The man whipped around, face-to-face with the figure, who traced it's finger

down the other's cheek.

Yao immediately felt a stinging pain, and a trickle of warm liquid down the path

the finger had made. Opening his mouth the slightest bit, he tasted the metallic taste of blood.

"Who are you." He stared at the figure, saying the statement in more of a order than a question.

"It's not even your business." China swore he could hear a eye roll.

"Then why are you here? Where are you from?" The country challenged.

"Cool, the runt is fighting back." The figure swirled once around the man, and swept him up, off his feet.

China was immediately greeted with a shocking pain wherever his skin met the figure's form, and Yao yelped, and fell limp.

"That's better." The figure held the other, with some sort of force, in front of it, "I'm trying to help you, you know?"

"Help? Yeah right." China gritted his teeth, and tried to swing out of its grasp... Only to feel... Smaller?

"Don't try. Your small now, weak." China felt himself doing a 360 degree flip, tossed like a rag doll.

Yao looked down and screamed, bringing up one of his hands to look at his fingers.

His petite, tiny, child's fingers.

"See? Not so big anymore?" The figure easily levitated the boy higher.

"Why?! What are you doing?" His childish voice was even higher than before, quite squeaky, and his small limbs helplessly flailed in the air.

"Oh don't worry, this won't last that long, just for, you know, forever." The figure continued to toy with the boy's child-like body, "Unless... You agree to the deal."

China went limp, "The deal?"

"The deal! It's simple, you die, and your not a child anymore."

"What kind of deal is that?!?" China squeakily scowled, "I have a country, friends, and family."

"Your true family all died." The figure made a ghostly grin.

"Don't talk about them! What about my siblings?!"

"None of them stayed with you did they?"

"..."

"Like I thought. Weak." The figure grasped Chibigoku's arm, causing the little boy to scream in pain.

"I'm not weak!" Suddenly, Yao felt himself falling, and the hit to the ground knocked the air out of him.

"The deal is more than that, you fool. I would be the pathetic one making something like that." The figure stopped, "Would you trade your life for somebody you loved?"

The question took China off guard, but he responded firmly, "No."

"No?" The answer shocked the figure, clearly not expecting it.

"No. I would trade it for somebody I love." Yao sighed.

"That makes this... A bit more complicated." The figure started to float once again, "You know about your first friends, do you still love them?"

"Is this going where I think it's going?" Yao stopped in his tracks, and turned towards it.

"Maybe... You never know."

"T-the answer, is yes. I would still do it today."

"Ha! It's so much simpler now! Do you agree to the deal?" The figure clapped in somewhat mocking happiness.

"You still haven't told me the deal yet." China dead panned.

"Oh. Yeah. Right." The figure stopped its excitement, "In honesty, it's quite simple, to say the least. You die, and I bring back all your friends!"

"'Friends'?" Yao made air quotes.

"You know? Rome? Germania? Ancient Egypt?"

"Don't. Talk about them." China exploded, his rage still somewhat contained.

"I talk about what I want to talk about." The figure picked up the child again, "Plus the deal."

"I would accept to the deal. Except, you aren't real, I'm asleep, and I'll wake up and complete another hellish day." Yao scowled, "That deal would be impossible to say the least."

"Ah yes, but what about, 'It would be better if I just died, it's not like I have a purpose anymore.' Do you still remember that?"

"That was years ago! I'm not suicidal anymore!" China yelped, "I'm better now!"

"Lies, lies, tsk!" The figure spun, "Don't think I don't see that pocket knife you hide under your toothpaste, and it was last week, I think, wasn't that when you went to 'enjoy the scenery' at the top of that office building?"

Yao stood there open mouthed.

"Aah yes, I know everything."

"Your just a part of my dream. That's why you know things about me." He finally said.

"Should of known it... Wouldn't believe me." The figure thought for a moment, "Call your precious little brother, when he responds, you will hear wind in the background, and five seconds after the first ring, the chirp of a sparrow."

"What?"

"I'll go now, call him, or I'll come back." With a whoosh, the figure was gone, leaving China's cell phone in its place.

Yao stood there, and punched his leg, just to make sure he wasn't asleep, and picked up the cell phone, flipping it open, and typing in 10 numbers he knew by heart.

The phone rang once, and the person on the other side picked up, "Hello?" A sound of strong, rushing wind in the background.

China froze, but was brought out of his fantasies a few moments later, as the chirp of a bird was heard.

"China-San?" The Japenese man asked, "Are you there?"

"Kiku... Yes." Yao finally managed to stutter out, just as the cell phone disappeared straight from his hand.

"You believe me now, yes?" The figure reappeared promptly.

"Y-yes. Yes I do." Yao sighed, "State the deal."

The figure smirked.

"It's simple, you should understand, so anyway, basically, next world meeting, you need to be in a room with every country, which I understand is going to happen in a week, right?"

"Yes."

"Good. You simply die. And you'll appear in the limbo. That's where your friends are. You will stay there for one hour, in world's time."

"Ok- wait what?"

"Afterwards, in one hour, your friends will be transported from the limbo, and to the meeting room, the same spot where you had disappeared."

"And?"

"You'll be dead, alone until the next country dies."

Yao stopped, his brain failing to process the facts, but in all honesty, he didn't have to, he already knew his answer, it was swirling around in his brain thousand-fold times.

"Yes."

"You agree? Ok! It'll come in effect as soon as the meeting begins in Dublin!"

The figure promptly disappeared, leaving a shell-shocked Yao to process what had just happened in the last 30 minutes.

----

Hello! Sorry for the shorter chapter! I have settled on doing chapters of about 1000 words. I'll try to update once a week, or whenever I have time, so try to expect chapters within the usual time frame of 2-10 days between uploads!

Anyway, congrats to you if you can name all the ancients. 

~aah