/= "3rd Movement; The Truth" by HetaOni =/

The whole group was silent for a while, unable to comprehend what they had just seen. Charice quietly stood up, tears flowing from her eyes, and Arthur watched in shock as the tarot cards resembling her Persona shot out of her body, hovering around her in a strange halo.

"What in the…?"

By the look on Alfred's face, he had seen this too. Arthur watched in surprise as the cards hovered to Alfred, absorbing them into his body before he achieved a light glow. The American stared at the Englishman in confusion, clearly translating.

"Um…I know a bit about the Wild Card and all, but…" He blinked. "Has anyone ever lost their Wild Card status?"

"…not that I know of."

Everyone turned back to Charice, who was still trying to wipe the tears out of her eyes. Li Xiao, Kiku and Yong Soo quietly stepped forward to console her, and jumped back when she swung them away. She was screaming something in Tagalog, no one could understand what she was saying…until she started attacking Antonio.

"You killed him! You fucking killed him!" She screamed. "We could've saved him! You didn't have to do this!"

"Hey, back up!" Lovino grabbed her. "He had to, alright? He was the murderer, we had to make sure the voice thing didn't take him over again!"

"We could've freed him! He was a nation, he would've lived!"

Charice was near hysterics, screaming and cursing out the Spaniard that had done the deed, like all the time they had to heal their scars meant nothing anymore. Antonio couldn't even look at her anymore, staring blankly at the floor in front of him before succumbing to his injuries. He collapsed to the floor, and Matthew panicked, running to give him aid.

"Leave him! Leave him there to die, the murderer!"

"Charice, get your head out of the clouds!" Lovino screamed. "If we kept him alive, he would've murdered us all and god knows how many people!"

"I don't fucking care! Get rid of the whole world, so it's just the two of us! I don't care if we're the only nations on the planet, I just want him…alive…"

"We really need to get her out of here. I seriously didn't think her mind was this unstable…" Arthur shook his head. "Yong Soo, do you know where the portal you entered through was?"

"It's over here, da ze!" He ran to a certain section of the wall. "Francis, open it up, pronto! We have a problem here!"

"It's already open."

"All right, get her through."

/=+=/

Charice was kicking and screaming the entire time she was removed from that world, much to the surprise of those who were on the other side. Roderich and Erika had to help Lovino keep her down, and it took the entire team to escort her out of the room. She was drained of all her energy, so she drooped like she was a rag doll.

"I can't believe that the death of a sibling would do something like this to her…"

Matthew stayed back, staring at Francis as he was the last one to leave the room and to make sure that Charice wouldn't do something rash and return back to her realm. The Canadian rubbed the back of his head and wondered for a while if everything that had happened to her this entire time had such an effect. Maybe it was the fact that she had been seeing all of their inner demons that she didn't know how to handle her own…?

"It's so strange…they were so close, but I never thought she would go this crazy. She's like a grieving widow." He murmured. "Poor Charice…"

"No one should lose a brother."

He froze and turned around, seeing a rather traumatized Alfred staring back at him. His back was to the still-open portal, which tried to hide the fact that the American's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. He was clearly trying to figure out how to handle what had just happened back in that world.

"She didn't deserve any of this."

"No, she didn't. No one deserves it." Matthew looked at him. "But I never thought she would act as rabid as this…"

"…I really can't blame her at this point."

"Alfred?"

"Think about it, dude. She was a nation thrown around by superpowers like me. It was at the point in her life that she could not trust anyone but him. Rizal was the only thing in this world she could ever truly believe in: he will not betray her, she will not betray him." He sounded so old. "Now the only thing she believes in is gone, taken by the one man he spent his entire life loathing…"

"I just can't believe that a friendship like that could be shattered so easily…"

"Yeah…" He looked at his brother. "What would you do?"

"What?"

"If I was murdered in cold blood. What would you do?"

"I-I would be mad, of course! And I'd want to find out who did it to you!"

"Even if it was your best friend who killed me?"

Matthew stood there for a minute, wondering just what he was trying to say here. Alfred was a very violent nation, filled with people willing to go through gun fights and war, while he himself was rather peaceful and more willing to compromise than anything else. Still, the thought of his brother, dead…

"I…I don't know what I would do."

"Good. Let's hope it stays that way."

The Canadian froze as the American quietly hugged him, saying no word and making no sound. It was strange having his brother give him so much attention like this: nonviolent, non…Alfred, non-HIM. It was almost as if he was talking to a ghost himself.

"You should never learn how to cope with the loss of a brother." Alfred preached. "And please…Matthew…please don't ever change…"

"…I…I won't, brother."

/=+=/

Gilbert had lost him once they were able to get Charice into her room, and the Prussian began to wonder where he was. He walked around the school campus for a few minutes before he finally found him. He was looming over the hills of the campus, his hands holding onto the Christmas gift that he had given the younger boy.

