~America's PoV~
"Who am I? Who are you? Why are you trying to help me?" He asked. I froze, staring into his terrified violet eyes as the doctor plunged the syringe into his neck, and slowly, slowly, they fluttered shut once again.
My mind had stopped. I was unable to fully register what he had said. Numbly, I stood up and walked to the side of the room when he had fallen completely still again. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, opening up my text to Iggy's chat. I robotically typed in two words that I still couldn't really comprehend.
"He's awake."
And clicked it off, before turning back to look at Mattie. The doctor was giving me a sympathetic look. He pat my shoulder sadly, before he left the room without saying a word. My phone beeped several times in quick succession, and I looked at the lock screen.
Iggy, France, China, Italy, Prussia, and Mexico had all sent me a text. Then another name appeared that both surprised me, and sent a fresh surge of anger course through my veins.
Germany.
He has little to no right to be worried.
I shook my head, ridding it of devoid thoughts. I knew how unstable one of us could be after a war, especially one that forced you to rebuild your entire government.
It wasn't his fault.
He wasn't in his right mind.
I reminded myself how the German had been constantly blaming himself for my brother's condition.
I know how easy it is for us to snap...
I refused to let any darker thoughts enter my mind after that, and only worried about Mattie. When we were weak ourselves, we were especially susceptible to the darker voices of our people. It was one of the downfalls of being a personification; you don't always get a full decision on your own actions. Your own thoughts. Your own personality. All that was decided by our citizens, and it took such a strong mental strength to block them out and be our own person. Even then, it took decades of practice.
I groaned to myself in the silence, the only sound being the heart monitor's beeping, and decided I needed to go out and get some fresh air. The quiet was deafening to my pounding ears.
My phone kept buzzing as more and more nations heard the news, so eventually I just put it on silent and shoved it in my back pocket.
~Canada's PoV~
Beeping... What was that sound? I didn't know...
Slowly, I blinked open my eyes. Everything was blurry, shifting in and out of view.
Memories of the last time I had opened them came; there had been a man. He talked like he knew me, knew who I was.
I groaned, reaching up and rubbing my forehead. It throbbed painfully every time I tried remembering something.
Who was that man..? He had been shouting a name- what had it been..? Mattie, I think? Was that mine? Was that me?
My head throbbed again as I questioned the idea, making me wince.
"Mr. Williams, you need to remain lying down." I jumped, looking around for the source of the voice. A lady stood in the corner of the room, typing something onto a bright light.
"Where am I..?" I asked her, looking around the room.
"Queensway Carleton Hospital. You've been here for quite some time," She muttered, turning around. She was dressed in a white coat, with a tube hanging around her neck, "What do you remember?"
I tried thinking of something to give her, anything. My head throbbed once again and breathing became difficult from the pressure.
"Um... I remember... A man... He was next to me, last time I woke up."
"Yes, that was Mr. Alfred Jones. He's been with you non stop for as long as I've been working here," She came over, sitting on the edge of my bed. "Anything else? Your name, maybe? Family? Why you're here? What happened before you fell into cardiac arrest?"
I shook my head as the throb became worse. I couldn't remember anything, as hard as I might try. That pounding, that invisible wall, was in the way.
"No... Nothing." I muttered, not bothering to ask what cardiac arrest was. I figured I'd find out later, most likely by that man... What name had she used? Alfred Jones? Yeah, that was it... I looked around for him, but couldn't see him. I mentally shrugged it off; chances are I'd come across him again, and soon.
"Well, Me. Williams, I'm going to go prepare a meal for you. Chances are you're pretty hungry, eh?" She smiled, getting up and walking over to the door. 'Eh'? What kind of a word is that? Why does it sound so home-like..?
"Yes, thank you, Miss..." I trailed off, unsure of her name.
"Robertson. My name's Jane Robertson." She smiled, and closed the door behind her.
Left in silence, I had nothing else to think of, and let my thoughts trail off to my old questions.
"What happened to me..." I groaned, flopping back down on the bed. The annoying beep was coming from a machine I was connected to. And it didn't seem like it'd stop anytime soon.
"Things that make you very lucky to be alive, mate. You've had us all very worried, ya know," A voice came from above me, causing me to whip my head around in a panic, eyes wide. "Whoa, relax. It's just me." A man with a koala on his shoulder fell from the ceiling in a spin, landing easily on his feet and turning around to face me with an easy smile on his face. He had messy brown hair and dark green eyes. A bandage lay across his nose.
