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As always, the meeting was hectic. Sadly, instead of everyone fighting everyone, every nation seemed to gang up on Alfred. Alfred, the young personification of the United States of America, just stood there, taking all the insults in. Nobody noticed, of course, except for a select few. Matthew, Alfred’s brother and the personification of Canada, wished so much to just interrupt and pull Alfred away so they could switch. Sadly, it was impossible with the group of nations surrounding the younger nation.It appeared nothing could get the older nations to back off, that was until there was a loud crash and tall woman fell out of nowhere onto Arthur, the personification of England. She wore a long deerskin dress with fringes and no shoes. She had a reddish, copper skin tone with black hair. As she looked around, glaring at several nations, her dark eyes landed on Alfred, who was staring at her in shock. She slowly approached him, smiling ever so slightly. The other nations made a move to grab their weapons when she put her hands on Alfred’s shoulders, but realized that they left them locked up (policy for meetings).“If it isn’t my little Ksikkihkíni,” she said softly, but made sure all the nations heard. “I’ve seen what they’ve done to you.”“Na’á,” Alfred said, getting a grip on reality, “what are you doing here? I-I thought you were gone.”“Kiááyo,” the woman called out, “come here, I have something to tell both of you.”Slowly, Matthew made his way to the front of the crowd. He went forward till he was embraced by this woman.“I missed you,” the woman spoke softly to both the nations. “I missed you both, so very much. You have no idea what Heaven is like, it’s boring with all those old geezers.”That broke the camels back… “What do you mean ‘Heaven?’” Arthur asked tentatively.The woman turned slowly to face the Brit, glaring daggers. “You took my son away and don’t know who I am,” she spoke sharply, “I’ve been dead since you took my children. I raised them to be strong, only for you to build them up just to destroy them. So, I’m down here to show you all something.” She turned to face Alfred, “I’m sorry Ksikkihkíni, but is has to be done.”With that, she snapped her fingers and the room around them faded to black, then melted into a lush green forest. In front of the nations there were two infants, laughing and playing. Both looked so different from all the other people around them.“We’re in the past,” the woman spoke. “You cannot change anything, simply watch and take note how my Ksikkihkíni grew up and how he became who he is today.”With that she vanished, leaving the stunned nations to slowly realize what was happening. Alfred’s face grew pale in realization.“Na’á!” He shouted to the blue sky above their heads. “Get back here! I don’t want them to watch these! I didn’t give consent! This isn’t fair!”Matthew just rested a hand on his brother’s shoulder, “You know she won’t listen. Once she’s made up her mind she won’t go back on her word.”“Um…” Arthur spoke up. “Who was that crazy woman and what did she mean?”“That was our Na’á,” Alfred explained, then realized something. “Oh! You dudes don’t know what that means! She was our mom, Siaska: Native America.”
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The nations were presented with two infants in an ancient village. A tipi was behind them, tall and erect. A woman, the same woman as before watched the two closely. She was smiling as she watched her two sons chase after each other.Arthur looked at one of the infants and saw what was going on. Soon, all the other nations caught on. They were watching Alfred’s memories. While the realization hit, they didn’t notice as Alfred ran towards a steep hill. They did, however, hear the scream as he tumbled down the hill, quite painfully at that.
When he stopped at the bottom of the hill, his arm was in strange, horrifying angle. The other nations grimaced as the young child cried out for his mother. Seemingly as quick as the wind, Saiska was next to her child, wrapping his arm. When she opened her mouth, it wasn’t some lost language, but instead understandable.“My Ksikkihkíni,” she said sweetly. “You know not to run down this mound, and yet, you always do. How many more times do I have to heal you till you understand.”Young Alfred didn’t respond, just smiled innocently up at his mother. Before Saiska could say another word, young Matthew appeared next to his brother.“Little brother,” he said shocking the nations, “you know you’re not supposed to run.”“You ran too!” Alfred shot back in present time, making the nations chuckle.“What did Canadia mean when he said, ‘little brother?’” England asked“Isn’t it obvious,” Francis interjected before the brothers could respond. “My Matthieu is older, of course.”“By a hair,” Alfred muttered.“Still older,” Matthew responded quietly.While the twins started arguing the scene changed. Now the nations were on the shore. In the distance ships were getting closer. The young twins were holding onto each other as their mother watched the ships stoically.“Boys,” she said sternly. “What ever happens, I want you two to watch over each other. If you can help it, stay away from these outsiders.”The quiet made the situation eerier than the morning fog could do. As time passed the nations realized that the ships were of that of Vikings. Saiska held her to boys in the woods, whispering something in their ears, before slowly walking to the invaders.The nations watched the young twins as their mother engaged with the Vikings. As she turned around to walk back, two figures followed, both blond, tall and scary at first glance. They were Sweden and Denmark, decked out fully in their Viking outfits. If they looked closely, they would see Norway holding down the fort of Vikings.The scene changed again, making some of the nations groan in annoyance. But they quickly stopped when they realized where they were; a tent surrounded the young children, but with them were the Vikings and their mother. They acted as though they’d known one another for years.The scene changed once more, it was cold. The ships were sailing away, never to be seen again.“That was unexpected,” Tino, the personification of Finland said, turning to Sweden. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”“I forgot” Berwald, the personification of Sweden said. It was true, they only stayed for a couple months and it was years ago.Although Berwald didn’t mean it, he hurt both Alfred and Matthew. They really just thought that he was trying to protect them, but to know that he just forgot hurts more than anything else.
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As a new scene started, it was cloudy, and the air smelled salty. New ships were on the horizon. Looking at the twins, they were crowding their mother. Saiska was sick, coughing and sweating a lot. The nations looked horrified, understanding what was about to happen.“My sons,” she said softly, her voice raspy. “I need you two to take care of one another.”“What do you mean mama?” young Matthew asked.“She is saying goodbye,” Francis said quietly.The nations couldn’t help but watch as Saiska didn’t respond, but instead gave both her sons’ hands a final squeeze before slowly fading into nothingness. At first, the children were obviously confused, but then they started screaming out for their mother to come back. The scene wretched the hearts of many nations watching.“Ve~,” Feliciano, the personification of Northern Italy, said sadly. “I remember when Grandpa Rome faded. It hurt so much, Roma and I cried for days after.”“Chigi!” Lovino, the personification of Southern Italy, sharply said. “I told you to never speak of that!”“All right,” Ludwig, the personification of Germany, spoke. “Let’s not start fighting, we have memories to watch and I don’t want you two to start bickering again!”As the nations quieted, the panicked yells got louder. Alfred and Matthew had tears in their eyes, they tried for years to not think about their mother and how she passed. The younger counterparts, however, tried seemingly everything they could to bring their mother back. It seemed like hours of trying before a native yelled that boats were landing on the shore. Young Alfred volunteered to get closer and investigate.As Alfred got closer, hiding in the brush, he saw a blond man. He looked similar to those years prior, but Alfred was hesitant, obviously. The nations got a good look at who was there; Tino just stood there, breathing in the new land when he spotted a blond head.“Hey,” he said sofly, startling the young nation. “Come here, I won’t hurt you.”Clearly, Alfred ran away, he ran all the way back to the village and immediately told Matthew what was going on. Scared, they both stayed away from these strangers for years to come, letting their people, the natives fight only if they wanted to.A quick scene change showed Alfred all alone playing in a field full of tall grass, when two of these blond strangers showed up again. Clearly, he had been spotted before, but hadn’t noticed, because they both had something for him. The one with bushy brows, scared Alfred. The one with good smelling food, made Alfred smile. Sadly, when he was making his way over to Francis, the one with the food, he saw that Arthur, bushy brows, was sulking. That choice stuck with him for the rest of his life.Another scene change saw Arthur holding Alfred as he slowly drifted to sleep. Arthur vowed to always protect Alfred and never to be like his horrid brother (making Allister, the personification of Scotland, scoff).Scene changes everywhere because now a small village is being erected.“I shall call this place Roanoke,” Arthur told Alfred. “You have to stay here whilst I head back home for some work.”Alfred just nodded silently, feeling guilty for not meeting up with his brother in many moons.A quick scene change; the village was in ruins. Bodies lay on the foot path. In the midst of the horror, Alfred was in a small ball, silently weeping.“What happened here?” Matthew asked, looking at his brother.“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Alfred said sharply. “Let’s just say there’s a reason I don’t like horror movies.”Of course, several nations were taken aback, the scene itself was horrifying, then add on that Alfred didn’t like horror movies, despite always saying he loved them.Arthur came up to Alfred and rested a hand on his shoulder, but Alfred snapped and judo-flipped him.“Don’t touch me,” he said quietly. “You left me alone when they attacked. You don’t get to comfort me.”The scene quickly changed, no bodies, no homes, no anything. It was completely devoid of any life. The only signs that anyone was there was the ‘Croatoan’ carved on a tree and the little boy that was curled up, sleeping in the woods.When Arthur returned from his voyage, of course he was shocked and asked Alfred what happened. Sadly, Alfred wouldn’t speak for years after that event.
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Another scene change, Jamestown. Arthur was already away at the time. Alfred watched as both his people murdered each other.“Your past is much bloodier than I knew,” Kiku, the personification of Japan, said quietly to Alfred.“Yeah,” Alfred agreed. “It calms for a bit later on.”That didn’t calm any of the nations watching as a native killed an Englishman, and then the English killing the native.A slight scene change led to the nations being in a small one room house. Small Alfred had a giant book in his hands.“How’d you get that?” Arthur asked.“You left it,” Alfred explained. “I needed to learn somewhere.”Most nations were lost. The only one’s who weren’t were Arthur’s siblings and Norway and Romania, as they had seen the book several times before.Anyway, young Alfred noticed that his lantern was becoming dim. So, he flipped through the book and then said an incantation. The small house was now lit up as if electricity powered lights.“I memorized every spell you had,” Alfred said quietly. “I still remember most of them.”“I thought you hated magic,” Iona, the personification of the Republic of Ireland, asked.Alfred hesitated for moment, but eventually decided to answer. “I do, but I still use it when I think it’s necessary. You’re probably gonna find out anyway, but I’m…” Alfred hesitated again, taking a deep breath slowly. “I’m genderfluid. I use magic to change how I look.”That of course, shocked the nations, but not by much. There are trans nations, and the magic trio has helped with that, but to have the world’s superpower be genderfluid was a shock. Of course, there were several nations that didn’t approve of this, at all. They started scowling at Alfred but stopped when several others glared daggers at them.Before Arthur could say anything, the scene changed. When Alfred saw it, he screamed about how it was unfair and cruel of his mother to play these memories. For what was before them was one of many witch trials.“Alfred Kirkland,” said a reverend, “you have been proven guilty of witchcraft. Any last words?”“I didn’t do it,” a very small, very scared Alfred said, voice quivering. He had a noose around his throat. “I don’t know why those girls were hurting, but I didn’t do it.”“Then explain why, that in the last five years, you have not aged.”“I don’t know, but it’s not magic.”Before Alfred could say anything else, the stool that he was stood upon was kicked away and Alfred suddenly couldn’t breathe. He struggled for what seemed like forever, but then he went still. After about twenty minutes, Alfred regained conscious and started struggling again. At this, he was taken down and tied up.A quick scene change, Alfred was tied in rope, but the rope had rocks tied to them. He was on the bank of a river.“Please don’t do this,” Alfred cried, his face stained with tears.“Then explain the last fifteen times!” The reverend shouted.“I can’t! I don’t know what is going on.”Without another word, Alfred was pushed into the river. He immediately sunk to the bottom and started struggling to breathe. He then faded out.Another quick scene change, he was tied in a pyre. No words were exchanged before he was lit up. The screams were deafening. Luckily, there was the sound of a horse coming closer and Arthur saw what was happening.“Stop it!” He said frantically, “Get water, put this out now!”“No can do,” the reverend replied,” good sir, the witch needs to burn.”“He’s not a witch! He’s a child!”Before long the scene faded, leaving the nations in a black room, but it was lit up.“Fourteen hangings,” Alfred spoke up, “twenty drownings, five burnings.”Most nations’ jaws dropped. It was almost unheard of for a nation to be killed that much in such a short amount of time.“Why didn’t you tell me?” Arthur asked.“I didn’t tell anyone,” Alfred responded quietly.Before anything else could be said, a door appeared on the side of the room. On it was a note. Please use this room to rest when needed, sorry for not adding it sooner. -Saiska
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The door lead to a room that was actually several rooms. The main room had a living room with a connecting kitchen. Down the hallway lead to the bedrooms, which were all individualized.When the nations first walked into the living room, Saiska was there, sitting on one of the couches. Alfred quickly ran up to her and hugged her, but then started whining about how it was unfair that he was watching his memories. It was a losing fight however because she soon vanished once again, leading Alfred to curse up a storm.“Al,” Matthew walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder, “calm down. She’s just trying to help.”Whilst Matthew was calming Alfred, the other nations looked around the ‘room.’ The area was quite spacious. Toris, the personification of Lithuania, wandered off and discovered that each of the rooms were individualized to the nation. Each bedroom door had a small flag tacked on it. Toris popped into his own bedroom and was amazed, it was amazing, everything he wanted.When Toris returned the room had divulged into chaos. For some reason, Arthur and Francis, the personification of France, were fighting. Now, this wasn’t entirely abnormal. They had finally gotten a chance to spat with one another, probably about who was going to cook their meal.Whilst that was happening, Alfred and Matthew made their way into the kitchen and whipped up dinner. That itself should tell how long the argument lasted. Once they got the food on table, Matthew whistled loudly to get the nation’s attention. Of course, they scolded Alfred for trying to deafen them.Once the nations were fed and watered, they returned to resume watching the memories.A new scene unfolded in front of the nations. Alfred was sitting in a field, playing with a rabbit, when a young teen approached him from behind.“Hello,” the boy said, “I’m Davie”Alfred smiled up at Davie, “I’m Alfred.”Alfred turned to the nations. “I would prefer if nobody talks during this memory”Davie led Alfred to his house and up into the attic. He dug in a chest and pulled out a dusty book with a flower on it. Davie opened the book to a bookmarked page, a blue daisy. Davie went on to say how he wished he could see it. Alfred argued that he could find it, but Davie countered that he couldn’t as it doesn’t grow in the colonies.Alfred left to go search for this flower. Days passed, years passed. One day, while Alfred was searching, he saw Davie again, except he was now grown and didn’t recognize the young nation.“Davie!” Alfred tried and tried to get this man’s attention, but Davie ignored the nation.When Alfred saw Arthur next, he asked about the flower. Arthur told Alfred that it grew in England. That, of course, made Alfred sad. Luckily, Arthur popped up and said that he would go get it.Once Arthur was gone back to England, Alfred searched for Davie once more. Only, Davie was now older and had children.“Davie!” Alfred tried this time. “Davie!”This time he wasn’t ignored, Davie rubbed Alfred’s head, giving this child attention.When Arthur returned, Alfred was upset and started pounding on his ward’s chest. It wasn’t until Arthur pulled out the flowers that Alfred stopped. He quickly grabbed them and ran off. He ran until he saw the house.“Davie!” Alfred yelled when he saw a young man who looked like Davie. It was his son. Alfred presented the flowers to the mystery Davie. He led Alfred to a coffin and tossed the flowers in it. Alfred leaned into the coffin and grabbed one of the flowers and looked up at the young man.“Davie?”The scene faded to black.Several nations looked to the ground. They’ve all experienced learning that they don’t age the same as humans. Most sad, like this.Ivan walked up to Alfred. “I am sorry comrade.”Alfred just smiled softly at his friends.
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Alfred continued to look down sadly as the next scene started up. There was a bustling city in front of the nations, Boston. A boy, who looked about thirteen ran past them, towards the harbor where a ship was coming into port. It was clear as to who this boy was by the cowlick on his head. The boy wore brown knickers with suspenders and a white cotton shirt, the collar was loosely tied, his shoes were brown and dirty.The boy seemed to run faster as he got closer to the port. He weaved expertly in between the workers getting everything ready for the ship. Once he was on the dock, he waited for what seemed like forever. He was bouncing on his toes and looked at the slowing ship with anticipation.When the gangplank was settled on the dock, young Alfred watched as every human disembarked. He waited patiently for his caretaker, but instead a pompous man came up to Alfred an introduced himself.“Hello young master,” the man said, making Alfred hate him already. “I’m here to inform you of some changes that will be happening, please walk with me.”“You sent a stranger to talk to him?” Francis interjected, looking in disbelief at the scene.“I was busy,” Arthur defended himself, but before he was able to continue the scene continued.The man made Alfred carry a heavy piece of luggage, but Alfred didn’t really mind that, what he minded was that the guy just kept talking and talking and not letting Alfred say a word. So, Alfred ignored the man, until he said…“Now,” he said, “sugar will be a little more expensive with this tax, but it’s needed to help pay for the war.”“Wait,” Alfred dropped the luggage, making the man yelp as now it was getting dirty. “What do you mean ‘tax.’”“Uh… since the war cost so much, we need to tax British items, like sugar.”“No.”“Y-you can’t say no, it’s not up to you.”Alfred just walked off, leaving the pompous man trying to pick up his heavy luggage and failing.Arthur went up to Alfred and whacked him on the back of the head. “You don’t just leave people when you’re frustrated.”Alfred rubbed the back of his head and smirked slightly, “Yes I can.”A new scene started up before either could argue. This time: The Stamp Act of 1765. Young Alfred held a torch in his hand and was screaming incoherently, like many other colonists. They headed to a house where a man was holding his wife outside. The colonists started throwing bricks through the windows and Alfred set the house on fire.“This’ll teach them!” Alfred yelled, causing many colonists to cheer in agreeance. A quick scene change had the nations spinning. Now they watched as a disgruntled colonists started throwing snowballs, most likely with rocks in them at redcoats that were aiming straight for the unarmed colonists. Alfred stood in front yelling profanities at the British soldiers.Arthur smacked Alfred again. This time, Alfred didn’t smirk or say anything. He knew what was coming.Suddenly there was a sharp crack, then another, and another, and another. Five colonists dead, six wounded. Alfred was also wounded, but he could still help care for the others before his wound became to much pain and he passed out. All the nations were silent. Toris slowly came up to Alfred and hugged him. He knew of the horror from stories, but to see it was completely different.“I want a break,” Alfred finally said and the door appeared once more. Alfred slowly lead the other nations into the space and instantly went to lie down. Toris followed him to make sure he was okay.In the main space several nations glared at Arthur. After a while things seemed to disperse and settle down. Without notice, Natalia, the personification of Belarus, snuck off to find Alfred.In another room, Alfred was on the verge of a breakdown. He just watched his friends die all over again. Realization that he would have to keep experiencing this hurt even more. He didn’t want to relive all that death.
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As the nations were waiting for Alfred to be ready to continue, a young blonde woman appeared in the doorway where Alfred ran off to. She had medium length wavy hair that curled at the ends. She had star barrette clips holding her hair out of her face. She had a plaid blue flannel that seemed to reach her mid-thigh. She had on shorts that went down to her mid-thigh as well. Over the flannel she has a bomber jacker that was smaller than it should be. She also had on brown cowboy boots that came up to her knees.She smiled sheepishly and waved, “Hey,” her soft voice rang out, startling the nations.Matthew smiled as he went up to the young woman. “Amelia,” he said softly, “are you okay now?”Amelia looked down and nodded slowly. Behind her Toris and Natalia appeared, seemingly ready to catch her in a moment’s notice.“I should introduce myself,” Amelia said softly, still cautious at being out here. “I’m Amelia F. Jones and I can still kick anyone’s asses into next week.”With that, everyone instantly realized that this was Alfred, but Amelia.Everyone filed back out of the room and a new scene started. Alfred was dressed up in native garb, along with several other colonists. They were quiet, stealthy. They climbed aboard a sleeping ship and one of the colonists cracked open a crate. Inside, tea. Each crate had pounds of tea. Then, the pandemonium started.These colonists just started hurling these crates into the harbor. Alfred would lift two or three crates at time and toss them over the side with ease. Of course, several colonists took notice, but shrugged it off, assuming that the boy was a farmhand.Soon, ten crates turned into thirty, and soon after three-hundred and forty-two crates were thrown into the harbor. Once the last crate was thrown overboard, the colonists ran back off the ship, yelling and cheering. Alfred stood back for a second and stared at the ship.“Maybe now you’ll hear me,” he said softly before running to join the others.Arthur turned to Amelia, “I sure heard you,” he said sternly to the young nation. “All that tea cost so much, yet you throw it into the harbor!”“Not like you didn’t steal it,” Amelia poked the bear.“What does that mean?!”“Yao,” Amelia turned to Yao, the personification of China. “Do you wanna answer for me.”Several other nations chuckled at that. Before anything else could be said, a new scene started.Alfred was stopped in the doorway of his home holding snowed on firewood. Arthur was sitting in front of the door holding several different books. One of which, was written by Thomas Hobbes.“E-England,” Alfred stuttered out. “You’re home early.” “Indeed I am,” Arthur replied suavely, “though, you sound less than enthralled. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the interesting choice of literature you have acquired in my absence, would it?”“N-no. It’s just some reading material.”Arthur looked at it suspiciously. “So, you wouldn’t mind if it I just…” He tossed into the fireplace, burning it to a crisp.Alfred stared at in disbelief, he really liked that book. He quickly composed himself and looked at his caretaker.“So,” Alfred asked quietly, “what are you doing here?”“I heard about what some of your colonists did,” Alfred stiffened slightly at that. “You wouldn’t happen to have names would you?”“Why would I?”“Because they’re your people. If you don’t want to give me names, fine. But, you will have to pay.”Alfred’s eyes widened.“Boston Harbor is now closed.”“What?! But I didn’t do anything!”“Your people did, so you did.”Amelia remembered this scene, she rolled her eyes at how childish they both were. Before much else could happen, the scene ended.“Also, your people will share their houses and food with my soldiers.”“That’s so unfair!” Alfred fell to floor dramatically.
