A/N: It is because I'm Vietnamese, I have my own headcanon for APH Vietnam: Vietnam had an older brother that represented the South. Yes, yes, I'm very much aware that it should be a girl, but it's my headcanon uwu and that China gave them names when they were younger, yet they changed their names during the Hồng Bàng Dynasty. South Vietnam (called Miền Nam, literally meaning southern region, and Miền Bắc isthe North) was named Long (it means dragon, referencing the Vietnamese legend, Con Rồng, cháu Tiên that I learned about like a few years ago in Viet school) and well, everybody knows what North Vietnam is.
Anyways, this is the secret behind the Fall of Saigon.
Disclaimer: Hetalia belongs to Himaruya Hidekaz. I don't own Hetalia QQ
April 30, 1975
A young man, no older than 18, was forced on his knees, hands tied behind his back. His sleek black hair fell before his eyebrows, draping the nape of his neck, yet his ears were still revealed. Unlike his fellow southerners who wore military uniforms, this man wore a simple white button-up, the sleeves pushed up. However, the shirt was stained with blood. Bruises and cuts, scars new and old, lined and dotted his skin. His eyes glared around him, honey golden like his younger sister, who never truly wanted war.
"Em?" the man called. "Em ở đâu vậy? Lien, where are you?"
"Anh hai..." a quiet voice piped back. "I...I'm so sorry..."
"Don't be," the man shook his head.
A girl, not even a year younger than the man, stepped out of the shadows. She wore a white ao dai, similar to the boy's white shirt. The difference was, her dress was crisp and clean. The young woman had her hair tied back in a low hanging ponytail, bangs over her eyebrows, just like her older brother. His skin was tan by the long hours the sun cast its rays, for the South had hotter climates than the North. The girl's skin was paler due to the North's cooler climate.
"Where's your friend, Alfred?" the girl asked.
"Why do you ask?" a smile crept onto the boy's face. "He's gone. His boss told him to leave."
"R-really?" the girl's eyes showed a deep pang. "He didn't...say anything?"
"Nope," the boy shook his head.
"Long, it's not what you think," the girl turned her back to her brother. "I don't like Alfred."
"Mmhmm," Long mused. "Sure you don't, Lien."
"Please," Lien turned to face her brother. "Now is not the time for joking! They want me to kill you, to end this war. They're everywhere in Saigon!"
"Who's 'they?'" Long looked directly into his sister's eyes, only to see her avoiding his gaze.
"Ivan and his two sisters, Natalia and Irunya, Yao, Hyung Soo..." Lien began to list off the countries. "Anyways, whatever happened to your allies?"
"Let's see," the southern half chuckled halfheartedly. "Alfred and Matthew bailed out, Mei's somewhere, Thai, Jett, Yong Soo..."
Upon naming the Korean brothers, the brother and sister pair grew quiet. They too were split up, one side following America, the other following the Soviet Union. It was the same situation as the Vietnamese siblings. Why couldn't they become separate nations? Was it because they were too small nation-wise? Had they been pushed too far? Was there no turning back? One or the other had to die?
The silence between the two siblings was enough to go mad. For centuries, they were inseparable, but somehow, the past few centuries drove them apart. Vietnam, as a whole, was a country of rebellion, but now, it was rebelling against itself. It would tear itself apart.
"Lien, it's time for me to die," Long shook his head grimly.
"No!" Lien cried, running behind her bound brother, trying to untie the knot. "I never wanted this to happen! I never wanted us to be divided, I never wanted our people to die like this!"
"I get it," Long half-smiled. "But, Lien, we've been divided since the start. Look at us, a boy and a girl to represent one nation. I followed Christianity, you followed Buddhism. We speak our own languages different ways, we celebrate in different ways, we cook food in different ways, we - "
"Long, listen to me," Lien gave another heave at the first knot out of several. "We may be different, but it doesn't mean we can't live amongst each other! Look at Hyung and Yong! Literally, complete opposites! Alfred, Matthew, definitely not the same. Feliciano and Lovino, personalities polar opposites!"
"You forgot to mention, Al and Matt are two different countries," Long sighed.
"Does it matter?" Lien huffed, giving up on the knot and beginning to pull out a switchblade. "My point is, we can be separate and still live!"
