Dawn of the New World Order

by BlazeSilvermageVIII

Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, a number of nations have hidden their true selves. They have fooled the world, they have manipulated events and no one even suspected. Now, these nations will tear off their masks and show the world what they can really do. They will make a new world order. They will change the world... or die trying. Current arc: Schism

85. Schism: A Long Needed Talk I

Thanks to AquaEclipse and HelloThereHowAreYou for reviewing. Here it is! Sorry for the long length but I wanted to make up for the delay. Now, on with the show!

Yesterday…

Hungary couldn't believe it.

It… she… ugh. She just couldn't believe it!

Throwing her hands up in frustration for the thousandth time today, Hungary had taken to pacing the floor of her small room in anger while muttering every single curse she knew in her native language. She had been doing this for a while, actually, ever since she not-so-nicely kicked Japan out of the room.

…Yeah, she did feel bad about it now. But she needed to cool off after that bombshell Japan kindly dropped on her and also, she might have been a little angry that he didn't think of informing her of this a little earlier.

It might've spared her from the whole stupid pointless argument with Algeria too… Ugh. But that did that matter right now?

"Assassinating members of the royal family, Emir? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Why? WHY?"

Yes. She truly couldn't believe it, but at this point, what's the point of not believing anything insane anymore? Bosnia, after he up and disappeared somehow during that whole mess with the two spirits/gods fighting, had recently resurfaced again… during an attempt to assassinate several members of the royal family that in Kensington Palace whose names Hungary didn't currently care enough to remember, but she did know that there were children too. That detail made it all the more horrifying especially when considering what happened...

He appeared right at the entrance. He just did, right out of nowhere. And when he did, he went ballistic. Bosnia then single-handedly managed to dispatch the security in his way with seemingly no effort at all, quite brutally too. One guard had been reportedly drowned at a fountain and had several of his teeth and fingers missing. According to Japan, they still haven't found all the body parts for the other ones.

Bosnia then started killing any human he came across, regardless of their job, with a knife. Yes, remember that knife he suddenly had with him when he returned from getting nabbed by Turkey for whatever reason with no explanation? The one that Hungary thought that would be okay for him to keep since Bosnia snapped whenever she even subtly suggested she take it from him for even a minute?

Well, he used it make his mission easier and a couple when Bosnia had found the royal family at their apartment building, which if she might add, he had a surprisingly easy time finding and breaking into. He went ahead and happily gutted duke and his wife to death, then kicked one of the children so hard they flew to the fall, and practically maimed the prince's wife before Bosnia himself got gunned down by newly arrived security.

And that's only what Japan had been told. Who knows what else had happened that's not disclosed to them yet?

"Look what you've done. How could- How could you do that? Killing those humans, attacking children... I know he's been a real idiot lately, but what had he ever done to you to make you suddenly go and target England?"

Hungary couldn't understand it. She didn't even know where to begin! What's even in it for him? She's furious that he did this, making things even worse for himself even though she couldn't exactly blame him with everything weird going on with him. Was it really his fault?

"What's wrong with you, Emir?" Hungary demanded to no one in particular as she frowned at the wall, running a hand down her face. "Why do you keep having these… episodes?

Was she ever going to get an answer as he gets himself into trouble after trouble? At this point she wondered if he's actually working for…

No. Hungary's face scrunched up at the idea and she shook her head, berating herself. No, that's ridiculous. She's seen how he acted after he'd come back to senses, the way he'd react to being told of the things he did. It was too genuine. But then again, once upon a time, she thought she could trust Austria to be always truthful with her.

Although, in light of the whole damn revelation, it did bring a lot of small signs to mind that Hungary didn't notice or really think about before.

Ugh. She's going nowhere with this.

"Stupid Austria," Hungary grumbled balefully as she snarled at the wall as if it was her lying ex-husband himself. She dug her nails into her palms. "Stupid Turkey, stupid Order, stupid insane mood swings, is this supposed to a part of some plan to create a mess to get in our way? Is that what this is?"

She had no idea. Bosnia probably did, though. Oh, excuse her, she meant Bosnia's insane, violent and infuriating second personality that made Hungary want to hit the man in the head with her frying pan until it vanished from existence, concussions be damned. But who the hell knew if he'd actually tell her if she asked.

"Oh, what am I doing complaining?" Hungary moaned as she ran a hand down her face. "This is all my fault. If only I hadn't forgotten you back at the building…"

In her own defense, a small voice in her mind pointed out, they were all in a hurry with the voodoo spirit appearing and the battle that ensued between him and Anubis. And with everything happened so, so, fast, the Liechtenstein incident, the gods, everything… and needing to get to safety, of course she forgot about him.

But it's because of that danger why you shouldn't have been such a forgetful, short-sighted idiot, Hungary, the good old self-deprecating part of her that's been showing up a lot nowadays angrily retorted. You're supposed to be looking after him, aren't you, Hungary? You're supposed to be protecting him, especially from himself. How could you have forgotten him? Imagine what he might be thinking right now? He probably thinks you abandoned him.

What was he thinking right now? She's not sure if she wanted to know.

Hungary was filled with a sense of dread at the thought, and the guilt weighed even heavier on her now. What made this even worse was that the Brits won't even let her see him, even though she knew more about his condition more than anyone else here did. Granted, that wasn't much, but still. Japan said they're not allowing any visitors for the time being.

…So now what? Now thanks to Crazy Bosnia's own mess, he won't be getting out of British custody any time soon, especially their nation finds out what happened (oh, joy). Hungary won't be able to keep an eye on him and keep him safe from himself (despite her repeated failures at doing that) because she's sure as hell the British won't be able to do that. They don't know him. They don't understand. They could never understand. They might make thing worse. And knowing their luck, Bosnia will probably find a way escape at some point.

Those Brits couldn't even keep their terrorists in jail.

Not long after that thought passed her mind, Hungary's face scrunched up and she shook her head fervently. Oh. But then again, what the hell was she doing wallowing in self-pity and self-deprecation? I thought you were over this, Hungary? This- This wallowing and crying and complaining… it won't do anyone good, you know.

A realization slowly began to dawn on her as she looked up from staring depressively at her shoes. Yeah, that's right. What's she doing?

The only thing she could possibly reach a solution to this mess was by doing something. Yes. From now on, instead of complaining and whining and waiting for a miracle, Hungary's going to try and fix her problems herself. Yes. Since when did she care what other people thought when she had her mind set on doing what's right?

She may not been able to stop Poland from getting murdered, she may failed Bosnia more than once and let him go missing in his unstable state, she may have caused Liechtenstein to get temporarily killed by her own brother and be placed in a complicated situation earlier than intended, she may had deliberately refrained from Herzegovina's constant calls and left the woman to drown in worry for her husband, and she may have failed in getting Tunisia to open up, but she's working on making up for all of that.

More importantly, she was starting to make things right. Hungary proved that she could do more than just mess up and get other nations into problems. She proved that just today.

She stopped Lithuania from hacking Poland's corpse into a million pieces even she still didn't know what was going on, she comforted Bosnia when he recovered from his fits, she helped try to save Liechtenstein from the mess she got her into in the first place and succeeded, she saved Tunisia from possibly getting further violated by his brother and kept the incident a secret like she thought he wanted…

See? She simply needed to get her act together, think things through, be logical but considerate, and with all that, she could not mess up. Well, that and not having her bad luck screwing her over again, but you get her point.

And she was determined to stop messing up. She had already proved she could do that, hadn't she?

She could solve problems.

"In fact," Hungary smiled wistfully to herself. "There's another problem I've been neglecting to fix, isn't there?"

/ / / / /

Vietnam couldn't recall the last time she had head injury this bad, unless you could call the numerous headaches she'd get from certain fellow nations injuries.

Granted, she was no stranger to accidents and she had gotten herself accidentally hurt in her work more than once, but she had gotten used to them. This injury, the one she reportedly got from a villager smashing a glass bottle on her head, was actually painful. The whole ordeal had been painful, even if she did black out for a lengthy period of time. On the more positive side of things, she wasn't dead and no other mobs seemed to have attacked them since then.

She had no idea what had just happened when she came to again, only that something horrible did, but a nurse was kind enough to provide a brief summary. It wasn't enough though.

But she had finally recovered enough that the wound was disappearing and she's able to be able to hold a conversation without getting a headache, Thailand and South Korea were allowed to visit her. And of course, the latter practically burst through the door yelling her name in glee and would've tacked her in a hug if it weren't for Thailand.

They were certainly a sight for sore eyes. And after expressing how happy they were to see her better (which… did warm her heart more than she'd probably admit), they then told her what had happened.

To put it simply, it was frighteningly odd.

"…You're saying that they were only focused on me and they ignored you two?" Vietnam asked in disbelief at that surprising information. But why would that be?

Her answer was two nods from Thailand and South Korea.

"Yes. That is correct. It's certainly strange, but…" Thailand paused with a frown, appearing to mull over something and wring his hands before speaking up again. "Whatever is going on with them, it's clear that they're angry at you and they probably know who you are."

"But how would they know that?" South Korea asked curiously.

No one could answer that question.

Vietnam herself fell into a contemplative silence. She looked at the two again, and to her puzzlement, she found Thailand with an odd, dark look on his face. It immediately instilled enough worry in her for her to ask.

"Kasem, is there something else?"

Thailand almost seemed to grimace at being asked that, and even deliberately avoided looking at her in the eye in favor of a wall. Vietnam may not be in the best state right now, but even she could tell that something was seriously bothering him.

"It's about what the humans kept yelling about, da-ze," South Korea decided to answer in Thailand's place, though looking no less… disturbed.

She narrowed her eyes while trying to force down the urge to cringe at at the memory of the incident. "What about it?"

South Korea quickly opened his mouth to answer, but Thailand's cold voice cut him off before he could even speak. "They were yelling insults and slurs at you. I'm pretty sure I heard, and please excuse my language, 'communist bitch' among other more degrading insults more than once. I…"

Vietnam's eyes widened in surprise. She did not know that. "What? They did? But…"

It's just that so much was happening at the time, she was under so much stress and the humans weren't helping and they were all yelling very loudly at the same time and…Why? And how would they know… Did they really know who she was after all?

"They might be people unhappy with the government, if that's the case." Vietnam bit her tongue at the displeasing thought. It hardly made her feel any better.

"No, I…" Thailand murmured absently as he trailed off, his face suddenly darkening. "Nevermind. You're probably right. It's the only logical explanation."

She couldn't help but regard him with suspicion after that sudden dismissal, but right now they had more pressing matters to worry about. "Well, we can discuss more on that later. For now, how is the progress at the meeting?

Vietnam found herself feeling a little irate when Thailand and South Korea exchanged guilty glances. That told her everything she needed to know.

"Well…" Thailand smiled nervously.

"A-Actually, da-ze…" South Korea laughed quietly while twiddling his thumbs.

The dark-haired woman sighed, "You haven't done anything since you brought me here, have you?"

"We were more worried about your well-being," Thailand calmly replied, looking at her with that very emotion. "Besides, we thought that we might need to discuss the incident first with you before anything else.

"W-Well, thank you," Vietnam hoped that she wasn't blushing, and coughed. "But now that I'm feeling better and we have now finished discussing the incident, we can go back to trying to get the others to come to my house like China wants."

The idea of following his orders still didn't sit well with her, but this was important, and now in light of what happened with the mob, Vietnam realized that this really was urgent.

"Are you sure, Lien?" South Korea didn't seem to like that idea.

"Yes. We're… We're losing time as it is with this conversation," Vietnam grumbled in distaste as she rolled slightly to the side, her dark eyes narrowed. "They're in danger. Please, just go and call them and tell them to come over here as soon as possible.

"But we can't," South Korea weakly protested.

"Why not?" Vietnam asked.

"I mean…" South Korea shifted uncomfortably as he stared at her with his brown eyes in concern. It was strangely heart-wrenching. ""What if you get attacked again, da-ze?"

Vietnam tried her best to squash the fear in her heart at the idea, and stared back blankly, "It could have been an isolated incident."

"How do you know that? And what if it isn't, da-ze?" South Korea said in a low voice while anxiously fidgeting his fingers. "I don't want to see you hurt again, Lien."

"I have to agree with South Korea," Thailand piped up with a very concerned frown, narrowing his eyes. "Something tells me that it might be best if we do this meeting somewhere else."

While it did feel a little cowardly to consider it, Vietnam always listened to logic and reasoning, and logically, South Korea was completely right about this. She shivered. Even in such a serious situation it felt so odd to say that. Anyway, despite how a part of her wanted to protest, she couldn't ignore this.

The attack was bizarre. Bizarre and random enough that Vietnam couldn't shrug it off as a one-time thing. The villagers– the humans, they were after her specifically while completely ignoring Thailand and South Korea. They were screaming and cursing only at her. How wasn't that suspicious slightest way?

Not to mention that… Well, this might sound ridiculous or silly, but Vietnam had a feeling of foreboding that's been bothering her for hours, which only strengthen after being the told the full details of the incident. Perhaps it really wasn't safe here.

"Fine. We'll do it somewhere else," Vietnam reluctantly relented, and she looked up expectantly at Thailand, who looked surprised at her answer. There's only one location that's convenient for everyone right now. "How does your house sound, Kasem?"

