Title: To Shatter the Sky

Fandom: Axis Powers: Hetalia

Rating: T

Genre: Angst

Pairing(s): Germany x Italy, sundry other pairings

Summary: AU. The World is covered in wreckage from an apocalyptic war, and the sky has long been forgotten in a perpetual fog. But when Ludwig finds a mysterious young man in the ruins, he discovers a power that threatens to shatter the very sky itself...

A/N: I've been excited to write this. Under planning for sometime, I should say that this is going to be a very large project.

…Read on.

Disclaimer: Nope


To Shatter the Sky

An Axis Powers: Hetalia fan fiction by Triangular Prism


Chapter One


Radio-static initially roused Ludwig from an exhausted sleep, but the voice that followed was what actually made him open his eyes.

"Oooi! West, wakey wakey eggs and bacey! Or whatever. That's what Alfred does to Arthur all the time, so I figured I'd try! Unless crawlers have gotten you. In which case that'll kind of suck, because it'll be a pain in the ass to find your body—"

"Gilbert." A heavy, sleep-laden voice growled out the words into the air as the offending radio was seized. "Shut… up."

"Woo-hoo! You're alive! That makes me feel a lot better. Rise and shine bruder, this is your 7a.m wake up call!"

"…What?"

"Okay fine, I don't actually know what that means, I heard it on some of those radio tapes. But it has been exactly…" There was a pause. "Uh, eight hours of sleep time, so… Oi! West! Wakey wakey, eggs and—"

"I get it! Shut up!" With that, the link was terminated.

All the annoying rabble aside, Ludwig Beilschmidt smoothed blond strands of bedridden hair aside, blinking away the blur in his eyes. All that met his gaze was the mottled gray of the tarp above his head. While it would have been wonderful to fall back to sleep for a few more minutes at least, he knew such a luxury outside of base camp would be dangerous. The less time he spent in one place, the better.

With a deep sigh, Ludwig shed the warm cover of his sleeping bag, already fully clothed. He always slept in his clothes for overnight treks. All that really was required was to roll it up and tie it back to the pack that had served as a pillow. He did so, before flicking the radio back on. Not that the voice had ceased speaking...

"Ugh, bro! That is so not cool cutting me off like that! What if you get spontaneously attacked and I'm back here sitting on my ass not knowing if you're mauled or not? Don't turn the freaking radio off on me!"

"He's right, you know." A new voice joined, crackling as it came into range.

"Oh. Hello, Kiku," Ludwig sigh. He cautiously lifted the edge of the tarp a few inches, allowing tendrils of gray mist to slip through. There was no sign of movement beyond.

"Please be more careful with your safety, Ludwig," the voice of Kiku was chastising, "You are alone and far from base. If something happens, then you need your radio to wire for help. If it is off, we cannot help you."

"Fine, fine."

A decision was made; Ludwig abruptly stood, and passed through the ceiling of the tarp entirely. With a hiss, and a scattering of static, the protective camouflage deactivated. Mottled grays and blacks fizzled into lines of green, before receding in a rapid pattern of decay all the way to the ground. All that remained was a thin metal cord, looping in a wide oval around the makeshift camp.

Now light and easy to carry, it only took a few secure twists to bundle it up and stow it in the top of his pack. Ludwig may not have known much about Old War technology, but he had to admit that at times like these it was certainly handy.

Finally, with the tight camouflage gone, Ludwig stood completely exposed to his surroundings.

Around him loomed a mountain of rubble. Cold, dead concrete, broken and crumbling in the remains of what had once been soaring buildings. Metal protruded like great black trees, twisted and melted beyond recognition. And then there was the fog...

"We are just waiting for Alfred. He hasn't arrived yet..." Kiku said, sounding slightly exasperated. Ludwig rolled his eyes; but not while scooping his tiny radio from the ground. In actuality, it was a small, thin rod, shiny and black. A ribbon of light ran from beginning to end, pulsing with two strong lights as it transmitted. Nestled in Ludwig's ear was the matching piece, a small bud that remained securely attached by the thin black band that ran around his head.

