Prussia watched the states with a concerning amount of caution.

He didn't know why, but these states put a constant unsettling feeling in his chest. He wished he didn't feel like this. Most of the states he met so far were nice, even the Isolationists who came off as rude weren't that bad. However, being around them still put him on edge. All he knew based on his experience of growing up in Europe, was never trust a new personification. Whether they've been around for centuries, or they were just formed, he knew not to trust them, especially after their first impression. Hell, he thought Hungary was a boy for how long?

"Prussia, what do you think?"

Massachusetts' voice dragged Prussia from his thoughts, and he looked up from his plate, "Hm?"

Massachusetts gestured to the dwindling Italian food running across the middle of the table, "Who's cleaning up? My guess is everyone with Spain since Romano probably told him to."

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin -the states sitting closest to him- watched him consider his words. Since the beginning of lunch he was getting used to their prying eyes constantly on him, "You're probably right." He knew that he wasn't being sent to the kitchen yet. No one came to tell him he was cleaning after lunch, so it was either Germany or Spain who was being sent to clean. Which meant he was either making dinner or cleaning up after dinner.

Wisconsin tilted her head slightly, "You've been quiet."

Fuck. He has been quiet. He took a large bite of his sausage, "I was just thinking about how awesome I am! And how good this food is, of course." She softly dabbed her napkin against her mouth to try to hide her disgusted expression when bits of sauce and sausage flew from his mouth.

He was still getting used to his new roommate. Wisconsin was almost intimidating. She was about six inches taller than Prussia when she wasn't wearing three-inch heels, which she decided to wear today. Her height wasn't her only aspect that made her stand out from the other states. She seemed to have an observant calmness cast over her personality. Not the ambitious yet collective attitude New Mexico carried, but something more subtle, and just as unnerving. Every time her eyes met his, he felt she suddenly knew everything about him.

She placed the napkin down and folded her hands over the table, giving the plate in front of her a light push to the side, "So, when is lunch ending?"

He was about to answer when a sharp yell cut through the chatter of the dining room, "Cali! That was the last garlic role, give it back!"

Alaska yelled after the state with golden hair. She sent him a devious grin, and tore half of the role with her teeth. Her laugh was muffled through a mouthful of food. He yelled obscenities at her while she looked back only to take another large bite from the roll. California stopped between Prussia and Massachusetts, "Hey guys!" Her mouth was covered in butter and garlic.

Wisconsin cringed and tossed a napkin to her, "California, have some table manners."

She wiped her mouth and grinned. California leaned over to match Prussia and Massachusetts' height sitting down. "Guess where the gang with Italy just came from?"

"The media room?" Prussia guessed. Now that he thought about it, Italy came in from the second entrance to the dining room, right? He was sure those hallways weren't as close to the media room from where he came from.

California shook her head, her eyes danced with excitement, "Kentucky and Tennessee convinced Italy to let them into the game room!"

New Hampshire coughed on his food, while Massachusetts and Wisconsin leaned forward in interest, "Really?"

Prussia knitted his brows together, "What's the game room?"

Massachusetts grinned, "It's exactly what it sounds like. It's one of the best rooms in the house! There's arcade games, table tennis, an air hockey table, and a bunch of other games. It's so wicked!"

California slung an arm around Prussia, and he knew where this was going. "West ordered me to keep you in the media room," He stated. He waited until the states gave him a disappointed look, then he broke into a smirk, "But... I don't follow most of West's orders anyway, so I guess we can check it out."

California cheered, and gave Massachusetts a high five, "We're gonna have so much fun!"

XXX

"I'll buy a hotel for both Boardwalk and Park Palace."

Every state sitting around the table burst in a chorus of protests. Prussia banged his fist against the board, flipping over a few plastic hotels, "Come on! This is so not awesome!" He glared at New York, who smirked as he counted a huge wad of $500 monopoly bills.

California, growled, "York! You did that on purpose! I'm like, five blocks from landing on Boardwalk and you just happen to get hotels now?

New York took his time placing his new hotels on the most expensive blocks of the game, "I'd apologize, however you're the only player who has a chance of beating me, and I have to crush you." It was true. Iowa quit a while ago after she landed on another one of New York's monopolies, Massachusetts only owned the cheapest monopoly, and had no money to buy motels, meanwhile Prussia was just holding on by owning all the railroads and the electricity and water companies. New York and California had everything else.

