Disclaimer: 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' movie is copyright of 20th Century Fox. No infringement is intended.

PICKING UP THE PIECES

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Seventeen: No Time

He aimed and fired again. This time he hit the vampire right in the heart, but it had no effect on Dracula's slowly advancing form. Whatever theory Sawyer had about bullets and vampires was completely wrong, Henry thought as he shot again. Dracula let out a slow, sinister laugh, those red eyes never once wavering.

"Bullets have no effect on me, Dr. Jekyll." His voice was low and almost sensual, practically mesmerizing. Dracula paused. "That is your name, is it not?" He let out another low sinister laugh. "You think that by coming to the aide of your fair maiden, you will somehow change the fate that is in store for her. You are wrong. She awaits a fate worse than death."

Henry had the sudden feeling that the Count could not hear Hyde in his head. He had never before heard of a vampire being able to read minds. Mina could not read minds, could she? His eyes flitted to where she was- still in a heap on the floor. She was moving slowly and, as she lifted her head, he could see her tearstained blue eyes without a trace of red. What madness, what evil had they called up?

Dracula' lips twisted into an unpleasant smile. "The gift of vampirism is different for all of us and grows when one embraces the gift." He paused once more. "But who is this Mr. Hyde you think of? Believe me Dr. Jekyll, if you have more men waiting outside, they will not do you one bit of good. Your fate is sealed."

Henry chose to ignore the last part of Dracula's little speech. "I can think of many things to call vampirism and a gift is not among them."

"Ah, you think it evil, a sin- feeding off the life force of others. No doubt you are a good Christian and have no inkling as to what a gift it is. I am immune to disease, even to death itself. I, unlike you Doctor, shall live forever." His smile faded some. "How amusing that you, a doctor, cannot understand the value of immortality. You, who try to save lives and tamper with fate… it is all planned and you cannot change it."

"You're wrong. Any man can change his fate."

Dracula laughed. "But have you noticed, I am not a man."

Henry had not realized how close Count Dracula had come to him until the vampire suddenly reached out, those white hands quicker than lightening, and grasped him around the neck. He grabbed at the hands, trying to pry them loose, but they were like a stone clamped around his neck, slowly choking the life out of him. Desperate and frantic, he flailed his arms for a moment before hitting the bulge in his pocket. He could not understand why the rosary had not stopped the vampire… he had a nasty feeling that it had never been blessed by a priest since his father did not believe in such things. He pulled the crucifix out of his pocket.

A loud hissing noise filled his ears and he was dropped on the ground. He looked up. Dracula had bared his fangs and looked like he would have very much liked to kill Henry right then and there. Those red eyes seemed to glow even more. Suddenly, Dracula whirled around and his arm hit Mina squarely across the face. She went flying backwards into a wall. The stake and hammer had been knocked from her hand. For a fleeting moment, he felt a sense of pride that she had taken the chance while Dracula had been distracted.

Another horrid smile lit up the Count's face. "So you may be protected… that will not save Mrs. Harker here. There is no way she can protect herself from me. And her fate will be worse than yours." He hissed. "You will wish for death before I am done with you."

He advanced on Mina. Her eyes grew round and wide. She tried to scrambled away from Dracula, but found only the wall she had hit earlier. He grabbed her by the neck with one hand and pushed her hair away from her throat. The Count bared his fangs and lowered his head towards that exposed section of throat.

Henry thought fast. He looked around and saw the Winchester lying on the ground where he had dropped it when Dracula grabbed him. Shoving the crucifix in his vest pocket, he ran up to the Count before he could feed on Mina and make her a full fledged vampire and hit him across the back with the gun. Dracula shrugged his shoulders upward and looked over his shoulder at Henry.

"You just do not know when to stop do you?"

A powerful white arm flew out and Henry felt his body propelled upward and into the far wall of the room. Only after he hit the ground, did he feel a crushing pain in his face centered on right eye. A moment's roaring in his ears subsided and he could hear Mina screaming.

"Henry! Get out of here! Save yourself! Go! Please!" He looked up and saw the tears streaming down her face, as she struggled against the hold that the Count had on her. Dracula was laughing at the very thought of her predicament.

Henry shook his head, hearing another voice as loudly and persistently as he was hearing Mina's pleas and Dracula's laughter.

"Let me out! I'll take care of that bastard vampire! Let me out! You can't do anything about him! I can! LET ME OUT!"

