This is the first of two fics I'll be writing (maybe more if some random drabble comes to my imagination) involving the events that took place between Trail of Blood and Animus-Vigilante. Needless to say, spoilers are involved.

Helen has to get the multipede larva back from Nikola.

Enjoy. R&R please!

The explosion had left the old Cabal lab in ruins far beyond how they had first found it. Helen had been shocked when they had gone to retrieve what she believed would be any remains of her oldest friend. He had sacrificed himself for them, or so she believed. Then they had gone back into the lab and heard a steady knocking in a familiar pattern: Knock, knock, knock, tap tap tap, knock, knock, knock. Morse Code for S.O.S., the same as he had sent in his message via the autotype.

"You have got to be kidding me," Will said as they heard the knocking. Helen ignored him, "Start digging." She told to the boys and crossed the room to reach for the debris. Her hand was pulled back quickly with a bit of a hiss having not considered how hot the metal would be when this room had been an inferno moments ago. More carefully, she reached again and shoved aside a piece of sheet metal. When she did, she saw Nikola sitting there on the ground, a little more dusty than before and slightly dazed, but apparently without serious harm. "Nikola..." She breathed his name as she knelt in front of him, the doctor in her reflexively looking over him for any injuries.

"Dude!" Henry began, "rockin' the magnet power!" Nikola looked between the three and smirked, speaking in a tone a little too loud for the range. "Fortunately I can't hear what any of you are saying, it's very nice!"

Will watched Nikola a moment and nodded, "maybe this magnetic power has some usefulness afterall?"

"Yeah well you know what they say right? It's not what you have it's how you use it," Nikola smirked and then yawned, shaking his head. "Ahhhhh!" Clearly trying to open his ears after the massive boom of the explosion.

A little while later, after Helen was satisfied that Nikola wasn't seriously injured, and she had wrapped his hand where he'd cut his palm to draw the multipedes back to the scent of his blood, the four were making their way back out of the cave toward the surface. Henry, leading the way, called back to Will and Helen. "We're gonna make it home in time for lunch." "Best news I've heard all night," Helen replied. Nikola was following them, still carrying the plastic water bottle Helen had offered him again after the explosion.¿ "I can't believe you set out on a rescue mission, and didn't bring any decent libations with you." "What are we, St. Bernards?" Will chimed in sarcastically. Nikola beamed and lifted the water bottle in the air. "To our lost brothers in blood! May we never see their like again!" He called out dramatically, before his tone shifted a little. "Slimey perversions of science be damned! Hey Henry, I'll show you a short cut... "

Will had made note of Nikola's changed demeanor. He was far too excited for how horribly much this expedition had not gone in his favor, at least how it should have been in his viewpoint. "He kept one of the larvae, didn't he?" Will asked Helen. She nodded, "Oh most definitely."

"Are you gonna let him get away with it?" Will asked, a bit incredulous after all they had just gone through to be rid of the super multipedes. Helen shook her head and smiled. "No... let him enjoy his moment."

"Every time!"

xxxxx

It was

nearly an hour later and the four of them had returned to the Sanctuary plane to head back to Old City. The flight from Cartagena would take several hours even on their optimized plane, and Henry and Will had the sense to try to get some sleep.

Helen knew Nikola would not be doing the same. She knew he was probably sitting in the back somewhere either plotting what he would do with the larva to create a serum to replicate the Source Blood, or pouting that his original endeavor had foiled so badly to leave him needing their assistance in the first place and he would be embarrassed, off licking his wounds so to speak.

He also wouldn't eat, left to his own devices, so she walked over to the small refrigerator in the customized floorplan of the plane, retrieving a sandwich and a bottle of water before turning to walk back toward the back of the plane where there were some chairs and a small table anchore dto the floor by the right hand side window.

She found him right where she expected to, and offered the items procured from the fridge. "I'm not hungry," he stated plainly without looking at her. He was looking out the window, clearly somewhere else. Brooding, she realized and she took a seat in another chair facing him. She set the items down on the table, shaking her head. "That may be so but you were trapped in a cave with giant multipedes for nine and a half days, Nikola ... You need to eat something more than a power bar and a few drinks from a canteen, and you also need some decent rest."

He shrugged, shaking his head. Helen sighed, knowing she wasn't going to convince him right now. He could be stubborn as all hell, but then again that was probably how he managed to survive at all even now that he was human again. When they got back to the Sanctuary, there would be plenty of time to get him to eat something and rest. She'd honestly want to do a full workup on him, bloodwork and the like, to make sure there was no lingering harm done from such a long time caught in the creatures' trap.

"Nikola..."

"I'm not hungry Helen, I'm not tired. I just want to get back to Old City, get a shower and a change of clothes and be on with my life." Helen shook her head. "You're kidding right? You can't just go back and resume whatever crazy schemes you're working on. Nikola, you you were held in a web in a cave under rural Columbia for godssakes, for nine days.. you're going to need time to build your strength, you're not a -"

The glare he cast her challenged her to finish that sentence, you're not a vampire anymore. She recognized it from the night it had happened.

