Chapter 17

A win or a loss?

Emil helped Arthur sit up as he slowly regained consciousness while he kept an eye on Alfred. If Lukas hadn't interrupted, things would have gotten really bad but he couldn't relax yet. Lukas walked across the room and crouched next to Alfred. Mathias tried to stand but Emil saw that he had trouble breathing and when he took a step towards Lukas he stumbled and fell. "Be careful, he's dangerous"

"No he's not" Arthur was finally back to reality and was looking at Lukas. "Something's controlling him" Emil gasped and looked at Alfred. Arthur was right, it didn't seem like the usually cheery and annoying American was in control of himself and Emil didn't believe that he could actually do something like this. "I have to break the connection" Arthur tried to stand up but Emil saw how he swayed and pushed him back surprisingly easily.

"You can't. Let them handle it" Arthur shook his head and tried to get up again.

"I can't. I didn't want to tell you this before but Lukas is almost completely drained of energy." He took a deep breath in an attempt to make his head stop spinning before he continued "That small shock he created before made him exhausted so breaking the connection might put him in danger" Emil looked at his brother that was slowly raising his hand towards Alfred.

"Lukas! Don't-"

"I already know" He placed a finger on Alfreds forehead and started drawing a symbol. "But I have to protect you" His finger started glowing "Both of you" He added and glanced back at Mathias. The light from his finger started shifting and spread out over Alfred that suddenly relaxed. "I might be a bit confused at the moment but there's two things I'm certain of" He lifted his hand and held it out above Alfred. "One: Mathias is a mess and will never ask for help, Two: Emil is my little brother and I need him to be safe. " Tino entered the room panting just as Lukas added "That's why I have to do this. I care."

"Don't!" Mathias tried to reach him but it was too late. Lukas lifted his hands just as the light started glowing brighter than ever before. They felt the energy radiate from the two nations and when the light faded they saw how Alfred was laying down on the ground while Lukas was standing on all four coughing. Emil was still sitting next to Arthur with a hand on his chest to stop him from standing while Berwald was already on his way towards Lukas. Tino ran over to Mathias.

"Are you okay? What's going on?" Tino crouched next to him but was met with a dismissive wave from his hand.

"Take care of Lukas" Tino hesitated but nodded and joined Berwald at Lukas side. "Lukas, are you okay?" he put a hand on Lukas that flinched and suddenly sat up before he backed away.

"Who was that?" Lukas looked around the room suspiciously.

"It's me! Tino!"

"Tino…" He looked thoughtful for a moment "It does sound familiar"

"Yes! You're remembering" Mathias sat up and managed to smile at Lukas while he rubbed the spot that Alfred had hit.

"Mathias? Is that you?" Mathias saw how Lukas turned his head towards him but something was off. He felt something within him build up, a feeling that something bad just had happened and when he looked Lukas in his eyes he realized. "Where are you? Why is it so dark?" Mathias looked up at the lamp in the roof that was shining brightly. He had often told Lukas that it wasn't necessary to buy such bright lamps but he had never listened. He fought against his tears as Lukas reached out a hand in front of him and tried to feel where he was. "Mathias?"

"I'm here" Mathias crawled over to Lukas that flinched once again as he felt Mathias taking his hand. "Here" He couldn't say anything. He couldn't tell Lukas that he was sorry for being weak. He couldn't tell Lukas thank you. He couldn't' tell Lukas that the lights were on.

"Yes" Lukas nodded and Mathias saw how Berwald walked up to them. He shook his head and took a deep breath to calm himself but it wasn't easy.

He couldn't tell Lukas that he'd gotten blind.

.

"Dammit" Shade stumbled and fell to the ground as the view of the room disappeared. He had been walking and kept an eye on the situation in the house at the same time but he wasn't happy with the result. Through Alfreds eyes he had seen how close it had been that he had gotten the Englishman taken care of. If Mathias hadn't gotten back so fast he could have taken care of them both. If he only could get Arthur and Lukas out of the way he could then head over to Vladimir and take care of him too, that way there shouldn't be anyone left that would actually be a threat. "What should I do?" He didn't realize he had said it out loud until Antonio let out a relieved sigh.

"So they're fine then" He looked over his shoulder as he felt his irritation build up and then took deep breaths. Getting angry now wouldn't lead anywhere so he decided to sit down and think through all he had seen in that house, maybe there was something useful there. After Mathias had tackled him off the bed, Shade had let Alfred fight on his own. He knew the attacks would be simple but figured that the nations strength would make up for it. He quickly realized his mistake when Mathias years of fighting was clearly showing so he took over Alfred body completely. He had almost won when Lukas entered the room and the shock he sent out paralyzed him for a moment. Then Lukas broke the connection.

"Wait a minute…" Shade suddenly grinned and stood up. He remembered what Arthur had said. Lukas was drained, he could barely create the shockwave, so he probably wasn't in any condition to fight right now. He knew he wouldn't be able to take care of Arthur since they would be suspisious about practically everything for a while and the rest of the nations would probably be warned as well. "Time to lay low for a while"

"To think of a new plan since this one failed?" Shade knew that Antonio was mocking him on purpose but he couldn't help himself.

"Shut up, you're in no position to speak like that" He started walking again so he would be able to get to Copenhagen in time. The meeting was tomorrow according to the text he'd gotten earlier and he wanted to leave as few tracks as possible so walking was the best option right now. "Let's go"

"Oh, aren't you tired? You seem exhausted." Shade closed and opened his fists multiple times to calm himself down while he tried to focus on walking. Shade knew he would have to live with him for a long time but he also knew that Antonio would lose his sanity after a few years. Just like he had. Antonio started humming on a song and Shade felt himself slowly go mad.

