Long time no update, but I'm back with a rollercoaster ride of a plot for this chapter.

Thank you to the people who reviewed this fic; your reviews were very much appreciated :)

A muffled sound of crying can be heard as the camera turns on. Gilbert looks back towards his bed where Roderich is just visible with concern then turns to face the camera grimly. Arthur is clearly in the frame, sitting on the side of his bed close to Gilbert's chair.

"Are you okay?"Arthur asks as Gilbert is about to start speaking.

Gilbert freezes momentarily and turns away.

"Roderich is right," he admits. "This is my fault. They took Erzsébet because they couldn't take me, and they knew what we were doing because they could see my videos."

"No," Arthur puts a hand on Gilbert's shoulder and spins the chair back around to face him. "Snowflake, you're ridiculously stubborn and impulsive, okay. And if you ask me – your whole wannabe journalist thing is doomed. But unless you're going around kidnapping people for some ancient unspeakable evil, nothing that's happening right now is your fault."

"Really?" Gilbert looks like he doesn't want to believe it.

"Yeah," Arthur gestures at himself and smiles self-deprecatingly. "Former minion of the evil here." He reaches over and brushes a stray section of Gilbert's fringe back into place. "This isn't your fault."

"I don't know," Gilbert turns slightly back towards the camera. "Roderich's right about us needing to be smarter. I should start warning everyone on campus who might be watching about this." He turns until he's completely facing the camera.

Beside him, Arthur shakes his head slightly.

"You go do that,"

"Hello everyone," Gilbert begins. "If you are watching this from the Silas campus; you are in danger."

"Tell them something they don't know," Arthur mutters. "Sorry." He says as Gilbert throws him an exasperated look. "But you might want to give them some more context."

"I was just about to get onto that," Gilbert grumbles, elbowing Arthur lightly.

He goes on to describe the events of the past day, drawing some eyebrow raising from Arthur when describing what took place in the library. Throughout this, Roderich's sobbing becomes lighter and eventually stops.

"So we don't where Erzsébet is right now," Gilbert concludes. "But I'm going to try my damndest to find out. Because Erzsébet and I might not have seen eye to eye every time, but as I've already said; I'm not giving up on anyone."

"Of course you aren't," Arthur can be heard saying as the camera is switched off.

Out of habit Gilbert hit the upload button instead of editing the video as he had intended to. He stared at the "video posted" screen for a few seconds, then sighed and looked around the room. Sunlight had begun to stream in past the curtains and Roderich had fallen asleep on his bed. Gilbert decided against waking him, looking for the time instead.

'I should go to class,' he said, stifling a yawn.

'You go do that,' Arthur agreed, he picked up the book and flipped it to a random page. 'I'll stay here, checking this book for anything I might have missed.'

'Haven't you read the entire thing already?' Gilbert asked as he walked into the bathroom with a change of clothes.

'Yes, but you probably would have asked me to read it again anyway,' Arthur replied as he shut the door.

Gilbert got changed, brushed his teeth quickly and splashed his face with water before returning to the room.

'Since when did you do things without being asked though?' he commented before searching for the books he needed.

'Just go to class,' Arthur spoke without looking up.

'I thought you didn't care attending classes,' Gilbert quipped as he found the last book he needed.

Arthur took his eyes off of the ancient tome to look at him seriously.

'I don't,' he said. 'But you do, and going would make you feel better, so go.'

'Right,' Gilbert muttered, slightly off put by the accuracy of the statement. He slung his backpack over his shoulders and left the room.

His classes were mostly uneventful and Gilbert managed to get by the entire day without becoming too distracted. He returned to the dorms to find Arthur still reading and Roderich still asleep.

'Has he been like that all day?' He asked Arthur.

'Pretty much,' Arthur confirmed, setting the book down and stretching. 'I thought he was going to wake up a few times, but he just rolled over and went right back to sleep.'

Gilbert tossed his bag onto the floor and walked over to his desk.

