Chapter 12: I may not have the whip's power, but I can still kick your ass!


Richter Belmont had been chattering for at least ten minutes now as he walked through the castle's corridors. Maria was always such a polite listener, she let him talk for hours without interrupting him sometimes. He paused every now and then to open up various colored treasure chests that Dracula randomly placed in his hallways, smiling with happiness every time.

"Ooh! A paludamentum!" Richter cried happily, placing the cape around his shoulders, atop the other three he had picked up recently. He felt extra cool now that he had so many capes.

But suddenly, a thought struck him, and he frowned with sadness. "Alucard is gonna be so jealous…" Richter knew he would be, because Alucard always wore so many capes. What would he think if he saw Richter out-caping him?

Concerned, Richter stopped and frowned at the floor for a couple minutes. Eventually, he came to a conclusion, "I better share with him." Happy with his decision, Richter continued to stroll down the corridor, chatting merrily to Maria.


Meanwhile, Maria Renard was having a hell of a time finding Richter. The castle seemed to have more twists and turns than she remembered, and despite sending several of her animal friends forth to find him, none had yet returned with positive news.

Finally, one of her pet war doves returned, chirping urgently in her ear. "Thank you, friend." Maria steeled her gaze in front of her and powered forward, skillfully jumping over a lounging axe armor.


Though she had recently won two more items on ebay, Shanoa continued to be bored. "Juste, are you planning on taking much longer?" She queried from where she lounged on a newly repositioned wicker chair.

Juste, who was in the middle of carrying an expensive-looking Persian lamp across the room, looked over and quietly murmured, "…no."

Shanoa sighed with boredom. Her next ebay bids weren't up for a few more hours, and she really had nothing to do. Sliding her phone into a hidden pocket, Shanoa pulled out a bag of chips from another. If she couldn't do anything else, she could at least enjoy a snack while she waited.

However, no sooner had she ripped open the package when she heard a very loud crash behind her. Immediately, Shanoa whipped her gaze backward, to find an (even more) pale Juste backing away from her. The lamp he had been carefully carrying earlier was now in pieces all over the floor. "Juste, what's wrong?"

The Belmont panted, as if gasping for air, as he continued to back away, "Those chips…"

"Oh, would you like some?" the woman asked, holding out the small bag to the panicked man, doing her best to calm him down.

But calm him down she did not. Instead, Juste practically screamed, dashing quickly from the room, his blue outline hesitantly following him like in a cartoon.

"Well, at least he's done remodeling," Shanoa sighed, closing the bag of garlic salted chips and walking smoothly from the room.


Finally. They were finally standing in front of one of those demonic boss doors. "Standing" being Charlotte's favorite of those words.

The magician girl felt like her legs were jelly when she finally hopped off the motorcycle. "Jonathan, next time I'm driving."

"What, I did fine! I made all the hard jumps and didn't even hit a single monster," he proudly proclaimed, flicking a hand through his hair.

"I could have sworn that you didn't even turn the handlebars a few of those times," Charlotte murmured, eyeing him suspiciously.

"No way! I mean, it's all inertia and momentum," Jonathan said knowingly. Seeing that Charlotte was still skeptical, he decided that changing the subject was his best course of action. "Hey look, a demonic boss door!"

"Yes, it looks that way, doesn't it?" the girl sighed, allowing her friend some leeway as she opened her large tome and flipped a few pages in. Finding the passage she desired, she carefully read the inscription, causing the door to swing open of its own volition. "And… we're in!"

A large trailer of lavender colored mist poured from the room, pooling ominously around their feet. Though Charlotte wanted nothing more than to back away, she firmly held her ground. "I'm suddenly getting a very bad feeling about all of this…"

"Hey, you were the one who wanted to help out Simon," Jonathan pointed out, fanning some of the light purple vapors away with his hands. "If you're serious about it, we'll go in. If you don't want to anymore, and I really wouldn't blame you, then we can always go back to Leon."

"We could… but this is our best chance of getting home. We have to go in," Charlotte decided, taking the first brave steps through the door with Jonathan following close on her heels.

Once inside, the mist began to recede, revealing a land full of extraordinarily tall mushrooms of various hues. The ground, though still covered by a dense layer of fog, felt spongy beneath their feet. Even the air took on a musty scent, lending a forest-like feel to the immense room.

