I didn't read this over at all, so there are probably some errors. Just a warning.

Later that night, Lovino sat in the back of a dark car with tinted windows, staring down at the floor of the vehicle as the car approached the southeastern Center wall gates. This was the only entrance to the restricted section of the Center—a whole different walled off area called the 'Royal Center' where the King's castle, the grand library, and other extremely important or top-secret buildings were located. Only those with special clearance could enter, including elite or political figures, royalty, messengers with certain deliveries to make, and highly-ranked soldiers. Lovino, being the grandson of a well-known decorated veteran, was allowed into this part of the Center.

"Should any of us go in with you, boss?" asked the uniformed man who sat in the passenger's seat of the car.

Lovino shook his head. "No, I just want to be alone. My stupid brother and grandfather are too annoying to give me some peace and quiet at home." He crossed his arms and sat back in his seat, lifting his head to look out the window as they surpassed the tall gates and the soldiers who guarded them.

He couldn't wait to get into the quiet grand library and just relax alone. Too much had been hitting him at once. He thought he had finally been able to cope with the loss of Antonio, but learning that he could lose Emma as well brought back unwanted memories. Now he might soon be bearing the weight of two losses. That on top of dealing with stupid rich snobs or ignorant leading figures every single day while attempting to keep track of hundreds of henchmen all around the territories was quite a lot for just one young man.

Oh, and being a wanted 'criminal' slated for an inevitable execution didn't really help, either. At least authorities had no idea that this criminal was really him. Then again, the person actually being widely accused was his grandfather, which wasn't any better.

Before he knew it, the car was stopping right in front of the gates to the Royal Center. Without a word, Lovino stepped out, making sure his emergency pistol was covered by his jacket, and walked up to the gates. He pulled out an identification card and showed it to the guard, who gave him an approving nod before the gates were opened, and then closed behind him.

The Royal Center, as usual, was nearly empty. The only indication of the presence of other people were the few lights glowing from windows in certain buildings, and the smell of burning fireplaces coming from some houses. Lovino had heard that this time of the year hadn't always been this cold. His grandfather had explained it to him and his brother many times, but he never really listened. It had something to do with radiation, temperature inversion (whatever that was), and brighter clouds caused by pollution reflecting the sun away. He really didn't care about all of this science stuff. As long as he was alive and out of prison, he didn't give two shits about what the hell happened to the climate.

With his hands shoved into his jacket pockets, Lovino strolled down the street and walked up the stone steps of the grand library, which fortunately was open 24/7. He had often wondered why it was always available for people to browse. Even during the day next to no one actually went there, so what was the point in leaving it open?

He pushed open one of the large front doors and walked inside, his footsteps echoing off of the marble floors and tall walls inside. There weren't really any specific reasons for Lovino being there other than the opportunity of getting some quiet time alone to clear his head. He even had the communicator in his ear switched off to avoid any interruptions from his henchmen. If something important or problematic were to happen, they could surely deal with it alone for one night.

Lovino wandered around the grand library for a while, listening to his mechanical feet click on the smooth floor and enjoying the tranquility he so rarely experienced. There didn't seem to be anyone else in the library other than a couple of night guards who didn't even bother to take one glance at him. Lovino actually felt a bit sorry for these guys; they had to spend their nights patrolling a great, big empty library where nothing ever happened. Certainly working such an uneventful, repetitive job night after night would get tiring and the people stuck with said job would have their guards down, thus leaving them vulnerable to missing anything out of the ordinary.

As meandering around the enormous building grew boring, Lovino decided it was time to have some fun. Not too long ago, one of his men had told him about a locked door hidden somewhere on the bottom level of the library that he had found while gathering information on one of their next targets. Strangely enough, the library staff claimed to know nothing of this door's existence or what was behind it. He had even stolen keys from one of the night guards, but none of them worked on the door. He had then reported to Lovino, who he thought could possibly solve this mystery.

According to the henchman, the door was near the territory history section of the library. It didn't take Lovino very long to realize that the door was concealed behind one of the tall bookcases. Visible hinges, Lovino thought with a satisfied smirk as he observed the lower half of the bookcase, which seemed to be completely separate from the rest of it with what looked like door hinges on one side. How stupid could these people be? After ensuring that neither of the night guards were around, he slowly and carefully tugged at the bookcase, which swung out from its position, revealing the plain metal door behind it.

"What the hell?" Lovino grumbled aloud as he looked at the door. Instead of a lock that required a key to open like the henchman had described, there was a keypad and a little screen attached to the door. Letting out a quiet, frustrated grunt, Lovino pulled a handkerchief from one of his jacket pockets to keep himself from leaving fingerprints and got ready to punch in the first code that came to mind. He leaned closer to the keypad, searching for possible smudges on the keys that would tell him which ones had been previously pushed.

