Hey everyone,
So in case it wasn't obvious yet, I am retconning that whole thing in the chapter with Bindi-Kun and Bindi-Master. Merlock doesn't just descend from Vampires, he is one himself. I am also going to retcon a statement of his from the Change episode, but that might not come up in this chapter. Just know that I have plans for that and that it will bring a lot of happiness to the Goodmans. And with them to Flint, Rocky and Merlock.
Right, let's do this,

Venquine1990
PS. I might be mixing the lore of this world with real-life events, but I don't mean to bash them or insult anyone who has suffered during these events. I have a deep respect for history and just want to, more or less, do the same as FtTD did to history.

Chapter 06
Merlock's Tale

3rd of May 2418
The Clearing, Tama City
Merlock's POV

I draw strength and confidence from the fact that my friends and brethren are with me and reassurance and love from Sarah's form close to mine. I take a deep breath and start to mutter: "I wasn't born a vampire. Like most of my kind, I grew into my powers as I grew older. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with the same luck as Adam when he was found by that family. Mine, or at least my parents, did not want to accept what I was.
I don't – I – I don't remember much of that time of my life. I remember that I was born into a rich and powerful family and that I had many siblings. If – if I recall correctly, I had three older sisters, an older brother, two younger brothers and three younger sisters. But – one day – my parents were just – just done with me being who I was. They – they denounced me and said that – that they would rid the world of my evil.
My siblings didn't accept this. They loved me, unlike my parents. And even though most of them were younger, they were protective of me as me growing into my powers often left me in a very vulnerable state. One day, when this happened, my parents decided to take advantage of this and my siblings tried to stop them. But my – my parents – they were insane. They had stopped caring all together and declared that any who loved me were monsters who deserved to die."

My eyes are closed tight, I know tears are running down my face and my whole body is trembling horribly. I still feel Sarah clinging to me and I am clinging to her as well as I try to use her presence to keep me going. Yet by now my trauma has caught up with me and with a voice that is nothing more than a whispering whimper, I continue. "They killed them; all of them. Each of my poor little siblings were killed by my parents. And then – the flames came."
And with my eyes closed I can see the flames clearer than I have been able to in several centuries. I whimper as I suddenly feel like I am back there, as if I am back in that strange structure of wood and stone and flames. I feel the heat drawing nearer and nearer and know that I have something that can help me escape. Yet my terrifying fear paralyzes me and I feel unable to reach for this, for this power that can help me escape, that can save me.

"MERLOCK!" I turn my head as I suddenly hear a voice as beautiful as that of an angel. But then I realize that I didn't turn my head, I just opened my eyes. And suddenly the whole area around me changes. From a weird mix of burning wood and stone, I see the area change into the beautiful clearing I was in. I realize that I never left, that I just lost myself to my own traumatic memories and then remember something else.
I look down and see Sarah. She's crying, but I quickly realize that it's not out of physical pain. Her tears are due to her incredible concern for me. "Oh thank heavens, you're back. You were lost in some kind of rambling trance and you weren't making any sense. I was so scared for you. We've been trying to get you to open your eyes for minutes. Oh Merlock." And as she cuddles her head underneath mine, I realize that we're no longer alone on the blanket.

Everyone has joined us, even Petra, Dino and Mite. And everyone looks at me with looks of relief at the fact that I woke from my trance. I look at each of them, using the sight of them and their smiles to help convince myself that I am not back in time, that I'm not 13 but 968 and that my family has long since perished and that I did manage to save myself. And then I remember what it was that I wanted to use, but that my fear made me unable to.
And while I am a vampire and my lungs have long since stopped functioning, I still feel myself slowly but surely calming my heavy breathing. I take and release one last breath and Rocky asks me if I'm okay. I nod at him, but still ask him and the others to stay close. Everyone nods and Sandy happily moves Sarah and me so that I am lying up against her bosom like a son. I smile gratefully at her as she plays with the twirl in my hair.

