A/N: Urm... the one that's writing this is a friend of mine who refuses to publish it so it's here. If she ever creates an account, i'll be linking you guys there.

Warning: might have OOC-ness just cause both of us aren't that familiar with Hetalia. It was first written with OCs which then became a gnsk fic (to those who might find this familiar) but we found that the amount of characs in this fics was too much and that's when we found the Heta characs fits in pretty well and thus this happened.

Pairings: USUK, GerIta, AusHun(Er... i hope you don't come back just to confirm this), RusPru(In the process of begging), SuFin, ChuuNiChuu

Disclaimer: Don't own Hetalia.

Chapter 01

Alfred woke up with a jolt. He was cold and shivering, drenched to the bone yet his body was smoking and his clothes were burnt to bits. His usually messy blonde hair was stuck flat onto his head from the water, as his silvery blue eyes hidden slightly by his long fringe blinked, slowly focusing on the mess that he had made.

The once grand canopy bed was nothing but a mixture of burnt cloth and wood, and there were cuts of various depth and length all over the beautifully textured red and blue walls of the room, including the bed itself. Pinching his nose to the smell of burnt bed, Alfred, with a clear look of irritation on his face glared at the man standing next to him holding a bucket which he guessed had been filled with ice cold water just seconds ago. The one thing he hated the most was to be forced up early in the morning, especially when it is not by the usual means.

"Nightmare again? This is the third time you've set yourself on fire this month boy. Good thing I was keeping a close eye on you." The man said in a creepily sweet voice with a look of amusement on his childish-like face, as a group of servants stood outside the room by the doorway, waiting to tidy up the room.

"Still you didn't have to drench me in cold water, just a call or tap on my shoulder and I would have woken up." Alfred retorted as he tried to lean back down and immediately regretted it as the burnt cut up wood gave way from his slight shift in weight, causing him to fall through the hole onto the wet scorched marble floor with an unintentional yelp escaping from his lips. What a way to start a brand new day.

With a laugh, Ivan Braginski, bodyguard and combat teacher to Alfred since Alfred was a child, bent down and offered him his hand, which was covered with feather-like tattoos of shades of black and red that seemed to flow all the way down from his shoulders towards the palm of his hands. Ignoring it, Alfred, still embarrassed by his little fall, turned away from him and asked as calmly as he could for the giggling servants to come back later.

Sighing, Ivan stood back up, his long tan scarf swaying slightly from the movement. He straightened his blood-red shirt underneath his long unbuttoned light tan coat, and threw a towel that he had slung over his shoulder, onto the face of his charge, urging him to get up. Said charge just summoned a card out of thin air with a flick of his wrist, threw it down onto the towel and summoned another card, flicking it away from him towards the wall.

Just as the thrown card was about to be impaled onto the wall, it glowed slightly for a split second. The card on top of the towel glowed in resonance and dissipated into thin air, while the towel that was on Alfred's face just a second ago disappeared and reappeared on the card in the wall, swaying back and forth from the motion.

"Did you really have to use magic to get rid of one measly towel that I took the effort to bring along?" Ivan asked with a shake of his head. Looking at Alfred who was just lying motionless on the floor with his eyes closed for a few minutes, Ivan finally closed his deep violet eyes in surrender and sighed again.

Rubbing his chin, Ivan leaned his large muscular build back a little and wondered out loud, "Didn't I tell you not to use that warping magic of yours on objects without my approval as well? It's still too volatile for you to handle properly. Look at yourself, you're already pretty worn out."

Stifling a yawn as Ivan squatted down once again and forcefully pulled him up onto a seating position, Alfred rubbed the sleep off his eyes before putting on his glasses which Ivan tossed to him, as what was left of his burnt and tattered clothes fell down onto the floor, revealing his slim athletic build and dog tag along with a small swirling blue crystal pendant on the same chain hanging loosely around his neck. However the thing that would catch a person's attention was the strange corruption on his left hand. Unlike any normal bare skinned hand that anybody would have, Alfred's left hand was jet-black, and it was sharp and scaly, like that of a talon of a bird.