"You have an unfair advantage!" She called out, "Of course you'd do the best in this game, you have NYC."

He scoffed, "I'm not the best because I have NYC, I'm the best because I'm an economical genius."

"You're still a cheater!" She grabbed the dice and viciously threw it against the board, "HA! Just avoided Boardwalk! I get two hundred bucks for passing go, by the way." He rolled his eyes and handed her a few hundreds from the bank.

So far he was enjoying the game room. It was nice watching the states with another nation, especially since that nation was Italy. Before he was dragged into a game of monopoly, he spent most of talking with Italy while he drew. The room was a little crowded with so many personifications in here at once, but no one minded the lack of space. States circled around to watch games, and took turns playing. He was sure the volume of the room was loud enough to be heard from the other side of the house. It would have given him a headache if he weren't so used to participating in the chaos that was their world meetings.

It was only when the room abruptly went silent, did Prussia look up from their heated game of monopoly. Even California and New York cut off their argument to stare towards the entrance to the game room. He couldn't see from where he was sitting due to a group of states blocking his view, but he knew who it was the moment Italy looked up from his partially finished drawing.

"Germany!" He called wearing a warm smile.

Prussia immediately stood from his seat, and peered over a state's shoulder to see Germany's stiff figure standing alone in the doorway. "West! What are you doing here?"

Germany's icy eyes searched the room until they landed on him, "I'm here because I need a word with you." Everyone in the room turned their attention from Germany to him, some even stepped out of the way to make a path towards the door.

Prussia let out a loud laugh, "That's it? I'm surprised you didn't get lost on the way," he turned to the three states still sitting around the monopoly board, "you can skip my turn while I'm gone, I'm in jail anyways." He walked past the crowd of states, and followed his little brother into the hall.

They walked down the hall for about a minute, until he could hear the noise pick up once again from the game room. The Germany led him towards the stairs and said, "I told you and Italy to watch them in the media room."

Prussia snorted, because he knew for a fact that Germany didn't pull Prussia out of the game room just to say that, "Yeah, we were going to stick to the media room, but the states got restless and wanted to chill in the game room instead. I'm guessing Italy told you where we were?"

Germany sent a quick glare over his shoulder at the general direction of the game room, "I noticed you weren't where you were supposed to be after he sent me a picture of the drawing he's working on, and I realized I didn't recognize the room in the background. Anyway that's not why I wanted to talk to you."

Nailed it. "It's not?" He asked, mocking surprise. Germany met his gaze with a stern glare. He knew the German was getting tired of his overly-confident attitude, and Prussia was getting impatient himself, so he got to the point, "Then what are we standing here for? I was about to kick some serious ass in Monopoly. Also where are the states that you're supposed to be watching?"

Germany shook his head, "I dispersed them into Romano and Spain's groups."

A small smirk played on Prussia's mouth, "Why'd you do that? Are we going on a mission?" He felt a sudden burst of excitement bubbling in his chest, "Come on, West! It will be just like in the World Wars, us working together. It'll be great!"

Prussia could tell Germany was trying to keep a professional composure from the way he tightly pressed his lips together, "It's not exactly a mission, but it is something we have to do. We're questioning Wyoming."

"We're what?!" Ok, now he was more than slightly curious.

Prussia raised his eyebrows and grinned. Germany seemed far less ecstatic, "England and the others are busy with the investigation, but that doesn't mean we should leave Wyoming to sit in that office for so long. I don't want to give her time to make up excuses and lies. We should see to her questioning as soon as possible.

Germany paused, waiting for his response. Prussia clapped him on the shoulder with a cackle, "That's my baby bro! Using that brain of yours I see! I say let's go for it. England was probably planning on questioning Wyoming after the investigation, but we might as well question her now, right?"

"Exactly what I was thinking, let's go," Prussia followed Germany towards the stairs. He was starting to know the layout of the house a little better. He had to admit that during part of his shift for watching the halls overnight he explored a little bit, but who could blame him? This place was huge. Last night he didn't look for anything specific, he didn't want to risk making too much noise by creaking doors open and closed all night, but maybe next time he would.

It felt like a different house walking through the empty halls. There was no clutter on the floor and the doors were firmly closed. There was no chatter, shouts, growling, or laughter. No teasing, jokes, or insults. It was just... the sound of their footsteps bouncing off the walls. Prussia didn't notice they were outside of America's office until Germany stopped walking. "I have a laptop set up in the room across that will show live video feed and audio. You wait in there, while I question Wyoming."

