13. The Repositioning Chapter
…In which everything changes for the better and for the worse
Finland pressed a cloth against the bleeding wound on Germany's chest. The rest of the nations were around them, silently waiting for someone to say something, yet they were all too angry to talk. Only Liechtenstein was with Finland by Germany's side, trying to do her best as a medic. She was the only one crying so far. Finland added a new cloth to prevent the bleeding and continued glancing from Germany to his own hands.
But the blood didn't stop streaming.
No one could have prevented it. After the gunshot the falling of the white flag had called, Russia and Japan had lingered their eyes at their enemy in shock, knowing by heart and seeing from the corner of their eyes, that Germany had been hit. That same moment Germany went limb from the flashing pain on his chest and until his back hit the moss, none of the nations did a thing.
Russia had possibly saved Japan's life in that next moment by forcefully grappling him down behind a tree, away from the next gunshot. It had taken all the support the nations in the trench could give to get the three negotiators away from the open. Their little white flag floated downwards where Germany had let it go and landed onto a sprig of a low bush. It still was there.
The only good thing there was in this situation was that thanks to Switzerland's almost acrobatic maneuvers to get into a good position, they had managed to hurt their enemy nation. Neither Switzerland nor Finland had been in a position to shoot him, but Switzerland had been decisive enough to instantly move from one branch to another, take a new stance, and shoot. But that hadn't been enough to kill the foreign nation, about that both snipers were sure. It, together with all the other furious gunshots the nations had sent into the forest had been enough, however, to stop the humans from attacking for a moment.
But that was all the good there was.
Finland bit his teeth in frustration and looked up to shout to the evening sky above. "Perkele!"
.*** *** ***
A while later, when Finland, Liechtenstein and Australia had taken Germany away, Russia gathered all the officers to the centre of the lines.
"Well," he asked, almost casually. "Who's going to take Germany's place? I'm not, just so you know."
"What happened there?" Denmark asked and hit his axe's helve to the ground, irritated. "What kind of a guy shoots against a white flag?"
"He..." Japan said and clutched his upper arms. "He's going to use an atomic bomb if we won't surrender."
"What did you say?" China asked, unbelieving. "We cannot surrender, so what could we do?"
"First we need a commander," Russia insisted.
Switzerland turned the rifle on his lap into a more comfortable position. "Why is that?"
"We need someone to say the last word," Russia explained calmly.
"That is not all," China said. "We need to rethink our positions. After today, our numbers are too few to support both wings. Germany, Sweden and France are all unable to fight."
"The enemy doesn't seem eager to attack head-on before our answer," Japan said. "No doubt they will keep reminding us about their existence, but they won't sacrifice lives when they have practically given us no way out but surrendering."
Denmark sighed slowly. "Like we needed any remindin'."
For moment no one said anything. They kept remembering Finland's words before he had left.
"I'm not some kind of a sorcerer. Germany will die. I may be able to keep him alive for a while, given his own strength and willpower, but I'm not going to lie to you: he will die. And we should better get home before that."
"Could you be our next commanding officer, Denmark?" China asked after a little silence.
"No can do," Denmark answered immediately, shaking his head.
"Why not, mister second-in-command?" Russia asked kindly.
"Ye can't seriously be giving me so much responsibility?" Denmark pointed out. "Ye know I jes want to attack all out. I don't wanna sit thinkin' up strategies and positioning and send someone else there to have fun. Second-in-command is jes fine."
"If I am okay…" China proposed and raised his hand. "I could think up something."
"Excellent," Russia said, smiling and looking genuinely happy. "Objections, anyone?"
"None. Then please, China," Japan said and shifted, crossing his fingers. "Let us do something about this together then."
China nodded and looked very thoughtful for a short moment. Soon enough he nodded to himself and looked up. "I think the first thing we must do is to get in contact with Norway and find out how much time does he still need to complete the spell. Then...I say we need Sealand."
.
Later that evening…
Sealand ran through the forest. He clutched a map in his little hand and a compass in the other. He had an important assignment.
"Listen Sealand," China said and crouched down to give the micro nation a map. "I want you to run and this time, give it all you got. You must be back tomorrow. This is not just any order. It is a very important mission and you have to get it done. We are counting on you."
Sealand stopped on a top of a hill and bent to his knees out of breath. Then he straightened quickly and shook his head, telling himself to keep going.
"Everyone's counting on me," Sealand said to himself and continued his way down the hillside. "I'm on a mission now. I can't rest." He kept talking to himself as he ran through the rustling underbrush.
