Katerina felt like her mind was beginning to waver as she watched the unexpectedly-extended lunch-hour news on television.

After the jailbreak last night, Natalya had taken them straight to their safehouse out in the city's suburbs. It was a relief that Natalya had spent her portion of Yong Soo's gifted transfer to finance this safety net. It was a cookie-cutter house with multiple bedrooms, standard appliances and all the basic utilities.

Katerina's night had been restless, with the endless paranoia stealing the spotlight in her mind and making her unable to sleep. As far as she knew, the police could storm the house at any moment to re-capture the prisoners. As far as she knew, Ludwig had been caught by the police, or worse, killed. As far as she knew, Ivan somehow betrayed them yet again.

They received a couple answers that morning, in the form of a message on Natalya's phone. Ludwig had been arrested, but his brother wanted to break him out and needed their help hiding away. They chose to believe Gilbert's pleas, and Natalya went downtown with Lovino and Elizaveta for the pickup.

Feliciano came out of the kitchen, and placed the two cups of coffee on the table in front of Katerina.

"Any more details?" Feliciano asked as he sat down beside her on the couch.

"They are still waiting on the next batch of rumours," Katerina explained, "These news reporters sure love a developing story."

"It might help our situation," Feliciano noted, "Now that they are fully distracted, I doubt the police are looking as closely for us. It might have also been the perfect diversion for breaking Ludwig out."

"And what if we're not safe?" Katerina began to panic, "What if they're closer to finding us than we realize?"

"Your sister would not have chosen this safehouse if it could be found so easily," Feliciano assured, bringing his arm around her and gently rubbing her shoulder, "We are safe for now, and have time to flee if we discover any danger. I won't let this bullshit hurt you any more than it already has."

Katerina mustered a small smile of gratitude for Feliciano's reassurance, only for it to drop as they heard the front door open. Her alarm dropped immediately as the sound of Lovino's voice entered the room before his body did.

"We're back, everything went well," Lovino announced as the others strolled into the living room, along with a couple additional faces.

"Ludwig, it's good to see you safe and sound," Feliciano greeted as Ludwig approached the couch.

"Thank you, Feliciano," Ludwig acknowledged sheepishly, "I'm very sorry for not listening to you last night, I should've left with the rest of you."

"We appreciate your apology, Ludwig," Katerina accepted, before pointing out the additional two officers in the room, "Your two friends there, are they Bella and Kiku?"

"Yes, that's us," Bella replied, "It's nice to meet you both on friendlier terms, without the handcuffs."

"Gilbert, you still need to explain yourself," Natalya reminded, her voice echoing from the kitchen where a few of them had gone.

"Let me get settled first, please," Gilbert answered as he entered the living room with a glass of water, "There's lot to talk about."

"Hey Katya, what's that on the news?" Elizaveta asked, leaning over the kitchen counter behind the couch to look at the television, "A shooting spree?"

"Yes, you will probably all want to hear about this," Katerina elaborated as she reached for the remote, "There was a mass shooting at the Kirkland law office."

"Holy shit, seriously?" Gilbert blurted as everyone turned to watch the television, "Can you turn up the volume?"

Katerina increased the volume, just as the station flashed their breaking news image across the screen in a redirect to the anchor.

"We have a breaking update to report," the anchor announced, "The police have confirmed that Attorney General Arthur Kirkland was assassinated in the mass shooting at his law firm."

"Holy shit," Natalya muttered, "The asshole is dead?"

"The JCI shareholder was found dead in his office following the attack, and the police have identified him as the primary target of the massacre," the anchor continued, "The police have also confirmed the death of Lieutenant Lars van Ryn, he has been identified as the officer who investigated the dropped 911 calls."

"Lars was killed?" Bella gasped as the anchor redirected to a reporter.

"Yes, I'm here outside the Westminister Tower, and I have a breakdown here of the events," the reporter explained, "Just past 12:30 this afternoon, a series of 911 calls were received from the Kirkland law firm, only to be dropped before any caller could explain anything. Lieutenant van Ryn was in the neighbourhood and answered the call from dispatch to investigate the scene."

"Gilbert, that was playing on your radio in the van," Ludwig pointed out, "You turned it off right after Lars answered that call."

"He had gone off on his own for lunch," Bella added on, "We all claimed to be busy with office work, as our cover for breaking Ludwig out."

