I suppose now is the time where I offer some sort of "Once we get to 100 reviews the 100th reviewer gets a story by me!" or something. Okay, I've declared that 100th reviewer gets a one-shot. It will contain any pairing that said reviewer wishes (except the ones I hate, which are on my profile somewhere). Or no pairings, and just derp. Or people dying. It's all good with me. THIS OFFER STANDS UNTIL...UNTIL...I don't know. It stands until the end of doomsday, I guess.

It's almost the 1-year anniversary of this story! Yahoo.

Review! :D

Spain was tired of having to sew up the nations as the aliens brought them in. Belarus, for example, had a deep bloody chasm ripped in her back, deep enough for him to see the glisten of her spine and the pale trails of neurons. Liechtenstein had to unravel a good portion of the hem of her dress to use as thread, and halfway through his hands were shaking too much for him to continue and someone else had to take over.

Greece and Switzerland hadn't woken up yet, but the expression on Liechtenstein's face when she realized it was her precious brother had been heartwarming. She'd barely left his side since, spending her time trying to tend to his stings as best she could.

There really wasn't much they could do about the stings. Nobody knew what sort of poison it was, and even if they had, with their limited supplies, what could a needle and cloth do?

Spain paused again, and let South Korea take the meticulous sewing from him. One of the first awake, the lackadaisical nation possessed a core of seriousness that nobody would've guessed he'd had.

The doors hissed open and the nations scattered to the other side of the room, out of sting-range. After a moment, the now-familiar shapes of the monsters entered and deposited a blond nation, glaring at the rest, daring them to move. Wisely, they didn't, though Prussia mustered a derisive sneer.

As soon as the aliens left, the doors hissing shut, Canada went over to wipe the mud off. He'd been ignored, as usual, but this time he really didn't mind. The entire experience was sort of horrifying, dreamlike. He was perfectly fine without the acknowledgement of no, this is not a dream.

And, sneered an insidious voice inside his head, you don't want a turn stitching up that huge gash in Belarus's back. Especially since it's your fault.

It's not! he screamed back. She was already bleeding when I found her! It was only luck that I'd gotten there at all!

Was it? Was it?

Canada jerked his hands towards scraping the drying mud off the nation's features, and then pulled back in surprise when he saw who it was. Poland? For some reason, he hadn't expected to see the blond nation here. After taking a moment to reconsider, though, he changed his mind. Lithuania was their reluctant leader, and Poland had been close to him. Taking Poland would effectively disrupt Lithuania, who, like it or not, admittedly had good leadership skills, and throw the mass of nations into disarray for long enough time that they would easily be able to conquer.

He didn't like this. This showed strategy they could've only guessed at. Now it hinted at their intelligence. While he assumed most of the nations believed that the aliens were intelligent (probably based on thousands of biased movies), the fact that Poland was right here in front of him with mud on his face was real, tangible proof.

After a few tries, Canada got Spain's attention. The Spaniard's face paled under the streaks of blood. "What would they do to Earth? What would happen to us?"

"Nothing good, I'll bet," said the Canadian apathetically. Spain frowned and was about to say something when they were interrupted by a familiar, if raspy voice. "My head, like totally hurts."

Canada turned to see Poland sitting up, not at all disheartened by his change in surroundings. But no matter how much of an airhead he was, he could tell that this location was not anywhere on Earth.

"Do you remember any of what happened?" Canada asked eagerly.

And was ignored. He sighed and bunched his shoulders together a little before repeating his question, this time giving the blond's shoulder a shake.

Poland answered him. "Huh? Well, my head is totally scrambled right now, and my brain is freaking jumbled, but I remember the Baltics were talking, and I was, like, chasing butterflies." His face lit up. "There was this pink one, like as big as my hand, and I-"

"And then what?" interrupted Canada tersely.

