❝who do you need --nobody --well lucky nobody's around❞
Title: The Flower of the Dawn - Irreverent Actions
Series: Axis Powers Hetalia
Words: 1,500~
Characters: Taiwan ; Vietnam ; France ; Japan ; China ; America and various others. (China/Taiwan, Vietnam/France, with hints of America/Taiwan, Vietnam/America, China/Russia, ect.)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Eventually violence, language, and sexual situations.
Summary: As World War II draws to a close, the world begins to shift. Vietnam breaks her ties with France, only to be overcome by an enemy she hadn’t expected-herself. Taiwan is forces to chose between her family and her convictions as China’s Communist Revolution occurs. As the two Asian sisters struggle together and apart, communism, the United Nations, and the men in their lives threaten to either destroy them, or save them.
Chapter Summary: 1948-1949. France agrees to Vietnam’s independence, but all doesn’t go as Vietnam wishes it to. Taiwan is forced to make a difficult decision as China begins to change drastically.
Past Chapters: Prologue : Ignoble Memories, Chapter One: Irreconcilable Differences
The Flower of the Dawn
Chapter Two : Irreverent Actions
---
June 07, 1948
She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this tired.
As Vietnam entered the room, she didn’t have the energy for expectations. Her dark hair was lank around her, her nails were caked with dirt and blood, and there was a grim expression on her normally fair face.
She was greeted with a smile by Bảo Đai. It had been at his insistence that Vietnam had declared her independence from France, and now he had called her to him again, apparently with a new plan.
“Where have you been?” Normally respectful to the Emperor, Vietnam was too weary now to do anything but force the words through her mouth. The Emperor gave her a rueful smile, which she returned with a scowl. “You’ve been gone for two years.”
“It wasn’t safe here, anymore,” he said by way of explanation.
“And who’s fault was that?” Vietnam shot back. They wouldn’t be fighting so desperately, right now, if this man hadn’t allowed the Japanese invaders to sway his opinions, if he had only been strong enough to resist them. Two years of war had filled Vietnam with bitterness, and she glared openly at the man as she continued. “You said you had something to tell me-what was it?”
“…I could answer that, if you’d like.”
Vietnam whipped around to find herself face-to-face with France. The other nation responded to her unbelieving stare with a chuckle, then brushed his blonde hair back from his face with one elegant gesture.
“Well, I don’t want to see you and the good Emperor here fighting,” France explained, while Vietnam’s entire body tensed like that of an angry cat.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded. Her hands had clenched to fists at her sides, and she suddenly felt very stupid for coming here unarmed.
“Relax, cherie, there are no hidden bombs, here,” France said with another laugh. When Vietnam’s expression didn’t soften, he let out his breath in a huff. “I’ve come to offer you a truce.”
“What sort of truce?”
“When did you become so suspicious?” France lamented. “Remember when you used to be so wide-eyed and innocent?”
Vietnam pursed her lips. “That was before the one person I trusted started dropping bombs on me.”
France inclined his head, acknowledging a point scored. “Touché. But that’s why I’m here-to put an end to all that. To give you an independent State of Vietnam.”
“What?” Vietnam gasped, unable to keep the excitement from her voice. “Really?”
“When have I ever lied to you?-wait, don’t answer that.” France rolled his eyes. “But if you agree to this, we’ll set Bảo Đai, here, up as your head of state, and give you all that liberty and independence you’ve been going on about.”
“You’d go on about it, too, if you didn’t have it,” Vietnam muttered. But then she glanced shrewdly at Bảo Đai. “So that’s why you’re back. Did you make a pit-stop in Paris on your way home from Hong Kong?” The Emperor only gave her a bland smile.
“Let me get this straight-I finally manage to bring everyone together under the Halong Bay Agreements, and now you want me to take a subordinate position to you, again?” she demanded heatedly.
France only smiled. “Were you hoping for something better?”
