It was a dark night, filled with laughter and wonderful music. The moon shone brightly outside, though it was a mere crescent. The party indoors was drawing to an end and Ludwig took Addonia's hand to lead her out of the room, outside of the massive building where it the chill of winter was creeping upon them.

  "Hey, what is the deal? Was this so important you had to make me leave everyone?" She had felt frustrated with him and his newly formed attitude over the past two weeks. This, though it was even just a moments time, had only made her even more angered than before.
"Addonia, we need to talk about a very important matter." He looked at her with a sympathetic look on his face, knowing that the next words that were going to come out of his mouth were most likely going to upset her.

  She caught on quick that something was wrong by the way he looked at her. Addonia looked at him real good for a second.
"Ludwig, what's going on? I've never seen you make that look before. Not since high school..."

  He sighed. He knew he had to do something now before his actions started to begin bigger effects than before, between what his boss had been planning. And what he thought what he had already done was bad enough...
He has to give up his best friend that he has known since they were just kids. The one person who had stuck with him since the day they met. He had to give her up in order to protect her for once. The memories just flowed back like an infinite river in his mind...


   "Hahaha! Think your so smart, little punk?!" The teenager exclaimed while holding up a student who had only been trying to find his way around the school and how to get to his class.
  "Hey dumbass!" A young girl yelled from a few feet away with an overpowered voice.
"Why don't you try picking on someone your own size?"

The jock held up an innocent kid against the brick wall of the school building and gave her a nasty look, throwing the kid  to the ground next to them and headed over to stand in front of the girl. She gave him the look right back as if it was nothing.

  "Got a problem, girly?" He growled.
"Yeah, with you and your ugly face." She snapped & snarled.
"Don't you have any decency to just be nice for once? To change your ways?"
"Not my style, girly, but you seem to be..." He got closer to her and said. He suddenly grabbed her hand and she tried to pull away defenselessly... Or so he thought.
"Let go of me. NOW." She demanded. He tried to pull her in closer and then she simply reacted. She punched him in the nose with her free hand and he fell to the ground, losing his grip on her hand and holding his bloodied nose instead. She stood over him with her arms crossed and a sarcastic look on her face.
"I hope you know right now that I'm not done.. I'm NEVER done when it comes to people like you!" She yelled and then kicked him in the gut. "Now get your stupid ass out of here!"
"AHHHH!" He started crawling away from her in fear and then got up & ran away.

The young man he was beating on was just sitting there in shock. After witnessing what she just did for him, he was shaken & scared that she would do the same to him. She walked over to him and held out a bruised hand for him.
"Are you okay?" She asked in a worried tone. He took her hand and then he brought himself up.
"I am fine, thank you. And thank you for what you did just now." She looked at him and smiled proudly.
"No problem! So are you new around here?"
"Yes, i just moved here this week. And so far, it has not been the too great for me.." He sighed deeply, fixing his hair back.
"I know what you mean. Being this age is already hard enough." She assured him.
"My name is Addonia." She held out her hand and shook his.
"I am Ludwig." He said monotonously. After a few seconds of silence, she asked him a question.
"So what class were you heading to next?"
"History. But I do not where this class is..." He held out his paper with a reddening face while looking at her bouncy reaction.
"Hey! This looks just like my schedule! In this case, just follow me, okay?" She smiled.

The two headed off to their next class and left the scene with a new-found friendship.



"Ludwig? Luddy!" She snapped her fingers in front of his face and called him by his unusual nickname.
"Huh?" The thoughts and memories left his head as he came back to reality.
"Oh ja! As I was saying... Addonia, I don't want to have to say this but...but..." He stuttered and felt as if his heart was going to rip out of his chest. Then Ivan came up beside them.
"So, she is aware now, da?" Addonia shot a look at Ivan then back at Ludwig.
"Know what?" She just stared at Ludwig with another ominous look.
"You better tell me what the hell is going on and right now." He looked back at her face and grabbed her shoulders lightly.
"Addonia... I'm sending you off to go be part of the Allies." She blinked once and became very confused.
"...What?" Her ominous expression turned back to normal, but then, processing what had just come out of his mouth, she looked at him with an 'Are-you-an-idiot' look. Ludwig knew right then that this would be harder than he thought.
"Addonia, all I ever want is for you to be safe and in order for that to happen, you must leave here." Her eyes got teary as she tried to control it. She thought he was just being absent minded but, deep down she knew he meant it.
"B-But I can protect myself! I swear! I'll be fine!" She kept trying to excuse herself. Ludwig kept shaking his head.
"No, NO. You are not safe here anymore. You are the only girl here and all the people here just-..." She hugged him automatically right then and did not intend on letting go. He meant too much to her, so did her cousin Feli and her good friend Kiku who came up from the building behind them, aware of what the plan was. The Russian was still standing there but he also felt the sadness while witnessing this moment. Feliciano, Kiku, Ludwig, and Addonia all had a group hug and for the first time, cried without the fear of embarrassment or seeming weak. The tears they shed were, in fact, tears of strength.. Addonia whispered to them silently.
"I don't want to leave you here, you guys.. You are all like my family, and family does not leave family!" She stopped trying to hold back her voice. The hug was disbanded after another five minutes of their final time together like this.
"Your stuff has already been brought to Ivan's house... I promise, you will be safer with them." She looked back up at him with her dark red eyes and looked down right after.
"I know I will. But I-" He cut her off and started to continue her sentence for her.
"It doesn't matter. I want you to get out of here." She still needed an answer as to why now. Why was he so determined to get her out of there?
"Ludwig... What is happening that you want me away from? I know you have been acting strange, but I need some kind of explanation." He looked away and answered blankly.
"My boss wants to take over Europe. And I don't want you to be part of it. I will do everything in my power to try and stop him but before that, things will have already happened. Things that I don't want you to be involved in." She looked at him blankly and wiped her remaining tears.
"But what about you? Is he even thinking about what this could do to you? Luddy, I don't want you to get hurt from someone else's actions! Especially if you do not agree with them!" She exclaimed.
"Addonia, go with Ivan. Please..." He said softly.
"This is already so har-" Addonia interrupted as she kept her gaze to the ground.
"Just promise me one thing?"  

Ludwig didn't break his eyes away from her and she continued.
"Don't get hurt. Don't let Feliciano or Kiku get hurt. And promise me that you will come to see me after all this is over." Ludwig was shocked. For once, she didn't have such a demanding voice.
"I promise Addonia." They both smiled at each other.

Addonia turned around and faced Ivan and attempted to speak finally as he cut her off.

"I already know what is going on. We must leave now before anyone finds us out here." He said quietly. She turned to face Ludwig again and finally said
"Goodbye.. friend."  Addonia followed Ivan to the car and waved back to everyone. She got into the passenger seat and awaited a long ride.