Swiftly picking up the towel hanging on the card, Ivan, with a smile that said otherwise, threw it towards Alfred who caught it this time and with a soft half-serious voice he said, "Cover up your hand before another sees it prince charmless. You do not wish to have anyone seeing that, da?"

"Yeah yeah, call me that from now on." Alfred muttered as he wrapped his left hand in the towel before finally proceeding to get up from the floor, stretching his body as he stood, and strolled to the cut up antique gold edged dresser carved with intricate designs of creatures of various species beside his collapsed bed. Picking up his usual wear of a plain light grey dress shirt with a loose crimson tie and black vest coupled with a crimson hemmed black long coat, black jeans and a single glove to cover his left hand, Alfred was about to head into the bathroom in his room to clean up and get changed, when Ivan stopped him.

"Before you go anywhere, I have to ask. The fire was from the nightmare wasn't it? Are you all right? I'm starting to feel bad for the servants who have to clean up after the mess you make every single time." Ivan asked mockingly but Alfred could hear the worry hidden in his tone.

"I'm fine!" Alfred gave him a thumbs up, "I'm a hero after all!"

"But still I find you on fire every time it occurs." Ivan called out as Alfred closed the door behind him, ignoring his friend.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Alfred noted how his straight but unruly hair was getting too long for his liking. The sides are covering almost half of his ear now, and the back was starting to touch his collar. A few more weeks and he ought to get it cut. With a sigh, Alfred tried again to unsuccessfully tame his wild hair especially that cowlick at the front before looking down at his clawed scaly jet-black hand.

He couldn't even remember how it used to look like anymore, probably just like his opposite arm. But who knows. Closing his sharp jagged talon-like fingers and observing them, Alfred traced the corruption with his fingers down to where it stopped; pass his wrist about quarter way to his elbow, where the rough black scales came in contact with his smooth light skin. He didn't even know what it was exactly, but for some reason, he just knew that sooner or later, when it spreads far too much, it would cause some serious irreversible damage to himself, or even kill him.

There had to be some way to get rid of this strange corruption, but it was a helpless case. There was no known cure, and to add on, only little records was found. Once, the man who examined him let his mouth slip, saying that it was similar to the hide of a kind of monstrous creature. What monstrous creature, he didn't know. His Father had refused to let anyone who knew about it tell him, and none did even after his constant pestering.

Pulling on his leather glove, Alfred took a moment to look at the pendant around his neck, before putting it under his shirt. Still messing with his hair, Alfred turned to the door, and just as he was opening it, Ivan's hand came down at where the door had been just a second ago directly at his face.

Dodging the blow, Alfred drew a card and twisted his body up, using the momentum to slice the card towards Ivan's head. But expecting the counterattack, Ivan leaned his head back, dodging the card by mere centimetres and was about to break out into a smile when the runes decorating the card started to glow. Jumping back, the card exploded into flames just as his feet touched the ground, and Ivan immediately shifted to his right, just as another card came flying out of Alfred's hand, missing him again.

"Not bad, but you got to do better than that to hit me boy." Ivan grinned.

"Says the person who launched a surprise attack at someone just out of the bathroom." Replied Alfred, dissipating the dagger that was on his hand with a flick of his wrist, his previous bad mood now a distant memory.

"Looks like his highness has finally decided to wake up. The both of you can settle this later. Right now there's a little problem that requires your attention Al." A cool and collected voice spoke out from the doorway.

Standing beside the beautifully carved wooden door with his hands together, Wang Yao, advisor and childhood friend of Alfred since an early age stood with his arms crossed. Topping the nation in the gifted, he was appointed to Alfred as his consultant to guide the prince from making mistakes, though many times he had been swept up along with Alfred's stunts instead.

"What do you mean the both of us? You'll be joining us in sparing later, you need the exercise. But first, what's this little problem?" Ivan chipped as he went over to an annoyed Yao.

