Breathing and static were the only noises that were ringing in Feliciana's ears. The sounds were her breathing, as a matter of fact, and the static came from the radio piled inside the belt on her hips. She had no armor on her body as she had penetrated the base, for she lost it all before entering the ventilation shaft. Each step she took left a small echo in her ears, and she cringed after each one, fearing being heard. She kept the gun close at hand, holding it just in front of her sternum, in case anyone ambushed her. In her ear, the static from the bud made a clicking sound, and then the static continued before a distorted voice came through from the end.
"Feliciana, we are in. Over." Feliciana sighed in relief at the sound of the German's voice; the worst of her fears of the German and Englishman being caught had been overruled. Now it was time for them to make it safely to her.
"Good, is the radar working? Over," Feliciana waited on the silence of the static, and the sound of her heart pulsing faster as she noted a lighted hallway, maybe a half a mile ahead of her, in the base. No sound was audible from the hallway yet. On the end of the radio, Feliciana heard a click again, and then a voice.
"Yes, you have movement ahead. Over." Feliciana wasn't surprised. The lighted hallway gave that factor away.
"I'm not surprised. I see light at 12 o clock. Should I advance upon it? Over."
More silence. Feliciana's anxiety was abasing by the moment. She stopped dead in her tracks as she waited.
"Yes. Over." There was another click before the static echoed in her ear again. Then there was a click, and the German's voice came on again.
"Just… Be careful Feliciana, we're almost there. Don't lose yourself, and take care, alright? Over."
"I always do, Ludwig. Over." She was greeted by silence and static again; and she stood for a minute, anticipating perhaps one more phrase. Standing silently alone in the dark only reminded her that Ludwig never told her he loved her before a serious battle or plan. She wished he would, but there were always good intentions behind the hesitation. She remembered the first battle they went into as a couple, she had only received a kiss on the lips, and she asked him why he wouldn't tell her he loved her.
"If I say I love you, it's like saying goodbye. Like I'll never see you again. I won't think for a second that that's true. When you're safe in my arms again, which you will be, I'll kiss you and tell you I love a million times."
She inhaled a few more times before continuing on down the hallway with the echoes of her steps, the static of the ear bud, and the silence of being alone. It wasn't silent too much longer as she progressed down the hallway, soon there were voices speaking in foreign tongues; tongues that Europeans couldn't understand, but the voices were familiar all the same. Her heart beat inclined, her breathing stumbled as she inhaled and exhaled, attempting to keep the nervousness quieted down.
Then she took a step.
And then a noise aroused, and she cursed herself in every bit of Italian that she could concur. At first, her body became paralyzed in terror, and then the next thing she knew her body was spread along the wall as she tried not to gather more attention. It was too late. Footsteps approached the intersection of the lighted hallway and the dark hallway Feliciana was in. Her breathing increased to silent grunts, and she listened to the silence, the static in her ear, and the footsteps approaching. Suddenly, a voice shouted out.
"Who's there?" It was the Japanese man's. Suddenly, all her bodily functions ceased; she didn't breathe, she didn't speak, she couldn't even think. Kiku was not easily tricked by the silence, a wise old man never is. Feliciana was also smart enough to comprehend that Kiku's next move would be to check the hallway, which is why when she heard footsteps from behind her; she knew what her next move would be too. She turned around to see Ludwig and Arthur coming down the hallway, both full blown in armor. She held up her hand in a fist, and they both stopped. Ludwig stared at her in surprise, and now had a questioning look on his face. Feliciana stared into his blue eyes, and gave him a face of overwhelming sadness.
"I love you," she mouthed, and then she ran into the hallway, holding up her gun, and firing the last of her bullets at the Japanese man. Of course, all of the bullets either missed, or slapped on his samurai sword. Each bullet left a lasting imprint in his sword, but his sword left an even longer lasting imprint into her shoulder blade. Feliciana didn't recall much; it all seemed too fast. One second her shoulder was intact, feeling perfect and healthy, the next second a blade had been struck down into it, pinching her muscles as she cried out in pain. She wrenched over, falling to the floor, almost expecting a final blow as the Japanese man rose his sword again to strike her. Instead, a bullet pierced his side, which was enough to throw the man onto the wall in shock. The German came running out of the hallway, yelling out words that Feliciana couldn't quite understand. All she could make out was, "Get her safe!", which was good enough for her to complete some of the puzzle pieces to his frantic screaming as he fired more bullets at the Korean who was advancing upon him. Kiku had picked himself back up, re-gripping his blade, and going to strike at Arthur who had begun incantations Feliciana was sure that no one could understand. A shield appeared around the three of them, and Ludwig clasped his arms around Feliciana as Arthur continued to chant.
