((I decided to reserve "tHE sPaRK oF iNSaNiTY" as a chapter title just for "Lost in My Dreams," but I'm at least calling this chapter "iNSaNiTY".))
((WARNING: Really really REALLY long chapter(almost 5,000 words), and "Oh my fucking god, FEELS" ))
"The unneeded meaning of start and end
To the disappearance of this soul"
Russia approached the sleeping Gilbert- or at least pretending to be asleep. He just wanted everyone to leave him alone and quit asking about his "psychotic episode" the other day. Russia sat down next to him and poked him lightly.
"Um... Gilbert?" Russia asked, knowing the Prussian was awake. Gilbert jumped up immediately upon hearing the Russian's voice.
"Vhat the hell?!"
"Oh, I'm... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Like hell you're sorry! Get the hell out of my room!" Gilbert shouted, now standing on the bed clinging to a pillow for "protection."
"I really am... But I just wanted to talk to you, so um... could I please stay?"
"No. Get the hell out."
Russia didn't move, but shifted uncomfortably and looked everywhere in the room except at Gilbert. Gilbert at some point realized that he was being put up to this and wasn't going to leave on his own.
"Fine, vhat do you vant?" Gilbert finally said, sitting back down on the bed while still clutching the pillow.
"Um, well I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry, and I'm really not my brother. I didn't want you to get hurt anymore than you did- so um..." Russia paused, "C-can you forgive me... and maybe w-we can be f-friends?"
"No. Get out."
"Can you at least accept my apology?"
"No."
"Who remembers characters?
From the window of madness, goodbye"
It was painful for some of the countries- mainly Germany- to watch Gilbert be taken off in Canada's truck like some mental patient. Romano and Canada would look after him while they took care of Ian... It's not like he'd be gone forever...
Nonetheless, the countries watched sorrowfully as Canada drove back up to his home with Gilbert staring blankly through the window. Romano was already up there- and Switzerland had sent Liechtenstein up there as well.
Soon it would be time to fight Ian for real, they couldn't keep looking after Gilbert while he was so stab-happy around Russia. Soon they'd be fighting for their very lives.
Romania and Norway had dragged England in the previous night completely drunk. Apparently he'd gone out drinking after worrying constantly over everything.
That was the next problem the nations had to deal with. England had to be focused when Ian attacked. He couldn't be panicking like he was. Someone had to talk some sense into him. And unfortunately, America had been nominated to do so.
America walked into England's room and found him huddled in a dark corner covered in a blanket and surrounded by pillows. He looked like a young child curled up in a blanket fort, but England was in pain.
"Turn off the light, America..." he whined
America ripped the blanket away from England and the later recoiled violently from the bright light.
"America! Give that back, I can't see! It's too bright!" England said, blindly reaching for his stolen blanket.
"You can't see anything if you're sitting in a corner either," America said, easily keeping the blanket away from England, "Anyway, that's not why I'm here."
England gave up on the blanket, "So why are you-?"
"You. Me. Movie Night. Now."
"No way you're getting me to watch a movie while I'm hungover."
"Unfortunately, you don't have a choice," America said flinging England over his shoulders like it was nothing. England struggled momentarily, but quickly gave up on trying to escape. America set him down on his couch and went to put the DVD in the player.
"So what are we watching?" England said crossing his arms. America flung the DVD case at him. England blinked at the title, 'Independence Day,' "Really?"
"Don't get all British-y on me, it's a movie about aliens!" America said excitedly.
"I- well, I knew that," England said, setting the cover to the side, "I meant why are we watching it?"
"Because, you need a good talking-to, and I suck at motivational speeches, so I thought I'd borrow one!"
"Ah," England said unenthusiastically.
America fast-forwarded to the point he had in mind and soon a character was speaking to a group of people.
"Good morning."
"That's the president," America said.
"In less than an hour-"
"He's not really the president, he's just playing the president," America clarified.
"-aircraft from here will join-"
"But not in the movie. I mean the actor is playing the president, but IN the movie, he really is the president-"
"America, shut up. I'll watch the damn movie, but I don't need you explaining every little detail to me during," England said, more annoyed than usual because of his hangover.
"-others from around the world," the character continued.
"Okay, I just thought I'd explain it to you since you didn't see the rest of the movie..." America said. England shot him a look and he shut up.
"And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. 'Mankind.' That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution-"
England shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"-but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"
The crowd started to cheer and America paused the movie.
