England was already halfway out of the front door before the scream had even finished echoing through Dublith. Fear wracked his mind, despite knowing nations had virtually no way of dying until their country collapsed, with no one pledging loyalty under the nation's flag. In fact, the only reasons why Prussia was still alive was because there were still individuals who considered themselves Prussians, and because Prussia was more or less East Germany now.

At least there was some comfort to that thought for England.

"Edward! Alfred!" His forest green eyes scanned the area around the shop, looking around frantically for any signs of his little brothers, and just as he caught sight of a small figure being shielded by another, another gunshot rang out, the bullet embedding itself in the wall just beside England's head with only a couple of centimeters to spare.

The Brit tch'ed angrily, his years of fighting experience kicking in as he quickly located the gunman who was carefully hidden in shadows. So carefully, that England might not have noticed him at all if it weren't for the telltale glint of light from the nearby streetlamps off the barrel of the rifle.

Almost instantly, the gunman found an extremely furious British nation bearing down on him, face contorted into a snarl as the gunman was slammed into the wall behind him by the neck, cracking a few of the bricks.

"What," He spat out venomously, eyes filled with unconcealed rage. "Do you think you're doing, shooting at my brothers."

The gunman gasped out for air, clawing futilely at the hand wrapped around his throat. "B- brothers?" He choked out, before his face twisted into an ugly sneer. "Ha! So there are more of you abominations? How sweet!"

England's eyes narrowed further before he tightened his grip on the gunman's neck, wanting nothing more than to kill the man for causing harm to his brothers, causing the man the gasp for the precious gas everyone needed to survive. "What on earth are you talking about?"

The gunman grinned maliciously, showing off his dirty, yellowed teeth. "Creatures like your kind deserve to die like the monsters you are! We shan't be pawns any longer!"

"You attacked an innocent child, and what part of that isn't monstrous?!" England retorted, his anger coming off him in waves. If he had still been a pirate, England would have no doubt have gutted him from the knave to the chops, even though that was Scotland's style.

"What child? He's as guilty as all of you monsters!" England was ready to end it all, just a quick snap of the neck, and the man would be dead. But before the Brit could do anything a hand rested on his shoulder.

"Angleterre, that is enough." France spoke, looking serious for once. "No need to reinforce their image of us as monsters, no?"

England reluctantly released his grip on the man, allowing the gunman to slide to the floor, coughing as he inhaled the precious air into his oxygen deprived lungs. A twisted smile stretched upon the man's face, as a crazed look entered his eyes. "The Nations will fall! We will liberate the world from your kind!"

"Oh, do shut up!" England snapped angrily, as he turned to leave, but no before he gave the gunman a well deserved kick to the place where the sun does not shine, leaving him to curl up in pain as his vital regions died in agony.

Ignoring the man's pained whimpers as France went off to locate a local law enforcer, England made a beeline to where America and Amestris were, Alphonse already having beaten him to the two nations as he hovered around them in concern.

"Are you alright?" Alphonse asked worriedly, gesturing to the scratch just above America's elbow and the graze on his cheek. Said American just laughed off his small injuries. "Ha ha ha! Of course I'm alright! After all, I'm the hero!" He grinned

Amestris clung to America's bomber jacket, his face looking like the embodiment of guilt as he bit his lip and his wide eyes looked like they might start watering any moment. "I'm sorry, Al! If you hadn't covered me, you wouldn't have gotten hurt!"

"Nah, it's alright little dude!" America ruffled the younger nation's blond hair. "Besides, Iggy would have cursed me or fed me his," He shuddered. "Scones if anything happened to you. That's worse than getting shot!"

"Git! My scones are absolutely delicious!" England fumed, storming up to the American. "And how many times have I told you, not to call me that irritating nickname?!"

"Two billion, four million, three hundred eighty nine thousand and seventeen times, including that last one." America flashed his million watt grin at the Brit, whose eye twitched at the blinding grin.

"Bloody git." He muttered under his breath before he went off to check on Amestris, who was still clinging onto America's bomber jacket with one hand. "Are you alright, Edward?" England asked gently, looking the smaller boy over for any bruises or scrapes.

"I'm not hurt, big brother." Amestris answered, still looking guilty as he twiddled his fingers. "But Al got hurt when he covered me!"

"He'll be fine. It's just a flesh wound, and Alfred's had worse." England reassured his brother, although Amestris appeared unconvinced from the way his gaze kept flicking to the scratch on America's arm. Although England refused to admit it, he still cared for America.

"He's right, Ed." Canada -when did he get there?- spoke softly, standing by America side. "Remember? It takes a lot to permanently harm us in any way."

Just then, before Amestris could respond, a loud thump resounded through the night air. Turning their head, the present nations and human were treated to the humorous sight of one gunman getting his ass kicked, again, by a housewife.

"Don't shoot at people while their backs are turned!" Izumi barked furiously, her sandaled foot digging into the man's face as she pushed him into the ground with her sheer strength before she knocked him out cold with a heel to the head.

"Woah, dude," America started to say to Alphonse, his scratches forgotten. "You have one badass teacher."

"You have no idea." The Elric deadpanned back.

0o0

England paced across his temporary room worriedly, mind running at light speed now that he had a chance to think properly. How had that man known about their true nature? It was almost impossible to come across any information on the personifications of each country, and only officials who worked for their governments as well as a few other select humans. So, how? The governments had burned any and all information they could find on their existence decades ago! Of course, there was the possibility of spies, but quite frankly, England had no current desire to soil his hands any further. Besides, the thought of spies was fairly unlikely, seeing as how even nations weren't stupid enough to risk revealing their existence.

