20. The Ending Chapter, part 1
...in which the clock is ticking
Even when lying in the floor, Norway was feeling lightheaded and dizzy, like he could throw up at any moment. The sight of Belarus and the fresh scent of blood again whiffing through the hut didn't help. In all honesty, he should just tell everyone that that he needed a rest and to wake him up in half an hour or so. Considering he couldn't do much himself, they had progressed better than he had anticipated. Hong Kong, Austria and England were doing their all to aid him with the spell, but in the end, things were difficult for him to keep up, not being able to watch over everything. They trekked carefully, one step at the time working towards finishing the spell, while double-checking everything. But with Norway, the only person who truly understood what needed to be done and why, not seeing things first hand and sometimes not seeing anything at all with how dizzy he was getting, the risk that something would go wrong in the end was rising. Could he really weight the risk of a failure in the spell with the risk of taking more time?
"Norway, sleep," England said dryly but made sure to keep his voice strict.
Norway sighed and shook his head in an attempt to fight the dizziness, and groaned when it didn't help. "'s it that obvious?" he mumbled, resting his hand over his eyes. The coolness of the skin of his arm and the absence of light made him feel a little better.
"Yes," England said, trying to be as to-the-point no nonsense as he could. "If you see lines as two, or start pointing at the wrong thing because you can't see details, you are not going to help anyone. And it's the same result if some wave of exhaustion kicks in suddenly and we become unable to wake you up or you puke over our notes."
"Hah…" Norway laughed, or uttered more accurately put, and tried to deny to himself how good it felt to keep his eyes shut. "Thirty minutes?"
"Will do," England replied. "Anything we can do in the meantime?"
Norway tried to think but his mind was getting foggy. "Ye still can' do magic, Eng?"
England sighed. "No. Sorry. I'm beginning to sense some things though. But it's your stuff, mostly."
"Then…" Norway mumbled. "Mark… the rings and dig… the runes spots…" he trailed off.
England sighed. "Already done, Norway," he said quietly, not to wake the sleeping magician. "That's what Hong Kong has tried to get done this whole time to make thing smoother."
Remaining time to departure: 4 hours, 36 minutes, 58 seconds
England took a deep breath to relax a little himself and stretched his neck around carefully. Then he set down all the papers around him to their rightful spots and stood up, leaving to go to talk with Austria and Hong Kong outside.
By the table, Liechtenstein was quietly and diligently working on cleaning blood off Belarus' hair and skin. The wet sponge combed the drying blood downwards, letting the mixture of water and blood drip down to the bowl on the floor. England looked at her work silently while passing by and thought for a moment that he should start a conversation, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Having lost his own eye and that already causing problems to his depth perception, awareness of his surroundings and reaction speed, England could only hope that Belarus could get hers back somehow. He had thought himself unlucky after the… incident with the war maniac local, but watching everyone else hurt or hurting, he started to think their luck was distributed quite evenly. As scarce for everyone, to be exact. He could read from Liechtenstein's face that the girl had steeled herself to do everything she could to help those whose luck had run out. England glanced at the closed door, behind which he knew Germany and Estonia were lying on their beds, the first on the verge of death, the other a cloth spread over his face. Meanwhile he was alive and walking. He had no right nor time to complain. It would only get in the way of things that needed to be done. He exited the hut without saying anything.
"Wait, what are you doing out?" Hong Kong said immediately upon seeing England.
"Norway is asleep," England replied. "He was starting to get really bad so I told him to rest." He huffed. "Wasn't well enough to even put up a fight about that. We'll wake him up in half an hour."
"That is most concerning," Austria said, worried, as he limped closer. "Are you sure a short nap will suffice? We need his thoughts to be clear."
"It's absolutely not enough, but we're running out of time," England said and glanced around towards the forest leading to the frontlines. "Anything from Seychelles?"
Hong Kong shook his head. "No. Cuba's just gone, man."
"Dammit!" England swore and hit his walking cane to the ground to vent his frustration. "Where could he have disappeared to?!"
"Since Netherlands told us Cuba was bitten by a snake and sent back here to check that it was not dangerous, I first presumed he simply could have collapsed somewhere in between," Austria said and shook his head. "But one would think if that were the case, Seychelles, Netherlands or Sealand would have found him by now."
"If Norway's asleep, can I go out there to look too?" Hong Kong asked, already edging towards the forest ready to dart out as soon as his current team would give him an okay. "We can't do much until he wakes up right?"
"Too true. Shoo, off you go," England said and before he was done saying it, Hong Kong was already doing his odd half jumping run towards the forest. "But be careful not to break that knee, you hear!"
