Chapter 11: The War to End All Wars
A/N: (Apologies for the typo last chapter, but I'm not going back to fix it) This is it! It all ends here. Probably the longest chapter and my favorite (Yeah I take it back from last chapter, it's this one by a few hundred 5,179). Also more italics and my final favorite scene! Thanks for making it this far guys! On with the final act~
They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. And it seems that those same intentions often get their owners killed once they realize their mistakes. Arthur's fate had not been decided though, for religion, as most knew it, didn't exist in this world. Yet it seemed he still walked that lonely road, but he'd been in Hell long before good intentions were ever put into thought.
"Wh-What do you mean, Arthur?" Alfred's broken voice rang out against the silence. After Arthur's statement not a soul dared to move. Those three little words held so much pain, hurt, sadness, and regret.
"I mean Alfred," Arthur met his gaze, "that I am the one who hired Crimson Pawn. I am behind everything that has happened over the past week and a half. But it- it didn't go like I planned it to at all. Not at all."
"So what? You just thought it would be fun to watch us tear each other apart?" Yao sneered, venom dripping from his words.
"No! I- the plan was for them to take the Timepiece and lock it away where no one would ever find it. They swore on their lives they would. They worked with Gilbert's magic to send it away. I was supposed to make a duplicate, a replica to take its place. I thought that without the Timepiece in play we would be on equal ground and the fighting would stop. But then its disappearance was discovered before I could fix it and three days later, Clubs was at our doorstep.
"I never wanted another war. I never intended for this to happen. But then it just got so out of hand and Gilbert nearly sold me out and Matthew unknowingly started drawing more attention to himself and I- I was scared. I was terrified of what you would do to me for treason so… I let him take the fall for me." Arthur dropped to his knees, voice wavering prominently.
"When he shipped himself off to go find it I knew the blame would go to him. We started losing people, Clubs advanced more rapidly than ever before, and Diamonds entered the war… I- I don't know what else to say."
"Arthur how could you? Why didn't you stop and tell us sooner? We could have figured something out! I stood there and signed an ultimatum declaring war on what would be all three kingdoms and you were silent the entire time. Do you know how many people we've lost in the past eleven days?"
Yao said nothing as he swiftly unsheathed his sword and walked right up to Arthur, ignoring the indignant cries and raising it into a deadly position. He stood there looking down on the Queen of Spades, weapon trembling in his hand before he let it fall to the floor with a clatter. Arthur didn't even flinch the entire time.
"Whoa. I see I've come at a bad time." Thirteen heads swiveled toward the new voice standing in the doorway of the throne room. He stood there, wide-eyed, wearing a long crimson coat, lace-up boots, and a hat with ribbons tilted precariously on his head. At his feet sat a three-foot diameter gold and silver gilded clock complete with a golden chain. "Should I just leave it here and go or…?"
"Romania?!" Every Nation present yelled his name in unison and he took a step back at the ferocity.
"Calm down! Yeah, it's me. Kinda hard to mistake me for someone else. So, this thing appeared in Mo's place and it made his people go all wonky. I just reversed the magic that sent it there and here I am. Was that whole argument about the clock, 'cause its back. Promise I didn't scratch it or anything." No one moved aside from Romania who fidgeted under their stares.
"Hey Vlad, is that you?" Feliks called from the smoky window, it was angled away from the door so the image was incredibly warped.
"Feliks or Poland over there?" He called, walking around to see the window better.
"I, like, haven't seen you in forever, broski! How's that Hungry or whoever she is?"
"Hungary and she's fine. No wars since the last one." (1)
"Wait a minute." England interrupted, glancing between Romania and Feliks. "You met him too?" He glared at the Nation. "You've been here before?" Said Nation nodded. "And you didn't think to, oh I don't know, tell me about it? Or Norway?"
He shrugged. "Would you have believed me if I told you I went to a universe where chess is reality and an alternate version of Poland is the Black Knight?"
