Purple and Gold (The Many Colours of Life and Death AU)

Chapter Nine

The Austrian Empire was alone. Austria-Hungary and the German Empire had been seeing him for a few years, but they hadn't come in a while. AE wondered if something had happened to them.

He had changed quite a bit. For one, he covered up the golden parts of his body. He wore a white mask, and white gloves over his gold ones. It didn't change the way he felt, but AE hoped it would make him less intimidating.

He stayed in his castle all day long, trying not to think of the faces of HRE and Prussia. That was certainly hard. The last time he had gone outside, someone had screamed and ran away from him. That was fine. He was perfectly fine staying inside of his golden castle, where he couldn't hurt anyone.

Until one day, a knock came at the door.

He opened the door to find the Russian Empire standing there, twiddling his thumbs. What do you want, Russia? AE asked.

"To help you. I haven't seen you in a long time, friend! Let's go inside, where no one can see us." RE said, nervously glancing around.

Austria narrowed his eyes, but let him in.

"Ok, I'm supposed to be spying for the other Empires, but I can't do that. Not to Prussia's best friend." RE blurted. "They want to assassinate you. Soon. I think it's next week."

AE's brain wasn't working well today. ...what? He signed, very confused.

"The Spanish, British and French Empires, they want to kill you. They sent me in to spy on you, pretending to be a friend, while scouting out places for them to enter. We need to do something to stop them. I don't want you to die."

But... why would you betray them... for me? Austria wasn't following. Everybody hates me, don't they?

"Not everyone. Me, REC and the Portuguese Empire were against the idea, but those two spoke up about it. I wanted the chance to warn you without being constantly watched. Speaking of REC and PE, we should rescue them. They're being kept in Spain's castle until you're dead. Which hopefully won't happen."

A sudden knock came at the door.

"Quick! Hide me!" Russia yelped, jumping behind a large, gold pillar.

The Austrian Empire opened the door to find... nobody there. Then, unexpectedly, PE and REC appeared out of thin air.

"Good, the Russian Empire isn't here yet. Is he? He's evil by the way, and working with the Spanish, French and British Empires to kill you! He's going to pretend to be an ally but he'll actually be spying!" The Portuguese Empire rambled, his eyes wide.

Oh, RE? He already came to warn me. AE signed, then went and found Russia. You can come out now, it's only REC and PE.

"Thank goodness! I was worried I would have to save both of you!" RE sighed in relief.

"Ah! He's already here!" PE cried, turning invisible.

"He's already seen you, turning invisible won't suddenly erase his memory." REC pointed out calmly.

"I don't want to kill AE, I'm on your side. Quick, come inside just in case the others have countries watching us from the outside." Again, Russia's eyes glanced around, as if he were unsettled. What a paranoid fellow.

"But you didn't speak up when the Spanish Empire asked if anyone else didn't want to kill AE." PE said as they closed the door.

"Because that would be stupid. I actually wanted to help Austria–instead of being locked in a room–so I lied and said I was with them. Now to them, it looks like I'm on their side, but in reality, I can look into their plans and report back to AE." RE explained.

"Oh... that's smart, actually. And deceiving." Portugal looked dumbfounded.

I still don't get why you don't want to kill me. The Austrian Empire interjected. I'm a murderer.

"You didn't mean to kill them." RE said as AE looked down.

"Also, we don't want to be hypocrites. I believe that you should be more careful with your powers, or be put in prison. The others actually care about you though." PE said, earning an elbow to the ribs by REC.

"You're a bit like me. To help with your murder would be setting up mine. Besides, you are very careful with your powers, despite what PE says. And you always mean for the best, even though you have dangerous powers." Canada said, much more heartfeltly.

"Yeah, what he said." PE jumped in, changing his answer.

"You were Prussia's best friend, almost like a brother. When I used to see him, you were always by his side. You're funny, nice and determined. You don't deserve to die for something you can't control." The Russian Empire stated.

Thank you. Truly. I couldn't ask for better friends than you. The Austrian Empire tried to smile, despite his mouth being covered by a cloth. He supposed eyes could be expressive enough.

"This is nice and all," PE interrupted, "but we still need to stop the countries who don't feel that way."

"Not to worry," Russia said. "I have a plan."

(862 Words)

Oh yes, it's all coming together :D