If Vietnam didn't know any better and wasn't completely sure if her injury was making her imagine things, but she could've sworn she saw Thailand tense and a shadow pass over his face before reverting back to his previous concerned expression. But her mind was a bit too hazy and the topic was too important to even dwell on that.

"My house? Well, I suppose that can work…" Thailand mused thoughtfully and put a hand on his chin, humming and appearing to mull it over before looking right at her again with a faint frown. "But do you think that Cambodia and Myanmar would be willing to come if we grouped there?"

"Just tell him that it's important and that I vouch you. Also that if they don't want to 'disappear' like Laos and the others did, they'd better head over immediately." Vietnam coolly instructed, her fingers twitching. She missed having her paddle, "And if they still decide to be stubborn, let me know so I can set them straight myself."

Thailand chuckled nervously and South Korea paled and 'eeped' before going to cower behind the former at the familiar menacing aura emanating from Vietnam that surfaced in difficult situations involving those nations, which the woman herself was actually oblivious to.

"Hm. Alright then, let's all group in my house instead." Thailand said with a hint of excitement as he clapped his hands, smiling as pleasantly as ever.

"Thank you, Thailand," Vietnam sighed in relief as she lied down again, now feeling more relaxed. That's one problem solved. "I… appreciate it."

Thailand's kind smile broadened. And, still feeling indebted to him for taking her all the way here to the clinic and for agreeing to go through all this trouble for them and for China, Vietnam did her usual best to return the gesture, with less than stellar results as she felt the pain in the corners of her mouth as she began to make a very shaky smile.

South Korea finally burst into a wide again. "Yay! We're going to Thai's house, da-ze, which originated in me!"

It took extreme effort on Vietnam's part not to groan or worse, palm her forehead, at how South Korea ruined the moment… again. Thailand, on the other hand, merely chuckled in amusement at South Korea's Honestly, it was truly hard to decide which mood she preferred South Korea in.

Vietnam glared exasperatedly at him. "That… doesn't even make any sense."

"We'll take care of it." Thailand assured her with a calm, confident smile before South Korea could say anything else stupid. "I'll do the talking and book us a flight back to my capital as soon as possible. In the meantime, I think we should leave you be. You need to rest."

Vietnam felt naturally inclined to disagree with that suggestion and she wanted to insist that she could help, especially since she'll have to tell her boss that she'll be leaving on important business at some point, but she still felt so tired and something about the way Thailand was smiling at her implied that she didn't have much choice in the matter. And she'd had experience with how persuasive Thailand could be.

He still hadn't gotten rid of that stubbornness from the old days. She supposed that's another thing they had in common

"…Fine. I'll leave it up to you."

"Thank you."

/ / / / /

To her endless frustration, Turkey wouldn't answer her either.

Had everyone's phones suddenly stopped working, or have they all decided to ignore her?

Growling in ever-increasing anger, Herzegovina found it increasingly more difficult to not just snap, scream at the top of her lungs, and throw the phone at the wall in a rage after all. How could she not be angry? No matter how many times she tried and how, she kept coming up with nothing and she wasn't anywhere near close to knowing what happened to her husband than she was at the beginning!

That was… what, the fourth time she had tried to get in contact with Turkey now? And he still hadn't picked up. Why? He did it last time Herzegovina had been craving for answers and she thought that he was the one who would give, when she thought that Bosnia had simply sneaked away to his house again, so why not now? Did that idiot think this was funny?

After all the stress and hair-tearing worry she'd had to endure yesterday and today, Herzegovina would honestly say she'd do just about anything to hear his obnoxious but cheerful voice right now. She could say that without a smidge of regret. She's just that desperate.

Herzegovina fell onto the chair next to the damn phone, burying her face in her hands.

Her despairing thoughts were swiftly interrupted when, against all odds, she heard the familiar and annoying sound of the phone ringing.

She gasped, for more than one reason. Holy hell, someone's calling? Could it be? Should she dare hope? Herzegovina wasted no time in scrambling for the phone once she got back over her brief period of shock.

Come on, Allah, take her mercy on her for once. Please don't let it be Serbia whining again. Please don't let it be Croatia angry for one reason or another again. Please don't let it be Slovenia crying about something again. Please don't let it be Montenegro having butt dialed his phone or calling to complain about something again.

She picked it up, and cleared her throat.

"Hello?" Herzegovina greeted first, trying not to sound too hopeful.

"Lejla? Oh, thank goodness you picked up."

She remained rooted in the spot where she stood, her eyes wide in shock. Herzegovina had to use a chair as support to keep herself from collapsing to her knees. "H-Hungary?"

"Yes, it's me. Hello, Lejla." The woman greeted awkwardly, a nervous chuckle following.

…What? Was this happening? Was this actually happening? Herzegovina gaped.

"Wh… Where have you been, Hungary?!" In a period of no time at all once she realized that this was real, Herzegovina absolutely yelled onto the device. All her pent up anger and desperation came pouring out."You conceited, wicked woman! How dare you call only now after I nearly decided to give up?! Do you have any idea how many times I've tried to call you?"

"Eight times, actually. I still have the voice mails in my phone too, you know…" Hungary muttered, having the nerve to sound a little annoyed.

"Yes. Eight times. That's how many times I've tried to call you and you refused to respond!" Herzegovina barked resentfully, her grip on the phone becoming tighter. "You've better have a good reason for leaving me worried sick here. Bosnia is missing. No one know where he is and the ones who might have a clue have been ignoring me or-"

"I know. I know, Lejla." Hungary replied in an almost pained voice while a confused Herzegovina gathered her breath. "I'm sorry, Lejla. But don't worry, he's okay."

Wait, what?

"What?! So you do know where he is?!" Herzegovina exclaimed in disbelief. Was that old coot right after all?

She heard Hungary sputter and stammer her words, which began to further test Herzegovina's patience. "What do you mean? How– Why would you think that–"

Herzegovina held back an exasperated sigh decided to cut Hungary off before she'd snap again. "Sadik told me. I have no idea how he knew but I imagine– "

There was a choked sound from the other end. "Turkey told you?!"

"Yes, yes, he did. He told me you would know. I don't know how he knew that, but you'll plenty of time to explain that to me later so DON'T YOU DARE THINK OF INTERUPTING ME AGAIN!"

Now that shut the woman up.

Alright, alright… She released a long sigh. Herzegovina will admit maybe she went a bit too far with that. But she's fed up with not getting her answers. For Allah's sake, she had just spend a whole day searching wildly for her husband only to come up with nothing. How was she supposed to be calm?

"…Why did Turkey tell you?" Hungary asked quietly once she spoke again.

Herzegovina didn't know what kind of question was that, but she replied regardless.

"I don't know. He's been more annoying than usual as of late." Herzegovina muttered in great annoyance with the infuriating man. She clenched her teeth. "But that's hardly important, Elizaveta. We need to talk and you're going to tell me what I want to know."

"Y-Yes. I… I think I owe you an explanation." Hungary said sheepishly.

Herzegovina would laugh if she weren't so angry and focused on one thing and one thing only. "You think? Fine! Explain this to me then this instant. Where's Emir, Elizaveta? Where is he and what happened?"

She was met with silence from the other end of the line, which was more than enough for Herzegovina to clench her teeth and snap.

"ELIZAVETA!" She screamed at the phone, ignoring the alarmed yelp from the other side.

"Y-You…" Hungary started muttering, eventually trailing off into a short pause before a loud sigh was heard. "You might want to sit down for this…"

Fear quickly overtook her very being, and she tightly gripped the fabric of her blouse as she . "What happened to him? What did you do?!"

"Me? I didn't do anything, I swear!" Hungary yelled back at her defensively, it did little to calm Herzegovina's nerves. "Hell, I don't even know what's wrong with him! It's been driving me crazy for–"

"What do you mean there's something wrong with him?!" Herzegovina practically shrieked.

She could name more than a few things that's wrong with Bosnia, but the way Hungary said it made it sound like..

"I-I…" Hungary sighed. "Look, I can explain all this. Believe, I can, trust me. But I think that you're going to need to sit down for the whole story."

"I have a better idea," Herzegovina smiled very, very tightly as her grip became so strong she wouldn't be surprised if it broke. "Why don't you tell me where Bosnia is, what happened to him and let me talk to him? Then you can explain the rest."

She did not like the distant sound of shuffling and stammering from the other side. "I don't think that third part's possible."

"And why not?!"

"…He's been arrested and taken into British government custody for attempting to assassinate members of the England's royal family… and kind of succeeding."

Herzegovina ignored Hungary's voice as the phone slipped from her hand.

Y-You know what? Maybe she should sit down for this…

/ / / / /

Back to the present from here on…

Liechtenstein didn't understand what happened.

She didn't understand any of it.

It almost didn't seem real. But maybe that's because she didn't want it to be real.

And then, when she came back, came from being temporarily dead (because she was shot by her big brother, her big brother killed her, it's thanks to him she died for the first time in–) she woke up in a room she didn't recognize. She didn't know where she was. But then she remembered Switzerland and- and it wasn't a dream and he actually killed her and as she was filled with panic and confusion, she started to think... started to worry that- that-

But then Ukraine came through the door, peeking in with worried eyes, startling the traumatized girl out of her shock and panicky thoughts. And quickly, Liechtenstein became even more confused than ever even as the woman tried to calm her down to no avail.

She couldn't really remember what happened next. But there was a lot of breathing, Miss Ukraine had to stop her from hyperventilating, Liechtenstein recalled. She felt cold, dizzy, nauseous, terrified. What happened? Why, big brother, why?

She had flinched when Miss Ukraine tried to touch her, to try to put her hand on her shoulder to help her feel ease. Miss Ukraine quickly apologized, but Liechtenstein shook her head. 'No, no, it's not you!' She wanted to cry out. Her shoulder felt sore. Morocco had grabbed her shoulder when she tried to run, watching her squirm and cry while he dug his nails into her skin and just smiled...

Miss Ukraine was kind as always. She… somewhat explained what happened. They were in Mister England's house, which only raised more questions, but when Liechtenstein asked, she had been met with Miss Ukraine's pained expression and the older woman answered that Germany would be able to explain it better.

Liechtenstein was understandably upset at the deliberate dodging of the question, but the mention of the last person she had spoken to before everything went horribly helped Liechtenstein perk up. Germany was here too? Just what happened while she was… dead? She needed to see him, he could explain, maybe he knew what's wrong with her big brother, why he was so cold…

Liechtenstein started asking for Germany, for him to come over, and after a few more reassuring smiles and words, Miss Ukraine had left to just that.

She was left alone to her thoughts and the heavy silence, when she flinched once she heard the door open.

"Lili?" Germany asked in that usual awkward way as he came into view from the door. Liechtenstein's heart nearly stopped.

"L-Ludwig?" Liechtenstein murmured hopefully, her small hands gripping the blankets.

Germany gave her a shaky but reassuring smile. But he clearly looked happy to see her. He closed the door behind him and walked over, "Ja. D-Don't worry, Lili. It's me. Are you alright?"

"I-I don't know…" Liechtenstein could only murmur, her voice cracking.

Germany seemed to frown at that cryptic answer, but his face remained soft. His cheeks flushed red as he scratched the back of his head, averting his eyes and muttering, "Tch. You're right, that was a stupid question. Verdammt… What was I… Gah

Liechtenstein only stared, not really sure what to say on that. Her attention was snapped back to reality when she watched, still confused beyond words, as Germany took a few more steps until she was next to her on the bed, kneeling beside her with

"W-Well, don't worry, no one's going to hurt you anymore," Germany stated with determined but pained blu eyes, his fists trembling. "I promise."

She wasn't sure about that. But she was so confused and lost right now that all she could do was weakly ask, "I… I don't… Why… Why are you here? Why am I here?"

"You're in England's house, we brought you here." Germany quickly answered with a more rigid, confident tone, the way he spoke to most people. "We rescued you. You were… uh… dead when it happened. Oh, but did Ukraine already explain that to you? Uh… Either way, that's… that's what happened. Everything's fine now, Lili."

Liechtenstein tried to wrap her head around that, she couldn't. She blinked. "You… rescued me?"

"Ja. It wasn't easy, but we did." Germany nodded, sounding quite proud of that achieve despite not smiling. "You can thank Hungary for being the one who carried you out of Switzerland's house herself."

Miss Hungary did that?

"She… She was worried about you too. She felt… really bad."

"Why did she feel bad?" Liechtenstein was honestly curious.

Germany's face darkened greatly, and he shifted in what might be discomfort as he wringed his hands. "For what happened to you. She felt responsible, and she was. But she made it up to you by saving you from that piece of scheiße."

Liechtenstein flinched at the insult directed at Big Brother. She'd never heard Germany call Switzerland that way, or even with that much anger. Germany was brimming with so much anger and hate that it honestly scared her. What was even going on?

But what Germany was referring to… Was he talking about – about what she saw in the basement and what happened after?

