Chapter 16. Starlight.
"Oh, and you would never believe the two women Francis and I ran into a few months ago," Antonio laughed from where he lounged against a wall, as if there was no threat in the slightest. They had made it to the place of the demonstration early enough for no one to notice them enter the abandoned buildings around the small square. Already, night was falling around them and people were congregating, despite the risk. Gilbert, Antonio, and Francis were lounging around, talking and catching up, as Gilbert had been away for years from his "best friends". Alfred scoffed from where he stood against the window, watching the evening progress.
"Are you talking about the one that spat when she talked and the one with the terrible smell?" Francis laughed even harder, especially when Antonio nodded in agreement.
"Holy shit, are you serious?" Gilbert cackled. He was on the ground, unlike the other two, legs crossed as he relaxed.
"Yeah, and they kept coming onto us, even when we dropped some pretty obvious hints," Antonio smirked. "They both thought Francis was the best thing in the world, but the girl with the smell decided she could settle for me."
"So did you?" Gilbert asked, obviously interested in such a trivial conversation.
Francis and Antonio were quiet for a while as they glanced at each other. It didn't take long for Gilbert to figure out what that meant as he burst into laughter once again.
"The speaker's in the square," Alfred muttered and the three turned their attention to him. Finally, they had stopped catching up and focused on the mission at hand. Alfred watched at the revolutionary man walked into the square and was surrounded by people that had heard of him before, loved his ideals. And the protestors, naturally.
"Toni," Gilbert said and Antonio nodded, going to his sniper rifle positioned on the ground and he began to look through the small hole they had managed to find in the dilapidated wall. He was searching for anyone in Alfred's old team that would be there and give any trouble.
"So, what are we doing with him?" Alfred asked.
"Watching," Francis shrugged, leaning against the open window, shattered glass long since cleaned out by the wind. "If we need to get rid of him, we will. For now, we're going to see if he's got the same ideals as us. He might be useful if we could rope him in."
"Not our group, of course," Gilbert smirked. "No way would Arthur accept anyone stupid enough to announce his presence to the king. But the main guys in charge of the revolutionary army might like him."
"How many are there of you in this army?" Alfred asked.
"Don't get your panties in a twist," Gilbert laughed. "They're all mostly stationed in Markatus, Prulamuck, and Eltrack anyway. That's where it's safe. They're waiting out there for us to make our move from the inside. We're the scouting team, I guess."
"They really were going against the king?" Alfred muttered. He hadn't had the chance to properly check them out or anything.
"He got damn close to finding out, too," Gilbert shrugged. "Can't change anything now, can you?"
"Arthur will give them a signal when we are ready to move and take the crown from Ivan and," Francis continued for him, "after that, we will change the government for the better. The people really in charge are going to take over that part. That's not our expertise. We just kill people in the shadows."
"So all we do is try to obey orders?" Alfred asked coldly.
"You're the one that's shit at it," Gilbert said off-handedly. Alfred opened his mouth to retort, but Antonio was faster.
"Found them," Antonio said simply, tensing slightly from his position. He was ready to fire at any moment.
"Is Matthew there?" Gilbert asked. He asked before Alfred even had a chance to. He knew that it was likely the whole team knew about every single one of the members on Alfred's old team, if not from Alfred then from Gilbert.
"Yup," Antonio nodded minutely. "Kiku is with him, no one else, as far as I can tell."
"A job like this?" Alfred smirked slightly. "Should've only needed one person."
"He doesn't look like he normally does," Antonio shifted.
"What do you mean? "Gilbert asked.
"He's sluggish," Antonio reported, adjusting his scope minutely to get a better view. "He looks exhausted, he's in no shape to fight us should we engage." Alfred looked off in that direction, hoping to see his brother, though he knew he wouldn't get the chance. Why would he drive himself down like that? There were three others left on the team for crying out loud… He couldn't be allowing his emotions to get a hold of him like this. "And he's angry. I can tell by the way he's carrying himself."
"Shit," Gilbert muttered.
"The speaker is starting," Francis said, alerting everyone's attention to the matter at hand.
