Scotland had crossed his arms defiantly, sitting on the floor with his back leaning against the left wall of his cell. England couldn't tell how long he could have been stuck there, but he assumed the his brother had been captured for a long time because his red hair was tousled and messy and his expression, though traces of a small smirk remained, was tired and worn.

The two brothers gave each other a brief look-over with their eyes before sighing simultaneously. "Now what are you doing here?" they both asked wearily.

"Me?" they both questioned the other. "What do you think?"

"I'm stuck here." Scotland scoffed as England sneered, "I'm saving your arse."

Silence. Then the two brothers sighed again. Denmark ended up laughing and said, "No wonder you two are brothers!"

"And what about us, now?" another voice asked from behind Scotland. Scotland turned his head towards the shadows of his cell.

Smiling to himself, Scotland glanced back up at a bewildered England and said casually, "Aye, don't forget about them you British edjit."

England squinted at the darkness for a while. Scotland clicked his tongue and threw a look over his shoulder again. "Come on out. He can't see ya if you hide."

England felt the rest of his team crowd around him to take a closer look into the cell. In the dimness their eyes gazed past Scotland and landed on three other faded silhouettes casually scooting forward. Ireland, North Ireland, and Wales blinked up at England as England blinked back at them.

"Got yourselves caught too?" England asked, trying to sound matter of fact but in reality he struggled to keep a calm composure, out the five, only England managed to escape the doppelgangers without getting locked up.

Well, no, that wasn't true, because he was trapped in Chicago. At least he got away, he decided.

"Aw shut it." Ireland groaned. "Get us out already, won't you?"

England crossed his arms. As much as he'd love to leave his older brothers in the cell and taunt them a little more (when was the last time he did that?), they were running out of time. Dark Norway would return and notice the guards were gone. Knowing how doppelgangers were clever, Dark Norway would make a connection.

"Stand back." England said to his brothers. The four of them inside the cell exchanged glances before scrambling away from the bars. Tossing a glance to Denmark and Iceland from behind, England said, "Would you gentlemen like to help me?"

"Someone's got to catch the bolts that might fall off when we pull the bars away." Denmark said, stepping forward to get a grip on the left side of the bars while Iceland reluctantly grabbed the right. Finland, Liechtenstein, Sealand, and Ladonia all took a small step back to allow room for the three to work.

England nodded at him. "Right. I-"

"Ladonia and I can handle that." Sealand said excitedly, though he was a bit too loud to England's taste.

England and the others grimaced and shot a cautious stare down the darkened hall for a moment before moving again. "Be more quiet, won't you?" England scolded Sealand quietly. "If you keep it up, you'll doom us all."

"Sorry," Sealand whispered in alarm as if he just realized the possible consequences.

Denmark, England, and Iceland tested the bars for the first few seconds to see if there were any weak points. When none was found, they started to pull slowly... gradually. Their hands were in the upper part of the bars, focusing their strength to the top. The metal started to squeak and creak, and the three merely paused for a split second before continuing on.

England murmured to Norway to keep an eye on the stairway back in the middle of the hall and Norway left the group wordlessly, unfazed by the gloom of the prison.

The top part of the metal bars started to bend a little; that was good. They would probably be able to break the bars easily if they could make all the noise they wanted but seeing that they were trying to be discreet and unnoticed, slow progress was the key.

Sealand cupped his hands together when the first bolt popped out of wall. It landed silently in his hands. "Nice catch." Denmark grinned at him.

Sealand beamed. "Thanks."

One by one, the bolts started to pop out of their respective places and Sealand and Ladonia caught them with ease. One, however, popped out unnoticed by both and it was too late for both of them to make a snatch for it when Iceland pointed it out in whispered alarm.

Finland, however, had quick reflexes; quick enough to swipe at it and catch it safely in his hand. The others sighed in relief at him and Finland laughed quietly. "Close one, wasn't it?"

"Very." England breathed. "You two..." he addressed Sealand and Ladonia warningly. "Watch for them."

