Descent: The Fall of Belphegor

Summary: What happened in the life of Prince Belphegor to turn him into the Bloody Prince, and how did he become the Storm Varia? This is his story.

Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing these characters.

Mr and Mrs. Wayne, of New York City, were desperately proud of their identical twin boys. They had thought for years that Mrs. Wayne was unable to have any children…so for them to have been blessed with twins, after a relatively easy pregnancy, saw that they were overly fond, and proud, of their children.

Christopher, the oldest of the twins, was blonde with blue eyes, and he was the protector of the twins, even at a young age. Richard was the younger of the two, and was mirror identical to his brother…right down to his personality, and the unnerving desire to protect his brother from harm.

It astonished the two parents, when they saw that their personalities were identical as well as their appearance. They had heard that twins, while looking the same, would have vastly different personalities. Chris and Rich were the exception, apparently.

Not that Mr. and Mrs. Wayne minded. After all, all that this meant was that the twins got along, and didn't fight or argue, or scream for attention…the only thing that was rather alarming was the grins that they would give; the identical grins that would blossom across their faces when something went their way.

With a politician father and a lawyer mother, it really wasn't all that shocking that the twins were able, and willing, to manipulate the family nanny by the time that they were 18 months old. Really, it just came natural to them.

It was when the twins were two years old that their parents did the astonishing, and decided to take the summer off and went on a European Vacation, with the twins and their nanny. They hit all of the major cities, London, Paris, Madrid, Rome…and then they went to Illyria.

Illyria was a small country, ruled by a powerful, and wealthy, royal family…and the people there lived in a sort of…utopia, that the rest of the world was still trying to achieve.

However, all places have their undersides…and Illyria's was darker than most. In fact, the city itself was formed around various human trafficking rings…and the King and Queen were descendents of the very first Human Traffickers that came to Illyria.

It was this little fact, a fact that was hidden from tourists at the order of the Queen, which saw the happiness of the Wayne family destroyed, and, eventually, would see the destruction of Illyria itself.

It started on a warm July afternoon, Mrs. Wayne was walking with her husband, and the nanny was playing with the twins in the park not far from where the married couple was walking, when a man walked over to the nanny.

With one pull of a trigger, the nanny was dead, and the twins were gone, whisked away in the panic that his gunshot provided.

Mr. and Mrs. Wayne hurried over to the noise, they were from New York after all, and saw the scene. Their nanny dead, and the twins missing, and Mrs. Wayne fell apart. Mr. Wayne, for his part, contacted the police, and then Interpol, in the hopes that one of the groups would be able to find his twins…but it was all for naught. The twins were gone…and Mr. and Mrs. Wayne had to return to New York to continue on with their lives.

Two months after that, the blonde haired, blue eyed Crowned Prince Raisel was and his younger identical twin brother Prince Belphegor were announced to the people of Illyria. It was a testament to just how adored the king and queen were, in that no one questioned why the twins were announced when they were born. And no one mentioned the oddity that was that these twins were announced only months after the Wayne twins vanished.

As it turns out, Queen Persephone and her husband, King Rafael, were unable to have children of their own. As a result, and a need to have an heir, they sent some of their more loyal subjects out through the city, with the orders to find a young boy, preferably blonde, which could be raised as heir. And, a set of identical twins was just too good of an opportunity for them to pass up.

And so, with little fanfare, Christopher Mitchell Wayne was written off as a lost child, and was replaced by Crowned Prince Raisel, and Richard Marshall became the younger Prince Belphegor.

In some ways, being taken in (abducted) by the royal family was good for the boys. They ended up in a "good" home, with some of the best tutors, and they didn't have to worry about the violence that was so well known in their birth home. And the lifestyle was familiar to them. They had been doted on by their parents and grandparents; so getting what they wanted when they wanted it was nothing new for them.

However, in some aspects, it was horrible for them. As a result of the way that their birth parents had been raising them, the twins had been developing an enlarged sense of self-importance…and, as Princes, that felling only became larger.

