Waking nightmares

Chapter 10: Seventeen Years

"Where do we begin?" Feliciano tapped his chin, unsure of how to start explaining. Should he start with the monsters, or the team? Maybe he should just start from the beginning? But that was such a long story. He could cut out most of it, though….

Feliciano looked over the meeting room as he thought, eyes connecting with each nations eyes individually. They all stared at him, waiting for him to speak. He stood in front of a long table of a room that looked almost identical to all of their world meeting rooms, to make things more comfortable on the others. He looked at his team for assistance, but they just shrugged.

"I guess from the beginning will do." Feliciano muttered. He tossed the idea around a bit more before nodding to himself. He looked over at the room. "Well, I should start off by saying this all started seventeen years ago."

"SEVENTEEN YEARS!?" The room shouted together.

Feliciano nodded, smiling widely. "Yup! Seventeen years ago! Well, for Matteo and me at least. We picked everyone else up along the way, and I think Tino has been doing this longer than we have."

"How the hell were you able to hide all of this," Alfred gestured to the room, "For seventeen years?!"

Matthew chuckled, standing next to Feliciano for any explanation back up. "We are good at our second jobs, Al."

"Most of you are morons. Made it easy." Li muttered, receiving many glares for that comment.

"So, how did you two get into this?" Elizabeta asked casually, leaning her head onto her palm.

Feliciano and Matthew looked at each other and smiled before shooting into their story together.

"Well, you see…."

"We've never actually been weak…"

Feliciano growled, punching a tree. He ignored the pain that shot through his arm, begging him to stop, but he didn't. He used his other hand to punch this time, having that one scream in protest next. He used the first hand again, then the other, then the first, then the other. He punched the tree until his breath came out in short pants, until his knuckles started to bleed, until he shouted his voice raw. He only stopped punching the tree at an impossible speed when a voice cut through his raging thoughts.

"I always thought you were off."

Feliciano whipped around quicker than any other time in his life. 'Please don't be Germany, please don't be Germany, oh god please don't be Germany.' He chanted in his head over and over. When he saw a full head of bright blonde hair, he almost had a heart attack. But after seeing that the hair was, in fact, not slicked back like Ludwig's, he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

After assessing that it was not the one person who mattered, Feliciano looked over the person standing in front of him. He looked like the American, but slightly taller, had longer hair with a curl like his own, and indigo eyes. The voice he had heard before had been soft and shy, and definitely belonged to this male. The Northern Italian recognised him as Matthew Williams, the nation of Canada, the one who was always forgotten and unseen. Feliciano had always seen him lurking about, and had thought about helping the other in his quest to get noticed. But, ultimately, Feliciano was selfish. He was more concerned about what Ludwig and the others would think of him if they found out that the deemed 'useless' nation was actually very smart, very strong, and held a very large grudge against them all for always calling him useless.

But in their defence, it was Feliciano's fault for making himself seem that way.

Matthew must have taken Feliciano's silence as confusion, since he said, "I'm Canada."

Feliciano frowned slightly. "I know." Since the other had just witnessed him wailing away on an innocent tree like it was his worst enemy, he figured slapping on his happy-go-lucky act wouldn't work.

Matthew's eyes widened slightly. He blinked a few times. He had obviously not expected that answer. After a few moments of Matthew looking quite shocked, he smiled slightly. "Mind telling me why you were trying to cut down a tree with your fists?"

Feliciano's frown deepened. Really, he didn't want to. He didn't know who Canada was personally, what he was like, or if the other could keep a secret. Really, he wanted to drug the other male with something that would give him memory loss of what he had seen Feliciano doing, but no drug like that existed. He just went for shaking his head.

Matthew didn't seem like he'd take the answer. He sat down on the grass, patting the spot in front of him. Feliciano stared at the blonde for a while. He could just walk away, leave the Canadian by himself. But some unknown force made Feliciano walk forward and plunk down in front of Matthew.

A cool breeze drifted by, tussling their hair and cooling them down somewhat. It was a nice contrast compared to the summers blazing heat. Matthew glanced back in the direction of the meeting building. He could still see the top half of the building. Matthew guest Feliciano didn't want to get lost.

