Timeline: AU Lords of Shadow Verse with a mix of the original Castlevania lore and characters
Spoilers: Lords of Shadow mainly
Status: WIP
Some tags because this fic requires them: AU, OOC, Parent/Child incest, Slash, Very gay situations, Noncon situations, Shenanigans, Satan's a dick, Dracula isn't evil enough but damnit he's trying, Alucard isn't badass enough but he's pretty to look at, Serious conflicting emotions about loving a family member, Platonic family moments, Dante's Inferno get's a serious nod, Alucard the damsel in distress, Alucard take off that cologne that attracts rapists, Yoko the mother hen, Look at all the nods to other Castlevania titles, I can't write worth a damn, OOCness galore, Enough with the Latin already, I REGRET NOTHING, I will go down with this ship! Both of them!, This is crack, I like tags
Pairings: Satan/Alucard, Satan/Trevor, Dracula/Alucard, Gabriel/Trevor, hints at past tense Grant/Trevor
Disclaimer: Not mine and never will be but I can still play with them so long as I make no money, right?
Complete Summary: After the battle with Satan Alucard never completely recovers from the mentally and physically draining battle and leads his father to make a terrible decision in an attempt to remedy the situation. Several hundred years after Dracula's fateful decision the beginnings of a plan, long before schemed, begin to unfurl that will lead an amnesiac Alucard to unwittingly allow a forgotten evil to enter the realm of man once more. Oh snap, sounds like shenanigans!
AN: I can't believe I am putting this on this site. Certainly this is not my wisest decision and I expect to feel the wrath of hundreds of loyal CV fans screaming me as a heretic. Chill bro. This is just a fanfic and I don't really believe this could happen in canon. Seriously. It's called having fun and writing for yourself. :) Anyways, this is a rewrite of a brain crack bunny previously posted on this site under the same name which I went ahead renamed so as not to confuse myself. The direction of that fic and this fic are totally different and had different pairings planned so I just decided to scrap that one and upload this one. Anyhow this stupid bunny would not leave me and demanded I write it, despite my lack of 'gud riting skilz' so I'm giving it a whirl. Seriously, since playing LoS I've desired to see a Satan/Alucard fanfic but, alas, I've seen none. So the one other weirdo out there like me this fic is for YOU. :) There will be bizarre chapter titles made in ode to the Castlevania's titles or random Latin so beware! Be warned, this is completely unbeta'd and I'm not good with sentence structure or amazing with spelling or punctuation enthusiast but I'm not afraid to admit it. Word has pretty much taken over for me and what it demands of me I consent to whether it is right or wrong. I've tried to pick out the mistakes but this thing is loooong and I'm good at missing things when I continuously eyeball page after page after page. Anyone wanna beta for me? Hahaha!
Dracula sat alone in his throne room, the waning pale light of the moon filtering through the ancient fragmented stain glass windows. The dying light danced off a gleaming blade he twisted into the stone of his throne, ignoring and caring not for the groove it made there. His red hued eyes watched the faint engraved swirls in the blade turn from grey to blue as he turned it another full revolution. The sword, though masterfully crafted, was not for him. He never was overly prone to using these sorts of weapons. Once the Brotherhood had introduced him to the combat cross he saw no further need for a sword in most situations and felt it limited his abilities. Dracula tensed momentarily at the thought of the Brotherhood, his long abated temper beginning to flare but he quickly pushed his age old anger aside. He could dwell on that another time.
He stopped grinding the blade into his throne and turned the sword in his hands to observe it in the dull light. His fingers reflexively found the rosary he had wrapped around the blade, the image of Marie handing him the little trinket for luck and protection before he left home flashed in his mind; eyes so full of worry but a lovely encouraging smile on her lips which was so like her. Dracula stroked the beads, his fingers caressing them lovingly, letting himself bask in his memories of his long dead wife in the shadows of his throne.
