Life was rather complicated now, it seemed. And… it was kinda fucked up, too. Alfred thought wasn't too bad, all things considered. Especially since he was could have just…stopped existing. The man supposed that his current predicament wasn't that bad, with that tidbit of information kept in mind.

However…. fighting off monsters for what very well could be eternity wasn't that great an outcome, either. Especially considering his only other option was to become a monster himself, and allow his sacrifice to mean nothing.

And that outcome- though it was overly simplified- was summarized succinctly in the words, "Nah, bruh."

Nearly 400 years ago now, Alfred had made a crucial decision. It had been the year 2020, when the world had gone to absolute shit, when he had decided he would sacrifice himself to save everyone else, and let them- his fellow nations- live on in a timeline where he had never existed as a nation, have never been found by Arthur, yada, yada, yada. His land was still there, but Alfred F. Jones, the personification of the United States of America, had never been there to begin with- well, not as America, but rather, as a human that wasn't ever able to be named by them. He was gone from the hearts and minds of those he had held dear in life.

If they ever said aloud who he had been, then it was game over for everyone.

Well, that wouldn't have been so bad… had it actually meant what he thought it meant. It did not mean that his Arthur was saved from the fate they had carved out for themselves. No. It meant, rather, that a new, parallel Arthur was made, one who had never known Alfred. Unfortunately…the Arthur that Alfred had loved was…well. He wasn't very….

Well.

If he said it was hard to come to terms with even now what the people he had held dear had become, it wouldn't fully encompass all of his grief and frustration on the matter, but he doubted that there were enough words in the world to explain his feelings on that.

If they had been human like before, they were nothing even close to human anymore. Maybe they sometimes looked like it, but they were…monsters now. And nothing more than that, and it was sad to think about that.

For the most part, the beasts that were once his friends and family knew only sorrow, and the happiness they had once known were only flickers of light in the blackness of their despair.

Alfred had been tasked with keeping them in line in exchange for the second chance of the world, and he had only managed because he did his best not to think about how horrible of a fate it was for his loved ones, and himself. It was especially cruel- since they couldn't die, not permanently. Permadeath was too much of a luxury item for them, it seemed. He did his best not to think about how he hadn't saved them at all- rather, he had only drawn out their suffering- since that was the only way he could still look at himself in the morning.

And so Alfred had fought hard, for over 400 years, finally reaching the year that the apocalypse had occurred in the original timeline.

And he was fucking tired. TIRED. He was tired of all this fucking BULLSHIT.

He would have much rather disappeared when he had made that deal than to have this cruel fate given to him, but to no avail. Alfred was trapped. Trapped in this awful existence, knowing that one day his strength would fail him and he would become one of them. Life was less complicated and more completely and utterly fucked UP!

And he wasn't the only one trapped. Oh no. The cruelest piece was certainly that he had to watch his loved ones suffer, and then kill them, in order to have people he had never come to know survive and flourish in light of their suffering.

Oh well, he had to keep on trudging- it was for him. Alfred had promised him long ago. And he was no quitter! …Or, at the very least, he tried to convince himself that he wasn't.

XXXXX

The worst part was that Alfred had done his best for centuries to avoid being seen. All it had taken to be caught was a ballsy 12 year old and a smartphone in the North American nation, where he had been caught on tape killing his brothers monster yet again.

"Hey, kid- get out of here with that thing." Alfred had been supremely irritated with the 12 year old, who gawked wide-eyed at him, and though Alfred walked over with an air of finality and authority, demanding that the kid hand over the smartphone, it was then that the boy finally decided to heed his words and take off at a sprint.

Less than 24 hours later, and Alfred had become somewhat of a global phenomenon.

The world had finally discovered the one who was capable of destroying the monsters that had plagued them for centuries- those which had hindered and helped the development of mankind and the worlds civilization, Alfred had to note.

On a very interesting note, it looked as though much of war had been wiped from this earth- instead; a sense of cooperation had taken hold over them. They were all likely victims of a monster attack. It made complete sense that humanity would bond together to maintain order.

Well… it made sense in this world. Alfred had a parallel set of memories where the world had been faced with monsters and had fallen apart in the course of only a few months.

