Just a couple quick notes: Sorry folks, I don't want C&C this time
around - just enjoy the series! MSTers: A special prize to the writers of the
best MST version of this: I won't add any more to Blood Red Moon!
In other words, I want this MSTed. Thank you.
Blood Red Moon
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. This is my first
crossover, so give me a little slack.
*****
Blood Red Moon Part 1: No Need for Experiments
Ryoko crept quietly into Washu's lab, a slight trickle of fear
rippling through her as she remembered one of her last visits here.
Washu had left her hanging, half-naked, all through the night. She had
screamed the entire time, calling out for her mommy. It wasn't until
later that she found out that Washu had been recording the entire thing
from out of view. Ryoko was torn between that betrayal, and the fact
that Washu was her mother, and the feeling that she wanted to feel and
return.
Snapping herself out of it, Ryoko remembered why she had come here
in the first place. Washu didn't reserve experiments to her daughter
alone. Tenchi had been missing since the night before, and now that
mid-day had come and gone without him appearing, Ryoko was getting
worried. It was no secret that Washu wanted to have Tenchi too. Washu
and Ayeka, and Mihoshi, and, Ryoko had a sneaking suspicion, Sasami and
Tsunami. Ryoko frowned for a moment. A year before, she would have just
killed them all without a second thought, but she knew that now she would
never do that, for what it would do to Tenchi. For now, she was content
to share. More or less.
Ryoko floated quietly through the lab, noting that Washu was
apparently nowhere to be found. It was big, with no apparent ceiling,
and dark. Ryoko forced down a slight wave of fear as the darkness
seemed to close in on her, repeating a mental mantra - "I'm not trapped,
I'm not trapped, I'm not trapped." Her eyes picked out a burst of light,
and Ryoko headed for it.
Poking her head around the corner, she saw Washu standing near a
console, her back to Ryoko. Tenchi was, as usual, strapped in to a chair
from which bristled various instruments and sample vials. Washu had on
what appeared to be a Selianian Cat Dancer costume - a pair of cat ears,
a thin strip of fur across her chest, and a V-shaped strip of fur which
ran around her waist and between her legs, and nothing else, and she was
in her all-too shapely adult form. Tenchi appeared to be unconscious,
and stripped to his undies. A sizable ribbon of blood flowed from his
nose, possibly why a bag of blood with an accompanying tube running
down to his arm hung from one of the arms on the chair.
Ryoko bit back a growl of irritation, and looked around. Off to the
side, she saw a pile of clothes - Tenchi's, it seemed, since his favorite
coat was on top of the mess. Washu bent over the console, muttering
something to herself. Ryoko looked around a little more, and found a
small object. Picking it up - she had no idea what it was - she lobbed
it lightly at Washu. It bonked her on the head, and Washu dropped like
a rock. Ryoko left her hiding place, and checked Washu quickly. She was
out cold. She'd have one heck of a bump though, the least that she
deserved. Ryoko went over to Tenchi, and got him out of the chair. His
eyes fluttered open - Ryoko felt her heart jump a little - and he shook
his head. She put a finger over his mouth, and he nodded. He grabbed
his clothes, and he pulled them on as they started moving to the exit.
Suddenly, a klaxon began to sound, and red lights started to flash.
~WARNING, WARNING! GINNEA PIG ESCAPING! ACTIVATING SECURITY
MEASURES!~
"Come on!" shouted Ryoko, over the noise, grabbing Tenchi by the
arm, and pulling him along. Tenchi yelped in surprise. They were almost
to the door, when a thick metal plate slammed down before them. Ryoko
turned ninety degrees, and dove with Tenchi through an open door.
"Where are we now?" asked Tenchi. Ryoko shrugged. The room was
filled with electronics, and an electrical hum filled the room. Tenchi
walked over, and leaned on a panel for a moment, to catch his breath.
As he did this, he accidentally pushed down on a keypanel. Several
buttons lit up, and the door they had come through slammed shut. Tenchi
jumped up from the panel, but even as he did, four machines powered
up. They rolled forward, and Tenchi and Ryoko backed up. They barely
noticed it when they stepped onto a platform.
"The Dimensional Transporter! Oh no!" cried Washu as the door banged
open. Ryo-Ohki bounded in behind her. Three things happened at once.
Washu raced over to the control panel, Ryo-Ohki leapt toward Tenchi and
Ryoko, and the four machines fired some sort of beams. Washu gasped
as the beams hit Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ryo-Ohki as she crossed the line of
the platform.
"Ahhhhhh!" shouted Tenchi and Ryoko at the same time. Washu typed
madly at the controls, but to them, the world suddenly seemed to twist,
and fade away. Darkness, and the sense of falling replaced all.
"Tenchi! Ryoko! Ryo-Ohki! No! Come back!"
*****
"Tenchi..." Tenchi opened his eyes and nearly shouted in fright
at the sight of Ryoko's face inches from his own.
"GAH! Don't do that Ryoko!" Ryoko grinned a little evilly, but he
could see relief in her eyes. Tenchi began to sit up... and then lay
down again when he felt a wave of nausea wash over him. He reached
up to his head and winced when he felt a lump the size of his fist on the
back of his head. He tried again, and this time made it. Looking around
brought another surprise. They weren't in Washu's lab anymore. In fact,
Tenchi didn't even think that they were in Japan anymore. They were in
the middle of a path, which ran though a thickly wooded forest, and the
night was on them.
"Where are we?" he asked Ryoko. She shook her head.
"I don't know. When I woke up, we were just here. Ryo-Ohki is
having a look around now. Tenchi... I can't fly, or teleport, and I'm
having trouble with my sword and fireballs. Ryo-Ohki can't turn into her
spaceship form either." Tenchi reflexively reached down to his waist
- good, Tenchi-ken was still there. He wondered if it would work, since
Ryoko's powers didn't seem to.
"Miya! Miya! Miya!" Ryo-Ohki came running from the trees toward
them. Ryoko turned, looking surprised, and Tenchi asked her what it was.
"She says that there is a girl fighting skeletons a little ways
away!" Tenchi blinked - skeletons? - but pushed himself up, groaning
as his muscles protested slightly.
"Come on, we have to help her!" said Tenchi. Ryoko nodded, and they
followed Ryo-Ohki. They crested a hill, and pulled up short. A single
girl, wearing a light blue dress with pink ribbons attached to a pair of
gold-inlaid metal rings, and a neatly done shock of cyan hair, was
fighting off at least a dozen skeletons wielding bones. There was a
sudden flash, and one of the attackers was blown apart. Tenchi and Ryoko
looked at each other, and then stared in amazement as a ball of bluish
energy appeared around the girl's hand. She pointed it at another
skeleton, and the ball blasted forward, blowing it and another directly
behind it apart. But even as they watched, another dozen skeletons
pulled themselves out of the ground. Tenchi grabbed his sword, breathing
a short sigh of relief as the blade hissed to life, and ran in the
direction of the battle.
Swinging Tenchi-ken, he took the first skeleton at the neck. The
head flew off, and landed looking at him, an evil glow burning in its
eyes. Tenchi turned to the next, parrying a blow from its bone sword,
and slicing at it and taking it down. He turned at a sound behind him,
and stared as the headless skeleton he had thought dead, swung at him.
He leaned back to avoid its swing, but tripped over a stone. The
skeleton raised its sword, and was about to chop down when it suddenly
just exploded. Tenchi looked as Ryoko came streaming down the hill,
blasting enemies left and right. Pushing himself back up, Tenchi
rejoined the fight. They cut a path through the skeletons to the girl.
"Who are you?" she called, firing another blast. Tenchi sliced
his sword down through yet another skeleton, and answered.
"My name is Tenchi, and she's Ryoko. I know that this isn't the
best of times, but where are we?" He ducked as Ryoko fired a blast over
his head, taking out a skeleton that was about to attack the girl from
behind. It was suddenly quiet. Looking around, he realized that all of
the skeletons were now just piles of bones. Ryoko came to stand beside
them. The girl looked around once more warily, and then turned to them.
"I thank you. My name is Carrie Fernandez, and this dread place
lies on the outskirts of the evil Castlevania." Tenchi shivered.
In school, one of the subjects that he had been required to take was
legends of the world. He was about to open his mouth to speak, but Ryoko
beat him to it.
"Where exactly is this Castlevania? I've never heard of it before."
The girl's eyes widened, and then narrowed in suspicion. In the meantime,
Ryoko came up and hugged onto Tenchi. He sighed, and wondered if she
would ever learn to behave herself.
"Not where, mistress Ryoko, what." Carrie turned, sweeping her arm
upward. Tenchi and Ryoko's gaze followed. Their gaze went up... and
up... and up. A huge castle, ancient and decrepit looking, rose from the
forest, surrounded by a haze that made Tenchi shiver in fear. Behind
the castle floated a huge, nearly full blood red moon in a sea of the
blackest night. Tenchi noticed that the field of stars in the sky seemed
to stop well short of the castle. A wolf howled in the night. At least,
he hoped that it was a wolf.
"Ryoko... In the myths that I learned in school, Castlevania
is the home of Vlad Tepes... Or should I say, Dracula," said Tenchi.
She let go of him slowly, and stared at Carrie in surprise. Tenchi knew
that she had read a translated version of Bram Stoker's Dracula, and that
the next few nights she'd had nightmares, something that he had thought
couldn't happen. Carrie nodded.
"And now he has risen again from his 100 year sleep. Myself and
another go there to kill him, or at the least return him to his slumber,"
she said. Ryoko laughed aloud.
"How could a little girl like you kill Dracula?" she asked, and
Tenchi groaned. Carrie looked at her simply.
"Because I must. My family has faced Dracula before. My ancestor,
Sypha Belnades, helped Trevor Belmont to put him asleep, nearly three
hundred and fifty years ago." Before Ryoko could say more, Tenchi asked
her who the other person was.
"Reinhart Schnieder, descendant of the Belmont family." She said
the word Belmont as though it was something sacred. Come to think of it,
it might be. "As with myself, the power in his blood demands that he
face Dracula, for the fate of the world." Ryoko looked at Tenchi, and
made a little 'It's up to you' motion.
"I wonder if you wouldn't mind us coming along with you. We don't
know the area, and it must be safer as a group than apart." Carrie
looked at him for a moment, and then turned a thoughtful gaze to Ryoko.
She looked like she was about to say no, when a tall man came around
the corner. A short sword was strapped against one side of his waist,
and against the other was a long whip. He wore a light shirt, under a
fur-lined blue jacket, and black pants. Suddenly Tenchi realized that
the clothing style was more reminiscent of the eighteen hundreds,
than the nineteen hundreds, and that his and Ryoko's clothing must be as
odd to them.
"What have we here, Carrie?" asked the man. She smiled slightly,
but her eyes never quite left Ryoko. "A pair of villagers still alive?"
Carrie shook her head.
"These are Tenchi and Ryoko. They saved me from a group of
skeletons, Reinhart." A thought kept trying to turn over in Tenchi's
head. Why did Carrie not trust Ryoko? Tenchi took a closer look at her.
Ryoko was wearing her favorite striped dress, as usual, and the black
tail that seemed to posses a life of it's own. With her spiky hair, and
fangs, he suddenly realized, she must look like the demoness that she is.
Demoness...? Demoness! Tenchi groaned inwardly. How stupid could he
be?
In the meantime, Reinhart had joined them, and Carrie was whispering
something in his ear. His expression hardened, and his hand began to
move toward the whip. Understanding, Tenchi reached over and pulled
the tail off the dress. Ryoko spun, and looked like she was about to
give him a good tongue lashing, but he ignored it. Carrie and Reinhart
stared at the tail, as it lashed back and forth, picking up on Ryoko's
mood even away from her, but Reinhart let go of the whip.
"I'm sorry... If I had of been paying attention, I would have told
you sooner." Ryoko stared at him in confusion. "This is just a sort
of... Er, accessory to her dress," Tenchi told the two of them. "She's
as human as the rest of us!" Well, that wasn't quite true, he realized,
on either her part or his, but best not to tell them that she was a
demoness. They might get the wrong idea.
"Tenchi..." said Ryoko, leaning over a little, and then suddenly
grabbing him and shaking him a little roughly. "JUST WHAT ARE YOU
TALKING ABOUT!!! YOU KNOW VERY WELL THAT I'M-" Tenchi covered her mouth
quickly, not an easy task considering that she was still shaking him
around like a rag doll.
"Think about it Ryoko... Where ever we are, there are vampires.
And that means that there are demons... Evil demons," he told her
quietly, his voice pitched so that only she would hear. Ryoko stopped
shaking him, understanding.
"That I can't stand it when you grab my tail like that," she
finished. Tenchi breathed a sigh of relief. Carrie and Reinhart were
staring at them in confusion. Tenchi gave the tail back, and she
reattached it. It whipped around furiously for another moment, seemingly
angry at being grabbed and then settled down. Reinhart shook his head,
and then cleared his throat.
"Carrie tells me that you've offered your help to us in our quest
against Dracula. I must admit that I wouldn't mind a few extra hands.
You seem to have your own magic, for no mere mortal could battle the
Skull Warriors and survive," he said. Tenchi looked at Ryoko.
"We've got a few tricks up our sleeves," said Ryoko. She looked
around suddenly. "Hey? Where's Ryo-Ohki?" Tenchi gave a start, as he
realized that the cabbit was nowhere to be found.
"Who is Ryo-Ohki?" asked Carrie. Tenchi smiled a little, wondering
how he was going to explain the furball. "Well, she's..." A rustle in
the bushes caught his attention, and then Ryo-Ohki walked out, in human
form. But instead of being covered in fur, she looked much like Mayuka
had when she had first appeared. Brown hair, instead of purple, and a
dress suited to moving around, but in the end much like her. Tenchi
felt a little pang of worry. What were the others doing at home? He was
sure that Washu would be looking for them, to bring them back, but who
knew how long that would take. "She's our other traveling companion.
She can't speak, though..." he finished, holding in another sigh of
relief. Ryo-Ohki smiled at them, and bowed - remarkably smoothly.
One trip, though, and the show would be over.
Carrie nodded slowly, and Reinhart just shrugged. Another wolf
howled, this time sounding closer to them. The two looked at each other.
"Werewolves. And they're getting closer," said Reinhart. He turned
to look at Castlevania. "We must hurry. They cannot follow inside the
walls of the castle." Ryoko looked up at him.
"Why not?" she asked, and Carrie answered.
"Because most of them are afraid of what lives inside Castlevania.
Ryoko and Tenchi looked at each other, and swallowed nervously.
*****
Reinhart and Carrie lead the way through the forest, while Tenchi,
Ryoko, and Ryo-Ohki hung back a little, talking quietly amongst
themselves.
"So how do you think that we got here?" asked Tenchi. He tried to
shrug out of her grasp, but she was all but riding his back. Sighing
again, he hoped that Reinhart and Carrie didn't look back and see. It
wasn't that he minded her hanging off of him - he could think of worse
things that she could do - it was just that he felt... awkward was the
only word that he could put to it. Why all the attention on him?
"Don't ask me," she said, shrugging, "Yet another of Washu's
experiments gone wrong." Tenchi nodded. Washu would likely be sitting
at the machine that very moment, trying to get them back. Ryo-Ohki
miyaed quietly, and they looked at her. Ryoko voiced the question
for her. "What about Ryo-Ohki? One trip, and we'll have a lot of
explaining to do."
"That's just a chance that we'll have to take. I don't think that
we have a choice. And while we're on the subject, I want you to behave
yourself, Ryoko. If they find out that you really are a demoness..."
He trailed off, but she nodded, understanding. With a sly grin, she let
her hand slide down his front a little and poked only just above his
waistline. Tenchi jumped, and looked to make sure that Reinhart and
Carrie hadn't been watching.
"Tenchi, would I misbehave?" Tenchi sweatdropped, and nervously
began to say that wasn't what he meant, but Reinhart, ahead of them,
called a stop. Ryoko let go of Tenchi quickly, before Reinhart turned
back to them.
"Hold. We have arrived at the castle gate." Before them, the evil
castle rose into the night, the drawbridge raised. The place was huge,
larger than any structure Tenchi had ever seen. A couple of dark shapes
fluttered around the lower spire, and Tenchi swallowed, realizing
that they were much too big to be just bats. In the high spire, almost
so far into the sky it couldn't be seen, a huge clock ticked quietly
away. As Tenchi looked at it, the midnight hour came to hand. A deep,
loud tolling rang from the clock, rolling down and across the land like
a wave. Carrie pointed to the tower.
"There. That is where Dracula awaits his full awakening."
Tenchi looked over at her, confused.
"But I thought you said he was awake." She shook her head.
"Dracula only stirs. He shall not become fully awake, and thus,
gain his full power, until the moon rises to it's fullest, in three
night's time. If we do not make it to the tower by then, the world is as
good as done for."
"If he was fully awake, then we would already be dead," explained
Reinhart. "Outside of Castlevania, he would have killed us in a moment.
But even Hell has its laws. If we can breech the castle, we have a
fighting chance, for though the castle itself will try to fight us,
Dracula must wait for us to come to him." He then turned to Carrie,
and whispered quietly to her. She nodded, and then he came back toward
them.
"We must stand back. Carrie is going to try to open the gate with
her magic." The small group allowed him to lead them back. Carrie was
left alone, before the castle surrounded by its moat. Raising her hands,
she closed her eyes.
"Mighty powers of the light, I call you before this house of evil.
Open the way to the prince of the night, that your champions may do
battle." Above her hands, a sphere of bluish-white light formed.
"Go now, mighty powers of the light. Cast down the gate of
darkness, thus revealing the unholy home!" The ball of light floated
up, and out of her hands, and flew to the bridge, going up and over it.
There was a bright flash, and then, slowly, the drawbridge began
lowering. It's shadow crept over them, cast off by the nearly full moon.
With an earth-shaking crash, it reached the ground. The gate open, they
joined Carrie. She was sweating, and panting lightly. Reinhart placed
his hand on her shoulder, and she beamed a bright smile at him, and then
they turned to Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ryo-Ohki.
"This is your last chance, friends," said Reinhart.
"I thank you for helping me, but if you wish to stay here, you may.
This is our battle, not yours," said Carrie. Reinhart's face was grim.
"If you follow us in, than you commit yourselves to the battle."
Tenchi and Ryoko looked at each other for only a moment, but the look
spoke volumes. Ryoko smirked, and Tenchi grinned as he put out his hand
to Reinhart. He smiled as well, and clasped Tenchi's firmly.
"If the world is at stake, and we can help, than we will, right,
Ryoko?" She nodded, and the small group crossed the bridge, their
footsteps echoing loudly in the night. Reaching the other side, they
found that the second gate was down. Through it, they could see the
castle villa. Try as they might, though, they couldn't budge it.
Suddenly, there was a loud cranking sound, and they turned to see the
drawbridge rising, much faster than it had come down. As they watched,
helpless, it closed, another gate closing in front of it. They were
trapped, inside the castle wall.
*****
Blood Red Moon Part 2: Kidnapped
Carrie looked at the drawbridge, frowning. Her spell should
have made it so that it wouldn't be able to rise again. Reinhart pushed
once more on the inner gate, to no avail.
"Well, now where to?" asked Ryoko. Carrie looked at the strange
woman again. The tail was lashing back and forth. The thing made her
uneasy. The man - Tenchi - had said that she wasn't a demoness, but her
fangs and that tail put her on edge. Plus, she could feel a great amount
of energy fairly dripping off of her, power nearly matching her own
command of magic. Looking at the other girl, Ryo-Ohki, she smiled.
She at least seemed normal.
Tenchi was another matter. She had nearly frozen with shock when
she had seen him appear suddenly with his magical blade. The sheer power
rolling off the blade alone had made her want to tremble with fright,
and she could sense a far greater power hidden deep inside him, yet she
could also feel that he was in no way evil - quite the opposite, his
nature seemed strongly aligned with good. And, she admitted to herself,
he was fairly handsome. But Ryoko was always hanging onto him in some
way or another. She wondered how close the two were. Carrie was certain
that Ryoko was in love with him in a big way. But Tenchi seemed uneasy
with her attentions.
"This is the castle wall," said Reinhart. "It is the first of
our challenges." He pointed to the tower on either side of them. There
was a door set into the base. "At the top of both towers, there is a
machine that will open one of the inner gates." He walked over to the
right one, and tried opening it, but the door was locked tight.
"Let me try my key," said Ryoko. She raised her hand, and he
barely had the time to leap out of the way when a fireball blasted into
the doorway, shattering it to bits. Reinhart looked at her, and flashed
a quick grin.
"Carrie and I will go up this tower. You take the other one, and
we'll meet back here," said Reinhart. Ryoko looked like she was about
to say something, but Tenchi touched her shoulder lightly, and she looked
at him. He shook his head very slightly, and then looked at Reinhart
and herself, and nodded in agreement. Reinhart's gaze fell on her, and
Carrie turned, entering the tower with him.
*****
As Carrie and Reinhart went into the smashed door, Tenchi turned
to Ryo-Ohki. "I want you to go in and look around, Ryo-Ohki. Be
careful, and don't get too far ahead of us. We don't know what's in
there! We'll be along shortly." She changed into her cabbit form, and
squeezed through the first gate. Tenchi turned to Ryoko, who was staring
at him in surprise.
"Why did you send Ryo-Ohki in ahead of us Tenchi?"
"Think about it Ryoko! If she trips, than we're done for. This
way, we'll have an idea of what's ahead." He put a hand on her shoulder.
"She'll be fine." Ryoko nodded slowly, and they turned to the tower.
Tenchi tried the knob, and found that it swung open easily. He looked
at her, and they entered, Tenchi already holding his sword ready, and
Ryoko with a small fireball waiting in her hand.
"How's your energy holding up?" he asked, as he noticed the fireball
flicker a little. Ryoko looked at it in surprise.
"I don't know. I don't think that my gem is supplying power
anymore. It's something about this place... Creepy around here, isn't
it?" said Ryoko. Tenchi looked around. Cobwebs hung in the corners,
and a weird, high-pitched noise came from somewhere above them. Looking
up, they saw a ramp that curved it's way up into the darkness.
"Only way to go is up, I guess." They walked to the ramp, and began
to work their way up. Slowly, they reached the half-way point. Tenchi
leaned up against the wall for a moment, and jumped when there was a loud
fluttering. Several huge bats flew down, and started circling a little.
Pressing his hand against his chest, he laughed weakly.
"Just bats," he said, looking down at the ground while he caught
his breath.
"Tenchi..."
"What Ryoko?" Ryoko put her hand on his head, and lifted it up.
There were a lot more bats. The middle of the tower was black with them.
Tenchi looked at Ryoko.
