Hertalria risn't mine. Sub-confusing chapter, not my fave. Focus on the title of the chapter, that is what they are talking about the whole time, trying to figure this out. Written hyped up on Jelly beans.

Arthur heard the gun shot, and ran, heading toward the sound…No…No…you git…Anna…Alfred…please be okay…

USUK

She was on the ground, and she didn't know how she got there. Her clothes were covered in a bright red substance, but she couldn't fathom how it had gotten there…she didn't feel any pain…She felt for any injuries, but found none that weren't already there.

The fog finally cleared when she looked up into her father's face. He was over her, his arms on either side of her neck, his face a sheet of white. That was when she realized the blood wasn't hers, watching as some of it dribbled from his mouth, and drip down. His breath came in shallow gasps.

There was a hole in his chest. He'd blocked the bullet, tackling Anna to the ground. Anna looked down and saw the wound.

"D-dad-dy…Oh my g-"

His eyes were unresponsive, and he collapsed, rolling to the side of her as two more bullets riddled his body. Anna pulled herself up, rolling her father over, his eyes starring blankly at the ceiling. Then she remembered the man with the gun. She looked up into a barrel. This is it…

USUK

Arthur picked up his pace, locating the sound from behind closed door. He slammed against it; gun ablaze, the door smashing into the wall. He stopped dead in his tracks. There was Anna, a gun at her head, and below her, devoid of movement, was his Alfred…his Alfred, staring at the ceiling. His Alfred, not moving, not laughing, not smiling. His beautiful eyes lost on the world, leaving dull blues behind.

"Well well, who do we have here? The late American's former partner. Widowed at such an old age, what a shame. You were widowed once before, were you not? Too bad they botched that up." The man with the gun to Anna's head shook his head, smiling. "Well, doing something yourself never hurt. Now the scourge of my life is dead, maybe I'll just finish off and go settle in Tahiti."

"Let her go, you've done what you wanted." The pain was evident in his voice, even though he was trying to remain strong. He needed to get Anna and Alfred out of this, as "unharmed" as possible, not believing what he was seeing on the floor.

"No, you see, it would be fun to ruin one more life, I think. After all, Anna is only some filthy mortal, right Arthur? And a Russian too. Alfred always hated Russians." The man moved his finger onto the trigger.

Something in Arthur snapped, the way that man talked so calmly while Arthur's world was collapsing around his ears. He started to chant under his breath, the lit room growing dark and the walls beginning to bend around them, ghostly figures swirling around them. The man with the gun stopped smiling, and the two thugs behind him began to whisper nervously. Then all three stood stock still, looking straight at Arthur, the rat dropping his gun to the floor.

The Brit laughed demonically, his old pirate side coming back, along with a grin that would kill a water buffalo at first sight and make a herd of cows grow constipated. He would hurt them, hurt them horribly. He wanted them to feel pain as he felt it every day of his life for fifteen years.

"Find yourselves a little short of breath? Paralyzed with fear? You BASTARDS will pay for what you've done…" The men started to turn colors that skin shouldn't be, and the two thugs went down, dead from suffocation, but the rat was released. Arthur walked up to the man, hoisting him up by the collar. "You sick bastard. Hope hell is good to you." Then, he took his gun and shot the man in the stomach a few times, before throwing him across the room and out the door, into the wall.

"You'll bleed to death in a couple minutes, but until then, have fun with excruciating pain." He kicked the Rat's dropped gun away, and bent down to Anna, who'd begun to sob, slipping out of his sub-demonic state.

"Anna, what happened?" Anna was wide eyed at the whole scene before her, but seemed to recover enough to respond to his question. Arthur checked her over quickly, and was relieved to find that all the blood on her wasn't hers. Then his heart clenched as he turned around.

"I…it was a trap, and Dad fell for it, and then…I stupidly ran to him when they let me go…and Dad…" Her sobs started to make her words indecipherable, and Arthur now was inspecting Alfred's body tenderly, as if caressing him, taking in account the bullet wounds in his chest, searching desperately for a pulse.

"Alfred…Alfred, no. No. No no no no no. Alfred, please."

Anna watched as Arthur shook her father, trying to get a response.

"America can't die, can he? Dad will wake up any moment…" Anna's voice bespoke her state of shock.

