The personifications in Human Curiosity are fantastical beings that for some reason were never researched. Part of that reason was that they were kept secret on a global scale. Another reason was that the personifications were subconsciously encouraging those who did know the secret, not to look.

But what if personifications weren't fantastical beings? What if they were man-made creations that had outlasted an ancient civilization from before the stone age? From an age long forgotten. Or rather, deliberately forgotten...

Welcome to the Hetalia-ECD version of Human Curiosity.

It had been ten years since the initial abductions and the benefits were quickly becoming obvious. Cellular regeneration, even limb regeneration… If they could figure out how the world did that, then they could develop new technology that would benefit mankind. Think of the lives they could save with that kind of technology, lives they could change, renew! It could be… magnificent.

And they were learning so much. Yes, the personifications were resistant to talking, but there was so much history and knowledge locked away inside their heads too. The things they could learn, truths long forgotten if they would just talk…

The current leader of the HCS had finally reached his home, unlocking the door and throwing it wide open. He entered and looked down the darkened hallway. Just as he remembered it. Sure, the apartments built near their facilities were nice, but there was something about coming home that just helped him relax and take away the stress of dealing with... unsavory characters.

He just had to keep reminding himself that this was for the benefit of mankind. Think about the new technology they could gain. People could regain their limbs, perhaps they could even learn how to stop awful degenerative diseases and... Yes. This was definitely for the best. All those people the HCS could help... They just... They just had to pay-off their investors and then everything would be fine and they could focus on doing just good...

He hung up his coat and hat, took off his shoes and headed towards the living room…

… There was a woman in his living room. He could just about make out her silhouetted shape in the dark.

"Dear Herr Führer, the hour is late. Where have you been?" she asked. Outside, the clouds parted and the moon could shine brightly once more. He could see her slightly better, a white outline where her hair was. It made her look like she was glowing in the dark. He continued to stare. His fingers twitched for the phone in his backpocket…

"Go ahead. Take out your phone, call the police," she dared him. Her German accent was strong. With hesitance, he took the phone out and flipped it open. No signal.

"Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. You are alone. With me," she told him, turning on the light. The first thing he noticed was the gun pointed at him. Then… her eyes. Her hair. Her face. She looked so familiar…

"Sit," she instructed him, pointing to the armchair opposite her. He did so. With every step he took, the fear wore off. There was no question about it, she had to be one of them. But she matched none of their descriptions. He couldn't place her at all. She had to be one of the Germanic nations, but... there was only one Germanic female personification and they had her in their custody... Or were there more out there? If that was so, then they must have only scratched the surface of this conspiracy. This could be very, very bad...

"You're clever," she told him. "I have dealt with many kidnappings over the years, but you are the first to not only steal almost all of them… But then you avoided me for ten years. It's got to be a record. You and your little secret society were not easy to locate."

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"The name is Julia Schmidt. Friends call me Julchen."

"Your real name. You're one of them," he spat. "What do they call you?" he demanded. She smirked.

"What's with the hate, Herr Führer? I thought you loved them. All you want is to know all about them and keep them close..."

"Stop calling me that."

"What? Herr Führer?" He nodded. "I think it suits you."

She was provoking him. He had to focus. He had to get answers out of her. He mustn't get distracted by her sneers and insults.

"What is your real name?!" he snapped.

"I told you. It's Julia Schmidt. I have no other name." He glared and her smile became cat-like. "If it hadn't been for bad luck, I suppose my 'real' name would have been Prussia. But I was unlucky, so that didn't happen. My name is Julia Schmidt," she insisted.

"You're Prussia?"

"I just said I'm not. I could have been, but I'm not," she tiredly repeated, smile fading.

"You're not making sense."

"I'm making perfect sense. You just don't have all the facts," she told him.

"Why are you here?" he asked, changing topics.

"Wouldn't you like to know..." she replied in a low pitch. She suddenly threw the gun away. "It's a replica. Couldn't shoot you with it, even if I wanted to." For some reason, that didn't put him at ease.

"What do you want?"

"Me? I want to lie on an exotic beach somewhere with a margarita and some hot dudes in speedos. But I'm here. With you. In the mountains. So we're both not getting what we wanted."

"Are you going to kill me?" he asked. She gave him a long look and he could see an intense hatred of him in her eyes. She had the look of a killer too, thinly disguised by her jokes and snarky remarks. "I'm not the only one out there. Kill me and..." he continued.

"What? Three will grow back? You're not Hydra, you dork," Julia calmly responded. "You read too many comics. But I'm glad you brought up the others in your little club." She leaned forwards. "You, Herr Führer, have upset the Monitors. Considering that they're emotionless creatures, that's pretty damn impressive. So congrats. You're probably the first human to upset them in centuries."