"Let's go, very, very quietly," he said. She nodded, and they
started to tiptoe their way up the ramp. The bats milled in the air, the
cloud getting seemingly thicker and thicker by the moment. Suddenly,
a pair separated from the mass, and flew at them. Tenchi and Ryoko broke
into a dead run. With a great screech, the bats started flying at them
in groups of three or four. Ryoko fired a couple of blasts back at them,
knocking down several, but they were replaced all too quickly.
Tenchi took a couple of swipes at them with his sword, and knocked
down a few more, but the mass just became too much to fight off. Ryoko
turned partly to fire off a couple more shots, but there were only a few
sparks, and then the energy died. Ryoko looked at Tenchi, stunned
amazement on her face.
Just then, the ramp came to a sudden end. About four feet of
space lay between them, and a door way. They skidded to a halt, the bats
not far behind. Tenchi looked at Ryoko, and she turned and tried to fire
another blast. This time, not even a spark appeared.
"What do we do Tenchi?" she asked, and Tenchi was surprised
to hear a note of true panic in her voice. Tenchi looked at the space
between them and the doorway. They looked back at the bats, then at each
other, and took a running leap. Tenchi made it across to the other side,
but Ryoko came just short, grabbing onto the ledge. Tenchi grabbed
onto her wrists, and pulled her up. She looked at him, fear evident
in her eyes.
"I... I almost fell. I forgot that I can't fly, and I almost
fell..." she said. Tenchi opened the door, and pulled her through it,
whispering soothing words as he slammed the door shut before the bats
flew through.
"It could happen to anybody, Ryoko," he said. "Maybe now you'll
be a little more careful." She looked at him, and, for a wonder,
laughed. They turned, and saw a set of three huge gears, and a tall lever
before them. The top of the tower was gone, and a good section of the
wall. Through the hole that created, they could see the clock tower.
"That must be it," he said, and walked over to it. He pushed
the lever forward, and with a slow, protesting squeal, it went forward.
The lock released, the gears began to spin. Looking through the window
on the other side of the tower, he saw the gate rise. Grinning, he
turned back to Ryoko... and saw a tall, bearded man, with his arm locked
around Ryoko's neck. She was struggling to get away, but to no use.
"Insolent worm. So you are the one who has entered my castle.
I don't know how you have control of one of Hell's Children, but I will
soon remedy that." Tenchi brought up his sword.
"Let her go!" he shouted. The man laughed, and then faded into
mist, taking Ryoko with him. "Ryoko!!!"
"Tenchi!!!" Her cry didn't fade. It was cut off as if with a
knife. Tenchi made a lunge at the disappearing mist, but was too late
to get any hold on her. His hand passed through hers, and then even the
mist was gone.
"RYOKO!!!"
*****
Reinhart snapped his whip as another bat began to fly down at
them. It squealed, and dropped from the air. Carrie shouted to duck,
as she fired a blast of her magic over his head. It smashed into one
bat, and then two, three, finally running out of power after the fourth.
"So," asked Reinhart in a conversational tone, flicking still
another bat out of the air, "what do you think of our new companions?"
She looked at him sideways.
"I think that they're both hiding something. Isn't it convinient
that they appear just as we are about to enter the castle?" Reinhart
nodded.
"I agree, but for some reason, I feel that they're worth trusting.
Tenchi in particular. I think that he may have seen battles such as our
before."
"The way that he handled his sword, I think that you are right.
But I'm not sure I trust Ryoko. I don't know what it is about her, but
I can feel an immense power dripping off of her. The strange part is,
Tenchi seemed by far the stronger of the two, and I don't think that he
even knows it." Several dozen more bats dropped down behind them.
"I think that we should take this battle farther up the way!" said
Reinhart. Carrie nodded, and they ran up the ramp, occasionally
knocking a bat out of the sky on their way there. Finally, they reached
a doorway. Killing a last couple of bats that were behind them, Carrie
opened the door. Entering the room, they found three gears. And, strung
through the gears, were two gigantic wryms. Reinhart looked at Carrie.
"Did we come at a bad time?" The dragonspawn roared, and each
looked toward one of the adventurers. They leapt in opposite directions
as balls of flame smashed into the ground where they had stood. Carrie
fired a blast of magic, which smashed into one of the creatures.
It roared in pain, and fired another blast of flame at her.
In the meantime, Reinhart was hastily striking the other dragon
in the nose with his whip. With a lucky shot, he managed to take out one
of it's eyes. With a bellow of pain, it exploded in flame. Reinhart
looked over to Carrie, and then leapt backwards as a new blast of flame
slammed into the ground next to him. Surprised, he looked at where the
dragon had been, and found that he hadn't destroyed the wrym, only caused
its skin to be destroyed.
The bone dragon stared at him with an evil red glow. He dove aside
as it roared and a gout of flame erupted forward. He flipped his arm,
and wrapped his whip around the neck of the beast. Its eyes went wide,
as he yanked back on the handle of the whip. The bones fell to the
ground, its skull still seaming to snarl with its razor like teeth.
"Don't you know when to quit!" shouted Carrie. She reached deep
within herself, and tapped her inner reserves of strength. Raising
both of her hands, a ball of blindingly bright light formed. She aimed,
and it blasted into the dragon. With a bright flash, the dragon
disappeared. Reinhart smirked at her.
"Remind me to never get you angry at me." She sniffed, and
walked over and threw the switch. The gears turned, and the second gate
rose. Carrie walked over to the door, and tried it. It was locked.
"Well, how do we get out of here?" she asked. Reinhart looked
around, and noticed a very large hole in the wall. Leaning through
it, he saw that it lead to holes which went all the way back down to the
ground floor.
"Drop right down here, I guess." He went the rest of the way
through the hole. Carrie stifled a growl, and idly wondered if all older
men were as irritating. She followed after him.
"It's surprising how much she hangs off of him, isn't it? Almost
as if she's afraid to let go of him for very long," said Reinhart,
as he caught her. Setting her down, she looked at him.
"She's deeply in love with him, and that's the most puzzling thing
about her that I can find. She acts like she doesn't know how to show
it." Reinhart nodded deeply.
"I noticed that too. I wonder if something happened to her to make
her so... I'd say protective, but that's not quite right." They dropped
down several floors, and then found themselves where they had left off.
"Where's Tenchi?" asked Carrie. Even as she said it, the door to
the other tower swung open, and a broken looking Tenchi walked through.
His shoulders were slumped, and he stared at the ground, Tenchi-ken
clutched in his hand.
"Where are the others?" asked Reinhart, worry evident in his
voice. Carrie looked around. Ryo-Ohki wasn't there either.
"Gone. I sent Ryo-Ohki ahead, while Ryoko and I went up the
tower. We got there, and opened the gate. I was looking out one of the
windows, and when I turned, a man... had her... he disappeared
with her." Reinhart and Carrie looked at each other.
"This man... was he tall, with a beard?" Tenchi looked up, and
Carrie nearly stepped back. There was an intensity in his eyes that
hadn't been there before. Young as she was, she understood that look.
The pain of one who had lost someone close. She'd worn that look six
years before, when her step-mother had been slain.
"Dracula. But it can't be. He should not awaken for another
three nights." Tenchi looked at Reinhart.
"Something that I've learned with legends and myths is that
sometimes, they aren't accurate." He paused, and looked away for a
moment. Taking a deep breath, he said, "I've not been truthful with you.
Ryoko is a demoness." Carrie frowned, and Reinhart took a step back, in
shock.
"I knew it," spat Carrie. "What of you, Tenchi? Are you a demon
in human's clothing?" He looked up at her, and she realized that she had
said more than she should have. There was pain in his eyes, but a cold
anger too, so surprising in his mild-looking expression.
"Ryoko, Ryo-Ohki and I aren't from here. All three of us aren't
human, not totally, anyway. In fact, we're not even from this dimension.
I don't know how to explain how we got here, and I'm not even going to
try. But Ryoko isn't evil. I know that may be hard to believe, but
you'll just have to trust me." Carrie opened her mouth, but Reinhart
stilled her with a glance.
"We believe you, Tenchi," he said, stressing the we, for Carrie's
benefit, she was sure. "The question now is, how do we save her."
Tenchi raised his sword, and Carrie felt that power within him... surge
was the only word that she could come up with for it. It was as if he
had uncovered the strength that she had felt hidden within him. The
sheer amount of energy that she could feel scared her. Carrie didn't
think that she could have tapped that much power in her entire life, let
alone all at once.
"Miya!" Carrie turned as a small, furry creature raced toward
them. Automatically, she charged up a magic sphere, but Tenchi put out
his hand. He bent down and caught the furball as it bounded at him. He
rubbed its fur, whispering to it quietly. It miyaed at him quietly,
a sad sounding noise. Carrie looked at Reinhart, confused, but he
shrugged, understanding no more than she. Tenchi stood back up, the
creature now perched on his shoulder. It looked like a cat, and a rabbit
put together into one. Big, floppy ears, a cat's face, and rabbit legs.
In the center of its forehead was what looked to be a red jewel.
"I'd like to introduce you to Ryo-Ohki, or, at least, her true
form." Carrie stared, dumb-founded.
"That is Ryo-Ohki?" Tenchi smiled a little sadly, and nodded.
"She told me that she can't hear Ryoko anymore," he said.
"You understood that?" asked Reinhart.
"Ryo-Ohki... bonds, I guess, with somebody. When she does, they
can speak telepathically. Ryoko is Ryo-Ohki's bond-mate, but, she said
that the connection was severed a few minutes ago." Reinhart looked
at Tenchi, and picked his words carefully.
"What might have caused the... link to be severed, Tenchi?"
He looked away.
"There are only two things that I can think of, only one that I'll
believe. She could be in a deep trance, waiting for me... us to find
her. The other..." he trailed off, but to Carrie, it was plain what he
was going to say. She walked over, and put her hand on his shoulder.
He looked at her, surprised.
"Demoness or not, I believe you. We'd best get going. If Dracula
has her, then we have to hurry." Reinhart smiled broadly, and Tenchi's
gaze hardened. They turned toward the Castle Villa, and went in.
*****
Blood Red Moon Part 3: The Castle Villa
Tenchi and the others hurried towards the Villa, now in a new race
against time. Tenchi was sure that Ryoko was still alive. If anything,
the bearded man's words had confirmed that. He had taken her, but for a
purpose. His words worried him - "I don't know how you control one of
Hell's Children, but I will soon remedy that."
Reaching the door, Reinhart pushed it open. With a loud squeal
of long unuse, it swung open. Reinhart looked around, and then entered.
Carrie and Tenchi followed, and Ryo-Ohki hopped off his shoulder.
She sniffed around, and suddenly miyaed loudly. The sound echoed off the
walls with a hollow quality. Tenchi shushed her quickly.
They were in a huge room, with a tall staircase, with a red carpet
laid on it. Golden scroll work chased everywhere, almost to gaudy
amounts. Several tall stands with candles stood on the floor, shedding
ample light. Above them, a chandelier sent sparkles shimmering and
dancing all over the room. As they moved around, their heals clicked
loudly on the floor, producing more echoes. Reinhart approached the
stairway, placed his hand on the banister.
With a howl, a man leapt over the edge of the balcony. He touched
the wall, and stuck to it. Crawling side ways along it for a moment,
he touched off again, twisting with a perverted sense of a gymnast's
grace. He landed, and Tenchi gasped. From the neck down, it was human
enough. But its head sported evil, deep-set eyes, and sticking out from
its mouth were a pair of long, sharp looking fangs. Blood stains dotted
his shirt, and his hands were huge claws.
"A vampire!" said Reinhart, unfurling his whip and snapping at it.
The evil creature dodged backwards, dancing just out of his range.
Carrie fired a blast at it, but it leapt backwards, over the stairs,
and the magic sphere exploded harmlessly against the banister. It turned
to Tenchi, an evil light glowing in its eyes.
"The master sent me to welcome you," he said. Tenchi wordlessly
drew his sword, the blade snapping to life. The vampire rushed at him,
raising hands with nails like claws. Tenchi ducked under its swing,
pivoting to draw a slash down the vampire's side. It looked at him, and
laughed.
"You think a mere scratch can hurt me, a vampire?" Suddenly,
his expression changed, and it screamed in pain, as the scratch began
to glow with a light akin to Tenchi-ken's blade. Not wasting the chance,
Tenchi sliced his blade across at throat level. The vampire stopped
screaming, and blinked at Tenchi. Then, its head fell off its shoulders.
Before it had the chance to fall to the ground, a blast of red flame came
from its skin, and the body was burned to ash.
"Impressive. You were trained by a master, Tenchi," said Reinhart,
coming up behind him. Tenchi let the blade disappear, and then turned
to him.
"You might say that it runs in the family."
*****
They split up, looking around the Villa. Reinhart explored the
basement, while Tenchi and Carrie checked out the upstairs, Ryo-Ohki
jumping back onto his shoulder.
"You handle that sword as if it were a part of you," said Carrie,
looking at Tenchi. He raised the hilt to his face, as if inspecting
it. Her eyes were drawn to the two red gems embedded in the base. They
were small, but perfectly round, a crimson that matched blood. Strange,
it must have been her imagination, but she could have sworn that she had
seen one exactly like it in Ryoko's wrist.
"My grandfather... gave it to me just a year ago, not long after
I first released Ryoko, and the others came to live with us. My life has
been a nonstop roller coaster ever since."
"Roller coaster?" asked Carrie, looking at him with a confused
expression. Tenchi grinned, and shook his head.
"I keep forgetting that I'm not at home anymore," he said. She
nodded.
"You said you released Ryoko. Tell me about it." He looked at her,
surprised.
"There's not really much to tell. My grandfather tends an ancient
shrine, the marker of a battle from long ago. Seven hundred years
before, Ryoko had descended to Earth, and wreaked havoc on the people
of the time. Then, says the legend, a samurai riding a ship like a dragon
came down, and fought her. He won, and sealed her in a cave beneath
the shrine."
"This... Samurai was your ancestor?" Tenchi nodded.
"My grandfather. His people are very long lived. Then, last
summer, while I was training with him, I got the keys to the shrine away
from him. I had always liked the cave... I felt peaceful there, a
presence that I knew I could trust when I was a child." Carrie stopped,
turning to him.
"Ryoko." Tenchi nodded.
"I didn't know that, of course. I was, as grandfather had put it,
as curious as a cat. I entered the shrine, and found this." He lifted
the hilt again. "When I pulled it from the ground, it seemed like only
a rusty piece of junk, but it released the seal on Ryoko's cave. I found
the passage, and fell down to where she was. She had been down there
so long that she had been mummified, but she was still alive." Carrie
pursed her lips in thought.
"You said that she wasn't evil, yet you told me that she killed
the people and ravaged your home." Tenchi reached up and tickled
Ryo-Ohki on the chin.
"And Ryo-Ohki helped her. But they were under the control of an
evil man, named Kagato. I guess that you might think of him as Dracula."
Carrie nodded in understanding. "May I ask you a question, Carrie?"
"I've certainly asked enough of you to owe you some answers."
"Why are you here? I know you said that it was in your blood -
believe me, I understand what you mean by that all too well now - but..."
Tenchi trailed off, sounding uncomfortable.
"Dracula's servants killed my father and step-mother. Six years
ago. I came home from playing with some friends to find several
werewolves dead outside the door, but the door smashed and several
windows smashed in. My father was gone, my mother laying in a pool of
her blood, surrounded by dead werewolves. She was still alive... when
I found her." Carrie stopped, as the pain she had thought buried
resurfaced for a moment, and turned away from him as she felt a tear
begin to form.
"I'm sorry," said Tenchi, laying a hand on her shoulder. She looked
at him through watery eyes. "I lost my mother when I was very young.
I think... that was the first time that I really felt Ryoko's presence."
She wiped at her eyes, and found her resolve again.
"We won't get any closer to finding Dracula and saving her if we
don't keep moving," she said. Tenchi grinned, and nodded. They came to
a double door, and Tenchi nudged it open.
"Roses!" exclaimed Carrie. The large room had several beds of soil
which were full to overflowing with bright red roses. It looked like it
was still some time away from sunrise, and yet a strange, slightly
unearthly light filtered in through the large picture windows and glass
dome. She walked down the short stair case, and bent to sniff at one of
the roses, inhaling the soft scent. Tenchi followed her down.
"Doesn't it strike you as a little odd that there is a whole garden
of roses just growing here?" asked Tenchi, looking around a little
warily. Carrie frowned.
"Yes, it is. But they don't seem to be dangerous." They looked
around the room, and found only another door aside from the one that they
came from. They were just about to move on when the great clock in the
tower tolled six. With his hand on the doorknob, and Carrie about to
follow him over from where she was standing by a bed of flowers, they
froze as they heard the door latch on the other door click.
The door swung open to reveal a pale skinned, blond-haired
woman, of average height, but holding a quiet beauty, wearing a dress
of bright red, carrying a watering can. She looked coolly at Tenchi
and Carrie, and then walked down the steps toward Carrie.
"I wish to water the roses," she said softly. Carrie stepped aside,
and the woman came to stand next to the bed of flowers.
"Who are you?" asked Carrie. The woman looked at her.
"I am Rosa. I tend these white roses." Tenchi took his hand off
the door knob.
"White roses?" he said, walking over to the bed of crimson flowers.
Rosa said nothing, merely lifted her watering can over the roses. She
tipped it forward, but instead of water, blood poured out of it, wetting
down the flowers. Carrie and Tenchi both stepped back, surprised.
"You are a vampire!" exclaimed Carrie. Rosa looked at her as if she
was surprised that she had thought anything else.
"Only vampires and demons live in this house of evil. Someone
as young as yourself should not be here. If you both leave now, I will
forget that I saw you," she said. Carrie stepped a little closer to
Rosa.
"I cannot leave until Dracula is dead. You are somehow different
from the other residents of this place."
"Such sentimentality will soon cost you your life," answered Rosa.
She looked at Tenchi. "And do you too share her feelings?"
"I will not leave before I find Ryoko." Rosa looked down, at the
ground for a moment.
"If you wish to enter deeper into the castle," she said quietly,
"you must first goto the archives." She looked up as a small amount
of pre-dawn light began to peek into the room. She stepped back, and
then looked at them both. "The key to the archives... Ah yes, another
adventurer took it already. I can help you no more. Try not to get
yourself killed too quickly." With that, the woman faded out from sight
just before the rays of light filtering into the room touched the floor
where she had been standing.
"That was... odd," said Tenchi. Carrie looked at where Rosa had
stood moments before.
"She was a vampire, but I don't think she wanted to be. Why else
would she try to help us at all?"
"We had better go get Reinhart."
*****
"What did this woman look like?" asked Reinhart as they led him back
to the rose garden. Tenchi described her, and Reinhart seemed to become
troubled. They went the rest of the way through the garden, and entered
the manor house proper. Up the stairs they went, to the hall. Tenchi
looked around the corner. Stained glass lined the corridor on one side,
several doors the other. He walked down a little ways, and tried the
first door. It was marked Storage, but the door was shut tight.
At the tinkle behind him, Tenchi spun. At first, he blinked.
He could have sworn that the stained glass behind him had moved. He
started to turn back, and then saw a glimmer of light out of the corner
of his eye. He turned back, and had time to gasp and duck as a man made
of stained glass swung his sword at Tenchi's head. It drew back to
strike down, and Tenchi knew he'd never get away. Just before it
attacked, Reinhart's whip snapped out, shattering the glass man.
"You have to remember Tenchi, Castlevania itself is out to kill us,"
said Reinhart, offering him a hand up.
"I hope that I didn't just use the last of my luck."
"Hey, come over here. There's an open door," called Carrie, and
Ryo-Ohki miyaed from her shoulder. They jogged over to her, and she
pushed the door open slowly. She looked in, and, finding nobody,
entered, Reinhart and Tenchi following her. They were in a ornately
decorated bedroom, and something jumped out at Tenchi - There were
several large crosses placed at points where nothing could get through
without passing near at least one of them.
They spread out through the room. A large bed, neatly made, filled
most of one corner. A couple chairs, and a desk with a number of papers
on it were the only other furnishings. The only other thing of note in
the room was another door. Ryo-Ohki jumped down to the ground, and began
sniffing around on the floor.
Tenchi looked at the papers on the desk, while Reinhart looked at
the bed. Neither noticed as Carrie walked over to the other door, and
laid her hand on it. Tenchi looked up, just as she swung it open. He
sprang out to stop her, but it was to late.
Carrie gasped, and backed up quickly. Through the door marched
an older man, a giant white cross strapped to his back, another smaller
one hanging on a chain around his neck, and a third, golden one in his
hand. Tenchi drew his blade, and Reinhart readied his whip.
"Stay where you are! Don't move a finger!" commanded the man.
Crystal chip blue eyes gazed out at them, cold and merciless. He sported
a bushy mustache, and he wore a brown over coat with heavy thread of gold
embroidery. He marched forward, and circled slightly around Carrie,
thrusting the cross in her face. She recoiled back automatically,
and he moved on, repeating the process with Reinhart, who also flinched
back a bit. When he reached Tenchi, a third time he pushed the cross
towards Tenchi's face. Reacting automatically, Tenchi grabbed his wrist,
and snatched the cross out of the man's hand. The man stared at him in
amazement.
"It's extremely rude to shove something into another's face," said
Tenchi coldly. The man reminded him of Clown, a huge kid with a clownish
face at his school. He was all right, but at times dumb as an ox, and
twice as jerkish. The man took a step back.
"I apologize, I had to make sure that you were genuine humans.
Do you children not know where you are?" he asked. Reinhart and Carrie
looked at each other.
"The last time that I checked, we were in Castlevania. What about
you, Tenchi?" Tenchi nodded.
"Who exactly are you, and why are you here?" he asked the man. He
drew himself up, and put his chin up.
"I am Charlie Vincent, greatest of the vampire hunters. I am here
to kill Dracula." Reinhart and Carrie stared at him, dumbfounded.
Carrie recovered first.
"Don't be a fool. Dracula is a matter which does not concern you.
Leave while you still have the chance, Master Vincent." Charlie laughed
aloud.
"What know you, a girl of no more than ten? Do you think that you
have a chance to defeat the Lord of Evil, you or any of your ragtag
little group? Return to the village before you accidentally stab
yourself with that little knife the boy carries." Reinhart's eyes
hardened.
"Fool! Don't you know that only one of the Belmont line can even
hope to face Dracula?" Vincent laughed again.
"I pity you, for you are obviously quite mad. I saw the whip, and
wondered if you fancied yourself another Trevor or Simon. Now I am sure.
I warn you one last time, leave now, else be it on your head what happens
to you." Carrie looked like she was about to say something more, but
Tenchi shook his head.
"Don't bother, Carrie. Fools listen only to themselves,"
he said. Turning to Vincent, he handed him back his cross. "We will not
turn back. I ask you a question. Did you find a key in the rose garden?"
Vincent frowned, and dug in his pockets.
