Italy, Germany, Romano and the young girl returned to the conference room only a few minutes later. Germany's face paled as he read the atmosphere; it being the same as when Korea had fallen. He scanned the room for missing individuals, and his heart dropped when he realized the Brit was missing.
"Hey, Germany, what's wrong?" Italy asked, completely unaware of the situations they had just encountered. "Is it because you are all hungry?"
America looked up at the Italian from his spot at the table, his eyes bloodshot and puffy, before his eyes drifted to the girl. The blue eyes narrowed.
"Why is a human here?" He hissed under his breath, to which the young girl half-cowered in fear. Italy limped over to the girl after breaking from the German's gasp as he held her close.
"It's okay, bambina, they won't hurt you!" Italy trilled.
"And why are you hugging it?!" America demanded. Japan walked beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder as he looked at the American in the eyes.
"If she was against us I am very sure Germany-Kun would not have brought her here."
"Ja, actually, she's an ally," Germany interjected, looking at the hurt and heartbroken America infront of him. Germany felt an empty feeling in his stomach. Was it because he was hungry? No. It was the feeling he got each time a nation fell.
Each time his friends fell.
"Germany, why is it so quiet?" Italy whispered to the German, his eyes blinking innocently as he continued to comfort the young girl.
"We'll discuss it later," Germany murmured, before sitting himself at the dining room. Many eyes placed themselves on him as he repeated the account of what happened; finding Italy, the girl's origins and how she got here, and the whole thing about the land, which, to Germany's surprise, the other nations already knew about.
Afterwards, a silence spread across the room before Russia stood.
"What about the other nations who did not make it to the meeting?" Russia inquired. "Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Norway and Egypt?"
"I got a message from Poland earlier," Lithuania piped up. "He's arriving with the Nordic nations in three hours."
"Good," Germany said in approval, before he froze. "Mein Gott…"
"What?" Latvia asked, suddenly concerned.
"The Netherlands…" Germany trailed off, worry evident in his tone. "He was here, but when we split off into teams, he wasn't there."
"So much happened he must have gone and we did not realise!" Hungary said, her voice fearful.
"We must find The Netherlands!" Japan insisted. "No nation is left behind!"
"I second that, aru!" China agreed, nodding.
"Alright, who is willing to go?"
Many people went to stand, but four people stood before any others had a chance.
"We will go," Belarus stated, clutching her knife close by.
"We want to do something productive, too," Hungary spoke loudly and confidently.
"I want to help everyone, like big brother has!" Liechenstein shyly trilled.
"I will go too, to show big brother how tough I can be, just like him!" Ukraine announced, beaming.
"Absolutely not!" Switzerland yelled, looking at his sister. "I will not let you go out of this room!"
"Why not?" Liechenstein timidly asked back. "Is it because I'm a girl, brother?"
"That's exactly why! Because you're too young and fragile."
"Excuse me!" Hungary butted in. "We're not young nor fragile!"
"Just let us do this!" Belarus shouted over the din. "Let us do something worthwhile, and then we'll promise to just stay here again, quietly, without a fuss."
There was a pause.
"You better come back, da?" Russia said quietly.
Switzerland watched as his sister walked away with the girls, reaching out to try and grab her away before a hand rested on his arm, pulling it down.
"Let them go," Estonia said quietly. "Let them help."
And with that, the most torturous two hours began for Switzerland.
"And then I said, 'I am awesome!', and he ran away screaming like a girl!" Prussia said, chortling. France and Spain rolled their eyes, wishing for a little peace and quiet before they all stopped, hearing a clatter from behind them.
"Uhm, guys, what was that?" Spain asked.
"I don't know," France whispered back.
Footsteps.
As they got closer, the grips on their weapons tightened. Hearts thundering, breath becoming heavier and heavier before the sight of a blonde man with spiky hair walked around the corner, eyebrows raised as a bullet flew over his left shoulder. The Netherlands stood there, looking boredly at the group.
"What was that for?" He asked, peeved.
"We thought you were a human," France said, his tone dull as he calmed down. "Anyway, where have you been you stupid boy?"
"For your information, I was contacting a few more nations."
"Such as?"
"Cuba, Monaco, Taiwan, Hong Kong," The Netherlands said boredly. "I told them not to come, because they said their land was safe and stable. I heard the whole land thing from a girl I ran into earlier."
"A girl?" Prussia asked, eyebrows raised.
