….Part 7: Save Me….

"I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life."

― Maya Angelou

….….

The valley was freezing cold. Then again, the North was always freezing. The boy wrapped his fur coat tighter around himself.

His coat was real seal pelt, with pretty red and white beads on it. The nice Eskimos who gave it him told him that he was special, so he needed a special coat. He wished he looked more like them (their tan skin, wise black eyes, and black hair fascinated him), but they didn't mind how different him looked. It made him happy.

The boy looked out over the sea, trying to catch a glimpse of the men his people had been talking about. He had heard them speaking of strange men on huge, floating mountains coming over the waters. They had brought exotic goods to trade and gain the favor of his people, and they promised to return soon. The boy was warned to be careful around them, but he only wanted a peek at them, he wouldn't even talk to them.

He sat down behind a tall oak tree and hid behind a low branch. The boy was only about four, so he could manage it quite well. He settled into his coat, and waited for the ships to come.

It was almost five hours later that a glimpse of something reached his drowsy eyes.

A large black mast slowly peeked over the horizon. The slim pole was quickly followed by a ship as it quickly came up towards the end of the water.

"Terre!" he heard a strange voice call out from afar, "Nous avons attaint la terre!"

The ship gracefully came up to the small bay, stopped about a half a mile away, then put a few smaller boats in the water to come to shore.

The little boy watched, intrigued, as white, light haired men stepped off the boats. They looked a lot like he did; long fair hair, pale skin. But their clothes were obviously not suited for the weather. They wore bright, vibrant colors, but they were thin and flowing. The boy gave them two days, and they'd be frozen.

"Maintenant, Samuel," a rich, velvety voice sounded much louder than the others, " Où sont les gens étranges que vous avez parlé?"

"Ils sont quelque part par ici, monsieur!" an older voice called, "Nous avons juste besoin de regarder."

The little boy heard footsteps and crunching snow growing louder and louder, "Pensez-vous qu'il ya une nation?" the velvety voice said again as it headed towards the tree.

"Peut-être," the older voice sounded. The young boy had no clue what they were saying, but he was fairly scared. He quickly climbed up the tree and hid amongst its branches. He heard the footsteps underneath the tree stop.

"On dirait que quelqu'un était assis dans la neige," the older voice said. The boy held his breathe and peaked down slowly to catch a glimpse of an older man and a young man with flowing blonde hair.

"Est-ce que quelqu'un ici?" the blond asked, looking around the area.

"I'm here, Papa…"

The boy tried to hide further in the leaves, but he almost lost his hold the tree, and a small branch fell to the ground.

The man turned around, "Honhonhon~!" he chuckled, "Donc, vous vous cachez de moi, non?"

His heart started going a mile per hour as he heard the man start to find the tree.

"Please save me, Papa…"

"Oh, vous êtes un enfant," the blonde man said as he reached the branch the boy hid on, "Vous êtes un peu jeune pour grimper à un arbre comme ça."

The boy just settled further into the bark, unable to look away from the man, "Parlez-vous français?" the man asked him, smiling softly as he moved towards him carefully.

He stared at him in horror, trying to move farther away, but his foot slipped and he felt himself falling to the ground.

"Papa…"

"Woah!" the man jumped out and grabbed him, somehow managing to hang on to the boy and the tree.

"Save me, Papa…"

The sudden movement scared the boy, making him cry, "Je vous suis!" the man said soothingly as he pulled him back into the tree, "Je vous suis! Vous êtes sûr, mon petit. Je vous suis…"

"France?" the older man called up into the tree, "Qu'est-ce que c'est?"

"Juste un petit garçon," he called down as he began to climb down, the boy in his arms, "Je pense qu'il est le représentant de cette nation."

The boy realized how horribly his plan had failed, and he began to struggle in the man's arms, "Let me go! Let me go!"

He man chuckled as the little boy hit the snow and hid behind the tree, "Oh! You speak anglais!" he knelt down and put a hand out to him, "It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is France, I'm your big brother. Who are you?"

"Papa…"

"I-I…" the little boy peaked out from the tree, despite his better senses, "I don't know."

The man smiled brightly, "My boss is calling you New France, but you are not me, mon petit, so I will call you…"

"Papa…"

"I will call you-"

"Canada!"

The Canadian's eyes burst open, unable to see very well as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, "A-Alfred?"

"You were talking in your sleep, bro?" The American said, "Nightmare?"

"No," Matthew sighed, "Actually, it was… a pretty good dream."

Alfred squeezed his twin's good shoulder for a second, "Don't worry, bro! The hero will make sure you and your papa reunite!"

"I hope you do, Al…" Matt chuckled, "I really do…"

"Glad to see you boys are feeling a little better," Roderich said, gaining their attention from across the room, "But need to discuss something with you."

….Part 8: Democracy….

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

Mahatma Gandhi

…..

"What is it Roderich?" Alfred turned, forcing his still stiff body to move a little.

The Austrian fixed his glasses, "Well, I figured that as we have some items and medicine that our captors may take away," he grabbed hold of a loss panel in the wall and pulled it away to reveal a small hole, "Lovino was able to make this last night while we were sleeping."

"I figured we needed somewhere to hide the medicine," the Italian shrugged.

Peter smiled at him, "It was an amazing idea, Lovi!" he laughed, making Lovino blush.

"We also hid some personal items in there," Elizabeta added, "Everything we had in our pockets, mostly."

