"How did you know about that?" she asked, slightly caught off guard that he knew about the dreams she'd been having.

He smiled gently and closed his eyes. She could tell he was slightly reluctant to say, but she also knew he wouldn't lie, either.

"To be honest, Romano told me to keep an eye on you for that exact reason," he said. "I guess he knew you were having them!"

She blinked, dumbfounded. He'd told Spain about it? True, she hadn't told him to keep it a secret, but… it just seemed like she shouldn't have had to tell him that. Or anyone, for that matter.

"You're having nightmares?" France gasped lightly.

"I-It's not that bad," she stammered.

"But you looked really scared that one morning," Spain recalled. "You had tears on your face…"

Crap! She thought. He saw it, then…

"What could you be dreaming of that's scaring you so bad?" Prussia asked. He hadn't said much during this exchange, if only for the fact he wasn't sure how to proceed. It still meant a lot that he hadn't wandered off to do his own thing by now. "That's not the same dream you had when we were at Italy's, is it?"

Her eyes widened. How did he still remember that?
"..."

"These are recurring nightmares, then?" France clarified. She could only nod, her lower jaw hanging a bit loose from shock at everything that was unfolding right now.

"How many have you had?"

"...About five," she admitted. "Two in the past four days…"

"Hm, so they're increasing in frequency…"

"When did you guys turn into some sort of dream analysis team?" she attempted to joke, only earning herself a gentle smile.

"It's not really the first time we've had to deal with this," Spain grinned. Suddenly she looked around at the three of them and realized: all of them had probably dealt with bad dreams before. Not only themselves, but with those they took care of. Spain had Romano, Prussia had Germany, and if what she'd read was true, France maybe had Canada. Maybe this wasn't the first time they were having a conversation like this… well, at least in theory.

"Oh… right," she replied absentmindedly.

"What are these dreams about?" France asked.

"..." she sighed. There was no way she could admit the details… or at least, she couldn't let them know the truth. She'd have to play it off somehow.

"It… usually starts with me being stuck in some dark room," she hesitantly began. "It's nighttime… and everything is quiet. Then out of nowhere there are footsteps coming towards the door, and someone comes inside… some guy, I think…"

Just having to recount the memory at all was causing her to shake a bit, her expression one of clear discomfort at having to explain this. It wasn't even accurate and it still haunted her to say these things out loud. If they knew the truth, she wondered what they would say… how they would react. She would never know.

"H-He… approaches around the bed with a knife in his hand…" she murmured. "And he just stands there for a short time… before… before he attacks…"

Spain was grasping one of her hands now, shocked by what she was describing. It seemed worse than he thought it had been.

"T-The pain just… i-it feels so real," she breathed. "Like fire melting me from the inside…"

"Can you recognize the man's face?"

She shook her head. She knew she was lying, but they couldn't know. They couldn't know that the man she'd seen was her Uncle… that the nightmare was actually kind of a memory instead. Domestic abuse was not on the list of things she wanted to talk to them about… or anyone outside of Reagan and Sam, for that matter.

"R-Romano thinks it's only happening because of stress," she brought up, in hopes of changing the course of the discussion. "I had these nightmares a while ago and then they stopped… so maybe they're just coming back because of me being here, I don't know."

"Stress could definitely be making it worse," Spain thought aloud, looking thoughtful. "Is that why you wanted to start doing less?"

She nodded. "When I told my friends about how I was feeling, they told me I shouldn't do so much traveling right now… that's why I ended up being sent to Romano's. But even being here and not doing much hasn't made the dream stop happening…"

"Ooooh," Prussia suddenly said, as if a lightbulb had just come on in his head. She guessed he was probably recalling her stubbornness from last Wednesday. "I get it now…"

"Well you said Sam sent you that message a few days ago, maybe that stress was enough to make it happen again," France suggested.

She shrugged. "I don't know… all I know is that when I have dreams like that I just… I don't want to sleep because I don't want it to happen again… it hurts too much."

It hurt more than they could imagine.

"I understand why you've been sleeping less, but the stress is impacting more than your night life, amiga… you can't start eating less, too. You'll let yourself fall apart," Spain reasoned.

