Blood Red Moon Part 5: Tragedy in R
This is a crossover fanfic including the characters from Tenchi Muyo, and
CastleVania, more specifically, the newest version out for the N64. All
characters belong to their respective copyrights, and I take no credit for
them beyond their usage in this story. Comments, quips, insults, flames, and
death threats can be sent to Platinum_Dragon@usinternet.com This is based on
the OVA characters in the Tenchiverse - but don't be
surprised if you hear one or two TV references.
The original concept came when I noticed that Carrie Fernandez sort of
resembles Ryoko in powers and looks, save that Carrie is only twelve.
In the last chapter, Tenchi and the others found their way to the castle
archives. Inside, they found a key, and a map to the garden maze. Back
tracking, they were about to go out to the garden, Carrie found a contract.
The Demon Renon, a salesman from hell, appeared, and explained to them his
role, which was to provide useful items and sometimes a little more. They
signed the contract, and then went out to the garden. Using the key that they
had found, they entered the garden maze.
Traveling a little ways in, they found Malus, a young boy from the
village. As Carrie offered to show him the way out, the two stone dogs that
had been at the front gate leapt through the hedge, brought to life by the
intruders. Malus ran off in terror.
They followed after him, and, after escaping Frankenstein, the unholy
gardener, made it through a door. Ryo-Ohki, who had been looking around, was
chased to the door by the Kelberos, but just barely made it through.
Reinhart and Tenchi closed the door, while Carrie sealed it with a spell.
Carrie opened a small side gate, and Malus ran off, toward the village.
Tenchi and the others made their way to a crypt, where they found, and
battled three vampires. Reinhart and Carrie made it through without being
scratched, but Tenchi, after a drawn out battle in which he gained a
clue to Ryoko's location, was slashed by the vampire's claws. As Reinhart and
Carrie bandaged the wound, the girl that the vampires had taken for their meal
finished her transformation into a vampire, and nearly attacked them, but
Ryo-Ohki blasted it with an energy beam. She then led them to a secret
passage. Having nowhere else to go, they jumped in.
*****
"Whoa!!" shouted Tenchi, as he landed on a curved surface. He slid along
the chute, moving faster and faster.
Behind Tenchi, Carrie was laughing, enjoying the trip through the slide. A
little farther back, Reinhart, with Ryo-Ohki holding onto his shoulder,
followed them both. Suddenly, he felt the chute drop out from
below him. He felt himself falling down, seemingly a long way.
"Miyaaaa!" cried Ryo-Ohki, who was digging her fore claws into his
shoulder a little and hanging on for dear life.
With a sudden thud that knocked the air out of him, they came to a stop.
They were in a large cavern, sharp stalagmites and stalactites peppering the
ground and ceiling. Along the walls were some torches, which
provided light enough to reach all but the top of the ceiling. Reinhart stood
up, and rubbed his back where he had landed.
"Where are we? Where are Tenchi and the others?" Ryo-Ohki looked at
him, and miyaed. Reinhart ruffled her fur. He looked around, and saw an exit
to the cavern that they were in. "Well, I suppose that we'll just have to
keep moving." Ryo-Ohki leapt up to his shoulder, and he walked toward the
exit.
They followed the corridor down. Soon, they began to hear, very softly,
echoes of voices. Reinhart moved faster, wondering if he had found some
survivors from the village. As he rounded a corner, he came up short,
and blushed, embarrassed at the sight he saw.
Three women were in a river to just past their waists. The wore no
clothing, and their ample breasts were well above the water line. Reinhart
looked away, expecting them to start screaming, but instead of screams, there
was a flutter of giggling laughter. One stepped forward, drawing a deep
breath, which swelled her chest to even greater proportions.
"Who are you? We've been alone down here for so long, and we miss the
company of men..." she said, in a breathy, soft voice. Reinhart looked back
at them in surprise. One of the other women beckoned him forward.
