Okay, after about a nearly two week absence I'm ready to type up the ninth chapter of this story.

You know what's hilarious? Sunday night, I was totally freaking about my unfinished term paper outline and do you know what I find out the next day when I'm panicking about how I'm going to be late for class when I go to the lab to print out the one piece of paper I'm supposed to submit? MY CLASS IS CANCELED! That's right... I get up for one of my early classes and I find out that they canceled my sociology class! Gah... I hate you irony. I hate you so much right now.

Recap: Italy and Philia have been found and they go to the fourth floor for a group reunion. Unfortunately, the Thing has beaten them to their friends. And so now, they fight.

Disclaimer: I don't own HetaOni. I do, however, own my character Philia.

Chapter Nine

There was silence as the Thing realized that Philia was right. However, it did not seem to be bothered by this fact as it lunged right at Italy with the intent of taking his head off.

The pasta loving Italian's eyes narrowed as he ducked to avoid the blow.

"Italy!" Germany and Prussia yelled in unison as the Thing went after him again.

But their worries and fear went unfounded. To everyone's disbelief, Italy was able to avoid the sharp, outstretched claws of the alien like creature as he ducked, stepped to the side or took a step back; just narrowly missing being hit. As they watched in stunned amazement, they were hardly aware of the Thing's growing agitation and the increasing speed he was throwing his attacks at the man.

What further surprised them was that Italy retaliated by throwing a jar of what looked like tomato sauce at the Thing's head which caused it to roar in pain as it stumbled back.

Everyone could only gaze in awe except for one person.

"BIND!" A female voice rang out clear through the room.

Something in the air shifted and not even a second later, a dark red circle formed beneath the Thing's feet. Ribbons of red shot out from the edges of the circle and wrapped themselves around the creature's arms, neck and legs; firmly holding it in place. The Thing roared and turned its black murderous gaze on a certain dress clad filipina who was holding her hands in front of her; concentrating on the spell that had paralyzed the creature.

"What are you waiting for?" Philia shouted at the others who turned to stare at her in amazement. "The spell isn't going to hold forever; you have to attack it now!"

Despite the shock of his younger 'sister' pulling an England on them, Japan gave a short nod as his body moved on its own. With a leap, he was in the air and descending on the creature with his katana held high above its head. His weapon plunged right into the middle of the Thing's forehead.

The Thing stared back at him with its hateful eyes before beginning to fade away.

"That was much easier than the other times..." Japan could only blink as he recalled that it had barely taken half the time to defeat the Thing this time than their earlier encounters.

"Veh..." Italy ran the back of his hand across his forehead. Running up to Japan, he hugged the shorter asian man. "Thank you for defeating it! I don't think I was going to be able to keep up not getting hurt!"

"You're, uh, welcome?" Should Italy really be thanking him? He was the one who just dealt the final blow thanks to Philia keeping it bound in place with that spell.

,There was something that tugged at Japan's mind. Just how in the world was Philia able to cast one? Thanks to being around England, Japan knew that magic existed but as far as he knew, the only other country capable of casting spells other than him was Norway, one of the Nordics.

Vietnam, however, beat him to the question he wanted to ask her.

"What was that?" She was still clutching her bleeding forehead but her livid gaze was on Philia.

Meanwhile, the archipelago nation shivered under her gaze as she stared at her friend straight in the eyes.

"Um, what do you mean?" Philia asked, trying to feign ignorance but failing miserably.

"That." She gestured to the spot where the red circle had appeared. After the creature had faded, the circle disappeared not long after wards. "Was that magic?"

"Yes." Philia said in a quiet voice as she nervously looked around to room to try and escape Vietnam's wrath. "But enough about that!" Philia's suddenly said. "You're hurt! We have to do something about that blood!"

"Huh?" Vietnam then remembered that there was blood gushing from her head. "Oh, it's nothing. Just a head wound; you know, looks worse than it actually is; especially if it's bleeding."

But Philia wasn't buying it. "I know a fair bit on medicine." Which was an extreme understatement as several times already the filipina, despite her age, had come to the medical aid of various countries and treated their wounds during battle. Also, quite a lot of her people were nurses not only within her domain but in the other countries as well so it was only natural she had extensive knowledge in the field of doctors. "And head wounds are the more dangerous injuries. So I'm going to have to make sure that it's nothing serious."

"I said I'm fine!" Vietnam raised her voice.

"Then how come the wound hasn't healed yet and you're still bleeding?" Philia snapped at her.

There was a stunned silence at Philia's uncharacteristic outburst; the Pearl of the Orient, who was always amiable in her interactions even though the other person didn't necessarily feel the same way had angrily snapped at someone else.

Vietnam's eyes were wide as she found herself staring at the irritated expression on Philia's face. So were Japan's; Germany and even Prussia had no idea what to say.

Philia's agitation slowly changed into surprise and then shock as she took a step back, not quite believing what she did herself.

