"Let's get started shall we?" said the man. "Why don't we step into my office?"
Without another word he turned around and went back through the door, kicking a sliver of wood underneath to keep it open. At first none of them followed, but when a man poked the end of his gun rather harshly into America's back he changed his mind. They followed the odd man through the hallways. As they went they could see various men and women opening doors and peering out at them cautiously. America made a face at a very serious man earning himself a startled look from the man and a smack in the head from England.
Eventually the man stopped at a door and went inside the room, beckoning for the others to follow. The frosted glass window in the door said "Doug Hamlet" with a series of degrees underneath that just looked like a lot of letters to the rest of them. When they got inside they found the man, Doug Hamlet apparently, sitting behind a cluttered desk. There were two chairs sitting facing the desk that reminded Canada vaguely of a principle's office and a small couch against the wall to their left.
Germany helped Prussia down onto the couch reluctantly. He wasn't sure about this man or this place, but his hand hurt like a b*tch and Prussia was looking much paler than usual.
Hamlet shoved some of the papers on his desk off to the side revealing another layer beneath them. He looked up when the guards walked in and shouted, "No no no no no no! I don't need all of you, these men are harmless. You three," he pointed to a few of them, "wait outside. The rest of you, back to your business. I don't pay you to stand around looking tough do I?" He sighed and sat back as the last of them left and smiled out at the nations. "So. I suppose you all have a few questions to ask me?"
"Where the hell are we and what the hell are we doing here?" asked Germany through clenched teeth. It was taking all of his focus not to start shouting at the man in frantic German. They needed information and they needed it quickly and unfortunately the only way to do that was through civility.
"Incredible," the man muttered. He pulled a notebook out from under a neatly messy pile of papers, flipped it open to an empty page and began to write something down. "You've managed to become bilingual."
"Just answer the bloody question," hissed England, arms crossed.
"Of course," said Hamlet, putting down his pen and looking up at them again. "Welcome to the Institute for Scientific Anomaly and Experimental Research, or the Institute. Quicker that way. I'm Doctor Hamlet, Head Doctor actually. The nine of you, along with hundreds of other participants, were selected according to location, health, genealogy and needs and wants as patients for an experiment that was supposed to last for around fifteen years." The doctor rolled his chair back to a metal filing cabinet and opened on of the drawers. He searched through the files inside, pulling out a few every now and again until he had about nine of them. He then closed the cabinet and rolled back over to his desk. "It is called the National Identity Prolonged Simulation Animation, or Project NIPSA."
He fanned out the files on a clear spot on his desk. Each was marked with a huge red stamp that said CLASSIFIED and had a small picture on it. They all gathered closer to look at them and were surprised to see their own faces looking back at them in the pictures.
"Hey," called Prussia. "What is it? What are those?"
His response was a file tossed onto the couch next to him. He picked it up and looked at the picture. It was him, a little younger, but the same red eyes and snow-white hair. It was a regular mug shot , full on from the front and no smile at all. "What the hell?"
"Those are your files," Hamlet continued. "They contain all of the information on you we could gather. Hair colour, eye colour, age, name, birthday, address and so on. They haven't been modified in a while actually so the age may be a bit off, but only by a few years."
"A few years?" asked France. "How long have we been here?"
"Just over four years. About one month over. Its summer now by the way, July 16. Congratulations Alfred."
Germany dropped his file in front of the doctor. He had been the only one brave enough to actually open it. "How do you know all this?" he asked pointing a finger at the folder. "How can you know my name?"
"Well, regular research. Letters, conversations, phone books–"
He was interrupted when the German grabbed him by the throat and pulled him out of the chair. He shoved him against the wall with a bang, still clutching the man's throat, and shouted at him, "How do you know who we are?"
No one stopped him. They all watched as Doctor Hamlet squirmed. They were just as curious as Germany was as to how the doctor could know their names. They had forgotten about the names on the sheets outside of their chambers, but when Germany read it again on a second sheet of paper he remembered and now he wanted to know.
Truthfully, he wasn't angry. In fact he might have been scared. The biggest secret a nation kept was one that only the closest of nations knew about each other. It wasn't that they were a nation or who had nukes stashed away just in case, it was their name. Every nation had one, but none of them used it or even thought about it. They all addressed each other by their title rather than name and again only the closest knew it. Germany didn't even know what Prussia's name was or the other way around, so how could this random stranger know the name of every nation in existence?"
