Just some passive-aggressive girl love.

Warning: OC, volence, weapons, fight scene, implied yuri, sad stuff, implied pedophilia/rape, and attempted rape.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HETALIA. I have fun manipulating their characters, though

"I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose."

—Woodrow Wilson

Chase

You're a hothead.

You need to stay focused.

You rush into things; slow down.

I am slowing down, Sis.

Sometimes you don't think.

Well, Red couldn't counter that.

She remembered as clearly as if in the very moment, that first handhold, how slender her fingers were, how starkly weathered and knobbed her own were. Red felt like an older sister then, but all of the handholds after she had longed to grip those fingers in her own so that Penny could not get away, so that she could finally acknowledge that, yes, the potential for commitment was there. Red was willing, but she should have known better when it came to Penny. Should I have told her I loved her more often? It was the truth—most of the time. Penny could be the definition of a bitch when she wanted. Did she not believe me? Well, that question could have a note of legitimacy in it. After all (in her enduring hotheadedness as Penny had constantly reminded her), the only time Red had expressed her affections had been in a gruff burst of speech, as if in spite, as if it could act as a brace to keep Penny there and with her, not with all the others she knew her sister to sleep with in a fit of reckless retribution. But that only managed to push Penny further away; the woman was proud of her independence and adhered more to it than to any relationship she had ever been in, if 'relationship' was the correct term.

I should have known, Red thought as she stood guard outside of the Expansion Center. Three-hundred years. I should have known a lot of things. In all those years they had only managed to sense the negative aspects in each other. But Red liked to think that in those moments when she had woken, opening her eyes just slightly, to see Penny watching her as they lay beside each other at night, that there was some love there. It had to be there, even though Penny had never told her outright that she loved her. Honestly, Red felt like she had been doing all the work.

And here I am with a worse weight on my shoulders. Anything could go wrong, and it would be her fault. I shouldn't have put Alfred there. I know what he'll do. What was I thinking?

That bell-like voice returned with its same note of derision. You weren't.

No. Of course not. You would know, wouldn't you? Because you knew me so well?

"Feliciano and I will make up Team Echo. Our goal will be to free the women and children in the Expansion Center, guide them to safety, and capture any Organization officers we can."

When did my voice start echoing? She swallowed, finger pausing in its sweep over the map of tunnels, eyes going unfocused for a moment. She sounded so loud. She could hear her plans jumping back at her, as if asking her to reconsider. But, if she had learned anything in her life, she knew that making changes now was no better than chopping off a diseased finger when the rest of the hand had already become infected. She could see Alfred's concerned stare out of the corner of her eye, and she felt offended even though she herself was at the root of it. She cleared her throat and set her finger to moving again, tracing up to a boldly circled compound labeled EXPANSION CENTER. "Feli and I… will be here. We will—"

They had been the first to leave the bunker. They had told the guards in front of the center that they were there to relieve them. They had positioned themselves in place once the guards left. They had stood there silently and stock-still, Red watching the cameras trained on the entrance to the compound watching them. Feliciano was wracked with tremors, was near to tears. Red could hear the whines trying to crawl up and out of his throat. Yet he stood as told, eyes forward, clad in his commandeered black uniform, and the eyes behind the cameras were none the wiser. The blind leading the blind.

She could hear movement behind the steel-and-concrete doors that led to the compound where the Overlord's twisted plan was unfolding at that very moment. As much as Red wanted to be here, taking out the soldiers who had approved of and exploited the Expansion Program, at the same time she would have Alfred here instead, gladly taking his place at the Core. But Alfred had insisted, and what was she to do? Her experience with the Organization was a mere flit across the spectrum of history. Alfred had been her father since she was an infant, something that had remained consistent even through all the hell of the past and the Uprising. Nothing could change that, just as nothing could change Alfred's desire to have his revenge.

"Don't think you're old enough to know what's right," he had told her after Red had unwisely confronted him about his fixation on the Core. "You haven't even begun to learn yet."

I know what makes sense, Red thought afterward, after Alfred had mentioned Marge and Penny and how they deserved some form of justice. And claiming that your age determines your experience is illogical. Once again, Alfred had been so caught up in the thought of the act that he couldn't perceive his hypocrisies. And Red had let him go, had watched Alfred walk out of the bunker with Yao by his side, as if the Chinaman was some sort of life vest. She was disgusted with herself.

