FF – Hetalia
Progression – I
Warnings : Mentions of torture, slight historical discrepancy, immensely dialogue-heavy.
Summary : The turning point of WWII, France and Germany have a brief discussion that leads to the end of things. Oneshot + Epilogue.
Characters : Francis Bonnefoy/France, Ludwig/Germany, mentions of Arthur Kirkland/England
A/N : Set after 'Reminiscent' chronologically. I like sassy!brother!Francis, I think it shows through during times of turmoil, in his case.
Francis could taste his own blood on his lips. He glared defiantly at the German soldier that stood before him in annoyance, riding crop wielded tightly in his hand.
Heavy footsteps in the corridor echoed. The soldier turned away to salute to the Lieutenant that walked in and he listened intently as hoarse German was exchanged stiffly. His mouth quirked knowlingly, as his previous captor left, leaving him alone with the German Lietenant.
"Ah, Ludwig. How nice to see you again." Francis smiled a politely sarcastic smile.
"Francis." The German acknowledged with a nod of his head.
They stood in silence, Francis still bound to the chains of the prison cell, pressed against the cold, unforgiving dungeon wall, trying to muster all the pride he had left in his wounded, tired body. Red trickled from the open cuts and he held his breath, trying to force it from its erractic, shaky rhythm into a steady hum.
"You're bleeding." Ludwig said shortly, eyes not moving from the bloodstains on his proud blue uniform.
He smiled a dryly. "I'm aware of that, though I doubt you are here for the purpose of stating the obvious, or..." His eyes trailed to the corridor behind Ludwig, "to, so to speak, save me from your soldiers' torture. You were the who brought me in, after all."
"You were sneaking around the Reich Chancellery, like a spy! I only did my duty." Ludwig affirmed crossly.
"Or, you could have turned a blind eye, and ignored my existence, as a favour done to a fellow nation. But you did not. How typical of you. How's Gilbert?"
"He is fine." Ludwig glanced away, and he saw his unwillingness to keep eye contact with him. "I have questions."
"Ask, then."
"You helped me. Those hundreds of years ago. You told the Emperor Napoleon that he was to leave me alone, leave my being. You've never contended against him. But you did, that day. And then a few days later you left me to brother." Ludwig swallowed a lump visibly. "I want to know why."
"Ah." Francis struggled briefly with a smile. "You remember. Since when?"
"Two weeks ago. I was in the Führer's library. A book on the history of the Holy Roman Empire, and its downfall. Then I remembered how Gilbert used to insist that I call you 'Brother' as well, even though you weren't Germanic. It's not hard to put two and two together, and then I started to remember."
"Well done, then, I suppose. It wasn't really a secret though." Francis shrugged. "And, so, you want to know why I stopped the Emperor from having your person annihilated."
"And," Ludwig added, "why you thought to leave me to Gilbert."
"Was Gilbert a terrible brother?"
Ludwig appeared to struggle with himself for a moment. "No."
"So what's the problem?" Francis raised his eyebrow.
"Because... because it makes me feel like some... toy." Ludwig said bitterly. "Letting me live, then dumping me on to someone else. Like I'm just a... a thing."
Francis huffed, vaguely miffed at Ludwig's lack of common sense. "I saved you because that's what nations do. At the end of the day, we're of the same kind, brethen, you could day, of different bloods." He grimaced. "No matter how badly we want the war to be won, we would never want to see even our worse enemies dead, and the only enemies we really have are other nations. Call it sibling rivalry, if you will."
"That's how you tolerate England for so long, isn't it?" Ludwig said.
Another wry smile. "Maybe. He can be decent, when he's not an annoyance. Now, next question. You asked me why I left you to Gilbert, but you seem to have forgotten that you refused to speak to me and only Gilbert could demand your attention." Francis sighed thoughtfully. "Quite a brat you were then, although I wasn't much better. But at least I wasn't attempting to antagonise others' bosses. Still, you fit well under Gilbert's care, surprisingly. I assume it goes back to your days under Germania, so, that's that."
Ludwig blinked. "That's all?" Francis shrugged.
"What more did you expect?"
"Mentions of how I was nothing more than a worthless burden?"
"Because I refused to let you enter the warfields and kept you confined to the palace then? Oh, Ludwig, I daresay you read too much into things. How could I let a child wander into the warfield?"
Ludwig scowled. "I'm not a child."
"You are, for as long as you would wage a war, recklessly." Francis smiled coolly.
Ludwig ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "This is about my boss again, isn't it?"
