I'm soooo sorry for the like week and a half lateness of this chapter. I had the first part all done but I could put the second part in words that I liked and I kept changing it over and over again. I have it all figured out now, and I wrote like 9 pages last night in 3 hours. :) :D I'm so proud of myself haha.

Chapter 18

Hana's ears perked up, and he blinked his eyes open at the sound of a far off yell. He shook his tiny body to get the snow off and looked up and his master. Tino was out…eyes shut, no movement, just lying up against the cliff, motionless. The mini pooch whined slightly and tried its best to wake the silent nation with no luck. The worried pup tried his best to muster up a bark, but his bark sounded more like a whine. Worried, the little snow white dog licked his master's face, but Finland still did not respond. It was up to Hana now! Hanatamago got up and limped toward where the voice was coming from in the far off distance, leaving his master behind.
"TIIINOO!" Berwald shouted, followed by others echoing the same thing.
"Tino! Where are you, come on answer us!" Mathias called out cupping his hands to his mouth. "Come on Lukas, don't you want to find him?" Mathias nudged the shorter light blonde in the shoulder.
"Y-yes…" Norway exclaimed.
"Well then, get yelling, come on yell." Mathias said while putting both his hands on Norway's face and moving his mouth for him. "Stop it!" Lukas snapped back at him.
"Come on guys, we're not going to get anywhere with you guys bickering at each other! ... Tiinnnoooo! Sweden barked.
"Are you sure you took us in the right direction..." Norway implied, "It seems like I've the same tree over and over again..." he continued while shining the flashlight all around.
"You know you don't really need that flashlight anymore you could save the batteries...I mean it's like what 5 in the morning...look even the suns coming out." Mathias stated as he pointed over to where the sun's light was emerging.
All of a sudden, Berwald noticed something far in the distance. What is that? The small figure was walking up one of the nearest cliff edges. It was walking in a kind of limping way. As the creature got closer, Berwald knew what that thing was!
"HANATAMAGO!" Su-san screamed out catching everyone off guard as he started dashing toward the little dog and the others followed. Hana just looked up and saw Sweden's face and tried to bring up a bark. He needed them to follow him; even if he was a dog he knew something was wrong.

"Hana what is it?" Su-san questioned as he bent down and examined the little dog. "If Hana's here then...Tino must not be too far away..." Berwald thought as he petted his and Tino's dog. The small dog barked and Sweden noticed its foot. "Oh, I see…you're hurt, we could carry you." Sweden said as he leaned down and lightly picked up the white dog. "Come one guys, if Hana's here then Tino and Alfred shouldn't be too far!" Sweden reassured.

After what seemed like hours of horrible thoughts rushing around in Berwald's mind he finally reached a ledge, where Hana began barking like crazy. "Is this it Hana?" Sweden asked and the dog replied with a small reassured bark. "Ok, then I'm going to hand you to Lukas now, so I can help anyone if they need help."

"Why me, Berwald?" Norway exclaimed.

"Because you're not as strong as us and if anyone needs help we're going to have to help them." Sweden said as he handed the dog to Norway. Lukas opened his mouth to complain but then re-thought that process as now he got out of all the dirty hard work.

The pace was very slow for the trio, until finally that path led them to an opening where America's body laid motionless in the middle of it. Hanatamago struggled in Lukas's arms but Lukas held on tighter, making sure the dog didn't get out. Mathias and Lukas went over to Alfred's body as Sweden looked around the opening and finally spotted Tino in the corner of the cliff, leaning halfway up against a wall. His heart skipped multiple beats and his stomach dropped, making him feel sick. He stared for a few moments not believing what he was seeing at first.

"TINO!…" Sweden screamed distraught, before running over to the small body of his lover. He kneeled down and brushed all the snow off him as quickly and swiftly as he could, and reached his hand out and felt for a pulse. Mathias and Lukas returned to where he was looking distraught as well, as they stared at Sweden taking his pulse. A few moments, which to all of the Nordics felt like hours to them and at last Sweden said something.

"We have a heartbeat! It's very weak but he's still alive! Su-san stated with blurry eyes, and his glasses fogged up. Tear rolled down both sides of his face as he hugged and held onto his lover. Everyone there started crying after that, even Lukas who barely showed much emotion at all had a couple tears fall down from his eyes.

