Wanted… Preferably Dead.
By LatanyaDisclaimer: Everything is great. I own nothing by my mind, my laptop and my PDA.
Chapter Nine: A heavy resolve.
Ever since she had revealed her secret to him, Tasya had been avoiding Van Helsing's company with a passion. Whenever he came into a room, she would automatically leave. If he spoke to her, she replied in as few words as she could manage. Carl didn't really understand what was going on but Van Helsing knew that it was her way of coming to terms with her past.
It was getting to the point where Van Helsing was relaying his messages to Tasya through Carl because the friar was on "safe" terms with the Transylvanian woman. However, the certifiable genius was beginning to get annoyed with the situation and he was turning his mind away from the task at hand for a while to try and think of a way to get the two monster slayers to put aside their petty little problems and deal with Vladimir without any more distractions.
"Distractions? Ha!" He snorted to himself, studying the painting displaying how a werewolf could kill Dracula. "Now if only the answer of how to kill Vladimir was so obvious…."
Wandering into the room, Tasya arched her eyebrows at him, "Talking to yourself again Carl? I remember hearing somewhere that talking to oneself is a sign of insanity."
"I heard some where that insanity walks hand in hand with genius. Have you got a good response to that?" Carl glanced up at her and smiled.
Returning the smile faintly, she walked over to a bookcase, which was against the wall and traced her hands over the books. Suddenly, she pulled a book out on an angle and the bookcase slid away. Chuckling, Tasya bounded down the stairs with a startled looking Carl watching her disappear from the top of the stairs that lead down from the opening in the wall.
"Van Lura! Don't go down there, you don't know what could be lurking in the dark. Van Lura!" He shouted down after her, fretting over the idea that she might get hurt.
"Lurking down here? Why, absolutely nothing is lurking down here Carl, I assure you of that. Now, if you would kindly slip that book back into place, I'd be very thankful. A woman needs her peace, you know." She called up to him, her eyes adjusting to the light quickly.
Scratching his head thoughtfully, Carl walked back around to look at the book and memorized the position that the key book was in. Slipping it back into its original position, he watched the bookcase slide shut again with a snap and the case left no sign that it had ever moved. Clicking his tongue, the friar wondered where Tasya had learnt about the bookcase… or better yet, when? He was also curious as to how he could have missed the trick, as he was sure that he'd looked at the book before.
"Wait!" He peered at the book, reading the name of it along the binding, "Well that makes sense! There are two copies of this book here! I must have read the other copy, not realizing that there was another one."
Having noticed the way that the trick had been done, Carl started looking around for any thing similar around the room that might lead to something important. If he could find any more exact double copies off books, Carl hoped that there might be more pictures like the one that showed how to kill Dracula. Only, he prayed that they would show a way to kill Vladimir.
Anything would do really. Any clues or ideas as to how Van Helsing and Van Lura were to kill the horrid Vampire would be a great big help. He didn't want to stay any longer in the God forsaken land where Vampires, werewolves and God knew what else roamed in abundance. When they destroyed Dracula, Carl had thought that they were done, that they had destroyed the worst there could be.
"Van Lura was probably right when she told us to go back to Rome and let her do her job. This isn't my fight… hell, it isn't even Van Helsing's job." Carl muttered, oblivious to the fact that the said Van Helsing was standing there at the door, watching him.
"What on earth are you looking for Carl?" His voice rung out across the room briefly which startled the friar out of his thoughts. "And why was Tasya right when she said that we should go back to Rome? This Vampire is evil and it is our job to destroy evil."
Sighing, he turned away from the bookshelves, "But this mission is personal to Van Lura… I don't think we should be involving ourselves in her personal battle. Maybe she wants Vladimir to destroy her because she feels that she must atone for something that she did to him?"
Walking into the room, Van Helsing shrugged and picked up a book to look through the pages. "Well it doesn't matter anymore Carl, we've said that we'll help her and even if she doesn't want our help…. Carl, try not to have any doubts about this because we killed Dracula. How much harder could Vladimir be to kill?"
