"Of all the times for Greece to go missing, why now?" you think in disgust as you walk around the corner of the dusty brown remains of a building from the times of Ancient Greece. You and the other countries have been searching for Greece for several hours now and you were starting to get fed up. "Just where on earth could he be?! He can't have that many places where he sleeps!"

"Storm, come look at this!"

You look up at the sound of China's voice coming from a few feet away inside of a crumbling building. You hurry over to him.

"What is is?" you ask as you enter. You cough as the dust irritates your lungs. With a shake of your head, you wave off a worried China. "It's ok. The dust just irritates my lungs, that's all. So, what'd you find?" You look over to your boyfriend and see slight hurt in his amber eyes. With a smile, you put an arm around his waist and kiss him on the cheek. Locking eyes with him, the Chinese nation smiles warmly, joy evident on his face. He leans into you and kisses you lightly on the lips.

"Foot prints and cat tracks. They lead into this chamber aru," China replies, pulling away only slightly to point at the prints in the thick dust. As you crouch down to examine them you notice that they are fresh, only several hours old. You also notice that the foot prints belong to more than one pair of shoes. You shrug. You were only interested in finding Greece, not some stupid tourists who had managed to get themselves lost.

"I think that we've found out where Greece has gone to," you say with a smile and sigh of relief, straightening up. "Greece? It's me, Stormfire," you call out into the dark room. When there is no answer you frown and look around the corner. A cool wall of air hits your face, chilling you to the bone. You shudder and pull away from the door.

"What's wrong?" China asks you, putting a hand on your shoulder.

"Oh nothing, it's just cold, that's all," you respond, turning back towards the cold darkness and leaning in. "Dang it's dark," you mutter to yourself. You squint, trying to see if you could see anything. When that fails you close your eyes, listening for Greece's telltale snoring. Instead you hear fighting. You go rigid and your eyes fly open.

"What is it aru?" China questions you, carefully stepping over the prints and placing an arm around your shoulders.

"Fighting. Someone's fighting in there," you tell him, shaking your head. "We've go to find the others. They need to see this,"

~Down the corridors, past dried pools of blood and skeletons, down to the core of the maze~

Heracles ducks a blast of purple blue light from Romania, shooting one of his wooden arrows at the purple eyed counterpart of Vladimir Lupei. A yellow shield shimmers to life around Heracles and the Greek looks up to see Vladimir standing behind one of the columns, his red eyes sparking with an intense light. He mouths a few words and Heracles looks down and watches as his newest scars heal themselves. He was glad that both Vladmir and Gilbert had joined him on his quest to the center of the Minotaur's Maze. The Romanian and the Prussian were proving very useful in the fight against their three counterparts. Heracles shakes his head, shooting another arrow at his counterpart. He did not know what was happening, let alone how this happened. One moment he was walking down the corridor, entering a large square stone room, pillars at intervals all around the perimeter; in the center was a glowing blue portal. And the next moment the blue portal turned red and started spewing electricity.

With a loud crack, Heracles is hit in the chest by one of the electric bolts. He is thrown back, smacking into the pillar where Vladimir is hiding. Heracles blinks and shakes his head, slipping down onto the floor where he is joined by several cats, all of which are injured, some more severely than others.

"You keep away from my awesome friend!" Gilbert calls out, appearing out of nowhere to stand in front of Heracles. The Prussian takes a swing at Greece and Prussia, catching both across the chest. "Keseseseses...that's what you get for..." Gilbert trails off as he is hit in the chest by a ball of red light, falling to the floor. He looks up to see Romania standing over them. From behind the pillar, Vladimir appears, ducking down to join his companions.

"You vill leave us alone. Ve have done nothing to harm you," Vladimir says.

Heracles nods, "Yes, we do not want to fight you,"

Greece grins an evil grin, "You will have to fight us. Or else you will die!"