Prussia stopped, "Huh? No fair! Am I only here to watch you question her? I want in on some action as well!"

He crossed his arms and pouted, waiting for his brother to give in. Germany sighed, "I expected you to say something like that. You can question Wyoming if I get nothing useful from her, alright?"

Prussia rolled his eyes as he followed Germany to the room where he would be watching the action, "Why is it that to be taken seriously in this investigation you have to be a stick in the mud? England and Candy get to lead, you get to question, Russia and Japan get the lab, and what do I get? A front row seat to something I can't participate in, doesn't that sound lame? It sounds totally lame."

Germany opened the door to a bright library-looking room. Bookshelves lined the walls, there was a nice seating area near the center of the room, and another by the window. In front of a cushioned love seat on a crafted coffee table was Germany's laptop, mostly used for business purposes. Prussia plopped into the stiff love seat and gave Germany an unmeaning glare, "I'm ready to be useless."

He shook his head, "If you were useless then I wouldn't have brought you here. Now watch carefully as I question Wyoming, and see if you can use anything to your advantage if I can't get her to answer my questions."

"Fine," Prussia moaned. He brought himself up from his slump and opened the laptop. While he was planning on moping the entire time, there was something tempting about watching Wyoming. "I'll make sure to come in and help if she looses it and goes for your throat or something by the way."

"I don't think that will be a problem," Germany pointed to the screen. "I'll return afterwards."

"Why won't it be a problem? You don't think she'll attack you after what she's already done?" No answer. "West?" He glanced up from the laptop, and Germany already left the room. He snorted and returned to the laptop. He opened the file with the live footage and pulled out a pair of earphones from his jean pockets.

Wyoming sat cross-legged on the floor of America's office with her head bowed, letting her long black hair shield her face. When Prussia plugged in his earphones, he heard three sharp knocks on the door. "Wyoming, this is Germany, and I'm coming in."

She muttered something under her breath, and frantically brought herself to her feet. She just found her footing when Germany entered the room. Prussia couldn't help but smirk when he noticed why Germany wasn't concerned about her attacking him. Her posture was stiff, and when she tried to stand as tall as possible he caught sight of a pair of metal handcuffs around her wrists. "Germany," She said, lifting her chin. Her voice was scratchy, Prussia doubted she used her voice at all after getting caught.

Germany walked around America's desk and sat in a large leather chair, "Good afternoon, Wyoming. Have a seat."

America's office was impressive. The desk Germany sat at was large with complicated patterns Prussia could barely make out etched along the edges. The office looked like it was set to be a meeting between three personifications. America's leather chair stood proudly behind the desk, while two lounging chairs were staring at the desk's other side.

Wyoming sat in one of the chairs across from him, and rested her handcuffed hands on her lap. Her lips were pressed together in a tight line, and she stared at Germany with wide eyes, "Did you bring me anything to eat, or are you slowly starving me until I tell you everything?"

Prussia had to admit this chick was amusing. Romano described Wyoming as timid and more down to earth than the others. Then again, she was the first one they caught openly acting for Capital, it was obvious there was more to her. Germany's expression didn't change at the comment, "We're doing no such thing. I apologize for not sending lunch. Dinner will be done in time, and I will send you a plate. I'm here to ask you a few questions, and I hope for your cooperation."

"You don't look like the kind to hold false hope," She sneered. "I told you everything you need to know, I taped those letters on the rooms."

Germany folded his hands on the desk in front of him and leaned forward, "We need to know who you were with. Looking back at the role call, three states were missing. You, New Mexico, and someone else. The only reason I didn't realize this before was because Romano deviated from the plan and arrived early. So who was supposed to tape those letters, and who passed the job to you?"

Wyoming's spite softened, and she stared at her hands, "I taped those letters myself."

"You didn't answer the question," Germany stated firmly. "Who was with you?"

"Ask Romano," She said, her voice hardening. "If he saw another state, then I was with someone else. However, I was alone, so he didn't."

"Romano couldn't see anything, because you blinded him," He said in a low voice.

If Prussia wasn't watching from this camera angle he wouldn't have noticed her flinch. He wondered if Germany did. She recovered so quickly he could have imagined it. She took a deep breath, and met his gaze, "I did what I had to, and I did it on my own."

