Warning: This chapter too has been published without being scanned by the watchful eyes of native speakers

17. The Defending Chapter

...in which darkness is both an ally and an enemy

As Denmark's cry died out and he fell silent in the dark forest, little did he know that his feat had been seen. One person had watched his battle and sacrifice and another had witnessed its aftermath. Had he known, he would have most likely not swung the axe down on his own arm to break free. But now it was done and as Denmark fell unconscious, he didn't know that the help had been coming.

The first person was Sealand. After crouching to the ground in terror of being shot and unable to move on to warn the rear guard like he had been told, Sealand had stayed down, terrified to even breath and simply listened what was happening behind him. Telling himself to move and carry out his orders, Sealand had finally made himself look up to check could he go on without being shot. That was when he had witnessed something he had never wanted to see.

The second person had heard the battle, mainly the shouting as the sound of gunfire had drowned within the other sounds of the battle. Leaving what she had been doing, she had dashed to the forest towards the front line from the rear guard and little before she made it, the shouts changed from that of a grown man to that of a terrified young child.

Denmark sat upright on his knees for a moment after his voice died out. His remaining arm fell from his left shoulder to hang limp on his side. Sealand tried to scramble up to go back to him but stumbled n the dark, falling back down. Just as he did, he heard somebody coming and Sealand turned around to see something ran past him straight to Denmark. Belarus caught Denmark to her arms before he hit the ground after finally falling down.

Her eyes ran over from his shoulder to his face, from the cut off arm to the man lying dead on the ground nearby, and finally glancing at Sealand. Her mind tied the pieces together to gain some understanding. All the possibilities she could make up, she hated.

"Curse them!" she screamed to the night and gripped Denmark's bleeding shoulder in a meaningless effort to try and make bleeding stop. "Curse all of them!"

.*** *** ***

The stars and the will-o'-wisps lighted the night around the Home. There weren't yet quite as many around as the previous night but the number seemed to be steadily increasing. In between the flickering wisps, Norway continued to work. Last night, he had retreated to the hut out of their way, but he couldn't do that anymore. They were running out of time and there was no longer anything he could do without being outside to do it. Beside him his replacement assistant for Estonia, Hong Kong, was silently looking at the ground before them as Norway was drawing ancient Norwegian symbols to the flat bottom of a hole they had dug to the ground.

When he was done, Norway held out his hand and Hong Kong gave him the top most paper of the pile he was guarding. The stack of papers was still big: a lot of work was still to be done. But it was considerably smaller than when they had began and with the time in their hands while they had shut themselves inside, Norway had made further preparations to increase their working speed now. Norway set the piece of paper on top of the symbols on the ground, careful not to ruin them and left his hand on top of it for a moment, letting the letters and lines on the paper shine in greenish light of his magic before withdrawing his hand.

He straightened and nodded. "That's one more down," he said while carefully shoving the little dirt pile back to fill the whole, burying the paper and the still slightly glowing symbols from sight. "Let's move on to the next one."

"Isn't this like... awfully dangerous and stuff?" Hong Kong confirmed and, avoiding a direct look, he glanced at the will-o'-wisps floating innocently a little distance away all around them.

"Don't look at 'em. Don't even glance," Norway said strictly, reading his memo (perhaps a bit ironically) in the light of the will-o'-wisps. "Just ignore 'em. We don't have time. Yer just makin' it worse."

"Well aye then boss," Hong Kong replied as they started walking the little distance to the next spot where Norway needed his spell to be anchored.

They kept their heads down and moved cautiously but determined among the blue fires. Hong Kong's knee was still injured, but he needed exercise for it and he had been tired of sitting in the hut doing nothing that felt really worth while ever since he had been injured the first day the fighting had started. Respecting Hong Kong's decision to be his aid even with a badly aching and slightly dysfunctional leg, Norway had set himself on not to worry or ask about it unless something seemed really wrong. The will-o'-wisps once again dodged a little out of their way like the previous night, but kept their circle tight around them. It felt like they were watching them closely but silently, judging every action and waiting for them to make a mistake or give them a reason to close in.

