A/N Wow... I totally (excuse the So Cal girl coming out:-) didn't even realize that I had gone over 50 reviews on this.... THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL MY REVIEWERS! This is my first fic to have gotten so far.
Celia()- Yea, I only got a brief chance to look at the part in the novelization. I'm going to be buying that as soon as I am no longer broke....
Katya S- Yes, Anna will be alive in this chapter! But not because I resurrected her... Van Helsing will know her, but for her it will be like the first time.
HyperCaz()- Yes, no more hurting Carl! And no sequel! It's all in the same fic! Just different PARTS. And thank you for all your awesome encouragement!
Spike Daft- Yea, I read that part of the book... Thank you for your review, I'll have to go read your fic!
Naitriab- Heh, thank you for not killing me over Carl... I had actually never even thought about writing those 400 years, but now that you've brought it up I might go back and redo it someday. And yes, we go back into the movie for three chapters.
ThePet- Wow, brilliant and dramatic... thank you!
HealerAriel- Yea, I had waaayyy too much fun with Dracula thinking they're gay (sick-minded nut... I love him:-)
Anthem82()- Yea, I pretty much knew that... but thanks for your review all the same!
HealerAriel- Great, now HyperCaz is snuggling Gabriel and you're snuggling Carl! LOL! Yea, they make a great team...
krinklyluck- Here's the update, and thanks for your help!
Irish Anor -...... you are officially my special friend. THIS CHAPTER WOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOUR SCARY MEMORIZATION OF THE WHOLE DAMN SCENE! LOL, thank you sooo much!
Allora- LOL, if Carl has any doubts of his popularity, he just has to come read these reviews! Yall are so happy he's not dead... and thanks for your review!
Doris()- Yes, school does suck! And Anna makes her big debut in this chapter... Yes, I found it odd myself that he loves Analiese and Anna as one person, but that was my reasoning for him falling for Anna in the first place. Subconsciously, she reminded him of Analiese. But this time around, Analiese reminded him of Anna. My mind is a funny little thing, ain't it?
Lovely()- I glad you like my story! And it's weird, I didn't really think anyone would care that Analiese died... LOL.
J()- Eesh, whiplash, I know what you are talking about. I've had that before... ain't pleasant....
Lovely()- Three and a half?! --confused-- Anyways, thank you so so so much! I really needed your help!
This is dedicated to all of those reviewers who aided me with the Bride battle, and especially to Irish Anor and Lovely, who literally gave me the play-by-play. Thank you all!
Okay, on a closing note, Part One is now known as 'A Dark Past' and this new part, only three chapters in length, is 'A Changing Present' and after that is 'A Haunted Future' which is- well, for me to know and you to find out:-)Chapter 13
Meetings Both New and Old
Four hundred years... Van Helsing still had issues with getting his mind around that number. He was over four hundred years old, and still didn't look a day over his mid-thirties. (A/N- I cannot for the life of me figure out how old Van Helsing is... so I guessed!) On some long days-and he had had many-he would simply sit there and think about it. Four hundred years...
Not that he and Carl had done much with those four hundred years. On the first day, the day of their friends' funerals, they had returned to the castle. Without explanation, Gabriel had dismissed all their servants. They had removed all of the bodies from the hall and its adjoined corridor, and given fitting funerals to each. By the time all this was done, so was the day. Exhausted, they had fallen asleep in their separate rooms. The next morning, Van Helsing could not bring himself to enter the still-bloody hall once more. He sealed every possible entrance to it.
They lived out the first few months quietly, drifting around the empty castle like ghosts. Already, rumors of what had happened had spread through the countryside, and so no one pestered them. A year later, on one of their monthly trips into town for food and news, they heard of Dracula's nightmarish return and his subsequent banishment. At that time, they also learned of Dracula's relation to Analiese: their fathers were brothers.
Carl took to sleeping for huge portions of the day, even for days at a time. It worried Van Helsing greatly, who feared that his friend might be suffering the effects of being jerked out of his timeline and added to another one he had no business of being in. On one of the increasingly rare occasions in which Carl awoke for food, he explained his theory on it.
