Duke Dumas and Perrault, being more in tune with the darkness, sensed Django in the city before he sensed them. They left their minions with a simple command to attack only the robots, then went to check things out.
The two were happy to see that Django had taken the saving the world plan to heart. They were less happy when they spotted how drained he was. They appeared to say hi, ask him if he'd reconsidered their offer of friendship. Django politely declined further assistance.
This was just silly. Duke Dumas prided himself on his record for taking care of fellow vampires and being a person they could trust. Dumas and Perrault followed him out of the town when dawn came and the siege lifted. They wanted to make sure Squire was okay, but also sensed he was hiding something from them.
The Silvery White Knight took the blood sample Django gave him earlier and handled it like the dark-matter infused biohazard it was. It was possible the dark matter might make it easier to find more about what happened to Sabata since Sabata had been the Dark Boy. He would rather not have to worry about the extra precautions when setting up a scrying spell but it was important to be optimistic. Spell modification was not his specialty but the worst case scenario with this one was that he'd accidentally summon the vampire the blood was taken from.
The Silvery White Knight set out the pool of water with the full moon reflected and got to work.
He saw Sabata, the puppeteer, and then a sword forged of darkness.
The knight frowned. Django was not going to like that his brother was still a tool of the Immortals. Or was he? Silver had not seen the sword Lucian used, but the description Django gave matched. "Where can this sword be found?..." He muttered to himself as he recast the scrying spell. He had enough time left tonight to try and locate the sword.
He located the sword, saw Lucian and the Vanargand sword in Mahoroba, and rage took hold of the Moon Guardian.
That Immortal has them. In MY city. How dare he!
The knight started preparing the lunar teleport circle and a map. When an exhausted Django finally returned the next night, the knight began filling him in.
Django was surprised when the Silvery White Knight drew his sword and turned. He'd been so exhausted he hadn't even noticed the cloud of bats outside of the window.
Silver did not sound welcoming when he said, "Begone. I am sparing you." His tone of voice said there was a deep desire to not spare the vampire intruding on his domain.
"Oh come on." Perrault appeared as Dumas reformed. Neither of them looked like they were fleeing. "How come this vampire isn't getting chased away?"
Dumas did not flinch as the knight's sword pointed towards him. He addressed Django and ignored Silver. "Good evening, Squire. I was impressed by your actions last night. I don't suppose you have reconsidered my offer to join forces?"
Silver took a step towards Dumas. "Begone. I do not trust your intentions, vain and churlish tyrant. I am only sparing you because you helped my squire."
Perrault snorted. "Wait. He's YOUR squire?! You hypocrite! Whatever happened to 'I'm too virtuous to talk to your vampires?' Duke Dumas is the kind of visionary the world needs! Furthermore-" Perrault continued to argue with the Silvery White Knight. Silver kept pointing out fallacies in the debate while repeating his command for Dumas to leave. When Perrault said, "Oh don't you dare claim that Dumas is unworthy because he drinks blood from mortals. I bet this Squire's eaten loads of 'innocent victims' himself."
Django decided to speak up for himself. "I have not!"
Dumas frowned. "So Django is your name..." He'd heard that name somewhere before. Where? "I can help you reach your full potential as a vampire. I can help you obtain casket armor so you can live without fear of sunlight and water." Dumas saw Django was not looking convinced. "We're going to end up working with each other out of necessity sooner or later. Why are you so opposed?"
"My hometown was destroyed by vampires. My father was killed by a vampire..." Django had a very long list of grievances and personal reasons to be against vampires. Perrault and Duke Dumas regretted asking for the reasons after the body count exceeded four. They hadn't expected him to remember any of his life.
"Staying here is pointless. Do you expect the Moon Guardian to fix vampirism? It's not a disease to be cured."
"I'm working on it."
"You are a vampire. When you accept this fact, you will be better off. I know you both are interested in keeping the Earth from destruction and the world needs my help. Who else would you join forces with? The Gunslingers?"
