CHAPTER NINETEEN

Traitor in the Midst

Laura wasn't sure when their jet had landed, but when she had awoken the sun was just on the horizon and they had stopped moving. Both the co-pilot and the pilot had left with the cockpit locked up so no one would wander in and decide to crash the plane into something, especially because they were sure no one would claim to have done it and then someone would have to be sued for the repair money.

Now that the sun had risen everyone else had woken up. Some had fallen asleep, as she had done, after the plane took off. They then landed in two other countries and picked up two people, but Laura had still been asleep by then and wasn't aware of the others' arrival. At least not until Elizabeta started yelling at a certain Romanian and a fight broke out. Insults of all sorts were shared and everyone woke up to the racket.

It took plenty of persuasion and a little bit of brutality to calm everyone down. It was lucky that Aleksander also came along and helped keep Vladmir under control. But that was before and now they had finally landed in the U.S. after a long and somewhat unbearable trip.

Everyone grabbed their luggage and was ushered off the jet by the flight attendants who then lead them off of the flight strip and out of harm's way. Everyone was now in the airport and the first thing they decided to do upon entering there was to get something to eat. Packing peanuts and bottled water could only do so much for someone, and it was high time they got some real food.

So then after taking a quick head count and making sure they hadn't lost anyone from the jet to the port, as well as a quick separation of Elizabeta and Vladimir, and they were off. The food court was surprisingly packed, at least twelve different food stands were open, a majority of which were fast food.

People went off to wherever they wanted to eat. There was a Panda Express, a Taco Bell, a Mcdonalds, a Dunkin' Donut, a Quiznos Sub, a Starbucks, and a Papa Johns. Those were, at least, the ones they were interested in going to and that's where most dispersed off to. Laura, not exactly as hungry as others, went off to Starbucks. She would just order a small breakfast wrap and a cup of dark roast coffee. That seemed like it would suffice until lunch time.

As she waited in line she saw a certain someone also come into the coffee shop, joining the line and paying little attention to their surroundings, not even noticing her. She was tempted to wave and crack a smile but fought the urge and decided to just to order and wait by the door. They were all going in the same direction anyway.

So with her break wrap and coffee in hand she left the stand and waited at a nearby table. She unwrapped her food and began to eat, glancing up at the shop every so often to see if the man had come out yet. She ended up zoning out as she ate and didn't realize the man had left until he pulled out a chair in front of her and sat down.

"Hello!" Laura said happily after swallowing down another bite of her wrap.

"Halò." The other replied, his accent blending in with the Gaelic term. He put down an artisan breakfast sandwich and a latte.

The man also removed his hat after noticing that a few security guards were eying him. This fully exposed his head of red hair, parted in the front as she had seen before and matched with a pair of emerald green eyes that seemed rather familiar. His appearance reminded her of someone yet she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Do we... know each other?" She finally asked after staring at the man for a good minute or so. He seemed to have been intentionally ignoring her, making sure not to stare back and end up making everything any more awkward than it already was. He was about to take a swig of his drink when she had asked the question and he ended up stopping the motion in general to look up at her.

"Why do ya ask?" He said, his accent thick and obvious, especially when speaking in English.

"It's just that... it seems like we've met before. Never mind I'm probably just confusing you with someone else I know." Laura waved her hand around, shaking the topic away. The other sighed, redrawing her attention. "Ye're probably thinkin' about m' dunderhead brother then." He pinched the bridge of his nose, though it was more out of irritation than anything else.

"Name's Ross. Ross Kirkland, representation've the Scottish Isles. Long live the queen ey?" He shrugged, fulling exposing the white cross neatly placed atop his blue uniform. Laura somewhat understood the situation now, but still had one question left over. "If you're a country, then why haven't I see you at any of the World Meetings?" This only seemed to annoy Ross even more.

"Even if I'm a country, 'm not independent. Not anym're at least. A part of the UK now. Artie goes to the meetings fer me and the rest've our brothers. I doubt he even mentions us." He finished off his sentence with a long awaited sip from his heated drink. Laura supposed that explained most of it.

