Title: What's Worth Fighting For?
DISCLAIMER:…..I OWN NOOOOTHING!
You feel like you've been through a wood chipper.
Smoke swallows your lungs, crushing them in a sadistic embrace as you continue to taxingly wheeze. Your vision is swimming atrociously and you can barely tell the difference between up and down. If it weren't for your blistered feet slapping the pavement, you wouldn't be connected to reality. The pavement was sizzling hot, scorching your bare feet each time they make contact. Your muscles seem like they are screaming, the pain receptors in them blasting curses throughout your ear.
You feel like screaming, yourself.
You feel like collapsing on the ground and screaming. You want to feel the blistering pavement underneath you. You want to cry. You want to just close your eyes and wither away.
You want to do all of that, but there are more important things to attend to. You know that.
You stopped being able to see where you were going a few minutes back. You just ran through debris clouds and smoke, tears adding to the opaqueness of the current atmosphere. You sprinted blindly through the current war zone.
"H-help!" You hear a feminine voice scream from about 20 yards ahead. Your gut clenches and your heart feels like it is being stabbed. The voice is horribly familiar.
Lili? Lili…..LILI! LIECHTENSTEIN! LIECHTENSTIEN! LIECHTENSTEIN!
Those are the only words that drift through your currently disabled mind. You instinctively take off as fast as you can manage towards the source of the scream. After all, Liechtenstein was your best friend.
After a few minutes (more like an eternity, from your eyes), you are confident that you have reached the site of the scream. The destroyed World Summit Place. Your lungs are ripping apart, from both the smoke and the strenuous running and your starting to get frantic.
Liechtenstein. Be okay. Liechtenstein.
There is not much left of the once grand building. You remember it in vivid flashbacks. The pristine white walls reached up four stories, separated every once in a while by a curtained window and the occasional flower pot. The white walls complemented the red, plush carpets and the mahogany tables completed it all. Well, it wasn't truly finished without the usual chaos caused by the result of a crowd of bored countries. You smile subconsciously—a look that quickly melts into one of horror as screams emit from the ruins once more.
"H-h-help! Where is big brother?!"
Mentally slapping yourself for getting nostalgic in the middle of a rescue mission, you hit the ground running towards the rubble. Maybe half of the building is still standing, gaping holes from warfare creating the 'haunted house' illusion. The worst part is: the building looks like it will collapse anytime. This is enough to set your brain into motion and you dart through a hole in the concrete wall. The hallway is covered in various pieces of debris and rubble, making another battlefield aura come to life. You paid no heed towards these obstacles as you raced down the hallway. Many times, you tripped over the rubble, falling down hard unto the unforgiving surface below. You gained scratches and scrapes, some of which that bled, but you ignored them. After all, Lili would be much worse if you didn't suck it up and hurry over to her.
More shouts for mercy came from what you inferred was Liechtenstein's mouth, and you sighed in relief. After countless hallways, she was located on the last door of the one you just entered. "LILI! LIECHTENSTEIN!" You bellowed, your voice hoarse and cracking from the atmosphere. Hopefully, it was still recognizable.
A painful silence flooded in around you, one that rattled your mind. There was nothing in the space around you where cries of joy were supposed to be heard. You were tempted to run and check down the hallways again, but you forced yourself to stay in the tension for a few more seconds. More silence.
It truly made you want to go crazy.
You turned on your heel and took a great, propelling leap forward, preparing to start running. That's when you heard it.
"….._?"
It was very soft at first and you had to strain yourself to hear it. It gradually got louder, supposedly as the realization sank into the poor girl's mind.
"_! _! HELP!"
You didn't give yourself a chance to sigh in relief. You took off running the minute she muttered a syllable. You soon figured out what room she was in.
"Stand back, Lili! I'm coming in!"
"Be careful, _!"
You grunted in response and backed up. With a battle cry, you ran forward and kicked the door, successfully knocking it down. Splinters of wood went in many directions in the charred room, and you had to shield your eyes. You then looked in frantically, afraid at what you might see. You did sigh this time. Lili was, for the most part, unharmed and under a table in the room. Wide-eyed and wild, she scurried out from under the table and embraced you, sobbing and clutching at your tattered shirt. You cooed in her ear and rubbed her back in an attempt to calm her down.
"Wh-where's big b-bruder?!" She asked, breaking the hug abruptly and scanning the space behind you with wide eyes. She looked like a frightened child.
"I don't know," You wheezed out, the dust in the air finally starting to affect you. "—But we have to leave now! The building might collapse!"