During all that, she didn't think she ever felt angry at Miss Hungary. W-Well, other than because there was so much going on that it never occurred to her, but was there really a reason to be angry at her? Miss Hungary was obviously worried about her. She didn't mean for all this to happen, didn't she? If Switzerland didn't actually care… if he was going to kill her, anyway

"But... what happened, Ludwig?" Liechtenstein asked quietly, lost in all this... " I don't understand. What's going on?"

The man in front of her knit his brows in concern at the question. "I told you, you were rescued. You… don't remember what happened? With Va- I mean, Switzerland?"

In that instant, Liechtenstein's blood ran cold. Memories flashed in her mind of Cameroon roughly dragging her away, the utterly pitiless look her big brother gave her, the way he talked so coldly to her like he had never done before in all the years since he rescued her, and the glare of pure rage unlike she'd ever seen before, and not ever directed at her, before the gun went off, the brief flash of pain in her head before blacking out.

"I-I remember…" Liechtenstein stuttered out weakly, unable to stop herself from choking halfway, and felt tears prick her eyes as her hands fisted the blankets again. "He shot me, Ludwig. Vash killed me."

What she couldn't understand was that Germany didn't look shocked at all. He only looked completely furious.

"I know. I know, Lili." Germany scowled darkly.

"Why did he do that?" Liechtenstein could only desperately hope that Germany knew. The pain in her heart became heavier with each minute. "Why was he so angry?"

The answer she received, at first, was silence from an obviously conflicted Germany gritting his teeth. But conflicted about what, Liechtenstein could only wonder.

"Ludwig, please, tell me…" Liechtenstein begged with a hoarse voice, her throat still felt dry and her head felt like it's about to spin. Eventually she found herself exclaiming, "I'm tired of no one telling me what's happening! Why can't you tell me?"

"I… It's complicated…" Germany bit out, his face taking on a more pained expression. He sounded reluctant to continue.

Somehow, that spurred Liechtenstein into abruptly leaning forward, tugging at Germany's sleeve with her eyes wide in desperation. "Please tell me, Ludwig. Please! I need to know. Why did Vash kill me? Why was he so angry with me? Why were Morocco and Cameroon there with him? Why… Why was Mauritius down there?"

Germany's face softened for a moment at her pleading, but it hardened into a scowl again soon enough. "You're not going to like this one bit, Lili…"

She didn't.

After she begged him to finally explain and no longer keep her out of the loop, he started surprisingly bluntly with the most important detail of all: They were tricked.

"Vash was lying to me?" Liechtenstein could barely get the words out of her mouth.

"He lied to all of us, Lili." Germany reminded her grimly with thinly-veiled resentment. "But he's not the only one."

There were these nations, dozens in number apparently, including Switzerland, Austria, Prussia, Morocco and Cameroon, and many others, have been hiding behind a façade and lying to everyone for centuries, even to family. And they're planning to go to war with the rest of the world, and nations have already died.

"Roderich too…?" She murmured in disbelief, gnawing on her lip. That polite, gentle man who would always spare a smile for her even with Switzerland was nothing but a lie? "Nein. But that can't be true…"

It couldn't be. All of that and the time she'd spent with Switzerland couldn't have been a lie.

"Ja, I wish it wasn't." Germany sighed. "But you know I wouldn't joke about this, Lili. I'd never do that to you."

Liechtenstein wished that he would. But there's no way she could deny it. She'd seen them act nothing like their usual normal selves; she'd seen Switzerland slowly become more and colder towards her until he threatened and then killed her. She saw all the evidence she needed to know that Germany's clearly telling the truth.

"My brother is a part of this too," Germany hissed, saying the term 'brother' like some disease. "One of the leaders, at that. It's not easy for me either, Lili."

"I'm sorry…" It seemed the appropriate thing to say.

But Germany was brimming with that hate again, but he managed to calm down enough to frown at Liechtenstein. "There's no need for you to apologize. Anyway, you still need to know…"

Germany then launched into a semi-adequate summarized explanation of everything that's been happening for the past few days that Liechtenstein had been completely oblivious to. It should go without saying that she was horrified. It was too much to take in all at once, but she could only nod mutely at Germany's frequent 'Are you alright?'.

And it was when Liechtenstein had finally been told another truth. The reason why Miss Hungary had kept insisting that she investigate the basement was because right after Liechtenstein told her about the- the voices, the woman thought that maybe Mauritius, who had been captured, was down there. And of course, she was right. She, in Germany's own bitter words, 'used' Liechtenstein (she tried not let sting) but she had been so sure and that Switzerland wouldn't hurt her that…

Miss Hungary didn't mean for Liechtenstein to end up hurt.

A-And now that they knew that Mauritius was trapped in Switzerland's house, Germany and Miss Hungary and a few other nations decided to go save them. Hearing that honestly meant a lot for Liechtenstein. And then they did manage to save both of them, except France didn't

Liechtenstein teared up again. "H-He–"

"It's not your fault," Germany quickly told her, distressed at seeing her like this. He composed himself and continued calmly "Algeria made a mistake, and France decided to pay for it in her place. You're a victim in all of this, Lili."

Even with that, Liechtenstein cried.

"So it was all a lie? Vash doesn't care about me?" She didn't even try to stop the tears that followed. She looked up to Germany in hopes that he'll refute that.

"N.. I.. don't know for sure." Germany bit out, for once not mincing words despite his grimace. "He showed no remorse for lying and keeping secrets from you. But thinks you betrayed him even though you weren't aware of what was going on and blames me and Hungary for that. He's so angry that he went ballistic on Hungary and I when we came to rescue you."

A sliver of hope made its way to Liechtenstein's heart, despite how broken it was. And… And…

"He was going to let me live," Liechtenstein murmured distractedly after wiping her tears.

Germany's head whipped his head back at her in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"He wasn't going to kill me at first, since he understood that it was wrong of him to keep being cold to me for no reason and expect me to not want to find answers for myself…" She replied slowly, somehow not managing to stutter any of the words. Liechtenstein swallowed, however, and she couldn't – didn't – stop herself from crying again afterwards. "I… I didn't tell him about you and Miss Hungary…"

"…What? You didn't?" Germany sounded surprised, so Switzerland must've not told him.

"It just never occurred to me and I…" She was so paralyzed by fear and bafflement at everything happening in her seat, Cameroon and Morocco's murderous hungry stares burning into her as Switzerland's cold gaze did. "I-I didn't– and then Morocco told him and I think that's made him so angry. A-And right after he said told Vash that, Vash killed me."

The scowl returned, this time a lot more furious "Just like that? He found out you were being led around by me and Hungary, and even though you still had no idea what's going on, he shot you immediately?"

A quivering Liechtenstein nodded shakily, feeling her throat dry at the memory. Why did you kill me, big brother?

Germany inhaled sharply, and rubbed his temples while grumbling, "Shit… Well, that explains all that 'betrayal' and 'lying' crap he kept spouting.

Liechtenstein couldn't help flinch and cry again, "I didn't lie. I really didn't think of–"

"I know, I believe you," Germany assured her. "But Switzerland is another story. Under all that holier-than-thou attitude, he's clearly just as unstable as the other members of the Order."

She said nothing to that, not wanting to think of the brother who lied to her, killed her, and stared with downcast eyes at her hands still fisting the blankets.

"What am I going to do, Ludwig?" Liechtenstein asked helplessly, choking back a sob. "Vash's going to be even angrier now that I'm gone."

"You don't have to do anything, Lili." Germany quickly assured her with a solemn look on his face. "You'll stay with us, and I'll keep you safe from that bastard and anyone else who'll try to hurt you. I promise."

"I… I can't, Ludwig." Liechtenstein was crying now, the tears falling non-stop. The guilt, helplessness and fear gnawing at her heart made it worse. "I've always depended on Vash. I depend on him and rely on him so much for everything. I don't even have an army. If I try to fight him, then… then… he'll… He can kill me anytime he wants."

And there's nothing she could do about it if he did. For the first time in her life, Liechtenstein deeply regretted that she ever came to be so dependent on Switzerland.

"That won't happen." Germany cut in sharply, carefully taking her hand in his, and Liechtenstein didn't flinch away as she stared. "I told you, I promise no one will hurt you again. You don't have to fight. And if he cuts you off, then I'll be there to support you. I'll provide you with anything you need."

Liechtenstein gasped quietly. What- Germany would do that, for her? He'd take over the role of her guardian? The fact made her heart soar in hope. If he did that, then maybe if – when Switzerland decided to sever ties with her, she won't collapse. But it sounded too easy a solution, not to mention very selfish of her to now depend on him for a lot of her matters after all the trouble and stress he went for her.

"You'd do that?" Liechtenstein asked hopefully. Could he even do that? She shook her head, frowning. "N-nein, I can't ask of you…"

"Of course I would. Even after all these years, you're still my little princess."

That sentence meant a lot more to Liechtenstein than she'd ever be able to express. She sniffled, "But won't I be a burden?"

She almost expected him – hoped that he'd – hesitate as she shed her tears and looked at his grim expression. But then Germany did something she didn't expect – he gently pulled her into a slightly awkward hug. But despite that surprise, for some reason, Liechtenstein started crying even louder.

"You won't ever be one," Germany whispered to her as he held the sobbing tightly, "I-I'll be there for you, even if the others won't approve."

It sounded too good to be true. But in the end, she relented, "Danke, Ludwig."

"You don't have to thank me."

"I… I'm scared."

"Ja… so am I."

/ / / / /

Russia himself felt rather apathetic to all the happenings going around the house, and he was aware that there was quite a lot going on.

It didn't matter to him at the moment. Because right now, there was only one person on his mind that he cared about, and was on his way to visit. Now, if Japan had been correct, this should be where Ukraine had been spending a lot of her time at.

He hadn't spoken to his sister at all, nor did Ukraine ever seek him out, since he returned from the whole ordeal at Switzerland. That fact bothered him. Ukraine had been aloof and resentful at him since what happened at the house, but to see him ignore him and remain distant even as he bled all over the ground pained him. And it was so that Russia decided that he wanted to talk to her.

Maybe he could convince her to forgive him.

The door had been already left half-open when he found it, and when Russia discreetly entered he was met with an interesting sight. His sister and little Moldova were at Romania's bedside with Ukraine quietly uttering instructions to the antsy-looking child. They were completely oblivious to Russia's arrival.

Romania himself seemed to be, to Russia's mild surprise, breathing with his whole head complete again. Although he looked quite worse for wear. His face was twisted in pain, looked a little red, and he appeared to be stuck in a state of unconsciousness or delirium as he breathed heavily.

…Well, this looked like a good time for a conversation.

"Ah, so Romania has finally come back, da? Good news, good news. Germany will be glad to hear this, da?"

He'll have to hear that rat's constant snarky remarks, but at least they'll finally get a move on. Nothing a good pipe to the head couldn't fix, it worked with South Africa… after a few tries and missing a lot of shots.

The two froze, and Russia found two pairs of eyes staring at him, one in surprise and another with anger.

Ukraine wasn't smiling.

"Privet, sestra," Russia happily greeted, trying to ignore the way Ukraine was looking at him.

"Moldova," Ukraine began tightly, fiddling with the buttons of her blouse. "Can you please fetch some more water, please? Remember to keep it lukewarm."

The child only blinked wide at the request at first, but realization passed over his face and he nodded eagerly, "D-Da. I'm on it. I'll be right back."

Russia stepped aside with ease as the little boy sprinted through the door with two empty glasses in his hands, not even sparing a glance at the man, going to do as Ukraine had ordered. He felt himself relax when Moldova did; now he and sister could talk.

Ukraine had turned around and now had her back to Russia again, resuming what was presumably her checking Romania's temperature. Russia decided that now was as good as any to start the conversation. He put on his best smile before speaking.

"You two seemed to have become good friends, da?" Russia observed curiously as he watched the view.

"What do you want, Vanya?" Ukraine demanded coldly, not even bothering to face him.

Receive deliberate aloofness instead of the usual nervous warmth cut much more deeply more than Russia would ever admit, and he held back a pained wince. But he won't let that affect him so easily. He regained his usual smile and make sure it shined bright.

"I have recovered from my injuries, Kat," Russia informed her cheerfully, hoping the use of nickname would help ease the tension too.

Ukraine froze while in the process trying to provide dehydration.

"Good to know." His sister responded with just as much frigidness as before. "Is there anything more you need to say?"

'Was that all she had to say to that?' Russia thought with a rage as his sister used one hand to grab a half-filled glass of water to Romania's mouth and other to support his head. Did his health and well-being not matter to her at all anymore? Calm, Russia. Calm. Take deep breaths. Don't lose control in front of her so easily. You want her to smile at you again, da?

The question admittedly took Russia aback, but he refused to wither, "Da. What are you doing with Romania?"

It seemed like a decent way to break the ice.

"Moldova and I were with Romania when he was revived, but he was having a hard time fully becoming conscious again. It started to worry us," Ukraine's voice became softer and filled with pity as she smoothly explained, and Russia felt a brief surge of irritation. "I checked and I found that his body temperature was unusually high. He's starting to get a fever."

That genuinely piqued Russia's curiosity. He blinked, "A fever, da? When he died having part of his head blown off? Why would that cause fever?"