"Maybe I-"
"No." Romania shook his head. "You wouldn't have. So can I leave now? I don't like China- er, Yao I guess, wielding a sword like that." He didn't wait for a response before flashing out of existence with a snap, leaving behind the faint smell of ancient burning candles.
All eyes turned to the no-longer-missing Timepiece and Alfred as he slowly walked over to pick it up, fingers brushing against it tentatively before grasping the edges and hauling it up off the ground.
"Arthur, I'll deal with you later. Yao, come with me, we still have a war to win." Yao quickly followed Alfred out of the castle while the Axis trio and Arthur remained.
"What do you think they're going to do with him?" Japan asked quietly, out of hearing range of the still-crumpled Arthur.
"If he did that in our world, we'd probably send him to prison, or deport him." Germany responded, still staring at the blonde a few feet away from him.
"What do we do about Matthew? Seeing as he probably was kidnapped by bandits after all." America asked, slight bitterness creeping into his voice. They had front row seats to the entire show and he still couldn't believe it.
Arthur was a lot of things but a traitor? That was hardly one of them. Well, this Arthur. England was no stranger to ditching allies. (2) England had been watching as well, and had said nothing since his confession, probably wondering how his duplicate in another world would ever justify war like that.
"I can try another locator spell." Lukas said, still horribly confused about the whole scene that just played out in front of him. Without context it probably was hard to follow. "Does anyone have something of his? I'll have to disconnect us from the window, time is up."
A moment later the smoky window dissipated into the nothingness it came from and the four in the throne room were brought back into silence.
"Can't you just use me?" Canada asked, stepping forward. Lukas looked him over and sighed, shrugging.
"I can try but I don't think it will work." Lukas took Canada's hand in his own and began his chant once more, the gray powder reforming into its snake-like shape. It centered on a location in southwestern Chess, just north of the mountains. The knight opened his eyes and shook his head. "As I suspected, you two are not the same person. Two separate identities, two separate souls. Image is not everything to a person, as you all just saw with Arthur's display."
"So the spell didn't work. Great." America said, looking rather agitated.
"I'm sorry, it's the best I can do. For the clock, an image was easy because there's only one of them. For Matthew, I only have Canada as a reference so Canada will be what it finds. At least as of now he's still alive. Otherwise there would be a new ace for Spades walking through those castle doors.
"The next best thing I can do would be to send you all to Spades or home through the gate. Matthew is a native of this world, therefore it is the responsibility of the people in this world to find him and bring him home. You are needed back in your dimension. There's nothing more you can do here."
America immediately protested. "Hell no, Norway- Lukas- whatever the hell you go by; we're not leaving until each and every one of us is ready to leave with us." Canada, England, and China all nodded in agreement. "Send us to Spades, we'll figure out a way home from there together as a group."
Lukas looked between the four Nations and smirked. "If only the royals here could be so stubbornly noble. Very well, I shall send you to Spades. Maybe you can convince that Gilbert to do this spell for you." He scribbled down some words on a parchment and handed it to England who began reading over it. "This will transport you across the gate."
He folded up the world map and drew a magic circle on the ground. The four Nations stepped inside it but Allistor stayed out.
"I have a ship to return and men to look after. I guess this is goodbye then?" He grinned at their forlorn nods. "See you in another life!"*
"Dudes! You're leaving? But I was just getting to know you. Tell Poland to come visit me some time and to bring Liet with him!" England chuckled and agreed to Feliks' wish. Then the room glowed once more and their friends disappeared.
They landed in the ocean. More precisely the dark green waters of the harbor in Spades, the tip of the azure castle just barely visible. (3)
"Aiyah! He couldn't have moved us a few feet to the left?" China complained as he struggled to haul himself up onto the floating docks. America smoothly lifted himself out of the water and held out a hand for the Asian Nation who took it, still grumbling about getting soaked.
"So what do we do now?" Canada asked wringing out his coat and dumping water out of his boots.