"Ah the premier cru you must be feeling guilty." "You can't possibly blame me for this!" "Forgive me Helen, it's just my soul-crushing depression talking. I'm not myself."

"On the contrary, you are your *real* self again. Human, mortal..."

"Watch your language!" The glare he cast her showed his complete shock and resignation to the earlier events of the night that had left him without his vampiric traits.

At the time, the only thing Helen had felt a bit guilty about was her inability to find a way to re-vamp Nikola. After all, he had become a vampire through the results of an experiment of her design, and somehow she felt responsible to restore those gifts to him after his own reckless and impulsive decisions, as usual, had yielded unintended consequences. Because frankly, maybe these consequences were too much. To lose his immortality, a large part of his identity? She'd seen him fall into a sense of dispair after his devamping, and she couldn't blame him. He had been a vampire for over 125 years.

But now he had to learn to accept it. The consequences of his experiment gone wrong had been harsh, extreme, but they were the reality. As much as it bothered Helen she had been unable to undo the effects of his devamper when Chad turned the tables on him, there was simply nothing that could be done. Now she had to try to stop him from self-destructing, either in his quest to find another way or in his loss of faith in ever getting his identity back.

She decided to leave well enough alone with that glare, and just gave him a look that said enough. She expected him to eat the food she'd brought him and drink the water. "I'll leave you alone Nikola, but try to get some rest. When we get back to the Sanctuary you are going to have a full workup... blood work, all of it." He cast her a distant, annoyed glance and she stood to walk away. As she passed him, she paused and touched her hand lightly to his shoulder before continuing on her way.

When she was up and about again an hour and a half later to get some tea, she found him slumped back in the chair, asleep. The sandwich had maybe two bites out of it and the water was half gone. Small victories, she decided, and she was just grateful he'd even tried.

The larva would wait a little longer.

xxxxx

It was mid-morning when the four of them arrived back to the Old City Sanctuary. Henry and Will were off to raid the kitchen while Kate followed Helen to the office, filling her in on what she had missed. She was heartbroken to hear about the Big Guy's friend of 60 years, Father Jenson. Helen had known the man, he was a kind and compassionate friend to all beings. Her heart ached for her old friend's loss. She'd have to track him down later and talk with him. First, she had to take the larva she was positive Nikola had snuck back into the Sanctuary in his pack.

Helen stopped at her suite to get a shower and changed into her black skirt that fell above her knees, and a deep blue shirt with a low-v and a bit of a ruffle that Nikola seemed to always secretly stare at her a little more when she wore it. She left her hair falling in loose curls and started off down the hall to the suite that Nikola would be staying in. The same one he had always stayed in since she bought the Old City Sanctuary over a century ago. It looked out over the gardens and it really was a lovely view year round.

Once in 1900 Helen had caught Nikola housing pigeons outside his window during a long stay at the Sanctuary between projects, after he left Colorado Springs and before he had returned to New York to start working on Wardenclyffe. That had resulted in a bit of a lecture and Nikola had agreed to dismantle the setup he'd put outside the window, but one of the birds had refused to leave and Helen had later found out he'd been feeding her in his room at night. Nikola and pigeons, Helen wasn't sure why he loved them so but he surely did.

Reaching the suite, she found the door closed. There was no sound of running water from the bath and she was sure he must be done showering by now. There was no way Nikola would delay being rid of the dust and dirt from over nine days trapped in a cave with giant multipedes, not to mention the ash from the explosion he'd survived. Lifting a hand to knock on the door, she waited.

One, two, three.. she counted mentally, knowing he would. No answer. "Nikola?" One, two, three... "Nikola open the door." One... two... three...

Ah. The door opened and there he was, now wearing black slacks and vest with a light blue shirt, no tie yet, his hair still a bit damp from his shower. "Helen, sorry, wanted to make sure it wasn't the Carpet..."

"I'm not sure where he is and Nikola, I expect you treat him respectfully he's just suffered a terrible loss." Helen would not stand for Nikola provoking the Big Guy right now, he deserved some peace to mourn.

Nikola just nodded, "I have no intention on goading him, that's why I didn't answer the door."

Helen shook her head. "You need to come down to the medical ward so I can run some tests."

"I'm fine, Helen." Nikola insisted as he walked over to seemingly look for something in his pack. Well, now was good a time as any.

"Hand it over, Nikola."

"Excuse me?" He cast her a questioning glance. Playing innocent was not going to work with Helen. She'd known him for far too long, far too well. "Nikola, we've known each other for one hundred plus years, I think I know your mind by now." She repeated what he told her in the apartment the baby vampires had them held in the night he'd been devamped.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about. I'm a little tired and very busy, so if you wouldn't mind..."