.*** *** ***
Norway stared at the fire outside the Home hut. Estonia stood a little behind him, listening to the conversation between Norway and China. Fire burned lazily on the pieces of wood before them.
"I see," Norway said quietly. "I think that counts as a reason enough to stop me from workin'."
"How long you still need?" China asked again. "You get it done by tomorrow, right?"
Norway immediately shook his head. "Absolutely not. I still need at least two days."
"Eh? No no no, now you are kidding me, right?" China said, unbelieving.
"I originally said six days at least, didn' I," Norway reminded and looked coldly at China.
"Yes exactly," China started to raise his voice a bit. "Tomorrow is the sixth day since you started. You're saying you need more? In this situation?"
Norway frowned. "At least, China, at least six days. I still need two, so that makes it seven."
"Norway," China said strictly. "We are at our limit already. You're telling us to keep fighting for two days more? We have an atomic bomb threat on us already."
Norway snapped a stick in two to make China shut up. "Don' make it sound like I don' care." Norway stood up and Estonia opened his mouth to say something, looking worried, but Norway continued. "I know how hard ye've been workin'. I was driven out of my room to make space for the wounded, ye know. Ye're giving me time to get us all home, that's what Germany decided on the first day this all started. An' now that Germany is lying almost dead on the table there in the hut because there're not enough beds for the wounded anymore. Ye think I feel nothin' about it?"
China looked guilty. "No, no I do not think that.
"Just like ye've had tough time," Norway continued, "I have slept hardly at all this whole time to meet to yer expectations. Do ye know how motivatin' it is to look at a wounded after another appears in the hut? I can tell, very motivatin'."
"I understand," China said hurriedly. "I did not mean to be rude, Norway, really. I am sorry."
Norway didn't look anyone to the eyes and started to walk back towards the hut. "Don't ye dare to think I'm jes playin' here while ye're at war. I said seven days, so two more days it is. Sure I can make it less, if ye don' mind someone or some body part of yers left behind or take the risk that we might not make it at all. Stop making it sound so easy, all of ye. I haven't got enough power to do it twice if we screw up. I'm startin' to wonder if I've enough to do it once. I may not be holdin' a gun, but I'm fightin' jes like ye are. Ye have any idea how much–"
"SHUT UP!" A sudden shout stopped Norway's rant as fast as the door of the hut slammed wide open right in front of him. Norway was so close to the door when it opened he had to jerk backwards to avoid getting his nose broken and his hair waved in the gust of air.
It was so sudden everybody else jerked as well, door or not.
"Shut. Up," Iceland said again and breathed heavily, taking support from the door frame.
Norway stared at him eyes wide open and couldn't get a word out of his mouth.
Estonia survived the surprise first. "Iceland?"
"Brilliant!" Netherlands cheered beside the hut's corner where he had been standing all along, listening to the conversation silently. "One person more awake."
But awake or not, Iceland didn't actually look very healthy and he seemed to have trouble standing on his own. To highlight this, Finland popped his head out of the hut door beside Iceland.
"Ice. I told you not to overdo it. And everyone, don't shout: we have sick people here," the head medic lectured strictly. "Ice, that goes for you too. And you really should lie down."
"Mind your own business," Iceland said very grumpily and took a shaking step forward towards the still gaping Norway.
"Ooh, someone got up with a foul mood," Korea commented, being one of the few people who had come closer to greet Iceland.
"How could I stay quiet when you're being so pathetic?" Iceland asked and looked Norway deep into eyes. "Stop complaining and do what you have to. You're annoying, brother."
Finland smiled and turned to return inside.
Norway closed his eyes for a while and then opened them, smiling slightly and looking more tired than he had shown so far. "Ice."
"Yes?" Iceland answered bluntly. "Did it take you this much time to recognize me?"
Norway took Iceland into his arms and hugged him. "Listen to Finland and rest for a bit more." Then he let go and stepped past Iceland. "China. Thirty eight hours. Startin' now. Let's go, Estonia." Norway disappeared inside.
Remaining time to departure: 1 day, 13 hours, 59 minutes, 56 seconds
.*** *** ***
Later that evening, Norway's actions changed. Instead of locking himself inside a tiny room or, in the lack of appropriate room, demanding silence in the biggest one, he exited the hut with a huge flock of cryptic marked papers on his arms, Estonia following a few steps behind. The papers were notes that were the conclusion of their work so far. Without explaining anyone a thing despite some curious glances, the two started working on the phase two of Norway's spell.
