[Axis Power Hetalia] Kaleidoscope - the Custodian of the Gates (4/?)
Title: Kaleidoscope
Author: HamletRedDiablo
Chapter: 4/?
Rating: R
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Lovino Vargas, Feliciano Vargas, Ludwig Belshmidt, Antonio Fernandez Carriedo; pairings: GerIta, Spamano
Warnings: AU, yaoi (and lemon is coming<3)
Summary: «The Son of the Sky said that there is a glimmer of light… in me.»
«Honestly, Lovino… I think you’re the only one who sees no light in you.»
Chapter Four: the Custodian of the Gates
The watch person’s throat worked as he caught sight of the dwelling of the Custodian.
Four huge fins, moving lazily to orient the mote of the Fortress, spread out from an enormous platform, resembling a giant tortoise. The platform was bearing the strangest castle in the world: its walls were composed by complicated gears, constantly moving, and a forest of turrets puffed at regular intervals on the top of it. Everything, in the castle, was regulated in order to perpetuate the motion of the Fortress: every window, door and wall was covered by moving wheels; the castle was one giant pulsing muscle.
«Our target is right in front of us!» he shouted. «Are you ready?»
A general nodding was the response from the lifeboat.
«Good luck, captain,» wished a seaman. «Vice,» he added, humbly bowing his head. «Come back victorious.»
Lovino, Antonio and four cabin boy’s bustled around ropes to lower the lifeboat; the rockets roared powerfully, and the boat darted toward the Fortress.
«We ask your permission to land,» announced a ship’s boy, leaning out the railing. «We have no harmful intentions.»
The space stayed still and silent around them.
«Maybe they didn’t hear…?» he stuttered, shivering in that unnatural stasis.
«Withdraw,» Antonio commanded. «Now.»
Lovino wanted to stay a little more, but the livid expression on the captain’s face kept him quiet. If Antonio had any reason to fear that floating castle, they would follow him in his retreat. But the frightened scream of a seaman froze them.
«’the hell is that?»
Lovino leaned out from the boat, and his blood ran cold.
A man, surrounded by a sphere of artificial atmosphere, was moving forward towards them with the brutal strength of a Siberian wolf. The heavy coat and the scarf whipped the air like funeral drapes, and his gloved hands grasped a lethal, enormous bludgeon.
«We cannot move, captain!» yelled a seaman, panicking.
Antonio grabbed his ax and Lovino joined his hands to evoke Roma, as the huge strides of the giant man devoured the space between them.
The lifeboat almost overturned when the awe-inspiring Custodian jumped in; Antonio shielded Lovino, and hoisted his ax against the bludgeon of the man.
A sneer darkened the eyes of the Custodian, half-hidden by the scarf.
«Antonio Fernandez Carriedo,» the giant recognized him. He pressed on his weapon, forcing the captain to bend his knees. «The Devil’s Right Hand. You always have harmful intentions.»
A seaman drew a stiletto and attempted to stab the Custodian. The giant ended it by a simple movement of his wrist: the bludgeon crushed the cabin boy’s head, which exploded like a mature pomegranate. Before he had even fallen, the weapon was back against the captain’s ax. Antonio felt a spasm of visceral disgust as the blood, mixed with cerebral liquid, dripped from the bludgeon onto his face.
«You don’t look pacific at all,» noticed the giant.
«Stay back!» Antonio ordered, preventing the intervention of his men: they could obtain nothing but suicide by helping him. That monster was far stronger than them.
Roma raised from Lovino’s shoulders and attacked the Custodian, growling. The man dodged it and his bludgeon went down on the animal’s head. Roma dissolved under the impact with the weapon, and reformed at his master’s side.
«You’re a wizard?» the giant startled quietly, coming near to the boy.
Lovino placed his hands on Roma’s neck, ready to launch another attack, but someone else took the initiative: the captain’s figure stood out against him, his ax aggressively pointing at the Custodian.
The giant didn’t lose his cool-headedness: his bludgeon whirled, forcing the captain to block it with the ax; as he was immobile in his defense position, the Custodian cruelly kicked his ankle with his heavy boot. The terrible sound of the broken bone shattered the air in the artificial atmosphere, and Antonio fell to the ground with a painful shout.