"I wanted to know if you had anything you wanted saved," Roderich explained.

"Yeah," Alfred stretched and took off Texas, much to everyone's shock, "Don't be so surprised. My glasses are cracked already, but I don't need them to see, I'm far sighted. As long as I don't need to dodge any snipers, I should be fine."

The Austrian took the glasses from his hands and carefully laid the cracked glass in the hole, "Alright then-"

"Wait!" Matt sat up, "Take my glasses too, Alfred, for once, makes some sense. And… take this too…" Carefully, almost reverently, he pulled a tattered red and white Canadian flag out of his pocket, "I picked it up from the house out there. It was just lying in the yard, so I picked it up… I couldn't just leave it there…"

"It's alright," Roderich looked at him with pity as he took the flag and the glasses from the shaking hands and laid them on the , "If it was me, and that was my flag, I would have done the same thing. I think we all would have."

The Canadian smiled, "Thanks."

Alfred yawned, "So, any idea what's gonna happen today?"

"Alfred," Roderich sighed, "How in the world would we know what's going on?"

"Luck?" the American shrugged as the door opened with a slam.

Commander Smirnov's combat boots made a loud clanking sound as he stepped through the door before it was tightly bolted, "Good morning! You have all slept nice, da?" he waited a second as if waiting for a response, "Good! You will need your energies today."

"And why would that be?" Alfred questioned cockily. He was then meet by a foot in his gut.

Smirnov chuckled as he kicked him again, "You do not question your betters!" he leaned down and sneered in the American's face, "I like breaking the cocky ones; more of a challenge."

Alfred growled, but the commander covered his mouth, "You have fire in your eyes, boy," he laughed, "I'll enjoy quashing it."

"Don't touch him!" everyone turned in shock to Peter, who jumped up and started punching the man's legs.

"Peter, stop!" Lovino cried out in panic as he dived to get the small boy away.

The commander jumped at his chance, picked up the struggling micronation, and kicked Lovino in the face, "You won't be able to give as much information as this one," Smirnov commented, examining the angry little nation in his arms, "But you will make a nice little example to your friends and the public," he turned to the horrified others, "Know this, mother Russia is all powerful. We are unafraid of anything, and we will do whatever we must to anyone, even children," he knelt down through Peter out the door to a soldier.

He then grabbed Alfred by the face and made him look at him, "I will crush the fire in your eyes, and I will crush the hope in your little companions as well. You think that this is all some game, boy? For me, this is a game, but there are no heroes or villains in this game, only you and myself. Outside of here, you may have been great, but here, you will fall. Have faith in that, boy."

Smirnov threw the American back roughly against the wall and spit on his face. The commander stood up and laughed before leaving.

The room was completely silent except for the bolting of the door, and Lovino's hard breathing as he looked to his hands, "…Peter…." The Italian whispered in shock, "…God, why?"

Elizabeta hastily knelt down beside him as Lovi started to shake a little, "It's alright," she whispered, "It's going to be fine."

"I almost had him…" Lovino whispered, "I almost had him…. I could have saved him…"

"No you couldn't have," Roderich sighed, "This is Peter we're talking about. He's as pigheaded as hell, he would never let you stop him."

"I had to try," he shook his head, "He's just a little kid…"

"Thank you, Lovi," all eyes turned to America, who was rubbing his head from where it came into contact with the wall.

The Italian looked at him questioningly, "What do you have to thank me for?"

"Peter is basically our brother just as much as he is England's," Matt explained, adjusting his sling a little, "Thank you for trying to help him."

"Don't mention it," Lovino leaned against the wall a little sadly, "We need to stick together, or we're all gonna be dead."

"I agree," Roderich nodded as he settled next to Elizabeta, "This isn't a one man fight."

Both nations of North America nodded.

"I say we need some democracy in its most basic form!" Alfred laughed, a little quieter than usual.

"For once," his brother sweatdropped, "You make a point."

Elizabeta raised an eyebrow at them, "Is this really the time to be spreading democracy?"

"No," Alfred shrugged, "But the whole principal of democracy is that the people have a say in what happens to them."

"So," Matt said pointedly, "We establish goals that we all agree are our top priority. Then we focus our efforts on the most important of those goals."

"Our first goal is to all get out of this alive," Lovino said, instantly, "We protect each other, and we don't let anyone die."

"I like it," Elizabeta nodded, "And we remain equal, no matter what. No one gets more than another."

Roderich examined his finger nails, trying to appear indifferent, "That sounds fair, but staying in touch with the outside world must be a priority."

"We can have Toris help us with that much," Alfred nodded, "I think… we should all be each other's goals. We all escape together, no matter how injuried, no matter what happens. Even if one of us dies, we still bring them out with us. We all need to go home to our friends and family."

They all agreed to this plan quickly. It was comforting to have some kind of plan for their situation, though they still held serious fears for their young friend.

"What do you think they're doing to the boy?" Lovi asked quietly.

"I don't know," Roderich sighed, "But worrying will do nothing for him."

The Italian ran a hand over his face, "I know, but he's a kid."

"He's a kid with hundreds of other people worrying about him," Elizabeta rubbed his back.

Alfred chuckled, "Yeah, and Iggy has to count for, like, half of that. So don't worry. There isn't anything we can do for him anyway."

Lovino smiled sadly, "I hate this so much. We're so helpless and there's nothing we can do about."

"We can hope," Elizabeta smiled, "And that's what's important."