The Legion
A/N:...I am putting my America/Russia fic on hiatus along with my DRRR! story because quite frankly I lost my interest in my own story but I will get back to it (eventually) I will be updating this story not as often as the one I'm currently working on which is Perfect instability (BbxL) stuff has been working against me -_- per usual as it happens with most writers since they have lives that need to be attended to (Seriously I wish I didn't have a social life so I could write all day) soo...Blood to bleed will be updated soon, don't worry just how soon is up to when the Texas transformer (whatever the hell it is) starts working like it should and the threat of rolling blackouts is gone. Cuz' seriously, isn't it a pain in the arse to be writing a new chapter for a story when all of a sudden everything goes out?
ONWARDS! (fuck my life -_-u)
XxX
The glow from the computer monitors illuminated his ghostly skin, the room was pitch black and very silently despite the muted taping of keyboard keys. The man reclined in his seat and brushed ash colored locks behind his ear, blinking amethyst orbs in mild irritation. He had gone through the same report over several times and yet the concept was hard to grasp. Grunting, he placed a finger on the intercom and heard a raspy digital voice.
"Yes sir?" The voice echoed throughout the room. The man cringed at it's harsh static noise, only use to hearing the soft buzzing of his many computers and his own breathing.
"Please come in and bring in the scouts, quickly." He ordered and cut the line, he breathed slowly and reclined even more.
"Was this any easier before?" He let the question die softly in the air and closed his eyes, he felt that as long as his spirit lived he had always been plagued with this feeling. It wasn't a good one and could be explained as extreme apprehension, for only a few years he had lived peacefully in Moscow until two years prior to this day. Two of his sisters' had gone...Crazy. He could not explain it, even thinking about the event made him upset. He had searched for a cure for whatever they had but soon came across something he could not pass up. A shaman of sorts had invited him for a fortune reading, confused the man agreed. What he found out had changed his view on the world and the illness his remaining family had. The shaman had only touched his hand until he jumped up and grabbed a book on old folklore and tore through the pages.
He did not know what to think at first until said book was shoved in front of him and the shaman read it aloud to him for he couldn't understand the language it was written in. He had told the young man that centuries before, during the black plague of Europe, a group of humans from around the world emerged. They were thought to have healing powers and were looked up to for healing those ailed with the sickness. Though, many believed they were advocates of witch craft and satanic power so the churches around the World began to purge them, killing them off ruthlessly. Until one day, one of those humans was hunted down and before he could be killed he began a curse, but it did not have the affects he desired and he died.
At first the man was angry at the shaman for wasting his time until he began to think about the curse the hunted human had unleashed. Was it the disease his sisters had? He questioned the man further until he told him about the curse.
The curse made the hunters go mad, killing each other like animals. A man who was watching from a far distance ran to his village and told of the horrors the super-humans had inflicted on the hunters. From then on none of them were safe and eventually all were exterminated. When the shaman explained the symptoms and the behavior he was shocked to hear that many mirrored the symptoms of his sisters.
"Is there a cure?" He had asked the aging man, said man shook his head.
"No cure exist, it is not written in the text here." He stated and shut the book. The young man sat there, thinking about the information he had gotten. He got up and left the shaman after paying him, once he was back at his hotel he researched it and very soon it became his ever-growing obsession. Soon he was contacted by a strange Italian man whom didn't disclose his name, he had told him all about what he was and what had happened. Despite himself Ivan believed and agreed to be in service of the man as long as he didn't interfere much with his operations.
A door opening broke the ash haired man out of his thoughts and he looked up to see the scouts as he dubbed them entering the room.
"Mr. Braginsky," They greeted and stood against the wall. There was few of them, and finding them was quite a challenge.
There was Toris, a native of nearby Lithuania and his two step brothers, Raivis and Eduard. As far as Ivan had read on their file, all three men had different fathers and grew up in neighboring nations. Raivis in Latvia and Eduard in Estonia, despite what most people thought he was kind to them.