«You had ordered your men not to move and then you attacked me,» the man disapproved, looking down on him from his impressive height. The captain’s reaction took him by surprise: the handle of the ax suddenly extended, and the blade expanded, cutting his scarf. The man ducked before the weapon could slash his head in two.
«I won’t let my men die in vain, and that’s why I ordered them to stop,» declared Antonio, his broken ankle veiling his eyes with tears. «But I have something to protect, and that’s why I attacked you.»
The man's bludgeon overshadowed the captain, the stars shoing a macabre light on the bloody blade.
«I assume you’re ready to die, in order to defend that… thing.»
The bludgeon went down; Antonio prepared to parry it with his ax; Lovino rushed against them, trying to stop that bloody fight.
Time was almost crystallized in the single instant the giant stopped as if suddenly frozen, listening to a voice only he could hear.
The bludgeon returned to the man’s shoulder, and he proclaimed, addressing Lovino:
«It seems you’re precious. You have my permission to enter the Moving Fortress. You and no one else.»
The surprise filled the seamen’s souls with dismay, and Lovino’s mind with doubts. To whom had the giant spoken, to change his mind so suddenly?
«Come on, follow me,» the man urged him.
Lovino cast off his astonishment with a shudder. The formidable force of that man frightened him, and it could grow worse once they’d reached his castle. But that was the only way to free the Hellsing.
Antonio didn’t allow him to leave the lifeboat alone: he grabbed his waist with an arm, and hugged him tightly.
«What the hell are you doing?» Lovino rebelled, before the captain contracted, «This boy is precious to us too. We cannot leave him on his own. You don’t want strangers in your castle, I know, but you’ll have to accept my presence, if you want him to follow you.»
The giant stared at him from above, with a confidence veined by disregard.
«As you wish. I seriously doubt that you could be a nuisance with your broken ankle.»
«Captain…» his men tried to stop him, but Antonio was immovable.
«Wait for us on the Airship. We will be back soon. Both of us.»
The four seamen could do nothing but watch them as they followed the giant into his hideout, Lovino supporting Antonio like a human crutch.
***
Feliciano watched the boring blackboard in front of him.
The vertices of two triangles touched each other in the center of a crystal shaped figure, a circle surrounding all of them. That was the symbol of the Syderal Confederation, and a good Axis should know his symbology.
«What is represented by this triangle?» Ludwig interrogated him, pointing the figure on the left side of the blackboard.
«The Three Swords,» Feliciano recited, and listed, «The Wizard of the West, the Samurai and the Guardian. The other triangle represents the Three Shields: the Custodian of the Gates, the Son of the Sky and the Axis,» he indicated the point of conjunction of the two figures, at the center of the crystal, and ended, «In this spot the two triangles join because the Guardian and the Axis are indivisible in the Palace of Quartz.»
«Very well,» Ludwig praised him. «And do you remember the provenance of these people?»
«The Wizard of the West protects Britain Company, the Samurai defends the Asean System and the Custodia of the Gates wanders through the Confederation on his Moving Fortress,» hummed Feliciano.
«What about the six points of the crystal touching the circle?»
«They represent the six Fortresses. Three prigions, a tribunal and two police stations.»
Feliciano’s face turned cloudy when Ludwig asked the final question.
«There are some forces that this scheme doesn’t contemplate. Which ones?»
His twin was among the outcasts, exiled by a ruthless hierarchy. Feliciano combed his copped bangs with his fingers and murmured, the memory of his brother stuck into his heart like a thorn.
«They are the Three Sparrowhawks. The Devil’s Right Hand, the Marauder and the Hellsing. The Devil’s Right Hand is still at large, the Marauder mysteriously disappeared and the Hellsing is locked up in Caina Prison…» the Axis stopped, bewildered by Ludwig’s expression: he didn’t move a single muscle, but he swiftly became the emblem of grief.
«Ludwig?» Feliciano called him, and the Guardian recomposed himself in an instant.
«It’s nothing,» he tried to escape, but Feliciano didn’t permit him to run away.
«Did you know the Hellsing?»
Ludwig barricaded himself in a gloomy silence. Feliciano felt nearly hurt by the youth’s self-restraint, and protested, «You know I won’t tell anyone. We have a deal: leave this place together. And you know I’ll keep my word. You know my past, but I don’t know anything about you. It’s not fair.»
