Chapter 12—New Arrivals

"Okay, dudes. We need a break." America announced. I honestly agreed with him, and it looked like everyone else did, too.

"Alright. Everyone in favor of heading back to the Pocket Dimension I created earlier?" England asked. Many nods and affirmative noises were made. "Very well." He started chanting in Latin again, and with a flash we appeared back in the same living room area as before.

Was it really only a few hours ago? It feels like years... I thought to myself.

You'd think, of all people, that you would be the one most acutely aware of time.

Well, excuse me for being used to a different timeflow than ours.

Ying... it's been years, now...

But can only a handful of decades really make up for thousands?

"Veneziano? You okay?" Romano asked, interrupting my mental conversation.

"Si. I was just thinking... We've seen so much already, and we're only through our first childhood." I said.

"Speaking of which, do ya mind cluin' us in on what to expect in the next chapter of your life?" Prussia asked, kicking back in a relaxed position on the couch, taking up the entire thing. Germany elbowed his brother. "Ow! The hell, West?!"

"Be a little more sensitive!" He chastised.

"Well..." I was about to tell them a little bit, when a flash of light blinded us all. It looked exactly like the light that brought us here. When it died down, two figures stood in the middle of the room.

Oh, fuck no! I didn't mean it seriously! I cursed fate in every language I knew, as Yang busted his gut laughing his ass off.

"Where are we?" Hungary asked as she looked around at the stunned group of nations. South Korea looked just as mystified.

"Ita?! Oh! You're okay!" Hungary lunged for me, wrapping me in a gentle, motherly hug. I smiled and clung to her. I may not have wanted her there, but she was very much appreciated.

"Does anyone know what is going on?" South Korea asked, looking at myself and America in particular.

"You might wanna sit down for this one." America said, gesturing for the two new arrivals to sit down.

"Well... Where to start..." England then went on to explain about our situation.

"Wait..." Hungary said when he'd finished. "You're saying that we have to watch all of Ita's memories from childhood to present?! That's not right! You have to stop this!" She yelled, indignant.

"You really have the worst luck, you know that?" South Korea looked at me with sympathy.

"No kidding." I replied with a tired sigh.

"We've tried. There's no way out." Romano said tiredly. "We've already gotten through our first childhood, and—"

"First childhood?! What's that supposed to mean?!" Hungary looked so lost.

"Fuck. I don't want to explain everything again!" Romano yelled, pulling at his hair.

"Ve~ Fratello~ You shouldn't pull at your hair like that. You'll go bald!" I warned him.

"I don't care! Nations can't go bald! Look at China! If he isn't fucking bald after 4,000 years of nationhood—and several centuries of parenthood—then I certainly won't go bald after 2,000!" He turned to Hungary and South Korea.

"Fine. I'll explain the bare minimum. Any details, you'll have to get from someone else." He said, before launching into a bullet point explanation. He told them about our mother, the circumstances of our premature birth, how I wasn't supposed to exist—which nearly gave Hungary a panic attack—how we didn't get along well (he glossed over the murder attempts), bullying, Asher, the whole sickness and poison being our weaknesses thing, how we've almost died, like, 5 times, the whole General Winter fiasco—for which I demonstrated my abilities, much to their awe and amazement—our mother's death, being burned at the stake—nearly giving Hungary another panic attack—and finally Asher's death and Romano's bonding to Asher the Second.

"Wow... just..." Hungary was in tears. She charged towards me, and clung to me like no tomorrow. "OH ITA! I'm so sorry you had to go through all that! You never–! And then–! When you were with us–! OH! And Romano, too!" She couldn't stop sobbing. South Korea looked at me with a helpless shrug. Clearly, I'm on my own with the Death Hug of Doom.

Nope... Yang's voice sounded as strangled as my voice would've been if I'd attempted to speak. I'm here with ya, buddy.

Great, cause that makes me feel so much better. I mentally rolled my eyes.

"Ve..." I gave her a soft smile. "It's okay. It's all long past. It happened over a millennia ago, remember? We've moved past most of that stuff." I said.

"Sooo..." Prussia trailed off, obviously wanting something.

"Oh, right. You wanted a little warning of what's to come, right?" I remembered.

"Fuck. You came at a fucking great time." Romano said sarcastically.

"Our teenage years are next." I explained with a grimace. "We... we weren't exactly 'model citizens' if you catch my drift. We were street-rats. Nearly got our hands cut off for stealing on multiple occasions. There's also... Well, you'll see... I... let's just say that if we didn't connect to our nations when we did, we'd be very, very different than the Italy and Romano you know. The streets hardened us. We were the Mafioso."

"The mafia?!" Germany cried out in shock.

"Si... Oh, right, you didn't know... Well, I'll save you the headache. Felice and I have been Dons of the most powerful Italian Mafioso since its birth. We've killed many to protect our famiglia, and control the criminal underworld of our nation; even today." Romano said. The room seemed to go catatonic.

"Uh... Vino...? I think you broke them..." I trailed off, blowing a bit of ice-breath in Japan's face. He blinked, but did nothing about the tiny tendrils of frost spreading across his black hair. Huh... He usually handles it so well, too. Maybe it's because he's on overload with everything he's seen today? Must be it. After all, he's dealt with the Mafioso personally before. He already had his suspicions after seeing us in the field. He runs his Yakuza the same way we run our Mafia. Yang cackled in the back of my mind.

"Whoops." Romano shrugged, but still looked at the others with interest, waving a hand in front of Spain's blank face. "Well, we're heading to bed. 'Disturb us and die' and all that shit." He said with a flippant wave as he walked to the stairs. "Oi! Veneziano! You coming?" He asked, looking back at me.

"Si~ I'm coming, Vino~ Ve!"

"Chigi." With that, we walked up the stairs and into the same room we used before. Unknown to Romano, I kept listening to the others while pretending to sleep. It took them a full hour to snap out of their stupor and follow our lead to bed. I slept easily that night, listening to the lulls of their heartbeats and breaths. I was quick to fall into the land of nightmares carved from my own memories, haunted by gunshots and shadows and the scream of a young girl who never got the chance to live. I shivered in my sleep. My dreams did not bode well for the future memories...

A/N: Sorry it's been forever, guys. I now hold 2 part-time jobs, and I'm in the market for my first place. I'm low-income, so it's proving to be very difficult.

I also apologize to everyone for the shortness of this chapter. I'm currently working on Chrome Shelled Hetalia, and it should be updated very soon! :) After that, I'll try to get the next chapter of Memories of Old up.

To Guest Reviewer Hertha: thank you for the information. Also, while I appreciate the lullaby thing, the one I use in the fanfiction is one I created for this story specifically. I hope to soon put the music up on Youtube as well. It's called Emma's Lullaby, and since I made it there's no need for me to worry about copyright infringement. ^_^

Thank you everyone for your reviews and patience as well as understanding. I'm going through some difficult times, and you are all amazing! :D

Pages: 3

Words: 1,166/1,221

Posted: 01/08/2017

Edited: 03/05/2019