As they sat in the room with Italy still asleep on the bed of the inn they had no other option but to wait. Ludwig didn't know what to think oft he man that looked like his best friend and he surely didn't know how to feel. The voice oft he child was still in his head and talked about something but this time he ignored it. He just couldn't bring himself to listen to it.
Without any warning the door burst open and three man came into it with an injured Peter. "Feliciano!" Peter screamed and ran to the unconscious nation and looked worriedly at him. The man with the glasses seemed shocked to see the brown haired man in the bed and his eyes widened. "Italy!" he screamed and also ran to the bed. "Hey wake up. Come on dude!" the American blinked as he recognized the faces and he didn't look too happy. "What happened? Why is Italy like this?" he asked still composed but he visible was holding back and he was very, very angry. "Calm down you bloody git." the man who looked awfully like Peter said. "I'm Arthur the Head Wizard of Egnland. The one beside me is Matthew and the git here is-.."
"I'm America. Italy's friend." he growled. "Now tell me what the hell happened!" Arthur and Matthew glanced at each other. So that was the friend who America had talked about? 'America please calm down.' /I won't calm down!/ he sure as hell wouldn't calm down if one of his friends was out cold. Feliciano looked surprised to Alfred. Another one who was also attached to this world and accompanied his parallel self?
'Y..You too?' Feliciano asked the other spirit surprised. 'Eh?' Alfred now noticed Feliciano for the first time and blinked. 'Uwah a Ghost!' he hid himself behind America and looked past the blond haired nation. "W..What?" alarmed the American looked around and saw the Italy look-a-like. "So Italy too.."
"Uhm.. excuse me America-san was it?" America looked to the one who looked like Japan and asked what he wanted. "How do you know Italy..? Are you also from a parallel world..?" "Yes.." "I see so you know beforehand he was from another universe?" the magician which had a contract with the red Gem looked to Arthur and Matthew and they both nodded. "We knew it for a while now.. Alfred had died and he didn't want us to know so America pretended for a while to be him.. but we eventually found out and were at first angry because of it but now.. we are glad that he did that. Because through him we learned something interesting too." Ludwig perked up at that "Something interesting?" "Yes, the one who killed him took his body away."
'Mine too!' Feliciano screamed and Arthur looked directly at him which made him squeak and hide behind Ludwig. "So your body was taken too?" "You can see Feliciano?" Ludwig asked surprised because he couldn't see his friend anymore after the one time he begged him to forgive Italy.
"Yes of course and so can your friend and Peter too." they both nodded. "Dad explained it to me already.. So his name is Italy.." "Back to the topic why is Italy unconscious?" the American asked and looked with a glare at the two which were in the room with the nation at first.
"Well.. I put him to sleep so he wouldn't get more upset." "Upset..? Why would he get..-" America looked at Ludwig. "You said something right..?" he didn't even need to ask but as the other man flinched he had his confirmation. "You bastard! You.. ugh dammit." before he attacked the one who looked exactly like Germany he turned to Italy. "Come on pal.. Dude wake up." he shaked the shoulder of his friend and as the older nation opened his eyes he smiled brightly "Italy!" he screamed out happy that the other was finally awake. The Italian looked around and then tears started to dwell up in his eyes as he recognized the nation in front of him. "Americaaaa! Vee!" he immediately hugged the other, started to cry and just hid his face in his bomber jacket.
"It's alright dude.. calm down." "Veee! I want to go home.. I want to go home to Germany and Japan! I want to see mio Fratello again and Spain too!" the American looked helpless at the brown haired man and sighed. Arthur just stayed silent and Japan was as helpless as America, Matthew seemed sad and Peter too. And Ludwig? He just looked to the side as he bit his lower lip.
