OKAY, IF THIS WORKS, THOSE WHO REVIEWED ON THIS CHAPTER ALREADY CAN REVIEW AGAIN AS GUEST~ Let me know what you think please~

*music starts in the darkness…before five spotlights appear*

Denmark: *steps forward into the middle spotlight* Hey ya, everyone! Get ready to get some good cheer straight from the Nordic region!

Iceland: *steps up* Eiríkur.

Norway: *steps up* Lukas.

Denmark: Mikkel!

Sweden: *steps up* Berwald.

Finland: *steps up* And I'm Tino :D

Sweden: Hm?

Finland: Ohyaaaaa! oAo

All: *singing* Wow wow wow wow wow wow, Nordic, ho! Wow wow wow wow wow wow, Nordic, ho!

Iceland: Nor-

'Norway: dic

Sweden: re-

Finland: gion

Denmark: FIV-!

*light turns on and music stops*

Denmark: …Eh? 0_0

Singing: …Even though it is Chinese New Year and I said you guys can be in the Author's Note…no concerts please =_=

Denmark: Aw, Singing!

Singing: Don't give me that tone, Den! It's hard enough keeping China and Hong Kong from blowing up this place! You can sing in my concert fanfic! Right, Fortune? *Fortune not found* …Fortune?

Norway+Fortune: *at Iceland* Brother dearest…Brother dearest…Brother dearest…

Iceland: =_=lll

Singing: …Oh well, since she's preoccupied (irl as well), I'll put this up to stop the delay since there aren't many plot holes to check for…

BTW I still can't believe RomaHeta beat HetaOni by 1 vote last time! o.o

Finland: But you update HetaOni first.

Singing: Well, at first I thought I might as well update these fanfics together since I would be away overseas and might not update for a while this year… that and the reason for the delay was that it took me forever to write this one chapter since 'Nooooope, those scenes are crap, change them! aka 80% of the entire chapter!' and 'Too much HetaOni elements in this! Change it!'

But…in the end…I think I did alright…especially at one surprising part :3

Sweden: …Ya kn'w, Sin'in' M'iden…the l'rics…

Singing: Hmm? …*looks back up* EH? WHO FOUND OUT ABOUT THEIR NAMES? …DENMARK?!

Finland: Uh oh…ahh… The Singing Maiden doesn't own us character, only the plot! Enjoy! Moi Moi! :)

~.~.~.~.~

Chapter XXII: FACE the Battle

"If Vash and Lili can't get infected, I thought Alfred can't get it as well! Some Hero he is Whoa!" Yong Soo jumped back when an ugly giant in rusting armour was summoned up below him. It saw the Korean immediately and went in for the attack, but was quickly killed by Vash's headshot.

"Quit whining and fight!" the Swiss ordered as he and his little sister shot the next summoned up powerful monsters. Kiku tried his best to invade the attacks the monsters threw at him but there were just too much in such a small amount of time! Even if he killed one, another replaced it. And what was worse, Alfred kept on sending his now alive fiery phoenix at his group whenever they got too close to his liking.

"Seriously, Alfred, how in the world can you get infected aru!?" Yao shouted loudly for him to hear, grinding the final herbs into the remedy.

Alfred looked down upon them with a smug look on his face. "Infected? HA!" he laughed. "As if I can get infected! You're the bad guys here! You tried to hurt Mattie and ruin all our fun in this world!"

"As if! And you were in on the plan too!"

Matthew smirked at them. "We're wasting our time," he said. "They wouldn't last long anyway, so we should finish this."

For a second Alfred pouted, but it then turned into a grin. "You're right, Mattie. This is no fun at all if it isn't a challenge." Both of them raised their weapons into the air, causing all the monsters present to charge towards them. The phoenix flew above the summoned monsters, screeching as it made a head dive for the nations.

All would have been lost if there wasn't a last minute intervention. A puff of green smoke appeared between them, stopping the monsters and the phoenix in their tracks. Bottles flew out of the smoke and exploded in the monsters' faces, causing them to shriek and retreat. Once cleared, Arthur burst out from the smoke with Francis, both of them still nearly butt naked as they began to attack left and right, leaving the rest of the nations behind.

