Sophia's back! Finally with an update of this story -_- I knew I shouldn't have been writing this, Alter, AND another story. I mean sheesh, I already had this written! I was just to lazy to edit it! Don't worry young ones! (Who you callin' young? You're 14!) (Shut up Me. You're 14 too.) I have not given up on this story!

Disclaimer: I own Hetalia about as much as I own your mother. I'm fairly sure I don't own your mother.

Taking a moment to stare in shock, Alfred then sprang in to action as he hurried through the door, yelling after the cat.

"Arthur! Arthuuuuuur come back!"

In his haste to leave, Alfred barely heard his brother's surprised cry of, "Where are you going!", as he rushed down the crowded city street.

This wasn't the first time Arthur had run away from Alfred. Sometimes the cat would find something interesting and he would run after it, leaving his owner in the dust. Alfred would chase after the cat sometimes for hours, until Arthur was no longer running after something, but instead running away from the blond as a game. They would continue the silly game until both were tired and Arthur would slow down, allowing Alfred to tiredly scoop him up in his arms and declare victory.

Something was different this time though, Alfred could feel it. Arthur was running faster than he ever had. His short legs pushing forward at an almost alarming speed. He didn't even spare a look back at the panic-stricken owner following.

This time Arthur was seriously chasing after something, probably the Russian, and this only made Alfred's pace quicken as his worry increased.

He headed around another corner when he was stopped in his tracks by his worst fear playing out before him.

Arthur had been running straight when he skidded to a stop in front of an uncovered manhole. Alfred held his breath as he was frozen in place in fear.

Arthur...don't do it Arthur! He really hoped his cat could read his thoughts because for some reason Alfred had trouble using his voice to verbally warn Arthur. It was as if he talked then Arthur would jump straight in to the hole, gone forever. He figured if he kept still then eventually Arthur would run back to him and jump in to his waiting arms. Luck was not on Alfred's side.

Arthur backed up slightly and Alfred took a shaky breath of relief. Unfortunately, his heart sank in horror when he saw Arthur run straight for the manhole and hop down in to darkness.

"ARTHUR!" Alfred yelled and ran in a panic towards the hole. "Shit!" He cursed loudly as he bent over to peer inside. It was pitch black down there, but he could barely make out a small form laying in the muck at the bottom of the sewer.

"Arthur!" he called down to the cat below and sighed in relief when he saw a small flash of movement from the Arthur.

"Artie..." Alfred sighed as he ran a shaky hand through his now-messy hair.

"Hold on...I'll come get ya."

With that said, Alfred sat down on the lip of the opening to the hole and let his legs dangle down in to the darkness. It didn't look like a long drop, but he wasn't too excited about jumping down in to a sewer full of waste and vermin.

Holding in his breath and closing his eyes, he carefully lowered himself down while holding on to the edges of the hole.

He opened his eyes once again and scanned the dark, damp are around him.. Assured that Arthur was a safe distance away-as he didn't want to land on the poor thing-he slowly loosened his grip from above until he completely let go and dropped down to the ground below.

He noted a rather sickening wet sound from beneath him and groaned as some of the dirty water splashed on to the bottom of his pants and shoes. He was going to kill Arthur!-as soon as he got them both safely out of there.

Alfred spotted the tabby sitting across from him, and he noticed an almost horrified look pasted on to Arthur's face. Ignoring the look, Alfred took a step towards the tabby and held out his hand, calmy beckoning Arthur over.

The cat immediately tensed up and took a small step back towards another tunnel entrance. Alfred froze in confusion for a second and stared at his cat. "Does he not want me to save him?", he thought, but quickly judged that as preposterous and took another step forward.

This was again followed by a mirrored step backwards from Arthur and a low growl. Arthur looked up angrily at Alfred, but there was something else mixed in to his eyes. Fear was present as he stared at his larger friend.

Alfred saw the fear flicker in Arthur's eyes and he hesitated, taking a small step back. Swallowing thickly, he readjusted his glasses and looked at the cat.

"Arthur...What's going on? Why are you down here?"

He only got a cold stare in response. He sighed in defeat and bent down, ready to pick Arthur up, but he halted as he heard a soft, English accented voice in his head.

"Alfred. Leave. Don't follow me. I can't have you hurt too."

Alfred gasped at the voice and clutched the sides of his head in shock. He blinked twice and stumbled back in surprise, slipping on the wet surface beneath him and landing on his bottom. It took this moment where his owner was distracted for Arthur to run in the opposite direction of the tunnel, not looking back.