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Amelia smiled softly, looking at Arthur.“You know,” she said softly, “If you had run these by my people first, some of the taxes may have been fine. Not all, but some, and not so much of a tax. My people were mostly poor farmers. Very few were rich and able to afford your stupid taxes.”Arthur rolled his eyes, “you were a colony, you had no say.”Amelia grimaced at that. “That’s exactly why we rioted.”Before anymore could be said, the next scene popped up. Gunshots were heard before the visual appeared. Both Amelia and Arthur recognized the battle before them. The British were fighting the Massachusetts Bay militia.Amelia watched closely, looking for her younger self, before remembering that he wasn’t allowed to fight. Alfred was spotted in the back, looking on at the battle. He was being held back by the women who oversaw feeding the militia. It was a surprise to see them so close, but this battle happened suddenly and with little warning. The first gunshot was a surprise to both sides.Suddenly, Alfred stopped fighting. His eyes wide. Realization drawing on his face.“Does this mean I’m at war?” The quivering voice of this young nation startled everyone, the women and the nations watching.The women floundered, giving Alfred time to break free and run from the bloody mess of field. He was scared. He always was headstrong, but seeing the destruction before him scared him to no end.Feliciano came up to Amelia in shock, “you were scared?”Amelia looked down, “yeah, I was scared. I had never seen true war. I’d see death all the time, but to truly see war, it’d scare anyone for the first time. Maybe not even the first time, but it would scare anyone who hadn’t seen it constantly growing up.”“Are you sure you’re America?” Ivan asked, before poking Amelia’s cheek, who in turn bit his finger.Ivan just smiled and pulled his finger out of Amelia’s sharp grasp.A new scene appeared, Alfred was in front of George Washington, staring in awe. This was the man the congress sent to lead the Continental Army. The young nation had grown about a foot, looking more like a young teenager than just a boy.“Have we heard anymore word from France?” The rough, yet smooth voice of Washington asked, looking behind the small nation.“Lafayette has said that they’re sending supplies,” a younger voice replied.Alfred turned around and stared at Alexander Hamilton. Despite being around them for literally months now, the awe still hadn’t completely worn off this young nation.Arthur just shook his head. “Why are your people doing your job?”“I’m sorry,” Amelia said, “but I wasn’t taught how to do diplomacy and what not. You left me alone, remember?”Amelia was salty.Before more could be said, a new scene started. Alfred stood tall, holding a rifle in the pouring rain. In front of him stood his once brother, Arthur.“Hey Britain,” he sounded done at this point, “all I want is my freedom. I’m no longer a child, nor your little brother. From now on, consider me Independent.”Arthur hesitated for a moment before charging, clashing his gun’s bayonet to the side of Alfred’s gun, leaving a mark that will never be erased.Arthur just stared at the young nation in front of him, gun held tightly, “I won’t allow it! You idiot, why can’t you follow anything through to the end?”One of the commanders of the army behind yelled out, “Ready. Aim.”Arthur loosened his grip, “there’s no way I can shoot you, I can’t.” He dropped his gun before falling to his knees and sobbing. “Why, dammit why? It’s not fair.”“You know why,” Alfred said, standing tall above his former brother, “what happened? I remember when you were great.”The scene ends quite abruptly, the door appearing behind them. They slowly filed through.“Do-uh,” Amelia tried to find the words whilst sitting down next to Toris. “Does anyone wanna play some games?”She was restless, dying for something to do.Peter, the personification of Sealand, popped out of nowhere, scaring Feliciano and Lovino. “What if we played Monopoly?”Amelia grew a very predatory smirk. Yao met her eyes and smirked back. Even Ivan knew when to back off when these two played that dreaded game.“What if we just played sorry?” Matthew tried, but was completely ignored.So, the nations who wanted to play Monopoly played, the ones who just wanted to watch, were in for a show. Several other nations just played smaller games and then ended up watching.In the end, a stalemate. To break the tie, a staring contest happened. Almost all the Asian nations bet on Yao, except for Kiku who bet on Amelia. The Face family was split. Matthew bet on Amelia, whilst the rest of the fam bet on Yao.That ended with Amelia winning and Yao being shocked for losing for the first time ever.“You have nothing on my staring partners at my place,” she replied when asked how she’d done it.
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The nations, once the Monopoly fiasco was done, all ate and went to sleep. After several hours, Amelia was the first one to get up. She was just up and started playing music softly in the main sitting room. She danced in her pajamas, which were red shorts and a blue camisole, which rode up just a tiny bit every now and then.The next nation to wake up was Toris, who quickly joined Amelia in dancing. She was obviously shocked at having a dancing partner this early, but was happy, nonetheless. Toris wore an olive-green t-shirt and khaki pants. Amelia quickly grabbed his hand and changed the music to proper dancing music before dancing closely to him.When the next few nations awoke, they just watched. Amelia and Toris didn’t notice the crowd forming, watching the two dance. They just loved dancing together. The next song to play was Shut Up and Dance by WALK THE MOON. They got so into the song that Toris dipped Amelia at the end, causing them to finally notice the nations watching them with gaped mouths.What was even more shocking was that Amelia shirt and slid up to reveal a very large ugly scar on her torso. Toris, although he didn’t mean it, dropped Amelia to the ground. His counterpart quickly got up and stood next to Toris with her head down slightly, tugging on her shirt after realizing the scar had shown.“What in the world was that?” Feliks, the personification of Poland, asked.“That,” Francis started, “was love.”“That’s ridiculous,” Matthew stated. “If it was, she would’ve told me.” Then he turned to Amelia, “right?”Amelia nervously glanced up and then side glanced at Toris, who shook his head.“No…” she didn’t sound very convincing, causing Toris to face-palm. “How about I go change and we just go back to watching the memories. I already ate.”That was a lie, but before anything else could be said, Amelia raced out of the room, weaving behind the shocked nations, who turned on Toris. Poor Toris had to deal with the prodding questions whilst Amelia got ready. When Amelia returned, she was wearing a knee length flair shirt that was grassy green her top was a white and black plaid flannel. She had one a pair of blue sneakers with red laces. Her clothes didn’t match, but she didn’t seem to matter.“Let’s get to it!” she seemed hyper, like she had just had caffeine, but she obviously hadn’t. It was a fake attitude. She hated this. She strode through the door with her head held high. The other nations filed through the door behind her.
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The next scene started up and instantly the nations were sweltering. They were in a room full of white men arguing. Amelia sighed remembering this. Alfred, now Amelia kept trying to get a word in, but was blatantly ignored. She wore a simple country dress (of the time period) with a tight corset, making her want to fall over even more than the heat. Unlike her older counterpart, she had long hair that was tied up into a nice updo. She tried to speak up once more when one of the men looked at her pointedly.“Why is there a woman in here?” He asked, causing the whole room to quiet down.George Washington looked over and sighed, “That would be our nation,” he said slowly, “America.”“Can I speak now-“ Amelia was cut off by the man again.“Our nation is a man, not some woman!”Amelia was just shocked and just went up to the man and punched him… like she does. Elizaveta, the personification of Hungary, cheered at this. She knew what it was like to be ignored by and put down by men. Amelia turned on her heels and strode out of the stifling hot building. One man followed her, Alexander Hamilton.“You can’t let them speak to you like that,” he said. “You’re their boss!”“Actually,” Amelia started. “I think they’re the boss of me, if I remember England’s teachings properly.”Arthur smirked at that, knowing she learned that from him.“That doesn’t make any sense! You’re our nation, you should tell them what to do!”“That would be unfair and cruel. Trust me, I know what it’s like being ruled over someone for so long, it’s cruel.”The scene stopped and a new one started. Alfred was on his knees begging Washington to stay.“Please!” He was desperate. “I can’t do this without you! What if they’re cruel and vicious and mean.”Washington was just shaking his head. “First of all,” he started, “those were all synonyms. Secondly, I must go. It’ll show we’re strong.”The scene ended quite abruptly. The next one started and there young Amelia watched on as the white house was being built. She was smiling and next to her stood a tall man (for the time). He looked down at the young nation next to him.“You know,” she started, turning to glance at the man, “you might not win this election, I heard that Burr has a good chance.”“I know,” the man, John Adams, replied, “but, I will be finished moving into the Presidential Mansion on Saturday.”“But the election results will be on Tuesday.”Adams just smiled softly at the young nation.The scene ended and a new one started up quickly, causing the nations to be dizzy for a minute. Before them was a shocked Amelia. She looked at a man before her with a shocked, yet angry face.“You shot your best friend!” She screamed at the man.The nations backed away slowly from the Amelia watching the memories, they knew how fiery she could be, and she looked like she wanted to kill the man in the memory.“We- we weren’t best friends…” the man stated.“Obviously,” her hands were flying wildly. “You killed a man because you were angry. You killed one of the greatest minds of this century and the last! You killed one of the few men who believed in me when I was just starting to be my own!”“If I could take it back, I would.”“You can’t Burr. You can’t give back the life you stole. You made his wife, who by the way is still mourning her son, a widow.”“I couldn’t let him make my daughter an orphan!”“What daughter? The one who is fully grown and married?”Before more could be said, a new scene started up.“What do you mean we’re going to burn Parliament Hill?” Amelia of the past said shocked.As the scene came to view the nations noticed Amelia was standing in front of the president’s desk with a shocked face.“It’s too late,” James Madison stated. “I’m sending troops into Canada first thing in the morning.”“Why? Why are you sending another troop?”“It’s not just the troop, you’re going too.”Amelia glanced warily at her boss. “Why?”“You are going to burn down their parliament building in Niagara.”“But I don’t want to hurt Kiááyo.”A loud slap resounded and the nations stood in shock. Madison had slapped Amelia, hard.“How many times have I told you not to speak that devil language?!”Amelia’s head hung low, “This would be the tenth time, sir.”“Good, now-“Before he could finish the Amelia watching screamed out.“Stop!” She yelled out, “stop, I don’t want to watch this!”She turned around and waited for the door to appear. It didn’t, but the scene stopped playing, leaving the nations to stare at a frozen Amelia looking down
and an angry Madison. Matthew came up to Amelia and wrapped his arms around her. With that, she collapsed on the ground, sobbing.“I didn’t want to do it,” she sobbed into Matthew’s shoulder. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”“It’s alright,” Matthew whispered into her ear. “I’m sorry for hurting you too.”The rest of the nations were shocked, never having seen the strongest nation crumble like that.
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It didn’t take long for Amelia to compose herself. She quickly stood up, wiping away any remaining tears and turned towards the rest of the nations. Her face was blotchy, but beside that, it looked like nothing had happened. Her smile was the same, although the nations could now see it was a little forced.
Lilli, the personification of Liechtenstein, came up to Amelia and just hugged her. Amelia laughed awkwardly towards the small nation clinging to her. After a minute Lilli let go and gave Amelia a soft smile.Before any words could be said, the scene started up again.“-Go and get ready. Also, stop being a stupid woman and leave my sights!”Amelia of the past kept her head down, “yes, sir.”The scene ended there. The nations looked to Amelia, who kept her head held high. The next scene started and there were gunshots. Alfred was in his military getup, but was clearly uncomfortable. He didn’t want to do this. He quickly ran past his men and towards the Parliament Building. Torch in hand, he raced inside the building.“I’m sorry Kiá- Mattie…” he said before lighting several pieces of furniture on fire and dropping the torch.He quickly ran out of the building, only to be awarded with the sight of his brother clutching his chest in pain. He had never seen this before and ran up to his brother. Matthew, watching the memory, touched his chest softly. He could still feel the scar.“W-what’s wrong?” he asked out of fear.“You’re burning his heart,” Arthur, appearing out of nowhere, said softly as he crouched next to his younger brother and next to his enemy.Before any other words could be exchanged, Alfred got up and ran. He ran as fast as he could away from what he had just done.“So that’s how Mattie got that scar,” Gilbert, the personification of Prussia, stated. “No wonder he doesn’t talk about it.”When Gilbert opened his mouth, Amelia flinched slightly. Only the nations closest her noticed that. The scene ended before anymore could be said.
More gunshots were heard, a lot more. As the scene came into focus, Alfred was fighting on a hill overlooking Washington.“They’re in the President’s House!” a solider that had just ridden up yelled out.Alfred stopped shooting and quickly turned to the solider, “What do you mean?”“We saw them entering and they were looking for the president and his wife.”“Hah! Good luck with that, I made them leave a week-“Just then Alfred screamed out in pain. He collapsed and clutched his chest tightly.”“Sp-spyglass!” Alfred rasped out, before screaming in pain again.The solider quickly grabbed a spyglass he had and handed it to the screaming nation, who used it to look at the orange blaze in the distance. He looked around and spotted Arthur patting Matthew’s shoulder in praise. Matthew was smiling… no. Matthew was smirking, there was no doubt about it.Amelia watched as Alfred was writhing about, trying to get the pain to stop, but there was no use, it wouldn’t stop until the fire was out. Matthew came up to Amelia and pulled her into a tight hug, whispering apologizes over and over.“I-it’s alright bro,” she said, her voice somehow not sounding real. “I’m alright.”With that, Matthew held on tighter, seemingly knowing something that the others didn’t. When he did pull away, the scene was finished. Now they were in a canvas tent. Alfred was on a cot, his chest wrapped tightly. Madison above him with a glare.“You failed,” he said. “You’re a disgrace.”Before Madison could say anymore, the scene ended, making room for a new one. Amelia was standing next to a new man behind a desk. He was signing something.“Now,” the man started. “We won’t bother them, and they can’t bother us.”“Yes,” Amelia replied, “sir.”“Now, what did I say about all that sir nonsense?”“Not to do that, sir.”The man sighed; the nations now recognized him as James Monroe. They also noticed that Amelia was starting to drift from the crowd. Lilli grabbed her hand to keep her from drifting farther. Before more could be said, the door appeared before the nations.As they enter Saiska was sitting on the couch once more. She still glared at the nations as she stood up (besides her children). Amelia ran up to her mother and started whining again about how unfair everything was. Instead of disappearing like last time, she just hugged her daughter, stunning Amelia.“What are you doing?” she asked.“Even I forgot how bad it was,” Saiska responded.“Does that mean we can stop now?”That hope quickly dissipated when Saiska shook her head. Then, she vanished, making her daughter stumble forward a bit. Amelia cursed slightly and turned to face the other nations. She smiled sheepishly at them.“How about we talk about Toris and I?” she suddenly asked, causing said nation to look at her in disbelief. “What? I’d rather talk about that than anything else.”Toris just shook his head in exasperation. Amelia smirked and grabbed his hand and sat in a chair, pulling Toris into her lap, making him blush.Arthur broke the silence, “no,” he said flatly. “We are going to discuss what we just saw.”Amelia just shook her head, “I’d rather not. My privacy is already being violated, I don’t need to explain getting hit by my boss or how I hurt my own brother. I don’t need therapy right now.”Ivan smirked, “I think you do, comrade.”Amelia was about to just launch herself at Ivan, but Toris stopped her, telling her it wasn’t worth it.
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After several unanswered questions, Amelia broke, almost throwing Toris off her lap.“You wanna know what happened?” she asked frustrated. “He hurt me, a lot more than that one time. It was constant throughout his entire time. Every time I spoke in my native tongue I was hit. He’s not even the worst one either. You’ll get to see plenty more of that!”By the time she was done, her face was red, and she was huffing in anger. Toris, along with Matthew, looked at Amelia with sorrowful faces. They hadn’t known how bad it was. The other nations all looked shocked. They hadn’t known that her bosses could be so cruel with how she acted.After a few seconds of silence, Amelia realized what she had just said. Her eyes widened and she jumped up, knocking Toris to the ground, making her more panicked. She tried to run off, but Ludwig grabbed her arm, making her flinch. She pulled her hardest, but Ludwig wasn’t letting go.“Please let me go,” she pleaded, on the verge of a panic attack.“Hold on,” he just said.Ludwig dragged Amelia back to her chair and sat her down, keeping a grip on her shoulders so she couldn’t run. Arthur knelt in front of her.“Amelia, love,” he started. “We didn’t realize how bad it was, but you aren’t alone in that aspect. We’ve all had bad bosses.”“If it ever gets bad again,” Gilbert said, appearing out of the crowd, “tell me, and the awesome me will take care of it.”That made her smile a tiny bit. She felt Ludwig’s grip loosen. She still wanted out, so she bolted once more, headed for her room. Once there, she barricaded herself in the room. She ignored the banging on her door and just started playing punk rock music loudly. Outside the room Matthew was banging on the door, knowing his twin was in distress. Vash, the personification of Switzerland, just put a hand on his shoulder and told him it was no use.Feliciano volunteered himself and his brother, Lovino, for making lunch. Lovino, obviously, was upset at this, but reluctantly agreed. The twins made pasta. Everyone, but Amelia, ate. They saved her a plate, but she refused to join.After about an hour or so after the meal, Amelia finally emerged from her cave, now wearing high rise jeans and a tight, simple black tank top.“What’s with the outfit change?” Matthew asked.“I felt like jeans,” she answered slyly. “Now, let’s get back to the shit-show that is my life!”As she said that, she passed the plate of food she was about to be handed and walked out the door.“Maybe’s she’s finally on a diet, aru,” Yao said, before walking out the door.Matthew frowned, but quickly put the dish away before joining the others who were walking out the door.As the scene started, many of the nations tensed, not knowing what was coming up. Before the nations stood Alfred and a man.“I’m so happy to be working with you, sir, “Alfred said like an excited puppy. “I remember working with your dad.”“I know,” the man, John Quincy Adams, said. I still remembering seeing you when you were still getting your footing.”“So, you never did tell me what Russia was like.”“You wanted to know about me?” Ivan asked, somehow making the scene pause.“Well, yeah,” Amelia replied. “I never really met you yet and I only heard bits and pieces.”Before more could be said, the scene continued. Adams chuckled and pet his nations head, accidentally touching Nantucket. Alfred got out of his grasp and was blushing.“Don’t touch Nantucket.” His voice was rigid.Adams just shook his head in disbelief, “anyway, if you want to know more about Russia, why not go visit.”“I can’t just do that!”“And why is that?”“Because if I leave, I won’t come back for years. Just like Iggy.”“Who’s Iggy?”“Oh, yeah, it’s a nickname for Britain. It came to me in a dream.”“Hold up,” Arthur said, stopping the scene. “It came to you in a dream?”“Yeah…” Amelia was unsure of where this was going. “I get pretty vivid dreams sometimes, so what?”Again, before more could be said, the scene continued.“Okay…” Adams said uncertainly. “Anyway, you won’t be gone years. A year, at most. Take the time off. You’ve barely left here since; I don’t even know when.”Alfred sighed and nodded, “I guess I could take some time and meet some new nations.”So, the scene ended and a new one started up. This time, Alfred was wearing something that resembled a wool parka. He also looked like he was freezing. He was grumbling to himself.“It would be fun they said,” he grumbled quietly. “It would let you make new friends they said. Fun my ass.”“Who are you?” a young woman who resembled Natalia quite a bit asked. “And why are you here?”Alfred’s eyes widened as he turned around. “Uh, hi. I’m… uh I’m Alfred, or the United States of America. Are you Russia?”“No, I’m Belarus, or Natalia. What do you want with my big brother?”“He’s your brother? Awesome! You see, I’m looking for him because my President knows him and told me to go say ‘hi.’”“Also, you shouldn’t spout out who you are to every person you see.”“I know, but I had a feeling you were like me. Anyway, can you help me? I’m lost and freezing.”Natalia just rolled her eyes and nodded, before motioning for him to follow and started walking. Alfred rushed next to her.“Also,” Alfred started, “do you want to be friends? I don’t have many and you look nice.”Natalia just stopped dead in her tracks, making Alfred stop as well.“Oh no,” Alfred started freaking out. “Did I say something wrong? Do you not want to be friends, because that’s fine, just say so-““I look nice?” she asked.“Well yeah, I’ve never really met anyone as nice as you, besides my brother Mattie. Although, we’re fighting right now. Everyone else just seems war crazy. They did help me, but they more or less just wanted to kick Iggy’s butt.”“Fine, just stop talking before I get a headache.”“Fine as in you’ll be my friend?”“Yes.”Alfred just smiled and walked alongside Natalia to Russia’s place.
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“So,” Ivan asked Amelia, “you’re friends with my sister, da?”“Uh, yeah,” Amelia answered nonchalantly. “I thought that was obvious.”Before more could be said, the scene continued. The walk was long and tedious. Although Natalia told him not to talk, he kept talking. She didn’t once stop him, though; just as happy (of course not showing it) at having a new friend. Eventually, she joined in the conversation, mainly because he kept asking questions.“So,” Alfred said, “Iggy never told me why we hide who we are. Why is that?”Natalia rolled her eyes, “because people will get angry at you for their wars.”“Oh… What about bosses? ‘Cause my bosses know…”“That’s fine, just don’t let them tell everyone.”Alfred just nodded. “So, uh, what other nations should I become friendly with?”“How would I know?”“Aren’t you like popular? You look so nice!”Natalia stopped in her tracks once again. “Up ahead is big brother’s place, I leave you here.”“Why? Don’t want to see your brother? I get that, I don’t want to see Mattie right now either.”Natalia just stayed quiet and started walking away. Alfred looked down, hoping they were still friend, but then he looked up and forward. He had to meet Russia.As he marched on, he suddenly got a cold feeling.“Who are you?” A very tall, shadowy figure asked.Of course, that scared Alfred up the wazoo. He seemingly jumped ten feet in the air (probably just a trick of the eye) and cowardly hid behind a rock. Remember, this was before he learned to be a hero.“I-I’m Alfred,” the stuttering young nation said. “Who are you?”“I am Ivan,” Ivan of the past said, “or Mother Russia. Now, who are you?”“O-oh, you’re- you’re Russia?”“Yes, why are you still hiding behind that rock?”Ivan came forward slightly and finally saw Ivan clearly. He didn’t look to bad, nice even. So, Alfred came out from behind the rock and extended his hand, as if nothing had happened.“I’m Alfred,” he said. “Wait… I already told you that… Anyway, I’m Alfred or the United States of America!”“Ah,” a sound of recognition, “I remember working with that Adams fellow a few years back. He was so nice.”“That’s great because now he’s my boss.”The scene faded out as a new one entered. Alfred was shaking hands with Ivan and then waved goodbye.That was a quick little short scene that ended rather fast. The next scene was Alfred striding into Adams’ office. Only problem, it was no longer Adams in there. A very angry man was sitting behind the desk.“What are you doing in here?” the man asked in a very aggressive tone.“I just came back from my trip to see Russia,” Alfred was very timid. “I’m assuming you’re my new boss?”“Oh, your him.”He said with such disgust, like he had to go through another hoop to do what he wanted. Alfred just smiled softly at that man, a little wary, but nonetheless excited to work with this man. Problem was, the next this the man said crushed Alfred’s hope that this man will be lenient.“I need you to clear out this land,” he said as he pulled out a map of the southern U.S.“Clear this land of what?” Alfred asked warily“Of those horrible Indians.”Alfred was taken aback, “Um, I can’t do that. It’s where their homes are. Anyway, where are they supposed to go?”“They are going here,” he pointed to a place on the map that was circled.“But that’s hundreds of miles of walking! I’m not doing it! Na’á would not approve!”The man, Andrew Jackson, got up and stalked over to Alfred, causing said nation to back up against the wall. Jackson promptly slapped Alfred, hard.“I don’t know what devil language you speak,” Jackson started yelling, “or how long you fight with me on this, but you are doing this!”Alfred slowly nodded, holding his cheek, tears could be seen starting to form in his eyes.Before more could be said, a new scene started. Alfred was now Amelia, standing in front of Jackson’s office, scared to enter. She was visibly shaken. She held her head up high and knocked on the heavy door.“Come in,” Jackson’s voice resonated throughout the space.Amelia took a shaky breath and entered the man’s office. “You asked for me?”“Yes, I’m informing you that we have a funeral to attend. So, get dressed up.”“Yes, mister President.”Quickly the scene changed, and a gunshot was heard. Then another. A man was standing there with two pistols pointed at Jackson, but clearly they misfired. Jackson took his cane and started beating the man down. He didn’t even notice that Amelia was shot. She was still standing, but in shock of being shot once more.When a crowd started to notice what was going on, the man was quickly restrained. A man from the crowd was quick to point out that Amelia was shot. Jackson looked at the nation and scoffed, muttering something under his breath.The scene ended with Amelia being carried away and Jackson following.The next president was Martin Van Buren, Amelia stood in front of him. A shouting match was occurring.“But sir,” she started. “These people are just that, people! They deserve to be free just like anybody else!”“This is exactly what I mean,” Van Buren retorted, “this abolitionism business is the biggest threat around!”The scene ended with some more screaming from both parties, leading into the next scene with Alfred screaming at a doctor.“What do you mean he’s dead?!” he screamed out, tears falling down his face.“I’m sorry,” the doctor said. “He got sick really fast and his body couldn’t handle it.”“He’s only been in office a month! I can’t lose him! He was so nice too.”The nations watched the scenes with intrigue and horror. Amelia had been through so much with the last few presidents. They all hoped she would get a break sometime soon, but they had no idea what was coming up.
