M

"We shall." Mandara chuckled, "I just hope it's a bit more peaceful there than it is here" he followed Wehrmacht out the door but quickly asked him something before they completely left, "So what's so special about this museum, is it about German history or..." 

L

"Ja, it is," Wehrmacht said. "German history and the interactions we've had with countries all across the world. Artifacts, paintings, sculptures, even old weaponry. The kid never gets bored of it. He just has a sudden interest to go. One time, we'd finished visiting that museum a week after and he wanted to go again. I've probably memorized all the halls by now."

They followed Iremacht, who had a giddy skip in his step, down the street. Eventually they came out of the neighborhood and into the busy main street, with shops, window displays, restaurants, and multi-story malls all over the place. The human passersby all greeted Iremacht and Wehrmacht and gave curious looks at Mandara.

M

Mandara waved to most of the people they passed, he knew that they were curious about him so he tried to appear as friendly as possible. As they walked, Mandara was flicking his wings every now and then to try and get them dry so he didn't trail water into the museum. A thought then crossed his mind, if this was a museum of German history, then it probably had a section on Prussia and that made him hum in curiosity. He wondered if the museum would mention anything about his father's encounter with Prussia.

L

On the way to the museum, Iremacht stopped by a market building. Inside was an array of vendors selling all sorts of street snacks. The nearest one was easily accessible and sold freshly grilled bratwurst-on-a-stick. 

 "Dad, can we get some?" he asked, his mouth watering. 

 "Ja, so long as you budget yourself," said Wehrmacht. He glanced at Mandara. "Have you ever had bratwurst before? They're quite tasty...not spicy though." He added with a grumble, "I can't believe Germany did that to me with the soup." 

 The vendor selling bratwurst noticed them stopping by and waved, picking up three sticks as if enticing them to come eat.

M

Mandara snicked when remembering the soup incident, "That was really funny though, and I have had bratwurst, when your three centuries old it's hard not to have had just about every food invented." 

 Mandara reached into his pocket for his wallet but found it missing, he was confused at first but then remembered that it was still in his other pants that got soaked. He face palmed himself at this discovery, "Hertah (dammit) I left my things at your place Wehrmacht."

L

"I can pay for you!" Iremacht said, handing the vendor his money and taking the three bratwurst sticks. He gave one to his father and one to Mandara. To Iremacht, it was a small sign of his apology to Mandara, the least he could do after everything. 

 As they continued walking, Iremacht fell back to stay beside Mandara and asked, "Your language sounds really cool. Can you teach me some?"

M

"Sure, it definitely would be nice to not be only one of two people that knows it." Mandara said, taking a bite of his bratwurst before adding, "Though I'm definitely not going to teach you any swear words." He chuckled then tried to think of what to teach first. "How about we start with a simple greeting, Dahver, which means hello."

L

Iremacht repeated the word several times, committing it to memory. 

 While the teen learned words from Mandara, Wehrmacht paid attention to where they were going, steering them in the right direction and turning the right corners so they didn't end up straying away from the museum. At last they arrived at a humongous castle-styled building, ancient but polished, with intricate designs along the walls. 

 "I present to you," Wehrmacht mimicked a dramatic announcer voice, "the history museum! Let us embark on our mission."

M

Mandara chuckled at Wehr's joke, but was quickly silenced by the beauty of the museum. The medieval like building brought back memories of his father's old castle, but for a split second, the museum also made him remember when he and MA returned to their castle to find it in ruins after Prussia, but he shook his head to get rid of the memory, he wasn't about to let bad images ruin this trip. 

 So instead he asked, "Are you sure this is a museum, it looks more like a castle, and I definitely know what those look like."

L

"You should see the ones in Wales. Their castles ARE their museums," Wehrmacht said. 

 There was no need to pay for museum tickets - Iremacht was such a regular visitor that they'd given him a VIP pass. There were many exhibitions, starting from the most recent eras and dating further back towards the back of the museum. Lots of antiques were displayed in glass containers or podiums. While Wehrmacht admired the artifacts as well as the paintings of important German figures, Iremacht headed deeper into the museum. His excitement made him forget to check behind his shoulder if his father or Mandara were following.

M

Mandara was speechless was he walked through the museum, it was just as stunning on the inside as it was on the outside, not to mention all the fascinating exhibits. As he walked, Mandara for the most part trailed behind Iremacht since he seemed to know the place like a second home, but he also kept an eye out for a certain section of the museum. 

Eventually he found what he was looking for, the 18th century hallway. Mandara carefully scanned over the text and exhibits until he found something that made him stop in his tracks and caused his wings to completely fall to the ground. 

There was a podium that said "The defeat of The Kingdom of Mandoria", and on the podium was his father's crown.

L

Wehrmacht had finished looking through the front exhibits. He quickened his pace when he reached the WW2 section, eager to get out of the era that held so many dark reminders. He guessed Iremacht and Mandara must've headed further back in the museum. An uneasy feeling settled in his wings when he entered the 18th century hall. 

 Just as he dreaded. Mandara was there, standing right in front of a podium that held a crown. Wehrmacht noticed Mandara's sagging wings, held lower than he'd ever seen before. The German stepped quietly closer. 