From the closest hut window, curious eyes were following their moves closely as Norway and Hong Kong made their way from one dirt pile to another for Norway to do his thing.

"I want to get them back in," Liechtenstein said nervously, pacing in the room until ultimately always returning to glance out of the window again. "Can we get them back in? There's more and more of those things every minute."

"You're exaggerating," England noted, while looking outside himself and leaning to the wall beside the window. "I'd rather say every five minutes."

"You know quite well that is not what she meant," Austria scolded strictly from his seat. "And I agree with Liechtenstein." He sighed. "Or that is what I would like to say. But I cannot deny we are in a hurry. And if someone, Norway should know the risks and still he is the one out there."

"Norway knows what he's doing," Iceland said from one corner where he was trying to sleep, pretending he wasn't worried.

"I really hope so..." Liechtenstein buried her face into her hands and stopped pacing. "And England, please, be careful with that window, I don't want anyone to end up like Estonia. Oh, I wish this'd all just be over already."

"Liechten!" a sudden loud voice said and Seychelles popped her head in sight from the other side room. "Come over here real quick."

"What?" Liechtenstein looked up at her, visibly distressed. "Is... did something..." she stuttered as she scrambled over to Seychelles who smiled at her and pet her head while taking her hand to guide her into the room.

"There there, Liechten, don't worry," she said and pulled her along. "It's Spain. Look."

Liechtenstein had already noticed why she had been called over for and her expression brightened considerably as Spain smiled cautiously at her and waved from his bed.

"Yo," Spain said, sitting up and scratched the back of his head. "I... I'm sorry you guys. I ended up sleeping a lot, didn't I?"

"What?" America said from the other room and appeared to the door along with Latvia. "Spain?! Wow dude, you're alive!"

"I wasn't aware I was dead at some point," Spain replied, running his fingers across the bandages around his head. "I remember I fell from somewhere, and that's pretty much it."

"You've been out for days now man!" America beamed energetically at him and gave Spain a friendly shove to the shoulder. "It's good to have you back among the living."

"How are you feeling?" Seychelles asked whole offering Spain some water. "Is your head giving you trouble? Any nausea? Vision problems?"

"Nah, I'm cool," Spain said and gladly accepted the offered glass, taking a sip of water. "But man does it feel like I jumped through time. Last time I saw you, America, you were the one who was supposed to be in bed."

"Oh, that's right," Liechtenstein said and looked a bit bothered. "Um so... You wouldn't know anything that has happened the past few days of course. Hah hah... Well... do you want to clear your head a little more first and get used to being awake again before we brief you in? We have a lot to talk about."

.*** *** ***

China yelped and bend down to the cover of the trench, pretending to get hit to lure a few humans out of their problematic hiding. Japan fell for it too and came down to check him in shock, but quickly understood the scheme when China signalled him to calm down and get ready. Thinking there was a hole in their defence, their enemy moved up to strike them. China, together with Japan, stood back up and stopped the humans in them middle of their attempt.

In the light of the will-o'-wisps they saw one of the humans escape their fire and run back. He ran face first into one of the wisps and China cringed at the sight of the human tensing up at first before falling down to the moss, unmoving.

China turned away and turned his attention into reloading his gun. "I hate this gosh darn place... so much," he mumbled to himself. "It is not long now. Come on, Norway, I trust you. Not long now."

"I think we're winning this round," Japan said, aiming into the dark forest, covering behind the edge of the trench, ready to crouch down to better safety. "Taiwan and Australia might have been right in saying it wasn't a large unit."

"Do not let your guard down, Japan," China replied, glancing into the direction of the back guard. "The attack has been... almost too weak. I get the feeling something is not right about it."

"Like a diversion or something?" Poland asked and hopped a step closer to hear them better. "Being able not to hear them coming is like majorly annoying and stuff but other than that, can't we just you know, conclude we're just that awesome?"