"It's not that I'm dying," He had said through a stuffed mouth. "I'm hibernating. I have... nothing to do here. We're each here to do something, correct? Well, I'm kind of in the wrong century. My life essentially has no purpose, and so I'm sort of unwillingly forcing myself into hibernation. But don't worry; I lived through being shot in the chest, I don't think this will kill me."
But why haven't I begun to sleep? Van Helsing wondered dismally that night on one of his aimless nocturnal ramblings. He felt just as aimless as Carl claimed to be, but his body did not force him into a much needed rest. He supposed it was because he had been alive at that time, and had a purpose, but he had no idea of what it was. He was compelled constantly to be wandering, and wondered if that was how he had lived it out before. While he was out and about, he'd lose himself in thoughts and worries. His greatest was this: what if this was not how it happened? What if he was missing something and messing up the way it was supposed to happen? He had no way of knowing... In the deaths of all his friends, he had lost that link to his forgotten past.
Carl's suggestion was this: lie low. He could go off and try and do something with four hundred years, but he ran a greater risk of realigning fates and changing timelines... at least, he thought that was what the Friar had said. Most of it hadn't made much sense...
And then there were times when he figured that this was how it must've been the first time. His whole world had been brutally shattered, and it must have rocked him to the core. Maybe this purposeless, empty wandering was how he had spent his days...
After a while day and night, week and year, blended into a muddled heap. Then he too began to sleep. He was like Carl at first, sleeping for a couple days at a time, awaking to eat, and then drifting off again. But gradually, the two dropped off entirely and would not awake for months at a time. When they did, they'd eat and talk to make sure they still could, walk about the slowly decaying castle or its overgrown grounds, and then drift off again, often in the oddest of places. The times when they awoke were erratic, and totally inexplicable. Often, it was hard to tell whether they were awake or not. Under Time's fuzzy blanket, everything grew surreal.
Around the last twenty years, they began to awake more and more frequently, their bodies needing nourishment. They looked at the year and realized that they were born again. Their immortality was gone.
At length, they returned to the Order. Carl almost wept with joy at the sight of his inventions. The memories of those around them were intact, and it was as if they had been there all along and had never left. They did often wonder where Cardinal Jinette was, though...
Shocking as it was, Van Helsing was actually happy to be back. He replayed all his old missions to perfection, and while it still stung horribly to be called murderer, didn't find them as hollow as he had once thought they were. He had thought that without a past, you could have no purpose. But now he knew what it was to have no purpose, after living those four hundred years out. While only one shining fragment of his scattered memory had been revealed, it was enough. And he did have purpose now, especially as he grew closer and closer to the Transylvania assignment. The point he had been working towards was almost there...
As he walked through the Vatican's echoing halls, newly returned from the demise of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he was filled with a kind of sickening excitement. He was barely aware of himself as he went through the conversation he had once had with Cardinal Jinette but was now held with a different Cardinal and was led through the halls into the catacombs. The only thing that was different was as the picture of Anna flashed up on the projection screen, his heart nearly stopped. It had been so long, too long, since he had seen her... Before he had been looking at her and memorizing every detail only because he wanted to ensure he could find and protect her.
Carl babbled on excitedly about the new inventions, dumping them into a bag he had given the Hunter as he had once done. Van Helsing made sure to tease him about never having left the abbey, and tell him he was coming. Even though he knew that Carl would be okay, and Carl himself knew it to, his reaction was still priceless.
"Hell be damned I'm not!"
And then, later:
"But I'm not a field man! Van Helsing!"
And despite his protests, that silly little Friar was following anyway.
The sailing to Romania was as he had remembered, but with a new set of dreams. Instead of being plagued by wonderings about a lost past and worries about fighting Dracula, he had dreams about Anna... Happy ones about living with her in some little villa by the sea. Carl would come and visit them, spend summer there, and teach their two children about science and math. He and Anna were showing them how to fight, and then laughing when they tackled their parents with surprising force. Then they turned on a sleeping Carl, frightening the timid Friar out of his wits as they leapt upon him with ghoulish howls...