"I should go around all the runes we have in place to check everything is in order," Austria said and turned away. "What will you do, England?"
England sighed. "If you don't need me, I'll go ask Liechtenstein what I could help with."
.*** *** ***
Netherlands kept swearing silently in his mind as he ventured worth in the forest, his gun at the ready. His eyes wandered through the forest floor all around as far as he could see, hoping for a glimpse of their friend somewhere amidst the trees. Or at least some sort of proof where could he have disappeared to.
Dammit Cuba, where are you?! Netherlands scowled at a waving branch of a bush that distracted him into hoping he had found something. But it was just a little bird. "Tch…"
He continued searching. Seychelles and Sealand were running around elsewhere, trying to find where Cuba had disappeared to. Netherlands had the nagging, uncomfortable feeling that something terribly unnatural could have again happened thanks to this accursed no man's land. That worried him almost more than the possibility of enemies again sneaking into their territory. The latter he at least knew how to deal with…
He was now close the battle zone and could hear all the shooting, shouting and occasional explosions so well he's hands were twitching with contained frustration. Netherlands wanted to return to the frontlines and help out with the fighting, even if just as a medic, but with Cuba disappeared to the wind, that would have to wait. He had been injured so early during their whole skirmish that he felt borderline useless most of the time. He had barely done any fighting, had contributed next to nothing with Norway's efforts, had somewhat helped the medics but not nearly enough in his mind and when that he finally sent back to the fray, he had been appointed a medic. And now, he was stuck behind the frontlines again. Netherlands was fairly certain Sealand had at least told China what was going on, but it still felt like he was skipping his other duties. But finding a missing person was more important, no matter how impatient he was getting.
Cuba better drag his ass out to the open soon and that sorry ass had better be okay! Netherlands thought while going through the swear word vocabulary in his own language to find out one that best fit his mood.
Suddenly Netherlands' attention was drawn to movement towards the frontlines and he spotted Sweden coming closer between the trees. Seeing who he was with made Netherlands swear aloud this time and run to him.
Sweden saw Netherlands as soon as he started running towards him. "Cuba?" he asked as soon Netherlands was close enough. Without stopping, they continued towards Home together.
"Not yet, but dude what?!" Netherlands replied, almost panicking at seeing China on Sweden's back, similarly ho he had earlier carried Belarus away.
Sweden frowned, worried and glanced over his shoulder at their unconscious commander. "Knife. To side an'… shoulder. They got down t' the line."
"They got through?!" Netherlands asked. "Is everyone okay? How's the line?"
Sweden shook his head. "Jes China. Twas jes a couple who got thru. Swiss an' Spain kill'd the rest." Sweden staggered on uneven terrain under his injured foot and Netherlands had to grab him so that they wouldn't all fall over. Sweden's foot was still borderline unusable, not to mention his previous injuries when he had been hit with a bomb. But with a combination of nation's healing capabilities and pain thresholds, and a determination of a cornered animal, he was pushing through the worst of his injuries the best he could.
"Who's the commander now then?" Netherlands asked as they continued pushing on.
"Lithuania," Sweden replied and then gave Netherlands a meaningful look. "I got th's."
"You sure? I just prevented you both from toppling over," Netherlands said.
Sweden shook his head. "We gotta fin' Cuba."
Remaining time to departure: 3 hours, 58 minutes, 27 seconds
.*** *** ***
Lithuania was most displeased with his sudden promotion. Almost as displeased as the fact that their enemy had made it all the way to their trench before their advance had been halted. They had to create an opening and retreat. The next pair of lines were on the edges of the clearing with three shacks on the Home side of it and a hill on the left. There they had a few days ago done the operation to win back their lost lines, starting with smoke bombs and Finland's antics in their enemy's trench. On a purely defensive side, it was easier to protect than their current line. The best-case scenario, was if they managed to secure the huts again (although one had been damaged by a mortar last time) and their enemy decided to stay and occupy the other trench without advancing too eagerly. Just like last time. A stationary battle was what they needed to win time for Norway.
The problem with this was that to get to the huts, they would have to retreat through an open field. Last time, they had had a few of the stronger nations hold of the enemy off while the rest had circled the clearing along the trenches for the wings before offering cover for the remaining few to retreat as well. Right now, they didn't have the man power, stamina or equipment for a similar tactic. They needed a big enough distraction to allow everyone enough time to retreat.
And Lithuania oh so wished that it didn't have to be him making up such plan at this moment… The moment China's blood had splashed on his face from a slash of knife in an enemy's hand, Lithuania had been horrified. The adrenaline to save China and stop the enemy had rushed in him like a warm wave, but now… now he felt cold.
