Poland: Okay, so like because the A/N got waaaay too crowded, and that Belarus totally worn poor Maiden out; she like, placed all the nations that showed up in like, a room until the fic is over. Until then, they will like, send messages to us if they wish to talk to us. Oh, and Maiden totally doesn't own RomaHeta or us Hetalia characters. Oh! Oh! And also this chapter gets a little bit violent, so watch out.

Maiden: *comes in* Poland? When did you get here?

Poland: Just then, and I like, helped you with the disclaimers and the violent warning.

Maiden: Oh…uhh…thanks!

Poland: Like, you are totally welcome!

~.~.~.~.~

Chapter XIV: Saving брат

"I'll look after your brother while you're gone, so don't worry."

"Do anything to him and you're a dead man…"

Francis laughed it off with a wave of his hand. "Oh, don't worry! After all, Big Brother here is an ally of all people who lives for love. Hahaha…Ha!"

The Belarusian girl blew onto her knuckles as she left the French man there to sprawl on the floor in utter pain. She walked up to Lili, who was standing by Vash's side as he placed more wood into the fireplace.

"Bruder…" Lili murmured sadly.

The Swiss nation wouldn't answer or look up at her. Becoming even sadder, Lili bowed her head down and headed to Ludwig with Natalya.

"If it gets too dangerous," Lili stopped and turned back quickly to her brother, who was staring at her now, "you are to escape right away."

The cute little sister blinked a couple of times before she nodded with enthusiastic joy. "Of course!"

Vash then stood up and stared intently at her before he continued, "And don't get close to anything suspicious. You are to tackle monsters without mercy; you have to get them before they get you. Actually, be wary of everything, so keep a sharp eye open. Also…"

As he continued to tell Lili to be careful and the young girl nodded to show she understood, Natalya waited impatiently for him to finish already.

But five minutes later, she finally said, "How long are you intending to go on?"

Vash stopped halfway through his sentence and stared down at Lili. He actually really didn't want to let her go into such danger.

If you were in the same condition like Ivan, I myself would not hesitate to help you without stopping to think of the risks.

Vash let out a long sigh. "Just be careful." There was really no way to stop his sister's determination. Also, he would be a hypocrite if he wouldn't let her go.

Lili gave him a bright smile before she hurried along with Natalya towards Ludwig, who was waiting for them near the table with the Teleshifter in his hand.

"Are you ready?" he asked. Both girls nodded to confirm their readiness. "Looks like we're ready, Eduard."

"I'm also done with adjusting Ivan's program and the preparation for the transfer," Eduard's voice came up and the typing sound stopped "Natalya, Lili, may I?"

"Do it."

"Yes, please."

"Then Ludwig, please give them the Teleshifter," and the German did that, "okay, now hold on tightly and don't move."

The girls tensed a bit as they held the Teleshifter together. They waited, and… "I'm transferring you now!" two white magic circles appeared below them and warped them away into Ivan consciousness.

Everyone stared at the space where the girls once stood, wishing them good luck and a safe return.

~.~.~.~.~

Natalya and Lili felt like they were being pulled into the game world again, with the millions of colours in the darkness flying past them and everything. While Lili closed her eyes through the whole trip, Natalya kept her's open, shining with determination to save her brother.

Once they arrived and came to a sudden stop, they almost lost their balance and fell over the edge of a platform which was above a strangely bright abyss.

"Well, what a nice place to choose for us to land!" Natalya hissed after the initial shock of almost dying. She threw a glare up at what was suppose be the sky, knowing that the Baltics were watching.

"Sorry! We can't choose the place where you guys can land at," Eduard apologized in haste.

"Natalya! Are you all right?" Toris desperately asked.

"And you're still here?"

Lili scanned her surroundings, "It looks like we made it to Ivan's subconscious, Natalya."

The Belarusian girl stopped her glaring and also scanned the place. It was pretty much empty, except there were a few crystal shards floating around in the shiny white space above and below them. The platform they stood on was covered in snow with small frozen white flowers and ice shards placed around the platform and a dead tree was beside them. "So this is the inside of my брат's heart," she sighed 'dreamily'. The icy feeling from the snow was just like the temperature of her dear brother's skin.

