He wasn't Adam. Not the Adam she knew, rather. This Adam was not the same man she was forced to leave in Panchaea. She should have guessed from the way he looked, with those black eyes, different augmentation, his massive form, and how he acted with far more emotion and urgency. She had gleaned some of this in the few times she had touched the aug's mind over the months Adam has been back, but now that she had truly delved into the blackness of his mentality, Dracula was sure beyond any shadows of doubt this was not the aug with the calm, stoic nature. This was another man whose inner being was loud and discordant with the chaos his damaged cranial augs and hurting heart brought down upon him.
This man's mentality was entirely different from the solemn calm of Adam's mind beyond the emotions as well; the grey and pale gold beach side that the sound of lapping black waves filled was nonexistent in the image and soundscape minds projected for themselves. This Adam's mind portrayed itself as a painfully bright version of the reality this Adam knew in bold and harsh colour that was quiet most of the time, but very emotionally charged; a whim could change the brightness and colour and the distortion of the landscape to alter to greater or lower amounts in seconds. Most frightening, though, was how black and red tones would wash over, obliterating everything in an empty abyss of noisy nothingness. It would flit in then it would be gone, at times quickly, at others less so.
Dracula wanted to explore further to see who this was, but the new Adam placed the hand the vampire was touching on her shoulder when the vampire stopped responding to the few little quips he made as they walked together towards his apartment after returning from a meeting with a Juggernaut contact.
"Dracula? You okay, Princess?" Jensen tilted his head as he asked the question and stared down at the visibly disturbed vampire.
Dracula snapped back into reality, wanting to jerk her hand away from this Adam's, but resisting the urge so as not to alert him to anything being wrong. The new Adam did not seem to as easily connect with her ability over augs as the real one, though, he was slowly building the ability to do so up, which served Dracula just fine in this case; she did not want him to know what she was doing.
"Yeah, I'm alright, Adam. When ain't I not alright?"
The new Adam smiled, an affection look the real Adam would have not so openly displayed. Dracula did not wish to admit it, but she liked that part of the new Adam. He always tried his best to be warm towards her.
"Once in a while. It's those little moments I worry about because they are usually about not so little things. Something Dia said bother you?"
"No, no, it's just..." Dracula trailed off uncertainly. She felt somewhat guilty about touching his mind without his permission and was not sure how to explain why she did it.
The other Adam moved his arm from under Dracula's touch and put it around her shoulder when the vampire anxiously looked away. Warm and safe was how it made Dracula feel, but she could not help the niggling concern eating at her thoughts. Just who was this man who looked so much like Adam yet so obviously wasn't? He had treated her better than well even though Dracula had tried to distance herself from him whenever possible. Yet the vampire could not shake the doubt and fear that was invoked by his presence, especially when they worked together for Last Eclipse or Juggernaut as he tended to lose control of his temper in those situations. Whatever the case, there was no earthly answer she could reach without turmoil and searching that may or may not successfully render her an answer. At least, not an easy one.
"You can tell me whatever is bothering you, Princess. You know that."
Dracula chewed her lip as she thought about what she should say. There was only one way that could possibly yield immediate success in finding an answer; she would have to ask the man directly. Dracula did not particular feel comfortable doing so, in fact, it would not be a stretch to say she was frightened by the idea. Would asking him about his identity anger him? Despite the fear nagging at her, Dracula decided it was better to know and be in danger than to live with future danger of being taken advantage of or being hurt.
"Adam." Dracula said his name in a small voice.
The aug looked down at Dracula with a small smile and a tilt of his head. "Yeah?"
Dracula took a breath then met the other Adam's black eyes. They should have frightened her as much as his temper, but there was something oddly comforting about the endless ebony of his retinal sensors. Only the red tint to the light of them made her nervous. The girl took strength in that to make her query.
"Who are you?" Dracula did not try to beat around the question.
Jensen looked at her oddly, puzzled by such a bizarre question. "What do you mean? You know who I am."
"Yes and no. You are not the Adam I knew."
Dracula had expected anger but what the aug portrayed was a mix of shock and hurt. He did not necessarily growl, but Jensen's voice was assuredly harsher and rose in volume as he replied. "Of course I am, Princess. What would make you even say that?"
"Because you don't feel the same as the Adam I knew." Dracula withdrew from the other Jensen's grip to look him in the eye. "Everything about you is different. How you act, how you speak, you even don't want most people to call you Adam. And you're so...so dangerous and violent. So answer me, who are you?"
Jensen reached back out to the vampire but she flinched away. "I am me, Dracula. I'm Adam."
The vampire shook her head and her hands came to her chest. Dracula could not believe that; there had to be an answer because he was not Adam. She knew that with every fiber of her being. Dracula wanted to press further for the answer, but in that moment of tension, a buzz came from the Last Eclipse radio attached to her ear. The girl listened intently to her instructions while the other Adam looked on, waiting for either a response to his words or information on what she was listening to. She turned away when she could no longer take the enforcer's gaze. She glanced over her shoulder at the black-eyed man, but would not look at him fully.
"I have to go; they need my help back home. We'll figure this all out later."
"No, you're not going alone. I'll go with you." Jensen announced, stepping to stand beside Dracula once more. He did not grab for her to pull the vampire back when she sidled away, though, he desperately wanted to. Even his hand reached out towards her, too quick, too violent, but meaningfully. "I am going to prove who I am to you, not later but now."
