I feel like telling you that this entire story has been hand-written almost start to finish in three different notebooks. The one that this part of the story is in has about 100 pages of this. This is the last chapter in this notebook, and then there's the other one with 200 pages and the one with 192 pages that has even more pages written in at the moment. Yeah, I've been planning this story for a really long time...But this is the last chapter of the first notebook! So it's a dramatic moment. To me, anyway. Thanks, reviewers, you have no idea how much I appreciate you. The next chapter should be out on approximately whenever-I-can-fight-off-the-evil-procrastination- and-laziness-twins-day.
Remember, SK is short for South Korea, and in my made-up world, I gave China Canada's spot on the G8 because I messed up in the beginning and can't edit the docs anymore.
As always, review! :D
Switzerland was doing his best to act as if he were dead inside. As if his heart had been frozen into a great lump of ice.
As he had been since his sister was taken. He'd left her alone for one minute. One tiny little minute, sixty seconds like grains of sand in an hourglass.
For the umpteenth time, he imagined the scene that must have transpired behind the door.
'I'll be right back out, brother! I made a card for your birthday~" Her smiling face, peeping out from behind the half-closed door. His grudging acceptance.
The door is closed. The scene is set, the hourglass just before gravity exerts its pull on the sand. Lili has just closed the door. He's walking down the hall, half looking over his shoulder. The doorbell is ringing. When he'd opened it, he'd seen nothing but the retreating back of Prussia and the large wad of tape holding down the doorbell, apparently out for adrenaline to distract himself from his missing friends. He'd fired a few shots at him before peeling the tape off and slamming the door shut at thirty seconds.
But behind the door...
In her room, the pink curtains hang still. She reaches into her dresser, smiling at how she imagines his face would be when she gives him the card. Certainly, it would make some of the worry lines disappear, at least for the moment. A sixth of the sand has fallen in a steady beige stream, and more comes.
There's a sound outside. She walks to the window and pushes the fluttering curtains aside, poking her head all the way out. Outside, the air is cool. The landscaped trees she can see stand straight and tall in the moonlight, and it is silent, but for the vanishing shadow of Prussia in the distance. Half of the sand has piled up.
She pulls her head back in, dismissing the sound, and comes face to face with the tall, pallid visage of an alien. It muffles her screams, but she struggles anyway, landing a few good blows. The two of them blunder into her bedside table, and it falls onto the bedcovers and splinters from the sheer strength of the alien. The mattress frame bows down under the combined weight of the table, Lili, and the alien trying to kidnap her. Thrashing limbs in the silent fight overturn her desk, scattering drawings and pens everywhere. Her room is trashed in one third of the hourglass.
She reaches for one of the guns he'd made her put in her room and tries to fire it, but quick as a wink it bashes the barrel sideways, rendering the weapon useless. It knocks her unconscious somehow -blunt force trauma? Some sort of knockout drug?- and drags her out the window, leaving smears on the curtains, just as he opens the door. The last few grains fall from the glass.
Switzerland closed his eyes against the memory before opening them again. That's how the room was found, how he found it; furniture ruined, paper and broken pens plastering every surface, gun bent almost double. Broken ornamental hourglass shattered by the door.
He dug his nails into his palms for the umpteenth time.
I am the worst older brother in the world.
They'd successfully made it up into the alien ship, dodging a hail of fiery rain and silent green lights that stole chunks out of the things before them. But at a price; just as they reached what seemed to be an airlock, a laser bored straight through that one vital point, sending the engine into gouts of flame. They'd just managed to land before the fire reached the gas, and managed to douse it. The plane was useless now, though the aliens might see otherwise and modify it to their own sinister purposes. They'd left behind Greece to guard it, though the Grecian was probably sleeping by now.
In the sparsely furnished room they were in now, they thought of a plan. Nobody had really believed that they would get this far, and now he was wishing he'd brought a phone or a walkie-talkie with him. They needed advice from Earth. But nobody had thought to, so they were on their own, for now.
He looked around the room to distract himself. There was Belarus, crouched in the corner, looking ready to spring at the next alien through the door. She'd already disposed of several. Black blood slicked her dress in patches. She was good. When they cleared this room to hide in, she'd taken all the aliens down before he'd even fired a shot.
She also scared the living hell out of him, what with that insane look in her eyes, and the profusion of knives that she always had with her, not to mention the black blood collecting under her nails, which really should be called claws.
