Title: Hetalia: Reset
Author: mikkimikka
Rating: E for everyone
Pairings: Prussia x Hungary (one sided), Austria x Hungary, Prussia x Japan
Summary: You are The Free State of Prussia. Everything you have done until now has led up to your fate. You have one more chance to make everything right. Save your brother, free the people and get the girl. Are you ready? Game... reset

One

The sounds of tinkling bells was the first thing he was aware of. They were like chimes in the wind but softer, barely even there. The next sense that returned was touch. There was nothingness around him and he felt like a feather floating through empty space weightless but he was aware of it and of his body.

After an indeterminate amount of time there was scent, a sweet scent like nectar enveloped him and he inhaled deeply letting his lungs expand and his nose to relish it. It was like lavender and honeysuckle and he almost smiled. As if they knew it was time his eyes opened.

Ruby eyes widened to their full size. There was no need to adjust t the light. The world was a gradation: black and then purple, violet, indigo. His body began to float down, the clothing around him, his uniform coat bellowing out just so, like an umbrella and his feet lightly hit the obsidian floor, reflecting in the dim light like black glass.

He stood on his own feet for the first time in... he couldn't remember. In fact he couldn't even remember his name. But there was a light and he was drawn to it so he walked. His feet made noise, his footfalls echoed loudly against the invisible walls. There was a pillar and as he approached the room began to illuminate revealing tall columns of polished stone.

A pillar of soft purple light seemed to be the source of the sounds. Sparkles and butterflies encircled it beating and twinkling in tune with the chimes. He reached out, arms stretching towards the illumination but then stopped short at the sound of a voice.

"So you have arrived."

He turned, startled in time to see a man, lean, tall, in a three piece suit and a mask like those worn at the masquerade balls of old, descending an invisible staircase. With each step the space under his feet glowed purple before disappearing again once his foot alighted. The man made it to the bottom and crossed the dark floor coming closer.

"Where am I?" he asked the strange man.

The man stopped in front of the pillar of light, setting his eyes, dark behind the mask on him. The man spread his arms as if presenting the room and he spoke with a voice deep and yet melodic. His words were almost a song.

"This my friend is where nations come to die. It is neither heaven nor hell. No, my friend, you are here... to be judged. "

"I'm... dead?"

And suddenly there were memories. The man in the suit watched with a smirk as the visitor, dressed in his dark uniform and high boots, white almost silver locks of hair and red eyes, came to a realization. He suddenly remembered who he was and why he was there. He was Prussia and there was a rush of memories. He nearly doubled over from the weight of it. He remembered everything, hundreds of years of knowledge recalled in a second.

Raising a hand, Prussia, because that was the name he used, pressed his fingers to his temple and squeezed his eyes shut. His fingers drifted down and fingered the cross around his neck. Shock was the first emotion to come over him. He hadn't actually worn his uniform in decades, he had long since traded it in for something more casual after his and Germany's reunification. It felt crisp and heavy over his lithe body. Regret was next because he wasn't the brother he should have been. He had seen the madness his brother chased and condoned it. But what's more, he never even properly said goodbye even if he knew he was going to die.

When Prussia opened his eyes he was met with the calm gaze of the masked man. The man watched him with a hint of glee on his features but otherwise revealed nothing from his posture or face.

"So you remember?"

Prussia nodded tentatively. He did. He was sentenced to death by the allies and then he just... faded until waking up to the tinkling of bells.

"If you're here to judge me, then do it," Prussia said. "I already accepted that I had to die. The others didn't want me around anymore anyway."

It was practiced, because Prussia had plenty of time since his dissolution to rehearse it.

The masked man tilted his head.

"I just wanted to support my brother as long as I could. Because I was the one who raised him," Prussia felt another pang of regret. "It's only right that I die."

"Is it?" the masked man had an expression of amusement and it began to grate on Prussia's nerves.

"Well, yeah," the dead, or dying, nation replied. "Despite knowing what it could lead to I never stopped him from starting that war ."

"Do you think that you could?"

That was an interesting question and it surprised Prussia, caused his thoughts of regret and sorrow to cease, only to be replaced by a series of what ifs. His face reflected this.

The masked man chuckled, "Well do you? If given the chance, do you think you could stop him?"

"What good is thinking any of that," protested Prussia. "I'm already dead."

"You're not quite dead yet," said the man.

The man nodded and stepped aside. With a wave of his hand the pillar of purple light warped and rippled before displaying a moving picture. It was the Earth. Germany standing in a doorway looking in to an empty bedroom, one Prussia recognized as his own. The picture rippled and changed. Poland and Lithuania visited the ruins of a camp, heads bowed in respect to the dead. Another ripple and China supervised the building of a new military battleship smiling proudly at the frame of the structure.

The picture rippled once more and then vanished.