Alfred stood up to run after Arthur, when he felt a large hand slam down on his shoulder. He took a second to gather himself and focused on the hand. It was large and gloved with black leather. The grip on his shoulder was painful, and he could tell whoever's hand this was was big, and probably bigger than him.

He whipped around to look at the man behind him and gulped at the sight.

Standing behind him with a strong grip on his shoulder was the large Russian brute of a man he had met earlier, Ivan Braginski. He felt his blood run cold as the Russian smiled slowly and gave his shoulder a painful squeeze.

"Hello Alfred. I can't say it is a pleasure to see you again so soon. You should have listened when I said not to waste such effort on a stupid creature such a cat, da? Look where it has gotten you."

Alfred took a step back and attempted to wrench himself free of the man, but to no avail. Ivan simply pulled Alfred closer and growled darkly.

"Do not think you can get away from me Jones. I am not interested in chasing after you. Especially since it will end the same either way, da?"

At this point Alfred was struggling desperately to get away and threw a desperate punch at the Russian's nose. As he reached up to nurse his nose, he let Alfred out of his hold, allowing the American to spin around quickly and run towards the end of the tunnel.

Ivan cursed as Alfred ran away, but he recovered quickly and reached forward, wrapping his arms around Alfred's torso from behind. His move was successful as his victim was stopped mid-escape and started to squirm in his arms.

It didn't look like Ivan was doing much to Alfred, but Alfred could tell that the arms surrounding him were deadly, and he struggled to get out of them as he felt himself being lifted up.

"D-Dude. I don't know what you're talking about! Put me down! I won't tell the police about whatever the he'll you're doing, I swear! Just let me go!" Alfred yelled in desperation, but to no avail.

He kicked his legs desperately as he tried to reason with the larger man. The words seemed to have no effect on Ivan as effortlessly carried Alfred away while chuckling to himself.

"I will not worry about you telling the police Alfred, for you won't be getting out of here anytime soon."

And Ivan continued to chuckle as he felt Alfred squirm frantically and scream for help. No one would be able to hear him in here. He had made sure of that. Alfred would soon share the same fate as Arthur had a year before. As an experiment for Ivan; punishment for poking his nose where he didn't belong.

Alfred's struggles became weaker as he let Ivan's words sink in. While he looked at his grim future he hoped for one thing. He hoped beyond hope that Arthur would be ok after all of this. Even if he was missing an owner.

Arthur was running. Running desperately on his four short legs to find the man that had been making Arthur's life hell for years. The one man who had taken him away from normalcy and sent his life in to turmoil.

He started to run faster, fueled by anger, when he heard a small noise. He tried to ignore it (as he had more important things to deal with),but the noise only got louder, until Arthur could make out frantic yelling.

"D-Dude. I don't know what you're talking about! Put me down! I won't tell the police about whatever the he'll you're doing, I swear! Just let me go!"

Arthur stopped dead in his tracks and his heart stopped. Everything slowed down around him as he heard the struggling from further in the tunnel. He could have recognized that obnoxiously loud American accent from anywhere.

Arthur started running back towards the opening of the sewer, desperately trying to get in time. Before Alfred ended up getting hurt by that Russian bastard.

"I warned Alfred! I told him to leave and to not follow me. It figures he wouldn't listen to me," Arthur thought as he continued running. He cursed and sped up as he heard another strangled sounding yelp from Alfred. This time it sounded closer.

Arthur rounded a corner and had to skid to a stop to prevent himself from running straight in to Ivan's legs.

Luckily neither of the two men noticed the cat, and he hurried back and around the corner to spy on the two.

Peeking his head around the corner he could barely control his anger at the scene before him.

Alfred looked like he was about to vomit as he tried to pull his assailant's arms off of him. Arthur could tell that his friend was beginning to panic and he had to restrain himself from running out and attacking Ivan. Alfred continued to struggle, but Ivan only tightened his grip on Alfred and grinned.

"You will not get away from me easily. We have far too much to do, da?"

Ivan continued to smile sickly, and it only made Arthur's blood boil. How dare he hurt Alfred. He had nothing to do with this and deserved none of it.

Arthur's mind wandered to Alfred as he saw the American beat uselessly against Ivan's arms.

Alfred. The stupid, annoying, loud American git of a man that had somehow found a way in to Arthur's normally closed-off heart.

Those first few weeks, Arthur had hated Alfred. He had hated how Alfred could be so carefree and joyful constantly. How he couldn't read the atmosphere and didn't want to. He hated how he was always doing something stupid and dragging Arthur in to it. Most of all he hated how Alfred was everything he wasn't, and it made him terribly jealous.