"Thank God..." Mathais said as he scanned over Finland.

"Hurry! We have to take him someplace warm and get him some medical treatment right away!" Berwald practically shouted at them. He then looked upon the face of his 'wife' and rubbed his hand across his forehead. "It's ok now, I'm here Tino." And at that he gently pecked a small kiss on his forehead and scooped Tino up into his arms.
"It I'n't good Berwald" Mathias suddenly said, catching the Swedish man off guard.
"What isn't good?" Sweden answered back to the tall, slender nation.
"It's America…he's...he's...dead. No pulse, nothing…he's gone Berwald...what will everyone think. What will England say! His lover is dead! England's going to be devastated. You know that it's true..." Mathias replied sounding sad.

"Oh,…I see…well the least we could do is carry him back...and let his brother and the others see him on last time." Sweden stated. "Then later, we can have a real burial for him, but now less talking and more moving." Denmark agreed and he reached down and picked up Alfred while Lukas held Hanatamago, and cuddled him in his arms. Together they all hurried back the way they came. Minutes later, a very chilly breeze swept over them. Berwald tightened his grip on Tino and buried his body with his own to block out the wind. Mathias and Lukas did the same. Mathias didn't want America's body worse than what it was...even if he was dead, and Norway wanted to protect the little creature rolled up in his hands from getting hurt even more. Hana shivered and Lukas noticed that his leg was turning a different color.

"Uh, hey guys wait up!" The Norwegian country exclaimed.
"What is it Lukas?" Mathias stopped and answered back to the smaller country.
"Uh, Sweden…its Finland's dog…I know I'm not a vet, but there's something wrong with it." Norway replied shyly.
"Hanatamago? What is it?" Berwald said as he walked over to Lukas and looked at Hana along with Mathias.
"It's just that well uh his paw that was bleeding earlier is now turning a different color and his breathing is harder. I think it has pneumonia Berwald! This little guy has been through a lot I'd say." The Lukas said, and Sweden's expression was Stoic, unreadable…
"But,…that dog is everything to Tino…" Berwald stated out sadly saying. "Without Hana... m' wife would be sad…We have to get moving, and find that cabin as soon as possible. They ought to have medicine there." Sweden urgently stated as he turned to walk away.

"Come on, I think the cabin was this way."

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Germany woke up in a sweat, practically jumping off the bed. "What...what was that?" Germany huffed as he wiped sweat from his forehead. "That dream...why do I feel like I should help those people...are they people I know?..." Germany thought, he looked out the window next to the bed and all he saw was endless darkish snow. The sun had not risen yet, but by the looks of the sky it should be coming up any minute. White never was his color...and for some reason he had this uneasy feeling in his stomach. A knock suddenly came at the door, breaking the German man out of his thoughts.

"Germany?...Germany are you in there? It's me." Vash stated as he brushed off a piece of dust off his shoulder.
"Oh, um one sec." Germany said as he slid out of bed and opened up the door.

"How was your night? Was it good? Is your headache gone?"

"Umm, yeah...I guess. I'm feeling a little better, danke." Germany stated putting a hand up and feeling his forehead.

"You are? Hmm...well that's good. Well come on, let's go eat breakfast then." Switzerland stated, as he left the opening of the doorway and started to walk down the hall. Germany slowly walked out of the door opening and into the hallway and shut his door behind him.

When he got to the kitchen, Ludwig saw the girl from last night, Umm, what's her name again? Lola?...Lela...Lili...Yeah Lili sitting by the table he was at last night.

"Oh, good morning Ludwig!" Lili stated as she noticed his presence.

"H-hello miss." Ludwig kindly stated back.

