Disclaimer: The characters and concepts in this story pertaining to the movie Van Helsing are the property of Stephen Sommers. This is an amateur effort with no intention of infringement of copyright policies. This story is for entertainment purposes only.


Chapter 9: Morgan's Next Target

"Wait a moment." Mina said, stalling Carl once again before he could continue. She closed her eyes, trying to figure out the situation. "She's stealing swords for a spell?"

"You sound like that's a strange thing." Carl replied.

Mina shook her head. "That sounds too simple for Morgan. She wasn't simply stealing these swords she was killing the people who owned them."

"If I were allowed to finish it might make more sense." He said.

"Sorry." She apologized again. Carl continued.

"These swords aren't just any swords." He said as he dropped the large amount of papers he was holding before reaching back into the sack for one of the final items inside. He yanked out a large roll of parchment, unrolling it very quickly and holding it open for Mina and Gabriel to see. Words were written in Latin scripture, the writing curved and elegant. Mina's eyes widened and her fingers landed on the bottom corner of the parchment where an emblem was drawn.

"That's the tattoo Morgan's victims had!" She said, surprised. Gabriel watched her hand slide away from the paper, eyeing the symbol carefully.

It was as if he were looking through a window and into his past, watching the white flag flutter in the wind as the breeze summoned it to the south that day. He could see the red dragon on the fabric, his tongue sticking out while his arm clutched the bottom of a brown crucifix. Behind him was a circle with lines stretching from the middle out, looking like a carousel. He blinked again, coming back to reality as Carl continued.

"This is a contract written by twenty men in 1765. It explains that the lake Morgan threw the sheath into dried up years ago and the men had come into possession of 'Arthur's most prized tool'." Carl scrolled his fingers down the page. "In other words, they had found the sheath and bound themselves together in writing to protect it should evil wish to use it."

"But Morgan is stealing swords, not sheaths." Mina added. Carl rolled his eyes.

"You know I could get through this if I wasn't interrupted all the time."

"Sorry." Mina said. Carl looked back at the parchment.

"So, to protect it, they broke the sheath down into twenty pieces and re-forged into swords, which they each took into hiding with them." Carl said, continuing to read before reaching the bottom. He stopped a moment before sharing a look between them. "Does one of you have a list of victims?"

There was a moment of confusion before Mina suddenly gasped and ran back to her desk, rummaging through books and papers until she finally discovered the parchment she was looking for. She handed it to Carl.

"Thank you. Now, look at the last names." He pointed at the last names on the parchment of the twenty signatures beneath the contract, comparing them.

"They're descendants who the sword was passed down to." Gabrielle said. "Good work Carl."
"Thank you Mr. Van Helsing." He said.

"So Morgan wants the sheath of Excalibur to perform a spell that supposedly brings people back from the dead…" Gabriel said, thinking about the situation for the first time in a long time. As he had once told Anna, he usually only asked two questions: What is it and how does he kill it? But Morgan was odd. He actually cared about why she was intent upon performing a spell that was deemed impossible by even Merlin.

But maybe that's why she's so intent on it. He thought, narrowing his eyes. Mina glanced over at him.

"What is it?" She asked him.

"I think I know why she wants to do a spell like this." He said. "She's trying to outdo Merlin."

"Outdo Merlin?" Mina asked confused. She crossed her arms and furrowed her brow, looking at Gabriel. Carl seemed to catch on much faster than she.

"That is completely logical." He said as he came to the same realization. "With Merlin's assumed power she could conceivably take over the entire world."

"Than why does she simply perform this spell?" Mina asked. "If she could control the world would that not be easier than attempting to bring things back to life?"

There was silence again. Gabriel breathed deeply, his ribs setting back into place quickly. He gripped his chest and slowed his breathing and heart down a little, finding they had sped up in the past moment. He closed his eyes, knowing Mina's were watching him. He finally gathered up his strength.

"I'm going to need the name of the last man on that contract." He said. Carl looked from the list to the contract and finally determined who it was.

"Walker." He said.

"First name?"

"None. Unless he was named after his ancestor, which is highly unlikely." Mina seemed to get another idea from this and went back to her desk, snatching up a newspaper article from her things.

"Harold Walker." She said finally. "He owns a private museum that he only opens once a year to the wealthiest people in Britain. He showcases a collection of swords as well, something Morgan probably found quite easily."