"I suppose you're right Van Helsing but I can't help but feel guilty over impeding on her mission. Even if she doesn't go by the Holy Order's orders anymore, she was the one assigned this mission. How would you feel if someone came in and forced their help on you while you were on a mission? Not very happy I bet."
His comment caused Gabriel to fall silent and to think carefully. Not wanting to admit that Carl was right about how he would feel if someone joined him on a mission without his good grace. Was that really what he had done to Tasya? If it was, he wanted to find her so that he could apologize.
Taking the silence of his companion as an affirmation, Carl shook his head. "Now do you see why I think we should go back to Rome? Van Lura can do this on her own and if she fails… well, then you can come and deal with Vladimir. But let her at least try and win before you start rushing in."
"Have you found out how to kill Vladimir yet?" Van Helsing decided to ignore their whole previous conversation and start a new one.
"Some times you really are the most insufferable bastard Van Helsing. Why don't you ever listen? Your being here is killing Tasya! Don't you understand how much pain you cause her?" Carl shouted, dropping the book he had in his hands.
Settling the book back down, Gabriel frowned, "My being here is killing Tasya? How could that happen? We talked about… things… and she told me what I wanted and needed to know. Hopefully, she's come to terms with our past and is accepting a new and different future. I am not causing her pain."
"But you are Van Helsing! Can't you see that she is desperately seeking a way away from you without leaving her mission and her friend behind? Tasya Van Lura is not Hanne Valerious anymore; she is not the woman you were in love with anymore and you're just going to have to accept that. I know that your memories aren't completely there and that you've only begun to remember bits and pieces… all about her… but we have to leave. She needs to do this by herself in order to be able to move on. It is her way of atoning for the deaths of her family."
"Sometimes Van Helsing," The sadness in her eyes was out of place with the smile on her face, "Sometimes a person has to choose death over life in order to be able to move on. If one cannot move on, one cannot enter heaven."
"But Hanne, if someone was to choose death over life, wouldn't their soul start to fade away and nothing around them would give them joy?" He asked in response.
She shook her head, "Nothing would inspire them to come back from it either. I have been told that death is the easy way out but I disagree. Life is the easy way out because it is easier to go on living with one's crimes than it is to choose to face the ultimate judge."
"Promise me Miss Valerious, that you will never choose the easy way out."
"I can assure you Gabriel, I refuse to take the easy way out. I am a Valerious and we never choose the easy way out of things. No matter what, we keep going in life or death because darkness never rests. One day I know that our family will come to an end and I hope that one of us at least lives to see the end of evil in Transylvania. A Valerious must be there to usher such a day into our land." Hanne lifted her face to the ray of sunlight that was shinning down through the clouds.
In that moment, Van Helsing saw the timid girl hiding behind the mature warrior princess exterior. She had grown up too soon for her age and had seen many things that would drive a normal person insane. He would have given anything right then to make the world a better place for her to live so that her younger brothers would not have to cope with the same fate. Transylvania was not a place for the lighthearted or the meek and if they were unfortunate enough to be born there, they had best learn quickly how to pretend to be tough.
"Do you think that will ever happen Miss Hanne Valerious? Will there ever be a time when no evil walks this earth and all innocents can live in peace?" His voice was soft, barely disguising the sorrow he had felt at her words.
Hanne laughed, "No Mr Gabriel Van Helsing, I do not think that there will ever be a time like that. The world will always need people like you and I to fight the evil that walks in the shadows. I just wish that I could be here to guide my homeland into the light."
"Perhaps you will be. Perhaps you will be."
"I would not want to live a life with the same curse as you Gabriel. Never would I want that curse."
"She plans to kill herself when she destroys Vladimir… if, she destroys Vladimir." Van Helsing murmured.
Carl arched an eyebrow, "How do you know that?"
"A very smart woman once said to me once that sometimes a person has to choose death over life in order to be able to move on."
"I can guess who said that. It sounds like something Tasya would say." The friar pursed his lips, "Why would she wish death on herself with as much passion as she does?"
"Because life is the easy way out because it is easier to go on living with one's crimes than it is to choose to face the ultimate judge." Tasya's voice came from the doorway and both men turned around to stare at her.
