Magitalia
Siren Song II- Aliunde
Even if Sealand had never known the eldest two children of Rome well, he knew their legacy. One was clumsy and a bad fighter, and the other even harsher than England had been, but the two held a great deal of power and knowledge, though no one was quite sure to what extent.
Seborga too was a child of Rome, but also the spirit of a micronation. And he was powerful enough to prove that this status was no joke. He also, like his older brothers, knew many legends passed down by Ancients, and surely there would be something about reincarnation in his expansive repertoire.
Upon being asked this, however, Seborga went quiet for a moment before asking "You- do you really need to know about this?"
He explained it had been Ladonia's last request to pass Norway's hair clip onto his reincarnation, and Seborga just sort of gulped. "Ah, well, I know a handful of things about that, but those are the ones I'm sort of not supposed to tell people about."
But, with enough begging, he finally cracked.
"Fine. They say if ever a Nation is to die in an incident unrelated to the people whose wishes give them life, they will be reborn into a mortal body."
Sealand gave a small gasp upon hearing that. "So that means everyone will be alive as a human?", he questioned. "So England and everyone aren't really dead?"
"You could say that, yeah."
"Why didn't you say something about this before?", he questioned. "If everyone had known they would just become mortal-"
"-then they would have taken death lightly," Seborga finished. "And besides, let's say someone figured that out and decided they were sick of immortality, or were upset with someone they'd lost a war against and wanted to take them out of commission for a few decades, or something like that. I'm pretty sure your brother and France would have killed each other a few dozen times by now if they knew they'd come back."
That seemed to be a good point. "So, I just need to find Norway's mortal reincarnation? How do I do that? Will he remember who he was, or look the same, or-"
"I have no idea," Seborga admitted, and by this point he was flipping through an old book that seemed to have been written in Latin. "I'm pretty sure they won't remember their old lives, but no idea on the look thing.
"But, there might be one way to tell," Seborga added as he seemed to arrive at what he was looking at and opened the book to a page with a drawing of what looked like a charm bracelet on it. "See, even though they're mortal, they'll still be able to use their magic, but differently than they did before. Instead of coming from their homeland, they come from… from…"
Squinting, Seborga sighed. "It just says "aliunde". From another source; what is that even supposed to mean? Thanks, Rome! Real helpful here!"
"The wording's real vague too," complained his friend. "I can't even tell if it's supposed to say their magic comes from somewhere else or their mortal forms come from another country."
Despite it clearly frustrating Seborga, Sealand still wanted to know more. "Is there anything else?", he pressed.
"Just something about when they awaken, their power will be restored and they will be drawn to other reincarnations in order to-"
Sealand trailed off a bit at this point, casting an odd look at Erika, who glared and pressed "In order to what?"
He gave a sort of "you wouldn't like it" look and muttered "well, it hasn't happened yet, so…"
"What hasn't happened yet?"
"Um, in order to regain memories of their past lives?", Sealand provided, sounding sort of like he was not telling the full truth. Maybe because she still sort of hated him?
Whatever it was, she still looked a bit uneasy at this answer and muttered "...oh" before letting him continue.
Upon hearing that, Sealand's mind raced with possibilities. So he could get everyone back? And they would have their powers too! "Well, how do we awaken them?"
Seborga chuckled. "What, are you gonna try it?"
"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"
"Well, for one, if they come back, those things that went after them would too," Seborga began. "And- well, they're probably happy like they are. Do you really want to walk into some normal person's life and tell them they're the reincarnation of one of us?"
"They're our family! Our friends! And they need to protect their world again, right?", Sealand countered.
He didn't understand why Seborga was so hesitant about it. Was it that he knew how much it would screw over the humans who the Nations had become? Or, later, he wondered if those old stories passed on from Rome had known what whoever had gone after everyone in the first place was planning.
But, at the time, Seborga just smirked and shrugged. "Alright, you think it's such a good idea? Fine, maybe I'm wrong and it's not incredibly stupid. Let's get a second opinion."
By a second opinion, given that he grabbed his wrist and the light of teleportation enveloped them, and when it faded, they were in front of a house that conspicuous lacked a driveway, he meant Wy. Who saw their arrival and quickly threw a pallet knife at them, barely missing Seborga's head.
"What do you want?", she asked. "I'm sort of busy, you know." She gestured to the canvas she was standing in front of for emphasis.
An overbearing grin enveloped Seborga's face, and he pulled a package of something labeled "vine charcoal" out of his pocket. "Look, I know you are a very busy person, but this little squirt had a stupid idea, and I need you to talk him out of it."
She took the package out of his hand, looking at it with awe. "This stuff's expensive, where did you-"
"Well, I happen to dabble in-"
Her expression turned sour. "It was Italy's, wasn't it?"
"He doesn't need it, does he?", counted Seborga.
Wy rolled her eyes, but pocketed the package all the same. "Wow, you really know the way to a girl's heart, don't you? Whatever, what was it you wanted me to tell Sealand not to do?"
