Derp warning a little gory… and kinda badly written since I just want to get my point across lol… ::throws task of name this story at Jackie:: :P I hate naming my stories! Lol my temp name was Franphegor….
"Fran." Lussuria said quietly. No response. "Fran, you can't continue doing this."
"Ushishishi." the familiar yet incorrect sounding laugh resounded through the air. The colorfully haired man winced at the sound.
"Fran-"
"STOP CALLING THE PRINCE BY THAT NAME!" the uncharacteristly loud and screechy voice of the young mint haired illusionist cried out.
"Voii! Damnit Fran you're not Belphegor!"
"Ushishi! The Froggy is dead! Aaaahah!" The small boy let out a strangled screech much like that of the one his sempai let out after he had cracked.
SMACK!
Squalo's palm echoed a sharp sound across Fran's delicate cheek. He had been growing out his light green colored bangs but so far they only reached halfway down his matching eyes. Those eyes that still cried. They cried as his grin stretched wildly.
It had been two weeks since Belphegor had died. And one week since the Fran they knew disappeared.
-Two weeks earlier-
"Another Illusionist?" The boy in the frog hat questioned his boss.
"That's correct." Xanxus sat in his chair looking at the two assigned to the mission. " All you need to do is take him out. It should be easy enough for even you, trash."
"Ushishishi, the prince will have no problems, but I can't say for certain the little Froggy will make it back in one piece."
"Yeah right, Fake Prince-sempai. With that stupid fringe you're doomed to miss every mark." Fran countered, causing a steady tick in his sempai's forehead.
"Maybe the prince will eat frog legs for dinner tonight!" Bel growled with his wild grin as his knives lodged themselves into Fran's hat.
"Itaaaai." the monotone voice let out.
A few hours later, the two were on their way. The mission was located in a deserted town high up in the Alps. God knows why anyone would build a town in the freezing, disconnected area of Italy, but that would also explain its abandonment. But recently, climbers had spotted creatures arising from the desolate town. It was incorrect to say 'climbers' in plural as only one had returned. Somehow limping away with his life, the survivor came to tell of this to some unknown authority and it had made its way around determining it was an illusion and the Varia would take care of it. The lone survivor was dead from his injuries before this was even established.
"Froggy~." the blonde prince walked a few paces in front of his younger partner. "You have that wonderful hat I gave to you keep you warm!" he smiled madly.
"More so to keep me looking like a freak. Almost on the same level as you fake prince-sempai" this earned him numerous knives to the head, and a full hour of bickering before reaching their destination.
"Ushishishi," Bel let out his signature laugh." This must be it!" He ran up to an empty street of cleared out shops. Windows broken doors smashed. And bloody corpses strewn across the white snow of the streets. Fresh and old. The stench was hardly drown out by the sub-zero weather.
Fran had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was not right here. He felt an awful presence of something he couldn't quite put his finger on. And that worried the stoic boy, though the thoughts would never cross his face.
But Bel was exactly the same. The prince knew something was off about this blood ridden street. He knew what the presence of the dead felt like. And his was not the same. It was missing something. None the less, the insane stretch on his face never wavered. He was Varia's number one genius after all.
"Hey, Froggy!" The storm ring bearer turned toward his partner and said, "You feel it? That blood curdling aura? And it isn't the prince! Ushishi! Even though nothing could be more blood hungry than the prince, this will be fuuun!" the blonde prince ran giddily into the blood and snow filled streets, sliding along on the ice patches when a gust of wind picked up. Fran held on his hat as the icy wind threatened to steal it away. The two assassins looked up at the sky . It was beginning to snow. But not snow in the pure white sense. The flakes of icy were a bloody scarlet as he floated from the clouds.
"Sempai, look, it's like you cold, bloody and slow."
"Shut it froggy!" Three blades planted themselves deep into the younger's back.
"It's an illusion, I think."
"You think?" Bel cocked his head with his angry grin stretching out.
"Hai, even for an illusionist like me it's nearly impossible to be sure." Fran deadpanned. "I go with my gut." He said putting his fist to his stomach.
"Froggy is unreliable."
"Tch. But so is fake prince-sempai." Fran shot his dead (yes dead not death) glare at the older. "Oh, I clicked my tongue."
"Shut it, Froggy."
"Oh, but sempai, you-" a hand was clamped over his mouth.
"Ssh, do you hear that?" the wind was picking up, but instead of a sharp whistling, a sound similar to a tea kettle being boiled resounded over the snow. A light flashed a blinding color and Bel took up a fighting stance, a fan of his knives in each hand. But the confident look only lasted a minute as the Bel's arms locked in shock. His entire body froze in terror and his smile unhinged into a crooked gape.
"Sempai?" the younger watched his partner concernedly. Something was obviously wrong with the prince and Fran was couldn't see what. But he now sensed the presence of an illusion. "Bel-sempai?" he poked a finger into the shoulder of the blonde and got no response.
