A comforting tic tac saluted 'I's awakening this time.

Comforting but strange, odd. Where was he?

That's the first question he asked himself when his eyes tried to open and met with a wooden ceiling.

Still fuzzy, he prefered staring at it without using his brain much, letting his mind awaken. It was that kind of morning when you couldn't remember right away what had happened the day before. But he was going to be helped for the matter.

"Hola amigo! I see you're awake! How do you feel?"

Startled, 'I' jumpscared a bit, taking the blanket and covering himself while looking at the brown haired man that was sitting next to his bed.

The man's smile was warm, reassuring, and it reminded him of Ms Miller. Though there was a hundred years old gap between both.

Feeling terribly shy, the boy didn't answer, covering himself even more by just letting a little hole for his eyes to observe the man's reaction.

Well, the man….he knew his name so he should call him Spain instead.

"Tchh, you're scaring him with your stupid face! " said a smirking South Italy coming from behind, having heard his former caretaker speaking.

"Oww Romano, are you jealous…"

"I'm not Chigi! And I told you to stop, your smiling face is annoying as hell!"

For 'I's amazement, he saw the two men having a domestic dispute before him...and this made him giggle.

Immediately, both heads turned to him and he stopped, feeling embarrassed.

"Haha! I see you're well awake now! Good then, how about having breakfast? I know it's early, but you might want to eat something! Come on, don't be shy!"

Considering the offer, the boy slowly pushed the blanket and started to move to wake up, before being hit by the pain all over his body. It was even worse than after the electromagnetic wave's experiment, and he hissed, making the two other men worry.

"Hey hey there...Vaffanculo! You've seen he was sick and shit, why you make him move!"

Lovino made sure to hit his air-head former caretaker on the back before rushing to the boy. Something was triggering his big brother's vibes about that man, and while you might find it strange coming from him, Antonio knew the italian was actually caring about his family a lot. He was just really embarrassed to show it in the open.

But not this time, not after what he had seen when they had to change the man's clothes soaked in blood…It reminded him of past events he would prefer to forget.

'I' was helped to sit on the bed and remained a spectator, not uttering a word and not making eye contact with the italian that was looking at him thoughtfully. Soon, Spain came back with a mug filled with coffee, and gave it to the stranger.

"Here, have this! It will wake you up."

A dark brown liquid...could it be poison? It wouldn't make sense if it was though, and staring at it wouldn't be polite, so 'I' took a sip...before wincing.

"Urk, it's bitter!"

"Oh sorry, you don't like coffee?"

"..coffee..?"

Both grown ups looked at each other, surprised and the experiment felt like if he had said something wrong. Fortunately, they didn't seem mad with him.

"Uh, you don't know what coffee is?"

The boy shook his head with his head, and Spain frowned.

"Tha't's...do you know in which year we are? Or where you were living?"

Again, the boy shook his head, and answered.

"In the facility."

Silence ensued, before Spain concluded.

"Welp, I think we will wait for the others to come back before harassing you with questions. Because there will be tons..."

xxxxxx

Later on, after 'I' had breakfast, he had been given some liberties, at the condition to be accompanied by the present nations.

Seeing how the newcomer acted like a fearful animal, the nation avoided to approach him all at the same time.

From their observation, the stranger seemed odd and they quickly suspected he had never left the place he had been raised in.

The second Italy seemed mesmerized by every single thing around him. Each object, even the most common ones, were leaving him fascinated. He even got scared at the Mosse's stuffed head, and like a toddler had touched everything in curiosity including woods for the chimney.

When all the nations came back from their shores and came back to meet with the stranger, he was sitting on the chair of the living room and playing with Gilbird, stroking gently his head while smiling, repeating that birds were fluffy and cute.

It felt awkward to interrupt such pure joy from him, but the nations needed answers. England had personally asked to be the one interrogating him. The hidden reason behind the Island country's proposal was his rabbit flying friend who had recognized the scent from back in the woods of the White Mountain National Forest!

"Hi lad! My name is Arthur...or you may know what my real name is?"

The tone, the way all countries were now looking at him made 'I' realized he was being interrogated, and the boy changed behaviour spontaneously, his smile fading.

He waited, hesitating. He was fed up of being interrogated, and scared they wouldn't appreciate what he was telling them.

Though, they had treated him quite well until now and being here had been a lot of fun he didn't have for a long time.

Tired of lying, 'I' decided he would at least respond genuinely to his saviors.

"..It's England sir."

