"It was your fault, all of it. You killed them."

Kiku sat upright fast and stared forwards. It was okay, it was just 2p talking again. He did that a lot.

"You're awake" Yao said, smiling from the chair next to the bed he'd woken up in. "Good. I'm afraid I hit you just a little bit too hard."

Kiku stared at him for a moment and then nodded, pretending to acknowledge it. He couldn't ever remember anything and now was no acception.

"How long?" Yao asked quietly, smile vanishing.

"I..." Kiku hesitated. "I guess... maybe... I don't know. More than a year I guess."

"You did a good job of hiding it."

He nodded again and glanced down. "How many people did I kill?"

Yao blinked, slightly shocked by the question. "A couple. Most were just injured though. No life threatening injuries you'll be glad to know, just a few bad memories. But it wasn't you was it?"

"It was him" Kiku muttered. "We met a couple of years ago and... I was sure I beat him, he literally disintegrated in front of me, but then I started blacking out and waking up places and I realised he was still alive and..."

"He said" Yao sighed. "We could've helped, why didn't you say anything?"

 "Because there wasn't anything that anyone could do" Kiku said. "I was doing the best I could and... I guess it was the most that I could do ever, even if I did have help from someone."

He reached up to rub his eyes but stopped, glancing down to the chain.

"I'm sorry" Yao glared at the door and winced. "Alfred insisted we had to because... he refuses to see that you're still one of us, even if you are half 2p."

"It doesn't matter" Kiku pulled at it a bit and then dropped his arm. "If anything, it'll do good."

"Hey, Kiku, you're awake" Feliciano slammed open the door, charged in and threw his arms around him. "Oh, sorry" he stepped back a little. "Personal space."

****************************************************************************************************

"I refuse to believe that the chap is one of them" Arthur slams his hand on the table, making Alfred jump. "You can say what you like, about him being at least fifty percent 2p or whatever, but what about the other fifty percent? Are you just going to go and condemn that?" 

Alfred sighs. "Listen Arthur..."

"No" Francis stands. "For this one moment, I have to agree with him. How long have we known him? How long have we known he's a good person, a friend? And now that you see the slightest problem with him, you're just going to... to..."

"Kill him" Ivan grins.

"No, you shut up, we're not killing him" Arthur yells.

"No" Alfred glares at Ivan. "That's going way too far. Just make sure that he doesn't cause trouble and isn't a problem towards us. When we've dealt with the other, then we can talk further on this."

Note: I don't think that Russia is a psychopath, he's just misunderstood, but that is the type of thing he'd say... probably.

"What if it takes us years to deal with the others?" Francis snaps. "Come on Alfred. think about this..."

"You're being a bloody git" Alfred hisses.

"Yeah, that" Francis nods. "But seriously, think about this. He's a good fighter and can help us get rid of the other 2ps."

"Yeah, so he can turn on us in the middle of the entire... battle? Is that the right word?" Alfred peers over his glasses at them. "It's too risky."

"What happened to you being obsessed with 'freedom and adventure?" Arthur jabs a finger at him. "You were always for the risky stuff and going on about 'freedom this' and 'freedom that'. Now you're just obliterating all of that and going on about how it being too risky."

Alfred sighs. "Sometimes, you have to take a different course of action to the one you want to take."

"What? So you don't want to do this, but are doing it anyway?" Francis snaps. "What is that?"

The door opens and Yao walks in, glaring at Alfred.

"Come on Yao" Alfred says. "You've got to get where I'm coming from. He turned on you and you've got that scar on your back to prove it."

Yao's glare deepened. "That has nothing to do with that. He's still my kid brother and doesn't deserve to be chained up, regardless of the 2p."

"He always says he isn't your brother" Ivan says. "He almost insists that he has nothing to do with you."

"Yeah well..." Yao looks down and frowns. "Well... that doesn't matter at the moment" he mutters.

"See" Arthur waves an arm frantically in Yao's direction. "If Yao says your being a jerk, then clearly you are."

"What's come over you anyway?" Francis stares at Alfred "Huh? Something's got to have happened because this isn't the Alfred we know."

Alfred doesn't say anything, sighs and sits down. "I'm scared okay. It... this is like nothing we've ever faced before and it's all looking pretty hopeless. I just... I guess I just don't want to take risks."

"Okay, this is definitely new" Arthur sits down opposite him and balances his chin on his hands. "Well, if that's it, then I guess I can of understand, but still. We can't just leave him. As I said before, if we're going to defeat all of them, we'll need Kiku."

"I just don't like him" Ivan blinks innocently.

"Yeah, well that isn't surprising" Francis says. "Considering you cursed him just by looking at him once."

Ivan grins.