Chapter 2. Light 'Em Up.
Alfred was perfectly still, unwilling to move unless told to do so by the person sitting in front of him. He was given orders, ones that he had to obey, for no other reason than for loyalty. He listened to every detail carefully. The words were coming from the man in front of him, no matter what he would say, Alfred would memorize the words and keep them in his head for eternity.
"Do you understand the details of your mission?" the king asked clearly.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Alfred said, still unmoving from his place, kneeling before the throne. He had been in more uncomfortable positions for much, much longer than this.
"Bring only two others with you," the king said and Alfred nodded minutely. "We don't need the whole team out this time. It's a small uprising."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Alfred said once again. It was silent in the room for a short while. The king let out a sigh and Alfred obediently stayed where he was. The king was very stressed, he was a man with a lot of responsibilities and Alfred would have pitied him if he was a lesser man. However, the king was a man that garnered all of the respect that he deserved and, as far as Alfred knew, he would only ever show a weakness like this around him or Matthew. Knowing that gave Alfred quite a bit of pride and he let a small smile show on his face, since there was no one else in the room.
"You may leave," the king said after a short while and Alfred obediently stood up immediately. He looked at the king, but never in the eye, only to show his respect with a bow of his head before he turned to leave. The king looked as he always did, Alfred had long since memorized his face, his silvery white hair slightly mussed and partially hidden underneath his crown, which Alfred had come to understand he didn't like on his head. His eyes were a dull, stressed violet and every time Alfred saw them, he longed to assist the king in any way that he could. He was dressed lavishly, as usual, though Alfred also knew that he didn't quite like that either.
Alfred would do anything in his power to make king Ivan's life as easy as possible. Even if that meant killing anyone the man pointed at.
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Alfred said as he left the room. He hated forcing all kindness from his eyes in front of the king, but Ivan had once said that it made Alfred look weak. He could never look weak in front of him. So he kept his gaze steely as he walked through the familiar building. It wasn't the castles from history that most kings lived in, it was a very sleek, modern building that Alfred had completely memorized, including the air ducts. Soldiers stood every few feet apart and servants moved back and forth feverishly to ensure all of their duties were accomplished. Everyone there knew Alfred well. They knew the entire team of assassins, however, Alfred was the only one that made regular visits to gain information about the next assignment.
This one was to be done as soon as Alfred gathered his team, evidently. There was a small uprising in a town a small distance from the capital, where this building stood at the center. It was only small and so the king only wanted three members of the team to go. Alfred thought, as he left the building, of who to take. Naturally, he would take his brother with him, but then the question arose of who else to take.
Roderich and Elizabeta only worked well when they worked together, that was a weakness that they shared, so he could not take them. Gilbert was out of the question, not only due to Alfred's slight animosity towards the man, but also for the fact that he was the most recent person to enter their team and he lacked proper experience for something like this. That only left Kiku, then. He was a good fighter that could obey orders and stray from them only when necessary and never allow emotions to interrupt his thoughts. He would be a good match for this assignment.
Alfred walked into the cold, smog-filled air (the building had a filter, as most buildings in the capital did, due to the amount of pollution in the area), growing accustomed to the contrast of the outdoors very quickly. The building where his group stayed was not far from the center of the capital. He walked in just a brisk walk. He was sure that it wouldn't take much to quell this rebellion, especially once they started killing a few of the people.
Within minutes, he reached the building and quickly punched in the security code on the pad that enabled him to open the door. The door slid shut behind him and he breathed in the air from the filter, which wasn't quite as good as the king's, but that much was expected. It was much quieter inside as well. Outside, there were people and cars in every direction and the walls acted as a nice barrier to have some peace and quiet. As soon as the door was closed, Alfred allowed himself to relax, his demeanor and his steely gaze.
"Hey, Matt!" Alfred called as he walked through the main hallway. There were six rooms, one of which was vacant due to Alfred and Matthew sharing a room, and a kitchen at the end of the hallway. Each room had its own bathroom, for which Alfred was fairly thankful for. "Kiku!"
"Big, fancy mission from the king himself?" Gilbert teased, his own door sliding open before Matthew opened the one for the room he and Alfred shared.