'I'll just leave him be then,' he said. 'Did you find anything?'

'No, nothing at all,' Arthur informed him. 'But I've only read it four times.' He let a hint of mockery creep into his voice and waited for Gilbert to notice. It didn't take long.

'I do not sound like that,' Gilbert complained, tossing the closest thing he could find – which happened to be a yellow, bird-shaped stress toy – at Arthur. His throw was half-hearted at best and went wide.

'You really have to work on your aim,' Arthur teased.

'Oh, whatever,'

Gilbert sat down at his desk, booted up his laptop and logged into his student email, going through the unread messages. He could hear Arthur tossing the stress toy from hand to hand and expected it to be thrown back at him at any moment.

'Huh, the official end-of-semester party,' he murmured, clicking on the first message. 'I considered going to this when I started here. It must be nice to just be normal and look forward to parties…' The sound of the toy being thrown behind him stopped and Gilbert realised he'd been thinking aloud. 'That must sound so stupid to you.' He tried to laugh it off as he spun his chair to face Arthur. 'You must have been to thousands of parties.'

Arthur considered the statement and squeezed the bird-shaped toy before throwing it back at Gilbert.

'Yeah, but I happened to be the bait in a supernatural con game at most of them,' he said as Gilbert caught the toy.

'Still better than nothing,' Gilbert said with a shrug.

'They weren't much different from nowadays, you know,' Arthur confided. 'People drank a lot and danced the nights away.' His voice grew distant. 'Waltzing was fun – it caused quite the scandal back in the day.'

'Waltzing? Scandalous?' Gilbert questioned with disbelief. 'How is that even possible?'

'Well,' Arthur smiled roguishly, offering a hand to Gilbert. 'Why don't I show you?'

Gilbert laughed nervously, but took his hand. They both rose from where they'd been sitting. Arthur guided their hands out to the side.

'Partners were face to face,' he began, before placing his other hand upon Gilbert's waist and pulling him close. 'Chest to chest. All that whirling…' He spun Gilbert deftly and waited until they were facing each other again before continuing. 'Why, in 1698 it might as well have been sex.'

'Okay, I see now,' Gilbert said somewhat breathlessly as Arthur let go of his hand.

'You know, it is starting to get late and…' Arthur glanced over to where Roderich was still asleep on Gilbert's bed. 'As I was saying, I can basically sleep anywhere so you're welcome to take my bed.'

'That's nice of you,' Gilbert barely managed to get out before Arthur brushed past him, heading towards the bathroom.

'I'm going to freshen up now after sitting around reading that book all day,' he said impassively before the door clicked shut behind him.

Gilbert carefully picked up the book and set it down on the desk before seating himself on Arthur's bed, thinking over what had just happened and coming to a conclusion.

'Worst. Crush. Ever.' He groaned softly, slumping with his face in his hands.

He sat back upright as he remembered Arthur's supernatural hearing. There was no way the vampire hadn't heard exactly what he'd just said.

'Oh crap,' Gilbert whispered to himself, hoping he was out of hearing range this time, and held his hands back up against his burning cheeks.

Hearing the shower turn on Gilbert decided it would be safe to change into pyjamas. He had just gotten comfortable when Arthur exited the bathroom with damp hair and an expression that could only have been interpreted as smug. He didn't say anything but still Gilbert rolled over and buried his face into the pillow, feeling heat rise to his cheeks again.

Gilbert awoke the next morning to a feeling of being watched, causing him to wonder if he was still dreaming. He sat up and found Roderich looking at him from over on his bed.

'What time is it?' Gilbert asked, yawning.

The room was still dim and he wondered how long Roderich had been up.

'It's 6am,' Roderich said impassively. 'I can't believe how much of a mess this room was in, I just cleaned everything.'

'I can see that,' Gilbert muttered as he looked around, hoping he'd still be able to find everything.

'I've run out of things to clean,' Roderich continued. 'So it's high time we all had a talk.'

