Hey! Look at that! I updated :D !
Right... I'll try to do that faster next time... Anywho, Hetalia doesn't belong to me (Why God? WHYYYYY?! T.T) and thank you to anyone who endures reading this story! Especially the reviewers!
"For the last time," the girl said in a shaking yet determined voice "I am not Russia!"
The air in the room instantly turned cold in reaction to the young girl's voice, as if all the life of the world was being slowly sucked away. And that cold was nothing less than hostile, numb and sharp. A thin layer of frosted air crawled from the bottom of the conference room to the ceiling, trapping the countries and Irene in a crystal prison.
All the nations abruptly stood from their chair, allowing only a surprised gasp to escape their quivering lips. It was unspoken and yet so obvious that there was a greater being than them at work, an ancient entity, a powerful divinity. In front of such power, even America surprised himself in silence, frantically scanning the room for its source. Russia himself had paled considerably, he knew who it was, in fact most of them knew who it was, it was just so much harder to accept the fact he was coming to see them, to get them.
But Irene didn't spare a glance at the overwhelming change in temperature.
No, she kept her eyes on the dark mass that was taking shape in front of her, a ghastly image of the darkest of times.
Winter.
The man, if it could be called anything of the sort, was everything one would expect of Russia's worst nightmare and of the season of death. its face was sharp, its cheekbones and nose defined and crooked, its lips in a thin mockery of a smile, its skin void of colours, its hair white as its empire and its eyes mesmerising as a rose and yet just as painful to hold on to. Its black cloak floated around it like the night and moved with a mind of its own, surrounding the creature like a timeless shield.
It was there, facing the brunette whose presence seemed so insignificant now, armed to the teeth and protected like a King.
Come to me Russia.
Its voice was just as mysterious and painful as its appearance. It was just a simple whisper, not even loud enough for everyone to hear.
And yet, everyone had frozen on the spot, the disturbing ringing in their ears plaguing their thoughts.
The ghost slowly raised a skeletal hand and reached for Irene's hair, before putting them behind her ear, clearing her fearful face of any obstruction.
The girl flinched.
"I-I'm not Russia." She repeated, her voice as frightened as it could get "I'm Irene."
Lies.
"Privyet, Winter." Russia called, determined to shield his friend from that treacherous ally of his. "I'm here, da?"
Lies!
"It's true." Russia insisted, daring a step forward.
Lies! You are not alone, you are not suffering. Russia is.
All along, the General refused to turn its head away from the petrified girl. His burning ice blue eyes impaling her own emerald green ones with murderous intensity. He wasn't looking at her; he was looking in her, in her soul and in her heart.
Come to me, child of Kiev.
The creature wrapped its arms around the girl, drowning her in the darkness of its cloak. The girl threw a panic look at her friends, a silent plea for help before disappearing in the black material.
"Irene!" Hong Kong yelled, frantically running towards the ghastly man "Irene, don't-"
Bang.
Winter stumbled away from its previous position, grabbing its shoulder like it was searing with hot pain. He snapped up his head in indignation, insulted from the contestation of his royal authority.
Gun in hand and hand shaking like an earthquake, Irene stared back.
Hong Kong stopped in his tracks, taking in the situation. In a quick decision, he closed the small distance left between Irene and himself and peeled the gun out of her hands, carefully keeping an eye on the recuperating being.
Bang. Bang!
Twice he shot. Both hit Winter's head with acute precision.
However, that only fed the raging soul with anger. Its cloak started twisting and bending itself violently like a madman, displaying a deranged and frightful show of killing intent. Despite being made to look like ice, Winter's eyes lit up with a vengeful flame, burning his storm of emotions deep into the countries' skin.
"Dammit!" America swore "HK, 'Rene, fall back!" He motioned the door with his arms while running towards the crazed divinity in hopes of stopping it.
Germany was quick to follow him, dismissing all the chairs that were on his way "Do as America says, NOW!"
"I'll help to." Russia said, pulling his iron pipe from his coat "I know him better than any of you."
Click.
"That bastard won't know what hit him." Switzerland declared, his gun loaded and aiming at the ghastly being "No one interrupts our meetings."
"All those who feel like they can stand up against Winter stay here!" Finland ordered "The others help Irene escape."
Immediately, Canada grabbed Irene as America tossed her his way. The group separated in half: one flocked around the ghost while the others ran to the door, their heads stealing a last glimpse at their friends before trusting their backs to them. Irene seemed to be the only one reluctant to go, Hong Kong and Luxembourg had to push her away from the scene.
