Upside Down Butterfly

Peter never once entered the conference room. He always just sat in the chair outside the door until the meeting was over. He was never even allowed inside. Nobody ever considered him a real nation. Even when the great fire struck, no one else had even lifted a finger to help him. Despite this, he pulled together, repaired the tattered sea fort, and survived. But, now, he sat in the chair he always sat in, waiting patiently for the meeting to be over so he could talk to the few friends he had managed to make.

Finally, Peter heard the familiar sound of chatter and chairs sliding in, and he knew the meeting was over. The door opened, and he saw all the great nations of the G8 flow through. None of his friends were there. They must've been at home sick.

After a while, the room was almost empty. Peter glanced around the side of the doorframe. He could see no one. He decided to see if he could go inside the conference room for a while, if for no other reason to see what it was like to be inside the great meeting place. He looked around to make sure no one was looking and cautiously stepped inside.

It was huge. Peter never expected such a room to be so large. Well, he thought to himself, it is supposed to contain all the greatest nations of the world, after all. His eyes danced around the room as he took in all the intricacies of the marble architecture and sculptures along the edges of the hard, cold-looking walls.

He came across one part of the wall that made him stop and look for a while. At the far side of the room was a small fireplace-like structure, with a few photos on top. They contained all of the Axis and Allies together in many different locations throughout the world. There was even a picture of him within the small gallery.

It wasn't a very large picture. It was just a small, wallet-size portrait of him holding a small version of the Sealander flag. But what was that in the corner? There was a large blurry smudge in the lower left-hand corner that covered up a small portion of the picture. What was it?

He thought for a while. Maybe it was somebody's thumb, but who has pale white thumbs…?

"You're not supposed to be here, you know." The sudden voice made Peter jump and turn around behind him. It was Ivan, the big nation everyone was so afraid of all the time. Peter didn't know what to feel. He never really felt threatened by Ivan, but he had no reason to be. Yet… he thought to himself.

All Peter's mind could process was that he was in at least a bit of trouble for entering the conference room when he wasn't supposed to. He carelessly stammered a reply.

"W-w-w-well, I just wanted to take a look around is… is all!"

"Doesn't matter. You're not real."

If there was anything that made Peter angry, it was someone telling him that he wasn't important. That he wasn't significant. That he wasn't real. He looked up and glared at the taller man standing next to him.

"What was that?"

Ivan at first didn't say anything. He just watched the boy with an icy cold stare, his face otherwise blank and expressionless. Then he knew he was getting to him and his lips curled into a sly smirk.

"I said that you don't exist." Ivan hissed these last words, and it was all that Peter could do to just stare and contemplate them. Indeed, he was never allowed inside the conference room. It was all the great nations of the world gathered. He finally realized that he did not fit into this group, that he was not a great nation. He couldn't be. He wasn't a nation at all. He wasn't, however, readily able to admit this to himself.

"You're lying!" Peter yelled this over and over at the top of his lungs, refusing to let himself believe it was true.

In his anger, he grabbed Ivan by his scarf and punched him square in the nose. Ivan fell to the ground, and let out an icy chant that was loud enough to be audible, and low enough to echo off the marble walls…kolkolkolkolkolkolkol…

Ko- Ivan was quickly silenced when Peter stomped on his solar plexus with all the force he could utilize, feeling something crunch underneath his foot. Ivan coughed and tried to grab the boy's leg, when Peter brought it down again.

Peter stomped on Ivan repeatedly, hearing more crunches, until the latter was trembling and coughing up blood. He grasped Peter's leg before it came down again, the ice in Ivan's eyes turned to fear.

"Stop…"

"Sod off!" Peter began stomping once again, and Ivan closed his eyes, tears falling from his eyes and down his cheeks.

"Please… you're hurting me…" His voice grew weaker with each plead.

"You could've at least helped me become a great nation! You could've prevented this! But nooo, you told me to 'get'!" At this point Peter was crying as well, though for him more of anger than pain. "I wanted every nation in the world to share the name of Sealand!"

"You really are… selfish like that."

At this point, Ludwig entered the room, wanting to know what all the noise was. He was surprised to see Peter attacking the larger nation like he was. Ivan was obviously unconscious.

Peter turned toward Ludwig and began to yell, his voice choppy from speaking in between stomps.

"I am so sick and tired of being ignored all the time! I'm a nation! If I end up in trouble for hurting Ivan, or for entering the conference room, at least then… at least then I'll be recognized!"

Ludwig ran up to Peter and begged for him to stop stomping.

"WHY? Do you remember the time you walked past me without even a 'Hello'? Would it really have been so hard just to greet me?"

Ludwig couldn't take this anymore. He ran to Peter and grabbed him, pulling him off the taller man, who lay on the floor in a small puddle of his own blood. Peter kicked and screamed, struggling to get out of the grip. He bit down on Ludwig's arm, and the latter cried out and reflexively released Peter, who ran out of the room.

Ludwig didn't even notice or care that Peter had escaped. The first thing on his mind was to make sure that Ivan was okay. He ran over to him and kneeled beside him, his pant legs soaking up blood and becoming dark red.

Ivan was unconscious. That much was for sure. But was he going to be okay? Ivan's eyes were open. Ludwig had been around Feliciano long enough to know that someone can indeed pass out with their eyes open; he did not, however, know how to tell when a person was unconscious or when something else, more serious, was going on.

Ludwig ran out of the room in search of Wang Yao. Yao was a pretty good doctor, even if he wasn't one professionally, and was their only hope.

After a brief explanation of the current situation, Yao entered the room where Ivan still lay in the very same position he had been left in when Ludwig left. Still unconscious…

Yao did a quick assess of the taller man, and stood up after a while, causing curiosity to stir in Ludwig's mind until he decided to go over and see what was going on.

There was bluntness to Yao's diagnosis that filled the room with an icy coldness that seemed to silence the whole world, even for just a split second, which somehow felt like an eternity.

Ivan was dead.

All was quiet for a few moments, a few icy, cold, dark moments. Then Ludwig completely lost it. He fell to the ground grasping his head, and let out a scream that echoed throughout the marbled halls.

All Yao could do was just stare. There was nothing he could do for either of them. He couldn't save Ivan. He couldn't tell Ludwig that everything was okay, because it wasn't. He couldn't do anything.

Ludwig kept on screaming, his voice reaching an almost comical pitch. When he finally calmed down, he started to sob.

"Damn it…." He wiped one of his eyes. "Why? Why him? Why now?"

Yao did all he could possibly do to consol him, but didn't say a word, to let Ludwig finish.

"It's horrible, just horrible, how such a normal day can turn for the worst so fast. You never know who's going to snap until it actually happens. And when it takes someone from you like this… that's the absolute worst thing that can happen." He wiped his eyes again and tried to compose himself. He shouldn't cry, he thought to himself. It was pointless; there was nothing he could do about the current situation. He stood up and began to walk out of the room.

Just then, all of the other Allies and Axis came running into the room with worried expressions on their faces.

"We heard screaming," Feliciano said fearfully, "Is something the ma-…oh God…" He noticed the tall man lying on the ground, soaking in a puddle of blood, eyes wide open. It was a horribly macabre sight, and Feliciano promptly turned around so he wouldn't have to look at it.

Kiku walked up to Ludwig. "Is there anything we can do?"

Ludwig shook his head. "No, it's already too late, I'm afraid. We tried all we could but there was just no saving him. His ribs were broken, one of them piercing his heart and causing major internal bleeding. I'm not even sure if he was lucky enough to be spared the pain of bleeding to death."

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