I rewrote over half this chapter twice because it was too gory (more so than it is now, like by a lot). Then again because I didn't like how I wrote it.

Also, it occurred to me that I didn't put a disclaimer on any of these chapters, so I'm going to say it here:

I don't own Hetalia. If I did, Gilbird would rule the world and everyone would know it.

"Oh," was the only comment Alfred could offer in response to that. Then he seemed to consider for a moment, and continued with: "Oh. We are in trouble."

"I'd like all of you to come with me. I have something very special prepared," the dragon continued.

The three in the corner stood up and prepared to follow the beast without hesitation; it was as though they had been broken, or given up all hope of escaping. Kiku's expression was unreadable, but he appeared to be hesitating. Feliks was the only one who actually spoke. "Like, why?"

The dragon didn't appear to be angered by Feliks's question, and it actually seemed to be speaking with a hint of glee in its rough voice. "Dragons are very superstitious, human, and since there are seven of you now, I've decided to celebrate," it replied, although if one knew its true intentions that could be seen as an incredibly sick and twisted statement.

Alfred looked like he was about to yell something that would cause an unnecessary conflict, so Arthur put a hand over the blue-eyed teen's mouth. "Confronting it now won't do anything," Arthur said quietly. "Although it is urgent that we escape, we must have a plan."

"I know, I know," Alfred replied after grabbing Arthur's hand and pulling it off of his mouth. "You can't tell me that you don't want to scream insults at that thing, though, because I bet you do."

"I don't," Arthur lied. He wanted nothing more than to do so, but he'd been taught that restraint in such cases was important.

"Are the two of you done?" the dragon asked, sounding bored. It looked like Alfred and Arthur were the only ones who hadn't moved closer to it-of course that made sense if they were the only one who knew what the beast was planning.

"Not quite," Arthur replied, although he felt a chill run through his body once he did so. It seemed the dragon was getting impatient after all, and more than willing to use dragonfear to achieve its ends quickly. However, since the feeling wasn't nearly as suffocating as it had been; it was probably just letting off a warning.

"That is freaking it," Alfred exclaimed suddenly, standing up. He'd felt the pressure in the room increase, and although it didn't affect him as much, he was downright sick of those stupid lizards using something like that to manipulate them. "Go ahead and beat the crap out of me for this, but going to kick your scaly ass!"

For a moment, there was silence in the room as everyone (including the dragon) stared at Alfred in shock (and in the dragon's case, it glared at him in anger). There was a small, confused mumble of, "Alfred-san?" from Kiku, but even that didn't do much to break the heavy veil of silence that hung over the area. Eventually, the dragon growled out a response, "You will regret that."

In the end, the dragon had to increase the dragonfear effect that it was sending off so much that it paralyzed even Alfred (the others in the room didn't feel it as much, since it seemed that it was directed very specifically at Alfred) and it dragged them off to a deeper area of the cave (more specifically, dragged Alfred, since Arthur opted to walk instead of being knocked unconscious again).

A plan to escape that isn't reckless, Arthur thought, although things were beginning to look like they wouldn't be ending well. Of course, it would probably be better to have help… "Kiku," he said quietly, looking at the black-haired teen who was walking next to him as they followed the dragon.

"Ah, yes Arthur-san?"

"Do you know about this dragon's true intentions?"

"No, I apologize-"

"That's fine." After that, Arthur spent the rest of the time they were walking quietly explaining the situation to Kiku. Kiku didn't speak at all during this time, merely nodding at this or that point. Once Arthur was finished, the black-haired teen commented, "That is concerning, Arthur-san, but there doesn't seem to be a reasonable solution at this time."

"Would you be willing to attack it with me?" Arthur said this very quietly, making sure the dragon couldn't hear. "It has to be in one shot, which I'm not quite sure I'm able to do."

"Ah… That may just work…"

The reaction time of a dragon this size is rather slow. However, I don't doubt that it is waiting for one of us to make a move, in which case it would react more quickly. It is probably watching me particularly closely, since I defeated the red dragon and Alfred's unconscious… At least, I think he is. Arthur quickly analyzed the situation, wondering what kind of spell he could cast that would be quick, subtle, and powerful. There wasn't anything either quick or inconspicuous that he could think of, but there was a simple solution. "Kiku, aim for the base of the neck. That's where it will be most sensitive," he instructed quietly. "Make sure it cannot see you preparing the spell."

