A/N I'm finally back, so here's the next chapter!
Alice awoke to soft light streaming throuh thin, white curtains. Looking over at an ancient grandfather clock, she saw that it was already ten in the morning. She carefully pushed off the covers and got up from the bed, stretching. She felt too dirty for the seamlessly neat and clean room; she hadn't taken a shower or changed her clothes in days. She hadn't really had time to, given everything that was going on.
After re-making the bed she went to leave the room but saw a note taped on the door. It said: Feel free to use the shower across from this room. Look in the closet.
Alice curiously walked over to the closet doors in her room and peeked inside. She saw a row of dresses and clothing hanging perfectly in a row. Where did Arthur get these? They look like the type of clothes that I would pick for myself to wear!
After picking out a sky-blue dress with a lacey white apron attached, along with some black leggings and some white sneakers, Alice followed the instructions of the note and crossed the hall to go take a shower in the little bathroom. She twisted the knob and shut off the water ten minutes later, stepping out into the steamy room. She dried off with a fluffy blue towel and found that the clothes she had chosen fit her perfectly.
She walked downstairs into the kitchen where Arthur was reading a newspaper and Maria was doodling on a napkin.
"You look awesome!" said Maria after noticing Alice.
"I see you got my note, then," Arthur said, looking up from his paper.
"Yes, where did you get these clothes?" Alice replied. "They fit perfectly."
"I found them in the closet a while ago and I didn't know where they had come from, but I just left them in there." Turning to Maria, he said, "You can get something fresh to wear now that Alice is up."
With that, Maria strode past Alice and up the stairs.
"I'm sorry, Arthur. I did not mean to sleep in."
"Don't worry about it. We've had a busy few days. Emily and Alfred are both still asleep, also." Setting down his newspaper, Arthur walked over to a drawer near the stove and said, "I suppose I should make something for brekfast for everyone."
Suddenly, there was a thump upstairs, followed by the sound of footsteps rapidly making their way to the top of the stairs. Alfred ran down to the first floor shouting, "No, no,no, no, no, no, no, no," until he made it into the kitchen. He snatched the spatula that Arthur had been holding as he ran past. "No," he said one last time for emphasis.
"What?" Arthur snapped.
"I'll make breakfast. I'm not eating something that tastes like wall insulator."
"You used to eat my food all the time!"
"Yeah, well, that was when I was pretty much surviving on it!" Then he muttered, "Somehow I survived."
Before they could argue further, Emily and Maria came into the kitchen.
Maria wore a black dress which was the same style as Alice's, red leggings, and her black boots. Emily wore her bomber jacket over a black tank top and a short army green skirt, along with her cowboy boots.
"What's for breakfast?" Emily asked.
"Not Arthur's food, that's for sure," replied Alfred. Arthur just rolled his eyes and picked up his newspaper again. Soon, they were all eating huge servings of scrambled eggs, waffles, pancakes, and bacon at the dining room table. They ate quickly, and after cleaning up, they filed into the living room where the documents were still sitting on the floor.
"Who's going to read this?" Maria asked. "I know I'm not."
"Alice, you should," Emily told her.
"Me? Why?"
"Well, you're the one who came all the way from America and kinda put this group together, so yeah."
"Oh, alright then. Thank you." Alice's cheeks flushed as she sat on the floor next to the stack of files. "I suppose I should first try to find the documents which belong to Maria, Emily, and I." After shuffling through a huge pile of folders, Alice found the three she was looking for. "I have them here, so I'll-." Her eye caught on something at the bottom of the papers. She slid out from under the documents a dark brown file folder which looked like it held very few sheets of paper. Flipping it open to the first page revealed its purpose.
"Oh my god."
"What?"asked Maria.
"This is...a summary of the entire operation."
"Whaddaya waitin' for? Read it to us!" Emily excitedly said.
"Here it goes..." Alice tooka deep breath before starting at the beginning. "'Several years ago, the world's visionaries dedicated to preparation for the future of planet Earth combined into the Utopian Society Corporation, also known as the USC. Using chemicals unknown to both the general public and the highest authorities of any country, the USC manipulates the mind and the body for the good of the future. As of now, the 26th of May, every personification-.'" Alice looked up. "What is a personification?"
Arthur, who was as white as a sheet, mumbled, "I, uh, I'll tell you later. Please continue."
"As of today, the 26th of May, every personification from every country, including those divided into northern and southern halves, are being gathered and given given the drug MA1 through an injection to the head. This drug can be altered to cover up certain types of memories in most situations. However, contact with a representative of a large portion of the lost memories may cause extremely strong deja vu, and in some cases, even recovered memories." Alice was shaking by now. It all made sense! The large part of her lost memories must have had something to do with Arthur.
