China lay on the dusty ground. Each breath was now just a gasp, a massive effort to keep him in the world. Egypt had left shortly after Europa.
Europa.
He still couldn't quite believe that someone – no, something – like that could exist. But no human could kill him with a knife. Only a country could, and even then it was pushing at the boundaries of what was possible for each country to do to another.
But a continent? A continent could probably do whatever he liked.
A continent could ram a plane into the ground, jump out and kill a country. Just like that. He hadn't even broken a sweat. And it wasn't like China was a small country, either – he was a superpower – and Europa had dealt him a fatal blow in less time that it had taken him to work out how to get his plane out of the sky.
Footsteps thudded in the distance, getting slowly closer. Help? China could only hope so. He desperately clung onto consciousness, but he could feel his grip slipping.
A figure bent over him. "China," they gasped. "Hold on. You'll be okay. You'll be okay."
The Sun did not seem to share Europa's impatience. He felt like it was days before it rose above the horizon, tinging the sky pink.
Europa paused from rearranging the furniture of the hotel room in an epic game of Tetris and hurried out into the dingy corridor. He dumped the keys on the front desk and ran outside. He didn't remember if he'd paid for his room or not.
He went into the city centre and paced outside an electrical shop until it opened. He bought a phone to replace the one still in his crashed plane and checked as many news websites as he could.
The mysterious 'ghost-plane' crash in Egypt was attracting quite a few headlines, as was the announcement that Europe was joining to form one country until the end of the war (apparently the bosses of Europe had only just noticed that their countries' embodiments were missing). Europa sighed when he read that headline and took a break from reading the news to text as many bosses as he could his new number.
Naturally, he signed himself off as Europa, The Destroyer of Airports.
But despite several hours of searching, he couldn't find any story on the fall of China. There were plenty on Canada's state of civil emergency, which was to be expected, but China must still be alive.
Which meant that America couldn't have done any helpful bombing.
Europa tapped out a text to him. Eloquently asking him exactly what he thought he was doing, and did he want Beijing as his new capital?
After receiving a few angry texts from exasperated new bosses, wondering exactly why the countries of Europa had unified, Europa switched off his new mobile and decided to go find China.
The country must have survived their battle, but he would be in very bad shape. Europa headed back to the place where the plane had crashed. The whole area had been cordoned off by the police, but they didn't pose much of a problem.
Okay, so maybe he had to knock three unconscious since two witnessed him stealing the first officer's uniform, but it wasn't like he'd had to take out every police officer in the area. Which Europa was fairly sure he would be able to do if he had to.
He kept his head down and ducked beneath the police tape. The plane was crawling with forensic scientists like white ants. Europa kept away from it and focused, instead on the ground around the plane. Eventually he found what he was looking for; a long streak of red in the dusty ground. The marks left from China's wound when someone dragged him away.
But who would do that?
Russia? The Baltics' memories swam to the surface of Europa's consciousness. No, not Russia. Japan, maybe? But he hadn't been seen since the first predictions of a war.
Europa shook his head. He'd work it out. He'd hurt China enough that it would be a long time before he recovered enough to do any more fighting. He might as well go after America again.
This time, Europa flew in the more… conventional way. The flight took ten hours, leaving Europa restless and incredibly bored. He spent the first half of the flight reassuring his many bosses that he had only their best interests at heart, but refused the many demands he was getting to show up back on his own continent.
After dealing with the bureaucrats, there was nothing to do. Literally nothing. Most people on the plane were sleeping, but… Europa didn't need sleep.
Okay, so he kept closing his eyes without meaning to, and, yes, he kept yawning, but he was a continent. He didn't need sleep. Didn't need the baggage that came with it, anyway.
"Shut up," he hissed at himself. "I'm a continent. I don't need sleep. I could sleep if I wanted to, but there's no reason."
He caught his eyes beginning to close again and bit down hard on his hand in the hope that it would keep him awake. A little blood dribbled down his wrist. He watched it disappear under his black sleeve.
Eyes closed again. There was a brief flash of flames and screaming, coupled with a flash of throwing a grenade. He fiercely wiped his face with his sleeve. Continents never cry. Continents never cry.
The businessman in the seat next to Europa frowned. He smiled back. "English?" Europa asked. "Français? Deutsch?"
The businessman nodded.
"I'm from Europe," Europa said, in perfect German. "You?"
The businessman shrugged. "Egypt. I go to many conferences in Germany, though." He was obviously uncomfortable with talking to the stranger he was sat next to.
