Waking nightmares

Chapter 11: Training

"Holy shit."

Feliciano grinned, watching the varied reactions to the training room. He was quite proud of this room, and enjoyed the looks of delight he saw on a few other nation's faces. It was impressive, after all.

The wall to their left was decked out roof to floor with various weapons, from guns to needles, and everything in between. The wall across from it was like a vertical obstacle course that kept going to the ceiling. The ground was littered with mats, various weight lifting stations, and vaults. Overall, it looked bad ass. And impossible.

"How in the blue hell did you manage this?" Alfred breathed, walking over to the gun rack and stroking one of the hand guns lovingly.

"Ve~ We have too much time on our hands." Feliciano giggled.

"Be free!" Matthew opened his arms wide, and the nations surged forward and separated.

Gilbert speed walked to the rack with various swords on it, Mathias, Ivan, and Toris right on his heels. Four out of five Nordics gathered in the far corner, looking over everyone else. Francis and Raivis ended up at the vertical obstacle course, staring up at the seemingly impossible gather of metal. The entirety of the Kirkland family spread out as far as they could, Arthur standing on the exact opposite side of the room from Allistor, who was slightly to the left of Lisa and Seamus, who were a few feet in front of Dylan. Peter had made his way over to the metal course, and was showing Francis and Raivis how it was done. Katyusha stayed near her sister and Abel, the latter chatting (more like listening) to his own sister. Yao, Kiku, Li, and Yong Suu were at the gun rack with Alfred, Ludwig, Vash, and Lilli.

Then there was the awkward group of nations that stood by the entrance, unsure of what to do. Those being Roderich, Elizabeta, Antonio, Feliks, Eduard, and Lovino. Feliciano and Matthew giggled together, linked arms, and walked over to the group.

"What's with this awkwardness?" Matthew asked.

"It's weird!" Feliciano nodded, agreeing with his partner.

The group stared at their linked arms, eyebrows raised questioningly. But, none of them said anything against it.

"I think we don't know what to do." Elizabeta admitted.

Feliciano smiled brightly. "Ve~ There's something for everyone!"

"You just have to find it."

"I know what I'm doing!" Antonio cheered.

Lovino looked at the happy Spaniard with an eyebrow raised. "Then why don't you go do it?"

"Well, Lovi, this thing doesn't involve exercise." He hummed. "I'm much better at predictions than anything else."

That sounded ridiculous to everyone standing there. Antonio seemed oblivious to the strange looks he was receiving, and just smiled. Lovino reached over, and started pulling on his former care takers cheek.

"That's stupid, and doesn't makes sense."

"Owwwyyyy! Lovi, stop pulling on my cheek!"

Feliciano's brows furrowed, a thoughtful look overtaking his face. He looked to Matthew.

"Would that be classified as a fortune teller?"

Matthew shrugged. "Maybe. Or a predictor."

"Hmmm… Strategist."

"Oooh, that's good. Let's use that one."

"Hello, standing here." Feliks scoffed, rolling his eyes. "If you'd like to bring us into your conversation or whatever."

"Alright!" Feliciano pointed directly at the Spaniard, startling him slightly. "You're now a Strategist! You can go to the library and study up on the Nightmares, so you have a better view on how they work."

A bright smile took over Antonio's face. He nodded excitedly, and rushed out the door.

"….He does realise he doesn't know where the library is, correct?"

"Give him a moment."

They stood there for three minutes, staring at the door. Antonio hadn't come back. They looked at each other, confused and a bit worried, when the male in question poked his head back through the door.

"I know where it is, by the way. No need to worry!" And he was gone again.

Roderich shook his head, walking towards the door. "I think I'll join him. I'm not too fond of weapons or fighting, so the position of Strategist sounds the most pleasing."

Elizabeta followed Roderich, of course. Eduard took one glance at the rest of the room, grimaced, and ran after the others. This left Feliks and Lovino feeling even more out of place. They looked at Matthew and Feliciano almost pleadingly. For what, even they didn't know.

"You two go and find what you're good at. We'll check on you later." Matthew smiled politely, tugging Feliciano off in the direction of the obstacle course.

"…."

"…."

"Well fuck."

