A little note about the whole 3b/3c thing, forget it. When I decided I wanted to go through with it, I realized that there was absolutely no reason to letter them oddly, and it would probably be confusing as hell too. So never mind. ^_^
Special thanks to Cloud Strife and Princess Artemis. :)
Resident Evil: Demon Rising, part 3b
Castle of the Damned
---
"You've gotta be kidding."
"Trust me, dey vill vork," Luccianna insisted. "You don't have to believe de vampire stuff if you don't vant to, scientifically, I could explain all de reasons vhy dey have dis reaction. Jab one of these into Vesker or Dracula's heart and they're gone."
Relenting, Leon took small leather pouch that held a pair of stakes. They were both eighteen inches long, and made of pure silver. The pouch had buckles to keep them from stabbing through the bottom.
"Oh, be careful vith Vesker though, he's still part human so he can survive it if you don't stake him like dere's no tomorrow."
"I'll remember that," Leon responded, shoving the silver under a strap on the inside of his coat. "What are you giving Claire, garlic?"
"Actually, I gave her and Jill a couple of tactical nuclear grenades."
---
Only the TV screen lighted the dark office. Nicholai wasn't in the mood for light; the news he was watching was far too depressing.
Umbrella was sinking pretty fast. Someone had gotten enough evidence to rat the company out, and measures were being taken against them. He could care less about that.
Nicholai would simply miss the money. He could easily vanish and never be found, but Umbrella paid well. Maybe one of their rivals would hire a former Umbrella employee…
Hearing a knock at the door, Nicholai picked up his handgun and stood, not wanting to be caught off guard. Even he had made a few enemies while working for Umbrella, and with the company in serious legal trouble, he wasn't going to take any chances.
Flicking the light on, the Russian opened the door.
"Long time no see, Nicholai."
"Hunk," Nicholai answered. "What do you want?"
"Umbrella's about to go flop, I figured I'd see how my old friend is doing," Hunk smiled. "Who knows, maybe we could both ditch this place and find some new occupations. Gotta be openings somewhere for hired gunmen, eh?"
"Perhaps," Nicholai answered, turning around to shut off the TV. He was tired of hearing the same thing over and over again.
But he wasn't going to be hearing much of everything, because Hunk, one of the few people Nicholai had risked trusting over the years, shot him in the back of the head.
"Sorry my friend, I'm afraid you can't be around to tell people I exist."
With the last man that personally knew him at Umbrella dead, Death disappeared in a warp of black, seconds before nearby security guards ran into the room.
---
"The greatest thing in the world, I think, is man's inability to comprehend everything," Wesker mused to himself. His feet were up, he was juggling his glasses around in one hand. He was almost antsy, wanting desperately to do something, but at the same time proud of his recent accomplishment.
"You delivered that so wrong it isn't funny," Hunk suddenly answered, materializing in the room.
"Oh get a life!"
"I can't believe you just said that," Hunk answered.
"Neither can I," Wesker laughed.
"So do you think they'll come?"
"Bet on it," Wesker answered, standing up. "If Redfield's sister is anything like he is, she'd at the very least come after him alone. But I doubt her friends wouldn't go with her."
"Just as well, now that Umbrella's not going to be around, it'll make our lives a little easier to kill them all at once."
A chime sounded from a panel in the table, and Count Dracula's voice soon followed.
"Wesker, is Death with you?"
Wesker flipped a switch in the intercom, "He is."
The screen embedded in one of the walls flared to life, displaying the feed from a security camera in the lobby. Wesker and Hunk could clearly make out Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy and a girl dressed in green talking with the receptionist, probably trying to get further into the castle without making noise.
It didn't seem to work. The two went past the desk and ignored the receptionist, only to be stopped by security guards. Leon took the liberty of knocking them down in two seconds flat while onlookers backed off.
"The others are coming by air," Dracula continued. "Split up and dispose of them once and for all. Lead them to us if you have to."
"Damned Belmonts!" Hunk suddenly yelled, pulling his shotgun and blowing a hole through the screen, specifically at where Maria was shown. "Damn them and their never ending families…"
"Was that really necessary?"
"No, but I enjoyed it," Hunk snapped. "I'll get the ones from the air."
With that, Hunk vanished.
---
"Sir, step away from the elevator."
Leon didn't bother answering the new security guard when he felt the gun on the back of his head. He swung around faster then the ordinary human could pull the trigger and backhanded him across the face, while Maria right-hooked the other with an oddly- burning fist. They took the opportunity to grab the elevator. With the keycard that Luccianna had used in the building, they were on their way to the laboratories.
Something thumped, like something had fallen on the top of the elevator just as it stopped. The trio walked out of it slowly, keeping their eyes on the ceiling in case something was up.
It almost seemed like nothing was wrong as they stepped into the waiting room beyond. And then Wesker smashed through the elevator's roof.
"Keep going, he's Leon's," Claire, almost casually, informed Maria. The two ducked through separate doors as they'd discussed when going over the castle's floor plan. Leon had gone with them on the very idea that Wesker would likely come after the party going through the front doors.
"Isn't it funny how we keep running into each other," Wesker smirked, cracking his knuckles. "I hope you understand, you aren't going to leave here alive."
Leon pulled his glasses off. "Oh I understand more then you know. I understand that I'm going to kick your ass so hard that Count Dracula, assuming he even exists, is going feel it."