They explained the whole thing to her, and afterwards, she nodded and said something that made Seborga recoil. That being "Actually, I agree with Sealand. We need to get everyone to get their powers back."
"Oh, come on!", groaned Seborga. "You were the chosen one, Wy, and you messed it up! Who else will he listen to, Kugelmugel?"
"But if we can, we need to make sure that they're around, right?", Wy countered. "I mean, from what you all told me, they protected their people, and it would be unfair to not allow that."
"People are getting on fine without them," Seborga stated. "And besides, that's not even what it was like, and how would you know anyways?"
That statement actually warranted him very nearly getting punched before Wy seemed to think better of it. "And I want to fix that," she huffed. "I grew up only knowing you lot as my kind, and I want to meet proper Nations. I want to meet Australia. He's my 'brother', isn't he? So I want to know him like you knew yours."
Seborga raised his hands in surrender. "Fine. I get your point. And I guess it won't be the end of the world if we wake them up, so go right ahead. But I'm coming with you idiots, because if you're doing all this, I need to make sure Ven and Roma are alright."
Sealand punched the air in victory. "So it's settled! We'll look for everyone's reincarnations, and we'll get our families back!"
They set off looking a few days later, with absolutely no idea what to look for. Seborga had trouble getting anything more out of his ancient texts, or maybe just remained tight lipped out of spite. So, all they really were able to do was try to find something that could lead them further. Look in records, look online, try to find someone that sounded like they could be what they were looking for.
Their leads remained non-existent for ages, until the eventually just took to wandering around and hoping maybe they would come across something. Basically, it was a long and boring process that none should have to suffer the details of.
But, finally, one day Sealand finally found something promising. Okay, that wasn't quite right. It was more like he felt something promising.
He was in a pretty normal American city, hoping maybe by some chance he might happen to find some sort of lead, as he'd gotten frustrated trying to find Norway specifically. And, as he was walking, he felt a sudden chill that he couldn't quite explain.
Looking around, he didn't see anything unusual, or anything near him at all really but a young man wearing a pink scarf. That chill… it had felt familiar, almost. It was like how everything would freeze up whenever Russia would come by when he was visiting the Baltics and he would come by and… well, send everyone there into hysterics.
Sealand turned and started to follow the guy emanating the weird chill, and his heart almost stopped when he turned around. Violet eyes, prominent nose, vacant smile; he looked a lot like Russia too. "Oh, hello little one," he greeted with kindness that still felt uneasy. "Are you lost?"
"Uh- I- um-" Sealand didn't know what to say, but he was sure he'd finally found something. "What's your name?", that was all he could come up with.
After a few slow blinks, the young man replied with "Ivan Braginsky. Why do you ask?"
It sounded Russian enough. Agh, what else could he ask. "Sisters. Do- do you have sisters?", he stuttered out, remembering something suddenly.
"Yes. Dear Natalia and Katyusha," Ivan replied, adding after a moment "You're one of Natalia's school friends, aren't you?"
Stunned into silence, Sealand just nodded. "That's nice. I'll tell her you said hello, alright?"
And Russia left, just like that, leaving Sealand too confused to go after him.
He asked Wy and Seborga about it later that day, and the two of them basically mocked him for not jumping on the opportunity and told him to go back the next day and try to actually talk to him. And so he did just that, and felt like a bit of a stalker for waiting around the same street corner until he showed up. Well, that was totally what it was, but still.
"Oh? It's you again," Ivan stated as he came by again, wearing the same scarf and emanating the same cold. "Do you always walk here, little one?"
"I need to talk to you!", Sealand exclaimed. "Um, see, it's sort of a long story, but I think you're kind of like maybe…" He searched for the words to describe it all. "Russia" was all that came out, and he got a weird look.
"Pardon? I have family from Russia, if that's what you mean."
Sealand quickly realized he'd just said something really stupid, and turned red. "Ah, no, that's not what I'm saying!", he exclaimed.
But Ivan was already walking off. "Little boy, you should get home," he advised as he rounded the corner.
Dread filled him as he realized that now he probably wouldn't want to talk to some crazy, rambling, rude kid. But, at the back of his mind, he remembered that skill he so rarely used. If he couldn't talk as some kid, maybe he could talk as a magical fairy creature?
So, he transformed into that green rabbit form and rushed back towards Ivan, whose stared at him like he was some sort of monster. Clearing his throat and his mind, Sealand tried to explain himself clearly.
"Hello there! You're Ivan, right?"
He got a shaky nod, and relief flooded him. He didn't seem to be associating him with the weird kid from before.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you!"
Ivan picked up a large tree branch and put it in the perfect position to hit him. "What are you?"
"A magical creature, duh. Please put that down, I just want to talk to you."
Despite lowering the tree branch, the icy aura around Ivan only intensified. "Um, you see, you seem to have some pretty strong magic."
