"All right," Amelia said, "who's bright idea was it to go through this list alphabetically?"

"Um… It was yours, Amelia-chan."

"And a great idea it is!" Amelia corrected quickly. "I just…um… When I said that, I meant we should go through it backwards, you know? More interesting that way."

"Oh for God's sake, Amelia, let's just go." Rosa gave the American girl a withering look. "And drop the bat."

Amelia stared at her. She tightened her grip on the baseball bat in her hand. "'Drop the bat'? We're about to face unimaginable evil and you want me to get rid of my only means of defence?"

"It's not unimaginable evil, it's just Anya's house. Give me the bat."

"But, Rosie…!"

"Give it here."

"But-!"

"Amelia. The bat. Now."

Reluctantly, Amelia held the bat out. Rosa grabbed it and tossed it into a nearby bush.

"Let's get this over with," Rosa said, already sounding exhausted. She walked down the path leading to the house, with Amelia and Sakura following after some hesitation.

They had been discussing their 'options' at Amelia's house for about half an hour. In the end, she had decided on the alphabetical method, although she didn't seem to realise that would mean they'd be visiting Anya first until it was too late. Why she brought the bat, Rosa didn't want to know.

Amelia has stressed many times through texts that they had to dress casually. According to her, this would make it less likely for anyone to suspect there intentions. Rosa hadn't seen the point in pointing out any flaws in this theory, since Amelia's logic had never seemed very… logical. Why would they have dressed any other way in the first place?

Sakura was still in her school uniform, probably because besides that and some gardening clothes, her wardrobe wasn't exactly inconspicuous. She looked at the other two worriedly and said, "Maybe we should skip Anya-san for now? We can always come back later…"

"I like that I idea," Amelia said eagerly.

"…Really?" Rosa raised an eyebrow. "You do realise that if we do that, it'll be night-time by the time we come back, right?"

The house in front of them was large and old. With the looming dark clouds and the slowly fading day, it looked like something out of a horror movie. It seemed creepy now, but it would be downright terrifying after dark.

"Okay, good point." Amelia sighed. "So…who's going to ring the doorbell?"

They all stared at each other.

"…I-I'll do it," Sakura said quietly, obviously reluctant. The other two did not argue with this decision.

After the button had been pressed, the three of them waited nervously. And waited. And waited. About five minutes had passed without event, and Amelia was starting to grow irritated.

"Hey!" She started hitting the door. "We know you're in there, Anya! Open up!"

Rosa and Sakura were trying to restrain her, pulling the American girl away, when the door suddenly opened.

"Oh? Anya smiled. "Amelia, Rosa and Sakura? What a surprise. Can I help you?"

"Good evening, Anya," Rosa tried to say politely. Amelia had gone into her default reaction of silently scowling at the Russian girl. "Um… Can we come inside?"

Anya seemed a little confused by this. She probably didn't get many visitors, especially if one of them was Amelia.

She held the door open further. "Yes, I see no problem with that. Come in."

The inside of Anya's home was surprisingly bright and… well, normal. Rosa wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but she had to admit that her imagination had been running a little wild before. It was the first time she had laid eyes on the creepy house, how was she supposed to know what was inside?

"Right." Amelia turned to Anya. "We need to talk to you in private."

"What about?"

"Classified information," she replied smoothly. "Just take us somewhere where no civilians can hear us."

Rosa looked at Amelia. A part of her was enjoying this, she could tell.

The Russian girl stared at the other three blankly, but started smiling again and began leading them upstairs. As they climbed, Rosa glanced across the hallway and caught a glimpse of what was possibly the living room. Nikolai, Anya's younger brother, was sitting on a sofa, and there was a middle-aged man with greying hair sitting in an armchair opposite him. The two of them were talking about something Rosa couldn't hear. The two shared the same indigo eyes, so she decided that the man was probably Nikolai and Anya's father, or at least a close relative.

…Huh. That made her wonder, what, exactly, made a couple give birth to a sister/brother/whatever? Did it have anything to do with the family, or was it completely random? And why were so many of them (possibly) in the same place? …Ah, she was already confused enough. She didn't need this too.

Rosa followed the others up the stairs and Anya showed them where her room was. Again, it was surprising normal. The only things there that Rosa actually would have expected were the matryoshka on the windowsill.

"So," Anya said with her unwavering smile, "what did you want to talk about?"

"We'll be asking the questions here, thank you," Amelia countered. She stared at her determinedly with her arms akimbo. "All right, Anya, admit it. You're… You're Russian, aren't you?"

After a moment of surprised silence, Anya laughed. "Da, I am. Although I don't think that was ever a secret."

"Stop changing the subject!" Amelia regarded her, still in interrogation mode. "…Rosie, help me out here," she said. "I don't know what else to ask."

Rosa sighed. "Okay then, Anya…" she started hesitantly. For some reason, she began thinking about what Anya had said in the nurse's office. It was strange how everyone was either scared of her or (like Amelia) hostile towards her. Even Sakura was dithering in the doorway, torn between being with her friends or staying in the hall, where she believed it was safe. Was it because Anya was (possibly) Russia's sister? Did Russia have this kind of situation with the other countries?

"…Yes?" Rosa was snapped out of her thoughts. She realised, embarrassedly, that she had started spacing out without even finishing her question. Everyone was staring at her.

Her cheeks rapidly flushing red, Rosa stuttered, "D-do you have strange dreams?"

"'Strange dreams?'" Anya put her head to one side. "You'll have to be more specific; doesn't everyone have strange dreams sometimes?"

"I meant…" Rosa bit her lip. How was she supposed to explain this? "I meant, do you ever have dreams about war? Or maybe, do you dream that you're in a very familiar place, even though you're positive you've never been there before?"

"A-and," Sakura spoke up, surprising her two friends, "do you ever know something, maybe about your own country, that you shouldn't know? It might be trivial or very important, but do you suddenly know something that you would never have learnt?"

Anya frowned. "I…"

"'Cause if you do," Amelia said, her antagonistic demeanour dropping slightly, "then we're all kind of in the same boat. You see, we're all like that, and we're looking for others like us. We also have an explanation for it all, although it's a little weird and you might not believe it…"

"…So," Anya said, "what Rosa and Sakura just described… You are all like this?"

"Yes."

Silence slowly filled the room, heavy and seemingly heavy. Anya's expression was unreadable, and her voice sounded oddly flat when she finally spoke.

"No," she said. "I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about. What you are saying has nothing to do with me."

-Chapter end.

Sorry it's taken me so long to update :( School was being school… However, my summer holidays have started, so I was able to write ^0^ My aim is to write a chapter of something every day XD Today it was this XD

Like I said, I'm sorry it's taken so long, but I hope this is okay :) Please review and tell me what you think ^_^