Fortune [APH - Prologue]
Title: Fortune [Prologue]
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Character(s) or Pairing(s): All the nations will appear at some point, some more often than others. Main pairings include US/UK, LietPol, HK/Taiwan, AusHun, PruSwiss, TurGre, Spamano, among many others.
In this prologue: Turkey, Greece, Prussia, Switzerland and America with mentions of Holland, Hungary, Egypt and Bulgaria
Rating: T - there’s swearing, character death, etc
Warnings: First time writing for this fandom, Alternate Universe, Human names and all that scary stuff. Oh and character death.
Summary: Alfred Jones has invited many aboard his cruise ship for a Grand Voyage around the world! He isn’t doing it for the fun of it either with guests such as the extremely wealthy Kirkland family and the Braginski family onboard that he’s trying to curry favor with. And he isn’t the only one doing some plotting on this ship. Behind the scenes, many things are going on. There are many connections, some known and some secret. And somehow it all intertwines... Such as the concept of immortality... Ensemble Castfic.
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NOTES: I don’t own anything except the fanfiction’s plot, which I’ll admit was inspired by the anime series Baccano! Also this story is mostly set on the MS Amsterdam, a boat that’s one of the many boats belonging to the cruiseline Holland America. This fic is doing one of their 110 day Grand Voyages around the world. You could go on www.hollandamerica.com and find out more really.
Also because I’m using human names, I’ll just introduce the characters as they first appear each chapter. I prefer writing in first person so there’ll probably be a different character’s POV each chapter depending on what’s going on. So have a list of names, some of the names already given and others made up.
Turkey: Sadiq Adnan
Greece: Heracles Karpusi
Prussia: Gilbert Beilschmidt
Switzerland: Vash Zwingli
America: Alfred F. Jones
Holland: Lars Wubbell (a friend of mine who RPs him uses this name for him)
Hungary: Elizaveta Héderváry
Egypt: Gupta Muhammad Hassan
Bulgaria: Nikolai Hadjiev (again, from an RP XD)
Okay, I think I’ve covered most of what I wanted to say and so... this is my first fanfiction for Axis Powers Hetalia and I hope you the reader enjoys! ^^
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prologue.
Sadiq’s POV
“His eyes... they were red, weren’t they?”
Bastard. Why would someone ask something like that in such circumstances? For the first time in my life I’d been left speechless. Never had I seen anything like it. And my first instinct should’ve been to notify Captain Wubbell but I couldn’t summon such a thought to the surface of my mind. Only my idiot co-worker Heracles is standing there with a rather philosophical look about him only he’s asking about the colour of the man’s eyes. Why would the fucking colour of his eyes matter at a time like this?
Even I was bewildered by the sight. Now that could explain that woman from the Braginski family rushing through the corridors in the direction of the deluxe suites... I always knew it was right to be suspicious of her.
There was a path of red liquid settling into the carpet of this suite... The suite belonging to the Zwingli siblings... I removed my mask to allow my eyes to dart along that path until it climbs upwards onto one of the beds. And what was on that bed was also hanging loosely out the window. And what could be seen sticking into the figure’s back could only be seen by the light from this hallway was a dagger. Fucking hell, I kid you not.
This body had various stab wounds, deep ones at that too with blood still dripping from them... and this guy must have tried to fight back for his palm clearly had had a blade stuck through it... perhaps trying to grip the dagger and stop the attack. Also the attacker might’ve tried to have shoved the man’s body out the window, which is why his head, neck and one arm was thrown carelessly out it bringing in a draft of cool sea air, which sent chills down my spine. I bit my lip and tried not to examine the body for so long before mere fascination would warp me into doing nothing but studying it into the morning hours.
Job, remember my job. I shouldn’t even be here and neither should... what?
My eyelids flickered upwards in disbelief as Heracles stepped into the room and sat himself down on the bed opposite the one with the body, studying it carefully. I didn’t dare move from my spot, glancing occasionally down the hallway. No sounds of anyone coming. It was the dead of the night after all. But that only made this situation more puzzling.
