Magitalia

Parallel Chapter Seven- Seraphs and Storms

Spiteful hisses still rang in Kiku's ears even after the light faded. Why… why couldn't Gilbert just trust that he had reasons for attacking? He surely knew perfectly well that most had no choice to be there, right? But as the almost familiar rust and scent of metal caught up with him, he could realized that it was practically true. He had betrayed them, and he was fully aware of that. Perhaps it hadn't been by choice initially, but he agreed to pursue "Spain", hadn't he?

Well, it was at Arthur's behest that he did so, and perhaps he was foolish to still trust him, but he was the best he had. Yao and Heracles had been hard to contact, stationed at different bases in a way he was half certain was intentional, but nonetheless needlessly cruel. The discomfort that came with his new position and life would have been lessened by his older brother being by his side to guide him, and he still felt there was a degree of unfinished business with Heracles.

But if it was to be Arthur that he looked to, he still had many questions. Such as what he had meant when he claimed to be "doing all he could to protect everyone", and how long it had been since he started playing the role of double agent. He had been promised something of an explanation if he were to assist in the awakening of Spain, so he was certain it was coming.

"Kiku, would you mind helping me with this?", Arthur questioned from behind him. Kiku jumped a bit; he hadn't realized he had returned yet.

He held up his hand as if to indicate what he meant was referring to help with. There appeared to be a large gash in it, with blood gushing down and dying his palm and wrist crimson. He couldn't help but wonder how he'd gotten cut like that. Had it been one of his water attacks that had missed? Yes, that had to be it, and the shadows in his chest drew a bit closer together.

"Of course! I am very sorry, I must have not been paying attention."

Grabbing his hand with his uninjured one, Arthur led him down the hall towards a some strange device in the wall. "Best not to risk getting these wet," he cheerfully stated, indicating the teleportation device on his wrist and letting go of his hand long enough to brush the device against the wall. It vanished almost at once, without any clear sign of what had happened.

Was he staring too much? Was that the root of Arthur's laughter? He brushed his own wrist against whatever was on the wall and tried not to look shocked as the device clanking against it vanished.

"There's a sink in here, and paper towels," Arthur stated, gesturing towards the restroom.

"But isn't there somewhere with a first aid kit?", Kiku countered. "That cut looks fairly deep, I don't think just washing it off…"

Arthur raised his injured hand once more. Odd, the cut seemed a bit shallower than he had remembered. "Oh, I think this will be plenty," he assured him, dashing forward a few steps to hold the door open for him.

Following his indication, Kiku quickly rushed to turn on the sink in perhaps the only restroom he had ever seen of poorer quality than the one at his school. The entire place gave off a dirtied aura, to the point that he feared mere exposure to the place might infect that cut.

But, as the door slammed shut, he saw Arthur go over to the sink only to turn it off. He raised the hand that moments ago had been dripping blood to reveal it as completely clean. "What, you didn't forget, did you? I told you we needed to talk, and this is the best place to do so."

Inner cries of "stupid, stupid" distracted Kiku from being able to determine why that was until Arthur spelled it out. "Not many places aren't monitored, and this restroom happens to be one of them. Might be why they skimp on maintenance, come to think of it."

"That… makes sense. So, what is it we need to talk about?"

"Well, first of all, I need to apologize to you," Arthur began, looking straight at him in a rather disconcerting way. "I… well, for one, I wasn't aware that mission would bring us in contact with your friend, and I am deeply sorry that you had to hear all of that."

Gilbert's words still reverberated yet, but Kiku couldn't allow that to be his grudge. "No, it's fine," he assured Arthur. "I only wish he could understand…"

"What, that you're trying to help?"

"Precisely."

Apparently, that hadn't been the correct answer, judging by the weird little huff of laughter his companion gave. "Well, good luck with that. I've learned from experience that it isn't easy to see the knife at your throat as something meant for your protection. Alfred certainly doesn't see it that way, and after tonight, I'm certain Matthew won't either."

"That must have been difficult for you as well," Kiku muttered. "Perhaps if I'd attacked before they entered-"

"No, don't think anything of it," Arthur interrupted, waving his most certainly not bleeding hand as if waving away the point. "Besides, I'm certain they'll come around."

Kiku was entirely uncertain of how to respond to that, so he was grateful when Arthur picked up another thought after the pained pause. "Anyways, I want to apologize for for deceiving you. If it means anything, I truly did enjoy fighting alongside you and acting as your mentor, as brief as it might have been."

"I understand," Kiku assured him. "Y-you couldn't allow them to harm Francis or use your brothers as hostages, right?"

