"No, I'm not sure when we'll be finished," Asuka's voice came over the phone.

"What's the hold up?" Shinji asked, relaxing into his chair. This particular safehouse was actually on grid, which should have put him into a state of unease, but using a false name and credentials, it was easy enough to secure. Locations like the one he had in the abandoned apartment in Tokyo-2 were not easy to come by, but what Shinji Ikari couldn't secure for himself, Genya Arikado could.

"The cults working in Kyoto have access to more information that we previously thought," Asuka explained. "Mari managed to overhear a conversation between two suspected cultists and an odd and ominous bit of information was collected. One of the cultists stated that 'The Serpent has Five Heads'."

"Sounds like a Game of Thrones reference," Shinji remarked.

"Except that bit of fiction only stated three. We're not sure what it means but we think it's a metaphor of some kind. Also, Mari said something about a religious organization being involved."

"Religious, as in not a cult?"

"Exactly, which is odd to say the least. We're still looking into it."

Shinji sighed. "Alright, keep at it. Things are quiet here in Tokyo-4 right now so try not to worry."

"Who's worried? Love you, Master."

"I thought I told you to stop that!" Shinji heard a giggle before the tell-tale sound of the line being disconnected. "Women."

He put his phone away and sensed that Hikari was starting to stir in her sleep. She slept many hours, and was going to want answers, but he wasn't sure how he would respond. He just hoped she believed him as much as she said she did.

II: Transformation

Hikari woke with a start and quickly scanned the room.

"Easy," Shinji said in a reassuring voice. "You had a really bad day yesterday." She noted the room was plain, probably a small motel somewhere. She only hopped she wasn't being eaten alive by bedbugs at that moment.

As she adjusted to being away, she remembered the events of yesterday. Sitting up, she noted Shinji didn't look so mussed this time, but she knows what she saw.

"What happened to you?" she asked with concern.

"It's a long story, and I don't think you're ready for that," Shinji stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Aside from the EVA Project, you never kept secrets from me," Hikari noted with a little more edge in her voice than Shinji wanted to hear. This situation had rattled her, and he expected that much, but to take such an aggressive stance…

"Hikari…"

"No!" She snapped and rolled out of bed away from him. "I want answers! Where did you get these powers? Why were those people after you? And what the hell happened to me last night?"

Shinji stood up now, with the bed separating them. "You're not ready to know this," Shinji insisted.

"And you get to decide that?!" she shouted back. "I almost died last night, Shinji Ikari! I deserve to know what the hell I'm caught in the middle of!"

Shinji considered her for a few moments before sighed. "Alright, Hikari. I'll tell you, but you might want to sit down for this one."

"I'll stand, thank you."

"Suit yourself," Shinji replied. "You are caught in the middle of an age-long battle between light and dark. On the side of light, anyone with supernatural power that hasn't been corrupted by that power and stands against the shadow. On the side of darkness are multiple cults all dedicated to the same thing… the resurrection of Count Vlad Tepes Dracul, otherwise known as Lord Dracula or simply, The Dark Lord."

Hikari nodded for him to continue, and Shinji did, now wandering a few feet slowly back in forth as he spoke.

"In the old days, the forces of light that fought against Dracula were led by a clan of Vampire Hunters known as the Belmont Clan. Castlevania, the castle of Lord Dracula would appear every century, bringing misery and havoc with its appearance. It was the job of the chosen champion of the Belmont Clan to enter the castle, and kill Dracula. But this death was never final. Dracula would return every 100 years to once again bring havoc and chaos.

"That all changed in 1999, when the last descendant of the Belmont Clan, a man named Julius Belmont entered the castle and used his whip 'Vampire Killer' to somehow seal the castle within an Eclipse so that it could never return."

"Sounds like the plot of an epic to me," Hikari noted.

"Yes, well here's where the fictional epic hits reality hard. The castle was supposed to be locked within the eclipse forever, but just a year later Second Impact happened. Although no one knows for sure, but such a powerful event is thought to have had supernatural energy far beyond anything this world had seen before. This event cracked the prison and it is surmised that Dracula's spirit may have escaped… though not fully intact. Instead, the essence of the Dark Lord was shattered and filtered into individuals who were particularly sensitive to supernatural phenomena, and even some of the children born at the time of the Second Impact."

