Yes, this is like, the fourth chapter up today. (#`ε´# )ゞ Don't get used to it. Please start reading at Chapter 9! That was the first one uploaded today.


Finding Alucard took some time, but was not ultimately difficult. Leon had gone outside with spices and a simple basket, Trevor following because, "We're going to have to set up a fire anyway."

While Trevor busied himself with gathering up kindling, Leon pointed out some of the places where nature had barely changed. The trees weren't all the same, nor the bushes, and a lot of the edible roots had shifted with the canopy of trees overhead, but it steadied Leon to see many of the things he remembered from his own time, plants included. The golden light of late afternoon sinking to evening gave everything an air of nostalgia and warmth, and Leon felt peace from it.

So Leon set out to walk around and find plentiful areas before gathering the food, and while doing so, noticed some overturned soil. Could be animals looking for food, could also be Alucard.

Leon followed his gut and the traces of what was potentially the dhampir, feeling triumphant when he came across Alucard at the river.

"Leon," Alucard said, looking up in surprise.

"Did you need any help?"

"I'm just about finished catching fish," Alucard said. "There aren't many of good size right now, it's a bit too early. I think tomorrow we will have to put out some traps for something else."

Leon nodded. "Then I can help you with gathering other things, for now. I passed some good tubers on my way over."

"Yes, I saw those. That would be helpful, thank you."

Leon made to leave when something odd registered in his mind. Alucard was catching fish. Alucard had neither net nor pole. When Leon turned his head back, he saw Alucard staring intently at the water, one open hand poised over it. Leon felt his eyes widen. Surely not! he thought. Yet right before his eyes, in a movement almost too fast to catch, Alucard plunged his hand into the water and brought out a struggling fish. With one swift strike from his other hand, Alucard killed it before placing it in his basket with the others. Stunned for a moment, Leon stared, trying to accept the sheer ridiculousness.

Then he shook his head and smiled. "Very impressive."

Alucard's back tensed, but his tone was almost shy when he said, "Thank you."

Leon shook his head again before finally taking his leave. He spent some time gathering food, mainly edible roots but some berries as well, for their dinner. His stomach growled again, and he satisfied himself with the thought it wouldn't be too much longer.

After gathering a good basketful, he took the food to the river, to rinse it and his now dirt-covered hands. The mellow trickling of the water, glimmering in the sun, soothed him.

When he got to the clearing in front of the Belmont Manor, Trevor had stoked up a fire and Alucard had begun preparing and placing the fish for cooking. Leon and Trevor prepared the roots in a simple broth. They all ate some berries as they worked. Though the fruits were sour-since picked before their ripening time-they temporarily quieted the complaints of Leon's hunger.

Once the meal was close to finished, Leon volunteered to get Sypha from the hold, which Trevor and Alucard accepted between good-natured bickering at each other.

Leon found Sypha almost exactly where she was before, though with several more books around. Leon felt a small twinge of guilt, but remembering the cooked meal helped assuage it; She needed to eat too.

"Sypha?" he said.

"Oh! Leon yes, I have found several interesting theories on how things move through time. Of course, one of those is the infinite corridor, of which there was only one personal account in the hold. Well, only one personal account from a Belmont. Can you believe it! Of course, if we had managed to undo whatever you did, I suppose that doesn't count. I have been wondering if that means we don't send you back through a corridor or if you just don't write about it..."

Leon chuckled and scratched at his head. "I'm not sure. It's happening just now for myself as well." Sypha looked about ready to dive into another frantic search, so Leon said, "We have dinner ready outside."

"Is it that time already?" Sypha's stomach let out a long, loud grumble. "O-oh. It is then. Thank you for coming to get me." With a faint blush on her cheeks, she set down everything she was working on.

"It was no problem. Actually, I hoped to ask you something."

"What is it?" she encouraged as they walked leisurely up the several flights of stairs to reach the exit. "I will help as best as I am able."

"It's... well it's about Dracula. Trevor and Alucard, they seem more tense whenever the subject is brought up." Sypha nodded along, so Leon continued. "Is Dracula really Alucard's father?"

"You don't believe him?"

"It's not that," Leon rushed to assure. "It's just... something hard to grasp. For me. I... I had known Dracula before he called himself by that name. It is odd to think..."

"Well, he is a vampire," Sypha ventured. "Perhaps he has changed his name several times over the centuries?"