A hesitant "eh…" came from Arthur before any proper words did. "Not... quite. Well, that was certainly a threat, yes, but I joined these people for, well, different reasons."

Yes, there was something terribly interesting at the very end of that statement, but Kiku was interested in something else. Actually, he'd been wanting to have an answer to something for quite some time now, and there seemed no better time to receive it. "These people, don't they have a name?"

His anticipated answer was a flat "no." However, perhaps Arthur noted his annoyance, as he followed it up with something of an explanation. "Giving us a name would give us a purpose, make us feel like we were more than puppets in a twisted stageplay. The 'leader', it wouldn't allow us that kindness, so we are a nameless evil instead."

"A nameless evil…" Kiku felt something resembling a grin. That made sense, but while he was at it, there were a few things he was curious about. "But, who is the 'leader' you keep talking about? Another Nation Scout?"

"No, not a Nation Scout," Arthur explained. "The 'leader', well, um… I've been told very little about the subject, but I'm under the impression that it is an entity not from this Earth."

Not from this Earth? No, that wasn't… that couldn't be, right? "Are you saying that aliens are doing this?"

Exasperation was his response. "Honestly, we're literally England and Japan. Is the fact that aliens are involved surprising?"

"I suppose not?" At very least, it made more sense than anyone he'd met so far being behind it. Even Russia or Turkey seemed to possess a shred of humanity, which the events transpiring sorely lacked. "But how can you be certain?"

He'd expected something along the lines of "just a hunch", so he was pleasantly surprised to be given a very reasonable explanation. "Simple; a lot of the tech we've been given to use, like those teleporters, they seem far beyond anything else I've ever heard of. I'm not going to pretend to be knowledgeable on machinery, but Tino's said that the construction of these doesn't line up with any piece of technology he's ever seen."

So that was why those teleporters worked. The explanation was seeming less outlandish the more he thought about it, and that was somewhat reassuring. It raised many more questions than he wanted to ask, though. "But what would aliens want with us? Are they meaning to use us as conduits to take over the planet?"

Arthur simply shrugged, ending the rather nice streak of answers. "Absolutely no clue, but if Doctor Who has taught me anything, it's that aliens rarely want to come to Earth for a picnic. We're assuming it's something to that effect, but we're unsure where the HRE and the purpose of recruiting all of us comes into play."

A thought occurred to Kiku, a lyric from a song he hadn't thought about in a year popping into his head. "Perhaps we're weapons pointed at the enemy? Or, ah, I mean..." He felt a bit embarrassed by the raised eyebrow this had elicited. God, he'd really just quoted RWBY at a time like this, hadn't he? "We- we could just be meant as a way for them to take over the planet, right?"

"Good thought, and that's most certainly a possibility, but it wouldn't explain why we keep getting killed off- ah!" The sound of footsteps echoed outside, and a heavy pounding made itself known in Kiku's chest.

Once it passed, Arthur chuckled and grabbed a few paper towels and started wrapping them around his hand, only to unwrap them and repeat the process in a different arrangement. "We've been in here a while. If we don't hurry a bit, we'll look suspicious."

He let out a deep breath, still not looking up from the towels. "I- I'll cut to the chase then: we- or at least a small sect of us, are working to take this operation down from the inside, and we want your assistance. This may sound like I'm asking a lot of you, but-"

A larger, more substantial smile came to Kiku's face. "Yes."

Arthur seemed oddly surprised by how readily he'd answered. "Y-you can't just agree like that!", he protested. This is incredibly dangerous, not to mention delicate. Don't you need to think this through a bit more? I mean, your-"

"No, I am certain," Kiku assured him. Whatever it was he was going to say, it would make no difference. "If I were to reject this offer, it would truly make me a traitor to my cause."

"What cause?", Arthur questioned. "Survival? Because this highly lowers your chances of such a thing, and it isn't exactly in the best interests of your friends, all things considered."

"My cause is the same as yours," Kiku stated. "I want to make the most of these powers I've been saddled with and use them to defend this planet."

A sigh, and Arthur looked up from his constant rewrapping of paper towels. "That's not my cause, Kiku. It may be yours, and if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's also my brother's, but my cause is simply to forget all of this ever happened, and if I wasn't in league with SERAPH, then I would be further from that goal."

The way he said that was almost reminiscent of the performance that had led to Kiku joining him. It seemed just as false, at very least. But whatever he meant, there was another question to be asked.

"Seraph?", he repeated. "Is that what your group is called?

"Y-yes," Arthur seemed to force out, dryly adding "and no, before you ask, I haven't a clue what it means. Probably an acronym for something, but it was made far before I became involved in this, and no one's told me if it stands for anything."

