Chapter Text
February 1917, St. Petersburg
"Nathaniel."
Nathaniel steered up as a hand shaked his shoulder.
"Nathaniel, wake up"
It took a few more seconds before Nathaniel realized that was his mother’s voice, calling for him. His mother never came into his room. He opened his eyes and here she was, leaning over his bed, whispering to him.
"Get up my darling, we have to go."
He let her pull him out of his bed, too tired to comprehend what was happening. It was still dark out, and his governess, who usually was the first person he saw in the morning, was nowhere in sight. He squinted his tired eyes, and focused on the clock facing his bed, painfully deciphering the time. It was 2 in the morning.
"Nathaniel, stop daydreaming and take this,"she said to him while handing him a full travel bag. He never carried his own bag, he usually had servants carry it for him.
"Where are we going ?"
She looked about to answer, as a loud bang resonated outside the palace. Mary jumped and grabed Nathaniel’s hand. He expected her to bring him to the door, but she started pulling him in a corner of the room, on the opposite side. Pressing her hand on the wall, she inspected it and it seemed like she was looking for something. Nathaniel always liked to play with his mother, even though it was a rare occurrence, but he started to wonder if they couldn’t do that in the daytime. Mary keeped dragging her hand against the wall until she stopped on the figure of a fox, woven in the tapestry. Nathaniel liked that fox, he had spent hours staring at it, dreaming he could play with it, instead of being locked in his room. Mary pressed her fingers on the fox and the wall gave out under her fingers, revealing a dark passage. Nathaniel gasped, amazed, and wondered how he never knew there was a secret door in his own room, but before he had the time to say anything, his mother firmly grabed his hand again and pulled him through the corridor.
They walked for what seemed like an eternity, and it was dark and damp, and Nathaniel had to almost run to follow his mother's quick steps. He wanted to complain but his mother looked tense and he was starting to wonder if he did something wrong. He really hoped he didn’t because if his mother was angry, his father would be angry too, and Nathaniel didn’t want to make his father angry, ever. He shivered at the thought and squeezed his mother’s hand a bit tighter.
They finally emerged outside of the tunnel in a place Nathaniel didn’t recognize, which meant they must be out of the garden walls. A horse was waiting close to the door. Unsure, Nathaniel stopped in his tracks.
"Get on the horse Nathaniel,"his mother said.
"I don’t want to."
Another bangs rolled in the night. The noise was getting closer. She grabbed him roughly and put him on the horse's back.
"Be quiet."
She tied their bags at the end of the saddle. Nathaniel turned around, and his eyes fell on the rifle hanging on a side. He was pretty sure it was too early to go hunting, even though his father never agreed to take him before. His mother pulled herself up on the horse behind him.
He felt her take a deep breath against his back.
"From now on, you’re not called Nathaniel Wesninski anymore." She was whispering but her voice was hard in the silence. "Your name is Alex Wagner. Do you understand ?"
Nathaniel didn’t. He was tired and he was not sure he liked this game. But his father was not here and he had an opportunity to get out of the palace for the first time so he nodded, "Yes Mother, I understand."
His mother kicked the horse and they took off in the night.
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On the 23rd of February 1917, mass protests against food rationing erupted in St Petersburg. The protests lasted for a week. 8 days of pain, hunger, violence, blood and death.
On the 27th, the royal forces turned against the monarchy, led by General Nathan Wesninski, traitor husband of the Tsesarevna, heir to the throne.
On the 15th of March, the Tsar abdicated, ending the Hatford dynasty and the Russian Empire. A provisional government took over, led by Kengo Moriyama, who soon became Prime Minister.
The royal family was arrested and imprisoned, at the exception of the Tsesarevna Mary and her son, missing from the palace. For weeks, soldiers all over the country searched for them, but lost in civil war chaos, Mary and Nathaniel were nowhere to be found.
Within a month, 1300 people were killed, adults and children alike, the royal family amongst them.
As the war slowly ended, rumors started to spread. Some say Nathan had killed his wife and son himself before the Revolution even started, before he betrayed their family. Others thought Mary and Nathaniel were still alive, hiding in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to return and claim their throne back. Most people, encouraged by the new Moriyama government, just believed they had tried to run away and died in the snow, anonymously, like thousands of others.
No one ever saw them again.