I let Penny go. It was true. She could see her, clear as day, pulling on her clothes and stomping out. She could still feel the house shaking at the force with which she'd slammed the door. I let Jeremy go. She tried to tell herself at night, when her mind was keeping her up with painful reminders, that she hadn't known what Jeremy was planning when he had left their hiding place. That she hadn't known he would do something as stupid as run away, just like he'd done in so many other instances with just as much stupidity. She had known. And she had done nothing.

I'll do something now, she mused as the eyes on the wall shifted once again. I'll do everything. You better not die, Alfred, 'cause I'm gonna show you how wrong you are.

She was too deep in the tunnels to hear anything that was going on outside, but Todd's hissed voice amid a backdrop of gunfire over her earpiece was enough to get her blood pumping. "Now."

She knew the eyes behind the cameras would be distracted by the events unfolding in the other tunnels, too busy to watch two guards, stationary at their posts. The perfect time for Red to signal to Feliciano that their mission had begun.

Of course the Italian had heard Todd over his own earpiece, but he was still standing there, shell-shocked and very much out of place. He was pale and stricken, and when Red turned to the doors everything in him seemed to tense.

"Step back, Feli," she whispered, and she closed her eyes, thinking. Her fingers rose to the keypad just beside the doors. One of our guys got a data worker drunk, Andre's voice echoed through her head once again. He weaseled the password outta him. It's—

07… 08… 47… Ros… NM. She typed in the password and paused when she was finished, heart skipping a beat as something connected in her mind. The series of numbers and letters passed through her head once again, and her feet were rooted to the ground.

It's… oh God. How hadn't she picked up on it sooner? And then something else came to her like a defibrillator to the chest, taking her breath away and setting every nerve on fire.

He knows.

He knows, and I sent Alfred right to him.

She barely heard the lock click open or Feliciano whimper as he stepped further away. The doors swept slowly wider until they revealed another pair of guards inside. Curiously, they peered around the corner.

"I don't know if you're aware," one began. "But the Overlord has prohibited all visitations until—"

"I'm very aware of the Overlord's preferences," Red told him and pulled the glock from her hip. The blast of the shot was almost missed by her ears, the blood was pounding behind them so much. She watched as the lead burned through the man's flesh, heard him wheeze and gurgle as he fell to the ground, clutching at his neck, blood spurting from between his fingers. Feliciano gasped loudly, and the other guard snatched his own gun out of its holster, muscles bunching and heels lifting. But Red shot him down before he could turn to target the Italian. This time, she was too merciful; he died instantly unlike his companion, who still writhed on the floor in his own fluids. Red stepped over him and yelled over the alarm roaring down the tunnels, its flashing red light making the compound and passageways pulse like blood through veins. She could already hear more soldiers converging further inside the compound, could hear the screams of those trapped inside. Others marched from nearby passages, having been called to arms, converging on her and Feliciano, a unit with one brain and no eyes—except the Resisters among them. Her voice boomed along with the defenses blasting to life in tunnels further down. "Move in! Kill or capture—none get away!"

She was met with a collective rumble of, "Sir!" and the soldiers didn't have the time to blink their blind eyes before they were tumbling like bloody dominoes, neatly all in a line, just how they had been taught. Red held out her arms to the terrified Feliciano. The Italian had back himself into a corner behind an open door, hand clutched to his mouth and eyes wet and wide.

"Feli, over here!"

Feliciano didn't move at first, but a shot rang out near him and then he was running, almost bowling Red over in his fear-fueled haste. "Calm down Feli," she said and motioned for a few Resistance soldiers to come over. When she was satisfied with the number that had responded she looked at Feliciano and said, "You follow me. If you can't see me, then you've gone too far off course. Don't try to confront anyone. Let these guys defend you and help shuttle the captives out. You remember where to go?"

Feliciano nodded hesitantly, biting his lip. Red nodded back.

"All right. Stay behind me, and I'll take the guards out for you. Just remember what I told you."

She didn't give Feliciano time to back out or ask any more questions; that would only waste more time. The Italian had his guards and his orders. He was safe, but Alfred wasn't.

