Description: France witnessing the horrors of the guillotine for the first time with Robespierre
Characters: France, Maximilien Robespierre
Notes/Warnings: murder by guillotine, might seem like a textbook at times, but it's to help me understand this whole "French Revolution/Reign of Terror" stuff, blatant use of quotes by Robespierre, really short

France stands on the balcony, the cries of his people reaching his ears at a deafening pitch.

Assassiner, Assassiner, Assassiner

France can't get the sounds out of his head. The bloodlust. The pain.

He grips the ledge in front of him, suddenly dizzy.

"Isn't this a momentous sight, Française?" This man- no, he couldn't even be called a man anymore- asks.

"You are killing my people." He says simply, cringing as the guillotine falls once more; blood splatters a few people close to the stage, and the crowds cheer.

"I am merely getting rid of the traitors of the country! Is that not what the Committee of Public Safety appointed me to do? When we took over, it was for the country! I killed Louis XVI and that awful wife of his, Marie Antoinette, and now we are free! Isn't this what they wanted? What you wanted?" The monster sweeps his arm to the plaza below, smiling broadly.

"I wanted my people to be safe, not murdered because ofsuspicions! They appointed you to get rid of the traitors, those who wanted to keep the monarchy, but they did not ask for a bloodbath, Robespierre." He grinds out, glaring. This- he couldn't have asked for this. No man would be mad enough to want this…except him.

He was the cause of all of this…this horror.

"No one asked for this. All you bring is destruction and terror upon us all!" He finally lashes out, almost hitting him, when he remembers who the monster before him is; he draws his hand back.

The monster grins. "Terror is nothing other than justice: prompt, severe, inflexible."

"Justice can be delivered without pain, without death! Why must you kill thousands of innocent people because of your paranoia?"

"Softness to traitors will destroy us all, Française. You of all people should know that." Another smug grin.

"You've gone mad."

The guillotine falls; another cry for death.

Assassiner is French for "kill" (at least that's what Yahoo!Answers told me, I don't actually know French)