Japan – Kiku 2p Japan – Kuro
China – Yao
England – Arthur 2p England – Oliver
France – Francis
Russia - Ivan
Prussia - Gilbert
North Italy - Feliciano
South Italy - Lovino
Canada - Mathew
America - Alfred
2p Germany - Lutz

Really, really long one here for you guys (partly because I didn't want to split it into two :D)

Kiku seized up coughing. It'd happened a lot over the past couple of days, since the others left actually, and Kuro's voice was definitely getting louder, almost shouting.

Are they trying to kill us? There's so much dust in here we're going to die. Aren't you going to complain or something?

"No, of course I'm not" Kiku muttered, resting his head against the wall. "What could they do about it anyway? They've seen you take over the past couple of times you have and don't trust me enough to move me out of here."

And that's my fault is it?

"Yes. It is your fault."

Yeah, so just go blame everything on me why don't you? Dump all blame on me

Kiku sighed, got up and started pacing the small cell. He felt trapped, agitated, restless, confined within these concrete walls, almost wanting Kuro to take over and bust him out.

Will you stop doing that? You've been doing that on and off the past number of days. It's annoying.

"I don't care" Kiku muttered. There was a sharp stabbing pain in his head. Another headache. They were getting worse and worse. He knew that he had to fight at some point, maybe when he was unconscious or something. That was why he hadn't been sleeping either.

Yet another wave of pain hit his head and he stumbled into one of the walls, his vision going fuzzy. No. He couldn't black out. But... him and Kuro shared the same thoughts so... he'd just given him the idea. Damn. Even thinking was dangerous.

And you've only just caught on to it

He wanted to snap back but it hurt to open his mouth and he slid down the wall, clutching his head with both hands, vision slowly clouding over. The door to his cell opened and he heard a sharp intake of breath and footsteps.

"Kiku?"

Kiku stood upright, turning to face the person but stopped. He wasn't in the cell anymore, but on some sort of incredibly shallow lake that stretched on for miles and miles.

"Nice isn't it?" Kuro said, coming up behind him. "Your brain has some very empty spaces."

Kiku turned to glare at him. His counterpart shrugged, turned and walked a few meters away, his arms behind his back, sword trailing on the floor. Kiku glanced down at his own hand, realising it was clamped around the hilt of his katana. So. This was the fight they'd been waiting for.

"It is" Kuro turned round and looked at him with the familiar blank gaze. "It's the fight that we've both been waiting for, in which one of us shall continue, and the other shall live on as a figment of everyone's memories. Without a physical form, you can't exist." He took a step forwards, creating a weirdly comforting sound of water splashing against his boot.

Kiku raised his sword carefully, waiting, not willing to make the first move, but then again, Kuro didn't seem to want to either. He gave up waiting and lunged forwards swiping at Kuro, who parried and circled round to his back. Kiku turned and narrowly avoided the hit.

"I was going to give you a lovely long scar like I gave your brother" Kuro muttered, looking at his sword. "He screamed a lot you know, when I cut him. He thought it was you as well!"

Kiku shuddered. He knew what'd happened, he'd watched, just not been in control to do anything. That was why he tended to stay away from people a lot, they would get hurt. He took in invisible deep breath and threw himself forwards again his attack being blocked, like the counter attack that came after it.

"You're too slow" Kuro sighed, bringing his knee up into Kiku's chest. "I could see you coming a mile away."

Kiku stumbled, glaring up at him. He was being slow? How? He was moving as fast as he could."

Kuro launched himself forwards and appeared in front of him in a second, slicing open his arm. "That's not being slow." Kiku spun and swung his katana at him. Kuro blinked shocked, and then moved as if to block it, but didn't quite get there in time, blood spilling down his arm.

Kiku frowned. He hadn't meant to hit there. He had a perfect shot and a straight course to his neck, but at the last minute had shifted and cut his arm in the exact same place as his was. It was like after being hit, he was drawn to give his counterpart the same injury. Or maybe it was just him being strange. He'd been like that lately.

He looked up again to see Kuro shooting towards him, sword pointed straight for his neck. He stepped to the side as he got closer and went to blindly stab at him. Kuro landed, blocked and then lunged. It took Kiku a couple of second to realise he was coming and even longer to respond. Kuro's sword went through his stomach and he coughed blood over his counterpart.

The water at his feet turned red.

***

Yao walked into Kiku's cell to find him clutching his head and resting against the wall, his eyes half open.

