A/N

Chapter eleven. Hooray.

SADNESS WARNING!!!

You have been warned. (Multiple times. . .)

~Shatter.

Chapter Eleven.

~°~

Union quietly cried into his hands, elbows resting on the small table. England hugged him comfortingly, feeling eternally guilty that he had made him cry. What he had said was true, but he felt guilty anyway. No good parent wouldn't feel that way for making their child cry, and England was included in that too, even if Union (or America, as he knew him) wasn't technically his son.

"I'm sorry, America," England whispered.

"For what?" Union replied, voice shaking and muffled. "Telling the truth? At least you didn't lie about it. To be honest, it was probably just a pointless crush, anyways. I'll get over it."

Somehow, this did not make England feel any better. He stayed silent.

America, Confederacy, Union thought. He needed someone to talk to without being heard by anyone, and who was better for the job than the two "voices" in his head?

Yeah? America replied, sounding like he'd been crying too.

America? Union thought. Are you crying? But you never cry. . . .

Not when I'm the one walking around, America thought back. And I'm only crying a little.

It's true, Confederacy choked through sobs. Union appeared in the Mind. (The Mind, capital "M", is going to be what the "headquarters" is called.)

Confederacy was a sobbing mess in a corner, while America tried to calm him down, but had a couple tears of his own silently falling down his cheeks.

Union walked over to them and kneeled down next to the two. He pulled both personifications closer and hugged them both. The three of them cried. There was no one to see them there but each other.

~°~

Confederacy and the other two had realized that maybe this was for the best. A father-son relationship— it wasn't that bad, was it? It's still love, just different.

Confederacy volunteered to take control of the body. The other two accepted, and Union and America sat next to each other, still too sad to eat, but drinking brain water. Crying leads to dry throats. Even if you don't technically exist at the moment.

(A/N By the way, when none of them are in charge of the body, it kind of just continues what it was doing. Like, the body kept crying, but if he hadn't been, he would've been "zoned out" as people call it. So he was zoned out crying or something. Caught up in his sad, depressing thoughts.)

The uniform didn't change (he wasn't even wearing a uniform, he was wearing normal clothes) because they (predictably) decided that it would be best to not have their clothes or appearance be changed all that much. The clothes became a tiny bit greyer, as did the eyes, however, only a little bit, and that much change was inevitable. Not even noticeable. Not much, anyway. The voice changed to Confederacy's, but the three had similar voices, so it didn't make much of a difference. Maybe a little bit noticeable. But only if you were looking of listening for a difference.

Confederacy slowly turned to England and hugged him back, still crying into England's chest. England comforted him like a father would his son.

"Sh," England whispered. "Don't cry. It'll be alright. I'm sorry. Please don't cry. . ."

Confederacy's silent crying started slowing down gradually. He had no tears left.

He pulled away from England and looked away from his. . . dad.

England stood up and went into the bathroom. He came back with a cup of water and gave it to Confederacy. Confederacy's hands shook, so England helped him hold the cup steady as he slowly drank it.

After a couple of cups of water, Confederacy looks up at England.

"England," he whispered. "I think I can settle for thinking of you as a father."

"Are you sure?" England asked.

"Yes."

England stared at Confederacy for a moment, as if trying to read his mind. Which would be a very terrible thing to do. Then, apparently satisfied that Confederacy wasn't lying, nodded and smiled slightly.

"Good," England said, pulling the younger personification into a hug again.

As Confederacy hugged England back, he thought stuff over.

He was surprised to realize that he wasn't as sad anymore. They (Confederacy, America, and Union) seemed to have fallen out of love.

But they had once again fallen victim to heartbreak. And they may not be completely sad anymore, but they weren't happy either. This experience didn't help his depression, and it probably wasn't going to stop the self harm, either. . . .

As if reading his mind, England said, "Please, America, don't be too depressed because of this. Don't self harm or anything because of it. I will be checking to make sure you aren't."

England's protective parent skills had come out to play.

"Okay, England," Confederacy replied immediately. "I won't. I promise."

"You better not be lying to me, now," England said suspiciously.