"Well we need to find the others and go home." England said pat-drying the parchment with the priceless spell on it. Thankfully, none of the ink smudged during its short trip in the drink.
"What about the war?" America asked, earning an incredulous look from his former caretaker.
"The war? Didn't you hear Lukas? We're not needed here anymore. Don't you want to go home? We did what we came here to do, or rather Romania did. Still can't believe the wanker… showing up like that, how ungentlemanly…" England trailed off and copied Canada's system of wringing out his clothes.
"I didn't spend eleven days of my life in this world to just leave right before the climax of the story! This fairy tale has an ending and I will be there to see it." America left no room for argument as he marched off to the castle, dragging Canada with him.
England huffed in annoyance, muttering something about an insufferable git before chasing after them, China right behind him.
"America you can't just- hold on a second!"
You ever have those family members that just fight for the sake of fighting because they really can't stand the sight of one another? They have the most moronic reasons for instigating that too. "He made me stub my toe so I'm going to mash his face in with a turkey baster." Stupid things like that.
There are some family members who quickly forgive and forget until next time when the feud is over something else completely irrelevant. The four suit kingdoms of Cards were like the former, only stopping when there's no one left to continue fighting. Or they just loose interest and call it a tie even though there was a clear winner, like another war back in the Nineteenth Century. (4)
The six face cards of Spades and Hearts stood together on one of the only islands left in the sea not claimed by any of the four kingdoms- Karnöffel- which took the place of Puerto Rico. Feliciano proudly waved his white flag, for the first time not as a means of surrendering.
The only ones who knew what the hell was going on were Alfred and Yao. Seven Nations and eight royals were left clueless, just following and hoping they knew what they were doing. They'd dragged Arthur with them, having as much trust for him as one should trust world peace. Off in the distance a small group of ships appeared bearing the diamond insignia on an orange background.
So Francis had agreed to come after all. A small rowboat departed from the center ship carrying two identical blondes and a familiar brunette. The King of Diamonds stepped ashore and drew his sword but kept it low to the ground while the brunette assisted France out of the boat. His hands were tied behind his back.
Arthur tensed when he saw them, leaning away almost imperceptibly. Francis did not look like a happy person; in fact, he looked downright pissed to be there. Antonio still had a smile on his face, even now when the tension on the beach could be cut with a plastic butter knife. Optimism certainly was a gift.
"Hello, Francis, Antonio, and France." Alfred greeted as cordially as possible, though his voice was still tight and small. Francis, upon seeing Arthur, abandoned any sense of professionalism and turned his sapphire glare onto the shorter blonde.
"What is this about, Alfred? You know we are at war, yes?"
Alfred didn't miss a beat. "Yes, I am aware. You know what a white flag means, yes?"
"Surrender." France shot back.
"Peace. It means peace, Francis."
Francis' gaze hadn't left Arthur this entire time and he continued glaring him down as he spoke. "What is so important that you felt the need to call me out here? As I said, we are at war."
Alfred and Yao exchanged a glance, the latter shaking his head ever so slightly. "Just wait for Ivan. You can do that, can't you? Hold off on killing us just for a few more moments?"
Francis huffed but agreed in the end. Behind the orange ships came a single green ferry. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear." He said.
Three figures approached: A tall, platinum-haired man, a light brunette woman, and a dark brunette man.
"Ivan-"
"Fredka, I am Russia." Elisaveta and Roderich glanced at him uneasily.
"Then where's Ivan?" Yao asked, suspicion dripping from his words.
Russia grinned. "He became one with Russia, da? Now, Fredka, I suggest you continue. I would like to be going home soon."
The royals blanched at his implication while the Nations just sighed. Alfred unwrapped the Timepiece from its cloth casing and its appearance got several mixed responses, Francis' the most prominent.
"You had it this whole time."
