I'm still alive, well, kind of. I got really sick, but because of that I was able to finish writing this chapter, so...yea sickness! ^^ Sabrinita: Glad you like it ^^ I can't make any promises. ForNarnia: *whistles* that's a long review you wrote. Same here! that's the reason why I did that, but it was over the summer, so I couldn't remember all the forms. mysticzephyra: That means a lot to me, this is my first fanfic so I didn't expect this many people to like it. Dreamer-.-LYNX: Do I? (insert evil laugh) jk, jk. So, this one is different from all my other chapters because I had this in 3rd person. I think the rest of my chapters will be like that too, it makes things so much easier. Well, enjoy ^^

It's been several hours since the search party came back with America and the news has spread to all the other nations. One would think that the entire floor would be buzzing with excitement, but it was deathly quiet. No one dared to make a sound incase it disturbed the injured nation and his temporary caretakers. When said caretakers walked out of Prussia's room, the air resounded with worried cries.

Once Blaise had managed to shut all of them up, John started explaining. "Sorry, I did everything I could, but I wasn't able to heal all his wounds. He's stable, but I don't know how long that's going to last. He could go critical at any moment, so I need someone to keep watch over him. Prussia I already know that you'll volunteer, so I need you to start after I finish talking." Turning his attention back to the growing group of nations, he continued, "America won't wake up for a long time. The monster he fought was a recreation of Steve." This the mention of it's name, most nations shuddered, while others backed away in fear. Blaise looked down in disgust and guilt, while John shook it off and continued this speech. "Along with it being exactly like Steve, we gave it some…extra abilities. One of them is being able to send victim to the recesses of their mind. Once there, they will have to fight all of the people they hold dear. The victim won't wake until all of them are dealt with." John clenched his fists and looked hard at the ground, as if feeling responsible for all that's happened. All the nations there stared in denial at the two humans standing in front of them. None of them could believe what was happening to the happy-go-lucky, cheerful nation they all knew. Although, in retrospect, they should have known that something like this would happen to the one nation with a hero complex.

As the nations stared on, completely speechless, Prussia mumbled something incoherent and walked into this room. He pulled a chair so that it was next to the bed America was currently occupying. His love had bandages wrapped around his left arm, torso, right shoulder, and his forehead, as far as he could tell. The ex-nation grabbed the others hand and gently squeezed it. He tried his best to keep a solemn façade, but the longer he looked at America in this state; the more tears escaped his eyes. Prussia leaned forward and whispered into America's ear, "Please, come back soon."

At first America was floating in a seemingly endless space of nothing, but then the scenery changed to one from his most distant past. It was a vast field of rolling plains that were completely untouched by civilization. If it was anyone else, they would have thought it very peaceful, but America knew better than to succumb to that desire to lie on the grass and fall asleep. He wouldn't be able to anyway, this place held too many memories for him. Happy and sad memories flooded his mind all at once, threatening to overflow and burst. America clutched his head in pain and fell to his knees until the pain receded to a dull throb. He slowly got up and froze; what he saw shocked him to the core. Standing in front of him was a tall, lithe woman with long, black hair and perfectly tanned skin. She had animal skin clothing that just covered enough of her body. She looked exactly how America remembered her, except her eyes weren't the normal warm, chocolate color he remembered; they were cold and calculating.

"M-Mom…?" America took one step forward, tears threatening to overflow. When the woman didn't make any move, America let his tears cascade down his cheeks as he ran towards her. "Mom! I thought I would never see you again! I was devastated when I heard you died." America continued to talk through his broken sobs as he hugged her. When he realized that she hadn't hugged him back he looked up at her and asked, "Mom? What's wrong? W-Why won't you hug me back?" This mother then spoke to him for the first time since he saw her, " Your not my son, he would never stand by as his government tried to kill all my people." She then shoved him off her and glared daggers at him.

America was completely shocked, he never thought he would be having this conversation with his mother. After a few minutes of silence, he regained his ability to speak. "I never stood idly by as we attacked your people! I tried my best to convince them that there was no need to attack, but they didn't listen to me. Please mom, you have to believe me…I never wanted to see you hurt." As America trailed off he looked down at the ground and clenched his fists. It was all the truth, he could remember it clear as day; that day scarred him the most.

Native America put a hand on her son's shoulder, as he reminiscence, snapping him out of his thoughts. America looked up at his mother with confusion clearly written across his face. She looked down at him with soft, caring eyes and pulled him into a tight embrace. America stood there, completely shocked at his mother's quick mood swing. When she pulled away from him, she said, "I believe you, how could I have forgotten what a mama's boy you were."

America was about to protest, but he was pulled into another embrace. This time, he was able to hug her back; but before he was able to wrap his arms around his mother, he felt a sharp pain in his back. His mother shifted, and the pain increased. He tried to pull away, but that made it worse. He looked into his mother's eyes once more, and found a malevolent glint in them. America's eyes grew wide with realization as tears cascaded down his face. His own mother had stabbed him in the back, in more ways than one. He searched for his mother's hands, ignoring the pain coursing through his back with every movement. He took hold of her hands and ripped them away from him, letting out a gasp after the movement was completed.

America stepped back and took a good look at his 'mother'. She had a sickly, unnatural smile; her nails were long and sharp. There was also something not quiet right with her shadow, it seemed, distorted. She still had that crazed look in her eyes, but America noticed there was more to it than he originally thought. This was a look of forewarning hidden within the depths of her eyes, like she was telling him to run away while he could. He knew now that there was something wrong with her, but he couldn't figure out exactly what it was, either way, it looked like he wasn't going to get out of this position until he fought her.

