M

Mandara was gonna say thanks but Germany all ready went in his office, that was a bit odd but he figured that he was just stressed from today. Mandara went to the garage and found the right car, it was a bit difficult to fit his wings in the small interior but he managed to get them in a semi comfortable position before driving off. It took a good 20 minutes to get to the hospital, and Mandara was glad to get out of the car when he finally arrived. He walked into the front entrance and was surprised to see Bundeswehr there.

"Bundeswehr, what are you doing here?"

L

"I came here to make sure everything was running...smoothly," Bundeswehr explained.

He had been leaning against the receptionist's desk, talking with the lady there, and now straightened. Although he was suspicious, he remembered Wehrmacht's advice to never show that suspicion to a foreign country.

Bundeswehr put on a smile and said, "MA's on the second floor. I heard he just finished surgery. Mind if I accompany you and take you there?"

M

"Uh, sure, I guess." Mandara said, he wasn't sure why Bundie would want to come with, but he suspected it must have been security reasons, "you'll have to lead though since I don't know which room he's in."

L

Bundeswehr led Mandara to the elevator and took it to Floor 2. They arrived in the visitor's room. The nurses instantly recognized Bundeswehr but gave Mandara curious glances. They thought he looked very similar to one of their patients.

"We're here to visit MA," Bundeswehr explained.

"Right this way," one of the nurses said. "He is currently conscious and resting. I recommend you speak quietly, it seems he has been through a lot."

They arrived at the designated room and the nurse held the door open. She informed them that they would only have a few minutes to talk with MA before they'd have to move him to the recovery room.

M

Mandara thanked the nurses and went inside. MA was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, but he opened them when he heard Mandara enter.

"Well, I was wondering when you'd show up." he said.

Mandara smiled and let out a small chuckle as he leaned down by the bed. "Hey there solider, how you feeling."

"I feel like I was hit in the face with a sledgehammer." MA groaned, "What happened, was I in another fight with Russia?"

Mandara's smile faded, he took hold of MA's hand, "Unfortunately no, I'm afraid you got a little too angry again."

MA stared at him for a second, then softly facepalmed himself, "Kren otwin (oh god), not again, how many people did I hurt this time."

Mandara sighed, "Just two, myself and Iremacht."

MA immediately bolted up in bed, "WHAT, I hurt Iremacht!!"

"Thunder take it easy, your gonna reopen your wounds."

L

"It was just a bite wound in the arm," said Bundeswehr. "A couple scratches on the legs. Nothing too severe." He checked to make sure nobody outside got startled by MA's shouting. 

Bundeswehr contemplated whether this would be a good time to start interrogation. MA seemed to not have remembered anything that he'd done while he had Militant Madness, so the only things Bundeswehr could logically question him on were the events that happened before and after. 

Bundeswehr cleared his throat. "Hey I was wondering, what made you go mad like that...if you can remember and want to share?" He mentally facepalmed. Since when did interrogations give the subject a choice of sharing information?

M

MA looked at him, "I...don't really remember." he said as he laid back down, "I faintly remember being mad at Germany, I think he was lying to me about something, but I can't recall what." He then groaned softly and held his head, "Ugh, it hurts when I try to remember." 

 "It's ok Thunder, you don't have to remember anything if it hurts." Mandara said, patting MA's hand reassuringly.

L

Bundeswehr agreed and backed down from questioning MA further since he was also worried about MA's wellbeing. 

"It's alright," he sighed. "I was going to debrief with Germany about it either way. Hey, Mandara, you just came from Germany's house right? Is Germany still there...and did he possibly say anything? Or Wehrmacht?" 

 Bundeswehr felt embarrassed for even asking Mandara; this was something he should now yet he was asking Mandara for answers. This wasn't proper militant behavior, trying to figure out what his own country was doing from someone else.

M

"Yeah Germany's there, I didn't talk to him though because I went to my room when we got there, but Iremacht did tell me why Thunder went feral." Mandara said, then turned to MA, "Though I don't know if I should say, it might upset you." 

"Can handle it" MA said, so Mandara sighed before telling him and Bundie, "Ok, so the reason you went feral was because I saw something at the museum today that caused me to run off, and Germany wouldn't tell you what it was." 

MA raised a brow, "And, what was it?" 

 Mandara gripped MA's hand a little harder, he was scared of what MA would do after he told him, considering what happened when he didn't know. 

 "Derogan, I saw father's crown in the museum." 

MA looked at his brother in both disbelief and dumbfounded, then he looked at Bundie. "Did you know about this?"

L

"I...well..." Bundeswehr trailed off, realizing his mistake. 

