ElricGurl: Hello my friend! Thank you for your last review. It has been a long hiatus, one that I apologize for. I hope you're still around for the second installment of Blood for Blood.
ChuuChan2317: Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Girl-Of-Action: I have 0 intentions of rushing through the second half of the story. It will be a long, strung out, all out bloody angsty war. And I actually wrote this in retaliation to those who make the Confederacy out to be some sort of monster. Its a war known as literal brother vs brother, and that was why I wrote out the events leading up to it. I needed my readers to feel just as much for the Confederacy as they did America. As for your prediction of South's death, I have no words. Thank you so much for your support. Your review was super flattering.
Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.
Historical quotes are in italics. Feel free to look them up.
WELCOME TO THE CIVIL WAR.
Chapter Fourteen
January-March 1861
More states followed much to the dismay of America. Each one nearly within days of the other tore him apart. Mississippi went after South Carolina followed by: Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and finally the largest, Texas. America's government suffered as well with each representative and senator of South's leaving to support him.
The more powerful South grew the angrier America became. He laid in his bed in agony trying to accommodate losing half of himself so suddenly. He felt his strength diminish, but he knew South was no match for him. South didn't even have an army or superior commanders. Not to mention, America was the industrial leader of the two and his population was much larger than South's. It would be a short war, and South would realize he had no chance. South would stop his rebellion and know America was right.
America was more concerned with Britain and France. He knew South would attempt to elicit help from his previous mentor. The first thing America found himself doing was writing both Britain and France to explain himself before South could.
Britain
Britain had been in the middle of tea time when a letter from America had arrived. He had found it unusual that his former colonies were writing him since America was in constant competition with him. Naturally, Britain was suspicious. He opened and read the letter dropping his tea cup and spilling its contents in his lap after reading only the first paragraph.
"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed loudly both in response to the letter and hot tea in his lap.
The island country had known America was currently struggling with his southern side, but Britain had not been prepared to read that it had seceded from America. The letter was vague, but the threat came across crystal clear. "Do not recognize the Confederacy's independence or else." However, questions raged in the Brit's mind. Did this Confederacy have a personification? The letter had not said nor did it say the reasons behind the secession. If America was currently undergoing a Civil War and the Confederacy didn't have a personification that would mean America's body would be destroying itself from the inside out possibly even killing the country birthing a new one in his stead.
Britain was up and running through Parliament to his prime minister, Lord Palmerston. He shoved the letter into the prime minister's face out of breath.
"I need a ship to America now!" Britain demanded.
He had to see how America was doing. He wasn't worried. Britain was not worried about his previous colonies, who had betrayed him. He looked down at his trembling hands. America was in danger. Of course Britain was worried, and he couldn't stand it. He couldn't let America know he still cared. America would only throw it in his face. He packed his bags for America regardless.
January 9th 1961, Fort Sumter
America looked at Fort Sumter in the distance on board the merchant ship, Star of the West, with his 200 Union troops. The ship America occupied was unarmed in order to foster a new trust with South. Unfortunately, he had received no word from his former Southern states. He hoped to end this dispute now as he neared his only fortification left in the South.
A loud crashing, breaking of wood suddenly shook the ship.
America's heart took off as adrenaline shot through his system and he was on the deck before his mind could catch up. Shouting and panicked words reached his ears.
"Cannon fire!"
"All hands on deck!"
"They're attacking us!"
"Retreat!"
America ran to the bow seeing the rows of cannon's spread out among Charleston's harbor. America's heart tore into a million pieces seeing his own people attacking him. He was hyperventilating. Grief ripped his soul asunder. A pain America couldn't even name forced him to his knees.
"South!" America bellowed the heartache evident in this one broadcast.
"Sir?" the captain, John McGowan sounded unsure.
America got to his feet violently; angry tears erupted from his eyes. His body was shaking. A laceration was forming on his cheek from the damage being dealt to him. He screamed aimlessly, an outlet his agony desperately needed. South had done it. He had finally divided them after threatening for so long. America had to stop this before it went too far.
February 8, 1861, Alabama
He was in Montgomery, Alabama, his capital. South could hardly believe it. He had a capital. Currently, South was in a stress filled crisis of rounding up a government, which South had thought wouldn't be near as hard as it had turned out to be. He had a representative of each of his states in the capital working to form the new nation, but South had a more important agenda, finding a president.
"Jefferson please!" South begged the old Mexican-American War vet and Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis.
"No, South, I'm sorry, but I have to serve in the army. I know America. He's not letting you go without a fight. You don't need me holed away in office. You need me preparing for war," Davis responded dutifully.
South growled, "But you've been in the cabinet. You've been through an administration. You have the most experience to be president!" South argued.
Davis turned abruptly, "You shouldn't have seceded at all in the first place, South!" Davis suddenly shouted tired of the personification asking him for the impossible.
South paled.
"What in seven hells were you thinking? You're not ready for this. Asking me to be your president only proves this. You don't have the qualified people to make this work," Davis explained his anger slowly dissipating.
South bit back the feeling of disappointment and channeled it into anger.
"I may not have been ready for this, but I will damn sure fight for it. That's why I need a president that will fight with me. That's why I need you. Soon, Britain will need my cotton, and if he wants to continue getting my cotton he'll help me win this war, win my freedom," South replied with conviction.