Then there were the two obnoxious people who'd come with them, Prussia and SK. SK seemed to think he was a ninja or something, darting around corners and spouting cheesy lines. And if he had to hear another word about "The awesome sound of the awesome Prussia's voice!" he was going to shoot him and that damn bird. He still hadn't forgiven him for taping his doorbell.
If it wasn't for you, I'd've been close enough to Lili to save her. Hot resentment boiled in his frozen heart.
But neither of the two of them seemed worried. Switzerland envied them and their obliviousness. What he wouldn't give not to have this great burden of worry pressing down on his shoulders.
And then, whatshisface, the one who was invisible, he was here too. Canada! That was it. He was shy and timid, and constantly looking over his shoulder, and his little bear was there too. Kumajiro. They'd sent Canada out to scout around for aliens, since he was just so lucky as to be invisible.
The Canadian in question cautiously peered through the door, only to squeak and withdraw as Belarus flung a knife so close to his face it sheared off a golden lock. "It's only me!" he said in his whispery voice. "Don't kill me!"
SK and Prussia seemed oblivious. For once, Switzerland saw that the Prussian's face was lined with worry. So you do have a brain in that thick skull of yours, the blond thought approvingly.
His attention was drawn back to the conflict escalating in front of him. The bear had leapt out and begun chewing on Belarus's hair ribbon, and the Belarusian's face was purpling with rage. Any moment now something violent was going to happen, something that ended with the bear's viscera all over the walls and a depressed Canadian. Just as another of the blue-eyed nation's knives descended, a shot rang out, knocking it from her hand and denting the blade.
"Stop this!" Switzerland snarled, and turned the recently fired rifle on her. It was a good shot if he said so himself, despite the point blank range. He hadn't nicked her fingers, and the blade was still intact and usable. It would be much more impressive at a longer range, say, ten or twenty feet... Stop that. He wheeled his attention outwards again. "We're all on the same side here. Don't antagonize each other or I'll hit you with my peace prize."
From the other side of the room, where apparently he was napping, SK opened one eye and called out "Hitting people with peace prizes originated in me, da-ze!"
It took all of the Swiss nation's formidable will not to blow his head off in that one moment.
"But this stupid bear-" began Belarus, clenching two handfuls of white fur. Switzerland held up his hand. "Shut up. That is not the problem here."
The Belarusian hissed but subsided, throwing Kumajiro to the ground. She stepped forwards, untying the ribbon, and made a show of wiping the slimy, slobbery piece of cloth on his face. The nasty feel of the material did not deter him from bringing his emerald eyes up to meet her murderous stare. The tension between the two of them was so thick she could probably cut it with one of her knives.
Speaking of her knives. Switzerland watched out of his peripheral vision as she picked up the dented blade from the floor, never taking her eyes off his. When she next spoke, her voice was a silky purr. "We are almost alike, you and I." She flipped the knife through her fingers in a way that showed off her skill with them. Puh. The blond scoffed inwardly. As if she needs to do that now.
Belarus stalked around him in a way that reminded him of a predator; lithe, dangerous. The point of the knife trailed lightly around the base of his neck. "We have similar goals. Ones that we both will do almost anything to get back."
Switzerland kept the barrel of his gun pointed at her even as a mental image of Liechtenstein flashed into his mind. Lili and the broken hourglass. He wondered what was faster, a bullet or the throw of a knife.
The silver blade was flashing through her fingers as he turned yet again to face her. "I know what I will do to any obstacles in my way." Yes, thought the Swiss nation sarcastically. You've made your point with the pile of bloody corpses in the corner.
"What will you do?" She brought her face close to his, close enough that he could smell the blood on her.
He remained perfectly still.
Once he'd been walking in his expansive gardens with Lili, long before the hourglass fell. She'd been skipping around, smelling the flowers, delighting in life. He walked close behind her and cautioned her several times not to skip in case she would fall and scrape her knee, but couldn't help the small smile tugging the corner of his mouth. Liechtenstein had skipped around the corner, out of his sight, and he increased his paces to catch up.
She was sitting and dangling her toes in one of the many ornamental ponds, splashing the water and giggling as the small fish came up to nibble her toes. She looked up, honey-colored hair falling into her face, her green eyes an invitation to sit next to her. He sighed, but took off his boots and bent to sit. There wasn't much he wouldn't do for his precious sister.
When he looked at her face again, it was pale, her eyes fixed on something just across from the pond. He slowly turned his head, the fall of blond hair on his face sliding sideways until he could see through it.