"Cute," Wesker answered before rushing forward.
---
"Laboratories… he wouldn't be here," Maria mumbled to herself, remembering her intended rout from the floor plan. Castlevania was quite a bit similar to it's last incarnation, but there were still differences. The Chapel would have been her first guess as to Alucard's location, but the castle had no chapel at all this time around.
First she had to find her way out of the laboratories, the strangely empty laboratories, filled with machines the likes of which she'd never dreamed of but totally devoid of people. She'd went through one room with large glass cases mounted on the walls, some of them empty, some filled with things simply not human, and it had given her an idea of what Count Dracula had been up to.
It wasn't long before she found out why no one was in the labs. A clanking sound reached her ears from another room. It grew louder, like metal feet were walking toward her. Several pairs of them, in fact. Maria held her ground, and a near-invincible Guardian rounded a corner. Another came through a door. A third knocked down a wall in an adjacent room. As if being outnumbered wasn't enough, she was outmatched by any one of them.
So she struck first, eager to get every advantage she could against her foes. She dashed at one and baited it into swinging it's sword at her neck. When it did, she jumped back and pushed her hands toward it, conjuring an iridescent, fiery Tiger at her adversary. It jumped directly into the Guardian, setting an unnatural fire to it's armor and reeling it back.
Another one was walking up behind her. Maria judged where it was by the sound of it's footsteps, and flipped backward into the air. The Guardian swung at where she had been, expecting her to still be there, but she was in the air and jumping off of it's head by the time it realized that it had missed.
Landing behind it, Maria prepared another magic attack. Her hand-to-hand combat skills wouldn't dent Guardians; her only hope would be to stay free of their attacks long enough to power up her more powerful spells.
Lumbering around, the Guardian found itself on the business end of an iridescent magical dragon flying through the air. It swirled around the armored demon, melting through the gold-colored mail and snapping it in two. The dragon went on to rush at the guardian that Maria had set on fire and coiled around, engulfing it. When the apparition vanished, the guardian was a pile of singed armor and ash. They were so slow that she'd managed to destroy two of them in that many spells.
Two…!
Her mind quickly remembered that there had been three. She spun around on reflex, just in time to see the last guardian raise it's sword, ready to strike. A feint sound reached her ears, like metal destroying metal. The Guardian's arm wobbled, it's sword fell from it's hand, and then it's torso fell from it's legs.
The demon's massive size had obscured Alucard from view. Maria exhaled the breath she'd been holding.
"Alucard!"
"Hello, Maria," answered the dhampire. Something was in his voice, an edge, an uncertainty. Maria's face fell once more as she realized something was off.
"What do you here? I'd have thought you a prisoner," she asked, trying to figure out what had him bugged.
"But when are any of us not prisoners, not victims of circumstance, not forced to choose between a lesser of two evils…"
He paced around as he talked, his arm fidgeting with his sword. Maria didn't understand at first, but as a realization slowly sank in she let Alucard talk, praying she wasn't hearing him right, that he would say something totally different then she was expecting.
"And how often," he started, his eyes suddenly fixing themselves on the blade of his sword as if they wanted to focus on anything besides her. His voice lowered to a whisper, barely audible.
"How often," Alucard breathed, finally looking at Maria. "Do we see eye to eye with family?"
Feeling her stomach knot, Maria brought herself to ask a simple question. "Why?"
"Because sometimes people change, Maria. You can understand that, can't you? I changed you know, long before you were born. And now my father's changed. Please Maria, walk away. I promise you, it is not what you think..."
"I can not," she answered, trying to keep her voice steady and failing to do so. "I can not… and you know it, Alucard. I'm sorry, I was raised to hunt vampires… you are so different from your father, but your father is Count Dracula, and I can't leave him be, no matter what."
"As you wish," the dhampire answered, raising his sword. "If that is your choice, then have at you!"
---
"Think they heard us?"
"Are you kidding," Barry chuckled, watching their ride fly away from the castle under Luccianna's control. "You could be front row at a rock concert and hear that thing. Noisiest-"
The door that led from the helipad into the building opened, prompting Jill and Barry to raise their guns. Claire walked out onto the platform.
"Great, I took a wrong turn somewhere," she lamented. "This place is a maze."
"Well thank you for getting lost," Hunk sounded from atop the lone helicopter on the pad, making his presence known. "Makes my job easier with three of you together."
Barry raised his colt and pulled the trigger as Hunk dropped down, but the reaper was expecting it and rolled to the side as soon as he hit the floor. Barry dived to the side himself when his target raised a magnum and fired back. Claire pulled her handgun and ran around in a wide circle in the opposite direction Barry had dived in, hoping to outflank Hunk. She took a shot at him as soon as he turned to her, and his arm took the bullet.
---
Leon feinted to the side, causing Wesker's fist to go through the wall. He let Wesker swing again and ducked underneath, grabbing his adversary and flinging him into the adjacent wall. Wesker shouted a muffled curse as he pulled his head out, his glasses now broken once again.
Leon took hold of his vest and tossed him hard into the ceiling, spreading a web of cracks in the old stone before he dropped to the floor.
"Not bad," Wesker chuckled, getting up and tossing his glasses away. "Need some work on the throw."
