It was already late at night. The Italys had been forced to reside in a hotel when night came, the African and Middle-Eastern nations having not returned from where ever they were.
Canada and Spain had more luck though, the South American nations had come home all together and been ecstatic at seeing Canada, who was a missing nation.
Liechtenstein had ended up being dragged to the cinema by Sealand and South Korea, along with poor Latvia.
Once they got back it was already very late and so she collapsed in her bed, any thoughts of the next day being banished immediately.
England and China were in the Hotel in London, both nations unable to sleep, but not willing to let the other be aware of this.
America, Japan and Germany were staying at that rich guys place, from where they'd borrowed the plane in the first place. Much like China and England, the three were unable to sleep, although it was for very, very different reasons.
For them, it had been a very difficult and emotional night.
England hadn't slept well at all.
First there were those bloody stupid dreams (however, the ones he dreamt of last night had had more of a flow to them and seemed more... Memory like...) and secondly, he kept getting odd shocks.
Unlike with Japan, Canada and Italy, he didn't suffer from one major brainfreeze and then have everything come back to him.
It all came back in short and sharp jolts.
Sadly, his memory was still missing. He remembered bits of stuff here and there, but they were usually utterly random... I mean, who cares to remember when they drew a doodle of a flying mint bunny during a world conference, only then to be caught by America and some French guy, who then proceeded to tease him for the rest of the year?
... He still hadn't told China about his sight having returned. He decided he'd rather wait until he could remember, before announcing it.
He stared at the little fairy sitting on his pillow. She had come to visit him several hours ago and had helped him get some sleep, even if it wasn't much.
She smiled sweetly at him and he ended up forcing a smile back, before rolling over onto his back.
He looked over to China, to find the nation still sleeping.
He decided to make light conversation with the fairy.
"So... How has my country been for the last century?" England asked, feeling slightly awkward about asking such a weird question.
The fairy thought for a while.
"Not much has changed really. Not even the fashion, it's as if the world stood still, only very few countries made some "progress". Usually only the ones with their nations have been advancing, although Japan was able to continue developing its technology without Japan himself." The fairy summarised.
"Is that so? Interesting... Question."
"Yes?"
"Why didn't you help me when I went missing?" The fairy frowned in response.
"Well... We did, we looked for you everywhere in the whole of the UK and Ireland and couldn't find you. We would have looked for you abroad, but we find it difficult to travel any further than you and your brothers countries."
"Wait, rewind. I have brothers?" Well, that was something he hadn't been told yet. Then again, it wasn't like anyone had had the time to tell him this.
The fairy nodded.
"Yeah, Ireland, North Ireland, Wales and Scotland*... Three of which disappeared with you..." England frowned, but then realised something.
"You mean one of my brothers is still around?"
"England, don't get excited. You and your brothers aren't on good terms and actually, in the last century, things between Ireland and the UK have gotten worse again."
England's frown deepened.
"You mean my brothers and I hated each other?"
"Well, it's mostly your brothers versus you, they seemed to get along fine with each other, just not with you." Well, I certainly didn't want to hear that... England thought to himself.
"But you didn't really hate each other, there was still some kind of brotherly love..." The fairy ammended, in hopes of cheering England up. "... It's just that all five of you didn't get along."
England continued frowning, but shrugged it off.
"What time is it?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Six o'clock!"
"Psh, not so loud. China might here you." England said, trying to hush her.
"Er... England, China can't hear us."
"Huh? Why not?"
"He doesn't know we exist, so he can't see or hear us..." England stared at her with disbelieving eyes for a moment. So this wasn't a nation thing?
"... I bet everyone thinks I'm crazy..." England muttered into his hands.
"No, of course not!" The fairy quickly defended him, flying in front of his nose. "No one thinks you're crazy! Well, apart from your people... And fellow nations... And anyone in general who sees you talking to us, including animals... And recently yourself..."
"This really isn't helping."
"Would you rather I lie?"
England didn't reply to that, deciding to get off the bed and put the kettle on to make tea.
"... It's six." England muttered, looking over to China. The Asian nation continued sleeping, having come under the fairies spell as well.
Obviously, the spell worked a lot better on China than on England, even though the spell had been directed at England.
Sighing, the Brit finished making tea and settled down in the arm chair. He could feel them. His people that is... So to say. It was kind of odd. He kind of felt all sorts of things as a nation. He felt like a billion different people at once and yet was at the same time only himself.
He could also feel the size of his country inside of him, essentially, he felt bigger on the inside.** Quite large. And then there was also the UK size and the common wealth... He assumed he must represent more than just "England".
It was... As said, very odd. A human couldn't imagine it any how.