They had already seen the risks, a long time ago when the majority of them had been hunted down and burnt at the stake for witchcraft, no thanks to their immortality. This was obviously untrue, since the only nations who could actually be accused of such things were Norway, Romania, and England himself. Amestris too, if his Alchemy was put into consideration.

Humans feared the unknown, and the unknown were the personifications.

"Big brother?" Amestris's soft call caught his attention as the nation peeked into his room before entering, lugging what looked like America's bomber jacket behind him. "I can't find my chalk. Do you have any? Because I wanna fix Al's jacket."

"It's not 'wanna', Amestris. It's 'want to'." England corrected him patiently, switching back to his brother's Nation name since there was no one around, retrieving a thin stick of chalk from his coat before getting down to Amestris's height level. "And yes, I have chalk. It's yours, actually. You passed them to me a few days ago to look after since you were afraid you would lose your supply."

"Oh." Amestris grinned sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head before taking the stick of chalk from England. "I forgot. Thank you, big brother."

Amestris threw his arms around England to give him a hug, before he ran off, presumably to find a decent spot to fix the jacket without vandalizing the floor, or at the very least to find a piece of paper to draw his transmutation circle on.

England couldn't help but smile. Seeing Amestris so innocent made him all the more determined to protect that wondrous innocence.

He wouldn't let anyone destroy Amestris's childhood.

0o0

"My business with Mustang is over~" Ling grinned widely as he stretched. "I can go bother Alphonse now!"

Lan Fan remained silent. After all, who was she to question her lord?

"Not so fast, sir." A hand reached out, grabbing Ling's shoulder. Startled, the Emperor of Xing's head whipped around, only for his eyes to land on a familiar Xingese man. "Oh, hey Xing! What are you doing here?" Ling used the Nation's name, seeing as how it was already nighttime and the streets were quite deserted.

Said Nation's eye twitched. "I informed you last week that I would be joining you later, Yao. Or have you already forgotten?"

Ling shook his head. "No, I didn't. But I do recall you telling me that you would only join me a week later. Its only been four days." Xing paused, before answering. "I did, but something came up. There's trouble brewing in this country, or have you not sensed it? The air is thick with it."

"Hm, it's hard to say. I haven't been getting a good sense of things thanks to England being here." Ling forrowed his eyebrows as he crossed his arms over his chest. Meanwhile, Xing's eyebrows lifted in an expression of curiosity. "England? What would he be doing here? I know that his country and Amestris have an alliance, but there should be no reason for him to be here, other than vacation which I highly doubt."

"He was showing his little brother around." Ling answered, before he remembered something he wanted to ask Xing. "Oh, and by the way, why did you say Amestris was missing when I asked you about him all those years ago? He's been here the entire time. And I even have my suspicions that he was Ed the whole time."

Xing probably stopped listening around the time Ling mentioned Amestris's being in the country, his eyes widening to almost comical proprtions. "A- Amestris?!"

Ling paused, looking at Xing with a bewildered expression. "You don't sense him? While I may not be getting such a good feel of things right now, I can definitely sense Amestris."

"Do you know where he is?" Xing asked, fighting to keep the eagerness out of his voice. He had no idea why Amestris had disappeared off the face of the earth, and that terrified him. He may have acted indifferent to Amestris's suffering when the nation was younger, but that was because his boss ordered him to have nothing to do with Amestris since the Emperor had decided that aiding Amestris would bring no benefits to the country. In all honesty, standing by idly was painful for Xing, especially when Amestris was just a child. And now, if Amestris really was back, Xing wanted to see him with his own eyes.

Ling thought hard for a moment, before shrugging. "I have no idea. England mentioned that he was just going to familiarize Amestris with the country."

Xing wilted at this. "I see..." He muttered before the second piece of information finally registered in his mind. "Wait, why is England doing that?"

"Amestris is England's charge." Ling replied.

"That's... new. Moving on, do you know how to find Amestris?" Xing changed the topic. He could get the details later, but right now, Xing just wanted to know where Amestris was. After all, Amestris really deserved an apology from Xing. If the Xingese nation had stepped in to help the Amestrian nation, Amestris might not have turned out the way he did.

"Nope, other then following his and England's chi." Ling answered, before adding, "Which you can't sense for some reason."

At this, realization struck Xing as he groaned and slapped a palm to his forehead. England must have cast a spell that prevents other nations from sensing him and Amestris, since Amestris's reappearance would definitely raise some questions for England to answer.

Xing opened his mouth to say something else, but before the words could even leave his mouth, a blinding pain rocketed through the left side of his chest, crimson liquid splattering. The last thing Xing saw was his Emperor's face twisted into an expression of horror and shock, mouth open to shout Xing's name, as well as the his own lifeblood staining the ground with it's crimson hue.

[A/N And once again, I've left you guys on a cliffhanger. I'm so evil. And so, I decided to add in Xing to my story. I'm sorry if you have any complaints about him since he's technically an OC. And no, he's not going to be overpowered. He's just there so I can start things off. He may be a recurring character, but in all honesty, he's just a side character who is not going to take the spotlight. By the way, I might have to change the rating to T since I think it's going to get a bit violent from here on out. Also, I have added a poll to my account to different prequels of this story. One being from Amestris's early life, to the events leading up to 1889, when he became human. The second being a bunch of one shots detailing Amestris's time with the FACE family. So anyway, vote which one you want.

And also, thanks to everyone who reviewed. It really makes my day to get a positive review. :)

Bye guys~

~ Gwntan12]