Storms of Oxford
Nikola always liked the rain
Nikola pushed aside the curtains and sipped his wine meditatively as the storm clouds gathered. Nikola always liked the rain. It washed everything away. He felt cleansed after the storm. The rain washing away his mistakes, as the wind
swept away his guilt and thunder drowned out the doubts in his mind. The lightening reminded him of what he could do. For Nikola Tesla was the lightening
It was easier to think of himself and consistently 'them' not as mere mortals crawling on the earths surface, but as a force of nature. Together the 5 had been a storm of change, progress. And destruction.
Nigel of course was the thunder. Unseen but always heard. Loud and blustering but of no potential power. Nigel liked trying to keep up with Nikola, trading Barbs and sharing a slight disdain for Druitt.
Good old Johnny. Naturally he was a windstorm. Nikola chuckled at the look Druitt himself would give his erstwhile 'friend' if he heard the vampire voice such ideas. But it was true One minute John was the perfect soft spoken gentleman, courteous in all he did. A light summer breeze wafting softly in the trees with gentle rolling words rolling off his tongue like velvet. Then suddenly and without warning the rage hit. Loud, explosive and unbridled. Then in a flash it was gone and so was John. Nothing left but the destruction he caused. Damage beyond repair, in some cases. Like James.
Nikola turned from the window and resumed packing as James Watson rolled across his mind. The good Doctor and adequate problem solver, James was most like the rain. Following the wind, the rain fell over everything, clearing away anything that would hide the truth. Nothing got past the clear focused eyes of James. Watson. No puzzle unsolved. If he happened to cause a flood and destroy that same truth he searched so hard for in the process, then so be it. That was a small price By then he was off to do something else, leaving those behind hoping for a rainbow that wasn't coming.
At first glance, one would almost think Helen was the rainbow. And indeed, she was beautiful enough.
But rainbows were flimsy. Illusions. Rainbows followed after the storm. Helen was in the thick of it. She was the embodiment of strength and calm. Helen was the eye.
The 5 had been her idea, her project. She called together the 4 smartest men she could find (or at least 1 smart man and 3 not quite idiots )
She found the sourceblood and created the serum. Helen was calm and collected, even when Nikola felt he was losing his mind. Even when John really did lose his, Helen held strong. Held them together. She was the center.
Their center.
But she was dead now. They all were. Nikola last of the 5 was all in a world he no longer belonged to. A world that could never remember his name despite all he had done for it. Once hailed as ahead of his time, he had been left in the dust, to be washed away from memory with the next storm. Alone with out the only people he ever counted as friends.
But then the lightening was always alone. It traveled miles ahead of the storm,without a care that no one could catch up Nikola was certainly the lightning.
Born in a lightning storm both times. Nikola entered the world one stormy nght as the clock struck midnight and lightning struck the clock.
The second time the lightning struck not from without but within. The source blood coursed inside him, changing him drastically and forever. Changing him into his true form, making him what he really he had always been meant to be.
Nikola closed his suitcase and placed his coat over one arm.
Since the destruction of the sanctuary network and Helens death, Nikola had moved from place to place, living in hotels. He took up a nomadic existence (albeit a nomadic existence with room service and wine. ) traveling from place to place with one small suitcase and a cryptic message from Helen Judging by the fact that his dinner was only accompanied by 8 napkins, Nikola guessed his welcome was worn out. The vampire headed out the door wishing more than anything he could go 'home' He wanted to live in the sanctuary with Helen. She had kissed him of her own free will and that had made her his. Nikola knew he had over a century squandered. over a century with a full invite to live in the sanctuary with her. A full invite to live with her and he never stayed.
A big part of him always wanted to stay with her. Every time he visited he wished to live there. She begged him to stay. Begged without words, but he heard her loud and clear. A look , a smile, a well aged bottle of wine. A roll of the eyes that seemed to say 'Oh Nikola' but really asked 'Don't leave me again'
Part of him wanted to stay but he was the lightening. Lightning never stuck around. It struck with force and precision and then passed again before the thunder could catch up.
Nikola picked up his suitcase and his last remains of Helen Magnus; a small note with coordinates to the old hollow earth gateway. He closed the door and faded into the night like a shadow
Then fell the rain, clouding Nikola s vision.
But the sky was clear. And the earth remained dry.