"Yes, come join us... We were taking our baths, and would so enjoy
company." Their voices had a strange, calming effect, and Reinhart found
himself walking closer to the water. One of the women brought her hands up
from the water, cupped to hold some, which she slowly dripped over herself,
and then ran her hands over her breasts invitingly. Reinhart continued to
draw closer, as they teased and invited him.
A small piece of earth that stood in the middle of the river came into
view, and on it, the slumped over body of a man, which looked partly eaten.
Reinhart saw it, but put it out of his mind, as the three women continued to
call. Ryo-Ohki, however, saw differently. The cabbit saw the body, and
understood that the women had entranced him.
Turning, she bit down hard on Reinhart's ear.
"Ahh!" shouted Reinhart, the glazed look leaving his eyes. He took in
the women again, and then the body on the island. Grabbing his whip, he
lashed at the nearest. The tip touched her, and she screamed. Her body
lifted out of the water, to reveal not legs, but the ugly, bloated body of a
spider. Reinhart stepped back, and whipped her again. The spider-woman
screamed, and then sank into the water.
The other two hissed, and charged forward. He snapped the whip again,
wrapping the tip around the near one's neck. A brief flash, and she too fell.
The third leapt up, and crashed into him, knocking him down and
the whip out of his hand. She leaned down close to him, and he could see the
sharp teeth in her mouth, smell the foul odor of poison.
"You will provide us with many strong children, as you are strong
yourself, and the taste of your flesh shall be a great reward." Struggling,
Reinhart stretched his fingers down under her crushing weight. Suddenly,
Ryo-Ohki bounced up out of nowhere, and viscously clawed at her face. She
reared up, and Reinhart was able to reach his short sword. He thrust it into
her bloated body, and yanked forward, causing a flood of green ichor to flow
out and cover him. With a scream, she pushed Ryo-Ohki off, just as he pulled
the sword out, and, pushing himself up, thrust it into her chest. The
spider-woman twitched, and then the eight legs lost their strength. The
creature crashed to the ground, and exhaled its last breath.
Reinhart cleaned the short sword on its body, and resheathed it, then
retrieved his whip. Ryo-Ohki miyaed at him, and he grinned, picking her up
and scratching her under the chin.
"Not that I'm unappreciative, but next time, try not to bite quite so
hard."
"Miya!"
*****
As the chute came to an end, Tenchi and Carrie went flying through the
air. Tenchi rolled as he landed, and ended up on his feet, while Carrie
somersaulted, landing with her arms spread. She bowed as if to a crowd. They
turned, and watched for Reinhart to come out, but he never appeared, and
neither did Ryo-Ohki.
"Where is he?" asked Carrie finally. Tenchi shrugged.
"I don't know. Ryo-Ohki's thoughts are very faint, but I gather that
they are all right." He looked around the chamber that they were in. "We'll
have to press on. I'm sure that we'll meet up farther in." Carrie looked at
him doubtfully, but finally nodded. They found a small passageway, and
entered it, and found themselves a little ways away from a tunnel, in the
middle of which a river stood. The foul smell that they had smelled in the
vampire chamber above was redoubled here.
"Yuck... Smells like we've found the sewers," said Tenchi, covering his
nose. Carrie almost gagged on the stench, but approached the water anyway,
and took a whiff.
"I smell poison... This stuff is deadly. Be careful not to fall in."
>From somewhere a little ways off, they heard the sound of a water fall.
Walking along the ledges, they tried to head for the noise. There were a few
torches on the wall, just enough to provide light to see, though not very
well. Finally, they found the waterfall, and saw that their path lead
straight through it.
"Any ideas?" asked Tenchi. Carrie looked around, and saw a small side
path that led across the water to the other side. Carefully, she stepped onto
it, and moved across. As she made it to the other side, she saw a lever on
the wall. Looking around to check for traps, she pulled down on it. Over by
Tenchi, the flow of the water slowed, and finally stopped, only the occasional
drop of water seeping down. Carrie grinned, and rejoined Tenchi. They waited
for the droplets of water to slow, and then leapt to the other side. They
continued on, watching for more side paths. After finding one more waterfall,
and switch to turn it off, they made it to a door.