Next was a green eyed man with brown hair, he was from Spain. Ivan thought of him as charming and somewhat good company though the man slacked off at desk work often. His name was Antonio, the only super-human in his family aside from a few distant cousins.
Beside him was the lazy man known as Heracles, he lived in Greece and quite fond of cats and sleeping on the job. He liked to talk about philosophy and history when he wasn't snoozing on his desk. Ivan only kept him around to keep him safe, he didn't need anymore rogue super humans running about.
Another man stood as far as possible from the five, he had short blonde hair and green eyes. Ivan just called him by his last name which irritated the man beyond belief, Zwingli, Ivan noted, was very fond of guns. Not to mention extremely trigger happy.
These super humans in front of him were the only ones Ivan could trust with this task, he was also going to take part in it but only to retrieve the most important members of their group.
"As most of you know the curse has been spreading and it's about the time we start gathering. We must be swift, we must be strong. I have gotten news that some have already gone rogue and despite the best advice that I have gotten from my superior, I fear we have waited for too long." Ivan declared and strode to the metal wall, he flicked a switch. To everyones' surprise the metal wall rotated and unveiled weapons strapped onto it's cases.
"Pick your weapons, if they do not come willingly use force. Do not kill them unless a serious fight ensues, if so bring the bodies or burn them. Though I highly recommend bringing them back for study." Ivan himself picked a dagger, two Russian Makarov pistols that he slipped into their holsters that were situated at his sides. He also grabbed a tranquillizer gun and sedatives.
Once everyone had gotten their weapons, Ivan gave them the signal to head out.
"Look at the note I gave you and don't lose it, destroy it after you have gotten your target!" He yelled as his group bolted out of sight.
He looked back at his desk and saw the picture of himself and his two sisters.
"Give me strength." He murmured in his own dialect and headed out, America was quite far and Ivan wasn't that fond of travel.
XxX
Alfred threw himself onto the couch in his Dallas apartment, he missed New York but something weird was happening there at the moment. He thanked his parents for being rich enough that they owned places in big cities. Sighing he rolled over and hoped whatever or whoever it was didn't follow him all the way to Dallas, Texas. Yes he was the son of a prominent business man, and he spent more hours partying than studying, but he didn't really need to. He would take on the company someday and be content doing that.
"Do I really want that?" He asked himself and dragged himself off the couch into the kitchen to make food.
"Thankfully that creep hasn't been following me around since I left New York. I know I'm hot but you don't have to follow me around..." He ran a hand through his wheat colored hair and leaned against the counter.
He sighed and let his hand wonder to his left pocket and plucked out a carton of cigarettes. He took one out and lit it, placing it between his slightly chapped lips and breathed it in.
Letting the smoke out, he felt his body release it's tension from his classes and relax more. He heard excessive knocking on his door, which made him jump with surprise. Cursing aloud, he strode to his door and unlocked it. Opening it he saw it was a tall and built man in an oversized jacket, black combat boots poked out from underneath the folds of the jacket. Alfred couldn't help but roll his eyes, not only was he wearing an oversized jacket in a hundred degree weather, he also had a long white scarf wrapped snug around his neck.
"Come in I guess." He yawned and went back to the kitchen to grab two beers, just because this dude was weird didn't mean he had to be inhospitable. Coming back he found that the man was sitting on the couch quite rigidly, Alfred handed him the beer and decided to lean on the wall than sit beside the strange man.
"So, what are you doing here?" Alfred asked as he took a swig of his beer, the man didn't even move to drink it. He cleared his throat and placed the bottle on a table coaster.
"I am here to discuss urgent matters with you and I am glad that I was able to get here before anyone else could, you see I am part of a group-" Alfred cut him off.
"Dude, if you're here to get me to join some weird ass cult you can just leave." He snorted and took another drink, the Russian man gave him an irritated look but continued.
"It is not a cult, look have you noticed anything out of sorts lately?" Ivan tried, hoping the American would say something useful.
