Orange and Navy (The Many Colours of Life and Death AU)

Chapter Nineteen

 The Kingdom of Serbia crawled away from the Austrian Empire, hissing in pain with every small movement. He was still alive... barely.

AE was turned away from him though, attacking the stranger.

Serbia drew his wings in and continued to crawl, metre by metre. He inhaled sharply as more blood escaped his stomach.

He looked up and spotted a large piece of rubble. He made his way over and leaned against it, checking his wound. It was... well... red. Very red. His shirt was pretty much ruined.

So, there was no point in not ruining it further! He started ripping strands of fabric off, setting it down beside him. Then he braced himself... and stuffed it into the open wound. He screamed through his teeth, muscles tensed in agony. Hot tears streamed down his face, but he didn't stop until the bleeding slowed. Then he applied pressure.

He felt dizzy. Lightheaded. Spots filled his vision, but he was determined to stay awake.

Determined to stay alive.

The French Empire abandoned the two strangers she had been fighting, who were quickly attacked by mind controlled puppets, and started to walk towards the British Empire.

He was supposed to be dead, if half of what the Roman Empire said was true. He'd been killed. Yet here he stood. Just like her.

A small country with a red and white flag—Canada if she remembered correctly—stood rather far away, steering clear of the battle. Good. She didn't want him to get hurt either.

"Recognize me?" she called to BE when they were close enough.

"Not particularly. I lost my memory. But Canada here told me that you were previously evil. And I saw you attacking our allies," the British Empire glared into her eyes. Damn, he was intimidating. A halo of glowing water circled his head.

"Yes, I was. It's hard to be good when everyone wants to kill you," she sighed.

"I wonder why," BE said dryly.

"You would understand if you were in my position."

"And you would understand if you were in mine. This isn't personal."

"Actually, it is," FE hissed. "You were the reason I died." With that, she sent a burst of flame behind him. Before it even touched him, he extinguished it with water. But his back was turned to her, so she took her chance, and drew her sword.

A blast of water pushed her back, and she grit her teeth as she hit the floor hard. She set fire to the grass, the air, his cape, everything. But it never lasted long. He always put it out.

So she set fire to her hands. They burned bright blue, and even the heat-proof skin on her lower arms started to feel warm. It was so hot, even the grass below her started to wither, despite being a metre away.

BE tried to extinguish it, but it kept burning. If FE knew one thing, it was that her hands could never be extinguished. It was the source of her power.

She got closer and closer to him, her hands burning through her sleeves. BE drew his sword once she got close enough, and warily backed away. Sweat started to drip down his face, from both heat and nerves.

As FE was about to throw a barrage of blue flames, a force field surrounded her. She pounded on them, but they did not break. She extinguished the fire in her hands. No use wasting power.

The French Empire peered around for the source of the shield, and found a crowd of countries gathered at the hill. A portal shone behind them. There were many different flags, and all of them looked angry. At ROE, BZE, and her.