Thanks to Scarllett83, Ate Luya, AquaEclipse and Eternal Nexus Warrior for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Chapter 25

The Alvora nations tensed when they heard Italy's words. Sao Tomé whimpered.

"No," he said. "No, don't."

Portugal glanced behind him, seeing Sao Tomé. His eyes trailed towards his curl. He could see that something was seriously wrong with the strand of hair. It looked shorter than before, and it was bent strangely.

He knew what it meant. He knew how sensitive those curls could be. And he knew with experience that any spot that could bring pleasure could also bring pain.

Gritting his teeth, Portugal moved out from behind Romania and crossed his arms.

"That would be me," he said.

The Requiem nations looked surprised, and Romania grabbed Portugal and pushed him away from the enemy.

"What the hell are you doing?" Romania snarled.

Before Portugal could answer, Romano snorted.

"You really expect us to believe that?" he asked. "You're the leader? And you willingly came to enemy territory?"

Portugal narrowed his eyes.

"We use some of the same tactics," Portugal said. "Tactics that Rome taught us."

Italy and Romano exchanged a look.

"M-Miguel, no," Sao Tomé said.

"Well, if this is true," Italy said, cocking his head to the side, "then we're really fortunate."

"I told you what you wanted to know," Portugal said. "The key?"

Italy twirled the key around his fingers one more time, before throwing it towards Serbia. The Yugoslavian caught it and immediately went to Sao Tomé.

"What's going to happen now?" India demanded. "I highly doubt that you would just let us go."

"You're right," Italy said. "I gave you the key to free Sao Tomé, but I never said that you could go. Now, let's have a little chat."

…

Kosovo was still lying in his bed, staring at the phone's screen. Serbia had texted him to say that they were going to save Sao Tomé, and he was waiting for news. He couldn't sleep until he knew that Sao Tomé was safe, no matter how tired he was.

He jumped in surprise when the phone rang, though the name displayed wasn't Serbia's. Still, he answered swiftly.

"Roberto, what's the problem?" he asked. "Do you have news about Tiago?"

"Asides from the fact that they're on the rescue mission, no," Brazil said. "But there's urgent news. You need to be careful."

"Why?" Kosovo asked, sitting up.

"You're with two Requiem nations."

Kosovo's eyes widened. Two nations in this house belonged to the enemy organisation. And when he heard the names, he almost dropped his phone.

"Please tell me you're joking," Kosovo whimpered.

"No joke," Brazil said. "You need to be careful. If they do anything… It's your choice whether you're going to fight or flee."

"And… what about the others?"

"I don't know," Brazil sighed. "But as long as you don't act suspicious, then they won't be suspicious, and they won't do anything drastic. Can you do that?"

"Y-yes, I'll try."

"Good. Just pretend that you don't know about anything going on. Like what we do with Alvora. Okay?"

"O-okay."

"Good. Be strong."

The call was disconnected, and Kosovo lowered the phone. He didn't have the strength to keep looking at the screen. And he knew that he wouldn't be able to go to sleep now. What if they came by to hurt him in the middle of the night?

He knew what Requiem was capable of – the others didn't try to shelter him, despite the fact that he was still a child. And to think that he was in the same house as two of them…

Kosovo let out another whimper.

…

"And what could you possibly want to chat about?" Portugal demanded.

"Perhaps we should give you a little background first," Italy said. "It was nonno's wish. He discovered quite a few tricks that nations normally don't know about. But you already know that part, Portugal. And so do you, Romania."

The two narrowed their eyes.

"We're aware, da," Romania said. "What's the point?"

"He tasked us with the revival of the Roman Empire," Romano said. "That's why he taught us all those things. His intention was to have the Latin nations acting as the head of the New Roman Empire. But after his fall, everyone went their own directions, and it became impossible to assemble everyone. Germania and his children made things difficult. At least his grandchildren were somewhat manageable."