Pushing it open, they found themselves in a small chamber, in the middle of
which stood a woman.
She wasn't really tall, but carried an air about her that would have
dominated a room of thousands. She wore a gray dress that looked like
something a belle from the southern area of America might have worn a hundred
years before, and a matching hat and parasol. A long, pink feather stood out
from the hat, and various jewelry sparkled from her hands, neck, and ears. A
rosebud of a mouth curled into a smile, but it didn't touch her black eyes,
which studied them with such an intensity that they felt like they were being
weighed and measured in every way. Tenchi's neck hair stood on end. The woman
radiated evil.
"She has such power, it is frightening, a true Fernandez. Yet next to
him, it is as if a candle were next to a thousand suns..." she said softly,
smiling not nicely.
"Who are you?" challenged. The woman smiled a little broader.
"I am Actrise... You might call me a witch," she said. Tenchi shivered.
Her voice might have been a comforting one, but it held no emotion, cold as
ice. "You both would be a great asset in restoring my lord."
"Restoring your lord?" said Carrie, not understanding at first. But
Tenchi gripped his sword.
"Never. Tell me where he has taken Ryoko," he said. The woman laughed.
"Your Ryoko runs at his beck and call, acting as a good slave should. But
if you want her, he may give her to you if you were to serve him." Tenchi was
taken aback at her frankness, but in a moment firmed his stance.
"Tell your foul lord this: He will give her back to me, if I have to tear
this place apart in saving her," he said, anger seething just under the
surface of an icy calm voice. Actrise actually took a step back at the
fierceness in his voice, and Carrie looked at him with a renewed respect. She
saw that even he seemed a little surprised at the quiet rage in his voice.
But Actrise recovered quickly.
"I will give you time to consider your choice." With that, she
disappeared. Tenchi lowered his sword, and touched his temple with his free
hand. He shook his head, as if trying to clear it.
"What's the matter, Tenchi?" she asked. He shook his head once more, and
then looked up, grinning just slightly.
"Nothing. I think that I just breathed a little too much of that air.
It's giving me a headache."
"She was very powerful. Dracula is gathering those strongest around him
once again," Carrie told him. He nodded, and they moved through the door
across the room.
*****
Reinhart and Ryo-Ohki advanced deeper into the system of tunnels, staying
out of the water by jumping from little island to little island. Finally,
they came to huge cavern, the ceiling so high that it faded into the darkness.
Slowly, they entered it, Reinhart unfurling his whip so that it was ready to
use. A bonfire burned in the middle of the chamber, atop which a huge
cauldron bubbled.
The piles of human bones around it told him what was in the soup as
surely as if he had gone over and looked in. He started across the cave,
seeing another exit on the other side of the room. He was about half-way
across when a ball of goo landed just ahead of him. Where it touched, the
ground burned away with a hiss. Reinhart looked up, as half a dozen of the
bare-chested spider women dropped down. He rolled forward, avoiding another
glob of the goo, and ran for the exit, Ryo-Ohki at his side.
The exit turned out to just be another corridor, which lead to a short
drop off to a bed of evil looking spikes. There was a rusted lever next to
it, and Reinhart saw some sort of track in the ceiling. Hearing the sound of
the spider-women growing louder behind him, he threw the switch. A strange
platform, hooked to the track in the ceiling by a solid bar of what looked
like steel rolled into place above the spikes. He paused to scoop up
Ryo-Ohki, and jumped on, just as the first of the spider women rounded the
corner.
With his added weight, the lever began to slip back into its original
place, but it was so rusted that it got stuck. Thinking fast, Reinhart
snapped his whip, wrapping it around the switch, and pulled. The switch
clicked back into place, and the tram began to move. The spider-woman
crouched down, and leapt forward, but with a sudden jerk, the tram picked up a
great amount of speed, carrying Reinhart and Ryo-Ohki safely away. She landed
in the bed of spikes, and was impaled by the razor sharp pikes. The other
spider-women crowded in behind her, but could only scream in fury as Reinhart
and Ryo-Ohki were taken out of their reach.