"How are these mushrooms so large?" Charlotte marveled, touching a hand to the chitinous wall of the fungus closest to her.

"I think the better question is how did Dracula fit all this in a high-rise?" Jonathan wondered, observing that the room seemed far larger than the building they had walked into should have allowed.

"Welcome to my kingdom," a familiar voice greeted them.

Immediately, both of them froze, glancing quickly at each other.

"That voice!" Jonathan whispered urgently. "It's…"

"I know," Charlotte nodded, her eyes fixed ahead of them. "But how is this possible?"

"Anything is possible, darling," the coy voice taunted them again. Finally, a figure stepped from the mist, revealing herself. The woman wore an oddly frilly dress, adorned with multiple layers of white and blue that hugged her generous bosom tightly. Glamorous ruby slippers adorned her feet, which were covered in black and white striped stockings. Pristine long white gloves covered her hands and arms just past her elbows, and an interesting white and blue striped frilly Victorian era collar framed the chestnut curls of her hair.

A few things disturbed Jonathan, causing him to grip his whip tightly in preparation. Her skin was paler than normal, one of her eyes was red, and an ominous pair of fangs were just barely visible when she smiled. And oh, did she smile. "Stella…"

"Actually, I'm Loretta," the girl said, glancing at him curiously.

"What? But those…" Jonathan began, pointing at the overly gratuitous cleavage pouring out of her dress.

His hand was immediately smacked down by Charlotte. "Jonathan, don't point!"

"Oh, I took them from Stella," she commented, waving it off. "She wasn't using them anyway."

At this, even Charlotte stopped mid-swat, instead resting her hand almost fearfully on Jonathan's. "You… you what?" Charlotte squinted, focusing her gaze on the vampire's giggling chest. Despite her partner's recent accusation, she couldn't see anything different about Loretta's breasts than the last time they had met.

"Tis a silly matter," Loretta grinned, spinning once for fun. Charlotte was convinced it was just to show off that she could float. "But now they're mine. Want to see how I can use them?"

"Use…?" Jonathan blinked. Vivid memories of fighting a certain Egyptian goddess long ago flashed back to him.

"Temptation!" Loretta purred, lifting her hands into the air and sending an array of magical hearts their way.

Immediately, Charlotte raised her hand to cover Jonathan's eyes. "No, Jonathan, don't look!"

Jonathan couldn't see, but he could feel the impact as the tiny fragments of the spell hit him, quickly sinking in.

He was done for. He knew it. It would only be a matter of seconds before he was under her spell, captive prey to the vampire's every demand.

"Tee hee hee, that's right…" Loretta cooed.

Though he felt Charlotte pull her hand away from his eyes, he still kept them tightly shut, trying his best not to be tempted. He wouldn't fight Charlotte again! He wouldn't be a victim to Loretta's demands!

"Come here…" he heard the vampire command.

A few moments passed, and slowly, Jonathan came to realize that he wasn't moving. Hesitantly, he opened an eye. What he saw made him snap both open in alarm. "No…!"

Charlotte was slowly walking forward, gingerly reaching to take Loretta's outstretched hand. "Yes… master…"

"That's mistress to you," Loretta winked, capturing Charlotte's hand and pulling her closer.

"Yes… mistress…." Charlotte responded, her monotonous and droning voice almost chilling to hear compared to her usually lively chatter.

For a moment, Jonathan paused. Had he really sounded like that too?

Then, he remembered what he had to do. "Charlotte, no!" Jonathan shouted, running as quickly as he could towards the girls. However, he was a few moments too late. Just as he reached them, the two disappeared into the purple mist. He hesitated at the wall briefly before setting his resolve and plunging in.

At first, he coughed with every breath, the sweetly scented vapors intrusive to his lungs, but as he wandered blindly through the chamber, he found that the discomfort passed. "Charlotte, where are you?"

As he ran forward, Jonathan's foot suddenly caught on something, and he flew to the ground, catching a face-full of half-bloomed flowers and moss.

"Hey, watch it!"

Ignoring the mild pain from the fall, Jonathan quickly spun around to find… "A shovel?"

"Yeah, what'cha gonna do about it?" the shovel bristled with righteous anger.

Jonathan blinked. "You're a shovel."