As much as Red longed to run to HQ, she knew that leaving everything she had planned behind was something she simply could not do. She was the head of the operation, and if the Resistance saw her leaving then everything may just fall apart. Instead, Red banished the thought of her father, knowing Alfred was stupid and stubborn, but not so stupid and stubborn as to die. He would have his due from the Overlord for everything that he had done, and such a thing could not be accomplished if he died before or along with him. Red could see the Overlord clearly in her mind now, knew his identity possibly better than anyone else.

I should have known, her mind repeated, and her memories echoed, I should have known a lot of things. Once again Alfred's words about how she was too young to know anything resurfaced, and she had a sudden desire to slap him. You don't know. You never knew. All that time he was right there and you didn't see a thing. Anger swelled within her, and her footfalls became faster, harder, her trigger finger twitching more erratically as the Organization soldiers from within the compound rounded the pulsing red bend. She greeted them with a shower of lead. I should have taken his head off—a soldier shot, a wheeze, dropping to the floor, trampled—The first time I saw him—shot, writhing, blood pooling, boots slipping, more shots—I knew something was wrong. And I just…

Let. Shot. Him. Blood. Go. Death.

"Captain?" a man shouted at her, and she whipped her head around, gritting her teeth, hair flying. It looked as if her whole head was on fire. The man shrunk back, fell back into line, continued to shoot at the on-comers as Red cleared a line before them, annoyed as she was forced to pause and reload.

"Think."

The voice cut clear and calm through the haze of bullets, blasts, and blood.

I am thinking, Red insisted, infuriated. I know what I want.

"Slow down."

I can't slow down. She shook her head as she stepped over another corpse, saw the dead eyes match the dead face. Get out of my head. Get out!

"You're afraid."

No, I'm not! I'm never…

"Then prove it!" the voice ordered. The sound of the slamming door, the tremor of the house. "No one can go around completely stoic, as if nothing in the world can hurt them. I left, and you were too scared to run after me every time. Now you're letting go of yourself, can't you see?"

Red paused for a moment, magazine in hand. Men took the initiative and swarmed around her, covering for her, for every second she couldn't get herself together because in her three-hundred years of life she truly had learned nothing, less than those defending her.

What should I do? The question was a whisper, a child's whisper in the dark.

"Chase it." Those days of running among the trees and bramble, that ringing voice of Come and get me, come and get me! with a frustrated reply of I can't see you, slow down!, blue eyes flashing and dark hair flickering with reflected sunlight, laughing That would be too easy.

"Chase it," the voice repeated. "Goddammit, Gin, I'm not here to say 'I love you'; you never earned it. Because you never chased."

A new kind of burning filled her then, not of anger but of determined fury. I gave you everything.

"No, you didn't."

Red reloaded and shot a soldier rushing at her before he could do the shame. To the head, nice and clean. She took aim once more, shot again. I gave you something. You gave me nothing but broken promises.

The voice laughed. "We're fighting now?"

If you want. Another body crumpling to the ground, more blood.

They had cleared the entire passage. The cries of the prisoners were close, just around the corner. And so were the footsteps of more soldiers. Red waved her arm, urging them to push ahead while she herself was stuck behind in memories.

"You didn't give me yourself. It was all superficial."

If this is supposed to make me feel better, then fuck off.

"It's supposed to make you think."

I am thinking, dammit!

"No, you aren't."

You're a lying bitch. I hate you.

She chuckled. "So endearing. But you know who's even more of a bitch?"

No one.

Another chuckle. "Close. What about that girl, the one that almost killed our dad? And Uncle Matt? And Arthur?"

Pfft. I don't care about stuffy old 'Brows

"Now who's the liar?" the voice quipped, and by now Red was close to that moving mass of feet, one more turn of the corner… "You care about all of them. And who tried to take them away?"

Red stiffened. Her fingers went white-knuckled around her weapon. She saw the first shadows of the Organization soldiers stretch up the arched tunnel wall. Jeanne.

"Then you have your quarry." Red shivered, feeling something brush up against her ear, warm and cold at once. The ringing of bells. "Chase."

And Red did.

She surged forward and her men with her, cutting a path through the Organization soldiers that met them with gunshots and knife swings. A bullet whizzed by her so close she could feel its heat and wind, burrowing into a Resistance soldier behind her. Even as she heard his body hit the ground, she yelled, "Move! To the service area! Move!"