Sitting down on the tram, Reinhart looked around. It carried them
through a tunnel with torches along the walls to provide light. Looking down,
he saw that there didn't appear to be a ground to fall onto, so he offered a
silent prayer that the machine didn't drop out under him.
He jumped when he heard the tolling. Six times came the sound, and
Reinhart smiled grimly. Less than two days left to reach the clock tower. At
that moment, the moon would be nearly as high as the chamber at the top of the
tower. When the light from the Blood Moon touched the coffin in the center of
that room, Dracula would awaken fully, his true evil powers fully restored.
They had to be there, to greet him and return him to his slumber.
For a moment, Reinhart wondered where Tenchi and Carrie were, if they
were alive still. Yet, he knew that Tenchi wouldn't let himself be stopped
until he found Ryoko and saved her from whatever torment she was in. He also
knew that he wouldn't let anything happen to Carrie.
Carrie... He grinned as he remembered how he had met the young girl.
His teacher had given him a night's respite from training to kill vampires,
and he had gone into the town. Lucky that was, it turned out, for when
Reinhart had returned, he had found the school burned to the ground, and the
teacher nailed to an black crucifix, anointed with blood. The old man gasped
out that a woman in gray had done it to him, and that she had said 'You are
the first message, you who thinks you may kill the Master's children.'
Reinhart had known then, as had the old man, that Dracula's return could
not be far away. With his last breaths, the man told Reinhart where to find
the Belmont's holy whip, and begged him to claim his birthright. He had been
surprised, when the teacher gasped out that Reinhart's blood was the
Belmont's, and then died. Reinhart had buried him, and then traveled to the
province of Walachia, where it was told Castlevania rose every 100 years.
There, in an ancient graveyard with marble Archangels watching over, he had
found the tomb of the Belmont clan.
He had also found, at the long sealed door, a young girl. He watched
from a distance, as she raised her hands. It was quite to his surprise when
a ball of magical energy formed and blasted at the door. It was to no effect,
though.
"Why not let me try it, miss?" he had asked. She had jumped in fright,
and pointed an arm at him. He raised his hands. "Sorry, didn't mean to
startle you." She lowered her arm, and smiled.
"Sorry. There are those who would stop me in my quest, and I'm a little
jumpy. I'm Carrie Fernandez." Reinhart smiled.
"Why are you trying to break into the Belmont tomb? Don't you know that
only one who has the blood of the Belmont line in their veins can break the
seal?" She sighed.
"I know the legend, but I have no choice. Dracula is waking, and I must
have the holy whip if I am to face him with a chance." Reinhart was taken
aback.
"Battle Dracula? Only a fool would even try, and a little girl such as
yourself wouldn't stand a chance against his evil." Her expression became
stony.
"I must. The blood of my family calls to me in pain. He is coming, and
I must go to battle with him. The Belmonts have died out. I'm the only one
left who can." Reinhart studied the girl. There was a... strength to her,
and conviction that belied her age.
"And what is your blood?" She looked him squarely in the eye.
"I come from the line of Sypha Belnades, who helped Trevor Belmont to put
Dracula asleep three and a half centuries ago," she had said. Reinhart found
himself rather impressed. The beautiful mage that, along with Trevor Belmont,
Alucard, and the last of the Danasty line, who's name had been lost long ago,
battled and sent Dracula to his sleep, with a deep hatred of the Belmont clan.
"You were wrong, Carrie." She looked at him, confused.
"What do you mean?"
"You aren't the last. The Belmonts may have died out, but their blood
still lives, and now I have to claim what was mine since birth." She had
stared at him in amazement, as he walked to the door to the tomb. Closing his
eyes, and sending a silent prayer, he had touched the ancient brass handle,
and pushed. It had swung open, almost as if by its own will. Inside, resting
on a pedestal since the death of the last Belmont, Richter, waited the whip.
Carrie was just behind him as he reached forward, and touched the whip.