Long only shook his head. Lien, a firm grip on the blade, began to saw at the thick rope tying her brother's wrists together behind his back. Long turned his head to watch as she struggled. Long had been tied up from the wrist up to his elbows, though there was more with intricate knots that could only have been done by the handiness of a Chinaman. Just as Lien had finally sawed through just one knot, the sound of a man clearing his throat caused the two siblings to sharply turn their heads to the left.
"Y-Yao..." Lien trailed off.
"Ah, Minh An," the Chinese man in the military uniform and ponytail faced Long, stepping from the shadows as Lien had. . "Tâm An," he addressed Lien.
"What did we tell you?" Lien stood up, dropping the switchblade. The blade fell to the floor with a light clang.
"Never call us your bright peace and peaceful heart!" Long growled. "We are anything but peaceful thanks to you!"
"This war will never end," piped up another voice.
Lien and Long whipped their heads toward the right to see a tall man adorning a scarf, an aura of forebode surrounding him.
"Ivan..." Lien whispered.
"It's simple, Lien!" the Russian beamed. "Kill him!"
Two women in military uniforms appeared beside the tall Russian man. Natalya and Irunya...
"Oi, not on our watch!" an Australian accent broke through.
"Don't worry, Long! We're here to save you before it's too late!" a loud voice, a bit too chipper for this moment, bursted.
It was Jett and Alfred. They appeared in front of Long and Lien, Mei and Thai appearing behind them.
"What is this?" Lien whipped around - left, right, front. "I thought you all left! Saigon is falling! You shouldn't be here! You'll all be hurt!"
"We're not worried about that," Yao shook his head. In his hands lay a pistol.
Lien's golden eyes widened as Yao held the gun out to her.
"It only takes one shot," Ivan chirped.
The Vietnamese girl looked into the Chinese man's eyes with pure horror.
"Are you asking me," Lien began to slowly shake her head, voice filled with denial, "to kill my own brother?"
"It's the only way to end the war," Natalya hissed, prompting Irunya to touch the Belarusian girl's shoulders gently.
"There must be some other way!" Lien took a step back.
"We are so sorry, Lien," the robust Ukrainian woman shook her head with a gloomy expression. "It is the only way."
Yao grabbed the Vietnamese girl's wrist, forcing her to grab the pistol. With her stubbornness, Lien threw the pistol aside. Long saw it all, watching the gun slide across the concrete floor not too far away from him. It all came to him in a crashing revelation; this war would not end unless he died. Not Lien, but him. As long as Long lived, there would be no peace.
"I will not kill my brother," Lien shook her head slowly with every word she spoke. "You cannot force me."
"Lien, look around you," a new voice boomed.
A Korean man with a braid walked up to the girl, the pistol somehow in his gloved hands. Lien, with tears rimming her eyes, shook her head violently.
"Your people are dying," a matching voice piped up. "They are suffering. You are prolonging this. It's inevitable."
"Yong Soo," Long spoke, voice grave. "I thought you were on my side."
"I am, Long!" the second Korean boy jumped. "But I hate to see you like this!"
"Yong," the first Korean boy snapped. "You are only making things worse! They cannot live like we can."
Long felt it, a deep pit of despair in his chest and stomach. His energy was draining as his capital was being captured at this very moment by his sister's people. This empty feeling was quickly replaced by a sharp pain he found unbearable. Long had grabbed the sharp end of a blade when Yao had tried to attack when he was younger, Long had taken many beatings for Lien, he was tortured, he had been set on fire, but this, he could not take. Long keeled over, still on his knees and bending down, a scowl stretched across his face.
"Lien..." Long rasped. "Just...do it...!"
Lien only stared at her older brother, taking a few steps forward.
"Lien! Do it!" Hyung Soo demanded.
Alfred ran to the pained Long, trying to support him.
"C'mon, dude!" Alfred tried to help Long straighten his back. "Stay strong!"
Long threw his head back, sweat beading on his forehead and teeth gritting together. His eyes were squeezed shut, the pain too great. Lien, with a shouting of her older brother's name, tried to run to aid him, only to be stopped by Hyung Soo. The Vietnamese girl pleaded to the Korean with begging eyes. The ever so stern Hyung Soo placed the pistol in the girl's hand. There was no escaping this. Saigon was falling, and Long had to be killed. However, despite the pro-Hanoi countries' confidence in this, the pro-Saigon countries were still in disbelief.
