Chapter 3. Arms Race.
Matthew breathed evenly from where he was perched on the top of a building, aiming his gun perfectly at someone who was fighting with everything they had against a soldier trying to calm them down. Matthew fired easily enough and the person fell in less than a second. Matthew moved to aim at the next person. Just as his finger was about to press the trigger, however, he clearly saw something roll on the ground at the base of the building he was at. He cursed under his breath and quickly moved, jumping to an adjacent building just before the little grenade exploded. He held up his arm to shield his face from the debris, which clanked to the ground around him. He gritted his teeth.
Someone knew where he was. But how? He hadn't exactly been paying much attention to his surroundings since this seemed like such a small quarrel, but it seemed like there was someone a little smarter behind this. Matthew moved again before he even saw the next grenade. He could clearly see Kiku, who was running through the forest of buildings, occasional shots from what seemed like a sniper rifle gliding past him. Matthew bit his lip. He didn't have the time to look around for the location of a sniper he didn't even knew existed, especially while someone was throwing grenades to distract him. Matthew glanced around but couldn't see his brother. He hoped that he was smart and decided to go ahead to their agreed meeting point already. Matthew fired off a few more shots, hitting the most violent people in the crowd, before jumping off the building and disappearing into the darkness of the alleyways. It wasn't long before he was a few miles away from the town, but he could still hear some of the chaos, that was already calming down. At least he managed to do his job.
After a few moments, Kiku jogged up to him.
"Do you know what happened?" Matthew asked.
"They appeared to know where we were," Kiku shook his head. "It was foolish for us to assume that there would be no threats on this mission."
"It's been a while since we've had any other assassins on a mission," Matthew muttered, glancing around. "Did you see Alfred?"
"No, I thought you were the one with the better line of sight on him," Kiku said.
"I'm sure he'll come around," Matthew sighed, checking on the bullets in his gun, just in case. He replaced some of his used bullets before looking around casually. They were in a dank, run down part of town. Their shuttle that would take them back to the capital wouldn't arrive for another 10 minutes, it would take about one to get to the shuttle before it left 5 minutes after its arrival. Alfred would be there by then, Matthew was sure of it. "Since they knew we were there, we can assume that this was a set up. A risky move from the revolutionaries, considering it meant killing so many people. What would they have wanted?"
"They were not acting as if to kill us," Kiku said. "Perhaps they just wanted to see our level of skill?"
"They wouldn't have distracted us, then," Matthew muttered. He was getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Alfred was never this slow. "If he doesn't show up, we can assume they distracted us to mask his capture."
"Capture?" Kiku seemed startled, though relaxed slightly upon thinking about how realistic the idea was. "What purpose would there be to capture Alfred?"
"I'm not going to try to get into their heads," Matthew sighed. "Whatever their reasons, I'm sure this means that they wanted to start something. They knew Alfred would show up on any mission, if they have been watching us, which is perfectly possible, especially if they have a sniper with them."
"You will have to report this to the king," Kiku said, in a rather small voice. Matthew felt a small pit grow in his stomach. God, he hoped Alfred would arrive. If he didn't…Matthew would go to the king instead, the king would know something would be wrong. What would happen? Would Matthew be disciplined? It would make sense, without Alfred around, Matthew would be in charge.
"It must have taken a high level of skill, even if they did manage to capture him alive," Matthew sighed, choosing not to focus on that line of thought for very long in the first place. "I'm sure the people we are going against are a highly skilled, cohesive team. Even if Alfred evaded capture, they will remain a problem for some time. We will need to keep that in mind."
Kiku nodded wordlessly and they waited for a few minutes. With every second that passed, Matthew felt more and more like he was about to throw up. Alfred didn't show up. They waited as long as they possibly could, narrowly missing their shuttle, but Alfred did not show up. He would never miss their way back to the capital, no matter what happened. He was definitely captured. And Matthew was going to get him back, one way or another.
Alfred woke up. That was the strange part. Last thing he knew, he was on a regular mission, shooting down a riot for the sake of the king…and now we was waking up. He was immediately on edge and didn't open his eyes, keeping his breathing even. He focused his hearing around him, but found that he couldn't hear anything, not even a breath. He was alone in this room, which seemed to be small, judging by how the sound of his breathing reverberated. He wasn't tied up or anything, which was odd, considering this was most likely at the hands of the enemy, most likely the revolutionaries.