Lovino and Antonio threw tomatoes at most of the monsters near them before allowing Ludwig and Feliciano attacking them. Ivan dashed forth with Natalya close behind, smashing and slicing every single monster in their way.

It was totally shocking for everyone else when more nations suddenly appear out of nowhere. Yao was the first to snap out of it after noticing who was with them now. "Ivan, you're awake?"

The Russia turned to the eldest Asian with a smile. "Да, all cured and now on your side. I'm sorry I hurt all of you by the way. Forgive me?"

Everyone but Lili's jaws fell open at his words. Ivan apologizing just made this even weirder. An innocent giggle escaped the Russian's lips before he swung his pipe to the side and whacked an attacking chimera in the face. "Don't worry, I won't hurt any of my comrades again, and I'll prove it by helping everyone. Okay?"

No one replied, nor did Ivan wait for an answer as he continued attacking. Natalya had her brother's back as she threw knives at the monsters, before quickly rushing through them, sometimes slicing more along the way, in order to retrieve them. A large bird suddenly came swooping in towards Yao's group, too startled to counter. Natalya noticed at once and came to their rescue by leaping onto the top of the bird and stabbing it in the brain.

"Stop spacing out and help!" she yelled at them before jumping back to her brother's side. Taking her advice, they all began to attack again.

Not expecting any of this, Matthew growled in frustration. "Why are they here?"

"Beats me. But," Alfred looked down at Arthur, tearing his way throw the swarm of monsters to get to the stairs, "this seems to be a challenge."

Matthew blinked at his American brother's words, watching him blow a high pitch whistle with his two index fingers. The phoenix lifted its head up, spreading its wings out to take flight. Some of the monsters stopped to look up, allowing the nations to take this chance to bring more of them down. The phoenix flew towards Alfred, stopping just in front of him in order to allow the Villain to jump on. The fiery bird screeched once, taking flight again, this time towards where its master was pointing at.

At once, Arthur sensed danger and looked up to see Alfred and the phoenix were flying towards him. After taking out the rest of his surrounding monsters, Arthur took out more bottles of ale and threw them to the phoenix. The American had to laugh at his attempt as all the ale did was adding fuel to the fire when the ale exploded on the phoenix without harm. Cursing, Arthur stepped back, only one bottle left in hand before he twirled it in his palm, allowing it turn into a wand. Wasting no time, Arthur raised it up and shouted 'HOATA!', before getting engulfed by light. He shot out from it instantly and flew towards Alfred, wand in front of him as he yelled, "Double El Water!"

The wand fired out a high pressured jet of water from the very tip and went straight for the aimed targets. Alfred let out a terrified yelp when the water fully hit the phoenix, making it cry from pain. The bird was getting smaller and smaller, slowly lowering to the ground. Alfred yelled in shock for a second, before he snapped his head up when he heard a loud holler of his name.

Quickly bringing Alkaiser up, he defended himself from getting smacked by Arthur's wand from above. But the angel didn't give in; instead he kept on pushing forward until his face was only a few centimetres away from the young nation.

"Out of all the things you can get into…" he growled lowly, his strength steadily increasing, "you just…you just had to get infected, you bloody yank!"

Alfred stared at the British angel, perplexed, before he broke out into a smirk. "Oh, you mad, bro?"

The tease made Arthur's glare stronger, yet Alfred enjoyed it. Both the blonds shoved the other away, before blasting and slashing at each other with occasional magic being thrown at the American. Matthew watched them from below, silent while the fight went on around him. With Alfred's phoenix occupied and new allies to help their current opponents, the nations below could now deal more damages to the army of monsters. Now most of them were paired up to use their combined skills in order to make things quicker. Half the battle field was already cleared, making Matthew irritated and raise his staff into the air, only to have a sharp pain shoot through his arm which making him release the staff. It was taken at once by the attacker before he stepped back, who now studied the used to be timid nation quietly. Matthew, while holding onto his arm, glared at him. "Francis."

Even though he looked silly right now, this was Francis at his strongest and serious moment. Holding his staff, Francis took a step forward, both of them surprised when the Canadian stepped back in fright. "Matthieu?"