And it had led to David, the man who was currently taking Alfred under his wing and showing him the nations, finding him and asking him to attend a UN Meeting. Alfred couldn't really bring himself to appreciate it, really…he was just…. tired. He knew all these faces. They were as familiar to him as the palm of his hand. But he couldn't do anything but pretend he was simply human, and so he a feeling of something between resignation and exhaustion settled over him, leaving Alfred almost numb, but not quite, and what wasn't numb hurt like he hadn't hurt in a long time.

This had been a mistake, to come here, he realized absently as depression started to fall over him, having mild trouble in the recent decade keeping track of when his grip on reality faded and slipped into memory of another time and place. It would be hard to deal with that, and prevent the nations from suspecting anything of him.

"Thank you so much for coming out here today, Mr. Jones." David smiled politely. "It is truly an honor that you, the man that we know has been killing these beasts successfully, is with us today."

"None of these…nations…know me, correct?" Alfred voiced his concerns, quiet, attempting to conceal what he knew as best he could. "Have you shown them the videos?"

David sighed, trying to figure out how to word it properly for Alfred. "Well, the United Nations took the video from the web, so, I suppose they could have watched it, but as I am only the human American ambassador, I cannot speak for the other nations. We also have no American nation, so I've never really met any of them personally." At this, Alfred's gut clenched in his chest, the mention of the missing American nation making something in his chest ache, before he nodded, and tried to swallow his grief.

"Well, why isn't there an American nation?" He asked, playing dumb pretending to be too curious for his own good. He knew the answer full well by now about why there wasn't one. It was because Alfred couldn't be their nation.

The human side-eyed him, but only shrugged. "No one can say. Not a one has appeared."

He saw Canada and France chatting lightly as they went off, and Alfred caught his once-brother's eyes, before turning away, trying to go back to talking to David. But, David noticed where his eyes had strayed.

"Hey! You look an awful like that one!" He pushed on Alfred lightly, and Alfred frowned.

"Maybe…" He mumbled- maybe once in a different life, when things were different and he had known of Alfred. He started to head into the room, not noticing that Matthew was looking at him oddly, before his not twin brushed it off.

Alfred sat at the human meeting, standing as they introduced him as the famed monster-hunter, his eyes dull, while undoubtedly nations discussed things in the other room, just across the hallway. Alfred had a crazy idea, and though he tried to dissuade himself, once it was in his head, he couldn't. During break, he went to the bathroom, and went to the wrong room-the one across the hall.

The one he didn't belong in any longer.

He saw that no one was inside here at first, and so relaxed. This place held so many of his memories. He sighed, and looked up to the mantle, and saw even his image in the picture among the creators of the UN was…gone. He closed his eyes, and sighed.

However, the quiet was not to last, as he heard footsteps, and tensed.

Then he heard awfully familiar voices. "Canada, who do you think the man you saw was?" It was undoubtedly England.

Well, shit. They were talking about him.

"I don't know." Canada murmured, thoughtful. "He looked almost exactly like me. I can't help but think I know him."

Alfred dropped to the ground, and tried to escape without having to show off. They stopped talking, quite abruptly.

"Did you hear that?" England said, suspicious.

But… He swore that he hadn't made any noise…! And that was when the ringing in his ears started. Oh, oh fuck! Not this! Who was it?! What one of them was it?!

Alfred launched himself out to their line of sight. "Get out of here!" He screamed as he got himself up from his hiding place. "You know they're coming!" He turned around, and threw his coat off, grabbing his guns, and trying to make sure they couldn't see his face.

The monster coming for him threw him back, hitting the wall roughly, and Alfred scowled as he realized he hadn't gotten a good enough look at it to tell which one of them it was.

He heard Canada and England jump back, but Alfred was thankful he had taken the brunt of the blow for them. "Get out!" He said, furiously. "Do want to die?!"

"We're going to get help, sir!" Canada said, immediately.

"Don't do anything stupid." England said, the advice coming belated, but then it was quickly followed by, "Not even gods could stop those things."

"Ohh?" Alfred asked, quietly, smiling a bit. "Then, I suppose we haven't met. I don't think I'd call myself a god, though…. more like…a devil." He took his safety off. "Get out. I can handle it. Evacuate the building."

Another blast came, and though he avoided it swiftly, Canada and England were thrown out the door, which was probably a good thing. Alfred used his abilities to force it shut after them, and locked it quickly.

"Which one of ya is it?" He laughed almost manically, waiting for them to reveal themselves. Out of the darkness, he saw a shadow moving silently, and prepared himself, before he realized that it was simply Gilbert. "Gil! What are you doing?" He jerked back in surprise, staring wide-eyed at the zombie.