"Who... Who are you, though?" I asked him warily.
"What? Whaddya mean, 'who are you'?" He asked, staring at me, "You aren't... Blind, are ya?"
"I... Don't think so..." I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose in a feeble attempt to focus my vision, "Everything gets blurry as it goes further away... Is that blind?"
"Y'know mate, ya ain't really makin' much sense."
"Well, I don't remember anything, so that could possibly be why." I stated matter-of-factly. He did a double take, staring at me. He looked overly shocked for something like that.
"S-say what now?" He half squawked, half asked. "Ya can't remember nothin'?" I shook my head.
"Oh crikey, mate..." He started talking to himself, pacing back and forth beside my bed. "That's not good... Not good at all..."
"Eh?" I inadvertently used the word I had been questioning just minutes before. He paused mid step, looking at me, before shaking his head.
"England needs to get here, soon..." He muttered as he resumed his pacing.
"You still haven't answered my question... Who are you?"
"I... I... I don't think I should answer that right now, mate." He finalized, hesitating over his words. It only furthered my curiosity.
"Why?"
"'Cause, mate. Without your memories, it would only confuse ya."
"Eh?" He was confusing me right now but when I stared at him, he simply turned away and continued muttering to himself.
"This ain't good... None of us have ever gotten amnesia..." He paused, looking back at me, "Do you remember anything? At all?" He questioned. I shrugged, and decided to be fully honest with him. Something told me he knew what was wrong with me.
"There are sounds going through my head... They sound like voices, but there's no one here except you and me," I explained, now pushing myself up so I could sit on the side of the bed. He paused, staring at me as I did so. A flash of relief appeared in his eyes briefly.
"So, at least you're still one of us..."
"One of you? What do you mean?" Now I had stood up, to which he promptly shoved me back down onto the bed.
"Whoa there, mate. You just woke up. Don't be pushing yourself now." He said softly. I glanced at him, sighed, and groaned.
"I feel like there's something I need to do, you know..." I muttered, trailing off. I wasn't sure how to continue. But that feeling of just knowing told me that the brunette would understand.
"Yeah, mate. I think I know exactly what you're talkin' 'bout," He gave me a knowing look, "By the way, where's Al?" He asked. Then face palmed. "Course, you don't know who-"
"I don't know. He was here the first time I woke up, but this time..." His head snapped up.
"You know him? Er, ya remember him...?"
"I said before, I remember nothing specific. I asked the nurse who was in here when I woke up. She only gave me a name, and that he's been here as long as she's been here."
"Oh. Alrighty then, mate..." I couldn't hold my tongue anymore.
"Why do you keep on calling me that?" I asked. He tensed, a dry smirk on his lips.
"It's just what us Australians say, ya know?"
"Australian..." I let the word roll across my tongue. It sounded vaguely familiar...
Suddenly a sharp, stabbing pain shot through my head. I winced, grabbing onto it and was suddenly glad I wasn't standing up.
"Hey, mate, you okay?" He spoke in a voice laced with worry.
Dimly, I registered the door open.
"Canada!"
And a few pairs of footsteps bouncing against the ground.
I didn't see who had come in, though, before my entire world blacked out once again.
"Okay, let the world meeting begin!" The man from before smiled broadly, leaning against the desk with his hands, "We'll work together and solve all the world's problems one by one! If we combine our strength we can definitely fix even the toughest problems!" I looked around as he spoke, confused. Faces were all over the room that I know I should know, but I couldn't match a name with anyone. My attention was drawn back to the loud one at the head of the table.
"I'll go first; about that whole using global warming to enslave humanity thing, I think we'll be ok if we genetically engineer a huge hero and have her protect the Earth!" He pointed to a drawing with exactly that that was hung up on the wall. I assumed he had drawn it himself. He continued talking, "I give you the Superhero Globoman!"
"I'm with America-san on this." America? Was that his name? But the nurse had said it was Alfred... And who had talked? It was a rather short man with straightly cut, raven hair, and dull black eyes. He was dressed in... A Tuxedo..?
"Not again, Japan! Man up or I'll beat you with my peace prize!" Another man with a camouflaged outfit and a gun strapped to his back spoke up, slamming his fist down on the table angrily.
"I disagree with him! How could anyone agree with an idea with such a flawed sense of reality?" Another man spoke now, who was sipping tea in front of a window. Dressed sharply, blonde hair, emerald eyes, but the largest thing that stood out to me was his abnormally bushy eyebrows. "And don't say 'learned'! What the bloody hell is 'learned'? It's 'learnt,' you git!" I smirked at that.
