Thanks to randomobsession123, EverythingMath, Singular Poisonous Ashes, Miss Akiyata, BloodLily16, Dragonfire78 and Abbgy of the Sword-Flowers for reviewing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.
Chapter 32: Murderous Tic
"We need to go back!" Vlad shouted. "My brother. I have to be there…"
"Can you?" the other Brazil asked. "Can you slip through the mirror?"
Vlad placed his hand on the glass, and tears rolled down his cheeks. The glass was still glass.
"As far as I know," the other South Africa said, "Canada is the only one that can slip through willingly. I can try to contact him."
"Thank you," Arthur said.
"I need to reach Mozambique and Namibia," South Africa said. "I wonder what Italy's face would look like once he realises you're gone."
Arthur, Lukas and Vlad could feel their eyes widen. As for the other Nations, they simply chuckled in amusement.
…
They had called for a break. All things considered, they actually got things done.
They had to wait for Moldova to recover from the attack. Poland's phoenix was doing its best to help the young Nation heal.
Many of the others had left the conference room. Some of them were still uneasy with the Nations from the other world. Others wanted to get away from the other Nations of their own world (Greece and Turkey, for example). Others decided to stay because they were either concerned for Moldova, while others stayed behind because they were curious.
…
"So, you're me," Anna said.
Eva sighed.
"It would seem so," Eva said. "Anything in particular you want to know?"
"How'd you get all those scars?"
"Denmark isn't the best caretaker in my world."
"Well Mathias isn't exactly the most competent either."
"Did Mathias allow a bear to maul you? Or turned his back while you were fighting against a pack of wolves? Or allowed you to consume your weight in poison?"
"…No. I guess your Denmark is worse than mine."
Eva started drumming her fingers, and she sighed in frustration.
"Do you want to know about the Nations in my world?" Anna asked.
"Do you have the time to explain it to me?" Eva asked.
Anna smirked and opened her briefcase. She handed a folder to Eva, and Eva smirked.
"I take it you're an excellent spy?" Eva said.
"That's my magic. Or at least what I devote myself to. Gathering information."
"I focus on spying. I guess I take a more direct approach."
"I see. By the way, what was that whole thing with Iceland? What was his name again?"
"Gabriel. It was the Scandinavian-Oceanic War. Let's just say New Zealand managed to get him good."
"How good?"
"That's what I want to know."
They turned to see Emil standing behind them. He sat down next to them.
"Okay, I'll give you a little history lesson. The Nordics of my world wanted to get the entire Oceania to submit to them. So they started by torturing New Zealand. I don't know what they did, but they tortured him horribly. It took him months to recover. It was supposed to scare the Oceanic Nations. Instead it angered them. Hence the war. The Nordics dragged the rest of us into it as well. The two groups were equally matched. That is, until New Zealand got his revenge."
"GREENLAND!" Gabriel shouted, approaching them. "Don't you dare!"
Eva smirked.
"There is this specie of spider that grows in New Zealand's land," Eva said, ignoring Gabriel. A few of the other Nations also became curious and were listening. "Its egg sac is indestructible. It can't even be destroyed by acid. And I don't know how, but he had managed to get one of the egg sacs in Icy's food."
Gabriel lunged at her, but she jumped up, dodging him.
"Interesting thing, those spiders have three thousand babies at a time. Also, the egg sac, as well as the spiders, grow when they're exposed to heat. Their exoskeletons prevent stomach acid from killing them."
"Stop!" Gabriel said, lunging again.
"Soon enough, Gabe here had three thousand baby spiders in his stomach and in his intestines. And by that time, the babies were as big as cockroaches."
"Eva!"
"So then the other four Nordics spent the next week or so trying to get the spiders out of him. He was forced to expel them, from both ends. Three thousand spiders the size of cockroaches…"
"Oh," Emil said, looking green.
"I hate you for this!" Gabriel shouted.
