Okay, so this is chapter 1 of my new story, The Cruel Nightmare. I got inspired by HetaOni, Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titans), and a Fanfic called ThE DaRk ClOcK HaNdS by royaldigitalknight. I was slightly disappointed that they couldn't finish making HetaOni because they weren't allowed to. So, I decided to make a story that was similar to ThE DaRk ClOcK HaNdS and had similar ideas to it. I'm sorry if royaldigitalknight doesn't like that I'm basing this off their ideas, and I would like it if they told me so I could stop. Anyways, this will be a crossover between Axis Powers: Hetalia and Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan). I'm afraid that the only actual Hetalian in this story will be Italy. Enjoy the first chapter.

I don't own Hetalia, HetaOni, or Shingeki no Kyojin!

(Italy POV)

"Run, Italy, RUN!" I can hear Germany screaming at me to go faster as I ran with him and the others. I strangely found it funny how he was able to run faster than I could, considering that I was the fastest at running out of all of us. England, China, Russia, Romano, Spain, and France were waiting back at the hideout for mine, Germany, America, Canada, Japan, and Prussia's return after our small exploring. We hadn't found the key, but I had regained my book after losing it from returning from the past. However, that wasn't all we found, even though the others didn't know that.

(Recap: 10 minutes ago)

I had found a room. It was small and circular, with only one object inside of it. The object was a tube of sorts. I went from the ceiling to the floor, and had this sort of… black liquid in it. I couldn't quite tell what it was, but it looked like an Immortal's blood. The kind of blood that we countries bleed if someone were to even manage to land a hit on us, even if out of sheer luck. I stood there at the doorway for a second; contemplating just whose blood it would be, if it were blood at all. I then realized it, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

It was the Thing's blood.

I found this out by remembering that I had left the others to fight the Thing after they had practically begged me to go and insisted several times. Staring at the blood, I could see it depleting and then regenerating at a fast rate. 'So that explains how we can't seem to defeat it; It's blood is regenerating itself.' I then thought of a plan to have it stop attacking us and be at a point where it was possible to kill it. 'Maybe... maybe I could destroy the black blood… I could probably destroy the tube… But we're talking about a liquid here. It would be hard to destroy a liquid unless it was flammable… But that could burn the whole mansion down! I can't risk that!'

Despite what others thought, I am actually very smart. Sure, I can't go into the complex situations, but I know the basics of things. To be honest, I think I am actually fairly good at strategizing. I mean, I managed to get this far, right?

All this time, even before the mansion, I being an idiot was all an act. It was to make sure that no one worried about me. If they saw me being all happy and joyful, they wouldn't realize just how much I was hurting inside. When I was younger, the other nations would make fun of me and would take me for granted. I absolutely hated when they did that. However, instead of telling them how much they were hurting me and bringing them down with me, I instead put up an act of carelessness, foolishness, and stupidity to not hurt them. Being in this mansion only enforced my act instead of destroying it. I was always striving to make sure we all got out without leaving any dead bodies behind.

I slowly walked toward the tube, calculating all my chances. I think I was always good at improvising things in a tough situation. In fact, I think that may be the thing I do best. After all, the tougher or worse the situation, the better my improvising and the higher chance it actually works. For example, if we were thinking on how to get a cat from high up in a tree that was hissing and spitting at us, I would be pretty much useless right there. A problem like this, however, is where I would be most helpful.

When I got to be around twenty, twenty-five feet away, give or take a few, I started to notice things I couldn't notice from in the doorway. There was a panel in front of the tube that I was currently standing several feet away from. I started to walk toward the panel when I suddenly saw a line separating me from the panel. It was barely visible, and, had I not trained my eyes to notice things like this, I doubted I would have noticed it if I wasn't looking for anything not noticeable to the normal eyes of a human… well, I guess I actually am human here. I decided that it would be best to study it and put away anything unusual I find into a mental folder and stow it away for later inspection when I am able.