"I'm not," Confederacy replied. "Don't worry."

You're lying, Union thought to Confederacy.

I know I am, Confederacy replied, appearing in the Mind.

~°~

"But my answer won't end out changing anything, so let's not make him worry," Confederacy finished.

"Besides," America put in, "we lie about being fine all the time."

"I know," Union replied, smirking. "I just wanted to argue about something."

The other two nodded in understanding. "Distractions," they said in unison. "Smart."

"Thanks."

Confederacy was about to reply (probably say something that would lead into another argument), when they were interrupted by a voice.

"—ica. America!" The three immediately looked towards the screen and noticed that England was trying to get their attention. America quickly took charge, disappearing to control the body.

~°~

"Huh? What?" America asked.

"You zoned out," England informed him. "I asked if you wanted to talk to New York and Texas now. They've been waiting for a while now, right?"

"Oh," America said. "That might be a good idea." He stood up and walked to the door, opening it. "Hey, Nexas."

"Nexas?" New York asked.

America smirked. "It's your ship name."

"What?!" Texas exclaimed. "You've came up with a ship name?! Already?"

America smirked more. "I've been waiting for my two little boys to get together. I've known you would for a while now." He hugged his two sons, then pulled away quickly, looking at the two with wonder. "True love. What a beautiful thing."

"What in tarnation?" Texas exclaimed.

America laughed slightly at his reaction.

America looked between his two sons again. "Look, Iggy! Your grandkids!"

The two states blinked rapidly in unison.

"Anyways," America said, deciding to change the topic. "Want to go eat dinner or something? I'm starving."

"Dinner hasn't been cooked yet," Texas said. "I'm going to make barbecue."

"Can't wait, Tex," America said. "Let's go. Maybe we can teach Arty how to cook."

"Please don't call me that," England said.

"Okay, Iggy," America replied. "Come on. Let's teach you how to cook."

~°~

(A Time Skip is included here.)

"

That was a terrible idea."

"I know it was, Confederacy," America said. "I thought that I could teach England to cook."

"That worked out so well," Confederacy said. Quite sarcastically, may America add.

"You thought he could be taught, too," Union said to Confederacy. "You said so yourself." Confederacy glared at Union.

"Curse you."

"This is not the time for arguing," America said, breaking up the fight.

"You're right," Confederacy replied.

"What did you say?" America asked innocently.

"You heard me," Confederacy growled. "I'm not repeating that."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Union called. "I didn't hear that you a- I mean, whatever you said! Can you repeat it for me?"

"You heard!" Confederacy accused.

"No I didn't!" Union replied. "I didn't hear anything!"

"Just admit it!" Confederacy shouted.

"No! I'm not going to admit it!" Union replied. Then, he realized what he said.

Confederacy grinned widely. "Looks like I outsmarted you," he teased.

"You did not!" Union shouted indignantly.

"Stop fighting!" America shouted, his voice echoing around the Mind as the two other personifications froze and stopped arguing.

"Thank you. Anyway, what are we going to do about this?" America asked, gesturing to the screen. "You two forgot the whole problem!"

Union and Confederacy looked like scolded children.

Then, their heads snapped up and they looked at the screen again, remembering why this all started.

They immediately rushed into action to stop their house from burning to the ground completely.

~°~

Confederacy took over the body. America and Union thought advice and told him the course of action he should take.

Confederacy called 911 with one hand while turning on a hose eight he other.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"My house is burning down!" Confederacy said, pinning the phone with his head and shoulder, while spraying the fire expertly with the hose with his hands.

"Okay," the woman at the other end said. "Who are you and where are you?"

"My name is America!" Confederacy said, then coughed. "I meant Alfred F. Jones!"

"The personification of America?" Came the shocked voice of the woman.

"You know me?" Confederacy said. "Great. Then you know where I live. Now get here now, there's hundreds of people in danger!"

~°~

Meanwhile, the lady on the other side of the phone. . .

The personification of the United States of America was calling her? His house was burning down? Well she needed to get help. She got ahold of the firemen telling them that they could go there immediately and as fast as they possibly could.

