Disclaimer: The characters and concepts pertaining to the movie Van Helsing in this story are the property of director Stephen Sommers. This story is an amateur writing effort. There was no money made off th thinking, writing, and or posting processes of this story.


Chapter 22: Truth, Speculation, and Gravity

"What if Morgan really is making an army?" Gabriel said, looking down at Mina. She searched in his eyes for an answer of some kind, a reason that Morgan would want such a thing but then it dawned on her, and the realization seemed to come to Gabriel as well. "An army that could take out Fallon's control on Merlin's land and she could reign supreme again."

"But Merlin's land lays on an iron mine. What good could conquering that do? Her army would die before they cross the edge of the forest."

"Unless her army was immune to iron..." Gabriel said. It all seemed so clear to him now, even though the majority of his theory was based on speculation. "Think about it Mina. What is she using to bring these things back from the dead? Flesh and hair of a vampire, shards of an enchanted sheath and..." He waited a moment. He knew Mina would pick up on the last bit somewhere.

She smiled weakly at the thought.

"Synthetic blood." She said with a larger smile. "Blood that happens to be loaded with iron."

"Precisely." He said. "Blood that would make her army invulnerable to the effect of iron."

"How so?"

"Morgan didn't come back for you until she found that your blood contained so much iron that it could kill her faeries." Gabriel was leading her mind back to the attic, when she had reached for the chest and found her hand in the mouth of the faerie. Seconds later, the small creature was nothing but dust. Meanwhile, they chewed happily on Gabriel's flesh without stopping. "She changed her plan. With your blood she not only got the power of the vampire..."

"But the flesh to sustain it and the power to combine species. With vampire flesh they could live with the iron in they blood." Mina smiled again, only to have the image fade a moment later. Something still wasn't making sense to her. "But wait...the vampires would die because of the sunlight."

"Not if they had the Excalibur sheath with them." Gabriel said. "Vampires would not burn in sunlight. Their flesh is indestructible with the sheath remember?"

Mina nodded. "And with the catacombs she could have an army of anceint warlords who could march on Fallon almost immediately."

She seemed content with that answer. It fit well enough in with Morgan's plan. Perhaps that had been her plan all along, to create an army with the combination of the faerie and the vampires (Well, at least the second version of her plan. Morgan had no idea Mina possessed the ability to scientifically create what she could not magically). And with an indestructible Boadicea roaming the landscape...Mina shuddered to think about it. She hated the idea of what Morgan couldn't take for her own rather than what she could. It was easier to think about those places that would be resistant and remain, rather than those that would fall within minutes to the power of the queen.

Mina was still lost in thought as Gabriel climbed up the steps in the tower, moving quickly towards what he hoped would be the final battle between he and the Faerie queen. She jogged after him with another arrow in her bow.

"Have your plans changed yet, Mr. Van Helsing?" She asked him, attempting at keeping the conversation going. Silence bothered her in situations such as these when there was little thinking to do.

"The vague ideas haven't. Everything else is put into a different perspective though." He said, looking upwards the whole time. The stairs ended at a landing that spawned off to two doorways, one he assumed held his prey, the other holding the window that would lead them to Carl. It was as if God was testing him, showing him these two doors, telling him that in each there was a dire situation that called him to it. Come Gabriel. In one door I have the monstrous woman who seeks to threaten the life of my children. In the other, your scientific friar friend who denies me with his belief in science is about to die. Choose wisely and I might pat you on the head and give you some idea of who you really are. Choose poorly and I'll send you go back to the Vatican AGAIN.

"A very different perspective." She said and listened carefully.

Gabriel gave a whimsical smile to the thoughts rattling through his brain and bounded faster up the stairs than he had before.


Carl looked up again to the room above him, finding that there were no shadows moving across the wall now. He had heard the door closed and had decided that Morgan had stormed off when the conversation became too dull for her and was probably off doing something evil with someone else. He found that when someone entered the room he could keep track of their movements by the shadows cast on the wall and the sounds that projected out the window to his ears. Even though his arms were practically pressed against his head he could still hear the footsteps of the Faerie sentries and the sounds of their voices when they chose to speak.

