Thanks to EverythingMath, Le-awesome-me, jkin6486, Dragonfire78 and madders10 for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Chapter 51: Secret Weapons

In the end, it would make sense that someone would have a secret weapon or two.

But is it Black or White?

…

Alida sighed, watching as several of the other Nations returned to their own world.

Quite a few had stayed behind, and she was kind of happy for that. It meant that there were more of them to fight against the North. But now they had other things to worry about.

They needed to secure the Northern territories already under their control. Once Italy got bored of whatever game they were playing with the other world, he'll start focusing on warfare, which is why she had to be ahead of him.

Turning to the group that stayed behind, she turned her attention to Mahesh.

"I need you to have a little chat with your old mentor," Alida said. "Take the Koreans with you."

Mahesh nodded, and they completely ignored Yong Soo's cheer as he latched onto his brother's counterpart.

"Ricardo," Alida said, "I need you to have a little word with Venezuela. Take the other one with you, just in case."

Ricardo flinched, and Luis was left pondering over what the problem was with his counterpart, and why he wasn't at the meeting.

"Kanada," Alida continued. "Take America and Mexico and secure your borders. You have the largest landmass of anyone here, and we can't afford the North to take that."

Matt nodded, but looked warily towards Alfred.

"Then I want a few others to secure the borders of Switzerland, Moldova, Greenland, Iceland and Bulgaria, as well as Camille's borders," Alida said. "Mahesh, once you're done, move to North Korea. Are we clear?"

…

Kumajiro looked up when he heard footsteps.

Canada, as well as the other Nations, had left him behind. He wasn't so worried about himself, but rather Matthew.

A young-looking girl came into view, and she smiled when she saw the bear.

"Who are you?" Kumajiro asked.

"I'm Wy," the girl introduced. "Since Aussie is at a meeting in the other world, he asked me to make the rounds today."

Ever since the Nations started living in the Union House, Jett would use his teleportation magic just to make sure all of the other Nations' pets were taken care of.

"Okay," Kumajiro said, following the girl into the kitchen.

…

When they returned to their own world, they were surprised to hear a commotion. Fearing the worst, they departed to the source, hoping to put a stop to whatever it might be.

They were shocked to see over half of the African continent involved in a brawl, with a few of the Middle Eastern Nations trying to stop it. Anyone else was just standing to the side, unsure of what to do.

"HOU OP!"

Everyone froze, because that Afrikaans didn't come from Anika. It came from Jana. Namibia, formerly known as German South West Africa.

Which was why everyone stopped.

"Now what the blerrie hel is going on around here?" Jana asked.

The Africans moved aside, revealing two Nations that were in the middle of it all.

"Sammy, Farai," Anika said, her voice cold, "what happened?"

"There was another Deathplayer attack," Nigeria said. "And these two managed to sense them, but couldn't find them."

"You do realise that they're not strong enough to sense location, right?" Theresa asked. "They can't pinpoint location. And what about the rest of you?"

No one said anything, appearing to be slightly embarrassed.

"Who was attacked?" Matthew asked.

"Thailand," Israel said.

At that revelation, Yao, Mei and Leon demanded to know where he was.

"Follow me," Natalya said, leading them away.

They watched as the four Nations left, and the South African trio turned on their neighbours.

"Come on," Anika sighed. "I think we need to get you patched up now. And then all of you are going to have your senses honed, orrait?"

There were a few groans from the Africans, but they all nodded their heads.

…

"So, what's wrong with my counterpart?" Luis asked.

Ricardo sighed, rubbing his temples.

"When we were living in the same house under Portugal," Ricardo started, "he decided to make an example out of Ferdinand. The things he did… Ferdinand is one of the few Nations that are completely and utterly broken beyond repair. But he's one of our secret weapons. It wasn't just Portugal that hurt him. More than half of Europe. You'll see why having someone like him is useful."

Luis furrowed his brows as Ricardo unlocked the door. They stepped inside, and Luis braced himself.

Luis gagged, and he brought up his shirt to act as a shield against the stench. It smelled like rotting meat, along with… was that sulphur?

Ricardo didn't seem too bothered, and walked further into the house. Luis reluctantly followed.