"Kiku?" he asked, running over, but by the time he'd got there, Kiku had already passed out. He sighed. Was this it? The time when he was meant to fight Kuro? Carefully, he scooped him up and placed him on the unmade, lumpy bed. He would wait for him to wake up. He would wake for something, anything to happen. As he sat down, the wound across Yao's stomach threaded him with needles of pain, making him gasp and lean forwards, clutching at it. Every time it happened, it was like getting stabbed again and again and again, each time much painful that the last, and each time he rethought the horror of dying.

It wasn't fair for any of them to die now. They'd all defeated their 2p selves and most had survived. Dying after surviving just wasn't fair. Maybe that was why everyone was so worried about Arthur. He wasn't quite sure what had actually happened, but from what Francis had said, he'd swallowed some of Oliver's cupcakes. He just hoped it wasn't enough to kill him. It wasn't even as if Yao liked any of them, he just didn't want them to die.

Kiku hissed something out and then coughed. Yao stared at him, wondering what was going on in his head, wondering if maybe he'd wake up now. He didn't. Instead, blood started seeping through his uniform, staining the arm.

"Kiku? Wake up wh... what's..." Yao touched it carefully to make sure that it was real, not just his imagination. The wet, crimson liquid came off on his finger and he felt like screaming. What the hell was this?

It was then that he noticed the sword lying next to Kiku's hand. How hadn't he noticed that before. It wasn't there before was it? Maybe it was but... either way it didn't matter. The way Kiku's hand gripped the top of it proved it was the fight they'd all being expecting.

He coughed again. The whole ordeal was starting to creep Yao out. The worst bit, being the black that spread across Kiku's uniform, blotting out the blood stain and stopping half way.

"Hey, hey" Yao poked him, starting to think the worst. "Get up Kiku."

Then another splat of crimson appeared. His stomach opened up and blood spilled out. Yao cried out and stepped backwards.

"No, no, no, no, no" he shook his head and ran back up to the side of the bed. The dark stain that covered one half of him started growing again until it covered the entire suit. Yao staggered away from the bed again and held his head in his hands. "This... it can't be happening he... you can't die. Kiku? Wake up damn it."

One eye slowly flickered open, but it wasn't the dull brown that it usually was. It was blood red.

"Hello again Yao" he smirked. "Miss me?"

***

The door to the infirmary burst open and Yao flew in, screaming about something or other, no one could really understand his hysteria.

"What's wrong Yao-Yao?" Ivan moved as though he wanted to get up and then glared at his leg, still propped up in the sling type thing.

"K... K... Kiku's... he's..." Yao clutched at the end of a bed. "I think he's dead." Everyone stared at him. "K... Kuro is out and... and the last thing I saw of Kiku, he had a huge blood stain across his front."

"Another" Francis hissed, standing up abruptly, and turning so they could see he'd been crying. "What? Do they want to slowly kill us all like this? That's four now. Dead. And Lutz and Kuro are still alive."

Feliciano burst into tears and hid himself in Lovino's shoulder.

"F... four?" Yao stared at him. "Y... you mean Arthur's..."

Alfred nodded, taking a deep breath.

"What are they achieving by this?" Mathew muttered. "I mean... what good can it do? I understand that before it was because they wanted to take over our countries, but... if they kill all of us then it'll only be them two as the representatives of all twelve of us. Surely they can't do that... right?"

"It'd be impastable" Feliciano sobbed.

"Too much to do with too little time" Lovino said, staring at the floor, one arm wrapped around Feliciano.

"So what's the point in trying anymore?" Gilbert sat up and looked across the room at the sheet covered beds. "Assuming that they actually trying to come and kill the awesome us. Everyone's just jumping to conclusions."

"Yeah" Ivan said, not looking at them, just continuing to examine the ceiling. "I mean, there's a chance that they won't come for us... that they'll be content with the outcome they'd reached."

"There's also a chance that they'll come to kill us in revenge or something like that" Francis snapped. "We killed some of them, so their twisted minds probably think it's only fair for them to kill the remaining of us."

"He's right" Yao sank onto the end of the bed that Feliciano and Lovino were curled up on. "There's no way they'd just... leave us alone after this. They probably think that we're going to be the ones coming after them."

"So... what now?" Gilbert asked.

Alfred opened his mouth to speak, but closed it almost immediately.

Mathew sighed. "I don't know."