Author's note: I need to tell that this flashback is my most favourite one. It's the best piece, I've ever had the pleasure of writing. Although, I should press that this first part few instances of this chapter is inspired from a movie and this chapter is a tribute to that movie because this specific scene inspired me to create this world so I had to put in something from the movie as a tribute and I chose this tiny scene. I hope all of you do understand.
Harry had just aroused from the excuse of sleep, he had received the night prior. He had wanted a healthy sleep for the plan he intended to execute this morn to kill his uncle, the King of Imperium, Royden Richard Styles. He had meticulously organised the entire event for too long for a discrepancy to occur.
There was a knock on the door and a jet black haired soldier walked in his uniform with a smirk adorning his face, "He is on his way, your uncle."
Harry's chuckles resonated vibrantly in his velvet cloaked room which had a woman sprawled on the bed, completely unfazed by her presence.
"Brilliant. How far is he from his impending death?" Harry laughed.
"Half a day, Harry." He replied.
Harry smirked and nodded his head when another man walked into his chambers, "Forgive me for the intrusion, Harry but King Royden is advancing closer to the borders of Demis."
"Zayn informed me, Liam." He acknowledged and saw the brunet flicker his hazel eyes towards the accentuated beauty of the black haired Omega whose olive skin, Harry had strictly abstained from. He disliked Omegas with a passion but he sustained Zayn because of his commitment towards his long-standing friendship with him, not like Zayn himself advanced towards him in that light but one person he did advance towards was Liam, oddly.
They were evidently smitten especially after Zayn had his first heat four years back and their sexual tension was giving him a headache, even though he decided that he would eventually address the topic when the major plot of his conspiracy concluded.
Dismissing the two away, he quickly dressed himself up, knowing that in a matter of a few days, there will probably be a horde of people assisting him for every tiny thing he does because he would be King and that was written by the Gods in his blood that his fate was to govern the entirety of Cynthia, not just Imperium and he knew it.
When the sun had uncharacteristically hidden behind the overwhelming grey clouds which threatened to rain if played with, that was when the Emperor of Imperium, Royden Styles arrived. He was a short man for the traditional Alpha. His stomach wobbling while he traversed and his beard longer since he last saw him which was when he initiated Harry to the City Demis because of the victory he brought from the smaller state of Mylene and warding off the soldiers at the Northern borders where the dry province of Alba Reginae resided.
With his few ministers assisting him, he sauntered into his death trap. Following him were a set of soldiers and, what was that? More like who was that?
Harry's ministrations halted on the figure while his uncle stepped forward to embrace him, "You've done Mischelin great favour, Harry," he addressed and hugged the taller man, "conquering the entire city of Carypt which has the benefit of a port. It will surely bring us prosperity," Harry forced his lips into a smile, waiting for them but which was soon to follow. "But," The expectant conjunction arrived, "why didn't you return to Mischelin with the spoils of the war and the gold you plundered?"
"I was tired," he laughed it off, concealing the real reason behind him not returning to Mischelin, "and anyway, Your Highness, all this," he pointed to the sacks of gold and immeasurable artefacts around him, "is for you."
"And that crown on your head?" He questioned, eyeing the eloquently chiselled stone which held itself through strong black threads which Harry had crudely tied himself.
"I got that made when I came to Demis for myself." He answered honestly and to his horror, the man rose his hand and pulled the crown off his head, humiliating him before more than a feasible crowd.
"You aren't a King, Harry, nor are you a Prince to be worthy enough to wear this," he declared, examining the crown closely, ignoring the ardent rage-filled in his eyes, "but you don't need to get upset, I have a better gift for you."
With that, he meandered to the place where Harry's gaze had been formerly stationed. A figure was covered in a sheer white sheet of what exactly, he wasn't really aware of.
"This man," he introduced, releasing the chains which bound him, "is my slave and my trusted assassin," to this the said slave clicked his tongue in distaste causing the King to slap him into obedience and added with a smile, "a little disobedient but his skills are exceptional, he single-handedly killed the Emperor of Tryeen. Don't be deceived by his stature, his stealth and cunning rivals that of animals and his swordsmanship is otherworldly."
"I may go as far as to say, he may defeat you in a one on one swordplay and fencing." He supplied which rose Harry's eyebrows in interest because regardless of how absolutely a fool his uncle was, he knew how to recognise talent when it was seen.
