The opal pendant on the little girl's neck shimmied to and fro, in sync with the jeep's rattling, its glimmering surface like a million multicolored stars captured in pale faded sky.
She stared at the rapidly approaching army camp from the window, constantly flickering her gaze from the scenic view to curiously study Germany's tricolored face. The Countryhuman sat beside her, studying a map with a scout. He turned his head to lock eyes with the girl. She started, quickly averted her gaze and curled herself closer to the wall on which she leaned on. When she dared a peek at Germany again, he offered her a kind smile. Y/n hunched down out of embarrassment.
They reached the army camp and Germany helped the girl down from the car. She had to force her feet to keep up with the Country's long strides, so much was her exhaustion bottled up within her. Nevertheless, the soles of her shoes scraped against the concrete floors as she held onto Germany's hand.
A slim-looking Countryhuman was waiting for them near the entrance of the army camp. The upper horizontal half of his face was snowy white, while the other half was bright red like poppies in full bloom. Poland managed a smile at Germany and Y/n, his face torn between keeping the smile on his face and immense concern that surfaced when he landed his gaze on the girl's battered limbs.
"Germany?" Poland looked up at his fellow Country, then at the girl. His eyes widened. "It was the Empires, wasn't it?"
Germany jerked his head down in a subtle nod. Poland crouched down next to the girl, cradling her cold hands in his.
"Come now, let's get you inside. I'm Poland." He said kindly. His sunny disposition rekindled the girl's senses and she awkwardly grinned at him.
"I'm Y/n."
Germany smiled at the two and led the way inside.
———
While they were walking, the girl noticed that Poland's shirt was open at the back in a rough triangle shape, just enough to expose his shoulder blades.
"Mr. Poland, why is your shirt open at the back?" She asked.
Poland blew out a laugh. He met the girl's brightening eyes and then at Germany, who shrugged nonchalantly.
"I'll tell you when we arrive to the room. And please call me Poland."
"Okay!" The girl replied happily.
They stopped at a pair of double doors with glittering black knockers in the shape of eagles each holding a large ring in its beak. Germany pushed open one door and led Poland and Y/n inside.
"This is a private discussion - do not interrupt us until after we are done." The officers Germany were addressing nodded and stood guard a little ways from the doors.
The two Countries and the girl made themselves comfortable at the far end of the room, seated near the head of the long meeting table.
Poland gently nudged the girl and and turned his back to her.
"What do you see on my back near my shoulder blades, Y/n?" The little girl got out of her seat and peered closely at the smooth red skin.
There, where crimson skin stretched over the ridges of Poland's shoulder blades. The thin, white outline of an elegant feather etched into his skin beside his right shoulder blade, turning slightly outwards. There was the same etching beside his left shoulder blade. The feathers looked naturally branded into his skin, like he was born with them. A magical-looking birthmark.
"Whoa... are those feathers?" The girl asked. Her eyes went wide again and she excitedly squealed, "you have WINGS??"
Poland shushed her, his smile like a soft sunset. "Yep. They've been with me for as long as I can remember. I was flying with them today, so that's why I'm wearing the weird shirt."
"Does Germany have them too?" She queried, curiously glancing over at him. Germany snapped out of his daydream and returned her gaze.
"Hmm?"
"Do you also have wings?"
"What do you think?" He countered, turning the question back on her.
"Oh come on, take off your jacket," Poland chided. Germany huffed and shrugged out of his military jacket, revealing the shirt he was wearing underneath to be the exact same design as Poland's, only that it was black. He draped his jacket on his armchair.
Y/n stepped around the table and her bright eyes scrutinized his dim golden skin. There it was, two sharp feathers branching outwards, in the same place on his back like Poland's feathers were. Only that Germany's etchings were black, not white like Poland's. The black etchings flashed shinily when the light rushed over them.
"Why are yours black when Poland's are white??" She asked.
"We don't all have the same color wings, Y/n." Poland answered. "The Countries I know that have wings - well, not one color is repeated."
Y/n climbed back into her chair. Her small adrenaline rush that had come from the realization that Germany and Poland had wings was starting to fade away and fatigue weighed heavily on her. She could have sworn her necklace glowed a little when she dropped her head down to rest it on the chair's armrest, but paid no mind to it. Angling her body so that her legs draped down from one side of the seat, the girl was asleep in seconds.
