Disclaimer: I do not own Van Helsing nor any characters from it. The only character I claim as mine is Diana.
The sound of footsteps on stone echoed through the courtyard. Two pairs of boots, one stepping lightly and was less relaxed which belonged to a young female, and the other undoubtedly male pair thudding loudly on the ground, made their way to a large church, the Vatican in Rome to be precise.
"Gabriel, I still don't see why I had to come. I'm not even part of the Order, not that I could be part of it if I wanted to. They only tolerate me because I'm your sister, therefore I do not need to be involved." the young woman complained to her brother. "You are the only person ALIVE who respects me for who and what I am, so I don't see WHY I must put myself in the position to be insulted."
"Diana, you know exactly why you had to come with me today. You shattered the stained glass in Notre Dame and you have to take responsibility for it. Cardinal Jinette will bite my head off if he thinks it was me. Plus, I've taken enough of the blame for your actions." responded Diana's sibling, who happened to be her twin, well, fraternal twin. "Oh, and it's not like you give a crap about their insults anyway."
"So you would rather have Jinette bite my head off? That's real nice. Also, it technically wasn't me who shattered the glass in Notre Dame, it was Hyde. Plus, my actions are usually done to save your butt."
"That may be, but who says that if you didn't get involved in my missions I would've died? Plus, the way you save my butt is by shattering priceless glass artwork in churches and breaking ancient artifacts from palaces." Gabriel pointed out. "Well at least you are alive, I mean, right now you could be a dirty pancake on the cobble stones in front of Notre Dame, or you could be a burnt up corpse at the base of a pyramid in Egypt. I think you have a lot to be thankful for, including me." she said smugly, knowing she had won the argument.
"Whatever, this doesn't change the fact that you are going to go in there and tell Jinette that you broke the windows and that you are profusely sorry."
"I would sooner tell the son of the devil I love him" Diana said indignantly.
"Fine" Van Helsing said (I will only call Gabriel Van Helsing, so Van Helsing is Gabriel only), then he picked her up and walked inside of the church and dropped her.
"I am pretty sure that dropping a woman on the ground of a church, especially the Vatican, is some sort of sin." Diana said spitefully.
"I am pretty sure God will forgive me." he said jokingly.
"Yes, I am sure He will, but I sure as hell won't" she replied angrily, glaring at him venomously. Gabriel didn't even bother returning the glare and shoved his sibling inside one of the confession booths and went in after her. After a few seconds, the cardinal entered expecting to see Gabriel alone, but was unpleasantly surprised to see the man's sister there as well. Though, it was hard to tell she was his sister. They looked nothing alike even though they were twins. He had hair the color of chocolate cut just above his shoulders with eyes a light honey brown while she had hair the color of a moonless night, which was glossy like a black lake, and green eyes that could pierce into your soul and see right through you. Both were tall, but she had a slim and shapely figure and he had a bulkier more muscular looking build, though they were both extremely strong and fit. Diana most certainly took after her goddess namesake in both appearance and personality.
Trying to keep his temper in check, Cardinal Jinette spoke. "Van Helsing, what is she doing here?" Diana fought to keep hers in check as well before replying. "Hello Cardinal Jinette, so nice to see you again." she said, hatred and sarcasm laced in every word.
Gabriel sensed the tension and decided to get his mission over and done with before attempting to defuse the bomb that was threatening to blow. "Well, Diana just wanted to tell you that…shewastheonewhoshatteredthestainedglasswindowsinNotreDame. Whoo, now that that's over with, let's go down to the lab and check out the stuff Carl has made." Van Helsing said, clearly attempting to avoid the subject, but the Cardinal wouldn't have it.
"She did WHAT?! Get this abomination of nature out of this church immediately or so help me Gabriel, I will have her THROWN out!!!!!!" Jinette yelled, his face puffy and beet red from anger. "Hey!! If you want me out I'll leave but I've been man-handled enough for one day, thank you very much." Diana noted, before turning to leave. Before she could though, her brother grabbed her shoulder to keep her from leaving. "Come on Diana, just apologize to the man. Please. For me?" Gabriel asked, his eyes pleading with her to relent. Irritated beyond belief, Diana reluctantly turned around, and muttered an apology to the cardinal, who in turn calmed down a bit. "Very well, Miss Diana, since I am a man of God, I accept your apology…" Cardinal Jinette bit out after a moment.