---
October 01, 1949
“Géxià, it has happened!” Chiang Kai-shek burst into Taiwan’s quarters, and she jumped up with a start, the color draining from her face. “…Mao Zedong has declared a new country.”
“That’s not possible, though, is it?” Taiwan asked, determination immediately replacing fear. “I mean, we were winning.”
The man looked away uncomfortably, and Taiwan’s eyes narrowed. When the fighting had broken out, they had come to her, bowing as loyal Chinese citizens, insisting that if she joined them, they would save her people and her brother. Taiwan had agreed only because such promises had suited her own convictions, but now she wasn’t sure she could trust these people, anymore.
“You should have brought me with you,” she responded coldly. “I could have talked to Gege, I could have made him understand. Now we’ve lost all of it.”
“And risked you on the battle field?” Chiang laughed. “I’m sorry, Géxià, but that simply wasn’t an option.”
“Don’t act so deferentially to me if you’re not going to listen!” Taiwan cried. “I could have helped! Gege would have listened to me!”
“Are you so certain, of that?”
Taiwan could not respond, so the man continued, “When this began, it seemed as though your brother was on our side, at times. But I’ve seen him now, Géxià, and he is no longer our ally. He walks with Mao as his equal, dressed all in red. He was standing on the platform when the announcement came! He supports this!”
“No…” Taiwan whispered. “He couldn’t. Hasn’t he heard, what’s happening in Russia…?”
“Russia has been meeting with China more and more often,” Chiang said sadly. He opened his mouth to continue, but there was a loud, insistent knock on the door.
“Chiang? Géxià? We need to get out of here-their forced have arrived!”
Chiang didn’t need telling twice. Grabbing Taiwan by the wrist, he pulled her forward and out the door, as she attempted to follow without being dragged behind him. Twelve soldiers met them out in the hall, immediately creating a defensive barrier around the two of them, and they proceeded to run down the corridor. They had almost made it when an ear-shattering blast sent them all sprawling to the floor.
“These rebels…” Taiwan winced, struggling to her feet, “…how dare they…?” It was then that she looked up and realized that she was alone. The blast had knocked down the western wall of their base, and Taiwan was outside, while the rubble had trapped Chiang and the others inside.
She beat her hands furiously against the fallen wall, calling their names, and growing increasingly desperate. She could hear the struggles of her men on the other side of the wall, and brought her hands to her face, caught between fear and despair.
“Taiwan…were you trying to escape, aru?”
She whipped around, knowing full well that she was about to face her brother for the first time in over a year. But now, Taiwan wasn’t going to bow to his wishes, anymore. As she looked into his dark eyes, one hand was already reaching for the dagger in her sleeve.
He was dressed in red robes, as Chiang said he would be. His face was blank and neutral, his eyes were cold. And he looked at her with deepest disdain.
“They were right,” Taiwan whispered. “You’ve become one of them, haven’t you, Gege?”
She could feel the tears forming in her eyes, but she wasn’t about to let them fall. Unsheathing the dagger in one quick movement, she plunged it into China’s shoulder even as she prepared to run.
“How can you just leave?” he cried, as the pain hit. He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her back. “This is what’s best, aru.”
“I’m tired of you telling me what’s best for me,” Taiwan retorted, squirming away from his grasp. “You don’t deserve to even be called China, anymore, Gege! You’ve betrayed your own people!”
Finally his calm broke-his face twisted in pain and anger. But Taiwan wasn’t there to see-she ran off, and, soon enough, her army and Chiang joined her. As they made their way to her island, they bowed down to her, each in turn.
“…you are now our China,” they declared. Taiwan nodded her head in assent, still not letting the tears fall.
---
December 20, 1949
Almost a year had passed since Bảo Đai had returned to Vietnam and set up his new state, but it had become quickly evident that France’s definition of “independence” did not coincide with Vietnam’s. But at this point, there seemed nothing she could do to change things.