Harry casually strolled over to where the supposed 'slave' stood with guards and two ministers flocking him. His peer slackened and asked the people to move away while he drew nearer to the man.
Something about the covered man was calling for him. He didn't know if it was his inner Alpha or his infallible instincts guiding him to the man, almost seeming like this meeting had been planned decades ago and fate only brought it down now. The breeze tugging him in his direction and his intuition assuring the Alpha that he was going to help him execute not only his uncle but an infinite number of rivals in the future.
Inhaling the fresh vanilla smell which was ghosting around the man intoxicated with something, even more, sweeter which he couldn't place his finger at. A smell so overwhelming that it made him feel ecstasy at the moment.
"Name?" He stringed his words carefully and in a voice low enough for it to resist reaching anybody's ears.
"Mine or my perfume's?" He inquired with an edge to his voice.
"Perfume." He smirked at the man's observation and begun to circle him like a vulture around its prey.
"Heaven's breath." He responded with a smirk Harry could hear, "Vanilla extract and fragrance of the fire flower, specifically made in Khara."
"Hmm, my uncle speaks quite highly of you." Harry hummed. "Could you die for me?"
"No." The reply was prompt.
"Could you live for me?"
The covered man shook his head once again in negation to the question asked.
"Can you kill for me?"
His head lifted, as though the veil between them wasn't present and bore his eyes towards the Alpha and surprisingly the emerald eyed man felt his gaze through the sheets. "Now that's the question isn't it?"
Harry slowly removed a knife from his pocket to hand it over to the person while doing so, his fingertips grazed the smooth skin beneath them. He had no idea if the man felt the same but he was touching liquid electricity, cotton so soft that it electrocuted you. A scent so alluring that he wanted to claim him then and there. Averting his attention back to the task with a lot of force, he left it into the man's sleeve, stealthily, assuring nobody saw it with the speed and concealment, he pushed it in while standing before the man.
"You're an assassin, right?" He asked stepping back while drizzle came down upon them.
"Kill these two," he threw in a cavalier order, pointing at the ministers on both of his sides causing a ripple of laughter from the emperor, steering Harry to the source.
"He can't kill them," he chuckled, finding mirth which the younger alpha couldn't, "they're my ministers, he can't-"
Before he could complete his sentence, a loud thud was heard from the back when Harry turned to see the men on the floor, blood spluttered and clearly not conscious.
This brought out a chuckle from Harry's throat, as the sheet covering the man descended to the floor revealing his perfect stature. He was small. Very small. Very very small as compared to his own huge person. Small but exceptionally beautiful. Glowing skin with soft chocolate coloured hair cascading on his lovely cheekbones raised high with tantalizing rose coloured lips and brilliant, magnificent, piercing blue eyes. A raging storm like, almost ethereal, blue. This man before him was angelic and out of the so many moments in his short life, the fates had decided this consequential moment to bless him with whosoever this man was.
"How dare you, Tomlinson!" His uncle's shouts cracked Harry's thoughts of admiral of the lad.
He immediately took long strides against the ground and placed his arm around his uncle, "Why are you worried about them," guiding him harshly towards the gold sacs, "there are so many better things to focus on."
Yanking the man into a hurried embrace, locking his gaze with Liam momentarily who immediately plunged a dagger into his back, initiating a whirlwind of chaos from the other two noblemen present which included Royden's blood heir who was going to draw his sword but another sword reached his neck before he did and surprisingly it was the pretty boy's.
Harry's face sparkled with amusement with the sudden turn of events, smirking at the man's cunning. "If you keep admiring my swordsmanship, the man at your foot will kill you in a minute."
So he had a tongue. A sharp one at that.
Ignoring the 'Tomlinson', he turned back towards the man at his foot and knelt to his side. Gesturing Liam to take his uncle to his quarters, he ordered Zayn to take the others as their prisoners while he cleared the rest of the crowd and returned to his quarters himself while 'Tomlinson' was escorted to his chambers.
Harry had been preoccupied with figuring out how to neatly kill his uncle and finally settled on carving his throat out with his dagger and boy was he pooling all his attention into it. His clearly conscious uncle was laying on the floor while his nephew gracefully scrapped his insides spilling blood over his expensive handmade carpets, initiating a twitch from his eyebrow at the ruined decor. The screams heard were music to his ears. He had waited long enough to avenge his predecessor's death and this revenge was cold and satisfying not to mention the melodies of it filled his chambers up with. He even unexpectedly hummed with his screams.
