Blood Red Moon Part 9: Ascent to Evil

     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 episode,  Tenchi and the others went back to the central
room, and, seeing that the sun was rising, decided to split up after all.
Tenchi and Ryo-Ohki found themselves in a room with a huge lava lake.
Ryo-Ohki began to bounce across the stones that were in the lake, and Tenchi
stepped back to follow her.  But when he leapt, he was transformed into a
great white hawk.  Getting used to his now form, Tenchi picked up Ryo-Ohki,
and carried her over to the key.  When she picked up the key,  the lava began
to erupt.  Tenchi flew them back out of the tower.
     Reinhart found himself in a roomful of towers, where a lake of acid
boiled on the ground.  He made his way across, but was attacked by a pair of
werewolves.  After battling them off, he too retrieved his a key.  As he
picked it up, the towers began to sink into the acid.  Making his way back
across, the heel of his boot got a little melted by the acid as he jumped from
the last tower.  He climbed to safety, and moved back to the center room.
     Carrie's tower was full of magically created crystals.  She moved across
them, until she reached a tower of crystal.  Making her way up, she too found
a key, but before she touched it, she sensed a ward generated by the statue of
Death.  Blasting it off the tower, she grabbed the key.  The crystals began to
flicker and change position.  Carrie hurried down, and began jumping her way
across.  Halfway there, she missed a jump, and began to fall.  Casting a
levitation spell, she floated back upwards.  Before she jumped onward to the
next, she felt a strange magical weave.  Turning, she found an invisible
bridge, saving her the trouble of more dangerous jumps.
     Meeting back in the central room, Reinhart suggested that they get a
little sleep, before going on to battle with Dracula.  Tenchi offered to keep
watch.  While they slept, Tenchi thought about his new existence.  Suddenly,
Ryoko appeared before him.  At first, he didn't believe that it was her, but
eventually accepted that it really was her.

*****

     Having rested, and with the miraculous return of Ryoko to them, Carrie
was starting to think that they might beat Dracula after all.  But at what
cost to them all?  Tenchi had lost his humanity,  Reinhart had been forced to
fight the woman he loved.  Carrie had killed the sister she had never known
she had, and had lost her mother.  She sighed, as they unlatched the doors
leading to the uppermost chamber.  The sun was down, now, and the final night
upon them.  In six hours, the moon, which was even now beginning to come over
the horizon, would crest the tower, and shine on the coffin of Dracula.  When
that happened, the evil one would rise, with all of his power.
     They each took the key that they had gained, and unlatched the door.
Reinhart looked at them, and then pulled it open.  Before them was a wide
staircase, which led upward, into darkness.  They began to climb them.  Soon,
they came to another set of doors.  Reinhart pulled them open, and they
entered.
     In the center of the room, trapped inside of a blue crystal, was Rosa.
Reinhart ran forward, and reached out to touch it.  Just before he could,
Tenchi came up and tackled him from the side, knocking him away.
     "Don't be a fool, Reinhart!  It's a trap!" he said.  Reinhart stood back
up, nodding.  As he did, the specter of Death appeared.
     "A pity, and I thought that I had caught my prey for this day."  Reinhart
turned to Tenchi
     "Death is mine.  Stay back."  He nodded, and rejoined Carrie and Ryoko,
passing on the message.  Reinhart uncoiled his whip, and Death spun his
scythe, laughing.
     "A showdown, then.  Many times have I faced your brethren, and each, have
I failed.  But you...  I do not sense their conviction in you.  You worry...
You feel that you have failed her...  It poisons your soul, and you aren't
sure if you are strong enough to fight me.  I'll tell you a secret...  Your
Rosa is delicious."  With a roar, Reinhart lashed at Death.  The specter
laughed, and floated backwards, avoiding the attack with easy.  He chased
after him, snapping the whip again, but again Death easily avoided it.
