12. The Negotiating Chapter
…in which the white flags are stained
The enemy troops came back later on the following morning. Before that, they had had a busy time: their prisoner had given in before Denmark, Russia, and Switzerland, and handed them an exact map of the locations of all the bombs he had so far set and also the location of his explosive storage on the field. The nations had around the forest for almost five hours, searching for the ones that were on their way and replanting them on their enemy's territory. They also found a few of their prisoner's underlings, who had come to help their nation to set the traps and at the same time brought new supplies. The nations greeted them and made clear that they would now take custody of all the explosives.
The only ones who weren't running around the forest (excluding the injured, three medics, Estonia, and Norway) were Germany, who had given Denmark the duty of supervising the searching so he could rest; and Russia, who was taking note of everything that was found and planning new traps with Turkey and Hungary. The latter ran off somewhere repeatedly but came back to hear Russia's new ideas once in a while. Also, eight people were left to guard the eleventh line in the case their enemy decided to deviate from his today's schedule, which had been as well very kindly revealed by their prisoner. Two of the eight acted as scouts and were as far as the twelfth line keeping guard. They couldn't have their enemy attacking while their own people were running around the forest with explosives.
.*** *** ***
"Pity we can't put up more mines," Germany had explained his worries after waking up. "We don't have the space nor the time for that. I guess we can just try planting them while retreating. That's going to be risky."
"I thought about that," Denmark had answered. "Why don't we just set explosives behind our own lines and retreat past them?"
"Don't be an idiot or I'll regret making you an officer," Germany had said dryly. "Even if we all knew where the mines were, you can't know where you must dodge or take cover if retreating in a hurry. I don't want to blow up some of our own."
"I, on the other hand, have thought about that part," Russia had said, smiling as usual. "We can set mines that don't explode by stepping on them, but when they are detached from their external a power source."
"Is there such things?" Hungary had asked, eyes round.
"He has some." Russia had nodded to their prisoner who had been sitting beside the dying fire and been now guarded only by Latvia. "He used that kind of a wire system earlier that was new to me. It made the bombs explode so that if one explodes all others follow in queue."
"So if one soldier steps on a mine, the whole squad can be eliminated?" Hungary had sighed. "He really seems like a mad scientist like our allies once said, doesn't he?"
"But we don't have time to set that kind of thing up," Germany had returned to the topic. "Our enemy will attack before we'll get all the wires on place."
"That's why I'll request that I can take someone with me to set it behind our lines," Russia had insisted. "Two lines maybe. Then we can use it while you retreat and give you some time in return. Stop being difficult and give me permission, commander." Russia had given them his brightest smile.
.*** *** ***
Now that their enemy had begun to approach again as the scouts had warned a while ago, Germany was thinking had this really been a good idea? Russia seemed very eager though.
Germany turned to their prisoner, who had been released from his bonds and was now with them near their ninth line. "Keep in mind that next time I hear about you, you can think yourself a dead man."
The foreigner sighed and shifted, trying to take a tickling branch of his neck. "Yes, I understand: I lost and shall retreat from the battle. And I know quite well that I'd have a very slim chance of coming back from here alive if I returned. Especially when you didn't tell me, how did you reset the bombs?" He gave Germany a pleading look, because he was very interested of how it was be done by someone else than him.
"You really think I'd tell you something?" Germany asked, sounding like he thought the other was a total idiot. To be exact, he thought just that. "Now be a good boy and disappear, before I change my mind and get rid of you."
"I still think we should just kill him," Russia said cheerfully and tried to sit more comfortably. They were hiding in a bush.
"I really think I should be going now," the foreigner said and started to wiggle away backwards. "It was nice and educational meeting you. Bye now."
"Nice?" Germany repeated, frowning. "I don't think it was nice at all. I would have preferred you never being here in the first place."
The foreigner laughed and took his leave towards his own country. Normally Germany wouldn't have let a prisoner go before the war was over, at least not alone, but he didn't have enough personnel to guard him in either option, so he had to bear it. He turned to Russia.
"You two get the things done here and give me a note when you're ready." Germany waited for Russia to nod at least five times to show he had understood. "Try to make this so effective it'll stop them for the rest of the day. That's your goal, so keep that in mind." He waited for Russia to nod again. "I'll be going then. You know what to do." Germany gave them a smile. "Good luck. Come back safely when you're done. Both of you."
"Yes, sir, you too," Russia promised as Germany left. He turned to his comrade. "Shall we?" he asked playfully.