What could they do? They had to last for four more hours before it was okay to reach Home. Russia's bombs were out of the question now, both for keeping manpower in one line and the lack of bombs they still had at hand. Smoke perhaps? Did they still have smoke shells? Lithuania took a moment to check if anyone else near him knew. Soon a message came back to him from Finland and a moment later from Japan from the other direction: the two who had gone through the supplies earlier. They had three traditional smoke bombs plus five more of the smaller pepper variety Korea had made.
Lithuania tried to best add these resources to his plans. The three proper ones could create a smoke screen big enough to hide them from the enemies' sight, while the smaller ones were more useful as an added effect bonus on a smaller radius. But were they enough? Maybe they could help them now, but what about when they would have to eventually make their final dash towards Home when Norway was ready? Wouldn't they be more of use then, to win them time to retreat ahead so that no enemy could interfere with the spell? It was too late to get more of them from their allies. Would it be a waste to use them here? But if they didn't, what other options did they have?
The hand grenade or flash bomb tactics they had used a few times were starting to lose their edge on their enemies. Sure, they still worked, but with less effect than before, with next to no surprise value. With the pressure piling on their trench (not to mention their new chain of command Lithuania still wasn't so sure about, but they didn't have time to decide anything else), they needed a bigger diversion for everyone's safety.
Seeing someone on his left snipe down a hand grenade their enemy threw towards their trench and watching the following explosion shatter the air and forest around, Lithuania's mind caught a wild idea that had been prancing around them for a while. Watching a burnt stump of a little tree glow red with embers on its bark, Lithuania formulated a plan.
Is this too risky? he thought as he perfected his strategy. Would we make the forest mad? Would it hinder us getting home? This is dangerous… But… what else can we do at this point?
"Romano, Poland," Lithuania called out to the nations on his right and left. "I want a vote."
"A vote?!" Southern Italy scoffed and angrily yanked his trousers upwards again. "Sure, let's just take our time to do a poll, why don't we!"
"I have an idea but it's risky!" Lithuania argued back. "I want to get everyone's opinion and we don't have to time to properly talk about it!"
"Fine, fine, just tell us what message to send," Poland said more calmly. He had decided that he needed to support Lithuania the best he could like a good friend should. Also, heaven's forbid if Lithuania failed, since switching positions in the line in the heat of battle was difficult, the centre decision making would be up to him and Romano next…
"We need a distraction to retreat but we're running out of supplies to aid us," Lithuania said, speaking clearly and slower so both nations had time to commit the message to memory. "But there is a way."
A while later, when Lithuania's message reached Finland and Canada, the battle near the left end of their trench was getting too heated to even stop and think.
"Is he insane?!" Finland shouted to no one in particular, searching his supply pouch for another round of bullets for his gun, while keeping the enemy at bay with a handgun. "There's no telling what that would mean to the spell Norway's trying to do!"
"R-right. Can we risk it?" Canada was dejected as well, as he was helping with the enemy so that Finland had better time to reload his gun. As soon as his partner had his gun ready again, Canada crawled away to the left. "I'll go tell Hungary."
"I got this!" Finland replied, not glancing after him, already preoccupied with the enemy once again. The enemy soldiers were numerous and they were trying to force their way through with sheer pressure applied to the thinned-out line of nations. The bodies were piling up between them and their enemy main force, but each time they closed in. The one time they had gotten through, China had fallen. The nations were now determined to not let that happen again. But the pressure kept edging the pile of corpses closer to their position.
Canada came back. "Hungary and Greece said yes!" he informed Finland who huffed, still uncertain. Canada wasn't sure either. "What… what should we say?"
Finland cursed under his breath, apologising to Norway in his mind just in case. "Well yes then, let's risk it! We can't stay here much longer and the heck if I've got any better ideas…"
Later, once decisions had been made, Korea crawled out of their trench, having volunteered to work a messenger while Sealand was gone, and made his way towards a certain set of trees while gunfire swished over his head.
Switzerland noticed him coming closer and hopped down to a lower branch. "What?"
"Get ready to run, man," Korea shouted up to him and Spain. "Lithuania is crazy and we all just kind of went with it."
.*** *** ***
Seychelles was crying. She was scared, for herself, for Cuba and for everyone else. She wanted to go home and forget this place existed. She had told herself to stay strong, but encountering things she didn't understand brought up an ample of anxiety that she had been keeping at bay.
