Hello people of the Hetalia fandom! I have been trying to write as much as I could but for once I actually had no time.
So here's a chapter... Where things start to actually make sense :D

Hetalia does not belong to me

"We shall shortly decide on Iceland's fate... or in this case, probably death."

A funeral silence fell upon the room as every country took in the importance of the meeting. It was one thing to talk about financial or ecological problems but it was a whole other thing to discuss a country's life.

"I must however reveal that…" England gritted his teeth and threw a piercing glare at his brother, Scotland, who motioned for him to go on from the first row "That I believe Iceland is innocent."

The reaction was instantaneous. Indignant roars of opposing nations burst out from every row, many even stood up in belief they would be heard over the others. The whole room shook from the storm of complaints and the air that seemed so still, so paralyzed just moments ago, became white as sheets of papers were thrown around by rage-filled countries.

"He killed two of us! KILLED! How dare you defend him!" one yelled.

"Human witnesses have said so! Will you just ignore that? I say we replace England!" another one shouted.

"Hear him out dammit! We're countries, not a bunch of three years old fighting over the sandpit!" A third voice reasoned.

All were spoken but none heard. Less than a minute in the meeting and things were already turning chaotic.

"SILENCE!" England yelled, bashing his fist on the stand. Everyone calmed down, aware they would get no further with shouts and screams.
"I had first blamed Iceland because the trace of magic on his brother and Denmark's bodies but it seems I was wrong. It is not his."

Macau stood up, earning his right to speak.
"With all due respect, you cannot possibly ask of us to believe in this nonsense. Magic does not exist and it cannot – it will not be used as proof in this tribunal." A few nations muttered in agreement.

England kept his cool.
"If magic did not exist, how do you explain the presence of that young lady there?" he smiled. He gestured towards the far left side where a brunette sat on the back, next to a tall intimidating man.

Macau scoffed with pity.
"Honestly, for all we know she's just a random teenager pretending to be from another world." The Chinese nation shrugged "Or she could be completely schizophrenic. Either ways, even if we do humour you with her, she does not prove the existence of anything. This is a country's fate we are deciding on, not a stupid game. If you're not taking it seriously, I'm leaving, along with a few others it seems."

England grimaced. It was no easy feat to get people to believe in magic.
"I've been a child until last night, when my brother managed to turn me back. Hopefully you can explain this too without magic? Are we all schizophrenic and delusional or something? Or have doctors popped in and put us under some drugs?"

Macau bit back a remark and shook his head in defeat. Nonetheless, England's win was not made for so much as Bulgaria stood up instead.
"Our anatomy, our physical appearance is far from understood." The European nation declared "The current human knowledge does not allow us to figure our own bodies out. Some nations look older than those older than them, some nations change when something happens in them… You becoming a kid may just be one of those times. Perhaps a group of young Englishmen gathered enough strength to influence your politics and finally crumbled to pieces last night."

"Don't you think I'd have noticed that?" England asked in disbelief.

Bulgaria sighed "Not if you want us to believe in magic."

Ireland shot up, fist ready to attack "I may not be the most caring brother in the world but I will not stand down if you dare imply England's been manipulating everyone!"

"Ireland!" England called "Thank you, but please act as a country today not as a brother." He remained strict and stiff on the outside but a thankful twinkle in his eyes tamed Ireland into sitting back down.
"Bulgaria's words are justified." He spit out.

"Don't you think it's weird?" Romania spoke up "Centuries ago, we would have gladly killed all our fellow nations to appease our gods or the spirits of nature. Nowadays, no matter how much magic is demonstrated before us, we need science to prove everything, even when it can't."
The vampire-like nation smirked "What I find really interesting though, is what made you really change your mind England."

The Englishman paled.
"I already told you," he stuttered "The magic traces I found were-"

"The book, Romania," Scotland cut in "The book made us change our minds."
The redhead nation glanced at the human girl, who nodded in return.
"But that shall be discussed later, between those involved only."

