The Incarnation, chapter 1

HEY! THE BEGINNING OF AN EPIC SAGA IS HERE!

DISCLAIMER- I do NOT own the Hetalia franchise or any of its characters. Those rights belong to Hidekaz Himaruya!

Kate kept glancing from her book to behind the ruffling bush beside their stone lunch bench. She kept hearing whispers and hisses, but honestly, this was Roswind High School; people got pranked on a daily basis. It was most likely nothing. She tuned back into her older brother arguing with Liam.

"No, no, no! Han SO fired before Greedo, are you kidding?!" Liam seethed. "Have you even watched Star Wars!?" he continued.

"Of course I have, dumbass! And I promise, Greedo shot first! If anything, you haven't seen Star Wars," Kate's brother, Walt, argued.

"Han!"

"Greedo!"

"HAN!"

"GREEDO!"

"WHO CARES!?" Maggie roared, finally looking up from typing out her literary analysis of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" with an angry flash of a glare. Both boys went quiet. They both knew of the explosive temper of their future valedictorian. Unfortunately, Walt made them mistake of muttering, "Hard ass," under his breath, so Maggie threw a pencil at his neck. Barely leaving a grey mark from the lead, Walt howled in pain and lied down flat on his back. This caused Kate to roll her eyes.

"No blood, no foul, Walt. Sit up, and stop acting like a wuss," she scolded, dog-earring page 172 in "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" and putting the book into her backpack. Walt glared at her.

"I'm marked," he protested, gesturing to the already fading streak. Kate sighed and took out another book, this time a textbook for la clase de español cuatro.

"Poor baby. You're going to have hallucinations from lead poisoning now," she mock pouted as Maggie snorted. Val looked up from her purple iPod nano, one ear bud dangling while the other remained in her ear.

"Wait, what about hallucinations?" she asked. Everyone gazed at her skeptically. She held up her hands in an "I surrender" gesture, moving her purple curls behind her shoulders with the motion. "I zone in and out. You guys know that," she defended.

"Valentina Jerome, everybody. The only human being that can identify every pitch known to man, but not catch on to a human conversation," Maggie droned, smirking in Val's direction. Val turned red and threw a mushy piece of dough that barely resembled bread at her head. In a smooth motion, Maggie caught the roll and tossed it right back, hitting Val in the face. Kate snorted. These were who she hung out with on a semi-regular basis.

"Can't you two just duke it out already and make life easier for the rest of us?" Liam drawled. Both Val and Maggie shot him a venomous glare.

"Maybe next time I'll stab you with the pencil, right in your pulmonary artery," Maggie suggested, smiling through her glare. Liam raised both eyebrows.

"My artery, huh? Seems a little bit messy. Wouldn't you want to just stab me really deep in an area that's not an artery, so that way I suffer? And there wouldn't be spurts getting on your clothes, in case you were investigated," Liam pointed out.

"I saw somewhere that hydrogen peroxide is really good at getting blood off skin. You think that works with clothes? If that's the case, then you could easily get away with Liam's homicide," Kate thought aloud. Val just looked at them in disgust.

"You three are seriously planning Liam's demise?" she demanded. Unaffected by her tone, Maggie, Kate, and Walt nodded. She sighed in defeat and hung her head. "Honestly, I thought my presence was enough to cure you all. It's obvious, isn't it? You wouldn't kill Liam at all! You'd hire a hitman to do it for you. No muss, no fuss," she huffed, as if it were the biggest issue with this conversation. Walt nodded, his face thoughtful.

"Yeah, but what if he got caught because his work was shitty? Then, he would give you up in the interrogation, and you'd both be fucked! If you want something done right, you do it yourself," he exclaimed. Maggie and Val both threw their uneaten dough-globs at his face.

"Language," the girls chorused in angry unison. Walt put his hands to his face.

"WHY CRUEL WORLD?"

Kate sighed and patted his head awkwardly. Despite being siblings, Kate saw Walt as more a friend than anything. They just happened to be friends that lived in the same apartment. Walt probably saw Kate as pet that amused him and loved her unconditionally.

Like, now, when Walt tackled Kate in a hug and hid his face in her shoulder. "SEE GUYS, MY BABY SISTER STILL LOVES ME," he hollered at the rest of his friends. They laughed at Kate's red face as she was stiff in his arms.

