Warning: OOC and AU Characters. All countries are female, except for America and Spain. Character death is included. This is a two-shot.
Part 1: The Twin Towers
"Come on, Michelle! You don't want to be late, do you?" yelled Maria, striking her self-proclaimed awesome pose.
"We have to wait for Laura, Christina, and your sister." I said with a roll of my eyes.
"Fine..." Maria pouted as we waited.
After about five minutes, we heard a call of "OI!" from behind us. Turning around, we spotted Letta, Christina, and Laura.
"Ready to see the Twin Towers that Alfred built?" I asked, excitement dancing in my eyes.
"Yes, of course!" the rest of them replied without missing a beat. I couldn't help but grin.
"Then let's go!" I yelled, grabbing Maria and dragging her behind me.
"Michelle! Wait up!" yelled Letta, running after me, Christina and Laura in tow.
Laura stood at the base of the South Tower, eyebrow twitching with annoyance. Why? Because I, Michelle, did not realize how tall this building happened to be!
"Um, did I mention that I'm afraid of heights?" I said, giggling nervously while hiding behind Maria.
"Michelle, it was…" Letta started before she was interrupted by Christina.
"Let her be. Laura doesn't want to go up anyway, so she and Michelle can stay here and wait." she said.
Letta hesitated before sighing, obviously irritated. "Fine. Let's go."
With that, they walked into the South Tower. As Laura and I watched them go in, I suddenly got the urge to call for them to come back, for them not to go in. This was totally absurd. It was a beautiful day, and there had been no international threats since the war in Vietnam.
Laura and I decided to go sit in the nearest café and wait for the others to come back.
Little did either of us know that we would regret not calling for them to come back out for the rest of our lives.
[Letta's P.O.V]
We had been in the South Tower for almost an hour when we felt it shake from an impact. An airliner had hit the North Tower about thirty minutes ago, and they had started evacuating the South tower, but it was very slow for one reason or another.
"Sis, we have to hurry!" yelled Maria over the chaos. I nodded.
"Come on!" I yelled back, motioning for Christina and Maria to follow as we ran. We swiftly wove between people and made it to the fifteenth floor before the whole building began to collapse.
"**!" cursed Christina as we panted and ran faster. We were running on adrenaline now and coughing from all the concrete dust and smoke that contaminated the air around us. We ran for what seemed like an eternity when it was really only a couple of minutes. We were almost at the exit when disaster struck.
[Michelle's P.O.V]
Laura and I had been watching in horror as the planes had crashed into the Twin Towers. What was worse was that the South Tower had started to collapse, and Letta, Christina, and Maria had yet to come out. People were running from the towers in a panic as they fell. All of a sudden, the tower completely collapsed.
'No...' I thought numbly.
"LETTA! CHRISTINA! MARIA!" Laura and I screamed, hoping that at least one of them would answer. Just then, we heard a soft cough and a weak call of "Laura…? Michelle…?"
[Letta's P.O.V]
Christina had gotten pinned beneath a large ** piece of roof. My first thought was, 'Where in the world did that come from?' My second thought was, 'Oh God, we have to get that off her!'
Both Maria and I tried to get the God damned hunk of wood off of her. Finally, after much effort, I yelled, "We have to go! The tower's about to completely collapse!"
"No! I'm not leaving Christina behind! Save yourself, and tell Laura and Michelle that...we're sorry." replied Maria. I stared at her for a moment before mouthing, 'I'm sorry.' She nodded before motioning for me to go. And I did, just barely making it out.
As the tower completely collapsed, I stumbled out, about to collapse myself. However, before I could, I heard two panicked and very familiar voices scream, "LETTA! CHRISTINA! MARIA!" I coughed and, in a weak voice, called, "Laura…? Michelle…?"
Immediately afterward, I collapsed into someone's arms and blacked out.
[Michelle's P.O.V]
It was Letta!
Laura and I ran forward, and I caught her as she collapsed. We then hightailed our asses back towards a hospital. Somehow, Laura and I realized that the others didn't make it. They must have sent Letta ahead and got caught in the collapse. Right now, however, it did not concern us too much. Of course we would mourn them, but at that moment, our priority was to get Letta to a doctor. If we didn't, who knew what would happen? We were not going to lose her after losing the other two.
Soon, we realized that she wouldn't make it to the hospital like this. Luckily for us, there was a makeshift hospital on the street's corner, so we ran to it and handed Letta to one of the doctors. They immediately took her in with me and Laura in tow.
[Germany's P.O.V]
Pain. That's all I felt. In fact, it felt like a tower had collapsed on top of me every time I tried to breathe.
Towers…Maria! Christina! I had to find them! I sat up quickly before running out of the hospital tent, past Laura who looked surprised to see me, and all the way to the rubble of the South Tower. I ignored the pain in my chest as I dug through the rubble, screaming, "Maria! Christina!" the whole time and hoping one of them would answer.
I searched for what seemed like an eternity before finding Prussia's scarf, the same one I had given her for her birthday. I continued searching, but couldn't find anything else. Bowing my head, I allowed my self to do something I would never do in front of people. Cry.
I sobbed over losing my only family and a good friend until I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking up, I saw the tear streaked faces of Laura and Michelle. Michelle took one look at me, saw the scarf, (which I was holding in a death grip) and picked me up.
Turning her back to Laura, she whispered, "Cry all you want, Letta, no one will see you."
So I did.
[Michelle's P.O.V]
I was reading in the 'waiting room' of the hospital tent while Laura doodled, when Letta suddenly went running by. I quickly got up and started following her, Laura in tow. When we finally found Letta, the sight that met our eyes broke my heart. Letta was rooting through the rubble calling "Maria! Christina!" over and over again. Then, she must have found something because she paused before digging faster and stopping again. Only, this time, she bowed her head and started to sob. Both my and Laura's and eyes widened. We quickly went behind Letta and I put my hand on her shoulder, making her look up. I took one look at her, and then the scarf in her hand, which I recognized to be Maria's, and smiled sadly before picking her up.
Turning my back to Laura, I whispered into Letta's ear, "Cry all you want, Letta. No one will see you."
So she did just that as all three of us walked out of the rubble. We went back to the hospital tent and checked her out before heading toward our hotel.
As Laura and I comforted Letta, I sent a silent prayer up to whatever deity was listening. 'Please, watch over and protect our friends, but mostly Letta, and help her through this difficult time. Amen.'
