This chapter isn't my best... But hey, I'm gonna upload it anyway!
I think it will become very obvious that I wrote this in one day while being sick and did not make any efforts to edit or read it through. Maybe I'll fix it eventually.
On another note, my portrayal of Nyo!Hungary in this is absolutely horrible. I have no idea what I'm doing with this character, but I already made him a Nyotalia character in my pages upon pages of notes, so I will not bother changing that. If the extremely bad depiction of a very minor character makes you upset, I don't know what to tell you. Deal with it, I guess.
Early sunlight bathed the remnants of the Central territory as those who were stable enough physically and mentally helped local soldiers who had stayed behind clean up, rebuild, and tend to people in need. A little bakery, which had miraculously avoided being damaged, was filled with wounded citizens who didn't think they could make it to the hospital on the other side of the territory. These people knew of a teenage girl who worked in this bakery who was quite skilled in the medical field and would certainly help them out for free. While the girl helped person after person, the bakery's owner, a woman just about eight years older than her, kept up with orders from the waiting patients, happy to be getting so much business and not being bothered by the extra work at all.
The sweet-looking girl adjusted her hair ribbon before getting back to stitching up a woman's arm, which was badly injured by falling debris. Soon she threw the used needle away and wrapped bandages around the arm. She then slipped it into a sling before giving the woman a smile. "You are welcome to come back anytime, Miss. Feel free to buy some baked goods on your way out. The line may be slightly longer than usual, but I can assure you that it's worth it!"
The woman nodded and stood with a grateful smile. "Thank you! You've saved me a lot of money Are you sure you don't want me to pay?"
"No, no. We get enough money from our bakery sales," she replied, shaking her head. "All of my medical equipment is donated by military medics when they have a surplus of supplies. Having a brother in the military does come with advantages."
"Wow. Hey, you seem like you know what you're doing for someone so young. How old are you?" the woman asked curiously.
"Sixteen, Miss," said the girl politely. "My brother has taught me everything I know about medicine and first aid. Actually, he's taught me a lot about many things. I learn a lot from him." She smiled fondly as she spoke of her brother, who was currently back in Central territory to help during the aftermath of the mutant attack.
The woman nodded again. "Well, you definitely have a bright future ahead of you if you keep this up. Maybe you can work in the Center someday!" With that, the woman said goodbye and headed to the front counter of the bakery to order some cupcakes.
By the afternoon, the bakery was no longer filled with the wounded, and the teenage girl who had been aiding everyone was finally back behind the counter with her boss. She had been working hard nonstop since the previous day, but refused to take a break lasting any longer than twenty minutes. The young girl stood patiently behind the front counter of the bakery, smiling as she waited for an older couple to choose what they wanted to buy.
"Would either of you like to sample our chocolate cheesecake?" she offered as they stared at the goods behind the glass. She held out a platter filled with cubes of cheesecake each in their own little paper cup, and the couple both happily took one. After finishing the samples, the couple finally decided to order two slices of chocolate cheesecake, then sat out on the front patio of the bakery to eat.
"Elise," said the girl's boss as she popped up from behind the glass display cases, where she had just removed a plate of chocolate chip cookies, "you can go home early if you want. I think I might close early, anyway. Most people are more concerned about the state of our territory than buying cupcakes and cookies. Besides, we've had more than enough sales for today already. Here, you can take these cookies home for you and your brother. It's on me," She held out the plate and grinned at her employee and friend.
The girl, Elise, stared at the cookies for a moment, then took the plate. "Thank you. Have a good day, Emma. I'll see you first thing tomorrow." She began to head towards the door.
"Oh, please, you can come in later," Emma, her boss, insisted. "You've worked hard enough. You may even take the day off if you'd like. I was thinking of keeping this place closed for a day so I could spend the time searching for my brother. I still haven't heard from him in over a year..." Her eyes cast down for a moment before she looked back over to Elise, her kind smile returning.
"I'm sure he's alright, Emma. You'll find him, I promise," Elise reassured. "And I suppose I could take a day off. Maybe I could help my brother out around the territory!" She put her hand on the door. "Anyway, I'll see you in a couple days! Good luck with finding your brother! Goodbye!"
"Bye, Elise! Have a nice day off!" Emma waved to her as she stepped outside.
At home, Elise set the plate of cookies down on the kitchen counter and covered them in plastic wrap. She decided she could help her brother tomorrow, so what should she do now? Sitting around doing nothing certainly wasn't ideal. After giving it some thought, she remembered a place where she liked to go often before she started spending her free time working at the bakery. Before she knew it, Elise found herself entering a musical instrument store owned by a former friend of her brother. This end of the territory had been left untouched by the mutants who had attacked yesterday, most likely thanks to that soldier from Western territory in that big flying vehicle—what was it called? A plane? Yes, yes, a plane. Elise's brother had told her about planes before.
