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

Chapter Twenty-Six

The Austrian Empire sat alone in the garden, staring up at the frozen faces of Prussia and his father. He had to figure out how to undo the gold. If he did, he would finally feel... happy.

He knew he should have probably started with a leaf or something easy first, but he was so excited to get going, that he began with Prussia.

His friends had given him some helpful tips. PE had told him about how he envisioned himself becoming visible when he wanted to stop his power. The Russian Empire said he imagined his branches dying to get rid of them. It seemed like all AE had to do was imagine Prussia standing in front of him, not gold!

It wasn't that easy.

At first, he had tried visualising all the gold suddenly disappearing, but the process seemed too fast. Then, he tried to think of the gold slowly 'dying', and vanishing from Prussia's skin. That didn't work either.

It had been days of practising before AE finally got an idea. "T-try imagining waves pulling back or something!" He remembered Prussia saying the day his father died. That had to be the solution!

He envisioned the cliffs Prussia used to fly at, with its golden beaches and crystal clear water. He imagined the waves pulling away at the gold sand, revealing black sand underneath.

Then he opened his eyes.

Prussia had watched AE every day of his life, doing his best to guide him from the afterlife. As a ghost, he couldn't do much, but he was able to plant ideas in his friend's head. Like when AE was trying to stop his gold touch, he planted the memory of him saying "STOP!" in his head. It was the same thing with the waves.

Now he was back in his actual body. Not a flying ghost. A solid being. It felt amazing!

"You did it! I'm back!" Prussia cried, hugging his favourite country in the whole world.

AE laughed, then stopped in shock. His face was no longer solid gold. He could speak!

"What the...?" AE said, his voice hoarse from not being used for years.

"Did you not mean for your voice to come back?" Prussia asked. AE shook his head, looking bewildered.

"Oh, my heads hurt!" A voice said behind them. Prussia turned to see the Holy Roman Empire standing there, no longer a statue frozen in the position of a hug.

Father! You're back! I missed you! AE said in sign language, seeming to forget that he could talk now. He reached out to hug HRE, but stopped himself, probably remembering how his father had 'died'.

"It's alright, bring it in!" HRE chuckled. AE put on his gloves and ran over to him. Prussia watched from a distance, smiling faintly, before a sharp burst of pain distracted him.

He looked down at his hand to find that it... wasn't there. After it had been turned to gold by AE, Prussia had sawed it off and cut each finger at the joints. Then he had put it all back together with his magic to move it.

Now it was in bloody pieces on the ground, as if the wounds had just been made. "Ow ow ow ow ow." Prussia gasped, holding the stump.

What's wrong? Oh... AE signed, looking down at the mess.

"Can you turn it back to gold? I'd rather have that than a painful stump." Prussia asked.

"Yeah of course!" AE said, finally remembering to talk. He first touched the remainder of Prussia's hand, and although the gold spread quickly, AE stopped it before it got too far. Then, he picked up the pieces of Prussia's hand and turned all of them to gold.