Before Leon could react, Wesker kicked him hard, careful on the follow-through to ensure that Leon would double over rather then be knocked from his feet. The ex-STARS threw Leon at the ceiling like he'd just been thrown himself, except Leon went clean through the hard stone and banged into the wall in the room above. He jumped up as Leon became aware of his surroundings.
Wesker quickly found that Leon wasn't down for the count, however. He swung a kick to his face, but Leon caught his ankle and hurled him into the side of a table.
"You're right, the throw needed work"
Angered, Wesker sprung up and attacked. It was clear to him that, superhuman strength or not, he had more experience in hand-to-hand combat then Leon and he was taking advantage of it. Leon swung a fist, prompting Wesker to duck under, jam himself into Leon, run him through the wall and into the next. Before his opponent could right himself, Wesker punched him in the side, then did it again, and again, repeating it so fast his arms were a blur. He stopped and let Leon keel over.
---
Alucard swung his sword at Maria's neck, but she was far too quick for that. Alucard's response to her dodging underneath his blade was to backhand her across the face and knock her down. She spun on her back and threw her leg up, kicking his head with her heavy boot. He spun to the side involuntarily.
Before the dhampire could reorient, Maria jumped to her feet. Raising her hands, she summoned a magical eagle that raked it's claws across his back. The enchanted cloak remained undamaged but it didn't prevent the claws from digging into his skin.
With Alucard distracted even further, Maria prepared her dragon once more. The dhampire turned toward again as she finished the spell, just in time to see the transient blue creature form and fly at him.
But Maria was going to get a surprise. Alucard jumped back as the dragon approached, gaining some distance. He held his arm out, and his family shield materialized in front of him. Propping himself against the wall and holding it out, Alucard let the mystic beast seek it's target.
The dragon barreled head first into his shield, pushing him hard against the wall. But it didn't get through; instead it dissipated as it struck the metal, unable to break the defense. Maria's strongest attack hadn't worked.
---
Death was getting angry, and as such, he was getting reckless. Barry took a shot straight for his head, but he vanished before the bullet could strike only to reappear behind Jill. She felt his presence and turned, but he grabbed her by the neck and lifted.
Claire had just pulled her grenade launcher, and if she missed, it'd blow her to kingdom come. Barry had to reload; that left Jill on her own for a few seconds, a few seconds that Hunk could kill her in.
So she dropped her gun and pulled her own grenade launcher off of her back. Praying she'd loaded it with a composite round, she jabbed it into Hunk's gut and pulled the trigger. The resulting explosion threw him into a wall and threw her a few feet back.
The round was, indeed, composite, with a shaped explosive that gave her minimal splash damage. The trio grouped and prepared to knock Hunk right back down if he got up again. And he stood, skin melting away in some places, with a black cloak suddenly draped around him. He seemed to just now notice it, and for some reason became agitated.
"Damn you," he shouted, pulling a scythe and throwing it. It spun through the air toward Claire, but Hunk had been careless and it missed by several feet before she even realized she was under attack.
Angrier then ever, Hunk raised the magnum and pulled the trigger.
Click.
He fumbled for a clip, but not fast enough. Barry emptied his Colt into the Reaper, knocking him back to the edge of the helipad. Claire and Jill loaded their grenade launchers, with a fire round and Luccianna's thermonuclear charge respectively. Claire fired first, setting the reaper ablaze.
Hunk didn't seem to overly mind the heat, but he wasn't expecting the absurd blast that obliterated half of the spire next to him and actually moved the helicopter a few feet. The reaper seemed to have been totally vaporized, much to everyone's delight.
But Death wasn't dead, not by a long shot. His scythe appeared out of nowhere and spun around in the air, while the reaper, no longer in a remotely human form, re-appeared.
"You mortals couldn't possibly piss me off any more then you've already done," Death yelled from his unmoving skull. His eye sockets glowed a deep red, and scythes of all shapes and sizes started to materialize around him.
"Who wants to see if Death can die," Claire muttered, shoving her own uber-grenade into the barrel of her weapon. Aiming before Death had a chance to launch his offensive, she pulled the trigger. The blast, just as large as the one from Jill's grenade earlier, didn't seem to have any effect on Death at first.
But without warning, his scythes all dropped to the floor. The robed skeletal thing started convulsing, all the while shouting curses in old Romanian far worse then modern day vituperations.
A flash of light blinded the humans as Death, beaten too much without having had enough time to recover from his battle with Alucard, lost his ability to manifest. The light cleared, and the reaper was once again denied access to the land of the living.
---
Leon braced himself for another blow from Wesker, but it never came. As if it were cued, Wesker suddenly forgot about Leon and looked off into space.
"…Death?"
Not bothering to think on what the ex-STARS was mumbling about, Leon swung a right hook and knocked Wesker flat on his back. And he didn't stop there. Before Wesker could rise, Leon planted his foot in his enemy's gut before dragging him up and hurling him into a door. The fragile wood shattered like most walls the two had been through, and Wesker stumbled into a room on the castle's perimeter.
Leon went for broke. The room had a large, stained glass window on the far side and he'd be damned if Wesker wasn't going to go through it. He dashed ahead and barreled into his adversary, stopping dead just before the window. Wesker had no idea where he was and went straight through. An odd gust of wind breezed through from the outside.
Looking over, Leon became perplexed. Wesker had gone flying out the window, yet he was hanging by one hand on a ledge a few feet directly below. And there was something on his back.