"Don't hurt her…" He murmured, looking rather dazed, and mopey, and that's when Alfred realized why he was here.

"Fuck." Alfred complained quietly, and he barely managed to move out of the way in time for the monster that used to be Elizaveta jumped out at him, her breasts hanging out, in her black and gold body, her 4 eyes in the mask watching him in what felt like judgment, her hair blowing in the wind of the broken window she had jumped through. She crawled on all fours, jumping towards him with efficiency.

He started shooting at her, but Gilbert got in front of him, stopping him with dulled red eyes. "D-Don't hurt her!" The zombie-undoubtedly under her enchantment at the moment- begged him, but Alfred pushed him to the side, shooting at her full force.

Unfortunately, she jumped out of the way and made Alfred miss her entirely, landing on Gilbert and taking off her mask to reveal her maddened face, her true face that was pure and yet completely and utterly corrupted. The monster vomited that hallucinogenic into his mouth once more, making him pass out and experience what she wanted him to.

The only way to free Gilbert now was to kill her all over again, and he sighed, feeling somewhat resigned.

"What the fuck, Liz! Why do you always do that to him?" He drawled his question out, accent made thick with exhaustion. Even knowing she couldn't hear him anymore than he could understand her, he felt obligated to say something to her, to justify himself to her... Alfred then aimed his gun, and shot her torso up, firing into her unsuspecting form. She shrieked, and glared back at Alfred with her maddened green eyes.

But, the woman bled from the fatal gunshot wounds, and he saw the red dripping from her neck. Slowly, her face dissolved into sorrow, and her form burst into light, revealing Elizabeta as she had been in life, before she faded away altogether, green eyes closed in her torment and regret.

He looked around them, and sighed. "Well…A+, Alfred. You're not even part of the UN anymore and you managed to force them to refurbish the place so that doesn't look like it belongs to old men! Good job!" With his speech to himself over, Alfred went over to Gilbert, and picked up the zombie before he threw him over his shoulder. Even though he had been here for the meeting, he no longer was in the mood to talk about these escapades, not with the guilt of killing Liz once again on his hands…

Alfred suddenly burst into fevered laughter as he looked out the window, and madly wondered if he could recover from the 100-story fall he was going to make if he truly jumped out of the window of the UN building, not really wanting to deal with any of…at least, not now.

Oh, whatever at this point. Did it really matter? He seemed pretty impermeable to death at this point, so…he saw the chance to make a cheesy reference, and he took it.

"Yippee-ki-yay motherfucker!" He whispered as he leaped out into the night.

He jumped off, with Gilbert in his arms, just as Canada walked back into the room, staring open-mouthed at the carnage while a stranger that looked incredibly like him jumped out the fucking window with Prussia, of all people for reasons that the nation couldn't explain.

Well, this had not been an ordinary day.

XXXXX

Once Alfred had his bones back in order from the fall, he knew he had to head out, and fast. Time to disappear for the night, yeah? So, he stuck Gil's body in the trash, and quickly started on his path out. He figured he'd grab a coffee, it was getting late after all, and he had a long night ahead of him…

But then he heard Gilbert start complaining about Alfred's brutish methods, (what, with leaving the trash where it belonged?), and so went back to get him before he had taken 10 steps forward. Somehow that felt like a metaphor his life, and reminded him of that bad cooking England had once made for him looked like on the way out, be it up or down. That last thought was a little more than he wanted to think of, but it made him slightly nostalgic. Goddammit, he was going soft! No way was he actually…actually missing Arthur's terrible cooking…

Gilbert kicked his shin from where he was being held up by Alfred, and Alfred grimaced as he reoriented himself. That time was gone- don't think about it. "Oi!" He shook him, frowning. "I'm going to get fucking coffee…" He set Gilbert down on the ground, making the zombie grumble about the disgrace, but he simply folded his arms.

Alfred rubbed his temples, and went into the coffee shop, smiling at the barista kindly. He walked up to the counter, before ordering a black coffee, with a couple espresso shots inside.

"Why, hello again, stranger…" Oh shit. It was undoubtedly England, from the snooty voice that was trying way too hard to be sultry. Alfred sighed in an almost nostalgic manner, before turning around with a smile that hid such wistful thoughts. England was looking him over, smiling approvingly, probably because of his body…dirty old man. "I see you got out of there just fine, it seems that Matthew was over exaggerating when he said you jumped out of the building at our floor."