"Yes, I did. My intuition tells me that it is useless. If you wish
to have it, take it. Maybe you'll live a little longer if you waste time
on it. But do not come crying to me when you find your nightmares
walking in this place." He then turned away from Tenchi, and, with a
snort, walked back into the room, muttering about fool children. Tenchi
looked at the others, and they left the room, Ryo-Ohki scampering
out just before they closed it.
*****
She opened her eyes slowly, as it was painful to do so. Once fully
open, she looked around. She was in a vat of some sort of fluid,
greenish tinted. Trying to move, she found that she couldn't, not even
her head beyond her eyes. A slow, creeping terror began to seep into her
heart, as she remembered another time when she could not move. Slowly,
the terror filled her heart, and began to pulse along her veins as she
dwelt more and more on it.
She would have screamed, but she couldn't open her mouth.
Before the vat, a tall man appeared, his skin tinged green from the
fluid she was in. He looked through the glass, and she made out a beard
and mustache, a long scar down his cheek, and, a pair of fangs that stood
slightly out of his mouth. Stepping away, the man picked up a circlet,
made of something that was a black as dark as her cave had been.
"Soon, will my master truly awaken, and I shall be there with a gift
to him." He returned to the glass, still holding the circlet. Floating
up, he reached over the top of the container, and settled the circlet
on her head. Pain rifled through her body, and if not for whatever
it was that was holding her in place, she would have been doubled over,
screaming until her throat was raw. The terror in her heart doubled,
as understanding of what was happening came. The man stepped back, and
began a chant.
"Dracunis otove feanis. Dracunis otove feanis." He continued
to repeat it, and, slowly, she felt herself being detached from her body.
She could still see, could still hear, and could still feel, but she felt
as if she lost control. She could feel, but not act.
She felt the terror push to its limit, and then it burst through
the dam.
If she had still had control of her body, she would have been
immobilized with terror, sobbing uncontrollably.
One thought ran through her in her new quasi-state, as that which
was truly her began to do what her body could not, would not.
"Please don't control me again. Please..."
*****
Blood Red Moon Part Four: Malus
"Well, the question now is, where are the archives?" said Carrie.
They were back in the hall, after leaving Vincent's warded off chamber.
Reinhart looked back at it.
"He would not believe. Does he not understand that we are dealing
with more than the average vampire?" Tenchi placed his hand on
Reinhart's shoulder.
"I've known guys like him before. They're smart enough, but they
are so stubborn that they would say that the sky was orange before
admitting it was blue." Reinhart nodded, but he touched his whip
lightly, and looked as if he were lost in thought. They moved down the
hall, checking the different rooms. One was a just a sunning chamber,
with a few chairs, and a couple of potted plants. Tenchi noticed a
sparkle in one, and looked at it. He found a key.
There were two other doors in the room, one that led back into the
hall, and one that led to a stairway. They decided to wait on the
stairway until they had finished exploring the rest of the house. Two
more of the stained glass men attacked them, but now that they were
expecting them, they were smashed in no time. Carrie fired a quick blast
of magic at the rest of the windows, shattering them all. A chill breeze
drifted in from out side.
The last door that they checked led to a small dining chamber.
A painting of David, slashed diagonally across the canvas, hung on one
wall, and on the far wall was a huge mirror, with a small vase of roses
before it. On the other side of the room was another doorway. They
walked into the room, looking around it. Just as they were about to go
through the new door, the one that they had come through crashed open.
"He.. Help! Help me!" cried a tall man. He wore simple clothes,
the kind one would wear on a farm, but his hair was neatly made. Carrie
looked at him, and couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
"This place is full of the damned! I've just been chased here by
devils! You have come to the house of evil!" The man's gaze was so
intense... she felt like his eyes were boring holes into her body.
Reinhart stepped forward.
"Are you a villager who made it here?" A flutter of motion caught
Carrie's eye, and she turned, to see a rose, pale pink in color, settle
to the ground. She bent to pick it up and put it back in the vase, but
when she stood straight again, she froze. There, in the mirror, stood
her figure, Tenchi's, with Ryo-Ohki on his shoulder, and Reinhart's.
And nobody else's.
Spinning, Carrie fired a blast at the man. He leapt out of the way,
a quick flash going off as he dropped his disguise. Reinhart jumped
backwards as the vampire lunged at him. "You smell different from the
usual adventurers... Come! Let me taste of your blood!" it laughed.
The tip of Tenchi's blade, Carrie's magical blast, and Reinhart's
whip all met their mark at the same time, and the vampire didn't even
have time to shriek as it was simply erased from the afterlife. They
looked at each other and laughed, and a fair amount of tension drained
from the room. Carrie looked at the flower that was still in her hand.
Pale pink, almost white. Could it have been Rosa?
"I think that they know we're here, you two. We'd better hurry.
More reinforcements will be on their way." They moved to the door, and
went through it, and found themselves in a small library. Carrie pulled
one of the books off the shelf, and coughed violently as dust rose from
the cover.
"In 1387 was I cursed to roam the earth forever, drinking maiden
after maiden's blood, never to see the light of day again," she read.
Carrie looked up, in surprise. The entire room was filled with other
books much like this one. "Could that have been Dracula's Diary?" Carrie
asked. They looked at the other books.
"If it was, than there are centuries of his unholy life here. Pity
that we don't have more time. We might be able to find a clue as to how
to end his reign for all time," said Reinhart. They went a little deeper
into the room, the dust so thick on the floor that they could see their
footsteps, and found a door, which was locked. Tenchi produced the key
that Vincent had given them, and used it. The door swung open, and they
found themselves in a smaller room, which had three bookcases in it. In
the middle of each book case, there was a seal inscribed into a block
of wood.
Slowly, Reinhart approached the center one, and lightly traced it's
seal with his fingertip. It was of a thorn whip coiled around a vial of
holy water. Carrie's breath caught as she recognized it.
"What is it, Carrie?" asked Tenchi. She looked at him.
"The ancient seal of the Belmont Family," she said. Looking at the
other two, she found the seal of Alucard, a bat that carried the sun on
its back on one, and the other... Carrie's own hand rose, and traced
the ancient seal of the Fernandez family, and, before that, of the
Belnades, a crossed magical staff and sword, surrounded by a pair of
rings.
Reinhart pulled one of the tomes from the shelf that he stood
before, and opened it. Clearing his throat, he read.
"Simon Belmont has nearly arrived to my doorstep. Only Death, my
brother at arms, stands between him and I. I know that Death will not be
able to stop him, as he was not able to stop Trevor, or any of the other
Belmonts. But I have a plan now. I place upon Simon a curse. If he
should destroy me today, than slowly, his body will decay, falling apart
little by little. Once it has fallen completely, the parts will come
together, and when I am born again, Simon Belmont shall be my slave."
He closed the book, and looked at them.
"This must be his archive of the battles that he has lost. In here,
we could find the tale of every Belmont, Fernandez, even his son Alucard,
and the number of times he has been stopped." Tenchi looked around.
"Rosa said that we had to come here. But for what?" They began
searching the room carefully. Suddenly, Tenchi noticed something
strange about the bookcases. Two of the crests, the Fernandez and
Alucard crests, seemed worn with age. But the crest of the Belmonts
looked as if it had been made only the day before. Tenchi looked at it
closer. The wood seemed familiar, as if he had seen it's kind before.
"Tenchi! Your sword is glowing!" said Reinhart. Tenchi looked
down, and indeed, it was, a soft blue light. He looked at it, and then
at the crest again. Slowly, he raised the hilt, and tapped at the cross
on the crest three times. The same soft blue light as was in the sword
spread through the coiled whip, and then into the bottle of water. With
a sudden blaze of light, the crest slid downward, revealing a small niche
in which there was a key, and a folded up piece of paper. Tenchi pulled
them out, and after his hands were clear, the crest slid back into place,
and the glow died off.
"What did you find?" asked Carrie.
"I don't know!" said Tenchi. He opened the paper to reveal that it
was a map. At the top were the words, "Garden Maze" and below was a map,
with a path drawn out in red. In heavy print, near a spot marked
entrance was the word "Kelberos." Tenchi looked at the others, but they
just shrugged.
Leaving the room, they went back to the main hall. Tenchi stopped
them, and walked down to the door that had been locked before. He pulled
out the key he had found in the vase, and slipped it in. With a click,
the door opened. He waved them down.
Inside the storage room were several vials, and several odd
crystals. Carrie's eyes went wide as she saw what was there.
"Anti-Venom! And Purifying Crystals! What a find!" Tenchi looked
at her, confused.
"What are those?" She gave him a wry look as she and Reinhart
dropped the bottles and crystals into their packs.
"The anti-venom will cleanse your system of poison. But the true
treasures here are the Purifying Crystals. If you are bitten by a
vampire, and infected, one of these crystals will cleanse your blood,
saving your life." Tenchi nodded, and they finished packing the things
away. Then, they went into the other room, and down the staircase.
"Hey? What's this?" asked Carrie when they reached the bottom of
the stairs. They were in a small room, with a set of large double doors,
and a suit of armor. On the ground, there was a rolled up scroll, with
a red ribbon tied around it. She picked it up, and they gathered around
it as she read over it. The words were printed neatly, but were strangely
hard to read, as if the words were trying to avoid her gaze.
"Excuse me?"
They spun, Carrie dropping the scroll. It landed rolled up again,
with the ribbon back around it. Coming down the stairs was a man wearing
a green suit, with a white shirt underneath, and a green hat. He had a
neat goatee, and a trimmed mustache. A long, black, pointed tail ran
from under his shirt. In one hand, he carried a briefcase.
"I was wondering if you found a contract here? Ah, yes, there it
is." He doffed his hat to them. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the
Demon Renon." They all took a step back, and readied their weapons,
but Renon put up his hands in a peaceful gesture. "Please wait! I'm not
here to harm you.
"Allow me to explain." They looked at each other uneasily,
but released their weapons. "I am a salesman. It is truly shameful
for a demon to be working, but one needs gold even in Hell these days.
It is my role to provide useful items, and sometimes more, to adventures
in the castle." Renon bent, and picked up the scroll.
"If you sign this contract, then you may summon me by merely
touching one of the other contracts that are scattered through the
castle. If you wish, you may read all but one part of the contract,
which is near the very bottom."
"Why can we not read that part?" asked Reinhart, suspiciously.
Renon smiled, revealing chiseled teeth. "It is an agreement with another
party, the only reason that I am allowed to work here. My apologies,
but I have no choice." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a
golden watch. "Dear me... Is that the time? I have talked too long.
Remember, if you sign, you may summon me at any time." Tipping his hat
again, Renon disappeared, the scroll falling once more to the ground.
Carrie picked it up again, and opened it. This time, the words stayed
where they were, save for a small section at the bottom. She looked
at Reinhart and Tenchi.
"What do you think? This looks safe enough, and if he wasn't lying,
than he may be a useful ally." Reinhart and Tenchi thought about it, and
then both nodded. Tenchi pulled a pen from his pocket, and signed his
name. Carrie and Reinhart looked at the kanji in confusion. Tenchi
explained that it was a different language. Shrugging, they signed their
names as well. As Carrie took the pen from the paper, the names seemed
to darken, and become a part of the paper itself. They looked at each
other once more, and then set the contract back on the ground.
They turned to the door and swung it open to reveal a blinding
morning sun. Squinting, they moved out, with weapons ready. Before
them were a few neatly trimmed hedges, and a little farther away, several
hedges that were taller than they were. There was a break in the hedges,
with an old, heavy gate, and, to either side of the gate, a dog made of
stone. They were ugly things, their muzzles locked forever in a snarl.
The things made Carrie shiver. Tenchi came up close to them, and looked
at them, scratching his head.
"Kelberos... Now, I know that I've heard that name before. Why do
these statues make me think about them?" He looked around them a little
more, but finally gave up on trying to figure the puzzle out.
Reinhart walked up to the gates, and pushed at them, but they
wouldn't budge an inch. Looking down, he saw the keyhole set into the
right side, and motioned Tenchi over. Tenchi pulled the key that they
had found out of his pocket, and slipped it in. The latch clicked,
and the gate swung smoothly open, with not the slightest bit of squeal.
They entered the garden, and walked down the open path. Tenchi pulled
out the map, and they followed the line.
Soon, they came to a split in the path. Turning down it, they
followed along to a stone bridge, and over it, under a stone arch.
Tenchi and the others found themselves in a small enclosure, with a
couple of trees and a fountain. There were no other exits beside the one
that they had just come through.
"Well, this is where the map said to go," said Tenchi. "Don't blame
me." As they turned to go, Carrie heard a rustle from behind one of
the bushes. She dropped to one knee, and powered a magic blast, aiming
it at the small tree.
"Come out, I know you're there!" she called. Reinhart and Tenchi
readied their weapons. Carrie watched, as a young child stepped out from
behind the bushes. The boy couldn't have been more than six or seven
years old. He wore a long, purple coat and matching pants, with a white
shirt below, and he looked terrified. Looking at Reinhart and Tenchi,
she approached him slowly, and squatted down before him.
"What's your name, honey?" The boy looked at her with wide eyes,
which were brimming with tears.
"M... Malus..." Carrie looked at Tenchi and Reinhart.
"What are you doing here, Malus? Did you get lost in the forest?"
The child shook his head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ryo-Ohki
hop off Tenchi's shoulder, and start to sniff around.
"My friends and I were all playing in the village, and then
werewolves came, with a man, and took us all. The man said that he was
looking for a certain child... and then... and then..." Malus trailed
off, shaking his head and putting his hands to his temples. "My head
hurts... I can't remember!" Carrie placed her hand on his shoulder,
and he looked at her.
"Shhh... We'll help you get away from here. Won't we?" Reinhart
and Tenchi nodded. She stood up, and offered Malus her hand. Just
before he took it, they heard a growl. The two stone dogs leapt through
the hedge. Slowly, they advanced. Malus screamed in terror, and began
to run away. Carrie instinctively fired a magic blast at one of them.
It yelped in pain, but when the energy dissipated, there was not a
scratch on it.
"Help me!" came the shout from Malus. Carrie looked at Reinhart
and Tenchi, and they turned and ran after Malus. The dogs growled,
and began to run after them.
Rounding a corner, they saw Malus just going around the next.
Racing after him with the dogs on their heels, they followed him as he
twisted and turned through the garden.
Turning another corner, Carrie gasped as she saw a very, very tall
man, swinging some strange thing at her. She tried to stop, and managed
to slip on the grass, and the thing went past just over her head. It
crashed into the hedge, and clean-sliced branches showered down on her.
Looking up at the man, she saw that it wasn't a man at all, but a
creature made of sewn together bits and pieces of men. His skin color
changed through bits and patches, but one thing that she did notice was
that it had that strange thing attached to its arm, instead of a hand.
Reinhart snapped his whip at the creature's face, making it step
back, and Tenchi grabbed her and pulled her to her feet as they ran by.
One of the dogs leapt at her, snarling, but the creature - Frankenstein,
she finally recognized - was just stepping forward again, and it ended
up biting down on his arm. He roared, and flung the dog away. The other
dog stopped, and leapt at Frankenstein. With the one fighting the other,
Carrie, Tenchi, and Reinhart were able to follow after Malus.
Malus, who had gotten far ahead of them, was standing before a door.
"It won't open!" he said. Tenchi and Reinhart looked at each other.
Lowering their shoulders, they slammed into the door, and it burst open.
Malus and Carrie went through, and they had just passed the door when
they heard the dogs barking. Looking down the row, they saw the two
creatures racing towards them, and just ahead of them, Ryo-Ohki.
"Miya! Miya! Miyaaaaa!"
"Hurry it up Ryo-Ohki!" shouted Tenchi. The cabbit hurtled through
the door, and Tenchi and Reinhart slammed the door shut, while Carrie
cast a quick incantation of locking. The door glowed a moment, and then
shook as the dogs slammed into it. It shook again, and a third time,
and then not again, even though they could still hear the dogs growling.
Ryo-Ohki fell over backwards, panting. All of them except Malus sank to
the ground, panting. Tenchi suddenly started laughing.
"What is it, Tenchi?" asked Reinhart. Tenchi looked at him.
"I just remembered what Kelberos meant. They were a pair of devil
dogs that chased and devoured any who stepped into the Maze of
Nightmares." Reinhart slapped him lightly on the shoulder.
"How about remembering that before we escape them next time?"
Carrie looked at him dryly.
"What makes you think that there will be a next time for that?"
They laughed, and stood. Carrie walked over to Malus, and led him to a
gate that stood in the hedge. Opening it, she squatted down next to him
again.
"If you go through here, you will soon find the road back to the
village. Watch out for the demons in the forest." His eyes grew wide
as he realized she wasn't coming with him.
"Can't you come with me? I'm so scared..." Carrie patted him
gently on the head, and lightly touched his cheek.
"I can't honey. I have to stay here, to find Dracula, and kill him.
Until he's gone, you and all the other children will never be safe."
Malus slowly nodded, and then dashed through the gates. Carrie watched
as he disappeared into the forest a little sadly, and then closed the
gate. Tenchi came up beside her.
"Do you think that he'll be all right alone?"
"If he doesn't stop running until he reaches the village, he should
be." They turned, and walked down the new corridor of hedges. Every
so often, they would hear the dogs growl, but they never reappeared.
Every time, Ryo-Ohki would jump nearly a foot in the air, and dash behind
Tenchi's ankle. Soon, in the middle of the path, a small stream grew,
a dark, and murky little brook. They followed it until they came to a
doorway, in a small clearing.
"Well, unless we want another jog with the mutts, the only way to go
is here," said Reinhart. He stepped forward, and opened the door. It
led to a wide set of stairs which went down, into some sort of cave.
Getting their weapons ready, they slowly entered. When the door swung
shut behind them, they looked at each other and tightened their grip on
their weapons. No one bothered trying to open the door again. They knew
it would be locked.
They walked down, into the room. Torches lined the walls, and
several beams lay half fallen from the ceiling. As they walked a little
farther into the room, they saw something else.
Three open coffins. Slowly, they approached them, and looked in.
They were all empty. Then, a liquid sound came from somewhere in the
room. Slowly, they turned, and began walking back to the center of the
room. All three were ready for the fight they knew was coming. Reinhart
watched the walls, Tenchi their backs. They jumped when the body of a
woman dropped suddenly to the floor. They looked at each other, and then
as one, turned their gaze upward. Three male vampires hung upside down
from the ceiling.
"It's very rude to interrupt a person's meal!" said one. Another
grinned, barring bloody fangs.
"Or should we think something else? Like the main dish has
arrived?" As one, the vampires dropped to the ground, claws extended.
The middle one charged Reinhart, while the others went after Carrie and
Tenchi.
"I shall kill you here, and the master will reward me when I hand
him your smoking heart, child of the Belmonts!" said the first. Reinhart
smiled grimly, and curled his finger, beckoning the creature. The
vampire screamed in rage, and dashed forward. He calmly sidestepped,
and let it impale itself on his short sword. It gasped, and Reinhart
stepped back a bit. He snapped his whip, and it wrapped around the
vampire's neck. His eyes widened. The holy whip of the Belmont's,
sensing the purity of evil in the vampire's heart, glowed white for a
moment, and suddenly the vampire melted, leaving a small pile of ash with
the short sword under it, unable to stand the touch of its light.
"Come here little girl. I'll make you young forever," called the
second vampire, its eyes locked on hers. Carrie affected a sweet face,
and took a step nearer, as if under the control of his mind power. He
smiled as she came closer and closer. Finally, just a step away, she
suddenly grabbed the rings on her dress, and whipped their razor sharp
edges across his face. He staggered back, black blood pouring from his
sliced out eyes, screaming in pain.
"Come here, little vampire, I'll put you out of my misery!" A blast
of magic, and it too dissolved to a pile of ash. She turned to Reinhart,
who was in turn staring at Tenchi.
"Even if you did make it to the Lord of Evil, he would shred your
soul without even thinking of it!" said the vampire. Tenchi stabbed
at him with his sword, but the vampire blocked the attack with his claws.
"Tell me where he took Ryoko!" growled Tenchi. He flipped backwards
as the vampire swiped at him with his claws, smoothly avoiding the
attack, and countering with a cross-slash that the vampire had to throw
himself backward to avoid.
"Ryoko? I do not know of any Ryoko, although the master has had a
new pet in the last few days. The scent of her blood alone is enough
to throw any of the lesser vampires into a frenzy. There is something
special about her. Maybe if I kill you, the master will allow me a
taste."
With a wordless roar, Tenchi leapt forward, and the vampire surged
forward as well. Carrie saw a flash of light, and then Tenchi and the
vampire were past each other. Tenchi-ken's blade disappeared,
as Tenchi looked up.
The vampire stood where he was a moment, and then began to laugh.
Suddenly, a razor thin line of bluish light appeared at his midsection,
and he screamed. The light extended in both directions, chasing up past
his chest, and falling down through his legs. As the light reached
his neck, it looked at them.
"You shall never defeat Dracula! Never!!! Master! I come! I
cooooome!!!" With a final flash, the vampire disappeared, not even a bit
of ash left to mark its passing. Tenchi hooked his sword to his belt,
and then winced. As he turned to them, they saw why. Three lines had
been drawn in red across his chest, all of which were now bleeding.
"Tenchi! You're hurt!" exclaimed Carrie, running over to him. She
had him shrug out of his coat and shirt. Reinhart looked at the cuts.
"You must have still had a little luck left. They aren't deep,
barely even scratches, and I see no signs of vampiric contamination."
Carrie pulled some bandages out of her pack, and they dressed the wound,
while Tenchi sat quietly. He let out a slight grunt when Reinhart
tightened the bandage and tied it off, but aside from that, he made no
complaint. As they wrapped the bandages, none of them noticed as the
woman slowly got to her feet. They were all startled when a bright red
beam flashed across the room and struck the woman, flinging her across
the chamber. With a flash of purple flame, the woman's short life as a
vampire came to an end. Ryo-Ohki came out from the shadows she had been
hiding in.
"Ryo-Ohki... You scared the daylights out of us," said Tenchi,
scratching her on the head.
"Not the daylights, Tenchi," reprimanded Carrie severely. "Never
the daylight in this place." He nodded, understanding.
"What did he say about Ryoko?" Tenchi looked at the bandage,
and muttered something about 'doesn't have a mark on Mayuka.' Then he
looked up at them.
"He said that he didn't know who she was, but that the 'Master'
had a new pet. Now I'm more worried than ever." Reinhart nodded, but
Carrie pressed with her question.
"Why?" Tenchi looked away.
"Remember that I told you that she was controlled by Kagato? He
forced her to do many, many bad things. Planets were destroyed,
civilizations ruined. My Grandfather's home planet, Jurai, was nearly
destroyed. That was why he followed her to earth.