All keys except 0, 1, 5, and 9 had been pushed multiple times, and 3 seemed to be the one to have had been pushed the most. Even the space button had been pushed, which brought Lovino to the conclusion that the numbers were based on corresponding letters that would normally show up on a keypad but were absent here. He tried to work it out in his mind: 1 normally would have no letters; 2 had A, B, and C; 3 had D, E, and F; 4 had G, H, and I; 5 had J, K, and L; 6 had M, N, and O; 7 had P, Q, R, and S; 8 had T, U, and V; 9 had W, X, Y, and Z; and 0 also had no letters. So, the passcode had no letters corresponding with 5 or 9, eliminating seven possible letters. There were at least two separate words, though it was most likely to be no more than three since passcodes usually weren't very long. That still barely narrowed this down, plus, there was no indication of exactly how long the passcode was.

Lovino stood there, irritated and perplexed, yet determined to see what was so important that it needed to be protected by a metal door and passcode lock behind a bookcase. He did have the option of trying to force his way in by shooting at the lock to open the door or kicking off the hinges with his strengthened feet, but he couldn't risk being heard by the guards or setting off some kind of alarm.

Time went by, and he still hadn't made any progress. He glanced at the big clock on the wall, which told him that it was a quarter to nine. Curfew would be in fifteen minutes, however, in the Royal Center, curfew did not apply since anyone who was allowed in obviously could be trusted enough to stay out of trouble without one. Lovino was close to giving up when he heard one of the heavy entrance doors open and then close, followed by someone entering the wide corridor in the middle of the first floor. He quickly, but silently, pushed the bookcase section back to its original place and hid behind a column, watching the man who had just entered make his way down the long corridor.

Lovino recognized this man as Arthur Kirkland, a powerful figure from the Western territory. No one actually knew what he did or why he was so powerful; he just was. To Lovino, this man was no more than another name on his list of evil morons to take down.

He could've done it right then and there. He had a loaded pistol. No one else seemed to be around. Arthur was completely vulnerable and clueless. But no, now was not the time. There was a certain way Lovino went about doing things that required planning and precision, and not spontaneous killing. Plus, if things got out of hand, he would be alone and could get in trouble quickly.

Arthur came closer and closer to the end of the room where Lovino had been a minute ago, eventually stopping at the bookcase covering the door. The entire time, Lovino kept himself hidden behind the column, but made sure he could see what the other was doing. As he silently moved from the column to a spot behind another bookcase, he heard the other shelves swing open. He crouched low to the ground and peered around the corner, seeing Arthur holding up a piece of paper. The formally-dressed man then neatly folded the slip of paper and hastily stuck it into his back pocket before punching in the code. Lovino focused his upgraded vision in an attempt to see the code without moving any closer, but it happened so quickly that all he could make out was that there were fourteen figures punched in, there were two words, the first word was longer than the second, the last word had two 7s in a row, and the last number entered was 8.

Once the door opened, Arthur quickly slipped inside, and the door and bookcase closed behind him on their own. Lovino was so upset with himself that he didn't even get a glimpse inside before everything shut back into place. He stood up from his crouching position angrily and scowled at the ground as he tried to keep himself from kicking the bookcase he was hiding behind down. His chance was gone! He was so close! He had it and he fucked it up!

Or maybe he didn't. Lovino paused his little internal temper tantrum to direct his attention to a little folded piece of paper sitting on the ground—the very same piece of paper Arthur had looked at before entering the passcode. Before opening it up, Lovino hid himself again just in case Arthur would come back out anytime soon.

The paper seemed like complete bullshit to Lovino. New assets, it read. It was two words, but certainly not the passcode. It only added up to ten figures including the space, and the first word was shorter than the second. This was obviously just a clue to the actual passcode. Great.

What kind of new assets would our twisted government have? Lovino asked himself as he stared at the paper. They're always creating new technology and upgrades... The second word has two 7s in a row and an 8 at the end. So... There's probably either a double 'P' or double 'S' there. The last letter is most likely a 'T' if this is in English. He mentally face-palmed when he realized that the second word clearly was 'asset'. That left eight figures for the first word, which would have to use the number 3 multiple times since it would only be used once in the second word, and he had observed earlier that it was the most frequently pushed.

Come on, dammit... What kind of asset is this? The bastards around here like upgrades. Maybe an upgraded asset? That uses 3 three more times, and it's eight letters! Now I just have to wait for that bushy-browed moron to leave.

He sat and watched the door, and soon enough, the bookcase swung open and Arthur emerged from behind, carrying a purple notebook he didn't have before. He walked back up the corridor with a quickened pace as if in a hurry, and soon was out the front doors. After one of the night guards made a lap around the first floor and headed upstairs, Lovino immediately pushed the bookcase open once he was sure he was alone again. Using his handkerchief, he entered 87472333 27738 and then waited, ready to make a quick escape if an alarm was set off. Seconds turned into a full minute, and nothing happened. "Fuck," he breathed, his high hopes crashing into the ground.

