And One Was Left
"Can you see it, Rom? Do you brother?"
Eyes flickering over their green, unturned land he doesn't. But his duplicate's eyes shine and Romulus has never had the will to break Remus's heart.
"Yeah, I do."
His brother's head turned, face half-hidden by shadow. "You will, don't worry brother," his double insisted, taking his hand. "Just wait..." he trailed off, going back to his quiet watching. Beside his brother, Romulus wondered how his brother knew him so well. He did not know Remus half as well as he knew himself...
"Agh!" the one cried, "Idoit! You idiot!" Walking over to his twin grandsons, Rome felt his heart hurt as he pulled the elder off his brother. Holding the fiery child in his grip, he turned away from the sniveling boy.
"You do not hurt your brother," he told the small child he held in his grip. "You take care of him."
Huffing, the boy looked away as his twin stumbled over to wrap himself around Rome's legs. The ever-smiling child looked up, gaze full of adoration. "I want to be strong enough to get Lovino to stop hitting me like you do someday, Grandpa!"
Feeling ungodly awful, the old man stooped even further and brought his sweet little Feliciano into a hug, but never forgetting that Lovino hovered just a foot away. "Oh how badly you make Grandpa feel!" Rome sighed after a moment when he let the child go.
Lovino, face a sharp contrast to the confusion his twin's bellied, demanded, "What do you mean Grandpa? Papas and mamas always puff out their chests when their children say they want to be like them."
Beckoning his other grandson to his side, Rome fell back with a tired sigh into a chair. Without further prompting, the duo pulled themselves up onto his lap and settle down. Fingers threading into his beard, Feliciano smiled as his brother asked again, "What do you mean, Grandpa?"
"Why's it make you feel bad when we want to be like you?" Feliciano reiterated, as if his brother's question would not get them the right tale. Putting a hand on both South and North Italy's heads, Rome felt tears well. Had he and Remus looked so small? They must have...and to think of the blood that had covered his tiny hands! Oh, how the old empire hated himself!
Hugging the twins, Rome kissed each of them. "It's not that I don't want you to be as I am and was...It's just - not all Grandfather did is he proud of."
"What aren't you proud of, Grandpa?" His smiling grandchild inquired, little hands stopping in the middle of their braiding.
He looked at Lovino. Predictably, the frowning boy crossed his arms and hissed at him, "What, Grandpa?"
"I had a brother," he told the two.
"What was his name?"
"What happened to him?"
They speak in nearly the same breath, but the empire discerned the two questions and answered after a moment. "His name was Remus and he was killed - by me."
Eyes unnervingly wide, Feliciano gasped. "Why!?"
"Yeah, why?" his twin questioned, body pulling back pensively.
Looking at two verging on identical faces, Rome could only think of the one that used to mirror his own. Bringing the children close in a hug, he told the duo,
"Because I had to."
"Remy! Remus!"
His duplicate's head turned; running toward him, the bare-chested boy offered a tiny trinket. Taking it, the other inspected it with all the dubious discernment only a child could. "What...is it?" he finally asked.
"It's a wolf!" Romulus proclaimed. "One of our people taught me how to make it!"
Squashing the soft thing, Remus gave it back to his shocked brother. "Try again Rom, I didn't see it at all."
"You have no vision, brother," he whispered, eyes never wavering from the ruined thing.
Going back to his dirt sketches, the other shrugged. "We are nations, our people need us to be strong - not artisans."
"Who says an artisan cannot be strong?" the child demanded. "You?"
Meeting his brother with a jutted chin, Remy sneered. "Yeah, me." Whip-crack quick, he shoved Romulus. "So, brother, who do you say is right now?"
From the ground, brown eyes dulled.
"No one."
Unhappy and irked, his double lay in on his brother, beating him with tiny fists as Romulus simply curled in and took it all. He bared the brunt of his brother's, his peoples' frustrations, fears, and turmoils just as their peoples' god Atlas carried the weight of the celestial above them.
"...He sounds like Lovino, Grandpa!" Feliciano declared, a happy smile on his boyish face.