"As I said, we've been doing our research and you were the best candidates…"
"How did you get all these nations?" Germany tightened his grip and Hamlet took in a raspy gasp.
There was a bang as the door flung open. The three guards stepped in, but Hamlet just raised a hand to tell them to stay put. Then he looked back at Germany, frowning and studying him carefully below his glasses. In a hoarse voice he asked, "Do you know who you are?"
"I am Deutschland! How did you find out about the nations?"
Hamlet's eyes widened and his eyebrows went up in a look of discovery. He looked over Germany's shoulder at the guards and beckoned them over. The three of them grabbed the German, two of them holding his arms back and the third pulling out his gun and pointing it directly at the man's temple. Germany quieted.
Hamlet stepped forward, leaning heavily on the back of his chair and massaging his neck slowly, thoughtfully. "You say you are Germany?"
"J-ja."
"Well, Germany. It seems you have hurt your hand. Dawson?" he said to a guard. "Go get a medi-pac, we need to try and wrap his hand up."
The guard with the gun nodded. He put his gun back in its holster and headed out the door. Germany relaxed a little.
"Now then, I think there is something I need to explain to all of you." The doctor sat down in his chair again looking a little more wary this time. "The NIPSA Project is something unlike anything any of you have ever dreamed of. While it is true that most of you were not participants by choice you all had some need or want that linked you to this experiment. Some of you had things you needed to get away from and some of you," he glanced at Prussia, "had something you needed to get away for. Now, the National Identity Prolonged Simulation Animation is exactly what it says. It was a method of putting the patients in a prolonged animated state in which they would be given a new identity under simulated circumstance.
"Each person is connected to machines that regulate their health and status as well as a… Well, it's beyond description. And incredibly complicated. Let me explain it to you in terms you will understand. It is comparable to an MMORPG."
"What is an MMORPG?" asked Japan quizzically.
America turned to him wide-eyed. "Dude," he said. "It's a massive multiplayer online role-playing game. How the hell can you not know what that is?"
"Actually, I didn't know what it was either," put in France.
Hamlet cleared his throat to get their attention. "I would like to continue. The Project is like one of these games in the sense that each patient is no longer themselves. They are given a specific role, put in a specific place in a specific time and can interact with the other players. This game, however, is only open to the select few and these select few are not just given a new role, they are given a whole new life. While in the game they will have no idea that who they are is not actually who they are. They will believe themselves to be the character they are given. There is no way out of the game unless someone who is not playing wakes them up, so to speak."
"So, while they are in the other world they are not conscious in this one?" England asked.
"Correct."
"And how long would this game last?"
"Each session would vary according to person and perspective. To those not playing the game will only last for several years, in this case four, although the target was fifteen. To those inside the game it could last anywhere from ten years to ten thousand, depending on their character."
"Are you expecting us to believe that we were in those tubes for four years?" asked Germany. "And that we had no idea."
"That's right. Four years although to you it would have been a thousand or so. How old are you? Never mind, never mind. But yes you had no idea."
"Then what characters were we given?"
"Well, that's the thing I'm having trouble with," Hamlet said hesitantly. "You see, the whole procedure was only supposed to use up a small portion of your memory, maybe only the time you spent here, or small details like birthdays and where you left your car and such. But what seems to have happened is much more drastic than any of us could have been prepared for."
Another pair of guards appeared at the door, supporting a limp figure between them. The first two guards moved out of the way and the newly arrived guards carried the man over to the couch where they set him down next to a very uncertain Prussia. It was Russia they had been carrying of course, and he was knocked out cold.
"What did you do to him?" America asked with a sort of joyous wonder.
"The procedure seems to have taken up your entire memories," Hamlet continued, ignoring America entirely. "You have no memory of who you are or what happened. All you know is your character." He pulled a penlight out of his pocket and wandered over to Russia as he spoke. "As I said the N and I in NIPSA stand for National Identity." He pulled up the lids of Russia's eyes and shone the light into them. "These words don't refer to the patients however, they refer to the role each person was given. Each patient was a perfectly normal person until they entered this lab. Once they were hooked up to the game however, they became more unique than you could possibly imagine." He clicked off the penlight and put it back in his pocket. "He'll be fine in a few hours."