Europa smiled. "Me too," he said. "I'm going to America to help with the war effort."
"Really?" the businessman looked a little more interested now. "What is your job?"
Europa's smiled widened. "Killing people," he said.
Europa headed out of the airport and glanced around him. Florida. Now, how to draw America here?
Of course. There was really only one thing that united the whole of the United States, wasn't there? One thing that captured the imagination of the whole nation. Europa took a deep breath and looked above him. "Lux," he whispered and strained his concentration.
The other spells hadn't been this hard, had they?
Eventually, a ball of light appeared in the air far above Europa's head. It wasn't as large as he would've liked, but he muttered "viride" and it started shining every shade of green you could imagine, until it crashed into the sea. The water frothed and boiled, until eventually the light dimmed and everything was still.
Now all Europa had to do was wait. Which would've been fine, if waiting was something he was good at.
The day passed slowly; Europa was completely worn out and struggled not to fall flat on his face out of sheer exhaustion. He started talking to Americans in obscure languages to see their reactions, but that got boring very quickly.
"Got to keep busy," Europa muttered without meaning to. He paused and checked that no-one had noticed, then sighed. Much as he hated to acknowledge the little voice that told him things like this, he had to admit that it had a point. If he stopped keeping himself busy then he would see… those things again.
He blinked and saw a flash of a battlefield, littered with roasted corpses and rivers of mud.
Once his eyes were open again, Europa saw a familiar figure standing on the beach in front of him. Brown hair, cracked glasses. America.
Europa dialled his number. "Hey, Alfie," he sang.
No reply.
"Look behind you."
Slowly, America twisted round. Europa waved. A tension crackled between them.
"Get out of my country," America hissed.
Europa shrugged and hung up. He headed towards America, who met him halfway. "How goes the war, hero?" he asked.
"The war's on hold," America replied.
"Shame," Europa commented. "Can I ask why?"
"Because there are people dying in China. His stab wound caused a volcanic eruption where there was no previous seismic activity. Massive amounts of farmland were destroyed and there isn't going to be enough food to provide for the whole country. His people are dying. Because of you."
Europa laughed. "Oh, come on, you were trying to kill them too! Weren't you, hero?"
"I won't let you hurt my people," America said.
"Then you should probably surrender now, instead of fighting me."
"Why would I do that when I've seen what happened to China? Seriously, dude, I'm not an idiot."
"Debatable. No, not debatable at all," Europa smiled as sweetly as he could. "Well, we may as well get this fight over with."
America nodded.
Neither of them moved.
"You killed Canada," Europa said.
No reply.
"I bet you meant to. You saw him standing between you and Russia and knew that it would be so easy… You never liked him, did you? I bet you wished you could've danced in rivers of his blood and-"
He caught America's punched and dodged the kick following it up. He was about to put America in an armlock once again, when someone else kneed America in a… painful area and stood, hands on hips, in front of him.
"Um-" Europa started.
"I am the great Sealand, and I have come to save Mr America!"
Europa stared at him for a moment. God, those eyebrows really were terrifying. Suddenly, the hilarity of the whole situation hit him and he burst out laughing. "Okay," he finally said. "Okay, we can fight."
America moaned something unintelligible, but he didn't try to stop Sealand from pulling his gun out of his jacket. "Okay," Sealand said. "Okay. So what do we do?"
Europa shrugged. "This," he said and stretched one hand out in front of him, "fulmen."
Nothing happened.
Europa frowned and shook his hand. He cleared his mind and tried the spell again. "Fulmen… FULMEN!"
Nothing.
Sealand thumbed the safety off America's gun. "I will shoot you," he said levelly.
Europa laughed, hiding the fact that his magic wasn't working. "I will kill you first," he said.
"No way, you eyebrow-less freak!"
Eyebrow-less? Europa wondered, but already he could see Sealand taking aim. Okay, so magic wasn't working.
He shot forwards and ran straight towards Sealand. As soon as he was close he slammed both hands down on the road and hit Sealand with the most powerful double kick he could. There was a high scream and Sealand crashed on top of a nearby building. Europa winced. That must have hurt.
Europa walked over to America and kicked him in the side. "You might want to check on him," he said, nodding towards the building. He would've added another comment – something to do with America's good taste in allies – but suddenly Europa felt faint and the world twisted around him. He caught his balance and frowned. This lack of sleep was becoming a real problem. He hurried away before America realised he had a weakness.