France placed a steadying hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him.

"I know you must be feeling more things than we can imagine," he said. "And I can't promise that whatever Arthur has to say will be alright… but if you don't take care of yourself, you'll only make things worse. You can't think straight on less sleep and an empty stomach. If you stop taking care of yourself physically, you'll hurt yourself even more."

"Right. You need to at least try to eat properly and get more rest… and stop isolating yourself in your room!" Prussia said. "If anything you should be spending more time around others!"

"Yeah, you have more friends than you think!" Spain smiled reassuringly.

She laughed a bit.

"You guys are countries," she replied in a disbelieving voice. "You have better things to do with your time than worry about a few teenage human girls… to be honest I'm not even sure how we're having this conversation right now. I'm not worth your time."

"That's where you're wrong!" Prussia quickly dismissed the idea.

"As far as we're concerned, you're a friend to us," added Spain.

"Oui, you know who we are and you've spent some time with us… by now I would call you a friend."

As everyone seemed to nod in agreement, she looked between them and found no signs of hesitation. They meant what they'd said. Was making friends really that simple? And as countries, was it just as easy as it seemed to be for normal people? Grant it, they didn't get many opportunities to meet new people, unless a new country came along. It just seemed so sudden. Then again, they had hung out quite a bit during her first few days there… and they'd texted on and off even before then. They were easy to get along with, even if at first they'd been intimidating. Really they weren't scary in the slightest. Perhaps she'd been wrong to assume she didn't mean much to them after so short a time.

"I… I didn't know you guys thought of me as a friend," she ventured. "I guess I'm not really used to it… Reagan and Sam are the only friends I've had for a while."

"Ah, but making friends is so easy!" Spain beamed. "You even befriended Romano in just a few days! I think you just have that effect on some people."

Even Romano is my friend? She thought. Well, it would make sense… they'd exchanged numbers afterwards, and he'd checked up on her once or twice since then. Not to mention he seemed to care for her wellbeing at random times. His words from the airport still make her want to laugh a bit.

"I… I guess I just didn't think making friends with anyone here would be that easy… sure, Arthur said something about people wanting to show us around-"

"Bah, is it really that hard to see?" Prussia interrupted. "It's not like we're that different you know. We can make friends like any human!"

Spain started to laugh a bit at her facial expression, as she seemed so surprised by the statement.

"S-Si, I mean what did you think would happen if you stayed with us this week? Like we'd just ignore you?"

"W-Well, no! I just didn't… I mean I don't…" she didn't know how to respond to this. Had she been overestimating things the whole time? "Like at that first meeting, you guys and a few other people wanted my number, I…"

"And what did you think that was for?" Prussia laughed, It seemed they were growing more amused by the second. "You think people just exchange numbers for the heck of it?"
"I don't know, maybe!" she threw her arms up in the air, slightly exasperated now.

Spain patted her on the back lightly now, wiping away a tear from his eye.

"I think you're thinking about this way too hard," he chuckled. "Anyone who came up to you at that meeting wants to get to know you, that's why they wanted your number! And chances are they'd like to be friends!"

"Who else have you talked to, for instance?"

"Um… mostly Finland and Denmark, Liechtenstein hasn't said anything yet… she did seem like she wanted to hang out sometime though…"

"Exactly!" Prussia exclaimed.

"What did you think when we all got your number?" Spain asked, still trying to contain his laughter.

Deep down, Corytha herself was feeling silly. It had been a little while since she'd felt something like this… it was nice. The conversation had somehow gone from somber to lighthearted and entertaining. She felt like she was having a conversation with Reagan and Sam.

"I didn't know what to think," she laughed a bit. "I was mostly confused!"

They continued talking for the next hour, and she found herself slowly crawling back out of her shell. Though she knew she wouldn't feel better about the news until Arthur finally told them, she felt a bit better knowing that they considered her as a friend. The worry wouldn't completely go away until a solution had been found or was at least in sight… but in the meantime, they didn't want her to hurt herself with worry. She knew they were right. If she stopped taking care of herself, her mental health would decline just as fast. She needed to keep hoping… she had to believe things would be okay, and that Arthur would figure out the spell. Being pessimistic right now would only make matters worse. She knew that. Even if her intuition tugged at her gut and told her to remain wary, to not get too involved in this world and keep herself guarded, there was only so much it would do for her right now.