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Before the nations could speak, the door appeared once more. Amelia calmly walked into the door, ahead of anyone else. She held her head high, devoted to her part in this play called ‘Life.’Matthew was the quickest to recover and ran after his twin. His actions caused several nations to snap out of whatever spell that was. In reaction to others moving, the rest of the nations snapped out of the spell as well. They all followed the younger nations.Iona quickly ran up to the young twin nations, who were whisper-fighting about something, and dragged them both over to the awaiting nations. They obviously had some questions.Amelia saw this and tried to get out of the tight grip, but it was futile. She was an Irish-woman on a mission. She then handed her off to Allister, who promptly gave her a tight hug.“You should’ve come to me,” he said softly. “I would’ve beaten them so bad they would never touch you again.”Amelia looked down, though it was hard as her face was practically pressed against Allister’s shoulder, “It would’ve taken forever to reach anyone.”“Doesn’t matter now,” Tino pointed out, having heard the soft spoken conversation. “What matters now, is if you’re safe now. Are you?”That for some reason caused Amelia to burst out in hysterical laughter, “I have a cheeto for a president who has anger issues and seemingly hates me,” she sobered up quickly and stared darkly at Tino, “what do you think?”Amelia then quickly stormed off, slamming her door hard enough to leave a small crack. The rest of the nations quickly started discussing things amongst themselves. Matthew, Toris, and Natalia were all huddled off to the side, discussing things by themselves. Sadly, nobody even tried to talk to Amelia.After what felt like hours, and a meal made and eaten, Amelia came out of her room. She rushed forward and tried to open the door to go back to the memories, but it wasn’t budging.“No, Ksikkihkíni,” Saiska’s voice rang out. “You must talk about this.”“I don’t want to,” Amelia looked at the ceiling in anger. “I just want to get this over with!”“You’ll regret it.”“I don’t care. Just open the damn door!”Amelia tried to open the door again, with a lot more force. It finally budged. She strode through the door with fire in her eyes. The other nations had no other option, but to follow. So, slowly, but surely, they each exited throughout the door.They stood a little warily next to Amelia, not wanting to set her off. Matthew, however, stood closest to his twin. He took her hand and noted how sweaty it was. She didn’t push him away, instead leaned into his touch, needing her older brother.The scene started with Alfred in front of John Tyler, the tenth president. He was discussing something with Alfred.“I won’t be able to see this through,” Tyler stated, “but, you must try to keep this going.”“I will,” Alfred had a smug smirk on. “I will definitely keep this ball rolling.”The next scene opened, and Alfred was lying in bed, asleep. After a few moments of silence, he slowly woke up. He yawned, eyes still closed, and sat up and stretched. Finally, he opened his eyes and immediately they widened. He waved his hands in front of his face and started to freak out. Alfred quickly got out of bed and ran straight into the door.“What is wrong with you?” Arthur asked, somewhat rudely.“I’m going blind,” Amelia said bluntly.Matthew slapped her arm and chuckled at the nations’ reactions. Most of them had pity in their eyes. One of their own going blind was almost unheard of.“Okay,” Amelia relented. “I’m not going blind. If I remember correctly, this is right after Texas became a state.”“What does that have to do with anything?” Roderich, the personification of Austria, asked.“Because these,” She took off her star barrettes, “are Texas. I enchanted these clips to act as my glasses.”“Again, what does that have to do with anything?”“Texas helps me see. Also, ‘The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas.’”“And what does that mean?” Matthew asked, wanting his twin to get to the point, although he already knew what that meant.Amelia smirked. “Ya’ll just gotta figure that out for yourselves. Just know, I can’t see without Texas.”Before more could be said, the scene ended and a new one started up. Alfred was in his room screaming, but to who? Nobody knew.“Slavery is bad!” he screamed out, clutching his head tightly. Yet, he was also pulling on his hair at the same time.“Is it really?” a southern voice rang out in the room; it was very similar to Alfred’s. “I’m sure you just don’t understand it.”Amelia’s eyes widened. She knew what was coming up.Before anyone could say anything, a man bust into the room. He was huffing and puffing like he had just ran a 10k.“Mr. America,” the man said, “Mr. President wants to see you.”“Ooh,” the accented voice called out. “What does daddy want?”Alfred just huffed, forced a smiled, and walked past the man. He walked for a bit before knocking on a door.“Come in,” a deep voice called out.Alfred did just that, he entered and sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk.“Why’d you send an out of breath delivery man today?” Alfred asked, like this was a normal occurrence.“I’ve got some news,” the president, Zachary Taylor, said.“Don’t you always? So, who did you anger today?”“Actually, the South is threatening to secede.”“yeah,” the voice said quietly, “I want to leave you and be my own country.”Alfred closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “they can’t do that.”Before the memory could completely play out, a new one started. Amelia was in front of a man named Franklin Pierce. He had red puffy eyes. He had a bottle of whiskey in front of him. She was shaking slightly.~Trigger Warning~“Why did you ask me here?” she asked shakily.“You know,” Pierce slurred, “my wife is sick, all my kids are dead.”“I-I’m sorry sir, but why did you call me here?”“I was wondering, if you want to make my bed a little warmer?”Amelia’s eyes widened and began to back up, before she was grabbed by the wrist and forcefully kissed by this older man. Her eyes were wide, and she tried her best to push him off, but she was numb with shock. He dragged her off and into a room and slammed the door. Screams could be heard throughout the building, but nobody came.The scene ended and the nations looked at Amelia, who was clearly shaking. She had tears streaming down her face. Matthew was still right next to her, holding her hand tightly.“Can I hug you?” he asked his twin.She just nodded softly, and Matthew pulled her into a crushing hug. Since she was Amelia and not Alfred, she was substantially shorter than her brother. She cried into his chest and she cried hard. She screamed so loud that the nations had to cover their ears. She had never gotten that release before and it was comforting in a way.The door appeared, but neither twin seemed to notice it. Francis and Arthur glanced at each other before the latter decided to go let them know that the door was open; except he was stopped by his sister Iona, she may be separate, but she was still his sister. Iona slowly walked up to the twins and tapped Matthew’s shoulder.He only glanced up slightly and Iona pointed to the open door. He smiled softly and nodded. He whispered something to Amelia, and she nodded. Matthew picked up Amelia bridal style and carried her through the door and straight to her room so they can potentially discuss what was shown.
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Matthew set Amelia down on the bed and went to get a glass of water, but his sister refused to let go of him. He just sighed and sat down next to her. She leaned into his chest and just stared at the wall in front of them. He just pet her hair comfortingly, avoiding Nantucket of course.“I know you don’t want to talk about it,” Matthew started, “but it’ll help if you do.”Amelia nodded; she didn’t say anything though, she just stared ahead as if nothing had been said. Matthew just sighed and clutched his sister a little tighter.Outside of the room, Toris paced just outside Amelia’s door. Natalia tried to calm him down, but nothing worked. How hadn’t he known about that? He knew Amelia hated being intimate, but never put the connection before. His mind was racing with thoughts like these.Natalia, while trying to calm Toris down, was shaken. She could never imagine going through what Amelia went through. Katyusha, the personification of Ukraine, pulled her sister away from the pacing nation. She tried explaining that sometimes these things aren’t preventable. That sometimes no matter how hard you try, your leaders will be terrible.Arthur, Lukas (Norway), and Vladimir (Romania) were all plotting. Plotting on how to get revenge on that horrible man. They could resurrect him and let him suffer in pain for the rest of his undead life. The could go back in time and hurt this man. Both options sounded very pleasant to them.Tino and Berwald were trying to explain what happened to a very upset Peter. He was upset because he knew his older sister (no matter what, she was his sister) got hurt badly. He’d never seen her breakdown this bad before. The two parents of the micronation were glad they only had to deal with one and not the other.Gilbert and Matthias, the personification of Denmark, were trying to figure out what to say to their awesome pal once they emerge from their cave of solitude. Maybe once this whole ordeal was done with, they could go drinking again.The rest of the nations were trying to figure out something or the other on how to handle this situation.Ivan, on the other hand, strode past Toris and burst into Amelia’s room, causing shrieking from the twin nations. Ivan simply pushed Matthew away and hugged Amelia. Completely out of character, but he did that. Amelia tried to push him away, but he wouldn’t budge.Eventually she stopped trying and just relaxed him his arms, knowing he wasn’t a threat in that moment. Ivan smiled slightly and leaned back, hands still on her shoulders.“You okay now, comrade,” he stated, like it was the simplest thing in the world.“Yeah,” she sniffed, eyes and cheeks puffy and red. “Yeah, I’m good now.”“Good enough to become one with Mother Russia?”“Never commie!”She expertly weaved under Ivan’s arms and ran out of the room, past all the nations who had seen the exchange between the two superpowers. She laughed liked nothing had happened. Her smile was a little fractured, not as bright, just a little more faker.
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While Amelia was seemingly back to her regular self, nobody believed that. Nobody believed that she was that happy after the events they just witnessed. There was no way anyone could be happy after that.After a while, the nations all went to bed after that tough day. The last person to go to bed was Amelia, who stayed behind to read a book. Sadly, she didn’t get very far as she fell asleep in her chair.After a few hours of silence, Amelia woke up with a start. She couldn’t handle sleeping in silence, but she also couldn’t handle waking up and going back to sleep. So, she simply went to her room and got some earbuds and plugged them into her phone. She sat down on her bed and selected some country-pop.She ended up staying like that for hours, before someone knocked on her door. When she looked up, Toris was entering the room. He smiled softly and waved, noting that she had earbuds in, and sat down next to her. Amelia took one out and looked at Toris with soft features.“The others are eating,” He said softly, “if you want to join them.”He got up, but Amelia grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down. She was looking to her lap.“I’m not hungry,” she stated. “Can you come get me when everyone is ready to resume watching my memories? Or I’ll come out. Whatever comes first I guess.”Toris pulled a tight smile and nodded. He knew he should’ve said something but didn’t want to force anything.After a while, Amelia exited her, well, Alfred exited his room. He was wearing black jeans and a black Lucifer’s Friend band shirt. He had one striking difference in his outfit of night, his shoes. They were bright rainbow tie-dyed high-top converse.“What in bloody hell are you wearing?” Arthur seemingly screeched out.Alfred stopped and looked at his outfit, “uh, clothes.”Several nations chuckled at that.“Can I tell them?” Natalia asked Alfred, who nodded in response. “He dresses like this when he doesn’t want to speak to anyone. That being said,” she pulled a knife out of nowhere, “leave him alone.”Most everyone was frightened by the knife wielding nation, so they happily obliged. Alfred, on the other hand, laughed.“They can talk to me, Nat,” he said, still laughing, “but I just might not respond. Now, put down the knife.”Natalia relented and somehow made the knife disappear back to where it was originally. Alfred noticed the rest of the nations were still eating somewhat, so he sat down in a chair, waiting.After what felt like forever to the young nation in black, the food seemed to vanish. So, he quickly jumped to his feet and looked at everyone.“Who’s ready for war?” he asked with a grim face.“War?” Feliciano asked, “What war?”“The war for freedom. The war for peace among my people. The war that basically tore my country in two.”Alfred had a dark look on his face as he said this. Everyone else remained silent as Matthew got closer to his twin. He just pulled his hand towards the door. They both knew they had to get this over with. So, Alfred let his brother drag him to the door. The other nations followed slowly, not wanting to witness anymore horrible things happen to the young nation.The scene opened as soon as the door was shut. Amelia was standing next to a tall, stately man. It looked like they were awaiting news. They both looked anxious and a tad bit fearful as to what was coming.Just then, a man burst into the office where the two were waiting. He had an envelope in hand and looked exhausted.“The,” he took a deep breath. “The results are in.”Amelia quickly raced over to the man and snatched the envelope out of his hand so fast it burned. While the man was tending to his wounds, he watched in fascination as she opened it.Amelia walked over to the man behind the desk and looked at him. Although she had opened it, she had yet to read what was inside.“Mr. President,” she said with wide eyes, “can you please read the results? I’m scared to know who won.”The man, now known at President James Buchanan, simply nodded and took out the piece of paper within the envelope. Amelia closed her eyes tight and crossed her fingers.“The new president is Mr. Abraham Lincoln,” Buchanan read aloud the results.Amelia sighed in relief. That ended the scene, opening for a new one. Alfred was next to Buchanan, upset. They both were.“That makes seven states,” Alfred said, breaking the silence.“I know,” Buchanan responded. “My time is ending here, I won’t be able to look after the nation for much longer.”“You don’t have to look after me, I can protect myself.”“How’s the voice?”Alfred’s eyes widened. He hadn’t told anyone about hearing things, “what voice?”“Don’t lie to me, I’ve heard you talking to someone, but not that someone talking back.”Alfred looked conflicted at how to respond to that, “they like to be called ‘The Confederate States of America.’”
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“What do you mean by that?” Ivan asked Alfred.“You’ll find out soon enough,” came the response.The scene ended with an ominous presence lurking over the nations. When the new one started. The ground was still soaked with rainwater, but the sun shining bright. The inauguration of Abraham Lincoln had just occurred. He was walking into this giant building with his wife, Mary, and three children, Richard, William, and Thomas ‘Tad,’ when he was greeted with a bright smiled Alfred.“It’s an honor to meet you, sir,” he said enthusiastically to his new president.Lincoln was of course a little unwary of the nation. He had no idea who this person in front of him was. That was until Buchanan came up behind him.“This,” he gestured to Alfred, “is our nation. I believe I already talked to you about him.”“Yes,” he was still wary, “I believe you did. I just thought you were joking.”“Nope,” Alfred interjected, like the puppy he was, “I’m very much real.”The scene ended with Alfred leading the family inside, talking a lot. The next scene was less bright. Rain could be heard harshly pounding on the closed window of Amelia’s room.“Say my name!” Came the southern voice of The Confederate States of America.“No!” Amelia was curled into a ball on the floor, sobbing. She had her hands over har ears, “I won’t give you a human name!”Arthur looked over at Alfred, “you can’t give that thing a name, it might just manifest.”Alfred, on the other hand, stayed quiet.The voice didn’t respond for a couple minutes, making Amelia, and the nations, think that it had gone away finally. But then…“Fine,” the voice said. “If you’re not going to do that, then I’m just going to have to take over for a minute.”“Wha- what do you-?” Before Amelia could finish, she started screaming, face distorted in pain.When Amelia stopped screaming, she opened her eyes. Except they were no longer her eyes. Instead of the bright sky blue, they were charcoal brown. She smirked as she started to stand up.“This is what happens when you don’t give me form,” her voice seemed to echo in a deep southern tune.She walked smoothly to the bed. There, she pulled out a London Jack Knife from under her pillow. When she flicked it open, it already had bloodstains on it. Amelia stared at it in fascination.“This is why you listen to me,” she said as she drove the knife into her stomach, slowly slicing from one side to the other, leaving a jagged cut.Just then, a knock came at the door. That’s when Amelia started screaming again, eyes squeezed shut, and dropped the knife. That caused the door to bust open with Lincoln on the other side.When he saw the state of the nation, he dropped to his knees and called out for help. He was quickly trying to stop the bleeding. Amelia, on the other hand, had stopped screaming, looked down at the gash on her stomach and at her president.“Atticus,” was all Amelia said before passing out.As Amelia passed out, the scene ended. The stayed in the quiet space, waiting for a scene to start, but it didn’t. So, the nations looked over at the twins, who were standing side by side. Alfred was rubbing his stomach with a look of pain. Matthew was just rubbing his brother’s back, comfortingly.“Yo,” Matthias, the personification of Denmark, interrupted the twins. “What’s wrong?”Matthew looked at his brother questioningly, who just nodded, “Sometimes- sometimes the scar still hurts. At least that’s what Alfie’s told me.”The scene still had yet start, so Alfred got the hint that he had to say something.“Fine,” he said, frustrated, “it hurts whenever I see or hear Atticus, okay?! Is that what you wanted to hear?”He was at the end of his rope, the scene still refused to play. So, he lifted his shirt so the nations could see the ugly scar on his stomach. That now caused the scene to play.Amelia was still healing, but she was in a carriage on her way to see her brother. The doctor assigned to Amelia wouldn’t let her ride a horse, so she was stuck in the back of a carriage. Soon enough, however, the carriage stopped.“Miss,” said the driver, “we’ve reached Ottawa, but we don’t know where to go from here.”“Don’t worry,” Amelia said. “Mattie will find us in no time.”Just as she said that, there was yelling, French yelling. Then it was translated to English by the same person yelling.“What is going on here?!” a certain Canadian could be heard yelling. “Where’s my brother?”Amelia’s eyes widened and looked down at herself. How was she going to explain this? That was until the door flew open. Time seemed to stop.Matthew looked ready to kill, that was until he saw the injured nation. His eyes softened.“Who are you, mademoiselle?” he asked in a suave voice.Francis laughed at that, “That’s my boy!”Ignoring Francis, the scene continued. Amelia laughed nervously at that, causing her to wince in pain.“Mattie,” she said softly, still in pain. “I’m surprised you don’t recognize me.”Recognition flooded Matthew’s eyes, “Alfred?”“Actually, it’s Amelia right now.”“Alfr- Amelia, what are you doing here? You know I don’t want you here.”Amelia looked down at her lap, as she was still sitting in the carriage. “I need help.”Matthew scoffed at that, “Help? You want my help? After you burned me?”“I was just doing what was asked of me. Besides, you got back at me for that.”“I can’t help anyway, even if I wanted to.”“What?!”Amelia was confused. She tried to stand up and get out of the carriage, but she collapsed in pain. Luckily, Matthew caught her. He had panic in his eyes, not knowing how to handle this. Amelia’s doctor rushed to her side.“Do you have a place I can check to see if the stitches opened?” the doctor asked Matthew.“Ye- yes. I do,” Matthew answered, although he was angry, he was concerned. “I’ll direct your driver. Is she okay?”“I’m right here,” Amelia said, annoyed. “I might’ve popped a stitch or two, but it’s fine. I’m fine.”The doctor rolled his eyes, “please, lead the way.”The scene shifted to show Amelia lying in a bed, Matthew next to her.“What happened?” Matthew asked, concern dripping from his voice.“Atticus,” was all she said.“Who are you?” came a small, yet cute voice. On the floor Kumajirou sat.“I’m Canada,” Came the answer from both Matthews, memory and not.“Who is this?” Amelia asked, intrigued.“That’s Kumakaki,” Matthew said softly, “Anyway, who’s Atticus?”“He’s just a figment of my imagination.”“No, I’m not,” Atticus said, he formed in front of Amelia, causing her to try to back up on the bed.He looked like a ghost. He had dark brown, almost black hair, with those same brown eyes as earlier. He didn’t look like Allen, he looked darker than Amelia’s 2p. Matthew turned to look at what Amelia was staring at, but saw nothing.“Amelia,” Matthew asked, warily. “What do you see?”“Atticus,” she replied, ignoring the pain, “the South.”“There’s no one there.”“Oh, but I am here,” Atticus stalked up to Matthew and blew on his ear softly.Matthew batted his ear slightly, not liking the feeling.Amelia glared daggers at Atticus as the scene ended. The door appeared and Alfred pulled Matthew through it this time. The rest of the nations chuckled at that.Once in the room, Alfred sat down in the chair that he claimed. While the rest of the nations sat down, Alfred started speaking.
