Geez we are LAZY! We neglect this fic soooo much! At least it's almost done and shit's about to get real!
Chapter 6
"You know, you really don't have to come with us everywhere we go." Astrid was saying to the nations as they walked to their bus stop.
"Yeah, I mean, even though no one can see you it's kinda overwhelming to have all of you following us everywhere we go." Artemis agreed.
Ever since the Nordic rescue, the nations had all been on edge about where 4Kids would strike next. They knew it was only a matter of time before they got discovered and they didn't want any harm to come to the siblings. They had been through enough and they didn't want to see any one of them be subjected to the torture that 4Kids would probably have in store for all of them.
As the bus opened its doors, Takonna, Wy, and Sealand all walked on at the same times. Regardless of Artemis and Astrid saying that they didn't have to follow them everywhere, Takonna had no problem with it. As the bus was going down the street, Astrid and Artemis had annoyed looks on their faces, as if something was bugging them.
Wy leaned over to Takonna's ear and whispered to him. "Is something bothering them? They seem to not want us around anymore."
Sealand sat there, listening to an MP3 Player he found on the street in Norway, completely oblivious to the conversation. Wy sat on the edge of her seat, pouting, as the raging sense of guilt was taking over Takonna.
At the next bus stop, Wy had had enough of the two girls' grumpiness. "That's it! I'm leaving!"
Takonna ran after her. "No! Wait!"
As she walked off of the bus, everybody seated was staring at him. Then he remembered that nobody could see the countries except for the three of them. He quietly sat back down, and started to nudge Sealand. He looked up with his convincing grin.
"What's wrong Takonna, you seem sad...where's Wy?" he asked.
"She left! She's angry! What if something happens to her out there?!" yelled Takonna.
Again, because nobody could see Sealand, the whole bus was staring at him. He sat back in his seat with a racing heart rate and an inferiority complex.
Artemis leaned over the seat to look at her brother. "I wanted to tell her, but I'm just nervous, seeing how quiet 4Kids has been. I feel bad now...maybe we should've gotten off with her. Maybe we could've...caught up to her or something." she said uncertainly, wincing as she accidentally sat down on her ankle. "Ow."
Takonna smiled a little, but still looked worried for Wy. "Listen, I can just ask the bus driver if he can stop the bus and get off. My school isn't very far from where we are right now, and I have a good idea of where Wy might've gone, okay?" Artemis said, smiling at her older brother.
Artemis hopped off the bus, telling the driver that she could walk the rest of the way, and found Wy sitting on the ground next to a familiar-looking Spaniard. "S-Spain?! Are you okay?" she asked, bending down, and lightly slapping him a couple of times.
"Romano? Is that you?" Spain asked, looking blearily up at Artemis.
"Um...no, but I do know Romano."
"You can see us? Who are you?"
"My name's Artemis. My older brother and sister can see you guys too. We've been saving and protecting you guys from 4Kids since about...last week."
Astrid managed to spot Artemis and Wy tending to Spain and quickly told Romano. Romano then squeezed out of the open bus window to join the two girls. Astrid then sent Artemis a quick text saying to take Spain home and tend to him and she would send an excuse to why she was late and/or not at school that day to the office. Artemis gave her the thumbs up when she got her sister's message, and asked Wy and Romano to help her support Spain. While the four of them walked towards the siblings' house, Artemis explained to Wy her reason for being edgy this morning, apologizing for her somewhat rude behavior.
The day passed very quickly and Astrid, followed by many nations walked towards the bus. Artemis hadn't shown up so Astrid forged an excuse note saying she was sick. As they walked towards the bus Astrid heard what sounded like a groan. She looked around until she noticed a familiar white beret on a blond head. She walked towards the figure who seemed to be leaning on his large gun. It was Switzerland.
"Big brother!" Liechtenstein cried as she ran towards the injured nation. He looked fine, except for his leg which was coated in fresh blood and looked very swollen.
"Are you alright?" Astrid asked, causing the nation's head to snap up,
"You can see me?" he asked, and Astrid nodded,
"I'll explain later; help him get on the bus." she told the other nations. Italy and Liechtenstein supported Switzerland as he hobbled onto the bus. Astrid was sitting alone today so she allowed Switzerland to sit next to her. After making sure no one was looking, she began to explain what had been happening this past week.
When they met up with Takonna and Artemis at the bus stop and got home, the siblings found six nations sprawled on the ground. Chibitalia and Chibi Romano were standing over them in worry. The siblings quickly identified them as Cuba, Belgium, Netherlands, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey; basically the rest of the characters that were missing.
"How did they find us?" Takonna wondered out loud.
"Oh! I flew my plane around this morning with a big neon banner on it telling the others where we were!" America said proudly.
Everyone sweatdropped and decided to just let it go and pray that 4Kids didn't see it.