"Well, I disagree with both America and England." A man who looked similar to the one before - whom I assumed was the one called England - but he had longer hair, and was dressed a lot more loosely than the other.
"You can't disagree with both!" England shouted angrily.
America- Alfred- whatever his name was joined in on the two, poking his head with a pen, while England swatted it aggressively.
"Man, you Frenchies sure do love to hate on America, don't you?"
"Agreeing with you guys would be in bad taste. Unlike you guys, I am a gentleman!" The man who had spoken replied.
"Don't make such important decisions based on good taste, you wine-loving bastard!"
"Sit down! Today will be the day I rip out that beard of yours!"
"Ooh, bring it on! Big brother can take it!" They started having at each other, England twice as mad as earlier from the words 'big brother,' and America-Alfred-Guy got out of their way quick, a cheesy smirk on his face.
"Please settle down!" Someone shouted. I never saw who.
A man with long brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail sighed. He had a prim, plain white shirt on.
"Western nations are so immature. I doubt they ever grow up! Maybe I can try appealing to the organ of theirs that seems to work," He snapped, before bringing a box of sweets out of nowhere. "Would you guys like to sample some Chinese tasty treat?" He asked that right as England shouted something along the lines of 'I used to be an empire but now I have to deal with French military victories,' but I wasn't sure I heard him right. The idea of him being an empire was too farfetched.
"WE'LL JUST GET HUNGRY AGAIN!" Both the arguing males shouted in unison, cutting off my thoughts. At least they can agree on something... Another man came up in front of the cloud of dust they had kicked up in their fight, raising his arm.
"Is it free?"
I looked away from them, letting them settle whatever was going on themselves, and towards a different group, who were eyeing them bemusedly.
"Oh my... Looks like they're at it again, as always. I guess we just have free time while they fight."
"Hahaha, you can't beat me with an attack like that! Eat this, the Fork of Britannia!" As much as I tried to zone them out, I heard England shout that and couldn't hold back my laughter. Fork of Britannia..?
"Hmm... I was just thinking about the death of Homer." A man who was dressed with clothes that were either too big or just not done up properly replied to the one that had spoken before. He was surrounded by several cats.
I looked away from them as another man slide up behind a giant, catching my attention.
"Russia! Why don't you say something? They'll stop fighting if you say your opinion."
"What? Me? I..." The one who the guy had asked the question to replied, looking at another, who nervously shrank back at his next words, "I want to see Lithuania so troubled that he comes to me begging in tears. You think so too, right, Latvia?" He suddenly appeared behind another short man - Latvia, I'm assuming - who started sweating immediately as he nodded his head. The one who had initially started that conversation just watched them.
"You're so tough, next you'll try to pick a fight with Haiti!" Another man spoke up.
"Do you have a detachable head?" Um...
"Hold it right there! Come any closer to Liet and I'll use Polish Law to turn your Capital into Warsaw!" By this point I had lost track of who was speaking, and just listened to the overall conversation.
"Hahaha! Nice fight! Anyways, I'm hungry so does anyone have any hamburgers?"
"Now you've done it, you punk bastard! Now I'm really mad!"
"Uwaa, I feel useless, aru!"
"Bring it on! I can beat you senseless for another hundred years!"
"Everyone, please calm down..."
Then one voice rose above everyone else's.
"EVERYONE SHUT UP! Vhat zhe hell are you doing, causing more problems at a meeting intended for solving zhem?! Are you trying to repeat the mistakes from the Congress Dance?! Ve should settle down and get on with the discussions!" Everyone froze, the two fighting letting out a surprised "Germany..." before England walked up to him sheepishly.
"You're right... I'm sorry. I kind of lost myself in the excitement..." Germany scowled at him.
"It's fine. As long as you understand vhat you did, but don't get into another bout of violence," He paused, walking over to another man, who had slick brown hair and a large, upright curl, "Okay, vhen everyone's back in zheir seats let's get zhings back under control..." He slammed his hand down on a large stack of papers as he talked.
"Anyone vho vants to state zheir opinion should present clear data first! Ve'll speak only after zhat! Each person gets no more zhan eight minutes of speeches! If I hear anyone go over zhat time limit I von't accept it!"
"Germany, you're being overly compromising."
"But he isn't being compromising at all..." Two voices chirped in, quickly silenced by a death glare.