"We're not sure, but he won't wake up. I think the cause might be dehydration, he is showing some of the other symptoms. I've asked Hungary and Moldova and they said that they didn't remember the last time Romania had stopped to drink and I doubt his having been dead helped matters at all. But for all we know, one of the Africans could've somehow poisoned him and his body could still be trying to heal it. You haven't been feeling any symptoms, have you?"

Russia was more than happy to interpret the question as familial concern instead of curiosity for the damn vampire's sake, so he felt his mood improve and managed to answer with more of his usual mirth.

"Nyet, I have not. I feel normal, especially since injuries are gone, da?" Russia lightly answered with just the slightest tinge of happiness. "I'm absolutely sure there wasn't any poison involved at all in that battle, except for Egypt's case of course."

"Hm," Ukraine appeared to mull over that answer for a little. Maybe. It's hard to hell since she wasn't facing him. "Either way, Moldova and I are here to help him with the fever."

Russia nodded, humming. "I see. And how is it going? Is he on his way to full recovery?

"Why do you ask? It's not like you care about him either, Vanya." Ukraine remarked bitterly while she put the cup to Romania's mouth and carefully helped him drink the liquid.

Either.

Fists clenched, Russia finally decided to drop the pretenses. It hurt too much to continue with this if his sister was going to continue being this way.

"Why must you be so cold to me, sestra?" Russia cried out, not being able to bear the cold treatment anymore.

Ukraine's shoulders tensed and Russia could feel the anger emanating from her. She gently set Romania's head on the pillow and finally looked at Russia, but it was to glare at him. "I've seen the way you look at him, Vanya. You don't care that he's getting a fever."

"And what does it matter if I don't? Are you angry at me for my lack of caring?" Russia snapped.

"Tak. That and more," Ukraine hissed with venom that broke Russia's heart to hear. "He has every right to be mad at you too."

He decided to ignore that.

"Please tell me you are not angry with me for knocking Canada out too, da?" Russia begged with more desperation than he was comfortable with.

"Ni. I'm not. He may be hurting, but he had no right in lashing out at everyone, especially at Seychelles," Ukraine stated sharply. "That and your contributions to helping rescue poor Lili and Mauritius are probably the only things you've done right so far."

He cringed. Now that hurt. Ukraine's new attitude toward him hurt. No, he would say that it's hurting even more. Not even his actions appear to be helping her warm up to him again. And Russia decided not to ever bring up how despite he managed to win his fight with South Africa in the end, it was only after the former was slashed, punched, stabbed and nearly cannibalized one too many times.

And don't get him started on the lightning birds.

"And? Is neither of those things enough for you to stop you from being so cold towards me?"

"Ni. You clearly still don't understand."

"And why can't you explain?"

"I told you, Vanya. I'm done." Ukraine said coolly. "I'm done being nice when all you do is hurt me and all those around you while you do nothing but smile at our expense and expect us to still be nice to you. I'm done holding back my feelings. I'm so tired, Vanya, and no amount of crying and begging from you will change that."

"So are you going to be like this? Will you ever forgive me?"

There was that glare again, and Ukraine's eyes flared with fury and resentment. "Not until you realize and admit what an awful person you are, accept that you've driven Lithuania and God knows how many others to madness because of the horrible way you've treated them, that the hurt you've been through is nothing compared to what you've put millions through combined, and change for the better."

The heavy silence was shattered when Moldova came running in with two glasses of water, looking frantic and out of breath.

"H-Here's the water, Ukraine!" Moldova announced rather unnecessarily.

Ukraine managed a smile for the child and took the two glasses. "Thank you, Moldova."

Moldova beamed at the gratitude before his face morphed back into concern as he looked at his brother. "How's Vlad? Is he still doing better?"

"Tak. His fever is improving and I've given him more water, it shouldn't be long now," Ukraine stated in relief with a pleased smile, a smile that she did not spare for Russia when she turned to regard him coldly again. "Vanya, the conversation is over. I need to tend to Romania. If you don't have anything important to say, please… leave."

But Russia didn't want to leave. He didn't want to leave things as they were. He tried begging his sister with his eyes not to dismiss him, but Ukraine's expression did not change and she soon enough directed her attention back at helping Romania. Feeling overwhelmingly dejected, Russia frowned and slowly began to turn away to leave the room as his sister wished.

…Only for a sharp shout to interrupt his leave.

"…He's waking up!"

Russia snapped his head back wide-eyed to look. And indeed Romania was, weakly turning around with his voice weak and hoarse. "Ugh… wha…?"

"Vlad!" Moldova exclaimed in joy as he jumped to hug his brother, only to be stopped by Ukraine.

"P-Please be easy on him, Moldova, he's still weak," Ukraine lightly chided the child before her voice turned soft again as she looked at the other nation with a bright smile. "Welcome back, Romania."

"…Kat…?" Romania hopefully muttered, dazed and confused.

"Shh," Ukraine gently shushed the drowsy nation, smiling still. "It's alright now."

It was a happy scene he was seeing. How Romania finally woke up from his fever-induced state of unconsciousness to be greeted warmly by his loving little brother and the caring Ukraine despite their previous differences. All the while Russia remained ignored and dismissed, as if he wasn't even in the room.

With an ugly emotion rising in his heart, Russia scowled at the scene, and swiftly turned away to leave.

/ / / / /

Tunisia didn't know what to do.

He ran from Hungary, and he could only pray and hope that she won't press him or spill about what happened in relation. He yelled at Algeria, his own grieving sister, to leave him alone so that she wouldn't have to deal with him in his pathetic state.

He didn't know what he's supposed to do, and that only made him feel worse. Tunisia knew what he should do though, and that was to forget and suppress this whole thing just as he did with his feelings. Just like last time in Paris, just like that time after the dream. It should be easy enough, right? But no, it wasn't. Even now, he still didn't feel any less... lost and disgusted than he did earlier.

He still felt filthy from the pleasant warmth he had felt in his body, the tingling he felt under his skin, feelings he had kept down for so long, how his brother pressed their bodies together so closely that Tunisia could feel- Oh, Allah...

He could still taste Morocco in his lips no matter how many times he washed his mouth.

He remembered how, for a brief period, he enjoyed being violated by his own deranged brother, feeling the touches and sweet words the depraved part of himself had craved so badly for so many years.

Morocco's offer and soft-spoken promises still rang in his ears, and no matter how many times Tunisia tried to tell myself how insane it was and that his brother had hurt him too many times for him to be trusted, it sounded tempting. Even hearing it from someone like Morocco, the promise of eternal happiness and having someone love Tunisia forever, being given everything that part of him yearned for, was so tantalizing. No more pain. No more fear. No more hate. Just love, happiness, pleasure, dear brother and no no no nonononoNONONONO

How he could be so selfish? He wanted to abandon his sister, Egypt, France and everyone else while he . It was so stupid but–

He tried, he really, really tried to tell himself, convince himself to get over it, ignore it or push it to the very back of his mind like he did with a lot of things that happened in his life. Now's not the time, Tunisia. Your problems are irrelevant in this current situation. Get over it, don't give Algeria more reason to feel upset, and keep that damn part of you under control.

And he knew he's caused enough trouble. Why else did he hear Algeria and Hungary screaming at each other? Actually, he had no doubt that everyone heard them. It was really, really, loud yelling, and Algeria and Hungary could both be terrifying women.

He had no idea what caused them to argue in the first place, but even a filthy self-pitying sinner like him knew that he was at the center of it. It left him terrified that maybe, Hungary finally decided to reveal what happened to Algeria, and she revealed what a disgusting person Tunisia was. But Algeria hadn't come after Tunisia to scream at him, to disown him, so maybe Hungary didn't tell her? Tunisia had no idea, nor did he have the courage to find out for himself.

So here he stayed, lost and in despair. When night had finally arrived and Tunisia thought that he'd be granted some temporary peace in sleep, he was proven terribly wrong. He dreamt of seeing Algeria and Morocco both on opposites sides of where he stood, his brother whispering sweetly to Tunisia to accept him and caressing him while Algeria demanded that Tunisia not give in to his urges and stay with her. It went on until they were both screaming and screaming insulting pulling one of his arms so hard hurts crack until… until…

Tunisia remained holed up in another for the remainder of the day and throughout the entire night to when the sun had risen once again. No one knocked or seemed to come to look for him, nor did he hear any voices. He was glad for that. He was very glad for that. He wouldn't have it any other way.

"Hey! Tunisia! You in there? Scream like a girl if you're there!"

To his misfortune and shame, that's what he did. Tunisia's heart nearly jumped out of his chest as he let out an embarrassing shriek.

Well, the solitude was nice while it lasted…

"Yup! That sounds like Tunisia alright." The young Central American laughed jovially at near the heart attack she nearly inflicted on Tunisia.

He shivered, holding both of his arms from the lingering feelings of shock as he glared at the door. Part of him felt tempted to scream at her, to shout that she'd leave him alone. The rest of him told him to get over it and stop being a whiny child as if he deserved to get upset at Belize, so he did. But what she did want with him? What could she want with him?

"Ha… Sorry about that," Belize said in between wheezes, and Tunisia's eyes further narrowed. He doubted she meant it. The girl cleared her throat." Listen. I don't know what's going on with you, but Algeria mentioned that you're traumatized and maybe need some time alone. And that's completely understandable. Honest. I won't bug you about it, okay?"

'Then why are you here?' Tunisia could only wonder, not having the courage to utter the question himself. He didn't have the courage to even talk to her. He just… couldn't.

"But come on, are sure you're not hungry? After a tough battle and spending like hours in there, you should be working up an appetite. I mean, the others were yesterday, so we ordered Chinese while you were holed up in here."

What? No. No, Tunisia wasn't hungry. He had been spending the past couple hours trying not to throw up in disgust. But as if proving that his body really was against him, he heard his own stomach growl in response, and he felt his face heat up in embarrassment, praying that Belize didn't hear. Luckily, she seemed too wrapped up in their one-sided conversation to notice.

"…China wanted 'real' Chinese food, so there was this big argument. Luckily, I showed him after the gymnastics contest and the slap fight." "Man, you should've been there. Could've cheered you up seeing China almost set his hair on fire."

Tunisia didn't even know what to make of that. He only stared blankly at the door, waiting for Belize to get to the point and leave… please.

He didn't want food. Frankly, in his opinion, he thought that he might as well deserve to starve for what happened.

"But anyway… You're probably hungry, and it doesn't look like you ever went downstairs to grab some food during the night..." Belize went on and on in her usual snarky manner. Didn't she ever get tired of talking? How did she know that Tunisia was even listening to her? "Not that I blame you, since England's fridge and shelves are filled with nothing but crap. Some of it even looks like crap. Yuck. But point is, people are to starting to get worried."

That last statement echoed in his mind. Worried? About him? Someone as insignificant as him?

"I mean, your sister really is. Did you hear that whole fight she had with Hungary? Oh, of course you heard it. I'm sure even the old bat at Buckingham heard it."

It actually took a little effort for Tunisia not to crack a smile. But he cursed at himself. What's he laughing about? How could he find this funny? Algeria was being put through so much stress because of him. He-

"...Hey, and speaking of Hungary, she's worried about you too, you know."

Tunisia's breath got caught in his throat. What? She's worried about him? Even after the way he shut her off and bolted without an explanation? No, no, that couldn't be right.

"…But she said that you probably wouldn't want to see her right now."

What?

"So, since nearly everybody's in a bad mood and you obviously need some sunshine, I brought you your share of the takeout!" Belize proudly stated with a hearty laugh. "You want it? It's real good. Its pork free and everything, perfect for a Muslim! It didn't have any in the first place but I thought you'd appreciate that detail. Come on, it's pretty good!"

Tunisia didn't muster any effort into a reply. He couldn't. He didn't want to. He clenched his teeth, too preoccupied with his bafflement towards Hungary.

"...Ugh, fine." Belize groaned loudly, making Tunisia flinch slightly. "Like I said, I won't bug you. If you need more time to chill out, I'll just leave it in the fridge. Feel free to come down when you wanna get it. Don't worry, no one's gonna eat it…"

Tunisia's stomach growled even louder at that.

…

Oh, dammit.

Literally not having the stomach to berate himself again for lack of restraint, Tunisia scowled with his face hot with embarrassment as he abruptly stood up from the bed and quickly marched towards the door before Belize could walk away from view. He swung the door open and was met with the startled girl already a few feet away.

"I'm sorry for not responding. Can I please still have the food?" Tunisia asked, sounding a lot more stilted than he would've liked. He hated how awkward he sounded, but he wasn't in the mood to feign a happy mood.

Belize brightened at that statement, and grinned widely in approval. "That's more like it, man. I'm sure you'd feel better with a full stomach."

"Maybe…" Tunisia murmured without much thought. Although, now that he thought about it, maybe he could have an easier time figuring out what to do if he wasn't deliberately starving himself to death.

He was then handed a package of honestly appetizing Chinese food after Belize walked up to him. Tunisia felt a lot hungrier now.

"Like I said, we made sure it doesn't break any of the Muslim food rules or whatever they're called." Belize informed him again in her relaxed manner, waving her hand around. "It's completely, totally harem."

Tunisia's lips twitched. "It's haram, actually…"

"Yeah, what you said there," Belize kept grinning at him nonetheless. "Anyway, enjoy! I mean, we bought this stuff with England's money after all."

