Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia. Do not use me as a history reference.

Hey guys, here's the next chapter! School is almost over, and this week is finals week for me. I probably will update on time, I hope I can. But you guys know how it is, I'm irresponsible like that. Thank you guys for your patience and support and sorry in advance if I mysteriously disappear for a week. Read on!


Ivan strode through the halls with Nikolai's pistol tightly gripped in his hand. The girls were frightened of him. They hated him. Ivan could see it, and he knew that their fear would never entirely disappear- it never did. Ivan spotted a car pull up in the driveway and grit his teeth.

It was all their fault. Maria was scarred for life, Anastasia was scared, Nikolai and the rest of his family were locked up in a room about to be executed, and three of the servants were dead. On a scale to beer to 80% alcohol vodka, this had to be vodka. Ivan took aim with his pistol at the driver of the car, he was done with being conservative. It was so much easier to just kill all of them. Damn if he cared who saw him.


"Shit, were those gun shots?" Sergey stood from his chair and motioned for the rest of his friends to check it out.

"Damn it, and Mikhail is taking his sweet time with the car." Sergey grumbled. He kicked over his chair in anger, and Kruschev was taking so damn long with the kids. Didn't he say that he had found them?

There were more gunshots, and he tensed. What the hell was going on?

"Kill them Sergey! That guy's returned-" A sickening crack cut the voice behind the door off, and there was a tense silence.

The door slowly creaked opened, and revealed Ivan who stood in the doorway with his usual smile. His purple aura flooded the halls and permeated the room, he couldn't contain his rage. After he had gotten over the initial shock of getting shot the first time, he felt an emotion he hadn't felt in a while.

Bloodlust

"Ivan!" Nikolai breathed with relief. Ivan happily waved and behaved as if nothing was wrong.

"Everyone, close your eyes." Ivan instructed in a cheerful voice.

Sergey was still trying to process what was happening. His feet were bolted to the floor, his hands were frozen in time, and he only had to glance behind and take a small sniff of the sharp metallic scent in the air to know Ivan's true nature.

Once Ivan was sure the children's eyes were closed, he smashed the gun out of Sergey's arms with his pipe with lightening speed. The rifle shattered like glass, and the floor splintered at the force of the impact, as did all the bones in Sergey's hand.

"You- you dare try and hurt them when I'm gone? You thought it would be easy. You thought that bullets would stop me- four bullets aren't enough. A man in the hall put another one in my leg, but it doesn't hurt anymore. Just like how yours won't hurt anymore." Ivan smashed Sergey's knee cap and kicked him to the ground.

His smile broadened when Sergey howled in pain and trembled in fear as he vainly tried to escape Ivan.

"Nyet, we are not done. Tell me, hired you?" Ivan stomped on Sergey's good leg to prevent him from escaping. Sergey cried out in pain, but Ivan didn't care. It didn't even occur to him how he must've appeared to the rest of the family. He had to get information out of him before he lost control, before he killed the rest of the rebels.

"N-No one!" Sergey screamed in terror and pressed himself up against the wall. Ivan was unconvinced though and threateningly increased pressure under his boot. He reminded himself to smile and twirled his pipe in his right hand.

"Really? Who supplied you with the weapons? Do not lie to me, child." Ivan raised his pipe to break his arm, but Sergey spoke first.

"I-I swear to God! M-Mikhail was the real boss, we all pooled our money together and he bought our guns from an arms dealer, but Kruschev is the one who got us together. I swear, I've told you everything I know!" Sergey wrapped his arms around himself and trembled.

Ivan tilted his head, "Where is this Mikhail?" Ivan asked in his eerily calm voice. Sergey shook his head, but quickly spoke when Ivan's smile broadened. "H-He was supposed to get the car that would get us out of here. He hasn't returned yet."

Ivan remembered the man he killed at the entrance and inwardly sighed. At least they were working alone. Without warning, Ivan ended his suffering and killed him on the spot. His pipe left a hole in his skull and blood gushed out of the wound.

Ivan wiped his pipe on the man's clothes and flinched when he was shot again in his shoulder. He looked behind him and saw the last three rebels, poised to kill him. They ignored the Tsar and his family, and focused on the most imminent threat. Ivan.

Ivan didn't care, his entire body was numb with pain anyway, another bullet didn't matter to him. He pulled out his revolver and killed all three of them with deadly accuracy. Ivan kicked one of the dead bodies for good measure and sighed.

Nikolai watched with a mixture of horror and relief when Ivan dragged the bodies out of the room by whatever appendage he could grab. His dangerous purple eyes slid over to Nikolai, and he bowed his head.

"I apologize. For the… mess, and that I didn't get here sooner." Ivan explained as Nikolai carefully led his wife and two daughters to another room, away from the blood. But Tatiana, Olga, and Alexei had seen the blood, they'd seen Ivan kill those three men- and they heard him torture Sergey. T

he damage was done, Ivan thought.

