Backstory 4. Fool's Gold.

She ran as fast as she could through the shadows. The only sound she could hear was the beating of her own heart and her panting breath as she moved through the back alleys she had long-since memorized. She clutched her new treasure to her chest as her small legs practically stumbled over each other. No one was following her, but just in case…she ran a little faster.

Finally, she reached her building, the abandoned space that she had called home for a really long time, and she stumbled inside, running to her corner and almost slamming into the ground as she finally came to a stop. She waited, allowing her breathing and heart to calm down. She looked at her trembling, tiny hands to see the half loaf of bread she held as treasure. She listened and there was no sound outside of the other people that lived in the building and she sighed with relief.

And then she bit down harshly into the bread, the growling of her stomach distracting her from all other thought. She smiled as she swallowed and continued to eat. The person she stole from obviously didn't need this much bread if they had left it out on their kitchen table with no one around. If they had really needed it, they would have eaten it when they had it. She greedily ate the rest of the bread and sighed, almost with disappointment, when it was all gone and she glared at the crumbs that had made their way onto the ground.

Elizabeta stood up and brushed herself off, running a hand through her hair to make herself look…somewhat collected. Her mommy had told her that appearances were everything and, even though she was only six, she was going to make sure she did just that. Everyone else around her was dirty and didn't care about what they looked like and it made her grimace. Sure, they were homeless and, yes, they didn't have any money to keep up their appearances, but that wasn't any excuse.

Elizabeta looked out of the nearby window, seeing that the sun was about to go down. She knew the people he lived with very well and so, because of that, she felt where she was keeping her knives in her pockets. They were starting to get rusted, she would have to find some new ones sometime soon…but for right now, she'd make it through the night. She'd made it through a lot of others, regardless.

Roderich peeked over the desk to see what his father was writing. He was always curious about what his father was doing, since he worked so hard at his desk for endless hours. His father patted his head as he looked, a soft smile on the man's face.

"What are you doing?" Roderich asked him curiously. His father was already really busy with his company and the parties he had to host, so Roderich was really curious about all of these extra activities he was doing all of the time.

"Something you'll understand when you're older and you take up after me," his father said simply and Roderich nodded simply. His dad said that a lot. There was something he was going to have to do once his father was finished, but he was just a little kid, so he couldn't know about it yet.

But Roderich did remember one thing he was taught in school, secrets weren't good to keep. Secrets didn't make a strong country like the one the king wanted to make.

She really hated the soldiers. Ever since she stopped being only a little kid and was 13 now, soldiers seemed to start paying more and more attention to her. She didn't like it and generally stayed out of their way, but now they were beginning to recognize her by her face. She was one of the few girls completely on her own, without even a family around to protect her. She wasn't found extremely often, and she usually got away when she was, but it still bugged her. The bruises when the soldiers gripped onto her arm too harshly or the words they called her. But she ignored most of it.

At least the people who stayed in the same building as her had more important things to worry about than her current state. She took a deep breath as she walked along the streets. It was the dead of night, a perfect time for her to sneak into some unsuspecting house and steal some food. It was something she was good at, sneaking into places without being caught. It made her happy, knowing she was at least good for something, in this world full of people impressing the king and living normal lives, she was at least good at being unseen.

And that was just what Elizabeta did as she snuck into a house, going straight for the kitchen as she felt her stomach rumble. This was the only time of day that she could eat, anyway, considering the amount of soldiers crawling around during the day. She smirked at the sight of the unlocked cabinets. She would have thought that people would have learned by now to at least lock up some of their food. But, Elizabeta shrugged, and pulled open the cabinets. She would only take what she needed, after all. This family should do the same, but they could figure that out after they were stolen from.

She took half a loaf of bread, closing the cabinet, and she happily left without another sound, going back home to eat her feast.

Roderich frowned, scratching at the back of his head awkwardly as he watched the soldiers as they walked through his house, combing through everything that could be of use. He sighed heavily and diverted his eyes to the ground as he heard the struggle come past him. He kicked lightly at the ground as he heard his father fight back against them, flinging colorful curses every which way. And the last thing he said before the door was slammed…

"How could you?"

Roderich flinched.

"You did the right thing, kid," a soldier said, patting his head as he passed him by, holding a large handful of papers full of Roderich's father's handwriting. Roderich nodded at him, simply.

"Yeah, I'd trust him as the new head of the house," another one laughed from where he was investigating a bookshelf.

