Chapter 1

Germany looked around the meeting room, fighting the urge to cover his ears with his hands as England and France started yelling at each other over food... again. Damn, would those two ever get along? Probably not... And the worst part was, he didn't even have some beer with him to drown his suffering in.

"Germany-san," Japan whispered, his brown eyes narrowing with concern. "I told you to stop thinking about beer. It's not good for your health."

Germany glanced at his one-time ally and friend with shock. Shit, when had he learned to read minds?

"You always get a wistful look on your face when you think of beer," Japan explained quickly, guessing the path that Germany's thoughts had taken once again. "Well, beer and Italy," he added quietly, his cheeks reddening ever-so-slightly.

Germany stared at him in shock and felt his own cheeks redden at the mention of his closest friend and...

"Where is he, anyways?" he grumbled, trying desperately to change the subject. Italy wasn't usually late for the meetings... okay, so he was usually asleep or ranting about pasta, but he was still there.

Japan shrugged and rolled his eyes.

"You are awful at changing the subject," he pointed out in one of his rare moments of frankness. "And I don't know where he is either... He and Romano are both late, actually. What do you think that they are up to?"

Germany frowned at the mention of Italy's brother and refocused his attentions on the meeting which was quickly deteriorating, as usual. England had finally stopped fighting with France, and had now redirected his attentions to yelling at America for eating hamburgers during the meeting. Russia was sitting on Canada again (although Germany had the suspicion that he was the only one who noticed), and China... wait, where was China?

"Japan?" Germany whispered. Japan glanced at him again, his eyebrows raised questioningly. "Where's China?" Germany asked quietly.

"China?" Japan looked around the meeting room, his lips turning down in a slight frown when he saw what Germany had seen. "I don't... is he with the brothers?"

Mein Gott, I hope not, Germany thought with a vehemence that surprised him. Of course, he could understand being worried about Italy when he was off with Romano... Romano wasn't exactly known for his intelligence and Germany still hadn't forgotten the phone call misunderstanding (Hey, this is me, in case anybody forgot, the incident that Germany is talking about is the one where Italy calls him because his hair got tangled with Romano's and Germany... well, he thinks Italy is talking about something entirely different...). But China... why should he be anxious about Italy going off with China? It wasn't as if the country had ever actually hurt his friend, and he knew that China could handle himself... still, the anxiety was there.

Germany sighed and shook his head as he got to his feet.

"Oi!" he yelled, his deep voice carrying easily over the noise created by the fighting countries. "Everyone shut up and listen! And Russia, please stop sitting on Canada."

Russia blinked and looked down, his sweet face registering shock as he noticed the quiet man squashed beneath him.

"Sorry Canada," he mumbled apologetically. Canada smiled shakily up at him.

"I-it's okay," he wheezed. "No big d-deal."

"Hey Russia," America yelled, his blue eyes flashing behind his glasses. "Get off of my little bro!"

"You did not even notice that he was there," Russia pointed out, his deceptively sweet voice failing to mask the fury that was beginning to appear in his violet eyes. "I hardly think that it is fair to attack me."

"I wasn't attacking you, stupid, I was yelling, but now that you mention it..."

"America," England interrupted furiously. "For God's sake, do you have to pick a fight with everyone? And don't even start with that 'I'm the hero!' shit."

America stared at England, his expression slightly hurt. England blushed and looked down at the table sheepishly.

"Anyways..." Germany interrupted, feeling acutely uncomfortable. "Has anyone else noticed that China and the Italy brothers are mis-?"

"Hello! Germany!" Italy's slightly high-pitched voice called. Germany and the others looked up as the dark-haired Italian flew into the room, followed closely by his nearly identical brother and China. "Hiyah everybody! So sorry we're late!"

"Where the hell were you?" Germany yelled, his cheeks going red with anger. Japan sighed and gently placed his hand on Germany's shoulder in an effort to shove him back into his chair.

"Italy, Romano, China," he greeted in a calm voice. "Thank you for coming."

"Shut up, we know you're pissed," Romano grumbled, his hazel eyes still flashing with something that wasn't quite fear. "We found something," he added, his piercing gaze sweeping across the assembled countries.

"What is it?" England demanded, ridiculously grateful to focus on something other than the shame that had been eating him up ever since his outburst at America.

"Aliens," China reported, his arms wrapped tightly around the panda that normally traveled in the basket he wore on his shoulders.

"What... like Tony?" America asked slowly.

"No..." China replied, his face adopting the confused expression most of the countries wore when America's extraterrestrial friend came up in the conversation. "No, these are... they aren't like the other aliens that we have had contact with."

"You mean those unfashionable white blobs that tried to steal our- well, my sexiness and turn our citizens into more unfashionable blobs?"

"Yep! I liked them," Italy piped up cheerfully.