Arthur was always fighting with others, far too much and too long enough for anyone to really talk to him. Especially about his brothers that have only been mentioned once or twice, and even then that was briefly.

The others called for the two of them to come over. It was then that they spotted everyone huddled over in somewhat of a group at another table. Taking their food and beverages, they moved over to the bigger table and sat down with everyone else. For the time being they wouldn't have to worry about the reason why they had come here in the first place. The thought of danger that was seeking them out and would find them later on in the day. For now all they had to deal with was each other, and enjoy one of the few times they ever managed to get together. And who knows, maybe they'd learn something new.

The ride home had been long and rather quiet. The movies continued to play but no one spoke a single word. Alfred didn't even make a sound, not even when a jump scare occurred or some random plot twist happened. He just didn't seem to care. His mind was set on making sure Arthur was had been drained so much, was so weak. But even then he still woke up midway through the ride and started going on about how they needed to interrogate Kuro and get back to finding Feliciano. He almost seemed to be rambling and had to be calmed down quickly. With help from both Francis and Alfred he settled down and slipped into sleep again.

The rest of the ride after that was quiet. It wasn't until they started debating where they would stay for the time being until their previous headquarters was repaired that people started getting chatty. It was finally decided that they would stay at Alfred's house, as it was closest and arguably the safest place they could go to.

After that the chatting stopped and not a word was shared.

Upon arrival at the Jones residence the car was pulled into the driveway and everyone was ushered inside. From there the home grade medical kit was brought out and better wound treatment occurred. Kuro was locked away in the basement, tied up and gagged. He would be left in there until they could make use of him.

But for now he was the least of their worries.

Ignoring the constant pleas for him to sit down and relax, Arthur went off to the car. In the trunk was everything that had been salvageable from the disaster caused by him who shall not be named.

Upon that small pile of things was Arthur's book bag that contained both his research journal and his magnificent and surprisingly shiny book of spells, but to anyone else it just seemed like a plain ol' spell book. But this so called spell book had been on Arthur's mind the entire drive home and it was now that he was glad it was still intact and readable, as he was interested in a certain spell that he had once heard of but never thought of using. But the reason behind never using this spell was simply because of it's core purpose. Though it had good intentions, the only time you would ever use such a combination of magic would be in some of the worst of times.

Arthur took the book and moved into the house. Though he would have preferred to stay outside in private while reading through his book, as he would be able to avoid the ignorance of others, in this case it was just too dangerous, even now. So he walked into the building and moved upstairs rather than down where everyone else was located, all huddled up in the living room doing god knows what. Yet, in the end, Arthur didn't care, at least not now.

He moved into one of the guest rooms, sitting down on the sheets of the bed that likely hadn't been tampered with for months, maybe even years. He opened up the book to one of the many marked pages. He only marked the ones he thought he might need, but they were color coordinated, being rated on the possibility of them being used and exactly how deadly they were. So, using this made up system, he searched for the spell he wished to find. He eventually did but was somewhat disappointed when he learned of it's requirements.

For one, he couldn't commit the spell on his very own. Doing so was extremely risky and could cause the exact opposite of it's intentions to occur, that not even being in the worst of scenarios.

Along with that, if you want to transport a large amount of 'creatures' at the same time in the same place, it requires a great amount of concentration, time, and energy. Which meant that not just any amateur mage could take part in it. So now not only did he have to contact more of those skilled in the field of magic, but he was also required to come up with some sort of plan in order to get their counterparts in the associated location in order for it to all work.

Arthur slammed the book close on instinct when someone entered the room. He almost let out a sigh of relief when he saw only Alfred standing there, more than confused. He stepped in hesitantly, Arthur slid down a bit and gave him enough room for a seat. Alfred sat down next to him, neither of them speaking for the time being as they just stared at each other before looking away, feeling a bit awkward.

