Confederate America was hungry and hurting and he'd lost his glasses somewhere in the battle. There was a crunch and the sound of hope dying-that had been Texas.
"Give up now," it was a voice eerily similar to his own, but it was him. "And you won't hurt anymore. I can-I can make the pain go away. You won't be hungry or tired, really. I promise."
The South looked up in the rain and saw the North.
"...you broke Texas."
"Texas...Texas won't be helping you anymore South. Give up."
Anger surged red and bloody through his chest, constricting him. How dare that Yank do that to Texas? How dare he be so cocky?
"Y'don't understand me," South tried not to wince at the sound of his voice breaking. "Ya don't. Y'think you're the same as me and you're not. We have completely different cultures and needs, you damned Yank. Get that through your skull."
The Union stared down at the Confederacy.
"You don't need those slaves," he said quietly, stubbornly.
When the Confederacy laughed, the Union jolted. That was the laugh of a crazed man, a laugh so hopeless and hollow that all the Union could do was stare. It was the laugh of a man who knew he was going to die and didn't have anything to lose; nothing mattered.
"Ha ha ha! Hoo boy! That's a good one! I don't need the slaves? Truthfully, Brother, we all do. Including you." The Confederacy waited with a crazed grin until the Union opened his mouth to object. "You see, that cotton you're wearing? Chances are it was harvested down here. You know this. I ain't seein' why ya'll cain't piece it all together. My slaves planted and harvested all that cotton so you could clothe all your people."
The Union stared at his brother with wide eyes, frozen in his denial. He was doing what was right, and slavery was wrong; he was a Hero for fighting for them. He wouldn't...he wouldn't ask them to do what the Confederacy wanted, honest!
"I ain't gon' surrender. I'm the people of the Confederacy and they sure as hell do not want to become a Yank what killed their daddies, their uncles, their brothers. But you go an' talk to my King of Spades. The General's probably expectin' ya. Things've been goin' badly; hell, I cain't even get up. You talk to him and you get your reply. But don't you ever forget why you can do what you do."
There was a moment of shocked silence.
"Why aren't you putting up more of a fight?" The Union finally managed to ask.
The Confederacy snorted out a laugh, bitter and hard and broken.
"I'm a good soldier what knows when he's lost a battle. You tell me."