Leon shook his head. "That's not all of it. Really, it's that- that I knew him when he was human."

Sypha gasped, then ran ahead, body vibrating with excitement as she turned around to face him while walking backwards. "Did you really? Then he is not as old as many people assume. Of course, many Speakers believed there were so few stories of him because they only began when he started to take land here and drive off the Ottomans. This is amazing! Oh- but- I'm sorry, it means something personal to you, doesn't it?"

The way she was so easily able to move back and forth between energetic and compassionate stunned Leon, but he managed a small smile for her.

"Yes. Personal seems to cover it. I suppose it is odd to think that he has a son now, when he did not have any children before. I never believed he would try to start a family again."

Sypha held back her obvious question for a few moments before it slipped out. "Again?"

"When human, he had a family," Leon said. "A wife." And me, he thought, but didn't say aloud. That was too personal, and the fragments of his heart were still too sharp to pick up and examine.

"What happened?" Sypha asked softly.

"Apparently, similar to what happened here." Leon sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Elisabetha... he loved her, very much. But during those years we were not often at home. The crusades kept us away. He-Mathias-got news that she was sick, and wished to take time to go to her. The church didn't want to let their best strategist go. And... she died before our current campaign was finished." Leon looked up; stopped walking as they made it to the tall spiral stairs at the hold entrance. "I don't think we knew it was quite that severe, or perhaps he did and felt guilty later. But either way, he took ill himself. Broken heart. He holed up in his house, in his room. Wouldn't see anyone. I didn't know what he had planned until it was far, far too late."

Sypha's hands settled on his back and arm, and she squeezed them in a comforting manner. "You don't have to face him."

Leon's head whipped around, his shock plastered all over his face. "What?"

"I mean, if you really think it's him, that it is your estranged friend, it sounds like it would be difficult to face him, yes?"

Leon shook his head, not to disagree, but because he was still processing. "I have to."

"You don't," Sypha retorted, then held up her hand as Leon opened his mouth. "No, listen. I understand that goal meant quite a lot to you, that the entire reason you chose the path you did was because of the actions of this man, but in this place, in this time, that is over. I am sorry to sound rude, but it is not your place to face him here. This battle is not about your duty, or your personal feelings. This battle is to save the people of Wallachia, under attack from his army. And the battles after that will be for a similar purpose, to help people understand, and spread the story of Dracula's anger and defeat, so it might not be repeated. This is our purpose-Alucard, Trevor, and I. We are here and working together to save this country and any others Dracula would turn his attention to in his grief. So... This fight, it is something you were searching for, this I understand. But please, think things over before you decide to go charging in. We are all great fighters, as you have seen, and we will do our best to put an end to this. So if seeing him will be too painful, especially the way he is right now, still in the throws of a second loss, I ask you to consider leaving Dracula to us."

Sypha finished her speech with a decisive nod, eyes blazing with determination.

She wasn't wrong-she had every right to say the things she did. But still, Leon's very soul flinched from the idea of staying behind. While he wished, sometimes, he could leave the battles to someone else, someone less tired, Leon also knew he could never do so. He felt the need to protect in the very core of his bones.

"Think about it," Sypha said. She gave him another squeeze and began walking up the stairs. "Besides, we may find a way to send you back to your own time before we confront Dracula."

Leon blinked out of his thoughts and followed after. "Maybe," he said. "Maybe so."

By the time they arrived out in the sunlight, the food was finished; Sypha joined with exaggerated smiles and declarations of hunger. As Leon watched the other three interact, he thought that, despite the grim circumstances forcing them together, they appeared to make good friends.

That, he thought, was something worth protecting. So he sat down with them, took his food, and considered the matter of his participation.


Last one for the month! And I did it, hooray! (。◑ヮ◑。)I am glad we got some heart-to-heart kinda stuff with Leon and Sypha. It's great to have them doing their best to protect each other and have the other going "no really it's fine" haha. To be fair to both of them, neither has the whole picture for the other person, so they are both just doing their best.

Also, yeah, the fish scene. o(≧▽≦)o Look, that was one of the highlights of that season for me, so I had to have this in. That was a practiced movement Alucard did, that has to be how he normally fishes. We all know he's gotta be dramatic.

Thank you all so much for continuing to read! (ノ´ヮ´)ノ*:・゚✧ Likely, I will be seeing y'all after s4 drops, so cross your fingers and grab some pillows to squeeze! We may need more fluff than ever.