"We're not very deep in Ivan's consciousness yet," Eduard told them. "To the south from where you guys are, there should be a gate that leads to his subconscious. However, we don't know what it looks like."

Natalya scanned around the place to see if there was anything suspiciously out of place. Ivan's consciousness was pretty empty and she saw nothing that caught her eyes…

She stopped when her eyes did catch something that looked out of place. "What's my bearing, Eduard?"

"You are now perfectly facing South," he told her.

Natalya stood there and thought. That must be it. "Come on, I think I found it."

Lili nodded and quickly followed the Belarusian girl towards a skinny path that connects from their platform to the other.

"I'll be adjusting and watching Ivan's program from now on," Eduard said as he started to type, "so I'll leave it to the rest of you now."

"We'll let you know if we've figured anything out!" Toris told them.

"And…And I'll try to help too!" Ravis squeaked.

Natalya growled, wishing that they would just shut up already.

The path connected to the two platforms was hard to cross, but they managed to keep their balance. Once they made it, Natalya quickly went up to the only tree that was different from the others.

"Isn't it a bit strange that this tree is a bit greener than the others?" Lili said as she joined Natalya.

The Belarusian girls nodded and tilted her head as she inspected the tree up and down. "Is this tree it?"

"That should be it."

"But how are we supposed to enter Ivan's subconscious?" Lili asked as she started to go around the tree to see if there was anything like a door or gate that allows them to enter. But Natalya stopped her when she tried to step back to see if it was higher up the tree.

"No need to look, just do what I do." Natalya walked up closer to the tree and when Lili was with her again, she held up her hand and indicated to the short haired girl to do the same. Together, they placed their hand on the trunk and at the second of the contact, their surrounding changed to a large room with a very long table and some seats surrounding it. Lili gave out a small gasp while Natalya's face remain blank when they saw Eduard and Ravis walking towards them, the taller nation held a tray of tea sets in his hands.

"Na-Natalya, look over there," Lili spoke and when Natalya turned to where she was pointing at, her face paled when she saw Toris standing next to…

"Брат!" running past Lili and Toris, Natalya stood next to her brother. Ivan turned to the girl but walked past her as he conversed with Toris, literally.

As Natalya stood there in shock, Lili went up to her and said, "It looks like he can't see us."

Natalya stared blankly at her brother as he talked to the Baltic nations. She could not hear what they were talking about, but Ivan looked happy as he laughed.

"Natalya, that's not the real us!" Toris' voice came up.

"Th-This might be what's in Ivan's mind…" Ravis voiced his opinion next.

"So this is брат's memory?" Natalya asked quietly as she watched Ivan sat down on the grandest chair out of all the others as the Eduard in front of them poured tea into the teacups.

"Hold on, let me adjust the program so that we can hear them," Eduard said and when a few seconds past, they heard what them.

"The sunflowers bloomed beautifully this year, да?" Ivan asked his three friends.

"Yes, they are," Ravis answered with a nervous smile but was not stuttering for once.

Eduard smiled as well as he handed Ivan the tea, "Ivan, today we'll have this particularly nice blend from Arthur's place."

The Russian took the cup and sipped the warm tea slowly before he set it back down. "Mmm, not only does it smell nice, but the taste as well! I guess tea is the only good thing he has."

"When we're done drinking, why don't we go out for a stroll?" Eduard suggested as he handed the others the tea as well, "The weather is very nice today."

"Yeah, let's go together!" Ivan beamed and at that moment, Natalya's heart broke. He had not seen Ivan smile like that for a long time.

"We can also pick some sunflowers," Toris suggested and Ivan again agreed. The scene suddenly came to an end and their surroundings returned to being snow white. The tree that was once fully green became like the rest of the trees in the area, dead and frozen.

"Thay…That was…" The Eduard in the 3D world gapped.

"That was when we still lived with Ivan," Toris sighed, "It was so long ago, I actually forgot that we actually we had some good times."

"S-So Ivan remembered all this time?" Ravis asked.

As they talked more about it, Lili felt like an outsider for not knowing anything about Ivan's past since she was the only who didn't live with them before. But when she saw Natalya still staring at the dead tree with a sad look on her face, she wondered if Natalya was feeling like that as well.

Before she could ask, Natalya asked, "But where is брат?"

