Alfred could feel the atmosphere sink almost instantly as Alfred stood back and watched Gilbert as he inspected the video, recoiling in shock at the state of Feliciano, before seeing the footage taken from the office security camera.
"FUCKING BASTARDS!" Gilbert snapped as he slammed his fist onto the desk, making it shake and Yao recoil in surprise. "FUCKING—AHH!"
"What do we do now?" Arthur asked as he crossed his arms over his chest and frowned, trying to mask the anxiety that boiled underneath his skin.
Gilbert glanced at Kiku, who quietly shook his head, before Gilbert turned to look at Alfred and Arthur, "we have to set up a state of emergency… regulate all airports and points of entry, detonate any unclaimed baggage anywhere in the city, alert the Prime Minister, bump up security at all popular locations, get the royal family out of London and notify all police to carry hidden gas masks…"
After his commands, Gilbert followed Kiku into his office and made sure that the door was shut behind them before Gilbert turned to speak.
"Do we have enough evidence to make an arrest?" Kiku asked.
"Not a conviction, perhaps if we hire Lovino he can get us a convicting case. I'll speak to Lovino and show him what we have, he can tell us whether we have enough for him to work with. I think we have enough to perform an arrest, but we need a little more time. Just let them make one more mistake and we can have them for good." Gilbert explained. "Vash was a great help: he recognised the voice."
"Perfect…" Kiku replied, "we just need to get them before they detonate another gas bomb, that's the trick… we can't alert them into thinking that we're onto them, otherwise this entire operation will be destroyed."
"I'll explain everything to Arthur and Alfred, you should check for any other irregularities in our security system, that can't be the only camera they've hacked into…" Gilbert muttered as his eyes wandered beyond Kiku, and to the security camera that sat in the corner of his office. "We'll speak later…"
Kiku's eyes narrowed, understanding the reasoning behind Gilbert's suspicion. Before Kiku could reply, the door to Gilbert's office opened and Ludwig wandered in, with his hands tightened into fists.
The physical toll that the case had on the younger German was obvious, his hair wasn't perfectly pushed back, his eyes were dragged from the countless sleepless nights, and his lips were cracked and dry and Gilbert felt his heart sink when he saw his little brother in such a low state. It was obvious: Ludwig was on the verge of having an emotional breakdown.
"Gilbert…" Ludwig muttered as he shuffled to stand beside his brother, wearing a hurt expression. Gilbert sighed, assuming what Ludwig was going to say. "I am not backing out of my promise; we're going to get him back: at least we know that they haven't killed him."
"I know, but…" Ludwig muttered as he held out his hand and opened his palm, revealing a set of motorcycle keys, "Let me go. I found them once, I will do it again."
Gilberts eyes narrowed as he considered the situation, before chuckling, "just don't go rouge on me, ok? Don't disappear; let me know where you are."
"Wait…" Kiku muttered, "I think I have an idea…"
Meanwhile, Arthur was still in a state of shock from the revelation, "they've been watching us the entire time…" Arthur's heart sank as the fact weighed him down as he glanced at Alfred and saw the Americans blank expression behind his rectangular frames. Alfred noticed Arthur staring at him, he wanted to smile at the Englishman and tell him that everything was going to be ok: but somehow he knew that it wasn't going to help, he couldn't just tell Arthur that everything was going to be ok: he needed to make it happen. Despite the pain in his eyes, Arthur's stare still made Alfred's heart flutter, like he was a nervous teenager again; it made him calm despite the panic of the people around them.
Before Alfred could say anything, the door to Gilbert's office opened and Ludwig stormed out, his eyes frenzied with rage.
"Ludwig!" Gilbert snapped, like a parent scolding a child, as Kiku snuck out of Gilbert's office and walked towards Yao, trying his best to ignore the intense atmosphere of the room, "Just because this is a state of emergency, it does not give you the right to act outside of the law, there are rules for us to follow!"