Pushing Ivan away with his white gloved hands rather panicky, Yao pushed himself off the wall as he patted the ash off his outfit, consisting of a maroon dress shirt coupled with a formal jacket, while sweeping back his dark brown ponytail that had formally been on his left shoulder.

"The usual, Antonio got sent to prison again."

"Some time inside prison would be good for him. Maybe that could get some sense into that thick skull of his."

"If 'some time' would help, he should have already learnt aru. This is his fifth time getting caught by the authorities."

"Just let me get my boots on and we'll go get him out before he starts to think that we've forgotten about him again." Alfred interrupted before they could start debating again as he put on his buckled boots.

Looking about the room as Alfred got himself ready, Yao commented, "Seems that you had a nightmare again. I'm guessing that it's the same ones as before? Are you okay?"

Alfred thought back to the dream he had. The moon that had been painted red, towering flames all around, air full of screams of those dying, the smell of burning wood and flesh, the soldier, that red uniform, and most importantly, the strange hazy figure that appeared just before he woke up.

The last two times had been the same scene as well. Except that with each passing time, the dreams seemed much more detailed than the last. It felt as if the events in his dreams did happen, like it was a part of his memory, a part of his past that he had forgotten.

Shaking his head, Alfred looked up and replied with a big smile, "Yeah it was the same dream as the last two," placing his chin on his hand, his brow furrowed in thought, he continued on.

"It's much more detailed that before, like pieces of the puzzle falling into place. But the thing that intrigues me the most is the figure I saw before I got woken up. I've never gone that far in my previous dreams. If I had more time maybe I could have seen that person or creature's face."

"These reoccurring dreams sounds like something that might have actually happened, but for you to start remembering them now… what does it mean? And this figure sounds like bad news if it was true. Pity you woke up before you could have a clearer look, though it's not for certain you would be able to see its face. But if it is an event that happened when you were younger, maybe the King would have an answer." Wang Yao said thoughtfully.

"Do you want to burn the mansion down? And I think we're forgetting someone."

"Ivan is right, we can talk about this later. For now we better go get him out before anything happens. I'm guessing you have the car ready Yao." Alfred said with a lopsided smile as he headed out of his room into the tall and spacious elegantly decorated hallway, while glancing back at Yao as both of them followed close behind.

Walking through the hallway filled with long draperies, potted plants, and windows that have been placed at carefully planned intervals to let the cool morning air flow in most efficiently, Alfred, whistling a soft tune and started off towards the direction of the main entrance of the castle-alike mansion that overlooked the grand City of Epistylium, capital of the nation Sanctus, without a single glance at the beauty around him, his mind half focused at the task at hand. He had been walking down this hallway for years anyways.

As they were reaching their sleek and menacing convertible car, Alfred heard a familiar voice calling his name. He sighed in exasperation before turning to see, as he had expected, his older brother and Crown Prince of Sanctus, Francis. Unlike Alfred, he had beautiful wavy shoulder-length blond hair with a tinge of brown, blue eyes and slight stubble on his chin, standing by the steps leading up to the huge double doors of the mansion, waving at him with a huge smile on his face.

It was not that Alfred hated his brother. It is true that he wouldn't like the predictable conversation, but it would be rude to ignore him. Especially now that he had caught his brother's attention.

Striding towards where Alfred tensed up by the car, Francis lifted his hand and came down hard on Alfred's head, causing Alfred to buckle a little, his glasses almost falling off despite having braced himself. Behind them, Wang Yao and Ivan stood a few meters away watching amusingly, with Yao trying to hide his smile as Francis went on and shuffled Alfred's hair vigorously.

More like trying to pull all of his hair out, Alfred thought.

"Where is my cute little brother going off to, at so close to breakfast? Finally found a girl to keep you company? Though I have trouble imagining any girl would want you." Francis laughed as he pushed Alfred away from him. "Come back soon alright? Last night, Father mentioned that he wanted to speak with you."