'Uh sure,' Gilbert didn't quite like the direction that this was heading. He remembered the complete breakdown Roderich had had the previous day and tried to change the subject. 'You know, I just had this strange dream that a lion was prowling around my feet.'

'Oh, that's probably because Arthur is down there,' Roderich stated, pointing at the floor between the two of them, where Gilbert now noticed Arthur was sleeping. 'I should probably wake him up.' Roderich tapped on the floorboards with his foot. 'Arthur, wake up!'

There was a noise of indignation before Arthur sat up.

'Seriously? I'd just fallen asleep.' He complained, surveying the space around him. 'Did you vacuum around me?' He asked Roderich incredulously.

Roderich ignored him.

'Good, now you're both awake,' he said primly. 'We have a lot to talk about.'

'Does this feel like some sort of intervention to you?' Arthur quipped at Gilbert as he pulled himself off of the ground. 'Because it sure does to me.'

Gilbert couldn't help a smile.

'A little bit,' he agreed in a similar tone.

'The two of you can stop being so flippant about this!' Roderich said crossly. 'The fact is that Erzsébet is missing and we should do something about it right now. Firstly, Gilbert, you need to put some sort of delay on your videos so anything evil that's watching won't know what we're doing until we've already done it. Secondly, do either of you have a plan?'

Gilbert and Arthur looked at each other.

'Not really,' Gilbert admitted. 'But there's bound to be something in the book.' He noticed Arthur about to make a comment and quickly changed the topic. 'In the meantime, I think I saw some mould around the bathroom…'

Roderich stood and gathered up his cleaning supplies within seconds.

'I'll see to that,' he said and disappeared into the bathroom.

'Time for us to make a daring escape?' Arthur suggested once Roderich was out of their immediate vicinity, pulling himself up off of the floor and making his way over to the fridge.

Gilbert humoured him with a smile.

'I wish,' he said and sighed. 'But we really should be checking the book for anything that can help; Roderich is right about us needing a plan.'

'Don't you mean I will be reading the book for the fifth time?' Arthur asked wryly. He continued before Gilbert could protest. 'As you wish.'

He returned from the fridge carrying a glass of blood, scooped up the book from where it rested on the desk and made himself comfortable in Gilbert's chair. Gilbert realised he was still sitting on Arthur's bed and scrambled to retrieved the fold out chair in the corner of his room that he'd been intending to return to the storage closet for the last few days. He set up the chair at the desk beside Arthur and peered over his shoulder at the pages. They both knew Gilbert couldn't decipher anything written in the ancient languages but Arthur made no comment about it.

As Arthur read and Gilbert watched, Roderich carried his cleaning supplies around the room, re-dusting each and every surface. Gilbert occasionally wandered from his seat for snacks, offering them to Arthur, who took them absentmindedly.

'I don't think this is actually leading us anywhere,' Arthur admitted after some time.

Before Gilbert could reply that they still had to try, the door swung open and Erzsébet marched in, glaring accusatorily at Gilbert.

'Where is that book?' she demanded, not noticing the way all occupants of the room were staring at her in shock.

Her eyes fell upon the book in Arthur's hands, and Erzsébet reached for it, knocking over the glass of blood on the desk in the process. Roderich had emerged from the bathroom to investigate the commotion and his eyes widened at the sight of Erzsébet. Dropping the cleaning rag he had been holding, he rushed to embrace her tightly before she could remove the book from Arthur's slackened grasp.

'Oh you're back! You're back! I'm so glad you're back! Thank God you're okay!'

Erzsébet looked surprised but leaned into the embrace, smiling at Roderich fondly and ruffling his hair.

'What do you mean I'm back? She asked. 'I haven't been anywhere…' Erzsébet trailed off as realisation dawned on her. 'Have I?'

Roderich and Gilbert's grim expressions and the look of surprised curiosity Arthur was giving her told her everything she needed to know.