"You are taking this too lightly!"

But indeed soon all the noise in their line disappeared. One by one all the guns quieted down and soon the last shot rang from direction of the rear guard. It felt like silence engulfed their little group like a veil. Waiting anxiously for a new enemy to pop up, each of them jerked into a direction of any new sound to check it's source, aiming into the darkness, hoping nothing would come.

China heard someone coming from the direction of the rear guard and aimed his gun to the opposite direction. For a second a thought flashed in his brain that they had been encircled, but the footsteps sounded too steady and straightforward for someone hiding behind an enemy line. Nevertheless, China didn't let his guard down before he identified the newcomer as Belarus.

"Thank goodness it is just you," China said quietly and dropped his stance when Belarus dropped to their little trench beside him. China signalled Japan and Poland to stay on a lookout and crouched down to the bottom of the trench to whisper with Belarus, fearing a loud voice would shatter the illusionary silence around them. "So... How is the rear guard?"

"Good. Those sneaky bastards trying to get a better of us didn't expect they'd run into Switzerland. Don't worry. They didn't live to regret it," Belarus replied as quietly with a cold almost monotonous voice. She looked far more displeased than her report gave reason to and a shiver ran down China's spine when he asked why. Belarus frowned and send so intense glares at the wall beside her it would have probably died if it was alive in the first place. "The rear guard is not our problem now. It's Denmark and Turkey."

"Denmark?" China repeated, surprised and bit his teeth. He had thought he had heard Denmark shout something after he had left, but had dismissed it as some kind of a battle cry. While he couldn't have gone to help either way, now he regretted it even before knowing the truth. "About Turkey I knew but... Why? What happened?"

"He lost his arm," Belarus said outright and didn't give them a second to digest the information before continuing. "He cut it off himself. This is all according to what that brat Sealand managed to babble between sobs but there was an enemy magician that sneaked past our lines. He did something to trap Denmark and he cut himself loose to defeat the guy. Needless to say but he can't fight anymore. Turkey on the other hand was shot to the nape of his neck. He's arguing that he's fine, but he's losing too much blood to be convincing."

"Dear lord..." Japan muttered, listening to the conversation while trying to keep an eye out for enemies. "We need to get both of them Home then, as soon as possible."

"Can we really afford to detach people from the line to do that? We're sort of running low on numbers here," Poland noted. "And I mean, really, if there already was a guy in the middle of us, who says there isn't more? And I like am not too eager to drag injured through the wisp jungle around Home, you know."

China had burrowed his face into his hands, trying to not blame or pity himself for taking responsibility of things. They had been injured in many ways, but an arm? Along with England's eye, that was too irreversible for his tastes. Turkey and Denmark both being unable to battle was a huge hit to their power levels. Both had so far almost tirelessly kept going on when others had wanted to rest. Not to mention that they were so close to leaving: China had hoped no major injuries would occur before Norway was ready. They were so close...

"So? What will it be?" Belarus urged him to give them some orders.

China slowly raised his head again. "We are retreating."

"What?" Belarus asked, distaste in her voice. Japan and Poland looked also astonished.

But China had made a decision and was planning to test the limits of his authority as a commander. "Japan and Poland. Send a message to both ends. We are retreating to the previous line. I'll wait ten minutes before giving a signal. Everyone is to stay absolutely quiet and stick to their partners. It is like Poland said: as things are we can no longer know what is waiting for us. But we cannot sit still here. We will not let ourselves be encircled, trapped or assassinated from within. So we will change the playground and buy Norway as much time as he needs." China took a little break to see if an argument would rise, but as all three other stayed silent, he looked at Belarus. "The rear guard will take the injured Home and then return. Switzerland will take charge of that. And Belarus, when you go to the rear guard to relay this, send someone from there to be my partner in the line."

"Excuse me?" Belarus asked, displeased. "Am I dismissed from that spot now?"

