AN: wanted to wait to write this until after I'd seen the finale and I'm glad I did because I was able to add more. Enjoy :)

Ebb Tide

The beads of morning sunlight were just starting to appear when I reached the natural history museum. I ignored all the closed signs and pushed through the door, past the looks of several men in top hats and the overwhelming high cleanings and displays. Then a man stepped into my path.

"Excuse me miss, we don't open for another hour."

"I'm just looking for someone," I tried to push past him, but he stopped me with a rough arm.

"I'm afraid you aren't allowed in until nine miss, I'm sorry." I was considering how wrong it would be to rip his arm out of his socket when I heard my name.

"Ava?" Dr. Sweet was standing on the balcony looking down at me. He crossed his arms on the rail, smiling at the assistant pleasantly. "It's fine, George. Let her through." The assistant gave me a weary glance, but he moved aside. Sweet met me halfway up the stairs. "You must excuse them, they think all of their money and sophistication gives them an edge over the rest of us. Are you alright?" Realizing I wasn't here for a social call, he placed his hand on my arm. "You look pale."

"Is Ness here?" He nodded, looking confused. But then I saw her coming out of one of the doorways frowning at me.

"Ava? What's happened?" She was fine, there was nothing wrong with her. I breathed for the first time in almost an hour.

"Nothing," I managed to say, aware of Sweet's eyes on me and the fact they were together. "I just... missed you." She didn't believe that obviously but didn't question me father for now.

"Well since you're here, why don't you take a walk with me?" Dr. Sweet suggested, gesturing down the hall. "I could give you a tour." I glanced back at Vanessa, not particularly wanting to leave her. But the way she was looking at him was something I hadn't seen in a very long time. Trust. And was I really going to turn down a tour of the national history museum by its owner? And I liked Dr. Sweet.

"Alright," I agreed. "I'll you see later then?" I asked Vanessa. She nodded, smiling at Sweet over my shoulder.

"Don't stay out after dark," she said, hugging me goodbye. I held on a little too long, relieved she was alright. She squeezed me back and then let go. I took Sweet's arm, returning her wave goodbye. He lead me through another employee's only door into a hallway lined with crates.

"Don't brush against those," he warned as I eyed the wooden crates, hoping to see what was inside. "They've been known to hiss." I quickly moved away from them and Sweet grinned.

"Kiding. They're filled with taxidermy knives and hay." I smiled back at him, feeling some of my anxiety fading. He lead me through another door into a decent sized office.

"I thought you were giving me a tour?"

"I am. Look at the view." He gestured at the large window behind the desk that took up almost the entire wall. Below us the streets of London had started to come alive. Men were walking to work, children were crossing the roads in droves towards the school and woman walked in packs in their heavy petticoats and hats that added inches to their heights.

"A tour of humanity," Sweet said, leaning against the window. "There are hundreds of different lives down there. Take your pick." I glanced at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, clearly you don't want to be yourself. So pick one of their lives. Become one of them for the day. Your life seems so much simpler when you're pretending to be someone else." I might have been offended had it not been for his easy smile, half teasing me, half stating facts.

"Tea?" He paced away from the window to a countertop where a pot of tea had already been brewed and handed me a cup.

"Thank you." I took a sip and found the taste was very familiar. The overwhelming sweetness of honey told me exactly who it had been made for.

"What?" he asked, seeing my smile.

"Nothing," I answered.

"You don't approve?" He sat on the side of his desk, facing me.

"No, I do," I said quickly. "I mean- worse things have happened." He smiled in return, seeming relieved to have my blessing. I never though there would come a day I trusted my sister with a man. But Dr. Sweet didn't' seem breakable. And I liked him, I liked him a lot.

"Now. For what I truly want to show you." He paced behind his desk and pulled out an envelope. The care with which he was handling it sparked my interest and I got closer to look. The papers he took out of the envelope were so brown with age that they hardly looked like papers at all. Sweet barely moved his fingers as he lifted them.

"It's an Egyptian manuscript," he explained as I looked over his shoulder at the faded black lines and symbols that differently resembled a language. "It's exact age is still unknown, but my educated guess would be this story was written shortly before the start of the first century."

