Chapter 11—Alone

The next memory came up. Lovino and Feliciano were sitting in the living room, their mother asleep on the chair by the fire.

"We'd just celebrated our 48th birthday." I said.

"Vino...? Is momma asleep?" The still 8-year-old asked. Lovino glanced at his mother, and nodded his head. Feliciano turned and looked at his mother with a critical gaze, which looked far too old for a face so young.

The nations, too, looked at Emma. Her once youthful appearance had given way to age. Her hair was thin and grey, and her face had many wrinkles and sunspots. Her laugh lines and worry lines were the most prominent. She looked so old and frail. It seemed to happen so suddenly, but the nations knew they'd just been avoiding seeing it. It was always that way with humans—they grew old and died.

"Momma... she looks so old, Vino... I don't think she has long." Feliciano said quietly.

"Wh-what are you talking about, Felice!? Of course she has time! She's mom!" Lovino whispered back viciously, refusing to accept that he would lose her soon.

"But she's human. Vino, look at us. We're eight. We've been eight for decades, now. She's already 80. Humans don't usually live that long... And her hands shake so much, Vino. She can't even sew anymore! She's falling asleep so often now, and I... I'm scared... I really don't think she has long..." Feliciano whispered sadly.

"I... I'll keep my promise. I'll always be here for you, Felice. Even when she goes, I'll be here. Okay? But... She's mom! She's not going anywhere for a long while!" Lovino said, getting up. "Come on, Felice. Let's head to sleep."

"Okay, fratello..." Feliciano said as he slowly stood up as well.

The scene changed again, and we paled drastically upon seeing our favorite foods spread across the table. "This is our 50th birthday." Romano said quietly. The nations sensed that it wasn't a topic open for discussion, and wisely said nothing.

"Happy Birthday!" Emma smiled, as she greeted the sleepy-eyed twins. We watched the montage of our perfect day. We got our favorite foods. We played our favorite games. It was the most perfect day imaginable. Feliciano even made a light snowfall to play in. And when night came, Emma gently tucked them both into bed, and sat there, singing a lullaby to them as they fell asleep to her running her hands through their hair, carefully avoiding their curls.

Little ones, shut your eyes,

Listen to my lullaby

Angels sweet, don't you cry,

As I lay with you this night

Precious ones, rest your head

You are safe within my arms,

As you dream, gentle minds,

Together for all of time.

(A/N: The lullaby is up on Youtube as of Sep. 17, 2018 [I made the song myself~!]. The link is in the A/N.)

She kissed them both goodnight, and—for the first time in the memories—spoke in Italian. While she'd spoken it many times already, she hadn't spoken it in the memories. "Sogni d'oro, my sons. Always remember that I love thee." She said, kissing their foreheads again, before she slowly backed out of the room. There was a sense of finality as she closed their door; a single tear ran down her face.

The scene changed again. It was early morning, the very next day. The house was quiet as the twins awoke. Too quiet. The nations and twins were both on edge. There was an unnatural stillness all around them.

"Vino..." I whispered, knowing what memory this was.

"It's okay..." He muttered back to me, also recognizing the memory. I could feel Yang push calm towards me mentally.

"Ve..." Feliciano said upon awakening.

"Chigi." Lovino replied, smiling softly to his twin.

"Vino? Isn't it a bit quiet?" Feliciano said, anxious. He could sense something off.

"Yeah..." Lovino said, before sniffing the air and climbing out of bed. The two of them made their way to the kitchen, and froze upon seeing it untouched.

"Mom's not up yet...?" Feliciano questioned, worried.

"I... guess not... Maybe she slept in. Let's go check on her." Lovino suggested, not bothering to hide his own worry in front of his twin.

The nations watched as Feliciano and Lovino headed towards their mother's room. Opening the door, they found her still asleep in her bed.

"Mom? You okay? You're usually up by now..." Feliciano trailed off, "Mom?" He and Lovino headed to the bed.

