And now…the aftermath.

/= "Friendship" by HetaOni =/

Li Xiao had no other way to describe it. When Charice and Alfred went missing, it unnerved him, but when they came back…to see her in such a startled mess…he knew it only had something to do with what they saw before. Nonetheless, he was still the only person who had no idea what had happened.

"Charice! Alfred!" Kiku ran to them. "Are you all right…?"

The both of them stayed silent, Alfred's eyes glazed over in shock and Charice sobbing in her hands. After a few minutes, Alfred walked forward and stood in front of Gilbert's Shadow, sobbing quietly on the floor.

"…you had over sixty years, Gil…why didn't you say anything?"

The Shadow said nothing, turning his head away and covering his face. Arthur took a deep breath and walked toward Alfred, his hand out to shake him. But then, he grabbed his shoulders and shook the Brit until his eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"Why didn't you tell me about this, Arthur?" He screamed.

"Alfred…?"

"Hello! Ludwig's been dead for over sixty years! As everyone else was recovering from the war, they were hating me with a passion! And no one told me why!" He shook him. "You didn't bother to tell me anything! Tell me why! Arthur!"

"…I didn't want this burden on you." Arthur pushed him away calmly. "I didn't want this on anyone. I fought the majority of this war until you and Ivan came in. I have to take responsibility-"

"…you're insane, Arthur. I was a grown man back then, I could've handled it!"

"But did you even consider the possibility?"

"…w-what possibility?"

"That we're vulnerable to death like the rest of the world?" Arthur sighed. "You've lived forever, Alfred. Chances are you've never seen a nation die before."

Alfred looked down in shock, the realization running through his mind, leaving the whole room to think. Meanwhile, Antonio turned his head and headed toward Charice, whose sobs had quieted down and left her to just thinking about it. The Strength Arcana card danced in her hands.

"Are you all right, mi querido?"

"…padre? Can I ask you a question?"

"Tell me."

"I felt it…fifty years of pain and loss…something he never told anyone." Charice held the card close to her. "It hurts inside…like someone's expanding all the veins in my body…"

"That's grief that you're feeling, Charice. The pain of losing someone that they truly loved and cared for." He rubbed her back. "Something that I hoped Rizal did his best to protect you from."

"He did, Antonio…but I still don't get it. He's still mourning?" She looked up, the pain seething away from her body. "Ludwig's alive, isn't he?"

"Well, yes he is, but-"

["H-he's alive?"]

Everyone looked up and saw the Shadow pushing himself up into a sitting position, his eyes redder than usual and wiping the tears away from his face. After a few minutes, what he just said sank into their brains. And I mean REALLY sank in.

"Well, yeah. The potato bastard's been alive!" Lovino spat. "Since the reunification!"

"He didn't know this before?" Matthew blinked.

Alfred turned his head around.

["…so mein bruder is alive…where is he?"]

"…he's…in our realm." Lovino tilted his head. "Outside this building."

"Yeah!" Alfred chirped, trying to keep his spirits high. "Where we come from, there's beer!"

"And video games." Kiku informed.

"As well as a lot of food that'll make you happy!" Alfred added.

"With a lot of people that you can brag about for hours on end!" Antonio tacked on.

"And Italians! LOTS AND LOTSof Italians!" Charice chirped.

"WHAT THE HELL, Charice?" Lovino screamed.

"I'm just saying!" She walked up to him. "But the most important thing is that your brother is there, and he's very happy."

["…thank gott. Here I tried to seek something that I never needed…"]

"Revenge is never a necessity. It's nothing more than a time burner." Li Xiao said from behind everyone. "Fortunately for you, you have all the time in the world."

["All the time…? But I'm a dissolved nation. I should be dead…"]

"No, Gilbert. You're not." Li Xiao looked at everyone. "If what I'm getting from the other nations is right, then you're no longer Prussia."

["Then what am I?"]

"You are like the Italian brothers, the Northern and Southern halves." He nodded. "East and West…you are now East Germany."

"That makes sense…Gilbert took over the role as Germany after Ludwig…" Charice stayed quiet.

["Does…does my brother need me?"]

"He needs you, Gilbert. Even though he doesn't admit it." Antonio smiled. "Will you come with us and make sure of that?"

["…yeah. Why not? Guess I'm just that awesome that way."]

He smiled as the Shadow's flames faded away from the body, revealing an unconscious Gilbert shrunken down into a child with white robes and a small sword by his side. Charice quickly picked him up and turned to the other guys, who were relieved that everything had been resolved.