"After I freed her, Kagato returned, and once again took control
of her. I was killed, and she finally escaped. After Tsunami, Jurai's
tree of light, brought me back to life, I killed Kagato. But ever since,
she's been absolutely terrified that someone would take control of her
again. She tried to hide it - she never wants to admit that she's afraid
of something - but we could all tell," he answered. Standing, he looked
at his shirt a little ruefully, and said that Ayeka would probably
kill him for getting the shirt she had given him for Christmas ruined.
Especially trying to save Ryoko. Sighing, he pulled it on, and then
pulled on his coat too.
They looked around the chamber, but it seemed like a true dead end.
Ryo-Ohki started sniffing around, and slowly moved to the center coffin.
She plopped down before it and miyaed very loudly. Tenchi looked up.
"What did you find?"
"Miya miya miya!" Tenchi looked at Reinhart and Carrie.
"She said that she can smell something under the coffin." They
walked over to it, and, as one, heaved. It slid a little. With one more
push, they shoved it off the base. Below it, a dark hole sat, large
enough for three people to fit into at once. A foul smell rose from it,
of refuse left too long.
"I'm starting to pick up on a theme here," said Tenchi.
"Only way out is down," answered Carrie.
"I think we're letting this place get us down into the dumps,"
quipped Reinhart. Tenchi and Carrie groaned, and they jumped into the
hole.
*****
Blood Red Moon Part 5: Tragedy in R
"Come here." She stood, and walked over to the ancient vampire.
Ryoko was able to pull herself a little bit out of the terror, just
enough to listen, and watch. Her silent sobbing had gone on for hours
now, but each time, she had managed to force herself to listen when the
bearded man called, managed to drag herself out of the terror she was in
for a short time. The ancient vampire looked over her lewdly, and then
turned, picking up a bottle from the table behind him.
"I know that you can hear me in there, see through her eyes. The
Chains of Dracula are insidius in that way... And ahh, the delicious
suffering that I can sense that you are in. What a nice surprise,
your fear of being controled, of being alone, trapped. So savory...
But the Master's gift must remain pure, so I can not... taste you. A
pity, I have not scented such a beautiful nectar in centuries. But to
the point." He stood, and walked around her. Ryoko's body continued
to stare straight ahead, although what was really her pounded and beat
at her invisible prison.
"It is quite an interesting developement. The boy, a fighter for
the light... But ah, I suppose that I can't really tell you. You might
try something rash, confined as you are. I shall wait to see this
develop, and you shall continue to serve me in every way, until the
Master comes." He handed her the bottle, and ordered her to drink the
liquid. Ryoko recoiled from the vile taste of it, even as her body
gulped it down.
"I don't know why your demonic abilities have been blocked off, but
that should release them. You will be of more use to the master with all
your powers than none." As the taste finally faded from her mind, she
realized that she could feel the power flowing into her from the gem once
again. The return of it to her held small comfort, though, as the
vampire turned, and headed toward an adjoining room.
"Come now, then. The day approaches, and I must rest." Ryoko's
body followed him, and slowly, Ryoko felt herself slipping back into the
terror, no matter how hard she tried to stay out of it, clawing and
screaming at the invisible walls holding her in her own mind.
*****
"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. They 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?" Carrie 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.
"Love to stay for a bite ma'am, but we've got a ride to catch!"
called Reinhart. 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 a 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. You always told me that it was your destiny to face him."
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, smiling without humor. "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.
*****
Blood Red Moon Part 6: Castle Center
Tenchi and Carrie entered the castle proper after Actrise
disappeared. Slowly, they explored their new surroundings. There were
no cob-webs here, the metal was polished and clean. Heavy metal girders
formed the most of the place, with supports sprinkled around. The first
room that they found was locked, and marked Torture Chamber.
"Do you hear that?" asked Carrie suddenly. Tenchi listened,
and heard the rhythmic clicking of footsteps approaching. He placed
his finger to his mouth, and she nodded. Tenchi raised his sword, and
brought the blade to life. The footsteps drew closer, until suddenly,
Tenchi darted around the corner and sliced down.
"A little tense, Tenchi?" asked Reinhart lightly. Lightly
considering that the edge of Tenchi's blade was roughly one millimeter
away from slicing his nose down the middle. Tenchi laughed, and let the
blade disappear. Carrie hugged him, while Ryo-Ohki jumped up to Tenchi's
shoulder. She sniffed at Tenchi for a moment, and looked uncertain,
but eventually settled down.
"What happened to your ear?" asked Carrie, noticing that Reinhart's
right ear was one big scab. Reinhart chuckled, and gave Ryo-Ohki a
little pat on the head.
"Long story. Suffice to say that Ryo-Ohki makes a damn fine alarm
clock, even if the method is a little painful."
"Miya!" Rejoined, they continued to explore the place. They came
to one double door, and went through it. Inside was a huge chamber,
what looked like an arena of some kind. In the center, a ram seven times
the biggest Tenchi had ever seen lay dead. Past it, they saw a badly
cracked way, but there was a circle filled with hundreds of symbols.
Carrie walked up a little closer, and spoke a short chant. The circle
began to glow a deep purple.
"It's a seal of power that I have never seen before. There's
nothing that I can do that would even scratch it."
"I'd bet that a good blast would knock that wall under it down,"
said Reinhart.
"10-1 odds on what that seal is there to protect against," answered
Tenchi. They turned, and walked back to the door they came through.
Backtracking, they turned down a different corridor, and found another
door. Shrugging, they opened it, and were attacked by three vampires.
Five minutes and three ash piles later, they went up the stairs
across the room. This new door opened into a room with a large, heavy
duty lift in the middle, and assorted gears and pulleys around it. On
one side of the room, there were several huge storage tanks, and on the
other, a tall statue of a beautiful, winged, nude woman. It was
exquisitely crafted, down to the last detail, a fact which made Reinhart
and Tenchi a little uneasy.
Carrie walked up to it, to take a closer look. As she approached
it, blood suddenly started to well from her eyes. Just a few drops at
first, but then a stream which ran down the statue's front. Carrie
backed away as it poured off the pedestal the statue stood on, and flowed
straight for her.
The pool of blood stretched and grew, taking on a man-like shape.
It leaned back, and she jumped backward as it spit a gob of blood at her.
It landed on the floor with a sizzle. She charged up a magic blast,
and fired it, but the blood man just dropped back into a pool of blood,
and the shot went high.
"Hey, how about some help here!" she called, as the thing attacked
again. Reinhart came running from the other side of the room, where they
had been inspecting the tanks. Reinhart tried whipping it, but the whip
merely splashed through the blood. It spit another blood gob at him, and
this time she noticed that it seemed a little smaller.
"Let it attack you!" she shouted. Reinhart looked at her in
surprise, but let it waste a shot, dancing back and fourth into and out
of its range. With each shot, it became a little smaller. Finally,
when it was roughly three quarters the size it started at, it plopped
down into a pool form. Slowly, the blood drained away.
"That was... unusual," said Reinhart. Carrie shrugged.
"You just can't get good help in Hell these days." Reinhart stared
at her in surprise.
"You know, I think that's the first time I've ever heard you make
a joke?" She shrugged again, and went over to the statue again,
inspecting it. Under the blood, there was a metal plate. It was badly
scratched, but the beginning of it was readable.
"Gold is the color of Venus, sec-" That was all she could read.
She turned to Reinhart, and was about to say something when they heard
Tenchi shout in pain. Looking at each other, they ran over to him.
Tenchi was laying on the floor, curled into a ball, but he was crying
aloud, and convulsions wracked his body. Reinhart knelt next to him, and
touched his shoulder. Tenchi screamed as Reinhart came in contact with
him. He jumped back as if scalded.
Slowly, the convulsions stopped, and Tenchi unfolded himself,
slowly pushing himself to his feet.
Carrie gasped when Tenchi looked at her. Very dimly, his eyes had
begun to glow.
"Oh no," she said softly.
*****
"It's gone too long," said Reinhart quietly. "The purifying
crystals won't work." Tenchi stared at him dully. "I don't understand
how it infected you so quickly from just a scratch."
"Fairly simple, I would think. You live in a world with vampires,
which means that you have a natural resistance to their curse. I don't,
so there was nothing to slow it down." Reinhart nodded. The logic was
cold, hard, and simple.
It was also all but a death sentence for Tenchi.
"Well Tenchi, it's up to you. There's nothing that I can do to slow
it down. At this rate, you will be a vampire by nightfall." He looked
at Reinhart and Carrie both.
"I swore that I wouldn't stop until I saved Ryoko, and damn it I
won't." Tenchi clenched his fist. Carrie and Reinhart looked at each
other.
"There's another problem, Tenchi. The further the virus takes you,
the easier it will be for Dracula to take control of you." Tenchi looked
at him.
"Reinhart, you've just told me we have less than one day until I
become a vampire. We don't have time to add worries. We have to get
moving." Grabbing his shirt and coat, he strode toward the ramp that led
to the next level. They exchanged another uneasy look, and followed
him.
"Two doors," he said when they reached the next floor. "Let's split
up. I'll go this way, you go through the other door," directed Tenchi.
Neither Reinhart or Carrie really thought about arguing, and when Tenchi
set Ryo-Ohki on the floor, they understood what he was trying to do.
Separate himself from them.
*****
"How could it have happened, Reinhart?" asked Carrie as they walked
through the passage. He shrugged, uncomfortable.
"I don't know Carrie. It shouldn't have, certainly never gotten
as far as it is without one of us noticing the symptoms in time to purify
him." They moved slowly through the lit corridors, which were lined with
suits of golden armor, and had red carpeting.
"Miya?" Carrie bent to pick up Ryo-Ohki and stroke her fur.
"I don't know, Ryo-Ohki. We've never seen the curse spread so fast
before."
"Miya..."
"You know, he loves Ryoko," said Reinhart suddenly. Carrie looked
at him wryly.
"I'm curious, but have you only just figured that out? You can see
it in his eyes, hear it in his voice when he talks about her." Reinhart
shrugged.
"In any event, I think that might be enough to help him hold it off.
The curse, I mean. You've seen it, haven't you? He's so determined
to do it... I don't think that I'd want to be standing in his way," he
said, and Carrie looked at him.
"I hope he can hold on, Reinhart. Because if Dracula does get
control of Tenchi, you and I both won't be able to stop him." Reinhart
stopped, and looked at her, a grim look on his face. He knew what she
meant, if not in the same way. Reinhart had seen Tenchi's eyes when
Ryoko had first been taken too. If that rage could be turned and
directed to something else, nothing would be able to stop Tenchi, let
alone Dracula.
*****
Tenchi moved down the hallway, lost deeply in thought. In less than
eight hours, he would be a vampire. Raising his hands and noticing
the more and more pale tones, he realized that he probably already was
partly. The thing was, he found that he wasn't as worried about that as
he should have been. He knew that somehow, he'd end up making it
through, just like he always did.
What did worry him was the seething anger he could feel building
within him. Tenchi was almost never as mad as the rage he could feel
rising deep within. And the more he thought about Ryoko, about what was
happening around him, the more the fury built. Tenchi didn't want to
know what would happen when it finally burst through. And he knew that
it would. No matter what calming techniques he tried, no matter what
exercises he did, it kept rising.
Tenchi followed along the hallway, ignoring most of the doors that
he saw. For some reason, he knew where he was going.
When he opened the door and found two vampires waiting, a little
of the rage seething within him bubbled over. Drawing Tenchi-ken
in a flowing movement, he proceeded to slice the vampires into little
cubes. Faster than what should have been possible, Tenchi carved the
vampires to pieces. When he finally forced himself to stop, all that was
left were scattered chunks of all ready rotting flesh.
Tenchi didn't realize it, but he had already gained a vampire's
speed and snake-like grace. Added to his own already incredible
speed and precision, there was very little that would be able to stand
in his way.
*****
Reinhart and Carrie returned to the room with the blood statue with
a very precious cargo. A small bottle of Magical Nitro, deadly unstable.
They slowly carried it into the arena room, and set it before the wall.
With it safely out of their hands, they backed up.
"If what that poor soul told us was true, than when this explodes,
it will knock down the wall. But we need to disable the seal," said
Reinhart.
In the chambers above, they had found what they at first thought
was one of the evil denizens of the castle. A creature that was a lizard
with the size and the shape of a man. It came as a great surprise
when he had begged them not to kill him, as he was a human, that had been
changed into that terrible form.
He had told them on a strange product that could only be made in the
castle, called Magical Nitro. When hit by a blast of power, it set off
a huge explosion, powerful enough to knock most anything down. Telling
them where to find the Nitro, he had wished them luck.
When they found the Magical Nitro, they had also found Malus. The
Nitro was stored in a room with two entry ways and a shelf that ran the
length of the room. They were on one side, and Malus was on the other.
"Malus! What are you doing here? I thought you had escaped this
place!" Malus looked at her, surprised.
"Escape? This place?? Why?" The boy had shaken his head then,
and asked them if they had come to kill Dracula, avenge his friends
and parents. When they had sworn to do so, his demeanor had changed
suddenly. He had told them that it was not possible, and that all had to
bow down before the dark lord. That the entire world would be taken to a
place where the accursed light would never again shed its painful embrace
upon them. After that, he had run away, leaving them to wonder after
him, and what he had been saying.
Carefully, Carrie had carried the highly unstable Nitro, while
Reinhart fended off the attackers that seemed to pop out of the wood
work. Once, she almost tripped, but at the last second caught herself.
If she had of, the mixture would have exploded, destroying most of the
room, not to mention them.
While they were still trying to decide what to do about the seal,
an orb of light floated by them, and into the center of the seal. A disk
of light began to blaze forth, as the disk expanded to cover the whole
seal. When it died off, the seal was gone. They looked at each other,
and laughed.
"Tenchi!" they both said at the same time. Ryo-Ohki hopped down
from Carries shoulder. She lined up with the bottle, and fired a beam
of red light at it. The Nitro exploded, the concussion blast throwing
them all backwards, nearly to the dead ram. When the dust settled,
there was a great hole where the wall had been, behind which a gigantic
crystal floated, and around it, hordes of treasure.
Looking at each other and grinning, they jogged over towards it.
Only mildly surprised were they when Tenchi suddenly raced into the room.
He covered the distance between the door and them in almost no time at
all. Reinhart recognized that Tenchi had already gained the vampire's
speed, which meant that the curse was spreading still faster than he had
thought.
"Nice of you to join us, Tenchi." He smiled grimly, and Reinhart
swallowed slightly when he saw the very tips of two fangs poking out from
Tenchi's mouth. The curse was spreading very, very much faster than he
had thought, and he wondered if the rage had yet begun building in him.
The vampire's rage was the second to last step in becoming a
vampire. As the peak of the curse approached, a burning, insatiable
rage began to build. When the curse finally took true hold of the
victim, the rage that had been building exploded, and the new vampire
went into a crazed bloodlust. Anything near it almost inevitably
died. He signaled Carrie over, and quietly told her. She nodded, and
looked at Tenchi with pity, but told him she would watch for signs of it.
They moved toward the crystal. Carrie studied it for a moment,
and then dug through the gold and jewels, until she revealed a smaller
version of the huge crystal.
"The magic of the crystal there is blocked by the one here," she
said. "I'm going to release it, so be ready for anything." She touched
her hands to the crystal, and muttered a short incantation. It glowed
brightly for a moment, and then the huge one began to brighten and darken
in a slow, steady tempo. Before they left the little enclosure,
they looked through the rest of the gold and jewels. Carrie found one of
Renon's contracts.
"I wonder if he would know of a way to cure Tenchi?" asked Reinhart
suddenly. They looked at the contract. "Only one way to find out, I
guess." Reinhart leaned down, and touched the contract.
"Good afternoon." They all jumped in surprise as Renon spoke.
Turning, they saw the demon standing just behind them, briefcase in hand.
"May I help you?"
Tenchi stepped forward, and Renon shook his head.
"My my, and so young too. The transformation is nearly complete,
ah, Tenchi, if I have my Japanese right. Ah, well, I'm afraid that this
place does have a tendency to do that to a person." Reinhart cleared
his throat.
"We want to know if there is anything that you know of that could
help him, or even a fully transformed vampire," he said. Renon looked
at him slyly, and Reinhart understood that the demon salesman knew.
"Well, as I said, I deal in useful things, and sometimes more. I
suppose that I could sell information. But it would be costly."
Reinhart swept his hand across the treasure they stood on. Renon
frowned, and looked at them.
"Are you sure that you wish to pay for my services using this?"
They all nodded, and so Renon sighed, and snapped his fingers. Several
chairs appeared, and he motioned them to sit.
"It is said that, though light kills vampires, that a pure light,
one that does not come from the sun, nor from any other normal light
source, can push out the curse, even if it has fully taken over a body.
"Now, it isn't too clear as to just how this light is produced.
Some demons say that it can't be made, others whisper of a time just
before Chaos when it existed. One thing is certain, though. Though
this light may cure a relatively new vampire, I'd say no more than a
month old, an extremely old one, such as Dracula, it might, and I say
might, might permanently erase."
The three of them looked at each other. The task seemed impossible,
and once again Tenchi found himself resigned to his fate, and that the
rage continued to build. Renon stood, and looked at his watch.
"If there is nothing else that you will be needing me for?" He
backed away a little, and paused. "One more piece of advice for you.
Remember well that nothing here is as it seems."
"What's the price for that?" asked Carrie. Renon smiled.
"On the house, my dear." With that, he disappeared. They looked
at each other uneasily, and then moved toward the exit. Ryo-Ohki looked
at Tenchi for a moment, and then leapt up onto Carrie's shoulder.
Tenchi glanced at the cabbit, ruefully.
"I don't blame you, Ryo-Ohki. I wouldn't want to ride on a
vampire's shoulder either." Exiting the room, they backtracked,
and went into the room where the three vampires had met them.
"Rosa!" exclaimed Carrie and Reinhart at the same time. The young
woman stood in the middle of the room, holding a long sword, looking
at the ground.
"I see that you didn't take my advice, Master Tenchi, and were
infected. I hope that you can accept life as a vampire," she said.
Tenchi looked away, his hand curled into a fist. "Do you still intend
to go to fight Dracula?" All three answered yes at the same time.
Rosa looked up at them, then, sadly.
"I had hoped you would have changed your mind by now, would have
come to your senses and gone back to enjoy what was left of your lives.
But Dracula is my master, and he gives me no choice." She raised the
sword. Carrie and Tenchi both understood, and sadly raised their weapons.
"No!" shouted Reinhart. He stepped forward, putting his hand out.
"Do not fight her."
"Reinhart?" asked Carrie. He looked at her for a moment, and
finally she nodded, stepping back. Tenchi fell into a crouch, with his
head between his knees. She put a hand on his shoulder, and he gripped
it with his own. She knew that he was fighting his own battle.
Reinhart stepped forward, and unfurled his whip.
"Please Rosa, don't make me fight you. I swore to you that I'd find
a way." She looked at him, with tears in her eyes.
"I have no choice, Reinhart," she said softly, raising the sword.
Reinhart took his stance for battle, and they faced off. Rosa was the
first to strike. She thrust forward with the blade, and he dodged to the
side, snapping the whip as he did. The lash took her on the shoulder,
and he winced as he heard her cry out. Back and forth they battled,
Reinhart feeling every blow that he landed on her form two fold.
Finally, Rosa fell to her knees, and dropped the sword. Looking
up at him with tears shimmering unshed in her eyes, she begged him
without words to finish her. Slowly, Reinhart's hand came up, but before
he struck, he dropped the whip from his hand.
"No. I cannot. God help me, but I can not strike her down, though
it is by my blood that I must." Suddenly, the air behind her darkened,
and became a tall figure. It wore a long black robe, and a pair of black
wings extended from his back. His face was a skull. In his hands, a
long, curved sickle.
"Death." The specter laughed, and floated a little 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,
the sound of dry bones snapping, of ancient gods weeping.
"My old friend commanded me to not destroy you yet. A sign of
respect to his ancient foes, the Belmonts." With that, Old Grim floated
back, and laid his hand on Rosa's shoulder.
"He is not yet done with this one, so I can not let you have her.
We shall meet again, son of the Belmonts." Laughing again, he
disappeared, taking Rosa with him, her eyes still full of tears, still
pleading, and now accusing. As her form faded completely, Reinhart
fell to one knee, his fist pressed into the ground.
Carrie patted Tenchi's back, and then pulled her other hand from his
grip, and walked out to where Reinhart knelt.
"You could have no more killed her than I could have killed my
mother, or Tenchi kill Ryoko. You'll get your chance to save her," she
said. He looked at her.
"She should never have been here in the first place. This is twice
I've failed her," he said, but he retrieved his whip, and stood. Tenchi
joined them, and Ryo-Ohki followed at their heels as they walked up the
steps to the room with the stone goddess in it.
"Actrise!" shouted Carrie. The witch stood in the center of the
room, dressed in the same gray as before.
"Have you thought over you choice? Although I see the young man has
made up his mind, hasn't he?" Carrie touched Tenchi's shoulder, and he
nodded. She stepped forward.
"Never. Never will I submit to Dracula, not today nor a thousand
years from now, just as no Fernandez ever has, just as Tenchi has not.
You know nothing witch." Actrise laughed.
"Such rudeness in a young girl is unbecoming, but I am not your
enemy today." She turned toward a dark corner. "It seems that you know
less than you think." Carrie looked into the corner, and suddenly
felt it. A power that matched her own in every sense of the word.
"She was a Fernandez too, a warrior who came long before you to
fight Dracula." Actrise turned her gaze back to Carrie, and smiled
darkly. "We took her alive, and turned her into a vampire. Ah, she
struggled deliciously so at first, but now she is like all others, hungry
only for the sweet taste of the blood." Actrise disappeared, and the
Fernandez vampire came forward.
Carrie grimly raised her hand, as did the vampire. Then, the magic
battle began. They fired blasts back and forth at each other, some of
which exploded against shields, some of which exploded against another
blast. Magic spells flew faster than the eye could follow, and the whole
room began to tingle with the power.
After throwing everything in her knowledge, and even inventing
a few attacks as the battle progressed, Carrie could feel her stores
of magic beginning to fail. With her last ounces of strength, she
created one huge blast, pouring everything she had into it, even letting
her shield die off. The magic sphere was nearly as big as her, and she
felt like she was about to burst at the seams with the immense power she
held.
With one last heave of energy, she fired the ball forward. The
vampire turned her attention to stopping it, but Carrie already knew it
was to late. The energy blast smashed through the vampire's shield,
and threw the woman across the room. Slowly, she got to her feet, and
took a step forward. Carrie stared in amazement as she walked forward,
and to Carrie. She could do nothing. The last blast had totally drained
her.
The vampire leaned down, and whispered softly, "Thank you, sister."
Then, she slowly dissolved away into some kind of glittering dust which
blew away, even though there was no wind in the room.
