Chapter 3: The Inter-Dimensional Space-Time Continuum
A/N: So this one is mostly exposition. Apologies but it had to go somewhere although I think I got the Nations pretty in-character this time if I do say so myself (which includes witty and playful banter). Happy Monday.
Disclaimer: Can't I just put it at the first chapter and never do it again? I still don't own Hetalia.
"Ve~, what happened?" Italy woke up in a field with the nine other Nations, none of them awake yet. He crawled over to Germany and began shaking him awake, receiving a response almost instantly in the form of azure blue eyes glaring at him. "Yay, Doitsu's awake! Where's Japan?" He stood and began searching the area for the Asian Nation while Germany grumbled under his breath about strange dreams.
The field looked like it lie fallow, plowed and ready for seeding. Neat, straight rows of dirt stretched on for yards in either direction, the soft, dark earth looking like very promising farmland.
Germany stood and, aside from the drastic change in location, he noticed just how humid the area was- definitely not the weather for February in New York. Italy, Japan, and China were all awake taking in the new surroundings. China said nothing, he looked simply and utterly confused. In a split second that confusion switched to anger and he smacked the still-unconscious England right next to him.
"This is all your fault!" He shouted, stirring the rest of the allies and making the Brit flinch awake.
"What? How is it my fault?" England yelled, clearly not pleased with the accusation.
"This was one of your crazy magic schemes isn't it? I knew I shouldn't trust westerners." China grumbled before standing and walking over to Japan.
"First of all, even if this was my doing why would I send myself here with all of you? And secondly, I don't know where the bloody hell we are!" Soon an argument erupted on the logic of England's claim and no one aside from a certain northern Nation noticed the young girl slowly walking toward them with a sack over her shoulder.
"Comrades," Russia said cheerfully, making the other Nations falter slightly, "I am thinking we have a visitor, da?" He asked, pointing to the girl who just noticed the ten people ruining the plow work in the field. As she got closer, the Nations took in her rather strange appearance.
She was dressed much like a peasant, with a rough cloth dress with several patches haphazardly sewn on and a bandana-type rag around her auburn hair. What really caught their attention was the various shades of blue ranging from baby blue to turquoise to almost Prussian blue. It stood out greatly against the green-brown grass behind her.
"Well what do we have here?" France asked in that oh-so-innocent tone of his, earning a scoff from England.
"Oh shut it, frog. Why don't we try asking her where-or perhaps when-we are, hmm?" England put on his best "gentleman" pose and calmly walked over to the girl who, upon seeing him, froze in shock and nearly dropped her sack.
Eyes wide, she asked him something too quiet for the others to hear but judging from his outraged yell, it wasn't nice. She quickly apologized and even bowed before rising and peering around him to see the others.
"Where do you think we are?" Japan asked quietly,
"Hey France, did your people ever bow to you before? Like in old medieval times?" America asked, earning a mixed response from his ally.
"Well, before we hid our secret from the world the military thought very highly of us but commoners were left out of the loop. Though I wouldn't say being transported back to feudal England is a good thing." France explained a hint of worry in his voice. England and the strange girl finally reached them and blatant fear overtook her features upon seeing almost everyone else. Her gaze shifted to fearful confusion at America and China and she quickly turned and ran back the way she came.
"Uh, dudes? Is that supposed to happen?"
"I don't think so." A quiet voice responded. Everyone spun around to see a blonde holding a polar bear amongst them. Saving the question from being voiced, "I'm Canada."
"Well she clearly recognized us. Knew me by name, almost." England was clearly nonplussed by whatever exchange they had but before he could voice that anger several men all clad in blue military uniforms were quickly making their way toward them.
"Doitsu!" Italy yelled, clinging to Germany's arm and waving a white flag. Seven guards in total, each with various numbers on their arms above a black insignia, surrounded them. The presumed leader, with a nine on his arm, stepped forward, raising his hand in a sign to lower weapons.
The others did as commanded but remained on edge as their commander stepped forward in front of China, who was closest to him.
"Sir Yao, are you alright?" He asked, China made a split second decision to play along and nodded. The man's brown eyes flickered to America before he called out a command and the other guards once again raised their spear-like weapons.
"Men, take these impostors and the conspirators to the castle. The king can decide what to do with them."