"Yes," Alfred said easily. Kiku's door opened a second later and he looked at him in interest. "The mission's going to be done as soon as possible, so gather supplies and we'll head out. It's a small uprising in a town to the north, we are not to be seen, understood?"
The two nodded before disappearing into their rooms.
"Think the revolutionaries are involved?" Gilbert asked. "That's the same place we attacked just a few days ago, right?"
"Yes," Alfred said, walking to his room with Matthew. He only had a pistol on him and he needed a few more supplies for a mission like this. Especially if the small uprising grew once panic started with deaths occurring. "If they are involved, we will just kill them."
"Well, don't die, then, I guess," Gilbert snorted before his door closed as he walked away. Alfred entered the room he shared with Matthew. In one of the closets, Matthew was already going through some of the weapons they had, storing them in inconspicuous places.
"Was he still as stressed out as last time?" Matthew asked, storing a small knife in his sock and covering it expertly with his pants.
"I think a little more," Alfred sighed, slumping on the bed and running a hand through his hair. "I wish I could help a little more, you know? I mean…he's always just doing so much."
"Well, if this is going to help with some of the stress, I'm happy to go along," Matthew smiled back at him and Alfred gave a small smile in return.
"I just feel like I'll never return the favor for what he did for us," Alfred admitted before standing and picking out a few of the pistols they had. They were sleek and small, but powerful and quiet, so they were perfect for a mission like this. He checked the bullets in them, despite the fact that the king had ensured that they were reimbursed for their last mission. The bullets were made from the same materials the swords and knives were, almost like lasers, meant to hurt anything that it touched. Which was why, even while they hid the knives and swords, the blade would only appear at the press of a button. Alfred rarely wound up using the blades, usually preferring to use guns over anything else.
"I don't really think there's a way to do that," Matthew smiled softly before standing up. "In any case, I'm ready when you are."
"My guess is we'll be back in maybe two hours, max," Alfred sighed as he stood up. "The king has us on a shuttle to get there, so 10 minutes to travel there and back and as much time as we need to make sure everyone's calmed down."
"Or we can just kill everyone," Matthew joked as he walked to the door. "That gets people calm really fast."
"You're hilarious," Alfred rolled his eyes, picking up the small screen on his bed and checking to make sure that all of the faces he had to memorize were going to be on there. Thankfully, they were, and he smiled as he followed Matthew out of their room and into the hallway, where Kiku was already waiting for them. "Alright, let's get this over with."
A man sighed from where he stood in a very, very small alleyway, watching the events unfold that he started himself. He winced every time he saw blood. He didn't want to make the public go through this, but it would save more lives in the long run. he just had to remind himself of that every time he saw another innocent man fall at the hands of a soldier.
"You should just stop watching if it hurts you so much," another man chuckled behind him and the first one rolled his eyes before turning back to glare at him.
"If I'm responsible for this, then I would prefer that I know the outcome," the first one snapped.
"Of course, Arthur," the second man laughed lightly. The first man, Arthur, simply moved his head back to look at the mess unfolding in front of him. Both men were about the same size, the second one, Francis, was a little taller.
Arthur had ragged blonde hair that he was currently covering with a hood just to ensure that he wasn't seen around here. Everyone in their group was hiding themselves well so that they couldn't be recognized anywhere else. His eyes were a bright, emerald green, that gave off a harsh glare to the soldiers. Francis had blonde hair as well, though it was longer and obviously better groomed, which annoyed Arthur to no end, and bright blue eyes that would have seemed innocent, if Arthur hadn't known what the man had already been through. He had been forced to dress dully, mostly due to their mission involving staying hidden.
"They should come here any minute," Arthur muttered. He knew that, even with a small uprising like this, the soldiers couldn't handle it themselves. The king would send in his lackeys, surely. Though not all of them, it was still small. Arthur guessed about half of them would show up. This would be a perfect chance. He knew from watching them for long periods of time, that there were two that went on nearly every mission; the twins. They were special cases that Arthur wanted to avoid for as long of a time as possible. He didn't know much about their situation, but he could tell clearly by looking at them that they were not only incredibly lethal, but also completely devoted and Arthur honestly couldn't tell why. With those two in mind, there could only be one other person that came with them, out of four. They would just have to hope that they could get that person. They didn't want to kill them, but they would if they had to. Their best hope would be to take them into custody and…hopefully…change their minds about their predicament.