After drinking his tea, he set it down and grabbed his coat. He considered leaving China a message, but how would a blindman leave a message?
Shrugging, he picked up a piece of paper and wrote something on it quickly, adressing both himself and China by their human names, hinting to China that England had asked one of the hotel staff to write it for him.
He folded it and left it next to the kettle.
"England, where are you going?" The fairy asked, hurriedly flying after the Brit.
"I'm going go to my house. China wanted to take me there yesterday, but we didn't get round to it."
"Ah... But you don't know the way... Do you?"
"I remember what it looks like... I think... Besides, you can show me the way."
"True, true." The fairy replied, smiling and settling on his shoulder. "Well, onwards we go!" The fairy said, pointing forwards with a grin on her face.
England merely gave her an amused smile, getting on to the lift***.
"Another loonatic's coming over?" All three nations asked. Liechtenstein gave them a pained smile, wishing that someone who usually kept these three nations under control were here.****
(Such as for Latvia: Estonia and Lithuania)
"Yes. He's called Mr. Ireland. He's finding it incredebly difficult to get here though, since his government is absolutely certain that this is a cheap prank..."
"His first name is Mister? How lame~" Sealand interrupted, rolling his eyes.
"Er... Peter, I think Mister isn't his name, mister's just... You know, a title."
"You mean he's called Ireland?"
Liechtenstein nodded affirmatively.
"He's trying to get here for lunch this afternoon. He's very nice, but he's a bit short-tempered, so please try not to get on his nerves."
The three nodded.
"Is that all you wanted to say?" Yong Soo asked.
"Er... Well yes, I also wanted to say that I enjoyed going to the cinema with you yesterday (although it was pretty late)."
"Ah, it was nothing." Peter replied, waving it aside hurriedly.
"When are you needed back home?" Liechtenstein asked.
"Not any time soon, why?"
"That's good. Is it OK if you stay here until you have to go back?"
"Wait, you mean you want to stay here?" Latvia asked, feeling a bit alarmed.
"Well, yes... You see, I'd like to take you to a few places that you used to visit a lot in the past..."
"Really?" Yong Soo asked, interrupting Liechtenstein. "Like what?"
"Well, it's a bit of a surprise..." She replied, smiling. Really, she would have told them where they were going to go, but she had no idea if she'd have the money or clearance to go at all.
"So, are these places here, in Vaduz?" The Asian man continued to ask curiously.
"No, they're in Switzerland... Don't worry, you don't have to pay, I'm hoping Ireland will be willing to."
"Wait, is this Ireland dude rich then?"
"No... Well yes, but-"
"How rich?"
"Um... " Liechtenstein replied, not really sure. She herself was a very rich country, but she didn't really have the government by her side at the moment, so she was kinda poor right now.
However Ireland... Well, how was his economy nowadays anyway? She hadn't really had a chance to study these kind of things in almost a century after all (and as Lilli, she didn't care much for economics).
"I don't know." She finally said honestly. "He can buy whatever he wants or needs though, so I guess rich enough..."
"You don't say..." Sealand asked, looking away, as if he were plotting something. Liechtenstein sighed. "So what are we going to do until Ireland gets here?"
"Well, I thought we could go for a iceskating or something..." Liechtenstein suggested. "There's a nice lake nearby, that's solidly frozen over and I thought..."
"Sounds great! Let's go!" Young Soo cut in, standing up from his chair. Friedli raised his head momentairily, noting the seemingly young nations standing up excitedly.
He decided to shrug it off, more busy with a few political things that needed to be sorted out. The four grabbed their coats and Latvia smiled at Liechtenstein.
"It's a nice idea, to go iceskating." He told her. She smiled back and was about to say something in return, when the telephone rang.
The leader of the HCS sat in his office chair in AB2, massaging his growing headache. He frowned at the smiling pictures of the last five HCS leaders.
They all had been smooth movers, covering their tracks perfectly and always hiring the best of the best for their dirty work.
However he? What'd he do? He'd messed up. Royally. He could easily blame the criminal empires for this. He couldn't help it, if the underworld had become so pathetic, that the police could easily take all of them on with one hand tied behind their back, blindfolded and unarmed with only one policeman.
However, he, as leader, also knew that it was his own fault. He should have been a better employer. He should have kept a better eye on his prisoners.
He should have done his homework and realised that his prisoners were great conmen and had plenty of tricks up their sleeves.
He should have realised that nations do not give up that easily (especially not to humans) and that they weren't so stupid as to stage an escape without plan.
He could see from what he'd just listed, that there was so much he could have avoided. It was rather painful to look at.
He sighed deeply, sinking into his chair.