I take one more deep breath and say: "That was the one and only time I used my bat form. I had to as my father had set our home alight. The fire got out of control and the whole village in which we lived was burned to the ground. Our village was very remote and hardly any travelers ever passed us, so no help came. I – for the last few centuries, all I remembered was the flames, the screams and the insane laughter of my mother as she died in the flames."
I take another deep breath and continue: "I left the area after it had completely burned down. I managed to reach another settlement and tried to make my home with three other families. But either their beliefs, my growing powers or something else prevented me each time. And so I left each family before things could get out of hand. I admit that my fear over what had happened spurred me on each time, but still. Then after the third family – David found me."

I look at the muscular vampire who has muscles that make it look as if he lifts a dozen weight bars every day, yet who has a very innocent looking face at the same time. The man smiles at me and rubs my hair the same way Adam did earlier. Then he continues the story for me. "Henrietta and I found Merlock about four or five miles away from a village. He had just failed to get himself a boar to drink from and he was very clearly incredibly thirsty.
It took us only a single glance to know that Merlock was one of us and when he realized the same, he clung to us and begged us to help him. He was so precious. Only 15 years old and yet he had been through so much in what looked to have only been a few years. It also became obvious as we took him with us and raised and trained him that he had incredibly potential. He took to what we had to teach him like a fish takes to water and learned incredibly fast."
The man sighs and says: "It's true that we never quite managed to help him move on from what happened, as you lot just witnessed, but we did what we could to help him, to make him strong enough that he could fight the memories and the emotions on his own terms. And back then, there were many more of us and at the time Henrietta and I still loved to just travel. So Merlock, as he traveled with us and we raised him, met many others of our kind.

He was little over a century old when he met Adam. He was only slightly older when he met Sandy and George. And naturally, we all took to him instantly. I'm sure you've noticed it this past year, but Merlock has a charm to himself that most of our kind don't have. And naturally, we all happily helped him nurture this charm of his. From time to time, it even saved his life. But it wasn't just vampires that took to Merlock at the time.
Fae, Imps, Siren. Even a few werewolves took to Merlock as if he was their cub. And it's true that, from time to time, Vampires and werewolves can be natural enemies and some werewolves definitely did not like Merlock. But if a werewolf did take to Merlock, they really cared for him like we did. And while all of us – and some of our other brethren – did have kids of our own, Merlock outlived them all. Because of that, he has always been the youngest of the clan by default."

David sighs and says: "Like Merlock said, the council was first founded when he was 280 years old. When this happened, they helped us settle down. Because of this, there came times where we wouldn't see each other for years, sometimes even decades. But each time we reunited, Merlock looked better, stronger and as if he was growing into the vampire and man he was born to be. Each meeting made us prouder and prouder.
And while we worried for him as the years passed and the world became – no offense – more volatile, Merlock triumphed, survived and grew stronger from each experience. Then, about 200 years ago, we discovered about the Time Bureau. Merlock, Sandy and George all applied, but the Old Timer chose only Merlock for the job. And for about 170 years, he took on incredible missions, missions only he could accomplish, because of his race."

"That's great, Merlock. What did they ask you to do?" Flint asks me in excitement as he lies on his front with his arms under his head. By now Petra, Dino and Mite have gone back to their own blanket on the other side of the brook and my brethren have moved their blankets closer to mine. Yet Uncle Bernie, Tony and Flint have remained with me on my own blanket. And blissfully Sarah is still lying close against my form.
I give my smallest friend a friendly smile and say: "As a Vampire, I have hypnotic powers. I won't deny that I've had to use those to get myself out of a few tight spots over the years. You see, while it is true that there were many other kinds of beings alive when I was still young, they have unfortunately been dying out over the last few centuries. At first it was just due to natural disaster or old age, but then – the 20th century happened."
This confuses Flint, but Sarah and the others look shocked before they turn to look at each other. "That makes sense. There were a total of three major global conflicts in just that one century. The First World War, the Second World War against the Nazi's and the Cold War when the Communist leaders fought against the Capitalists. Millions of lives were lost in those wars, especially because humanity found new ways to fight each other."

