Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written by: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta: No one
A/N: Still had enough content for this chapter!
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ After the Cherub Choir class \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"Come on, say hello to everyone..."
Now that class was over his mind started to process the choir room. The rehearsal room was big, by his standards, had multiple stands at various heights for the various choir members. The older kids had been hanging back with each other, either hanging out or studying books with them. His fellow aged kids were hopping off the stands and began to drift off into different parts of the room giving Xavier the chance to find his family at the back of the room. Only to realize they had left, leaving him disheartened and nervous being on his own.
"Everyone, if I may have your attention for a moment more, we have a new Cherub!" the teacher called out before gesturing for Xavier to approach him. "This is Xavier Conti, he's the newest member so treat him well."
It was a strange introduction, waiting until after the class to do this rather than the beginning. But grown ups by default were strange and he didn't want to draw attention to himself. As it was, the moment attention was put on him, the first thing Xavier did was lower his head and tuck his hands behind his back.
"It's ok Xavier, everyone has been where you are standing now, it's fine."
Xavier shook his head, remembering his parents telling him how special this position was. He was 'not' going to be 'fine'. Between his parents not being there and what his brother said, he was going to be a nervous wreck.
"Yeah, just because God listens to all our sessions personally doesn't mean- OUCH! That's my toe!"
"Really?"
Xavier went from thinking about crying to starting to bawl. So it was true what his brother said! God lived here, too, and listened to the choir! What if he wasn't good enough? What if God left the building!? He would never be able to go home again!
"Now now Xavier, they're just teasing..." the choir teacher began in the tone of 'real smooth kids, really. Smooth, like gravel.'
"Someone has to show the kid around you know."
"Well, now that 'someone' has scared him, 'Tony'!"
"Hey put me down! I'm not a puppy!"
"Hey, kid? This is Elmo, he's harmless and he can show you around!"
"Why me? I get lost all the time!"
"Don't worry, if we lose you, we'll just send out the Snuggywuggy Rescue Bear!"
"Really? 'This' is your idea of an apology?" The Choir teacher asked, while Xavier felt something tugging on his shirt.
"You can stop crying now. God isn't tough on us. Bad things only happen when the older kids screw up. Last week Tony totally croaked on a note and all the candles on the alter blew out."
The group of kids burst out laughing, others making comments about that session and others noting that cherub choir had forgotten the whole song once. Nothing bad happened to them, but when the older kids messed up God let them know. The tugging on his shirt didn't stop until Xavier finally peeked up from his spot. A boy about his age stood there, brown haired, green eyed and apparently 'Elmo'.
"Ok, so now that you're out, we go to the kitchen, get lunch, then I'll show you around?"
Xavier blinked a few times rather owlishly as he thought about what was being said. Before slowly nodding which Elmo took to meaning he could start walking.
"Ok, first to the kitchen, get lunch, then out to the garden to eat lunch, then Vatican time." Elmo informed him before walking along like he knew where he was going.
Walking past this oddly placed donation box near the door of the choir room, which was an odd box because of what it had over it. A message reading 'Donate to the SnuggyWuggy Seriously needed his own outfit'. Upon closer observation, Xavier noticed the corners had been torn and retaped. Also there was an 'Our Goal' sign next to it reading 'Jeep' which brought an earlier question back up into his mind. Motivating Xavier to trot up side by side with Elmo. "Hey Elmo? How come there's a donation box in the choir room? And what's a 'Snuggywuggy'?"
"Oh some of the older kids stole money out of the offertory plate one year so they could buy Snuggywuggy some stuff. But well, you know that stuff is frowned on, so they had to do a collection and pay the Vatican back. Now we just keep it there and donate money, when we have enough we all take a trip to the store and find something for Snuggywuggy."
"They stole from the house of God?!"
Xaviers' voice may not have a great deal of range on its own, but in the nature of the Choir was picked up and echoed to the back with the rest of the kids.
Which produced a chorus of giggles, laughs and a cheerful cry of 'Welcome to the Vatican Cherub Choir Elmo!"
"Really?!"
Xavier turned to look at the cheerful class of students and then back at Elmo in some vain attempt of hope that this would be cleared up. Even Elmo seemed to realize that he had said something pretty mind blowing, because the child looked at Xavier with an embarrassed smile.