"Wait!" she cried "I'm not letting you all fight my battle! I can't let you get hurt li-"
"And what will you do?" Hong Kong snapped while opening the door "Slap him? I'm not blind, I saw with which arm you shot and you know very well it won't take another poke to render it useless! Winter is after you, as long as we get you to a safe place, he'll end up giving up."
"Take the next door to the right!" France instructed, running a bit behind to ensure Winter wasn't following "It seems the others are doing a pretty good job at holding him back."
"It's not a safe place I need." Irene muttered.
"What?" Hong Kong asked.
"It's not a safe place I need!" Irene repeated, glaring at him "I need to go home. Home, home not somewhere-in-this-world home!"
"Here!" Lichtenstein exclaimed as they finally reached the parking "Who goes where?"
"We'll have to separate to confuse him if he ever gets past the others." China hastily explained "Lichtenstein and Romania, you should go to the hospital to meet up with Iceland if that's where he is. Irene, go with France, Canada and Italy. You should reach Norway's house within three hours, his magic should keep you away from the General. Belgium, take Luxembourg and Sealand to your house. It'll take more time but at least you'll be away from all the trouble. Finally, Mongolia, you should drive Hong Kong and myself to the airport. We're going home, aru."
"I'm going with Liech and Romania to see Iceland." Hong Kong declared, contesting Irene's previous words with his eyes. The girl frowned.
"Too dangerous." China refused.
"No use talking to him." Romania sighed "Just get in my car and let's drive away before he can lecture us." He opened the door and slid in his car, inviting Hong Kong to do the same and smirking at China's offended expression.
"Hurry, Hong Kong!" Lichtenstein warned "There's no time to lose."
Hong Kong did as told and ignored the protesting China as he rushed in the car.
"Irène." France grabbed her shoulder "We should hurry as well."
Irene nodded.
To say the ride was tense would be an understatement. Tense was too small of an adjective for when the air turned to bricks and suffocated even countries.
Irene quickly became aware of her own breath in the silence. It had never seemed so loud before and yet it was now all she could hear. Could the others hear it too? That same shaky flow of air that irritated her ears? Irene tried to stabilize her breath; she hated having others know just how scared she really was, it made her seem weak. Ah, but her hands were shaking too. Could they see that? Hopefully not, or they would notice how she cradled her left arm, exploding with pain. It had never happened to her before, for her old wound to react in such way.
Maybe it was just punishing her for the crime she had committed.
The guilt was starting to flow in her. She stared at her left hand. It was definitely paler than usual - then again her whole body probably was - and yet she thought it looked black, black with sin. The gun - that revolting killing tool – had tainted it with its evil.
But she didn't mind that. She was actually proud of having defended herself, of having stood up for her life. Moreover, it wouldn't be the first time she'd have held a murderer in her hands. How many times had she gotten in trouble for lighting up fires? Too many to count. She knew the guilt of "attempted murder" more than anyone her age.
No, the real crime she had committed had nothing to do with all that.
That gun – the one meant to protect her - for a few seconds, dreadful seconds, had not been aimed at the General.
Irene shivered as she remembered the touch of the cold metal on her skull.
If Hong Kong hadn't yelled out her name…
"Irene?" Italy asked, a fake courage hiding the slight tremble in his voice "Are you okay? You've been staring at your hand for quite a while now."
Irene turned around and looked at the Italian. He seemed so much more afraid than she was, as pale as death and with tears drowning his warm brown eyes and yet he had the energy to put up a front. He smiled.
"I-I'm fine." She croaked, with a rusty voice that sounded like it hadn't been used in centuries. She couldn't even convince herself she was telling the truth.
Irene saw France frown in the rear mirror.
"No you're not." He refuted "Hong Kong was saying something about your arm when we were running, does it hurt?"
"Just a bit, don't wor-" Irene started.
"You're bleeding." Canada suddenly warned, twisting his body to see the girl who sat behind him.
Irene looked down and her left biceps was indeed vomiting blood in industrial quantities. The girl paled. How had she not felt the familiar warmth on her arm?
Her breath picked up speed.
"Oh God… Oh God, ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod…" She started chanting, fixing her eyes on the wound.
The blood simply wouldn't stop flowing, just like it did when she had been stuck in snow four years before and desperately calling for help. Immediately, she felt cold again. Was Winter catching up? Who was going to save her from the snow? Why was her mom not moving? Why could she only see white? And that pain, everywhere… Was she dead already? Would she die soon? She sure hoped so. Maybe death was better than that torture. Cold… So cold… Hopefully her brother was fine –
"Irene!" Canada cried as Italy slapped her out of her thoughts. "You are in a car, not in snow!"
