Disclaimer: Let's just go ahead and say it together now: Nobody here owns Hetalia!
Warnings: Language, Creepiness on the Italies' part, Extreme awesomeness from you-know-who
Sweden's POV:
I sat awake, staring at the spot where Finland should be. He should have been back hours ago. I had faith in the smaller man, but he could have been captured, or turned dark, or even… Swallowing thickly to cut off the thought, I stood up. Iceland and Denmark were jolted awake by the sudden movement, and the Dane gave me a growl, standing up as well.
"For Christ's sake, Sweden, let's just go."
Within a few moments, we were ready to head out. I was the leader of our trio, speeding through the trees with the others on my heels. Eventually, I held out a hand for us to stop, listening more attentively to the sounds ahead of us. "Welcome to the Axis, China." Oh, that wasn't good. We followed the trio as they made their way in the same direction as us. Though Italy seemed to notice our presence, he didn't say a word.
We eventually reached a large clearing, where the Allies – along with Finland – were all gathered. The advantage we had snapped into perfect clarity as I heard the Italies' words. "Good morning, Allies." Denmark held out an arm to keep me from charging out to protect Finland. I took a silent breath. Ambush. Right. I drew the ax from my back, starting to creep toward the Italies.
I swung it down towards them in absolute silence.
Italy's POV:
As soon as I heard the shuffling behind me, I knew we were being followed. I mentally pouted. Playtime with China was over. We arrived at the Allied camp with no difficulty, but just after they noticed our presence, I felt the air being displaced behind us. With a silent tap to my brother, we sped off in opposite directions, taking up identical perches in our own trees. We both wanted to see how China fought her "friends".
She easily dodged the ax, using a quick kick to send Sweden to the ground. I grinned as Denmark rubbed his head in sympathy, and both he and Iceland started forward to attack China. Finland was the first of the Allies to come to his senses, dodging around the fight to help Sweden up. It was clear that the two Nordics were used to fighting together. They moved in tandem, though not quite as fluently as my brother and I, but well enough.
China evaded each of their attacks, finally getting in a hit with her wok. The Allies started to converge on her now, and Romano jumped down to help, and I followed almost immediately after. He squared off against France and England, leaving me with the two superpowers of the world.
Lovely.
I assessed them quickly, not giving them any more time to prepare before I started attacking. Both of them seemed to rely on raw power, leaving me with a significant advantage. Any one of my hits could result in death, but I stayed much lighter on my feet and more graceful than America's insanely powerful punches. After several minutes, I got in a kick to his shins, knocking the American to the ground, and jumped over Russia to look at the other battles.
China was now taking on Finland and Estonia, seeming to be winning. Estonia was already nursing a broken arm, but was still putting up a fight. Romano, in the meantime, had defeated France, Canada having come up to take his place. I knocked Russia out with a blow to the back of the neck, dodging around the battles to grab a medicine bottle from Estonia's pocket. My smile widened. Our conquest was almost completed.
"Fratello~ Miss China~ Time to go!" for good measure, I set a hand on Taiwan's shoulder.
"I suppose I won't see those pretty brown eyes of yours again… Good luck with that infection, Tai. Ciao~!"
And with that, we were gone.
Taiwan's POV:
My head hurt. Shit, that was the first symptom. "Tai?" America set a hand on my shoulder to steady me.
"I-I think I'm going to –" He pressed me down to sit on the ground.
"Hurry up with that spare, Estonia!" The blonde leaned down to look me in the eyes. "Hang in there." He said concernedly. I let my eyes close, only half listening to the conversation going on around me, and tried to drown out the pain in my skull.
"Here, everyone, take one."
"Wait, we don't have enough. One of us is going to have to –"
"I'll do it." My eyes snapped back open and locked on the person who had spoken.
"France?" Someone said quietly, and the Frenchman nodded.
"I'll allow myself to turn dark." I reached out to stop him, but America squeezed my shoulder tighter as a warning. France turned on his heel and sprinted away into the woods.
"Here, hurry." Estonia pressed a tablet into my hand and I quickly swallowed it. "We have to move again. They know where our campsite is now." We packed our few things into backpacks and headed off, all of us hoping that the dark nations wouldn't catch up.
Hours later, we arrived at an ideal spot for our camp. After we set up, we finally began tending to the many wounds we had gotten from the Italies.
"Ouch!" Estonia instinctively pulled his arm back.
"Well, I'm sorry, but we have to set it!" I firmly pulled his arm back in front of me, pressing it into its position. I looked back up at him as I built a sling for his arm. He was biting his lower lip as if holding back a scream.
He quietly thanked me before raising his voice. "We can't get touched anymore. That was our last bottle, and now it's empty." Without another word, he headed back to his tent, leaving me to tend to Denmark's wounds.
"Man, those guys…" Denmark scratched the back of his head.
"I know, they're stronger than before." I trailed off, finishing up. "There, all done." I got up at last and headed back to the tents, quickly getting a blanket from my own tent. I didn't want to spend too much time in there – it held too many memories and belongings of my sister's.
"Hey, are you alright, Taiwan?" Russia asked, sitting down next to me.
"Yeah… It's just – China was the best sister I could have. I wouldn't want to trade her. Why does this have to happen to me…?" I rested my chin on my knees, gazing into the fire and trying to tune everything out.
