For people who don't know Noblesse - it's a Korean webtoon that's very like Slayers in webcomic form, only supernatural/sci-fi horror instead of demonic/cosmic horror. Like Slayers, it's very hilarious without the humor ruining the audience's ability to take the battles and threats seriously. There are a lot of great action scenes.
Nobles are functionally immortal somethings with psychic powers and blood magic. Early humans used to move in with nobles and get them to do things for us by being cute at them. So we're basically cats. Who can open doors. And that would be why we own the planet.
This fic was the result of reading Episode 101 and going 'Wait…' and then checking the scanlation to be sure I was reading it right. Holy crap.
This story branches off into AU during Episode 263.
One of the earlier arcs has several bits that are incredibly hilarious... if you know stuff revealed much, much later. It basically ruined my ability to take Dr. Crombel seriously as anything but a manipulator - although he's one heck of a dangerous one, between M-24, Ignes and Muzaka. I'm not sure if he deserves any of the credit for Yuri or not - supposedly Yuri's Crombel's, but other people thought he worked for them, too.
Tao and Takeo were recovering, but only because Raizel had spent his own lifeforce to save them. It wouldn't have been necessary if the lab was intact. Frankenstein could have healed them, if only M-21 hadn't asked them to take in M-24.
"Please take care of them," Frankenstein said to M-21 and the others before the door closed behind him as he left his ruined lab. He had another patient to check on.
Because Raizel was sleeping in that coffin.
Talking to the others didn't help. It just made M-21 angrier, that these were the people who were suffering because of him.
Clenching his fist, he knew that he could never forgive M-24.
He left the room, ignoring their attempts to call him back. He had to, to apologize to him, and Frankenstein.
He had to do something.
By the time M-21 got there, the doors to the elevator that led to where Raizel slept were closing behind Frankenstein. "He'll be sleeping for a few days," Frankenstein said to himself. "Which should be enough time to accomplish this without it disturbing him. I couldn't inflict that on Master."
"You have a plan?" M-21 asked him eagerly. "Whatever it is, let me help!"
Frankenstein turned to him, almost looking startled to see him there. Was that how tired and wound up all of this had made him, that he was focused enough on his own thoughts and worries about his master to tune out M-21's approach? "Even though he was your friend?"
"All of this is my fault."
"Your fault?" Frankenstein chuckled, first condescendingly, and then even darker. M-21 took a step back, watching in case that dark energy appeared around him. "You think it's your fault?"
The scientist walked past him, still chuckling, and then turned around to look at M-21, glints of that purple in his eyes. "I am the source of all the Union's human modification techniques. Everything that you and M-24 experienced was because I trusted when I should not have trusted."
Frankenstein was still smiling. It was the smile he had when he told M-21 to not actually kill the sort of people gauche enough to drive a van onto an area of his schoolgrounds where vehicles weren't permitted and then threaten two of his staff, but other than that?
That was just the school his master attended, M-21 cleaning up an unsightly thing Rai should not have had to see. What was he going to do now that his lab had been destroyed? That Tao and Takeo had nearly died, and Frankenstein with no lab to treat them? Now that Frankenstein had allowed a mess to happen big enough to force the Noblesse to step in and save their lives with that power?
M-21 gulped. For a moment despite his resolve he wanted to plead for his former friend's life, but… Tao, and Takeo… Him and Frankenstein and everyone's home. He couldn't forgive M-24. If this even was his former friend. "I'm coming with you. I need answers," he said, hurrying to follow Frankenstein to…
…the kitchen?
"Oh, he'll answer for this," Frankenstein said, and opened the freezer. M-21 couldn't see what he was doing through the door, but he drew out a small vial of something red with a white label on it.
"You had another blood sample?" They weren't all destroyed with the lab? "Do you think I can use it to find him?" he asked a little doubtfully. They were all tired: he wasn't sure if he could transform at all, and he hadn't practiced tracking by scent.
"Don't worry, M-21. He'll come to us. If he lives that long." A truly vicious expression appeared on Frankenstein's face for a moment as he stared at the vial. Then he sighed. A flicker of distaste appeared in his eyes, maybe even remorse. "I never wanted to have to do this, but after everything the Union has done I can't allow Crombel to keep that data. Once it's destroyed, and you have your answers… If M-24 is under the Union's control, I can use this to free him. From them, at least."
"If you had a way of finding out if he was under their control and fixing it, why didn't you use it before?" M-21 asked, getting worried.
"Because I spent a century and a half of my life killing anyone who did what I am about to do," Frankenstein said, removing the cap from the vial and placing it into the sink. Where the dirty dishes went, M-21 thought, as his eyes returned to the vial in time to see Frankenstein raise it to his lips and tip it down his throat.
M-21 watched him swallow, and then Frankenstein shuddered, raising a hand to his head and wincing.
"Are you okay?"
"Brain freeze…"
The werewolf just stared for a moment.