Carrie collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
*****
Blood Red Moon Part 7: The Transformation
Tenchi approached Carrie as she fell to the ground, reacting on
instinct. It was just before he reached her that he realized that the
instinct was the one to try to drink a hypnotized creature's blood. He
forced himself to pull up short, and look away, pushing down the impulse
with disgust. Reinhart came to stand next to him, and Tenchi felt the
now familiar pain he had begun to feel whenever the vampire hunter stood
near him. He supposed that it was Reinhart's... no, Tenchi reflected,
it was probably not best to think about blood. Reinhart's line, from
what he had told Tenchi, had battled vampires almost since they had first
appeared, using a power that was carried on by each member of the family.
It sounded something like the Jurai power, just not as strong.
"Reinhart... You had better carry her... I don't think that it
would be a good idea for me to," he said. Reinhart looked at him
sideways, but nodded, understanding. Reinhart bent to pick her up, and
she murmured something quietly. He shushed her, and stood, Carrie in his
arms. They walked to the lift in the center of the room, and found that
it now worked. Tenchi pushed the button in, and the platform came down
the shaft.
"That crystal must have been sealing the magic that operates this,"
said Reinhart. Tenchi nodded, and they got on, Ryo-Ohki jumping in just
as the gate closed. Slowly, the lift ascended. Tenchi stood quietly,
yet as the time stretched out, slowly, he began to hear something.
Just out of earshot at first, it grew louder, a steady thump-thumping.
As the sound became clearer, he realized that it wasn't one sound, but
three distinct ones- the first, steady, and powerful, the second,
quieter, but with a faster tempo. The third was a constant thumping,
almost no stop between one beat and the next. It was a strange sound,
yet he could feel it calling him.
Tenchi looked around, wondering at the source of the sound. As his
eyes fell on Reinhart and the others, he noticed that the sound became
its strongest. Tenchi shook his head, but the sound only became louder.
With a start, Tenchi realized what it was he heard. Their heartbeats.
Tenchi closed his eyes, and slowly pushed the sound out of his mind. The
lift shuddered to a stop, and they stepped out. They were in a roughly
circular room, with four side passages leading off of it. In the center
of the room, a tall double door stood, with four locks. Tenchi walked
over, and looked out the window. Outside, the sun was just going down.
He squinted, as it struck his eyes, and grunted slightly in pain.
The sun slid under the horizon, and Tenchi had the strange feeling
that it might be the last time he'd ever see it, rising or setting.
"Each corridor leads to one of the corner towers of the clock. In
each tower, keys to unlock the center door. Once that is open, nothing
stands in our way of getting to Dracula," said Reinhart. He looked down
as Carrie opened her eyes, and looked around. "Feeling better?"
"Much. I just needed to sleep a little to recharge my reserves."
He set her down lightly, and she stretched. "How long was I out?"
"Not very. We're almost to the tower peak," answered Reinhart.
Tenchi stepped toward one of the doors.
"We'd best get moving. I'll look down here. Why don't you -"
Carrie shook her head.
"No Tenchi. We're coming with you. You've been there to help us
when we needed it, now it's time to return the favor." Tenchi looked
at them for a moment, and then nodded. He recognized the look in
Carrie's eyes. Ryoko got it whenever she made up her mind to do
something - which was quite often. He pushed down the inevitable
surge of anger at the thought of her being trapped
They entered the first corridor, and began slowly looking around.
It was a long hallway, lined with doors, and from somewhere they heard
howls that made their hair stand on end. Werewolves. One by one, they
began to check the doors. Some led to empty, black space, a true void,
while others tempted with visions of paradise, rolling green fields with
creatures of great beauty running in them.
"Traps, all. If you were to step into them, you'd fall until you
died of hunger, but your body would never land," said Reinhart. Carrie
shivered, and stepped back from one that opened into a small village,
with children running and laughing in the sun-lit streets.
Tenchi wasn't sure when it started. If it was as the hallway that
they were in seemed to stretch onto eternity, or if it was when he opened
a door and saw his home, in perfect detail, with Ayeka and Ryoko both
waving him toward them, Sasami looking out the window, and Mihoshi as
usual crashing her ship into the lake. Somewhere, the rage that had been
building in him suddenly began to bubble over the top.
He slammed the door shut, and looked at Reinhart and Carrie, and
suddenly he could hear their hearts beating loud again. Ryo-Ohki turned,
and looked at him, and hissed loudly, drawing Reinhart and Carrie's
attention. They looked at him, and their eyes widened, which only made
the fury rage harder, and boil over more
"Oh my god... It's happening," breathed Carrie. She looked at
Reinhart, who nodded. She turned, scooped up Ryo-Ohki, and began to run
as fast as she could.
*****
Reinhart stared as Tenchi bent over, clutching his hands to his
stomach. A loud scream escaped his lips, and the last of the color in
Tenchi's skin disappeared.
"Tenchi! Listen to me!" he shouted. He saw Tenchi slowly force
himself to look up at him, his eyes blazing crimson in the dark corridor.
"You're experiencing the Rage, the final step. You have to hold on.
Before it will stop, a terrible blood lust will come upon you. Carrie
and I will lead you to those werewolves."
Tenchi nodded just a little, and Reinhart turned and began to run
after Carrie. He made a little distance before Tenchi's screams of pain
were suddenly cut off, to be replaced by a new sound. The sound of
footsteps that seemed to come too fast for them to be natural. Reinhart
ran a little faster, and saw Carrie slow to let him catch up. He risked
a look behind himself, and saw Tenchi, almost flying towards him, his
face contorted into a mixture of pain and sheer fury, hot enough to seer
the flesh off a person.
"Fight it Tenchi! We're almost there!" shouted Reinhart, as he and
Carrie ran down the corridor. Tenchi ran behind them, his eyes blazing
red in the dim light of the corridor. Tenchi's fangs stood out from his
mouth, and sweat was pouring down his face.
Reinhart knew that even Tenchi's will power could not hold him back
much longer. If they didn't find a room that had some werewolves
in it, Tenchi would rip him, Carrie, and Ryo-Ohki apart in the bloodlust
that marked his final transformation into a vampire.
The sound of the wolf men drew closer, louder. They saw the
corridor come to a sharp halt ahead of them, with a single double door
set into the wall. The howls came from behind there. With a final
lunge, he grabbed the handle, and yanked it open, as Carrie flattened
herself against the wall. Tenchi flashed by, a blood-curdling
howl of rage escaping his lips. He dove into the room, and Reinhart
slammed the door shut. They slid to the ground, shuddering as they heard
first the roars of the werewolves, and then, slowly, growing, the yelps
of terror.
*****
The vampire saw the man stop, and open the door, and the last piece
of his mind that was Tenchi forced him to go through it, instead of
ripping the humans to shreds. He landed inside the room, one knee
touching the ground, his arms clutched around his body, facing down. The
pack of wolf-men that were waiting in the room looked at him. They
smelled something a little strange about this man, but the scent of blood
was all too clear, and they had not had fresh meat in a long time, only
the scraps that the serving vampires brought to them now and again.
The alpha of the pack howled, and they leapt forward. The vampire
felt them coming closer, but remained where he was, as the rage pushed
higher and higher. Closer, and closer, until they all leapt forward,
ready to tear him to shreds.
They thought that an easy meal had come to them.
They were wrong.
He was the one who had come to the easy meal.
The vampire leapt up, somersaulting up and over the werewolves.
They crashed into one another, and were quite surprised to find that
there was nobody there. Jumping straight up, he grabbed onto the
ceiling, his razor sharp claws sliding into the stone it was made of like
it was merely paper. The wolves looked around, sniffing at an air gone
suddenly empty of scent. The vampire crawled along the ceiling, until
he was above the heaviest group of them.
He dropped down, his claws stretched out to kill. Landing on one,
he reached around and ripped its throat out, and laughed with glee as the
feeling of warm blood bubbled onto his hand. Using his first victim's
back as a spring board, he pushed off, flipping forward, and ripping
through two more of the werewolves, blood spraying all over him. One
yelped as it died, and he thrust his claws through its eyes, ripping
up and out, shredding its skull.
Two of the werewolves leapt at him, claws out. He back flipped,
and then charged forward, lashing out with his own claws. Another two
fell to the ground, one with its head only attached to its shoulders
by a thin flap of skin, the other with a hole in its chest where its
heart had been. The vampire brought the heart to his lips, and took a
deep bite out of it. Throwing down what was left of it, he looked around
for more victims.
Another one leapt on his back, his claws ripping and shredding.
The vampire reached back, and grasped its head. With a sharp pull, and
the sweet sound of ripping flesh, the head came free. The vampire threw
the head at the werewolf that was springing toward him. It instinctively
caught it, the werewolf's last mistake. He rushed forward, before it had
the chance to recover, and proceeded to slice it into ribbons with his
claws, tearing off its arms, then its legs, and finally freeing it from
its life by disemboweling it with a swipe of his claws.
A lone werewolf was left, the alpha of the pack. Seeing what was
left of his once powerful pack, he backed away from the vampire. The
vampire smiled, and reached out with his mind, mentally stroking the
werewolf's pleasure centers. It shook its head at first, but slowly
calmed, and came to the vampire. He walked in a dream, where he had been
freed of his lycanthropy, and being controlled by Dracula, walking
towards a bright light.
When the vampire bit down, his fangs sliding easily into the
werewolf's neck and finding the vein which pulsed with its lifeblood,
it felt nothing, not even the rush of Death coming to claim it. The
vampire sucked hungrily at the red nectar, stained as it was from the
evil in the wolf-man.
When the corpse was drained, the vampire let it drop to the ground,
and was surprised to find that the incredible rage was gone, replaced
by a strange, empty feeling. The bloodlust was still there, but was
sated for the moment.
"So, the boy has finally accepted his fate."
The vampire turned, as mist formed behind him and drew into the form
of the bearded man. In a deep corner of its mind, he felt something
push lightly, and in another, a tiny, weakly flickering flame danced
on the edge of going out. He said nothing, as the ancient vampire
approached him. He wanted to bask in the flow of evil that poured out
from the man, but somehow, that tiny, flickering, nearly dead flame kept
him from quite enjoying it.
"Come to me, Tenchi. You belong to me now. Serve me, and I shall
give you your Ryoko, to do with as you please." Tenchi. Ryoko. They
sounded familiar, for some reason, and at their mention, the little flame
stopped flickering, began to burn a little more evenly. The pushing
sensation increased too, and he took a step forward. The vampire shook
his head, confused. He knew that he had a greater purpose, and that it
didn't lay with this man. The flame burned a little stronger. The elder
vampire smirked.
"So they still have a hold on you, after all. Don't worry, the son
of the Belmonts and the Fernandez child will be taken care of soon
enough," he said. The vampire frowned, and the flame died down just a
little as he took another step forward. Slowly, he began to reach his
hand out, toward the ancient vampire.
"Miya?"
The vampire stopped, and turned his head toward the door. A small,
furry creature had poked its head through the door, and then came the
rest of the way in. The vampire shook his head again, as the flame began
to burn a little brighter again, growing within his mind. The pressure
on the other side grew too, and he could feel himself being pressed
between the two forces. The furry creature walked toward them, looking
at the vampire, and for some reason, he just couldn't pull his eyes away.
Memory scratched at the edge of his mind, but stayed just out of reach.
A bolt of energy flashed out from behind him, and the little
creature hopped backwards to avoid it. The vampire stared at it, and its
gaze pressed into him. The flame grew bigger, raging within him, and
slowly, the pushing sensation in his mind faded.
As if a flood gate broke open, images started to pour into his mind.
A short girl with freckles and a ready smile, always laughing. An older,
purple haired one, who held a regal bearing but had a temper like a bull.
A tall, tanned skin blonde, who always seemed to be messing up. An old
man, his hair white, but with reflexes faster than any vampire. And on
top of it all, a cyan haired woman with golden eyes, and love seated
so deep that she didn't know how to show it. The flame exploded into a
raging fire, and he heard a shout behind him.
Tenchi turned to see the bearded man holding a hand, burned black.
His hand went to Tenchi-ken, and he brought it up, the blade hissing
to life.
"You!" he shouted. The man looked at him, rage dancing in his eyes.
"No one can resist the curse! It's not possible!"
"Tell me where you took Ryoko!" yelled Tenchi, charging at him. The
vampire floated aside, but Tenchi twisted, and drew a long line down his
shoulder. With a shout of pain, the vampire grabbed his shoulder and
turned himself into mist.
"If you want to find Ryoko, than you'll have to come to me, at the
top of the tower."
"Come back here, demon!" shouted Tenchi, leaping for the mist and
slashing down, but the mist was gone before he got there.
*****
Carrie looked at Reinhart, as the sounds of the werewolves being
killed came to an end. They slowly stood, and backed away from the door.
Only Ryo-Ohki stayed. She sniffed at the door a moment, and then miyaed.
Carrie watched in amazement as the furry little creature walked straight
through the door.
"No, Ryo-Ohki! Don't go in there!" But it was too late. The
cabbit was already through. She looked at Reinhart again for a moment.
They slowly turned, and began to reach for the doors.
Before they got close, the doors suddenly burst open, and light
flooded out. A figure stood, silhouetted by the dawn's light flooding
in through the windows. Carrie and Reinhart shielded their eyes against
it, but couldn't see who it was. The figure walked forward, and the
doors closed behind him.
"Tenchi!" exclaimed Carrie. Somehow, his clothing had changed.
The coat, shirt, and pants were gone, replaced by a strange brown tunic.
Around his arms and legs, white material flared out, bright in the
darkness of the corridor. On his forehead, three green, sharp points
had appeared, and he held his sword in one hand. Ryo-Ohki sat on his
shoulder, holding a key. She ran to him and hugged him. It was
startling to her when she felt the chill of his flesh.
"I've just about had it with this place, you two. What do you say
we get on with this show? We've only got one day left," he said.
Reinhart looked at him, and smiled.
Tenchi put his hand out, palm down. Carrie placed hers on top of
it, and Reinhart above hers. Ryo-Ohki slid down Tenchi's arm, and placed
her paw on top to complete the pile.
"Until either Dracula is dead, or we're in the ground."
*****
Blood Red Moon Part 8: Reunion
Ryoko's body stood as the bearded man suddenly reappeared,
clutching at his shoulder. Trapped in herself as she was, and with
terror gripping her thoughts so she could barely think, she still somehow
managed to make herself look, pay attention. The ancient vampire moved
quickly over to her, and back handed her body. She was tossed part way
across the room, but her body simply stood back up. The part of her that
really was Ryoko wanted to rage, try to tear him apart for striking
her, even in the absolute terror that she was in, but her body refused
to respond, just as it had refused to respond every time before.
"How could it be possible? The boy was mine! The curse had taken
full control of him! How could have have pushed it away!" he raged,
looking at his shoulder. A long, faintly glowing gash had been drawn
there, and she knew that it had been Tenchi. A little bubble of hope
formed inside, pushing back the terror just a little tiny bit. He wasn't
dead.
"I warned you of his power, but you would not listen to me." A
chiming voice faded in, as a woman in a gray dress appeared. The bearded
man turned to her, a deadly cold smouldering in his eyes. She watched
with intrest. The two didn't like each other, not in the slightest,
near as she could gather. The man was above her in the ranks, but the
woman called him as her equal.
"I warn you, witch. Remember your place. High you may be, but none
save the master are higher than me. You know as I what he thinks of...
disenters." Although a dangerous gleam appeared in the woman's eye, she
did shiver just slightly. The woman turned to her.
"Must you keep her like that? I had thought you to have at least
some decency." Involentarily, what was Ryoko turned away from the scene.
The bearded man, after placing the circlet on her head, had forced her to
obscene things, and hadn't allowed her clothing at all. He had forced
her to take it off with her own hands, just to please him, and though
she had tried to fight every movement, her body had just kept on, just
as it had when Kagato had taken control of her.
"She is a gift for the Master, but he does not mind our looking.
Unless you have a better reason to be here than just to anger me, begone.
I must sleep, and heal this wound. The boy is strong, and even though
I am away from that damned sword of his, I can still feel its power
trying to destroy me." The witch looked at Ryoko again.
"Would you battle the boy without using all resources at your
disposal? As things stand, they will arrive here soon. They are very,
very strong. We have Rosa still; Death is preparing a trap with her as
we speak. And I have... my hold on the Fernandez girl. But there is
nothing to slow the boy, and I feel that he will be the deciding factor
in this, especially now that he has the vampiric powers. You have
something that could change that."
The bearded man looked at her, and then turned a thoughtfull
gaze on Ryoko. She understood what they were planning, and once again
began to throw herself against the walls of her invisible cell. But when
the vampire began to give her her orders, her body listened, and followed
his commands. The tiny, fragile bubble of hope that had formed inside
her popped, and the terror rushed in to claim her again.
*****
Tenchi, Reinhart, Carrie, and Ryo-Ohki jogged back down the long
corridor, and back to the center room. Looking around, and seeing the
sun rising, they decided to split up after all. Tenchi went into the
tower directly across from him, Ryo-Ohki tagging along behind him. Their
tower lead into a huge, open space, the ground filled with molten lava.
Tenchi felt the heat, and wondered why he wasn't drenched in sweat, but
after a minute realized it was because the dead couldn't sweat. When the
sun had shone through the windows, Tenchi had thought that he was done
for, but as it came up, fuller and fuller, he realized that he wasn't
evaporating. Breathing a sigh of relief, and saying a short thanking
prayer, he had looked down at himself and realized that he was covered
in blood. His shirt was soaked through, and his hands were coated in the
stuff. Looking around, he realized why. Scattered around him were the
corpses of eight werewolves, ripped and shredded apart, and at his feet,
a lone human, sans a shirt. Holding his breath, Tenchi bent down, and
turned the body up a little. At the base of the neck, just over the
jugular, were two small holes.
Spinning away, Tenchi had vomited, realizing what had done that.
When his stomach was empty - he noticed that there was no blood in it,
and he shuddered to think where it had gone, he slowly stood up. Wiping
his mouth with the back of his hand, he felt his fangs press against
the back of his lip. With a shudder, he pulled his hand away, and looked
at the small ring around his finger. Standing straight, he had pressed
the button worked into it, and the Juraian armor that Ayeka had given
him what seemed like ages ago formed around him. The skin tight suit
seemed to pulse for a minute. Ayeka had explained it once - the armor
was partly sentient, and would only protect its true owner. Settling
down, it seemed to have decided that it really was Tenchi.
"Miya?" Tenchi turned toward Ryo-Ohki with a grin, and picked her
up.
"Thanks Ryo-Ohki. I needed that," he said, ruffling the cabbit's
fur. For a moment, when he had been fighting to hold on in his mind,
he had thought that he wouldn't make it. But when Ryo-Ohki had come into
the room, the vampire, which had full control of Tenchi, had turned,
and partly recognized her. Tenchi was able to rally, and regain control
of himself. He had looked around, and seen on a pedestal the first key.
Stepping gingerly to avoid the scattered remains of the wolf-men,
he moved over and grabbed it. He handed it to Ryo-Ohki for safe keeping.
She had settled on his shoulder, and miyaed happily.
Tenchi turned his attention back to the matter at hand. The room
wasn't totally devoid of features beyond the lava lake. Strung along
in the lave were small islands, but they didn't look very stable. All of
the way across the room, he could see a tall statue of Death, and at its
base something sparkled and shimmered in the heat.
"Miya!" Ryo-Ohki backed up a little, and began to hop from stone
to stone, slowly making her way across. Tenchi watched her, and realized
that was probably the only way to make it across.
Tenchi stepped back a bit, and took a running leap. It was quite
to his surprise when he felt himself change, gain wings. He opened his
mouth to shout in surprise, but instead of words, the cry of a hawk came.
Tenchi soared through the air, unevenly until he got used to the
idea that he really was flying. Feeling a gust of warm air, he found
himself pushed high up. He would have laughed in joy if he could have.
Getting used to the wings, he started doing turns and spins. Diving
low, he soared just above the surface of the lava, exhilarated by the
danger of it. Flapping them, he pulled away from the surface,
and wheeled to avoid a gout of flame that burst up from the lava
suddenly. So this is what Ryoko felt like, soaring through the air, he
thought to himself. The freedom that she always talked about caught up
Tenchi, but at the thought of her, he forced himself back to his task.
Flying over the stones, he saw Ryo-Ohki still jumping towards the
statue. He swooped down, and lightly caught her shoulders in his talons.
With the added weight, it was a little harder to fly, and Ryo-Ohki
struggled in surprise for a moment, until Tenchi sent a soothing thought
to her through the mental link. Flying toward the platform, he let her
down, and then landed on the edge of the statue. Ryo-Ohki bounded up,
and they found the key, set on top of an altar.
Ryo-Ohki grabbed it, and all hell broke loose. Great eruptions
raged out of the lava, and huge blobs of lava flew into the air. Tenchi
took off, and grabbed Ryo-Ohki. He flew back towards the exit, avoiding
the eruptions as best he could, getting a little cooked by a few near
misses. Using a thermal to push him up higher, Tenchi wheeled around
a lava bomb that was flying at them. Ryo-Ohki miyaed in fright, but kept
a death grip on the key. Diving under one last lava bomb, he flew out
the door, and it slammed shut behind them. Down the corridor they went,
towards the meeting spot.
*****
Reinhart stepped into his tower carefully. The room was full of
tall towers. Looking over the edge near him, he saw that, far below,
there was a thick, glowing, green fluid. He had no doubts as to what
would happen if he were to fall in. Slowly, he began the treacherous
journey across the towers, leaping from top to top. At one, he nearly
slipped, but caught his balance before it was too late.
Jumping onto one, he was met by a howl of anger. Looking to his
right, Reinhart saw a werewolf charging at him. Diving to the side, he
pulled out his whip, and lashed at the foul creature. The whip struck
it, and it yelped in pain, but kept coming toward him, claws extended.
With his free hand, Reinhart drew his short sword, and slashed at the
wolf man with it. It avoided the slash, and swept its foot out, catching
Reinhart and knocking him down. The short sword flew out of his hand,
sliding almost to the edge. The were wolf leapt at him, but Reinhart
rolled out from under him, and it landed, its claws driving into the
ground.
While it was trapped, Reinhart stood, and flicked his whip at it
again. The whip wrapped around its neck, there was a quick flash, and it
dropped dead. Reinhart went to retrieve his short sword. As he bent to
pick it up, something slammed into him from behind, knocking him down.
He rolled, on the edge of the tower, to see another werewolf. It reached
down, and began to clutch at his throat, cutting off his wind pipe. With
arms that felt like they were in water, Reinhart tried to jam one of the
creature's eyes, but to no use. The werewolf slobbered down on him, a
cruel seeming grin on its muzzle. As the edges of his vision began to go
black, Reinhart looked over, and saw his short sword.