"Stay focused on Mattie," Alfred said. "We can watch the speaker." Antonio nodded just slightly, enough to tell Alfred that he heard him. Alfred looked to the speaker, who was talking animatedly about how it was the king's fault that they were in such slums and that the rest of the world was in such better shape. Surprisingly, no soldiers came, most likely because Matthew was there. The crowd seemed to like him well enough, though they were obviously hesitant to go against the king.
"He's getting ready to shoot," Antonio said.
Alfred looked to Gilbert and Francis, hoping that they would have some kind of idea in mind for what they were supposed to do. They had earpieces to talk to Arthur, at the very least. Well, at least Antonio and Francis did. Gilbert and Alfred didn't, probably due to the fact that they didn't have enough. Francis could at least ask Arthur, but he wasn't, he seemed very tense, looking at the speaker, deep in thought. Were they seriously thinking about keeping someone like him?
"He's popular," Francis finally muttered. "And his ideals are fairly closely aligned to ours." He sighed deeply. "Don't let him kill him."
"Roger that," Gilbert nodded with a slight smirk, but it fell when he looked in the direction of Matthew. "Don't kill him, alright Toni?"
"Then what do you propose I do to stop him?" Antonio asked impatiently. "I say we have less than a minute."
"Shoot right between him and Kiku," Alfred said. "He'll react, it means someone is watching him."
"Then get ready to move," Gilbert shook his head and Antonio nodded, his finger pressed lightly against the trigger. In just a few moments, he fired, jerked back just slightly from the force of the gun.
"Run," Antonio said simply, getting up and taking his gun with him. Immediately, quite a few shots fired into the little room that they were in and Alfred ducked down, quickly following the three as they darted down the dilapidated stairs and out onto the street, only to enter another building, this one definitely occupied by someone who wasn't there, but that didn't matter.
"So, what now?" Francis huffed as he slammed the door shut. The house was empty that was sure, but it didn't seem to be in much better shape than the one they had been in moments ago. The walls and ceiling were crumbling and the furniture looked like it was decaying.
"Formation A?" Gilbert proposed with a small smirk. Antonio and Francis glanced back at him with matching smiles.
"Formation A?" Alfred asked and the three looked towards him.
"We need a distraction," Gilbert said and pushed Alfred towards the windows that faced the square. There was no more firing, but the crowd was, at the very least, on edge. The speaker was trying to calm them down, obviously caring about their safety. Maybe he wasn't that bad of a guy…But…he was against the king…But so was Alfred… "Shoot where Matthew was, keep him distracted."
"And if he's already moved?" Alfred asked.
"He'll still shoot over here," Gilbert shrugged. Alfred rolled his eyes.
"What are you doing?" Alfred asked.
"Just trust me, alright?" Gilbert smirked. "Keep the fire off of us, once we're gone, just go back to headquarters without being followed. I trust ya enough!" With a wink, he ran out the door with the other two and Alfred shook his head with a small sigh. The windows in front of him were weak and so, as he pulled out his pistol, he slammed the gun into the two windows that were right next to each other, pulling away as they shattered. He ducked underneath them as shots were fired into the room. Just as he expected. From where the bullets came from, Alfred could guess that Kiku and Matthew had separated and were firing from opposite ends of the square. He needed to distract both of them, and all he had was the six bullets in his gun and another clip to reload.
Alfred took a deep breath and pointed his gun in the direction of one of them, he couldn't tell who was where, and fired two shots before ducking down. Only two shots followed and he stood up again, pointed in the other direction, fired one shot, the pointed in the other direction and fired another. He ducked down as more shots hit him. That was four. Those three better be moving fast. Alfred aimed to his right once again and fired one more shot as he could see the three moving in the square. Antonio was on the far left of the square while Francis was on the far right, Gilbert running in the middle. Antonio and Francis were firing where Alfred had been, giving them cover, while Gilbert ran straight for the speaker.
That was when Alfred saw Matthew in the window, ducking to avoid a bullet. Alfred aimed carefully with his sixth bullet and shot, the bullet sliding right in front of Matthew's face. He ducked down again and breathed deeply, hoping his brother hadn't seen him. Kiku was the one that fired after that, just as Alfred was about to stand again, grazing his arm just barely with the bullet. Alfred winced from the impact as he ducked out of the house. Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio had managed to leave the square, taking the speaker with them.