"H-hey..." Lovino started, very pale, and shaking. "Sh-she's not breathing! Call the doctor!" He cried.

Feliciano was quick to comply, running as fast as he could to the nearby town to call the doctor. The doctor came only to tell them that she'd died in her sleep, peacefully, of old age.

"O-old age...? Bu-but! We still need her!" Lovino said, crushed. Feliciano didn't want to believe it.

"Y-you're kidding, right? S-she's not dead... She can't be! She's mom! Mom's strong! She can't die!" Feliciano started to cry, "she can't..." Lovino hugged his brother, as the doctor apologized, and left.

"Oh, Italy..." Germany sighed. The nations looked at us with pity and sorrow. Only America, Canada, and those who knew what it's like to lose a mother, gave us comforting looks and smiles. We didn't want pity. We didn't need it. Our younger selves didn't want pity either. They just wanted their mother.

The memory changed yet again. It was night, and voices could be heard outside.

"Oh, Dio! No! I don't want to see this again!" Romano cried, as I felt a strong shiver run down my spine.

"Lovi? Ita? You okay?" Spain asked, drawing the nation's attention to us.

"No. We're not. This... this is about 8 months after the last memory... Those of you with sensitive hearing should cover your ears when we warn you..." Romano said, shuddering.

"W-we made a mistake." I wince at my choice of words. "We... We let people know we didn't age... We forgot to keep moving after our Mother died... They thought us demons... devils... And the fact that Mom lived to be as old as she did... They thought she was some kind of witch." I shuddered again, as a few nations paled at the implications of my words.

I'd probably tremble, if I hadn't been through what I've been through.

Yeah, well... Your brother's in a bit of a tougher boat than you right now anyways. He'd probably appreciate someone who's not also scared out of their wits.

A few townspeople snuck into Feliciano and Lovino's room as they slept, being careful not to wake them. Suddenly and without warning, the men jumped the twins, tying them up.

"Oi! What the fuck?!" Lovino yelled, already starting on bad habits of cursing.

"VINO!" Feliciano cried, as they started dragging him away, only for a man to kick Feliciano in the ribs. He spat up blood.

"FELICE!" Lovino yelled, angry and scared.

"If you're wondering why I didn't freeze the ropes and break free... It's because I had my power limiter on. I frequently had nightmares, so I slept with it on so I didn't cause a snowstorm in July or anything like that... I quickly learned from my mistake. Through my panic and the limiter, I couldn't remember how to access my powers." I said quietly. Nobody replied.

Asher growled menacingly before he charged at the man who kicked Feliciano. The men were understandably scared. Asher was a very large wolf, after all, and even with as old as he was, he was surprisingly agile and lithe. Another man brought down his wooden pole on Asher, who flew into the wall hard. With a strangled yelp, he fell to the floor, still.

"NO! ASHER!" Feliciano and Lovino cried. After all Asher had done for them? He was a precious member of their family. The nations cringed at the horrid sight of the memory. To lose their mother and then their companion so soon after one another?

"You heathens shall kill no more!" A man cried, "We know you were responsible for Old Man Harggin's Death!" He continued, "He wouldn't have made such a mistake on the farm! You killed him! We know it! You unaging devils!"

The scene phased into another one. One that made the nations blanch sheet-white in horror. Feliciano and Lovino were tied up to a stake, and the villagers were just holding out their torches to light the pyre.

America shuddered, having lived through his fair share of witch burnings. Though they weren't common at all back in the days of our childhood, these villagers were scared enough to make it happen anyways.

"Burn the devils!" Someone cried, causing cheers to erupt from the crowd. The pyre was then lit. The flames danced closer to a terrified Feliciano and Lovino. Feliciano, however, was tied ever so closer to the flames than Lovino, as well as downwind.

"I'd cover your ears now..." I said, already covering my own ears, alongside Romano. The nations numbly followed my advice just as the flames started licking Feliciano's feet.

