A Truly British Christmas

Chapter Thirteen

"W-Who are you?!"

"I think you know, United Kingdom."

"Let me go!"

"What, trying to appeal to my better nature? I've been planning this since before you were even born and you think asking me to stop will help? Clearly you're weaker than I thought..."

"M-My family will stop you!"

"We'll see about that..."

***

"UK?!" UN yelled, shaking his friend, "She's not waking up, Ireland help!"

"Stand back, UN!" Ireland ordered, uncertainty wringing throughout her voice, "Let's just give her space..."

The three waited in silence for a moment, watching as their sister lay, tossing and turning on the floor...

"DON'T YOU DARE!" UK screamed, eyes flying open as she sat bolt upright.

"U-UK!" Wales squealed, flying over to her sister and curling up in her lap. Shaking, UK hugged Wales back, resting her chin on her head.

"Britain...?" Ireland asked, cautiously sitting beside Brit. "What happened?"

"M-Monarchy..." Brit stuttered, "H-He spoke to me... He won't let me read the Latin cure... I think he wants to kill me..."

"Right, new plan," Ireland nodded, sighing, "I think we need to defeat him in death... He'll be too powerful if we fight him in UK's head... I don't think UK can do it with us, though..."

"WHAT?!" UK cried, "Ireland! I can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"UK," Ireland replied, squeezing Brit's hand, "For this to work, you need to be unconscious, ok?"

"Wha- Why?!"

"It's written in the Latin, see?

'In order to reverse the Puppeteer's Curse, a meeting is required. You, talk you fight, you cut the strings, you make a storm out of the ire. Then the sleeping child will find release, as will the spirits of the innocent. A new land forms as the spirit withdraws, restoring equilibrium.'"

That was bad, I'm sorry-

"Ireland, she can't hear you," Wales pointed out, watching her sister squirm in pain as another migraine tore open her skull.

"I know," Ireland grimaced, "But you needed to hear the curse's cure too."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" North exclaimed, "Are you saying we need to go into death, fight the Monarchy and 'release the spirits of the innocent'?! What does that even mean?!"

"I guess we'll find out," Republic shrugged, "Shall we get the lads now?"

***

"Want to clean up the baubles next?"

"Shut up, England."

"GOOD AFTERNOON, LADDIES!" Ireland yelled, bursting into the room. "WE HAVE THINGS TO DO!"

"Ireland, how did you get into my house?" Commonwealth sighed, crossing her arms.

"...Magic!" Ireland smiled, giving Commonwealth her very best jazz-hands, resulting in a very... voluminous... eyeroll.

"Halo, Eirinn!" Scott exclaimed, hugging his sister, "Wasn't expecting to see you until Boxing Day! How did you know we were here?"

"Oh, Wales told me! Anyway, could you lads do me a massive favour?"

"Course," Scott grinned, ruffling Ireland's hair.

"You're the one that arranged the candles to send UK to speak to that girl, right?"

"They told you about that?!" Scott exclaimed, staring inquisitively down at Eireann.

"And I helped him!" England added fiercely, causing Ireland to burst out laughing.

"Of course! She's my Head of Magic!" UN beamed, stepping forward and wrapping his left wing around Ireland's shoulders.

"Why do you have a Head of Magic?" England laughed. UN glared at him for a second, looking into his pale blue eyes with all the fury of a displaced wasp, before smiling and turning to Scotland. "We need your help - both of your help - to get rid of Monarchy... It's a similar spell to the once you used... Can you help us?"

"OK... What do we have to do?"

Sorry this one's so much shorter than the others! We're quite close to the end now, so these'll get much more... eventful... soon!