"How can you keep talking about the rules, how would you feel if it was Elizabeta on that tape?! You'd have the fucking army going after her!" Ludwig snapped.
"Don't act like I'm indifferent, Feliciano was my friend too!"
"He's more than a friend for me, you have no idea what I'm going through!" Ludwig snapped, "I can't just sit back and wait for answers: I need to find him before they do something else to him!"
Gilbert gritted his teeth as his eyes narrowed, "if you don't stop this, I will have no choice but to take you off the case!"
"Fine: I don't care!" Ludwig snapped as he turned around to face Gilbert, stopping in front of Yao's desk where the Chinaman sat in confusion and fear, gritting his teeth Ludwig's eyes narrowed, "take me off of the case: I'll get more done then!"
Gilbert hissed, "Fine then! If you're going to behave like a fucking child, then go!"
"Oh, and another thing; if you want to send agents to babysit me, let them know that I still have my gun!" Ludwig snapped.
"You little shit—" Before Gilbert could even take a step closer, Ludwig turned around and marched out of the office, leaving Gilbert standing by the door to his office, trying his best to remain composed.
Alfred glanced at Arthur whose eyes were wide with shock, "What just happened…?"
Gilbert was seething with rage as his hands tightened into fists, before he looked to Yao with a look so sharp, it made the Chinaman shake, before turning back into his office and slammed the door shut, with the slam echoing through the office.
"We need to focus on finding out how they got our security footage," Kiku explained.
"Do you think they hacked in?" Yao asked.
Kiku narrowed his eyes as he stared down at Yao, "I'm not sure about that…" Yao's eyes narrowed in response, as though wondering what Kiku was suggesting.
"Well, what can we do? Ludwig's gone rouge again!" Yao pointed out.
"Although, he has a point: we shouldn't be sitting around reviewing footage, we should be out in the field, tracking them down manually," Alfred pointed out.
"That's not how we do things over here, we use more peaceful methods," Arthur pointed out, "Although, I cannot deny that our lack of action is… odd…"
Alfred glanced at Arthur to see the Brit deep in thought before he whispered, "something is really wrong." Arthur glanced at Alfred, "meet me in my office, I'll join you soon."
Alfred nodded as he walked into Arthur's office and wandered around the small office, suddenly being rocked by the pounding pain in his head. The day's events had momentarily taken his concentration away from the pain, but now that he was alone in silence, he could focus on nothing but it. Alfred gritted his teeth as he ran his hand through his hair, cursing himself for the lack of peaceful sleep. Despite his own desperate attempts at self-reassurance, Alfred couldn't help but wonder whether there was something else that caused his headache…
"No… it's not that…" Alfred muttered, pushing away his anxieties. However… he couldn't deny the timing, or the dream, "it's not… I wasn't exposed for that long…"
Alfred could feel his shoulder's start to fall heavy, as his eyes widened and his mind echoed the noises of internal conflict. He took sharp breathes as he leaned against the dark wooden desk for support; he glanced down at his hands and noted their paleness, compared to the rest of his tanned body. He tightened his hands into fists as he tried to not panic, and only reminded himself that he is having a headache because he did not get a proper sleep, and he did not get a good sleep because he was in shock over the events that happened during the day – it does not mean that I.V.A.N has poisoned him.
Alfred rocked forward and hovered his hand over the table, only to gasp when a drop of crimson liquid land on the table, making Alfred freeze with shock and horror.
"Wh…" Alfred gasped as he ran his hand across his nostrils, spreading the red substance over his fingers, "no… no-no-no…." Alfred began to panic as he searched Arthur's desk for something to wipe his nose with and silently prayed that he wasn't going to make a mess as he felt the blood begin to drip off of the tip of his nose. "Oh thank fuck…" Alfred sighed when he saw a small packet of tissues in Arthur's top drawer and wiped his nose desperately, collecting the blood that ran from his nose. Alfred sighed when he checked the tissue, to see that the blood loss wasn't bad, leaving only a pathetic skid mark on the tissue.