"Strictly speaking, yes. But not for the reason you think," China hurried to add when Belarus gave him a scornful look. "I need you to go on a special mission for me, Belarus." China turned around to address the nation who had now lowered his gun and crouched closer to listen more carefully. "Poland. Along with the retreat order, send a message to Russia that I need him here immediately."

"Ho-kay?" Poland raised his eyebrows and saluted a little. "That all then?"

"Yes," China said, then checking everyone had understood and remembered what to do before nodding. "Those ten minutes start now. Go."

Poland, Japan and Belarus all nodded and left to their own directions. China stood up and took a deep breath, aiming his gun at the dark forest again and counting seconds in his mind. He needed to guard this part of the line alone for a moment.

Remaining time to departure: 7 hours, 41 minutes, 18 seconds

When China send a signal, the nations scrambled up from their spots as quietly as possible and sneaked away from their current line under the cover of night. The will-o'-wisps seemed surprisingly more tame than the previous night: only a few threatened to get in their way and not many new ones seemed to appear. A few of them flickered, like slightly protesting, when the nations slipped past them and as per Norway's instructions, kept their heads low and eyes on the ground when one was near.

Switzerland had lead the rear guard away earlier, Denmark and Turkey in their care. Since most of them were still recovering from injuries, their advancing was slow but no one complained. When the time would be right and Norway ready, they all had anyway been prepared to run at command to reach Home no matter what enemies were after them. This would be a good warm-up to remind their bodies how to move again. Lithuania had stayed behind to join China on the front lines as Denmark's substitute, while Sealand had gone with the others to go back Home for now and switch places with Italy.

China noticed movement in the dark close by coming towards him and turned to face Russia as he and Belarus came to retreat beside him.

"How can I help, commander?"

China nodded. "Good, you are here. Stay close. We will talk when everyone is in position again."

.*** *** ***

When Norway raised his hand from a new seal he had finished feeding his magic to, his movements paused and he tensed, like trying to listen to something he couldn't quite hear.

Hong Kong tilted his head. "What's the matter now?"

"The will-o'-wisps..." Norway muttered a reply, not relaxing or moving. "They're actin'... weird..."

Hong Kong glanced a bit around as cautiously as he could at the flickering fires around them. "I don't think they're any weirder than usual."

"Not the way ya think," Norway said, turning Hong Kong's attention back to himself. "Something... changed..." He closed his eyes, frowning deeply as he tried to make sense of the new feeling the wild magic around him was emitting. Something about it seemed... more active or distressed than usual. It was...

Angry, Norway understood and opened his eyes quickly, turning to Hong Kong. "Someone's here–"

He's sentence was cut and replaced by a loud gasp and a moan when a small bullet tore its way into his side, followed by a gunshot less than a millisecond behind.

Hong Kong could feel himself turn pale as Norway toppled to the ground before him with a groan, blood on his clothes. "No!"

Abandoning the paper pile in his hands, Hong Kong threw himself over Norway's body in attempt to cover their magician from any extra harm and pulled out his handgun from it's holster by his chest. Hovering over Norway, he pointed the handgun to the direction of the shot, but could see nothing past the areas the will-o'-wisps lit.

"Hong Kong!" England shouted from the hut window where he had been keeping guard, opening it slightly so that his voice would reach. "What happened?!"

"There's someone here!" Hong Kong replied, not sparing a glance towards the window and kept scanning the blue lit field with his eyes. "Norway was shot!"

"W-What?" Liechtenstein stuttered behind England and all blood escaped from her face. "No... Please... not Norway..." She quickly squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head before opening her eyes again, now concentrating. "Everyone able grab their weapons! The enemy is here!" she ordered, taking out her own handgun out from the holster attached behind her lower back.

"Hong Kong, do you know where they are?!" England asked from the window again, loading the rifle Austria handed to him.