"Let me confirm this detail," the anchor cut in, "The armed gunmen waited at the office for 15 minutes after the initial attack?"

"Yes, that is correct," the reporter confirmed, "The police suspect that the gunmen had already killed most of the staff in the first few minutes, and were waiting for Arthur Kirkland to return to the firm."

"I'm sorry, I have to cut in with a breaking update," the anchor interrupted, claiming the full screen, "The police have found security camera footage of the suspects fleeing the scene after the attacks, we have this image to share of the three criminals responsible."

As the anchor spoke, the news station switched to showing an image of three very familiar people marching down the corridor.

"Oh my god," Katerina heard Ludwig mutter, "They did it."

"That's Maddie, with Ivan and Antonio," Elizaveta described, "She was working with them after all."

"This report identifies these perpetrators as - oh my goodness," the anchor continued, "The police are identifying this woman as the Attorney General's estranged wife, JCI shareholder and wanted criminal Mathilda Jones-Kirkland."

"What the fuck?" Katerina exclaimed, "It can't be!"

"They identified her," Gilbert muttered, "That's a first."

"Okay, what the fuck is going on here?" Natalya demanded as she turned to look at Ludwig and Gilbert, "Why are they showing a picture of Madeline and claiming that it's Mathilda?"

"Madeline Aurelle Williams does not exist, and never has," Gilbert explained, "That name is an alias that Mathilda has been using to hide her identity for the past three years."

"Are you telling us that Mathilda Jones-Kirkland has been hiding among us the last three years?" Feliciano asked, "She's been manipulating us the whole time?"

"Unfortunately yes," Gilbert confirmed, "She spent the past three years plotting her vengeance on her family, and found a way to trap you all in her nefarious plans."

"How long have you known who she really was?" Katerina inquired.

"I figured her scheme out a month ago, when we arrested her with Natalya," Gilbert answered, "She had already escaped by the time I connected the dots. I suppose that's a good point to start my story."

"We're listening," Lovino stated as Katerina used the remote to mute the television, "Tell us everything you know."

"The forged bail paperwork was clearly created by Ivan, and we found the footage of Antonio and Toris strolling through headquarters to collect the girls," Gilbert began, "It made sense that they would break Ivan's little sister out of jail, but there was no obvious reason for why they would do the same for Madeline. Unless, of course, she was of equal or higher importance to Natalya."

"I never thought of it that way," Natalya considered, "We were all freaking out over how she had contact with those traitors since the mob busts."

"Yeah, we'll get to that," Gilbert continued, "Now, I've been investigating lots of Mathilda's antics over the last year, but Roderich didn't officially put me onto the highly-classified case until this past June. That is when she broke into Arthur's office one night to mess with his files, and she left him a video message on the computer. Roderich, Lars and I were the only police officers with access to this video, so only we knew her voice and appearance. Because of this, I was certain I recognized Madeline when I arrested her that night in August."

"That's how you figured out who she was?" Ludwig realized, "When you arrested her?"

"It took me until after the boys broke her out the next day to realize how I knew her," Gilbert supported, "After I realized she might be connected to Mathilda, I opened up that video file from June and compared it to Madeline's mugshot. It was a perfect match, the only differences were the permed hair and the fake name."

"So if she's Mathilda, and Ivan and Antonio are her henchmen, then what about the mob busts last year?" Feliciano asked, "Was she involved in that too?"

"She sure was, and I can tell you how," Gilbert established, "Shortly after I figured out who Madeline really was, I spotted her name in some of the files on the upcoming court case for our old friend, Mikkel Kohler. Arthur and I paid him a visit at the county jail, and we told him that Madeline was working for Mathilda. Once he knew this, he told us something new about his meeting with Natalya the night before the busts."

"He didn't tell you everything the first time?" Natalya queried.

"Mikkel did tell us about you, Ivan and Antonio when he was arrested, that's all on file," Gilbert clarified, "What Mikkel hadn't revealed was that he was worried about what this meeting was for, and suspected that Yong Soo might try to pull something. To protect his own interests, and have the backup if needed, Mikkel paid Madeline to hide in the vents and listen in on the meeting."

"Oh my god, she was there?" Natalya shrieked, "God fucking damn it!"

