Chapter Text
How did it come to this?
Leonard Mitchell had his head in his hands in depression. Inside his body is another spiritual signature that was not his own. It wasn't like a parasite, but something else. A new life was growing inside him...
It was probably when Klein, as The World, had visited before The Fool went to sleep. Leonard doesn't remember. It was unclear. He seems to remember Klein looking half crazy, like on a verge to desperately cling to something to Anchor himself. Leonard remembers asking what was wrong with him. And when Klein was on him, there was little resistance due to fear... and extreme mutual want. Klein had taken him that night, and left the next morning without a trace.
Leonard smiled bitterly "What a bastard..." leaving me with a kid and just disappearing...
Leonard touched his stomach, it was hot with Klein’s Uniqueness and Spirituality, and the swirling and mixing of his own.
But how could Klein have gotten him pregnant? Klein had no authority over life like Mother Earth or Mother Tree of Desire–
Then his eyes widened as he remembered.
Last night, Klein had used strange black tentacles on him. its liquid was deposited into Leonard, that's when Klein’s Spirituality and Uniqueness settled into his body.
"ha ha ha..." Leonard hung his head low.
Mr. Fool is asleep, Klein has gone with Him, how is he supposed to handle this now?
///
Leonard had no idea what to do. He wanted to scream. Mostly at Klein. He wanted to cry. He was crumpled up on the bed, his body aching from last night.
When he woke up earlier there was nothing next to him but an indented pillow with a single gold coin on top.
Who does he think I am?
He tried to get up but his legs couldn't move. He fell helplessly to the ground, the coin clattering next to him. His physical body was fine, completely healed but his mental state was a mess. When the shock settled in, his face twisted in rage. Klein had invaded his home, invaded his body, and left a coin. No note, nothing but his kid in him. It was unbelievable.
A hysterical, jagged sound escaped Leonard's throat. It was a laugh, but it was choked with the salt of unshed tears. He wanted to scream at the empty air, to demand why a God's blessed would be so incredibly, devastatingly selfish. He wanted to weep for the man he had loved in secret, and he wanted to hunt Klein down and throttle him for the sheer audacity of leaving him like this.
If Klein wanted to have a damn kid with him, he could've just said so! Why did he have to– have to…
When the anger died down into emptiness, Leonard slowly got up despite his aching body and slowly hobbled to the telegraph.
“...Pallez? Old Man… I need your help.”
…
From the tone of Leonard's voice alone, Pallez had known something was off. He briefly ended His conversation with Azik Eggers and went to that brat of His. He was about to scold but when His eyes looked at Leonard, He froze. He went pale like a statue. "...What”
Leonard knew that He could tell and avoided his gaze.
"is that."
Leonard said nothing. He just looked at Him with an expression of complete and utter defeat.
Pallez crossed the room in four steps. He took Leonard's wrist and went quiet. His old eyes went sharp with the focus of a man reading something he was not certain he wanted to have read.
The silence stretched.
Then Pallez's old eyes went very wide.
"Leonard. Mitchell. Tell me this is a Beyonder characteristic you swallowed."
"It isn't."
"Tell me you were cursed."
"..I don't think so."
Pallez looked increasingly horrified "Tell me, that this is not what I think it is."
Leonard looked at the floor. He could not quite make himself meet those eyes. He said nothing.
"I was gone for a day."
Leonard stayed silent… He expected yelling and scolding but instead Pallez sat next to him and asked seriously “What happened?”
“....” Leonard hesitated to speak before telling Him everything.
There was a long pregnant silence in the room and Pallez with a dark expression. “So then? What are you going to do with it?”
Leonard was stunned. He hadn't thought about it.
Seeing that the irresponsible brat didn't speak, Pallez continued “Even as a demigod, it's dangerous to give birth to… an Angel's spawn. You'll die.” It was dangerous enough giving birth to an Angel, and that Klein is secretly the Half Lord of Mysteries. That brat has no idea what he's getting into.
“I…” Leonard was shaking. “Can't I keep it?”
“...” Pallez's voice dropped an octave “What?”
Sensing the shift, Leonard unconsciously turned his body away from Pallez, hugging himself “I said what if i want to keep it?”
His voice got increasingly louder the more he spoke “...You want to keep the seed of the bastard that suddenly went into our house in the middle of the night and– and did that to you and left without an explanation or even an acknowledgement in the morning?!”
Leonard looked ashen as He said those words "It wasn't–" He interrupted, then stopped again. "It wasn't.. He didn't force me. That's not what it was. I want to be clear about that."
Pallez's expression did not change. "Did he ask you?"
The silence that followed was answer enough.
"So he didn't ask," Pallez said. Precise and utterly without mercy.
"He was-" Leonard's jaw tightened. "He was losing his footing. He looked so... so lost. Whatever was happening to him that night, he was close to an edge and I– I wasn't afraid of him, not exactly, I was afraid of what would happen if I didn't– and I wanted…" He stopped when he felt he was saying the wrong thing. "I didn't say no. That's what I'm saying. I didn't say no."