Germany retrieved his jacket from his armrest. He went round the table and folded the jacket under the girl's head. She stirred sleepily before settling back into her silent slumber.
"Poland..." Germany paused, eyebrows scrunched together, before continuing. "Do you remember that boy Britain found in Wales? His village was also attacked by an Empire."
"Morgan, right?" His fellow Country nodded, then sighed sadly. "We never even got to meet him."
"Yep. Morgan. I feel like this is all connected somehow." Germany got up from his seat and started to pace quietly, keeping his voice down as to not wake the girl up. "From the info that Britain and France shared with us, they had rescued Morgan from a village that was attacked by an Empire. It was Roman, and Fascist Italy was accompanying him."
"Why would Fascist Italy be with Roman?" Poland wondered. "Roman's armies are enough to defeat anything standing in his way. So why would another Empire tag along with him?"
"Unless," Germany said slowly, "F.I. had picked up Morgan's magical aura - either of them could have I guess, but if Roman did, he wouldn't need Fascist to go with him. So that means it's F.I."
"I've heard rumors about how Empires can only detect a magical being one being at a time, and it had to be one Empire at a time too if that magical being was far away. But once the being is close, any Empire that's close by gets a full blast of the aura. I guess it was Fascist Italy's turn to detect auras."
"And our mystery Empire that attacked Y/n's village had also been in the right place at the right time." Germany glanced at the girl, who was still sleeping deeply. "We have no survivors except Y/n who can give us a recall of what happened. Even Y/n had amnesia from the sheer trauma of the attack."
"Wait - Y/n also lost her memories?" Poland sat straight up in his seat, keeping his excited yet serious voice in a whisper. "Britain said that Morgan also had amnesia when they rescued him. He couldn't remember anything for the first few days, but after a while he started to remember bits and pieces. But the whole picture is completely shattered and there's no way to piece all of it back together unless Morgan is strong enough. Perhaps Y/n will get better in a few days like he did. I just hope that her mind will be strong enough to piece back her past."
Germany nodded.
"One last thing - the Empires attacked Morgan's village because they knew he was a magical being. So could that mean - could that mean there was also a magical being in Y/n's village?"
Poland was about to reply when a shocked expression grew on Germany's face and he quietly blurted out,
"Wait - wait. Poland, I think that... Y/n could be the magical being that that Empire's looking for."
Poland's worried gaze fell on the sleeping girl.
"Germany, how? You're the smartest person I know but - isn't that taking assumptions too far?"
Germany revisited that thought again.
"Well, I guess it could have been someone else. If they hadn't been killed by the Empire for being too troublesome, then they would have been captured or escaped." He sat back down and tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "Though the reason I'm leaning towards the magical Y/n assumption is because when she woke up from being unconscious, her eyes were e/c before changing to a bright grey."
"Morgan's abilities were prominent from the moment Britain and France met him." Poland mused. "And grey is not a color you would see in people's eyes nowadays. Though we haven't seen Y/n show any signs of magic. Nevertheless, we should move her to a more secure base for perhaps, a couple of months to confirm that she isn't magical."
"No." Germany said, stone-faced. "She will have to stay here. If we move her to another location while the Empires are on the prowl, none of us will survive. We all know by mutual consent that the land between opposing army camps and bases in Europe are no-man's-land. So she will stay here unless we discuss this matter again."
Poland stayed silent, then slowly nodded. He checked his watch.
"I have to go before America and Canada take off without me again. And I may not be able to visit for a long time.. Farewell for now." He stood up from his seat, patted Germany's shoulder with a small smile and left the room.
"Farewell, Poland." He replied loud enough for the Country to hear him. Poland waved before leaving the room.
After the doors shut once more, Germany turned his attention to the girl, who had unsurprisingly slept through the whole conversation. He called for a couple of medics to tend to the girl and left the room without retrieving his jacket.
(A/N: ohooo juicy loreeee)
———
There was a large smudge of storm clouds in the distant horizon as I settled on the balcony floor, sticking my legs between the bars to swing them in the air. There were a couple of soldiers sparring in the corner of the large training grounds, but most had gone inside in anticipation of the approaching storm.
My mind kept repeating France's words. Morgan, the boy who had been captured almost a decade ago, had a similar background to me. But he had remembered his past, while I had absolutely nothing to grasp onto except my pendant that I also didn't remember how I had gotten it.
