And Welcome back to the second chapter of Hold Onto Me! *claps claps* What, no one's clapping for me? -.- *sighs*

Annsmi – Thanks a lot for your review! I love SpaBel too! Yeah the girl below also wanted VietChi. It's one of my OTP too, but I figured that Russia would want someone too care after, and RoChu is not bad either. But I'll look into it. What's a story without some Yaoi? 8D

Hiyorin – :D Your review is just love. We share the same OTPs (well except AusMona and IceLiech, I prefer AusHun and ItaLiech xD) but anyways, Thanks!

Otori Kyouya – Thanks! I don't ship AmeViet that much, and already since I've made America's history, so most probably it will be brotherly like or past lovers or something like that. But anyway thanks again!

Mi3star – AusHun? YAY! *dances around* XDD pfft, sorry . PruHun is onesided, but AusHun is complete! Well HongTai can't be helped, sorry. D:

ThaiViet? Hmm, will think into it. Thanks :D

Disclaimer - I not own Hetalia. Derp.

The next thing she knew after she regained consciousness was the sound of a soft harp music with singing near by, and the feeling of something cozy below her. She fluttered her eyes and looked around weakly. Her head was still throbbing with a mild pain, and her body ached all over. Keeping those body problems aside, she turned her attention towards figuring out where she was. Last night's memory was not clear, and she had a good mind to say that she wanted to go home. She furrowed her eyebrows and strained to recognize the place.

She was on a white mattress with a white blanket, and so naturally it was soft. The room held a gorgeous fragrance, and in the corner of the room, she noticed a small natural pond with bonsai trees and water lilies. The whole place was lit up with scented candles, and with the music, it looked like it was a miniature spa.

She then turned her attention towards the girl. She could the catch the blurry sight of a flower-adorned raven, singing softly. She could tell that by the accent in which she sang, that she was Asian. She also looked like one, perhaps Korean or Chinese. Tired by straining her eyes too much to focus, she collapsed onto her fluffy bed.

"Ish 'hat, can'onese?"

"You're awake," Said the girl with the melodious voice. "And no, I was singing Mandarin."

Alice gave an amused snort. She was glad that someone was near her, her head was filled with all sorts of questions and she wanted to ask the girl where she was, how she did get there, and the events of yesterday night. But she did not recall the girl with her last night.

Her head started aching again. "I… when did I arrive here?"

The Asian girl laughed. "Yesterday morning. Why?"

Alice gaped. "I… so I was not brought here last night? Do you mean to tell me that I've been asleep for a whole day?"

"Yes."

Alice cursed. "I don't remember anything," She said, in a frustrated tone, trying to see where Natalya and Elizaveta is, "Can you at least tell me…?"

"You must be wondering where you are, huh?" The girl asked, smiling again. She got up and went to the closed French window situated at the corner of the room. Opening the Venetian blinds, she showed Alice the scenery outside.

Alice got up from her mattress and looked outside the window to get an idea of where she was. She noticed that she was looking out from the second-storey of a posh building, possibly a castle belonging to some aristocrat, and then she noticed the entrance of the house. It was extravagant and elegant, just like some royal house should look. It was situated in the peak of a cliff, overlooking the blue sea. She could hear and see the waves crash onto the rocks situated at the steep hill.

Just down the gravel driveway which led to the castle, she noticed a board. It was written with something shiny, possibly gold, with neat Italic letters in a language she knew-French.

"Mr. Bonnefoy, Le Trèport, France?" She asked, taking in the words written and turning towards the girl near for some clue. How the hell did she get to France? The girl in reply just shrugged her shoulders but then she took Alice's hand and showed her way outside the room.

"I'm Mei Lin, by the way…." The Asian girl said and showed a hand, as she led Alice through the big and posh corridors towards, by what she said, the Dining Room. She was considerably friendly, and seemed to know a great deal about Alice.

"Oh!" Said Alice, and suddenly remembering her manners, returned Mei's shake hand. "I'm Alice. Alice Van Willigen."

The girl giggled. "Of course I know that silly! Everyone knows your name!"

Alice was surprised. She hadn't met anyone except Natalya, Elizaveta and Mei Lin. How did she become so popular?

"Really? How?"

Mei Lin laughed again. She seemed to find this amusing.

"You are our newest refuge." She explained, as she told her the events of the past few days, "We were expecting you ever since Elizaveta said that the Mafia gang had already set their eyes on capturing you, so we needed to rescue you as soon as possible.