     "Is this all that the Belmont's line has come to?  A fool weakling who
can't even control his anger?"  Death's words stung him, and Reinhart slowed,
forcing his rage down.  He was doing just what Death wanted him to do,
allowing his anger to guide his hand, instead of his bloodline.  Reinhart
looked at the crystal, with Rosa trapped inside, and then back at Death,
recomposed, back in a balance with himself.
     "Powerful Death, the one damned forever to carry those who have died to
Heaven or Hell, according to their life.  Damned to never taste life itself,
only to meet it fleeting from his grasp," taunted Reinhart.  Now it was
Death's turn to growl in anger, and charge.  Reinhart danced backward,
avoiding the swings of Death's scythe, the mere touch of which would have torn
his soul out.  The two darted back and forth, dodging each other's attacks.
Reinhart snapped his whip at Death's face, and the Grim Reaper fell back,
raising his scythe in defense.  The specter flew up and over Reinhart, slicing
down towards Reinhart, and he threw himself to the ground, rolling forward,
just under the swing.
     Finally, Death swung too hard, and lost control of his weapon.  The
scythe flew across the room, and buried itself into the wall. Reinhart jumped
forward, bringing back his hand.  He flicked the whip out and it wrapped about
Death's arm.  The Grim Reaper screamed in pain, as his dread cloak began to
smoke.
     "I bring you a message, Death, from all the Belmonts to the beginning of
time.  You lose again."
 Reinhart pulled the whip back and Death turned his gaze on the young man, as
he struck out again.  The whip touched him at the top of his skull, and drew
down, through the specter.  With a scream of rage, Death was blown apart.  The
scythe slowly faded away, leaving a small hole in the wall.  Reinhart dropped
to his knees, panting.
     "I didn't get here fast enough to save her," he said, looking at the
crystal.  Rosa was still frozen inside, hands folded in front of her, her eyes
closed, with a peaceful expression.  Reinhart looked down at the ground, and
two teardrops fell from his eyes.  The tears stopped, just before touching the
ground, and Reinhart stared, as they continued to float.  The tears began to
sparkle, and then suddenly flew toward the crystal.  When they touched it, a
large crack appeared in it, and from it, others spread.  With a sharp noise,
the crystal shattered, and Rosa dropped to the ground.  She landed on her
feet, and began swaying back and forth.  Reinhart scrambled over to her, and
caught her shoulders before she collapsed, and guided her to the ground.
Slowly, she opened her eyes.
     "Reinhart?" she asked, disbelief in her dark eyes.  He hugged her to him,
and tears welled up in her eyes as she returned the embrace.  After a moment,
though, she pushed him back a bit.  "Listen to me.  I heard him talking to
Death, before I was trapped in the crystal.  He said that he had another trap
in store, even if you managed to make it to him.  You have to be careful."
Reinhart nodded, and they both stood.  They embraced once more.
     "Wait here.  We won't be long."  Tenchi picked up Ryo-Ohki off his
shoulder lightly, and set her on the ground.
     "Stay with Rosa, alright?"  The cabbit miyaed, and hopped over to the wom
an.  Tenchi was a little surprised when Ryoko didn't protest, but decided to
take it at face value.  Reinhart turned to Tenchi and the others, a new
determination in his eyes.
     "Come on, we can't be far now!"  Revitalized, they ran through the door
on the other side of the room.  It led to another set of stairs, and at the
top, another set of double doors.  They pushed through, and were not surprised
to find Actrise.
     "So, I see that you made it after all, Carrie." Actrise was standing
alone in the center of the room.  Instead of her usual parasol, she carried a
tall staff, topped with the skull of a ram.  She looked at Tenchi in surprise.
     "When he told me that you had somehow resisted the curse, changed it, I
couldn't believe it, although I had felt your power.  After all, how does one
resist what is unresistable?  But now that I see you, I see that he was right.
And you," she said, looking at Ryoko.  "He was most displeased when he found
that you had escaped."
     "I aim to please," answered Ryoko, with a flippant tone to her voice.
Her face became a snarl for just a moment, but then she smoothed it over.