Something seemed off with the interrogation. Usually Germany could get everything out of any person or personification within ten minutes, he watched it happen a countless number of times. What made Wyoming different? They had the advantage, right? They continued for another forty minutes, Germany asked straightforward questions while Wyoming twisted his words and spiked them back to him. Prussia almost zoned out by the time Germany shot up from America's chair and glared down at her, "We're not done yet," he briskly walked out of the room.

"Nice chat," Wyoming called after him. She paused, then she slowly lifted her head to stare into the camera lens, "It sure seems like Germany is done, so who's turn is it next?"

Prussia suddenly felt a bead of sweat run down his forehead. Germany burst through the room and angrily ran a hand through his hair. His face was red and his hand was still clenched around the doorknob, "Can you believe her! After everything she did, she still thinks she has the right to say those things!"

He let the door shut behind him and paced about the room muttering under his breath. Prussia perked up, "Is it my turn to question her?"

Germany stopped pacing and stared at him, he seemed surprised at his question. Then again, Prussia doubted Germany expected he was going to reach the point where Prussia had to step in. Germany heaved a frustrated sigh, "Fine. Go ahead, but I warn you that she is tricky."

Prussia sent him a smirk, "I'm trickier!" Wyoming seemed like the person to catch onto plans easily, and sometimes the best plan is walking into something without a plan. Improvising is an art, and he's the best damn artist there was. Prussia jumped up from his seat, and gestured to the chair, "Have a seat, and watch how it's done!" He puffed out his chest and strode out the room.

When he closed the door behind him, the air suddenly felt heavy. He could hear Germany grumble to himself through the walls, most likely watching the video footage waiting for him to begin questioning Wyoming. What was he going to say? Like hell did he know. Did it really matter if he had a plan or not? It wasn't like Germany could do better since she didn't answer any of his questions. He always enjoyed a situation where there was nothing to lose.

Prussia burst into the room, and smirked when Wyoming jerked her head in his direction. He swaggered past the desk and lounged into the large leather chair. Damn that thing was comfy. He planted his feet onto the desk in front of him and leaned back. Wyoming now seemed more annoyed than unsettled, "Prussia."

He threw her his most confident smirk, "What's the matter? You almost seem disappointed to see me, which is practically impossible since everyone enjoys my presence."

She pressed the tips of her fingers together and stared at him evenly. Prussia had to admit she looked fairly in control for someone in handcuffs, "So, Germany gave up, and sent you in here to question me?"

Prussia raised an eyebrow at her, and tried to keep a poker face, "Who said anything about questioning you?"

"Oh please," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Sending you in is so something Germany would do. My advantage here is that us states have known you for years, meanwhile you just met us a few days ago. How does that make you feel?"

"Feels great! You must feel lucky to get the opportunity to be on the sidelines watching all my accomplishments," she seemed to be losing interest in trying to get under Prussia's skin. Looked like it was his turn, "I'm not here to talk about my accomplishments though. That discussion would take days! How about instead we talk about yours?" Her eyes widened as he continued, "Taping all those rooms in such a short amount of time is impressive, especially with us on your tail the whole time. Was Capital impressed? That's what you call your leader, right?"

He couldn't help feeling smug when she paused for a moment to think of a way to respond to his questions, "I-It's none of your concern."

He was going to push her as far as she could go, "Whether it's my concern or not, your fellow states sure are concerned. Have you talked to them since they learned of what you did?"

"You know I haven't," she said sharply. Her tone had an icy warning, but the cuffs around her wrists promised no threat.

"A shame," he rested his hands behind his neck, "no need to get all defensive. Think of the bright side! At least you still have support among Capital's followers. Unless, you know, they already gave up on you after you got caught."

Wyoming shot up from her chair, and glared down at the red-eyed Prussian, "Shut up! They wouldn't do that!"

He responded with a casual shrug that dismissed her fury, "Why not? You served your purpose. Came in at the right time, kept Capital from missing the role call, taped that little game of scrabble in the escorts' rooms, everything went perfectly for you! Until you got caught that is. But hey, you had a good run, and you did all you could for Capital's cause. The only sucky part of this is that you get the short end of the stick. You stay in this stuffy room and miss all the action, meanwhile Capital has no incentive for rescuing you from the 'evil' nations."

"Capital would never do that," she growled. "That's just what you want to happen, because no matter what you say I'm still a threat as long as I'm associated with them."