"Well then, as planned, we'll use the hut as the center," Norway said and handed all the notes to Estonia, taking out his pen to make some more notes into an unused paper. "To let you know, it's from here on it gets difficult."
"I could have guessed," Estonia answered simply, not sounding the tiniest bit surprised.
In the front lines the battle had continued. But like some of the nations had anticipated, the enemy soldiers were clearly given an order not to risk their lives too badly in the current situation. No one had got hurt. That was a little brighter spark in their somewhat gloomy atmosphere. In fact, to their enemy the option of "not risking their lives" meant keeping quiet. Despite China's efforts of trying to keep their remaining fighters calm, the nations were currently mostly furious.
In the light of new plans and strategies by their new commanding officer and the all the other officers, Finland had permanently joined and Korea rejoined the action group, increasing their available fighters to nineteen. China's plans included dividing all the remaining nations into pairs that took care of their respective sections of the lines. Instead of curving the wings towards the enemy line like before, they now curved slightly backwards, protecting their sides. The commander was still positioned in the center, forming the only group of three with Denmark and Belarus.
Furthermore, China had formed the rear fighting team to protect their backs. This group consisted of the injured nations who were healthy enough to carry a weapon: Lithuania, Sweden, Belgium and Netherlands. Their primary job was not to fight but to keep up a guard that no one would try to sneak up from behind. Switzerland had joined them for the night as it was too dark for sniping. As Sealand was away, their only remaining messenger was Italy, who had been ordered not to run around carelessly. He was also positioned to be with the rear fighting team, being the one to get the help if needed.
With Finland leaving the back-up group, the lead of the team had passed on to Liechtenstein and Seychelles. From the two, Seychelles was in charge of the injured and Liechtenstein in charge of the food supplies and Home defense. In addition to ensuring that they wouldn't be attacked from behind, the officers had now prepared for the fact that as the enemy wasn't going to charge head on against them anymore, this was the best time for them to do sneak attacks and assassinations. For that reason, every person available at Home was now carrying a gun. To do her own part in this, Liechtenstein had assigned America and Latvia to guard the surroundings from the outside.
From what anyone knew, China was nothing but satisfied with the plans he had come up with.
To the nations, that night felt the longest of all they had spent in the foreign dimension. As the sun went down, their enemy quieted down and a murderous silence spread to the forest. No gunshots were discharged and no grenades or mines exploded. The forest was unnaturally quiet after all the almost continuous fighting. The sky was cloudy and dark, showing no light to the bottom of the forest, and the air was heavy like before a storm. No one dared to light a fire or speak. Everyone stayed put and listened to the silence, waiting for an unwanted guest to pop up behind the tree any moment. When the sunlight had entirely disappeared, the forest became still, silent and dark.
It was in that kind of night, without knowing the exact time, when Poland, one of the nations keeping guard on the front, noticed something in the forest that didn't belong there.
"Korea… what is that?" he asked his pair casually while gazing at the dark forest, frowning.
"Huh?" Korea asked back and rose a bit up to see the forest. "What? Oh that-" his eyes spread. "What is that?"
"Make way," Poland said quickly and dashed past Korea along their trench. It didn't take him long to reach the center where China was. "Hey, China," Poland called, but the next moment he saw that China had also already seen what he had. In the forest some thirty meters away from them, burned a silent blue flame, seemingly floating in the air.
"Hmm…" Russia hummed in deep thought, while standing upright in their trench and gazing towards the flame. "I wonder what it is."
"Idiot!" China hissed and glared at him. "Get down, or you will get shot at any time!"
When Russia didn't obey immediately, Poland directed a kick behind his knees and received a soft "ah?" when the bigger nation fell down against the back of the trench. While Poland was at it, he landed a hit straight on Denmark's face, to wake up the only nation who had the guts to sleep in this situation. He then immediately regretted both of these actions, when both Denmark and Russia where breathing to his face.
"That bloody hurt, dammit," Denmark growled, holding his nose.
"That hurt, you know," Russia chirped dangerously at the same time.
Japan broke the tension that strangled Poland more second by second, by coming into sight behind the corner. "China," he started, but China gestured him to quiet down, knowing that Japan had come with the same report as Poland.
Together they all watched as another blue flame lit up in the forest ahead of them and was soon followed by a third one.
"Inform everyone," China said calmly. "Until we know what those lights are, no one is allowed to make any big moves, okay?"
"Do we inform headquarters?" Denmark asked. "Norway might know."
"I wouldn't send anyone out," Russia said and pointed behind them, on the other side of the protection mounds. There burning was yet another flame that softly flattered in an inexistent wind. "Not until we know what they are and can we just go by them."