"I've filled out a Gunslinger Guild application."
Perrault and Dumas gaped openly. Perrault said, "You cannot be serious. They only take solar gun users. They hunt vampires. We are offering you friendship and freedom."
The Silvery White Knight decided he was done talking. "I'm giving you until the count of ten to leave my tower. BEGONE."
Dumas and Perrault did not leave before the countdown ended. They then found that yes, Django could, in fact, fire a solar gun. There was more smoke coming from Django than his target, but the sheer shock value as Dumas processed what just happened was worth something.
The next day could have been a lot better but, after taking stock of who and what survived the siege last night Earnest knew it could have been so much worse.
Lucian was still missing and they were doing everything they could to locate the missing Dark Swordsman. Aaron was upset and Carmilla apologized that she had not been able to reach Lucian in time to save him. They did not know what Tolstoy wanted with Lucian alive. The Terrenials were valuable sources of power for the unscrupulous, as demonstrated by casket armor. Carmilla had taken care of much of the Immortal's forces alongside Aaron last night. Alice said she had called in some reinforcements from off-planet. They were all particularly interested in why Tolstoy did not simply carpet bomb the planet and wanted in on the rebellion.
Dumas had been spotted in another part of town directing his monster minions to fight the ones working for the Immortal. They didn't like that Duke Dumas had been helping. He was still not someone anyone would trust. No one offered to shield the Duke Dumas from anyone trying to take revenge.
Then there was the matter of the other vampire. Django had been spotted in combat with robots and they knew it had to be him. There was the silvery armor he'd been wearing at the Azure Sky Tower. There were also the people who swore they saw a vampire using a solar gun. The excessive amounts of moon bugs they were not sure about, but Earnest would not put it past the Moon Guardian's squire to have something to do with that. Aaron and Toasty were willing to work with this vampire who was friends with Trinity in an alternate timeline. Earnest wasn't so sure about that 'this is the guy who saved Trinity in an alternate timeline' thing. The darkness had a way of changing people for the worse. Tove was cautiously optimistic when he learned who it was that delivered the Solar Tree package.
"Does anyone have ideas on why the Immortal kidnapped Lucian? He said something in his broadcast about a new weapon, even greater than the Planet Eater Byron..."
"Alice's friends say they think the Immortal is on the moon."
"What is he doing on the moon? There's nobody living there. Wouldn't everyone he wants dead be down here?"
Sheridan, on the phone, said, "I did some reading about Vanargand. The dark matter used for the Sword Vanargand was taken from the Beast itself. The Beast of Destruction is sealed in Mahoroba, the Lunar City. Some of my data is missing and only the vampires that were with the Lord of Destruction would know the details for certain. If Ratatosk would have told his colleagues everything is another matter. I have good reason to believe the sword is needed to wake the beast. If he has not done so already, there has to be a reason. There is probably a condition which has not been met."
No one wanted to call up the Duke Dumas for a chat. He would be very smug.
Aaron asked, "How would they control Vanargand? The Lord of Destruction managed it but according to dad, that was because it was fused to the Warrior of Darkness. He had been descended from the Lunars that sealed Vanargand and there was an eclipse..."
Kay did not want to disillusion Aaron yet. "Aaron, I don't know if the stories your father told you as a kid will be helpful."
Toasty said, "No, he might be on to something. Vanargand cannot be controlled, but if he found a way to use Lucian as a new sacrifice... We can't delay. We can't count on needing to wait for a lunar eclipse."
Alice looked up from her blueprints. "If we try flying in, Tolstoy's ships are creating a blockade. He will know we are coming. The rebellion means we have allies that can fly us in, but it will be difficult. Can we create a diversion?"
"Wait, maybe the Moon Guardian would know more about what might be happening? He would know if there was an active teleport to the moon! We can have someone sneak in while the Immortal is occupied with the spaceships."
Notes: I guess I didn't finish by Halloween. Leaving a story unfinished bothers me.