Half broke off to follow her while the others knew to stay and keep the soldiers busy. Red didn't glance behind her, but she could hear Feliciano's yelp with every gunshot and close call. They arrived at the service area without much trouble, the Organization soldiers too busy guarding the captives further inside and invading the tunnels to worry about defending a few women and the unlucky officers who hadn't escaped in time. The Resistance filled the room with their force and all at once Organization soldiers began to swarm, fleeing the service rooms, hands fumbling at their belts, for their weapons, catching themselves as they stumbled, pants around their knees. Red shot them down along with her guards, determined to think, just think even as disgust filled her with a need to unload her clip completely into each man who dared to try and crawl away from their retribution.

The room was filled with screams and gunshots, and a few long minutes passed before every opposition soldier that could be seen was gunned down and bleeding out on the floor. Women were huddling in corners, holding each other, some half-dressed, others clutching their scant clothing to them, shivering and crying. They began to scream again as the Resistance offered their help, but they calmed when they were told that they were not in danger, that they were there to save them. The apprehension was prevalent as the women dressed, were told to follow Feliciano and his guard out of the tunnels and to safety. One woman, standing in nothing but a decorative bra and lacy panties, held her rounded belly and stared, conflicted.

"Will you be able to walk?" Red asked as she gathered the captives and sent them to Feliciano for guidance.

The woman directed her wet eyes to her, wiping them with the heel of her palm. Her other hand slid over the arc of her belly again. "Y-yeah. Um… I, um, th-thank you."

Red nodded and watched the woman go, hesitating to commit to any other activity until she was out of sight. She stood there a minute after, wondering whatever happened to that poor young girl who had been ordered to entertain her after Red was promoted to captain. She had never had the time to thank her outright for her information about Jeanne.

Jeanne. As much as Red searched, she hadn't been able to locate her. But then again, the service rooms were no place for such a valuable person to be. Jeanne had no business here, just as she had no business contributing to the production of the Expansion Center. She was about to order the rest of her force to move further into the compound when she passed a service room and heard whimpering inside.

"Shut up," hissed someone on the other side, sinister and threatening. "Shut up, shut up!" There was shuffling and a pained cry, and that was enough for Red to put her foot to the door.

A few kicks and the door was hanging from its hinges, Red's gun up and searching for a target. She found it in the fat, balding man staring at her with horror as he huddled up against a far wall. At the back of the room, two girls clutched each other, small and wide-eyed. Red couldn't believe what she was seeing. So, the Organization didn't have enough money to afford proper meals for their troops, but it certainly had enough to manufacture lingerie for prepubescent girls. Sick as she was, she lowered her gun and dug her fingers into the collar of the old man's shirt, dragging him out in an adrenaline high. She was even more disgusted when she saw that the man had soiled himself.

"Coward," she spat, heel connecting with the man's chest, well-fed belly, his fat face. "Pig. Bastard. You'd rape me too if I didn't have the ability to smash your face in, huh? Wouldn't you, you disgusting piece of filth?" Again and again she kicked him, crushing his face, his grubby hands, the weapon beneath his fly. The man begged and sobbed, and Red didn't feel in the least bit guilty. Judging by his emotions, he wasn't just one of the soldiers whose minds were manipulated to give them the urge to copulate. He knew what he was doing. "So, you're one of the rat bastards who sits the Council. I wonder how many of those fat fucks have gotten off to children? What, you got harems, you sick fuck? Is that how the Overlord repays you? You like seeing them cry, don't you?"

"N-no, please…" the man whimpered, beaten and bloody. "Just k-kill me, if you want, please."

Red stopped kicking him then and put her gun back in its holster. "No. You're not getting an easy ticket. You'll suffer just like you made those girls suffer. Now get your fat ass up an—"

The rest of Red's sentence was chopped off by a wheeze as someone's arm snapped around her neck, choking her. The girls still hiding in the service room screamed and cried as she stumbled and spread her feet, trying to balance herself. But the man behind her had a knife and stabbed her twice in the side, her knees buckling at the pain. Her guards were around the corner, occupied with the captives, and she wasn't about to call to them for help. She didn't need a hostage situation now.

