Chapter 1: Exodus

A/N: Sorry this is later than probably anticipated but you have no idea how long it took to make sure I don't have any plot holes (Read: plot holes you'll notice). After re-reading RF before starting this I want to formally apologize for the sheer number of grammatical mistakes I missed despite reviewing each chapter multiple times before posting. *Do not expect weekly updates- I wanted to get this out sooner rather than later so I'm behind on completed chapters* I don't own Hetalia.

"The new territory line will be drawn at this river, Elisaveta, and nowhere else." Francis left no room for negotiations, he was dead set on his new map of Cards which was heavily biased in favor of Diamonds.

"No, Francis, the border between Diamonds and Clubs will remain as is. If you would care to realize the futility of your argument you would know that we are not even discussing kingdom borders today." Alfred said, as calmly and collected as possible, which still meant death glares sent in the other blonde's direction.

It was nice that the Nations, who knew very well what would happen once the Queen's War (so popularly dubbed by the people, even though they didn't know how right they were) ended, kindly forgot to inform them of the tediousness of post-war negotiations. They were probably laughing their arses off in their world at this meeting of the royals.

They were supposed to be discussing disarmament of individual militaries to combine them all into one to serve the dominion as a whole. It was a failure of epic proportions: Eight out of twelve face cards bitterly opposing anything suggested, two were sitting silently in the background trying to grasp the concept of their new jobs for life, and the remaining two were sitting with them failing at diffusing the situation. (1)

The veterans, in short, were not setting a very good impression.

"How about this," Yao interrupted. "Since we are clearly not getting a single thing accomplished let's take a break and reconvene at a later date. This is a meeting of the military and as such the four jacks should be the ones making the decisions." He left out the not immature kings part but it was heard anyway.

"I agree," Basch said, "This is getting us nowhere and I believe two kingdoms have a king and queen to train." He looked pointedly at Lisa, the new queen, and Časlov, the new king who looked relieved to be out of there.

"Yes, we do." Roderich said, quickly leaving the premise shadowed by Elizabeta and Časlov. The rest of the royals, minus Spades, left as well, no one relaxing until they were the only three left.

"Well that went well." Alfred sighed, finally dropping the guise and letting his exhaustion show.

"Alfred, this cannot continue." Yao reprimanded. "Ivan is gone, the rivalry is over. If you really want this to work you have to be more lenient with them. We are all losing our patience here, provoking Francis does not help anyone."

"So I am just supposed to allow him to say whatever he wants?"

"No, you are supposed to let it go. Do not let what he says get to you. I promise they will not get away with anything in the meeting of the jacks. Can you not tell that we are ready for this to work?"

Alfred pouted, knowing his argument was lost. "Very well." Suddenly he perked up and grinned at Lisa. "So, Queen Lisa, are you confused yet?"

The redhead of four-class had arrived a week prior, looking completely and utterly lost. Apparently she was related to Allistor and Dylan in some way or the other, the massive family too complicated to understand. So far she'd said the bare minimum to anyone that wasn't Alfred or Yao, but that wasn't too out of the ordinary. After all she was now the greenie of the royals, kindly taking over that wonderful position from Alfred, and it was like a culture shock.

Going from owning a small textile shop on the coast to being selected for the new role as queen was definitely demanding, especially when no one knew the previous queen was dead. They still haven't had the funeral because of the post-war chaos.

Even the choosing process was almost ethereal in nature. Like a massive epiphany out of nowhere and the knowledge just dawned on you. It didn't take very long to get over the high and realize just what being a royal entitled, then the tears flowed.

Though they never would admit it, they all did it. The realization that they'd never grow old, never really have the option of a family because the job was so demanding, and then leaving one life behind to go to the next was more than enough to make heads spin.

Some of the old ones, Like Yao and Kiku, have all but forgotten their original families from centuries past. But they were still empathetic to the new royals.

Lisa didn't have time to answer before Alfred lead them out the door of the meeting room, saying it was too depressing in there to continue. She just rolled her eyes, already used to his antics, and tried to keep up to wherever they were going.

Back away from foreign eyes in the safety of the eternally-blue kingdom, the rest of the people still stole glances at the new royal whenever they could, not caring about discretion at all. Nearly three quarters the civilian population had never experienced the sudden and unannounced death of a figurehead that had been in their lives for decades and not all were easily accepting of the replacement. Some just quickly looked away, others tried to ignore her, then came the extremists that thought up complicated and convoluted theories about how it was an inside job and how Arthur had been walking with a target on his back for years.

The thing with theories is they spread like wildfires, especially in a society in turmoil. Even if it never made sense and was ludicrous to even premeditate, supporters of the "Arthur Theory" as so cleverly dubbed, were growing steadily by the day. Those who knew exactly what happened, i.e. Alfred, Yao, and a few high-ranking officials, decided to keep it undisclosed for as long as possible else cooperation would go out the window and anarchy would ensue. No one even knew that Francis was the one that did it personally, the killer went unnamed outside castle walls.

Yao left to prepare for the upcoming meeting with the other jacks, the other two simply walked back to the castle in borderline-uncomfortable silence.

After a few more meters with only their footsteps for noise, Alfred finally spoke up. "They'll come around soon, you know. You are just in the right place at the wrong time."

"With all due respect, K-"

"It's just Alfred unless we're in public, which also applies to Yao and Ma… which also applies to Yao." Of course Lisa noticed they were still short one member of the royal family, and they were family- blood or water didn't matter. When you're stuck in time with only three others as your companions until death or worse, bloodlines are thrown out the window. But Alfred and Matthew… they were family.

She'd heard the stories as a kid, most of the people knew more about their leaders than said leaders probably liked. Though any real truth behind their history is long since dead, only available from the blondes themselves, most people agreed on the same, tragic story.