"What do you intend to do to get the twins out of the way?" Francis asked.
"I distract them," Arthur sighed. "Hopefully Feli and Lovino can handle taking the last one, if they do bring three. This whole mission is just based on assumptions anyway. That's what I dislike the most about it."
"You have Antonio as backup, just in case," Francis chuckled, patting his back. "He's the best sniper I've seen."
"I'm sure if the twins wanted to be snipers, they could be better," Arthur muttered under his breath. "Rather, if the king wanted them to be snipers."
Suddenly, one of the rebellious citizens fell, a bullet through their forehead. Arthur jumped just slightly, as he had been distracted before the moment, but now he was on high alert, looking minutely in all directions to see if he could spot the culprits as more people dropped.
"They do work rather quickly," Francis snickered from where they stood and Arthur rolled his eyes. That was when Arthur could see, hidden behind a few buildings just a short ways away, was one of the men in the group, not one of the twins. It was the smaller one, with black hair, that generally preferred to use a sword.
"Dammit," Arthur cursed. "I had hoped they would have brought one of the others. This one will be more difficult."
"Would you have preferred that they brought the albino?" Francis smirked and Arthur scoffed. He had to keep looking for the twins. He had to distract them so that everyone else could do what they needed to do in this plan. It was turning into chaos a lot faster than he had thought. Every shot that hit was expertly done, hitting either perfectly in the center of their forehead or the center of their heart with every shot. They had no mercy.
Arthur had his gun at the ready in his hand just in case he had to go on the defensive with anyone, whether that be an assassin or a soldier nearby. From what he could tell, it really was only those three with only Kiku in plain sight, which meant Arthur was in plain sight if he wasn't careful.
"We need to move," Arthur said and moved further into the alleyway with Francis, moving them through the small spaces between the buildings of the town. Now, they couldn't see Kiku, but they had a chance of seeing the other two. Arthur sighed heavily as he continued to search quickly. One bullet missed and nearly hit him, but firmly hit the corner of a wall he was on and he immediately ducked behind the wall. "What the hell? They don't miss."
"Unless someone made them miss?" Francis offered with a shrug. Then, in a crackle through the earpiece firmly in his ear, he heard something he definitely did not want to hear.
"We've got one, sir!" that was Feliciano's chipper voice and Arthur felt his stomach drop.
"What the hell did you do?" Arthur snapped at him.
"I got one of the twins, just like you ordered."
Arthur's eyes went wide and he glanced back at Francis, whose face of terror mirrored his own.
"Are you bloody serious?" Arthur muttered under his breath. Firstly, how the hell did Feli and Lovino manage to actually get one of the twins, especially in a mission like this? Secondly, what were they to do now that they had one of the two most devoted people in the world to king Ivan in their custody? The king would go after them, surely, and their captive would definitely do their damnedest to get away. "Feliciano, make sure he cannot move and will not wake up, however you managed to obtain him. Don't wait for us. I repeat, do not wait for us. Take him back as fast as you can to the hideout. We will meet you there."
"What are we doing now?" Francis asked.
"Now we make even more of a distraction," Arthur sighed. "If they're both still alive, that means the other twin didn't notice. We still have a chance to get away with this. Now we just have to hope that we got the quieter twin."
Yay! Chapter two and we have a little bit of Arthur. He is, in essence, in league with the revolutionaries. They don't have as cool of a name as Night Raid from Akame ga Kill, I don't even think they have a name in the first place. Anywho, they had a plan, which went awry, thanks to poor Feli. Now you know, more or less, who all is in the revolutionary army thingy, but you'll get a better look next chapter! Also, those sword things that I described, I kind of think of them like lightsabers, if you ask me. And I imagine them as red blades, which I will probably write out later anyway.
Also, I wanted to update this so much sooner in the day, but FanFiction was being weird with it's servers or whatever, so sorry about that! I really would have updated so much sooner!
Ages! Arthur is 24, Francis is 19, and Ivan is 45. (BTW, this is, like, the second time, I've made Ivan double the age of everyone else. But I need him to be this old for reasons…Sadness….)
Anywho, I believe that is all, so I will leave you with this; please review! I'll love you forever and ever and ever!