There were stains all over, and they were of different colours, so it was hard to see what they could be. A few looked like paint, though.

Luis followed Ricardo carefully. After seeing the rest of the house, he couldn't help but wonder what the other him was like.

Maybe he should have left with the others?

Ricardo finally stopped, and opened another door.

Luis couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the room. It was like an art studio. An extremely messy art studio. There were a few canvases around, and Luis was forced to pause at one of them.

That looked like…

"Brazil~!" a voice sang, and Luis was forced to turn his attention away from the paintings.

His eyes widened when they landed on his counterpart.

Ferdinand had really wild blond hair. His skin was extremely pale. He wasn't sure about his eyes. The right eye was a bright green, but the other was a milky blue, as though it was blind. He wore white pants and a white shirt with overlong sleeves. If it weren't for the paint splatters on the clothes, it would have appeared as though the other was a patient in a mental ward.

And with the look he had in his eyes, that wasn't a wrong assumption.

"Ola Ferdinand," Ricardo said nervously. "I would like to…"

Ferdinand wasn't listening, his eyes focused on Luis. At first he had a confused expression, but a grin appeared, large enough to seemingly split his entire face.

"Ola Luis," Ferdinand said, waving cheerfully.

Luis was taken aback. How did he know his name?

"Lookie," Ferdinand said, moving forward and grabbing Luis.

Luis was forced to allow himself to be pulled ahead. He looked back towards Ricardo, who merely shrugged helplessly.

Ferdinand was digging around the completed and dried canvases, and finally pulled one out, shoving it into Luis's hands.

The other was shocked, but looked down, and his eyes widened.

"This is… me?" Luis said.

"Sim, sim," Ferdinand said.

"His hold on reality is weak," Ricardo explained, walking closer. "So it's not surprising that he can gain information about your world. Now Ferdinand," he said, turning to the other Venezuelan. "Are you willing to help us wage war against the North?"

Ferdinand's cheerful disposition disappeared, and he looked nervous. He hugged himself, and when he did that, Luis was reminded of someone wearing a straightjacket.

"War?" Ferdinand asked. "There's nothing I want more. But that's what they want. They want to play the game."

"The North?" Luis asked.

"No. Deathplayers."

"What do you know of them?" Ricardo asked.

Ferdinand moved to the painting that he had been working on prior to their arrival, and Luis was surprised to see a serpentine creature.

"The new one was freed," Ferdinand said. "The third player has joined their game."

"Third?" Ricardo asked.

Ferdinand bit his lip, body trembling slightly. He looked around, before going to another pile of canvases. He removed one that showed a lupine creature, and another that revealed a draconian creature.

"They grew with Nations," Ferdinand said. "In them. So that they could be stronger."

"So asides from the Deathplayers, there are stronger ones?" Ricardo asked.

Ferdinand blinked a few times, and went to a canvas that appeared to still be drying. The figure looked a lot like India.

"What else can you tell us?" Ricardo asked.

"Chess," Ferdinand said, going to another canvas. This one showed a chessboard with Nations replacing the pieces. "White moves first."

"What about white?" Ricardo asked.

"Players need to have White move first," Ferdinand said. "Players are hidden in White Blocks. So White needs to hurt, so that the game is played. And the Players want war. That is their game. But more than anything, they want White to become Red."

"What do you mean?" Luis asked.

Ferdinand fixed his eyes on Luis, and his face broke out in another grin, and he walked until he was standing in front of Luis.

"They hurt White," he said, "so that they can be Red. Like me."

…

Deep breaths. In, out. Repeat.

That is what Lobsang was doing. That is all he could do lately.

The Tibetan had long black hair tied back in a ponytail, and his eyes were a mixture of blue and green that was rare to see in Asia. As such, it only made sense that his robes were blue and green as well.

His eyes were closed, but one of them was cracked open when he heard rushed footsteps.

"M-master," Macau said, "we have guests."

Chio had short black hair, and he had blue eyes, which was also rare. He wore dark sunglasses, along with a simple black changshan with black pants.

"Who is it?" Lobsang asked.

"It's India, and he's not alone. North and… I think it's South Korea are here too. Yul is keeping them busy."

