Arthur sat across the table from Lukas and tried to think of what to say. Lukas was Norway. That was one of the most disturbing discoveries of the day. Arthur fancied himself pretty good at reading people and he had thought that he had a good grasp on Lukas. He had thought Lukas was the victim, trying to deal with Emil's mistakes and doing his best to support the two of them. Lukas had seemed sympathetic to Arthur after learning about Peter's kidnapping. Seeing Lukas in front of him now, dressed all in black and wearing hand cuffs, was unsettling. Lukas was Norway. Furthermore, Norway had been one of the North who had NOT wanted to kill Arthur. Yet, it was Lukas's little brother that Arthur had arrested. Arthur vividly remembered his hate for the North. It was still present, it was just less of a raging fire and more of a smoldering ember waiting for a good wind to make it roar to life again. He had wanted to chop the North into little pieces for taking Peter. He had taken Emil from Lukas, and had imagined Lukas having similar feelings towards him. Yet, Lukas was advocating for letting Arthur live.

"Your lawyer is on his way." Arthur said finally and glanced at the cuffs that encircled Lukas's wrists again, "Is there anything you would like to say before he gets here?"

Lukas looked at Arthur was the same intensity he had in the warehouse, his eyes unreadable and unforgiving and they seemed to pin Arthur in his chair, "I want to know how you knew beyond a doubt that Emil was guilty."

Arthur forced himself to not flinch. He knew Lukas must hate him, he just wasn't sure why Lukas wanted him alive, "It wasn't hard. Emil is just too good of a kid, his guilt was written in his every feature."

"He's just too good of a kid?"

"Yes."

Lukas gave a small sigh and looked down at the handcuffs, "Are these necessary?"

"I'm afraid so." Arthur said, he didn't trust the North, even here in the offices, surrounded by police, Arthur expected the North to pull some trick and escape, "Can you answer a few of my questions?"

Lukas didn't budge, he sat there like a statue. Those eyes locked on the handcuffs and his face blank.

"How did the North break into that bank and re lock the vault?" Arthur asked.

For a moment, Lukas made no sign that he had heard, but he slowly looked up at Arthur again. "Locking is what vaults are made to do." Lukas said blandly, "It wasn't hard."

Arthur rubbed his temple and nodded, "Okay, why did you turn yourselves in?"

"Insurance." Lukas said.

"Pardon?"

"Insurance." Lukas said again, "Us being here is our insurance."

"Insurance for what?" Arthur asked, a pit forming in his gut.

Lukas just looked at him with those emotionless blue eyes, "When is my lawyer getting here?"

Arthur sighed. Again, if Lukas was going to stop talking, there was nothing Arthur could do about it. At this point. As soon as he got the paperwork in and Lukas's lawyer got here, he would be able to question Lukas much further, but until then he was at the mercy of what Lukas wanted to tell him. Arthur nodded to Lukas and stood.

"One of my men will stay with you until your lawyer gets here." Arthur said and opened the door of the room and motioned Alfred inside, "You will have some time to speak with your lawyer alone, then we would like to talk to you about the North."

Lukas looked at Alfred as he entered with disinterest, "Very well. Please know that my lawyer will be representing my comrades as well."

"Thank you for letting us know." Arthur said, that didn't pose much of a problem for him, "You have one call available to you, if you choose to use it."

Lukas's gaze returned to Arthur, "Who would I call?"

Arthur blinked in surprise. Emil. Who else? Arthur was sure that Emil would appreciate a call at least. Lukas just looked at Arthur, so Arthur shrugged, "It is available to you if you want it."

Arthur nodded to Alfred and turned and left. There were three other interviews he had to finish before that lawyer got here. There was no guarantee that they would talk to him, but it was worth a try.

The rifleman was a man named Tino Väinämöinen. His interview wasn't much better than Lukas. He sat there and smiled at Arthur with a smug look.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Väinämöinen. I just wanted to ask you a few questions." Arthur said, sitting down across from Tino and glanced at the handcuffs. The handcuffs were sitting on the table, with Tino's hands folded next to them. A spike of fear raced through Arthur, how did he get un-cuffed? Arthur stood, maybe a little too hastily and walked around the table to Tino.

Tino clearly knew what Arthur wanted and he polity offered his wrists to Arthur. Arthur re-cuffed Tino with a diff rent pair of cuffs and put the pair that he unlocked into his pocket. Arthur returned to his seat and cleared his throat. The whole transaction had happened silently and Tino was back to smiling at him, his hands folded on the table.

"Why did you turn yourselves in?" Arthur asked. Tino didn't have a gun on him, but the idea of being alone with the rifleman was unsettling, even if Arthur was the one armed.

Tino smiled and shrugged, "Hey, just be glad Mathias didn't win."

