Chapter 9: Breathe

Roland was pushed in to the conference room gagged and bound by rope. He fell over and rolled on to his back instinctively and Gunther stomped on his gut as if he was posing for a photo with a trophy. David and Max walked up behind Gunther and Max looked at Jessica for any sign the William was still okay.

"We caught one of them!" Gunther smirked and grinded his foot on him brother, who groaned and tried to slip from under the cursed foot, "Stop moving, boy!"

Alfred stared along with the other states, but was the first one to speak, "So you captured Roland? Dude that was a low blow and the other rogue nations will not enjoy that, especially Rosalind, but a captured nation is a captured nation."

"I've heard that the attack in Texas didn't go as expected." Carver said with a sigh, "Maybe they need back up."

"I don't care how badly that suicide mission went. All I care about is that we caught one of them and we are winning the war!" Gunther boomed, "Once again on the little guy, where should I put him? In the room where we locked DC in?" Alfred nodded and the hulking state let his foot off of the rogue nation, threw him over his shoulder before Roland could run for his life, and walked out of the room triumphantly. David calmly walked to his seat on the northeastern states side and Max sat next to Jessica.

"So back on the Texas thing. What do you mean didn't go as planned dude?" Alfred was concerned.

"Well, all I heard was that some unidentified man that looked like Rambo and had an unidentified gun that could chew through the tanks' armor. Then they kept contact until a few hours ago, then nothing. Wait, they said another attack on the west tank and that one blew up and then nothing." Carver muttered.

"The west tank had Bruce, Eden, Jake and Adam in it. They may have gotten out of the tank before it exploded…"John tailed off. He could feel his heart sinking in his chest.

Alfred stared at John and Carver in fear, "I would know if they were dead, right dudes? Maybe Dustin has them locked up, right?" The fear in his voice was palpable and he truly wouldn't know what would happen if one of his states was dead.

"I would guess so, Alfred." Trevor said quietly and with a quiver in his voice, then added a little stronger, "If we are to attack Rosalind, I would like to take part." The room was entirely silent and what he said echoed off of the walls.

"Well, dude, we are going to wait for Derek to return from the attack on New York City, then we'll talk about attacking the other rogue nations. I can only hope that Derek will come back with William." Alfred sighed.

Derek stumbled into the room soon after, still covered with soot and ash. He was holding his arm like he hurt it and had anger in his eyes. The entire room was wide eyed and looked surprised and horrified.


Dustin was happily playing with the keys on a key ring that held the freedom to the four states in the room, "You could have left the union with us, then you wouldn't be in this conundrum." His hands were bound with bandages enough that he could still use his hands; his face, however, wasn't covered up, but were cleaned that there wasn't any blood on his face. The four states that were in the cells could see the crisscrossing of cuts on his forehead and near his eyes.

"Like hell I would leave! I helped create this country and you five aren't going to tear it down!" Eden growled. He was brooding in the corner of his cell, not facing the nation.

"Will, helped too, and he left. Being a nation isn't so hard, you just have to be strong." The Texan answered with a smirk and was still playing with the key ring.

"You don't have any money! How are you going to pay for this war!?" Bruce argued. His hands were gipped on the steel bars that lined his cell.

"How is Alfred going to pay for this war? With the borrowed money he took from Yao?" Dustin toyed with them.

"Will the two of you shut up, I'm trying to take a nap." Adam said slapping a thin pillow over his face on the wall mounted cot. He had his arm in a sling and the bullet hole that went completely through his arm stitched and wrapped up.

"Can you get one of your cheerleaders from your football team in here?" Jake smiled. He was resting his elbow on and leaning on the wall.

"Jake, no. You are prisoners, not tourists." Dustin clipped the key ring on his belt. He had to leave the prison so he could talk to the other rogue nations and see if anyone else was attacked.

As he walked up the concrete stairs to the exit so he could use his cellphone, he thought of how he could pay for the war. He could make Alfred pay war reparations, but that would be like pocket change to the world power, or he could export the corn and cotton grown in his country. Either way he would make more than enough to pay for the war.

Once he cleared the doors, he heard a ding from his cellphone that he now had reception. He called Rosalind who wasn't thrilled about him using a cellphone and that the ham radio was destroyed.

"You have to be kidding, they blew up your ham radio." Rosalind's voice was almost covered up by the sound of heavy machinery in the background, but he could tell what she was saying.

"Could you get away from the machines? It's just hard to hear you. I caught the bastards after testing out your prototype." The Texan rubbed the back of his head while pacing.

"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but Roland was caught. We need to switch our positions from defensive to offensive. We are going to tear our way all the way to DC and give those fools a taste of their own medicine." Rosalind growled, then asked with a softer voice, "You used my prototype against tanks? That takes guts, cowboy. How well did it hold up?"

"Great, it chewed though tanks like they were made of paper. What are you making, more of this gun?" Dustin asked with a smile.

"No actually. That one is the only one for now, until that factory is done. In this one we are making entire vehicles. You know, like tanks, halftracks, stuff like that." Rosalind sounded proud of that then returned to her earlier mood, "We have to get him back, I fear what Derek would do in his current mindset. Will, said that he was doing better, more hesitant but still nuts."

"We better get our asses in gear." Dustin said suddenly, "What's the plan?"


Derek smiled at the shocked faces of the states and his father, "Well, how did your mission go and where is the four we sent down to Texas?" He sat down hi his usual seat and wiped off the soot on his face with a handkerchief.

"Well, we caught Roland. What happened in New York, I thought you had that under control?" Max said with confusion. He was fidgeting in his chair and almost expected William to kill Derek after all that he had done.

"Well, they knew that we were coming. Someone told them that we were coming." He said cold and precisely, "New York City is just to sprawling to attack directly like we did, so I'd imagine that we need a new tactic to take back New York. The only reason I even thought about attacking there because that is the capital until they rebuild Albany. Where is Roland? I would like to talk to him."