The most important question rose now. Why was he captured? What purpose did this serve? No one should know that Alfred, or any of his team for that matter, existed. How was he spotted from where he was? Unless someone was looking for him. Someone knew that he was going to be there and used that to their advantage, meaning someone must have been watching him and his group for quite some time. He would have to be more careful once he got back to the capital. He just had to hope that his brother wasn't too worried about him.
Alfred carefully opened his eyes just to make sure that no one was in the room with him. He sat upright once he knew he was alone, finding himself in a simple room with only a bed and a simple glass of water sitting on the bedside table. Alfred carefully observed it but found that it didn't seem like anything was done to it, but decided not to touch it. Whoever took him into their custody were rather stupid, leaving him alone, untied, in a room with a door that seemed easy to open. What was their game?
Alfred was quickly on his feet and checked himself over. They had found and took all of his weapons. Well…nearly all of them. There were the few that they, of course, didn't know about. Alfred's secret weapon, which always came in handy. He was still in the clothing he had been in before, so he wasn't extremely alarmed. He crept towards the door and found that it was locked, the keypad to unlock it most likely on the other side of the door. Alfred smirked. Already time to use his secret weapons.
"You were the one that didn't give clear orders!" Lovino snapped and Arthur sighed heavily, his head in his hands. They were back at headquarters, which was really just a small building with a few rooms, a kitchen, and tiny living room, where nearly all of the team was at. Feliciano was in the kitchen making food, as that was his stress reliever and he desperately needed it, especially after his big mess up on this mission.
"It doesn't really matter," Arthur said, rubbing the back of his neck. "None of the choices we had were really good ones. From the information we have, the other one with them has been in the group for about as long as the twins, just a little less. Our best bet would have been the woman or her partner, who have been there longer than the albino."
"What do you propose we do now?" Ludwig asked and Arthur just sighed once again before looking up, straightening himself out. He was the leader of this little group, he had to make sure he looked proud, even when he wasn't. Francis was slouched next to him on the couch with Antonio standing beside him. Antonio was fairly normal, one of the few out of the group that could easily go into any town and blend in. He had chocolate brown, mussed up hair and bright green eyes and he always seemed cheerful, like Feliciano. He had the best eyes of anyone in the room, which was why he was always on standby as their sniper on every mission they had him on. Standing on the other side of the room, glaring at everyone else, was Lovino, who had a very opposite personality to Antonio and Feliciano. He had dark brown hair as well, along with dark brown eyes, he was fairly small, but was very good with reconnaissance and, with Feliciano, very good with explosives and stealth missions, despite his loud voice.
Standing in front of Arthur was Ludwig, stoic and calm as ever. He had incredibly neat, slicked back blonde hair and bright blue eyes that never really seemed to betray any emotion. He was best in hand-to-hand combat, though that was usually never necessary, ergo why he was the only one not to go on the mission that had gone so wrong. He was very close friends with Feliciano, despite Lovino, his older brother, hating him, though Ludwig didn't even seem to mind the hatred.
"We wait for him to wake up," Arthur shrugged. "Considering he is one of the twins, he will find a way out of that room, so we need to stay on guard."
"Do we know anything else about him?" Antonio asked.
"He's…the louder one," Arthur sighed. "Our little spy apparently can't give us names, so we will have to find that out on our own, but he did give us some information. The twins have been with the king far longer than any of the other members on that team. They are good at any skill that they attempt, they were, in essence, made to be killers."
"So that means just sitting down and talking will be out of the question?" Francis chuckled slightly.
"Do not make light of this situation," Arthur snapped. "With him even sleeping here, all of our lives could be at risk."
"Then why keep the fucker alive?" Lovino snapped.
"Our goal is not to kill all of them," Arthur massaged the bridge of his nose. "Our goal is to try to break some of the allegiance to the king. I would have preferred we started smaller with someone else, even the other one would have been better, but we will have to work with what we have. Even if we do kill him, imagine the repercussions that would ensue. We would not survive another day, considering how much the king seems to rely on him."
"It should only take a few days for them to find him and us," Ludwig said. "We will need to be careful."
"Yes, I can't imagine this will be an extremely easy task," Arthur said. "But we will do what we can."
