Hey, guys! I am back AGAIN!

So, I just want to say a quick thanks to everyone who is favouriting, following and reviewing this story!

Warnings: More depression, lots of destruction, mentions of human deaths, more broken spirits and false hope. I say false because it will get crushed later on. Probably next chapter. On the bright side, England isn'tactually angsting about July 4th. Funny turn of events, eh? But I guess when it's the apocalypse, you've kinda got more pressing matters on your mind.

Enjoy, and allons-y! (*wipes a tear from my eye as I evaluate the little catchphrase I tend to use at the beginnings of chapters* Ten and France would be so proud!)

Four

Escape

Tonight, I dream of how it all began.

Eighteen months before that monster took over the world, he began to rise to power. I never trusted him. There was something about him I couldn't put my finger on. But these were my individual thoughts, just insignificant doubts at the back of my head. They weren't relevant; after all, I am the personification of this country and the people of this land. As long as the people took in everything he told them, I had to as well.

Now I know it was because of the Archangel Network. He was broadcasting that hypnotic signal of four beats, convincing the world to trust him, allowing the people of Britain to elect him as the Prime Minister.

Damn, it feels like it's all my bloody fault. I know it is. I've spent centuries trying to stop the world from ending. And I just made it happen.

But I didn't know that it was the Master in disguise. I just thought it was Harold Saxon, the young, slightly cocky, confident politician that everyone loved for some reason. I didn't trust him, but I did nothing.

I could go crazy inside this cell. I'm trapped in here day and day out. The only contact I get with anyone else is when Tish brings me food, or when the Master comes in sometimes to... inflict his rage upon me. I shiver at the thought. I... I don't want to dwell on those times when he enters. The only thing I can say with certainty is that it doesn't matter how much he tortures me, I won't shatter.

It's kind of hard to explain. So many people I care about are dead. There are cracks in my psychological wall, but they're not big enough to make it crumble. But it's so fragile, like it's made of a think sheet of glass. No, ice is a better word. My exterior, the outward image of myself that I show the Master is cold and frozen. But the tears inside me, the ones that want to spill so desperately, are building up into an ocean behind the wall of ice. Soon, the ice will shatter, I will break and the Master will win.

My name is England, or Arthur Kirkland, I chant inside my head to distract myself from the empty silence of my cell. I am the last nation survivor of the United Kingdom. I am one of the countries who are still alive. I am trapped, I have been defeated, but I have not broken, which is what the Master really wants. He can't break me. I won't let him.

Days go by. Weeks go by. Months go by.

How long has this been going on for? When will it end?

I'm still convinced that it will. If I lose hope then I'll break; I'm certain of that fact now. It's hope that's keeping me going.

More nations have been killed. Just the other day, the Master disposed of Greece and Turkey. Apparently they screamed. A lot. The Master took great pleasure in explaining how he had them tortured to the point where their physical and mental endurance just snapped.

I find myself asking Tish what the date is every day when she brings me my food. I don't know why I need to know. The numbers I'm told only help me travel down the road to despair as I think about how long the monster has ruled the world.

And the Master still comes, and he still hurts me. He enters my cell to continue this physical exercise, because for some reason he still maintains the belief that torture will break me.

So I smile to show him he's wrong.

Then he hurts me some more.

My magic is sealed because of these damned chains. Some strange technology the Master has developed. But I am strong. I hope I am. I focus on trying to reserve some strength in my mind. I relish in the moments where the chains are taken off me and I am able to collect my energy and store it away before the chains are strapped on me again.

Finally, July comes.

And I know with certainty that I am going to give hope to at least one country back on Earth, because I know he is still alive. He has to be. I'm going to surprise everyone- including myself.

Through the window of my cell, I observe the sky. It's dark, probably around nine o'clock, but it's still today. Today is still the fourth.

The magic I've been building up on isn't enough to defeat the Master or even to release me from these chains, but I can use it for something. I can give hope to him.

It takes a while, but finally my powers kick in. My vision is shining as the magic is released. In the darkened sky outside the Valiant, explosions of red, white and blue fireworks flash across the blanket of stars and blackness.

'Happy birthday, America,' I whisper.

The Master comes pretty quickly. He has me dragged into the main observation room so that he can make whatever torture he has planned for me a public display. He might even film it and broadcast it down to the rest of the world.

Jack is there, too- probably because he's American, and today is July the fourth. At least I think he's American, going by the accent. Captain Jack Harkness has always been a bit of a mystery.