"We usually can come back from horrible wounds…I've never heard of any country besides those falling apart ever dying…" Arthur was desperately holding on to the fact that Alfred wasn't dead, that he couldn't die.

Alfred, just when we'd discovered each other once again, you're taken from me. My boy, my brother, my love…If I'd ever known that this would happen to you that day I became your big brother, the day we broke the bonds of brothers forever, that night we became lovers…oh god, the years, the decisions I would have made differently…

Was this all just one big dream? Did you truly die all those years back in the middle east, and the past weeks some dream I've been having, some parting gift you've given me, those nights we spent together, Anna, and now your death once again for me to wake up to the real world?

Arthur heard sirens in the distance, and began to chant spells over Alfred, trying to to do anything to get the light back in his lover's eyes.

USUK

Arthur was pulled away from his lover's body by a team of paramedics, who immediately started to try and revive Alfred, trying to start his heart. He tried to fight back, but was weakened from the magic he'd performed, and by the body before him.

"No…Alfred…let me stay…"

"Sir, there was a faint response!"

"Let ME SEE HIM!"

Arthur was pulled away, and was led outside beside Anna, Marco running up and sweeping Anna into an embrace. The lights flashing around them from all different rescue agencies, Marco having called them when the fifteen minutes were up.

"Marco…" She buried her bruised head into his jacket.

"Oh Anna, I'm so sorry. Where's your father?" Marco kissed her forehead, and looked around for Alfred. Arthur felt the tears run down his cheeks.

"He's gone…" Arthur stated it in a monotone that surprised himself, everything going numb, and he kept walking. New tears sprung to Anna's eyes.

USUK

He sat on a bench for hours, silently dying inside. He hadn't been hurt or shot at any point in time, so the paramedics had left him be, taking Alfred's body away in an ambulance he wasn't allowed in to due to severity of injuries. They wouldn't let him be with him, even if those were his last moments...Not telling them if he were even alive or dead, if he'd not made it to the hospital, or had died during the surgery to get the bullets out... Anna had been taken as well, but Arthur couldn't move, just letting the police drive him to the hospital and sit him down in the waiting room.

Matthew had rushed in about an hour before, and now was somewhere else, but Arthur didn't care, grief causing him to ignore the boy as he accidentally had been doing all those years ago when he was England's colony along with…

He heard the door squeak.

Spinning around to see if it was about Alfred, expecting a doctor, he was greeted with someone else.

"Hey, Arthur." Anna came and sat down next to him, her eyes red from crying.

Arthur hadn't been able to cry since the denial had set in.

Arthur didn't say a word to her, and simply continued to stare at the floor, no acknowledgement that she'd come in.

A hand snaked under his arm to grasp his own hand, and Arthur finally started to crack once again around the edges.

"Arthur, we may have only known each other for a couple of months, but what ever happens, we are family, remember that." She squeezed his hand, and he finally looked at her, seeing the bandages around her limbs and face.

"Anna, I'm so sorry you were put through this…I should have watched him more closely, followed him…"

"Arthur, I'm fine, Uncle Mattie and I, we are worried about you. Just know you have a shoulder to lean on, whatever happens to…Dad…" They sat in silence, waiting to hear from the emergency room about the fate of their loved one, both trying to stay strong for the other.

USUK

Matthew had been on the phone with Russia for about a half an hour, trying to keep himself together, the Russian's words calm and soft, telling him he was boarding a plane. Matthew said three words, smiled, then hung up, seeing a doctor walking over to him.

"Would you like to see Mr. Jones?"

"Is he…how'd he do…?" The man simply led him to a room, and opened the door, letting Matthew in.

There lay his brother, pale and limp in the bed, as dead people do. Were they letting the family see him once more before taking him downstairs to the morgue? He looked like any corpse would. Why would the doctor subject them to this pain? Why not just tell them Alfred had died on the way over-

Mattie stepped closer, and gasped.

Author's note: Yeah, bad chapter. Don't remember writing most of it, just remember fruity flavors...

If you need any clarification, just PM me, I am in no mood to rewrite.

Child of the wilderness, born into emptyness, learn to be lonely, learn to find your way in darkness, no one will be there for you, to comfort or to care for you, learn to be lonely, learn to be your one companion...

LOOK UP THAT SONG! "Learn to be Lonely"

Cliffy!

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