Nikolai covered his nose with a handkerchief and gave Ivan a good look up and down before gasping. "Ivan, how many times were you shot?" He strode over to inspect his gunshot wounds. There were five in total.

Ivan humorlessly laughed, Yao did say that four was an unlucky number. He supposed it was good that he was shot five times instead of four. "I'm fine. Although I will need help getting some of the bullets out." Ivan carefully adjusted his scarf, which caught Nikolai attention. While Ivan was completely splattered in blood, his scarf was still clean. He shivered, Ivan had been holding back after all.

Ivan pretended not to notice Nikolai's obvious fear of him and dusted off his hair. The blood was beginning to dry and it was caking his platinum hair together. It made it easier to get out- but it was kind of gross. Nikolai took a few steps back and took a deep breath to collect himself.

"Where are Anastasia and Olga?" Nikolai asked. He could worry about the mess later, he needed to make sure that everyone was okay.

Ivan motioned for him to follow and led him to their hiding place. Once he opened the hidden door, Anastasia began to cry in relief.

"Papa! Vanya!" She hiccupped.

Anastasia crawled out of the space and jumped into her father's arms. Ivan poked his head inside the space and carefully extracted Maria's sleeping form from the closet. Nikolai's eyebrows furrowed with concern when he saw dry blood all over her, but Ivan waved his concern away.

"I will explain later. All of the guards should be waking up by now. I believe they were drugged before they were knocked unconscious." Ivan said as they walked back to where the rest of the family was.

Alexandra cried in relief when her two daughters were returned to her, safe and sound. Ivan remained a distance away, he could feel the blood seep through his clothes and onto his skin. The bastards deserved it, he thought. They tried to kill his rulers. But was it really worth it? Wasn't it time for a regime change?

Ivan shook his head and swore under his breath, he was supposed to be retracted from politics. Such things shouldn't matter to him. The palace doctor stumbled into the room, his face was as pale as a ghost and he avoided Ivan's gaze. He could tell that the blood bath in the hallways was Ivan's doing.

Who knew that they had such a monster in their midst?

Nikolai pointed the doctor to Ivan, "He has bullets lodged into him. You must extract them with haste before he heals." Nikolai instructed.

"W-With my greatest apologies my Tsar, I do not think I can walk." The doctor leaned against the wall. He'd just woken up, and the scent of blood was overwhelming. Not to mention he was terrified of Ivan.

Ivan tensed a bit, but shrugged off his coat. He walked over to the trembling doctor and brought a couple of chairs for them to sit in. The doctor's behavior was laughable, "…I can do it myself if you are feeling unwell." Ivan offered and warily eyed the shaking scalpel.

The doctor grit his teeth and motioned him to sit. "I am fine… I do not have any painkillers-"

"It's fine. Just do it quickly." Ivan pulled his shirt over his head and patiently waited as the doctor skillfully removed the pieces of metal. Once he was finished removing the bullets, he got ready to suture the wounds together- but the nation stopped him.

"It's unnecessary." Ivan stood from the chair. He glanced behind him and scanned the family over. They all stared at him with their wide eyes, full of pity, terror, and fear. He could sense their disgust, but he had to put on an indifferent face. He plastered on his usual smile and waved goodbye. "I must go and wash off."

Ivan's heart pounded in his ears, and his entire body felt like it had gone through a blender. Even though it hurt, he kept walking with a straight back and his usual smile. Showing pain displayed weakness, and that was something he couldn't afford to show.

Ivan took a long shower, perhaps the longest shower of his life. The hardened blood in his hair became liquid once again, and it splattered against the walls and stained the curtains before it ran down the drain. His back stung like fire as the hot water invaded his raw wounds. But he grit his teeth and silently endured it. For whatever reason, water seemed to speed up the healing process.

Ivan absently poked the wall before he finally rested his forehead against it. His heart clenched when he remembered the terrified looks the children and the rest of the palace residents had given him. Nothing would be the same, he thought. Nothing could be the same.


"The children are terrified of him Nikolai. I'm terrified of him, and I know you're scared of him too." Alexandra and Nikolai sat alone in the library while the servants attended to their children. Nikolai buried his face in his hands, he'd aged five years in a single day. He weaved his fingers together and propped his elbows onto the table.

It was wrong for him to be scared of Ivan. After all, he had protected them- just like he always had. He probably did the same things on the war front. The only difference was that Nikolai had seen it in person. Alexandra put her hand on his arm. Their gazes interlocked for a brief moment before Nikolai broke contact.

"Alix, what am I supposed to do? Ivan, he's- he's family. He protected us." Nikolai buried his hands in his hair. Alexandra nodded and squeezed his arm.

"Yes, but remember what Anastasia said? When she got to the telegram, she should've contacted the palace. Instead she tried to get Ivan, and she wasn't even sure if he would get it. We were just fortunate that your sister was able to contact him in time. No matter how you look at it, the children are too reliant on him." Alexandra said a bit uncertainly, they both knew the deeper meaning of her words.

