Forbes Hospital

Monroeville, Pennsylvania

April 3rd, 2005

Riku found himself in the brightly lit and cold-looking emergency room of a hospital, still kind of elated and just not taking anything seriously even though he was sweating like a Congressman in church and trembling thanks to all that speed he was on. He didn't fully understand what was going on until he heard footsteps steadily clap across the hard tile floors of the hospital hallway and looked ahead to see an older man in his sixties or maybe very early seventies, he was balding and wearing a black dress shirt and khakis with a labcoat and a nametag that indicated he was the doctor at this ER for the day.

"Is a Riku Sephiroth here?" The doctor's accent sounded distinctly Southwestern, most likely either Arizonan or Nevadan, maybe West Texan.

"Yeah. Over here, Doc."

"Good morning, Mr. Sephiroth. I'm Doctor Mitchell, the lead doctor for the ER day shift. So, it says here you overdosed on some amphetamines but didn't seem to be aware of what they were."

"Yeah. I saw them in a cabinet at my uncle's house and I thought they were vitamins or something. Wasn't really thinking clearly because I just woke up that morning. Is there a problem?"

"Chart here says your blood pressure's through the roof and you've got the fidgeting and sweat of someone who's hopped up on stimulants."

"I am sweating a lot and feel very hot, but I figured the heater was turned up a little high or something. I mean, we've just started Spring so it's still chilly in the morning. How bad is it? Am I gonna be okay?"

"Relax. You've not had any heart attacks, strokes, or aneurysms yet. I'll give you something to counteract the amphetamine effects and everything will be fine. After that, just take it easy and drink lots of water for the next few days. I'll give you some medication that will calm you down and lower the blood pressure. You'll probably feel really sleepy for the day."

"That's fine."

The doctor walked back out and made sure to close the privacy curtain on his way out, leaving Riku to sit there and fidget as his mind raced at a mile a minute. If he really overdosed, then things were bad. But since he got here early, it wouldn't be a problem if he did. The chewables were probably a low-dose issue, but it still perplexed him why Vladimir even had them in his kitchen no less. Come to think of it, there were a lot of caffeinated drinks in that fridge. Energy drinks, sodas, canned espressos. He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a Mr. Coffee on the nightstand in the bedroom as well.

Why my uncle trying to stay up all the time? Was he afraid of something? I mean, paranoia and other mental illnesses do run in my family. He was entering his older years. Maybe he was in the earliest stages of dementia and that could've kicked off some latent condition? Then again, he WAS murdered. So it's likely he was staying up all the time to try and keep guard. Not that it did him any good in the end...

The distinct sound of the curtain being pulled back derailed Riku's train of thought and he was greeted by Doctor Mitchell and a nurse with a pill and a plastic cup of water.

"Take this."

Doing his best to keep steady, Riku took the pill and swallowed it down with the water before letting out a loud deep sigh of relief.

"So, can I go home?"

"No. We're going to keep you overnight for observation. It's just standard operating procedure and there's a good chance you'll be discharged tomorrow morning."

"Alright, I guess. Is there any way I can call my wife and let her know what's going on?"

"Sure. We'll call them and let them know what all is happening. The paramedics picked you up at Carnifex Abbey and it looks like you're the one who inherited it from your uncle. That place is a fairly well-known local landmark around here. The phone number for that address is fairly well-known. The nurse will show you to your room."

"Thanks, Doc."

Later that night...

Nightfall had arrived at Carnifex Abbey and the Count himself had finally awaken alongside his brides and his sons. The tall and foreboding undead noble was to meet Riku in the mansion's library, only to find it empty save for Kairi and Sora sitting in plush chairs.

"Count Sephiroth, thank God you're finally awake! Riku's in the hospital, he had an overdose on some kind of amphetamine type thing or something. Apparently, he took it accidentally not knowing what it actually was."

"Dear Lord, he found Vladimir's gummies, didn't he? Of all days, why did this have to happen today? Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. They gave him some pills to counter the effects and are keeping him overnight as some sort of a precaution so he can sleep it off. Sebastian and I are going to pick him up in the morning."

The Count sighed and facepalmed at the news. Taking what seemed to be a really forced and heavy deep breath, he gathered his composure before snapping his finger.

"Are you sure he's going to be there until the morning? We need to get to him now. His life is in danger!"

"Yeah. Wait, WHAT? What do you mean his life is in danger?"

"I think the people who murdered Vladimir are going to make a move on him. Did you ever stop and wonder why he kept chewable amphetamine in his kitchen pantry, a coffee maker on his nightstand and a machete by his bedroom door?"