"Hell, it takes guts to sell out your own dad," another one let out a barking laugh. But it was true. It was hard. But Roderich couldn't sleep well at night, not since his father had told him about what he did in his spare time. He was a revolutionary, he helped fund those speakers that spread lies about the king. Roderich really had no choice. He could ignore his mother, who was crying by the door as soldiers ignored her. He could ignore his father's shouts from outside, causing a scene.

He was the man in charge of his family now. And he was only thirteen.

Elizabeta growled as she looked at the soldiers around her. They'd been on to her recently, keeping an eye out for her specifically at night. She was thinking about moving from the capital, and that day honestly couldn't come soon enough, if you asked her.

"You think you're impressive, little girl?" one of them laughed and Elizabeta looked over their shoulders. It was a parade and even the king was there. Soldiers were crawling everywhere to protect him. The parade was a recent idea and it had been going on quite a lot in the capital, and apparently these soldiers had been looking for her for a long time now. "'Cause we haven't been able to catch ya yet."

"Depends on if you can catch me now," Elizabeta shrugged, but kept her guard up. She counted and there were about ten soldiers around her. Not much of a challenge, if you asked her.

"You think we're scared?" a soldier smirked.

"You could be," Elizabeta smiled.

"You're nothing impressive, you're just a little girl," another one laughed and made the mistake of reaching towards her. Instinctively, Elizabeta pulled out the knife hiding in her sleeve and lunged forward, slicing into his throat. He wasn't worthy of life, in Elizabeta's eyes at least. The men around him acted quickly, at least they had that going for them. Elizabeta was fast to slice into the hand of a nearby soldier, gripping tightly onto his gun that he dropped, and shooting him.

She shot the others around her, at least the amount she had enough bullets for. After that, the other soldiers were finally fast enough to try to shoot at her. Thankfully, they were stupid enough to aim at the same spot and she was able to duck down and avoid every single bullet. She lunged forward and wrestled a gun from another soldier and successfully shot down the rest of them before tossing the gun to the ground.

Not impressive? Elizabeta wasn't impressive? Well, then, she would just have to show them…

She smirked as she walked towards the crowd of people watching the parade. She showed up just in time for the king, who had two soldiers standing beside him. She smirked. This would be easy. She'd show them who was impressive.

She swiftly ducked into the parade, unseen by most of the people in the crowd, carefully worming her way towards the king's float. Without any hesitation, she jumped up onto the float, ignoring the…oddly expert reactions from the soldiers around the king and pointed her forefinger at the king, her thumb up to the sky.

"Bang," she said with a simple smirk. She wasn't stupid enough to go at him with an actual gun, by no means, but this proved her point very clearly. If she had wanted to, she could have killed him. The soldiers around him both had their guns pointed at her, more than ready to shoot, but they were too late to protect the king, obviously.

The king regarded her with interested violet eyes. Then, in a flash of a second Elizabeta couldn't even see, the man was on his feet and a hand tightly gripped her wrist, pointing her "gun" upwards. He had even pulled his own gun on her, pointing it at the center of her forehead. Elizabeta hadn't even seen him do that… Now, that was impressive.

"I do believe that a delicate girl like you shouldn't be wielding a scary weapon like this," the king said with a soft smile and Elizabeta relaxed her hand.

"Sorry," Elizabeta muttered, still trying to understand just how this man…had managed…Elizabeta was trying to impress…someone, she didn't know…but the king had managed to impress her. "I'll be more careful next time."

Roderich frowned at the papers on his desk, hoping that this time, he could read the words and actually understand them. But he was wrong. He grumbled under his breath, wracking his hands through his hair as he glowered at the papers. He wasn't good at something like this, he'd learned after two years of his father's absence. But he had to do something…He was the man of the house, now, after all.

Deciding that this was now a lost cause, Roderich swiftly stood, not caring at how his chair scraped against the ground as he did so. He shook his head as he stalked out of the room, almost angrily. He needed to go…for a walk. Yes, that would be nice. A…walk. He ignored the servants around him as he swiftly passed by his room, picking up a few things as he went, and left his house, shoving a hood over his head as he walked. He was just a teenager, after all, he couldn't be caught, out on the streets, at this hour. Soldiers were one thing…but the homeless were another thing entirely. They might make the mistake of trying to kidnap him for the sake of money or food.

