Disclaimer: Hetalia's not mine.
England nearly dropped his biscuit when a loud female voice crowed in his ear. "We got the bastards!"
"What?" England wiggled a finger in his ringing ear as he glanced over his shoulder. Hungary was bouncing in excitement, beaming. A smile crept over England's face. That sounded like good news indeed! He flicked a glance toward Alfred, wishing he weren't there. "You found them?"
"We will!" Hungary waved her arms around. "We captured one of them! He's being held downstairs! Guarded by Germany and Prussia. We'll be able to get him to talk, easy!"
England really wished Alfred wasn't there. "Sit down!" he said, grabbing for the pissed human's arm. "You aren't going to go kick his arse."
Alfred looked torn. "But...!"
"No, Alfred. We need him in one piece."
Alfred scowled as he dropped back onto the chair. England heaved a sigh of relief, grateful that Alfred was going to be reasonable for now. "So how did you find him?" he said, turning back to Hungary.
"Canada did! Apparently this fellow thought Canada was Al and tried to capture him."
England grimaced. So they were still looking for Alfred... "Is Canada okay?"
"He's healed now, yes."
"Oh, shit." England dove after Alfred, tackling him to the floor just as he reached the doorway. "Dammit, Hungary, all you had to say was 'yes'!"
"Sorry!" Hungary hurried over to lend a hand in pinning Alfred down.
"Let go!" Alfred growled, trying to twist out from under them, craning his neck around to see them.
"No. Settle down, dammit." England glared down at him. He tried not to flinch away from the furious blue eyes few people had seen off the battlefield. "Canada's fine. This man has been captured. He's going to lead us to the others and we can rescue them. We can't do that if you decide to murder him."
"And I'd beat your ass," Hungary added, receiving a startled look from Al. "No going near this fellow for you. Canada's resting up in his room now! Go see him."
"Fine..." Alfred sighed. His captors stood, and Alfred pulled himself up onto hands and knees, then to his feet.
Hungary patted England's shoulder as they watched him go. "He'll be less bloodthirsty once we've rescued everyone."
England made a face. "I hope so."
Alfred barged in without bothering to knock. Brothers had some privileges, after all. "Canada! Are you okay? Oh." He was asleep. Oh well. He looked rather cute, book still in hand and glasses about to fall off. Alfred tiptoed closer to the bed and reached over to remove the glasses, but Canada's eyes blinked open before he had a chance. "Oh, hey, bro."
"Do I even want to know what you're doing?" Canada asked, the end of his sentence muffled by a yawn.
Alfred smiled, scratching the back of his neck. "I was trying not to wake you, but—oh right! I came to see how you were doing. That guy hurt you!"
"They told you about that?" Canada fixed his glasses, himself, and sat up.
"Hungary did. I'm guessing I wasn't supposed to find out." Alfred couldn't help but scowl. He wasn't supposed to find out anything.
"Well, no... because you'd worry, not because you don't deserve to know."
"I'm allowed to worry! And, you know, they stopped me before I could go rip the guy's face off and dry it and feed it to him as jerky..."
"Eww." Canada laughed. "Well, thank you, but I'm fine. I mean, he had a gun and I had nothing, something was bound to happen."
"Man..." Alfred shook his head in wonder. "You dragged in an armed criminal with your bare hands? You are awesome!"
Canada looked a little flustered. "I can't remember the last time anyone called me awesome."
"Well you are! And now we can rescue everyone!" Alfred quickly squashed the sudden flare of jealousy. He was not going to think about how he wished he could have dragged in a bad guy, all triumphant. Hey, if it had to be someone else, at least it was his brother, and his country. Not to mention, if it had been Alfred, he'd still be in the hospital, lacking the nifty healing immortality skills. That would not have been so awesome.
"Al..." Canada stared down at his blanket, biting his lip. "So, you do know... um..."
"They won't let me go on the rescue mission?" Alfred guessed, and his twin winced. "I figured... Yeah, yeah, fragile human, blah blah."
"I'm sorry..." Canada tugged Alfred down to sit beside him. "And I'm sorry I've been ignoring you lately."
"Nah, don't worry about it. Don't you need to get back?"
"Nah." Canada echoed with a smile. "I'm good for tonight, they'll call me when they want me. Let's watch movies. I think there was something on about an evil haunted house..."
"Oh." Alfred's eyes widened. "G-good!"
"So apparently they're here." Germany pointed to the small speck on the map.
England peered closer. "That island? It's been abandoned since the war."