"Why did you turn yourselves in?" Arthur repeated.

"We talked about it, and this seemed to be the best course of action." Tino said and sat back in his chair, "We voted on it and it was unanimous."

"But why?"

"It was the best thing to do."

"I don't believe that you are telling me you had a moral epiphany and decided to repent for your sins, so you turned yourself in." Arthur's tone was perfectly flat and dry.

Tino laughed, "If we wanted to repent for our sins, we would have gone to a church, not you!"

"Where is Peter?"

Tino's smile broadened, "Happy. Safe. Content. He had the ability to leave at any time."

Arthur ground his teeth, "Where is he?"

"Hey, when you find the cameras in the your team's office, can you give them back to me?" Tino asked, "They were really expensive."

"Will you tell me where to look?" Arthur growled.

"No." Tino laughed and calmly folded his handcuffs and offered them back to Arthur. His hands free, "Then you would use them as evidence against us!"

Arthur stared at the handcuffs. Arthur had been sitting here the whole time and hadn't noticed Tino take them off. Arthur got up again, re-cuffed Tino, and left, setting Gilbert as a guard at the door of the room.

Mathias turned out to be a member of the North as well. After learning about Lukas being Norway, Mathias as Denmark didn't seem that strange. However, Mathias was the definition of "uncooperative".

"Dude, I hate your guts and would have shot you regardless of whether Swede won or not!" Mathias hissed and leaned across the table, "Just be happy I wasn't the one holding the gun!"

"Why did you turn yourselves in?" Arthur fought to keep his tone at least neutral and found himself sounding angrier than Mathias.

"Because we're the good guys!" Mathias growled, "Haven't you figured that out yet?"

"Who hired the North to break into the bank?" Arthur asked, not even looking at Mathias.

"Like hell I'm going to tell you! There's this thing called professional pride!" Mathias sat back in his chair and glowered at Arthur, "LIKE HELL I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

Mathias's interview was the shortest. However, Mathias was at least responding to questions. The last member of the North, a man named Berwald Oxenstierna, didn't say a word.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions." Arthur started, trying to keep the other three interviews in the back of his mind.

Berwald looked at Arthur stonily. His face emotionless.

"Why did you turn yourselves in?" Arthur stared.

Berwald looked at Arthur unchanging.

"How did you break into the bank?"

Berwald looked at Arthur.

"Who hired you to break into the bank?"

Berwald looked at Arthur.

"Where is Peter?"

Berwald blinked slowly and said nothing.

Arthur gave up. These guys were either insane or geniuses, that or Arthur was a total idiot. Arthur wanted to go home and get drunk. Really, really drunk.

Arthur sat at his desk and glared at the black computer screen. He still had a job to do. They were a private detective agency, they were hired by individuals who wanted something specific. Just catching the North would be enough for the police, but the agency had been hired to recover a family heirloom stolen from a wealthy family's summer home. That was the end goal here for Arthur. Then the North and their information would be turned over to the police and he would be assigned to a new case. Get the heirloom.

And Peter. He had to get Peter back. He was being paid to get that heirloom, but what he wanted was Peter.

Emil pedaled up Berwald's driveway and leaned the bike up against the little porch rail. There was no way he could break into Berwald's house without setting off an alarm. Then again, maybe setting off an alarm would contact Berwald for him. Setting off an alarm would force the other North to acknowledge him. Setting off an alarm seemed so wrong.

Maybe he should just knock.

No answer.

Figures.

Emil sat down on the porch and leaned his back against the door. This was ridiculous. Who was he kidding? They had been arrested. Peter had escaped, or they let him go, and were arrested.

Emil pulled out his phone and looked at it. No point calling Lukas's phone, it was at home. He had Mathias's phone. He could try Tino again.

Unavailable.

What did that even mean? That left Berwald.

The phone rang and went to voicemail. Emil hung up. He might as well go back to Arthur. At least then he might be able to see everyone. Emil stared at his phone and numbly pulled Mathias's out of his pocket. They both had the same style case, just Emil's was blue, white, and red, while Mathias's was just red and white. Might as well turn himself in. Emil opened up Mathias's phone and scrolled through his contacts. Confessing would probably lessen his sentence. Emil found Berwald's number and hit send. He didn't bother raising it to his ear, he already knew what would happen.

It would ring and go to voicemai-

"Hello? Mathias?"

Emil nearly dropped the phone. That was NOT Berwald. Emil knew that voice, it was almost as if he was sitting here with Emil, it was so clear.

"Peter?" Emil choked into the phone.

"Emil? Why do you have Mathias's phone?"

"Peter? Is this you?"

"Yeah, where's Mathias?"

"Why do you have Berwald's phone?"

"Hey! I asked first!"

"I'm not telling you til you tell me."