See, everyone thought they were twins because they looked so much alike. In reality, Matthew was the oldest brother by two years and Alfred was the middle child. No one but them really remembers their younger sister, Rosa, who'd disappeared one day after a massive fight between her and Alfred over something long forgotten. Everyone just knows she existed. After that it was just the two of them for a while, parents were out of the picture for reasons even the public doesn't know.

Then came royalty. Matthew was selected as the new ace and three years later came Alfred as the fledgling king. For thirty years the two set aside enough resources the military would allow to find their missing sister, even begging Arthur for a spell or two, but they never did. It's been forty-two years now, Rosa would be in almost sixty and they'd all but given up, having lost all extra men in the recent and hopefully final bloodbath between suits. All they could do was wait.

And now Matthew was gone. Unlike Rosa they knew he was still alive, but well was uncertain. Given a few more months and the navy would be back on its feet to storm the shores of Chess with all they had for the ace. But they didn't have a few months. A few weeks at best, depending on what they were doing with him over there.

The worst part was that no one outside of Spades really cared for his wellbeing. Well, Queen Lili cared, but she was a pacifist and even gave her condolences for Arthur when she found out. Even the other aces had nearly forgotten he even existed, thinking Dylan was the ace since the beginning.

But the one who cared the most aside from his own brother was Allistor, the navy captain and one of the last people to see him al- to see him. The second the Rummy made port in Spades the entire crew came sprinting to the castle to plea for more men and ships to find him until they saw the wreckage still floating in the waters. Allistor didn't leave his cousin's coffin's side for two days after that, moving only to renew the crusade for the lost ace.

All in all, instead of a lively electric cerulean, Spades was drowning in periwinkle depression that wasn't releasing them any time soon.

Why does it always seem that the scum of society never gets hit with karma but the people who never deserve it always have crap happen to them? Isn't that what karma is supposed to prevent? You do something good, something altruistic, and something good happens to you. You do something bad, something traitorous, and you'd better watch where you step.

That's how it's supposed to work. So why did that seem like a cruel joke at the moment? Why did it feel like the universe was pissed off for some reason and decided to screw with the natural order of getting-what's-coming-to-you?

Matthew didn't deserve this. He really didn't. What had he done to deserve being bound, gagged, and blindfolded in the bed of a wagon going Check knows where without any clue what had happened in the first place? What did they expect him to do really? He knew virtually no magic, carried no weapons- not that they would have been on his person by this point- and couldn't even fight off his brother when they played together as kids.

And to top it all off, even if he could defend himself he had next to no strength left after being fed "enough to allow him to stand" for a week and a half. Or something like that, he'd lost count around day six. At this point Matthew couldn't give a damn what they were feeding him as long as it passed as food for a dog.

Voice long-since nonexistent, all he could do for the endless hours in darkness was mull over everything happening, which was a lot. What was going on back home? Did they win the war? Did they lose the war? Was everyone dead? Was he the last surviving royal of Cards? Did the others ever even make it back there? Were they searching for him? Did they give up and deem the lost ace a lost cause?

But the thought that kept resurfacing through it all was their conversation with Feliks however many days ago. "This place practically rains magic. I know royals when I see 'em; they're magic's bitches." Feliks knew him just with a glance, and assuming his captors possessed the same abilities, what exactly did they have in store for him? So far it had just been days of silent transport going from nowhere to nowhere. Sure he could feel when they stopped and turned but that wasn't exactly reliable nor helpful in the slightest.

They weren't allies. He knew that. But Matthew figured that if a foreign diplomat goes missing in a royal's territory, they should be obligated to find them and send them home. Or just find them. He'd considered trying to run, nearly acted upon such thoughts when they'd let him up to eat and stuff but the fear of getting caught and the sheer futility of it all was enough to make him stay put like a good little prisoner. Not to mention Chess was utterly massive. And after days of travel in any direction even at this pace could have very well gotten him across the empire, though that's all they'd been doing. Walking. No boats crossing rivers, or cobblestone beneath the horses' hooves. Just dirt roads through the wilderness.

If- when he got home- the first thing he would do is walk right up to Arthur and demand magic lessons in self-defense

The wagon suddenly stopped, immediately drawing him out of wishful thinking, and put him on high alert. Muffled voices drew closer until they were right on top of him. He tried not to flinch as rough hands hauled him off the wagon and onto the hard-packed earth. This was nothing new, all it told him was that they were done traveling for the day and were setting up camp for the night. It also told him he'd be getting food.

Someone led him over to a tree, made him sit down, and proceeded to make sure he wasn't going anywhere with about three lengths of rope going around the trunk and his torso, a bit excessive to Matthew but they apparently didn't want to take chances.

So far the only good side to this was that they all spoke the same language. Come to think of it so far everyone he'd met spoke the same language. Not that overhearing mutterings and curses did much but it broke up the monotony of darkness for over twelve hours on the road.

The blindfold was finally removed and despite the twilight he still had to squint at the harsh light. For the first time all day he got a view of their surroundings: Trees. Fan-fricken-tastic.

And so goes another night of cramped sleep.

A/N: Woo! First chapter done! (Sorry for the depression) This does have a plot, just unlike last time it's not starting immediately. Three new names: Rosa, Lisa, and Časlov which are mostly fanon names you can piece together. If anyone wants to guess you get a shout out the next chapter. Now I just slept for five hours after school today and I'm still tired so goodnight.

Footnotes:

1. When the UN was first created, the G8 were given permanent seats and veto powers to say no to anything they wanted and it wouldn't be passed. So naturally, with the Cold War raging on, America, Russia, and China (when their representatives bothered to show up) couldn't agree on anything- ever and naturally nothing got done. Kinda like now with the whole Putin-Ukraine thing.