"Who's 'them?' Any specific names you'd like to throw out there?"

She looked tall from where he sat, "No. I'm done listening to your taunts." She clenched her fists tightly and tensely waited for his response. Instead, Prussia saw something that caught his eye. He stood from his seat and calmly walked around the desk. This broke the barrier between Wyoming and Prussia, and threw her off enough to have her take a step back, "What are you doing?"

Prussia realized that she didn't show him the palm of her hand once. He snatched her left wrist, the action caused Wyoming to let out a sharp gasp. She was too shocked to keep her hand in a fist, exposing a deep slice into her pointer finger. "Where did you get this? Couldn't have been while you were making sandwiches since you were in charge of the meat."

She wrenched her hand out of his grasp, "It doesn't matter. How is a cut on my finger relevant to anything?" She asked with a curled lip, fiercely crossing her arms.

He leaned closer to her, "Ohio's notebook. Why didn't you tape it?" He wished Canada was with him right now. He'd probably have an actual plan at this point, and since he was so good at strategy he could probably help him out.

Even if he was still winging it, his words had an effect. Wyoming hesitated, and quickly shook her head, "There was no reason."

"Really?" He remembered Canada saying something about the notebook. He confiscated it in the first place, so there must have been something he thought was suspicious. "What was in that notebook that you decided to carve away?" She said nothing, she only stared at him with her distrustful gaze. Another question came to mind. How did she do that anyway? Did she use a knife? She must have. "Wyoming, where's the knife that you used to carve into the notebook?"

Wyoming shrugged, only partially coming back from her shock. Her star had a faint glow to it, "You'll never find it."

He knitted his eyebrows together, "Why wouldn't we? Unless you're implying the knife is in Capital's possession."

"I'm not!" She snapped, glaring at him. Her eyes flickered downward, as if she regretted her reaction. Prussia wouldn't be surprised, because she let him know that he was getting closer to prying some sort of information from her.

"Why would you leave the knife with Capital? Did you not want to be caught with it? Is it Capital's knife?" If he could find out if this knife was Capital's, would it help them in the future?

Wyoming's knuckles turned white. She lurched forward and shoved Prussia with the palms of her hands. Prussia stumbled backwards. He almost toppled over the large office desk trying to catch himself. "The knife isn't his!" She snarled.

The tension in the air stilled, and Wyoming's eyes became round saucers immediately after the words exploded from her mouth. Prussia knitted his brows together, wondering why she was acting this way. He ran what she said over in his brain.

Oh.

Prussia grinned wider than he ever has in a while, which seemed to unsettle Wyoming even more. "I-I didn't mean-" She helplessly stammered, but it was too late.

He pushed himself off from the desk, "Nice chat." She recoiled when he ended this the same way she did to Germany. "I haven't really gotten the chance to talk to you before all of this, so getting to know you a little more is great!"

"Wait! Prussia!" Her eyes darted around the room, and landed on the camera lens staring at them from the top shelf of a display case. She was starting to get desperate now, "Don't!" Her voice sounded more like a weak plea than anything, "What I said meant nothing, you gained nothing from this conversation."

"Really? I wouldn't underestimate the weight of your words," He bid her one last goodbye before shutting the door behind him and locking it. Wyoming continued to yell after him, but he ignored her grating voice.

When he returned to Germany, he stood clutching the closed laptop in one hand. Prussia knew that they were done questioning her for the day. Admiration shone in his brother's pale blue eyes, "Good work. We have to tell the others as soon as possible."

Prussia stood taller and pumped a fist in the air, "Yeah! See, West? I knew you'd need my help. Who wouldn't need someone as awesome as me? That was some grade-A detector shit. Forget that Sherlock guy! Did you hear what she said?!"

Even though Germany didn't show it, Prussia could tell his younger brother was just as excited as he was, "Yes I do." He gave him a small smile, "Because of you, we know Capital is a male state."

XXX

This was a first, Germany left Prussia to share the information with the other nations. Not that he as complaining of course. After all if they were having a meeting then someone had to watch all the states while they ate dinner. Germany already told everyone they found something, so everyone who was watching the states joined with the others to hear what Prussia had to say. Germany usually attended and spoke at every meeting, certainty Prussia could do the same, right? He wasn't nervous or anything presenting this very important thing they learned to everyone. Not at all!