But somewhere along the line he had started to hate Alfred less and less. His jealousy melted away, and he started to enjoy Alfred's company. He liked to go along with Alfred on his stupid adventures and he began to think his obliviousness was rather endearing.

And suddenly Arthur had to come to terns with the fact that Alfred was his only friend, and probably the best he had ever had. Arthur was shocked by his own change of character, but he wasn't uncomfortable with it. He had been feeling lonely and the American seemed to be a godsend. Someone to distract Arthur from his misfortune.

Slowly, but surely, Arthur's feelings started to get even more complicated. He felt himself feeling flushed when Alfred pulled him in to bed with him after watching scary movies. More often than not he'd feel his heart skip a beat when his younger friend smiled that beautiful carefree grin. Now he found himself unable to be angry at the young man. He would 'fight' with Alfred constantly, but he would easily give in to the American's pout and puppy dog eyes. Their fight would soon be forgotten and Arthur would he happy to he back with his only friend...and perhaps love interest. Though that was rather wishful thinking.

Arthur smiled (the best a cat could) as he felt his cheeks heat slightly, but was brought out if his thoughts as he saw Ivan move towards the door, Alfred now haphazardly thrown over his shoulder.

Alfred was beating on Ivan's back so hard that Arthur could see the Russian struggle to walk in a straight line with the constant assault on his back. Arthur smiled at Alfred's fighting spirit and slowly took a step out from around the corner.

Alfred didn't notice Arthur immediately, so the cat took another tentative step out. The small movement caused Alfred to look up and in to the eye's of his loyal friend. Alfred's eyes widened as he stared at the cat, but then he sent a glare in Arthur's direction while moving his hands to shoo him away.

Shit! Arthur, go away! If you get taken by this commie bastard too then I'll never live with myself! Alfred took a moment to pause from trying to send messages to Arthur with his mind, to gulp and smile nervously.

"IF I do make it out here alive," He thought bitterly. Alfred quickly banished he thought and instead looked to Arthur who was standing closer now, and following behind Ivan.

Alfred continued to shoo Arthur silently until he heard a small voice speak out, this time not in his head. Alfred gasped as he was swung around by Ivan turning back suddenly. Ivan's gazed flashed downward to the ground, and he gave a cold glare at the small animal in front of him.

"Ah. Hello Arthur. I was wondering when you would come for your-" he paused for a moment, looking for the word. "Friend," he finished slowly, drawing out the last word.

All he got was an icy stare in return and low growl in response before Arthur's quiet voice rang out.

"Let Alfred go right now. He has nothing to do with this and furthermore-"

But Arthur was interrupted by a low hiss emitted from the Russian. Allowing himself a moment to calm down, Ivan switched back to his normal sickly-sweet tone.

"But don't you see? The American has everything to do with this! You care for him, do you not? And it is my job to take what you love away from you." He smiled down at Arthur before continuing. "It is your fault for poking in to my business, da?"

He gave one last smug smile in Arthur's direction as he adjusted Alfred on his back and turned away.

The moment he saw Alfred's panic stricken face, Arthur could contain his anger no longer. He ran forward in blind fury and latched on to the back of Ivan's pants, biting in to his leg.

Ivan let out a short gasp in surprise and almost dropped Alfred before regaining his senses. He shook his leg around rapidly until he saw Arthur lose his grip and fly off of his leg, slamming in to the wall behind him with a sharp intake of breath and a strangled moan.

At this, Alfred lost whatever sanity he had been holding on to and snapped. He started to yell and struggle desperately to get away, biting Ivan in the shoulder and grinning triumphantly as blood started to flow from the wound. Ivan screamed loudly in frustration and threw Alfred to the ground, forgetting him for the moment as he looked at his shoulder.

Alfred landed near Arthur, and he crawled on hands and knees the rest of the way, until he was crouched down right in front of him.

He was looking worse for wear as he was cringing with his body twisted painfully around. Alfred instantly calmed down, and reached out a hand to soothe the small cat. Stroking his soft fur, he took a shaky breathe and spoke; his voice uncharacteristically soft.

"Arthur. It's gonna be ok. We're definitely going to get out of here and this Russian kidnapper is going to jail!" He reached out and attempted to lift Arthur off of the floor, but was startled as he heard the quiet voice from earlier speak. He slowly dropped his arms to his sides while gaping at his cat.

"Alfred. No time to explain, but you must do something for me or we'll both die!"

Confused for a moment he could only look down at Arthur with his mouth hanging wide open. The words didn't register and all he could think about was the fact that a cat was talking to him. Here Arthur was, speaking perfect English laced with a strong English accent. Alfred took in a breath and tried to calm down to no avail.

