Shay: Yeah, so I just started to wonder one day, how is Gilbert still alive? Then I read a book, and it metioned Prussians being against Hitler, so I decided, Gilbert will quit being Prussia, and represent the Holocaust. It's kind of sad, no, it's really sad, and I might continue this as a song series. So if you have a song you want me to use, send it to me!

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Gilbert stood in the middle of the dance hall, staring straight ahead, eyes shadowed. Recently he had left Russia's care, and many wondered how he was still around. He knew how he was still around; he just didn't want to deal with it. He was around as a memory…

Ooooooh yeah)
All the right friends in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)
They got all the right moves in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)

He remembered when it happened, the young girl he had watched being dragged away by his brother's soldiers. In fact, here in the dance hall, she stood before him, smiling. All the others he had known, standing before him, smiling…

Just paint the picture of a perfect place
They got it better than what anyone's told ya
They'll be the king of hearts
And you're the queen of spades
Then we'll fight for you like we were your soldiers

He had started out fighting in World War Two, but then the pain set in. His lungs started to burn, and he grew thinner each day. When he looked around, it was happening to everyone, especially Ludwig. So he took it on himself to rid them of the pain.

I know we got it good, but they got it made
And the grass is getting greener each day
I know things are looking up
But soon they'll take us down
Before anybody's on our way

No one had noticed as the recovered, and he lost weight. No one noticed when his arm gained the tattoo A0000001. No one noticed as he became as emancipated as the victims. And he was fine with that, except that his true people were dying. Because the moment that tattoo appeared, he had quit being Prussia, and had become their symbol of hope.

They got all the right friends in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)
They got all the right moves in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)
I said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
(yeah, we're going down)
I said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
(yeah, we're going down)

He had been caught by the S.S. after he had smuggled arms to the resistance. He had been taken to Auschwitz, and then taken to Mengele's labs to be an experiment. No one knew about it, not even his brother. After all, it couldn't get out that Prussia had betrayed the Nazi Regime.

Do you think I'm special, do you think I'm nice?
Am I bright enough to shine in your spaces?
Between the noise you hear and the sounds you like
Are we just sinking in the ocean of faces

He had chosen, the day Mengele injected chemicals into his eyes, the day he had become permanently blind, that he was no longer Prussia, but now he was the nation for these abandoned people. People considered monsters by the world. He knew many of the other countries blamed him for the Holocaust, but he didn't care…

It can't be possible that rain could fall
Only when it's over our heads
The sun is shining every day, but it's far away
Over the world, it said, they got, they got

Gilbert looked down at where he knew his right arm, covered in a long sleeve, and bandages. He had never let anyone see what was under the bandages. It was too personal to him and his people. Not the ones everyone believed were his people, but his true people. And he wouldn't die until it was forgotten…

All the right friends in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)
They got all the right moves in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)
I said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
(yeah, we're going down)
I said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
(yeah, we're going down)

What he hadn't noticed was Feliciano coming in to ask him a question. Gilbert didn't notice as he started to roll up his sleeve, and remove the bandages. Feliciano's eyes widened, as he was the numbers on Gilbert's arm. He ran off to ask Ludwig about it.

It don't matter what you see, I know I could never be
Someone that'll look like you

Gilbert started brokenly at the number. Even if he couldn't see it, it was still ingrained into his mind, from the moment that drill started to tattoo his arm. Because of it, he didn't fit in with the other nations, or even the other survivors…

It don't matter what you say, I know I could never fake
Someone that could sound like you

But he didn't care because they had needed him, and he would do it again in a heartbeat. He could never forget what the sound of the screams was like, and how he had listened to every other nation blame him. He knew he had survivor's guilt, and that it made him want to die, but it didn't help. He still wished, that if he had died, ten more people had been saved. He closed his sightless eyes, and sunk down to the floor. It was getting harder to hide his blindness from his brother…

All the right friends in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)
They got all the right moves in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)

He just prayed that Ludwig wouldn't have to find out about where the blindness came from, or ever saw his arm. He didn't deserve any help with the burdens he bore. He deserved to die.

All the right friends in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)
They got all the right moves in all the right places
(so yeah, we're going down)

Feliciano ran up to Ludwig, not caring that he was busy talking to Roderick, and started pulling on his sleeve.

"Ve~ Ludwig…" Feliciano whined.

"Not now," Ludwig ordered.

I said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
(yeah, we're going down)
I said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
(yeah, we're going down)

"But Ludwig," Feliciano asked, "Why does your brother have a tattoo on his arm?"

(Yeah, we're going down)
(Yeah, we're going down)
All the right moves, yeah
(Yeah, we're going down)
All the right moves, yeah
(Yeah, we're going down)

Ludwig and Roderick froze.

"What?" Ludwig whispered.

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Shay: The reason why Gilbert's bind is because one of the experiments used on victims was injecting chemicals into their eyes to get the perfect Aryan eye color. It caused them to go blind. That's how Gilbert lost his sight. Sad, huh?