"Mm," Sweden grunted, nodding and they left the bushes at last to begin their mission.
A while later, as Germany dropped into their tenth trench to his place between Denmark and Belarus, the shouts and explosions ahead told them their traps and landmines were already doing their work. It meant that this far their plans had actually succeeded. At least some things seemed to work.
"How is it going?" Germany asked, crouching down to safe and set his gun into place to fire immediately when needed.
"Perfectly," Denmark replied, almost purring and let his other hand run on the helve of his axe lovingly.
"They'll break through it soon enough. It is not as effective as you calculated, but close," Belarus said emotionlessly. "How was brother?"
"Russia and Sweden have begun their mission," Germany informed and gave glances to his companions so they'd listen. "We must give them as much time as we can. Tactically speaking they'll need from two to three hours, but it doesn't hurt if they don't have to rush it and they can concentrate. I expect everyone to know that the realistically ideal situation is that it'll take us at least five hours to retreat to the next trap line. If Russia and Sweden fail this now, because of the lack of time or another reason, we're running out of good plans. So we must–"
"Understood," Belarus and Denmark said simultaneously and nodded, quickly sending Germany's "give it your best" message through the nations to the ends of the lines.
The territory around the tenth trench had both their wings spread, so China and Japan had again their own little groups to command. The word "little" was now Germany's problem number one. Although Belarus had originally been in the left wing, the lack of centers had her transferred to her current position beside Germany to replace Russia. They currently had a bad shortage of fighting force. They had seven nations seriously injured, as many slightly injured and the rest dead tired of all of this. The fighting was taking its toll of even such persons as Russia and Turkey who usually were untiring power machines, acting strong and encouraging. Then again, most of the nations, even Romano, had stopped most of their complaining a while ago already. That was again another proof of their problems.
Everyone had internalized the fact, that complaining wouldn't get them anywhere this time.
Germany was very worried. He thought about their situation while listening to the sounds of the forest and particularly of the enemy troops there ahead of them. Now that Sweden and Russia were handling a different case, only eighteen nations was protecting their lines. Some of them, like Canada, had already once been injured before and had later returned. Germany needed a new plan: when their fighting force was sadly steadily weakening, their positioning and tactical order wasn't valid anymore. Switzerland was still in his tree and the back-up group had someone stationed behind every trench, waiting if someone got hurt. But unlike in the beginning, when the action group had provided them assistance, now they had no one there to help. Currently only Finland and Latvia were there, with Italy as the messenger and the mildly injured Romano to help them. Hungary had permanently joined the action group so Finland was now the leading officer.
Germany registered now that Denmark and Belarus had returned to their positions beside him and were looking tenser than a while ago. Germany noticed he had tensed as well and subconsciously he also knew why. The first of their enemies were charging through the smoke the explosion had created. Germany returned to their current situation from his thoughts and readied his mind and gun to fight.
Before he could shoot the man who was diving into the bushes some ten meters ahead of him, the said man groaned and fell down, a hole of a bullet in his chest.
Switzerland, Germany understood quickly and glanced momentarily to the trees behind them, seeing of course no hint where the sniper was. Not wanting to make Switzerland do all the work, Germany turned to the battle anew and opened fire.
The nations soon noticed that this time they were overpowered by sheer numbers. Their enemy had probably been frustrated about the paperwork he had been given and the landmines or other traps the nations had set, and was planning to give them a proper payback. Only half an hour after the bombs had exploded, Germany ordered a retreat.
"To the ninth line! We must take advantage of the rocks in there!" he shouted to Denmark who had just ducked down with him to avoid a bullet rain. "We'll bring the wings closer to the center and retreat in pairs. Send a signal for the retreat plan C."
Denmark nodded and grabbed a hand grenade from his belt and threw it over his shoulder to buy himself some time, while Germany covered him. From the backside of his belt Denmark took three smaller bombs to his hand and threw the first towards the left wing, another to the right and the last straight ahead. When the bombs exploded, they spread a reddish smoke screen around them and as China and Japan noticed the smoke they threw their own smoke bombs as well. As soon as that happened Switzerland jumped down from his tree and began running towards their next trench before he'd be caught in the fight, passing by the back-up group that was preparing its own retreat. The smoke screen spread around the front of their trench and when nine bombs had all went off, every nation threw a hand grenade to the smoke, making a string of explosion sound inside the smoke.
