***England***

England took a good five minutes to fully wake up. He had a pounding headache. For a moment he thought it was only a hangover, that would explain the current loss of memory, but he quickly dismissed the idea. He'd had hangovers before, many times, and this was something different. Something drug induced maybe? The green eyed nation slowly raised himself into a sitting position. Jungle surrounded him. What on earth was I doing last night? He wondered, and where the bloody hell am I? Then he saw the heavily decorated cutlass. His old pirate weapon. He ran a finger across the smooth polished blade. A weapon? But why- And then he remembered. And he knew exactly where he was. England climbed to his feet and hoisted his cutlass. There wasn't anything he could do, but walk. Maybe he'd get lucky and find something to eat. Maybe.

*** Five hours later ***

England paused again. There it was, just barely, footsteps echoing his. He frowned, fed up with walking, hungry, and feeling hung-over. He wasn't putting up with this. After a few more steps he suddenly spun around, brandishing his weapon and… Found his blade pointed directly between two sky blue eyes.

"America?" England asked in slight disbelief.

"Yeah! Hey Iggy! Didn't think I'd see you so soon, ya know? I saw japan earlier, he was like meditating or something, I didn't wanna disturb him, but then I did I did anyways and he said that he would find me later so I set up a trail for him so- hey! Dude! Nice sword thing! So not as cool as my weapon, though, not as awesome! Of course I'm the hero so-"

England sighed and started walking away from the sound of the Americans loud babbling. To his great dismay, America followed.

"Why are you following me, you bloody git?" he growled.

"Oh, you know, Iggy, we're an alliance right? Better chances if you stick together and all that. Besides you need a hero, like me, to protect you." America shifted the shotgun in his hands to his shoulder and laughed.

"The last thing I need is-"

"And I have food!"

"Well, in that case, we make camp an hour from now."

*** Edge of the Dead Woods***

Canada leaned against a stone like obsidian tree. He swung the steel hockey stick onto his back, carefully watching the figure standing opposite of him through the deep snow. The figure tapped a length of pipe against his leg.

The two cold nations stared at each other for a long time. Then the one with the pipe smiled.

"Maybe not today, da?"

"No. Not today."

And the two turned, as if on unspoken alliance, and headed in separate directions.

***In the Ocean***

"Gah! Who dares drop the awesome me into the middle of an ocean? Wait! Where is anybody? Hello? Well, guess I better start swimming. I wonder where Gilbird is? Oh shit! I just remembered what's going on here! Wait again! Why am I talking out loud to myself? Because I'm awesome! Keseseseseseseseses! Alright, I'm stopping now." Prussia shouted to himself, struggling to keep his head above water. After 10 minutes or so of being buffeted by the waves, Prussia spotted a thin strip of land on the horizon.

***The Mountains***

"Liechtenstein! Liechtenstein! Where are you?"

"I'm right here big bruder, calm down."

"Thank goodness. I was worried about you."

"What do we do now big bruder?"

"We need to find shelter, and food. And stay away from other nations at all costs."

***The Cave Systems***

Belarus knew exactly what was going on from the moment she woke up. She didn't care.

"Where are you big brother? Where are you?"

She clutched her meat cleaver to her chest and searched the surrounding landscape. Caves behind her, a large river before her.

"Big brother. I will find you."

She scuttled backwards into the cave, eyes flashing in the darkness. Waiting.

***The Cave Systems – Across the river***

Hungary shot awake, immediately hitting the person next to her with her frying pan. It was Austria. She didn't apologize, just dismissed him as a threat.

"I have a horrible headache," she commented, taking in her surroundings, "do you?"

Austria rubbed the growing lump on his head, "I do now."

"Well that's too bad…" She trailed off, noticing a small cave. "Hey Austria."

"Yes?"

"Can you go check out that cave?"

"What? Why can't you do it?"

"Because you can't fight. Or fish. Or hunt. Or-"

"Alright. Yes. I get it."

"Good. We need to set up camp now. And stay away from the others. Remember what happened?"

"Yes. And why don't I have a weapon?"