"Sounds like a good spot, then." Germany nodded to himself. "Apparently there's a building complex not far to the south of the airport."
"But won't we have to go by plane?" Italy said, frowning. "They'll see us coming!"
"Only if they're watching for us. It sounds like they're busy..."
"Oh." Italy scrunched his face up unhappily. Canada hurried in just then, saying something about sleeping in, and they paused to fill him in on the details. China and Denmark then got up to leave, to get supplies together.
"Do you have any planes left?" Germany turned back to England.
"Ah..." England shrugged. "Just one. I had a lot of repairs all over the country to pay for, you know..."
"Obviously. We all did. So where is it?"
"Oh, it's not going to help." He stared down at the map, feeling somewhat useless. "It only seats one person."
Germany sighed, folding his arms. "That's the one you chose to keep?"
"It was one of America's favorites!"
Germany ran a hand down his face. "If you had kept planes based on how much America liked them, the hangar would be full." Germany's frown grew. "Didn't you think, in all this time we've been searching, that we might have to go by air when we rescued them?"
England scowled at him. No, as a matter of fact, he had not really thought about the possibility of needing more planes. He supposed he probably should have.
"So we have to find another one," Canada said with a sigh.
England hesitated a moment, thinking. "Do that." He turned to leave.
"Eh? Where are you going?"
"There!" England gave a cocky grin and thumb's up worthy of his lover. "While you guys are getting together a decent-sized plane and whatever supplies we'll need to patch everyone up, I'll go on ahead and see what I can do."
Canada stared at him. "And what can you do?"
"Get them out? Then we can wait for you." He couldn't stand the thought of them remaining these people's captives for a moment longer than they had to. Who knew how long it would be before their rescue team was fully ready to go.
"But...!" Canada bit his lip.
"You're sure?" Germany said.
England nodded. "I want them out of there now." He hesitated at the door. "Don't tell anyone else." He left before anyone could come up with a reason for him not to go.
He wasn't afraid—not for himself, anyway. He had done far, far more dangerous things in his life than infiltrate an enemy base. Really, the only concern he had was for something happening to the captives before he was able to free them all. He would just have to ensure that did not happen.
His house was empty when he swung by to grab some supplies—snacks, weapons, and a first aid kit that probably wouldn't be of much help but it was better than nothing—so at least that was something to be grateful for.
Something caught England's eye before he headed off. A red and white sock left on the living room floor for some reason. He smiled to himself, hoping Al would forgive him for just taking off. For no real reason, he picked the sock up and tucked it in a pocket. There were nicer tokens to hang on to, but hey, it was there.
After one last look around at the house he hadn't even used in a while, England left.
Kiku gazed across the small room at Lakshmi, mostly because that was the direction he was facing. They had been brought to the 'lab' together, and he wondered just what they had in store. Those that had dragged them in hadn't even bothered with restraints. The captives' bodies were too damaged, too weak from the constant drugging. Nobody even needed to worry about them escaping. At least, not the humans. The captive nations, though, would not escape on their own even if the opportunity arose. The three of them had all expressed outrage when the suggestion was brought up.
"How long have we been here?" Lakshmi wondered after a long silence.
"I don't know," Kiku said. "Half hour?" He wasn't sure if he wanted Spencer to continue to take his time, or just get his ass in there and get it over with.
"I meant... here. Overall."
"Oh." Kiku didn't really want to think about it. "I have no idea."
"Will they come?"
"Of course. Once they find us."
"How will they-"
"We've all gone over this a thousand times," Kiku said softly. "Nobody knows. But they will. These guys can't hide from the world forever."
"I can't wait to see Hungary again," Lakshmi murmured. "And Mexico." She continued to list the nations she had befriended, probably talking mostly as a comfort to herself. It was better to chat, even if it was about nothing, than to concentrate on the dreaded room they were sprawled on the floor of, with its tables and stained sinks and medical supplies that frequently involved sharp parts...
Kiku snapped himself out of his dark musing. Lakshmi had moved on to talking about a slumber party she had had with some of the female nations. Had he felt better, he would have been very interested in hearing about that pillow fight, but as it was he just half-listened without much interest.
Lakshmi trailed off when the door opened at last. Kiku was vaguely surprised to realize he was almost relieved. Waiting in the lab with his imagination was almost worse than the actual tests. Well, not really, but... still. They could get on with it now, get drugged back into oblivion, and wake up later chained up in their room.
How strange to think of what was essentially a dungeon as 'his' room.