He was stowing the radio transmitter in his belt when the it finally cracked for the third time, a third light blinking into existence. With it came a babbling, frantic voice.

"Oh! Oh geeze, sorry guys! I overslept, and Arthur didn't wake me up! Thanks a lot, Arty!" This last sentence was directed to someone in the background, and was promptly followed by distant shouts that sounded like insults.

"Please, Alfred."

"Al, c'mon. This is my bro we're leading here."

"Right! Right, sorry, I'll get warmed up."

A loud whine started up, making Ludwig wince before it faded away to a quiet purr.

"So, Luddy!" Alfred's voice chirped up, "How'd you sleep? Did the camo work? I programmed it myself! Well, part of it, since it was already sort of built but I just tweaked it so it would blend a bit better with the ground so you'd just look like a chunk of concrete and-"

He continued to chatter away, beyond cheerful, but Ludwig tuned him out. Alfred was always like this. Instead, the man simply shouldered his pack, and prepared to set off.

"I'm preparing to climb down now," he spoke, his voice transmitted to the three beyond. That being said he took a careful step from his camp... and stood at the edge of a void.

The tiny outcropping he had slept in for the night, was in truth on top of a small mountain of rubble, even if it barely compared to the towers still around it. With a near sheer cliff of glass and stone in front of him, it only illustrated how deep the ground was buried in it.

Ludwig began his preparations; he stretched. He stretched his arms first, and then his legs, before dropping to complete a quick set of push-ups. Then sit ups. When his limbs finally felt limber enough for his liking, out came a pair of heavy gloves from one of his many pockets. The pair was thick and heavy; meant especially for his climbing and were well worn because of it. They were fingerless, granting him ability to cling and , but also protected his palms from shards or rough concrete.

"Okay! The system's up and running!" Alfred broke in, "Are you guys all ready?"

"Finally! I'm on standby."

"Standing by."

"I'm ready to go. Not hotspots?"

"Absolutely none! I'm running the trace now."

The radio transmitter abruptly let out a loud squawk, and a flare of white light. Hairs on the back of Ludwig's neck rose as he felt a static settle from above, an uncomfortable feeling that encompassed his entire body before dying away.

"I have him on grid now."

"Kesesesese! Don't fall and break your neck. It'll be a pain to find your-"

"Right, body. I heard. Have a little faith, won't you?"

"What're you talking about? I always have faith in my baby brother~"

Even with the chatter, there was an expectant air now that everything was in place. Ludwig moved a toe, balancing on the edge of the void, taking a deep breath. It was time to relax, to not think about exactly how far down he would climb. It was for this reason he was the explorer, the scavenger- with his build, he was the one most suited for the physical task of retrieving what they searched for.

This trip? Salvaging much-needed power cells, for the life-supporting equipment back at base camp.

He opened his eyes, carefully slicking back a few strands of escaped blond hair. It wouldn't do to be distracted now. Stepping down, he tested his weight on the first crevice he found, and began his long, laboring journey downwards.

Naturally it took a long time. Clinging like a spider to the edge of the ruined cliff, every movement was agonizing slow- Ludwig had to calculate each grab he made, each shift of his foot. His muscles strained, bulging against the fabric of a long-sleeved shirt, and his face was red from exertion. But he moved, slowly but surely, downwards.

Gilbert, Kiku, and Alfred usually grew bored with the wait. They were required to stay on as his lookouts, but with the climbs Ludwig took, some stretching for hours, fidgeting always happened. Kiku was usually good about hiding it, but the other two...

"...Hey West. Knock knock."

"..."

"Knock knoooock."

"Gilbert, just... no."

"...Who's there?"

"Alfred, don't encourage him."

"Oran-"

"What did I say!"

They fell silent at Ludwig's sharp order. The climber paused a moment on a small outcrop, rubbing his temples in irritation.

"Perhaps I could read something?" Kiku offered a while later, the silence finally getting to him. "I have some nice poetry encryptions I could pull up, or-"

"Or what, your dirty porn books? My bro doesn't want any part of your perverted hobby dude," Gilbert cut across, cackling, and Kiku instantly spluttered protests, most likely turning a bright red on his end of the radio. Alfred broke into wild laughter, and the mixture of noise sent a sharp throb through poor Ludwig's temples...