"Magic?" Ivan repeated. "Whatever do you mean?"
"It always gets cold around you, doesn't it?"
Slowly, Ivan nodded in agreement. "I find this scarf always makes me feel colder," he explained. "But I don't want to stop wearing it. My big sister made it for me, so it's very precious, see?"
The scarf? Was that important? "Uh, try taking it off, then," Sealand ordered. "I'll hold it for you."
Ivan took the scarf off and handed it to him, and his eyes shot open in shock as soon as his hand slipped from it. The air felt warmer, but that wasn't what seemed to be surprising him. "I- I can't see you! Why is that?"
Sealand remembered something vaguely that England had told him once. "Well, only people with magic can see magical creatures!", he mused. But he'd never realized that meant him. If Seborga had his brothers' light powers, then maybe he was a magical creature because of England's magic? After all, any other transformations he'd seen, like Wy's Kookaburra or Molossia's Ringtail, were normal animals and not weird fairy creatures. He'd never really transformed much to try it out, but maybe that was it!
"Oh, well, does my scarf make me magic, then?", Russia questioned.
It must have, so he said it did and tried to explain everything to him. About being Russia, and about what had happened to him, and about how he was a reincarnation and needed to fight for the sake of justice. The only word he got out of Ivan was a shaky "huh?", and a distant stare.
"Uh, this is probably a bit much for you to take in," Sealand admitted. "I- I'll come back later, alright?"
After a few days, and plenty of advice on how to proceed from there from Wy and Seborga, they decided the best course of action was probably to just check up on his progress and in the meantime, use his magical transformation to search for others. After all, if only reincarnations could see him, then surely he could find others.
And he did so, and surprisingly, almost all of them were not terribly far from where he'd found Russia. Turkey was a few towns away, and Romania was only a half hour drive or so. Not to mention that Russia's sisters turned out to be Belarus and Ukraine.
He started noticing a pattern too. Each of them seemed to have some object, not unlike Russia's scarf, that let them see him. Belarus had a hair ribbon her big brother had given her, and Ukraine had a necklace her little sister had made her with a carrot charm. They all seemed to be attached to someone precious to them, and they all seemed to give them power.
And so they came to understand that part of Rome's writing. The aliunde from which the powers came was the emotions of the people they loved, and the people who loved them. And that was channeled through an object that a precious person had given them. He hadn't quite figured out how to get them to access their former powers, but he was sure with enough time he could get there.
But that time never really came, as it seemed that the enemy figured it out before he did. When he was talking to a girl who reminded him of Monaco who could see him, the two of them were attacked by a trio surrounded with icy winds and a dark aura. He was shocked and heartbroken when he realized that it was the exact appearances of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, just as he remembered from all those years ago.
"Good news, little bunny!", Russia greeted, accompanied by Belarus freezing Monaco in place. "Someone approached us and told us how to use our powers! We just have to access them from within and let them take us over."
Ukraine summoned the pitchfork she once fought with, and drew closer to Monaco. "And they told us that they need us to find all the others and team up to save the world! Isn't that lovely?", she continued.
"But they told us to not be afraid to use a bit of force," Belarus added with a chuckle. A weird beam of light enveloped the injured Monaco, and Sealand let out a panicked cry.
He knew this had to be whoever had attacked them in the first place. They knew something he didn't, he was sure of it, and they were using the reincarnations for their own goals. Wild guesswork, sure, and a lot of it didn't fall into place until later, but it was a fair assumption given that they were coming at him with their weapons.
Icy wind began to eat Sealand up. "And they told us to keep you out of the way, alright?", Russia finished, and icicles began to dig into his skin.
Even with his durable body, Sealand was still terribly injured by what those three had done, and as they left in another flash of light, he transformed back into his proper body and began to limp away. He didn't make it too far, though, until he collapsed.
The next thing he remembered, he was laying on a couch inside a house he didn't recognize with a man with light blond hair and a kind smile standing beside him. A man he would later know as his Mama.
"Oh, you're finally awake!", the man exclaimed. "Are you alright?"
"That isn't how I remember it," Sweden interrupted. "It was Lukas who brought you in, and Mathias who was with you when you woke up."
"Just let me tell the story, alright?", Sealand asked. "It-it's more dramatic that way!"
"Alright then."
AN- Wow, that was longer than I thought it would be. Wy and Seborga and Russia are just such lovely characters, and I wanted them to shine a bit. Also, Monaco, because I have literally run out of characters who were not Monaco. But Seborga, well, he clearly has things to hide, but honestly I think a large part of that was just that he didn't want anyone exploiting Italy's powers like Rome foresaw. And Nordics! They're doing the thing now! Ah, forget it. Gravity Falls is over and RWBY's season finale was painful. Let's just wait until all these lovely countries start suffering too, shall we? So, thanks for reading! -Twilight Joltik
PS, sorry if I screwed up the latin thing. But trust me, this won't be the last time I butcher innocent languages here.