"We realised that if we want to bring about a new empire, we would have to change a lot of things," Italy said. "Including the nations involved. Portugal and Romania remained possible recruits, though we never actually got around to recruiting you. Perhaps we should have. Then maybe Alvora wouldn't exist. Spain and France, on the other hand, became nations we wouldn't want in our ranks. We had to bide our time, collecting members and resources. But you know what that's like, don't you? You did the same thing, right?"

"Get to the point!" Romania snapped.

"We were actually thinking that our two organisations could work together," Italy explained.

"Are you joking?!" Haiti shouted. "After you kidnapped and tortured Tiago?!"

"Not to mention attacking Matthew," Serbia added.

"Hey," Mexico said, "to be fair, we had no idea about Canada."

"That changes nothing!"

"Really?" Argentina asked, cocking her head to the side. "You and Canada? Somehow, I never thought that would be possible."

"To be fair, some of our couples are a bit unusual as well," Albania said.

"Getting back on topic," Italy said, glaring slightly at the nations behind him, "we realised that we wouldn't be able to collaborate. Colombia's reaction to Venezuela, for example. And Haiti's explanation about your goals. We wouldn't be compatible."

Haiti bristled a bit at the reminder of the 'game' that he 'played' with Jamaica. Thankfully, no one was paying attention to him.

"Then what is it that you want?" Portugal demanded.

Italy smirked.

"Well, not only do we have several members now, but we also have the leader with us," Italy said. "None of you are leaving this room."

"Now!" Romania shouted, removing a gun.

Equatorial Guinea, India, Serbia and Israel all did the same, and they each aimed for the inscriptions along the walls. Belarus let out a cry of alarm as the gunshots echoed along the tiny room.

"They're undoing the seals!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Romano demanded, turning to her. "What do you mean?"

"It means we can use magic in here now," Romania said, smirking as he caused a wall of flame to appear between them.

While the Requiem nations were reacting to the sudden development, the Alvora nations took the opportunity to use their magic to teleport out of there. Italy gritted his teeth in frustration.

"They fooled us," Italy said. "And we lost our fountain of knowledge."

"It wasn't a total waste," Romano said. "At least we now know who the leader is. And we have the names of several other members."

Italy pursed his lips, before he grinned.

"You're right," he said. "We know where to hit now."

…

"Alright, so we warned Novak," Brazil sighed, before staring at the sheet of paper again. "And now…"

He looked at a particular name. This person was with another one of their allies. Another one of their friends. Thankfully, this was only one person, and not two as in Kosovo's case. And this ally wasn't a child. Brazil was debating whether or not to call him now or later.

"We should call," White said. "He needs to know what's going on. If we wait until morning, there's a chance we might be too late."

Brazil nodded, before dialling their Nordic ally.

…

Canada was curled on a couch, watching the news. He was looking for any new strange activities, and all that he could say looked strange was the fact that an Israeli town near Palestine had been attacked.

Canada jumped in surprise when there was a sudden crack from next to him, and several figures fell to the ground. He recognised them all.

"Damjan!" he cried out. "Tiago!"

When they were collapsing, Haiti had grabbed the nearest sofa and angled his body so that Sao Tomé couldn't get hurt any more than he already was. Canada rushed towards them, and Haiti gratefully allowed Canada to take hold of the unconscious Sao Tomé.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We had to use magic in the anti-magic room," Romania explained. "We managed to break a few of the inscriptions to make it possible, but that's a strong barrier. Even the ones that can't use magic were affected."

Canada looked towards Serbia, who shook his head. Canada quickly lay Sao Tomé on the couch before turning to them again.

"What happened?" he asked again.

"They realised that we were there and confronted us," Portugal said. "It seems that Italy's the leader."

"I got the same vibe from Romano," Romania said.

Canada's eyes widened, and he looked between the different nations.

"What else happened?" he asked.

No one answered, and instead looked between Portugal and Romania. Portugal sighed.

"Apparently, Vlad and I were considered to be 'recruits' of theirs," Portugal said. "They just never got around to actually recruiting us. And they had no intention of letting us leave."

