Chapter 10: Sorella Mea

After Belphegor and Hansel pull themselves together, Hansel leads the way into one of the rooms at the end of the hall, he bursts in with a cheerful smile while calling, "sisteeeer~ you won't believe what I met while out!" Only to stop in confusion in the doorway as he finds the room empty. "Sister?"

Belphegor clicks his tongue, "tch, the dust in the hallway did indicate that no one had passed through it within the last six hours, I was hoping that meant that your sister had spent that time in the room, not that she'd left before then. Inconvenient." He grumbled.

"I don't understand, your Highness. Gretel was supposed to be here? Why did she leave?" Hansel questions.

Belphegor scans the room before replying, "it appears that she left in a hurry, perhaps she caught wind that you were going to be attacked?"

Hansel grips his axe with concern, "if that's true then she might have gone after the Russians, she could be in danger!" While Hansel was speaking Belphegor had been scanning the room and then started walking towards the door. Hansel notices that Belphegor was leaving and questions uncertainly, "your Highness?"

Belphegor simply grins toothily back at Hansel, "come along Hansel." Hansel scurries out of the room after Belphegor.

…

Approximately fifteen minutes later at a dock. "Come ooooon Rock! Speed your ass up! We haven't got all day!" A tan woman with purple hair shouts aggressively at an Asian man wearing a suit and tie without the jacket.

The man, called Rock, sighs with suppressed irritation, "you don't need to yell Revy, I'm working as fast as I can and we're nearly loaded. If its such a big deal you COULD help."

"Ahhhh?!" Revy growls as she leans into Rock's face, "that's rich, back-talk from the corporate slave. If you weren't such a pansy we'd be done by now!"

He glares back, plainly annoyed with the woman's behavior, "and if you'd been helping, we would've been finished half an hour ago!"

Revy straightens with a snort, "why the hell should I help, when it was YOUR idea to try to smuggle the thumb-sucker out from under Balalaika's nose? We're damn lucky that she hasn't stormed the dock already!"

"It was the right thing to do! Are you saying that we should've just left her to die?!" Rock yelled.

Revy stares back with flat, dull eyes, "yes."

Rock drops the crate that he was carrying and grabs the front of Revy's black tank top, "Revy! How could you say that?! She's just a child!"

"Ushishishishi~ while it's fascinating to watch peasants squabble, you have something that belongs to The Prince, and he'd like it back." Both the man and the woman freeze at the intrusion of the unfamiliar voice. The woman's head turns to take in the blond teenager with his eyes covered by his fringe, a leather jacket with a crest embroidered over the left side, a white gold crown worn slanted on his head, and the unstable smile stretched across his face. She reaches under Rock's arm that's still gripping her shirt, with one hand to draw one of the guns in the holsters strapped under her armpits, while the other hand shoves Rock away from her so that he tumbles over the edge of the dock and onto the deck of the ship moored beside them.

"I don't recall ever taking anything from you brat, now get lost before I hurt ya!" The woman barks as she levels the gun at Belphegor's head. She has a moment to see the teen's smile widen before he's closing the distance between them, "fuck!" She shouts as she pulls the trigger. Belphegor leans out of the way and the shot sails harmlessly past his head, she reaches with her other hand to draw her second gun as she tries to fire again with the still extended gun. Belphegor ducks under the second shot and before her left hand can draw the gun that she'd wrapped her fingers around he throws one of his knives into the back of her hand. Revy howls from the pain, her hand jerking away from the gun, "Dutch! Get the damn ship moving! We're under attack!" She shouts aggressively.

She registers a figure in black leap past her onto the ship, before she feels something close around the hand wielding the gun and all of the sudden her hand is getting wrenched up behind her head, and she is staring into the face of the insanely smiling blond, as wires dig into the flesh of her hand. "Ushishishishi~ you have good reflexes, peasant~ but you aren't quite as refined as the Russian Fox~" He taunts musically.

She attempts to throw her leg up between Belphegor's legs in a truly brutal kick, but is foiled when Belphegor slices across the inner thigh of her leg with one of his knives, causing Revy to throw her head back and scream as warm blood floods down her leg. "FUCK!" She howls. "You little shit, I'mma kill you!"

Belphegor chuckles, "ushishishi~ The Prince thinks that opportunity has passed." Then he turns his head away to yell at the ship, "hand over Gretel, or The Prince will disembowel the foul-mannered female peasant~" And then he grins like a wolf in a henhouse, "of course it would be more fun if you refused~ The Prince would enjoy slaughtering you all~"

Revy hears a whimper and turns to look at the ship, she sees Hansel sitting on Rock's chest with his axe held against his chin, "your Highness, should I kill this one? We only need one hostage, right?" Hansel smiles brightly at Belphegor.

Revy strains against the wires as she snarls, "get off him, you cocksucker! I'll kill you! I'll chop your body into such small pieces that they'll look like ground beef!"

"Ushishishishi~ you could. But that one's a civilian, not a fighter. The Prince doesn't like to waste his time hunting those who don't hunt others, they're inconsequential." Belphegor responds, as his arms flex from the effort of restraining Revy, but no strain shows on his face.