-Line Break-
"I've seen a lot in my years, but a blue dungeon is not on that list. Do these people have a blue fetish or something?" America complained loudly, his voice echoing off the stone walls.
"Shut up, git, and do something useful, like breaking the door down with that damned strength of yours." As if on command, the cell door opened and in walked three very familiar faces.
"Iggy are you sure this isn't your fault?" America stared at his blue-clad double who stared right back at him. The resemblance was uncanny, even more so than Canada, his twin. The double's gaze flickered over to Russia and his expression darkened.
"And just what is the leader of Clubs doing in my land? I had a feeling the thief was your kind but never dreamed it would be the king himself." Alfred's glare was reminiscent of the one America wore during the Cold War. He turned to France and Germany, giving them the same treatment. "All of you? Kingdoms finally agree to cooperate and this is what's to show of it?" England's double Arthur finally stepped forward and whispered something to his companion, whose expression morphed from anger to confusion.
"When I asked you to send for aid, duplicates- especially from rival kingdoms- are not what I had in mind." Though they looked identical, America could already tell they had very different personalities. At least on the outside. This version was far more serious and probably didn't have a hero complex and if he did it was hidden away. Alfred turned back to them, less anger and more skepticism now. "How did you come to be here?"
The Nations all watched the doppelgänger, baffled as to how they shared the same face. "Ve, there was this loud noise and a bright light and suddenly we were here. Amer- er. Wait. What do I call you?" Italy stepped forward and Alfred surprisingly stepped back.
"Erm, Alfred. This is Arthur and Yao. And you are?" China was surprised that both universes or dimensions or whatever this place was, used the same names, though he doubted these double were also personified nations.
"That's funny, we have the same names. I'm Italy. Is there another Feliciano here then?"
"He would be the Jack of Hearts Kingdom." Yao supplied, raising more questions than answers.
"Wait, Hearts as in the cards suit? Are there kingdoms for each one?" America asked stepping forward.
Alfred nodded, "In this part of the world yes, the four suit kingdoms make up the former Cards Dominion. Welcome to Spades." Suddenly the insignias on the soldiers' arms made sense, each wore the symbol of their kingdom- a black spade. Feliciano's title now made sense as well. Now raised the question of who took the other eleven face cards.
"You said you called for aid." Germany prompted, immediately the blue-clad trio darkened. Alfred smiled and effortlessly changed the subject.
"Why don't we get you out of this dungeon and we'll have a little history lesson?"
-Line Break-
Ten Nations and three face cards stood in the now slightly cramped war room where a massive floor-to ceiling world map was boldly painted covering the entire expanse of the wall. Geographically, it was identical to the world they knew but politically…everything was vastly different. First off, none of the nations ever known to man seemed to exist. It also seemed that the entire world ran off games.
Alfred, noticing the wide eyes and gaping mouths, chuckled and began explaining. He started with the Americas, more precisely central America, "Okay judging from your expressions I am assuming your world is different from ours?"
"Uh, yeah dude. I, like, don't exist here!" America cried as if the mere thought of the great US of A not existing was blasphemy.
"Ah, a world without America. I can't imagine." England said dreamily.
"Angleterre, you are the reason he exists." France deadpanned, receiving a hateful glare from his frienemy. The blue trio shared a glance before shrugging it off and planning to ask later.
"Now then," Alfred said, regaining the room's focus. "Each of the four suit kingdoms is ruled by three people of different ranks, a king, queen and jack. Below them is the ace and then common citizens."
"So it's a three-tiered monarchy?" England asked and Alfred shook his head.
"Not exactly, other dominions have monarchies but they lie to the east. Cards has three nearly-equal leaders at a time."
"So like my government. A democracy. I have an executive branch with the president, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch that run my country." America offered, glad that there weren't quite kings ruling part of his land.
"So who does that make you?" Romano asked, still livid about this whole thing.
"Yao here is our jack, Arthur is the queen, and I am the king." Forget about monarchies, America's doppelgänger is a king? Hell no.
"Hold up a sec." Said offended country interrupted, "You're telling me that the double of me, the United States of America, is a freaking king? That breaks the laws of nature!"
