Chapter Text
How To Summon The God of Fire
Step 1: Find a Guardian Angel ✔
Step 2: Perform a blood-binding ritual
Step 3: Sacrifice the Guardian Angel in a pit of fire.
Step 4: Celebrate! You’ve summoned a God!
Frank slowly re-read his handwritten note before furrowing his brows, How do I perform the blood-binding ritual again? He almost turned to ask Gerard until he laughed & remembered, Right, yeah, probably shouldn’t ask him of all people.
Well… I guess we’ll just have to wing it, he joked to himself, wondering if Guardian Angels even had wings. Maybe they’re invisible… or maybe they fold up like origami? Fuck it, might as well ask.
"Hey, so do you have wings?"
"Are you fucking serious?"
Gerard spat back, infuriated by the stranger’s demeanor,
"How are you going to threaten my life one moment then ask about my wings?"
"So you DO have wings!"
Frank smirked before raising his hands placatingly,
"Ok, I see you’re upset, but you don’t have to be. We can be civil about this,"
he suggested sincerely.
Despite himself, Gerard bellowed out a laugh once again,
"Civil… my god, you’re serious."
"I mean, I don’t see why not? I wouldn’t take this whole thing personally -- really, I’m only doing it out of necessity… but if it makes you feel better… Hi, my name is Frank Iero, I’ll be performing our ritual tonight,"
he smiled politely, holding up an ornate dagger,
"I’ll try to make this whole thing as painless as possible."
Frank Iero, Gerard thought, feeling conflicted & confused by his own dwindling anger. Why don’t I hate you for this? Maybe it was his Angelic empathy kicking in, but he could feel that Frank wasn’t acting out of maliciousness toward him &, for whatever reason, it gave him an odd comfort.
"So Frank, I have to ask… how did you figure out my identity?"
"Oh… that,"
Frank nodded, wanting to appease Gerard in any way he could,
"I spent a long time looking through old newspapers for small miracles. You know, none of that crying statue bullshit, but the under the radar stuff… & eventually I found the story about your childhood home burning."
Gerard gulped, still pained by the memories of his parents’ death.
"Honestly I thought your brother was the Guardian Angel at first since the papers said he dragged your unconscious body out of the building… but then I found an unrelated interview he did a decade later where he mentioned suffering from severe breathing problems & being cared for by you,"
Frank explained before continuing,
"I know it’s pretty innocuous stuff, but I noticed that you came out of the fire unscathed & I thought that was interesting to say the least… It was all just a hunch until I managed to track down your current address & that’s when I knew… it had to be fate. I never would’ve known to look for a Guardian Angel had you not sold me those books in the first place."
It was an ironic realization for both of them -- almost laughable if it wasn’t so morbid.
"I died in that fire,"
Gerard confessed, abruptly shocking both of them with his candor. He never expected to talk about it with anyone besides Mikey, but something compelled him to open up,
"When I passed on, I was given the option to rest in eternal peace or return to earth as a Guardian Angel in order to care for my brother… & well, as you can see, here I am."
Frank nodded silently, not knowing what to do with that particular information. It was strange to feel so strongly for someone he planned on hurting.
"If I agree to this, can you promise me one thing?"
Gerard eventually stated, breaking the silence.
"Anything,"
Frank replied, listening intently with a wide-eyed expression.
"Will you look out for my brother, Mikey? I don’t know what the consequences of this will be, but if it’s inevitable then I just want you to make sure he’s safe… all I’ve ever wanted is for Mikey to be happy."
Frank held Gerard’s teary gaze before raising the dagger to his own chest & answering,
"I pledge my life, blood, & soul to it."
"Then so do I,"
he agreed, ready to embrace the flames once again.
Stepping forward, Frank carefully carved a symbol into the palm of his left hand before untying Gerard’s arms & repeating the process. Once the symbols were completed, he raised their hands & sealed their bloody palms together before reciting a single line.
"Incendium, Ignis, Lux, Ardor, Lumen. Incendium, Ignis, Lux, Ardor, Lumen. Incendium, Ignis, Lux, Ardor, Lumen. Incendium, Ignis, Lux, Ardor, Lumen!"
he concluded before swiftly slitting Gerard’s throat & throwing his body into the fire pit.
"May the flames grow ever stronger from your sacrifice,"
Frank whispered with a severe finality, voice trembling gently as he dropped to his knees.