"Why thank you cardinal, I absolutely do not know how I would've survived if you hadn't." she said, expressing her annoyance and boredom through her tone of voice. Before Jinette could say anything about his sister's last obnoxious comment, he thought of a way to defuse the problem. "Cardinal, why don't you take us down to the lab and give me my next assignment? I'm sure Carl has some sort of a new contraption to show me as well." The Cardinal just nodded, sensing what Gabriel was doing. It worked somewhat. It kept the Cardinal from lunging at Diana, and that was all he asked for.
He pulled a lever, opening the inner walls of the booth into a cave with stairs descending down into what one could only suspect was the lab. The Knights of the Holy Order was no small brotherhood, and had many rich donors, most from very old families.
The small group began walking down the stairs. Upon reaching the bottom, Jinette left to prepare his little 'presentation' he had created for the mission, leaving Gabriel and Diana Van Helsing to wander. After a grand total of five seconds, Carl, the only person Gabriel could call friend in the entire organization, and coincidentally the only other person who wasn't judgmental of the way his sister was, appeared and began to show off his prized creations.
"So, this is a modified crossbow. It allows you to shot silver crossbow bolts at incredible speed with out having to reload every time you shoot. It would definitely come in handy if you're attacked." Carl picked up the crossbow and handed it to Van Helsing after admiring it one last time. Gabriel just shoved it in his canvas sack full of weapons he'd be taking with him, causing Carl to flinch at how carelessly he treated his baby. By that time he had begun to look at other things that he might want to add to the sack as well. He spotted a beautiful sword and admired it, but just as he was about to add it to the pile, Carl, as he had a habit to, popped out of nowhere and grabbed it from him and put it back on the rack. "Any idiot can make a sword. You will not be needing one this mission." His comment attracted the attention of a rather burly blacksmith, who had been making swords, and Carl immediately dragged Van Helsing in another direction. Diana, who had been following them, smirked at how scared Carl could get at times. The man had just begun to scold her brother for getting distracted and picking up things he wouldn't need. It was a sight to behold because Gabriel was at least five inches taller and almost twice as wide as him.
After shoving various items to Gabriel to put in the sack such as silver stakes, cloves of garlic, blessed crucifixes, and holy water, Carl led the two siblings to another section of the lab. "I want to show you both something that we've recently come up with. It's still being tested so regrettably you will not be able to use it this mission, but it is still fun to try." He showed them and odd looking contraption, which resembled a giant gun, but with a very wide barrel and when Diana got a better look at it, she saw that within the large barrel, were the barrels of many smaller guns.
Not noticing her brother move over to the machine, she turned to Carl and asked him, "What in the blazes does that…" and her words were lost when Van Helsing began shooting it, apparently having figured out how to work it. The noise was deafening and if she had been any other woman she'd have screamed, but she wasn't, so she just turned to her brother to give him a scolding glare. Surprise was evident on her face when she saw the metal block, which had been put on a stool at the other end of the room to test how strong the gun was, was filled up with several holes, making it look like gray Swiss cheese. Looking back at Carl she said "When can you lend me one of those?!" All Gabriel could do was chuckle, an amused look on his face. "Diana, I'll get you one for your birthday if you wish. I'm not so sure Cardinal Jinette would feel comfortable with you wreaking havoc with a machine gun though." he said, already giving the device a name. "Dang Jinette's comfort levels!! I want one anyway!" she replied laughing.
Once Gabriel's things were packed, Cardinal Jinette motioned for them to come over, clearly done with setting up the presentation. The three walked over to him and stood before a screen waiting for the cardinal to start the slide show. "On this mission, you will be going after the infamous Count Dracula, or Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler, or whatever you know him by." he said. They watched the pictures come up on the screen, first showing the beginning of the vampiric race, then showing several other random pictures of demonic folklore. None of the group was even listening to Jinette drone on and on about God knew what. They just continued half listening until the cardinal began speaking about the Valerious line and what their ancestors had to do with Dracula. He put on pictures of the current family. "This is a picture of Boris Valerious, King of the Gypsies," Jinette went on, "He has supposedly gone missing over the past year with his team that went out searching for Dracula and no one knows where he is. This is Prince Velkan, current heir to the throne and he's been taking care of present affairs since his father's absence," the cardinal changed the screen to a different picture, one of a young woman "and this is Princess Anna." Diana turned to look at her brother to see his reaction, and caught him staring at the photo with something akin to awe, and she instantly knew that he was taken by her. Well, Gabriel is in for a hell of a mission.
(A/N: Thoughts will be in italics. It should be obvious who is thinking them, but if not, I will usually say.)
