Just wanted to say second fic ever attempted, and that this is based off the aph video of Prussia on youtube called Cross. This video is just so heart breaking I had to write something about it.

"Italics" for Prussia are for him speaking in German

Disclaimer Just to say, I don't own Hetalia or Torchwood but enjoy anyway!

He doesn't remember what happened, only that he blinked. He remembers watching as France and America whispered to themselves, backs facing him and shoulders turned in. What to do with the once great Kingdom of Prussia?

"So what's going to happen to him?" Francis sighed as Alfred gave him a stern look, one he was not accustomed to seeing on the young nation. "Are we going to hand him over to someone else to deal with or are we going to do it ourselves?"

At the last comment Francis glared at the American, a fire burned in his eyes as Alfred spoke about ending the life of his friend. "You do know that this war wasn't his fault right? He was just following orders. Hell, his land was dissolved because of this so I think he's suffered enough!" The two nations glared at each other for a moment before America dropped his gaze.

The quite discussion quickly turned into background noise to the third party in the small room. Personally, Gilbert didn't care what their decision would be. He was tired, he's been fighting for so long and beaten down so hard that he just wanted to rest. For as long as he could remember there has been violence, blood and death haunting his footsteps. From his time with the Teutonic Knights up until now, Gilbert felt as if war was all he knew. With Germany established as a nation and the Second World War over, what was he to do? The civilians would cheer as soldiers laid down their arms and the younger nations would eventually fall into a lull of peace and recuperation. But for a soldier born and bred for violence, what was he to do during peacetime?

Gilbert lightly tugged on his handcuffs as he became lost in his thoughts, occasionally reaching for the iron cross that no longer adorned his neck. It was in this brief moment of silence that Gilbert closed his eyes and took a deep breath, hoping to keep down the emotion that threatened to drown him. Just thinking about Ludwig, his face as the Allies led him away in handcuffs was enough to drag a choked sob from the soldier's throat. Gilbert placed his head in his hands as he remembered the brother he left behind, the brother he so desperately tried to save. After a few more calming breaths Gilbert slowly raised his head and froze. He tried not to panic as he was greeted by a noisy street and crowds of people.

"Wha-what happened? This looks nothing like the Allied base… where the hell am I?" Trying to beat down his rising panic Gilbert stood on shaky legs and slowly looked up and down the street. Nothing looked familiar, well nothing looked like anything from this century. The cars looked sleeker, the fashion somewhat questionable, and what really threw him off was the accent everyone seemed to have. It reminded him a bit of England, but not quite. As Gilbert attempted to remember where he may have heard this accent, he failed to realize all the attention he was drawing to himself. It wasn't until he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye did Gilbert focus on the wary looks and apprehensive people around him. "Of course they would be so suspicious, I probably look like an escaped convict or something …"

"Hey, are you alright?" A stranger slowly walked towards him, hands raised in a sign of surrender, an attempt to show he meant no harm.

"So I guess they do speak English … Well based on that and their funny accents I guess I could figure out which half of the world I'm on now…" Though Gilbert did understand the man he wasn't taking any chances and slowly backed up a few steps. At his retreat the man stopped his advances and urged one of the surrounding people to call the authorities. Gilbert scoffed at the notion of the police attempting to contain him let alone take him into custody. As tempting as spending the day with the police sounded, Gilbert needed to figure out where he was first. Quickly assessing the situation, he narrowed his eyes at the many people surrounding the area. This was going to make escaping a bit of a challenge. It didn't take long for the people to notice the change in the red eyed man and start to back away. Noticing the newly formed openings Gilbert took his chance and ran, keeping to less populated areas and taking great care in avoiding the police.

"Shit, been here less than thirty minutes and I've already got the police after me." Gilbert panted as he stopped in a secluded street corner, watching as the policemen ran past his hiding spot. Thinking he was safe for the moment Gilbert let out a sigh of relief and slowly sat down, mindful of the few injuries he still had. With a minute to himself Gilbert tested the strength of the handcuffs still encasing his wrists.

"These aren't too bad, could probably get free with a good tug…." Weak and injured he may be Gilbert Beilschmidt was still a nation, the Awesome Prussia! Some cheap set of irons wasn't going to stop him. With his mind set on breaking free from the cuffs, Gilbert failed to notice the approaching men before he heard the click of a gun. Snapping his head up from examining the handcuffs, he saw two policemen with both their firearms trained at him.

"Hands up where we can see them! We're going to need to come down to the station so don't try to resist." Police Constable Andy Davidson kept his gun trained on the mysterious man as he waited for an answer.

"Oh fuck me, are you serious?! Twice in one day I let a couple of humans get the better of me! I must be getting too old for this shit…" Gilbert silently cursed as he slowly brought his hands up, mindful of the cautious police officer.

With no response from the quiet man, Officer Davidson motioned for his partner to keep his firearm trained on the man as he moved in to apprehend him. Moving slowly he took in the man's strange appearance; he seemed to have been in a fight if the cut on his cheek and dishevelled clothing said anything. But what caught Andy's attention was the person's white hair and blood red eyes. Eyes that looked old, tired and out of place on his young face. The depth and sadness they seemed to give off caused Andy to repress a shiver and his wariness to rise. So lost in thought, Andy failed to notice the smirk that spread across the man's face. In an instant the white haired man sprang up and made a grab for the officer's gun. Surprised at the unexpected attack, Andy let loose a shot that grazed the man's arm before the gun was wrestled out of his hands.

"God damn that hurt!" Gilbert winced as the bullet grazed him, grabbing the gun out of the officer's hands and aiming it at his shocked partner. The now unarmed officer struggled in the Prussian's grip as he was manoeuvred in front and placed in a choke hold.