She was sitting on a grassy hill just outside Saigon, the wind blowing through her inky hair and the sun on her face. She hugged her knees close to her chest and sighed.
“I want real independence,” she sighed. “not Bảo Đai independence.” And more than half of her people agreed with her. The Viet Minh, who had been her main force against France, were declaring over and over again that they hadn’t fought so long just to give up, now.
“I could help you with that,” a soft voice spoke. After so many years of France showing up unexpectedly, Vietnam half-thought-half wanted-it to be him standing before her. But she put a name to that voice even before he finished, “if you’d like, aru.”
“Anh?” Vietnam asked, rising to her feet. “What are you doing here?”
China offered her a warm smile. “I’ve come to help you. You’re my little sister, after all.”
“Not so little,” Vietnam murmured. She was the second-oldest in their family, and had known China the longest. She didn’t add that she knew how much he had “helped” their other little sister in recent months, because now didn’t seem the time to bring that up. “Why?” she asked blandly.
“Because I want us to be on better terms, aru,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “Ever since that war, we’ve been disunited and fighting-and it’s because so many other countries are interfering, aru.”
“So you want France out of Vietnam…”
“…because it will help both Vietnam and China, aru.”
“Hmmm,” she said, considering. Her head tilted to one side, and she though, for the briefest instance: Real independence. Not Bảo Đai independence. It was that thought which decided her.
“All right, Anh,” she said, extending her hand in an ironically Western gesture. “I’d be glad of your help.”
The two Asian nations shook on the matter, and the meeting ended in laughter shared between them.
---
Footnotes:
*Gege means “elder brother,” as does Anh. Géxià is a commonly used modern Chinese honorific, meaning literally "beneath your pavilion"; for important people.
*June, 1948 -- France began to look for some way to oppose the Việt Minh politically, with an alternative government in Saigon. They began negotiations with the former Vietnamese emperor Bảo Đại to lead an "autonomous" government within the French Union of nations, the State of Vietnam. Two years before, the French had refused Hồ's proposal of a similar status (albeit with some restrictions on French power and the latter's eventual withdrawal from Vietnam), however they were willing to give it to Bảo Ðại as he had always cooperated with French rule of Vietnam in the past and was in no position to seriously negotiate any conditions (Bảo Ðại had no military of his own, but soon he would have one).
*June 05, 1948 -- The Halong Bay Agreements (Accords de la baie d’Along) allowed the creation of a unified State of Vietnam replacing the Tonkin (North Vietnam), Annam (Middle Vietnam) and the Republic of Cochinchina (South Vietnam) associated to France within the French Union then including the neighboring Kingdom of Laos and Kingdom of Cambodia.
*October 01, 1949 -- Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China with its capital at Beiping (Peiping), which was renamed Beijing (Peking). Chiang Kai-shek and approximately 2 million Nationalist Chinese retreated from mainland China to the island of Taiwan. There remained only isolated pockets of resistance, notably in Sichuan (ending soon after the fall of Chengdu on December 10, 1949) and in the far south.
*December, 1949 -- France officially recognized the "independence" of the State of Vietnam within the French Union under Bảo Ðại. However, France still controlled all defense issues and all foreign relations as Vietnam was only an independent state within the French Union . The Việt Minh quickly denounced the government and stated that they wanted "real independence, not Bảo Ðại independence". Later on, as a concession to this new government and a way to increase their numbers, France agreed to the formation of the Vietnamese National Army to be commanded by Vietnamese officers. These troops were used mostly to garrison quiet sectors so French forces would be available for combat. Private Cao Dai, Hoa Hao and the Binh Xuyen gangster armies were used in the same way. The Vietnamese Communists also got help in 1949 when Chairman Mao Zedong succeeded in taking control of China and defeating the Kuomintang, thus gaining a major ally and supply area just across the border. In the same year, the French also recognized the independence (within the framework of the French Union) of the other two nations in Indochina, the Kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia.