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“I wasn’t allowed to fight,” Alfred said quietly. “I didn’t know how to deal with Atticus back then.”“Why wasn’t your wound healing?” Ludwig asked, curious.“Interesting fact about us nations, if we hurt ourselves, we heal just as a human would. I also was stuck as Amelia while healing.”Alfred looked down at his hands as he started picking at them. Most nations looked perplexed at this knowledge that seemingly passed over them, but there were few who knew about that knowledge already.“How did you find out?” Allister asked.“You have to be a bit more specific,” Alfred said as he bounced up in his seat and sat back down in a crossed position. “Because that can mean a number of things. Like ‘how did you find out you’re not crazy?’ Or ‘how did you find out it takes forever to heal from self-inflicted wounds?’ Oh, my favorite would be ‘how did you find out that you are actually insane?’ The answer to that one, years down the line after being tortured by Atticus for more than a century.”Alfred was so dead serious with that last statement; it caused the rest of the nations to shiver with… fear? No, something else, something indescribable.Iona chuckled nervously as she tried to rephrase her older brother’s question.“I think he meant ‘how did you find out you heal differently?’” she asked softly.Alfred looked down and then got up abruptly. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”Then he left quickly. Of course, that left room for Matthew, Toris, and Natalia to be bombarded with questions. Nobody actually went up to Natalia because she would pull a knife if need be. The other two, however, were out of luck.Most nations went to Matthew because… twin. Others went to Toris. There were some who already figured it out and were sitting on the sidelines, like Feliciano and Lovino. They may seem like idiots, but they knew the pain the Alfred must be feeling. They should know, as they’ve both felt it in the past.It was a long while before Alfred emerged. Everyone had already stopped trying to pry. Alfred just walked past everyone and right to the door. He turned around, his eyes a little red.“So,” he started, “who wants to continue watching my torment?”The answer was nobody, but Alfred took the silence as everybody. So, he walked forward and through the door. Nobody wanted to continue, but there was no stopping the young nation’s will.Upon entering the scene started. In front of a shocked Amelia, who was still healing and unable to change back into Alfred, was an upset Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd.“What do you mean he’s dead?” Amelia asked her president.“He died three days ago,” came the chocked response.“But he just turned eleven.”A sob broke the scene, Mary falling to her knees was the last thing the nations saw.A new scene started with Amelia, still healing, yelling into the nothingness of her room.“Because of you I can’t fight!” Amelia yelled into the void. “I can’t even go see my president’s speech!”“Because of you,” a very familiar voice said, emphasizing ‘you,’ “I can’t fully form.”The voice, Atticus, the south, formed into their ghost form. He still looked as vicious as ever. He quickly stalked over to Amelia and started playing with her hair.“You know,” he said slyly, “if I had a body, I wouldn’t hesitate to make you mine.”Amelia jerked away quickly, ignoring the flair of pain her abdomen, “which is why I’ll keep my grip on you. I won’t let you form.”Although he seemed like a ghost, he was still able to slap her. Amelia glared at him and launched herself at him, but instead went through him, tumbling to the floor.Just then a knock was at the door. A small boy slowly opened the door and stopped as he saw Amelia in a heap on the floor.“Miss,” his small voice spoke, drawing attention to his presence, “Are you alright?”“Tad,” Amelia breathed out, fixing herself. “Did I wake you?”“I heard yelling again. Who was that other voice?”Amelia’s eyes widened, “You can hear him?”“You can hear me?” Atticus asked, not believing it for a second.“There it is again! Who is that?”Before Amelia could respond, “I’m Atticus.”“Atticus,” Tad tried it on his tongue.Amelia rushed over and kneeled in front of him. She had panic in her eyes.“Never speak that name,” she said sharply. “Never. He’s mean. You don’t want a mean man to take form do you?”“No,” he responded slowly. “Is that why there’s always yelling?”“Yes, exactly. Now, off to bed with you.”Amelia watched as Tad slowly left the room. She quickly shut and locked the door, glaring at Atticus.“Never lay one finger on the kids,” she said with such passion. “I will find a way to end you if you do.”“Aren’t you already trying to do that?” Atticus replied.As the scene ended, the nations looked at Alfred. He had his head held, like he was overthinking something.“Al?” Matthew asked as he approached the quiet nation.Problem was, he wasn’t quiet. He was muttering, no fight-whispering to someone. That someone, however, was nowhere to be seen.“Alfred?” Matthew tried again.Alfred’s head popped back up, so fast it could cause whiplash. He just looked at the other nation, his twin to be specific, and just shook his head. He clearly didn’t want to talk. He just wanted to crawl back in his head and disappear.
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Before Matthew could pry more, another scene started up. Alfred was standing in front of Lincoln with a giant grin on his face. He had an opened envelope in his hand.“Sir,” he started, acting like a puppy, “I’m sorry to interrupt you if you’re doing anything, but this is like really important and incredible and amazing and-“Lincoln chuckled at the puppy like nation, “What is it, Alfred?”“You won!”Alfred ran over and hugged Lincoln, lifting the man clean off the floor. When he realized what he did. He sheepishly put Lincoln back down and quickly started apologizing, to which Lincoln stopped him.“There’s no need for an apology,” he spoke softly to the young nation. “You’re just excited. It’s normal to feel that way.”Alfred smiled widely once again, and launched at his president, hugging him tightly. That’s where the scene ended, leading into the next one.“Your general surrendered,” Alfred was saying into the emptiness of his room, “So why are you still here?”“Well,” Atticus started, forming in front of Alfred, “it’s simple, my forces are not fully gone. And they never will be. The South is strong; we don’t give up our ideals so easily.”The scene ended with the two spatting at each other. It led into a new one where Lincoln and Mary were both dressed up, Amelia also dressed up. They stood in front of Tad, who had aged a couple years.Alfred gasped at the scene in front of him. He started shaking his head.“No,” he said muttered under his breath. “I don’t want to watch this again.”Only Matthew was able to hear that and quickly got closer to his brother, ready to catch him if he fell again.“You know the drill,” Amelia said, kneeling in front of the boy, “bed after dinner and not before.”Tad laughed at that and nodded. Mary chuckled too, before ushering both Lincoln and Amelia out of the building and into the carriage.The scene quickly turned on it’s heel and soon the nations were in a theatre box.“We’re at Ford’s Theatre,” Alfred spoke up, “and we’re about to watch one of my favorite presidents… no… he was my friend, get shot.”Toris also got closer to Alfred, just wanting to be there for his man.As the third act was happening, Amelia turned her head as she heard a gun being cocked. In that moment, everything was slowed down. The gun went off just as Amelia saw the gun. The screaming was almost instantaneous. The man, John Wilkes Booth, jumped onto the stage and ran.Amelia was quick to action, yelling for a doctor. Mary, was just in shock, no screaming, nothing. As the doctor rushed into the box, Mary started screaming. Amelia rushed over to her and slapped her, hard.“Snap out of it,” she snapped. “You can’t fall apart on me, not yet.”Mary just nodded, still in shock. A man lead them to his house, where they took refuge. The doctor worked long and hard, but at 7:22 AM, Lincoln was declared dead.Amelia looked like a husk of herself, she held Mary, but was falling apart herself. She looked at Lincolns body in shock, unable to form words. She just stood, holding Mary and dying on the inside.“Oh, Alfred,” Arthur said with pity dripping from his voice.“’Oh, Alfred?’” Alfred asked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”“Nothing!” Arthur said quickly, not wanting to anger the superpower.“That’s what I thought, I don’t need pity.”“I told you something like this would happen,” Atticus said, breaking the silence between the nations, who immediately started looking for the source.Alfred’s eyes widened. He was not expecting Atticus to be heard. That was until just now.“Oh, so they can hear me too?” Atticus said, appearing. “I wonder if they can see me too.”“I think we need a break,” Natalya said, her voice dripping with hate.That cause the door to appear and Alfred to run through it. Atticus just laughed and slyly walked though the door after him, his chuckle sounded evil. The other nations followed the two.Alfred was pacing back and forth, like a madman. He was pulling on his hair and muttering things. Matthew immediately ran up to his twin and wrapped his arms around him. Alfred was forced to stop pacing and let out a sob.“I know,” Matthew said, “Let it out.”“Awe,” Atticus said, coming close to the brothers. “Is the little baby crying?”Matthew looked up at Atticus as Alfred just let out another sob, “just disappear.”“Oh, but I like being seen.”“What are you?” Feliciano asked.“Oh, I’m but a nation who can’t form because of one simple ‘hero.’”Atticus spat at the word. The other nations were confused by that. Why did he say that? Alfred hadn’t called himself the hero in a long time.Alfred tried to get out of Matthew’s grip, but his brother wouldn’t let go. It didn’t seem like it, but they were equally matched when it came to strength. He tried again to no avail. He kept trying till he had to give up. He was exhausted mentally and physically. The little sleep was getting to him.“Do you wanna go lay down?” Matthew asked Alfred softly, who just nodded in response.While the others were arguing with Atticus, the twins just snuck off and headed to Alfred’s room. “I’ll watch over you,” Matthew told his brother.Alfred just nodded and laid down, he closed his eyes and was quickly off to sleep. Matthew sighed as the glamour wore off and all the scars littering his brother’s body was shown.
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After what seemed like eons, the twins emerged from the bedroom. Everyone had already eaten and got used to the annoying, evil being in their presence. They clearly had already eaten, forgetting about the twins.“So,” a very familiar voice said softly, gaining everyone’s attention, “my two boys have finally awakened?”Alfred and Matthew snapped their heads and saw Saiska appear next to the door. They ran over and hugged her. Atticus just had to break up the family reunion.“Don’t I get a hug?” he asked slyly.All three froze as they heard that. Saiska let go of her boys and stalked over to the demon incarnate. Her boys watching, like little children, on the sideline. Alfred was clutching his brother.“No,” Saiska glared down at Atticus. “I don’t know what you are, but you are not a nation. Now, go away.”“Nope,” he replied smoothly, “I like being seen. Plus, it’s fun to torture that one,” he pointed to the twins, specifically the youngest who was holding onto the oldest.“Don’t touch my son,” she growled out.“Oh, I don’t.”He smirked at Saiska, then he disappeared once again. Saiska sighed and turned back to her boys. She noticed Alfred was forcing a smile. She knew he hated being seen as weak. She smiled and nodded as she vanished once again.Alfred turned to face the rest of the nations, who were all in shock. Toris came up to Alfred and just hugged him. He pushed past Matthew and just hugged him.“What’s wrong?” Alfred asked, acting oblivious.Toris just shook his, burying his head into his love’s shoulder. Matthias, the personification of Denmark, cleared his throat, gaining the attention of the room.“Uh,” he seemed to be at a loss for words, “we should probably continue with the memories. Y’know, get them done with.”Alfred just nodded his head and let go of Toris. He turned on his heel and opened the door slowly. Unlike before, he took a deep breath before entering, leading the other nations in with him.As the scene started with Alfred in front of Andrew Johnson, the vice-president turned president. Alfred had a bag packed.“I’m leaving,” he said sternly. “I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’m leaving.”“And where are you going to go?” Johnson asked.“I’m going west. I keep hearing how wonderful the west is, yet I’ve never seen it because I’m always trapped here. I’m a free nation, I have the right to do whatever I want.”After a while, the president finally agreed to let Alfred go west, causing the scene to change. The next scene had Alfred on horse. He was wearing blue jeans, brown chaps, a white shirt with a brown vest over it, a brown cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and he had two gun holsters with pistols in them. He also had a rifle strapped to his back.He looked like he was headed into a town, but didn’t slow down till he got to the saloon. He quickly hopped off his horse and tied his to the post. He rushed into the saloon and pulled up a stool at the counter. He waved over the barkeep. He put $5 on the counter.“Keep serving me till I’m blackout drunk,” his voice was somber. “There’s more where that came from if you do.”The barkeep just nodded and took the money.“Ve,” Feliciano interrupted the memory, “that’s not a lot of money.”Alfred, knowing that Feli was just acting dumb, answered, “That’s about $95 in today’s money.”“Mi amigo,” Antonio, the personification of Spain, said, “what are you running from? Why are you getting drunk?”Alfred smirked, “There was no reason back then. Everyone just drank.”Before they could say more, the scene ended and a new one began. It was Amelia now, she was wearing a simple tan skirt with a white shirt and a vest. She also had a cowboy hat. Her hair was put up in a ponytail. Her cowboy boots were simple brown. She was swaying as she stood, hiccupping. Drunk.
She could barely walk, but she had already left the saloon. That was until a harlot came up to her and pulled her along.“You don’t want to stay out at night,” she said hastily. “That’s when we work. They don’t tell the difference between us. So, you’re going to stay where we sleep.”Amelia just drunkenly nodded as she was led to a large house. She was led upstairs and into a bed room. She was pushed on the mattress and was out like a light.The scene continued, just fast forward to the morning when Amelia woke up. She looked at her surroundings and started freaking out. She looked down and sighed in relief when she saw she was still dressed.She slowly stood up, pounding headaches were so much fun. That was when one of the women who stayed in this house saw the she was up.“Oh,” she said shocked. “You shouldn’t be moving so fast, you’ll get sick.”“It’s no problem,” Amelia replied, in pain. “I don’t get sick anymore.”“Alright, well Miss Jackson wants to speak with you. She might even offer you a job.”“Nah, don’t need a job. Gotta get back to my life in D.C anyway.”With that, she just walked past the woman and down the stairs. She was almost clear when she heard a throat clearing. Instead of being a decent human being, Amelia just ran out the door and back to the saloon to collect her horse. She quickly hopped on and galloped out of there.As she was galloping away, a wanted poster with her face fell onto the ground. Then the scene ended.
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“What the bloody hell does that mean?!” Arthur was frustrated at the nation he raised.Alfred just smirked and let the next scene play. Amelia was stalking a stubby man. He was yelling at a young girl and her mother. Amelia smirked as she grabbed her rifle, and started aiming at the man. She waited till he hit the little girl. That set her and her gun off. She fired from the bush she was hidden in and hit her target in the leg, barely missing the girl and her mother.Amelia stalked over to the man and his screaming family. She smiled softly at them and pulled out one of her pistols, pointing it at the man’s skull.“So,” she said darkly, “you like hurting women and kids?”“They’re my property!” the man spat, although he was in pain, he still had fight in him.“Oh, they’re your property? Did you not get the notification that people aren’t property?!”“They are mine!”“No, they’re not! I’ve watched you for a week and noticed how you treat them. You don’t do that!”Amelia turned her head, ignoring the man on the ground.“You might want to shield her eyes,” she told the mother, who nodded and covered the daughter’s eyes.Then, Amelia shot right between his brown eyes. She looked up and saw someone from town running away, they had witnessed the execution of the stubby, horrible man. She turned around and looked at the mother.“Tell them Amelia Jones did this,” she said slyly. “I want to see them try to catch me.”With that, she ran back to her horse and galloped away, ending the scene.The nations were, obviously, shocked at the scene they had just witnessed. They didn’t get much time to think as a new scene started.Amelia was curled in a ball on a bed. Outside, snow fell. She was screaming a silent scream, her face contorted in pain.“W-what is going on?” she asked silently, confused.“What is going on?” Yao asked, interrupting.“The Wounded Knee Massacre,” was all Alfred said.The scene changed to Alfred casually strolling into the president’s office. He was still wearing his cowboy outfit. He strolled right up to the desk and smirked.“So,” he drawled, “you’re my new boss.”It wasn’t a question. Although he wasn’t around, he paid attention to what was happening.“You must be Mr. America,” the man sitting at the desk said.“You must be Benjamin Harrison, my twenty-third president. Oh, and no need to be so formal with me. Call me Alfred. Or Amelia when the time is right.”Harrison nodded and stood up to shake his hand, but Alfred just stood there. So, he sat back down and got back to work.Arthur went over and smacked Alfred on the head once more.“Don’t disrespect your bosses,” he spat at the boy.“I have every right to be disrespectful towards them,” Alfred said, his tone extremely dark, “Some are great and have my utmost respect, but some, I want to murder.”The scene ended with Alfred being cold to the president. A new one started with a new president, William McKinley. The twenty-fifth president was sitting at his desk. He had a sour face.“I want you to go meet this new nation we’re taking in,” he said sternly. “Sadly, we’re at war with them, but I want you to go meet them, nonetheless.”Alfred, who was just standing in front of him, nodded, “I’ll go pack now.”The scene quickly spun and changed to Alfred staring at a small girl. She had wavy brown hair, and a darker complexion than originally thought. She looked scared. So, Alfred knelt to get to her size.“Hey,” he said softly, “España sent me.”“I know,” the girl responded. “He doesn’t want me anymore.”“N-no, not at all. He just lost in a big fight with me and he has to stop seeing you for a while.”She nodded, but she wasn’t stupid, “who are you?”Alfred smiled softly, “I’m Alfred F. Jones, The United States of America.”“I’m Maria Clara Carriedo Cruz, or the Philippines.”“That’s quite a long name for such a small girl.”His joke hit home when she laughed a bit. Alfred smiled at this young nation in front of him.“Do you maybe want to come home with me?” he asked quietly, not wanting to seem intimidating,When Maria nodded, he smiled so bright, then it dimmed slightly with thought.“So,” his voice was dripping with confusion, “what do you call me? I mean, I called Iggy ‘big brother.’ So, what do you want to call me?”“Since papa left,” she said softly in thought, “how about ‘ama?’”“What does that mean?”“Father.”The scene ended with Alfred smiling so bright and chuckling. He scooped Maria into a tight hug.“Speaking of Maria,” Alfred, of the present day, said, “where is she?”“She wasn’t at the world meeting,” Saiska’s voice rang out, “I will however bring her here. She will be caught up with all the events.”With that a giant light blinded the nations. Within that light, like an angel, Maria Clara Carriedo Cruz appeared. Of course, she looked nineteen now, not the same little girl as shown in the memories.“What just happened?” Maria asked, confused and still trying to sort all the memories.She looked at Alfred and ran up to him and embraced him.“I’m so sorry,” she apologized (for no reason), “I’m sorry you had to go through all that alone.”Alfred chuckled nervously, “I’m fine, honest.”“Liar.”Before more could be said, the next scene started up. Alfred was driving a Ford Model T. He had Maria next to him. They both looked like they were having a blast. The scene quickly ended, nothing important there. So, another one started up. Alfred was staring a very large ship, he had one suitcase with him. He pulled out his ticket. It read ‘Titanic.’
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Alfred vehemently shook his head, “no, this isn’t happening”He then called for a break, quickly running through the door. Maria and Matthew were the quickest to follow, Toris and Natalya were behind them. Surprising Iona was also among the quickest to follow Alfred. The rest of the nations were in shock. Slowly the realization hit and they followed the others.“Why didn’t you tell me?” Matthew asked his twin, who was pacing back and forth.Instead of Alfred responding, someone else did.“Because, he locks things away,” Atticus slyly said, appearing in the corner of the room, “things I quite like to torture him with.”“Why didn’t I sense you?” Arthur asked Alfred, ignoring the nuisance.“That would be on me, Artie,” Iona spoke up. “I got him the ticket. He boarded on my land.”Alfred tried to sneak away, but Maria held onto his arm, tightly. She glared at him, daring him to try again. He sighed and awaited his fate.“Alfred,” Francis looked over at the boy, “Why did you only have one suitcase?”In response he smiled slightly and said, “I pack light.”Alfred just wanted all of this to be over.“You know,” Atticus butted in, “he was third class, he had to pack light.”That caused everyone, to stare at Alfred. Iona was gob smacked.“I gave you a first-class ticket!” she yelled in shock.“I traded it,” Alfred offered, “someone needed more than me. I saw that something would’ve happened to him if I didn’t.”“Wait- ‘you saw?’” Vladimir asked. “What do you mean by that?”“I-uh, I stayed in the same inn as him and had a dream that he would die, no reason, just a funeral. So I figured it had to do with the condition of the ship’s third class, not the sinking…”The magic trio exchanged glances, making Alfred wary. Atticus took this moment to act on that weakness.“He also tried his best to save people,” he sneered, “but to no avail. He failed those people. That’s what happens when he tries to be a hero, people die.”Only a few nations noticed Alfred’s full-body flinch before he straightened his back and pretended like he heard nothing.“Let’s just go back and watch the memoires of me drowning again,” he spoke as he headed to the door.Alfred didn’t even realize that he was pulling and dragging Maria, who was still latched onto his arm, with him. He pulled open the door, stopping for a second before heading back into the room of memories.Of course, nobody wanted to follow, but they had to. Matthew and Iona stood closest to the young nations. As the scene started Alfred was boarding. He had this bright-eyed look about him. He had his papers out to show the crew that he was American (even though he was America).The scene quickly changed to Alfred finding his room. He stopped when he saw his bunk number. He smiled brightly and entered. There were three other men already put away.“Hello,” he said cheerfully.“Don’t even try,” one of the men spoke, he had an empty bunk under him, “I think they speak German.”“Oh- uh, hallo wie geht's dir?”The men’s eyes brightened just a bit, now that they had a translator. They spoke for a while before the ship started moving again. With that, the scene ended, leaving room for a new one. That new one had Alfred drinking and having fun with his new pals. They were in the third-class saloon.The Alfred watching covered Maria’s ears, knowing that some swearing was probably about to occur. When he did that however, she pushed him away and glared.“I’m not a baby,” she whispered, but not really because most nations heard her.Before more could be said, the swearing match began. A lot of it was about first class and how pompous they all were. Alfred, despite that fact he was supposed to be one of them, went along with the swearing. The scene ended with Alfred and the others drunkenly singing.Alfred’s face was red with embarrassment. He never thought he would be embarrassed by his time on the Titanic. He could hear Peter asking his parents what some of those words meant and it made him die a little bit inside.The next scene started with Alfred lounging on the deck, writing in a journal. One of his bunkmates, the English speaking one, came up next to him.“What’re you writing?” he asked.“About the trip so far,” came the response.The scene ended with the two chatting. The third day is where it got interesting. Alfred was in his quarters alone when he decided to change into Amelia. It was a simple spell, really, that also changed her clothes to fit the mood.Everything was going smoothly, she was changed and then spun around, until one of her bunkmates walked in, laughing at something from the hall. He was facing away as he shut the door.When he turned around, he was about to scream. That was until Amelia rushed forward and covered his mouth.“It’s me,” she said, “Alfred.”She took her hand away slowly. The bunkmate was just shocked, not able to speak for a full minute.“What do you mean you’re Alfred?” he finally asked when he got his voice back.Amelia tried to explain, but in the end she just showed him her powers. She changed back to Alfred and back.“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said softly. “Just don’t tell anyone.”“How are you going to keep this a secret?” he asked, finally calming down.“I know a guy.”The scene shifted to Amelia outside a first-class cabin. She knocked softly on the door and waited. Finaly a man in basically rags answered. He had brown hair and soft green eyes. He was a good inch or two taller than Amelia.“Amelia?” he asked in an Irish accent, confused.“Clayton,” Amelia said with a smile, “how’ve you been?”“Great, I’m very thankful you gave me this room.”“That’s swell, now I’m wondering if I could perhaps stay here for a bit? Your bunkmates don’t really seem to like having a woman in their midst.”The man, Clayton, just nodded and invited her in, no questions asked. The scene ended there and a new one started. Amelia and Clayton were wandering the promenade. Of course, they got strange looks because of their dress, but nobody said anything.“Do you want to go to the smoke room?” Clayton asked.“Won’t it be closed today?” Amelia asked. “It’s Sunday, after all.”“Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. Let’s just go back to our room.”“Our room? Moving fast, are we?”Amelia was flirting, that much was obvious. She liked this man, it was clear. Clayton just laughed and blushed a bit. Then he led the way back to their room.The scene ended with the two joking around. A new scene started with Amelia waking up with a start. She jumped out of bed as she felt the entire ship shudder around her. Clayton, who was sleeping on the couch, quickly jumped up and sprang into Amelia’s room.“I’m sorry, Amelia,” he apologized, avoiding her eyes, “but I had to see if you were okay.”“I’m alright,” she responded, “just shaken up a bit.”Clayton rushed forward and engulfed her in an embrace.“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said.Amelia just smiled and hugged back, blushing slightly. She was still in her sleep clothes, as was he.The quiet scene ended and a new one began. Panic was everywhere. Amelia was running down a staircase. Clayton on her heels.“Where are you going?” he asked, panicked. “You need to be on a lifeboat!”“I’m sorry,” she replied, not once stopping, “but I haven’t seen anyone from third-class! There has to be a reason!”She stopped as she saw a guard holding people back behind a gate. A locked gate. She could also see water at the bottom of those stairs.“Let these people out!” she demanded the guard.“N-no can do ma’am,” he stammered out. “My orders are to keep them there.”Amelia lunged forward and grabbed the keys out of his hands. She looked like a mad woman, hair falling everywhere. She went to the grate and unlocked it, letting the hoard out. She was thanked as those people rushed out and up the stairs.Amelia turned her attention to the guard, who was huddled in the fetal position, trying to hide.“You were just going to let those people die?” she asked.The scene ended with her knocking his lights out. A new one started with Amelia and Clayton arriving back at the deck where the lifeboats were. There were none. They ran all over the ship trying to find a single one, but there were none.“Get a life vest,” Amelia told, “you’ll need it.”“What about you?” Clayton asked.Amelia rushed forward and kissed him, “just go get one, two if you think I need one. I’ll stay right here.”The scene ended with a shocked Clayton running off into the crowd, looking for a life vest. A new scene started with Amelia in the freezing water, with a life vest on, frozen tear tracks ran down her face. Her hair and eyelashes were frozen. Clayton was nowhere to be seen.It felt like hours before Amelia was picked up by a rescue crew. She was shivering and shaking. She never once said a word.