Heracles, Gilbert, and Vladimir watch as their three counterparts turn around and vanish into the portal. With his green eyes wide, Heracles watches the red portal expand, electricity crackling off of it. He moves his hands to rest on Vladimir's and Gilbert's arms, gripping his companions tightly. Then there is a bright flash of red light and Heracles blacks out.

~Several minutes later when all the present countries have been assembled~

You quickly scan the room one last time, making sure that everyone was present. America, Canada, yourself, China, Japan, Britain, France, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Romano, Spain, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam. "Good, everyone's here," you think, giving a sharp nod.

"Come on China, Stormfire, tell us what you've found!" America exclaims, his voice echoing around the room.

"Not so loud you bloody git," Britain snaps.

"Oui, I agree. You need to learn to be more refined, like me," France says with a flip of his hair.

Britain turns around to glare at France. "You! Refined? Ha! At least he keeps his clothes on!"

"What?! Are you insulting my culture?"

"No, I'm insulting you as a person, you frog!"

"Don't call me that, you black sheep of Europe!"

"Why you-!" England trails off as he starts to fight with France. The fight is broken off when there is a loud, dull, sound of metal hitting flesh. You look over to see Hungary, her frying pan out, standing over France.

"France, England, please don't fight. Ve have more important things to do," she says, looking over at you and nodding. You smile and nod back.

"We think that we've found where Greece is. Except," you say, raising your voice above the sudden hubbub of noise in the room. You clear your throat loudly, and wait for things to quiet down before continuing. "Thank you. As I was saying, we think we know where Greece is except for one little thing. We hear fighting in there instead of snoring. And not just bickering-fighting, actual fighting," you finish, letting your narrowed gaze fall on Britain and France.

"Let the hero go in and check it out!" America cries out again, forgetting to lower his voice.

"I think we shord arr go in," Japan says quietly. Raising a hand to signal for silence, he continues, "That way we arr have the chance of finding Greece,"

"But how will we know when Greece has been found?" Latvia asks, glancing nervously at Russia.

"I'll use my magic to set a spell that will pull us all out when Greece is found," Britain says, rubbing his hands together.

When the countries start muttering again you roll your eyes and groan. "Alright, I think that that'll work. Britain, Norway? You can do that?" you ask, your voice raised so everyone could hear you. When the two countries nod you sigh. "Good. As soon as that is done we'll head into the...room and go and look for Greece,"

When you finish talking, Britain and Norway get to work setting up a spell to pull everyone out when Greece is found. Meanwhile, everyone else starts separating into groups. You smile as everyone pairs up in the usual manor. America and Canada move over to where you and China were, Japan, Germany, and Italy move towards each other, Spain and Romano stay together arguing over...something. "Probably tomatoes," you think, shrugging. Russia was with his sister's Ukraine and Belarus while Poland was with Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

You smile as you overhear Poland speaking to the Baltic's. "This is, like, so totally cool. I mean, I get to work with you, Liet, and your brothers exploring a wickedly scary maze. This is so cool,". You laugh quietly as you hear Lithuania complains that "We're not brothers, Poland. We don't even like the same food," before continuing to scan the room. The Nordic nations teamed up, Austria was with Hungary, and Switzerland was with Liechtenstein. Taiwan was with South Korea and Vietnam and Turkey was on his own while France would team up with Britain, once the Brit was finished with his spell. Norway, as a Nordic nation, would join in with the others from his region.

"We're ready," Britain announces, looking up. Norway nods.

"Alright then. Let's go," you say, entering the dark room. Your eyes go wide when the walls light up with little lights. "Well then, at least that'll make things a little easier," you comment to your group as you move into the main chamber and make a left down one of the myriad of corridors that branched off.

"I think that it was designed to do that," Canada says quietly, looking up at the glowing lights. No sooner had Canada finished speaking when the lights began to flicker. You groan and shake your head, knowing that it was too good to be true when your vision starts to blur. You reach out to your left for China only to discover that he was not there. You shake your head and open your mouth to ask America where China was when you black out.