"How long have you been watching me?" Feliciano asked, picking at the grass to make it look like he didn't care, but in reality it meant everything to him to know if Matthew had shown up a couple of minutes ago or half an hour ago.

"Since you snuck out of the meeting."

Well then, he was screwed. Matthew would blab about everything. Feliciano hung his head slightly.

"I was on the other side of the room when this happened, so would you mind filling me in on what happened to make you go bat-shit crazy on nature?"

Feliciano snorted. If there was one good thing Matthew accidentally picked up from his brother, it was his sense of humour. The Italian looked up at the smiling Canadian, studying his eyes. There were secrets he held from others, similar to what Feliciano was doing. He guessed it was alright to talk to Matthew.

Feliciano flopped back onto the grass, spreading out so he would be comfortable while spilling his guts. He smiled when Matthew plunked down beside him.

"Big Brother France was making fun on me." He said simply. "There were others, too, but they were just going along with what France was saying. He started by teasing me about my siesta's to jabbing at how 'useless' I am."

"Well, you are far from that." Matthew hummed, looking back at the tree, which looked two seconds from falling over.

"If only they knew that." Feliciano sighed. "But I didn't actually learn how to be useful until I defeated Turkey in battle when I was young, but by then everyone already thought I couldn't do anything properly, so I just went along with it. By the time I grew up, no one took me seriously."

"So why didn't you change their opinions?"

"I was, I swear I was going to. But then World War I rolled around and I didn't have any time to learn how to be strong with others around me. I was used to acting helpless, and the habit didn't really fade until World War II, but by then…"

"Let me guess." Matthew looked over at him, a devious smirk on his lips. "Germany?"

Feliciano turned slightly pink, but nodded. "Yeah, Germany. What about you? Why do you act invisible?"

"I don't 'act' as anything." Matthew sighed. "The other nations just don't see me for some reason, or think I'm Al- I mean, America."

"Well, they're stupid."

"You sound like Romano."

Feliciano laughed. "I do, don't I?"

Matthew chuckled, then continued. "I've tried everything I can think of to get noticed, I even stripped in the middle of one world meeting, but nothings worked. So, I've taken all the emotions I feel from constant loneliness and invisibility, and shove it to the deepest parts of my mind. Sometimes, I have a fit, like you just did."

Feliciano nodded. He thought his situation was bad, but he really felt for Matthew. The pour kid had it worse than he did.

Before their conversation could continue, something came crashing out of the woods. Both nations jumped up to their feet, started. They stared at the thing in horror.

It was completely black, even its eyes, and about the same size as a pony. It looked like a giant rabbit with a lot of muscles. It walked on its front paws for the most part, using its tiny back legs as a way of balancing. It was the most disgusting thing either nation had seen in their lives (when they faced more Nightmares years later, they realized this thing had been seriously weak and had laughed about it.)

Both of them got over the feeling quickly, dodging out of the way just as the bunny-thing slammed its fists down in the spot they had been. It snarled, swinging its hands after Matthew.

Who blocked with a hockey stick.

Feliciano was seriously questioning his sanity at this point, contemplating that he might have snapped and was now hallucinating, or had just accidentally taken some of Netherlands drugs and was tripping. But he was faced with the reality of the situation when Matthew cried out in pain, slamming into a tree trunk, dropping his hockey stick.

Feliciano, without thinking, rushed to his side and picked the hockey stick up. He turned to face the weird thing, pointing the stick at it. When it snarled and lunged, Feliciano had been ready, and slammed the stick over its head. The hockey stick broke in half.

The thing looked momentarily stunned, wobbling around. While vulnerable, Matthew picked up the other half of the stick. And together, Matthew and Feliciano plunged the wooden pieces deep into the creature's chest.

It screamed, loudly, then started disappearing from where they had stabbed it first. When it had all dissipated, floating into the wind, Feliciano turned his wide eyes to Matthew.

"Please tell me I'm crazy, and we did not just kill something."

Matthew didn't reply, instead looking like he was trying to remember something. "That looked familiar…"

"Familiar?!"

Matthew waved for Feliciano to follow him, then ran off. Without any other options, Feliciano followed.