The roaring became so great that Henry clamped his hands over his ears to try and think as quickly as he could. Already, Dracula was lowering his head to Mina's throat once more. If he did not do something no, she was going to become a full vampire. Mina was screaming and fighting tooth and nail against Dracula's hold. Henry picked up the fallen Winchester and hit Dracula once more. The vampire turned around, irritated.

"When will you learn?" he asked sadly and picked Henry up, throwing him across the room once more. The world seemed to have grown fuzzy and he could see the black spots in front of his eyes. He had to do something. He just had to.

"HENRY!" Mina was screaming.

"LET ME OUT!" Hyde was roaring in his head.

Dracula was laughing. He blinked, trying to get rid of the black spots and trying to keep conscious. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of the formula. It was the only way. And Hyde would find destroying a vampire great sport. He pulled the cork out of the vial with his teeth and spit it away from himself. Throwing his head back, he downed the contents of the small bottle, immediately feeling the crushing pain of the transformation.

And distantly, through the pain, he could hear Mina screaming, Dracula's horrible laughter and Hyde's roar of triumph.


Dracula's iron grip on her neck weakened. Mina kept on screaming and fighting against his grip, taking into notice that he was distractedly looking over to where Henry was.

"What the devil is he doing now?" Dracula asked, almost sounding as if the delays were nothing more than a bore. The Count dropped her ungracefully on the ground. She landed on her tailbone and could feel the painful vibrations of her fall up to the top of her skull. Her eyes immediately focused on where Henry was or where he should have been. She began to scream again as she realized he was just completing the transformation into Hyde. The body writhed and twisted into grotesque images and shapes as Henry's scream of pain became a deeper and much more menacing voice. His hair grew shorter and his skin darker and more mottled, as his body grew into the hulking form she had come to know as Edward Hyde.

Hyde stood up and shook his head. Dracula looked faintly amused.

"And who the devil are you sir?" the Count asked with a laugh. "The only thing I find in your mind is the pleas and instructions of Dr. Jekyll."

Hyde growled. "He is my maker."

"And what exactly are you? You must be something since you have a creator." Dracula gave a hooting laugh. "This is quite like that horror story that that Shelly girl wrote."

The mottled and disfigured face of Hyde twisted into an unpleasant smile to match the one that Dracula wore. "I'm evil," Edward Hyde replied.

The Count continued laughing. "Well, dear boy, many people argue that I am evil and you do not see me espousing that to the world."

Hyde laughed and as abruptly as he started, he stopped. "You misunderstand me, my dear Count. I am pure evil- everything evil that you have ever known." And with that, Hyde loosed one huge fist and sent Count Dracula straight into the ceiling of the dirt room they were in. Huge chunks of earth fell to the floor with the prostrate body of the Count, his preternatural white skin contrasting sharply with the dark brown dirt.

Mina stifled a gasp. She had not known that Henry would resort to using Hyde. The question was, could Hyde do what Henry and she could not? The huge man snorted as the Count remained on the ground a second longer than was necessary. She did not know what to think. Moments ago she had been close to becoming a full vampire and now Hyde had seemingly grounded the Count with one punch. The Count pushed himself up and Mina inwardly felt completely sick.

One side of Dracula's face was bleeding and bruised from Hyde's punch. His jaw had been broken and a piece of gleaming white bone was sticking out. A horrible squelching noise began and Mina watched half in horror and half in wonder as his entire face began to mend itself. She was strongly reminded of the fight she had with Dorian and how that same phenomenon would happen to both of them when injured. She recalled the bullet wounds just melting away when Dorian was shot. She should have known that this was going to happen here.

Hyde, however, looked completely nonplussed. He calmly watched as Dracula bared his fangs and looked from himself to Mina as if deciding who would make the better victim. The Count suddenly flew in her direction and she felt his fangs sink into her neck. She let out a cry of pain and fear. And just as soon as she had felt the fangs in her neck, they were ripped out and she beheld the Count in Hyde's huge fists. Edward threw the Count against the far wall, guarding Mina with the huge form that was his body.

She reached up and felt her neck. Her fingers came back coated in warm sticky blood. The Count was standing up once more.

"Yes, Henry!" Hyde was growling to himself. "I am not going to let anything happen to her!" He turned slightly to Mina. "Get the stakes and the hammer as soon as you can!" he hissed before the Count jumped on him and sank his fangs into Hyde's neck.