"Mikkel claimed that she heard every word," Gilbert verified, "Mathilda caught you exposing your brother and Antonio, in the hopes of handing them over to the police. Mathilda obviously had to protect her sweetheart and her bodyguard, so she acted before Romulus or Mikkel could."

"She shut them down first," Lovino caught on, "She orchestrated it all, but how?"

"As you've now likely learned, Ivan is an expert with computers," Gilbert described, "Back when he still worked at JCI, he created a GPS tracking system where the program was loaded on a master USB drive, and another USB was paired to it. Once that paired USB is plugged into any computer, its GPS location can be found by the program on the master USB. For the busts last year, Ivan and Antonio planted a paired USB at each base, and Mathilda had Toris deliver the master USB to me at the police station."

"So she didn't flat-out say where the bases were," Bella grasped, "She just provided the means for the police to find them."

"What about Toris?" Elizaveta inquired, "How did he get involved?"

"After speaking to Natalya, Mikkel knew he should keep a very close eye on Ivan," Gilbert explained, "That next morning, when Ivan left the base to run some errands, Mikkel sent Toris to follow him. If anything suspicious happened, Toris would let Mikkel know, and they would arrange for Ivan to have a little run-in with the police."

"Toris never returned to the base," Elizaveta noted, "We thought Ivan had betrayed him."

"Toris got himself in trouble," Gilbert corrected, "He was following Ivan too closely, and got caught on camera. Ivan and his friends detained and interrogated him, finding out what he knew of Mikkel's plans. They then offered to spare his life if he agreed to betray Mikkel and work for them instead. They gave him an audition: walk into the police station and leave a bubble envelope for me at the reception desk. He was not allowed to take it anywhere else, or tell anyone else about it. He was also not allowed to look inside it, so he never knew that it contained the master USB or a letter from Mathilda."

"He was arrested right then and there, wasn't he?" Elizaveta guessed.

"I had just returned from lunch with Sadiq and Lars, and we had him surrounded at the reception desk," Gilbert supported, "Toris was perfectly compliant with the arrest, and told us everything he knew about Ivan's strange dealings. While we were able to figure out who Ivan actually was and who his co-conspirators were, Toris could not tell us how to find them. We called Vash in to explain how the USB drive worked, and we went ahead with the busts. That next morning, Toris was in a prisoner transport truck en route to a county prison, when a garbage truck crashed into it on the highway."

"Sadiq, Heracles and Tomas," Kiku recognized, "Mathilda orchestrated that to break Toris out."

"Then Toris proceeded to work for Mathilda," Feliciano capped off, "He's not in today's reports though, for the mass shooting at the law firm."

"Toris was shot dead by police last night, during the jailbreak," Gilbert explained, "His body is in the police morgue, they're keeping the whole thing classified."

"Damn," Elizaveta muttered, and the room sat in silence for a brief moment as all the details sank in.

"This past week, for the bank heist, you tracked our USB drive," Lovino pointed out, cutting into the silence, "They didn't use the same trick twice, did they?"

"They sure did," Gilbert confirmed, "Toris planted the new master USB in the server room with a note for Vash, while Ivan made sure a few key cameras were left running to incriminate you all."

Katerina nodded in understanding, before a strange thought came to mind.

"Wait a minute, this doesn't make sense," she realized, "Why would they go through all that trouble to lure our group into a trap and get us all arrested, only to break us out of jail afterwards?"

"That's a good question," Gilbert replied, "I haven't figured that part out yet."

A beep suddenly sounded, and Gilbert pulled out his phone to look at it and read something. Katerina glanced back at the muted television briefly, noting that the reporter was now interviewing Francis Bonnefoy outside the police station.

"It's a message from Roderich," Gilbert explained, "He's back at the office, he found the paperwork."

"What paperwork?" Ludwig asked.

Before anyone could reply, a loud blaring sound came from behind the couch, and Katerina turned to look. It was coming from a police dispatch radio, which was sitting on the counter next to Elizaveta.

"Should I turn it off?" she asked, ready to reach for it.

"Wait a minute, we should listen," Bella insisted, "That is the Commissioner's emergency dispatch alert."

The loud blaring sound finished, and the group waited in silent anticipation of whatever Roderich was going to say.

"Officers and staff of the police department," a distinctly feminine voice spoke, "I am sorry to interrupt your frolicking over the death of my late husband, but we have a serious matter to discuss."

