Gabriel.

His head hurt.

Wake up, Gabriel.

No.

I said, wake up!

His eyelids were forced open, his sight coming in contact with the high domed ceiling of a castle. The stone beneath him was wet and cold, sparks casting off from bent wires. He realized he was wearing nothing but a patch of cloth over his crotch.

Thought you killed me, didn't you, Gabriel?

A pair of cold blue eyes, colder than death, leered upside down in Helsing's view. His heartbeat skipped three beats; he leapt to his feet, backing away.

"No, you're dead."

"Correct."

"…"

"Gabriel, I'm already dead. You can't kill what's already dead. You, of all people, should know that."

He started to back away, the vampire's grin ever so piercing, so malignant. His black locks swayed gently as he took a step towards Helsing one at a time.

"No, stay away." Dracula sighed nonchalantly.

"You have yet to give me back my ring." He grinned again, this time his fangs were grown out.

Helsing's eyes widened, his instinct going for his pistol holster when he realized he had nothing. Dracula squalled at him, his face pulled taut as his lips peeled back to reveal fanged jaws. His coat billowed out into his wings, his cool and seductive demeanor replaced by hell's melting pot. Helsing tried to transform into his wolf form, when his heart suddenly faltered. He tumbled over, gripping his chest as he gasped for air.

Dracula cackled in his primal vocal cords, shaking his shaggy mane. He fluttered towards Helsing, gripping him by his throat as he pulled him up. He screamed in his face, fangs outstretched as his tongue rolled out.

"I owe you." he grinned as his fangs sunk into Van Helsing's neck, his pulse flowing into his mouth.

Helsing hung, paralyzed as he felt his blood drain out.

"I win, Gabriel."

He shrieked, his body writhing as a sleek furred hand clawed into Dracula's face. He let go of Helsing, licking his mouth clean as he rubbed his cheek. Helsing struggled to stand, the moon glaring behind him as his eyes were consumed in a toxic beryl.

"Some things are better left forgotten!" His skin fell off, black fur and raw hatred sprouting underneath.

He charged for Dracula, but instead his claws went right through Anna's gut. His eyes widened as he felt the prick of a needle, his mind screaming that it wasn't happening; none of this was happening! Not again! He could see the light in her eyes die, feel the warmth of her blood in his hands.

DEAR GOD NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

"CHRIST GOD NO!"

"Silence, you fool!" A gloved hand smother Helsing, forcing him to keep still.

Carl was dabbing Van Helsing's forehead with a damp cloth, Scorpion holding his mouth shut as he looked around.

"Don't you realize where we are?" His cool ice blue eyes were filled with worry and calculation.

Only after his fleeting delirium pass did Van Helsing realize where they were. Torches held by the decaying statues of Anubis were blazing a hallway. Scorpion, though still, was quietly muttering prayers in Spanish and Arabic. Carl was standing aside one of the statues, reading the hieroglyphics on the walls with fascination.

"Interesting…very interesting…"

"We must move along, as quickly as possible." Van Helsing, in the dim glow of the flames, could see that Scorpion was actually shaking for once.

"What's bitten your tail, Scorpion?" Van Helsing gave him a genial smile and patted him on the shoulder as he went over to his horse, now dead.

He signed and crossed his upper torso, kneeling down to see what he could salvage. He heaved out his shotgun, his crossbow, the ankh and-

"REOW!"

"Christ God; DAMMIT, SCORPION!" Snowball had clawed into Van Helsing's palm.

The white cat fluffed its fur and trotted alongside Scorpion, who seemed to snap out of his hysteria to pet the creature. He looked behind him and chuckled, Van Helsing gripping his hand tightly as Scorpion walked towards Carl. His eyes looked misty now, scanning the hieroglyphics without much interest.

"Find something?" Carl was ecstatic, murmuring translations under his breath.

"Oh my god, we're in the tomb of Ramses II!"

"Meaning?"

"We're desecrating the burial ground for one of the most important Egyptian pharaohs! That's like breaking the Rose Window-" Helsing shot Carl a menacing look, his nose wrinkled in a snarl.

Carl squeaked and bumbled before Scorpion looked ahead.

"Hush. If you wish to keep your souls in check, I suggest you both be quiet whilst we find a way out of this tomb." Helsing noticed Scorpion's body was quivering as though someone had suppressed a nerve.

"Scorpion?"

"HUSH!" He hissed, looking at the floor.

A sudden, low hissing noise crawled up from the floor, curling around itself. It rose up from its coiled nest, fanning out the skin flaps on either side of its head.

"King cobras, protectors of the pharaohs." Scorpion stretched out his right arm, prayer beads dangling from in-between his fingers.

Carl and Helsing watched quietly as Scorpion muttered an Arabic phrase under his breath. The snake reared back, fangs bared as Scorpion came closer. He sped up his whisper, his eyes focused on the snake. It slowly lulled and rested his head on top of his body, allowing Scorpion and the others to pass. Bowing with his hands together, he gently passed the snake.

"Come on, move. We don't have much time." Helsing gently eased himself past the serpent, Carl stiff as he pressed his back into the wall and slid past.

"Remind me to bring a flute next time." Helsing smirked as he walked past Scorpion, not catching the subtle glare on his face.

Sliding out the reel of his pistols, Helsing slid in two clear bullets filled with a luminous blue liquid. Cocking the hammer, he fired them at the ceiling, the liquid exploding and giving off a bright bluish white flare.

They were looking onto a giant mausoleum, giant stone sarcophagi covered in sand, dust and cobweb. Carl placed the hem of his sleeve over his nose, trying to blot out the reeking stench of decaying flesh. Scorpion's eyes were wide with awe, jangling the prayer beads in his fingers. Van Helsing scanned the area, noticing something on the wall beside the dilapidated entrance.

