Hello! I'm back again! Okay, so, this is chapter fourteen, right? There will be two more chapters, and then this fic will be over. But I'm toying with the idea of eventually writing a sequel, or some spinoff one-shots, so...

Guest: Thanks for your review! Heehee, I suppose I was being a little bit overdramatic at that point... Thank you for reviewing! And, no kidding... Even I feel sorry for them!

Chapter Fourteen:

Lithuania wasn't certain whether he was angry with Estonia, or just annoyed with Latvia. Of course, it was hard to be annoyed with someone as tiny and innocent as Latvia.

"He didn't know any better," Lithuania reminded himself, "This is my fault for not explaining everything to him before. All of this, from the very beginning, was my fault. If I hadn't passed out on the stairs that day, then Estonia wouldn't have gotten hurt in the first place."

"Lithuania?" Latvia asked, sounding worried, "Why did you leave Estonia in there by himself? He's really lonely and sad, you know."

Lithuania sighed.

"I know, Latvia," he said quietly, "I know."

"Then why did you leave him?" Latvia asked, "Why can't he come out?"

"Latvia…" Lithuania said, "You need to listen to me very closely, okay?"

"Okay," Latvia said.

"Estonia did something that could have hurt a lot of people," Lithuania said, "But it wasn't his fault. He just needs to stay in his room for a while to get better."

"But why am I not allowed to see him anymore?" Latvia asked, "I don't know what Estonia did, but it couldn't be that bad! What was it?"

"You don't need to know," Lithuania said.

"I'm not a baby!" Latvia said, "I want to know! If you don't tell me, then I'll go back there and see him as often as I want, and you can't stop me!"

Lithuania sighed.

"You…you do have a right to know," he said, "But you have to understand that even though what Estonia did was wrong, it wasn't his fault, okay?"

Latvia nodded.

"You know what insane means, right, Latvia?"

"I know what it means," Latvia whispered, looking confused, "But Estonia isn't…"

Lithuania stayed silent, not wanting to have to actually say it aloud.

"Estonia's…insane?" Latvia asked, his eyes widening, "Really?"

"It's not his fault," Lithuania repeated, "Just like it's not Russia's fault that he hurts us. They don't know any better… They don't realize…"

"What did Estonia do?" Latvia said quietly.

"He…he tried to shoot Russia," Lithuania said. He looked away then, not wanting to look at Latvia while explaining the next part.

"He thought he could help…by killing Russia…" Lithuania continued, "But that would have made things even worse, so I tried to stop him. But then…he tried to shoot me, and I… I stabbed him."

"The bandage over his heart," Latvia whispered.

"I didn't have a choice," Lithuania said, "Believe me, Latvia, if I could have avoided stabbing him, I would have."

"I know," Latvia said, looking up at Lithuania, "Did…did it hurt him very much?"

"He… I don't know," Lithuania said.

"I think maybe getting stabbed didn't hurt him," Latvia said, "It was being told he was wrong that hurt. How do we fix him?"

"Fix him?" Lithuania asked, "I…I don't… I don't know if he can be fixed."

"No!" Latvia exploded, "Estonia's going to be fine! He didn't mean to hurt anyone, right? He just couldn't help himself…"

The boy paused, his violet eyes widening.

"Like Mr. Russia…"

"Listen, Latvia," Lithuania said softly, "Estonia is scared, and he doesn't understand what's going on. Don't ever compare him to Mr. Russia, understand?"

"I understand," Latvia said, "But we can find a way to fix him, right?"

"You don't really believe me, do you?" Lithuania asked, "You don't really believe Estonia would do those things. Oh, Latvia… Believe me, I wish this had never happened, but it did."

Latvia did not reply.

Estonia had fully expected to spend the rest of his life in solitude. And, so, he was completely surprised when the door of his room swung open, and Latvia entered.

"You came back?" Estonia said in astonishment.

Latvia's expression remained solemn.

"Estonia?" he said, his voice so childish and innocent that Estonia nearly decided to lie to him, "Did you really try to kill Mr. Russia?"

Estonia looked down. He wasn't sure why, but when Latvia asked him that question, he felt ashamed that he had tried to do such a thing.

"Yes," he whispered, "I did."

Latvia's eyes widened, then filled with tears.

"Raivis…"

"I can't believe it…" Latvia murmured, backing away from Estonia.

"Raivis, please listen to me…"

"You tried to kill Russia and Toris!" Latvia wailed, "How could you?"

"I was trying to…"

Latvia turned and ran from the room before Estonia finished speaking.

"Raivis!" Estonia yelled. But Latvia was gone, and even if he had not run away, why would he want to return?

"I just wanted to help…" Estonia whispered.

The blonde Baltic buried his head in his hands, trying not to cry.

"I was just trying to save all of you… Why can't you see that?"

"I tried too, Eduard."

Estonia looked up, and found Lithuania standing in the doorway.

"I tried so many times to get us out of here," Lithuania said, "You don't know how many times I've tried reasoning with Russia, pleading with him, begging him to see sense… Nothing works. And a bullet in his head or heart wouldn't have worked either. You can't solve anything by hurting people. Look what being hurt did to you."

