Thanks to FerayEs for reviewing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.
Chapter 128
Black was shaking with laughter. He knew that anyone that came in would think that he had lost his mind, but that didn't matter. His last two guests…
Things were starting to look up. This would change everything. And he couldn't help but feel excited for what was coming.
They told him a few secrets about what was going on, and while there were a few things that concerned him, there were also things that excited him. And now he knew that one of his greatest concerns was alleviated.
Morocco and the baby would not be harmed in any way.
He was a bit disappointed that he wouldn't be able to see things play out, but it was only a matter of time. Requiem had dug their own graves, and he only wished that he could see how they got buried in them.
…
Egypt growled as he stormed into his room. Peru jumped in surprise. Egypt looked absolutely livid.
"What happened?" Peru asked. "Is it Alvora again?"
"Black, specifically," Egypt said. "It would seem that our ghostly friends had been paying him a visit. Just like with Belize."
"So, he was helping them too?"
Peru scowled. Egypt stared at him for a moment before he sighed.
"In his defence, I don't think he's entirely willing," he said. "He looks a bit drained and just a bit traumatised."
"That doesn't matter," Peru huffed. "The fact that he's helping our enemies is a huge problem. Actually, they would probably see each other as allies. 'The enemy of my enemy' and all that."
"I don't think they are allies. According to Italy, East Timor was attacked alongside Philippines. You might enjoy what they did to him, to some extent, but it's not the kind of thing they would do if they were hoping to make friends."
Peru cocked his head to the side.
"What did they do to him?" he asked.
"They closed his mouth and filled it with blood that never stopped flowing, essentially forcing him to drown on the blood," Egypt sighed.
Peru was thoughtful for a moment.
"It might feel nice in the beginning," Peru said. "But too much of a good thing is never a good idea. You said they closed his mouth. Could he open it at all?" Egypt shook his head. "I don't think that would be too fun."
"I'll see if I can set up wards to keep them out," Egypt said. "At least I'm able to approach him. Not at all like Belize."
"What exactly do you think they were using him for?"
"It doesn't matter. He's our prisoner. Only we are allowed to use him." Egypt cocked his head to the side and growled. "Alvora is really starting to test my patience. But if they think I'm going to fall for such an obvious trap, they're wrong."
…
CAR grinned when he opened the door. The first of the Alvorans had arrived.
"Come on in," CAR said. "I see you managed to find this place okay."
"Some of us have been to Egypt's house before," Israel said. "And even without Requiem and Alvora, it was not a comfortable visit."
India shot him a look, but he couldn't ask anything since Syria pushed his way inside.
"Forgive me," he said. "I need the bathroom."
CAR arched his eyebrow, before he looked back to the others.
"Is he okay?" he asked.
"We were snacking on fruits," Lebanon said. "And I think he ate a bit too much."
"Do you still have some fruits, and are they fresh? Because Egypt hasn't been here for a long time, and the food isn't exactly the best quality right now."
"Dried," India said. "Sorry."
CAR sighed, before he shook his head and restored his smile. He closed the door and followed after the others. Chad joined them and pointed towards the bathroom.
"Why did Syria look as though he was running away from Russia after America pranked him?" Chad asked.
CAR grinned. He remembered that meeting. It was scary when it happened, but in hindsight it was extremely funny.
"He had a bit too much dried fruit," Lebanon explained. "Did you guys have any problems getting here?"
"None at all," Chad replied. "You?"
"There was a bit of a sandstorm, but it only lasted about an hour or so," Jordan said. "Nothing serious."
"Is anyone else here yet?" Israel asked.
"No, you're the first," CAR replied. "Do you think we should call the others to make sure everything's fine?"
"I don't think it's necessary yet," India said. "We should give it a few hours. In the meantime, we should probably see if we can find anything useful. Files, photos…"
"Addresses," Israel suggested. "Maps. Anything that can possibly give us an advantage."
"But would Egypt have left this place without securing anything that could be useful?" Chad asked. "I mean, he should know we're here. If there was something useful here, wouldn't he have tried to stop us from finding it?"
"While you do have a point," India said, "there's still the possibility that Egypt could just make us think that there's nothing here, since he isn't here. He could also suspect that this is a trap, or he could be hoping to ambush us once he's sure that everyone that's coming has arrived."
"And with that in mind, we should still keep our guards up," Israel said, glancing towards India.
CAR glanced between the two. He knew that India's capture a while back still affected Israel, and there were times when India looked as though he was wondering if he was truly free. And CAR figured that it would be worse with the knowledge that they were in the country of the one that did that to him.
CAR quickly slipped away, his fists already clenching in rage. He hoped that his face didn't reflect this, and that no one had noticed. He didn't want anyone to get alarmed, and he didn't want to make things worse at this time.