America reached for his pistol, when he realized that he didn't have it with him. "Looks like I'll have to use kick-boxing again. I guess it was a good thing that I was tested for martial skills; at least now I'm not as rusty as I would have been." He went down into a stance and waited for his 'mother' to make the first move. She noticed this and charged, both parties anticipating the other's next move.

Prussia was growing more worried as the minutes past. It seemed that America's breathing was growing more and more ragged as time went by, and he recently found a wound on his back that wasn't there before. If what John said was true, does that mean that if America is injured there, then the injury is transferred to the real world? Just thinking about it made Prussia's head spin. For now, he would focus on trying to help the comatose nation and leave the thinking to the ones that were accustomed to it.

As he finished this thought, Austria and Britain walked in. "Speak of the devil, and he may appear." Prussia thought irritably. "H-How is he?" An apprehensive Britain asked. Prussia suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, and answered truthfully, "As you can see, his condition is progressively growing worse. Also, I found some new injures that weren't there before. I don't know where they're coming from." This news troubled the two nations, "What could have caused this to happen? I'm fairly certain that there's nothing here that cause any new wounds. Does this have anything to do with Steve's new ability?" Both nations thought deeply about this new occurrence, while Prussia stared at the ground in guilt. Why is it that he can't do anything for the one person he cares about more than anything else in the world? Why is he stuck watching as his love suffer like this? Is this retribution for all the things he had done in this past? Whatever he did, America doesn't need to suffer because of him. As Prussia was wrapped in his thoughts, he vaguely heard Austria shout something. He looked up and saw something trying to get in the room through the window. Prussia immediately jumped up and shielded America, while trying to figure out what exactly was outside the window. It looked like a clown*, but it was obviously not human. It looked at the four nations inside the room, and smiled. It had found its target, now all it had to do was bring him back to its master. It lifted its arm and thrust it at the windowpane. It shattered instantly, and the humanoid figure brought itself through the broken window. The three nations standing stared at it in fear, but then they noticed that half of its body was frozen. What ever had done that, the three thanked, because now, it would be a lot easier to fight it. Austria picked up the closest things to them, and tossed them to Prussia and Britain. Prussia had a bowl, Britain a plastic cup, and Austria kept the towel. "WHY THE HELL DID YOU GIVE ME A BOWL/CUP?!" The two nations screamed. Austria just shrugged and said, "You're lucky you get anything at all."

"You pompous-"

"Hey, do you want to trade with me?"

"What? Why would you want a cup of all things?"

"I don't, I just think you would actually be able to fight with a bowl while I fought with my fists."

"This is why you're not a real nation anymore."

"Shut up Austria, no one asked you're opinion!"

"Both of you need to shut up or else that half-frozen clown is going to get America.**" With that last comment, the two nations stopped bickering and focused on the task at hand. "…Do you still want that bowl?" Britain shot Prussia a death glare before sighing and holding out his hand. With the bowl now in his grasp, Britain dropped the cup and turned to the monster. "Thank you for waiting, that was very polite of you." Then it did what none of them expected it to do, "No problem, it was entertaining to watch the three of you; but I do have a job to do. So if you'll let me by, I'll be on my way." All of them made holy-shit faces, then Prussia pointed at it, and had a blond moment. "You can talk?!" The monster just looked annoyed, and decided that now would be the best time to attack them. Prussia saw this coming, so he shifted so that he would be covering America and Britain. He blocked the attack while Britain lifted the bowl above their heads and brought it down with full force on the monster's head. It crumbled a bit, so Austria took this chance to get to its side and whip it with the towel. After that Prussia kicked it in the stomach and sent it flying into the wall next the window. The force of it shattered the frozen half it and cracked the edges near it, but it didn't bleed. While all of them found this odd, they continued their relentless assault until there was nothing left of the creature. Of course, that's when some of the others noticed that there was too much noise coming from Prussia's room and charged in. Blaise was the first one in, then John and Italy followed him in. "What's going on in here?" Britain looked sheepish as he tried to explain everything that just happened. "Ah, well, you see there was this thing outside the window that looked like a clown. Then it, uh, broke the window and came in. After that we fought it and won." Italy looked utterly confused while Blaise gave them a what-are-you-talking-about look. Luckily John got what he was trying to say and explained it in a better way. After John had finished explaining, Italy looked over to America and gasped. "What happened to America? Did he get hit? He has a lot scratches and bruises all over him." Everyone looked over to America and was frightened by what they saw. America was covered with multiple scratches, and more kept appearing. "What's going on? This isn't supposed to happen, is it?" Everyone looked to John for an answer. "I'm not entirely sure, but I think that when America is wounded in his subconscious, the wound becomes a real one; it seems like the only explanation." Austria took the initiative and continued John's train of thought, "If that's so, then we need to have multiple people watching America, and being on the watch for anymore monsters. I propose that there should be two people stand guard outside the room, while three people are inside the room with America. Anyone else have any ideas?" When no one said anything, Austria continued, "Alright then, we should choose who does what soon incase more show up." Austria led everyone out of the room to decide who was going to be America's guards; Prussia was the last one to leave the room. Before he left, he stood next to America and started rubbing circles on his forehead with his thumb. "Don't worry America, I'll make sure nothing happens to you."

* All you D. gray-man fans should know this, it was the first level 2 akuma Allen fought

** the order for that chain of speech is Britain, Prussia, Britain, Prussia, Austria, Prussia

So, how did you like the chapter? For those of you who really want a different ending than the one I planned, I'll make an alternate ending just for you. Please review, I didn't get a lot of reviews from the last chapter. Oh, and if you have any ideas for the story, I'd like to hear them. I'll try my best to incorporate any and all ideas into the story line; so please pm me or tell me in your review. Also, I might put in more latin phrases, just for you, ForNarnia. See you next chapter!