The door creaked open above. Carl strained again to watch but found that his neck was causing his dislocated shoulders to sting in pain, and he was forced to look down again. He heard struggle from above and the sound of projectiles being shot through the air. Van Helsing? He thought, and then found that it couldn't be. Gabriel's rifles shot faster than that. The objects being fired must have been arrows or something.

There was the sound of sizzling flesh and then a head appeared out of the window.

"Carl?" Strange. Gabriel sounds more female than I remember. Carl lifted his head. The brown hair flapped around the face that stared down at him, and he smiled. It wasn't Gabriel. It was Mina.

"It's about time you two got here." He called to her. "While you two were frolicking in some field somewhere I'm getting hung on the side of an unnaturally large tower with an enchanted Queen whispering death threats over my head."

Frolicking in a field somewhere? Mina shrugged. "Carl I'm going to try and pull you back up alright?"

Oh, just bloody perfect. Carl began focusing on his string of curse words again as Mina grabbed hold of the chain and began to pull back on it.

She picked up on the sound of the door being opened, and she just barely dodged a sword swinging down in her direction. Carl heard the struggle from below.

"Mina?" He called after her, only able to hear the sounds of shuffled footsteps and a sword striking stone on the walls. Carl shook his hands in the manacles.

There was a jolt that ran through his body.

His hands were starting to slip out of the cuffs and his body was only pulling him closer to the ground.


Gabriel knew that Morgan was already aware that he had arrived. He was not expecting what he found when he opened the other door on the other side of the tower though.

The light flickered from the hundreds of candles that were lit around the outside of the circular room. He had pictured this meeting between he and Morgan many times, seeing her looming over a giant pot of potion like the crone witches in storybooks or slaughtering humans with a short bladed dagger. But all he saw was her staring at him, seated calmly on the chaise in front of him. She could have been there for any reason if one were to judge by just the way she held herself.

But then he saw the light hit the metallic sheath of her broad sword. And he saw the cruel glare in her eyes as he stepped inside the room holding out the iron sword at the ready, consumed only by the thoughts of what he was sent there to do.

"So you finally figured out the secret of the iron then?" She asked him. Her voice was calm. His other enemies would breathe heavily by now, but her fear was either entirely masked or there was none at all. She was still the cruel, calm Queen of Fey after all. Gabriel nodded to answer her question. "I would have thought that Friar to have told you, but you had to get Fallon to answer that question didn't you?"

"You know Fallon?" He asked her, his own voice never wavering. Morgan seemed to be growing tenser by the minute as he proved to be just as unafraid as she. But she managed a nod just the same.

"Oh yes. Fallon was one of my favourite human slaves. When he would disobey I would happily draw a dagger across the flesh on his face." Gabriel remembered the scars on Fallon's face. So that was how he knew so much about the way in and out of here. "When he escaped I was distraught, even more when I discovered that he started guarding Merlin's old kingdom from me."

Morgan stood up. The movement caused Gabriel to become edgy, his arm tightening as he gripped the sword harder. She smiled again. It was easy to tell she too was losing interest in the conversation. "In the world of the Fey, one assumes the power from a kill. Their enemies yield their Magick to their destroyer, along with all their lands. Fallon is a fool to protect such a place when he knows I will come back into the possession of it not long from now."

She took one step forward.

"All that remains is to rid myself of all adversaries and you, Van Helsing, must be dealt with swiftly." She pulled the sword from the sheath and tossed it aside. The blade was like nothing Gabriel had ever seen before. It was ancient, he could tell that much, with the running lines of runes that moved down the forte. He couldn't read them from his standing position but he knew better than to think they were anything good or that this was the best time to wonder something like that.

"I don't know what good it will do to kill you though." She said. "You'll probably just come back in another form. Or perhaps you will simply recover such as all immortals. I wouldn't know. I've never killed an angel before."


Mina could hardly think between the fast paced blows coming from the two guards that had found their way into the tower chamber and started their attack on her. Her bow had found itself in the path of their swords, and the one tojo blade she had managed to hang onto had been thrown to the floor and was lost in the shadows somewhere where she couldn't find it.

She found herself unarmed against two Faeries with nothing but her wits to get her out of the situation.

"I've got another problem here Mina!" Carl shouted from outside.

