Here we go again... C&C, please.
    Platinum_Dragon@usinternet.com
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--
     Blood Red Moon Resurrection Prologue:
  Forces Awakening

     Hi all.  I'm back again.  Somehow or other, Blood Red Moon
was popular, and I got some requests for a sequel.  Well,
anyway, here's the disclaimers: All characters belong to their
various copyrights, with the exception of Reinhart Masaki and Rosa
Masaki.  Those two are mine.  Beyond their usage in this story,
I claim no ownership, no rights of creation, no nothing.  Please
don't sue me.
     The Tenchi Muyo Characters in this series are based on the OVA
versions, but don't be surprised if there aren't one or two TV
references.  The characters Carrie Fernandez, Alucard, Death,
Dracula, Maria Renard, and Lisa all belong to the Konami
Castlevania series. This cross-over series is placed roughly 16
years in Tenchi's world, 120 years in Alucard's world after the
events in Blood Red Moon.  Reinhart and Rosa Masaki, the children
of Tenchi and Ryoko, are now young teens.

     "To what profit is it to a man, if he gains the world and
loses his own soul?  Mathew 16:26 I believe." - Dracula, as he dies
at the end of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

*****

     High on a cliff, overlooking a calm lake, there came a wind.
It blew across the surface, of the ruins of an ancient castle that
had sunk more than a century before.  As if the wind were a signal,
the castle slowly began to rise; reaching up to a moon that had
begun to burn crimson as blood in the night.  Higher it grew,
stones and towers lifting out of the waters and coming together
to slowly form an ancient, seamless shape.  Like a great finger,
the tallest tower grew, stabbing into the air like a dagger in the
night, stained red by the light of the moon.  Water poured out of
windows long submerged, streamed off steepled rooftops in rivulets
as they emerged from the water.
     Finally, the isle that the castle rested upon crested the
waves, as the huge clock on the tallest tower began to toll the
eleventh hour.  Long and deep, the sound of the ancients chimes
rang pure as crystal, rolling across the land.  In the forest
around the lake, the animals woke.  They remembered the sound,
remembered with a terror that had been passed down to them from
their sires, and to them in turn by their sires.  Predator and prey
alike, all heard the sound and quickly left, running from the
ancient forest.  Crystal pure the sound may be, but the crystal
was of the most evil sort.  The wind, as if afraid of what it had
called forth, gusted away.
     It swept away from the castle, and down the valley that it
found. Reaching a village, it calmed, and whispered its way through
the streets, where people had come into the streets.  They looked
and stared at the castle's silhouette in the night.  The younger
ones, men who had seen no more than thirty years were just curious,
but the elders whispered, of stories that their parents had told
them long ago. Stories of macabre evil, and terrors to wrench the
mind and twist the soul.
     Past the villagers it blew, to an old house at the edge of
town. There too, a villager stood, staring at the castle.  Old,
tired golden eyes looked there, and the ancient woman remembered
a time long ago, when she and three others had gone there, to fight
a hopeless battle against an evil deeper than even the castle
itself.  Memory had faded with age, but her soul shivered in fright
as the deep tolls of the great clock touched her.
     "No...  It can not be..." she breathed.  The wind left her to
her memories, gusting past her toward the open plains.  It flew
over them in haste, stirring the long grasses in its rush, as
though it wanted to make amends for its deeds.
     Finally, it reached a forest, and inside, a clearing.  In the
middle of the clearing, a small building of shining white marble
stood. The wind pushed hard at the ancient door, on which a huge
carving of a bat with the sun on its back stood out in stark
relief.  They held a feeling of great age, as did the entire
building.  Vines crisscrossed the stone, and tall bushes nearly
covered three sides.  But the door, and the steps leading up to it
remained clear of obstructions. Try as the wind might, though,
it could not push the doors open.  The wind faded away, defeated.
     But its efforts were not wholly in vain.  Inside the building,