'Hey, England,' he greets me, actually looking quite cheerful despite everything. He has quite a lot of blood on his face. I would imagine he's got a concussion.

'Hello,' I say. 'I think we're in a lot of trouble.'

His grin turns into a grimace. 'Probably.'

The Master starts with Jack. He shows us a live broadcast of a group of people who have so far been surviving in what's left of Wales. Apparently they were off on some wild goose chase that the Master set up when he took control of the world, but they still managed to sneak back into the blackened landscape and smoking ruins and debris of a heavily bombed and completely obliterated Cardiff. It's the people of Torchwood. The screen shows them being tortured with knives and fire, courtesy of the Toclafane. By the end, Jack has worn his voice out from all the yelling and the swearing at the Master. He's so angry, but I don't think he's broken.

Good.

The Master moves on to me next. I am forced to my knees and he leans down to face me. 'I've got a message for America too,' he says. 'Would you like to see?'

I don't have the energy to shake my head. I'm too scared of what he's going to do.

It's another live broadcast, this time of New York. The Statue of Liberty, to be precise. As I watch, huge bursts of smoke are issued from its base and loud explosions rip through the air. The Statue of Liberty crumbles in a massive crash. The sound is not enough to block out the screaming of the people all around. My chest clenches painfully and a lump rises in my throat. I quickly force it down.

'I've been experimenting with different countries,' the Master says to me. 'I find that when you destroy landmarks and cities, the country feels the pain. I would imagine your precious America is in absolute agony.'

I bow my head, wishing I could block out the sound and unsee the images I've just been shown.

There's nothing I can do.

'Hey, Arthur...'

I open my eyes and blink wearily up at my cell door, registering vaguely in my exhausted mind that the voice I'm hearing doesn't belong to Tish or the Master. But aside from the occasional guards, they're the only two people who ever visit me, and it's not like the guards ever talk to me.

'Arthur. Hello? You awake in there?'

I stare at the iron door in shock, sitting up straight on the rough bench I am forced to use as a bed. This voice is American.

'Artie? Seriously, I'm not say it any louder than this. Those guards have already killed me three times this week. They like shooting me 'cause I'm always breaking the rules, and I can add immortality to the list of all the things I've got going on for me.' I hear a dry chuckle following the humourous tone.

'J... Jack?'

'You betcha.'

I rise unsteadily off the bench, the chains on my wrists rattling in the movement, forcing down a small sense of disappointment that I feel ashamed of, because in those brief few moments in between sleep and being properly awake, in my dazed delirium I actually believed the voice on the other side of the door to be... someone else.

I actually wished it had been him.

But it's not. It never will be. The only reason he'd be here is if he got captured, and he won't be.

'Jack. What are you doing here? If the Master finds out, he'll kill you.'

'Yeah, probably. That'll be the fourth time this week. That's setting records, even for me.' I hear another soft laugh.

'How did you escape?'

I hear something rumbling with the lock on the door. Has Jack actually stolen the key? 'To put it simply, the guards are pretty thick. Tish's dad, Clive, caused a distraction for most of them, and the Master's not actually here right now. He and Lucy have gone on some trip to North America to see how the search is going for... well, you know.'

I swallow. I know who Jack means. But the Master won't find him. America can be stupid sometimes, but he's not an idiot. If he and Martha have stuck together than the two of them have a chance of staying hidden, and I know how resourceful Martha can be. She'll keep him and herself safe.

'There's no point letting me out, Jack,' I say. 'There's not much I can do up here on the Valliant, especially if the guards figure out what we're up to.'

'Wanna go to Earth, then?' Jack asks as the door swings open to reveal him standing there with a cocky grin, covered in sweat and ash from the engine rooms where he's usually locked away.

I blink and stare at him. 'We're stuck up here.'

He winks. 'We planned this out for a reason, Artie. It was the Doctor's idea. He and the Jones' are, er... going to keep the guards entertained while you and I escape. And then we can figure out a way to rescue the others when we're outta here.'

He steps forwards and holds up another pair of keys, these ones specifically for the chains binding me to this room.

'There's no way we could steal a bloody plane. The guards would spot us long before that,' I continue, hardly daring to hope... but if the Doctor's come up with this plan, then there must be more to it than that. He must believe that we may actually succeed.

Jack shakes his head when I mention a plane and gets to work on the chains. 'The Doc and I were thinking more of a... vortex manipulator.'

I laugh bitterly. 'Martha took it, remember?'