"But did you say yes?"
Leonard said nothing.
The silence answered for him. He knew it, and he hated it, and he hated Klein a little for making him stand here and be unable to defend him cleanly.
He didn't ask.
He had simply… taken. With Leonard's silent complicity and Leonard's complete absence of protest, Klein had taken. And then he had left, without a word, without a note, without so much as the basic human decency of– of acknowledging what had happened between them. And then he went into slumber a few hours later along with his god as if the entire thing was planned. What a bastard.
“And you still want this?” Pallez then asked for confirmation. Leonard slowly nodded once.
Pallez began shouting at him. “Are you insane?! You have to get rid of it!” He knows that Klein is the Lord of the Mysteries and knows that Leonard doesn't know. He doesn't dare spill Klein’s secrets, fearing his wrath. Pallaz was gone for a day with Azik Eggers to catch up on old times. He came back to find His grandson pregnant with His boss's spawn that could potentially kill him. Of course Pallez yells at him to get rid of the spawn. Exhausted from last night, Leonard could only silently weep, shaking his head frantically.
“I can't– you can't! I want to keep them, it's mine!”
Last night, Leonard was sure he had almost been fucked to death by Klein and his tentacles. He was physically alright by the time he woke up but mentally he was not. He was in disbelief and denial. That Klein had done such a thing to him, had hurt him. He was not beside him, not downstairs or any room in the house. Just gone. What an ass.
And then the Tarot Club notified him with the reason why. Mr.Fool had slept. Klein went with Him in eternal slumber. Leonard had broken down, cursing Klein until he had the courage to call Pallez.
But on the other hand, he was glad it was Klein. That it had been Klein who had looked at him like he was the only solid thing in a dissolving room. That whatever Klein had needed an anchor for, he had reached for Leonard. And before he had gone somewhere unreachable, had tied himself to Leonard forever.
Pallez's voice had snapped him awake. His voice had abandoned all pretense of control now "Kid, you don't understand what you're saying! You don't understand what happens if you bring that thing into this world! This is non negotiable, we have to end it now, before–"
"Stop it!" Leonard was on his feet too, though he didn't remember standing. "Stop calling it that!"
"Leonard–"
"I said stop! It's not a thing, it's my-"
"It could kill you!" Pallez's voice struck the walls like something physical. "It will kill you. You have no idea what you're carrying, you have no idea what He-" He stopped again, jaw tight, something carefully swallowed. "You do not know what you are dealing with. And you are standing there telling me you want to keep it?"
"It was my mistake to call you!" The words came out before Leonard could weigh them. Raw and ragged and too loud for the room. "Get out."
"You–!"
"I said get out!" He turned away, needing to put space between himself and Pallez's certainty-
A hand closed around his wrist. "Why don't you ever listen to me."
Already tired and grieving, suddenly being grabbed was what broke the last thing Leonard had been holding together. His eyes filled before he could stop them, vision blurring at the edges, and he hated it. hated crying, hated doing it in front of anyone, hated the way his face felt when it happened.
"Klein gave them to me." His voice came out wrecked. Barely his own. "He- he gave them to me, Pallez, how could I…"
He pulled, putting his Beyonder ability behind it, not to harm, just to pull away for space that he dearly needed at the moment. Pallez let him go and went back half a step.
Leonard stood there, one hand pressed against his abdomen, panting with the effort of the past thirty seconds and the past twelve hours and everything accumulated between them. His face was wet with angry tears. He didn't wipe it. He felt helplessness knowing his own strength was not comparable to the Marauder Angel should anything truly happen.
But nothing did. Pallez looked back at him. The silence stretched.
Then Pallez said with quietness that was somehow worse than the shouting "I am not dealing with this." He turned. The door opened and shut with a force that rattled the lamp bracket on the wall.
The room became completely silent except for his own shaky breathing. Leonard stood for a moment in the middle of it all.
Alone in silence that he asked for, Leonard dropped to the floor and cried in his hands.
"Klein..."
///
The next day after wallowing in self pity, Leonard forced himself to get up and change. When he puts his hand to his stomach, it still felt hot. And the steady pulsing of the Spirituality made it undeniable that it wasn't a dream.
He thought of this yesterday, but what is he really going to do? He was still the Captain of a Red Gloves team and still have to work. And it's obvious that this baby is mystical. How is he going to find a mystical doctor? Shaking his head, he went out. He still has months in advance to think about it.
…
Their captain came to work a little down. No, that was an understatement. He looked like the dead that pieced itself back together. Cindy couldn't properly tell. He still did his work as usual so she didn't really pay much attention to it. He was just more quiet, more so than he already was before.
In the next few days, the Captain would often come to work agitated. When Albert had asked about it, he had admitted that he fought with his grandpa. As Red Gloves, they knew not to ask too deeply on personal matters and left it as that. They haven't thought about it again until the next week where Cindy finds documents on Leonard’s table detailing the Church of Mother Earth and its believers.