"I'm only four years younger than you are. Get off me, idiot," she muttered, squirming. Walt pouted, but allowed her to get free.

"My own baby, betraying me," he lamented, crossing his arms petulantly. Kate turned red, but reigned in her temper. Oh, how she loathed being reminded that she was younger than him. She acted more mature than him! Didn't that count for anything?

"I am 14. You are 18. There's barely an age gap," she hissed. Walt smirked. "Idiot's enjoying making me mad," she realized with a huff. Walt noticed the huff and smirked even wider.

"Something you want to say to me, little darling?" he baited, grinning wickedly. Kate took a deep breath and reminded herself that there was no point in egging on the moron. It would only make him happy and her more upset.

"Nope. Hey, Val, what's with pluscuamperfecto? I thought preterite was the past tense," she asked, effectively changing the subject. Walt pouted while Liam smirked at Kate's maneuver to deal with her brother. Maggie glared at Walt while Val glanced at Kate in sympathy. Kate, of course, didn't notice any of this.

"The pluscuamperfecto is like the past-past perfect. So like, 'I had eaten my food before my mom came home'. Had eaten is the pluscuamperfecto. Usually it's Habia and a verb conjugated with an ado or ido. So the sentence 'I had eaten my toast before my mom came home' would be 'Yo habia comido mi pan antes de mi madre venía a casa.' Does that makes sense?" Val explained. Kate just blinked at her before putting her head in her arms.

"I'm SO failing this quiz," she berated, sighing heavily as she drew her head back up. A panicked look passed Liam's face.

"Wait, that quiz is today?!" he freaked. Kate's face flattened in exasperation.

"You texted me about it last night, Liam. You specifically asked when this quiz was and I answered that it was today, October 13th," she explained. Liam looked even more confused.

"When was this?!" he demanded. Sighing, Kate dug out her phone and showed him the texts. His face turned sheepish.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," he muttered, embarrassed. During this exchange Walt was in a state of shell-shock.

"Wait, he texts you?!" he exclaimed. Kate and Liam gave him looks of "what's your problem?".

"Yeah. We're friends in the same Spanish and English classes. We've been partners on a few projects, too," Kate answered, still looking at her brother as if he were a toad singing "Phantom of the Opera".

"Five projects, and then she helped me with my paper on Al Camino," Liam added. Walt looked ready to faint, and Val and Maggie were both snickering at Walt's physical state. Before Kate could question why her working with Liam for school was so bad, the bell rang, indicating that her prueba de pluscuamperfecto was only minutes away.

"Ready for our grades to meet their doom, my fair Kate?" Liam asked, bowing to her extravagantly. Kate giggled and curtsied to him in the same manner.

"Why yes, my Lord Liam, I believe my grades are well prepared for the peril that is espanol cuatro. Shall we?" she offered her arm. Liam linked it with his and he smirked at Walt's gaping, unbelieving, and shocked face. Kate gave her brother a side smile, though her eyes were concerned.

"What do you think is wrong with Walt?" she wondered as they passed the ruffling bush once more.

"Bloody wanker!" Kate and Liam both craned their necks around to the bush, looked at it, and then turned back to enter the building into their hallway. No one ever used this hallway because it was away from a lot of the main classrooms. However it was actually faster because there were no crowds to deal with to get to class.

"Must be some prank those dudes are planning. They were whispering all throughout lunch, did you notice?" Liam asked. Kate nodded.

"Right? I didn't even know we had exchange students. The guy who said 'bloody idiot' was most definitely English, probably from the Central London area," Kate hypothesized, hearing quick-paced footsteps hitting the carpet behind her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two unfamiliar men. One was kind of petite for a male with striking green eyes and even more striking eyebrows. The other was sipping a Coke. His honey-wheat blonde hair matched his askew glasses covering his blue eyes. Her eyes drew to the blue-eyed man's waistband, mostly because of his baggy leather jacket. Her eyes widened as she saw a black suspicious object in a holder. A pistol.

"How do you know what a Central London accent sounds like? Do you, like, have some accent fetish that I don't know about? Or has all the European television gone to your head? Like, yeah, I mean the Doc's awesome and all, but have you SEEN X-Files? That's some good shit! Or Ghost Adventures, or-" Kate cut off Liam's ramble by gripping his arm tightly.