Suddenly about twenty questions were added to the pile on unanswered ones in Tunisia's mind. "U-Uh… Umm… Huh?"

"Aw, don't worry about it. After how that guy nearly got us into hot water, he can make up for that by letting us borrow a couple million euros." Belize waved her hand again divisively, sniggering to herself. "Besides, it's not like anyone had a problem with it. But who cares about that now? You go on ahead and eat. I'm sure you've got enough on your mind."

Yes. Yes, he supposed she's right.

"Thank you." Tunisia meant those words.

"No problem, Tunisia," Belize looked very pleased with the gratitude, but her grin was suddenly replaced with a frown as she scrutinized him. "Hey, are you… okay? You look awful."

Tunisia tried not to wince at the remark. Well, at least she was honest. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't sleep well."

"Oh, I can see that. I mean, you're not zombie-level bad, but still pretty bad." Belize's face scrunched up as she said her blunt remarks and Tunisia couldn't help feeling slightly annoyed by them. She gave him a sympathetic look as he went and left the food in his room. "You want me to tell Germany that you want to skip the meeting? You know, so you can get more sleep?"

"There's going to be a meeting?" Tunisia's jaw dropped in surprise.

"Right. I totally forgot to mention that." Belize grimaced before laughing nervously. "But yeah, Germany's feeling mostly okay now, so he's gonna have another meeting to discuss about… you know, France and what the hell we're supposed to do now."

Tunisia closed his mouth. A meeting? Were they going to discuss what happened? And damn, he couldn't believe he forgot about– about France. Algeria's obviously going to be there and there'll be no one there to give her support when they talk about how she– why France sacrificed himself for them?

"When is the meeting?"

"Probably in half an hour; depending on how it takes for Romania to be able to get outta bed. By the way, he's back. So, how about it? Want to tell Germany you wanna skip and rest?"

He wasn't sure and he hated himself for that. But before Tunisia could attempt to muster up a good answer, his thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of footsteps. He looked over at the hallway and, to his horror, Hungary came to view and grinded to a halt when she saw them.

Hungary's right over there.

She looked him directly, feeling himself overwhelmed with dread and freeze as she did so, and her eyes widened.

Hungary's here with them.

"Oh, hello, you two," Hungary greeted sheepishly with a nervous (nervous, nervous?) chuckle, walking over with the same strained smile that she had used before. "What's… up?"

Tunisia couldn't move. He was that he couldn't even gasp or back away in the fear that's leaving him as still as a statue. Oh no. She's here. She's found him again.

"Hey, Hungary!" Belize greeted with her usual mirth and grin, oblivious to Tunisia's terror. "Guess who finally crawled out of his cave?"

"I see that. Um, it's great to see you're out again." Hungary continued smiling awkwardly at Tunisia, when all the latter wanted was to run away and hide.

That same urge to throw up he had felt the last time he was with Hungary was now returning in full force and he desperately gulped it down before he could make a fool of himself. He felt sick. Why's she here? She had to have come across them because she had been looking for him, right?

And if she had been looking for him, what did she want with him?

"I was just telling him about the meeting," Belize was happily explaining to Hungary, patting a stiff Tunisia on the back. "He looks pretty rough though, so I'm asking if he wants to skip."

Hungary stared at Tunisia and then frowned, was she really about him? "Uh, Belize, there's actually a few things I want to talk about with Tunisia first."

No… no, no, no…

"So, how about I let Germany know if he wants to attend? And can you please tell Germany that I'll be… here if he needs something?"

No no no no no no no no no no

Tunisia had no idea what his face looked like right now, but he hoped it could convey how much he didn't want to be alone or even speak with Hungary.

Belize appeared to catch on that there was more going on that Hungary was letting on. But after glancing at the two of them with a puzzled look, she shrugged.

"Okay then, I'll let him know" Belize gave one last smile to Tunisia. "See you later, Tunisia."

And then she promptly casually walked away while Tunisia sank in despair. Once Tunisia was sure that Belize was completely out of hearing range, he whipped his head back towards Hungary just as she opened her mouth.

"Hey, so–

"What do you want?" Tunisia demanded coldly, not caring that he cut her off.

Hungary looked taken aback by the question. "Wh- Calm down, I just I wanted to talk to you."

"No." Tunisia snapped, and thanked Allah for finally being able to move his legs again so he could back away from her. "Get away from me. I don't want to talk to you."

She couldn't know. Tunisia didn't want her to know. But then he feared that if he made Hungary leave, then what was stopping her from telling everyone what happened? And what if she's here because she'd already figured out the truth? No, no, he had to leave.

Quickly and frankly without much consideration in his frantic state of mind, he tried to walk back to his room and close the door so that he wouldn't have to talk to Hungary. But just as he bolted off, Hungary's hand caught his wrist and prevented him from fleeing. This

"Hey! Wait just a second, don't leave." Hungary had been pleading while keeping a tight grip on Tunisia's grip.

"Let go of me!"

"I don't want to hurt you, Tunisia. I told you, I want us to–"

"Why? What do you want from me?" Tunisia cried out, sure that he would've been screaming if he didn't care that someone might overhear. "I told you to leave me alone, to just- just forget what happened!"

"Well, I would. But it's a little hard to do that when you yelled at me and ran off after all I did was ask a perfectly reasonable question." Hungary protested with a pointed but worried look that only drove Tunisia further to the edge.

"I told you, just forget it! Forget what happened and forget that we ever this and that conversation! Please! Please leave me alone!" Tunisia pitifully begged as he fought to yank his wrist out of his grip.

"I just want to help you, Tunisia!" Hungary shouted.

Again, Tunisia completely became still. "Help me…? Don't be ridiculous. Why would you be worried about me?"

Hungary had no reason to care about him. Why would she care about helping him?

She gave him a displeased glare that actually caused him to flinch. "And look at yourself. You spent the remainder of the day and all night in that room by yourself, and you only now came out when Belize came to give you food. How can anyone not be worried?"

"That's–"

"Also, you looked pretty miserable last time I saw you."

"If you're so worried, then why can't you respect my desire to be alone?" Tunisia spat, not caring how he sounded at this point.

"Believe me, I was going to leave you alone when I thought you'd probably needed it," Hungary frowned deeply away from Tunisia before huffing in annoyance. "But then your sister showed up and got all up in my face."

Tunisia was hit with a pang of guilt and he unknowingly stopped his struggling. "I-I know. I heard."

Hungary cringed, her cheeks burning red in apparent embarrassment. "Oh no, you heard that too?"

"I'm sure everyone did, actually…" Tunisia quietly remarked, fidgeting his fingers. If what Belize said was any indication...

"Ugh, great…" Hungary groaned exasperatedly and covered her face with her hands after releasing Tunisia's wrist, but she quit that action soon enough when she looked at him again in concern. "But wait, how much did you overhear? Did you know what we were arguing about, I mean?"

"N-Not everything, I heard a lot of yelling from you two but I couldn't really…" Tunisia swallowed a nervous lump in his throat "But I think I heard insults?"

"Yeah, because she insulted me first, that little…" Hungary cut him off before trailing off into a serious of grumbles he couldn't quite understand. Tunisia decided not to ask.

"But I know what it's about: me. You were arguing because of me." Tunisia bit out painfully, his fists trembling. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"…Yes." Hungary reluctantly confirmed. "She saw you were upset and thought that I was responsible."

Tunisia chose to say nothing to that but he felt another pang of guilt in his heart. So, it really was about him, just as he thought. W-Well, Algeria wasn't… entirely wrong. The fact that Hungary's curious and was the first person to not only witness Morocco force himself on Tunisia but suspect that there's a lot more going on than it appears.

"I'm… sorry if I said something that upset you." Hungary offered a seemingly genuine apologetic smile

"What did you tell her?" Tunisia asked in a small voice, ignoring what Hungary said.

"I only told her how I found you and how Morocco was… assaulting you." Hungary grimaced at "Right after that, I wasn't able to say anything else before Algeria pissed me off by accusing me of enjoying overhearing you crying and getting manhandled by Morocco because I didn't immediately bust through the door."

In all honesty, that seemed like the most believable thing out of everything. Algeria could be respectful and courteous, but when she's stressed or in a bad mood, she had a bad habit of easily snapping at the people around her or those she deemed responsible.

Tunisia bit his lip and mustered up the courage to look at her uncertainly before asking, "And w-were you?"

"Oh my god, not you too!" Hungary loudly bemoaned, startling Tunisia, and she slapped her forehead and looking at him in disbelief. "I saved you from Morocco. The only reason why I didn't charge in immediately was because I needed to be sure it was the right room and it would've been a terrible idea barging in without any idea what's inside! Does every Muslim nation think I'm some kind of sick pervert?! And I saved you again when he attacked you while carrying Lili on my back."

He felt a wave of guilt at that. Tunisia did admit that Hungary had a point. If she hadn't come in, if she hadn't bothered to go investigate, then who knows what would've happened to Tunisia? Who knows what Morocco would've done to him as Tunisia kept refusing him? He shuddered at the thought.

But Tunisia was still frantic and afraid, and the words left his mouth before he could stop them. "You say that, but I know about your– your proclivities! Who knows what you were thinking while you were overhearing the things that were happening in there."

"Wha- I could barely make out what was going on in there after the yelling stopped by the time I got to the door with Lili in tow! I had no idea he was manhandling you. I only decided to go in after I started to hear you crying. That got me worried."

A feeling of realization came over Tunisia like someone dropped a pile of bricks of him. "Wait. So, you… didn't hear what we were talking about?

"No. What happened?" He hated how worried she looked. Why? Why?

Tunisia immediately became defensive. "I-It's none of your business!"

"It'll become everyone's business when they wonder why you won't come out of that room!"

In an instant, Tunisia's blood froze solid. "…Wh-What?"

It must've been obvious how mortified he looked, because Hungary paled and she quickly added, "I mean, really, Tunisia. How long do you think people are going to let you isolate yourself before they get too curious? And at the meeting, if you don't show up, people are going to ask what's going on with you."

He desperately wanted to

"I'm not threatening you. I'm just telling you what'll happen if I don't help you through… this." Hungary said slowly in what was clearly meant to be a reassuring tone. "And it's obvious you don't want more people finding out about… whatever your problem is. And I don't want to see you feel worse. So, please, let me help you."

Tunisia shook his head frantically, unconsciously backing away as he stared wide-eyed at Hungary. "No. No, I don't want your help."

There was that frown again. "So you'd rather stay miserable? How could you do this to yourself?"

He automatically opened his mouth to retort, but no sound came out. It was here when Tunisia realized that he wasn't sure of the answer to that first particular question. Tunisia didn't think he deserved happiness with everything that's happened to him, but at the same, he hated staying this way and not being able to anything about it. Allah, it's just like with Morocco all over again.

"I-I deserve to stay miserable, Hungary." Tunisia forced out.

"You'll have to excuse me when I say that I don't believe that for a second, Tunisia. As far as I know, you've done nothing wrong." Hungary gave him a pointed look and folded her arms across her chest.

"You wouldn't understand." He stated coldly, wishing she'd just give up already.

"Because you won't tell me what's wrong." Hungary pointed out with slight irritation.

"I'm not like Algeria. I wouldn't shun you the moment you do something I don't like. Aren't we all in this ridiculous mess together? Why shouldn't we help each other instead of being at each other's throats or keeping our problems to ourselves? And we may be strangers to each other, but I don't think you deserve to suffer all alone. I want to help you, I swear I do."

A part of Tunisia desperately wanted to believe that, that there's someone who'd actually help rest of him kept shutting out the very idea.

Just like how deep down, he desperately wished he could accept Morocco's offer.

Tunisia struggled not to give into the urge to cry.

"Umm… Listen, I think we've argued long enough out here," Hungary smiled a little awkwardly but reassuringly, not that it helped much, at Tunisia. "Why don't we go inside your room so you can sit down? Then we can talk."

It took long enough for Tunisia's brain to register the suggestion that he remained staring at Hungary blankly. "In my room?"

Hungary almost looked amused at the look on his face. "Yes. Besides, I just realized that you're still starving, right? You can't have good reasoning skills when you have an empty stomach."

His brain was practically screaming at him to refuse this insane request, shake her off, yell at her to leave him alone and go and lock himself in the bedroom again instead of agreeing to allow this woman in. It'd save him the pain of having to explain to her…

But something in Hungary's eyes told him that she wasn't going anywhere, even if he begged on his knees for her to. And then Tunisia sank into despair when he realized that even if he locked the door, Hungary would have no problems busting it open or breaking down the door with that horrifying frying pan. There's no getting rid of her.

And what if she... No, he shouldn't get his hopes up. H-He'll only agree if it'll help convince her to leave him alone.

The final nail in the coffin, however, was the embarrassingly loud sound of his stomach growling. He blushed as Hungary grinned at him.

"So, should I take that as a yes?"

"…Fine."

/ / / / /

…Okay, he'll admit it. Jamaica did not see this coming.

He gawked like an idiot at the newspaper he was currently reading. Yes, he's reading a newspaper. Pretty lame, man. But hey, a man's gotta get his news from somewhere, right? He needed to be up to speed, you know? And he'd never stoop so low as to watch BBC News no matter what shit he'll do in this war.