With that, the nations scrambled up from their little a trench and hid to safe behind the protection mounds. Germany could hear coughing from inside the smoke beside the other infuriated shouts. He couldn't help but smile a little. These bombs were custom made by Korea who had been bored as he had been injured and hadn't been able to participate building the traps to the forests. Using the ingredients available he had planted something useful to the bombs they had already had: pepper.
Germany's smile vanished in an instant when he heard a frightened yelp from his left. One soldier had appeared from the smoke screen, having crawled closer and somehow avoided both the smoke and explosions. Now he had jumped up to dash the last meters to that separated him from them. Right in front of him was Poland who was still climbing up from the trench and had yelped in panic because currently he was in no position to defend himself.
Before Germany could do more than open his mouth to curse and lift his gun up to help Poland, Denmark jumped up from the trench right in front of the enemy soldier. With one swing of his axe he made an end of the man's dash, slicing two smaller trees in half while he was add it.
Denmark chuckled as he took his place beside Germany again after retreating to safe with Poland. "Oh, I've waited to do that."
Germany gave him a wry look.
.*** *** ***
Their enemy was using its own snipers again. And the nations learnt this the hard way.
"Finland!" Cuba called, appearing to the hideout of the medics. "Come quickly!"
A minute later Finland and Latvia dragged France away from the fighting range and Cuba returned to his post in the ninth line they had been protecting for an hour now.
Finland observed France's injures first time better and grimaced, turning to speak to Romano and Italy, while Latvia started treating the nation who had had a bullet fly straight into his stomach. "Romano, you go replace France in the line. Your hand is healthy enough for back-up duty." Southern Italy snorted and clearly wanted to object, but left anyway. Finland turned to the messenger. "Italy. Go tell Germany France has been shot and he needs immediate medical attention. Both Latvia and I will be leaving for a while and Romano will go replace France. Then go inform Switzerland there is a sniper who can clearly shoot inside the trench of the left wing and he should be taken care of. After that take all this information to Home. Okay?"
"Yes sir," Italy said, saluted and disappeared to the bushes, massaging his forehead his hand just hit. Finland turned back to take care of France, while Latvia readied a stretcher.
"Dear me, this is bad again," he mumbled.
France coughed and said, whispering. "Do forgive me."
"Don't talk if you like your life."
While Finland and Latvia took France back to the headquarters, Italy had managed to get to the center to speak with Germany and out of there without getting into immediate danger. If he had expertise in something it was fleeing. That is, if he really tried to and now he did. It took him a while to find Switzerland but when he did, their conversation was quick and short sentenced. Soon Italy found himself running towards the headquarters, the usual urge to slow down and maybe take a nap steadily haunting his brain.
No no no, he said to himself and made his legs keep up the pace. Everyone's expecting me to be quick now. That's right! If I'll think something horrible is chasing me it'll be easier. What could be good? Maybe a –
A hand grabbed his shoulder from behind.
Italy screamed out loud and tried to wiggle away from this sudden attacker, but the grip was too strong.
"No need to be so afraid, little one," a soft voice said behind him and Italy turned to look at the smiling face of Russia.
"Y–y–you can't scare me like that," Italy sobbed, but calming down. "That's not fair…"
Russia chuckled, wiping the remains of tears from Italy's cheeks and said, "I called your name, but you didn't listen. But Italy, dear, tell me: are you going Home now?" Italy nodded and Russia continued. "Before you do, I want you to turn around a little and go tell Germany something."
"What?" Italy asked, trying to look ready and alert.
Russia leant closer and smiled. "We're ready."
.*** *** ***
Sweden rested his back against a tree, playing with the knife in his hands. He waited for Russia to start. Germany had been informed and the fighters had started their retreat, now all he could do was wait and hope everything went well. And he really hoped this would work the way they wanted. Russia probably had right now his eyes (through binoculars) fastened to the forest to observe the situation, like he was supposed to. Sweden let his eyes wander along the sharp edge of the army knife between his fingers.
This is a good knife, he thought absentmindedly.
That second an explosion shook the forest, followed by three other as loud ones. Sweden's eyes sharpened and he tensed.
"H're we go," he said, grabbed the army knife to his hand and hit the tip of the blade against the tree trunk beside his ear. It cut one of the cords circling the tree in two and the sounds of new explosions ran through the forest: Russia's Operation Anastasia had started. Sweden sighed: he hated the name. Not that Russia would have cared about that. Operation Victoria would have been much better…
Sweden listened to his explosion to the end and waited for Russia's response. They had a set order, but if the situation called, Russia had said he would change it. So Sweden had to listen to the amount, and locations of the explosions to know exactly what cord he should cut next. He had never done anything like this. No matter how much their allies had assured they were just copying their technology, at least this was something Sweden hadn't really heard off before. At least the settings had been surprisingly easy: the whole system had taken them less than three hours, since the lay out had been planned out earlier.