"Well, I'm not telling you!"

Emil sighed, "Fine, I got Mathias's phone from his house."

"What? Did you just take it?" Peter asked skeptically.

"Yes." Emil said slowly, unsure of what Peter's point was.

"YOU STOLE MATHIAS'S PHONE?" Peter shrieked, "WHY?"

Emil winced and held the phone away from his ear, "Because he wasn't there and I though-Hey! Why did you answer the phone when you thought it was Mathias and you wouldn't answer with me?"

Peter gave a nervous laugh, "What are you talking about?"

"You answered when Berwald's phone showed Mathias's ID, but not when it would have shown mine! Why?" Emil could hear his voice getting higher in pitch and didn't care. He already knew the answer. Lukas hadn't wanted him to leave home, Peter answered the phone when he thought it was Mathias, they were all hiding something from him.

"Well, it's just that-"

"PETER!"

"I'm sorry!" Peter said quickly, his words spilling out of him, "I don't know why! Berwald told me not to answer the phone if it was from you! And I'm not supposed to answer the door or-"

"You're at Berwald's house?" Emil hissed.

There was a soft click and the door swung open, Emil fell back and looked up at a very red-faced Peter.

Peter and Emil sat crossed from each other at the kitchen table and said nothing. Peter set out a plate of cookies and got each of them a glass of water.

Emil could see that Peter had made himself right at home and acted almost as though he lived here. Emil could also see that Peter was alone. None of the North were here. Exept Emil.

Emil took a cookie and bit into it. Where were they? They must be at the safe house. Emil couldn't believe that Peter would be here, at Berwald's, if the North had gotten arrested.

"Do you know where Berwald and Tino are?" Peter asked tentatively, his voice soft and his eyes scanned the room, as if trying to avoid looking at Emil.

"No." Emil said, "Sorry. I came here looking for them."

"So, Lukas and Mathias are gone too?" Emil stared at Peter. He was too sincere. Peter was really concerned. Peter actually cared. He was so weird.

"You know they kidnapped you, right?" Emil asked, face blank and tone flat.

Peter nodded and smiled, "Yeah, I know, but they're good people. They really didn't want to kidnap me, but they still treated me like I was one of the family."

"Oh? What did you do?" Emil asked without really caring. He just wanted to know where they were.

"We played chess and checkers and Tino and I made cookies and Berwald showed me how his security system worked and Mathias played basketball with me and Lukas and I played chess and-"

"Cool. When did you last see them?"

Peter shrugged, "Berwald and Tino left really early this morning and I saw Mathias and Lukas last night. I called Tino around lunch time."

Emil looked up in surprise, "Did he answer?"

"Yeah, he answered." Peter said with a shrug, "I can call him again if you want."

"Please." Emil said quickly.

Peter pulled Berwald's phone out of his pocket and dialed Tino.

Number unavailable.

Emil sighed. It was worth a try. Peter shrugged.

"Do you want to stay the night here?" Peter asked, "Even if you leave now, you won't get home until after dark."

Emil was tempted to say yes, but there was a chance that when he got home, Lukas would be there. Lukas would scold him for being out after dark and then they would sit down to dinner. There was a chance Mathias would come over and they'd play cards.

Emil didn't want to get his hopes up only to be dashed again, but there was a chance. So, he shook his head and sighed.

"No thank you." Emil said then stopped and looked Peter over. The boy was relaxed and didn't seem as high strung as usual, "Peter? Why are you still here?"

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, blinking and taking a cookie from the plate.

"Why haven't you gone home? You were kidnapped." Emil said.

Peter shrugged, "I don't know. I don't really want to go home. It's nice here and if anything, I feel more at home here than at home." Peter smiled and bit into his cookie, "It might sound weird, but I almost feel like I belong here."

"You should go home. I'm sure Allistor and Arthur are worried sick about you." Emil said and slumped back in his chair. He hoped Lukas was worried about him.

"Allistor probably is, but Arthur has been so scattered lately, I'm sure he forgets I'm missing." Peter said uncaringly, "They'll be fine. It's not like they need me."

The North needed Emil. They needed someone to censor them, to keep them thinking clearly. Emil stood, "I'd better get going. I'll drop by tomorrow, okay? Can you call me if Berwald comes home?"

Peter nodded and smiled, "He said he might be late today and that I'm supposed to go to bed early."

"Whatever." Emil took another cookie and walked out to the bike. Peter stood in the doorway and waved as Emil took off. He wouldn't be able to make it to the safe house before dark either and he didn't want to spend the night there. Might as well head home.

There was a chance, Lukas was waiting for him.

Been ridiculously busy! Sorry! This chapter isn't the best, but it gets the idea.

Quick question: has anyone figured out the North's plan yet? Just wondering!

Thanks for the continued support!