Turning back to Carrie, she smiled.
     "I've decided to give you one last chance, dear.  It's not too late.  You
can still give your power to Dracula.  It's easy... All that you have to do is
sacrifice the lives of one hundred children.  I gave the life of one of mine
own, but the other disappeared with her father before I could give her life,
too.  I searched for five years to find her, and when I did, she wasn't home,
so I killed her family instead."
 Carrie's eyes widened, as she finally understood.  She felt her hands curl
into fists, her nails biting into her palms.
     "You.  My step-mother, my father, and my sister, all killed by one
person, my own mother."  Actrise laughed.
     "Ah, so the little girl gets her first taste of the real world," she
said, and then focused a stare on Carrie.  In an icy voice, she said, "For
thirty years, I watched as the 'good' men of the world tore it apart, ripped
it to its bone.  I watched as women were killed, brother slew brother,
children rape their own parents.  And then I found an ancient tome that Sypha
had hidden long before, containing a spell to join the ranks of Dracula.
Without a second thought, I began to kill the one hundred children the spell
required dead, and when I reached 98, I first sacrificed your sister, and then
had a vampire reanimate her.  Unfortunately, your father found out what I was
doing, and stole away with you."  She smiled in contentment.
     "I brought him here, and drew his death out to a month, before he finally
chewed out his own tongue and bled to death when I wasn't paying attention."
Carrie raised her hand, and fired a magical blast at the witch.  Actrise
laughed, and tapped the ground with her staff.  A crystal shot up, and was
shattered by the blast, but nothing made it through to her.  "Oh, have I
struck a nerve, daughter?"
     "Not your daughter, not from the second that you touched that book.
Though she was only my step-mother, she cared more for me than you ever
thought that you did."  Actrise laughed.
     "Well, than, Carrie.  Come and get me, if you think that you can."
Carrie looked back at Tenchi and the others.  Reinhart nodded, and Tenchi
grinned.  Ryoko merely looked on, a smirk on her face.  Turning back, Carrie
began to chant spells.  Actrise looked around herself, as a circle of flames
appeared around her.  They began to draw in, but Actrise chanted her own
spell, and the flames became blue, frozen where they were.   Pointing at
Carrie, four fireballs  exploded toward her.  Carrie threw up a shield, and
they splashed harmlessly against it, the heat wash making her sweat.  Carrie
moved to the side, and raised both hands, firing a succession of blasts.
Actrise spun the staff, and red and yellow, blue and green crystals erupted
out of the ground, blocking the blasts one by one.  But even after the power
blasts had disappeared, the crystals kept coming, in a line straight for
Carrie.  She tried to dodge, but it was too late.  A crystal formed around
her, freezing her in mid air.  She felt it pressing down into her, cutting off
her breath.
     Through the crystal, she heard Actrise laugh, and out of the corner of
her eye, saw Tenchi and Reinhart trying to get in, but to no use.  They were
being held back by an invisible shield.  Actrise approached her, with a
wistful expression.
     "So young, so foolish.  Now I shall finish what I began, six years ago.
You did well, to stay out of my grasp for so long, but in the end, it did you
no good.  A pity, and you were so strong..."  Carrie put her out of her mind,
and felt around the crystal with her magic sense.  It was woven together
nearly seamlessly, but Carrie found a single flaw.  She pushed her magic power
into there.
     "Come now, its time for you to die!" shouted Actrise, raising her staff.
Carrie flexed all of the magic power she could, into that seam, and the
crystal exploded.  One huge shard embedded itself into Actrise's head, and
flung her across the room.  Carrie dropped to the ground, sucking in a deep
breath of air, and then stood.  Actrise reached up, and pulled the shard out
of her head, leaving a huge hole.  Carrie aimed, and called to all of her
ancestors for strength.  A blast of pure light lanced out from her, smashing
into and through Actrise, and going cleanly through the wall.  The witch
looked down at the gaping hole in her stomach, and laughed once, roughly.
