Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Chapter 3: The Alchemist
"Your real name is Charles Dexter Ward?" Sailor Mercury asked Curwen with a raised eyebrow. "What does your name have to do with what's going on?"
"It's going to take some time for me to properly explain, Ms. Mizuno," Curwen, or rather Ward began. "As I said, Joseph Curwen was my great-great-great-grandfather. He lived during the 1600s and 1700s, and became known by many as what you might call a warlock. I suppose he was in broad definition, however the terms, alchemist and necromancer would also apply. Curwen was a fiend who, with the assistance of two other of his fellow practitioners of his dark arts, revived many people from the past to torture for their knowledge."
"You mean…he was able to revive the dead?"
Ward nodded. "He had figured out a way to break down the remains of the dead into their 'essential salts', their very essence reduced to a pile of chemical compounds which could be stored in a jar or urn, and use those salts to revive that person in both body and mind, or soul if you prefer. Curwen and his two comrades would regularly exchange the remains of these poor souls with one another in order to glean their knowledge of the past and use it for their own dark purposes. Curwen had made a practice of reviving the ancestors of the people who lived in his village in order to extort and blackmail them into submission to his will. Of course my vile ancestor had much darker plans in store for this world. Those plans would've likely succeeded had not the town's people finally conquered their fear of him and ended his wretched life.
"Unfortunately the night the people killed Joseph Curwen had not been the end for that horrid wretch. My foolishness gave the monster a second chance at life. You see Ms. Mizuno, I had always possessed a sort of romanticism about the past, a fascination with the time periods during which Curwen had lived. Then one day when I finally learned of Curwen's existence and of his relation to me, I became fascinated with him and began a quest to uncover all of his secrets. In the course of my research I eventually came upon Curwen's research and used it for myself to revive my ancestor from the dead…and that, Ms. Mizuno…proved to be my ultimate ruin."
"I still don't understand. You said you revived this Joseph Curwen from the dead? Not only that, you said that he was your great-great-great-grandfather and lived from the 1600s to the 1700s, but in order for that to be true you'd have to be…"
"Ms. Mizuno, there is still something about me you don't understand. My life is not a natural one. After I had revived Joseph Curwen and saw what sort of monster he truly was, I attempted to turn against him. Unfortunately by then my usefulness to Curwen had come to an end, so he killed me to keep me from being a hindrance."
"Killed you? But…"
"I was revived from the dead the same way Curwen had been revived. Ms. Covington had somehow obtained some form of Curwen's research and used it to bring me back. I am not truly alive though. I am like those two shoggoths I was forced to return to dust in your presence."
Mercury reactivated her visor and did a scan of Ward. The readings showed his cellular activity was similar to the two shoggoths that had attacked them. In fact many of Ward's cells seemed to be dead or in some dormant state. Some of Ward's biological functions also seemed sluggish or even nonexistent.
Mercury deactivated her visor. "This is…astounding. So you really are some sort of reanimated corpse?"
"That is one applicable term," Ward answered. "Another appropriate term to apply to me would be undead. To maintain my altered biological functions I have been forced to feed on human blood from time to time like the vampires of popular fiction. Fortunately Ms. Covington has been able to provide me with packaged blood suitable for my needs. But the fact remains I am no longer what would be considered human, that my existence is a very defiance of nature itself."
"There's still something I don't understand. Why did Irene Covington revive you from the dead? And why are you using Curwen's name?"
"Because Ms. Covington needed Curwen's knowledge, and she thinks I am Curwen. You see one of the things that ultimately fascinated me about Curwen was my resemblance to him. I was an almost exact doppelgänger of him, with but a few minor differences between us. This resemblance made it easy for Curwen to usurp my identity after he killed me. Apparently what Curwen did after that point had become of some note in certain circles.
"Somehow, Ms. Covington had managed to deduce the truth behind how Curwen had taken my name, but she had made a mistake in thinking Curwen's remains had been entombed in my grave. I do not know what happened to the real Joseph Curwen, but given the state this world is in it is safe to say he was thwarted and his remains were totally disposed of. I had told a friend of my family a little of the threat Curwen posed to the world, and I can deduce he had succeeded in putting an end to the monster. It is a laughable irony though that I would be revived from the dead and be posing as Curwen just as he had posed as me."
"I still don't understand though why Irene needed Curwen."
"It's because of the shoggoths, those wretched abominations from an eon-dead world. Recently the creatures have started becoming dormant, some have even died completely. Ms. Covington hoped Curwen could use his knowledge to revive the dead shoggoths and find a way to make the still-living shoggoths to reproduce through fission. She and her group were hoping I could adapt certain knowledge from the Necronomicon to accomplish such a feat."
"And you're going along with all of this?"
"No! I've only been pretending to help the efforts of Ms. Covington and her group. She used my 'unfinished research' to revive those dead shoggoths without my knowledge. I have been working to find a way to thwart the efforts of her organization from within. You must believe me, Ms. Mizuno!"
Mercury put a hand to her chin in thought. "As strange as it is…I do believe you. The way you destroyed those two shoggoths earlier speaks volumes. Plus, it feels like you're being completely honest with me."
Ward gave her a relieved smile. "You have no idea what a comfort that is to me, Ms. Mizuno. Now that I've shared the true nature of my existence with you however, I feel I must ask you what sort of being you are."
"That's…a little difficult to explain. The short version is I am something known as a Sailor Guardian, a protector of this world. And right now I'm working to stop these shoggoths and whatever group is behind them."
"Then let us work together. I feel certain if I had the help of your powers, knowledge, and your wondrous technology we can being an end to this madness before it can consume the world."
"How do you suggest we proceed?"
"By destroying them from within! I can get you into the group that Ms. Covington and I are a part of, the Knights of Dagon. I need a capable assistant and you would be perfect for the role."
