A/N: Alright, so I've only been waiting to publish this first chapter for like... A year? Given, it's undergone major edits since then, but still, I'm just so pumped... I'm not quite sure if this will get the same kind of attention The Common Denominator has, but at least I have fun. ALSO, as a note: yes, I made Russia the villain, and he does do some highly, er, questionable things in this fic, but be patient, dear reader. His story will be explained, and I refuse to make any character so flat as a mindless villain. That said, I still don't necessarily support his actions, but I will do my best to keep him in-character. So, uh, y'know, enjoy and stuff! I hope you like it!

Tino never thought he would meet his end drowning in a bucket of water, and honestly, why would the thought have ever have occurred to him? It wasn't like he had been captured and tortured relentlessly for the last ten days or anything… Wait, scratch that.

In all honesty, Tino really should have seen it coming by now. This wasn't his first near-death experience that week, or even his second.

He had already started inhaling water (which was really quite painful, by the way), and his vision was starting to fade to black as he began to lose consciousness…

That was when heaven had mercy on him and he was yanked away from the pail of water by the very arms that had forced him down in the first place. He coughed until he had regurgitated a good deal of the fluid in his lungs, cursing at the pain. It was then that he finally opened his eyes. He immediately regretted it—this situation was only a minor improvement to drowning.

"Ah, Tino. I have been told that you are not cooperating," said the madman , standing in front of him and staring Tino in the eyes , giving off a rather intimidating presence.
Someone tied his arms behind his back with thin but strong and sturdy cord. Silver, Tino realized as he gasped in pain—the ropes were infused with silver. Well, there went his one escape plan. He couldn't very well change into a wolf when he was touching silver.

"Whoever told you that is right," he spat, the effect of his anger lessened both by the throbbing of his bound arms and the remaining water trapped in his windpipe. "I won't help you. You can't make me."

"Oh, but Tino. We wouldn't want to hurt you, now would we?"

"Too late for that, you've already almost killed me four times."

His captor seemed not to hear or care, but rather diverted his gaze toward his helper, who was still behind Tino. "Natalya?"

Tino turned his head as much as he could to see his captor's henchman, a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and the bloodthirsty glare of an axe-murderer. It was rather contradictory, but Tino found that he wanted to gaze at her beauty and wet himself at the same time.

Well, this scenario had just reached a whole new level of creepy. Again.

"Yes, brother?" the woman asked in a sly, mischievous, almost (dare he say it) sexy falsetto, a demonic smile playing at her lips.

The man smirked as well, and Tino knew he was screwed—well, more screwed than he'd previously thought. "I believe we have been going a bit too light on our houseguest. Would you kindly show him what pain really feels like?"

Oh, no. Not good. Definitely not good.

"I would love to, brother. Would you prefer I use the Chinese Water Torture, or should I get the knives?"

So, his options were either madness or potential death. Brilliant. Tino could feel his heart pounding faster and harder as he began to panic.

"Actually, I was thinking a game of Russian Roulette, myself," he answered.

Oh, joy. More death.

"Well, big brother, it's up to you. We can have him slowly go insane, use his fears against him, or just physically abuse him. All three sound equally enjoyable to me."

Had they no soul? No morals? How could they possibly derive even a morsel of enjoyment from the abuse of an innocent teenager?

Well, if he was going to be tortured, at least it was by the hands of a psychopathic supermodel…. Oh, what was he saying? This was horrible!

"You know, Chinese Water Torture does not sound like a bad idea. Why don't we do that one?"

Tino finally broke into a panic, blurting, "Okay, okay! What do you want from me?"

Then his captor laughed. No reservations, no respect—he just laughed. He walked up close, and leaned down so that his mouth was nearly touching Tino's ear.

"I want you," he whispered, "to kill Berwald Oxenstierna."

MISSING!
Tino Väinämöinen, age 16
5 feet, 7 inches tall; weighs about 140 pounds
Blonde hair; hazel eyes
Last seen August 8, on the corner of 4th and Main Street
If found, please contact the police, then call at 555-1923
Thank You

"How does 't look, Matthias?" Berwald mumbled to the Dane reading over his shoulder.

Matthias raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's about as good as it's gonna get, but... is his weight really necessary?"

"Yes, Matthias," Arthur argued. "It helps give one a more accurate image."

"Well, there's already a picture of him on the—wait, there's a fucking picture!" Matthias realized. "Why are we putting all this shit on here anyway?"

"More profess'nal," Berwald argued. "People'll take it more seriously if 't looks profess'nal."

Matthias was not satisfied by that, however. "Yeah, but-"

"Well I think Berwald did a fine job!" Arthur interrupted before a full-on argument broke out, as was typical in these situations. He gestured to the flyer. "Why don't we go spread these around?"

"Too late now. Full moon's t'night," Berwald pointed out with a sigh.

"Oh, well, that sucks."

Berwald simply nodded.

After a beat of silence, Matthias seemed to remember something. "Oh, Arthur? About that spell I wanted you to cast…"

Arthur looked up at Matthias warily. "I suppose we could do that right now, if you'd like. There's still about an hour and a half before nightfall. But are you sure you want to-?"

