Defender of the Faith
In the Great Palace of Constantinople, a woman who had lived for thousands of years lay in a luxurious bed, each breath a more heroic struggle than the labors of Hercules.
This woman had been a personification for many things, the Grecian city states, the Alexandrian Empire, Macedonia when she was controlled by Rome.
Then with the rise of Christendom and the collapse of the Roman Empire she had become free, ruling over a massive Empire in her own right as one of the successors to Rome.
The Eastern Roman Empire.
Though she preferred to be called Helen by those who knew her.
She still looked young and beautiful, with long black flowing hair, blue eyes, and perfect skin. She had even had a son in the last couple of centuries despite everything that had occurred.
She had sent him away, not wanting him to see what was about to happen.
Weakly Helen turned her head, seeing a few cards on a table, one was from him, her little Herakles, wishing her to get better.
It still made her smile, it was one of the few things that did.
The others were the so-called fruits of her boss, Constantine XI's requests to the West for aid.
One was a card from Poland, wishing that she'd still be around to see him get married to Lithuania.
Another was a card from Venice, wishing that she'd just die already.
"Little bastard." Helen found herself muttering at her hated rival. The memory of his actions during the Fourth Crusade still burned, and were very much the cause of her current condition.
At this point she was beyond caring of the fact that their rivalry over control of trade in the Mediterranean had led to all of this.
A moment later she heard groans coming from outside her door from her guards, Helen's eyes flew open since long experience told her that someone was out there now, killing them.
The door to her bedroom burst open, revealing a man in the traditional costume of the Turkish people, however his clothes were very rich, and she didn't need to see the blood-stained Kilij or the mask to know who that was.
"Sadik..." Helen managed to hiss as she was hit with another convulsion, "How did you get in here?!"
"Hello soon-to-be-annexed!" He said back with a big, belly laugh, "I just decided to swing by on my way for coffee to see how you were doing."
"But... but the defenses to keep you out..." she managed to stammer out.
Sadik, the personification of the Ottoman Empire smirked evilly, "This city has all sorts of secret ways in and out... Plus my new friend here helped me find you."
"F-friend?"
Sadik's grin simply grew as he stepped to the side to reveal a very tall, well-built figure behind him, the thick robes and full face mask made it impossible to see who precisely it was.
"A few well placed bribes and this fine-fellow offered to help me break into your little place to... hehe... deal with you." Sadik Adnan said wickedly.
The Eastern Roman Empire shut her eyes for a moment to stop the convulsions, when she opened them there was some of the old spark back.
"Well then," Helen said as bravely as she could, "Let's see what you've got."
Sadik's grin grew even more twisted as he raised his blade, but as Helen prepared herself for death, the true death, the air around them took a sudden, violent, freezing chill.
Sadik managed to stammer, 'W-what?!" before the figure behind him slugged in the back of the head with a sickening crunch.
Helen was frozen in shock in her bed as the figure pummeled the Ottoman Empire onto the floor, she thought she heard Sadik croak, "Wh-why?"
Once Sadik was unable to move, the figure removed the mask and robe and turned to look at her.
He had dirty-blond hair, the most intense purple eyes she had ever seen, and a psychotic never-moving grin.
"Hello Eastern Rome," he said cheerily.
"Ru-Russia?!" Helen stammered out in total surprise, "How did you get here?"
Russia just shrugged, "I heard you were in trouble, so I thought I'd give you a hand."
"Ivan..." Sadik groaned from the ground, "You bastard... How'd you trick me?!"
Russia's grin shifted to amusement as he pulled out a purple card from his pocked, "I'm now the Defender of the Orthodox faith! I bought the title with some money I... er... inherited from the Novgorod Republic."
Helen shuddered in her bed, pretty sure that Novgorod had been 'helped' into willing Russia the money before his demise.
"B-but, my empire..." Sadik moaned before Russia kicked him in the ribs again for good measure.
"You'll be lucky if you wind up back in China." Russia told him sweetly before knocking him out.
He then looked back up at Eastern Rome and said much more politely, "Now let's see if we can't make you better."
"Bu-but Ivan," Helen spoke up, "Why are you doing this for me?"
Russia contemplated her for a moment before answering, "Because you don't deserve to die like this."
That gave Helen, the personification of the Eastern Roman Empire a new reason to smile.
END