This blade was unlike any other blade for it was his creation. He had spent many years working and laboring deep within the volcanic undercroft of his Castle lair, the chaotic molten pits of the Damned City being the perfect place to create his weapon. The Chupacabra had been a valuable, albeit tiresome, asset in procuring all the necessary relics and items he'd required, even if he'd had to sit through its irritating jokes to get them. The damned creature had nearly driven him to imprisoning him again with its incessant talking. The final piece he needed was from the remains of his ancient weapon; the Combat Cross. He'd shattered the weapon for a second time after Satan's fall, choosing his own destiny, and had the pieces scattered so far from the world of light that no man could ever claim them and rise against him. The Chupacabra, ever the reliable tool, retrieved a section of the iron links. Once everything was amassed he worked tirelessly to forge the sword; infusing the molten steel with his dark magic and even a piece of his own decrepit soul. The blade would serve and protect its intended master well one day. For the moment it had but one purpose, the same purpose that Crissaegrim served for him; forcing his son into slumber and fragmenting his memories of Dracula and Satan.
He needed to act on his intentions soon but it was harder than he thought it would be to initiate. He didn't want to separate himself from his child after they'd actually gotten far closer than he'd ever dreamt possible. The very thought of no longer having his son at his side pained him greatly but it was for the boys own good. Alucard had suffered greatly by his and Satan's combined hands, even now, his son was unrecognizable from the man he once knew, wasting away before his very eyes…
The sound of another stirring just outside the door of his throne brought the vampire lord out of his thoughts. He quickly concealed the blade within the darkness of his coat before the other entered. Dracula watched the door open and his son enter without sound, coming to stand before him, shrouded almost entirely in the shadows of the grand room. He did not utter a word. The younger vampire only watched him. It was almost unnerving to be watched so intensely by those black tinged eyes, eyes that were so wrong and so very tired. Once in life they were lively blues in a halo of white but now in undeath there was only a pool of inky black that contained glowing embers. Sometimes he saw a disturbing and unsound similarity to them and those malicious pride filled eyes that a lifetime ago had laughed at him as their owner happily recounted his very large part in the tragedy that was Dracula's life and demise.
"Trevor…" Dracula acknowledged his son, somewhat surprised to see him. Though he was able to exist independently from his father it had not been unusual for his son to interact with him daily, but lately his child had been making himself far more scarce than usual. It had been many days since he'd laid eyes on him as it were. "I thought you were resting seeing as to how the sun will be rising soon." He gestured toward the window, the first tell-tale signs of the day already beginning to stain the dark sky orange and pink. "You should return to your chambers."
A tired sigh was Alucard's response, finally breaking eye contact to rub a hand over his face and through his slipshod hair. "I cannot sleep, father." He paused, taking a few steps out of the shadows to reveal a disheveled and overly fatigued looking creature that looked as if he'd grown more wasted since the last time Dracula had seen him. If Dracula had a beating heart still it would have skipped a beat at the sorry state of his son. Dracula knew the cause, it was the nightmares again.
Some years after Satan's defeat Alucard had broached the subject of having the occasional nightmare but Dracula had paid no heed to it. In the beginning these nightmares were actually somewhat entertaining since he knew when Alucard had one. After an episode his child would find some reason, any reason, to stay near him. The very idea that a creature as powerful as Alucard found some form of safety near his father after something so seemingly minute as 'nightmares' was…very amusing. Dracula recalled many a time Alucard asking him to a game of chess on the vampire's chess board despite being a spectacular failure at the game. For all the boy's wit and ability to strategize he didn't seem to grasp the simple strategy of the game, and more times than not he'd be sulking by the games end after his father destroyed his final piece.
But when these recurring dreams never went away the amusement faded quickly, especially when Alucard finally admitted his nightmares always involved Satan. Dracula had assumed the dreams would diminish over time. It had been over a hundred years since Satan's death and Alucard still suffered dreams of him, in this past year alone the dreams had seemingly escalated in horrible ways that had begun to take a terrifying toll on the boy. The result was this shadowy specter that stood before him now. It horrified the dark lord.