"After that, I went and grabbed Arthur's spell book." Matthew told the quiet room. "I remembered finding something along the same description in there the last time I flipped through it. That's when we found out what those were. So, naturally, I tore those pages out of his book."

Arthur glared daggers at his former charge, muttering about how that was where those pages had gone. Matthew ignored the stare, continuing.

"The things didn't actually have names, so at the time, we just called them 'The Things'. After we learned more about the Nightmares, we decided to start hunting them. It was a good stress reliever."

"Okay…." Yao nodded, brows furrowed. He understood thus far. "So, how did you get the others dragged into this?"

"Well, since we first recruited Nat and Li, I think they should explain!" Feliciano cheered, looking over at the pair, who sat closest to them.

The two shrugged. Li motioned for Natalia to do the talking, since he didn't much enjoy opening his mouth and forming syllables that went together correctly. Natalia rolled her eyes, but stood and walked over to Matthew and Feliciano at the front of the room. She turned back, and started.

"It was fourteen years ago, during a meeting in Russia. Li had gotten himself lost and ended up stumbling into a town near the border between Russia and Belarus. I was just leaving for the meeting when I ran into him. Right after I did, the Nightmares popped up."

Natalia let out a long breath, watching her breath come out in a puff of smoke that floated skyward. She might be creepy, but she was secretly childish, and enjoyed doing things like watching your breath come out in winter.

She didn't bother doing up her jacket, she was so used to the cold. That and it wasn't actually that cold, there wasn't any snow yet. It was just starting to become winter, after all. Last week had been the official start of the new season, so it would snow very soon, but not yet.

Natalia looked around. She was in one of the towns out skirting Russia. She had quite a ways to walk, but she didn't mind. It left more time to think.

How was her brother? What was he doing? Was he talking to some other nation? He shouldn't be, all his attention belonged on her and her only. All of it. Maybe she should tie him up and force him to pay attention to her, since he always ran away. Yes, if she tied him up, he would be with her forever. And they could get married.

Natalia, so caught up with her thoughts and fantasies, didn't notice the boy jogging in her direction until they rammed right into her.

Natalia quickly stood and brushed herself off, taking out one of her many knives to threaten whoever barreled into her. She hesitated when she saw it was a fellow nation.

The boy looked younger than her physically, only by a few years. His dark brown hair was hidden by a thick hood. The winter jacket he wore was way too big for him, it was probably China's or something. Over dark brown eyes hovered the unfortunate trademark Kirkland family eyebrows. He stood and brushed himself off, not bothering to apologize.

"Watch where you're going." Natalia growled, holding her knife out.

The boy, Hong Kong as Natalia finally recognized him as, shrugged. He started walking in the direction Natalia came.

"Meeting building room is this way." Natalia snorted, starting to walk the way it actually was.

Hong Kong immediately turned around and started following Natalia, seeing as she knew where she was going. Natalia was slowly getting annoyed. She shouldn't have opened her mouth. But she had, and now she was paying for it. Dearly.

But, despite her growing irritation, Natalia never once snapped at Hong Kong to find his own way. Natalia didn't know why, she just didn't. Maybe she felt bad for the kid's obvious lack of sense of direction. That was probably it, actually.

Hog Kong looked around, frowning slightly. He didn't see anyone. The streets were deserted. He looked in between alleyways, peeked into windows slightly, but there wasn't anyone around. Hong Kong shrugged it off, thinking it was just a weird Russian thing, kind of like how Italians and Spaniards took siestas. No one was on the streets when siesta time came.

Natalia hadn't noticed at all, she was too busy thinking of her brother (again).

They were almost out of the town when they attacked.

It had been a quick, one sided battle that the things that popped out were winning. There were ten of them in total, all different sizes and shapes. This was when Natalia learnt that Hong Kong always carried around a katana with him, a gift from Japan. Hong Kong learnt Natalia carried twenty seven knives with her. At least.

They managed to hold of the things fairly well on their own, but they had no experience with these things. Matthew and Feliciano had gotten lucky with getting a very, very weak thing, but they had ten semi-strong ones the first time they encountered any sort of demon. They could only defend themselves.

Then Feliciano and Matthew came.