'How long have I been gone?' Erzsébet asked, detangling herself from Roderich with a sigh.

'Just over a day,' Roderich told her gently.

'Do you remember anything that happened? Arthur asked once that information had sunk in.

Erzsébet thought for a moment.

'Nothing,' she said disconcertedly. 'One minute I was walking to Roderich's room and the next I was outside of this one.'

Roderich made a strangled noise but Erzsébet didn't seem to hear it over her own thoughts.

'So they took me,' she muttered. 'Which means they must have put those parasites in my brain.' Erzsébet turned to Arthur. 'How much time do I have?'

'I can't say,' Arthur replied. 'It's not like this book has been very helpful.' He gestured at the object in his lap and frowned as he noticed the blood from his spilled cup had ended up on its pages. 'Wait a minute…'

Gilbert followed his line of sight.

'Is that… new writing where the blood was spilled?' he questioned.

Arthur nodded and held up a hand to silence Gilbert as he began to read.

'Lophiiformes… The Latin says luce esurientem – the hungry light. Let's see the rest of the entry… the light that devours… an ancient evil that demands the sacrifice of six youths – three males and three females – every twenty years… once victims are marked their world narrows to celebration…'

'Celebration…' pondered Gilbert. 'That's it! Everyone who was taken started becoming only interested in partying.'

'Old as the ocean's depths, the light that betrays all,' Arthur continued reading after pausing to give Gilbert a nod of affirmation. 'It draws the devoured to it and consumes their mind, increasing the light and draws in more of the devoured…' A sudden look of horror came across his features and it took Gilbert a moment to realise why.

'It's absorbing their minds and using them to draw more people in,' he said with equal horror. 'So if Elle is reaching out to us…'

'They're still conscious in there,' Arthur finished for him flatly.

'God, that is just messed up,' Gilbert muttered.

'And it doesn't really tells us anything,' said Erzsébet. It doesn't even tell us why the Dean doing started this in the first place.'

'Oh that one's easy,' Arthur replied. 'Why does anyone start a cult; wealth, power, eternal youth, getting back at people you knew in high school, you name it.'

'Well that's really helpful,' Erzsébet huffed. 'Anything else?'

'You know maybe the book doesn't have the answers to everything,' Roderich interjected quickly, feeling an argument was about to break out. 'We're dealing with brain parasites here; maybe antibiotics might stop them.'

Erzsébet stared at him, muttered something about biology under her breath and pulled her phone from her pocket, frowning as she unlocked it. 'Huh, I have a voice recording on here…'

She pressed the play button and a tinny version of her voice filled the room.

"Okay, I don't know how they managed to grab me but I'm currently stuck in a dark room and there's a few other people in here… shit they're coming back!"

Erzsébet's voice broke off and two approaching male voices could be heard holding a conversation.

"Just one more to go and we'll be all set for the ritual on the new moon," A cheerful voice said with satisfaction.

'Antonio, always a careless one, of course he'd never think to check for a recording device,' Arthur spoke derisively. 'Uh, I meant: good job on pulling that stunt.' He said to Erzsébet after Gilbert nudged him in the ribs.

"Yes," the other voice agreed. "And after that I won't have to worry about you forgetting to feed or water anyone for another twenty years."

'Andrei,' Arthur spoke with some surprise. 'I would have expected better of him… but I guess his slip of judgement there benefited us.'

"Hello there, nosy one," Antonio said amicably. "The Dean wants to see you now."

Erzsébet made a sound of protest, but Andrei's voice broke in.

"Sorry about this," he said, not sounding very sorry at all. "But we need to make sure you don't get up to any trouble. Think of this as payback for those scratches you gave me earlier."

There was a thump and then the recording ended.

For a moment nobody spoke, then Arthur glanced cautiously at Erzsébet.

'The new moon; that's Friday,' he said to nobody in particular.

