A quick alternate ending to the Blade anime.
The burning, the harsh burning of her senses. The sting of her lungs. The shearing pain in her eyes. The wrenching of her bowls as the claws of life dragged her back kicking and screaming.
She coughed and sputtered, gagged and wheezed as she dug her way through the shallow dirt.
The sigh of relief she released as her hand broke through the soil was as warm as the late afternoon sun on her cheek. By some miracle, by some unhinged act of God, she was alive yet at the same time she wasn't one of them.
She couldn't be...but how was this possible then? The vice like grip of Frost's fangs, the blinding pain of the vampiric venom surging through her veins was still very fresh in her mind.
However that was interrupted when something fell across her back. Her yelp of surprise was muted as she whipped around to find the bloodied remains of her salmon colored jacket.
"Dammit" she swore, grasping the cloth and at the same time was gripped with a jogged memory.
She frantically felt for it, the scar from where he'd thrust his sword through her torso at her pleading request. But it was nowhere to be found…
She needed answers, now. And quite frankly there was only one person she wanted those answers from:
Blade.
Eight days and no viable leads later, she stumbled back into what remained of she and her late father's small beach side home.
With a frustrated huff, she tore away the bright yellow eviction notices before kicking down the door, nearly choking on the wave of dust and mold that met her.
Thankfully after trudging through the gaudy slums and lower cities of south east Asia only to return to her home country empty handed , she was met with a bit of good fortune for a change. While the banks had cleaned out the dwelling, the repo men never discovered the hidden compartment of hunting gear located right in the middle of the living room.
Unknown was the time she could afford to spend, so she looted the cache with haste. The anti-vampire gear was the first and most obvious choice, but some of the other items she needed to dwell on.
In the end she still needed to slip away from police response to the break in. But as for where to go next, she was at a loss. The British born male was an enigma to say the least, but even with how short their first adventure was, they'd managed to come across a few of his close comrades.
If she couldn't track him down, perhaps one of the others could provide assistance.
Unfortunately even that began to feel like a pipe dream when the pangs of hunger hit her like a freight train once again.
It made her sick to admit it was exhilarating, a truly nauseating rush to feel the crimson liquid following down her throat. The first time there was some resistance, she was in complete denial of her resurrection, she couldn't possibly accept she'd become one of them, the very idea made her furious.
But as the lust overpowered her, she found her fangs digging into a homeless man's neck, deep in shadows of a Chinese alley. Since then she's tried to pick her meals with extreme prejudice, vagabonds, criminals, people the world had either forgotten or abandoned. It didn't make her feel any less disgusting but at least she felt somewhat vindicating the next morning.
Venturing North, she was utterly ecstatic to venture upon the old man by chance within a harbor, moments away from stepping onto the tanker, and despite his best efforts teared up at the sight of the young woman.
"Makoto?!" was the only word to leave his mouth before her arms crushed him in a heartfelt hug.
"What you doing here?" he exclaimed with a critical glance, his thoughts trying to churn out a solution. When his eyes narrowed, she frowned slightly, a good idea of what was coming next.
"Let me see." Noah sighed, gently taking her chin in order to angle her head upward. She peeled back her lips in a reluctant smile, revealing the sharp, over pronounced canines she now kept tucked within her mouth.
"Have you had any cravings yet?" he asked sternly, but he got all he needed for a reply from her nervous and rather disgusted chuckle.
"Is Blade around?" she asked as she followed him up the gangplank.
"Sorry little miss, but I can't say that he is." Noah replied with a heavy sigh. "We were supposed to head back to Europe, but we both had some important business come up that forced us to part ways.
"Damnit." she huffed, "do you know where he's gone? Did he say where's he's going?"
"I can't say that I do, you know how Eric can be sometimes." the older male chuckled to which Makoto grudgingly agreed.
"More importantly." Noah spoke, adopting a serious tone once more. "Have you considered trying the retrovirus?"
"Yeah, and I'd like to get that out of the way now." she nodded.
"Are you certain, I can't say for certain that it'll have the same effect." he warned.
"Well I now what he endures now." she replied with a shiver," anything is better than having to kill a man just to survive."
"Fair enough young miss." he nodded. "I'll try to get a lead on where Eric has run off to."
"Thanks." she smirked, a genuine warm feeling washing across her, until Van Helsing handed her the injection gun, topped off with a fresh vial of the dark blue serum.
"You may want to find something to bit down on." he suggested with a haunting expression.
And it was very fortunate that she did, that night would be forever seared into her memory as the most excruciatingly painful thing she'd ever suffered through. The straps Noah used the tie her down cut deep into her skin as she jerked around on the metal gurney, screaming through the gag in utter agony at the sensation of pure fire flowing very, very slowly through her veins. She was an exposed nerve and even the slightest draft stung like a knife being impaled through her skull. It was only after her bowels voided themselves did the sweet release of sleep come to claim her.
