I was sitting in a conference room in Rome while Helen gave a speech on an abnormal.
"This case study shows an enlarged hypothalamus, nearly twice the size of a normal human. Such increased scale is often the first indicator of abnormal abilities, which is why detailed brain mapping is often our best recourse when diagnosing new patients. And now, in this situation, the patient was able to lower her body temperature to well below life-sustaining levels for days at a time." she paused and looked at the back of the room. I followed her gaze to see Nikola Nikola by the door. He looked at me and waved with that smile of his and I turned back to Helen. She looked from him to me before continuing her speech. "Such examples of this simple genetic mutation are part of a larger-scale trend we are seeing worldwide. More appearances of extraordinary genetic abilities are cropping up at an ever-increasing rate."
"Scusi." I looked to my right to see an assistant next to me and I took the note he offered me with a smile.
"Grazie." I opened the note and read it quietly. "You and Helen will be killed in less than three minutes. Meet me now. Nikola. PS. You look hot. Much better than those dresses you wore."
"Mi scusi. An urgent matter has come up. Can we take a short recess? Fera uno breve pause." Helen said and I joined her as she walked down the center of the room through the door Nikola walked through earlier.
"Helen Magnus. Eliza, kiss me and I'll save your lives." Nikola told me.
"And if I don't?" I asked him.
"It's been over sixty years since we last saw each other, just plant one on me already." he told me smirking. I rolled my eyes and gave him a kiss. Before it became anything other than just a kiss I moved away from him.
"Nikola Nikola. You always did know how to get attention." Helen said from next to me.
"And you're still boring as ever when it comes to giving a lecture. But to business: Cabal agents are all over the building. If we don't leave now, things are going to get… rather bullet-ridden." Nikola told us, taking my hand and Helen's arm and began walking away from the conference room, but we got to far from it Helen stopped and turned to face him.
"And why should we believe you?" she asked him. I looked past her to see Cabal agents with rifles enter the conference room. I nodded my head to them and she turned to see them before we all walked away quickly.
"I assume you have a plan other than kissing me?" I asked him.
"Genius, remember?" he asked me sarcastically.
"Ah. Right." I said as we all walked to a stairway that led to some catacombs. We ran down some stairs and stopped at a door. Nikola brandished a key before unlocking it and pushing it open and gesturing for Helen and I to precede him.
"Beauty before brains." Nikola told us and I rolled my eyes at him and ushered Helen before I went in them with Nikola behind me. The catacombs stretch off into the darkness until the light came on as Nikola threw an old-fashioned sliding bolt across the door.
"Charming." Helen said as we began walking rapidly down the corridor.
"I know. Part of a 200-year-old system of catacombs underneath the city." he told us.
"I'm assuming there are other exits?" I asked him.
"Should be. My contact said there would be." he told us.
"Contact?" I asked him.
"Umhmm. Concierge at my hotel. Don't you love Rome?" he asked us with a grin. I glanced back at the way we came as a banging sound came through. We ran from one passage to another before rounding a corner and stopping and pressing up against the wall.
"Through here." One of the Cabal agents said. Helen and I began reaching for our guns while Nikola turned to us.
"Well, they're really pissed at you. What did you two do?" he asked us.
"We stole three witches from a crypt in Scotland." Helen told him.
"Stealing. You. I'm appalled." he said sarcastically. Helen checked her gun before giving me a look.
"Shut up and help us." I told him.
"My god, you look sexy with a gun." he said and I rolled my eyes.
"Really? You're going to flirt now?" I asked him. He smirked as we heard Cabal agents approaching our corner. Helen pistol-whipped one in the face and the second grabbed her wrist. I knocked his arm off her and kicked him away making him hit the wall hard enough to knock him out. A third surprised me from behind grabbed me from behind and knocked me into Helen before pointing his gun at us. Suddenly Nikola shoved him up a wall by the throat.
"Leave her alone." He said in a deep voice. I looked up at him and saw that his eyes had gone black and his teeth were pointed as he rose a now-clawed hand to threaten the agent and growled. Helen's gun crossed my vision, pointed at Nikola.