"I've always known you were a clever boy." Francis replied, surprisingly brightly. "Neither of us would want to see this turn sour, or rather, worse than it can be. And you know as well as I do what horrors he has brought."
"And you know as well as I, that he did so because you drove me into a corner." Ludwig rounded on him in slight anger.
Francis' eyes narrowed slightly. "Is that a justification for your actions? I, of course, regret The Tigre's harshness, but unless you would say that the mass massacre and genocide of innocent makes up for the rules that we have laid against you, then there is nothing more for us to talk about."
Ludwig blinked, then ran a gloved hand through his hair in near embarrassment. "No. No. Of course, no, that's not what I'm implying."
"Good. Then I have a proposition." Francis said wryly. Ludwig stared at him curiously, eyes almost betraying his eagerness. "An assassination can be pulled off, if you would help."
Only an idiot would fail to understand Francis' statement. Ludwig's mind whirled. Never has there been a nation who would stand against their own boss so blatantly. It was usually whispering urges and pleading appeals from the sidelines. He swallowed. "If I were to help... put an end to him, can you assure the good future for my people?" He murmured softly. He was afraid, of course. What could happen to a country if they dispatched their own boss?
Francis smiled loftily. "I understand the consequence of my own actions, as would the others learn from my mistake. And if that isn't enough, I'll see to it that the other countries would know that Germany has rose personally against the inhumane threat. In any case, we would need to rebuild our countries side by side." Ludwig returned the smile tiredly.
"That's what brethen do, isn't it?" He sighed. He took comfort in the fact that dark days may be over soon. "What's your plan then?"
"Arthur and his men will be approaching the borders of Berlin, and the freedom fighters of France grow strong. They plan to strike a united attack with the Russian and American troops against Berlin on all sides, and the Führer will be trapped within the walls of the Reich Chancellery. Word of Italy's Mussolini's assassination should have reached him by now, and all the more reason I believe he would be coercered by the impending defeat to avoid capture." Francis finished rather triumphantly.
Realisation dawned on Ludwig. "So that's why you were here, in Berlin. You wern't spying. You were attempting to assassinate the Führer yourself!" Ludwig wasn't quite sure to be grateful or annoyed.
"Yes, more or less. Arthur must have flipped tables when he realised I had left his guest chambers yesterday morning. Nonetheless, this is an opportunity for the both of us, isn't it?"
Ludwig smirked. "I never thought I would see the day where the both of us would be working together side by side." He drew a key from his pockets and unlocked the locks on the chain. "He should be in the Führerbunker now, and I know how to get us in there."
"Excellent." Francis rubbed the sore spots on his wrist, eyes sparkling with glee. "It's progression, Ludwig. Change is the only constant, but I would prefer that never should there be a war to be waged again." Ludwig gripped his shoulder firmly with a small beam.
"For what it's worth, I've always thought you made a better ally than enemy."
A/N :
1 – HRE's dissolution was the direct effect of the Napoleonic wars. I took a bit of liberty here and assumed that the last king of HRE fled to avoid capture by Napoleon. In any case, I don't consider him a particularly awesome Emperor.
1.2 – Incidentally, his name was Francis II.
2 – Hitler's last days were spent in the Führerbunker. No, he didn't die in battle. He was losing the war at that time, in fact. I took a bit of liberty here as well, with the positioning of the troops. The Russian Army is a little further than it should be, but you don't see that, of course.
3 – Georges Clemenceau, also know as "Le Tigre" (The Tiger), was one of the ministers to insist on imposing the harshest penalties on Germany after WW1.
4 – Hitler's rise was thought to be one of the direct antagonists towarts the Treaty of Versailles. That is, he was revolting against the harsh rules set by the Allies.
5 – Hitler's death is commonly agreed to be a suicide, but is still a bit obscure. Some theories go by the fact that it might have been an assassination.
5.2 – If it had been an assassination, I personally think it would have been done by a French freedom fighter and a German soldier.
6 – In case you're wondering why Francis talks about having 'escaped' from Arthur's, it's because the French fighters were given asylum and shelther in England. The British and French soldiers fought together later. France-UK ties were strongest at this point in time, so I wouldn't say it's impossible for Arthur to keep Francis locked up for fear of him running into Germany like a reckless, headless chicken. Which he did anyway.
7 – Historically, not every German was a Nazi. Obviously. Quite a number of them were against his ideals. In any case, no country is ever made up of people who hold the same beliefs at any point in time. That's why you have revolutions and rebels.