Slowly, his hand stretched out for it. Spots began to dance in his
sight, and he heard a loud buzzing in his ears, but he focused all of his
attention on reaching the sword. His hand got there, and he forced the
fingers to close around it. With the last ounce of his strength,
Reinhart brought it up and over, shoving the blade into the werewolf's
back. The tip came through its chest, and almost to Reinhart's stomach,
but the energy in the wolf's grip left it, and its eyes clouded over.
Sucking in a deep breath of air, Reinhart pushed the werewolf
off of him. Coughing and hacking, Reinhart thought that even the foul
air of the castle was some of the sweetest he'd ever tasted. Coughing
a few more times, and shaking his head to clear it, he stood, pulled
the sword from the werewolf, and unceremoniously kicked it off the tower.
It hit the fluid with a splash, and the body seemed to melt instead
of sliding beneath the surface.
He continued along the way, fending off a couple more ambushes,
until he found the key, resting on an altar before a tall statue carved
of Death. As he grabbed it, the tower that he was on suddenly started
to sink.
"Oh hell, why can't this ever be easy?" he shouted, as he dashed
back across, leaping from tower to tower on his way back. As his foot
was leaving the tower on his last jump, some of the green fluid seeped
on, and touched the bottom of his boot. Reinhart caught onto the wall
that was under the door, and began to climb up. Once his reached the
top, he looked at the heel, and found that a good quarter of an inch was
missing from one, burned off by the fluid. Pausing a minute to chop off
enough heel so that he could walk evenly, he hurried down the hall.
*****
Carrie entered her tower, and looked around in wonderment.
Before her, huge crystals that fairly oozed magic floated in thin air,
winding a path upwards. Below her, there was nothing. She stepped
onto the crystal, and began making her way up. Soon, the crystals
began having breaks in them, and she had to make leaps to get across.
Continuing on her way, she soon found a tall tower, with a set of the
crystal steps winding up and around it. She followed these up. They
lead to the top of a huge crystal, in the middle of which was a tall
statue of Death. Before it, an altar with a key stood.
She walked slowly forward, and was about to touch it, when she
sensed the magical ward, being emited by the statue. Backing up, she
powered up a magic blast, and flung it at the statue of Death. With a
great snap, it fell backwards, and ended balanced on the edge of the
crystal. Another small blast, and the statue fell over the edge.
Listening, she heard no crash drift up to her. Shivering, she approached
the altar again. The ward was gone, and she picked up the key. Nothing
seemed to happen, so she turned back.
Below her, the crystals began to flicker, in and out. Carrie looked
down as the one that she was on too began to change. When she started
to sink slightly into it, she leapt forward. Racing down the stairway,
she looked to her left. Crystals appeared for a moment, and then
disappeared only to reappear somewhere else. She leapt forward, and
landed on one that was just appearing. Readjusting her course, she leapt
to another one, and then another.
Almost half way back, she leapt as one of the crystals began to
flicker into life, but as her feet left the one she was on, the
flickering stopped. She sailed through the air, and began to fall.
Quickly, she muttered the words for a spell her step-mother
had taught her, and her descent slowed, and stopped. She floated there
for a moment, and then began to rise. She felt the spell draining
away her magic power quickly, and she hoped that she would make it.
The disappearing and reappearing crystals came back into view, and
she angled herself for the mass of them. One in the center seemed to be
staying there. Just before her magical reserves ran out, she crested
its edge, and grabbed on. Pulling herself up with a heave, she panted
for a moment, and then gathered herself. The crystal that she had landed
on wasn't far from the exit.
Just before she was about to jump off, she felt a different type of
magical weave. Looking around, she cast a very minor light spell, almost
all that she could handle. The sphere of light drifted away, and towards
the door. Suddenly, its progress was stopped, and it spread out. The
light took the shape of a bridge. Carrie walked over, gingerly touched
it with her foot. The bridge held, her foot not sinking in the
slightest. Closing her eyes, she stepped onto it. When she didn't fall,
she grinned, and then ran the rest of the way across. As she reached
the door, the light spell died, and she felt herself slip as the bridge
disappeared. Windmilling her arms, she caught her balance, and made it
through the door.
She made her way back to the center room, and got there just as
Reinhart was walking out of the corridor to his tower. He was holding
a key. They looked out the window, and saw that they sun had just
crested its high point.
"Where's Tenchi?" she asked, sitting down. As if his name were a
summons, they heard the cry of a hawk coming from his tunnel. They
looked at each other, and then stared as a huge hawk, with shimmering
white feathers, flew out of the hall, Ryo-Ohki held in its talons, who in
turn held a key. The hawk let the cabbit drop to the ground, and then
flew a little farther. It began to glow, and its shape changed from that
of a hawk to that of Tenchi. He touched down to the ground as the
transformation finished, and shook his head, as if a little off balance.
"What a rush," he said, turning back to them.
"You were a hawk! I didn't think that vampires could become
anything other than a bat or a wolf, and certainly not a creature so
associated with the light," said Reinhart. Tenchi shrugged.
"I don't even know how I did it. One second, I'm me, the next, I'm
flying." He sat down on the ground. "Did you two get the keys?
Reinhart nodded, and showed it to him, while Carrie said yes.
"I think that we should rest here for a little bit. We'll need our
energy when we meet Dracula." Carrie nodded, and Tenchi cleared his
throat.
"I'll keep watch, if you want to sleep."
*****
Tenchi watched as Carrie and Reinhart went to sleep, and then leaned
back against the wall himself. They were almost there. He looked out
the window, at the sun which had fallen halfway through the sky. At
sunset, he would wake them up.
The sun. When Tenchi had realized that it hadn't killed him, he had
wondered why. The answer still hadn't come to him, but he was positive
that it had something to do with the Jurai power. That was the key, he
realized. Something about the power had altered the curse somehow,
had kept it from harming him. Something danced just out of his reach,
but he knew that it was the answer to the problem. Ryo-Ohki came over
to him, and hopped into his lap, and started purring. He had felt unease
from her at first, when he had picked her up after the final
transformation, but finally, she had accepted his new form.
He turned his thoughts to home once again. What were they doing
there? Ayeka would probably be storming around the house, looking for
him and Ryoko, while Mihoshi tried to keep her calm. Tenchi was almost
certain that Washu wouldn't have told them yet that they had disappeared.
His dad would probably be getting home from work right about then, and
Tenchi had no doubts that when he found out that both Tenchi and Ryoko
had disappeared at the same time, he would grab his camera and start
searching the country side for them.
In fact, the only two that he could see keeping their calm would
be Sasami and Katsuhito. It sometimes surprised him that a little girl
could keep as level a head as his grandfather, but then, considering
that she was a goddess as well... Tenchi looked at his sword. It had
served him well in the past few days. Maybe he really was starting
to get the hang of it. His grandfather had always said that he would
eventually gain full control of its powers. Smiling a little, he
inspected it. The depression where Ryoko's gem had been brought,
surprisingly, a thought of a happier time. He hadn't really expected
it, but he knew that he wouldn't have been as happy as he was if he
hadn't of gotten the keys away from Katsuhito the year before. Even
through all the battles, Ryoko and Ayeka's constant fights, they had
formed a close family, one that he wouldn't trade for a peaceful,
normal life, no matter what the cost.
The cost... He wondered how Ryoko and the others would cope with
his new 'life.' The rage that he had felt was gone now, spent in the
bloodlust. But he could still feel that hunger, a little stronger
now since time had passed since draining the werewolf. What could he do
about that. Although it seemed that he could walk in the sun, he knew
that that would follow him wherever he went. He knew that he couldn't
risk an accident happening, not knowing, not wanting to know what he
would do if he were to awake from a bloodlust to find Ryoko, or Ayeka,
or any of the girls at his feet.
Lost deep in thought, he didn't notice it when another presence
entered the room.
"Teenchiii..."
His gaze shot up, and Ryo-Ohki leapt up. He stared in wonder,
as before him, Ryoko appeared. Still wearing her stripped dress, and now
a strange, black circlet around her head, against the window with the
sunlight streaming in behind her, he could have sworn that she was an
angel. He thought of Reinhart's words as they had entered the castle.
Even Castlevania itself would try to stop them. Tenchi reached out and
grabbed Ryo-Ohki before she could go to her.
"You aren't real. You're just the castle trying to stop us," he
said. Her eyes changed, getting the look that they did whenever she was
deeply hurt, and Tenchi had to fight down the impulse to try and take his
words back. Ryo-Ohki stared at him, and miyaed, but he wouldn't let her
go.
"Tenchi, how can you say that? When he wasn't paying attention,
I was able to escape! He thought that he had control over me, but he was
wrong." Her voice was so honest... No! He squeezed his eyes shut. It
was too close to what he had been hoping, her just appearing before him.
"I know you're an illusion! Get away! You can't stop us!" he
shouted.
He opened his eyes when he heard weeping. Ryoko was still there,
but was looking away from him, hands over her face. Slowly he stood.
Did he dare to believe? Slowly, he reached out, and was surprised
when his hand came to rest on her shoulder. She pulled away from him a
little, still crying. Swallowing, he stepped closer, and pulled her hands
down. It was easier, he noticed, than before. She was far stronger
than he, but with the vampiric strength, they were on even terms. She
looked at him, and he stared deep into her golden eyes. Far within,
he saw the true emotion that she kept hidden within herself, and he knew.
"Ryoko, I'm sorry. I... didn't know. So much has happened on the
way here..." he said softly, and then shook his head. That was no
excuse, but she stopped crying, and smiled just a trifle. He glanced
to the side as Reinhart woke up, and then stared dumbfounded. Ryoko
touched his cheek lightly, and cringed.
"What happened to you, Tenchi? You're so cold..." she asked.
Tenchi stepped back a bit, looking away.
"I'm a vampire, Ryoko. I got scratched by one on our way here, and
I've become a vampire." She took a step back, mouthing the words oh no.
His expression firmed. "We have to get going. Dracula will gain his
power soon. I've bloodied him, and I won't stop now." Reinhart stood,
and clapped Ryoko on the shoulder, and then woke up Carrie. She was
quite surprised to see her, and smiled warmly.
For her part, Ryoko smiled back, her eyes half-closed, giving her a
remarkably cat like appearance.
*****
Blood Red Moon Part 9: Ascent to Evil
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 defence. 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 burried 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 woman. 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 whistfull 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 screem 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 paralizing 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 paralized.
"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 faultered, 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
incredable 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 cresent-shaped scars appeared on either
cheek. His clothes changed some too. His coat remained much the same,
but grew bigger, and more befiting 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.
*****
Blood Red Moon Part 10: A Feeling of Long Ago
"Ryoko, what are you doing?" asked Tenchi. Then he saw her eyes.
They had changed. No longer were they the deep, golden orbs that he knew
so well. He had only seen them that way once before, when Kagato had
taken control of her, and Tenchi understood. Ryoko was the final trap,
sent to put them off guard their guard, and he had fallen for it, hook,
line and sinker. Tenchi rolled back, as Ryoko slammed her sword down
where he had been just a moment before.
"Tenchi! What's wrong with Ryoko? Why is she attacking us?" called
Carrie, as she fended off a blast from Dracula. She and Reinhart were
facing him, but not holding their own very well. Dracula flung
fireballs, and lightning bolts danced down from the skies. They were
barely managing to stay alive, much less able to attack him.
"He's got control of her! Keep fighting him, and let me worry about
Ryoko!" he shouted, as he drew Tenchi-ken. Ryoko growled, and charged
at him. Tenchi parried and dodged, but although she was fighting in a
berzerker rage that left him dozens of openings to strike, he just
couldn't, and so they continued to battle.
"Ryoko, wake up! Damn it, it's me, Tenchi!" She only screamed
in rage, and pressed her attack harder. Even with Tenchi's skill, he
knew that he'd never have kept her from killing him this long when she
was this mad without the vampiric powers. Even so, the longer that the
battle went, the more pressed Tenchi began to feel. Ryoko had been
fighting with swords for a lot longer than Tenchi had.
Suddenly, as he pivoted to press an opening that she had given him,
more to force her back a bit, he felt something grab a hold of his mind.
With a growl, he was barely able to get Tenchi-ken up to block Ryoko's
new attack. He risked glancing over to Dracula, and knew that it was
him. Fewer bolts of lightening were falling, and Dracula seemed to be
looking at him. The Vampire King was trying to take control of him, long
enough for Ryoko to finish him off. Struggling, he pushed Dracula's
touch away, taking a touch of satisfaction from the way the vampire's
face screwed up in fury.
Tenchi turned back to the battle in just enough time to see Ryoko
leap up, rage dancing on her face. She flew up, and turned down, her
blade aimed to slice Tenchi in two. 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.
It suddenly occurred to him, as he fell, that the circlet on Ryoko's
head must have been what Dracula was using to control her, as it was the
only object that didn't fit Ryoko's personality.
*****
Carrie was looking when Ryoko slammed into Tenchi, flinging him off
the rooftop.
"TENCHI!" she shouted. But it was already too late. Tenchi was
already gone, and Ryoko was approaching them. Carrie jumped back as
another lightning bolt blasted down, and rolled. As she came up, Carrie
turned, and fired a blast at Dracula. It impacted, and he laughed as the
energy washed over him. Carrie began to feel the depression that the
Prince of Evil radiated around him. It drank her in, and she slowed.
Nothing could stop Dracula. She had been wrong, she didn't have the
power to kill him. She couldn't even save her own family.
The farther that the depression took her, the faster it grew, and as
it grew, her body began to change. It was her legs first. They started
turning to stone, slowly. When she found that she couldn't move anymore,
she looked down, and was surprised to find that she had become stone
nearly to the waist. Understanding what was happening, she tried to
raise her hands to attack Dracula, but she found that she just didn't
care anymore. She looked around herself, and began to wonder why she had
come there. Looking at the tall man, a memory tickled her mind, but she
just didn't care enough to reach out and look at it anymore.
A calm, peaceful feeling spread through her, as the stone worked
it's way up her body.
Across from her, Reinhart looked over, and saw that Carrie was
slowly turning to stone. He hadn't seen Tenchi go over the edge, but he
had heard Carrie's shout, and saw that only Ryoko was left on the
rooftop. He turned to Dracula, and dove to avoid another fireball.
Rolling up, he lashed out with his whip, tugging it so that it stripped
across Dracula's face three times. Twice, it found its mark, and the
vampire actually staggered back, but on the third time, the ancient
vampire caught it. With a great yank, he pulled the whip from Reinhart's
hands, and tossed it over the edge.
Wordlessly, Reinhart pulled out his short sword, and rushed Dracula
with it. He actually managed to surprise the ancient vampire, and forced
the two and a half feet of silver into his stomach. Dracula's eyes
opened wide for a moment, and the bombardment stopped. Even Ryoko
stopped her steady advance, and looked a little unsure of herself for but
a moment. Then, Dracula looked down, with a cruel smile, and wrapped
his hand around Reinhart's throat. He lifted the young man up off the
ground, and reached down with his other hand. Grasping the hilt of the
sword, he pulled it out, and tossed it aside. The hole in his stomach
sealed up, ending flawless as before. Dracula crushed down on Reinhart's
throat, and brought him close to his mouth.
"You are no Belmont. I shall enjoy your blood, and the girl's,
and then the world shall fall into Hell, and the damned light shall never
shine on us again!" Tossing him down with contempt, Reinhart tried to
stand, but found that he too was now stone to his waist.
Dracula stood back a little, and laughed.
"At last! There are none left to oppose me! None left who can stop
me! The world is mine, and darkness will rule! Chaos will reign nigh
over the shattered corpse of the earth, and-"
"And what!"
Reinhart twisted his head, and was absolutely amazed. On the edge
of the roof stood Tenchi. Once again, his armor had changed. It was a
dazzling white, long streamers flapping out behind him in the wind. A
little trimming was done in a pale blue. And then he noticed something
else. The color in Tenchi's skin had returned, a pale golden.
Could it be? Tenchi had somehow been cured of his vampirism.
He looked back up at Dracula, and, for the first time, the Lord of the
Night seemed to be worried.
"Go, my slave! Destroy that whelp!" Ryoko turned toward Tenchi,
and that strange red sword appeared again. She screamed in rage, and
flew at Tenchi.
*****
Tenchi kept falling, towards a forrest of tall spikes far below.
Suddenly, though, he felt something stir inside of him, something
that had only come twice before. But this time, as the power of the
Light Hawk Wings began to spread through him, he felt something
different, something fighting it. He tried to reach out to that power,
to help it, but was only able to grasp a little of it. Just a few feet
above the spears, he managed to spread one of his Light Hawk Wings, which
carried him to safety.
Landing on the ground, Tenchi gasped in relief. A sudden, shooting
pain raced through him, as he felt the power fighting with his Light Hawk
Wings surge, pushing his abilities back. Slowly, he forced himself
into a meditation position, and focused his thoughts inward.
To his eyes, there was a burst of light, and then he stood,
surrounded by blackness, clothed in only his skin. He looked at his
hand, and was surprised to find that he held Tenchi-ken, and not the
Light Hawk Sword. The blade was alive, and he could sense it searching
for something.
Before him, the darkness seemed to gather itself into a sphere of
still deeper black. The soft light given off by Tenchi-ken's blade was
sucked into that sphere, even though it seemed to be trying to blaze
bright enough to blind him. From that sphere of black stepped himself,
wearing Tenchi's Juraian armor, save that its colors were a midnight
blue, and holding a Tenchi-ken who's blade was blood red, the hilt raven
black in his hands. An evil red glow burned in the copy's eyes, and two
long, razor sharp fangs poked out from his mouth. Tenchi brought a
trembling hand to his mouth, and found that his fangs were gone.
"So it seems that you have a back bone after all," said the copy,
and Tenchi shivered at a voice that was his, yet at the same time cold
and hard and dead. "I almost didn't think you'd come, and after I'd gone
through all the trouble to get you here."
"Who are you?" asked Tenchi, surprising himself by keeping his voice
steady. The copy laughed.
"You, of course. Don't you know your true self when you see it? We
are one in the same, save that you had locked me away, tried to ignore
me as best you could. Fool. Did you think that you were the one who
released Ryoko? Thinking you had locked me away, you answered so much
more readilly to my call."
"No. You aren't me. Nothing about you is me." The copy laughed,
and shook his head. "Tenchi, do you even know what I am? I'm more you
than the form that you chose for yourself here, inside your soul. I do
your fighting, all of it, for you, on the rare occasions that you let me
out. Ah, for so long you held me back, but then you were scratched,
and the curse pulled me out." The copy tapped his fangs. "You refused
to embrace the power, but I... The curse and I melded, became more.
Somehow, you've managed to hold us both off, you and your Light Hawk
Wings, though you haven't known it. That fool Dracula is nothing
compared to us." Slowly, the copy began to approach Tenchi, letting
his blade go out.
"Think of it, Tenchi. All the powers of a vampire, control of the
evil in this world, perhaps across the Multi-verse. Werewolves to
command, skeletons to order. And oh, the blood, the wonderful blood.
The blood of the world, all for us. Together we could destroy Dracula,
destroy him and then absorb him. All the powers of the night ours to
command. Don't bother trying to tell me the idea doesn't appeal to you,
because I know that it does. You can't hide anything from me, not unless
you hide it from yourself." Tenchi watched him as he began to circle
around, and wondered what to do. The copy was right. It was tempting.
He had gotten a taste of the vampire's power. What was the power of
Dracula himself?
Tenchi looked to his side, as he saw a shimmer. A soft light
formed, and Ayeka stepped through, her face serene, completely bare, like
Tenchi. He resisted an urge to cover himself in her presence, but she
did not look at him. Instead, her gaze focused on the copy. A second
shimmer, and Tsunami appeared, also not wearing a stich of clothing.
Like Ayeka, she did not look at Tenchi, but instead turned her gaze to
the copy. The copy looked at them, and as he two black spheres appeared
to either side of him. On one, Kagato, on the other, Yuzuha stepped
out, both wearing the clothing Tenchi had last seen them in. Kagato
was sneering, and Yuzuha stared at Tsunami with stark hatred.
"I can summon my own helpers, Tenchi. Shall we continue this farce?
Join me. We can destroy Dracula, and take his place. He is old, his
powers failing," said the copy enticingly. Tenchi almost took a step
forward, but before he could, a new sound entered the space.
A slow, gentle sobbing. Between Tenchi and his copy, with out a
shimmer of light or a sphere of black, Ryoko rose from the ground, her
knees up to her chest, her arms around her knees, her forehead resting
on her kneecaps. She rocked back and forth slowly, sobbing quietly.
The copy stared at her in shock, but Tenchi immediately went to her side.
He tried to comfort her, but when he went to touch her shoulder, his hand
passed straight through, and she went on sobbing and rocking back and
forth.
"Where are you Tenchi? Please, please come help me. I can't stop
him from controlling me. I'm so afraid of what he'll make me do...
Tenchi..." she said softly, through the tears. Slowly, Tenchi
straightened, and raised Tenchi-ken, pointing the blade towards the copy.
"You may be a part of me, but you don't know me worth a damn. If
you did, you would have never even bothered asking me to join you.
Dracula will be destroyed, but neither you nor anybody else will rise to
follow him, if I have to kill them all myself. Evil of his sort has no
place in the world." The copy grinned.
"You want to battle with me? Don't you understand? You've never
battled once in your life! I do all your fighting for you!" Tenchi
stepped back in surprise. He suddenly felt the gazes of Ayeka and
Tsunami hard on his back. What were they trying to say, what were they
there for? Tsunami had once told him to trust in the power inside
himself, and Ayeka always told him to let others help him. His eyes went
to Ryoko, sobbing quietly on the floor, and Tenchi thought of his sword,
with Ryoko's other two gems.
Tenchi let the blade go out, and the copy smiled in triumph, Kagato
and Yuzuha taking a step forward.
He reached into the sword with his power, and touched the gems.
They blazed to a blinding light, and he gasped as he felt the power
flux into him. The two gems on the hilt faded away, and the sword
disappeared.
For a moment, Tenchi paused, as an increadable amount of sheer
terror crashed into his mind, washing over and through him. The Ryoko
before him lifted her head for a moment, looking at him in surprise,
and then faded away, as Tenchi managed to fence that terror into a small
corner of his mind. On his wrists, the twin gems reappeared, embedded
into his very flesh. His copy's eyes went wide, as Tenchi raised his
hands, and channeled a pair of fireballs at Kagato and Yuzuha. With a
scream, they disappeared.
Placing his hands together, Tenchi reached to the gems, pulled power
from them. A sphere of light appeared, which he released. It floated
up a little, and suddenly burst into illumination, blasting away the
darkness which surrounded them. Looking around, Tenchi found that they
stood on the shrine grounds. Ayeka and Tsunami still watched, but now
they were joined by Mihoshi, Katsuhito, Washu, Nobuyuki, Mayuka, and the
guardians. The entire family stood there, watching him with
expresionless faces. The copy stared around himself in shock.
"What are you doing! You can't hide anything from me!" Tenchi
looked at his copy, his dark half.