If the frequency of the dreams depended on stress, she needed to record when it happened. She would also need to keep up with at least two full meals a day and seven hours of sleep a night, so no more going to sleep after one in the morning. Before midnight was preferable. They didn't let her be by herself for longer than three hours in the evening, unless she really needed to get away for a few moments, but for the most part she felt like they were trying to really incorporate her into the group now in their own way. They let her pick the movies and often asked how she was feeling throughout the day. In no time at all, she really did feel welcome, which she appreciated more than she could ever explain. It was a new feeling to make friends like this without Sam there to make it happen as it had with Reagan.

Sooner than she would have liked, it was the day of the next world meeting. From what she understood, it would be the last one for a month or so, perhaps longer. The date was yet to be determined. She got her things together and enjoyed breakfast with her new friends one last time. Truth be told she was probably going to miss them for a short while, the way Prussia had started waking her up in goofy ways or how Spain randomly popped up and caused her to smile. Each of them had been trying to help her in their own ways. At first she'd thought she would feel intimidated or unhappy during her stay there. Back at the airport, all she could think of was how strange things might get, since she'd heard and read so many things back in their world. In the end it was actually her favorite stop yet, aside from Romano's house. She felt like she'd actually accomplished something somehow, even if it was as simple as having three new friends now. They were nothing like everyone tried to make them out to be; just three goofy friends having a good time together, nothing more, nothing less.

She was in the middle of telling Spain and Prussia about one of the characters she'd designed when they pulled up to where the meeting was being held. She remembered the building quite well- though it often escaped her where they actually were. Sooner or later she'd need to carry a map!
"Alright, here we go," Spain said, pulling out her suitcase. Her things would be left with her friends' in the lobby until it was decided where they were going. She'd nearly forgotten that they were supposed to be sent off somewhere else after this.

When she walked into the lobby with Prussia's arm around her shoulder and Spain at her side with her suitcase while France followed just behind, Sam's jaw nearly dropped. Corytha didn't even seem phased by it, looking at him with a gentle smile on her face- one she had when around Sam or Reagan themselves. Reagan beamed and waved, to which the blonde quickly parted from her group and hurried over to them. They embraced in a group hug.

"Oh my god, you look great!" Reagan exclaimed, holding Cori by her shoulders. After sticking to her new routine for sleep and keeping up with her eating, she'd been restored to a more normal appearance, her eyes more lively than they were before.

"So do you! How are you guys?" Corytha asked, smiling at them both.

"We're great, we just hung out back at England's," Sam shrugged. "Watched movies and asked questions, kind of boring stuff. What about you though? You looked pretty buddy-buddy with them when you came in!"

She smiled a bit, looking down in almost a fond way. "Well, I guess you could say I made a few new friends…."
"Really?!" Reagan asked, her eyes widening. "That's great!"

"Way to go!" Sam grinned. "I was thinking you were screwed when you first left on that plane!"

At this, the blonde frowned. "Gee, thanks, Sam."
"Hey, you can never be too careful!"

As they started to catch up with each other and talk about what had happened while they were apart, the meeting had started, leaving them with the lobby to themselves for quite some time. They even managed to find a channel on the tv with funny homemade videos, and they had to force themselves to contain their laughter to not disturb whatever was going on in the large room behind them. With what they were seeing though, it was harder than it seemed.

"And then Sadie ran into the wall, the poor thing," Reagan was laughing. "Even Arthur couldn't stop laughing!"

While the three of them were busy laughing amongst each other, they didn't hear people leaving the room behind them until they saw England standing there alongside Germany. The meeting seemed like it was still going on.

The girls sat up and calmed themselves down, meeting their confused expressions with slightly red faces. They'd been at this for a while now.

"Something up?" Sam asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Y-Yes, actually," England answered. "I think now's as good a time as any to tell you what we've discovered over the past week or so…"

Instantly they were at their feet, standing side by side and giving him expectant looks. He nearly seemed to cringe at this, for reasons they couldn't understand.

