Chapter 3: Despair

Alfred tensed up just by the mere presence of seeing Elizabeta. The robust woman waiting for Alfred's answer sighed. "You're my new trainee, Gilbert Beilschmidt right?"

"...O-oh, yeah!" Oh god what am I doing? Alfred thought, wanting to slap himself across the face. Hardly. Something seemed off to the younger teenager, but he couldn't tell what.

"Come on, then." Elizabeta responded, giving Alfred a nice small smile. Before Alfred could even respond, Elizabeta motioned for Alfred to follow her, and turned around.

Once the two were outside together, Alfred looked around his surroundings. They were in a vast empty field full of nothing except dirt. Was this one of the training fields? Moving the hair from her eyes, Elizabeta motioned for Alfred to sit on the ground. "So just what are you planning?" the Hungarian woman moved her head just a bit to the left. "You must have some good reason to lie to your superior just to come up here." the heavy tone in Elizabeta's voice almost caused Alfred to flinch.

"Well…" Alfred bit his lip. This escalated quickly…very quickly. So this Elizabeta girl already knew he wasn't Gilbert? (Whoever that was.)

"Um, excuse me but I think this was a misunderstanding."

Turning his head over, Alfred noticed it was Kiku. The other walked over to Elizabeta and began speaking with her. Their conversation ended with a nod from Elizabeta, and her heading back.

"Ah dude, thanks! Once again you saved my ass from something…ha ha…" Alfred did an awkward chuckle and got up to his feet to walk over to Kiku. Even though Kiku didn't say a word, Alfred could clearly tell he was upset with him. And he had reason to be. After all he had lied to Kiku and even to Elizabeta, and both of them had much higher ranks than him.

"Alfred, you must understand that if you're going to fight with us in the UR, you're going to have to follow its rules. I still understand how you're feeling about what has happened, but unless you suddenly have a higher rank, you cannot be doing things like this on your own." Kiku glared at Alfred, meaning every single word.

Alfred slowly nodded. Kiku was right; he knew he was right. Kiku forced a smile, "Let's go now." Kiku began to slowly trail ahead of Alfred, going the completely opposite way of where they both had come from.

"Uh Kiku, you do know that's not the right way…right?"

"Huh? If we are going to find that clone you really wanted to kill, we'll have to follow where the scanner tracks its location." Kiku explained. He pulled out a small handheld device that was folded over. Once opened, it showed the area where the clone was pinpointed.

Alfred began to comprehend what was happening. "Wait, so you're saying we're going to go after that clone?"

Kiku nodded. "Even though we will not be able to kill it, Head Leader came up with some other ideas that you'll soon see. But you must listen to me, alright?"

"I-I will!" Alfred quickly responded. He quickly paced up to walk alongside Kiku. The other didn't say anything; his eyes were focused on the small handheld device, leading the two to the clone's location. Alfred sighed, boredom growing inside him. He didn't want to bother Kiku by starting some pointless conversation, so he remained silent.

At first Alfred was on the lookout if any stray AMOs were to appear, but such things never happened. He then found himself looking around the area they were in, which only consisted of dirt and rubble. They were in the middle of nowhere. By this time (which Alfred surely thought was an hour) it looked like Kiku was beginning to grow a bit tired from walking. "Hey, should we take a break?" Alfred suggested.

"If you would like to." Kiku accepted Alfred's offer. He kneeled down and wiped away some rubble so he could properly sit down. Alfred joined him, and looked over to Kiku.

"We should have ran into the clone by now…" Kiku explained. The scanner showed the area of where the clone was tracked, but suddenly its exact location disappeared.

"I'm sure we'll find it! I know we will!" Alfred closed both of his hands together tightly in a form of locked determination.

Kiku lightly covered his mouth with his hand, letting out a small chuckle. Immediately after he looked off to the side with a sudden dark glare. Kiku was sitting crisscrossed, so he put his hands in his lap. "Y-yeah…"

Alfred, taken aback by Kiku's sudden actions, looked over to his friend with a worried face. "Dude, you alright?" he questioned him. Out of nowhere, Kiku seemed…so 'un-Kiku' to Alfred. Kiku didn't respond.

"Kiku…? Kiku!"

