Author's Note: Just to be clear, there is mention of modern warfare and conflicts, particularly those in the Middle Eastern regions and dealing with terrorist organizations. While everything in this is completely fictitious, please keep comments about how I shouldn't write about "real" things with Hetalia characters. This story is meant to be a form of entertainment, not a political statement.
The way I portray characters might seem a bit odd, but as everyone sees these characters differently this is to be expected, so I apologize if some of those who are present in this story are not what you imagine them to be.
This is mostly a followup to the series "Sparks Fly", however can be read alone as those scenes will likely be featured in flashbacks here.
Finally, I do not own these characters.
Have You Forgotten?
He was struck by an instant feeling of peace.
It was the feeling he longed for every day, from the moment he was forced from his sleep to the point he reached the silent calm once more. The daily bouts of torture was all he knew. He no longer knew his own thoughts; rarely could he hear that over the screams. Each day the monsters aroused him from his sleep, covered his head with a cloth bag, only to remove it once they reached the room. He never knew how he returned to his cell, he assumed he was dragged there sometime after he finally passed out from the pain forced upon him.
Sometimes he suspected their games continued long after he lost consciousness. He had no idea why he was even still alive; as long as he'd been there he'd seen stronger men than him drop in a few hours. He'd been forced to watch men break down to beg for their lives, while others took the pain in silence until their dying breath.
And then there was her. He didn't know who she was, or if she was even real. He suspected that perhaps he knew her before he'd been brought to this hell, a distant memory that his time in the prison had erased. All he knew was that she was beautiful. He knew at one point he had heard her voice, she called out to him but it was a sound he had long since forgotten. But he could still feel her touch, and the moment the calmness closed around him, he was once again in the arms of his angel.
"It is not like we could just knock on the front door."
"We have to be careful in how we do this, there is no room for mistakes. Human lives are at stake."
"Does that mean we cannot be nuking them?"
"Why would you even suggest that?"
"We have the materials to do so without risking more lives."
"That idea is preposterous and would get everyone killed before we could even find them!"
Russia stared calmly at the furious Brit as the rest of their group watched in exasperated silence.
"It's out of the question," England snapped, finally sitting down with a huff.
"It would be rid of the problem, da?" Russia responded after a moment. "At this point the mission is a body recovery. QS does not hold prisoners long."
"We are not bombing the QS base," Germany interrupted. "We will take prisoners once we infiltrate the complex, do not shoot unless they fire first." Germany looked directly at Russia as he spoke. "England, France, your job is to locate the ambassadors. Russia and I will lead the troops in taking down the leaders. Is that clear?"
"What about me?"
The four nations jumped slightly, turning to their fifth member. He hugged his white bear to his chest, frowning slightly at being forgotten. Everyone's memory of him had improved in the past few years, but there were still moments like this that the shy nation found he was very much ignored.
"Canada…you will go with England and France. Finding the ambassadors is the priority of this mission. We will depart at 2200 hours. We will meet our troops here in two hours. Is everything in this mission clear?"
The belligerent blond earned affirmative nods from the other nations.
"Dismissed."
The atmosphere of the room instantly relaxed as he turned on his heel and walked out, muttering about calling to check on his brother and check in with Italy. Russia waited for the other three to get up and leave before taking out his phone.
He smiled when he heard his older sister answer.
"Katyusha, how are you?"
"Vanya!" The relief was clear in her voice. "It is good to hear from you! Are you still in Iraq? What is going on? When will you be able to return home?"
"I will call you tomorrow to tell you." Ivan smiled when he heard children giggle in the background. "You are with Natalya?"
"Yes, Nikolai and Amelia were ill a few days ago, she needed help. They are better now though. Natalya had to go meet with…America's boss about a few things."
"She is still trying to stand in for him?"
"Canada does most of the work when he's able, but Natalya wants to help… she is afraid Matthew will 'mess things up' as she puts it. She insists that Alfred ordered everything a certain way and Matthew doesn't quite understand that…"
"He is doing the best he can, but he has his own nation as well. So does she."
"She gets her work done, I have no idea how. These two are so much like him…"
Ivan leaned back and looked at the ceiling. "When they are old enough they can take over for Alfred. Perhaps that is being why they were born in the first place."
"I'm worried about Natalya… I made her stay in bed today. I think she got sick as well."