"Natalya and Elizaveta had gone to rescue you from Belgium. Unfortunately, they had some trouble along the way from the mafia and they were a bit late on rescuing you. But luckily, they outsmarted them, and taking the unconscious you to our car, they drove here as fast as they can."

"But that still doesn't answer my doubt." Alice said, wiping her nose off a little tinge of blood, "Why are we here?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you about that, now did I?" Mei Lin grinned, stopped in her tracks, and pulled out a large yellow map. Alice leaned forward to get a clear view of it. Inside it, were several red-marked points in different countries that didn't make any sense to her. As she was about to ask her question, Mei Lin pointed her index finger to the town they were currently residing.

"This," She began, "….is Le Trèport, where we are now. Next week, we'll change our headquarters to…." She contemplated, placing her finger on her chin, and turned the map towards the country of Seychelles, where another red-mark was situated in the city of Quatre Bornes.

"Ah, next week, we'll change our headquarters to Michelle's homeland."

"Michelle?" Alice asked, astounded, "Are…. Are there more like… like us?"

Mei Lin nodded. "There are about 9 more others, including myself, Natalya and Elizaveta."

"And they all have the…the same fate?" Alice was quite unsure of asking such a question.

Mei Lin nodded sadly.

Alice raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What do you mean? Is your brother or someone in the family a gangster now?"

Mei Lin nodded sadly, and they continued to resume walking towards the dining hall.

"All of my brothers are in the Mafia."

"T… That's terrible!" Alice exclaimed, shocked. Can anyone become this ruthless and abandon their sister? "How… When…?"

"Yeah, it happened when I was about 14. It was a bit of a shock at first, ever since Yao told me to pack up one day and come with them to America. Only Kiku disagreed, he wanted me to have a good life."

"Seems like your second brother cares for you a bit more." Alice said.

Mei Lin blushed, and tried hard to hide her red face. "Um…. yeah, I liked Kiku more than anyone else. He was the one who actually listened to me. Yong Soo was an irritating brother-stalker and I don't know when Leon showed any emotion. Yao… well, let's just say everything went for the worst."

Alice was beyond shocked after hearing all this. She felt extremely bad for Mei Lin, who lost all her 4 brothers, and here she was, lamenting about one single brother.

"I'm so sorry."

"No, don't be." Mei Lin faked a sloppy smile. "I'm quite happy here, ever since Elizaveta saved me and told me to go with her where I'll be safe. And besides, we have more other things to worry about."

"Like what?" What other things to worry about than the fact that their brothers are gangsters?

Mei Lin stopped again and looked around in caution. When she realized that no-one was looking, she looked at Alice straight in the eye, and it looked like she was piercing a hole through her.

"Do you know why we keep changing our headquarters and why we were so keen in rescuing you?"

Alice shook her head. Before she could say anything, Mei Lin grabbed Alice's hair, and untied her neatly tied hair band and looked closely on it, ignoring Alice's cries of protests. As she revealed the bright orange ribbon, she saw a small orange sparkling gem embedded in it. Suddenly, Alice realized that she hadn't noticed that gem for a long time and only became aware of its presence now.

Mei Lin's eyes narrowed.

"That gem," She explained, "… is a Capriconus. Where did you get it?"

"I…. uh," Alice tried to trace her memory to something that the gem was connected. Finally, she remembered that it was in her hand when she was about 5 years old and when her grandmother gave it to her before her death. Lars was surprisingly very interested about it then.

She didn't want to talk about all this to a newly met girl, so she hurriedly thought of a lie to convince her.

"I…. I bought it in a jewelry shop," Alice lied. "It was a 50% sale so…."

"Lies!" Mei Lin hissed, as her cheerful mood began to vanish. "It was given by someone in your family, right?"

"Yeah, I… I suppose so…" Alice stuttered, now becoming very uncomfortable with the unstable Mei Lin.

"….Someone in your family was related to the wood spirits," Mei Lin interrupted her again. "One of Capricorn. And they gave it to you."

"Capricorn?" Alice asked, confused, "As is in the…?"

"…The 10th sign of the Zodiac, yes." Mei Lin interrupted, nodding. "Personifications of those constellations once lived throughout the Earth. Their power was sealed inside these gems, and if it was to be destroyed, the constellation would die with it.

