A/N: Van Helsing/ Anna Valerious and Velkan Valerious/ OC
A/N: All outfits, and such are on my profile page
A/N: Italic is implied sarcasm.
Hello to my wonderful readers once again. Now the new chapter that I just posted is not much different from the original but I promise the second (or technically first) will be much different, with a lot of new content added. Hope you enjoy. Once again thank you to all of my faithful readers who keep sending me reviews and pm's asking me to continue this story and telling me how much they love it.
ShadowHunter19
Prologue
Life and Death
Two words that are complete opposite of each other yet so intertwined. Everyone at some point thinks about life and death. It's a know fact that everyone dies. So, when you are suspected of being over 400 years old you don't know that to think. It goes against everything you're taught, everything you believe.
When your given proof that you're over 400 years old you tend to rethink everything you know about life. To take a moment to comprehend the significance of this fact. When your sibling and yourself are somewhere in the 500 hundred year old zone and don't have any memories you tend to need time to think that over. Unless you're the Van Helsing siblings.
Gabriel and Desdemona Van Helsing are not ordinary people. By a long shot. They're not the type of people that you can bump into and strike up a friendship with.
The siblings were found in 1882, lying on the steps of the Vatican City, half dead, and with no memories whatsoever of their previous lives prior to that point in time. The only hints to their past were in the form of a mysterious rings that were on his pinky and her ring finger. The rings are both marked with a seal in the symbol of what appears to be a dragon. It was later discovered that Desdemona also had the seal burned on to her right hipbone. They both have vague memories of fighting the Romans in Masada, however since that battle happened in 73 A.D. leaves more unanswered questions than answered.
Whatever their pasts concealed, they were taken in by ' The Knights of the Holy Order' or The Order for short. The Order is an elite group dedicated to fighting the forces of darkness in the world be it by the human world or the supernatural. They both were trained to be warriors against the darkness. Over the course of the next few years they both trained and trained, eventually becoming masters of skills. This made them more than a match for any foes from either the human world or the supernatural. Together and apart they tracked down some of the more dangerous monsters of this era.
However they soon began to hate their jobs. To everyone back at the Vatican their "assignments" were monsters meant to be hunted but to them, whenever they had to kill them, they were the one that were there and had to watch as they became the men (and sometimes woman) they were before they were changed, and they were the ones that killed these people. To the members of The Order they both seemed unaffected by their jobs but to them they hated it. They hated being killers.
The both begged and pleaded with the Vatican several times on numerous occasions to let them go. To let them be free of the awful jobs they had to do. But the Vatican stubbornly refused, despite the (to them) the rather annoying detail that whenever the Van Helsing did a job they commonly killed their opponents despite the explicit orders they were given to bring them back alive for possible treatments for their conditions.
Although the full measure of Gabriel Van Helsing past is unknown, it is known that he is the human reincarnation of the archangel Gabriel and is the 'Left Hand of God'. Van Helsing is a lonely and silent man, always expecting something to happen, as prey expects an ambush. He has fought many battles (though he lost his memories so he doesn't remember), and hunted countless monsters for years. Even though he hunts without question, he is always asking the church for forgiveness, as he sees them becoming who they used to be. Besides, no matter how many monsters he kills, he is seen as a murderer to the eyes of the people. He often works alone, but can be a good partner or powerful ally especially when paired with his younger sister Desdemona. Despite his slight contempt for the church, Gabriel is a devout man who does God's work.
As with her brother the full measure of Desdemona Van Helsing past is unknown, it is known that she is younger sister of Gabriel who is the human reincarnation of the archangel Gabriel and is the 'Left Hand of God'. No one knows for sure what her position was before she and her brother became semi human. She like her brother seems to always be expecting something to happen. She is the more outgoing and spunky one of the siblings. She like her brother is heavily affected by the seeing the monster turn back into the human they once were after she has killed them. She is a devout woman who does God's work even if she holds the church in contempt. She is a powerfully foe and is only known to work well with her older brother, Gabriel. Monsters know Desdemona as the wild and unpredictable sibling and this causes them to fear her a little more than they fear her brother.
Transylvania 1887
Third Person P.O.V.
Thunder roared as lightning shattered the night calamitous storm nearly drowning out the shouts of the crazed mob storming Castle Frankenstein. Dr. Victor Frankenstein took no notice as he concentrated on his grand experiment, his greatest triumph as a scientist. He gazed down at the enormous man strapped into an iron pod in front of him. The man wore a metal cap with electrical wires running from it up to the rafter and out to conductors on the roof.