four torches flared to life, which revealed a raised platform,
on top of which rested an ancient coffin of dark oak.  A long, age
darkened cross was carved on the cover.  The cross began to glow
a gentle blue, and inside the coffin, something stirred.  The cover
was pushed open, and a tall man sat up.  A long mane of white hair
framed a stern face, dark blue gaze looking around in surprise.
Black clothing in a style that had not been seen in more than six
hundred years encased him, and a black cloak with blood red
underlining flowed down his back.
     "I have awoken again?" he asked himself in confusion.
For he was Adrian Farenheights Tepes, also known as Alucard,
son of the evil Count Dracula Vlad Tepes.  Six hundred years
before, he had helped Trevor Belmont end his father's evil reign,
and then placed himself into what he had thought would be an
eternal sleep.  But some three hundred years later, he had awoken
to find Castlevania, his father's evil home, risen once again.
     Determined to end it once and for all, he had entered what had
once been his home, with the intention of destroying it.  Inside,
he had met Maria Renard, and Richter Belmont, the descendant
of Trevor. Richter had been under the control of Shaft, the dark
priest bent on once again resurrecting Dracula, and Alucard had
been able to free him. Shaft had opened a path way to another
dimension, where an inverted Castlevania waited, with new
challenges and monsters, and Alucard had traveled there.  After
a long, difficult battle, he had defeated his father, and destroyed
both castles.
     After destroying the castles, he had found Richter and Maria
waiting for him outside.  Richter had thanked him, and he had taken
his leave, turning to go.  To his surprise, Maria had asked to join
him.  Though he had already decided to return to his eternal sleep,
he found himself agreeing.  In their short time together, they
loved, loved more powerfully than Alucard had ever thought his
cursed heart could.  But it was not to last.  Only ten years after
destroying Castlevania, she had been killed by a rogue pack of
werewolves. In the blood rage that rose in him, he tore them apart,
staining the forest red.  When it abated, and he came to himself
again, he found himself in a town, the bodies of men at his feet,
and streamers of blood running from the corners of his jaws.  In
shock, he had placed himself back into the eternal sleep, as he
knew that he should have done years before, hoping to never wake
again.
     But now he was awake again.  That could only mean that his
father had returned.  But if that were true, than where were the
Belmonts? If he had awoken because his father was back, than the
Belmont line must have come to an end.  That was the only
conclusion he could draw. And yet, he could not sense his father's
dark presence in the world.
     Alucard got out of the coffin, and stretched, wincing as his
muscles complained of long unuse.  Stoic acceptance of his life as
a half-human, half-vampire or not, it was still a pain waking up
after a long rest.  As he massaged his legs back to a semblance
of life, he idly wondered how long he had been asleep this time.
     Alucard finished, and stood, walking over to the wall.  A
table sat there, on which a suit of mail, black with red enamel,
a shield, with his symbol on it, and a helm rested.  He
brushed his hand across the armor, and then raised his gaze.  A
long, thin sword rested in its sheath on the wall.  The hilt was
made of short quillions, worked to look like a braid.  The pommel
had a large, smooth green stone, and metal, shaped to look like
stems extended out, into carefully detailed rosebuds.
     He pulled the blade from its sheath.  It was made of a metal
that nobody could identify, sparkling brightly in the flickering
torchlight. In all the time that it had belonged to him, it had
never dulled, never been nicked.  It could cut through armor as if
it wasn't even there.  The sword, older even than his father,
was the last link that he had to his mother, and it had always
served him well.
     "Mother...  I had hoped that I would never again have to call
on your gift's services, but it seems that I must once again do
battle. Please, lend me strength to do what I must," he said
softly.  Quickly, he donned the armor, and buckled on the sword.
As he settled it around his waist, he felt a familiar and unwelcome
presence enter the room. He turned to face the intruder.
