Blackout

Me: For those who guessed, the mystery word pertaining to the plot was "amnesia".

Dianne: Nikki tried that. You and your cousins are crazy about messing with people's heads.

Me: We've been trying to make one fan fic about amnesia, okay?! Please get off my back!

DISCLAIMER: Um…I do not own anything except for Philippines, and some of the countries that haven't been personified yet.

NOTE: By the way, yes, it's alright to change someone's personality when he/she has memory loss. But carry over some aspects of the old personality into the new one, alright? Oh, and this is no longer a two-shot only.


Black. Black was everywhere. It engulfed him. It felt cold in the darkness. He tried to scream. No sound came out of his mouth. Yelling for help was no good.

He watched memories being snatched away one by one. Every time he grabbed on to one, it would fade away. He didn't want that, so he did his best to grab any memory he could find.

Arthur, Evalynn, Kiku, Wang Yao, Ivan, Ludwig, Feliciano, Francis, Godeleva, Elizaveta, Roderich…he grabbed on to those he held dear. He couldn't let them go. Even if he forgot himself, he couldn't forget his friends.

He especially couldn't forget Arthur and Evalynn. Arthur raised him and taught him how to be courageous and to be a hero. Evalynn showed him how to be kind and tender, yet be firm as well. They were his best friends…

The pictures faded away. No…no…no…don't go…


England's POV

It has been four days, five hours, 20 minutes, 64 seconds since America fell into a coma. I've been worried sick about him.

I wish he had been there to see Ludwig and Feliciano tie Evalynn up due to her snapping a picture of them in a compromising position.

I wish he had been there to snap a picture of Evalynn taking her anger out on Francis.

But he had to fall ten beastly stories of stairs and land himself in the bleeding hospital again! B**l**ks!

"Belt up, Evalynn," I tell the babbling country while we are watching over Alfred. "I'd rather have a bespoke biggie than your stories about your journalistic expenditures."

"Speak some English for once. Di ko kasi alam yung sinasabi mo."

"Well, I don't bloody know what you're talking about!"

"Oh, shut up."

While Alfred was in a coma, so many things happened. In just four days, Ludwig and Feliciano became a couple, Evalynn showed Kiku how to smile like he meant it, I learned modern dancing…basically, new developments in life.

All these I mused over, until now.

"He's awake! He's stirring!"

Evalynn snaps me out of my thoughts. I take a look at the limp form on the bed.

Alfred's eyes flutter, opening and closing, like an undecided butterfly. A scant two days before, I had placed his glasses next to his bed, with a note, "If you can't see this, you'll need this. A", so he wouldn't forget.

Finally, his eyes open.


He battled the darkness for so long now. He had forgotten about who he was. He had won, though, and the light streamed in.

Blurred colors came into view, but he could make out two people's faces. He instinctively reached onto the bedside table—it looked like he was in the hospital—and grabbed whatever he felt.

A note fell onto his chest. It was blurred, like the other things, but when he picked it up, he found that he could read it at close range.

"If you can't see this, you'll need this. A"

He looked at the object in his hands. He squinted enough to see what it was: glasses.

Now who was A?

"Alfred!"

"America!"

Huh? He looked up to see the two on each side of his bed. One was female, with tanned skin, black hair and eyes, and a flat, fat-ish nose. Another was male, had thick eyebrows, green eyes, almost blonde hair, and a worried expression.

"Is he alright?" the girl asked.

"Belt up, Eva," the man replied.

Judging from the man's accent, the man was British.

"Hey, hey, hey, he's staring at us, all confused and stuff." She was scrutinizing him now.

"So what are you implying?" the British man irritably asked her. Where am I? Who are they? Why are they on my bed?

"You know the soap operas. Do you know the medical conditions they often portray?"

"Are you saying he has cancer?!"

"No, I'm not." The tanned girl looked at the Brit irately. "Let's ask him, then!"

He didn't like the way she looked at him.

"What's your name? It's okay if you reply with your country name or your human name," she told him.

WHAT DID SHE JUST TELL HIM?!

"Uh…um…"

"So you mean he has amnesia?!" the British man practically screamed.

He chose this time to speak. "Who the h**l am I?"


Philippines' POV

A DAY LATER…

Bittersweet. It tastes so bittersweet on my tongue. Alfred losing his memory had a few ups and downs.

First, he could see things in a new light. Maybe he could think England's cooking would taste delicious. Nah, it could be scandalous. Besides, the news already got out.

Second, he could have a new personality. Thing is, he might be more obnoxious, and play more stinking pranks on people. I still remember that cross-dressers' cosplay convention. Hindi ko gusto ang pwedeng mangyari.

The hospital had released him a few hours after he recovered from the coma. The other countries, after two hours, knew all about it.

"Feliciano and I give him our best wishes," Ludwig told me some minutes ago in my house as I cooked him some Scottish haggis. Honestly, I don't know how they don't puke over sheep's stomach!

"Don't worry, he'll recover, aru," Wang Yao assured Arthur two hours earlier.

"If he doesn't, can I—?" Francis found himself on the outside of my house. Good luck, since it's chilly outside.

And I swear, I thought I heard Ivan say, "He will go to h**l" while cooking for a dozen well-wishers in my house! It's getting crowded.

So here I am, in America's house, cooking hamburgers for him. He didn't remember what the recipe for hamburger was, but I offered to make one for him. Tony passed by, I had to shoo him off.