Dracula bit her lip, but said nothing. What was there to say? This Adam was enough like the real one for Dracula to understand that the aug would stubbornly fight her protests with the core of his being. She had locked her will against the original Adam's few times, but those few were enough for her to simply relent in this case or face being too late to assist her compatriots.
"Do what you want; you will anyway," Dracula said grudgingly. She did not take the hand Jensen offered, however. "But if something happens you can't handle, I want you to leave for your sake. Do you understand?"
"If you can handle it, then so can I. I've done it before, after all. " Jensen stated confidently.
Dracula had nothing to say to that and simply turned to create the portal that would return them to her world. She desperately hoped this was not a mistake.
XxxxxX IS APOLLO STILL ALIVE? XxxxxX
This Adam did not even fight like the man she had known. Dracula watched him from the corner of her eye as she rushed into the building and up the stairs to save those held by the New Grigori allies somewhere across the building warped by the Fallen Angels' power. He cut his way through man, woman and monster alike with no compunction to the way they were viscerally terminated nor to the damage they so nearly came to inflicting on him yet never seemed to be quick enough to make lethal. Dracula could hear the agonized screams of Jensen's victims even as she ascended further and further up, and when she looked down, she saw the other Adam as he impaled the chest of a Soulless upon his arm blades and turned to throw the dead body into the midst of the Grigori's other units. Dracula could not help but give pause as she saw the enforcer grab a hold of one human ally of the Grigori and drive his knee into his back, a loud crack coming from the woman's now broken spine. Bullets did not seem to scare or perhaps even touch him in any way that would be permanently damaging. Indeed, he was quick to return fire with a variety of augmented weapons implanted in his body. Still, despite her misgivings about the other Adam and the ability to kill and destroy that he was displaying, Dracula found herself more concerned for the aug below than she would have expected. She wished she had made him stay for his own sake, no matter how invincible he seemed. Jensen was bound to get hurt sooner or later.
The vampire shook her head to clear her mind of these thoughts; as worried as she was about the man she should feel no such concern for, Dracula had to focus on the mission she had been summoned to complete. Pulling up the gas mask to protect against the Grigori's plague-inducing Miasma and pulling her shoulder cape tighter around herself, the vampire bounded up the stairs as they extended up towards the ceiling in a Mygck-induced illusion of an endless spiral. Dracula broke through the masking Mygck with a show of her own power, slicing through with flaming Mygcks, and bursted into the penthouse of the building.
The room was large, empty of furniture, and the floor was painted all over with Grigorian symbols of summoning and Mygck. A half-formed Grigori, an ugly ash coloured creature with many horns and eyes all over its form that flowed out of the remains of its naked human host, consumed by its summoning into the mortal world, was approaching the small group of hostages. Its footsteps sloshed blood from the reams of split flesh and organs that surrounded its growing body and frightened the huddled group of humans and Mygck beings, people meant to be sacrifices to empower the evil Angel that sloshed towards them.
"Leave them alone!" Dracula shouted out to the Fallen Angel. It seemed a stupid move, to draw its attention upon herself solely, but she wanted the supernatural horror's gaze off of the civilians in the room.
It worked effectively; the monster's every eye turned to Dracula and bulged out in hate and anger at being interrupted by the impudent vampire. In answer, the vampire pulled the sword hilt from her back and flicked her wrist so that the technomygckal mechanism of the blade opened up and built the black, green traced steel into its long, sharp form.
"You're going to get away from them by your own volition or I'll make you," she taunted the Grigori to draw its focus even further away from the bystanders the monster still stood over.
The newly reborn Fallen Angel was too new to being physical and too long trapped in hell-induced insanity to ignore the girl's remarks, and lashed out at her, its black arm ripping through its host already shredding skin and at the vampire. Dracula rolled away from the approaching limbs, lunging back towards them when the grasping hands shot past and cut through the distorted appendages. The monstrous Angel howled in pain and anger, pulling back and stumbling about as the being tried to reassert his control of the situation. It could not do so, for Dracula slammed into it, knocking it across the penthouse and smearing the circle of evil Mygck painted on the ground, momentarily weakening its hold on the body long enough for Dracula to turn and wave the hostages out.
"Get out of here now!" Dracula commanded the civilians as she tangled with the Grigori who flailed at her in an infuriated attempt to stop her from freeing its victims despite its daze.
The hostages needed not to be told twice; they flooded out the door and into the protective arms of Dracula's fellow Last Eclipse agents who waited on the stair way to escort the intended sacrifices to safety now that the enemies that would try to stop the egress of the prisoners were cut down. When the last one had escaped through the door, the vampire turned her full attention to the Grigori she was keeping pinned against the wall. Dracula unleashed a burst of flames into its face when its mouth split the Fallen Angel's visage in two and leaped away as it writhed in agony and rage.
