AUTHOR'S NOTE: FIRSTLY, I DON'T OWN PENNY DREADFUL (I WISH I DID!). SECONDLY, THIS WILL BE A TRILOGY - EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS STORY IS CENTRED AROUND 3'S - SO EXPECT REGULAR-ISH UPDATES. MY NEXT POINT IS NOT DISCLOSED FOR SYMPATHY'S SAKE OR ANY ULTERIOR MOTIVE, BUT I AM CURRENTLY GOING THROUGH SOME THINGS MENTAL HEATH-RELATED SO I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS THROUGH SLEEPLESS NIGHTS. THUS, I UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M TRYING TO CONVEY THROUGH MY WORDS AND MEANING BUT AS THIS IS ONE OF THE MORE CONVOLUTED PLOTS I'VE ASSEMBLED IN MY BROKEN BRAIN, I'M NOT ENTIRELY CERTAIN IT WILL 'SPEAK' TO THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE. SO, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW IF IT'S NOT COMING ACROSS IN THIS CHAPTER, AS THIS CHAPTER IS MOSTLY EXPOSITION AND A BIT OF A REWRITE OF 3X09 (ITALICS AT BEGINNING) TO INTRODUCE THE AU, BUT I CAN TRY TO CLARIFY IN THE LATER CHAPTERS (OR MESSAGES IF NECESSARY), IF I'M NOT BEING CRYSTAL CLEAR. I HAVE OMITTED ETHAN MEETING DRACULA IN THE WAREHOUSE DISTRICT AS IT DIDN'T FIT WITH MY NARRATIVE. OTHERWISE, THE ONLY THING LEFT TO SAY IS - ENJOY MISTRANSLATION!
DAENERYSTARGARY3N X
Mistranslation
Chapter the First
The Caroline, Day 34 of voyage to Cairo, Egypt
"No, it cannot be," Ferdinand Lyle exclaimed, "it is impossible!"
"Shut your cakehole, you ginger faggot!" His boisterous cabin-mate yelled back from his bunk, attempting to get some sleep in the rocking vessel Egypt-bound.
"Ah, hush, we're all going to die, and it's all my own fault!"
The other occupant of the cabin snorted, "Great! At least then I'll have peace in heaven."
Lyle balked at the ironic quip, knowing as he did that the mistake he was looking at, the error he had made in his work with Sir Malcolm and dear Miss Ives, was going to plunge the world in its entirety into a permanent state of hell.
Looking down at the brown fabric, the final piece of the puzzle the Verbis Diablo fragments posed, Lyle groaned. He wished he had remained in London to decipher the last shred of the mystical language that Brother Gregory scrawled onto the cowl of his robes in his last minutes living. Damn Fredericks for handing it to him as he walked up the gangway in the East India Docks and damn him for not turning around and going directly to Vanessa to examine it.
"I need to turn this ship about. We need to return to London. We need to return to London."
Lyle shot up as quickly as he could and pushed the small writing table away as he strode out the door with more authority than he felt and headed for the Captain's cabin. All he could think of was Miss Ives abandoned in London by all she depended on and trusted to protect her from the demons who pursued her relentlessly and how he, the most cowardly and insignificant of all in their macabre little group, had left her taking with him the key to her survival and the survival of them all.
As Mr. Sykes rose to shut the door after Lyle left it ajar, he spared a glance to the ratty brown rag with what appeared to be the mad ravings of a lunatic. Staring at Lyle's hurriedly scrawled apparent translation, Sykes read: "I was human and erred. It is the Wolf of the Goddess that shall make me as a God and bring we three to our rightful kingdom."
"Load of bollocks, if you ask me…" Sykes pronounced before slamming the door shut and returning to his hard bunk.
By now, Lyle had reached the Captain of The Caroline and was endeavouring to impart the seriousness of the world's situation to him without being arrested and incarcerated below decks as a crackpot.
"Please, Captain," Lyle beseeched, "it is imperative to our collective survival as humanity that we turn around and head back to London. There is information of life-and-death importance that I must deliver to my comrades. I must tell them of my most recent discovery! They are going into battle with forces beyond your comprehension and the instructions were mistranslated!"
Captain Sheraton Willem was a straightforward, straight-laced former Navy man. He did not give credence to the mystical and supernatural that penny dreadful novels had recommended to the hysterics and soft-minded individuals in lower society. If he was honest with himself, he was not certain he believed in any higher power, let alone 'forces beyond comprehension' that seemed to have driven the eccentric dandy before him into delirium.
