Chapter 36

A Mother's Idea

It was dark and cold, no city, no friends or family, there was nothing as she stood in the unending darkness. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was falling victim to Nightmare after he punched them all, but was she still alive? As she looked around though a voice began to speak to her, a soft, kind, familiar voice that she thought impossible.

"Julie, look at how much you've grown. My you're turning into such a fine young woman." she head as the darkness began to lift.

"Who, who are you?"

"Who am I? Don't you recognize my voice or did your father even bother showing you anything?"

From the lifting darkness stepped a woman who wore nothing but a black cloak that covered her from head to toe, no shoes or anything else. All she could see was her mouth under the darkness of her hood, but as she pulled back the hood things became more and more clearer, the same red hair and purple eyes, she looked exactly like her. Even though she was a bit taller and her hair hung down over her right shoulder she was most definitely her mother.

"Mom?"

"Mhm, you didn't think I would leave my little girl alone forever now did you?"

"No but, how? You're, you know..."

"Dead? Yes that's true my spirits has passed onto the eternal plains, but one thing us dark matters have that's special is no matter how far apart we are we can always find our way back to our own. Even if it's in the afterlife. Although not in a physical state this will have to do."

After so many years, after looking at only pictures of her she finally got to see her in person, kind of. It was almost as if a void had been filled as she looked over her, a real mother. It seemed almost too good to be true.

"So what are you doing here? Am I dead?"

"Oh no, Vlad's little boy picked you up and took you away before anything else could happen. Even while up there I can see what's going on. You really let him into your room all willy nilly like that?"

"Well dad told him to watch over me so he did. Wouldn't he do the same thing for you?" she asked as she fidgeted around.

"Oh he did, when we first met everyone was after my artifacts so to protect me he spent every night at my house. He was kind of weird but still a pretty nice guy. Eventually one of those nights lead to you so that was worth it. Wait, he hasn't gotten into your pants has he?" she replied with such glee.

"What?! No, I would never let him do that!"

"Oh really, really...? Oh if I were in your shoes right now I would go for him, he's just the kind of guy I like." she said as she continued to tease her endlessly.

"Mom!"

"Heh alright it's fine, I'm not going to steal him or anything."

"Is this why you came? To tease me like this?"

"Nope, look you may not be as experienced as I was but you do have your instincts and your friends. Try and put those two together and come up with a plan to beat that bastard. Your own power is not your only source of power sweetie remember that well."

"My friend and all our power combined? You mean like an attack?"

"You'll see, but I'm afraid my time is up for now. I'll catch you later OK?"

"But wait what about everything else? Can't you just stay a bit longer? Please just for a bit..." she said when suddenly everything went white.

As she opened her eyes once more she found herself on top of a roof somewhere where she she could see the dark cloud starting to spread across the city. As she looked down though she saw her partner rubbing his blood over her thigh as it healed up her wounds quite nicely.

"Al..." she groaned as she sat up.

"Oh ho so Ms. Sleepyhead decided to wake up. You've been out for a while but don't worry I'm going to fix you up good." he said as she rubbed more blood over the burn mark on her leg.

"What happened? After we got hit what happened to us?"

"Well I was attempting to save you from death but lucky for us the police distracted them enough so he lost his grip on us and, well, here we are. Now this may sting just a bit."

After the blood was applied it began to sink into her skin as fresh flesh began forming on the wounds. It stung like heck but it was nothing after what had had endured in the past few weeks. Her life had definitely changed but in her mind it was for the better. After meeting so many colorful people the world had gotten so much bigger to her and finding out who her mother was just added to that.

"Now you stay here and I'm going to go tear apart Nightmare." he said, but due to his lack of energy he fell to his knees in a matter of seconds.

"It doesn't look like you're going anywhere either. Come on we both know we can't fight. You still need to protect the city so just give me a bit of blood and I'll go face him. You've done enough."

"Like hell I will, I'm not going to risk losing you again. You almost died last time and I was powerless to help..."

Awe she didn't know he felt like that. Of course she knew he would help her but seeing this version of him was almost like seeing the opposite side of a coin.

"Come on where's the cocky vampire I know? What ever happened to "I can beat everything that comes my way."?"

"Yeah but look at me, I can't even stand let alone fight."

Once he saw her pull the bangs of her hair back though he knew what she was thinking.

"Then take some of my blood and go kick his ass."

It was then when he remembered what his father told him when it came to partners. No matter what they always stood by each other and protected one another in the darkest of times and that time was now.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

That's when he got a little plan of his own.