Maybe they used another word for 'upgraded', he thought, still set on the idea of this having something to do with upgrades. Updated? He tried it, but once again, nothing happened. Fuck, fuck, fuck! What else could it be?! I probably only have one more chance. Maybe I should abandon the whole upgrade thing... Wait a minute. Modified? Will that work? He took a deep breath and went over the numbers in his mind twice before putting it in. 66343433 27738. There was a clicking sound, which prompted Lovino to grab the handle and open the door as he held his breath excitedly.

Once he was inside, the door shut itself behind him, and he faced forward to find himself standing at the top of a flight of stairs. He decided to turn his communicator back on as he walked down the smooth stairs. "I'm still in the grand library. Is there anything important that I've missed?" he asked quietly once it was turned on.

"You will never believe this," said the voice of one of his henchmen. "Amelia F. Jones is joining Gilbert Beilschmidt's rebellion. She was just in the Center with him and Mikkel Densen, and I believe I heard that they have arranged to meet in the Southern territory this Saturday."

"Bullshit," Lovino instantly remarked. He reached the bottom of the stairs. "Hold on, I've found some kind of underground area. Earlier, I figured out how to get past that locked door on the first floor of the library. I'll get back to you all once I return to the Center. My coms will be turned off from now until then." He switched the communicator off and hopped off the last step.

The room the man found himself in was fairly large and had a rectangular shape. The walls were a light-colored wood, and the floor was made of the the same creamy marble as the floors upstairs in the library. Above where Lovino stood was recessed lighting illuminating the room, signifying that there could still be people here. Along the walls were four doors, each with a plaque to label them: Citizen Database, Enemy Database, Surveillance and Tracking, and Classified Projects. What the hell is this place? was the first thought that came to Lovino's mind as he stared at each of the doors with wide eyes.

As tempted as he was to take a peek inside each of the rooms, he knew there were people down here, and could not risk being caught in a place like this. He paused for a moment and listened for voices or movement behind the doors, and was happy to find that all but one was occupied. He took a very quick, cautious glance around the room before quietly stepping up to the door marked 'Enemy Database' and turning the handle slowly. On the other side was a dark, slightly larger room filled with computers and file cabinets. Lovino took his handkerchief out again so he could flip the light switch, and eventually decided to put on his wool gloves meant to warm up his hands in the cold. He would not leave a single trace of his presence here.

Once his thin gloves were on, he stood at the nearest computer and turned it on. The screen lit up, showing a single bar to input an 'enemy' name, as indicated above it in tiny black letters. He thought for a moment, and curiously typed 'Romano' into the bar. Information instantly popped up as he hit the enter key, and he eagerly read it over.

Full name: Unknown

Alias(es): Romano

Age; DOB: Early to mid twenties; Unknown

Gender: Male

General physical appearance: Unknown

Home territory: Unknown

Personal information: Unknown

Upgrade(s): Possibly enhanced senses, possible feet or leg upgrades

Last known location: Center

Status: Alive

Position on Wanted List: #1; wanted dead or alive

Allies: Unknown

The rest of the page showed other information such as the criminal acts he had committed, his behaviors, and more. Frankly, Lovino was not too surprised that this database existed, and he was thankful that they had close to nothing about him, and that the square in the upper left corner reserved for a picture was empty. He smirked, proud that he had been able to keep himself hidden from the eye of the Center so easily for so long. Self-praise aside and done with, he typed another name.

Full name: Antonio Fernández Carriedo

Alias(es): None

Age; DOB: 25; February 12, 2190

Gender: Male

General physical appearance: Brunette hair, green eyes, tan skin, 5'10"

Home territory: Southern territory

Lovino skimmed over everything with little interest for nothing except two little pieces of information. He read the lines over and over again, like he couldn't believe what he was looking at.

Status: Modified

...

Captured by: Amelia F. Jones and Madeline Williams

This didn't make any sense. Modified. What the hell was that supposed to mean? It had to be something important. It was part of the passcode that got him into this place! Was Antonio still alive? It said 'Captured' rather than 'Killed' or 'Defeated', so that had to mean he was alive, right? Then why did Gilbert come knocking at his door that fateful day to tell him that he had been killed by a soldier?! Lovino sat himself down and continued to stare at the screen in awe and confusion and hundreds of other overwhelming emotions. He scrolled back up to the picture of Antonio that had been placed in the upper left corner of the page and stared at that smile he missed seeing everyday.

He froze when he heard footsteps reach the bottom of the stairs outside and approach the Enemy Database room. The door handle turned, and Lovino let one hand settle on the gun in his belt as the door opened.