Hirkari's heart skipped and beat harder in her chest as she saw where this was going… the disheveled look yesterday, the claws, the supernatural speed…

"We refer to these individuals as Candidates for the Dark Lord. Some of those cults are working to resurrect Dracula, bring back their dark lord. I can only assume they are doing so because most people now believe God has forsaken this world, and want some kind of God to look up to, even if it means worshiping the darkness."

"You… you're one of them!" Hikari realized, her voice cracking with fear. "You're a candidate."

"Hikari…"

"No! Stay away!" She ran out of the room, fear overtaking her as realization hit hard that she was standing within striking distance of the evil count himself.

"I'm not dangerous!" Shinji chased after her, being far faster than she was. Hikari had reached the door but it was slammed closed by Shinji as she tried to open it. She threw herself into the door, trying to stay away from him.

"Leave me alone! I- I'll scream!"

Shinji realized this situation was already disruptive as it was. Any more commotion and he'd have the authorities here in no time. He stepped back away from the door and Hikari froze for a moment realizing he was listening to her.

"I won't force you to stay," Shinji whispered. "I only want to help you."

Hikari fought back the tears of terror gripping at her soul. "Monsters can't help," she replied with finality, and quickly opened the door, running out into the daylit street. Shinij tried to give chase again but the sun was out today, and though it didn't burn it made him very uncomfortable now.

The terrified girl looked back, noting Shinji wouldn't step into the light. This was all the proof she needed that she was right about him, and kept on running.

Shinji sighed in defeat. He knew Hikari wouldn't be ready to handle the truth, but she was always so demanding; had to be in control, had to have all the information… just like when she was the class rep. Some things never seem to change.

That was when Shinji noted something unusual. As she ran, he watched as her skin got its color back and her hair seemed shinier and healthier now that she was in the sunlight.

"Odd…"

A few blocks later, Hikari stopped running, breathing hard. She looked at herself noting her skin looked more radiant than normal. Even her freckles popped more.

"Guess the new skin cream is working," Hikari noted. "Night will be falling soon; I should get something to eat and go home."

It didn't take long for Hikari to find a diner she liked and got a table. She drank the glass of water offered before ordering a salad. Despite her hunger, that was all she felt she could have at that moment. Waiting, she noted the television nearby was showing scenes left over from an incident in Hiroshima, where a cult compound had been raided by Darkwatch. Though the press couldn't get much information, Hikari was more drawn towards the cultists themselves.

"The end times are coming for mankind!" one of them shouted. "The Dark Lord will return and reap his toll in blood and soul!" He was quickly silenced by taking the but end of an assault rifle to the face. The censors apparently didn't edit that out.

Hikari looked down at her hands, noting her skin seemed even more flawless than ever. Again she figured the cream was the source of this and consoled herself that it was worth the investment. She didn't notice the potted plant hanging a few feet behind her, nor did she notice the flowers moving as if to look at her.

Her salad arrived and she began to hungerly dig in… but the moment the tomato hit her mouth, something changed. At first it was sweet as she would have expected but suddenly lost all taste. Worse yet, the small amount she swallowed seemed to cause her stomach to turn badly. She put her chopsticks down and gave it a minute, drinking more water. Soon her stomach calmed and she tried her luck with a piece of cucumber, but the same thing seemed to happen. The food had no taste, and made her feel weird.

What's happening to me?

She tried once more to eat something from the salad, but failed this time to even put it in her mouth, as if her hunger just vanished. The waitress took note and walked over to her.

"Are you alright, miss?" She asked. Hikari looked at her and just put her chopsticks down.

"I seem to be feeling ill," Hikari responded. "Let me just get the check, sorry for the mess."

The girl bowed graciously and gave her a slip with the total on.

"Feel better," she offered. And Hikari gave the girl a small smile.

"I will try."

"Where did my appetite go?" Hikari lamented as she left the diner. She figured she'd just have a salad since her tummy still felt a bit off, but she couldn't eat it, only managing a few of the vegetables and that only made her stomach worse. It was now dark outside and her hunger was starting to come back but her stomach almost felt cautious about revealing such.