Frankenstein closed his eyes, focusing, leaning back against the fridge. "A modified human with the ability to incorporate others' DNA – I could swear I made certain that journal was among the ones I burned! Yet there's no way someone as ignorant as Crombel could possibly have reproduced this on his own!"
"Then I was tricked." He'd asked them to accept a Union agent into their home, again. Kept imposing on their generosity until they paid the price.
"The one that spoke to us wasn't lying. Mark created a cover persona to avoid the nobles' psychic powers. 'Mark' hid behind that persona and slept, until he was triggered to awaken and act against us." Frankenstein opened his eyes.
"You can tell all that just from tasting his blood?" M-21 marveled, but really, why hadn't he done this before.
Frankenstein blinked at him, eyes incredulous blue. "You don't know what just happened? I know the Union didn't tell you anything – even Dr. Crombel clearly didn't know the first thing about how this worked, but I did explain it to you when you said you thought Master and myself were 'Noblesse, vampires, same thing,'" he said, sounding a little annoyed.
Now that M-21 knew what Noblesse really meant he had to wince, because comparing him to that mutant M-24 created, in front of Frankenstein? No wonder Frankenstein had been a little annoyed with him when he first moved in, if he kept unknowingly insulting Frankenstein's master like that! "You said that only one noble was the noblesse, and that vampires were mutants."
"No, I said that mutants were a type of vampire, the ones humans tell stories about since they're anything but subtle. You do remember that nobles have power over blood, yes? Master's is especially strong, because he is the Noblesse, but if a noble drinks the blood of a member of a different species, they can use that blood to control the person or animal they took it from. That's why it's normally forbidden these days for a noble to drink a human's blood. A human who has their blood taken can be controlled by the noble at any time, but in exchange they can call on some of the noble's powers. And one of those powers is…?" Frankenstein prompted him, showing M-21 the vial in his hand.
"…Controlling people after drinking their blood?" M-21 looked up at Frankenstein. "You're a vampire? I thought you said you were a human." He'd lied? "I thought you were a vampire when I moved in, you didn't have to lie."
"I didn't lie. A vampire is still a human. Or a dog, or a horse. Think of it as just a type of enhancement: it's the basis most of them ultimately derive from, since studying mutants allowed me to observe the human body replicating noble abilities. There were stories of dhampirs - humans with vampiric powers who were able to fight vampires effectively."
Ordinary humans were helpless against even mutants. Well, Shinwoo, but he wasn't normal. Frankenstein might be much better than Shinwoo, but if he'd been a scientist back then? "So you tried to turn yourself into one to get strong enough to kill vampires?"
"And fight off their mind control. It was obvious after their leader froze the town guard just to show off that if I couldn't resist their mesmerizing effect then I couldn't fight them at all. Thank goodness I did, otherwise I would have ended up a vampire when that leader licked my blood off his sword. I thought I was safe unless he managed to bite me. Now that was a close call," Frankenstein said, sounding almost fond of those old days, like when he'd gone off into that spiel about the joy of seeking knowledge in the days before search engines. "If he'd been able to get a grip on my mind, channeling only barely-controlled noble power into me would have turned me into a mindless mutant like the other humans whose blood he took. Fortunately, I killed him first.
"Well over a century later, I met Master, and an embarrassing number of years after that I found out the truth of what he was. Although, in my defense, trying to learn how to control Dark Spear and fighting noble clan leaders took up most of my attention." Those blue eyes looked soft for a long moment, before he sighed. "He had to Awaken me to save me from Dark Spear. I gave him my blood willingly, as a pledge to stay by his side forever, as proof that he would never be alone again. Once he drank my blood, even if I was fool enough to wish to abandon him, it would be child's play for the Noblesse to force me to remain. He did me the unparalleled honor of entering into a Contract with me, and since that day I have had the honor of being the Bonded of Cadis Etrama di Raizel, although I'll thank you to not compare either of us to the Twelfth Elder and that traitor Roctis Kravei."
Despite the expression of clear warning, M-21 was dazed enough he couldn't help asking, "Does that mean you can turn into a bat?"
"No. I told you, the Twelfth Elder enhanced himself before entering into the contract." Frankenstein's expression darkened. "The Union wants to abandon humanity for power, thinks that they can become something better than humanity so they deserve to look down on us..." Clearing his throat, he regained control of himself and the menacing energy subsided. "I took care to remain human, so I don't have a transformation. If that Elder's transformation had anything to do with the contract, he'd have turned into a sea serpent. Or possibly a whale."
"A whale?"
"The Leviathan, sometimes called Cetus, is the symbol of the Kravei Clan." Not that this mattered, Frankenstein's slight eye-roll said clearly. "Having a blood sample easily accessible has several uses in emergencies – I'm not a noble, so I can't use blood magic without drinking it, but that's what Regis and Seira are for. Not this of course, they're children and what I'm doing is punishable by forced eternal sleep. Fortunately, as a human I'm not subject to Lukedonia's laws."
Oh no. "What about him?" M-21 asked.