Jack still doesn't look put down by my pessimism. 'The Doc says that you can find pretty much anything in the TARDIS if you look hard enough. Francine Jones left the door to the room that the TARDIS is being kept in unlocked earlier. The guards don't know about it. Like I said, this is a plan we're kinda all in on. Me, the Doc, the Jones'...'

'Russia and China?'

Jack frowns. 'No. They're in cells, like you.'

I take a few shaky steps towards the door as the final chains a taken off. Jack is quickly at my side, lifting my left arm around his shoulders so I can use him to help me walk.

'Thank you,' I mutter. 'We should find Russia and China. They'll be able to help us.' Even if we've all been defeated, the three of us were once powerful countries. We'll have a better chance of fighting if we're together.

As it turns out, China and Russia are being kept together in a cell that is slightly larger than mine, further along the corridor I've been kept on, leading away from the observation deck. Their door doesn't have a lock on it, which surprises me (but it's just as well, because Jack doesn't have a key for this one). On top of it being without a lock, the door is made of wood. Upon opening it and peering inside, I can see that the two other imprisoned countries aren't even tied down by chains. They just sit on little benches like the one in my cell, looking like hollow cases of the two nations I remember from the many years I've known both of them.

'China! Russia!' I whisper urgently, rushing over to them. Jack stays positioned by the door, keeping a lookout for any guards that might come along. The relief from seeing the other two countries alive is fueling strength in me once more, and I get the feeling that the longer I am away from those magic draining chains, the more stability will return to me.

Russia just stares at the floor, apparently having not registered my arrival. I reach China and bend down in front of him. His brown eyes have dulled and he stares back at me, unresponsive.

'Ch... China?' I ask hesitantly.

Finally, after what seems like an agonising amount of time filled with suspension and dread within me, but what must have only been a few seconds, I see recognition flash across China's face.

'E... England, aru...?' His voice is gravelly and unused.

I nod, glad to see that he knows who I am. I must look very different since the last time I saw him and Russia- a few weeks, maybe even months have gone by. I expect my hair is longer, and I recall a distant memory of a long time ago when I was just a small child and I tried to grow my hair out so that I would look as impressive as France with his wavy hair.

I must look weaker and be a lot thinner than I did a few months ago, and China and Russia appear the same. Russia's pale hair is falling in locks over his shadowed face and he still isn't showing any signs of moving, which makes me wonder if he is actually even alive. But he's sitting up on his bench and I can make out faint movement from him breathing. China's face is much thinner, appearing gaunt and with a haunted element to the dark shadows on his face.

'Why are you here, aru?' he asks faintly, his eyes still dull.

'Jack and I have figured out a way to get out of here,' I say, my eyes darting around the cell. There really is nothing here that is restraining him and Russia, and as I peer at the door I can make out that it can be opened from the inside just as easily as from the outside. I don't understand. This is quite possibly the easiest room to escape from on the entire Valliant. Why haven't Russia and China just left?

'Get out of here...?' China echoes.

'That's right,' I confirm. 'The two of you can come with us. We can escape.'

I wait patiently for either of them to register what I have said and for them to get to their feet, like a light bulb will flicker inside their brains or something and they'll realise they can break out.

Neither of them move.

'Come on,' I say hesitantly, reaching out to pull China up from the bench. He doesn't shift as I tug at his shirt.

'China...?'

'Artie... they're not coming,' Jack says from the doorway.

I swivel my head around to glare at him. 'What do you mean? Why not?'

Jack's voice is unnaturally serious. 'Look at them, Arthur.'

I glance uncertainly back at the two other countries. They continue to sit where they are, gazing dully off into space like nothing matters any more, and the sad realisation slowly dawns on me. They're not Russia and China. At least, they're not anymore. They're not what they once used to be. They're lost.

'You go...' Russia says to me in a voice that can barely be classed as a whisper.

I bite my lip. 'But... but... we can turn this around...'

All I get in reply is silence.

I rise to my feet and head over to Jack, the meaning of all of this sinking in. We quietly close the wooden door behind us, leaving the two nations to their isolation. As I glance back at the door, I notice a little black plaque on the door that I didn't spot before. On it is just one word to classify the contents of the room, written in the Master's scrawly handwriting:

Broken.

Jack and I sneak quietly into the room containing the TARDIS. The sight of the beautiful blue police box sends a tremor of excitement coursing through my veins, something that has always happened, ever since I was a tiny child, alone in the woods and the Doctor would come and save me from the monsters. But the light streaming through the windows is a darkened crimson and I can quickly tell that something is very wrong with the time machine.