One moment, they were trying to hold the things off, and the next, they were falling over, dead. Natalia and Hong Kong blinked slowly, staring at the two who saved them. Both were shocked to see Feliciano, the 'useless' Italian. Only Hong Kong was shocked to see Matthew, since he was the only one out of the two who knew who he was. And he only knew Matthew because they were raised together for a short time, and shared the same birthday.

"That was easy. They weren't that strong, were they?" Feliciano sighed, stretching. "That's boring!"

Matthew rolled his eyes, but smiled lightly. "You take too much enjoyment out of this."

Feliciano laughed, then set his eyes on Natalia and Hong Kong. His face dropped to a serious expression. "What should we do with these two?"

"Hm?" Matthew looked at the two nations, standing there and gaping. "Oh. I hadn't seen them. Hello Belarus! Hi Li!"

Li. So that was Hong Kong's human name. Natalia got the feeling she would be using it from now on.

"Who are you?" Natalia asked. Usually she wouldn't have bothered, but they had saved her, so she was curious of whom this other person was.

Matthew sighed, then smiled kindly. "I'm Canada. But you can call me Matthew, if you want."

Natalia burned the name into her head. Unconsciously, of course. Since that moment on, she stalked Matthew almost as feverously as she stalked her brother. She hadn't meant to, but every chance she got she just followed him. And she found herself not being alone when stalking, having Li as her company.

Three weeks later, the two demon hunters faced the issue.

"Why do you keep following us?" Feliciano asked, pouting slightly.

"We'd like to join you." Li blurted out. Natalia nodded once. That was also what she wanted.

"It's too dangerous. We don't want to put you in danger."

"We don't care."

"You might die."

"We don't care."

"You might get a fate worse than death."

"We need to protect our families." Natalia growled. "How are we supposed to do that if we don't know how to defeat the enemy?"

Feliciano rubbed his head. He opened his mouth to deny, but Matthew raised a hand. The Canadian grinned at the two.

"Well, if you insist, I guess we can't refuse."

"After that, we trained to be able to kill the Nightmares. We protected our families. That's about it." Natalia went back and sat down again once she finished.

"After that, three years later, Katyusha and Yong Suu came." Matthew waved over the two, and they got up and came over.

"Basically, we were suspicious of Nat and Yong Suu's behavior changes." Katyusha started.

Yong Suu nodded. "One day when they snuck off, we followed them."

Katyusha and Yong Suu stared at each other, brows furrowed. They had bumped into each other while following their siblings, who seemed to be going somewhere. Together. Trying to sneak off.

"You don't think they….." Yong Suu gulped.

Katyusha paled. "Um, maybe they're just heading the same way!"

"They're talking to each other."

"Oh dear."

They couldn't believe their eyes. The two anti-social nations were chatting to each other like old friends. They were even smiling. The two wanted their siblings to be happy and all, but this was….

"Well, it's nice to be talking to you, Sis." Yong Suu grinned wickedly over at Katyusha, who teared up. She was fine with only two family members, thanks.

They followed the other two deep into the forest, almost loosing track of them a few times. When they did find them again, after losing them for the tenth time, they were not prepared to see what they saw.

There were five pure black creatures, and one that had purple eyes. It was obviously the leader of the group, and the one ordering the others to attack. Li and Natalia fought off the five easily, but got stuck with the purple eyed one.

The thing, with the head of a lion and the body of a mini dragon, smirked. It opened its jaws wide, like a snakes, and spat out a purple the same shade as its dark eyes. Natalia and Li jumped out of the way, but Li caught a drop on his cheek. He winced as the liquid sizzled on his skin, leaving a small yet serious burn mark.

Without thinking, Yong Suu grabbed the sharpest stick he could find and threw it like a spear at the thing. It hit it on the back of the head, only leaving a scratch. The black creature swung around none of the less, snarling. Yong Suu froze, eyes locked with the creatures. Katyusha grabbed him and yanked him to the side just in time for another batch of whatever the thing spat out to land where Yong Suu had been.

With the things attention on those two, Li and Natalia took the chance to rush forward. The creature realized its mistake, but it was too late. Natalia cut off the things head, while Li sliced through its torso. It crumpled, then dissipated.

They Katyusha and Yong Suu stared at their siblings, unsure of how to react. Natalia and Li stared back, unsure of how to explain. They stayed like that for a few minutes, then Feliciano and Matthew came into the area.

