Chapter 8: A Four-Way War
A/N: For some reason I feel like last chapter was kind of a let down... Anyway up ahead is one of my favorite scenes I've written thus far. I'm so excited you guys finally get to read it. (Also we return to the departed company at sea) And as per request- the numbers are distinguished now. Though someone should tell the website to allow superscript...
Seven and a half days after leaving Spades, land was finally spotted in the hazy distance.
"Hey dudes, Europe is huge. What if their capital is in like, Russia or something? Do you know how long it's gonna take to get there over land?" After land had been sighted every soul aboard the Rummy dropped whatever they had been doing and run to the bow of the ship. They could just make out other ships docked in a bustling harbor, a city in the distance.
"Well I think it's safe to assume this isn't the British Isles. It's too warm and sunny." England huffed, shifting his weight. "If the entire continent is under the Chess Empire, there's probably more than one capital. And since this is chess, there's likely to be two royal lineages of Black and White like chess pieces. We have arrived in the most war-like Empire on this Earth. Cheers."
Captain Allistor came up behind them and cleared his throat. "If the location has not changed in the past seven hundred years, and we are where I think we are, the closest major city is Carthage governed by the Black Knight."
"Carthage?! As in Tunisia? Of all the bloody cities to make port…" England trailed off, mumbling about horrible circumstances and the rest slowly turned back to the confused captain.(1)
"Er, no. The cities may share the same name but I doubt they share anything else. Here," He pulled out a map and pointed to a location in southwestern France. "This is our Carthage. But we'll have to reaffirm our location once we make port, assuming they don't kill us on sight." He talked so nonchalantly about the possibility of imminent death and didn't notice when the five passengers paled.
"That didn't really answer my question…" America said, now slightly worried about the near future.
"I'm more worried about which doubles are here." Canada said, heard loud and clear.
"Well we will find out in a few short moments." China said as the distance between them and land quickly shrank. Two escort ships appeared beside them, flying white flags with black chess knights emblazoned on them. The Rummy slowed so whoever it was could safely board her and soon the deck was filled with black-clad sailors. One stepped forward to greet Captain Allistor.
"State your business and where you're sailing from." The man ordered in monotone.
"We hail from the Kingdom of Spades in the far west on a diplomatic mission with the Black Knight." It wasn't completely a lie, they did come to speak with whoever ran the place but diplomacy wasn't high on the major list of concerns. Allistor showed him the sealed letter of introduction from Alfred and he nodded. This guy- Captain Czesław apparently- seemed to buy their story as he and his men cleared the ship to escort them the rest of the way to port.(2)
"Well, since we're all still standing, they probably won't kill us." Allistor chirped, returning to the wheel.
"This guy and Scotland are so different it's scary." America muttered to no one in particular. Departing from the ship was a bit slow, even for China as everyone struggled with solid ground. Canada chose to pull up the hood on his Prussian blue cloak and let Matthew play diplomat for a while. The four Nations, ace, and Captain left the rest of the crew to explore the city, to which they were especially grateful for.
Czesław returned and led the party to two covered carriages, telling them they were heading to the train that would take them to Carthage. Canada, England, and China went in one carriage while America, Matthew and Allistor took the other along with Captain Czesław up front with the driver.
"So how do we plan on going about this? I don't think we can walk in there and start accusing them of theft." America asked and received no response. The brilliant minds of the entire crew of a ship did not think of a plan for getting them to admit to stealing a priceless artifact nor who to accuse in the first place.
"We, ah, we…" Matthew stuttered over a blank response before Allistor took over.
"Let's just see who the Black Knight is, maybe it's someone you know. A friend, maybe? Then we can go from there." The carriage stopped and the door opened letting in harsh sunlight. A bustling train station stood beside them, looking more like an ancient cathedral than anything else. No matter what dimension it was in, Europe managed to outdo everyone in architecture.
"I'm taking bets on who this Black Knight is. I'm thinking Turkey. Any takers?" America walked side by side with Canada as they all filed into the train northbound for Carthage, so far no one had offered anything to his bet.
"My money's on Egypt." England said.
"Why him?" Canada asked as they took their seats.
"I don't know. Just seems like a fitting position for him I guess."
Canada shrugged. "Alright then." The train began its short trek, hopefully bringing the Nations closer to a culprit as well as their treasure.
