Hey everyone! I'm really sorry for the late update! I've been really busy lately, so haven't had time to write much. At least it's the holidays now, which means that I should have more time on my hands.

Thank you to TransparentRuler and AmethystFairy1 for reviewing the previous chapter! It's loads of fun reading them! :)Quite a lot of new characters introduced this chapter, but we're getting somewhere:

Arthur Kirkland: England

Jeff Brown: Australia

Louise Costa: Monaco

Sadiq Adnan: Turkey

Gupta Muhammad Hassan: Egypt

Lee Chen: Macau

Warnings: swearing, mentions of blackmail, gambling and bribing

Constructive criticism is always welcomed!

Please enjoy!

Chapter 6

It had been a week since Lukas had arrived at the Isle, and he was slowly mingling with the other patrollers. Tino had insisted he stayed in the Palace, mainly so the nurse could keep an eye on his injuries. As a result, Mathias had taken the newcomer under his wing, much to the Norwegian's disappointment.

As for Gilbert, life was back to its normal routine: patrolling and pissing off Roderich. Right now, however, he was making the most of a rare two-person patrol consisting of Elizaveta and himself. This meant that he could spend some time with his childhood friend and have fun.

"Race you to the nearest village!" the Hungarian called, urging her stallion into a gallop.

"You're on!"

They both charged along the path, overtaking each other, shouting and laughing. Once they reached the small settlement, they slowed to a walk. And then the argument started.

"I won!"

"No, you didn't! I won!"

"Yeah right! The Awesome me was a mile in front of you!"

They burst out laughing, exchanging playful punches and jabs. Their fun was interrupted, however, by a young man with sandy blond hair, emerald-green eyes and the bushiest eyebrows in the world. He was frowning and opened his mouth to complain. Quickly, before he could utter a word, the brown-haired woman spoke up.

"Hello, Arthur! Nice day, isn't it?" she smiled pleasantly.

"Yes, it is, actually. A lot different from last week's storm," the Englishman agreed, "besides that, though, I heard you have a new resident in the Palace. Have you showed him around town yes?"

"No, he's quite reclusive. We don't see him much," Elizaveta admitted.

"In that case, why don't I take him for a walk someday?"

Gilbert just stared. Arthur Kirkland, the grumpiest person in the world, was offering his help? Was the world ending or something? Obviously the Brit realised this, as his cheeks turned red and he looked away.

"If you really want to know, the fae have been bugging to meet him," he huffed.

Both patrollers exchanged a glance, trying their best to stifle their laughter. Arthur was a bit crazy, going on and on about fairies, unicorns and flying bunnies. Generally, these "creatures" didn't like people, but every now and then, they would "ask" to "meet" someone. This was generally an awkward experience for those involved.

"Those unawesome fairies don't even exist! You just want to see the new guy, who is unawesomely boring may I add!" Gilbert rolled his eyes.

"Just because great brutes like you can't see them doesn't mean they don't exist," Arthur retorted, thoroughly exasperated.

"Whatever you say, unawesome loser! Come on, Liz, let's go."

Without waiting for a response, the albino turned away. Liz sighed but followed him, bidding the Brit a polite farewell as she went. The two continued their round of the town, checking that the residents were happy. However, the German man was distracted.

Ever since Lukas had asked him whether they were part of the Army, he had been wondering what it was. The way the foreigner had said it made it sound like it was common knowledge, so why didn't anyone in the Isle know about it?

As they finished their patrol, Liz suddenly changed direction, heading towards the sandy beach.

"Oi, Liz, you're going the wrong way!" Gilbert called over to her.

"No, I'm not. We're going to the beach," she retorted firmly.

Hearing that commanding tome, he realised that she wanted to talk about something. Confused, he followed her.

Once they were finally at the beach, the Hungarian dismounted and tied her stallion's reins to a nearby tree branch before sitting down on the sand. The albino quickly did the same.

"Well? What is it?" he sighed.

"Shouldn't that be my line?" the brown-haired woman replied, amused.

"Huh?"

"You've been distracted lately. What's on your mind?"

Despite her casual tone, her green eyes shone with worry. Being one of the only girls in the Patrol Unit, she had become a mother or big sister of some sorts to everyone there. However, this meant that she would often worry about them all.

