14. The Reasoning Chapter

…in which right and just collide

The blue light was illuminating the forest and Switzerland didn't like it at all. The time kept crawling forward and the amount of things he wanted but didn't dare to shoot was increasing unsteadily and yet undoubtedly. Because nothing had really happened, Lithuania, who worked as the leading officer of the rear guard, had ordered everyone to just follow the situation for now. Will-o'-the-wisps weren't actually the safest thing to go explore from what anyone knew from fairytales.

And the time went by, minute by minute. The light that wasn't warm or welcoming kept illuminating the forest in a way that only created more shadows for them to guard.

"Someone's comin'," Sweden said suddenly and to everyone's surprise instead of aiming to the direction they were supposed to guard, he turned around swiftly, pointing the gun to the direction of their front line.

The others followed his example. They took their guns to stance and waited as a sound of someone crawling and sneaking closer to them grew stronger. Belgium and Netherlands stayed in guard to the other direction, but all the others followed the sound with their gun points.

Switzerland pushed Italy into better hiding and spoke up. "Password?"

The sounds stopped immediately. After a moment, an uneasy voice squeaked back from the dark forest. "Did we have one?"

Switzerland broke his stance. "Correct answer. You may come, Denmark."

A short while later the second-in-command came properly in sight. "Jesus, Switzerland, don' scare people like that. I really thought I had forgotten somethin'…"

"Wouldn' be new," Sweden mumbled.

But Denmark just gave him a smile before turning back to Lithuania and Switzerland. "It's orders from China," Denmark said. "No one is allowed to move or do anythin' to the fires until we know what they are. If they won' do anythin' to us, the better. We clear?"

"That sounds exactly what we have been doing already. We are clear," Switzerland nodded in return but then glared from Denmark to the forest. "And despite the fires, you still just crawled past all of them. I do hope you at least had permission."

"It was an order," Denmark corrected. "Someone had to tell ye, and I volunteered."

"Are you planning to go back as well?" Netherlands asked. He nodded towards the blue fires between the front and rear. There was less between than around them, but too much for their liking anyway. It had already been almost an hour since the first ones had appeared. "There's one lighting up again."

"Of course I have to. Crawlin' under them seems to work fine," Denmark said and turned already. "Sve, dear, don't you overdo it, okay?" he wished over his shoulder to Sweden who gave him a long stare, which went unnoticed in the dark.

Denmark was stopped by a sharp 'shush' from the direction of Belgium. "Someone's coming," She whispered and leant more down to the moss.

This time all guns pointed to the forest outside China's formation. Lithuania raised a finger to his lips and passed the sign on to everyone. And as they waited, a new blue flame lit up silently somewhere on their right, behind a tree where no one could see.

And the time went by, second by second.

Remaining time to departure:1 day, 5 hours, 29 minutes, 14 seconds

…A while earlier

Iceland lingered in the door way until Finland and Canada had disappeared into the will-o'-wisp herd, having tied the rope around their respective arms to ensure they wouldn't stray from each other even while not looking.

"Ice," Norway said from the inside. "We don' want them to get in. Close the door."

"Will... will they be okay?" Latvia asked nervously and glanced outside to the clearing around them from the window. The yard was full of the blue fires that had come from nowhere.

"I'm sure they will," Liechtenstein said, smiling softly, returning to do now what she had been doing before the fires had started appearing: tending Germany. "Let's just trust the two."

Iceland had taken a half a step inside, ready to close the door, but had then stopped to glance at the edge forest that could be seen far behind the will-o'-wisps.

"Ice," Norway repeated, urging the other to come inside.

Iceland moved slightly in a way that indicated he was going to obey but hesitated. "I hope Sealand is okay."

Estonia, who had come beside him to close the door himself because Iceland had taken his time, froze. "Oh no, I forgot him... Norway we must-"

"We won' do a thing," Norway answered immediately and received unbelieving stares from the nations in room. Norway silenced the arising objections quickly by speaking up again. "We dunno where he is or where to look. And who'd go? We've too little people here as it is and I won' send more people to wander out there. Sealand is on his own."

