Chapter 55: The Bloodbath Loop

"I made a mistake." I said as the group of 12 nations in the memory went towards the Fifth Floor staircase.

"You... made a mistake?" England raised an eyebrow in question.

"Well... I've made a lot of mistakes, but... This one... was my fault."

"Shut up. It wasn't truly your fault." Luciano argued, but I sent him a flat look.

"If you blame yourself, I can blame myself. Don't be a hypocrite." I argued.

"F-fair enough."

"Why do you think that this one was your fault?" Asher asked me, concern in his gaze.

"Because I waited too long... We stayed holed up in the Safe Room for four and a half weeks straight, with nobody venturing outside. We were recovering from some rather nasty injuries, and by the time we were well enough to make for the front door key..." I sighed. "The Things were beyond restless. It was a formula for disaster."

"I think I remember you being rather concerned with how long we spent in the Safe Room..." Japan puzzled over his hazy memories.

"Si. This last time... we only spent a few days, but... after this... I never wanted a repeat of this... carnage." I shuddered. "Even still, after this loop everyone became restless if we spent too long in the Safe Room. You all subconsciously remembered the consequences, which made things easier on me."

The nations in the memory smiled and laughed, looking refreshed and mostly back at 100%, though a few still had some minor limps and aches.

"Ita? What's wrong, buddy?" Alfred asked, tilting his head curiously.

"I... nothing, it's nothing... I hope." Feli muttered. "I'm just nervous."

"We all are." Kiku agreed. "But it'll be okay. Don't worry so much, Itary-kun."

"Did we know?" Japan asked me, looking at the scene intensely.

"No. You didn't know. You knew some but not everything. I'd gone with the 'I saw stuff in the clocks' method, which meant I could push you all in the directions I wanted you to go in without explaining everything.

The group entered the Bloody Handprint Room with no small amount of trepidation, and Feliciano hung towards the far right side of the group.

The nations startled again at just how much blood was all over the room. It seemed to have doubled since they last entered, but those who were able to vaguely recall the Final Loop, shuddered when they realized that it was only just the beginning of the blood.

The nations in the memory, however, ignored their nerves and guts telling them to turn around, or be quiet, and instead pushed forward into the Blood Clock Room.

"I think it was like this..." Feli spoke up, guiding them through the puzzle that he, himself, had set up all those loops ago to ensure that they never got this far without him.

"Why did you set up that magical puzzle?" England asked me.

"Well, after Loop One, I got nervous... I tried very hard to keep those deaths from repeating. Germany and Prussia had entered the room alone and gotten gravely injured getting me the key to the Front Door... So I set up a puzzle that requires at least three people to complete to ensure that never happened again. At the very least, I could try harder to be there." I explained as I watched them solve the puzzle and enter the Cage Room.

Feliciano paled rapidly when he realized that the room behind the bars where there should've been no less than 30 Things... was empty.

"Oh no..." He started shaking. "G-guys, maybe we should try this tomorrow?" Feli tried, but the nations turned to look at him with irritation.

"I know you saw some scary things, Italy, but it'll be okay. There's nothing here right now, we'll be fine." Germany tried to reason, but Feli shook his head.

"No, you don't understand... The Things should be in that cage... if they're not, then..."

"Oh, hush. We'll be in and out before you know it!" China grinned as he opened the door to the Blood Number Room.

"What do those numbers represent?" France asked, looking around the empty room.

"The number of days each loop lasted." I stated.

"Really? I thought it'd be how many people died?" Russia tilted his head.

"You would think that... but no, I realized a while back... each number coincides with the length of the Loop. Sometimes, it'll be small, like over there by the door." I pointed to a rather small 367 scribbled in blood by the door to the room. "Other times, as with the older loops, it'll be blaringly large, like those ones." I pointed to the numbers all around. "They started to overlap eventually, and you could only really tell them apart by the color of new and old blood."

"That's not creepy at all." Prussia shuddered, looking at one that had a smiley face drawn next to it. "Und that's an insanely high number... 600 days?! That's nearly 2 years!"

"We once spent a decade in there..." I idly recalled.

"OI!" Romano cried out, horrified.

"This is wrong..." Feliciano's eyes were wide with horror. "That Slow-Moving Thing should be here... it's never been empty... this isn't right... it's wrong! It's wrong! We need to run!" Feliciano tried to urge his friends to run, but they wouldn't listen.