Germany coughed, breaking the awkward silence that had formed. "Er... Vietnam, I believe Philippines has a valid point. You should see to that injury." And to change the topic, he whirled to face Italy who seemed to be fidgeting with a blue bible of sorts in his hands. "As for you... and Philippines, what in the world were the two of you thinking?"

"Veh?"

"Hmm?"

The two aforementioned mentions stared at the stoic german whose piercing blue eyes had them paying full attention to him. Rather, Philia payed attention to him after handing a white handkerchief to Vietnam who took it from her without a word.

"Do you two realize the danger you put yourselves in?" He growled. "Italy, I know for a fact that your fighting skills are dismal and Philia," He used her shortened term for the first time since they entered the house. "You leave most, if not all, of the fighting to your brother."

"But I wasn't fighting..." Philia started to say but immediately shut up when she saw the glare the man was directing at her.

"Aw, c'mon West." Prussia came to their rescue. "They pulled through in the end! I mean, that spell (which was awesome by the way) pretty much clinched our victory."

"That is not the point!" He snapped at the albino. But his face softened and he sighed. "However, the both of you have proven that you aren't useless in this kind situation. This means that we won't have to baby you as much as we normally would." Seeing the relief on their faces, he added in one more thing to say. "But that does not mean you should foolishly rush into a situation and endanger yourselves!"

"Yes sir!" The two countries snapped to attention, making the other three in the room chuckle.

"Now that we've got that over with it, what was that awesome attack?" Prussia turned to Philia.

Not sure if he was talking to her, she pointed a finger at herself with one eyebrow raised and her eyes reflecting her confusion.

"Yeah, the awesome me is talking to you."

"Oh... I've known it for a long time." Philia was playing with the rosary around her neck, a habit of hers when she was extremely nervous. "I mean... magic isn't something that's new to me." Japan and Vietnam threw her questioning gazes and she smiled. "Some of my people still practice magic."

"This is the first time I've heard about this." Japan mused.

"Well unlike England, I don't practice it on a daily basis." One of the corners of her lips tilted upwards. "Actually, I cursed him when he took over my capital. To this day he still doesn't know."

It was official. This place was making people crazy; Philia sadistically admitting that she had gone and cursed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was a good indication of that.

"Ah! Sorella! How about we try out that spell you showed me earlier?" Italy asked Philia.

The girl stopped playing with her rosemary, looking confused before smiling at the italian. "Okay. But I think you should do it."

"Veh~!"

Italy opened up the book in his hands, flipping through the pages as everyone minus Philia wondered what he was going to do. His eyes focusing on the book, he muttered a chant in a low voice that the others couldn't hear what he was saying.

A golden light started to form underneath their feet and as Italy finished speaking, the light had engulfed them completely.

While they wondered what was happening, they could feel something warm surrounding them and a minute later, the light had completely disappeared.

"Italy, what did you do?" Germany finally asked.

"Oh, it was an experiment!" Italy said.

"Experiment?" Japan looked alarmed.

"Veh! If it worked out, your wounds should be gone and you should feel better!"

Vietnam removed the bloodied handkerchief from her head and gently probed around the area. Philia peered through her friend's fingers to see if there was any trace of the injury.

"I don't see anything." She finally said. "You did it Italy!"

Prussia checked his arm and saw that the tear from the Thing's claws was still there but the scratch on his arm was absent. No longer was his arm throbbing with pain and the various bruises from when he had been tossed around like a rag doll didn't ache any more.

"It worked! Awesome!" He went over to Italy and slapped him on the back. The other stumbled forward, falling onto the floor. "...oops."

"Bruder..." Germany pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

"It was an accident, I swear!"

XXXX

The group did not stay very long in the room due to the fact that the creature could show up again. So after pushing the shelf back into place to hide the unconscious Mochi (that probably fainted after seeing the ugly alien creature) they carefully walked through the hallways on high alert for unsuspecting encounters. After having been split up so many times, it was unanimously decided that they would stick together from there on out.

They had no idea what time it was, but their numerous encounters with the Thing left them extremely exhausted and no one had a problem with turning in early for the night. No one had any idea what the time was as Italy, the one of the group who had the watch, said his had broke.

Using the key that Japan had retrieved from the fourth floor room where he narrowly missed a knife through the heart, the group found themselves in a room with a long rectangle table and a fire place. There were six chairs, which seated all of them. Remembering just how much of a difference locking the door could make, Japan once again turned the lock effectively sealing them in the room.

Philia and Italy had managed to scrooge up several things that might come in handy such as two first-aid kits and a match box with twelve matches in it when they had been trying to locate everyone and were now pouring their findings on to the table.

"These would have come in handy a lot earlier." Prussia said, eying the first-aid kits.

"True." Philia said. "But we have to remember that we have limited supplies. We should use these for the more serious wounds and injuries."

"Speaking of wounds... ours didn't heal like they should have." Vietnam frowned.

The woman's words hung in the air. Being nations, injuries of all sorts were healed immediately unless a mass amount of humans had been killed which was most noticeably during war time.

"Huh? But I thought Italy-" Philia cut herself off when she saw Vietnam rolling her eyes.

