Alejandro: Nueva España and Las Islas Filipinas (Part 2)
A/N
Again, I'm so sorry this chapter is so late. I've been really busy lately, so with medical school and a choral competition (which we won, by the way), I can't really just sit down and finish this chapter (which has been stuck in my fanfiction folder for around months now). I'm really really sorry.
This chapter is set in WW2, wherein Alejandro reminisces about his life growing up with Maria on his way to help liberate a war-torn Philippines in 1945. Kinda short, I know, but what's a third year medical student to do, right? I do have ideas, I swear!
Col. Antonio Cárdenas Rodríguez stared at the seemingly significantly younger man beside him. Alejandro, who seemed to have just reached adulthood in human years, was nothing short of troubled as he gazed at the scene unfolding before him. While the colonel decided whether or not to approach him and offer him some words of comfort, Alejandro curled his fists, fury clearly etched on his usually kind tanned face. What kind of country could wreak this much chaos and destruction on another country, especially one that had been his trading partner, even years before Antonio Carriedo discovered her? Alejandro had to double take the first time he set eyes on the city of Manila. He was enraged; this was supposed to be an open city! Not only did the Asian member of the Axis invade his hermana's country, he also breached a promise. What was once a lively town in which Alejandro often spent part of his time in to care for his hermana was now reduced to rubble and debris. Even the walled city of Intramuros was not spared; the original campus of a prominent university was struck to the ground… he and España had been proud of that school…
"Señorito Alejandro…"
Jandro lost his focus at the address. The colonel's men were starting to sift through the debris of what was once the great façade of the old university, searching through the rubble for casualties. As others started to do the same, Alejandro's eyes flew to a very familiar sight; a chain of small, white, fragrant flowers, weaved together as a coronet, littered on the ground, crushed and broken. Maria's sampaguitas…
"Maria?" Alejandro gasped. His heart raced and he could hear his pulse pounding in his ears. Perhaps he was too late; what then? As he ran to confirm his suspicions, he absurdly thought of the thorough beating he'd get from Antonio if he let anything happen to his little sister. He grasped at the ruins alongside the men, gasping for air as he felt tears run down his face.
He cursed Kuro. That pendejo! If anything happened to Maria he'd… he'd…
Several pairs of eyes watch him struggle with his feelings as he lifted rock after rock desperately, including a pair that struggled to focus from the shadows of a dilapidated building.
"Kuya Jandro?"
Alejandro turned from the pile of debris to see Maria, or at least, a shell of her former self. The naturally petite but healthy Filipina was now thin, her skin cracked and bruised from combat, her hair matted with mud and sweat. The glint in her eye was the same one she had when she fought to part ways from Spain – the very one Jandro himself had inspired her to wear. With her left hand, she held a stained bolo and with her right she held a gun, one Alejandro recognized belonged to Alfred's collection. He must have given it to her when he was forced to leave her alone.
"Maria, mí hermana, what has he done to you?" Maria fell into her brother's arms, exhaustion and emotions finally breaking down her defenses.
"Kuya Jandro! I'm so sorry you had to come here to help me! I wasn't strong enough… They took me and Kuya Alfred by surprise. They attacked me only hours after they tried to get to him. I was about to help when – " Jandro held his sister tighter as she cried.
"Maria, mí hermana, you know I would cross the oceans again and again for you even if you had merely stubbed your toe." He replied, earning a tired but genuine laugh from her as she clung tighter to him. Despite her obviously intact sense of humor, his concern for Maria and his anger towards Kuro were still battling for dominance. No one had the right to make his hermana cry…
Kuro would pay.