The nations helped get them inside and into the basement where they immediately began tending to their wounds. Artemis had patched up Spain (who was busy pulling Romano AND Chibi Romano's cheeks much to their distaste) by that point and began to examine Switzerland's leg. Once everyone was patched up, everyone let them rest and just hung around the house for a bit. After a couple hours the nations were drawn into the computer room where the three siblings and the G8 plus Prussia, Romano, and Spain were sobbing like crazy watching HetaOni.
"God, this makes me cry every time!" Astrid cried as Artemis bawled into her shoulder.
"Ve? Why am I the one who has to be alone?!" Italy shouted, tears streaming down his face as well as Romano's.
"We're all dead?! Wait...now we're alive...now we're...wait...WHAT THE FUCK?!" Prussia said, watching with wide eyes.
"My poor little Romano had a heart attack or something! What's going to happen to him?!" Spain cried, clinging to Romano.
"What?! No! Italy CAN'T be dead!" Germany shouted with glassy eyes.
Takonna was awkwardly patting his sisters shoulders and trying not to cry. "...I did have something to say but now would be a bad time." he said, causing a couple people to laugh a little.
After a while, the video cut off and the beginning popped up again on the playlist, causing everyone to shout in protest and check for more videos. "NO EPISODE 17 PART 2?! YOU'VE GOTTA BE EFFIN' KIDDING ME!" America yelled, pounding his fist on the table and nearly breaking it.
"I want to find out if I stay blind forever or not!" was Britain's remark.
"Ve! I need to find out if I actually live or not! Or if we go through another time loop!" Italy said, wiping his tears off on his sleeve.
"What about me and Russia? What the hell were we going to do at the annex?!" China shouted.
"Dammit, Spain and I have gone back in time! How the hell are we supposed to get back?!" Romano yelled.
"AND WE'LL NEVER. KNOW. WHAT HAPPENED. TO. THE MOCHI!" Astrid exploded, pounding her fist with every word.
Everyone else was adding in their shouts of protest (Prussia adding remarks of how awesome he is), until Germany shouted for everyone to shut up, sending the Italies cowering with Artemis in a corner of the room. After everything calmed down everyone ate dinner and got ready for bed,
"Next we can show you guys HetaQuest and HetaHazard!" Astrid was saying, "They're not as sad but still pretty cool!"
"I like HetaQuest best because America and Italy are the main characters!" Artemis piped up. This caused America and Italy to smile and give each other a high five.
Just then, the siblings' parents walked in the door. "You're home early." Artemis noted, smiling broadly.
"Well, we have to go away tomorrow for the next week or so for a business trip. Astrid's in charge until we get back, okay?" their mom said, dragging their dad upstairs to pack. The siblings nodded in agreement.
When their parents were out of earshot, Artemis turned to her siblings and the nations, a Cheshire cat grin on her face. "Awesome! No parents!" she said, punching the air.
Little did they know that hidden on the wall was a small camera that recorded the whole conversation. The 4Kids staff smiled as they watched the screen as they began to set their next move into motion.
The next morning the siblings dragged themselves out of bed as quietly as they could so they wouldn't wake the nations. They had stayed up almost half the night watching all of HetaQuest, RomaHeta and HetaHazard and you have to admit, it can take a lot out of you. The three went to school and they had to admit, it was pretty boring without the nations around; but they looked forward to meeting them after school so they could spend their first parent-less day together since the entire cast of Hetalia were now safely at their house.
After school, Artemis started walking home, carelessly swinging her bag around. Since she reached her sister's bus stop before the bus arrived, she sat down on a bench and waited for her and Takonna to arrive. She didn't notice the man who walked up behind her. She felt a hand cover her mouth and struggled against her captor. By the time that her older siblings arrived at the bus stop, only her bag was left on the bench. "Arty? Where'd ya go?" Astrid asked, searching frantically around for her little sister. They looked for a few minutes until Takonna was yanked sharply by his arm and found himself struggling against two men with the 4Kids logo on their jackets and spotted another holding Artemis,
"Sis!" he managed to yell before a hand was clapped over his mouth. Astrid took off towards the sound, her big sister instincts screaming at her. She stopped in her tracks at the sight and clenched her fists,
"Let them go!" she yelled, but the men simply smiled and held a pistol to their heads, "Come with us, and we won't have any trouble," they said and that was all it took.
The siblings were forced into a van and blindfolded. They drove for a while until they were shoved out of the van. They walked for a while until they were sat down by their captors and the blindfolds were removed. Artemis moved closer to Astrid. "Sis? I'm scared." she said, eyes wide.
Astrid hugged her little sister gently, and gestured for Takonna to move closer before hugging him too. The three siblings sat there for a moment, before the door opened and several 4Kids men walked in, flanked by burly-looking security guards. One of the men knelt down so he was eye-level with the siblings. "We only want to ask you some questions. Cooperate with us, and there will be no trouble. Refuse to answer," one of the guards grabbed Artemis and held a gun to her head, "and there could be consequences." the man said, grinning malevolently.