"Because you can't-"

"Alright. I get it. Again."

"Very good."

***The Cliffs***

"Oh not again," France muttered sleepily. His head was pounding and he'd woken up to feel grass beneath him. He twisted to the right expecting to find one of three things, one or both of his best friends passed out beside him, hearing Prussia laugh at him, or a woman. He found a longsword.

"Qu'est que…" his left hand fell through open air.

France's eyes flew open. He was laying at the edge of a cliff. Another inch and he would've fallen. He tried to back up to fast, not expecting the ache in his legs, and slipped. Desperately he grabbed for the hilt of his sword, but that only drug him down further, Sending him plunging down into the ocean below.

Good thing there were no rocks. Good thing there was a strip of beach so close. Sadly, for France, saltwater isn't too good for your hair. Or silk.

***Blank White Space***

When Romano woke up he was immediately pissed off, not that he ever wasn't pissed off, but still.

"Where is that damn tomato bastard? Or my stupid fratello for that matter?"

"I'm right here Romano!" he could hear the smile on his brothers face. It pissed him off.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Uhh… floating in blank white space, I guess."

"What do you…"the grumpy Italian looked around. "What the hell? Where are we?"

"Floating in blank white space."

"No shit, but how is it possible?"

"Maybe the pasta gods-"

"Never mind, shut up, let's get out of here."

***England and America***

"And then I was all AND IM THE HERO! And he was all like-"

"America! Shut up, you bloody git! I don't care!"

"But Iggy!"

"Don't call me that! It's not my name! You need to quiet down or somebody will find us!"

"Fine Artie, don't get you knickers in a twist." America giggled, "Knickers."

***The Desert***

Greece nodded awake long enough to see a set of Spartan battle armor and weapons beside him.

"Hmmm… Haven't seen… those things in a while…" and promptly fell back asleep. It was so nice and warm…

***The Jungle***

Japan edged his way around the trees. If he was forced to play, then he was going to play to win. He would have had more time, had that stupid American not disturbed his meditation. Concentration was needed for this.

There.

Another country perched among the trees, hardly visible. He wasn't dressed as he normally was, wearing camo as opposed to red and white, but Japan still recognized Finland. If he got into range he knew Finland would shoot. They weren't exactly… friends.

So he took the long way around, careful not to make a sound. Finland was scanning the area in two 180⁰ motions. Japan waited till he swept back to the left before leaping gracefully into the branches behind the small nation. As if sensing that someone was close Finland spun around, leveling the barrel of his sniper rifle with Japan's heart.

With reflexes like greased lightning Japan twisted out of the way, knowing he wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger, and that the high power rifle would kill him instantly. Swinging his katana in a deadly arc, Japan was met with the cold ringing of steel on steel as his blade sliced into the barrel of Finland's weapon. The Finnish man used the momentum to knock his opponent off balance, sending him flying out of the tree with a single hit of his gun.

Japan flipped in the air, skidding to a stop below Finland's perch.

Finland studied his weapon; suprisingly the cut was deep enough to render the gun useless.

"You can't shoot it." Japan observed calmly.

"Don't be too sure," Finland made a move as if to fire, but at the last moment changed tactics.

"What-"Japan's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the alcohol bomb resting at his feet.

BOOM!

Finland smiled slightly and dropped from the tree. There was no way anyone could have survived that. Smoke floated up through the treetops, eventually clearing from the clearing to reveal-

"No! How are you still alive?"

Blood ran down the dark haired nations face, the left side of his military uniform was shredded. He glared at Finland.

"That's… Impossible-"

And then the steel katana cut off his last words.

***The Shadow Box***

A dark figure observed the 25 nations moving through the huge arena. No. Make that 24.

Who had that been? Ah, Finland.

The figure set up a single message.

•That's the first one down.

I told you I wasn't playing.

Guess Christmas won't be coming around

this year•

Something was noticed on the corpse. Blue silk. The figures teeth gleamed in the shadows. Japan had a plan then. It couldn't hurt to play along.

•Au reviour, Finland•