Ivan was dangerous, and they needed to reevaluate him. The children trusted him too much.

So they did what they had to do. They told Ivan that they wanted him to spend a while out of the country. They expected some sort of resistance from, but were surprised when Ivan complied after a thoughtful pause.

"You need time to think. As do I." Ivan mused more to himself than anyone else. And he could see that Nikolai was afraid of him, everyone in this damn palace was afraid of him. Yes, he was much stronger than any of them combined.

He was foolish to think that they trusted him, because that was what it boiled down to. They didn't trust him enough to believe that he wouldn't dare harm them. They didn't trust that he sincerely loved them, and they didn't know how much they meant to him.

He took a deep breath to calm these foreign emotions, and plastered his same old smile. "I will be gone by today."

The two rulers seemed startled, "No no, I didn't mean that you have to leave now. You're still healing, not to mention you haven't eaten yet." Nikolai protested. Sure, Ivan healed remarkably fast. But there was a distinct difference between injury and pain. And he was sure that Ivan was still in a lot of pain.

Ivan shook his head, "I will stop by Toris's house and I will rest there before moving on."

"Ivan, I would really prefer if you stayed here-"

"No." Ivan abruptly cut Nikolai off. The entire room became tense, and Alexandra gripped her husband's arm. There it was, he thought. The fear, how he hated it. He took deep breath to calm himself, he had let his emotions show.

His hurt, his betrayal.

"…I will leave now." Ivan firmly reiterated and bowed before he left for his room. He took out his bag and neatly packed spare changes of clothes. He packed clothes, a few weapons, and his journals. Ivan packed away his trusty bottle of vodka and made his way to the door. He had always wanted to go backpacking across Europe. Ivan paused and ran his hand across his desk.

Well, it wasn't like he was leaving forever.

Ivan took out his pen and wrote in his flowing handwriting,

OTMAA,

I am going on a trip for a long time. I don't know when I'm coming back. Take care of each other, and I'm sorry for what happened when I was gone.

Sincerely,

Ivan Braginsky

Ivan took the paper and slid it under Olga's doorway. He wasted no time getting his horse. He took a final good look at Tsarskoye Selo and spotted all of the children looking at him from the window. He shot them a small wave, and sighed when they quickly disappeared into the building. It was fine, the told himself. Everything was fine. Everything would be fine.

Four minutes after he left, the servants struggled to hold the five unruly children back from pursuing Ivan.

"He didn't say goodbye! Why didn't he say goodbye?" Anastasia screamed.

Olga and Tatiana wanted to tear after Ivan because they knew what he must've thought when he disappeared. And they've never seen Ivan just take off like that. He always told them first.

"H-He did say goodbye Anastasia. He waved to you, didn't he?" One of the servants desperately tried to reason with them. Maria burst into tears and covered her face. Ivan, Ivan had killed for them. And now he was forced to leave because he protected them.

Alexei cried into Tatiana's shirt, "Where is Vanya going? When is Vanya going to be back?" He asked his sisters. The four couldn't answer him, because they didn't know.

Later that night, Alexei had another hemorrhage and Rasputin was called in. He managed to miraculously stop the bleeding with the help of God. And so began his cementation of his position in the Tsarkoye selo.


Matthew listened in disbelief, he didn't know that this had happened. Ivan seemed to read his thoughts and rested his elbow on the sofa's armrest.

"It's not recorded in history. The Tsar never went public with the incident and chose to keep it a secret. It's much more intimidating when the attackers mysteriously go missing. On the surface, everything remained to same- nothing had happened. Apparently many rumors circulated throughout the country then. It helped stave off potential attackers." Ivan explained.

The music in the background had died down and many of the nations were already asleep. "That's horrible." Matthew muttered under his breath. Ivan tilted his head, "What was that?"

Matthew cleared his throat and pulled his lips into a small frown. "That's terrible! Why would they send you away after you protected them?"

Ivan burst out laughing and stood from the sofa. The effects of the alcohol had worn off, and he felt much better now. He motioned for Matthew to walk with him to the guest rooms. Matthew scooped Kumajiro into his arms before catching up with Ivan.

"Humans… are unreasonable like that. You could say that they fear anything that is stronger than them." Ivan said as they walked up the stairs. Matthew silently agreed with him and stopped in front of his room.

"This is my room. I'll see you tomorrow Ivan." Matthew waved goodbye. Ivan chuckled and opened the door to his room, which was right next to his.

"Da, goodnight Matvey."

"Goodnight."


Ah, this chapter is shorter than usual. At least the plot is finally moving forward a bit more :) Reviews, critiques, and all of the things in between are welcome! Thanks for you guys' feedback.

As always, criticism and thoughts about the chapter are always appreciated. Make sure to favorite this story if you liked it and follow it to get regular updates :) Hope you guys liked the chapter!

~Preuss