"What the hell-?" Romano began. He stopped and shook his head before starting again. "We found the aliens while showing China around our country. We stopped near our border with Austria and saw these... these things attacking Austria and Hungary. They were holding them off as well as they could and we tried to help..."

"Actually, I tried to help," China interrupted, barely disguising the irritation he felt at his two companions. "Italy hid behind a crate of tomatoes and Romano was too busy swearing to actually try and fight."

"Why you bas-!"

"Wait, Romano, we did do that, didn't we?" Italy interrupted, his expression quickly becoming confused.

"Italy, shut up," Germany hissed. He hastily moved to stand between the two brothers, not liking the look he was seeing on Romano's face.

"Anyways," China continued, visibly irritated. "We were too late to save Austria and Hungary... I don't know where they took them, and when we went to look for the other-." China stopped speaking for a moment, his dark eyes suddenly filled with pain.

"They were all gone," Italy finished, his face uncharacteristically sober as he thought about the missing countries that they had seen... of the empty houses and burnt countrysides, and the millions of injured humans lying moaning on the ground beside bodies that had already gone silent. "It was awful," he added quietly.

Germany glanced over at him in shock. Was this the same Italy who had walked in only seconds ago calling his name in that annoyingly cheerful voice?

"What do you mean, 'gone'?" America snapped, his face pale. "Who was-?"

"Vietnam, Taiwan, India, and the Koreas are gone," China mumbled.

"So were Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Finland," Romano added.

"Mr. Russia?" Italy whispered, waiting until the tall man had met his gaze. "We couldn't find your sisters, and your friends Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are missing too."

Russia stared at him for a moment in disbelief as the news sank in, the fury rising in his eyes as a dark shadow fell across his face.

"Where are these aliens?" he demanded coldly.

"Russia, please," China urged. "You cannot fight them. None of us can, we need to go."

"Where?" England demanded, his green eyes unconsciously flickering in America's direction. "It sounds like these creatures have already taken over most of Europe, and who knows when one of our homes will be next?"

"Could we go to Switzerland's house?" France suggested, not exactly hiding the gleam in his eyes that appeared at the thought of being in the same house as the angry country and his adorable sister Liechtenstein. "He is protected by his barrier of neutrality, non?"

"We could stay here," America offered. "New York is totally big enough to hold all of us. Besides, why do we even need to run? We're not in our countries.. well, except for me, and there's no way a bunch of dumb aliens can beat me on my own turf!"

"I like France's idea," Canada mumbled, not really expecting anyone to listen to him.

"I agree with Canada and France," Russia added, much to the surprise of the young man whose chest had been crushed by Russia's weight not ten minutes before. "Switzerland's home is always safe, and the closer we are to the place where my family disappeared, the easier it will be for me to track them down and exile their attackers to Siberia."

Everyone assembled shuddered at the mention of Russia's frozen-wasteland of a prison before resuming their argument. Germany stepped away from the fighting countries, making sure to keep Italy behind him. After a few moments, Japan also detached himself from the crowd and came to join his friends.

"What do you think?" he murmured.

"I will not run like a coward," Germany asserted stubbornly. "Not even from these aliens."

"B-but Germany," Italy gasped, his normally rosy cheeks paling with fear. "You didn't see what they did to Austria and Hungary... You can't fight them! Hungary and Austria and China fought and fought and China barely got away and... Germany, I think they're dead."

"Austria and Hungary?" Japan clarified.

Italy nodded slowly, his hazel eyes filling with tears at the thought of the people who had been like parents to him.

"They both fell after a group of the aliens attacked them with some guns and then there was a big flash like some sort of bomb... there was- there was fire everywhere, and I couldn't see Austria or Hungary... China pulled me away with Romano before the aliens could return so I didn't see them again..."

"They could still be alive, Italy," Japan assured him quickly.

"You think so?" Italy whispered, his face brightening slightly.

"Yes," Japan replied simply. "Right, Germany?"

Germany started, his face reddening as Italy focused on him with rising hope in his eyes. Dammit, why had Japan done this? He knew Germany wasn't the best person to go to for comfort... he would only screw up and make Italy cry and then everything would be horrible...

"Germany?" Italy's small voice broke easily through his frenzied thoughts, causing Germany to look down at his friend.

"Will Austria and Hungary and the others be okay?" Italy asked.

Germany nodded immediately and tried to force a smile onto his face, although the action felt forced and unnaturally stiff, even to him.

"Y-ya," he whispered. "Of course they will."

Italy smiled and wrapped his arms around his friend in a quick hug that sent ripple of warmth through Germany's body. Germany stiffened and glanced at Japan in a panic. His ally smiled slightly and turned away, giving his two friends privacy. The others were still arguing, and as far as he could tell nothing had been decided on without their noticing. Japan sighed. When would they all just get along?