"We did not." Yao said quickly before insults could be exchanged. He then gave the shortest explanation of the last eleven days possible, hesitating when he got to Arthur's confession. Francis' glare increased tenfold as Yao spoke and he seemed to be using every ounce of self-control he had to keep his sword in the sand.
"So маленький Артур caused the war? Well that was unexpected." Russia said after Yao finished. (5)
"Yes, even more reason for him to die." Faster than almost anyone anticipated his sword was at Arthur's throat, blocked only by Yao's counter-maneuver.
"We are not killing him." Yao said, voice steely calm. Francis withdrew.
"And why not? I don't suppose you want him to continue his role as Queen of Spades, his timeless role, I might add. We all know there's only one way out of it."
Yao hesitated, knowing somewhere that he was right. They could not continue working alongside him as queen, but death was so final, so irreversible. Did he really deserve it? Hundreds of thousands of people died in the war, people dropped like flies in just eleven small days, not including the ones lost at sea.
"His fate is for us to determine alone. He is royalty of Spades and as such Spades alone will decide. Regardless, that is not why we called you all here." Alfred threatened anyone to speak against him, acting like the superpower his doppelgänger played.
"Then why did you call us here?" Elisaveta asked, crossing her arms and moving next to Roderich. Alfred looked between Yao and the Timepiece one last time, taking off one of his navy blue gloves.
England saw what he was doing a second before he did it and couldn't say he would have done anything different in that situation. It was something no one wanted to do but needed to be done, which is why he didn't stop Alfred from doing it.
"Incindio." He commanded, snapping once with his gaze locked on the clock face. The gold and silver gilded watch erupted into flames. A cacophony of protests all called out in unison as they panicked over the melting source of power of the kingdoms.
"Alfred, what could you possibly be thinking?!" Francis cried, trying to smother the magical flames with his coat but to no effect.
"Are you insane?" Roderich and Elisaveta yelled in unison watching as Francis fruitlessly tried to stop the fire.
The Nations just stared, not uttering one word. A variable had to change to break the deadlock; something had to be put into play to unbalance the playing field. Destroying the prize at the end of the game was one way to do it. One of those, If I can't have it, no one can, type things only more noble in the end.
"There. The Timepiece is no more." Alfred said standing taller than ever before. "We no longer have any reason to fight each other. There's no more reason for more of our people to die. It's over."
"Do you have any idea what you've done you moronic child?!" Francis glared at him with the same ferocity that had been directed at Arthur moments ago. Everyone on the beach gaped at his question.
Alfred didn't even look fazed by his insult. "I just saved us all, King Francis. That is more mature than our fighting or petty grudges will ever be." He said icily. "That is all I called you here for. You may leave now."
Alfred turned his back on Francis and prepared to walk away but the King of Diamonds wasn't finished with him yet. The blonde lunged forward and someone cried out a warning, then everyone froze.
Standing between Alfred and Francis was Arthur. And between Arthur and Francis was half of Francis' gleaming iron sword, the other half embedded in Arthur's chest. The blonde coughed and staggered, threatening to fall over before Alfred caught him.
Francis released the hilt of his weapon as he was forced back by Ludwig and Kiku. Alfred dropped to his knees as he held Arthur loosely, leaning him back gently against the already crimson sand.
"A-Arthur?" He asked his sky blue eyes wide as they could go. "Arthur, you're going to be okay, just hold on." Alfred searched the gathered crowd for England and called out to him when he found him. "England! Can you fix him?"
England rushed forward and knelt over his double next to Alfred and examined the wound. Arthur coughed again, a trail of blood escaping his mouth. He weakly waved them off.
"N-no, dammit. D-don't." England knew himself well enough to see acceptance in his doppelgänger's eyes. He wanted to die. He was trying to redeem himself for his sins by protecting his once trusted companion from an early death.
Alfred knew it as well. "Arthur. No. You are not dying today. Not at the hands of Francis."