He sniffed and went back over to his chair. The other guard had reappeared and was wasting no time in getting Germany's hand wrapped up. Hamlet watched the man work. When he was done the guard closed the metal case, stood up and left without a word. "By the way, that looks broken," Hamlet put in. "You may want to get to a hospital and get it set properly."
Germany held his hand tenderly. It hurt more now that it had been wrapped up so tightly and the pain was pulsing along with his heartbeat. "Go on," he said deeply.
"Hm? What?"
"As you were saying…"
"I'm sorry, what was I saying?"
"About the patients being unique once they entered the program," Germany seethed.
"Oh! Oh, yes, right. Well, as I was saying every person who entered the program was given an entirely unique persona. As the name of the experiment suggests the characters were all based on specific nations."
"Wait," England interrupted. "Are you saying that we're not really nations? That it was just a part of the experiment?"
"Well… yes. We wanted to see if given the proper information and a bodily form the program would be able to predict future events in terms of economy and international relations. We were getting close too. We have been monitoring your progress for the past four years and you got so close. The program is currently only a year or two away from catching up to real time and once it did we would have gotten enough information to satisfy the government grant financing this operation. But something must have happened. You were not supposed to wake up until the experiment was over."
"But if we aren't nations," Italy piped up for the first time. "Then… what are we?"
"Well, you're people. Human beings," Hamlet explained carefully. Italy looked on the verge of tears and was gripping Germany's good hand like a security blanket.
"Don't listen to him," the German growled. "This is insane. This man is crazy. We need to get out of here and back to our own countries."
"No, please!" The doctor stood up, waving his hands frantically. "You can't leave the facility! The program can't continue without the nine of you! You are key components, if you leave now the whole system could crash and all of our work will be for nothing." He laughed slightly. "The Institute will be bankrupt and hundreds of people will be out of the job. Besides, your families all think you're dead! If anyone find out what actually happened to all of you… I don't know what will happen!"
"You expect us to believe you. You expect us to believe that you brainwashed us into believing that we are nations and none of what we remember, none of what we've gone through, actually happened? We are not human! We are nothing like them!" Germany looked around frantically at the others. They muttered words of agreement, but all of them looked a little uncertain. He couldn't understand what was so complicated. How could they believe what this madman was saying? America was hanging off of his every word!
"Now… Germany, please calm down. We can sort this all out. You just need to be rational about this."
England, arms crossed, wandered over to the doctor. "Perhaps," he said. "You could give us a moment for this all to sink in. This is a lot to put on us and none of us are really feeling ourselves just yet. Do you think you could give us a moment alone?"
"Oh. Yes. Yes of course." Doctor Hamlet nodded. He glanced quickly at each of them before moving around his desk and striding out the door.
They watched him go, all except for Prussia who was eyeing Russia nervously. The Russian still hadn't woken up yet, but he was beginning to stir.
Once the door had closed England immediately began to speak. "What do you think? Is he telling the truth or not?"
"I don't know," Germany said, staring at the floor. "He seemed sincere, but you can never be certain. People would love to get their hands on a nation."
"I for one think he was lying," France voiced. "There is no way I could be so common and I find ugly people have a tendency to lie."
America shrugged. "He seems pretty cool. I think he might have been telling the truth. And why do you keep crossing your arms, you look like a crazy person, dude. Starting to weird me out."
England looked down at his crossed arms and back up. "Habit I suppose. Anyways, what do you think we should do? They have some pretty disturbing information on us and this place seems pretty high security. I think there might be some truth to what he's saying."
A few of the others nodded in agreement. Prussia, however, did not. He had pushed himself against the arm of the couch to get as far away from his Russian companion as possible and as he spoke he watched the other nervously. "I don't know guys," he said. "If that were true then why the hell would I still be in the program? My empire collapsed. I don't represent anything. I think he's just some psycho trying to get his hands on us. And even if it was true, wouldn't someone have come looking for us if we just disappeared off the street?"
"Well he did say that our families think we're dead. Why look for a dead person?" Japan muttered.
"Closure? I dunno. There's just something really screwy about all this." Prussia stood up unsteadily. Canada rushed to help him. They walked and limped over to the chair behind the desk and Canada set Prussia down on it carefully. It was a swivel chair and when Prussia started talking again he also started to swivel. "I think this dude kidnapped us," he said, turning from side to side.