"How so?" Gabriel asked.

"He opens tomorrow night." She said, holding out the clipping from the London newsprint. He walked over and snatched it from her, reading through it quickly but finding nothing important, except his ties to some of the finest weaponry ever produced in Britain.

"What is it with these men and showing off their swords?" Carl asked. "It's almost as if they want to be killed."

Gabriel nodded and picked up his coat off the couch, snatching his hat off the arm rest. He also took up the smaller blade that Carl had provided for him. Mina looked from the friar to Van Helsing.

"You're not going out now are you?" She asked him. "It has only been a day since she wounded you. Your ribs are still weak."

"I heal quickly and I will be back. I'm going to see if Walker has had any unexpected visitors yet." Mina opened her mouth to protest, looking to Carl for support. He just grabbed the bag off the couch and loaded some bullets into the new pistol he brought along.

"You'll need some of these." He said, scurrying after him. Mina watched them prepare at her front door and she finally grabbed her coat off the hook on the wall and pulled it on. Gabriel looked over at her.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm coming with you." She said, buttoning the six or seven buttons on the front of her coat. The scarf hung idle on the hook, unnecessary seeing as she was wearing a dress with a high neck, one that again, shielded her throat from being seen.

Gabriel had started to catch onto her discomfort surrounding her neck, and he was beginning to get suspicious. He had at first dismissed the thought of her being a vampire, but two things proved otherwise. One, he would have been able to sense her if she was a vampire. The feelings would have struck him even in his semi-conscious state while they were walking down the street. He would have been able to feel it when her fingers touched his flesh and her eyes moved over his face, recognizing him from a place and time he could not recall. Second, and most importantly, had she truly been a vampire she would have killed him the night before, the blood shed driving her into frenzy. He had seen it too many other times to think that vampires were capable of resisting blood unless they were full or recently fed.

And Mina had never once looked at him as if he was dinner.

But she was in a room with Hamilton. She could have drunk him dry when I passed out.

But there was another problem with the theory: Vampires drink blood from living hearts. They couldn't stomach blood as it started to coagulate. It was as deadly as the sun.

"No you're not." He replied quickly.

"Would you like to give me a reason why not?" She asked him, finishing buttoning up her coat. He glanced over it, taking note of the small blood stain on the end of the sleeve near her wrist that gleamed in the light.

"This isn't your fight."

"You're not God. You cannot tell me what is and is not my fight."

"I cannot be the one to protect you."

"I will not need your protection any longer Mr. Van Helsing."

Gabriel felt frustrated that he could not remember their first meeting. He had tried. He assumed he had dreamed about it and forgot it as soon as consciousness returned, but nothing could surface in his conscious memory and hardly ever did. Even fighting Dracula did not cause any memories to resurface, and he could feel Dracula and sense his evil intentions. Mina was a mystery. He couldn't sense her intentions at all and had learned very little about her in the past while that they had been together.

"I am going, Mr. Van Helsing. Who knows? Perhaps Morgan will consider driving another sword into you and my services will be needed again?"

He sighed deeply. He thought of the 'knock-out' drugs he carried on his belt just in case. They were originally created by Carl to cause creatures to pass out long enough for a capture, but Gabriel had never used it for that purpose. People seemed to be the usual target of the drugs. He looked at Mina and finally dropped his hand from his belt.

"Let's go." He said. Mina smiled softly, checking her coat pocket for her pistol.


The night breeze was calming, soothing almost to Gabriel. He could smell that rain was nearby, the salty winds licking his cheeks and the scent of the ocean in his nose. It smelled like a homecoming almost, as if he belonged in that city with that woman and that monk at his sides. The clouds were coming in thick from the east, the stars disappearing under them. He knew that they would soon be working in the pouring rain and have a storm to contend with. In some ways, he blamed Morgan. In others, he just allowed it to exist. It didn't really matter anyways. He had worked in storms and blizzards before, sometimes on mountain tops or at the very depths of craters where one could swear they had made it all the way to hell.

One particular mission in the past four years stuck with him, staying in his mind like a sliver that he had stubbornly refused to push out from under the thin layer of skin that concealed it within him. It was like a festering wound he couldn't reach to clean and the infection drove him steadily mad. He could recall being sent to France to kill off a vampire, one of his first missions. He was driven into a cave in some of the cliffs around the coast, driven by the feelings of darkness that grew from there and the hand drawn map Carl had given to him. The friar seemed angry about their partnership and quite curt with Gabriel the first time they met.