"Okay, zhe first one to speak should raise his hand vhen he's prepared!"
"Germany, your thirst for blood is showing." The latter of the voices from right before coughed.
"Ah, okay, okay, I'll speak!" One who had been quiet up until then raised his hand shyly.
"Germany recognizes his friend, Italy!"
"Um, okay... PASTAAAAAAAAAAAA~!"
My eyes slowly blinked open to several faces above me. I realized how short of breath I was, and how sweaty I was, as I sat up.
"Are you alright, Matthieu?" The guy with long blonde hair from the dream asked. I looked around; a lot of the faces in the room now had been in it, now that I thought about it.
I looked at the last one who had spoken, and simply said,
"Pasta?"
And everyone started laughing. Both out of relief and amusement, I guess. It was hard to tell.
"The-a Maple Bastardo-a is asleep for one hundred-a years, and that's the first-a thing you say-a?"
"Well, it ain't the first thing, mate," The brunette from before grinned, "By the way, what happened there? Gave me quite the scare. You suddenly went pale, like you had seen a ghost." I drew a blank, gaping at him.
"I... Uh, had a... Dream? I think? It might've been a memory... I don't know..." The dream had struck a chord in me, definitely... But of what? Faces, sure, and I knew a few names... But there was something else. Something I couldn't place.
"If it was a memory... Do you know who you are?" I looked towards who had spoken. Wasn't his name England...?
"Um... I think so...? Ma-" England snapped his hand over my mouth, abruptly cutting me off.
"Not that name. Your other one. Your real one."
"My... Real..? What?" I blinked at him. Just then Jane walked back in, freezing on the spot when she saw the group.
"Um, excuse me, but should any of you be in here?" She asked them. Everyone looked around at each other, slightly panicked. It suddenly struck me how large this room was.
Finally, one of the men spoke up.
"Si, we should be, chica," He slipped a hand around her shoulders, gently guiding her back outside the room. "If you wish, I will explain, just not here." He shot England a look that said to wrap things up quickly.
"Work quickly, eyebrows. I don't know how long I can distract her." A voice came up inside my head, one that was clearer than the others.
"Eh-?" England once again snapped his hand over my mouth until the man had left. He turned back to me, already talking.
"That was telepathy. Courtesy of Romania." He said. I nodded, not questioning what telepathy was. I assumed it was brain-brain communication, putting two and two together... The one I'm guessing was Romania held up his hand with a broad grin on his face when his name was brought up.
"Back to my old question, do you remember your real name?"
"Um..."
"Angleterre, we should just-"
"No. We can't force anything on him. It'd only confuse him more."
"Well, 'e deserves to know that much-"
"You want to do the explaining, Frog?"
"No, that would be best left to Amérique..."
"Well where the bloody hell is America, anyway? Why isn't he here? Shouldn't he be helping Canada get his memories back?" He realized his mistake by letting the name slip right after he said it, but never got a chance to react to it. I blinked at him, but pushed the name away when my head started pounding again.
"I fully intend on it, British Dude," Alfred said as he stepped in the door. "I was just out for some fresh air. Though it looks like I've missed quite a bit."
A/N: Taking a short break from darkness and feels to further the plot along a little more quickly.
Hopefully I didn't screw that up... The memory was from the first episode/chapter of Axis Powers (I took lines from both XD), btw... It's not mine at all, which also explains why I just put in the sounds and ~'s too. I think I'm gonna do all his memories like that; direct scenes from the show or manga. Well... Remember what I said about this screwing around with cannon? Yeah. This is what I meant. Mattie somehow has memories from a time where he was in a comatose during. It's Hetalia, anime, Fanfiction logic, all thrown together into one big bowl of PASTA~. XD
Except for... Well, y'all can probably guess which memories won't be from cannon...
I was debating who would be there when Mattie actually WOKE up... I thought about France, then England, then keeping America there (quickly discarded that one)... Then I went into the lesser-known nations because, well, Canada's not a main character -as much as it saddens me to admit- and I thought that the sides would all have a special, personal connection because of that. Even if not as Personifications, but as humans. Though, the whole ceiling-assassin-thing probably would've been better suited to one of the three Italy's... (MAFIA e.e)
Oh well, though. Fanfiction, right? Not everything's gonna be perfectly in-character.
Also, the bold speech that was used in the final part of the fic is the telepathy. It won't be coming up often, but I thought I'd clear that up...
So, as always, hope y'all enjoy!