While I was studying, I noticed that it looked similar to a burn mark. This completely took my interest in fully. Last I checked, we had burned all the matches, and, when found, even they looked new and unopened. Maybe the last person, Ryuuzu, had made this. I then remembered the others. 'Oh, no! What if something happened to them! I have to make sure they are all okay!' When I turned around, the Thing was right behind me with a snarl clear on It's face. I began to panic, worrying that the others hadn't made it. I quickly ran past It, me still being the faster one. I turned around to realize that It hadn't followed. 'It's guarding the blood… I'm going to have to find a way to get it away from the blood so I-' I was cut off from my musings when I crashed into a body and was crushed into a strong hold.

I started to struggle, punching and kicking, thinking it was the Thing. "Italy, it's okay. It's just me, Germany." I relaxed from hearing his voice. Sometimes, if I was a little dizzy, I found it hard to tell who was talking to me, Germany or Holy Roman Empire. "Oh, sorry Germany. I just… got held up for a minute." I reluctantly stepped back. I was fond of him, in a way. I can't necessarily say that I like him that way, it's just a sort of… infatuation. We actually act more like a family than anything else, if not best friends. I was only reluctant to step away from him because in his arms I felt safer, protected. I also knew that he was safe if we were making physical contact because then I knew he wasn't some sort of hallucination of mine. "Italy, I-" I looked up when he stopped. He was looking behind me. When I turned around, I saw the Thing. This one however, was different.

The Thing looked even bigger, around twelve feet tall (seriously, how high can this ceiling get?!), and seemed to be made of muscles. It's stomach was bulging out, which gave it a seriously disturbing look. However, that wasn't really thing creepiest thing about It. It was the smile. The Thing was smiling. If that was even a horror in itself, it was the way that it was smiling that made it even more horrifying.

It was smiling in glee, as if enjoying the fact that we were frozen in terror. The smile seemed to spread impossibly far across It's face, and, if spreaded wider, I bet there was a possibility that It's face would crack in two. All of It's teeth were showing, and I wasn't exactly surprised to see they were black.

Only when It started moving closer did I realize that we had to get moving, and fast.

(Present time)

I'm assuming that you have been caught up to speed and you are now back to us running from the Thing that is currently smiling like It's having the time of It's life. I look back at It to see It… walking toward us. Well, that's new. I look forward to see how close we were and I saw us nearing the safe room. 'Wait… if we go there, then It will know where we have been hiding this whole time! Then, we won't have a place to hide! We can't go there!' This thought struck me hard and when we were at the corner that would lead to the safe room, I grabbed Germany's hand and turned us down the stairs. I saw him look at me incredulously, but he said nothing. I mentally thanked any god or gods alive that he understood me.

I could hear all the other nations shouting behind us as we left the stairs with (miraculously) the Thing following us. I turned into the kitchen, ran around the couches, ran to the library and ran around the bookcases, then back upstairs when I was sure we weren't being followed. We then went back upstairs and into the safe room. When we got there, I was suddenly attacked by a big brown mop of hair. Looking down, I saw it was Romano.

"You… Idiota! You could have gotten killed!" I heard him sob into my shirt. I rubbed his back, smiling softly. Chuckling a bit, I slowly pried his crying form off of me, where he then preceded to clutch Spain and sob quietly. I stood and watched, amused. When did that happen? I saw China turn to the others and ask, "Did you find anything?" When they stayed silent, I answered, "I did." Everyone turned to me, some looking expectant while others looked shocked. "But… I'm not entirely sure what it was." I lied, rubbing the back of my head sheepishly and giving an apologetic smile. I hate having to lie to people. If they find out, they won't trust you like they did before.

They sighed after hearing my lie, looking a bit let down. "However, if given time, I think I might be able to figure out how it works." They all looked back at me with hope. It feels nice to have them look at me like that even when I just lied to them.