He wasn't one that got angry very often, but when he did, it could be pretty bad. He could sometimes become outright violent, and it took a long time for him to calm down. And if there was one thing that got them angry recently, it was Requiem. The thought of what they did to Tunisia, Uganda, DRC, Black, India and others upset him. He was no stranger to cruelty, but somehow Requiem's actions were worse. It seemed to him that there was no rhyme or reason behind their actions. They were torturing nations physically and mentally seemingly for the sake of torturing them.
He jumped when the door next to him opened. He didn't realise that he was right next to the bathroom. Syria stopped abruptly, not expecting him either. The two of them simply stared at each other for a few seconds.
"Is… is everything okay?" Syria asked. "You look… a bit upset."
CAR wanted to scoff. He suspected that he looked more than 'a bit upset'. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was annoyed with Syria for interrupting him while he was not in a great state of mind, but he knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to explode at Syria right now. Especially since the other looked so concerned.
"I-I just worked myself up a bit," CAR admitted. "S'il vous plaît, could you give me a moment?"
Syria hesitated for a moment longer, before he sighed and started to walk away. He stopped after a few steps and turned back to CAR.
"If Egypt were to come, you might want to work yourself up again," Syria said. "I get the feeling that you would be able to make him worried."
CAR actually laughed a bit at that, though he was still not in a safe state of mind.
…
Pain. That was the first thing that Herzegovina became aware of. Her head felt as though she'd caught it in a vice. This was going to be a long day. Perhaps she should ask Macedonia or Montenegro if they had anything for migraines.
She opened her eyes and screamed. No matter what, waking up and immediately seeing a pair of eyes watching her was never something good. It took her a moment to recognise the face that the eyes belonged to, and the mouth of that face was pulled in a stupid smile.
"Morning Lejla!" Bosnia said. "You're finally awake!"
"M-Mirsad?" she asked. "W-where… W-what a-are you doing?"
She had many questions, so she focused on that in particular. She could see the room behind Bosnia's face. It wasn't the room she fell asleep in, which meant that Bosnia wasn't rescued. She remembered Ireland and Belarus, and she realised that she was the one that was captured instead.
"I missed you," Bosnia said, and she wasn't sure if he was ignoring her question or somehow answering it. She tensed when he hugged her. There was something wrong about his eyes. "Did you miss me too?"
She didn't know what Requiem had done to him, but she decided that she would need to play it safe. And besides, it wouldn't exactly be a lie.
"O-of course," Herzegovina said. "Um, could you perhaps just stop hugging me?"
In response, he hugged her tighter.
"Isn't that adorable?" a sickening voice said from the doorway.
She turned her head and shuddered when she saw Slovenia. Bosnia looked up and giggled.
"Mirsad, she's probably very hungry by now," Slovenia said. "Why don't you get her some breakfast? You'd know what her favourite things are, right?"
Bosnia nodded, before he released Herzegovina. She watched as he skipped out of the room. This was not the Bosnia she remembered. What had they done to him?!
Slovenia looked after Bosnia for a moment before his attention snapped towards Herzegovina, his eyes icy. He stepped into the room and closed the door.
"Let me be direct with you," Slovenia said. "The only reason why you're here and why you're not in chains is because Bosnia has been obsessing over you. It's even reached the point that none of our indoctrination techniques are having an effect. Now, you're here to keep Bosnia happy, and that means going along with anything he asks of you. You probably noticed that he's a bit unstable, so I would also suggest that you keep him happy because I don't know what he'd be capable of doing. I think I made it clear why you should be sure to keep him happy. Now, a reason to keep us happy… Like I said, the only reason why you're not in a worse state is because of Bosnia. But if you should try to escape, or contact Alvora or anyone else, or make things difficult for us in any way, I will make sure that you come to regret it. You should know some of the things my allies and I are capable of. So don't test us."
Herzegovina nodded. She didn't really know the true Slovenia, but she knew that he wouldn't hesitate to hurt her. Not to mention, she didn't want to leave Bosnia alone with him. She'd already failed him in that regard.
"…There's a library if you need entertainment," Slovenia said. "You are not allowed to use any electronic means of entertaining yourself. And if you want to continue to be unharmed, I suggest you stay out of our way."
Slovenia then left the room, but Herzegovina remained in the bed. There was nothing that she could do right now. Not only would she have to protect herself, she would need to find a way to help Bosnia.
She jumped when someone crashed into the room, and she only calmed down a little when she realised that it was Bosnia. He handed something to Herzegovina, and it took her a moment to recognise the pura s lučinicom. It looked a bit too crispy.
"I tried to make it how you like it," Bosnia explained.
She smiled, but it felt as though she was tearing her cheeks apart.
"That's so sweet," she said. "Thank you."
The taste was not ideal, but even if she didn't need to keep Bosnia happy because of Slovenia's words, she wouldn't have had the heart to tell him that he failed epically. But she was still worried. Bosnia was normally a better cook than this. Not gourmet, but better than this.