"Nobody needs to get hurt here; I just want to know where I am." The confused looks exchange between both officers only caused Gilbert's irritation to rise. His grip on tightened around the officer's throat, causing him to let out a choked gasp. "Just answer the damn question! Where the hell am I?!"

"You're in Cardiff, Wales. So could you let Andy go?"

Gilbert turned his head towards the new voice and watched as three people walked towards him, two with guns aimed at him. Knowing when to make a tactical retreat Gilbert let the officer go and threw away the gun, placing his hands in the air once again. Gilbert turned around to face his captors and couldn't help but stare. The man that addressed him looked familiar; he remembers seeing that face only a few months ago. He remembers in the sea of carnage, that man was the lone survivor.

The hub was unusually quiet today, no rift activity, no aliens to chase. Torchwood Three's team soon found themselves with nothing to do and so forced themselves to complete day old paper work or work maintenance on the hub technology. Ianto quickly busied himself with preparing everyone's coffee as Owen cleaned up the mess his latest alien autopsy created. As Ianto made his way to everyone's work station he watched Tosh enter in new amounts of data, constantly updating the hub's database. He looked farther and watched Gwen speak to Rhys on the phone, informing him that she might be able to head home early today thanks to the lull in rift activity. Satisfied that his team has been looked after, Ianto finally made his way to the Captain's office.

"Sir, care for a break?" Jack looked up as Ianto made his way into his office and couldn't help but smile at the young Welshman. "Of course, and am I to assume that you will be keeping me company during this break?" Jack made sure to give Ianto his most charming smile as he made his way over, laughing a bit as Ianto seemed a bit flustered.

"Well the cages have been looked after, the archives sorted for the day and everyone's coffees have been made. It seems like I'm free for the moment."

"Oh lucky me..." Jack's smile never left his lips as he leaned down towards Ianto, planning to enjoy this break thoroughly.

The moment was broken as the rift alarms sounded, causing Jack to place his head on Ianto's shoulder in defeat just as Tosh walked in.

"Jack, there's been a sighting of…" Tosh let out a few flustered apologies as she walked in on Jack with his head placed on Ianto's shoulder and said Welshman consoling the Captain.

"What is it Tosh?" Jack mumbled into Ianto's shoulder.

"Right, there's been reports coming in of a white haired, red eyed man in a blue military uniform who's being chased down by the police. I don't know what they'd want with him but he appeared around the same time the rift alarms went off. I can hack into the CCTV cameras and get a look at him."

"Hmmm… an albino huh? How exotic." Jack grinned as Ianto lightly hit him. "Come on Jack no time to fanaticise, we should get to him before something happens." Ianto straightened his clothes and watched as Tosh quickly did some visual research on the target before she headed towards Gwen and Owen with a few printouts of the target. The three grabbed their coats and heading towards the SUV. "And the sooner we finish this mission, the sooner we can have our brake." Jack smirked as Ianto helped him into his coat.

"So anyone have any bloody idea what we're going up against let alone where it is?" Owen asked as the Torchwod SUV made its way through Cardiff.

"I'm not too sure, but the amount of energy the rift was giving off was immense. I did manage to get a few decent pictures of him off the CCTV cameras though, and judging from the video footage it looks like he's hurt so we should be careful when approaching him. As for his location the readings say it about a few blocks away, other than that I can't get an exact reading." Tosh said as she looked up from the device to pass round the printouts from the CCTV footage.

"Wait, it's a "he"?" Gwen was curious to say the least; it wasn't common that an alien's gender was identifiable. She flipped through the few photos and noticed that it was indeed a he, and he was also human. "Not too bad looking to if you asked me. But that uniform he's wearing seems a bit odd don't you think? What do you think Jack? Seen anything like this before?" Gwen handed Jack the photos as he brought the SUV to a stop.

Jack looked at the uniform the man wore, feeling himself drift through his memories and pulling at things that were half forgotten. He remembers the battlefield, the ground painted with the blood of his men and fire that lit up the night sky. He remembers going to the front lines to avoid running into his past self, the person he was before he met the Doctor and Rose. But most of all he remembers running into that man, no, the red eyed monster that mercilessly slaughtered his men and led the German army through the carnage. He doesn't think he would ever forget those eyes, the same eyes that looked back at him through the black and white photo.

"Jack?" Ianto gently placed his hand on Jack's shoulder, effectively bringing him out of his trance. "No, no idea. I might have seen something similar during the Second World War but that was a long time ago. Well, I guess we should get out and search in groups for our mystery man." Jack hoped the lie would satisfy his team for now.

"Okay Owen, Tosh you guys head down that street and I'll take Ianto and Gwen and head up this street. Everyone be careful and keep your comms on, got it?" With nods of understanding from his team, Jack led his group on their search while Owen and Tosh headed in the opposite direction.

It wasn't long before the three Torchwood members got their heading; a gunshot was heard coming from a secluded street not too far away. Giving Gwen and Ianto a brief glance, they drew their guns and quickly made their way to the street corner. The sight that greeted them was a bit alarming, their target seemed to have a hostage (was that Andy?) with a gun pointed at a police officer. Jack could feel Gwen tense up at the sight of her ex-partner in danger. Giving her a stern look, Jack slowly walked towards the small group of people.

"Just answer the damn question! Where the hell am I?!"

Jack's step faltered at the voice, It can't be him... Shaking off the dread that clung to him he decided he needed to draw the man's attention away from the officers. "You're in Cardiff, Wales. So can you let Andy go?" Jack could feel the ice cold dread return as he looked at the red eyes that glared at him, but all he could see were the lifeless bodies and endless blood that stained the ground.

"And who the hell are you guys?" The albino man asked after he surrendered.

"Torchwood."

Review if convenient. If not, review anyway

-SP