"Are you having the nightmares again?" Dracula carefully inquired, already knowing the answer.
"…yes." Alucard sighed quietly, rubbing a clawed hand gingerly at his brow as if to fight back a headache, "Suffering through them I could sleep for centuries and still feel as if I've never slept." The vampire shuddered visibly, "He's always there. Watching. Laughing. Taunting and tempting me. Taking pleasure in harming someone I care about. This time it was mother…" Alucard's head drooped and a wave of white covered his face so that he missed the pain and anger that briefly flashed across Dracula's shadowed face. "They are so vivid. I hate the thought of sleeping and entering into such hell anymore."
Rising from his throne Dracula approached Alucard. His boots clicked on the stone as he moved up next to his son so he could clearly see the very apparent signs of a tormented and utterly exhausted young man. There were visible dark circles beneath his eyes, set into an overly thin face that was set on an even thinner frame that made his usual midnight green coat look too big on him. Alucard could never have been called "healthy" due to his refusal to drink the blood of man, the decision ultimately damning him to an appearance of ill health. The signs very apparent in his white hair and the way his cracked ashen skin clung oddly to his form but those were a more cosmetic attribute as his strength was never affected. But now, in this state, Dracula swore even a slight wind would knock the boy over.
Taking Alucard's chin in hand he turned his face to better see him, the other only mildly objecting, either he had not the strength for it or he gave in to his father's demanding attention. He ran a thumb gently across one of the cracks on the others cheek, noting that even those seemed to look far deeper than normal. Dracula's jaw tightened and his eyes flared dangerously at his only child's condition. Even in permanent death it seemed Satan struck out at him. The dark lord could very nearly hear that same maddening laughter ring in his ears. Had he the power to pull the soul of Satan from oblivion to tear him apart slowly and painfully, he would have at this very moment. But Satan was dead for good; this was merely an after affect of that battle. Apparently Satan did get the final laugh after all Dracula was loath to admit.
"Your hand, father." Dracula startled mildly at Alucard's words, immediately releasing his grip when he realized he had been squeezing a bit more tightly than he intended. "Your possession... has had lasting effects is all, Trevor. Surely they will subside eventually. I will have one of the sorceresses come up with something else stronger to battle these figments of a long dead demon." He didn't believe his own words anymore than Alucard did. Nothing thus far had abated these so called "figments". He maneuvered a hand behind Alucard and steered him toward the door and out of the first rays of sun light that were beginning to shine through the window. "How long have you been awake?"
"I lost count of the days honestly. Days blend together into weeks into months." Alucard mumbled, sounding somewhat like he was in a daze. He offered no fight as he was led from the throne room. "Even creatures of the night must rest child." Dracula sighed, leading Alucard through the dark halls of the ruined castle, trying to ignore the slightest of limps the other had. It was not something that many would have noticed but he did. How could he not? He was the one that inflicted that lasting wound when he'd been forced to duel his possessed son. Apparently 'The Dragon's' strength was so great it could leave residual marks on even the one other person able to begin to match his strength. Dracula carefully maneuvered the other man around a felled chair that lay in the hall, "Have you fed?"
"I refuse to feed from humans." Even if Alucard were only a shadow of his former self the resolve in the statement was as strong as it was when he was at his finest. "I used to find my minions corpses scattered around with their throats ripped out on occasion but I've noticed a distinct lack of that lately. I know you are privy to going without blood for long periods of time but you've starved yourself too long this time and you cannot subside on your old blood Trevor. You know that."
"Don't you care what happens to those faithful servants I slaughter?" The younger man hastily shot back, pulling away from Dracula and glaring at him coolly, the violent action causing him to wobble in place at the abrupt movement. Dracula was mildly amused at the turn in mood that would happen from time to time in his progeny; he didn't approach him and let him stable himself against a large oak table that was supported by the bodies of carved angels. The castle's master only shrugged and smirked. "I can always find more servants, boy."