When the bell above the entrance rang as Elise opened it, the woman sitting at a grand piano in the middle of the store looked up, but didn't dare to stop playing the soft, beautiful melody she was creating. "Oh, Elise, hello. I haven't seen you in a while. How are you?" the prim woman greeted.
"I'm good, thank you. And you, Miss Sophie?" said Elise. She let the door swing closed behind her, and walked up beside her.
"I'm good as well. I've told you before that you don't need to call me 'Miss', you know. We are friends, aren't we?" Sophie stopped playing and stood from her seat, smoothing out her lilac dress with her mechanical hands. She caught a glimpse of the upgrades of the younger girl's forearms. "You finally got some upgrades. When was that?"
Elise looked down at her arms. "About six months ago, I think. They're heat-resistant." She glanced around the store, which was quiet and empty, especially now that the piano playing had stopped. "Is Daniel around?"
Sophie smiled at the mention of his name, and motioned for Elise to follow her. "He's actually decided to take a break from...you know." She looked around and then took Elise down to a different section of the store, one where only five people have been allowed. Elise was one of them. "He'll be glad to see you again, I'm sure—Daniel, we have a guest!" At the bottom of the stairs was a large room with couches, a television, several monitors connected to a camera outside of the store as well as other cameras positioned in various places amongst the different territories, and a table with a large map spread across. A young man with long brown hair tied back into a ponytail with a flower in it sat on one of the couches, watching a particularly dirty movie.
"Is that Elise?" He fumbled around with the remote before switching the TV off, and then jumped to his feet. "I haven't seen you in forever! What made you decide to stop by? Wait a minute, don't tell me. You finally want to start up a rebellion with us again! See, Sophie, I told you she'd give in eventually!" He threw an arm around Sophie, who rolled her eyes.
"You were watching that movie again, weren't you?" Sophie asked him, glancing back at the television.
Daniel shrugged. "What can I say, it's a great movie, and I needed my daily dose of yuri," he stated.
"Yuri?" Elise looked from Sophie to Daniel, confused.
"Just some stupid term from a couple hundred years ago," said Sophie quickly. "It doesn't matter. Anyway, back to our original topic. So, why are you here, Elise?"
Elise took a seat in a chair at the table. "I just wanted to say hello. Like you said, I haven't seen you in a while. But I guess you could say I wanted to talk about the...rebellion, too." She almost was afraid to say that word, as she hadn't even thought about it in a year. The three of them along with some others had tried to form their own group of rebels after hearing about another larger one. However, when the larger one started to have its members picked off one by one, they had decided to stop what they were doing, just to be safe.
Daniel sat at the monitors and gestured for Sophie and Elise to pull up chairs beside him. "I've been meaning to tell you this earlier, Sophie, but it's better that Elise is here to hear it, too. I was out in the wilderness, and I got a camera set up in a rest stop between Central territory and the Center." He pointed to a monitor, which displayed the outside of the building he mentioned. "It doesn't show much, but the audio can actually pick up some stuff going on inside."
"You were out in the wilderness and you didn't tell me?! You could have gotten killed!" Sophie yelled, staring at the screen in shock.
"But I wasn't killed," he pointed out with a smirk, twirling a lock of his hair around a finger. "As I was saying, I was listening to the audio last night, and I heard three people talking, a girl and two guys. The girl was telling the guys about all these things they do to soldiers and other stuff like that. But what was really interesting was that they eventually started talking about a rebellion. A rebellion. That's not all. Sophie, remember Gilbert?"
The brunette scowled. "You mean the idiot who used to steal all of my cake and sit on my piano? Unfortunately, yes, I remember him." She didn't even think about acknowledging the fact that Daniel may or may not have had a thing going on with that arrogant jerk when they were younger.
"I think he was there. No one else has a voice or laugh as obnoxious and loud as his." Daniel played back a short clip of the conversation from last night.
Elise listened carefully, and sure enough, she heard three voices discussing a rebellion. One of them, Gilbert, she guessed, judging by the way his voice sounded, even said something about him being the leader of a group of rebels, and went on and on about how much he hated the government until Daniel stopped the feed.
"That certainly is Gilbert..." Sophie mumbled. "I should be happy that there are still some rebels alive, but I honestly can't get past the fact that he has led one of the greatest rebellion attempts in recent history. We're not going to ask him to help us, are we?" She looked at Daniel, who had started playing with her hair.
