Chapter 9: Keep Your Enemies Closer

A/N: A warning, if you don't like angst/ dramatic-ness I would say just skip this chapter and piece together what you missed next chapter but this one is like, really important. Trust me, the drama is validated. And there's not even that much. Sorry, I love writing overly dramatic scenes but hopefully by now I haven't done too much. Also, um, I guess bump up the rating for Romano and Feliks this chapter. It's only one or two words but some people care about that. One more thing: I have never played not know next to nothing about Kingdom Hearts (or that one manga with a similar name) so any similarities between this and those are purely coincidental.

Germany knew something was wrong. He just didn't know what it was. It was kind of like that feeling you get when you know you've forgotten something as you drive away convincing yourself that it was nothing. Then you get to where you're going and realize you left behind the reason you left in the first place.

That feeling.

Of course that wasn't the weirdest part of his day as an inter-dimensional doppelgänger personification of The Federal Republic of Germany. No, the weirdest part was when Italy sat next to him and commented on the war in four short words: "The Allies are winning."

Italy hadn't meant to make that reference but he did nonetheless and it made the German freeze. He was right, the allies-little a-were finally winning. When the whole world never lets you forget something that was really out of your control, it's like a broken record you can't take off the player. Especially when other nations have done similar atrocities and no one bats an eye. After Russia had kindly replaced Ivan who was being held even God-doesn't-know-where, the single fleet and a half that was the navy of Spades actually won something not by the skin of their teeth. Of course it was with the much needed help of Hearts.

Three days ago, the night after Russia became king, Germany gave up on acting in the shadows and he, Japan, and Italy joined Romano in replacing their doubles and had been delivering very familiar orders to heads of the military. The allies-still little a-were indeed winning.

And it was with that thought in mind that Germany watched a seething Romano march up to him and throw a letter in his face.

"Shit just hit the fan, potato bastard." The Italian said though clenched teeth. Germany quickly read the note and paled.

A certain Swiss had been snooping when he shouldn't have and France had been found out. He was in custody and there was a kingdom-wide manhunt for his fellow conspirators, a.k.a. three Spades Special Forces. Francis, upon meeting his double face to face, blamed Spades and in turn Hearts for trickery in a neutral kingdom and declared war on both of them, aligning with no one.

Shit had hit the fan indeed.

"The others know about this, yes?" He asked, trying to remain calm. It wasn't that their capture hadn't been thought of as a possibility, everyone had just assumed it would have been much sooner. There was also the factor that they couldn't just decimate Diamonds. That was the whole point of the Nations' intervention in the war in the first place.

As little casualties as possible for all sides. War had been inevitable, they knew that going in, the entire reason behind shipping America, Canada, England, China, and Matthew to Chess was to get back the damned clock which was beginning to rival the One Ring in terms of influence in war.(1) Everyone else stayed back to try and diffuse the situation without slaughtering the royals and replacing them with new ones. Peace had to be created by the people of this universe not Nations of a different one. If they just spoon-fed them through their problems they would never survive.

But this was war and it was going on nine days without any word from their departed ship. They were flying blind hanging on to a ghost of a hope to guide them through the fog and it just wasn't enough. While Spades played host to the royals of Hearts, defended their homeland against a new threat, and tried not to implode from inner turmoil, Germany just knew that something wasn't right.

Germania be damned if they thought he wasn't going to figure it out.

"So, like, let me get this straight. A mystical clock that totally grants awesome power to the land that owns it was yours and now you lost it. Based off nothing more than a hunch by a creepy demon you sail across the ocean to accuse the Chessmen of stealing it." Feliks leaned back lazily in his chair as he summed up the last ten days of their lives in about twenty seconds, making them all seem very stupid in the process.

"Well when you put it like that…" England finally spoke from his seat at the lunch table. Feliks had not allowed them to speak a single word before getting food and he nearly shoved them inside the dining room at their half-agreeing reply.

The Pole chuckled, "I mean, seriously? Even our royalty waits for better reasoning before attacking White. And King Toris especially, man he waits for the freaking apocalypse before making a move against King Berwald. But he's one of the best leaders we've had in a long time. Shame he'll probably be dead soon…" Feliks trailed off and shrugged off the thought of his dead king like it was nothing. The others, however, couldn't just let that one go.

"Erm… so, who exactly is in your royal family? And what do you mean 'he'll probably be dead soon'?" America asked, hoping they hadn't left one war to be thrown into another. Chess was a deadly game.

"You know, America, you should really pay more attention. It might fool someone next time you try passing off as someone you're not." Feliks replied, laughing when six pairs of eyes bugged out.

"H-how did you know?" England asked incredulously. This blonde was not as broad as he seemed. He was Poland's double after all. They had to share at least some personality traits. Speaking of, it seemed this "mystical force" that chose world leaders had quite a sense of humor. The doppelgänger of Poland was of course guardian of a city with a horse as their mascot. It was so obvious it was sad that they'd missed it.

"Like, I'm the Black Knight of the Chess Empire, this place rains magic. I know royals when I see 'em; they're magic's bitches. The only royals in this room are myself and Matthew over there." Said royal tried to become invisible but for once his power abandoned him. Feliks continued on without pausing.