The Baltic stopped talking and was replaced with Eduard rapidly typing. "I think he is in the deeper part of his subconscious," Eduard finally said. "Since we didn't find the Ivan who could see us, I guess that gate didn't lead you to it. I don't see any other gates around your area, so how about we walk around to look for it?"

Natalya stayed quiet after he finished. "And how is his condition?"

Another silence but there was no typing sound heard. "He's growing a bit more unstable."

And she gathered herself before she let a large sigh. "Let's go."

They crossed more paths that were connected to the platforms. Some were too thin to cross though, so they had to take a long detour to get to the platform they wanted to go on. While Lili followed Natalya, she noticed the Belarusian looked quiet stiff. So she decided to start a conversation to make her take her mind off of the task.

"Natalya?"

The said girl turned to her as they continued walking over a little bit thicker path, a questioning look on her face. "What?"

"Umm…y-you once lived with Ivan as well, right?" Lili asked meekly.

"Duh, I lived with брат, сястра and along with those three idiots."

The Baltic nations pretended to have not heard that (but Toris' heart broke a bit).

"Umm… sias…tra?"

"It means 'sister', you know, my older sister, Katya?"

"Oh, of course!" Lili nodded. "So…umm…where were you and Katya on that day? Did you two go pick sunflowers with Ivan and the others as well?"

Natalya stopped walking and her shoulders slumped. Lili thought she was being rude for asking such a personal question and started to apologize quickly. But Natalya said it anyway, "I think сястра was going out on that day," she said and fell silent for a while as she tried to remember. "But as for where I was, I'm not sure." And she started walking again.

The Liechtenstein nation frowned as she quickly followed. Something was wrong, how could Natalya not know where she was if she would most likely follow Ivan around? I mean, she was the nation that stalks (if what she heard from the others were true) her brother around all the time, right?

"Ah!" Eduard's voice came up again, which surprised them. "Natalya! There should be another gate on the platform next to the one you're on right now!"

The girls perked up and quickly scanned the area around them. They could not see anything that looked suspicious or out of place though. Everything was all snow white and the space around them was shining or sparkling from the crystal shards floating around. The platform was covered with snow and flowers, also some dead trees and…

"There!" Natalya shouted and pointed to where the gate was.

Lili looked confused as she looked at where the long haired nation was pointing to. She had to squint to make sure if Natalya's or her eyesight was working well. She could make out there was something sticking out of the snowy ground and had thin sticks shooting up at the air…

"A snowman," she whispered. Of course! Natalya would have the ability to tell something apart in a place where everything was covered with snow since she used to live in those areas. She could even perhaps make out a pure white rabbit in a large field of snow!

They rushed towards the snowman and since the platforms were only a few meters away, they jumped, not caring to take the path (Lili almost fell off if Natalya didn't catch her and muttering quietly, "Klutz")

They touched the snowman together and instantly snow covered trees sprouted out quickly and surrounded where they were. There were two figures in front of them, one was a teenage boy with light blonde hair, who was huddled close to a much older girl with the same coloured hair but was tied in a bun.

"They're…This place is…" Natalya murmured in shock.

"They look like Ivan and Katya," Lili said as she watched the girl who looked like the nation of Ukraine step back and took out a scarf from inside her jacket.

"That's because they are," Natalya told her and frowned when her sister started to wrap the scarf around her brother's neck.

"Here you go, Vanya!" she said as she finished wrapping the article around small Ivan. "It will warm you right up!"

"But, сестра! Isn't this important to you?" Little Ivan asked.

"It's okay, because it's for you…"

The small Russian boy looked happy and murmured a thank you as Katya took his hand and started to walk away with him, telling him that they were going to the sunflower field he loved a lot.

"But they won't bloom until Summer!" Ivan piped up.

"Once we get there, we can wait as long as you want."

The boy made a small "Yay!" as the scene came to an end and leaved the girls back where the snowman was, only it was now a melted puddle.

"Ivan looked happy back then," Lili murmured quietly.

The girls heard Toris sighed, "So Ivan has been thinking about the good times all along?"

"I guess," Ravis said, "I-I mean all the memories we have seen have been his happy memories."

"That was not real."