The Queen of Spades shook his head. "I- I killed J-Jeanne. I-it's only f-fair for the Queen to die by his h-hand." England looked to France who stood watching the whole scene silently. He nodded in grave confirmation. It had happened in this universe as well. America knelt down on his other side, trying to convince himself that this was not his England dying on the beach; this was not his England from so long ago.
"Jeanne? Who's Jeanne?" Alfred asked in a panic, looking to anyone to explain it to him.
"Jeanne was the previous Queen of Diamonds before Lili. She was assassinated in the last war. By Arthur." Yao explained his voice low with understanding. Alfred just shook his head vigorously.
"I don't care! I've known you since I was a little kid, Arthur! You are not dying in my arms." England glanced up at America at the very frightening parallelism. He remembered those exact words all those years ago.
It was in London, 1940, America had come over to see his shipment of relief supplies successfully reach his ally and had found him huddled into a tight ball on the floor of his flat. America had rushed in, dropping everything, and pulled him close, trying to comfort him during the nightly bombings. It had only gotten worse, and would last another six months before it was all over. He had been so worried for his former mentor; England had never faced something so devastating before and America had been nearly powerless to help and would be for another whole year.
He could tell by America's expression that he remembered the same night. There was only one difference between the Arthur then and the Arthur now: One would be dying in Alfred's arms.
Arthur mumbled something barely above a whisper and Alfred leaned down to hear him. Whatever it was he'd said remained a secret only Alfred knew. They watched his chest rise and fall one final time before he stilled and Alfred's resolve crumbled to dust.
The Queen of Spades was dead.
"Arthur, I'll deal with you later. Yao, come with me, we still have a war to win." Alfred held the Timepiece under one arm as he marched out of the castle, he could hear Yao's hurried footsteps behind him.
"What are you planning?" The jack asked, coming up beside him.
"Sometimes you have to cheat the rules to beat an unbeatable game." Yao slowed at Alfred's cryptic answer.
"And that means…?" The jack crossed his arms, eyes narrowing.
Alfred stopped in the middle of the road and turned to him. "Just because the Timepiece has returned does not mean anything. So we regain our advantage, what good does that do us? We win the war, push back Diamonds, and finish off Clubs. Our short alliance with Hearts ends and we go back to hating each other the next day. What's the point?"
Alfred stopped his rant and sighed in exasperation. "I think…I think we need to end it. Finally end it all."
"Alfred I don't like where this is going." From the sound of it, it looked like Alfred was planning some drastic change in plans that wouldn't benefit anyone.
"The Timepiece needs to be destroyed."
"…What?" Yao's arms dropped to his sides and he stared at the blonde incredulously. "You want…to destroy the whole reason we started this war? The entire basis of our kingdom?"
"No, I want to destroy the reason our kingdom exists in the first place. It's the only way that we can finally be at peace."
"We're getting our forces decimated in war because it disappeared for thirteen days! You want it gone forever?"
Alfred ran his hands through his hair, that one strand in the front springing back into place. "As misguided as Arthur was in his execution of his plan, he was right. The only way for us to coexist is if we have nothing to fight over. But it can't be done in secret, we have to show everyone that we are willingly giving up power in favor of peace and hopefully we can reunite the kingdoms someday."
"I…" Yao trailed off, unsure of how to respond to that. He was right; the Timepiece was like a drug: You felt like you needed it and dedicated your life to it but in reality it's only slowly killing you from the inside. "What do you want me to do?"
Alfred smiled glad he saw it his way. "Just back me up." (6)
"Gilbert I know you can hear me you bastard! Show yourself already, dammit." Alfred was still covered in his queen's blood as he stood in the castle's courtyard yelling the joker's name into the sky. He didn't have the knowledge or power to summon him all on his own so he improvised.
"Shut up kid! You're giving me a headache with all that shouting."
Alfred wheeled on him. "Tell me what he said to you. Tell me why you didn't sell him out. Tell me everything. I don't care what I have to pay for it. Tell me or so help me I will kill you."