"It's Mathilda," Gilbert recognized as he stood to attention, "They've hijacked the airwaves!"

"Not too long ago in our past, the police were an organization that provided justice in our society, punishing wrongdoers and protecting the innocent from harm," the voice continued, "Now that my brother Alfred has bought out every organization with any degree of societal power, the only code of ethics that has been followed is the one he has enforced. Alfred has done this with the help of successful lawyers like Arthur Kirkland, and loyal bureaucrats like Commissioner Roderich Edelstein."

"This once proud society has turned into a state of fear and control, and the police no longer serve in the name of integrity and justice. Instead, you have become mindless soldiers in their game. You arrest those who speak against this tyranny, and label these nay-sayers as rebels and criminals. This society is broken, and I say it is time to change that."

"If you do not believe in what I speak of, you are free to maintain your loyalty to JCI. In fact, you can merely remain sitting in your office chairs, enjoy the show for as long as you can, and take your loyalty with you to your graves. However, if you see as I see, if you feel as I feel, then you have exactly two minutes in which to get out of headquarters. Go on now, time is ticking!"

The emergency blare sounded once again briefly, before leaving radio silence in its wake.

"Okay, what was that?" Feliciano slowly asked, breaking the tension in the room.

"They have two minutes to leave the building," Gilbert muttered as he started pacing the room, "Otherwise they can sit in office chairs, enjoy a show, and take their JCI loyalty to their graves… Oh my god, she's going to kill them all!"

"What?" Bella and Ludwig gasped as Gilbert rushed to the counter and grabbed the radio.

"Dispatch, this is Sergeant Gilbert Bielschmidt," Gilbert reportedly urgently, "We need to evacuate headquarters, Mathilda Jones will somehow attack within the next two minutes!"

"Oh my god," Lovino muttered as Katerina watched Gilbert stare at the radio in confusion.

"Dispatch, can you hear me?" Gilbert spoke again, "Hello?"

"Gilbert, what's going on?" Kiku prodded as Gilbert fumbled with the radio.

"The lines are all dead," Gilbert explained, "Mathilda is still controlling the airwaves!"

"Why is she doing that?" Bella asked.

"She doesn't want anyone spoiling her plans?" Ludwig guessed, "What are her plans?"

"Last night's jailbreak was the diversion, a long-winded one at that," Gilbert explained, "They've set their booby traps throughout the entire building, and have a remote detonator for this moment. They've used those devices before, at the Christmas party, and now they're doing it again!"

"What traps and devices?" Feliciano asked, "Are you saying they're going to destroy police headquarters?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Gilbert confirmed.

Before the group could respond, Katerina glanced at the television, and saw what was just starting to happen. She immediately grabbed the remote and unmuted the sound, allowing the sounds of the event to come through. Everyone's gaze turned towards it as well, and they witnessed the live broadcast.

Several explosions were destroying the police headquarters building, and consuming it in flames.

Author's Notes

Okay, I was going to start toning down all my time-sensitive author's notes. I was also planning to fully draft at least two more chapters before posting this one. Unfortunately, current events have lined up to my story way too closely, and I need to explain how I've had this scene outlined since 2017.

Having Mathilda blow up the police department has been part of the story since VERY early on, and you'll see in the next chapter that there is a very particular reason for it. Going back to earlier chapters, you will see how many parallels there are between this story and what is happening in this accursed year of 2020. Alfred and Arthur are this AU's equivalent to Trump, and JCI is the evil corporation that controls the government. The protests against this tyranny and the police control are clearly too parallel for me to write off this plot scenario as pure coincidence, as much as I was channelling V for Vendetta in Mathilda's little radio speech.

Speaking of Mathilda's motivations, consider her backstory from Chapter 35. She's been abused by her family and her husband her entire life, with Ivan and Antonio being her only true support in this world. She could've easily just stolen a huge chunk of cash and ran away with Ivan, hiding under the shadows of JCI for the rest of her life. However, when she saw the riots, she realized that it was to everyone's benefit to destroy JCI entirely.

My Tumblr followers have already seen me rant about this, but I acknowledge my own white privilege and the racism that exists in my small Canadian town. All this institutionalized racism, homophobia and other forms of marginalization are providing a means of treating people like their lives DON'T matter, and that is a fucking problem.

Okay, now I need to figure out how to write out a few more deaths. You didn't think I was done with Arthur, did you?