"I can't see them," Hong Kong replied, clearly irritated of this fact. Then he startled a little and glanced down at Norway, who coughed and said something to him that England couldn't hear. Hong Kong soon glanced at the window shortly before turning back to point his gun at the night. "Norway says they haven't entered the main will-o'-wisp field. Something about how the willies here behave. So they're shooting from somewhere further away." He then glared down at Norway who groaned again, attempting to change position to get up. "Stop moving, you! If you dare die I'll never forgive you, you hear!"

"We have to get the two inside," Austria said from another window, where he was keeping an eye out for any movement from that direction. "If something happens to Norway, this will all be for nothing."

"Something already happened to Norway if you didn't hear, you idiot!" England cursed by his own window. He wasn't sure which part of their situation he currently hated the most: that there was an enemy near their Home they couldn't find, that Norway was injured, the will-o'-wisps or that he wasn't well enough himself to storm out of the window and take care of all the previous ones himself. "And I hate to say this but we can't stay cooped up here without knowing what we're up against. If they have a mortar we'll soon be a mix of burned toast and badly scrambled eggs."

"I'm worried about the front lines," Austria noted, pressing his lips into a tight line. "I never wished our headquarters to be attacked, but now that they have, I do hope this is a sneak attack and not... result of the enemy getting past everyone in the action group."

"They're not that weak!"

"I'll go get Norway and Hong Kong," Iceland said by the door, his hand already on the door handle.

"I'll come with you," Seychelles said and quickly tied a bag of first aid supplies to her belt in the case they needed them as she came to the door as well. Iceland gave her a nod. When they were about to open the door and check if the coast was clear, someone else spoke up as well.

"What England said is right," America declared, joining Iceland and Seychelles by the door. "We have to know what we're facing. I'll go out and scout and then take out the enemy."

"Are you an idiot, America, as if you could do that on your own, in the dark, semi-healthy and with your will-o'-wisp dodging and stealth skills," England scowled at him.

"Right then, then I won't go alone. Come along, Latvia!" America replied, grabbing Latvia with him as he opened the door before anyone else could and slipped outside.

"Wha-huh? Me?" Latvia yelped as he was pulled outside to the night.

"That only gets rid of one problem in your plan– GET BACK IN HERE, AMERICA!"

England's order rang on deaf ears and, fuming, he added America's stupidity to the list of things he hated in this situation. Before America and Latvia got far away, Liechtenstein quickly ordered the panicking Italy to calm down and go with the two. If the forest in the direction of their lines seemed safe enough, it was time he again did his job as a runner and delivered the information about the situation to the action group. If the coast was not clear, or if it was too unclear was it clear or not, Italy was to stick with America and Latvia.

Seychelles and Iceland also slipped out of the door and closed it behind them. Inside the hut, each window was occupied by a nation keeping guard on the clearing around them. Liechtenstein, being the only one completely healthy inside at the moment, ran between the two windows without a lookout, checking them both. England, Austria and Spain stood on guard by their windows, England also reporting on how Iceland and Seychelles were proceeding.

But no one attacked. After the one gunshot that had hit Norway, no one fired their gun for a good while. Knowing there was an enemy out there, who was maybe only waiting their chance or preparing something bigger in the darkness, made them all grit their teeth and break a cold sweat. They couldn't lower their guard, but nothing changed and they didn't know what to expect. Outside, Seychelles was inspecting Norway's injuries, trying to determine whether or not he could be moved inside or should she try to patch him up outside. Hong Kong and Iceland were their guards and all four were covering on the ground only a pathetic little bush and tufts of longer hay as their shelter. The will-o'-wisps flocked around them but all the of them decisively ignored them, turning their gaze immediately elsewhere if one seemed to float too close.

The status of America, Latvia and Italy was unknown.

Finally, Seychelles and Iceland rolled Norway to lie on blanket that Seychelles had brought along and they each grabbed a corner of it, trying to pull Norway back inside with them without standing up. Hong Kong quickly gathered up the papers he had previously dropped to the ground, hoping they weren't damaged, and followed them.