Displeased with the answer Alucard turned on his heel and stalked with no ease down the corridor, his soft foot falls echoing in the hall, "Leave me be." He demanded. In the blink of an eye Dracula left his physical body and materialized in a swirl of blood in front of his son, cutting him off. The larger man crossed his arms and twirked an eyebrow up at his son who huffed in annoyance at being halted.
"Forgive me, but I seem to remember it was you that sought me out, not the other way around. Tell me boy, why did you come for me in the throne room? Looking to lose at another game of chess?" Alucard glowered at him for several long moments before he finally gave an exasperated sigh, his momentary flare of anger leaving him just as quickly. "You are right. I was the one that came to you. Forgive me, I am…" Alucard considered before finishing, "…easily irritable these days." Dracula gave a sympathetic gaze to his child, knowing all too well what exhaustion feels like. He had spent many eons thriving on little more than anger and blood without even a wink of sleep... it had only made his already volatile nature that much worse. "What did you want of me, son?"
Alucard cleared his throat lightly and looked anywhere but at his father. "I came to you to seek your counsel over some odd…" Alucard twisted uncomfortably in his father's presence before finishing. "…desires I've been having." Dracula waited for Alucard to finish but the boy was stubbornly saying nothing. Perhaps it was about the blood lust. "What sort of desires, Trevor? For blood? I know how you feel about blood lust but it's natural for our kind to yearn for it."
Alucard shook his head, still looking everywhere in the room but at Dracula. "No, not blood lust. A different sort of lust. A lust for…" He trailed off, leaving the last word unsaid. He seemed to consider something before he switched his approach. "Do fledglings develop carnal desires for their sires?" Dracula tilted his head at Alucard and mulled the rather odd question over in his mind before he answered. "I suppose it is highly possible. Vampires are as much sexual creatures as they are creatures of darkness."
Dracula tightened his mouth, still not sure what Alucard was trying to reveal. Why the boy wanted to know about such a thing eluded him completely. "Trevor, tell me plainly what is bothering you. Enough of this elusive talk, out with it." Alucard squirmed at his father's no-nonsense tone and brushed some of his hair behind an ear. The boy looked absolutely embarrassed and Dracula could not begin to fathom why. "I… have had peculiar thoughts about you. Thoughts that I should not have about the man that is my father."
"You only speak in riddles, don't you?" Dracula sighed, tiring of the way Alucard dodged saying his troubles plainly and utterly oblivious to the subtext of his son's words. What manner of "thoughts" his son was referring to Dracula was unsure. Perhaps he was referring to his thoughts of vengeance that he had given up so long ago? Why was the boy acting so abashed if it was only that though? Dracula cleared his throat loudly to get Alucard's attention, the boy quickly glancing up. "Trevor, that wasn't an answer."
Alucard raised one delicate hand to his brow and pressed lightly there; giving Dracula the impression he was suffering a fairly severe ache. "Forget it, father. I shouldn't have mentioned it. It is nothing important." The young man started to walk past his father but the vampire lord caught his arm, stopping him to look him in the eyes. "Trevor…" He lightly warned him. There came a brief look of panic in the young man's eyes at being cornered, his body trembling as he tried to pull free but Dracula refused to let him.
"I-I swear it's nothing you nee-"Alucard cut off suddenly, his body going rigid as his eyes rolled up into his head. His complete dead weight began to fall toward the floor but Dracula caught him with ease and hoisted him up into his arms, knowing the combination of complete starvation and rest and possibly being pressed to reveal something he didn't want to caused this spell. "Stupid boy." He muttered fondly, as he brushed some strands of the white hair out of his son's face. He took note of how disturbingly light and overly boney the young man felt in his arms. He would not press Alucard any further on whatever it was that was bothering him. The boy would reveal it in time if he was patient and 'patience' was something he was just as well skilled in when it came to his son.