"You're right, I can't hide anything from you. So I'll let you in
on something." Tenchi unfenced that terror that was roiling in his mind,
and let it wash back over him. He sorted through it, pushed through
it, until he found one single, small raft on that sea of terror. The
waves washed over it, fought to capsize it, but some how it managed
to stay upright. He touched that raft, added a little support to it, and
through his mind, very quietly, very softly, he heard a questioning
thought.
"Tenchi?"
He was about to answer when he heard a scream. It tore his
attention away from the raft, and he turned back to his copy. He was
holding his head, rolling and writing on the ground.
"Ah! Stop it! What are you doing to me!" Tenchi let the terror
keep roiling through him, pushing back a tiny sphere for himself to drift
in. The copy screamed again as one particularly strong wave went through
Tenchi. Tenchi kneeled down close to him, spoke into his ear.
"If you are me, than is this what you want for her? This endless
torment? This constant terror that she is in? Do you want her to suffer
through this?" The copy rolled away, screaming again. Tenchi bore down
on him.
"Could you live your eternal life with her like this, forever
feeling the torment that she's in? Could you?" The copy opened his
eyes, and inhaled.
"No damn you! Not like this! Make it stop, MAKE IT STOP!" he
screamed to the sky. Tenchi leaned closer, and spoke quietly, so that
only his copy could hear.
"I can't stop him without you. I know that. You will have to help
me. I won't try to act like you aren't a part of me anymore, but you
have to help me." Tenchi fenced the terror back into the corner of his
mind, and his copy stopped writhing. He looked at Tenchi, and finally
took his extended hand. When they touched, there was a second flash.
Tenchi found himself sitting on the ground, looking up towards the top of
the clock tower.
He raised his hands, and saw, in his wrists, Ryoko's two gems. As
he stood, he suddenly realized that his armor had become his Light Hawk
Armor, and that his skin tone had returned to normal. With shaking
hands, he touched his upper lip. The fangs were gone. In embracing
his darker half, he had somehow pushed out the curse.
Tenchi looked toward the top of the clock tower, and wondered
how he was going to get back up there in time. At the mere thought,
his feet left the ground, and he began soaring towards the tower. He
could feel power flowing into him from the gems, meeting and joining
with his own abilities, and deep in his mind, he could still feel that
ball of terror. As he went up, he saw Reinhart's whip falling. Tenchi
grabbed it, and then reached the rooftop.
Quickly, he looked at the battle field, setting the whip down on the
ground. Ryoko's back was to him, Carrie looked to be made of stone to
her chest, and Dracula had Reinhart by the throat. As he watched,
Dracula dropped him down, and Reinhart too became stone to his chest.
The evil vampire stepped back a little, and laughed insanely, into the
night air.
"At last! There are none left to oppose me! None left who can stop
me! The world is mine, and darkness will rule! Chaos will reign nigh
over the shattered corpse of the earth, and-" Tenchi shouted out.
"And what!" Dracula turned to him, and looked shocked by Tenchi's
rebirth. He flung his hand toward him, and ordered Ryoko to attack.
Tenchi unfolded his Wings and noticed that instead of the usual
three, he now had the full ten, and grabbed hold of one, changing it into
the Light Hawk sword, as Ryoko turned, charging him. Tenchi too ran
forward, and they both shouted. Ryoko's was a wild battle cry, wordless,
and filled with rage, her sword raised above her head to slice down.
"Ryoko! WAKE UP!!!" shouted Tenchi. He slashed down, slicing her
hand off. Her sword disappered just before touching his head, and his
blade hit its mark. For a moment, they both stood there, staring at each
other. In the background, Tenchi saw Dracula stare at him in sheer
disbelief, and then the ancient vampire double over as if in great pain,
holding his hands to his temples.
Then, the circlet fell off, sliced cleanly off, Tenchi's Light Hawk
Sword resting on Ryoko's forehead. Tenchi let the sword disappear.
Her hand grew back, and her eyes changed back to normal, bright and
beautifully golden. And then, she fell to her knees, and started
screaming shrilly. She would scream until she ran out of breath, and
then stop only as long as it took to fill her lungs again. Tenchi took
her by the shoulders, and shook her.
"Ryoko! It's me! Wake up, it's me, Tenchi!" But she kept
screaming on, trying to scramble backwards and away from him, but somehow
Tenchi managed to hold her there. Tenchi understood what had happened.
Locked away by the circlet, she had been trapped in her own mind, locked
away in the darkness, forced to watch as her own body attacked them,
attacked him. Now that she was freed from the control of Dracula,
she was still under the control of the sheer terror she had been in all
the time, and was letting it pour out now, the only way that she could.
"Ryoko, listen to me! You're safe! He doesn't have you anymore.
He doesn't have you anymore!" Still no change, and she kept screaming
in absolute terror. What could he do that would reach her in this state?
Tenchi thought of what she wanted more than anything, and it suddenly
came to him what he had to do. Tenchi gripped her shoulders, and when
she paused to draw breath, pulled her toward him, and kissed her. But ut
seemed more than a kiss, for as his lips touched hers, he felt the ball
of terror that was in his mind explode apart, and suddenly became aware
of her. It was as if she was a part of him. He could feel her emotions,
beaten so raw by her ordeal, feel her wonder as he kissed her. He held
it for as long as he could, and when they finally separated, she stared
at him as if she had never seen him before. Tears stood unshed in her
eyes, but she didn't start to scream again.
"You're safe now. I love you Ryoko, and I swear that I won't let
him hurt you anymore. I won't let you go again." She stared at him, and
Tenchi wondered how he could have ever kept it from her for so long. If
Dracula had done nothing else good in his life, than perhaps it was
because of him that Tenchi finally forced himself to admit that he loved
her, to both himself, and to Ryoko.
"Tenchi..." she breathed, and then buried her face into his
shoulder, sobbing loudly. He let her cry for a moment, hugging her to
him, and stroking her hair, but then gently lifted her face to look into
her eyes.
"Take care of Reinhart and Carrie. I have unfinished business
with Dracula," he said, and then kissed her on the forehead. Ryoko
nodded, and with a small smile, stood up. Tenchi stood as well, and
began walking towards Dracula. The Master of Evil faced him, a sneer
on his face.
"So, it comes down to you and I. Somehow, I knew that it would.
My servant was a fool. He should have killed you when he first found
you," said the ancient vampire. Tenchi stared at him coldly.
"You've attacked me, hurt my friends, and tried to take Ryoko away
from me. You stand there and taunt us, yet I haven't seen you do any
real fighting yet. Can you only attack with pawns? Can you only steal
a person's life, and use them as a shield?" Dracula snarled in rage,
and sent a flurry of fireballs at Tenchi. Without a thought, he unfolded
his Wings, and the fireballs splashed against them without even slowing
Tenchi's steady advance. The vampire king called lightning down from the
skies, but they simply curved off to the sides, throwing up great chunks
of the roof, but not even stirring one of Tenchi's hairs. Tenchi reached
forward, and grabbed one of the Wings, transforming it into the Light
Hawk Sword. A second, he changed into the Light Hawk Shield.* (see the
end if you don't know what I'm talking about) Dracula stared at him as if
he held a live viper in his hands.
"You are the one foretold," he breathed. The vampire then reached
to the sky, and a blast of lighting crashed down onto him. When Tenchi
blinked, to clear his vision, he saw that Dracula's now held a sword and
shield to match his own, save that where Tenchi's Light Hawk Sword and
Shield where a pure white, Dracula's were a black deep as death.
"Long ago, when the curse first touched me and damned me to this
eternal existence, a legend was born. That one day, a man would appear
from a new land, bringing with him one of Hell's Children, and a sword
that was not a true sword. That man would be the my final death."
Dracula pointed his dread black blade at Tenchi, and lightning flashed.
"I shall never accept the embrace of my old friend Death, but you I must
battle, for you are the light which so pains me."
"Come then. If this is to be the end of my accursed existence,
than so be it. Let us battle, Child of the Morning." The two charged
each other, and the battle was joined. Where the two blades met, a
blinding blast of light flashed, when blade met shield, a great rumble
rolled through the air. Tenchi slashed across, and Dracula caught the
attack with his blade. Pulling back, Tenchi leapt up as Dracula slashed
low, and then ducked beneath the higher backswing. He swept his leg out,
and Dracula tumbled down. Tenchi reared up for the killing stroke,
but Dracula rolled away, and Tenchi merely sank his blade into the stone.
It was Dracula's turn to rally, and he pushed Tenchi across the roof top.
At one straight strike, Tenchi leapt up, and landed on Dracula's hand.
He somersaulted forward and over the vampire, landing and pivoting
to slice across, but Dracula got his shield into place in just enough
time.
They battled on, pushing each other back and forth across the
rooftop, while Ryoko, Reinhart, and Carrie looked on. The combatants
seemed to dance as they moved, Dracula with the sinuous grace of a viper,
Tenchi with the speed and elegance of a ferret. It was almost
mesmerizing, the way that they turned and spun, blocking and
counterattacking as the other attacked.
"How can they possibly keep going? Neither has even broke a sweat
yet, and neither has scored blood!" exclaimed Carrie. Ryoko, who was
squatting down between the two of them, looked at her.
"Tenchi was trained by the best on our world. When he has a goal,
nothing can stop him, not fire or traps, not eternal evil or unbeatable
odds. Tenchi always finds a way to make it through."
On and on they went. Dracula would fling flights of fireballs,
and Tenchi would summoning power from the gems, throwing his own balls
of flame. They would slam into each other, and explode in an increadible
blast, shaking the tower top.
Tenchi suddenly noticed that the sky was brightening. Dracula
saw it too, and began to press his attack harder, but still neither
could do more than come close to a hit. Tenchi fought back with every
bit of skill that he had, used every single trick that his grandfather
had taught him, but he had been fighting all the night, and he could feel
fatigue starting to creep over him. Dracula was beginning to gain an
upper hand. Lightning bolts crashed down around him, digging great
chunks out of the ground, and Tenchi dove away, rolling and coming back
up to block a savage downward slive by Dracula, which knocked Tenchi's
sword out of his hand. It disappeared as it fell away, and Dracula
sneered in triumph, raising his blade for the killing stroke.
And then a miracle happened. The sun rose in the eastern skies,
cresting the tower. It caught Dracula squarely in the eyes, and he
shouted in pain. His hands came up, to shield his eyes from the blinding
light. Tenchi saw his chance. Squaring himself to the King of Evil,
Tenchi surged upward, forming a new blade. Dracula pulled his hands
down, and tried to get his shield down to block, but Tenchi drove his
blade into Dracula's breast, to the hilt, the blade emerging on the ther
side. The sword blazed to life, and a light so bright that it hurt to
look at shone forth. Dracula screamed in pain as it washed over him.
Slowly, the light dimmed back, and Tenchi was left, holding the
blade in, nose to nose with the ancient vampire. Dracula looked him in
the eyes, a lone emotion deep within his eyes. Respect. He opened his
mouth, and spoke.
"Thank you... I am freed from my eternal torment." With that,
Dracula slid back, off the blade, and onto the ground. The body stayed
there for a moment, and then it became dust, which blew away in the
breeze. The ancient castle began to rumble and shake again.
Tenchi rushed over to Ryoko, and touched Reinhart and Carrie with
the tip of the sword. The stone returned to flesh.
"We have to hurry!" exclaimed Tenchi. Reinhart grabbed his collar.
"Rosa! I have to find Rosa!" Tenchi nodded, and handed him back
his whip, which he had caught seemingly ages ago when he had fallen off
the tower. Tenchi turned to Ryoko.
"Get her out of here, Ryoko!" She nodded, and grabbed Carrie,
taking off. Ryo-Ohki bounded up from somewhere, and leapt forward,
catching onto Ryoko's dress as she flew off. Tenchi and Reinhart dashed
over to the lift, and took it back down. The steps that they had used
were gone, but they were able to jump into the room, Tenchi slashing
the door out of their way. Inside, Rosa was still waiting for them,
shouting in terror as the room started to crash down around them.
"Cover her with your cloak, Reinhart, else she'll be killed when we
leave here!" Reinhart threw his cloak over her, and Tenchi began to
spread his Wings. Above them, a large section of the roof fell in.
*****
Ryoko set Carrie down, across the sea from the isle Castlevania
rested on, and then settled down to the ground herself, turning to look
at Castlevania. The whole castle was shaking, its spires falling down
and raising great clouds of dust as the crashed to the ground. She bent
to pick up Ryo-Ohki, hugging the cabbit to her. Gods how she had missed
the creature, when she had found that even her mental link to her had
been severed by the circlet, reminded of it still more as the light touch
of Ryo-Ohki formed in her head once again. Ryoko pushed her mind away
from the thought of that time, shivering at even the thought of it.
Tenchi had told her she was safe, and she wouldn't let herself think of
it again.
Looking back up at the castle, which was now almost half sunk, she
began to wonder where he was. When he had first destroyed the circlet,
all that she could see was the terror she had been wrapped in, and he had
seemed like a giant demon to her. She had heard what he was saying,
but thought that it was just a trick... After all, she had just seen
herself throw him off the tower. But when he had kissed her, the terror
had been blown aside as if it was merely dust, and she had seen him, felt
him inside her mind, recognized who he was. And then he told her that
he loved her, and she had almost fainted again. Now, she could still
feel him in the back of her mind, much the same way that she could feel
Ryo-Ohki, only with Tenchi the feeling was so much clearer. He was
worried about something.
"Where are they, Ryoko?" asked Carrie. Ryoko looked again, and saw
that the castle was now nearly submerged, only the clock tower left. She
opened her mouth to speak, but paused, as a great rumbling filled the
air. With a blinding suddenness, the great clock tower exploded, a pillar
of fire stretching itself far into the sky, blasting away the few clouds.
The feeling of Tenchi was sliced off abrubtly, and Ryoko ran forward,
in shock, as a few stones from the castle landed near them.
"TEENCHIII!!!" she screamed. She felt her knees go out from under
her, and found herself on the ground. The explosion faded, and she
watched in numb disbelief as what was left of the clock tower slid under
the waves.
No. He couldn't be gone, not now, not when he had finally told her
he loved her. Ryoko stared at the waveless sea, where the castle had
just been, and the tears welled up from deep within, held back from
falling by only sheer willpower. She screamed her rage into the sky.
NO! Not now! To finally get what she wanted, and then to have it ripped
from her. She had felt it, even wrapped in her terror as she was, when
he had pulled the two gems into his body, felt the sudden presence
of him, though it had been no comfort. Frantically she felt for that
feeling again, but couldn't find it any where.
She thought back, to when she had suddenly felt the seal lifted
from her, as she laid in the cave. She hadn't sensed anybody coming
to the cave, and Tenchi hadn't come for what seemed a long, long time.
That was what had hurt her most, when she had seen the young boy walk
away from the cave one day, after saying good bye to it. She had wanted
to sob in pain, but her body had long since lost that ability, so she
once again waited, alone. But she felt the seal lifted, and quickly
began to pull in as much of the small amount of energy that she still
had left as she could.
It had been a shock, when the young man had slipped down into the
cave. She had stared at him, with her astral form, as she waited for the
energy to collect, as it slowly was. He was older, more handsome,
but it was Tenchi, whom she had watched grow up, and felt something
for that she had never felt before, as her body slept, sealed within
this cave. He had approached the center of the cave, and she had expended
a little of her precious energy to tug the sword out of his hands, so
that he bent to pick it up, and then rejoined her body, which had
collected just enough power.
She had slowly sat up, her mummified muscles screaming in torment,
and grabbed his arm. Slowly, as he watched in shock, she had reached
forward, touched his cheek, and would have been in tears to feel another
person's warmth if her body could have been. She had begun to draw
herself forward, to kiss him, and then the sword had shocked her, pushing
her away with a searing blast. Tenchi had turned and ran, as fast as he
could, and Ryoko had had no choice but to stay where she was, slowly
collecting the energy she would need to reflesh her body and leave the
confines of the cave.
She came back to the present, as her eyes fell on a glowing object.
Her eyes widened as she recognized it. Tenchi-ken was stuck into the
ground, up to its hilt, her two familiar gems missing. She scrambled
over to it, and, gingerly, touched it. There were no painful shocks,
no burning to sear her, and that could only mean on thing, and as she
accepted what had to be the truth, her tears began to fall.
When she heard Carrie gasp in surprise, and Ryo-Ohki miya in joy,
she didn't look up, certain that it was just her mind trying to play a
last few jokes on her before driving her mad, which she surely must
become after this final, greatest pain in her life.
When she heard Reinhart ask if Carrie had missed him, she turned,
slowly, clutching Tenchi-ken to her breast. She saw Tenchi, with his
Light Hawk armor just changing back into his normal clothing. He was
full of dust, bleeding from the forehead and looked like he had been
through an avalanche, but he was there. A little off to his side, a
tall, pretty young woman, in a red dress, was looking up at the sun with
her arms spread, as if to take in as much of it as she could.
Tenchi looked at her, and smiled, and the flood gates broke within
her, as that sense of him returned in a rush, a gentle love flowing
through the link. Ryoko scrambled up, and toward him. With a
long-suffering sob, she latched onto him, locking him into a death grip,
and proceeded to bury her head into his shoulder, crying. She felt his
arms go around her, and heard him whisper softly into her ear, one hand
stroking her hair, the other holding her close to him.
"I'm sorry Ryoko. I didn't mean to keep you waiting for so long,"
he said. She looked at him, her cheeks puffy and eyes red.
"Don't you ever do that to me again Tenchi. I thought for certain
that you were gone this time. I don't know what I would have done then,
if... if..." She couldn't finish the thought, and placed her head back
onto his shoulder. He just held her, murmuring soft, soothing sounds
into her ear, and slowly, she felt her whole body relax. In his arms,
she felt like there was nothing else, and she knew that he never would
let anything touch her again.
*****
The triumphant heroes returned to the village, and a great
celebration was held. For a week, there was feasting, and everywhere
they went, shouts of victory followed. All four of them were proclaimed
saints, and they seemed to bask in the attention. With a great
following, Reinhart and Carrie led Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ryo-Ohki to the
Belmont's tomb, and there, laid the holy whip to its final rest. As he
pulled the doors shut, there was a bright blaze of light, and the doors
changed, the tomb becoming one unmarred surface of stone, save the great
family seal.
A week passed, and then another. Tenchi and Ryoko, with much help
from Reinhart and Carrie, were married. What a strange processions
it was, at that. Reinhart on Tenchi's left, holding the ring, Carrie
and Rosa as Ryoko's maidens of honor, and Ryo-Ohki in furry human form,
bringing up the rear, holding Ryoko's dress up. They spoke their vows
to a priest who seemed truly confused at the whole mess, and exchanged
the ring over a bowl of holy water. A ribbon was wrapped around their
hands, and the priest spoke.
"Let this ribbon be a symbol of their love, never breaking, never
failing." After the wedding was over, everything was set up again, and
Reinhart and Rosa were married, with Tenchi and Ryoko as best man and
maiden of honor. The new couple invited Tenchi and Ryoko to stay with
them as long as need be, and Reinhart arranged with the orphanage
to let Carrie live with them. It was a happy time, and Tenchi spent as
much time with his new wife as he could. From time to time, Tenchi and
Reinhart would be called upon to help destroy some of the few remaining
vampire pockets, but without their evil master to supply them power,
they were beginning to die off.
As more weeks went by, though, Tenchi became anxious. Ryoko asked
him what the trouble was, and he told her.
"I wonder why Washu hasn't come for us yet. We've been here almost
three months. Who knows what's been happening while we've been gone?"
Ryoko nodded, but could offer no words to soothe him.
"I know. Tell you the truth, I kinda miss home." She grinned
a little mischeviously. "I can't wait to see what Ayeka has to say when
she finds out that you chose me." Tenchi smiled gently, and kissed her,
yet through their link, she could still sense his unease.
But they weren't all happy times. Many nights, Tenchi would wake
to find Ryoko tossing and turning, her arms wrapped about herself,
tears streaming down her face. Tenchi would wake her, and gently rock
her until the morning came, as she sobbed and whimpered in fright. Some
days, Tenchi would sit, and stare at his wrists, where the gems glittered
darkly, as if waiting, wondering what they meant for him. Somehow,
the power that came from them passed through the link, and both Tenchi
and Ryoko could draw on it. They truly had become joined, heart and
soul.
Nearly a year and a half after they had appeared in the new world,
she fell deathly ill. Doctors came from far and wide, but none could
offer a solution. For nearly two weeks, Tenchi stayed at her side,
watching over her. At times, she would begin hallucinating,
screaming in terror at things only she could see. At others, she would
fall into a deep, deep sleep, durring which even their link seemed to be
closed off, from which Tenchi feared she might never awake.
When the morning dawned, and Tenchi awoke to find her looking
around, her fever cleared, he thanked the gods for not taking her away
from him again. Weeks past, and she slowly regained her strength.
In the weeks after, Tenchi slowly began to pry into her, talking
with her and trying to help her tortured soul finally heal. Gradually,
she began to tell him the dark secrets that she had kept bottled inside
since escaping from Castlevania. As she told him the terrors she had
gone through, a chill passed through him, and he wondered how she could
have ever kept her sanity.
One night, just over three years after they had first come to
Transylvania, as Tenchi laid awake in his bed with Ryoko, Ryo-Ohki
curled up at their feet, he saw Tenchi-ken begin to glow. Slowly, he
rose, and Ryoko awoke. Ryoko sat up, her slightly swollen stomach
standing out under the sheet. He looked at her, and shrugged. As Tenchi
stepped closer, the sword glowed brighter, beginning to pulse on and off.
A stiff breeze blew up, and things started to fly around in the room.
There was a flash of light, and a vertical line appeared, which grew and
rotated, opening to form a portal.
Reinhart and Carrie came in, awakened by the noise, and were just
in time to see the portal become fully open. Through it, Tenchi could
see one of the rooms in Washu's lab. The pink haired scientist was
typing madly at a console. Behind her, Ayeka, Sasami, Mihoshi, Nobuyuki
and Katsuhito, and Mayuka were waving to them, signaling them to hurry.
They all seemed... Older, was the only word Tenchi could put to it.
Sasami was now nearly as tall as Ayeka, with Tsunami's features even now
beginning to come out, and Mayuka, who had been just a baby when they
left, was now a toddler.
"What is this magic?" shouted Carrie over the noise. Tenchi looked
at her. Reinhart shielded his eyes against the gale.
"I think that's our ride home!" He touched Ryoko on the shoulder,
and she wrapped a robe around herself. It flapped in the wildly in the
wind. Carrie looked at Reinhart. In the past three years, she had
grown, into a child with all the worldly knowledge of a fifteen year old.
Reinhart and Rosa watched over the young girl like a kid sister, and now
the two had a baby of their own on the way. Tenchi and Ryoko looked
at each other, and then at their friends.