The light blue eyes landed on him, and Feliciano saw in their glacial color the wild beauty of the icy lands where the youth was born.
«It’s not like I don’t trust you. But somehow this… is still hurting me,» Ludwig frowned and admitted in a tired roar, «I owe him my life. I owe him everything. And I couldn’t return his kindness.»
«He’s your brother?»
Before the words, he was reached by the Axis’s gentle touch, lying delicately on his biceps. Ludwig gazed at the fingers, so tiny compared to his arm. That was his hand, once, and the arm the Hellsing’s. Had his child's fingers looked so small and fragile to the exterminator of the demons?
«He was everything that I had,» Ludwig answered, a glum melancholy weighing down his voice.
Feliciano lowered his eyes, too embarrassed to pronounce his invitation while staring at his Guardian’s face.
«You can hug me, if you feel like it.»
The pendulum clock struck several times before Ludwig encircled Feliciano’s thin body with his robust arms. It wasn’t a physique able to bear a whole Universe: the slender back would shatter, and the minute shoulders would be pulverized by the weight of the Confederation.
The Axis's declaration slid across his uniform and caressed his cheek, sweet like a mother’s touch.
«You’re not alone, Ludwig.»
The Guardian tightened his embrace on that willow body, and the filmy sleeves of the Axis covered his back as the boy reciprocated his hug.
Holding him tightly, he recalling their promise.
«You’re not alone, either.»
And the Axis’s slim arms didn’t abandon his back.
***
The armchair on which Antonio sat had been invented by a mechanic and not a designer: the complex mechanisms were teasing his back. Lovino roosted on the iron arm, his arms enclosing Antonio’s head. The stupid man had let the giant crush his ankle, so it was his duty to protect the fool.
He looked resentfully at the Custodian, standing against a wall plastered by pistons, pumps and moving gears.
His coat fell straight and heavy, and no more than his boots could be seen beneath it. His gloves resembled the skin of a dragon for their thickness. The only light detail in his clothing was his cream scarf, above which the distant violet eyes of the man were judging them. His eyelashes had the same straw color of the steppe, as his short hair. His bludgeon was lying cruelly on the man’s shoulder, the blood of their companion slowly clotting on it.
«What’s your name, boy?» the giant asked, placid for knowing the youth couldn’t rebel against him.
«Lovino,» he answered, with firm voice.
«Your full name,» the man required.
Antonio felt the tremor in the youth’s hands: he hated his surname so much that even pronouncing it was a torture.
«Lovino Vargas.»
The giant’s eyebrows barely arched, expressing a moderate surprise.
«Vargas is the name of the Vatican family that offers its eldest sons to the Quartz Palace,» declaimed the man. «A Vatican boy in Carriedo’s crew. I’ve never heard something like this before.»
«I’m not a Vatican boy anymore!» Lovino erupted, and moved his hair showing his nape to the giant. The wound wasn’t healed yet, and the cross shaped scar was clearly visible on his neck. «My powers were immoral, and I had to give my half soul back to my brother. That’s why they abandoned me to die on a desert planet.»
«I didn’t know that the future Axis had a brother.»
«Of course you didn’t. My father hides my birth pretty well.»
The giant placed his bludgeon against the wall, near enough to grab it by simply reaching out his hand, and continued, «What brought you here?»
«We need your help to land on Caina Prison. Just to land.»
«And how do you mean to leave that planet?»
«We’ll manage somehow. We’re pirates, after all,» Antonio replyed, stifling a groan of pain.
The eyes of the man remained cold as the winter on Siberia as he interrogated them.
«Are you going to wake up your companion, the Sparrowhawk?»
«Exactly,» Antonio validated.
«What’s your purpose?»
«We need him to break the barriers of the Quartz Palace and free my brother,» Lovino got carried away in the discussion.
«You’re going to attack the Vatican and you admit it so thoughtlessly?»
«Lies are useless with you,» Antonio grinned sourly.
Ivan nodded, immersing his face in the scarf.
«What do you think about it?» he asked, apparently to no one.
Two big wheels squeaked, opening a hidden door.
Lovino jolted in surprise, and even the captain’s blood shouted in his veins.