Kiku suddenly jumped, snapping back to reality. "A-ah, my apologies! I was thinking about… Something."

Alfred frowned, "Well are you okay? You were kind of just—" Alfred's blue eyes promptly widened in shock. Kiku blinked a couple of times, noticing what had caused Alfred to cut himself off.

"Oh, Alfred dear! Have you come to see me? I knew you would miss me!" There it was. That damn clone.

Alfred gritted his teeth. He reached to his pockets right away, wanting to shoot the thing.

"Alfred, wait!" Kiku quickly motioned at Alfred to halt what he was doing. Instead of unsheathing his katana, Kiku reached into one of his pockets, pulling out a small syringe.

Alfred looked at the item Kiku bared in his hands with a confused face. "Are we supposed to use that on the clone or something?" the clone was letting the two speak for some reason. It didn't seem interested in what they were saying, and it had its arms crossed waiting for them to finish.

Kiku spoke in a softer voice than the usual, hinting to Alfred that he should pipe down. "Yes, I plan on using it on the clone. It should put it to sleep for days and possibly weeks. I need your help by distracting it." Alfred would also have to be careful with what he does. In areas like this, the wrong attention could notice them. Traveling in smaller groups made it a lot easier not to be noticed.

By now the clone was completely impatient. "Oh, come on Alfred dear! Is he your new boyfriend or something? A-are you leaving me?"

"What? N-no—ugh shut the hell up!"

"Alfred."

Alfred looked over to Kiku, giving him a nod. He's the one that should be distracting the clone, not vice-versa.

"Come on Alfred dear, you can't trust that guy more over me, right?"

"You're not the real Arthur! You're a fucking clone!"

At that statement, the fake Arthur simply frowned. "I guess that is so…but don't you want to see the real Arthur? He's alive you know."

Alfred stiffened, causing him to let out a few grunts. Kiku narrowed his eyes. This wasn't going to work. He was probably going to end up in resulting with slashing at the thing until it has injuries to where it can't move for a few seconds. He then would have to strike with the syringe as fast as possible.

"You can also see your little Matthew! They haven't killed him. Yet I should add."

"W-what?" Alfred's guard completely lowered down. "T-they're alive?"

Kiku had unsheathed his katana. "Alfred, don't listen to it. Remember: every word it says is a lie!"

"Oh, really?" the clone shot back. It pulled out a small tablet. Once on, a holograph of Matthew popped up. He was tied up to a pole, and red liquid poured from his forehead. "Uh…" moans that didn't even sound human anymore were escaping Alfred's little brother's mouth. Suddenly the hologram screen went pitch black, and the sound of a bucket being dropped to the ground was heard. A sudden outburst of screams from Matthew echoed to Alfred's ears, causing the blond to gasp in horror. The clone turned off the power of the tablet.

"I probably shouldn't show you what's happening to your Arthur right now. But, both of them can be saved if you come with me right now." the artificial being explained, giving Kiku a cocky grin. That hologram was fake.

"A-Alfred, it's still ly—"

"How could you say that, Kiku? Who knows what the hell they're doing to Matthew and Arthur! Didn't you see- hear what happened to Matthew? They're torturing him! They're going to kill him!"

"Alfred, that hologram was a fake!" Kiku continued to insist on.

"Oh, and what proof do you exactly have that surely shows that was fake?" Alfred could completely see why Kiku had concluded that the footage he had seen about Matthew wasn't real. After all, he was speaking with a clone constructed from their tyrannical government. But would anyone be able to ignore a hologram of their relative or close person being tortured?

Kiku had to stop everything from where it was going! "Alfred, you said you would listen to me earlier, correct? Y-you need to stay here!"

The teen's eyes met directly with the ground. He really wanted to see Matthew and the real Arthur, but even if that hologram was not a fake, would he even be able to see them at all? Alfred sighed. "I did say I would listen to you, so…" Alfred pointed one of his pistols at the clone's head.

The Arthur clone stammered a bit with a grunt. "Fine, fine! I still can't believe you won't trust me Alfred dear! But instead of showing you some holograms, how about something else?" the clone questioned, its tone mockingly growing with a long sinister grin. He pulled out the tablet once again. Before Alfred could even react to its actions, it pressed a different button, kicking away dirt and rubble.