"No. I just chalked it up to him being a weirdo like my hubby. Riku always told me that his family was full of eccentrics and the mentally ill."

"Towards the end of his life, Vladimir was paranoid and rightfully so. A very powerful enemy of the Order of the Dragon had been killing off several employees and associates of mine on both sides of the Atlantic and were issuing a bunch of threats. They eventually tracked my brother Vladimir to the Pittsburgh area and murdered him."

"If you don't mind me asking, just what is this Order of the Dragon?"

"We're a solemn society that was originally a Catholic knightly order in the Middle Ages. Now we are mostly focused in the corporate world and try to work with the new movers and shakers of the world to protect the interests of the Church and her followers. There's a lot of very old grudges between us and several other groups that go back centuries. It seems crazy but us old money European blue bloods are fucked up like that. Pride tends to fuck with us."

Seemingly out of nowhere, the purple-haired bride from the dinner last night was in the room as if she just materialized out of nowhere.

"Kairi, which hospital is he staying at?"

"Forbes Hospital, it's the one closest to this house."

The Count sternly turned his head towards the woman, who looked him in the eye and nodded in agreement.

"Ayane, I want you to head to Forbes Hospital and find out where Riku is being kept. I'll arrange for some private bodyguards to watch over him for the remainder of the night, but you may have to keep watch until they arrive."

"Yes, Master. I'll head over there right away."

As Ayane walked out of the room seemingly without making any kind of sound, Sora raised his hand as he was grinning like some high school jokester in the classroom.

"Umm, why is Riku's vampire goth dad sending his creepy goth stepmom to watch over him? I don't want to try and insinuate anything here but I've seen enough hentai to know where this is probably going. Don't get me wrong here, but Riku's spoken for. I'm not sure if anyone told you this but me, him, and Kairi are only polyamorous by technicality. We got a history together and figured it would be best for all of us to live as a trio together."

His redheaded wife groaned and facepalmed while Sephiroth visibly cringed and looked at Sora with a mix of frustration and bewilderment over his ersatz son-in-law's baffling and kind of lewd yet silly comments.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Sora? I wasn't going anywhere with that at all. Your husband is possibly in mortal danger and I'm sending Ayane over to watch him and make sure he's okay and will live to see tomorrow. If you had actually paid attention to what I said like a good little puppy dog, you would know that. Besides, I know all about about polyamory and the intricacies of plural relationships thanks to a little show called Three's Company." the Count retorted. A hint of playful sarcasm and snark could be heard in the last sentence, hinting he knew Sora was messing with him and that he may have known more about Sora than the brunette wanted him to.

"Sora may be a wisecracking dumbass who has no concept of what is and isn't appropriate. But why did you send one of your wives out there when you could go? You are his father!"

"Kairi, do you really expect a guy who's over six and a half feet tall and dresses like he was a roadie for Siouxsie and The Banshees or a figure in a Tim Bradstreet drawing to just waltz into a hospital in the middle of the night after hours? Even if he's my son, there's just certain things I can't do. But Ayane has a way with words and is a real people person, plus she knows psychology really well and could sweet talk her way into Fort Knox if she wanted."

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Riku was sitting up in his hospital bed watching some reruns of Futurama on Adult Swim. He felt a lot more relaxed than before but was still not feeling sleepy though that probably had more to do with his long daytime nap from the medication he was given. His blood pressure and pulse seemed to be getting better when the nurse last checked it and he was sure he'd fall asleep again later in the night. Then the door opened and the lights were turned off and then back on.

"Nurse Joy, did I accidentally press the call button again? Sorry if I did...Hey wait a minute, what's going on? You're not the nurse! Are you even supposed to be here at this hour?"

It was fairly obvious that the person who walked into Riku's hospital room wasn't the nurse or even an employee of the hospital. He was a tall and thin man of no discernible age with long brown hair, a denim jacket, T-shirt, blue jeans, a Linkin Park T-shirt, and old dusty cowboy boots.

The man's jacket was adorned with buttons including one with a bright red eye against a black background, others included the sigil of Nyarlathotep, a hippie Peace symbol, a button that read "Make War, Not Love", a Satanic pentagram, and one button that just had a big middle finger on it.

"Who the fuck are you? Some kind of stoned hobo or college dropout? I mean, with all those intentionally inflammatory and offensive yet totally contradictory buttons on your jacket, did you get lost on your way to the local edgelord convention or something? All you need is a button for Shadow the Hedgehog and another one for Marilyn Manson and suddenly you'd have the whole set and get edgelord bingo!"