She had found Cuba. But she had almost walked over him before realising he was there. Cuba was lying on the forest floor, moss and twigs covering his body like someone had tried to hide him. But when Seychelles had started clearing the underbrush away, she saw the roots of the plants tearing off Cuba's skin and clothes, like they had been growing on him for months. The skin underneath resisted his pull and some plants snapped before she got them off, leaving the roots to spread under Cuba's skin.
Seychelles was horrified.
Had she not feared for Cuba's life, she wouldn't have dared to touch the plants. She quickly threw away each plant he pulled or pushed off Cuba's body, in fear of the plants grabbing onto herself if they had the chance.
"Cuba? C-can you hear me?" she kept asking, furiously clearing moss off Cuba's hands. The man she was trying to save was silent. "Please. Say something. What is going on? What is going on?! What is this? Please, Cuba, speak to me. Please."
She stumbled backwards and fell down to sit in the underbrush. About to spring up and continue, she momentarily lifted her gaze up and gasped. Her fear rose. Instantly looking back down, she clutched Cuba's shirt tightly in her hand to keep herself from shaking. The pale blue will-o'-wisp fluttered silently a few metres away.
"But… it's daylight…." Seychelles whispered and struggled to keep her hands moving to free Cuba from the forest. "What's it doing out during the day? Oh please, please, just go away," she kept talking as she forced her hands to rip off more moss and underbrush off her fellow nation. Her voice was breaking and her sight was half blinded with tears. "We'll leave. I swear we'll leave, just let us go… Please let us go… We'll leave…"
"Seychelles?"
Seychelles shrieked a little, jumping up and turning to look over her shoulder. "Hong Kong?!" She felt another tear run down her cheek. "H-help me. I found him. Look at him! It's the forest. It has to be. We… we must… And there is a wisp! Don't look at it! Oh no, why is this happening?"
Hong Kong came to her and limbed down beside her. "Holy, heck, what? Cuba, you okay? What's this about? Sey, calm down, we'll help him. Where did you saw wisp?"
"Right there," Seychelles pointed towards the tree where she had seen the will-o'-wisp floating.
Hong Kong glanced first cautiously and then searched around more readily. "I don't see any."
Seychelles looked up and glanced around frantically. "It's gone. I'm sure it was there!"
Hong Kong just nodded and started ripping moss off of Cuba's shirt. "Let's do this before it comes back or anything else appears. Come on, Sey, pull yourself together."
"Right!" Seychelles replied and hopped to the other side of Cuba to reach the plants better.
Together they made short work of the underbrush covering Cuba, although some roots were still stuck under the skin. A little blood was dripping from the spots where they had managed to pull the roots out as well, or at least most of them. But there was still another problem.
"Is he rooted to the freaking ground or what is this?" Hong Kong huffed under his breath trying to lift Cuba up. Not an arm or leg moved but barely as they pulled. Hong Kong lost his balance a little when sharp pain jumped across his body from his knee. "Ugh-!" he quickly corrected his posture to something his injury could take and bit his teeth together, trying to wish the pain away. "I can't… put any real force into the pull because of this damn knee…"
"I hate this!" Seychelles cried and pulled out a knife from her medical pack. "Why?! Leave us alone! That is what we're trying to do to you! Go away!"
"Hey!" Hong Kong raised his hand. "If you're doing what I think you will, I'd say it's worth a shot. But how about you take a deep breath and don't hold that knife like you're about to stab someone to death?"
While Seychelles (after taking a deep breath) started trying to cut Cube loose of what ever was holding him against the forest floor, Hong Kong continued his attempts to free their friend as well. He dug his fingers into the ground beside Cuba's hands and tried to get a better look of what exactly was halting their efforts. Seychelles' knife, which was not meant for this kind of work but was very sharp on the other hand, met with some resistance as well. Cuba was quite literally rooted to the ground. Little, thin root systems grew from his skin and dug deep into the dirt. But they were not mighty individually and snapped before the might of a knife and what can be called aggressive pinpoint nail scissors.
Slowly, they pried Cuba free from the ground. The most troublesome part was his leg around the snake bite, which the forest had clung onto like claiming it as its own. But despite of this ordeal, Cuba was alive and stirred slightly after getting free, but didn't wake up. At some point Netherlands had also found them, helping them carry Cuba back home. Unbeknownst to them, the wisp Seychelles had seen hovered nearby, always out of sight, but as if watching their work. Once they left it disappeared and faded as if into a gust of wind, as if its work had been completed. Whatever sentience the nest of magic underneath their feet had, it was following and observing the fight that occurred atop its home as a hidden participant of the conflict. Its emotions, goals or thoughts were impossible to read from the wisp before it disappeared.