The other downside was solely for Belphegor. He missed his birth mother and father, and had taken to asking when he was going to be able to go home. Being told that he wasn't going home, and that the Castle was home for him now, saw his, already volatile temper, erupt in a huge temper tantrum that saw his nursery destroyed.

After that fact, it was decided that Bel was too unbalanced for people to worry about, so all of the attention was given to his older brother. This enraged Bel. He never had to fight for attention when he was living with their birth parents…the fact that here, he had to fight and beg for attention, made his blood boil. After several tantrums, which always got him attention, he decided that he was going to take to manipulating his personal nanny to get nicer things than his brother.

This set off Raisel, who used their new parents to get even nicer things than Bel…which, in turn, set of Bel. It was a never ending cycle, on and on, back and forth, for two years.

And, by the time they were four, the two brothers, who had once been closer than most twins, ended up hating each other with a passion that was encouraged by the King and Queen. Future Kings, didn't need siblings, and Raisel needed to be able to separate his brother from what was important.

Raisel was favored by the King and Queen. He was calm, and polite, and was more than happy being a show dog for his parents. He was the future king of Illyria; after all, he needed to be able to handle the pressure that came from being on display. It helped that the King and Queen would ignore any wrong doing that was done by Raisel.

Bel, however, was favored by the nannies and the tutors. He was smarter than his twin, and was able to grasp more advanced things than Raisel; to the point where he was several years ahead of Raisel in most, if not all, of their lessons. And then the King found out, and forbade the tutors from allowing Bel to go any faster than his brother.

Bel lost his temper when he heard this. Unable to take any action against the King or his brother, Bel used a sharpened pencil and flung it, as hard as he could, at the tutor. The pencil ended up piercing the older man's eye, killing him instantly.

And, while the incident was explained away by the king and queen, calling it a suicide rather than a malicious murder, Bel was never trusted again, and he had lost all favor with his tutors and nannies.

Raisel, after all, never killed anyone in a fit of temper.

Bel, for his part, thought that the isolation was going to be the death of him. He was confined to his room, at all times, had his lessons via the computer that his parents had supplied him with, and had food delivered to his room. In fact, he was only allowed out of his room if the Royal Guard his parents had assigned as his keeper was with him.

The guard, a young man his parents named Thor (and thus sentenced to a lifetime of ridicule and mockery), was a powerful young warrior, and he was quick, both mentally and physically. He had earned his place in the Royal Guard through blood and sweat…and he resented that he had been removed from active duty to babysit the homicidal young prince.

In fact, Thor took great pleasure in teasing the young prince, until Bel lost his temper and launched whatever it was that he was holding at the older, more capable, man.

At least he did, until a couple of weeks after Bel's fifth birthday. Thor had been teasing him, like he normally did, when he saw something that both terrified him, and shocked him. Bel's eyes, which were blue like the sky, were slowly turning red.

It was a phenomenon that Thor had only read about, and heard about from his more worldly comrades. About the Flames of the Sky, and the various different colors that there were, and about what, exactly, a person with those flames could do…

Thor was not a stupid man, not by long shot, and while he didn't know much about the various flames, but he assumed that with Bel's young age, and the fact that his flames were powerful enough to start staining his eyes red, he would be a prodigy in this as well as in his lessons…and he decided that he was going to train the young prince, with the help of his younger sister Sif.

Bel excelled at the training that he was given, and the more he trained, the redder his eyes became, until, by his sixth birthday, his eyes were entirely red, and he was forced to grow his bangs out to hide the color change from the people he lived with.

Thor and Sif used the longer bangs as a training tool for Bel, teaching him how to sense other people, and how to fight blind-folded.

While this was going on, Raisel, who was unaware of the training that his brother was going through at the hands of two of the more adept members of the royal guard, had started his training under Master Williams, who was a master swordsman. Sadly, for Raisel, who was used to excelling in everything that he did, he wasn't suited to sword fighting, and he was forced to give it up.

