Hi everyone, I know it's been a while, writer's block has held me in its vicious grip and I've had to move back to university. As always I would like to thank those who've taken the time to review. This chapter is a bit of a filler as the story rejoins PoA but fear not, the story won't become a hollow, vapid walkthrough of the book with one extra character. As usual I own nothing.
"Him?" asked Mike.
"An old associate of Ciel and I," replied Sebastian smoothly, "he is well versed in many obscure occult subjects. To be honest I had anticipated that he would be required so he has been appraised of this situation,"
"How? I haven't seen you talk to anyone," enquired Luka with narrowed eyes.
Sebastian chuckled, "One of your buttons is a data relay, he has been watching all of today's events from the comfort of his shop,"
"Why pay him in advance, especially if you don't know that his services will be required?"
"In our line of work we come into contact with things we don't understand quite often and it never hurts to have someone like him in our debt. Especially since there is one subject that the pair of you both like to work on," replied the demon.
"I have never collaborated with that weirdo nor do I ever wish to. Our means may be the similar but the ends we wish to achieve are very different," growled Luka, she hated being spied on.
"What you wish is irrelevant, however the immediate problem is one of logistics. I doubt Undertaker would like having so many people in his shop," said Sebastian as he turned to the mages, "I believe it would be best if you all went home,"
"I must disagree Mr Michaelis. As headmaster it would be a dereliction of duty if I did not see how Miss Reginold rids herself of her collar as it could prove to be valuable information," countered Professor Dumbledore.
"In that case if you insist on coming then the others will have to leave," Sebastian retorted.
After a brief discussion the mages finally agreed that while Professors Dumbledore and Snape would go on to the undertaker's shop McGonagall, Lupin and Madam Pomfrey would go back to Hogwarts. The wraiths would also be leaving as Claude pointed out that they had better things to do than meet yet another grim reaper.
"Right, we had better be going then," said Sebastian as he brought his hands together and shadows enveloped all those who were continuing on to the undertakers.
"So this is the home of a powerful wizard?" asked Professor Dumbledore as he surveyed the dingy shop exterior.
Sebastian merely smirked and went through the door with Ciel, Luka and the weres at his heels. With a raised eyebrow and his hand on his wand Professor Snape followed them in. Once inside his eyes struggled with the lack of light, it took several moments to adjust and what he could eventually see wasn't particularly comforting. True to the shop name this place was evidently a funeral parlour but the musty atmosphere, numerous cobwebs with their arachnid architects and the anatomy mannequins lent the place the air of a B movie horror set. As Professor Dumbledore closed the door behind him the candles flickered and were almost extinguished and an eerie chuckle floated around the room. The two wizards' heads whipped around searching for the origin of the sound. As they came full circle two of the upright coffins creaked open. One revealed the lich Lord Elzen who was revealed in his true form, the gloom allowed his skull and upper vertebrae to be seen through the illusory face and neck.
"Feh heh heh, Sebastian's servant returns at last eh?" chuckled Undertaker as he closed the coffin lid behind him.
"Yes, I trust you found today's events amusing?" replied Luka with narrowed eyes, an expression mirrored by Ciel.
"Of course, seeing people flee in terror is always fun," smiled Undertaker as he reached for his biscuit jar, at which point Luka noticed a string of saliva on the man's chin with some distaste.
"So what do you want?" asked the lich as he declined a bone shaped biscuit from the grey haired reaper who was now passing the jar around.
"The information given to us by the mages doesn't include how to remove Luka's collar," replied Sebastian.
"And you wish for us to remove it for you? Well you did pay for it earlier," shrugged Undertaker before turning to Luka, "hop on the slab my dear,"
Professor Dumbledore watched the exchange before sighing theatrically, as head of the Wizengamot he was rarely ignored. To his immediate gratification his actions elicited the attention he desired.
"Oh do take a seat, Elzen would you put the kettle on?" asked Undertaker cheerily.
As the old reaper turned to his new toy Professor Snape checked that his wand was still in place, the entire situation made his skin crawl. It was bad enough to be in the presence of the undead but the fact that the undertaker had his eyes covered not to mention the thoroughly creepy attitude put him on edge. His discomfort was not eased when the lich came round with beakers of tea. As he accepted the questionable brew the professor couldn't help but wonder what the vessel had previously held. Furthermore, who in Merlin's name thought that coffins made acceptable seating?