"Nikola, that's enough!" Helen told him. He visible relaxed, his eyes changing back, and he threw the agent to the ground. He chuckled and grinned as he walked towards the wall nearer to us.
"Well, that was exciting, huh?" Nikola asked.
"A little too much." I said giving him a look. "Have you stopped taking your medication?" I asked him.
"No, no, no. I just, I just got a little excited." he said looking at the gun that Helen still pointed at him. "Come on, Helen, I don't feed on humans. I made that vow long ago and I intend to keep it." I looked at him while he smirked at us. I put my hand on her gun and pushed it down. She tried to fight me but I didn't let her. Nikola turned and lead the way down another corridor.
"What the hell Liz?" she asked me.
"I'll keep an eye on him. You know I will." I turned back to him and watch him stick his finger into an empty light socket. There was sparking before all the lights in the corridor turned on.
"Your favorite parlor trick." Helen said. Nikola cleared his throat and gestured for us to precede him.
"This way, milady's." Nikola said.
"You haven't lost your touch." I said as we passed him and followed the light he'd offered. We walked until the light stopped showing us where we were going. Nikola got in front of us and blured towards two Cabal agents he'd seen, sending one flying into the other. Helen went before me and checked the agents as Nikola pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his hand.
"Come on. There will be more where they came from." Helen told us and we continued moving.
"This is fun, isn't it? Just like old times, back in London? When was that, forty-two? Forty-three?" Nikola asked us.
"I don't think about it." I told him.
"Come on, Lizzy. Every major spy agency in the world was looking for me. I needed your help. And besides, what's a faked death among friends?" Nikola asked and I turned and glared at him.
"Friends? Is that all we ever were? Friends?" I asked him. Helen grabbed my hand and pulled me away from him.
"Whose hare-brained notion was it to supply every allied government with plans for your death ray weapon?" Helen asked him. We all pressed ourselves against a wall as Cabal agents yelled indistinctly.
"Well, I thought they'd all share and that peace would break out. I did. I had my Nobel speech all memorized." Nikola told us.
"This sector's clear. Let's move on." a Cabal agent said. I sighed as I heard them leave.
"How did you know the Cabal were after us?" Helen asked Nikola. I turned from her to Nikola, wondering the same thing.
"I watch them and they watch me. We've had a few entanglements over the years, but you know, I've never done anything so stupid as to actually steal from them." Nikola told her.
"We've had our contacts keeping an ear to the ground for any Cabal movements since they attacked my sanctuary. I would have known beforehand if they were going to make a move on me here. In fact, they didn't show up until after you arrived. They're not after me, are they?" Helen told him.
"They want you." I said, getting angrier by the minute.
"You two haven't lost your touch, either." Nikola said grinning.
We hid as we heard the Cabal searching for us not far away. Nikola peered around the corner at them with Helen and I behind him before we began walking down a corridor.
"You've always been reckless. But contacting us directly while the Cabal was following you. That's a whole new level." I told him.
"I know. It was not one of my best ideas. But hey, I had no choice. I needed to see you." he said looking directly at him. He and I walked side by side with Helen behind us.
"Then use the proper channels. Contact one of my facilities and have them arrange a secure location." Helen told him.
"Would you rather have me endanger one of your sanctuaries or just you two?" Nikola asked her.
"How about neither?" Helen asked him.
"Nikola, you disappeared before the end of World War II, never to be seen or heard from again." I said.
"Well, I did die a lonely, impoverished, pitiful old man. Thanks for the funeral, by the way. I heard it was quite nice." Nikola said to me and I scoffed at him.
"I faked your death to save your life, so that your work could continue. I think I'm owed an explanation as to where you've been since then. Especially since I am who I am." I said to him.
"Hey, perfecting the use of electricity and radio waves? Hard acts to follow, okay? But I have kept busy. At Oxford, all those years ago, what we did was more than just pushing boundaries. For me, it was personal." he told me.
"As it was for all of us." Helen said.