Just what was it doing? The clone was clearing up the area for some reason…like there was something under the ground, or some sort of plate. Plates! "A-Alfred, Alfred, move!"

Alfred's mind had wandered in confusion at the clone. "Huh, what?" almost right after from saying that, the ground beneath them began to rumble.

Kiku quickly grabbed Alfred's wrist, tugging him away from the clone as quickly as he could. Their arrival here was somehow planned, which would have to be figured out later.

'Arthur' just stood there watching them. The same grin kept its spot on his face as Kiku struggled to figure out what they should do.

"I don't understand what's going on!" Alfred exclaimed as Kiku lowered Alfred a bit to cover him.

"Alfred, this is dangerous! There are these plates that…that…" Kiku's face became distraught as a sudden binding came from the ground and around his ankle.

"Alfred, r-run!" Kiku desperately tried shaking the binding that held his ankle free, but it was obvious to him it would never move. Suddenly another binding made itself around Kiku's other ankle. The bindings were an unknown metallic substance. Despite it's hard stern appearance, it also had the ability to bend at certain times. Kiku began swiping his sword at the bindings, but the only thing that helped with was putting small dents in the weapon.

Bang! Alfred didn't listen to Kiku's pleads for him to run. Instead he tried carefully aiming at the bindings, and shooting at them. No luck. The bullets just reflected and landed on the ground. "Damn it, what the hell are these things?"

Kiku frowned. "Alfred, you must leave! I'll get out of these and then catch up with you!" The bindings began to grow taller, rising Kiku to the air. Two more bindings appeared from the ground, rising just to wrap themselves around Kiku's wrists.

"What the hell is happening? Make it stop!" Alfred growled at the clone. In response, 'Arthur' let out a high-pitched cackle.

"'Make it stop!'? But the fun part hasn't even started!"

One more binding grew, this time going around Kiku's neck.

Alfred's eyes grew wide. "You damn—!"

The first binding that went around one of Kiku's ankles had disappeared. That left his leg loosely floating in the air before it began to shake in the midst of panic. It sounded like Kiku was trying to say something, but only muffled gurgling sounds left his mouth from the binding around his neck that barely allowed him to breathe.

Poof. Suddenly the second binding had vanished. Alfred was beginning to panic. "Oh god, oh god what do I do?" Kiku had dropped his katana when the bindings around his wrists appeared. Alfred tried hitting the bottom of the binding around his neck, but that still didn't do anything.

By the looks of it, the bindings on his wrist would disappear, leaving only the one around his neck left. Which meant… No, nothing like that was going to happen! Alfred would make sure of it!

The clone continued to laugh. "How funny that you're till trying to help him! But I guess my Alfred was always determined since he's a 'hero', ha ha!"

One of the bindings around Kiku's wrist disappeared. Kiku immediately tried pulling the one around his neck away, but it wouldn't move it all.

And then the binding on his other wrist disappeared.

"NO!"

Kiku began choking right away, and he wheezed trying to breathe in fully.

"Let him go! Let him go now!" Alfred demanded at the clone. Kiku was still alive! There was still a chance for him to live! Kiku was too high in the air for Alfred to reach.

Kiku tried speaking again as if he had information that was vital for him to know. It just didn't come out. "Al…fred…" Kiku's blue-pale face attempted to do a small happy smile.

"Sh, shh! You'll be alright!" Alfred was going to figure out something. They had a chance! Kiku was still alive—

Snap.

Suddenly Kiku's struggling body struggled no more. The binding around Kiku's neck seemed much lighter, allowing his body to loosely rock back and forth. Kiku's eyes were completely dull; not a single trace of life was left in them.

"No… No! No, no, no, no, no, no!" Alfred's hands deeply dug into his skull as he began tearing out his own hair in complete horror and agony. The Arthur clone that was once laughing at all of this was no longer there. Alfred's legs suddenly felt like a pair of loose screws. He couldn't stand anymore. He dropped to the ground, along with his palms hardly thudding into the ground. Loose hair was falling everywhere, and Alfred let out a yell of complete despair. Tears flooded up in his eyes. Kiku was just alive minutes ago! Minutes… Now what was he to do?

Alfred's only friend left was dead.