The next explosions came and Sweden listened. At least he's still keeping the order, he thought.
At his end of the cords, Russia was humming a childish tune he had just made up and letting his eyes wander the forest in search of his prey as Sweden's bomb string was making its destruction. Switzerland had promised to help him a bit and was sniping down the leftovers who avoided the explosions if he saw some. Germany's group was guarding their sides.
Russia followed some soldiers who looked suspicious enough to be officers. He smiled. Just as they had hoped, the enemy was slowing down and regrouping. They had noticed the mines and were thinking a way to get through. If they had been more of that type who charged forwards to a trapped area without thinking, Russia's plans would have very much failed. But these guys didn't seem to be eager to sacrifice ten to get two through, so Russia smiled a little wider and cut one of his cords in two.
The enemy couldn't surround them. They didn't - or at least they shouldn't - know the other attacking nation had been captured, but even if they knew, what could they do? The bombs their other enemy had set up on both side of their lines were still there, at some points there was even more of them now. Both armies were trapped between a line of bombs and other traps. If you could call a bunch of tired and injured nations an army. In any case, that fact made it much easier to Russia as he now had their enemy technically trapped from three sides.
Russia saw some soldiers retreating away, maybe to report the new situation. He clicked his tongue and in his mind halfheartedly apologized to Sweden. He was going to change the order a bit.
"Now it's from four sides," he said, striking his knife's tip to a cord. The bombs exploded further behind from the front lines of the enemy, stopping the retreaters who quickly took cover now. Russia chuckled to the faces the soldier he saw were making. They had just noticed that they had passed by several sets of cords before Russia had began: they were now perfectly trapped in the middle. Oh dear, Russia was enjoying this. Sweden's answer came and Russia was pleased to notice the other had noticed the change in order.
After a moment of this continuing an extra explosion startled Russia and, without him knowing it, made Sweden frown: it came too shortly after another and from a wrong direction. A short inspection revealed to Russia that some of the enemy soldiers had found the cords travelling through the underbrush and tried cutting them. A cord would make the bombs attached to itself explode, no matter where it was cut, so it didn't do much harm to the nations. Russia decided they should for now go with the original plan like nothing had happened. But there was one thing knocking the back of his mind as he continued. That little worry came true seven explosions later, when Sweden's answer suddenly didn't come anymore.
Russia's smile fell and he bit his teeth. Following a cord to a right direction would lead straight into either his or Sweden's hideouts. Either Sweden was taking a long break to think what cord to cut or they were dangerously nearing the worst case scenario. Russia sighed a little when the explosion finally came. At least Sweden was still there. Russia decided to continue for now, but the more cords he cut the clearer it was, that something was definitely going on with Sweden's end. The answers were too irregular.
"What's wrong, Russia?" Switzerland asked strictly when Russia was thinking what to do.
"Something is weird with Sweden," Russia answered, starting again to inspect their enemy's moves.
Switzerland gritted his teeth and growled a bit. "Isn't he weird in general? Send someone there to find out what's wrong. You can do the bombing meanwhile."
"The thing is," Russia answered and looked at the other, smiling, "only I know where he is and how to get there safely. So I'd have to go myself."
"You have got to be kidding me! What were you thinking?!"
Sweden indeed was in a bit of a trouble. He hadn't been able to count but at least ten enemy soldiers had found him by following the cords. He was hiding behind a rock with his gun ready and hoping Russia would stick with the plan and not come to see what kept him from keeping the rhythm. He could do this much. Russia's bombs exploded again and Sweden sighed.
Left blank, downhill side, he registered the sounds quickly and thought quickly as his enemies neared him.Third cord from the center upwards. Sweden glanced around. He was too far from tree by now to use the knife. If not…
Dashing form a cover to another, Sweden threatened his pursuers with a string of bullets, hitting one of them for sure. When he was behind another rock, safe, Sweden took the knife's blade between his fingers and turned to get a bit past his safe zone. He threw the knife to the tree trunk where it sunk, cutting the right cord. Sweden duck back behind the rock and listened to the bullets snapping around him.