 Any other militant entity would've done the smart move, lied, and gotten away with it. But Bundeswehr, being a beginner at his new job and still retaining his honesty, hadn't thought of lying to save himself the trouble until now. He shouldn't have hesitated; his slip-up gave him away. 

 "I did, ja," he mumbled. "I was...there with Wehrmacht when they brought it in." He lowered his head, feeling pathetic at his submission to foriegners. If he had been captured and put through interrogation, he would've failed miserably.

M

Both MA and Mandara looked at him suspiciously, then MA piped up, "Wow, your almost as bad at lying as UK is obsessed over his tea." 

Mandara snorted at MA's joke, which made MA smiled a bit, but he turned back to Bundie, "You don't have to lie to me Bundeswehr, especially considering what happened when Germany did."

L

Bundeswehr rubbed his arms and shrugged, still feeling bad. He decided not to pursue that subject to avoid making any more slip-ups and instead said, "You were pretty fierce out there, and scary. Will all militants go through Militant Madness like you did?" 

He shivered at the thought of going feral and snarling at his soldiers. He tensed a bit more when he remembered Wehrmacht was also a militant. What if he got the Madness? What would Bundeswehr do? 

"H-How should we deal with it?" he asked out loud.

M

MA sighed, "Well, nothing really, it's not a sickness or disease, it's more like a personality disorder. It is rare for entities to get it, especially younger ones like yourself, but yes all militants can be affected by it, like Poland's entity a few years ago." 

Mandara shuddered at that memory, "That had to have been one of the goriest rampages I have ever seen, I still have nightmares about that."  

MA shot him a look, "YOU have nightmares!? Trigger, the lieutenant had his hand torn off, imagine how his nights are." 

Mandara nodded, "True."

L

"His hand got TORN OFF?" Bundeswehr exclaimed. His light blue skin turned paler. 

 A nurse came into the room and gave Bundeswehr a disapproving look for being loud. The militant quickly apologized, and the nurse turned to the Mandarians. 

"We need to move MA to the recovery room now," she said. "I will have to ask for you to leave as MA needs his rest." 

 Bundeswehr backed out of the room and blinked at Mandara, wondering if he would follow or if he would lobby for more time. The hospital liked to follow strict rules but perhaps the staff would be lenient.

M

Mandara took on a disheartened expression and turned back to MA, "I'm sorry Thunder, I wish I could stay." 

 MA smiled reassuringly at Mandara, "Don't be sorry Trigger it's not your fault, and she's right, I'm exhausted." he then yawned as if to prove a point, "I'll see you tomorrow right?" 

Mandara chuckled, "Of course you will, that's what brothers do." 

 Mandara then gently hugged MA as he said his goodbyes, then left the room, giving MA one last smile as he did.

L

They took the elevator back down. It wasn't until they got outside that Bundeswehr realized how late it was. The street lamps had flickered on and the glow of city lights illuminated the darkening sky. 

 "Lucky, Germany let you drive the Porsche," Bundeswehr said, enviously eyeing the expensive red cars. "I've always wanted to try those sports models but I'm too busy learning to drive jeeps, tanks, and drones. And jets too, since I can't fly." 

 He looked up at the early stars. He'd already felt unworthy as Wehrmacht's successor for not having wings. Hanging around this many winged people lately aggravated that.

M

"Yeah, I personally am not a fan of it, sure the design is nice but it is super cramped, I guess that the engineers never expected winged countries to be riding in them, let alone driving." Mandara said, shaking his head slightly. "But jets huh, you any good?"

L

"I'm decent," Bundeswehr said. "Depends on what type of plane though. I like patrol jets better than fighter jets because I'm more of a recon person than an actual combat pilot. Wehrmacht was pushing me to lean towards fighter jets more - easy for him to say, he's a pro at both recon and battle. But I don't see the point of it; it's not like we're going to war with anyone. Why would I ever need to be skilled with a fighter jet if I can use recon to prevent battles from happening in the first place?"

M

"Because you have to be ready for anything." Mandara answered, "Sure recon can prevent battles most of the time, but there are times when the enemy gets the drop on you and you find yourself in the middle of a surprise attack. My motto is 'prepare for the worst, hope for the best', in other words it's better to be prepared for an unlikely situation, then be in that situation and not know what to do."

L

That made sense, Bundeswehr thought. Deep down, although he wished he'd never have to face that kind of dire scenario, it wasn't impossible. He had to be prepared to lead his men, like he had tried to with MA's Militant Madness incident back at the park. Well, that had felt more like him gawking in horror as MA nearly mauled one of his soldiers. 

 "Have you ever...been in a surprise attack?" asked Bundeswehr. "And not known what to do?"