Jamaica wasn't expecting to see anything big. After all, he hadn't been notified of anything since the England screw-up and Baron Kriminel's visit. Phew. Thank goodness he didn't run into that guy. The Order kept him regularly posted.

But he hadn't been posted about this!

It turned out Bosnia stormed into one of them posh royal residence and killed a whole lot of people, including some of the royals themselves. Bosnia went and assassinated members of the Royal Fucking Family of.

God, he needed more weed.

"Damn sleepers," He grumbled to himself as he crumped up the newspaper and uncaringly threw it away. "Those were supposed to be our kills, not yours. What the hell, mon?"

They, the former British colonies, were supposed to be the ones to go storming into the palace killing everything in their way, mon. You know, just going around finally doing what this country's damn stupid government won't do and get rid of the pointless figureheads, yank them out of their land of tea parties, ceremonies and delusions of self-importance. Real, funky stuff they got planned.

And now one of those guys went completely off the rails (again) and decided to off a. Yeah, sure, there's still dozens left (probably, not even Jamaica bothered to memory that convoluted family tree) but each human counted.

Well, at least Markle wasn't among them.

He really had no idea that Bosnia had planned to assassinate some royal rats. Did they forget to mention this to him? Yeah, no, no, that ain't right. In that case, then did it have to do with Bosnia going nuts and doing shit they weren't meant or ordered to do like the other guys did sometimes?

Then again, how should Jamaica know what's going on in that crazy guy's mind. He's kind of forgotten a few details as to how the whole thing with them works.

Jamaica groaned and slumped against his bench. Man, he didn't know. It's hard for him to do deep thinking without his weed and a good night's sleep. And after yesterday...

Damn it.

But that weird killing spree wasn't even the worst part. No, that'd be the part that Bosnia ended up… captured. Apparently he didn't come up with much of a plan except just go in and kill them all. Well, it's not like it's that different from their plans but they won't be acting alone.

So, now what? Should Jamaica go rescue him? What if Bosnia blabs about something? That wouldn't be good. Best thing would be to break him outta there, shouldn't be too hard.

After all, those British couldn't even keep their terrorists in jail. Ha!

Eh, you know? That didn't sound too bad. Yeah, that sounded pretty fun. If the big boss orders him to do that, then Jamaica would be happy to do it. Let it never be said that Jamaica wasn't someone up for a challenge.

He still needed more weed though. He used it all up yesterday after the England crap. Man, was that a weird night…

/ / / / /

"Are you kidding? You really want me at an ASEAN... ish... meeting? Why?"

Taiwan wasn't sure if she could believe what she was hearing.

She wasn't expecting much from today despite all the drama, tension and the sudden killing sprees that've been going around lately, as horrible as it all was. China and his people were finally giving her a break to deal with their own stupid problems, so that was nice and allowed her to breathe more easily. No one's really paying attention to her (grr...) and nothing in her area had happened, so...

Besides, she's super-duper sure that America wouldn't let anything happen to her. He had her back, unlike most people these days. If things go wrong, she knew she could count on him.

Well, okay, all the suspicious incidents did put her on edge and she's starting to feel more worried, and maybe a little paranoid. And she's definitely worried about Hong Kong, 'cause while she's glad that he and his people were finally standing up to that old fart, the PLA were nothing to laugh at. Oh, and Macau too. She'd tried to check on them, but they wouldn't answer her calls. Darn it. So, all in all, she was worried but her boss was adamant in having her stay at home where it's safe. And hope that they'll fade into the background instead of doing anything.

It kind of sucked, but Taiwan's nothing if not confident of herself and in her survival so she kind of went along with it with little whining. So with all this, she was pretty surprised for Thailand to call her and ask her to rush over to his house ASAP with other ASEAN nations.

"...Because we would like to gather the remaining available Southeast Asians and close associates in one place before they could vanish, as Laos, Tibet and Malaysia did." Thailand promptly explained in that calm manner he's known for, but Taiwan could hear the worry and frown in his voice.

Taiwan tensed at the dreadful reminder, and slowly nodded. "O-Okay, that makes sense."

It sucked that it took an emergency for her to let her officially attend not as a 'guest' to a world meeting, but whatever. She won't get snippy about it now.

"How come you didn't do this earlier? You said that they disappeared like, what, two days ago, right?"

"The three of us were too busy with our own problems, and we didn't seriously began realizing something was deeply wrong when the three of us met up together." "And also because of the… ah… complications that arose which resulted in the slight of plans I mentioned."

'What happened to Lien, you mean' Taiwan thought with a wince. "So what changed?"

"Hm. Well, do you promise that you won't immediately hang up if I tell you?" Thailand asked with a bit of uncertainty and… nervousness? Huh? Why would he be nervous?

Taiwan tried not to feel too offended by that, and failed. "Hey! I know I've been cranky lately, but this sounds really serious! I wouldn't hang up on the first thing that pisses me off!"

"I'm happy to hear that. So, is that a yes?"

"Yeah, yeah, I promise." Taiwan sighed, thankful that Thailand couldn't see her rolling her eyes.

Thailand chuckled softly. "Good. Then let me tell you that it was China who asked us to include you in our meeting."

Taiwan's mouth went agape at the revelation, and she felt very torn between sputtering and exploding into flames. "WHAT?! That old fart put you up to this?"

"Please allow me to explain first," Thailand ordered and Taiwan reluctantly kept her mouth shut while she seethed. "I know this angers you, and I mean no offense to you when I say that I can even feel your anger thousands of kilometers away."

"But this serious, and in serious situations such as these, we should set aside our differences to guarantee our continued survival and well-being." Thailand said slowly in a teacher-like manner. "And as stubborn he may be with you, he is genuinely concerned for your safety and it's why he entrusted us to convince you to come to the impromptu meeting."

Taiwan scowled, not buying it for a second. "Well, if he's so concerned, why didn't he call me in the first place?"

"Because he thought that you wouldn't take him seriously or you'd hang up within the first twenty seconds or less out of spite."

"...Good point." Taiwan grumbled grudgingly, but soon got over it and perked up slightly. "But… do you think we can trust him?"

She heard a puzzled sound from Thailand, "Hm? Mei, I know he's been becoming more aggressive towards you, but I don't think he'd try to–

"And how do you know that?" Taiwan challenged bitterly, blood boiling. "But it's not just with me, Thai. How do you know any of us can trust him with our safety?"

"…What are you trying to say, Mei? That China has something to do with all this?" She hated how incredulous he sounded at the idea.

Taiwan shuffled her feet, trying to find a good way to explain this without being dismissed as crazy again. "I'm just saying, if a nation or, like, nations really are behind all the stuff happening with Spain and Belgium and Africa and everything, what makes you think that the old fart isn't one of them? This could be a trap to nab us all in the same place."

China's not above any of those dirty tricks to get what he wants. Taiwan knew that well. Mature and honorable my ass. And to someone who's had China's military ships pass by her land and with this threats of forcefully 'reuniting' her back into the mainland become more and more frequent, this whole thing reeked of suspicion.

"How come Lien can't see this?"

"She was the one who China contacted," Thailand informed her sullenly. "According to her, China sounded genuinely concerned."

"Oh, and we're supposed to trust him just because he sounds worried? Like he's never lied before?"

"Well, she wouldn't be going through the trouble if she suspected that China couldn't be trusted, would she?"

"Hmm… I still don't like it." Okay, maybe it sounded like she's being stupidly stubborn with this, but… "Why now? What if he's up to something?"

You know, aside from all the other many, many, many shady things he's been up to lately.

"But Mei, if China does have a part of all that's happening, why would Hong Kong and Macau both explode into riots and protests at the same time?" Thailand pointed out. "They're also strange occurrences. He's even sending the PLA to quell them and it doesn't seem to be working all that well."

Taiwan blinked. Oh… Yeah, she forgot about that. Grimacing, she smacked herself for forgetting. Stupid, stupid, stupid…

"O-Okay, fine, I guess you got a point there," Taiwan admitted sheepishly if not reluctantly, now even more thankful that Thailand couldn't see her or her likely red face. China did have a history of violently putting down dissenters after all. "But are you… still sure about this?"

"I am," Thailand stated somberly. "But frankly, I'm more concerned about preventing more disappearances in our region than China's intentions at the moment."

Making a displeased noise, Taiwan frowned to the side. "Yeah, guess I can understand that…"

"Mei, if it makes you feel any more assured, China is still not aware of the slight change of plans," Thailand told her in a lighter tone, and Taiwan perked up again, her drooping curl floating again. "How about we all meet in my house first and we discuss what to do from there, including whether or not we should trust Yao?"

That… did sound a lot better and did ease some of her worries. Leave it to Thailand to be sensible. With a smile returning to her face, Taiwan eagerly responded, "Okay… So, does this mean I should book the soonest possible flight to your house?"

"Yes, if you please," Thailand agreed with the smallest hint of urgency and worry in his gentle voice. "Indeed as quickly as possible. I have the strangest possible feeling that something... big, is going to happen soon, and I think I speak for everyone that we would like you to be here, safe, before something terrible happens to you."

She felt really touched by that actually, and she felt her face heat up again. "A-Alright. I understand, Kasem. I'll do what I can. I'll be there in no time."

Taiwan could hear Thailand hum in approval. "I'm happy to hear that. Please, do be careful, Mei."

Yeah, like she'd be taken down that easily. She nearly snorted, but it was... sweet hearing that kind of genuine concern from someone for her. It's a little rare nowadays, considering how a lot of people want as little to do with her as possible. Even if Thailand's a big China fanboy, he's still one of the nicest, most patient people Taiwan had ever had the fortune of meeting.

He'd even listen to ranting about China and everything sometimes while doing nothing but smile serenely and nod... and actually pay attention and offer surprisingly decent advice!

"I will, I promise," Taiwan said earnestly, managing a small determined smile, before another thought struck her. "O-Oh, and Kasem?"

"Yes, Mei?" Thailand responded.

"How… How's Lien? You said that she's…" Taiwan trailed off as she briefly glanced at her shoes while biting her lip. "Um… is she okay?"

There's a brief pause from the other line, before Thailand hastily spoke up again. "O-Oh, yes, she's fine. A little shaken, understandably so, but she's on the speedy way to recovery. She's resting as we speak. Would you like me to pass a message for you?"

Taiwan swallowed in relief and shakily spoke, "Um, just tell her to be careful and stuff."

"I understand. Well, I'll see you then, Mei."

"Yeah. See you later, Kasem."

Click.

Taiwan released long sigh and slumped against the wall. Oh, Vietnam…

Why did it have to come to this?

/ / / / /

"Hey, Greece?"

Greece looked up with sleepy but grim eyes up at Cyprus, who was in front of him, was staring at him worriedly

"Yes, Cyprus?" He replied drowsily, blinking his heavy eyes.

"What do you think of what Japan said? Do you think he's telling the truth?"

Cyprus was of course referring to the conversation he and Greece recently had with Japan over the phone. The younger man was stopping for a visit then, even though he felt incredibly anxious at leaving his rude, less likable little brother by himself despite the secure location the boy had been placed in.

Then right in the middle of rubbing his kitties' bellies, Greece had belatedly realized thanks to Cyprus that his phone was ringing. Any annoyance he felt at being interrupted vanished to be replaced by a drowsy happiness when he found that it was Japan who was calling him. It was always nice to hear from Japan. However, the conversation that followed wasn't what Greece would've expected.

At Japan's request, Cyprus was brought in to listen as well. It was important, Japan said. And it was. Japan had said that they And although Greece was just as sleepy as always, he mustered up a lot of effort to pay attention to every word Japan was saying. There were more than a few alarming details in what Japan had told them.

It ended with Greece and Cyprus agreeing to head over to Hungary. But not before promising a few things…

"I do think… it is worth hearing him out," Greece stated confidently, or as confidently as his soft voice could. "If Japan has answers for what's happening, then we should at least investigate. If he thinks… that we won't believe him until we see his evidence, then we should go. You… don't trust him?"

"N-No, it's not that," Cyprus quickly assured him. He looked away for a moment uncertainly, and then looked at Greece again. "It's just– I wish he could've told us more.

"Yes, it was, to be honest…" Greece frowned briefly. Japan was not only nervous, but he seemed reluctant to share any more information. "But he did have a point… Someone might be listening in… And if there's really evidence…"

"But, uh– Don't you think it's weird?" Cyprus shifted uneasily, hands in the pockets of his pants.

"What's weird about what?" Greece asked softly, scratching one of his cats' ears.

Cyprus's frown deepened, and he almost appeared annoyed, before he sighed.

"You know what I mean, about what Japan said at the end, remember?" Cyprus gave him a pointed but worried look. "'Don't tell Turkey', he said. Why is that?"

Greece frowned, but not for the same reason. "I don't see the problem in that, Cyprus."

At that, Cyprus glared at him in disapproval. "This isn't the time to be petty, Heracles. I'm serious! And it's even weirder that Japan said that we shouldn't tell Turkey where I'm going to hide TRNC. He said that we shouldn't tell Sadik anything about him, Sadik of all people! He's got more reason to worry about my little brother than anybody else. Isn't that suspicious?"