"See, England? You have to stop blaming yourself and worrying so much!"
"Idiot! That's not even what the message of the speech was!"
"Oh, well, I said I wasn't very good with speeches, didn't I?"
"Yes, and you weren't wrong either..."
"Either way, it isn't your fault- well maybe a little bit. But it was an accident! So it doesn't matter! I mean it caused a problem, and we might all die, but it's not like you were trying to do it!"
England sucked in a sharp breath and shifted again.
"Shit, I mean... You weren't trying to do it right?" America asked sounding very legitimately concerned.
"No! Of course not! Why would I want that?"
"See? You didn't mean to!" America said quickly dropping the act, "So you can't be blamed... Even though I always got in trouble when I accidentally did something. I guess I'll have to come up with a punishment for you later, but for now you need to focus, right?"
England didn't say anything.
"Look, dude, everyone is really worried about you. You're lucky France isn't a drunk, otherwise he'd probably be curled up in some corner too. I mean, he did drink wine, but just like a little like he always does- or maybe a glass or two more... I don't know. You get the point. So will you stop worrying so much and blame someone else, like, I don't know, Ian for example?"
"America, you can't just tell someone not to worry and expect them to be perfectly fine from then on- it just doesn't work that way. But if you really are so worried..." England trailed of and sighed, "-then I guess I can blame Ian and Oliver... for most of it. I still should have been more careful with my magic around Oliver- he's a 2p after all, and I shouldn't have trusted him the slightest bit."
"But you'll stop blaming the whole situation on yourself, right?"
"Yes, I suppose so."
"Hello, myself
Haven't we met before?
Goodbye, yourself
So, want to talk?"
Ian approached the area around the American's house. He had been aware, of course, of the gathering of the nations. I seemed that they were going to fight back together. There wasn't a problem in this, it only gathered all of his targets together in one place.
The area was bustling with activity, he could see the magic trio gathered together in a group (likely discussing effective spells to use during battle), a little ways over he could see some of the Nordics trying on old viking gear. Switzerland was distributing guns and preparing himself to fight- imagine that... Switzerland defending something other than his own borders!
They were certainly going to give him Hell...
"Hello, Ian."
Ian chuckled and turned to face his 1p self.
"You joining up with this lot?" Ian asked.
"You're planning on killing me anyway, so why shouldn't I?"
"Fair point, I just didn't expect you to attempt to fight with you being so weak."
There was no doubt that what Ian said was true. Russia had never been particularly strong before his imprisonment, and after it he only go weaker. Sure his body had grown along with the physical country, but he never gained any of the strength that Ian had. Ian could probably kill him here and now without much of a struggle.
"You don't have to do this, you know. They would at least consider a fair divide of the country between their 2ps and themselves. They don't want to have to fight you. They don't want to die."
"But they will die. You will die," Ian chuckled, "You'll soon see."
There was a short pause in which Russia tried unsuccessfully to plead with his eyes, and Ian just smiled darkly. By now all the nations had noticed Ian's presence and were probably aware that the rest of the 2p nations weren't far away either. There was a tense moment which passed slowly as the two Russia's stared at each other.
"Oliver, Dragomir, Lokki?" Ian asked. Not a moment later, the 2p!Magic trio made their appearance. Ian smiled wider as he snapped his fingers.
"iNSaNiTY
Like floating on air"
The peaceful day suddenly turned grim as the spell was cast. The blue sky turned sepia, the rolling hills appeared a grim shade of purple, the trees a shade somewhere between yellow and orange. But the nations weren't paying attention to the strange effects on their vision. They were busy dealing with the new memories that had suddenly weaseled their way into the nations' minds.
~~Flashback~~
"Now when you get the new memories, they'll be very hard to ignore, but you have to stay focused! If you think about the memories too much, you'll start to fill in the details subconsciously and the memory will become much more believable!" England explained,
"It'll be hard to fight it, but if you can pick one real memory as the truth and focus on the details of that, then you'll know the other memory to be fake. But it has to be something that will prove to yourself that you're a country- but it has to be powerful. Good or bad is fine, but only powerful good or powerful bad."
"What kind of memories will work?" America asked
"I just said-"
"But like, as an example. What are you going to use?"
"Eh? Well..."
~~End flashback~~
England put his hands to his head, trying to focus on what was real and what wasn't. He tried to remember what his hold on reality had been.