Meanwhile Elzen had joined Undertaker at the autopsy table. Luka frowned as she moved on command, moving her various limbs and channelling energy when required whilst the two sociopaths chattered excitably. After an age of tedium and wittering Luka was released and she took her place by Sebastian's side on the coffin as her 'physicians' continued their discussion. Once finished they turned around to their audience with identical grins.
"We have found the solution," chirped Undertaker madly.
"And it is?" asked Sebastian, his patience coming to its end.
"One simply turns the runic inscriptions in a certain sequence," came the overly cheery answer.
"Some of the runes are set on the spikes that hold the collar in place rather than on the collar itself," added Professor Snape.
Luka felt at the collar around her neck, indeed the runes seemed to be inscribed on circular plates that gave the collar an uneven feel.
"Well then, get on with it, we've paid for it," snapped Luka.
"Very well," smiled the lich as he reached his gloved hand towards her.
As the undead mage turned the runes Luka could feel the spikes retracting and as the last one pulled away the collar fell open with a click. Yanking it off she wrapped her hands around her own throat, it felt so strange now that the alien object was no longer embedded in her. Sebastian retrieved the collar from her lap and inspected it before sinking it into the shadows.
"So why didn't they just make it so you would just have to reverse the implant procedure? Surely that would be simpler than a different pattern," asked Mike.
"Too simple you fool. If they had done that anyone could have removed the collar thus undermining the point of putting it on in the first place," spat Professor Snape as he glared at the werewolf.
"Keep looking at my brother like that and I'll get one of the wererats to plant a bubo on your ass," retorted Jim whilst Timothy sniggered behind him.
As the glaring contest continued Lord Elzen sidled up to Sebastian.
"Michaelis, I was just wondering whether you will reconsider my offer. Luka is quite a rare specimen. I'm willing to pay highly for her," he said silkily.
"Really? How rare is she?" asked Sebastian, he knew he couldn't trust the lich at face value but then again that was the same for everyone...
"She unique!" giggled Undertaker.
At that the corpse narrowed his eyes at the reaper, apparently he didn't want to pay that much for a new specimen.
"What is she?" asked Professor Dumbledore as he leaned forwards eagerly.
"A freak," breathed Undertaker.
"So's everyone else in the room, you'll have to be a bit more specific," said Timothy.
Undertaker chortled before replying, "Tell me Master Butler have you felt anything strange from your servant? Anything that gives you bad vibes as they say?"
"Yes, she's a werewolf rather than a werecat," Sebastian replied stonily, he was getting sick of the undertaker's games.
"Tee hee hee, from my inspection it would seem that those Ministry mages have accomplished quite a feat," giggled the near delirious reaper, "they managed, apparently by accident, to revive a species that has been dead for millennia. Luka is an artificially created nephilim,"
With that Undertaker paused to let the information sink in with entertaining effect. Everyone looked mystified, even the strange man in the gaudy robes, with the exception of Sebastian. The demon turned to look at Luka with a mixture of disgust and shock.
"That can't be possible," he whispered, his voice barely audible.
"Then why don't you taste her and see for yourself?" replied Undertaker.
Sebastian nodded slightly before lunging at his servant. Attaching his mouth to hers he removed her soul. As he pulled away eyes closed mulling over the new delicacy Luka flopped backwards in his arms, a lifeless shell. Once the Sebastian had finished his tasting he reinserted her soul and Luka jerked back puffing up her wings.
"I hate it when you do that, it feels as if I will never be clean again," she muttered as she rubbed her arms.
"I know but I had to determine whether what Undertaker said is true," replied the crimson eyed demon.
"Is it?" asked Luka.
"Yes, you are an abomination,"
"So I take it you won't be wanting her anymore? I would be more than willing to help with the disposal," chirped Lord Elzen, thinking that perhaps he could get away with a bargain.
"No, angels and their spawn may be the sworn enemies of demons but I keep that which is mine," replied Sebastian, "besides, I am curious about how she came to become a nephilim,"
"Yo, what's a nephilim?" asked Mike, he and the others seemed quite put out now that they weren't involved in the conversation.
"The bastard spawn of an angel and a human. They were wiped out millennia ago during a campaign that united angels, demon sand reapers," replied Undertaker with a smile.
"Angels and demons were united?" asked Ciel disbelievingly, he had seen for himself how the two sides despised each other.