'Which means we have about three days to figure out exactly how to fight what we're facing,' responded Gilbert. He frowned. 'Funnily enough that's the same day as the end of semester party, do you think that that's got anything to do with it?'

'I don't know,' Arthur replied. 'But even with everything we know now, we still don't know enough. We don't know where the hostages are kept or how to deal with Pater or the ancient, unspeakable evil he feeds students to.'

'Yeah, but there must be something we can do,' Gilbert argued, getting up to pace in frustration. He paused as an idea came to him. 'What if we just stop them from taking anyone else before the ritual they were talking about?'

'That's possible, but likely to be difficult,' Arthur conceded before glancing once more at Erzsébet. 'How are you feeling right now?' He asked carefully.

'Quite calm actually,' Erzsébet's response sounded distant, and there was a vacant look in her eyes. 'Which is probably a bad sign.' She frowned and her eyes refocused briefly.

'Oh no,' Roderich sounded alarmed. He cupped both hands around Erzsébet's face and stared into her eyes. 'This isn't happening. This can't be happening. Not this fast.' He shot an almost pleading glance at Arthur, who merely shrugged.

'It must be because the ritual is so close,' Erzsébet concluded as her eyes slid into focus again. 'It must be amping the effect of the wormy things in my brain.' She finished dreamily.

Erzsébet began to sway to some unheard music and Roderich watched her with concern.

'I'm going to take her back to her room,' he said worriedly. 'Come on now, dear.' He coaxed as he placed a hand in the crook of her arm and guided her slowly towards the door.

Gilbert looked at Arthur as they left.

'What do we do now?' he asked.

'What you keep doing when you hit a dead end,' Arthur's tense expression twisted into a grin. 'We're paying the library another visit.'

One trip to the library basements later and the pair were each carrying an armload of leather bound books back towards the dorms.

'For the sake of everyone's sanity, we should probably never mention having made this trip,' Gilbert said, rubbing at fresh scratches on his arms that he'd acquired from the library.

Arthur, though looking significantly less worse for wear, grunted his assent.

'Though,' Gilbert continued. 'You can't really expect me to believe the whole "I'm not a hero" angle you're trying to play after you saved my life about five times down there.'

'I thought we weren't mentioning this trip,' Arthur said inscrutably, but a smile played at the corners of his lips.

Gilbert laughed quietly and didn't push the matter any further.

Arriving back at their dorm room, they deposited the books on the desk. Gilbert was about to set himself in a chair and begin researching when Arthur placed a hand on his shoulder.

'Not now,' he said softly. 'It's late and you need to rest; go to sleep.' He pushed Gilbert towards his bed, cutting him off as he began to argue. 'Besides, it's not like you can actually read any of these books anyway.'

Gilbert had to agree he had a point there.

'Fine,' he grumbled as he fell tiredly into his sheets while stifling a yawn. 'Goodnight.'

'Goodnight,' Arthur replied as he switched the lights off.

When morning came, Gilbert woke to the sound of the door squeaking open.

'Morning,' he greeted, blearily rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 'Did you go somewhere?' He asked Arthur, who was wiping something red away from the corner of his mouth.

'I was out of blood,' Arthur replied by way of explanation. 'Relax, I went into the woods; plenty of wild animals out there.' He clarified when Gilbert's expression became alarmed. 'I didn't eat anyone.'

'Right,' Gilbert mumbled sheepishly, he pushed himself out of bed and wandered over to his desk to log in to his laptop, thinking it was about time he made another video update. 'Any progress on finding mystical weapons that might help us?' He asked, gesturing at disturbed piles of books. 'I know you probably did some reading while I was asleep.'

'Actually, yes – I did find something.' Arthur sounded almost pleased with himself as he picked up one of the books and riffled through it for the page in question. 'Here… The Sword of Mars – forged from metal fallen from the heavens with a hilt of drakon bone, virtually indestructible, meant to shatter all that oppose it.'