     "Alucard.  So, this is where you have been hiding for the past
two hundred and twenty years," rasped the ancient specter.  Long
black robes covered all but the figure's face and hands.  Great
black feather wings sprouted out from his back, idle now that he
was only standing. A long, curved scythe was clutched in hands of
bone.  His face was a skull, bleached white.  Alucard stared coldly
at Death, his hand going to his blade.
     "What do you want?  I have better things to do than waste time
with you."  Death seemed to grin.
     "Ah, still straight to the point, I see.  I have come to see
if you have anything to do with Castlevania's awakening."
Alucard stared at Death in surprise.
     "Why would I raise my father's evil, when I have already
destroyed it once?  Though obviously not as thoroughly as I thought
I had."
     "Ah yes, I forget that you have slept since then.  Dracula
has disappeared a hundred twenty years gone, when a strange man
from another world came and did battle with him.  He is nowhere
to be found, even in the nether realms.  But Castlevania is risen
again, and only those of his blood have the power to do that, as
you know."
     "My father is missing?  And I assume then that you have not
been able to enter the castle?"  Death nodded.
     "As you are clearly not the one who called Castlevania,
I will leave you to your business, and continue my search for the
one that did.  Perhaps we shall met again on... peaceful terms."
     "Perhaps."  Death nodded, and disappeared.  Alucard thought
about the information he'd gained from the unexpected source.
His father missing for a hundred-twenty years.  Good news,
certainly, but if he hadn't called the castle forth, than who, or
what, had?  It took an incredible amount of power to summon it from
its watery grave.
     Where before he had only thought he had a simple task, he now
found a potentially deadly mystery.  Castlevania returned to the
physical realm, Dracula missing, and the Belmont line likely ended.
What was he to face, upon returning to his ancient home?
     Settling his sword in its sheath, Alucard opened the doors
of his resting place, and stepped into the open night for the first
time in two hundred twenty years.  Looking up, he saw the blood
red moon, floating in the sky once again.  Even as he took his
first breath in the fresh air, the sound of the great clock in the
castle rolled over him.  Twelve deep tolling touched his ears.
     "Land of my birth...  so I am once again allowed to lay eyes
on your beautiful shores," he said, and, for a moment, the ghost
of a smile touched his lips.  Perhaps the night had come, but a
vampire's home was the darkness.
     "I...  Is it really you?"
     "Master Alucard?"  Alucard spun, as two familiar voices
sounded behind him.  One came from what appeared to be a small
woman, save that this woman had four delicate wings, and wore a
flowing dress that fluttered in the breeze.  The second voice came
from a small demon, leathery bat wings flapping up and down in a
constant motion.  He carried a small pitchfork.  Now Alucard did
smile, in disbelief, and joy.
     "It is you, Alucard!"
     "You've come back!"
     "Sheann'a!  Drathar!  But how did you find me so soon?  Are
the others here?"  Sheann'a, the fairy, shook her head, and the
demon Drathar spoke.
     "When Dracula disappeared, there was an uproar in Hell.
Balrin, the ghost, and the soul sword were both destroyed in the
chaos that followed.  The only reason that I survived was because
I had been summoned at the time by a young necromancer.  Brisana
died over a hundred fifty years ago.  She lived a long time, for a
bat."  Alucard nodded.  These were his familiars, friends that had
helped him so long ago when he had gone to destroy the castle.
     "Do you know anything about who has resurrected the castle?"
     "Only that he is of Dracula's bloodline, and that he is very,
very powerful," answered Drathar.  Sheann'a nodded.
     "There is something strange about him.  He has Dracula's
dark powers, but we sensed something akin to the Belmont's blood
in him as well.  The two powers battle for domination inside of
him, much as your human and vampire side battled within you."
Alucard nodded gravely. The mystery only grew deeper.
     "Come, my friends.  We have a long journey ahead, and a longer
battle after."  Reaching into himself, he morphed into his wolf
form, and then dashed away, to the north.  Toward the evil
Castlevania.

