Flowers for Balaton, an Axis Powers: Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction.
(Chapter 8: The Sins Never Die…)
Port Elizabeth, New Britain, August, 2015.
"For those who wish to stay with us, we have NBBC Radio playing some Pre-Doomsday tracks until 8.30 in the morning while a full news bulletin will be available at 7.30 am... From the crew here at NBBC One, we wish you all a good night…"
Marcus was jolted awake by the TV test pattern blaring out 'God Save the King', Alice had told him that the old television had a tendency to increase the volume at random moments. Even though she gave up her room for him to sleep in, he insisted that he would sleep on the couch.
The Prussian grumbled for a moment as he got lazily rolled off the couch ended up straight onto the floor. He was starting to regret his decision even more…
While Marcus was making an attempt to gather his wits after a somewhat graceful fall off the couch, Arthur, Alice and Karenza were drinking tea as Lina had her head on the table, having passed out from a complete lack of sleep.
"It's great to see that you're still alive, Alice… Hopefully King Andrew's been treating you well…" Cornwall said sarcastically as she started chewing on a pastie.
"King Andy? He's a decent monarch…" Alice Kirkland replied as her father, Arthur seemingly nodded in agreement. "At least those bloedige Imperials got kicked out in the last election… Never liked 'em anyway…"
Marcus walked into the kitchen, still in a dazed state. "I told you to sleep in my room, but I guess that's karma for you…" Alice flashed the diplomat a grin as she pulled up a chair for him to sit on.
Marcus sat next to Alice as she pulled out a bottle of whiskey for him to drink. "Here… You'll need it" Marcus took the bottle and opened it, taking a swig from the bottle.
"I hope that discussion went well…" Marcus looked at Arthur as he fidgeted with the whiskey bottle.
"Francine had some trouble trying to accept your splintered psyche; she'll need some time to get around to it. The whole concept is baffling, even to us Nations… You're linked to us, somehow…" Arthur finished chugging a pint of beer.
"…Alfred mentioned that he'd met a few Cursed One's, so has Ludwig, heck, most of the Nations up there and down 'ere had at least met one over the centuries…"
"Frankie's sleeping in one of the spare bedrooms; hopefully she's going to be ok…" Alice chimed in. "She nearly had a breakdown while you were having another nightmare, too much for her to handle…"
Marcus ran his fingers through Lina's hair as she continued to sleep soundly, occasionally muttering something that the group couldn't recognise. "At least Lina's taking this well… Although to be fair, she's had to put up with you more than anyone else…" Karenza muttered.
"Hopefully this incident doesn't change anything between us…" Marcus thought to himself as he continued to stroke Lina's hair. He felt a great deal of sadness and regret after the incident, and the nightmares he was having while sleeping weren't helping one bit, neither were the attempts to keep his emotions to himself...
Lina slowly opened her eyes, meeting Marcus's gaze as she hugged his shoulder. "Evening, Marcus…" she yawned, looking into his eyes, which had started to take on a few shades of brown, probably due to Roza possessing him one-too-many-times.
"What time is it…?" Lina sighed as she continued to snuggle up to Marcus's arm, making him blush. "Quarter-past midnight, leiben…" Marcus smiled as he kissed her forehead. "I thought you were sleeping…" Lina sighed as she sipped from an open can of beer.
"I was too busy having nightmares…" Marcus chuckled with a somewhat forced use of English cynicism as he sipped from his own bottle of whiskey. "I can't believe Roza had to go through that…" Lina sighed as she gripped his arm, taking him by surprise.
Marcus stuttered for a moment before trying to regain composure. "D-did she tell you about what happened to her…?" Lina nodded as Marcus slowly got out of his chair, shaking as he did so.
"Are you alright?" Arthur looked at the diplomat as he shook his head slowly. "I might turn in for the night..." the three Nation's nodded as Lina pulled Marcus into a tight hug, trying to make him change his mind.
"Sleep well… Marcus…" she sighed as she let him go, but not before planting a kiss on his cheek.
As Marcus made his way to the bedroom that Alice had previously insisted that he were to sleep in, he felt someone tap his shoulder, nearly making him jump.
Roza was standing behind him, albeit without her beret and combat knife. "I had to tell them, Marcus. It was the only way…" the young Magyar stuttered, being awfully close to breaking down.
"Bitte... Roza… You don't have to cry." Marcus sighed as he led the Hungarian into the bedroom and sat down on the bed. "Stay strong, verdammt" Marcus hugged Roza tightly as the latter started sobbing, with the former not too far behind…
"Elnézést…" Roza stuttered as she held onto her host body as they felt the darkness taking over once again…
Somewhere near the outskirts of Belfast, Northern Ireland, September 25th, 1983…
"Oi!, Darc'!" an Irish accent man toting an AK-47 walked towards the aforementioned Irishman with a stern expression. "Have you got those bombs ready?"