The blast and the cuts of its limbs did not seem to bring it any closer to returning to Tartarus, but Dracula had expected it would take something more than Cleansing Fire to do that. This was not a minor Demon or Soulless; it was a true Grigori, the very first she had ever faced in a fight. She contemplated her next move as she danced about the strikes of the Grigori whose arms had regenerated and were now spitting out return fire, the black flames both singeing and obliterating the walls it smashed into, more like explosives than fire. She decided the best thing to do was to redraw the Grigorian circles as Holy Ones. It was brought into the world by physically manifested power; physically manifested power would destroy it, Dracula reasoned. It was not easily done as she had to dance about to avoid the fire and the lashing of limbs, but Dracula would do what she must, whatever the case and danced from area of the circle to area of the circle; her fingers swiping through it to remove the signs of evil and replace them with those of Light. As she did so, the girl found herself wishing she knew where the other Jensen was; this is one case in which the girl really would have liked to have his violence working for her to keep the Grigori busy as she worked. Not only that, but Dracula was beginning to worry about the other Adam yet again without meaning to. Was he well? Would he still be uninjured in spite of his reckless method of fighting? Why was it so hard not to care about him even if he was not Adam? So many questions that she still had no answer to that plagued her even if she wanted them to vanish for just a moment. It was not all bad; the negative emotions eating at her gave the vampire urgency that swirled inside her as the vampire worked to stop the Grigori before her as quickly as possible. Now if only the quivering in her nerves would go away before it caused her to falter.
XxxxxX IS APOLLO STILL ALIVE? XxxxxX
"Who are you?"
Jensen had his own questions that were left unfulfilled, and that one reigned above all. The words fueled Jensen's vehement attack on the empty-hearted creatures known as the Soulless the New Grigori used to fight their battles.
"You're not the Adam I knew."
The aug gritted his teeth and returned bullet fire upon his assailants, his vision turning red and static flickering in and other of it. Why did Dracula not believe he was Adam? He remembered everything that had happened in the past, and most importantly, the past they shared. The feelings he had for her were complete as they had been before he had nearly died in Panchaea. So why did Dracula doubt who he was?
The thoughts ate at him as he went from shooting to slicing into the Soulless that rushed from cover when they could not bring Jensen down with bullet fire. Every stroke of his blade eviscerating limb and body and decapitating the heads of the masked beings did little to sooth his ferocious anger. No, anger was not the right word; hurt was what ate at him like a quickly progressing disease. He searched his memory for anything that would have caused Dracula to believe he was someone else, but in the haze of battle that painted thought in uncomprehensible colours and a noisy pattern of screeching sound, nothing would click. It only increased his frustration, and Jensen cut into the Soulless with no mercy. Blood splattered his face and clothing; the emptied shells that were once living mortals fell in shredded and pierced pieces about him and Jensen came uncomfortably close at times to inflicting damage even on his own allies as he tried to work through the crimson visions.
The aug only came back to himself when one of the Last Eclipse's soldiers, a Fire Fae called Marie by most of her fellow Last Eclipse members due to the difficulty of pronouncing her real name, jerked on his arm. The yank pulled Jensen out of the depths of his bloody haze by sheer surprise alone, though, it took him a moment to focus on what the blonde woman was saying.
"That's enough, Synth!" Marie upbraided the aug. "They're dead, you can stop brutalizing them! We have to worry about getting the hostages out safely now."
Jensen blinked and heaved in and out heavy breaths as his gaze roamed around the building. While Jensen had not been alone in the fight, several Last Eclipse were still on the first and second floor while he had been on the main floor, making his way through the swath of dead Soulless and Lesser Fallen left behind, it was clear he had left the greatest body count. Blood stained his body, his clothes and the walls and floors around. Little if any of the spilled blood beside the closing bullet holes in his torso and his leaking nose was his. Slowly, the words Dracula had said sunk in as the sight of the destruction and images of what just happened were recollected in his hazy mind.
"You're so dangerous and violent."
He really did have no memory of being like this as he surveyed what his emotions and inner desire to fight had led him to be and do. Indeed, the memories that came to him from the depths of both augmented physical recall, something that had perhaps been repressed until now, were so very different from the scene of carnage he had made. Could it be Dracula was right?
"You hear me, Synthesizer?" Marie snapped at Jensen.
Jensen had not realized he had gone rigid, his body still tense as if he was going to pounce as soon as Marie let go. He carefully straightened upright and shrugged Marie off. His world was on the brink of turmoil, panic creeping up, but he hid it from Marie, and more importantly, himself.
"I heard you, I was just thinking."
Marie huffed irritably. "Can deep thinking wait until we get the hostages out of here?"
"No," Jensen replied sarcastically.
Marie bit her lip, not at all liking the Enforcer's attitude, but she could do nothing about it now. She just pushed him away to help guide hostages out, which Jensen did without complaint. She had to give him that much; he was a pain, a dangerous one at that, but he took genuine interest in keeping people safe. Whatever kept his mind transfixed with thoughts that has made his visage go unusually white, he managed to put them on the back burner for the bystanders. At least, on the outside.
The augs face darkened, however, when he seemed to notice something about the hostage count. Marie looked up as she practically felt his intensity grow and blacken. Sometimes she wondered if this man was more Mygck than they were told when his presence became that palpable.
"What is it, Jensen?"
"Dracula isn't here," Jensen stated simply.
"She's probably still dealing with the Grigori. You don't have to worry about her; Dracula is capable. I am sure she'll be back before you know it." More importantly, Marie did not want the aug interfering with something like taking down a Grigori. He was not ready to deal with that kind of powerful monster.
"Where is she?" Jensen would not be soothed by the Fae's statement.
"She is upstairs somewhere," Marie frowned, not certain she should have told him. "Stay right here, Jensen; you don't know anything about dealing with the Fallen."