"How are you feeling this morning? Did that medicine I give you work any better?" She asked, but before Germany could answer, Switzerland shut the fridge.
"Lili, can you come into the sitting room with me?" Vash asked, going into the foyer, motioning the girl to follow him. She smiled, a little startled but rose out of her seat quietly.
"Coming brother, one second Germany, well I'm glad you're feeling better umm...help yourself to anything in the kitchen, ok?" Lili said as she walked out of the room. Germany stared as she walked by and could help but think something was wrong, but dismissed it. It was none of his business anyways, and went to the fridge and looked inside for breakfast. He found nothing but milk, eggs and cheese.
I could make eggs…but why do I crave potatoes? Hmm does this man have any of those lying around? Maybe if he does then I could make eggs and fried potatoes with melted cheese on them. mmmhh that sounds good!
"Now where would someone keep potatoes at?" Germany said as he looked through the fridge opening every single drawer. Nope...nope...not this one... "hmmmm where are they at?" Germany scratched his head and thought harder. "Maybe in the pantry? Oh, but where is that?" Germany turned around, looking for anything...any sort of basket, door, anything. He went over to the door that Lichtenstein went through and opened it up to go ask her where the potatoes might be at. He opened the door to a fairly blank room, not much in here but connected to it was a hallway. Ludwig walked down the hallway to the first door that had some light coming out of it on his left. He turned to knock, but decided not too when he heard his name mentioned.

"Lili, what did you give him?"

"Oh, just the cough medicine brother, you know, to help with his cold"

"Listen, I need you to do a favor for me. Don't give him anymore medicine, only let me give him medicine, is that understood?"

"B-but why big-" There was a sound of something, a hand maybe, getting slammed down on a table and some mumbling and whisperings were heard. There was a small gasp and some more arguing.

"Why can't I hear them? What are they saying in there? Why is only Vash going to give me medicine? Come on...speak up...just a little louder..." Germany said and by this point his ear was on the door. There were mumbles and grumbles and Ludwig only caught a few of the words "Poison", "Capture", "hurt", … "helpers"...everything was jumbled and nothing was making sense, and suddenly he heard Switzerland yell and the sound of a smack!

"What's going on in there?" Ludwig wondered as he stayed put and kept trying to listen in on the conversation. But, just as Ludwig was trying to understand more he heard a seat quickly slide across the wooden floor and before he knew it the door flung open and Switzerland appeared looking down at him. He had a smile plastered on his face that just looked like he was up the no good. And as he smiled down at Ludwig, Ludwig froze up in fear. He was going to say that 'he was just there to ask them where the potatoes were' but everything that he wanted to say couldn't come out. He looked too suspicious. He shivered when Vash lowered down and asked him

"What are you doing down here Ludwig, it's not very nice to eavesdrop, you know."

"I-I know I-I was um just going to ask you ummm where the potatoes were, and if you even had any." The German man said as sweat ran down his face.

"Oh, is that all? Well you see we ran out of them a couple of days ago." Vash stated back, and lent his hand over to Germany's while standing up.

"Come. Let's go back and I'll see if we have something else for you to eat." the Swiss man said, as the hesitant German took his hand. Germany grabbed his hand, but Switzerland was too quick and in one swift movement, took his other hand, and fisted it up and derived his fist into Ludwig's stomach. Ludwig wrenched over and fell into Switzerland.

"I can't have any witnesses..." was all Germany heard before he felt himself get carried away.

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Germany awoke with a hurting stomach and quickly noticed that he was back in his room.

"...what the-...I-why am I in here?" Germany said as he got off his bed and walked over to the door.

"Locked. I should have guessed better." Germany said as he tried over and over again to open his door. He then went over to the window and noticed that not only was it locked on the inside but the outside too. No bars though, still a nice big clear window.

"What's going on?" Ludwig said as he suddenly fell to his knees in pain with a terrible headache. He was remembering...something. "AHH!...My...h..e..ad..." Germany yelled out. "Who-who are you? Why do I keep seeing you in my head?" Germany rolled around on the floor, aching. Voice: "come back to us...come...co-". "Who are you? Why do I know you!" Germany screamed out clamping his hands to his head. Voice: "Come...home..". "Wait don't leave AHH!" Germany yelled out as the pain became too much for his head to handle and he blacked out.

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"Do you even think we're going the right way?" Gilbert asked as he rubbed a smudge off his shirt with his good hand.

"Yeah...I'm pretty sure were going the right way..." Italy said as he looked around him. The sun was rising casting a yellowish orange shade on the snow. There was light now, which was good, but it was still a little too early to see a whole lot.

