France sincerely hoped that no one would stop him on his way to England's house. For one thing, it had already been too long, and for another, it definitely would not look good if anyone noticed that Italy was unconscious and lying across the laps of Germany, Romano, and Spain. They didn't know how the police would take it, but none of them wanted to find out. Fortunately, the drive in the too-full car was relatively uneventful, although Italy began twitching and crying out wordlessly, and soon they were almost at their destination.
"Angleterre's 'ouse should be right over 'e-" France broke off midword, rolled down the car window, and shouted, "WHAT ZE 'ELL 'APPENED 'ERE?!"
England was standing on his lawn with Romania, Norway, and... Norway? Behind him, the house was a raging inferno. The irritated Britt yelled back, "A psychotic Norwegian burned my house down, you frog!"
"Well, how was I supposed to know that trying to light a fireplace with a flamethrower was a bad idea?" the Norway in red retorted.
"Maybe the stupidity didn't strike you because you're a bloody idiot?" England suggested.
"Me? Bloody? I don't think so. How kind of you to worry."
England glared furiously at the Norwegian, as did the other Norwegian, surprisingly. Even Romania seemed annoyed.
Silence ensued as everyone exited the car, minus Italy, who lay on the seats under Romano's watchful eye. To break the awkward silence, France inquired, "Are any of you going to make introductions?"
The Norway in red gasped, probably just pretending to be offended, "You mean you don't remember me? Well, I'm Loki Bondevik."
Spain quickly put two and two together—he acted the fool sometimes, true, but he wasn't really dumb— and asked the small group, "So, since you obviously know about the second players, maybe you wouldn't mind telling us before someone dies?"
"... Well, fuck." England sighed, "I suppose keeping it from you at this point would do more harm than good. It's quite simple, really. In an alternate reality, our world is… Different. The history is much the same, from what I understand-" here his eyes flicked towards Loki- "but darker, bloodier, more dangerous. Our counterparts in that world are what we call second players… And several of them have nasty psychopathic tendencies."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," observed Loki.
"You still haven't explained why you're here!" Lukas snapped.
"Why would I do that? It's more fun watching you try to figure it out!" Loki grinned.
"Norway made a good point… Why the hell are these bastards here?!" Romano wanted to know.
"That's...more complicated," England admitted.
Loki burst out laughing so hard he collapsed to his knees and began rolling on the grass. "Why are we here? Priceless! You don't remember anything, do you?!"
"Angleterre, what is 'e talking about?"
"And here I thought a war would be hard to forget!" Tears streamed down Loki's face. "You guys are just too much!"
A slap rang out, and Loki stared at his counterpart while raising his fingers to touch the red handprint on his cheek.
"Now then…" Lukas turned to Romano. "You said 'bastards'. As in, more than one?"
"Angleterre, what are you not telling me?" France seemed stricken.
"Well, yeah, the asshole calling himself Luciano tried to kill me and my brother in our own house!" Romano raged.
"Everyone, shut the bloody hell up and I will try to explain!" England shouted. When everyone's voices died away, he cleared his throat. "Years ago… To begin, it wasn't really a war so much as an invasion. There weren't any battles, but one day they weren't here, and the next they were. They took us by surprise… All of us." His face showed that he was still ashamed of that.
"Then vhat happened?" Prussia spoke up for the first time. "Obviously they left, but now some are back. And if that Luciano guy gave Vest amnesia… I'll kill him!"
"I don't have amnesia," Germany muttered.
"Then vhat happened after you vent to visit Ita?"
"... I don't remember," Germany admitted.
"Was there a broken mirror?" Romania suddenly asked. Everyone jumped, having forgotten he was there.
"Si, si, there was," Spain answered, just as Romano said, "Si, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"Be quiet so I can tell you!" England reprimanded them. "Eventually, Norway, Romania and I managed to find a spell to trap all of them in the mirror world. They would still be able to see our world through mirrors, but they couldn't do anything unless they were freed."
"Freed… By breaking mirrors," Spain realized.
"Correct. Of course, it takes more than just breaking a mirror. If the person breaking the mirror is particularly susceptible, and the bonds holding their counterpart particularly weak, breaking a mirror could release their second player."
"Susceptible 'ow, exactly?" France posed the question on everyone's minds. "And why don't we remember any of this?"
"Fear," England stated simply. "The more scared one is of their counterpart, the more likely they are to unintentionally free them. My guess is that after the spell holding Luciano in the mirror weakened sufficiently, he manipulated Feliciano's reflection to scare him into breaking the mirror. As for why you don't remember…"
"We used magic to seal away your memories of the second players so you would be less likely to accidentally free them," finished Romania.
Germany inquired, "That sounds reasonable, but why didn't you just send them back where they came from?"
England, Romania, and Norway exchanged glances, but it was Norway who answered, "We couldn't do it because we needed a fourth person but there's only three of us."
"I'm magical too, bitches!" Loki announced.
"You would have messed everything up for fun," Norway retorted.
The second player rolled his eyes at that but didn't argue.
"If you're fucking done… Do ANY of you know why fratello won't wake up?" Worry was plain in Romano's voice, even as he cursed at them. "Fix it, dammit!"
Romania was the first one to reach Italy, and he laid a hand on his forehead. "He isn't in bad condition physically," he stated.
Norway suggested, "I would bet that his second player has something to do with it."
Romano interrupted, "I would bet that your fucking brain-wipe spell had something to do with it!"
England nodded, "It is possible."
"So remove it!" Romano demanded. "Who knows, maybe that's the potato bastard's problem too!"
Romania hesitated before replying, "He would rather not remember. He may not wake up the same person he was..."
"I don't fucking care. Fix your shit." Romano glared at him challengingly.
Romania flinched visibly before mumbling what sounded like nonsense and waving his hand over Veneziano's head. Immediately the Italian started twitching, then convulsing, and a shriek pierced the air.
"DOITSU, MAKE IT STOP! PER FAVORE!"
Everyone crowded around, concerned, but Germany and Romano were the most distressed. "What the hell did you do to him?!" Romano yelled. "If he dies, I'm going to sue your ass to the grave and back!" Nobody had the heart to reprimand him when his eyes were sparkling with unshed tears.
Germany reached toward Italy and whispered, "I'm here, Feliciano... I'm here."
The only thing left to do was wait.
A/N: Mm, I hope you enjoy this chapter... Explanations have been explained, as I'm sure you were all wondering what was up. And Italy isn't dead yet. (Don't hurt me...) Pro tip: Don't try to write a scene with ten characters at once. Several parts of this went through a couple of rewrites before I was even satisfied enough to post it. Review please~