AN – Looking back over your reviews (40 for 6 chapters? I'm absolutely floored. Please continue! I love the feedback~), some of you are kind of close to what it is I'm thinking, though no one is completely right yet ...which is creepy. Get out of my head! (Shaking my fist and laughing) Though I will confirm one thing right now, Gilbert's Rochben is... not Gilbird (though the suggestion was clever)

In case anyone was wondering, the bond between partners could be made at any time, they just made it a tradition to do it on one night (a solstice) as that was when the future Námo's power would be strongest and that way the future Rochben's lives aren't being disrupted by summonings more than one night a year.

I'm thinking of translating one of my fics into French for practice as I need to work on my grammar. Are any of you especially fluent in French? Want to Beta for me? As despite my step-dad being French and having relatives in Québec, I get horribly confused when it comes to grammar (though I'm told my spoken French is excellent so my writing in general shouldn't be too bad).

My end notes are getting huge, I'm sorry.

UN BETA'D FOR NOW AS BOTH MY BETA AND I ARE SWAMPED WITH WORK, HOPE IT READS ALRIGHT!

I don't own Hetalia or anything besides my plot. :)


"They are coming back, the Guardians are re-emerging. It is nearly time, I can feel it." A light alto voice, cut through the darkness, the tone sinister.

"But of course mistress, contact has been made by Envy who has found a host for Lust and Gluttony is on standby."

"Very good Pride. Now, I think you should go join the welcoming party for our soon-to-be-guests. After all, I would hate for something to happen to any of them because Gluttony gets carried away. Oh! And be a dear and ask the Horsemen to come here? I have a task for them."

"As you command."

There were sounds of footsteps before the creaking of hinges could be heard and a sliver of light darted into the room, illuminating the lithe figure reclining on a mountain of pillows in the darkness.

"Very good...oh, and Pride?" The woman looked fairly predatory as she drew her attention back to the servant leaving.

"Yes mi'lady?"

"Should anything to happen to any of them, you will share that same fate. After all one of them could hold the missing piece, the one to return him to me."


As they rounded the corner, Roderich in sight, about fifteen Shadow Puppets fell from the sky, blocking the path. Curiously, on one of the deadly creature's shoulders perched a lean man with his jet black hair pulled back into a pony tail, his hands shielding his eyes from the rising sun.

"Ai-yah! What do we have here? A few piggies lost in the wilderness? And so far away from their homes! Such a shame, a shame... if only there was something..." The man's voice trailed off as from behind the sound of a great weight hit the compact dirt.

"We could do!" Another mocking voice finished.

As Antonio whirled around, he placed a calming hand on Lovino's shoulder who looked about ready to drop his human form and lunge for the nearest opponents throat. That would not do in a situation like this, they needed to take their time.

Especially as he did a double take when he recognized the figure now before him.

Erik, considered one of best mages (if not the best) ever to come out of Sarya was also apparently against them, judging by the red hour glass covering the bonding mark on the boy's adam's apple. He had pale blonde hair with a fly away curl held down by a cross shaped barrette and his eyes...they looked dead. He hadn't known that the other was a Guardian (he was starting to doubt whether any of the books in the Library that were accessible were of any use besides for basic magic. Anything that seemed to be actually useful in their situation was a mystery to him.)

He was said to have put down the entire Troll Rebellion two centuries ago by himself. As in, he took on a few thousand trolls who were trying to go against the treaty of the Wilds and won on his own– though now Antonio had a suspicion that his Rochben had assisted him at the very least.

The thought of such a powerful magic user against them who was twice as powerful because of the bond between Rochben and Námo, was quite frankly, terrifying.

Despite it having brought him and Lovi together, he was starting to regret having gone out that night. After all, since then he had constantly either been in danger or on the run. Though, in all honesty, he could not picture himself going back to the life he had before – living, but not really, stuck in a windowless gilded cage.

He knew the night had changed his life for the better but considering he now had one very pointy rapier pointed at his throat and one of the most dangerous magic users ever holding the other end, it was a fairly difficult thing to believe.