"Maybe we were knocked out by that earthquake during the meeting. That gives them a time to get us, but doesn't explain why they put us in those chambers." England leaned back against the desk and began to chew his thumbnail. "None of this adds up right. And what about all of those empty chambers labelled 'deceased'?"
"And why would they come for me? I wasn't even at the meeting."
"Neither were any of the others we found in there. But that reminds me." England turned to look at Prussia. "Before you woke up what happened? What were you doing?"
"Why?"
"When we all passed out we were in the middle of a meeting. But before we began there was an earthquake. No one else seemed to feel it, but it was enough to knock us off our feet. Then strange things started happening afterward, which, I suppose, would have been when we would have been unconscious from the initial blow. Did you feel anything similar?"
Prussia stopped swivelling sat forward in his seat. "Hm. Yeah. I was watching TV and eating chips on the couch and Austria was giving me hell about it. There was this quake, I guess and I sort of fell off the couch. Piano man yelled at me for getting crumbs on his carpet and went to find a vacuum. I passed out before he got back."
"Did Austria feel the earthquake?" Germany asked. Prussia shook his head. "So that must have something to do with it."
"Why don't we just ask the doc about it?" America said loudly.
At that moment the door opened and Doctor Hamlet walked back in carrying a large pile of clothing. "Sorry to interrupt," he interrupted. "But I thought you might like something to wear other than those gowns."
Japan blushed at the reminder and took the clothes he was given with a bow. The others took the clothes as well, but a little less formally. "I hope you'll find them to your liking. They were what you were wearing when you came here. Except of course for Matthew and Alfred – erm – Canada and America. Sorry. Don't worry, they've all been washed. You may find them a little large however; you've all lost quite a lot of weight during your stay here."
America didn't hesitate. He pulled on the jeans he was given and then took off the gown. Before he put the shirt on the all caught a glimpse of his torso, which was covered in scars and so thin that every rib was clearly defined. The red t-shirt covered it up quickly though. The clothes were a little big on him and looked brand new, but he didn't care. It was better than a paper dress.
The others, minus France, were a little more discrete when they changed and Japan and Canada asked if there was a bathroom they could use to change. France didn't even bother putting pants on before he tore off the gown and the rest of them averted their eyes until he finally put them on. England changed behind a potted plant and came out looking nice, if a little scrawny, in a dark green button up shirt and black pants. He asked for a belt to help hold them up.
Prussia appeared from his spot under the desk wearing a black AC-DC t-shirt and very worn jeans with holes in the knees. "How do I look?" he asked.
"Sexy," England replied dryly.
"Flatterer."
Canada and Japan returned fully dressed just as the others were beginning to talk again. "Have you decided what you are going to do?" Hamlet asked the group. He had taken control of his chair again, forcing Prussia to sit on the carpet as France had taken his spot on the couch. They were all feeling tired and Italy had actually fallen asleep in the corner, but they managed to remain standing.
"We have to leave," Germany replied, though none of them had agreed to anything. "Whichever story is true we have to get out of here. If we are human then there are people who think us dead and we need to change that. If we are nations and you lied to us then we have duties to attend to in our own countries."
Hamlet grimaced and hummed. "If you insist then I can't stop you. But I do need you to do something for me." He leaned forward on the desk and looked at them all over his glasses. "You can't tell anyone about this place, anyone at all. It is government funded, but they don't know all of what's been going on here. If anyone finds out about the people we're holding or anything at all this entire thing is taken down and all of us in charge will be sent to federal court. If any of you breathes a word… We won't be kind."
"Very well," Germany agreed. "We won't."
The others agreed and Doctor Hamlet sighed and smiled with relief. "Good. That's good. Now, we can get you a car and someone to drive you. If you'd like we can also pay for plane tickets for you to get back to your homes and even call in. We've kept track of your relatives just in case and we have their updated addresses and numbers in your files. There's also–"
"Thanks," England interrupted. "We'll be fine with just the car."
Hamlet nodded. "Right, right. But, I do insist that you take these." He pulled open a drawer of his desk and held up a pair of sunglasses. "You've been 'asleep' for quite a while and your eyes aren't used to the light anymore. I'd suggest masks too, but I have a feeling that you don't want to attract attention."