Jensen ignored the command and headed towards the stairway at a quick trot. Marie grabbed at his arm to stop him, but he jerked it free. The big man did not say anything; he merely glared at her with those black eyes. The slightest red glow had returned behind them. Marie probably could have won the fight with him that he was daring her to pick, but not without causalities done to her, him and everyone around them. She backed off, not feeling letting him go was the best course of action, but everyone's safety was priority to that gut feeling that this would end poorly.
"Don't do anything stupid, Synth," Marie called out as the aug dashed up the stairs, his long, mechanical legs eating up the distance between him and the penthouse above.
"I can't promise that," Jensen returned.
Marie knew that was true, as did Jensen. She just hoped he proved them both wrong. The aug, however, had the added uncertainty of his identity that left him knowing only that Dracula really did mean everything to him, and he was going to go help her right now. Would that be enough, though? The same question return to plagued him once again, driving him to go faster and faster to try and outrun the voice playing on repeat and causing his vision to go become distorted once again.
"You're not the Adam I know. Who are you?"
XxxxxX IS APOLLO STILL ALIVE? XxxxxX
Dracula had made progress in smearing and repainting the images in the circle from the dark corruption of Angelic text and idols of the Evil One to the text of the Word and the symbols of He Who Is I Am. Slowly, but surely, she worked her way around, the crimson blood and black ink of the circle beginning to dye white. It took a visible toll on the monstrous Fallen; its attacks coming more sporadically and desperately, but with less strength and vigour, and its body was beginning to burn not just from the Purifying fire thrown at it but from the Light the redrawing of the circle brought down upon it. Though Dracula was tiring from jumping hither and thither to avoid being smashed by the Grigori's attacks, she knew soon the lesser Fallen would be banished. She had to keep going even if it hurt to breath and her body shook with exhaustion.
As she was reaching the last arc of the circle that the Grigori finally landed a mighty blow upon the vampire. His arm had gone forward, which Dracula had easily ducked under, but in her exhaustion, she had not seen him sweep it back around at her. It connect with her left arm and ribs, bones cracking, flesh and clothes ripping, and the vampire's body careening into the wall. Dracula slammed against the wall with a yelp of surprise and agony, clutching her arm and side as she fell to the floor. The girl tried to regain her feet but could go no further than her knees, her breath wheezing and her side screaming with pain. Even as she heard the Grigori approaching to finish her off, her weakened legs refused to let her up. This had dragged on too long, and her adrenaline had subsided with the sudden cease of her movement, draining what was left of her strength with it.
Dracula felt the sting of a thousand burning wounds as the monster let loose a flurry of attacks upon the vampire that had so long tormented it. The vampire had never thought she would die this way, but despite the agony, she was not afraid. She kept fighting, though; people needed her to finish this monster or they would face something worse than what the New Grigori had already unleashed on the world that they could not combat. Dracula determinedly lifted a hand to unleash another flurry of fire at the Grigori. The flames didn't stop it as before, but it slowed its flurries long enough for Dracula to roll to the side and continue throwing fire at it to make the Fallen Angel give pause and push her failed body towards where she had to finish redrawing the circle. A glimmer of hope for success struck Dracula, revitalizing her. She crawled back to the final edge of the circle, resuming her replacement of the Evil Mygcks. The Grigori was to have none of this; as the last jot was to be made, one of its limbs wrapped around Dracula's ankle and pulled the vampire back towards it. It's head split into a construct like a fetal flower in its shape and as many eyes and horns in its maw as teeth that all seemed to be shrieking some unholy litany in disharmony, ready to swallow the vampire as a means to rejuvenate its strength fully. Dracula shut her eyes against the cacophonous and foul-smelling maw but did not admit defeat. The vampire used her good arm to hold back its head and pour flames down its jawline. The monstrous Angel would not be deterred this time, though; with the vampire's body weakened, but her Mygck still powerful, the Fallen knew in an animal sort of way that the consumption of the vampire would help steady its power in this world. Fighting through the pain and damage to its jaw, the Grigori closed in towards Dracula's face, bent on returning the favour of pain the girl was causing his head. In the darkness behind Dracula's eyelids, however, she did not see the monster stop; she heard it. The litany had stopped with the ringing in her ears left by it accompanied by the scraped of a boot on the floor.
"Put her down or I will drag you back to Hell myself," a voice growled at the Grigori. It was the other Adam; Jensen had come to find her. Dracula did not know whether to be relieved or horrified.
Dracula tried to tell him to get out, that he could not face this, but the words didn't come from her throat except in a hoarse whisper. They did not need to; where Jensen's foot had dragged, it had — by fluke or divine intervention Dracula did not have time to speculate how it came about — finished the missing iota of the redrawn circle. The remaining black of the circle flushed entirely white and the grating unholy aura of the room was replaced by a comforting presence and choir of voices. Jensen was confused and looked about, but Dracula grinned through her mutilation victoriously. They had succeeded in the mission; the Grigori would be banished.
In an instance, the Grigori had dropped Dracula and was writhing on the floor as the circle pulled it back into the spiritual prison it had been released from. It scrabbled wildly, trying to grab onto the vampire that now laid on the floor not far from it. Jensen was quick to act, however. He darted over and, with one arm, scooped the broken and battered Dracula up while the other loaded his nano-ceramic blade and fired it into the Grigori's still open mouth. He jumped away as the weapon exploded, reducing the last of the monstrous Fallen's strength to nothing. In a matter of moments, the spirit had returned to Tartarus to be chained once again, leaving behind but the grizzle human body that it had used as a host, the chunks of their remains spread across the floor because the blade had exploded inside of it.