Prussia clutched the laptop to his side and walked through the empty halls. The chatter from the dining room was slowly fading away, and his shoes walking against the wooden floors seemed to get louder and louder. He signed from relief when he saw the two metal doors that led to the lab. He knocked on the cold metal, and soon heard a lock click. "You may come in, Prussia," New Mexico's steady voice called.

He pushed open one of the doors and walked in. The lab was impressive to say the least. Even with so many personifications in one room, the lab still seemed huge. He was sure this lab was big enough to have a whole team of scientists working together. Every laptop and TV was on, with a different picture of the crime scenes on each screen. The one he noticed first was Canada, who was absently twirling on a strand of hair looking at the TV screens. New Mexico quickly walked in front of one of the laptops and continued typing, while the state next to her studied a pile of paper and jotted down notes. England paced before the TVs, muttering under his breathe. Japan was at another laptop, and Russia was looking over his shoulder.

The rest of the nations were leaning against the long line of cabinets without anything to do. Prussia strode across the room, checking out the expensive equipment as he walked, and ended up leaning against one of the escape windows. He nodded toward Spain and France, "What's up?"

France slumped against the cabinet, "We didn't find as much as we were hoping to find. Every single fingerprint we found either belonged to Wyoming, one of us, or the state that actually lives in the rooms. No suspicious mystery prints."

Spain shrugged, "You didn't really expect it to be that easy did you, mi amigo?"

"No, but it would have been lovely if it was that easy!" France whined.

Prussia laughed, "So how was watching the states?"

Spain smiled, "It was great! I think Texas is starting to warm up to me, because today he said good morning!"

"That's only because you said it first," Romano said with a roll of his eyes. Annoyance radiated off of him, "The group I watched was horrible. I'm just glad lunch didn't turn out as bad as they were. Oi, since we're on the topic, what's for dinner?"

"We ended up making a Southern-Western kind of breakfast. We made a lot of different things to eat, I think you'll like it!"

Romano ignored Spain's beaming smile, "Unless there's any dishes with tomatoes in it, consider my appetite lost. Why didn't you make any Spanish food?"

"Texas suggested that we make American food since we had Italian for lunch. Besides, they knew enough different dishes to easily feed all of us, so I agreed," Spain's words made Prussia's mouth water. At this point he would eat anything.

Italy bounced up and down excitedly, "You two should see the game room these states have! Tennessee and Kentucky showed me the room first, and it is so amazing!" Prussia zoned out during his rambling, thinking about what they could do with the information he was about to share.

"Another fingerprint match to Wyoming," New Mexico announced. "This one was on New York's clock. There's still no sign of Capital."

England cursed under his breathe, then looked up at Prussia, "Sorry about the wait. We wanted to first finish scanning this fingerprint. Germany said you have important information to share with us."

"Yes I do!" He said loudly. He turned on the laptop and placed it on one of the lab's counters, "I should start by saying we decided to question Wyoming."

"You did what?!" England burst out. He narrowed his emerald eyes, "No state was going to be questioned until after we finished sifting through all this evidence."

Prussia pulled up the video feed from the end of Germany questioning her to after Wyoming screamed at Prussia, "Yeah about that... we decided to question her anyway. That's not the point. What is the point is that you guys have to see what the awesome me found out!"

The nations and the two states crowded around the laptop. Prussia played the video and stepped back, letting them see the footage for themselves. He watched their skeptical expressions slowly morph into surprise. When the video ended, England looked up at Prussia, "Do you know what this means?"

He grinned, "If I didn't would I waste our time by sharing this video?"

"Capital is a man!" New Mexico called out excitedly. Her eyes sparked with a wild confidence, "Good job, Prussia. You cut our suspects for Capital in half! If we can figure out which one of our men is Capital, it will make a huge difference."

The state beside her didn't seem as enthusiastic, "Don't forget about Capital's supporters. If we capture Capital, I doubt any of them would hesitate to take his place."

"Are you sure this means Capital is male?" Japan asked. "Wyoming only said 'his,' she could be referring to another state."

Russia's smile was dark, "He was asking about Capital at the time. However what if she's faking this overreaction so that we think Capital is a 'he?' What if Capital is a woman?"

New Mexico shook her head, "Wyoming wouldn't be able to. She's good at pushing down negative emotions, but at times she has the tendency to explode. She couldn't have faked this level of panic."

