3. The Alliance Making Chapter

...in which some things make sense

"Well?"

They tried to peek into the room behind the Nordics, but could only see two of the girls.

Canada came a little closer to Finland. "How is he?" There still was no answer. "Finland?"

Finally, the impromptu medic made a move. He turned, pressed his palm against the wall and leaned against it, his other hand clutching at his chest. He looked like he had just woken up and realised he was in a state of shock. And it also appeared that there was a dark, cloud-like thing looming above his head.

"It fucking worked..." he muttered and ignored Sweden's worried movements beside him. "I'll never do that again..."

"So you did it?" England, Canada and a couple of others were demanding a proper answer enthusiastically.

But Finland had buried himself under his cloud. Sweden tried to get rid of it, but it was stuck above the gloomy Finn.

"I'm sure he won't die immediately," Belgium answered on Finland's part happily, appearing from the room. "But I would ask that you keep it down until he recovers a bit."

"Right," England nodded, looking relieved. "That idiot, making the others worry..."

"You girls could keep watch on him," France smiled and patted England's shoulder in a friendly manner. "If not just to make sure that he doesn't do something... Reckless."

"Oh, that would be just like him," Canada admitted, eyeing the ceiling in irritation.

"We already received that order," Seychelles smiled tiredly. "From Sweden."

The addressed nation nodded silently and tried to ignore Denmark, who was poking his shoulder and asking questions about the details of the case. His effort failed when Iceland started doing the same thing.

"Shall we continue?" Switzerland cut the chatter around him coldheartedly. "Now that we don't have any unnecessary nuisances bothering our brains, we can give better thought to our current situation."

"I agree," answered Germany, and he raised his hands to quiet everyone down. "We will resume the discussion of the topic we were at. To the ones who just joined this conversation, the topic is what we should do next."

Sweden stopped explaining things to Denmark and Iceland and looked over at Germany. The girls nodded eagerly, seeming interested in a course of action. Finland was still leaning against the wall and didn't seem to notice they were talking about him too.

"So in other words!" Korea announced happily. "We are the'what the fuck do we do now' committee!"

"Yes yes, now shut it," Hong Kong sighed.

.*** *** ***

The more they talked, the clearer it came that what Korea had said was more true than what Germany had said. Despite of all their efforts, the question seemed meaningless without the swearing word. Fighting against an army was ridiculous and suicidal with their current equipment. There had been an idea of just hiding in the forest. Actually Cuba had come up with an idea of digging some underground basements where they could both hide and from where they could make surprise attacks. This was rejected after a little investigation to the forest because no one was ready to dig bare hands the ground that was full of roots and rocks. What ever they came up with it seemed to be a dead end. Every idea ended up in the same conclusion: they would be so dead.

But it was just as Southern Italy kindly reminded them at the one point: "Like hell I'm gonna die!"

.*** *** ***

"So what are we going to do now is form groups that deal with different kind of problems," England began the first summary of their so-called 'conference'. "First of all, there is Norway and the problem of returning home." He glanced over at the Nordic. "Are you going do it alone?"

Norway shook his head. "No. Estonia is going to join me."

"I am?" Estonia raised an eyebrow.

"Yes."

"I see."

"Secondly, we will need a group that is going to arrange us something to eat and important things like that," England continued. "That also means investigating the surrounding areas in hope of finding someone willing to give us food, et cetera."

"When we know nothing about this place, that's going to be dangerous," Japan pointed out. "I recommend that this group has people with enough experience to survive with both troublesome natives and extreme weather conditions… Not to mention a difficult terrain."

"They should also have some experience of hiking," Lithuania said. "It seems they're going to move around quite a bit."

"The third group is going to deal with the problem of our defence," England began again, his voice steady and stern.

"I still think an assassination is the best choice," France commented. "If we get rid of our main villain, the others are bound to waver."

"I would do it immediately, if I'd knew something about our target. Like where I could find him," Switzerland answered, leaning on the table. "It's not even truly certain that he'll come back with his army. It could come without him, or he may just give orders from elsewhere."

"I can do it," Russia suggested. "I'll find him for sure."

"That would be a mass murder, not an assassination," Estonia pointed out almost cynically.

"Wars always have victims," Russia smiled and turned to Denmark. "Could I borrow your axe, comrade?"

The Nordic hugged his weapon and turned away from Russia. "If she is used for an assassination, I'll do it myself."