"SHUT UP" Flames emerged along his arms as he turned towards Antonio. He had finally snapped and all he could feel was rage. It grew even more when he heard Antonio chuckle.

"I thought you wouldn't use any more magic?" He suddenly realized. Antonio had been playing him all along. The realization made his anger grow even more and the flames grew brighter. He was losing control.

"Oh dammit" The world begun spinning and he put his hands over his head to make it stop but fell down on his knees when it wouldn't. The last of his energy was fading and the last thing he heard before he fell unconscious was a whisper.

"I think I just scored a point" Antonios light laugh followed him into his dreams.

.

The questions were endless and even though Gilbert had pretty good imagination he knew that it wasn't infinite and he noticed how he was slowly running out of ideas. They had only taken a break to eat, they served fish but Gilbert wasn't really surprised by anything anymore. He had at least gotten his flute back. He felt that his eyelids grew heavy as the evening came and fortunately the group noticed as well. "Oh! It seems like it has gotten really late, maybe we should continue tomorrow" The rest of the group yawned and nodded before they started rolling out mattresses on the floor. Of course they would be sleeping in here. Gilbert sighed, he was really tired but had to look for a chance to escape.

"Goodnight!" The lights went off and it became pitch black. Gilbert thought that if he just waited until they had all fallen asleep, he would be able to at least try to get out of there.

"One hour" He whispered quietly and yawned. He would wait one hour and then drag himself out of there. After 30 minutes he was already asleep, snoring quietly with the soft buzzing of an AC somewhere in the room.

"Watch out!" He woke up because of a scream and felt how he bounced around. His eyes finally focused and tried to figure out where he were. The first thing he saw was Dani looking at him. "Oh, you're awake" He felt how he bounced again and Dani turned her head and said in an angry voice "Sarah! Be more careful!"

"Sorry but I can't really do much, the road is full of holes!"

"Wait, what?" Gilbert looked around. He was in the backseat of a car together with Dani while Sarah sat in the front seat. "WAIT, WHAT?" He didn't understand how he had gotten there at all, he fell asleep in the basement and now he was sitting in a car with a pair of siblings that didn't seem to get along at all.

"Calm down, were almost there" Dani patted him on his arm and smiled. "We're going to take you home." She looked down at her hands "Both of us knows that COMPASS is crazy so we decided to form our own group." When he met her eyes he could see a passion he had only seen in Ludwigs eyes when he saw a dog. "Our goal is to protect creatures like you from being known, we believe that you are hidden for a reason." She climbed the seat and got up really close to his face before she added "We are the Mythical Allied Party, M.A.P!" Gilbert sighed in relief. These people would at least take him to the ocean and he could finally start making his way home somehow, they seemed sane.

"We're here" Sarah stopped the car and got out and after a bit of struggling they managed to get him out of the car. Gilbert looked around a bit confused, this wasn't the beach they were standing at the edge of a cliff!

"So, how do I get down there?" Gilbert pointed at the water and chuckled nervously. It was a 20 feet drop and he saw how the waves furiously smashed into the rocks. He looked around for a ladder or something but couldn't find any. Sarah looked confused for a moment.

"You jump of course."

"What?" Sarah sat down next to Gilbert and Dani sat down on his other side. They sighed in unison as they looked across the ocean were the sun was slowly rising.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Gilbert didn't really notice how the sunrays made the water shine and sparkle because he was still processing the fact that they expected him to jump off the cliff. Sarah patted him on his shoulder.

"We forgot your flute by the way" Gilbert put his hands together and took a few calming breaths. She shrugged and added "We were in a hurry since we didn't want to inhale any of the gas we knocked all of you guys out with" She looked at him "You're pretty heavy by the way, be thankful" Gilbert actually considered jumping of the cliff and then just hope that he would survive if it meant that he would finally get away from these people. Dani leaned against him.

"I'll put the flute at the beach where they found you, okay?" Gilbert nodded and Danis face lit up in a smile. Sarah stood up.

"Well we need to get back before the others wake up, come here Dani" She was suddenly behind him and grabbed him underneath his arms while Dani grabbed his tail. The carried him to the edge and Gilbert really questioned where they got this kind of strength from.

"One…"

"Wait are you actually going to-"

"Two…"

"Okay, can we talk about this for a second?

"Three!" The swung him and threw him over the edge. As he fell a thought suddenly crossed Gilberts mind.

"Oh, MAP against COMPASS. I get it" The cold water hit him and he immediately felt how a current grabbed hold of him while he automatically held his breath. He was dragged down underwater and tried his best to swim but he had never used a fin before. He couldn't fight it as another current grabbed hold of him and dragged him further into the sea. He couldn't hold his breath any longer so he gasped. Water filled his lungs but Gilbert still felt a relief from it so he took another breath underwater and realized that he could breathe fine. Thanks to this realization he managed to calm down enough to focus on his tail. He had seen "The Little Mermaid" many times and figured that he'd just try to move it like them. It took a while but he finally managed to get the hang of it and pushed himself out of the current. With a few quick flicks with his fin he was soon at the surface and when he came above the water he immediately looked around. He didn't see a single island or any land at all in any way. He sighed and started swimming in a random direction while he figured that he would meet land sooner or later if he just kept swimming.