WHO LOVES PLOT? NO ONE? ALL RIGHT!

/=+=/

The streets were oddly empty when they started heading forward. Alfred led the way as they plowed through the streets, void of life as if the whole city was abandoned. Some of them were turning their heads and seeing buckets that were overturned and empty stalls, all rotting with decay, and the whole place had an eerie chill to it.

"It's as if everyone had abandoned the city…" Antonio blinked.

"After liberation, though?" Kiku rubbed the back of his head. "The story doesn't mention anything about something like this…"

"Maaaaaan…this is like the start of some really scary ghost story!" Alfred started shivering. "I-I'm walking faster…!"

"We can't do that, bloody git! There's a chance that everyone that abandoned this place could come back as Shadows!" Arthur smacked him. "We can't afford an ambush!"

"This is totally unawesome…" Gilbert spat. "Kiku, where does that story of yours say ends?"

"In the main square…at three o' clock…" He answered. "The execution hour."

"M-my brother is…?"

"D-don't worry, Charice! This is your world; now that you are in control of it you can-"

"No! I can't let him die here!"

"GAH! What the heck, da ze?"

"Crap, she's running forward…!"

/=+=/

No…I can't do this…I can't lose my brother here! Not after we know that the murderer is here!

Her footsteps were loud against the dirt floor, her breaths ragged and quick to her ears. The only thing going through her mind was the crumpled up body of her younger brother, caked with blood and cold to the touch. She had seen him close to death so many times before, and she always knew that he could pull through it without any problems at all. The recent time that she had seen him like that, he had just liberated the both of them from Kiku's rule. His chest was covered with blood, gunshot wounds a plenty, and he was smiling the whole time as they saved his life. To this day, she could still smell the blood on her hands.

To this day, she can't stand even the sight of it.

Her breaths were broken as she found herself slowing down to a halt. She was lost. The entire place looked like it was warped out of vision. But Charice didn't care; all she had on her mind was Rizal. Without even thinking, she ran forward and passed as many buildings as she could. She didn't care if she was going to be tired…she wanted to see her brother…

"Charice, wait!"

She stopped, hearing footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw a tired Feliciano running toward her location, nearly dropping to the ground in exhaustion. Without even thinking about it she grabbed him, surprised that he was steadying himself and was now looking at her with a smile on his face.

"Ve~~~that training with Doitsu really helps." He giggled. "Are you all right, Charice?"

"…Feli-chan? Where are the others?"

"I-I don't know! We were trying to come after you and then all of a sudden everything started to look the same!"

"Look the…?"

She turned her head and understood what he meant: all of the city blocks around them looked exactly the same. At that realization, she saw with surprise that a ripple in time shook through the buildings, and Li Xiao fell through what looked like a rip in time. The both of them jumped.

"W-what the hell was that?"

"…ow…" He looked up. "Charice?"

"Li?" She looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"The whole place started getting warped when we lost you…" He answered. "While we were looking for you, I suddenly fell through a hole and…"

"Ve? Do you think that we're in a separate location from the others?"

"Maybe…stay here for a minute, I'll try to see if there's anything here."

And without warning, Li Xiao turned and ran forward into the darkness while leaving them alone. Charice sighed for a few minutes, extremely anxious, when she noticed that Feliciano was staring at her with a look of interest on his face. She had to admit that it did look cute on him.

"Charice…are you worried about Rizal?"

"Of course I am!" She spat back. "He's my younger brother; what am I supposed to do, sit back here and wait for him to come to me?"

"…but he's Rizal. He's a very strong-willed man!" Feliciano clapped his hands together. "He's kind and quiet and reminds me of Doitsu-ki a lot!"

"…he does like hanging around with him…"

"He reminds me of Lovino too! He's very protective of me!"

"Protective? But you have me and Doitsu-ki to protect you!"

"Ve…maybe he's just worrying too much…I can protect myself, right?"

"Well, did you get your Persona yet?"

"VEEE~! Yes I did! And Li Xiao said that it was very cool!"

"Awww~! Now I want to see it!"

"Yaaay~!"

I am the older sister…I will always want to protect him…but I have to remember that he can protect himself…he's really the one worthy to hold the title of the Philippines…

With that thought, they heard someone running toward them. They looked up and saw Li Xiao staring at them as he slowed down, wondering what was going on. But then the whole world started to ripple, and soon the rest of the group was staring at them like they had spawned out of nowhere. She looked up with a smile.

"I have to find my brother now…I need to save him."