Astrid and Takonna looked at the terrified expression on their sister's face before turning back to the man. "What do you need to know?" Takonna mumbled, glaring at him.
"Oh, just a few minor things, such as, oh I don't know, the whereabouts of the cast of Hetalia perhaps?"
The three siblings all looked at each other. They had two choices; tell 4Kids where the cast of Hetalia was and betray their new friends, or refuse to answer and face whatever torture they had coming for them. They looked at each other and nodded; they agreed that they had to be brave for their friends and they would get through this together. If they had to die, then they would do it together!
"Like hell we'll tell you anything," Astrid said crossing her arms and received a hard slap across the face.
"Leave her alone!" Artemis yelled, but the little girl only got a punch to the stomach. Takonna frowned and lunged at the guard but was punched hard in the face. Artemis was curled up in a ball on the ground while Takonna lay near her a bit dazed with blood dripping from his lip. Astrid clutched her stinging cheek and knelt down next to them to see if they were okay. The guards forced them to their feet and pointed a pistol at each of their heads,
"This you last chance! Tell us where they are!" one of the men screamed. The siblings swallowed every ounce of fear left in them and stared at the barrel of the guns with determined, unwavering eyes. They grasped each other's hands tightly as the men cocked the pistols,
"You have ten seconds..." the man said dangerously. The siblings nodded to each other, squeezed their eyes shut and tightened their grip as the count down to their demise began,
"Nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one..."
"WAIT! We could use them as bait for those fools from Hetalia!" somebody shouted, running into the room.
The men looked at their leader questioningly who thought about before smiling, "That's not a half bad idea...how long do you suppose something like that will take?"
"Not long..." a familiar German voice said.
The siblings eyes widened as they whirled around to find all the nations in the doorway with emotionless expressions,
"Let them go and never touch them again...and we'll go with you," America said.
"NO!" The siblings yelled,
"Forget about us!" Astrid yelled.
"We're not worth getting censored over!" Takonna agreed.
"Don't do this, please!" Artemis screamed, her eyes dotted with tears.
Italy walked forwards and hugged her tightly, "I'm sorry, it was my idea...we had to do this,"
"You're worth more than anything to us; it's the least we can do after all you've done for us," Britain said.
"You've done enough so don't come after us; we don't want to see any of you get hurt anymore," Japan said.
Astrid and Takonna stepped forwards slowly and hugged as many of them as they could before the guards yanked them away and dragged them out of the room crying, kicking and screaming while the nations watched them sadly. The kids were put into the van and dropped off at their bus stop.
"Do what your friends say and don't come after them; it'll be better for everyone," the driver said and drove off leaving the tear stained children on the sidewalk.
Artemis started running after the van, shouting words that would've had their mom sticking a bar of soap in her mouth. It didn't take long for Astrid and Takonna to join her before they all walked home and collapsed on their beds in tears. They cried all night long until they fell asleep.
The next day, they could hardly pay attention in school; how could they when their best friends were probably being tortured this very minute? When they got home from school they went back to their bedroom, remembered all the good times they had with the nations and the tears would start all over again.
"That's it! I'm not gonna let them go through any more of this!" Artemis finally shouted, getting up and running out of the bedroom. "We're going to save them, whether they like it or not."
Astrid wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled, "I was waiting for you to say that, it took you long enough,"
Takonna got up too and cleaned the tears off his glasses, "Fuck 4Kids' warnings; we're heading to 4Kids headquarters!" he said. The siblings ran to the basement where most of the nations stayed and found some anime guns and swords that they had left behind. They loaded up on weaponry and ran out to America's fighter plane that was still parked outside their house and Astrid hopped into the cockpit,
"Do your thing bro; where did they take 'em?" Astrid asked.
"They're in Pennsylvania, we got there by van remember?" Artemis said. Takonna whipped out his iPhone and got the GPS ready. He plugged in the location of the studio and handed it to Astrid who began to start up the plane,
"Uhh sis? You know how to fly this thing right?" Artemis asked.
Astrid hesitated and shrugged, "Wellllll...it can't be too hard right?" she said. After a bit of a shaky start Astrid managed to get the plane into the air. As they neared the studio, they got their weapons ready as well as a medical kit for when they got back; serious shit was about to go down and they were ready for anything!
...Well, except how to land the plane...
CLIFFHANGERS NOOOOOOOO!
The next chappie will be up VERY soon though!
I wish the nations WERE real so we could REALLY show them Hetaoni and all the other Heta-games! I think they'd really get a kick out of them! I can totally picture all of them crying their eyes out and being PISSED at Hetaoni for the sadness and it NOT BEING FINISHED! Maybe if the Hetalia people decide to make a movie out of it they'll make their own ending! THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN! I didn't really like 'Paint it White' all that much...
Speaking of Hetaoni me and artemis62699 are writing a Hetaoni fic as well with our OCs Astrid and Artemis in it. It won't be a sequel to this of course, it will be in the actual Hetalia-verse. If we actually get a good start on it I may post it.
Review!