The group watched in silence as the man and woman outside the gates woke up, argued, and eventually left. The rain poured down with the sound of a waterfall, the sound masking all others, before one of them finally stood and stretched. "It seems like it's time to get started," he said in a light British accent, his voice slightly raspy with disuse. "Is everyone ready?"
The rest slowly got up at their own pace, stretching limbs sore from their time spent motionlessly staring out the window. "Of course we're ready, we've been waiting for near five hundred years," scoffed a Chinese man with long, dark hair. "Though we should have started working on the Dreamscapes a long time ago…"
Next to him, his younger brother nodded, but said nothing.
"Well, I claim this room," the man who had spoken first shrugged.
"Front hall!" another one called out.
"Kitchen!"
"Dungeon."
"Hey, I want the dungeon!"
"Well you're not getting it," the brown haired man said, smiling.
The younger of the two shuddered, and didn't press the matter.
"Figure it out somewhere else," said the British man. "I'm getting started, and those of you who don't want to be trapped in an eternity of Hellish nightmares ought to find a better place to argue."
"You're working alone, Arthur?" a man with long blonde hair asked curiously.
"Yes, it seems Alfred wanted to have a little fun on his own, for once." Alfred, who was standing next to him, smiled widely, dark red hair falling into his eyes. "Maybe next time, though."
The blonde man nodded in understanding, then turned to a younger boy next to him. "Shall we go, then, Matthew?"
"Wait," he replied. He raised his hand like a child at school, looking innocently at Arthur. "So, are we supposed to kill them, or… Drive them crazy…?Or what?" he asked, confusion and eagerness mixed oddly on his face.
"As long as you've exterminated them before they leave your room it doesn't really matter what you do," he answered, earning a wide smile from Matthew that exposed his pointed teeth. "Just remember, they can get rid of you as easily as you can be rid of them."
"So don't get stupid," the Chinese man muttered. Again, his brother nodded, but said nothing.
"Okay! Come on, Francis," Matthew chirped, grabbing the blonde man's hand and leading him away from the group. The Parallels watched them disappear down the hallway, Matthew jumping about eagerly and Francis following tiredly after, before joining partners and friends and beginning to search for a part of the castle that would fit their liking, too.
The castle the Parallels had been released into was spacious and excellent for satisfying their needs. True, it would never be as good as the forest the previous Parallels had escaped to, but they had no time to find any better place. This time around, the other Nations would likely be more prepared for them, and it wouldn't do to waste time.
Francis entered the Front Hall that Matthew had claimed cautiously. His friend could be a little crazy when he got too happy, and this was one of those moments where he was definitely too happy. Thankfully, Matthew seemed to be expressing his joy at the moment by throwing pieces of unnecessary furniture at the tapestries on the walls. He turned around when he heard the other Parallel Nation enter the room. "What are you doing?" Francis asked tiredly.
Matthew shrugged, a thoughtful smile on his face. "This stuff on the walls is really ugly, and it'll probably get in the way of my Dreamscape anyway." He chucked another table at the wall, grunting as he did. "So I'm taking it down." The dark painting crashed to the ground, becoming a mere pile of splinters on impact.

Francis nodded skeptically, but instead of responding just crossed the room to sit on one of the large chairs by the fireplace. For some reason there was a large fish tank on the table between the two chairs. There were two scorpions in it, both dead, having stabbed each other simultaneously with their stingers. He picked up the table himself and moved it far away from the sitting area, then returned to light the fire. By the time it was flickering in the hearth, Matthew had finished clearing all the pictures and rugs off the walls, and the room was in ruins. All except for Francis` little sitting area. Matthew strode over to him. "You want me to leave it?" he said, a whine creeping into his voice.
Francis gave a tiny, rare smile. "Why not?" he proposed.

Matthew tilted his head, thinking. "Okay," he shrugged. He rolled the new aches out of his shoulders, and began to walk toward the middle of the room. "I'm going to get started then, okay?"

Francis gave him a concerned look. "You don't have to do this, you know."

"Do what?" the younger blonde answered.

"This whole... dreamscape, thing. You can just kill him and get it over with, make sure he goes down without taking you with him. No need to drive him mad if he'll end up dead anyway."

Matthew brushed his hair out of his eyes and put his arms out in front of him, preparing to begin his creation. Without looking back at his friend, he laughed. "And where's the fun in that, eh?"

For the third time in an hour, Romania found himself jerking awake at a nudge from Lithuania. "Wha-?"

"Shhh!"

Lithuania turned back to face Norway, who was still droning on about some sort of parallel magic, getting deep into the 'science' of it all. The Parallel Nations were a topic that Norway, Britain, and Romania had all studied extensively, hence the responsibility of watching over The Door being given to Romania. Though Norway knew the most about them, Romania had lived in a more secluded area and rarely got into fights, so the other Nations had agreed to have the portal watched over by the more neutral of the three countries. It was usually an interesting topic, but at such early hours, a lot of things could lose their shine. By this point, Romania could have cared less.