"You know everyone is worrying about you downstairs." Alfred said as he stared down at his hands.

"Are you one of them?" Alfred didn't reply, just sort of shrugged and continued to look away.

"Tell those blokes I'm fine. Just... working." He finished off by looking down at the book in his lap.

"Aren't you always." Alfred muttered as he looked at the book as well. It's not that it was his first time noticing it, it had been rather obvious when he first entered the room and it was slammed shut. But he didn't actually get a chance to look at it.

"Spell... book?" He asked, tilting his head to get a better view of the wording.

"Yes a spell book. My spell book. You ask as if you've never seen one before." He rolled his eyes. "But... this book has a key. One that might just fix our bit of a dilemma." Arthur flipped to the page and handed it over to Alfred who stared down at it in both confusion and amusement. "What-"

"It's an advanced spell used to dispel of demons, sending them back to wherever they came from. But even then it still works on multiple beings that were not originally created in our dimension. Which means it can work on your two-Ps. Only problem is I'm going to need more help if I want to do the spell successfully. It's just one of the requirements unfortunately. And if we don't meet them who knows what might happen." Alfred handed back the book, not taking anymore interest in it.

"Any idea who might be able to help out?" He asked, standing up and staring at Arthur as he waited for an answer. Arthur didn't exactly have one but then the idea popped into his head and he snapped his fingers together.

"I'll have to contact the rest of the Magic Trio."

When Lanzo had agreed on Gilbert's plan to be a spy for the one-ps, he wasn't exactly sure what he was getting himself into. He knew it would be hard and he was actually convinced that upon arrival at home base they would probably shoot him down right on the spot. But they didn't and that's what made him worry.

After being dropped off about a block away by Gilbert, he had walked all the way back. He wanted to walk slowly and take his time getting there, but he knew that if he were to take any longer that they would most definitely be suspicious. So he decided to pick up the pace a good bit before coming across the butcher shop that he had dreaded arriving at for some time now. He was tempted to sneak in. If he were to come in through the front door he could sneak around the counter and past the kitchen instead of cutting through the living room. Then he'd go into the basement and fall asleep, pretending to have been there the entire time and was simply lying there even after their arrival.

But his entire plan went down the drain when the second he was on the doorstep the front door flew open and revealed Luciano with a sinister grin on his face. Lanzo's heart basically jumped out of his chest and landed on the floor at his feet, taking his entire essence with it. He was dumbstruck and could only stand there and stare back at Luciano whose eyes shown evil intentions.

"Ciao Lanzo."

"L-Luciano."

"Mind telling me what you've been doing for the past couple of hours Lanzo?"

Lanzo's voice caught in his throat that now felt dry and scratchy. He wanted to turn back and run away as fast as he could but his feet refused to work, seemingly planted to the ground. He also found himself unable to pull away from Luciano's eyes that appeared to be pulling him into some sort of indefinable trance.

"I've been... taking care of important business." He finally replied, his voice less shaky than he had first expected. He actually sounded confident for once, even while in the presence of this monster.

"Is that so? Well if that's all then I have no reason to bother you. Spero che vi siate divertiti." He turned around and waved his hand, stepping back into the butcher shop and disappearing from his sight. Lanzo still couldn't move. He was too shocked to do so. Had Luciano just... left? Without questioning him any further? Not even glancing back at him?

This was odd.

Something was up.

Did Luciano know something that Lanzo didn't? He obviously did, because why else would he brush off the fact that one of his companions had wandered off when they were gone and came back even later even after he claimed he would watch their base of operations? Lanzo was utterly confused and had a gut feeling that something was wrong.

But once his feet started working again, instead of turning back he went straight into the shop. It wasn't as quiet as he had expected, as most people were up and doing something.