Francis looked down at Raivis, chuckling. While the younger nation was quite small, Raivis wasn't very nimble. Francis almost pitied the other.

"Vite, Raivis. At that pace, you won't reach the ceiling before dinner."

Raivis pouted up at the French man, wanting to go raid whatever liquor cabinet that may be in this castle (mansion). How the hell was the other so damn fast? Francis had gotten to the part where the ceiling and wall met, and was just hanging upside down. Like a very brightly coloured bat. He had been observing the struggles and triumphs of the rest of the nations, but he seemed to enjoy picking on Raivis the most at that moment.

"Come on, Raivis! You can do it!" Peter cried words of encouragement from the other side of the ceiling.

He had completed the whole course in ten minutes flat. How the micro-nation was that fast and nimble, Francis had no clue. Raivis, though, knew Peter had picked up some of Arthur's spy skills. He must have trained a lot.

Raivis slid in between two narrow platforms, and stood. He was close now. Just a few more pieces of metal to get past, and he would be at the ceiling. He reached for the bar hanging above him.

He couldn't reach.

Raivis' cheeks tinted pink, but not enough for anyone to notice. He tried again, this time on the tips of his toes, but got the same result. He jumped a tiny bit, but only managed to swipe at the air. Francis took note of this, and sniggered. The pink blush turned into a mixture of an angry and embarrassed flush. He jumped a bit more, this time having his fingertips brush the bottom of the railing.

"So close." He muttered out, putting a hand out to grab the thin bar he knew was there.

He jumped higher, realizing too late that the railing beside himself was a little ways back from where he had reached. In his startled state, he missed the bar above him completely, instead landing a little too close to the edge.

His feet slipped and slid (which was an amazing feat given he was wearing pretty good shoes). His hands waved frantically, looking for something to grab. They found nothing. His whole body weight shifted forward, enough for his frantic waving to get more, well, frantic. Raivis couldn't find anything to save himself with.

Soon, he found himself pitching forwards. Nothing but air slowed him down, as the ground got closer and closer. Someone shouted his name, and someone else screamed. It might have been himself.

The ground was a little too close now. Raivis shut his eyes tightly, not afraid of dying (that was almost impossible for beings such as themselves), but of the pain he would have to experience when his body put itself back together.

Suddenly, his entire dropping weight came to a screeching halt. He may have not felt the force of hitting the ground, but he did get the wind knocked out of him by the thing wrapped around his waist. Not that he was complaining. Winded was much better than splattered.

"Please be more careful. I do not wish to see anyone get hurt."

Raivis opened his eyes, and was not all that surprised when he saw it had been Francis who had saved him. He was surprised when he saw Francis was still hanging onto the metal course with one hand, his feet planted firmly on the last bar. The smaller nation really had to wonder how some of the larger nations could move so quickly.

Francis stepped onto the floor before setting Raivis down. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes. Thank you." Raivis shook like a leaf the second he was set down.

"You sure? You're shaking."

"That- That's a normal thing…."

Francis raised an eyebrow, knowing fully well Raivis was lying, but didn't say anything further.

"Raivis! Are you alright?!" Toris shouted, running over. "Are you hurt?"

Raivis shook his head, still shaking. Toris sighed in relief, pulling his younger brother into an awkward one armed hug. After a few moments, Raivis' shaking died down to a tiny tremor once in a while. Raivis wriggled out of Toris' grip, then turned back to the vertical obstacle course. He placed his hands on the beginning rails, and started making his way up.

"R-Raivis! Don't do it again! You almost died!" Toris shouted.

"I need to get to the top." Raivis frowned at his brother, then continued up, muttering under his breath about having to prove something.

Francis chuckled, shrugging when Toris gave him a questioning look. He then started making his way up with Raivis, being sure to keep at the others speed, so he could make sure the small male wouldn't fall again.

Toris sighed, and sat down. He would be there until Raivis came down, falling or not.

"Dude, since when has Francis been able to climb?" Alfred said loudly, staring over at the other side of the room, where Francis was hanging upside down from the top of the obstacle thing, watching Raivis try and get up.

"Don't know, and don't care." Vash replied, cleaning one of the shot guns.