Lobsang frowned. Last he heard (granted, it was a few years ago), South Asia had pretty much declared war against the rest of Asia. The Japanese-Indian War was enough evidence of that. And while India may have gotten along with North Korea once upon a time, South Korea was a different matter.

He sighed, but stood from his meditative position. His curiosity had been piqued, and that was saying something.

…

Raj breathed a sigh in relief. For now, he was alone, and he could use the time to recover from the torture his body was forced to endure.

He hoped that someone would save him soon. He was too weak to attempt escape on his own, and even if he tried, there were just too many enemies around.

He felt his stomach twist uncomfortably, and resigned himself. It would seem he would need to start fasting again. If only they had left him some water.

…

"Where's Wy?" Roberto asked the Micro Nations.

"She's just taking care of all of the Nations' pets," Kugelmugel explained.

"So she's not going to be here for a while," Roberto sighed.

"What is this about?" Molossia asked.

"We've got a little job for you, if you're interested. It involves going to the other world for a bit of recon. And while you're at it, if you can find anything useful, then by all means…"

…

Lobsang and Chio went towards the entrance, where Mongolia was keeping their three guests busy.

Yul had short, choppy black hair, since he was too lazy to get a proper haircut and felt uncomfortable with long hair. His eyes were a rare colour, silver, which was what forced Lobsang to befriend the other in the first place. Lobsang wore a large golden shirt with dragons embroidered in multicolours. Then, to break away from the rest of them, he wore jeans and black boots.

Once Lobsang caught sight of their guests, he arched a brow.

Yes, he could clearly see that it was India and North Korea, but it was South Korea. He looked too… different. He wasn't even sure if it really was South Korea. Still, the resemblances were there…

"Śikṣaka," India greeted.

"Who is this?" Lobsang asked, eyes trained on 'South Korea'.

"I'm Im Yong Soo," the other introduced. "South Korea from the other world."

The three stared in bewilderment.

"Other… world?" Chio whispered.

"We discovered it a while ago," India explained. "They're a lot more peaceful than the Nations in our world."

That caught Lobsang's attention.

"Not completely," Yong Soo said. "We have our share of wars, but that's mostly the decisions of our bosses."

Now, five Nations stared at him in bafflement.

"Bosses?" India asked.

"Yeah," Yong Soo said, head cocked to the side. "Human leaders for your countries? You know? Presidents, monarchs…?" The others still remained silent. "Wait, are you saying that you don't have bosses?"

"We don't allow humans to lead a Nation," Lobsong said. "We each handle our own affairs."

"Lucky. Maybe if that happened, Hyung Soo wouldn't have that uptight little…"

"Why are you here?" Lobsong interrupted.

"We need your help," India said. "The Northern Powers have taken an aggressive approach regarding the other world. They're harming innocent Nations."

"That's right," Yong Soo said. "I mean, you should see what your Japan did to Hyung Soo just because Jeng Soo betrayed them. Wales and Poland were poisoned with that 'Bloody Fire', and…"

Lobsong interrupted by placing his hand on Yong Soo's forehead, silencing the confused Korean. Through that, Lobsong could see what had happened. Visions filled his head, and he also noticed a few other things. Then, he was forced to pause with one memory.

"Deathplayers," Lobsong whispered, removing his hand.

"You know about them?" North Korea asked.

"Yes, I do. And this is really bad."

…

Ricardo and Luis watched as Ferdinand was busy drawing squares on a piece of paper, meant to represent a chessboard. He then made crude drawings of each piece.

"What is going on?" Luis asked.

"Here," Ferdinand said. "The White Pawns are stained with a little red. The Black Pawns make sure of that." He scribbled a little on each of the 'pawn' squares. "The other Black pieces aren't too eager to play the game with their White counterparts, so the Players do it themselves. Boom!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Ricardo asked.

"Several of us had a bomb go off in our capital recently," Luis said. "It must be that."

"Some Blocks have their own cracks," Ferdinand said. "And others have whole openings, where the Players used to be."

After a few moments more, Ricardo sighed.

"Keep him busy," he whispered to Luis. "I'll go see if I can make sense of what he's saying."