Romania smiled and sat back down.

"This whole mess is a joke." Belarus spoke up, capturing everyone's attention with just her strong presence. "Iceland has committed a crime. He needs to be killed. I'll chase him down myself and slit his throat if no one takes action."
As to illustrate her words, Belarus twirled her pen once in her hand before gripping it like a knife.

"Iceland would never kill Norway or Denmark!" Finland growled. All nations around him scooted away with the exception of Sweden. Finland had always been a calm and soothing person but all knew he was just as bad as Russia when angered.

"Iceland is a nation." Belarus replied, glaring right into Finland's eyes "Like all of us, he will follow his people's will. No matter how much the boy loved his family, if Icelanders hated Norwegians and Danes he would try to kill them. Or are you implying his desires and his country's are different? In that case he is even more dangerous than we thought. The day will come where he'll disregard everything and start wars on a whim."

"That's ridiculous, sister." Russia refuted, to everyone's surprise. The Russian man wasn't very well known for talking during meetings even less for talking to his sisters. "Iceland is Iceland."

America stood up.

When America and Russia exchanged words, it was never a good thing. The conversation usually turned sour and violent, to the point where countries came to fear such interactions.
Once again, as the two powerful entities stared at each other, their fellow nations braced themselves in a tense silence. Stubborn enemies like these usually argued for the sake of arguing.

"I agree with Russia." He said, frowning as the words felt unfamiliar on his lips. "I mean seriously, I don't understand why you're all so eager to kill the dude but look at it from our point of view: you have no more proof of him having killed Den and Nor than we do of his innocence!"

"Have you not been listening?" Cuba spat "Humans have testified against him, eyewitnesses!"

"And the magic traces indicate Iceland is innocent." America insisted "I don't see why we believe the words of one or two humans and not those of a dozen countries! What? Our opinions don't count anymore?"

"Even if magic were at work," Estonia pointed out "Iceland is still a runaway. If he really was innocent, he would not be that afraid of showing his face."

"You can't just stay there and do nothing once you've seen your brother get impaled by a car piece!" The human girl cried, looking almost outraged "Death is scary! No one in their right mind would stay next to a corps."

"Yeah, I'm sure you've seen many people die." North Korea scoffed.

Irene bit her lips, holding back either anger or tears "Once is enough."

"My, my" North Korea continued mocking "Poor little girl has seen grandma die… Iceland is a country, young lady, he knows death, he's been raised by death."

"Not by the death of his own brother." Irene replied bitterly "Not by the death of someone he thought would always be by his side."

"I do not approve of a human child influencing the meeting." Belarus immediately spat out, narrowing her eyes at the almost non-existent distant that separated said human from her brother "This is international justice. A young mind like her cannot possibly make right decisions."

"I think a mind like hers can do just fine." Scotland spoke up "Right now, and that I can assure you, Irene has the mindset closer to Iceland's."

"Yeah, that's – wait, what?" America started before throwing a questioning glance at the Scott.

Scotland replied with a similar look "… I thought you knew about what the book said. That is the only explanation for you defending Iceland despite Russia being on his side."

"Uh… What book?" America asked "I was just asked by Norway to help his little bro. All I know about is that Prussia has something to do with this whole mess."

All the countries instantly turned to Prussia, except for Romania who whispered "the spell book you idiot!" to America.

"Mein Gott, Gilbert," Germany asked, exasperation and anger in his voice "Just what did you do this time? Tell me you didn't kill Norway and Denmark."

"I didn't!" Prussia defended himself "I swear I never laid a hand on them! I have no idea what they are talking about!"

"We're talking about Kiev's death." Romania answered, his tone defying Prussia to deny it.

And then realisation dawned on the albino's face. It couldn't have been more obvious; with the attention of all the nations on him, his red eyes turned wide and his mouth gaped open like that of a fish. "How do you know anything about that?" he asked, ignoring everyone's inquiring glances.