Remaining time to departure: 3 hours, 17 minutes, 15 seconds
.*** *** ***
There was no wind in the forest. They had that much going for them. As Lithuania's plan was accepted and every nation prepared to retreat, all of them collectively held their breath and tensed in anticipation of the repercussions this plan might bring. Some had been against it, while some had expressed, they'd simply follow the popular vote and accept it, not able or willing to decide. Still even without them, the vote had been accepted. And now, in a blink of an eye, their gamble could ruin everything. Once things started rolling, everything depended on the forest itself. Their previous experience with how this area reacted to hostility against it, wasn't too promising. In fact, it was anything but. But in their choices were limited.
This has to work… please work… Lithuania kept repeating in his mind like mantra as the nations made preparations to launch their newest plan and retreat.
"Hey," Poland said and Lithuania's mind was momentarily occupied with something else but the images of the possible impending doom. "I hope you realise, that this is absolutely insane." Lithuania was momentarily dumbfounded when someone said aloud what everyone was thinking, but Poland continued. "But if someone as usually calm as you thinks this is the way to go, I believe you. And you don't wanna be here, do you? Gotta work hard to get to get some of that sweet free time, you know. This all has already been like pretty bonkers, right? So let's face this one last madness together alright?"
Remaining time to departure: 3 hours, 8 minutes, 52 seconds
At Home the homing team had cautiously helped their lead magician outside to finish up the work they had to do. Norway was feeling a bit better now, although that wasn't saying much. To feel good again, he would have needed around three more days of sleep, proper official care, good food and probably kittens or something, but this was the best they could do. Norway was already not forgiving England for letting him sleep more than the promised half an hour. To England's defence, he had simply been preoccupied with other stuff happening around the hut and missed his cue as an alarm clock by fifteen minutes. For now, Austria and England had to push Norway and themselves to finish what needed to be done. Hong Kong still hadn't returned from helping out in the efforts to find Cuba, so they had one less pair of arms and legs to work with. For the next and hopefully last of their remaining few hours in this world, they would be very busy.
After waking up and getting some more work done inside, Norway had told them that for everything else he had to continue the work outside. This was also good because it freed up space and a more peaceful working environment for their remaining resident medic. Liechtenstein had gotten a new unfortunate person to treat as Sweden had brought China in from the front lines, gashes and stab wounds in his body and bleeding profusely. China had regained consciousness while Liechtenstein had tied up the wounds better and was feisty almost to the level of Turkey despite his injuries.
"We must be a pretty pathetic sight," Austria said as he helped Norway get up from the ground to reach another spot. "Three nations barely able to stand, limping around a forest clearing, trying not to stumble on anything and failing."
"Reminds me of this one old lady I once knew refusing to let anyone else tend to her garden even after turning 103," England reminisced a little. He then sighed a little and shook his head. "Man am I going to hard crash when we get back home from here and have a moment to just be…"
"Tha' does sound good," Norway said while skimming through his diagrams in a way that looked sloppy, but he probably just knew them like the back of his hand. "For a few las' things, we'r' gonna need someone more mobile though."
"We'll rope Turkey and America to help if Hong Kong doesn't return soon," England said, but Austria making a surprised sound as he finished his sentence quieted him from continuing the discussion further.
"Funny you should mention that," Austria said and straightened up to see better. "The he is now, and Seychelles and Netherlands as well."
"And I see Cuba too, thank god," England sighed a little in relief. "He seems to be out though but hopefully it's not too serious."
Norway had turned to look as well but was now staring into the forest past the four nations closing the hut across the yard. "Hmm?"
"Norway?" Austria recognized a worried and confused frown on Norway's face.
Norway looked over the line of trees to the sky. "…Wha's that?"
England and Austria turned their eyes to follow Norway's gaze. Far away towards the frontlines, they saw a darker cloud, rising from somewhere beyond their sight, moving and growing darker as they looked on. It grew freely and formed to its natural shapes in the mostly windless air, filling the horizon with a spreading dark gloom. Unless it was something magical, it wasn't hard to deduce this wasn't a cloud. And it filled them with an uneasy, ominous feeling.
Hong Kong, who had run up to them to tell them about what had been going on in their end, had quieted down and followed their gazes as well. After a moment no one saying anything, England finally spoke, speaking quietly and slowly, as if cautious about an answer. "What the crud are they doing over there?"
Remaining time to departure: 3 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds
A/N: Home stretch
Also thank you for all the comments. You make me want to write again.