Selfless

A/N: This story was originally written to win a contest on deviantart. I've been reluctant to post it due to the dark subject matter, but the urging of a friend has convinced me to post it. I don't intend to offend. If you're looking to be offended, welcome. If you're looking to see a serious character study, I hope this is what you're looking for. Please remember to review after reading the notes.

Warning: OOCness, dark!fic, psychological voodoo, the Philippine-American War, and description of atrocities.

Disclaimer: I do not own Axis Powers Hetalia. I am also not a military tactician. Really all the things that are mine is the writing and the interpretation of Iran.

Iran would never call herself selfish. She was selfless, but there were people who got in the way of her selflessness, those who believed she was being selfish and playing a double game. She scoffed at these fools and carried on her merry way, continuing her selfless acts; supporting darling Palestine and her Shiite brothers in their struggle against the uncouth souls who oppressed them.

Iran truly was selfless, in her mind. Yet America was a selfish boy. He took advantage of her selfless nature and harmed her for his own gain. To her, he was the most selfish man on earth.

"Alfred, what are you looking at?"

It was 1899. He had known her for six years, a very short time in those days when getting between their homes meant many days of travel and communication wasn't much better, and yet…

They had something, at least America thought so. Something special, something that made him blush each time she smiled at him, something that had him spending hours at her house just to be around her. But it was fragile thanks to Iran's periodic implication he should help her limit Britain and Russia's role in her affairs.

He looked up at her. He had all but monopolized her kitchen table with a large map of the Philippines and documentation. "Just some things for the war…" he mumbled quietly. "You need to use it? I could just spread it out over my bed but the light in here's better, you know? It's dark as a cave in my room!" his voice rose in speed and volume. "N-Not that I hate my room, I love my room! It's great and you did a great job with the interior; it's all awesome and pretty and stuff! Yeah!" He looked at her, hoping to see some acceptance and understanding in her eyes.

She just raised her eyebrow, an amused smirk playing across her lips, as she sauntered towards him and glanced over the map, her hand resting on his shoulder. He decided he would never wash that shoulder again. "I'm certain you do. What are you having trouble with?" she asked.

"N-nothing you need to worry about Shirin… It's just a conquest." He reached over to cover the map, grinning a little embarrassedly as he realized just how bad it looked.

"A conquest of what sort?" Iran's eyes shined amusedly. America truly was adorable. Britain did have some form of a brain in his head, if his continual rants during the centuries preceding America's independence had been any indicator. (India used to joke about them whenever Iran visited her. "It's as though America came from his own womb! It's a marvel to see how animated he gets!") Iran marveled at the resultant clash of primary colors.

"I-IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! SHE… She's a colony I won from Spain and…" he started to poke his index fingers together in the manner of a soon-to-be-scolded child. "And I kinda… promised her independence if she helped me beat Spain."

Iran sighed. "So you want to go back on your word because…."

"I won her! Dude it was awesome!" he beamed, only to deflate in the face of a brick wall of straight-faced curiosity. "B-Besides," he looked down. "When I got a good look at her, I saw that she, you know, wasn't ready. To be independent. Everything was… wrong about her and she needed to be fixed I guess. I mean, that's what my boss told me," He shrugged. " She's gotta act…. More like us I guess. A good Christian girl, with skyscrapers and industry, you know? So I gotta find out how to break their morale, you know? Get them to see how hard it is to be independent."

"Without letting them rough it and wait for their eventual collapse?"

"Yeah. But they keep catching and killing us! Then they disappear like… like ghosts! And how do you fight that?" he groaned resting his head in his hands with a loud sigh.

Iran alternately patted and rubbed his shoulder before turning her attention to the map. There were ink marks denoting places where ambushes had taken place, where brutal raids by the "Philippine insurgency" had taken place. Words she refused to give voice to were imbedded in his sloppy notes, terminology that was too idiotic for a thinking being to use; yet he had written them. "Gugus" attack here, "Gugus" attack there. "You do realize that this won't help you drown their morale, yes?"

"Huh?"

"Trying to find a pattern in their ambushes and raids. It won't work," Iran stated simply.

America blinked at her, uncomprehendingly. "W-Why not?"

Iran gave him a disapproving look. "I know you're smarter than that, America," she pulled out a chair for herself and sat. Their knees touched. "Think about it. Would it really scare them if you pinpointed their next target and were prepared for them?"

"W-Well kinda," America bit his lip. "I mean, we could hit more of 'em, right? Th-That'd be pretty scary, I guess."