Alfred wanted to tell him so badly to just fuck off; he didn't have enough fucking coffee for this…not right now. Please, and thank you.

Instead he nodded, trying to play along, give England the answer he was undoubtedly probing for from Alfred, and then get out of there. "Yeah! I'm just fine! And, well, actually, I was brought in by the UN to talk about my profession!" Profession, ha. "I've been hunting them for a few years, and had some knowledge of how they work…"

England looked interested. "Is that why you were in there?" And Alfred nodded, sighing as he saw Gilbert open the door, trying to discretely sign to him to back off- this wasn't Arthur- this was England, and he couldn't know all about this. "That's interesting. So you are the hunter of those beasts. Who was the one that destroyed the meeting room, if I might ask?"

"She's the one I call…Liz." He finished awkwardly, looking to the side as he flinched at how weird that sounded, but he didn't want to give her away or give himself away for knowing things he shouldn't know in this timeline.

"Liz?" England's face screwed up in bafflement, his brow furrowing as he digested this particularly peculiar piece of information. "That's a very normal name for such a…creature." Alfred knew that he had meant to say ghastly or hideous or vicious in the pause, but he let it slide, since he generally agreed, that monster Liz was a bitch to fight.

"Yeah!" He nodded fervently, but coughed. "Well, uh." His discrete hand waving to Gilbert obviously hadn't made it through the zombie's dead skull, since he had walked in, and was now openly gawking at England and Alfred. "Well! It was my guess she was human once! She takes on a human form once you kill her!" Gilbert's eyes widened, before they narrowed a scowl, and the zombie raised a single eyebrow in an obvious motion that said, "Really, Al?"

"Well, uh." Alfred coughed again, needing to make an exit quickly, since Gilbert was refusing to leave without him. "I should go."

"You haven't received your order, though…" Arthur pointed out in surprise, and Alfred laughed, nervous and tired and stressed and not handling the situation well now that he was actually in the vicinity of Arthur Kirkland, the real one, England. His lover, friend, and he could feel the soft lips on his cheek- they couldn't kiss because of the parasite inside of Arthur. But, as he lay dying in Alfred's loving hold, Arthur told him to take care of his books, to make it back to their home, to finish what they had started together… but the creature was eating at Arthur's sanity, eating at Arthur from the inside out…

Alfred suddenly choked as the duality of the image jarred him back to the reality, where this Arthur had never known that death- had never known him, Alfred-, and started walking toward the exit, to where Gilbert was shambling to the door again. "I'm actually an idiot! I already had my caffeine designated for the day!" He tried to make excuses, but England only followed him, shocked with the change in behavior.

"W-Wait!" England stopped him suddenly, biting his lip as he took something from out of his shirt, and shoved it into Alfred's hand. "H-here's my number. Not that you should call it for personal reasons, but, if you know something about those monsters that you wish to only tell…. non-humans, you shouldn't be a stranger to us…or myself. Please do go ahead and call me, and say all that you know- and be sure to tell me what we can do to help."

"Ah." Alfred nodded, taking the scrap of paper and putting it gently- reverently, almost- into his pocket even though he knew the number by heart. "Thanks, but, uh, I should get going."

Arthur nodded. "Good luck." England told him stiffly, though it was simply to cover disappointment, the expression uncanny to the way…well.

"Thanks!" Alfred said, loudly as he walked away, before he muttered, "I don't need luck at this point- I need this to be over…"

Gilbert pat his back roughly as the two fell in step with each other, the zombie slinging his arm around Alfred to tie his friend to this timeline, and keep him on his feet.

Alfred didn't want to admit it, but his knees were knobbling, his hands were shaking.

He had never allowed himself to get that close to this England before, for precisely this reason.

Fuckin' shit man- this was too much.

XXXXX

Once they were long departed from the coffee shop where they had run into a real, genuine nation, Alfred sighed, sitting Gilbert down. "God dammit, Gil." He muttered. "That wasn't Arthur."

"It wasn't?" The albino asked, raising an eyebrow, before he snorted. "Were you fraternizing with the official nations now?" Alfred shot him a look, and the zombie snickered. "God, you were, weren't you?" He started to laugh full out. "Man, it's been hundreds of years, and you stayed out of their sight for this long- what happened?"