"Well if you know her so well, then why couldn't you figure out she was working with Capital while she was travelling with us?" Romano asked harshly.

The state beside New Mexico shrugged, "Because it could be any of us. I'm not saying we would all betray America in a heart beat, I'm just saying that it all depends on who Capital is, and what methods he used to recruit these states. So if we did find Capital, we could probably track down his supporters simply from a few educated guesses."

"Thank you, Nevada. Back to what I was saying, the probability of Wyoming faking that reaction is so little that the idea shouldn't even be put on the table," New Mexico finished.

"So what do we do now that we know this?" Italy asked, glancing between the laptop and the group.

Canada's gaze hardened, "We keep searching. We can't stop until we have some sort of evidence linking us to Capital. The closer we are to Capital, the closer we are to America. We start questioning states tomorrow."

No one argued with him, "Sounds like a plan." England turned away from the laptop and faced the nations, "I want a list of every state you find slightly suspicious. We'll organize who questions which state afterwards. For now let's all take a break and eat dinner."

The ones who actually knew what they were doing in this lab helped clean up. Prussia closed his laptop and walked over to Canada, who was shutting off the TV screens, "Nice call there, Candy."

Canada blushed, "I was just stating the obvious. What's really impressive is how you got Wyoming to reveal Capital's gender like that."

Prussia wore a smirk, "What can I say? Just me and my awesome skills working its magic. I figured she wasn't going to confess anything so I tried aiming for another angle." Who had to know he didn't have a plan? Nobody.

"Well it worked perfectly," Canada said with a timid smile. "So are you ready to get some dinner?"

"I'm starving! Saving America is burning a lot of calories."

"We're not saving anyone yet," England called out, "Not until we capture every twat who's involved with Capital."

France softly rolled his eyes and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Enjoy the victory, Angleterre. We should cherish every one, it will fuel us with every setback." England muttered something under his breath, probably a sarcastic retort from the way France shook his head. "Are we ready to go?"

New Mexico locked the storage closet and the cabinet doors, then nodded, "Everything is put away, we're ready to go."

Everyone followed her out of the lab and watched her lock the metal doors behind her. "Prussia, you're cleaning up after dinner, right?" Italy asked.

Prussia's shoulders sagged, "Yes." He could hear everyone's complaints already.

"It's not too bad," Spain said.

France snorted, "I wouldn't trust his judgment, anything is 'not as bad' for his standards."

Prussia laughed and waved them off, "I'll worry about it after I eat."

What he did have to worry about was the list of suspicious states he had to make. Who would he list? Who wouldn't he list? There was one thing he had to keep in mind while making this list; they now knew Capital's gender. As they walked towards the dining room, that unsettling feeling returned. Prussia felt a sudden weight push down on his chest, and he had to make an effort to walk with the others keeping his usual outgoing posture. They knew Capital's gender, but as Nevada said, any state could be on his side.

XXX

Author's Note: Hey everyone! WHO'S READY FOR HALLOWEEN?! I'm so excited for Halloween. Over the weekend the rest of Cosplay club and I set up a Halloween dance and it was so much fun. Every year I go trick or treating with my friends and try to get more candy than my little sister. Then we have a huge candy trade that usually lasts for hours. I can't wait! What's your Halloween tradition?

After Halloween is November! For those of you who don't know, November is NANOWRIMO! (National Novel Writing Month) Basically the main goal is to write 50,000 words in one month. I haven't really tried to complete nanowrimo before, so hopefully I'll make the word count. If I can accomplish this and stay on track, expect a few more updates than usual coming up. I'll be working on this and probably a few other creative writing pieces for fun. I'm excited to see how November will come out writing wise. Who knows, maybe I'll even get near the end of the story with this goal! Author's Notes don't count btw, because that would be down right cheating with the length of my author notes.

Wow for this story I'm writing a lot of characters that I'm not used to writing. Once again if you think anyone is OOC let me know and I'll correct it in the future. I love Prussia, so I hope I did a good job writing him. We now have Capital's gender! Wyoming couldn't stay in that room forever without being questioned, and there will be a lot more interrogations to come. There are 26 women and 24 men out of the states in case you were wondering. So one of you asked if there would be a chapter from America's POV, and the answer is yes, but not yet. All you need to know is that it will come eventually. Next chapter will be told from a surprise POV. Your only hint is that they're one of the states in the house. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll try to update soon!