"Hey, you're forgetting who had to clean up after you," Eva said, "so stop complaining."
Gabriel growled, and walked over to Basch.
"Knife," he said. "Now."
The Swiss obliged, giving him a small hunting knife. Gabriel started playing with it.
"It would seem I passed on my murderous tic to Gabe," Eva said.
"Your… what?" Anna asked.
…
Since they had scattered, Luciano's group could no longer watch the other meeting. All they saw was their own reflections.
"Why, for the love of all that is decent, did the other France, Prussia and Spain have to go to the bathroom?!" Luciano hissed.
"I guess when you need to go, you need to go," Gilen said, shrugging.
…
Fletcher, Jett, Raj, Roberto and Anika had stayed in the meeting room, allowing their counterparts to listen to Eva's description of Gabriel's punishment.
"That is disturbing," Vlad said.
"How did you…?" Arthur asked.
"I couldn't move for months," James said. "There's a lot of time to be creative when that happens. Of course, after I got Iceland, the other Nordics weren't too keen on fighting."
"You're not going to direct that anger on me, right?" Lukas asked nervously.
"You're nothing like your counterpart. You're safe from me."
"Thank you," Lukas exhaled.
"The North likes to play," Ricardo said. "The South punishes. What they do for fun, we do for the sake of revenge."
Alida stepped into the room, putting her phone away.
"I managed to call Canada," she said. "He'll come to our world. The only problem is, we don't know where he'll end up. But from past experience, he always appears at the place where he left. And therein lies the problem."
"The meeting building of the North," Mahesh said. "If any of the Northerners are there…"
"We'll need someone that can fight them off, and that can handle themselves," Alida said. "We also need a few Southern Nations in the other world."
"Don't you trust your spies?" Arthur asked.
"I can trust them. Their interests are closely related to ours. And they have been branded as traitors by the North, so they will be punished by Italy, and they don't want that. They won't betray us."
"You're awfully confident," Lukas observed.
"I have a question," Vlad said. "What the heck is a murderous tic?"
…
Gabriel was fuming in his seat, playing with the knife Basch had given him. He didn't like it if anyone mentioned that part of history.
But… he's also afraid of New Zealand, something the other had found very amusing. He was also a little uneasy about being around this New Zealand. But now, many of the Nations from this side know.
"Ve~, are you okay?"
He nearly jumped out of his seat, the knife slipping from his fingers, landing in front of him. He turned to see this world's Italy, and he had no idea how he should feel about this.
"I'm fine," Gabriel said.
"No, you're not. You need cheering up. What cheers you up?"
"I'm… not sure," Gabriel said. "In general, I'm usually cheerful, so it's never necessary to cheer me up."
"Oh. Do you want to know what cheers me up?"
"Um, okay?"
"PASTA~"
Gabriel almost jumped.
"You'll love it," Italy said. "It's delicious, wholesome, and it makes you smile. Do you wanna try some pasta? And we can dance, and sing, and talk about pretty girls…"
Gabriel just stared at Italy. Finally, he turned to Emil, who was sitting five seats away from him.
"Hey, Emil!" he called. "Do you think we can trade Italies?"
…
Vash, who was standing next to Basch, raised an eyebrow.
"Is your Italy really that bad?" he asked.
"You have no idea," Basch sighed. "Well, at least Iceland's murderous tic calmed down."
"What is that, anyway?"
"You know how people have a nervous tic? Well, Nations in my world have a murderous tic. Whenever we're physically trying to stop ourselves from killing someone, we start playing with our hands. Small items like knives are popular whenever the murderous tic appears. There are other things. Some Nations start playing with their hair. Others start drumming their fingers. Others play with someone else's hair. Of course, there are few that do that."
"And you play with knives?"
"Ja. It's better than nothing. Usually, our meetings are filled with people playing with their hands. Cell phones are very popular during meetings. See?"
Basch showed Vash his cell phone, or more specifically, one of the games on the phone. And the high score…
"You do this at meetings?" Vash asked, incredulously.