Iran sighed. "Yes, or it could just make the conflict longer. What you want to do is have your reputation precede you."

"B-But doesn't it already? I-I mean," he tried to grin through the shame and confusion. His brain wasn't built for foresight. "You knew I beat England, right? When we first met, you kept asking me to tell you stories about my Revolution, what it was like, and all that stuff!"

Iran smiled fondly at the memory. "Yes, but sometimes defeating an empire is not enough of a reputation. You have to squash them like a bug in the most brutal of fashions." She clenched her fist tightly as a demonstration, a cocky grin on her face. "But since you didn't do that, well you're going to have to create that reputation."

America leaned back, pouting. "I woulda, but George said it wasn't a good idea."

Iran smiled; patting his knee in what she hoped was an encouraging gesture. "I know dear. I know."

There was a mutual moment of awkward silence and blushing before Iran picked up the line of conversation from before, returning her hand to her lap. "A-Anyway." She coughed. "You have to be utterly ruthless. No mercy."

"Y-Yuh huh? Really? Whaddya… you know suggest?" he smiled embarrassedly.

Iran leaned back, her face sliding into a thoughtful look. "Well, when I was a girl, Darius used to cut off those upstart kings' noses, ears, and tongue before crucifying them… then we stuffed them with straw and left them outside the palace after they had died." Iran smiled nostalgically. "Darius used to let me feed them when they were trapped in the cages they were kept in, since I felt so bad for them." She sighed, a dreamy smile on her face.

America just stared at her, dumbstruck. He tried to focus on the sweet look on the woman's face, tried to use it to block out the mental images that her story had conjured up. It failed. Miserably. "…Kay." He croaked weakly.

She snapped back into reality. "Well my point is… You have to be ruthless. You have to make them remember what you did and never want it to ever happen again. If you haven't the stomach for that, try something else. Be creative."

"…Creative?" He looked away, thoughtfully. "Huh…"

Fire leeched off the roofs of the nipa huts, turning their thatched roofs to cinders. Children screamed out from the burning buildings, behind trees, as the town burnt to the ground. Blindfolded corpses littered the area, more falling by the minute like snow.

America tried to relish the look on the Philippines' horrified face. He tried to, over the rotten corpses of the young boys, grin. "So ya see? This is the price to be independent! It'd all stop if you just come and live with me!"

She cursed in Tagalog, in Spanish, even a little in Arabic. "You are a monster America! They were only young boys! Little boys!"

America shrugged and kicked one of the victims in the head, trying to be nonchalant. "When you're independent, you have to know what you stand to lose! You gotta protect them, you know?"

The Philippines shot at him, her hands shaking too hard to hit him.

America thought Iran was the most selfish woman on Earth. She was a monster, no care for the sanctity of life; all because she had been wronged. Asia was mutilated under his watch and she cheered him on the entire way. If there had been a reason outside of it would be handy some day, he didn't know what it was. Perhaps she loved bloodshed; perhaps she wanted someone to be like her.

At least he was altruistic. He could point to her blackened motives, the time they spent together, and pass off everything as hers. He had pure motives. He wanted to help all those countries. She told him a huge body count was the only way. She taught him that.

He was selfless and prepared for the moment she announced the testing of her first nuclear bomb.

Notes:

- I am forever using Iran for her, because Persia is the name the Greeks gave them. It's a personal choice for me.

- Iran and the United States first had contact in 1856 when Nassereddin Shah Qajar dispatched their first ambassador to Washington D.C. The Americans reciprocated with an official diplomatic envoy in 1883, but did not upgrade to ambassadorial relations until 1944. The reason for this was probably how they needed to keep Russia and Britain happy, and what would do so is if the Americans didn't try to help Iran throw off their yoke.

- This wasn't however their first time being in contact. Even before formal relations, Americans visited Iran and read their books. Ben Franklin even read Sa'adi's book Golestan and nearly plagiarized him.

- India was fully conquered by Britain in 1858, after the East India Company held it for a year, but India first came into contact with Britain in 1600. They possibly got to know each other over those years.

- "When I got a good look at her… you know?": Through a mix of a desire for empire and the White Man's Burden, this was McKinley's reasoning for taking the Philippines as an American colony.

- All of the map and terminology is based on actual accounts of the war.

- Darius did actually do that when he ascended the throne.

- The rest of this is based on the knowledge of the war and just simple character devices.

Reviews are appreciated.