"You four changed, whereas I found out who I really am. We also found out who Eliza really was. The more I embrace that, the more I realize just how little I've accomplished." Nikola told us.
"Your gifts to the world will live on long after you die, whenever you actually die." Helen told him.
"You think you can call this existence "living?" The Cabal hunt me at every turn." he reminded her.
"But why?" I asked him. "You've been underground for decades. We all know the Cabal only go after what they see as valuable."
"Or a threat." he said walking away from us. Helen and I shared a look of suspicion and alarm before following.
"Why would the Cabal see you as a threat?" Helen asked him.
"I'm a vampire. Some people are threatened by that." Nikola reminded her.
"Only part, Nikola, pure-blood vampires were wiped out centuries ago. Besides, you alone are not enough to make the Cabal this angry." I forced him to stop walking and turn to look at me. "What's going on?"
"The Ancient Ones, they were intelligent, gifted, powerful, until a bunch of church-folk decided that our race was impure, evil, and not only did they hunt them down, kill them off, but they turned our species into a cultural joke." Nikola said.
"Ancient vampires were the Caesars, the pharaohs of civilization. Humans were enslaved, they rose up with good reason. If the world knew the truth-" I told him and he cut me off.
"Humans were conquered because we were smarter and stronger. And when vampires ruled the world, it was a golden age. Science, art, architecture all advanced. And after they killed them off, what happened?" he asked me as he continued to walk.
"The Dark Ages." I said.
"And now people think we're allergic to garlic and that we can turn into bats at will. It's beyond insulting." he said before turning a corner. "This way." I sighed and made Helen go first before following them.
"As though a vial of stale water blessed by some priest would have any other effect than a bad taste in my-." Nikola paused mid-sentence, and Helen and I turned to look back the way they came as a rumbling noise started.
"Earthquake." Helen offered.
"Worse." Nikola told her. Nikola shoved Helen and I into a side corridor just as the shockwave hit and threw him 15 feet backward into the wall. As the dust settled, Helen clicked on her flashlight and we came out of the side corridor. I turned to see Nikola hanging on the wall by a jutting piece of wood through his chest at about where his heart should be. His head was hanging loosely as if he was dead. My eyes widened and I walked to him slowly.
"Nikola?" I asked, worried. Nikola SUDDENLY drew a sudden breath making both Helen and I jump.
"I vant to suck your blood." he said, doing a Dracula impersonation.
"Get down from there." Helen ordered him and I sighed in relief as he shoved himself off of the stake impaling him. He landed on his feet and looked down at the blood-stained hole in his shirt.
"Irony is, I once owned the patent to that weapon. I never should have sold it to Edison, cheapskate that he was." Nikola told us as he picked splinters out o f him.
"Do you think this is funny? Tricking us into helping you with whatever game you're playing with the Cabal?" I nearly shouted at him.
"Lizzy..." he said but I didn't listen to him.
"You've always been like this, haven't you? Selfish and arrogant, putting your own desires before everyone else's." I said, trying not to think of the past.
"I brought you here for two reasons: Because only you two can help me finish what I'm working on and because I love you." he told me.
"Yes, so you keep-" I said before pausing at what he said. "What?"
"I always have." he told me. I stared at him in shock. It had been a long time since I'd heard that from him. He caressed my cheek gently and I felt the blood rushing into my cheeks. "More than you could ever know." he let his hand fall back to his side. "I mislead you and I deeply apologize for that, but I had to see you."
"You're serious, aren't you?" I whispered. He gave me a gentle smile that I couldn't help but return.
"Back at Oxford, we used the Source for power and for greed, and you… You helped everyone out of a pure desire for knowledge." Nikola said to me. I thought back to when they used the blood.
FLASHBACK
I nodded to Nik as he readied the needle. I cringed in pain as he drew my blood slowly and putting it into the beaker for them to use for their experiment.
END OF FLASHBACK
"You're the only scientist, perhaps the only person I've ever really admired." he told me. I felt Helen, who'd I'd forgotten was with us, grabbed my elbow and pulled me down a corridor.
"Come on." she said. I tried to listen for why she was making us move so quickly and heard footsteps headed our way.
