A/N: Chapter 10! …I didn't think I'd get this far. Thanks to all the people who read and/or reviewed! I appreciate the acknowledgement. :D
I hate myself though. D: I feel like I'm getting worse at writing this with every chapter. (Then again, I'm just in one of those moods…) Please comment on this, because if I really am getting worse, then I need to know so I can make it better.

Chapter Ten

"Fifteen minutes…"

Fifteen minutes, and the second floor was still completely devoid of people, except for the two nations sitting in near silence on the lowest step of the rising staircase. It felt strange to only have one person near you at a time like this, they realized, both throwing suspicious looks at their companion when the other wasn't noticing. It was England who had spoken, resting his chin on his open palm in exasperation.

"…Isn't France coming?" England continued, taking yet another glance down the empty hallway. I would've expected the frog to be here by now.

China huffed, "What's the meaning of this? It shouldn't take this long to see the second floor." The Orient nation stood and stretched out his legs, stepping down from the stairs.

"Maybe he got tired of waiting and went downstairs?" I wouldn't put it past the git to do something stupid like that.

"Well, he certainly gets bored easily," China agreed. He straightened out the collar of his dark green military uniform. "I'll check the rooms on the second floor to make sure we didn't miss each other. You wait here!"

"Yeah, or else we might miss each other again." England took the opportunity to lean back against the wall and give his eyes a break. For some reason, he was extremely tired now, as if some outside force was draining his reserves of energy. But it's only been a few hours since the meeting ended…right?

China, although wanting to do the same, ignored England's actions and inner conversation in favor of searching the rooms on the floor. First, he tried a room to their right – it was just a bedroom, furnished unimpressively with two beds, a table, and a few bookshelves crammed into the far corner. Nothing to see here, he told himself as he closed the door again and moved on. A strange smell hit his nose when he reentered the corridor, and though he couldn't identify it, he knew for sure that it was the same odor that tainted the air in the attic. Hmm… He followed the scent to a door to the right of the staircase, and without another thought he pursued the mysterious smell to its source.

It looked like a conference room, complete with a large table and several bookshelves containing reference books and periodicals in several languages. A pair of beds were squeezed into a corner near the door – as if there aren't enough bedrooms, aru – and standing proudly directly in front of the door was a beautiful stone-ad-wood fireplace. Upon closer examination, there were blackened logs and traces of ash lodged in the bottom, and a few embers twinkled faintly beneath the shade of the wood. "Burnt firewood… So this is the source of the bad smell," he mused, kneeling down to get a better look at the firewood. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except… He reached past the logs and wrapped his fingers around the thin object. It crumpled in his grasp like a piece of paper; only when he held it up to the light did he realize that it actually was a piece of paper, the kind that one would rip out of a spiral-bound notebook. It contained carefully scribed words, the neat cursive script written across the lines in black ink. The bottom edge was blackened considerably, most likely from the fire that had previously resided within its stone restraints. "What's this?" Unable to answer his own question, he darted out of the room to show England his clue.

"Opium, I found something!" China nudged England with his foot. "Wake up, aru!"

England's eyes flew open, taking a microsecond to remember where he was before rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Hmm? Did you find him?"

"No. But I found this in the fireplace in the other room." He handed the paper to the blonde-haired Brit.

"What? What's –" England snatched the paper from China's hand and examined it closely. He too noticed the black cursive writing, the classic notebook paper, and the charred black edge. But before he got the chance to actually read over the notes that the page contained, he spotted an official-looking title at the beginning, the six words piercing his heart and sending him into a downward spiral of confusion and shock.

Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

No. No, this isn't possible. She didn't come! She didn't want to in the first place! But…how is this possible? Why would her notes from the meeting be here if she wasn't? …Is she here? Is she in danger? Did she get hurt? Is she alone? Bloody hell, why didn't I stay with her? I should have –

"Opium!"

The voice of China lodged itself into England's mental conversation, dragging him back to the real world. Staring a hole into the paper, he felt a new weight pressing down on his shoulders. He wished he knew what it could be. "…She's here."

China raised an eyebrow. "Who's here, aru?"

"Yugoslavia. She's here. Why is she here?" England rose and paced across the hall and back, beginning the process of wearing a straight line into the wooden flooring. "This place is dangerous, but if Y's here, it's a different matter! I'll look for her and then go home!"
China couldn't do much else but watch England move back and forth, back and forth. "Calm down! Why would she be here anyway?" He didn't give him the chance to respond. "Listen, we only came here because we went along with America's stupid story and had nothing better to do, right?"

Not pausing for a second, England glanced again at the paper, reading over every letter several times. "That's why this is so weird! She would never come to a place like this…not willingly, anyway."