Russia frowned. "Natalya does not normally get ill."
"Is that Uncle Vanya?" a muffled voice asked. There was a moment of shuffling before Amelia was on the line. "Hi Uncle Vanya!"
Ivan chuckled. "Privet, Amelia. Are you behaving?"
"I always behave! Aunt Kat brought us to the park! Nik and I were chasing the ducks!" she giggled. "He almost got bit and Aunt Nat made us stop though."
"You should be nice to the ducks, da?"
"Yeah, yeah, are you gonna come see us soon, Uncle Vanya?!"
Ivan smiled, realizing how much the young girl was like her father. "I will be coming as soon as I can to see you."
"Good! Nik and I can show you our school! Mama made sure we were in the same class since Nik is so shy! And she says if I don't get into any more fights I can join ballet and softball!"
"You have been getting into fights?" Ivan frowned. "Amelia, why are you fighting in school? You should be learning, da?"
"But it's boring and these guys were picking on Nikolai so I beat 'em up! Mama and Uncle Mattie say Daddy was always the hero! So I gotta be a hero too!"
"We will be having a talk when I come visit, da?" Ivan said with a sigh. "Why don't you let me say hello to Nikolai?"
"Okay! Bye bye, Uncle Vanya!"
"Goodbye, Amelia."
A moment later a soft voice came on the line.
"Hello, Uncle Vanya."
"Hello, Nikolai. Aunt Kat said you and Amelia were sick?"
"We're both better now. Mama is sick though. I think Aunt Kat is worried."
"Your mother will be better soon."
"Amy says you'll come visit us soon. You and Aunt Kat will make sure mama gets better right?"
"Aunt Kat will take good care of all of you until I can get there. Uncle Mattie will probably visit you soon too, how about that?"
"Will you? Mama wants to see you. You haven't come to visit us since Christmas."
"I am sorry, Nikolai. I have been busy with work. After this I will come see you."
"You'll be careful right?"
"I am always careful, da."
"Are Uncle Mattie and Uncle Artie and Francis with you?"
"They are."
"Are they gonna come visit, too?"
"If they are not busy I am sure they would. I will tell them you asked."
"Aunt Kat wants to talk to you again. I'm giving her the phone. Goodbye, Uncle Vanya."
"Goodbye. I will be seeing you soon."
Katyusha took the phone back. "Vanya, are you still there?"
"Da. I should be getting ready soon."
"Please be careful…where you are that's not too far from…"
Ivan sighed. "I know. We will be careful. Germany is in charge of things. He usually knows what he is doing."
"You still need to be careful. All of you."
"Everything will be fine. I will call you later once everything is calm."
"Call as soon as you can. No matter the time. Don't worry about waking me up."
"Yes, sestra. I have to be going now."
"I know. Goodbye, Vanya."
"Goodbye."
With a sigh Ivan ended the call and pocketed his phone.
"How are the kids?" Canada quietly asked.
Ivan glanced up, having not heard the quiet nation return. "They are well. They want to see us, I am going to try going after this mission."
"I should probably go too and make sure everything is going okay…" Mattie smiled sadly. "It would be nice to see Amelia and Nikolai too. They turn five soon. It's hard to believe so much time has passed, eh?"
Russia nodded in agreement. "I will be needing to check on Natalya."
Canada started to respond when Russia stood up and walked out. The quiet nation sighed and looked down at his pet.
"Let's go get ready, Kumakiki."
"Hungry."
"You just ate."
"Hungry."
Canada groaned. "Fine. I'll feed you before I leave. But no more chewing on my boots, got it?"
"If you cannot do this mission get out of it, Arthur."
England ignored his longtime lover as he continued gathering his clothing from around their shared room.
"No one will think less of you, but it's just another mission. I don't understand why you're so worked up."
Arthur stopped, staring blankly at the wall. "Have you forgotten?"
For a moment Francis was silent. "This is about Amerique."
"Alfred. He was Alfred too. You remember, Alfred, my brother?!"
"I know, Arthur. Why are you bringing this up now?"
"Because no one else realizes…. no one realizes how close we are to where he was gone…after the mission we could easily go and….at least find some sign…"
England tensed for a moment as a hand was placed on his shoulder.
"His nation is still strong, but now is not the time to worry about him. We need to worry about each other and our people, Arthur."