"Nat, Li, did you finish up?" Feliciano asked with a grin.

They didn't respond, just stared. Matthew looked to what they were staring at and laughed.

"Hello Katyusha, Korea. How are you two?"

"What just happened, daze?" Yong Suu blinked.

Feliciano wanted to groan, but he didn't. Instead, he slapped on a wide smile. "Why don't you come with us, and we'll explain!"

"They explained what they were doing, and why they were doing it." Katyusha looked at Yong Suu to finish.

"And we joined in to help our younger siblings!" He cheered.

The two sat back down.

"Abel, Lilli, and Vash joined a few months later. We don't actually know how that happened, they just…. Appeared." Matthew scratched his cheek, trying to think of how they came into the team. It was a lost cause. The three mentioned couldn't even remember how they got in.

"Tino was recruited nine years ago, but had been chasing away Nightmares since they first appeared." Feliciano explained, motioning for the Nordic nation to come forth. "He didn't know how to kill them, though."

Tino walked up, turning to the nations in the room with a bright smile. "Well, it was during a meeting in Denmark. The Nightmares were getting restless, and decided to pay a visit…"

Tino sighed, staring at the six green eyed black monsters. He pointed his sniper at them, frowning. They never died. It wasn't that Tino was missing, he never missed, it was that these things just wouldn't die. No matter how many bullets he emptied into one of their heads, it would not drop. It seemed to hurt them, though, so he could at least chase the things away.

Right before Tino took the shot, finger slowly squeezing the trigger, several figures jumped into his vision. The Nordic jolted his shooting hand back, almost dropping the gun in his attempt to keep himself from yanking the trigger in surprise. He regarded the people, eyes wide, from his tree a few kilometers away.

The first person Tino recognised was unmistakably Northern Italy. The unsually happy-go-lucky nation had a serious expression on his face, and was throwing what looked like balls of flames at the things. By the screeches Tino could hear, whatever the other was doing was working.

The second person, Tino recognised as well. It was Belarus, the one who tailed Russia everywhere. She was throwing her smaller knives, stabbing with ones larger than your average kitchen knife. On either side of her were Hong Kong and Netherlands, who Tino didn't know as well since the two didn't come to meetings often. They both held swords, which they used skillfully.

The last person Tino saw, he didn't immediately recognise. It took him a lot of thinking, memory digging, and soft knocks on his head to finally pull up a name (although it wasn't the right one, but hey, it was progress). Tino remembered, long, long ago, that he and his brothers sailed to find new land. And they had. Tino matched the tiny nation he had met back then to this one, drawing the conclusion that this was, in fact, Vinland. The Northern nation swung a hockey stick around, his usually soft expression replaced with a maniacs grin. He would talk to the others fighting with him once and a while, but otherwise focused on the battle.

Shots rang out, accompanied with the 'thwack' of a bow string releasing. Tino scanned the tree line a few times before spotting three more people. Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Korea. They all held range weapons (some more impressive than others), and were acting as backup for the dueling nations. All things considering, they were doing fairly well.

Tino looked back at the more easily seen nations, and slipped off of the branch he perched on in shock. They had killed them. They had killed the green eyed things. They had killed them!

While the team of nations regrouped, Tino stood. Throwing caution to the wind, he ran into the clearing. He needed to know how he could defeat those things. He needed to protect his land, his people, and his family more effectively. And they had the answers he needed.

Before the group of nations could even question why the Nordic nation burst into the clearing with a gun, or what he was even doing there, Tino ran over to Northern Italy and Vinland. They were the closest to him, and seemed to have the most knowledge.

"How did you kill them?" He asked, breathlessly.

The two 'innocent' nations blinked, staring at the shorter male. They looked at each other, seemingly speechless. Tino gave them giant puppy dog eyes, and they caved.

"Well, it took us a long time to figure that out… but, pretty much…."

"And after they explained it to me, I helped out here and there."

Tino headed for his seat, ruffling Peter's hair when he walked by the ocean 'nation'. He knew the kid was next, so he gave a small smile of encouragement.

Peter grinned brightly, running to the front before he could be called on. He turned to everyone, the grin never leaving. "I was the last to join, three years ago!"