"I mean before he performed that spell." The woman frowned; she was still having trouble trying to accept the concept of magic. Germany seemed to be having the same problem, but wisely kept his mouth shut about it.

"Yes, that is concerning." Japan stood up from his seat and walked towards the wall. He frowned at the white paint that stared back at him before facing the others. "I think it is safe to say that in this place... we are human."

Silence filled the room. The asian man had just went and voiced the idea that all of them had been contemplating in their minds for a while.

It was a scary thought, as they all realized that they could die so easily in this place. They, the personification of the countries, who were practically immortal and only disappeared from the world if the lands they represented were completely obliterated along with their people.

"So we should assume that any fatal wounds we receive... are fatal." Germany said after a long silence.

"That's what it looks like." Vietnam sighed, folding her arms across her chest.

"Gah!" They all looked up at Prussia who was glaring at them. "Enough about this depressing topic! Let's discuss something else!"

"Like what?" Vietnam asked him wryly.

"This place is cold." Philia said, buttoning the blue jeans jacket she was wearing over top her dress. "Anyone want to light the fire or should I do it?"

"I will light it." Germany said, standing up and pushing the seat back.

The dark haired girl handed him the box of matches she had found earlier and Germany went over to the fireplace and lit the match. Soon, the room was filled with the warmth of the fire and the six nations found themselves beginning to get drowsy.

"Fritz, this feels nice." Prussia stretched his arms out on the table.

"Yes, it is much more comforting now that we have a fire and we're all together again." Japan allowed himself to relax.

"Mmm..." Vietnam said, plopping her head on her folded arms. "I could go to sleep right now..."

XXXX

Before they turned in, the group discussed various ways of how they could make it out of the mansion. This led to more reminiscing about World War II which Philia did not fond of at all. Though it should be noted that the others kept far away from the pain she had suffered during that time.

Since there was six of them, the group decided to have two people keeping watch for the night. Two of them would be enough but Philia said that she automatically got up early (around six am) so she'd allow the person on the second half of the watch some rest while she prepared their things for the next day.

The watch in order was Prussia, Vietnam and Philia.

Since the filipina had decided to fill in for the early morning, she did not have to participate in the janken game that Prussia and hilariously, Vietnam, had lost.

"This is so boring... wish I had my laptop so I could update my blog." He sighed.

It felt like hours since everyone else had fallen asleep and frankly, the albino was finding it hard to concentrate on anything else other than the fact that he was utterly alone for the moment. He tried to convince himself that it was going to be fun, but after awhile he was failing miserably.

Through the years, Prussia had tried to convince himself that he could take care of himself and he was fine on his lonesome.

But as time flew, the former Teutonic knight was forced to admit something not even his younger brother could force out of him.

No matter how obnoxious he was, no matter how many declarations he made about his being awesome in practically everything...

... being alone scared him.

"This sucks." Prussia finally said, putting his feet up on the table.

After a few minutes, he started shivering.

"Is it just me, or is starting to get cold?" He said, sitting up straight.

Prussia suddenly felt a chill go up his spine and his eyes widened as he heard the door rattle.

Mein gott, he thought as his eyes widened. He was hearing things, right? It couldn't be that, that Thing... could it?

"That's right," He said to himself. "I'm just hearing things. The door is not rattling and it's all part of my imagination. A bit extreme, but with that Thing wandering around the house not impossi-"

"What the hell are you rambling about?"

"GAHH!"

There were a few murmurs, but the others remained undisturbed in their sleep. The person who had interrupted the albino's monologue sighed and threw off their blanket as they stood up. It was Vietnam and she looked a bit sleepy as well as annoyed.

"Don't tell me you're scared?" Vietnam was about to smirk when there was another rattle and her head whipped towards the door. "Uh..."

The two glanced at the door with anticipation as it continued to rattle.

"You think we should try that trick Japan uses? The one where we turn off our aura and pretend that we aren't here?" Prussia suggested.

Vietnam stared at him. "You actually think that's going to work?" She asked in disbelief.

"Have any better ideas?" Prussia snorted.

They stared at the door, waiting for the rattling to go away. But it persisted, and finally the albino got fed up and started for the door.

"What are you doing?" The woman hissed as she moved to try and intercept him.

"Look, it's obviously not going to leave us alone until we kick its ass again. Since we're the only ones up, WE have to do it."

Yes, because that worked out so well last time. The only reason they had defeated the Thing before was because Japan had been with them. But before Vietnam could wryly comment on that, Prussia had already opened the door.

"You idiot!"

"I don't plan on dying!"

The sound of a blade swishing through the air was followed after wards with blood splattering onto the floor.

I had been planning on writing more, but I decided to cut it off here for now. Besides, that sentence makes a nice cliffhanger, doesn't it? Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed this super long chapter. I guess the extra length makes up for the crappy fight scene.

I added in some humour to lighten up the story a bit since it gets so much darker later on. Heh, heh, heh...

Anyways, I'm gonna go now! Please leave a review! I know there are people watching this story!