"Uh, well, if we run into Ms. Yoko, she can explain it better. But this was back when Tony and the guys were Cherubs themselves." Elmo stopped walking and began poking at Xaviers' cheek in concern. "You're getting puffy."
"HOW DO YOU THAT AND NOT GET PUNISHED?!"
"YIKES!" Elmo jumped back, holding his hands in front of him like he expected a charging bull to come straight at him. The priests and nuns on the other side of the door just gave them a look and kept on moving. When the blond didn't say anything else he slowly lowered one hand while the other was rubbing the back of his head as he gave a sheepish grin. "Wow, you have some fire to you yet!"
Elmo turned and began walking again and all Xavier could do was stare in shocked disbelief. When the brunet turned to look at him Xavier double timed his steps towards Elmo, but it didn't help his shocked mind. "So uh what happened?"
"Oh they had to work in the church doing extra stuff to pay back the money. Now we just dump in the coin we collect from allowances and from side jobs." Elmo explained as he pushed a door open and continued walking along.
"So, when did you become a choir boy?" Xavier finally asked, looking about at the really tall paintings in the room.
"Oh, a year ago... Wait... wow. You know it doesn't seem like I've been guiding Mr. Arikado around for a whole year!" Elmo leaned back on his heels, clearly thinking back on something.
"Who's that?" Xavier asked, tilting his head to the side as Elmo stared out a window, bringing the kid back to the present.
"Oh, he's a super important secret agent that talks to His Holiness directly! I'm his guide through out the Vatican!" Elmo explained puffing up in pride.
"But you said you get lost easily," Xavier pointed out, and watched as Elmo deflated.
"Well yeah, but he still has me do it," Elmo replied. Since it was true, there had been a great number of times that Mr. Arikado had to redirect him as he started getting lost.
"But why you?" Xavier asked, while in the distance there was a growing murmur of voices.
"I don't know, I was just in choir practice one day and he sat there and listened for a while. Next thing I know, I'm being told I'm going to be guiding him around," Elmo shrugged as he pointed to a door. "That's it, that's where we get our lunches! You just tell them if you have a food allergies and they adjust the meal in response!"
Elmo placed his palms against the door and pushed open a door, holding the door for Xavier to walk through. Xavier walked into a room with a few nuns and priests moving about making sandwiches for the line of children. Most of them looked like their fellow choir kids while a few of the older kids were wearing different robes than what Elmo was wearing. The line was steadily moving as Elmo hopped into line and Xavier dutifully followed suit.
Not that Xavier had the confidence to walk along alone in the Vatican. He looked up at the rich wood cabinets and counter space all around, his mom would have loved a kitchen this big. The kids would gather their plate and cup only to walk out another door that led outside.
"Well you must be new," a kindly elder voice spoke above his head.
Xavier started and looked up to realize that he was now at the head of the line and a nun was looking down at him. If Elmo's ears turned red when he got embarrassed, Xaviers' cheeks turned into tomatoes. "Umm, yes ma'am, um..."
"Is there anything I should know about what you can eat?" The nun had laugh lines and wrinkles around the corners of her eyes. Her whole demeanor was one of a kindly grandmother actually.
"Ummm... I think I'm ok..." Someone help Xavier!
With a soft cluck of the tongue, the nun went about making a quick simple sandwich and placed a pickle with it before handing it to Xavier. Off to the side Elmo stood between the door leading outside and the counter space that held a great many small paper cups. One such cup was in Elmos' hand and Xavier could only figure that it was for them. So Xavier met up with Elmo, taking up a cup that proved to hold apple juice before following Elmo outside. The outside garden was big and beautiful, the bushes were kept low allowing Xavier the chance to see a great deal of the garden, over rows of vibrant colors and a water fountain in the distance. Elmo seemed to know where he wanted to go, as his fellow kid made a line straight for some nice shade near a wall next to a strange door.
"This is a really cool spot, it's the crypt!" Elmo announced as he sat himself down on the cool green grass and began snacking on a sandwich. Only to look over at Xavier... "Aww what is it now?"
"A crypt 'here'? Like 'here' here?" Xavier asked before looking at the door more closely, why was it closed off from the public then? The public had no access here and crypts were kinda open to the public.
"Holy warriors are entombed here." Elmos' eyebrows furrowed and then he sighed. He took another bite of his sandwich before seeming to remember something. "Mr. Arikado said that the crypt was not created with the permission of the family. That people not used to holy power would either get scared or crave the power for themselves."