Pouting, Poland continued. "Then it started to like, pour, and Liet realized he was still on fire and stuff from that other time and ran, and Estonia and Latvia were all like, "We should go too!" and went." He shrugged. "Then I picked up Liet's phone from the mud, and, like, yelled after them to wait for me, but they didn't. Rude. The-"

"Wait, wait wait wait," said Canada, hoping his ears hadn't lied to him. "Did you say you had a phone?" His voice sounded breathless.

"Of course I do. I, like, just said that."

"How many bars?"

The blond shrugged. "I dunno. Let me check." When the Polish nation pulled the black and slightly muddy device from his pocket, the Canadian could've wept with joy.

"Three bars," reported Poland, then looked up. "What's with you? You look like you're about to cry."

Taking no time to marvel at the miraculous coverage - if they were in space after all, it would be a remarkable feat - Canada said, "I'll be right back."

But Poland seemed to have forgotten his existence already. Sighing again, he quickly informed Spain about the phone, who beamed. "We could call Earth-"

"And my brother!" interjected Prussia, who was lying on his stomach, letting the stings scab over in the air.

"-and your brother, assuming he still has his phone-" Spain tried to continue.

"-and Liet, to tell him I'm okay," interrupted Poland. "He doesn't need to have, like, a mental breakdown." And that was entirely too close to Canada's previous train of thought, sending a small shiver down his spine.

"Lithuania's on Earth," said Spain, annoyed at being interrupted. "So we call Earth, and then Germany, and then what?"

South Korea, who'd finally finished sewing up Belarus during the commotion, said, "And then they'll rescue us!" He stood up. "Being rescued originated in me, da-ze!"

"But what if they-" began Liechtenstein.

"No buts!" shouted Prussia, cutting her off. "Just pick up the phone before I haul my awesome self over there and dial for you!"

Spain looked at Poland. "Who could we call?"

"Estonia, I guess. Liet has him on speed dial. Press three. Also, I'm totally hungry. Do we have any food?"

"They haven't been feeding us," returned Liechtenstein, "and I think they saturate this air with chemicals that eat our nutrients. We shouldn't be this thin already." She held up one narrow twig arm for emphasis.

Spain pushed three and put the phone to his ear, covertly pressing the speakerphone button so everyone could here.

The whole room was silent, excepting the wheeze of air in Greece's lungs.

The phone rang, louder than a gunshot. Once...twice...three times...

They waited with bated breath.

Another ring...

"I think Liet's phone can video chat," added Poland helpfully. Then, "I wish this room was like, pink. This gray hurts my eyes."

Spain shushed him.

Another...

And then, the miraculous, amazing sound of someone on the other end picking up.

"Hello? Lithuania?" His voice was broadcasted through the room.

Spain nearly collapsed in relief. As he opened his mouth to say something, Estonia continued speaking. "Are you going to come back now?" The Estonian's voice was anxious. "Latvia and I aren't that good at running things, and since you left we've been kind of freaking out-"

"I'm not Lithuania."

It took Estonia a few seconds to place the voice. "Spain...? What are you...how did you get Lithuania's phone?" He paused, gasped. "Weren't you taken?"

"Yeah, but when Poland got caught he had Lithuania's phone. Listen, does your phone have video chat?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I have a feeling it'd be better if you could see us talking to you."

"Okay. By the way, Romano's been frantic, driving us all crazy. He's worried to death about you, and his brother too."

Spain smiled and tapped 'video chat'.

Estonia's face appeared on the screen. Spain held the phone out at arm's length and, a bit awkwardly, said "Hi."

"Why're you all so thin?"

Liechtenstein repeated her theory from earlier, and Estonia nodded gravely. "It's just...I can see your bones sometimes. It's kind of scary."

Spain winced. "Like Liechtenstein said, they've been doing things to us. Don't mention it."

"Latvia!" called the Estonian over his shoulder, and the blond appeared in the view as well. "Hey, it's you!" said Latvia, his whole face lighting up. "I'm so glad you're all alive!"

In the background, Poland waved, and then shouted, "Tell Liet I'm totally all right! Except I'm hungry."