It was here, in this concrete structure, where the Vietnam War truly ended. In the darkness, in the dampness of the structure stood various nations. They clung to their own beliefs like a bug on a blade of grass in a windstorm. However, it was not their beliefs that decided the fate of the war. The capital of South Vietnam was falling, Long feeling the brunt of it. Lien, petrified in fear, could not bring herself to kill Long, the older brother that helped her, protected her so. It was only her that could kill him, either her or...
"There we go!" Alfred shouted triumphantly, throwing various bits of rope aside.
Long's arms were free, and he used them to clutch his stomach and chest. He finally managed to open his eyes to beg his younger sister to end this war.
"Lien, listen to me," Long struggled even to speak. "Shoot me. Shoot me, nobody else can. I don't want to live like this!"
"No, anh hai!" Lien ran to her brother, kneeling on both knees to grab him by the shoulders to hold him up. "I...I can't!"
"You have to!" Long reached for the gun Lien held in her hand. "Do it!"
Lien shook her head, as the many times she had done. The tears in her eyes finally spilled down her pale cheeks. Long had begged, Lien had refused. It was like this for at least an hour. The supporters of the North shouted at Lien, the supporters of the South encouraged Long to stay strong. Their words all blended together in a mass of muffled sound. It was as though the two Vietnamese siblings were surrounded in a bubble, separating them from their friends. It was so simple: Long dies, the war ends. Why was Lien being so childish about it? Long could never understand. Perhaps it was the thousands of years together, the unbreakable bond between the two. It had to be severed, yet Lien thought it impossible to such a thing. To kill her own brother was as bad as killing herself.
"I think it's time we just gave up," the Ukrainian woman shook her head, realizing that it would not be possible to convince Lien. "She can't do it. She won't do it."
"Come, Lien," Yao beckoned. "He'll die eventually."
Lien placed the gun down, never taking her eyes off her brother as Yao and Ivan helped her up.
"Yeah, dudes," Alfred called to the nations on Long's side. "It's better if we leave."
With grumbles and groans, the nations began to cluster together, ready to leave. Long was alone, the backs of all nations to him. With a hefty groan, Long grasped the pistol with one hand as the other held his stomach. Lien had already won...death was imminent...
Lien wanted to throw her brother one last glance, but, to her horror, she saw him grab the gun.
"No!" Lien turned around, running back.
"Lien, stay back!" Long cried, tears trailing down his toned skin. "You would have to have done this anyway!"
"Anh hai!" Lien sobbed. "No! Please!"
With the gun next to Long's temple, Long looked up to his sister. His hands shook violently.
"Em," Long smiled, tears falling and falling from both of the siblings' eyes, "never forget me. I love you, Tâm An."
"Anh Minh An!" Lien shrieked.
Eyes trained on his sister, Long pulled the trigger. Everything seemed to slow down. The countries staring in shock, Yao falling onto his knees. Alfred and Hyung Soo grabbed the Vietnamese girl's arms, hooking their elbows over her shoulders, dragging her back. Alfred, the self proclaimed hero of it all, had tears in his eyes as well. Long saw Irunya cover Natalya's eyes, the Belarusian's jaw gaping. Long heard a shriek from Mei, Thai shouting something. Jett was screaming,"No!" as Yong Soo was trying to run to Long. The last thing Long saw and heard was Lien reaching out to her brother, breaking free of the two powerful countries holding her down and her voice, sweet and mixed with panic, saying,"Em thương anh!"
Then, everything went black for Minh An Wang, better known as Long Nguyen.
A/N: This story is based off a true event in my life. Fortunately, my friend that I put representing South Vietnam did not commit suicide. However, the sad part that is true is, he did end our friendship declaring that I would've broken it off anyway, which the story refers to. I will not say more, as this is a more private thing, but I hope you enjoyed my little story!
In this final standoff, I thought it more sentimental to have most of the allies of both North and South Vietnam. Just to clarify, there are no pairings for this, even if it seems I hinted at it. (I am a huge Ameviet shipper so...)
Please leave a review as to what you think of my HC of South Vietnam! I'll be glad to write more on it! Thank you!