"They were mortals, unlike gods, so naturally they passed on the gems to their off springs before their deaths. And that's how it went to the hands of your grandmother, and onto you. You have Capricorn blood running in your blood vessels."

Alice's eyes widened. Her family was related to some…some weird half-goat? What she thought was still now a fantasy story was becoming real. What other surprising things awaited her, she wondered.

"We're all part of the circle." Mei Lin said, as she pulled out her flower from her hair, "For example, I'm a descendant of Sagittarius, and I have a Turquoise gem inside this."

Alice looked at the green gem in awe. There were more like her? She couldn't wait to see them.

"Elizaveta has an Aries. If you look closely in her small carnation in her head, you'll see a red gem. That's a Diamond. Since the gem is the holder of the constellation's powers, automatically we control their powers too."

"Cool!" Alice exclaimed, quite liking the idea, and rubbing her hands in anticipation. "Do I have powers too?"

"Unfortunately, no." Mei Lin said, bringing down Alice's hopes, "A descendant can only activate his or her powers in the gem if he or she saves someone from death."

Alice was visibly disappointed. But Mei Lin held her shoulder.

"Your time will come soon. But it's best if you don't hold any emotional attachment to it. It has to go soon."

"Why?" Alice asked. She had not expected the gem to go soon, no matter what the reason was.

"The gem is also a curse. The reason why our ancestors passed it on to their descendants is that, they had foreseen a disaster. A disaster that would bring the apocalypse down to the Earth that would destroy everything."

"But what apocalypse?" Alice was perturbed by the news.

"The invasion of Aliens." She gulped.

"They knew that those aliens release a certain type of toxic substance that will bring immediate hemorrhage to our body organs and die if we are to go anywhere near it. The only escape from this disaster is to place all the gems in a special pedestal in the North Pole that would open a rare potion that would save the humans from the aliens' poison.

Our brothers had already known this matter beforehand that this would be coming soon, so they decided to have all the gems and save themselves."

"So they don't care about anyone else, I suppose." Alice was beyond shocked by all this.

"Exactly. We thought it would be better if we distributed it throughout the World, so everyone shall have a portion, no matter how small it is, to keep them going for the longest time possible. The Mafia disagreed to this, and we have been enemies with them ever since."

"Are all of us here part of this….this…descendents-of-the-Zodiac thing?" Alice asked, before realizing that she might have touched the nerve of the unstable Mei Lin.

This time Mei Lin laughed, her cheerful mood coming in her face again. She sped up her pace to walking towards their destination again, and Alice followed her dutifully.

"Not really. But some of them are sisters of the Zodiac-gem holders, like Angelique whose brother is Francis, now in the Mafia, and Renne, my half-sister."

They stopped in front of a large ebony door. They could hear music being played in the violin and constant chattering from inside the room. Mei Lin smiled and shook her head in playful annoyance.

"Those girls." She said before knocking on the door thrice. As if in cue, the chattering stopped and the violin stopped producing music.

Suddenly, there appeared a small slit in the door where a small screen was displayed. A keyboard appeared next down to it, and digital letters formed in the small screen.

'Password?'

Mei Lin typed 6 or so words, and out from the slit came a beeping sound signifying something wrong.

"Oops!" Mei Lin hit her forehead lightly in remembrance, "The password had been changed! Let's see…."

Mei Lin typed 6 different letters this time, and the slit produced a right sound.

'You have been granted entry. Please remember the password next time.'

"Clever." Alice said, impressed as the door opened slowly.

Mei Lin smiled. "Yeah, I made it, with the help of everybody else, of course. Thanks."

Alice's smile fadened as she realized something. A sudden nervousness took control of her. She was about to meet 6 other girls, who she didn't know, and only fate knew if she wouldn't make a fool of herself. What if they didn't like her? What if they say that she was not to stay here? Alice was beyond worried.

And the door opened.

…. And hello people, to my insane and paranoid mind. :P

CLIFF HANGER! orz, sorry it was so short. I'm busy with my term finals, but I'll update as soon as I can!

And can anyone tell me how HetaOni goes? At first I thought it was some gangster duel like stuff, blame Clint Eastwood for that . so I decided to go by that until I realized it was time travel with Pasta-loving ve~ as the main character. So I am trying to link it as I can. Bear with me!

Thank you all lovely lovely readers! Zodiac up next!