The morning after didn't feel much better either, like an unholy mix of painful soreness and hammering hangover. But she'd survived, which was commendable in itself, however it was the only good news to greet her with rising sun. Noah had failed to find any sort of bearing on Blade's location, he seemed to have simply fallen off the grid.
It was frustrating, but not altogether unexpected. She spent the next few hours trudging around in disappointment until another idea struck her. While certainly brash and a bit uncivilized if she was going to be honest, there was one other person she could track down that may know of the vampire hunter's location. And as luck would have it, a past blood drinking escapade awarded her was a nugget of information about a metal clawed mutant still in Japan.
Even if this lead would end up a waste, Noah was still in dispose here for quite a bit longer, so she'd have a point to fall back to.
The old man was completely in agreement, going as far to hand her the keys to an old jeep he had stowed away. It certainly made this trek far less tedious than the last.
She found the mutant of few days later in a dive not far from the center of Tokyo, he was saddened by something, but his rough exterior refused to let it affect him too much.
He was happy to see her in good health and immediately asked what resulted when they parted ways. With a less than enthusiastic sigh she regaled him, from the ninja ambush to the raid of Frost's Cambodian lair, and grudging, her own death.
"I must say, that's not exactly a fun way to go." Logan said before he took another gulp of the bourbon in his hand.
"Yeah you're telling me." she sighed.
"But you're walking around in the sun and everything." the mutant wondered aloud. "You don't think Eric did something do ya?"
"No, he wouldn't, would he?" she whimpered.
"Eh, that definitely would have been out of character for ol' dark and broody."
"Then what do you think happened?" she asked honestly.
"Well, don't phone home just yet, but…" he paused upon discovering his glass was empty. He snarled at it as if it had personally offended him before turning back to Makoto.
"Maybe you have a latent X gene." he guessed.
She looked at him was a somewhat confused expression, unsure of what he was implying.
"The X gene, it's what makes a mutant, a mutant toots." he nodded. "We can't know for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if it could give you some vampire like qualities."
"I guess…" she reluctantly agreed, "But would that bring me back from the dead?"
"Hmmm…" Logan pondered for a moment before a rather mischievous grin crawled across his face. "I have no idea about that, but I know exactly where you can find the answer to both your questions." he said confidently.
He grabbed a napkin and scribbled something onto it before thrusting it towards her.
"Go to New York, there's a special school there, the headmaster is an old friend of mine, and damn near the smartest guy I know. I guarantee he can help ya." he explained.
"New York." Makoto repeated with a sideways glance, "As in America?"
"Yeah, I know that's a long trip, but trust me it's worth it."
"You'd better be right about this." she playfully warned.
"Scout's honor." he teased.
It was the best night she'd had in awhile, free of anxiety or a sense of duty. The two chatted like they'd been friends for years, and it was comfort she greatly appreciated as the time for departure grew near.
Logan still had something to attend to elsewhere, so the flight to the states would have to be a solo journey, but this time the vampire huntress felt confident in her prospects. She was to locate someone by the name of Xavier, a professor at the school and all around "good guy" as mutant put it. He was apparently a scholar that could assist in both finding Blade and discovering the reasons behind her unexplained resurrection.
But that was all in good time, first she'd have to find this damn school located god knows where in New York…
Luckily that wasn't as hard a task a initially expected. Xaiver's School for Gifted Youngsters as they called it was a lavish mansion turned boarding school for what one could surmise as being exclusively for mutants. She couldn't really blame having such an establishment in a remote location, despite mutants not having the violent, murderous and bloodthirsty tendencies that came with vampirism, the general public seem to regard them like they did. And with the anti-mutant propaganda she could make out, it seemed America wasn't much better than Japan in that regard.
But even as she walked up the pathway, past a group of young children playing with a kickball, a certain nervousness struck her, what if she wasn't a mutant, would they be able to tell? Would they turn her away?
According to Logan this wasn't a lead she could afford to lose, if something did come up she would have to adapt accordingly. Maybe if she-
"Calm down young one, you're safe here." a voice echoed, Makoto nearly jumped out of her shoes, whipping around to try and locate the origin of the sound.
"Don't be alarmed, as someone versed with the supernatural, you should quickly grasp the extent of what telepathy can do." the voice spoke once more.
"Yeah, but normally I'd like to know who first." she scratched her head while proceeding onward.
"Logan contacted me a short time ago as to inform me of your visit, I trust you have many questions for me." the young woman got a sense of a warmth from the voice, as if the person speaking to her mind was smiling in reassurance.