"As you say Francis," Alfred coughed as he steadied himself with the help of the car while pushing his glasses back on properly. "It's good to see you back home safely. I'll try to be back before breakfast is over."

"Francis? Aww come on little brother, call me big bro like you used to when you were younger. You are so much cuter in the past. But I guess everything has an end." Francis sighed, shaking his head dramatically as he headed up the marble stairs into the mansion. "I'll tell Father that so don't be late alright? It'll be sad to see you get shot down by him for being late again."

Rubbing his sore head, Alfred hopped into the back of the car. "Stop smiling and hurry up," he said with a pout. "I wish he would stop doing that," Alfred muttered as Ivan jumped in beside him, while Yao took the wheel, with the smiles they were hiding now clear on their faces.

"You can't deny the fact that you did follow His Royal Highness around like a lost puppy wherever he went when you were younger."

"Or the fact that you would run around crying whenever he left the mansion for a few days, isn't that right Yao?"

"That's only when Father wasn't around either. The whole calling him 'big bro' thing was because he forced me to say it." Alfred snapped, face flushing as Yao started up the car.

"Keep telling yourself that. Maybe you might just convince yourself someday." Ivan laughed while Alfred threw him an angry look as they sped down the driveway pass the tall arched metal gate towards the bridge that went into the bustling city.

The City of Epistylium has stood for thousands of years since the nation was first formed. Underneath its spiralling skyscrapers unlike any other country, stood tall buildings of brick and stone, forever changing and growing in magic and technology along with the great nation Sanctus.

The prison was only a short distance away from the bridge, and soon, they were parked outside its tall iron gates. The soldiers on duty, surprised to see the prince so suddenly, rushed back to their positions as the guard captain hurried down to greet them.

Stepping out of the car, Alfred looked up at the forbidding building before him and recalled the number of times he had been here. The last four times had been to bust Antonio out, but before that, there had been a time where he was thrown in for a few days by his Father, as punishment when he almost destroyed half the mansion when he went a little overboard while testing out a new card trick he had learnt.

"You are nobody if you have no control over yourself. Stay in there and learn some restrain." King Roderich words echoed in his mind as he sat on the cold hard stone floor of the prison, lamenting his actions.

Even though it could be considered a bad experience at that time, he had learnt a lot in prison, from the inmates who had either tried to bully or befriend him to the soldiers who had been ordered, though most of them failed, to treat him the same as the rest within. Smiling at the memory, Alfred turned his gaze towards Yao, who was already talking to the prison head as Ivan stood beside him, his arms folded making him look much more intimidating than he already was.

The guard captain was apologizing frantically to Yao, his eyes darting nervous glances at Ivan who just tried to smile reassuringly but in result unnerved the man more. Alfred walked up to them, his boots crunching loudly on the loose grit stone floor. With another apology, the guard captain whose crimson uniform was drenched in sweat hurried up the steps into the huge stone prison.

"A new guy" Ivan noted a bit too happily as the three of them followed slowly behind.

"It would seem so," Wang Yao agreed. "The other guards are already used to us coming here." He finished as he eyed rather irritably at one of the guards who was still munching on his bread while standing at attention.

"It's always interesting to see how a new captain reacts when they see us here. They often end up asking for a transfer." Alfred chuckled with a mischievous smirk on his face.

Alfred purposefully strolled slowly to the holding cell, giving the guard captain who was frantically pushing the buttons on the control panel to get the magic barrier down some extra time. Even though he had seen the magic barrier more times than he would like to, its mechanism never failed to amaze him. The magic barrier was powered by one of the smaller thirteen Astral Crystals in the City of Epistylium, with the largest and most powerful crystal located right underneath the lone island the mansion stood upon. Such feats of magical technology were not found in any of the other nations. Well at least from what he could remember. Things might have changed over the past few years since he had last visited any nation.