FLASHBACK
Nikola gently laid me down on the couch as I was too tired to sit up. I watched Helen sit in a chair with John kneeling next to her.
"It's ready." Nik told everyone.
"You don't have to go first. John or I could have a go to start." Griffin told Helen. Helen had said she was to be the first to try my blood in her system, to see how far humans could go.
"He's right. No need for unnecessary heroics. The side-effects are completely unknown." Watson reminded her.
"Thank you, gentlemen. But this experiment was of my design. I shall be the one to prove it's worth." Helen told them. John took her hand to get her attention.
"Helen, you're certain?" he asked her.
"We've risked too much to turn back now. We risked Elizabeth's life for this. We need to know." Helen told them. I saw Nik turn to me, worry in his eyes. I smiled to him and he returned it before turning to Helen. "You may proceed, Nikola." Nikola slowly injected Helen with the serum. She winced as the needle broke the skin and gasped in pain just after the entire serum had been injected, clutching at both Druitt's and Nikola's hands. I saw her turn wide, frightened eyes to Druitt and I had to look away, tears in my eyes at her pain.
END OF FLASHBACK
The three of us stopped abruptly as green laser lights from a gun shine across our path. We turned back, only to realize that Cabal agents were coming in from the other direction. We flattened ourselves on either side of the alcove we were in.
"I, I feel so safe when I'm with you." Nik told me quietly.
"Quiet!" I whispered to him, urgently. He grinned but remained silent.
"We're going to have to fight our way out of here. No killing." Helen ordered.
"Said the woman with the gun to the vampire and the elemental." Nik said, laughing quietly at her.
"Just follow my lead." Helen told us.
"It won't be necessary." Nik said, speaking normally. I looked at him confused.
"Nikola, we don't intend to get captured or killed." I said to him.
"You won't." he told me, smiling.
"What do you mean?" I asked him. He continued smiling at me as we heard Cabal agents start yelling. I tore my eyes from his and looked down the corridor as several gunshots were fired. Nikola got off the wall as the gunfire and yelling started to drop off.
"The playing field just got leveled." he told us as he started to leave the alcove. We came down a corridor to find the Head Agent of the Cabal lying dead on the ground. Helen's flashlight revealed lined of blood across his neck.
"My god. What did this?" Helen asked us.
"It's not so much the "what" as the "why" that counts." Nikola told us and I stared at him in shock.
"This is your project, isn't it?" I asked him. "This is what you've been working on."
"Tonight, you two get to witness the rebirth of the greatest abnormal that ever walked the Earth." I turned as we heard two vampires approaching.
"My god, Nik, what have you done?" I asked him.
"Welcome to the future." he told us grinning.
"What the hell are they?" I asked him as he stood next to the vampires.
"Well, in a very basic sense, they're me." he said.
"You found a way to revive the species." Helen said shocked.
"The question:" Nikola said holding up a knife, cutting his own hand. "Could I use my own altered DNA to turn a boring old homo sapien into a higher, more evolved species?" Nikola knelt next to the body of the Head Agent and dribbled some of his blood into his mouth. One of the vampires handed Nikola a U-shaped metal bar with copper wiring wrapped around the middle. "And the answer is so simple, it will make you cry. Watch." Nikola touched the two ends of the bar in his hand to Head Agent's corpse. Electricity arced from the points. The Head Agent arched and yelled. I made sure I was between Helen and the vampires while glaring at Nikola. How dare he use us like this. He turned to us, grinning. The Head Agent's yelling changed tones as Nikola stopped shocking him. The Head Agent's eyes were black and his teeth pointed. Nikola smiles in triumph at us as the Head Agent got to his feet faster than the eye could follow, growling at Helen and I brandishing his now-clawed hands.
"Well, thanks for joining the party. Now, uh, go join the others." Nikola ordered his new creation and I felt Helen backing away slowly behind me as Nikola turned to us. "See, the coolest thing about me using my own DNA to reanimate the dead is… They do whatever I say." he told us, laughing.
"They're practically mindless." Helen told him.