'That sounds perfect!' Gilbert couldn't contain his excitement at the prospect that an indestructible weapon that could hold the solution to all their problems existed. 'Where do we find it?'

'It's embedded in rock and sealed in a deep underwater cavern in the cliff face off of the coast of… I'm still working on that translation. Pretty sure it's just a place that's part of a different country these days.'

'Oh,' Gilbert deflated, his eyes caught a glint on top of a pile of books and he picked up the object. It was a heavy, squarish, black cross pendant edged with silver, which looked oddly like something that had belonged to grandfather. He fidgeted the chain the cross was attached to, trying to hide his disappointment. 'I guess there must be some other, more accessible weapons mentioned in some of these other books.'

'Gilbert,' Arthur looked up from where he'd been staring at the page in concentration.

'Or maybe we can just borrow a weapon from a nearby war museum,' Gilbert rattled on, ignoring the perceived attempt to console him.

'Gilbert,' Arthur said again. 'I'm a vampire. Not breathing and water pressure aren't exactly problems for me. All I have to do is figure out where exactly this sword is located. I can get it.' He smiled radiantly at Gilbert and Gilbert felt himself returning it.

'You could,' he breathed, before unbidden worries entered his mind. 'I mean, could you? It sounds risky and…and if your father found out—'

'I'm sure Pater already knows the depth of my involvement,' Arthur interrupted. 'Besides, he fed the only person I ever cared about to a monster and I'm not about to let the same thing happen to you.'

They shared another smile, tender on one side and incredulous on the other. Gilbert dropped his gaze to the necklace in his hand and played with the chain once more and tried to force his thoughts into order. He was at a loss for words and decided to change the subject.

'Did you get me this cool cross necklace?' he asked, looping the object in question around his neck.

Arthur, having also looked away, now turned his gaze back in confusion.

'What cool cross necklace—?' his eyes widened in surprise and fear. 'Oh no, Gilbert, take that off!'

But it was already too late, Gilbert's body slackened and he slumped forwards as Arthur dropped the book he was holding to rush towards him and catch him in his arms. For a moment Gilbert was still, and then he drew himself back up to full height, his expression a cruel mask that had no place on his face.

'Pater,' Arthur hissed, his arms dropping to his sides as his hands curled into fists.

'Arthur, my errant son,' a cold, deep, ancient voice which made Arthur want to fall to his knees and hide echoed from Gilbert's mouth. 'I thought it was time we had a little talk.'

Arthur stood stiffly, frozen in shock and seething rage as the Dean cast a disparaging glance over Gilbert's body and laughed.

'It seems you've found yourself another human you want to keep,' the voice that was not Gilbert's mocked him.

'What do you want, Pater?' Arthur finally found his own voice and could not keep the snarl from it.

'You didn't come when I sent for you,' The Dean's voice seemed amused at his outburst. 'And you had to kill poor Laura for delivering the message.' He laughed again as Arthur stiffened. 'Did you really think I wouldn't find out, my dear son?'

'If you came to kill me, why didn't you just come yourself?' Arthur asked through gritted teeth.

'Kill you?' The Dean looked at him with patronising pity through Gilbert's eyes. 'After all the lengths I've taken to save you from your own foolishness?' He sighed dramatically. 'One day, my child, you will understand.'

'Do you think I'll ever understand,' Arthur tried and failed to keep his words steady. 'Why you fed the only person I ever loved to an abomination?' Tears of fear and anger threatened to choke him but he kept his gaze firmly fixed on the Dean.

'My son,' the Dean chided in a mockery of consolation. 'I thought you were more practical than this. I did it for your sake; the silly little creature could never have loved you. Why, the moment she found out what you were she ran to me and spilled all of your secrets like a tattling schoolgirl. She was a cockroach – a wretched crawling thing like this one.' He gestured at the body he was occupying and Arthur had to force back a cry.

'But you, my precious son,' the Dean continued, setting a hand on Arthur's shoulder in a farce of paternal warmth. 'You are a diamond; and stone cannot love flesh.'

