(I actually drew this picture before I even started this book, so that's why it looks a little outdated.)

Two weeks. That's how long it's been since Mandara was rescued from Ussr, and a lot has happened in that time.  Apparently, the trade deal didn't go over well between Ussr and Romania so he returned early and went straight to the base, most likely to vent his anger on his favorite stress toy, only to find his soldiers slaughtered and Mandara missing.  Literally pissed out of his mind, he ordered the capital of Mandara to be bombed.  Fortunately, Russia overheard this and was able to warn MA a few days before Ussr could launch the attack, which gave MA with the help of Poland, time to evacuate the city and organize a counter-attack.

The battle was over in less than an hour, with the soviets losing almost three-fourths of their squadron before retreating, leaving the Mandarians victorious.  After the failed bombing, Ussr surrendered to MA and finally brought their 7-year war to an end.  All of Mandara rejoiced at the news of the Red Army's defeat, and there was a large celebration at the capital building that many people and a few countries attended.  Despite organizing the event, however, MA did not attend, as he had somewhere more important to be.

MA was in a hospital a few blocks from the capitol building where he was visiting Mandara.  For the past two weeks, poor Mandara had been in a coma and MA had been visiting him every chance he got.  Mandara's wounds were all severe, but the worst ones were his broken wings and his slashed eye, as both were the oldest and the most infected.  By the grace of God, the doctors were able to get the infection under control and didn't need to amputate anything, but they were still lasting injures, however.  The cut across Mandara's eye had scratched it to the point of permanent blindness, and his wings were broken for so long that he had a slim to none chance of ever being able to fly again.

MA sat in the hospital room for hours, holding Mandara's hand and telling him about Ussr's surrender.  When he was finished, he just sat there in silence and listened to the beeping of the machines, until the door opening behind him made him jump.  MA whipped around to see a nurse walk in holding some IV bags.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you," the nurse apologized when she saw how tense MA was.

"No, it's ok, it's my fault for being so jumpy," MA reassured her, then turned back to Mandara.

The nurse went about changing the IV bags, avoiding talking so she didn't disturb MA's time with his brother, but  the militant spoke up a moment later,  "Do you think he will ever wake up?"

The nurse turned to MA, "we don't know General Mandara Army, his condi-"

"Please, just call me MA," MA interrupted, "I ... I don't really want to be called a general right now."

The nurse looked at him surprised, but nodded understandingly and continued, "Ok then, MA, we do not know if he will wake up, he has been through a lot of trauma and his condition hasn't improved much from when he first came here, but it's still too early to know for certain."

MA didn't say anything in response, he just laid his head on Mandara's hand, tears rolling down his face.  The nurse watched him for a bit, never in her life did she imagine she would see the Supreme General of the Mandarian Army crying, the brave and stoic face that she would see on the news and army recruit posters, was sobbing into the hand of his fallen country.  Feeling sorry for MA, she slowly walked over to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, he flinched at her touch but didn't say anything or try to move away, so she softly rubbed his shoulder to try to comfort him a bit.  After a few minutes, MA spoke again,

"This is all my fault." he murmured, mostly to himself "if I didn't go on patrol that day, Trigger would've never been captured and put through so much."

"It's not your fault, MA, you were just doing your job," the nurse tried to reassure him.

"But I didn't!" MA shouted.  The nurse recoiled, startled by MA's outburst, but he continued speaking, "My job is to protect my country, that doesn't just mean my territory, I have to protect Trigger too, but I couldn't even do that," he turned back and placed his head in his hands and started crying again, "I am a horrible excuse of a militant entity and an older brother.  It's all my fault." 

Once a few minutes had passed, the nurse stepped forward to try to comfort MA again, but he blocked her with his wing and said that he wanted to be alone, so she left.  When MA was sure she was gone, he leaned closer to the bed, placed his arms next to Mandara, and laid his forehead down on them.

"I ... I'm so so sorry Trigger, I should have been there for you, it's my fault your hurt," he said through sobs, then he raised his head slightly and grabbed Mandara's hand again, "please Trigger.  P-Please wake up, I promise I'll protect you better, j-just please, wake up."  When Mandara didn't stir, MA lay his head back down, "I miss you little brother, I m-miss you so much."

As MA sat there crying, he thought he felt a faint vibration in the tip of his wings, at first he thought it was just a draft, but then he heard something that he thought he would never hear again.

"I missed you too Thunder."