"Monitors?"

"Yes. As we speak, they have created an army with the mission to wipe out the entirety of the HCS. Wipe them away from history. They're killing everyone."

"What...?"

"I had to beg Monitor 5 to let me be the one to take care of you. I knew a thoughtless machine would just kill you without telling you anything. This way is much more fun."

"You're killing everyone?!"

"Oh yes. See, the Monitors want to forget about a nasty incident that happened about five thousand, maybe six thousand years ago. But if humans start looking, start prodding and asking inconvenient questions... Well. That incident won't stay dead and buried for long, will it? You know, it's one thing kidnapping all the, heh, personifications, but you getting close to uncovering some uncomfortable truths? I've got to be honest, that's what really got up their noses."

She was going to kill him. She had essentially just told him that she was going to kill him. She had even gotten permission from some powerful being to do so. He felt pale. Weak. And... kind of tired? Wait. He had missed something.

"Why did you laugh when you said personifications? What's so funny?" he demanded.

"You really think they personify nations? Are you kidding me?" Julia asked. "When was the last time you saw a German albino? Or do you think all Prussians had white hair? Or how about Spain? England? Switzerland? I know, green is such a common eye colour, right?" She paused, then spat out "Grow up."

"Then... What are they...?"

"Guardians. We don't personify anything. We're designed to look appealing to the nation we're responsible for, but... we don't personify it."

"What's a guardian?"

"What you call a personification. We're supposed to protect our people, but considering the amount of murders that occur on a daily basis... Eh. I would say that function has been corrupted over time. We're also supposed to guide mankind towards a better future, but... Eh. We have human bosses. We have about as much guiding power as a thimble. So that function is also corrupted. Actually, most of our functions are corrupted, but what can you do, right? I mean... We do run on some very old technology. It's to be expected."

"What... What...?"

"We're machines, goofus. Well. Kind of. It's complicated. Ever heard of the concept half machine and half human?"

"Cyborgs... of course..." His voice felt strange. Rougher, deeper somehow...

"No. We're not cyborgs. We work on a different concept. Fully machine and fully man. At the same time."

"That's... not possible."

"The maths backs it up," she replied, shrugging. "I checked."

"But... Who...?"

"That, Herr Führer, ties into a long backstory that the Monitors want forgotten. Just know, we predate you and how dare you think we're just your personal toys to break."

His head was spinning... Or... He was kind of sleepy... but...?

"Started feeling sleepy, Herr Führer?" Julia asked. He looked at her, confused. "You're dying," she told him. "Talking to you is not just for my entertainment. It's also to stop you noticing you're insides aging. Rapidly. You're about to die of old age."

He stared. And he stared some more.

"You think a civilization that can make things like me can't make nanomachines? Knows how to slow down age to nigh infinite life, but not how to quicken it? I've been using my nanomachines, which by the way are usually responsible for keeping me youthful and healthy and hot as hell, to age you from the inside. Give you a natural death."

"Why? This is... almost merciful..." he asked.

"Oh? You thought you would have a long, painful death?" Julia asked. He tried to summon up the energy to nod, but he was just... so tired... "Well, I'm here to tell you that yes. I hate you. Yes, I want you dead. But I'm here to waste time. Because you are not worth my time. You are not a big villain that needs to be defeated. You don't deserve my revenge. You are not worth my anger. You're nothing. Just a human with ideas too big for his head. No one will mourn you. No one will remember you. No one will care that you ever lived. It will be like you never existed at all. Your life was meaningless and changed nothing."

He sank into the armchair, eyes slowly closing as he felt something akin to horror and grief.

"You're so insignificant that tomorrow won't even be the 31st of December. It won't be 2021. It will be the 11th of August. 2011. You and your secret society, will have never happened. So die now, Herr Führer. Die, knowing that you and everything you ever did, ever loved... were worthless."

The leader of the HCS wanted to stay awake, but... he could feel it. His desire to live was weakening, as his organs settled and readied for terminal sleep... He felt so old, like he had lived a lifetime... It was already too late. He couldn't escape her.

He eyes were even beginning to lose focus, as death crept ever closer.

Despite what Julia had done though, she had failed in one respect.

She was right. He loved personifications. And here he was, looking at one that no one else knew about. And she was damn beautiful.

As his eyes closed, his lips were too weak to smile, but he felt content with the last face he would ever see.