Gilbert trained his eyes on Alfred's red-stained coat. "I see…" Gilbert kicked off the tree he'd been leaning against and moved to stand in the sun, his white hair glowing around him like a halo. "He honestly believed he was doing the right thing; that getting rid of the cause of the problem would fix everything. Looks like he was right in the end.
"I didn't sell him out because we made a deal and I always keep my word. I send it away; neither of us turns on the other." Gilbert looked truly sympathetic for Alfred. Arthur wasn't the youngest royal by far; he added drama and had made many a deal with Gilbert in the past. Though the life of a face card was almost guaranteed to end in tragedy, he'd respected the man in his final hours.
"He really believed that?"
Gilbert nodded. "I don't think he considered the consequences when he did it. How did it happen?"
"Francis…attacked me and Arthur used himself as a shield. He died a few moments later in my arms." The joker hesitated mid-step in his casual pacing then continued on. Of course he would go down like that. Probably refused help from anyone trying to save him too.
"And Francis?"
"He's back home. It…it is-was war after all. People die." From the way Alfred spoke, Gilbert could assume he put up quite a fight against whoever suggested he receive no punishment. Justice is a hypocrite.
"What am I really here for?" The albino asked. For once it wasn't in a joking manner or a means to get under his skin, he genuinely wanted to know.
"The Nations need a way home and I'm not proficient enough with magic to do the spell they need."
"I see…I still need payment for the information you know but consider the spell… 'Buy one get one half-off' as they say." Alfred stopped glowering at the ground and looked up at him, not sure he'd heard him right.
"I apologize for calling you a bastard then."
Gilbert chuckled. "One good deed does not a saint make, King Alfred."
Footnotes:
Holy crap, it's all over. I finally finished! I personally love how it ended, despite offing Arthur. Hey, I did warn you of character death. Hated it? Loved it? All I care about is that my beta gave me a green light for it so at least one person liked it. But don't worry, tomorrow I'll have the short epilogue up to officially end it. Yes tomorrow, I'm already finished with it just doing final touches.
1: Hungary and Romania have a war-filled history, usually fighting over Transylvania. There's tons of fan art for it. I personally love the non-existent love rectangle between Prussia, Hungary, Romania, and Austria because they have so much history between them as Nations and as people.
2: You guys remember the episodes covering the War of Austrian Succession? Or "Prussia has stolen the vital regions"? Yep. As explained in the episode the only reason England sided with Austria was because it was against France. Then they both realized they didn't need the others to fight each other and he abandoned Austria to death by Gilbird. Politics this, alliances that. Everyone does it, especially us during the Cold War.
*: This is actually a reference to Desmond in Lost, he's a Scottish time-traveling, dimension-crossing, psychic... person. But it totally works with the context too.
3: In case you were wondering, the capital city for Spades would be Tampa/St. Petersburg in Florida with the harbor being Tampa Bay.
4: The War of 1812. No one won and no one lost. They kind of just gave up on fighting. Well not before Jackson kicked British arse down in New Orleans. As for the clear winner, it's up to your interpretation but like I said, the US has never lost a war. We never officially declared it or officially lost in Korea or Vietnam. Congress was like,"So I'm not allowing a declaration of war but I will allow you to aid them by any means necessary." Our track record will probably never be tarnished because there will be no winners come the next big war- we'll all be dead.
5: Again with the Russian translations- supposedly it says "little Arthur" but, ya know, Google Translate.
6: Direct episode reference to America taking the leadership role of the Allied Powers in the "Stranded" Arc. This is my third favorite scene too, probably for that line alone but also for the entire premise of this fic. And it's also a big metaphor to real life in case you didn't notice.
And finally, to all those Potterheads out there: Totally not the same spell and I didn't spell it wrong. Other books have similar spells that accomplish the same goals. This one happens to be spontaneous combustion (not lighting fireplaces). See you sheeple tomorrow!