"The fourth of July, 2012... NO! 1776..." England struggled to remember the right date, "The day Alfred- America... moved out... no, the day he left the British Empire..."
England struggled to keep the details straight. He thought that the memory would have been enough, but somewhere in his mind there was another version... one that made a bit more sense at the time...
~~Flashback?~~
Alfred was walking down the steps to Arthur's house, suitcase in hand. His steps didn't falter as he heard Arthur clamber down the stairs and slam the front door open.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Arthur shouted at the teen.
"I'm moving out," Alfred said nonchalantly, stopping to look Arthur square in the eye.
"Like hell you are! What makes you think you can do that?"
"I've told you a thousand times that I was going to move out once I hit 17. What makes you think I wouldn't do it?"
"You're my little brother- you're just a child! You don't know a thing about the world!"
"I'm no longer a child, nor your little brother. From now on consider me an adult!" Alfred said turning back towards the road.
"I won't allow it," Arthur said moving forward to grab the teen's arm. Alfred shrugged away from Arthur's grasp. "There's no way I can stop you... is there?"
Alfred didn't answer, just looked back into Arthur's green eyes which were now moist with tears.
"Why, damn it? Why?!" Arthur sobbed.
"You know why," Alfred said, momentarily setting down his suitcase to hug the shorter blond. The embrace was short-lived and soon Arthur could only watch as Alfred left the small gated yard and left down the sidewalk.
Somehow Alfred's short embrace had only made the parting harder for Arthur. It had made him feel... empty somehow...
~~End "Flashback?"~~
"PSYCHoPaTHY
A carefree life"
Meanwhile, in Canada...
Canada opened the door for Gilbert and pointed him in the direction of the house. While Canada gathered up Gilbert's bags to take them inside, the later was already inside inspecting the large wooden house. It had the outwardly appearance of a large log cabin, but the inside was much like any 'regular' house you might expect. Actually, it had a similar layout to America's house- the living room and kitchen connected and visible from the front door, a staircase to the right, a bathroom and spare bedroom on either side of the stairs.
Sitting in the living room looking quite bitter while eating a tomato was none other than- ((yep, you guessed it- )) Romano.
"Took you long enough, you bastards."
"Hey, Lovino..." Gilbert said tiredly.
Romano blinked, 'wat? o.o'
Canada had expected this conversation to take place so when he walked through the door and saw Romano's confused expression he mouthed, "I'll explain later," to him and quickly led Gilbert upstairs to his room.
Unfortunately, Canada would not have the chance to explain- actually he was told not to, so he never made an attempt to do so.
"iNSaNiTY
An illusion that can't end"
The nations fought hard against their false memories, but very few were proving victorious...
America was trying desperately to remember his daily job of being a country, his leaders, and when the first McDonnalds was built. Instead he was remembering some weird desk job, his father (who was apparently named George), and when the McDonnalds was built down the road from his house.
France was trying to focus on Jehanne d'Arc, what she had done for his country, and what France had saidshe had done for his country. But all he could concentrate on was a girl who'd lived down the street from him named Joan.
Germany was possibly having the hardest time of it since he'd already been calling his brother by his human name for a while. He tried to remember when he had first met Italy, found him in a box claiming to be a tomato fairy. But for some reason he kept remembering a happy reunion rather than a first meeting...
~~Flashback?~~
Ludwig had been sitting on the plane for several hours. He'd been away from home for a few years now, and he'd grown much since he'd left. He wasn't the tiny little child who's father moved to another country to be a military Chaplin.Not anymore. He'd grown up.
The plane bounced as it landed. He was home... He'd get off the plane and explore his old neighbourhood. He might even knock on the door of a certain girl he used to know...
After the plane stopped he retrieved his carry-on from the overhead storage and left for the airport. He followed the signs for the baggage claim, which led him to the main hall of the airport. He descended the escalator and-
"Ludwig!" a voice said before it's speaker glomped him and latched onto him in a sudden embrace. Ludwig stopped to examine his "attacker." It was a boy about his age- with strangely familiar hair...
"F-Feliciano?" Ludwig asked tentatively. The boy nodded. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to the airport to pick you up~!" Feliciano said cheerily, burying his face into Ludwig's neck, "I'm so happy you came home..."
"Yes," Ludwig said, "I'm home,"
~~End "Flashback?"~~
"No, no, no, NO!" Italy shouted to himself, shaking his head, "Holy Rome left... he didn't come back..."
