Welcome to Chapter Four! This one's longer than the others. And darker. There's some pretty graphic imagery of torture in this. (Let me know if I should change the rating to 'M'.)
Once again, this one turned out to be all Eduard. Whoops. (Elts' perspective will show up in the next one, definitely.)
Hopefully, Eduard's reaction to seeing some of what happened to Elts and her friends was plausible to his character.
I find it hilarious how this turns out to be a fun de-stressor rather than me actually writing the story where Elts is from, XD.
*I don't own Hetalia. I do, however, own Elts, Liene, Liutas, and everyone else from their universe.*
Installment Four
Narrowing his eyes, Estonia clicked on the folder. There were countless videos, jpegs, and documents, all having Elts mentioned somewhere in the title. Only one didn't have her name; instead, it was labeled 'The Project'. When he checked its properties, he realized that this particular document was written by his government. After cracking his neck, he opened the file, and began to read its contents.
"Project Longevity was both an attempt to create world peace, and an attempt to create super soldiers. Its base was at Saint Francis International Academy, a government-funded school located in Iceland. (Though the governments had no idea what the true motive of the school was.) The headmaster, Jan Koch, as well as many teachers, were involved with the organization behind the project: Longevity. Scientists affiliated with Longevity, at an underground facility in the Faroe Islands, spent years creating a serum that would turn potential candidates immortal. This serum was supposed to be able to stop the growth and aging of cells in organs, skin, muscles, bones, etc., and would be injected into each and every part of a subject's body via an operation. Their first human test subjects were fifty students from the Academy, known as Class U. All of them died shortly after the operation due to injuries sustained in experiments to test the serum's potency. Longevity's second attempt, with students from the classes below U, called Class W, succeeded. All the candidates became immortal, but with a cost. Each of the students endured fatal experimentation to make sure that the serum truly made them immortal. This treatment, received by children aged fifteen to seventeen, was considered a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as countless other human rights documents. These children were tortured in unimaginable ways, but were kept alive by the success of the serum.
These children were stated to have died in a 'terrorist attack' when the Academy was 'bombed by extremists' in November, but this was just a cover-up in order to explain the numerous disappearances. When the world's governments got involved after the students were liberated, they kept up this façade since, technically, they are the property of the government, because the project was a success. Not to mention, it just did not seem like a good idea, for many reasons, to return these new immortals to their parents. When asked about this, the students agreed with our decision, and consented to living with the National Personifications due to their similar purposes, even though they were told that the Nations were merely 'government workers'."
Estonia closed the document; he had read enough. They weren't even allowed to go back to their parents? And they agreed to stay 'dead' to them? Elts didn't seem particularly homesick; in fact, besides the clear traumatization, she seemed content in his house, so he wasn't too worried about that. Even though the decision seemed cruel, he could see why it would be best to cut all ties with their old lives, in order to prevent the inevitable heartbreak and headaches that would go along with being introduced as immortals to their friends and families.
Though he knew he would regret it, he clicked on the first video he saw and plugged in his earbuds. He already felt sick after reading the brief synopsis, but he felt like he needed to know exactly what had happened to Elts in order to at least attempt to help her heal.
He was pulled from his thoughts when the video started. Elts, who looked much healthier than she did now, stood in front of two other girls, both blonde, who were curled up on the floor. All three wore hospital gowns, though the smallest girl's was covered in bloodstains. A man in a white coat reached for the taller of the blondes, who gasped as she was dragged to her feet.
"Leave her alone!" Elts spat. She attempted to grab the girl's hand, but was restrained by another scientist.
"Subject LT: Liutas Tarvydaitė. From the lovely Lietuva." The girl winced as the first scientist stroked her face. "You will be our first subject for this experiment. Be proud. If you live, you will be considered the first success. But if you stay dead? You will be a noble sacrifice to our cause."
This declaration seemed to be too much for the blonde; she started to quietly cry.
"Put her down, you freak!" The smallest of the three, who was unrestrained, rushed forward, trying to remove her friend from the man's grasp. It was to no avail, she was kicked harshly in the stomach, and she quickly dropped to the floor, wrapping her arms around herself as she whimpered.
Estonia could see fresh blood seeping through her gown, and he clenched his fists. Why are they doing this? These are children. The little one looks like she was injured already.
He snapped back to reality when he heard the chillingly familiar sound of a gun being cocked.
"No!" Liutas shrieked as she saw a handgun being presented to her. She writhed, kicking her feet out until she managed to wrench herself out of her hospital gown. Estonia tried to avert his eyes; though she was wearing panties, she was naked from the waist up. However, that proved to be impossible when the scientist grabbed her by the throat, pinning her against the wall. Without saying a word, he pressed the gun against the side of her head and pulled the trigger.
Elts fell limp in her captor's grasp, her eyes wide, while the smaller blonde started wailing. Her screams intensified as the now-blood soaked scientist threw Liutas to the ground and walked toward her. She pushed herself backwards until she was pressed up against the wall, sobbing in a language that was all too familiar to Estonia, even if he wasn't fluent in it. She's Latvian. For a moment, the Nation saw Latvia instead of the shivering girl, and he nearly threw up.