Flint's eyes are full of tears of horror and Dr. Goodman quickly goes to hug the poor little boy comfortingly. I sigh as the last thing I would want to do is break that poor boy's heart or have him grow up before his time. Yet at the same time I know he deserves to hear this and feel sure that we can help him learn to accept the truth of what humanity's like. It pains me that I can't just keep the boy as innocent as I know him to be.
"It's also true that, while mortals don't know it, some of their most horrible actions actually affected both their own kind and others as well. The Rape of Nanking took out a whole clan of Imps that were living among the people. And when the Americans dropped the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki, even the ocean that surrounded the island wasn't enough to save the Sirens that lived there. And after that things just didn't improve.
So when I joined the Time Bureau, I felt sure I could do good for my lost brethren and friends, that I could try to use my powers and the resources of the Time Bureau to save lives. But by then the Time Bureau had already done extensive research and found out that trying this would only have worse effects on the timeline, both long term and short. When I found out that saving a single live could doom multiple, I temporarily felt defeated.

But then I got told that, while I might not be able to save any lives, I could still use my powers to do good. And so I started traveling back in time to eras where many of my own kind and other beings were unnecessarily killed. And where I could, I would hypnotize the victims, convincing them that they were without pain and that dying is like falling asleep. I may not have been able to save lives, but at least I was able to ease the pain of the victims.
I continued this work for 170 years. From time to time I did take a break and while one break would last a few days, other times I would take breaks of a few months. Unfortunately even the longer breaks didn't help. Vampires might only need to sleep one night a week and can just rest the rest, but my nights were often full of nightmares. So after more than 150 years, I told them that I needed a break for an undisclosed time, that I couldn't keep going like this for a while. Thankfully enough Miss Grey was very understanding.

In the end, my break lasted 20 years. After I came back, the Old Timer actually had a special and personalized mission for me, one where I was able to do what I originally wanted to do when I first applied. Apparently the Old Timer had found an event where the tapestry of time wouldn't be affected if I saved lives. Naturally, I was only too happy to take on this mission. Only, I failed." I sigh in the end and the others look shocked at this.
I look down at the wonderful young woman in my arms with pain in my eyes as a few hours after our mission in Russia ended, I suddenly remembered this mission. I made a realization that has been haunting me ever since and it became like a second motivator to me to keep the beautiful maiden safe and close to my side. If only to make up for the horrible way that I failed her. Sarah notices the pain and looks at me confused.
I can only imagine that, when she finds out, she'll be disgusted with me. Because of this, if only for the time being, I tighten my hold on her lovely waist with my right arm. I lay my left hand on her cheek in the hopes that I can continue to gaze into her beautiful eyes for as long as possible. And while I try to convey my fear of losing her with my gaze, I put my whole heart into my voice as I beg her: "Sarah please, I beg you to forgive me."

To my utter amazement, Sarah blinks at me, as if she's still confused and unable to understand why I feel like this. But Tony is this time the smart one of the twins as his eyes widen and he asks: "Wait Merlock, are you saying that you tried to save our parents? Is that the mission that the Old Timer sent you on? What happened? How did you fail?" Sarah's eyes widen and the others also gasp as I nod to confirm his first two questions.
I take a deep breath and say: "As – as you know, your parents were killed when some disgusting idiot of a shooter thought he could distract bystanders from witnessing his escape after he killed several innocent people in a shopping mall that also functioned as a subway. He blew up a, to him, random car, but it turned out to be the car that your parents were in at the time. The Time Bureau sent me to save them, but they hardly gave me any intel to go by.