"So do I Carl!" She called back. Her eyes were stuck on both the guards. She wished she hadn't vomited up every last bit of blood from her system back in the cave. At least then she might change form and destroy them without worries of Carl being sucked dry in the process as well. And as for her immortal flesh? They could stab me and then throw me out the window, and that wouldn't help either Carl or me would it?

The guards attacked simultaneously. Carl could only hear the small sounds of struggle as armor was crunched against stone. The limp body of a guard was hurled out the window and flew past him down into the abyss of darkness below.

Carl never heard the body hit the ground. When he looked down, he questioned the presence of the earth there at all.

There was the sound of another body falling. Before he could do anything, Mina grabbed onto him about the waist to stop herself from plummeting into the great beyond as well. The guard who fell with her tumbled past them to the abyss below.

Gravity was starting to win the battle.


Gabriel's head lowered. Suddenly this battle was getting very personal.

"You don't remember it do you?" She asked him, holding the sword out at her side with her eyes locked on him. "Nothing about your past life. Everything before your fall to the Vatican steps is nothing but a nightmare right now, am I right?"

"How do you know that?" He asked her, almost demanding her. Morgan smiled.

"You are too easy Gabriel. What did you think? That you could avoid taking the unholy plummet into the dark embrace even though you broke the laws of the God you served?" His hand tightened on the sword. What was she talking about? That he was an angel? That he was a servant of God? It wasn't possible.

Or was it?

"What else do you know?" He asked her.

"I know who ripped out your wings." She said. "And I know why they did it as well."

Pain flared through his back from his scars with her words. Morgan seemed to sense that his muscles were in agony as the old wounds burned without him ever knowing why. No one at the Vatican ever told him why. They just told him what he must do. They gave him the after, but he wanted to know the before.

And now someone else was offering it to him. Someone who knew something of his past was offering it to him again.

"Strangely you are resistant to me. How is that Gabriel? How is it that a being such as you cannot remember what they are but can still use the powers they were left with when thrown down, back to earth?"

He took a deep breath. Was he really ready to hear what Morgan had to say? Or was he about to run from it again?

No...he thought to himself. I'm not running.

"Is this just your way of delaying the inevitable?" He asked her. "One way or another Morgan I'm going to kill you."

"Very well then." She said. "Perhaps I'll whisper it in your ear as you lay dying."

Gabriel had barely any time to react. Morgan charged.


"I don't even want to comment on this highly suggestive position you've chosen to fall into." Carl said, shouting over the roaring winds that threw themselves against the side of the tower. Mina's grip on his waist tightened and only caused his wrists to sink further out of the cuffs that held him.

"It's not like I had a lot of other options." She said. "He did throw me out the window. Is there no way you can climb up?"

"You're the one who can turn into bats. Not me."

"Not on a whim Carl. I would suck you dry if I tried."

"You're still the immortal here." He said.

"It doesn't look like there's something to hit if one were to fall from here."

"Those are minor technicalities and hardly the things to be bringing up at a time like this." Carl's mind was moving even though his body was not. His wits were still twice as fast as they should have been and when at last he came to his conclusion it was just in the nick of time. He could feel his body start to slide down the wall with the added weight.

"Mina..." He said. "Take off your coat."

"I beg your pardon?" Mina asked him. For a moment there she had heard Carl ask her to take off her clothes. "This is hardly the place for that..."

"The whole world would be a better place if someone listened to me." He said. "Take off your coat Mina!"

"How do you suggest I do that without falling?" She asked him. Carl shrugged.

"All I know is that if you do so we could land somewhere other than a bottomless pit." Mina stared at him with widened eyes. "And you won't have to do anything but trust me."

"I knew there was a catch." She replied. "Hold still. I'll see what I can do."


Morgan found that he was harder to beat this time. He was fuelled by something other than just strength, and it would take everything within her power to get rid of him before she could finish what she had begun not long before he had arrived.

Gabriel swung his sword and knocked hers out of the way. He anticipated that from the moment the fight began that this would not be easy. When is it ever easy? His mind asked him, but he couldn't find the time to answer in the midst of being swung at by Morgan's blade.