"We got it already." Ladonia scoffed under his breath. "No need to repeat."

"You know," Wales said after half of the bars were pried off their metal frames. "After you get those out of the way, what are we doing afterward?"

"After this we're off to recapture the city." England said promptly.

"Wait." Scotland said suddenly. His eyes traveled up to his little brother's face, narrowed in disbelief, and then widened with unmistakeable realization after acceptance of his disbelief. "You're leading this? You're here to save us? Recapture my city?"

England gave Scotland a terse smile. "Is there a problem, dear brother?"

Scotland stared at England for a second, and then glanced back at Ireland who was holding back laughter. "Well, how nostalgic." Scotland murmured.

England's smile faltered and his face darkened considerably to match Scotland's. "That was the past." England said shortly.

"The past...something you can't change, ya know?"

Silence. England ceased in his work a little bit but after an urging look from Iceland, he continued to help tear down the bars from the metal frame of the cell. They snapped the bars off from the bottom and carefully laid them on the ground after they thought the bars had enough yoga and entered the cell to untie the brothers.

England just stood there and watched his team. He had no inclination to assist.

"Remember what Germany told you, England." Finland reminded him gently as he and Liechtenstein helped Wales to his feet.

England blinked and turned his head in Finland's direction. Then he nodded silently.

"Well Scotland," said Denmark, brushing imaginary dirt off of his hands. "It's your castle. Know any shortcuts or secret passageways we can go to?"

"Shouldn't ye tell us on what's going on?" North Ireland asked, stretching out his back that cracked satisfyingly. Rolling his shoulders, he added, "The only thing we know is that the world's gone mad."

"You have no idea." Sealand whistled, but his whistle was cut short by a quick smack behind the head from England.

"Don't whistle; you'll attract them to us." he scolded.

"'Them'?" Wales repeated.

"Doppelgangers." Iceland said quietly, but everyone still heard him.

"'Doppelgangers'?" Ireland and North Ireland exchanged glances.

"It's a long story, I can tell ya that." Mr. Puffin groaned. "Okay, so I was chilling out and being all cute and fluffy like normal, right? And so these sons of a bi-"

Iceland clamped his hand over Mr. Puffin's beak immediately. "Don't listen to him." Iceland said apologetically.

While Mr. Puffin's complaints were being muffled by Iceland's hand, the others looked at England with the expectancy of him telling the story. England, however, being the tsundere he was (according to Japan), passed it on wordlessly to Denmark via gaze.

Denmark was probably not the best choice seeing that he might like to add in extra details that may or may not be true or accurate, but at least there wouldn't be any awkward silences in between sentences.

"Make it quick; who knows how long Ms. Fairy can keep the diversion up." England muttered.

Denmark's tale lasted seven minutes before Norway signaled them. "They're coming." he said.

"'They're'?" England repeated, astounded. "As in, there are more of them?"

"They know what's up." Sealand hissed, clapping his hands to his face in a moment of intensity. "What will we do now, you jerk?"

England opened his mouth to say something but Scotland intervened quickly and said, "I know the castle better than anyone. Follow me." He took the lead quietly, slipping into the covert of the shadows and avoiding the patches of moonlit spots on the ground streaming in from outside.

Scotland was followed closely by everyone else, but England was the closest of them all. Besides, he had a job to do and even though Scotland did know the castle better than he, England was still the captain, right?

They descended the stairs slowly ("Don't step on the fourth step; it creaks when you step on it." Scotland whispered to the others behind him as he skipped a step).

"We can't just go out the door." England whispered in an arguable tone a whisper could let off.

"We aren't going out through the door, you bloody edjit." Scotland sighed wearily. "Do you think I'm mad? No, we're using the side-door."

"Side-door? What side-door?" England asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "How come you never told me this?" England couldn't help but groan in his head right after the words slipped his tongue; it was rather obvious why.

Scotland glanced back at England and smirked. "Why don't you think that one over a bit?"