It was one of the generic goons of Spencer's. Kiku had no idea what anybody else's name was. Where was the man himself? Was this not important enough to warrant his attention?
The usual gut-churning fear gripped Kiku as he was hauled upright by the fellow. That never went away. He was settled onto one of the tables, limbs carefully straightened out. He wasn't even restrained this time. They always used restraints, so maybe that meant it wasn't going to be that bad?
Kiku's bandages were unwound, and the man started cleaning his wounds. He could see, out of the corner of his eye, Lakshmi watching them with an unreadable expression.
"You're just regular humans," the man muttered, startling both captives. "Don't know why he's so keen on this, we haven't learned anything interesting. Now the nations..."
Kiku said nothing. He wasn't going to ask the obvious. He didn't want to be freed at the expense of the three nations.
"So no more procedures for a while," the man went on. "It's been decided that you need time to heal."
Oh. Well, Kiku supposed that wasn't terrible. A reprieve, while waiting for the others to locate them.
Fresh bandages were applied, and he moved on to Lakshmi next. Kiku wondered why the two of them had been selected. Probably random. Or maybe they had been the only ones conscious; he couldn't remember.
How long would it take them to satisfactorily heal? He had no idea. Hopefully long enough.
England strode toward the hangar, mouth set in a grim line. During the war, it had been fully stocked. Now just one lonely plane—of America's of course, he had probably claimed half of them (owned, not so much, but claimed, yes)—remained behind. It had been his second favorite, nicknamed Freedom (he never had been very creative with names). His favorite—Glory—was, well, a ruined heap.
"You can't do this!" came a shout from behind him, as footsteps rapidly approached.
England grimaced. Oh no... Where had he come from? How had he found out? Eavesdropping again, maybe. "Go back home, Al."
"No way!" Alfred fell into step beside him. "Why do you have to go?"
"I'll be fine."
"You could get captured!" He stopped, gripping England's arm to force him to come to a halt as well. His sky blue eyes had gone a little wild.
"If I do, I do. The others will be along as soon as they can."
"But...!"
England gave him a grim smile. "Unless they happen to have a large amount of heavy artillery pointed at the UK, they aren't going to kill me."
"They could hurt you."
"I'm not like you, Alfred." England sighed, knowing he'd probably never really understand. "I've been around for a long time. I was an empire. I can handle people like them."
"England..." He was staring at the ground. "This is my fault."
England grit his teeth, turning back toward the hangar. "Not this again. I thought you'd-"
"I'm supposed to be a hero. I want America to be proud to be me!"
"That doesn't even make sense. You are-"
"England?"
"What?" He turned. The last thing he saw for a while was Alfred's fist hurtling toward him.
"Ow... goddammit." England rolled to his knees, gripping his head. "If that idiot knocks me out one more time, I... oh no." He scrambled to his feet and raced for the hangar, panic bubbling up. You bloody idiot!
He couldn't have been unconscious for more than a moment or two. Alfred was still there, settled into the plane. What the hell did he think he was doing?
"Get down from there!" England yelled. "You don't even know how to fly it!"
"Apparently I do!" Alfred called back, waving. "Who'd have thought?"
"Get down anyway! You're not going by yourself!" Him, they could kill!
"No way! I'm a hero, remember? I'm going to make this right!"
"Dammit, Alfred, no-"
"Goodbye, Iggy."
England could only stare in horror as the cockpit was sealed. Not again. Not again. And suddenly, all he could remember was the last time, and what he had done wrong. What had haunted him for twenty years. He waved wildly to get Alfred's attention. He couldn't convince the idiot to come back, he was too America for that, but he could at least give them a proper parting this time. "I love you!"
Alfred smiled, mouthing the words back.
Before he knew it, the jet was gone. England stared after it in mindless shock for a moment, hands slowly curling into fists. Then he turned and drove one of the fists into the wall with a cry that had nothing to do with pain. "You bloody idiot!" He started there, and ran down his list of choice insults. "He... he really can fly the damn thing..." he finished weakly.
Germany had been right. Damn it. This was exactly why England and the others had decided to exclude Alfred from their search. Because he'd do something stupidly heroic! Oh, sure, he had also wanted to keep Alfred out of it in case they were still looking for him, but... stupid heroics had been the most important reason. Germany had figured it would be safer to include Alfred, keep him involved, not make him sit around wishing he could do something... It was obvious! They should have listened to Germany. But it was too late now.
"Be careful, you stupid goddamned idiotic hero."