A/N: Hey guys! I've decided to upload one of my OnS fanfics from archive of our own onto here! If you haven't read it on there, all you need to know is that the plot was inspired by the game "Vampire the Masqerade: Bloodlines". I'm clashing the lore of both that and OnS, so you don't need to play the game to understand what's going on here. :)

This story is a modern day AU and involves Vamp!Yuu so be prepared for that!

Just in case, here's the archive of our own version: /users/Clockwork_Pixie/works

Onto the story!

Yuu didn't remember much of what happened leading up to his death. He only remembered what happened in the exact moments. For instance, he remembered hearing gunshots and suddenly lying in pain, bleeding on the cold concrete ground of a public parking garage.

And he definitely remembered the blonde kid dying on the ground next to him. The guy was...meeting with some shady people Yuu saw in the adjoining restaurant just minutes before. He didn't look like one of them. A shot rang out and he saw the blonde fall to the ground. Yuu was pretty sure he told someone to call the police before he saw them pull the shot blonde by his wrist and kick him while he was down, which was when Yuu stepped in.

But you don't go into a gunfight armed with a smartass mouth and righteousness.

His efforts were rewarded at the receiving end of a gun.

He didn't hear his attackers try to finish him or the blonde off after he was shot, so he assumed they made a break for it.

Leaving himself and the guy he failed to save, dying on a filthy parking lot.

Yuu was lying on his back, with the dim white lighting of the concrete ceiling staring back at him. With nothing left to think of except for the pain in his chest, he knew there was no possible way he was going to leave here alive. He found it funny, just a few hours ago, he remembered thinking that he really wouldn't mind dying. He could have driven off the nearest cliff into the freezing cold ocean water, and it really wouldn't have mattered. It wasn't like he had much to live for, not to mention that the world seemed like it was doing everything in its power to make him suffer. Even before he was bleeding out from gun wounds. He had just wanted to be in control of how he died, but he supposed there wasn't much difference in terms of results in the end.

However, he had very different thoughts as he turned his head to look at the blonde lying on his stomach with his eyes closed, barely breathing and bleeding from similar wounds.

I was only trying to save him, Yuu thought, Was I just not fast enough? Was I just not good enough?

The short, bated breaths from the other man gave him reassurance that he was still alive. He only hoped that he could hold on just a bit longer until help came, even if it was too late for Yuu.

He guessed that these were his last moments alive.

Yuu couldn't say he had many regrets. His life had hardly left him with anyone or anything he would be upset to leave behind. His best friend, more like a sister really, was the only one left. He had an envelope with the money addressed to Akane that should leave her in good shape. It was every cent he had owed her since she had helped pay for his college tuition; he had worked to make sure he paid her back in full and he ensured it would be delivered to her. Especially in the event of his death. He refused to be the burden of any more financial troubles.

For the most part, he was dying with a clear conscience.

However, the fact that he would never know the name of the stranger he died trying to save was a bit...disheartening.

Unfortunately, that didn't matter either. His feelings were never of any significance when it came to the final say in his life.

Yuu found that it was slowly getting harder for him to stay awake, and soon he wouldn't be able to resist the fall into the darkness surrounding him. He didn't know if he'd ever open his eyes again after he gave in. But he was so tired, he put those worries behind him.

Except for one...

Before he lost consciousness, he could have sworn he heard his companion mumble something to him.

It sounded a lot like, "...I'm sorry."

Yuu passed out before he could ask what that meant.

"...Hey…"

...

"Hey...are you still there?"

...That was a good question. Yuu himself couldn't even answer that even if he had the willpower to do so.

He hadn't opened his eyes, but he had a pretty good idea of where he was. He was floating in complete darkness, drifting with no sense of direction. He knew he was floating because even with his limited senses, he could tell there was nothing beneath him except for air. He felt as light as a feather, and yet his body felt like a giant weight suspended in midair. So he made no effort to move, and he had no desire to. Staying like this, he could almost completely forget about the pain he was in. He didn't need to think about anything anymore. He didn't need to feel anything anymore.

If this was the afterlife…if this was all there was after death, he could content himself to just floating in an ocean of darkness, letting the waves carry him through the void.

And everything would be fine.

"...Can you hear me?"

A voice that wasn't his own had been piercing through the previously silent void, at first so quiet that Yuu didn't even know it was there. But now it so loud, it felt like someone was trying to violently shake him from a dream he didn't want to wake up from.