"It's a story?" I asked. I wanted to touch the pages, to see if I could see images from them in my head, but I didn't want them to turn to dust under fingertips.

"I've been decoding it. It appears to be a fable, a story told to children about a lion and a snake."

"But you're a zoologist, why are you decoding hieroglyphics?" I frowned.

"A hobby of mine," he said with a smile. "As are lions and snakes. Would you like to see what else was delivered with it?" His excitement was contagious. I'd always been fascinated by old things, but the energy that seemed to come off of the paper. He held out his arm and I took it. "I thought you would. We seem to have the same tastes."

"How so?" I asked as he guided me through the weaving maze hallways of the museum. These were the places the guests never got to see, behind the stage.

"The darker things in life fascinate you. The things most girls your age would squeal and recoil from you embrace. It makes for good company." I grinned. I could feel us going lower, though there were no stairs. In the basement of the natural history museum, there were hundreds of boxes and crates. Artifacts waiting to be unpacked history still locked away until it was ready to be shown to the world. It was dark and quiet, there were footsteps above my head from people browsing the museum shelves. But it felt very solitary down here. Like a secret room where only I had the key.

"Ah, here's what I wanted to show you."

"Endless boxes?" I teased, trying to see anything different that might have caught his eye.

"No. Far better." He lead me around the corner and I finally spotted something with color. It was a red gown strategically hung from a pile of packing. The skirt had intercit beadwork that looked to come from a very old culture. The sleeves were frayed and the fabric looked expensive.

"A dress?" I asked.

"They say it belonged to a princess who lived almost a century ago." He walked away from me, around the corner and I had to follow him so his voice didn't get lost in the maze. "Archaeologists discovered it while digging in the dirt and brought it back to life. It was found with the story and with this." When I caught up to him, he was holding a golden tiara with a sapphire jewel at its head.

"Is that real?" I touched the coolness of it, feeling the buzz of it's age and all the memories it held.

"Real gold, real jewels," he told me. "And extremely valuable. More so even today. And you mustn't tell anyone it's here. There would be line of bannits around the block. Very bad for our image. That' why the egyptians had to seal their goods in tombs." The piece of history he held in his hands was captivating. I wanted to know how many heads it had lived on, what the stories of the women were who'd worn it. If it and the gown had really belonged to a princess. The footsteps echoing on the stone floor caused us both to turn.

"Sweet?" a man's voice called out. "Did I see you come down here?"

"Damn," he said softly enough so only I could hear. "They bother me endlessly. I'll be right back, stay here and don't make a sound if you value my profession." He put the tiara in my hands before going to meet the employee.

"What is it, Richmond? I thought you had the displays sorted for the afternoon." His voice faded after that and so did the other. Sweet was most likely coercing the man back upstairs so I wouldn't be discovered. I ran the tiara over in my hands, marveling at how heavy it was. It didn't seem as breakable as the scrolls. I wished I could see the images from it's mind like I did with people. Once I felt it was safe, I walked around to the dress. I held the tiara up to where someone's head might be to see what the looked like put together. Whoever wore these things, she must have been beautiful. I backed up further, looking through the tiara and trying to create the image in my mind until I hit something solid. The crash made me wince, but nothing stirred where the men had disappeared. I was alone down here now.

I had knocked over a crate and a large sheet of cloth that had been covering a floor length mirror. I looked back at myself holding the tiara. How could I not? I reached up and balanced the tiara onto my head. The claps somehow still held firm even after all it's years of being buried under the sand. The pure gold was heavy pushing against my head, but manageable. I felt like a little girl playing dressup again, but found the image of myself in and the crown was too much to resist. I wanted to see the woman who'd once worn these things, I wanted to picture her in my mind. I couldn't do that if the dress was hanging lifeless behind me.