"I don't think our enemy is doing these," Japan shared his mind. "The fires seem to burn deep in their territory as well."
China bit his lip. "What on Earth is this?
The same wondered Estonia in the front yard of their Home hut, while he was being guided through the herds of floating blue will-o'-the-wisps that gathered around them. He could know they were there even with his palm covering his eyes and only Norway's hand guiding him towards the hut, where according to Norway it was safe. Norway himself walked through the field shadowing his eyes with his arm, but keeping his eyes open, attached to the ground to see where they were going. The will-o'-the-wisps stranded slightly away from them, but kept their circle tight.
"Foolish fire," Norway mumbled when his hand finally touched the wooden wall.
The door opened ahead of them Liechtenstein poked her head out. "Norway, what are these things? Is this your doing?"
"Get back inside," Norway ordered and reached the door, pushing Liechtenstein back. "They're will-o'-the-wisps. I didn' create them. Someone or somethin' else did."
"What do you mean "something"? Why? How?" America asked, pointing his gun out of the window, waiting to shoot the flames if they did anything more suspicious. He and Latvia had come back to the hut to report nothing was wrong a moment ago, just before something started to go wrong. They could thank their good luck for that.
"I dunno," Norway answered and closed the door as Estonia took his hand away from his eyes. "Don' look at them. If ye see 'em too close, that might be the last thing ye do. Luckily they're not hostile. Yet. Guns won' help."
America backed away from the window looking slightly terrified. "Can't you do something about them?"
"He perhaps could," Estonia answered. "But that would be waste of magic. Isn't that right, Norway?"
Norway nodded silently and looked around the people in the hut. "Someone must go to the front… and warn China about these fires. They might've appeared there as well. Let's jes hope nothin' has happened already…"
"Then I'll go," Finland reported in immediately. "I should be joining the action group anyway. I actually should already be there," he added, laughing nervously. "I just kinda couldn't let go of things here."
"Don' go alone," Norway said immediately.
"Then I'll go," said a quiet voice from the corner and Canada stood up. "I should be there by now as well."
Norway nodded. "Then c'mere. I'll explain how to deal with them."
Norway's instructions were short and simple. Finland and Canada listened carefully, but avoiding the risks didn't sound too hard. No one quite understood what the risks were from Norway's explanation; they sounded scarcely logical and mostly mythological instead. Norway didn't seem to care if they actually understood how it worked as long as they understood it was dangerous.
"Well, we will be going then," Finland said brightly like they would be going on a tea party, took his gun and stepped to the door. "Come on Canada."
"Ye sure ye got it handled?" Norway asked doubtfully one more time, frowning at Finland's cheerfulness.
Finland chuckled at his tone. "Don't worry, Norway. We will tell China your news in flash. And as long as we follow your instructions and some common sense, we'll be okay, right?" Finland asked and carefully opened the door, stepping outside.
"It's your common sense that worries me…" Norway mumbled, raising a hand to massage his forehead. Finland didn't seem to hear.
"Finland, Canada," Iceland called out to stop the departing two and stepped outside after them. "Here – take this with you. So you won't get separated." He handed Canada a long rope, then immediately stepping back to return inside. "Be careful."
Canada smiled. "Of course."
A/N: Hello, dear readers. I'm sorry I'm slow again. (I had a weird phase for Kingdom Hearts in November and December so I wrote 80 pages of KH instead of writing Hetalia. =u=b). But hey, see? No cliffhanger. I'm improving. I think...
Perkele (Finnish) = a swearing word that's hard to translate. Perkele is an old God of the dead and is now one of the strongest swearing words in Finnish (and we have a lot of them).
Hope this isn't getting too weird. Don't worry, everything will be explained eventually.
Reviews:
kshima91: What a great timing to post a comment. =D I hope you're still around. Thank you for the compliments, really, thank you. I appreciate that you didn't just read and leave. I'm trying my best to keep the characters in character (which is why I actually don't like writing about characters I feel I can't keep in character, like America, Poland and Italy). Anyway, I'm happy you found me and that you have liked the story so far. I hope I can keep you interested to the end. No worries, I'm not going to abandon this: I'm just slow. =) (Should I relly be smiling at that...?) Also, those "noticable differences" are my desperate attempts to make the OCs seem different. XD
I'm also very surprised to find more and more people saying that this story is original. I guess it is then, I have to believe you. =)
Wings: thank you again. (btw, I sent you a pm after you sent the beta'd chapter: did you not get it or just left it unanswered? I waited for a few months.)