Andrew had been thrown into an arm wrestling fight with Allan. The ending victor was obvious and the brothers would likely resort to wrestling on the ground until one or the other gave up. Luciano had wandered downstairs and Kasper was playing with a stack of cards, likely preparing for a game with someone else. Sebastian was out back cleaning blood off of their van and Viktor was watching the room aimlessly from one of the darker corners. The faint smell of Opium lingered in the air and Lanzo had a gut feeling on where Jian was. Leonardo had disappeared into the kitchen and Oliver was nowhere to be found.

Jean ushered Lanzo over to his general direction and the German hesitantly followed. Jean pulled him out back, passing by Sebastian who was heading inside and closing the door behind him. The two sat there in silent for a moment behind the van as Jean pulled out and lit a cigarette, briefly asking if Lanzo wanted one before he put the pack away. A puff of smoke later and the two were talking.

"Look Lanzo, something is up. I don't know what but something is just not right. Everything Luciano is having us do is just... impair. Even for him. When we were out at that field there were two buildings instead of just one. A warehouse and a log cabin. He had us plant something in that log cabin. I don't know what, I didn't read it. But Oliver did and now he's freaking out. Really, really bad too.

"And to add to that Luciano let Kuro get himself killed. Went into the cabin after it was set on fire, never came out. And Luciano was planning for that to happen the whole damn time. He knew Kuro would go inside after whatever it was that was locked away in there. And then he just left him to rot and burn. I don't know what Luciano's planning but whatever it is, Oliver knows about it. And we need to get him to tell us. If it's got him this spooked it must be important." Jean threw the bud of the cigarette to the ground and stepped on it, putting it out completely.

"I agree." Lanzo replied afterwards, trying to seem as convincing as possible.

"But... we have to keep quiet about this. If too many people hear about this it can get out of hand quickly. And at this rate that's the last thing we need..."

"So it's settled. Only talk about this amongst ourselves and Oliver... if we can get him to tell us what's going on. If we can then maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to do something about this. But until then..."

"We're on our own."

Arthur had gone down and explained the situation to everyone. The book and the spell and the plan that he had formed in the few minutes he was speaking with Alfred. Most understood everything, even those that were a bit less bright then everyone else understood what was going on. And that fighting just didn't seem like it was going to cut it this time.

For once they couldn't prove who was right or wrong through wars or near endless battles full of blood, tears, and sweat. They couldn't pull out their guns and their swords and lead troops into fields of grass and plains of dirt, some never coming back out again with their lives but instead in a bag that would be flown back home as their families receive the terrible news. No, for once bloodshed wouldn't solve their problems and for once they had to depend on the supernatural arts to fix everything, something most in the room didn't even believe in.

They had to depend on Arthur and his fairies and his magical abilities along with that of Lukas' and Vladmir's. They had to trust their teamwork and their determination to be strong enough to make sure that, at the end of the day, everyone would be going to bed without fear that someone would break into their houses and shoot them between the eyes. Without fear that some of their families and closest of friends wouldn't be tormented both physically and mentally.

And then at the end of the day, when they thought back at it, it was all because of them.

Everyone had to admit it, everyone. They all had to admit that these two-ps of their, these monsters that had crawled into their world from the depths of hell, were destroying their lives. And it was all because they all thought they were invincible. They thought that, because it was peace time, they had no worries. No one would attack them. No one would try to put their hands on them. It was simply that no one could. They felt invincible because for one of the few times in their lives no one was trying to pick a fight with another. Yes of course there was bickering, there always was. But it never got any farther than that, and it felt good.

But despite that, despite all the odds... Luciano still got his hands on Feliciano.

Lovino felt like blaming himself for it, if anything at least half.

The other half went to Ludwig.

Even with their somewhat of a disastrous past, Lovino still allowed himself to feel good when Feliciano was around Ludwig. Because at the end of the day he knew Ludwig wouldn't do a thing to hurt Feliciano and that he wouldn't let anyone else hurt him either. Lovino knew that his brother was safe whenever those two were together. He just hated to admit it.