Everything that the HCS had manged to build in the last century or so had fallen apart in his own hands.
He had had to abandon AB1, one of the greatest secret, international and illegal military bases in existence, he had lost a lot of information and he had left behind a lot of equipment, data and contacts.
It was almost like having to start from the beginning and having to work your way up again. He sighed in frustration. Why couldn't he have been a good leader like the five previous ones?
Well, there was no point in sulking over spoilt milk. He would have to get the projects running again.
Relying on human hands to recapture escaped nations was failing. Until a few weeks ago, no one from the HCS had found a single one (probably because they were so damn good at hiding), although they'd been searching for them for nearly a year.
And now they were popping up all over the place, but not as helpless prisoners with only disadvantages, but as normal people, with the police, friends, jobs and the media to help them out.
Some of them had been able to remember again as well. This meant they were extremely cautious.
It was impossible to catch them now. The only reason it had worked who knows when ago, was because they'd caught the nations off guard. They hadn't even known of their existence back then. They had had the element of surprise.
But now they knew of their existence, and those blasted spies had probably given away where AB1 was... What would happen if they found AB2?
What would be best was to lie low for a while, much like the HCS had after capturing nearly all personifications...
He sighed. If only he could lie low. None of their bases were safe. If some nations had been able to remember, what would stop that one nation from remembering?
That one nation, that had by accident, found and memorised the location of every single blasted HCS base on the stupid planet?
They would be ratted out so fast, he wouldn't know what hit him.
He rubbed the back of his neck, yawning tiredly. It wouldn't do to start panicking now.
He had panicked earlier and ended up abandoning AB1. Had he kept his cool, that wouldn't have ever happened.
"Sir." One of the HCS members asked, opening the door to his office.
"Yes?" The leader asked, rubbing his temples tiredly. Oh, how they ached and hurt!
"We can weakly locate England again sir. He's by himself too, so we could easily get him back."
"... Is that so?"
"Yes sir."
The leader frowned. Another opportunity.
"It's too risky. We don't know what state England is in right now. Does he have his... special abilities back? Does he remember? And how do we know the good people of London, won't come to his aid, much like the good people of Vaduz came to Liechtensteins?"
The man backed away and shrugged. "I don't know." He mumbled. "But if we don't do anything, those nations are sure to come after us."
"They can't idiot, they haven't got their governments to fight for them-"
"Sir... You're forgetting they've all been through more wars than any living man. They know how to fight... And most deffinitely how to torture..." The man said, driting off near the end. "Sir, with great respect, those nations will come after us with or without the help of their governments and I think we'll be worse off if they come after us without them." He added.
The leader looked at the man thoughtfully, before staring at the wall again.
"You're right..." The leader muttered, slowly realising something.
He was in a lose-lose situation. There was no winning. Anything to gain had been gained, all they were doing now was keeping nations imprisoned.
Sure, they could try cracking their healing abilities, but it would be near impossible if they kept having to move around like birds, that had to travel from the north to the south and back again throughout the year.
Besides, most scientists didn't have a clue what they were experimenting on any more. They'd forgotten that the prisoners with numbers were actually nations with names. Much like the blasted nations themselves.
"This long game of cat and mouse will have to end for now..." The HCS leader muttered, causing the other man to look at him both confused and slightly worried about his leader's sanity.
"What do you mean sir?"
"... If we continue like this, we'll end up dead anyway. We're going to have to lie lower than low for a while. I'm disbanding the HCS until further notice."
"What? but sir!"
"Leave our captured nations here, abandon them. They can rot here for all I care. They can't remember who they are anyway, so leave them... We'll sell our weapon plans and teleportation to several countries, I hear North Korea would be interested..."
"Actually sir, I think he'd be more interested in escaping us right now..."
The HCS leader mentally groaned, but decided to ignore his comerade.
"If I do that, I can retire as a multimillionaire and can watch the nations from afar..."
"Sir?"
"Listen man, I refuse to get caught be those nations and then be treated like a criminal."
"Sir?"
"Start making preparations to close down this base and contact those countries interested in... High-tech weaponry."
"Yes sir!"*
England stared at the house in front of him. It was standing by itself and was surrounded by garden, in the outskirts of London.
It was plain simply his kind of house. The flowers had overgrown though, the lawn was overrun by weeds and the hedges... Let's not even start with the hedges.
"Did I really live here?" He asked the fairy, resting on his shoulder. She nodded in response.
"Ireland used to tend your garden while you were gone, but he gave up after a while. He bought the place off your government, when they decided to sell it. He has a cleaning lady pop by once a week to clean your house now. She keeps all your stuff clean."
"Well... That was... Awefully thoughtful of him... I guess."
