Purple and Gold (The Many Colours of Life and Death AU)

Chapter Twenty-One

A few weeks later

The Portuguese Empire crept along the walls of the Spanish Empire's castle, completely invisible. He had been sent to spy on what their enemies had been doing while the Gold Alliance was in hiding.

He sipped the coffee he had stolen while listening to another conversation, certain it would be as boring as the one about the British Empire's new hand, a hook.

"You are absolutely sure they weren't there?" That was the French Empire's voice.

"Yes," The Ottoman Empire said, "Nothing was there except this weird painting."

"Show me."

"Of course." Then the two of them zipped off at a seemingly impossible speed.

Uh oh. PE thought. That painting shows exactly where we are! He remembered AE telling the group how he found Austria-Hungary and the German Empire using the piece of art that was left behind. They should have grabbed the painting. But it was too late, nobody could outrun OE.

OE showed FE the painting, which she studied closely. It was a bit odd that they left the painting here and nothing else. OE had searched everywhere for the Gold Alliance, and this was the only place left.

"It looks like A-H's painting style..." FE mused. "Oh! I recognize that place! I fought Prussia there once in a war way back! Come with me, they must be there!"

OE sighed with relief, glad that they finally had a lead.

"Let's go see if they are there. Then, we'll tell the others." The Ottoman Empire said, before following FE to the last place the Gold Alliance could possibly be.

"Guys! Guys!" The Portuguese Empire voice cried. A-H stopped painting GE to turn around, wondering what had happened. "We're in trouble!"

"What'd you find out?" Bulgaria asked, his voice tight with pain. He was doing better since he had been slashed, but it was obvious that the wound was painful. 

"FE and OE found A-H's painting, and they're probably coming here right now!" PE said breathlessly. He must have ran all the way here.

A whoosh of fire drowned out whoever replied, sending the countries diving for cover.

"They're already here! Attack!" Serbia shouted.

A-H peaked around the easel they had dived behind and spotted a blob of blue, red and white amidst the orange flames. They didn't think it was Serbia, because his voice had come from somewhere else, and there wasn't enough blue or red to be REC or PE, so A-H sent a stream of light towards the stranger, hoping it was FE.

The figure let out a very feminine shocked cry as light blinded her vision, confirming A-H's suspicions. Then, Austria-Hungary pushed her with another tendril of light. Except they miscalculated where the cliff was, and only realised they had pushed FE off the cliff when her blobby form disappeared from A-H's terrible sight.

Oops.

The Ottoman Empire raced down the cliff, before realising that FE would fall into the water. There was one problem with that. He couldn't swim.

Also, he wasn't sure if he wanted to save the French Empire. She had almost killed the Swedish Empire, and he didn't trust her.

He was left standing at the edge of the water, watching her fall into it.

"OE! Help me!" She cried, apparently still alive. She floundered around, and OE wondered if she couldn't swim as well.

"I can't! I can't swim..."

"Well you can at least try!" She snapped.

"Do I really want to though?" OE glared at her. "Do I really want to risk my life for someone who almost killed my friend?" She winced, looking away.

"I didn't know..." She sobbed quietly, barely heard over the sound of crashing waves. "I thought he was AE, so I stabbed the empty air in front of me. Only when I heard his scream did I know I made a mistake. I'm sorry."

As FE struggled to stay afloat, OE thought to himself. Despite hating her guts, he knew he couldn't let her die. Of course, he didn't have to save her himself either. He sped off to the Spanish Empire's palace.

"BE!" He cried, crashing into his room. "FE found the Gold Alliance, but she fell off a cliff into water and can't swim!"

"Holy-" The British Empire stammered, jumping up from his chair. "Why didn't you go get her?!"

"I can't swim either!"

BE sighed. "Take me to her."

While FE was busy drowning, and OE was gone, Bulgaria summoned all of his power. While weak from the wound across his chest, he had enough power to teleport everyone to AE's palace.

Curse that stupid ash-headed idiot. The French Empire thought, swearing as her floundering leg hit a rock. I can't believe he saw me stab SWE.

She was telling the truth about regretting it. She has heard SWE's footsteps in front of her, and thought that since he was near the pillar AE was also hiding behind, that it was her enemy. Then, PE lost concentration, and she saw that it was one of her allies.

FE remembered locking eyes with OE as she removed her sword. She hoped he was the only one who knew. If only OE had actually forgave her, instead of running away. All she could do now was stall her own death.

Suddenly, the British and Ottoman Empires were at the water's edge. OE must have gotten help using his speed. That surprised her.

BE used his power to draw the waves back, putting FE on solid ground. "Oh thank goodness!" She said, collapsing on the wet sand.

"Why did you fight them by yourself?!" BE angrily spat.

"They figured out we were coming. PE had spied on us, I assume. If I waited, they would have had time to prepare." FE explained while picking herself up.

BE sighed as she walked over to the two. "And why did you," BE turned to OE, "not save FE immediately? She could have died because you were scared of a little water. Now the Gold Alliance is gone because of you." He gestured to the empty cliffs above them.

"As I said before, I can't swim. I could have died along with her. And..." OE hesitated. Shit, FE thought, he's going to tell him that I almost killed SWE!

FE spoke before OE. "He found out that I was the only one who knew he was the one who stabbed the Swedish Empire!" She cried, ignoring the stricken expression on OE's face. "He didn't want to save me because then the knowledge would die with me!"

"That's not true!" The Ottoman Empire exclaimed. "You were the one to accidentally stab SWE!"

"Both of you stop." BE commanded. The bickering 'allies' turned to him. "I don't care who almost killed SWE, he was invisible, neither of you would have known. I do care, however, that one of you is betraying us by lying. We can't have countries who hate one another in this alliance. One of you two is lying, and we will figure that out."

He was probably talking about Belgium. FE groaned inwardly. That meant she would be exposed as a liar and thrown out of the Purple Alliance. She should have stayed quiet.

But a plan was forming in her head. She would get herself out of the hole she dug herself in. 

(1227 Words)

Since we reached 2000 reads (TYSM BTW!!!), I decided to post two chapters today! Enjoy!