Everyone in the room froze at the sound of Feliciano's high-pitched scream and Arthur flinched.
"Feli!" Antonio was the first to move, quickly followed by the rest of the group, all of them equally concerned for the fate of their friend. If the twin was awake, that could only mean bad things from here on out. Arthur forced his way to the front of the group, past Antonio and Lovino, and stopped right where he was.
Just as he expected, the man was awake and he kept his steely gaze on all of them, changing between them until his eyes rested on Arthur. He could apparently tell that he was the leader of the group, either by his demeanor or the fact that he was in the front. He kept a knife placed firmly to Feliciano's throat. It was an old knife, only made of metal, and so it rested against the skin, just a tiny bit of force away from breaking the skin and causing damage. It looked like Feliciano had only just been using it for cooking. Feliciano looked about ready to cry, never one for stressful situations.
"Where am I?" The twin's voice came out evenly and Arthur took a deep breath before calmly taking a small step forward. The man flinched slightly, moving the knife just barely, but enough to put everyone on edge. Even Lovino was staying quiet in this situation, evidently afraid of what might happen to his little brother. "Answer the question."
"You are in our hideout, we cannot tell you where we are," Arthur said carefully.
"Who are you?" the man asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
"I guess you can consider us revolutionaries," Arthur said. The man immediately tensed even more and Arthur inwardly groaned. That was perhaps not the best course of action he could have taken.
"What's stopping me from killing him, then?" the man asked and Feliciano let a few tears fall. The man was obviously dangerous, exceptionally more so than when Arthur had seen him asleep. He had looked almost innocent then, but now he was obviously a killer and nothing else. Hardly even a man.
"I need you to calm down," Arthur said, moving forward with his arms out, showing that he truly had no weapon on him. He did know, however, that Ludwig and Lovino had weapons on them and they were most likely ready to shoot at any time they wanted to.
"All of you have gone against the king," the man said, glancing at all of them carefully once again. Once he found his information satisfactory, he looked back to Arthur. "I should kill all of you right now."
"You do not have any weapons on you," Arthur said carefully. "I will need you to think through your actions carefully. We do not want to harm you."
"That just means you are weak," the man stated. "And I can find and make weapons easily. You're going to have to prove to me that you are useful before I kill you all where you stand."
Arthur nodded carefully, a subtle signal that he hoped the man couldn't understand and a quiet shot rang out, from Lovino's direction, in the small room. The assassin moved expertly out of the way, releasing Feliciano in his movements. Feliciano immediately scrambled over to the other side of the room. The only problem now would be that the man would be more than ready to fight now.
"Ludwig," Arthur said and Ludwig immediately moved in. The man was already in position to counterattack him, but it seemed that Ludwig was more experienced than the assassin, at least in this kind of combat. It was true that this one favored guns, so that was to their advantage. However, the man surprised everyone in the room when he swing a punch at Ludwig and missed, but a red blade appeared out of his arm, tearing through the fabric of his sleeve.
Ludwig immediately wheeled back to avoid being cut as Arthur attempted to understand.
"Prosthetics…" Arthur muttered and immediately turned to Francis, who nodded and pulled out his tiny, portable computer. Arthur turned back, ready to defend Francis as he worked and bit his lip when he saw the man kick and another blade showed itself. Luckily, it seemed Ludwig was holding off the man, at least for the time being, as the man was still slightly sluggish and drowsy from the drugs Feliciano had forced him to inhale just a few hours ago. For now, they seemed to be fine. "Ready whenever you are, Francis."
"Give me a moment," Francis hissed at him and the man turned his attention to them for a fraction of a second, apparently realizing that they were, at least, up to something. "I just need to find the correct frequency…."
"Just take your sweet time," Arthur grumbled and he saw the man starting to work the fight so that he could move, at least slightly, in their direction.
Thankfully, it seemed Francis had found the correct frequency because the man froze for half a second and Ludwig stalled, surprised, before the man fell, unable to move either his legs or arms.
"What the hell just happened?" Lovino snapped as the man appeared to go into a small panic, his breathing becoming uneven as he desperately tried to think of some way to get himself out of this, his eyes still keeping a steely blue gaze.