The Axis sat down around the fire of their camp, exchanging ideas for getting their soon-to-be allies out of the Allied camp.
"Let's just spirit them away! Like in the movies?" Italy suggested, smiling. After no response was given, he noticeably deflated. "No?"
"Well, what about Prussia? He's immune. If he gets the cure recipe, our plan will be ruined." Japan cringed at the thought.
"Let's relax. Pick a target, take it out." China made it sound simple. "Find the weak links."
As if on cue, the group turned towards a sudden sound, the Italies readying for an attack.
"Bonjour," France emerged from the underbrush, a sadistic smile playing on his face. He had already turned dark.
China's POV:
I sat silently by the fire while the others argued, mainly over whether or not to kill France. I let my eyes sweep once again over the small group. A small, nagging, half-dead voice in the back of my mind whispered, "They're not your friends. This is the enemy." Naturally, I ignored it.
"China?" My head snapped to attention, focusing on Germany, who now looked rather annoyed.
"What?" I snapped. He casually tossed a knife at me. I stopped it just centimeters from my face, catching it easily in one hand.
"First guard." He said. I nodded stiffly, standing and heading towards the tree a few meters from camp that we had chosen as the guard's position. I sat at the base of the tree, weaving the sharp weapon through my fingers.
Japan watched his older sister warily. She was on guard, although not that much longer, and being new on the team, he naturally didn't trust her yet. He thought something had gone wrong when she changed. She flicked the knife in her hand up in the air, causing it to spin and balancing it on her forefinger.
His suspicion was confirmed while he watched. While completely absorbed in her thoughts and the spinning weapon, her eyes slowly shifted from red to their original amber color. Testing his theory, he picked up a branch and snapped it in half, producing a loud crack.
Instantly, China caught the knife, her eyes snapping back to scarlet and glaring in his direction, -although he knew she couldn't see him – ready to attack. He smiled, turning and silently heading back to the camp. Romano would be waking up soon to take the next shift, and Japan didn't feel like answering questions.
Prussia sighed. Despite all of his assistance with the cure, the Estonian jerk had used it all already. That left them with no escape. If they had more, it would be fine: A person could only get infected a few times. But they had no clue why one batch had worked, and Estonia had been in too much of a hurry to check. They had, however, come to a useful conclusion. Unofficial countries, including himself, were for the most part immune. With all the times West had been around him since he had been infected, Prussia hadn't had a hint of the darkness.
Perhaps he had just had it too many times before, or maybe that his eyes were permanently red. But he couldn't get infected, and as far as they knew, only he and Estonia knew that. It was a secret they had to keep.
He finished packing up his bag, adding a few handguns and a knife to be safe. The batch that Estonia had with him was a little strange, though – it seemed to have a radiating effect, according to Estonia. He had no idea what that meant, and Estonia's notes weren't really helpful, but it might give them an edge.
"Speaking of which…" He muttered, pulling Estonia's journal from under a stack of materials. He flipped it open to their most recent research.
*Radiating effect: Those who have come near the medicine while infected have been partially cured. Those who had recently turned dark also had flashes of normalcy…
Prussia snapped the journal shut, having seen too many complicated words for one day. He shoved the journal into his bag with the rest of his things, shouldered the backpack, and started out.
"C'mon, Gilbird." He called softly, and the bird fluttered onto his shoulder as he left.
It was only a few minutes into the trip that Prussia heard a badly concealed set of footsteps. Laying a hand on his knife, he spoke.
"Who's there?" There was more shuffling, a curse of pain, and then a young boy walked – well, more like fell – out from the treeline. The albino put the knife away, chuckling.
"Sealand, what the hell are you dong?"
The boy got to his feet, fixing his backpack. "Following you, of course! We're partners in awesome, we can't split up!" Prussia gave a playful poke to the boy's forehead.
"You're my apprentice in awesome. There's a difference." Sealand grumbled to himself, fixing his hat. Prussia sighed again.
"Yeah, I guess you can come. You're immune too, after all…" With a quiet hiss of victory, Sealand followed after the red-eyed man, hand rested on the daggers attached to his waist.
"So, are we just Team Awesome, or do we want something better for this mission?" Sealand asked, grinning incessantly. "I like the sound of 'The Jokers', y'know? It's like – like we don't take crap from anybody! 'The Jokers'!" the older nation shook his head.
"Nah, let's just be Prussia and Sealand for this mission. But I come first, 'cause I'm higher ranked in awesome."
"Well, what's our mission, Prussia?" The albino smiled wickedly.
"Oh, you know. Kick ass, take names… Save everybody. We gotta deliver this," He held out Estonia's journal, filled with everything they knew about the darkness. "To the Allies." The golden-haired boy pouted.
"That means Jerk England too, doesn't it?" He asked, looking depressed. Prussia bit his lip.
"Well, that's the thing." Sealand perked up, looking directly at Prussia.
"What is?"
"England. Based on what we've found…"
"Yes?" He was getting impatient.
"We've figured out that it's England's magic. His magic caused all of the darkness."
Russia's Note: Dun dun duuuunnn. I feel quite proud of that lil' twist... And my favorite duo has finally come into action!