Dracula easily bared his burden the remainder of the journey to the living quarters Alucard had called "home" for the past century. As soon as he crossed the threshold of the room candles flared to life around him, casting dim orange light across the richly decorated quarters that held various meticulously carved statues and royal tapestries from a long forgotten past, much like the rest of his castle. He carefully laid Alucard's body on the bed and summoned a chair to the bedside with only a thought, falling heavily into the seat.
He wearily watched the boy's still form as the chair creaked beneath his weight, the young man's eyes haphazardly moving behind closed lids and mouth forming silent words for a long while before he seemed to lie peacefully on the downy surface of the bed. For hours, maybe even days, he sat and watched over Alucard, refusing to move from the spot, his instinct to preserve his own progeny on high alert and screaming at him to do something, anything, to help his son, but unable to come up with a viable solution. Only when the cries of the creatures of the night, crying for their missing master, reached his ears did Dracula move for the first time. He leaned forward and buried his face in his hands.
Had things truly come to this point? How had he not been able to stop this? He was the most powerful being in existence that had achieved victory over the previous Lords of Shadow and Satan himself and , in his own opinion, was more powerful than even the One God everyone was so willing to throw their life away for. The very word 'Dracul' made the heavens and earth shake and men and women alike wail in fright. But this? How could not even he be able to stop the steady decline of the one person alive that meant anything – no, everything - to him?
Dracula's hand slid within his cloak and found the hilt of his nameless blade resting there. It was a solution, his solution to this problem. He left the blade where it was or the moment, unable to bring himself to use it on his son as he slept. It seemed far too cruel... "I'm so sorry, Trevor" He piteously sighed, leaning over and covering one of the cold hands of the unconscious vampire and stroking it softly. "If I'd never forced my corrupt blood down your throat you wouldn't be forced into this vile existence. If I had destroyed Satan the first time properly you never would have had to follow me atop Leviathan to face him a second time. It... It is my fault. Marie was right to hide you away from me." Feeling he could no longer bear the sight of his son in this state, Dracula started to rise from his chair.
"…I remember when he possessed me."
The voice was quiet and barely over a rasp but it stopped Dracula's movement. Looking back to the bed's occupant he saw two golden sleep fogged eyes staring up at him, many emotions twirling in their glowing depths. Dracula knew where this was leading and it was the heart of the man's inner torment. It was always a painful confession for both father and son. The burden on Alucard was so personal it was no wonder he was struck with such terrifying nightmares to hound him ceaselessly. Could any man or beast go through what Alucard had went through and not come out so scarred?
Alucard continued without provocation. "He said many things, many untruthful things and many more horrible things, not only to you but to me. He wanted me to surrender and be his servant. Even as he was battling you he was tempting me and prodding me and forcing himself deeper and deeper into my soul and mind so that I began to have trouble distinguishing where he began and I ended…" Alucard trembled at the memory, turning over and curling in on himself. Dracula leaned over and gently squeezed his son's shoulder in some form of reassurance.
"He's dead, Trevor."
From behind, he could see Alucard shake his head slowly, skewing his hair on the bed below him with the movement. "You blame yourself but you are wrong, father. Satan is to blame. He and my weakness. He was only able to possess me because I was weak. He lied about a lot of things that day but he wasn't lying when he said I'd given in to serve him. I just couldn't refuse… God! I actually gave in!" Alucard's too thin frame shook violently after he all of sobbed the last part of his confession.
Refusing to let the boy wallow in such self hate Dracula grabbed him and forced his son up and around, fixing him with a stern gaze, his eyes flaring harshly. It caused the other to balk and weakly try to pull out of his grasp at the penetrating look. "Satan was a master manipulator. He could have manipulated even the most devout God loving man to turn and wage war on God. He's known as the father of lies for a reason and you were hardly given much choice in the matter. He had control of you and was bending you to his whim and using your own emotions against you to achieve his goal. Stop blaming yourself for something that was out of your control."