His sudden session was intervened with the beauty himself making his presence known.
"Ah! There you are!" He mused.
"Yes, here I am." He repeated silently with an eyebrow arched, unfazed by the gory scene before him.
"You didn't seem very deadly when I first saw you," Harry pointed out with his hand still continuing the task but his 'slave' kept his thoughts to himself which caused him to stare at him in intrigue. "Neither did I think you were tongue-tied."
Generating a small delectable twitch, as he languidly looked at the guards in implication. As soon as he was made aware of it, Harry dismissed his guards after he checked him for weapons.
"Neither did you seem sadistic when I met you." Tomlinson retorted.
"Touché," Harry laughed maniacally and then questioned, "why not tell it before the guards?"
"You're going to become King and if I, as a stranger can behave in a brat like fashion, your authority will be questionable," he answered and very thoughtful worded, "A child and an Alpha must be appreciated publicly and reprimanded in person, they don't listen otherwise."
"I like the way you think." Harry appreciated, nonchalantly, his hand still turning the knife like a knob in the bloodied neck.
"I like the way you look." This shot his eyes up towards the assassin who stood before him in confidence of what he just said.
"Flirting won't get you anywhere."
"I'm stating a fact not flirting."
Grinning at his response, he asked, "Gender?"
"Beta."
"Betas aren't as strong as Alphas."
"Neither are Alphas as smart as Betas."
"Where are you from?" He asked discarding the knife and wiping the blood off his hands.
"Diety."
"Heard people from Diety are vulnerable."
"Heard people from Mischelin are incapable but here we stand."
"You have a sharp tongue."
"You have a sharp gaze."
"You could be wanting to kill me."
"You could have kept me to kill me."
"You betrayed my uncle."
"I betrayed him on your orders, I was given to you by him so it's his fault, not mine." He shrugged in an indifferent manner and then added, "Not to mention that I warned about this occurrence two months back and was cast away because of my standing as a beta."
"You predicted that I was conspiring against him?"
"Yeah."
"And then?"
"He began to ill-treat me and discredit me publicly, he started acting as he owned me which he didn't because I was hired by him not given, so I let it fall to him," he smirked and then casually supplied, "and I was assured of your skills anyway, I know you will make a better Emperor."
"How are you aware of the latter?" He asked, leading him out of the study and beckoning the guards to clean up.
"I am a very resourceful person." He announced. "There a lot of litanies in Mischelin of your prowess."
"There aren't any good ones." Harry noted and hauled him carefully on the velvet sheets. "Not many people like me everywhere I go."
"That makes two of us," the assassin replied immediately with a smile which made Harry's stone heart flutter.
"Do you sleep with every man you are handed over to?" Harry inquired, hoping to bruise his ego while he straddled him, running his fingers under his shirt.
"Who says I'm sleeping with you?"
"Who says you aren't?"
"Now who is asking me to sleep with him?" His gaze asked, grinning in humour at the situation and leaning into the young Prince's neck, he felt a sudden intake of breath.
"Name." Harry asked, his lips grazing on his skin and consequently grunted in disapproval for the receding of his person.
"Mine or the perfume's?"
"Both are equally intoxicating but I'd prefer yours."
"Louis."
To this the alpha looked into his aquamarine orbs and he felt as though the moon had confined its light and made the person beneath him. Stealthy yet flawless. Perfection cloaked in ruthlessness. And that was Louis.
Warding off the wave of memories which washed over him, he paid attention to the architect who came to fetch him, informing that Niall was stationed at the entrance and asking for his presence. Reluctantly but he rose from his seat to move out of the abode he made for his omega while the moonlight fell upon the lovely white marble floor, shedding sight upon the intricate designs on the floor.
Moving away from the room, he locked the huge doors guarding it himself and sauntered down the staircase to meet Niall who briefed him about Louis' worsening condition asking him to come back to his own quarters which he did so silently without conversation in ignorance to anybody who greeted him.
On entering the room, everyone automatically stood up in respect for the Emperor and backed away from the omega who they were tending to and his gaze fell upon his mate who's veins were turning a frightening blue and his eyes pained at the sight, turning to the head Healers, "What is happening to him?"