We quickly made up a plan that I went over mentally, trying to find any loops that could make the plan fail. When I found one, I told everyone about it and tried helping them find another way, much to their disappointment. I kind of felt bad for them, considering that they had worked so hard on it only for me to shoot it down. When we finally had a plan, I began to lead them to the place I had found.

I had found it when I went back to the room with the numbers. I had gone to a wall that had a large one on it, remembering the first time we had gone to the mansion. I had apparently pressed on a certain part of the wall, causing the wall to cave in and fall down, showing a large metal door. I had stepped up to it, only to jump back when it suddenly opened, turning toward me. When I walked inside I had found that tube, and all the events from there leaded to the events that were happening now.

When we all finally got there and France had shut the door behind us, I could hear everyone gasping quietly behind me. I walked forward to that line that seemed to go all the way to the ceiling. I studied it for a minute, then stepped over it, continuing until I reached the panel. Suddenly, I realized that I couldn't hear the others anymore. I looked back to see this big, dark, translucent wall separating me from the others. The wall seemed to ripple several time like water, and I could see everyone's horrified faces behind me. I stood there for a minute, then I turned around back to the table. Now that I think about it, if I listened closely, I could hear their voices, slightly muffled. I look down to the panel to see a button… and a syringe. The syringe was connected to the tube with the blood swirling around it.

I started analyzing the things in front of me. I came up with a quick plan. "From the looks of it, this syringe can give this blood to anyone who injects into themself." I mused aloud. I heard the muffled voices stop and I could feel their gaze on me. "I wonder, what would happen if I inject myself with it?" I could hear the muffling start again, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. "What do you think… Oni?" I asked the Thing that was currently to my right, snarling in rage. I looked at It with a smirk present. "I bet that you would die if I did it. I'm right, aren't I?" I saw It roar at me in frustration, clearly upset. I dropped the smirk. "See ya." I then plunged the syringe into the main vein on my left arm and pressed the button. After that, everything went black.

Ironic, right?

(Germany POV)

I saw Italy plunge the syringe into himself, completely oblivious to our cries. I could only watch in silent horror, the shouting long since stopped, as the blood began to seep down the small tube, through the syringe, and into his body. His eyes widened, his body seized up, and he fell to the ground, convulsing every now and then as the blood began to pour slowly into his veins. I heard a roar and whipped my head to look at the… Oni, as Italy had called it, to see it writhing and clutching It's head as it slowly began to dissolve and the ashes went straight to the tube. A yell from Romano and a scream caused me to turn my attention back to Italy, only to widen my eyes.

Italy was on his back, writhing and convulsing on the floor, his back arching upwards, screaming in agony. His eyes were open wide, the whites visible as he convulsed. I could see Romano banging on the shield, trying to get to him.

After what felt like hours but was probably a couple of minutes, he finally stopped screaming and was just lying there, shuddering. The Oni had long since dissolved, and all was quiet. The shield suddenly disappeared, leaving Romano to run to Italy, shouting his name. When we all got here, we saw Italy's eyes were closed, and there was some blood slowly run out or his mouth. Romano pulled his head into his lap, stroking his hair while sobbing softly. Finally, Italy opened his eyes a tiny bit and looked at us tiredly.

"…Ro…ma…no." I heard him say quietly. Romano only sobbed harder and pulled him close. He then turned toward me. "Ger…ma…ny…" I went over to them both. "Yes? What is it, Italy?" I asked him in a quiet voice, which was fairly unlike me. "Take… care.. of… each other…" He said, smiling softly. He then frowned, eyebrows furrowing together, as if in concentration. What he said next made my heart stop.

"Ho…ly… Ro…man… Em…pire… see…you… soon…"

I could only stare in shock as he slowly closed his eyes, and stopped breathing.

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*sob* I think I just broke my own heart right there…

I can't believe I just wrote that… I can't believe I just made Italy die! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! I DIDN'T ENJOY MAKING THIS! This isn't a one-shot by the way. THERE WILL BE MORE CHAPTERS I PROMISE YOU!

- Owari the Terminator