They all turned to Natalya (or to the monitor), who was now clenching her teeth. "I was there when as well when сястра gave that scarf to брат," she said and she tightened her fist as she started to rant, "I thought that he didn't know I was in that room as well since I was hiding under the table, but I was standing right next to them when she gave him that scarf! And I don't remember сястра ever suggested going to that sunflower field; I remember he made брат stressed out when she told him to make Kiev Rus prosperous!"

Lili titled her head and started to think as Natalya continued on with her ranting; a small light bulb appeared when Lili had an idea. She went up to Natalya and tapped her on the shoulder to stop her ranting already.

"Natalya," she began, "are you sure that you were with Ivan back then?"

"Of course!"

"Then maybe that is what making Ivan staying unconscious. There are fake but happy memories made within Ivan and maybe because of that, he likes staying in here and living with these 'memories'. If that is correct, then perhaps…"

"We have to make him realize that they are fake!" Eduard finished, incredibly amazed. "Maybe somehow these fake memories were downloaded into Ivan's program and that was what caused the instability! That was a good hypothesis there, Lili!"

While Lili blushed, Natalya asked, "So all we have to do is find брат and make him realize that they aren't real, right?" To her it seemed to be make sense; after all, she did experience sad ones once and wanted nothing to do with it. But if its happy, then she wouldn't mind living in them.

"Oh?"

"What?" the girls asked at the sudden surprise in the Estonian nation's voice.

"There seems to be a gate forming close to you."

"Another one?" the girls looked around and spotted a flower sprouting out of the snow at an abnormal rate. It quickly grew taller and taller and it began to bloom into a…

"A sunflower," Natalya murmured and went up to the now fully grown plant.

"Why did a gate suddenly appear so close to us?" Lili wondered out loud.

"Probably someone is trying to lead you two to something," Eduard said. "This gate seems to be different from the last two we have encountered before, so I suggest that you two to be careful."

"Got it."

They placed their hand on the bright yellow petals. Instead of the surroundings changing quickly, a bright light engulfed and blinded them. It took a few seconds for the light to disappear and when they opened their eyes, the surrounding around them turned into a field full of sunflowers that was not fully in bloom under the setting sun. There was someone in front of them, who seem to notice their presence and walked up to them.

"Who are you?"

They stiffed when he asked that. He could see them? And he looked like…

"Брат?" Natalya whispered at the small boy in front of them.

"Брат?" The boy asked and tilted his head as he beamed at them. "You have a brother? How nice!"

"Umm…" Lili hesitated a bit before she asked, "Are you by any chance Ivan Braginski?"

"Hmm? You know about me?"

Natalya's face grimed. This was Ivan alright, but it looks like he didn't recognise them at all. Perhaps he can't recognize me because I look older now, Natalya reasoned to herself.

"You know, I have siblings too!" Ivan said to them, oblivious to Natalya's saddened face. "I have a big sister, she's a bit clumsy but she loves me a lot!" He giggled before he continued, "And I also have a little sister, who-" a sudden blast of light engulfed the girls again and cut off Ivan's word.

"Wha-?"

"What is going on?"

The light faded again and little Ivan was in front of them, walking up to them with a curious look on his chubby face.

"Who are you?" he asked, not realizing he had asked that already and that they didn't answer at all as he went, "You know, I have siblings too! I have a big sister, she's a bit clumsy but she loves me a lot!" he giggled before he continued, "And I also have a little sister, who-" the light appeared again before Ivan could finish.

"What the hell is going on here!" Natalya demanded as she was getting annoyed. One for the constant light show, the other for not getting to hear what Ivan was trying to say about her.

"Ivan's program is getting more unstable!" Eduard said in panic.

"What? But how come?"

"Just get Ivan out of there quickly or his program will-" Eduard was cut off there and got replaced by static sounds.

"Eduard?" Lili called out. "Eduard are you there?"

The light disappeared and they saw little Ivan walking up to them again. "Who are you?"

Natalya and Lili didn't answer again but this time he said something differently. "This is my special place, you know. It's so warm here in Summer and the sunflowers bloom beautifully. I really love sunflowers so I can't wait when they-"

Natalya was really getting annoyed with the lights now, so was Lili but not as much as the Belarusian nation. "Is брат really reliving this moment again and again?"

"He really liked that place, didn't he?" Lili asked as they waited for the light to fade already.