*****

     "D3, report."
     "Mistress, D10 reported finding an incredible power source
in his domain.  He said that it was at least equal to the Light
Hawk Wings." The Lady Tokimi, who had been listening to him
with only a hundredth of her attention, now turned in full to him.
     "An equal to the Light Hawk Wings?  Continue."
     "D10's report said that he wasn't entirely certain why he had
not picked up on this power source before, but it was likely to
match Tsunami's alterations to the Light Hawk Wings."
     "Order him to begin efforts to retrieve it.  This comes at an
excellent time, with the attack on her plaything at hand.  I leave
the matter to you.  I must complete the preparations for the
battle."
     "Lady Tokimi... may I ask, what do you intend to do with
Tsunami's avatar?"  Tokimi paused, and activated the display.
A three dimensional picture appeared, of a tall man.  Ten Light
Hawk Wings surrounded him, and two gems sparkled from his wrists.
     "Not just Tsunami's, but Washu's as well.  I'm not certain
as of yet.  For now, he may run free."
     "By your leave, Lady Tokimi."  She nodded, and he phased away.
Tokimi turned back to the display.
     "What are you playing at with this boy, sisters?  He has
enough power to be one of us, and that is before considering
his bondmate, and yet you keep him ignorant of the truth.  Tell me,
Tsunami and Washu, what is your game?"  The goddess stared at the
display, a thoughtful light in her eyes.

*****

     Deep inside, something stirred.  It felt at the edges of its
prison.  They seemed thinner than before, less substantial.
Soon... soon, its time would come again.  It could feel the power,
flowing to it, through the prison's walls.  Slowly, it grew
stronger, as its thirst became stronger.  Thirst for the sweetest
of nectars.
     Satisfied that the walls were still sufficient to contain
it, it went back to sleep.
     Soon...  It had been patient for this long.  It could wait a
little longer.

*****

     The young woman looked out the window, at a peaceful lake and
field.  Outside, a pair of teenaged children laughed and played.
One boy, with black hair, dove to the ground, as a cyan-haired
girl tried to tackle him, literally flying through the air.
     Smiling, Sasami looked away.  Sixteen years, since they had
been born, the twin children of Tenchi and Ryoko.  Reinhart and
Rosa Masaki took after their parents quite a bit.  Reinhart,
who shared his father's black hair and gentle eyes, was generally
level headed, but his mother's quick temper occasionally
shown through with usually embarrassing results.
     Rosa was much more carefree than her twin, but unlike her
mother, she also had a very, very strong sense of duty, inherited
from her father.  Once a promise had been extracted from her, she
would fill it, no matter what the cost to herself.  Sometimes,
that sense of obligation worried Sasami.
     Sasami...  The young woman smiled a little.  She was Sasami,
but she was also Tsunami, goddess of Jurai.  The melding had come
smoothly six years before, on Sasami's eighteenth birthday,
and since they had been one person, shared one soul.  All of
Tsunami's seriousness, powers, and knowledge, combined with
Sasami's love of life, and strong emotions.  They truly had become
one, and it was a decision that Tsunami knew she would never
regret.
     Her smile faded.  Tsunami could feel her sister's presence.
Tokimi was close, no more than a dimension away, too close to the
dimension she had worked so hard to protect and nurture. Looking
back out the window, at the two children, she wondered if Washu
and her preparations had been enough.  Reinhart spun and caught
his sister, laughing.  They would have to be, she knew.  Tenchi,
who had grown to become a handsome man in his prime, came out,
towards the children.
     There was so much that she wanted to tell him, yet she knew
that she had to wait longer still.  Tenchi - and Ryoko as well -
still had a long, and painful road ahead.  Already, her plans had
nearly come crashing down around her when the two of them had
disappeared for three years.  But through a twist of fate she could
have never foreseen, not only had her plans been saved, but their
chances of being successful were greatly improved.
     But she worried as well.  Although he had matured more fully
than she could have ever hoped in his three year journey, and
gained a mastery of both his powers and the ones gained from
Ryoko's gems, he had also gained a dark taint, one that she could
not remove.  Though he had the strength to fight it, she feared
that it would manifest itself at the worst possible time.
     She looked at him again.  The Slowing had already taken
effect, the gradual stopping of the aging process that effected
anybody that used the Jurai power.  Though he was now forty years
old, he looked no different than he had sixteen years before,
when he had returned from his travels.  The effect had been
amplified by the gems - left alone, he'd be lucky to get his first
gray hair in some thirty thousand years.  Almost immortal.  Tsunami
knew that even herself, youngest of the three goddesses, would
likely have long since left this dimension by then.  She hoped that
would be.
     Was she doing the right thing?  She asked herself the question
that she had asked a hundred billion times before.  But she had no
choice, she knew.  She was committed, had been committed millennia
before when she had first began guiding bloodlines to eventually
produce Tenchi.  If one life's sacrifice could save a world,
indeed, an entire universe, than it was a paltry fee indeed, and it
was a price that she would gladly pay.
     "I'm sorry Tenchi.  To save this universe, or any other, I
would sacrifice even myself."  A tear fell, and then she teleported
away, to do what she could to prevent the coming tragedy.