"The world is not safe even after all of these years," said the man. "The damage done to the world are like tendrils destroying everything in its reach. Someone has to be to blame. The poor have grown poorer, the rich richer. Military might is still more valued than the benefit of mankind. The Allies and Axis both have forever changed the climate of the earth. Peace will never reign again."

"And am I supposed to pay for all of that then?" Prussia snapped finally. "I'm just one nation. Why am I the only one who has to face the consequences?"

The masked man only smirked unaffected by the outburst.

"Everyone is facing the consequences."

A wave of the hand and suddenly the man conjured up a floating object that Prussia could only describe as a game pad.

"What-" Prussia began only to be interrupted.

"It's a game controller, you've played enough of these to know what this is," the masked man said. "If given the chance do you think you could do it? Can you change the fate of the ones you love?"

"I don't think I understand," Prussia said.

"Think of it as a game," the masked man said. "You can redo everything, starting from your first mistake."

Prussia hesitated, unsure of what do do. Was it even natural? In a way he'd be playing god to go back in the past and rearrange everything until it was all proper and he achieved a suitable end. But it was so tempting. He thought of all the words he should have said that he never said and all the things he should have done but didn't.

He pictured Hungary and all the chances he never took with her until it was damn Austria who held her hand. He saw Germany, still small and fragile and oh so impressionable, staring at him with those stern blue eyes, morph into an awkward man who only knew how to express himself in terms of regulation and fight. He remembered the pain of losing and separation.

He wanted to fix it all.

"All you have to do is press start."

Without further though Prussia reached out.

He had nothing to lose after all. He was already dying. How much more worse could things be if he changed a few things around. Then he wouldn't have to worry about anything.

He gripped the controller, swallowed thickly, and pressed start.

The world turned black.

You are The Free State of Prussia. Everything you have done until now has led up to your fate. You have one more chance to make everything right. Save your brother, free the people and get the girl. Are you ready? Game... reset

"Prussia..."

The voice, female, was distant yet familiar. The tinkling of bells was replaced by the chirping of birds.

"Prussia..."

It was louder this time, closer.

"Are you dead or are you sleeping?"

Right in front of him.

"I swear to god if you're not dead I'm going to kill you!"

Prussia squinted his face against the brightness of the sun that passed through even his tightly shut eyelids. He squirmed.

"Prussia!"

And then his eyes shot open. Thankfully the sun was blocked now by the head of the owner of the voice. She was a girl, cute, very cute... ok, super cute. She was wearing a green dress and a white apron. As she bent over him the brown curls of her hair tumbled down and tickled his chest.

"Hungary."

"Finally you're awake," the girl said, her look of concern quickly turned into a glare.

Prussia sat up holding his head. Hungary sat back as well giving him some space.

"Ugh, I have a headache like I've been to hell and back," he groaned.

"Hah! Serves you right!" the girl replied. "What possessed you to do that?"

"To do what?" he asked, rubbing at his head and looking at the girl.

Hungary frowned, "Don't tell me you suffered some memory loss landing on that noggin of yours."

He stood and she did too just as Austria and Germany entered the yard.

"Brother, what happened? We heard a yell," Germany said.

"He just fell off the top of that branch trying to save his bird from the tree," Hungary explained.

Austria arched one of his perfect brows as Germany shot his older brother a look of concern.

"Be careful, we don't want you to get injured just as things are getting exciting around here," German said.

Prussia laughed and just waved his brother away, "It takes more than a tree to kill me, you know that."

Germany sighed and shook his head before turning back to Austria. The two shared a shrug before going back in doors. Prussia watched them with a grin until they were back indoors His bird landed on his shoulders.

Hungary let out a sigh beside him regaining his attention.

"You idiot," she said. "I've only been at your house an hour and you're already making my life a living hell."

"Hey!" Protested Prussia.

He was about to say more when suddenly a mysterious voice flit through his mind.

You can redo everything.

Suddenly everything came back to him. He was dead, or dying or something and there was a man with a mask.

Prussia looked down at his body and sure enough he was wearing his old uniform. He took a double take at his surroundings. It was his house, the one he shared with Germany. But it wasn't the new house, rather the old one, the one that had burned down during the war. They never bothered to rebuild it and the new place wasn't nowhere as big.

Hungary, she was wearing her old clothing. Fashionable for the time. She had a long dress, green, and flat shoes. Her hair was pinned with pink flowers.

Everything was dated.

He remembered it now so clearly. Austria was just moving in again. They'd just annexed him. His little yellow bird went missing while they were showing Austria to his old room. Hungary had went to help look for him. He fell from that tree, just like last time. Every single thing was the same.

Starting from your first mistake.

It was March 1938.

Game... start.

to be continued...

AN: and there you have it! Pilot/test chapter to me WWII AU story! Mainly this thing was pecking at my mind so I had to write it down. lots of research to be done and my priority remains "Simplicity". I hope you all like this. review and let m know what you all think so far.