Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 3

Ivan sank down from where he'd stood at the meeting table and stared with wet eyes around at the rest of the room. "Help me please."

Ludwig took his place as the standing nation and took a deep breath. "So we... uh... we have another threat on our hands. Viktor has clearly fully remembered his past and his old darkness has consumed him. We figured that he never really remembered it, just thought he remembered through what you told him about it. Now he's remembered properly, he could be a large threat. We need to get him back and..."

"I'm sure you're not going to say it, so I will" Arthur stood up and glared at him. "You're pretending this has nothing to do with the others aren't you? The whole fact that we came back and they didn't? It doesn't mean anything to you? We came back so there is no reason why they aren't going to as well."

"Viktor has been fine this whole time" Francis stood up to accompany Arthur. "Why should he just suddenly remember now? Something like that doesn't just happen. There's..."

"Dude, the others are catalysts?" Alfred slammed his hands on the table and leaned forwards. "Is that what you're saying?"

"We can only assume that for the time being" Yao sighed. "We don't have any headway on this. We don't know anything other than what's happened so far so we can't assume anything too bad."

"If we assume something bad like that, then that would leave a bad image in our minds that something is terribly wrong" Ludwig nodded. "Nothing is terribly wrong just yet so..."

"Nothing's terribly wrong?" Ivan shouted. "My sisters are dead and you're saying there's... nothing wrong? There's something wrong with your definition of wrong."

"I didn't mean it like that Ivan" Ludwig said. "Of course we have a problem on that behalf, but first, we need to evaluate if Viktor is a big enough threat to go into t panic over and if it means we have some more people to find that I don't think any of us really want to meet again."

"Listen" Gilbert, who had stayed unusually quiet for the meeting, leapt up onto the table and grinned. "Apart from Ivan's sisters kind of dying on us, nothing is wrong. If the awesome me says so, than nothing is wrong."

Yao grabbed onto Ivan's arm, trying to hold him back, but failed as Ivan swung a connecting punch for Gilbert's jaw. Gilbert staggered off the table and flopped down in his chair again.

"You'll need more than that to beat the awesome me" he laughed, massaging his jaw slightly.

"Don't" Yao hissed, grabbing back Ivan's arm the second he was within reach. "We want to get something sorted here don't we?"

Ivan stayed seated, glaring at Gilbert across the table.

"Dudes" Alfred sighed after a while of silence and glares. "If we're going to get anything done, we need to build a giant superhero and have it protect the Earth and detect any evil. That way we won't have any problems."

"I agree with Alfred" Kiku said quietly

"Not everything revolves around giant superheroes you know" Arthur yelled.

"If we're going to get anything done, I think that we should now just calm down" Ludwig said. "We can dismiss this meeting. The proper world meeting is in two weeks, so if anyone sees anything between now and then, we can report then."

"This isn't getting anywhere" Francis sighed. "I guess that's all that's left for it now." He stood up and walked out the room first, slowly followed by the rest of the room.

"Will you be alright?" Yao asked Ivan as they left the room, Kiku trailing slightly behind.

Ivan nodded slowly. "I'll be alright."

Yao smiled and walked away.

Ivan stayed standing in the same spot for a bit before following the rest out of the building. He got in his car and sat for a moment, staring at the grass in front of him. How could they have decided there was nothing wrong? They hadn't even got onto the topic on what was going to happen to his sister's countries.

The door to the passenger side of his car opened and someone got in. He didn't need to look to see who it was. He knew. He'd guessed he'd make an appearance at some point. Ivan stayed still, waiting for him to move or say something, press a gun to his head, try to kill him, whatever, but nothing happened and they continued staring at the grass.

"Are you going to drive?"

Ivan finally glanced at his companion: long black coat, red scarf, hair the colour of long since dried blood.

"You..." he couldn't think of the words to say. "Why did you kill them? What had they ever done to you?"

Viktor gave him a glance not that dissimilar to one you might give to a child who thinks punching is acceptable. "I've stayed quiet too long. It's time I went back with them."

"Them?" Ivan knew what he was talking about, but didn't want to believe it. He refused to.

"Yes 'them'" Viktor sighed. "You don't think that just the good guys came back did you? Everyone comes back. Whereas you lot are the known nations, we're also nations. Just because your lot came back eventually doesn't mean mine didn't. They just took a lot longer to remember stuff, that's all."

Ivan swallowed, turning back to the grass in front of his car. "You still haven't answered my question. Why did you kill them?"

"I thought I made myself perfectly clear" Viktor frowned. "Everything Ludwig said, were you not listening to him? I never fully regained my memories. None of them really came back. I mean, they were coming back slowly, and then they all came back at once. Just because you hit me with that pipe of yours doesn't mean I'll forget everything. Just because you beat a wild animal until it forgets it's a wild animal doesn't mean that it will stay prancing with deer and eating grass for the rest of its life. At some point it will remember." He sighed again, this time in an exasperated way that made Ivan twitchy. He was losing his patience. "And besides. If it had happened to you instead, would you leave forever even when you knew everyone was back?"

"No" Ivan glared at him. "Because you have no mercy, none of you. Because you would have killed me the second you got a chance. If that had been me, I would have died long ago with everyone else and come back along with them."

"Ah, but that's where it's different this time" Viktor grinned. "Notice how well each country did even when it's representative died? Notice how... well... they didn't need a personification? This time there is no coming back. This time once you're dead, you stay dead."

"So what? You're coming to warn me?" Ivan raised an eyebrow.

Viktor laughed. "No, no, no, no you've got it all wrong." In one movement, he pulled a thick knife out of his coat and stabbed it through Ivan's neck. "No, I've come back to finish the job I should have finished years ago."

So, extra update because school starts for me on Tuesday, updates on everything will b slower and I'm on a writing spree ^-^
Hope you enjoyed... as much as you can when Russia gets killed