"Worst Saturday ever," she mused as she gently rubbed her queasy tummy. "Maybe some soup when I get home…" The streets were still a bit busy so she didn't feel unsafe by any stretch, but by the time she got close to her neighborhood, the traffic was gone. She continued home now, a bit more hurriedly.

She stopped at a corner, noting several members of the cult that attacked Shinji last night approaching her from ahead, she turned around only to find three more and somehow gotten behind her. Before she could react, they were closing on her from all sides, dozens of them, preventing her escape. In her fear she tried to run anyway, only to get grabbed and pressed against pole at the corner.

"Pretty girl," the cultist taunted. "You look like the one that was with Ikari yesterday. Maybe you can tell us where he is."

"I don't know anything!" she protested. "Let me go!"

The cultists laughed, and she felt their laughs take a lecherous turn. Her heart immediately began to beat faster in her chest, realizing what was about to happen to her.

Not like this, Hikari pleaded internally. Please, not like this!

"You might not have information, but you can still be of use to us." The cultist thrust himself against her, she felt his wretched thing pressing into her stomach, smelled the stench of sweat, incense and blood, and wanted to puke. His tongue dragged up her cheek and something inside her snapped.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" she screamed, and in that instant, she felt the hot blood splash her face. She looked on in horror as a thorny vine was now lanced though the man from below, up his center line and out of his mouth, impaled like one of Dracula's victims of old. Tears fell from her face as she had no idea what was happening, watching as the body was flung away by the vine.

"What the fuck?!" one of the men yelled and pulled a knife. Suddenly the pavement behind him erupted and lanced him through his back and into his center mass, but it didn't come out his front. He shrieked as the ornate blade fell from his hand and his body began to shrivel and pale. Another lunged only to get grabbed around the neck by another vine. A pair of additional vines lanced though his body from opposite sides, then out curving back in to puncture him again and again, until they violently pulled in opposing directions, tearing him to pieces in the process.

Around Hikari, the madness only continued as a rose nearly a half meter wide at the end of a vine unfurled revealing a round mouth with sharp teeth hissing at another cultist that was being squeezed by a thorny vine, blood running down his body in streams onto the ground below him. There was no pavement there and his blood seemed to be watering the earth where red thorny shrubs began to spring. Two other cultists were pierced with multiple vines and their bodies, were being sucked dry as the second one was; skin shriveling into dried paper, color fading from the skin, eyes sunken and turning white.

Hikari could only stare in mute horror as the men around her were being butchered or sucked dry. More cultists seemed to arrive to try to help. They attacked the vines, some managed to cut them, and Hikari felt pain each time one of the vines were severed, aching traveling up her limbs. But so many more erupted, some out of the thorny plants that seemed to spring out of the pavement, destroying concrete and asphalt with equal consideration. She dropped to her knees and more cultists were being torn apart by vines, sliced to ribbons as the vines struck with whip-like motions, writhing from poison inflicted by the smaller plants, drained dry, had their faces bitten off by toothy roses, or simply dragged into the ground screaming as their bodies were mulched by unseen plant matter.

It was all too much… Hikari screamed and at that moment, the last Cultist was dead. Not wanting to see the carnage around her, she hid her face in her hands and cried, paying no attention to the vines that suddenly turned towards her as if concerned for her.

"I… can't… I… this is… it's too much… I…"

Her voice cracked and her stomach twisted, fatigue set in as her mind all but broke under the pressure.

"I have to get away… I have to get away from here…"

She never felt the ground underneath her opening, nor did she feel the soft pedals of a massive rose begin to close over her, hiding her from the world, protecting her from the darkness and carnage around her. All she felt, was suddenly warm and safe. Unable to deal with her situation anymore, she passed out, fainting into the heart of the rose as it finished closing around her.

Silently, the bud and the many vines and plants around the area, retreated underground, leaving broken pavement, shattered asphalt, and a nightmare of corpses in various states of destruction behind. It would be a scene that would keep Darkwatch and the authorities guessing for weeks to come.

Burn to burn

The seed we sow

Burn to flow

Into the sorrow

Burn to burn

The seed we sow

Burn to grow

Into the sorrow

"Oh God… was it me? Did I do that? Did I kill those men? I… I'm a monster… but I know who made me this way… Shinji… what did you do to me?!"

Next Chapter: Cupere Se