"That thing was gross," Jensen quipped grimly, seeming a bit shocked by the abrupt end to the fight.
Dracula did not hear him speak; her broken, bloodied body and sheer exhaustion left her lulling in Jensen's grip. She mumbled deliriously and hissed when Jensen's shifting grip jostled the fractured bones of her left side. The lurid scene left Jensen's thoughts immediately.
"Dracula," the aug said her name to keep her attention rooted in reality.
The vampire did not answer; her eyes were half-lidded and the usual glittering gold eyes dull. Jensen's jaw clenched as he turned on his heels. He had forgotten she was not like the few other vampires he had met, or at least believed he met; she did not heal. The enforcer hurried to get the vampire help or... Jensen did not want to think of what would happen if he did not.
He shouldered open the penthouse door and made a break for the stair railing. Now that the Fallen's power had been dispelled, the illusion of the stairs being longer than they actually were was gone, but they were still a long way from the Last Eclipse's party below. The aug was not taking any chances; he took a leap off the railing and let the Icarus System carry the girl and he down, surprising a few of the agents below when they caught sight of the red area floating down to them.
Instinctively, he held Dracula even closer as they descended, as if to will her to stay alive by giving up parts of his own. At his collar, the man felt the girl's thin hand grip at his neck and then up to his cheek. Her nails grated against his skin, scraping it and causing Jensen to bleed, but he did not care because he felt the touch of Dracula's mind; something he had not been able to do before though he had been told he had in the past. It flickered in and out, perhaps because of a weak connection or Dracula's state, but for the first time since they had met, the other Adam felt a warmth towards him, however unsteady it was.
"You're not Adam," Jensen barely heard Dracula's voice, but it was there, and it made his stomach drop until the vampire continued. "I don't think I care."
The red light in Jensen's eyes went white. He did not reply; the aug simply focused on being as gentle with the vampire as possible when they hit the ground. The exchange with the Last Eclipse to get a medic was quick and dreamy, the opposite of his red, noise filled haze when attacked by a glitch. All that mattered was the vampire and her survival. He wanted to go with her, but the Last Eclipse unit pushed him away, quoting medical reasons and "besides that, you are a mess". He would simply have to wait, then; Mortimer would see her soon enough. He need to see her now. He had to know if she meant what she had said. As another member of the medic unit came to lead Jensen away to check him for damage, Jensen found his hand smearing away blood from where the vampire's nails had found purchase in his skin despite being told to not do so by the medic.
Mortimer did not care anymore about proving he was Adam, no matter the uncertainty.
XxxxxX IS APOLLO STILL ALIVE? XxxxxX
Dracula dreamed of Adam. The real Adam with his thin but powerful frame and calm expression. The vampire watched herself as she held his hands in hers and pressed the warm metal to her cheek.
"Please, don't leave," she was pleading. "I want you to be the only one I ever take blood from; I want you to be the one I am with forever. And I'll be yours; totally, completely. I will not betray you; I will protect you. Because Adam, I… I… I love you."
The lenses of his glasses flicked open, and the gold eyes of Adam searched Dracula's face, surprise bright in them. He seemed to be deeply moved by this confession. Dracula remembered this exchange well; it was after Adam had confronted Megan about her betrayal. Dracula did not have to touch the aug's mind to see the anger and hurt in his face when she had told the truth. In turn, her own wrath had been kindled against Megan, and when the doctor had retreated with the other scientists, Dracula had burst out at Reed that she should not be allowed to leave; that Megan had to apologize to Adam and make it right.
That had been followed by Dracula pleading for Adam not to go to Panchaea, for something bothered her about it. She had the sinking feeling she would never see Adam again. As her imploring turned to anxious anger, Adam had asked for an explanation. No, he had pushed for it; the enforcer, as brilliant a detective and fighter as he was, had been blind to Dracula all along. Dracula had broken down as he pressed harder and harder, giving him the confession that may have been far too dramatic, but was heartfelt and the last desperate act done to keep Adam away from danger. It was for naught. Adam's fate was sealed. Even Dracula knew that before she had ever made her attempt. He had left, willingly or no, to meet his fate. Or rather, in reality, he had gone, leaving Malik to take the crushed vampire away.
In the dream, Dracula watched Icarus fall. Not from the sun, but into a cold, dark abyss that swallowed him whole. His eyes went white and empty, his gold wings burned away, and his body disintegrated into ashes that floated back into Dracula's face. She screamed his name, begged for him to come back, but as she leaned towards the cold embrace of the hole, she was pulled away, back to live in the world outside the abyss. However, half of her went into the abyss after Adam. She watched as she went through the next two years as half a person. Dracula watched split second scenes of her as she played the part she always had, the vampire put on that it didn't hurt. Who needed love, anyway? She would survive; she would exist. It was not necessary to love. The broken crystal heart in her chest that trailed down blood, trying to seek an end in the black abyss of Panchaea, told her otherwise. Even as she stood at the edge of the abyss, she tried to pretend she didn't want to fall into it.