"The multipede larva, Nikola. I know you kept one from the explosion." He froze in his motions right then, looking over his shoulder at her with a cool glare.

"I'm sorry Nikola but I simply cannot allow you to keep one of the creatures."

"What makes you think I have one? Frankly that's a little presumptuous."

"Yes well when someone knows you as well as I, there is little room for guess work. I know how you think and I know you'd see an opportunity to grab one of the larva at the last moment and save it from the blast in your EM shielding."

Nikola sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes and shook his head. "Slimey perversions of science be damned."

"Precisely. Nikola. They are unnatural, destructive, aggressive abominations. The Cabal are gone and the multipedes need to be as well."

"You know Helen, Huggybear asked me in that lab when I had become a defender of the abnormal community. Maybe I'm not but you are. You have been for over a century, and now you want to kill a baby multipede."

Helen shook her head, "Nikola, these creatures are not naturally evolved. We've been over this. The catastrophic damage they could cause..."

"It's the only one. Keep it in the SHU for all I care. Just let me extract the plasma fir-"

"THAT is the other reason I'm destroying the creature, Nikola. I am sorry this happened. I truly wish there was a way to re-vamp you, but there's not."

"There. Is."

"In what? In injecting yourself with multipede plasma? It's dangerous, Nikola. Reckless and dangerous." Helen sighed. "Henry was right. We have no idea what sort of effects that would have on your genetic makeup. It may not work as smoothly as you're hoping for. It might not turn you back into a vampire at all, it may kill you. I could go on..."

"Please don't."

"Nikola, really. Is it worth your life?"

"What life?" Nikola turned to her and shrugged. "What life Helen? I told you, I want my life back. I used to be the last living vampire. Now I'm a walking, talking magnet. I've barely learned to control these accursed "abilities" and frankly I find very little to currently be worth it."

Helen sighed. She felt for him, she truly did. But she couldn't let him go through with this. It was far too reckless, far too unknown. "Nikola... I'm sorry." Her eyes cast down a moment and she shook her head, lifting her gaze back to her oldest friend as she walked toward him.

"Do you remember when we injected the Source?" Nikola stared at her a moment as if he wasn't sure why she would even ask. "Of course, the clearest moment in my mind. It has been for a long time."

"Nikola, that was a terrifying moment for all of us." She shook her head a little. "The others... their changes were apparent shortly after the injections. John and Nigel in particular... "

"Yes I just said I remember," he answered plainly, staring at the wall rather than looking at her as he sat down on the edge of the bed. He knew where this was going.

"You and I Nikola... we didn't change immediately. But when you finally did, it was terrifying. You were so helpless for days, completely delirious, in terrible pain. I was afraid, so afraid. We thought you might die. You were transforming but we had no idea why your reaction was so... extreme." She walked over to him and put her hand lightly on his shoulder. "Nikola, I was terrified that I would kill you. Your transformation left you helpless for days, and if something had happened to you because of my experiment.. I knew I could never forgive myself. And that was before I realized I'd have... an awfully long time of years to have to try to." Nikola cast her a glance then and she gave his shoulder a light squeeze.

"I'm truly sorry Nikola, but I can't allow you to risk harm to yourself a second time in the name of becoming a vampire again. Give me the larva."

He gave her a look. A cold, disappointed sort of glare that she had only been the direct recipient of a very few times in their 120-plus-year friendship. "Henry's right, too, Nikola. We have no idea what effects the multipede DNA might have. Please."

He sighed. He knew she wouldn't leave until she'd gotten the larva. But he sat there stubbornly for several long moments before he got up and crossed the room. He opened his pack and removed the creature, which was snuggly wrapped in its coccoon. Walking over to her, he handed it over. "What are you going to do with it?"

"What we did with the others, Nikola." She wasn't happy about having to destroy them but there was no choice; they were an unnatural and destructive presence in their habitat.

"It's just one multipede, you can contain it here and it will never have a chance to damage anything or even reproduce. Protect the vulnerable, study the miraculous, and all that." He half mumbled as he turned around to return to his spot on the edge of the bed.

She thought about this a moment and nodded, realizing he was right. "That's right, Nikola. But I'm keeping in the SHU... under a lock only I know how to open. I will personally see to its care for the duration of its life to prevent it possibly being freed or ending up ... in the wrong place." If she knew Nikola, his appealing to her desire to provide "Sanctuary for all" would stem from an ulterior motive... one that surely involved stealing the creature later for his intended purposes.

Nikola sighed, nodding. He had time to try to find a way around it, as long as she didn't kill the multipede outright.

"Meet me in the lab in an hour Nikola. I want to check you over and then I have something very interesting to show you." She knew his spirits would lift again when he saw the holo-map currently open for investigation in the library. Frankly, while his visit was unexpected, she was glad to have him here to help crack the codes. Without James, there was no one else she'd rather have to help solve the puzzle from her father than Nikola. Human or not, he was still the most brilliant man she knew.