"And you're American, but do I discriminate against you?" the shovel scoffed.

"Fair enough…" he responded, ready to walk away from this confusing yard tool.

"Oh, you'd better watch out," the shovel cautioned, showing a rare compassionate side. "The vampires are going to eat you."

"That's… really not cool," Jonathan sighed, kneeling down next to the shovel so that he could observe it better. Though the shovel appeared to be made of ordinary wood and steel, it glowed with a strange aura. Perhaps it wouldn't be too bad to keep a shovel like this around? Deciding it was for the best, he reached down and grabbed the shovel by the handle.

"DON'T DO IT JONATHAN! YOU'RE FREAKING TERRIBLE AT FIGHTING WITHOUT YOUR GIRLFRIEND! YOU DO 1 DAMAGE!" the shovel screamed.

Startled, Jonathan hesitated, turning the shovel over a couple times in his hand to see where the sound was coming from. "I don't have a girlfriend, and what is 1 damage?"

Angered, the shovel returned his question with stony silence.

"Suit yourself," he shrugged, adding the shovel to his collection of tools.

It was only a few moments before he came upon a clearing. A clearing of the heavy clouds, that is. Jonathan almost took a step back as the sheer strangeness of the area hit him.

Flowers grew through the cracks in the ceiling and floor, and brightly colored squares hovered in various places in the air. The room itself was filled with ghostly figures he both recognized and did not. In the distance, he faintly heard guitars strumming and chimes ringing in his ears.

As he stepped into the room, he came face to face with a bright blue square. Curious, he reached his hand up to touch it.

"I wouldn't do that."

Startled by the voice, Jonathan spun around. It seemed this castle had a creepy sense of humor, because he knew this voice too. This particular voice brought feelings of anxiety, anger, and happiness in one terrible package. "Where are you?"

"I… was standing in front of you." The voice said with a heavy sigh.

On edge now, Jonathan twirled quickly back around, noticing the ghostly figure just on the opposite side of the square. The figure looked so familiar… a man from his memories long ago… "Da—"

"Don't say it," the ghost advised, holding up a finger. "And don't touch that either. You never know what may happen."

"You left me…" Jonathan began sorrowfully.

"This again?" the ghost sighed. "I thought Eric already explained that to you."

Jonathan stood there awkwardly, examining the faintly blue-auraed ghost in front of him. There was no mistaking it. The soul in front of him could be no other than that of his father. But his father had died years ago…

There were so many things that he had always wanted to tell the man, but now that he stood before him, he found that those had all vanished.

"How are you here?" Jonathan finally asked.

The ghost smiled sadly, "I think you will figure that out soon enough."

"That was illusive," he pointed out, but received no further explanation.

After a couple minutes of a tense silence, the ghost finally offered, "That's a dead pixel."

It took a moment for Jonathan to realize he was talking about the floating blue square in front of him. "What? You mean that thing Shanoa was complaining about on Leon's computer?" he asked.

The ghost gave a grim nod. "There's no telling what may happen if you touch it."

"Why are you telling me that random bit of information? It's not like it's ever going to be important in the future or anything," Jonathan scowled. "Shouldn't you be telling me about something worthwhile? Like, what happened when you died? Or maybe you can explain why this shovel was talking to me…"

The spirit raised a cautious finger to the air, silencing Jonathan with the simple motion. As if on cue, a scream that could be none other than Charlotte's echoed through the clearing. "Gyaaa!"

"It sounds like your friend is in trouble," the spirit observed. "Go to her."

"But you…"

"But nothing," the ghost shook his head. "Go."

Grimly, Jonathan nodded, fixing the ghost of his father sternly, "Don't you dare disappear. We're not done yet." He didn't wait for the ghost to respond before running towards the origin of the scream.

Jonathan tore through the mist, running as quickly as he could. "Charlotte, hang on, I'm coming!" He shouted, hoping against all odds that she could hear him.

When he finally reached the next clearing, he found what looked like a medieval torture chamber. It fit Castlevania perfectly.

Shackles and chains of various sizes hung from the dreary stone walls, and strange tables and chairs affixed with a variety of tools Jonathan didn't recognize were scattered about the room. The place gave him the creeps, but he wasn't about to vocalize that.