"Subject LV: Liene Lejnieks." The scientist who killed Liutas yanked the small blonde to her feet by her hair. "You talk too much." He dropped her to the ground before kicking her in the stomach, eliciting a pained whine from her. Before she could even move, he knelt on her legs and forced the gun into her mouth. Estonia closed his eyes as the trigger was pulled, unable to bring himself to watch.
However, Elts' anguished scream caused him to face the screen once more. Her legs buckled, and her eyes were stretched wide. She did nothing as the man turned to her; instead, she closed her eyes.
"Subject EE: Elts Meri."
She didn't move a muscle as he rested the end of the gun against her forehead, only biting her lip when it went off. After she was unceremoniously tossed on top of Liene, the video ended.
Estonia was numb. Before he could stop himself, he clicked on the jpeg next to the video. He was met with the sight of a hideously infected arm. The only way he knew it was Elts was by the label of the file. With a sort of morbid curiosity, he scrolled through the rest of the photos, each more brutal than the last. Elts…What have they done to you? The one that got to him the most was one titled 'Meri, Elts-Before and After'. On the left was a photo that looked like it was from the Academy's yearbook. Though the copper-haired girl's smile didn't reach her eyes, there was still light in them. The picture on the right, however? That one looked like it was taken from a horror movie. Elts' eyes were as dull as her hair, and her face looked as gaunt as a skeleton.
Rubbing his eyes, Estonia exited the picture viewer. He was about to end his perusal through the folder when another video caught his eye: 'ELL-Siberia Test'. Against his better judgement, he clicked on it. He was met with the sight of Elts, Liene, and Liutas huddled against one another in a room with a metal floor, walls, and ceiling. All three were naked, horribly scarred, and shivering.
"My skin's splitting open!" Liene sobbed, curling herself against Elts. "How much longer do we have to stay in here? It's too cold!"
Estonia noticed the frost that covered the room and winced, remembering what Elts had said before about this particular experiment.
"It shouldn't be too long now," Liutas rasped, her voice almost too weak to be heard. "We've been in here for awhile already, remember?"
Liene nodded, her eyes looking out-of-focus. After a few moments of silence, she slowly turned her head towards Elts. "Can you kiss me?"
"What?" Elts' narrowed eyes snapped open.
"I…I don't know how much longer I'm going to last this time. I just want to feel warm."
With tears in her eyes, Elts pulled Liene onto her lap, tightly wrapping her arms around the smaller girl, bringing her closer until she was able to press her lips gently against Liene's own. Once the two pulled away, Liene grabbed Elts' hand.
"Es tevi mīlu," she murmured, closing her eyes.
The lump in Estonia's throat got worse. "I love you". That was one of the first phrases Latvia had taught him when he was interested in learning the shorter boy's language. I didn't know Elts had a lover. He wasn't even sure if Liene's request was romantic, or just a last effort at platonic closeness, but he didn't dwell on it too much. Not when the video was still playing.
"She's gone." Elts shook Liutas' shoulders. "She's dead. They killed her again, Liu."
"Whuh?" Liutas' head lolled to the side as she turned her body, though she hissed as frozen skin was ripped off due to the motion.
"Liene is dead."
Liutas said nothing, though the pain in her eyes spoke for her. She wrapped her arms around Elts, and they curled around each other until the blonde stopped breathing.
There were no tears in Elts' eyes as she stared at the camera, only defeat. She laid the bodies of her friends next to her before lying down herself. It didn't take long for the life to fade from her emaciated frame.
Estonia was done. He exited the video, exited the folder, and closed his laptop.
"You know what made it even better? The scientist placed bets on who would last the longest." Elts' words pierced him more than they originally did. Who the hell would watch that footage and bet on who would survive the longest? These people are sick. 'Create world peace' my ass; they just wanted to torture people who couldn't fight back or even die. For a moment, he imagined Latvia taking Liene's place, as well as other Nations near his age, like Iceland, South Korea, Liechtenstein, and Seychelles, and bile rose in his throat. If these people knew about us… No. He shook the thought from his head. This is not the time for 'what-ifs'. Focus, Eduard. But he couldn't. Every time he blinked, the videos would replay in his mind.
Even as he made his way to the kitchen, his body was on autopilot. As he chopped up the vegetables for dinner, the scientist's voice echoed through his thoughts, followed by the young trio's.
"You will be a noble sacrifice to our cause."
"Put her down, you freak!"
"You talk too much."
"Es tevi mīlu."
"She's gone."
"Liene is dead."
As soon as he finished preparing the meal, Estonia ran to the bathroom and vomited. Once he cleaned himself up, he slowly climbed up the stairs before quietly entering his bedroom. Much to his surprise, Elts was awake, sitting with her knees tucked to her chest.
Seeing her was too much; his eyes welled with the tears he was trying so hard to suppress, and before he knew it, he embraced her, wrapping his arms around her shivering body. "I'm sorry," he whispered, pulling her close. "I'm so sorry we couldn't save you."
I think this chapter was my favorite to write, just because it got really emotional. (Not to mention, Estonia—and readers—get more information about Elts and her friends.)
And yes, Estonia imagining the other teenaged nations in Elts' and her classmates' situation was a reference to 'The Weakest Link', where Estonia, Latvia, Iceland, and Sealand are captured by corrupt scientists and brutally experimented on.