"Ja. Perhaps the Nations from your world should try something like this? Then maybe you can get things done. That's why we only have world meetings twice a year, at most."
"That sounds nice. I don't like to get involved with other people's drama."
"Oh, I love it. Why do you think I make such a good spy?"
"And being paid?"
"Would you offer your services for free?"
"I suppose not."
…
Ludwig had to get out of there. He didn't know how to feel about the Nations from the other world. He also didn't know how to feel about there being two Canadians now.
The other one, Matt, was almost as terrifying as the other one. But for now, Matthew was calm and gentle. So if anyone asked him, he couldn't exactly explain that he was scared of the gentle Canadian.
And that was when he saw the other Canada. Matt was speaking to someone on his phone. Germany couldn't hear the words, but he could almost hear a few words of protest, and finally words of acceptance. He placed the phone and turned, stopping when he saw Germany.
"Sounds like I have someone to pick up," Matt said. "You may want to get another table and chairs in that meeting room. I have a feeling we're going to need it."
Matt walked away, and Germany allowed it.
It was perhaps a good idea to organise extra seats.
…
Mozambique growled in frustration. Japan might not have been home, but someone else was…
"Come back here, Southern scum!" China called after her.
She was running down the halls, and there was no way she was going to stop.
From in front of her, none other than South Korea made an appearance, and she came to a stop.
She was cornered.
Before they could reach her, she teleported out of there.
…
Gilbert, Francis and Antonio had gone to the bathroom, if only to see what their counterparts were up to.
They had learned that the others were watching the meeting from a mirror, and that they could currently not see them. Instead of sneaking out to watch them, they had stayed behind, waiting for the break to be over.
Well, Gilbert actually had to use the bathroom as well. That coffee went straight through a person.
…
Fiji hung up the phone, putting it in his pocket.
Thomas had dark skin and shoulder-length blond hair. His blue eyes had small green flecks in them. He wore a black shirt with black skinny jeans and black combat boots. He looked to be about fifteen years of age, and was also quite pale. There was a scar on his right cheek, and it stood out.
Bruce had just called him. He had received his first orders of the Cold War. And he will not fail.
…
Since their break was taking so long, Luciano decided to check on the prisoners.
Imagine his surprise when he found the door unlocked, and his prisoners gone. There was a small knife lodged on the door on the other side, deliberately left there.
"Sudafrica!" he shouted.
He whipped out his phone. It was high time that someone received a call from him.
…
Matt was drumming his fingers, waiting restlessly. As predicted, he had arrived back at the bathroom of the Northern meeting place. And Alida had sent a few Nations from the South to keep him company.
Fiji was glaring at him, but it was out of a general hatred for Northern Nations. There was no reason for him to hate him otherwise. Then there was Thailand, Egypt and Columbia.
Thailand had long black hair that reached his shoulder blades, tied back in a low ponytail. His eyes were also red in colour, and his skin was also pale, something that the Asian family shared. He didn't wear the glasses that his counterpart wore. He wore a loose-fitting red shirt with a black dragon embroidered on it and loose black pants. His feet remained bare. Ever since a particular torture session, courtesy of his 'family', he refused to wear anything on his feet.
Columbia had tanned skin and long, wavy black hair. She had bright blue eyes, hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses. She wore a short black tank top, exposing her stomach and the intricate tattoo of a snake. Its blue, red and yellow scales were done with extreme detail. She wore a pair of black jean shorts, and a pair of black lace boots. She had a long knife strapped to her waist.
Finally, there was Egypt. He always wore a black keffiyeh with black robes. Underneath the keffiyeh he had shoulder-length black hair. His eyes were a dark brown, almost black, and his skin was a light brown. Unlike the Egypt in Matthew's world, this Egypt had no Arabian influence, and his culture was almost exactly the same as his mother's was. His robes covered his neck, where horrible scars told the world of cruel torture. It was because of that torture that Egypt no longer spoke. His vocal chords were damaged beyond repair, even for a Nation. No one knows who did that to him. No one has gloated, and he himself did not tell anyone who did it.