"Weren't we all going to go back together from here?" America argued back and raised his gun. "If there is a possibility that someone needs help, we must naturally go and save him. I'll go and look for him!"

"You are not going anywhere," a new voice joined the conversation from the bench beside the back wall. "Calm down, America. Norway is right." Austria stood up as slowly as his injured leg required and sighed. "Right now, the ones in the trenches are in graver danger than Sealand is and Germany closer to losing his life than Finland and Canada. We must accept that there simply are things our resources won't allow us to accomplish. If you want to be of help, America, help girls to treat wounded."

"But..." America started. "I need something more heroic to do. This is just frustrating."

"This has been frustrating to all of us for days now," Austria said sounding almost cold. "Why cannot you accept the situation?"

"Ask our chieftains," Hong Kong said from his sitting spot on the floor and looked between Liechtenstein to Seychelles. "They're the ones to decide, right? If we won't have discipline when we decide things, I dunno know why we have captains at all."

Seychelles looked surprised when someone directly treated her as a captain, but Liechtenstein just lowered her eyes back to Germany and clutched the edge of the table.

"Close the door," she said quietly to Estonia who stood on the doorway, hand ready on the door handle. "We'll take priority of the people inside."

America huffed, irritated, but lowered his gun when no one stood up with him. Iceland finally stepped away from the doorstep so Estonia could finally pull the door close, which he then did.

But Norway suddenly jerked in shock and he started towards the door. "Estonia," he uttered a quick, loud warning.

Estonia jumped in surprise and looked up, realizing too late that it was the very thing he shouldn't have done. The will-o'-wisp flapped in front of his face like in strong wind, the light reflecting from Estonia's widened eyes. The blue fire flashed once before it reached its flames towards Estonia's face like a snake; crawling inside his head from eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. By then, Norway reached him and grabbed Estonia just as the other's legs gave in. Estonia slumped onto the floor, only Norway's arms keeping him upright.

"Estonia!" many nations called in shock and hesitated to come closer.

Immediately after grabbing him, Norway raised his free hand and spread his fingers over Estonia's face. A sharp greenish light circled down from fingertips like threads, but Norway stopped them before they touched Estonia. He bit his teeth and his form shivered slightly as he watched the last blue flaming lizard like things disappear inside Estonia and burn the out light from the Baltic's eyes. Slowly, the small green threads returned to Norway's fingers and he let his hand fall.

Someone finally moved as Latvia stumbled down on his knees beside his neighbor, calling his name, while Norway laid the body from his arms to floor and rose up. "Norway," Latvia continued and turned to look at the Nordic. "What happened to him? Why did you stop? Couldn't... couldn't you have saved him?"

Seychelles crouched down beside the Baltics as well and leant down over Estonia to see what had happened. She shivered. "N... Norway?"

"I could have tried savin' him," Norway answered quietly and turned away. "But I've never done that before...that would've taken too much magic."

"So you just... let that flame do its thing?" America judged. "When he was right there and you could have saved him, you didn't do a thing because that's "waste of magic"? How is that "waste"?! How can you care about some magic when there's someone's life at stake?!"

"That's exactly why I didn' do anythin'!" Norway shouted back. "I'm in charge of lives of almost forty people here! Would ye rather have stayed here longer waitin' for my magic to replenish! I couldn' have done both!" He hit his fist against the thin air in frustration. "I'm too weak!" Norway took a deep breath and faced the wall, trying to calm down a bit. "There was no guarantee I could've saved him. It's up to me to take ye all home. Even if I had managed to stop the foolish fire, that'd have meant at least a day more we spent on this place. Which would've lead at least to Germany's death... if not others and many more would've gotten injured. I can still try saving Estonia when we get back. But until that, he'll be beyond any help. ...I'm sorry."

"Saving what's in front of you comes first!" America insisted in a fury and stood before Norway. "We could have made up something together to make up for it later! How can you just sacrifice him?"

"Quiet down, America!" Austria raised his voice. "Norway said there is still a chance Estonia can be saved afterwards. But nothing will save Germany if we take longer to get home. It might seem inhuman and unjust, but Norway did right."