Feliciana's hand reached up to her shoulder, and when she pulled it away she found blood coating her hand. She could feel the liquid running down her chest to soak her shirt, and when Ludwig pulled his face away from covering her body from any backfires of the magic, his face was too, covered in her own blood. She cried out, and began to whimper. She bit her lip, and tried to fight back her fear. This was no time to be upset, but she couldn't help but fall into her natural instincts. Ludwig saw this change of expression in her face, and then wiped his face to smear the blood off. He gripped her face between his hands and kissed her so hard that she could feel his teeth through her lip. She opened her mouth, inviting his tongue for the briefest moment of a second, and he pulled away. She heard static, she heard yelling, she heard gunfire, she heard the incantations, and then she heard herself speak.
"I love you."
For a moment, Feliciana swore that Ludwig choked up.
"We're going to be alright Feliciana, do you hear me? You'll go first, and then when I'm done here, I'll come after you. I promise you, do you understand me? We're going to be just fine."
Feliciana counted another kiss, then a third on her lips before he finally pressed his lips tightly against her forehead. With her good arm, she clung to his body, and embraced him as much as she could.
Fire was breaking out; the other nations had arrived and were flooding the base. The Japanese man and Korean had retreated to a secure location in the base, stocking up for what was an unexpected fight. Arthur's voice was growing deeper, almost demonic, and his incantations grew louder. Ludwig stared into her eyes for a second before letting go, and re-gripping his gun.
"Ludwig!" Feliciana cried out; blackness was pulling her away from Ludwig as he ran into a hell with the other nations at his side. Feliciana felt every inch of her body collapsing into shock as the blood drained from her wound, and from the magic pushing her away from the life she had grown to love so much. She let out another cry before she felt the icy snow grip her in its arms, and the reality she had seen only minutes ago had disappeared. Every sound had stopped, except for the sound of her breathing and her pounding heart. Looking up, she saw a distorted pair of blue eyes, and blond hair over her body, surrounded by two men. He was holding her strongly by the shoulders.
"Frau, frau! Do you hear me? You're going to be alright. You're going to be alright."
Feliciana closed her eyes. She was going to be safe, but not alright.
First she groaned; she didn't want to open her eyes. She wanted to sleep forever with the pinch in her shoulder; she didn't want to open her eyes. She kept them shut, but began to breathe with a bit of pain as she woke from unconsciousness; she didn't want to open her eyes.
"Shh," she heard a voice say almost trying to soothe her groans and grunts. It was a male voice, almost stupid, and Italian. In fact, she was certain it was an Italian accent, but it wasn't her brother's. Perhaps it was a soldier? She was unsure. "She's going to be alright Mr. Germany, si?"
Germany. Ludwig. The connection came to her brain, but her body didn't react. Every muscle in her body ached; her neck pained, her abdomens cramped, her legs didn't want to move, but most of all, her shoulder cringed and cramped and cried out. It made her want to scream, but she refused to with all her might. All she wanted to do was open up her eyes, and kiss Ludwig as hard as she could, and thank him, and embrace him, and tell him how much she loved him.
"Be quiet, Italy! For God's sake! I'm trying to keep her alive! Who knows how long she's been hurt? And God knows why she was at her base?"
A shock of pain pressed on Feliciana's heart. He sounded as if she didn't know her, as if she was just a stranger. She was to force her eyes open and confront him. She felt more stings in her shoulder, and the sound of scissors and clamps frantically at work. Tense the muscles, release them. Suddenly, she found herself creating this pattern with her body. Then she worked up to her face to tense and release those muscles. Suddenly, she found herself blinking her eyes open. Everything was hazy at first, she found herself blinking multiple times and looking around. There was nothing around her but a blur.
"Ve, I am so sorry, Germany!" the Italian complained, whimpering like a child.