Shrugging the thought pass him, Alfred peeked in pass the shimmering barrier to see his close friend Antonio Fernandez Carriedo lying on the floor with his eyes closed, his arms crossed to cushion his head. Knocking on the barrier, Alfred did an energetic wave to Antonio. Upon seeing that his buddies hasn't forgotten about him, Antonio jumped up to his feet while picking up his sleeveless red collared jacket that was lying on the floor, his green eyes sparkling with happiness from seeing them.

"As happy as ever isn't he." Yao muttered with a frown yet amused look on his face as he walked up next to Alfred.

"I thought you guys had forgotten about me!" Antonio said, his cheerful voice muffled slightly by the barrier. "Being stuck in this small little cell for the whole night was horrible! No soft bed or a bath, and worst of all, that guy refused to give me a drink!" Antonio complained, one hand pointing at the guard captain accusingly while ruffling his messy curly brown hair.

"If someone had decided to keep out of trouble this wouldn't have happened da?" Ivan chided as the barrier finally flickered and disappeared.

"Aww come on, cut me some slack I actually tried to keep out of trouble this time. I can't help it if trouble comes finding me, can I?" Antonio protested.

"So what did you do this time?" Alfred asked ignoring Antonio's cry of innocence as the latter yawned and stretched, walking out of the cell.

"What? Oh, I was just walking down the street near the bridge when I spotted this shady looking group of people. One of them was even carrying this huge bag on his shoulder. So being a GOOD citizen of Sanctus, I decided to follow them and see what they were up to." Antonio replied.

"A good citizen would report the group to the authorities. Not follow them." Wang Yao said, shaking his head disapprovingly.

"It was late at night, and I was tired. Who would think so much?" Antonio grumbled.

"Not tired enough to find trouble though." Wang Yao piped.

"But… As I was saying," Antonio huffed, "I followed them underneath the bridge, and I saw them huddling around one of the supporting pillars by the bank. Then the guy with the huge bag started taking out this strange looking device and started approaching the pillar. And as anybody would know, a dubious looking group of people huddling together to plant a weird device on the bridge is surely bad news. So I shouted at them and was about to go charging forth when the guards arrived. They caught me for suspicious behaviour though it wasn't my fault, and let those people get away." Antonio continued, glaring at Yao who just ignored him.

"A strange group by the bridge…" Alfred thought aloud while flipping the card into the air and catching it as it was falling back down, purposefully ignoring the guard captain looking nervously at him shaking in his boots.

"The sentries at the top bridge did not report seeing a bunch of people under the bridge, only Antonio being taken away screaming in protest." Yao commented.

"Did your men report anything captain?" Alfred asked, turning to face the guard captain whose face was now as white as snow, while closing his hands around the card, making it dissipate into thin air.

Shaking like a leaf, the guard captain squeaked, "Y-yes Your Highness, I had assumed that it was just a bunch of hooligans running away after we wrongly caught your most gracious friend. I will send out a team to investigate at once."

"There's no need." Alfred cut in, causing the guard captain to flinch from his words. "I'll look into it. If it is a threat, Father and Brother might be in danger… though I'm sure that they can protect themselves. And it'll prove a useful distraction."

"Plus I'm a hero after all, I'll make sure justice is served!" Alfred added, flashing a grin and a thumbs up.

"The royal guards can look into this matter, but if you put it that way, I guess there's nothing I can do about it." Yao sighed at what his charge would do to get off with his usual mediocre tasks.

"Well then, are we heading back to the castle? I need a bath, pronto." Antonio said swinging his jacket across his shoulder.

"It might look like one, but it's a mansion not a castle." Ivan corrected, while patting the shaking guard captain softly on his back with a look of fake sympathy on his face to calm him down. Ivan was clearly having fun watching the guard captain squirm.

"We did better pick up the pace Your Highness. If we hurry, you might be able to make it in time for breakfast." Yao interrupted as he fished his pocket watch out to look at the time.

"Yeah, let's wrap things up here and get back." Alfred said. "Thanks for your help and don't worry so much," he told the guard captain light-heartedly as they hurried down the corridor, leaving the guard captain out cold on the hard floor by the control panel.