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Having been caught in some undergrowth, it had taken Vash longer than he'd have liked to pursue his sister's 'kidnapper'. Eventually he found himself in front of a old neglected looking house. Panting he noticed several graves dotted here and there, one in particular standing out due to a statue of a lamb on top. Gun in hand he slowly realised what this whole thing meant; if he wanted Lili back, he had no choice but to play this dopplegangers 'games'. Looking around he searched for other people, and with a sigh of anxious, cautious relief, he spotted a familiar bushy browed nation and walked over to him, "Looks like we have no choice but to 'play'..." There was an angry dangerous aura around Vash now. Why that little brat sure had some nerve!

German

Germany took off after the rest of the group. He took note of the small glowing lights on the trees that seemed to show a clear path. No way Alistair had set them up. So who did? He he reached a small gathering of people, he saw two that had not been standing in the group gathered in the park.

California and Georgia.

Ah. That was actually rather smart thinking. The two of them had probably been hiding in the woods and followed the doppelganger as he took off. That was pretty lucky for those like Ludwig who were having a hard time keeping up for various reasons. He had to really work hard to fight back the cough trying to push its way out and ruin where they were hiding.

Georgia looked over his shoulder as others arrived and smiled faintly, especially seeing Andrew being carried on Arthur's shoulder. Ah! no time for that! He opened his mouth to say something to those who were here when Andrew jumped down and ran right up to Alistair. The blond state's mouth just hung open before he pointed at his brother and looked to the others.

"Well, go on. Get! You guys hurry up and see what this game is Alistair's wanting you to play. I'll stay out here. Something seems off, so I'm going to look around for any information I can find on this guy..." His cyan eyes fell back on the small family plot in front of the house and hr frowned gently. "Especially there.... Seeing graves tend to... Peak my interest in stuff like this."

Germany frowned lightly at the state. "Honestly Georgia? Now you vant to go exploring a small cemetery? Can't it vai--" "The lamb." Georgia turned to those still there and quietly gave a quick lesson. "Tombstones tend to have different symbols and statues carved onto them meaning something of importance-- usually related to religion or to reincarnation and rebirth. That said, the symbol of the lamb is usually used on a child or baby's grave as a symbol of an innocent life lost lost. If Alistair really is a child, then the lamb is his tombstone and I can at least learn a name and, with any luck, how he died. If not, maybe there's a hint nearby I can find. It might come in handy with helping him pass through so we don't to deal with this again. You find Lili. I'll find how to put Alistair to rest. Oh, by the way, Landon's going with you guys. have fun and get inside as soon as possible so I can conduct my outdoor research."

Germany was quiet and held a look of surprise on how knowledgeable the state seemed to be in this field. He looked to England, not sure if he should be thankful for him perhaps influencing Georgia's rather odd obsession with all things pertaining to the dead to his former father. Either way, seemed it was paying off.

Ludwig stood and walked out of the brush and towards the house-- and where Alistair and Andrew were. "Ah, zhere you two are." He coughed into his arm, glad he no longer had to suppress the discomfort. He stopped at the porch and looked to the steps warily. How old was this wood? Would it even support his weight? It was a miracle this place didn't fall in on itself any minute with all of the repair work that needed to be done. Such a shame, too. It looked like it had once been a beautiful looking house. He looked to Alistair and gave his best "friendly smile" as he could. "Ah, I zhink zhe ozhers vere behind me. In zhe mean time, ist zhis vhere Lili is? If so, vhat games are ve needing to play before ve can have her back."

Georgia accepted the talisman and immediately pulled out his dogtags to try and find a way to weave it into the one of the loops holding the actual tags so that, when he tucked his dogtags away, the talisman would be right above hiss heart... Or at least close enough to it. You never knew. He then watched everyone in his spot from the bushes and pulled his cellphone out to send a quick text to Florida reading, "Might do an exorcism tonight. Sorry. Re-plan dinner for tomorrow, promise! I owe you something nice for the stand up, don't I?"

Germany watched as Alistair disappeared into-- was that Vash's house? wait, no.... It had been different when Alistair first opened the door. Maybe he had altered the way it looked for Lichtenstein's sake. Now, he knew he was supposed to "count to ten and don't peak," but his eyes did not close and after counting to three he marched up the porch, looking nervous with each step. He opened the door and, sure enough, the house looked nice and elegant and like it did not belong to the decrepit exterior. He looked behind him to the rest in time to see Georgia already out of the woods and almost to the grave he seemed to be staring down, trying to read what was on the old tombstone as he walked despite the fact it was rather dark outside.

Ludwig then turned and walked inside, looking around for any sign of where the little kid could have gone to. He'd already described what the room would look like, so it was just be a matter of finding it, right? But what then they'd then only have 10 minutes to remember what Lichtenstein last wore, and the last thing he saw her in was her blue dress and heels from when he introduced Vietnam to the family... That couldn't have been the outfit she and Alistair met in since he remembered walking Lili to her dorm personally before dropping Thien off at her own dorm before going to bed after an exhausting night with the family....

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Georgia held his cell phone up and took a picture of the tombstone with the lamb carving on top. Sure enough, the name Alistair was in fact carved into the stone and it looked like he was only 6 when he died over a hundred years ago. What a shame.... He squinted harder at his picture to see if there was anything to describe what could have happened. disease and ailments were possible, but he almost felt like that didn't describe how this child acted... He'd met ghost belonging to children that died from illness, and they weren't quite like Alistair.

He stood up and quickly walked around the back of the house, using years of practice from the army to duck below windows just in case someone might be looking outside the window. He looked up at some point and wasn't paying attention just long enough to realize one of his feet had nothing below it and was falling. Instinct kicked in and he somehow grabbed a tree root to keep from falling. Looking down, he would have survived the fall, but not many normal people would have.... He gave a small, thoughtful sound and pulled himself up and made an effort to stay a little closer to the house until he was sure he was far enough from that drop off to be safe...