For a moment no one moved, both the ambush party and their group stared each other down.

Vash looked from back and forth between the two before he snorted derisively. "Yao and Erik. Huh. I cannot believe that you would both be so weak as to be possessed. You're pathetic."

Erik twitched before he replied. "I'm sorry. You seem to have our names wrong, I am Pride and he is Gluttony. I don't believe we have met before, but worry not, I believe I can guess yours, I'm sure you're all called corpse." With that he lunged forward and Antonio narrowly avoided being impaled on the end of the blade.

It seemed that was the signal as the Shadow Puppets began to attack and Yao pulled out an enormous mace (where had he been hiding it?), charging at Vash who blocked with a spell before going on the offensive, Lily backing him up. As soon as Erik had attacked Antonio, Lovino had shed his human guise in seconds and as a Kitsune, lunged at the mage's throat, fire swirling around him as his fury manifested itself. Once Antonio got over his shock, he instantly began providing back up. Elizabeta, Gilbert, Ludwig and Feliciano found their hands full with the dangerous shadow creatures that had to be completely destroyed in an instant or else could regenerate back.

Soon weapons of magic, flesh and steel were flying as each did their best to incapacitate the other (or in Vash's/Lovino's/Elizabeta's case, did their best to murder their opponents – they weren't very good at holding back)

All the while, the eyes kept darting back to the path where their comrade had disappeared, sick and kidnapped by Envy...

"You've got to be fucking shitting me." Piped up a new voice over the din of the fighting, incredulous.


He couldn't believe this!

There he was minding his own fucking business, trying to find the site of his old grave so he could rest for a while before he was dragged all this way to find that the magical summons was for a simple fight.

If they couldn't take on so few opponents on their own, that was their own damn fault and he wanted nothing to do with it.

But yet he couldn't abandon them. Not when he saw the Taurus and Rabbit pair along with the Aquarius and Ram pair alive and well. Those two pairs were probably those he got along best with among the twenty four of them, if only because they could fight well and tolerated him more then most. There was also fiery Elizabeta who he enjoyed sparing against and Lovino who he vaguely recognized from the Wild Court. He couldn't leave them to die, and the others, well they were barely fledglings, he supposed he could protect them as well.

This decision to stay was confirmed though when his eyes found the stormy grey empty ones of the one he used to call his Námo. He had sorely misjudged the other, on the day they had become bonded, as the Virgo and the Monkey, the mage had had to defeat him in combat, completely incapacitating him. The smarmy bastard had done it in little over 25 minutes and he had respected that, his skill, before this it had taken days for anyone to come close to defeating him. After all, being undead did offer the benefit of not needing rest or feeling pain; he could be torn limb from limb and continue on as though it were only a flesh wound. Yet, that plucky 10 year old had stopped him in his tracks and won with moderate ease. Those days, he felt together they could take on the world.

Yet he had betrayed him.

That night, when everything went to hell, the one to incapacitate him was not the enemy but his partner. He didn't care about the child's motives, whether the action was done in hate or...something else, it didn't matter. He had attacked him.

And that was something Mathias would never forgive.


On the cliffside above them was a Draug. He wore an old cloak of fur, a dark red tunic over black breeches and leather boots all of which were aged and heavily stained with blood, mud and dirt. In contrast, his pale white skin and blonde hair seemed to glow, perhaps because they were free from most of the grime. Curiously enough, he appeared to be moderately sentiment considering the being could talk and the look of horror on his face. He had thought that the creatures were like the Berserkers of times long gone past, those that had given up their humanity, emotions, sensations and lived only for the thrill of battle and the rain of blood.

This one seemed oddly grounded, how peculiar.

However, that didn't matter as the creature jumped down in to the battle ground and quickly turned into a troll. Now a word about trolls, they don't really need fighting technique – they're ridiculously strong and are huge. So while Mathias quickly stomped out or beat with a tree-turned-club all of their enemies so that they were quickly and easily vanquished. Nothing left of them but what looked to be ink stains on the ground.