"What is it?" Reagan prompted. Behind her back, she was grasping her hands tightly. Like Corytha, the text he'd sent her had given her a bit of worry over the last few days. Sam was anxious too, but she hadn't worried about it as much, better able to handle these things than her friends.

"Well, you see…" he began nervously, attempting to hold their gazes but not really succeeding. "I've been making some progress on the spell recently… I've finally got the portal portion figured out, as far as connecting two different places goes instead of connecting to a random place."

"The problem is," he continued, "I've only managed to do that between places in this world… not places outside of it. Figuring that out is going to be much more… tricky."

"Alright, well it's a start at least," Sam shrugged.

"There's… something else we've come across," Germany cut in. England gave him a look that made the girls uneasy, but the german glared back at him in a silent command that made him sigh.

"Yes, well… recently there was some news that we can't exactly ignore…"

"What are you talking about…" Sam said in a low tone. The way he was talking right now wasn't exactly reassuring.

"...Not very long ago, there was a good portion of land- only slightly larger than Liechtenstein, mind you- claimed independence as a new collection of nations."

"A collection?" Reagan tilted her head. He nodded.

"Kind of like the United Kingdom, if you will. One larger name that constitutes several countries," he explained.

"Go on…"

"Well, that particular 'nation' has finally been setting out the ground rules… and it's divided into three portions."

Everyone suddenly stopped talking.

It was almost as if they didn't even dare to breathe. No one spoke. No one really moved, though Reagan's arms had fallen lifelessly to her sides. They all stared for several minutes with nothing but silence between them.

As the weight of what he seemed to imply settled on the girls' shoulders, Sam's eyes narrowed, fists clenched at her sides.

"Are you saying that we're supposed to be these… parts of a nation?" she demanded.

Germany shook his head. "It's only a theory, but the timing and the three pieces is too coincidental to be ignored… shortly after it was formed, you three were brought here by mistake. It's possible that somehow you three were incorporated into this process rather than new countries like us being born somewhere."

Reagan shook her head, stepping back a bit. Corytha followed, steadying herself on the nearby couch.

"But… that's not possible!" she countered. "That makes no sense! H-How could we… I mean we don't…"

"This is ridiculous," Sam rolled her eyes. "It's just a theory anyway, there's really no way to prove it!"

"...Perhaps not yet… but Sam, you seem to have forgotten what happened recently," England suddenly said. She stared back at him, beginning to shake her head.

"No… no that was nothing. It was a small cut, nothing more, nothing less."

"Sam, what's he talking about?" Reagan asked. Corytha had lost the ability to speak for now.

"..."

She held up her right hand, focusing on her index finger.

"...A few days ago I sliced my finger on a can by accident," she said. "It hurt pretty badly, but the cut was gone within half an hour."

Reagan's eyes widened.

"But that means nothing!" the redhead said, suddenly giving her friend a desperate look. "Right?"

"...It means you could very well be turning into something like us," Germany said.

They froze where they stood, unable to grasp the situation completely.

"Whatever is happening," he went on, "We can't be sure until later, but if you continue to experience fast healing and other strange things, it might be safe to assume that you three are becoming the new nation that has formed, each of you representing the three portions of it."

Reagan looked at him and quickly stepped forward, holding her hands out as if to grasp something that wasn't there.

"E-Even if we are this new nation somehow, that doesn't mean we can't go back… right?" she asked, seemingly scared to ask.

Though for a moment a breath hitched in her throat, she was relieved when Germany shook his head.

"For now, we don't think this will change your ability to return home," he said.

"It's unheard of for a nation to leave their job behind," England noted, looking unsure of his words. "To be honest, if you girls weren't in this situation, you would be considered foolish for ignoring it… but since you're technically humans with your own lives, we're going to overlook it."

"It wouldn't be fair to force you to stay as nations since your coming here was an accident in the first place," Germany agreed. "However, because of what's going on, we don't think it's a great idea for you three to be constantly moving about, either."

