Wow, I'm getting such nice reviews! I love you guys! Especially the person who called me God. I have never felt so powerful from writing about the adventures of cute teenage boys.
So anyway, for plot reasons, this chapter is way angstier than any of the others will be. Losing wars does bad things to nations. Warning: If you don't want to see Japan with half his face burnt off, don't read on. If you do want to see Germany totally flipping out, do read on. (I listened to too much Rammstein while writing this.)
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Sora realized that when America said "flying", he meant "flying an airship", and was duly disappointed, though it was much less worrying to sit in. (Not an airship, technically, either; when Sora called it that, America told him it was an airplane, and airships were only good for keeping dirty Germans in and being fun to blow up.) The trip was fast enough that Sora wondered whether they could've just taken a train or something and be spared the reckless piloting which only Goofy enjoyed, his head out the window and his ears flapping.
They passed over beautiful snow-capped mountains – a little too close, to tell the truth – and landed in a lush damp valley. The weather was a bright white cloud cover that only dribbled occasionally, though a storm the previous night had turned the ground muddy. In the foothills Sora thought he heard singing, and high up a pale herd of goats pranced.
"He's such a showoff," America muttered. "Come to Colorado sometime. It's twice as pretty. Everyone's over here, by the way." He showed Sora over to where the other four Allies were standing, along with six unfamiliar men.
The only new fellow who wasn't handcuffed was a stern, pale man pacing back and forth, a rifle held over his shoulder, as though he was still preparing for the war that had ended. "Hey Switz," said America, raising a hand for a high-five. The man angled his gun a little closer towards America, who put his hand down.
The other five guys were a pathetic bunch. Each was covered in bruises, scrapes, and sores, their uniforms tattered and mud-soaked. Two were trying to look proud, a blond man glaring at the sky and a very white man – he wasn't old, perhaps he was albino – who seemed almost to be smiling despite the grime on his face. But the rest were not so confident. There were two boys only a little older than Sora, who had to be brothers for their similar brown hair and round faces, perhaps even twins. The younger was sitting on the ground bawling, mud seeping into his uniform. The older squatted next to him, not quite crying but sulking so moodily he might as well have been. And the last man... He was small and darkish, foreign looking, somewhat like China. He was facing away, so that he didn't show the left side of his face, against which he awkwardly held one cuffed hand. Something maroon was seeping down his white sleeve. His visible dark eye was completely blank. Sora was somehow afraid. Who were these people, and how had they gotten so hurt?
"Now that we're all here," shouted Switzerland, causing America to shut up and turn away from a blushing Britain. "Now that we're all here, we can commence decisions regarding occupation. From there, the occupying Allied powers will decide... appropriate punishments." Russia did a happy little dance. "Germany, come forward."
The blond man stepped up, looked briefly down at Switzerland, and continued looking at the sky.
"You will be partitioned and occupied by a league of Allies. Your West will be jointly occupied by France, Britain, and America. Your East will be occupied by Russia. We'll... get to that later. For now, consider yourself in France's custody."
Germany nodded once, curtly, and stepped over to vaguely near France, who looked at him very strangely – a sort of merry rage that Sora would have never expected to see on such a kind man's face. "You shall pay dearly, ma cherie," France said softly, attempting to slide a hand around Germany's neck. Germany simply jerked away, though he looked as if he would gladly punch France in the face if he could.
With a sigh, Switzerland stepped over to the two brothers. "Italy." He looked down at them and they looked up. "...Do you promise to be very good from now on? Very very good?"
They nodded fervently, the smaller one whimpering slightly.
"No wars against any other Europeans ever again?"
They shook their heads violently.
"Right, you're free to go." He unlocked their cuffs.
The younger brother jumped up and ran off in tears. The older one stalked away after him. The rest watched them as they left. Sora thought he saw Germany looking almost wistful, but that lasted maybe two seconds.
Switzerland moved on to the next man. "Japan." The dark-haired man turned towards him. "You wi- oh god your face."
He had put his hands down. He was missing an eye; instead, the socket was blackened, charred bone radiating out from the wound. Around it the flesh was burnt brown, then a pale, dead yellow, then an inflamed red. From where his eye had been drooled some jelly-like mixture of blood, pus, and whatever was on the inside of one's eye that should really stay in there. The trail of gunk led down to his mouth, where a large area of skin was completely missing, revealing blackened teeth and jawbone. The same burnt rings of flesh reached from his cheekbones to his chin, occasionally forming oozing blisters.
Switzerland took a deep shaking breath. "Japan, you... will... America, what the fuck did you do to him?"