"I remember when брат always go there to wait for them to bloom," the Belarusian girl answered. "He would wait there everyday for the flowers to fully bloom and pick them back home in his arms and a happy smile on his face."

The light faded again and were back in the field. Ivan wasn't going up to them however; he was sitting on the ground in front of the sunflowers.

The girls grew curious so they walked up to him and they heard him yawn. "I'm getting tired…" he said drowsily. "I wonder why…maybe I should take a nap," he laid himself down on the grass and quickly fell asleep.

Natalya looked down at her brother; his face looked peaceful when surrounded with the peaceful sunset and his beloved flowers. "Let's get him out of here," she said and began to pick Ivan up.

"Do you really want to do that?"

The girls jumped back from the voice. A figure pixelized before them, frowning at what they were about to do.

Natalya stepped back as Lili gasped, "It's…"

"My cястра…"

"Do you really want to do that, Natalya?" Katya, in her younger age asked as she picked Ivan up and walked up to a nearby tree. "You should know, Vanya's really love place. You wouldn't want to make him upset, right?"

Natalya stared at her sister as she placed their brother down, now lying against the tree. "I know that you really love Vanya, so you shouldn't make him sad. So please just leave him here and let him be happy, okay?"

Natalya looked down to the ground, she felt guilty for going to make her dear Ivan upset. She didn't realize that she would rob all this happiness away from him if she took him away from here. Even if he fades away, he could stay in a happy place, right?

She felt a hand on her shoulder so she turned around and saw Lili frowning at her. "We cannot do that, Natalya. Please don't be fooled," she told her, there was a tiny hint of warning in her voice, "Even if he is happy in these 'memories', he is just going over the same thing over and over again. Nothing new, neither happy nor sad will ever happen. So no matter how comfortable this place is, it's still a lie, isn't it?"

Silence was what Natalya gave to her as she thought about it again. What was wrong with me? I'm here to save брат, not deciding if he should stay in a comatose state forever or not! She took a deep breath and turned to Lili. "Thank you," and turned back to Katya."Сястра, I want our брат back."

Katya looked shocked by her decision, "Why? That isn't what Vanya wants! You'll just make him sad!"

"That does not matter," she stated in a firm voice "Even if it is not a nice thing to do, I want my брат to be with me."

Katya stared at her little sister for a few moments before she sighed, "I see. Then I'm really sorry, Natalya," the younger girls' breath hitched when out of nowhere, a huge axe was formed in Katya's hands. "As Vanya's big sister, I have to protect him, so please understand."

The girls jumped back when Katya swung her axe down upon them. It made contact with the ground instead and got destroyed, a few pixels of grass went flying around and the axe left a pixelated crater on where it landed.

They took out their weapons and prepared to fight. "Сястра! What do you think you're doing!"

"Vanya would be sad if he doesn't stay here," the Ukrainian nation rushed up to her little sister to knock a set of knives out of Natalya's hand and made her fall to the ground, "And I don't want him to be sad." She raised her axe high into the air and prepared to strike down onto her, no hint of regret on her face. But as she just laid a scratch on Natalya's shoulder blade, she got shot a couple of times into her back and then jumped away to dodge the rest. She looked up at Lili and frowned. "I can't let any of you harm Vanya in anyway," she murmured before she disappeared without a trace.

Lili ran up to Natalya and both of them pressed their back to each other to watch for any movements from anywhere under the now night darkened sky.

"Natalya," Katya's voice echoed. "Why are you doing this? Can't you allow a big sister trying to protect her little sibling?"

"You're not my Сястра!" Natalya spat as they circled around her and Lili's spot. "Stop saying you are брат's sister already!"

"It's obvious that you're not the real Katya," Lili muttered. "You're willing to protect Ivan, but also to kill your own youngest sibling? That's just awful!"

Something sounded like wind fighting against a big object falling down to the ground was heard. When they looked up, Katya was falling towards them with the axe's sharp end pointing at them, her eyes glowing with the intent the kill.

They both jumped out of the way and landed away from each other with a thud to let her crash down to the ground. Out of the pixelated carter that was surrounded by the dirt and broken grass floating around, Katya stood there unharmed. "To Vanya, he only has me as his sister," she said as she placed her hand onto where her heart was. "I might say this as well, Natalya; he doesn't acknowledge you as one. Because you make him miserable."

