It was morning. A lovely one too. For once, the sun was actually shining in London, rather than hiding away behind clouds like it usually did. And also, it wasn't terribly windy, like it often was there.* The snow, covering the whole place, only added to the beauty, it glistening in the sunlight.
Liechtenstein looked at the streets, watching as foreigners, British and English** alike lead their average, normal human life, going to work, or school or some other thing, that may be considered not so average and normal to other people, such as skipping school or taking part in a flash mob.
She looked back, to see Sealand and South Korea both excited, pointing at things and making remarks, sometimes comments on their origins.
Latvia was quietly watching the people, particularely the ones that were accompanied by their family. She could tell he probably wanted one...
Even as a human, Latvia wanted a brother or sister... Sweet really.
She looked back out the window, letting the excited chatter from South Korea and Sealand wash over her. She was going to be with adult nations soon, so she no longer had to worry about these problems any more.
Herr Friedli had been kind enough to give her both unofficial and official records on herself, although the papers barely filled one folder (which is strange, since she knew it should be quite large. Not nearly as big as, say, Italy's, but still big).
He explained he would like to continue helping her, but everything was getting too out of hand for him and he'd end up only getting in the way.
He had other things to do as well, him being your normal Swiss Guard and not part of the secret sector, which helped protect or help out the nations (more like keeping them and getting them out of trouble). He had to go back to doing his job.
The ride over to London hadn't been too difficult to organise, considering the short notice and complications.
And she had managed to talk Ireland and China into paying for their flights. She would be happy to see them, though she didn't really know them that well.
She usually hid behind Switzerland and didn't talk much to nations that weren't really neighbouring her, she barely knew the nations in Europe, let alone nations the ones outside of it.
Germany would be there, so it wouldn't be so bad... Right?
Her mind was with Switzerland again, as she recalled a world meeting memory. Was he OK? She hoped he was...
She hadn't seen him since since he last told her to run... She heard him last, when she froze on the staircase and he snapped "Run"...
How had he known she had stood still anyway? ... He probably knew her that well.
She sighed. Latvia noticed her sad mood.
"Ah, miss Lilli, are you OK?" He asked, his friends not noticing them at all. She looked up and gave a polite smile.
"I guess I'm just a little tired, that's all." She admitted.
"You must hate travelling. I mean, since you're tired from just this little trip... No wait, you are tired because of that, right? I mean, why else wouldn't you be tired? Wait... It's normal to feel tired after travelling, no matter how long, so-"
"It's fine. I guess I might be tired from travelling..." Before she could continue, the taxi driver stopped the car, gaining the attention of everyone within it.
"You're at your destination." The man said in a cockney accent, his "your" sounding more like a "yer" for example.
The four scrambled out of the car and got their things out. They turned to see England's house... Which quite frankly looked gigantic.
But still too much of a house to be anything other than a house... Just a very large one.
They grabbed their things and walked up to the door, knocking on it. Ireland opened the door and smiled at them.
"Hi guys, I've been waiting for you." He greeted, a forced smile on his face. He looked at the four, his gaze settling on Sealand for a while, before showing them in. Sealand and South Korea started chattering excitedly again, having noticed the... Englishness... Of the house.
"So England and China have prepared your rooms already. You guys are pretty lucky I own the place right now, Iggy would have been absolutely against any guests staying here." Ireland continued, not noticing the loud chatter behind him, walking upstairs.
He showed them their rooms, which they hurriedly entered. Sealand, Korea and Latvia would be sharing a room, Liechtenstein got her own one.
She turned to look at the Irish man and asked "Where are China and England?"
"I'm not really sure. I think they went to get some supplies for the world meeting tomorrow, they should be back soon."
"There's going to be a world meeting tomorrow?"
"Well yeah... I thought someone you knew..."
"Well, yes, it's just that I didn't realise it was an actual world meeting..." Liechtenstein explained, sinking into herself. Ireland smiled warmly and patted her on the head.
"It's no problem. Now, why don't you unpack?" Liechtenstein nodded politely and Ireland turned to leave.
"... Not to be rude, but what happened to you?" Ireland suddenly asked, just as she began to unpack. She glanced to him and gave him a polite (and possiby shy) smile.
"Well, it's a long story."
"Well OK, maybe not then. Maybe when the others are around."
Liechtenstein nodded. "Mr. Ireland-"
"Ireland."
"Pardon?" Liechtenstein asked, caught off guard.
"Just call me Ireland. Never got used to having a title. Even if it is just 'Mister'."
"OK, I'll remember that Mr- Er... Ireland." Ireland smiled, silently asking Liechtenstein to carry on what she was going to say.
"Ireland, do you know if there is an ice rink nearby?"
Elizabeta watched the TV with unbelievably mild interest. It was her day-off and she had no plans for the day. Roderich had already cleaned up the whole house and both room-mates were off either working at the Radio Station or...
Well, she wasn't entirely sure what Gilbert did during the day, but she didn't care. As long as it was legal.
She was watching BBC news, since there was nothing else on. They were talking about the Euro-crisis again, even though it wasn't much of a crisis, since it had started all the way back in the late 20th century or something like that (her history wasn't brilliant, so it was OK for her to be wrong).