Francis immediately wound his arms around Arthur as the younger nation turned into him. England sighed, leaning his head against France's chest.
"I won't admit you're right."
"Oui, I know," France chuckled.
"Let's get this over with, Frog, so I can go back to not seeing your bloody face every day," England snapped, pushing the other away and turning to change into his uniform.
With a smirk, France moved to his side of the room to prepare himself. "Of course, mon amour.
The five nations gathered around a small radio that was turned down to the point that they could just barely hear. They stood at the edge of the walled city, surrounded by their mixed troops, carefully selected solely for the purpose of this mission.
"There is nothing but static," England muttered, turning the switch once more. "Could they know we're coming?"
"Scouts earlier said they had no problem with getting into their system," France responded. "Perhaps they were caught."
"They were too busy torturing a prisoner earlier," Germany informed them. "They have no idea we're here. They did not even have guards posted, our scouts reported that they were all in the same room. Something major happened earlier but they have no idea what, earlier reports say the same thing. Every few days all of them will gather in one room and nothing is heard but the screams of tortured prisoners."
"Could they have already killed the ambassadors?" Canada asked.
Germany shook his head. "They were in a separate prisoner chamber. They never kill prisoners before sending out media to let the world know who they have. Arthur, Francis, Matthew, you three will be in charge of infiltrating the prison complex and seeing that we safely retrieve the ambassadors. Ivan and I will lead troops sweeping the rest of the complex to capture their leaders. Do not stray from the mission. Do not do anything that will cause them to suspect what we are. If you are fatally shot, do not keep going no matter what. This group cannot know anything about us."
France's hand slowly rose to clutch the rosary at his neck, muttering a short prayer of protection.
Germany straightened and mad a motion to the troops. "Keep in contact. We are to check in every five minutes, even if you are down. We are all old enough to know how this works. We've done this before. It will be a simple sweep in and leave. Move out."
Canada moved closer to his former guardians, who for once were waiting in companionable silence rather than arguing. He watched Russia solemnly move next to Germany, wearing his usual smile. Germany signaled the mixed troops behind them, and the invasion began.
The first twenty minutes were chaos.
The five nations found themselves separated from each other. Germany and Russia had diverged from the other three early on, but Germany soon realized the Russian was no longer by his side. Unable to waste time, he continued until he reached central room of the bunker. Ignoring the falling men around him and sound of gunfire in his ears, Germany raised his leg to kick open the door. He raised his gun, only to lower it a moment later.
At the same moment, a large man with a familiar stained white scarf entered the other entrance. Aside from decaying bodies littering the floor, the room was empty.
On the other side of the complex, France fell back against a wall to avoid flying bullets. He cursed as one of his soldiers failed to move in time, his life over before his body hit the floor. Shouting orders he himself could barely understand, France pushed forward, slowing only to allow his men to round up the few insurgents who had ceased to fire. France stood back as one of his men took control, shouting at their enemies to unlock the cell beside Francis.
The young man, Francis used the term loosely in his mind as he looked to be barely a teen, rushed over to frantically unlock the cell. France ordered him restrained as he led a small number of men into the holding cell. Three pairs of eyes looked up, and France sighed in relief and pressed a button on his radio.
"Three Dwarves safe and alive," France reported.
"Their leaders escaped," Ludwig's voice replied. "Everyone else, report in."
"Four Dwarves located, in need of serious medical attention," Matthew responded. "Twenty-four total prisoners. East end is secured."
"West end secured," France added.
The three cringed as a gunshot echoed through their earpieces.
"North end secured," Russia stated, a wide smile evident in his voice.
"Medics and retrieval teams move in," Ludwig ordered. "General Kirkland, report."
The nations waited for a moment in anticipation. After a moment of silence, Ludwig's voice rang out again.
"General Kirkland, report."
France looked up as Canada moved into his line of sight as static was the only noise they could hear.
"General Kirkland, do you copy?"
Around them the human soldiers began rounding up the prisoners, whilst additional bodies moved in to begin clearing out the base. Medics rushed towards the ambassadors. Seconds seemed to tick by like hours, and the usually patient nations began to fidget one by one.
"Arthur?" Francis said quietly.
Finally, over the static they could just barely hear Arthur's shaky voice. "Room S4. France, Germany, Russia, Canada…the four of you come immediately and alone."