Xavier sat down next to Elmo, feeling a little weird to have a crypt full of people behind him. Elmo kinda made sense, though Xavier couldn't understand why the Vatican would force people to have their family buried here. Wouldn't it be considered an honor? "Were they cool?"
"Yeah! Ms. Yoko lives and works here, and her ancestors are inside! She's cool, and she is Snuggywuggys' owner! She's a nun and a witch..." Elmo then looked down, "Or is that a witch and a nun? I think she's a witch first, because she doesn't... Oh come on. What now?!"
"Aren't witches evil?" Xavier asked at Elmo's put upon expression.
"Bad witches are. Good witches aren't bad. Where do you pick up on all this stuff? You can't have fun if you worry all the time! 'sides God won't let bad witches live in the Vatican." Elmo explained as he continued on his sandwich.
"I'm jealous... All this stuff scares me, but you're so brave!" Xavier pouted before taking another bite of his sandwich.
"I'm not brave, Mr. Cruz said that I didn't have to worry about monsters. Because he won't allow bad monsters into the Vatican. Between that and the crypt here, whats' there to be afraid of?" Elmo reasoned as he began wiggling his toes in his shoes.
"Uh, who's 'Mr. Cruz'?" Xavier asked as he watched a little brown bird land on a near by bush.
"I don't know. I know he's important because Mr. Arikado has me guide Mr. Cruz around as well. Oh and unless someone hurts Mr. Arikado, Mr. Cruz is pretty ok. Like when Cardinal D'Arsit hurt Mr. Arikado, Mr. Cruz cut his hand off-" Elmo knew he did it again even before Xavier spewed out the apple juice. For most of the groups in the garden Elmo must have looked like a defeated stuffed animal with all his deflated looks. Time for new tactics.
"So what would you like to see first? Like we could go see His Holiness right now cuz he's right there?" Elmo offered.
"..." Alexander decided he wasn't going to ask why Elmo was using his paper plate to fan whoever it was passed out on the grass. He was just going to keep walking and pretend that small children with a pickle in one hand, a sandwich in the mouth and using a plate for a fan was perfectly normal in the Vatican. Just like how he pretended that the Snuggywuggy Christmas train was perfectly normal and witches who used fire ball spells to kill roaches were a dime a dozen.
He seriously wanted to just keep walking, but his duties as Pope frowned upon looking past the suffering of innocents. Alexander knew Elmo, rather small children in general, were prone to speak the absolute truth when asked. So if the other boy was new, and asked any questions Elmo was prone to give a truthful answer. Elmo's closeness to the, less than expected, aspects of the Vatican meant that he was rather a wellspring of information that would stun anyone, especially a child. Thus he turned his steps towards the pair to hopefully appease some of the shock.
"Elmo. May the Lord bless your innocent exuberance, but what did you do? This time."
"Um hey, Your Holiness? This is Xavier, he's new to us in the Cherub Choir and I get the feeling he's going to want to meet you when he wakes back up."
'Lord grant me the strength to not start laughing, oh what now?'
"Uhhh... Uhhhh! AHHH it's His Holiness!" He who must be Xavier came to, rather loudly.
"Well, yes my child. I was when I woke up this morning and I don't feel ready to retire. Young Elmo has told me you're going to be in the Cherub Choir from now on?" Alexander politely spoke while the child began busily digging in pockets before producing a small note pad and a pen.
"Please? May I have an autograph... and a blessing? Wait, that sounds greedy and greedy is bad..."
'The Lord works in mysterious ways... Apparently You have finally graced us with a way to keep Elmo in check. If not his penchant for wandering at least his penchant for letting his mouth go on its own path.'
He didn't give Xavier a chance to continue arguing with himself over what would be proper. Bending down a bit, he placed one hand on Xaviers' head, stilling the child instantly. "Dominus Jesus Cristus, Fili Dei vivi, Dixistis: 'Sinite pueros venire ad me, talium est enim regnum caelorum'. Hunc puer, virtutem tuae benedictionis infunde. Fidei et devotionis erga Ecclesiae parentum. Da, ut, proficiendi in virtute et sapientia coram Deo et hominibus ut vivant senecta desiderabilem et ad vitam aeternam consequendam, et regnabit in aeternum qui habitat. Amen."