Except of course, the two that were the most dangerous, Gluttony and Pride just looked amused.


Run.

The instincts had taken hold again. Need to run.

Get out.

Chasing.

Hunting.

Break free.

Escape.

Flee. Flee. Flee.

Enemy.

Turn, jump, bound, leap, sprint, turn, pivot.

Can't get caught.

Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrun.


Arthur looked down at the small silver key, nestled in his palm.

Just what had the Prince been trying to do?

What was this key for?

Did it hold the missing piece?

He had searched, he had gone back to old haunts, meeting places, safety points. All of them were completely devoid of life. The reef where his family had so enjoyed swimming was empty. The sunken ship that his little brother Peter enjoyed playing in along with his friends was deserted. The paths in the deep caverns under the mountains were chocked with dust. The place where the Wild Court itself was centred around, its barriers were broken and its beauty still lay broken on the ground, undisturbed since that fateful night.

He was getting nowhere like this. He thought as he clenched his fist around the small thing. Just what was he looking for out here now anyway? What answers? It was clear that he wasn't asking the right questions anyway.

He then heard oncoming footsteps and stilled before quickly scattering any signs of his presence and diving into a nearby bush. His senses all screamed at him to hide even more thoroughly as a wave of dark miasma hit him. However, his curiosity wouldn't have that, so peering out from the foliage amongst which he had concealed himself, he was astonished to see the Cancer Guardian running along the path.

How was Roderich the source of such a dark aura?

Then he saw the limp body of Francis hung over his shoulder and saw red. Suddenly it didn't really matter if he had turned to evil magic or if it was a giant misunderstanding. Francis was one of the first to be immediately kind to him, others usually thought he was human and were typically suspicious after he revealed he in fact, wasn't. And now the stupid twat was hurt somehow and possibly in danger.

Well, he wouldn't stand for that.


Envy had an uneasy feeling he was being followed...but that was nonsense, Pride and Gluttony should have been enough to deal with the group back there, especially as most of them hadn't undergone (or couldn't remember) any formal combat training.

Should have been a piece of cake, there was no need to worry as there was no way anyone could be following him.

This train of thought was disrupted by a small rock flying out of nowhere and hitting him in the forehead.

"What?"

Then another slightly larger one hit him in the ear.

"Who's there?"

Then a large rock hit him in his stomach, causing him to double over and drop Francis before another larger one hit his shin. Before he could be shot again, a great weight landed on his back, knocking him out.

Arthur got up from where he had landed on Envy (he had launched himself out of a tree~) and looked down at Francis who was clearly burning up with a fever. As he watched however, he saw him cough up some inky black substance that made the Selkie cringe.

That was no good, the damn pillock had managed to somehow become contaminated by miasma, he needed to be treated immediately before it corrupted his magic anymore.

Just then Roderich groaned as he began to come to and Arthur quickly came to a decision. He quickly went and erased all traces of his presence (so his tracks, what was left of his distraction rock-throwing traps, etc.) before he grabbed Francis under the arms and hoisted him over his shoulder.

Stealthy, he ran through the foliage before coming across what he was looking for, a fairly harmless looking pond by the cliffside.

Quickly, he pulled on his seal skin and plugged Francis's nose before he dove into the murky depths.

Swimming as quickly as he could, he dragged his burden to a small passage. Not many knew, the passage of time erasing nearly all traces, but Goblins had once a magnificent city here and the passage was one of the few entrances left, hidden in the water. Arthur remembered, then again, he was very old, though how old he isn't sure as he lost track long ago.

It was through here and upwards that he was pulled his sick friend until they burst through onto the other side, on the upper levels of the city.

Pulling Francis up and onto dry ground, into the remnants of the court house if he remembered right – and he should, after all he had been pretty wild in his younger years and had had to attend a number of times before he entered the service of the queen.

Slipping of his seal fur, he gently covered Francis with it before wandering off to go see if any of the old store rooms had anything preserved there – whether dried herbs or blankets to help Francis or any mead for himself... he had the strangest feeling he would be needing it.