"Yeah, well- I was invited to the UN to speak on the monsters." He grumbled, before sighing. "Humans do tend to notice us... usually them, but now me as well..." He muttered, rolling his eyes. "I mean, I am the one responsible for killing the monsters…they kinda notice when I manage it- I had figured that it was only a matter of time before the nations picked up on my presence too."

Gilbert nodded, shrugging. "Meh. I think it's funny, was England flirting with you?" The zombie suggested with a dirty grin, waggling his eyebrows to tease his friend, and Alfred's face scrunched up in distaste.

"Dude." Alfred muttered, making a face like he had eaten something incredibly slimy. "I knew he was bad about sleeping with humans, but for God's sake. Does it have to be so… ironic?" Alfred sighed, and looked up at the sky while they walked away. "This isn't funny, fucker! You knew what I meant when I said I wanted to save the nations!"

Red eyes looked at him worriedly. "Al, you really take too much responsibility on your shoulders…" He said, patting his back. "ANYWAY, loser, I'm in danger because my bro-not bro is here." He said, grinning. "Germany's in town, and so is my other me. While I generally would agree that a meeting of TWO Prussia's would simply be too awesome to handle…my appearance with our Liz and our Lutz and our Roddy tend to paint me in a bad light. And unlike them, I still look like me, err, him! So he'll be in danger too, since we look exactly alike!" His hand took the cue for an inopportune moment, and fell off, leaving Gilbert to sigh. "Well, mostly."

Alfred snorted. "While I would agree that two Prussia's meeting each other would certainly be too much to handle, but I don't think awesome would be the word I'd use, unless you're using the word "Awesome" as in the phrase, awesomely terrible." The zombie threw his disconnected hand at Alfred, and the blonde had to laugh. "What! I'm just telling the truth- and you know it."

Gilbert walked over, and picked his hand back up, and held it with his other hand to his mouth, the disconnected hand flat against his cold lips. "I am simply shocked by this…reckless mutiny!" He leaned back, his one hand holding his dismembered hand against his forehead as though he was a fainting woman. "Goodness me!"

Alfred took his extending cane, and whacked Gilbert in the chest playfully, but accidentally knocking his head off its precarious place on his shoulders since he was already leaning back. "Whoopsie- shit, Gil!" He grinned. "Gotta keep your head in the game!"

The zombie raised an eyebrow and grumbled at the awful reference, before he yelled. "Oi! Useless, useless limbs! Over here!" His body was fumbling, his hand still held in the other, and therefore his limbs were unable to grab him. "Ugh, Alfred, stitch me back up, will you?"

Alfred snorted, but agreed- Gilbert was his only friend, it sometimes felt like, in this new universe.

The two talked casually about the state of affairs, Gilbert seemingly bitter that Prussia was still an official nation in this timeline, and Alfred telling him to suck it up- at the very least, he, Gilbert was alive to see it.

"Yeah, but I'm not Prussia anymore!" He squawked in displeasure.

His upset was only met by soft laughter.

Once Alfred had mostly stitched his Prussia back into one piece, the zombie sighed. "Ugh. What will you do now?" He asked, curious of the actions of the only true nation left from their universe.

The blonde sighed. "Honestly?" He looked to the sky, blue now, but like the color his own eyes- though once blue, they had come to reflect the grey skies that had been his world when he had made the deal. The one that was gone now.

He still remembered what had happened, the deal he had made that day, when the world was dying and he had nothing left- not his friends, not his brother, and not his beloved, Arthur.

"Are you certain of your choice, America?" The goddess like woman was asking him, her eyes that were black, the color of the vast universe, staring into his soul to judge his merit.

He looked to her, his blue eyes firm when he answered her, looking directly into her eyes without fear of whatever was to come. He had lost all traces of fear when Arthur had begged him to shoot him before the parasite fully took him over, and Alfred had done as his beloved had asked.

"I'm sure. There is simply nothing else to be done, at this point."

He knew that the only solution was to change the past once he had put the bullet between Arthur's eyes, killing him instantly. But if he were honest, he had known it since Matthew had fallen victim to whatever had plagued their world, since before then. Since the apocalypse had begun. It only became real that they couldn't fix their timeline when Arthur pushed Alfred out of the way and absorbed the parasite into himself instead. When Arthur had fallen victim, it was clear that their world couldn't be saved, but instead, this had to be prevented. "I am willing to do whatever it takes to stop this madness."