So when he found out his brother had been kidnapped by a band of psychopaths, he had immediately pointed the finger at Ludwig. Though it was mentally as he knew they needed to work together in this scenario, it was still there in his head. And his stubbornness wouldn't allow him to put it down and think passed it.

But then the other half of the burden of guilt fell onto him. Yet that didn't exactly happen until his encounter in the park. Running into that bastard at the most inconvenient of times, then finding out that he was the so called 'master-mind' behind the whole plan. It made Lovino go numb. Really just the thought of it in general. He had thought that he had gotten rid of him before. He thought that he wouldn't have to deal with that man that wore the face of his brother but was nothing like him. In fact he had hoped and he had prayed after Feliciano's return that the man would not come back and that his brother would be safe. But as they had always said, as he had always thought, his past came back to haunt him.

And now he was wondering if he could have changed it all. Not now, definitely not now. But before. When he had the chance, when he could of taken the opportunity he had and shifted what the future had in store. But it was too late to wonder about that now as wondering was only another bit of his imagination giving him useless hope that he couldn't stop thinking about.

Lovino's head snapped up when Arthur stopped talking. He had just explained his full force plan a second time as a few people seemed to be a bit confused. Lovino had been listening to bits and pieces and assumed he had figured it out.

Arthur would call his acquaintances and inform them of the current situation as well as their requirements in it. While that was going on Kuro would be interrogated by Yao, who had to be a bit persuasive before he convinced the others of allowing himself and only himself to speak with the 'monster'. Kiku made no comment on this.

But faith having everything set up for them all ahead of time, Arthur's phone rang. He was hesitant at first to pick it up but after seeing a familiar name highlighted in bold lettering on the front, he answered it with a bored tone. "Can I help you?" He asked somewhat mockingly. The other end of the line only received a chuckle. "Good ta hear from ye too Artie." Ross spoke as he covered his open ear, blocking out most of the sounds from the airport itself and the people at his table.

"My name's Arthur not "Artie", and what is it that you want I've very busy right now mind you." Arthur replied in somewhat of a hushed voice as he knew the others were eavesdropping on his obviously personal conversation. "Right right, I need a quick favor." Great. Arthur thought, What does he want now? Money? More liquor? His independence? "I need someone ta pick up me and a few friends fr'm the airport."

"Wait what!?" Arthur had said that louder than he had hoped but he didn't care at that moment as his brother explained to him what exactly was going on. Without even asking before hand Ross and a handful of other nations had hoped onto a private jet flown and paid for by two complete strangers all the way from Europe to the United States, and were now sitting in an airport a half an hour or so away. Arthur normally would of been angry but when he found out that Vladmir was amongst them he was ecstatic and said he would get someone to pick them up ASAP.

Then he shut off his phone and turned on his heel to see everyone else. "It appears there's been a slight change in plan. Vladmir is already in the country along with some others and I need for them to be picked up at the airport. If one or two of you could please go and get them so you can bring them back here it would be much appreciated. Now if you excuse me I need to make another phone call." And with that Arthur left the room and it was open to discussion. They weren't sure who to send. Allow some of the wounded to go and risk them being ambushed on the way there or send some of the stronger to go and risk an ambush occurring at their new base.

As they spoke and discussed someone else snuck out of the room, moving stealthy and drawing no attention to themselves what so ever. They stood in the driveway and quickly came to terms with what they needed to do. The butcher shop was not far from there, but their wound might cause their walk speed to slow just a bit. Yet that did not matter as they had already been given a task and planned to complete it.

As they disappeared around the corner it was quickly decided that Francis and Lovino would go. Maybe not the best of the choices they had but some either already had roles they were depended on to complete or had simply decided against going. So, taking Alfred's Cadillac they drove down the road, unknowingly passing a silhouetted person that would later be the answer to everything.

. . .

Ten minutes had passed when the person had arrived at the butcher shop. He went around the back rather than the front as he would immediately be jumped by the two-ps and maybe even beaten if given the chance. Yet they obviously did not know that their successes in battle had been mainly because of him and his insider knowledge that they did not posses on their own. Everything that Luciano needed to know about all of their counterparts was seeped through him as a string of information that was very, very important.