Without warning, a swarm of fairies came at him, all shrieking at the Frenchman, intending to leave tiny scratch marks all over his flawless skin. Francis was barely able to dodge, mortified that there were creatures out there who would want to destroy his body so badly and Matthew could still manage to do that without his staff.

Well, at least he didn't summon anymore strong monsters…Francis twirled the staff in his hand before dashing in and summon up his storm of rose petals, a little bit pleased when he heard the shocks from the faeries and the young Canadian. Easily sensing every single tiny creatures present in his rose filled space, he knocked them all down in the hurricane of petals easily before he jumped out and attacked Matthew, by grabbing onto his shoulders and pinning him to the floor.

"Let go!" the young blond struggled against his enemy above him, eyes in raged. Francis tried to hold him still, not wanting to go any further than messing with his hair. But that didn't go so well when Kumajirou came out of nowhere and harshly headbutt into Francis side, knocking him halfway down the stairs. A grunt escaped his lips when he finally stopped, looking up in wonder at how a tiny bear like Kumajirou could likely leave a dark bruise on where he hit.

His question was answered when he saw a nine foot tall polar bear at the top, with Matthew getting onto his back.

There was no time to gawk when Kumajirou jumped off and came flying towards him. Frances was able to dodge again, almost slipping off a step in the process as he got into his fighting stance. The white bear in front of him growled, ready to attack at his master's command. Francis noted that Matthew's staff fell to the bottom of the stairs earlier, so no worries for now.

Both the man and the beast came rushing towards each other and clashed with their legs and fangs. Kicks and bites were delivered as they tried to bring their opponents down. The bear could even shoot out ice beams from his mouth, but only managed to freeze Francis left arm because the Frenchman blocked most of them with his rose petals. For the entire time, Matthew held onto his pet bear's fur tightly, violet eyes hard as he watched Francis fought back.

"For the Love of a Friend!" rose petals once again engulfed the Frenchman along with Kumajirou and Matthew. Francis swiftly stepped away, a hand on his frozen arm as he calculated on when to strike, before Kumajirou suddenly appeared in front of him and snapped his jaws on the man's torso.

"Argh!"

"He can smell you, idiot," Matthew seethed, watching Francis squirm against the bear's hold. There were trickles of too realistic blood drops dripping from the French's body, much to his horror. A cry of pain was heard from above, making both the blonds look up to see someone falling, body alight.

Alfred laughed in glee at how roasted the once proud personification of the United Kingdom was as he hit and rolled down the stairs. Arthur was still alive, fortunately. Although his wings were burnt off; the white robes charred here and there along with his once pale skin. Sitting up was a better option than lying on his back, even if it was a difficult thing to do. The British angel looked up and saw Alfred was still laughing on his phoenix. It sounded horrible, just horrible since it lost its usual obnoxious tune to it. Matthew smirked at the sight, before patting Kumajirou's head to let go of Francis. The bear growled and threw the man down the stairs, knocking Arthur in the process.

The two older nations landed to the bottom of the stairs, grunting as they got tangled their limbs tangled together. "Bloody Hell, Francis, you look horrible!"

Francis gave him a look. "You don't look so fabulous yourself."

Kumajirou bolted down and took his master's staff in his mouth. Matthew jumped off and took back his weapon wordlessly just when Alfred landed beside him. "Let's finish them off!" Alfred crowed, his phoenix and Kumajirou launched into the air at his words. After the nations killed off their current monsters, they all looked up just in time to see what was happening. Both the creatures shot out a strong beam of fire and ice respectively. They were close as one, spiraling against each other as they got closer to the badly wounded elder nations.

"Twin Burst!" The brothers yelled when the two opposing elements met and erupted into a large explosion. It blew everyone away, nations and monsters alike. Some of the monsters weren't lucky and flew right off the platforms and into the oblivion below while the stronger ones kept standing. The nations were keeping a strong hold on the weaker ones or with another to hang on.

After a while, the explosion died down, allowing them to see and hear what was going on. At first they could hear Alfred and Matthew laughing, and if they fought the American's laugh was bad, the Canadian's was even worse. Together, they echoed around the battle field as the brothers seemed to be very amused at how their old caretakers' broken bodies were.