"What are you talkin' about?" Alfred looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "The key's right there!" He pointed to the Front Door Key innocently hanging on the wall opposite of the door. "And if that Thing's not in here, maybe it died or something? Either way, our lucky break! Come on! This is our golden opportunity~!" He grinned as he ran across the room and snatched the key. The moment the key left the wall, a terrifying roar sounded.

Feliciano froze. The door behind them slammed shut, and hidden doors opened up along the bloodstained walls to reveal countless Elemental Things.

"What... the hell are those?!" Francis cried out, unable to notice the Fire Thing behind him. It sunk its claws into his shoulder and seared his arm off. He screamed in agony, drawing the attention of the other nations.

Unfortunately, this caused their attention to leave the Things for a moment—and a moment was all they needed.

It wasn't a fight; it was a massacre. Ludwig was disemboweled by an Earth Thing, and screamed in agony as he was eaten alive from the inside, causing a few nations to go green around the gills.

Gilbert was being fought over by three different Things, and there was an unforgettable sickening snapping sound as his limbs were torn from his body.

Yao was cleaved in two, and his organs were messily flung around the room, creating a terrifying background spray of blood to paint the grotesque scene.

Russia closed his eyes. It was too much for many of the nations, and even the 2Ps looked pale at the gore that surrounded them. Perhaps the worst part was the primal screams of agony that sounded like a great symphony throughout the room.

I could practically envision Adelchi standing in the middle of this carnage with a conductor's baton and an excited grin. The scene did not make me sick, as it did my old self, who was terrifyingly pale. I'd relived it far too many times in my nightmares to let this traumatize me more than I already was. No, instead this made me sad.

Yang looked over at Luciano, who seemed rather pale, himself. He wasn't looking at the scene, and was covering his ears, trying to block out the, no doubt triggering, screams. The white-haired Italian sighed and walked over to him. He knew he'd catch hell for this later, but he couldn't stand watching either myself or Luciano suffer.

"Oi." He placed his hands on either side of Luciano's face, drawing his attention. "We aren't there. We're safe. This is a Memory-Clock Flashback. You're used to those, yeah?" He waited for Luciano to nod, confirming that he was understanding what Yang was saying. "Good. Then you need to replace that mask. No sense in throwing the loop cause you came unhinged, yeah?"

Luciano blinked as the Mansion Logic clicked in his head, and he instantly calmed. I was one of the few that noticed the light glow around Yang's hand, indicating that he was using magic to help calm him down.

The 2Ps realized, perhaps for the first time, that Luciano was traumatized. It hit them harder than their 1Ps. Coming from a world of violence and bloodshed, it was incredibly hard to phase a 2P, but to see that their (in essence) leader was actually honestly traumatized was something that bothered them more than they'd like to admit.

"G-grazie, Yang." Luciano smiled softly at him, before his normal stern expression returned. "What the fuck are you lookin' at?" He barked at the 2Ps, who quickly returned their attention to the memory.

Feliciano was huddled in a corner, terrified. It was something that was strange for the Nations to see.

"Itary-kun... is that... me?" Japan asked, pointing to a small form that Feliciano was curled around. It was only then that the nations realized that Feliciano wasn't cowering in terror, necessarily, but protecting Kiku.

He only looked up when the room was quiet. The Things were gone, and the carnage left behind would haunt the nations' nightmares for centuries to come. Severed limbs and chunks of brain matter and bone clung to the walls, and the remains were entirely unrecognizable.

Kiku, upon catching sight of the scene, screamed bloody murder until he passed out in Feliciano's arms.

Feli, himself, looked beyond traumatized, but made himself detach from the situation. "Ironic... that you're the sole survivor." He spoke in a low whisper to Kiku's unconscious form.

He carefully stood, scooping his companion up in his arms, and left the room. "I'm sorry... I've failed you again."

Japan had this faraway look in his eyes, and I sighed. Before anyone could react, I walked over to him and muttered a spell under my breath. I wiped my fingers across his forehead, feeling them warm with magic. He blinked rapidly and shook his head.