Russia wasn't certain this blonde was Natalya. There was just no way. She was obedient, she was cordial, and most of all she never once uttered the desire for him to marry her. Maybe he could quietly switch her with Belarus when they eventually went home…
That was a plan for another time. For now Russia had one goal in mind: Getting rid of his psychotic doppelgänger. Now people called Russia insane, crazy, off-his-rocker, and he was. Just not this much. Ivan was a different level of insane. He wasn't violent, wasn't constantly looking for something to crush with his pipe, he was simply insane. Ivan had the idea that defeating Spades meant decimating every square inch of their land with a toothbrush.
Now Russia had done some horrible things in his past, the stuff of nightmares' nightmares, but even he knew this had to be stopped. It wasn't just Spades' land that he wanted to burn. Every single blue-clad soul had to burn with it. And as of two days ago, Hearts joined them on his list.
Russia didn't know what Spades possibly could have done to deserve that fate but no one in his world had ever wanted to go that far and people in his world had done some terrible things. It made him wonder just how on this Earth Ivan had been chosen as King of Clubs. Did something happen to him during his reign that created this drastic shift in ideology? Democracy didn't pick leaders this bad. Well wait, that claim might not be entirely true.
As much as he wanted to, and as easy as it would be, Russia could not kill the personification of his darkest moments. Because that's what this Ivan was to him, and the reason why he remained allied with Alfred and the others. Two World Wars and a Cold War taught him what would come out a Clubs victory. Russia's demon had to go.
Which is why he was currently skulking around the castle, Mr. Pipe in hand, looking for the bastard. No, he couldn't kill him. Because the second he did someone else would take his place and ruin everything. Though alive is an ambiguous term.
It was late, near midnight in the kingdom-no one would be up and about. Even royalty needed sleep during wartime, especially when said royalty was winning. The northern Nation quietly crept into Ivan's room and stood over his bed like an ax murderer. If their positions had been reversed, Russia would have been on his feet at the flap of a butterfly wing.
'Twas a shame Ivan didn't share his acute paranoia. Well, for him at least. Russia poked his head with the head of the faucet and he stirred slowly, violet eyes blinking sleepily in the darkness.
Russia smiled, "Добрый вечер, господин корольь." (3)
Finally Russia got to play hero.
Lovino wasn't happy. Who would be when they wake up chained to a stone wall in a dungeon? His head and wrists hurt like crazy and he was thankful for the minimal light in the dungeon. The room he was in was maybe a ten foot square with a high ceiling and small windows near the top, like a basement. He was completely alone. The only sounds were his ragged breathing and jingle of the chains.
His memory was fuzzy, like his brain decided to take a week vacation without telling him. Feli… Uncle Feliciano. The letter. Fratello. It was all slowly coming back to him now. He pulled against the chains with every ounce of strength he had, which wasn't much given the circumstances of his arrival, but the shackles didn't budge.
Something like keys jangling made him freeze and he turned to face the cast iron door on the opposite side of the room. Said door slowly creaked open revealing torchlight- no just fire- suspended over someone's gloved hand. The hand belonged to a messy blonde with the biggest eyebrows. Upon recognizing him, Lovino's breathing hitched, more confused than afraid.
"What- what's going on? The alliance, I thought Spades was going to ally with us? Feliciano sent word to Alfred did he not? What happened?" Lovino panicked, assuming the worst: Spades had declined and turned on the unsuspecting Hearts.
Arthur stepped forward and knelt down in front of him, one arm resting on his leg while the other held the flame aloft. He wasn't smiling, didn't have an expression of triumph or glee. In fact he looked pained.
"Lovino calm down." He said, tossing the fire ball into the air where it hovered above them, casting harsh shadows on both of their faces. He held up a set of rough iron keys. "Just let me explain and I will unshackle you, please?" The desperate look on his face made Lovino falter and nod slowly in understanding.
"Alfred signed the deal; Spades is now allied with Hearts against Clubs for the foreseeable future. We are on the same side."
Lovino glanced around the room and at his wrists. "Then why-"
Arthur sighed, cutting him off. "We were desperate, running out of time and we needed Feliciano to officially notify us of your offered alliance and he wasn't delivering fast enough. As the ace you were the easiest of the four to replace to convince Feliciano and Ludwig to speed up the process."
"What do you mean 'replace'?"
"What do you remember of last night's attack?" Arthur said, abruptly changing subjects and slightly annoying the Italian. He gave him the information anyway.
"I was on my way to deliver a message to Ludwig when Uncle Feli, or at least… I assumed it was Feli came up behind me. He said he had something for me and then everything went black. I thought I heard something about a fratello but I'm not sure."