Eventually, they finished and moved onto a new topic.
"... Two days ago, a girl in Vaduz, Liechtenstein was viciously attacked and almost kidnapped by a small group of men, aged between twenty and fifty.
The girl luckily got away unharmed; she was rescued by a Lukas Friedli, who had rallied several citizens together and ambushed the place she was being kept prisoner.
Nothing is known on what happened to her after the rescue. No eye witnesses ever found out her name.
However, she dropped her purse in the field where she was persued, and was identified as Lilli Kirkland***, an American citizen, which made this an international case.
It is unclear how a pupil could be in Liechtenstein during mid-term, however, these questions seem only minor, when compared with the mystery of the men who tried to kidnap her."
Elizabeta watched with interest, now sitting up. She felt a bit guilty, that she had a murder-mystery interest. She always felt like she was treating the victims as fictional characters, rather than living, breathing people.
She sighed, ignoring her discomfort and focused on the news report.
"They were taken to the police and disarmed. However, the police discovered that their weapons, including gadgets, are not normal. In fact, several experts go so far as to say, the weaponry is highly advanced.
The men arrested refused to speak, however, from what was stripped from them, the governments of Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the USA have discovered that they are a part of either a criminal group or a cult.
They were wearing uniforms, with logo's on them, suggesting that an organized criminal group is more likely. As far as we know, the name of the group is HCS, for what it stands for, no one knows..."
Elizabeta frowned at this. HCS? Those three letters made her want to kill someone... But why? Ignoring her nagging, she continued listening.
"An undercover journalist managed to find out more information on the matter, such as what kind of weaponry the men were carrying and..." The reporter drawled on, pictures flashing on the TV, that the undercover journalist had taken.
As soon as Elizabeta saw the pictures, she pushed herself into the sofa she'd been sitting on, her eyes tearing open in horror, as something flashed before her eyes...
Memories...
She remembered screaming, yelling, pleas, anger, torture, pain, rage, suffering, and blood... Ooh, the blood... It had tainted the otherwise white experiment rooms shades of beautiful red.
She remembered how everytime she saw the experiment rooms, they were clean and white, as if blood had never coloured them red.
... As if the many tortures and deaths had never happened.
She bent over, clutching her stomache, feeling something vile and horrible climbing up her throat. She covered her mouth to stop the bile from coming out and found herself crying uncontrollably.
Why was she crying? Why?
She only saw red and heard screaming, she wasn't sure if it was her voice or someone elses. Was she imagining it?
Why did she only see red? Why could she only hear screaming? What did those cold white rooms have to do with her?
She was distressed and she desperately needed comfort, only, nations don't get comfort. They're expected to recover by themselves...
Wait, where was this nation stuff coming from?
But before she could ponder long, she found more nightmaric scenes unfolding in her mind, as she clutched her head, tearing at her hair.
What was this? What is this? Was she having a nightmare? A night terror? Had she just suddenly gone insane?
What did Gilbert always say to do if in fear?
You should go to, what Klaus calls, your "happy place". Essentially just think of times you were happy or were with people or doing stuff that made you happy... It's unawesome really, but whatever rocks your boat I guess...
Think of happy people, think of happy things, think of happy times...
"Miss Hungary, the thunder is scary..." A small voice piped up, stirring the brunette from her sleep.
And she had been so close to finally falling into sweet, sweet oblivion!
She looked up to see a small boy, clad in a white night shirt, standing by the door. He was holding his hands together nervously, and she found herself smiling at him, even though she had been unbelievably annoyed just seconds ago.
She slipped into older-sister-mode**** without even realising it.
The boy continued quietly "Could I stay with you tonight?"
"Of course you can! You're always welcome to stay when you're scared, sad or alone!" She replied, opening her arms wide and invitingly.
The boy ran up to her and jumped into her arms, hugging her tightly, while a happy smile adorned his face.
"Thank you miss hungary!"
"What are older sister's for?" She asked happily, as she covered both herself and the little boy with her blankets, her own smile on her face.
The memory faded away, but Elizabeta searched for a new one.
In this memory, she just stood nearby, watching as Austria played the piano, her ears relaxing to the sounds of the notes he played, with unbelievable gentleness and warmth, that she sometimes forgot he had.
Her mind unfocused, as she let the music swallow her up and she felt herself fall endlessly.
It wasn't scary falling, it was nice, because she knew that when she stopped falling, when the music stopped playing, someone or something was there to catch her at the end and it wouldn't be gravity.
And so she let the music surround her and take all her burdens and fears away...
Elizabeta could feel her worry disappearing, as she tuned in to the specific sounds of the piano, the tune echoing in her mind, replacing the nightmarish scenes she'd seen merely seconds ago.
She sighed contently, as the terrors faded away. The TV was still babbling on, but she didn't hear it any more. Now that she could hear soothing piano playing (which kind of reminded her of Roderichs), she had time to figure out what had happened.
She closed her eyes and replayed the images slowly, carefully avoiding the ones that had sent her mind reeling.