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Toris got close to Alfred, putting a hand on his shoulder, but in response it was flung off. Everyone had pity in their eyes, or at least it felt like it.Alfred looked ready to die, or kill, or both. He looked at where the door should be and seemingly willed it into existence. He walked directly to his room.Everyone followed through the door, but Iona stopped Matthew, Maria, and Toris. She would’ve stopped Natalya, but she knew not to.“Maria,” she started, “you may already know of some of the pain Alfred’s been through with this, but you- all three of you- need to understand how long it took for him to tell me, the one who gave him the ticket, bits here and there. Don’t go messing up all te progress he’s made.”“Yeah,” Atticus said slyly, appearing out of nowhere, “leave that up to me.”With that, he vanished once more, causing the four to finally walk through the door. Matthew and Maria decided to go check on their family member who was locked away.“Ama?” Maria tired as she knocked. “Can I come in?”Nothing happened.“Al?” Matthew tried. “Let me in, or I’ll break your door.”That did the trick, kind of.“Don’t touch my door,” Alfred’s came from behind the door, “or you die.”“Then open the door,” Matthew had a giant smirk.With that, the lock clicked open and the door flung open. Matthew and Maria both noticed Atticus sitting on the bed, staring directly at them, like they had screwed with his plans. That set Matthew barging in, glaring at the evil miscreant. Before he could say anything, Atticus opened his mouth.“’Stop hurting my brother,’” came a perfect replica of Matthew’s voice, shocking the two nations that barged in. “Isn’t that what you wanted to say?”Maria tried to say something, but Atticus stopped by mimicking her perfectly: “’how did you do that?’” he asked, feigning curiosity. “That’s for me to know, and for you to never find out.”With that, he vanished once more. Matthew went up to Alfred, who was standing next to the closed door.“Are you alright?” he asked, not really knowing what to say.“What do you think?” came the response.“Let me rephrase that: did you do anything?”Alfred didn’t respond. He just crossed his arms. Matthew told Maria that she should leave.“Wha-why?” she stammered out.“Just go,” Matthew demanded softly.With that Maria left to join the others. Inside the room Matthew tended to Alfred. Outside, however, was rowdy. Almost everyone was fighting about something. Maria joined the ever-quiet Kiku on the sidelines.“What is everyone fighting about now?” she asked her friend.“I do not know,” he said softly, “nor do I wish to know. How was your meeting with Alfred-san?”“Ama doesn’t want to talk, at least to me. Oh, and Matthew kicked me out.”“Why?”“Hell, if I know.”The conversation dwindled as they watched the fighting nations. Suddenly, a loud whistle could be heard, causing everyone to turn to face the sound.“Yo,” Alfred, now Amelia, said loudly, “I leave for five minutes and you guys are at each other’s throats. Stop it! Now, who’s hungry?”She was putting on a façade, obviously, but the other nations knew not to push it. Apparently, she and Matthew made food during the whole fighting ordeal.“Mattie and I already ate,” she said, still talking loudly, “so we’re just gonna stay out here till you guys are done.”Matthew glanced at his twin, nervously, but the look quickly went away. Maria approached the duo as the rest of the nations went to the dining room to eat.“Did she really eat?” she asked Matthew, who nodded.“She ate half a sandwich,” he said softly. “Couldn’t get her to eat more.”“I’m right here!” Amelia screamed softly at the two.After a little while, Maria left to join the others, leaving the twins to sit and discuss some things quietly. After everyone was done eating, Amelia said that she was ready to continue.Once the door was shut, the scene started. Amelia was on a ship, a new ship, wrapped in a blanket. She could see New York in the distance. Instead of joy at seeing her own land, she was just in shock. She tugged the blanket to cover her more.The scene ended with Amelia staring forward as her nation came closer and closer. The next scene was Amelia returning to her home, not her room, her home. She was still shaken, and that could be seen by the way she was walking.“Maria?” she asked loudly, the giant house was extremely quiet.“Ina!” came an excited voice, “I was so worried when I got the news!”Maria ran down the stairs and straight into Amelia, causing them both to fall over. Once they were both standing upright, Maria started grilling her adoptive mother.“What happened?” she asked. “Were you scared? Did-“She was cutoff by Amelia just sobbing.“I- I don’t want to talk about it,” she sobbed out, before running up the stairs to her room, leaving her daughter behind.The scene ended with Maria looking longingly at the stairs. A new one opened up, in reality it was a few snapshots.The first, Amelia was marching with several other women. The next was Amelia ignoring hecklers, holding her head high. The final snapshot was Amelia listening to several prominent speakers at the Memorial Continental Hall. She was bright eyed and smiling softly.The next scene started with Alfred approaching a small boy, about toddler age. He got close to the boy.“Thomas, do you want to stay with me?” Alfred asked softly, like they had been getting to know each other for a while.The boy, Thomas, thought for a minute, then nodded. Alfred nodded slowly before smiling and picking Thomas up and spinning around. Ending the scene.Matthias looked over at Amelia and glared, “you better have been taking good care of him.”Amelia just nodded as the next scene started to play. Alfred was fighting with President Woodrow Wilson.“The people don’t want to join,” Alfred yelled to his boss, “I don’t want to join!”“Well,” Wilson said sternly, “we’re joining.”“It’s Europe’s issue, not mine!”“They need our help, plus, what are you going to do when we’re attacked.”“We’re not going to be attacked!”“We’re joining and that’s final!”The scene ended there.
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The scene opened up with Alfred pacing back and forth in his room, in his house. On his bed sat a suitcase, empty. He was biting his thumb as he paced. He had a decision to make.Someone knocked lightly on Alfred’s door, causing Alfred to look up and call the person to come in. Maria entered slowly, seemingly knowing that he was a bit high-strung.“Ama,” she said slowly, looking at the suitcase, “Are you going away again?”“Y-yeah,” he said softly, sitting on the bed, pushing the suitcase away. “Come sit with me.”Maria walked across the room and sat next to Alfred.“Is Thomas asleep?” Alfred asked.“Yeah,” came the response. “He didn’t want to sleep without you around, though.”Alfred chuckled softly, “Figured, thanks for dealing with him. I know he can be a handful at night.”“How long are you going to be gone?”The question was abrupt and to the point, causing Alfred to fizzle for a minute.“I-uh,” he stammered, “I don’t know, maybe months, but it could be years. I don’t know how long.”Maria didn’t respond with words, instead she pounced on Alfred, ending the scene. A new one started with Alfred getting out of a taxi in London. He was standing outside a cozy house, rain was pounding down on his head. He paid the driver and got his suitcase out. He then slowly walked to the door and knocked. Almost instantly, Arthur’s face was in front of Alfred’s.“I sensed you the minute you stepped foot here,” Arthur said, opening the door wider for Alfred to enter. “Come on in before you catch a cold.”Alfred did just that entering his former brother’s home. Arthur led them to the sitting room, then motioned for him to sit while he got some tea.“Is it still three sugar?” he asked.“I actually drink coffee now,” Alfred responded, “but yeah, three is fine.”Arthur sighed and poured the tea into the designated cup. Then he plopped three sugar into Alfred’s tea and poured some milk into his own. Alfred learned forward and took hi teacup, while his host did the same. They both sat and drank for a little while.“So,” Alfred said, after sipping his tea, “my boss is going to announce that my people and I are joining the fight."“How are you going to fight?” Arthur asked.“I’m going to be on foot.”“In the trenches I see.”“What’s wrong with that?”“Nothing- just nobody wants to be in those trenches, they’re horrible.”“Have you been in one?”“No, I fight in the air.”“So, you’re being a coward?”Arthur stood up abruptly.“I think we’re done here,” he said quietly.“Yeah,” Alfred replied, taking one last sip of his tea before standing up, “I gotta get going anyway.”With that, Alfred, who hadn’t even dried off completely yet, got up and grabbed his suitcase. He headed to the door and was about to open it when he opened his mouth.“It really was good to see you again,” he said softly. “I’m sorry for not stopping by sooner.”With that, the scene ended with Alfred leaving. “It was nice to see you, as well,” Arthur told Amelia, who just smiled in response.The new set of snapshots. They were of Alfred training; they were very intense, he was running, climbing, and crawling. By the end of the snapshots, he was ready to go to war once more. The next scene was hell.The nations were back in the trenches, gunfire everywhere. Alfred was on the ground, firing a sniper. Next to him was a lanky teenager, fresh in the army. Just then, the kid gets shot. Alfred stops what he’s doing and stated taking care of the kid, talking to him, making sure he was alright… well, alright as one can be after getting shot in the shoulder.The scene ended there. A new scene started, Alfred was in an army medical tent, next to the kid from earlier.“I’m surprised they let you come see me,” the kid asked with a French accent.“André,” Alfred said in a parental voice, “they couldn’t keep me away if they tried. Plus, war is hell.”“That is true, but how is it you seem older than you really are? You can’t be that much older than me?”Alfred pursed his lips slightly before answering, “Living with a lot of old people makes me very wise.”“Oh, maybe that is it.”Before long, the scene continued with the two talking and joking, but then, out of nowhere, a loud boom went off, shaking the ground with immense power. Above, planes could be heard.“I thought we were off limits?” André asked, concerned.“Nothing is off limits,” Alfred muttered. “This is war.”
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The scene had ended, leaving room for a new one. In the end, less war was shown. Alfred was called away to help settle the end of war treaty. It was put into effect and soon ceasefire was enacted. The war was over. It was over and Alfred could go home, correct? Wrong. Alfred had to stay for the Treaty of Versailles to be signed. Alfred was very vocal about not wanting to join anything, but the other nations were very adamant about the alliance. Then came the nightmare.Alfred was in his hotel room, sleeping – clammy and tossing around. He moaned as he tossed and turned seemingly all night, that was until he woke with a start at sunrise.“If they do this,” Alfred huffed, “millions could die.”The scene seemingly stopped as everyone looked over at Amelia, who was just frozen in place, looking like a deer in headlights.“I- uh- I know there were many factors that came into another great war happening,” Amelia said so fast that barely anyone could understand her, “but I saw something and just made the connection.”“Have you had any more of these-“ Arthur tried to find the word.“Premonitions?” The ever-quiet Emil, the personification of Iceland, supplied.“Yes, premonitions. Any more of those?”“All the time…” she answered unsurely.“I think he means about another war,” Vladimir interrupted.“I mean, I had one about Ivan and I, but we kinda stopped that one from happening.”Before more could be said, the scene continued. Alfred quickly got dressed and ran out of the room/ He ran so fast, that he ran into Ludwig getting up for a morning jog. Now, both nations were on the ground.“Sorry,” Alfred muttered as he slowly stood back up.“Stupid Americans,” Ludwig said a bit louder than Alfred, “Don’t know where to look.”With that, Ludwig left.“Luddy,” Feliciano interrupted the watching, “That was rude, apologize.”Ludwig was red with embarrassment, “I’m sorry, Amelia.”“It’s cool, dude!” she responded. “It’s not like I took it personally.”“Liar,” came the echoey voice of Atticus. “I made you take it personally, don’t you remember?”Somehow the scene shifted.Alfred was sitting in a ship, headed home from meeting with the other nations, and consequently, rejecting the Treaty and the League of Nations. He flinched at every giant wave. Every shudder of the ship made him have flashbacks. Next to him, was Atticus.“You know,” Atticus started, “that German fella was right, you are stupid. On top of that, lazy. I saw how you didn’t want to fight. You were just being lazy. You’re stupid, lazy, and fat. Nobody told you that one yet, right, but you know it’s true.”Alfred just let the evildoer continue. He didn’t say anything in response to shut him up. Just let him continue. He was sobbing silently as he curled into a ball.“You know,” Atticus said, stopping his rant of hatred. “You could end it all.”Alfred just shook his head, “I’m not going to try that again.”The scene stopped as everyone looked at Amelia, who just wanted to kill Atticus. Matthew, who was the closest to Amelia, just held her in a one-armed hug. They were still looking at the nations. Maria just stared up at her adoptive mother.“Ina?” she needed answers, but knew now wasn’t really the time to pry.Sadly, the others thought it was a perfect time to pry, because they all started to do just that. They just started asking a ton of questions all at once. It wasn’t until she decided to get into the fray, that she answered.“What does that mean?” came her simple question.“Maria, come here,” Amelia demanded softly. “It means, that I’m not stable.”Maria, of course had come up to her mother and slapped the back of her head, causing the other nations to shut up.“You're perfect,” Maria said.Before more could be said, the scene continued. Atticus was still mocking Alfred, and giving suggestions as how to try.“How about, instead of death,” Atticus offered up now, “You just have something that takes the pain away?”Alfred looked up and looked over at Atticus, “There’s something like that?”“I’ll show you when we get home.”With that, the scene ended, leaving more questions. Matthew, however, was fuming. He knew what that meant.When the next scene started, Alfred was returning home. He arrived at night and could see a few rooms lit up. He walked up to the door and knocked, wanting to surprise his kids.To his surprise, Catalina, the personification of Puerto Rico, opened the door. Her eyes widened as she saw her big brother.“Al,” she breathed out after a minute.“Why are you just-“ Andrea, the personification of Guam, came from around the door, stopping when she saw Alfred.Andrea looked older than Alfred by a few years, while Catalina looked a few years younger. The youngest of the three broke the silence when she jumped
onto Alfred and hugged him tightly.After being winded, Alfred broke into a huge grin. When he got the chance to stand up, he took it. Then he hugged Andrea tightly.“What are you guys doing here?” he asked. “Is Teuila (American Samoa) here as well?”“Yeah,” Andrea answered. “She’s in bed, like everyone else.”Andrea stood tall next to her brother. She looked about twenty-two, but, had a mind of an eleven-year-old. She grew up too fast. She had dark black hair, dark eyes, and a dark skin tone.Catalina, on the other hand, was shorter than Alfred by a good foot and half. She had long caramel like hair and golden like eyes. She had a prominent tan. While she looked just sixteen, she usually acted more mature.They both saw Alfred as their older brother. The scene ended there, and Amelia called for a break, grabbing Matthew and Maria by their wrists and dragging them to her room. Toris followed and Amelia saw, letting him join.
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Amelia pulled the three into her room. Then, she went out and searched for Natalya. Before she could go far, she was stopped by Arthur, who had a sullen face.“You do know that none of what that Atticus fellow said was true, right?” he asked.“You know what,” she said agitated, “We’re doing this out here!”She went to her room and grabbed the three and told them to set up in the sitting area. She went and made a couple bags of popcorn, then grabbed the younger nations and the micronations. She set them up in her room and put on a movie.“Don’t come out till I come for you,” she told them.She then left and sat down in the sitting area, in her designated chair. She sprawled out like a cat before she opened her mouth.“Iggy just asked me if I believed what Atticus told me,” Amelia opened with. “Well, of course I do. After having him in my head telling me stuff for years, I’m going to believe it. Then I have assholes telling me the same thing every time I see them.”The nations were quiet. Then, someone spoke up.“How did you find out you heal differently when you hurt yourself?” Laura, the personification of Belgium, asked.“It’s not that hard to find out,” came the response.Maria, who had no idea any of this was going on, just stared at her adoptive mother. Matthew and Toris, however, knew about what was going on.“How long?” Ludwig asked.“How long what?” Amelia asked, getting frustrated. “’How long I’ve been listening to Atticus?’ Almost as long as he’s been picking on me. ‘How long have I been hurting myself?’ You’ll find out. ‘How long have I been suicidal?’ A long fucking time.”With that she stood up and went to Matthew’s room, not wanting to disturb the kids, and slammed the door.“She also doesn’t eat,” Atticus brought up, showing up again. “Or she’ll throw it up.”Maria stood and went toe to toe with Atticus. “That wasn’t for you to say.”“I don’t care.”Then he vanished, leaving Maria standing. She turned around and noticed everyone, except a select few, was staring. Everyone stayed quiet for a few moments, but it was broken by a shriek down in Matthew’s room. It was an angry shriek, not one of pain or panic.Amelia stormed out of the room she was holed up in, and stomped up to the group.“Did Atticus tell them?” she was asking Maria, Matthew, Toris, or Natalya, who all nodded.“This is why I hate myself,” she muttered, but it seemed amplified.She tried to storm off again, but her wrist was being held by Maria.“Ina,” she was looking down, but then looked into Amelia’s eyes. “They deserve to know the truth.”“They deserve nothing,” she pulled her arm away and before walking away, she said: “when the younger nations are done with their movie, come get me and we can continue.”Then she walked away. Matthew quickly got up and followed his twin. Before he could catch up, he was shut out of his own room. He knocked lightly and was just told to go away.Nobody dared to speak. After a while, Peter popped his head out of Amelia’s room. He approached the silent nations.“The movie is over,” he stated, “what are we doing now?”“Uh,” even the stoic Berwald was at a loss.“I’ll go get her,” Toris said, being brave enough to approach the door.He knocked on the door and it was silent, so he just went in. Amelia was on Matthews bed, asleep. She had headphones in and was curled in a ball. She was facing the door, so Toris could see tear tracks on her face.He crossed the room and lightly sat down next to her, before shaking her lightly. Of course, after all the trauma she had to relive, she threw a punch at Toris. He clutched his nose as it started to bleed. Amelia was up with a start and noticed what she did.Of course, she was in shock for a moment. She grabbed some tissues that were next to the bed and gave them to Toris, who took them gratefully.“I’m such an idiot,” she muttered, before apologizing. “I’m sorry.”“You’re not an idiot,” Toris said nasally.“Yes I am, I hurt you.”“I’m the one that startled you.”Amelia stopped arguing, knowing there was no winning with Toris.“So, did the kids finished watching their movie?” she asked him.“Yeah,” Toris responded. “Peter came out and told us that the movie was over.”Amelia chuckled lightly at that, “I told them to stay in there until I came in to tell them that everything was okay.”Toris chuckled at that before turning serious, “are you sure you want to continue right now?”“The only other option is letting them mull over what they heard more, and I really don’t want to do that.”With that, the two nations stood up and was about to leave the room when Amelia stopped just before the door for a second.“I’m going to go change into something different,” Amelia said, heading out of the room, “I’m tired of wearing black.”She quickly heaved to her room and kicked the remaining nations out. Toris headed back to the group and told them she would be a couple of minutes.After more than a couple of minutes, Amelia strutted out. First of all, she was wearing a pair of blue Nike basketball shoes. Then, she had on a pair of tight black and yellow Nike running shorts. Finally, she had on a purple Nike Classic sports bra. “So, who wants to invade my privacy?!” She was way to energetic for someone who had to do this.Nobody answered, but Amelia still walked past everyone and through the door.