…

Alida kept her eyes on the map. Every now and again, she would wave her hand in front of it, and something would change.

"Humans are migrating," Alida whispered. "They're coming to our lands."

"And we can draw from their strength," Bruce finished for her. "What did you do?"

"Oh, it's just a little storm. A storm that is quickly spreading, and Ricardo had sown the seeds of discontent. It's only a matter of time before they flee to better lands."

"In other words, us."

"Exactly."

…

Yao frowned when he saw just how badly hurt Kasem was. Several bones had been broken, and it was obvious that no one had tended to them, for his limbs had started to swell. Mei and Leon didn't argue when Yao started barking orders at them to get him whatever he needed to tend to Kasem's injuries.

He was actually glad that Lien had decided to stay behind and help her counterpart. He knew that she was close to Kasem, and would have freaked out when she heard the news.

So it was better to tell her the news once they were sure that Kasem was alright.

…

Rebecca could feel her patience slipping away.

Somehow, the other version of Prussia had managed to worm her way to her 'group', which also included the other Germany. She wasn't sure how that happened, since those two weren't her favourite Nations.

But right now, Gilbert was annoying the living daylights out of her.

"Agh!" she finally exclaimed, interrupting Gilbert in her 'awesome' speech. "Sie sind zu laut! Enough already!"

"Nein," Gilbert said, smirking cheekily. "It is 'du bist', not 'Sie sind'. Remember that."

Rebecca could feel her eye starting to twitch, and groaned, slamming her head down on the table in front of her.

"That's no way for the counterpart of our awesome kleine schwester to behave," Gilbert scolded, placing a hand on the Namibian's shoulder. "We're going to make that arschloch Gilen pay, and then drag that arschloch of a bruder Lutz with him."

"At least there's something we can agree on," Rebecca muttered.

The fourth member of their group, Basch, approached them, and Rebecca straightened herself.

"Are we going to secure my borders or what?" he demanded.

"Ja, ja…" Rebecca sighed, standing up. "Let's just hope Oostenryk and Liechtenstein didn't move in on your land yet."

"Österreich," Gilbert corrected.

"I wasn't speaking German then! Does the other Namibia have to deal with you too?"

"She's just trying to make up for lost time," Ludwig explained, and Rebecca looked towards her with confusion. "She was still German South West Africa, and we went to war. We lost the war, and her with it."

"Who did you lose her to?" Rebecca asked.

"South Africa, under control of the British Empire."

"They had an empire? Ooh boy. When was this?"

"Almost a hundred years ago."

"A hundred years ago Alida wasn't under anyone's control. She was already an independent Nation, and was already starting with her empire."

"We should really learn about your histories sometime."

…

Ricardo sighed, sitting in front of a canvas he had found.

It unnerved him a little, since it was a painting of him and Roberto standing side-by-side, him in black and Roberto in white.

He sighed, closing his eyes. He would make sense of what Ferdinand had to say, and if the painting would help him, then so be it.

He took a few deep breaths, before he took a hold of the painting, and his magic touch did the rest.

I thought of Ferdinand after I posted the list. I wanted to create a character that is completely and utterly insane, wearing some sort of long-sleeved shirt that looked like he was wearing a straightjacket if he hugged himself (blame 'Who framed Roger Rabbit' for that mental image).

Ferdinand knows about the Deathplayers and everything that was going on because his grip on reality is virtually non-existent, so he's able to gain this image in his head, and to prevent himself from going insane from the images he saw he has to paint them, and then he can sort of form a story for himself. And it was actually fun to write him. He's considered to be a 'broken' Nation, which means that he doesn't represent any aspect of his country in any way, and isn't really considered to be opposite to his counterpart. His mind was damaged by what others had done to him, but it was done to him while still very young and didn't have any time to grow and create mental and emotional barriers.

And South Africa is one of the strongest African Nations, Mozambique is a former communist Nation, and Namibia is related to Germany, which is why, when all three of them are angry, the rest of the African Nations tend to back away.

And the 2P Nations handle their own affairs. They don't have any governments, the decisions they make are their own, and they control their people. So the concept of having bosses is strange for them. And they only feel connected with their people when they need them, such as when there's a war.