"Try and bring this one back moving, Mr. Van Helsing. And when I say moving I don't mean the nerves are still twitching from a fresh kill."

He had rolled his eyes at that, Carl's scolding still fresh from his previous mission in Madrid where he was 'forced' to kill a werewolf. He doubted the excuse that Gabriel had tried everything within his power to avoid killing it was actually valid.

The vampire he was sent to kill was blonde, spending her days in the cave with thousands of bats while at night she hunted the country side and preyed on lambs. It was becoming a problem as he thirst demanded many more animals a night rather than just one or two a week. They had sent a letter to the Vatican claiming it had become one or two a night.

By the time Gabriel arrived a child had already gone missing, and by his second night, two twin babies were gone, stolen from their cradles in the night despite all the charms their parents' had put on the beds. He tracked the woman to the cliffs on the coast, stalking her into the cave where he heard the babies crying, still alive, but he had determined whether they were well or not.

The woman was singing to them, laughing a little and trying to soothe them. Her appearance by that point was more frightening than Dracula's brides in their true forms. She was completely white from head to toe, her blue veins practically popping out of her skin. He had never witnessed a vampire like that before, but he recognized it as a sign that they lacked the nourishment of human blood. He took out the silver stake anyways, still able to feel the evil radiating from within as he took another step forward, staring out of the small tunnel into her 'room', a vast cavern where bats could be heard on the ceiling and her torches cast eerie shadows on the walls.

She was dressed in white, a wedding dress to be exact that had long since faded and torn, hanging off her slender shoulders and deep into her small breasts that were barely evident on her chest from her emaciated frame. The babies were lying on a bed of white sheets that she had stolen and she was looking upon them with her blonde hair hanging over her shoulders and down her back, her mouth moving and singing a song that was barely understandable from her fangs.

Gabriel saw her reaching for the children. He threw the stake and struck her in the back, straight through to her front where the tip exploded with dead and coagulated blood. She screamed and the babies cried with her and it was impossible to tell who was louder.

"Mr. Van Helsing?" Mina asked him, concerned that he was so quiet. He looked over at her. "Are you alright?"

"What did you say?" He questioned, recalling that she had said something before she had summoned him back from his imagination.

"I was just saying how the wind changed direction suddenly, as if someone was controlling it."

He stopped for a moment, finding that she was correct. The wind was now blowing west, a completely change in direction from moments ago when the west had been blustering in playfully, bringing the storm clouds closer. The clouds were now over top of them, stuck in the middle, the sky caught in a war with Mother Nature as she reached her hand over them and blocked out the moon and the stars.

"She's here." He said. "Close by."

"Where would that be?" Carl asked, a lump in his throat. He sounded fearful and his legs were visibly shaking.

"Relax Carl. She's a fair distance yet."

It didn't matter to Mina or Gabriel whether she was blocks away or directly in front of them. Mina had her pistol in her hand, cocked and at the ready in her right, her gloved finger sliding to touch the trigger gently. Gabriel was holding a single tojo blade in his left with his silver pistol in his right, the sword on his hip calling to him for some reason as if it wanted to be drawn out and used. He ignored it, walking slowly ahead with Carl and Mina at his sides in case he needed back up.

He could hear the voices in his ears again, the shrill voices that were telling him things he couldn't understand again. It wasn't just the voices that told him Morgan was around. It was the sensation of invincibility again. It was the feeling as if he couldn't die, even if he put the pistol to his head and pulled the trigger.

"Where is she?" Mina asked, obviously able to sense her just as well as he could. Or she was reading the way he was looking around suspiciously and staring at every corner of the street, waiting for something to jump out at him. He scanned the empty cobblestone streets, searching about for shadowy woman in long cloaks who happened to be carrying a broad sword in the nineteenth century. Nobody matched that description, but the signs were there, telling him he was either close enough or too close.

But his feelings never worked like that.

"Mr. Van Helsing?" Carl asked.

"What is it Carl?" He replied quickly, still looking around.

"I think we've found Mr. Walker." He said, pointing slowly at the sign on the street corner. Mina glanced over at her male counterparts, embarrassed she hadn't noticed it first. Gabriel relaxed a little, finding lights on inside.