Frankenstein blinked at him. "Master? He'll be sad that I was forced to do something that has so many memories for me, or that I had to take his duty upon myself to protect you while he slept, but the Noblesse is the one who watches over the nobles from the shadows. A… wider selection of tactics is permitted for him than for clan leaders like Miss Seira." He shook his head. "Listen to me ramble on. I'm splitting my concentration too much." He walked past M-21, then smiled absently, telling him. "I'll be going to bed. Don't allow anyone to disturb me – unless Master wakes, of course. Tell Tao to use my phone to call Gejutel and have him send me Ragar-Rajak Kertia. I will have a list of database codes and facility locations for them in the morning, and I expect Rajak and Tao to be ready bright and early."
"Dr. Crombel?"
Dr. Crombel snarled soundlessly. How dare anyone interrupt him while he was studying such beautiful data! But no, perfect timing. He needed more. He started to turn away from the screen.
"Where. Did you get. That journal."
"Journal?"
"Yes. Journal." M-24's scarred face smiled at him, the expression dripping with patronizing contempt. "Don't tell me you thought the other Union Elders didn't know! Not after they put so much effort into spreading disinformation throughout the Union so that people like you wouldn't have even the most basic information necessary to become truly powerful on their own. A little brat who swallows the party line that two plus two equals five suddenly shows up with a sheet of new mathematical proofs, claiming to have solved them all himself? You're a fake, Dr. Crombel, and everyone knows it. You're far too stupid to have figured out how to create a modified human like this on your own.
"Why do you think the Twelfth Elder came to Korea so quickly after you ordered the destruction of that lab? Because even a fellow double-digit errand boy was in the know that you were nothing but a plagiarist, and he hoped to find evidence that your 'discoveries' came from other Union researchers so the other Elders would have you disposed of instead of permitting your continued existence until the First Elder's modified clone could discover where you got my journal and if there were any more."
Dr. Crombel grinned with delight, well aware of how psychotic that grin made him look. "You're F!"
"The first time we met, you boasted of how little you knew. You told me – me! – that I wouldn't be aware of such advanced scientific concepts of how the earth was flat and the moon was made of green cheese. You didn't have the basic knowledge necessary to deduce the existence of the ability you gave Mark, and replicating something that complex-"
A beam tore through Crombel. If it had only cut him off at the knees he wouldn't be worried, but everything below his heart was gone! It hadn't come from Mark – behind him, through the console?
"-by complete accident? Impossible for someone like you, who wastes a hundred lives on experiments that obviously won't work to pretend those experiments are where you got your knowledge."
That craggy face smiled again, as Crombel's enhanced body let him cut off the pain and move his arms to lift himself up from where he'd fallen on the console. His body was still on the chair, if he could get to it they'd knit together again. He coughed once, but his lungs were already nearly repaired. Damn, having two sets of some organs would add extra time to reconnecting. He still grinned: that wasn't a fatal shot. Leaving him alive? That offered opportunities.
"Now I have no further need of Yuri." Mark tapped Crombel on the lips and came away with a bloody finger. Raising it to his mouth, he licked at it with a delicacy that clashed with the appearance of the body he'd – what, mimicked the way Mark had mimicked M-24?
Possessed?
Just imagine what could be done with that… And he would, he knew, because the dark power F had used against him? The kind of person who would lick an enemy's blood was child's play to manipulate-
His body fell onto the floor, muscles, nerves and even brain overrides no longer responding.
"All the resources of the Union, and you couldn't track the provenance of a single book. All the evidence that M-21 and M-24's abilities were outside your estimates, and you didn't look up their names and track down their families to see if genetics was a factor." A thoughtful sound. "You know nothing. That makes you useless to me. But I suppose that's a good thing. It means I don't have to leave someone like you alive."
"One for each of us," Tao said, spreading out the vials he'd found in the hidden compartment in the freezer. "They're labeled. The extras are Sangeen and Yonsu, and the kids."
The mention of the kids drew an atavistic response from all of them, but M-21 knew, "After all the times they've been attacked or kidnapped… If the boss could take over one of them, or just give them his power so they could get to safety…"
"Imagine Shinwoo with an enhanced human's strength." Tao grinned, and then they all remembered the KSA and how close he'd come. How it had nearly cost him his chance at a normal, happy life. "The KSA agents are modified humans not registered with the Union."
"Crombel would want them to see if there are any new techniques in them," M-21 knew. The way he'd destroyed the Union's lab in Korea because there was a new technique there, and he wanted to keep it to himself.
"It's disgusting," Regis said, shuddering and staring at them with a look of betrayal in his eyes. He'd thought Frankenstein was an elegant person! Drinking blood was not elegant. "Being forced to do things against their will is the worst thing that can happen to anyone! Any noble would rather be forced into eternal sleep!"
"They're not for enemies," M-21 said. "They're for us. He needed Tao and Takeo's blood to Awaken them." He looked up at each of them. "If M-24 was still in there, and the Union just implanted commands in his head? He would have done anything to get them out and make sure he was safe to be around."
He reached forward, closed his hands around cold glass.