"Oh that's funny," Wesker taunted, refusing to give Leon an edge even now.
"Yeah, I thought so myself," Leon smiled. "I don't suppose you'll just let go and spare me the trouble of climbing out and stomping?"
"When Hell freezes over kid," Wesker commented, shooting Leon an evil grin. "Speaking of Hell, I have a friend who'd be happy to show you the weather there."
Before he could say anything, Leon was assaulted by what was literally a tentacle of smoke that grew spontaneously from Wesker's back. The stuff wrapped around his wait and actually yanked him from the window and into the night.
The ex-cop managed to snag a ledge just above Wesker and to the right.
"That's the best you could do!?" Wesker snarled, seemingly at no one. An ethereal, disembodied voice answered him.
"I can't even manifest anymore, what do you expect?"
Death.
Looking over, Leon saw what exactly it was on Wesker's back. His vest was now painted with a grungy, scythe wielding mug shot of the reaper, one hand holding the scythe at one side and the other balled into a bony fist.
Wesker switched his hands on the ledge and swung at Leon, clipping him in the side. He couldn't reach high enough to effectively land a blow, and Leon had an advantage. He kicked Wesker right in the face, jarring but not knocking him from his grip.
Wesker reached and steadied himself by grabbing the ledge with his other hand. That accomplished, he swung and tried to grab Leon in a scissor lock with his legs to pull him off, but for all his strength Wesker didn't have the agility to pull it off.
Leon kicked him again, this time aiming for his elbow. He hit Wesker's forearm instead, knocking his hand from the ledge and bringing the ex-STARS to the same position he had just been in.
Looking up, Leon noticed his ledge had a corner to it, and it protruded about 6 inches from the castle wall. It wasn't an overly large space, but he managed to maneuver himself around the edge and end up facing Wesker from his perch.
"So what were you saying about Hell?"
Wesker looked over. He had been about to grab onto the ledge with his other hand again when Leon took an insane risk. The ex-cop swung up and dropped down, gaining momentum, before he let go of the ledge and barreled right into Wesker with a drop kick.
Leon grabbed onto the ledge Wesker had been holding and watched his enemy fall. To his credit, the only sound Wesker made was an 'oomph' of surprise as he bounced off the castle wall.
But Wesker wasn't done yet. Far from Leon's sight, he reached toward the wall and let his arm smash through the pattern of ledges until he finally snagged an open windowsill. A normal human would have torn in half from the sudden stop.
"You want Hell, kid? I'll give you Hell," he muttered to himself, his hand clutching the pair of silver stakes he'd torn from Leon when they'd connected.
---
"Why can't you leave, Maria," Alucard almost snarled, having assaulted Maria constantly, trying to get her to run. But she wouldn't yield. "Why can't you let this rest?!"
"Because it's who I am, Alucard," she snarled as Alucard raised his sword, backing her up into the wall. "I realize what faces you, but can't you see… whatever your father is doing… it's still wrong!"
"What… what did you say," Alucard mumbled, his posture suddenly sagging, his sword dangling in his hand to the point where it dropped and clattered on the floor. She'd hit a nerve even he didn't he had.
Not wasting her chance, Maria dashed forward and swung her arm. Alucard didn't even seem to notice her fist, blazing with enchanted fire, swing at him, but he felt it when she punched him across the jaw.
Maria knocked Alucard down hard with that. The dhampire landed on the floor with a slight ebb of consciousness, he would be in la la land for a few minutes before his above-average healing abilities woke him up fully.
Maria took the chance to run through the room as fast as she could, slamming the door behind her and not stopping until she'd gotten through several hallways. Even then, she only halted because something caught her eye.
In plain site on the wall was a quick-reference map for new employees. The dialect was a little strange for her, but she knew English and managed to figure it out. And it was the label reading "CEO Adrian Farenheights' office."
It was too big of a coincidence. She had no idea what CEO meant, but Dracula would certainly need an alibi and his son's name was as good as any.
Of course, Maria was smart enough to realize that at her best, she was nowhere near as good a hunter as Richter or Alucard himself and wouldn't stand a chance against Dracula. And she certainly wasn't at her best.
She would need help. Finding any of the others would mean trekking through Castlevania and worsening her injuries.
Looking at the map again, she noticed a room labeled "Special Weapons Lab."
---
"There should be an elevator after this… room…"
Barry couldn't finish the sentence if he tried. The next room was what they expected, a simple yet large hallway. It was what occupied the room that shook them to the core.
The small humans didn't bother Medusa in the least. The snakes on her head grew energetic and swirled around, as Medusa herself glared evilly at those who dared to intrude upon her.
"Jesus…" Claire gulped. "At least the stone myth isn't true," she noted. It was staring right at her and she wasn't petrifying, so there was that, at least.
And then a shot of purple light emitted from those grotesque eyes, hitting Claire dead in the chest. She didn't feel a thing, but she didn't have time to move as a stony color spread through her body, freezing her in place.
Barry reacted instantly, blasting at the ancient creature with his weapon. His shot went slightly wide and tore a snake from it's head instead of actually hitting her, and there was no visible effect except for the snake instantly turning to stone and falling to the marble floor.
Barry fired again, and again, hitting Medusa in the chest and triggering spurts of dark gray blood to pour out, but she started sliding closer on her slug-like body, and Barry had to jump to the side to avoid another blast from Medusa's eyes.