"Artie," He paused to swallow thickly after uttering the nickname, but attempted to keep his voice steady. "You're not a cat are you?"

He saw Arthur shake his head n the negative, and Alfred suddenly felt very dizzy. He slumped over slightly and pressed one palm against the wall while trying to calm himself. Arthur's face contorted in to a worried expression, but kept his distance. The matter at hand was far more urgent than Alfred's comfort level, and they didn't have time for him to warm up to the news. They had to get out, and soon. Ivan was beginning to creep closer; the blood from his bite mark had stopped flowing out a few moments earlier and was now just trickling out.

"Alfred listen to me. If you want us to get out of here you have to listen."

Arthur's voice sounded so strained and fretful you could practically taste his desperation. Alfred heard the distress in his voice and reluctantly set his eyes on Arthur.

Arthur. His loyal cat and friend that he spent most of the last year with. Alfred had spent countless hours with Arthur, confiding in him his deepest darkest secrets. Of course this was now quite embarrassing considering the entire time Arthur could obviously understand Alfred.

Alfred groaned in embarrassment, but tried to focus on the matter at hand. Currently he had two options. One being an escape attempt, which would undoubtedly fail completely. The other being he actually listened to what Arthur had to say and possibly make it out alive. He didn't need a moment to even consider the first option.

Lifting his head he hesitantly nodded and gave the most reassuring smile he could muster at the moment.

Behind him it seems Ivan had stopped trying to capture the two and was instead watching them with interest, figuring they couldn't escape from him even if they tried. He was far enough away from the odd pair to where he couldn't hear what they were saying, but close enough for him to keep an eye on them.

Arthur nodded back at Alfred and started to explain his rather risky plan.

"Ok Alfred. I can't explain much, but the Ivan Braginski over there...he and I have known each other for a very long time. I can't say how long yet, but I can assure you it is much longer than you have been alive."

Surprised, but not completely shocked, Alfred simply nodded for Arthur to continue while the cat looked slightly taken aback by how calm the man was being. Honestly, Arthur had been expecting Alfred to scoff at his words, but he seemed to be taking the news quite well.

"Yes…well as you can see, I am a cat, though I wasn't always. I know this is a lot to handle Alfred, but please bear with me for now."

Arthur sucked in a breath hoping that Alfred was following along. All he got was a blank expression from he American, and he took this as a good sign.

"I can't explain why just yet, but you must understand that Ivan is a terrible man and will stop at nothing to get what he wants; which is currently me. Now he also has something that I want and I need to get it in order for us to get out of here."

Another pause before continuing with the plan, this time speaking faster.

"Alfred I need you to distract Ivan while I get this item. And to do that I need you to get in a fight with him. I would do it myself, but I'm obviously not able to right now. I only need you to knock him down for a long enough period to where I can quickly search him. Can you do that?"

Arthur looked up hopefully at Alfred who, at the moment, seemed to be pondering the situation thoughtfully. Hoping the boy wouldn't decide to just leave at that moment, Arthur looked down at the ground and tried to keep back his spreading worry. If he didn't have Alfred's full participation, not only would there be the possibility of staying a cat forever, but Ivan probably wouldn't let Arthur live long enough to find out.

Giving one last moment to think, Alfred stood up leisurely and flashed Arthur a reassuring grin with a thumbs up. Arthur looked up at him, confused, before Alfred rolled his eyes in fake annoyance.

"I thought you'd be smart Arthur, since you're already a talking cat and all. Of course I'll save you! Being a human…cat doesn't change the fact that you're my friend."

Ignoring the fast beating of his own heart, Arthur noticed something rather frightening lurking behind Alfred.

He gestured frantically towards Alfred, which only elicited a confused look from the boy and a sound of annoyance on his part. Throwing all caution to the wind, he shouted Alfred's name right before he saw the Russian lunge forward, delivering a painful blow to the back of Alfred's head with his fist.

Alfred stumbled backwards, his shoulder slamming in to the wall painfully, sending sharp shoots of pain up his arm. Across from him, a strangled meow could be heard as Arthur was pulled up roughly from the ground by his neck.

A look of pure hatred and almost disgust flashed when violet eyes landed on the cat. Ivan hated Arthur with a passion, and he was glad to finally be able to get rid of him.

Smiling with child-like glee, he started to twist Arthur's neck, getting ready to just snap it in half.

Enraged, Alfred ran forward and drew back his fist. Ivan didn't even have a second to prepare before a force near that of a train rammed in to his jaw and sent him reeling back.

The Russian fell back on the floor in shock and rubbed his swelling jaw-line. Blood started to trickle out of his mouth, but he just swiped it away carelessly with one large hand.