Kiku merely nodded and hid a hand behind his own back to prepare the spell he planned on casting.

That seemed to be a good idea; dragons couldn't exactly see through people, so Arthur did the same. He began to silently prepare the same black lightning spell that he'd used to blind the red dragon, since that was one of the few things he was able to prepare with nothing but a silent incantation rather than a verbal incantation or a hand motion.

He looked at Kiku and mouthed 'are you prepared?' to which the black-haired teen nodded. Arthur took a deep breath; fully aware that if they failed it was over. If they failed, they'd be hit with dragonfear so bloody fast there wouldn't be a chance of consciousness between then and the time they would reach wherever the dragon performed its black magic. "Now!" he shouted as he whipped his hand out from behind his back and shot the bolt at the dragon's neck. Beside him, he noticed Kiku firing a spell at the same area; it was similar to a white lance.

The dragon screeched and turned on them (dropping Alfred in the process, who it was holding with one claw) as Arthur's spell hit it slightly above the fatal area, causing it to shudder violently before recovering to attack them. Kiku's speared it through the wing and then an upper part of its neck, but despite the deeply red blood that now ran down its front and the torn wing, it only seemed to become angrier (rather than being slowed).

Kiku froze and collapsed almost immediately as the dragonfear took effect, along with Feliks and the three that had been there before (the dragon wasn't bothering to direct it in its fit of blind rage). Arthur stumbled, but for some reason he wasn't even beginning to lose consciousness. Perhaps he was starting to build an immunity after having been attacked with it… No, that didn't seem right. There was no explanation for why he was still standing, fully conscious but unable to move as the beast lunged at him.

For some reason, the cold feeling and stomach pain that accompanied dragonfear was slowly fading as well; this was despite the fact that Arthur was about half a second from being run through by the claws of the most enraged beast he'd ever encountered. He took a sharp breath in dread-it seemed like everything was suddenly slowing down.

Still, the pain he was expecting never came. There was blood that splattered all over the walls and himself, as though someone had stuck a firecracker in a bucket of deep crimson paint and set it off, but it wasn't his or the dragon's. That's impossible… This isn't happening. Despite all odds, it looked like… Alfred had gotten between him and the dragon at the last moment. That meant it was Alfred's blood on the walls, everywhere. "A-Alfred! You-!" Arthur couldn't say what he meant to; it was impossible. Although it was what came next that made his blood run cold again only seconds after he'd recovered from the dragonfear.

"I told you earlier… but it wasn't clear, I guess," Alfred said weakly, but his voice seemed to have changed. Arthur couldn't quite tell how, but it was definitely different. Then Alfred looked up at him (the claw having hit Alfred through the back), and he realized: that wasn't the only thing that was different.

Those familiar, clear blue eyes had turned a deep crimson color reminiscent of the blood that was still everywhere… and it didn't fit. Even though it matched the blood, it didn't fit. Even though the blue would have clashed with every other damn color in the room-it was wrong. "Alfred?" Arthur felt his voice shaking as he was overcome with an emotion that was unfamiliar to him; he felt almost desperate and at the same time had to wonder why it was so important. The latter part was easily answered, however. That seal has loosened, hasn't it?

"I'm sorry… I don't know how I did it… but you wouldn't… and… I needed to save you," Alfred said as more blood dripped out of his mouth. "I heard before that once the seal weakened, I could be strong enough… to do anything… but I won't die from something like this, so don't worry…"

"You… why?" Arthur asked. "Why do you keep saying it's for me…?" He was afraid of the answer, in case it didn't match up to what he expected; again he had to wonder why it mattered.

The response didn't come, however, since the dragon chose that moment to rip its claw out of Alfred's back, causing more blood to speckle the walls. Alfred stumbled, but then turned to face the dragon confidently despite his wounds; the way he was standing, if he weren't covered in his own blood, you would have guessed that he wasn't injured at all. That only worried Arthur further however, because if Alfred was going to continue like that, then the blood would only come out faster… or so he assumed.

"Arthur, look away," Alfred said calmly in that deeper-than-should-have-been-natural-for-him voice. "Please."