"He also did this for Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland..." The fairy added, but England quickly interrupted, having the feeling the fairy was about to start a lecture that would go on all day.
"How should I get in?" He asked.
"Oh, there's a spare set of keys under the flower pot."
"This one?"
"No, the one shaped like a key."
"Oh..." England muttered confused, noticing a pot that indeed looked like a key. What a strange pot... And what an even stranger place to put a spare set of keys.
"Does no one tend this... Well, I mean, my garden any more? Not that I like gardens, well I do... But, you know. When I was blind, I could hardly appreciate gardens could I? Does no one tend my garden any more?"
"No, no one tends your garden any more..." The fairy said helpfully.
"That'll be a lot of work for me then. I can easily see what I'll be doing for the next few weeks." He picked up the keys and unlocked the door, opening it.
"Hm, it doesn't smell like your home." The fairy commented.
"Huh?"
"Oh, this place usually smells like you and anything that reminds one of you... I didn't realise the smell would change..."
"So you haven't been visiting this place?"
"The others and I saw no point in visiting it any more." The fairy replied, flying off his shoulder. "So what do you want to do here anyway?"
"Explore... I'm curious to what I used to do and what kind of memories I have... Oh."
"What?"
"I seemed to have liked needle work before the... Er.. Incident. That's nice to know... Wow, did I really do that?" The fairy felt awkward at this comment.
"England, why not just skip this all and go take a look down memory lane?" She asked, settling down on his head again.
"Huh?"
"Look through your photo albums for example?"
"Ah, right... Er... Where are they?"
The fairy sighed tiredly. "They're in the library, follow me." The fairy got off his head and flew up the stairs, the brit following her hastily. She tapped on the library door.
He smiled back, opening it slowly. "Wow, when you said library, I thought of maybe one bookshelf, but this..." England commented, his voice trailing off in amazement.
The fairy ignored the Brit as he looked at everything precisely, excited by all the things. The man looked like a child on christmas day.
She flew up to the photo albums, getting ready to pull one out.
"Hey, where have the photos gone?"
"Hm?" Was all England asked. He wasn't interested any more. He had pulled out a book about gardening or something and had his nose deep inside it.
The fairy flew across the library, in search of the photo albums, but they were no where to be seen.
"Strange... Maybe Ireland removed them? But why would he do that?"
She left the room and searched the other rooms as well, soon noticing that there weren't any photos anywhere. In fact, there was also nothing lying around that was written by England, such as personal letters, governmental letters, poems, receipes and other things.
There was no evidence that this place belonged to England. The fairy frowned and flew downstairs, still searching. Her search was unsuccessful, there wasn't a thing.
Even the world map had disappeared.
That's so odd... The fairy thought to herself, flying back into the hallway, when she heard something. Her head shot up and she saw an old lady opening the door.
She had some cleaning things on her, her face grim. She was muttering something quietly about stupid eccentric people with houses they don't bother to live in.
The fairy suddenly felt very worried. This woman thought the house was empty. She didn't know this place belonged to England! And said Brit was just upstairs...
Oh, please stay quiet... The fairy silently pleaded, as she watched the woman drop her things slowly (and quietly).
England suddenly laughed, as if he knew the fairy had been pleading for him to stay silent (How do you laugh while reading a book on gardening anyway?). The cleaning lady froze and looked up.
Oh no... Was all the fairy thought.
* In which I'd like to mention that there are also a lot of other islands that are a part of the British Isles, but are their own country, such as the Isle of Man. Because they're not really known though, I've decided to leave them out. As said, I'm trying to avoid OCs as best as I can (including countries) and since most forget these islands, that are their own country, I've decided to leave them be. I hope you're all OK with that.
** Doctor Who reference. Could not resist.
*** For those who don't know, "Lift" is another word for elevator.
**** Latvia, though a more or less sensible nation in comparison to a lot of others, doesn't seem to know when to stop talking. Once he's dug a hole, he keeps digging, at least, that's what I think. This conclusion is what I love about him. I do the same thing all the time.
*Sugar spice it all! I originally planned for the stupid HCS to go through court! Stupid leader for making smart decision...
I am not happy with this chapter. Not at all. I'm not happy with Latvia and South Korea, cause I still haven't got them nailed, and yeah... :(
But on a lighter note, oh my goodness, over 75 reviews. O.O I am totally geeking out right now. Thank you everyone who's reviewed so far! (And sorry for not replying to all the reviews from the last chapter. I kinda like did one half, then left it and then thought... OK, who have I already thanked and who not? I'm so SORRY. Please forgive me)
Oh, and happy new year! This'll be my last update for 2011 :D
Review anyone?
...
Please?