Then, blue flames exploded out from the hole, and enveloped her, as she
screamed.  When they died away, nothing was left, but her unearthly scream
seemed to hang in the air.  The source of the barrier gone, Tenchi and
Reinhart rushed into the room, and checked her over.
     "I have the power to destroy Dracula himself, and he knows this.  He used
her as a shield, to buy time.  We must hurry!"  They ran on, up to the next
level.  Once again, they reached a room.  In the center of this was one of
Renon's contracts. They looked at it, but left it where it was, continuing on
to the next level.  Before they got out of the room, though, someone cleared
his throat.  They turned, and saw Renon, who was approaching from the door
that they had just come through.
     "I've been waiting for you.  You see, I wish to take my leave of you, and
the only way that I may do that is to engage you in battle."  Tenchi and the
others stared in surprise.  Renon set down his briefcase next to a wall.
     "What?  I thought that you said your role was to help us, not hinder us!"
said Tenchi.  Renon smiled apologetically.
     "Well, technically, it is.  But you see, I have no choice.  It is all
contained in the contract. In order to operate my business here, Dracula made
me to agree to battle any adventurers who used gold pilfered from the castle
to pay for my services.  That was the part that you could not read."  Carrie
stood forward.
     "If we couldn't read it, how did you expect us to know about it?" she
asked. Renon sighed, and shook his head.
     "You see, you take this the wrong way, as everybody does.  I have no love
of battle.  But if I am nothing else, I am a demon of my word, and you cannot
complain that I did not fill my role to you.  I did try to warn you - I asked
if you were absolutely certain if you wished to pay with that gold you found.
But you would not listen.  So, if you do not mind, I would like to get this
over with.  There is a war starting in Northern Europe, and wars are always
great business."
     Carrie looked at Tenchi, Ryoko, and Reinhart.  They shrugged, and as one
attacked.  Renon leapt backwards, and flung a blast of magic at her.  She
ducked, and prepared to fire her own attacks, but was hit from behind, as the
magic arced back around.  She was flung to the ground, the wind knocked out of
her.
     Reinhart flicked his whip at Renon, and it wrapped around his arm.  The
demon looked sourly at the weapon, reached over, and calmly unwrapped it.
Reinhart stared in surprise, and was knocked down by another of Renon's power
blasts.  He went down hard, out cold.
     Tenchi ran towards him, Tenchi-ken's blade blazing with power.  With a
quick slice, he forced Renon to leap back.  Renon summoned an energy ball, and
threw it at Tenchi.  Tenchi caught it on his sword blade, and gritted his
teeth with the effort, but eventually the energy died off.  Renon smiled and
tipped his hat to Tenchi in respect, and then renewed his attack.  Tenchi
ducked, dodged, bobbed and weaved between power blasts, but one of Renon's
shots clipped him on the shoulder, and another two put him down to the ground,
on the edge of consciousness.
     "Well, I must say that I am sorry for this.  It's never good business to
kill a customer, but..."  He raised his hand, but before he could strike,
Ryo-Ohki bounded up, and began to scratch his face.  He staggered back, and
Ryoko, hidden in a corner, threw a fireball at him.  It hit him in the
stomach, and Renon went down.  Reinhart and Tenchi stood, shaking off the last
of the dizziness, and came at him, weapons in hand.  Renon put up his hands,
gasping for breath and finally pulling Ryo-Ohki off.  His face was full of
scratches.
     "Please, stop.  I have filled my part of the contract to Dracula, and I
will not fight you anymore.  To tell you the truth, many of us in Hell are
getting tired of his reign.  By your leave, I'll be off to that war."  With a
final tipping of his hat, Renon disappeared.  On the ground, the contract
caught flame, and was burnt to ashes.  Tenchi looked at Reinhart.