"Mr. Lyle, kindly control yourself. My men and I do not appreciate melodrama or mad promises of doom when no threat exists. Please speak in facts or cease your tirade. In any case, I will not be altering course and we will dock in Cairo in three days, at which time, you will be free to disembark and make your way back to England. Otherwise, all I can offer you is the chance to return to your berth aboard my ship and directions to the nearest telegraph office once we make port. Take it or leave it – and me – be."
"I will accept your offer of assistance with aplomb and will now take my leave. Thank you, Captain. I only hope we will not be too late for my friends."
With that, Mr. Lyle turned about with a flourish and headed in the direction of his shared quarters, praying that The Caroline would arrive promptly, and he could wire his message to Miss Ives without further delay.
Four days later. London, England.
"Vanessa? Vanessa?!" Sir Malcolm bellowed, scouring the vestibule and salon for his ward.
Ethan, unhesitating, bounded up the staircase and headed towards her bedroom uncaring that Kaetenay stood to attention, left alone in his wake. All he knew was that Vanessa was not here, even before he pushed her door open. She had left the place as its other occupants had left her – bereft, empty and untended. He felt the guilt and fear seep through his pores as the knowledge, which had begun to dawn on him as his party disembarked to face a foggy, desolate, dead city, that Vanessa had fallen to the darkness became clear. He had failed her. He had left her without quarter and without defence and she had succumbed as Kaetenay had predicted.
The hung wolf that surprised him dripping blood from above Vanessa's bed onto the floor was a sign – a sign of his defeat.
Hearing Kaetenay's soft footfalls behind him, he murmured, "She's not here."
"Something is."
Only moments later, they both heard Sir Malcolm's cry. Hastening through the upstairs corridor, both men headed towards Vanessa's drawing room but were assailed. Three dark creatures flanked Ethan, flinging him off the landing and onto the stairs below with a painful thud. Kaetenay was enmeshed in his own mêlée fending off his attacker, unable to lend a hand to Sir Malcolm or Ethan.
Three shots were fired from an unknown party, a woman standing confident and sure in the hallway firing upon the vampires attacking Ethan, not affronted by the alien creatures plain as day before her. When her ammunition failed her, she discarded her firearm and revealed a blade concealed under her long black overcoat. She wielded it against the one risen vampire who evaded her opening salvo and nearly had him beat when he grasped her about the throat and began to squeeze before throwing her over the bannister.
Ethan watched his saviour distract the indefatigable vampire and seized his opportunity to rejoin the fight. While the creature was turned away, Ethan leapt up and railed at the monster. Weakened from the initial assault as he was, he knew as the creature overcame him once again that the fight would not end in his favour. Laid on his front as he was, feeling the stairs he had been violently tossed upon jut against his ribs painfully, he heard the tell-tale whoosh of metal cutting through air until it hit flesh.
Facing the resolute woman with an uncanny ability to throw knives and duel vampires, he could only think of one thing to say, "Who the hell are you?"
"I believe I'm the woman who has just saved your life."
Joining Sir Malcolm and Kaetenay in the salon, Ethan and the interloper (helpful interloper though she be), the bite Sir Malcolm had sustained during his own scuffle had been seared away by the redheaded woman, confident that he would not turn while the other two men held him firmly down.
Once convinced that Sir Malcolm was unconscious and the wound cauterized, Ethan turned again to their new acquaintance and asked again, "Who are you?"
"Catriona Hartdegen. Miss, if you go in for titles."
"I'll fetch Dr. Frankenstein." Ethan suggested, not waiting for agreement or permission before heading for the front door.
Catriona followed him and asked his name.
"My name is Ethan Chandler."
She smiled, "You will need a mask – to filter the air – if you're going outside."
"I can handle a fog." Ethan said.
"That is not fog," Catriona explained, "we thought so at first, but its gaseous. It's fatal when inhaled. Last week 7, 000 people died in London. It's no fog…it's a plague."
"That as may be," he replied, truly perturbed by the death toll, "I need to find Miss Ives."
"We all need to find Miss Ives. If I'm correct, she is the only one who can stop this…the End of Days, Mr. Chandler."