‘Captain has never mentioned an investigation about this before. And it's so detailed…' Last time they had anything to do with the Church of Mother Earth was during the war where they had to take Father Utravski into secure custody. Cindy puts the papers down, planning to ask about it patiently next time.
…
In the Harvest Church, Backlund diocese.
Leonard walked in wearing casual clothes. Some who recognized him as the Evernight fellow that took Father Utravski away flinched and were on guard.
The said priest was praying piety in front of the altar, the giant had his head bowed and hands clasped in prayer. The half giant seems to have noticed Leonard approaching and greeted without looking at him “My friend, is there something?”
Leonard was hesitant for a bit then smiled “I came to have a chat, nothing official.”
In a private room, they sat down. Father Utravsky spoke first, smiling warmly
“First of all, congratulations. May the Great Mother bless you and your child.”
Leonard physically flinched, heart dropping in his chest “Y-you can tell?”
“Faintly, the child has yet to form a heartbeat, so I was only able to tell based on the Spirituality. That child must have a powerful father.”
Leonard glued his eyes on the floor “I-I… yes.” His face was red with shame.
“Allow me to make a guess that the reason you are here is because of that?”
Leonard wanted to cover himself “Yes..”
Seeing his shyness, Father Utravsky took lead of the conversation. “How are you feeling?”
"It's warm." Leonard's hand moved toward his abdomen reflexively, then stopped. “Nothing much has happened.
"The Great Mother's mercy, perhaps." Utravsky nodded. Leonard said nothing. He found the floor was very interesting.
“Is the father around? I don't see them with you?”
“He… is busy. He left for somewhere very important and likely won't be back in a while…”
“I see…” Father narrowed his eyes in disapproval. Then asked “Do you wish to keep them?”
“Yes.” Leonard said more firmly.
The priest sighed in relief, “That's good, the life of a young one should be cherished.” he continued “but also the mother's.” He looked at Leonard “My friend, I will not lie to you when I say that your life will be in danger if you continue on. I am willing to help you in any way I can and support you. But even then, it would not be enough.”
Leonard was shaking again. He covered his face in his hands to bite back his despair “Then what should I do? I can't... I can't let go of this child.”
Father Utravsky looked at him in pity and made the hand gesture of Mother Earth. “You can attempt to advance, the higher your sequence, the lesser the chance of accidents. However, it is extreme danger itself to advance while carrying.”
Leonard bit his lip in silence. Father Utravsky continued "I did not say it was a good option. I said it was an option."
"What are the odds?"
Utravsky was quiet for a moment in the way that meant the odds were not something a man of faith led with.
"Father…"
"...Low." The giant's large hands pressed together. "The danger of advancement combined with the instability of carrying a child of such…" he paused, "...such considerable parentage. The two conditions would work against each other. Your body is already under strain accommodating the child's presence. Introducing a new potion into that environment would be…”
Neither of them said anything for a few seconds.
"So my options are..." Leonard said very quietly, "advance and likely die in the attempt. Don't advance and likely die carrying it to term." A beat. "Or end the pregnancy. Is there anything else? Anything at all?"
The priest was silent for a long moment. Then, carefully "The father. If he returned, his presence and his direct involvement in stabilizing what he left behind… That would change things considerably."
“......”
Utravsky looked at him with the deep pity. He made the gesture of Mother Earth again, slow and deliberate. "I will pray for you, my friend. And I will help however I am able. You are not alone in this. It is good that you have come to us for help. This is not something to be endured alone. Wait here, I will get things you need.” He stood up and left.
Leonard sat there, his eyes still glued to the floor. He was still trembling trying to hold back tears. Is there really no other way? All he wanted was a family, something he could call his own. He was an orphan with no siblings, no family of his own. After the terror of what happened settled, he even began looking forward to it, imagining a family of three with him, Klein, and their child.
But if even the Church of Mother Earth is telling him straight to his face that he would surely die with such certainty…
sob
He allowed one sob before straightening himself. Just in time for Father Utravsky to enter the room with a bag in a bundle. He took the items out and explained them to the first time mother. “These are herbs to help with nausea, put them in hot water for a few minutes, you may add sugar if it is too bitter. These are a few guidebooks in understanding pregnancy and what to expect, and this is a tracker, press the button in emergencies, if someone from Mother Earth is nearby, they would tend to you temporarily before transferring you here or to the nearest Church of Mother Earth. Do not let just anyone attempt to inspect you, they might lose control or die.” Leonard scrunched back in fear. He watched Father Utravsky bundle them all and gave it to him.
“Thank you.” Leonard said genuinely.
He nodded “May Great Mother bless you. Come back if you are four weeks along or if there are any complications. I wish you and your child the best. Once again, congratulations, I'm happy for you.”
Hurt was clinging to him. The only other person who knew about this had been constantly shouting at him to abort the ‘spawn.’ To hear this stranger be more happy for him than Old Man… It was bittersweet. He smiled at the kind giant priest “Thank you, truly.”