He ducked down and jumped up the first chance he got, bringing the sword up vertically along her dress as if to slash her from the hem of her skirt to the nape of her neck. She twirled backwards with her sword horizontal again, the bottom of her dress spiraling outward and tumbling around her legs beautifully. Their swords were caught in the air, hitting each other with the clang of metal. The iron blade caused her one to burn with red-hot flame, and only then did Morgan realize her error in using a Faerie blade. She jumped back and dashed across the room, grabbing hold of one of the Excalibur blades. When she spun around, she lowered her body and slid under Gabriel's outstretched blade, taking the edge of it along her throat.

The scream that issued forth out of her mouth was unlike none of her subjects before. The iron blade caused the flesh to cauterize in a very instant. Although blood did not flow from it, the wound did not heal like the others. It stayed and glared angrily back at the person who administered it to her. Gabriel gave a small grin at the effect it had, happy at last he wasn't just 'shooting until he hit something vital', or something along those lines.

Morgan grabbed the wound.

"I suppose I'll have to ask you for the information as you lay dying."

"HAH!" Morgan said and was back in action with both hands on the handle of the sword. She swung with so much force the blade was a blur in the air. Gabriel had but to miss a step backwards and his chest would become the new sheath for the sword, and he knew Morgan would not miss a chance for that to happen. He dropped again with Morgan just within inches and stabbed upward into her chest.

Morgan twirled around the sword as the tip slid by her side and the blade came to rest in the curved of her hip. Hers was resting over Gabriel's head, able to plunge into his flesh at any time.

Gabriel twisted the blade on its side and smashed it into her chest, finding that it barely cut through the corset. She kicked him to the floor and placed the tip of her blade to his chin, running one hand long the metal bindings that lined her undergarments. He cursed at himself for not considered what type of precautions she took in her confining clothes.

"You know I was almost afraid of you." She told him. "Almost afraid of you. But in the end you're the same as everyone else who have met the tip of a sword blade. You just weren't good enough to make the cut."

Just before she could thrust forward Gabriel launched the tojo blade out of his sleeve and into his hand, barely giving it enough time to speed up before swinging it at Morgan and hurling it towards her.

The spinning blade hit her in the ribcage, and although the blade would do nothing compared to the iron wound on her neck, it gave Gabriel time to grab his sword and get out of the way of her blade. Angrily, Morgan ripped the circular blade from her skin and tossed it away, holding her sword out and at the ready.

Gabriel lunged at her again, this time picking up momentum every time their swords clashed. Morgan's jaw was clenched tightly as she swung again. Both her hands were on the hilt of her sword but she had none of the composure she had before. She was getting angry, and Gabriel knew what that meant. Anger meant the decisions one made were rash. And that meant that it gave Gabriel some kind of advantage.

Or it means that she's going to win, but however you like to look at it is fine by me, he thought.

Their fight took them into the centre of the room, surrounded by the candles as their flickered on all sides of the room. It was growing hot in the chamber, but Gabriel felt better than ever somehow. It felt like he was winning.

He swung to Morgan's throat again. Her blade was lifted and swung his out of the way. She thrust forward and managed to dig the tip into his shoulder again, not far from where she had stabbed him the first time. She pulled back and splattered the blood on the floor. The action gave her renewed strength, knowing that she had injured him. It reminded her that he was just a mortal anyways.

Gabriel ignored it for the time being. He and Morgan were back into their routine again, only this time he was on the offense this time. His movements played out before him like a chess match. He lunged at the end of it, just brushing past her body. He recoiled in enough time to knock her blade out of the way and send her into a spin, one that brought the edge of her sword back to his throat. He knocked it back and kicked her to the ground.

The sword flew from her fingertips and was thrown a few feet away. Morgan was on her back, chest heaving, with Gabriel's sword at her throat.

It looked like he had won, but she smiled to herself. He stabbed forward and hit nothing but air as Morgan disappeared from sight.


Gabriel ran out of Morgan's chamber, dashing across to the opposite side of the tower. Normally he would have gone straight for the monster, but how was he supposed to know if Mina had got Carl back up and on safe ground yet?

What he found was something that made his eyes roll and his body slump in exasperation. Not only did he find Carl hanging from the wall this time, but also Mina was clutching him about the waist to stop herself from plummeting to the depths below.