"You four reek of a summoning spell even if it is faded. Don't think people from your world haven't washed up here before? Chess was an empire before it was a board game you know. They thought up playing cards based off your tetra-polar kingdom in the West after some crazy Chinese guy landed here oh Check, how many millennia ago was that? (2)

"I've met Poland actually. Cool guy. Don't know how he got here but we totally hung out and I showed him how awesome knights were." Six mouths lay gaping at Feliks' casual toss of information, something that probably would have been nice to know earlier. He caught their stares and shrugged.

"What? It's not like I was keeping it from you guys or anything. Though, I heard a rumor that no one in Cards that knew is still alive. Slaughtered in war. Oh well. Right, you wanted to know which of your friends make up our royalty." Feliks casually ate something, probably chocolate, before continuing.

"So if I remember right, and it was a long time ago so cut me some slack, Lithuania would be the Black King. Poland said his best friend Liet was also known as Toris. He actually only came to power about twenty years ago. The last war ended with White victory and over here it's tradition for the victorious king to kill the looser king as punishment for losing." He shrugged. "I've been around longer than most and I still don't get it myself."

"How old are you?" Allistor asked after the short silence, still confused about the entire conversation. Feliks looked up at the ceiling, spinning in his chair slowly while trying to think of an answer.

"I don't know actually. Lost track." He snapped his fingers and grinned triumphantly. "When I met Poland he said he was partnered with Lithuania as the same country or something. I became knight a few years before that."

"The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 1569 to 1648. Four hundred years ago." England supplied and Feliks nodded, agreeing with the information,

"Yeah I am the oldest member of the Black royalty, just got lucky I guess. Picked the right battles and stuff. Anyway, so our queen is Eduard, our bishop is Raivis, and then there's me as the awesome knight, and Katyusha as the rook. And for White it's Berwald, Tino, Matthias, Lukas, and Emil in that order." The four Nations mentally swapped out human names for nation names and were not surprised that the Nordic Five stayed together as well as the Baltic Trio.

"Now, back to why I have visitors. You know its bad form to walk into someone's home uninvited and accuse them of theft, don't you?" Of course Feliks would bring up etiquette at a time like this. "Did you ever think that maybe you got bad information?"

"Gilbert may be a con man but he is a reliable con man nonetheless. He said it was you." Matthew said defensively and Feliks raised his hands in surrender.

"Dude, chillax. Were those his exact words? I'm not saying the Chessmen didn't have a hand in it but think about it: Why would we?" The room dropped into silence and Feliks resumed spinning in his chair while juggling chocolate truffles.

"What are you implying?" China spoke up, not liking where this was going.

"I'm not implying anything, China." Feliks took something out of his robe and tossed it at him. "What's that proverb? 'Keep your enemies close but your friends closer'?"

"It's actually the other way around." England corrected. China took whatever it was out of its black cloth wrapping and held it up for the rest of the table to see. It was a black tile with a red pawn painted on one side. Everyone looked to the knight for explanation.

"You sure about that? The red pawn is the symbol of a…secret government group you could say. They do things underground for the royals of both sides for a hefty price. Espionage, assassinations, and thievery. They work for anyone with a big enough bank.

"So the question is: Who would pay Crimson Pawn to steal your Timepiece? It's a nice trinket but as I said, Chess rains magic. Anything that thing can do, we can do better. And we have."

"Listen to me when I tell you do not make any brash mistakes! Where I come from impulsive thinking gets people killed. A lot of people killed. Do you really want that blood on your hands?"

France and Francis stood face to face in the dungeons of Diamonds. Currently the Nation was pleading with the king not to attack Spades or Hearts or Clubs because money isn't everything and it will only result in more lives lost.

"Why are you here? Where did you come from? And why shouldn't I attack Spades? They're sending spies into a neutral kingdom which, in case you are not aware, is highly frowned upon in war."

France groaned and ran his hands through his hair. Arguing with oneself was one thing, trying to convince oneself to not do something was even harder, as he was just discovering now. "If it helps, there are spies in Clubs and Hearts as well. And I am well aware of etiquette in war; I've fought in many myself. Sometimes you just have to turn a blind eye and stay out of it."

Francis leaned back against the wall, frustrated that he had gained no ground with his interrogation. He sighed, giving up and deciding to play his trump card.

"Let me tell you why I cannot simply 'turn a blind eye' as you said. Did they inform you of Queen Lili's position?"

France looked up at him, eyes narrowing at the subject change. "They told me she and her brother Basch replaced the former queen and jack after they were assassinated in the last war." Francis' head lowered and he nodded slowly, pushing off the wall he turned away to face the door and clasped his hands behind his back.

"That is true. But not the full truth. The previous queen and jack were in a convoy that had just arrived after a week at sea to come home. She wasn't supposed to be there but insisted on accompanying them to visit the wounded sailors at the field hospital on Isle Maid.

"I went to the docks to welcome them home and just barely saw her smiling face before the ship exploded right before my eyes. It had been carrying the queen, the jack, and fifteen wounded sailors plus a full crew. There were no survivors."