"Ya'r too loud fo' tha'," Sweden shook his head, and his southern neighbour turned to glare at him.

"I'm not that loud!"

"Yes you are," answered all the other Nordics together.

"Whuh? Cut it out, guys! Ye know I..."

"We know yar loud."

"No I'm–"

"Cut it out!" Germany snapped, enraged. "You can continue your conversation after we get home!"

England sighed. "Anyway, let's start forming the groups now. Out of us there's–"

Suddenly the door of the small room opened. "Count me in!"

The nations were confused and fell silent.

"Count me in," America repeated, gripping the door frame to hold his balance. He was pale, covered in sweat and breathing like he had run some ten miles or more.

Behind him, Seychelles and Liechtenstein were shifting on their feet, unsure of what to do.

"A... A..." England stuttered. "Amer... uh..."

"I knew you would do something like that," Canada walked across the room, shaking his head as he stopped in front of his brother and put a hand on America's head. "Go back to bed. Now."

"No," America shook the hand off and pushed his brother out of the way using the strength that he, in that situation, could use with his left hand. His right hand was bandaged and plastered tightly against his upper body, using the remaining pieces of his own shirt. The movement almost made him lose his balance, but Liechtenstein was quick enough to move forward and support him. America breathed heavily. "I can do it... Just give me a new shirt... I'm not... Going to lay down... In the situation like this... I can't..."

"America–" England began, but stopped.

America raised his head a little when he noticed someone standing in front of him, and his gaze met a pair of violet eyes staring at him. A heavy, dark aura started to rise, and America's hidden natural instinct of escaping in the face of danger somewhat woke up.

"A-me-ri-ca-aa," Finland said very emphatically.

"Y–Yes?"

"You are. Going back. To bed," Finland spoke very slowly to make himself clear.

"No!" America resisted. "I–"

"Now."

"Uh..." America tried to retreat out of the area to escape the 'stare' that Russia and Ukraine knew from the second World War. "I... uh..."

"..."

"But I–"

"..."

"Well, I guess... I'll go then..." America stared at the smaller nation and finally let the girls support him almost entirely.

"Good boy," Finland answered, but he didn't let his gaze wonder away from America. "You see, I'm not exactly eager to patch you up again."

When Seychelles, Liechtenstein and Canada helped America back into the room, France appeared at Finland's side.

"Have you perhaps spent too much time with Russia?" he asked hesitantly.

Finland turned to him looking honestly surprised. "Why?"

"Nothing, just wondering."

.*** *** ***

"So Norway, you can take Estonia with you and leave the rest to us," Germany said and the Nordic rose from his chair. "We promise to do our best to give you time."

Norway nodded, and – along with Estonia – he opened the door beside the one that America was sleeping behind and disappeared into another small room.

Germany continued on, unfazed, "Hungary. You take the lead of the backup group. You arrange us food, medicine and, if possible, friends. Don't give me that look, it's not an easy job. For starters, decide who you will take with you, so your teamwork is as excellent as possible. Liechtenstein and Seychelles will be your full-time helpers. Choose anyone free, except for certain people… For example... Belarus," he looked Russia's little sister. "Because I think that you would decline even if we tried."

"True."

"And I think you have more experience in fighting than, for example," he turned around towards the window opposite to the doorway that led outside. "You, Latvia."

The small Baltic nodded. "I would p-prefer the backup group, if th-that's possible."

"Good," Germany turned to Finland next. "Are you ready to continue as a medic?"

Finland sighed. "I guess. No fighting for me this time, huh?"

"No, but I want you to participate in planning the defence," Germany said and Finland nodded. "Italy. Would you work as a messenger between the groups?"

"Yo~ Captain!"

"Sealand," England interrupted. "You'll help Italy. Got it?"

"What? I can fight!" the smallest nation answered and showed his little fist to England, shaking it to prove a point.

"Maybe, but now you help Italy," England answered and gestured at Sweden to do something. "Sealand, try to understand that this isn't a game and we don't have time to deal with selfish wishes."

Sealand looked moody, but he obeyed. Germany was discussing the map in low tones with Austria and China. At the door, France was keeping Romano from escaping after Southern Italy had noticed that he would also be in the defence group. He failed.