Then, the light had shown from the abyss which Dracula had found herself staring into thoughtfully. It was followed by angry howls of a beast, the clawing of metal wolfish arms, and the spread of bony wings that should not have been able to support flight. Redness enveloped Dracula as she saw Adam's body appear and detach from the mechanical wolf and reach out to her. No, it was not Adam; it was that other man that claimed he was Adam. He was too big, too tall; his eyes were black, and smoke the same colour poured from his limbs and mouth. A thousand wounds bled on his unclothed body in a scarification that formed the wings of Icarus framing a massive X.
Dracula pulled away in fear and ran away, far away, but he was always there. Like a frightening shadow, he was there. When she was fighting with her companions in Last Eclipse, he was there. When she was sitting in her garden, he was there. When she slept, Dracula did not doubt he was there.
The vampire was afraid that he would hurt her. Dracula was sure that was his intent. He was a demon in the form of the one she loved come to haunt her, taunt her, then destroy her. Yet he never laid a hand on her. He would just hold it out to her when they came face to face, those clawed and twisted augmented arms outstretched as if waiting for her embrace. The black eyes that seemed so angry as they glowed bloody red when Dracula first observed them were sad. He was in pain, Dracula realized. He was being wounded again and again, and she realized guiltily that she was causing many of those new wounds bu being so distant and dismissive.
The dream flitted away from these scenes of half-memory, half-hallucination to a flurry of nightmarish battles images then to her broken body on the floor. Now she was the one in pain. Dracula wanted to cry out for Adam to save her, but he was not there. Adam was gone, and no one was there as the floor and walls collapsed. She wished she had lived longer, to help see the end of the New Grigori, but there was no coming back from this. No one knew she was here. She was going to die alone. Dracula was not afraid, though; it was simply her turn to fall into the abyss and ascend to He Who Is I Am. The vampire awaited the end to come, hoping she had made the lives of others better in some way with her life. Perhaps she would see Adam again soon.
In the midst of her acceptance of death, red light painted Dracula and the darkening room in flickering beams. The light stung so badly on Dracula's sensitive body, her eyes flicked wide open. Before her, the bestial mockery of Adam appeared to Dracula. Once again, he was holding out his arms. He said only one thing.
"Dracula."
There was no confession like hers. There was no pleading for her to will herself to survive. Only the other Jensen's quiet wish that she would stay alive for the sake of others. To stay alive because he truly did care for her. That was no mockery of Adam.
Dracula weakly reached out for the hand. It caught up her faltering grasp and the other Adam pulled her into his arms and held her against his far too warm but somehow still comforting chest. She curled up tight against him, basking in his warmth and pressing her face to his scarred chest. Once again, she had the other half of her body, blood no longer pouring from the cavity where her shattered heart of glass sat. The vampire was able to touch his face.
"I don't care that you're not the old Adam," she told him. "I don't care, I don't care, I don't care."
The dream faded away as the red light turned white and voices filtered through the fading illusion.
XxxxxX IS APOLLO STILL ALIVE? XxxxxX
Mid-morning light fell through the window and onto Dracula's face as Jensen pulled the shade up and opened the panel of glass. Distantly, the girl heard Jensen grumbling in response to the admonishments of a woman's voice she recognized as her older sister Rachael's voice.
"I don't care if it is not medically correct to have the window open," Jensen's voice final became understandable to the sleepy vampire. "She likes it open, damn it, and that means she'll heal better with it open."
Dracula cracked her eyes open to see Rachael standing at the entrance of the room and tapping her foot irritably as she tried to figure out how to reason with the unreasonable.
"Look, I know you're really worried about her, but so am I. And I know how this works, so will you please just listen to me?"
"No."
Rachael threw up her hands and was about to just order the aug to listen when Dracula shifted in the hospital bed, trying to sit up despite her sore body wailing its disapproval.
"I really do like the window open," Dracula managed to choke out just loud enough for the two to hear her.
In an instant, both Jensen and Rachael were at her bedside, one pushing the other away as Rachael complained of Jensen potential hurting Dracula considering he could not even figure out when and when not to open a patient's window while the aug retorted that he would not and Rachael needed to get her hand out of his face or, so help him, he would be the one biting, not the vampire in the bed.
"You two are blocking out the light." Dracula laughed.
Just as quickly as they had converged, the aug and the elf separated, apologizing for the argument. It took them a few moments to work out the details, but the stubborn aug and the portly elf finally agreed to work together to get the vampire upright. Rachael propped pillows up on the back of the cot, complaining about how Last Eclipse really needed to purchase the mechanical beds that adjusted themselves, while Mortimer ever so gently helped Dracula sit up with one hand on her back and the other gripping her good hand. A small smile touched Jensen's face when the vampire's much smaller fingers curled around his. Dracula returned it, and was about to say something when Rachael made clucking noises of relief and started addressing her.
"We almost lost you. You do realize the younger sibling isn't suppose to die before the older, right? I hope so because you gave me so many gray hairs when you didn't wake up for days."
"Days?" Dracula had felt like she had only been asleep for a few hours. The dream certainly had not helped that impression.
"Well, yeah. It's been a week and a half since we brought you here. I wished your body would respond to healing Mygck because that whole operation to keep you alive was brutal. You really did almost die a few times."
"I know," Dracula whispered to herself, remember seeing her broken body on the floor in her dream. She looked down at her bandaged arm and ribs as she reflected on the images and Rachael's words.
"You're fine now, though." Jensen's voice cut into the siblings' exchange. "Thank God."