He was so tempted to ignore it. Couldn't he just go back to sleep?

"You don't have to speak, you don't even have to wake up...but I need to know if you're still alive in there."

Yuu was mildly irritated when the voice persisted on, but something wasn't right. What did it mean, "if" he was still alive? Yuu was...he was still here, wasn't he…? He was still existing somewhere as far as he knew...

Wait…

The voice asked if he was still alive "in there". Typically, when someone asks a question like that, it meant...

He was still holding on.

Minutes ago, he had been convinced he was a goner. If he wasn't dead yet, did he still have a chance to survive this?

Whatever the case was, he needed to know. But he wasn't sure how he would be able communicate his being alive back to the voice when he himself could hardly move, much less cry out.

No, he couldn't accept defeat so easily. If he was still alive, he just needed to reboot his senses back into use. The major feelings of paralysis were within the areas of his chest, abdomen, and neck. Standing up or moving his head was probably out of the question. He just needed to start small. A slight movement of his fingers should enough. With his eyes still closed, Yuu focused all of his attention on his dominant hand. He imagined his fingers moving back and forth and attempted to physically perform the action. His fingers felt stiff, but he could feel himself regaining movement in his hand.

Yuu curled his fingers and clenched his hand. He was putting all his cards on the table now.

…

"...Ah, there you are."

Score.

"I don't know how much time I have left," The previously concerned tone in the voice took on a more serious note as it spoke to him, "So I'll be brief, I'll ask you the only question that matters at this moment. If I offered you a way to survive this, would you want it?"

Yuu thought that was an odd way of asking if he wanted to live, which he figured was the gist of what the voice was asking of him. He didn't know what to make of it. Yuu couldn't even answer that question himself before he was shot. He knew he hadn't wanted to die like that, but still…

He found it pretty ironic that fate had given him exactly what he wanted, and only now was he having second thoughts.

"...why…?" He managed to ask with what little strength he still had in him. Why would this person, or at least he assumed it was a person, behind this voice want to save him? Why did they even care?

There was a pause before he received an answer.

"Because you did the same thing for someone who didn't think he deserved that kindness…"

That subtle implication made Yuu's ears perk up, and not much really registered in his mind after he made the connection. There was no one else they could have been referring to besides…He wanted to confirm, Is he okay? He's alive, isn't he?!

For the second time that night, Yuu was cut off before he could inquire anything.

"I can tell you're worried," The voice explained in a serene manner, "And I can tell you're skeptical of what I offer. I understand perfectly well where your apprehension originates, but I can assure that you have nothing to fear. I promise I will answer your questions when I can, but right now I need you to trust me."

On any other occasion, Yuu would have said that this person was already asking too much of him. Trust wasn't something he just gave out sparingly like copious amounts of Halloween candy. But even then, he had to stop and ask himself, Is the alternative really any better?

He was trapped in an empty void, a fleeting borderline between living and dying, with no idea what awaited him after death. It terrified him the more he thought about it. If he refused help now, he knew silence and darkness would surround him a resounding finality until something else claimed his soul.

Which, even then, he feared could be never.

He'd be alone once again.

Yuu made his decision, especially if that was his only other option, he sure as hell wasn't going to stick around for something else to take pity on him. There really was no point of being picky when it came to the matter of how he was being saved. If this person was truly trying to help, he supposed he had no choice but to humor them right now. They said they would explain later, he just had to hold them to that.

As if the voice had verbally received its answer, it proceeded to the only other loose end...

"I want to show you something."

Immediately after it was said, everything suddenly shifted.

Yuu felt something cover his mouth, effectively cutting off his oxygen supply and replacing it with a warm liquid that burned as it trickled down his throat. A surge of panic went through him, he was struggling to breathe and couldn't even fight back. He couldn't move even though he was willing his body to do something, anything other than just lie back and take it…! It felt like someone was hovering over him, restraining his already numb limbs from trying to resist…

He wanted to scream, but whatever force was forcing liquid down his throat was ensuring he remained complicit. It got more difficult for him to breathe and once that liquid hit his bloodstream...he started to feel the pain arise.

Only this time, it was so much worse. It shot through his nerves like electricity and magnified from there. The burning sensation in his throat spread to the rest of his body like someone had struck a match and lit him on fire.

Yuu opened his eyes and swore that he caught a glimpse of gold before a white brightness clouded his vision with the intensity of the sun.