"Um. Bombed him. A little. With atomic bombs. Only twice."
"Twice? Why the hell twice?"
"I... had another bomb? And he deserved it."
Switzerland ground his teeth. "As much as I hate to tell you this, Japan, you will be occupied by America."
Japan stared at him for several seconds, then whispered, "Unbind me."
Switzerland stared back, then fumbled with the keys. "What the hell are you doing?" asked America, to no reply. The handcuffs fell away. Japan drew his sword, then raised it towards his own stomach.
America lunged forward, knocking Switzerland to the side, and grabbed the sword. "Hey! No suicide when you're my territory, got it!" Japan stared at him. Sora couldn't tell if he was glaring. Switzerland got up and unsuccessfully tried to rub the mud off his pants. "Naw, come on, man, it'll be great," America told Japan. "It'll be like a sleepover! I'll teach you all about democracy and freedom and Christmas and how to cook your fish before you eat it. Chin up." He bumped Japan's chin with his hand in a fit of literalism. Japan drooled something that might have been blood.
Switzerland shuddered and turned to the final man. "Prussia. For your heinous role in the many crimes of this war, you will be sentenced to death." And against all logic, the condemned man burst out laughing.
Switzerland blinked angrily. "...Excuse me? Did you not hear me properly?"
Prussia shook his head, unable to speak in his delirium. He covered his mouth in some semblance of politeness, but it didn't do much.
"Would you mind, then, explaining what exactly is wrong with you?"
Prussia drew in a few deep breaths. "You seriously think you can kill me?" He didn't stop grinning.
Switzerland leveled his rifle. "Whyever wouldn't I be able to?"
He grinned wider, showing very many very white teeth. "Since when can we kill each other? My people will still live. My land will still be there. I don't see how I can die, unless you bomb me into oblivion. And I don't think any of us would live through that." Nobody wanted to look at Japan.
Switzerland scoffed. "The terms of the treaty clearly state that you are to be dissolved. And I fully intend to enforce those terms." He looked through his rifle sights.
"Go on, then. Try me. I fully intend to survive." Prussia smiled at Germany, who made brief eye contact and nodded.
"Do you want to be shot in the head or the heart?"
"Whatever. Come on, do your worst." Sora noticed – though no one else seemed to – that a dark mist seemed to be gathering around Prussia.
"Heart will leave a nicer corpse." Switzerland accordingly aimed his gun lower.
"You can't kill me." His smile was so wide Sora expected his jaw to break. The mist thickened, and there were whispers in the crowd now.
"Three... two... one..." He squeezed the trigger.
"I WILL NOT DIE!"
The gunshot punctuated his exclamation. The darkness flared up and surrounded him, mingling with the smoke from the rifle. There was one last shriek of laughter before the dark contracted and the smoke blew away in the wind. There was no blood.
Switzerland lowered his rifle, hands shaking. "Well, that was unexpected," he mumbled. "I was expecting him to just keel over. Never seen one of us die before."
They were all silent for a moment. Sora had his suspicions, but it would be extremely awkward to voice them. And then the silence was pierced with a scream. Everyone looked around to see where it had come from, and they were all shocked to see Germany on his knees, wailing. "Where's his body? Where did he GO?" The man shrieked again and pounded the ground with both fists. He had somehow managed to break his handcuffs, and the chains clattered.
"He... he's dead. He's gone," Switzerland said, very softly. For some strange reason the Allies began to smile.
"He was my brother! My brother!" Germany clenched the ground in his fists and stared up at the others. No one did anything but smile at him. He roared and punched the ground.
"Be quiet," said Britain, who was beginning to look uncomfortable.
"You... you goddamned fools! You don't understand! You never understood! We had plans, such beautiful plans... we were going to..." Germany choked on his words and tore his nails down the sides of his scalp. "If only you had – if – if only..." He broke into sobs.
The Allies just kept grinning. Sora didn't know if France or Russia started it, but they all suddenly began laughing. It was shocked, nervous laughter, but also genuine mirth. Germany moaned and covered his ears. And the Allies continued to howl. Sora felt sick to his stomach.
"STOP!" Switzerland finally shouted. It took a few stifled snickers, but everyone fell silent. The only sound was Germany's heavy breathing as he rocked back and forth, holding his knees. "I'm ashamed of you. You all know what it's like to lose a war. You all know he's in pain. It doesn't matter what he did before, he needs help now. France, it's your job to deal with him. Give him some food, somewhere to rest, give his people aid. Go."
France made a derisive noise and pulled Germany up by the collar. Germany stumbled to his feet, not bothering to dry his face, and was led away like a wounded sheep.