Peter glanced over at the Jerk England. The older nation was sitting on his porch, reading a thick book, drinking tea. He looked very relaxed, even a bit happy. His body was mostly lax, save for the arm holding his book up and the other arm holding his tea. He wore only a pair of dress pants and a button up white flannel. He didn't even have shoes on. It was one of those rare days that the sun decided to shine down on the streets of the island nation, so it was fairly warm. Not too warm to be considered hot, but rather what some might call 'the perfect temperature'.

Peter hadn't seen Jerk England like this more than twice, so when he did see the other resting, Peter usually avoided him. Not for fear of the anger England might possess over having his relaxing time cut short, but because he thought the other deserved some time off once in a while. The Briton usually had a non-stop onslaught of annoyance from France, America, his own government and Peter himself. Some peace and quiet was exactly what England needed.

And Peter was determined to let absolutely nothing touch, or interrupt, England when he was like this. Not even these black monster things.

There were three of them, and looked almost the same. They were about the same size as horses, with the head and torso of hawks and the hands and feet of humans. A long tail bone hung from their rear ends, swinging back and forth in time with their steps. Their tales didn't have any skin or muscles on them, they were just bone and cartilage. Peter didn't know exactly how they stayed in one piece without anything holding them together, but he was in no position to ask questions.

Peter had been trying to find a squirrel when he spotted the three creatures. Being the curious child he was, he walked over to them, brows furrowing when he saw them stalking slowly towards an unsuspecting England. The old man must have been really engrossed with his book.

Not wanting Jerk England's rest to be cut short, the small 'nation' had walked over to the things. The three of them had instantly forgotten all about England when they sensed Peter, instead turning towards the small boy. Peter swallowed his slight fear and caution, trying to imitate America's bravery. He puffed his chest out, stood as tall as he could without falling over, and tilted his head slightly up as if to look down on the three shadowy things.

He started walking backwards. Slowly at first, testing out how much these things would ignore England. When the things started following him at the same pace, Peter walked a little faster. The things easily kept up with him. Peter knew you should never turn your back to the enemy, a common and basic rule among all nations (even so, some forgot to follow it), so he did not turn away. He did not look away from the oddly portioned things. Instead, he started jogging backwards.

Now, there is a great deal many things that Peter doesn't know, that make him unable to be completely recognised as a nation (although, that is not the only reason). One of these things is coordination, since Peter is a surprisingly clumsy individual. So, it would shock no one to know that after about ten minutes of jogging backwards, Peter tripped and fell.

The three shadow things were upon him in an instant, bearing giant teeth that should not have fit inside those beaks. They went to tear the micro-est of nations apart. Peter froze, eyes wide, staring at the open mouths of those things. He would be down those throats, in those stomachs soon. The thought of being torn to pieces, the pain involved, terrified Peter. He opened his mouth to scream, but his voice had stopped working. His lungs wouldn't take in air, let alone push air out. He was as good as a stone statue, but made of flesh.

Peter shut his eyes tightly, not wanting to see himself get killed. He hadn't died before. Sure, there was that time he almost drowned, but that didn't count. This would be his first experiencing his heart stop, his mind stop working. This was the first time he would be resurrected.

If he did resurrect, that is.

Peter's thoughts were interrupted by three screeches, but he didn't open his eyes. The things might just be arguing over who got to eat all of him. He stayed there, not breathing.

"Peter, are you alright?" A soft voice asked.

Peter, jolted at the sound of the familiar voice. He hadn't heard anyone approach. Maybe it was because his heart was pounding so hard he couldn't hear anything else. Even though he wanted to open his eyes, they refused to open. Peter scooted back slightly when he felt something brush against his shoulder.

"Peter, they're gone. You can open your eyes now."

He started shaking, forcefully prying his eyes open. His vision blurred together for a few seconds before clearing up. He instantly knew who was in front of him, and was grateful that it was his brother. Peter's relief flooded every pore of his body.

Matthew scooped the child into his arms just before he burst into tears.

Of course, Peter didn't say any of that.

"Jerk England was relaxing, so I lead them away heroically! Then Feli and Mattie showed up and finished them off! After watching how cool I was, they couldn't work without me, so they practically begged me to join them, and so I did!"