"We're not leaving without him, da ze!" Yong Soo grinned. "Cause we know where we're going!"

/=+=/

It wasn't long until they found the pathway to the main square, and then Charice took off running. No one was surprised, but they were still shocked at just how fast she could run. Nonetheless, she was the first one to reach the main square and see the back of her brother staring at the guillotine in the middle of the area.

"Kuya!"

He turned around, and she noticed that he wasn't looking at her at all. Instead, he had this weird aura around him…like he was hiding something from her. He took a deep breath and she heard a strange tint to his voice…like it was something not from this world. He was laughing…no, cackling?

"I can't believe it…this was where all of this was supposed to end!"

"Kuya?"

"You know the story well, don't you? A girl rules the kingdom and ends up being saved by her faithful servant! You know what his fate was? This!" He pointed to the guillotine. "Died for someone else's sins, and never regretted it…not even on the pathway to hell!"

"What are you-?"

"If the blood of one person is evil, then the blood of all siblings must be as well. That must mean that your blood must be evil…"

"Rizal?"

"…no…because of what I am, I can't taint you…"

"You're not making any sense!"

"Do you know how people like you are created? You're made from diplomacy; you're made from war; you're made with agreements…but out of everything, all you have to do was open your eyes and let yourself live like a baby in a new world." Rizal smiled. "I wasn't made the same way, you know."

"Made the…?"

"I wasn't created like you, Charice. I was made differently."

She was about to question something when she felt the ground shake and his body begin to glow. Five seconds later, tentacles came out of the ground and lunged toward her. She braced herself, only to hear someone else scream in pain in front of her. She pried her eyes open to see Li Xiao standing in front of her, the tentacles protruding from his stomach.

"Li!"

"…all's good…this doesn't really hurt as much…" He grinned. "It's a Shadow thing, I guess…just a little annoying…"

He pushed himself off the tentacles and staggered to face Rizal as he saw the tentacles retreated into the ground. The others quickly ran to their side as Rizal finally looked up. Everyone was shocked, Antonio the most, because Rizal's eyes were finally glowing a bright red.

"I was created differently…isn't that right, Antonio?"

"W-what?"

It was then that Charice started screaming in pain. Matthew looked up from healing Li Xiao and noticed that Charice's left arm was glowing and burning at the same time. Yong Soo took the opportunity to pull down the sleeve, revealing a long healing scar pulsing in appearance.

"W-what the heck is this, da ze?"

"Once upon a time, when time was eternal, there was a man who used one poor little girl just to satisfy his own selfish needs." Rizal straightened himself. "Like any girl growing up, she wanted nothing more than daddy's affection…until the day she woke up and decided to rebel. It was the only time she would do so."

"What the hell is he talking about?" Gilbert turned to Antonio.

"The man was quickly able to destroy the opposition; he didn't have the time nor the place to deal with it long term. He burned the village she lived in, killed the people that cared for her, and just to rub it in…he used the axe he held so dearly and left an eternal mark on her arm…wrist to elbow."

"That was…?" Lovino turned to the shocked Antonio. He didn't look like he was moving.

"She lost so much blood that day, and for three hundred years that arm would hang uselessly by her side…so much rage built up inside her that it threatened to tear the only psyche that she had, so she compressed it…waited for it to grow…but to her surprise, it went away with time. It evaporated from her blood like it had never existed…only it did. Remember the blood that she had lost that faithful evening? The amount that could kill nations?"

"…" Ludwig was getting it. "No…no way…"

"It took on the rage. It became the one that held the pain and suffering of her people. She was weak; she didn't want to fight. She was tainted to the point where she was purely a pacifist who couldn't see anything past the fantasy world that she had created! That's why the rage took a different form…that's why it gathered itself from the screams of the people…it came together and formed…well, me."

Charice was flabbergasted.

"You're…you're my…?"

"But there will always be a time where a creation should take the master's place…" Rizal started hovering, the tentacles erupting from the ground. "I will not stand back and let myself be taken over. I will become what I am destined to be!"

"C-Charice, stay back!" Feliciano stood in front of her. "H-he's transforming!"

"…he's…my…he's my Shadow…?"

"I will become the Philippines…I will become what this nation truly should be…and I intend to do whatever it takes…for the sake of my people. Now then…IT'S MY TURN!"

/=+=/

I have no idea why, but I recently started imagining Rizal's voice to be…ShadyVox. Stupid, I know, but…for those of you who see his YouTube voice reels, you'd somewhat know where I'm going with this, but…I don't know, DON'T QUESTION ME!