"Van Helsing, WAIT!" He took a step down into the vault.

The torches lining the wall suddenly burst into flame, casting shadows against the faces of screaming dead. Statues on either end of the room lit up, arms crossed with Sais gripped tightly in their anthropologic hands. Scorpion smacked his forehead lightly with his hand, dragging it down his covered face in furious exasperation.

"I don't know what dune you rolled down from, but when I say NO, you have to do so."

"Why do I have to take orders from you?" Van Helsing wasn't paying much attention to Scorpion's tantrum as Carl walked towards one of the statues.

He dusted off some sand, looking at the detail carved into the Sekhmet-faced guards.

"Huh, they're female. Interesting…" Carl read the inscriptions on their shoulders and armor, mumbling the translation under his breath.

"Since when were you in Egypt, Mr. Van Helsing? The time of the Neanderthal?"

"Since when do you know everything, "Meester" Scorpion?" Scorpion glowered, drawing out his scimitar.

"Oh both of you, quit it! You two are acting like little boys with toys! Geez."

"What are you reading, Carl?"

"Oh, just some insignia on these statues." Carl dusted away the cobwebs on one of the statues' faces, Scorpion's eyes widening as Carl came to a close on the translation.

"CHRIST, DON'T!"

"-and banish thine enemies cast in Ra's wake. Huh, funny translation." Scorpion stood, paralyzed as Carl gave him an odd look.

"What? Scorpion, are you alright? You've been tense ever since we-"

-Crack-

Carl blinked and looked back. A piece of stone was on the floor, a finger from the guard's clawed fists.

"That's strange."

"What is it, Carl?" Helsing's hands were reaching for his pistol holsters.

"A piece fell off. Oh well, I guess being stuck down here for…five…millen..i…a?" He felt hot, dank breath against the back of his neck, stone and sand crumpling to the floor.

"Carl, whatever you do-" Scorpion was trying to keep Carl calm, but it didn't work when he turned around and was staring straight into the yellow cat eyes of a Sekhmet guard, "DON'T PANICK!"

Carl screamed as the guard roared in his face, her legs breaking free of the stone exoskeleton. The other three guards' shells were shed off as they gripped their Sais tightly. One shouted in arabic, her fur haloed eyes narrowing.

All four of them held their blades at the ready closing in on Helsing, Scorpion and Carl.

The calm before the storm, everything felt surreal in the one second of non-violence. Helsing lunged for Carl, throwing him into the exit as the four guards charged for Scorpion and Helsing.

"Paladins of Sekhmet, the goddess of war!" Scorpion drew out his scimitar, hunched over slightly for balance.

The guards divided and conquered, two taking down Scorpion while the others two went for Helsing. Scorpion swung his blade, slicing at one of the guard's arms while punching the other one in the muzzle with his prayer beads woven in his hand.

Helsing whipped out his melee Tojo blades, coming in close combat with one guard as another tried to stab him in the side. He kicked the first guard off of him, slicing the other in the abdomen as he leapt on top of on of the sarcophagi. The warrior that had been kicked leapt up, snarling as her black and silver nemes was shattered. The other charged for Carl, roaring as Carl seized up.

"CARL!" Scorpion slit his thumb open, splattering blood on the back of the Sekhmet warrior.

She screamed, writhing as the blood burned into her back. She wheeled around, teeth bared and eyes narrowed as she stalked towards him. He swung his blade at her face, leaning back as she bit and broke his sword. He fell back, the cat anthro squalling in his face before her head was blown off. Sand and rock spilled onto Scorpion's lap.

"Carl, they're not dead!" The headless guard reared and charged for Helsing, the other leaping on top of the sarcophagus.

Scorpion grabbed the headless's ankle, yanking her back as Helsing leapt out of a sai's way. He tried to slash at the guard, but she knocked his Tojo blades out of his grip. His gauntlets slid onto his hands, gripping her wrist and breaking it as she punched him in the face.

"CARL, DO SOMETHING!" He was fumbling with the scrolls in the pack, trying to remember what it said.

"He who hears this scripture will, oh god, no! Uhm, um, he is- oh god, that's not it-"

"CARL!" The headless guard slammed her elbow into Scorpion's head twice, turning around and performing a lariat strike.

His body flew into the opposite wall, his back smashing into a stone torch as he passed out. The headless guard picked up her sai, loping towards him before a rock hit her in the shoulder. She "turned", seeing Carl throwing debris as her. She came towards him, pieces of her body falling off. Carl was hurling rock after rock before he picked up a skull.

"AH!" He fumbled and dropped it, not noticing the guard lunging for him.

He suddenly grabbed a scripture and shouted, "!" Her body exploded into sand, lying in a harmless heap as he stared at the paper.

On the papyrus was the inscription of a hawk with both the Lower and Upper Egyptian crowns. A scarab was soaring over his head, rays of gold sprouting from its body.

"Ra…and Khepri…HELSING! THE PENDANT!"

The other three had surrounded him, beating and slicing him. The pendant was clipped from his neck in the fray, sliding over at Carl's feet. He snatched it and held it up, shouting the word once more.

The guards cowered suddenly and backed down, mellowing out their rage before they became statues once more. Helsing swayed, his cheek and eye swollen from bruises as the corner of his lip was busted.

He slid off the sarcophagus, wiping off his Tojo blades as he looked in Scorpion's direction.

"Scorpion?" No answer.

Carl went over to check up on him when he gasped and withdrew.

"What's wrong?"

"He's gone! I can't find him!"