"Good evening."

A deep, unfamiliar voice pierced through his consciousness.

Yuu was beginning to feel the effects of his induced exhaustion leave him as his vision cleared somewhat. It was dark, so it took him several moments for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting.

"My fellow Kindred. My apologies for disrupting any business or interfering with prior engagements you may have had this evening. It's unfortunate that the affair that gathers us together tonight is a troubling one."

From what Yuu could tell, he was kneeling on a hardwood floor and someone was gripping his shoulders firmly keeping him in place. His movement was limited, but when he looked around, he saw that there were actually people sitting in velvet foldout seats with their eyes trained in his general direction. Quite a bit of people, actually. Some were spread out in the seats in front of him, and a few were in -he leaned slightly for as close of a look as he could get- balcony seating. Given the spacious room and the number of people, he could only assume that he was in an auditorium of some sort, so that meant he was...

He was sitting on a fucking stage.

He knew for a fact that this wasn't where he was before...or where he was supposed to be. Didn't he get shot in a parking garage? Why wasn't he taken to a hospital or a police station, as opposed to a goddamned theater?

Though as the thought entered his head, Yuu stopped in his tracks. He was certain he could answer the question of whether he got shot, the answer being an undeniable "yes". However, he was currently kneeling on a stage...if he was sitting up, shouldn't he be in a lot more pain right now?

He would've thought the answer to that would be a "yes" as well, but he felt nothing. No pain in or around the areas where he was positive that a bullet had penetrated through skin, a fact which concerned him. If no one took him to the hospital, how the hell was he feeling fine? Yuu would have checked over where he got shot for himself if he wasn't being restrained by the goon behind him. Another fact that concerned him.

"We are here because the laws that bind our society -the laws that are the fabric of our existence- have been broken."

The guy who had been talking this whole time, he realized, had been talking to the crowd of people who had their eyes on the stage. His back was toward Yuu, so he couldn't get a good look at his face. He noted, however, that he wore a black pea coat over his dark, ironed out suit that gave him that Nouveau-riche, aristocratic air about him as he sauntered across the stage, calmly addressing his audience.

Okay, Yuu thought, What the actual fuck happened between now and the whole shoot-out earlier?! Is big guy over here going to explain why they dragged me here or-?! In a brief moment where he glanced over to his right to survey more of his surroundings, his eyes widened in alarm.

There was another person on the stage with him, forced to their knees with their arms restrained much like him. Yuu couldn't quite make him out because of his spotty vision and the crappy lighting...But it looked like a guy, Yuu could see the sharp angles of his face and extremely slight muscles through his loose, white long-sleeved shirt. He looked around his height, maybe an inch or two taller, and had light hair with cerulean eyes. He was wearing dark, loose fitting clothing as well as boots. Although unlike Yuu, they had placed a gag over his mouth.

It seemed like their captors truly had a taste for the theatrics, Yuu thought in disgust. Seriously, is this a fucking joke to them?! What do they think they're going to do anyway?

"As Prince," The man in front of them was still speaking to the crowd, "I am within my rights to grant or deny the Kindred of this city the privilege of siring. Many of you have come to me seeking permission, and I have endorsed some of these requests." He turned and stepped over to the left of the stage, which was then Yuu noted that he had dark hair and eyebrows that reminded him of lightning bolts. "However, the accused that sits before you tonight was not refused permission…Indeed, my permission was never sought at all. They were caught shortly after the Embrace of this childe." He gestured to Yuu, for whom this only confused and agitated further.

And he didn't like the way the boy with the gag flinched at the corner of his vision, speechlessly staring at the speaker with what looked like barely controlled fear.

Putting that child comment aside, this guy is obviously out of his damn mind. First of all, "Prince"?! Second, what does he mean this guy "embraced" me? What, was I initiated into his super secret boy band without supreme leader Thunderbrows' say so? This is ridiculous.

Besides, the guy next to me looks more...puzzled from this than I am, like he's just finding out about all this. If big guy over there is saying he did something to me, how much truth is really behind his words? I know for a fact I've never seen the guy in my life and from the looks of things, I doubt he's seen me around either. Is there really any reason for him to be in trouble?

"It pains me to announce the sentence," Yuu's head snapped up at that, "As...up to tonight, I considered the accused a loyal and upstanding member of our organization. But as some of you may know, the penalty for this transgression...is death."

The words were delivered like a punch in his gut, swift and with such finality to them that it knocked the air out of him.

