Liechtenstein remained curled up in front of the altar, watching in horror as Willem cleaned the wound in Germany's shoulder. She hugged her knees to her chest, begging any deity who might listen to let him be alright.

As always, there was no answer.

"You know that no one's angry with you, right?" Luxembourg said, sitting down beside her. "You freaked out; any one of us might've done the same. It's just a good thing that you're so little, huh? The recoil saved him."

"What if he still dies?" She shot back, voice wavering at the very idea. They'd been so terrified of these doubles; she'd never even considered anyone accidentally hurting each other.

"It was a clean shot in the shoulder. It'll take a bit of time since you caused it, but it will heal. It's far from lethal."

"I know..." Still, she couldn't tear her eyes away from Germany. Every time he winced from Netherlands' prodding a particularly tender spot, she just wanted to start crying all over again.

No bandages meant Ludwig's undershirt getting torn to ribbons, and tied in a careful knot. There were a few moments where even Luxembourg seemed to be holding his breath, before Willem whirled around, and clapped his hands. "Who's the best emergency doctor? This guy right here!" He cheered pointing to himself with both thumbs.

Laura managed to swat her brother's shoulder on her way to Ludwig's side. "How are you feeling?"

"I'll live." He replied, though his voice was strained.

Shaking, Liechtenstein lifted her head to speak. "E-es tut mir lied, Ludwig."

"It's alright. You were just defending everyone."

"But still-!"

"Apologizing won't change anything." For that moment, the German sounded just like her brother, reminding her of how much she feared for his safety.

"Come here." Laura called softly. "You need a hug."

She wasn't exactly appreciative of Belgium's condescending tone, even if the offer was spot on. "Okay."

But as she moved to stand, Liechtenstein stumbled backwards, catching a loose tile as she went. The stone slid easily from its place, and clattered to the floor next to her, leaving a deep opening before the altar.

"Lily! Are you okay?" Belgium shouted, whirling around from Ludwig's side at the noise.

"I'm alright!" She coughed. As she sat up, the new opening caught her eye. "Come look at this!"

"What is it?"

As the altar sat on stones lifted about a foot off the ground, it seemed to have been made hollow. And in the gap between the surface, and the floor, someone had left a small treasure trove of boxes.

"Wine storage?" Laura guessed.

"I don't know. Help me pull them out?"

Along with Luxembourg's aid, they heaved around a dozen small wooden boxes from the absurdly spacious gap. Germany slid up to a sitting position as well, gingerly holding his bandaged shoulder, and watching curiously.

Liechtenstein lifted the lid of one box, and gasped at the sight of its contents. "It's Miss Elizaveta and Gilbert!"

Everyone crowded around her to see the picture in the little nation's hands. Even Ludwig, with most of his weight on Willem's shoulders, hobbled over to see. Sure enough, Prussia and Hungary smiled out at them from a black and white photograph. It was fairly old, just before the heat of World War II. Both were in full uniform, standing outside of what appeared to be Germany's townhouse in Berlin. On the back, in Gilbert's own careful scrawl was written, June 26, 1940. Our last day.

"I remember that afternoon." Germany murmured, taking the picture from Lily. "He was being sent to France the next day, and Hungary was off with me to Italy. They toured Berlin together before saying goodbye."

"This is all from the war." Lily continued, digging through the box. Medals that Ludwig recalled going missing, postcards from all over, pictures of nations and humans alike, news clippings from every corner of Europe, his old SS hat, and at the very bottom of the box, two yellowing diaries.

The Diary of the Awesome Me: 1936-1940

The Diary of the Awesome Me: 1941-1945

"All of these boxes are a different moment in time." Alfons realized. "Something important. Look, here's his time behind the Berlin Wall, the Seven Years' War…"

"1774… Oh! This must've been when he was training American soldiers!"

"This is all pretty incredible." Belgium murmured. Folding her arms, she looked over all the moments in time that Gilbert had deemed important. Then her gaze drifted over to Ludwig, who looked over it all with his face an unreadable mask.

Still leaning heavily on Netherlands' side, the man leaved over to close the nearest box with a snap. "Put them all away." He ordered weakly. "Gilbert wouldn't want us going through these." He knew his brother wouldn't have taken the care to stow anything away like this if it wasn't meant to stay hidden forever.

"Of course." Liechtenstein quickly agreed, and set everything back into the box before her, shutting it as well.