All of Dr. Frankenstein's research and sacrifices had lead to this moment. He was so close. Just a few more seconds for the lighting to do it's work, and victory would be his. Another crash of lighting; another pounding on the heavy wooden doors below. More shouts calling for his head. The scientist ignored it all, riveted by the man's tiny fluttering movements. Then-it happened. The man's eyes flew open. They locked onto Dr. Frankenstein's, and the scientist trembled. He felt as if the creature had peered into his very soul.
"He's alive!" Dr. Frankenstein cried, adding his voice to the mad chorus of sounds in the frantic night. He threw back his head and held his arms wide, chortling in glee. "He's aliiive!"He cried again.
"Success!" A voice called out in the darkness. Dr. Frankenstein spun around, startled and frightened. He had thought he was alone. Who could have gotten into is laboratory at the very top of his turreted castle? A tall figure stepped forward out of the shadows.
"Ah, Count Dracula, it's you." Dr. Frankenstein pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his sweaty forehead,"You caught me by surprise." He said nervously.
"I was beginning to lose faith, Doctor. " The count said..."But I see you have achieved your marvelous dream." He continued. A loud crash outside kept Dr. Frankenstein from replying. He hurried to the window and peered down. The townspeople below were pounding a sturdy tree trunk into his front door. He knew that it would not hold for much longer. He was stunned to see that there were hundreds of villagers, their fury clearly visible in the light from their flaming torches.
A scrawny man with a ragged white hair leapt up onto a boulder. "You know what he is doing up there?" He shouted in a grating, high-pitched voice. He waved his battered top hat towards the turret. "How he is experimenting with the bodies of your dearly departed! We must put a stop to him!" He shouted riling up the crowd.
"A pity your moment of triumph is being spoiled over a little charge of grave robbery." Dracula says to Dr. Frankenstein.
"One, two, three. Now!" The crowd shouted, ramming the tree into the heavy door once more. The man with the top hat crackled demonically. He practically danced on top of the boulder, firing up the crowd. Fear rushed through Dr. Frankenstein as he gazed at the enraged thong below him.
"Yes. Yes. I must escape this place." Dr. Frankenstein mutters. He dashes across the lab and throws open a large trunk beside his desk. "What so I take? What do I leave behind?" He mutters again. He stands and looks around the crowded laboratory, at a loss for how to proceed.
"Where are you going to run to?" Dracula asks, moving closer. Instinctively, Dr. Frankenstein backs up, banging into the trunk. The Count has always made him nervous, and he was already on edge. Dracula, handsome, elegant, and imposing, radiated something even Dr. Frankenstein could not ignore. He reeked of evil. "Your peculiar experiments have made you unwelcome in the civilized world, Victor." Dracula continued. his voice smooth and calm. Dr. Frankenstein looked at the iron pod again. The man was watching his every movement. Dr. Frankenstein's heart clutched; there seemed to be such pleading in those recently dead eyes.
"I'll take him away. Far away, where no one will ever find him." Dr. Frankenstein says defiantly. "He grabbed several books and turned to place in them in the trunk, but Dracula was suddenly right beside him. The Count stepped on the lid of the trunk, slamming it shut.
"No, Victor," Dracula countered. "The time has come for me to take command of him."
"What are you saying?" Dr. Frankenstein asks.
"Why do you think I brought you here? Gave you this castle? Equipped your lab?" Dracula asked waving his hands at Dr. Frankenstein's heavily equipped laboratory.
"Y-y-you said you believed in my w-work," Dr. Frankenstein stammered.
Dracula smiled."And I do. But now that you have completed your experiment, it is time for your work to serve my purpose." He said with a wicked smile upon his face.
"What purpose?" Victor asked shakily. In one fluid movement, Dracula leapt up and perched in the rafters. Dr. Frankenstein mouth dropped open in astonishment and he started to back away.
"No," He gasped. "I would kill myself before helping you in any task."
"Feel free," Dracula said. "I don't actually need you anymore. I just need him." H gestured to the man in the iron pod. He dropped back down to the floor, inches from Dr. Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein set his jaw and narrowed his eyes.
"Before I would allow him to be used for such evil, I would destroy him." He says bravely.
