Disclaimer: Well, here we have it, part six of On The Wall. Hope everyone is enjoying this so far, as always I don't own anything in this story bar the plot. Do I really have to say that every time? Anyway, sorry for the slight delay in posting this, here are the shout outs;

Clez:- You... you can hurt Becky as long as you don't kill her. How is that? So here we have it, Mina Vs. Becky. Better keep your fingers crossed for Mina... ::Evil, foreshadowing laugh::

Angharad:- Why thank you. This chapter is the part where we find out who 'Becky' is and also how she lives. There were very slight hints in the previous chapter, but you would need to have a great understanding of English Geography to get them.

Queerquail:- I'm sure, one of these days you will sign in ;) I know, 8 chapters isn't very long, but remember this was only supposed to be a one-shot!

Crystal Nox:- Yep, lets hope they save Sawyer... before it is too late.

LotRseer3350:- It's understandable, if you thought you wouldn't like the direction the plot was going to not read a story. Hope you like this part XD

Hmm... Graymoon didn't leave me a naughty thoughts about Sawyer review. How odd... oh well, I guess I'll have to think my own yummy thoughts about him... ;)

And now...

On The Wall

Marlene watches from the wall

Her mocking smile says it all

As she records the rise and fall

Of every soldier passing

But the only soldier now is me

I'm fighting things I cannot see

I think it's called my destiny

That I am changing

Marlene on the wall.

Marlene on the wall, By Suzanne Vega.

Chapter 6: Clarity

Mina stepped through the doors of the sparring room, not knowing what to expect. After Captain Nemo had told her about the other Vampire's message she had returned to her cabin to change into clothes for more easy movement and some knifes. She had then spent the next half an hour convincing Nemo to not send any of his sailors with her. It was only after she had reminded him of the strength of Vampires and the fact that this new enemy had already killed two of his men and would undoubtedly kill more if they entered the sparring room, that he agreed to her plan. She had also brought up Agent Sawyer's condition and that this could very well be their only chance to save him.

Even then, Mina knew Nemo didn't like the plan at all. Neither did Mina come to that but what could she do? If there was any chance to save Sawyer, she had to take it. Reluctantly Nemo had agreed not to send any of his men into the room, but she was reasonably confident that he would have men waiting outside.

Mina scanned the room, her eyes searching every shadow where a Vampire could be lurking. The room seemed empty, the silence oppressive and laden with danger. Slowly she took another careful step into the room, still using her eyes to search it for her as yet, unrevealed foe.

"Hello, darling Mina." A lazy drawl said from behind her. "You came alone I take it? That's what I always liked about you. You are so terribly predictable." Amusement tinted her voice as the young blond jumped down from the ceiling where she had been hanging above the door waiting. Mina froze, her eye's widening in surprise at the voice that she had once known so well. And then, a second later she was asking herself why she had been surprised as she turned to face the woman, whom she knew had been the culprit. She had always known, even though she had never realized fully or been given any proof. She should have been able to form the theory into thought and words when she remembered that the last stop had been Scarborough, which was only eight miles from Whitby... only eight miles from where it had all started those many years ago. No, that was wrong. It had started far away in Transylvania, long before she had been born.

"Hello Lucy." Mina answered calmly, wondering internally why she was so calm, how she could be so calm when faced with Lucy. "They chopped your head off."

"Did my old fiance, tell you that?" Lucy – who had pretended to be Becky – asked. "Men are such fools. They thought I was stupid enough to just return to my coffin and remain there waiting for them to kill me? Ha! I used my thrall on them and they left believing I was dead and I was happy to remain quietly there waiting... waiting for my Count.." Lucy trailed off, her gaze distance and Mina found she couldn't stop staring at her best friend.

Her mind traveled back to a time before she had become what she was. She and Lucy Weston had been so gay then, so young, innocent and full of hope. It had been the time when she waiting for Johnathan to return from his trip to Transylvania so they could marry. When he had, he had been ill with brain fever, and she had rushed to him. Lucy had written, filling her in about the three men who had asked to marry her. Dr. Steward, whom Lucy had said no to. Then it was Quincey; an American and again Lucy had said no. The last has been Lord – at the time Hon. - Arthur Holmwood and it was he Lucy had said yes to. Then Dracula had landed in Whitby, siring first Lucy, despite everyone's best efforts. The dreaded Count had then gone after Mina and it was during this time that he had killed.

Before this had had happened though, Van Helsing had led a small group of the men to Lucy's grave and had driven a stake though her heart, chopped her head off and stuffed her mouth with garlic. She had not been dead long enough for her body to return to ash, which was why they had chopped her head off and filled her mouth with garlic. Only now it seemed as if that never happened. The grisly tale recorded in a diary entry had all been an clever ruse thought up by Lucy herself.

"Only he was no longer interested in me." Lucy said sharply, bringing Mina back to the present time. Lucy glared at Mina, anger in her hard eyes.

"He was interested in getting you, in adding you but I didn't care. Because, at that time, I still loved you and I thought we could be together for all time with him. Until your men killed him and I was left alone... all alone." Lucy said and there was hurt in her voice, a raw hurt reflecting how that time must have been for her. They say Vampire's cannot feel.

That is not completely true.

If a Vampire let's it's supernatural side control it, then it can feel all the negative emotions quite strongly. And love. Or would it be better to call it lust? However, if, like Mina, the Vampire had never fully given in to the more unsavory side then all feelings were distant, detached and any out pouring of feeling would result in the Vampire side briefly gaining control. There is nothing more dangerous than a hurt Vampire.

"I am sorry Lucy." Mina told her, at a loss of what else to say. At once Lucy regained control of herself and she flashed a smile of bright white teeth in Mina's direction.