I had never been comfortable looking in mirrors, especially now. But wearing the dress and the tiara, I found that my own reflection didn't ' frighten me anymore. It was impossible, but somehow the gown fit me almost perfectly. It hugged my hips and trailed past my feet in a scarlet wave. I'd braided the tiara into my hair to hold it in place and the flash of gold buried in the black curls seemed to fit perfectly there. I liked the way the dress brought out the blue of my eyes and how my hair could fall like a black waterfall down my naked shoulder before blending into the red silk. It had been a very long time since I'd stared at myself for this long. I didn't' recognize my own reflection. And it wasn't just the ancient clothes and crown. My face was paler and thinner. My cheeks had lost all of the redness they'd had when I was a child. My eyes were a darker shade of blue that seemed to fit onto my face now. Like a doll, I thought as I stood stalk still, staring at myself in the clothes of someone who'd died a thousand years ago. I didn't hear Sweet re entered the basement until he was standing behind me in the mirror.

"Well, isn't that a picture." I turned around quickly, realizing how childish this looked and how wrong it had been. But he didn't seem angry, in fact he was smiling. "I feel I'm meeting the Egyptian princess herself." He did a full bow and then kissed my hand like he was about to ask me to dance.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"But I'm glad you did. It was getting ever so dusty up there and I would have missed the opportunity to see bits of cloth and gold come to life." I laughed but cut off short when I heard at least three man's voices coming steadily towards us. They were talking about money, about sales and selling tickets. I looked at Sweet and then started detangling the tiara from my hair.

"No time." He grabbed my hand with complete serious but also stifling laughter and pulled me around the corner. It was hard to run without tripping over the dress. It seemed the only part that didn't fit me perfectly was the length which was meant for someone taller.

"My shoes!" I said hurriedly as he pulled along, dogging the footsteps of the party of businessmen that had decided to convene in the basement at the exact wrong time.

"We'll get them later," he promised. He lead me a different way back upstairs and we had to cut through another large storage room. The ground was covered in hay used to pack the crates. Before I realized what he was doing, Sweet had swept me off my feet and into his arms, bundling the train of the dress up so none of it hit the ground.

"This fabric is a thousand years old and has survived sand, time and the black plague, I will not have it ruined by packaging," he explained as I muffled my laughter in his shoulder. He put me down once we cleared the soiled ground and he lead me through a maze of hallways until I recognized the door to his office which he ushered me inside. He put his back against the door dramatically and I stopped holding back my laughter, no longer caring who heard.

"It is not funny, I could have lost my job and my reputation for that." I knew he wasn't serious, he thought it was as funny as I did. "You have certainly added a great deal of excitement to my day, princess Ava, I'll give you that."

"Excitement is the essence of my appeal," I told him. "And my shoes are still down there, I don't think your staff is going to take them as ancient artifacts."

"Probably not," he agreed. "Tell you what, you hide in here. I'll go find us some brunch and your shoes and then you can help me to decode some of that story."

"Deal," I agreed. He laughed lightly again. "What?" I asked.

"It's just that it's been a long time since I had a friend."

"I'll be your friend," I smiled. I spent the rest of the afternoon hiding in his office, since the only way for him not to get fired was to wait until the staff had left and then smuggle the dress downstairs. Though he insisted I leave it on while he taught me how to read ancient Egyptian glyphs because it 'made the experience more authentic.' I lost track of time pouring over words spoken in an ancient world. It seemed in this place I forgot about my doctors and visions and even Vanessa. I would have been content to be here forever with him. The sky was darkening outside the window when he rose.

"I'll send the staff home early," he told me. "I wouldn't want anyone to worry where you are."I shrugged.

"No one will." He left the door open a crack when he left because the only light was from the fire he'd lit. There were no gas lights in this building, it was too old. My eyes were tired, but I continued to run them over the scrolls. H'ed been teaching me it for hours but we were still only halfway through. It seemed to grow darker in the room in the second since he'd left and then I felt an od d but familiar chill pass through my bones. I looked up to find the source of it. The room had gotten very cold. My eyes landed on a water pitcher resting on the desk. A shadow passed by it's reflective surface. There was a loud squeaking noise and I jumped, my intake of breath echoing around the room. A draw had opened on the desk.