"It's about time you showed up here Van Helsing!" Carl called to him. Mina looked up and tried to smile but found it very hard to do so in a situation that was that dire. Gabriel sighed.

"Are you sure you two want back up here? You're looking rather cozy to me..."

"I hardly find that funny under the circumstances." Mina said, although the small smile told him that he had distracted her from the sunrise just a little. "Mind lending a hand here Gabriel?"

"Two, if I can spare them." He called back and grabbed the chain with his vice-like grip before yanking back on the chain.

Carl sighed in relief as he felt the chain lift up and gravity lose the war on his body. He just kept a tight grip on the chains for the sake of both he and Mina (mainly himself though. There was a greater chance that Mina would walk away from this than he would). Gabriel pulled back again, keeping steady with his foot against the ledge of the window. He reached down and grabbed hold of Carl's hand.

"Oh for goodness sakes Gabriel get her off me first! I swear she's not as light as she looks." Mina took immediate offence to Carl's words but she found no way to slap him or otherwise.

"Fair enough." Gabriel said. He held the chain under his foot and grabbed for Mina, who took his hand proudly and hoisted herself into the tower in seconds.

Just as she released his hand, Gabriel lost his footing. The chain slipped down the wall. The monster hunter felt he friar's hand slide from his and when he went to retrieve it he found nothing but air. The chain jerked as Carl's hands slid from the manacles and he dropped into the dark abyss.


Author's Notes: I have some explaining to do. I was growing so tired of the journey to the palace that I did not add the journey through the catacombs. Sorry everyone! I hope it wasn't too much of a leap for Gabriel to figure it out like that. I also hope that the reason wasn't too much of a let down for people. I at first thought that perhaps Morgan could be absorbing the power of her weaknesses, but I figured that was too hokey and changed it later to the army idea, just because it seemed more plausible 1) That it was Morgan's plan and 2) That Gabriel could have thought of it so quickly.

As for the ending I say: HA! I've still got the ability to make cliffies! Now I bet every Carl fan out there is going to come after me with torches and pitchforks but I promise. Nothing TOO terrible will happen to Carl and he will live to see the last chapter (although how far after that will be up to me evil laugh before having to avoid a thrown pitchfork). I'm kidding!

And don't even get me started on Van Helsing fans. They're probably all getting annoyed with Morgan's vanishing act. But if I ended it there, everyone would be so dissatisfied with the ending! Who would want an ending where it was easy?

The way I'm looking at it there are two more chapters left in this story, and readers have already caught on that at least on of them is an epilogue of some kind (Mina and Gabriel still haven't kissed, and I am a romantic at heart).

Reviews:

Fanfiction Fanatic: My computer's working again! The unfortunate thing is that I lost everything, and I'm not the type of person who backs things up on floppy disks. So everything's gone except whatever I did print out, put on a disk, or posted. I'm just happy I posted everything for this story because if I lost it I WOULD GO INSANE.

I hope this was soon enough for you and the chapter was enjoyable!

J: The DVD cover is blue? The green was what made it awesome! I mean it's the signature colour of the movie. What colour were Dracula's children? They were green! What colour was the whole movie basically tinted? Green! Oh, this makes me very angry. Blue is overused!

It's good that there's someone who can tell me something good about Hellsing. When I spoke to my Anime obsessed friends they were going on about how much it sucked. Of course you have to take into account that these two get enjoyment out of the simplest things. They're both huge on Fushigi Yugi, a series that has very little to offer except potential as firewood (no offence if you like it).

I'm sure Carl has plenty of things left to explode. He'll probably have a lot of fun with someone like Morgan (Gets mental image of Carl with a flamethrower and starts laughing hysterically).

Pygmy is a funny word. I think it would be difficult to be cuter than Dracula's offspring. I found that they would make really nice pets. You could force all your enemies into the room with them and...well you get the idea. I think Carl would have some fun with those things. There would be an unlimited number of testers for his latest inventions (I wonder how concerned with animal rights they were back in those days and if those things counted as animals. Shrugs I guess we'll never know).