"Shut up."

Scotland led the team to the left before they reached the main door. Many of them slowed down to peer at the entrance to see if they could catch a glimpse of Dark Norway or any reinforcements he might have brought.

The side-door was hidden inside the wall and Scotland beckoned for the team to help him move the bricks out of the way. One would think the bricks were tightly packed together by cement or some sort of mixture but they were only stacked tightly with nothing but pressure holding them together.

"You just got to..." Scotland grunted, tugging at a brick with Sealand. "Wiggle it a bit and it'll...slip right out-oi!" The brick they were pulling at jerked towards them and nearly hit Sealand. Scotland prevented that from happening at the nick of time.

"Be more careful." he warned.

The other bricks didn't move even though one of the stones was now missing. However, it was much easier to remove them now that there was a gap and they revealed an old door within a minute.

"Footsteps, six o'clock." Mr. Puffin hissed from Iceland's shoulder.

England glanced behind them. Under the silence from the others, they could all hear low voices and obvious footsteps coming closer to the front entrance.

"That's our cue." Ireland said at once. "Everybody out!"

Quick-walking across the castle grounds, England jogged a little bit to catch up to Scotland, whose taller frame and slender legs carried him faster and more briskly than England himself (who was a bit short compared to him). "What are you planning to do now?" England asked him.

"What am I doing now? I'm going to go find that doppelganger of yours and give him a piece of my mind." Scotland scowled. "Who does he think he is, taking me captive like that? That bloody..."

"Well my doppelganger should be flailing about in the Atlantic Ocean by now." England said curtly. "I'm certain they'll have the co-captain of their little division take charge."

But in reality, England wasn't so sure. By now, he was more certain that his doppelganger had teleported himself back to land when he calmed down. How long would it take him to calm down in deep water without any support? He hated to admit it, but it would probably take him several minutes to gather his thoughts and stop splashing around.

It had been days, and the idea of Dark England still splashing around, being swept up by rough crashing waves in the middle of an ocean didn't seem plausible.

"Doesn't matter, does it?" Scotland asked. "Now you say that these...doppelgangers feed on hatred, right? And that if we can get rid of it, or at least get rid of old grudges, it'll weaken, right?"

England caught Scotland's gaze as they walked (Scotland walked, England was still jogging to keep up). "Exactly the point." England replied.

"So do you even know where to find the co-captain, Scot?" North Ireland asked wearily. "They could be anywhere."

"If you think about it, they'd be somewhere like an office, right?" Denmark asked thoughtfully. "If I was in control and stuff, I'd be relaxing in a small place like that. And planning things out would be easy in an office-like environment."

"Clever thinking." Finland said. "Where's the office?"

Scotland tilted his head a little and his gaze settled on the moon as he slowed his walk much to England's relief. "There's the ticket office at the entrance of the castle." Scotland said slowly. "However, since it's at the front-"

"It'll be difficult to get to since it should be heavily guarded." England finished for him.

"Got any ideas then?" Wales asked.

Eyes darted from one another for a moment. No one seemed to have a decent idea or solution. That is, until Norway suggested that England used his powers again to make them invisible.

"What?" England exclaimed.

"Shhh!" Sealand shushed him, grinning at the reverse situation of the younger one scolding the older.

"Do you know how hard invisibility is for a group this big?" England added, running a stressed hand through his tousled hair. "How many are there? One, two, three...twelve of us. Thirteen if you count the bird."

"It's Mr. Puffin to you, Brit." Mr. Puffin said, ruffling his feathers.

England shook his head. "A few of us would be fine, but since you four decided to get caught..." he sent a meaningful look to his brothers. "I'd be severely fatigued by the end."

The Nordics, Liechtenstein, and the two micro-nations exchanged concerned looks but the UK brothers and Scotland raised an eyebrow at England. "We haven't spent much time with ye in a while, haven't we?" Ireland said.

"You've always bullied me." England sighed.