"Mongolia has like this huge painting in his house about her death and you're on it." America answered "And apparently Norway's last words to his brother were about Prussia."

Romania facepalmed. And just as his did, the feared reactions of the quick of the mind erupted.

"How the hell do you know what my ceiling looks like?" Mongolia exclaimed, shooting up as fast as a rocket.

Switzerland followed "That's not the problem, why do you know about Norway's last words to his brother?"

"You're his accomplice." Mongolia deduced paling from the shock "Iceland has managed to get the world's superpower to be an accomplice of his."

"What? Pfffff, no!" America laughed sending help signals with his eyes to Finland "I would never do such thing! Hey, did you guys hear about the horse meat?"

The Finnish man sighed and stood up. He took on the glare he was famous for and dug his stare into every single pair of eyes he could see in the room "You know what? There's no point in hiding it anymore. Yes, we know where Iceland is and we've talked to him. Also, we may have been investigating a complete different case, but not an unrelated one: the mysterious past of Kievan Rus. If you don't believe me, hack into Norge's computer; I'm sure you'll see how hard he's been working on the exact same problem. And that woman's past seems to have an unwritten side, especially concerning the Golden Horde. Am I wrong Mongolia?"

Mongolia sat back down in thoughts "No, but… There is no connection between my grandfather's old legend and Norway's current state… and it's a legend anyways! These things aren't meant to be true!"

Finland smirked "So there is a legend?"

Mongolia's eyes widened "What? You didn't - ?" the man sighed in defeat "Fine, fine, I'll humour you. So, the legend goes like this;…"

"Stop!" Germany shouted "We're not here to listen to some tale or whateve-"

"Yes, Germany?" Finland's smile somehow forced Germany's mouth to shut tight.

Mongolia shook his head and resumed: "Apparently my grandfather, the Golden Horde as you all know him, and Kievan Rus were not exactly the best of friends… Yeah, they absolutely couldn't stand each other. Though it was obvious the Golden Horde was much more powerful, Kiev fought and fought stubbornly, delaying my grandfather's victory. So, angered, he cursed her. It wasn't a simple curse however; it was more like imposing on her a never-ending torment, one that would follow her blood to her kids… Or in this case kid, Russia. It said that forever General Winter would torture her and isolate her, that she would never be able to be with her loved ones, that she would be alone and that her heart and mind would crumble because of it. Kievan Rus never really had to live with it though, she died two weeks later. On the other hand…" he glanced at Russia, surprised to see him stunned. "I guess you weren't so lucky."

"No… No, that's not the end of it." Prussia continued, taken in by the pace "Kievan Rus did something. She wasn't going to allow her kid to suffer for her… She did something to anger General Winter even more. Those few days before she died when endless snowstorms especially within her dying empire." Prussia clenched his fist and waved his hand in dismiss "Nevermind."

"No! Not never mind!" Irene cried, over reacting to his dismissal "This may be important!"

"Whoah! Calm down!"Prussia replied, "What's gotten into you?"

Scotland answered for her and to her with a grin "You've figured out the link between this and yourself, haven't you?"

"But it doesn't make sense." Irene said, a blank look on her face "It's just not possible. Why me? How? I'm from a different world, I have a family there… How can I be related to this?"

"What exactly did you figure out?" America asked.

"If you're seriously talking about this, I'm leaving." Macau declared.

Iceland's defenders exchanged a guilty look, but refused to delay the conversation further.
"From what I understand, some of you have found a different source of information." Scotland continued "We'll have to share if we want to get anywhere."

In response, most of the countries and the presidents shook their heads in disappointment, gathered their notes and left, bitter anger hanging in the air. The only ones to stay sitting were the United Kingdom, the Nordics, the German brothers, Hungary, Irene, Hong Kong, Russia, America, Romania, China, Mongolia, Northern Italy, Canada, France, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the Benelux siblings.
They all waited for the shuffling to stop and for the door to close to resume.