"Didn't pin you as the religious sort, Jensen," Rachael quipped. She trusted the aug less than Dracula had because of the window. The vampire tried not to laugh at that. Not that Jensen was helping her contain herself; Mortimer glared at Rachael irritably and caused Dracula to giggle. Rachael's hard stare became even harsher. With a shake of her head, the vampire shrugged it off and intervened before they could start bickering again.
"Yeah, I'm okay now. I just need to rest a bit and I'll be up and about soon. No worries."
"No worries? I hope you don't plan on being so too soon, Drac," Rachael's brow knit as she replied. "You took some heavy damage and your blood level is still far too low for someone who is considered anemic by even vampire standards. You need more that a bit of rest and plenty of blood."
"Adam's probably going to stick around; I think that second part is easy to fix." Dracula made a playful clicking of her fangs, though, the face Rachael made said she was not quite as amused. Jensen, on the other hand, took this to heart and nodded.
"Yeah, take as much as you need."
"You don't have that much to give up, Mr. Jensen," Rachael pointed out.
"And so what?" The aug gave Rachael a challenging look. To the elf's credit, she did not back down and returned the glare.
"It's okay, Rachael." Dracula reached out her good hand towards the elf's and patted her arm. "We'll work it out."
Rachael nodded her conceding and stood up straight, stretching the kinks out of her back. "I am going to go get some of the nurses to do a check up. I'd do it myself, but you know how it goes around here. Rules."
Dracula smiled her understanding. "They make up the structure of our life whether we like it or not, ah? Come back soon, Rachy."
"Of course I will… is Mr. Jensen leaving now, too?" Rachael's statement was quite pointed. Mortimer, however, did not move from Dracula's side. Indeed, the black eyes boring into Rachael dared her to make him move.
"I think we can figure the answer to that out pretty quickly," Dracula shrugged apologetically even though she was not entirely sorry. She wanted to talk to Jensen without anyone being there to listen, and as Rachael was not fast moving, especially now that she was tired from keeping watch over the vampire, the lull between her departure and the arrival of nurses would give the girl and the big man time to speak.
Rachael was not going to fight her little sister over the aug. She gave the child-faced vampire a pat on the head affectionately before moving to the door at a weary plod.
"Be gentle with her, Mr. Jensen. I mean it. Or else." Rachael wagged a figure at Mortimer in an attempt to make her threat seem more serious.
The enforcer opened his mouth to make a snarky retort, but Dracula hushed him with a shake of her head.
"You really don't want to rile her up, Adam. She moves slow, but it's no fun when she sits on you. That may seem like a funny threat, but trust me; it's the only lethal one she has, and it works."
Jensen pursed his lips but decided against calling after the plump elf after all. Instead, he grabbed a chair from the corner by the open window and set it down beside Dracula's cot. Now that he was seated, he could easily meet the gold eyes that once again sparkled with life. Bruised and cut though her face was, Mortimer was incredibly relieved to see Dracula awake. He did not express his worry as openly as Rachael, but it was obvious in the paleness of his dark skinned face and the shifting of those black eyes.
In response to what Dracula saw, she took his hand in hers once again. She quested towards his mind, touching it with a soft transfer of soothing emotions and images Dracula could tell he felt the flickering touch it because his own mind grasped out towards hers, trying to completely hold onto what had been blocked to him before. He could not hear the words she put towards him yet, though, and while he implantation of thoughts worked as it always did with all Synths she came in contact with, like the others it was only because she willingly gave Jensen the thoughts and words. That would take time to change. Dracula spoke aloud instead of through the connection as planned even if it seemed harder to do so.
"Adam… Mortimer."
"Adam is fine if that is easier for you. I want things to be easy for you considering what you have been through."
"You're too nice to me." Dracula's voice dropped to a guilty whisper.
Mortimer frowned his disagreement and brushed back Dracula's hair from her damaged face. She did not look at him as he wanted her to, but he would not force her to. The vampire would speak her mind when she was ready.
Indeed, Dracula tried to lead into her apology by starting casual. "The Grigori? Is it really dead? Or did I imagine it being banished?"
Mortimer decided to play along with Dracula's seeming move towards a more comfortable subject. It frankly was how he would have done it himself.
"Yeah, according to the forensic team that cleaned up after us, I somehow manage to finish your holy... Supernatural... Whatever circle thingamajig because I almost slid over on my face."
In spite of the anxiety still gripping Dracula's heart, she genuinely giggled at that. "Did you seriously almost fall?"
"I wouldn't lie about something so embarrassing. In my defense, I went from climbing to slamming through the door, and I didn't really expect it when there had been so many bloody stairs."
"Well, thank goodness that you did stumble; I think I would have been dead otherwise. Here's to clumsiness, yeah?"
"Well, I guess. I would be happier if you came out of that in one piece, but I suppose klutzy beggars can't be choosers. I didn't get monster insides all over me, so I guess I can't complain. Blood is one thing, monster guts is another."
Dracula laughed again, earning a smile from Jensen. The vampire soon fell quiet, however, staring out the window as she pretended to wait for the nurses. When the silence grew too tense, she finally addressed what she really wanted to speak to Jensen about.
"Adam, I... About how I have been treating you…" Dracula had begun to try and apologize, but Mortimer stopped her by placing a hand on her head.
"I think you might be right. I am not who I thought I was." Jensen paused and tried to think of how to express himself. He knew why she had reacted to him as she had. He had not seen the signs of her aversion so easily, but now he did. With this understanding, he felt no more hurt or anger towards her. What did bother him was that he had been living a lie; it made it hard to continue his train of thought. He managed to downplayed the pain and confusion caused by that, though, and he finished his words.