“This man... it’s definitely Gilbert Beilschmidt,” Heracles observed. He reached out towards the body only for me to rush over and pull him away by the wrist. The Greek’s expression shifted from a thoughtful one into a glower directed at me. Couldn’t care less. “Let go of me, Sadiq,” he growled.
I didn’t let go.
“Don’t touch the body! I’m as intrigued about it as you are but we should notify the captain. We can’t do much about this situation in our positions!” I snapped, yanking Heracles out of the interior suite. “So for now we can’t touch a single thing or else we’ll be suspected. Best we get out of here!”
Heracles ignored the urgency about my voice. Fucking prick. “...That rat’s eyes turned red, didn’t they? That day...” Rat? What the bloody hell - wait, I think I know what he’s referring to. The Ottoman Project from long ago. Why would he bring that up? It contains bitter memories for all of us even if it’s what keeps us all together still. Heracles, Elizaveta, Gupta, Nikolai and I... Yet I knew Heracles wasn’t someone to just pull something random from nowhere without purpose. Not in these types of situations anyway.
My lips twisted into a smirk. “They did, didn’t they?” I stared at him curiously, carefully putting my white mask back on.
The Greek man snatched his arm from my grasp and sighed. “Never mind.” That bastard! He was about to tell me one of his goddamn theories! I turned away huffily and we stood in silence. This silence was soon interrupted by the sound of footsteps. All it took was one look at each other before we took off running in the opposite direction to the footsteps we both heard. We disappeared round a corner and I was about to go further when I felt a sudden tug on my back collar.
I was about to protest when a hand clapped over my mouth. Before I could react any further, Heracles mouthed at me to shut up and listen. The two of us peered round the corner and saw an incredibly agitated Vash Zwingli storm down the corridors towards his suite. He groaned in seeing the door been left wide open and was muttering irritated words to himself. We heard a flick of him turning on the lights, a gasp and then a dead silence as he stepped into the room.
“Ugh, it’s like I can’t leave him for a minute without this happening now!” Vash Zwingli suddenly cried out, slamming the door behind him. Anger management issues, much? I swear that guy always seemed pissed off by something. And yet it was true that he and the silver-haired Beilschmidt kid had been spending more time together lately. I suppose Elizaveta was right about being wary of what the two were getting up to even if she had homosexuality on the brain while stating so. Strange woman.
Well, with Zwingli choosing to shut the door on us Heracles and I now can’t hear a thing anymore. Great, just great. Fuck.
Then I had a sudden thought that I decided to voice aloud. “Hey cat-freak, do you think he’ll move Beilschmidt?” Heracles frowned slightly at the randomly placed insult but even so, he understood.
We moved swiftly through the corridors past Zwingli’s room to head to the stairs. Within moments we were on a higher deck looking down. I suggested a torch but Heracles was against the idea, saying that we might miss something if we go hunting for a mere flashlight. So we decided to make do with the pearl moon as our light source as we poked our heads over the sides and searched to see if Gilbert’s head and arm was still hanging out the window lifelessly. It was.
“He’s still dead...” Heracles mumbled quietly. I looked at him incredulously.
“Of course he’s still dead! It’s not like he’ll just come alive again!” Why was Heracles acting so strangely about all this anyway? Asking about eye colour, trying to touch a dead body and bringing up old test subjects from the Ottoman Project! Anyway, I’d told him enough times never to bring that up again. The loss was and is still too much since the day of success then transitioned to the day of fulfilled dreams being stripped away just like that, disappearing without a trace... “Right?”
Then his finger twitched. Gilbert Beilschmidt’s finger fucking twitched. His arm was no longer limp like a mere doll’s. Heracles couldn’t tear his eyes away. I glanced at him for a moment. He somehow looked as if this sudden movement made was a confirmation of sorts for him. It bugged me. It seriously bugged me.
I averted my eyes back to Gilbert. Suddenly his body was turned and his eyelids flew open wide. And within the pools of red surrounding his pupil, I saw a glint of life.