Jill, however, had an idea. Large, antique mirrors lines the walls of the room.
It couldn't possibly be that simple.
But she wouldn't know unless she tried, so Jill dragged one of the mirrors across the floor, putting horrid scratches in the marble but not being able to care less. When she felt she'd got it out far enough, Jill stood in front of the old object and loaded her grenade launcher.
Medusa turned away from Barry when the more powerful weapon tore into her inhuman flesh. Jill was a larger threat, so logic suggested that she should be taken out first.
But Jill could dodge projectiles as much as Barry could, and she dived onto her stomach when Medusa tried her gaze trick on her. The purple ray lanced into the mirror and bounced right back, hitting Medusa right in the gut and spreading out a petrification past her torso and half-way across her base. What was left flailed wildly behind the new statue, either in pain, rage, or helplessness.
Barry raised his gun and fired one shot. All at once, Medusa crumbled into fragments, the living part flopping dead on the ground. At the same time, Claire regained her color and raised her grenade launcher, before she realized she'd missed the last couple of minutes.
---
Having started to believe that her detour was in vain, Maria let out a sigh. The weapon lab had been evacuated pretty quickly, as evidenced by the trashed look of the place. Things were simply messy, however, there was no impression that the room was ransacked.
Maria, however, couldn't find anything that looked like something she could use. Some things were liquids; one took up an entire corner of the room.
Something on a table looked promising. Walking over, Maria found a packet of papers next to an oblong, intricate looking metal object. The top sheet had a picture of it, so she began to read.
"Linear Launcher… stolen from Umbrella… shots tuned to disrupt non-human DNA," she read aloud, skimming the cover sheet. "Non-human!"
It was a start.
"Whatever DNA is…"
She flipped pages, finding a schematic of the weapon. Most of it was incomprehensible, but it showed her where the trigger and charge meter were. The light on the actual launcher displayed full power.
Satisfied, Maria grabbed the Linear Launcher and left, intent on hunting down Alucard's father.
---
"They had a very nasty queen, the king was loved but oooooo… the queen was feared…"
"You know I've grown to like the masterpieces of this century," Dracula thought aloud, his eyes closed, his chair facing his desk, his hand lightly moving in the air as if he were conducting the music. His suit was gone, replaced by the clothes and cloak of the old Victorian nobility.
"Till I came strolling in his court and peril pierced the country port…"
"Wesker said you'd like this one," Dracula added, opening his eyes and returning to his normal demeanor. "I thought it might help you think."
"Wesker has a perverse sense of humor. And I've thought enough," a voice behind him answered. It was clear the other occupant of the room had other things he felt his attention should go to. His gaze was fixed on the landscape seen outside the windows.
"He lost his life and his lady love…"
"I hope so," Dracula answered, touching his finger to a button on the arm of his chair. The unseen speakers stopped playing the original recording of Alexia Ashford's favorite song.
And a second later, Barry knocked in the door.
"Well that was fast," Dracula commented, rising from his chair. "My my my, so much company and so little entertainment. I guess we'll just have to make some ourselves."
"Yeah, let's," Claire mocked, raising her grenade launcher and firing. Dracula raised his hand, and the projectile shattered apart in midair, not even detonating.
"As amusing as that was," Dracula chuckled, "I have other things to do. I expect a visit from a certain vampire huntress and I really must take care of her myself. I'm sure you can see yourselves out. Out and into hell, that is, ha ha ha!"
Dracula faded away, vanishing into thin air, leaving the cloaked man behind him. And Chris Redfield's friends and sister would have half to have been pretty dense to not recognize him, even from the back, so he spun around before they could say anything.
Claire couldn't speak for Jill and Barry, but she could feel her jaw drop. Her brother's eyes, once a chestnut brown, were now a dark, blood red. Not like Wesker and Leon's, not slits like a cat or colored like fire, simply red. His skin was paler, and the vest he'd worn for years was absent in favor of the black vampire cloak hanging from his shoulders.
"…Chris?"
"You could say that," he answered, his voice light but having an air of wrongness to it. Claire couldn't place what was wrong with him, aside from the physical changes. Her eyes snapped to his waist as a low scraping sounded in her ears.
Walking past the edge of the desk, Chris drew a sword from the scabbard hooked to his belt. It was the etched white Mourneblade that Alucard had used. A malicious look painted Chris' face, and for the first time in her life, Claire was afraid of her brother. Gripping it in both hands, Chris slashed Mourneblade hard through the air.
And Barry flew, as if knocked by a battering ram, into the wall. He collapsed upon coming down, gasping for breath. Jill started to move, and Chris waved the blade in her direction, not in a mock attack as with Barry, but more as if the sword were a magic wand. The temperature dropped slightly, and Jill suddenly found all semblance of footing leaving her as she slipped and fell.
A patch of black ice had formed under her feet, and she had banged her head on the wall falling. It wasn't a serious injury, but she would be down for a minute or two.
"Sorry guys," Chris commented, sheathing his sword before looking his sister in the eyes. "Claire, come with me."
She was too shocked to do anything but blink. Noticing this, Chris flashed her a smile of understanding. It terrified her, her brother changed, attacking his friends… but to her, it was the same old Chris. He speeded toward her, seemingly floating above the ground, his legs never moving, the cloak never spreading back.