Rome hugged him close and shook his head. "Oh never say that my boy, your brother...he has morals, he's connected to your people's idea of right and wrong; my brother never was."
Lovino looked up at him then. "What do you mean?" he scowled. "Are you saying he was broken?"
The old empire fought back tears. "Yes, yes I think I am."
"He's going to ruin us! Our nation!" Rifling through their things, Romulus watched with wide eyes as his double pulled a dagger from its' sheath.
Shooting forward, he grabbed his twin's wrist. "You can't! He's our king! If you kill him-!"
Remus tore away and sliced his brother across the cheek. "What?! What!? Tell me, Rom!"
"You'll kill us!"
His double smirked down at him. "Maybe I'll kill you, you're weak."
Adrenaline and fury pumping through him, Romulus dove at his double. "YAH!" he screamed, ripping the weapon from his brother's hand. "I'll show you who's weak!"
Lifting the dagger, he brought it down on Remus - stabbing him in the heart.
"R-Rom!" his twin sputtered. Anger gone, the boy turned his brother over to find a fading look in his double's eyes and blood dribbling from his mouth.
"No!" Romulus wailed. "No! I-I didn't mean to!"
Remus reached up with a shaking hand, fingers outstretched, he dug them into the cut he'd left previously on his twin's face. The boy threw himself away as his duplicate began to laugh.
"I should have killed you when I first h-had the chance!" Remus coughed. "Because by gods! You've finally got some fire in you!" Skin turning paler by the second, Remus sent him a final ragged smirk. "See you in Hades, brother!"
And as all dying nations go, he turned to dust following his final breath and was blown away to return to Mother Earth's cradle.
Weeping on the ground, Romulus did not care that someday he would be made to meet his brother again in Hades; all that mattered was he'd killed his brother, twin, and he would never clean the blood from his hands.
"I'm sorry!" he screamed. "I'm sorry!" But, something told Romulus, now Rome, that not a single god or man heard his apology.
"He was bad," Lovino declared. "He wanted to kill his boss! You can't do that!"
The old man could only nod his head. "You're right, you can't do that. We are nations and to kill your boss is self-destructive. Leave the matters of killing men to men, my boys."
Suddenly, Feliciano was tugging on his beard. "Will you be going to hell, Grandpa?"
"Of course!"
His ever-scowling grandson looked at him then. "...But you aren't bad, Grandpa," he told him.
He scooped the boys into his arms and set them right on the ground. "Oh yes, Grandpa is!" he hissed. "All nations will end up there someday! We have the blood of millions, billions, on our hands and each sin our people commit stains not only their souls, but ours!"
Abruptly, or maybe he should have expected it, Feliciano burst into tears. "I-I don't want to go to hell!" he wailed.
"Way to go, Grandpa," Lovino muttered, putting his tiny hands to his twin's cheeks. "Hey...Hey! Hey stop crying, you aren't going to hell, you idiot..."
He watched the pair, sometimes; he wished they could always stay so young. And other times, he wished they'd grow up faster so his death would not be so slow. As angry as he had been (and is) with his brother, he missed him far more than his heart could take some days and he wished to reunite with Remus even more now that he was in his twilight.
Age had made him sentimental.
"Someday we'll be the strongest nation in the world, don't you think?"
Rom studied his double's dreamy features, he sure didn't think they could be the most powerful...but he did believe his brother one day would rule the world. So, with a smile, he took his twin by his hand and said,
"You will, brother."
Shadows dancing merrily across his grinning face, Remus laughed. "No Rom! Not me! Both of us! I can't be powerful without you at my side."
"Thanks," he whispered taking his brother's hand. "I love you, Remus."
"I love you too, Romulus."
I'm absolutely fascinated with the idea of Ancient Rome having a twin-especially given the fact that Italy has two personifications and the creation myth of Rome (two brothers, Romulus and Remus, raised by wolves and then started Rome only for something unfortunate to happen to Remus).
In a previous fic, I also wrote out another scenario where Remus was killed; Tall Tales and True Tales, which also involved Slender Man. While that one was more crossover, I think this could line up a lot better in the Hetalia 'verse.
Thank you so much for reading this and let me know what you think with a review!