Chapter Text
Axel was born in 2004 in the village of El Vacío, Spain. It was a village located near the west mountain range of Spain. Axel was born to Gomez and Mariposa King as a girl named Ana King. A name he would keep and use until his early teens. Axel had an older sister who was four years older than him named Ariella.
Axel had a happy music and art filled early life. His mother, Mariposa, was an artist who was both gifted and cursed with a form of Synesthesia. This form of Synesthesia had Mariposa tasting things she associated with colors and seeing the colors she associated with certain tastes. There was never a day where she was without food near her canvas or paint covering her clothes. It was truly a mess that Mariposa rarely had time to clean up.
Axel's father, Gomez King, on the other hand was a highly skilled musician. There was no instrument Gomez could not master. Gomez wrote his own music and even passed that knowledge onto his children.
Gomez had a secret and rather dangerous past, however. Gomez King descends from a long line of men and women who gave their lives to serve the Brotherhood of Assassins. Gomez was no different.
This part of Gomez’s past was buried and left behind once Gomez found out Mariposa was pregnant with their oldest daughter… Yet this past would cost Mariposa, Gomez, and Axel their lives. Well, it would more-so cost Axel his humanity.
A month after Axel’s 5th birthday, a night when Ariella was sent to stay with her grandparents, Gomez’s enemies struck the King family.
Axel was sound asleep in his bed when the cloaked men struck. There was a loud crash from a window breaking. Before the child could process what was happening, he was scooped up in a strange man’s arms and kidnaped into the forest.
Mariposa and Gomez were kidnapped as well. All three members of the King family were scared and destined to meet the same fate… Once again, that's what was believed.
Axel, unknowingly, had a powerful ally on his side, even at his young age.This ally was none other than the son of night and brother of sleep, the Greek personification of Death. The God known as Thanatos.
Thanatos had no idea why he was drawn to the child, all he knew was that he was overwhelmed with the urge to protect Axel. Yet, Gods cannot interfere with mortals directly unless it is for a quest or an offering was made in wish for the gods help.
Yet, Thanatos's hand would be drawn on the fateful night. A night that would forever change a young child’s life and body.
The three Kings were dragged deep into the woods onto a ritual sight. A ritual sight that was weeks in the making… The sight where two of the three Kings would die and where one would be reborn.
Gomez King was the first to be stricken down. His death was long and tortuous. He was beaten with both the fists and blunt weapons of the robed men. He was beaten in front of his wife and child. Next, the men brought out knives that looked as if they would be used for a ritual. A ritual such as this.
Gomez’s cries and screams of pain could not be blocked out by Mariposa’s hands over her child’s ears. Young Axel watched as his father was cut into like a fresh piece of meat. He watched as his father was brutally cut limb from limb by these men who were his enemies.
Soon, the blood was drained from the former assassin, and his discarded body parts sat around the forest. Axel could feel his heart pulsing. He was terrified. Was that going to happen to him and his mother?
Speaking of his mother, Mariposa was torn from her terrified child. Mariposa was just as afraid. She knew she had to be brave for Axel until the very end.
The woman fought against her captors, trying to get back to Axel. The cloaked men overpowered her easily, however. Mariposa was dragged to the same location her husband was torn apart.
Mariposa was much different from her husband. She wasn’t an assassin nor was she truly human. Mariposa descended from an immortal clan of mages who got their powers from the Greek gods, Dionysus and Apollo. This clan traveled around the Mediterranean, and Mariposa settled down in Spain to protect the people of the country.
This choice led Mariposa to meet the love of her life. She left her post, but not her powers to start a life with Gomez…
Now, her life that would have seemingly lasted until the end of the earth was being taken from her. All because these men couldn’t understand that the assassin they had just slaughtered was retired.
Mariposa was put through less torture than Gomez. She was just beat. Her death was just as cruel, however. Axel was once again forced to watch as his mother was torn apart. Her screams were just as vivid to Axel as his father's.
Axel refused to uncover his ears, even as his mother’s screams were abruptly cut off…. Yet, he was forced to his feet.