"Fredka, you would be surprised how many of your leaders turn your government into an oligarchy. Some even a dictatorship." Russia said, easily getting under his skin.
"Shut it commie bastard. No one asked you."
Arthur cleared his throat loudly, stopping the fight before it started as he pointed to the northeastern part of South America including the chain of islands just to the north of it. "This region is the Kingdom of Hearts, ruled by Ludwig, Kiku, and Feliciano in descending order." Germany's face reddened at the cruel poetic justice. Of course there was a kingdom of Axis. Would no one ever let him off the hook?
Arthur moved to the adjacent kingdom, covering north western South America and up to Costa Rica on the map. "This is the Kingdom of Diamonds, ruled by Francis, Lili, and Basch." Both England and Arthur rolled their eyes at the mention of the Frenchman and all Nations frowned at the odd trio.
"Switzy? Really? That must be a dysfunctional government." America said with a few nods of agreement from the others.
"Diamond typically stays out of conflicts not beneficial to them. They are also the wealthiest of the four." Alfred said, which made a lot of sense considering. He then moved to the next kingdom comprising of Mexico, the southern half of Texas and Jamaica. "Here is Clubs." Arthur said with an edge of anger. "Ruled by Ivan, Elizabeta, and Roderich. Oh I forgot the aces: Lovino for Hearts-" Romano gave an indignant cry in the back ground. "-Antonio for Diamonds, and Natalya for Clubs." Terror flashed across Russia's eyes in a second. Arthur then pointed to the southeastern United States expanding to New Mexico and the Ohio River also including the rest of the Caribbean Islands. "And then you have Spades, our ace is Matthew." No one heard it but Canada gave a small yell of glee at his status in this world.
"Over in the east there is the Empire of Chess," all of Europe and Turkey, "Domino Federation," the entirety of Africa though most of it was shaded in. "Kingdom of Backgammon," the Middle East, "and Draughts Republic" taking up China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, a small section of Russia, and south to the tip of Indonesia.
"What are all the gray areas?" Japan asked, noticing a large percentage of the map lay unlabeled, including his own land.
"Unclaimed land. We're not much for expansion especially into the arctic regions."
"You know there's a huge amount of gold over there." America pointed to California, which was also gray. "I mean, it sure helped me and it looks like no one's explored over there much."
"Well I'll be sure to take that into consideration… America was it?" It still felt weird to see a mirror image of oneself not know who the other is. Alfred motioned for Yao to take over.
"Before the four kingdoms were created, there was the Cards Dominion, which was founded to escape oppression from Chess. This was hundreds of years ago. Upon landing here the original settlers discovered a great mystical power in the form of a great clock. It granted the dominion power, luck, wealth, and prosperity. Until a civil war happened between the north and the south over the Timepiece and Cards Dominion was divided into two kingdoms, Black and Red respectively.
"The Black Dominion controlled the Timepiece and kept it from the Red Dominion. A few centuries later history repeated itself and the Black Dominion split in half due to the greed of the West, now known as Clubs. Selfish lust drove the Red Dominion to collapse as well into Hearts and Diamonds and we have been warring kingdoms ever since.
"Spades, up until yesterday, held the power of the Timepiece. We became superior in every way and it was thanks to the Great Clock that we are the superior kingdom. Now we have reason to believe it is at the fault of one of the other three kingdoms and if it is not returned to us in less than two days now war will break out more volatile than ever."
There was silence as the familiar history1 sank in. They had landed in a war zone. One that had been feuding for centuries. And now they had to act as peace keepers?
"With all due respect, why must Spades have this Timepiece? Why can't another kingdom take it?" Germany asked, causing eyebrows to rise in surprise.
"Spades has always possessed the Timepiece, even before the separation of kingdoms. Among other things it is rightfully ours for the taking. Though custody is not the main issue here." Alfred said, threatening Germany to go against his word.
"Without the Timepiece, we four kingdoms are nearly evenly matched. Spades has an only slightly superior military-and only just-due to our possession. Yesterday we received word from all three kingdoms that none of them possess it. If by some minuscule possibility they speak the truth, we will enter a four way war with no superior force and will end up fighting until the last man standing. There must be a superior power or we will simultaneously annihilate each other and raze the kingdoms to the ground." Yao explained, fingering the sword that hung at his side as he spoke. The whole room went silent as the new information sunk in. It seemed war really was inevitable.