"You won't be able to come back to where you are now." She reminded, tapping one long clawed nail on her chin, her form shifting, oozing around them, incorporeal in a way that was almost disconcerting. "This would be where your world ends- where this timeline ends. And the one that you will be placed in is not the same as this world was. You wouldn't even be known in the new one- your very existence would cease to matter to the world you are creating. Not one of them could ever know that you, Alfred F. Jones, are America until after your end of the deal is held up."

Alfred grinned. "Well, I know it won't matter to them! If they don't know me, how can they miss me?" He nodded firmly. "It doesn't matter- even though I won't be important, this- this will be important. I will have done something to save them, even if they don't ever realize it!"

"So- you understand the consequences, and you allow them to occur." She said, her voice a low purr, asking for final confirmation from him.

"I don't mind them." He nodded, looking to the sky, imagining the blue of his youth, of his eyes, of the ocean. "I'm not afraid anymore, not of this. Anything would be a better fate than this one that has befallen this world. And I do understand- I understand the consequences, and I fully accept them."

The goddess smiled, her infinite eyes boring into his soul, and Alfred felt like he had begun to burn from the inside out. "The deal is set- you will constantly fight off the ghouls of your past, and in return, I shall remake your world anew." She nodded, and kissed him on his forehead. "Good luck, Alfred F. Jones." She murmured. "I look forward to seeing the world your sacrifice is going to make."

Alfred nodded, taking a deep breath in. He took the toy soldier out of his pocket, and sighed as he rubbed at the damaged wood. "I honestly hope that Arthur will survive without me in his life. Idiot didn't know what to do without me before all this anyway…I can only imagine what that will be like if I don't exist the way I do now." He said to himself, before closing his eyes.

The goddess took a deep breath as well, putting her hands on his chest, closing her eyes as she sunk her hands into his chest, her hands gripping his heart, his very soul as a nation. The burning from his heart began to fill him, and then escape his body- and the world around him began to burn as well. He hardly heard her final warning, but the words were still important, so he tried his hardest. "If you cease to fight, if you give in to the ghouls of this burning world…you will become one of them yourself, and you will lead the world you sacrificed yourself…to ruin, young boy. Do well to avoid that end."

And then, Alfred had known no more, fire consuming everything around him.

Of course, he had woken up in Pre-Revolution America. He had left his home quickly, leaving behind the man he had been before. He wasn't America. His name was Alfred, and his only purpose was to hunt those "ghouls" she had specified that he had to fight.

He didn't understand what they were until they had come for him, searching him out for answers as much as Alfred searched out to kill them.

He hadn't realized then, that the "ghouls" were his friends, family, loved ones…they were all still trapped in the hell that Alfred had tried to save them from.

Alfred had wept as he cradled Canada's body, the façade of the monster he had become falling away to show his brother, dying once again, even though he knew an entirely new Canada had been newly found by France, and Alfred had put the bullet through the monsters brain himself.

He screamed at the goddess he had made the deal with, for tricking him. This is not what he had wanted. He hadn't wanted them to still suffer like this. He had wanted them to live!

But his cries remained unanswered entirely- this was what he had agreed to.

They remained unanswered to this day, in fact.

Eventually, he had found the very few of his friends who knew him as he was- Gilbert, for one. Belgium also retained much of her sentience, though she was bound to attempt to kill humans all the same, whereas Gilbert was a little more free on that issue. Switzerland participated in keeping track of killing the Germanics and much of Europe. Japan was fully committed to killing his siblings and friends- despite how he still tried to kill Alfred as well.

Gilbert had simply told Alfred that their friends and loved ones did not suffer as they were, for the most part.

"Well, when I was turned into a zombie, back in the other place." Gilbert sighed. "I was, well, mindless. Wanting to eat brains and all that stuff. I didn't know what I was doing until the second after my lil bro had put a bullet through my head. Now, I wake up here, and Lutz- my Lutz-" His voice had cracked. "He was like me, unknowing of what I was, who I was. Focused only on killing. Which is why…which is why I killed him, to release him of that…that fate." Gilbert had sobbed a bit. "But he's not free, he's not free Alfred. He cannot be freed anymore. He's stuck like that. Forever."

"Forever." Gilbert's word then had echoed in his mind, and it still did, honestly.

Alfred was stuck like this, until the moment his strength gave out and the new nations that he had sacrificed all this for- they would become his prey as well.

