A/N Okay, this chapter's kinda long, so be warned. I don't know if you caught where Emily said she was born, but it was South Carolina: the first state to secede from the union before the U.S. Civil War. Pretty clever, huh? Am I right? Ehh, ok whatever here's the next chapter.
"Where are you going?" Emily asked.
"If you really must know, I'm running away." She walked over to her closet, pulled out some clothes, then stuffed them in her open duffel bag on the floor. Alice and Arthur had to resist the urge to take them back out and fold them neatly.
Continuing to shove things in her bag, the girl asked, "What about you guys? Who are you and what are you all doing in my awesome room?"
Arthur answered, "My name is Arthur, and this is Alice and Emily. We are here on what you might call formal business."
"Ahem, super-secret spy mission," Emily corrected.
Ignoring both of them, Alice said, "We need to find out about some things that your father has been working on. Can you help us?"
"Only if you tell me what you are looking for and the whole story," she said with a smirk. "Oh, and you can call me Maria."
Alice nodded at Arthur, giving him permission to tell the whole story. Arthur began from when he, Emily, and Alice had all met at Big Ben, with Emily and Alice adding some parts along the way. By the time they had told their story up to the present, all the while being as quick as possible, Maria looked very interested. "That does make sense, about the fake parents and wanting to go somewhere very badly. I want to go to Germany, but it's different. To me, something tells me that...I will never belong anywhere." She looked down sadly. "But going to Germany seems the best option."
Arthur thought to himself, This is starting to click into place. More is making sense. But at the same time, less is making sense. He focused his attention back on Maria and awkwardly asked, "So...can you help us?"
"Yes, if you take me with you."
"Totally!" Emily said. With that, the Prussian girl vanished into the pitch black hallway.
Emily, Alice, and Arthur trailed behind Maria as she confidently strode across the house. The building was so dark that the main reason the three guests were able to follow Maria was the faint glow of her hair. They passed the small windows where Alice had looked in from the outside. She had been right; the light of the moon through the window revealed that it was, in fact, the kitchen which was directly beneath it. They followed Maria carefully as she tiptoed down the stairs leading to the basement and flicked the light switch. She led them through a large jumble of boxes and junk to a door hidden out of sight to anyone not looking for it.
"My 'dad' never let me go in here. He told me strictly not to." She grinned evilly. "So this must be it." Maria checked the doorknob, but it was locked. "Well this is awkward," she said.
"I can get us in," Arthur said, stepping forward.
"You? Okay, I'd like to see you try!" Emily said, initializing a challenge.
"Hmph, fine then. You all need to turn around."
"Why?" Alice curiously asked.
"Just trust me." Maria, Alice, and Emily did as instructed and turned to face the opposite wall. Once he was sure no one was looking, particularly Emily, Arthur muttered an often used spell of his for unlocking things. Upon hearing the lock click, the three girls spun around.
"How the heck did you do that?!" Emily loudly asked, which resulted in several 'shh's and 'quiet down's.
"Magic," Arthur responded, half-sarcastically as he pushed open the door. They entered the room cautiously and Arthur patted the wall, searching for a light switch. Once he had found one, he flipped it and a single light bulb halfheartedly flickered on, dimly illuminating the room. It was obviously a file room; filing cabinets lined nearly every inch of the walls, overflowing with papers, documents, and dog-eared packets and books. Everyone went their own way to explore.
"They're not that dusty," observed Emily.
"You're right," Alice replied. "Someone must have been in here recently to clean or something."
"Hey, look at this." Everyone gathered around Maria who was examining the label on one of the filing cabinet drawers. "It says, 'Germany, North Italy, South Italy, Japan'. Those are just some random countries, though!" Maria yanked open the drawer with some difficulty and fished out a random manila file. She flipped it open despite the big, red 'Top Secret' labeled on the front and examined the first page. "It's describing someone!"
"Let me see!"
Maria reluctantly handed the file over to the American, who read the text written on the page.
"'Name: Sakura Honda, Hair: straight, black, Skin: fair, Age:-." Emily did a double take. "Two thousand six hundred and freaking what?! That can't be possible."