Arthur sighed and mumbled something incoherent. "What if I told you that an entire world existed separate from ours but the same? And that to help us win the war, I summoned a few people from that world."
Lovino wanted to scoff and call him a crazy liar. He wanted to… but he didn't. There was no deception in his weary emerald eyes. "You people are so convinced you need to win that you broke the rules and used magic to beat us?" He asked instead.
"Those people are us. Identical duplicates from another dimension. There's one for me, Alfred, Ludwig, you, Feliciano and everyone else. In their world the two of you are brothers. We replaced you with your duplicate named Romano who is accompanied by the doubles of Ludwig, Kiku, and your uncle. He's the one who kidnapped you." Arthur completely ignored the comment about Spades' methods. It didn't matter anymore did it? What's done is done. "Russia, their Ivan, has been working covertly to stop Clubs from advancing and France, their Francis, has been trying to prevent Diamonds from entering the war. The four doubles of us-Spades royalty and Matthew- left a week ago for Chess to recover the Timepiece."
Lovino was silent, trying to grasp the concept of duplicates from an alternate dimension. Then he asked the all-important question: "Why are you telling me this?"
Arthur motioned for his wrists and unlocked the shackles around them. "Because we are on the same side for the first time in a long time and we all need to be on the same page. But we can't let you leave Spades until the war is over."
"What? Why?" Both stood and Arthur offered him a chunk of bread and water before answering. He took them both greedily.
"Because they are our secret weapon and the more souls that know are the more souls that can tell Ivan and even Francis about them. We'll keep you safe and well looked after but you have to trust that we know what we're doing. If everything goes as planned we may not need the Timepiece to win the war. Wouldn't that be something?"
The ball of fire extinguished itself and the two quickly left the dungeon to join the surface world.
"How 'bout this: We just ask whoever's in charge if they know anything about the thieves or the stupid clock and if they don't we blackmail 'em into keeping silent."
The train was just pulling into Carthage station and plan after plan was being formed and promptly scrapped. This one it seemed had potential.
"At least the words 'robot', 'hero', and 'super' weren't anywhere in that one this time. But we don't have time to question ten different royals spanning the continent of Europe hoping they know something." England grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring out the window at the Art Deco walls of the train station.
"Maybe they have a group like the Black Hand or something that stole it for them. Everybody knows black ops even in this middle-age world." America continued.
"I'd hardly call this 'middle-aged' this is late Eighteenth/early Nineteenth Century civilization."
"Who cares what era they live in?" China interrupted, causing both to shut up.
"America is right. They might very well have a militant group doing things for them underground." Canada said as they exited the train but no one paid him any attention.
Leading the group, Czesław talked animatedly with Allistor about the differences between their navies. The castle towering above them was gargantuan. Six story towers stood at the corners while an even higher main building housed its own numerous balconies, stained glass archways, and off center rooms. Definitely a European castle.
Czesław flashed a badge at the guards that met them at the gate before leading the group inside the massive oak doors. A long black and gold hallway looked eerily similar to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles but with more black and horse statues. (4)
They finally reached the throne where a very king-like blonde sat, waves of regality rolling off of him. That image was promptly shattered when he spoke.
"Dudes! I, like, totally have visitors! That, like, never happens!"
Sitting on the throne of the Black Knight adorned in a black robe with a hint of pink to add dimension was none other than Feliks Łukasiewicz, the doppelgänger of the personification of The Republic of Poland.
"Oh bloody hell! Why did it have to be him?!"
Footnotes:
1: Carthage is like a phoenix, it kept getting destroyed and just kept coming back (like Poland). Lots of bloodshed within those borders (also like Poland).
2: Czesław is not my OC, I loved the name so I borrowed it from a fic I'm following. Credit to Warsaw and Vilnius (who totally need to update) for their fic and OC.
3: Google Translate sucks so don't bother with it. Really you can get the context but if you must know here's it in the Latin alphabet, "Dobryy vecher, gospodin korol'."
4. Alright I'm pretty sure you all know what Versailles is. Built by- I'm pretty sure- Louis XIV pretty much because he's French and he could. *I am not at liberty for things you write in your history essays.*
Russia's scene was in my top three favorite scenes to write along with Italy's chloroform (kesesese…). I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Also I said no pairings but… the one next chapter is technically canon both from the show and history. I bet all of you (except my beta) that you can't guess which two characters are semi-shipped in the next chapter. At least on the first try.
Gracias for reading and see ya Tuesday!