his foot onto the step, and leapt from the back of the van onto the ground. He observed that they were parked in a quiet alley, still close to the downtown area. He stepped forward to give Gilbert space to climb out after him, and glanced past the door Natalya was still holding. Kiku and Bella were standing to the left of the van, with their hands in the air while two more unexpected parties had guns pointed at them.
"Lovino? Elizaveta?" Ludwig gasped, "What are you doing?"
"Relax, Ludwig, it's fine," Kiku assured, "They weren't sure they could trust us."
"We couldn't have Gilbert luring Natalya into a trap, after all," Lovino added as he lowered his gun from Kiku's head, "Your brother's been an ass to us before."
"Don't be so harsh, Lovi," Elizaveta countered, lowering her gun from Bella's head, "You were just as impressed with Gilbert's plan as the rest of us."
"Speaking of my plan, it clearly went off like clockwork," Gilbert intervened as he pointed at the second van in the alley, "You switched the plates, right?"
"We sure did," Natalya confirmed, "The police plates are back at the safe house, these are from a spare car I keep stored."
"Is that the same van I had you escape in last night?" Ludwig asked.
"It is easy to ignore on the streets, has seats for all of us, and doesn't have GPS tracking," Bella explained, "It's the only good choice you made last night."
"This prisoner transport van here is fully decked out, however, so we have to leave it here in the alley," Gilbert took over before Ludwig could respond, "Once they realize we never made it to the prison, they'll be looking for it."
"Then we better get out of here before they start the search," Lovino realized.
"That's the last step of the plan," Gilbert agreed, "Let's get moving."