"Yes, they're ready" the man nodded as he slowly moved a large crate towards a utility truck that was full of improvised explosives.
"You're just like my brother, you know. Before that bloody witch silenced him back in 79'!" the older man snapped to his young early-30-something protégé. "Hopefully we'll show Ms. Thatcher whose boss, and then Ulster will belong to Erie once again! Now, move out!"
The pair got into the utility truck and started driving towards the city, the lights of Belfast were not-to-far-off into the distance, and they would at least have about 1 and a half hours to go before they reached their designated target.
"Mind turning on the radio, Darc'?" the man known as Fergus McNamara grinned as his subordinate nodded and switched the radio on. Some kind of news report mentioned something about incoming Soviet missiles; the pair disregarded the message, writing it off as some kind of joke.
"Turn this shite off…" the Irishman groaned as the utility truck came to a stop at what seemed to be a military checkpoint of some sort. Darcy turned the radio off as he got out of the truck as a British police officer approached the young man.
"Well, well, well… What are you lot doing 'ere?" the Welsh accented officer looked at the man's military fatigues and holstered pistol. Hopefully the SAS uniforms and weapons that they'd smuggled in from Galway hid their true motives…
"Just a bunch of SAS commandos passing through, we're transporting some weapons to aid the police department in Belfast. We can't be too careful with those IRA buggers running 'round the place…"
"Stand down, Hathaway!" a young woman walked towards Darcy with a suspicious, almost inhuman stare. "I know an IRA soldier when I see one!"
Fergus got out of the truck, aiming his Kalashnikov at the police officer, while Darcy aimed his old pistol at the mysterious woman. "Stay back yer bloody sheep fucker!" Hathaway shuddered as he dropped his service revolver and got on his knees, pleading for his life.
"We have 50 kilos of explosives in the back of his truck! Move, and we'll detonate it!" Fergus yelled, gesturing to Hathaway to face his back to him.
Just as Fergus was about to finish off the 'sheep fucker' a tremendous boom along with a near-blinding flash of light nearly overwhelmed the group, with Fergus being knocked onto his back. "Looks like those Red bastards finally did it…"
"It seems that we have some hostages to take care of…" Darcy grinned as he faced the young woman, who was coughing up blood as he noticed a large, almost throbbing scar on the right side of her face.
"Buíochas le Dia..." the woman shuddered before she fell unconscious from the shock and pain. "Ferg'! We gotta get to safety!" Darcy grimaced as he picked up the young woman, her heartbeat was faint, but it was still there, barely…
"Too fuckin' right!" he yelled out in Gaelic as he looked over to Hathaway, who'd collapsed and was shaking from what he'd seen.
"Leave him; he's too weak to come with us. Bring the girl, we're going to need her…" Fergus sighed as he watched the mushroom cloud form in the distance.
Darcy nodded as he put the young woman in the back of the truck. Darcy got into the driver's seat with Fergus quickly jumping into the passenger side as the truck quickly drove away from the area…
"Be careful, we still have those explosives on board!" Fergus said in a somewhat panicked tone, which was an odd departure from his usually tough attitude. "I know, but we gotta get out of here before the radiation gets to us! Didn't you watch any of those old 'Duck and Cover' movies in school?!"
"'Course I fucking did!" Fergus snapped at the young man. A small hamlet came into view about an hour after their argument over the amount of radiation that they'd managed to absorb.
"We have to ditch those fucking explosives; otherwise we're going to be kicked out of this place before we know it!" Fergus panicked as he jumped out of the truck and started to slowly ease the crates of explosive out of the tray and slowly piling the crates into a nearby ditch, which was deep enough to bury the explosives at a later date. That is if they didn't go off...
Just as Fergus had put the last of the crates into the ditch, Darcy had managed to get the young woman to a seemingly abandoned cottage. One of the village's few inhabitants poked their heads outside of their sealed up house, beckoning for them to come inside.
"Quickly, before you get exposed even more!" the young woman hissed before quickly shutting the window and opening the door for the pair, with Fergus not that far behind. The trio entered the small house and closed the door behind them.
"Thank you so much…" Darcy said as he slowly eased the still-unconscious-body of the young woman onto a nearby bed. "No problem…" the older woman, who was most likely in her early 40's, sighed for a moment as she slowly sipped on a bottle of whiskey.
"You lads are IRA, right? I don't think many of the folk 'ere will tolerate you for long, so you better keep your nose clean, or we'll send you back to Belfast with those bombs of yours!"
"We'll help out as much we can around 'ere once the danger is over…" Fergus gave the woman a reassuring smile as Darcy continued to watch over the strange young woman.
"Good… Until the radiation has died down, help yourself to whatever's here, within moderation of course…" the woman gave Fergus a look as he sat down on a chair, thinking about what would greet them in the morning, if morning ever came.
For it was a brave new world, as September 26th 1983, was the day the world changed, for better, or for worse…