No one moved from the sight, yet their anger boiled greatly. This was enough. They all had enough. Yong Soo unleashed his storm of snow dust, coverinh up the entire battle field before the American brothers could react. Once it was done, most of the nations took this chance to take down the remaining monsters, wanting this to end now.

Taken by surprise for a full minute, Alfred swung forth his blade, commanding his phoenix to clear away the cold dust of snow. The bird screeched once, before taking off into the air and easily turned the snow into water vapour, letting the brothers see what happened.

All the remaining monsters were now littered all over the place as either corpses or as ice statues. And the nations had now gathered at the bottom of the stairs, with Antonio having Francis in his arms while Arthur in Ludwig's. Everyone was looking up in anger at the infected brothers. Out of the two, Alfred was the one most taken aback from the looks on their faces.

"I don't like this Alfred," Ivan murmured simply, yet his eyes shone with malice.

Everyone didn't have to hear that twice. Alfred, who was always obnoxious and babbling about being a hero, had always annoyed them, yet they could tolerate his young enthusiasm on making the world a better place with his out of his mind ideas. Now, he was enjoying the fact he hurt others, laughing in their faces after his actions.

That, and Matthew was enjoying this as much as his brother.

Silently, Ludwig and Antonio placed the heavily wounded nations down on the ground. Lili, Natalya and Yao came up to them, immediately getting to work with healing and patching. While at it, Yao gave Ludwig a large bottle of murky brown liquid.

"Drink it. It will help you aru," he told them before he focused on Arthur's burns. Ludwig quickly took a large gulp of the herbal medicine, cringing at the disgustingly bitter taste of in his mouth before handing the bottle to everyone else.

Before Lovino took a sip, Ivan stopped him. "No, you and your brother should help with healing them."

Feliciano didn't argue, gladly going ahead and hug Arthur tightly. Lovino's jaws fell open but Ivan didn't bother to look as he took a swing of the last few drops of herbal tea, gasping after he was done. Natalya stared at him, waiting for his orders. "Natalya, you should help them."

"Understood."

All the nations that drank the herbal tea stepped forward, ready. Yao just finished patching up Arthur's burns before getting rid of Francis' frostbites. Lovino took out his jars of tomato purée and gave four spoonfuls to Arthur and Francis each. When he was done, he scowled at the Frenchman in front of him, hesitating.

"Oh good God, I hate this skill!" Lovino groaned before giving a quick peck on Francis cheek, healing him only a little when he was done. He was growling, annoyed at how slow this was going to take until he saw a bright glow around the Frenchman. Beside him, Lili was trying to help with her Miraculous Heal, concentrating hard because she knew the older Italian wants it over with already. Natalya helped Feliciano more since his healing was the slowest out of all of them, but after the damage Alfred did on Arthur, it would take a while.

Meanwhile, a few steps up the stairs, Ludwig and Ivan were bashing it out against Alfred. Although the Russian seemed to be having fun with the American, he had to admit with the boost from Yao's herbal medicine and Ludwig with him, it made the fight just a little bit easier. He never thought Virus Zero could corrupt Alfred so badly and possibly made him worse than when he was infected himself.

Further ahead, the young Asian nations, Kiku and Yong Soo, were fighting Kumajirou back while Matthew rode on top of him. They wouldn't let the Canadian have a chance to summon strong monsters and his polar bear couldn't blast another round of ice beams. All they could do were a few swipes or summon a swarm of bats or faeries to keep the Asians back.

At the same time, Ludwig's whip managed to snatch Alfred's blade out of his hand when Young Soo managed to leap close enough to knock Matthew's staff away. Both of them gasped before Antonio suddenly appeared in front of them with Vash, getting out a patch of tomatoes and throwing them at their faces, blinding them. They yelped, busy bringing up their hands to try to get the tomato sauce out of their eyes. Vash scoffed and aimed his gun at Alfred, finger on the trigger –

"STOP!"

Everyone turned back when the outburst resounded around them. Despite the protest Yao and Lili gave them, and their ache from their remaining injures, Arthur and Francis ignored them all as they stood up.