"Will everyone just SHUT UP?" he roared, lowed enough to cow all three troublemakers on the other side...

At that very moment he made an ill-timed grab for a nearby handhold- only to have it crumble away under his fingers. He was leaning forward with nothing to support him from falling. Under his badly aligned weight, Ludwig's feet slipped, sending him flailing and for a hair-raising minute he was swinging in space, the void looming beneath him.

Then his hand slammed back to the stone, seizing a more solid outcropping, and he was safe, grappling spread-eagled on the side of the face. The man panted heavily, sweat streaming down his face.

A deadly silence had fallen. The others, having heard Ludwig's muffled curses, felt something bad had happened... but were afraid to ask.

"Uh... everything okay there, bro?" Gilbert asked weakly.

Ludwig let out a very long, very controlled breath.

"The will be," he began in utter monotone, "Absolutely no more talking while I am climbing. None at all."

Needless to say there was radio silence for the rest of the climb.


Shadows fell the deeper he descended. When at long last, Ludwig touched down on mostly level solid ground, his legs went boneless, nearly giving out. He steadied himself to the cheering of the radio.

"Awesome! I don't know how you can do it, dude!"

"That's my little bro for ya~ Luddy! Your big brother is super proud of you!"

"Right..."

Ludwig allowed himself a ten-minute break on a nearby bar of metal. How long he had been climbing, he didn't know. The time he spent always blurred together no matter what climb he was on. His focus was only ever on reaching the end in one piece.

While his lungs calmed and his trembling muscles soothed themselves, Ludwig surveyed the new area with a sharp eye. It was unfamiliar to him; he'd ventured particularly far on this specific trip. The fog that glinted above wasn't as thick here, but instead there was decay, and shadow.

Deep down as he was, the ruined buildings of ages past were toppled against each other like a giant's playthings, toys thrown away and forgotten. It blocked any view of the sky save for a few places where mist streamed weakly through. The air was musty. As far as he could tell there was a fairly level path of ground he could follow, and much further ahead he thought he could see the light from a larger area.

"Ludwig? Ludwig, can you hear me?" Yet another voice was speaking to him, and in the background was the sound of Alfred complaining. His headset must have been taken. The voice repeated itself, sounding worried.

"Yes, Arthur, I can hear you," Ludwig said warily, "What is it?"

"'What is it?' You're honestly asking me that? You've just completed a four-hour climb, old boy, I need to check up on you. Do you feel any particular strain anywhere? Do some simple stretches."

He really didn't want to comply, but it wouldn't do to disobey the orders of their medic. Thus with groaning muscles Ludwig did as he was told, following Arthur's instructions.

"Nothing? Good. Now roll your ankle and tell me how it feels, as you sprained it last time." The ankle was obediently rolled. "No pain? Very good. Now, remember to take those nutrient and water pills I gave you. You must recover the energy you've burned if you want to come up the same way. Alfred, will you wait just a moment!"

"Artyyyyyy, gimme back my mike!"

"Bloody hell will you let go of me! My job is just as important as yours, if not more- hey! HEY! SET ME DOWN!"

There was a scuffle from the sounds of it, and much swearing on Arthur's part before Alfred recovered his position. Gilbert was chuckling.

"The hero is back! Luddy, I just want to let you know there might be a little rock shower coming in any moment now."

Instantly Ludwig tensed.

"What? Where?" he asked sharply, echoed by the worry of Kiku and Gilbert.

"Don't worry, it isn't huge," Alfred hastily assured him, "From where you are, I don't think it's big enough to cause major damage. Just in case though, hug the sides or hole up somewhere, 'kay? I don't think it'll last longer than a minute. Over and out~"

No sooner had he ceased speaking that the sound of trickling rock filteredin from above. Ludwig glanced upwards, frowning deeply. Then he made for a small alcove in a pile of metal and stone. Seconds later, the toppled buildings groaned; a deep, echoing sound followed by the sound of a thousand pebbles beating against them all at once. As Alfred had said, though, the buildings were sheltering him from the worst of the damage. Dust was falling from grinding stone, and a few shattered remnants trickled through gaps, but none fell near him. Inwardly he sigh with relief.