The Nordic himself turned to look at Estonia one more time, his usual expressionless mask on his face again and you couldn't read what exactly was he thinking.

"Norway..." Seychelles sobbed up to him and held Estonia's hand. "He's not breathing."

Norway turned his head away. "I know."

Latvia took his friend to his hands and raised the lifeless Estonia to his arms, shivering, lines of tears staining his face. Then he cried, letting his voice raise up to the ceiling as a suppressed shout of raw pain of loss.

.

Present

When the sounds were close, Switzerland acted. When the bushes in front of them rustled and the slowly could see human shapes in the woods he – despite Lithuania's orders to stay put and wait – sprang up and swiftly attacked the closest newcomer.

"No!" Lithuania whispered loudly, but too late as Switzerland was already gone and sounds of wrestling and struggling broke the silence of the forests. Lithuania turned to the person beside him. "Netherlands, show light."

Some other members of the rear guard stood a little up too, getting ready to help Switzerland. Netherlands managed to swiftly carry out the orders and pointed a light after Switzerland to reveal what was going on.

Switzerland was on his knees over a human form that revealed to be Finland. Both nations had a barrel of a gun on their foreheads, ready to shoot the suspicious attacker. Canada laid forgotten nearby, having fallen over as Finland had tried to put up a fight while being tied to the other.

"Not bad," Finland said and smiled. "China's plan seems to be working a bit."

"Don't sneak up on us like that," Switzerland huffed and took the gun away. "I could have killed you."

"I wasn't aware we were this close to you. It is a bit hard to navigate here."

All three nations were helped up from the moss and greeted welcome to the front. Finland and Canada then shared Norway's instructions about the fires and told everyone a bit about their journey through the forest.

"There weren't any fires between here and Home," Canada told them, a bit surprisingly. "There were many near the hut, but they decreased steadily after that and by the time of the first trench, there were none anymore."

"When we got close here, they appeared again," Finland continued. "But this is nothing compared to headquarters."

"There's more between the eighth and ninth line," Denmark smirked, happy to see Finland. "Ye come back with me to see China?"

"Yup," Finland answered and smiled. "We must hear where we are wanted."

"I'm sorry for the commotion," Canada said and nodded to the rear fighters when the three got ready to leave.

The trip back to the trench didn't took as long as it had taken Denmark to get away from there as now they knew that crawling under the will-o'-wisps wasn't necessary. China was pleased to know that the fires wouldn't do anything unless they didn't get too near them and that he had finally gotten his two last fighters to join the line. The two got appointed to the former right wing to form the last pair to join the action group. A message was passed along the line to both of its ends: stay away from the fires, don't do anything to them and even if they appeared closer themselves, never try getting a closer look or touch of them.

The fires kept lighting the forest until the sun rose. With sunlight, they disappeared as silently as they had appeared. No one attacked the nations that night. And in the light of the morning the nations understood why: their enemy was gone. At some point during the night and earlier morning, the enemy troops had retreated no doubt to not get caught in the blast of an atomic bomb. While the nations were also pleased for not having to fight, they also still had the problem of their enemy demanding them to surrender. China rounded up all nations who had more experience in warfare situations like this and they held a long argument of what to do.

No solution was found.

Only one thing they all agreed to. The same they had decided the first time the war had been declared: they would never surrender. But the nuclear bomb had to be avoided at any cost. They could flee to one of their allies' countries, but that would make the homecoming perhaps impossible and Germany would no doubt die. Some proposed further negotiations with the enemy nation, but that had been rejected as most nations saw it as a futile effort and even less wanted to have anything to do with negotiations after the last time. One other old idea was also thrown out: assassination. That idea got a lot more votes behind it, but if it would it stop the bomb, they weren't sure. There was also no proof that the assassination could succeed and would they have time for it: they had no idea where to start looking for their target.