"Yeah. She was asking where Italy was, so I told her Italy was with the Axis, at the back door entrance," The Netherlands explained tiredly. "I saw her as no threat, so when she ran off I didn't kill her. Plus, I hadn't got a weapon, so…"
"You missed a lot of things. South Korea is lost," Spain said weakly.
The Netherlands gave them a look of disbelief, "you have to be kidding me…"
"Sorry," France muttered.
The Netherlands sighed.
"Anyway, let's get the awesome us back so we can check on everyone!" Prussia decided, walking back to the conference room. "We didn't find Italy for now, but we found this idiot! We'll set back out after a bite to eat!"
They all rolled their eyes and sighed as they followed the red-eyed former nation.
Hungary trotted merrily along, quite happy to actually be allowed to be helpful and useful. She knew that Prussia would not be pleased about this, but Prussia wasn't involved in the agreement, so therefore she was not going to worry about him and his thoughts on the idea.
She glanced back at Liechtenstein who seemed happy enough to tag along, but Hungary saw the hurt look in her eyes. She never wanted to hurt or disobey her brother, but also she did not want to rely on the other nations like she always seemed to do. She was content to be helping with a mission and to contribute to maybe saving a life of a friend.
Meanwhile, Belarus and Ukraine were arguing about weapons and guns; Belarus insisting she was fine with a knife while Ukraine tried to make her grab a pistol.
"I'm fine, sister!" Belarus whined, pouting.
"Russia would be very angry if you didn't come back because you were an idiot and didn't take a gun."
"But maybe he'd notice me more if I returned alive with just a knife!"
"Or he'd just think you were stupid."
Belarus sighed in defeat, ending the argument.
"Do you think he'll be alright?" Hungary finally asked, referring to the Netherlands.
" Of-course," Ukraine assured her. "You know what he's like. He probably wondered off, found his own genius way to assist the group and planned to make a dramatic entrance back into the conference room."
"Perhaps," Hungary agreed, nodding. "But we need to find him. It's been twenty minutes, and we're running out of options where he could be."
"We'll keep looking until we find him, then?" Liechtenstein questioned.
"Indeed," Belarus confirmed determinedly.
Italy sat against the wall, Rosa sat on his lap as she listened intently to a story he was telling. Romano listened also, perched beside his brother while writing something, pretending to be unaware of the storytelling, but he often glanced at his younger brother when the tale got interesting. Germany watched the Italian make many hand gestures, funny noises and stupid faces as the girl giggled and laughed at the ridiculous show he was playing, while even Romano found them mildly amusing. It was obvious Italy was good with children, and Germany felt himself smiling at the scene.
A hand suddenly touched his shoulder, and Germany turned to see Japan, who in turn sat next to him. They both watched Italy and the girl, before Japan smiled at Germany and began to reminisce,
"Do you remember the old days?"
"Oh, ja," Germany said, racking his brains. "When we just used to fight amongst ourselves?"
"Hai. I suppose," Japan said breezily. "But mostly I miss the period of about 2014 to 2021. Do you remember? We had the Christmas parties in a different house each year."
"Ja!" Germany said, suddenly remembering and grinning at the memories. "You hosted the first one, then America, then France, then I did, then Italy, The British Brothers and finally China."
"It was a lot of fun, wasn't it?"
Germany nodded in reply, his drift gazing to the American, who sat at the table, his eyes empty of feeling or emotion. He hadn't lost a very close friend yet, such as Italy, Japan or even his own brother, but he did not wish to experience the pain America was going through.
He could not imagine losing his brother and then his best friend.
China and Russia were chatting concernedly about the girls while the former Baltic states were continuing the preparation of food. Finland was reading a discarded book he had found in a room and Greece was petting one of the cats he brought along. Turkey was busying himself by sharpening his sword.
Then, the doors swung open, revealing the Bad Friends Trio and a bored-looking Netherlands, who strolled in casually.
"Where did you think you were going?!" Germany yelled.
"I was tired of hearing the same thing over and over," The Netherlands said, agitated. "So I left about ten minutes after I arrived. Where's my sister?"
Silence.
Germany had forgotten that the announcement of his Sister's situation had happened after The Netherlands had left.
"Hello? I asked you all a question."
"Belgium…has gone," Russia announced, loudly but gently.
The Netherlands took a while to process this, before tears pricked at his eyes and he started shaking.
