Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 15

Sebastian sat in the cell he'd woken up in. He wasn't quite sure what had happened, or what the hell Feliciano had done, but he was sure he wasn't happy about it. Lovino's shouting from the cell that sounded like it was opposite the small corridor separating them had long since stopped. Lucia had been muttering constantly, probably extracts from the bible. He hadn't spoken much. Lucia had tried talking through the wall to him once, but when he'd tried to answer, his voice had come out cracked and he hadn't tried again.

Once or twice a day, a man that looked a lot like him, but darker hair, darker eyes and a long scar, cutting through one of them had come to the door with a plate of food and a cup of water. He hadn't ever spoken to him. No words at all had been exchanged. Sebastian didn't think he looked like the type of person who would necessarily be nice to talk to. But then again, not many people looked like the type of people you'd want to talk to normally, so maybe he wasn't that bad. He still didn't want to talk to him.

Now, the man appeared at the door. Not with food this time, but armed with just a key and a long sword that, every time Sebastian had seen him, had been hanging off his belt. He was roughly grabbed, dragged to his feet and marched out of the corridor.

"What's..." Sebastian started but coughed. Disuse had made his voice rustier than before, and it hurt.

"You've been requested" the man grunted.

"That's my explanation?" Sebastian frowned.

The man growled and punched him. "Shut up."

He threw him into a room and locked the door as he came in.

"This is funny isn't it?" Sebastian froze and turned around. In the middle of the room were the counterparts he recognised as Feliciano's and Lovino's. "I thought you were meant to be strong, declaring independence so suddenly."

Luciano laughed. "Thank you for bringing him Serafino" he motioned to the man who grunted. "We thought it'd be nice if you actually met your counterpart this time. Last time you met, you were unconscious."

Flavio motioned to Serafino as if to leave and he vanished into the shadows.

"So" Luciano swung his knife out dangerously. "I assume you know about last time?" Sebastian nodded. "Well, we have figured one of the reasons it didn't work. Obviously, there was the slight issue of numerous deaths on our behalf, and then on your behalf, but then, none of the countries functioned properly. Economic losses, plagues... it wasn't right. Which was when we came to assumption, especially after Viktor killed Ivan, Katyusha and Natalia. A country can only function properly with both personifications."

Sebastian blinked for a second in a non-understanding way. It didn't quite make sense. In their eyes, the counterparts had only just appeared recently. If what they were saying was correct... that a country could only function with both personifications. That meant they'd been around for longer than they thought. But, if they'd been around for centuries, then there was no reason that their counterparts weren't that old either.

Luciano nodded. "I figured you'd get your head around it quickly."

'Why now?'

The thought ran through Sebastian's head. There was probably a valid reason for not attacking. Maybe they were planning. Maybe they couldn't for some reason. An attack of that sorts must have been hard to plan out to every perfect detail, and ensure that they didn't die in the process, even if it failed in the end.

"However, we have an issue" Luciano said. "That means that no one can die. If someone dies, the country suffers. Lukas' death was an accident. We hadn't come to the conclusion when Allistor, Ronan, Dylan and Bridget were killed, but I think Oliver would have killed them anyway." He laughed. "But, select people... we can find a way that they die."

Flavio giggled and dissolved into the darkness behind him, his voice carrying around the room eerily. "Some countries don't need two personifications. They're too small. Weak. Already helped by many. Aren't accepted as nations. Or maybe, they can just become... dependent again..."

Sebastian went cold. Everything was starting to piece together now.

"So, those nations we can get rid of" Luciano finished. His grin widened. The fear was showing on Sebastian's face now, and that was exactly what he had been waiting for.

There was a sharp pain in Sebastian's back and he cried out. Flavio appeared next to him, wrenching the knife out of him and holding it up almost innocently. "Oops. My hand slipped" he laughed and then stabbed it through his throat, grinning psychopathically as his blood sprayed.

"Idiota" Luciano snapped. "You weren't meant to kill him so fast. It was meant to be slow and torturous."

Flavio shrugged. "You forget the impact a death has on the counterparts though" he said. "As you said. He's a weak country. Most of the time they're fine if anything happened. You didn't feel anything when you glued Feliciano's tongue to his mouth, but being a weak country, it'd hurt."

He turned and left the room via a side exit that they had covered in a deep blue blanket to create an endless darkness effect and scare him a little more.

He found Serafino in his room choking and clutching at the table, crying silently.

"Shh" Flavio ran to him and hugged him. "It's okay. Brother's here to help Ser."

"It was you wasn't it?"

Flavio nodded. "I'm sorry. But Luci wanted it to be slow and torturous. What else would you have me do?"

"Not the throat maybe?" Serafino coughed and slowly stood up, dragging a sleeve across his face. "Anything but the throat."

"I'll know for next time" Flavio smiled and turned to leave.

"There won't be a next time will there though?" Serafino shouted after him. "He's dead now."

Flavio shrugged. That information wasn't important.

***

Antonio sat at the bench on a high street in Rome with Feliciano. Normally they would talk, maybe get something to eat, but the situation was different and he didn't know how to go about it. It didn't seem to bother Feliciano. The awkward silence didn't sway him, he just sat upright, staring around, his head turning this way and that quickly like a meerkat.

"So" Antonio said, hoping to break the silence a little even if it was just him talking. "How are you faring?"

Feliciano nodded and gave him a thumbs up. He'd left his pad behind which he'd grumbled about a little, making a gurgling noise of frustration in his throat before coughing up such a storm they'd had to sit down for a bit.

He put two fingers together to make a plus shape and then pointed at Antonio.  And you?

Antonio laughed. He frequently forgot his pad so they'd had to get used to his strange sign language. "I'm good thanks Feli." He turned back to gaze across the crowd. "I'm good."

Feliciano beamed and fumbled around in his pockets for something. Antonio glanced at every face that passed. He'd started to do that now. Make sure he knew who everyone was, and then examine everyone that passed, making sure that he didn't know anyone. Now, there was a fifty percent chance that if he knew someone, it would be bad news. He carried on scanning, every face structured differently. Different eye colour, different shaped faces, higher or more prominent cheek bones, hair colours and lengths. So many different faces in similar yet different styles. It made him laugh sometimes how similar people could be. How similar they could be to one another.

Then, he leapt up and ran towards the other side of the pavement. Feliciano leapt up to and tried to shout after him.

"Ehn... ho..." he doubled over coughing. Antonio at once felt bad, but carried on. This was more important.

He reached the other side of the pavement and threw himself at the person there, hugging him. "Lovi I've missed you so much. Where the hell have you been?"

Lovino flinched and shoved him away. "Get off me bastard" he snapped.

Antonio chuckled. "Same old Lovi."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lovino snapped. "And anyway, how do you know me... and who the hell are you?"