Ethan could only nod, unable yet to process the dire state of affairs, before exiting in search of the doctor.
Catriona marvelled both at his foolhardiness to not take precautions before heading out into the open air and at his determination to brave the weather in his quest to find Vanessa. She said nothing as Kaetenay glanced at her briefly before following Ethan out the door.
"Let's say I look like a friend then." Catriona reassured Sir Malcolm as he began to accept her presence and ministrations.
The interjecting knocks at the door were off-putting and took the breath from the lungs of Catriona and her new charge. Nevertheless, they both went.
The woman who stood, stalwart and graceless, said plainly, "I'm looking for Vanessa Ives. My name is Dr. Seward – I'm a friend. You must be Sir Malcolm Murray," she pronounced before turning to the Catriona, "you, I don't know. Where is Miss Ives?"
"She's not here. She needs our help more than you can know. If you want to save her, come with me now. She tarries among the demons." Dr. Seward surgically informed them.
The door flew open once more and in burst Kaetenay and Ethan with Victor and a scrawny boy in tow.
"Victor, Dr. Frankenstein," Sir Malcolm greeted with a genuine smile, "such a pleasure it is to see you alive. We need your assistance. We need to find Miss Ives and rescue her from her captor's grasp. Dr. Seward here is of Miss Ives' acquaintance and can lead us to her. My injury is of no consequence and can wait. We must leave here presently if we are to save her and insodoing, all of us."
"We found this boy trying to make his way here from the museum. He says he has an urgent telegram from Mr. Lyle – it is addressed to Miss Ives." Ethan said, explaining the presence of the young scallywag.
"We need to read it – it could contain valuable information. Hand it over, boy." Sir Malcolm ordered, pulling a sovereign from his inside pocket.
Quickly the telegram is in Sir Malcolm's possession and the boy sped out of the house. Tearing open the envelope, Sir Malcolm read, "Miss Ives. From F. Lyle, Cairo, Egypt. Just discovered new fragment of V.D. Text not as we thought. Br. Gregory mistranslated. True translation of Devil's words: It is the Wolf of the Goddess that shall make me as a God and bring we three to our rightful kingdom. Lupus Deae not Dei. Power lies with you not Devil or God. You hold our destinies in your hands. Wire any questions or plans of action. Be safe, Miss Ives. F.L."
"Well, that changes things." Ethan said.
"Does it?" Catriona questioned, "We still need to find Vanessa and stop this plague that has suffocated the city."
"If I understand Mr. Lyle correctly, it means that we have mistaken the roles of the key players here and that is key to defeating Dracula and rescuing Vanessa. We need to do both to stop the plague but we've always believed that the power of Lupus comes from God and that Dracula would become his equal by ensnaring Vanessa with his power. It would seem not. It seems like Vanessa, the Goddess' power, is what unites us all."
"What do you mean 'us'?" Dr. Seward asked. "How do you fit into this equation?"
"I am Lupus Dei, or Lupus Deae…as it happens. In the first instance, Brother Gregory wrote that she would be saved by Lupus Dei and her acceptance of God's divine power would scupper Dracula's plans and save us all. Now, I believe that Mr. Lyle is saying that there is some way that our abilities combine and exist with hers that God is outside the equation altogether." Ethan posited.
Kaetenay continued in a pensive voice, "The three…the three will go to their rightful kingdom. That is interesting."
"Care to elaborate…" Dr. Frankenstein insisted with his usual amount of sarcasm, "whoever you are?"
"It is interesting because that phrase suggests that with the power that enables Ethan to transform stems from Vanessa's power. We always thought that our powers came from the Divine, from God, but if this Brother Gregory's latest words are correct, Ethan, Vanessa and Dracula, the brother who surmounted The Devil, have intertwining destinies. I don't believe that a union between Miss Ives and Dracula will solve the problem of the poisonous fog. I believe a union between Miss Ives, Dracula and Ethan is our way out."
"You may be right," Sir Malcolm agreed, "but if indeed these three will save us and Dracula has not brought a veritable kingdom of hell down on us, what has prompted the fog to descend and the monsters to come out to play?"