"Thank you, Tenchi, Ryoko! We couldn't have beaten Dracula without
you!" shouted Carrie, over the noise. Tenchi glanced at the portal.
The others seemed to be more frantic, and Washu seemed to be in two
places at once, she was typing so fast. Considering that it was Washu,
she probably was.
"Rosa will be sad that you can't see the baby, but we've decided
on names. Tenchi if it's a boy, Ryoko if it's a girl," called Reinhart.
He put out his hand, and Tenchi clasped it. Carrie hugged him, and
smiled at him. The exchange was repeated for Ryoko, and Carrie ruffled
Ryo-Ohki's fur.
"Good luck, Reinhart, Carrie. Say good bye to Rosa for us!" With
that, Tenchi turned to Ryoko, who scooped up Ryo-Ohki and jumped through
the portal. Tenchi took one last look back, grabbed Tenchi-ken,
and leapt through. As he got through, the portal snapped shut, catching
the tail end of his shirt. It was sliced clean through, and Tenchi
shuddered to think what might have happened if he had been caught there.
"Lord Tenchi!" The inevitable wave of girls crashed down on him,
and he looked apologetically at Ryoko. She just shrugged, and grinned,
mouthing, "Who's going tell them?" Tenchi had a sinking feeling that
it would be him. Maybe they should have just stayed in that world?
*****
Blood Red Moon: Epilogue
Just over three years past their disappearance, Tenchi, Ryoko, and
Ryo-Ohki were all back. It had been a long three years for Ayeka. At
first, she had thought about just leaving - Thanks to Washu's machine,
Ryou-oh was fully regrown now. But excuses kept coming up. Mayuka had
to be taken to the hospital when she got sick, Sasami decided that she
wanted to try out one of Earth's schools. And so, she had found herself
staying, waiting for Tenchi to return. Just when she... just when
everybody, in fact, had finally just about given up hope that Washu would
ever find them, the pink haired scientist had burst into the living room,
shouting that that she had found them, and would need their help.
Washu hadn't needed to drag everybody into her lab, as the whole
family stampeded in, save Nobuyuki, who ran to get her brother Yosho.
Washu had led them to the central room, where she had moved the
teleporter after it had transported Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ryo-Ohki away.
As Ayeka had looked at the strange family, she realized just how much
they had all changed in the past three years. Mihoshi had been promoted,
and seemed to be losing a little of her ditziness. Sasami, hurt by
Tenchi's disappearance, had pulled in on herself somewhat, her ready
laugh and smile not seen as often. Nobuyuki and Katsuhito had both aged
considerably, and Nobuyuki would sometimes wander the house, calling
for Tenchi. Washu had rarely been seen outside of her lab, but the
scientist had grown haggard, lost some of her eccentricness.
As Washu told them what she thought would happen, and what she
needed them to do, Ayeka wondered if things could be the same as they had
been before. Or had they all changed too much for anything to be the
same?
"I'm going to activate the portal now! I don't know how long I can
keep it open, and it may be our only chance! Remember, they'll be able
to see us, but not hear us, so you have to get them to understand
that they need to hurry. I'll keep it open as long as I can." The
scientist leaned over a panel, and the four machines had groaned to life,
firing a blue-green plasma beam toward the center of the platform.
"I'm attempting to use Tenchi-ken as a focusing point, which is how
I found them in the first place," explained Washu. The four beams were
focused on one point, and slowly, a line appeared, which widened and
seemed to turn. With a startling suddenness, it snapped into a tall
rectangle, roughly big enough for three people to walk through. It
opened into a room that looked to come from another time. It was night,
and a bed that looked like it couldn't have been made for a hundred
or more years dominated it. Ayeka's heart leapt, as she saw Tenchi.
His face was older, and it seemed lined with knowledge of things that he
didn't want, but it was Tenchi. Behind him stood Ryoko, pulling on a
robe. As much as she hated to admit it, she was glad to see the demoness
too. Behind them stood two people, a tall man, and a young girl.
"I can't keep it open much longer!" cried Washu. As she and the
other girls waved Tenchi and Ryoko toward them, he turned to the pair.
It seemed that they exchanged some words, and the man and girl raised
their hands in a farewell. Tenchi gestured to Ryoko, and she picked
up Ryo-Ohki from the bed, diving through the portal. Was it her
immagination, or had she seen a sparkle on his wrist? Tenchi took one
last look behind him at the pair, and reached out to grab something
from behind the portal, then leapt through with Tenchi-ken. As he
touched down on the platform, the portal snapped shut, and he looked
at the back of his shirt, which had been sliced off.
"Lord Tenchi!" she had called, and that signaled the onrush, as she
and everybody else rushed at him. But she noticed, as she reached him,
that he looked to Ryoko for a moment, and smiled faintly. She had looked
at the demoness, and wondered for a moment when she saw that Ryoko seemed
to have gained some weight, her belly swelling out somewhat.
That had been the night before, and now Ayeka stalked across the
house, looking for Ryoko. She didn't know how she could have missed
it, the swell to Ryoko's belly. How could that... monster woman just go
and take Tenchi like that? But the demoness was nowhere to be found.
Instead, who she found was Tenchi. Automatically, she turned her anger
towards him. How could he simply let her force him into... into...
THAT!
Wheeling on him, she went to slap him in the face.
And was quite surprised when he gently, but firmly caught her wrist,
without really looking at her hand coming toward him. There was a
strange expression in his eyes, an almost sadness that she had seen the
night before when she had noticed that his face seemed lined. And then,
as she looked at his hand, holding hers, she saw for the first time that
one of Ryoko's gems was in his wrist, glittering slightly in the light.
Slowly, she looked to his other arm, and saw the second in his other
wrist.
"We need to talk, Ayeka. Ryoko is up stairs, and not feeling well."
She stared at him, in surprise. Where had the Tenchi she remembered
gone? The gentleness that she remembered was still there, but now it was
tempered, with a strength. For the first time, she wondered if Ryoko
hadn't forced herself on Tenchi. She allowed herself to be led though,
out of the house.
He walked with her out to Yosho's tree, and asked her to sit down,
and then sat quietly, a far off look in his eyes. She studied him, the
rage that had been roiling in her belly now gone, replaced by curiosity.
He did seem older, older the simple three years that they had been gone.
There was a... weariness in his eyes, a tightness around them that had
never been there before. And Ryoko's gems, why were her gems in his
wrists? What did it mean?
"What is it, Lord Tenchi? You haven't seemed yourself since you've
come back," she asked finally, breaking the uneasy quiet. Tenchi looked
at her, that almost sadness still in his eyes, and she was almost certain
what his words were going to be.
"I'm sure that you've noticed it by now. I thought that you did
last night, just didn't pay attention because of our return. That's
probably why you were looking for her this morning. Yes, Ayeka, she is
pregnant, and yes, it is my child. And I want you to stop fighting
with her. She's paid her debt," he said. Tenchi looked away, and said
quietly, "paid it in more pain than anybody deserves." He paused, and
Ayeka tried to digest what he had just said. She realized that he was
serious. Her eyes went to the gems again.
"Tenchi... what do you mean, by that?" He looked at her, and
slowly, he began to tell her what had happened when they arrived in their
new world. He told her what Ryoko had told him, curled into a fetal ball
and sobbing with the memory of it while he tried to comfort her, and told
her about his own transformation into a vampire. She shuddered when he
told her about the Rage, and slowly began to understand the almost
sadness in his eyes. He told her about Ryoko first reappearing,
and when Dracula had taken control of her. Ayeka felt her heart go out
to her old enemy. She knew, as did everyone else, how much the thought
of being controlled again had terrified her.
He told her of the battle within himself, and how he had accepted
the gems. Tenchi told her about the splitting of the circlet, and Ryoko
falling to her knees, screaming in terror. And she finally understood,
then, that Tenchi had truly made his choice, on his own terms. And it
hadn't been all of her quiet love that she had always tried to show him,
nor had it been Ryoko clinging onto him, flooding him with what she
didn't understand. It had been Tenchi, doing as he always did, following
what his heart told him to do, the very thing that she had fallen in love
with him for.
And then Ayeka did the hardest thing in her life. She let him go,
and let go of her hatred for Ryoko. Tenchi was right. She had been
through enough pain, and Ayeka would not let herself be the one to
torture the woman anymore.
*****
Ryoko opened her eyes slowly, and was surprised to find herself
staring upwards at a window that opened onto a clear blue sky. It took
her a moment, but she remembered that they had been found and brought
home from Romania. She had been ill the day before - Washu had said that
it was a reaction to returning to their home dimension with child, but
that they were perfectly fine. That had been nearly as much of a
surprise as Washu appologizing to her for trying to run experiments
on her, that she carried not one, but two small babies, twins. She
smiled, and decided that she was going to keep that as a surprise.
She rolled over, and when she didn't find Tenchi laying next to her,
automatically reached out through their link. A reassuring grasp came
through it, and she relaxed. She still wasn't sure that she understood
how the link had been made, although Washu had tried to explain. She had
said that they had always been linked to each other, from the time that
Tenchi had been born. It had something to do with his power to control
the Light Hawk Wings, and her - their gems, the fact that both powers
were one and the same. When Tenchi had absorbed the gems, the link that
they had already had was enhanced a thousand-fold. Their very lives were
now hooked together, because of that link.
Because of the strength of it, Washu had said, so long as one lived,
they both would live, because just as the power of the gems passed
through the link, so too did their very life force. If one's life came
to an end, the other would likely be dead within hours. But there was a
chance, she had said, that the other may actually sustain both of their
lives, through the link. Life forever with Tenchi, or death as he died,
so that she wouldn't have to suffer without him.
Stretching, she decided that it was time get out of their bed. She
stood, the blanket slipping down her bare body and causing her to shiver
slightly. She pulled on her favorite dress, but paused a moment on
putting on the tail. It had gotten her into so much trouble in Romania,
she wondered if it was worth wearing. After a moment, though, she
grinned and attached it to her belt, where it swung back and forth a
moment. What was life without a little bit of trouble now and again?
Otherwise, you couldn't have any fun. On the verge of teleporting
out of the room in Tenchi's direction, she remembered that Washu had told
her not to teleport around while pregnant, as there was a chance that the
babies might be harmed.
Being pregnant could be such an increadable thing, but Ryoko was
quickly finding out that it meant she couldn't have as much fun as she
was used to. So, teleporting out to see what Tenchi was out. So was
trying to get Ayeka into a fighting spirit. Actually, she thought to
herself, the thought of pestering Ayeka had kinda lost its luster in the
three years that they had been away. Instead, she decided to head out to
the onsen, and take a very long, refreshing soak, sans sake. No drinking
while pregnant, either.
Getting her basket, with soap and other bathing materials, she
walked out to where the onsen floated in the sky, and flew up to the
dome. She phased through it - one of the few powers that she could still
use safely - and landed on the floor. Shucking out of the dress, she
began to carefully wash. She paused for a moment as she looked at the
swell to her belly. It had been a surprise when she had realized that
she was gaining weight six months before. Washu had always said that she
wasn't sure if Ryoko could even have children, although she had put in
the reproductive system, because of the properties of the MASU.
Tenchi had noticed too, and had wondered as almost daily, her belly
had seemed to swell a little more. When he had told her what he thought
was happening, she had almost fallen over from shock. It truely had been
one of their happiest times in Romania. At the same time, Rosa's belly
had been swelling, and they had began to compare notes. The two of them
had become close friends over the three years, which had surprised
Ryoko. Rosa had a quick wit. In a way, she had reminded Ryoko of
Sasami, whom she'd always had a softspot for, with her smile and
mischievious laughter.
Finishing with her washing, and rinsing the soap off of her body,
Ryoko walked over to the large pool, and stepped in. The soothing
heat of the water washed over her as she moved in until the water came
up to her neck. She found an outcropping, and sat down, leaning her head
back against the wall. She let the silence envelope her. The fear of
being alone did not come - she knew that it never would again, as she
touched the link again lightly in her mind.
Only two days since they had returned, yet Ryoko already felt like
she was home. She was proud of herself. She hadn't started a fight with
Ayeka yet, and had even managed to surprise Sasami by cooking a dish that
Rosa had taught her. While her cooking still couldn't compare to the
young girls, she was still quite a bit better at it than she had been
when they had left. Granted, the reason that she hadn't gotten into any
fights with Ayeka was because she had barely seen the princess since
returning, but even so, she realized that it didn't really matter to her
anymore. She didn't think that she would have as much fun as she would
have once had.
Grinning, she wondered if she was settling down a little bit as a
married woman. Probably not, she reflected, but she knew that Tenchi
would be disappointed with her if she did try to get into a fight with
the woman.
As she soaked, she heard the door slide open, and idlely wondered
who it was, but she was too content to open her eyes to find out.
Whoever had joined her remained quiet, not saying anything. For a
moment, Ryoko wondered if it could be Nobuyuki, but discarded the thought
quickly. He certainly wouldn't have been quiet. Inwardly sighing,
she opened her eyes, to find Ayeka standing before the door, looking
down at the floor, her hands folded before her. She wore her usual
multiple kimonos, tied with a red ribbon. On the verge of making a
slightly challenging remark, Ryoko remembered that she was trying not to
fight with her.
"What's up?" she asked coyly. Ayeka looked up, a little startled,
and cleared her throat.
"I... I was hoping that I'd find you here, Miss Ryoko. I... wanted
to speak with you, on... certain matters. May... May I join you?" she
asked. Ryoko looked at her, surprised, and raised herself a little out
of the water, nodding. There was something different to this Ayeka than
the one she remembered, and the Ayeka that she had left three years
before had never been hesitant about speaking her mind when it came to
Ryoko. Slowly, the other woman disrobed, wrapping a towel around
herself, and then waded into the pool. Knowing Ayeka, she had probably
already bathed two or three times that day. The Juraian princess sat
down across from her, a troubled expression on her face.
"What is it, Ayeka?" she finally prodded, wondering what all of
Ayeka's pensiveness was about. Ayeka looked at her, and, slowly, began
to speak.
"L... Lord Tenchi told me that... that you are expecting a child
soon. I... I would like to be the first to... to congratulate
you. I don't think that he has... has told anybody else yet." Ryoko
stared at Ayeka a little suspiciously, but let her continue. She sensed
a seriousness in Ayeka today, as if she needed to say something,
but didn't know how.
"He told me some... of what happened to both of you. I..." Ayeka
paused, and looked into Ryoko's eyes. She could see pity there, and
humbleness. Taking a deep breath, Ayeka continued. "I wish to
appologize for how I treated you, before you left. It was poor of me,
and my behavior was not befitting of my station. I would like to begin
again. The attack on Jurai was not your fault; I know that, I just did
not want to admit it. So, if you will allow me, I... I would like to be
considered your friend."
Ryoko started at her for a few moments, amazed at what she had just
heard. Then, slowly, she stood, and waded over, to sit next to Ayeka.
The princess watched her as she took Ayeka's hand, and guided it to rest
on her swollen belly. One of the unborn children chose that moment to
kick. Ayeka jumped in surprise, but slowly, she began to smile, as she
understood Ryoko's answer.
"The only other person that knows is Washu, but there are two babies
in here," said Ryoko, patting her stomach lightly. Ayeka stared at her
in surprise, and then they both shared a laugh. Neither noticed as
Tenchi opened the door open a little to take his bath, see them, smile,
and then quietly back out.
*****
Ryoko tapped Washu on the shoulder, as the pink haired scientist
turned to go back toward a strapped up, and resigned looking, shirtless
Tenchi. She turned to her with a gasp, and Ryoko put her hands on her
hips. Washu was wearing a nurse's uniform, and was in her adult form.
As she recognized Ryoko, she grinned a little weakly.
"Well... Old habits die hard?" she said. Ryoko frowned a little,
and Washu moved towards one of her consoles. The straps holding Tenchi
up released, and he walked over to Ryoko, grabbing his shirt, and putting
his arm around her waist. She snuggled a little closer to him.
"Its alright, Ryoko. I came here on my own this time. I asked her
if she knew why I was able to absorb your gems like that." Washu nodded,
and Ryoko looked over at her.
"Well? Don't keep us all in the dark." Washu tapped at her board
for a moment.
"Well, part of the reason was you, Ryoko. As I told you earlier,
the two of you have always had a mental bond. I'm not exactly sure why,
though. It might be because of the time he spent around the cave, it
might have been because of Tsunami's intervention - the point is, it was
there. The other part is because the Light Hawk Wings are made of the
exact same power as what the gems produce. When Tenchi reached out to
them, some of what passed between you and him in the link helped him, by
linking the gems power to him temporarily. However, when the gems came
in contact with Tenchi's power, it was as if they were in contact with
you, and thus the gems assimilated with him."
"So basically, what you're saying is that Tenchi could have taken
them at any time, right?" asked Ryoko. Washu shook her head.
"I don't think so. Just as he couldn't call his Light Hawk Wings
unless there was extreme danger to either himself, or one of us, he
couldn't have taken the gems. But I think that there was a little more
then even that to it. Tenchi has used the Light Hawk Wings while in
contact with the sword before, but didn't absorb them then. I think that
the catalyst to him assimilating with them was the extreme danger, and
terror that you were in, and the love that had finally become fully
formed while he was trying to find you. Those three things broke through
the final barrior."
Washu talked with them for another few moments, and then Tenchi
and Ryoko exited the lab. Tenchi laughed when an all too familiar
klaxon sounded, followed by a shouted, "Sorry! Forgot to turn it off."
They went out to the living room, and they found the rest of the family
there. They were seated, watching the TV, and didn't notice when Tenchi
and Ryoko came in. Sasami was laying on the floor, Ayeka was sitting
on the couch, and had her hands folded in her lap. Mihoshi was biting
her fingernails, as, on the screen, a police officer tried to arrest
a criminal. Nobuyuki, in an easy chair, was trying to sneek glances
at the ladies in the house, until Katsuhito rapped him lightly on the
forehead. Little Mayuka, who had been sitting next to Ayeka, was the
first to see them, turning toward them and giggling. The tot bounced
over to them, shouting 'Daddy!' Laughing, Tenchi picked her up, as
everybody else noticed them.
He wondered, briefly, if all evil was destined to do one good thing
in their life. If Yuzuha hadn't have wanted her revenge on Yosho, Mayuka
would never have been born. Had Kagato never sent Ryoko to Jurai, than
Yosho would never have followed her to earth, and Tenchi wouldn't have
been born, nor would Ryoko have ever been eventually freed. Without
Dracula to force himself to admit it, would he have ever chosen between
Ryoko and Ayeka? The question was unanswerable, he knew, foolish even,
but still, he wondered.
He kissed Mayuka on the cheek, and then set her down. It still
amazed him that she had known him at first sight. Washu had tried to
explain it - she had all of the memories from when she had been a
teenaged girl - but he was still surprised by it. He looked around the
room, and slowly, smiled. He knew that he really was home. Here, he had
his whole family.
"I have an announcement. With all the craziness since our return,
Ryoko and I haven't had the chance to tell anybody," he began. Everybody
looked at him expectantly, although Ayeka had a hidden smile. "While
Ryoko and I were... away, she and I were married." Sasami laughed in
delight, and Nobuyuki's eyes went wide in amazement. A round of
congratulations passed through them. Tenchi raised his right hand, his
left slipping back and finding Ryoko's. She gave it a light squeeze,
and he continued.
"That's not all, though. Ryoko is pregnant. Washu said to expect
the baby in three months." All but Ayeka stared at them in shock. Both
Nobuyuki and Katsuhito looked like their eyes were about to pop out clear
out of their heads. Sasami pushed herself up, and ran over to Ryoko,
hugging her, laughing. Soon the rest of the family joined them, each
hugging Ryoko and congratulating Tenchi in turn. And as they did, Tenchi
looked at Ryoko, and smiled as a thought came through their link.
"We really are home."
*****
Three months later, Nobuyuki had built another addition to the
house, more alive than anybody had seen him since Achika had died.
Mihoshi crashed her ship into the lake yet again in her rush to make it
in time. The whole family was piled into Nobuyuki's van, and Ryoko was
rushed to the hospital, Washu running along on one side of her
wheelchair, and Tenchi keeping pace, his hand entwined with hers, on the
other. Ayeka pushed the chair, making a show of grumbling about having
to push 'that monster woman', but they all knew her heart wasn't in it,
for in the past months, she and Ryoko had put aside their differences
for good. Sasami bounded along in front of her, holding a little sewn
bear with Ryo-Ohki hidden inside, laughing and smiling in anticipation.
Mayuka was led by Nobuyuki and Mihoshi, giggling, while Katsuhito
brought up the rear, looking as if he didn't know what had hit him.
Ayeka wheeled Ryoko into the emergency room, and a human doctor
came up, asking them why she didn't seem to have any records. Tenchi
covered by saying that they hadn't yet been transferred from her
birth-place, which was true enough - Washu still hadn't finished
doctoring histories for all of the girls. The doctor shrugged, and took
Ryoko's wheel chair from her, pushing her into the maternity ward, Tenchi
following close behind, and the rest of the pack just on his heels.
Hospital residents watched as the strange procession went by.
The doctor led them to the room, and Tenchi and Ryoko alone went in
while the rest of the family waited outside, watching through the window.
Ryoko shouted in pain, and at least a dozen orderlies had to come in just
to hold her down. Tenchi tried to sooth her, but was shouted at for his
trouble. Tenchi began to worry, when, after one particularly strong
contraction, he saw all too familiar sparks begin to appear around her
hands.
When the paper the next morning held the headline, 'Half of Hospital
Destroyed by Mysterious Gas Explosion,' everybody just thanked the gods
that nobody had been hurt or killed in the blast.
And in the Masaki household, a pair of twins, one boy, and one girl,
had joined the family. One of the twins already had a little bit of cyan
colored hair that seemed to refuse to be combed out of spikes and would
occasionally shoot little tiny fireballs at whoever was holding her, the
other with a little bit of black hair, and had a tendency to float out of
his crib. Little Mayuka would play with them all day. Everybody agreed
that Ryoko made a surprisingly good mother, but then, how could anybody
go wrong in a house full of women?
And the names carved into the cribs?
Reinhart, and Carrie.
*****
Earlier in this chapter, I said that Tenchi changed one of the Wings
into 'The Light Hawk Shield' Now, what I mean by that is that he used
one of the wings as an old style 'strap it to your arm' shield. Check
out OVA episode six, and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Ok! For those of you that stuck with me this long, I want to thank
you. I'd also like to thank Sivus, from the #fanfics channel on Dalnet
IRC, for prereading this, and giving tons and tons of pointers. Second,
I'd like to thank Konami, for putting out a game that I could use as a
good premise for what most of the test group readers thought was a good
fic.
I hope that this didn't drag on too long for you guys, and I hope
that the ending wasn't too horribly sappy. Thanks for reading.
---
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