Aarrgghh. Sorry I dropped off of the face of the Earth, if anyone cares. It was just stuff like writers block, junior olympics, procrastination, you know. The usual kind of thing. But I'm back! Now I'm going to try and update once every week, but I'm not sure if that'll happen. I'm going to try though. Anyways, here's the next chapter! (Oh, and if you get confused with the names they're at the bottom).
A pair of sharp eyes glinted in the darkness, illuminated only by the harsh glow of the monitor. A small smirk appeared on the lips of a man who sat in front of the screen.
"Sir?" asked a voice from the darkness, wondering what had happened.
"Roderich, what do you want, aru?" replied the man in the chair.
"If you don't mind my asking, but what has happened with the plan?" asked Roderich from the shadows.
"Our little flower has found out that we framed her for her siblings' deaths, aru," said the man, rising from his seat.
"Yao," said a third voice, sharply. "This puts the whole operation in danger. Get rid of them now!"
"Wang. Jia. Long," said Yao, slowly saying the name of the third voice. "What fun would the game be, if there were no pawns?"
"Sir-"
"Yao! The Finn just died and now the Swede has gone mad!" screeched another voice, running from somewhere deeper in the building.
"Yong Soo! Jia Long! Go get rid of him before he messes anything up!" ordered Yao sharply. The two ran off into the shadows to dispose of the now useless Swede.
"Sir, if the girl knows we framed her, won't she be suspicious of an outer group having motives for all of this?" inquired a feminine voice.
"Xiao Mei, as I told your brother, every game needs pieces to move and dispose of," replied Yao.
"But-"
"How will we ever avenge the death of Sakura unless we make her killers suffer like we did?" snapped Yao, rising from his seat.
"Come. It is time we observed the movements the others," intervened Roderich, trying to keep a full-blown argument from happening.
"Fine. We need to see how those killers are doing. Those damned Bondeviks."
Natalia gasped and fell to her knees, her lead knife clattering to the floor beside her. "Big brother, big brother. I'm all alone, big brother. You're gone now. . . I'm so lonely big brother," Natalia was sobbing on the floor, rocking back and forth.
"Hey mom, she doesn't seem like she would've wanted to kill her brother," said Peter, watching Natalia.
But Arthur was distracted by the sudden appearance of another being. He was dressed identically to Natalia, and when Arthur concentrated on him, he could see through him.
"She did not kill me or Katyusha. That other organization did, da?" said the man.
"Who are you?" demanded Arthur, watching the man closely.
"Oh, he can see me! That is good, da? I am Ivan Braginsky. Natalia's older brother," replied Ivan.
Natalia was too busy sobbing on the floor to notice Arthur talking to something she couldn't see and Peter was just spacing out like he usually did when he couldn't find anything else to do.
"What do you mean by 'that other organization'?" asked Arthur.
"The group of people that killed my older sister and myself. I think they're after something else, though," said Ivan, watching his sister on the floor.
"Big brother, big brother. I would never hurt big brother. I loved him!" sobbed Natalia.
"Do you know who they are or what they want?" asked Arthur, watching Ivan closely.
"Da. I watched them for a while after my death. They are known as the Crimson Dragons. A large crime group mostly in Asia, da?" replied Ivan.
"Do you know what they want? It seems like they were just using your sister as a cover for something," said Arthur, pondering what it could be.
"They believe that their sister was killed by a pair of brothers and they want revenge. Though I do not know the brothers' names, da?" said Ivan.
"Did those brothers actually do anything?" Arthur said, beginning to feel as if this was much bigger than a simple murder.
"Nyet. I watched them as well. It seems as though a greater force is at work here, da?" replied Ivan simply.
"I see. . ." said Arthur. His mind began to race as he though about who could have done something like this. A plan with this many layers, so much happening at once. It had to be a huge organization. But where was the motivation in all of this?
"Who are you talking to?" asked Peter, watching his 'mom'.
Arthur blanched. There was no way his son would believe him if he said he was speaking to a ghost. He would think he was going mad.
Natalia looked up for a moment, saying, "Big brother, you always seemed so sad big brother. I wanted to make you happy. Big brother, big brother, I've been so lonely!"
"Who's that guy?" asked Peter, staring straight at Ivan.
"Oh, so this one can see me too?" asked Ivan, clearly amused.
"You! Whom are you speaking to?" asked Natalia, her eyes still full of tears.
"Erm. . . well. . . I am speaking to Ivan, you're elder brother," replied Arthur.
"Tell her I only want for her to be happy, da?" said Ivan, a shadow crossing over his childlike face.
"Big brother! Why did you have to leave me big brother?" sobbed Natalia, tears fresh in her eyes.
"Umm. . . well, Ivan says to tell you 'I only want for you to be happy'. So I believe that this is not really necessary anymore," said Arthur, nodding at the ropes binding himself and Peter.
Natalia just nodded and shakily cut their bonds with the lead knife.
"Tell my sister that if she really wishes for me to be at peace is for her to be happy, da? Also tell her that this killing, that it was not necessary. Seeing those people together did not make me sad, it merely made me want to live and to fight even more for a better life," said Ivan, watching his sister closely.
"Ms. Arlovskaya, your brother wishes me to tell you 'If you really want me to be at peace, then be happy. Also that the killing was not necessary and that seeing those people together did not make me sad, merely made me want to live and fight even more for a better life'," said Arthur, not quite sure what to make of his situation as he sat rubbing his wrists where the ropes had previously been.
Natalia wiped off her eyes and said, "Big brother, where are you? I wish I could see you once more, big brother. I'm so sorry! I've been trying to make you happy all theses years big brother, but I was doing the wrong thing! I'm sorry!" She burst into tears once again.