*People:
---Bảo Ðại
---Chiang Kai-shek
---Mao Zedong
Series: Axis Powers Hetalia
Words: 1,500~
Characters: Taiwan ; Vietnam ; France ; Japan ; China ; America and various others. (China/Taiwan, Vietnam/France, with hints of America/Taiwan, Vietnam/America, China/Russia, ect.)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Eventually violence, language, and sexual situations.
Summary: As World War II draws to a close, the world begins to shift. Vietnam breaks her ties with France, only to be overcome by an enemy she hadn’t expected-herself. Taiwan is forces to chose between her family and her convictions as China’s Communist Revolution occurs. As the two Asian sisters struggle together and apart, communism, the United Nations, and the men in their lives threaten to either destroy them, or save them.
Chapter Summary: 1948-1949. France agrees to Vietnam’s independence, but all doesn’t go as Vietnam wishes it to. Taiwan is forced to make a difficult decision as China begins to change drastically.
Past Chapters: Prologue : Ignoble Memories, Chapter One: Irreconcilable Differences
The Flower of the Dawn
Chapter Two : Irreverent Actions
---
June 07, 1948
She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this tired.
As Vietnam entered the room, she didn’t have the energy for expectations. Her dark hair was lank around her, her nails were caked with dirt and blood, and there was a grim expression on her normally fair face.
She was greeted with a smile by Bảo Đai. It had been at his insistence that Vietnam had declared her independence from France, and now he had called her to him again, apparently with a new plan.
“Where have you been?” Normally respectful to the Emperor, Vietnam was too weary now to do anything but force the words through her mouth. The Emperor gave her a rueful smile, which she returned with a scowl. “You’ve been gone for two years.”
“It wasn’t safe here, anymore,” he said by way of explanation.
“And who’s fault was that?” Vietnam shot back. They wouldn’t be fighting so desperately, right now, if this man hadn’t allowed the Japanese invaders to sway his opinions, if he had only been strong enough to resist them. Two years of war had filled Vietnam with bitterness, and she glared openly at the man as she continued. “You said you had something to tell me-what was it?”
“…I could answer that, if you’d like.”
Vietnam whipped around to find herself face-to-face with France. The other nation responded to her unbelieving stare with a chuckle, then brushed his blonde hair back from his face with one elegant gesture.
“Well, I don’t want to see you and the good Emperor here fighting,” France explained, while Vietnam’s entire body tensed like that of an angry cat.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded. Her hands had clenched to fists at her sides, and she suddenly felt very stupid for coming here unarmed.
“Relax, cherie, there are no hidden bombs, here,” France said with another laugh. When Vietnam’s expression didn’t soften, he let out his breath in a huff. “I’ve come to offer you a truce.”
“What sort of truce?”
“When did you become so suspicious?” France lamented. “Remember when you used to be so wide-eyed and innocent?”
Vietnam pursed her lips. “That was before the one person I trusted started dropping bombs on me.”
France inclined his head, acknowledging a point scored. “Touché. But that’s why I’m here-to put an end to all that. To give you an independent State of Vietnam.”
“What?” Vietnam gasped, unable to keep the excitement from her voice. “Really?”
“When have I ever lied to you?-wait, don’t answer that.” France rolled his eyes. “But if you agree to this, we’ll set Bảo Đai, here, up as your head of state, and give you all that liberty and independence you’ve been going on about.”
“You’d go on about it, too, if you didn’t have it,” Vietnam muttered. But then she glanced shrewdly at Bảo Đai. “So that’s why you’re back. Did you make a pit-stop in Paris on your way home from Hong Kong?” The Emperor only gave her a bland smile.
“Let me get this straight-I finally manage to bring everyone together under the Halong Bay Agreements, and now you want me to take a subordinate position to you, again?” she demanded heatedly.
France only smiled. “Were you hoping for something better?”