     "Be nice if all of our battles were that simple, wouldn't it?" he said,
putting his sword down.  They turned, and headed through the door.  Still
another set of stairs waited for them, and once again, they led to a set of
double doors.  But these doors were different.  The great seal of Dracula, a
bat rending the world with his claws, was inset on both of them.  They looked
at it, and pushed them open.  Inside was a spacious room, with two tall
windows.  White marble columns held up the roof, and across from them, on a
raised dais, a long, black coffin rested.  Tenchi looked out the window, and
saw the moon just starting to come into the view of the room.
     They rushed across, but halfway there, they ran into some sort of shield.
They could only watch, helpless, as the moon rose to its apex, and a sliver of
its blood red light touched the coffin.  The coffin began to shine in a black
light, and slowly, the cover of the coffin slid off.
     The bearded man sat up, as the light struck the coffin to its fullest,
and he began to laugh.  He stood, and seemed to absorb the light from the
moon.
     "At last!  I am reborn!"  Suddenly, the shield was gone.  "You insolent
worms, you who have invaded my home, killed my kin, now you will learn why you
are afraid of the dark."  He looked squarely at Tenchi.  "And you shall learn,
most of all, why nobody resists the Lord of the Night and lives."  The ancient
vampire became mist, and they looked around.  Slowly, the four of them came up
back to back.
     When the mist reformed, Tenchi was the first to see.  The ancient vampire
raised his hands, and three fireballs flew out at them.  Tenchi brought up his
sword, and blocked them, and then leapt forward, slashing down with his blade.
The man changed back to mist, and the mist floated away, leaving Tenchi to
look around in confusion.  Carrie was the next to see the mist reforming, and
she automatically fired a blast, without thinking.  It landed in his face just
as the bearded man finished appearing, and he screamed in agony.  He changed
back into mist, and floated away again.  There was a pause, and then suddenly
lightning blasted down in between them, throwing them to the sides.
Electrical charges ran up and down their bodies, pinning them to the ground in
agony.
The vampire appeared in Ryoko's path, and while they struggled to get up, he
caught her.  As Tenchi watched in rage, he sank his teeth into her neck.
Ryoko became pale.  With a roar, Tenchi forced himself off the floor, and
threw the paralyzing energy off.  The bearded man stared at him for a moment,
flinging Ryoko away to land in a heap near Carrie.  Slowly, the young girl
forced her hand into her pack, and pulled out a purifying crystal.  She rolled
the sphere over to Ryoko.  It touched her, and light blazed out of the center
of it.  When it disappeared, Ryoko's color had returned to normal.  Carrie
breathed a sigh of relief.
     Tenchi and the bearded man circled, with Tenchi holding his blade, and
the vampire had extended his claws.  A long scar ran down his shoulder, where
Tenchi had wounded him that morning.  They stopped, and the elder vampire
stared at the younger, a cruel grin on his face.
     "Her blood was as the finest wine I have tasted in all my centuries.
Tell me the thought of tasting it as well does not please you, boy.  Tell me
that you can't feel the thirst, the unquenchable thirst for it," he said, and
glanced over to where Reinhart and Carrie were still paralyzed.  "Join me...
You have killed Actrise, and removed that annoying Renon from my home.  Simply
drain them dry, and you shall be my right hand.  I will even let you keep her,
if you like, though I doubt that I shall find another like her again."  Tenchi
looked at Reinhart, and Carrie, trapped to the ground, and felt the thirst,
rising from deep within him.
     "Join me...  Take their lives, and live forever as a master of this
world," whispered the vampire.  Tenchi's blade faltered, and he took a step
toward them.  Carrie looked at him, her eyes wide, and Reinhart stared in
shock.  Two more steps, and Tenchi was standing over them.
     "Just drain them dry, and she is yours..."  The vampire's voice pushed
gently.  Tenchi looked at them, and winked, with a slight grin.  Reinhart saw
it, and Carrie saw it, and they both understood.  With incredible speed,
Tenchi pivoted, and drove Tenchi-ken through the ancient vampire's stomach.