…
East Timor sipped his coffee, trying to ignore the flip his stomach made. The blood finally stopped after hours, and even though some time had passed, he could still taste it. The fact that it was not his blood was even more discomforting. The coffee was a means to try and remove the taste, but the combination of the two tastes made him nauseous.
"You feeling okay?" Indonesia asked.
"No," East Timor groaned. "I can still taste it."
Malaysia winced in sympathy. Romania sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"I can give you a potion that should numb your sense of taste for the next three days," Romania said. "But when it fades, you'll be stuck with the taste of rotten fruit for the next six days."
Timor was silent for a moment before he nodded.
"It actually sounds appealing," Timor said. "But why rotten fruit?"
"Those were some of the ingredients," Romania said. "I made a couple of batches just in case I had a meeting or something with England and he offered me food I couldn't politely turn down. Some of them were especially vile."
Portugal and Canada winced in sympathy.
"I'll take it," Timor said. "Anything to get rid of this taste."
Romania nodded, before standing up and leaving the room. Portugal took a sip from his coffee before he turned his full focus on the other nations.
"So, we'll need to discuss what we're going to do from this point," Portugal said. "The capitals of our targets all fell, but only Denmark was at his house, and he's dead now, plus Switzerland along with him. We need to see if we can find the nations, especially Egypt. The Africans will be looking for blood, and I don't think they'd be satisfied with only the capitals being destroyed. So, what will you be doing?"
"The two of us would be joining the Africans," Indonesia said, pointing towards him and Timor. "You're right about them wanting blood. They especially want to get their hands on Egypt."
"I'm going to meet up with Sierra at her house," Malaysia said. "I'm a bit worried about how sick she is, but… Do you think that… could she be…?"
Romania had already told them about the potion that the four women had asked for, and Timor knew that Malaysia had been obsessing over it ever since finding out. And Timor hoped that her being sick was related to the potion and not something to worry about. Such as a curse by one of Requiem's nations or another attack by a ghost.
"It's too soon to tell by human means," Portugal said. "But we can ask Vlad to make sure."
"Thanks," Malaysia sighed. "I'm still processing the possibility."
"Are you looking forward to being a dad?" Timor asked.
"…I have no idea, to be honest. It's something I never thought about. I never thought that I would need to think about it."
Romania returned and handed a bottle over to Timor. Timor opened the bottle and immediately flinched when the smell hit him.
"Bottoms up," Romania said.
Timor sighed and downed the drink. He immediately regretted it as fire raced down to his stomach and his skin erupted in goosebumps. His mouth tingled and when his disgust faded, he realised that the taste of blood was gone. He took a sip of his coffee and found that he couldn't taste it either.
"It looks like it's working," Timor said. "Hopefully that taste won't come back when the potion wears off."
"I think the reason why the taste was still lingering is because you had to deal with it so long," Romania said.
"That's possible."
"What about you, Matthew?" Portugal asked, returning to the previous conversation.
"Damjan and I are returning to my place," Canada explained. "Olivier called and said he has this uneasy feeling."
"Uneasy? In what way?"
Canada could only offer a shrug in response.
"We shouldn't let any uneasy feelings go ignored," Romania said. "With Requiem and those spirits, not trusting our instincts would only prove disastrous."
"Agreed," Portugal said. "And then we have to think of a way to help the Africans to find their targets. Some of them are already at Egypt's house, and while there's a chance that he might go there in response to the intrusion, there's also a chance that he would recognise the trap. Or he could ambush them."
"I'll get right on it."
"Thank you. So, what are we going to do about the micronations?"
"I told them about the group at Olivier's house, and I told them about Chané in South Africa," Canada explained. "So now they just need to choose if they would like to go to either of those places or if they would rather stay here."
"I think we should just keep an eye on them," Indonesia said. "While it's understandable that they would want to get away from Requiem, the fact that they approached us is just a little worrying."
"Christiana at the very least is legitimate," Romania said. "I saw him when I was… When I was getting Tino's head. He was scared. I could see it in his eyes. That kind of fear couldn't be faked."
"I would say the same about Elleore," Canada said. "And this morning… They said that Seborga executed another micronation in front of them as an example."
"I'm not too surprised that they would do something like that," Malaysia said. "They either resort to brainwashing or threats, it would seem."
"And then we have another issue to worry about," Portugal sighed. "We'll need to arrange Toris's funeral. Matthew, can we use your land again?"
"Of course," Canada said. "I just hope that we're not going to turn the site into a cemetery."
I looked for breakfasts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and pura s lučinicom seemed as though it would be pretty quick to make. That was the main focus, and even though it seemed simple enough, Bosnia still burnt it. That was another point.
And the power's out right now, but I have no idea if it's because of loadshedding or the storm we were having earlier. Yeah, if it's not a problem with the wi-fi, it's a problem with the power.