"Doesn't mean you can do it back to us." North Ireland said bitterly.

"Why don't we let that go? Besides, isn't this the reason why those doppelgangers are here in the first place?" Wales asked nervously.

"Aye, forget that already." Scotland said, waving the subject away like it was a pesky mosquito. "But you've forgotten that we're your brothers, England."

England frowned for a split second but then his eyes widened. "Yes, that's right. You were the ones who taught me magic in the first place."

"There ye go." Ireland said, clapping somewhat sardonically. "Forgotten, haven't ye?"

"I have..." England admitted.

"Well it's not a problem now." North Ireland said casually. "Just a but of a wave here, a bit of a chant there and it's done."

"With all of us combined, we should be able to make our magic resources last." Wales said, cracking his knuckles.

While the UK brothers and Ireland discussed the technique, the rest of the team felt like they've been thrown into a new world. It was one thing to have England involved with magic, and another thing to have Norway see England's...friends, but to have even more?

"How have they hidden this from us for centuries?" Iceland asked.

"Maybe they didn't at first but we never noticed." Liechtenstein suggested.

Sealand crossed his arms and sighed. "I wonder if those jerks will teach me."

Ladonia scoffed. "It'll never happen."

Sealand scrunched up his nose a little. "Yeah, but I still wanna learn."

"Good luck."

Dark England stared at the wall of the room for a bit. Within the day, he'd have the doppelgangers and the people who were affected by their glorious, delicious hate would launch the attack. How big it would be? He had no idea. As long as there were explosions and destruction, he would be satisfied.

Word had it from the Fourth Division-the Kawasaki Hideout-that the Second Division-the Los Angeles Hideout- had been bombed, thus ruing the plans for most of the Americas.

No matter; in time, the very west would all come down to rubble and then their new reign would rise over there as well.

What troubled Dark England was the possible mutiny from the doppelgangers. He knew that every doppelganger was incredibly cunning, and using that cunning nature of his, he didn't find it surprising that he, like every doppelganger out there, was planning to overtake the system they set up.

Of course, the adventure they all experience to get to their goal was too difficult to do if they had all went against each other. Going one on one with everyone at the very beginning was plain out stupid because not only would his opponents be the hatreds of the countries of Earth, but also the actual countries if they had not dealt with them first.

Dealing with them would require teamwork, and everyone knew that if they went behind people's backs during that teamwork, everything had a chance of failing, and they wanted the slimmest chance possible, even if the opening to their benefits danced right in front of them.

Unfortunately, by the time the real countries knew how to tame them, the doppelgangers had become more...human. They were less careful; they were even cocky. And Dark England had to admit, he felt himself getting more and more careless every day.

The moment the countries realized that the answer to their problems was simple to think up of (but not carry out), that was the moment, Dark England decided, they would fail if they continued the teamwork. But they continued the teamwork anyway, just...more independently.

Knowing America and his darker counterpart, Dark England assumed that Dark America had gotten impatient, thus leading to his downfall. That or his real self messed something up; hell, Dark England was convinced both of them messed something up.

It was bound to happen, after all, right?

That was what he thought, but he stopped his thoughts before they became too cocky-too reckless.

That would also be his downfall, like everyone else.

"Continuance of the fight with our foes- our true selves...alas, this weakens our grip of what illusion we may call reality, if reality is not an illusion." Dark England murmured to himself, kicking his feet up on his desk while he twirled a pen with his right hand. "Should this carry on it will be our downfall if fate looks unkindly upon us."

Dark England's head snapped up towards the door when he heard a loud thump outside. His red eyes eyed the wooden door carefully, his ears alert not towards the door, but behind him in case if the thump was a possible distraction to what might be going on behind.

It wasn't until the door flung open when Dark England narrowed his eyes, focusing a little more attention on the silhouettes that entered the room.

"Ah, so you're the one who did this." a sneer said.

Dark England remembered that voice and he remembered the hate associated with the voice.

How savory.