He tried to be brave. He tried to be strong. But it soon grew to be all too much, and he let loose a bloodcurdling scream. Every nation winced, horrified at the sound. Feliciano struggled as hard as he could to break free, as did Lovino as the flames reached him and he, too, started screaming, but they were tied with thick rope, and their wrists and ankles were held together by chains. Chains that were now glowing red-hot.

Romano and I winced, wishing we could rub our wrists as our scars started to twinge, but we dared not uncover our ears for fear of losing our hearing. Prussia and America winced in sympathy. They were both very pale, Prussia in particular. He's a left-handed albino. He's probably been through this himself. And America had those Witch Trials... I reminded myself.

It seemed to last for hours. The screaming never stopped. It just kept going. Nobody, man, woman, or child, seemed to care. In fact, they gathered around to watch in glee.

America felt sick. This was too much like the Witch Trials. Only Mexico and Canada—and a handful of states—knew that he, himself, had been caught up in those, too. He had been burned at the stake as well, and on another occasion, he'd been tossed into the river to drown. He was lucky he had his extraordinary strength; otherwise he would've had to wait until someone fished his body out of the river to come back to life again. But watching Feliciano and Lovino burning like that... Then the thought that it nearly happened to one of his states? His children?! He felt beyond sick. If he weren't covering his ears right then, he probably would've held a hand over his mouth to hold back the bile. Instead, he swallowed it back down.

Then, when Feliciano and Lovino's legs were blackened and charred and the flames were already halfway up their bodies, a familiar wolf leapt into the flames.

"No way..." England whispered, but nobody could hear him, as they were all covering their ears. Asher, howling in agony, fought his instincts to flee from the flames, and bit through the ropes that bound Feliciano and Lovino. He could do nothing about the chains.

Feliciano, upon recognizing that Asher was in the flames as well, felt something within him snap. His necklace shattered into a fine white snowy powder as a shockwave of pure icy energy erupted from his body. The flames froze, and the chains broke, but every living thing remained untouched, even as nearby houses were flash-frozen by the sudden influx of power. Feliciano and Lovino crumpled to the ground, no longer having anything holding them to the horrid pyre.

"A-Asher...?" Lovino's voice was hoarse and bloody from screaming himself raw. Feliciano was in no better shape. Their legs were useless at this point, and they were hardly coherent.

"T-The devil has unleashed his true power!" A man cried, coming out of his shock at Feliciano's abilities.

"They've enlisted the help of the wolves! Kill them!" A woman yelled. Asher, if wolves could have expressions, would've looked urgent. Feliciano and Lovino seemed to know what he wanted, and grabbed onto his fur. The faithful wolf dashed away from the enraged villagers at full speed, carrying Lovino and Feliciano with him.

The road was rough and uneven, and the twins cried out in agony as every little bump and jar aggravated their injuries. There was also the added pain of any dirt, sticks, rocks, roots, and whatever else was littering the forest floor that brushed against their legs, literally rubbing them bloody and raw.

Eventually, they came to a cliff. Asher was panting, obviously badly burned himself. The villagers were catching up, and they had no place to go. Below them was a deep canyon with a fast-moving ravine at the bottom, much like the one Feliciano fell off of decades before. They had only one choice. One of the villagers shot an arrow, just as the wolf made his decision.

Asher jumped.

The three of them fell, screaming and howling down the impossibly deep canyon, landing, by some miracle in the water below, just as the villagers reached the cliff-face. The memory blacked out.

Holy shit. Okay... you get brownie points from me.

Gee, after being burned alive as a child I thought I'd get the whole cake at minimum.

The cake is a lie, I thought you knew this already?

Shut up.

"Wh-wha?" Germany couldn't form a coherent sentence.

"That was good dog." Russia said sadly, knowing that Asher's injuries were too grave for him to survive without modern medical treatments.

"Si... He was..." Romano said softly. He was particularly fond of Asher... We both were. Asher was like another brother to us. He was famiglia.

"I hoped I was the only one." Prussia muttered, but everyone heard him.

