Evil from the Past
Author's Note: Finally got rid of that irritating illness! Goodbye cough mixture, hello chocolate! Yay!
Thank you to all my old reviewers, plus Reicheru, cocoaducks and MisticWolf. It's very nice, I AM EOWYN, to say it should be made into a movie. That'd be cool. Don't worry, Zeggy, people are gonna die. Soon. Manveri still hasn't guessed who my favourite Bride is. Think you know? Try and guess!
Anyway, back to all the action.
Through the Looking-Glass
Castle Dracula, Transylvania, 19th century
The first thing Harry saw when he stepped out of the looking-glass was Castle Dracula. It towered over them, dark and forbidding, and it looked like it had been carved out of the black rock of the mountains around it by the Devil's own hand, its towers and turrets sprouting out of the monstrous foundations like sinister fingers. The Time Shuttle sat motionless beside a colossal wall of a door – an impenetrable slab of stone.
Castle Dracula was clearly designed to scare the living daylights out of anyone who set eyes on it. It certainly had the desired effect on Ron, who stopped short in alarm and began to back away hastily. He bumped into the mirror and rebounded off. The mirror had melted into the black rock that seemed to make up the rest of the landscape. No escape from that point, then.
Everyone else had crossed the field of packed white snow and now stood confronted by the massive door. Their eyes ran up and down its slick sides, searching for weak points – and finding none. The only way to open it seemed to be from inside.
"An impossible entrance," breathed Faramir.
Holly surveyed Castle Dracula and its impassable door. The evil aura of the castle struck chords of fear upon her heartstrings, as it did for the rest. But Holly Short of LEPRecon had never really let that particular emotion bother her.
"Permission to enter, Commander?"
"Permission granted. No need for doctrine in this case; feel free to wreak havoc in the house of the undead."
"You think you can scale that thing?" began Anna, but Holly ignored her. Fitting a piton dart into the launcher of her Neutrino, she aimed the gun at the crack between the top of the door and its frame and fired.
The dart whizzed through the frigid air and lodged securely onto the door frame. Holly activated the piton cord winch. She was lifted into the air, bounding gently along the vertical surface like a rock-climber. She reached the top and scrambled between the narrow space there. A neat fit.
Holly checked that her dart was still firmly embedded in the rock, and proceeded to abseil down the other side of the door. So easy, she thought.
Then she received a rather unpleasant surprise. Her booted foot connected with something soft, with a resulting sickly squelch.
Holly looked down. Her foot had penetrated what seemed like a slimy white cocoon, through the viscous goo, and was resting next to something solid. A closer look revealed it to be a horrifyingly ugly bat-like creature, already armed with a pair of tiny razor fangs. Her stomach twisted in disgust at the sight. Forcing back a scream, she yanked her foot out the revolting substance. All around her, similar cocoons hung from the rafters, the ceiling, the soaring beams, with electrical wires sticking out of them. Realization dawned. Dracula's undead children. And he wanted to bring them to life...
No time to waste, then. Holly descended quickly, snapping the cord. A flywheel lay next to the entrance. With all her strength, Holly cranked the massive wheel backward, the rusty metal scraping against her palms which were growing steadily sweatier. Finally, the door creaked forward and slowly lowered itself, until the other members of the rescue party could climb over it and enter the enormous foyer of the castle.
"This place is huge," breathed Ron in awe as he stared around him.
Captain Jack Sparrow was arguing with his crew members on the prostrate door. "I'm telling you, we need back-up! Why can't you lot stay outside the castle with the cannons? Divide and conquer, savvy?"
"We're for going in," retorted Anamaria, "and we will."
"Who's Captain here?" snapped Jack, drawing himself up to his full height. "Does that word mean any to you skulduggering scoundrels?"
The crew subsided reluctantly.
"That's the attitude, mates. Now, you wait outside, and don't come in till I call. Savvy?"
"Aye, Cap'n," replied the sullen crew.
Jack tipped his hat and rejoined the others, who were exploring the interior of the front hall and poking in barely suppressed disgust at the baby vampires in their cocoons. "Ick," muttered Ron. Harry grimaced in agreement and wiped his finger on the stone wall, leaving a slimy trail.
Holly noticed a grating at the end of the hall and went over. If she removed her helmet, her head was just small enough to pass through the iron bars. She was looking down into what seemed like a prison cell – with Foaly in it.
"Psst! Foaly!"
The centaur looked up, surprised. "Holly! So they didn't get you after all."
"You think I'd kick the bucket so easily? What are those pod-things you're sitting in?"