The street where your parents had parked their car had once been a bustling street full of stores. But the shopping mall had been so profitable and successful that the stores in that street went out of business. Because of that the street was empty and functioned only as a parking lot. What's worse, all cars in that street had blinded windows. So I checked each car for a potential bomb. If I found one, I made sure to defuse them.
Then I would squeeze my nail through the gap between the window and the window sill and I would use my senses, which are naturally sharper than that of humans, to sniff out mortal blood. I had checked about eight cars and when I reached the final car there were only a few minutes before I knew the bomb was meant to go off. I did as I said, I used my nail to make an opening in the window. But as I did, a scent unlike any I had ever smelled attacked me.
It was horrible and I was so disgusted by it that I didn't even realize I had missed out on checking the car for a bomb until there were only seconds left. Just as I was about to go and do so, the bomb exploded. The impact broke both my legs and a part of the steering wheel even embedded itself in my knee. I luckily enough landed on my Time Scooter and knew I had no other choice. I had to return, I had to ensure I could heal without risking the Time Bureau.

It wasn't until I met you all that I realized who it was that I had failed to save. I felt horrible and it became like a second motivator for me to keep Sarah safe, if only to make up for the horrible way I had failed years ago. Again, I beg you to forgive me. I know there is nothing I can do that can ever bring back your parents or fill the –." But then I get a huge shock. Sarah, my gorgeous, ever precious, presses her lips against mine and kisses me to silence me.
My fear for losing her fights with my love for her and because of this I hold her even more tightly against myself as I return the kiss. And when Sarah pulls away, there are indeed tears in her eyes, but before I can apologize again, she interrupts me. "Oh Merlock, stop blaming yourself. You obviously did everything you could with the means you had. No one told you what car you needed to work with or about that scent that knocked you off your game.
It wasn't your fault." And to my amazement Uncle Bernie, Tony and Flint all nod in agreement with her. I also notice that Uncle Bernie has a strange red hue to his face. Then George speaks up and says: "Besides, I get where Merlock is coming from with that scent thing. If I took a whiff of the wrong kind of berries, I would feel like I'm standing in a field of skunks." Everyone winces, cringes and shivers at this and then Uncle Bernie laughs nervously and says:

"And besides, I know exactly why the car smelled like that." We all turn to him and his face turns beet red all over as he says: "Let's just say that they were in the middle of some – mature activity and that my sister liked to mask this activity with this really horrible perfume that you would normally use in the bathroom or restroom." At this Sarah makes an exclamation and she asks Tony if he remembers the same or not.
Tony nods to confirm this and says: "Yeah, it smelled horrible. And if I remember correctly, I actually threw up myself one day." Sarah nods to confirm this and says that it was on their third birthday. The fact that I hadn't been the only one disgusted by this scent relieves me. The pain that I felt when I found out feels like it's lessening and I feel as if a burden of guilt has been taken of my shoulders. I sigh in relief and whisper: "So you – you really don't blame me?"
My friends shake their heads and Uncle Bernie says: "And besides, even if we would, you've been making up for it for the last year. You may not have been able to save my sister, but I can honestly say I would be truly lost if I had also lost my little niece. And without you, Merlock, that would have surely happened. So please believe us. If only for yourself, believe that you have redeemed yourself a hundred times over. But remember, we don't blame you."

For the third time today I feel tears running down my face. And while I had planned to just tell my friends about my past and kind and not that I would cry this much, I don't care. I just happily reach out to them and the five of us share in a big family hug. All of them hold me with clear love and comfort and I hold them with utter gratitude. I know the others are watching us, but I don't care as all that matters to me right now are those close to me.
"So you forgive yourself?" Flint asks me and his childish innocence is really evidence in his tone right now. The boy is obviously desperate to see me feel better and I gently and lovingly run my hand through his wild mane of hair as I confirm this for him. Instantly a huge grin is on his face. Sarah softly pecks my cheek and whispers that she's glad. I lovingly gaze at her and then suddenly ripples, like in a bit of water, appear in the air.

Good on you, Merlock.
So yeah, now the Goodmans are completely caught up. They know everything there is to know about their vampiric friend, about the newest member of their family. Flint has also learned a little more about the horrors of the world and Petra Fina has proven that, even though she's their enemy, she doesn't have a heart of stone and that she is able to worry even for her adversaries. So what's going to happen next?
You'll see,

Venquine1990