"I may have an inkling," Catriona piped up, "but it is just a theory. I know nothing of Brother Gregory, whoever he is, or whatever he's written. I just wonder at the discordance of it all. I mean, if it's true that Mr. Chandler here, Vanessa and Dracula are linked and the unification of all three is what brings them to their 'rightful kingdom', it stands to reason that because all three are now in play and close – two of them together not knowing that they are waiting for the third – the worlds, the kingdoms are starting to take form but are clashing. The night creatures, the vampires, the monsters we all believed only existed in novels and penny dreadfuls are not supposed to exist with humans. The end of mankind and the creatures of the dark is inevitable if both continue to inhabit the same plane, we're simply not all meant to coexist on earth. What if there is no heaven, hell and earth? What if the kingdom Ethan, Dracula and Vanessa are set to rule is an entirely new kingdom defined by which fallen brother wins the day?"
"It's plausible and explains the dissonance of realms occurring in London. Put it this way, it's no less impossible than anything else we've encountered since most of us met." Frankenstein concurred.
Ethan's mind was churning. It was a complete turnaround from all they had been led to believe from the Verbis Diablo text. He was not Godsent to save Vanessa from the forces of darkness that sought to corrupt and gain ownership of her, he was not set up to be Dracula's rival or enemy, he was not meant to live alongside his friends in this plane, he was not going to ride into the sunset with Vanessa safe and happy on his arm into a future with children and days in the sun, he was not going to slay the monster. Suddenly, he accepted his fate with alarming alacrity. He was sent to rule the forces of darkness with Vanessa (and Dracula, now that Lucifer was gone), he was intended to be Dracula's counterpart and equal in all, he was meant to exist in his own kingdom separate from the world he had grown up in and knew, he was not going to have a normal, family future with Vanessa, his love and if he wanted to save his friends and the woman he loved and the rest of humanity, he was going to find a way to share everything (his body, his soul, his life, his love) with Dracula including – it would seem – Vanessa.
"I need to sleep on this. We just need to gather our forces and our thoughts before we go to the warehouse. Vanessa doesn't know about the mistranslation, she doesn't know that Dracula is no true enemy to her and she need not resist him. That means she is still his possession and we – I – need to plan exactly how to broach the subject with Dracula and her before we begin a war that will end us all." Ethan sighed, moving for the stairs.
As Ethan lay himself down on his old bed directly across the hall from Vanessa's, he felt the day catch up with him. The only reason for his return truly was Vanessa and the discovery that she was in mortal peril, having been abandoned by him, by Sir Malcolm and forgotten about (apparently) by Frankenstein. She had found new friends since his departure – the redoubtable Miss Hartdegen and Dr. Seward – but he knew deep down that she needed him, that she would have stood stronger had he been by her side.
He wept slowly into his pillows as the new status quo redefined his destiny and what he believed his stance in the world was. He had always known he had no business trying to live with humans and normal people but once he met Vanessa, Ethan truly believed his purpose in life and the purpose of his other side was to protect her from those who hunted her. Now, based on the last-minute, dying ramblings on the Devil's biographer, he had to understand that his fate was to bring together the Goddess, the Vampire and the Wolf and the kingdom they would rule as an Unholy Trinity.
"Brother Gregory has a lot to answer for…" Ethan whispered as he drifted off to sleep.
Asleep, Ethan was standing in a black room with three ornate stone thrones before him. He could see ghosts of himself and Vanessa sitting on two but one stood empty. He looked at it, seemingly for an eternity, expecting to see the face of the man who he would learn to tolerate, maybe more. He gazed until a sharp movement from behind the vacant throne attracted his attention.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
A sinister laugh echoed about the chamber and a bodiless voice said, "I am you, Ethan Chandler. I am the part of you you didn't know existed until this very day. I am the third and final part of your destiny."
"Dracula?" Ethan asked breathlessly. "If you are he, why conceal yourself?"
The laugh continued, mocking and abrasive to Ethan's ears, "No, I am not he. His powers are to roam the streets of earth and corrupt his prey's bodies and souls. My powers lie in the nightmares of men. My domain is the fears men do not know they possess and the desires that lead them to sin and the fall into hell."
"You are Lucifer, then."
The interloper emerged and was a tall, lean man with an erudite face and distinguished, magnetic features. Power seemed to radiate from his deep, hollow coffee-coloured eyes. It was entrancing. As much as Ethan wanted to tremble at the sight, the power and the vice of this celestial being before him, he couldn't. He could only feel the lust surge within him and extol him towards his companion.