France stared at the stone ground beneath him, "I'm sorry to hear that." Francis spun around to face him, eyes glowing with sadness and rage.

"Years later, I found out who set the bomb to kill my people. My unarmed, wounded people. His name is Arthur, the current Queen of Spades. Do you know the name of my queen? The one he singled out to an excruciating death by fire?"

France froze and slowly brought his eyes up to meet Francis', refusing to believe it was her. It couldn't be her. There was just no way. No possible way the Universe could be this cruel. The name escaped his lips before he could stop them, barely above a whisper.

"Jeanne."

Though the light in the dungeon was nearly nonexistent, France could see a lone tear trail down his doppelgänger's face. "So you do know. You know the pain I went through when she died. It wasn't immediate either; I found her floating on a beam from the ship, every square inch of her body covered in third degree burns. I fished her out and held her in my arms as I watched the light fade from her eyes. She died two minutes later. I loved her more than anything in the world."

France had nothing to say, no words could describe how he felt about Jeanne-his Jeanne-or how he felt toward Arthur. Francis did though. (3)

"I am not Ivan. I do not want to see Spades destroyed. They are not at fault for their leader's atrocities. What I want is to see Arthur suffer for the rest of eternity. And if Clubs can make that happen, then so be it. I won't stand in his way." Francis turned away and was about to leave the dungeon when France broke out of his silence and called out to him.

"I know what it was like to lose her. More than anyone in any universe, even you. And I have had far longer to harbor those feelings. Do not think for a second that I will ever forgive my Arthur for what he did those many years ago but…the past is the past. I know that he regrets what he did even if he will never speak it out loud. He may regret it more than failing to be a good brother to Amérique. If he could take it back he would in a millisecond. If your Arthur shares any semblance of that with mine, I bet my life that he feels the same way."

Francis hesitated before leaving.

"Regret will not bring my Jeanne back to me."

The iron door slammed shut, leaving France in darkness.

Ten days in and now Japan shared that uneasy feeling with Germany. Only now it wasn't that he forgot something, more like something wasn't adding up. Like when you did a really long math problem and it took you ten minutes to get an answer. But when you did you just stared at it wondering how those numbers could have possibly added up to that sum.

"Japan I need you to come with me. Now." The blonde has come up beside him while he'd been sitting outside enjoying the small respite in fighting for each side to rearrange the pieces on the game board. Japan nodded, though curious about what had the normally level-headed German so flustered, he followed him anyway.

"What is this about, Germany-san?"

"I made a deal with a devil and I'm going to pay up. I want you to be there." Both Nations walked a little ways away from the sight of the castle before Germany dug through his pockets and pulled out a playing card with a black joker decorating the face.

"So, figured it out yet?" A familiar voice called from behind them. The card dissipated into smoke and the Nations turned to face Gilbert who leaned against his black staff.

"You knew. You knew this whole time who took the Timepiece. Why keep it from them?" Germany demanded, getting straight to the point.

"You don't know? I am the last of my people who annihilated each other over that damn clock. Why wouldn't I want their offspring to do it again?"

"Millions of innocent people are going to die because you withheld information." Japan said in his 'angry voice' which was his normal speech, only raised slightly. Gilbert glared at him and pointed his staff like a spear at them.

"I withheld nothing. I explicitly told you rumor had it the Chessmen were to blame. I told you not one of the other suit kingdoms was at fault. I also warned you of the new player in the game. It was all on your own conclusions that you didn't stop to think and sent five very important people off to Chess to accuse them. I gave you your answer, you just don't know it."

Japan and Germany shared a glance, minds running on all cylinders as they tried deciphering the joker's words.

"Who is this new player you keep referring to?" Japan said finally. Gilbert grinned manically, red eyes catching the sunlight, making them glow.

"At last, you're asking the right questions. But I never said the player was a person." He chided. Japan turned to Germany, pieces finally fitting together.

"Gilbert said not one of the other three kingdoms. He didn't say anything about Spades itself. I remember his warning: If the Chessmen are at fault, there's a new player in this game of war, one none of you want to face. I do not think it is a person but an idea. The new player is treachery."

Slow clapping made them both turn to face the grinning Gilbert.

"Treachery, betrayal, treason, falsity, all wonderful words to describe the deadliest concept to any organization. Now the big question of the day: Who killed Roger Rabbit?"

Footnotes:

1: The One Ring from Lord of the Rings.

2: There is no established religion in the currently explored world. "Check" is substituted for "God" as a type of expletive. Check mate in chess signifies the end of the game, I thought it appropriate. It's strange how often chess is used as a euphemism for war in literature and movies. It's just a game you know? ...Or is it?

3: Jeanne d'Arc (or Joan of Arc for all you uncultured swines). Hundred Years' War. Just watch the ERB for her. Or the season 5 episode about her.

Do you know how long it took for France to fall to Germany in WWII? Six weeks. And that was with tanks and guns and slaughter machines. War was so much slower before the Twentieth Century. People actually fought because they wanted to and they believed in it one hundred percent. Now it's just business.

So the big one is revealed! Well sort of, now you guys just have to figure it out. I await your guesses in the comments ;)