"Itary-kun?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I blurred the memories of the Bloodbath Loop for you. It's your most traumatizing loop, and if you remember in full, you're libel to have a complete mental-emotional breakdown and then wake up with a nasty case of amnesia." I looked over at the memory as Feliciano sat down on the bed in the Safe Room. "When you woke up here, you kept asking me where everyone was. I didn't have the heart to tell you... Instead I just reset the loop."

"You were mute, too." Yang added. "Whenever you have that breakdown, you become mute."

"Oh... I think that's the one I saw in the... Safe Room Clock?" Japan tilted his head.

"Probably." I shrugged. "I think the shock of me nearly dying canceled out the trauma you felt, though... and the knowledge that it 'didn't happen'. In other cases where you've gotten that memory, you were questioning my explanations of the clocks."

"You're so nonchalant about this... I think I need to puke." Romano looked dangerously green.

"No puking in my head." I reminded him. "England, can we have that break, now?" I asked. Out of everyone, Yang and I were the only two unbothered by the memory we just saw. I was honestly surprised by myself. I expected flashbacks or something, but... nope. I felt like I'd seen a crappy animation with a character death I really didn't care about. In other words, I felt nothing. A little sad, some serious regret, but nothing worth crying or vomiting over.

"I think we're both a little too desensitized to this sort of thing, Ying."

"Perhaps you're right."

"Yeah, and I'm not... I never really had a Bloodbath Loop like you did... seeing the aftermath of yours was enough to keep it away in my Mansion." Luciano shuddered. "It was worse to see it unfold, though."

"At least you aren't ready to puke..." Oliver pointed out, as he helped his 1P call up the Break Room.

As soon as the room came up—extra bathrooms included, this time—the nations, both 1P and 2P scattered to the bathrooms. A few of the stronger-stomached nations, like Jason and Oliver, just went up to their rooms to rest.

"I suppose it was a bit much for them." I muttered to Yang.

"You think? It was a bit much for me and I'm a Ryuuzu." Luciano chimed in. Yang, Luciano, and I were the only ones left in the room.

"I'm sorry..." I apologized.

"For what? And don't you dare say 'because it's my fault' or 'because I made a mistake', because we'll both punch you if you say that." Yang crossed his arms.

"Fine, fine... I'm sorry... because I'm going to go and make pasta without you~" I grinned and dashed off to the kitchen.

"O-Oi! One, you shouldn't cook after that, and two..." Luciano hesitated. "W-wait for me, you asshole!"

Yang laughed and followed him. The three of us would be eating alone, I was sure, but I think we needed some bonding time anyhow.

"You know..." Yang spoke up as we ate our dinner. "Isn't the Switch coming up next?"

"Oh, yeah... I forgot about that..." I tilted my head as an amused smile crossed my lips.

"This should be fun." Luciano agreed.

"Indeed it should." Yang outright grinned, as the three of us shared a secret smile. "This will be fun."

A/N: Hello everybody! Another update, whoo~ Hopefully, I did the Bloodbath Loop justice.

Welcome to all you new Telegram Group people!! It's amazing to have you in the Group Chat, and I hope you're having a lot of fun~!

Also, people, my friend Risa is working hard for all of you!! If she keeps up her daily workout till Friday, I will upload a new chapter of Pasts and Secrets on Saturday!! So let's all give her some encouragement!! WHOO! GO RISA!!

I am officially attending Anime Expo in LA, California on Friday, July 5, and I am stoked!! If any of you are going to be there on that day, PM me on Wattpad or Telegram, and we'll try to meet up! I'll be in a Feliciano Cosplay, with my HetaOni Journal (It should be hard to miss the bright blue uniform, though). Think you've found me? Shout something from my game, fanfiction, or something about Yang. I'll probably be a dork and shout back before running over to you to hang out or say hi. ^^ (I may or may not have something special for you if you mention my fic or game~~)

Group Chat on Telegram is always open if you wanna join us, and see what I'm like on the other side of the screen! So PM me on there (username is SilvermistAnimeLover), and I'll add you to the group. Just tell me what country you're in and what name you go by so I can introduce you to the chat! ;)

Keep an eye out, though!! Tomorrow, July 4th, I will post a new twoshot for Alfred's birthday!! So I hope you'll enjoy it!!

Shoutout to my friend Pawoon, who's amazing!! I dedicate this chapter to you!! Stay Strong!

Words: 2,278

Pages: 5

Posted: 07/03/2019