((Warning: contains yaoi, violence and the occasional smut. If you don't like it, don't read it. I'm glad people have been reading this and like it. This last chapter took much longer because I didn't know what to write for the longest time. So thanks for being patient! Also a thanks to my lovely editor Alex, the super fan-girl.))

Ludwig sat, miles above where the battle had taken place, his filthy feet soaking in the cooled river water as his canteen filled in the gentle current. He watched it bob up and down in the water, shiny from the water that covered it, and tried to get Elizaveta's face out of his mind. Her face was still frozen in a mask of fear and something else…Betrayal maybe? But he wasn't sure. The river water had bloated her face a little, the fight had not been long ago, and the heat had taken its toll.

He lay back and sighed quietly, wiggling his toes in the water, flinging little droplets of water onto his green trousers. He tried to think, and not to think. Nothing helped, he closed his eyes and let his mind wander; he thought of the past mainly, the future was too bleak to think about. He missed his home, the creature comforts within it, the security mainly, but the cleanliness and order he missed more. The chaos of the epidemic had really gotten to him.

His home was where he could relax and actually be himself. Where his strict rules of his world fell down and he could smile and laugh. Feli had really made it his home, the Italian stayed there a lot and only left when his country needed him which wasn't very often now. The chill of the clear creek water made Ludwig shiver and draw his feet up to his chest while a voice from behind him said, "Water's cold, is it not Mr. Germany?"

Ludwig jumped up, pulling his large hunting knife as he did, and faced the voice but he was too close to the river and fell backwards. He plunged into the icy water and he heard the voice laugh; Ludwig panicked, he wasn't a strong swimmer and Alfred and Feli had been teaching him. He floundered while the voice, very familiar now, still laughed at him with an almost maniacal note in it.

Finding his footing and rising out of the river water, soaked to the bone and now unarmed, he said, "Who are you?" He didn't even recognize his own voice, it was cracked and husky from his screaming and his voice had gone largely unused. With a note of amusement the voice, now a slender man with black hair and a shining pair of spectacles, said, "Do you not remember me, Mr. Germany? I am offended; if only I had my piano to show you my anger and disappointment of you."

Ludwig wiped his eyes and his blonde hair from his eyes and looked on a familiar face, Austria. He stood and stared then stomped out of the riverbed, picking up his knife and sheathing it as he went, while growling, "You could have helped me instead of laughing you know." Mr. Austria laughed again, "Ah, but where would the fun in that be, Mr. Germany? Here take my cloak; the sun is not strong enough to keep you warm in the trees." He held out a tattered leaf-green cloak to Ludwig, smiling.

Ludwig brushed his hand away and said, "I'll be fine. Do you know what happened to Elizaveta?" while grabbing his boots, now wet, and his canteen from the water. Mr. Austria scurried back against a tree as Ludwig tried to come closer. "Austria?" Ludwig asked, genuinely concerned about this skittish behavior. He had never acted like this; he was normally calm even under the worst pressure.

His face began to twitch and convulse; his face a mask of pure pain and struggle. Austria was slowly changing from pale to red, a contorted grin emerging from his lips. "Ludwig, you remember me?" a completely different voice issued from Austria's lips, it was rough and dark, nothing like the Austrian's slow, smooth measured tones. It spoke once more, "I'm the one the piano and the bitch kept locked up! Now they're both gone and this fool is weak! This body will stay mine."

It smiled widely for a few seconds then screamed and doubled over. Ludwig could only watch in horror, he'd only seen the Austrian a few times before like this. Austria had multiple personality disorder; he'd probably run out of his medication since the epidemic. Austria's face came up again, full of pain and sadness, and he whispered, "Kill me Ludwig. Please." This time he heard the Austrian's voice scream out in pain as the creature that had dwelled within him emerged again.

It cackled a madman's laugh and said, "I know you and what you did to Alfred and Feli! You killed them!" He started screaming the last phrase again and again with other unintelligible phrases like "She's gone now! Why do you fight? Death to the creature!" Ludwig watched as Austria, still screaming, climbed the tree he had his back on seconds ago and jumped from tree to tree all around him, screaming the whole while.

It dropped down from the trees on the far bank, a fine bow in his hands and a matching quiver on his back. "We stole his from her when we killed her. Strangling Elizaveta was the best idea I ever had! Her face and desperate pleas were well worth the effort. He couldn't handle it and sank into despair and I saw my chance! Now that you're here, I can kill you and destroy him completely!" It smoothly drew an arrow and drew it on the bow, pointing it directly at Ludwig's heart.

Austria let the arrow fly as Ludwig charged him, his hunting knife drawn, screaming as madly as he was. The arrow almost missed Ludwig; it dragged raggedly across his cheek leaving a long and deep scratch there. Seconds after he crashed into Austria, knocking the bow from his hand and crushed him beneath him driving the knife into his chest with a sickening wet crunch. Austria and it screamed with the same voice and it was Austria who spoke as his eyes glazed over, whispering with an effort, "I am finally alone and free. I will find him in hell, where I belong for my and his sins."

His final breaths were in Ludwig's arms; he didn't beg or even whimper, he just accepted death with his usual grace. Ludwig laid him in the grass, closed his eyes and stood, grimacing at the fresh blood on his shirt then continued on his journey without a backward glance.

((~Doitsu))