"Okay, Mr. Jones," the policewoman said. "Don't go anywhere. Stay where you are. Don't pout yourself in danger—"

"Okay, listen up!" snapped America. "My kids are in there. My friends are in there. I have to save them, get them out of trouble. Don't tell me to stay out of danger!"

"But you have to," the policewoman said. "You are the personification of the United States of America. You know—"

"Apparently I know more than you do about this topic!" America snapped back. "I am not going to be treated special because of who I am. I know that you all would try and stop a normal person from going in, but tell me the truth. Would you try as hard to save a normal person?"

"But this is different—"

"You're dam right it is!" America shouted. "I have about sixty kids in there, and the nations in there. I am not going to let another one of my children die! You hear that? I'm not! I'm going in there, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

The policewoman made to reply, but America had hung up on her.

~°~

Nexas (New York and Texas), any countries or states that managed to escape, and England just looked at the house (which had somehow managed to catch fire from the other side of the yard when Iggy tried to cook) and Confederacy in shock.

Confederacy turned off the hose (the hose was useless) before taking his phone away from his ear, hanging up on the annoying policewoman, and throwing it as far away from him as possible. With his super stretch and everything, it streaked through the sky and disappeared into the distance before Confederacy ran towards the burning house.

Savage, Union thought to Confederacy they entered the house. Great job showing that police person not to tell us to leave our friends to die.

That's probably not what she meant, America replied, but I agree anyways.

Thanks, you two. Now help me out here, Confederacy said. We need to find our children.

Way ahead of you, America said. Mass is to our left, stuck under some wooden planks.

Confederacy then saw he too, once America mentioned it. He darted over to it, pulled up the planks with his superhero-like strength, and lifted Mass out of it. Mass had a wound in his leg.

"Get out of the house," Confederacy said. "One of the countries or states out there will help patch up your wounds."

~°~

America was struggling to focus. All this smoke and fire reminded him of one day.

~°Flashback°~

A

merica was sitting in the living room, when a pain hit him on his chest. He heard a cry, and looked to see New York fall to the ground, clutching his face.

"Lucky" for New York and America, they could see exactly what was going on.

A plane had hit one of the twin towers. Maybe it was an accident. . . But it wasn't, and both of them knew it.

"What happened?" Asked Texas.

"One of the twin towers were hit by a plane," America replied. "They think it's an accident, but it's not. People took over the plane."

America started tending to New York's wound, completely ignoring his own.

A few minutes later, New York screamed again. Blood poured from the same deep, jagged cut on his face as it had before. It poured into his eye, making him close his eye reflexively, and some got into his mouth as he screamed. His mouth was soon filled with the metallic taste of blood.

America's mouth was too. He closed one eye when blood dripped into his own, and he vaguely thought that his eye might've been bleeding. But it wasn't, it just seemed like it from the amount of blood in his eye.

"What happened?" Texas asked.

"Second tower hit," America replied.

He heard another scream. Virginia. She had a cut on her arm that was bleeding quickly. He winced as it also appeared on himself.

"What happened now?" Texas asked.

"Pentagon," America stated, not wanting to talk any more than was necessary. "Help me heal them," he called to any of his kids.

Then, he got a text.

Not now, he thought. Then he remembered—  Pennsylvania was on a plane.

He immediately whipped out his phone. This might've been her.

And it was.

The Pencil State: Dad!

Dad The Hero: Pennsylvania!

The Pencil State: Our plane's been hijacked.

Dad The Hero: What?!

The Pencil State: We've decided to stop them. But we might not make it.

Dad The Hero: Don't you dare say that, Pen.

The Pencil State: It's true. We might not. These people are heroes. We are going to die heroes.

Dad The Hero: No! Pen! Don't die on me.

The Pencil State: Goodbye, dad.

Dad The Hero: Don't say goodbye. Say something like "see you later". Please.

The Pencil State: See you later, dad.

She never did.

A/N

I'm ending the chapter there. It's pretty long, so.

Please comment and stuff. Correct any mistakes, give feedback, PM me ideas fr the story, etc. Etc.

~Oliver.