In the center of the room, he noticed a large chair with its back turned to him. Charlotte's bound arms were wiggling from the top, the only part of her that he could see. "Charlotte!" Worried for his friend's safety, he started forward.

"Nngg!" She yelled back, her voice muffled by what must have been a gag.

"Careful," his father's ghost advised, suddenly materializing beside him. "Just undo her bindings from here. She'll never forgive you if you look."

Gasping, Jonathan turned to face the ghost. "Where did you come from?"

"I have always been with you Jonathan," the spirit answered solemnly.

"Oookay. That's a little creepy," he sighed, approaching the chair swiftly. Pulling out a knife, he carefully cut through the ropes binding Charlotte's hands to the chair.

Within seconds, her hands disappeared down, and though he was sorely tempted to look, he heeded his father's advice and refrained.

Moments later, he heard Charlotte's voice, a little more shaken than usual. "Thanks Jonathan. I don't know what came over me." Her arm reached out to the side, grabbing a pile of clothing that Jonathan hadn't realized was laying beside the chair.

"Yeah, what do you need that girl for? You've already got a gorgeous guy right here," Jonathan smirked, relishing throwing her words back at her more than he probably should have.

She chuckled back, and a few seconds later she stood from the chair the same Charlotte he had always remembered. Her hair was a bit mussed, and she did appear shaken, but he decided that would be a story for another time.

"My pretty pet, I've brought the…." Loretta said in a sing-song voice as she skipped into the room, her ample bosom heaving with every jump. Suddenly spying the duo, she stopped, her lips pouting. "This wasn't part of the plan… how did you escape the mist of confusion?"

"I had a little help?" Jonathan ventured, glancing over at the lingering ghost of his father.

Loretta grinned, "Well, it's no matter. The end will be the same anyway. But, two against one isn't very fair, is it? Oh Steeeeeeeeeeella!~"

A few moments passed by in dreaded silence.

Loretta frowned, her eyelids fluttering shut as if this were a common annoyance. "Stella!"

Yet a few more soundless moments passed by.

Visibly angered, Loretta's eyes snapped open as she turned angrily to the next room and growled, "STELLA!"

Finally, a pale Stella stumbled into the room, wearing clothing similar to Loretta's but dusted in a fine white powder. The vampire walked a few more haphazard steps before slumping heavily onto her sister's shoulder.

Loretta sighed, "You've gotten into the stash again, haven't you?"

Lazily, Stella nodded her head in affirmation, running a delicate finger sloppily across Loretta's cheek fondly.

"Ugh, you know that man gave us specific instructions, Stella! If you keep this up, we won't be able to carry out the plans," Loretta pouted, hoisting her sister up so that she could glare at her face to face. "Look, you think you can still fight Jonathan and Charlotte?"

Stella looked hazily into her sister's eyes before bobbing her head down again in affirmation.

Loretta gazed at her skeptically but finally nodded. "Ok, then off you go!~" With that, she pushed her sister in Jonathan and Charlotte's general direction.

Immediately, Jonathan tensed, ready for action, but Stella completely ignored him, sweeping past him to tackle Charlotte to the ground. In the process, she knocked the girl's book from her hands, sending the heavy tome flying until it slid just beneath a dead pixel.

Realizing that since Stella had gone for Charlotte, Loretta would probably attack him, Jonathan turned around, readying his whip again. "Ha!" He exclaimed, whipping forward.

His whip met with thin air.

"Wha?" he exclaimed. Spinning around, he found that Loretta had ignored him so that she could help Stella tackle Charlotte too.

"Jonathan, a little help!" the magician girl shouted, frantically flailing her arms to fend off the vampire sisters.

"I'm on it!" Gritting his teeth, Jonathan pulled his arm back, then whipped forward with all his might.

His whip bounced effortlessly off the curls of Loretta's hair, doing 1 damage. Loretta turned around briefly and frowned. "Hey, watch it. It took me an hour to get my hair so perfectly luscious this morning."

Infuriated, he grabbed a vial of holy water from his stash, throwing it at Stella this time. The water rolled off the folds in her clothing, actually cleaning some of the white powder from her garments.

"Try attacking them," the ghost of Jonathan's father offered from beside him.

"Thanks…" Growling, Jonathan pulled his energy around him. That was it. He had been mocked long enough! Focusing the energy into one powerful point, he threw his head back and shouted, "Aura blast!"