'I should probably warn you-' Jack begins, but I am already throwing myself through the unlocked TARDIS door, staring in shock at the console room. There's a huge, fenced barrier around the centre of the room, blocking off the controls on the panels. The ship, normally glowing healthily in an amber light, is pulsating red in sickness. Even having been distanced from the TARDIS for a while, I can feel its pain. I can feel herpain. The Doctor always told me that the ship itself has a consciousness, just like how the countries have personifications such as myself. I've always felt a special connection with the vessel.

'What has that bastard done?' I whisper angrily.

'The Doc called it a paradox machine,' Jack murmurs, coming to stand next to me as we gaze around the interior of the ill time machine. He's referring to the weird fencing around the console. 'I don't really get what it's for, but the Master needs it for something. I would try and destroy it, but we don't really want to draw any unwanted attention right now and the guards will figure out pretty quickly that we've escaped.'

'Right...' I rush over to the doors on the other side of the room, leading to the vast expanse of corridors within the TARDIS. I've been in this ship so many times, so I'd like to say that I know the layout pretty well, but the TARDIS is a living thing with a mind of her own, and she can alter her interior at will, placing rooms wherever she wishes and throwing dead ends wherever she likes. Not this time, though. It's like she wants to help Jack and I, because she knows that we want to help her.

We stumble across a useful room in no time at all. Inside is an assortment of mechanical devices, all mementos from the many different planets the Doctor has visited in his long life. It doesn't take long for Jack to spot a vortex manipulator lying on a rickety wooden table, covered in dust. He swipes it up and quickly starts pressing buttons to see whether it is still operational. The grin he sends me next tells me that the little machine is still functional. He straps it to his wrist and holds out his arm so I can grab a hold of the vortex manipulator too.

'Hold on tight,' he says with an excited smile.

I close my eyes, filled with relief that the plan has gone well, sadness because I'm having to leave the Jones', Russia, China and the Doctor behind, and apprehension because I'm about to arrive on my home planet and see all the damage that has been done.

I must lose consciousness or something, because I come to staring at a light grey sky. I'm not surprised that I blacked out. Vortex manipulators can give you terrible headaches when you use them, and I'm not exactly in the strongest state right now, am I?

I climb unsteadily to my feet to find Jack beside me, staring off at something in the distance. I quickly take in my surroundings. We're on a hill which I quickly recognise as Hampstead Heath in London; I have a city house not far from here. But the trees that always used to surround this open stretch of plane are gone- I quickly spot blackened stumps of wood scattered across the park and the ash is swirling around in the slight breeze, creating a small, mystical haze which initially shields my view of the city beyond.

'I set the vortex manipulator to track down the spot in which Martha and America must have landed when they escaped the Valliant,' Jack explains. 'It's picking up the residual energy from the vortex manipulator they used.'

'They came here? To London?'

'Must've.' Jack scratches his head. 'They'll be long gone, though. Those intercoms back when this all started kept going on about a slaughter in London. The whole city must have been a total battlefield.'

A lump rising in my throat. 'You're not suggesting that-'

'I'm not saying they got caught up in it,' Jack says quickly. 'Martha still had a perception filter. She and America probably used it to get out of the city. That vortex manipulator they were using was pretty busted, though. Probably only had about one use left it, and they used it to to get back down to Earth.'

'So unless they found other transport, they probably went on foot,' I say.

'Yep,' Jack confirms.

My vision is finally adjusting to the blurry shapes beyond the ash and smoke. I can make out the buildings of London beyond. Or rather, I can make out a few of them. But there used to be many more of them.

I can see it now. The rubble. The debris. So many of the buildings have collapsed. London is in ruins. The city is silent. My city has been brought down.

I fall to my knees, my vision going a little shaky as I am overwhelmed by a wave of nausea. I can feel the tears stabbing tauntingly at my eyes, but even though the Master isn't here and won't see, I still can't cry. He'll know if I do. The Master will somehow know if I break down. I can practically still hear the drums, as if they're stuck in my head like they are in his.

The drums are pounding against the wall inside my mind, making cracks appear, breaking it ever so maliciously.

Tap tap tap tap...

I can't let him break me. I have to keep going.

So yeah. More doom and gloom. This trip to Earth for Iggy and Jack isn't going to end well.

And I apologise for breaking Russia and China. Jeez, I sound like a kid who borrowed and then broke their friend's toys. XD

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