"Natalia. . . You do not need to be sorry, da? Just help fix this mess," said Ivan with a sad smile as he watched his little sister cry her heart out.
"Big brother?" asked Natalia, her eyes huge. She looked around frantically, searching for the source of the voice.
"Natalia, help fix this mess, da?" repeated Ivan.
"D-da," replied Natalia, trembling.
"Where is he?" asked Alfred impatiently, pacing back and forth on the cold stone tiles that covered the main lobby of the Empire State building.
"Most likely drunk, lost or simply late," replied Inspector Bondevik coldly.
"And why did we have to meet him here? Why not closer to where my family is?" demanded Alfred angrily.
"He would agree to meet us in no other place but here. We didn't have much of a choice," replied Emil with an apologetic smile.
Alfred sighed and continued pacing. He hated this. Waiting, wondering what was happening to his family. The pity in Emil's eyes when he thought he wasn't looking.
The revolving door shuddered as a man stumbled through it and fell on his face as soon as he entered the lobby. He immediately jumped up and walked over to the three men waiting near the front desk.
His hair was a dirty blond, and it was wildly sticking up all over his head. His blue eyes sparkled madly as his face lit up with a huge grin that could only be described as insane.
"Lu-lu! It's been so long since we last had some drinks!" exclaimed the man, slightly swaying as he stood I front of the cold-eyed Inspector.
"Doesn't look like that," muttered Alfred as the man swayed so violently he had to catch himself on a huge axe that he was carrying.
"Do not call me that," snapped Inspector Bondevik, his blue eyes flaming.
"Inspector," warned Emil, standing between the two men. "Densen, we did not call you out here for a social visit."
"Oh that's right, you wanted the location of the entrance to that secret-like base under that Ground Zero or whatever," said Andersen, somewhat slurring his words.
"That is correct," replied the Inspector coldly.
"Well, since Em-em here paid for all m'drinks last time around, I'll give it to you, 'cuz I'm just that great," said Andersen, pulling out a small piece of paper from his red and black coat.
Alfred snatched the paper from Andersen's hand as soon as the words were out of his mouth.
"That there, that piece o' paper. That's some dangerous info," said Andersen waving his hand at the paper that Alfred was holding. "Well, since that's all ya wanted I'll be going now." Andersen stumbled back out the revolving door and into the street and disappeared back into the crowd.
"So where's the location of the entrance?" inquired Emil.
"It says that it's hidden beneath the flagstones of St. Paul's Churchyard, where one would exit to visit the graves," replied Alfred.
"Ingenious," muttered the Inspector to himself. "To hide the entrance to such a place in plain sight, where people walk every day and most likely one of the last places we would be expected to look."
"Well come on! We have to go!" exclaimed Alfred as he raced out of the building and onto the sidewalk.
He was soon followed by the two brothers. "There's so much traffic," stated Emil, looking out at the sea of cars, each one hardly moving and all of the drivers quite irritated.
Alfred looked around him and saw a bike rack. "Let's just borrow some of those!"
"We can't just take someone's bike," said Emil dubiously.
"This is a matter of life and death! Do what you want, but I'm going!" yelled Alfred, racing to the bikes and grabbing one that didn't have a lock.
Alfred pulled the bike around and started pedaling as he hard as he could, not waiting to see if the two brothers would follow or not.
"Alfred wait! Let us catch up!" yelled Emil as he and his brother grabbed some bikes.
"What?" yelled back Alfred, as he hadn't heard the first time. He turned around this time to make sure he would hear what the officer had to say.
"Aaaggghhh!" screamed a familiar voice as Alfred felt his bike slam into something or, more precisely someone.
Alfred braced himself for the impact with the ground as the bike toppled over.
Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. God! This is the second time to-" started Gilbert as he sat up, looking to see who had hit him.
"You!" shouted both of them at the same time.
"I swear to God, you and your shitty driving are screwed this time!" yelled Gilbert punching Alfred in the stomach.
"Shit. . . lemme. . . go. . . already," panted Alfred, backing away slowly.
"Not again you bastard! This is the second fu-" began Gilbert as he grabbed the front of Alfred's jacket.
Now he was twitching on the ground, Emil standing behind him with a Taser still pointed at him.
"Thanks," said Alfred, clutching his stomach as he regained his breath.
"No problem, he looked like and asshole anyway," replied Emil, picking up both of the fallen bikes. Inspector Bondevik stayed at a distance, clearly waiting to get moving again.
"Let's go," said Alfred, mounting his bike once again and pedaling off towards the churchyard.
When the three of them reached the entrance to the church, Alfred chucked his bike on the edge of the sidewalk and hurried inside. Even though the sun was beginning to set, it was still open to latecomers.
Alfred shuddered as he walked through the church, feeling as if the eyes from all of the statues and paintings were following him. He also imagined that he was hearing a voice that whispered to him, "They're near. They need your assistance, da?"
The two brothers followed Alfred slowly and cautiously, both of them taking in their surroundings as they went. They saw only an average church, nothing to tip them off that the entrance to a secret base was hidden somewhere near.
Alfred found the back exit leading towards the graves and walked through it. When he saw all of the tombstones he shuddered, but stayed calm. Looking beneath his feet, he saw a couple very large flagstones.
Kneeling down, he slowly tapped each one. The first was a solid thunk-sound. The result was the same with the second. Slowly working his way over to the side, Alfred kept tapping the ground.
On the flagstone farthest away from the street, Alfred tapped once again. But this time had a different result. When Alfred banged his fist against the hard stone, instead of a solid noise, there was a hollow echoing.
He had found the entrance to where his family was being held.
Soooo yeah. . . names. You all know who Yao and Roderich are. Probably. Wang Jia Long is Hong Kong. Im Yong Soo is South Korea. Xiao Mei is Taiwan. Hope this helped some!