"So…I guess we can go home now." She stated.

"That's good." Matthew smiled. "I was starting to get a little scared of this place…"

"Honk honk."

"Eh?"

*grope grope*

…

"DAMN YOU GILBERT!"

/=+=/

As they walked toward the entrance of the realm, they saw that the portrait of the man in the middle was glowing to reveal the way out. Charice quickly realized that it was "Old Fritz" from Gilbert's memories, something that he had remarked upon when they were heading toward it.

"So we can leave now, right?" Kiku asked.

"Yeah, we can." Arthur stated. "Hopefully, we can leave all of this behind."

"No…not yet." Alfred stated. "I can only let this go after one more thing…"

"B-brother…?"

"Well, whatever that is, we should make sure that we get back home."

Everyone nodded as they walked through the portal back home. After a few minutes, Charice looked up and saw that Gilbert still didn't walk through, staring at the land that was created by his own guilt and hidden pain. He chuckled for a few minutes before turning toward her.

"You know that this is the first house that I had, right?"

"Eh?"

"When I was formed, it was in this house." Gilbert chuckled. "Messed up, really."

"Well, I think all nations were formed in houses and not battlefields." She answered.

"Except me, of course…the second time around." He sighed. "So…ready to head back?"

"Of course."

"Awesome! When I get back, I am going to eat EVERYTHING at rehearsal!"

"Wait, we have a rehearsal today?"

"Uh…yeah."

"…CRAAAAAAP!"

/=+=/

She didn't know how, but it was the first time that she literally dove through a portal to the other side. As she cleaned herself off, she looked up and barely saw the life returning to the man's body. She took a deep breath of relief as he sat up and looked up to the others, giving off his trademark grin.

"A-OK!"

"That's great…" Lovino sighed. "Now can we go back to living our ordinary lives?"

"Wish we can." Li Xiao answered. "But whoever did that's still out there."

"Great, just great." Lovino spat. "I'm going to kill that bastard, whoever he is."

The entire time, Alfred stood there silently, thinking hard on what he was going to do. Gilbert smiled and stepped up, walking to the American and slapping his back hard, making it echo along the river brook.

"There's a rehearsal today, man." He stated. "Ludwig's going to be there."

Alfred's head darted up.

"If you want to confront him there, I won't stop you." He grinned. "But you better tell me what happens after!"

Alfred nodded before dashing toward to school. Before she knew it, Charice was following suit.

/=+=/

There were just so many things to do before Francis could even run his show.

Ludwig grumbled to himself as he sorted out papers left out by the other actors and set them in a place that they should be able to see later. Everyone had to be such a mess when they're trying to remember their lines while getting into costume, don't they? He was about to complain when he heard someone slam into the doorway. He turned his head and saw a rather peeved off Alfred F. Jones holding onto the wall, sweat running down like he ran from the other side of the world.

"Um…is something wrong, Alfred?"

"Everything's wrong, Ludwig! No one told me shit!" He slammed his fist against the wall. "Why didn't you confront me on this?"

"…confront you on what?"

"You know what I'm talking about, dammit! World War II! The aftermath! The fact that I just sent you to the slaughterhouse and allowed a damn commie I barely trusted to handle the man who took your place!" He screamed. "Why didn't you say anything!"

"Would you want me to act out on revenge so soon after I had lost another war?" Ludwig answered calmly, sorting out papers while his gaze barely separated from him.

"No, but-"

"That is why."

"Not that! You could've…you could've at least given me dirty looks or cursed my name or something! Hell, everyone else had been doing that for the past fifty years!"

"They have?" Ludwig looked surprised.

"Fuck yeah they did! Kiku talked to me only in business terms, Lovino cursed me out whenever he wanted to, Feliciano couldn't even look at me without crying, hell even Roderich and Elizabeta started treating me like I had the goddamn plague or something!" He was really going mad with cursing. "In fact, the only person that hadn't cursed me into the nine rings of hell is the man I've stabbed in the stomach! The man that had a billion more reasons to just slit my throat out! So why didn't you?"

The room stood in silence, Ludwig staring at the American who was clearly out of breath. After a few seconds, he sighed and continued doing what he was doing.

"I've considered it a thousand times, Alfred. Don't get me wrong." He answered. "But there's something that I know that no one else does…not even Feliciano."

"Hah? WHY?"

"He never bothered to ask, and I figured it wasn't going to help settle anything that time would heal." Ludwig smiled. "Yes, you did have a hand in my death, Alfred…but you were also the hand that brought me back."