Van Helsing was smiling in his sleep, behavior which Carl considered highly abnormal. It was not hard to guess what - or whom - he was dreaming of, since four hundred years had given them a strange bond (A/N- GIT YER MINDS OUTTA THE GUTTER) but while he was happy to see his friend for once not plagued by nightmares, he was worried for him. Anna had taken over him, blinded him to the dangers of his work. He had almost entirely thrown off their mission to kill Dracula in the 1400's because Analiese's love had distracted him, and now with Anna and a chance of possibly saving her, Van Helsing might forgo all caution and sense. But, being a fairly shy man and not wanting to hurt or anger Van Helsing, Carl decided to trust to God and to his friend and hope he made the right choices.
"So, what do you remember?" Carl asked as they walked through the square of the Transylvanian town.
"Not now, Carl." Van Helsing said without glancing at his friend. He was on high alert, and pretending to be oblivious to the closely following and hostile townsfolk.
"There must be something." The overly-inquisitive Friar pressed.
"I remember fighting the Romans at Masada." Van Helsing said in an offhanded way.
"That was in 73 AD!" Carl whispered in utter awe.
"You asked." Was the light reply. A hurt Carl sensed that he really didn't have the man's attention here. Well, maybe trying to think back and remember wasn't the man's idea of a good conversation. Maybe it would make him happier if he talked about killing things...
"What are we doing here? Why is it so important to kill this Dracula anyway?" He asked nervously. This wasn't his idea of a good topic, but he had a kind of morbid need to know why this Dracula personage needed to die.
"Because he's the son of the devil." Van Helsing tipped his hat forward to cover his face, speaking in the same light, unconcerned tone.
"I mean besides that." Carl replied nervously. That title really didn't comfort him...
"Because if we kill him, anything bitten by him or created by him will also die." Was the next reply.
"I mean besides that." He pushed. What was he fishing for? No matter what he asked, the answer was going to be something involving death or hell or very nasty things that he wasn't going to like...
"Welcome to Transylvania." The white-haired crypt keeper said with a dark smile. Van Helsing turned to the crowd and dropped his bag of weapons with an air of 'Well, it starts.''
"Is it always like this?" Carl, who was beginning to think that shutting up might be best, asked as he stood close behind Van Helsing.
"Pretty much." Van Helsing replied distantly. He was waiting for something...
Click. Click. The twin taps of high-heeled boots on the edge of the well. The sound, however small and insignificant it might seem to others, reverberated through Van Helsing's very being. But he remained cool and calm, his trademark, and did nothing to act on the rising feeling bubbling inside of him.
"You. Turn around." She said in her thick accent with a tone of obvious command. Van Helsing and Carl turned, faces kept down slightly, to see Princess Anna Valerious standing on the well, hands on her hips, not lookin exceedingly pleased. "Let us see your faces." She commanded with obvious suspicion.
"Why?" Van Helsing challenged, his face still hidden by his hat.
"Because we don't trust strangers." Anna replied silkily, drawing out each syllable slightly. Despite Van Helsing's challenge, command was still evident in her voice.
"Strangers don't last long in here. 5 foot 7.." The crypt keeper said, rather impersonally using a stick to take measurements of Carl. The Friar noticed this time around with a feeling of dread that he was taking measurements for a grave. Anna motioned to the crowd.
"Gentlemen, you will now be disarmed." She said. In response, the crudely armed townsfolk gathered all around began to press closer.
"You can try." Van Helsing warned in a dangerous voice, his hand on his revolver in a threatening gesture. He gave them a menacing glance as though to further ward them off, and it worked like a charm.
"You refuse to obey our laws?" Anna asked lightly, raising an eyebrow. Van Helsing turned to look at her and leaned his head back a little, affording her a better view of his face. He had a handsome one, she mused, and one that cloaked his thoughts well.
"The laws of men mean little to me." He replied. That sent off a warning signal in Anna's mind. Do you obey the laws of the undead then? She asked him in her head. Well, better safe then sorry...
"Fine." She replied softly. "Kill them." The air of command instantly returned to her voice, accompanied by a harsher edge. Carl gasped and began to look around wildly.
"I'm here to help." Van Helsing said quickly, moving a little closer.
"I don't need any help." Anna said with a stiff independence that reminded him of Analiese. Van Helsing breathed out slowly, his breath forming a cloud around his face.
