Not Over Yet

Part 11

After his initial realization, nothing could have kept Arthur from attending the next meeting. Scratch that: stubborn world leaders could. Although his boss had approved his attendance, the actual meeting had not been set up. The meetings themselves had a rich history of being run by the personifications with little actual interference from their bosses and, seeing as this had always moved in non-apocalyptic ways before, had allowed the processes for their setting up and running be dictated by traditions founded in some of the first Allied Powers and Axis Powers meetings. These traditions were what normally decided the host and, thusly, the general location and this was through a legitimate process of a cumulated list that that had been created of countries that could and would willingly host the meetings. The list would be followed to the letter unless a vote had been called to allow otherwise. All of the descriptions up until now have absolutely nothing to do with this meeting.

This meeting, which personifications were not even recognizing as a true world meeting at this point, was controlled and negotiated completely through their executives. Said executives were noncommittal hot-heads that refused to allow their personifications to leave the safety of their own countries. They all proposed certain fixes, but refused to follow through with attendance even if their conditions would willingly be met. The absolute worst of these were the G8 executives: six of which were fighting to keep their personifications in their borders and two of which were absent throughout all discussion. Those two had not been formally invited anyway, but it was generally assumed that their executives would still show after all of their hiding. That had not been the case, though, and it only strengthened Arthur's resolve to have this meeting. Apparently he had not been alone in that, seeing as the debates wore on it was noted that the executives started to bend to internal pressure. Whatever they wanted to call it was just fine with Arthur, he just wanted to have the meeting already. That was when word came through that they had all agreed on Spain being the host, he thought all his problems had been solved. How wrong he had been.

When this meeting actually occurred, it reminded Arthur quite a bit of Alfred and Jackson's interrogation. Due to all the recent conflict, all the nations were present this round and the meeting hall was set up in much of the way the one in Berlin had. In all honesty, Arthur was not even sure what city he was in and could not have cared less at that point. He had been on the edge of his seat the entire time personifications were filing into the room. He sat in the seats that were where he had been with the interrogation, and everyone retained that same seat except for one nation: Canada. Even if Canada was a part of the G8, it was generally accepted that China, being one of the original Allied Powers, was allowed to retain his seat with the rest of them. However, with this meeting being of great importance to the G8 in general, an extra seat had to be produced for the Canadian, which ended up being between Arthur and Francis. The Brit would have usually spared a thought to how he was glad to have a barrier between him and the frog or to how cramped the table was now, but all he could do was stare out the now empty entrance. Two very important nations still had yet to show their faces, and their shared table sat as an empty reminder in the circle. Neither Spain nor Germany, or even anyone else for that matter, was going to make a move before they arrived. The clock ticked on and Arthur's heart sunk.

It seemed completely hopeless until two figures did, indeed, show in the doorway. That was when Arthur's heart stopped altogether. Never in the entire history of all their world meetings did a human attend, much less two. All of the nations had taken care to make sure all of their security waited outside to continue this, even. It was rather obvious that while no one knew them, that they were one American and one Russian. The two nations' governments did not even bother to send their executives, it seemed, but probably secretaries of sorts. Still, no one knew for sure much of anything unless they asked, which was becoming a more difficult task by the second. The approaching duo did not feel the same in the least.

"Hello everyone!" began the American, "Let's cut to the chase, shall we? I am filling in for Alfred who would be here if he was not being punished right now."

"Same for Ivan." interjected the Russian counterpart.

"We know humans are not supposed to be here, so we are just going to take notes. Pretend we are not even here."

"Then," the Russian continued, "We do have an announcement after the official meeting. Only if you will allow us, da?"

"Exactly, dude. It is all up to you guys."

Needless to say, the nations were not sure what to make of this. All they could feel was a general sense of wrong, especially as the two intruders claimed the Russian and American seats. As stated, they pulled out laptops in preparation for any of the nations to start speaking—and waited. After a couple minutes passing under the guise of waiting for more nations and were really for observing the imposters, about as normal of a meeting as the nations could manage proceeded. Not their normal of course. Not their chaotic or serious normal one, but a lifeless kind. It was not as if humans could not be a part of this process, but this was going too far. Most nations felt micromanaged enough under their government's rule, and interfering in what powers they did hold was not appreciated. Assembling with other nations to work together to accomplish goals, individual or collective, was their specialty and they were not about to let that be taken away.