"Just some dude following me, but that's to be expected since my father is a highly respected business man. Plus he isn't harmful, yet I mean." Alfred said casually.
"By the way, I didn't get your name. Mine's Alfred." Ivan obviously knew that from the file he had looked over. At first he was confused, from what he had learned from his superior this boy and another he didn't quite remember were never apart of the original Legion. Apparently, that was why it was so important to get this boy before the others did for his power was unknown and what he was capable of.
"Mine is Ivan Braginski, I would also like to say that this stalker of yours isn't harmless. Have you ever
heard of such things as super-humans?" Ivan inquired, Alfred was surprised at the quick change of subject but nodded.
"In comic books and movies, yeah." He answered, eyeing the Russian man warily.
"Super-humans aren't fictional Alfred, though the superheroes you have read about aren't true." Ivan said, wondering about how to explain it.
"I know! Though, what do you mean about super-humans being true? It doesn't make sense." Alfred growled and walked to the kitchen and grabbed another cigarette since the first one he had stubbed out in the ash tray. He lit it and walked back to the living room.
"Super-humans have long endurance and most are strong, though with us, we are not only strong but we have abilities that we must unlock for ourselves." Ivan explained, Alfred choked on smoke.
"Us? I'm not like you. I'm rich for one and I don't have these abilities you keep blabbering about!" He was getting seriously irritated right now.
Suddenly a crash was heard, both men turned around to look at the door. It was hanging on by a hinge, Ivan cursed when he could hear yelling coming from the other side. Quickly he grabbed Alfred by his arm and pushed him towards a window, he enveloped the squirming nineteen year old into a bear hug and kicked the window open with his combat boot. Carefully stepping onto the ledge and ignoring the slams against the door which he soon heard fall, he grabbed onto Alfred tighter.
"Don't let go of me unless you want to die, da?" He smiled and jumped.
He could hear Alfred's terror filled screaming as he jumped from ledge to ledge. Finally Ivan stopped a long ways away from the apartment building and pulled out one of his handguns, he tossed the other to Alfred whom looked at it blankly.
"I take it you know how to use that, da?" He said amusedly, Alfred glared at him and cocked the gun.
"I don't like to use commie guns." He spat, Ivan just laughed.
"Now you believe me? They were coming to take you away and infect you. You should be thanking me for saving your mind." He laughed and peered behind his shoulder to see if anyone was coming.
"Saving my mind?" Alfred questioned him, raising an eyebrow.
"If they would have captured you before I could have gotten there, they would have injected you with an infected's blood. You would be a slave to them body and mind. Forced to fight against your brethren, trust me you don't want that." The ash haired man sighed.
"Oh, does this super-human thing run in families or what?" Alfred asked, worried that his brother could be in trouble.
"Don't worry, your brother is being retrieved by one of my scouts. They left slightly earlier than I did so he must be safe. Our next stop is Moscow, Russia where we will debrief you and let you meet the others."
"Great, I'm going to the heart of Commie land." Alfred growled, nevertheless they began their way to the nearest airport.
XxX
Ivan breathed a sigh of relief when the plane had touched down on the Russian tarmac. He was only using the plane for Alfred's sake, after the quick escape Ivan was sure he wouldn't have been able to stomach their natural way of transportation.
He turned on his phone when they left the plane and walked into the terminal, it made him nervous to turn it off in the first place. He noticed that the icon for messages was blinking, swallowing he opened his inbox.
Zwingli came under heavy gun fire, we have confirmed that it was an ambush. However he was rescued by Carriedo, luckily both Vargas twins are unscathed. As of right now his condition is critical at best and Carriedo's condition is stable. Both are expected to be fully healed after some rest. - Superior
Ivan cursed under his breath, he was glad that both of his scouts were okay but he hoped everyone was back already. He couldn't help but feel apprehensive about Raivis, the small boy was only fifteen and the only reason the Russian trusted him was because he was exceptionally handy with spying and handguns.