And the next thing Claire knew, her brother's arm was around her shoulder and the room was fading away.
---
Vlad's personal throne room was a perfect hideaway. An elevator had a hidden switch to reach it for the few normal people who knew where it was, and Dracula felt right at home inside. The room took up the entirety of Castlevania's highest spire, having glass picture windows in a semi-circle behind the throne disguised by holographic projectors on the outside. Inside, there were two tiers. The bottom was a few feet across and had an artificially maintained bonfire burning in the middle, over a painted rune, while the top circled at the spire's midpoint and took up a much larger amount of the diameter. Four flights of stairs led between the two levels.
Dracula didn't have time to contemplate the arrival of Chris and his sister in the room, because Maria Renard had found the place. She barged into the room through the door, although the other side of it was a hidden elevator. Being a trained vampire hunter, Maria was pretty good at sensing where her pray was located.
"You bitch, you've raided my weapon lab," Dracula yelled as he stood, unable to help himself as he saw the Linear Launcher in her arms. He could remember being curious about what Umbrella's anti-BOW weapons would do to someone with vampire blood. But that didn't matter now.
Unless she figured out how to fire it.
"Call me what you will, monster, we'll see who laughs last," she snarled at him, raising the energy weapon. Dracula leapt to the side as she pulled the trigger, and the blast of energy slammed into his extravagant throne. The smell of burnt fabric rose from the now charred piece of furniture, and it added to Dracula's anger.
"So, the little Belmont in-law wants play hardball, does she," he smiled, flinging back his cloak. It fluttered around of it's own will, shaping into a huge pair of bat like wings. Dracula promptly started to climb into the air with them, reaching into his own magic pocket and pulling a shining black, cross-shaped broadsword. Maria fired again, but Dracula was faster and he floated to the side, sending a ball of fire down in retaliation.
Maria dashed down the steps in front of her. By putting a smaller gap between herself and Dracula, she hoped to hide herself behind his own body. He had to look down, after all, and he couldn't look through himself.
But she fired again, and quickly found out that it wasn't going to give her a very big advantage. Dracula's fine-tuned senses let him hear her every step if he couldn't see her, to say nothing of the Linear Launcher's blast noise.
Claire instinctively stepped forward, intent on helping, but Chris put a hand on her shoulder.
"It'll be over soon," he said, assuming Dracula would win but almost sorry about.
Maria jumped back as a blast of lightning shot at her, and she returned fire without trying to aim. The plasma blast winged Dracula's leg, but nothing more. Maria had just about reached the end of her rope. Fighting Alucard had taken too much out of her to go directly into this fight, and the plasma cannon's weight wasn't helping.
Dracula pulled a death-black cross-shaped sword from his own magic pocket, and pointed it at the hunter. A blue bolt of power shot out, and for all her agility, it was far to fast for Maria to dodge. Claire watched in horror as the bolt's kinetic force sent her flying into the stairs, the Linear Launcher tumbling from her hand.
But there was more to come. The elevator door opened again, and Alucard himself emerged, with Barry, Jill and Leon filing out behind him. They scattered across the floor before Dracula turned in their direction. Alucard walked right ahead.
The dhampire kept walking, hitting the stairs Maria had fallen against. The Linear Launcher scraped the black marble as he picked it up.
"And my son is here to join my in victory," Dracula bragged, still hovering in the air. He hadn't seen the others sneak in.
"You and your kind don't belong among the living," Alucard suddenly shot, not paying any attention to his father's words, not noticing he was separating vampires from half-breeds like himself. "You're nothing but a visitor from the past! A shadow from the world of darkness," scowled Alucard, his voice bitter and resentful.
"World of darkness," Vlad thought he would fall right there as he realized where Alucard was going with his monologue.
"I'll send you back where you belong, Father, back to the abyss of oblivion!"
At that, Alucard raised the Linear Launcher and fired. The speeding bolt caught the middle of Dracula's right wing, disintegrating it instantly. He plummeted, the remainder of his enchantment forming into a scorched, ruined cape. Alucard pointed the launcher at him and squeezed the trigger.
Click.
It was out of charge. He tossed it away as Dracula shrugged off his half-cloak.
"How dare you," he scowled, his son unwavering. "I've-"
"Shut up, Father," Alucard yelled. "You've no right to tell me anything, you've no right to go about your freak plans, but I was too deluded to understand that."
He turned and looked right at Chris briefly, as if he couldn't help it, and returned his gaze to Dracula. But Dracula was going to get in some words of his own.
"I've hurt no one, I've destroyed one of the most destructive group of humans in the world. I don't understand you, Adrian, and I think I need to admit I never will."
"Hurt no one," Alucard yelled, infuriated. "What of the Belmonts?! What of her?!"
Alucard raised his arm, and Claire was shocked when she realized that she was the one being pointed at. Chris didn't seem to care, but he drew Mourneblade silently, and without warning he jumped down and rushed ahead.
But Alucard wasn't ignorant. His own sword was in his hand instantly, and he spun on his heels, sending Chris right by him while knocking Mourneblade from his hands. Alucard caught the flying sword and sheathed his mother's.
Leon had no idea what Chris' problem was, but he was going to turn that problem into himself in a minute. He was caught off guard when someone grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Wesker was all too happy to punch him in the face.