"The poison is getting into his bloodstream, Your Highness." A hesitant alpha answered grimly which just drew his already dim gaze away from his omega and walked out of his own chambers without saying a word instigating Zayn, Liam and Niall immediately leaped onto him and followed him in fear of attempting something reckless but turning out he just wanted a reading from the seer about what the fates had decided on this given topic.
* * *
When they returned to the chambers, Harry was upset. Visibly. He didn't speak a word and kept his thoughts to himself which was the source of discomfort to the occupants of the room in which they all had halted meanwhile.
Niall did not know what he could do to even improvise the young Omega's condition. He knew his to-be-mate had poured his heart and soul and everything he had ever learnt as a healer into a test to rouse the Omega mate of the Emperor but nothing in this world could snap his eyes open. In addition to this was the flare of his friend.
Niall had always considered Harry his friend but Louis was more of a brother, more of a sibling than Harry, Zayn or Liam could ever aspire to be to him. In this short span of six years, Louis was the one to make him the man he was today.
Being Omega royalty had its perks but had more downfalls, especially if you were male. He was told to tell anybody who asked for his gender that he was Beta until the time came but just because this lie was crafted, it didn't give him any more freedom than what he already possessed. In fact, even Zayn was given more freedom even though he was openly an Omega without the guise of a Beta.
Initially, everyone had dismissed Niall's wishes to be a part of the army, regardless of the laws Harry had passed so diligently, he had hypocritically never initiated Niall to go through training to become a warrior. After three years of asking every Alpha close to him for training, Harry became Emperor and had brought in a Beta with no past who had surprisingly played a very pivotal role in his ascension and was more lethal than Harry and more agile than Liam. He was an embodiment of strength to every Beta and Omega who had ever dreamt of being a warrior but couldn't due to the ever prevalent Alpha superiority. On hearing this when he approached him for training him, Louis himself was surprised but had accepted and even after being reprimanded for it by Liam and Harry and Zayn for doing so, he continued anyway until Niall was perfectly capable to make his way into the royal army and steadily began to rise up in it.
Not only did he owe everything he was today to Louis but also his life for the one time he had intervened a sword which was supposed to strike him and taken it in his steed. A bold slash down his right arm which marred his skin for eternity but Louis never complained a second about it, even though Harry almost bite his head off in a reprimand and even then Louis stood up for him. 'You can return it some other time, it's just an arm,' that's what the former Beta had said to the blonde when tears were shedding profusely.
He was that brother, he never had and would never have. The blue-eyed man often mentioned he felt the same. Told him a few things he hadn't mentioned to others like how good he was at healing and his time in training in Diety but one thing he never mentioned was the magnitude of his affections towards the Emperor.
The same Emperor he and his other two friends had shared their lives with and somehow this man who had just arrived knew him better than their own infinite experiences with him. In these few days which passed, he saw Harry's temper evolve into something more helpless. He had seen a lot of Harry's phases but this was the most deplorable. The man who wouldn't let his worry or anxiety for the sake of the gigantic ego he possessed to show and now all he saw was the green which was dimming further and further, as Louis deteriorated.
A loud bang shook Niall's thoughts and brought him back into the room where he sat, next to the Emperor's Omega.
Harry had thrown a plate of fruits across the room in agony. This action was enough to raise Niall from his position in vexation. "Harry!"
"What?!"
"Can you stop whining like a three-year-old?!"
"It's not your mate laying in between life and death!"
"You're not the only one who cares Harry!"
"Then why isn't anybody else doing anything about it."
"Like you are making a significant change!" Niall snapped, receiving a gasp from Zayn but ignored it anyway. "At least the healers have been trying to do something, you're just acting like a child!"
"But they are just worsening the situation!"
"Well, they are doing something!"
Harry's face grew into a furious red with his eyes turning into a poisonous green at the splash of truth on his face. "It isn't working! The something they are doing! I haven't employed the best healers in Imperium for-"
"For your information the best healer in Imperium is Louis Tomlinson!" He scowled with a pitch high enough to silence the Alpha whose visage remained apathetic, staring off into the distance and suddenly his eyebrows furrowed, as though Niall's outburst just instigated a thought process and Harry immediately jumped up, swiftly moving out of their room and asking Shawn to accompany him which indirectly got the three remnant men to follow him too.