M

Mandara looked away from Bundeswehr, he had been in surprise attacks before, and they all happened during a time that he would rather forget, but he answered anyway.

"Y-yes, I have. Back during my war with Ussr, I found myself having to join the front lines with Thunder, and surprise attacks seemed to be Ussr's preferred method of fighting, and being a country who was not experienced in war, I definitely didn't know what to do during most of them." Mandara hesitated a bit before continuing, "In fact, one of them caused me to get this." 

He pointed to the scar that was partially sticking out from under his eye patch, and although that wasn't completely true, it was a surprise attack that caused him to be captured.

L

"A battle scar," Bundeswehr echoed, partially in awe and partially in terror. "I have yet to get any of my own but it's a good thing because that looks painful. I'm surprised though. Aren't you two or three centuries old? How can you say you were inexperienced if you were older than USSR at the time? And what did you do when you didn't know what to do?" 

Bundeswehr paused, getting a little confused over that last sentence that came out of his own mouth. "Um, if that makes sense."

M

"Well, believe it or not, but countries aren't typically trained to lead armies or fight battles, since that is the job of their militant entities. I mean, I had some experience in swordsmanship from back when I was a kid in the 1700s, but that is kind of useless knowledge in a gun battle." 

Mandara looked up at the night sky, "It's getting pretty late, I should probably get back to the estate." He then held out his hand, "It was nice talking to you, even if it was under strange circumstances."

L

Bundeswehr shook Mandara's hand, practicing his firm confident handshake that he learned from Wehrmacht. 

"It was nice chatting with you too," he said. "Swordsmanship sounds interesting. I'm not sure if it's a secret technique but...I like the idea of holding something other than a gun...if you'll teach me." He trailed off again, mentally cursing for constantly sounding so unsure of himself, then added, "B-But of course I don't want to take any of your time! Germany kind of wants you to leave soon so he doesn't have to - " 

 Bundeswehr snapped his mouth shut. He was saying too much. Again. He retracted his hand.

M

Mandara looked at him confused, "So he doesn't have to what?" 

 He already knew that Germany more or less wanted him and MA to leave, but he thought it was because he was mad that MA went feral in his country. Then a thought crossed his mind that made him glare at Bundie.

"Wait, were you going to say 'so he doesn't have to return my fathers crown?" His feathers bristled slightly as he said that.

L

"Trouble! I meant so he doesn't have to deal with trouble!" Bundeswehr said, raising his hands helplessly. Him and his big fat honesty. "Wehrmacht should've promised he'd return your Crown. That's the plan, right?" 

 He was falling apart and Mandara's glare was giving him literal goosebumps. He took a step back. "Y-You should head back. You were heading back, ja, because it was getting late right?" His words were more meant to reassure himself, although everything ended in a question-like tone that showed his uncertainty. "I'll leave you to it. See you tomorrow?" 

 Bundeswehr didn't wait for Mandara's response. He turned around and walked away, trying to keep a normal pace as if nothing had happened and tamping down his urge to simply run because boy did Mandarians have scary glares.

M

Mandara was taken aback by Bundeswehr's sudden change in attitude and the fear in his voice, but chuckled a bit once the initial shock wore off.

"Poor guy's not gonna last." he muttered to himself. He then walked in the opposite direction to his own car. He got in, started it up, and drove off.  

While he was driving, he remembered that he left his stuff at Wehrmacht's house from when he was dunked in water, but he decided that he would go over tomorrow to get it since it was late. Mandara pulled into the garage and got out of the car, once again stretching his wings before going inside, he wondered if Germany was still up.

L

Germany was huddled in his office and on the phone with the museum director. 

He was speaking in frustrated German, "Nein, verlangsamen Sie es. Sich eine Entschuldigung ausdenken." He paused as he listened to the director's answer. "Ja ja, ich weiss. Ich versuche dir bei dem Prozess zu helfen. Hör mir zu und es wird dir gut gehen." He listened again to the director and nodded. "Ja. Ich muss jetzt gehen. Auf Wiedersehen." 

 He ended the call and stood up, texting some of his assistants as he walked out of his office. Preoccupied, he didn't notice Mandara in the house.

M

Mandara was going to head to Germany's office to give him back his keys, but saw him coming down the stairs. When he saw Germany, his mind went back to Bundeswehr's slip up, that Germany wanted him and MA to leave because he didn't want to do something. He suspected that that something was giving back the crown, especially considering everything he said when they were in the car. Mandara wanted to confront Germany about it, but he decided not to, to instead bid his time and play his cards at the right time. 

 With this in mind, he called to Germany to get his attention, "Hey Germany, I'm back."