'Enough with the excuses!' Arthur focused on all of his rage, ignoring the terror to brush the hand from his shoulder. 'You're just acting as the wait staff to some supernatural monstrosity!'

'And you want to be the one to change all that?' the Dean gave a low and unsettling chuckle. 'You want to claw the Sword of Mars from its underwater grave and strike out the light that we worship?' A malicious thin smile spread across Gilbert's lips. 'My son, that sword is meant to consume anyone who wields it. Why do you think the followers of Mars buried it in the first place?

'My dear boy,' the false paternal concern was back. 'You have no way to fight and nothing to fight with – sometimes that's just the way of the world and you ought to learn to bear that as best you can.'

'So,' Arthur laughed bitterly, finally unable to continue looking at his father in Gilbert's body. 'If it's all doomed, why are you bothering to come and tell me this?'

'Because I'd hate for you to become a threat to the Sacrifice,' the Dean answered with feigned geniality. 'So I'd like to offer you a deal. If you can keep…' He paused to sneer down at Gilbert's body. '…Your little pet here from causing more trouble, I'll let you keep him, and take someone else instead? Do we have a deal?'

'How can I ever trust you?' Arthur ground out, torn between knowing what Gilbert would say to this situation and the flitter of hope that was rising in his heart.

'Father knows best,' the Dean told him. 'But you can trust that you can either let Antonio and Andrei take the last of your annoying little friends or I simply waltz this pretty little body right out of the door and into the Sacrifice. I mean, if he doesn't just follow his darling interfering girlfriend directly into the light anyway.

'So,' He added with a curt smile. 'Deal?'

'Deal,' Arthur agreed reluctantly, the idea of keeping Gilbert safe winning out over having to hide the truth from him.

'Good,' the Dean cruel, thin smile returned before his tone became one of warning. 'Remember, he's only safe if you keep him from meddling. If either of you get in my way again, I will show no mercy.'

'I think you've made yourself clear,' Arthur kept his eye on the ground.

'I should hope so.' His father informed him. 'And now,' he took a step towards Arthur and pulled the necklace back over Gilbert's head. 'You're going to have to catch this body again.'

Once more, Gilbert slumped and Arthur caught him, and this time he opened his eyes with confusion in Arthur's arms.

'What happened?' Gilbert asked through the splitting headache he felt as Arthur laid him out on his bed and hovered over him, concern showing in his eyes.

'The necklace…' Arthur hesitated, but Gilbert took no notice. 'It was a trap from Pater… Poisoned. I got it off in time.'

Gilbert tried to sit up but the dizzying wave of the headache forced him back down.

'It's best not to move for a while,' Arthur suggested and Gilbert listened.

'Damn, your dad really plays dirty,' he said, his voice muffled by the pillows he'd sunk into. 'But he'll get his due when you show up all righteous with that sword.' He grinned up at Arthur and frowned when he said nothing. 'Arthur, are you alright?'

Arthur blinked distractedly.

'It's nothing,' he said. 'I'm just worried about you.'

'I'm fine,' Gilbert reassured, and sat up again, then fell back immediately into the pillows. 'Ouch, okay maybe not. Wow, it really feels like someone tried to force a whole other brain into my head.'

'Shh,' Arthur told him, brushing some hair out of his eyes. 'Just rest and I'll get back to trying to find out where that sword is.'

'Right,' Gilbert murmured, and he let the pain pull him into oblivion.

By Friday night, Gilbert was feeling a little stir crazy. Arthur still hadn't worked out a translation for the sword's location and they were all holed up in the dorm with Erzsébet bound at ankle and wrist mumbling the word "party" over and over on Gilbert's bed. Arthur was sitting on his own bed, glaring irritably at Roderich, who was peering skittishly over his shoulder at the various books Arthur had scattered around him.

'You really aren't helping this situation here,' Arthur finally snapped.