As he turned, he failed to notice the slight glowing that overtook them both as Francis's hand closed over the makeshift blanket.


Just realized I made Arthur a Selkie when by canon he isn't able to swim. Erm...oops?

Someone on Deviantart asked me if they could make fanart, if any of you want to, please do! Just send me the link so I can stare at it in awe and post it in my Profile so others can go stare at it too :D

Also sorry to any USUK fans, while I am slowly being converted to the pairing (as evidenced by some of the other stuff I'm writing) the two of them wouldn't work for this story. It is to be FRUK for reasons to be made clearer later.


Draug(Mathais) – Original Nordic word meant ghost though they are more similar to zombies in that they are undead and have a taste for raw flesh and drink blood. Either corpse pale (na-folr) or death black (hel-blar), carry the stench of decay with them and can increase size/weight at will. The have some immunity to usual weapons (swords, axes, etc), posses superhuman strength, can rise from under the ground in a mist, and can shape-change (seal, troll, great flayed bull, a grey horse with a broken back but no ears or tail, and a cat that would sit upon a sleeper's chest and grow steadily heavier until the victim suffocated). The only way to defeat it was to wrestle it bare-handed to the ground, before decapitating, staking and lighting the draug on fire. The barrow-wight from Tolkien's work is frequently compared to draugs.


Yao: Sagittarius. Sagittariuses are scholars, enjoying learning and debate and are very intelligent/philosophical people, someone who you could go to for answers. Due to this, they also love challenges and are ambitious, always on the lookout for a new experience or piece of knowledge and do not like being tied down. Are also optimistic, giving, cheerful, outdoors-y and enjoy laughing and making others laugh/happy as well. As a Fire Sign, Sagittariuses are passionate, charming, popular, curious, energetic, defenders – protecting to death what is important to them, creative, loud and proud (borderline egotistical at times)

Erik (Norway): Virgo. Virgos are practical, logical and analytical thinkers, enjoying reasoning and dissecting problems until all possible solutions are found and pick the one that best suits the problem. Are sincere but because of their analytical personalities, frequently come across as cold. As workaholics, they strive to do their best but hold others to the same standards. As an Earth Sign, Virgos are well-grounded, slightly-over bearing, responsible, giving, conservative, organized, stubborn and are family-oriented.

Mathias: Monkey – Monkeys are curious, mischievous, clever, playful, creative, intelligent, determined, ambitious, adaptive, inventive, opportunistic, versatile, charming and somewhat distrusting of others intentions. Sensitive, they will frequently hide hurt behind practical jokes and comments (though they also just love to poke fun) and are always looking for some adventure/challenge as they are easily bored. May have good intentions though inadvertently cause ill will at times as plans won't always work – though when a Monkey needs to commit, they will do so and follow through as best they can. Unpredictable-geniuses.


In case anyone's having difficulty keeping track.

Gilbert (mage) / ? ?

Francis (mage) / ? ?

Antonio (mage) / Lovino (Nine-tail fox) Leo/Dragon

missing Guardian / missing Wild Prince ? Scorpio/?

Ludwig (mage) / Feliciano (water elemental) Taurus/Rabbit

Vash (mage) / Lily (Vila) Aquarius/Ram

Erik (mage) / Mathias (Draug) Virgo/Monkey

? (mage) / ? (Wolf demon {think Fenrir}) Gemini/Ox

Yao (mage) / ? (Basilisk) Sagittarius/Rat

? (mage) / ? (Naga) Capricorn/Rooster

Heracles (mage) / Kiku (Griffin)Pisces/Boar

Roderich (mage) / Elizabeta (Fury) Cancer/Tiger


Roderich – Envy, Yao – Gluttony, Erik – Pride, Heracles -?

Kiku - ?,


Explanations for selection of Sins and whatnot will wait, this end note is too long D:


PLEASE REVIEW! (also vote in my poll if you haven't and want me to update this one over my other works)