"Oh really?" He asked flippantly. With lightening reflex, he pulled out and armed his crossbow. Anna's eyes widened and she ducked quickly, now hearing the vampire Brides behind her. Van Helsing fired off several shots at them, causing them to scatter and then soar back up and out of range as the bolts struck the redheaded one-Aleera.
"EVERYBODY INSIDE!" Anna shouted as she stood.
"NOSFERATU!" The villagers screamed, dashing for their dwellings.
Carl was crouched on the ground by the bag of weapons yelping in terror as the Brides circled the village, Van Helsing firing desperately at them. He was turned in a circle, concentrating on the one or two in front of him. He didn't see the blonde one-Marishka, swoop in from behind. Next thing he knew, he was on the ground with Anna on top of him, and she was gliding just above them, growling.
Van Helsing and Anna locked eyes for a moment, as though just meeting for the first time. Their souls and minds brushed briefly, seizing each other up, but were wrenched apart as Aleera dove down and caught Anna in her claws. Hesitation absent, Van Helsing was on his feet and running after, jumping up to catch Anna's feet. He was wild with fear, and while he knew the battle's outcome and that she would escape mostly unscathed, he hadn't realized before how many times he had come so close to losing her. She wasn't getting away that easily.
Snarling as she realized she could not carry both, Aleera dropped them. There was a huge thud as Anna and Van Helsing hit the ground. Van Helsing was flat on his back, stunned from the impact of the fall, and so it took him a moment to realize that Anna was straddling his shoulders. That was almost more stunning than the fall, being to close to something he had lost so utterly...
But there was no time for romantic reminiscing, and he had to pretend to be horrified by their compromising position. He grabbed hold of her legs and rolled them over so that he was on top.
"Stay here!" He shouted above the anarchy. With unmatched fierceness, Anna grabbed his shoulders and rolled him over so he was on the ground!
"No, you stay here! They're trying to kill me!" With that, she began to run away. Cursing inwardly at her headstrong will, Van Helsing was soon on his feet too and running for his dropped crossbow. Flying above the village, the Brides took notice of this.
"Marishka! Kill the stranger!" The dark-haired one named Verona shouted.
"Love to!" Marishka cackled. Looking for a hiding place, Anna had been running towards the side of a house, but was quickly forced to turn and run away as the Brides chased her.
"Run!" She screamed. Not ehr most intelligent, she admitted, but certainly a good solid idea in such a situation. Cleverly, she arced her path towards Van Helsing, leading the Brides behind her, so he could fire at them. It was an opportunity he did not miss. He hated, absolutely hated having those fanged monsters so close to Anna... At that time, the crossbow chose to be out of bolts.
"Carl! Carl it's not working!" He shouted desperately. Anna was still running...
"Try aiming at their hearts!" Carl shouted as he tossed a new cartridge to the Hunter. In hindsight, he wished he could do something more to help his friend, but fear pinned him to his spot.
One of the Brides dove for Van Helsing; he ducked and the Bride grabbed a cow instead. Frustrated, she flung it into a house. By then, Van Helsing had finished reloading and fired mercilessly at them. Having lost interest in the Hunter, the Brides once more focused on Anna, who was still running in desperation. Van Helsing followed her with the sight of his crossbow, but grew too nervous of hitting her as he fired. As Anna dove behind a vegetable cart and Van Helsing failed to pose a threat, Verona carried off a man and bit him, Aleera following suit. Marishka happily dove into the crowd, clawing at will. Anna watched with horror, as did Van Helsing, but he was frozen.
"DO SOMETHING!" Anna shouted desperately, watching the massacre.
It was her that had drawn him away from reality in the first place, and her that threw him back. Starting, Van Helsing renewed his barrage and scattered the feasting Brides. It was then that the blessed sun spread it's rays over the village like a coat of gold. Slowly, Anna stood from her hiding place and took note of the crossbow bolts happily stuck every which way into the buildings of the village. The scent of blood was carried on the whisper of a breeze as the injured tried to crawl into some safe place. Van Helsing's blood was pounding in his ears as he watched them. That had not happened before. There was been only minimal casualties. Why had he hesitated, grown too afraid for Anna to do something to save them...? Hiding his guilt, eh looked over at Anna.