---
October 01, 1949
“Géxià, it has happened!” Chiang Kai-shek burst into Taiwan’s quarters, and she jumped up with a start, the color draining from her face. “…Mao Zedong has declared a new country.”
“That’s not possible, though, is it?” Taiwan asked, determination immediately replacing fear. “I mean, we were winning.”
The man looked away uncomfortably, and Taiwan’s eyes narrowed. When the fighting had broken out, they had come to her, bowing as loyal Chinese citizens, insisting that if she joined them, they would save her people and her brother. Taiwan had agreed only because such promises had suited her own convictions, but now she wasn’t sure she could trust these people, anymore.
“You should have brought me with you,” she responded coldly. “I could have talked to Gege, I could have made him understand. Now we’ve lost all of it.”
“And risked you on the battle field?” Chiang laughed. “I’m sorry, Géxià, but that simply wasn’t an option.”
“Don’t act so deferentially to me if you’re not going to listen!” Taiwan cried. “I could have helped! Gege would have listened to me!”
“Are you so certain, of that?”
Taiwan could not respond, so the man continued, “When this began, it seemed as though your brother was on our side, at times. But I’ve seen him now, Géxià, and he is no longer our ally. He walks with Mao as his equal, dressed all in red. He was standing on the platform when the announcement came! He supports this!”
“No…” Taiwan whispered. “He couldn’t. Hasn’t he heard, what’s happening in Russia…?”
“Russia has been meeting with China more and more often,” Chiang said sadly. He opened his mouth to continue, but there was a loud, insistent knock on the door.
“Chiang? Géxià? We need to get out of here-their forced have arrived!”
Chiang didn’t need telling twice. Grabbing Taiwan by the wrist, he pulled her forward and out the door, as she attempted to follow without being dragged behind him. Twelve soldiers met them out in the hall, immediately creating a defensive barrier around the two of them, and they proceeded to run down the corridor. They had almost made it when an ear-shattering blast sent them all sprawling to the floor.
“These rebels…” Taiwan winced, struggling to her feet, “…how dare they…?” It was then that she looked up and realized that she was alone. The blast had knocked down the western wall of their base, and Taiwan was outside, while the rubble had trapped Chiang and the others inside.
She beat her hands furiously against the fallen wall, calling their names, and growing increasingly desperate. She could hear the struggles of her men on the other side of the wall, and brought her hands to her face, caught between fear and despair.
“Taiwan…were you trying to escape, aru?”
She whipped around, knowing full well that she was about to face her brother for the first time in over a year. But now, Taiwan wasn’t going to bow to his wishes, anymore. As she looked into his dark eyes, one hand was already reaching for the dagger in her sleeve.
He was dressed in red robes, as Chiang said he would be. His face was blank and neutral, his eyes were cold. And he looked at her with deepest disdain.
“They were right,” Taiwan whispered. “You’ve become one of them, haven’t you, Gege?”
She could feel the tears forming in her eyes, but she wasn’t about to let them fall. Unsheathing the dagger in one quick movement, she plunged it into China’s shoulder even as she prepared to run.
“How can you just leave?” he cried, as the pain hit. He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her back. “This is what’s best, aru.”
“I’m tired of you telling me what’s best for me,” Taiwan retorted, squirming away from his grasp. “You don’t deserve to even be called China, anymore, Gege! You’ve betrayed your own people!”
Finally his calm broke-his face twisted in pain and anger. But Taiwan wasn’t there to see-she ran off, and, soon enough, her army and Chiang joined her. As they made their way to her island, they bowed down to her, each in turn.
“…you are now our China,” they declared. Taiwan nodded her head in assent, still not letting the tears fall.
---
December 20, 1949
Almost a year had passed since Bảo Đai had returned to Vietnam and set up his new state, but it had become quickly evident that France’s definition of “independence” did not coincide with Vietnam’s. But at this point, there seemed nothing she could do to change things.
She was sitting on a grassy hill just outside Saigon, the wind blowing through her inky hair and the sun on her face. She hugged her knees close to her chest and sighed.