"If I were ya," he said out loud to his enemies, "I woul'n't hit that tree if ya don' wanna yar pals gettin' hurt."
.*** *** ***
Russia walked cautiously onwards. Sweden's hide-out was just up ahead, but since he wasn't sure what was going on, it didn't hurt to be careful. Technically this was currently their territory, but if the foreigners respected that, was another question. When Russia found what he was looking, he smiled, put his gun hanging on his shoulder and walked to Sweden who was sitting on the ground his back against a rock. A gun lied beside him on the moss. The tree with the cords was some ten meters behind him, all cords cleanly cut in two and the knife sticking out of the trunk.
"Got yourself a small problem I see," Russia said and came beside the other, glancing to the dead soldiers around. "I'm sorry, I forgot to arrange you back-up." He smiled.
Sweden huffed. " Right."
"That looks painful," Russia continued casually and crouched down. "How did this happen?"
Sweden glanced at his bloody feet and frowned. "I jump'd. To get here."
"Hmm…" Russia hummed in thought before taking his scarf off and tied it first around Sweden's ankle to prevent bleeding, then around the bullet wound on the foot.
Sweden frowned suspiciously and looked up. "Ya don' have a first-aid kit with ya?"
"Currently no," Russia answered.
"Enemy?"
"Dead. Most of them at least. The rest hid in our ninth trench and are quiet for now. It went great if you ask me, but could have gone better. There." Russia finished with the wound and looked up to Sweden. "Can you walk?" he asked but then laughed when Sweden gave him a dry glare, which actually wasn't so far from his usual look. "I guess you can't. Here." Russia offered his hand to help the other up and smiled. "Let's go, comrade."
.*** *** ***
The day was turning into evening. The nation's had a breather in their eighth line as the humans were regrouping and trying to come up with something new in the ninth. Sweden had been taken Home and received a bad-tempered welcome from Finland. Even when the plans had worked out this great, Germany was feeling down. They had again lost two battlers for serious injuries. France, who according to Finland needed a proper hospital to truly recover and Sweden, who couldn't walk.
But, Germany thought, it could have been far worse. I can't thank Russia and Sweden enough.
"Germany!" Denmark raised his voice, sounding astonished. "Look!"
As Germany saw many other nations move restlessly and look baffled as well, he turned around to see the forest between their and their enemy's line where Denmark was pointing. His jaw dropped. There walking closer to their trench alone and in wide open, was their main enemy: the foreign nation they had last seen on their third day in this place when he had come to their current headquarters to declare them a war. What was the most shocking thing was the huge white flag he was holding in his right hand. He stopped about forty meters away from their trench and set the pole of the flag to the ground beside him and called out for them with a loud voice.
"He wants to negotiate?" Poland said, unbelieving. "Oh come on."
"I'll go there," Germany said.
"It could be a trap," Japan warned and glanced worriedly. "I wouldn't trust him too much, white flag or not."
"I know," Germany said, nodding. "Finland." He turned to the medic who had come closer when the fuss had started. "Take Switzerland's spare sniping rifle and climb up to a tree with him. I want you two to pay attention for the possibility of a trap. Russia and Japan, come with me. You rest be on guard, we three can't take guns."
The nations spread to follow the commands, before the foreign nation got impatient waiting for them. Germany glanced around him.
"Does anyone have a white flag?" As a moment of silence followed, Germany frowned. "Please, where is Italy when I need him?"
"On the way to make a report Home." Denmark said, shrugging.
Germany sighed.
After a yet more silence, Belarus stepped forwards and handed Germany a handkerchief. It didn't make Germany look too sure. "Anything else?"
"My petticoat?" Belarus offered coldly.
"I'll…take the handkerchief."
After a while Germany, Russia and Japan rose up from the trench and began to walk their way to their enemy. Germany walked in the middle, holding Belarus' little white handkerchief in sight, slightly embarrassed by it compared to the big flag the foreigner had resting against his shoulder. Russia didn't seem to bother himself with little details so he just smiled, looking excited, while Japan tried to look as dignified and authoritative as possible to hide the fact he was nervous. Soon they reached their negotiating point and stopped a few meters away from their enemy. Behind them in the trench the nations held their breath and followed their moves, waiting for some kind of a trap to go off.
In the trees behind the trench Finland and Switzerland tried to set their sniping rifles into a position they could watch the conversation without any problems from afar and still perhaps shoot someone.
Switzerland huffed, irritated. "There are too many trees in here!"
