Orange and Navy (The Many Colours of Life and Death AU)

Chapter Twenty-Two

They left me. I can't believe they left me... the French Empire thought furiously. She was being held in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland's dungeon or something, left untouched since before the Gold War.

She paced back and forth, wishing she had something to sit on that wasn't burnt. When she woke up in the cell, she'd immediately burned everything in a fit of rage. Including the bed and the chair that had been left there.

FE had continued fighting BE after the force fields had disappeared, but then ROE and BZE left the battle. Suddenly, she was put to sleep, apparently by a country named Tunis. She woke up in the cell.

A few minutes after she stopped pacing, she heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. She prepared to burn them to a crisp, only to find that it was Canada. She stopped hastily.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Why did you try to kill us?" Canada looked up at her with wide, innocent eyes.

"I didn't try to kill you," she pointed out.

"But you did try to hurt my friends!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't have much of a choice. Everyone hates me. I'm only... defending myself." It sounded incompetent out loud. FE sighed.

"I gave you a second chance. You were supposed to redeem yourself. Not go back to your old ways," Canada's gaze hardened. He turned around, and left her paralysed in shock.

A second chance? He... thought I could do better? She pondered. But I don't deserve a second chance. So why even try?

Yet somehow, her logic didn't make sense even to her.

She sat down on the cold stone floor, and hugged her hands to her chest. Tears involuntarily sprung in her eyes. How did she get here? How did she go from a guilt-free child to a heartless monster?

How did she go from a held-back candle flame to a raging inferno?

She had no excuse. No explanation. She'd lived a normal life in her childhood. Except for the fact that she'd killed her father. She was certain that if that was normal, nearly everyone in this world would be dead.

Maybe the spark was after she asked the Austrian Empire to be her ally. Or perhaps after she'd nearly killed the Swedish Empire. FE had slowly spiralled into insanity, and didn't even realise.

She died for it. Then she got brought back to life by a hopeful child, and crushed his wishes by reverting to what was familiar.

But where was the fun in life if you don't do something new? Canada was right. She had a second chance.

It's never too late to try. Right?

"Are you ready?" the Roman Empire asked the Kingdom of France. The Byzantine Empire watched from afar, slightly bored.

They were near one of the French Empire's old homes, not far from the Roman Empire's castle. The Kingdom of France's body had been buried next to it, as a sign of disrespect from the French Empire at the time. Bodies were always left in an open room, in hopes of the spirit returning some day. It made it easier since none of the bodies ever decomposed, for some reason, unlike other animals.

ABSOLUTELY, fire appeared in the air in the shape of words. KoF's power was very similar to his daughter's, with the exception of one small detail. He could make things explode very easily. FE had exploded things before, most notably in the Gold War, but BZE heard she had a lot of trouble with it. Her father, on the other hand, could do it with ease. A rare and highly valuable trait that would win them this war. Hopefully.