-1DARKSTALKERS: VAMPIRE SAVIOR
Epilogue
Fanfiction by Louis the Rogue
(Based on original story by Capcom Inc.)
As she neared the gate to her own destiny, Morrigan's curiosity got the better of her, and she turned back to view the many gates networked around her like a hive of mirrors.
"Each gate is a possible future", she mused to herself, "But the most likely appear to glow the most brightly. I wonder; what lies in store for those many, noble souls…"
ENTER LINE BREAK
As he swam through the current with all his might, only one thought drove the mind of a former emperor and proud father, "Alba, be safe. Father is coming to rescue you!"
Aulbath had scarcely realized that a great whirlpool had opened before him, let alone the fact that he was conscious at all, before he found himself leaping into it. Somehow, he could feel the presence of his son in the dark waters beyond, and he knew they led home.
Calling endlessly through the great open sea, the merman's heart leapt when he was answered at last by the familiar voice of his offspring.
"Dad!"
"Alba, are you alright?"
However, as Alba's father hovered over the sea cave the boy had taken refuge in, he realized his son was not alone, "Who's that girl…?"
"Her name is Micky", Alba smiled cheerfully at the fuscia-scaled mermaid clinging to his side, "We're best friends."
But there was no time for introductions. As a sudden quake rippled through the water, Aulbath instinctively took the youngsters into his arms and swam high, which also served to give him a better view of the situation.
He could not have been prepared for what awaited him. Surrounded by a golden halo was an entire city of sunken ships and seaweed, but what was most peculiar was the inhabitants. They were not unlike himself, a fish-scaled people with lighted antennae that, now that he thought about it, resembled those of the girl he carried.
"Oh, look! There is my home!", Micky interjected, affirming his suspicion.
As the hero of the deep touched down on the deck of the ship, he was greeted by a blue-scaled merman of this sister race.
"Welcome to Sargasso", the man called as Micky jumped down from Aulbath's embrace and ran over to hug him, "I thank you for returning my daughter safely."
"What has happened here?", Aulbath replied, looking around with wide-eyed wonder, "In all my travels through the area, I have never seen this place."
"For the longest time", the local explained, "We lived behind a great barrier. We believed it to be the work of an angry sea god. But now, it seems, that barrier has fallen. I assume we have you to thank for that. How might we repay you?"
Aulbath simply smiled over to Alba and Mickey playing tag on the stern, "I have a wife to the west of here. She deserves better than a life of endless wandering, and my son should have friends to nurture him as he grows…"
The merman smiled, extending a hand, "Then welcome home."
ENTER LINE BREAK
Striding through a war-torn cityscape, Bulleta had never been so angry. The humiliation being outsmarted by that big, ugly… thing!
As she came upon two neko-jinn siblings crouched in an alley at play, the darkhunter pulled a rocket launcher from her picnic basket, her round face twisting into a horrible, hateful smile, "Lucky! I was just looking for something to annihilate."
Just then, a sudden blast of kinetic energy knocked the hooded hellion off her feet, bringing her crashing onto her backside with an umph. Looking up, she groaned at the sight of a young woman with pigtails in a red dress standing between her and the young darkstalkers she had targeted as easy prey.
"You can try."
ENTER LINE BREAK
"Lei-Lei, remind me, why do we have to go so far out of the way?", a young girl a cap and camping gear whined as she brushed aside one of the many tree limbs around.
"There's this place, just ahead, where a samurai's ghost lives!", her sister called back excitedly as she trudged ahead.
As the two of them entered a meadow shrine, Lei-Lei ran up and flung herself to the ground in front of a great obelisk with a charm etched into it, "I'm here to pray for you, just like I promised!"
"This is ridiculous", Lin-Lin sighed, wishing they could just go back home where a nice dinner was sure to be awaiting them by this time of evening.
Her cynicism was cut short, along with any manner of sound from her throat, as a pale, glowing hand rested on her shoulder. She silently gasped as she looked up to see a man wearing a bronze shade and blue and white robes smiling down at her.
"Perhaps you just need to have a little more faith."
Nodding with a gulp, Lin-Lin ran over to join her sister in prayer. Smiling after them, Oboro thought back to a time, years ago, when they themselves had been ghosts.
ENTER LINE BREAK
From the depths of a great, ornate coffin in Zeltzereich, a cry of terror rang out. Bolting upright in a fit of tremors, Demitri seized a loyal servant and sank his fangs into her throat.
As the woman drew nearer to death in his embrace, the vampiric nobleman wiped his lips and stared listlessly at the black flame candles sparking to life and lighting the room for him, "Morrigan…"
Jedah was gone. He could feel it somehow. But she remained. One last demon to taunt his tortured mind. One last obstacle in his quest for greatness.
But he would not simply destroy her. That would be a waste. By birthright, the daughter of Belial deserved nothing more than to rule at his side. To be his.
For eternity.