"Since we're all here now, we might as well get along with it." Mongolia sighed.

"Can we start? Can we start?" America asked, raising his hand in the air like an overexcited child.

England face palmed "Just say what you have to say, git."

"Thanks mom." America chirped "Anywho, apparently Irene brought some kind of dark magic with her from her world and it's probably gonna destroy everything. So to stop it, Norge gathered me, Ice and Romania and we set out to find out how to stop it by following the magic's origin! But then Ice and Norge got in a car crash, along with Den's car and we had to go to Mongolia without Norway. There we saw the amazingly awesome painting which by the way must have taken an extremely talented artist that could only have been Mongolian-"

"Flattery will not change the fact you broke into my house." Mongolia deadpanned.

"- Right. So the painting had Kievan getting beaten, Russia watching, Prussia watching and the Golden Horde being all like 'look I'm fabulous!' and then we got back, thinking we could stalk Prussia to find out more."

"… That's it?" Switzerland asked.

Romania shrugged "What else could we do? So, what's in the spell book?"

"It's basically Irene's biography." Scotland earnestly answered. "But what's really weird is that all the chapters of her life are entitled with an event of Kievan Rus' history… My guess is that Irene is some kind of reincarnation of Kiev."

"Does that make her Russia's mom?" Northern Italy asked.

…

"No." everyone answered, considerably paling at the thought.

"No… I think I might have an idea but…" Prussia allowed his red eyes to wander around his shoes "It would mean that Kiev has toyed with something that shouldn't be toyed with and frankly, I'm not even allowed to tell you anything about that. However, we definitely can't let things be." He shuffled into his pockets to take out a small book entitled 'Diary of an awesome kid'. He then took out a small piece of paper that seemed centuries old and stood up, before making his way to Irene, handing her the drawing "Do you perhaps recognize this person?"

Irene looked up and instantly froze. She raised her head mechanically, her eyes begging for an answer for the albino.

The man swore under his breath "I guessed so." He muttered "This drawing is of Kievan Rus."

"That's not possible!" Irene immediately denied "That – She – She's not a country…"

"You knew Kievan Rus?" Finland asked.

"No!" Irene answered "It's just that she looks exactly like someone from my world."

"Not anyone." Prussia continued "She looks like someone from your family… Or there's no way you'd have inherited the curse."

"Okay, that's it." France decided "What do you know Prussia?"

"Before dying, Kiev asked for an additional week to her life." Prussia explained "It's probably then that she came up with a scheme to free Russia from loneliness… And that scheme was to fight loneliness with loneliness, but someone else's. Being in another world, it's obvious the kids she'd had would also be subject to the curse. The real bet of this was that Kiev had no way of knowing whether by going from a world to another, the curse would break… Lucky for her, it did. Less lucky, the magic from the curse is now spread all over the world."

"That makes sense." Germany said, in awe from seeing his brother say sensible things.

"How do you know all this though?" Canada asked.

Prussia sighed "There's a reason I'm still not dead despite changing so many times of name and of people."

"Does that mean Kiev never died in this world?" Romania asked.

"No." Prussia replied "When a country dies, it doesn't just disappear. It goes live in a parallel world where any form of magic does not exist… Kiev knew that, I told her."

"So to make it short," Hungary said "Kiev was about to die, so she created this spell book that would bring her descendant from the other world here to make sure Russia wouldn't be alone?"

"Well, technically, it worked." China concluded "I've never seen Russia this surrounded or at ease."

"Da," Russia smiled "Thank you Ire – Irene?"

The girl was as still as a statue, staring at the opposite wall. Her green eyes seemed to be on alert and she herself had not seemed to notice her crisped fingers were clawing the table in front of her.
And suddenly, everyone could hear what frightened her.

You're mine, Russia…

"For the last time," the girl said in a shaking yet determined voice "I am not Russia!"