His eyes swiveled around the darkened room. The clock on the wall said that it was three in the morning, though it seemed much later than that. The lights had dimmed over time, and now cast an orangish glow over the conversing Nations. On the far side of the room, the other light had been turned off, and the afflicted countries could be heard breathing loudly, deep in the arms of sleep. There was a light knock on the door that cut Norway off in the middle of explaining the term 'Dreamscape'.

Finland stood to get it, and pulled open the door to reveal Hungary, though Romania had never noticed her leave. "We brought coffee," she said airily, a yawn at the edge of her voice. She held a tray laden with coffee, tea, and the like. Austria followed behind her carrying a similar tray, and set it down in the middle of the circle of Nations. "There's enough for everyone, so just dig in."

The smile on her face was tired but genuine as the Nations each grabbed for the caffeinated drinks. Sweden grabbed two, and handed one of the teas to Finland as he sat back down on his cushion, who gave a wary smile as he took it.

"So what are we at?" Hungary asked, plopping down into a cushion of her own.

"Dreamscapes," Denmark answered boredly.

"Speaking of which," Austria picked up the sentence. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"No, no, I'm fine," she answered, barely suppressing another yawn. "Besides, I was there when The Door opened, and I plan to be there when it closes. I need to know everything I can to do that."

Austria knew he wouldn't get anymore out of her than that, and dropped the subject.

"So as I was saying," Norway went on, taking a quick sip of coffee, "In the last war, the Parallel's morphed the forests they'd inhabited to a place called a Dreamscape. It was something akin to a hallucination, however the entrapped could actually be affected by it's contents. It cost tremendous power for the Parallel to create it, but they seemed to take some sort of sick enjoyment from watching their counterpart flail through it. I have no doubt that most of the affected will have to go through a horror such as this, so we have to warn them once they wake up."

Romania felt himself slipping again, even with the strong tea, and he had to pinch his arm to stay alert.

"The more time they had, the more confusing, the more vile their creations could become," Norway continued. "I'd recommend we move in as soon as possible."

"The gates are locked-"

"And they'll unlock them as soon as their demands are satisfied. It's best to just do what they ask before fighting back to the greatest extent of your power, otherwise you'll just wear yourself out before the battle's even begun. Keep in mind, they want to play. But they want our side to play fair, even if they won't. Last time they'd only allow their counterparts and the natives of that country to enter the forest, and no others. So they'll likely only allow the affected Nations through this time around, too."

"Well, if that's what they want..." Romania began unsurely.

"Then it's what we'll do," Norway finished for him.

"When would you recommend we go in?"

"As soon as possible," he replied with conviction. "I'd say sunrise, if you could."

The group fell into silence, all murmurs stopped. "That's too early, though..." Lithuania murmured.

"The more you delay, the stronger they get," Norway warned, staring into his coffee. He took another gulp, and looked to Lithuania. "The symptoms the others feel will have faded by the time they awake. They'll be more than fully rested, and with luck" - he gave a pointed look to Austria - "fully armed?"

"Yes, of course," he answered, frowning a bit at the idea. "Although, Hungary, you claimed to have felt a 'three', and -"

"Austria, I've been through war upon war. I lived in the wild as a child and trained by experience. Failure was fatal. I've battled by your side and against it, I've defeated herds of both my and your enemies, I've fended off Nations and humans and beasts and every other breathing, living creature you can imagine. I'm not just your housemaid, Austria." She gave him a determined smile. "I can handle a lot more than this."

He simply stared at her, wide-eyed, and nodded.

Norway clapped his hands together sharply, breaking the long silence. "Seems like it's settled then. We leave at sunrise and purge the castle before noon." He stood up, hands over his head in a stretch.

"Well, I'll start on breakfast," Hungary said.

"I'll handle it." Turkey, silent for most of the meeting, stopped her. "Just go to bed, okay?"

She smiled gratefully, and shuffled over to the darker side of the room. Turkey gathered a few other Nations with him and headed down to the kitchen, leaving only a few Nations awake in the room: Austria, Switzerland, and Norway.

"When should we wake them up?" Austria moved to stand next to Norway.

"Soon. A couple of hours, at most," he answered quietly.

"Ah." Austria looked thoughtful for a second before turning back to face Norway. "How do you think this will turn out?" he murmured.

He shrugged. "I've heard people say that 'cheaters never win'," he answered noncommittally. Austria's shoulders slumped a bit with relief. "But I've also seen those same people fall dead in their first uphill battle."

Norway set his coffee cup down, finished, and strode away to find a place to sleep, leaving an open-mouthed Austria to stare wordlessly after him.