It made him laugh knowing that his so called 'companions' had no yet realized they had a spy on their hands. They were just too oblivious, or maybe just convinced that Luciano was as sly as he seemed and that he somehow magically knew everything about them. But that did not matter as he wouldn't speak up about it until they found out themselves. As planned Luciano was waiting around back, glancing at his watch briefly before the taller man appeared.

"On time, as always." He said with a smile. The other nodded. "I don't disappoint." He added, his voice low. "And I have something important you need to know." He said, his face rather serious and without a smile. This caused Luciano's own to disappear. "What is it?" His voice was weary, and his eyes threatening.

"Arthur found out about a spell. One that would send all of you back to your dimension. He can't conduct it yet because he's missing two things. One of them is basically in the palm of his hands but the other you still have a chance to get."

"Which is?"

"The spell requires three mages according to him. The first being himself and the second being a Romanian fellow that has already arrived at the airport and is awaiting to be picked up. But the third is a boy named Lukas Bondevik who has yet to arrive here from Norway. If you can get to the airport and intercept him before my companions do then you'll have an important piece to the puzzle."

"Will you be able to stall them?"

"I'm unsure. His flight might take a good couple of hours to arrive but the others are already on the way to the airport to pick up everyone else. They might wait there for him and that leaves me with no power. But I can easily slow their production back at our new 'headquarters'." Luciano's smile returned, himself being satisfied with the new bit of information. "You did good and this will be a great part in our operation. Please contact me if anything else comes up. Just leave the rest to us." The other nodded and then left without another word, making his way onto the sidewalk and disappearing down the road.

All the while Lanzo had been listening in on their conversation. He knew it, he knew it damn it! He knew something was up. Of course Luciano had someone on the inside working for him, it only made sense! That was the only explainable way on how the bastard found out about everything. Every little bit of information was shared with him. By who Lanzo was unsure.

He was saddened really.

If he had poked his head out anymore from behind the tree than he would of surely been seen. And their voices had still been faint, even then. The speaker was unknown as he spoke so quietly and calmly, but Luciano's was much more bold and loud. But that didn't matter now, Lanzo had discovered something of new. And now his next plan of action was to tell Gilbert about it. The albino could share it with whomever he wished after that, Lanzo didn't care. But this meant the war was still raging and that this torment wouldn't be over any time soon.

Halò = Hello (Gaelic)

Spero che vi siate divertiti = I hope you had fun (Italian)

A/N: Sorry for this taking so damn long to update guys. Over the past two weeks I've been extremely sick. I didn't think it would get too bad but my asthma kicked in and I ended up in a hospital for a good bit. Got on some pills and stuff too. While I was out of school, every time I tried to write in this my head started killing me and I just had to get off. Eventually I got back onto it and managed to make this. It's shorter than normal but I couldn't help but just finish this off as it was...

I'm almost out of school, summer vacation is in a couple of days. Once that hits I'll be able to upload a bit more often, at least I hope so. I plan to finish Taken within that time frame, and maybe even start a sequel if the thought comes to me. Also kudos to those that figured out Scotland. Most of you guys guessed it and I figured I had made it a bit too obvious. And of course Luciano's being a slimy bastard and Arthur figures out another bit in the puzzle. Lovino's feeling the guilt and then the final question, whose the traitor? Few hints yes but looking at the ones I did give allows you to cross out multiple people on the list.

I'd love to see what guesses you guys come up with.

Also, I chose against using the more popular name for Scotland that's supposed to be "Allistor" or something of similarity. A friend of mine suggested "Ross" and I found it just a bit more fitting for him than the latter. Also, sorry if his speech is not the best. I wanted to make it seem like his accent was showing, but not to the point of illegibility. I've seen that quite a few times in fanfictions and I didn't want to make the same mistake.