"Right. If someone were to figure out that you were technically a nation, they may try to steal you away for themselves… only a few of the others are aware of your status right now. The majority of them don't know, and hopefully they won't find out."

"Great, so what do we do now?" Sam folded her arms over her chest. "Are we just going to stay at your place the rest of the time?"

"A sudden change like that might make them suspicious," England admitted. "So you'll still be allowed to go somewhere else after this meeting… but we're changing up the rules a bit. You'll need to stay wherever you go until the next meeting, which won't be for a while. Also, I think it would be best if you stayed with someone who's aware of your status, just in case the others get any ideas."

"Who all knows beyond you two?" Reagan asked.

"Japan and Italy know, and I had to tell France and Prussia, since they wanted to be up to date," he rolled his eyes a bit at this. "Finland came up to me a short time ago, he seemed to figure it out for himself, so it's probably safe to assume the Nordics figured it out too."

"Great," Sam sighed. "I guess at least we don't have to worry about it for now…"

"Yeah, but… is there anything we should be doing in the meantime?" Reagan asked, tilting her head. "If we are becoming a nation, shouldn't we be taking care of some things?"

"I would stay out of it for now," Germany advised. "Best not get attached to something like this, especially if you plan on leaving. It might raise suspicion if you try to get involved."

She nodded and dropped the subject. She felt a bit guilty, knowing that she might actually have some sort of duty to her people- if they existed- but she couldn't do anything about it. This was beyond her capabilities right now… and her experience, really.

Corytha was just relieved that it wouldn't keep them from going back home, as shocking as it was. At least progress was being made, so the seriousness of his message wasn't quite as negative as she'd feared it would be.

"England, do you think you could keep us updated on how the spell is going?" Sam asked. "It was kind of stressful not hearing anything for weeks… just little updates every now and then would be nice."

He nodded, a grim smile on his face. "Alright, I'll try to remember. Sorry I didn't have much for a while there. Now the real work should begin, but I might be finished a lot sooner than I thought."

"Really?"

"Yes. I thought getting the portal to work would take a lot longer, but now all I need to do is figure out how to get to your world and back to where I found you in the first place. It should be easy to find the spot, but keeping the portal functional will be the real problem. Transporting things is harder than making the actual passage."

"That's good though," Sam tried to boost the mood. "We won't have to wander around aimlessly for too much longer."

"I suppose so, but it also means finding out the more critical parts of a spell like this," he warned. "I can't promise that what I find out will be what you're hoping for."

Reagan's expression fell a bit.

"...What does that mean?"

He took a deep breath and looked away, his face seeming to heat up a bit. "Well, um… basically what I'm saying is that magick like this can be… a bit unpredictable. It's hard to make it work the way you want it to and even harder to break boundaries a second time."

They gave him a confused look, unsure of what exactly he was trying to tell them. He sighed.

"Just know that what I might find might not be what you want," he concluded. "I'm trying as hard as I can to get everything just right, but if I test it and it doesn't work… there's at least a 65% chance that the spell I end up with will not be able to work. It's happened before when I opened a portal to another place- on the second try, there was some sort of barrier that made the spell fail."

"...You mean there's a 65% chance right now that we can't go back?" Sam bluntly restated in clearer words.

"I'm afraid so."

Reagan exchanged a wary look with her spunky friend. This wasn't what they'd been hoping to hear after all this time.

"I'm going to keep doing the best I can," England said. "I plan on having a better answer for you by the next meeting, if the rate keeps up like it has been. You won't have to wait six months anymore. I'm sorry for all of this… but right now all you can do is wait."

"Alright… thanks, Arthur," Reagan replied in a disheartened tone.

The girls had a moment of silence between them, linking hands as if to pass each other what little courage they had. The news was going to take a toll on them, that was for sure. Time was of the essence right now, and all they could do was sit it out until they were given the final verdict. It was like waiting to hear the final judgement of a trial. Unbearable and completely out of their hands.

Germany cleared his throat after another minute and began to walk back towards the meeting room.

"When you're finished in here, you may come inside at any time. The meeting is just about over, so we can figure out where you'll be for the next month."

He disappeared through the door, leaving them with England.