Fire-like waves of energy erupted from his body, cascading over the sisters in shockwaves of devastation. As dust flew across the scenery from the attack, he hoped that Charlotte would forgive him for killing the vampire sisters right on top of her, but he could see no other alternative.

However, as the dust settled, it became clear that something was very wrong. The sisters looked the same as always. A few hairs were out of place, but other than that, nothing had changed.

And, as before, they appeared to be ignoring him.

Jonathan cried out-loud in anguish, "What's wrong with me? What should I do?"

"Told you, it's Level 1 Capped Hard Mode. Try not to die," the shovel suggested snidely from his hip.

Suddenly, all three women turned their heads towards Jonathan, as if just noticing his presence.

Stella was the first to stumble off her victim and stagger in Jonathan's direction; however, Loretta managed to float to him first. After the two sisters got off her, even Charlotte stood up, timidly walking toward her partner.

Scared, Jonathan backed up. "Wha-what's wrong with you?"

"That voice…" Stella cooed.

"…it's so adorable," Loretta finished for her.

"My voice?" Jonathan asked, skipping backwards away from the slowly approaching women.

"Not your voice, that other voice," Charlotte breathed, reaching out to him.

"What… other voice?" Jonathan asked hesitantly.

"Oh no… not again!" the shovel moaned.

Immediately the girls all bust into a choir of "aww"s. "It's so cute!"

Very quickly, Jonathan found himself cornered as the girls approached him. What could he do? His best attacks did nothing against the vampire girls, and he couldn't bring himself to attack Charlotte again. Feeling trapped, he glanced quickly at the ghost of his father.

The ghost only shook his head.

"No… keep them away from me… keep them away!" the shovel pleaded, trembling at Jonathan's side.

Pulling the shovel from his store of weapons, he looked at the mystically glowing weapon. "It's you that they want?"

"The things they have done haunt my nightmares every night," the shovel responded sadly.

Jonathan knew then that there was only one option left. He had to do something drastic. Something unpredictable. Something even his father would never have thought of.

"I am sorry, friend," Jonathan said solemnly, eyeing the shovel with the utmost sincerity.

Just a moment before the women reached him, Jonathan threw his newfound shovel into the dead pixel in the center of the room.

"Nooo!" The girls all screamed, reaching for the shovel as they ran to it.

Jonathan managed to catch Charlotte before she could reach the pixel. The twins, however, were not so fortunate. As soon as they touched the dead pixel, both girls vanished.

A few moments of silence passed by. "Where did they go?" Jonathan finally voiced.

"Help… help…" the shovel sputtered weakly from off to their left.

Following the sound, they found that the shovel had been transported across the room and was now laying dejectedly beside the wall. Next to it, they found an even more shocking surprise. Both Stella and Loretta ran side by side at an exactly even pace…

inside the wall.

Curiously, Jonathan tilted his head slightly as he approached the peculiar sight before him. "Interesting… what do you make of this Charlotte?" After a few more moments of silence, he asked again, "…..Charlotte?"

Turning around, he found Charlotte tenderly holding the shovel. Rolling his eyes, he snatched the garden tool from her. "Twins in the wall. Why?"

After recovering from the initial shock of having the shovel so rudely taken from her, Charlotte finally assessed the situation in front of her. "It looks like something I read about…"

Carefully, the magical girl retrieved her book from beneath the dead pixel, read a short passage or two, and came to her conclusion. "They've glitched into the wall."

"They've what?" Jonathan asked, his head swooping forward in surprise.

"It seems like something about this square…"

"It's a dead pixel," Jonathan informed her.

"Something about this dead pixel…" Charlotte continued, not missing a beat. "…caused something of an anomaly to occur in this room. When Stella and Loretta touched the pixel, they were transported into the wall, and now… it looks like they're stuck."

"Can't they just… teleport themselves… or something?" Jonathan asked.

"That's not how a glitch works," Charlotte explained, flipping to another place in her book and reciting from the text. "A glitched character may or may not possess some or any of the traits originally possessed."

"English…?" her counterpart sighed.

"They're stuck, and they can't teleport," she explained simply.

For a few more moments, they lingered beside the trapped sisters, watching them soundlessly flail in place. Jonathan wasn't sure why, but something about it seemed very very gratifying.