Mina wanted to laugh. That would only make Hyde mad. And it did- he wrenched the Count off of him and threw him against another wall. And giving Hyde the vampire bite would only make him more fearsome and evil- not something that was exactly desirable when someone was like Hyde. His hulking form approached the Count and picked him up once more, slamming him into the ceiling.

She looked frantically around the room. There was no way of telling when the Count would get loose from Hyde and come after her again. The stakes were lying scattered to her right and the small mallet was to her left. She grabbed the mallet and then scrambled over to the stakes on her belly and picked one up. The blood on her neck was uncomfortably warm and itchy. She was used to anyone's blood but her own.

Hyde grabbed the Count around the neck and slammed him into the floor. The Count struggled mightily against Hyde's seemingly iron grip.

"Mina! Now!" Hyde yelled.

She scrambled to her feet and ran over to where Hyde held Count Dracula down. Positioning the stake over his heart, she raised the mallet and looked briefly at the face of the Count. It was frozen in horror, as though he had never thought this would happen to him. Without a second thought, she brought the mallet down and drove the stake deeply through his heart.

The Count let out an agonized scream like some kind of animal and his mouth opened as wide as it would go. Blood gushed from around the stake, covering her skirt and hands as she put the final blow on the stake. Dracula's hand fell lifeless by his side and his eyes remained opened. She watched as they faded from red to a hazel color.

And Hyde suddenly handed her the small saw. Feeling the scorn for what Dracula had done to her, who he had taken from her and what he had condemned her to for so many years, she quickly sawed through his neck, not even caring that she was getting even more blood all over herself. She crawled to a corner and picked up the bag full of garlic she had brought with her. Forcing Dracula's mouth open, she stuffed it full of garlic and shut it again.

"Hyde," she said in a sort of dead voice. "Dig a hole and we'll put him in it."

Hyde nodded and lifted huge chunks of earth out of the floor with his hands. He then placed the body of the Count in it and shoved dirt over it. He buried Dracula's head in another place in the cellar.

Mina fell to her knees, feeling the sudden exhaustion come over her. She poked her tongue up to her teeth, feeling the absence of a fang. The cold and clammy air in the cellar suddenly hit her skin and she felt goose-bumps form. Hyde was looking down at her, as if waiting for his instructions. She looked up at him and knew that there was much to be said between herself and Edward Hyde.


Nemo had been out on the deck every night for the past few days. Sawyer did not know what to think of it, other than the fact that it might have something to do with the vessel that had appeared to have been following them. It was impossible that any ship was still near them. They were almost to the rendezvous point.

Sawyer climbed up the ladder leading to the deck and found Nemo there, scanning the horizon with a huge pair of binoculars.

"We almost there?" he asked, knowing that the question made him sound like a whiny little kid.

Nemo nodded. "We will be there late tomorrow morning."

"Early?"

Nemo just shook his head. "I only hope that we do not have to wait too long for Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Harker. I fear this recent encounter with the police has woken a sleeping monster."

"How? We got Skinner out all right. How could they connect it with you?"

"They have many ways."

Sawyer looked out at the horizon. "Nemo, there's nothing there. This is the boat that got us from Paris to Venice in three days. No one could be following us."

"I wish I had your optimism."

He smiled to himself, remembering the impassioned speech he had given the League right after M bombed the Nautilus. It was one of the few times he had referred to Huck when he walked about anything to them. That had also been the time when, for a short while, Mina had renewed her interest in him. Before that, she had made it clearly known that she was not interested in him- only in the scum of the earth known as Dorian Gray. Three weeks ago, he would have been thrilled to know that Mina wanted a relationship with him. Now that she had chosen another and she was not present, he was not sure that he would have ultimately wanted that relationship. Mina was so many things that he was not nor could ever be.

He thought back to his home and the people there. He might not want to ultimately live in St. Petersburg, Missouri, but he did know that Becky Thatcher lived there. Maybe he would go back if only for a little while.

"Thinking of home?"

Sawyer looked to Nemo. The captain had a small smile on his face. "My childhood home." He sighed. "I don't know if that is home anymore."

"Ah, but that is where all your roots are." Sawyer smiled as Nemo continued. "Some day I would like to go back India and see whatever became of my family."

"Sounds like they either died out or are half the population."

Nemo laughed. "That is probably not entirely incorrect."

Sawyer turned back to the side of the ship and the black nighttime waters. Perhaps once they collected Jekyll and Mina, he would go off to face his own demons and do what he knew he needed to ultimately do. He needed answers.

To Be Continued...