Foaly looked down at the machine pod. "Dracula put us into them – you're lucky you came when you did, because he's just left to go up to his laboratory. The pods are bringing us up to that there platform to be electrocuted. Yeah, and that's about it."
The others by then had gathered around the grating. Harry stared into the icy gloom and managed to discern Hermione's limp form in one of the pods. Hermione stirred slightly. "H-Harry? I'm-I'm not hallucinating, am I?"
Foaly jerked his head at the other three humans. "They didn't seem to take to the cold so well."
Holly turned to the pod containing Artemis. "Artemis? Can you hear me? Say something, for Frond's sake!"
Artemis could hear Holly's voice hovering on the edges of his consciousness, just slightly out of reach. It took a lot of effort to wade through the icy waters of his mind after her voice. "You must excuse me, Holly," he spoke, slowly, "if the conditions down here are a bit too cold for my mind's cognition."
"That's more like it, Mud Boy."
Van Helsing, who was standing at the side of the group, felt an odd sensation pass over him. Suddenly, he doubled up in pain as the curse stretched and tore at his insides till his ribs felt like bursting. Anna put out a concerned hand to support him.
Hermione twisted her head to cast Van Helsing a suspicious glance. "Do you know he's a werewolf?" she asked Harry and Ron.
"How do you know that?" asked Ron incredulously.
"I know the symptoms. I was very interested in werewolves after Professor Lupin – well, you know." Hermione's voice had regained its old know-it-all tone. "But you can cure him. I know where the cure is."
"And how do you know that?" asked Anna.
"By keeping my ears peeled while I was around here. Now, from where you're standing you can see two staircases. If you face us, the stairs on the right lead to the Black Tower; the cure's in the room at the top, so I heard."
"Right," said Anna. "What about the one on the left?"
"To the Devil's Tower," answered Foaly. "The laboratory, where Dracula's going to electrocute us."
"I see."
"There's something not right," Van Helsing had recovered, and he was thinking out loud. "Why would Dracula have a cure in the first place?"
Artemis raised his tired head. "I should have thought it quite obvious. The only creature that can kill Dracula is a werewolf. Hence, he would need a cure to remove the curse before one killed him."
The group was silent. They had just been enlightened. Van Helsing's curse was the only way to kill Dracula and save the world from vampiric destruction.
"That's it, then." Van Helsing had made up his mind. "I'll deal with Dracula."
"You need the cure," stated Anna firmly. "I'll get that."
While this exchange was going on, Aragorn had noticed something. His ranger's sharp hearing had caught footsteps coming down a corridor round the corner. Andúril whipped through the air like lightning and came to a stop dead in front of the face of a new intruder.
"What the hell," muttered Rick O'Connell.
"Well," said Aragorn softly but triumphantly. "What have we here? Caught you off your guard, didn't we?"
Ardeth Bay's scimitar sliced through the air to point at Aragorn's neck. "Harm my friend and you die."
This unexpected stalemate was interrupted by a cry. Alex, who had been silent up till now, had caught sight of Rick. "Dad!"
"Alex!" exclaimed Rick.
Alex turned to Holly for help. "Please," he pleaded, "tell that guy not to kill Dad. He really doesn't mean any harm."
"Hear that?" Holly called to Aragorn. "The guy – I mean man – means no harm."
Rick sincerely looked like he meant otherwise.
Aragorn glared at Rick, then removed his sword. Ardeth removed his scimitar. He and Rick glared back.
"Dad," interrupted Alex again. "They've got Mom, and they took her up there."
"To be electrocuted," added Foaly unhelpfully.
"Electrocuted?!" Rick stared up at the platform, mouth open in shock. "Evy!"
"It's a long way up," pointed out Holly, equally unhelpfully.
The pod with Evelyn in it was now on the platform and wired to the machine and yet another pod. Evelyn strained her neck to see over the side of the pod and caught her breath. "Not – her."
Imhotep appeared in her field of vision, looking viciously triumphant. "Yes. And you will be my sacrifice to her."
Evelyn groaned. Above her, the sky crackled with uneasy lightning. "Why does it always have to be me?"
"Because no one else hates her as much as you do," offered Imhotep. He checked the wiring and pulled down several levers. A complicated-looking lightning-rod unfolded out of the machine and creaked into the electrical air. Evelyn stared at it in horror.
Imhotep crossed over to Anck-su-namun in her pod, stroking her long black hair. Her face in death was bitterly beautiful. He positioned her arms crossed over her breast, like the Pharaohs in their tombs were positioned, but into each of her hands he placed one of the golden pair of daggers she had so loved. "Soon, my beloved," he whispered in Egyptian. "Soon we shall be together again."