"Yes, that's right. And what is your name?"

"Which name..?"

"Don't you have a name?"

" My brother and Father call me 'I'. The other misters call me Number 3 or…"

The boy showed his collar, and the nations could decipher the following : I-KXY07DPL003.

It looked like a coded name for...an experimental subject.

"Right...We will call you 'I' then. So, tell me 'I', who are you? Why do you look so much like Feliciano?"

The boy hesitated, playing with his finger, before taking a breath.

"I'm...Mister Italy's clone...I think."

This stunned his audience, even if they all had guessed something of the sort.

America grunted at this. "Dude, that Travasco bastard! I can't believe how he dared…"

"Silence Alfred, let us speak!" interjected England before returning to his main interlocutor.

"How do you know you're a ..clone?"

"...My friend 'R' told me…"

"You mean..there are others like you in the facility? How many of you?"

The boy nodded, sadness appearing in his face.

"We were...four. But now, 'R' and 'C' are gone."

"For what countries stand the 'R' and the 'C'?" asked France out of curiosity.

"'R' is for...Russia. 'C' is for...Canada."

Canada hugged his bear tightly at this, while the air around Russia darkened, forcing the asian countries to move a little away.

"And what about the last one?"

"It's my brother. His name is 'P' and it stands for….Prussia."

"What?!"

This time, Germany had left the side and put his hands on the table, his eyes opened wide.

"Did you say Prussia? But that's impossible! He has disappeared for decades! How would they have gathered DNA to even begin with…"

"That's...Quite surprising indeed. But we don't know since WHEN that Professort Travasco had started his study….But maybe we could guess….Do you know how old you are 'I'?"

"I'm eight."

France almost shocked on his saliva when Japan and a few nations had opened their mouths wide at this. Well, they couldn't be too surprised seeing how they all were old men in younger bodies...but it was unprecedented to see the reversed case around. That though explained a lot about the 'man's behaviour.

"Eight? Are you sure? I mean, I believe you, but you don't look like a eight year-old boy to me…"

"Yes, I'm sure! Ms Miller would celebrate my birthday every year! But...but after they put me in the weird machine, I just woke up grown up like this…"

England knew it was useless to ask what the weird machine was, the clone didn't seem to know the details and that was normal he didn't have access to these infos.

He was still impressed that 'I' understood about his nature from his own conclusions.

After getting him to describe the machine (which didn't ring a bell to anyone in the room, even the trained engineers), he came back to his track.

"Who is Ms Miller? "

"It's...it was our teacher. She was really nice..but she was fired because of me when I escaped…"

He explained in detail how he found the conduit, how he saw the outside for the first time, how he had seen them but didn't want to meet with them because he was scared.

The adults listened to him patiently, letting him get all this out of his system.

"That's very courageous of you 'I', to have tried to escape that place on your own! Tell me now, you've talked about your father before right? Is it your biological father?"

Who was Father? That was such a weird question for him. Father was Father! Or was it?

The boy dug in his mind to try responding.

'"...I don't know...I don't think so. But Father is...he is my daddy, he can look cold, but he is really nice! He even helped me escape with Mister America!"

"Really? Maybe we have an ally inside then…." though England, before one other point he wanted to question came to his mind.

"Anyway, do you know by any chance what..happened to you when we met? You've collapsed and it seems like you have been bleeding a lot, but it stopped and your wounds then healed on their own…"

The child's face stiffened, and he looked at the table. With all the novelty he had experimented today, he had succeeded to forget about it..until now.

" I...I think I'm...starting to degenerate.. and...I might not have much time left."

His words were raw, merciless, and it felt like a mass had suddenly fallen in the living room.

"What do you mean?" asked an unsettled England, worrying at the sudden change of mood.

"'R' and 'C'...they were really sick, they were degenerating. Father called it 'attacks', it came and went and they were treated with the serum. But one day, 'C' became a vegetable even with the serum, and 'R' too….there was a lot of blood…"

Just talking about it made his eyes wet, and he was making an effort to not cry.

"Me and 'P' were fine because Father said we were a success. But after the weird machine I think I've caught it too. So I will die without the serum…"

"It's okay buddy! We will not let that happen!" intervened America.

"Aru, don't be hasty on promises America! It's true I've succeeded in stabilizing him with some of my secret concoctions but...I'm not sure it will be enough…" whispered China to his ears not for the boy to hear. He didn't want to deliver bad news to the kid, but he wouldn't make fake promises either.