Makoto was greeted at the double door entrance to the mansion by a older, bald gentlemen with relaxing featured. He very politely introduced himself as the fabled professor, and the telepath that had spoken with her initially.
But ever the woman of action, she wanted to get right down to business, showing a natural tenacity that caused the professor to chuckle. He explained as much as he could in such a way she would understand without causing her to scrunch her nose in frustration.
The machine the professor would need to find locate Blade, called Cerebro, was currently under maintenance, but would be finished with the next couple of days, providing to enough time to test whether or not her newfound abilities may be linked to an X gene. The professor assumed that she wasn't, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to be sure.
Aside from those two issues, she was more or less given free reign of the house as a VIP visitor seeing as it was obvious she was bit to old to be a prospective student. And with that kind of access, she could hardly complain. The dining was top notch, the gym was state of the art, she even sat in on some of the classes, which turned out to be teaching quite a few high level subjects.
But being recommend by Logan had another perk as well, knowledge of the X-men. Xavier figured a normal workout in the mansion's above ground facilities wouldn't exactly satisfy a seasoned vampire hunter, especially after she'd mention the "Danger Room" to him. So he arranged for a few of the other resident teachers to provide her with a little sparring practice for exercise and a means to test the extent of her new vampiric power.
She loved every minute of it. It was quite possibly a perfect end to a perfect day, even the agonizing pain of having to reinject herself with the retrovirus seemed less so as she fell asleep on the most comfortable beds she'd ever felt.
The next morning was met with mixed news, the X-gene DNA test came back negative. What ever brought her back from the dead was vampire in origin, making the need to locate Blade was even more imperative. Unfortunately with Cerebro still down, it was nothing but a waiting game now...but it wasn't like she needed an excuse to continue exploiting the luxurious amenities of the X-mansion.
The clash of silver alloy against adamantium echoed about the chamber as the two women traded blows. How she missed this one on her first day her was beyond her, sure she was bit more stoic than the man she was cloned from, but the trademark aggression was ever present, and she was a hell of a lot quicker too, she barely had enough time to block the boot headed for her skull. She released an involuntary hiss, baring her fangs as she curved her silver knuckle around to challenge the woman but it was met with twin claws of her sparring partner.
Matoko cringed at the shear force of the swing, unable to match its power as she sent reeling into the steel walls of the Danger Room.
"Okay, okay I give." the vampire huntress said as she stood, a little woozy from the blow. Her friend only replied with a chuckle as she offered her hand.
"Still, that's it impressive you've been about to reign in the vampire venom this much." the other woman admitted.
"Yeah...don't remind me." Makoto replied with an audible 'bleh'.
"Well you may be pleased to know then that Cerebro is ready my dear." the familiar voice of Professor Xavier spoke as he wheeled into the training room.
"It's about time." the huntress smirked.
"Indeed, I do advise a little patience however." he explained as he lead her across the corridor toward where the behemoth machine was housed. "Cerebro is adapte at locating humans and mutants alike, but a human-vampire hybrid may prove to be a little tricky."
"Hey as long as it works pops." she replied with a nod.
"Yes well, let's get this underway shall we." he gently placed a metallic helmet with a few cables jutting from its frame atop his head before beginning the device's startup sequence.
It was quite a sight to behold, the star-like dots that circled the room, pointing out every living soul on the planet earth. One of them had to be Blade, she just knew it, and lucky for her, her faith was rewarded. The name "Eric Brooks" left the Professor's lips in a hushed tone, he couldn't pinpoint it, but her could narrow it down to quite a degree.
The male was back in his old stomping ground, waging the good fight in England once more. Before the professor could even turn to say something about being careful, and not rushing, Makoto was out the door. After a quick goodbye to the new friends she'd made, she was back in the air and headed across the pond toward the UK.
Granted it had been a little foolish to believe her ordeal to be over so quickly, she still had to locate the guy, even if he was on an island, it was still a tall order. She didn't know any of his hide aways or secret weapon stashes. Going to him seemed unlikely, but getting him to come to her, now that was a clever plan, even for her. Only problem there was figuring out how to do that, for she had not the foggiest idea of how to accomplish the task.
A day later she was still unsure, but at least doing a little hunting had put her mind at ease. She'd never say it aloud but the increased power and stamina, the now near perfect night vision, inheriting the greatest of vampire strengths were perks she certainly didn't mind having now that she'd gotten a taste. Whether it was better than good old fashioned humanity was still up for debate, but god damn if being able to lunge 50 feet with single kick wasn't handy, she didn't know what was.
However fun it maybe, leaping tall buildings wasn't bringing her any closer to Blade. And as much as she wanted to hope, hunting random vampires probably wasn't going to cut it either. Maybe it was time to put in another call to Noah, even if he didn't know exactly, he could still tell her where Eric liked to stay the night.