The birth in the oriental part of the Confederation had modeled the dark eyes of the newcomer in the sophisticate almond shape, typical of the populations of System Asean; his physique and his lineaments corresponded to the Asiatic ideal too. His long, mahogany hair was tied with a silk lace, and fell sinuously across the burning color of his oriental tunic. A golden band embraced his slim waist, and a pair of white trousers completed his clothing.
But the dragon shaped ruby, hanging down the youth’s neck, was the thing they were astounded by.
«Yao Wang, the Son of the Sky!» Lovino yelled. «Why are you here?»
«It’s a very long story. And I’m afraid it has to wait,» the oriental boy turned to the giant: «I told you, Ivan: we are the earthquake that will crumble the Confederation.»
«It was you who stopped him before?» Antonio investigated.
The oriental boy bent his head, nodding, and fixed his oblique eyes on him.
«Why? You didn’t stop him when he killed our companion,» the memories of the dismal fate of his subordinate set fire to his words. The Son of the Sky felt the captain's rage stabbing him like a cloud of darts.
«I’m very sorry for your loss,» said Yao. «But that’s our defensive line, no matter how rude. You’ve killed many people too, and you’d have killed Ivan also if he had tried to steal that boy from you.»
Antonio knew very well that truth. Ivan took advantage of his silence to announce, «The Confederation is welcoming its own destruction. The Son of the Sky has been dethroned, the Sparrowhawks are nearly awakened and in Vargas’ family twin babies were born.»
«How do you know the Sparrowhawks are nearly awakened?»
«How did you know I’m a Vatican?» Antonio and Lovino asked their questions at the same time.
«Before I showed you my scar, I mean,» Lovino added.
Yao answered elegantly and calmly.
«Even if you weren’t going to awaken the Hellsing, the Wizard of the West would search for the Marauder, sooner or later. I saw it in his aura, during the last official meeting. And I didn’t know you were a Vatican. I merely perceived a strong Yang emanation from you.»
«Yang?» Lovino echoed.
«The power of opposite,» Yao opted for an elementary explanation, «In this world, there are multiple forces: the light, the kindness, the fire and so on. Each one of them has is contrary and, without it, nothing would exist. You cannot know what warm is having no experience of cold.»
«In other words, I’m something evil.»
The oriental boy came near to him, and whispered in a soft voice.
«You purely have the power of the opposite. Don’t underestimate it, it’s a precious talent. If you learn how to use it correctly, you’ll be able to easily annihilate your enemies. For example, if someone attacks you with fire, you can immediately use the power of water.»
Lovino froze in surprise, and his reply was dragged slowly from his numb tongue.
«I was always told my power was the shadow…»
«Just because your twin has the power of light, so you, in response to it, inherited the opposite force. But your potential is far more vast, and similarly is your brother's. And I’ll reveal something else to you: in the maximum light there’s always a clove of shadow, and in the maximum shadow a tip of light survives.»
He left the boy, boiling in that shocked revelation, and he turned to the captain.
«We suppose that the Confederation is near to its own destruction for another reason. I was born under the blessing of the constellation of Fire. And a regnant of flame is born only when the world needs to be burned to its slightest piece and rebuilt from the ashes.»
«You base your action on auspices and predictions?» Antonio was incredulous.
The eyes of the oriental boy narrowed in a calm rooted in cruelty, not in the serenity shining on the youth’s face till a moment ago.
«A superstition caused a father to abandon his child, a rumor imprisoned the Hellsing and a curse threw me away from my throne.» Yao recomposed his aristocratic expression and ended, «If you prefer rational explanations, I can bring you a very good one: the foundations of the Confederation are utterly rotten. Its collapse is a matter of time. We should renew it with our very hands before it completely crumbles.»
The giant moved behind Yao’s shoulder and thundered.
«We’re going with you to Caina Prison. We’re leaving tomorrow morning. You can go back to your crew.»
The two pirates were crystallized in incredulity, and they didn’t move until Ivan repeated his invitation.
Lovino helped Antonio walk, and they left before the giant changed his mind again.
«Why did you interfere?» Lovino pressed him, when they were alone.
«He was going to attack you,» Antonio replied.
«Why did you insist on following me?» the youth pinched his waist, in substitution of the headbutt he couldn’t give him. He was injured, after all: he couldn’t be too harsh on him.
«I didn’t want you left alone.»
«But why?»
The captain’s fingers tickled his chin, and Antonio admitted.