"He said there was some kind of antidote in the facility! If I go back and take some with me…"

"You want to return there?" Canada yelled, startling Japan who had changed place to his side without noticing him.

"No one go nowhere for now, except for the shores! America, I'm not allowing you to wander again on your own!" threatened Germany, exasperated at the way the american was thinking sometimes.

The other country pouted, but knew too well he wouldn't be able to sneak easily around so many of his peers watching his actions closely, if Russia alone wasn't sufficient. Not talking about the emergency state he had left the secret lab in!

The conversation lasted a little longer about details of 'I's life and each nation took notes about what they had gathered so far : There was a scientist making clones of them, studying their cells and DNA for whatever other projects since there were at least four floors. It had been at least eleven years since the project had begun since one of the clones had lived about this long, reminding that 'R' was Number 2, so there was probably a precedent one in the chronology.

"I wonder why there is no Number 1 and 4?" questioned Japan to himself. This was intriguing, but gloomy if he was asked.

"I don't want to think about it mapple…"

Canada was still recovering from the news that he had had a clone at some point (who was dead, oh joy!) , and was digging in his memories to know when someone could have taken his DNA away. There were actually a lot of people, and one hair could be enough for this...they had been quite careless.

Germany, him, was thinking about 'I's brother, still not believing it was possible he was Prussia's clone and how someone could have had the idea to obtain DNA of the former empire.

However, there was one feeling they all shared about this : They absolutely needed to dismantle this facility the sooner they could and unravel all it's secrets, because it could be a danger to all of them.

xxxxxxx

Today wouldn't be the day, as they had just fought the day before. They also needed a better plan since it wasn't America's solo invasion anymore (and that didn't work that well).

For the time being, they would just continue with their usual task, including their new member.

Feliciano had been quite eager to take care of the boy, complimenting him on how he looked like him, touching him casually. 'I' had feared him the most the first time, but his alter ego knew how to make him comfortable, and soon, as well as the other nations, 'I' relaxed around him and followed him and Germany for collecting wood.

'I' had never worked before once in his life, and the elders had to show him everything from zero, but the kid had the will to do well and took as much brushwoods as he could.

One hour later, Germany and Italy had watched him with a smile taking pleasure in the simple work.

Afterwards, he had followed some other countries eager to show him the surroundings and to explain to him what was what. He even got his first cooking lessons, a simple one : making an egg. Like that, they were sure he would succeed and make him happy with the new achievement.

Night came, and they all had dinner, discussing the plan. The most perfectionists (I let you imagine who) wanted to play it complex, while the oafs wanted to just go and fight to their soul content.

America had hesitated to ask reinforcement from his government, but he actually hated to ask help in general. His fellow nations were qualified and enough to be fair. Besides….it was concerning them and somehow felt personal.

They were all talking vividly, except for 'I' who had stayed silent the whole time. The brunette had stopped eating and was looking at his plate absent-mindily.

"Is there something wrong?" asked a soft voice beside him, and the amber eyed met the purple and gentle one of Canada.

"….I was thinking about 'P'...I wish he would be there with me...I promised him to show him the outside... It was our dream after all the photos we've seen. I'm scared they took him away and that...I will never see him again…"

Seeing he was going to tear-up again, Canada tried to comfort him awkwardly by putting his hand on his shoulder. He wasn't used to making someone cry!

"It's okay….We will find him… We're already discussing the matter see?"

The boy nodded, but still let some tears escape, which didn't go unnoticed by the other nations. But it was Italy who stood and approached him.

"Ve...Ve...it's okay...I know how you feel. I was separated for a looong time with my brother too and I was really sad. But we eventually reunited! Come here, give me a hug."

What the nation did afterward was something countries that weren't living alongside him rarely saw. Since they had known the clone was only eight, all had acted with him as a child. And one thing nations were really sensible about were children, as they were their future, fragile creatures. They cared for them with a certain motherly/fatherly instinct. Heck, they would also do that to grown up adults which were children compared to them.

All this to say, Italy took gently the boy at his side and took him apart with him, on the couch. There, he hugged him, putting his head against his chest, and after a few echanges that the others couldn't decipher, he started to sing an italian lullaby for 10 minutes, until the child relaxed, and eventually slept on his lap.

France, Canada and Romano had watched the mesmerizing scene from afar, while the others had continued to talk.

England let 'I' sleep on the couch that night, borrowing Germany's sleeping bag.

No one dared to make too much noise to wake him up and eventually, they all went to sleep, with fired up determination.