"Ah, dost thou taste freedom so early? An' here I thought thee locked up." Dark England said smoothly.

Scotland scowled at Dark England and took several angry steps forward even though Dark England remained unaffected by the approaching danger. "Hand me back the castle."

"Nay."

"I said, hand me back the castle."

"An' I say nay."

Dark England smiled calmly at Scotland's reddening face. He allowed his gaze to flicker to the others who were gathering in the room. Liechtenstein had a gun pointed at Dark England, and Dark England showed a small sense of amusement in his eyes. She truly was raised by that Switzerland. Was it for better or for worse, he had to wonder.

Either way, he knew she would not shoot. A gunshot was loud, and that would alert the rest of the castle. It was useless anyway; futile to shoot a doppelganger for they could heal right away. A shot of a gun was completely a waste and a severe disadvantage on their part.

After Scotland uttered a string of wild curses, Dark England watched as his original walked up beside Scotland and glared at him. Emerald green eyes pierced the ruby red. Ruby red eyes pierced the emerald green. Neither dared to back down nor did any of them move a muscle for the longest time ever, it felt.

"Alright." England hissed quietly, so quietly that only Dark England and possibly Scotland if he stopped cursing could hear. "Listen here you errant half-faced lout. (Dark England noted that his original's vocabulary had broadened a bit since their last encounter) You think you're so clever making a place like this your hideout and such? Do you think I'd let something like this get in the way?"

He wasn't done speaking; Dark England could tell he had his thoughts planned out ahead of time and wanted to present it here but he had to ruin his original's fun by interrupting him by laughing. "Dearest self, our history-though colored the deepest shade of vermillion o'er years-was coincidentally linked here. Have I a say, however, I'd be a happy man here either which way."

"Not much of a choice, huh?" England scowled, a little annoyed he was cut off. "Even if you had a choice, you'd still pick this place."

Dark England raised an eyebrow, a small tug playing on his lips.

"I have a proposal to make with you." England said a little louder for the others to hear. Scotland, beside him, had been gripping the edge of the desk and now he was tightening his grip, digging his nails into the polished wood.

"What doth thee propose?"

England considered Dark England's curious look carefully, wondering if he had anything up his sleeve while Scotland tensed considerably. His tension was felt throughout the office, and for once even Mr. Puffin had nothing to say.

"Give us four hours." England said in a business-like tone. "You will not attack or fight us for four hours while we do our thing. You can not tell your subordinates about this, so they'll most likely be on our tail. If we are caught and captured, then you win and you can do what you please. If we are not caught by then, you'll give up the rights to the castle and forfeit your mission."

Dark England scoffed. "For what reason?"

England smiled slyly at him. "It's only a game. You played a game with me before. Now it's my turn to return the favor."

Of course, there was more to that. Everyone in that room knew it and everyone knew that Dark England knew. Normally, Dark England would ask for a real reason but he was interested in this and said, "Fine. Play thy game. It begins now."

"Will you keep your word that you won't tell anyone else?" England asked.

Dark England wondered if his original was really that dense. Though he was a man of his word, Dark England was forced to lie and since that had happened, he felt like it shouldn't be too hard to lie again.

Unless that's what England wanted him to do.

Thinking like this would make people paranoid, but the doppelgangers had to consider as many possibilities as possible. Contradicting thoughts were not scarce, and the only solution was to go with their gut or to not take the risk.

Dark England mentally sighed; not taking risks. That was another factor of possible downfalls.

"Aye. I keep mine word." Dark England said, though he did not intend to keep it.

Seemingly satisfied, England turned on his heel and left the room, the others trailing behind him. Dark England stared after them for a moment, and then he found himself staring at the closed door. There was something they were up to, that was for sure.

But hey, if the lack of risk could turn out to be a downfall, then risk would lead him the same way. Keeping that in mind, Dark England closed his eyes and let a small smile flicker onto his face. Though the outcome may be the same, the journey in between was sure to be different.