"Show me," Alice said. Emily pointed to the line which revealed the name. "Wow. Oh, and it also says here...'Human Age: 21'. So she isn't human?" Alice looked that the picture of the girl pinned to the document with paperclip. She had short black hair which hung straight near her shoulders and a look on her face which expressed no emotion. She looked human. Suddenly, everyone heard a beep break the silence.
Maria cursed under her breath and said, "We need to move. Now. Don't ask any questions, I'll explain later."
"We need to get the files!" objected Emily.
"She's right," Alice said, "there are a lot, but let's just grab those in the drawers with the countries labeled on them. The others could be irrelevant to our situation."
"Fine," Arthur whispered. The four each grabbed a stack and crept back out of the file room and into the main storage area of the basement.
"Not upstairs," Maria hissed. "Let's go through here." She pointed to a ladder which led up to what looked like a wooden square of ceiling. She scaled it, one arm wrapped around her bundle of folders, and somehow managed to flip open the trapdoor, exposing the night sky. The others followed, then quietly closed the doors. "You have a car, right?" Maria asked. Arthur nodded. "Bring these to it and get it ready," she said, dumping her load of documents into Arthur's arms. "I need to get my duffel." With that, she took off toward the window of her room.
"I'd better go with her," Alice said before taking off after Maria.
"Wait-," Arthur started, but Alice ignored him. Emily dragged Arthur back to the car and they piled the folders into the trunk. Arthur started the car an he and Emily tensely waited for Maria and Alice to come back.
Jacob Rayne and his 'wife' were peacefully sleeping when his phone started vibrating on the counter. Sleepily picking it up, he halfheartedly said, "This is Jacob Rayne, how may I help you?"
"This is Patricia, and I am about to give you some very useful information." Jacob rolled his eyes. He never liked Patricia. She always wanted everyone's full attention and she wasn't qualified enough for her current position as far as he was concerned.
He listened anyway and asked, "What is it?"
"You're not going to believe this Jacob. This information is very important and might need to be reported to the Leader. In case anything like this ever happened, I knew I would carry out my duties swiftly and flawlessly with..." Patricia continued to talk about something that she carried out with 'flawless precision' that wouldn't have made sense to Jacob even if he hadn't just been woken up at nearly four in the morning by someone as ignorant and annoying as Patricia.
"...I knew that if this were ever to happen-."
"Patricia, what the Hell do you want?" Jacob finally interrupted.
"As I was about to say, we have a case of subjects A and E escaping. Target E was with them. I sent them running over to your place because I told them you have secret documents," she said smugly.
"Patricia, this is where all the documents for this project are located, you idiot!"
"...Really? Well, this is why I'm telling you now. They might be there soon, so you should probably get ready to grab them. Toodles!" The line went dead. God, he hated that woman.
"What is it, Jacob?" asked his 'wife'.
"I need you to go check on Maria."
By the time Alice had gotten to Maria's bedroom window, Maria was already zipping up her duffel bag.
"So what was that beeping noise, anyway?" Alice asked her.
"My timer. I had set it so that I would know if I was taking too long and needed to get out soon."
"Oh, I suppose-."
"Maria? Why are you up?" They froze. The voice was coming from right behind the closed bedroom door. Maria mouthed, 'my mom' and brought her finger to her lips.
"I woke up and I couldn't get back to sleep. I'm just talking on the phone to one of my friends." As she lied, Maria motioned for Alice to back away. Alice crouched down near the window so that she couldn't be seen, but she could hear the conversation.
"At this hour? To whom?" Alice heard the door open and then there was silence. "What is that duffel bag for, honey?"
"Oh, um...I was just going to surprise you. I was going to fertilize the flowers so that you wouldn't have to."
"Where did you get that? We ran out of fertilizer a few days ago."
"Uh, I'll be right back!"
Alice saw Maria hurtle out the window with her duffel bag. Maria grabbed Alice's hand and dragged her into a sprint. Apparently, Maria's 'mom' had looked out the window because Alice could hear her yelling desperately for her husband. When Emily saw them coming, she threw open the car door for them. Once Alice and Maria had scrambled in, Maria shouted, "Go, go, go!" Arthur slammed on the gas, making everyone jerk back, and they left Maria's house in the dust. Jacob and his 'wife' reached the end of the driveway in time to see a car swerve and vanish around the corner.