Matthew panted from where he stood, staring at where the bullet had slammed into the wall. Dammit…Matthew knew it was Alfred…and the bastard had the gall to miss? No, he didn't miss, he did that on purpose. Alfred never missed. Matthew glanced back to the square left in chaos, where he'd seen Gilbert, but hadn't had the chance to fire a single shot at him. The speaker was gone, along with the other three from the revolutionaries.
"Dammit," Matthew muttered. Another failed mission. Why was he so useless? Surely, the king would say that it was alright, that Matthew shouldn't care so much…but it did matter, quite a lot. The king had trusted him with such a simple mission and he had failed him. Matthew slumped onto the ground, leaning heavily against the wall. He was in some person's house but he doubted they would return anytime soon, what with the chaos in the square below him.
"Matthew," Kiku muttered, entering the building. "Alfred ran, I could not see where."
"Doesn't matter," Matthew shook his head. He hadn't expected them to show up. They hadn't shown up on any of his missions. Why now? What were they up to? Why did they take that speaker, who talked about the king in such a way? Surely, he was evil if he could go on stage and attempt to brainwash the public into thinking that their current living conditions were the fault of the king. The king did his best with what he had, this was not his fault. It took time for conditions to improve.
"Do not be upset," Kiku said carefully. Matthew noticed in that moment that something wet was falling down his cheeks and he flinched, swiftly wiping away the moisture as he looked away from Kiku, who sat directly in front of him. "But also do not hold back your emotions, Matthew."
"Doesn't matter," Matthew repeated himself.
"It does," Kiku pressed. "You are not acting like your usual self because of this. You are angrier than usual, you were far too ready to enter into that gunfight."
"That means nothing," Matthew shook his head.
"Matthew, I want the best for you, you are my friend," Kiku said simply. "Pardon me if I seem rude in saying that you need to get your shit together. You shouldn't be emotionally compromised like this just because of two people you have already decided mean nothing to you when they obviously do. If you really want to get your revenge, do it properly. Fight properly and think about your actions."
"Kiku," Matthew muttered, looking up at his friend, who looked at him with a very intent expression. "I'm trying," Matthew admitted. "I just can't. You don't understand…"
"I know what they meant to you," Kiku nodded. "Nothing can replace a brother and I can tell that you cared a lot about Gilbert. I know you loved both of them because they are eliciting this kind of reaction. Use these emotions to fuel the proper reaction."
"And what's the proper reaction?" Matthew gave an exasperated sigh. He had tried to calm himself down, he had tried to let out his anger, he had tried to focus on the missions, he had tried to forget about them.
"Don't let them control you," Kiku said. "Don't let them consume your thoughts or your life. If you do, you will continue to fail and not produce the results you want. It's getting late. We should go back to the king."
"Right," Matthew nodded as he carefully steadied himself on his feet. The people had yet to calm down, some people happily taking advantage of the chaos to break a few laws. There were still no soldiers because Ivan had trusted Matthew and Kiku to keep it calm. "Wait."
"I was hoping you would say that," Kiku smiled.
"We can at least try to do something right," Matthew sighed. He pointed his gun at the crowd, finding one of the biggest trouble makers, who was trying to assault a random woman. Matthew fired.
Phew, I'm so sorry for anyone that had to deal with this trainwreck this morning...jeez. First, I updated the wrong chapter by mistake and that was up for all of 10 minutes, but then I updated the unedited version of this one, which wasn't bad, but I was on a tight schedule in the morning and so I had to run off somewhere for a few hours, so this had to be up for a while. Everything is in order now, though, so thank you to the people that were patient and all that stuff...
Anyway, been a while since the last action scene, huh? Well, anyway, here we are! Alfred's seeming a lot less conflicted than Matthew, oddly enough. And Kiku got a wonderful, shining moment with a few words of advice. I love Kiku, I just never get him right and I'm hoping I finally did. My other main problem is that he, like, never gets a major roll, but now he does! Anywho, lots happened, and the speaker is an OC, so he's not extremely major to the plot, but there's a reason why they took him, somewhat for the sake of plot.
I'm talking way too much. Anyway! Please review! I'll see you all later!