During the morning the front was also delivered the news about Estonia to everyone's horror. The already gloomy, deep mood sank even more. Despite of all their efforts, the war had now cost them a comrade. After many hours the meeting was postponed for everyone to think of things on their own. Angry, frustrated, and sad the nations scattered to carry out other orders. Some guarded the trench, a group of healthier nations was sent to the ninth and tenth line to make sure no enemy was anymore present, and everyone was given an order to rest and eat, gather up strength and think. China himself went Home, leaving Denmark in charge of the front. On his way back with Russia and Japan, they ran into Latvia who had been coming to the front with news as Italy was away.

Sealand had come back.

Remaining time to departure: 22 hours, 47 minutes, 20 seconds

"Ye owe us an explanation," Norway said indifferently to their female ally who looked up and turned to him after angrily swearing to the fire about their situation. Norway clarified when no immediate response came. "I want an explanation to three things. Why did the will-o'-wisps appear? Will they appear again? And are those things the reason England can't use magic?"

Mrs. Ally sighed. "Okay, the first two are easy. It's best you think of them as warnings. To explain it in layman's terms, the magic on this land reacted on your spell preparations and came to protect its territory."

"So why did they appear near the trenches as well?" Liechtenstein asked.

"Probably to object to all the mines you've used."

"You're making that magic thing sound like a living being," America noted, glancing nervously around again, like waiting for some magical being to pop up behind a bush and announce it was irritated.

Their ally nodded. "Thinking of it like that is not a bad idea at all. But you are slightly incorrect. The magic itself isn't exactly alive. Okay, that aside, as to will they appear again… I'd say it's definitely going to happen. As long as you, Kingdom of Norway, continue on your spell, they'll surely appear every night."

Norway squinted. "I was afraid it was like that…is there a way to prevent it?"

"Certainly," Mrs. Ally answered and snorted, sounding almost amused. "Didn't I say? Stop the preparations. Or if you want a more efficient way," she said, took her gun from her belt and raised it to point at Norway's head without any warning. "You'll just have to die."

For a moment she was silent but then she smiled at the four guns she now had pointing on her own head. "Good reaction," she praised Liechtenstein, America, Iceland and Hong Kong who had raised their weapons immediately to protect their magician. Norway didn't even bat an eye.

"You wanna die or what?" Hong Kong asked and holstered his handgun as the ally put her firearm away.

"Okay, perhaps that wasn't the cleverest thing to do," admitted and turned to look back at Norway. "To the last question I can't really answer for sure. I can just guess that his magic's type collides too much with the one we use here. So they kinda block each other, okay? Perhaps if he spent more time here he'd come able to use some."

"Unfortunately he's not going to stay," Iceland said.

"I'd prefer as well he didn't, okay?" the woman replied and frowned. "The sooner you are all out of here, the sooner the things will return to normal."

"We are planning on leaving alright."

Everyone raised their heads and turned to see China coming closer with Russia and Japan.

"Thank you for coming," China said and stopped beside Norway, nodding to their ally. "I believe we have not spoken with each other like this. I am China. The current commanding officer."

"Oh, the People's Republic of China," Mrs. Ally greeted and stood up. "I have no link with you so I don't know much about you I'm afraid."

"Skip formalities, you two, let's get to the point," Russia urged cheerfully and clapped his hands together. "So: we have a bigger problem and we need you."

"So I heard from your messenger," their ally said and her expression turned dark.

"Where is Sealand?" China remembered and looked around. "We need to thank him for the job well done."

"He's in the hut taking a nap," Iceland answered. "He's feeling ill. Miss here teleported them back to us and it seems his stomach couldn't take it."

"Teleported?" Norway asked suspiciously and gave their ally an indifferent glare. "I thought ye said ye couldn' use magic here? How do ye explain that?"

Mrs. Ally snorted. "Because it's not impossible if situation calls for it. It's not like we can't, we just prefer not to. Okay?"

"Because of the willow-o'-wisps?"

"Because of the willow-o'-wisps, for starters."

"For starters?"

Japan sighed and interrupted. "Miss. We appreciate your help greatly and acknowledge we wouldn't still be here if it wasn't for you and your friend. But this is ridiculous. I do not know what are you hiding and why, but I think you owe us an explanation by now. What is this place? Why is this place a no-man's-land?"