Yao stared at the Glock 19 gen4 in his hands, face blank. He hardly understood the name, how the hell was he supposed to use it? He turned his eyes onto Yong Suu, who was bouncing slightly with a stupid grin on his face.

"Yong Suu, where'd you get your bow and arrows?"

"I made them!" The Korean answered proudly, reaching a hand back and brushing a hand over his bow affectionately. "My weapons were originated in Korea!"

"Your own one, hai." Kiku smiled ever so slightly, watching his younger brother bounce around happily.

Li looked away from his family, looking over to where the sword rack was. His frown deepened slightly.

"Do you want to go over there?" Kiku asked, walking over to Li, who nodded. "I'll accompany you then. I'm not too much into guns, either."

As the two wandered away from the group, Lilli handed Alfred two 45's. He looked them over, then grinned at the young female.

"These are good, thanks!"

She smiled back, nodded, then walked back over to Vash. Alfred turned, and started waving his guns in Ludwig's face, babbling excitedly. The German could hardly catch a word the American was saying, but couldn't really pay attention when the guns sometimes pointed at him. He didn't dare try and stop the other from waving his hands, just in case he startled Alfred and he accidentally shot.

Yao looked over Yong Suu's bow, which now rested in his hands. He was quite impressed with the wood work, and how smoothly the string drew back. When he did pull the string, the bow flexed slightly with it. It was a small bow, but it had character, and did the job just fine. Yao handed it back to Yong Suu's waiting arms.

"It's very well made, aru. You did very well." Yao rested a hand on Yong Suu's forehead when the other tried to hug him, holding his younger brother at an arm's length away. "Where did you find the wood to make it?"

The Korean stopped trying to hug his brother, instead crossing his arms and pouting. "When I first joined, I found a fallen rock maple tree. I made this out of it, and have the rest of the wood stored for the use of making more arrows whenever I will run out. There are many good tree's to use for bows and arrows around here."

"Then I will find a good tree." Yao turned, and started walking out of the training room.

"H-Heoung-"

There was a scream. Everyone spun around to the source, seeing Raivis falling off of the course thing. A few nations lurched forward to try to help, but their services were unneeded. Francis let go of the bar he had been hanging from, letting himself drop. He turned in mid-air, snatched one of the lower bars in one hand, and Raivis with the other. The smaller nation let out a choking sound, probably having the wind knocked out of him.

Yong Suu exhaled, the tension he had gathered while watching Raivis fall leaving with the breath. That was a close one. At least Raivis was alright. After looking over the micro nation and assuring that, yes, he was perfectly fine, he raced after Yao.

Gilbert stared at the swords, trying to find one he liked. There were a lot of nice ones, yes, but he wanted one that would be awesome enough to be his sword. He was a little jealous of Toris, who had picked a rather nice looking Grunewald sword, and Mathias who had a large double bladed battle axe. They were able to find good weapons that fit them quickly. Hell, he was even a little jealous of Ivan, who just had his pipe.

A small, frustrated grunt came from Gilberts throat. He couldn't find anything he liked.

"Having trouble, Gilbert-san?"

The Prussian turned, his irritation ebbing away when he saw Kiku. Li was with him too, but he wasn't that important.

"Yeah, I can't find a sword awesome enough to serve my awesomeness."

A hint of amusement shone in Kiku's usually deadpan eyes. He looked over the rack a few times, walked forward, and carefully lifted a completely metal sword with both hands. Gilbert recognized it immediately as a Zweihänder, a German sword. They're most recognizable by the two parallel 'thorns' near the handle. The grip was wrapped in black leather, which made it appealing, but it didn't look quite right. There was something off about the sword that made Gilbert hesitate to grab it.

Seeing Gilbert's confliction, Kiku took a step forward and stretched the sword out to the used-to-be-nation. Gilbert frowned at it, but took the large hunk of metal none of the less.

The weight was nice, and reminded Gilbert of the eighteen hundreds, when he would wield a sword at any given time. The handle fit nicely in his hand, and didn't slide out of his grip. And it looked cool, which was a bonus, but something was… off. He couldn't place his finger on it, but something wasn't right.