"I'm not going to do this! I'll have, umm... Seychelles change with me!" Romano shouted and ran out of the door, leaving France behind him. Suddenly, he skidded to a halt and yelped, stumbling backwards.

"Whoa, easy there," said the woman in front of him. "I'm not gonna eat you. Okay?"

Spain appeared from the door with France, Denmark and Switzerland, and he pulled Romano out of the woman's reach.

"Who is it this time?" asked Switzerland as he held his loaded rifle in front of the woman's eyes.

"This time?" asked a man behind the woman and raised his hands to show Denmark he was unarmed. "So that one idiot really did come here, didn't he? I knew it was a bad idea to get lost."

The woman sighed. "Just as we expected then... Great, now I can forget my vacation." She glared at the man behind him. "And listen here, we didn't actually plan to get lost, did we."

At this point more nations had stepped outside. England stepped beside Switzerland and repeated the question. "Who are you?"

"We two are nations from the surrounding areas of this no-man's-land," answered the man, who had grey and light hair waving in the small breeze. "And please, we're not here to fight you."

"A no-man's-land?" repeated Japan, raising his eyebrows just as Norway and Estonia appeared from the hut.

"You know," said Denmark to the grey-haired man he was threatening with his axe. "Last time we heard about 'nations' we ended up with one superpower in a sickbed, so that won't help ye."

"What?" shouted the women with long black hair as she turned around to look at Denmark. She clearly did not give a shit about Switzerland's rifle, which would have normally kept people still and on edge. "Okay, so he attacked you already, what?"

"Why do you know something even we don't understand?" raged Switzerland, and he grabbed the woman's shoulder, turning her to face his gun again.

The woman took a deep breath and raised her hands. "Okay, okay. Now let's calm down a bit. I guess he didn't tell you anything, did he? Well, I can kinda understand his logic... Anyway, the point is now that you can relax, we're not going to attack you, we really. Just. Came. To. Talk. Okay? I'll explain to you some things about this place if you give me a chance."

.*** *** ***

"Here," said the man and spread a map to the table. "I knew you would be totally clueless so I brought this with me," he pointed at the centre of the map. There was a large area that was marked with only woods and meadows, plus some lonely buildings. There was no doubt what place that was. "This is the no-man's-land we were talking about. Our specific location is here," he moved his finger a little to the right. "This hut is marked here. The whole area is surrounded by five different nation's borders. The one you already met lives here," he pointed the country in the south. "He has the longest border with the no-man's-land. I live here beside him in the east. And she," he nodded at the female. "Is my northern neighbour and lives northeast from here."

"O-kay," said England and knit his brows. "Then what about that another one we saw?"

"What another one?" asked the man and looked up at him surprised.

"There was another one in here too," answered China and gestured in the air. "He was a little shorter and had hair that resembled a bird's nest... He did not speak a word while he was here."

For a moment the two foreign nations looked at him, bewildered, before the woman sighed deeply. "Oh shit, not that mad scientist again..."

The man sighed too and rested his forehead in his palm. "Alright," he snapped, pointing again at the map. "It's him. The western neighbour of your enemy. I was hoping for him to stay out of this."

"Is he that bad?" asked Taiwan innocently.

"No. He's a war-maniac."

"Oh..."

"Yes, he's usually a good guy, but when someone talks about war, he becomes hopeless. On the other hand, he has the weakest military of us all," the man smiled a little. "Because he spends all his time planning good attacks, formations and new weapons, he really has no time to do anything else, for example training his soldiers. It's been a while since he has actually done something."

"But he is clever, okay," interrupted the woman. "He would be a hella tough opponent if he would just finish his plans before the war is over."

"Sounds pretty harmless to me," Germany said, but inwardly he wondered what would happen if his brother had been on the same team as the pre-mentioned war-maniac nation.

"That's why I suggest that you don't concentrate on him," the man continued, nodding at Germany. "It's not even likely that he will show up again, so please worry about him first," he pointed the southern country on the map.

"Wait a moment," Switzerland stopped him and glared from one of the guests to the other. "There is still something I want to know first."

The woman looked at him, appearing thoughtful. "The Swiss Confederation, was that right? What would you like to know?"

"Why," the Swiss started and snapped his gun onto the map. "Do you know so much about us? He-" he snapped the southern country, "-did as well, and now you know a lot too..."

"Or do you perhaps think that you, too, have no obligations to answer our questions?" asked Austria to complement his neighbour's question.