"They also apparently wanted to see if we would work with them," Serbia said, wrapping his arms around Canada. "But they saw that there was no way in hell that we would be willing to do that, considering everything that's happened."

Canada frowned. For them to say that…

"And apparently, they started it as a way to revive the Roman Empire, or something like that," Israel said.

"Revive the empire?" Canada muttered, turning to Israel.

"It's impossible to revive Rome," India said.

"It's just… Mexico mentioned that she wanted to revive the Aztec Empire as well."

"Either way, I think we should get to bed," Portugal said. "Matthew, where's Alex?"

"He got tired," Canada said, "so I sent him to bed."

"I'll just go check to see if he's actually in bed," Romania muttered, before leaving the room.

"Like, we also need to spread the word," Poland said. "We saved Tiago."

"I was thinking of going back to the other Africans," Equatorial Guinea said. "I think Patrício is waiting. Agewe, do you want to come?"

Haiti nodded.

"I'm not leaving Tiago's side any time soon," he said.

"Then we better go," Equatorial Guinea said.

Haiti nodded, before lifting up Sao Tomé's unconscious body. The two magical nations stood together, and in the next moment, they were gone.

"Well, Alex is actually asleep," Romania said, re-entering the room.

"Like, I thought that tonic was supposed to keep us awake," Poland said, before he yawned.

"It was. But that spell in such a tricky place cancelled it out."

"Come on," Portugal said. "We should tell the others, and then we can go to bed."

…

White, Brazil and Príncipe were still waiting for any word from the others. They were the only ones currently in their little conference room, but they knew that the others were still awake. All of them wanted to know about Sao Tomé.

They jumped in surprise when there was an unexpected flash of light, and when it faded, they could see three familiar figures, one of which was unconscious.

"Tiago!" Príncipe called out, immediately approaching his brother. "What happened?"

"He passed out in our attempt to get out of there," Equatorial Guinea said, wrapping his arm around Príncipe. "I'll tell you more tomorrow."

Príncipe nodded, his eyes trained on his brother's face. It was very pale, and his hair appeared…

Príncipe's eyes widened when he saw his brother's curl. The state that he was in…

"What happened to his curl?" Príncipe whispered, extending his hand.

"We need to wait for Tiago to wake up and tell us," Haiti said.

"…Agewe, take good care of my brother."

"Of course. So, where's a free room?"

…

"You're kidding," Peru groaned, phone pressed to his ear.

Chile had called him to tell him about the encounter with Alvora, and also their escape.

"At least we now know who the leader is," Chile said. "And a few others who we can target. By the way, I saw Israel there. He seemed to be particularly close to India. The two were trying to protect each other. The same way Haiti was trying to protect Sao Tomé. And we know that they're together."

Peru smirked.

"I'm sure Gupta and Palestine would be happy to hear that," he said.

He hung up the phone, and he could feel Egypt's arms circling his waist.

"What was that about?" he asked groggily.

"Alvora came to get Sao Tomé back, and succeeded," Peru said.

"What?" Egypt demanded, sitting up.

"But there is some good news. Israel was there, and he seemed to be particularly close to India."

Egypt smirked.

"I know someone else who could use that information."

…

Kosovo was still staring at the screen, his eyes burning. He wanted to hear from Serbia, and he wanted Serbia to know about the danger he and the others were in.

He jumped in surprise when his phone announced that he had a message, and he quickly went to read it. Finally! It was the message that he was waiting for.

Tiago is safe.

Serbia was the one that sent it to him, and he immediately called the other nation back. It didn't take long for Serbia to answer.

"Novak? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I was worried," he said.

"Don't be. We're safe, and Tiago…"

"Damjan, Roberto called me earlier. They managed to find out who is part of Requiem here."

Serbia was silent for a moment.

"You're saying that there's someone from Requiem with you now?" he asked slowly.

"Da!"

He told him which nations, and he could hear Serbia gasp on the other end. Kosovo whimpered.

"What should I do?" he asked.