Irene stared blankly at Italy, dumbfounded. It took time for her to take in her real surroundings, to realize what she had imagined was nothing more but a daydream of the past.
"Irène." France called, catching her attention with the French pronunciation of her name "What do you think of Hong Kong?"
"That's not the time for this papa!" Canada complained "She's in shock!"
"Best friend? Possible boyfriend?" France continued, glancing at the horror filled expression of the girl with a warm understanding look in his eyes.
"I-I…" Irene stuttered, unable to comprehend what he was asking of her.
"I personally like that kid a lot, especially since he troubled our dear England so much!" France smiled "He used to light firecrackers in the night, attempt to mow those forests of eyebrows of his, hide England's recipe books – though I'm sure that was more a question of survival than fun - , talk to me just to see him flip out… It sure was entertaining."
Irene continued staring at him in disbelief.
France sighed "So, really, what's your opinion on the boy?"
"H-He's nice I guess…" Irene muttered, feeling her heartbeat calm down.
"Nice?" France asked "I wasn't expecting that. You see, even though he always appears so mischievous and carpe diem oriented, there's a part of him that seems to be detached from the world, almost demeaning towards others. He usually never acts nice around people who aren't Iceland, Taiwan, Korea or Macau."
"But he taught me how to use a gun…" Irene said "And he listened to me when I called him early in the morning, he made sure I had the basic necessities, he got Iceland to help me, he agreed to make waffles with me, he always answered when I texted him…"
"Looks like he cares a lot for you then." France concluded, fixing his eyes on the dry road.
"But I hate him!" Irene replied, looking just as confused as the others "Whenever I set my mind on something, he just has to eat away my determination, to make me doubt myself! And he's always trying to look through me, almost like he's analysing my every movement, but I don't want to be seen, I don't want others to know how I feel! It's none of his business! The worst is, he doesn't even know the real me… He just doesn't know how hard it is for me too to make decisions like these!"
"Wait…" Canada halted "What decision?"
"I don't wanna go home either." Irene let out, looking into Canada's eyes like a lost child looking for an answer. "I don't wanna go back to that horrible place where everyone avoided me like the plague, where people bullied me just 'cause I didn't have the courage to stand up, where the teachers never bothered checking if I had problems just cause my grades were good, where I was completely alone, where all my friends were fake… He has no idea how many times I thought of committing suicide!"
"Then why are you trying to leave?" Italy asked, the fear in his eyes slowly being chased away by curiosity and concern.
"Because everything that's happening now is my fault!" Irene replied, her eyes begging for someone to tell her wrong "If I hadn't come here in the first place, the magic within me would never had unleashed, General Winter would never have grown so powerful, Norway and Denmark's wounds wouldn't be infected with whatever dark magic is in the air, Iceland wouldn't be considered a criminal by nine tenth of the whole world, Scotland and England wouldn't be working their ass off to find a way home…"
"But going home won't solve those problems." Canada cut off "What's done is done and frankly, by that same logic, it's England's fault, not yours."
"But Winter is after me." Irene insisted "And besides… It's not like I can live amongst countries, can I? I'm not even supposed to exist here; I have no passport, no residency in any country, no house… Plus, you guys don't have the time to take care of some random human girl, not to mention being near me means being Winter's target."
"I'm sure we can find a way around this!" Italy chirped.
"I'm not going to stay." Irene confirmed "I need to go home. Me being here just feels wrong. I'm not like you, I won't live forever! Once you get tired of me, you'll just abandon me too because I'm human, I'll grow old and I'm just another one in the crowd… You'll just… Home… Adrien is waiting home…"
The world turned black.
It was cold.
So cold Irene could swear her breath was ice.
However, she knew none of it was real. It was the same place again, the same empty space in which she had been spending quite a few dreams since she had arrived in the world. Did that mean she had fallen asleep? She couldn't remember. All her memory would allow her was recalling a frightening confusion and that sickening feeling of being drained of energy.
"Irène." A blurred figure called. From where she sat, in the cold plain of nothingness, Irene could barely distinguish the faint silhouette that stood right in front of her. However she knew it was someone she had seen before: she could only dream of people she knew… or General Winter. The way the person pronounced her name and the seemingly blond hair he/she had suggested it was France, but… She had seen him right before falling asleep, how could her memory of him be so fuzzy?
Unless…
Yes, that was it. General Winter's words had had more of an impact on her than they should have.
He had appeared multiple times in her dreams, calling her Russia and reaching to her. At first, she didn't believe anything he said; it was just a dream, she told herself. However, she quickly realized it was more than that, especially when the General's ghastly voice had stirred something that she had believed gone from her heart…
Hope.