"No way. I don't think I can deal with that asshole for five minutes. It's nice knowing there are other rebels still out there, though," Daniel admitted. "Speaking of other rebels, the rest stop isn't the only place I've planted a camera at recently. I put some more in the other territories, and even the Center. That's why I've been gone for a month. I've gathered some information about certain people around the territories, and believe me, there are way more people who would at least support a rebellion than you would think."
"Care to elaborate?" Sophie asked, now intrigued as she forgot about Gilbert.
Daniel smirked. "I don't know, Sophie. That may cost you." She sighed and held back a smile as she gave him a quick peck on the lips, earning a quiet giggle from Elise. "Thank you. Now get comfortable. This might take a while..."
Back at the bakery that night, Emma wiped down the tables and countertop after closing. Outside, people were still cleaning up and searching for missing loved ones. It was almost curfew, but there were soldiers who seemed to be out supervising them closely. She figured that the Central territory leaders would allow this for once as long as there were authorities keeping everyone in check.
There was a sharp knock at the glass door, and Emma looked up to see an old friend. He crossed his arms impatiently while he waited behind the glass for her to let him in. She saw the dim moonlight reflect off of something in his belt—a gun. "Long time no see, hmm, Lovino?" she said with a snicker as she opened the door for him. "You might want to cover up a little better." He looked down at his belt and quickly pulled his jacket down over it. She chuckled and sat down at a table. "How did you get here?"
"You know me. I have certain guys with certain skills at my disposal," he responded, nodding to a large man not too far away outside for emphasis. The man nodded back and walked away. Lovino grabbed a churro from a plate sitting on the countertop next to other leftover goods and sat across from Emma with it. He took a bite. "Antonio taught you how to make these, didn't he?" She nodded with a weak smile. He looked at the churro sadly and took another bite, savoring the taste along with the memories he missed so much.
After some uncomfortable silence, Emma straightened up in her seat. "So... Why are you here?"
Lovino cleared his throat and finished the churro. "Right, right. I have two things to tell you, actually. Would you like the good news or the bad news first?"
"...Bad."
He nodded and leaned forward, folding his hands on the table. His eyes darted left where the window was for a split second before he spoke. "They're coming for you. They're going to take you to the Center. I don't know what will happen to you, but I can imagine it won't be good." He studied her face, which was practically begging for him to tell her the good news already. "The good news is that I know where your brother is. But...it sort of ties in with the bad news. If you want to see him, you'll have to let the government take you. They want to use you to get to him. On another note, I can protect you, but it comes with the risk of losing his location again."
Emma shook her head and grasped his hands tightly. "There... There has to be another option. You can't just take me to him and protect us both?"
"That is far too risky. Believe it or not, you would have a better chance at survival if you let them take you. I lost three men just trying to locate him. I don't know how he can survive out there alone." He rubbed his thumbs over her hands and gave her a sympathetic look. "I know you won't choose this, but please, just come with me. I want you to be safe. I already lost Antonio, and I don't want to lose you as well."
She slowly pulled her hands away and gazed into his pleading eyes. She remembered the night he had a messenger bring him over to Central territory just so he could see her after he first learned about Antonio's passing. He hadn't cried, or at least he wouldn't let her see him cry, but he certainly had been completely crushed. And who did he trust with his emotions? Her. Not his brother or grandfather. Her.
"I'm sorry, Lovino, but I'll take any chance I get to see my brother. If he's as skilled of a survivor as you make him out to be, I'm sure he can deal with whatever the government has planned. I'll be alright, okay? And if something does happen to me...don't go blaming yourself like you did with Antonio. Nothing is your fault." She frowned when he glared at the floor, obviously upset with that answer. He seemed more upset with himself than with her, however.
"I understand. Well, that is all for now. I hope to see you soon. Goodbye, Emma." He stood, emotionless, and planted a gentle kiss on the top of one of her hands before leaving without another word.
Lovino met with two of his men and discreetly made his way towards the eastern gate of the territory where he came from. He was beyond disappointed with how his talk with Emma went, but knew that he could still try to find other ways to keep her safe. Too caught up in trying to redirect his thoughts, he never noticed the silent figure swiftly following him from within the night shadows.
The figure followed him until they reached the gate. In a slightly distorted voice, like one you would hear from some kind of robot, the figure spoke into a communication device. "Android Two reporting. Target A is approaching the wilderness. Should I continue following him?"
"Do not let him leave your sights," commanded a deep voice on the other end.
'Android Two' did as they were told, focusing in on Lovino as they ventured out into the wilderness. "Do I initiate capture of Target A?" they asked.
"Hmm... No, let's have some fun first."