"Thanks." Germany took the glasses from the doctor. The others got theirs as well and an extra pair was taken out for Russia in case he ever woke up.
"Oh, Dr. Hamlet?" England asked suddenly.
"Call me Doug."
"Okay, Doug. I was wondering if you could tell us about the empty chambers in there? Who were they? And are they really… dead?"
The doctor's face fell momentarily and he looked down at the desk. "They were nations as well. And yes. They are dead."
All eight nations stopped where they were and looked up. Dead nations? To them it was almost unheard of. If a country fell the nation would either disappear or, in Prussia's odd case, continue to exist as some strange immortal with no ties to the land they once represented. The only nations most of them could ever recall falling were Germania and Ancient Rome, who both disappeared without leaving behind a trace. Holy Rome was known to some of them as well; especially France and Prussia who had both been present at his fall, but neither had ever found the body of the child.
"What happened?" Japan asked.
"The first person to enter the program was one of our own. He wasn't really the first to be wired in, but he was the first to volunteer. He worked for me and helped me to design the program in the first place, many years ago and was a personal friend of mine. His name was Roman, he was from Italy. We used to joke around about that all the time; little did I know he was being serious about it. A few months after we launched the program Roman came forward and said that he wanted to be a part of it in every way possible. He wanted to be a nation and he offered to do it for free. He had no ties to anyone but us; the project consumed his life so he decided, why not? So we hooked him up and he gave us the go ahead and then he was gone, into the system. And we had our Ancient Rome."
Italy looked up at this, his eyes getting wide. Germany walked over and sat down next to him and the Italian immediately latched onto his arm.
Hamlet continued. "The program ran perfectly for a good five months, but then we found a glitch. We discovered that once a nation collapses the person who represented that nation in the program would die as well."
"That's a glitch?" asked France.
"We couldn't find the reason why," Hamlet said, ignoring the other man's remark. "There didn't seem to be one. The program continued to support them properly, it didn't stop, that wasn't the problem. We started taking extra precautions, setting up breathing tubes in case the person was suffocating, but people continued to die. Prussia was our first and so far only breakthrough. We monitored his progression through history and caught him just in time. Through all of our research and… failures we set up a system of machines to keep his heart pumping and lungs going and somehow we managed to keep him alive."
"Is that why he seems so weak?" asked Canada, glancing worriedly at his friend. Prussia was staring at the doctor hard and didn't notice.
"Most likely. Those machines were the only things keeping him alive. His heart and other organs are very weak; I'm surprised he survived being separated from the life support. By all accounts his heart should have stopped immediately upon release."
"Sh*t," breathed Prussia.
"Wait a second," America said, putting his hands up. "Let's backtrack for a second here. I've seen Ancient Rome. If he died like you said then how come he keeps showing up whenever Italy needs him? Explain that."
"Really?" asked Hamlet, more curious than anything. "There must be a ghost in the system. I'll have to do more research to know anything and the bug will need fixing of course. We can't have the course of history changed due to an expired friend. His presence could contaminate the entire experiment and–"
"Would you shut up?" Prussia burst out. "Don't you get that this isn't just an experiment to us? This was our life and the only thing we knew. Heck, we don't even know if we can trust you! You can't just talk about Ancient Rome like he meant nothing to any of us! He was my personal friend for a long time and Italy was actually raised by the guy. Show a little respect."
Hamlet opened and closed his mouth several times like a fish out of water with no sounds coming out but a few stuttered vowels. Finally he closed his mouth. After a couple of breaths through his nose he spoke. "You think I don't care about him?" he said in a measured tone. "Roman was the best man I knew. He was the only one who really believed in this experiment and the only one who kept it going when I wasn't sure if I could. You can thank that man and only that man for the time you got in history. We thought we could save the world and he quite possibly has, so don't tell me I don't respect him."
The others held their breath as a spark of hatred crossed between the two feuding men. "If you would allow me," said Japan in a hesitant voice. "Prussia-san? Hamlet-san? We should be going soon." The two looked at the small Asian nation with mixed emotions, caught between the group's need to get on with it and their personal testosterone-fuelled rivalry.