"They're…ours…" they stated, making all the attacking nations back away. By that time, Alfred and Matthew got enough of the tomato sauce out of their eyes to barely able to make out the shapes of Arthur and Francis coming up the stairs.

Alfred groaned. "They're still at it?"

They couldn't see it, but everyone else could. A light glow started to form around the two nations, slowly materializing into human forms with weapons in their hands. Ivan, Ludwig and Antonio saw what was happening and urged everyone down the stairs, fast. Feliciano and Lovino yelped as they recognized the attack. But as the army of materialized human grew, all Alfred and Matthew did was scoff in ignorance.

"Bitch, please, give it a rest already," Alfred yawned. He whistled for his phoenix to get ready while Matthew got off Kumajirou. The older two blonds stopped halfway up towards them, glaring as the two brothers yelled, "Go!"

Both the phoenix and the polar bear launched into the air again, firing their beams of fire and ice respectively together. Both the opposing elemental attacks spiraled against each other as they flew towards their targets. As they got closer, Alfred and Matthew shouted, "Twin Burst!"

"Now! For God's Glory!" the light around them burst forth and went for the two powerful beams. Upon instant contact there was a huge explosion again, this time with a blinding light. Everyone shielded eyes from its intensity, trying to stand their grounds as best as they could. Alfred tried to take a peek at the result from the impact, but he and Matthew were suddenly overwhelmed by the army of light once they got through the eruption.

With nothing to defend them nor anyway to escape, both the brothers got attacked and trampled on. They couldn't even fight back from all the incoming Light Attacks coming from all sides. All the nations watched in awe at how amazing Arthur and Francis combined skill was, totally still until the army started to disperse, revealing two dazed American brothers, barely standing.

Kumajirou groaned as he shrunk back to his normal size, and the phoenix vanished in the air as Arthur and Francis staggered over to them as quick as they could, tired after using up all their strength. They were in front of the two young blonds, finally collapsing into their old caretakers arms. They dropped to their knees, holding onto them tightly as they panted.

"That…took up most of our…energy, but it will have to do," Arthur breathed. Francis nodded, letting himself transforming back into his clothes. Arthur did the same, but instead transformed into his waiter outfit. He glanced at the unconscious brothers' chest, before letting himself smile. "Oh thank God…they're not infected with Virus-I!" Francis let out a small grin, relieved as he and Arthur finally collapsed as well from exhaustion, but still holding onto the two young brothers. The rest of the nations came up and carried them to the bottom of the base, where they were getting treated fully. The corrective patch was set between Alfred and Matthew, its transparent bubble covering them.

Meanwhile, all the healers and supports surveyed the injured from the battle. After getting a good look at everyone, especially Kiku's group from earlier, Lovino scratched the back of his head. "This will take a while to heal."

Yao tapped his chin, thinking until he let out a sigh as he brought out his bag of items. "Just this once," he said as he took out two handfuls of High Quality Healing Potions, Ice and Ethers. He tossed the SP potions at the healers before he started to hand out the rest to the others. Lili and Natalya quickly drank theirs before they rushed to their brothers' side to heal them.

Once Lovino was done with his, he saw Feliciano running over to Ludwig and gave him his warm hug. He was annoyed at first, until there was a slight dreading suspicion at the back of his mind. Slowly turning around to confirm why he felt that way, he was glomped by a pouting Antonio, who's hold on the Italian strong despite the fact he was hurt.

"What now!?" Lovino yelled at him, but he quickly froze when the boss kissed him on the nose, making another white magic circle to appear and disappear in a flash.

After lingering in that position for a while, Antonio pulled back, now in his usual super cheery self. "I feel so much better now!" he grinned from ear to ear. "Next time it's the lips, okay?"

His answer was a slap to the face.

Ludwig watched the scene in disturbance, glad that Feliciano's healing skill was hugging, not kissing.

"Argh…" Yao heard the unconscious older blonds groan as he made them drink herbal medicines and slap bandages on the rest of their wounds. Vash came up beside him, eyebrows cocked up.

"Will they get better?"

"They better," Yao turned to the American brothers once they were cured. "They better be cured too."