She saw the long haired girl pale before she continued with a sweet smile on her face, "You saw his memories, right? He wished that you weren't in his real ones, they scared him so, so much. So I gave him better ones, where you never existed. A place, a world where you never existed."

Natalya's face became frozen into complete horrific shock and was now completely blanched. She was unwanted from Ivan? That…That could not be true! She could make her own brother happy!

But…why couldn't she think up of one time she did?

She didn't noticed Lili screamed as Katya knocked her out of the way as she got up to her. "Poor, little Natalya," Katya murmured softly. "Don't you feel saddened? Are you sad that Vanya doesn't love you?" she then whispered into her 'little sister's' ear in an iniquitous but luring way, "But I can make that happen for you. A chance for you to be with Vanya forever without being rejected."

Natalya's eyes widened and Katya smirked evilly and laughed. "So what do you say? All you have to do is join us. Be one of us like Vanya as he happily lives in his world; so come on, join us…"

Lili's eyes widened as she watched Natalya not attempting to fight back. "Natalya…?"

To Natalya, the words 'join us' were echoing in her head in a scary, yet tempting way. Katya pulled back and reached her hand out for Natalya to take. She was now smiling sweetly again as Natalya looked up at her face. "Come on, we can be together, you can be with Ivan forever."

Natalya blinked and slowly reached out her own hand for Katya's. It looked like it took millennia for her to grasped it, but she pulled herself up to slam herself and her other sets of knives into her 'sister's' chest.

The fake Ukrainian blinked in horror and felt herself started to fade, but it was a slow process. "Let me tell you these first," Natalya growled and pulled the knives out to push 'Katya' back. "One: this place is so fucking fake; a fake брат would just make me want to puke!"

'Katya' glared at Natalya and raised her axe again to strike her down, but Lili shot her again, this time in her knee to make her fall. "You…"

"Second: your acting as my сястра sucks, so work on that!"

Two knives was thrown into 'Katya's' hands and she dropped her axe as she wailed in pain.

"And third: I can make брат happy. I once made him smile when I said I would stay with him forever when he was all alone." Natalya stepped up to the now badly wounded 'sister' and placed a knife to her throat. "So forget about me ever joining you."

And the Yandere Natalya swang her arm up to slit the neck in front of her. No blood came out since the woman before her was only a program but she looked like she was in utter pain.

Her body started to fade more faster now, and before she completely faded, she stared up at Natalya's eyes, "Why…you'll still be hurting Vanya…like…this…"

Once she was gone, Natalya panted as she let her knees give out and collapse onto the ground.

"Natalya!" Lili shouted and ran up to her friend. "Are you-"

"I'm fine." She sat up and stared at where Ivan was still sleeping. The sun was coming back up again and it shone on Ivan's sleeping face and now the fully bloomed sunflowers.

She knew Ivan would be thrilled to see the flowers finally bloomed, and so beautifully as well; but this was not a place where he should be. He couldn't stay here much longer.

Both girls healed themselves up and walked up to Ivan. "Брат…" Natalya whispered and caressed the boys cheeks, something she never got to do without Ivan pulling away. She realized that she was taking something that makes Ivan happy away. She realized that she lost the chance to get to do this to her brother forever. She realized that she killed someone who wants to keep Ivan happy.

Yet…

Natalya picked the small boy up and held him in her arms. "Let's go home…" and she felt herself being pulled away from the place.

~.~.~.~.~

Maiden: Belarus sent us a message! 'Сястра/сястра (siastra) means Sister/sister'. Thanks! And also from Katya, 'I look quiet OOC in this ;A;' Well…about that, it was difficult for me to write you IC while fighting. But all I know is that you're sort of a crybaby but a really nice sister as well. And besides, that wasn't you, that was the root of the problem causing Ivan to go unstable! So all in all, I had to change your personality just a bit. But you blame it on the Counting Sheep Drama CD which you were in.

Poland: Sooooo, Maiden, I heard that you are like, going to Asia for more than a month.

Fans: *intense glare at Maiden*

Maiden: Uhhh...yeah, didn't realized that until last week. But don't worry! I will still write and upload it once I get my hands on a computer!

Fans: Better.

Maiden: *gulp* So uhh...review if you want fashion tips from Poland!

Poland: You mean I can put them in miniskirts?