He normally put the siblings into a group during exercises, Eduard had a way with computers that even Ivan would resort to asking him for help, Toris was more of a hands-on type of guy and did everything right the first time, Raivis was very agile and good at deception and getting things he wanted.
Ivan grabbed Alfred and dragged him outside of the airport and flagged a cab. He told the man to drop him off outside of the Kremlin and in no time Ivan was pushing the hesitant American through the doors. Ivan showed the guards his pass when he reached a certain hallway and exchanged a few words with them. They nodded and let the duo pass, Alfred was going to comment but Ivan silenced him with a glare.
"Not once have I insulted your people Fredka, I suggest you keep your mouth shut as well, da?" Ivan's mood turned as he faced the American. Alfred glared at him in defiance, but ultimately nodded. Ivan was right, not once did the Russian utter any racial slur of any kind.
"Fine, but I'm still insulting you." He growled, the Russian smirked and walked on.
"That seems fair, fat American pig." Ivan chided.
"Communist bastard." Ivan only rolled his eyes in response, the American was pushing his luck and the Russian was only patient for a certain amount of time.
"Come on, we're keeping the others waiting." Ivan sighed, Alfred scoffed.
"What makes you so important? They could start without you couldn't they? You're just flattering yourself." Alfred challenged the taller.
"Because I'm their leader." Ivan said coldly and walked faster, leaving the shocked American behind him. Soon he heard fast steps follow behind him, he smirked inwardly.
"Uh...Right, sorry about that I guess." He apologized sheepishly, Ivan only grunted in response. He turned and pushed the elevator button, once they stepped inside he got a key out of his pocket and put it in a keyhole beside a red button. Once it was in place he pushed the button and took the key out, a second after he pushed the button the elevator began it's plummet down. Alfred grabbed onto the closest thing he could, which was Ivan, and held on with a death grip. His stomach flipped and he felt like vomiting, faintly he heard the Russian beside him utter a chuckle. As suddenly as it's dissent, the elevator stopped and made the nauseous American lurch forward.
Ivan grabbed Alfred's hand before he could fall, embarrassing himself on the first day wasn't progress in the least. When the floor didn't impact Alfred's face he opened his eyes and looked behind him to the Russian.
He flashed Ivan a heroic smile in thanks but his hand was immediately let go, the American fell onto the metal floor with a loud thump. He looked behind again and glared at the cause for his fall with displeasure, how dare he make the son of a billionaire fall! It was unbecoming and disgraceful, well that was what Alfred thought.
Growling, he got up and brushed himself off.
"Next time be more careful, da?" The damned Russian chuckled and walked past him, opening the double doors and leaving the fuming American to himself.
"Fuck him." Alfred growled and walked after the Russian. He opened the doors and took note of the room. It was metal and cold, foreboding and not welcoming. Though he could see attempts at making the room friendlier, a couch and sitting area was in the corner and connected to it was a large kitchenette. In the middle of the opposite wall was another metal door that had 'HALLWAY' written above it in Russian, Spanish, and English.
He was thankful since the only language he knew was English. The door opened and a very irritated Ivan poked his head out, Alfred glared at him distaste.
"Are you coming or what? Despite what you think we can start this meeting without you." He spat and closed the door with a slam. Alfred rolled his eyes in annoyance and followed the Russian into a hallway, he walked down it and read every sign on the doors. All the doors had different names on it and after noticing that not one room was labeled 'Meeting Room' he jogged down the stairs . He was met with another hallway with sparsely placed doors, one said gym the other said armory. Finally he came across the room that said 'Meeting Room', laughing to himself he opened it. He noted that another staircase descended from this floor, faintly he wondered what was down there.
"Ah, nice of you to join us." A thick Russian accent greeted, all traces of irritation gone.
"Uh, hey. Sorry I got lost looking for this place." Alfred answered in his usual cherry voice, smiling his fake hero smile.