"Can't you just die," Leon shouted, swinging his own punch. But Wesker was too smart for that. And Leon wasn't smart enough to control his follow-through, so when his arm overshot, Wesker gripped one of Leon's stakes and jammed it into his adversary's chest.
Leon screamed in pain, falling to one knee, bleeding like there was no tomorrow. Wesker had just missed the center of his heart, but Leon wasn't able to notice the difference at the moment. He managed to pull the silver from his chest just before Wesker kicked him in the face.
"You're damn persistent kid," Wesker chided, drawing the other stake. Leon was trying desperately to pull himself up and breath at the same time, unwilling to look at how bad the wound was.
"Well, it's been fun," the ex-STARS commented, raising his weapon. But Leon wasn't going to be beaten. As Wesker stabbed the silver down, he reached up and caught his wrist. Before Wesker could recover from the surprise, Leon twisted the stake around and jabbed it into his enemy's heart.
Wesker recoiled, shocked. Leon had been more on target, but his fading strength wasn't enough to totally impale his target.
Nevertheless, Wesker was suddenly worse off then Leon. Knowing when to swallow his pride, he hobbled to the elevator, desperate to get there before anyone noticed him. Leon tried to stand and stop him, but he just ended up toppling over again.
Sparks flew as Mourneblade struck Dracula's sword. Father and son were dueling, and neither had an upper hand. His anger never loosening, Alucard stepped to the side and forced his father backwards onto a staircase, bit Dracula didn't seem to notice the disadvantage having to walk on them meant.
The dhampire pressed on, but Dracula had lived and fought a lot more then his son had. When their swords met again, Dracula pushed his arm forward and caught Mourneblade's hand guard on the tip of his sword and flung it up.
Alucard lost his grip for a second, but Dracula couldn't push with enough force to seriously distract him. When he grabbed for the sword in midair, Dracula smashed the flat edge of his sword into Alucard's left arm, breaking the bone in two.
Grunting in pain, Alucard grabbed the sword in his right hand and went on the offensive. He was obviously at a disadvantage, and Vlad was all to eager to capitalize. His speed surpassed Alucard's, and as much as his son tried, he couldn't avoid the slashes that Dracula delivered faster then he could move.
Barry and Jill boxed Chris in on the upper level when he jumped away from Alucard and Dracula.
"We never did know when to stay down, eh guys?"
"What happened to you, Chris," asked Barry.
"What happened? I could explain what Wesker did to me, I suppose, but what happened, I don't really know," he answered, "I guess I started thinking that nice guys finish last."
With that, Chris raised his hand at Barry. Particles of air above the larger man's head froze and spun into a cone of ice, which Barry was smart enough to avoid by diving out of the way just before it came down.
Jill blasted the wall next to Chris with a grenade, hoping to knock him down, but all she did was shift his attention to her.
"Shit," she cursed, grabbing another round and reloading. But Chris was already striding over to her, and before she could fire, he grabbed her by the neck and lifted.
"Nice try Jill," he sighed. "Sorry about this."
With that, he released his hand and shoved his other at her stomach as she fell. He didn't quite connect, but Jill went flying into the wall nevertheless.
Wesker had almost made it when Claire spotted him. She quickly caught up and knocked the back of his head with her grenade launcher. He'd gotten the stake out of his chest, but he dropped it when she clocked him and it went rolling over onto the lower level.
She patiently let him rise.
"Bitch," he snarled.
"What the hell did you do to my brother?!"
"Done? What have I done," Wesker laughed, coughing up blood at the same time. "I've given him a gift beyond his wildest dreams. Immortality, power, I hated every second of it, but I swallowed my pride this once. You might say I owe Dracula one for saving my ass. Hell, your brother is probably as powerful as Dracula by now."
"You're not serious," she answered, loading an incendiary grenade. "You didn't… how…"
"Oh I did, you'd better believe I did. And I'm a genius if I do say so myself, especially considering all the setbacks. Dracula's DNA wasn't enough to make it work. So I had Death steal the G-Virus to stabilize it, and the T-Veronica virus can't conquer the superior genetics of vampires, but that forces the virus to have the same effects that it had on Alexia without sleeping in cryo freeze for fifteen years/. In short Claire, your brother is a vampire, not just half like me, by artificial means. And he likes it."
"Bullshit," she answered, aiming her weapon.
"Bullshit indeed! You think there's some kind of mind control at work? Don't be cliché. Truthfully I thought doing this to him would be our end, but your brother isn't stupid enough to resent something this good."
Claire answered by pulling the trigger. Wesker didn't have the strength to dodge the incendiary, and it exploded in his face.
Yelling in shock, Wesker jumped back and clutched his cheek, only to pull his hand away and get the surprise of his un-life. Small puddles of melting skin were running down his palm, burning and thin. Leaning forward, Wesker looked into the vague reflection the black marble floor gave off and was horrified to see that half of his face was literally melting from the small yet lethal payload of napalm from the grenade.
"Out of my way," Wesker downright commanded, pushing himself further and shoving her off of the upper level. He was still quite strong, and Claire flying. In an act of spite, Death's image on his back changed slightly; the reaper was giving the finger in the direction of Claire's fall. Slamming his palm onto the elevator button as soon as he was inside, Wesker was gone.
Grabbing the silver stake on the floor with the intention of shoving it right back into Wesker, Claire pushed herself up and gasped when she found her brother standing right in front of her.