"I… I don't know," Serbia admitted. "If you try to warn the others, then you might get in trouble. You can't confront them without putting yourself and the others in danger. And if you don't do something… I… Maybe I should come by."

Kosovo whimpered.

"Please, hurry," he said. "I don't know what they want to do."

…

San Marino groaned, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. They had been planning to go to Greece the following day, but now Romano called to tell him about the new developments.

"You're saying that they escaped?" San Marino asked. "It's not like you to be so careless, fratello."

He could hear Romano growling on the other end.

"They caught us unawares," Romano said. "But I think that it's time that we catch them unawares."

"What do you have in mind?" San Marino asked.

"Portugal is the leader."

San Marino perked up. He knew about the plans to get Portugal to join them. Plans which would now be out of the question.

"Any plans for him?" he asked.

"One or two," Romano said, and San Marino could actually hear the smirk in his voice.

…

The Nordic nation immediately sat up when his phone chimed, alerting him to a message. He smiled when he saw the text from Poland.

Tiago's safe. And I totally miss you.

At least some good news. When Brazil called him earlier to tell him that one of the other Nordics belonged to Requiem, he actually felt sick. He also had to call someone else as a warning.

But now that he knew which Nordic nation was involved with the enemy, he could think of a plan to save the others.

…

The Asian nation listened to the person on the other end. So, India was a part of Requiem? That was interesting news.

And due to being with Bhutan and the others, he was in the perfect position to mess with India.

He smirked. This would be very fun.

…

Wales was fast asleep. Nothing could wake him at this time. Nothing, except for the chime that belonged solely to the other nations of Alvora.

He groaned, before he read the text. He smiled, before dropping back onto the bed. Sao Tomé was safe. He had saved the counties. For now, everyone that needed help was safe.

…

"That's annoying," Seborga said. "What are you going to do now?"

"We'll start retaliating against the known Alvora nations," Italy said. "And if we happen to get any more land…"

"So, any plans in particular?"

"Keep busy. And I have a feeling the Washroom will get more visitors."

"There's already one coming."

"But he's not for the Washroom. He's for one of the occupants."

"True. But maybe he can serve another purpose."

"Oh, I already have something in mind. Morocco might be worried about her sister. I wonder what she would say when she hears that her brother is in a similar situation."

"It all depends on what Algeria does to him first," Seborga said. "Tell me when we have more guests coming."

"Of course."

Seborga disconnected the call, and he decided to make the rounds yet again. He first went to Algeria, and then Nigeria, DRC and Sudan. He left Uganda for last.

He was actually surprised by how strong-willed Uganda actually was. He had nerves of steel. It was strange, considering how timid he appeared. He had managed to get out of the Silent Room in a better state than the others. Coherent. Defiant.

Seborga had to perform a few tests on him to establish if he was already insane, but nope. Uganda was as sane as anyone else. DRC was a bit cracked, and so was Sudan. Seborga set up their cells to help them further along the path of insanity. He didn't want to accidentally make them sane.

But Uganda… Seborga had to break away his resistance completely. And there was only one way to do that.

When he entered Uganda's cell, he could see that the other was still propped against the wall, his eyes unfocused. There was a scar on his head. A scar that hadn't been there before.

So, the little boy in the prologue was Portugal. After the fall of Rome, and I guess it would be during the Moors, after the Germanic kingdoms fell as well. If you reread the prologue, you'll notice that I only referred to the previous empire, and not the current empire. The current one was merely a ruler. I also didn't specify how many rulers he's had already.

I actually have a few scenes like that, which could be interpreted one way, but once the truth is revealed, the scene takes on a new light. I know of at least one scene where I managed to fool you. And some of the 'random' scenes aren't so random. Some of them have a bit of foreshadowing in them. And some are red herrings.

The part about accidentally making them sane comes from a movie (the name escapes me, but the movie was a bit underwhelming, so I guess that might be why I can't remember it). The only part I actually remember is 'what drives a sane man mad will drive a mad man sane'. The setting was an abandoned asylum. Enough said.