"Ma-" a small noise chocked from Bel's throat. "Mammon." he said in a quiet whisper. The firmly composed and cocky prince feel to his knees, his tiara shaped blades clattering onto the ice. Fran was growing concerned, there was a illusion around but he couldn't tell where and his sempai was in a state he had never seen before.
"Is the illusion not affecting me?" Fran thought allowed and in response a graveled voice traveled throughout the air.
"It doesn't have to, illusionist." Fran swiveled around trying to find the owner of the voice but did not. (note: I'm probably never going to explain this part cuz I honestly don't care… I leave it to your imagination)
"Sempai, get up." Bel did not respond. "Fake prince~" nor did he lash out at his kouhai's name calling. It was official, Fran was worried.
"I'm sorry,"
"What?" The green haired boy exclaimed, but he realized it was not he who the prince was talking to. The blonde seemed to be whispering to an unseen presence in front him him.
"Mammon?" It was a tone Fran had never heard from his sempai before and it was saddening and faint. "Forgive me please... You!" his demeanor changed suddenly. "Give him back you fucking bastard!" Bel was now growling in a deafening scream at the illusion Fran could not see. He launched a handful of knives in one direction, and then another. "Fuck you Rasiel!"
"Rasiel?" Fran whispered as he stepped back from the blonde storm guardian who seemed to be battling with air. "Sempai's twin? Hadn't Xanxus killed him?" He thought sempai would know that and would realize the illusion. But the prince kept jumping from place to place, casting his blades off on differed directions.
Suddenly he stopped. He had jerked back as if something had hit him in the chest. The blonde fell to his knees and began muttering. Fran moved closer, but that was a mistake.
"I'm sorry," his voice was crazed and unstable, even more so than usual. "I'm sorry... Ushishi... Aha..." the air was deathly still a moment before, "AAAAAAAAUUUUGH! AAAAH AHAAAA" the blonde let out a strangled screech of insanity as he writhed I'm his spot on the ground. He was breathing heavily as he gingerly picked up ok of the knives he had previously dropped. And he plunged it into his arm. It didn't concern Fran at first, as his sempai's self harm during battle was nothing new. But as he began to thrust in more blades, dragging them through his pale skin, the crimson blood splashing to the ground, Fran ran over calling Bel's name. As the mint haired big made a grab for the older's arm one of the silver blades struck him in the shoulder forcing him back. Belphegor was destroying himself. Tearing his own skin to shreds as it hung in bloody masses of of his bleeding form. Fran's eyes widened in terror as the Prince the Ripper slashed through his own body. It was horrifying.
Scarlet liquid stained the ice.
Bits of flesh and muscle were flung uselessly to the ground.
The scent of hot blood filled the air.
And the screams. The voice tearing itself apart as it gagged and screeched. It echoed through the young illusionist's mind as his watched Belphegor rip himself apart. Lastly, as if adding a finishing touch, the blood drenched prince gouged out both of his formerly hidden eyes and tossed them to the ground, knives still plunged through. Finally, the hands dropped and what was left of the body slumped over with a sickening splat.
The green haired illusionist stood up wobbly, and took slow, unsteady steps towards the body. He threw up. The stench of iron, copper and flesh filled his nose and the image of a once human body distorted into something that was not, took over his eyes.
"S-sempai... F-fake... Prince... sem...pai." The mist guardian's voice was shaking. He put a hand to the body only to get a fist full of a slimy chopped up muscle and blood. It pumped a slow dull, fading sound. Slowly he placed the fist sized organ in the palm of his hand.
Bu-dump…
Bu…-dump….
"You did have a heart."
The rest of the Varia was home, unknowing of the incident until three days later when a knock came on the door. Lussuria opened the door and shrieked. The rest of the Varia came running to see what had happened. When they arrived they saw Fran, drenched in red standing in the door way. He was clutching something in both his hands. In one was a bloody lump. And in the other, a blood stained tiara.
He collapsed to the ground letting the dead organ slide to the floor. His other hand remained grasped tightly around the silver object that hand began to cut into his hand. He did not wake up.
"VOII!" Squalo was the first to look down at what Fran had dropped. "Shit is that a heart?"
After a moment, everyone saw what had happened. Belphegor was dead. And Fran had seen it happen. The silent horror past through everyone's mind. Fran didn't wake for nearly four days and finally when he did, he only stared into space, unmoving, unspeaking. He refused to eat, or rather, did not response when a spoon full of soup was pressed to his lips. If he continued like that, he was going to die. Perhaps that was what he wanted. For his eyes were so dead, if not for his faint pulse, he would has been a corpse.
The Varia house was quiet, Squalo was not screaming, Xanxus was not throwing things, Lussuria quietly tended to Fran's comatose state, and Belphegor was not causing destruction. One day it was raining. A brutal storm violently shook the house. Lussira smiled sadly as he brushed through Fran's now dull green hair. Suddenly, Lussuria felt a cold grip on his wrist.
"Ushishi"