MA's eyes snapped open and he looked up at his brother, Mandara's eyes were covered with bandages because of his injury, but under his oxygen mask, MA could see him smiling ever-so-slightly.

"M-Mandara?" MA stuttered, his mind a flurry of emotions as he tried to process what was happening, then Mandara gave MA the softest squeeze on the militant's hand.

"Well, you haven't called me that in a while, have you," Mandara remarked softly, slowly turning his head to the sound of MA's voice.

MA started crying again, but this time in pure joy, never had he been so happy before.  He wanted to hug his brother, to hold him close and never let go, but since he obviously didn't want to hurt him, he just spread his left-wing over his country like a blanket.  Mandara felt the wing cover him and he reached out with his other hand to pet it.  Every single feather on MA's wing fluffed up as Mandara ran his hand over it, practically begging to be touched.

"Wow, judging by how fluffy your wing is, I guess you really missed it when I would do this." Mandara jokingly stated.

"Yes Trigger, I missed it a lot." MA said, letting out a small laugh as he wiped his glowing eyes. "I missed you brother."

Mandara smiled and opened his mouth to speak, but he winced in pain and let go of MA's hand to grab his stomach, the sudden motion disconnected the heart monitor, causing the machine to loudly beep.

"MANDARA! Are you ok!?" MA almost shouted, he stood up so fast that he knocked over the chair that he was sitting in.

"Y-yeah, yeah I'm fine." Mandara hurriedly said, still clutching his stomach, "I'm just a little sore, that's all."  Before MA could respond, the door to the room burst open and two nurses rushed in.

"We heard a thud come from in here, is everything ok?" the first nurse asked.  MA was going to answer her, but then Mandara piped up

"Thunder, who's that?"

"It's ok Trigger, it's just the nurses." MA said, then turned back to the nurses, "Sorry ladies, I accidentally knocked over my chair when I stood up too fast."

"Why did you do that?" the second nurse asked, walking over to MA, "and could you please close your wings, you're going to knock something else over."  MA looked at her confused but then realized that he did indeed have his wings flared open halfway, so he folded them and went to pick up his chair while the two nurses checked on Mandara.

After the nurses were done, they told MA that visiting hours were ending soon, he nodded and said that he just wanted to say goodbye first, so they left to give the brothers some privacy.

"Please don't go Thunder," Mandara said, not even waiting for the women to close the door, "p-please, don't leave me alone, please!"

MA's furrowed his eyebrows when he heard the fear in his country's voice, he never heard Mandara sound like that before and it concerned him.  He leaned down next to his brother and took hold of his hand again, and was surprised when Mandara squeezed back hard.

"Brother, what's wrong?" he asked,

"I-I don't want to be alone again, I c-can't be alone again, please, please don't go, p-please," Mandara begged.  He was shaking really hard and tears were starting to run down from under the bandages, MA feathers began to violently shake from the fear they were picking up from Mandara's.

"Hey, hey, it's ok Trigger, your safe here, no one's going to hurt you anymore." MA tried to reassure him, but Mandara was too scared to listen,

"PLEASE THUNDER!!! I can't be alone again, he'll hurt me if you leave, please don't leave me, please!"

MA was starting to get scared himself the more that Mandara begged him to stay, but he knew what was going on, so he put his own fear aside and focused on calming down his brother.  

It took MA almost a whole hour to calm Mandara down to a point where the country was able to fall asleep.  However, despite being asleep Mandara was still restless, constantly muttering and whimpering like he was being beaten, which made MA's concerns skyrocket, what the hell did Soviet do to his little brother?

Eventually, a nurse came into the room to tell MA that it was time to leave, but he refused, "I can't leave him alone, if he wakes up and I'm not here, he's going to panic and will probably hurt himself, please let me stay with him."

The nurse shook her head, "I'm sorry sir, but I don't make the rules, you really need to leave."

MA was going to protest further but then he heard Mandara start whimpering in his sleep again.  The nurse started walking towards him, but MA blocked her with his wing as he softly rubbed his brother's forehead to calm him down, and after a minute, the country settled back to sleep.

"Wow," the nurse said surprised, "How did you do that?"

"I am his older brother ma'am," MA answered her with a smug look on his face, "this isn't my first time dealing with nightmares."

"Well, ok then." she said, "I guess I'll leave you to it."

MA smiled at her, "Thank you."

She nodded and left without another word.

MA looked back at Mandara, he could tell that it was going to be a long night but he didn't care.  All that mattered to him was making sure his brother was ok, so he leaned back in his chair and just listened to the nighttime hospital noises.