"It's called a forest, Switzerland. Have you seen one before?" Finland asked casually.
"Shut up!" Switzerland barked back and then he turned his attention to the scene he had in his sight device. "Look, they've began."
The snipers weren't close enough to hear what the negotiators were saying and neither were nations in the trench, who could hear only a couple of words clearly. Still it was clear to everyone that the conversation had started.
"The Federal Republic of Germany, the Russian Federation, and the State of Japan," their enemy started almost casually. He bowed a little. "It's an honour. You're putting up a good fight."
"You noticed already?" Russia answered as casually and gave the other a smile. "Why, you're so smart."
The foreigner huffed slightly. "I was just wondering, when will you notice your resistance is futile?
"When will you notice that you're just throwing away human lives by challenging us?" Germany asked back. "You should have noticed by now how much better we are at this. Why do you continue to attack?"
"You're a nuisance. Simple, isn't it? The world is like that sometimes." Their enemy closed his eyes for a moment. "You can believe me when I say that you're of more use to me dead. Of course I knew killing you wasn't going to be easy, but every one of my soldiers knows how valuable you are to us as corpses. This is not your world. Killing you here should be possible now that there's no physical connection to your country. I don't know what pulled you here, but I'm grateful for the chance to kill you."
"What good does killing us do to you?" Germany asked. "A country doesn't disappear even if we were killed. As a nation yourself you should know that."
The foreigner nodded. "But it's you and only you we're able to connect to via magic. Your absence means no information about the specific country."
"I see." Japan talked for the first time. "But even though your reasons may be true and it is not like I can't understand, what you're doing is completely unreasonable."
"Truly," their enemy said dryly. "Now let's stop the chit-chat and let me say what I came to talk about. With the show you put up today, I have lost my temper with you. I'm going to give you one last chance to surrender."
"If that's all you have to talk about, this conversation is over," Germany said strictly.
"Listen to what I have to say." The other raised his hand, asking for silence. "I can't use heavy artillery here, which I think you've noticed by now. But I figured, if it's strong enough even this land won't be able resist."
"What do you mean?" Germany asked quickly, suddenly on his toes. He didn't like the sound of this and neither did the two beside him.
"State of Japan," the foreigner turned to talk to Japan only. "My only current source of weaponry information is from the United States of America a little after the second World War of your world." Germany shifted and looked at Japan, but their enemy didn't seem to bother with him. "I'm sure you have heard of nuclear weapons." That wasn't a question.
Japan went completely white.
"You cannot be serious," Germany said quietly to their enemy who gave them a bragging smile.
"You think?"
"Do you even know what those things do?" Germany asked, raising his voice and stepped a forwards. "You can't do that. Have you lost your mind?"
"Hardly," the other answered simply.
"Stop it..." Japan said, shivering slightly, but visibly. "You don't know what it is like. You have no idea how horrible it is...so stop it."
Japan was almost in a shock so Germany signalled Russia to take care of him, just in case.
The foreigner continued. "I know. A horrible power..." he said and turned to leave, keeping his white flag up. "Think about it, Federal Republic of Germany. If you surrender I won't drop an atomic bomb to this place and you may live working under me. I don't think it is a bad option for you. Consider it for a while; I'll give you one day. Well, I'm not going to stop attacking while waiting though," he added, partly talking to himself. "I'm too mad at you."
Germany bit his teeth and looked after the nation as he walked further away by every second, but he had nothing he could say back at that moment. Before he had a chance to think up a good reply, their enemy talked again.
"Oh, and one more thing," the foreigner said and walked a little further before stopping. "Don't you think it's disrespectful to come to negotiate with three of your side when I'm alone? That's three against one."
Germany squinted, but kept his voice steadily cold. "I don't want to hear that from you."
The foreign nation answered and raised his white flag high up. "True. But three people, come on." Then, in a wide circle, he flung his flag down, signalling a gunshot to flash horribly in the forest that had for a moment been comfortably quiet.
The foreigner smiled. "With this it's two."
A/N: I have problem: all my OCs are too similar. And I'm not good at writing them: whatever I do with them I can't think them as interesting people in the end. :/ And it seems that because of them, I've left you in a cliffhanger again. I'm sorry, but I really enjoy it. As an apology I'll tell you that in the next chapter, one of the injured nations is going to make a comeback. Anyway, I'm grateful you read this:
thank you so much to all of you.
Wings of Avalon: Thank you for this chapter again. I promise I'll try harder with the next.