{Fanfic} The World, Piece by Piece (13, 14, 15/64) {Hetalia}
Title: We All Float On
Rating: T+
Character(s): England, Italy, Germany, France, America, Japan, China, Lithuania and Poland
Pairing(s): N/A
Warning(s): Historical deaths, blood/violence
Summary: For that is all they can do.
1138
"Don't name her heir, my liege. Please."
Henry had not wanted to hear it. England understood. She was the king's only surviving blood. She was the child of his loins and that was what he wanted on the throne.
The problem was she was daughter. Years of convincing his king otherwise accomplished nothing. Henry believed his people sworn to her. But she was a woman. England knew his people. They would not submit to the charge of a woman. His future was unstable.
A surfeit of lampreys handed him to instability. His future was set as Stephen of Blois came to take him. So England curled in on himself, trying to ignore the pain.
1572
He was tired. The unrest unsettled him. Catherine should have never arranged the marriage, but it was too late. Especially after the assassination attempt. Coligny had barely survived. France just wished it would end.
"No!"
France ran through the streets aimlessly. To get away, get away. He had not wanted them here, he had not wanted them to come. But here they were and now they were more him than he had wished. But they were his people.
And they were being slaughtered.
Coligny was thrown out of the window. France could not stop his body from heaving. His king and his court went to the Paris Parlement and celebrated while France lay in his vomit and cried.
1607
"Hetman Żółkiewski is, like, totally going to do more than Hetman Chodkiewicz."
Lithuania watched. The King was in Chodkiewicz's wing. He had disagreed with that most vehemently. He had also disagreed that Sigismund should try for the Swedish Throne.
But Lithuania had no say. Poland was with him. But Poland had no choice. And Zebrydowski was out there, legally. They were to calm them down.
"See? Chodkiewicz, like, doesn't have to do anything. He-" And it begun. Lithuania tried to stand up, but Poland gripped his wrist. "They're just supposed to talk! Oh my God! They're totally just supposed to talk!"
"They were." Lithuania swallowed.
His sudden weakness was nothing to what Poland must have been feeling as their pacification attempt turned into battle.
1637
He was crying, screaming. England could not see why. There was nothing wrong. It was the next day someone told him what had happened. A Pequot village was set on fire. The people were dead. There were only seven hundred. They would catch those who escaped and kill them too.
"These are your people," England crooned to the child. "My people. These people are grateful and don't want to be driven away."
England had a sudden thought in the back of his mind that something was horribly wrong with what he was saying.
Alfred kept crying.
1937
"Stop... please... stop..."
Japan did not stop. China had not expected him to. Japan forced him to look over his people as he set them on fire. Screams of people on fire were perhaps some of the worst screams China had ever heard.
"I have restored order." Japan sounded disgusted with his words. China tried to keep his body from touching anything and let the burns on his body suffer.
He choked on the air which was suddenly so cold.
1944
He hit him.
Italy stared, not able to comprehend the gesture. The other stood there, back as straight as always, a paper crumpled in his clenched fist. Italy still could feel it, as if he was being hit still, as if the other was beating him mercilessly.
"Why?" he asked.
Germany did not answer.
Title: Chess
Rating: E
Character(s): China
Pairing(s): N/A
Warning(s): N/A
Summary: There were only five of them.
He was a rook. There really was no doubting it. He would like to think of himself as maybe even the queen, but there was no fooling himself. His worth was certainly not as much as America. America was the queen. Now, if only he would act it.
Or maybe Russia was the rook. But France was definitely the pawn. He had fallen out so quickly to Germany. Which meant that England was a knight. It suited him. So was he the bishop? Or was Russia? It was hard to tell.
That just left the King.
China looked at the other four and wondered how they expected to win this on their own without a King.
Title: Duty
Rating: PG13
Character(s): Germany and Poland
Pairing(s): N/A
Warning(s): WWII
Summary: Arbeit macht frei. It was the only freedom he knew of.
"You're gonna regret this, bastard. I'll, like, make sure of it!"
Germany had not needed Poland to tell him such. The fact Oświęcim was no more was already proof of his regret. Sweden had once destroyed this place. Austria and Hungary had taken their part in history in this city. May twentieth saw the concentration camp.
The first year it was simple. The first year it was a prison for those against him.
The iron gate was strung with the words arbeit macht frei. Germany was inclined to agree. After all, it was the only freedom he knew of.
The war continued and Germany did what his job commanded of him.
September third, in 1941. There were too many. Birkenau was not enough to contain them. Then there were those not working. They were useless and a burden. To fulfill one's duty, they could not have baggage in the way. Zyklon B was the answer to this question. Germany was there when his boss agreed to the method, before returning to more important matters. Come ye all, to the Little Red House.
"You're gonna regret this!"
Arbeit macht frei.
It was efficient. The job was done. For the second time he went on command to examine the camp. The Soviets were coming. There were going to take Warsaw and then they were coming.
He watched as four women were hung for smuggling gunpowder.
Auschwitz.
He regretted. He hated.
It was not freedom.
But this was his duty. And Germany would not be found lacking.
The Auschwitz Concentration Camp used to be the city Oświęcim, which was destroyed by Swedish troops in1655 and became an Austro-Hungarian city in the late 18th century before finally being returned to Poland. Then the Germans occupied Poland and took Oświęcim and turned it into Auschwitz. May 20th 1940 saw the first prisoners enter Auschwitz.
Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) was constructed in October 1941 to make more room for more prisoners. September 3rd 1941 saw the first gassing in Auschwitz. It was successful and became the most efficient way of ridding themselves of the weak and elderly prisoners who could not work. The Little Red House was a brick house in Birkenau converted into the first gassing chamber.
The Jewish prisoners forced to remove bodies from the gassing chamber blew up Crematoria IV with the help of some women prisoners who smuggled in gunpowder from nearby factories. Four of them are caught an hung only a few weeks before Auschwitz is liberated by the Allies.
The words arbeit macht frei have the direct English translation "work makes (one) free."