Carl was flustered. He glanced around at the bookshelf that had moved to reveal a doorway when she used the right trigger. It was still closed stubbornly and even if it had opened again, he and Van Helsing would have heard it. "How'd you?"
She smiled, "How'd I what Carl? You're not going to tell on me are you?"
"No, no, of course not. Why would I do that Miss Van Lura? You said you wanted your privacy and I'll respect that. There's no need for good old Van Helsing here to know. None at all." He spluttered, avoiding Van Helsing's gaze.
Pivoting on her heel, Tasya turned her intense blue eyes towards Gabriel. "Why are you discussing what I plan to do with my life? What I am going to do when Vladimir is dead has nothing to do with you and it simply never will."
"Doesn't it? You are a stubborn woman and you always have been! Remember the day when you told me that you wished you could be there to guide Transylvania into the light? I said that you might be. Well you are here! Guide your land into the light, don't just make plans to die while destroying Vladimir." He snapped back at her angrily.
She was infuriating sometimes and this was one of those times. He couldn't think of a worse time to be having an argument with someone as stubborn or intelligent as her. Tasya knew what she should be doing but this time, she was planning to take the easy way out. In her mind and heart, she wanted to join her family and the people who had mattered to her. She wanted to rest peacefully in heaven with her dead daughter, parents, siblings and the rest of her family.
" I'm sorry Gabriel, Carl, but I must do this. I cannot allow you both to throw away your lives because of my mission, of my duty. The world needs the two of you more than it needs me. My time here is nearly done." And taking a step backwards, Tasya shut the door to the room they were in and locked it from the outside before pushing something heavy in front of it.
Leaping to the door, Van Helsing tried to kick it open but Tasya had foreseen his plans to do that. "HANNE! TASYA! Don't do this! Please don't do this!"
Not sure what to do, Carl watched the monster slayer pound his fists on the door, shouting for her to let them out. When finally Van Helsing gave up on that, he put his back to the door and slid to the ground, his face in his hands.
"Van Helsing?" Carl asked tentatively, wondering what was wrong with the man.
"She's going after him. She's going to her doom willingly… just like Vladimir wants her to. I couldn't stop her Carl, I failed in that. It's my fault. Everything." There were tears in his eyes as he lifted his head to look at his companion. "She doesn't want me to save her."
Glancing back at the bookshelf, Carl frowned. He was going to have to do it. He was going to have to betray Tasya's trust and reveal the secret way out to Van Helsing. "Forgive me Tasya, but you leave me no choice."
Walking over to the bookshelf, he copied what she had done earlier and stepped back as the bookshelf started to slide open. Staring in disbelief, Van Helsing leapt up and ran down the stairs, shouting for Carl to follow him.
"I need everything we've got Carl. Something's going to have to work even if it means dismembering Vladimir and scattering his remains around the world in places where the sun will destroy them. But we must stop him before he kills Tasya." Van Helsing stopped short when they came up against a wall. "Now how would we get out of here?"
Studying what he could see, Carl's quick mind realized that the small looking stone with the same symbol as that which was on Van Helsing's ring – the one he took from Dracula the first time he killed him – was the key to getting out. Cringing, he stepped back.
"Push that stone in. The one with the cross symbol on it… the one that looks like your ring." He told the monster slayer.
Shrugging, Van Helsing did as he was told and stepped back beside Carl. They watched as the wall separated and opened up, revealing a wine cellar, which Van Helsing knew, was part of the Valerious manor home. Bolting out of the space, Carl was quicker than Van Helsing to get away.
"You really don't like small dark places do you Carl?" He asked with a slight grin.
"I'm a sensible man Van Helsing. I know not to stay to long in such places." The friar replied.
"Let us just hope that we can find Tasya before Vladimir does. Perhaps then we will be able to lock her in a room like that. One that doesn't have secret entrances… By the way, how did you know that that existed?"
Carl shrugged, "Tasya showed me not all that long before you showed up. She said she needed some private time and that she could find any where private enough around the place."
"Did she really?"
"Well yes, in a way."
"I'm sure she did Carl." The corners of Van Helsing's mouth turned up slightly.
"She did!" Carl snapped.