"Yes." He stopped smiling for once in his life, his bright blue eyes silently pleading with his friend. "I am."

"Alright. I will warn you though: you're tampering with fate," Arthur replied, albeit melodramatically. "If this doesn't have the desired effect, don't blame me. The spell is rather-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. High-risk, and you can't control it and stuff. Don't care. Let's do it."

Arthur still looked dubious, but sighed in resignation nonetheless. "Alright, then. Come with me, Matthias. The equipment is at my house."

"Okay." Matthias' smile returned, though it was a touch smaller than before, and his brows still remained furrowed in thought. He turned to Berwald. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

"'Kay," Berwald responded. "See ya."

"See ya!" Matthias was already making his way to the front door.

Arthur stayed back. "Good luck finding Tino, Berwald. I hope we can make some progress tomorrow after school."

"After school? Whatcha mean?" Matthias asked.

"School starts tomorrow," Arthur informed. "We're officially seniors." He paused for a moment before adding, "Anyway, we have to hurry if you want to make it back, Matthias."

"G'night, Arthur," Berwald said. "See ya t'morrow."

"Good night, Berwald."

And with that, the two boys put their shoes on and set off to Arthur's house.

Twenty minutes later, the two found themselves in Arthur's attic, which was pitch black save for a couple of candles the sorcerer had lit.

"So, this is the place?" Matthias turned to Arthur, one eyebrow cocked.

Arthur walked over to a dusty bookshelf and began to look through some of the shelves. "Yes, this is the place. Now let me see if I can find the book…ah, here it is! Love spells." He pulled out a large red book and placed it on a table.

"You wanted to get rid of your soulmate, right?" Arthur asked.

Matthias nodded.

"Might I ask why?"

Matthias shrugged. "I don't see why you need to know. It's not really your business, is it?"

The Dane seemed pretty firm in his position, so Arthur relented. He opened the red book and started searching for the proper spell. "Oh, right here," he mused, finally on the correct page. "A Spell to Ward Off One's Soulmate."

"Sweet!" Matthias exclaimed. "Let's do this thing."

Arthur held a hand up to stop him. "Wait just a minute. I want to know the side-effects first. What if this kills your soulmate before you meet them?"

Matthias face fell. "Oh. I guess that wouldn't be good."

"No, it wouldn't. Here, I'll read it aloud."

So he did. It went something like this:

"For each magical creature, there is another one creature that compliments him. Habitually, the matching creature or "soulmate" is destined to meet its counterpart and the two are to fall in love at first sight."

"Arthur, I think I already knew that."

"Shut up! I know!" Arthur shot back.

Awkward silence.

Arthur cleared his throat. "I suppose I could just skip that part."

He continued:

"This spell will ensure that the subject will not be bound to his or her partner. The two may not meet at all, and if they do, the subject will feel no abnormal connections to his former soulmate."

"That is what you wanted, right?" Arthur asked for the sake of clarification.

"Yup, sounds great!"

"Alright, I'll continue...

"Warnings:

1) Human soulmates will never even realize they have a mate and will show no reaction to the spell. The spell cannot be undone for humans."

"So you're saying that nothing happens if they're human," Matthias interjected. "That's good, right?"

"Well yes, but there's only about a fifty-percent chance your mate is human. Anyway...

"2) A number of side-effects may occur in the mate if he or she is magical. These include but are not limited to: irritability, coughing and sneezing for the first few hours after the spell, and the change of one's sex-"

"Change of what?!"

"Change of sex," Arthur repeated. "The explanation says that the mate may change gender to prevent attraction if the subject is only attracted to people of a specific gender."

"Wait, what?" Matthias still didn't completely understand.

The sorcerer sighed. "Alright, suppose Berwald were to undergo this spell before he met Tino. Berwald's gay and would only date another guy, so Tino might have turned into a girl. Do you get it now?"

The werewolf winced. "Isn't that a little..."

"Extreme? Yes, but I thought that was what you wanted."

Matthias ran a hand through his hair. "You're right. Keep reading."

"Got it. Where were we? We just finished side-effects, right? Oh, here we are:

"3) If the two mates meet after the spell, the subject will be entirely unaffected. However, if his or her mate is magical, said mate will sense the bond."

"Wait... So if I just so happen to meet this person, they'll fall in love with me? But I won't fall in love with them?"

"If they aren't human. Fifty-fifty chance. And that would only happen if you met them."

Matthias let that settle for a moment before telling Arthur to go on.

"4) The bond can only be broken if the subject falls in love with his or her soulmate. All side-effects in the soulmate will disappear only after this happens."

"So the only way to undo this would be for me to fall in love with them," Matthias concluded.

"Except you probably won't," Arthur countered, turning the page over to reveal the spell. "Remember?"

"Right."

Arthur read the spell to himself once through before giving Matthias a stern look. "Alright, last chance. Are you absolutely positive you want this?"

Matthias returned the glare full force. This had to be the longest period of time he'd ever been serious. "Yes. Positive."

Arthur smirked. "Very well. Why don't we get started then?"

A/N: Yeee so uhh... I don't know quite how well I pulled this off, so any constructive criticism and other comments would be awesome. I hope this was okay, and I'll update this in another couple weeks (after I finish the last chapter of my fic)!