I couldn't resist it. The door was closer, the door was safer, but I had to see. The dress trained across the floor as I made my way across the now very cold room towards the open draw. It was empty except for a single blue circular jewel, a locket connected to a silver chain. My heart seized. I couldn't breathe and memories started to flood through me like waves. One of Malcolm's longest trips to Africa had been a year and a half. I'd been around nine when he returned and he'd brought with him a series of gifts for all of us. But the one I had wanted , over the dolls and the pretty cotton dresses, was the locket he gave to Mina. Little girls didn't get presents like that one. From the day he gave it to her, Mina had never taken the locket off. She treasured it. And now it was lying alone in Dr. Sweet's desk.

A tall dark stranger. He'd come into my life, into Vanessa's with no warning or real explanation as to who he was. And she loved him, she adored him. I could see how happy he made her. So why hadn't I seen the truth behind it? There was no other way this locket could be here and it all made sense now. That was why he always knew what to say. I picked up the locket, just to feel that it was real. The jewel shinned brightly in my hand as if to say 'See? This is what he did to me.'

The sound of cold laughter caused me to whip around, clutching the locket tightly. Sweet stood in the doorway, staring back at me.

"It's not the way I would have wanted it." He took a step towards me and I took a step back into the desk. "But I should have anticipated I couldn't keep the facade going much longer. You have no idea how difficult it's been, hiding my thoughts from you." He was speaking and I was hearing the words, but they didn't mean anything. It was empty air. The locket felt like fire in my hand, a reminder of everything this thing was and what he'd done to me.

"You surprised me, a curious feeling after all the centuries. I didn't think I could feel it again. I thank you for that." My shock was beginning to fade. This was Dracula. And he'd been keeping Mina's locket in his desk draw, the thing she'd been wearing when he murdered her. He lied to me, he lied to Vanessa, this was his plan. To make her love him. His expression widened into a smirk as he watched my surprise turning to hatred.

"There's my girl. There's that fury. Do you remember when I found you in the alley, you would have killed that man if I hadn't stopped you. And that wouldn't have been good for either of us."

"Why?" It seemed like such a trivial thing to say compared with all the other words flying through my head.

"Because murdering would have given you power. I had to flex my muscles enough as it was to keep you out of my head. And Vanessa wasn't ready to know the truth yet." I was becoming acutely aware of the exits in the room and now quickly I could get to them. The window was behind me, but I wouldn't be able to get to it before he grabbed me and even if I did, it was a straight drop to the ground some twenty feet below. The only other exit was the door which he was blocking. But of course he knew that. And no help would come, he'd sent them all home.

"And she's ready now?" The fire in the hearth, it was my only way out. But he had to move closer to it. He'd keep himself between me and the door. If I moved towards the fire, he'd move with me.

"Perhaps. But like I said, this isn't the way I wanted it." His entire face had changed. Or maybe it was my perception of it. His shoulders were broader, his stance more aggressive. He hadn't stood so tall before. He'd leaned his weight on one his left, made subtle changes to his body posture as all humans did. Now he stood like a statue. But it was his eyes that changed the most. As Dr. Sweet, they had been normal, innocent. Just a man. But now they were dark and ancient. How could I not have seen it before? Had I never looked at his eyes?

"There are your claws." He said it like he was praising me. "I can feel them scratching around in my head. But you can't read my mind, my dear. You can only read the thoughts of the living." But I'd read him before. He had sounded like everyone else, nothing of interest.

"False images," he answered, reading my expression. "Difficult with a mind reader as strong as yourself, but not impossible." I moved slightly to the left, towards the fire, the locket still clutched behind my back as if I still needed to hide it from him. Like I thought, he moved with me. "You truly are an enigma. I've been planning this conquest for thousands of years. Countless strings I had to pull. Battles to plan, battles to win. And to think it all could have unraveled at the last moment because of a little girl."

"Then why am I still alive?" My voice was laced with anger, a sharp contrast to his tone which had remained calm. Amused if anything. This was a game to him. He liked watching me squirm. "Why not kill me and just take her?"