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Of course, the first thing the nations heard was sobbing. The scene opened up to Alfred sitting on his bed with a pocketknife in his right hand. His left arm was exposed.“What if someone sees?” he asked seemingly no one.“Glamours work wonders,” Atticus’s echoey voice told Alfred.In response, a simple nod. He put the knife to skin, but before he could pull the trigger, a knock came from the door.“Al?” Catalina asked through the door, trying to open it, but it was locked. “Whatcha doin’ in there?”“Nothing,” he called out. “Just give me a minute.”He stashed the knife under his pillow and pulled his sleeve down. Then, he got up and opened the door. Catalina’s eyes widened as she saw the state of her big brother. She had something in her hand.“Yeah?” he asked, his eyes still red.“Al,” Catalina said, her voice dripping with concern, “are you alright?”“Yeah, just what is it?”“Uh- um, you have a telegraph.”“Who’s it from?”“It just says Toris.”Alfred’s eyes widened and snatched the telegraph out of Catalina’s hand, acting like a child on Christmas. He quickly read the letter and he started smiling wider and wider. He finished and then rushed forward to hug Catalina, picking her up in the process.“Toris is coming to visit!” he was now jumping like a little girl, while still holding Catalina.“Put me down,” Catalina tired, and subsequently was let go, falling to the floor. “Who is this Toris guy and why did you just drop me like a sack of potatoes?”“Sorry,” he helped her up. “He’s another country I met while overseas. He’s nice. He offered to be my friend. Now, that makes my friend counter up to three, though Ivan never officially became my friend, he’s still my friend.”The nations watching felt guilty about the whole thing. Only three nation friends, only two ‘official.’ What an awful feeling.Alfred looked back at the telegraph, reading over it again.“He should be here within the week or so….” He read.His head snapped up so fast it should’ve caused the nations to have whiplash. He quickly rushed out of his room and past Catalina, grabbing his coat and straight into his car. He quickly drove through the night and to the White House. He quickly got past security and straight to where the Wilsons slept. He knocked lightly on the door.After a few minutes, Edith Wilson opened the door, still in her nightgown, causing Alfred to blush.“Alfred?” she was probably wondering why her nation was at her door so late. “What are you doing here?”“Is Woodrow doing any better?” was all he asked.“I’m afraid not.”“Then Madam President, I would like to speak with you on perhaps taking a leave of absence.”She laughed lightly, “How many times do I have to remind you not to call me that?”“About a dozen or so.”“Anyway, let’s go somewhere besides my bedroom door to discuss this.”Before long the two were sitting in the kitchens eating a warm snack, oatmeal raisin cookies with milk. They were joking for a couple minutes before getting their little meeting on track.“So, what’s this about you taking a ‘leave of absence?’” Edith asked.“I have a friend coming to visit,” Alfred explained.“A friend? Who is this friend?”She was acting like the mother Alfred wished he still had.“Toris, he’s a nation and-“His eyes widened. He quickly looked around like he was expecting something.“He just entered my land again,” he said suddenly. “I have to go to New York anyway, so yeah, can I take that break?”“Uh- um,” she stammered, unsure of what was going on. “Sure, take as long as you need.”“Thanks!”As he grabbed his jacket he kissed Edith on the cheek and rushed out to his car. He hopped in, top down, and drove off into the night, ending the scene.“Who did you sense?” Arthur asked.“Someone who does a lot of business in my land,” was all he said before the scene started.Alfred was lucky that he got a parking spot where he did. He was right outside of his apartment building. He hopped out and quickly headed in, he had trouble turning the key into the building, but quickly enough he was in his small apartment.It was cozy, believe or not. He had a small bed in the corner, a couch in the middle, and kitchen connecting on the far side of the apartment. It was a cozy studio. He quickly went to the closet and pulled out some clothes, changing into Amelia. She rushed out of her apartment and into bright city. She had a day ahead of her.
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The scene continued with Amelia tracking a nation, like a bloodhound. She suddenly stopped and flattened herself against a wall just before hearing an Italian voice down an alleyway.“This is useless,” the Italian shouted at someone. “I should kill you for this.”“And I should kill you,” Amelia said, turning the corner facing the men. “Lovino, how many times must I tell you to let me know before you arrive?”“Chigi, how did you find me so fast?”“I traveled all night, honey.”Lovino smirked at that and sauntered up to Amelia and swung an arm around her shoulders and put his black fedora on her head. She smirked and looked at the men in front of them.“Amelia, here, will tell you boys if the stuff is good or not.”“But, boss, she’s a girl-““Yeah, and?” Amelia spoke up. “I can still kick your ass if the stuff isn’t up to par with my own stuff.”The scene stopped as some bickering started.“Why are you so close to Lovino?” Francis asked. “I thought you were with Toris?”“You didn’t think Toris was the first person I ever dated, right?” Amelia asked the group, laughing at their faces. “Lovi was the first nation to take an interest in me as… arm-candy”“Chigi,” Lovino threw his hat in the ring now, “I told you I was sorry for calling you that!”“Sorry will never be enough.”The scene started to play again, shutting the nations up. Amelia strutted over to the men, her heels clacking on the ground; for the time period, they were high. She had bright red lipstick and her long hair was swaying as she walked.“Give me the stuff,” she ordered the man, staring him down.“Fine,” he thrusted a bottle into her hand.She opened said bottle and took a quick gulp, before promptly spitting it all over the man.“This is the worst thing I have ever tasted.”The man growled and raised a hand at the young nation, before he could touch her, a gunshot was heard. Lovino could be seen holding a revolver. The man was on the ground. The rest of the men scattered. Amelia looked at the man and then at Lovino.“I could’ve handled him,” she hissed, before rushing up to him and grabbing his hand.They had to run. Amelia quickly got them out of that situation, knowing the city like no one else. Amelia quickly pulled them into an alleyway, blocks away from the shooting. She leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths.Lovino breathed a slight sigh of relief. He looked at Amelia and smirked. He came close to her and caught her lips, pressing her to the wall. She pulled away slightly from the heated kiss.“You never did say ‘hello,’” Amelia chided her ‘friend.’“You didn’t either,” Lovino told her, “just threatened to kill me, again.”“That’s how I say hello. Oh! I have a friend coming for a visit!”Lovino let go of Amelia, letting her talk.“A friend? Who is this friend?”“Toris,” she told him. “He’s a nation. I believe he’s Lithuania.”“Yeah, I’ve met him. He’s nice. I believe he’s into that Belarus Bella.”“You mean Natalya?”“You know her?”“Yeah, she was the first friend I ever made.”“I feel sorry for you.”“Why?”“Because she’s cold and ruthless.”“Isn’t that a good thing?”She looked at Lovino with killer eyes, like she was testing him to doubt her.“No, it’s a good thing,” he didn’t want to challenge her. “Anyway, want to go back to your place for a few?”“I thought you’d never ask.”With that, the couple skedaddled down the city sidewalk towards Amelia’s apartment.The next scene quickly started with Amelia and Lovino walking down the street, late at night. Amelia was wearing a flapper-like dress, but a tad longer than the iconic dresses. She had on a pair of soft brown heels. Lovino had on a black suit with a red shirt. He wore his fedora.“I heard that women might get the right to vote soon,” Lovino said, curious.“Yeah,” Amelia said, her face brightening up. “It has to pass through everything first before it’s signed into action. President Wilson supports the amendment and hopes it goes through.”“That’s good. Anyway, where are we going tonight?”“You’ll find out.”She acted coy about the whole thing. She led them to a closed bookstore. She went around to the back of the building and knocked on a door. A man answered and peered out, before coming out and staring down the couple.“How can I know I can trust you?” the man asked.“Alex,” she started chiding the man, “you know me. You really don’t think I’d bring a cop into our sanctuary, would you?”“No, ma’am, but I need to make sure.”The man was then stared down by both Amelia and Lovino. He reluctantly let the pair through the door. Inside was a speakeasy. Dancing and music, along with drink. Lots of drinks. Someone quickly rushed up to Amelia.“We need you on stage in twenty minutes!” the man practically screamed before dragging her away from Lovino.Amelia was dragged backstage, where several others were getting ready. She pulled her hand away from man.“I told you I wasn’t gonna perform tonight,” she glared at the man. “I have a date!”“I don’t care,” the man told her. “Someone dropped out at the last minute, and I know you come here every night, so you go on tonight.”She rolled her eyes, but conceded to the idea. She quickly got dressed into a shorter, sparkly dress. After quickly doing her hair, she was ready to go on stage. She looked gorgeous.Amelia was quickly shoved out onto the stage and was told to pick a song. She chose ‘Second Hand Rose.’ Her voice was immaculate.The nations watching were enthralled. Amelia was blushing. She hated singing in front of people now. The nations and the crowd of people (including Lovino), all applauded.Amelia was rushed off the stage and she quickly joined up with Lovino once more and apologized for having to leave him alone.“It’s fine,” he told her. “Seriously, when were you going to tell me you could sing like that?”“Like what?” Amelia was humble when it came to her singing.“Like an angel from above.”Amelia blushed at that. She tried hiding her face, but Lovino took her hands away from her face and kissed her lightly.“Weren’t we only going to stay for a little while?” Lovino asked, “because you have to get your apartment ready for you friend?”“Oh yeah!” Her eyes lit up, “he’s coming tomorrow!”She grabbed Lovino’s arm and dragged him out of the speakeasy, ending the scene.
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The scene started with Amelia prepping everything for Toris. She even somehow got another bed into the room. She looked like she hadn’t slept all night long. Lovino was just sleeping on her bed. She went to her closet and changed into something more appropriate to meet Toris. Her long, wavy hair flowing down her back. She then promptly kicked Lovino off her bed.“What?!” He asked, frustrated his sleep was interrupted.“Toris comes today!” She seemed so excited. “I can’t wait for him to show up and show him around the city… maybe even the rest of my country!”“Calm down, blondie.”“Oh, and he finally will see me as Amelia!”“Does he even know?”“I told him, but you never know if he forgot or not.”The scene quickly shifted to Amelia and Lovino waiting for Toris to finish going through customs at Ellis Island.“I hope he’s not sick,” Amelia said sadly. “A lot of people get turned away if they’re sick.”“We’re nations,” Lovino reminded her.“Oh yeah…”As she trailed off, a boat was arriving to the port. Amelia perked up and she watched the passengers disembark in New York City, their eyes wide as they saw the city for the first time. After a few minutes of watching, Amelia spotted Toris, he was looking around, confused.
Amelia was about to rush over and tackle him, but Lovino held onto the back of her dress.“Don’t run,” He scolded her, making her pout, “Walk.”Amelia nodded, still pouting, but once Lovino let go of her, she was off. She ran and then jumped onto Toris, shocking him and knocking them both over.“Wh-who are you?” Toris asked.Amelia was smiling so brightly, “it’s me, silly.”“Mr. America?”“It’s miss right now. Also, call me Amelia, at least in public.”“Can you get off me?”“Oh, sorry!”She quickly scrambled up and pulled Toris up. She looked around and noticed people were staring as. She blushed lightly and pulled her friend over to Lovino.“I don’t know if you know each other,” she started, “but, this is my ‘friend’ Lovino. Lovino, this is Toris.”“I believe we’ve met, once,” Toris explained, shaking Lovino’s hand. “I think I know your brother more.”“Of course you do,” Lovino sneered.The scene stopped as Feliciano looked over at his twin, “Fratello, what does that mean?”“It means nothing,” came the response.“It means,” Amelia spoke up on Lovino’s behalf, despite being told to stop by said nation, “that he’s always overshadowed by you. Haven’t you noticed that you’re the one being called ‘Italy?’ when your just North Italy. Lovino is called ‘Romano’ when he’s just as much Italy as you are.”Amelia was huffing by the time she was done ranting. The scene slowly started again as Feliciano, and the other nations, contemplated what she had to say.The scene actually changed to show that Lovino and Alfred were fighting, things were getting heated. Lovino threw a plate that Alfred had lying around at a wall, breaking it. The sound of it breaking made Alfred freeze, probably having a flashback, while Lovino continued to yell. Suddenly, Alfred pointed at the door.“Out,” he said softly, not making a dent in Lovino’s loud voice.“I said get out!” His voice was now louder than Lovino causing him to turn his attention to his boyfriend.“Wha-“ Lovino tried to say.“Get out!”He pushed Lovino out of the apartment, tears in his eyes. The nations just noticed Toris in the background, staring wide-eyed. Once Alfred could push Lovino out of the apartment, he slammed the door in his face, before slowly sliding down the door to the floor.Toris slowly approached the quiet nation, kneeling next to him. He tried to put a hand on Alfred’s shoulder, but a large flinch got in the way. Alfred slowly turned his head and looked at Toris, eyes puffy and red, silent tears falling down his face. Toris rushed forward and embraced the nation in front of him. The scene stopped and Amelia looked at Lovino.“Do you understand why I acted like that?” she asked him.“I do now,” he told her.“Good.”The next scene started with Amelia showing Toris around the city. She took him to one of her favorite bookstores. It was a small hole-in-the-wall shop. Toris watched Amelia in fascination. She was bright-eyed and so happy when she looked at books.The next stop was her favorite diner, a small mom-and-pop place she loved with all her heart. Sadly, as she would disclose to Toris, the family was struggling, and the place might be closing. They ate a quiet meal in the empty diner.The next place she took him was to the cinema, although it was closed, she just wanted to show him where it was.Finally, they ended the day at a speakeasy. This one different from before. Amelia was dancing with a couple other men surrounding her. On the sideline,
Toris could be seen staring at her with, not lust, but affection in his eyes. Amelia was noticing that. With that, the scene ended and the door appeared.Francis wiggled his eyebrows at Amelia and Toris, “There is love in the air.”Amelia just walked past one of her father figures and slammed her shoulder into his as she passed. She had grabbed Toris and walked past everyone, into
the living space. She headed straight for her room. Once there, she slammed the door and looked pointedly at Toris.“Why did you have to look at me like that?” she asked in a frustrated voice.“Like what?” he wondered aloud.“Like… you liked me! We didn’t get together for a while! We only knew each other a week in that memory… did you really like me back then?”Toris smiled and walked over to a frustrated, yet confused Amelia. He put his hands on her shoulders.“Yes,” he told her, confidently, “I did. I loved you from the moment I first saw you.”To the nations listening at the door, it was a very cute moment that got them caught because of all the ‘awes.’“What are you doing outside my door?!” Amelia shrieked as she opened the door, causing the nations to fall into a pile on the floor.Matthew was slowly sipping coffee in the background, leaning on another door across the hall.“They wanted to spy,” Lovino told her, sliding up next to Matthew, also with a cup of coffee.Amelia kicked the first nation she saw, which happened to be Kyle, the personification of Australia. She kicked another nation, then another. She kept kicking till they got out of her room.
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After having to kick everybody out of her room, Amelia was exhausted… she was exhausted before-hand, but now she was really tired. She slammed her door shut and looked at Toris.“Do you wanna stay here or go to your room?” she asked him, her eyes drooping.“Let me go to my room and change,” he told her, before crossing the room and pecking her on her lips.She smiled lightly and let him pass and head to his room. She shut the door behind him and got ready for bed herself. She changed into a pair of cute pajamas. Her shirt said ‘No hay nada impossible’ while her shorts unicorns on them. She quietly conjured a book from her collection at home, and curled up on her bed, waiting for Toris to come back.After what seemed like forever, a knock came from the door. She called for the person to enter, hoping it was Toris. Sadly, she wasn’t lucky. Instead of her love, Natalya entered the room. She was also in pajamas, but she was in a blue, princess style nightgown. Her usual bow was missing.“I told Toris to stay outside,” she said.“Okay…” Amelia was unsure of where her friend was going with this conversation.“Don’t think I forgot what you or Atticus said earlier.”“Oh. Um – what do you mean?”“The fact you hurt yourself, starve yourself. Why did you tell me?”Amelia stayed quiet for a while; she was unsure of how to respond. She wanted to just stay quiet and close off everyone, but she knew Natalya would just try to press more.“I didn’t tell anyone,” finally came the response.“But Matthew and Toris knew,” Natalya stated, as if that was obvious, which it was.“They only know because they saw me asleep, or caught me. Please, just drop this. At least for now? I’ll probably talk more about it when the memories show up. I don’t want to, but Na’á will probably make me.”Natalya just nodded softly before heading out, not before giving Amelia a soft hug. Once she was gone, Toris entered the room. He wore plaid pajama pants and a plain olive-green shirt.“I’m sorry,” he said, “she held me a knifepoint.”“Figured,” Amelia shrugged it off, “she does that… it’s cool.”Toris just rolled his eyes and crossed over to Amelia, holding her in his arms. She just smiled up at him lightly, the with her pointer-finger, she poked his nose.“Boop,” she said softly.Toris chuckled lightly before starting to tickle Amelia.Once every nation fell asleep, Saiska appeared next to her daughter and softly stroked her hair, avoiding Nantucket. She wished good dreams onto her daughter. Toris woke up slightly and noticed Saiska. She put a finger to her lips and he nodded slowly, not being fully aware. He laid his head back down and fell asleep once more. Saiska smiled once more before vanishing again.By the time Amelia woke up, everyone else was already awake, but she didn’t know that till she walked out to get some coffee. Her short hair a rat’s nest. For the first time in a long time, it seemed like she had gotten proper sleep. Luckily, she had put on her glamours before coming out.Amelia stopped in her tracks, her bare feet against the wood floor, staring at the nations at the table eating. They all stopped what they were doing to stare at Amelia. She slowly made her way over to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup of joe. Before she could leave, however, Allister blocked her path.“You need something more than just that,” he told her, pushing her towards an empty seat.She tentatively sat down, taking a sip from her coffee. She was too tired to deal with this shit. The nation next to her, Mia, the personification of Mexico, loaded her plate up with a ton of fattening foods. Amelia was taken aback by all the food. She slowly pushed the plate away.“I just want my coffee,” she said quietly, before trying to get up.“I haven’t seen you eat anything since we got here,” Iona chided, “I want to see you eat something, especially after what Atticus said yesterday.”Amelia just looked down at the plate, then back up at the nations. She noticed Matthew looking at her with concern. She looked at Toris, Natalya, and Maria. They all had looks of concern. She just sighed and dug into the large plate of food. The nations sighed as they saw the usually gluttonous nation eat.Amelia stopped halfway through her plate of food when she suddenly ran off to her room. Matthew and Maria ran after her, along with most of the older nations. She didn’t do a good job at closing the door, so the nations heard her throwing up. Arthur and Francis took a hit there, they had hoped with all their hearts that Atticus was lying. Sadly, he told the truth.Most nations that had followed trailed away, leaving just Matthew and Maria. Toris and Natalya were just around the corner, waiting for their friend/love to come back out. They knew this was a family matter.The two walked into the room and shut the door behind them. Matthew knocked lightly on the bathroom door to alert Amelia he was there. She just gave him a thumbs up. After what felt like eternity, the twins exited the room, Maria in tow. Matthew stood next to her like a bodyguard of some sort, but everyone knew she could take care of herself.Amelia stood tall, like she was ready to take on the world. She wore a pair of ripped black jeans and a black long sleeve, off the shoulder top. She also wore black combat boots and had dark purple lipstick. If the nations looked closely enough, they would see black eyeliner and mascara. She looked angry at the world, which she probably was.“So,” she started, “Who’s ready to watch some memories?”
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Once all the nations entered the viewing room, the door slammed shut and disappeared. The scene that was laid out in front of them was with Alfred sitting on his bed, Toris was not around. Alfred was sobbing, a knife in his hand.“Do it,” Atticus urged his host.Alfred just nodded and rolled up his sleeve, showing a number of scars. He was in the process of cutting when he heard keys clinking on the door. He quickly hid the knife and pulled down his white sleeve, wiping his face.Toris entered the small apartment with a couple bags of groceries. He looked up at Alfred and suddenly all the bags were on the floor. He rushed over to Alfred and grabbed his arm, making said nation hiss in pain. He had noticed the growing red stain on his sleeve.Alfred’s eyes were wide and snatched his arm away before Toris could look closer.“Why are you bleeding?” Toris was concerned, obviously.“I-I-I’m not,” Alfred lied, clearly it was not working as now the stain started dripping a bit and Alfred was starting to look a little pale.Alfred mentally cursed at himself for probably nicking a vein.The nations watching were filled with concern. Their ‘hero’ was losing blood at an alarming rate. Atticus appeared in the back of the nations and just smirked darkly.“So sad,” he said, gaining everyone’s attention, “he’s not dead.”Before anyone could launch themselves at Atticus, the scene continued. Toris slowly approached Alfred.“Let me have a look,” Toris demanded lightly. “I just want to help.”“you can’t help” Alfred’s thoughts were projected out at the nations.But, instead of saying anything, Alfred got a bit closer to Toris, holding out his arm a bit. Toris smiled softly at the young nation and carefully rolled up the sleeve, revealing a multitude of scars. He glanced at them all with concern before quickly focusing on the one that was bleeding.“Do you anything I can wrap this with?” he asked the silent nation.Alfred just pointed under his bed, were a box was. Toris quickly got the box and opened it up, revealing a ton of gauze. The scene ended with Toris wrapping Alfred’s arm.Before the next scene could start Atticus, who was still visible in the back, came up to Amelia and poked her, “you should show them all the scars.”Amelia shook her head, silent. Atticus smirked and disappeared, like he had a plan.The nations grew unwary as the scene started. Amelia was outside the hairdressers with Toris in tow. Her glamours were obviously up because she wore a dress with spaghetti straps.“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked her.Amelia played with her long hair for a moment before answering, “yes, I really do. I haven’t cut my hair since… ever. I’ve never cut my hair.”No wonder it was at its length, somehow it was still thick and gorgeous all the way to the bottom. The two headed into the hairdressers and Amelia was immediately gushed over by how long her hair was. Luckily, there was a seat available for Amelia to get her hair done. As requested, they cut it short. Amelia now had one of those famous pixie cuts that women were flocking to get.“Do I look good?” she was doubting her new look.“You look perfect,” Toris said lightly.To be honest, he wasn’t wrong. She looked gorgeous. Amelia smiled and the seen ended, leaving room for a new one.This one, Toris was driving the two of them somewhere. They both looked nice; he wore a three-piece suit and she wore an elegant blue gown. Amelia was looking out the window, watching as the city disappeared into the distance.“So,” Amelia turned to look at Toris, “where are you taking me?”“It’s a surprise,” he smirked.“A surprise that has me all dressed up? In the middle of the day?”Toris just stayed silent and Amelia groaned lightly. She did not like surprises. It took about another five hours before they reached their destination. It was dark by then and Amelia had dozed off. She was leaning against the window, snoring softly. Toris didn’t want to wake her up, but knew he had to. So, he shook her awake gently. Amelia jumped awake and looked at Toris, then around her.“Where are we?” she asked.“A place that was recommended to me a while ago,” Toris told her.“Oh,” she felt her nation connection and noticed they were almost at the Canadian border.Toris had gotten out whilst she was figuring out where they were and opened her door, holding out a hand for her.“My,” she breathed out, “what a gentleman.”Her eyes were wide as he led her into the building they had stopped outside of. It was a small fancy restaurant. A few couples were having dinner; some old, some new. It was light atmosphere, candles on tables. It was quite the sight.A man sat the two at a table near the back, where Toris requested. They quickly ordered and started chatting. Amelia realized something and glared at Toris.“How did you remember I mentioned this place?” she remembered going here years back, alone at the time.“I remember everything you say,” Toris was suave in the way he spoke, he was comfortable with Amelia.“Why did you bring me here?”“I’ll tell you later.”Amelia groaned before the conversation continued. They chatted and laughed before the meal arrived. The both got the steak. Once they were done, Toris looked Amelia straight in the eyes.“I like you,” he told her softly.“I like you too,” Amelia replied, confused.“I like you.”Amelia’s eyes widened in realization, redness was spreading across her cheeks. She looked down at her lap.“Are you sure?” she asked. “I’m a train wreck. You don’t want me.”“I’m sure,” he told her, grabbing her hand from across the table. “You’re perfect.”“Okay, um… do you want to try this?”Toris nodded and so the scene ended. The nations looked at the couple, who had gotten close since the scene started, and they smiled softly. Matthew came up to Toris, glaring slightly.“You ever hurt her,” he said menacingly, “I will not hesitate to break you.”Toris nodded, frightened, pushing Amelia in front of him. She laughed a bit and told Matthew to stand down.“I can protect myself,” she told him.Before more could be said, a scene started. Alfred was approaching a young Amelia Earhart, who was sat in a small diner. He slid into the booth across from her. She was obviously confused.“I heard you flew across the Atlantic,” Alfred started. “I want you to teach me how to fly.”“Who are you?” she asked.“I’m your nation.”She obviously asked for some proof, so he pulled out a small pocketknife and asked her to cut his hand. Almost instantaneously, the cut disappeared. She was shocked and stared at the hand. She looked up at Alfred with wide eyes.“Wh- what do you need again?” she asked, taking a deep breath.“I want you to teach me how to fly.”The scene ended, causing a new one to start. Alfred was flying, solo. He had the biggest smile any nation had ever seen. He could reach the clouds finally.