There was a bear standing on the edge, one huge paw held up for fishing. It was enormous; almost taller than he was, and it was standing on all fours. Sunlight shone golden brown through its amber fur. Intelligent black eyes locked on him and the gun he held in his lap. "Don't move." His orders to Lili were barely audible.
With steady hands, he carefully fitted a round in and aimed it. It would deliver its deadly package through the bear's forehead. His finger tightened on the trigger.
Bang! The recoil joggled his arm. The bear stood up, rearing to its full, magnificent height. Switzerland's jaw dropped open. I missed? Only then did he notice the two hands pulling his aim to the side. He turned and gave his sister a questioning look, made harsh by the fact she so recklessly put herself in danger by not letting him kill the bear. "Go away," he said to the bear, standing as well but finding himself a full head shorter.
The bear snarled at him. Switzerland fought the urge to snarl back and didn't move, one hand on his sister's shoulder.
That was how he felt now, as if Belarus was an angry bear and had to be calmed down. The memory of the bear wouldn't make a good analogy here anymore. In the end, the bear had charged him, and only a bullet through the brain had stopped it, in the end.
"That's what I thought." Belarus flipped platinum blond hair over her shoulder, still spinning the knife in dazzling silver flashes. "Nothing."
Rage that she would dismiss his plight -and his sister- so lightly welled up in him. Without thinking, he pulled the trigger. The rifle against his shoulder joggled him. His arm was going to be sore for a while.
Belarus stopped advancing and glanced at the remains of the knife, her face disinterested. She raised an eyebrow. "So that's how it's going to be, сука?"
The blond recognized the word. He must have rattled her, even if she didn't admit it. From what he knew of Belarus, she didn't think much of swearing.
But then again, nobody knew much of Belarus.
"Yes, it is," he said icily. "At least till we have them back."
There was a tinny sound, like a fly's wing beating against the air. He focused on it.
It was Canada's voice. He was saying, "Um, guys, can you stop fighting? This won't end well...Guys..."
Annoyed with himself for ignoring the 'scout', Switzerland turned to the blond. "What did you find, Canada?"
"I found a few of them," he said in his soft voice. "They were being tortured. In many different ways." Obviously even the thought of it was troubling to bear. His violet eyes were watery with tears.
Switzerland had no time for sympathy. Yes, America was his brother, and France was sort of a father-figure, but that was irrelevant. He had his sister to rescue.
"Yes, but do you know where she is?" He asked urgently, and then corrected himself. "Where they are?"
Across the room, Belarus smirked. Aside from her, nobody seemed to notice the flub.
"I only know where the G8 are," said Canada timidly.
"Where?" asked Prussia, engaging himself in the conversation for the first time.
"D-down that way." He gestured vaguely. Kumajiro clung to his leg.
"We're going," said Belarus firmly, and it was Switzerland's turn to smirk at her. Ignoring him, she yanked several knives out of the dead aliens and marched to the door to menace Canada with them. "Where is he?" she growled.
Canada was only capable of making a sound that sounded like "Maple!" in the back of his throat.
Prussia stepped between them. "Hey, hey, cool it, we're all working together here."
Switzerland blinked. That was something surprisingly rational coming out of the madman's mouth.
"...And besides, I'm too awesome to be stabbed to death by a crazy lady just yet."
Any positive thoughts he had about Prussia crashed and burned.
Belarus sneered. "Are you sure of that?"
Prussia sighed. "Listen, I just want to grab my brother and the rest of them and get out of here, okay? I was supposed to be a responsible older brother and look at me now. Technically, I don't even exist." And behind his words, the undercurrent; I am the worst older brother in the world.
Switzerland tentatively reconsidered the Prussian. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all...
"Can we go now, da-ze?" SK also had a serious look on his face. "I want to find aniki." Switzerland didn't know if he was talking about China or Japan, but assumed it didn't really matter.
It seemed that in crisis, the good side was brought out of them all.
Canada scurried through the door, the other four in tow, Belarus walking so fast she kept stepping on the Canadian's heels. Despite his urges to run, run ahead and find them so they can tell him where Lili is, he slowed himself to a sedate pace, shepherding Prussia and SK in front of him.
Once he was sure the room was empty, he shut the door behind him.
Out of curiosity, do you care about my random me-centric A/N's or are you like "Ugh, she's talking about her life again..."?
Translation: сука - bitch.
Also, I'm pretty sure Switzerland's 'birthday' is August 1st or somewhere near that.