Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 18

"We can't just sit around and do nothing" Vladimir shouted, slamming his hands on the table in the middle of the table, making Peter jump in fright. "We've seen what they can do now, we've seen what they do, and we're some of the most potential people to do something about it all, and we're doing nothing."

"Calm down" Arthur said quietly, putting out a hand and hugging Peter a little tighter. "We're here to at least think about things, at least try and put a stop to things before they get out of hand."

"Okay then" Vladimir picked out a book from the shelf at the back of their room. "So, what do you have in mind? Do you  have any ideas? Anything?" Arthur stayed silent. "Exactly. They still have Francis and Matthew and Sebastian and Lucia. I know none of you believe me when I say they're my family,  but they are. Hell, Romania means Rome's land. Francis and Matthew are your family too. We need to do something, not just sit around here doing nothing like some..."

"Okay Vlad that's enough" Arthur snapped, standing up rapidly, Peter falling off his lap. "We know you're pretty pissed, but there's no need to take it out on us you know."

Vladimir stared at him for a second before sighing and sitting back down, the book falling to the table with a loud thud. "Okay then."

Arthur took a deep breath and sat back down, picking Peter up again. "So... what would you propose we do? You have to have some ideas right?"

"That was Lukas' job" Vladimir muttered, laying his head on the table.

"I know" Arthur sighed. "Have you got anything Peter?"

Peter hesitated for a second before sighing in the same exasperated way the other two had done and shaking his head, earning a small smile from the two elder nations. "Nothing."

"Okay, so we're going to sit around here doing..." Vladimir started.

"Calm" Arthur snapped before he could finish. He stood up, carefully this time, leaving Peter seated on his chair, and wandered over to the shelves. "We need to think logically. We can't get rid of them. They're nations, just like us, and if what Feliciano mentioned was correct, any country will be economically weaker. If we end up getting rid of, say, Viktor, or Loki, what then? Russia and Norway would never have a representative again. Or, they might do, but they'd be different, and have to start all over again. We need something that can sort out the conflict without any excessive damage to other nations."

"True" Vladimir rolled his head dramatically to the side on the table to watch him. "So, maybe some sort of portal?"

"That could work" Arthur mused. "But would their energy still be able to come through the portal to govern the countries here? It could make everything worse. And there's always the possibility that they could come back again. Oliver and Loki both know magic. We're not sure about you, but they do, so they have the potential to bring everyone back. That's the last thing we want. If we sort this out with magic, we want it sorted out for good."

"I'd guess Vasska would know magic too" Vladimir muttered. "Me" he stated when given a quizzical look. "Okay, so if that's not going to work, what is?"

"I don't know" Arthur said through gritted teeth. "I don't know anything anymore."

"Maybe we could wipe their memories" Peter chipped in.

Both stared at him.

"That could work" Vladimir said slowly. "It could do, I mean..."

"Plan B" Arthur said, taking a book off the shelf and leafing through it.

"What?" Vladimir frowned.

"Plan B" Arthur repeated. "If Plan A goes wrong, or we can't think of anything else to do."

"It's a great idea Arthur and you know it, you just don't want to admit that someone younger than you has better ideas than you do" Vladimir snapped. "It'd stop this from ever happening again, they wouldn't be able to remember who they were, they could go to being normal people with normal lives. They wouldn't both us, yet they'd still be alive. We'd just have to keep track on them and re-remove their memories every hundred years or so, so they didn't think anything was suspicious. It's genius!"

"But one of the personifications losing memory of how to run a country and be a country might have serious effects on the country itself" Arthur told the book, not looking up at them.

"It didn't happen when Viktor lost his memory" Vladimir argued.

"But Viktor got back his memory as we can see" Arthur snapped.

"Yeah, when the others came back and got their memories back too" Vladimir hissed.

"Anyway, it probably did, you just didn't notice because the entire world economic issue dropped distinctively lower as so many nations had been lost" Arthur slammed the book closed and pointed it at Vladimir. "It happened with all the countries, even America and China, even though one of the representatives were still alive. It didn't click that they were doing badly because of losing a counterpart because everyone else was doing badly, so they still seemed to be doing well. It didn't click that Russia was doing badly because of Viktor's memory loss because everyone else was doing badly, so Russia still seemed to be doing well." He sighed and put the book down. "It's not that hard to think about if you understand it."

"But that was the most complex thing I've ever heard" Peter pointed out. "So... if that's Plan B, what's Plan A?"

"Plan A is..." Arthur faltered and faded away. "I don't know."

"Great" Vladimir flapped his hands in exasperation. "Of the nations, the two surviving greatest wizards meet to try and stop the end of the world and the only one who can come up with anything logical is the 'rookie' runt."

"Hey" Peter shouted. "I'm not a runt."

"Are too" Vladimir smirked, getting a slap from Peter. "Sort out your brother Arthur! He's evil."

"You were tormenting him" Arthur said blankly.

"Was not"

"Please, let's not start this childish arguing" Arthur sighed. "You're better than this. Come on, you're the oldest here."

Vladimir shrugged. Arthur picked up another book from the shelf and flicked through it rapidly, the pages fluttering. Nothing. He tried another, and another, and soon he was surrounded by half the shelf, leering in tall towers, none of them had been useful. Peter was asleep on the table, Vladimir watching Arthur, and looking like he was about to drop off.

Then, the door burst open, startling Peter out of sleep, waking up Vladimir and making Arthur jump, one of the towers collapsing on him.

"What the hell are you all doing? You're meant to have ideas right? So start talking. What are you doing about this whole situation eh?"

"Eh?" Arthur sat up, rubbing the back of his head. "Emil, what are you doing here?"

Emil stared at him as though it was obvious. "I've come to help."

"You know we only accept people who can do magic right?" Vladimir grumbled. "If you have any ideas, we'd love to hear them. Your brother was the one with the ideas."

"I know" Emil muttered. "And I know you only accept people who have magic. That's why I've come to help."

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!