"Oh, so, two more of us have fallen? Is that it?"
"Australia..." Lithuania gently said, his voice full of sympathy. "He's gone too."
"Okay," The Netherlands said, his voice shaking. "That's it, hm?"
"And England, aru," China said, his voice grave.
"I—Belgi—Can we open a window in here?" The Netherlands choked out, feeling his face go warm in both anger, grief and confusion.
So many cannot have died while he was away, surely? Was it somehow his fault? Could he have stopped it if he had stayed?
"Netherlands, it's okay," France said, a little comfortingly. "Everything will be fine."
"But it won't will it?!" The Netherlands finally snapped, looking around angrily. "We're dying! We're being plucked off one by one! Even my sister...! Oh God, Belgium..."
His loud voice startled both Rosa and Italy, who had gone silent in the corner of the room as they both watched fearfully at the scene. Germany glanced over, noticing tears in Italy's eyes. Romano looked at his brother, tearing away from his writing, watching his brother's reaction with sadness in his eyes.
Germany had forgotten. He knew Italy hadn't found out about the deaths of his fellow nations, yet he hadn't yet been informed.
Everyone stared at The Netherlands before an argument became full swing. Half of the room were reluctantly agreeing with The Netherlands, saying they should focus on protecting the humans, while the other half contested by saying they should continue trying to survive. After a while, Germany joined the fray, trying to split up the arguments and conflicts the nations were having with each other.
Now was not the time to half wars amongst themselves!
And then, everyone went silent on impulse, waiting. Germany frowned, wondering why everyone had stopped before he realized.
America should have said something by now…
The American stayed silent, his eyes not even looking at his friends and fellow nations as Japan addressed him,
"What do you think, America?"
A long, hesitant pause.
"We should just give up," He whispered.
"What?!" Turkey asked, his eyes full of disbelief.
The American stayed silent.
Everyone stayed silent.
But one.
"Ve~! I have an idea!" A certain Italian chirped, while Romano sighed as his little brother stood on the conference room desk.
"And what is that?" Estonia asked harshly, most nations nodding in agreement to the firm tone used against the Italian's crazy antics.
"We should get out of here, and then fix the land!" Italy cried, beaming. "Because then that way, the land will be happy, the people will be happy, and so everyone will come back happy, si?"
Everyone looked at him, their eyes widened in either shock or disbelief.
"Would that… work?" The American asked, his eyes showing a gleam of hope.
"Ve~! I don't know! But they all said the land is also their life, right? So if we fix the land, we can fix them up all better too!"
"Wow, Italy," Germany said, stunned. "I didn't know you actually had decent plans in that mind of yours!"
"I thought of it while telling Rosa a story!" Italy trilled, happily. "I mean, they pieced Humpty-Dumpty back together, right? That's what England said!"
"No they didn't, but that idea is beautiful!" France exclaimed, running and hugging the Italian. "Oh, you're so grown up and smart, little Italy!"
"I really hope it works," America breathed. "It should do, right? If they were hurt and killed when their land was, or vice versa, surely it would work the other way around?"
"It's definitely a possibility," Finland said, hope gracing his voice. "It's logical!"
"Maybe that was what Korea was trying to tell us, aru!" China stated loudly.
"Yes, that may be so, but to bring the mood down a little bit," Russia rang out across the room as excited voices died down. "We cannot be stupid and think we're invincible, da? There's only a possibility this will work, so don't be reckless."
Everyone nodded, the mood indeed brought down.
Switzerland then stood, his voice encased in rage, "Haven't you all noticed the girls are still gone looking for the idiot which is The Netherlands?!"
"Shit! I forgot about that!" Germany cursed. His eyes drifted to his brother, who was stunned.
"Ja, where is Hungary?" Prussia asked, a little fearful.
Then, they heard the scream.
A/N: Thought I'd leave it there, makes a beautiful cliffhanger :D !
Haha, anyway, I did a longer chapter while I still had the inspiration and non-writers-block for it, so if it's too long, I apologize.
I'm getting a little confused about characters, so if some seem to not speak or be there during a scene, just imagine them sat around, nodding and agreeing the the appropiate sides.
Also, it's hard to include all the characters, so if it seems a little confusing to who is speaking at what time, again, I apologize. I'm just trying to give each character an equal part.
That issue will be fixed soon, though!
More reviews = Less time between chapter uploading!
Thankyou to all the reviews and follows so far!~