"Umm, no. You aren't touching my twin." Kyle said angrily. He knew what the capital was capable to do to anyone who offended him.

"Who are you to tell me what I can do?" Derek walked coldly to Kyle and growled to his face, "You are weak now because he left. Don't you want to be strong again?"

"The connection between us could never be the same, Derek. He will not break under you and you underestimate him." Kyle stared into the mad eyes of the capital.

Alfred whispered to Carver, "How long has he been like this?"

Carver whispered confused, "Well, he has been losing his mind for the last six or seven days; since the five of them left, he has obsessed over this." Alfred made an o noise and picked up his capital, threw him over his shoulder, and walked out of the room with him; meanwhile the states watched this phenomenon and after Alfred left the conference room exploded into conversations and sever laughing.


"What the hell, dad?" Derek said from his father's back.

Alfred put him down but kept his hands on the capital's shoulders, "The others are telling me that you are going crazy, dude."

"Oh yeah? What do they say?" Derek said sarcastically.

"You know…you tried to cut off the ring fingers off of two of your siblings' hands…and this now. You need to keep your head on straight, not allowing this to consume you like the last time." Alfred said softly.

"They left for no reason-" Derek started, but Alfred stopped him with shaking his head.

Alfred softly said, "Just don't want to lose you, okay, dude? I'll let go of you and be careful." Alfred let go of his son and Derek stared coldly at his father with his identical blue eyes to the nation in front of him.


The call from Ivan and Aurora was to be expected from the earlier day's events and they sent a lot more help than was originally thought. Entire battalions were sent to each of the lower rogue nations, except Roland (at the moment it would be impossible), more than enough to take back Superior and Roland.

"So what's the plan, Rosalind?" Aurora walked through the halls of Rosalind's house.

"We chew through the US until we get to DC and then we take Roland by force." Rosalind said with no emotion on her face, "Short and sweet. The only catch is that we leave enough people to defend the captured areas and have enough to take the next area."

"Leave that to me, da. Just don't die." Ivan smiled.

Aurora nodded and said, "It's probably for the best, dad. I'll go along with Roz and we will give the states hell if Roland is hurt or injured in anyway."

"Be safe, my sunflowers. If Alfred hurts any of you," Ivan's face stayed smiling but the area around him turned a dark purple, "He will not live another day."

"That great, Ivan." A small smile appeared on Rosalind's face. She was happy to have someone watching her back for once.

As the three of them left her house and joined the enormous army that waited on the edge of her property. The army held the three nations people with the appropriate uniforms and places. Each personification lead their armies north towards Superior.


Roland was flipped onto his back when Gunther set him down "gently." He groaned and Gunther cut the ropes that bound him and left the room. Flinging the ropes across the room as if they were snakes, he took bearings of where he was, and he didn't actually know. The click that resounded around the empty room confirmed his fear that he was locked in the room. He could deal with this.

Looking around the desolate room he found two gurneys flipped over. Much like something that Derek would do, Roland thought and chuckled, I had no idea that there was such room in the conference hall. Everything is so white, so much like snow, and just as cold. He started to get dizzy and almost tripped over the gurneys and slid back into a wall.


"I don't think our brother is doing well, Kyle." Trevor sighed in the overlook, "Are you listening, Kyle?"

"Yeah, I know. Even though he is no longer with me as a state, he is still my twin. I can still feel his pain." Kyle sighed back to his brother.

"I may be the third youngest, but I know this is wrong. We shouldn't leave him in there with nothing." Trevor walked to the window again and stuck his hand over his older sibling's sitting form,

"Agreed." Kyle said as he slowly stood up.


William was walking slowly through the ruined city of Albany. He was furious at what had happened to Roland and it couldn't have happened at a worse time; he needed to clear his head also from his encounter with his crazed brother. Feeling helpless, he felt that his brother's madness sprung from his sudden absence in the union, but he couldn't just give up. So here he is walking through the burnt and blood soaked ghost city, he heard a stifled cry.

He rushed to the sound and dug through the rubble to connect with a bleeding, soot covered hand. Removing more of the rubble he unearthed his lost city, Albany.

She jumped into his arms from the cavernous building moments before the building collapsed and buried her face in his chest. He calmly held and stroked his city's long yellow blonde hair that was colored a dull black from the soot, but a raging fire burned in his eyes. He realized at that moment of how monstrous his brother had become. When he looked down at his burnt city, his eyes softened and held her close.

"Pa, I'm so sorry!" Her cry was muffled from his chest and cracked from dehydration.

"It's not your fault, Rose." He said softly to calm her, "I'm glad that you are okay."

Rose looked up at her adoptive father, "I failed you. I had no idea that Derek would be that ruthless."

"Derek was here?" William's voice lowered quickly and he held her closer.

"Y-yes. He led the attack." Rose looked at her father with fear in her eyes.

William picked her up bridal style and said looking in the general direction of DC, "He will pay."


Well, now we know that Derek is a raging psychopath. Sorry I haven't been constant on my updating, but college. Why does it have to be so hard? Well back to the story, Roland got captured and has a severe concussion (He was sliding down the wall because of a dizzy fit, which is close to what happened to my brother. Only he was really moody and had a severe headache, too). I had fun writing that for the last two hours, but it was really short compared to the last chapter. Sorry about that. Tomorrow's Friday and I may or may not update because of homework and game night! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I was waiting to use Albany and I thought, why not right at the end of this chapter. And I got to show off Will's caring side.

PS: I couldn't think of a name for this chapter so I just happened to look at my ipod and look at the song I was listening to. I just happened to be Breathe by Disturbed. I know I have a strange taste in music.