It was horrible thing for him to do such thing. The fact that she had nothing left in her world was what enabled her to at least be happy in another. She didn't have to feel guilty for leaving nothing behind, she didn't have to worry for the nothing that cared for her, she didn't have to look back to see nothing! But now she had doubts. What if her loved ones weren't all gone forever? What if one of them was just waiting for her to find him? It was possible, completely against the odds but definitely possible.
After all, Adrien's corps had never been found.
And then it hit her. If countries who died ended up in her world, just like Kiev, wouldn't she do that too? She was technically in this other world now and apparently related to an ex-nation. Then she could finally go home and maybe – hopefully – meet up with Adrien.
It wasn't just hope anymore, she was sure of it. He was alive. How could he not be? He was even standing right in front of her! Sure he was blurry, but she hadn't seen him in four years.
She had to go home.
Using any means necessary.
"Holy shit! What happened to her?" Hong Kong's voice suddenly echoed in her dream.
"She's suffering from blood loss and we can't get her to the hospital with General Winter around." France's voice answered.
Huh? Her dreams weren't usually interrupted by other random voices. Irene turned back her attention to the wavering silhouette.
"Calm down." England's voice ordered "I know we're pretty much under siege but panicking won't bring us anywhere."
Unfortunately for Irene, the figure seemed to be disappearing slowly.
"England?" Iceland's voice asked "Weren't you helping the others fight the General ?"
"Unfortunately," England answered "He escaped us almost immediately after you left. We all headed here right after; the others are in the basement looking for useful things to keep him away."
Actually, the whole dream seemed to fade away, despite the girl's effort to keep it in her grasp.
"Hey, she's opening her eyes!" Hong Kong exclaimed. "Irene! You okay?"
"Irene!" he repeated.
Hong Kong, Iceland, England, France and Italy were peering over couch Irene was lying on.
"Where…?" Irene started asking, while attempting to sit up. Immediately, she felt the blood in her head twist and her vision blur again.
"Don't get up to fast." France warned, a bit late. "You're in Norway's house; it seems it has a defence mechanism against Winter. How are you feeling?"
"Cold." Irene deadpanned "And my arm hurts. And my head hurts. And I have trouble focusing on your face… Unless you guys actually cloned yourself three times, in which case I congratulate you."
Hong Kong let out a sigh of relief "Looks like she's fine." He smirked.
Irene made a second attempt at sitting up, this time slower and with the help of Italy. "So what's the plan?" she asked.
"Well everyone's rummaging through Norway's basement to find something that might help and Scott's found a way to bring you back home." England answered "We think it's safer to let you head back before dealing with him." He then added, not looking very convinced at his own words. Actually, and even though Irene was too dizzy to make sure, it was almost as if England was saying those words sarcastically, like he was against them as well.
"Wait – What?" Hong Kong stuttered.
"Really?" Irene questioned her eyes full of hope.
"It's pretty simple," England continued "We just modified the spell I used to bring you here a bit."
"You mean the one with all the yaoi, lemon, fandom and all those kind of words written on the floor?" Irene asked before laughing at the country's blush "Oh God, you checked what they meant, didn't you?"
"Japan proved to be quite knowledgeable about that kind of vocabulary." England explained dismissively "However, before sending you off to God knows what forsaken place your world is, I'd like to ask you a few questions." The girl nodded "First of all, what do you think of this world?"
Irene was taken aback. She was expecting questions that related to her mother or to how she ended up where she was, definitely not about how she felt. As a matter of fact, why was everyone asking about how she felt? First Hong Kong, then France and now England? Ridiculous. No one really cared for what she thought. No one ever did.
On the other hand, there was no way she could just ignore the question simply because she didn't trust its genuineness.
"It's great." Irene replied with sincerity "I mean, even though everything is much more serious with all the wars and all that, everyone has a really distinct personality so you always find someone to spend time with. Back in my world, people always try to be the perfect model of what society thinks is normal and anyone who doesn't fit the criterias… Well, they get shunned, bullied, hurt, avoided…"
"You speak from experience." England stated "Do you really want to go back to that kind of world?"
Irene frowned "What's with everyone wanting me to say I hate my world?"
"England." Scotland, who had just walked in from the basement called with an underlying threat "What did we say about mothers already?"
England muttered a curse under his breath "Fine! Fine. You win. Let's get this over with."
"She's leaving now?" Hong Kong asked.
"The earlier the better before England whimpers out." Scotland growled.
Irene's eyes then caught on to a line of white chalk on the floor. A line that seemed to circle the couch with intricate hand-written words all around it and a huge star inside… It looked exactly like the kind of circle used to summon Satan.
The line started shinning.