"I know. They're fast, vicious, strong, but they're as dumb as tree stumps. Which defeats the whole purpose of the project." Nikola told us.
"You want us to help you make them intelligent." I said drawing conclusions.
"This is the culmination of everything we stood for as The Five: Pushing boundaries, exploring realms of science that other people were afraid to. Just imagine!" Nikola said turning from us to his creatures. "Sanguine Vampiris. "Reborn."
"They would only enslave us again." I told him.
"Well, I don't think human beings are doing such a good job of it right now, do you? Hmm? You and I could usher in a new golden age of thought and culture and peace…" Nikola told us and I could feel my tears behind my eyes.
"You're mad, Nik." I told him.
"No!" Nikola shouted, making me jump slightly. "The Philadelphia Experiment was mad. But this… is progress." he told us. "We all know the abnormals are on the rise. And now, we just need somebody to lead them."
"You." Helen said, putting the pieces together.
"Yes. Well, me and Liz. You two saw how my Mini-Me's handled those trackers earlier tonight. Now just imagine, an army of them, huh? But massively intelligent! Liz, you and I could give the Cabal-" I never let him finish he sentence. I raised my gun and shot at Nikola and his monsters. I missed Nikola but got his creations before Helen and I turned and ran away. Soon I could hear the two vampires close behind us. I looked at Helen and nodded. We both stopped and turned to the vampires before shooting them. They staggered, but kept coming. We turned and continued to run. After running all we could, Helen and I stood back to back as the two vampires slowly advanced on either side. We shot them before running out of ammunition. I put my gun away and readied to do what was necessary. The vampire that was facing Helen charged at her and I used my powers to shield her. The earth below our feet preated a wall between her and the vampires, making them have to come at me first. Helen's attacker joined mine and they both rushed me.
"Not yet." I watched as both vampires stopped immediately. I shifted my gaze from the puppets to their master and saw Nikola's eyes were black and his teeth were pointed. "Not yet. Back off."
"Helen. Liz. Nice shooting." Nikola said to us.
"I thought you our friend." Helen said.
"Was I?" he asked her.
If not, then I guess I can tell you that, at Oxford… No one liked you." Helen told him.
"Aw. Was it because I was a genius?" he asked her.
"No." I said. "It's because you were an obnoxious ass." he started laughing.
"Well. Guess who's still standing?" he asked me. I jumped and my eyes widened as I saw a chest rip through Nikola's stomach.
"John!" Helen said in surprise.
"Hello, Nikola." John said to Nikola. I saw John pull his fist out of Nikola, who cried out in pain and fell. I almost went to him if I hadn't felt two pairs of hand hold me back. They pulled me back to John, who'd teleported behind us. He held onto us before teleporting us out of the catacombs we'd been in. When we were at our final destination Helen shoved John away from both me and Ashley.
"John! What the hell are you doing?" Helen asked him.
"Saving your lives." John told her. I felt Ashley hug me but I pulled away from her.
"Why?" Helen asked him.
"You've had a long night, Helen. I'm simply glad to see you safe and sound." John told her.
"The blood I gave you. It should have crippled you, or worse." Helen told him.
"It did." he confirmed.
"Then how-?" I asked but I saw him exchange a glance with Ashley. I saw her nod him, blinking back her tears.
"Ashley can explain." John told us. I stared at Ashley, who never quite met our eyes. I walked silently to the end of the walkway where I had a birds eye view of the city. I heard Helen and Ashley joined me. I sat down, holding my knees to my chest.
"He's my father, isn't he?" Ashley asked.
"Yes. He is." Helen told her. "Never shown you Rome, have I?"
"There was never time." Ashley told her.
"I have a lot to make up for. [pause] Shall we?" Helen asked her daughter. I looked up to them and saw Helen hold out her hand. Ashley looked down at it for a moment, took a deep breath and looked back out over the city. Helen kept her hand out, watching Ashley silently. Ashley took another deep breath and swallowed hard.
"Yeah." Ashley took her mother's hand and I looked back out over the city. What was I going to do now? How could I have believed him again.