«Because I keep hoping that one day I’ll be able to distract you from your unique objective, Lovino. I won’t distract you eternally, but a momentary diversion would be well-accepted.»
The boy’s cheeks turned red, but his voice was scarlet.
«And you risked your own life for…»
«For you. It sounds so deplorable to you?»
Lovino read his defeat in the captain’s delighted expression, and changed the subject, mumbling.
«The Son of the Sky said that there is a glimmer of light… in me.»
«Honestly, Lovino… I think you’re the only one who sees no light in you.»
«What?»
When they reached the door, an exultant roar flowed over them. Antonio smirked in his direction and encouraged him, «Look at them. You think they would be so happy to see you if they saw nothing good in you?»
«They’re glad because I’m carrying you, that’s all.»
«Lovino,» Antonio imposed. «You should trust people, sometimes.»
The lifeboat approached the Moving Fortress, and the cabin boys helped Lovino with the wounded captain.
The boy sat next to Antonio and stole a glance at him, while the lifeboat went up to the Airship.
Trust people. It wasn’t in his nature.
Maybe a captain who defended him in spite of his own life deserved an opportunity. Even though it was terribly frustrating that the first person worth the risk was that captain.
***
Yao went up on his tiptoes and Ivan bent his knees to permit him to check his scarf.
«It’s just a little cut. I can easily sew it,» he decreed, spreading the scarf out on the bed with the attention he usually reserved for a sick person.
Ivan had a dig at him while he was still bent over the scarf.
«They will take care of the Vatican’s destruction. Will you be able to kill Kiku for real, when you meet him again?»
«You promised me help,» Yao recalled, focusing on the small tear.
The man’s body drew delicately close, and Ivan's question stabbed him right in the ear.
«You’re still attached to Kiku, even if he betrayed you?»
The slap was too fast to dodge and violently hit his cheek.
«Don’t name him in front of me,» Yao said, with the haughty tone typical of the regnant. But Ivan wasn’t his servant: he hurled him abruptly on the bed, and blocked him against the mattress with an iron hand pressed on his delicate shoulder.
«If you still have some feeling for him you should repress it, or you’ll hesitate to kill him.» He increased his pressure until it got painful. «If you truly want to rebuild everything, this is the only way.»
Even if his struggling was useless against Ivan - he was like a cat challenging a bear - Yao stuck his nails into the man's thick coat and exclaimed, «Don’t underestimate me, youngster! I’ve lived far more years than you, and I know the rules this rotten Universe is based on! I just…» he took a deep breath to declare: «I took care of that boy since the day he was born. So I’m not going to kill him the way I would a complete stranger.»
Yao let go of Ivan's wrist and turned his glance away.
«The way I’ll kill him doesn’t matter: he will die anyway.»
Ivan’s hand released its pressure, and the voice of the man sounded gentler.
«I don’t remember how it feels. Killing someone you feel for, I mean. But I think it feels like passing through Hell a thousand times.»
Yao had no intention of protracting this discussion. His almond shaped eyes glanced at Ivan's swollen cheek, visible in spite of the high collar of his coat.
«Don’t make me mad another time. I don’t like slapping you,» Yao rebuked him.
The tapered hand of the Asean youth quietly untied the man's coat, so he could reach Ivan’s neck with his finger.
Iva’s reactions were incredibly easy to read, like the moods of a spoiled child. He rapidly joined his lips with the oriental’s. Yao’s tongue was warm, the opposite of his, and that Asean body shivered under the gelid touch of his naked fingers.
«You’re still cold…» Yao breathed into his mouth.
He didn’t rebel when the arctic chest of the man leaned on his; he opened his arms and nestled him until his own body began to heat the other man’s skin.
Ivan put his cheek against the boy's warm chest, caressing that silky skin with his cold hand. He closed his eyes to taste completely his lover’s warmth.
It had been a long time since the very first moment he had seen the Son of the Sky. And they were bonded to each other under unusual circumstances.
He touched Yao's smooth skin very gently, breathing his exotic perfume.
When he had seen him for the first time, he was bewitched by his charisma. And he was glad that the Asean boy had precipitated into his Fortress. Even if that had meant Yao's utter betrayal by the boy he once called “son”.
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Previous Chapters:
Chapter One: A Sceptre in the Sky
Chapter Two: Bloody Silver
Chapter Three: The