His eyes opened wide with shock, as the restraints on Reinhart and Carrie
faded.  The gems on the hilt began to glow brightly.  They stood, Reinhart
lashing out and wrapping the end of his whip about one of the vampire's arms.
The flesh under the whip began to smoke.  Carrie, from the other side, fired
several blasts, which impacted solidly on the vampire.  Tenchi pushed forward,
and the bearded man stepped back, fury painted visibly on his face.
     "That was the last time you'll ever touch her," Tenchi growled quietly,
so that only the ancient vampire could hear.  With that, he twisted Tenchi-ken
so that the blade pointed up, and used all of his strength to rip it up, and
out of the vampire's head.  From the line Tenchi had drawn, long cracks began
to appear, flashing out from the center.  With a scream, the vampire
shattered, as though he were made of glass.  The pieces fell to the ground, as
the scream faded away.
     "It's over...  It's really over," said Carrie in wonderment.  Reinhart
stared at the pile that had been the vampire, while Tenchi picked up Ryoko and
checked her over.  The twin pierce marks had already disappeared thanks to her
healing ability.
     "Strange...  I thought that it'd be a little tougher than that."  As if
his words had triggered it, they felt the room suddenly begin to shake.
     "Do you have to ask for trouble, Reinhart?" shouted Carrie.  Struggling
for balance, Tenchi, Ryoko, Reinhart, and Carrie all ran for the exit.  Down
the stairs they went, past Renon's room, and past Actrise's room.  They began
the run down to where Rosa was waiting.  With a loud snap, the walls around
them fell away, revealing the moon and the rest of the skies.  They slowed to
a stop, and stared as they saw Malus, riding a dark black horse with leathery
bat wings.  The child smiled at them evilly, and then flew ahead of them.
They watched him land on the roof of the room where Rosa waited for them, and
then Tenchi saw a lift near the stairs.  He pointed, and they aimed for it.
     The lift took them to the roof, where Malus waited for them.  Tenchi
looked at the boy with growing apprehension.  They stepped onto the roof.
     "Malus, what are you doing here?" asked Carrie.  The boy dismounted,
still wearing that evil, evil looking smile.
     "Fools.  Did you truly think that you had destroyed Dracula so easily?"
he asked.  Carrie stepped back, surprise on her face.  Tenchi heard Reinhart
whisper a prayer.
     "That wasn't Dracula?  Oh God, please no," she begged, fear clear in her
voice.  In answer, Malus reached to the sky, and a bolt of lightning blasted
down and through him.  A circle of blackness appeared at his feet, and Malus
began to change.  He grew taller, his face becoming harder, more lined.  Two
crescent-shaped scars appeared on either cheek.  His clothes changed some too.
His coat remained much the same, but grew bigger, and more befitting of a
king, and beneath it an open shirt revealed a solid chest, his stomach
washboard tight.  But his eyes remained the same, cold and evil.
     "You thought you could destroy me, you arrogant worms?  Me, the Master of
Darkness?  I live again!  I never dreamed that it would be so long, but the
hundred years are over, and I am reborn into the body of this child.  Now!
Prepare to be erased from the all eternity!  This time, there will be no more
Belmonts, no more Fernandezes!  I will end your lines NOW!"
     Tenchi gripped his blade tightly, as the Lord of the Night laughed, and
approached them.  Suddenly, he felt something slam into him from behind, and
he staggered down, falling to the ground.  A silvery, tinkling laugher filled
the air, a sound that he hadn't heard since the night that he had released
Ryoko.  Feeling a terrible dread, he rolled over.
     Ryoko floated above him, her blade in hand, laughing softly.

*****

Here is the preview for the next chapter:
     Tenchi put up his blade to block the attack, but he was badly off
balance.  Ryoko's attack knocked Tenchi-ken out of his hands.  The blade flew
away, off the roof.  Tenchi had time to gape at his empty hands, and then
Ryoko slammed into him.  Tenchi felt the air rushing against him, as he fell
off the roof, and knew that he wasn't going to survive the fall, vampiric
powers or not.

---
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