Delilah

Turbulence.

She felt pressure on her face. Wind. Violent wind. Pellets of hail.

She couldn’t see.

She was grasping for the controls. “Marco!” she screamed.

Her world was spinning wildly. The swooshing sound of the helicopter blades mixed with the roar of thunder and raging wind rendered her screams inaudible. The aircraft had lost all power. They were going down.

“Mayday! Mayday!” she screamed. The sound of shattering glass was louder. Blocks of hail pounding against the windows, against the sides, against the blades.

She stretched her hand out next to her. She found him. She found Marco’s hand. She seized it, hoping to communicate in one final, desperate squeeze of the hand everything she had never had the courage to communicate aloud. She loved him.

Marco squeezed back, and she knew he loved her too.

An explosion. A surge of panic. A wave of fear. A sudden blast of blue, sparkling light.

And then blood. Blood everywhere. And the smell of burning flesh.

“MARCO!” Lithuania screamed, waking with a start. She was bathed in sweat, her chest heaving up and down as if she had actually just run a marathon for her life. She looked around, disoriented. It was a dream. It was just a dream. Oh thank God, it was just a dream.

But then… Lithuania noticed a faint, bluish glow emanating from her skin. Magical blue specks, rising off her like insects in the wind. Had she just…?

She rose to her feet. She was exactly where they had set up camp, within a small patch that had at some point in the past been cleared within the briar bush—but she was alone.

“Latvia?” Lithuania called into the darkness. “Estonia?” All was silent. She could hear her own breathing, slowing from the panic in which she had awoken to the tense anxiety she was in now. “Felix? Winfry, Isa any of you there?”

She reached for her flashlight, which she had left right next to her before going to sleep. It was gone. 

“Something interesting is happening,” came a voice. Lithuania whirled around, reaching instinctively for her gun holster. “Don’t be startled,” said the smoke woman, emerging slowly from the darkness of the briar bush. “I mean you no harm.”

“Where’s Timoteo?” Lithuania barked, whipping out her pistol and pointing it fixedly at the smoke woman’s face.

“Timo who?” said the woman, looking pleasantly confused. She chuckled. “I’m afraid we’ve never met before,” she said, perfectly oblivious of the gun pointed at her face. “What with our grand revelation and now the war, I’ve been having a slightly more difficult time keeping track of everyone who comes in and out of these parts…”

“Where are my friends?” Lithuania said angrily.

“So you brought more along with you, did you?” The woman looked surprised. “All I had any luck finding were corpses. Quite charred, at that.” Lithuania cocked her gun. She wasn’t going to tolerate any games. The smoke-woman laughed, heartily this time. “Clearly… Clearly you’re not from around here. Pointing a gun at me…. HA!” She outstretched her arm, and the pistol wrenched itself swiftly from Lithuania’s grasp and flew straight into hers.

Lithuania’s heart skipped a beat. “Who the hell are you?” she asked, her confidence faltering.

“They call me Delilah. Pleasure,” the smoke-woman said with false sweetness. “Now… you wouldn’t happen to be LithAnne Starr, would you?”

“Lithuania. Lithuania Starr. Officer of th—”

“Ah, Lithuania, is it? How amusing, the small differences… I see your name hasn’t significantly affected any path you’ve chosen to take in life…” Lithuania felt thoroughly confused. “But anyway… So, Lithuania. I believe you’ve come here to fetch something you lost, am I right?”

Lithuania only stared at Delilah, waiting for a clarification that was not coming. “I haven’t… lost…”

“Look around you Lithuania!” said Delilah, apparently relishing Lithuania’s ignorance. “This is not your world. Didn’t you see your skin—” Delilah shot a burst of black smoke from her fingertips at Lithuania, but the smoke just bounced off Lithuania’s skin, releasing the familiar burst of magical blue specks.

Lithuania rubbed her arm, startled by its sudden blue glow. “What the—”

Delilah burst into hysterical laughter. “This really is too much! You’re not going to tell me you don’t even have control over your—” She pursed her lips suddenly, aware that she must watch her words. “Well then, let me just tell you this. You know how you have this little… ability? Well you’ve just used it, and you’re not in your world. However, I think I know what’s brought you here.” Delilah clapped her hands just once, and in a burst of smoke, a man appeared on the floor, unconscious, wearing the uniform of the Foggistani Helo-Fleet.

 “Marco!” Lithuania cried, forgetting the world around her and rushing to his side. “Marco, wake up! It’s me…” She held his face in her hands and patted his cheeks gently. “Marco…”

He came to, slowly. Groggily. “Lith—Lithuania?” he mumbled. “Izzat you…?”

A wave of warmth, of stirred emotions, of relief mixed with happiness mixed with hope mixed with love—Lithuania felt like static was rushing up and down her bloodstream. It was him. It was really him. He was here. She wasn’t crazy. She had found him after all. “Lithuania…” said Marco, trying to focus on her face through the darkness. “Izzat really you…” he stroked her cheek, tenderly, squinting. “I thought you were… Oh God, I thought I’d lost you…”

Lithuania squeezed Marco’s hand, tenderly. She looked up, suddenly overcome with the urge to thank the smoke woman even though she believed her to be a villain. “Don’t thank me,” Delilah anticipated. “I know how these things work… and let’s just say… it’s uncomfortable for my world to house someone from your world for very long.” She winked. “Now, you both best be on your way, yes? Let me give you a hand.” She clapped her hands together, and a burst of black smoke suddenly enveloped Lithuania. Immediately, almost like an allergic reaction, Lithuania’s skin became bright blue—glowed brighter, brighter, brighter—an explosion of blue light and sparks—

And they were home.

Back in their proper world. Marco and Lithuania found themselves in the small clearing within the briar bush, with everyone else around them. Latvia, Estonia, Felix, Winfry and Isa, all there, all sound asleep. As if nothing had happened.

“Marco…” Lithuania whispered, tenderly. She held his head close to her chest as he finished coming to.

“What—Where are we?” he asked, dazed.

Lithuania smiled, giving his hand a warm squeeze. “Exactly where we’re supposed to be…” she said softly. She knew he knew what she meant. Or at least she knew he’d know, as soon as he woke up properly.

They were together.

And for the moment, that was all that mattered.