"Yes, the nephilim were a race created by angels who had abandoned heaven for the sake of the pleasures of the flesh. The halfbreeds they created with human women had the blood thirsty passions of humans but the power of angels. The turmoil they created went beyond anything demons had previously envisioned. It was amusing at first to see what they would come up with and their activities gave us more than enough contractors but it soon became apparent that their greed for power and pain went beyond the human realm. In a pre-emptive strike demons joined with the angel-reaper coalition and we wiped their kind from the Earth. The force required to do so destroyed nations and caused the sea to rise thus creating the Christian myth of the great flood," explained Sebastian.
"So how has the Ministry made me into one?" asked Luka.
"It would seem that with all their tinkering they stumbled on the recipe to make a nephilim although the fact you were a powerful werewolf could have helped in warping your magical core and soul into what they are today. It is quite a shame that all the documentation has been lost, it would have been interesting to see how you were constructed," said Undertaker with one finger on his lip in thought, "however it must be said that the transition hasn't been entirely successful. During your mutation your magical core has become fractured, the pseudo-divine elements have failed to meld correctly with the existing core. Thus you are living with a time bomb, your core could tear itself to pieces at any moment or it may last forever. You are to be valued for both your advantages and your possibly fatal design flaw,"
"Which is why you want me," Luka said to Lord Elzen.
"Yes, a detailed study of your body and magical core would no doubt prove fascinating," replied the lich unrepentantly.
"She's still not for sale," stated Sebastian.
"Not even now? Surely you don't want something that can pass as the spawn of an angel as your property," squawked Elzen in surprise.
"On the contrary it is possible that her unique abilities will make her a valuable asset. Also, as she has an augmented soul similar to that of an angel it can regenerate so in effect she has become the perfect snack machine," replied the demon.
"Is that so? How typical of a demon to see the best in a bad situation," chuckled Undertaker, "now I do believe that we also got to see Luka's new model of undead puppets in today's attack,"
"Yes, the mark two mage model," replied Luka proud that her work had been noticed.
"I would like to see one in person," smiled Undertaker.
With a wave of her hand Luka pulled a puppet through a shadow gate, it was much easier here with all the magic lingering in the air and no warding against gates.
From their places the headmaster and Professor Snape gasped. In front of them was one of the slaughtered Aurors whose body had never been found. His body was perfectly preserved right down to his goatee, if it were not for his deathly pallor and the gash across his neck he would appear to be alive. The reactions of the others were different however. The weres nibbled the bone shaped biscuits with increased fervour as they eyed the corpse, the demons looked upon it with disinterest whilst Undertaker and the lich were quickly assessing the carcass.
"Yes, yes, yesss," chuckled Undertaker as he closely circled the ex-Auror, "an excellent specimen indeed. You even preserved its magical core so you could utilise it for attacks,"
"Thank you for noticing, I adapted the system from the one I use on were-zombies. Instead of a static magical core that burns down after death I've installed a core that can be topped up using my surplus energy. Also, in addition to the use of muscle memory for physical attacks I have patched together the remnants of the old core and cinematic record fragments to form a false soul. That was the major leap from the mark one where either the body had to be under my constant conscious control or it had a limited repertoire of pre-programmed battle sequences. The false soul allows for the use of accumulated experience from both when the body was living and after death," explained Luka proudly.
"You certainly have done well considering that as a non-reaper you don't have full access to the cinematic record to add in extra scenes like I do," said Undertaker as he continued to eye the body.
"You have augmented your inferi?" asked Professor Dumbledore with disgust as Professor Snape joined the others in the appraisal of her work.
"Standard zombies are indeed terrifying but they are inefficient and their full potential is never exploited. I have no interest in mindless drones, if one is to command entire legions of the undead they must have some form of autonomy and intelligence,"
"What if they become too intelligent?" enquired Professor Snape.
"Then I will reduce them to ash," smiled Luka chillingly.
"How many of these units do you have?" asked Undertaker.
"More than enough, though no doubt I will not be able to acquire more for some years," replied Luka.
"What is the price for this one?"
"Are you trying to get the price down by picking an ex-display model?" chuckled Luka.
"Gosh no, I just like to see before I buy. Although, if you do have any comely female ones I will go for that,"
"I should have brought a catalogue. If I send you all the profiled by owl will that be sufficient for now? I'm afraid I have other things to do today," replied Luka dryly.
"Will the pages be shiny?" asked Undertaker eagerly.
"If you so wish,"
"Then we have a deal," chuckled Undertaker as he rubbed his hands together through his sleeves before turning back to the kettle to refill his beaker.
Sebastian sighed wearily, "If that is all you have to offer I believe we will take our leave,"
Undertaker grinned madly as he waved the motley group of guests out of his shop whilst Lord Elzen sulked over once again losing an opportunity to buy Luka.