"Can we kill them?" he asked.

"Observe," Charlotte said, moving her hand straight through Loretta's torso. "We can't even touch them."

"I'll take that as a 'no.'" he said, pointing towards the pair with a sigh.

"Don't bother pointing," Charlotte shook her head, pulling down Jonathan's hand. "For all practical purposes, we have defeated them. Let's just go."

"The exit is that way," the ghost of Jonathan's father said, pointing toward one of the misty walls.

Vaguely, Jonathan wondered why Charlotte didn't bother his father about pointing, but he dismissed the thought in his eagerness to leave.

However, as they approached the indicated wall, it faded away to reveal a swirling dark portal.

"Before you say anything, no I didn't make this one," Charlotte said, admiring the nice quality of the portal. Someone talented must have fabricated it, and she was oh-so-envious. "What do you think are the odds that this one leads home?"

Jonathan shrugged, examining the looming dark circle before them. "Does it really matter? We're going in, right?"

With a grim nod, Charlotte walked through. Bracing himself, Jonathan jumped in with a "Wahoo!" Who knew where this would lead them? Who cared?

At least he had found a really cool shovel to keep him company.


"Looks like someone beat us here," Leon said as they reached the open boss doors.

"No shit, what gave you that idea?" Joachim rolled his eyes, floating closer to the entranceway. As he approached, he wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Drac, why did you fill this room with LSD mist?"

"I didn't," the lord of the night frowned, peering into the room distastefully. "What were those twins doing?"

Alucard pulled Hector forward, away from a candle that he had been trying to use to burn himself. As the dhampire entered the room, he cautiously noted, "Though the mist seems to have receded enough to negate the hallucinatory effects, it would still be wise to proceed with caution."

However, Soma did not. Charging blindly into the room, he ran right into a large round pillar.

Nodding with approval, Dracula swept around the wall. "See, Issac? I knew it would come in handy."

Isaac shrugged.

After the rest of the party walked around the stone columns that were randomly scattered through the entranceway, they reached an interesting garden of sorts. Flowers were haphazardly planted in clumps on the floor and on the ceilings.

Snatching a somewhat poisonous-looking flower away from Hector as he tried to eat it, Soma puzzled up at the flowers on the ceiling. "…the fuck did you do that?"

"It's art," the lord of the night scoffed. "I thought the vampire girls would appreciate it. Instead, all they did was steal my shovel…"

"Vampire girls…" Alucard murmured, his delicate eyebrows lifting ever so slightly, the only indication of his surprise. "Father, did you take both Stella and Loretta from their time as well?"

Though Dracula chose not to answer that, the answer became clear when they entered the farthest part of the room. A large blue square floated in the middle of the chamber, and an odd assortment of chairs littered the room.

A small squeal echoed from wall to wall, invading their ears.

"Shut the fuck up already, would you?" Sara scowled at Joachim.

The vampire huffed indignantly. "As if I would make a sound like that… it was him." He said, indicating with a clawed finger to Hector, who had already fallen happily into one of the downy moon-chairs.

Isaac shook his head, but decided that it beat the alternative.

Curiously, Soma approached the blue square, reaching out to it.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Dracula cautioned him, causing Alucard to immediately pull the boy back with concern.

"… the fuck not?" Soma asked, still trying to look at the odd square closer, despite being held back by his collar. It was just so… square.

"That is a glitch-spot," the lord of the night explained. "The effects of touching one are quite unpredictable."

For a moment all were silent.

"Mathias, why would you make one of those?" Leon asked, seriously questioning his old comrade's motives.

"It's Dracula," the lord of the night sighed. "I am obligated to place at least one glitch in the castle every time I reconstruct it."

Again, all were silent.

"Why?" Leon asked again.

"Because otherwise some of the kids can't get through," Dracula explained with embarrassment.

"Kids?" Leon continued to puzzle. "Why are children in Castlevania?"

"Oh look, the twins!" Dracula exclaimed, pointing to Stella and Loretta, who were both still running inside the wall.

Instantly distracted, Leon ran to their aid, only to find out that he couldn't touch either of them. Frantically, he turned toward his comrade, "This is terrible! Please help them out!"

"If I must…" Dracula sighed, making a small flipping gesture with his hand.