"Use this for the time being, and if you find a sword you see better fit, then you can cast this one aside." Kiku offered, to which Gilbert grudgingly nodded. It would have to do.

Li tugged on Kiku's sleeve, leading him over to the various katana's. The smaller nation handed Kiku an ōdachi, to which Kiku smiled and thanked Li for. It seemed even Kiku found his sword with ease. Gilbert sighed, grabbed the sheath to his new Zweihänder, and placed the sword into it. He held it at his side casually, trying to look more comfortable with it than he felt.

A scream snapped Gilbert out of his thoughts, making him lurch towards the sound with a sense of 'must help' by instinct. His instincts grew when he saw Raivis falling, and started running for the male.

He stopped short when he saw Francis grab hold of the smaller nation, after dropping to catch him. He would be lying if he said he wasn't impressed. He knew Francis could fight (kind of), but this took the cake for cool things one of his best friends could do. Once he was sure the smaller nation was cool and not splattered, he went back over to the racks.

"Worried, much?" Mathias sniggered.

Gilbert snorted. "Bitte, I saw you lurch forward to catch the kid. You have no room to tell me off."

The Dane shrugged, smirk firmly in place. Having obtained a weapon, he walked over to the rest of the Nordics to show it off. Gilbert rolled his eyes. He might as well find his Birdie.

Lovino stared at the ceiling, glaring. He was sprawled out, having landed like that after attempting to pick the weights up. Said weights were still where they had been when Lovino had first tried to pick them up. Feliks lay beside him, panting slightly. The other had been trying to vault over the pommel horse, and had failed just as epicly as Lovino had trying to pick up the damn weights. They both had to face it – they were not cut out for any sort of physical activities.

"What the hell can we, like, do?" The Polish male whined.

"I have no fucking clue." Lovino looked at Feliks, pouting, trying to find an insulting nickname for the other. He couldn't find a single one. That was new. He looked back up at the ceiling. "Let's just face it. We're useless."

Feliks gave a whine in protest, stopped, then grunted in agreement. There was no use fighting it. They couldn't do anything.

"Argh! This is so frustrating!" He cried, slapping his hands over his face. "I don't want to rely on others!"

"I don't like the idea either, but unless we magically find something we're good at that isn't cooking or design, we won't be able to rely on ourselves."

"You forgot to mention how good we are at, like, insulting others." Feliks couldn't help saying it.

Lovino smirked, layering his words with thick sarcasm. "Oh yes, I completely forgot. Now we can make the Nightmares feel so bad about themselves that they self-destruct. You're a genius."

"Thank you. I try."

Lovino snorted, which caused Feliks to start giggling. Eventually, they were laughing quietly to themselves. A few nations looked at them oddly, but otherwise ignored the two sprawled out on the floor.

After a few more minutes of pointless laughter, the two calmed down. They decided they didn't mind each other's company. The other wasn't too annoying, or scary, and it was easy to talk to each other. The thought crossed both male's minds, 'We should hang out more.'

And so, without saying anything, the two walked over to the weapons rack. They laughed at how ridiculous they looked holding such deadly things, and joked together. They were so caught up in conversation, that when there was a scream, they both jumped and yelped.

The nations in front of them blocked any view they might have had of what happened, but since the atmosphere lightened, they figured everything was fine.

"What was that all about?" Feliks asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lovino shrugged. "I don't give a crap."

Feliks agreed. When he turned around, Lovino was barely keeping a machine gun in his arms. The safety was on, so Feliks wasn't worried about the fact that it was pointed right at him. Instead, the Polish male burst out into loud laughter.

"How the hell does Liech-Lich-Lech- that chick carry this thing?!"

Between gasped breaths and laughter, Feliks uttered a small "Lilli". Lovino rolled his eyes in a 'whatever', knowing Feliks was reminding him of Leichtenstine- Liechtoinstein- that chicks name. He really could not care less.

With Feliks' help, Lovino put the weapon back onto the rack. They wondered to the next wall, sniggering at the weapons as they went.

"Here's something." Antonio called, walking over to the table in the middle of the large library.

Elizabeta looked up from the book she had been reading, sitting up straight. Antonio sat across from her, a book in his own hands. He flipped backwards a few pages, then started to read.

