"It's like a dungeon down here." Mathias muttered, glancing either way down a long, damp corridor. Indeed, it looked like something out of a movie. "How many of those hold nations, do you think?" He queried, pointing to the multitude of cells.

"With the number of captives that we know of, all of them." Andreas answered, moving swiftly to the one closest, and shot off the lock without a second thought, and swung it open.

"Who's there?" A low voice called weakly from the shadows. A voice they all recognized.

"Ludwig?"

Sure enough, the German appeared, staring at all of them in shock. "What're you doing here?"

"What does it look like?" Mathias said with a grin. "Beating Alfred at what he does best!"

Belle watched the others' reunion, but was a little more eager to know who else was in the other cells. Nervously, she left the group, and wandered down the dark hallway. "A-Antonio?" She called. "Are you here?"

She didn't really expect him to answer. From a nearby cell, she heard a loud shuffle, and the Spaniard's warm voice. "Belle? Surely it can't be. Dios, I must be losing my mind in here."

Her breath caught in her throat, and she hurried to shoot the lock off. "Antonio, I swear you're not mad, it's me! Look at me!" She hissed, pulling the man close.

He blinked, and it was as if a glaze vanished from his eyes, and he beamed at the woman in his arms. "You're the mad one then!" He laughed. "Coming all the way through enemy territory just for me?"

"It's your own fault for running off to Italy, knowing they were part of this!"

"Please don't speak ill of Lovino right now?" He pleaded, suddenly sombre.

"What happened to him?"

Antonio's grip on her shoulders tightened as he spoke. "Feliciano allied all of Italy to China's cause. It was his boss' idea, as far as I know." He swallowed hard and continued, "Lovi couldn't stand the thought, and refused to help his brother in that endeavour. He went down cursing China, and for that, Yao cut out his tongue, and he-."

Belle's heart nearly stopped when Antonio stopped speaking. "Oh God. No more, please." She hadn't even realized that she was crying. "Please…"

After what felt like an eternity of the two simply holding each other in grievous silence, until Antonio finally whispered, "Francis."

"What? What about him?"

"He's in the next cell over." He got to his feet. "Yao's been torturing him, he needs help."

"Then let's go." Belle declared grimly. "Before we lose anyone else to that man's violence."

As they moved to leave, there came a yelp of surprise from the group just down the hall. Silently, the two peered around the doorframe to see the trio, now joined by Ludwig, facing a new figure, a dark-haired man whom Belle was sure she should recognize, but couldn't.

Clearly, Ivan did. His eyes were wide with shock. "Sebastian?"

The man smirked. "It's been awhile, Ivan."

"Antonio, who is that?" Belle whispered. "Is he a nation?"

"Yes. Yes Belle, that's Serbia."

{}}{{}

Matthew slammed his eyes shut, wishing a thousand times that he'd stayed behind. The front lines had never been his strong suit. Not since Vimy. He'd had experience being a prisoner, during the Second World War, when he'd been captured for a few months by Germany, but he'd been put under Gilbert's care, and Gilbert was very easy to get along with, even as a prisoner. He doubted Yao would be as friendly.

"Get into contact with your little allies, I know you can." Yao murmured smoothly. "I want them all to hear us."

The blond nodded minutely, and reached across to the laptop to where nine switches were perched on a foldout table. Each had been labelled with one of the remaining nations' names, and one was blank, Belle's, as her arrival had been so unexpected. With shaking fingers, he turned each one over, so that the others could hear him. "G-guys, it's me…China's here."

He was met with several shouts of surprise, mixed with anger, and Yao took over. "So glad you could all be here. I hope I haven't come so soon that you haven't found my special gift." He ignored Alfred's wordless snarl, and continued. "Anyway, you should all start coming back to your little base of operations, and we'll continue our conversation there. I look forward to seeing you all."

Yao pointed at the switches, indicating Matthew should turn them off, which he did. "Now put the bear down, and let's step outside."

The Canadian obeyed, trying to comfort Kumajirou wordlessly as his friend let out a whimper when locked in the van. "When will this end, Yao?"

The older nation hummed in thought, never taking the gun away. "Until I get what's owed to me."

"And what's that?" 'Just keep him talking Matt, you can do it. Give the others time to think of a plan.'