*****

     A face that could only be called young by its appearance
looked down from the tallest tower of Castlevania.  Pale skin,
glittering black eyes, and close cropped blond hair stood out in
the moon light. The man stared into the distance, where he could
feel something approaching.
     "I can feel you.  You've woken, and are coming here.  Come
quickly.  Race like the wind.  The time has come, and I will not
wait any longer.  Come Alucard, come, and let this be finished.
The pendulum has swung between light and dark long enough."
     There was a sound behind him, and he turned.  An old woman,
with eyes of pale gold, and faintly cyan-tinged gray hair stood
there, clutching a staff of dark mahogany.  A large, blue gem held
by a carven hawk's foot sparkled faintly from within.  A humorless
smile touched his lips.
     "I've been expecting you!  I was almost thinking that you
wouldn't make it, but then I forget, the Belnades never did know
when to give up.  Such a strong line, but now there is only one."
The ancient woman's eyes widened in surprise.
     "Are you, then, the one who has brought the castle back?
Dracula is not here?" she asked.  For one as old as she was, there
was no fear, no tremor in her voice.  A strength, a conviction
as there instead. "Who are you?"
     "Carrie Fernandez, descendant of Sypha Belnades, and heir to
her power.  How lonely you must be....  Reinhart dead some ninety
years ago, Rosa not long after.  Their three children, dead in a
terrible and needless war.  Sad loss, that.  The Belmont's glorious
bloodline, come at long last to an end.  Almost.  You've outlived
all your friends.  Now it seems, my dear, that you are the last one
left."  The old woman firmed her grip on the staff, and took a step
forward.
     "You seem to know much.  Do you know your own name, that I may
carve it into your gravestone when I have dispatched you here?"
He smiled again.
     "So, you haven't lost your fighting spirit in your old age!
Very good, I may have some fun tonight after all!  But your
question... What's in a name?  Simply something cowards hide
behind.  But if you must know a name, than let us say simply Cain.
But I do assume that you've come for something more than idle
chatter, no?"  She nodded, and her staff began to glow pale blue.
Folding his arms, he smiled, and waited.  With surprising speed
for somebody of her age, she whipped her staff down toward him, and
a blast of pure light lanced out from the gemstone.
     Calmly, he placed his hand down into its path.  The light
lance touched it, and turned dead black.  The black light raced
back to the staff, and she screamed in pain and threw it away when
his counter blast touched it.  He strode over, and backhanded
her.  She flew across the room, and slammed into the wall,
crumpling bonelessly to the ground.  He walked over, and turned
her face toward his.
     "You are going to return to the village, and wait there.
Somebody is going to arrive there soon, and when they do, you will
take them to the Whip, and retrieve it.  Then you will return here.
Now begone with you!  Pester me no more this night, and I will let
you live a little longer!"  With that, he turned away, and back to
his vantage point.
     "Soon mother...  You will be avenged, and the Pendulum of
Chaos shall stop swinging for all eternity!"  His hand went
unconsciously to the golden cross hanging about his neck.
     "Soon."

---
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