AN: Here's the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy! The next one will hopefully be up soon.


"Gilbert."

The Prussian jumped slightly, looking up from his writing. His eyes met familiar blue and he relaxed. "Yeah West?"

His brother's eyes narrowed, as if scanning him for anything he might be hiding.

Oh, Gilbert thought, he must be going out.

A moment later, Ludwig spoke, his tone almost cautious. "I'm going to go get some things from the store. Is that alright?"

After a slight pause, the Prussian smirked. He sat straighter and gave his brother the affirmative. "Ja, go ahead. I've got a lot of writing to get caught up on."

Ludwig hesitated slightly before nodding and turning leave, calling back, "Alright, I won't be long bruder."

Gilbert smiled, returning his assurance with, "Don't forget the beer!" He could almost see Ludwig's eye roll. When he heard the footsteps fade from the stairs, he returned to his diary. "Let's see… where was I?"

'Things were looking bleak. Toni and Lovino were stuck in the past, my fucking sword was broken and I was sure kiku would murder me if his was even scratched, Arthur was blind and Ivan was doing god knows what… and there was Feli too. Then there was the voice in my head.'

At the mention of the voice he froze, glancing around the room as if the mere thought of it would cause him to start hearing it once more. The voice never came, but he did notice Ludwig had left his door open. Cautiously, he stood and leaned out into the stairwell. There was nothing there, the only thing greeting him being the silence. Taking no chances, he shut the door and firmly locked it. Then, he returned to his previous position and grabbed his pen.

"I really do have a lot of writing to do… Geez." Somehow he had to explain how they had gotten out and that was going to be a very complicated process.

After what seemed like half an hour of gathering his thoughts, he finally put the pen to paper.

'Basically everything was going to hell, again. It had been going so well too… But we had to figure shit out. But I guess it started with Ita. We were in there with him after his heart stopped and that was fucking scary let me tell you… We thought we were going to have to go back in time again. It was a good thing Kiku noticed. The guy started calling out to him and, at first, we all thought he was going crazy, but he wasn't. He saw Feli's chest moving and sure enough he was breathing. We weren't sure what happened, but he was alive and that was good enough.' He paused, not sure how to continue.

'…Then… well then we started trying to get Arthur his magic back. It was mainly a few of the others that did that. I helped watch over Feli for a while. West really wasn't keen on leaving him. None of us were really… But we did have to find a way to get Toni and Lovino back from the past. It was difficult because we didn't know how much of Arthur's magic was scattered around or anything, but then Ivan and Yao came back from the Annex. I don't know what they were doing down there. They never told me. But I guess that's beside the point… We got out right?' He laughed nervously. Yeah they were out…

'They came back with several of the magic light balls. It didn't restore his magic a lot, not enough to get them back, or his sight. Then Alfred had to do the heroic thing. He always does that doesn't he..? He offered… well not really offered. He demanded, pleaded… forced? I don't know, he made Arthur take the shield he had placed on him. That finally gave him enough magic to get those two back from the past. It gave his enough remaining to keep his sight too. Those things were fucking strong...'

He set the pen down, rubbing his arms. Maybe he shouldn't be writing this in his room. It was always cold as hell down here and it wasn't very bright… Oh well, he could at least go get a drink from upstairs.

His phone buzzed across from him. Grabbing it, he saw it was a checkup from West.

'Everything going okay?'

Chuckling at his brother's worry, he quickly typed, 'yeah it's A-Okay. I'm just gonna go get something from the kitchen. Don't worry; I got the permission slip signed yesterday.' Send.

For a moment he looked through his contacts, wondering who he could talk to. He could check up on Ita… but he probably was getting sick of that. Lovino would probably bite his head off the next time he sent one. He could send one to Kiku, but… Maybe later.

Matt? Huh that sounded like it would be an awesome conversation.

'Hey, how ya doing? The awesome me wants to talk to you.'

After slipping his phone into his pocket, the Prussian silently unlocked the door and climbed the stairs, glancing around the living room when he entered. When his eyes met nothing, he nodded. Alright, it was clear.

He walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge, gazing inside. Alright, no beer at all. He was glad west had gone to the store. It didn't look like there was much food either… Oh yeah, most of it had gone bad.

Shrugging, he plopped on the couch and turned on the television. Having nothing else to do, he started flipping through channels.

Wait, he hadn't updated his blog in… was it months? He looked at the calendar and nodded. Yeah, it had only been a few months.

After around a hundred channels he put the remote down and checked his phone. Still no response.

'Birdie, you there? Wait…' He paused and checked the time on the TV. Oh shit it was only nine o'clock. 'Shit, you're probably still asleep. Fu-' He made himself stop typing and send the message. He didn't want to wake birdie up. Unless he was having nightmares that is…

He continued flipping through channels. Nope, nope, nada. He sighed and kept on going until a shadow caught his eye. It seemed to be growing in the corner of his eye.

His head slowly turned and he looked down the hallway. The shadow was-

His eyes widened and he jumped behind the couch, looking around frantically for anything he could use as a weapon. When he couldn't find anything, he started typing, 'Matt, there's a friggin Steve here, holy shit! Answer your damn phone!'

He sat there for what seemed like hours with panicked thoughts running in his brain. Has it already gotten the others? Was he the last one? Was West okay? Then, it finally registered in his mind that he wasn't hearing any footsteps, that there wasn't a horrifying screech coming from behind him.

Slowly, he raised his head above the armrest and saw that the shadow was just… oh. It was just a shadow from the TV. Right…

Breathing a sigh of relief, he slid down, pulling his text messages back up. If Matt was up, this would probably scare the shit out of him. 'Just a shadow… Sorry birdie, I didn't mean to freak you out. Don't go all emergency on everyone, I'm fine. Just kinda… Thought I saw shit. Heh sleep might help. But really, I'm okay.'