"Not today, Braginski, not today."
Alfred spent the rest of the day in a perpetual state of internal panicking, struggling to find the answer to his ailment that did not point to that poisonous gas…
Arthur couldn't help but notice that something was bothering Alfred, however, he knew that if he did ask, Alfred would give him some bullshit excuse. Arthur knew, it was I.V.A.N raging havoc over the body of his new American partner, and Arthur wasn't going to sit back and let the poison win.
Nonetheless, Gilbert made Alfred's care Arthur's responsibility, and so he was in charge of making sure that Alfred attended hospital appointments. Ironically; Gilbert suggested that Alfred stay at Arthur's house, which made Arthur only chuckle over the fact that the lad hadn't spent a night in his own apartment since Ludwig first went rouge.
Arthur even had to fight off the urge to laugh out loud when Gilbert pointed out that Ludwig had told him that 'you and Agent Jones got along well', only for Arthur to reply with 'you have no idea'.
"Oh my god, did you tell him?" Alfred gasped upon Arthur's explanation as he gripped the hospital seat in excitement. Arthur crossed his arms over his shoulders as he frowned at the American, wondering when the doctor was going to show up to commence Alfred's check-up.
"What? That we sleep together?" Arthur asked, "Of course not, it's none of his business."
"You're not really into making friends at work, are you?" Alfred asked.
"Aren't you the exception?" Arthur asked.
"You know… now that I think about it… not that I don't enjoy spending the night with you, but perhaps we can try a little harder to turn this into a relationship," Alfred proposed.
"Heh," Arthur chuckled, "I suppose that's fair, say… After your appointment, why don't we go and do something nice, take our minds off of everything?"
Alfred eyes widened with hope as his cheeks flushed a bright pink, "oh you…"
"Although… I should explain to you what else Gilbert told me… about the case…" Arthur muttered.
"Oh?"
"Kiku and Gilbert have been working on another case on the side, and they believe that they've figured out who the kidnapper is. It's just about getting the right amount of evidence before pouncing on them, and they've got to do it before the next I.V.A.N attack."
"Really? They know who it is?" Alfred asked, "why haven't we got them in handcuffs yet?!"
"It's more complicated than that. But then again, they're only a suspect, there are still more questions and coincidences that need to be answered for. They're—"
Arthur was interrupted when there was a knock on the doctor's office, and a tall man in a white coat wandered in, holding a clipboard under his arm. "Agent Jones?"
"Yup!" Alfred chirped.
"Great to see that you're chipper, I can't say the same for the other people who were at the theatre," the doctor explained with a sigh, "It's gotten much worse, I'm afraid… Let's hope that you're going to stay better…"
It was a poison, and the doctor knew that it was present in Alfred, however they could not say how severely… According to the doctor, the patients are getting worse and more and more die. However, he did not fear the worst for Alfred, as his exposure was minimal: and he was still walking.
Alfred and Arthur walked out of the hospital, arm and arm, speaking discreetly about Gilbert and Kiku's discovery, pondering over the possibility of the suspect being the kidnapper.
They also pondered about their night, and where their adventure will lead them, that was until Arthur's phone began to ring loudly as Alfred and Arthur walked towards Arthur's care.
"Oh no…" Arthur muttered as he stared at his ringing phone, "it's gilbert, he only calls me when something is wrong, or he needs me."
Alfred frowned, his face writhe with his clear disappointment, "It's ok… we can do something tomorrow night."
"We'll make it a date, hm?" Alfred chuckled.
Arthur couldn't help but smile as he answered the phone call, before he could say anything, he was cut off by Gilbert's heavy breathing.
"Get to Kiku's house, now! I'll send you the address!"
Arthur frowned, confused and unnerved by Gilbert's panic, "Gilbert, breathe, what is going on?"
"It's Kiku… He's dead."