Xavier looked lost at what was said, then again Elmo also looked lost when Alexander blessed him the last time. Though Arikado had been kind enough to translate the Latin for the child.
"You should thank him... Hey Xavier? You still in there?" Elmo asked, nudging Xavier only to watch the poor kid fall over in another dead faint. "This is going to be the 'long' tour isn't it?"
Alexander could only shake his head and chuckle before moving on as Elmo resumed using his plate to fan his fellow choir boy.
When Xavier finally came back around, again, he found Elmo still sitting there with a dutiful expression on his face.
"I had this weird dream where the Pope, himself, gave me a blessing!" Xavier exclaimed with a wide eyed look.
"Uh that wasn't a dream, he really did that and you passed out. Again. So I thought I should ask, you don't do this a lot do you? Like panic and faint? Cuz His Holiness 'has' sneezed during the occasional Mass. Oh and he does chuckle and laugh, too, so if you're going to fall over maybe I should know now?"
Xavier put his hands on his head in awe of the fact that the Pope himself gave a blessing to Xavier. But Elmos' comment caused him to sigh as he could see why it would be considered important. "It's not that I faint a lot. It's just that my parents and brother always talk about how important this place is. But, just by talking to you, it's almost like, I don't know. The Vatican is like everywhere else, only more crazy!"
"Mr. Cruz said that there's an odd influence in the Vatican. But he couldn't tell anything else because of the ring." Elmo explained with a shrug of his shoulders. He got up and began dusting off his pants before turning towards the main building. "Come on! I gotta show you more stuff!"
Xavier wondered about these strange people that Elmo spoke so casually of, before getting up himself and dusting off. Elmo guided him back into the kitchen where they disposed of their plates and cups before they set out further into the Vatican. Xavier found himself fascinated and a little scared by the tour, as Elmo easily pointed out spots and acts of recent destruction. Such as when he pointed out the burned damage on a painting of the Last Supper.
"How did you get invited into the Cherub Choir Elmo?" Xavier asked as they passed by the statue of the Virgin Mary.
"You won't believe me unless you meet Snuggywuggy," Elmo explained, reaching a fork in the hallways and looking both ways before taking a direction. Elmo kept a pretty fair pace for where he was going, pointing out all sorts of interesting things and places where things used to be. Until Xavier noticed that there were longer and longer periods of nothing going on and Elmo was taking longer to look between two hallways.
"Umm Elmo?" Xavier finally asked, growing concerned at how Elmo didn't seem to have a direction and how the sun seemed to be coming out of the windows at the end of hallways. At the end of 'every' hallway.
The tips of Elmos' ears were beet red as the kid turned to look at him in embarrassment, and it was that look that told Xavier that they were lost in the Vatican. But it was scary, the way the sun seemed to be pouring its' light through both windows on the far left and right. "Um... so what now?"
"Uh we find us a spot, settle in and wait until the Snuggywuggy Rescue Bear is sent out to find us," Elmo explained rubbing the back of his head.
"How long does it normally take for Snuggywuggy to find kids?" Xavier asked, reaching out to grab onto Elmo fearing that his fellow kid would disappear on him.
Elmo didn't get fazed by the act, he just shrugged and began looking at doors. "He's not very fast, but that's because he's small, that's kinda why we keep trying to get him more gear. Our current goal is to get him a little car or truck."
Xavier seriously wanted to know what his parents had dragged him into while Elmo quietly pushed a door open. After a gesture, Xavier followed Elmo into the room and found that they were now inside what looked like a type of conference room. Elmo climbed up into the seat and settled down, thus Xavier followed his example and settled into the chair next to Elmo.
"I hope it doesn't take long," Xavier commented, more to himself than to Elmo, when off in the distance he could hear something. He wanted to ask Elmo, only his fellow kid was looking at the same door with an odd expression on his face. As the door on the other side of the room began to open and the voices more apparent, Elmo suddenly slipped under the table. Startling Xavier as the kid grabbed him by the ankle and began dragging him under the table as well.
Xavier let out a squeak as Elmo pulled more urgently, causing Xavier to slide down quickly in concern. Once he was seated on the wine red carpet and under the great oak wood table he watched as Elmo focused on the door as it creaked open and the sounds of foot steps and voices filled the room.
"I don't believe it would be easy to simply arrest Alucard. He has allies among the clans that will surely be outraged at such an action. Treason or not."