Part 1 ~*~ Chapter 8 ~*~ Iron-Clad Pipe


"I will not tell you anything!" Aldrich spat towards Ivan.

The Russian only gave a smile in response. "I don't think you have much choice, Mr. Beilschmidt. You are out of options, da?"

Ivan grasped his whip harder, his knuckles turning white. Aldrich flinched in the darkness from the noise, unable to move much do to being chained to the wall by his wrists. His clothes had become scraps compared to how they were a few hours ago. His long blonde hair was in disarray, tangled with knots and splotches of fresh blood coming from his head.

Aldrich glared with all his might towards the Russian with his green eyes, though glaring was very hard for him when his own blood was slipping down his forehead over his eye, along with the fact that he couldn't see the man in this kind of lighting. He had several cuts and a few nasty gashes on his body, mainly his back, and a black eye.

Ivan felt amused with this prisoner. He gave quite the show when you messed around a bit. Raising his arm, he cracked the whip against Aldrich's bare back, forcing the older man to arch back in pain and yell out once again. Beads of sweat fell from the German's face and body; his head hanging low as he tried to catch a breath of air. With another crack of the whip, the man was rammed into the wall. The red liquid spilled from the cut, the pale skin soon becoming covered in the dark crimson blood.

Tall and terrifyingly Ivan stood, with a look that could freeze Hell in just mere seconds.

"Is my whip not good enough?" Ivan stated, more to himself than towards his prisoner. The German bit his lip and kept his gaze up on the Russian. "Stubborn, this one is." Ivan thought.

He turned his back to Aldrich, leaving the room for only a minute to return back with something sleek and shiny behind his back. Ivan gave one of his "memorable" smiles as the German paled.

Ivan brought the thin, steel pipe with the water spigot up, his figure engrossed with darkness. He swung down and striked Aldrich again and again, taking careful aim towards the head with each hit. The clanking of the pipe against Aldrich's skull was only what Ivan heard, not even hearing Aldrich's screams, could only feel the warm, fresh blood spraying on his face and hands. Only red… only red… The feeling of beating this man up was... invigorating. It wasn't until the man turned limp that Ivan stopped.

He stared at his hands and pipe, practically soaked in the body fluid. Spots of the substance were spread across the small room. Blood was pouring out quickly from Aldrich's head, whose body was now lying on the floor, still. Giving one last look to the beaten pulp of a man on the cold stone floor, Ivan turned.

"Nighty night, Sputnik."

He turned off the light and left, slamming the iron-clad door behind him.


Yao ran a hand through his dark hair, angrily sighing. He was sitting with Ivan in that same office once before in the ice cream factory with the shades closed. The Chinese man was not pleased with how Ivan handled the prisoner.

"Seriously, beating him into death? What is wrong with this man? He never did something like this before! And why would he call me here just to let me know something like that! Killing was not a part of the plan!"

"Aiya… Ivan, you can't beat prisoners like that! For one, it is inhumane! It is hard to get rid of evidence like that! And two, how can we get information from them if they're dead?! Do you understand how heavy this situation is?"

Ivan only smirked, ignoring his question as he polished the steel pipe in his hand. His legs were crossed and his arms slowly moving up and down, not a care in the world of his actions.

"Ivan Braginski, I know you. You wouldn't beat someone up like this unless they were involved with you personally. What made you think it was right to kill him?" Yao yelled, banging his fist against the ivory desk Ivan sat across. Steadily, Ivan placed his pipe down on the desk and neatly folded his hands with his elbows on the desk. He leaned his head on his hands, looking down for a brief second before looking at Yao.

"You always notice things such as that. I think you noticed many things while we had dated." His creepy smile came back with a hint of mischievousness. Yao's cheeks turned pink at the comment, but crossly grunted back at him. "J-Just go on, please!"

"Hmm… Mr. Beilschmidt had nothing to do directly with anything. It's his children and his little friend. His son and daughter-in-law were the ones responsible for the downfall of the mafias that were set up in Germany."