Davis scoffed for a moment, "King Cotton," he muttered under his breath.
But it could work. What South was saying could work, and if South got Britain to ally with him against America then they could easily defeat America.
"You know, there might not even be a war," South said with a doubtful smile and shrug.
South knew after what happened at Fort Sumter back in January there was no chance that they were not going to war.
Davis guffawed, "Now that's a joke if I've ever heard one! There will be a war. America is not going to let you go and Lincoln is not going to let this stand."
South frowned at the mention of Lincoln.
"But for now, you've got yourself a president. I'm not the most qualified, but if you need one that desperately," Davis shook his head, "Then I will do my best for the will of the people."
South breathed a sigh of relief. He needed to pull together his nation before he went to war with his older brother. Deep in his bones, his muscles, and his nervous system he could feel the volatile tension between his own states and America's. He needed to get to Charleston. These feelings were pulling him to the harbor. He knew it was where he needed to be.
Charleston, SC April 12th, 1861
South, now calling himself Confederacy, had come to Charleston back in March following Lincoln's inauguration. The 16th president of the United States had threatened Confederacy that he fully intended to enforce America's will on the South. Immediately, the personification of the CSA had come to South Carolina in preparation of the oncoming war.
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
The words flooded Confederacy with emotion. He could hear his brother's, ex-brother's, pain in Lincoln's words as he read the inaugural speech in the Charleston Mercury newspaper. He dreamed of his ex-brother a lot. He missed America. Confederacy cried out for him like a homesick child calls for his mother in his sleep. Confederacy hated himself for it.
Currently, Confederacy stared at Fort Sumter, still under construction, from the harbor in preparation of the siege on the fort. Lincoln still believed he had a claim to it. Confederacy was here to prove otherwise. He looked to his Confederate soldiers until his eyes landed on Confederate General P.G.T Beauregard. They locked eyes.
"Commander Jones, are you ready?" Beauregard questioned his eyes hard, their artillery positioned and ready to fire.
Confederacy knew this was it. This was going to be the final straw to break America. There was no going back. His heart beat fast and his hands shook. He took a ragged breath in and clenched his teeth before he replied.
"As I'll even be," Confederacy answered with a nod.
Cannon fire boomed along the shore.
April 1861, Washington D.C.
Angry hands gripped the paper hard and an agonizing scream tore through the room. The paper crinkled helplessly.
America was in the beginning of a Civil War with his younger brother. A brother he had raised since he had found him all those decades ago in the congressional chamber with his first president, George Washington. A brother he had doted on, loved, given everything to. The words again rang in America's mind.
"One day, boy, you'll know the pain of having a part of you torn away, and when that day comes I'll watch with interest." (1)
America understood Britain, and he hated his previous mentor for it. Britain had predicted his downfall even before he had begun his life as a full-fledged nation. Had this been what Britain felt when America had left him? America stopped his shouting and his face hardened as the mental image of Britain popped in his mind. The Empire had fallen to his knees in conflicted tears and America had mocked him for it.
He wiped the tears from his cheek. His heart cauterized from the burning anger effectively stopping his bleeding heart from feeling. America would not be like Britain.
America would take the shot.
"I want troops down there now!" America bellowed in reference to Fort Sumter to his president, Lincoln.
He threw the balled up paper with the words "Fort Sumter falls!" in bold on it hard to the floor.
"Of course, Mr. America, I'm working on it now," Abraham Lincoln responded in equal fervor.
America suddenly stopped grabbed his chest and gasped. Lincoln looked up in surprise just as a messenger burst into the room. America quickly fell into the nearest chair wheezing. It was an overwhelming minute of a multitude of different things happening at once.
"There's an Arthur Kirkland here to see you, Mr. President," the messenger said urgently.
America's eyes popped open. It had to be anyone but him, perhaps another Arthur Kirkland. Britain wouldn't come see him in person like this, but as America's eyes turned towards the door to the oval office there stood the Empire himself looking as distinguished as ever. America felt his breath hitch, and he wasn't sure if it was from the pain of what felt like a heart attack or seeing Britain for the first time in decades. The last time he'd seen Britain had been signing the Treaty of Ghent after the War of 1812.
"Hello, America," Britain's crisp British accent greeted.
America saw Lincoln's head whip to Britain in surprise before looking to America for answers. One that America was about to give him.
America's eyes hardened, "Britain," he replied in a wheeze and gritted his teeth.
Lincoln's brows furrowed in concern after hearing America's struggling breath, "What's wrong?" he nearly demanded of his nation.
"I'm losing them," America answered his president.
Lincoln's eyes hardened knowingly, but Britain frowned in confusion.
"What are you losing?" the Empire asked with raised brows.
America groaned and spat at Britain in anger, "MY STATES!"
Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina were seceding, and there was nothing America could do to stop them.
(1): Not a historical quote. Refer back to the first heading, Yorktown, of Chapter 1 after America beats Britain in the Revolutionary war.
A/N: I hope to give ya'll a chapter at least once a month. If all goes accordingly, I hope to turn out a chapter at least every two weeks. Feedback is always appreciated! Thanks for the support!