In all honesty, it sounded more like some sort of evil organization than anything, but perhaps that was a bit of the point. "So, who else is part of this SERAPH? I assume Francis-"

"Ah, yes, he's technically our leader." Arthur rolled his eyes as he said this. "Then again, Lukas and Tino were in it long before him, so I wouldn't exactly say he's the most qualified to be doing it. But, it was his past self that started this, so he's designated as the leader."

His past self? That sounded like a fascinating story, but a faint noise from outside the door told him that perhaps this wasn't the time to hear it. "I see… So, how exactly can I help with this?"

"For now? Nothing really," Arthur stated almost dismissively. " All that with Italy and letting them all chase my brother and the others around will buy us enough time to recruit more people to our side and then we'll be able to strike after that."

It seemed it was Kiku's turn to be frustrated by how foolish the other person sounded. "You need more time?", he questioned, hoping his annoyance didn't come out in his voice. "But haven't you been at this for a while? And with how everyone feels about this, it should be easy to sway them."

That annoyance faded away as it was answered with an equal note of bitterness. "We had much greater numbers at one point, I've heard, but something went wrong. The leader before Francis attempted to lead an attack and…" Arthur paused briefly to throw the paper towels he was holding away, tearing them up as he did so for dramatic effect. Seemed that flair for melodrama extended to more than acting. "Well, let's just say it ended poorly. Most everyone is weary of it now, and the only reason the four of us have managed to continue it is that we're being so secretive about it. Therefore, we'll need to wait until things get desperate and they feel as if we're the only option."

Kiku was very tempted to just shout "Objection!", but it seemed like it might have been a bad idea. Perhaps if he was talking to Ludwig or Feliciano, but not the closest thing he had to a mentor. Regardless, he still had an objection. "Well, I think I know a few people I could sway to our side without much trouble."

"If you mean your brother, then no. That wouldn't end well," Arthur countered.

He couldn't imagine that. Yao had said himself how much he disliked being a part of everything, so he would probably be more than happy to join. But, there was something of a weight behind Arthur's words, and he had to know why that was. "And why is that?"

A surprisingly simple answer, followed by something a lot less simple: "We've tried him. He refused the second he realized our operations led to the deaths of- ah well, they're your cousins too, aren't they?"

Breath caught in his throat as he remembered with a pang that this entire thing had cut short lives that had once been deeply intertwined with his own. Mei had always been painfully sweet, and Yong Soo annoying, but still his cousin. And Li Xiao, or Leon as he'd prefered, he hadn't known too well, but he did remember him being a nice person.

His reminiscing was cut short by Arthur's strained laugh. "See, told you there was reason to hesitate!", he exclaimed, almost victoriously. "Yong Soo and Mei died directly in our service, and if we had intervened, it's quite possible we could have prevented Leon's death. I can understand if that's unforgivable and-"

"Most certainly not," Kiku countered. "If anything, it makes me more certain that this cause is just. If they deemed it worthy of dying for, then I am more than happy to follow in their footsteps."

"Thank you," Arthur glanced at the door once more. "Well, we've been in here a bit long, haven't we? I can tell you more later, alright?"

Kiku wanted to know more, but he understood. There would be time for this all later. "Yes. That's fine."

In a slight whisper, Arthur commanded "Follow my lead, alright?", and pushed the door open with his hand. Said hand now appeared to be covered in paper towels, with slight pools of blood leaking through. A gruesome sight, even if it was illusionary.

"God, that took forever!", Arthur said rather loudly. "These towels are too flimsy to absorb that much blood."

"Ah, yes!", Kiku quickly agreed.

"Well, like you said, Heracles is probably curious as to how things went. I won't keep you much longer. Thank you for your help."

Arthur gave him an odd wink before heading off down the hallway. Heracles… that could only be a go ahead to recruit him to SERAPH.

"Gladly. Tell me if you need anything else for that, alright?", he called after him.

Turning around briefly, Arthur gave a nod. "Yes, of course."


AN- Well, there. See, there was a reason the organization didn't have a name. And er, aliens… Look, I genuinely couldn't see anyone from the proper Hetalia cast as a villain, alright? They're all just such lovely people! So, I'll tear another page from HetaOni's book.

But, enough of that, as I have an odd request for you lovely people. See, I'm kind of struggling getting the finer points of this final stretch of story down, and I want to have someone to bounce ideas off of and run my current plans past. So, if anyone is willing to have a huge amount of this story spoiled for them and help me work out ideas, let me know and we can chat. So, thank you for reading! -Twilight Jolitk