Yao's eyes widened. "Wait, they were the Iron Fists that destroyed everything over there?"

"Da. Mr. Aldrich Beilschmidt helped, using his previous knowledge of his own experience in the Italian mafia. Beilschmidt used to work under Mr. Romulus Vargas while he lived in Italy before going back to Germany. Vargas, on the other hand, is very much famous throughout all of Europe and Asia in the mafia world as you know. Kill, drink, and sex was all he ever cared about for a long time. It was his life. Though there was a point where he turned, where sometime before his "official" removal of the mafia, he took something with him. Something of high value."

Yao eyed him, encouraging Ivan to continue. The Russian gave a hard glare to him, showing Yao a side of darkness that could rival the devil. Whatever this was, it had to have been bad or emotionally straining to the man.

"He stole records. Records of every single mafia member he could get his hands on. Replaced them so that we couldn't catch it that easily or clearly tell the records were stolen. And he's taking us down from the inside out, killing the mafia off one by one until there is none left."

Whatever Yao was prepared to hear was defenestrated. A great mafia head… stole information about his own members from his own mafia… to kill them?

Ivan interrupted his thoughts and said, "You remember Natalya?"

Yao shuttered involuntarily. "Your sister with all those knives hidden under her skirt and her obsession with trying to get you to marry her? The one who broke another man's fingers when she went on a date with him? That Natalya?"

The mafia head nodded, tilting his head down lower and spoke in a deep, low voice. "Romulus did his job well. Took her out over a year ago after she left to go get information on another Italian mafia member. Figured he'd also kill other mafia gang members along with his own so that there won't be any more mafias around; at least the powerful ones. She was found dead in the street, her throat slit."

Yao thought, "This must be what really distresses Ivan… it explains things a bit."

"I'm sorry for your lost, Ivan. Under it all, she was a... special woman." Yao said carefully. "...Should we be worried?"

"No. That's why Beilschmidt is- excuse me, was very helpful to us, especially since my agents have collected some data from his house. Though I must worry about his grandson."

"Why?" Yao asked.

Ivan placed his hands in his lap, sitting upright. "He's obviously trying to figure out what happened with his parents and I soon suspect he'll learn of his grandfather sometime soon. He is just… getting rather close, I should say."

"Has he-"

"He has not done anything highly damaging yet. We are keeping a tab on him."

Yao leaned back in his chair. "This is just so messed up! It's just betrayal after betrayal…" He narrowed his eyes. "Would Ivan betray him?" No, he shouldn't think of that.

"And…" Yao said. "About the Vargas grandchildren?"

"They'll be the perfect bait to lure Romulus out, da? Though he hid them quite well. I believe them to be out of the country at the very least. But no worries, everything will turn out for us."

Though Ivan believed it to be good, Yao couldn't help the dreadful feeling coming up in the pit of his stomach. As much as he was a mafia man, those children have no relations with the current problem between Ivan and Romulus, and getting them involved is technically… breaking the codes. He could only hope the grandchildren will stay away from this mess until Ivan was done with this fit of rage within him. And with what Ivan had done with the Beilschmidt man, he was worried for what he'd do to those children. His guess was that Ivan would beat them to a pulp; to near death...

Even though he himself was a mafia head, and he had his fair share of kills as well, Yao didn't like to see innocent blood spilt.


*A/N: Done! Phew! And I don't know when the next update is. Probably soon since my exams are done and over with! But thank you guys so much! So many favorites and alerts! And almost 3,000 hits? Wootness~ And I apologize. Yes, I killed Germania. And Belarus.

I'm such a terrible person.

And there were many hints in this chapter that foreshadows future events. See if you can spot them!

And also, I don't own Hetalia :P

Translations: (please correct me if I'm wrong!)

Russian:

da - right/yes

Sputnik - "traveling companion", etc.