Although he'd never admit it out loud, Gilbert was touched by her concern. After all, even though they often fought, they did appreciate each other. The albino even hoped that she liked him more than that.

"Have you ever heard of the Army?"

"What do you mean? An army is simply a country's first line of defence. Even a moron like you knows that."

"No, with a capital A. The Army. Lukas mentioned it."

"With a capital A…? I've never heard of it. Why don't you ask Lukas about it, if he was the one to bring it up?" Elizaveta frowned.

"You think he'd actually tell me? That unawesome newbie is even more antisocial than Kiku was when he first got here!" Gilbert laughed.

"Gil! He's only just arrived! It's normal for him to be nervous and stay away from us!" the green-eyed lady huffed exasperatedly.

"Alfie wasn't like that. Neither were Matie, Toni or Francey-Pants."

The young woman grimaced and gave him a look. Yeah… Probably not the best examples.

The Hungarian shook her head and smiled.

"Give him time to open up. Then ask him. I'm sure that whatever it is, it's nothing for us to worry about," she stood up.

"I guess so…"

He wasn't convinced. If it was nothing to worry about, then why had the Norwegian hesitated in giving them his name? Why had he arrived covered in injuries? And that pin… Eduard was still looking into it, but they were both practically certain it was a communication device. If that was the case, then why did Lukas need one? What exactly was he hiding from the rest of the Patrollers?

Suddenly, Liz smacked him on the head.

"I told you to stop worrying, you idiot. It'll be no fun winning the race if your head is in the clouds," she teased him.

"Oi! I'll beat your unawesome backside any day!" Gilbert immediately jumped to his feet.

As the two raced back to the Palace, his concerns faded softly into the back of his mind. Liz was right in a way. There was nothing he could do about it now. He would just have to wait.

In the Resistance's HQ, the entire first branch was up and at it. The organisation was split into several branches, although only Lukas knew who everyone was. The other members only knew fighters of their own branch, and maybe the odd one or two from different sections. This was set up in order to prevent the whole organisation being shut down if one member was caught.

Sitting around a long glass table, the higher ranking members were staring at each other. It had been an entire week since they had started analysing Lukas's papers, and so far, there had been no progress. Wendy and Charles had been looking up ways to negotiate with India, but had come up with nothing that would work.

Exasperated, they had called upon the higher ranking members of the first branch in order to find a solution.

"So, here's the situation: On the 3rd of October, Norway, Lukas Steilsson, went on a mission alongside the Lady and Iceland, Emil Steilsson. However, they were ambushed. Whilst the Lady and Iceland were arrested by the Army, Norway vanished from our radar. A few days later, on the 10th of October, Thailand, Theo Wattana, and myself broke into his house in order to protect valuable objects. There, we found these papers. The team I'd assigned to analysing them and working out what they mean has made no progress, so we came up with the idea to ask ex-Resistance member Diev Bachchan, old code name India, to translate them, as he's a language expert. Unfortunately, we believe that he has allied himself with the Army, so any information we receive will be given to them as well," Wendy explained.

All around her, the operatives were thinking over what she had just told them. Charles looked exhausted, but shot her a supportive smile from the other side of the table. All around him, the other members of the translating group were trying their best to appear alert, but were failing. Marco was dozing off on Ladonia's shoulder, and Molossia kept on yawning. The Australian was also tired, the sleepless nights taking their toll on her as well, but had to stay awake for everyone else's sake.

"This isn't a very happy drawing, is it?"

Directly opposite her, Russia was looking over the drawing of the mole. He wore a small smile on his face, one of his unnerving ones. Ivan was one of the most dangerous operatives, skilled in the art of blackmail and torture, yet appearing as innocent as a five-year-old.

"We believe it to represent the fear that we have a mole in our organisation."

Chaos exploded after her sentence. The only calm members being Belarus, who had originally pointed it out to Wy, Russia, who had probably been told by his younger sister and Wy's team.

"Shouldn't Turkey know about this mole? After all, he is working a double-agent in the Army," Macau, a soft-spoken young man, looked over to the mask-bearer.