“I want real independence,” she sighed. “not Bảo Đai independence.” And more than half of her people agreed with her. The Viet Minh, who had been her main force against France, were declaring over and over again that they hadn’t fought so long just to give up, now.
“I could help you with that,” a soft voice spoke. After so many years of France showing up unexpectedly, Vietnam half-thought-half wanted-it to be him standing before her. But she put a name to that voice even before he finished, “if you’d like, aru.”
“Anh?” Vietnam asked, rising to her feet. “What are you doing here?”
China offered her a warm smile. “I’ve come to help you. You’re my little sister, after all.”
“Not so little,” Vietnam murmured. She was the second-oldest in their family, and had known China the longest. She didn’t add that she knew how much he had “helped” their other little sister in recent months, because now didn’t seem the time to bring that up. “Why?” she asked blandly.
“Because I want us to be on better terms, aru,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “Ever since that war, we’ve been disunited and fighting-and it’s because so many other countries are interfering, aru.”
“So you want France out of Vietnam…”
“…because it will help both Vietnam and China, aru.”
“Hmmm,” she said, considering. Her head tilted to one side, and she though, for the briefest instance: Real independence. Not Bảo Đai independence. It was that thought which decided her.
“All right, Anh,” she said, extending her hand in an ironically Western gesture. “I’d be glad of your help.”
The two Asian nations shook on the matter, and the meeting ended in laughter shared between them.
---
Footnotes:
*Gege means “elder brother,” as does Anh. Géxià is a commonly used modern Chinese honorific, meaning literally "beneath your pavilion"; for important people.
*June, 1948 -- France began to look for some way to oppose the Việt Minh politically, with an alternative government in Saigon. They began negotiations with the former Vietnamese emperor Bảo Đại to lead an "autonomous" government within the French Union of nations, the State of Vietnam. Two years before, the French had refused Hồ's proposal of a similar status (albeit with some restrictions on French power and the latter's eventual withdrawal from Vietnam), however they were willing to give it to Bảo Ðại as he had always cooperated with French rule of Vietnam in the past and was in no position to seriously negotiate any conditions (Bảo Ðại had no military of his own, but soon he would have one).
*June 05, 1948 -- The Halong Bay Agreements (Accords de la baie d’Along) allowed the creation of a unified State of Vietnam replacing the Tonkin (North Vietnam), Annam (Middle Vietnam) and the Republic of Cochinchina (South Vietnam) associated to France within the French Union then including the neighboring Kingdom of Laos and Kingdom of Cambodia.
*October 01, 1949 -- Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China with its capital at Beiping (Peiping), which was renamed Beijing (Peking). Chiang Kai-shek and approximately 2 million Nationalist Chinese retreated from mainland China to the island of Taiwan. There remained only isolated pockets of resistance, notably in Sichuan (ending soon after the fall of Chengdu on December 10, 1949) and in the far south.
*December, 1949 -- France officially recognized the "independence" of the State of Vietnam within the French Union under Bảo Ðại. However, France still controlled all defense issues and all foreign relations as Vietnam was only an independent state within the French Union . The Việt Minh quickly denounced the government and stated that they wanted "real independence, not Bảo Ðại independence". Later on, as a concession to this new government and a way to increase their numbers, France agreed to the formation of the Vietnamese National Army to be commanded by Vietnamese officers. These troops were used mostly to garrison quiet sectors so French forces would be available for combat. Private Cao Dai, Hoa Hao and the Binh Xuyen gangster armies were used in the same way. The Vietnamese Communists also got help in 1949 when Chairman Mao Zedong succeeded in taking control of China and defeating the Kuomintang, thus gaining a major ally and supply area just across the border. In the same year, the French also recognized the independence (within the framework of the French Union) of the other two nations in Indochina, the Kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia.
*People:
---Bảo Ðại
---Chiang Kai-shek
---Mao Zedong