HyperCaz: The book LXG is based off other books. It combines characters from various stories throughout history like Mina Harker, Alan Quartermain, Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, and Griffon (I believe. I haven't looked at the book in a while. Anyways, he's the invisible man), and Captain Nemo. There was no mention of Tom Sawyer or Dorian Gray (although there is the portrait of Dorian on the cover of my book. I laughed a little). The book I read had the villain from Sherlock Holmes (it took me a moment to clue in and remember everything about Holmes. I didn't read a lot of things with him). It's very good. If you enjoyed the movie you'll probably enjoy the book.

Hellboy is an awesome movie. It was just released on video and I bought the DVD. It's about a demon that works for a secret bureau in the government and fights other demons that come to destroy the world. It's like Van Helsing with a six-foot-tall cat loving, cigar smoking demon named Hellboy. Carl is replaced by a fish-man named Abe with telepathy and Anna is replaced by a pyrokinetic. I like the way you described the villain. Now that you mention it he is kind of a Nazi wizard. I recommend it to Comic book lovers or adventure seekers. It's good.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow looks very odd indeed. I didn't notice the Stargate music (I don't watch that show that much, but I've enjoyed it when I have. Long live O'Neil!). I love Jude Law, but it's not something I'll go see in theatres (unless someone else pays my way for me).

SirTiddywink: Well I hope your computer monitor is still safe after this chapter (although dropping Carl off Morgan's tower was kind of the way the cookie crumbled I guess. These chapters have started to write themselves). The spiders were supposed to have a larger role (originally just Gabriel and Carl were to meet up with them, but the previous statement just defeated that). I hope the battle scene was to your liking and not to confusing.

Trinity Van Helsing: I can't wait to write in the Anna copy. It will be nice to get that over and done with (I'm one of those people who didn't mind the fact that Anna died. I mean you had to make way for another kick ass chick in the next movie). And the catacombs...damn it! I really need to add that scene. Maybe I'll do some deleted scenes just for fun.

The White Witch of NY: The big kiss will be coming up (Maybe not until the last chapter) but its coming. Besides, I doubt Gabriel would kiss her while Carl is falling to his 'death' and Morgan's run off somewhere again. But I'm not going to reveal any more of my ending while there's still story to write.

And I agree, Gabriel returning to the Vatican with a vampire girlfriend? That would be the best thing to see beside Jinette's reaction to Carl and the barmaid laughs out loud. Oh! I'm having too much fun with this story!

Grissom: I was worried I wouldn't hear from you before I posted this! But then I came home and found your review and nearly jumped for joy without leaving the computer chair (Now that's talent).

I love people with empty lives. It's probably why I love the shows that I do. Every main character on the shows/movies I love usually have empty lives. Let's go through the list: Doggett and Mulder, Jack Bauer (24), Grissom...empty lives! And don't even get me started on my own life...

And as for the 'nice' death for Morgan...I wouldn't worry about it. It'll come and I promise, it will be something no one can forget (I hope. I seem to fall into the trap of overused ideas, but what author can stay away from them? Do you know how many fantasy stories came out post-Harry Potter? My point exactly).

I love the X-Files. Even though it all started to go downhill post-movie I still watched it. It wasn't until they added Reyes (who I started to loathe when she replaced Scully) that I realized Chris Carter had lost his mind. And the series finale? Twelve chimpanzees on typewriters could have thought of something better. But other than that, I enjoyed it. My X-Files stories are pretty bad. The first one is total Mary-Sue and I read it and nearly gagged! But I guess that's how one learns to write better and escape from those silly girlish dreams of ending up with a really hot guy and a nice house.

Congratulations on getting Office! It's so nice to have it back on my comp, and yes, it is very pretty compared to Word Perfect. So many pretty fonts...You're lucky your brother is younger than you. Mine's three years older than me and he makes me so angry sometimes (grr...).

I can't wait to see what you have in store for Van Helsing! I would love to Beta if you'd let me. I'm just going to warn you though, I'm terrible with locations so don't expect much help from there. I'm just making this as accurate as I can. But the rest I'm pretty good with. Let me know! I'm sure it will be just great.

Louisiana? I wouldn't mind going there, specifically New Orleans (I'm an Anne Rice fanatic).

Thanks again to all the reviewers! Now you do your thing and I'll keep doing mine!