England wasn't sure what was going on. He knew he had been drugged for one of their tortures they dared to call an operation, but... Then they had suddenly disappeared. And he had now been lying on this table for what may have been hours. He could even feel his strength coming back. He had to get out.

His limbs still felt heavy, but he was determined. He was the bloody United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nothern Ireland and he would be damned if he... Couldn't...

He moved right off the table and crashed into the floor, knocking over half the equipment on his way down. His ears could barely pick up the sound and everything was spinning. Distantly, he heard someone say "What was that?" It almost sounded like a whisper.

He had to get to his feet. Run. One chance. He crawled along the floor, until he reached the door, where he grabbed desperately at the handle. He summoned as much strength as he could and hauled himself to his feet. He could do this. With the wall for support, he could make his way down the corridors and... then what? Escape? How? They had to already know he was out...

He couldn't stop trying. Nothing was over until the fat lady sings and all that. As he moved, he came across no one. At first. He shuffled along the floor, to the end of the hallway, where he ran into... Androids? Had he been missing for that long? And...

Was that Japan? He was dressed in some kind of combat outfit. It was black. It looked advanced too. But... wasn't Japan one of the prisoners?

"Japan?" he weakly called. His voice sounded hoarse. Japan's head turned sharply to him, eyes narrowed.

"I'm not Japan," he stated as he began walking over to England. One of the androids followed him.

"Japan!" England repeated, openly happy. It had been so long since he had seen a familiar face and...

"Do not call me that!" Japan snapped, grabbing England roughly and pulling him away from the wall. England's drugged state could just make out that Japan's eyes... they were red. Well, that wasn't right. Not to mention... was he taller? He was looking down at England. Was he taller than him now...?

"England, sleep," the not-Japan instructed and something about the way he said sleep... It made him...

England fell over, into Kuro's arms. Sleep-mode. Inconvenient, but Kuro was not as fine-tuned to the inner-workings of Guardians as Julia. He was better at the rough things now. Like overseeing the transport of the prisoners to Home. And not home as in their own homes, but their collective origin point. The place where they had all been conceptualised, created and tested. The HCS victims needed a psych evaluation, before being placed back in the world.

To think, the Monitors were going to change everything back to the 11th of August, 2011. That sucked. Kuro would have to wait another ten years for his voice-controlled smartphone. And he really liked it too. It took some really great photos.

Damn.

His photos would be deleted too.

This sucked even more now.

He handed England over to the android tailing him. The machines had likely missed England, due to the Brit being drugged. That was frustrating. Kuro really didn't want to interact with any of... Well. He watched an android escort one of the nations out of the building. Yes. Kuro really didn't want to talk to them.

"Make sure their minds are offline. Don't just assume so because they're drugged, or I have to deal with the mess," he snarled at the android holding England. Naturally, it wasn't responsive. A quiet ping noise confirmed that it had added the order to its list. A series of more pings across the building confirmed that all other androids had received the order too. Kuro then leaned against the wall. This. This was more uncomfortable for him than he expected.

All the personifications that the HCS had captured were unlikely to pass psych evaluation. They would be replaced by a version of themselves that never went through the trauma. Like all this had never happened. And that... That wasn't fair.

He was feeling... conflicted. Usually, he didn't care. He usually didn't care. But this hit too close to home for him, considering he had been replaced because he had failed the psych evaluation and...

An android passed, followed by a dormant Japan. Him. The replacement.

Kuro felt his insides churn in disgust. That Japan was off for psych evaluation. That Japan would probably fail his psych evaluation. He would be replaced by another Japan and the one with the HCS experiences taken offline, as if he had never existed... the memories of this place removed...

Kuro walked away. No. That Japan was not him. Well, it was him, they both had the same mind and were identical to each other in that way, but Kuro was the only living Guardian to have ever had a nuclear bomb dropped on his head. The only one to experience nuclear fall-out first-hand. None of the others knew. There were less and less humans with living memory of the event.

In twenty, thirty years, Kuro would be the last person to know what a nuclear explosion was like from ground zero. And that experience was not comparable to... this.

He kept walking. Quicker.

Besides. Julchen would never let him live it down if he saved a copy of himself. She would say "Wow, I always knew you were self-centred, but this is taking it a bit far, don't ya think?" She was annoying, like that. And what about Felicia? What would she say? "Why didn't you save anyone else? Why not Prussia? Or France? Or... Italy?"

Another reason why he couldn't do anything to stop... this. He would have to choose someone. He couldn't save everyone, it had to be one, because that was the only number he knew he could hide from the Monitors. And once they found out (they always found out), he would have to justify to the Monitors why that perosn had to be saved. He had to bargain with them and justify keeping someone alive...