It began to glow, a soft blue at first, and then brightening to a golden
blaze, but Reinhart refused to let go. For a moment, just a moment, he felt
the gazes of many people, and he could have sworn that he was surrounded. He
blinked - and saw two women, and a number of men. They nodded deeply to him,
and then he blinked again, and they were gone, and the light coming from the
whip had gone out. He picked it up, and felt... almost a life in the whip
itself. Reinhart had coiled the whip, and placed it on his belt. It felt...
Right there.
He had turned to Carrie then, and asked her if she would help him. She
had agreed, and they had set north, where dark clouds were forming on the
horizon.
"Miya?" Ryo-Ohki broke him out of his reverie. The tram had stopped, in
front of a small hollow, with a door in it. Reinhart stood, and hopped off,
stretching. The cabbit walked around, and sniffed at the door. He walked
over, and pulled it open, and gasped quietly.
Reinhart entered the room slowly, staring in amazement at the woman
before him. She was just as he remembered, shining all the radiance of youth.
She was standing just outside the circle of sunlight that poured in through
the single window, with her back to him.
"Rosa..."
"When I saw the little girl and the young man, I knew that you would be
with them." Reinhart opened his mouth, but then stopped. She wasn't just as
he had remembered. The Rosa that he had come to know had been full of life,
and always with a lilt to her voice that made her seem to sing. But this
woman, in that crimson red dress, had no lilt to her voice, seemed to have no
life left in her. Her tone was dull, and quiet. There was no hint of the
laughter always so quick to come.
"What happened to you, Rosa? I looked everywhere for you, and now I find
you here, in this house of evil," he said. Slowly, she turned to face him,
and he shivered. Two long, sharp fangs poked out of her mouth. When Carrie
and Tenchi had described the woman that they had met in the garden to him, he
had not been willing to believe that it could be Rosa. But now, he was faced
with the woman that had been stolen from him, the woman he had saved up gold
for a ring for. The night that he had been going to meet her, she simply
vanished, without even a trace. That same night, Castlevania had risen once
again from the evil waters north of the land. With a heavy heart, Reinhart
and Carrie had begun the long journey north to the evil castle.
"I waited for you, but as I did, I heard a sound. When I next woke, I
was here, as you see me now," she answered. She turned back to the circle of
light. "For nearly a month, I've lived here, stayed to my fate, learning from
my new master." She looked back to him, for a moment. "I can kill now, and
it almost doesn't hurt anymore." Rosa looked down, toward the edge of the
light. "I just want it to stop... I want it all to stop."
With a sudden lunge, she threw herself into the sunlight. Her skin began
to smoke, but she didn't scream. Instead, Reinhart saw tears falling to the
floor. With a shout, he launched himself forward, pushing her out of the
light that was killing her. The touch of her skin was cold, cold as death.
She pounded on his back, but continued to sob, and slowly, the pounding
stopped, until she was only sobbing into his shoulder. Reinhart held no fear,
even with her so close to his neck. He knew that she wouldn't harm him of her
own choice, no more than he would her unless he had no other recourse.
Slowly, she pulled back from him. He touched her cheek lightly.
"I swear, I will find a way to set you free. Don't give up hope - there
isn't enough of it left in this dark world we've come to live in," he said.
She nodded, and then stepped back farther away.
"He'll miss me if I do not go." Slowly, Rosa faded out, but Reinhart was
satisfied. In her last words, he had heard a hint of the woman he loved.
*****
Here is a preview of the next chapter:
"Death." The specter laughed, and floated closer, his dread black cloak
only a little above the ground. Reinhart shivered as Death stretched his hand
slowly forward, but resolved to stand his ground. A bare inch from his face,
Death stopped, and laughed again.
"My old friend commanded me to not destroy you yet. A sign of respect to
his ancient foes, the Belmonts."
---
The Platinum Dragon
"The rising sun will eventually set,
a newborn's life will fade.
From sun to moon, moon to sun,
Give peaceful rest to the living dead." - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of
Time
http://dragonsanime.dreamhost.com - Dragon's Masaki Shrine of Tenchi Muyo
Proud Member of the Ryoko Forever Fan Club