"I've told 'ya before. I'm not ranked high enough yet to know who's sent where. I've only just come back from my mission in America, so I'm a bit out of the know with what's goin' on," the dark-skinned man rolled his eyes.

Turkey, or Sadiq Adnan, had joined the Resistance when it had first formed. Back then, the Head had ordered him to infiltrate the Army, so that they could have an idea of what their enemies were up to. Despite his long time there, however, he failed to climb many ranks due to an incident a few years ago. He had been ordered to prevent a group of people fleeing to a safe-island, but he had helped one escape. This had caused the entire force to lose trust in him.

"How can we be sure we have a mole in our ranks?" Monaco, a lady in charge of the Resistance's finances, spoke up.

"How else would the Army know where to set an ambush?" Belarus shot back, her voice icy.

"Calm down, mates, there's no need to start a fight," Australia interrupted.

Wendy shot him a grateful glance. The Australian wasn't the best fighter or negotiator, but he was supportive and helpful which made him more useful than he looked.

"Australia is right. If we do have a mole in our ranks, then fighting amongst ourselves won't solve anything. What would help, though, was if we could make sense of these papers. Does anyone know how we can negotiate with India?" the shorter girl nodded in her senior's direction.

There was silence as everyone pondered the question. It was Monaco who decided to speak.

"We could blackmail him. We know a good deal about him, maybe something that would ruin his reputation?" she suggested, "of course, if that doesn't work, we could just bribe him. We have the money."

"That could work… Any other suggestions?"

Russia was the next to raise his hand.

"We could beat him to a pulp if he refuses to co-operate," he beamed.

Pretty much everyone simply looked around nervously. Wendy forced a smile, even though she was sweating.

"Maybe as a last resort. Um… anyone got any legal solutions?" she laughed nervously.

"Why are ya so caught up in the bastard? There must be other translators in the world," Turkey pointed out.

His eyes were concealed by his mask, but judging by the tone of his voice, he was displeased by the thought of having to depend on a traitor. Especially when he had been around when said traitor had betrayed them all.

"Do you know anyone, then?" Belarus challenged him.

"Well, actually, know that you mention i'… There's this kid in my bunk. He's always got his nose in a book and he studies ancient languages, so maybe he could help us."

Wendy thought about it. Since India had betrayed them in the past, there was no reason to trust him with keeping Lukas's notes secret. However, they had no idea who this kid Turkey mentioned was.

"I'm assuming he's a member of the Army?" Lee raised his eyebrows.

"Yep! Bu' I feel we can trust him. I mean, he hasn't ever spoken to me or anything, but he seems trustworthy, if ya know wha' I mean."

And that was why the Turk wasn't entrusted with important missions. Most of the assembly was gazing at him in disdain or disbelief. Before anyone could suggest anything else, Wendy spoke up.

"Unless you can be sure he isn't loyal to the Army, then no. I'm sorry, but we can't risk anything."

"At least he isn' a traitor!" the mask-bearer protested angrily.

"And that is why we're going to blackmail or bribe him. Everyone, try to find as much information about India as you can. If anyone finds anything useful, tell Monaco. Since it was her idea and she's better at gambling than we are, I'm asking her to take over," the Australian glanced over at their finance manager.

"It would be my pleasure," the long-haired lady smiled politely.

"Good. Now that that's sorted, meeting adjourned."

Sadiq Adnan, aka Turkey, stormed through the soldiers' quarters that evening, fuming in anger. They were trusting India? The same guy who killed her? Were they out of their mind? If Lukas were here, then he'd talk sense into them!

As he slammed his room's door, his roommate lifted his head from the book he was reading. Gupta Muhammad Hassan was believed by most to be mute. He had never spoken to anyone, not even to the officers. Despite this, he was a capable soldier and Sadiq considered him a friend.

The Egyptian turned back to his book.

"What're ya readin'?" the Turk tried to read the back, but it was written in some strange language he couldn't understand.

No answer. The brown-eyed boy continued to read. Leaving him be, Sadiq removed his mask and collapsed onto the top bunk. He was tired, annoyed and fed up. He might as well sleep.

"Night," he grumbled.

Unnoticed, his roommate gave him a small smile and a nod in reply.