"Please sit, we have urgent matters to attend to. Take a seat between Williams and Honda, I know that most siblings are most comfortable around their siblings." Ivan ordered and sat down himself.
"As most of my more experienced operatives know, both Carriedo and Zwingli will be in temporary retirement. We were not careful enough, therefore I shall be taking more safety measures to make sure this does not happen again. It is an inexcusable blunder on my part, but I most stress the importance of being careful. Just because we are what we are does not make us immortal, da? Anyway, we know the rogue super-human whom injured them both. We gathered that his name is Arthur Kirkland." Ivan reported and began to pace in the middle of his speech. Alfred noticed that most of the operatives (the experienced ones) weren't really paying attention, then it struck him.
"A-Arthur Kirkland?" He gasped and slammed his palms unto the table and stood up, looking at Ivan with pure desperation in his sky blue eyes.
"Da, son of London investor Mordred Kirkland, why do you ask?" Ivan stopped his pacing and inspected his new recruit. Alfred lowered his head and trembled, everyone was looking now.
"I-I knew him when we were little...He stayed at my house for a year to improve the relationship our fathers had...He was my best friend." Alfred whispered the last part inaudibly. Ivan nodded but was interrupted by another voice. A blonde man had stood up as well, he had disbelief written all over his face.
"Wait up a second! That Arthur Kirkland?! Impossible! My lover would never attack another person unless he was provoked!" He said in a heavy French accent. The Russian just sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"Why would Zwingli and Carriedo lie about this? Until notified otherwise Arthur Kirkland is our target, he is obviously part of the Otherside. If we want to save the others of our kind then we must not hesitant to wipe this blip off of our radar." Ivan stated and sat back down at the head of the table.
"What if we capture him and turn him back once we found a cure for this?" A sandy blonde man spoke up from beside Ivan's chair.
"We have found a cure and they are sitting right there," Ivan pointed to a pair of Italian twins, "but that won't help us in Kirkland's case. When a super-human is under the curse, said super-human shows signs of being under. From what we gathered from Zwingli and Carriedo, he was fully aware of his actions. I believe Kirkland is fully corrupted, for corruption there is no cure." Ivan explained.
"The only solution for this is to kill him, he is more of a hindrance than a help for us. Trust me." He finished. Alfred wasn't listening anymore, his mind had wandered towards Arthur and his life. Obviously he had a lover now, it made his heart ache a little. When he had stayed with Alfred and his family he had promised that he would never let go of the American. Of course they were fifteen and hormones were running rampant, still Alfred had remembered.
"Anyway, I'm sorry to say but this is in the job description. Whether you like it or not you may be pitted against your old friends and lovers. Still we have a duty to the World to get rid of this nuisance." The formidable Russian sighed and got up. He paced around the table again, seemingly in thought.
"I advise you get close to the residents here, but not too close. We don't need any suicides here, it will set my plans back another lifetime, da?" He said lightheartedly, but the cheery smile didn't reach his violet eyes.
"You are dismissed until further notice, our next meeting we shall discuss your origins and your past lives. Until then, please make yourselves at home." He smiled again and swept out of the room. Alfred was the first to go but when he stepped out of the doorway a hand had grasped his wrist.
Looking up he was somewhat relieved it was Ivan.
"Please follow me, Alfred." He asked but nonetheless began to drag the American to the stairs descending into darkness. Nervousness enveloped Alfred as he let himself be tugged down the stairs. He didn't trust the Russian man and the alarms in his head were going off.
Ivan stopped at a metal door, Alfred noted that the hallway was dimly lite and the end of it was shrouded with darkness. The only light that occupied the corridor was a dingy light bulb that was placed in front of the metal door. The Russian pulled out a small metal key and unlocked the metal abomination, he gently pushed the American inside and closed the door. He locked it quietly and turned to face the glaring Alfred.