"I cannot allow that to happen," Dracula says. "My brides would be most upset." Dr. Frankenstein knew he was trapped. He could never fight Dracula on his own.
"Igor!" He cried, "Igor, help me!" He called frantically scanning his lab for his servant. He spotted the thuggish, misshapen hunchback up in the rafters. Igor pushed his long, straggly hair over his shoulder. He grinned, revealing his crooked, rotting teeth, contorting his grotesque features even more.
"I'm sorry, Doctor. You've been most kind to me. But if that mob catches me, they'll hang me all over again." His panic rising, Dr. Frankenstein reaches back and grabbed a saber crossed over the Frankenstein coat of arms that hung on the wall above the mantel. He brandished the sword at Dracula.
"Stay back," He ordered. The count walked straight towards Dr. Frankenstein. The scientist could only gape in astonishment as he watched Dracula continue his approach, impaling himself up to the hilt on the saber.
"You can't kill me, Victor." Dracula sneered. "I'm already dead." Victor's stomach lurched as much from fear as from the horrible stench of death now emanating from the count. His knees buckled as he watched the Count's face grow pale and his teeth change into razor-sharp fangs. "Say goodbye to your creator." Dracula hissed to the man strapped to the table. Then he sank his teeth into Dr. Frankenstein's neck.
"Nooo!" The man shouted. The anguished cry behind him startled Dracula, and he dropped Victor to the floor. The scientist's creation burst from the straps holding him down. "No!" He bellowed again. He hurled a heavy, metal coil at Dracula, smashing the Count in the head. Dracula stumbled backward into the fireplace, sending sparks and ashes flying everywhere. The huge man gathered Dr. Frankenstein's dead body in his arms.
"Father!" He wailed. Instinct took over. Somehow the creature knew he had to protect himself and his creator. He lifted the limp body and charged out of the laboratory and out of the castle. Igor raced to a balcony and watched the creature's progress. Down below, the villagers had broken through the doorway of the castle and were swarming inside. Others still hurled rocks up at the windows. Igor cupped his hands around his twisted mouth and shouted above their cries.
"Frankenstein has created a monster!" He cried. No one seamed to hear him. No one but the thin man in the top hat perched on top of a large boulder. The man in the top hat looked up at Igor, then the direction Igor was pointing. An enormous man- no, a monster-was stumbling across the dark moor.
"Look!" He screamed, waving his top hat to get attention, "Look! It's heading for the windmill!" He cried.
The villagers stopped their invasion of the castle and began to chase after the hulking figure in the night. The creature could hear the thudding footsteps, the shouts, the crackling fire of torches behind him and he ran as fast as he could. The damp mud of the moors slowed him down, but he fought against the clinging dirt and made it to the abandoned windmill. Still the mob chased him. He burst through the windmill's shattered door and raced up thee rickety wooden staircase. He lumbered to the top of the windmill, still clutching the dead body of Dr. Frankenstein.
A crash of lightning illuminated him fora moment-every bolt, every stitch, every scar clearly visible to the crazed mob below. A small electrical storm was going off inside the back of his head as he tried to understand what was happening-and tried to fight the terror raging through him.
"Why?" Frankenstein's monster moaned . "Why?"
"Get him!" One of the mob shouted. The creature's terror grew as the villagers hurled torches at the wooden windmill. A noose of flame leapt up the structure's walls. The monster roared in fear. A shattering sound from across the moor ripped his attention from the glowing fire. The skylight in Frankenstein's castle had exploded. Dark shadows high up in the thunder-raked sky flew through the roiling purple clouds straight towards the windmill. Gasps rippled through the mob.
"Vampires! Run for your lives" One of them cried. The huge crowd fled in horror across the moors. The flames surged up in the windmill, surrounding the creature. He gazed down at Dr. Frankenstein's lifeless body and hugged him tightly to his enormous chest.
"Father!" The creature whispered. Then, with tears streaming down his scarred cheeks, he lifted a fist towards the oncoming vampires and let out a anguished bellow.
BOOM!
The windmill imploded, the timber and gears and ironwork plummeting down on itself, taking the creature and Dr. Frankenstein down too. Flaming debris flew everywhere. Dracula and his brides swooped down to the ground. Transforming quickly from their gigantic bat forms, the brides burst into tears, wailing with inhuman shrieks. Dracula staggered a few steps towards the flaming wreckage and could only stare in disbelief.