Matthew Williams walked down the small path behind his parliament leading to the cat sanctuary. The cats mewled as he set down the open can of tuna. He smiled sadly as the felines ate the fish. "Hey Mattie! You ready to go?" his obnoxiously loud twin brother, Alfred F. Jones, called. The younger sighed and called back;

"Yea, Al. One sec." he picked up the now empty tuna can and walked to where his brother was standing.

A few hours later the brothers were on a train going from Ottawa to Quebec City. About fifteen minute into the trip, Alfred fell asleep, leaving Matthew alone with his thoughts. The year was 1980. The month was May. The date; the 20th. This month the world conference was being held in Québec city. Because of this, Alfred had gone up north to his brother's capital a week before the conference so he could spend time with his twin and then the two could go to the French-Canadian province together. Matthew stared blankly out the window, barely taking in the landscape, simply thinking.

You see Matthew and Alfred weren't your average twins. That was most obvious by the fact that they have different last names. Also, the two young men looked to be about 24 or so but in truth they were born in the 1600's. Yes, these boys were very special indeed. The truth was these boys weren't even technically human. They were a species of Superhuman know as "Nationelles" or "Nations". Each Nation embodied a country or micro-nation of the world. Every six months the embodiments would go to a big conference and talk about any economic or climate problems they might have as well as trade and such. Or at least they were supposed to. Mostly there was about two minutes of real discussion then a lot of yelling and bickering and getting off topic for about five minute then the embodiment of Germany would yell at everyone to stop acting stupid. Then they would get back on topic for about three hours until lunch. Alfred was the representative of the United States of America, though most people shortened it to just America. Matthew was the representative of Canada, but most people shortened it to "Who?"

You see, Matthew wasn't the most memorable guy. In fact, sometimes he was completely invisible. Other times people mistook him for Alfred and Matthew would get beat up by people who were mad at Alfred. Mostly he was invisible and forgotten. Matthew had a pet polar bear named Kumajiro, who could never even remember his owner's name. Mind you, Matthew always messed up the bear's name, changing the second part of the bear's name constantly. Kumajiro was currently asleep on Matthew's lap.

Of every nation in the world, there was only ever one who never forgot Matthew or mixed him up with his brother, other than himself of course. One person who not only remembered Matthew, but actually cared about him. Sure his brother and fathers cared about him and stuff, but they also forgot who he was half the time. There was only one person who never forgot him. His boyfriend, Gilbert Beilschmidt. A single tear rolled down Matthew's face.

Gilbert was the embodiment of the kingdom of Prussia, despite it being dissolved. In modern day he represented East Germany, but everyone still calls him Prussia. Several more tears slid down Matthew's cheek. As mentioned earlier, the year is 1980, which meant the world was in the middle of the cold war. Which meant eastern Germany was under Russian control. Which meant Gilbert had been kidnapped by the embodiment of Russia. "35 years." Matthew whispered to himself. "35 years." That was about how long it had been since Matthew had seen his lover.

Matthew was very lonely.

Sure, for a nation 35 years isn't that long, but still. Matthew really missed Gilbert. He missed Gilbert claiming to be awesome. He missed Gilbert yelling when people forgot Matthew. He missed Gilbert complaining about being shoved in the "kiddy room", which is what he called the room where the micro-nations were placed during the world conference. He even missed Gilbert randomly coming into his house at two AM, drunk and demanding pancake. The bottom line was; Matthew missed Gilbert a lot.

The train stopped in Quebec City and the twins got off. They very soon found the man holding a sign with their names on it, who was the driver of the taxi Matthew had call ahead of time to order. Soon the twins were in the cab, and on their way to the hotel they would be staying in, which was only about ten minutes from the train station. About two or three minute into the trip, the driver stopped the car.

"Hey! Why are we stopped?" Alfred yelled, annoyed.

"Sorry, buddy. Traffic's really backed up. Something about some people wanting Québec to separate from the rest of Canada. Stupid, eh?" replied the driver, he luckily spoke English. Matthew sat up in his seat.

"What? Really?" he asked inquisitively.

"Yea, they're holding rallies and delaying traffic. It's really stupid if you ask me." Matthew had to check this out.

"I'm really sorry, but I'll be getting off here. Al, here is some money to pay the cabbie when you get to the hotel. I'll see you in a few hours. Take Kumasami to my room for me please." He said, tossing a Canadian hundred at his brother before getting out of the car. He mingled his way through the cars and made his way to the sidewalk. Then he waded through the crowd to see what was happening. Sure enough, standing outside the legislative assembly, were about 30 people walking around with signs. Suddenly, Matthew chest felt really tight. It felt like apart of his body was trying to separate it's self from the rest. 'What is happening?' he thought to himself. 'Is this rally really having an adverse affect on me?' he felt like he couldn't breath. He had to get out of there. Matthew ducked around a corner and began running from the scene. And ran. And ran. He continued to run for who knows how long, until he stopped. When he stopped, he was thoroughly exhausted. He looked around to see where he was. He was at the bottom of the funicular. Now, I can't tell you what happened that day, but something in his heart told him he had to get on that machine. So he did.

Once he got on the funicular, whatever was gripping in his chest just went away. Matthew looked around. There was only one other person on the funicular. A little girl, no older than a year old. She was sitting in the corner, playing with lace on one of her sleeves. She was wearing a white nightgown, with a high collar and long sleeves. Around each of her wrists was a ribbon. On her left, a red ribbon. On her right, a blue ribbon. Around her throat was a purple ribbon. She had straight, light blond hair, which reached her chin, and Red-Violet eyes. What was the most shocking about the little girl was the strange loopy curl sticking out of the left side of her hair. It was exactly the same as Matthew's own.

"Are you lost, little girl?" he finally asked her. She looked up at him.

"No. I'm just waiting." she looked him straight in the eyes, and smiled. She had a very thick Québécois accent.

"Waiting?" he replied curiously.

"Yes. The spirits said if I wait here, someone will come and take me to where I belong."

"To where you belong?"

"Yes. To where the countries meet and I become myself." She replied with wisdom beyond her years.Matthew's eyes widened.

"What's your name?"

"I am called Québec." She replied brightly.