You mentally slapped yourself for shouting, because this only seemed to upset her more. Tears started to from in her bright green eyes and she clutched onto your arm with a surprising death grip.
"Wait! W-what if big bruder is still in here! We have to f-find him!"
Her eyes began to brim with tears as she stared at you like a book, hoping for the answers. You sighed, but this time out of sorrow.
"Liechtenstein, I don't know where Vash is." This fact made her whimper quietly, her body rushing forward to clutch onto you once more. You tried to sound reassuring as you stroked her hair. "But, I do know that Vash is a strong man. Even a bombing won't get him down. That guy knows how to survive better than anyone I've met, and I am a country. That says a lot. He is probably waiting for you, worried sick. So, what do you say we go and be strong? For Vash."
She looked at you with wet eyes. Suddenly, as if you gave her a piece of mind, her face hardened into a look of determination. She nodded with a scowl as she let go of you.
"Those people will be sorry for attempting to hurt us."
You high-fived her and grinned.
"Let's GO!"
You both then began to run out of the room as gracefully as possible, doing your best not to hurt yourself with the rubble. You glanced over at Liechtenstein and softly smiled at her look of hope. You, on the other hand, were not as sure as you seemed in your pep talk. This building did not look like it could handle much more, and only one wave of enemies had come and gone. You were sure more were on their way.
More rubble had even fallen in the hallways in the short amount of time you had comforted Lili. You still ached all over, the adrenaline not helping you throbbing muscles and lungs. You were glad Lili was okay, though. This made another heart-ache surface. Vash. You had no earthly idea where he was, or even if he was okay, for that matter. He was your best friend, right along with Liechtenstein. You three were very close; they were really the only people you trusted. Sure, he was strong, but he was not bulletproof. Nor was he bomb-resistant, for that matter.
Vash, I have got Liechtenstein. Please don't tell me you need saving, too.
CRASH!
You instinctively turned towards Lili and tackled her, getting her out of the way just in time for a huge portion of the wall to fall. Your body screamed in protest and the world around you was filled with noise and dust. No understanding could be salvaged from what happened, and the atmosphere was relatively un-breathable.
You stayed on top of Lili and pinned her to the floor, shielding her from any rogue debris. A few, in fact, hit your back, burning hot. It was all you could do not to hiss in pain. The chaos abruptly subsided and a silence that brought a ring to your ears lasted an eternity before you deemed it safe to stand. You quickly scurried off of Lili, looking down at her in concern. Her eyes were wide as she stared at you and she seemed dazed, but unharmed. You quickly pulled her to her feet.
"Come on. We have to go now. The building will collapse any minute!" It hurt you to talk, but you tried your best to groan it out.
She looked at you with scared and wet eyes as she started to tremble. She pulled you into a shaky hug and buried her face in your shoulder. You rubbed comforting circles on her back.
"Th-thank you."
You smile down at her, trying your best to comfort her fear. It was hard to smile, yourself. You were also worried sick for Vash. I haunted your mind, making it difficult to breathe in what oxygen there was left to salvage.
"Let's go. We can't keep Vash waiting."
With this, she gave you a weak smile and hesitantly began to move again. You were on the second-to-last hallway and were almost out of the 'building'. By now, the hallway was mostly covered in foundation and debris and you were climbing through the desolation instead of running.
Creeeeeeaaaaaaak…
Your throat tightened. That can't be good. You looked up to find that most of the ceiling that was left was about to fall on you and Lili. You ran over to Lili and picked her up bridal style, making her squeak in surprise. You began to maneuver the hallway as swiftly as possible, trying desperately to escape almost-certain death. You felt like death, but you ignored it. After what felt like a lifetime, you released a breath you didn't realize you were holding. You were almost out of the last hallway. You were going to make it.
Creeeeeeaaaaaak…
You were at the hole in the wall that led outside when you looked up. The ceiling was shifting. Without thinking, you threw Liechtenstein through the hole. She landed outside on the pavement with an "Oof!", but she looked to be okay. At that moment, the ceiling fell, and a whole new world of pain rained on you.
'Vash, please don't join me.' was the last thing you thought before everything slipped out from under you, and you lost your grasp on sense.
So, this is my first reader insert! I hope you like it. I am not quite sure if I am doing it right, though. :/ Please comment and tell me your opinions. This story will be multi-chapter, so if you like it, watch for updates. This story is girl-centered. Sorry! :( Please, only constructive criticism. Flamers will not be taken into consideration.
-Winds of Dusk