 "We brought it out from Prussia's vault a few years ago," he murmured gently behind Mandara. "There were...still stains on it. So we polished and put it here."

M

Mandara didn't acknowledge Wehrmacht, he was too busy reading the description on the podium, how it said that Mandoria was a cruel tyrant and that Prussia liberated his people from his oppressive rule. 

 "S-stains" Mandara repeated in disbelief, he could feel tears welling up in his eyes, for the longest time he thought Prussia had destroyed the crown, but it has been here this whole time. 

"W-why did you keep it." Mandara asked Wehr with both sadness and anger in his voice. "All these centuries I thought Prussia destroyed it, but it has been sitting here on display, with a false description, in a country that it doesn't even belong to." He turned to Wehrmacht with a heartbroken expression on his face. "Why Wehrmacht! Why did you keep it, your just as bad as Prussia!" he shouted, but he ran off before Wehrmacht could answer.

L

"Wait Mandara!" Wehrmacht ran after him. The Mandaran was fast, and Wehrmacht had to keep excusing himself from bumping into tourists. He kept his eye on Mandara's colorful feathers as they ran through the museum. 

-----------

 Iremacht had come across a huge painting of a battle scene. It was titled Prussian-Franco War. He scanned the faces of the soldiers, those who were wounded and falling to their deaths and those who were charging forward with vengeance in their eyes. Iremacht focused on the vengeful faces and the weapons they carried. He longed to be those people, to feel the rush of battle someday. 

 "Snap out of it," Iremacht said. "You're wishing for war at this point." 

 Then he felt a whoosh of air behind him and saw Mandara running past. Were those tears in his eyes? 

"Hey Mandara, where are you going?" Iremacht shouted.

M

Mandara didn't stop when Iremacht called after him, he didn't even look back to see who called his name, he just kept running. 

 'How could they do this?' He thought 'They kept it and didn't once think to return it, I never should have trusted them.' 

 Mandara didn't stop running until he completely left the museum, at which point he took off into the sky and flew away in a random direction. He knew Wehrmacht could fly too, but he was more focused on just getting away from the German.

L

Wehrmacht chased Mandara all the way out of the museum. He slid to a halt when Mandara flew into the sky. Tourists who had been gathered around the museum entrance gasped and some even tried to snap pictures. Wehrmacht bounced in agitation on his heels. He needed to go after Mandara but he also wasn't allowed to fly around without authorization. 

 "Fuck EU, I'm retired anyway," he finally hissed and took off after Mandara. He put on a burst of speed to gain on the country.

Iremacht had also raced out of the building and cursed when he saw the rapidly shrinking dots of his father and Mandara in the sky. So he ran to Germany's estate instead, which was the opposite direction.

M

Mandara was flying as fast as he could to try and get away from Wehrmacht, who he knew was following him. Normally he would have no problem losing Wehr with his high-speed wings, but ever since Ussr broke his wings, they haven't healed 100% and would start to hurt if he flew too fast or for too long, so it wasn't long until Mandara found that he needed to land soon. He scanned the terrain below for a landing site and spotted a park with a small tree grove, thinking that he could possibly hide in the trees, Mandara headed for it and prayed that his wings would last that long.

L

"You're not getting away from me," Wehrmacht muttered under his breath. 

 Ahead of him, he saw Mandara angling his wings to dive towards the ground. Wehrmacht estimated he wouldn't be fast enough to intercept Mandara, so he traced the trajectory and pinpointed a grove of trees that seemed to be Mandara's target. The German steered himself in that direction.

 ------------

A mile away in the city, Iremacht barged into Germany's estate and the sound of the doors slamming open reverberated through the house. 

Germany was in the living room and spit out his coffee. "Iremacht, quiet please! You must've startled MA upstairs with that entrance." 

 "Cou...sin...Dad and...Mandara..." Iremacht plopped on the ground, gasping for air. "Trouble."

M

Mandara was painting really hard at this point, he hasn't flown in a long time and he was tiring fast from lack of practice, not to mention his wings were hurting like crazy, there was no way he was going to make it to the grove. He quickly looked for a closer target and saw a building with a flat roof coming up below him, he made one last push to get above it then dropped when he was a few feet from the roof, landing with a hard thud on his stomach. 

 --------------

MA ran down stairs when he heard the door bust open. His military mind thought that the house was under attack, so despite his injured state he ran down with his gun drawn to defend Germany. He stopped when all he saw was Germany and Iremacht, "What's going on here, are we under attack!?" he asked.

L

Wehrmacht had been heading for the grove of trees until he realized he'd lost sight of Mandara. He swerved and hovered in the air. He was still above the city, albeit towards the outskirts, and he was conscious of humans below who might draw attention to him the longer he stayed in the air. Wehrmacht scanned the buildings. Where had Mandara gone? He flew a little lower and began circling the rooftops. 

------------

 Iremacht looked up when he heard MA enter the living room. He managed to wobble to his feet again and stumble towards the Mandaran, saying, "I don't...know what happened but Dad and Mandara went to the 18th century section of the museum and then suddenly Mandara was running out - he looked like he was crying - and Dad chased after them and then they flew off and I came here and - " 

 "The 18th century section?" Germany gulped. "The one with...Prussia?" He glanced nervously at MA.