The foreign nations looked at each other and then, after sharing a silent nod, the black-haired woman took a deep breath. "Okay, it might be better if I just spit it out as one explanation, so be sure to listen," she said and crossed her arms. "Okay, so the thing is that we are all lazy bums who don't want to do something the hard way."

The man looked at her with a face that was saying 'do you have to say it like that?', but the woman didn't notice and continued. "Okay, so basically we use magic, which isn't so unordinary here if you hadn't noticed, to spy and copy most of your technology. Of course we can see only some things that have already happened and because of time and spacial differences and other dilemmas, which we skip here because they're boring, there is always something hindering us, so technically we are always few decades behind you. Okay, that's why we know about you, but since magic is so uncommon in your world, you don't know about us. And since we preferred it that way we never spied on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the Kingdom of Norway," she thought for a moment and then she nodded. "Yeah, to keep it simple, that's about it."

There were two kinds of expressions in the room. First, there were all the nations present from the planet Earth who had a very united expression of 'excuse me?' or in some cases such as Korea, England, Turkey, Denmark etc. it was more like, 'what the fuck?'. The other expression was the one of the grey haired foreign nation, and it was saying 'did you really have to say it like that?'

And then there was one who didn't have any particular expression.

"Well then," Norway deadpanned. "Is there a possibility of ya helping me to ge' us home?"

"Norway!" Poland protested. "You're taking this, like, way too lightly! They're spying on us, you know! Like, watching every step and stuff! Copying our inventions for themselves! They're, like, monitoring us! Following us! Black-mailing us-!"

"No, Poland, black-mailing is a bit different," interrupted Lithuania from behind him.

Norway looked at him. "I don' care. They said they're not spyin' on me."

"Oi..."

"I'm afraid not," answered the man to Norway's question. "True, we can use magic, but although we want to help you, we have our own issues too."

When Norway raised his eyebrows, the woman explained further. "Even with our magic, spying on you is the best we can do. Dimensional travelling requires far stronger flows of magic to work than our minds can adapt with. We are yet to reach such levels. And this no-man's-land is... Well... A bit peculiar, okay? Let's say it affects our ability of reading the flows. The story would have been different if you hadn't appeared here. …Well, if you had appeared on our own areas, we could have done something, but out here it's not that simple."

"In other words," Norway said. "When we're here, ya can't help me with yar powers. But if we go somewher' ya can help, I won' be able to tell ya the right direction anymore."

"Exactly."

"Is it okay if I don't understand?" Poland asked, looking at Lithuania.

"It means that if they could send people through dimensions they would have already done it," explained England. "May I ask then, that if we are so valuable to you, why is one of you trying to kill us?"

The woman shook her head. "I'm not sure about his ambitions but I would guess that it has something to do with magic. It's just something stupid, okay."

"He has a strong army and is the largest country around here," explained the man. "But when it comes to magic he's far inferior. Cross-dimensional spying is the most advanced magic we have. That's why he constantly falls behind us in technology, which in turn makes him weaker."

"If he gets rid of us, you would all be in same line again, when you would have to invent your own technology," Germany spoke up, nodding to show his understanding.

"I see," said Japan. "There wouldn't be anyone to spy on."

"That is exactly why we don't want you to disappear," explained the woman and smiled. "You are our precious resources; we don't want our rival to harm you. Let's call it sustainable development. Alright, here," she leaned on the table. "This is what we offer you; for political reasons, we can't declare war on him, okay? But since I have no border line with him, I could..." she let her hand rest on the map. "...Lend you all the equipment you need to fight against him, starting with assault rifles, sniper rifles and handguns. How about it?"

"I cannot provide you with weapons, since this is about my neighbour, who is some four times bigger than me," continued the man after his companion had finished, and he crossed his arms. "However... I am ready to ensure that you have all the needed medicine and enough food for the time you must spend here."

"The deal is," continued the woman. "That you promise that more than ten of you escape here alive. If it's less, the benefits of getting you back home won't cover our upcoming political and economical problems with our southern friend anymore."

For a moment it was silent, and then England laughed. "What are you talking about?"

France smiled. "The number of us leaving here is thirty-seven."

A/N: I'll leave the foreign nations nameless, because I want you to know/remember they're sidecharacters. Thank you for all the reviewers and my amazing little Canadian proofreader.