"'Entry One Hundred Fifty Six – Nightmare Update. The things seem to be attracted to magical essence, or at least life force. It would make sense they're mostly attracted to beings such as us.'"

"Do you think they mean Nations?" The female asked, brows furrowing.

The Spaniard nodded. "Probably. There's more. 'It seems some nations have more life force than others, although those that have more than others don't seem to have more for any reason. It's random, and potentially dangerous. Sealand, for example, looks to have the most life force. This actually explains why he's alive, seeing as if he has it the most, then he could just run off of that instead of his land. It would also explain why Nightmares seem to be drawn to him like moths to light. It's no wonder these things show up more when there's a world meeting- there's an almost endless supply of life force then.'"

"That's…. unsettling." Elizabeta murmured.

Roderich came out of one of the isles, Eduard hot on his heels. They had heard everything, and had some information of their own. Roderich sat next to Elizabeta, and Eduard across from him, next to Antonio.

"That's not only what makes the monsters rowdy." Roderich sniffed, motioning for Eduard to read what they had found.

He opened the book in his hands, similar to all the others in the fact that they were made of dark leather and bound by string. But there were small differences, such as how the hand writing differed depending on the isle, and the information in each of them. As well as how they all began.

"'October fifteenth, year two thousand five. Sixteen hundredth hour. Nightmare Update. They are all shadow beings, so it comes to no surprise that they are the most active during the night. Our studies show that the moon plays a big part as well. When the moon is full, there is little activity. When it is not there, the Nightmares act as if on a day long sugar high. We've managed to keep them under 'control' for now, but there will come a day when we won't be able to hold them back. Something awful will happen. Let's just hope none of the world meetings fall on the day right after the no-moon night.'"

Eduard snapped the book closed, that being the only thing useful in the entire thing. A collective silence settled over the table, broken only by the tiny 'huh' Antonio said.

"Well, that doesn't sound good." A new voice said.

Those at the table looked to see a figure standing at the entrance, having heard the latest journal entry. As he walked forward, the others recognized him as the Kirkland Brother eldest, Allistor. He sat at the head of the table, crossing his arms.

"Mind if I join in? There's nowhere else I can think that won't bore me to death or make me pissed off." Allistor grumbled.

Elizabeta shrugged, not really caring. The same went for Antonio, who grinned brightly at the Scottish male. Eduard and Roderich seemed to become slightly uncomfortable, but didn't oppose. Elizabeta opened the journal she had been reading, acting as if Allistor had been there the entire time.

"So what are you all doing anyways?"

"We don't much enjoy the weapons, so we decided to become Startegists!" Antonio explained brightly. "We're reading up on the Nightmares, trying to understand them more."

Allistor nodded. Seemed interesting. He stayed sitting, seemingly deciding he liked the idea of being a Strategist as well. The only reason he had come here was because Arthur was being a twat as always, Dylan had started chatting with Lukas (who wasn't his choice in companionship, but whatever), and Lisa had dragged Seamus over to the gun rack and had started talking excitedly with Alfred. With no one tolerable to talk to, he had wandered. Ending up here seemed to be working out alright.

"I found something as well. Listen to this." She cleared her throat, then began. "' Entry Number… I don't know anymore, it's a really high number. Nightmare Update. The things leave island nations alone for the most part, seeing as it's harder to get to them than anywhere else. The encounter Sealand had at Enlgand's was purely coincidence, one of the few times the Nightmares bothered going to an island nation. This is good news, seeing as we don't have to worry about those ones as much. We'll still check on them, but not as often as we will the continental nations.'"

The five at the table took a few moments for this to sink in. The Nightmares had weird behavioral patterns. Allistor, while thinking, looked around the room. He spotted something covered in a curtain.

"What's that?"

The others looked over, shrugging. They were a bit too polite to go around snooping in things that were obviously hidden. Allistor, on the other hand, was not as kind. He got up, walked right over to it, and pulled the curtain off of it. He ignored the others shouts of disapproval, stepping back to see what it was.