What the hell? What the fucking hell is going on?! No way, it couldn’t be..! “...He’s coming back to life?!” I exclaimed, my voice a tad too high in volume. Heracles hushed at me to keep it down as we still looked down at the body hanging there. And Gilbert, a Gilbert that’s very much alive again caught sight of us and his lips curved into a Cheshire grin. What the fuck is going on here? Before, before we just saw Gilbert dead, definitely dead. Life, gone! And now..! What’s at work here? And Heracles seemed to know something and if he doesn’t tell me, I’ll -!
My shoulder was grabbed at. In turn, my heart leapt out through my chest and the sea breeze went up my back, the sudden chill nipping at my skin. Heracles felt it too. We both swivelled round to meet the bright smiles of the cruise line owner. Fucking hell, it’s Alfred Jones of all people!
“Hey you two! Whatcha doing out and about?” Alfred asked with a cheerful sparkle in his eye. Heracles and I exchanged looks. Our skin paled and I felt myself begin to sweat nervously despite the cool air. It was the same for the other, I could tell.
“Night walk! Night walk around the MS Amsterdam! Yeah!” I quickly blurted a response. Alfred looked like he was going to roll with it. Heracles nodded quickly in agreement.
“Mm? Adnan and Karpusi, right?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with childlike curiosity. I never liked that sort of look on people. But I bet he heard me yell out before, which is why he’s here now. Shit.
We both nodded and Alfred tilted his head to the side and moved us out of the way, no longer gripping our shoulders. Heracles reached out to stop Jones from looking out over the boat. I however, decided to see what was happening with Gilbert. Would Alfred see him? All three of us looked out over the boat and saw nothing but closed windows and the sea waves splashing slightly against the sides of the boat as it skimmed along the water.
Gilbert Beilschmidt was gone.
“You guys were staring at the water pretty intensely, huh?” Alfred grinned, tearing his gaze from the water below to examine the two of us. “Pretty boring if you ask me! But you both look pale. Seasick?” Heracles and I shook our heads. He frowned. “I hope you... you haven’t been seeing anything like... I don’t know... ghosts or sea monsters!” The American seemed to look more uncomfortable having brought that idea up. That’s right, I remember Heracles commenting a while back that Alfred Jones wasn’t fond of... Right, I think I know how to get rid of him.
“I think that’s exactly what we’ve witnessed, Alfred Jones,” I lied as smoothly as possible. “A sea monster has been following our boat.” I almost wanted to chuckle in amusement as Alfred started shaking, afraid of the lie I was feeding him.
“L-Like... the K-Kraken?!” ...Whatever those are. Oh wait, I think there was one in that trilogy of movies set in the Caribbean... I’ll just roll with it.
“Exactly like the Kraken.” Heracles didn’t say anything to confirm or deny this. I guess he understood my intent.
“U-Um, go notify the captain! I’ll go back to my room now and hide!” And with that, Alfred Jones was gone. I guess he won’t be getting much sleep tonight. Whatever. Heracles and I won’t be either, not with this discovery. The things you observe on this fucking cruise ship with these interesting people..! I knew this was going to be no ordinary cruise. In a way, it made me more excited for what was to come. Except I had questions, many questions to be answered.
Heracles’ tone was flat. “We didn’t see a Kraken.”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t want Jones to know either. Not yet anyway. And I think we should keep all this on the down low too.”
“I hate to admit it but you’re right...” he responded, looking out over the water again. “But there is no mistaking what we each saw. Gilbert Beilschmidt was dead but just then... just then he came back alive. And I think Vash Zwingli knows something about it too.”
“And the last time either of us saw the dead come alive again was...”
“The Ottoman Project,” Heracles finished my sentence. I think we had the same idea in mind. Either Gilbert Beilschmidt found it on his own or with another group or he was the thief that brought about the Ottoman Project’s downfall. As much as I’d like to jump to conclusions and as much as the second explanation infuriates me, this needs investigation.
Because whatever the explanation is, we have an immortal on this cruise ship. An immortal that should've been me.
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Any critique or whatever would be highly appreciated! X3