It wasn't long before the backup generator kicked in, bringing light back to the building, but the bulb above the unconscious countries remained dark and broken.

Light poured in through the open door as Italy came running back into the room, scared out of his mind.

"Icouldn'tfindanywomenbutwhenifoundthekitchenthepowerwentoffanditwassuperscary!" he cried. It wasn't hard to see that something was wrong, even for the Italian. Everybody was either lying, unmoving, on the table or the ground near the table. The five machines around them were pitch black and beyond fried. "W-what's going on here?" he asked, but nobody answered. "oh cazzo… this isn't good at all…"

The horrified country scurried to Germany. He grabbed his shoulder, which gave him a static shock at first, but he grabbed them again and started shaking him. "Germany. Germany! You have to wake up! I don't know what to do!" Italy shook even harder "GERMANY!"

Said country groaned. "What are you doing? What happened?" he said, not opening his eyes.

Italy let out a huge sigh in relief and immediately grabbed his friend in a hug. "Oh Germany! It was horrible! There was a big power outage and everybody was knocked out! I don't even know what happened with the asteroid!"

"Asteroid?" Germany questioned, opening his eyes. He looked at the country that was still hugging him. "D-do I know you?"

Italy bounced up. "Of course you do Germany! It's me Italy!"

"Like the country?" he asked. "And why do you keep calling me Germany?"

"Germany, what are you saying?"

"What are you saying?"

The next country to make noise was Japan, making a light hum as his eyes flutter open. "itai... atamagaitai..." he said.

Italy ran over to his second best friend. "Japan, Germany is acting super weird!"

"Wakarimasen," Japan said. "Nani o itte iru?"

Italy gulped. "That isn't good at all…"

All the other countries started waking up at once. Everything they said was overlapping, but all amounted to some of the same few questions. 'Where am I?' 'What happened?' 'Who are you?'

Italy looked across them in horror. Somehow, they all must have lost their memories. Italy screamed, which drew all attention to him. "Hey, you okay kid?" America asked.

"No," Italy cried. "We only have a week to live and all of my best friends don't have memories!"

"A week to live?!" Britain asked.

Russia tilted his head. "We were best friends?"

"I am not following," France said.

Italy started explaining everything as best, and as quickly, as he could. He told them all of their names, and also that they were, in fact, countries (which he had to keep clarifying to them). Next he explained the asteroid crisis and all that he remembered, or more so understood, from their plans. As he talked, Japan went into the hallway to call someone and talk to them in Japanese. France also got distracted by a mirror, so he didn't pay attention much.

"What was my plan?" Canada asked.

"I don't know, I didn't really pay attention to yours," Italy said. "Sorry."

The half-transparent country slid down in his chair. "Why does that feel so familiar?"

"What I still don't understand is how we are living embodiments of countries," Germany said. "How does that even work."

America nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I may not remember much, but I know that there's only, like, six countries at most, but there's eight of us."

Raising an eyebrow at that statement, Britain looked to his adopted brother. "All of those were real countries. And, if I'm not mistaken, the biggest countries! Who are you leaving out?"

"The lame ones I guess."

"Un-hu… You were the US, right?" America nodded. Britain crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Figures."

Russia giggled. "I like you guys. I'm looking forward to remembering all of our fond friendship memories together."

"We should likely worry more about the asteroid that's coming to kill us all soon before worrying about remembering things," Britain said.

"Probably," Germany agreed. He looked around at the utterly destroyed objects around him. "But if all of our plans revolved around these inventions I don't think we'll be very successful whether we have memories or not."

"Me and Russia don't have machines around us. What about our plans? If… anybody remembers my plans…" Canada said.

France took his head out of the mirror. "Did you hear something?" Canada got even more dejected and transparent.

"I know! What about my nuclear plan?" Russia asked, unwittingly stealing Canada's train of thought. "I don't think our bombs got destroyed or else we'd all be dead." Russia laughed. "What a thought…"

"Ve, that could work, but nobody knew the nuclear codes besides you, and you obviously don't know them anymore either," Italy said.

America stood up, taking a leadership role like he usually does. "Well then, it looks like we need our memories back after all. I say we fight fire with fire. We should just shock ourselves again and that'll jog our memories."

"You git, do you want to kill us?" Britain asked.

"No. It totally works all the time in TV shows… at least I think it does… I don't really remember any TV shows."

France put his head close to Britain's. "You know, if not TV, why not fairy tales? Perhaps it's a kiss of true love that can break the curse of amnesia~" A hand went to the brits face, making him visibly uncomfortable. "If what 'Italy' says is true, it sounds like you're my soulmate, or, as they probably say in France, my âme sœur~"

Britain sat, turning tomato red. "I-i beg your pardon?"

"Then beg~"

The Brit got away from his fellow European and his behind Germany's chair like it was a shield. "Th-there's got to be a better way."

"I'm no neurologist, or at least I don't think I am, But maybe instead of using true love specifically, we do things that were familiar and hope it jogs our memory."

"Like putting all the pieces of a puzzle together?" Italy asked.

"Exactly."

"What a great idea!" America said. He pointed to Italy. "Curly Hair, you know everything about us, right? Like our favorite foods and drinks and stuff? I betcha that'll help with something. Not to mention, I'm starving."

Italy smiled. "Yeah~ I'll start making some! France, you love cooking. Do you want to come with me?"

"As long as you tell me more about my âme sœur, Angleterre," France said. He and Italy left to go to the kitchen he found earlier.

A/N: Big ol' thanks to emma. likes. to. write. again~ Now that the intro's over, it's the meat of the story. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this too, so feel free to leave a comment. Thanks for reading~