Alucard laughed darkly at his words, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Do you know that for sure? Do you?" He managed to free one hand from Dracula's grasp and shoved at his chest with a light snarl, the other man's broad frame not moving an inch from the harsh hit. "You don't know me as well as you'd like to think! I wanted you dead for so long! You cursed me to this dark life I never wanted!" Dracula did not retreat from the bed and said nothing, choosing to accept his son's wrath. The boy was right. He was the one that cursed him to a fate of unending darkness and pain. He knew he deserved every last bit of it and he steeled himself to accept it.
"You bastard, you cursed me! You-" Alucard cut off and covered his face with his free hand, sighing tiredly. When he finally brought his hand down and looked at Dracula all the hate had ebbed away and his eyes only held the faint sorrow that had been there for as long as he'd known his son, such a horrible but beautiful feature. "…Forgive me. I..I didn't mean to lash out like that. I don't harbor those feelings… any longer. Not like I did."
"I deserve your hate." Dracula stated matter of factly, releasing Alucard's shoulders and moving to sit on the bed beside him. "I acted selfishly."
"You acted like a man that had just found out he'd killed his son." Alucard corrected, no longer viewing his transition from man to creature of the night in such a black and white view. Through the years he had come to view the world in a very different way than he had as 'Trevor Belmont' and as a fledgling vampire. To him 'Trevor Belmont' was long dead and the fledgling long evolved into someone else entirely. He was a new man for it. "I will always harbor some ill feelings about my fate but not in the way I have before. We were pawns to fate, nothing more." Alucard tilted his head and looked at his father sitting beside him, "As it is you proved to me that there is still some part of my father left in you, some human part of you remains that deserves forgiveness, deserves my forgiveness. Why do you think I stayed?"
Dracula, though moved by the words of his son of forgiveness, did not reply.
"The truth is…"Alucard lifted a hand and ran it through his tussled hair, "I..I don't know myself anymore. I've fallen so far…these dreams...they're following me into the waking world now. Before he only haunted me in sleep but now…" Alucard looked utterly defeated as he gazed at his father, "I see him. I see him in every shadow of the castle. He no longer hides in my dreams and I feel I have nowhere left to seek solace. I'm loath to admit this has been the first time in a long time I've managed to get any amount of sleep without the intrusion of his presence, and only then it was because I had my father holding my hand and keeping me safe, like some scared child!" Alucard spat, digging his hands into the material of the bed, the action causing the top cover to shred under his claws.
"He calls for my blood, father." Dracula's concern grew as his son's eyes took on an almost deranged gleam; his body beginning to rock back and forth, his hands waving haphazardly in the air as he spoke such mad words, "He calls to me from the shadows and tells me to find him and offer myself to him. I..I'm so close to doing it." Alucard was truly falling into madness.
Dracula had his strong arms around the boy before the first bloody tears began to cascade down Alucard's pale and entirely too gaunt cheeks, the streams sparkling in the dim candle light. Tears were not something that suited his son and were not something he gave into very often. He was at something of a loss as he tried to shush the weeping boy, squeezing the smaller broken form against his broad chest as he wept. In that moment Dracula could not help but feel as if Alucard was his own little tragic prince who was suffering for things he did not deserve to. If anyone should suffer it was he and not his child...
"He's dead, Trevor. He can never hurt you or I again, I swear it." Dracula tried his best to soothe his child, ignoring the tears of his own that had escaped to fall down the angles of his cheeks. He quickly brushed the bloody streams away, refusing to let them fall. Death and destruction came as easy to him as breathing was to a mortal but comforting his own son in such a time of need was not so easy. He had never had to comfort a weeping babe as a mortal man or quell the tears of a boy who'd skinned his knees. He had never even got the chance due to the Brotherhood. Dracula held tighter as another choked sob tore from his son, whatever words he was trying to say lost in his throat. He tried to quiet and offer whatever comforting words that he could think of which wasn't as many as he wished he knew.