Suddenly, the second gunshot broke the night, flying past Hong Kong's shoulder and snapping to the wall of their Home hut. The three nations immediately laid down to the ground and raised their guns again. Once again there was no sign of any attacker.

"A sniper maybe?" Hong Kong suggested as the nodded to each other, deciding to try and go on. They couldn't stay and lie down on the fire forever: they'd have to keep going.

"Could be," Iceland grumbled, grabbing his corner of the blanket again.

They were fired at one more time before they got inside again, but thankfully no one was hit. Once they slipped inside from the door and closed it behind them, they let out a collective sigh. The walls of the hut weren't actually the most bullet proof thing around and the situation where they knew nothing had not changed. But inside they wouldn't be sniped and at least the will-o'-wisps wouldn't bother them.

And now Seychelles could properly check and treat Norway's wound. The bullet had went through his flank, barely scratching his stomach. The wound went through and it was bleeding heavily, but by the looks of things it hadn't hit any vital organs. Although he had been conscious for a while after being shot, Norway had blacked out a moment before Iceland and Seychelles had arrived.

Everyone watched quietly as Seychelles worked, while still trying to keep guarding the clearing. Iceland and Hong Kong took over for Liechtenstein and she joined her fellow medic on their job. The sight of Norway lying unconscious on the floor, a gaping wound in his stomach, left everyone speechless. Their ticket home everyone had been trying to protect, was slipping from their grasps.

Then suddenly, both of the medics gasped as Norway stirred back awake.

"Norway! Thank goodness," Liechtenstein said, genuinely relieved and her shoulders relaxed visibly when she leant closer to Norway to talk with him. "Don't move. We've got you," she assured. "You'll be fine."

She startled when Norway raised his hand to grab her wrist before she managed to set her hand on his shoulder. Norway coughed a little. "What time... How long was I out?"

"It's just about ten minutes now," Seychelles replied, trying to concentrate on her work with the blood transfusion they were about to give him. "Relax and stay still."

"No," Norway said emphatically and pushed himself up from the floor, showing Liechtenstein out of his way. "I fine."

Liechtenstein and Seychelles caught Norway when he stumbled and fell down after forcing himself to stand up in some sudden wave of stamina that passed as soon as it had formed.

"Stop that," Liechtenstein ordered, trying to convince Norway to lie down. "You can't go out there. We're under an attack and you're injured. Please, Norway, you have to let us help you."

"Ya don'... understand," Norway said, frustration dripping from his voice as he's body refused let him stand up again.

"We understand!" Liechtenstein explained, hugging Norway close to herself. "Oh Norway, we understand. We know how hard you've worked. We were supposed to keep you safe. But what we failed to do before we're going to do now. We will not let you go out there. It's... it's not your fault, Norway. ...Please. Lie down."

Norway gritted his teeth and lowered his head in defeat. "I'm sorry... I won' make it in time but... I'll do it. I'll get us out of here. Whatever it takes."

Remaining time to departure: ? hours, ? minutes, ? seconds

A/N: And as soon as I start updating this again, I hit an obstacle and am late once more. This time it's because of two things: 1) I overestimated how much time I have to write, and b) underestimated how hard it is to pick up a story after a long break. I hadn't written these down when things were still more fresh in my mind. I thought that since I know how this story goes and I do have my notes, I could finish writing it fairly quickly if I just set myself to it. *shakes head* No. Never tell yourself that. EVER. You're just jinxing it.

That said, it might take a few weeks rather than one week for me to finish the next chapter again but I shall do my best.

I actually managed to at least mention Italy again. Way to go me, treating the series main character like that. Someone might have noticed if they've read more of my things but I tend to avoid writing about him. Don't get me wrong: I like Italy. I just find him incredibly hard to portray. I consider myself to be a more experienced author compared to when I started writing Hetalia and that still hasn't changed.

Thank you to the lovely person who confirmed to me that some of my old readers are actually still around. I'll give you (and your sister) the internet and you deserve every byte of it.