Death?

Yuu was frozen in panic, mouth hung agape, trying to wrap his mind around what was just said. The upbringing of the case made was so vague and flimsy that he couldn't possibly understand how it warranted a death sentence. Maybe in this case logic didn't matter and word alone was enough to execute a man...he couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. Was this really happening?

For the love of God...please, tell me I'm just on a really fucked up episode of "Punk'd" and Thunderbrows is gonna rip off a mask any minute now to reveal Ashton Kutcher ready to punch me in the dick...Anything but this bullshit…!

This nightmare, unfortunately, was far from over.

"Know that I am no more a judicator than I am a servant to the law that governs us all," The speaker in the peacoat sauntered over until he stood directly between Yuu and the boy who was gagged, body facing the latter as he continued, "Let tonight's proceedings serve as a reminder to our community that we must adhere to the code that binds our society, lest we endanger all of our blood."

No...

He then placed his big hand on the other boy's shoulder, tightly engulfing it with his palm, and kneeled slightly.

"Forgive me," He lowered his voice, as if only the boy in his grasp was meant to hear, before standing up straighter and beckoning the blonde haired woman restraining his captive to get out of the way.

"Let the penalty commence."

No...no...please, no...

The only one left within proximity to the kneeling boy was a tall, broad shouldered beast of a...Yuu was really hesitant to call that anything remotely human. He was taller than the speaker, who was a pretty tall man himself, who barely came up to his chest at most. He was wearing a buttoned-up leather trench coat and a top hat, which Yuu might have jabbed at if that monstrous existence didn't completely terrify him with what it would do next.

He didn't wait long. In fact he had only seconds to register the event.

The beastly thing pulled out a large sword from its hip, the blade was single edged and wider than Yuu's hand, and poised it above the light haired kid's neck, locking its target. The sword was lifted, and just like a guillotine, struck down in one fell swoop, severing the head from the body. Both quickly met the ground and stained the wood of the stage with blood.

And as if to add insult to his own sanity and horror, he watched the body...cremate itself, disappearing in a dissemination of ash and smoke that was there and gone in an instant, leaving only the smell of burning skin in its wake.

The color had completely drained from Yuu's face.

"Which leads to the fate of the ill-begotten progeny," The speaker gestured to Yuu, it seemed he was far from finished...This can't be happening...this can't be fucking happening right now…

"Without a sire, most Children are doomed to walk the earth never knowing their place, their responsibility, and most importantly, the laws they must obey."

Yuu's breath hitched in his throat. ...Here it comes...

"Therefore, I have decided that-"

"This is bullshit!"

Yuu's head shot up in surprise, a familiar shred of hope latched on for one split second...

As the words were shouted out, the culprit behind them pushed himself out of his seat, violet eyes aflame. He got in two steps toward the stage before a red haired girl grabbed his shoulder and a white haired guy stood in front of him, preventing him from going any further. He looked pissed, like he would have leapt on the stage to beat the shit out of the announcer guy if he hadn't been stopped.

The small disruption seemed to cause a stir within the other patrons and onlookers, who were perfectly taciturn at the public execution. Whispered words of confusion and speculation traveled through the air, some actually got up from their seats, not wanting to miss out on witnessing or joining in on the action. A few looked like they only wanted an excuse for a plausible fight to break out and with every passing second, it appeared more likely that that would be the case.

Yuu could only see the side of the announcer's face, whose jaw was clenched in controlled irritation at being interrupted and quickly losing control of his spectators' interest. His silence put Yuu on edge, but the irritation smoothed over to the calm facade he wore earlier before he spoke again, hushing the crowd.

"If Mister Ichinose would let me finish...I have decided to let this Kindred live."

I'm guessing that means me, Yuu figured, sighing in relief at the thought of being able to leave soon. However, the promise of being spared did nothing to undo the knots in his stomach.

There's going to be some sort of catch to this, isn't there?

"They shall be instructed in the ways of our kind and be granted the same rights," The announcer continued still, "Let no one say that I am unsympathetic to the plights and causes of this community."

The guy who shouted earlier, Ichinose, narrowed his eyes but seemed satisfied for the time being before turning to leave. The two who were sitting next to him earlier followed as more people gradually got up from their seats ready to leave.

"I thank you all for attending these proceedings, and I hope their significance is not lost. Good evening."

I love comments and feedback, so please tell me what you thought so far!