"Good work Carl." He said, swallowing hard, feeling like an idiot for not seeing a sign indicating the arrival to Harold Walker's museum.

"Well, you two behave yourselves." Carl said, talking a few steps back. Gabriel grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him up to the yard.

"I can't hear anything." Mina confessed.

"I can." Gabriel said, getting a headache from the sounds of Morgan's subjects at his ears. Carl was right. They did follow around Morgan like flies to a corpse. Only flies were far less irritating. They were breaking his concentration, and he assumed that was their motive.

"No, I mean I can't hear any signs of struggle, or any movement for that matter." She said, running her fingers along the walls of the door as if to feel if Morgan was inside. Gabriel watched her eyes narrow, and for a moment he saw them change from green to an electric blue. He blinked and the signs of any physical change were gone.

Mina caught him staring at her for a moment. She looked back as if she were naked in front of him and pulled her arms tighter to her body. He looked away.

"So, do we knock?" He asked them, even though he knew the question didn't deserve an answer. He couldn't imagine what he would say to the maids that answered the door. We're here to investigate the break-in of a century old sorceress who's killing your master upstairs for the sake of a weapon. Can we come in? That would go over beautifully.

"Well we don't even know if she's inside yet." Mina said.

"Yes but we do know this is where she's heading next." Carl added.

"However we are not completely certain. For all we know there could be another 'Walker' out there somewhere in the world who's just hoping that Morgan le Faye will come here." Gabriel interjected.

"Yes but how many could there possibly be with a collection of ancient swords from the same era as Morgan le Faye?" She jumped into the conversation again.

"Are we trying to discuss this was a clever plan of action when we could possibly be dead in moments?" Carl asked fearfully.

"Relax Carl."

"Well I don't know about you but dying by the hands of a sorceress with motives to kill is not what I would consider to be a good death." He crouched low under the lamp that shone down from above the door they were standing at.

"What would you consider to be a 'good death' Carl?"

"One that doesn't involve any sorceresses or vampires or werewolves and anything like that."
"You got into the wrong line of work Carl." Gabriel looked around the front steps they were standing on. He found Carl a few steps behind him, but in the small fraction of time he had been speaking to Carl, Mina had vanished into was seemed to be thin air. He glanced around the corner of the house.

"Where did she go to?"

"Probably not far." Gabriel said, clutching his shoulder as he bent around to look at the side of the house. He found the space empty. No one was around.

"I stand corrected." He said, coming back to the front steps of the house. The light flickered in the second floor bedroom, followed by the sound of shattering glass and the gargling that resembled the sound of blood in a man's throat after it had been slashed. Gabriel grabbed his grappling gun and fired at the roof.

"Coming Carl?" He asked, grabbing hold of his small friend (who was attempting to walk away prior to Gabriel snatching him) and jumped up. The gun re-coiled the strong cable it was attached to, but needed the extra leverage of Gabriel leaping against the wall of the house to finally reach the bedroom. He and Carl were thrown through the open window and onto the floor.

Morgan laughed coyly, holding up the sword in her hands, the sheath splattered with its owner's blood. She turned and looked toward Van Helsing just as he let a string of bullets out at her, dragging Carl to the other side of the room before she could pelt another magical projectile at him. She snarled.

"So you have brought someone to die with you?" She said. "It's a shame it wasn't your dear friend Mina. I could have had an awful lot of fun with you two."

The door was thrown open and Mina's pistol fired at Morgan. She turned and glared at her.

"Mina? How long has it been?" She said, tilting her head as she mocked the memory of the woman. "You're not still hiding those nasty scars are you?"

The tojo blade started spinning. Gabriel threw it quickly, Morgan's left hand rising to throw it out of the way. It cut deep into her fingers, sending the small limbs flying to the floor in a mist of bright red blood. She screamed in agony, the tojo blade landing in the wall. Her right hand kept a constant grip on the sword sheath. Mina made a dash for the sword on the table across the room, her pistol empty. Morgan spun her hand and struck her with something large that crackled with unearthly energy, sending her into the wall and straight to the ground.

Gabriel reached for the dagger at his side with his right arm, forgetting the pain in his left shoulder for a moment. The lightning crackled from outside, sending white light down Morgan's pale flesh, her face appearing once more in his eyes before she was gone with the darkness that consumed her once more.