"It wouldn't have been so bad... until I found out about you. You, who were like me but you, you had manged to find yourself friends, a new family almost." Lucy snarled, her anger showing again. She moved rapidly from one feeling to the next with no control or clear direction.

"I don't understand..." Mina mummed, her mind still traveling over the diary entries. "Dr. Van Helsing said that you had been bitten in a trance and that you had died in a trance so therefor you would only be a Vampire in a trance."

"Again, thrall, they believed what I wanted them to believe." Lucy said softly. She paused and stared at Mina, her eye's narrowing in a calculated manner and she titled her head to the side like a bird.

"Don't you want to know about your friend? Don't you want to save him?" She asked innocently. Mina stared back at her blankly for a few seconds before she remembered about Agent Sawyer and the state he was in. She growled softly, taking up a defensive position and Lucy gave a girlish giggle at this, sounding so much like the young carefree girl she had once been.

"Oh, no more talking?" Lucy asked with a pout. "Fine. In that case I suppose you don't want to know all about my plans with him." She paused, in a challenge and Mina slowly relaxed slightly.

"You do? Oh good!" Lucy clapped her hands together with another giggle. "It's so fun! At the moment I'm calling to him, my blood calling to my young, but he is fighting the call. I have no doubt that he will waste all his energy fighting until he dies and then wakes up... my dark prince, mine, forever." She gave a dreamy smile, lost in a memorie. "He will be mine and no-one will take him from me, ever."

"Is that what this is all about?" Mina asked in disbelief. Lucy raised an eyebrow and shrugged her slim shoulders, her skirt curling about her ankles.

"Okay." Lucy said suddenly. "Less talking, more fighting."

:::

The too pale eyelids twitched slightly. With a great effort they slid away from his eyeballs, the bright green eyes gazing around the infirmary. At the far side of the room stood the sailor assigned to look after the infirmary. He was busy taking a stock check, no doubt to keep himself busy. On two beds side by side were Skinner and Jekyll, the former asleep, the latter still out cold. Tom glanced over at them, before his eyelids became heavy again and they slid close.

Inside he could feel something tugging at him, pulling at him. A call, a wonderful call. He fought it, knowing that if he gave in to the temptation he would be lost. Part of Tom wanted to give in, wanted to live for all time. He might have a better chance with Mina then...

A sharp pain entered his temples and his chest as he thought about Mina, as if someone or something was stabbing a shard of glass into his head and heart. It was a warning, a telling off, as if it couldn't believe he could think of anyone but Becky – darling Becky. Tom fought that feeling too, telling himself that it was the thrall, not what he really felt. The thrills, the longing for his black beauty. Thrall, all thrall.

Even so, he could feel himself loosing, bit by bit. His grasp on himself was weakling and he was having trouble remembering who he was and that his friends were trying to help him.

The call became more intense and more appealing.

:::

Lucy slashed out at Mina's face, her nails like claws. There was an ugly look on the blond Vampire's face as she circled Mina, both of them totally engrossed in what they were doing. As Mina crouched and sprung, Lucy jumped to the side, to avoid her.

Mina was trying to come to terms with the fact that Lucy was still alive – well, alive in the broadest sense – and the fact that she would have to kill her oldest friend. There was no way round it, at least, none that Mina could see. Lucy was insane and totally taken over by her inner evil. It was possible that at first she had been rather like Mina herself but the death of Dracula and the subsequent exile had unhinged her, but Mina didn't think it likely.

If the other diary entries were true – and they had to have some truth in them as they included a newspaper cutting – then as soon as she had become one of the un-dead, she had started to feed on children and that was something Mina could never do. She tried to tell herself that she would be saving two souls with Lucy's death. She would save both Lucy and Tom Sawyer from Hell. Yet it was no comfort when faced with the reality. Lucy seemed to know what she was thinking and smiled, her eyes lighting up, even as she moved around looking for an opening to attack.

"Are you going to pick him over me? Of course you will! He's still young and at the moment, alive. You would never let anyone alive, who is good be hurt..." Lucy said in a sing song voice. "Come off it, you must have wanted to drain him dry the moment you set eyes on him! I know I did... and then I decided to give him a greater honer, to make him mine for all time. What do you think of that my sweet?" She kicked out savagely at Mina as she spoke, catching her in the stomach and sending her flying.

Mina landed on her feet, her hair coming loose, her Vampire side surfacing.

"I think you talk too much Lucy. Not only that but I think you're a deranged madwoman." She snapped back. The blue in Lucy's eyes vanished, the rich red bleeding into them. She charged forward, smashing into Mina and sending both of them crashing into the wall.

"You know what? You think too much!" Lucy whispered, a knife materializing in her hand from nowhere. She raised the knife in a half arc before bringing it down, hard on Mina. The other Vampire called on her bats, letting her human form fade away into the swarm of flying animals and Lucy's knife met only air.

Lucy shrieked as the bats swarmed about her, before letting herself call her own bats. A second later, the sparring room was a mass of bats all screaming at each other and fighting. It was impossible to work out what was going on or who was winning. Finally some of the bats flew together and merged back into Lucy. She fell to the ground, panting, her whole body a mass of tiny cuts that were already starting to heal.

Mina reformed as well, flying down so she way lying on top of Lucy, pinning her in place. Her captive's eyes darted this way and that before a tiny smirk curled up at the edges of her lips. Mina frowned slightly, then her nose picked up what her ears had failed to do so. Someone else was in the room. The next second a pair of strong arms had grabbed Mina around the waist and lifted her away from Lucy, throwing her across the room. Again she managed to land on her feet but she hesitated a second before she turned round to face Agent Sawyer who was now helping Lucy to her feet.

Lucy flashed her a triumphant grin.

TBC...

Sethoz