He walked with purpose, his attention diverting to the object he had hidden in his pants. A gun. He had six bullets and that was more than enough. There was one thing Roderich didn't completely put a stop to after his father had been caught and that was the emails. Idiots in line with the revolutionaries were too stupid to realize that he had been caught, most likely killed, and now Roderich was given all of the information he needed to catch onto some of their exploits. He hadn't told the soldiers because he knew they wouldn't have been smart enough to come up with this plan. As long as the revolutionaries didn't catch on, which they hadn't yet over two years, then Roderich could continue as he was.

Finally, he reached the warehouse the most recent email had told him about. Some revolutionaries were going to be distributing guns here, in a few hours. Roderich's job was to stop them, at least that was what he was going to do. He had to keep the peace that the king wanted to maintain. He couldn't stop now, after all. He climbed easily to the top of the building and peered into the dimly lit room. He could clearly see four revolutionaries with massive crates, most likely full of guns. He tested a window near the top that swung open for him and he easily set himself up so that he was standing in a comfortable position where they couldn't see him.

He shot once and the first one went down. Immediately, the others looked around for the source, but couldn't find it as Roderich shot down a second one. He went to fire again, but a different gunshot went off and one of them fell. He frowned as this stranger killed the last person standing. He looked forward, where the gunshot came from and saw a man standing, waving at him happily.

"Finally found you," a woman sighed happily from beside him and Roderich flinched, stumbling backwards but keeping his delicate footing on the roof of the building. The woman in front of him smiled happily, tucking her long, brown hair behind her ear. "You know, it's been pretty hard finding you, you should be proud of that."

"Who are you?" Roderich demanded, using the most authoritative voice he could come up with. The woman just rolled her eyes with a scoff.

"Don't use that noble tone with me," she said harshly. "It's not that impressive when no one of importance is around to hear, anyway. Right, Roderich?"

"How do you know me?" Roderich asked tentatively and the woman smirked.

"I know everything about you," she chimed and Roderich noticed that three men, one of them who had shot two of the men, were now in the building, cleaning up the mess. "I know you sentenced your own father to death for treason, that you've been doing escapades like tonight for nearly two years, I know your mother's been drinking herself silly for nearly two years as well…"

"What do you want with me, then?" Roderich asked, keeping his back straight to at least give himself something. This girl didn't know anything about proper posture, that was certain. Despite being fairly pretty, she obviously had no manners to hear of, and she was used to being in charge, something Roderich had been fairly sure was not attractive in a woman. Though…that thought process was certainly changing very quickly as she continued to talk.

"The king's taken in interest in you," she smiled. "Well, at least, in regards to our group. Come with us, and you won't have to go back to that boring paperwork you were staring at for three hours."

"What are you people?" Roderich asked.

"Assassins," the girl giggled, almost innocently. "You obviously enjoy killing a little more than being a noble. Why dontcha just…drop it?"

"I couldn't just drop it," Roderich protested.

"The king can do anything he wants," she winked, turning her back to him. "It's your decision, really, I'm just saying this is what you're better suited to do."

Better suited? He was…he was a noble. He was good at putting up a pretty face for parties and events. He was good at that…stupid paperwork. He had a company to run in order to help this country move. And…yet…he might just be better at killing. He almost wanted to follow these strangers, but he had no basis to really follow them. If he went along and this was some kind of a trap…he couldn't handle himself against four people at once if they were really trained killers.

The woman was walking away, a small, confident sway in her hips. She had obviously found where she was meant to be with this group…Maybe…

"What do I have to do?" Roderich asked and the girl looked over her shoulder at him.

"Come with us and we'll let the king do the talking," she smiled. It wasn't a fake smile, either, but the innocence that was laced in it certainly was. She was a killer, too, had been through probably much more than Roderich had…

He followed her down the side of the warehouse.

"I don't feel comfortable with you doing this," Roderich said clearly and Elizabeta just shrugged. She could handle this, she'd been through a lot worse and not under the protection of the king. She would be perfectly fine as she was.

"You're just being over protective," Elizabeta offered a smile. "I can handle myself out there."

"I'll be right there just in case you can't," Roderich muttered and Elizabeta gave him a small hug.

"You doubt me too much," she smiled and darted off, through the darkness. The plan was simple and everyone else was already in place. She shucked off her coat and tossed it to the ground. She was wearing a fairly revealing top, perfect for this kind of mission. The king had asked it of them, so who was Elizabeta to deny him? She eventually reached a small square that wasn't lit with lights that soldiers conveniently overlooked more often than they should. There were a lot of girls there, all dressed similarly to Elizabeta, with too short skirts and too tight shirts. And there were plenty of men with plenty of money.