"Heh you're one crazy chick you know that?" he said as he bit into his thumb.

With the scent of her blood filling his nose he dug right in as his fangs pierced her fine neck as he moved his thumb into her mouth. They weren't going to do it alone and even he knew that as they prepped for battle.

"Come on and eat some!" yelled Frank as he used his rocket launcher to destroy even more of his eyes.

"Damn it it's not working. How can we destroy something that just keeps regenerating like this?" questioned Rorik as he moved out of the way of the blast that destroyed the street.

"No clue but we've got to keep trying." said Vlad as his wife charged up her shot.

With a pull of a trigger she sent a ultra explosive arrow deep into his chest as they attempted to find his one weak spot. Once it exploded though the hole simply vanished as he tried punching them once more but instead got a fist full of building. His powers seemed pretty generic but the biggest problem was his ability to regenerate. How could they beat him as long as he had that?

"Locke!" yelled Salena as she saw him bring picked up by their foe.

"Such a shame that a young man like you has to waste your life away protecting these little ants. Although you may make a tasty snack." he said as his wide mouth opened up.

"Uh help someone?!" he begged as he tried to wiggle free.

Lucky for him though Salena was right there as she used her ice magic to free his hand solid and with her fire she melted it in one shot.

"Arg, pesky girl!" he exclaimed with great rage as he gave her a big smack to her face.

As she fell though Frank ran up under her and caught her before she could hit the ground. The impact hadn't left too much damage so she could still fight, but what was the point? Looking back was it even worth trying to fight back?

"Thanks for that." said Locke.

"No problem but do we go from here?" she asked.

It all seemed so hopeless when Frank spotted something falling from the sky.

"No freaking way..." said Jerel as he and Ela backed up.

From the sky fell both Alucard and Julie as they used their combined blood blaster to land a good hit on his head. Upon impact Nightmare let out a loud roar as the orb began to burn the top of his head. Something was different though, as Al looked down through the attack he saw something cracking, a flat, almost invisible crystal that seemed to store up their foe's energy.

"So that's it huh?" he said as they both shot up into the air.

With his hand around her waist he held her close as she did to him as they watched the escaping nightmares fly out from his skull. Once free though they saw no interest in torturing humans or monsters any longer as the cloud disappeared into thin air.

"Ugh it can't be, I took the necessary precautions..." he groaned as he tried to pull himself from the ground, but it was no use he was stuck.

Once on top of the roof of the nearby school he took a breather as he let out a cry of victory.

"Hah take that punk! You got what was coming to you!" he shouted.

Not a good move as his eyes turned to both of them. Once in sight he began trying to squash them with his bare fists but instead just collapsed part of the roof as they both backed away.

"Hey Juls do me a favor will you?" he asked.

"What's that?"

"Spread the word to everyone else to search for these flat crystals. If there's one on his head there has to be more than just that. I trust you!" he said as he jumped off the roof as he shot his chain at one of Nightmares eyes so he could swing around and search for another.

"I should had killed you when I had the chance boy..." he groaned as the top of his head began to bleed out.

So what if he found one of his weak spots he still had more than enough power to annihilate the pesky vermin as he unleashed his eye rays. As soon as he saw it coming though he flipped and twisted around each of the beams as they flew threw the sky, thankfully avoiding the rest of the buildings.

"Gasp you missed? How could miss I was two feet in front of you!" he teased as he used his chain to fling himself up into the air and, with one good kick to his noggin, sent him down to his hand.

"Dad!" Julie called out as she jumped from the roof.

"Are you alright? Did you get patched up?" he asked as he inspected his body.

"Hey go any further and I'll have to konk you upside the head. Look we think we know how we can stop him." she replied as they backed away from the fight.

"How's that?" he asked as he kept Nightmare at bay with his lightning bolts.

"Crystals, there are big, flat crystals scattered over his body. You find them you reveal a weak spot, that's how we can do some damage. Just look at him now." she said as she gestured to the struggling titan.

"Are you sure there's more? We can't take any chances here sweetie."

"I'm positive, one was on top of his head so maybe the others are protecting his other major organs. Take them out and it's like hitting a bulls-eye. Please dad you have to trust us on this." she begged.

Looking back everyone was giving it there all and if there was a chance that they could kill him then why not take it? It was their only chance to finish it once and for all. It was their last shot.

"Alright, I'll spread the word to the other but keep with Alucard and the others and give it all you got." he said as he ran off to tell the others.

It was just a hunch but if she was right they had a good chance at saving the world, but if not everything would come to an end.