A/N: First of all, disclaimers. I do not own the Cal Leandros series or any of the characters therein. I do not own the song "Heartlines" by Florence & the Machine.

Dude if I could animate this would make an awesome music video. I suggest looking this song up on YouTube and listening to it while you read: it enhances the experience.

While the first chapter of this is a song-fic, the further chapters are not. It's a mini-series, a look into a what-if. Inspired by the lines in Blackout.

"Calloused hands, hair long and from another time, eyes the color of an iron sword. If it weren't for the darker skin, I'd expect him to be leading a charge of Vikings, swinging an axe, and taking the head of everyone who passed his way. Born too late, he was meant to be a warlord or a general or a god to both, with blood-soaked altars and every first son named for him.

But this wasn't then and he'd shown himself to be a man of control, because if he wasn't, what might he do with what nature had given him?" -Cal, on Niko, Blackout, pg 167

Oh the river, oh the river, it's running free
And oh the joy, oh the joy it brings to me
But I know it'll have to drown me
Before I can breathe easy
*

The beat of drums, the chant and the scent of red blood. Hot wet streaks on face and bare chest, mixing and melding with the thick paint, and Niko opened his eyes on the triumphant shout. The taste of blood between his lips as he smiled and joined in the cry, raising gauntleted arms above his head. A warrior blooded, a man unconquered, and he was pushed into the circle. Hands smeared thick wet streaks of blood along his head until his blonde braids were red and brown and drying black, and with the roll of the drums the dancing began, wild and unrestrained. Niko threw back his head and laughed, tasting ice and blood, and took his place in the circle, booted feet stamping the packed thawing earth.

Triumph and victory, raised high on the shouts of warriors drunk on the battle's end.

*
And I've seen it in the flights of birds
I've seen in you
The entrails of the animals the blood runs through
But in order to get to the heart I think
Sometimes you have to cut through
*

Taste of blood, hot and warm. Caliban tipped his head back and watched the crows soar over. He twisted a hand, pulled out a loop of intestine, and grinned. He did not get to his feet until the shadow of the warrior fell across the deer carcass. He tipped his head back and grinned before he stood. The warrior tall and blonde and triumphant, and Cal knew him and got to his bare feet, blood-mud squishing between his toes.

"You've come to fight me by tradition, but it won't happen," he said, with a sharp smile.

And instead of screaming monster, the blonde man raised an eyebrow. The double-bladed axe did not lower. "Oh?"

"Yes." Cal smiled. "We'll make a deal, you and me, and I will make you great."

Niko lowered the blade of the axe. "And I will set you free."

Cal snatched up his spear, and slit his palm on the barbs. He watched Niko do the same on his axe. As one they stepped forward, clasping hands and mixing the blood. Cal could feel the world rightitself and he smiled. Slipping his hand free, the monster laid his bloody palm over the warrior's heart. The warrior reached across and did the same, bloody palm calloused and warm on bare flesh.

"And you and I, we will make the world tremble."

*
But you can
Keep it up, we can, you can
I know you can
Just keep following the heartlines on your hand
Just keep following the heartlines on your hand
Keep it up, I know you can
Just keep following the heartlines on your hand
'Cause I am
*

The battle raged, and Niko led the charge. Straight into the heart of the enemy's defense, and how the knights trembled under the force of it! No-one could withstand the warriors of the north, and the proud knights fell beneath the strokes of the battle-axes.

Sudden screams, and Niko's head whipped around, hearing a battle-cry both new and familiar.

And the monster Caliban took to the field, and men fled left and right.

Niko swept his axe up, joined his voice to Cal's, and together they made the battle into a slaughter.

*
Odyssey on odyssey, and land over land
Creeping and crawling like the sea over sand
Still I follow heartlines on your hand
*

Strange white beaches, shells and the taste of olives. Niko walked along the waterline, leaving bare footprints in the sand.

Cal walked in the water, leaving no trail.

"The men talk. They don't like that I am here," Cal intoned, over the heartbeat of the ocean.

"They are my men. They will fight." Whether or not they liked Niko's tactics. He was proven and he was true; they would follow him to the ends of the earth and beyond into the afterlife. Not even a blood-bargain with a monster could end their loyalty. Niko stopped and let the warm Mediterranean water wash over his toes. So mild, so calm, so different from the violent icy seas of home.

Cal grinned, dark hair and pale skin untouched by the warm sun, though Niko and the rest of his warriors had hair bleached nearly to white and skin tanned like polished wood. "And tomorrow we fight these cruel barbarians. They will fling demons at you."

"We will win. You and I will win," Niko told him, with absolute confidence.

*
This fantasy, this fallacy, this tumbling stone
Echoes of a city that's long overgrown
Your heart is the only place that I call home
Can I be returned? You can
*

Cal turned in a slow circle. Birds of bright colours, green vines of abundance, the ancient stone slowly succumbing to the wild again. Bare feet sure, he leapt atop the rubble and skittered down the tumbledown wall, spear raised for balance. Cat-like, in silence, he padded up behind the man walking through the ruins, looking around in wonder. For a warrior, Niko took to culture and art with surprising aptitude. He told stories and wrote the lays his skalds took home to their people, proclaiming their conquests.

Niko stopped and stood silently. Cal stood behind him, shadows mixing into one on the ancient paving.

"We've come so far. The men worry about their wives." Niko tipped his head back, and the intricate gold braids swayed against his tunic.

"And you?" Cal asked, knowing Niko had only a betrothed at home, and had turned down any number of exotic doe-eyed women as his right of conquest.

"Home..." Niko chuckled. "As strange as it sounds...I carry home with me."

"In your heart," Cal whispered.

"In my heart." Niko turned, and shadows meshed again, anew, as monster and warrior clasped hands and embraced as brothers.

*
What thing to do, oh
What a thing to choose
But know that in some way, I'm there with you
Up against the wall on Wednesday afternoon
*

Snow and ice and sunshine. Niko leaned against the stone and earthern dyke and watched the flowers of spring break through the frost. They bent in the harsh breeze, hardy and beautiful, and free. Wild and free. He smiled to himself and twisted the thin chieftain's braid at his temple. So new, so strange still. And away in the lodge, his wife waited, heavy with child. He and his warriors rested well, and plowing and sowing would begin soon.

But Niko's smile widened when pale arms twisted around his shoulders, through the solid wall.

"I told you I would make you great."

"And that I would set you free." Niko leaned back, trusting.

"When you take up the axe again, my brother, I will take you to the battles. No need for ships," Cal promised, breath making the chieftain's braid flutter.

"I will be honored, my brother," Niko replied.

*
Just keep following the heartlines on your hand
Just keep following the heartlines on your hand
Keep it up, I know you can
Just keep following the heartlines on your hand
'Cause I am

A/N: Again, I do not own the song or the characters. I'm just borrowing them.