"I wanted to save you…" Estonia said, "We could have left… We could have gone far away… But no, you had to go and ruin everything! Stupid Lithuania! Why do you always have to try and save everyone?!"

Lithuania looked pained, but then, he walked over and knelt in front of Estonia. Taking the younger boy's hands in his own, he looked up at Estonia. And in his green eyes, Estonia saw more pain than he could ever had imagined the normally cheerful Lithuania was concealing.

"I do it because I cannot bear to see anyone else in the pain I have been in," he said quietly, "Even if the one in pain is Russia, I cannot stand to see it. I do it because it is the one thing I am good for. If letting Russia hurt me will spare you and Latvia and Belarus all this pain, then I will gladly be subjected to these beatings… I would even die to save you all."

The brunet Baltic paused, and then looked down.

"And yet… I failed. Russia destroyed you in my absence, and I was powerless to stop it. And…and Belarus… He hurt Belarus… And I let him… I keep on having to choose which one of you to save, and I can't…"

Lithuania was shaking, his voice broken by sobs. Estonia stared at the older Baltic, trying to process what was happening, and finding himself unable.

"I tried so hard…" Lithuania sobbed, "And it didn't do any good… He hurt you all… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

"And after all he did, you still saved him," Estonia said quietly, "You really can't stand to leave anyone behind, can you?"

"I c-can't let anyone else be hurt…" Lithuania moaned, "Even him… I…I always thought that things would change, and then we could all leave… Or…or he would get better… And we would be a real family, like he wanted us to be…"

"He only wanted someone to love him…" Estonia whispered, "Like me… He's…just like me. And I wanted to kill him…"

"You didn't know any better," Lithuania said, "It's not your fault. None of this is your fault, or Russia's. It's the fault of the person who made Russia this way. And…and it's my fault for not saving you in time. I'm sorry, Eduard…"

"You did nothing wrong," Estonia said, "You could have handled things a lot better… But it wasn't your fault. I believed Russia, and now… Now it's too late."

"Too late?" Lithuania echoed.

"Latvia hates me, and so does Ukraine… And we all know Russia hated me before anyways," Estonia said, "I…ruined everything…"

"Latvia does not hate you," Lithuania said, "I promise you that. That boy isn't capable of hatred."

"You didn't see his face…" Estonia whispered, "He was absolutely appalled… You know, before he came to visit me, I was thinking… About killing all of you… And Latvia…saved me. But now he's gone, and I'm scared!"

"You don't need to be scared…" Lithuania said softly, "I'll help you…"

"Latvia made the voices go away!" Estonia said, his voice rising in panic, "I don't want those voices to come back! They argue too much! And when they agree, they make me do bad things! I'm scared! Why'd you have to tell Latvia?"

"He had to know…" Lithuania said, "Otherwise the secret would have destroyed us all. But now…now there are no secrets."

Long after night had fallen on Russia's house, long after Lithuania had gone back to his room to sleep… Long after Estonia had finally cried himself to sleep, a small figure returned to the room he had left in such a hurry earlier that day.

Latvia gazed down at the sleeping Estonia, wondering how his friend could possibly have tried to kill someone.

Estonia moaned in his sleep, and thrashed about slightly, then quieted again.

"It's okay," Latvia whispered, sitting down on the edge of Estonia's bed. "It's okay. You're not alone."

"L-Lati…?" Estonia murmured, half asleep.

"It's okay," Latvia whispered, stroking Estonia's hair, "I don't hate you. I can never hate you, Estonia, even if you did do something bad. I understand why you did it… Even though it was wrong, I understand. Get better, okay? Get better… I don't hate you… I never hated you… You have to get better, Estonia… Everything will be okay, if you just get better…"

Russia was still awake, prowling through the dark halls. Something was nagging at him, and it prevented him from sleeping.

Finally, his wanderings led him to Belarus's room. He opened the door carefully, noiselessly, and peeked inside. What he saw would have made him happy once, but now, he felt sad to see it.

Belarus and Ukraine were both curled up on Belarus's bed. Belarus had one arm wrapped around her older sister, who appeared to be having some kind of nightmare. Ukraine was whimpering in her sleep, and as Russia watched, she began to thrash around slightly.

"No, don't!" Ukraine whimpered, "It hurts…"

Belarus's sleep was slightly more peaceful, but Russia could see from her face that she was also dreaming.

"Ivan, no…" Belarus murmured, "Stop it… Stop…"

Russia stared down at his two sisters, and wondered how things could possibly have become so dark. He wondered how things had become so terrible that he had had to hurt his own sisters.

"I never meant to hurt you," he whispered, "Never… But when you are disobeying, what else can I do?"

Yup. That's a chapter. As I said, there will be two after that. There is also a slight chance of a sequel at some point. Possibly. If not a sequel, then definitely some connected one-shots...

Thank you all for your amazing feedback, following, faving, reviewing, and everything! You guys keep me inspired. :)