Do Or Die

Chapter Fourteen: Regroup and Think

Chapter warnings: past character death, child abandonment, biphobia

When the evacuation teams returned to the Alequoqian caves, it was clear that no one knew what happened.

Russia approached the group. "What happened out there?" he questioned. "How did they find out? Was anyone spotted?"

"As far as we're concerned, no. The countryhumans were all covered from head to toe," one of the Alequoqians responded. "We're just as confused as you are..."

Uzbekistan didn't stay to talk. She left immediately for the library section of the caves. The others knew her pathing since they talked about it on the way back. Right now, her top priority was confirming her suspicions.

"Bek, wait!" Alwin called after, following her.

"Alwin, you were with them this whole time?!" Russia exclaimed.

Alwin waved over his shoulder. "I'll explain that later Russia, I promise!"

"Papa was looking everywhere for you!"

"I'll talk to him later!"

Russia sighed to himself as Alwin continued to leave. "That boy is going to be in so much trouble. His parents must be so worried for him."

When Uzbekistan finally reached the library, she threw open the doors and rushed to the section about the countryhumans. Alwin entered shortly after her. "Why did you leave?" he asked. "Aren't you supposed to be telling everyone what happened-?"

"Help me look for pictures of the empires," Uzbekistan demanded.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Just help look! There's something I really need to check!"

Alwin held up his hands. "Okay, okay, I'll help."

The two of them combed through book titles, searching for anything about the empires until Uzbekistan found a book about the European empires. She cracked it open and flipped through the pages until she found a photocopied image of a painting.

The empire in the painting matched up with who Uzbekistan saw earlier: a face coloured with black, yellow, and white horizontal stripes, an eyepatch that covered his right eye with his country's coat of arms skillfully stitched into it, and the figure significantly surpassed the height of the royal family that stood with him.

Russian Empire.

"Oh God," Uzbekistan whispered.

Alwin's eyes flicked back and forth between Uzbekistan and Russian Empire. "Your grandpa?" he asked. "How did you not know what he looked like?"

"I didn't see a lot of pictures of him growing up, and I never really felt the need to look for any until now."

Alwin frowned. "Wait, why?"

"Papa didn't like seeing his face, so he took efforts to decrease possibilities of seeing him."

Alwin's frown deepened. "But why?"

Uzbekistan took a breath, trying to find the right words to explain the situation. "The last time they interacted, things didn't go so well. Bobo (Grandpa) paid Papa a visit around, maybe, two weeks after Russia was born. They got into an argument, things escalated, and uh, Bobo ended up dying."

Alwin blinked. "Wait, what? Wait, how?"

"I don't know. Papa said that everything happened too fast and that it was all a blur. All he remembers is that it was chaos and he made it out alive."

Alwin looked down at the picture again. "And you saw-"

He was cut off when the doors to the library opened. Alwin and Uzbekistan turned around and saw Soviet walking towards them. The two watched as his focus zeroed in on Alwin.