Warping

Chapter 2: An Awkward Point

Prior:

Anna glared towards the doorway watching as Van Helsing entered, a bit beat up, but smiling. "Sure I'm alive, but so," she hissed, "is he."

Van Helsing blinked at Anna's glare, and at Moll's quirking upside down smile. Turning slightly he looked over his shoulder at the smirking Count Dracula, who had entered the room behind him. Dracula gave a florid bow as Van Helsing shook his head, "Really my darling, you make a man think that you don't like him at all," Dracula commented in a mockingly sorrowful tone.

"Don't like is far too mild a term, loathing would be more accurate." Anna glared at the Count, as if hoping to erase him from this plane of existence by sheer will power alone. Van Helsing, caught between the two, sighed lightly and shrugged as he attempted to edge his way to a seat. "While we may have agreed not to finish this once and for all until this… problem is fixed, the whole reason we are in this mess with falling down black holes and ending up in dimension…"

"Dimensional pockets, we're in an alternate universe," Moll supplied as Anna slowed briefly in her rant.

"What she said," Anna agreed irritably, "Wouldn't have happened if you hadn't messed with things that were meant to stay as they were created!"

Van Helsing shook his head slightly, as he slid into the space beside Anna, the expression on his face implying that he hoped if she launched herself for Dracula's throat, he would at least be able to catch her in time to prevent disaster. Dracula himself remained standing, leaning in a casual fashion on the back of the couch Moll had settled on. He smirked at the fuming Anna, apparently unconcerned by the threat of physical violence. "Really darling, you should be thanking me. After all you and I had, so quite unfortunately, passed away. Now it seems that we have the opportunity to finish our… dance, which Gabriel so rudely interrupted," he leered exaggeratedly, the cadences in his voice lending an alternative meaning to his words.

Anna gaped at him, slowly turning red with rage. Van Helsing looked shocked and quickly shot a horrified look at his now homicidal seat partner. Panicking he met the amused gaze of Moll, who seemed to be enjoying the impending disaster. Seizing the chance to change the topic before blood was shed he interjected into the silence an abrupt question, "Molly why exactly are you upside down?" Seeing the change in direction Dracula smirked at Anna, who glared at Van Helsing for his obvious retreat.

"It helps me think strange thoughts," Moll replied calmly. "For instance, you weren't really trying to flirt were you Vladius?" Gabriel groaned as the topic swung back into dangerous waters.

Dracula arched an eyebrow; attention fully diverted, but still amused, "Yes I was. Why do you have some objection to it?"

"Of course, it's in bad taste, smacks of incest don't you think so?" Three pairs of eyes widened in shock.

While he had better control of himself than to gape in the fashion that Gabriel was, Dracula still stammered his reply, "In… Incest? What? How would you..?"

Moll blinked calmly at him and replied in a solemn tone usually reserved for explaining very simple things to small children, "Incest, defined as sexual relations between family members. You are the son of the original Lord Valerious. It is his second son that Anna's family is descendent from. Therefore you are very closely related to the Valerious family, and despite being disowned, still genetically a member of it. To simplify things to an extreme, you are Anna's uncle." Both Anna and Dracula stared in horror at Molly's straight face while Van Helsing elaborately placed his face in his hands in an expression of despair. Unified in their horror, the newly declared family member's eyes met; as their gazes turned away Molly smirked and winked at Van Helsing before returning to her sober expression. "So you see. Incest."

Absolute silence reigned for an extremely awkward half minute, during which Dracula attempted desperately to erase completely the memory of the recent conversation from his mind. Anna appeared to have gone into a catatonic state, retreating into a happy world where whatever her erstwhile friend had said, had never happened.

Gabriel glanced between the two former antagonists with a rueful smile. Clearing his throat, he gained everyone's attention. "Moving on; Anna, don't be so hostile, Dracula, don't bait Anna. This is a stressful enough situation as it is, for all of us, without generating more tension on top of the rest. Molly… Molly, just please never mention that again."

"Just calling it like I see it. Don't glare at me like that Vladius, it's just the impression that you seemed to be conveying."

"It was most certainly not the image that I was attempting to cultivate," was Dracula's frosty response.

"Of course it wasn't," Moll blinked innocently back at him.

Rapid steps passed in the hall, and then returned. The cheerful form of Anna's brother, Velkan entered the room, "Ah, here you all are, I was worried you had started without me." Velkan's entrance seemed to begin to dissipate the tension built in the room.

Moll couldn't seem to help her manic grin, "Don't worry Velkan, this lovely family gathering just wouldn't be the same without you."

Sensing a sudden jump in tension Velkan carefully observed those in the room. Dracula appeared to be gritting his teeth and holding in some sort of retort to the apparently mild comment. His sister had frozen, hand halfway to the steaming tea pot. Van Helsing seemed to be debating between whether he should be horrified, stoic, or amused. Moll was still smiling her crazy upside down grin. Velkan cautiously shot Van Helsing an inquiring look, a minute head shake told him not to ask.

"Well, good to know you all waited for me, although there was no reason to hold tea on my account. We should probably drink before it goes cold. Milord Count, were you planning on sitting down?"

Dracula unbent from his now stiff stance next to the couch, "I was planning on it. After all, I could use the polite conversation, if it is indeed possible in this company." He moved and smoothly seated himself on the couch next to Moll, ignoring the legs stretching up beside his shoulder, and glaring down at the smiling face next to him.

"I'm sure we could manage that at least," Velkan replied with a smile, carefully overlooking the sneering overtones and the implicitly threatening gestures from the moody vampire now seated on the couch. His sister seemed to relax a bit as well, although she shot Moll a glare as she finished her reach for the tea and began pouring cups for those present. Velkan smiled as he sat in the wing chair by the door, stretching out his feet toward the fire and accepting a teacup from Anna, "Ah, Molly?"

"Yes?"

"Would you mind seating your self properly? You are disturbing sitting like that, and you can't drink your tea that way besides."

Moll tilted her head at what appeared to be a neck breaking angle to observe him while he spoke, and then contemplated the ceiling directly above her. "Hmm," she smiled cryptically, "Most apparently, yes," and swung her legs over the startled Dracula's head and onto his lap before succeeding in fully righting herself.

Van Helsing shot Moll a reprimanding look as she accepted her own cup of tea and she settled in innocently next to the newly disgruntled vampire as he waved off a cup. "So," Van Helsing started the proper topic of the day, "What next?"

Author Note: I figure if you're going to create an AU, at least be honest about it. If you can't explain it with pseudo science, there is always magic to really mess up the world.

I'm not sure if this chapter will be any help in clearing up the timeline of what has happened previous to the opening of the story, but is does set up for the main action. For the most part the plot I have in mind is a direct sequel to the movie, with a period of maybe a few months in between for all of the chaos to happen to reach this point. Hopefully I'll be able to find place for a few flashbacks to explain what actually has happened, if not I'll make a timeline and tack in random flashback/backstory chapter somewhere in the middle.