"Okay, ah, yes, I will tell him when we find him," said Latvia. "He had a panic attack after he saw that you were taken, and disappeared to somewhere."

Poland blushed a little and looked down. "I'm glad he cares so much about me." He looked up again, now serious. "Tell me, have you found him yet?"

"I'll go call everyone else and call a meeting," said Estonia, inadvertently ignoring his question. He rummaged in his pocket for his own phone, and then took a few steps out of camera range. They could still hear his voice in the background, though.

"Hey, Latvia. Laaaaativa!" called Poland from the back of the room. "You didn't answer my question."

"We haven't found him yet. He's done a good job of disappearing, and since Estonia and I aren't good at leading we don't know what to do, and you're all up there and we don't know what to do because we're afraid-" Latvia looked away from the screen for a moment, getting control of himself.

"But we'll find him soon," the blond said after a moment, straining to inject hope into his voice. "He disappeared somewhere into the house. Ukraine volunteered to look for him, but it's a big house, and..." His shoulders sagged.

"How about the other people?" prodded Canada gently. Everyone was crowded around the screen at this time, except for Prussia, who couldn't really move much. When Latvia responded, the Canadian was gratified that he was noticed this time around.

"Everyone else is...well, as good as they can be in a situation like this." The short blond made a face. "Which isn't very. We're all in a disarray. What about on your side? How did the scouting party attempt go?"

"We found the hall where they think they might've been held-" began Canada.

"They were," interrupted South Korea. "I saw China and Japan. They looked in bad shape, and Japan passed out while I was talking to him." For once, the lively face was solemn.

Estonia reappeared, looking grim. "Well, that's not good then. How about China?"

"He looked...different." The Korean chewed his lip contemplatively. "Like...like he's been run through hell and back, da-ze. I think he thinks I'm dead."

"And the rest?"

Canada took over again. "I saw Russia being dragged by the aliens, and it looked like he'd been set on fire."

"That would explain the fire here," said Estonia. "It nearly spread to Lithuania as well."

Poland bit his lip. Seeing that, Estonia opened his mouth again. "It's okay, though. We were able to contain it. Go on, Canada."

The Canadian was flustered at all this excess attention. Usually he never got noticed this much in a month, let alone ten minutes. "I also saw America, and he was - he was being..." his voice tapered off, and he closed his eyes. "Let's just say it was bad."

"There were lots of deep earthquakes in America," offered Latvia. "Volcanoes, too, along the coast. I saw news coverage of it. It looked terrifying."

"I don't believe I saw much of England, and France was electrocuted in a room full of water." Canada suddenly clenched his fists. "The damn bastards. What have we ever done to them to warrant this punishment? What is it?"

Nobody had any answer to that, and after a moment he relaxed his hands and sighed. "I think France might've seen me. I'm not sure."

"There were sudden sinkholes and earthquakes in Britain as well as America. No volcanoes, though," Estonia reported. "And a massive electrical storm in France. It seems justified." He brought a hand up and nibbled the short nails. "What I hate is how well they know us and know the impact we have on this planet. How long have they been watching us? I just..." He blew his breath out slowly.

They speculated for a few minutes on the aliens and possibility of watching and the tiniest seeds of future plans before Estonia's phone rang. He picked it up, and a moment later he said, "We're meeting in fifteen minutes. Here, Latvia, can you take this?"

The Latvian complied, and Estonia pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose with a finger. "Can I call you back? Say, in twenty minutes or so?"

Spain affirmed it. "Yeah. See you soon, and -hey, don't hang up yet. Make sure Romano's okay, right? And check on our relatives for us? It would take a load off if I knew that they weren't spending a lot of time worrying about me."

Estonia nodded gravely. "Will do." The phone screen went black.

The Spaniard exhaled slowly. "One down..."

"Call mein bruder now!" hollered Prussia, and Spain turned to look at him, fingers poised over the keys. "What number?"