"I am he," the Lord of Hell replied, "I am the force you and your friends have been fighting since you first met the enchanting Miss Ives. Her, I have known significantly longer. You could say we are…old friends."
"It was you who drove her mad, who forced her into that madhouse and destroyed her soul." Ethan accused.
"I destroy no one's soul. Humans destroy their own souls without any assistance from me," he bit back, "and as for Miss Ives' soul, it has always been beyond my influence. That is what I am here to impart to you, Ethan. Vanessa's soul, your soul, what remains of my…brother's soul are all linked. Since my brother won the first battle – winning the trust and the heart of the Goddess, I am banished. I can no more encroach on the earthly plain. My punishment for losing to my brother – I am trapped in hell, destined for a lonely battle with my father and brothers for the souls of mankind. I am only able to visit you because the realms have yet to separate forever. Once the Goddess, the Lupus and the Vampire descend, the doors to hell, heaven and earth will be sealed forever and this cursed fog will lift. Do you understand what I am telling you, Lupus?"
"I do. I understand my fate." Ethan nodded sagely.
"Do you truly comprehend what you have to do? For you are the one to lead the worlds into their new places. My brother and our love do not know that they do not need to perish for Vanessa to have peace – at this moment they expect to die. Dracula is waiting for the last fight with you, for you to rescue Vanessa from his sinister clutches and Vanessa, she – poor, hunted, battle-weary as she is – awaits your return to fulfil your promise to her: to kill her and lay her to rest. They do not know that if you do so, the plague will overrun the earth and there will be no rest to be had. This is your task, Ethan Chandler, it is your task to give them yourself to live for and a kingdom to live in at peace and all of you will live eternally unmolested with your nocturnal subjects."
Lucifer breathed, feeling the omnipresent tug, pulling him back to hell, "Your powers can only unite when your bodies and souls do. You must consummate your union, all three of you. It is why the Eternal Youth, Dorian Gray, was thrown into your path, Ethan. He is one of you: a creature of magic, who was made available to you so you would be prepared to love one of God's unfortunate sons. You will be a trinity of paramours, rulers, gods."
"Paramours? So not only do I share my body and soul with a man who has hunted me, sent his minions to torture me and pursue me halfway round the globe," Ethan gasped, "I have to give my heart over too?"
In sleep, Ethan's anger, his rage, all his fear was unfettered. His fear at loving a man considered his greatest enemy and sharing his most prized possession – Vanessa's heart – with him was paramount in his thoughts, thoughts he could not escape during his dreams.
The Devil scoffed, "Do you believe it will a hardship for you…truly? My brother is not so terrible, Mr. Chandler, and he is not unlovable. He already has part of Miss Ives' heart, a part you left for the taking when you abandoned her. It was not difficult for him to win her. We are – both of us – celestial, Ethan, and with that comes the presence of power and godliness, though our divinity has long been wrested from us. That is a very hard thing to resist, along with the fact that our physical forms are by no means repugnant. Did you know my brother is my identical? You are already entrammelled by my presence alone – you will feel the pull more towards my brother; your destinies are still tied together. At any rate, no need to take my word verbatim. You will meet my brother and see our love again soon enough, Lupus. Give Vanessa my regards and sleep now. The rest of your godly existence begins tomorrow."
Lucifer drew away and his robes swirled as he disappeared behind the empty black throne, Ethan's dreamscape fading into nothingness as deep sleep claimed him.
Ethan jumped awake at daybreak the next morning. He was sure it was morning but the sky outside his window was overcast with the toxic grey clouds that had engulfed London. Now he had slept and regained his strength and some semblance of clarity, he knew that how much longer the city suffered with this blight was in his control.
Going downstairs to rendezvous with the others, he kept one hand on his pistol-bearing holster on his hip for reassurance. He didn't want to fire it, not now, not now he knew he was fighting for both the loves of his life, not just the one and he had to keep both alive to save them all.
"Good mornin'," Ethan greeted sombrely, "we'll be going soon but I want to get one thing clear before we go. I – and I alone – will be the one to find Miss Ives. Your task, your only task is to stall Dracula until I can speak to him with Miss Ives. Furthermore, no one is to engage him in combat unless I expressly order it. That you must vow, regardless of your feud with the vampire or vampirekind. I say this with only a small degree of selfishness: your survival, mankind's survival depends solely on Miss Ives, myself and Dracula surviving this day."
"Understood."