"You know why." I was moving slowly closer to the flames and he was doing exactly what I knew he would. He may have been a thousand year old vampire, but in this moment he was simply a hunter cornering its prey. And I'd dealt with plenty of hunters. "Vanessa has to come to me willingly. She wouldn't do that if I killed you, would she?"

"Surely there are ways around that." I was starting to realize I wasn't afraid him. Not nearly as much as I should have been. "No, you need me for something."

"You're the catalyst," he said simply. "You are the entryway. It's what you were created to be by my brother and it's what you shall be for me."

"What does that mean, catalyst?" He was grinning, happy I was playing his game.

"Think about it. You're good at that. My brother cannot take what he wants, he's far too fighting a monster. So he created something to do for him. He's trapped in a netherworld, he cannot enter into the world of the living unless he is invited by sin. And you were created through sin." My parents and their affair. I'd thought about it before. They'd both had families of their own and abandon them for sin.

"Who was it that first brought the devil into your lives? You. Who was it that gave him the power to try and take Vanessa's soul? You. He is not strong unless you are together, unless he can feed upon your energy which he created for himself. That's why you feel such a pull towards Vanessa, it's why you can't be separated, why you can only exist with her. Without her, your life is nothing." He took another step towards me and I didn't move away . Every part of me wanted to cast him out as a liar, but I could always tell when someone was lying, even him, and he wasn't. This is what I'd wanted my entire life, the truth. This was who I was. A weapon on the devil's side of the battle to capture his bridge. Just a pawn. A machine, not human at all. Pick a life, Sweet had said. But I couldn't escape my own.

"But how-" I steadied my voice. "I don't understand. The witches called me the devil's daughter. But I'm just a weapon." Dracula shook his head, smiling lightly.

"Oh no, you are so much more than that. You needed the skills to perform the task. Gifts you could only option if you weren't fully human. The night Malcolm Murray finally broke his vows to his wife and stole away with your mother, he found himself, how should I say it, having an out of body experience. In fact, I doubt he remembered the act at all." It was like a gunshot had gone off in my head. That was the final piece of the puzzle. "He was willing of course, he had to be. That was Malcolm's idea of sin, the betrayal of his family. And only though sin can the devil enter into a living host and take temporary residence inside their body. Physically, you are Malcolm Murray's daughter. But in every other way, in every way that matters, you are the princess of darkness."

"You still haven't told me why I'm still alive." was somehow able to stop my voice from shaking and stop the single tear that had fallen down my cheek. I would have time to process it all, but now I had to get to Vanessa and tell her that Sweet was Dracula.

"Like I said, you've surprised me. And killing you would be such a waste." He stroked the side of my face and I flinched away from him, feeling the primal fear of being cornered by a being more powerful that I was.I wondered how hard Mina's heart had pounded and if he'd heard it, how much I'd enjoyed it and I didn't feel afraid anymore. Anger was better. Anger made me strong.

"Therein lies the irony. I will take my brother's greatest weapon and turn it against him. The ultimate victory. I will take it all." I felt the heat rush through my fingertips and then flames moved around me, colliding with him and I didn't wait to see what would happen. I ran out the door, ignoring the loud whooshing and crashing sounds behind me. I hadn't realized how long I'd been in there, the museum was closed and it was pitch black. It was almost as if time had stopped. I made it to the balcony that overlooked the main area of the museum before a large object swooped in front of me, blocking my path. I screamed and tripped over the train of the dress, falling backwards.

He stood over me, un burnt and seemly unfazed. His clothes were burnt on the entire left side of him, but there were no burns on his skin. He was no longer smiling, but also didn't seem angry. Curious was a good word to describe the way he stood over me.

"You're more powerful than I could have imaged. I'd like to use that power if you'd let me."

"Go to hell!" My voice echoed around the empty museum, but there was no one to hear me. He'd planned this, not me finding the locket, but he had planned to take me tonight. I was so stupid!