"Just shut up, Italy! Shut up!" the Ludwig sounding man complied. Neither the Italian nor the German had noticed that her eyes were just barely open. Then her eyes widened as she blinked a little more, and the world around her had grown clearer. It was also now clear to her that the Ludwig-sounding man also looked, smelled, and ignored everything around him when he got focused on something like Ludwig. That something, right now, was stitching up and mending her shoulder. It was pointless to try to get his attention, but she tried anyway.
"L-Luddy," she whimpered. Her good arm reached up, and she felt a pinch. She grunted slightly again, but she pushed forward anyway. Contact was made as her finger tips briefly brushed his face, and she smiled slightly. His eyes cast from her shoulder to her in confusion that Feliciana couldn't understand. "Ludwig, it's me." It struck her. This man did not know her, this Ludwig wasn't aware of her own existence. The magic that Arthur had used had thrust her into a time continuum that wasn't even where she was born. This Ludwig was not her own. Her hand fell down to her side, and another bolt of sadness struck her heart.
"I'm sorry," she grunted as he continued to work down on the shoulder, "I mistook you for someone else." Except she didn't, and she had at the same time. She saw an empathetic look appear on the man's face, and he went straight back to his work. There was a moment of silence before the Italian man looked down at her and winked.
"You are molto bella, l'amore."
Feliciana gave a weak grin by the flirtation bestowed upon her, and chuckled slightly. This wasn't the first man to compliment her, but it also wasn't the man she wanted to compliment her. She appreciated it when Ludwig would attempt to speak Italian to her, and flirt with her in her own language; he, of course, would only mess up the vowels with his strong, specified tongue. Her smile dissipated as she remembered this. And when she would take sips of beer from his bottle without his permission, the way she would take a piece of pasta and put it in his mouth, while stealing a bit of his meal, and how he would be so cool with the actions.
"Grazi," Feliciana replied, and Ludwig looked to her. His blue eyes scanned her face, and she found her pulse intensifying, and her breathing increasing. He wasn't hers.
Then another man walked in. A dark haired, Japanese man.
She screamed at the top of her lungs in fear, and pushed away from the two, now three men, will all her might. She cursed, she screamed as loud as she could.
"Salvami! Per favore, non lasciare che mi faccia male! Malato bastardo! Stronzetto! Scappare!" she pushed from Ludwig and from the Italian. Ludwig was gripping her within his arms, and she felt tearing in her shoulder again. She cried, the tears streaming down her face. "Per favore! Per favore! I won't let him take me again! I won't! Let me go!" she slammed her feet into the man who looked like Ludwig, and pressed from him with all her might. Her finger tips pushed and she couldn't break free from the grip of the strong German. He pushed her down onto the table.
"Miss! Calm down! You're badly hurt!" she struggled in his arms, but he was stronger, and held her down. "Please!" Her body refused to carry on and she gave up. Tears rolled down her face, and she beseeched to be let go. She whimpered, and wailed in the empty base, beside the four of them. "In the name of God, oh please. Please. Don't let him kill me. He's already tried. He's already. Don't let him take me away. Don't let him kill me!"
The German only cast a mindful glance at the Japanese man, and the Italian sat in the corner fooling around with the machinery that he didn't understand the mechanics of.
"Japan, would you mind?" Germany asked, and looked straight into the eyes of the Italian woman. The Japanese man grabbed what appeared to be a syringe, and filled it with clear liquid. He quickly walked toward Feliciana, who in comply only kicked and beg more.
"No! No! No!" she fought. Her legs swung in the air, and the syringe plunged deep into her arm. She looked up into the German's eyes, and found something in them strange; something almost controlling and upsetting, something she hadn't seen in a long time. She stopped moving for a second, and took a deep breath after coming to a realization. Her breath resulted in short gasps, as her lungs clung to some sort of air entering her lungs, which they could barely attain. "Don't, stop, looking at me. Please," she said to the German. "Please, please… Stay with me." Her struggle ended, and she was left again unconscious in the arms of a man that she used to know, but had been gone for a long time.
The men all left one by one, in shock and awe as to the event that had just occurred in the flash of a few minutes. The last to leave was the Italian, who found himself staring at the dog tag around her neck. He took it from her neck, and lifted it into his view. "Feliciana Vargas." His eyes widened as the gears in his brain began to move, but they were stopped short by the voice of an angry German who had obviously discovered the pasta covering the Conference table. He left the girl and the dog tag alone in the bed, who could hear nothing now.