As they exited the shop Professor Dumbledore looked upon the nephilim with renewed caution. She was a powerful witch in her own right but she also had the backing of a demon, if she could be swayed towards the Order of the Phoenix she could be a great asset. However if she were to continue into Darkness... that didn't bear thinking about.
"Well, I should be getting back to Hogwarts. Here is a list of what you will require," said the headmaster as he handed Luka the parchment.
As she perused the list Luka narrowed her eyes at the mention of a wand, to be reduced to the use of such cheap props... what a disgrace. Looking over her shoulder Sebastian smiled.
"I'm afraid you'll simply have to bear with it. Besides, if the use of a little stick means that you can utilise all your power it will be worth it. We can simply wean you off it once it has fulfilled its purpose," said he with smirk perfectly calculated to annoy the professors.
"I suppose," Luka agreed sullenly.
With one last glance at the new addition to the staff Professor Dumbledore apparated away without his customary twinkle that accompanied the thought that he had everything under control. Professor Snape was also less than convinced that things were alright. For one the odious creature that was Sirius Black was out of Azkaban, there was a werewolf in the teaching post that should be his, the trio of twits were still roaming the halls of Hogwarts and now to top it off the school was now taking on a Dark witch/werewolf/nephilim/slave of demon. It was times like this that he truly believed that death would come in the form of stress related disease rather than the Killing Curse.
As the wizards left Jim turned to Luka.
"So that's it? You prepare for an all out fight and in the end it's just a draw,"
"Not quite," said Luka with a wink as Ciel engulfed himself and the weres in a shadow gate.
"So you have decided to not let sleeping mages lie?" smirked the demon.
"You must be joking. I have no intention in letting them get away scot free. For a start Elise delivered a package to the ward at St Mungo's where the Ministry dogs are staying. As for the others I'll simply have to bide my time," said Luka returning the smirk.
"And what, pray, did you have her deliver?"
"Just a little mustard gas, they can all look forward to burns and cancer. It was present in the Ministry bombs but I thought it would be best to unleash it in the hospital so the fools will just think it's a mystery illness rather than a chemical agent used in the bombs,"
"I think they will fall for that, now shall we go to Diagon Alley?"
Choosing to ignore his servant's groan Sebastian opened a gate with a smirk. Later that afternoon Luka found herself the 'proud' owner of a fourteen inch spalted blackthorn wand with a dragon heart string core. In addition to the new books she had had to buy Sebastian had insisted on updating her wardrobe so that it was more fitting for her new profession. As a result she had endured a fitting at Nathaniel Harker's, a distant but equally eccentric relation of the fabled nineteenth century tailor Neena Harker Luka had been told, for a black, Victorian style, singlebreasted frock coat with purple lapels and two black trouser suits. Apparently an off the rack job would bring shame on the Funtom name. Now as Luka was set to leave for Hogwarts Sebastian bade her a temporary good bye.
"I trust I will be seeing you this Saturday, you have quite a debt to work off now I have added your new wardrobe to it," smirked he.
"Git," replied Luka with narrowed eyes.
Sebastian continued to grin but it soon faded as he looked upon her with regret.
"Such a pity, you have such promise," said Sebastian as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind Luka's ear.
"But we know how it will end. Especially now," she replied sadly.
"I curse that wraith every night, now, be off with you. You have a school to infiltrate," Sebastian said as he cheered up.
"Ugh, I hate kids," groaned Luka as she turned to walk through the ornate school gates with Sebastian's chuckle in her ears.
Once inside she was told by a disgruntled Filch that her belongings had been moved to the spare room in Professor Lupin's quarters and that she was to go straight to the staff table for the evening meal. As Professor Dumbledore motioned her to sit between Professor Snape and Lupin Luka found it difficult to ignore the atmosphere originating from the Potions master.
"I'm here as a buffer zone aren't I?" asked Luka rhetorically as she broke the awkward silence, Professor Lupin smiled at her whilst Professor Snape just eyed her coldly.
Fortunately the headmaster tapped his goblet to silence the hall before things could deteriorate further.
"Now, as some of you may have noticed we have a visitor here tonight. Let me introduce Miss Reginold, our new addition to the Hogwarts staff..."
Just to clear things up with Undertaker, Ciel and Sebastian know he's experimenting with the living dead and a couple have previously run amok but the vents on the Campagne and private school haven't happened in the cross over. Also, the nephilim idea was inspired by Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness but the bit about the flood comes from the bible's genesis.