Crystalline Constellations

S2 E3: An Unsolved Puzzle [Part 1/2]

Germany, a week and a half later, could see nothing one night except for faint flashes of white in the background of the black abyss he was drifting through subconsciously, his mind detached from his physical body in reality. It was a surreal feeling, like he was floating in the dark depths of space without any sort of breathing apparatus and still, somehow, remaining alive. 

The abstract colours soon faded into an image of a room. Specifically, a room which looked as if it was one you'd see in a top secret research facility, with no windows and no glimpse of the outside world anywhere in sight. It looked almost identical to the cell he, Jenny and Italy were kept in while they were imprisoned a month and a half ago whenever the experiments on them weren't currently taking place, but the only difference was that this one he seemed to be standing in right now wasn't lit up by a bright light bulb. Instead, this cell was very dark, with the lightbulb on the ceiling flickering every now and then between its on and off states, making his surroundings look a lot more eerie in the same manner as a horror film. 

"Back again, are you?" Said an American-accented voice with a smooth tone, its owner suddenly appearing before him out of thin air like a ghost. "Care to see what happens to your friends when they defy me and Jason?" Dr. Keates tilted his head and grinned, showing all of his white teeth that glimmered in the flickering light from the bulb above him. And then as if on cue, a shrill, ear-splitting scream was heard off in the distance, prompting Ludwig to quickly turn around, his mouth dropping open slightly and his eyes widening as he recognised that the screaming was Sandra's voice.
There were no doors in the room he was in, so there was no corridor outside, meaning the scream ricochetted off the walls but he couldn't see her. But whenever the light bulb flickered, he could briefly see a shadow shaped like her on the opposite wall, looking as if it was cowering in extreme fear, with another shadow distinctly shaped like Dr. Peugot looming ominously above hers. 

This was soon followed by another scream, specifically one belonging to England, shrieking in distress while he was nowhere to be seen, too.
Then Italy's voice was the next to squeal,

"Germany! Help me! Please, help me, Germany! HELP ME!" His voice was a little bit nearer, with Feliciano himself invisible just like Arthur and Miss Kohnka, and a 4th wail was then heard, even closer, so he turned back around, and he gasped. 

Because now, he was actually able to see her unlike the others, but Jenny was stood there in front of him, tears streaming down her face like miniature rivers, while Keates had her arms pinned behind her back. She was unable to speak because of how much her jaw was chattering and how much she was whimpering from pure fright. 

"Nein, just stop it! Get away from her!" He begged Martin with a tone that was a blend of anger and worry. Ignoring him, the taller male pulled out a shining, sleek black pistol from the pocket of his trousers and put its tip against the brown-haired English woman's head, making her tears fall faster, and, after lifting half of his top lip to show a malevolent sneer, simply squeezed his index finger onto the trigger. 

Both Jen and Ludwig screamed at the top of their voices, her because of the absolutely unimaginable pain from the gunshot into her head, and him from watching it happen.

"Nein!" He cried out back in reality, his eyes snapping open to show him that he was in his bedroom, safe and sound, much to his relief. There was a window next to him on the wall showing him the clear night sky, there was also no flickering lightbulb, no screams, no shadows except for a faint image of his own on the wall to his left, cast by the light from the window, and no sign of another person in the room except for himself.

"Thank Gott it was just a nightmare..." Germany muttered as he let out a sigh and took slow, deep breaths to calm himself.

A couple of minutes later he found himself getting up out of bed, as he was too restless to go back to sleep right now, and went into his bathroom, pulling the cord for the light, which illuminated the room immediately. He walked over to the sink 5 feet away and leaned over it, looking into the mirror at himself; his usually smooth, slicked hair had been affected by bedhead in the last few hours he'd been asleep, so some of it hung around his head messily. His neck, arms, legs and face - the areas not covered by his shorts and the tank top he used for sleeping in - had some areas of cold sweat on them.
He proceeded to run the cold tap on the sink, and splashed some of the cool water in his hands onto his face and over his head a tiny bit to wash the sweat off, sighing again but more quietly and still remembering that news article he and the others had found 10 days ago. A few seconds later, as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, his expression of stress and worry about the nightmare soon turned into one of frustration and anger at the crimes committed by the 2 doctors, especially Keates, and so he gritted his teeth, raised his head up to look at his angered face staring back at him out of the mirror, and narrowed his eyes.
Because it was at this moment when he vowed to himself that the next time he saw that goddamn brown-haired maniac, particularly if he tried to harm him or the others again, he would be sure to bring him to the justice he deserved more than anything else.

After that, 3 more days passed until it had finally come: February 9th, the date of Sandra's birthday, and she had become 21 years old today. In the Hetaverse, while the birthday woman herself was at home doing a few things, the others including Starfire and some more of the nations were gathered at America's house again right now, putting together a surprise party for her.
By now she'd told Starry about everything extraordinary; the anime universe and their powers and the mad scientists, and it had been discovered that the younger of the 2 sisters' ability from her own newly-found purple Zensairium gem was telekenesis, meaning she could lift things and move objects around using nothing but her mind. She had been rather shocked and a tiny bit sceptical about the Hetalia part at first, but she was shown proof so now she was a fully-fledged member of the group.

"Britain have you put up that end of the streamer correctly, mon ami?" Asked France, precariously stood halfway up a stepladder against one of the walls and holding one end of a bright red streamer in his hands.
"Yes, yes, I have!" Arthur answered irritably to him and motioned with his hands at the end closest to him, which was pinned up against the wall decoratively. What he wasn't telling anyone about, however, was the fact that he principally wanted this to go well a LOT more than anyone else for reasons that he'd only disclosed to Jenny. Only a few more days from this and he'd make his move as he'd planned a couple of weeks beforehand.

"Italy-san, be careful on that ladder, you might fall!" Japan advised his ally worriedly, because sure enough, the ladder Feli was stood on at the other end of Alfred's lounge was tottering about as if it would suddenly fall over at any second due to him leaning so far over it to put up another of the streamers.

"Ve~, don't worry about a thing, Japan! I'm okay!" Chirped the cheerful country in reply, but it was as if he'd jinxed it, because almost right after he'd said this, the ladder teetered over to one side a lot more than the other, and for a moment it was as if time had been slowed down before (with Italy yelling while it happened) it completely fell onto the ground with a loud thud, rendering Mr. Vargas lying there in a crumpled heap on the floor. He lay dazed there for a few seconds, but he soon let out a bit of a laugh.

"I swear he's hopeless..." Germany exhaled a breath, to which Jen giggled at the comedic value similar to the moments in the series. And then an object, a Rubik's Cube, on the nearby table in the corner of the room caught his eye, sat there with the red side completely as it should be while the other 5 sides of the cube were completely disorganised except for a row each of 3 squares with the same colour on them.
"Is that yours?" Ludwig asked the girl with a motion of his head towards the cube.
"Yeah. I had it on me at the time when I got here to help you guys organise the surprise party, 'cause I like puzzles on the move." She responded. ""I got it for Christmas a month and a bit ago. I eventually managed to work out the entire red side, but I can't work out for the life of me how to do the rest!" She added a chuckle on to the end of this sentence while she continued to simultaneously assist the muscular blonde with the decorations.
And he suddenly had another idea from this conversation as his eyes lingered for another few seconds on the Rubik's Cube.