The man wrestled her to the ground and grabbed her by the wrists, twisted her painfully onto her stomach. Once he had her pinned, he thought it safe enough to discard his weapon and set about his sinister task. She could feel a hand fumbling at the hem of her pants, and rage gripped her. It only escalated as the old man she had brutalized earlier began to laugh his raspy laugh. "Bitch had it comin'. Fuck her hard for me."

The man above her didn't respond, managed to get her belt undone and her pants halfway down her ass. He was so distracted with the prospect of having her, that Red managed to twist out of his grasp and connect a heel to his jaw. She couldn't even form words, as angry as she was, and she grabbed her dropped weapon without a sound, planting a bullet in her attacker's skull. His eyes rolled up and he fell back, limp and dead, and the old man stopped laughing beside her, just stared. He was still staring even after Red shot him dead as well.

Her guards rushed around the corner to see her standing there, rumpled and chest heaving in a pool of blood. Her side was burning like hell from where she was stabbed, but she had managed to convince the girls to come out of the service room to wait for the Resistance. They hesitated as the men appeared, too black-clad to garner any sort of trust. But their eyes… they weren't dead or threatening, and that seemed enough for the girls.

"Take them," Red told her soldiers, and a couple came forward to take the girls by the hand and lead them away. One soldier stayed to ask if Red was okay, and she scoffed.

"I'll be fine." Her eyes were trained on the girls' backs as they turned the corner. "But they will never be." Again the girl who had been ordered to service her came to her mind. I can't believe I agreed to indulge in something like that, even if I didn't use her. Her eyes wandered up to the soldier who had asked her such a stupid question, still gawking at her as if she was some wounded animal. "Anything else you wanna say?"

The man blinked, blushing, and said, "I just got word from the other guards. Feliciano is gone."

Red's heart lurched. "What?"

And then the floor beneath their feet began to shake, as if her loud voice had been enough to cause it. They both peered up and saw a big chunk of concrete plunging down toward them, but Red was the only one quick enough to escape being crushed beneath it. Her ears registered a close blast, a defense going off, and she was about to ask Todd over her earpiece what the hell was going on when she noticed, for the first time, that the line was full of static, as dead as the guard who had been flattened by the concrete. She gritted her teeth and in a fit of frustration hurled the earpiece to the floor, watching it shatter. Her lifeline gone as well as her protectors, she spun around and started off deeper into the compound. She found that the doors, which served as the only entrance as a rule, were blocked off with rock that had been dislodged by the blast. She huffed and clenched her fists, thinking, weighing Jeanne's death with Feliciano's life and deciding.

She had made a promise to Ludwig. She would not let Feliciano go.

"Godfuckingdammit," she swore as she moved through the compound, the air still and eerily silent. In freeing all the captives, she had become a captive herself. She felt isolated and trapped, alone—like she had been feeling ever since she had joined the Organization. No one understood her, and now that Penny was gone no one ever would.

"I almost wish you were here right now," Red laughed hollowly. "As bitchy as you are." Another memory. Catching that dark hair and those laughing blue eyes, tumbling over each other as Red tackled her to the ground. Giggling and laying on their backs to watch the clouds move past through the gnarled branches of the trees. Fingers found each other, sliding together and squeezing.

"You won't catch me next time."

"Maybe I will."

No translations

A Word From the Writer: All right so... eek, I'm sorry! Literally my life this week has been like this: go to school, get home, work, eat, sleep, repeat. That may be because I procrastinated with other shit, but you know how I am with that. Then yesterday I had a math placement test and somehow qualified for precalc. Like, wtf, I barely got through Algebra II and I haven't taken math for year (which is not advisable, mind you). *sigh* Anyway, I know this isn't legit Hetalia or anything, but it has Italy and other characters are mentioned, and, hey, some bitchy girl love action going on so... I felt I had to expand on that a bit. Just to show you how rocky their relationship was and all. I'll have another chappie ready um... hopefully Monday, maybe Tuesday... lol, I have no time during the week (and I feel a bit guilty about having this out so late 'cause I was finishing up a smut fic, but, hey, you'll get to see that sometime in the near future so... don't throw rotten fruit at me or anything). And about that password Red typed in, just... think about it.

Btw, just as a refresher, Jeremy=New Jersey.

See you in the hopefully not-so-distant future! :D