For some reason kept trying to call Holy Rome "Ludwig," but he should have known better. The countries didn't usually have human names back then, and even if they did they were rarely spoken amongst other nations. Italy's mind kept wanting to loan Holy Rome Germany's name, but it only made Italy cry more.
Italy was far more successful with keeping his memories- all he had to do was tell himself that Holy Rome was dead, and Germany was his ally...
"CaPTiViTY
Unable to run away"
England couldn't take it anymore. These fake memories- they were too much. FAR too much. England raised his hand up in frustration.
"STOP!" he commanded. England's vision returned to normal and the memories ceased pounding his head with lies.
It took England a while to recover from the effects, but soon the pain in his head did vanish and he could examine the battlefield.
"iNSaNiTY
Like floating on air"
They were losing- badly. Most of the nations were too focused on separating their memories to even realize that they were being beaten to a pulp. He watched as France's 2p lazily kicked him and extinguished a cigarette butt in his hair.
He saw America only just managing to defend himself against the swings of Allan's spiked bat. He was actually dodging most of the hits until he backed up into Matthieu. England winced as the hockey stick connected with the back of America's head.
Italy was doing surprisingly well, managing to defend himself and the seemingly-impaired Germany against both of their 2ps as well as Romano's.
But that's all he was able to do- defend. Most of them were getting beaten to a pulp- some even appeared to be dead already. Italy was doing the best by far, and that only translated into so much.
"We're going to lose... We're all going to die..."
"PSYCHoPaTHY
A carefree life"
It had only been an hour or two since Prussia had arrived at Canada's house, and already Romano was suspicious. Whenever he came down the stairs it was at a regular, non-supersonic-Prussia-speed. And he always addressed Romano as "Lovino." His "nation" name wasn't even particularly revealing, so there was literally no reason to do it other than to make Romano worried- which he was.
Since Canada didn't seem to have any intention of telling him what the hell was wrong with Prussia, he decided to ask him himself.
"What's with you?" Romano asked as Gilbert poured himself a glass of milk, "You've been acting weird all damn day, calling me by my human name and I want to know why, bastard."
Gilbert hand flashed to his forehead and he winced in pain from his sudden headache. He leaned on the table and ended up knocking the bag of milk to the floor with a "splat!" and a "glug, glug, glug," as the milk poured out of the bag onto the floor.
Eventually Gilbert recovered and he looked up at Romano and said to him with a smile,
"If I'm a psychopath for not caring about it, what does it make you for not knowing any better?"
'wat? o.o'
"iNSaNiTY
An illusion that can't end"
England took a deep breath.
"CaPTiViTY
Like the corruption is continuing"
England ran out into the fray, dispelling his counter-spell of clarity before he ran. He had a plan- a stupid hair-brained idea, but it might just save the day. If he could just get to the other countries first...
He let himself forget about protecting his memories as he grabbed each nation one by one bringing the nearest few nations close to him. After he gathered France, America, Italy, Germany, Romania, Sweden, and Finland, he cast his spell.
The 2p nations looked at the counter-spell barrier before wandering off to find new targets. They knew that it would do them very little good to fight the nations while they weren't under the effect of the spell..
"The discovered conclusion, disappearing
Outlines fading to black
In the darkness, there's no such thing thing as light
From the inside of madness, goodbye"
"We aren't doing too well just rejecting the memories, we need to fight our 2ps as well," England explained quickly.
"That much is obvious," America said picking at the small circular scabs that had formed now that he no longer had to fight for his nationhood.
"H'w 'r' w'e s'pp's'd t' d' th't?" Sweden asked ((So so sorry for his accent))
"If you 'aven't noticed, Angleterre, it is rather difficult to fight off memories and a 2p at zhe same time."
England chose not to say anything about France's 2p barely doing anything to make himself be considered a threat and moved on with his mini-meeting.
"That's exactly what I noticed. And I think we need to give in to the memories."
"What?" several of the nations said at once.
"Think about it, if we willingly give up our nationhood, we'll be able to focus on fighting more!"
"But we'll be mortal! We could die!" Romania said
"It's better than switching back and forth and being unable to defend ourselves. If we accept being mortal, then we'll fight like mortals- with everything to lose or gain. Kind of like all of America's movies where the ordinary characters are the most powerful."
"I thought you said only my horror movies are like that!" America said, getting extreemely off-topic very quickly as usual.