On the other end of the room, Alfred hastily ran forward and caught Arthur in the air. Checking to see that Ivan was still on the floor, Alfred gently set Arthur back on the ground, and went back towards Ivan to deliver the (hopefully) final blow.

Arthur scampered towards Ivan as fast as he could, and hopped on to his chest. Ivan's face twisted in to a scowl, and he tried to push off Arthur off of him, only to find that he couldn't.

Both of his arms were now being pressed in to the ground as Alfred kneeled over him, smirking and holding Ivan's muscular arms down. Ivan thrashed around, muttering Russian curses as he did, but Alfred held strong.

Arthur gave a troubled look at Ivan before nodding in Alfred's direction and carefully stepping away from Ivan's face.

Alfred was enjoying this a little too much. Truthfully, he didn't enjoy hurting people; it often left him with a dirty, disgusted feeling. But right now, there was nothing Alfred wanted nothing more than to feel the satisfying crunch of Ivan's bones breaking. He had the nerve to hurt Arthur right in front of him. Yes, Arthur might not be a real cat, but that didn't make him any less vulnerable, and Alfred felt compelled to protect him with all he had.

Taking one last moment to ensure that, yes, this is what Arthur wanted, Alfred reared back and withdrew one of the arms holding back Ivan, and let it crash forward in to Ivan's rather prominent nose.

Ivan let out a pained moan and let his head fall back limply in to the damp, hard bottom of the sewer.

Arthur worked quickly, roaming over Ivan's body with his eyes and checking for the small pendent he was searching for; the source of his magic.

Noticing the large, pink scarf warn by the Russian, Arthur scampered over to it, lifting up the heavy cloth with his teeth and tossing it over to the side.

Alfred glanced at Arthur with uncertainty as he saw the cat pause over Ivan's neck. He had no idea what Arthur was looking for, so he wasn't sure what was so important about Ivan's neck. It was like the rest of his body; a pale white, but covered with thin, faded scars. About to ask what the hell Arthur was looking at, Alfred's thoughts were interrupted by Arthur's soft voice.

"It's…it's still there. He kept it with him the entire time." Taking the utmost care, Arthur reached down and lifted up a small silver chain from Ivan's neck. Most of it hung out of Arthur's mouth, so Alfred could clearly see the beauty of the necklace.

The chain was simple and worn, but the jewel at the bottom was beautiful, and clearly a real emerald. It shone, even with just the small fraction of sunlight they were getting in the tunnel, as if it was creating its own light. Surrounding the green jewel were to silver bands that were languidly rotating around each other while Arthur shook them.

Alfred reached out a hand to touch it, but Arthur's eyes widened, and he quickly pulled it away from Alfred.

"Don't touch this! The amount of power in this is too much for your body to handle Alfred." Alfred normally wouldn't have believed that a small stone could have done some harm to him, but the look Arthur was giving him was so serious and worried, that Alfred had to believe him.

So, nodding slightly, Alfred instead reached over and pulled Arthur off of Ivan's passed out body and cradled him in his arms.

"Well now that you have your…thing…what's gonna happen? You're not going to leave…are you?" Alfred's voice filled with uncertainty as he glanced down at Arthur. After all this, he figured Arthur would have what he needed to be human again. While Alfred was happy for Arthur, he felt a bit bitter. Arthur was his best friend, cat or not, but it would be ridiculous for Arthur to live with Alfred after that. It's not like things could ever be the same because Arthur was definitely not Alfred's pet.

Shifting his focus to his friend, Arthur frowned. He hadn't thought much about what would happen after he found his magic. He desperately wanted to be human, but if he did, would he ever see Alfred again?

About to respond, Arthur opened his moth, but hurriedly shut it when he noticed the light from his pendant glowing a brighter green. Cursing loudly, he shook it in an attempt to stop the growing light, but the jewel continued to shine brighter.

Alfred looked horribly confused, but Arthur didn't have any time to explain when suddenly the area around them was bathed in a harsh, green light.

The last thing Alfred saw was Arthur's apologetic expression before the light around him faded to black, and he fell back in to the cold, dirty water surrounding him.

Honestly? I'm scaring myself with my predictability. A BLACK OUT CLIFF HANGER? Best you could come up with Sophia? Yeah, yeah. Hate me. We all do.

On a lighter note…I don't hate Russia. Honestly, he's a pretty likable character. But a big, bad Russian bad guy? Too awesome to resist. I didn't have to make him an animal abuser though…that might have gone a little too far. Yeah, well anyway, look forward to another installment of this.

Ya know…if you want to! :D