"It's the sun." She supplied, moving out of the shade. More people who had found places of temporary hiding followed her, creeping cautiously towards the light as thought they didn't even trust it.
Water sloshed around in the well. Instantly on red alert, Anna and Van Helsing looked over at it. Silent as wraiths, they began to approach it from opposite sides, warrior muscles taut. Anna retrieved a fallen scythe slowly, and Van Helsing held his crossbow at the ready. From across the well, they made a silent agreement to attack simultaneously. After a tense moment, they lunged forward, weapons trained downward... but there was nothing there. They looked back up at each other with confusion. Both were too well trained to feel relieved. Sneakily, the jealous clouds began to cut off the life-saving sunlight once more. Carl looked skyward, his heart thudding slowly as his terror began to overtake him.
"Van Helsing..." He whispered slowly.
It was that moment that Aleera chose to surge impressively out of the well and take hold of Anna, her powerful wings sending Van Helsing flying backwards.
"Do you like to fly, Anna?" Aleera grinned devilishly at her captive once they were high up.
Furious, Van Helsing aimed his crossbow at Aleera, but there could get no clear shot. Aleera's cackling still rang through the air, setting his blood boiling. But Anna was certainly no damsel in distress as she proved when she drew a knife and dealt her captor's leg a vicious slash. Aleera flung her away, but not to her doom. The gypsy princess was caught by Verona, who began to soar up. This time, Van Helsing could get a clear shot at the vampire and used his scope to do so, firing a single, more explosive projectile at the Bride. It struck her in the leg, causing her to howl wretchedly and release Anna.
Anna, while grateful to Van Helsing for saving her, wasn't all too pleased with being dropped onto a slippery roof, sliding down, catching hold of the edge, and then being forced to dangle there, eying the ground. Carefully, she braced herself against the edge, then flipped around and tried to catch hold of a tree. Instead, she was flung into it upside-down. Groaning and cursing, she swung there for a precarious few moments before slipping off. As she fell, a branch struck her hard in her gut. Despite this, she managed to land in a deep crouch, grimacing and letting a small cry of pain out of her lips.
Van Helsing heard her cry of pain, but willed himself not to be distracted by it. He fired at Marishka, who fell through the roof of one of the houses. When he looked at where Anna had been before, she was gone.
She's okay. He forced himself to think. Just play this out as it happened before all the way until the end and she will live... Not allowing his emotional battle to show, he stalked towards the dwelling that now housed Marishka, only to be thrown backwards by the charge of the said Bride. His trusted crossbow was flung far from him. His thoughts foggy and slow, he turned to see Marishka land on a railing and with a whisper of smoke and crackle of flesh change into her human form. Seductively, she walked the rail of the house, removing bolts from her body. the wounds closed instantly, giving her time to play her little games with him.
Van Helsing watched her cautiously. Well I can't really kill her without a weapon now can I? He thought cynically to himself. Then he looked down to the ground, where his crossbow lay.
Here's my chance to help! Carl thought as he rummaged through the bag. For a brief and shining instant, he considered charging up there with the silver stake in one hand and the silver cross in the other, a battle cry on his lips.... and then promptly being bitten, clawed, mangled and having other disgusting things that he could not name but could imagine very well done to him. In the end, he decided that more tossing from a safe distance was in order.
"This should do the trick!" He said to himself, pulling out the canteen of holy water. Well, here goes my battle cry... "Holy water!" He shouted, running and throwing it to Van Helsing as once upon a century or two ago he had flung the short sword that later took Vladislaus Dracula's life. Just as that projectile had missed, this one did. Verona swooped down and caught it midair, flinging it into the well.
"Stop your teasing Marishka and finish him!" Verona shouted harshly, flying away again.
"Too bad. So sad." Marishka said in a pouty purr as she slowly sank down, her hands on her knees.
"The church!" Carl shouted, gesturing wildly. Van Helsing turned and saw the church with a water spout out front.
Holy water.