"Dude, are you going to rape me or something?" Alfred joked, trying to lighten the mood. Ivan scowled and walked into the darkness. Alfred followed him and winced when he saw a flicker of light, then the room lit up brightly. He shielded his eyes and blinked, trying to get use to the excess amount of brightness.
"Are those-?"
"Computer monitors? Da. This is my office, I have watched all of you to monitor your safety." Ivan explained.
"Wow, that's creepy dude." Alfred commented and took a look closer. Sure enough he saw himself on the middle monitor, but he also noticed that some were static.
"What about those?" He pointed to the one beside his.
"Those...Are the rogues. Once they have defected the screen goes fuzzy. As you can see many have defected." Ivan explained, Alfred nodded in understanding.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"To help you understand that this isn't a joke." Alfred glared at him spitefully.
"I know this is not a joke, commie!" He yelled and was about to stomp away from him until a hand caught his.
"If the issue arises, you will have to kill your most closest friends. I have given all of my scouts and agents the permission to kill me if they need to. I am quite certain you will have to murder Kirkland." He said, dead serious.
"I...I don't know." Alfred whispered softly, eyes downcast. Ivan sighed and reached into his pocket with his free hand. He firmly placed the gun to Alfred's head.
"Look, if you are not, as they say, game then I will have to blow your brains out right here and now. So pick one, Kirkland or your life." Alfred stared and gulped. Was he serious?
"Please...Don't kill me. I don't want to hurt anyone!" He exclaimed. The Russian laughed coldly, and glared down at the American.
"In this life you will be killed unless you kill. Like I said before, Kirkland or your life. I don't have all day."
"What about that French dude! You should go kill him or something!" Alfred shouted and looked up at him defiantly.
"Answer the question. Now." Ivan shouted and jammed the barrel hard into the American's temple.
"Fine! Fine...I'll kill him if I have to and if it's...The only way." He trailed off, Ivan let his arm go and retracted the gun.
"I will talk to Bonnefoy later tonight. You may rest on the couch over by the corner if you wish. I have volunteered to watch you for the next few days. You will not be out of my sight unless I know where you are." The ash haired man warned and sat in his computer chair.
"You are a fucking creep aren't you? Plus, isn't that why you have the monitors for?" Alfred asked but quickly took residence on the couch. He was quite pleased to see blankets and a pillow already there for him.
"Believe it or not I do use these for other things." Ivan deadpanned without sparing Alfred a glance. Said blonde snorted in contempt.
"Like what checking your email and watching porn?" He commented, this time Ivan looked his way.
"Your attention seeking is quite pathetic and I do not stoop down to your kind of activities on the internet, kolkolkolkol. I suggest you be quiet before I make you, da?" He said sweetly. Alfred just glared and turned around to face the wall.
"Goodnight I hope you have nightmares."
"My life is a nightmare, da." Ivan sighed softly.
After a few minutes Alfred's snores punctuated the quiet buzzing that was so familiar to the Russian. Despite his initial reaction of being annoyed by it, Ivan came to realize that it calmed him down. Not the fact that an annoying, boisterous, rich punk was his to babysit but it was nice to have someone, another human being to be close physically when otherwise the only semblance of humanity was the monitors and the picture he kept on his desk.
Shaking his head, Ivan carried on with his actions and checked every security camera in the lower levels of the Kremlin and the base. Lazily but wearily, he scanned the screen until he came across the live feed from Zwingli's room.
The bed was empty, usually this wouldn't sound Ivan's mental alarm but the Swiss man never left his room without fixing the bed. The man was always neat no matter the obstacle.
Quickly rising from his seat, he quietly walked over to Alfred and brought out a syringe. Without hesitating he injected a light dose of sedatives into the college student's body.
"That should keep him from waking up until I get back. Now I have to find Zwingli." He murmured and swiftly left the room.
XxX
A/N: I thought leaving it here would be okay... Eight pages guys! I like the idea for this story but some parts made me iffy and I am a little hesitant about posting this but after some reassurance I decided to do it anyway!