Germany had once said that I was from a village in a no-man's-land and an Empire had only recently discovered it and destroyed it in one fell swoop.
"I hate them Empire assholes," I muttered, picking at peeling white paint on the balcony bars.
"Then we all have something in common."
I turned to see Spain sitting in the same pose as I was, gazing at the distant upcoming storm.
"Hey Spain." I greeted him.
"Morning." He replied absentmindedly. His red and yellow flag colors glowed in the increasingly warm sunlight. "I'm out here so that Italy can have some peace and quiet. He's sleeping in there." He pointed back into his room.
"Is he really okay?" I asked. "Italy seemed so tired when I met him."
"That's his troublesome counterpart Empires at fault." Spain answered. "Italy works day and night to create plans to counter their destruction. He's been working so hard that Ukraine started dryly joking that he was becoming Germany." Spain grinned wryly. "When he reached a breaking point, Britain ordered him back to U.S. HQ. Well... Germany does work as hard as Italy. His counterpart, Nazi Germany, always finds cracks and weaknesses in our defenses and opens it up like a wound. Germany has to fight back just like Italy."
"Germany's never talked about his counterpart to me." I said.
"Maybe he didn't want you to have nightmares," Spain replied. "The things Nazi has done are unforgivable. I'm only going to say two words. Mass killing."
I shivered at those words.
"He... mass killing - genocide?" I whispered. Spain nodded. He reached out a hand to place it on my shoulder.
"Please don't dwell on it. Someone as young as you should not think about these things. We don't want to burden you with the weight Countries have to carry as leaders."
I nodded, looking at the distant ground. Small droplets of rain were starting to sprinkle on my eyelashes. I wiped them away.
"We should go inside," I said to Spain. We got up and were about to slide open the glass doors of our balcony windows when a gigantic bang shook the whole base. Tremors echoed once, twice, thrice through the building before another bomb raining down on the far side of the base shattered the glass doors of our rooms by tremor alone. I shielded my head against the brief onslaught of broken glass before leaping inside my room to shove on my army boots and race outside.
It was like Byzantium attacking the army camp again but in a bigger building, and I closed my eyes to fight painful flashbacks of blaring sirens and the thunderous creaking of unstable buildings. When I opened them, the visions were doubled twofold because they were happening in reality. The door next to mine banged open and Spain hurtled out of his room closely followed by Italy, who looked ready to collapse. We ran a few metres before Spain pulled me back to Italy. We slung each of his arms around one of our shoulders and kept moving.
We half stumbled, half raced down the corridor to the large curving stairwell. Cracks were forming in the steps.
"We'll never make it," Spain yelled over the noise. "It's going to cave in halfway!"
"I have an idea." My hand was already in my pocket instinctively and I pulled out my small spear. I activated it and it grew to dazzling full form.
"You have to hold on, otherwise you fall." Spain grabbed it and we held onto Italy as I levitated the spear and lowered us through the center of the stairwell.
We reached the bottom and immediately began to run. We turned into an intersection and found Poland, Russia and Ukraine coming in from the second corridor. Russia's face was emotionless yet his eyes blazed with icy anger. Ukraine held onto his sibling tightly and Poland grabbed my shoulders as soon as we reached them.
"We have to find Britain and France!" He bellowed.
Poland wasted no time in pulling us into the middle corridor. We came across France comforting a wounded officer. He shouted to two other officers and they came in to haul the injured officer to get out. We followed them through the corridor. At one point I looked through the window and saw bright banners on the hills, surrounded by enemy troops. One had the swastika sign with a white circle on a red background. Two were old-fashioned designs of what I assumed to be British and French flags. Another had a red background and a golden eagle with the words SPQR emblazoned on them. And the last flag I did not recognize. It was a white flag with two curved red wreaths crossed into one another. And somehow, that one was the most prominent one to me.
We burst out of the main doors. Britain was there with some generals, hyperventilating as smoke rose from the base and more cracks spidered across the stone walls every second.
Britain saw me and grabbed my shoulders. Generals formed a circle around the Countries and me.
"The Empires - they're here - " Britain fumbled with his words.
"Slow down," I called over the mayhem.
"Empires - Roman - Y/n, they're coming for you."
—————
Eyyyy another cliffhanger
And a bonus of juicy lore heheh
Cya laterrr
~opalico🎉