Fiji was extremely grateful to Australia. Bruce had saved him from abuse from both France and England, and had showed him the first kindness he had ever received. Columbia was loyal to Brazil because Brazil had helped her recover when she was dissolved. A few decades later, the Kingdom of Columbia stood strong once again. Thailand was loyal to India because India nursed his injuries after the two Koreas played with him. (Jeng Soo probably had to watch out.)
Egypt, on the other hand, remained a mystery. No one knew how it came to be that he was the most loyal follower of South Africa. No one knew what happened that made him the first to declare Alida the leader of the African Nations. And no one knew why he was so protective over her. Whenever they were together, Egypt always made sure that he stood between her and anyone that would want to hurt her.
She must have done a huge favour for him. And no one knows when it happened. The first time anyone saw them both together, it had already occurred. No one knows if it happened before or after the damage to his vocal chords.
For now, they waited silently. No one wanted to interrupt the silence, in fear that something bad would happen.
…
Vlad, Lukas and Arthur nervously walked behind Alida. She had explained that this was the building that the North liked to use for meetings. Any of those Nations could be there. Any of the Nations that appeared eager to hurt them.
They had signed an alliance with the Southern Powers, and they were promised protection.
Vlad was walking a little stiffly, his muscles not quite responsive. He should be fine in a day or so, but for now, he couldn't move a lot. Partly because of the electricity he was tortured with, and partly because of the poison his body was forced to expel. None of them were prepared to eat after that.
Lukas and Arthur still had a few cuts on their faces, but it would recover soon enough.
"This feels almost surreal," Arthur said. "We're going home."
"I need to check on Alexandru," Vlad said. "I hope he'll be okay."
"Italy still has our phones," Lukas said. "And he's bound to be pissed."
"You're right," Alida sighed. "I have no idea what he's going to do in retaliation. But it's definitely me he'll be angry with, so he won't go and torture any of the others for information."
"How can you be sure?" Arthur asked.
"I left him a little present to tell him that I was the one that invaded his house."
After that, they grew silent. Five minutes passed before a group of Nations came into view.
Lukas and Arthur relaxed when they saw Matt among them, and Arthur frowned when he recognised Egypt.
As soon as they were close enough, the other Egypt walked closer, tapping Alida on the arm. She nodded her head, and he moved away, standing in front of a restroom door.
"Let's get out of here," Matt said. "I'd rather not be around if someone decides to come on by."
"Agreed," Alida said. "Omar, keep an eye on them."
Egypt, Omar, nodded his head in understanding.
…
The break was over. Everyone had just returned from whatever they had been doing.
Germany had really gotten extra seats, as well as another table. They were about to begin.
"Is everyone here?" Ludwig asked.
"Except for Matt," Matthew said. "He said there's something important he had to do."
"Ja, he mentioned picking someone up. Now, can we…"
They were all startled when a group of people appeared out of nowhere. Four of them were very familiar.
"Artie!" America called, jumping out of his seat. He ran over and glomped Arthur.
"Get off me, you git!" England shouted.
"Norge!" Denmark shouted, doing the exact same thing as America.
"Get off, stupid Dane," Norway said.
"I think you're pressing against their cuts," Romania said.
Instantly, the two excited Nations let go.
Vlad went to Russia, who had the still-unconscious Moldova on his lap. He picked up his younger brother and held him close, whispering words of comfort in Romanian.
"Who are the others?" Germany asked.
Before anyone could answer, a loud, angry voice interrupted them.
"JENG SOO!"
I was actually thinking of doing a side-story about the history of the 2Ps. Such as why Egypt is so devoted to South Africa. Or about the Scandinavian-Oceanic War. Or anything else, for that matter. Tell me what you think.