Feliciano and Matthew stared at Peter, the former with a goofy grin across his lips and the latter slowly putting his face into his hand. Everyone else in the room knew Peter was bullshitting, but they had absolutely no clue how else Peter could have joined the team, so they bit the bait. They'd wrestle with the fisherman later.

"Any questions?"

A few hands shot up, a rare organized-meeting motion. Feliciano nodded to his brother to go first.

"How the fuck can you use magic?"

"Ve~ Well, I have no clue. I just can." He looked over to Ivan, nodding to the icy nation.

"You mentioned no one else knew how to kill the Nightmares when they first encountered them, but you two killed the first one you fought. Why is that?"

Matthew decided to answer this one. "When Feli and I read up on the Nightmares, we discovered that they could only be killed by magic, or something with magical residue. Since not many of us use magic, it makes sense they couldn't kill the Nightmares. We killed our first Nightmare because Feli has a permanent magical aura around him, that can't really be detected. When he picked up my hockey stick, he put a bit of magic onto it, so we were able to kill it."

Alfred was the last one. "You guys keep mentioning eye colours. Like, the things Tino fought had green eyes. The one Natalia and Li killed had purple eyes. That one Nightmare we encountered had blue eyes, or so I've been told. Do they have some sort of significance?"

"Well, yes." Feliciano pondered for a moment, thinking of a way to explain it. "It's a kind of way they…. Sort out their monarchy."

Seeing the confused looks, Matthew elaborated. "Black eyed Nightmares are the weakest. They get colours when they get powerful enough. Once they're stuck in one eye colour, they can't change it."

"Like blue are ones that possess a fair amount of magical power, but usually directed to one specific element or category. Purple ones have something to do with poison and acid. Green ones are resistant to, well, everything. Most Nightmares don't go up north since they freeze, but since the green eyed ones are resistant to the cold, Tino only ever saw those ones. Red eyed Nightmares are usually regenerative beings, and a pain to kill." Feliciano ticked off his fingers with each new colour he mentioned. "Oranges are 'void' manipulators. We haven't encountered any other colours so far, and I haven't heard of any."

"What about gold?" Lilli mentioned, tilting her head cutely.

The nation's ears perked at that. They turned to Feliciano and Matthew, curiosity shining in their eyes. They felt a little disappointed when Matthew just shrugged.

"It's a fairy tale. That one doesn't exist."

"Even so, I would like to hear more about this 'gold Nightmare'." Arthur slid forward on his seat, sitting up very straight. He didn't look like he would move from that spot until he was told about it.

"I can't remember it very well, since it was one of the Nightmares that told us about this…" Feliciano looked up, trying to remember. "But it was something like, 'The gold clad king will rise above all', I think."

"I did some research." Matthew admitted, ignoring the fake hurt Feliciano slapped onto his face. "The gold eyed Nightmare is supposed to have all the traits of the other colours, and is therefore the ruler. He is the only Nightmare that can't rise in shadow form, but instead needs a human form that is able to hold him. Since there aren't many people on this planet that would ever be able to hold the king, he's never walked the earth. I don't think it's true."

"But even if it was, no one would be able to keep that much power inside of them without exploding!" Feliciano laughed. "So we don't have to worry about it!"

The nations seemed content, even intrigued, by the answers they received. They all seemed more willing to stay now, but were still jumpy about their own countries.

"And don't worry, we have people around the world looking after your countries while you are here training."

The room's atmosphere relaxed, then tensed slightly. "Training?"

"You want to protect yourselves instead of relying on us, right?"

There was a murmured agreement that bounced around the room. Feliciano and Matthew smiled at their team, who in turn, smiled back. They were going to have fun.

"Well, we'll start tomorrow. But now, we need diner! Let's eat!"

A/N: I had fun with this chapter, especially Peter's background joining the group. I hope you guys enjoy it as well! Thank you for the support, you're all the best! Votes for your ships are still open, but will close on the twelfth chapter.

Votes

One vote: AmePan (America x Japan), SeaLiech (Sealand x Liechtenstein), USUK (America x England)

Two votes: DenNor (Denmark x Norway)

Three votes: FRUK (France x England)