"I've been there, love. I have no intention of going back." He squatted beside me and I closed my eyes, fully expecting him to kill me. Why wouldn't he? I was nothing to him if I didn't submit. But I felt his fingers smoothing my hair instead, tracing the outline of my cheek and the taiara still wound into my hair. I wondered where it had really come from.

"You're in his grips even now, don't you feel it?" I opened my eyes and stared at him. "The mirrors. It's how he communicates with you. Sends you messages meant to thwart me. It's why you ran in here this morning, isn't it? You saw something." I didn't answer him, I didn't want to believe him.

"You think you would have found that locket on your own? No. You had help. You've never truly let go of my brother. He's a part of you. But I can help with that." He stood up to his full height again and offered me a hand up. I didn't take it.

"How?" I needed to at least hear it.

"If you submit to me, I'll help you rid yourself of the devil. Forever. I promise." I looked at his outstretched hand and I could see it. A life free of being haunted. Nothing Dracula had said had been a lie. I was alive because he loved Vanessa and Vanessa loved me. And a part of him liked me. Would it really be so horrible to join forces, to destroy the devil at the very least? But then who would I be? A vampire's pet? I couldn't make that choice for Vanessa. And if he killed me here, she'd never join him.

"No." There was no expression on his face as he stared down at me. Every part of him was blank. And then he relaxed his stance.

"Then go." I stared at him. It had to a be a trick, he couldn't be letting me go now, I knew all his secrets. "Go," he repeated. "You're nothing to me." I stood, watching him for any signs of movement. And then I ran. I followed the stairs down towards the door that seemed so far away.

"But remember princess," he called after me. "Without me, you can never be rid of him. He'll haunt you until you're his. Which is worse? Belonging to the devil, or to me?" I didn't stick around to figure it out. I had to get to Vanessa and tell her what I'd learned. It was pitch black on the streets now. He never had brought me my shoes. I was trailing the dress through the mud and puddles from the rain that started to pour when I was less than a block from the museum. I tried to run, but I kept tripping and the dress was tearing, not that I cared anymore. I ripped the tiara out of my hair like it was a snake and threw it into the shadows. I heard the sickening crack as it shattered. That would make someone rich in the morning.

I kept running it over and over in my head. Certain words echoed louder than the others. Devil's daughter. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, I wanted to break something, I wanted to escape from my own skin. I wasn't looking where I was going, I knew the direction of home, of Vanessa. It was so obvious, how had I not seen who he was? I could have saved us all of this! I ran into something solid and arms wrapped around my wrists. I felt heat rush through my arms as I prepare to kill whatever and whoever had me, but then I heard my name.

"Ava, it's me. You're fine." Catriona Hartdegen was as soaked as I was sure I was. She looked behind me, looking for something else. "What happened to you? What the hell are you wearing?"

"Where's- where's Vanessa?" It made no sense for this woman to be here, I barely knew her, why was she looking for me? Catriona's expression shifted.

"She's not with you?" No. No! I turned and ran in the opposite direction, back the way I'd come. Footsteps followed after me. "Ava, wait, what is going on?"

"She found out who he is didn't she?" I demanded. "Didn't she?!"

"The doctor from the museum, that's why we came to find you."

"He let me go," I said out loud. "That's why, she was already on her way." Catriona was staring at me, but she was insignificant. I broke off at a run again. But a voice inside me was screaming I was too late. I'd made my mistake, I'd run. If I'd stayed, she would have something to fight for, a reason to resist him. Suddenly it felt like I'd been punched in the gut. My insides started to twist and squeeze and I clutched my stomach, crying out in pain as Catriona caught up with me.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Something made me look up. The moon was full, but there was a cloud passing over it. It was thick and white and it blocked out the light as it moved slowly across the sky. A fog. It was everywhere, spreading from the sky down onto us, consuming everything. Too late, said the voice inside my head. She's gone.

I have no idea how this happened, but I was writing and I decided to have an entire chapter centered around Ava and Dracula. I liked the idea of while everything else is going on the episode, Ava's in the lion's den the whole time just chilling XD And I've had that picture of her finding Mina's locket and that's how she knows Sweet is Dracula literally since episode two. So tada, it took forever but here it is.