Hansel pauses as he considers that, "I see… Sorella mea and I usually only hunt those who were connected to the men who took us, I suppose it's unlikely that this one has any connection…" But then Hansel raises his axe for a swing, "of course there's no way to prove right now that he ISN'T connected."

Before Hansel can bring his axe downwards the door to the cabin of the ship slams open, and a dark-skinned man in sunglasses comes out with his hands up, "alright! Alright, we give! We'll give you Gretel! Its not like we were trying to kidnap her in the first place! We thought Hansel was dead and Rock, the man you're about to kill, convinced us that we should try to smuggle Gretel to safety! You see? We were just trying to help!"

Hansel freezes with his axe held aloft and turns to look back down at Rock, "you were trying to protect Sorella mea?" He asks softly.

Rock, with his hands held up, shouts frantically, "yes! Yes, we were trying to protect Gretel! She's safe, she'll be happy to know you're alive! So, could you please get off of me…?" He trails off weakly.

"Ushishi~ and where is she then~?" Belphegor questions sharply.

The man with the sunglasses, steps aside and gestures towards the doorway that he came through, "she's right here." As he gestures, a blond man with glasses steps through, leading a little girl in a gothic dress with the same face and colouring as Hansel.

The girl's eyes widen in surprise as she spots Hansel, they fill with tears as she rushes towards her brother, "Fratele meu!" She shouts.

Hansel drops his axe and moves to meet his sister halfway, "Sorella mea!" They embrace each other on the deck, Gretel burying her face in Hansel's shoulder. "Were these people really trying to help you?" Hansel questions.

Gretel looks up at Hansel with still teary eyes and nods, "yes, Fratele meu. The woman was very rude, but Rock is very nice!"

Belphegor allows the wires to slide through his fingers, freeing the purple haired woman, she stumbles away and hisses at him. She turns to eye the emotional reunion of the twins with an apathetic sneer, "fucking great, I guess the world is all sunshine and rainbows again, huh? I suppose now I'm just supposed to forget that this brat," she jerks a thumb over her shoulder at Belphegor, "fucking caught and filleted me like some sorta Tuna?!" She shouts.

Belphegor grins at her as he flicks a couple knives between his fingers, Revy's hackles rise and she glares murderously at him, but before she can lunge at him, the man with the sunglasses interrupts, "leave it Revy! Are you really in such a hurry to die that you're going to pick a fight when it's no longer needed?"

Revy's head snaps over to look at the man, "But Dutch! This little pissant sliced me to ribbons! You don't expect me to just let him walk away without repaying him, do you?!"

The now-named Dutch stares at Revy, unimpressed, "damn right I do, Revy. If you want to get yourself killed, do it on your own time, don't drag the rest of us down with you."

Revy starts shrieking insults at Dutch and arguing that she should be allowed to try to murder Belphegor. The demon in question simply walks past Revy, now thoroughly disinterested in her and her fury. He passes the Japanese man, who flinches slightly at his passage, without so much as a glance and comes to a stop next to the twins. "Ushishishishi~ so you're Gretel? The Prince went through a good deal of trouble to find you servant, be grateful~" He chimes.

Every head on the ship, aside from Hansel's, snaps around to stare at Belphegor in surprise when he started speaking Romanian. Gretel pulls away from her brother to stare up at Belphegor, "you speak our language?" She questions in shock.

Belphegor grins down at her, "The Prince thinks that should be obvious~"

Hansel beams over at his sister, "Prince Belphegor saved me from the Russian woman, he was incredible! He handled her and her sniper in seconds! And then when her reinforcements showed up, he intimidated them into fleeing! Even better, he's offered to make us his servants! We get the opportunity to learn under a more powerful Vampire, Sorella mea! He also says that he'll kill us if we so much as imply that he's a rapist or a paedophile, so please be careful not to offend him! And he promised that he'll protect us from anyone who IS like that. And.."

Belphegor cuts across Hansel's excited rambling, "you'll have plenty of time to inform your sister of what transpired while you were separated, as we get out of this city. While The Prince enjoyed the blood-saturated air that hangs over this city, he should be returning or he'll be late. Boss is annoying when he's been ignored for too long, so come along servants~" Belphegor spins on his heel and strides past the shell-shocked and somewhat ashen faced smuggling group.

"Coming, your Highness!" Hansel chirps as he bounds after Belphegor's retreating form.

Gretel hesitates for just a second, she's a little confused by the teenager that her brother is following, and more specifically WHY Hansel is following him, but she quickly beams just as widely as her brother as she hurries after them, "I'm coming as well, your Highness!" After all, if Hansel thinks he's worth serving, then so does she.

As the three head away from the boat Belphegor glances briefly at Gretel, he notices that the twins are completely identical aside from their hair and clothes, this means that they have to be monozygotic twins, born from the same egg that split in utero. Meaning that they are almost certainly the same gender, of course Gretel COULD be female, but that would only be the case if she lost her Y chromosome during cell division. He resolves himself to inform Luss when they arrive at the Varia. While Luss would have given them a full examination anyway, he will be more thorough if the twins are opposite genders, many health complications can arise from missing a chromosome, and they have sworn themselves to Belphegor's service, so he will not allow them to die from health complications before he has made full use of them.