"Look at the two guys behind us, but don't look-look. Use your periphery and focus on the man with the glasses," she hissed. Liam looked at her in confusion but did as he was told. His eyes widened.

"No one is allowed to have guns in school. Not even the police when they come for drug inspection," he whispered furiously. He looked again and his eyebrows pinched in together in concern. "Kate, they're walking faster now, and I think the guy is reaching for the gun. I've seen movies. I think they're after us. We're the only ones that use this hallway," he hissed urgently. Kate's eyes widened.

"Th-that's stupid! You've watched too many thrillers," she denied shakily, but spared a glance behind her. The men were closer now, about six paces behind instead of the ten paces she remembered before. "Ok, this hallway makes a circle, right?" Liam nodded. "So if they're really following us, then we do the complete circle. If they're still with us, then…"she trailed off, thinking. Liam, however, was panicking.

"Then what?" he demanded in a harsh whisper.

"We start a fire," she answered just as quiet. "Now talk to me like normal," she commanded. "I know what a Central London accent sounds like, because Walt and I went there for a vacation a couple years ago!"

Liam looked at her as if she was crazy, but went along with it. "I assumed it was 'cuz you had a crush on the dude who played the villain in Thor," he yelled, not at all conspicuous. Kate sighed inwardly. She was reminded why he never went out for the school plays with her.

"Tom Hiddleston is my soul mate, Liam. You just can't accept that I've found someone and you haven't," she sniffed, still oozing nervousness.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ALFRED, JUST SHOOT THE DAMN THING ALREADY," the short blonde one screamed. A blast was heard and Kate saw a dart impale itself in the carpet just a foot ahead of her. Kate needed no more motivation.

"Sprint," she squeaked, tossing her backpack backwards in hopes of slowing down their attackers. Of course, the two men dodged it easily and advanced. Liam heeded her advice, grabbed her arm, and hauled ass. She dug in her heels as they got nearer to a fire alarm. She tugged away from Liam and ran towards the wall where it was.

"What are you doing?" he screamed. Without answering, Kate lifted the plastic cover and pulled down the lever. A shrill tone echoed through the school halls and everyone could hear the moans and cries of fear at the sound as water spouted from the overhead sprinklers. Kate ran back towards Liam, slightly running out of air. The crowds flowed immediately behind them, smothering the two assassins in people and soaking them in water.

Kate and Liam pushed through the crowd, outside, and ran to cross the drainage ditch. "People shouldn't try to kill other people! People need to be nice to other people! Killing people is bad, right?" Kate gasped out in short pants. Liam looked at her in concern.

"Are you ok, dude?" Kate looked at him like he was insane.

"Am I OK!? We just got shot at, Liam! HOW ON EARTH IS THAT OK?!" she yelled, clutching his shoulders. Liam blinked in alarm. Kate rarely yelled, so this was sort of new. He shushed her, as if Kate were just another one of his baby cousins.

"Hey, it's alright. Those two idiots are probably caught up in there, so let's just calm down and hide somewhere until sunset, kay? This whole thing will probably have blown over, so let's go to McDonalds. We'll buy a pop or a McFlurry, and we can just hide in the play fort they have, cool? Just breathe. You're alive," he coaxed. Kate took a deep breath, but then she just started hacking as she tried to let it out. Liam sighed. Kate didn't do too well with stress; she never had.

Liam knelt down, and Kate looked at him, confused. "Hop on. Are you seriously going to deny a free piggy-back ride?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Kate barked breathlessly but climbed onto his back.

I DID A THING! Alright, so this is my first Hetalia fan-fiction on this profile. I know the beginning's a little rough, but it gets so much better, I promise! Please review or fave or follow, and tell me how I did! No flames, please, but if you have CONSTRUCTIVE advice, I'd appreciate it. I will do my best to update weekly, I already have chapter two written up, so expect a new chapter next Friday or Saturday! Maybe earlier, it depends on my schedule.

Italics Translations

la clase de espanol cuatro- the class of Spanish Four

prueba- test, quiz, or proof

Pluscuamperfecto- a verb tense in Spanish language