Gilbert frowned as Roderich apologised – there was something decidedly off about the way Arthur had reacted.

'Any luck finding out where the sword is?' Gilbert asked from his position at the desk. 'Because knowing what's happening tonight really makes me wish we were armed and not just sitting here.'

'This is the safest place for you to be right now,' Arthur murmured, not looking up from the books. 'If we all stay here then they can't get to you.'

'And if we stay here, what to say the vampires won't just grab two other people,' Gilbert argued. 'There is a party going on out there.' He motioned towards the window, outside of which the telltale signs of laughter and music could be heard.

'Party,' Erzsébet echoed feebly and Roderich hushed her, stroking at her long hair. 'I wanna go to the party.'

'If we can't find the sword or if it maybe doesn't exist…' Gilbert continued, wondering if this could be the reason Arthur had been so tight-lipped about the situation for the last few days. 'We could possibly find another way to stop the ritual. Maybe get help from the Summer Society, they're like a small army and I'm sure they won't like the idea of their leader being sacrificed to who knows what.' He took a quick glance at Erzsébet.

Arthur looked at him with frustration, then an idea appeared to have crossed his mind.

'I think I know where the sword is,' he announced to the room carefully and stood up. 'I can go look for it now, but it might take a while for me to get back. Nobody leave this room while I'm gone, understand? Just stay put.' He turned to face Gilbert directly. 'Promise me you'll listen.'

There was desperation in Arthur's voice and Gilbert hesitated, unable to shake the feeling that something was not quite right. He was saved from answering by a tremor rumbling from beneath the earth. The room shook and screaming from the party below pierced through the window. Arthur cursed beneath his breath.

'What the hell was that?' Gilbert asked as he dashed to peer out the window. 'Something's happening, we have to go help!'

'No,' Arthur said firmly, grabbing his arm. 'Stay here. I'll go see what's happening and come back before I go get the sword.' He let go of Gilbert's arm. 'None of you do anything, I'll be right back.'

He touched Gilbert's cheek lightly and smiled briefly, then without waiting for anyone to react to what he'd said, Arthur disappeared out of the door at supernatural speed.

When Arthur still hadn't returned twenty minutes later, a restless Gilbert turned to his laptop.

'I might as well record another video,' he spoke to himself. 'Given this is kind of our last stand and all. Besides, it'll keep me from worrying for the moment.' Gilbert looked over at Roderich and noticed his wary expression. 'I'm pretty sure all of the evil forces out there are too busy organising a dark ritual sacrifice to bother keeping tabs on us right now.'

Opening his webcam app, Gilbert noticed a large video file that he didn't remember filming.

'That's weird.' He muttered. 'The timestamp says Wednesday… Oh I remember now; I was going to film before I got distracted by Arthur mentioning the sword and the Dean poisoned me. Speaking of that… I did wonder what had happened.'

Out of morbid curiosity, Gilbert reached for his earphones and clicked on the file. By the time he finally stopped the video, Gilbert was shaking with anger and disbelief. He removed the earphones with trembling hands and answered the unspoken question in Roderich's curious expression.

'Arthur's betrayed us,' he spoke in a hoarse whisper.

Speaking that aloud combined with what he'd seen on his screen felt like a blow to the chest and Gilbert dug his nails into his palms as he felt his eyes begin to sting.

'Well,' Roderich began delicately, searching for words of comfort and falling short of them. 'You can't say that was entirely unexpected, given his history and all.'

'No,' Gilbert protested. 'He—,'

He stopped and shook his head, deciding it was pointless to defend Arthur, if even only to himself. Though Arthur's actions hadn't been taken out of malice, they'd nevertheless been selfish – and right now, Gilbert had friends to save.

Notes:

Andrei is the name I use for Romania, I've tried to put some of the canon dislike he has for Hungary into this chapter. Neither he or Spain actually fill any specific role from the webseries and are basically the Dean's lackeys.