"All of your movies are like that, America," England said, "Now Romania, I want you to get Norway, and between the two of you gather everyone up and give them the same briefing I just gave you- everyone needs to know about this!"
"Alright!" Romania said, going off to fetch Norway.
"Are you ready everybody?" England asked. The nations nodded and took in a breath as they prepared for the spell to take hold again. "Okay."
England lowered the barrier...
"Hello, myself
Haven't we met before?
Goodbye, yourself
So, want to talk?"
The countries- sorry, the ex-countries marched onward, taking their weapons out for the first time and going to beat the crap out of their 2ps.
Alfred shot three bullets at Allen and Matthieu- only one of them actually hitting- and shouted at them, "Come at me bitches!"
Francis gave Francois a good slashing with his sword until the 2p did actually get a little pissed off and fought back... just a little.
Ludwig seemed to be doing pretty well and started protecting Feliciano since the latter didn't quite like the taking to these new memories of his. Feliciano didn't like having someone become un-dead, he didn't want to accept it because somewhere in his heart he knew that Holy Rome really was gone...
But nonetheless, the 1ps were doing well. They were winning.
"iNSaNiTY
Like floating on air"
Ian seemed to noticed the sudden change of tides. They had willingly given up their nationhoods- to keep the spell up any longer would be a waste of resources.
Ian had expected the nations to do as such. He was prepared. He had a back-up plan...
"PSYCHoPaTHY
A carefree life"
The world's propercolours had returned to the nations eyes as the 2p!Magic Trio took down their spell. England watched as Dragomirand Lokki came towards the fray with magic ready in hand. As long as the 1ps had the only magic, they had the upper-hand, but now that the other side had given up on their spell... well, it would be close.
England's proper memories returned to him, but if the enemy was willing to take down the spell and resume fighting, then it must still be affecting him- it must still be affecting all of them. England had to stay on his toes.
"iNSaNiTY
An illusion that can't end"
England readied a ball of black fire as Dragomir aproached him. He saw movement beside him and Romania came up beside him- magic at the ready. England shot him a glance of gratitude as they waited for Dragomir to strike.
Dragomir snapped his fingers and two shadow hounds suddenly charged at the two magic-users. Romania snapped his fingers and one of the hounds dispersed while England killed the other one off with the fire.
Romania took the opportunity to strike Dragomir with a type of life-draining spell. The black orb lapped at the 2p's strength until he magically pushed it away with his hand.
England launched a black fire ball at Dragomir, but it was blocked by a shard of ice that Lokki had summoned, jumping in to defend his fellow magic-user.
England and Lokki duked it out with fire and ice while Romania and his 2p summoned and sent a variety of beings after each other- most of which were simply dispelled or forced to switch allegiance. The two Romania's didn't make much progress with each other, but England and Lokki weren't so evenly matched.
A sharp shard of ice had dulled itself on England's arm causing a deep cut in the latter. England recoiled and only just managed to melt the next shard aimed at his heart.
"It's not healing..." England muttered to himself.
"Of course not," Lokki said, not pausing his attacks while he spoke, "Oliver may have stolen the spell from you, but we perfected it. The memories fade away when the spell is taken down, but the side-effects remain for quite a while afterwords!"
England defended himself while listening to what Lokki had said. 'So they perfectedit huh? Oliver may be no good at magic, but Dragomir and Lokki certainly are.'
England tried to ignore the pain in his arm as he launched several fiery attacks at Lokki who barely had time to cool them down with his ice. England sent three his way before catapulting a particularly large one which knocked both of them off of their feet.
After a moment England sat up a little to see Lokki looking rather burnt and laying unconscious on the ground... or at least England assumed he was just unconscious...
"CaPTiViTY
Unable to run away"
"What?" Romano asked at Gilbert's strange comment. He really didn't understand what was going on inside the albino's head- and he was about to get even more confused.
Gilbert's straight face suddenly smiled a big ear-to-ear grin that could only be described as "creepy." Romano didn't have time to question the strange expression before Gilbert suddenly broke out into full-on maniacal laughter.
"iNSaNiTY
Like floating on air"
The countries were winning.
"PSYCHoPaTHY
A carefree life"
Things were finally looking up.
"iNSaNiTY
An illusion that can't end"
But Ian wasn't ready to give in so easily...
"CaPTiViTY
Like the corruption is continuing"
"Hey, who's that?"