Gilbert stood, not bothering to turn off the television, and headed back to the safety of his room. When he reached it and has done his usual procedure of locking the door, he heard his phone go off. Oh, okay Birdie was up.

'Hey Gil. I'm okay, but you nearly gave me a heart attack. Please, try not to do that again… Get some sleep, okay?'

He nodded. Yeah… sleep sounded kinda good right now. Maybe he wouldn't have nightmares this time. After a moment he collapsed on his bed and in moments he was out.


"YoU Won'T EscApE! You WiLl NeVEr EsCaPE!"

He couldn't breathe. Where was the voice coming from?!

"YOu WiLL NeVer eSCapE! YoU WIll NeVEr EsCApe! YoU WilL NEvEr EsCApe! You WilL NeVEr EsCape!"

It kept repeating over and over again along with its bone chilling laugh. He covered his ears. "Shut up! Just shut up!"

"YoU WiLL NeVEr EsCape GiLBerT!"

"How do you know my name?"

It laughed harder. "You HaVE NeVeR EScApED! YoU WilL NEvEr EsCaPe AnD YoU WiLL Not EScaPE mE!"


Gilbert shot forward, silver hair falling in front of his face. Sweat was pouring down his face and the voice was still ringing in his ears. He panted, waiting for it to go away like it had the past… how many nights now? But another sound greeted his ears. His head turned, and he saw the doorknob shaking.

Almost like… oh god.

Cold panic spread through him. It must have shown on his face because Kiku looked worried.

"What's the matter?"

Slowly, he looked towards the door. His voice dropped so low he could barely hear it. "Don't you hear the sound of…something… getting closer?"

The door slammed open in from of him and kiku whipped around. His eyes widened. Oh god the door wasn't locked… He hadn't spoken quiet enough. It had gotten in.

"…That's-"

The thing charged, ready to claw the nation-man-in front of him to shreds. Eyes narrowing, he shoved kiku behind him. "Watch out!" He was not going to let one of his friends die here, even if it meant-

He felt razor claws cut into his abdomen as he slashed with his sword with his sword. He could see red seeping through his clothes and it hurt like a bitch. "Son of a-"

Hands were on his shoulders. It took his mind a moment to register them, but when he did he felt the same panic shoot through him and he pulled back. The hands let go and he fell against the wall, covering his head and curling up to shield his body from the blow he knew was coming.

"Gilbert, it's just me. Everything's alright."

Slowly, his eyes moved up. He registered the blond hair, the blue eyes. Gilbert laughed shakily, running a hand through a few strands of silver hair. "Y-yeah, I knew that…"

Ludwig was kneeling on the floor, patiently waiting.

He looked around and saw that he was next to his bed now across from the door. His bed covers were strewn about but his room wasn't in the state of carnage it usually was when he had a flashback. It hadn't been that long though… When his breathing calmed down, he nodded towards his brother. "Right, sorry about that. You just got home and tried to come get me right?"

West nodded slowly. "Ja." He looked down. "I should have known better after last time."

Several of his flashbacks had happened because of a scenario like this, but he merely smiled. "It's cool. You didn't do it purposely."

His brother nodded and motioned towards his now open door. It wasn't kicked down this time thankfully. "I got beer."

He grinned. "You always come through for me West." His brother helped him up and as they started to head up, his cellphone rang. For a moment he was confused, but then he saw the screen. It was Toni.

Ludwig saw it too. "Go ahead. I'll be upstairs."

The Prussian nodded and clicked answer.


"So how is he?"

Gilbert hopped up the final stair and grabbed the bottle of beer his brother was holding out to him, opening it expertly. "He's okay, been trying to call everyone to see how they're doing." There was a squeak as he pulled the chair out and sat unceremoniously in it. "Still has things going on though. No one got out unaffected."

Ludwig nodded, taking a swig. "Did he give any news on the others?"

"Nein, not a lot. He was going to call Francy pants after me and I don't know how many of the others he talked to." He took a long gulp and set the bottle down, sighing. He hoped they were okay.

"Ah. Matthew?"

"Yeah, I texted him earlier. Almost gave him a heart attack." He smirked slightly. "He told me to get some sleep and I did...Ita?"

His brother nodded. "He's not well. Doing horribly actually. I got a call from him while I was out."

"And?"

"He sounded awful. I doubt he's slept in days."

He huffed softly and mouthed, "Me too Feli." He noticed West was staring at him with the same look he had earlier. The Prussian raised an eyebrow and took another drink. "What?"

"Are you doing okay?"

The question nearly made him start choking. Instead, he swallowed and looked at Ludwig like he's gone insane. "What?" He repeated. They didn't ask each other that, at least not after they had gotten back. Sure there were looks and asking if it was okay to leave the house or lock the door or 'it this alright with you bruder' but not asking the other directly. They knew what the answer was so... why bother?

West was quiet, like his response was all that was needed. Then he whispered, "Just thought I would ask."

Gilbert countered, "Are you okay?"

"No, but I'm doing better than you and some of the others."

It wasn't meant to be an insult, but it stung his pride a bit. Maybe that was just the beer though… "West, you still get nightmares."

"Ja, I know that, but I don't have all the memories from the clocks."

The two stared at each other for a moment before they downed their bottles and grabbed another, continuing as if the previous conversation had never happened.

But as Gilbert opened the new bottle, he took in the realization that one way or another some, if not all, of the memories would make their way back to his brother.


AN: Thanks for reading! I'll try and get the next chapter up soon. Tell me what you think.