"I don't know what I'll do Gil, I don't know." He sighed, and Gilbert nodded in understanding, getting up and walking away.

"Well, I'll be around if you wanna talk bout it, Al!" The albino zombie shouted back into the night, before he was gone.

And then he was left alone, Gilbert obviously needing some time to think on his own, just as much as Alfred needed to think on his own as well.

XXXXX

Life was never that simple for Alfred F. Jones, though, it seemed. It never could be that easy, right?

Literally, no sooner after he went back into the UN meeting, every ambassador there applauded him for having killed another monster.

Alfred felt sick to his stomach. They congratulated him for saving the many lives of the people at the meeting- humans and nation alike, but they didn't know, couldn't know that Alfred himself had lost someone, once again.

It was torture, pure torture, knowing he had been fighting this long, and now he was planning alongside humans who had no idea that these monsters were possibly doomed to live forever, much like himself.

There was no escape, not for the new nations, and more pressingly, not for the monsters who were his friends and family and beloved, and not for himself.

Nations soon sought him out along with their ambassadors, smiling at him and inquiring why he did what he did, welcoming him in for their own politicized reasons, asking if there was a secret about doing it, and more.

Russia- his monster was a true behemoth, a giant nameless thing that would charge at you and kill you with blunt force or the tusks on his head. Russia now asked Alfred for the secret behind whatever trick he had in killing them, clearly desiring to be able to do the same.

China, his monster was an honest-to-god dragon, one who Alfred had been burned by more than once. Now was talking conversationally with Alfred, Japan and Hong Kong off to the side, talking quietly about family matters, and Alfred almost choked.

China and Russia and India all were talking about how they could pay off some of America's debt in return for having their monsters culled by America's hunter. It was dizzyingly familiar to when they were harassing Alfred in his time as well, saying that they needed his money, money that Alfred didn't have then.

His ambassadors looked interested in the prospect, but David took him out of there. "Alfred? Are you okay?" He asked as they finally were alone again, and the man wiped Alfred's sweaty brow.

"…Yeah, sorry." Alfred said, feeling sick, the Déjà vu becoming a little too much for him. "I'm not…used to large crowds…." The lie felt hollow, but there was no other explanation for it other than the fact that Alfred had seen all of these people die already, in another lifetime- one that no longer existed.

The American ambassador nodded, roughly patting Alfred's back. "That's fine, Alfred. Everyone's just excited- you have been the only person who has ever been able to kill those things! We just…want your help." He said, trying to be sensitive with the hunter.

Alfred nodded, smiling tiredly. "Yeah, I suppose…." He trailed off, and David let the silence fill the room, before suggesting that Alfred go get a coffee to reinvigorate himself.

"You know where the shop is, according to the British nation." David chortled, and patted Alfred's back again. "Go ahead, I'll tell them you've gone to the restroom."

The ex-nation walked slowly to the elevator, and entered it with a deadened stare, trying to remind himself that he had done this to himself, that he had done this to give these nations a better life… However, the door opened on the next floor down to his chagrin, but he was surprised to see the person who had called the elevator in the first place.

Shocked purple eyes looked at him, the man seeming just as surprised as Alfred was. "It's you!" Canada said, gaping at the enigmatic man known for killing monsters.

Alfred grinned, nodding. "Yeah, it's me…sorry 'bout wrecking the place last night." He said, grinning a bit. "But, ya'll did really need to redecorate it…it looked like an old man did the interior design…" Which, Alfred knew full well to be true, judging how the place looked uncannily like he knew Arthur's home to look from memory. Not that Matthew needed to know that all. It would be better if he didn't know all that, actually.

After a moment's laugh, and Alfred's interesting words, the nation who was almost like his brother looked around, before realizing something. "Are…are you going to get something from the coffee shop?" Canada asked, smiling a bit, as he looked Alfred over curiously. "I, I'd like to talk to you, I mean…"

The man looked tiredly at Canada, his brother's face only slightly changed in the years of not having a brother for a personification- he was more confident, Alfred noted with a small smile. "Eh, what's the harm in it?" He asked rhetorically, chuckling. "The one with the massive eyebrows was hitting on me all last night, I'd just like to say that I definitely prefer your methods to his."

And Canada laughed, snorting as he thought of it. "England, you mean? Yeah, he apparently has a track record of going at humans…"

Alfred shrugged, and the two left the elevator surprisingly in synch with each other.