He heard the footsteps running up the stairs. He moved over to the other side of the room where he grabbed Mina's body as she was awakening and snatched up Carl as well from his hiding spot on the floor.

Scotland Yard was moments too late to catch the illusive Van Helsing once again. They burst in through the door and saw the dead body on the ground, not needing to ask who had committed the crime once again.


Author's Notes: I am so angry at my teachers! I have been having a bad week from the beginning and I did really bad on my Biology Test on Thursday and just found out I got 8/20 on my Calculus test. I've been really bummed out all week with my writing too. My original story Edgetheow is huge and I have barely started the second volume. And my X-Files Fanfiction is a completely different story. It's not only drawn out much longer than I thought it would be (25 chapters in counting), but the characterization is all wrong once again. Oh well. I suppose I'm spilling my guts because I'm really angry for not being able to write as often as I would like. And by writing I don't mean the five page essay for American History. I want to keep going with my Fanfiction and my original Fiction. Bottom Line: Chapter uploading might become a little more sporadic over the next few weeks with exams and stuff coming up. Thanks to everyone who's been really supportive!

Reviews

Fanfiction Fanatic: Carl was my favourite character for that reason! The second he started whispering in that woman's ear I was laughing so hard I started to cry! It was just too hilarious!

Nicolaus Pacione: Wow. You have been really supportive of my writing and I very much appreciate it. I checked out mockfear.com and was blown away by some of the writings posted there. Thank you very much for all your support and encouragement!

Shadowsage: It looks like you will have to wait a little longer to know how Mina and Gabriel know each other. I know it sucks to wait, but I hope this chapter tides you over until then. By the way, thank you for your comment on my blending of Arthurian legend with Van Helsing. Morgan le Faye (or Fae, however you may spell it) has always been one of my favourite characters in literature and I hope I haven't corrupted her too much with this story.

I'm glad Fanfiction let you log in finally! It drives me crazy when it says there's a timeout or the server is too busy on my computer since I love Fanfiction! I believe we have a similar theory (mine were unfortunately ripped, by the way, but we'll get into that a little later).

Scholar: What do you think the Cardinal would do if he found out about Carl and that barmaid? I think Jinette would have Carl's head for hearing about something as sacrilegious as that, although it would be funny to see Jinette's reaction. I would be happy to add in some more flashbacks with Carl and Gabriel's first meeting! It would be amazing to write about the foil I tried to create between Gabriel and Malachi (namely their killer's instinct).

Mandolin: I didn't want to give too much away about Mina at that point, but I'm sure some of the information in this chapter will start to explain why her age seems to be so young instead of much older. More will come in later chapters and I can promise that it will all make sense. It was nice to hear I got Gabriel in character. It scares me when I write about a new character and don't get them absolutely perfect. I was afraid with him seeing rather trusting because it would give the impression that's what he does on a regular basis. He didn't exactly warm up to Anna immediately.

And I'm on your Author Alert! That's really flattering! Thank you!

As for your second review, yes Carl seems to have the God's favour doesn't he? Even though he goes around making cats disappear. I probably couldn't kill Mina off in the end, but they may get separated since I can't see her returning to Rome with Gabriel very plausible either. Maybe you could steal me a copy of Volume 2 as well. I have to reread Volume 1 every time I need my dose of the League. What I found kind of contradicting was that they are called the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but it seemed to me that they were being lead by a woman (Go Mina)!

Doodily Doo: This chapter, I hope, was equally as informative with a little more action!

Verona Dracula: It's comforting to hear that a fan of Dracula likes Mina's characterization. I have to pick up a copy of Dracula and read it before I write another Van Helsing story. Although, I do know that the movie was slightly inaccurate on some events as well. As I recall, Van Helsing's name was Abraham in the novel, but I could be mistaken in my information as well.

Perfect? (Blushes) Thank you very much!

Grissom: Maybe not the best Van Helsing story, but thank you very much for the compliment. It was well received. It's nice to know that you're enjoying the story so far. And you read it in one sitting? Wow. Some of the chapters are pretty long. Thank you!

Latanya: New chapters are coming as soon as I can write them, and with this course load, it's getting pretty tough.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed on the chapters! I love having feedback from people who are enjoying my story, and even those who aren't!

So now, please review whether you enjoyed the chapter or not! Your comments are appreciated!