The shower didn't even last thirty seconds. Just as quickly as it had begun, it was over, the last of the dust settling and the sounds fading away. Silence fell again. Ludwig counted a full minute, a standard safety rule in the case of stray debris, and when nothing else happened, he emerged.

"See? Wasn't that bad. Still lucky you were under those buildings though, might've hurt otherwise. Anyway, you ready for the hunt? You're getting closer. Apparently the grid says that..."

Instructions were issued, and Ludwig listened carefully. Blue eyes followed the tunnel of darkness to focus on the faint traces of an existing trail; a good few miles of hiking, all through rough, uneven terrain.

He tightened the straps of his pack.


"...And so then Elizabeta got fed up with the guy and brained him with the thing! Vash chased 'im out pretty quick after that -man, did the guy run, you should have seen 'im- but he left all his stuff behind! Most of it turned out to be junk after all, but Lizzie totally kept whatever it was he was trying to sell her. Still doesn't know what it's for though, we think maybe for keeping liquids-"

Mindless chatter. It was all there was to have anyhow. Alfred was usually the one to supply it the most readily, as Ludwig was not much of a talker and Gilbert tended to doze off it there was not much action for him to be had. Kiku was naturally silent as well. Luckily, Alfred almost always had enough energy to talk for three, whether the others liked it or not.

At least, it could be sort of refreshing, especially in the frustrating times when Ludwig struggled with a particular difficult obstacle in the terrain. Such as now.

"Alfred?"

"Yeah, buddy?"

"Why exactly am I here again?" Disgruntled, the blond was standing back, surveying the path in front of him. The final roadblock preventing him from moving on, out of the gloomy alleyway he'd climbed into was a particularly stubborn pile of metal and concrete. It was too loose to climb, but too large to plausibly shift out of the way...

"Funny story, actually!" Heedlessly, Alfred chattered on. "I was just minding my own business, checkin' out all the grids, when all of a sudden, there's this whole new section I never saw before!"

Maybe if he used that ledge there to jump past..? No, that'd bring the whole thing down, and being buried was no fun...

"It was so cool! Naturally I had to show it off to everyone since I found it first, and after the other tech guys totally hero-worshiped me for being so cool-"

"Moving on, please."

"...Uh, yeah. Still, it was sort of suspicious. So, me and the guys checked it out a bit more. Turns out it'd been there all along, only the fog was screwing up our signals."

Strange. Ludwig absently tugged at a thick piece of twisted metal- an I-beam, by the looks of it. An uncharted area previously undetectable to even Alfred's grid... then, just as suddenly accessible...

"You know the rest. I checked it out for hot spots, then showed it to Vash and Roderich. Which is what brings us way out here! Yay!"

"Easy for you to say," Ludwig muttered. He grunted, feeling the metal beam suddenly shift a few inches. A few pebbles came falling from above.

"Staying aware of your surroundings is still prudent, of course," Kiku added, popping into the conversation. "Just because it is clear does not mean it is safe."

Ludwig had half-tuned out at the moment, since high above him the very top of the pile was shuddering, wobbly dangerously. The blond looked at the metal beam in his hands, just a few inches freer than it had been a minute before.
"Oh, scheisse..."

"Huh? What's that?"

With a rumble, and an explosion of dust, the entire wall of rubble promptly fell on him.


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[A/N]: I want to thank you right now for taking the time to read the beginning of this story. It has been under development for quite a while now. I was sort-of-vaguely-not-really inspired by a great fic, 'You can't take the sky from me' but mainly, because I wanted to write something... well... epic?

This first chapter is actually only part of the original full first chapter, but... I felt it was dragging on with too much for a beginning, so chapter two (or chapter one part two?) Will be up tomorrow.

TSTS will be a very project, but I plan to stick through with it until the end! All I ask is that you read, and enjoy, and maybe review this first chapter so I know if I'm doing it right.

Thanks,

~RectangularPrism