"We can't just go back Italy.. we have to stay.. till we helped them with this chaos." "Vee.." the Italian nodded and let his head hang down. "Who was it..? You are normally so cheerful Italy.. Who was it that hurt you this badly?" the American asked in a low growl. "Vee.. it is alright America.. don't worry it was my fault.." Italy said and tried to smile, but it turned out as a forced and sad smile. It just didn't suit him at all. "America please.. don't be mad at Ludwig and Kiku.. please stay calm and don't do something rash.." but the blond nation already let go of him slowly and stomped to Ludwig. He grabbed him at the collar and yanked Ludwig to face him. "Bastard! I don't know what you did or told Italy but you are going to apologize to him! Dammit I never have seen him like that! Even when we fought against each other he never had such a sad smile on his face.. no he did once.. I never wanted to see that look ever again on his face." without any warning he punched the brother of the Emperor of Ära in the face and looked at the others.
"You already know that we are the parallel selves.. but what you don't know is that we are immortal.."
"Immortal?" Kiku asked surprised "But how..?" he was curious now and wanted to know what this man named "America" was talking about. "We are something like creations you could say.. we are nations.. The land itself.. we inherit the will of our people that live in our land. But we have our own emotions too.. Even if we are just the land and the will of our people. We have our own worries, our own pain and our own emotions as well. We can feel even though we represent a nation.. a land."
"Even if a city of ours is bombed or destroyed we live on till the nation itself get's dissolved. But we feel the pain of our citizens.. If many of them die or one city get's destroyed we feel the pain more then a average human would.. you could call it a side-effect or a price for our immortality." Everyone was silent as America ended his explanation.
…
"Germany is Italy's closest friend.. he protected him always.. everyone of us was envious of that.. Those two were always so close.." "Vee! America that's..-" "Let me tell it to them Italy." he interrupted the other and looked at the group. "They were always close. Germany never let anyone of us hurt him and if we did.. well it didn't end well for us then." he chuckled amused and patted the head of the Italian which closed his eyes slightly and gave his usual sound from him "Vee…"
"The first time Italy was hurt so badly his capital city was bombed by me and England.. we always regretted to attack him like that because he was the kindest of us all and resented to fight but he still did because of his friend. I never saw him cry as much as on the day which he had to betray Germany to stop him from betraying himself and killing more innocent people. You probably even don't get what I'm talking about.. but I don't like it if my friends get hurt. So I give you a warning.. because you look like Germany I just punched you otherwise I would have done much worse to you." America growled.
"America!" now Arthur and Italy both interjected as he said that. "You can't just say that to the Emperors aide you git!", he smacked the blond haired man with the glasses at the backside of his head.
"Ouch! Arthur what the hell do you think you are doing?" America hissed in pain and glared at the magician. He just huffed and explained to the git that he was rude in front of the aide. "Aide or not I won't let him hurt my friend." Ludwig seemed to stare as America said that. He said the same thing to Feliciano once.
Ludwigs gaze shifted to Italy. He seemed to look at the other for hours but it just were mere minutes. "I'm sorry.." he whispered slowly and Italy looked shocked at him. "V..Ve? Wh..Why are you apologizing? You had every right to be mad at me.. I did hide the truth after all from you.." Italy mumbled and looked down on his hands, he was still lying in the bed and he was a bit scared too because he angered the other so much with his lie.
'Italy.. don't be so stubborn.. Lud is apologizing please accept it from me too. We weren't fair to you.. Lo siento Italy.'
"Vee.." Italy looked from Feliciano to Ludwig and smiled slightly "You don't have to apologize.. I'm not mad.." he shaked his head with a serene smile. "It was just.. I overreacted because you look so much like Germany.."
"This Germany is that important to you..?" the blonde with the icy blue eyes. "Sí he is important to me. My special person.. my best friend.. It is like the relationship between Feliciano and you." he smiled genuinely and Ludwig understood immediately how hurt the brown haired nation was through his rash action and his words. "I'm sorry.." he mumbled again embarrassed about his actions "It's alright, it's alright you don't have to apologize for that!" Italy waved his arms hectically around and started to get out of the bed.
"We can't just sit around now right? We have to stop the prophecy from happening!"
"That's the spirit Dude!" Alfred shouted overjoyed and humped his fist in the air.
Kiku smiled faintly "Hai."
"Ja." Ludwig nodded with a stern expression.
"Yes!" the two wizards and the healer said in union together.
And thus the journey began again now with a bigger group and with a hope to stop Ivan and his sister. Of course they didn't know about the surprises Natalya and the masked Sorcerer had still hidden from them.