Everyone crowded around those two for a moment. Yong Soo poked the Alfred in the cheeks a few times, getting a swat as he turned onto his sides. "Five more minutes…"

"Yep, he's back," everyone turned to the Canadian next when he started to groan in his sleep. Behind them, Kumajirou crawled through their legs and over to his master, sitting down in front of him as he pawed his face.

"Wake up. Wake up."

Matthew groaned again, rolling over. He slowly opened his violet eyes and met Kumajirou's beady ones. "Hmm? Kumasangou? Morning."

"It's not morning," a light slap was given at his face as the Canadian got up. He rubbed his eyes tiredly before he finally noticed everyone else around him. "Eh? What? What happened?"

"You awake. That's good," Ivan nodded. Matthew blinked at him but he was ignored. "Let's rest up after getting all healed up. We'll need it."

"Agreed," Antonio yawned, plopping onto his butt to lie down. "I need a siesta."

"Ve! Let me join you!" Feliciano chirped and bounced over to the Spaniard. Before either Ludwig or Lovino could grab him, an ominous creak was heard by everyone. Turning around, everyone saw the large doors of the dark castle slowly opening, revealing an eerie darkness. From within that darkness, three figures emerged and stopped the top of stairs, staring down at them for a few seconds before they came rushing down like mad men.

"Guys!" Gilbert shouted.

"Get away from him!" Roderich snapped next.

Everyone was too shocked to even move. They couldn't see who they were but could hear the horrified cries they gave. As they got closer, however, they could see them, yet become even more shocked than before.

"Ki…KIKU?" someone finally gasped.

Before the three reached them, the next thing they knew was that Ludwig and Antonio suddenly pushed the Vargas brothers aside when two Dark Magic circles appeared where they once stood. Vash and Ivan caught them on time just when Ludwig and Antonio got trapped within them by a suddenly formed dark barriers, lifting them a foot up into the air. Everyone stepped back in horror, while Roderich and Gilbert rushed passed them, gritting their teeth once they realized they were too late. Ivan and Vash pushed the Italians behind them, glaring at the figure between the hostages.

"I can't believe that I didn't notice," Ivan growled lowly as he lifted up his pipe and turned it into the scythe. "I was too careless, he masked it too well."

Before he could make a single move, a snapped of the fingers made strong jolts of pain run up Ludwig' and Antonio's body. Ivan stepped back, not daring to move. As the 'undercover nation' snickered, his dark Japanese clothes slowly dissolved into a white uniform, too pristine to match his evil intentions. "Now, now," he said in amusement once he stopped hurting his captives. "Let's not be too hasty," Error smirked as his eyes glowed an ominous red. "Shall we?"

~.~.~.~.~

Denmark: OH MY GOD! Holy fucka molly! 0_0

Sweden: D'n't swe'r.

Finland: I…did not see that happening o.o

Mr Puffin: I did!

Iceland+Norway: Shut up, Puffin.

Fortune: When did he get here? O.o

Singing: *smug* And this is what you get, dearest readers. Another huge plot twist that was hidden away for the past five months, with a pinch of cliffhanger. You must be surprised, no? After all, no one saw this happening.

Fortune: But me, you told me about it.

Singing: Yes, well…you're busy most of the time! And you forgot the bigger plot twist, didn't you?

Denmark: Oh! Tell me tell me!

Singing: …Um…the…Nordic Five are having a combined skill in the story but only if the readers want it by how much they love this.

Denmark: Cool! Come one, fans, review time!

Singing: …*whispers* That was close…

Anyway, still need more skills and combos for nations! Just go to my LJ account (my account name is on my FF profile) and leave a comment on what you like as an idea or see who else needs skills! Also, remember, I have a tumblr account…but tell me which one you want to follow (if you want to at all), my personal life one, or my fanfic one? Depending on which one, I might not use my fanfic one as much except for FF updates and news that affects my writing =X

Welp, I'll update the next fanfic depending which had more demand. Now I will enjoy the rest of my vacation~ :3

thesingingmaiden , tumblr , com /post/42680380458/happy-chinese-new-year-heres-romaheta-chapter-xxii