Marishka too noticed the church. Her seductive smile grew ghoulish as fangs elongated out of her mouth. Then she began to snarl, and as he ran for his crossbow, leapt off the railing at Van Helsing. The force sent him on a whiplash spin through a cart, a carriage and into a wall. His head pounding and dots dancing in front of his eyes, he slumped to the ground.
Right by his crossbow.
Marishka screamed as he took his crossbow into his hands and ran for the church, shoving everything else out of his mind except for two very opposite things: death and survival.
"Here she comes!" Carl cried, pointing to the screaming Bride as she swooped towards Van Helsing.
Van Helsing felt like shouting at the Friar for not telling him where she was coming from, but didn't as he thrust the tip of his crossbow into the holy water, then whirled around. Marishka was bare feet from him as he aimed and then, with a twinge of remorse for the once beautiful woman, pulled the trigger.
Bolts dripping in holy water ripped through her white bat-like body, causing her to lose control and crash into a steeple, pinned there by the sharp tips clawing eagerly at her skin. She screamed and writhed, using every ounce of power in her body to fight the fate she did not want. Many common threads bind the peoples of this world, some stronger than others. One of the strongest is this: none of us want to die. And no one understood that better than Gabriel Van Helsing as he watched her turn to ash and dust before his eyes, a faded memory blown easily away by the Transylvanian breeze. Because he himself had not wanted to die, he had been forced to take the life of another.
Verona and Aleera burst from the house they had detained Anna in, wailing their fallen sister's name. They would remember what others would forget. In that, we are all immortal. Making the sign of the cross, Van Helsing tumbled onto the steps of the church, exhausted in every way possible.
Carl, after noticing that somehow the damn cow that Verona had attacked was alive and well, joined his comrade on the steps. The crowd followed him, shouting angrily.
"He killed her!"
"He killed Marishka!"
"He killed a Bride!"
Shouting obscenities and waving their makeshift weapons, they closed in on a resigned Van Helsing, too used to such scenes of anger, and a highly befuddled Friar.
"But isn't that a good thing?" He squeaked, squinting.
"Vampires only kill what they need to survive. One or two people a month. Now, they will kill for revenge." The crypt keeper said sinisterly. At this, a new uproar like a fresh wave of blood from a wound rose and pounded on Van Helsing. He was used to being called a murderer, but the people of Transylvania were cutting open his heart and pouring salt and lemon over the cuts with abandon.
"Are you always this popular?" Carl asked incredulously.
"Pretty much." Van Helsing said in a dry voice.
"So what name, my good sir, do I carve on your gravestone?" asked the snowy haired crypt keeper, as white as the dead he took care of and with a grin that would probably scare most of them.
"His name is Van Helsing." Anna said as she parted the crowd with ease and stood before him. Shifting and whispering, the crowd reacted to this name with a mixture of reverence and fear. "Your reputation precedes you." In way of response, Van Helsing rose and moved close to her. The part of his mind that had already lived this before realized something: even then, he had felt the desire to protect her.
"Next time, stay close. You're no good to me dead." He admonished quietly. The urge struck him to reach up and run his hand along the smoothly defined curve of her face, then run it through her chocolate hair, just so he could absorb the contrast: smooth and pale, tangled and dark.
"Well, I'll say this to you. You've got courage." She smiled softly, saying this just to him. Now she turned to the crowd and announced in her strong, decisive tone: "He's the first one to kill a vampire in over a hundred years." Now her gaze fell back on him, her eyes sending trembling warmth through him. "I'd say that's earned him a drink."
The first time he had lived this, Van Helsing had been resigned to this, just another mission. There had been no fire, not until much later, when he felt that connection to Dracula and to Anna, when he realized that this was not just some other monster to be killed but a person, and someone he knew apparently, and when he saw that this was not just some other... thing to be protected, but a fierce and passionate woman who melted the ice that normally protected his heart and made him feel again. Now, that fire was still burning bright and he was thinking to himself It's good to be back...
A/N Personally, I thought that chapter was crap... it just wasn't willing to be written, but I forced it to anyways. So, loved it, hated it, tell me, but please be polite. The next chapter is not something that happened in the movie but something I came up with.... and Carl gets to be intelligent in it!! So review!