Despite the setback of missing the two key nations for the meeting, Arthur tried his best to get something accomplished. In the course of doing that, he took over Spain's leading role of host along the way in directing the nations. He figured it was about time that he mentioned Nikkita, and though it was difficult to start, once the ball was rolling he found the details of the situation dripping off his tongue with ease. What they knew was that Nikkita, the personification of the moon, was found by America during the Cold War, specifically when he landed on the moon. Once he was home, Russia found out somehow, and the two began competing for her throughout the rest of the Cold War. In the end, the two nations' governments got involved and signed a treaty to hide her identity and sovereignty in space. That was when he tripped up a bit, before eventually admitting that he was the cause of treaty's dissolution. From there, they also knew that Russia was getting radical to deal with issue of the treaty, but America's involvement was still unknown. That was where the speculation began, and speculation there was. Arthur was amazed, and slightly appalled, by all the different conspiracies the nations were concocting once he opened the floor for discussion. The basic suspicion that the two absent nations were allied was the least of his worries. Some believed that another country was pulling their strings in the shadows. Others, that this was some sort of ploy by the G8. Another faction thought that European Union was failing and getting help to sever their ties. Some even thought that it was just a matter of time before Russia tried to kill them all. Those beliefs and countless more assaulted Arthur's ears as he tried to make heads or tails of the words, but he could not help but keep an eye on the duo typing furiously away the entire time.

"What if…" he started, trying to get attention back to himself and, for the most part, succeeding, "What if that idiot was involved."

He did not have to say who the idiot was. Most people knew by now that it was almost an affectionate term for the American. However, his words surprised the vast majority of the nations. Most would assume that he thought Alfred was blameless. It was no secret that Canada, Japan, and Lithuania did, for starters. Even France and the Netherlands had stood up for him when discussion had broken out. Even the nations that were skeptical of America mostly did not have the guts to come out and admit it.

"He kept secrets from us, on more than one occasion. Even if you count Jackson and Nikkita together, you would think when we found out about one, we would have found out about the other, right?"

Most of the nations at least nodded, but there was plenty of verbal agreement with the statement.

"It is never that simple, though. Who knows what was going on at that point in time. There could be a million reasons he should have or should not have told us."—Arthur paused again for agreement, and got it once more—"But even if that is true, that does not say he cooperated with Russia now. It means he kept a secret with him in the past. That means he is still involved, but how involved we do not know."

The crowd once more burst into chatter, but Arthur was not willing to give up the floor just yet.

"So, what if he was involved? That means we are all in trouble, but what if—What if Russia wanted us to turn on him?"—everyone fell silent—"Then we all put ourselves in this trouble."

Arthur had no idea whether or not his words had any real impact. He was sure that many still held to some of the more abstract beliefs, but, in general, the meeting sobered up quite a bit. A few more of the present G8 spoke on the matter, but they were just as noncommittal as their bosses on this. They rehashed what they knew and what was suspected, but made no claims to knowing the truth. They did not even give any information on whether or not any investigations were underway. As far as most were concerned, Arthur had the real last words of the meeting. The official one at least.

Arthur had to hand it to them, the nameless duo did not violate their word the entire time the meeting proceeded and took notes quietly as well as faithfully. He had been self-conscious of the two the entire time, and expected that they might speak at certain points, but their tongues had been held. Admittedly, Arthur was not exactly sure that he liked their silence, especially when they had an announcement to make. Once Spain officially called the meeting to an end, to somewhat reclaim his position as host, not a single nation moved from his or her spot. In fact, the only ones moving were the duo that were putting away their laptops. They were not in a hurry in anyway, and Arthur's impatience got the best of him.

"You two had an announcement?"

"Only if you will let us, da?" the Russian insisted.

Arthur merely gestured to the globe, still glued to their seats. Strangely enough, the duo did not seemed unnerved at all with all the eyes on them.

The American was the one that decided to speak, "You guys were bound to think it was a little strange for America to close up like it did, right? Well, we had a reason for that, but our borders will be open again at midnight tonight. As for the reason—we were in the process of communicating with Russia."

"Da. We shall be resume normalcy as well at midnight. These communications between our countries have led the creation of a new treaty to replace the old one. It is basically the same thing, so nothing changes. The world progresses just as it has for years, you just know this time." the Russian finished.

Before anyone could get a single word out, the two were gone. Not that anyone could readily speak at this rate. This was one of the worst case scenarios, was it not? Arthur thought it was.

"I propose that we have another October meeting." he murmured numbly, still staring where the duo should have still been.

"Seconded."

Arthur was not even sure who agreed with him.

"A vote then?"

He still could not remove his eyes from the dark entrance.

"Motion carried."

Maybe now they could have a proper world meeting with actual answers. Arthur could only hope, especially as forms he recognized as the hired guards, none of his own yet, appearing in the entranceway. He could not shake the feeling that this would be his one and only chance to escape them. Maybe this meeting really had been more chaotic then he had thought.