"It is," Greece calmly acknowledged with a nod. "It obviously means that Japan doesn't trust him. He said so himself, remember?"

"But why doesn't Japan trust him?" Cyprus asked in more irate tone, his eyes narrowing in frustration.

Greece blinked at him and petted "...If you ask me... the question should be why trust that stupid head in the first place."

"I'm serious, Herakles!" "He's asking me not to trust my little brother with the only person I completely trust him with!"

"Hrm… I… don't think I can answer that, Cyprus," "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what Japan has to say about it at the meeting..."

"...By the way... Cyprus..." Greece drawled but with serious concern, looking again sleepily at Cyprus. "Where did you hide TRNC in?"

"I already told you, remember?" Cyprus released an exasperated sigh, "Japan said that he should stay hidden, right? Well, it's fine by me. I wouldn't want him involved"

"But does Turkey know about it?" Greece asked pointedly.

Cyprus became stock still as a statue.

That reaction told Greece everything he needed to know. The sleepy man half-lidded eyes snapped wipe open at the implications. Oh dear. He felt worry pool into his stomach. While Greece may find that little Turkey-worshipping Turkish brat annoying and unbearable, but he's still a child and he meant a lot to Cyprus, so he's now becoming… very concerned.

"Does he?" Greece asked again, feeling a lot more awake now.

"H-He does," Cyprus weakly shook his head. "He helped me choose that place."

Of course he did, Greece resisted the urge to sigh at Cyprus's expense. This was no time to berate or scold.

"Isn't there another place where you can hide him…? Somewhere… the stupid head doesn't know about?" Greece had a feeling he already knew the answer to that question.

"I… I…" Cyprus started stammering, before closing his mouth and closing. His face was pale. "I always trusted Sadik with helping keeping him safe and I-I thought he could protect him a lot better than I possibly... And he always told me to keep him up to speed with anything related to emergencies that in case… anything happened… to… me…"

…Oh. Oh.

A tense suffocating silence followed as Cyprus trailed off and the color fully drained from his face, all the while Greece simply stared at him.

Cyprus finally broke it with his nervous stuttering, obviously trying his best to not be worried but failing. "Y-You don't think that he'd–"

"Japan seems to think so." Greece remarked grimly, preferring not to mince words. He regretted how it made Cyprus flinch and the fear in his eyes grow.

"B-But why would he…?" The younger man couldn't even fully stammer out the question, and his eyes begging for Greece not to suggest the worst.

"I don't know." He said bluntly. And Greece meant it. The stupid head may be stupid, but it's hard telling what's going on in that head with that mask of his.

"He wouldn't hurt him. He's helped him so much." Cyprus began muttering in desperation, sounding like he was trying to convince himself than Greece. He then snapped his head towards the older man. "Wh-What if Japan's wrong about Sadik?"

"Well… we don't have solid proof for either possibility." Greece quietly remarked followed by a yawn. Except that the Turkish stupid head couldn't be trusted, that was obvious from the beginning. But Greece wasn't going to mention that again now.

For the first time in quite a while, Cyprus was utterly speechless. Well, the incident with the kitty litter wasn't that long ago, but you get his point. It's been years since he'd seen Cyprus looked so simultaneous frightened and torn, especially when the Turkish stupid head was involved somehow.

"So, there isn't another place where you can hide him that Turkey wouldn't happen to know about?" Greece wisely decided to ask this before poor Cyprus could start having a breakdown.

Cyprus gulped fearfully, and Greece feared that he might start hyperventilating. "…No."

Greece feared as much. He sat up straighter. "And is there someplace where you can hide him that Stupid Head won't think of looking…?"

"…I-I need to go." Cyprus said hastily as he abruptly stood up and ran out of the room.

And so Greece let him while watching on with a frown, having no reason to stop him from foiling whatever ideas the stupid head might have.

Greece didn't necessarily doubt Japan. He's long since knew that the Turkish stupid head couldn't be trusted, and he was in fact a little glad when Japan repeatedly but anxiously told them that they probably (definitely) shouldn't trust the masked moron. But it was indeed strange that Japan suddenly realized that Turkey couldn't be trusted now, with everything happening

Did Japan know something they didn't?

…Well, it's as he said. They'll just have to wait until the meeting.

/ / / / /

In all honesty, the conversation with Liechtenstein went… actually better than he expected.

While Germany would normally shy away from trying to comfort girls in tears, he was terrible at that (and with anything to do with women period), this was different. This was Liechtenstein and right now she needed support more than anything.

He wasn't blind, though. He knew she wasn't fine. She was far from okay, really. But how could be okay? The poor girl had just come back from getting shot by her own brother, the piece of shit, and now Germany had told her that that very same brother had been lying to her for years, along with many other nations, that he probably would've forcefully taken her when she least expected it without any effort if the whole Mauritius debacle hadn't happened, and they're now all in a fight for their lives.

It wasn't something one could easily digest.

"Ah, Germany-san," Japan nodded and quickly strolled up to Germany. "I'm glad you are now out. If I may ask, how did it go with…?"

"She believes us, but she… needs time." Germany answered bluntly, clenching his fists on his side. "We should leave her be for now."

Japan blinked at the slightly cryptic answer, but understanding soon passed over his face. "O-Oh… Hai, I understand."

The blonde curtly nodded "Danke. N-Now then, were you about to tell me something…?

"Huh? O-Oh, hai. I have good news, Germany-san," Japan proclaimed quite eagerly, even wearing a small smile on his face, which meant a lot from someone as blank-faced as the Asian.

Germany felt himself immediately interested. Any good news would help put him in a jolly mood. "What is it?"

"Romania has recently revived," The short man stated readily.

The news, while bound to happen eventually, still helped ease a bit on the stress. He gave a half-smile. "He is? Gut. That's good to hear, Japan. How… How is he now?"

"Quite fine, it seems. Ukraine and Moldova were visiting him when it happened, and then she reported that he woke up with what appeared to be a fever," Japan explained calmly, and when Germany's eyes widened and opened his mouth to exclaim, the former quickly saw this and continued. "I-It doesn't seem to be anything serious though. She suspects the cause might be dehydration. But either way, he is currently in much better health."

The news almost felt as if it removed part of the burden Germany had been holding and he was sure that he felt more… relaxed, somehow, not that he didn't understand why he felt relieved, of course. Hearing one of their nations was back from the dead was always good news. And having a magic user active immensely decreased Germany's worries in the hopefully unlikely scenario that they get attacked again.

Speaking of whom, will the Africans try to capture Mauritius again?

Grr. One thing at a time, Germany, now's not the time for a headache.

"And Egypt?" Germany decided to ask.

The way Japan frowned gave him the answer. "I'm sorry, Germany-san. He is still dead. There is still a lot of venom in his system and the… side effects…"

"Scheisse." Germany hissed. He remembered Egypt's state when they carried him over to England's house. It wasn't good, to put it mildly. "How bad is it? When would you estimate that he'll come back?"

"Well, Anubis said that at most it might take him a week or less to completely recover–

"Anubis told you?" Germany said incredulously, raising an eyebrow.

"Hai. He's quite pleasant, once you talk to him." Japan was surprisingly nonplussed at the fact. "He has taken the task of watching over Egypt-san until he wakes up."

"Huh… Well, good to know, I guess," Yes, it wasn't the best response. But Germany's still adjusting to the fact that they have an actual god helping them, as well as the other impossibilities he'd been discovering lately.

"O-Oh! And one thing I almost forgot is that he told me to inform you that you needn't worry about attacks. He said that he will take care that no hostile entity comes into the vicinity."

"Oh, really? Thank…" Germany trailed off as he did double take and gaped at Japan. "Wait, did you say that it might take a week for Egypt to come back?"

A week without Egypt here to help them? Yes, they'll still have Anubis and also Romania now that he's back. But they barely managed to get through yesterday's events in one piece! Well, except for Bahamas, Saint Lucia, France and England's sanity… You know, dammit, this was only proving his point!

Japan looked uncomfortable under Germany's gaze. "Germany-san, the snake that bit him is one of the most highly poisonous in the world, and he had been bitten many times."

"He said that he" "If it wasn't for him, then Egypt would've already succumbed to the venom and you wouldn't have…"

"Dammit. God… dammit." Germany growled, but he forced down his frustration. "Okay. But there's a chance that he might come earlier than that, right?"

"Anubis mentioned that it's possible."

"Then let's hope he does." "There's nothing we can do about it. So, let's move on to other matters. How is Mauritius?"

"He is doing well, it appears. No strange behavior or anything like it."

"Hm," Germany knew better than to just accept it at that. "Well, just in case, let's go see if Romania is feeling strong enough to help us know for sure."

Japan stared at him with a puzzled expression. "Why Romania?"

"To see if he and his magic can help verify Mauritius's mental state." Germany explained flatly, raising an eyebrow at Japan. "I don't know about you, Japan, but if we're going to have a meeting, then I'd rather know if the nation we're going to leave unsupervised is going to be a threat or not."

Realization dawned on Japan's face and he quickly nodded."O-Oh. Good point. Let's go then."

/ / / / /

It went without saying that this was not how Georgia imagined her first trip to Hawaii would be like.

Georgia, wary and dying of curiosity, peered at her surroundings, the nice-looking rainforest as she followed America's lead through the trail.

The twin-braided nation could also say that this was her first time traveling up to a very active and super dangerous volcano too. You know, it just kind of wasn't her style. Well, she had visited Armenia and Azerbaijan's volcanoes with their respective nations, but they were all inactive ones. No chance of death by lava. She liked hiking up the Caucus Mountains every now and then, but an active volcano? Well... uh... Not that she was terrified of what being burned by lava would feel like, but maybe a dormant volcano would be more... you know... safe.

Well, it wasn't necessarily unpleasant. Active volcano or not, this place was still nice to look at. And the trek actually felt fun like on the Caucus, just less cold. Georgia could definitely see what encouraged the people to make it part of a park. It even didn't smell bad for a place right at a volcano… so far.

But according to America's annoyingly cryptic information, this place here - specifically the Halema'uma'u crater of the Kilauea which they're hiking up to, and located in the very active volcano - was where this mystery woman lived at, the key to General Winter's demise, and with it Russia's.

Georgia wasn't sure how someone could live at a pit crater in one of the most active volcanoes in the world, but apparently someone– something can.

And now America was guiding her and the rest of the group towards the crater on the summit, which also included North Korea, who while strangely annoyed seemed determined to stick to America like glue, Ireland, who's there to also witness the weapon that'll prove that the Order's victory guaranteed too and almost looked more bored than curious during the whole trip, and Norway, who's there to protect them from the toxic fumes and other possible disasters.

She puffed her cheeks in annoyance for the fifth time. It just wasn't fair! Oh, this was just getting ridiculous. Why wouldn't America give her another hint? At least she's not the only one here who had no idea what they're going to find. Ireland's new too, so he didn't know anything about this mystery woman either. But. Come. On.

"Are we there yet?" Georgia asked, trying not to sound too whiny or, you know, annoyed. Again, she loved mountain hiking, but the curiosity's eating her alive.

"Does it look we're at the crater yet?" North Korea grouchily remarked from in front of Georgia, throwing her an annoyed glare. What's his problem, anyway? He's been in a bad mood since they got here.

Weird. Then again, Georgia would like to know what of all the things that had happened to or around her for like the past twenty-four or so hours wasn't weird.

"North, don't be snarky." America chided his lover (Oh, God) before looking back at Georgia with a patient smile. "Relax, Georgia. We're almost there, just a few more minutes to go."

"Alfred's right, dear." Norway, who also got to tag along for some vague reason, happily agreed, and he pointed over at the pit in the distance of the summit. "See? The crater's right over there. Just a little more to go."

Brown eyes followed to where Norway was pointing and, forcing herself to swallow whatever complaints and burning questions she had for the fifth time, Georgia muttered a reluctant 'okay' and resumed following America in silence while admiring her surroundings.

It really was nice to look at, if you ignored the stinky smell of ash and, well, probably lava. While Norway's magic will protect them from the polluted air and, Georgia quoted from 'suddenly bursting into glorious flames upon being situated a tad too close to the lava'. He seemed way too happy when saying that.

"Ya look a wee bit annoyed, lass," Georgia was startled out of her thoughts by Ireland's, and she suddenly found him walking next to her, looking as at ease as ever. She felt a little envious of that.

Georgia blushed, although she wasn't sure if it was out of embarrassment. "Is it really that obvious?"

"You've always been the type of lass to wear her heart on ya sleeve, not that there's anythin' wrong with that," Ireland explained casually, offering a friendly smile. "Don't worry about it, kid. It's understandable. We're both rookies here, ya know. I'm still learning the ropes."

She suddenly felt a little dumb for forgetting that Ireland's still just as new to this as she was. Georgia shook her head, puffing her cheeks, "It still feels unfair, keeping it so vague."

"Aye. But if there's one thing about Al, is that he loves surprising people." Ireland remarked with his tone showing fondness and what had to be pride. He offered a calm smile. "I wouldn't worry about it, lass."