"Hey Claire," he smiled, his tone having never changed from that of the protective older brother. "You don't look so good."
She didn't realize he was backing her into the wall until she touched it. It was actually the side of one of the stair sets, and she only had open space to her right. Not thinking clearly, she tried to dash out I the direction, but Chris was faster. He slammed his palm into the wall, stopping her easily.
"Well… uh… you wouldn't look so good if you plopped onto the marble from five feet up," she stuttered, wanting desperately, after all she went through in Raccoon and Rockfort, to get as far away from her brother as she could. The light of the bonfire gave an odd glow to his pale skin and rd eyes, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Chris was still Chris, same as always.
"Well actually I would," his smile broadened. "I heard Wesker spilling it. Neat, huh?"
He raised his forearms, almost showing off the cloak around his shoulders before he pulled it off and swung it around her shoulders, right over her vest. She hadn't paid attention to the slight chill in the room, it wasn't extreme enough to be uncomfortable on her bare arms, but Chris always did give her everything he could.
He put his arms on her shoulders. Claire tried to shrink away, but she had nowhere to go. And then he hugged her.
"Trust me Claire, I've thought about this a lot. I wouldn't be doing any of this if it wasn't for the best, and I promise you it is…"
He looked her right in the face once more and winked; "Hey, you know I always keep my promises."
He leaned forward again, but he wasn't giving her a hug. He was moving toward her neck. And as soon as Claire realized what he was about to do, she acted without thinking of the consequences.
Chris froze, his face contorting in pain when he heard the noise of flesh being stabbed. And when blood started to dribble from his mouth, he looked down to confirm that Claire had just stabbed him.
Staked him in the heart, with silver.
He looked at her again, his voice leaving him, his body going numb. Claire stabbed it in further as he groped at her hands, all the while his face pleading…
...why?
Unable to stand on his own as the effects spread, Chris fell into her. Claire caught her brother, his weight dragging them both down to the ground. His blood was drenching her vest. Claire couldn't look down.
She didn't know exactly when Chris died, before or after he slumped onto the cold marble, leaving her sitting on the floor, unable to even think.
"I will not let you continue, Father," Alucard yelled. But Dracula was only amused; they both knew he was winning. But Alucard went on. "And if this is the only way… so be it!"
Without another word, the dhampire pulled a coin from his pocket and tossed it to the floor. The old librarian of Castlevania appeared in a flash of light where the gold trinket had landed, and the man had an uncharacteristically huge smile on his face.
"It's ready Master Alucard! That spell book you told me to look in had it right inside!"
With that, he tossed a test tube-like vile to Dracula's son, the contents red and bubbling.
Ignoring the Librarian, Dracula turned back to his son only to receive a face full of the red liquid. All of a sudden, the old vampire started glowing a shade of magenta and an orb of bright colored light shot out of his body.
Alucard embraced the energy as it slammed into him. The entire castle shook slightly as Alucard convulsed, stopping as he regained control of his body. Dracula stood there dumbfounded.
"You didn't…"
"I did indeed Father, I am now lord of this castle!"
Enraged, Dracula charged his son. Alucard put up an effective defense, considering that he only had one usable arm. Dracula swung his sword hard, knocking Mourneblade from the lone hand of his son. Swinging again, Vlad broke the dhampire's leg as he had done to his arm.
Alucard went down hard, and Dracula raised his sword, ready to skewer his son like a pig.
"Tell me Father," Alucard spoke, not having anticipated this and desperate to buy time, to find some way of getting out. "You caught openings to attack me twice, and yet all you do is break my bones. You could have killed me the first time. Why haven't you?"
Dracula suddenly lowered his sword, much like Alucard had done when Maria hit his nerve. If he didn't know better, Alucard would have said the sparkle under Dracula's eye was a tear.
"You're my son…"
Something scraped on the floor and the Mourneblade was at Alucard's good hand. In the corner of his eye, he could see that Leon had toppled down to the lower level and, seeing his plight, had shoved the sword over.
Vlad didn't seem to notice, his face still a blank stare as if he was tearing himself up inside. Alucard didn't think about it as he grabbed his sword and ungracefully shoved it through his father's stomach and out the other side.
Shocked, Dracula stumbled back and dropped his sword. He gripped Mourneblade where it entered his body, blood flowing through his fingers.
"Nice… try… Alucard… but it's not… silver…"
Dracula laughed, not in malice this time, but in actual humor. Humor at his situation.
And then his arm snapped in two, while Alucard's healed. Dracula gasped in shock, not understanding what was happening.
"It doesn't have to be Father," Alucard answered. He stood, his leg healed. Dracula's broke, bringing him to his knees. The Mourneblade didn't stop there. It continued to steal Dracula's health, his skin wrinkling as Alucard was rejuvenated, his body needing rest as Alucard's fatigue left him.
"Goodbye Father," Alucard whispered. A realization came over him; he'd just killed his Father for a third time.
Dracula lost consciousness and finally, as the Mourneblade had nothing more to steal, his body and clothes turned into a dull gray color before crumbling into a pile of ash.
Alucard, having never felt physically better, walked over and claimed his sword silently.
He didn't walk three steps before he broke down and screamed, a long and resentful cry, wanting badly to not have destroyed his father but at the same time not wishing he'd done anything differently.
---
NEXT: Vice