Instantly, the vampire sisters popped out of the wall, and fell to the ground in a drug-induced stupor. Loretta softly murmured incoherent words, and Stella immediately passed out on her shoulder.

"I don't know what they're on, but I want some," Joachim commented, nudging one unresponsive girl with the tip of his boot.

"This must be that man's fault," Dracula scowled, taking a head of lettuce from the folds of his clothing and drawing its delicious veggie juices to calm him down.

"That man?" Soma asked.

"He should be guarding another portal, but it appears as though he has left his chamber," the lord of the night frowned.

"The twins will be fine," Alucard announced, standing up from where he had been inspecting the girls. "But might I suggest returning them to their own time, father?"

"I could never say no to you, Adrian," Dracula beamed, opening a time portal beneath the girls and allowing them to fall through to their own time.

"Wait, are Stella and Loretta carrying a part of Castlevania's power within them?" Alucard asked, recalling the pivotal plot point revealed to him earlier.

"They are, but we can always rectify that situation sometime later, when Jonathan and Charlotte finally realize that I'm the only one who will ever be able to send them back to their own time," Dracula explained cheerily.

Bored with the plot, Sara walked up to the dark portal on the wall, offering a few words before slipping through. "Meet you losers on the other side."

Soma jumped back, just realizing that the ominous portal was there. "… the fuck did that thing come from? Nuh-uh. Not again."

"Though I am not exactly enthusiastic either, I assume we need to travel through the portal to protect Castlevania," Alucard said, his words paining even himself. "I would suggest that we refrain from putting off the inevitable."

Reluctantly, the group grabbed a crying Hector and jumped through.

"How dearly you must wish that portal goes to you home world, to your love! Do not falter now. You must stay strong, otherwise terrible devastation may wrack your reality. Go now! Jump into the unknown! Only then can you ever hope to save your world!"


Elsewhere, somewhere in the Caribbean Islands, a lone figure lounged in a beach-chair, chatting casually on his cell phone. "…they have? Perfect. Be prepared, it will not be long now."

Caustically, the man snapped the cell phone shut, setting it on the side table and taking a sip of his dirty martini. "Old foe, soon you will know the meaning of pain."


LateNiteSlacker's Notes:

1 – Thank you, reviewers! Reading your thoughts makes me smile. =)

2 – LateNiteSlacker does not promote or condone drug usage; however, she does find watching the effects of it on others to be quite funny. Sometimes.

3 – Fun fact: most of this chapter was written along to a song by the Plain White T's called "Welcome to Mystery." Listen to it while you read, if you like.

4 – Thank-you, Shovel, for everything you do. ^_^

5 – Congrats to the people who got the Chapter 11 trivia questions right!

Chapter Trivia: NeoseekerDarkKnight, Arbl A-17, ShinnYagami, Auragonian, SunLord89, Selfish Vampire Mint, Jotepaine, MoonlitLuna, and Torchic373!

Bonus Trivia: ShinnYagami, Auragonian, Selfish Vampire Mint, Jotepaine, MoonlitLuna, and Torchic373!

Title Trivia: ShinnYagami, Auragonian, SunLord89, Selfish Vampire Mint, Jotepaine, and Torchic373!

6 – Remember, reviewers are awesome. =)

Chapter Trivia #11 Answer: Hector has an unhealthy infatuation with a certain everyday object. What is it? Hector loves chairs, of course!

Bonus Trivia #11 Answer: What was character designer Ayami Kojima before she started doing illustrations for the Castlevania series? (Hint: it's probably why all the males look like girls.) Although when this question was written, I believed that she had her background in fashion design, that has since had no indication whatsoever of being true. However, Ayami Kojima did do illustration for various manga series before Castlevania, which likely lent to her incredible talents.

Title Trivia #11 Answer: Where is the title, "For one that served under Dracula, you seem much too weak" from? Trevor Belmont says this line to Hector in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. This happens when Trevor first meets Hector, finding him a pale shadow of the man he once was. Hmm… for some reason, this sounds familiar.

Chapter Trivia #12: Who is Jonathan's dad, and what game does he come from?

Bonus Trivia #12: Why is it ironic that there is a glitched spot in the chapter featuring Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin characters?

Title Trivia #12: From where is the title, "I may not have the whip's power, but I can still kick your ass!"