"So...does that mean Arthur and I lost memories, too?" Alfred said to no one in particular. The following silence seemed to confirm his suspisions.
"Before I continue," Alice said, "Arthur, can you please tell me what they mean by 'personification'?"
Arthur looked like he wanted to refuse, but Alfred egged him on. "C'mon, Iggy," he said. "They need to know. This obviously involoves them more than we all think."
Arthur was about to protest, but he knew that the American was right. He hesitantly begn to explain. "What they are referring to...are the personifications of countries. When countries or budding colonies are formed, a being is created along with it which has the general personalities of the country's people." Arthur started talking faster, and his speech kept quickening. "When the country is attacked, the being feels it. When the country is destroyed, the being becomes leass immortal and could die easier. These personifications help run their country, and they do all they can for their people. They call each other by the names of their countries, except when they are around humans, they use human names. That is what personifiactions of countries, nations, are."
His audience stared wordlessly at him after he had finished. The silence thickened until Maria asked what each of the girls was thinking: "How do you know all this?"
Arthur looked up at her with emerald green eyes. "Because...both Alfred and I...are nations."
More silence.
"Really?" asked Alice.
"Nope, it's all a hoax, you can go home now, heheh," Alfred said, trying vainly to lighten the mood. All it caused was for Arthur to glare at him.
"Actually, we're telling the truth," Alfred corrected.
"That. Is. So. Cool! What countries are you the personifications of?" asked Emily.
Alfred smiled. "Well, I'm the United States of America and this is England!" he said patting the smaller nation on the back.
"Well my full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but yes."
"Well, hi!" Emily said enthusiastically.
"Now that that's cleared up, I suppose I'll continue reading now," Alice said.
"'Kay," Emily agreed.
"'This is why it is imperative that the personifications are kept separate from each other, especially those which fill most of their memories. As of now, the scheduled plan is to take the subjects to countries where they will not likely see one another and where they shall remain. Names of subjects and targets which come from the same country are listed in the manila files.'" Alice paused, then said, "That's all there is for the summary."
"...You should look at the files, like it said," Maria suggested. Alice put the summary back in the brown folder and turned her attention to the three files she had separated from the rest. Pulling open the top folder, she saw that the documents belonged to Emily; her photo was in the top right corner of the page and there was a description of her in the same format as the Japanese woman's had been. Alice flipped through the pages until she found one entitled 'Subjects and Targets'. She saw the two pictures underneath, and gasped when she read about the connection.
"What? What is it?!" Emily asked.
"Hang on." Alice quickly opened the other two files to the same page. This confirmed what she had read, but she still couldn't believe it.
"Emily, you and Alfred...are siblings!"
"...R-really?" Emily said, looking over at Alfred, who wore the same shocked expression.
"Maria, you have a brother named Gilbert Beilschmidt. He looks just like you!"
Maria grinned. "Awesome."
"What about you?" Arthur asked, or more like whispered.
"It seems...you are my brother."
"Whoa," Emily and Alfred said together.
"That means," Arthur said, "that you, Maria, and Emily are also personifications!"
At that moment, a loud banging was heard as the front door was kicked down, followed by shouting. As soon as Arthur saw a wall of gas come barreling toward them, he shouted, "Follow me! Quickly!" The others didn't argue.
They ran around out the other side of the room and down into the cellar. Arthur motioned for them to hide in a closet, and they filed in quickly. Arthur closed the door behind them and locked it by muttering a spell, not bothering to hide his magic this time.
"Teach me!" Alfred whined while the others gaped.
"No."
"Aww, why?"
"You're a muggle, so it can't be done. And be quiet."
They sat inside the small room listening to shouting for a few minutes before Emily asked, "What is all this stuff?"
Arthur glanced around quickly before realization hit and he mentally slapped himself.
"Iggy, is this your storage closet?" Alfred whispered.
"Yes," he replied stiffly.
Alice looked around with the others. Unlike the rest of the house, this room was full of objects and very cluttered. She saw a dusty pirate had hanging on the wall and almost remembered why it was important, but her thoughts were lost among the artifacts. She also saw an old musket leaning against the wall near the back. She was about to ask why it was important, but an unexplainable wave of sadness hit her and forced the question to die in her throat.
Soon, they heard footsteps rapidly descending into the cellar. The silence among them was complete, as if the room was empty. More muffled shouting, more footsteps on the stairs, then silence. Moments passed, then the door to the closet came flying open. Troops with gas masks rushed in, accompanied by a black ominous cloud. Alice couldn't see, she couldn't breathe, and someone was violently dragging her by the arm. She heard Maria scream and Alfred shout, but the toxic gas finally took effect and they each lost consciousness.