Here in this heartfelt moment, hidden away within the halls of Castlevania, he couldn't help but think that maybe if the Brotherhood and even Marie had given him the opportunity to be a father his life would have been different, maybe he never would have fallen so far into the darkness as he did. He would have had someone to live for in the wake of Marie's murder that could have subdued his desire for revenge. Instead he was allowed on a dark path that ended with him killing his own son because no one thought it wise to tell him of his existence. And for what? To protect him? Dracula could have laughed because how well that had ended.
For an immeasurable amount of time they stayed huddled together, Dracula subduing Alucard's misery to the best of his ability. He held the boy close, petting his tangled hair down and whispered words he imagined Marie would have into his ear. Nothing but the crackling of the candles flames and his quiet words filled the room. Finally when the sobs had subsided into choked gasps was the near silence broken.
"You must be disappointed." It was Alucard's faint words. Dracula did not release his son and made no move to pull away. Alucard made no such move either. "Why would I?" Alucard chuckled and gestured toward himself. "The mighty Dracul feared by all and all powerful has been blessed with a feeble and broken child." He pulled away slightly and craned his head up to look into Dracula's crimson eyes, eyes that shone bright in the candle light; while his own didn't quite have the luster they once held. "Surely it troubles you to have such a burden. Why do you insist on keeping something so weak within your inner circle? It seems like blasphemy."
Dracula released his hold on Alucard and instead held the man's chin between two fingers, refusing to let him look away under his fiery gaze. The words that came were the most genuine and held a ring of true compassion that none would think him possible of. "I can and never will be disappointed in the one good thing I created nor will I ever cast you aside. I would turn the heavens and tear hell apart to ensure your safety. I can create monsters or summon demons without end but you, Trevor, are irreplaceable. You represent the best of me and your mother," he paused, "I would have been lost to my demons without you."
Alucard stared at him as if processing his father's words. Finally a real smile graced his lips, "You are more 'Gabriel Belmont' now then you've been in a long time, Father, whether you admit it or not. The Dracula of old would have already torn the city beyond this castle apart and murdered the humans that live there long ago."
"Whatever change I went through I am still 'The Dragon', son, I will not change my ways." Dracula's eyes flared dangerously, lip curling at the thought of the human's that still inhabited his lands. They were lucky he had not attacked thus far but he felt the familiar bite for all out war rising in him even now. Only one thing – no, one person had stayed his hand the past century. It wasn't Dracula's conscious in the least.
Alucard let his eyes slip shut with a sigh, "I know. I just wish..." The younger vampire let his words tapper off, seemingly reserved to the fact that Dracula would never abandon the path of darkness completely. "It pains me more than you know to think things will have to go back to the way they were. In the past I would, without consideration, have rose up against you to protect humanity. It was my sole purpose I thought. But..." Alucard opened his eyes revealing a whirl of dissonance within them to Dracula that he'd never noticed before, "Things have changed and I'm conflicted where I stand anymore. I don't think I could slay Dracula - no, my father - without great pain now."
Some dark part of Dracula's heart swelled at hearing his son admit to such a thing. Father and son waging an unholy war against the heavens. It had always been his darkest desire, one that he'd tried repeatedly to fulfill. So many times he had tried to tempt Alucard into his arms in the past… but never after Satan's fall. Alucard was right. He had changed and the stirrings of his former humanity balked at the very idea. He was torn between his darkness and his light and this news only made it worse. With Alucard so weakened and conflicted he could easily sway him now. He could cast aside the sword he'd made, abandon his original idea to make Alucard forget everything and go toward a new path. Dracula's blood sang at the idea and the castle around him seemed to whisper for him to give into this one dark desire.
Dracula growled angrily at the whispers that called for him and pulled away from the bed and his son as the dark thoughts welled to the brink of his mind. He set his back toward his son and ignoring the obvious confusion that was written all over Alucard's face as he struggled to force them away. No. He would not. He had to act now before his own inner darkness kept him from doing so. He could no longer push this off. His culmination of grief and sorrow finally shattered and sent him into his own form of madness.