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A new scene replaced Alfred flying with Amelia looking pale, her hair had grown a considerable length and now reached her shoulders. She looked sorrowfully at Toris, who just had concern in his eyes.“I can’t keep you here any longer,” she said. “It’s too expensive.”Toris just nodded and kissed Amelia, “I will come back.”With that the quick scene ended and a new one started up. Amelia was wandering the streets of New York. She looked so tired and sad. She was walking back to her apartment. One there she slowly walked up into the building and up the stairs. She turned her key and was immediately overwhelmed by a giant mess on the floor. Clothes strung about and she just walked right past them all, flopping down on the bed.She just closed her eyes and dozed off, but almost instantaneously her eyes opened wide.“Mattie’s coming,” she whispered to herself.She slowly pulled herself off the bed and started cleaning, slowly but surely. Problem was, she did it too slow and soon, five hours passed and there was knock on her apartment door. She slowly got up and opened her door a crack, only to be pushed back. She was embraced in a hug and she tried pushing away, but there was no use.Finally, after what felt like eternity to Amelia, she was let go. She looked up at her older brother, who was looking at her in concern. He waited to be invited in, and when he was, he noticed the state of the apartment.“It looks like a tornado ran through here,” he said, concern dripping from his voice.Amelia just shrugged and sat on her bed. Matthew looked at her in concern and squatted in front of her. He ran a hand through her hair and sighed.“I want you to pack a bag,” he told her, standing up. “We’re going on a trip.”“I can’t just leave,” she said, barely audible.Matthew frowned before grabbing her arm and pulling her up. When he let go, she just plopped back onto the bed. The circles under her eyes were very visible.The nations watched in concern; they had never seen the boisterous nation acting so… down. Maria came up to her adoptive mother and hugged her tightly.The scene continued with Matthew sighing in packing a suitcase full of Amelia’s clothes. Amelia just turned around, so she was facing the wall.Once he finished packing, he took the suitcase out of the apartment and quickly returned emptyhanded. He came up to Amelia and squatted down.“Come on,” he said quietly. “We’re going on a trip.”Amelia just stayed silent, so Matthew, being the good big brother he was, picked her up and swung her over his shoulder. She moaned in annoyance for a moment before lightly hitting her brother. The scene ended with Matthew putting his sister in a car and then he drove off.The nations turned to look at Matthew.“Did you just kidnap your sister?” Gilbert asked.“Yeah,” Matthew answered sheepishly, “but she needed it.”Amelia just rolled her eyes and playfully punched her brother. She remembered that moment, she had needed her brother.The next scene started to play with Matthew driving and Amelia curled up next to the window, close to sleep.“I don’t remember this,” Amelia muttered softly.The scene continued, and another twenty minutes or so go by, and soon Amelia was snoring lightly. Matthew looked over and smiled lightly. That smile soon disappeared as scars started showing up all over her body. He quickly pulled over and got out. He was pacing back and forth, pulling on his hair.“I don’t remember this at all,” Amelia said louder this time. “You didn’t find out until years later.”“I had already known for a while at that point,” Matthew replied, watching the memory of himself freaking out. “It doesn’t help that your glamours fail when you sleep sometimes.”Before Amelia could respond, memory Matthew spoke, “What am I going to do? I can’t tell her I saw, because I don’t want her even more upset.”Amelia hugged her older brother tightly as they watched memory Matthew freak out. The scene ended with him getting back in the car, looking at Amelia with concern.A new one started with Amelia jerking awake in the car, looking around frantically, her eyes wide.“Where are we?” she asked, alert, “I can’t sense where we are.”Matthew chuckled lightly, “We’re going on a trip, just trust me.”Amelia pursed her lips, her breathing going back to normal, but she still was confused as to where they were, so she asked.“We’re just outside of Saguenay.”“Where’s that?”“Canada.”“What are we doing here?”“Going on a trip.”“Is there anything you’re going to say to clue me in?”“Nope.”The scene ended there; Amelia looked up at her older brother.“That was the beginning of our yearly trips,” she said, quietly, but loud enough for several nations to hear.
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The next scene started with a tired Amelia staring out the window. The twins were in a small inn. Matthew was looking longingly at his lost twin as he wrote in a journal. Finally, after what felt like forever, Matthew closed his journal and spoke up.“Amelia,” he said softly, “please talk to me. You haven’t spoken a word since we left, and that was almost two months ago.”Francis gasped, along with some other nations, in meetings, it was practically impossible to get the personification of America to stop talk. It was unheard to even think of Amelia not speaking for months.Amelia just looked up tiredly before standing up from her spot and moving to the bed, curling into the blankets. She had a dead look in her eyes.Her brother quickly crossed the room and put a hand on Amelia’s arm, kneeling next to the bed. Her face was obscured from.Suddenly, Matthew grew more concerned (if possible) and quickly forced Amelia into a sitting position. She had tear tracks on her face.“Ames,” worry was dripping from his voice as he spoke, “what’s wrong?”Amelia just shrugged, numb.“Come on, why are you crying?”Whilst Matthew had panic in his voice, Amelia looked confused. She felt her face, and sure enough there were tears. She looked at her older brother in confusion.The scene ended there, causing the nations to look at Amelia in confusion. She sighed and decided to open up a little.“I was severely depressed,” she spoke up.“You still are,” Atticus said as he popped up.“Okay, I still am! But, I’m better now. Back then, it was before I learned how to deal with it-”“Or bury it.”“I will find a way to kill you… Anyway, a lot was difficult for me to do I couldn’t even change back into Alfred. I was stuck.”“That must have been horrible,” Elizaveta commented.“It was.”Before Amelia could explain more, the next scene started. Amelia was looking out the car window as the scenery sped by. She turned to look at Matthew, who was fiddling with the radio. She swatted his hand lightly, which caused Matthew to look at Amelia.She started signing something, and that caused Matthew to stomp on the break. Luckily, they were on an abandoned road.“What do you mean you want to disappear?” Matthew asked, stunned. “You want to be like me?”She shook her head and signed something else.“You want to… die?”She nodded, serious.“But we can’t die, I know that, you know that.”She nodded slowly before turning and looking out the window. Matthew looked like he was about to cry. He clearly didn’t want his sister to think like that.The scene ended there. Arthur went up to his former charge and just embraced her. At first, Amelia was shocked. She was stiff, but before long, she was relaxed, tears in her eyes, trying to keep them from falling.“Oh look,” Atticus, who was still present, said, “the baby is about to cry.”While Arthur continued to hold onto Amelia, Maria snarled at the man.“You are an evil little man, aren’t you?” she forcefully said. “What if you had someone picking on you day and night?”Atticus just shrugged, looking at Amelia, “I don’t care, all I care about is somehow killing the nation that didn’t give me form.”Before anymore outraged nations could speak up, a new scene started. Matthew was driving up to a very familiar house, Amelia perked up as she recognized it.“You brought me home?” she spoke before coughing lightly, her voice hoarse from not speaking.Matthew looked at Amelia, shocked, “Um, yeah. I took you on an adventure, but now you must go home.”“It’s been three months, what kinda trip was this?”“A road trip.”Amelia rolled her eyes as she slowly got out, the nations noticed how real her grin was Compared to earlier, it was clear Amelia was glad to see her house. She approached the house and then knocked, hoping someone was home. Maria answered.Maria had grown to look about fifteen. Amelia immediately pulled her into a hug.“Ina?” she wondered, not getting a good look before being forced into an embrace.“Yeah,” Amelia spoke softly, “I’m home.”The heartwarming scene ended as quickly as it started, leaving room for another one. This one had Alfred staring at a radio as the news was being played. Europe was at war once more and the people wanted to fight.He quickly got up and rushed out of the house, bypassing his ‘kids.’ He jumped into his car and sped off down his dirt road. The scene quickly changed to show Alfred barging into the oval office.“Mr. President,” he started, huffing a bit from presumably running the entirety of the white house to get to the office, “we have to join this fight.”“I can’t do that,” Franklin D. Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States, stated. “There is no reason for the American people to join this fight.”“Then I’m going by myself. My people are willing and able to join this war! It’s only a matter of time before it hits us.”With that, Alfred stormed out of the office and immediately headed home. During the drive, the nations spoke.“That was quite a change from earlier,” Feliks pointed out.“Yeah,” Amelia said, holding herself a bit. “I realized how many people needed our help. Not just the men on the ground or in the air, but the all the men and women who were on the front lines.”“That’s very insightful,” Atticus commented, “for an idiot.”The nations ignored Atticus as Kiku came forward, “I am sorry for what is going to happen.”“It’s cool,” Amelia breathed out. “I’ve forgiven you a long time ago.”“I haven’t,” Maria muttered under her breath.Before anyone could say anything about that, the scene continued. Alfred hopped out of his car and barged into his home, slamming the door behind him. Thomas, the United States Virgin Islands, came up to his adoptive father, tugging on his pant leg. This made Alfred’s frenzy halt in a moment. He had children to think of.“Hey bud,” he got down on his knee and smiled, “what’s wrong?”Thomas shrugged and pointed to Maria, who looked like she was on the verge of tears. Alfred rushed up to her and assessed to see if she was injured, she wasn’t.“What’s wrong, sweetie?” he asked.“Are you going to leave again?” she asked, scared of him leaving. She may look fifteen, but she was just a kid.“I have to, I have to protect us.”The scene ended there. The next scene started with Alfred and Arthur arguing. They were in Arthur’s house.“I can’t help it if I can’t officially join!” Alfred shouted at Arthur.“You force your boss to listen!” Arthur shouted back.Alfred turned to walk away, when he suddenly stopped, coughing. He sounded like he was hacking up a lung. Blood dribbled out of his mouth. He fell forward towards the floor; Arthur was by his side in an instant.“What’s going on?” Arthur asked, bushy eyebrows furrowed.Alfred closed his eyes and focused on his nation connection, “He’s bombing me-”Before more could be said, another coughing fit started. Arthur pounded on Alfred’s back, trying to help. The scene ended there.“I think we all need break,” Ludwig said loudly, making several nations jump from the volume of his voice.Amelia took the liberty to stroll through the door, and into the sitting room. Feliciano was right behind her but headed to the kitchen to get lunch ready. Matthew, Maria, Natalya, and Toris all went to where Amelia sat. All the other nations did their own thing.
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When lunch was called, Amelia tried to be sly and sneak off but was pulled to the side by Francis.“What do you want?” Amelia asked, annoyed that she couldn’t just listen to music in her room.“Now that I know about your… predicament,” Francis started, “I was just thinking I could help, non?”“What are you on about? What ‘predicament?’”“Not eating and throwing up.”“How can you help with this?”“Let’s just say there’s a reason my people banned unhealthy models.”Amelia’s eyes went wide, “you?”“It was an epidemic; I’m assuming it’s an epidemic for you?”“It’s supposed to be,” she muttered before looking Francis in the eyes. “Why did you pull me aside again?”“To help.”“How?”He just smiled lightly before pulling Amelia to a small office they hadn’t yet explored. One would say it appeared just for this reason. Sitting on the desk was two dishes. One was a bowl of what looked like chicken noodle soup. The other had pasta on it, the lunch for the rest of the nations.Francis led Amelia to the far-side of the desk, essentially trapping her in the room. He sat her down in a nice comfy spin chair, whilst he sat down across from her in a regular office chair. He motioned for her to start eating the soup. She warily picked up the spoon and took a bite. Her eyes immediately brightened at the taste.“Who made this?” she asked in shock of how good the soup tasted.“Your old caretaker actually.”“what?”“Oui, he insisted on making you something. Don’t worry, I watched him every step of the way. Now, take another bite before we continue our discussion.”And so, that’s how the meal continued on. Amelia and Francis would take a bite, talk for a bit, before taking another bite. Before long, Amelia’s bowl was empty and so was Francis’ plate. Even though the meal went smoothly, Amelia looked a little green.“I think I might throw up,” she muttered, before trying to leave.Francis blocked her path and forced her to sit down. He handed her a glass of water and instructed her to drink. After another fifteen minutes of waiting, the nausea seemed to dissipate.“Are you feeling better?” Francis asked, concerned for the younger nation.“I think so,” Amelia took another gulp of water, “but I want to go change, so can I be let out?”“I’m not leaving you alone after eating.”“Fine, come with, I don’t really care.”She pushed past Francis as he rolled his eyes, following her. When they exited the room, the nations were already done with their food and were waiting for them, except they didn’t notice them as they snuck off to Amelia’s room.She quickly pulled a stylish dress out of her closet and looked warily at Francis before heading to the bathroom and quickly changed. She was now wearing a light purple fit and flare. She walked back over to the closet and pulled out a pair of black platform heels. She quickly took off the combat boots and pulled on the heels, wrapping them around her ankle and some of her calf.Amelia bounced up and opened the door, waiting for Francis to exit before closing the door. She walked arm and arm with him. She watched as the nations stared as her heels clacked on the ground.“Amelia,” Arthur popped up, “Why do you change your clothes so often?”“I’m like the embodiment of the joke that women change their clothes a lot,” Amelia joked. “For real though, I like to dress based on my emotions.”They dropped the conversation at that. It was quiet for a few moments before Amelia started walking towards the door.“Who wants to continue and get this over with?” she asked.She didn’t wait for a response before opening the door. She led the nations into the viewing room. Immediately, a scene started.Alfred was headed back home. He was disembarking from a plane, and almost instantly the scene shifted to show Alfred driving up to his house and jumping out and rushing inside. Thomas was sitting in the front room, playing with something. Catalina rushed to the door, carrying Teuila (American Samoa). She had a look of panic on her face. When she saw Alfred, her face relaxed a bit, but she was still worried.“Are you guys alright?” Alfred asked frantically, as if expecting Andrea and Maria to pop up somewhere.“I am, so are these guys,” came the response, “but Andy and Maria aren’t doing so hot.”Alfred quickly asked where they were and rushed off to the room they were sleeping. They looked pale and weak.“I’m going to make this right,” he whispered to the two before rushing back out of the house.The scene quickly changed to show Alfred being beaten by a Japanese soldier. Amelia looked like she was about to be sick. Maria also knew the scene even though she wasn’t there.“This is the Bataan Death March,” she told everyone, speaking up for Amelia.Amelia took a second before standing tall, “I can do this,” she whispered to herself.
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The scene continued with Alfred getting beat. The Japanese soldier yelled something at him. The nations that spoke the language were taken aback. Alfred looked up at the soldier and spit at him, causing him to be hit again.The scene shifted to show Alfred sitting out in the hot sun, naked. He was sitting with other soldiers, American and Filipino. They all looked exhausted, even Alfred. He was burning, skin red and peeling.The scene shifted once more to show Alfred getting shoved into a boxcar with a ton of other soldiers. They were packed in like sardines. There was no sitting room, no room to move. The nations, although they were in a spacious space, felt claustrophobic. The soldiers were all quiet, dehydrated from no water.The scene changed again to show Alfred sleeping… no. Alfred was passed out. He was still standing, technically. He couldn’t fall to the ground. The door to the boxcar opened and everyone was pulled out, except the soldiers who were dead or passed out.Amelia had a single tear rolling down her face. Her hands were over her mouth as she let out a sob. Maria looked over at her mother, then she looked at the sky/ceiling.“Please, just let us skip this,” she begged.Just like that, the scene changed. Alfred was in a canvas medical tent with nurses all around. He looked dead. Suddenly, however, he sprang up, breathing heavily. He scared the nurses, who ran off to get a doctor or someone. Alfred looked around and noticed everyone was getting treated. He relaxed a bit as an American general walked up to him.“Good to see you awake, Mr. Jones,” the general spoke.“Did we win?” Alfred asked, still confused.“You bet your bottom dollar we did!”Alfred just nodded, laying back down, ignoring the general, ending the scene.The next scene had Alfred being driven home by a fellow soldier. He was a strapping young lad, blond and lanky. Alfred was just staring out the window. Despite being a nation, his arm was still in a sling and he looked like he was in pain.Once they arrived at his house, he quickly grabbed his duffle and went knocked on the door, waiting for one of his kids to answer the door. Problem was, nobody answered the door. He rapped on it once more before he grabbed the spare key that was hidden and opened the door. Inside was cold and barren. It wasn’t home.“Guys?” he yelled out into the house, but nobody responded.He was starting to panic, so he went to look to see if anybody had written a note. Lo and behold, in the kitchen there was such a note.The note read, “If you’re reading this, then you should know we are staying at Uncle Matt’s place.”Alfred quickly dropped his things and rushed out to his own car. He threw his arm out of the sling, not needing it besides appearance sake and drove down his drive, ending the scene.A new scene started with Alfred stopped outside a rather large cabin in the woods. He stood at the door, posed and ready to knock. When he did knock, it took a couple minutes before Matthew answered the door, looking away, talking to someone. He suddenly cut himself off when he saw who was standing at his door.Matthew just stared at his sleep deprived brother who was still in his uniform. He just couldn’t stop staring, like he had just seen a ghost.“You gonna let me in,” Alfred asked expectantly, “or what?”Mathew was quickly shaken out of his shock by that question. He swiftly enveloped his younger brother in an embrace, holding him tightly. Alfred just stood there, not expecting that, tense. Matthew, after a few moments, let go of his brother. He stared at his brother for a few more seconds before gesturing him to enter his home.Once he entered, he spotted his kids, all of which were sitting on the floor listening to the radio. However, once his heavy boots sounded on the wooden floor, they all turned around. Everyone, except for Maria, all stood and rushed over to Alfred.Maria just sat there, staring up at her adoptive father. She slowly stood up and walked over to Alfred, limping slightly. She stared him down before muttering something.“What was that?” Alfred asked.“I want to be independent,” she said quietly.“Excuse me?”“I want independence!”Her voice was quivering, but it was also seething with anger. Alfred was, obviously taken aback, but nodded in agreement.“I’ll help you get that,” he told his little girl.Matthew watched the scene and stared at his brother. Promptly ending the scene.The next scene was with Amelia and Maria talking, their leaders were in a meeting.“Where were you?” Maria suddenly asked.“What do you mean?” Amelia questioned the question.“Where were you when my men were being tortured? Where were you when I was being invaded?”Amelia was silent for a minute before answering with his own question, “did you not sense me?”“What do you mean?”“I was there, on the ground, with your men. I tried my best to make it stop.”“Were you tortured as well?”“Do you want the truth or the lie?”Maria let out a sob, knowing what that meant, “The truth, the whole truth, please.”“I was there,” Amelia’s voice was forlorn, “I was with my men, your men, boys really. It was the worst thing I’ve ever dealt with.”“Will you tell me about it? I was in too much pain to know what they were doing specifically to my men.”Amelia gulped and leaned her head back, a single tear falling down her temple and into her hair. She shook her head and wiped the tear away.The scene ended there, leaving room for a new one. Maria and Alfred were shaking hands.“We now have the same birthday, ama,” she said slyly.“We should celebrate it sometime, together,” Alfred was smiling softly at his daughter.The quick scene ended and a new one quickly started.
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The nations were at a meeting when Alfred walked in. He held a pile of papers in his arms so tall it covered his face. The conversations that were taken place ceased as soon as he opened the door. He couldn’t see where he was going, so he ran into a rather small nation. One or more nations chuckled at that. Alfred profusely apologized and started to pick up his papers. He looked up to see this small nation helping.“Sorry,” Alfred apologized again.“Don’t worry about it,” the nation told Alfred, “I’m Israel.”“Alfred, or the United States of America. Do you have a human name?”“Human name? I get to choose?”“Wow, you really are new, aren’t you?”“Sorry.”Before long a different nation, Yahya Khaled Al-Shafei, the personification of Palestine, walked up to the duo. He just dragged Israel away, by the ear. Alfred waved warily, ending the scene.The next scene started with Alfred confronting Arthur, a little pissed off.“You abstained?” he questioned his vote.“Of course I did,” he answered smoothly. “The Arabs will eat them alive.”The scene ended there, leaving room for an angry Alfred confronting his boss, Harry S. Truman.“Come on,” he was agitated, “let me join!”“No,” came the response, “how many times do I have to tell you that?”Alfred groaned and quickly left office. He didn’t head home, however. He headed to a hanger in the middle of nowhere and taxied his plane, a Bell P-39 Airacobra. He hoped he could make the full journey, but he quickly filled extra cans of fuel.The scene ended with his leaving his car in the hanger and with him walking towards his plane.The next scene had him flying freely in the air, but instead of free look on Alfred’s face, there was determination.The scene quickly shifted to show him landing in a hot climate. He was immediately greeted by Yahya, who had a fake grin.“Al,” he started, “my buddy, my pal, what are you doing here?”“I’m here to help-” Alfred was cut off.“Oh, thank goodness, Israel is going too far-”“Not you.”“Uh, what?”“I’m here to help Israel. I’m all for freedom and the Jews need a place to go where they feel safe.”“I’m not sure I understand.”“I landed in the wrong airfield, where do I go for Israel?”“I thought you weren’t entering this fight?”“I’m here as me, not my nation.”The scene ended there. A new one started with Alfred landing once more, this time being greeted by Israel. They had a great big grin on their face.“Did you figure out your human name yet?” Alfred asked.Israel nodded before speaking, “Tritza Atir Zion.”“I like it.”“Thank you for coming, I know that your people can’t really help.”“Yeah, Truman is threatening to take away people’s passports.”The scene ended with Tritza leading Alfred to their ragtag of a military. It quickly changed to Amelia back in her home. She was wearing a basic blue, 50’s style dress. She was singing along to a song that was playing. The song was Love me Tender by Elvis Presley. She was swaying slightly as she sung softly. Tears were streaming down her face as she held herself lightly.When the song ended, she broke down crying, ignoring the next song on the record and collapsing on the ground in a heap. Her house was empty, everyone apparently gone for the day, leaving her all alone.Several nations stared at Amelia. Toris, who was closest took her hand, comfortingly.“Why are you crying,” Feliciano asked.“The song reminded me of how I couldn’t help Toris,” she said quiet enough that some nations strained to hear what was said, “and how he wasn’t with me.”Before more could be said, everyone was brought back to the memory by a sinister voice.“You know,” Atticus said, appearing, “You try to be the hero, but all you do is fail.”“What does that have to do with Toris?” Amelia asked him, her head lifted slightly.“Well, you didn’t protect him. Now, he’s trapped inside that commie’s house, with no escape. You also decided to stay out of the fight for Korea. Whilst your people are fought, you’re here wallowing.”“I didn’t have a choice,” Amelia sobbed, “Eisenhower told me to stay here.”“Yet you disobeyed Truman to fight for Tritza. Why was that? Because you wanted to be the ‘hero?’ You’ll never be a hero.”“I’ll never be a hero…” She trailed off as she stood, moving robotically, walking up the stairs and into a bathroom.“Strip down,” Atticus’ voice was an echo, not solid, “you don’t want to ruin your dress, but leave on your undergarments. Maybe this’ll work, you don’t want to be found naked.”Amelia did as told and stiped down to her underwear. The nations watching, especially the men, were blushing, but stopped when they saw all the scars come to the surface. They were stunned by the mere amount. Amelia started filling up the bathtub with water. Whilst that was happening, she left the bathroom to grab one of her guns and a pocketknife. She quickly went back into the bathroom and shut the faucet off.She lowered herself into the rather large tub and submerged herself for a minute. When she reemerged she grabbed her blade and started carving, roughly, into her leg.The nations couldn’t even see what it said with all the blood pooling into once clear water. Amelia hugged herself, not wanting to watch her own destructive behavior. Matthew saw this and approached his sister slowly, before pulling her into a hug. He had her face in his chest so she wouldn’t have to witness what was about to come next, which they both knew what it was.Amelia dropped her pocketknife into the water, not caring if she stabbed herself with it. She was about to reach for the gun when she heard Matthew coming home with her kids. She quickly grabbed the gun, but it accidentally went off as she pulled on the trigger too hard.“Shit,” she cursed as she saw a bullet hole in her bathroom door.She heard running, outside the door, before the door was forced open. Matthew was on the other side of the doorway, staring at a half-naked Amelia; blood in the bath water she was sitting in, gun in hand. Before he could say anything, she put the gun against her temple, hand shaking.“I’m sorry, Mattie,” she whispered as she pulled the trigger.
