Japan hurt. All over, and he felt like his head was stuffed full of cotton. There was a sticky trickle of something dripping off the corner of his mouth, and a white flag was stuck to it.
He slowly brought up a slightly shaking hand and peeled the flag off his face, mopping the liquid off before looking at it. Blood? he thought fearfully, but his fears were unfounded, for the liquid was an unfamiliar milky silver color.
Relieved, he forced his rubbery muscles up and looked around.
He was in a smallish cell, about 8x8 feet. Three of the four walls were something metallic and heavy, a shifting gray that hurt his eyes if he looked for too long. The last wall had bars on it, about three or four inches apart, like a jail cell.
Which, Japan realized, it was. There was a solidly made bench in the corner. He considered throwing it against the bars, but it looked so heavy he doubted even Germany or America could pick it up. He dragged himself to it and slumped down.
What, exactly, had happened? Forcing the foggy feeling out of his head, he tried to recollect his memories.
The kidnapping. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten that. Then there was the room with the ice water, and the hole in the ground, and then –he shuddered- the aliens… Then the blinding pain that spread up his arm to his heart and his head and turned off his brain for…how long? An hour? Two?
He shook it out of his head. Best not to dwell on it. Feeling a bit better, aside from a red blister of pain on his arm, he padded towards the bars, intending to push his face against it to try and see what was out there. The bars shimmered a strange dark magenta color, and fingers of electricity danced towards him. He jerked back.
A black-garbed alien came down the hall, clawed feet clicking against the metal floor. Japan sprang backwards, hurling himself towards the far wall. He could feel the current pain of this sting, and the mushy taste of the liquid still filled his mouth. He didn't want another.
He heard the feet stop a little way down the hall. There was a nearly inaudible whoosh, and then a clink and a clatter. Then more rhythmic footsteps, and another pattern of sounds. As Japan began to let his breath out, the alien appeared, silhouetted in the light from the hall. It walked through the bars like they weren't there and began depositing a tray on the ground.
It cocked its head, and all six eyes swiveled towards Japan, who froze, his heart hammering in his chest. It watched Japan watching it, and after a moment, lifted its tail as if to sting him. A moment later, the alien made a gesture like a shrug and dropped the tray, gliding back through the bars and going back down the hall.
The rest of his breath spilled out as he stared, first at the hallway to make sure it wasn't coming back, and then at the tray it had placed on the ground. There was a green-brown cube on it that looked like something you'd find in a swamp. Vaguely disgusted, he pulled the tray closer, trying to discern the purpose of it. The tray itself was light and insubstantial, and it looked like it was made of smoke and could come apart at any second.
The liquid provided with it wasn't much better. It was nearly transparent, but it had a musty scent and there were dark specks floating in it. But since his throat was as dry as the Tottori Sand Dune, he wrinkled up his face and swallowed it. Once it was empty, the container it was in drifted apart, exactly like smoke. Japan was too busy gagging to care, though.
Finally, once he was sure the taste was gone from his mouth, did he review the past minute. The alien had stopped five times after me, and twice before me…so we're all in this hallway, and they wouldn't bother to feed them if they were dead…right?
At that moment, he heard a familiar voice muttering to itself. He crawled to the bars hopefully.
"Germany?"
A groan answered him, as well as a few German curses. Then, finally, a reply.
"Japan? Is that you?"
Japan felt relief fizzing in his veins. They weren't dead after all. "It is me."
An incredibly loud scream burst their eardrums. "Germanyyyy!~ My hand hurts!"
"Italy!" The other two nations exclaimed in surprise. "You're here too!" Japan heard shuffling sounds, and then Germany muttering, "Oh, mein kopf." Oh, my head.
"Yeah, you got stung there," said Italy cheerfully. Japan was a bit surprised that Italy was taking this all in stride, but didn't question it. Better a happy Italy than one who was loud and sad.
"Italy," said Germany in a voice of great weariness, "I'm trapped in a cage as well."
"Oh," said Italy, momentarily put out. Then he brightened again. "Hey! Look! Food!"