Suddenly the dragonfear effect was broken and Arthur, able to move for the first time in what seemed like half an hour (but in reality was less than a minute), stumbled backwards and fell onto the ground. However, instead of getting up, he had the feeling that he really didn't want to witness what was about to happen, so he closed his eyes and covered his head with his arms.

He felt a strong gust of wind tearing through the room, which caused him to slide back an inch or two, but still didn't look to see what was happening. Then he heard an almost inhuman voice declare, "This is what you get for hurting everyone, you lizard!" Of course, despite the voice in which it was said (that was definitely Alfred's, no matter how much it had changed), Arthur couldn't help but smile as he heard that familiar heroic tone, as well as the ridiculous insult that would seem weak to anyone who didn't know that dragons considered being called lizards worse than anything.

Then there was a loud snap, and everything went still and silent afterwards. "It's over, you can look." To Arthur's relief, the voice had become normal again, and when he slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that Alfred (who had somehow managed to go from standing in front of the dragon to crouching beside Arthur) had his normal, clear blue eyes back.

You don't know what you've got until it's almost gone, huh?

"Wait, your injuries! I need to treat-"

"No need," Alfred said calmly, pulling up his own shirt to reveal that the gaping wound on his stomach from the dragon's nail running through his body had already stopped bleeding. Then letting the shirt fall back down, he pulled Arthur into a tight hug. "I never gave you an answer, so-"

"Let's wait until we get back to the Academy, shall we?" Arthur replied hastily. He knew the answer wouldn't change, but he was going to avoid it for as long as he could. Until he was sure of his own feelings, he didn't know how he'd respond. What if he made the wrong choice?

"Mkay," Alfred mumbled, looking somewhat disappointed. "Well, then we should find a way to get Kiku 'n them out of here."

Looking around, Arthur noticed that Kiku, Feliks, and the others were still unconscious from earlier. "I suppose it's a good thing they didn't see that," commented Arthur. Then he blushed, realizing that Alfred was still hugging him. "Er, Alfred?"

"Yeah?" Alfred, however, seemed to be completely oblivious to that fact (either that, or he didn't care).

"We ought to take care of the others."

"Oh, right," with that, Alfred let go of him and helped him to stand up. "So… How are we gonna do this? I can't carry five people, and you collapsed… like, twice? Three times? You don't need the stress that comes with using transportation magic, I think."

"Most likely," Arthur replied. "For now, it would be good to wait until they regain consciousness… by the way, what did you do to the dragon?" He'd noticed the silver beast lying on the ground, limp, and had assumed it was dead, but since it showed no sign of wounds, he couldn't help but wonder how.

"Oh, um," Alfred sort of shuffled and looked at the ground. "Well, I broke its neck. In half or something."

"Oh."

It was only a few minutes before the others began to awaken, but by then Alfred had moved them into the same area (they had collapsed in various places near the dragon), well away from the dragon's corpse. "Like, what happened?" Feliks asked sleepily.

"We kicked the dragon's ass, that's what happened!" Alfred exclaimed, and then flinched. It looked like the wounds in his back and stomach (which were still very much visible through his shredded t-shirt) still hurt, even if they weren't bleeding any more.

"That's… incredible, Alfred-san," commented Kiku quietly.

"Thanks Kiku! So anyway, I was thinking that once everyone could walk, we could start heading back to town," Alfred said.

"Which would take approximately three hours, if we're walking," Arthur said once he'd figured that bit out. "That is assuming everyone is capable of walking through rough terrain at a steady pace, which I doubt."

A couple of the other people nodded, while Feliks shouted, "We should like, totally send a messenger! Like, a bird."

"Or a spell that imitates a messenger bird," Kiku added. "I shall take care of immediately." He waved his hand slightly and in a puff of smoke conjured a small slip of paper and a pen. Then he scribbled a message on said paper, folding it until it resembled a bird and flew off to deliver the message.

"It never occurred to me before, but how long have we been here?"Arthur mumbled as he watched the paper bird speed out of sight.

"…Guess we'll find out when we get out," Alfred replied after pretty much everyone else in the room had admitted to not knowing.

I finished this and started the next chapter while listening to Sugarland's cover of Come On Get Higher. I say started the next chapter because this chapter was originally about five hundred words longer, then I cut the last part out to make the beginning of the next chapter 'cause I felt it fit better.