No one had really ever thought that Prussia was the sort of man who would keep something as personal as this. Of course he was self-absorbed, but never exactly nostalgic. No longer being a nation hit him pretty hard, it seemed.

"Oh, you missed something." Belgium pointed out, picking up a small envelope from the floor.

Lily took one look at it and shook her head. "That's far too new to belong in any of these boxes." But she took it anyway, and glanced at the front. "It's addressed to you Ludwig."

With a frown, the German accepted the envelope, and sat back down on a pew to open it. He covered his mouth with one hand as he read, covering the half-smirk that tugged on the corner of his lips.

West,

If you ever find this place, then I either told you about it, or you have truly gone insane on your cleaning spree, and no corner of the globe is safe anymore. May God have mercy on the souls of all those poor dust bunnies.

I'm leaving this here because obviously I'm not trying to sneak back inside to leave a note like some stupid runaway teenager. You'll get it eventually. This whole thing with Lizzie has made me realize that I can't stay stuck in the past anymore. I know exactly what you're thinking. Easier said than done, right? Well, no promises, but I'll definitely do my best, which is pretty damn awesome. I'm heading east for a bit, though I'll probably have been home for ages by now. (Tell future me I say hi!)

Sorry about yelling at you guys. I know I'm tough to deal with. The world just wasn't ready for this much awesome, it's not your fault.

Your badass big brother,

Gilbert

"He stopped here on his way out." Ludwig said aloud, rereading the letter, almost hearing his brother's voice as he did so.

"I guess we were right about this being his place." Laura mused with a smile. "It's a bit dramatic of him to go writing letters before running away though."

"He's always been like that, even when we were boys." He couldn't help but smile at the memories of Gilbert running around their small home, loudly proclaiming how he'd be the greatest knight there ever was, and one day lead crusades across his vast empire.

Then Germania would snatch the sword from his hand, and chastise him for being careless as always...

He'd already been kept separate from his family for long enough. This wasn't the time to reminisce when the other nations around him could be killed at any moment.

"I think I'll be alright to move. We shouldn't stay here any longer."

"Are you sure?" Laura's concern was painfully obvious when she looked at the haphazard bandage-job.

"Ja. The doubles might've heard that gunshot. Even if they didn't, they will see the hole in the door when they pass by again."

"We can probably make it to Munich on foot if we're fast and lucky enough..." Luxembourg mused, already mapping out the fastest route in his head.

"We can't!"

Everyone started at Liechtenstein's panicked outburst. She looked at the four as if they'd suggested going straight to the doubles and turning themselves in. Of course, they could all tell precisely why she didn't want to leave.

"Lily, Vash can take care of himself, you know that. He'd want you to be safe, and right now, we're not." Belgium tried to explain, but the nation before her wouldn't hear any of it.

"This is the place he knows to return to! If we leave, we've abandoned him! And we can't..." That hand extended towards her in the rain, already so thin. The dark green eyes, concerned and compassionate, like he truly wanted to help. "...I can't do that to him."

"Don't you think that dying would be just as bad?"

"Then I'll stay here alone! You need to get Ludwig somewhere he can rest and heal, I understand. But I'm not going anywhere when my bruder could come back here any minute!"

Belgium's face betrayed the entirety of her thought process. She didn't want to leave anyone behind. That was as good as a death sentence. But staying meant putting everyone at risk, especially Ludwig, who wouldn't last five minutes in a fight in his current state. "What will you do if they come instead of Vash?"

"Bruder taught me how to fight." She replied stubbornly. "I'll be fine."

"If we don't go soon, it'll be dark, and then we'll be completely lost and practically unarmed." Willem pointed out.

"Please Lily!"

But the small nation just sat down on the dusty floor, and folded her arms. Before she could present further childish stubbornness, the front door flew open, slamming into the wall beside it and fracturing to splinters.

"We interrupting something?" Germany's double asked coolly. At her right hand was a younger man with a long rifle slung across his shoulders. "So sorry about that, but we just stumbled across this dog in the woods." At her words, another blonde woman appeared around the doorway, heaving what appeared to be the broken body of Berlitz onto the floor.

A strange, feral grin crept along the woman's face as she continued to her silent audience.

"Is it yours?"

{}}+{{}

Thanks for reading~!

I apologize again for the lateness! I swear this story will be finished! Eventually...

Once I finish hating myself for killing Berlitz.

Okay.

Love you guys.

Translations:
Es tut mir lied - German - I'm sorry