A second later, Italy was miserable again. "THIS FOOD TASTES AWFUL! UWAHHHH~!"
"Aiyaa," came a voice from down the hall. "What is all this noise?"
"China?" asked Japan, choosing to ignore Germany's futile attempts to calm Italy down. "You are here as well?"
"Apparently, aru. What happened?"
"I do not know. I was stung before you were. Do you want to know something interesting about these bars?"
"What, aru?"
"I was awake first, I believe, and I saw the aliens step through the bars like they weren't there. They were delivering food."
"Food? Ah, that crap looks disgusting, aru."
There was a pause. "Maybe the bars are fake, aru!" China said, overly hopeful.
"If you go too close to them, purplish electricity comes out of the bars," said Japan gloomily. There was silence, broken by Germany yelling at Italy to be quiet. It seemed the blond nation was at the end of his patience.
"How can you stand them, aru?" said China at length. "They would've driven me crazy by now."
As if on cue, America shouted, "Right, England?" His voice was incredibly loud.
China gave a small laugh. "I'm one to talk. America's almost more annoying-" He caught himself before he insulted Italy's behavior.
"They're my friends," said Japan tightly, but after a moment he relented. "I…I really don't know. It's just…they've been my friends forever."
"You know, there's always room for one more on the Allies, aru."
Japan could picture China trying to smile, his golden eyes hopeful. For some reason it brought a lump to his throat. We were friends, until I attacked him.
It's not your fault, he thought harshly. You had to expand. Otherwise your people would've run out of resources and who knows what would've happened. But he still felt guilty anyway.
"I…can't." He replied finally, looking down. "They will probably tear eachother apart without me there, you know," he said, trying to for humor.
China sighed. "I'd guessed you'd say that, aru. And you're probably right."
There was another silence.
"Anyway, the bars. Maybe they can shut off our senses or something."
"Where did you get that idea, aru? It sounds rather crazy." The disbelief was well hidden, but Japan picked it up anyway.
A little stung, Japan said, "I read it in a book. It was fiction, admittedly, but it gave me something to think on."
"Oh, I see what you're getting at, aru." said China. "It could cut off light from the hallway, or the sounds of our voices, or-"
He stopped suddenly. Japan waited to continue, but after ten seconds, there was still no response. At the same time, he realized Italy had stopped panicking.
"You were right, China," said Japan quietly. "No more sound."
A memory floated up, faded with age.
They were in part of China's house, where Japan had grown up when he was little. China had given the young nation some samples of writing, but Japan made up his own to work with. Later, Japan was wandering around when he stumbled on China talking to one of his panda.
"…I'm trying to be a good older brother, but I don't know how, and I don't think he gets it, aru. It hurts me feelings and makes me sad, and he invents his own words and language and culture and everything and ignoring me completely." China hgged his panda and sighed.
Little Japan was hiding in the shadows, feeling ashamed. He didn't mean to make older brother fell so bad.
He ran out of the shadows before his mind caught up with his feet and gave China a tackle hug, making the other jump.
"Oh, it's only you, aru." said China with some surprise.
"I'm sorry, China. I didn't mean to make you sad, I just wanted to be unique."
China returned the hug. "That's okay, didi." Little brother. "I understand. All of us want to be different, aru."
Little Japan gave a rare smile. "You will always be my ge ge." The Chinese word for older brother that he'd never used.
Smiling widely, China turned his face to the moon. "Riben [Japan], have I ever told you the story of the rabbit who lives in the moon?"
The memory left as quickly as it came. Japan remembered the good times with his older brother. Most people thought of England raising America when they thought of cute childhoods, but nobody knew much about China raising Japan.
They had become significantly less close when Japan had to invade China for resources. Being on a series of volcanic islands, there wasn't much oil, and oil was a commodity desperately needed at the time. Japan did not tell his people to kill and pillage and rape like Vikings, but that had ended up happening after a while of holding power.
Their closeness had been shattered, a cool friction between them. But here, on the ship, with uncertainty everywhere, maybe the walls would start to come down.
Japan went to the back of his cell, saying so quietly no one in the cell with him wouldn't have heard him; "I miss you, ge ge."