"Sick," muttered Evelyn.
Imhotep turned to her. "Any last words?"
Evelyn spat at him. "I hope you go to hell. And I mean that literally."
Imhotep's nostrils flared. Turning his back on her, he strode to the very edge of the platform, above the eight-hundred-foot drop. Raising his arms, he roared a Word of Power at the roiling heavens. In reply, the sky cracked into half with a blinding flash that sent lightning bolts streaming down at the conductor.
Oh, God, no, thought Evelyn in the remaining second left to her.
Then lightning struck the conductor, and spread like liquid fire into her flesh. The pain was beyond all description, and she screamed, screamed as her body convulsed in a tight ball of agony. And in the midst of the blackening world of pain, she heard above it all a dismaying sound: the sound of Anck-su-namun's gasp of life.
"You can't climb that wall like that," pointed out Holly.
"You should not doubt him," argued Ardeth. "He has performed many marvels I myself can hardly believe."
As if to gainsay him, Rick lost his grip on the slippery stones and landed sprawled in a heap before them.
Holly rolled her eyes. "Mud Men."
Suddenly, Evelyn's agonized scream echoed round the shaft. Rick scrambled back onto his feet, still determined. "Evy's up there, and I can't give her up." He rushed forward to make another attempt on the wall of the shaft, but Holly's next words stopped him.
"You can't climb it, you know. What I can do is fly you up."
Rick turned and stared down at the elf. "You're not joking."
"She's serious," said Root. "Deadly so."
Rick didn't say anything for a long time. When he did open his mouth, the one word he spoke was: "How?"
Holly handed him the piton cord clip. "Clip yourself on and you'll see."
They were interrupted, however, by an alarming noise. It was the noise of the conveyor belt in the shaft creaking into life. Cogs grinded. Sparks flew. And slowly but inexorably, the four pods containing the prisoners began to rise up on the long ascent to the electrocution platform.
Foaly's eyes widened in shock. "Uh, a little help here?"
"Is there anyway you can stop this thing?" asked Harry.
"There is," said Artemis, voice rising in urgency. "Up there, there's a bridge, a broken bridge, and if you climb up to the part connected to the Devil's Tower, you'll see a box, a metal wired box. All you need to do is destroy it, and it'll short-circuit the system."
"That's fairly simple," observed Van Helsing.
Aragorn stepped forward. "I shall destroy the box."
Éowyn and Faramir stepped forward too. "We go with our lord."
Holly set her wings in motion. "I'll take us up to the platform."
Anna drew her saber. "I'll get the werewolf's cure."
"I'll go with her," volunteered Jack.
"I guess that leaves me and the Mud Boys to save the prisoners once the box is destroyed," sighed Root.
"You have me too," added Ardeth.
Van Helsing looked around at his extraordinary companions. "I see. And I deal with Dracula, right?"
"Right," said Anna. "Be careful. Dracula's dangerous."
"I know. Watch out yourself. If she doesn't come back in one piece, pirate, I'll have your head."
"It's Captain Jack Sparrow, you know."
"Never mind. And hurry. If you're late – well, then run like hell."
"Got that," replied Anna, and turned towards the Black Tower. But Van Helsing had one more thing to make clear. He caught her wrist. "Anna..."
She spun around, black curls tossing. He could see the impatience in her eyes. "Yes?"
Van Helsing pulled her to him and kissed her.
No one else interrupted their kiss, despite the fact that things were in quite a hurry. Commander Root actually opened his mouth to clear his throat ominously, but received Holly's elbow in his ribs.
Anna reluctantly pulled away, staring into the depths of Van Helsing's eyes. "Well," announced Jack, rather awkwardly. "I guess we'd better be going." He turned to the others. "Gentlemen – " he cast a sideways glance at Holly, Éowyn and Anna, "– ladies. It's been a pleasure."
"Thank you very much," replied Holly courteously.
Jack tipped his hat, and he and Anna began their run towards the Black Tower staircase. Van Helsing cast one last look after Anna, and followed Aragorn, Éowyn and Faramir to the Devil's Tower. Holly fired up her wings and she and Rick zoomed upwards towards the platform. Root and his team set about making plans for freeing the prisoners.
And so each of them set off on their separate missions – rescuing prisoners, retrieving cures, facing down monsters, and perhaps ultimately in the bargain, saving the world. If they succeeded, that was.
End of ChapterNext chapter coming...The Twelve Strokes of Midnight
In which Good and Evil have their Final Showdown.