"Just think about it, Opium! We've been here for less than an hour. How could she have gotten here before us? She's probably still at the meeting place, aru."

"Th-then what is this?!" England demanded, waving the paper in the air near China's face to prove his point. "This was a page of her notes from the meeting earlier today! Why would the same notes be burning in the fireplace?!" France is missing too – like I care about the git, though. And America was shooting at something…

"This place is pretty weird," China noted, pushing the paper away and taking a step back from the bewildered Brit. "I'll go talk to the others about it."

England forced himself to pause and take a deep breath, the haunting scent of burnt firewood lodged in his nose. "Alright. Anyway, let's go back. The chances that… N-never mind. Let's just go."

The last thing the two noticed as they descended the stairs to the first floor was the faint metallic odor weaved into the dispersing smoke.

-x-

If anyone had ever thought that something like this would happen when they first arrived here, they would have never come at all.

England and China had followed the sound of the gunshots to the first floor and had started to search the floor for any signs of life, and were greeted by the faint crash of something large and heavy slamming against the wall. The sound emanated from a half-closed door at the end of the hallway to their left, so they assumed the worst and ran for the door, kicking it aside and getting a good view of whatever was going on inside.

The first thing that was to be noted was the Thing. It was slightly taller than the doorway they were standing in and ashen gray in color, with a huge head balancing on a long neck connected to a humanoid-ish body. Turned to the side away from the two, its large black eyes gave it a frightening similarity to the aliens in America's movies. At the moment, its face and body was littered with scars, some with sticky crimson flowing from them onto the ground below. That was the second thing – the scent of blood hung in the air, and it hit the newcomers so hard that it was almost enough to make England sick.

The third thing was the two figures standing back against the far wall with red staining their clothes and shocked expressions on their faces. They were none other than Russia and Canadia, the two largest countries in the world, fighting side by side (for once) against a common enemy.

"What the – Uh? What?! What is that monster?!"

England's exclamation made Russia look up from tending briefly to an injury on his arm, flashing his fellow nations a smile. "Ah, you two sure took you time, didn't you? As you can see, we're in the middle of an assault."

"Y-you two…b-b-better run –" Canada didn't look in much better shape than Russia did. Even with fewer wounds, he was terribly pale and shaking slightly. Of course, after who-knows-how-long of staring that Thing in the face, no one could blame him. Kumajirou was right there at his side, staring at the enemy with the most confusion that a single small white bear could muster.

In the time it took Canadia to speak, England and China had stepped farther forward into the room, while still staying away from the hideous monstrosity at the center. The monstrosity itself, meanwhile, decided to take advantage of the slight distraction and attack Russia, the only thing separating its claws from the tall nation's heart being his ever-present attack pipe. Even with that means of defense, a few claws still connected with skin, warm blood welling up from a pair of fresh parallel scratches across his face.

Canada flinched away from the attack, barely avoiding barreling into his beloved pet. "R-Russia!"

"…That hurt," Russia commented nonchalantly, as if he was talking about the weather instead of a new wound. "The water pipes in this place really are no good at all. Good thing I brought one of my own~!"

Canada, basically without a weapon except for the very unlikely attack bear, glanced around for anything that could be useful at the moment. "I-it's no use! Even if it's yours, it's just a tap!"

In response, Russia promptly returned the attack, the outer sheath of the pipe falling away and revealing a thin, silver blade still connected to the curve of the tap. Within moments it had sunken through the sickly gray flesh of the Thing and given it a slice that it would be sure to remember. The Thing hissed in pain and took a few stumbling steps backward.

China had to do a double take to make sure he was seeing everything correctly. "Huuuh? How come the pipe turned into a sword?!"

"Actually, this is a sword cane," Russia stated cheerfully, rubbing a spot of blood off the end of the blade as if it was just a smudge of dirt. "I asked Japan to make it for me! It's really sharp, isn't it?"

This is ridiculous, aru. There's no way that this is all actually happening. I must be asleep in the – When Russia attacked the Thing for a second time, his sword cut even deeper, sending droplets of blood flying and nearly hitting China in the face. "Aiyah! That's nasty!"

"But it didn't cause any damage at all…" At the moment, Canadia was too busy wiping stray blood from his arms to worry about the flabbergasted look on China's face.

"L-let's give them reinforcements," England murmured to the Orient nation, one hand balling into a fist of determination.

China, now recovered from his momentary shock, held his head high and glared with annoyance at the Thing attacking who one could call his friends. "Right, aru!"

And thus, the battle began.

A/N: Gosh, I thought I'd never finish this chapter! And I didn't even get to the fight scene yet… But that's okay, because I've got an even better plan that involves new people, shadiness, and no time travel whatsoever! :D I hope you all enjoyed this shorter chapter~!