"I did things that weren't like the Adam I was— I mean, the Adam you knew. I can live with that for the most part. Still makes me crazy, but then again, I think I am already there. What I want to know is if you meant what you said."
"What I said?" Dracula asked, brow knitting as she tried to remember what she could have said towards Jensen that would spark his statement.
"Do you care whether I am the old Adam or not?"
Mortimer leaned in towards Dracula so that he was level with her. This close Dracula could see the mechanics of his eyes work and that the shades of black were not the same, the iris being lighter than the pupil. She also saw that the red light behind them had gone white. With the dream still playing in her head and the recollection of everything this other Adam had done to take care of and protect her regardless of her reticence, Dracula determined to stand by her unconscious decision.
"I really don't care if you're the Adam I knew. You're the Adam I know now." Dracula was still holding Mortimer's hand as she spoke, and she now pressed it to her cheek. The recognition of the action was immediate; Dracula watched the enforcer's whole visage light up and felt his blissfully too-warm hand cup the side of her face with gentleness no one would have expected the big, vicious man to have. Dracula would not have cared even if he had not been careful; she was happy to see the other Jensen's whole presence lit up with joy. "I can't really say I love you as much as you do me, but I would like to learn to. You have been to good to me not to, and I think that is not just a leftover memory."
"It's not." Mortimer asserted. Right now that was the one thing he was sure of. Maybe it had been just a remnant of the false memories when he had first "reunited" with Dracula, but it was not now. He loved her, perhaps in a twisted and dangerous way at times, but loved the vampire all the same. It may have been a mistake on Dracula's part to accept that, but that remained to be seen.
The vampire and aug pulled apart when the nurses finally arrived to check on Dracula, their talk turning away from shared adoration to a topic they would not be embarrassed for the medic to hear. Jensen leaned back in his chair, his face going grim again.
"I want to find out why I am here and who thought it was a good idea to create another Adam. Mostly so I can give them a piece of my mind for it." Mortimer leaned back in his chair as he spoke and clenched his fist. Now that he was focused on the subject again, his anger and uncertainty was roiling inside, threatening to overwhelm his calm.
"I think that we should work together on that, yeah." Dracula agreed, wincing between sentences when the nurse prodded at a bruised place to check for reflexes. "It is not even close to good if someone is cloning Adam. He was a singular model for a reason, and to have multiples would be…"
Dracula did not need to finish the thought. Mortimer grit his teeth and his nose crinkled. He guessed it was the Illuminati trying to create their own army or stir up trouble for everyone by selling off augmented soldiers like boxed toys, and he was just a test or a prototype that got away.
It did not have to be the easy answer, though; Dracula's world had those New Grigori people. They had been interested in using his body – or at least, the original Adam's – the same way that had use that poor sod's for that black horror back in that penthouse. From what he recalled of what Dracula had told the original Adam, it was because his body could withstand the trauma of being possessed by those monstrous Fallen Angels, and therefore, could be used to disguise the disgusting beings as natural mortals until they were ready to display otherwise. Either way, he was ready to crush those who played him.
"Adam, you're scaring the nurse with that face you're making," Dracula chided with an amused smile at how Jensen's expression became blank and his eyes darted to the medic that was looking at Mortimer like she was nervous the enforcer was going to become violent at any moment.
Mortimer calmed down slightly and apologized, hiding his anger behind a dry smile. It did not deceive the perceptive vampire, but it did stop the nervous glances he was getting from the nurse.
"Sorry, it's a habit," Jensen said sarcastically, pointing his joke at the nurse that decided to ignore him, then added more soberly:"We should ask Dia where she and Juggernaut found me. I can't remember, but she is bound to know at least a little something.."
Dracula nodded her agreement. "And if Ms. Dinah doesn't, she'll know who does."
Mortimer crossed his arms. "We'll talk to her about it when you're better, then."
"That could take weeks, Adam; just go before—"
"When you're better." The aug repeated his statement imperatively. He would not be moved on this. "I need your help if this involves magic stuff. You know I don't get magic at all."
Dracula had to concede that. "No, no you don't; you're like my Grandma Elezia with technology when it comes to magic."
Mortimer snorted and rolled his eyes at the not-so incorrect comparison. "Either way, you were the other Adam's expert on the matter; I need you as mine."
Dracula saluted with her good hand, getting a scolding from the nurse for moving too much. "Dracula Cypher, always at your side."
Mortimer's sarcastic smile softened. The words were said with a casual cheerfulness, but he saw the meaning behind them in Dracula's eyes. "Thanks, Princess."
It was decided, then; they had to find the answer to Mortimer's existence. Whether it was more Illuminati plans to control the world or Grigori contrivance to storm heaven and earth, it had to be dealt with. Deal with it, Jensen would; with his fist and blades, a well-placed bullet and all of his wrath turned on them. The real Adam was gone, but what was left behind was not going to be a pawn for either enemy. The augmented warrior would fight until there was nothing left of them for what they had done, and with Dracula beside him, he would be unstoppable. They would be sorry they ever brought back Hades in place of Icarus.
XxxxxX IS APOLLO STILL ALIVE? XxxxxX
XxxxxX APOLLO IS DEAD XxxxxX
XxxxxX HADES LIVES ON XxxxxX