This job was simple. She had to find that one man, the face Alfred memorized long before she did. He was a revolutionary, a well-known one at that. But he had a slight indulgence problem. Elizabeta's job was to pull him away from a crowd, distract him, and kill him. Simple. But the man was known to be somewhat dangerous so she had the others looking out for her just in case. She couldn't imagine why they needed all five of them, but whatever.

She found him and happily slinked over to him. There was already a girl he was paying attention to, but Elizabeta could easily fix that. Enough experience in the past with those soldiers taught her exactly how to distract and please a guy. She wasted no time in walking up to the man and wrapping her arms loosely around his neck, delicately and teasingly pushing her assets against his chest.

"Hey," she said with a playful smirk. The guy sent her a smile that nearly sent shivers down her spine with disgust. He was far from attractive…but…oh, well. She shifted to her toes and leaned into his ear, allowing her breath to ghost past it as she whispered. "You in need of a real good time?" She had to set herself apart from the others, who were only there for money. Elizabeta hadn't needed money for a long time now, she didn't see the purpose, with the king looking after her like he was.

As simple as that, the man was leading her away from the square, already feeling free to explore the skin she had offered with his mouth. She hid her grimaces well. He really wasn't good at this. At least the soldiers were capable. The man finally pulled her into a rather small building, most likely what he called home, oddly close to that square, and he maneuvered them so that he was sitting on his disgusting couch and she was straddling his lap. She offered a seductive smirk leaning forward to playfully nibble at his neck. This was almost too easy. At least it was over quickly…

Without wasting much time, she found the knife she had hidden in her boot and slid it across the man's throat. He was surprised, to say the least, but didn't fight back much before he died in front of her. Elizabeta sighed, standing up and cleaning off her knife on the man's pants. Disgusting or not, the king had ordered this mission.

And she couldn't deny the king.

Roderich evened out his breathing as he ran beside Elizabeta through the streets. They were in pursuit of a woman, a very capable spy on the side of the revolutionaries. She had discovered them and ran as fast as she could from the safety of her little hideout. He had been told by the others that he would finally be able to kill someone on this mission. He was the slowest of the group and usually he didn't get a chance to kill someone because the others were too fast. This time, they said they'd let him have it, as long as the mission wasn't in jeopardy.

Roderich saw the bright red hair turn a corner and ran faster, rushing past Elizabeta, who seemed slightly surprised. Roderich smirked. At least he could impress her. He continued running, and smirked when he saw that the woman had ran into an alley with a dead end. Perfect. Roderich didn't even slow down as she stopped at the end of the alley, slamming her hands into the wall. Roderich slammed her into the wall, she wasn't about to wriggle away like she had apparently been able to with many other soldiers.

She had only one name and no one could find out her actual name, or a way to find her. Roderich had no idea how, perhaps she was wearing contacts or something to cover her face to keep from matching her with a picture. Regardless, it didn't matter once she was dead.

"This would be over a lot faster if you stopped struggling, Britannia," Roderich growled.

"I'll be fighting to my last breath," the woman snapped back. Roderich sighed, producing his knife. It would cause less of a mess, be easier to hide (since they still didn't know who she was, they would have to make her death appear as an accident, just in case), and wouldn't bring attention to them.

"A shame," Roderich sighed before bringing the knife to her throat and slicing into it. He caught her limp body before it could fall and sighed with relief. He hadn't failed. That was a plus. Now, they just had to hide the body.

"Good job, Roderich," Elizabeta smiled brightly at him as he turned to see her. She was the only one of the team nearby, at least that he could see. "You did really well."

"It wasn't entirely difficult," Roderich said, only slightly modestly. He had hoped to impress this girl for years now, but the only thing that seemed to impress her was the king himself. He would never be at that level.

Elizabeta happily walked up to him, placing a small peck on his lips and he felt a small blush on his face. "Now let's clean up with mess and get back home, alright?"

"Sure," Roderich nodded. He'd grown used to the girl's odd mannerisms, how easily she grew close to people. She was far from the nobility Roderich was so used to, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

If he was lucky, this bliss could last forever for them.

Okay, only slightly bittersweet ending for them. I enjoyed writing this, showing the contrast between their lives growing up. I enjoy it so much. And what I enjoy even more is the fact that Elizabeta and Gilbert are foils to each other, along with Francis (who you will see shortly) and Roderich. They both grew up under pretty much the same circumstances and yet ended up in completely different places. I love it so much!

Anyway, enough of me rambling, after this is Francis, so please stick around for that!