She flipped through her (returning) memories, until she saw someting that helped her understand everyhing.
She saw herself, standing tall, brave, daring, a cocky grin on her face (and was that a frying pan in her hand?), the image screaming out only one word.
Hungary.
Her eyes snapped open in a flash, as she leaned forward and held her head, feeling like she was having a huge brainfreeze.
She gripped the sofa firmly, squeezing her eyes shut tightly, as millions of memories flashed before her eyes; at least ten lifetimes worth of memories.
She gasped for air. She took a deep breath and looked up at the TV. She looked above it, at the mirror.
And there she saw herself.
No longer the British woman, Elizabeta Hedervary, who had been rescued from drowning in the Thames, along with two other men.
She was the proud nation, Hungary.
"... Oh." She said, as she stared at the place, where her orange flowers usually sat. She'd have to find some new ones...
Hungary closed her eyes...She had her memories and knowledge back, however some of it was still pretty fuzzy.
She matched the TV report she had just heard with the memories of the HCS.
So, they had stupidly made themselves public, huh?
How could they make such a pathetic mistake and yet some how capture and hold prisoner the entire world for several decades?
This was just embarrassing.
She remembered seeing England, but he had been blind...
Oh yeah, on the day they escaped he'd still been blind... He had had a guide to help him escape, one of his brothers... Er... Scotland? Yeah, that's the one.
She also remembered China being with him, meaning that they had already contacted the ones that hadn't been taken away...
Even if they were a year late in contacting the non-prisoners.
She should contact England or something and get involved in their plans. They obviously were plotting something.
She didn't really have any helpful information on the HCS, but she wanted to be there when they tore them apart limb by limb or with a frying pan and wok.
She sighed. She hated the HCS, they had taken Prussia first and he'd practically been a skeleton when they were trying to escape.
Since he was the first to be caught, he also went through far more inhuman experiments than the rest. It was amazing how he had even survived...
Well, Prussia had always been a stubborn one. When Prussia was officially dissolved, everyone expected him to fall ill and slowly fade away or something, but he had stayed on and soon represented the Eastern part of Germany.
He was too stubborn to die. And if he was going to, he'd make sure it wasn't at the hands of a human. Or humans.
A smirk danced on her face, as she recalled yesterday.
"... They were convinced I was some kinda nation... Er... Trussia or something. How unawesome is that?"
Oooh, she was never going to stop teasing him about that...
It soon occured to her that neither Austria or Prussia remembered who they were.
Oh well... She could work around that. Heck, she was Hungary, she'd get them to do as she told them to, no buts, no whens, no ifs. They always did as she told them to anyway, so it wouldn't matter much.
She chewed at her fingers nervously.
Who had made it out of the HCS base? She hadn't thought of it, but she didn't know who got out. Did Japan? Or Taiwan? Or... The Czech Repbulic? Turkey? Greece? Russia? Romania?
She reached for her phone and called Prussia. She needed China's phone number asap. Maybe they knew, after all, who had managed to escape the grisely fate of dying at the hands of a human.
Canada was finally off the plane. He was with America, Japan, Germany, Spain and the last of the South Americans, now busy waving taxis over.
At first, Canada had tried to help, but unfortunately, it seemed that being a nation again meant that his dreaded invisibility had returned (not that it had completely gone as a human).
He hated not-being seen, it was unfair! He had done plenty of memorable things! He had gotten his independence without (much) violence and managed to keep a more or less good relationship with England, he had held the Winter Olympics in 2010 and he had had Germany running from him (screaming) during both World Wars*!
Now he couldn't even wave down a taxi. It was depressing, how no one ever noticed him. The taxis did notice America, who was running around like an idiot, whistling far too loud for his liking, while trying to catch a taxi. He muttered something about England having stupid taxi services, but continued with his efforts.
At some point, Germany took over, with the help of Japan and they successfully waved down three taxis, enough to carry everyone.
Canada frowned and climbed into one of the taxis, sharing it with America and Japan, however, he was being (unintentionally) ignored.
He sighed deeply, and looked out the window.
Well, it wasn't so bad, being invisible. You learned an awful lot about different people after all...
*I've been in London several times before, and every time it was either cloudy, raining or incredibly windy. Kinda like how it was in Paris, minus the wind. o.o (Cause I've been to Paris too~)
** Foreigners can't become English. They CAN become British. Just not English. Trust me, I know.
*** Liechtenstein couldn't remember her human surname and since she ended up being found with Iggy, she was given his human surname (since everyone thought they were related in some way).
**** Hungary was once described as Italy's (probably adopted) older sister.
* I heard somewhere, that Canadians were pretty vicious during one of the world wars. I can't remember which one though, so bare with... For not being bothered to research. =.="
No Iggy or Meri in this chapter. What's up with that?
Ireland is an OC, so there is no thing as OOC for him... Yes, he shoulda had more of a reaction to Sealand, bu whatevs, yah know? Now, I know, some parts of this chapter are brilliant, some... Not so good... But I'm ill, OK? I overworked myself (oops) and am now ill... And yes, I've done smarter things before. I'll try to make the next chapter better (and I'll try to update sooner!)
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