"Respect. Centuries of being looked down on by countries I'm older than, better than, has begun to weigh pretty heavily. It's become annoying, listening to America's obnoxious babbling at every meeting, having Russia breathing down my neck almost all the time, hearing England and France argue like a pair of divorced parents. I needed a change, so to speak."

"So this was your answer?" He winced at how accusing he sounded. As true as his words were, truth wasn't exactly what he should be spewing while at Yao's mercy.

"I was better than waiting around for- ah! Your friends have arrived!"

Sure enough, Alfred, Arthur, Tino, Berwald, and Freyr came charging into the clearing, guns held high. The other four appeared moments later, followed by Serbia, who was pulling along another nation, with a black hood pulled over their face.

He was covered in blood.

{}}{{}

Belle and Antonio watched the scene unfold, debating whether they should stay hidden, or risk being seen for Francis' sake. Serbia, or Sebastian, as Ivan had called him, seemed a little more focussed on the group right in front of him.

"Yes Ivan, too long, if I recall. Do you normally cease all contact with your allies as soon as they've run out of purpose and leave them to fight off a power thrice their size alone?"

"You know I was going through a civil war! There was no way I could keep up every deal and contact I'd made. Besides, it was years ago."

The smaller man rolled his eyes, and pulled out a gun. "Save your excuses for some other gullible fool."

"You wouldn't shoot me, would you? I'm sure Yao would be greatly annoyed. Knowing him, he'd want me to suffer, and you beating him to it would just piss him off."

"You think so?" Sebastian sneered, caulking the gun. "Don't flatter yourself. You were never even part of his plan, so when you turned up alive, that's what pissed him off. He even killed Toris in a fit of rage."

Ivan's eyes shot wide open at that. "Toris is…?"

"That's right, so I wouldn't be too worried about my safety should I kill you…" He paused when he noticed the others suddenly straightening a little. So Yao had gotten to their navigator, he assumed. This assumption was proven when they all shouted in surprise simultaneously.

"We'll continue this later." Ivan murmured, brushing past Sebastian. "Right now Matvey needs us."

"One moment. I have my own orders as well. You can go right on ahead, but the imprisoned nations must stay, save for one, predetermined just for your dear 'Matvey'. We can't have you trying to overpower us, can we? Sadly, the lock's been shot. I can't lock it, so…" He raised the gun again, and pointed it at Ludwig, whose eyes widened in horror. "Too bad, really. Yao promised Italy he'd let you live."

Andreas felt the bullet graze past his ear as it made its way to Germany's heart.

{}}{{}

So there they stood, Antonio was hiding, lest he suffer the same fate as Ludwig, but the nine who stood before Yao and Matthew now had a dead look in their eyes.

"You all look so defeated, and we haven't even begun." Yao began condescendingly. "Even you America. Oh, that's right, you and Toris were lovers once, right? Well then it's no wonder…"

That brought him back like a whiplash. "Shut up! Don't you dare say his name you arrogant bastard! Just let Mattie go!"

"You can't be serious! You really think I'm stupid enough to hand over a hostage just like that? I'm not you, Jones. See? I think things through. I plan. I can't have you attacking me or my allies, so I take a hostage. You shoot me, Serbia shoots your brother. You shoot Serbia, your brother still dies."

Alfred bit his lip hard enough o draw blood. He couldn't think straight. It wasn't fair! He'd just lost Toris, he couldn't lose Mattie. Those days in the car, hanging out like brothers should, even under those circumstances, seemed so long ago.

"Put your guns down guys." He murmured. "They won't do us any good here."

"Good. Now we can talk like the civilized people that we are. But first, let me play one more card, just in case your brother here has any heroic ideas himself. There's no telling how related you two really are." Yao nodded to Sebastian, who pulled off the dark hood of the bound nation.

One look was enough to say it; Matthew wouldn't be trying anything anytime soon.

{}}+{{}

Thanks for reading~!

Let's play 'Guess who's under hood number one!' Just try and guess, I dare you!

I'm fond of the scenes themselves in this chapter, but not how they fit together.

Serbia's in there as a present to one of my friends, who was born in Serbia, and loves it to death, and his name is Sebastian. We made the Serbia OC together, and I just gave it his name for fun.

Reviews make my day, and if you really, reeeaaally love this, fan art would make my life if you think it's worth a scribble or two.