"HAH?" He was really confused. "H-how?"

Ludwig chuckled as he continued to sort out everything backstage. After a few minutes, he stood there for a few minutes and turned his back to the American as he cocked his head up to the sky and said something that echoed through his mind.

"Mr. Gorbachev…tear down this wall!"

/= [FLASHBACK] =/

"Alfred? You've been down for a while."

"Eh? Oh, I'm fine Ron. Don't mind me." He sighed, looking out the window. "I've…just been wondering about how Ludwig is."

"Ludwig?"

"Oh, right…I didn't tell you…Germany, I was wondering about Germany."

"It's been recovering well since the war, hasn't he?"

"Yeah…but I haven't seen him in a while…I'm worried about him."

"Must be the inner German in you." Reagan smiled. "Being the land of freedom, you have a little bit of everything in you."

"Yes, indeed…though that part of me feels dead…"

"Must be because the Russians are keeping a hard grip on the Eastern half…"

"Yes…maybe if he's free, I'll see him again."

"Well then…I guess we should finally act upon it…"

"Act upon what?"

Reagan stood up from his seat and walked toward the door of the Oval Office, allowing Alfred to look up and stare at his boss as he straightened out his tuxedo and turn toward him with a smile on his face.

"I'm going to Berlin to have a chat with Gorbachev…would you like to come along?"

/=+=/

The long speech that Reagan was saying was barely registering in Alfred's head. Instead, he was looking around at the Germans that were cheering on Reagan's every words. He couldn't help but wonder if he could see Ludwig through all of this. Instead, he looked up and saw that Feliciano and Lovino were watching the whole speech while hidden from the others.

"You two…"

"Eh? Oh great, it's you." Lovino spat. "What, are you here to piss off the Germans again? Aren't you done rubbing defeat in these guys' faces?"

"Eh? What are you talking about? Reagan and I are here to tell the Russian leader to break down the Berlin Wall and reunify Germany." Alfred blinked. "What's the problem with that?"

Those words made Lovino and Feliciano mumble something to themselves before their eyes widened. Alfred was about to say something when he realized that there was something that was glowing behind him. After he turned, he only saw a familiar face rubbing his down hair and opening his eyes slowly.

"Oh man, DUDE! I've been wonderin' what you've been up to!" Alfred slapped his back. "How've ya been?"

"…? America?"

"Dude, no formalities! It's the 90s, man! Call me Al! Everyone is!"

He didn't know why, but Ludwig was looking around in confusion like he had no idea what was going on. It was only until he saw Ronald Reagan speak in his American accent about tearing down the wall that he understood what was going on. He turned his head before seeing a crying Feliciano push Alfred away and sob on him with no end.

"Geez…how busy were you this entire time, not to see Feli like that!" He laughed. "You're really work-orientated, huh?"

No one remarked upon it, so Alfred said nothing, staring instead to the Italian clinging onto Ludwig for dear life.

/=+=/

"Is that it…?"

"From what I was told, Feliciano got the news of what happened from Lovino…and he was extremely biased on you and Arthur. He couldn't even bring himself to forgive you…said it happened before." Ludwig stated. "It was even harder to assimilate after I was gone for fifty years."

"So why didn't you say anything…?"

"When a nation suffers recession or is formally dissolved, we cease to exist." He stated. "The exact opposite has the other effect: when a nation recreates them, they are created again."

"So…so I…"

"Yes. And there is a part of me that still wants revenge for what you did…but I'm grateful for what you did to my people."

"…thanks, man. I just found out today about everything, so…"

"That's all right. I forgive you."

"Sweet! You're not a bad man, you know!" He laughed. "You know, you should enjoy life more!"

"That's what everyone's been telling me these days."

"Well, that's the truth!" He laughed again. "Then again, isn't that why you're Javert?"

"Don't rub it in…"

"Pfft…you know, if you want, there's a great place that I can bring you over too for lunch."

"Is it McDonalds again?"

"Hell yeah!"

"…" He smiled. "Why not."

"SWEEET!" Alfred jumped and headed out. "I'll pick you up when break's up!"

Ludwig watched as Alfred skipped out to the stage just as Francis was calling around the cast. If he had stayed around, perhaps he would have noticed the strange shadow that had covered the German's eyes once more.

/=+=/

And that's the subplot in a nutshell! So now that Gilbert is saved, it's…you guessed it, FILLER CHAPTERS!