L

"Hallo," Germany said, looking up from his phone. "I hope MA is recovering. I received a message from the hospital saying he can be discharged sometime tomorrow. Militant entities really do heal fast." He chuckled, then stretched his cramped back. "Unfortunately, I'm a little busy today and can't eat with you but the chef has made your dinner. Now that you're back, I'll tell him to send it to your room. Ring up room service on the phone once you're done and they'll clean the dishes for you afterward. Other than that, gute nacht, Mandara."

M

Mandara stood there in slight confusion from Germany's fast paced speech, but quickly shook it off and wished him a good night too before heading up to his room. He set the car keys on the desk - deciding he would give them back tomorrow since Germany clearly didn't want to talk - and sat down on his bed so he could groom his wings.

L

Germany ordered the chef to bring dinner to Mandara's room. The chef served the beef stew, still warm, to their guest and politely left. He reported back to Germany's room. 

 "Any suspicious activity?" Germany asked the chef, who replied, "Nein, he was just grooming his wings." 

 Germany nodded and dismissed the chef. Taking off his glasses, he wondered how he should deal with Mandara in the few days remaining of their visit. He needed to remain courteous because there was a trade deal at stake. He sighed in frustration. Why did Iremacht have to always make trouble and ask to go to the museum? Germany was glad the teen would be off his hands since Wehrmacht was taking him back to Ireland soon. That way he could resume focusing on important matters - like getting used to working with Bundeswehr to appease EU. 

Germany hummed; that was a plus. Judging by the discussion yesterday between EU and Mandara, the German at least had EU to back him if tensions grew between the two nations. With that in mind, Germany retired to his bed and slept soundly.

M

Mandara finished his diner, rang for room service to take his dishes, and went to sleep, but it was not a restful night. A few hours later Mandara started fidgeting and muttering in his sleep, he was having a nightmare about the events of yesterday. After a few more minutes of thrashing around in his sleep, he woke up screaming.

"NOOO!!!" he shouted, undoubtedly loud enough to be heard throughout the estate. 

 Mandara was breathing heavily as he realized it was just a dream, he sighed and sat up in bed. 

"What is wrong with you Mandara, this is the fifth time this month" he scolded himself burying his face in his hands.

L

"Scheisse!" Germany yelped, his eyes shooting open from his sleep at the sound of screaming echoing through the house. 

He thought there was a ghoul in the estate and bolted out of his bed. He fumbled for his glasses, put them on, and stared at all the dark furniture around him like they were hulking monsters ready to pounce. 

 "Get it together, Germany," he mumbled, breathing deeply. He listened for the sound again. Nothing. Skeptically, Germany crept out of his room and tiptoed up the stairs. 

 He got to Mandara's room and whispered through the door, "Mandara? Mandara, are you awake?"

M

Mandara looked up to the door when he heard Germany behind it, he mentally cursed himself for waking him up.

"Yeah, I am" He called to him, "Sorry for waking you up, I...I just had a nightmare." He rubbed his eyes but didn't get out of bed, figuring that Germany would leave now that he knew where the scream came from.

L

So it was Mandara, Germany realized. He felt relieved that his imagination wasn't real and mentally repirmanded himself for being so childish over superstition. Then he remembered something MA had mentioned, how Mandara would have trouble sleeping by himself at night. Now that MA was in the hospital, Mandara was all alone. Germany felt bad for his guest's suffering while in his care - really this was perhaps the most painful visit he'd ever had the liberty of hosting. It made him regret his call to the museum. But what's done is done. He wasn't about to walk back on it. 

 "Alright then," Germany said through the door. "Do you need anything?"

M

"No, I don't think so." Mandara said, "I'm just gonna be up for a while to try and calm myself down, and again, sorry for waking you up." 

 He felt bad that he woke Germany, it definitely wasn't the first time he woke up a country when he was visiting them, and he hated himself for it.

L

Germany thought he heard some guilt in Mandara's words, but it was late and he was still murky from sleep. 

He stifled a yawn and said, "Okay. Try to get some sleep. MA will be back tomorrow." 

He hoped that would reassure Mandara before he trudged back downstairs and plopped into bed again. Before he drifted off, he wondered what MA must be thinking and whether the militant also had trouble sleeping. He hadn't received any urgent calls from the hospital so he assumed all was well. Germany closed his eyes and was soon snoring. 

M

Mandara for the most part stayed up the rest of the night, he just didn't feel comfortable going back to sleep, fearing that the nightmare would return. While he was up, his mind kept going back to the conversation with Germany and Wehrmacht in the car. He just didn't understand why Germany was determined to justify himself for keeping the crown, when Wehr was saying that they couldn't be justified. Mandara sighed, he was starting to wonder what kind of person Germany really was.