The others began to disperse. China left first, uninterested in the west's troubles. Britain stopped to take a look at Germany and mutter the words "Completely insane. Completely and utterly batshit bonkers." Then he left. Russia took a long merry look at the beaten Germany until he was too far to clearly see, at which point the large man skipped off to the east, singing.
"Well, that was exciting!" said America, hands on hips. He turned to Sora and his friends, apparently not concerned by how quiet they were. "So, you going back home now that we've won, Sora? I mean, there's no more heartless Nazis to fight now."
"Um, I guess." Sora began to wonder if there were ever any Heartless to begin with. Those people... they didn't seem evil. What had they been fighting this whole time?
Japan was staring at him now, Sora realized. He turned away, uncomfortably realizing that he had helped America do... whatever he had done to this guy. But Japan didn't seem accusing, more surprised. "Sora?" he whispered. Did the nation recognize him somehow?
"Hey, no staring at guests. Be nice." America swatted Japan upside the part of the head that wasn't caked with blood. Japan stifled a whimper, as did Sora. "Come on, time to go to my house. I'll let you pick which room to stay in." And America took him by the wrist and began to walk back towards the plane. "Bye Sora! Bye Donald and Goofy! Awesome hanging out with you! Don't be strangers!" He waved. Japan gave Sora one last uncomfortable stare before turning away.
A few seconds passed. "So, um, are we leaving now?" Donald asked.
"Please?" Goofy added.
Sora thought, and turned away from them. "No. Not yet." If he had hurt these people – the Axis, was that what they were called? - he couldn't leave before he had made things right again. His job was to save people, not to make them get shot and burned and driven crazy. Sora bit his lip and wondered what he could do.
He noticed that Switzerland was still standing there, staring at the mountains. Sora walked up to him, dragging his feet. The nation turned. He was way more intimidating up close, and Sora looked at his feet instead. "Um. Hi," he said.
"Do you want something?"
Sora looked to the side. He actually really didn't know the answer to that. Better to just make conversation until he figured out what he wanted to say. "So. Um. You shot that guy, huh?" Oh, yeah. Nice going, self. That was slick.
Switzerland snorted. "I'm an arbiter. It's my duty to pass judgment." He looked at the mountains again.
"Uh. Yeah." Whee, huge success. Sora turned the toes of his oversized shoes in. "So are you like, with the Allies, or what?"
"I am a neutral," said Switzerland, sounding offended. "I don't take sides."
"Oh. Okay then." Sora considered leaving. This wasn't being productive.
Switzerland seemed lost in thought for a second, though. "I can't deny that what Germany did was horrible. He killed innocents, you know. Not just the innocents of his enemies, they all did that. But his own people..." He trailed off and shook his head. "These wars do terrible things to all of them. They all become so bloodthirsty, I hardly recognize them. It's part of why I've sworn myself to peace..."
"Wow. Yeah. I agree." Sora was really eloquent today.
Switzerland looked at him briefly. "You're that magical Allied soldier, aren't you? With the talking dog and whatnot? Having second thoughts?"
"You could say that, yeah."
"I'm glad you think for yourself. It's a rare enough quality in humans these days. Since nationalism took hold, we've all been able to throw as many human lives as we want at a problem. And few of us choose not to."
This was getting pretty deep. Sora wasn't sure he wanted to know what he had done anymore. But he really did have to. "So, um, those Italy kids that ran away? Where did they go?"
"They're directly south of here." Switzerland gestured with a tilt of his head. "You'll meet North Italy first. Talk to him. Get his side of the story."
Sora nodded, and prepared to set off. He was about to leave when Switzerland spoke again. "I have a little sister, you know." Well, that seemed random. "She's incredibly dear to me. I have no idea what I would do if I ever lost her." He holstered his gun.
Oh. That made sense now. Sora didn't really know what to say to that one. "Yeah. I guess I should head out now, then."
"One second." Switzerland rifled through his coat pockets. "I've got a chocolate bar. Want half?"
"Sure!" This guy wasn't so scary after all.
Switzerland took out the bar and broke it in half, the foil crinkling. He gave half to Sora and unwrapped his own. "I love chocolate. It's good for the soul in dark times like these."
"Yep. Definitely." Sora unwrapped his and took a bite. It was the best chocolate he had ever tasted. He started to walk south, beckoning for Donald and Goofy to follow.
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Kay that's that. Thanks for being such a downer Switzerland. Coming up soon, way more Axis funtime. As well as your thirteen favorite people! ;D