The thing was a chalk board on wheels. Why would this be under a curtain? It was blank as well, which confused Allistor even more. He walked over to the other side, and grunted in satisfaction. He gripped one side of the movable chalk board, wheeled it over to the others, then turned it around to show the rest.

Elizabeta gasped loudly, standing from her seat quickly. Roderich eyes widened. Antonio's brows creased in worry. Eduard froze.

On the other side of the chalk board, was a map of the world. Different colours littered it, colouring in the countries. There was a legend near the bottom, explaining what all the colours were.

Black for extremely Nightmare infested. Red for moderately infested. Blue for infested. Grey for somewhat infested. Yellow for not too many. White for little to none.

What worried the five there was that all of the USA was coloured black. The same went for Northern Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and India. Southern Italy, Canada, China, and Brazil were red. Blue coloured over most of the African Continent, all countries surrounding China, all countries surrounding Brazil, Ukraine, and Belarus. Grey went to most of Europe, some of the African Continent, any Asian nations not red or blue, any South American nations not red or blue, and Mexico. White was for any nations in the Arctic Circle, any of the island nations, or any that weren't previously mentioned.

Elizabeta's hand found her mouth, a strangled sob escaping her lips. "Oh, Feli…."

"They've been protecting us? From this much chaos?" Antonio muttered, face disturbed.

Allistor stared at the chalk board, a frown etching itself onto his face. His nephew had put up with this for years. Not only that, but it had been him and the Italian, all alone, trying to protect the entire world by themselves for three years before anyone else started helping. Seventeen years, seventeen years of this, and only nine people had been actively protecting them all. Shielding them from this side of the world.

It now made sense to the five why there had been so many Nightmares in Washington at once. The moon had disappeared the night before, they were all having a meeting that day, and it was in one of the most taken-over places in the world. It was a wonder how Matthew managed to hide what was going on in his brother's country, even from Alfred. Then again, he and the others had hid the rest of this from them.

Roderich pulled Elizabeta into an awkward hug, trying to calm the woman down. She was trying not to cry, thinking of how much pain Feliciano must have gone through. No wonder him and Matthew developed kill modes. Trying to take that on alone would drive anyone to insanity.

Antonio grabbed the curtain, tossing it back over the chalk board, unable to look at it anymore. This was too much for just finding out magic and demons existed. He would take a closer look at the map, later, when his brain was able to wrap around it. He walked back over to the table, clearing his throat. The others slowly calmed down, and they gathered back around the table.

They would have to pretend the board didn't exist for the time being.

"I found something else. It's a list of countries. The nine who helped us get here are the first listed, but then there are a few others."

"It must be the people looking after our own countries that those two mentioned." Eduard said, voice thick. He swallowed, trying to fight back panic. He managed to keep back most of it. "Who else is there?"

Antonio opened the journal, looked over the list, eyebrow raising. "Cuba, India, Brazil, New Zealand, and Egypt. That's it."

"Five nations are going to look over all of our countries?" Roderich's own eyebrows shot up.

"After hearing that those nine looked after the entire world, I'm not too surprised." Allistor mumbled.

Antonio kept going through the pages. "It says that, if anything like this happened, they got assigned sections of the world. Cuba and Brazil had to look after North and South America, plus Greenland and any others in the immediate area. India would handle Europe, Russia, and half of Asia. Egypt would take the African Continental Plate, and the other half of Asia. New Zealand handles anything not mentioned. It doesn't seem like the best plan…"

"It'll have to do for now." Elizabeta sighed, having calmed down. "We need to gather more information. Let's start looking."

The five of them stood, and started walking through the library. On the outside, they were composed. But they couldn't get the image of that map out of their heads, no matter what they did. It would haunt them in the days to come.

A/N: Not dead, just writers block. I apologise for not updating in a while, I'm trying! Thank you for reading, and a special thanks to Senpai, who helped me when my block got really bad.

Votes

One vote: AmePan (America x Japan), SeaLiech (Sealand x Liechtenstein)

Two votes: DenNor (Denmark x Norway), USUK (America x England)

Three votes: FRUK (France x England)

Translation

Vite - Faster

Heoung - Big Brother

Zweihänder - German Great Sword

ōdachi - Japanese katana styled sword, but much longer.

Bitte - Please