"Why are we here?" China asked finally.
"Yesterday we issued an ultimatum threatening war unless the Timepiece was restored. That was in anticipation one would come forward to gloat over their success. We did not expect that response but cannot go back on our word. Either we start the war with the other three or the other three start a war with us."
"The last bloody time a nation issued an ultimatum it caused the second deadliest war in our history2. Are you absolutely sure diplomacy won't work? What if this culprit is a third party member from one of the other lands entirely? Placing the blame on one of you to initiate a war." England placed his hands on the table, positioning himself like the military man he was during much of the twentieth century. The room seemed to chill at the possibility of a third party candidate. Logically it made sense.
Too much sense.
"Because of our separation from the rest of the world, no other kingdoms know of the Timepiece's existence. Hearts Kingdom tried to contact Chess for support in an earlier war but we refused to let them, none of us wanting another kingdom to fight." Arthur's words sounded strangely reminiscent of another war not too long ago where a land in the Americas failed to gain European support. And another instance where Europe nearly failed to gain American support. The histories were frighteningly similar3.
"You'd be surprised just how often a nation can make an unprecedented move. Even if the motivation is sketchy." America said, both he and Japan subtly inching away from each other4.
"Well then what do you suggest we do? It takes weeks to get from here to just Chess and we need an answer tomorrow. And if we do evade the time barrier that would mean not only alerting the other kingdoms that are currently unaware of its existence as well as creating more enemies should the decide to take it for themselves." Alfred was getting increasingly more frustrated with every roadblock they hit.
"We could ask the jokers." Matthew suggested from the doorway.
"I really doubt they could be of any assistance to us. For all we know they bloody stole if for themselves." Arthur grumbled, choosing to glare at the map and not meet anyone's eyes.
"Who are these 'jokers'?" France asked, returning the conversation from its tangent.
"They used to be the elites of the Red and Black Dominions but after the fall of their lands now only two remain, the former two aces, Gilbert of Black and Peter of Red. They have no suit affiliation." Yao said, also not agreeing with the idea.
"Wait, Peter? As in the short blonde kid with my accent and ego bigger than Asia? That Peter?" England looked utterly outraged at the idea of Sealand accomplishing anything.
"You know the brat?" Arthur asked a look of anger and pity on his face.
"In our world he is probably the single most annoying wanker on the face of the Earth. And he's not even a real country!" England missed the grin from America, pleased that his former mentor thought so highly of him.
"They could have taken it, we don't know. But they still might have information that we need for the sake of all suits." It was hard to strike down an idea when it made sense, it really was. Even if it was a waste of time and sanity, they had no leads and the jokers were nomads.
"They are like trolls: whatever information they may or may not have will come at a price. Knowing them it won't be cheap. Con artists they are. I'm glad there's only two left in existence." Arthur defended weakly, sighing when no one defended him.
"I'll go make the offering." He said, dejectedly shuffling out of the room.
A/N: If I made any mistakes, and I don't think I did aside from maybe grammar, feel free to tell me.
Footnotes:
1: At least the first part was referring to the American Civil War.
2: Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia in retaliation for killing their archduke Ferdinand and his wife. Alliances dictated everyone join in on the fun and World War I began.
3: In the American Civil War the Confederates were desperate for European aid to gain their freedom. Britain and France would have helped in order to protect their cotton empire but when the south lost at Antietam, Europe gave up on them. In WWI just as Russia was pulling out to fix their destroyed country (Russian Revolution), America declared war on Germany for unrestricted submarine warfare and the threat of Mexico allying with them with the Zimmerman note. Which, if you think about it, was just Britain getting desperate and setting the poor Germans up to face the wrath of gun-crazy Americans. Though ill-prepared we raised morale and helped them win the war. And in WWII… well they would have died if it wasn't for us. At least the hero complex is somewhat justified.
4: No one (except one American) really expected Japan to attack us. Big, Scary America was a daunting opponent at the time so when Pearl Harbor happened… In a way, Japan was kind of the downfall of the Axis, once again due to those pesky alliances. Japan didn't expect America to complete the Manhattan Project and obliterate civilian populations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Who would? No one in war is without sin.