"What was that, aru?" China asked. Prussia only sighed and lifted up one of his pant legs, revealing a nasty burn scar.

"As a child, I was also thought to be a demon, because of my white hair and red eyes." He let the pant leg down. "I lost track of how many times I was burned and drowned." Nobody said anything, but Germany was the most shocked out of everyone.

The memory then came back; a little hazy at first, but then it cleared. Feliciano, Lovino, and Asher were lying by the riverbank, presumably far, far downstream, seeing as they were out of the canyon. Asher had apparently dragged the twins out of the river.

"Unh..." Feliciano was the first to wake up, before he started crying in pain. "V-Vino..." He struggled against his screaming vocal chords and harsh coughs.

"F-Felice?" Lovino asked, also coming to. Then they heard a whimper, and saw Asher; an arrow snapped off in his midsection.

"Asher!" The twins cried, dragging themselves to the last member of their perfect family. Asher whimpered, and licked their hands, almost as if apologizing to them. He had used up all his strength to save them. He closed his deep sapphire blue eyes, and died.

"NO!" The twins cried. First they'd lost their mother, then they were burned alive, and now they've lost their last family other than each other. They were weak, scared, and hungry. They were in pain, mourning, and tired. They were cold and wet. But most of all, they were alone.

A rustling in the bushes snapped them out of their shocked and sorrowful stupor. A pure white wolf stepped forward with five pups. She gave them a cursory glance, as she cautiously sniffed them from afar. She then saw Asher. She bound over to him, and nuzzled him, before howling in the most painful, grief-stricken howl the nations had ever heard.

I winced in sympathy. Now, having had a wolf-bonded, I could understand their words. Asher had said goodbye... he was sorry for leaving us 'pups'... and he was apologizing for leaving his wolf family behind.

"They were mates." Romano explained. "Those pups are Asher's kids."

The puppies then stumbled forward as well, to mourn for their father. After a few minutes, the she-wolf turned her golden gaze to the twins, staring as if trying to convey an important message.

She then yipped, and the puppies came running. Three were Asher's coloration, one was pure black with golden eyes, and the fifth was a reddish-brown color that matched Lovino's hair with bright green eyes. The green-eyed pup hesitated, before yipping something back, and bounding over towards the twins, standing in front of Lovino with an expectant gleam in his eyes.

The mother and her four other pups stopped and watched, as Lovino stared at the pup, not knowing what to do. The mother growled a warning, but the pup just sat down, as if to say, 'I'm staying whether you like it or not!'

Romano and I smiled, remembering this. Lovino hesitantly stretched out his hand, stopping centimeters away from the pup's head. The pup then pushed his head forward, touching Lovino's hand.

Lovino and the pup yelped in surprise as a shock ran through them.

"Did you just...?" China asked in awe.

"Si. That is Asher II, my Bonded." Romano stated proudly.

The memory blacked out there, fading to the darkness as Lovino had this soft smile on his face. "We're not alone anymore, Felice..." Lovino said faintly before the darkness took over at last.

Words: 2,749/2,938

Pages: 6/7

Date Uploaded: Friday, August 19th, 2016

Date Updated: Monday, September 17th, 2018

Updated: Tuesday, March 5, 2019

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I've had a lot of things going on in real life, including work, family, and paying off student loans (Anyone have a few thousand dollars lying around??). Anyhow, thank you to everyone who reviewed and read the last chapter, and I look forward to hearing from you guys on this one! ^_~

So yes, Emma is dead. She was human, though, so it had to happen at some point. Asher was a hero. His son will help to carry on that legacy... Hopefully. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and maybe even shed a tear or two. :D See you all next chapter!

~SilvermistAnimeLover

LINK TO EMMA'S LULLABY:

Fanfiction(dot)net link just remove the spaces and replace (dot) with a dot:

https :// www (dot)youtube (dot)com/ watch?v=QO3ZjDLWvCA&feature=youtu(dot)be