Just one.

Someone should remember this.

This... This was horrible. This shouldn't be forgotten.

He stopped walking.

Wasn't that why the Monitors had saved him?

Kuro had failed psych evaluation. PTSD. Irrational hatred towards Americans. He had been a danger to mankind and fellow nations. The Monitors knew Kuro had to be replaced. But when it was time for his deactivation, to have his memories wiped and him recycled... The Monitors, the heartless unfeeling monstrosities, couldn't. They could empathise with his pain and anger and even hatred. They had related to all of it. Seen themselves in his shoes. Had been in his shoes. Kuro's experience had been too similar to theirs for their own comfort.

And there was his justification.

The HCS experience was too similar to Kuro's own all those years ago, back when he had still called himself Japan.

But now, he was better. And he now had the opportunity to save someone who would also fail psych evaluation.

Someone in this awful mess could be spared.

But who should he choose? Who... of all the hundreds of nations here... should be saved?

America woke up. He'd had a nightmare, but he couldn't quite remember it. He sat up. Something about loneliness? Desperation? Weird... He looked at his phone. It was the 11th of August. 2011. That seemed... wrong. Everything seemed... wrong. It was summer outside.

Hadn't it been... winter? Yesterday?

He got up, swinging his legs over the bed and... why did getting up feel so unfamiliar to him?

It's not like he had been in bed for months.

He got up and quickly found his feet again. He felt tired. Like he had overslept.

Again, weird. Oversleeping didn't usually make him tired...

Everything really did feel wrong, but he just couldn't place why.

He went about his usual morning routine, turned the TV on and flipped through some channels. Same as always. For some reason, he got a sense of deja-vu.

He reached for his phone and... it felt strange in his hands. No familiarity. It took him a moment to figure out how to use it... But hadn't he just used it yesterday...?

He flipped it open. For some reason, he had an overwhelming urge to... call people. Just chat. Despite there having just been a World Meeting a few days ago. Seriously... it was like everything had been... shifted. Somehow.

He dialled Canada's number. It took a while, but Canada picked up. For some reason, it made America's breath hitch and a sense of relief overcame him. Why? He had literally just seen his brother yesterday, right?

"What is it?" Canada asked. "Is it about the notes from the World Meeting? I already gave you a copy yesterday..."

"N-no, nothing like that! Just... just wanted to talk!" America replied. Seriously, what the heckles? Why was he so happy? "Just... Just wanted to chat. Is all."

Canada sighed. It didn't sound nearly as annoyed as it should have.

"Ok," he said.

They chatted for a while. When it was over, America still wanted to call more people. So he called England. Then France. Then Japan. He called a lot of people, actually. Everyone on his list. He even called Russia. And for some reason, hearing their voices reassured him. Comforted him.

Was it the nightmares fault? But nightmares never bothered him for more than a few minutes nowadays...? Maybe... maybe that day, the eleventh of August... Maybe that was just a very, very strange day. Maybe.

On a beach somewhere hot and exotic, Julia lay on the beach, sipping a margarita. In the distance she could hear Kuro chasing angrily after the HCS victim he had chosen to save. Felicia was also nearby, somewhere, probably in the trees climbing around like a monkey.

Julia didn't care. She felt at peace now. Away from the world and its issues. Away from people and wars and battles and daily life.

She finally had what she wanted.

She was lying on an exotic beach, a margarita in her hand, while nearby her band of misfits were up to their usual shenanigans. It was a far cry from her first few decades fully alone.

She was happy and content.

She looked up at the sun and wondered if perhaps she should work harder and try to prevent things like the HCS ever coming into existence again. Then she laughed to herself. Nah. That was what they had Monitors for.

She rolled onto her stomach and started the tan on her back. No, all Julia needed was the sun, the drinks and her patchwork family. And that was it. She cared for no one but the people at this beach and that was all she would ever look out for.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeell, she would keep a better eye on Germany and Prussia though.

After all, they were family.

Hetalia-ECD (ECD standing for Extreme Canon Divergence) is basically an explanation for how our beloved personifications can have a sci-fi background instead of a fantasy/mythic background. There are two hetagames (No Windows and End of Days) that go into detail about this concept. Since it's canon-divergent, the personifications are naturally unaware of their origins, which is how the actual canon is still canon to Hetalia-ECD.

I recently wondered what would happen if I crossed Human Curiosity with Hetalia-ECD. What resulted is a shorter version of the Human Curiosity story, because... well. If the personifications actually have overseers (the Monitors), it's gonna be a lot harder to not only kidnap them, but keep them hidden!

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!