.*** *** ***

The pain was gone. He felt sore. But pain: not so much. However, moving was the last thing his body seemingly wanted to do. So he laid on his back, eyes closed and didn't pay any attention to his surroundings. It was quiet, but it felt good and somehow living. He ventured the space around him with his other drowsy and still slow senses. He could feel, smell, and hear the area around breathe with him as he slowly forced his eyes to open in interest.

He didn't know immediately where he was or remember what had happened. A few glances later his brain recognized the place and a few more before he remembered why. Exactly how, however, didn't occur to him no matter how many times he blinked at the ceiling and the walls he could see. For some reason, his eyesight felt crooked and distorted.

Slowly he forced his head to move to the side to see more around. A little away from him, in another bed laid France.

He was shocked. France shouldn't have been there. He had been just fine. He shouldn't have been there in bandages, unconscious, looking pale and weak. Why? He opened his mouth to call him, but all he could manage was grumpy whisper he didn't hear well even himself.

A movement in his far eyesight caught his attention and at the same time, his ears registered they had heard footsteps. He looked at the girl who had come in. She had come to see France, because that's where she first directed her way, before she turned to glance at him and immediately froze.

The girl clutched the papers against her chest and dropped a medical bag from her hand to the floor, shivering. "England?"

This time he managed to make his voice clearer as he answered. "What is it? Seychelles?"

A/N: Hello. I was seriously in belief that it hasn't been all that long since I updated this story. Perhaps starting to publish Cold Expedition made me think that: it has been a while since I've posted two stories at the same time. But the important thing is: here you go, have a new chapter of War. I hope you forgive me the wait again, I'm terribly slow with this because it's hard to write. It takes me time to reach a final result I'm satisfied with. I hope this chapter makes up for the wait to some extent. I'm myself quite content how it turned out (after rewriting the Estonia scene five times...).

Does this count as a cliffhanger?

kshima91: Dimension Tales has five parts that are loosely connected, but not in a way it matters in which order you read them. War is the 1st one, obviously. The 2nd is called Dream, in which the nations are trapped inside dreams and need to find their way out by finding passwords and undoing locks that keep dreams and real world apart. The 3rd is called Fantasy in which the nations are send into a fantasy world human imagination has created. While there, they get turned into various fantasy creatures etc. and need to accomplish twelve (not-so-)heroic deeds to "win the game" and get home. This one is the longest. The 4th is called Past in which the nations try to prevent the past and present from entwining (this is the shortest), and the last one is called Future, in which it is explained why all the the other parts happened. All five start with a larger meeting of nations where something happens or something that has already happened is discussed and the settings are similar in first three, but that's about how much they have in common.

Whew, sorry for the wall of text. I hope this answered your question. And thank you for a long review, never apologise for that. I like it when people are commenting various different things.

Guesty: Thank you. I'm happy to kill your feels.

betsybugaboo: a) asdfghjklasdff... x.x

Would this help? (Underlining = captain, italicized = currently unable to fight, bracets = has switched places somewhere else)

Action group:

Centers: Germany, England, China, (Sweden), Denmark, (Lithuania), Poland, Iceland, Russia, Taiwan, Australia, Belarus

Right wing: Japan, France, (Belgium), Romano, Spain, Canada, Cuba, Hong Kong, Ukraine

Left wing: (China), Korea, (Belarus), Austria, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, (Netherlands), Hungary

Sniper: Switzerland, occasionally Finland

China's fighting back-up team: Lithuania, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands

Backup group:

Commander: (Hungary)

Later: Finland, Liechtenstein and Seychelles

Head medic: (Finland)

Later: Seychelles

Permanent participants: Liechtenstein, Seychelles, Latvia

Runners: Italy, Sealand

Homing group:

Leader: Norway

Participants: Estonia

Copy pasted from my own notes. (Almost: I deleted some spoilers, like the third sniper. *smile*)

b) pffft- XD You. But to answer your question: no. I'm afraid that's not possible.

...

I think I've never written such a long A/N... Do people eve read these if they're this long?

Wings, thank you for incredible proofreading speed.