Hamlet was the first to back off, straightening himself as well as his tie. He cleared his throat and said, "Quite right, quite right. You need your things." He gestured to someone in the hallway and another guard entered carrying a small cardboard box. It was nearly empty and each of the nations leaned in as he passed by to get a glimpse of the contents.
The Doctor took it from the man and waved him away. "Now, there's not much here," he muttered into the box. "Just a couple of baubles." He reached in and pulled something out. "This is A-England's watch. Quite nice, but the battery's died." England took the watch from the extended hand and strapped it around his wrist.
The rest of the items were passed around quickly. A wallet for each of them except Russia, two pairs of glasses for Canada and America which, after a quick argument over whose where whose, it was discovered they were a bit too snug so they were pocketed, a cell phone for Prussia with no reception, and a pocket calculator for Japan.
"There was also a handgun," Hamlet said as he set down the now empty box. "But I figured I-Russia, wouldn't really be needing them in his current state." The Russian opened his eyes sleepily and looked out at them for a few seconds before closing them and going limp again.
"Jesus," muttered America. "What kind of guy was he that he had a handgun with him when he came here?"
"Two things," Germany interrupted. "One: we were never anything but what we are. Russia was never whoever that man was and he never will be. Two: I highly doubt any one of us came here voluntarily by any means and that means we did not come here, we were taken. Thirdly: we still don't know if we can trust this man, so we don't know whether these guns even exist or not."
The doctor looked mildly hurt.
"Three things," Prussia cut in from his spot by the door. "One: who taught you how to count questions? Two: who freaking knows what's going on here? I don't. I'm pretty sure you don't. The only one who seems to know anything about anything is the doctor here so I think we kind of have to trust him."
The doctor smiled.
"The only one here we should really have been able to trust was America, this is his country after all, but so far he's proved to be nothing but a useless fat-ass."
"Hey, I resent that!"
"Yeah, he's right, West," Prussia agreed. "You have no right to call him that. Look at all the weight he's lost. Now he's just a dumb-ass."
America crossed his arms and sighed with derision. He opened his mouth to retort, but Canada cut in saying, "Can we please not go through this again, we have to get out of here."
"He's right," England said with a nod. He stepped over to the doctor. "You said there was a car we could take?"
Hamlet nodded. "That's right, there's a van in the parking lot. I have the keys here." He gestured to the mess on his desk. "Erm… Somewhere."
"That will work fine," Japan said. "If you would be so kind as to retrieve them for us we will be leaving now."
Hamlet looked uncertain. "I'm not entirely certain this is the best course of action. After all, you have only just woken up, your senses aren't entirely prepared. The sun would blind you even with those glasses on."
"Oh, come on," Prussia complained. "You're not going back on your word now are you? We had a deal!"
"We had no such thing," Hamlet said calmly, adjusting his glasses snidely. "I said you might be able to use the van, but I never actually permitted to you take it."
"You f*cking–"
"I'm sorry. I really am, but I'm going to have to ask all of you to stay here for at least two weeks for observation." Italy gripped Germany's arm tighter and his eyes began to get wet. "It's only for a couple of weeks and then you are free to attempt to integrate yourselves back into the world. Unfortunately your old lives will no longer be available to you, but you are free to start new ones. England, you may have to go a little farther than the others."
"This is ridiculous," Germany said, standing up. Italy stood up with him solely for the purpose of keeping his hold on his friend.
Hamlet crossed his arms and looked at Germany like he would a child. "There is nothing else we can do. My medical staff can help patch up your arm a little more permanently and I have some very comfortable rooms for you to stay in. If you like we can even use one as a communal room and once we've determined that none of you are carrying a virus you can all socialize in there from time to time."
The others looked at him with anger and disbelief and they were all so preoccupied with his ludicrous plans that none of them noticed as his voice trailed off and his eyes turned to a hulking figure standing uneasily by the couch. "I think it would be best for all of us," said the figure with a frightening smile, "If you me and my friends go, da?"
A/N
I like Hamlet. Both the play and this guy. But don't worry, my taking to his character does not mean he will constantly be here, he's not in the next chapter so shush.
It seems that this fic is now on a schedule: every two weeks around the weekend BOOM update, and around chapter 6 the chapters will have names because that's when things get crazy. I hope you like it, please fav and review, it makes a difference, it really does. See you in two weeks, happy holidays.
~CG