ENTER LINE BREAK
Somewhere in the ruins of the Mayan empire, a power beyond mortal comprehension lay dormant in darkness. Inactive since the death of their creator.
Years later, a brave little boy named Cecil had wandered off in search of adventure. What he had found was the tomb of his ancestors.
"It's huge!", he cried out as he stared at the great pyramid before him.
Venturing in through a fissure in the walls, the urchin found himself tumbling through a mess of dust and debris until, at last, he landed on the hard stone floor with a thud and blacked out.
Coming to his senses with a cough some time later, the boy looked around, his wide eyes adjusting to the dim light filtering in from somewhere above. There were shapes all around. They were like big metal men. Maybe statues?
Striding over to one of them, he looked up with a quizzical brow. Was this what his great-grandfathers used to scare bad little boys into behaving?
"It doesn't look that scary to me", he muttered, kicking the thing.
As he turned to walk away, he froze in his tracks as a great, heaving buzz brought reality as he knew it to a standstill. Turning around slowly, almost too afraid to look, Cecil found himself face to face with two large, red eyes and a mechanical, humming voice.
"My Master. Orders please."
ENTER LINE BREAK
At the end of every great adventure, the hero beats the bad guy and gets the girl. That's how it works in the movies anyway. But the life of Jon Talbain had never been an epic; only a tragedy.
He could still see her leaving.
"I'm sorry, Jon. This is something I have to do. I'm not a kid anymore, and if I want to see the world get better, I'll have to find the cure myself since nobody else is looking."
He didn't even look at her as she stood in the doorway, dressed in a damn habit and off to do God's work while he rotted in Hell.
"Then that's all there is to it", was his single, distanced reply.
"Hey, Talbain!", a gruff voice mercifully interrupted, and the wolf in man's clothing lifted his hard hat to see the red face of the foreman, "Lunch is over buddy. Let's get back to work, eh?"
"Yeah, sure thing", Talbain muttered, following the man back to onto what was left of London bridge; ironically destroyed during that self-righteous demon's attempt to cram the universe a little closer together. But that's why he got into construction in the first place; no matter where he went, no matter how much his own life fell apart, this war-torn world would always need guys like him to clean up the mess.
The son of a great demon warrior and masterful warrior in his own right couldn't help a cynical smile as he climbed into his bulldozer and lost himself among the mindless clearing of rubble. At least he had job security.
ENTER LINE BREAK
The Forest of Souls sparked to lie in an instant, as if a great wave of soul energy had erupted from the epicenter of the Soul Bee society. And at ground zero, a clutch of bees sprung to life, crying out with more vigor than expected of even newborns.
"Look!", one of the P-Bee caretakers buzzed as she flitted to a brightly glowing infant that laid, in turn, at the center of the nest, "This one is different."
"Powerful", her fellow nodded as she sensed the soul energy radiating from within, "Surely the most suitable for a new Q-Bee."
At this, the newborn chittered with laughter. She knew her destiny all too well.
ENTER LINE BREAK
Quatos sat up in the snow with a bit of a grunt and a bit of a groan.
"My aching skull… Hey! Where's Scales?"
"He went home", a large voice boomed, and Quatos looked up to see a giant whale floating in a sea of slushy water nearby, "We should go home too."
"When we're having so much fun?", Quatos grinned, jumping onto the whale's back, "No way! Come on, old friend. Let's ride forward, not back. Onward to adventure!"
"Sounds like fun", the great Makai whale drawled, and the two of them plodded out into a beautiful sunset as they talked about the many places they might wash up.
ENTER LINE BREAK
The thundering lament of a pipe organ in play rushed through the halls of an abandoned laboratory in the German Alps. At the organ itself, the doll of a young girl sat playing with a feverish intensity.
"Why, little brother", she thought to herself, "Why couldn't you live too?"
Looking back at the still, cold body of Victor Von Gerdenheim lying in a coffin at the back of the room, the girl narrowed her eyes with grin determination, wishing she could cry like any other girl.
"I won't let it end this way. I'll find a way to give you back what you gave me."
ENTER LINE BREAK
Somewhere below the unhallowed halls of Castle Dohma, in a crawling place where the light refuses to shine, an old wooden box waited in a dampening cellar.
Bursting in through a rusty door, a skeletal figure lanked down the stairs with a wire-frame that was once a partner in hand. Placing it in the box, Zabel smiled whimsically as it began to reform as the wooden effigy of a beautiful woman in a maple-colored dress.
"Rest now", he cooed, "Ya've 'ad a lung day love."
Setting the long-broken old lid against the upright crate, the rogue ghoul took an old piece of parchment out of his pocket, striking an ill-lit match to read it in the darkness.
"Voshtal", he read with a perverted grin, "Knowledge is Power."
"An' I love power."
ENTER LINE BREAK
Shaking her head with a cynical smile at that last notion, Morrigan swept herself skyward with a beat of her wings and sailed toward the door uniquely hers.
Toward a destiny she had dreaded until this very moment.