The old mansion was the reply she received, the Van Helsing Manor. And much to her dismay it wasn't in the best shape when compared to the X-mansion. But after days of sleepless searching, she definitely wanted a breather. At least the aging home had the basics still running, water, electricity, and the like. A long, warm shower sounded absolutely heavenly.
Much to her relief, the bathroom was at least clean, and was strong evidence to Blade's recent presence. So with that she cleaned herself, shamelessly using all the hot water before she ventured back downstairs to find something to eat.
"Well it's official, Blade definitely lives here" she frowned, as she began digging through the cabinets. It was a diet she was used to seeing from him, energy bars, water, bland assorted meats and canned vegetables. Food with the sole purpose of being fuel, it made perfect sense for his lifestyle, but it wouldn't hurt to have a good tasting meal every once and awhile.
Then again she was one to talk, she was a terrible cook, so she wasn't in a great position either.
Would a pizza place deliver to god knows where on the English countryside?
She settled for a bag of beef jerky before she retreated to the living room, grateful that Noah still bothered to pay for satellite TV. She located what seemed to be the only channel broadcasting in Japanese then promptly laid out over the dusty couch. The program was about as dry as the food, so it wasn't long before sleep threatened to put her under…
Her dream, or rather nightmare, watching her father scream in agony as he was consumed by a supernatural inferno, started her wake. It must have been midday by then, because the sweltering heat of the non air-conditioned house was already causing her to sweat. The rays of sunshine beating down on her face through the cracked blinds weren't helping much either.
Save the unpleasant dream, it was nice to awake rested and recharged. She was clean, the retrovirus was successfully stifling her blood cravings, hell even if the food tasted horrible, she wasn't hungry either. For once she was confident about the day ahead, she was going to find him, she just was sure of it.
Geared up and ready to chase a few new leads, Makoto was moments away from opening the front door of the mansion when she smelled something rather unfriendly.
Or more specifically, something on the other side preparing to run her through. The thin glint of a silver edged sword sliced through the door like it was paper, her assailant prepared another swing when the assault stopped as quickly as it began.
"Makoto?"
The vampire huntress looked up to find the a harsh mixture of shock and confusion in the eyes of man she'd been seeking for the past several weeks.
"Hey…" she replied quietly, almost a whisper.
"How...is this…" it was odd to hear Eric stumble with his words, but obviously the entire ordeal was taking a little while to seep in. The last memory he had of them together was that of her death, making this situation all the more absurd because he was the one who killed her.
But as his typical demeanor began to take hold he noticed the yellow shine of her eyes beginning to fade as the adrenaline waned.
"How is this even possible?" he asked, glancing up at the skylight which funneled sunshine into the foyer. It didn't seem to bother her in the least.
"I have been wanted to ask you that for a long ass time." she smiled before embracing him, trapping in a bear hug that lifted him off his feet.
"It is good to see you again, partner." he offered her a rare smile as she put him down, "But this raises far more pressing questions than it answers."
"Okay well, I can walk in the sun, Noah knows so I'm treating it with the retrovirus, I woke up in Cambodia, and it has nothing to do with the X-gene." she fired off, raising one finger for every point made.
"Okay, that doesn't answer my primary question."
"Well this is clearly your fault." she smirked.
"That much seems obvious, but why?"
"There was a lot going on that day, you could at least be a little more grateful, I came back from the dead for you." she teased.
"And I am." he nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder, "But this should be monitored, we don't know of any extra side effects that could occur."
"I got that covered too, I stayed at the X-mansion for a few days, they gave me a clean bill of health."
"The X….Logan." Blade snorted upon the realization.
"You got it." she nodded.
"Well, damn." were the only words to leave his mouth as he took a seat in one the nearby chairs, almost as if in a daze.
"Come on Blade, don't give me that look." she smiled, voice softening. "I know this isn't what you would have wanted, and I'm not sure it's what I would have wanted either, but I'm glad to be back, no matter the reason."
Though his response was silence, she could see the relief in his eyes, and even if he danced around the words, he was delighted to have her back. At least he better have, then again Eric didn't exactly have the largest emotional spectrum. But that didn't mean there wasn't a lot of positive in there too, just buried under tons of dark, brooding, loner.
"Besides, you didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?" she smirked. "Don't you you owe me a date?"
"A what?" he blinked.
"Don't gimme that, big guy." she snorted, grabbing his arm in order to drag him out of the seat.
"Makoto, I don't think…"
"Fine, let's start small." she purred, sliding up close as if to attempting something intimate before showing him her new silver knuckle. "Who are we hunting?"
He placed an arm lightly across the small of her back, a fanged smirked appearing that matched her own.
"Well, since you mentioned it…"