"Prosthetics," Arthur sighed heavily. It had only been a minor bet after seeing both an arm and a leg being able to wield a sword out of them that he had prosthetics and an even bigger bet that all of his limbs were prosthetics. Even if they weren't all fake, he would still be handicapped without one arm and one leg. "Francis was able to find their frequency and disable them from moving. I suggest still not getting close to him." Judging by the look on his face, the man was in some kind of panic, they still had to be careful. Arthur carefully knelt down fairly close to the man with a small sigh. The man looked about ready to kill him and Arthur was sure, if he could move, he would. "Now, I'm going to need you to remain calm. We aren't going to hurt you."
"You just better hope I can't hurt you," the man growled.
"I see," king Ivan muttered as Matthew knelt before him in place of Alfred. He had told him all of the details of the mission, leaving nothing out, even if it seemed unimportant. He never did this, he had no idea what Alfred normally did. It was rather nerve wracking to be in front of the king, alone, but he also felt a little proud to be the only one in front of the noble man. "Is that all?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Matthew confirmed, keeping a firm gaze on the ground. It hurt, having to retell the loss of his brother. He didn't know what to do with himself, really. What was there to do? He couldn't exactly go looking for him, there were no clues.
"Then we will keep an eye out for him when you go on missions," Ivan said clearly. "Do not go searching him out or seeking fights with anyone if you expect he is with them. We will need to be calm about this."
"Of course," Matthew said, unmoving from his spot because the king hadn't told him to move yet.
"Matthew," the king sighed and Matthew froze, his thoughts stopping all movement. "Stand."
Matthew shakily obeyed, slowly standing up. From what he knew from Alfred, this was not a normal occurrence. He stood and ensured that he didn't look into the king's eyes, though he was startled when he saw that Ivan was standing and…and walking towards him. And before Matthew could even think to react, Ivan had wrapped his arms around him. Matthew had been nowhere close to tears before, but that simple movement had hot tears pricking at his eyes. He didn't dare move, not unless the king told him that he could.
"I am sorry," the king said simply and Matthew understood. He was hurting from the loss as well. Matthew hadn't expected that, the king was a strong man and nothing could hurt his morale. He must have cared quite a lot for Matthew and Alfred, despite not needing to. "We will find him, I am sure. Alive."
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Matthew muttered, his voice refusing to go above a whisper in this situation.
"You may return to your home," the king said as he stepped back to allow Matthew to move. Matthew gave Ivan a small bow of his head before he turned and left the room and then the building. The city around him seemed to move in a blur as he walked through it. He hardly registered anything. He didn't even register when he had made it back into his home until he blinked and saw the familiar hallway that held the rooms of his teammates.
"Birdie?" Gilbert said tentatively, calmly walking out of his room. "I heard from Kiku." He sighed heavily, obviously unsure of what to do or how to act. He wasn't very good at this kind of thing and it normally didn't happen. They were trained assassins, they weren't supposed to have feelings. But this was Matthew's brother. And even the king…
Matthew's feet moved without his consent and he was quickly in front of Gilbert, his arms trapping the man close to him as Matthew buried his face in his chest. And he let the tears pass. For once in years, he cried. He just wished Alfred was there to comfort him, too.
Lots happened in this chapter. I'm not sure how long each chapter is going to be, but I know they're going to be longer than my usual; 2000 words. This one happened to be really long because I wanted to squeeze a lot in here. I really enjoyed this chapter, you have no idea. This fic is stretching me a lot with my skillz because action scenes as well as the way that I have all of the characters. Like Alfred and Matthew, I'm trying really hard with both of them because I'm just so in love with their characters and all of that! Also, for those of you that may or may not be scared of Ivan being the "bad guy" in this fic, he is not…quite. It's hard to explain, but you will see as the story unfolds. I love all of the characters in this fic and their backstories, so be just as excited for I am for it to really get rolling!
Also, this chapter was finished, like, last week, but I wanted to get another chapter done before I posted it and, since I had today off, I thought I would have plenty of time to write. As it turns out...I like to make bad decisions, so instead I watched hours worth of Markiplier on YouTube, and I'm really far behind, even on the Valentine's Day FanFic I wanna post...Single tear...
Ages; Antonio is 24, Feliciano is 20, Lovino is 22, and Ludwig is 19.
And please review! It keeps me fired up!