"It's not that I'm… worried," Georgia knit her eyebrows. But the whole active volcano thing was making her nervous… "It just feels a bit mean, keeping us in the dark after already doing it to us for so long…"

Ireland snorted in annoyance. "Ya got that right. It bloody sucks, almost as much as the fact that I still got to breathe the same air as Smiley here and that I haven't got my Guinness."

"Would it really be a good idea to bring alcohol to an active volcano though?" Georgia asked with a pondering look at the man, genuinely curious.

Ireland slowly turned to look at her blankly as if she said something unbelievably stupid. "Lass, it's never a bad idea to bring beer anywhere."

"Wouldn't it get vapori-

"Never."

"O… kay?"

"Good to see ya agree, lass! But anyways, it sucks, aye, but I'm sure it'll pay off. Things sure did when ya put your faith in him, no?" Ireland " And I dunno 'bout ya, but I got a good feelin'about this. And I'm a sucker for seeing interesting things."

"Is that also why you joined? Because you thought it'd be interesting?"

"Ah, part of it, yes. But it's mostly also for Al's sake and finally doing somethin' about that feckin brother of mine. I know what I'm doing."

"So… Do you… have any idea who this 'she' might be?" Georgia asked hopefully.

Ireland hummed with a pensive expression, and then cracked a sly smirk. "I think I do. But what kind of uncle would I be if I spoiled my nephew's surprise? Hahaha!"

Georgia didn't feel disappointed. Not at all. So, she sighed dejectedly and continued on her way instead of listening to the small part of her brain telling her to throttle Ireland for dashing her hopes like that. It shouldn't be long now.

Norway turned out to be right. Not too many minutes later, and Georgia found herself staring in awe at the massive boiling crater below her. Georgia hadn't been to a volcano before, much to less be right at the active crater, but seeing it in person was both impressive and frightening. She could feel the intense heat on her face, making her eyes burn. The smell of ash and lava was stronger than ever. Georgia wished she brought her gas mask.

While she was trying to ignore the heat and stinky stench, almost everyone else looked calm. North Korea, on the other hand, only looked annoyed.

"Feckin' hell, it's hot in here!" Ireland exclaimed, fanning himself while sweat noticeably started forming on his forehead.

"It wouldn't be an active volcano if it wasn't, Ireland." Norway cheerfully remarked.

"Shut up, you." The ginger-haired nation snapped.

"Hey, hey, settle down you two." America shot them both a serious look before brightening up as he turned to face them, spreading his arms. "Anyway, welcome to Halemaʻumaʻu"

"It's a lot bigger in person," Georgia remarked, honestly impressed and at the same time, a little scared.

"And smells worse than a horse's arse," Ireland loudly remarked while pinching the bridge of his nose in disgust. "So, what's next, Allie?"

"Now we should run for our lives while we still can before she ruins everyone's day," North Korea flatly suggested, not even looking at them as he glared at the crater.

"North…" America warned with a steely look.

North Korea shrank back, which was somehow still a whole new level of bizarre. "Sorry."

"Actually, the same should go for both of you rookies." Norway piped up but now his voice, even though he's still smiling as always. "You all might want to can it with the comments. She is just right there, you know. And our dear helper is not someone known for her thick-skin… or for keeping her temper under her control for that matter."

"Huh. Sounds like a lot like Arthur." Ireland muttered.

Well, now that they're finally here, it's finally time to get asnwers. Georgia smiled bright up at America. "So what are we waiting for? What do we do now, Al?"

Were they supposed to just wait now? But for what, an eruption? God, she hoped not. The heat is already kind of overwhelming without the pools of lava and Georgia wasn't exactly curious about how dying from and coming back from getting killed by lava felt like.

"Now? Well, just hang tight and watch the show," America cracked an ominous smirk, which briefly turned into a frown. "You… might wanna back away a little for this, though. You know, just so you won't… fall."

The ever-confused Georgia, naturally, wanted to ask just why would they need to back away, but the glaring fact that they're standing a bit too near the edge of an active crater raised a really valid point now that she thought about it. And so, she quickly did as she was asked with the others without complaint.

"Okay… Good. Now that we got that settled…"

With that done, America directed his attention back to the crater, and while Georgia could only stand by with the other nations and watch with immense interest and curiosity as to what'll happen next, he brought his hands to his mouth, took a deep breath and then yelled at the top of his lungs.

"PELE! HEY, PELE, IT'S ME, ALFRED! I'M HERE! IT'S FINALLY TIME TO COME OUT AND PLAY!"

Immediately after shouting to the crater, America let his hands fall to his sides and promptly took a few steps back near where the others were standing but never once took his eyes off from the crater. Nothing seemed to be happening.

Or at least, that's what a baffled Georgia thought before she noticed that the ground started shaking.

Georgia yelped in alarm and nearly stumbled down from losing her balance on the quaking earth, but North Korea easily went and pulled her back while never taking his narrowed eyes off the lake. Norway held his balance just fine and just smiled at it all, along with a cussing Ireland and America who remained perfectly where he stood.

And then the earthquake came to a stop until only mild trembling remained.

Georgia had half a mind to kindly ask what the hell that was about–

A massive black hand then suddenly burst out of the lava lake, eliciting a small shriek from Georgia and a cry of 'holy feckin shit!', and slammed to the ground outside the crater Another one shot out of the lake and dug its fingers into the solid earth . They were both as black as carbon with bright flaming lines resembling veins underneath the 'skin. And smoke began coming out of the lake.

"Here she comes…" Norway giggled maniacally while rubbing his hands.

The lake started steaming even more with every second that passed, the smoke growing in quantity as the fingers dug even further and the lava starting to seep right out until a roar drowned out all the other noise. And then the lava splashed all over the crater as the torso of a giant woman emerged from the depths of the lake, immediately towering over them by an unbelievable amount.

Her skin was completely black like her hands and her veins were the color of the lava. Her long hair seemed to be lava itself. The crown of flowers adorned in her flaming hair looked like the color of her skin along with her dress, but they glowed so they resembled more like magma. The giant inhaled sharply, then exhaled, and it… she relaxed.

The giant's gaze dropped to the group of five nations staring up at the monster with looks varying from utter shock, extreme annoyance, delight and plain calm. Georgia may have felt the tiniest bit terrified as the glowing eyes bore into her, forming into an utterly intimidating glare. Eep.

"Aaaalllffreeeedd…"

A giant million feet tall volcanic woman was glowering down on them from a boiling crater.

Well… Holy shit.

"Bedisa, Uncle P, meet Pele," America smiled proudly, gesturing towards the giant for the stunned audience. "Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and fire, and the General's hot date."

/ / / / /

The sky was pitch black with the moon above being the sole source of light and illumination as Egypt stood alone in the middle of, if he's not mistaken, a Chinese temple completely devoid of any other soul.

As anyone would, Egypt gazed around with a puzzled face, with questions burning in his mind about his sudden situation.

How did he get here?

What was he doing here?

Why was he here?

He wracked his brains for answers as he scoured his mysterious surroundings. The last he recalled- Egypt had narrowly escaped with the others. They had escaped. They had won, The last moment he recalled before the darkness took him was Seychelles and the rest and feeling so, so tired...

And then he had died. Egypt understood that. The snake venom killed him.

Egypt remembered it clearly. He had hardly been able to breathe, his head had grown weary and disoriented, dark spots were slowly clouding his vision, every one of his limbs felt like they were being cut to pieces by knives whenever he used them, and all of the above only grew worse with each passing minute until his body finally succumbed to the venom. When the extra time Anubis had given him had run out.

Admittedly, it was a mercy at that. He had died. Yes, he did. Yet now, he felt... fine? Egypt blinked, then frowned as this aroused more of suspicion, and checked his arms for the snakebites, only to find none.

Curious.

Feeling frustrated yet not having any other choice, he decided to take a look around.

After half a minute, something managed to catch his eye. There, in the center of it all on the temple ground, was... an open coffin. This immediately struck him as odd. Why would anyone leave a coffin, an unsealed one at that, in the middle of this place? Perhaps it was curiosity, perhaps it was something else, but something compelled to go investigate that coffin. So, wordlessly but with a frown, he reluctantly walked over to it.

Blank-faced as always almost in an effort to ignore the eeriness in the air, Egypt stopped in front of the coffin and peered over at the thing to see what it contained. And there in the coffin he found the still body of Hong Kong.

Egypt's eyes went wide, and he only became more confused from there. Was Hong Kong…? No, it couldn't be. How? Why? He didn't appear to be breathing. But there were no injuries on his body, at least none that he could see. There was nothing off about his appearance either.

Hong Kong was laid perfectly in the coffin, wearing his usual dark clothing with arms to his sides and an oddly peaceful expression on his face. It was a far cry from the deadpan personification Egypt saw in meetings while China yelled at him for something or another, the scowling boy with cold eyes filled with disdain he saw in Paris to even the terror Egypt saw when he tried to…

If he weren't so… immobile and if not for the theories this place brought to mind, Egypt would've thought that the boy was merely sleeping. But...

Feeling his mind torn asunder, Egypt gritted his teeth and wondered just what the hell he was supposed to or, more importantly, just what was going on. Why was he here? What was this place? Why was Hong Kong…?

Then one of Hong Kong's eyes opened to stare up at him, and Egypt nearly stumbled back with a gasp.

"Hey," The boy greeted flatly with a hateful sneer.

"Y-You–" Egypt could barely get the words out, but the boy didn't give him the chance.

"Bet you were feeling sad when you thought I was gone, weren't you? Wanted a chance try to rip out my heart again, and do it right this time?" Hong Kong snarled balefully. "Well, too fucking bad. I'm not going anywhere but you're never going to get the jump on me ever again."

The Asian boy then suddenly sat up, never taking his downright murderous gaze off the other nation. It was here that Egypt realized that he couldn't move.

"You're a moron, Egypt." Hong Kong spat, his eyes regarding him coldly. "You can't even begin to imagine what you're in for. If we're all gonna burn for what we'll do, then so will you."

Suddenly, he lunged at Egypt, hissing and painfully digging his nails into the latter's neck as the man screamed.

MAKE

US

WHOLE

He was then standing in the middle of the ruins of what appeared to be a destroyed city, nothing but rubble and debris of what once was for as far as the eye could see. The sky was covered with a gloomy grey. Somehow, the remains looked familiar, but Egypt was unable to pinpoint how or what they were. There was not a single sound to be heard, there was nothing but dead silence and the wind's eerie now.

No soul, except for the limping visage of America in front of him, looking no worse for wear as if he had just been through a brutal battle.

Yet even so, the blonde still had it in him to glare at Egypt, teeth clenched and the corners of his mouth stained with dried blood.

"Idiot." America hissed, his cold blue eyes filled with nothing but disdain and stubbornness. "Nothing's ever over."

He took another step and then he collapsed to his knees right before fully hitting the ground right in front of the watching Egypt.

America remained there unmoving, lifeless. Dead for certain. Egypt, completely rooted to his spot as he simply stared at nothing, did not feel so shocked as he was unbelievably baffled at the whole thing.

But when Egypt looked again, the body before him was wearing different clothing, appearing familiar somehow yet evading his memory. In confusion at everything happening Egypt blinked a few times, but when he opened his eyes and regained focus, America's corpse had its original clothing again.

Was it just his imagination? Was all this just his mind running wild?

He did not have time to dwell on the bizarreness of it all, however, as he was soon wrenched from this place once again.

Before him was a pile of bloody corpses. Humans of all age, gender and race, noted in their skin and clothing. But to call it a pile would be foolish. It might as well be a mountain. There were countless humans stacked on top of each other. Some missing their limbs, others with their innards spilling out, body parts twisted unnaturally, and those whose faces could be seen were forever frozen in the terror they felt in their final moments. All were splattered in blood, the putrid and metallic scent heavy in the air.

At the very top of the pile was a throne, majestic and elegant as befitting. He was not any less horrified to find South Africa sitting on it, smiling down at him cruelly with all his teeth like he had been doing so recently. As a matter of fact, it made the image all the more frightening.

"Death is not the end." South Africa said cryptically, his already vicious display of teeth widening. "Not for us, but certainly for you."

Immediately after that was said, suddenly someone else was sitting in his place. Egypt blinked and was taken by darkness and the whispers before he could even catch a proper glimpse of the person.

WE

ARE

STILL

HERE

"Atum." A familiar voice called out tenderly. It was musical, warm, safe…

"Wh-What?" Egypt rasped out, his eyes burning, blinded by something.

"Wake up, my child," The voice spoke out again, and this time Egypt could hear its warmth more clearly. "It is alright now; the ghosts will harm you no more."

It was familiar.

Egypt opened his eyes and he was met with a woman smiling at him. He stumbled back in shock, gasping.

"M-Mama…?"

Yeah. So more nations are introduced, some subplots are revisited, new ones pop up, and we're moving with the plot. Awesome. I wish I could've done more but this chapter ended up being a lot longer than I planned and some segments ended up being smaller as well. At least I did finally progressed some plot points as promised, and the group meeting's likely going to be in the next chapter. You know, since more and more subplots are being taken care of for the moment. There'll be more characters introduced too, I'm just still trying to figure out how to write them. Please review, if you have a minute.