Bel, upon finding out about it, was smug for days and had to be pushed into doing his lessons, instead of gloating over the failure of his brother.

This schedule continued, unhindered, for one more year. And then the King and Queen found out that Sif and Thor were teaching Bel how to fight, and they lost their tempers.

The two were dishonorably discharged, accused of committing high treason, and sentenced to death by beheading…within three weeks of the discovery.

By this point in time Bel, who was seven, had already mastered everything that Sif and Thor could have taught him, and they were just fine-tuning his skills. Also, by this point in time, Thor and Sif were the only people in the castle that Bel considered family…even his own twin didn't count any more.

Needless to say, Bel was less than thrilled with the punishment…and he started planning.

As much as his "parents" hated him and his tutors feared him, they all had to agree on one thing…Bel was a genius, both in the classroom and on the battlefield, and it was something that Raisel could no claim.

As smart as Raisel was, he was nothing compared to the sheer genius that Bel could claim.

So Bel plotted and planned, and he kept his head down and his mouth shut, and no one noticed him slipping out of the castle to get the supplies that he needed…after all, the King and Queen had the only two people who could have sensed him executed for High Treason.

One year. That was all that it took for him to create the perfect plan, to get the necessary supplies, and to go through with said plan.

He started with the Royal Guards, he was unwilling to alarm the guards as to what he was planning, and if they spoiled this for him he would get into a huge amount of trouble. So he snuck into the Barracks, and he slipped Strychnine (a poison that kills in 5-10 minutes with body convulsions and pain) into all of the food and drinks, and then waited 30 minutes for all of the guards to die.

For the guards that were on duty, he used needles coated in Black Mamba venom, and aimed for the vital parts on the body. In truth, the Royal Guards, all of them, were dead before they even knew that they were under attack.

For the servants, maids, and butlers who resided within the castle, Bel didn't even hesitate before using his daggers to kill them all; neither noticing, or caring, that he was being covered in blood.

For Bel, killing Master Williams (who was the Royal Executioner) was a particularly enjoyable experience. He made sure that Williams suffered before sending him to dine in the Halls of Hel.

He might not have believed in her, but Thor and Sif did, and this was in their honor, after all, so he would respect their beliefs for a little while at least.

And then Bel saw his brother, and he paused momentarily. His original plan was to go after the King and Queen, and then his brother…but this works as well…after all, Raisel wasn't even aware of his presence…

A slightly insane grin crossed his features as he silently slipped behind his brother, slamming the blades into his brother's back, before walking off, leaving Raisel to bleed to death on the floor by his bedroom.

After that, and riding the high that he developed when attacking his brother, Bel slipped into the room that belonged to the King and Queen, and ghosted over to the King's side of the bed.

He slammed his dagger into the King's chest, waking him, and twisted said dagger. A deranged grin blossomed across his face as he watched the light of life leave the king's eyes.

The queen, who woke at the noise her husband made when he died, screamed and ran out of the room. Perhaps she was looking for help, or maybe she thought she could escape…except Bel had planned for her exact reaction.

With a widening grin, he watched as she ran into the wire that he had set up earlier. The wire both stopped her, and cut her. The injuries that she sustained for the wire, would have seen her bleed to death within an hour, but Bel wasn't feeling like watching the woman bleed to death, so, with a disgusted glare, he sent three daggers at the woman, piercing her neck, temple, and chest. She was dead in moments.

Now, as the last living person in the castle, Bel grinned and walked way; stopping only to grab his bag, before walking out of the castle for the last time. He was long gone from Illyria by the time someone announced that the Royal Family was dead, and he earned the name the Bloody Prince.

Three weeks later, in Venice, Bel was approached by a tall man with black hair. The man grabbed Bel and dragged him to a rather large manor on the outskirts of town.

Bel glared at the man that he was set in front of, and the man glared right back at him, "Fucking Brat," He growled, "You work for me now." He glared at the room, which was full of people, "GET THE FUCKING HELL OUT OF MY OFFICE!"

And that is the story of how Belphegor became the Storm Guardian of the Varia.