"Shut up, Riku. You don't know who I am, but I know who you are. You're the last living person in the House of Sephiroth. Well, there's also Count Dracula himself, but he's technically dead and not alive. You and your vampire buddies are going down. Same goes for your knocked up wifey and that spiky-headed fleabag boyfriend of yours."

"Who are you? Seriously. Did you kill my Uncle Vladimir? And what's with the fleabag comment? Yeah, Sora caught fleas that one time he was camping outdoors for the weekend up in Oregon. I mean, it's embarrassing but he did choose to spend two days in the woods sleeping under the stars. Plus it's not like we're any better. There was that time I got strep throat when we went to Gettysburg. And there was that one time Kairi came back from Canada with a butt worm. I told her not to eat an egg sandwich she bought from a vending machine in a truck stop bathroom but she wouldn't listen."

"Dude, TMI. Well, I suppose I owe you the answer to your first question. Name's Randy. Most folks just call me the Walkin' Dude or the Man in Black. As for your second question, maybe I did and maybe I didn't. What's it to you? Now, before you get all freaked out and start cowering in fear, I'm not going to hurt you. Well, not tonight anyway."

"Are you a vampire?"

"Nah. I'm on a whole 'nother level. Just figured I'd give you a fair warning that I'm making a ploy here for control of the Pittsburgh area and the surrounding towns and countryside along with all the secrets they hold. Now, I may seem like a "stoned college dropout on his way to an edgelord convention" but I've got a lot of friends in places high and low and many underlings who'll do my bidding. But I like a good challenge to add a little fun to all this. So I figured I'd stop by and let you know who you're fucking with. I'll see you around sometime..."

The man disappeared in a puff of black smoke, leaving Riku utterly shocked and totally speechless.

Meanwhile, at the nurses' station, Ayane walked up to the front desk to be greeted by a pink-haired woman in white scrubs and a nurse's cap.

"Ma'am, who are you and what are you doing here? Visiting hours are over."

"I'm looking for Riku Sephiroth. I heard he was being kept overnight for routine observation or something like that."

"Ma'am, you're gonna have to leave now before I call security. If you're here to pick him up, we can call you when he's discharged."

The purple-haired woman looked her right in the eye and held up her index and middle fingers close together before moving them in a slow side to side motion. The vampire bride always liked to add a theatrical flair to whatever she did and had a penchant for having fun with her psychic powers.

"You have been expecting me. I have a special pass from the head of security."

The nurse was totally stunned and could only respond in a monotone voice, not even blinking as she spoke.

"I have been expecting you. You have a special pass from the head of security."

"You will tell me where Riku is being kept and will give me the keys to get into the blood bank."

"Riku's in Room 221. The blood bank can only be accessed by typing in a password to unlock it electronically. The password is Woo in all uppercase letters. The one who oversees the blood transfusions is a huge Ric Flair fan."

"Excellent. Have some candy as a reward."

Ayane threw some packets of Sweet Tarts on the counter as she walked over to Room 221 and was greeted by the sight of Riku with a scared look on his face and his skin all pale and clammy.

"Riku, are you okay?"

"Can't sleep. Scary stoner hobo will kill me."

"Umm, what?"

"You're not going to believe this but I swear it's actually true. There was this guy named Randy who just waltzed into the room and implied he killed Uncle Vladimir and that he was coming for me and Sephiroth later on. And he knows that Seph's actually a vampire and the OG Count Dracula."

"A guy named Randy? Who knows me and Sephy are vampires? Was he a long-haired dude with a denim jacket and really bad blue jeans."

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Fuck, I knew it was him! Flagg has been gunning for the Order of the Dragon since before Washington was in the White House. Matter of fact, he's been one of our most dangerous enemies since before my Master was turned into one of the damned. That guy's like some kind of demon wizard or something. He just came out of time and nobody really knows what his endgame is and who he works for, if anyone."

Alright, if I know what Flagg's planning, you should be in the clear for tonight. Tomorrow, we'll have Sebastian pick you up in the morning as soon as you're discharged. He'll be driving the Lamborghini. Just try to relax and know that you've got a lot of support from us and also from Kairi, Sora, and Sora's family if what Master Vladislav and Brother Itachi told me is true. For now, just get some sleep."

Ayane gently kissed Riku on the cheek and looked into his eyes, making him fall into a deep but comfortable sleep for the remainder of the night...