So I'm cooking a hamburger.

"Uh…"

"Philippines. My country name is Philippines, but my human name is Evalynn Carla Santos," I tell him.

What was it somebody said? "I'm a big boy!" Wait, no, Homer Simpson used to say that when he sat on a stinking toilet bowl! Ay, papatayin ako ni England kung sinabi ko yan kay America!

"We're bad parents!" Nah, Mr. and Mrs. Turner said that, when they thought they were bad parents.

"I cannot change the laws of physics." Sorry, but Scotty isn't really what I'm looking for.

"Mahal ko, ikaw lang ang iibigin." It's not the time to quote a g**d***ed song.

A few minutes later, and America is tearing away at the burger.

"Mmm, tastes (munch) real good," he says, smiling and flashing a thumbs-up.

You don't know how much you're making me feel so good inside, I think. That familiar gesture brings me back, to when I was little…


"I'm going to be independent after 10 years?" she asked Alfred.

"Sure, you will. But for now, you're my little sister." He was grinning that infectious smile.

"Is it alright if I call you Papa?"

Alfred was blushing now. "Just bro."

"Oh. Thank you, kuya!"

"For now, do you want a hamburger?"


I can't believe it. It's an extreme role-reversal. Now it feels like Alfred's the kid and I'm the older, bigger, more on-the-ball nation.

Given that I always adapt the popular songs from him into my language. If you take that into consideration, you'll think it weird.

"Hey, uh…Eva? Is it okay if I call you that? Where's England right now? I need to talk to him." Oh, lord, he's asking me how to talk to England. For all I know, the guy might be drowning his troubles away in bottles and bottles of beer, watching some Passions or Stepford and Son or something like that. He'd be totally drunk.


Nobody's POV

As she watched Alfred eat, Evalynn heard an unceremonious knock on the door. Wait, it wasn't exactly a knock. It was more like a gun hammering the door. Jeez, did anybody EVER use a doorbell?

She opened the door, expecting Ivan charging in with his pipe. Instead she found England, stumbling and wringing his hands in a gesture she could've sworn was reserved for DJs. He was drunk.

And with him was a blushing Kiku. "I had to help him all the way here, Philippines-san," he said as he gestured towards his home.

Humming "Best of Both Worlds" under her breath to calm herself down, Philippines helped the unsteady older country to the table. She had sneaked some beer and whiskey in the refrigerator just for this very occasion.

"Oi, get some whiskey, will you, midshipman?" Somebody had slipped LSD into England's drink alright. Philippines shook her head.

"We aren't onboard a ship, Arthur. We're inside America's house," she answered, smiling pleasantly. Inside, however, she was boiling mad. If I find the prankster who slipped a hallucinogen into Arthur's drink, I will slowly boil him alive then eat him!


LATER THAT DAY…

"Feliciano?"

"Yes, Ludwig?"

"Where'd you put the bandages?"

The usual vacant smile occupied Feliciano's features. "Maybe in the cabinet. Why do you need the bandages?"

"You fell twenty stories and broke your arm and leg. As well as your spine, but you survived." Feliciano could hear Ludwig's broken voice.

"Ve, I just needed my song! You know, the one I sang to you back then—" Germany paled in response. He didn't like that song. It was so filled with stereotypes that he had kicked Italy out when he heard it. He did not want to hear it again.

"Ah…no, maybe we could put on one of those love songs…do you like Taylor Swift…"

"Aw, thank you, Ludwig, but I can sing my song…"

At that, Ludwig finally grabbed the earplugs and stuck them inside his ears. If Feliciano wanted to sing the stupid song, his HRE side told him, let him sing it. His other side didn't want to hear it. It was a compromise.

"Germany, Germany, Germany…"


The Jewel Sisters flew and twirled quietly around Arthur's head. Ruby, with her fiery personality and red dress, didn't feel so quiet.

"WAKE UP, ARTHUR! RISE AND SHINE!" Ruby's loud voice definitely woke England up. He jolted into an upright position, startled by Ruby.

"Ruby! Stop being so loud." Diamond's glittering eyes glared at the defiant Ruby.

"So? He has to wake up." Ruby shrugged, then, faced England. "DO IT FOR ALFRED, WILL YOU, SLEEPYHEAD?!"

England swatted Ruby away. "Belt up, Ruby. I do agree with Diamond. But, as you said so, I'm going to get America some lager, reacquaint him with things."

"Lager? You're just going to get him drunk!" Sapphire's argumentative nature landed him in trouble at times.

"Well…"

"I TOLD YOU SO!" Ruby's triumphant yell echoed throughout the house. Evalynn, who was visiting, stopped in surprise.


As one of the few countries who could see, hear and interact with England's "imaginary" friends, Philippines was sometimes ridiculed for it. She didn't care, at least she believed. Right now, her headless priest, Fr. Fernando, gave off a vibe of happiness.

"Father, get a head, please," she muttered when the ghostly priest picked up a ball-pen, which naturally passed through his hand.

Fr. Fernando shrugged, and then put his head unsteadily on top. "I can't help it, it's in my nature."

Evalynn sighed, shaking her head. "Sorry, Father. But, I need you to NOT freak Freddie out later. Please keep your head on."


Me: Hee, hee, hee, I locked everybody inside the basement again, and they won't bother me till the next fic cause I installed electric bars. They won't be able to get out, unless I want them to (smirks). Mwahahahaha!