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Luckily, the gun jammed. Matthew took that chance to grab the gun and yank it away. Amelia had tears going down her face, numb as she watched Matthew rush out of the bathroom and rush back. Her eyes had a glassy look in her eyes as she watched him. Matthew rushed to her side and immediately looked at her scars, noticing a ton more than the last time he saw them. He shook his head before lifting his sister out of the tub.This was the first time the nations saw the word ‘HERO’ on Amelia’s thigh, still bleeding quite heavily. Matthew just kept his sister’s head tucked away from the viewing.Matthew gasped at the word and quickly embraced his younger sister. He started to whisper in her ear. The words echoed throughout the memory.“You’re alright,” Matthew whispered, “I’ve got you. You’re gonna be fine.”He just kept repeating similar phrases. Amelia just looked up at her brother with unfocused eyes. It took about five minutes before Amelia spoke.“Why couldn’t you just let me die?” she asked with a raspy voice.“What?” Matthew questioned incredulously.“It would’ve worked this time.”Matthew hugged her tighter when she said that, ending the scene.The next scene started with Amelia and her brother in her room. She was sitting up on the bed, leaning against the light blue wall, she was still in her underwear, leg bleeding. Matthew was sitting on the edge, staring at his sister, who no longer had that glassy look, but her eyes seemed dead to the world. He seemed to be trying to bandage her leg, but she kept pulling away.“Don’t make me use magic,” Matthew had finally reached his breaking point, “I know you hate magic.”After a few moments of silence and Amelia glaring daggers at her brother, ‘HERO’ was finally getting wrapped.The scene shifted to show Amelia fully dressed and Matthew ready to force his twin to talk. He sat her down on the edge of her bed and grabbed the chair at the desk. He sat so they were facing each other.“What about my kids?” was the first thing out of Amelia’s mouth.“I told them the gunshot was a misfire,” Matthew told her softly. “that you were handling it and it just went off.”“How are you keeping them from barging in?”“I told them I have to talk to you about nation stuff. They surprisingly find that boring.”Amelia let out a snort before looking at her lap, “I’m sorry.”“Why are you apologizing? This isn’t your fault.”“How can you say that?! I’m a mess! This is entirely my fault!”“Ames, calm down. You can’t control your thoughts.”Amelia just slid back and curled up on her bed, shutting Matthew out, effectively ending the scene. The next scene had Alfred standing in front of Eisenhower.“You better have a plan to protect those little children,” she said in such a threatening tone.“I do,” Eisenhower told her, “U.S. Federal Marshalls will escort them to and from school.”The scene shifted to show Alfred watching this little black girl on his television. His eyes shined with pride. The scene was quick, but it left a huge impact.The next scene quickly started with Alfred rushing up to the newly inaugurated president. He was on the tall side of the height spectrum. Alfred outstretched his hand, waiting for President John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy to take it. Kennedy smiled lightly and shook his hand.“It’s a pleasure to meet you, America,” he stated.“No,” Alfred said, “the pleasure’s all mine.”“I miss him,” Amelia reminisced.“He was a good man,” Arthur commented.Before more could be said, the memory spun into a new one. Alfred was watching the President in the car in front of him, when multiple gunshots rang out. He watched as his president slumped, how Jackie Kennedy was in shock, how pink suit stained with blood.The next memory was at the funeral. Alfred stood next to Jackie, who wore her pink, bloodstained suit.The next scene was Amelia watching a speech on her television. Martin Luther King Jr. was talking about something the nations couldn’t hear, but Amelia was enthralled.The door appeared for a break and Amelia rushed through the door, running to her room, but her door was locked. She tried Matthew’s, locked. She tried everyone’s room, all locked. Whilst all the nations filed into the sitting room, they saw her trying on the last door before giving up. She plopped down in her seat that she claimed and sighed heavily.“Why did Na’á want us in here?” she asked suspiciously.“Because,” Saiska popped up, “I wanted to tell you something.”Amelia and Matthew rushed up to their mother and hugged her. Once they let go, however, Saiska got a serious look on her face.“There will be memories coming up that you might not exactly remember.”“What do you mean?” Amelia asked.“I can’t exactly say much, but I can say that three nations know what is coming up.”“What?! And I don’t even know what’s coming up!”“I’m sorry, Ksikkihkíni. Also, talk more about how you feel.”“I refuse!”But Saiska was already gone and her words fell on deaf ears. She turned on her heel and turned to the nations.“What do ya’ll know that I don’t?” she asked, her eyes glaring daggers at the nations, trying to will her pistol into existence.“Amelia,” Matthew grabbed her arm, “I don’t think they know what she was talking about, I know I don’t.”Amelia grumbled and sat back down, “I hate everything.”“Cheer up,” Toris told her, “We’re close to the end.”“Hah, I wish,” she said quietly.“What was that?”“Nothing!”She flashed her teeth in a grin that was obviously fake.“Why did we need a break again?” Amelia asked no one in particular.“So you mother could tell us that some of us know something you don’t,” Iona told her, “Do you want to continue?”“I want to take a nap.”
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The nations quickly ate and decided that another round of memories would be sufficient before going to bed. When the nations walked into the viewing room, after the door was shut, screaming could be heard. Amelia looked around, waiting for the scene to show itself, not remembering screaming like that.When the scene did reveal what was happening, all the nations paled. Alfred was strapped to a metal table, being electrocuted. He was stripped down to a pair of white hospital pants.When the shocks stopped, Alfred continued to twitch for a few more minutes. Before long, however, he was shouting into the room.“Johnson wouldn’t approve of this, guys!” he shouted out.“What he doesn’t know,” a women’s voice came over a PA system started, “won’t hurt us.”“Don’t you mean won’t hurt him?”“No, I know what I said.”The nations could hear the smirk on her face. Before anyone could say anything, the scene grappled their attention when a man walked into the room Alfred was in. He didn’t say anything, just went up to a machine and turned the knob to a higher setting. He left as quickly as he came. The electrocution started back up, causing the nation to scream.The scene shifted to show Alfred panting, exhausted. Suddenly, there was a loud bang that resonated over the PA. Then, a familiar voice resonated through it.“Alfred?” Matthew’s voice came through the system.Alfred didn’t respond verbally, his head just lobbed to one side.“Shit,” Gilbert’s voice came too, more distant, probably keeping watch. “More of them are coming!”The scene shifted again to show Gilbert and Matthew rushing through the door in the room. They stopped when they saw Alfred, strapped down and looking almost dead. Matthew shook his head and ran forward towards his twin. He quickly unstrapped him, but the second he did, he was in a chokehold.“Who are you?” Alfred’s voice sounded different, almost sounding crazy.Gilbert pointed his gun at Alfred. Matthew was shocked, but also having a hard time breathing.“I-I’m your brother,” Matthew choked out.“They didn’t tell me I had a brother.”He dropped his brother and studied him, tilting his head in curiosity. He smiled, like a child, and held out his name.“Hi!” he said. “I’m Jones, they told me I’m a hitman with no family.”Gilbert’s eyes widened, so did Matthew’s.“Birdie,” Gilbert whispered over to Matthew, “I’ve seen this before, once.”“What do you mean?” Matthew whispered back.“You know,” Alfred started, “I can hear you.”Amelia watched as her past-self skipped over to Gilbert and snatch the gun out of his hand. She was frozen in shock, or maybe it was fear. The scene paused as she opened her mouth, looking at Matthew and Gilbert.“What happened to me?” she asked before turning her head and looking at Arthur. “And why am I acting like Oliver?”“You’ll find out soon,” Matthew told his sister, not wanting to explain, “hopefully.”Before she could say more the scene started up again. Alfred pointed the gun at Gilbert, a deadly look in his eyes.“If he’s my brother,” he wondered aloud, “who are you?”“He’s my friend!” Matthew said frantically.“Okay.”He skipped to the other side of the room and started playing around with the instruments left out. Matthew turned to Gilbert.“What is going on with my brother?” he asked quietly.“Uh,” Gilbert didn’t know where to start, “Sometimes, with a lot of trauma, the mind splits.”“What does that mean?!”“It means, your brother has another personality…”“Like his 2p?”“No, he’s still himself, but not at the same time… I don’t know how to explain this. I’ve only seen it once in a nation!”“Who?”“Italy.”The nations turned to look at Italy, who was just twiddling his thumbs, acting as though that did not just happen.“Feli?” Amelia approached the quiet nation. “It’s okay, if they judge you, they can fight me.”“It’s not that,” Feliciano said quietly, “but thank you.”Before more could be said the scene changed to show Alfred wearing a white button up short sleeve shirt with black pants and black suspenders. He was holding a knife to a man’s throat.“I saw what you did,” he said menacingly.“I didn’t do anything!” the man quivered in fear.“I saw what you did to that woman. I saw it through my own eyes.”“Don’t you mean with?”“No, I mean through. You hurt my other half.”He quickly slit the man’s throat.“What did I mean?” Amelia asked, feeling as though she was going to be sick.“After a while,” Gilbert started, “Jones figured out that he was a second personality and started to block things from you.”“Like what?”Before he could respond, the scene continued with Gilbert rushing into the room.“Why did you kill him?” he asked the hitman“He hurt Amelia,” came the response.“Hurt how?”“I’d rather not say.”Amelia looked green, “I’m gonna be sick.”The appeared when she said that and she rushed to it and through it. She ran to her room and into her bathroom and promptly started to heave. Matthew came up besides her and rubbed her back. Toris sat on her bed, waiting for her to come out. Maria, herself, felt sick, so did other countries.After a while, Amelia came out of her room, with Toris holding her for support.“Who else knew?” she asked, her voice soft, but venomous.Arthur stepped forward, “I wish I could’ve told you.”Amelia had a look of betrayal, “why didn’t you?”“Can I talk with you alone?”“No! What ever you have to say, say it here!”After a few moments, he relented, “Fine, it would’ve revealed that I’m an assassin for my people.”“Excuse me?”“Around the same time you ended up becoming a hitman, my government had assassins. I found you on one of my trips to your land and deduced what had happened over many of our… meetings.”After a few minutes of silence from Amelia, she turned on her heel and dragged Toris back into her room, slamming the door.“So,” Francis came up to Arthur, “You’re an assassin?”“Shut up, Frog,” Arthur retorted.
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After an hour or so, most nations were asleep. Amelia was lying next to Toris, in deep thought. She slid out of her love’s arms and went to the bathroom. She turned on the shower and just stepped in, not caring if her pajamas got ruined, and sat down. She started scratching her scarred skin, opening several cuts.The night continued like this for a while before she eventually fell asleep in the shower. When Toris got up, he noticed light coming from the bathroom, along with the sound of the shower going. He knocked, but when he didn’t get a response, her started to freak out and entered. He was struck by the scene of Amelia sitting in the shower, asleep.Toris smiled softly and turned off the shower, noticing how freezing the water was. It was at that moment he noticed Amelia shivering. He grabbed a few towels and wrapped them around the soaking Amelia. He tried to shake her awake, but it failed. Amelia just lopped her head to the side.He gently lifted Amelia up, being careful of the wet floor and of his love. He set her down on the bed before quickly leaving and going to Natalya’s room. He knocked and waited.Natalya threw open the door and glared daggers at Toris.“What do you want?” she asked, clearly tired.“A-Amelia fell asleep in the shower,” he told her, scared for his life, “and I was wondering if you could help me get her dressed?”“Fine, only because I like Amelia.”Once they changed the younger nation, they settled in the sitting room and talked whilst waiting for the other nations to join. After an hour or so, the rest of the nations started to file out. It was another hour before anyone questioned where Amelia was.“She had a rough night,” was all Toris said, “Let her sleep.”It was another half an hour before Amelia pulled herself out of bed. She was wearing red and black flannel pajamas; her hair was a rat’s nest. She walked past everyone and got herself a cup of coffee before heading back into her room.When she exited once again, she wore a pair of frayed jean shorts with a black tank top. She had on a pair of rainbow converse. She had her scars showing, causing some of the nations to gasp at the sheer amount of them.Matthew went up to Amelia and pointed out her scars were showing, she just shrugged it off.“They already know about them,” she pointed out, “I don’t really care anymore. If they judge now, well, it’s their loss.”She walked past the staring eyes, and right before entering the door, she turned and looked at them.“Plus,” she spoke, “Na’á won’t let me hide them anymore.”With that she led the group into the viewing room. The scene started up smoothly. Alfred was watching in the command room as Apollo 11 lifted off. He clapped along with everyone else.The scene shifted to show Alfred in front of the tv with Thomas in his lap. Both were staring at the television as man’s first footsteps on the moon were broadcasted. Alfred was much more intrigued than Thomas, but they both enjoyed watching the scene.The next scene had Amelia and Matthew driving to someplace. Amelia was talking about it nonstop.“I hear it’s going to be amazing!” Amelia told her brother.“Where are we going again?” Matthew asked.“Woodstock!”The scene shifted to show a montage of Matthew basically babysitting Amelia as she went and started doing some drugs. He kept her from exposing breasts and from going with a random guy.“I’m sorry,” Amelia turned to Matthew, “I didn’t want you to be watching over me.”“It’s alright,” Matthew replied, watching his past self dragging Amelia away from more acid. “What are big brother’s for anyway?”Amelia chuckled as she watched herself plop down on the ground, making herself heavier for Matthew. He just bent down and picked her up, carrying her away from the site and plopping her in the car.The scene ended with Amelia sneaking another thing of Acid on her tongue.The nations stared at Amelia, who just shrugged.“What?” she asked, “I liked acid.”Before anyone could respond to that, a new scene started. It was a great time skip as now Alfred was arguing with Jimmy Carter about the Olympics.“We’re not going,” Carter stated.“But if we don’t go,” Alfred retorted, “we’ll look weak!”“This is final!”Alfred stormed out of the office and headed home. Once there, he headed in and was immediately enveloped by a rather small being. It was the Northern Mariana Islands, Hána. Alfred just smiled and patted her head.The scene changed to show Alfred meeting Ronald Reagan for the first time. He had this bright eyed when he spotted his new president.“President Reagan,” Alfred held out his hand, “It’s glad to meet you. I mean I’m great to meet you,” Alfred was getting tongue tied at meeting this new president. “I a fan.”He was definitely fangirling inside. He had a lot of time to practice meeting him, but that practice flew out the window the second he saw him.“It’s alright,” Reagan told Alfred, taking his hand and shaking it. “Now, who might you be, young man.”“I’m your nation, sir.”“Ah, yes, Carter told me all about you.”Alfred squealed a tiny bit. He knew it was customary for the former president to tell the new one about his existence, but that didn’t matter at that moment. The scene ended with Alfred following Reagan inside to building.The next scene had Amelia watching the tv, on it was the wreckage of the Titanic. She quickly turned off the tv and headed over to the phone. She contemplated for a few moments before deciding against it.The next scene had Alfred looking at a screen. His eyes were wide.“It’s still glowing,” was all he said. “Where was this?”“Somewhere in Ukraine, sir,” a man said.Katyusha looked over at Amelia, “is this what I think it is?”“Yeah,” came the response, “this is the first look we got at the accident.”Before more could be said, the scene quickly made a time skip to show Alfred at the Summer Olympics, watching when there was a loud commotion going on. Suddenly a loud ‘boom’ sounded throughout the stadium.The scene quickly shifted to show Alfred profusely apologizing to several other nations for the bombing. They decided to let the games continue on as planned.“Why did you apologize?” Francis asked.“I get blamed for everything,” Amelia responded, holding herself slightly, “so why not?”While the nations thought on what she said, a new scene started, Amelia was hanging out with Matthew when she started clutching her chest in pain. Matthew was immediately on guard.“Ames,” he started, concerned, “what’s happening?”“They’re killing innocent children,” she whispered after a minute or two. “They’re killing them.”Tears were in her eyes. Matthew was frantic about the whole situation.“Where?” he asked. “Where are they killing kids?”“Columbine,” was all she said, crying out, watching the massacre through her nation connection.The scene quickly shifted to show Amelia and Matthew going to the memorial for the students.The next scene had Amelia walking down one of the streets in New York City when she heard a plane flying low, too low. She looked up, just in time to see it hit one of the twin towers, knocking her to the ground.
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Blood leaked out of Amelia’s eyes as she ran towards the World Trade Center. She didn’t get many looks as most people were looking up at the building. She collapsed once again as a second plane crashed into the South Tower. She quickly picked herself up and continued to run towards the towers.The scene quickly shifted to show Amelia back in her apartment, sitting on her bed, scared to move. Suddenly, there was a knock on her door. She jumped and crawled further back, falling off the bed.“Where were you so scared?” Elizaveta asked.“Because I was just attacked,” came the response, “I could barely see, everything was just a blur of emotions after the attack.”Before more could be said, the door opened up and Matthew walked through the door and was immediately greeted with a gun aimed at his face.“Woah, woah,” he put his arms up, “it’s me, Mattie.”Amelia holstered the gun and looked up at her brother. In that moment, the nations finally noticed how sleep deprived Amelia was.The scene changed to show Alfred smiling as he shook hands with newly inaugurated President Barack Obama.“It’s an honor to meet you,” Obama told Alfred.“The honors all mine, sir,” Alfred was so bright-eyed with this new president.The scene changed once again to show Alfred and Toris going on a date. They looked so adorable together, but they were also out in public and getting some not so nice looks from some people.“Why don’t you get a room?” a man sneered at them.Alfred was about to retort, but saw the look on Toris’ face. He instead just glared at the man and then looked back at Toris.“I’m sorry about that,” he told his love.“Let’s just go,” Toris said quietly.“O-okay.”The scene shifted to show Alfred and Toris walking outside of Alfred’s house and talking about nothing in particular. Then, out of the blue, Alfred turned towards Toris and knelt down on one knee.“Toris,” he started, “I love you. I love being around you. I love everything about you. I don’t know how this works for nations, but I love you and I want to marry you.”Toris, along with most of the nations watching, was in tears, happy, gleeful tears. He nodded quickly before forcing Alfred to his feet to kiss him.“Do I get a ring too?” Toris jokingly asked when he got his breath.“I didn’t think you wanted one,” Alfred’s eyes began to fill with panic. “If you want one, I’ll go get one-“He was cut off by Toris’ laughter, “I was joking. I think what you did was enough.”Alfred smooched Toris once more before yeehawing in joy and excitement.“When were you going to tell me your married?” Matthew asked the duo.“We’re not,” Amelia started.“Not yet,” Toris finished.Before more could be said, the scene changed to show Alfred and Toris in the white house, awaiting news. They both looked jittery and anxious.“What on earth could possibly make you that anxious?” Francis asked.“Just wait,” Amelia responded, a grin plastered on her face.All of a sudden a man came rushing in, “the supreme court has made their decision.”“Well?” Obama asked.“Same-sex marriage is legal throughout all states as of today.”Alfred squealed and kissed Toris, shocking some of the administration.The scene changed to show Amelia watching the election on TV. When the final results started to roll in, she started freaking out. When it came out that Donald Trump won, she started to freak out. She screamed so loud, out of frustration, it woke up her kids. Andrea came up to her big brother and asked what he was screaming at.“I can’t believe that orange… thing won!” He yelled out, before stopping and staring at the TV screen. “I’m going to die.”The scene shifted to show Alfred holding onto Obama’s leg.“Please,” he was begging the president, “don’t leave!”The scene shifted to show Alfred waiting for the inauguration to finish before meeting his new president. When it finished up, he shook Trump’s hand and forced a smile.The door appeared once more, so Amelia rushed through it. And saw Saiska waiting for her, so she ran towards her and hugged her.“Are done yet?” she asked her mother as the rest of the nations followed her through the door.“Not quite,” came the response. “The rest of the ancients and I have something else in stored now.”“What do you mean?”She conjured a rather large book, “A lot of these may be about you, some them may already know about, but there are also a ton about other nations. These are observations made by us ancients, secrets you may hold,” she was speaking to everyone now, “diary entries. Read it wisely.”She handed the book to a stunned Amelia as she vanished once more.“What?!” was all the world could say.