Ever since Russia joined them, the going had gotten a little easier though, the larger man trudging through the snow ahead of them, making a path to follow. He also helped make a sort of snow and ice fort wall type thing that the four of them plus the little polar bear could sleep in to block the wind from hitting them. The night was long and cold but they all made it through somehow. The snow had slowed and then stopped, everything hauntingly silent, except for the crunch of snow under their feet.

"I'm hungry..." The little white bear whined as he walked behind Russia, in his footsteps.

"When we find food I'll give it to you da?" Ivan said, trying not to show the bear his frustration, for having said this about four times already.

"Who are you?" Kumajiro said as he looked up at the Russian man.

"I'm Ivan and you have been with me this whole time." Russia stated and the small white bear just looked down.

"But you're not the other guy...whose he? I see him quite often." Kumajiro said actually somewhat shocking that he kind of actually knew who Mattie was.

"That's Canada, your owner and were trying to look for him along with Germany and whoever else is out here." The Russian stated.

"Yeah and don't forget about Romano." Italy perked up suddenly coming out of nowhere. Russia looked behind him and Italy was near him just causally talking while the other two were a little further behind.

"Italy had been a lot happier today than he was yesterday... perhaps it's because of what I told him about Ludwig" Prussia thought as he looked up ahead at the bubbling Italian actually having a decent conversation with Ivan. "Yeah,...even Russia was nice and helpful. What is this world coming to? Haha I can't believe America actually did it! He made us get along. I'll have to tell him thanks when I get back to the cabin. He'll be so excited."

"Oi, What are you pondering about over there?" Francis said looking over and nudging Gilbert with his shoulder.

"Nothing much, just thinking about what to do when we get back to the cabin." Gilbert said as he looked up towards the sky.

"Well the first thing I'm going to do is eat...I'm starving and I'm going to grab my food and eat in front of a nice warm fire. mmmh that'll be nice...yeah...Then maybe afterwards I'll yell at America for bringing us all into this mess! I mean we accomplished nothing but arguing...what did he ever see in any of this?" France argued.

"Hey! Stop that! What are you talking about America made us go past our differences and unite as friends and not countries!" Prussia angrily stated towards the Frenchman. "I mean look at Italy and Russia over there." Gilbert said as he pointed with his good arm to the two of them. "Everyone used to be scared of Russia and no one ever just willingly talked to him, he was creepy. I mean Italy used to be terrified of him, but look now. Italy and Russia are over there talking. I mean they're having an actually non-creepy conversation." France just stared at his friend. "Look! Now Feli's laughing. You see that? This is what America wanted." Prussia stated and Francis looked and him opened his mouth to say something but closed it and nodded his head.

"I think you're right, my friend." France finally said as he looked ahead at the two talking and back at Prussia. "I'm sorry."

"Look! Look!" Italy excited yelled out as they walked over this little hill. Italy, Russia, and Kumajiro stood waiting for the other two, and Prussia and France ran to see what was going on.

"Look guys look! There's a cabin!" Italy said as he pointed to a smallish cabin a little bit away. As the group stated trekking to the cabin, they saw something coming out of the front door. It looked like a figure, like a person.

"Hey Italy what is that?" Russia said as all of them stared.

"It looks like a person. But who is that? …and um guys why are they running so fast?" France stated as the person started running.

"I don't know but let's go help them!" Italy said as he started running at the person, and that's when Italy noticed it was Liechtenstein.

"Lili? Lili what's wrong? What are you doing here?" Feli yelled out and the whole group was running towards her now.

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Back at the cabin, Switzerland was drinking his morning tea when he passed by a window and saw the group of people and Lili running towards them. "Damn it...how did she-" Vash dropped his tea and ran to his gun case and pulled off a mid-distance gun from the shelf and back to the window. "If she tells them my plan I'll-...damn it!" Switzerland said under his breath as he opened up the window and took aim. "Almost there...almost...anddd now!" Vash let go of the trigger making a bullet plunge out from the barrel of the gun, sending it flying in the direction of Liechtenstein.

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She was almost there, Lili could see them all perfectly fine, she was so close. She knew of the plans she could save everyone, but right before she got close enough for them to hear her, she felt a terrible pain going right through her back causing her the fall straight to the ground after hearing a gunshot. Pain shooting through her whole body, as she laid there motionless.

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