"Yo! Bruder! You're gonna get cold standing out here for this long of a time!" Gilbert stated. "Brood inside, back where it's warm!"

"…I could've saved him."

"Eh?"

"Rizal. I could've saved him if I had seen it sooner." He sighed. "I could've stopped all of this."

"Dude, if anyone had to regret this, it would've been me." Gilbert pointed at himself. "He knew he was going insane, and had actually told me about everything. If it hadn't been for the fact that someone erased my memories of everything…"

"They all had their memories erased of when they died, didn't they…"

"Yes…man, that voice thing really knew how to cover his tracks. If it hadn't been for the fact that he became too brash, we would've never known it was him." Gilbert sighed. "Unless it wanted us to find out."

"Gilbert."

"Hah?"

"I'm losing too many friends…it's terrifying."

"Heh? Who else are you losing here?"

"I almost lost Feliciano, I lost him…I might have lost everyone when we went into that world…" He looked at Gilbert, and for a few seconds he almost looked like Heilrich again. "I'm going to lose you."

"Please, no one's losing the awesome Prussia!" Gilbert grinned. "Can your worries, cause I'm here forever!"

"But…you're a nation that no longer exists. Whatever's running you now is going to run out…and I'm going to…"

Ludwig actually started to cry, freaking out Gilbert to the point of a mental breakdown. It was then that he realized that he, in all his awesomeness, forgot to mention to him that their condition was similar to that of the Italians (half a nation instead of a whole). He was about to bring it up when the German clung onto his older brother, nearly squeezing the life out of him.

"Don't go…" He sounded so young. "Don't leave me…"

That was the problem with Ludwig: he didn't know how to make any friends, and the ones he ends up getting he holds too close to himself. The last time he cried, he was only a little brother in his arms, confused at the world around him. He decided to tell him later and held him gently.

"I'm never leaving you, Ludwig. I'm always going to be here."

/=+=/

Lovino walked down the hallways of the school, heading toward the tomato garden that Antonio had been tending to. He really needed a quiet place to think, and wanted to desperately get rid of Charice's crazy thrashing out of his head. He always knew that she was a nutcase, but she was a level-headed nutcase…when not chasing down his brother.

"…che. That girl is crazy as shit. Why am I so confused…"

He felt someone grab his back, and he screamed in shock, turning his head only to see his younger brother sobbing quietly on his back. Lovino was confused for a few minutes before turning completely and shoving him off in annoyance.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Uwa…Charice lost her brother…"

"Well, yeah…but there was a reason why."

"I-I know, but…it means that I can lose you too…"

Lovino looked around in shock, wondering if he should mention how the king wanted to get rid of him after the union of the empire. But before he could come to a conclusion, Feliciano sobbed even more and squeezed the life out of his older brother.

"Hey-! Get…off!"

"No…I don't wanna…I don't wanna lose you…"

He was getting annoyed at the fact that he was sniffling all over his jacket, but he couldn't help but understand what Feliciano was talking about. He quietly held him and looked outside the window just as the sun was setting over the New York horizon. This was supposed to be a time of peace (in a national sense), where countries are not the enemy and hence have no risk of death. Besides, can't Rizal just come back to life…?

"You're not gonna lose me, stupid."

"I know…I know…"

It was then that he remembered when he saw Feliciano's body back when he was killed…massacred and slashed open like a pig, his face plastered with fear. Lovino's grip tightened on him, and he remembered that he was rather enraged when he learned that Rizal was the one who killed his brother. Maybe he and Charice weren't so different after all.

Unknown to them, Kiku was listening to them the entire time.

/=+=/

"Aiya! Watch where you're going, Lin Yi!"

"I'm in a rush, all right? I need to meet up for my exam!"

"Well, look forward at least aru!"

Lin Yi rolled her eyes and walked away, leaving Yao to shrug and walk toward the dormitories for a night's rest. Today was just an extremely messed up time: everyone was running around, exams were coming up, and Yao hadn't had a good night's sleep. Too much screaming for his liking. Nevermind the fact that his next door roommate is Alfred when he had a boyfriend…

He heard someone slam into the wall behind him, and he turned around to see an exhausted Kiku leaning on it, looking lost and confused like he had been chasing him this entire time. Heck, it looked like he had dashed through eternity to find him.

"Kiku? Is something wrong, aru?"

"…onii-san."

"W-what?" Did he just call him…?

"…ani…"

Yao stood there in confusion as Kiku wandered forward, tears piling in his eyes before he grabbed his sensei's waist, sobbing and squeezing as tight as he could.

"W-what's going on, Kiku?"

"…don't…don't leave…"

Yao had no idea what to think about any of this, but this was exactly what he had dreamed about. He just wanted to be Kiku's brother again…and it's happened. He lifted his hands and quietly hugged him, a smile crossing his lips, rubbing the smaller boy's back.

"Sensei will never leave you, dì dì."