After a moment, Mercury nodded in agreement. "That plan does sound like the best option. Alright, I'll join the Knights and assist you in taking them down."
On the afternoon of the following day, Ward took Ami to meet with Irene on campus. Ward told Irene of Ami's interest in joining with the Knights of Dagon as his assistant. Irene seemed greatly pleased by this news and invited Ami to join her and Ward for the next meeting of the Knights happening that evening. By 5:00 PM, Ami and Ward met with Irene in the university parking lot. The three of them got into Irene's van and were soon on the road to the abandoned town of Innsmouth.
During the long drive, Irene filled Ami in on some of the history of the deserted fishing village. Innsmouth had been the place where the religious group known as the Esoteric Order of Dagon had gotten its start. The order had been started in the late 1800s by a sea captain named Obed Marsh. Marsh had started the order after a trip to the South Seas, where he had learned of certain secrets from the natives living on the islands in the area. Marsh had also brought a prosperous business to the community of Innsmouth in the form of a gold refinery, though just where the eccentric captain had obtained this gold had become something of a modern mystery.
Yet with this seeming prosperity also came a sort of curse that caused the rest of the world to shun Innsmouth and its people. Over the course of a few generations the townspeople began to develop strange physical characteristics that many thought was caused by an unknown illness. The town itself had also fallen into a noticeable state of decay. What proved to be the final doom to Innsmouth came from a young man who had one day visited the town and saw certain disturbing things about Innsmouth and its people he later reported to the government. The government apparently took this man's claims seriously, because soon after his testimony soldiers were sent in to round up the town's inhabitants and destroy a strange black reef that had once jutted out from the town's shore.
The official story at the time was that the government had been sent in to break up a ring of people making bootleg alcoholic beverages, though certain members of the press found this to be a flimsy cover story at best. None of the townspeople had shown up as prisoners in the country's jails, and it wasn't explained why an operation to break up a ring of bootleggers required the destruction of the strange black reef or of several houses in the town. There had also been rumors flying around at the time saying the people of Innsmouth had been quarantined in various camps set up at undisclosed locations around the country. At this point in the story Irene called what had happened to the people of Innsmouth, the greatest human rights violation ever committed by the United States, and Ami found she had to agree if the whole thing were true. As for the supposed disease the people of Innsmouth suffered from, Irene claimed it had forever remained a mystery, but Ami got the feeling Irene knew far more about the matter than she was letting on.
As Irene's van finally came close to the town of Innsmouth, Ami couldn't help but notice how desolate the surrounding area was. The beaches were deserted, and on the side of the land there were but a few small dead trees that had become black with age, and only a few patches of dead brown grass. Ami couldn't also help but notice how the salt air of the ocean coming in through the van's open windows had suddenly become mixed with the unmistakable scent of dead fish. It was as though a strange disease had ravaged the land itself and had left the entire area as a giant piece of necrotic tissue.
"If this is how things looked back during the days when Innsmouth was populated, it's little wonder people thought the town was diseased," Ami remarked.
"Wait until you see the town itself," Irene responded. "Or I guess I should say, what's left of it. The government destroyed a lot of it during their raid. A few of the buildings are still standing, like our group's headquarters, but there isn't even half of the original town left."
"Have there been any attempts to rebuild Innsmouth?"
"Are you kidding? Nobody wants anything to do with this place. The government seized the land after they got rid of the townspeople. In the beginning they tried to sell it, but they soon found that they couldn't even give the land away."
"I'm starting to wonder if it's even legal for us to be here then."
Irene chuckled. "Of don't worry. Someone did finally manage to take the land off the government's hands. What's left of Innsmouth and all of the land around it now belongs to the leader of our group, Reverend Jim Aquarius."
Ami was stunned by this news. "Reverend Jim is the leader of your group?"
"Don't worry. We're not going to try and brainwash you into some weird cult. Ours is a group of young people working to fix everything about the world that's broken. Reverend Jim came to us because he knows the world can't be fixed just by converting everyone to some faith. We're more of a think tank of sorts."
"Interesting that a think tank would be led by a religious preacher."
"It is weird, but I have no doubt you'll fit right in with us, Ami. I did some research on you, you know. With your high I.Q., you're just the type of person we need. And your assistance to old Joe here will be invaluable. As you've probably noticed by now, Joe's something of an anachronism. The poor guy is hopeless with computers."
Ami couldn't help but nod in understanding, given what she knew about Ward. Ward meanwhile said nothing in response to this.
"Oh! Here we are at last," Irene told them.
The van at last came upon the remains of the town of Innsmouth. As Irene had said, there really wasn't much left of the old fishing village. Ami could see the foundations of where houses had once stood along the bumpy old street they now drove down. The few houses that had been left standing were practically charred wooden skeletons, with some of the structures missing entire roofs or in some cases walls. In the distance Ami could see a few brick buildings that were still standing, but not even they were completely intact.
In another few moments Irene pulled the van up in front of one of the few fully intact building in the ruins of Innsmouth, a small old church that Ami deduced was the Esoteric Order of Dagon Hall that Irene had mentioned during the trip down. Right away Ami noticed there were several other vehicles parked around the old church. The three got out of the car, and Irene led Ami and Ward into the church. When they came in, Ami saw every pew in the old church had been filled. Almost every single person there appeared to be in their twenties or early thirties, and most of them were women.
Practically every eye in the room fell on Ami and the others as Irene led them to an available seat. Ami realized that she was the one they were all looking at, which while alarming was not that surprising. She was the only outsider after all, so it was natural for them to regard her with suspicion.
"Don't worry about the others," Irene told Ami. "They're always a little wary of new recruits, but they'll warm up to you soon enough."
Ami nodded. "I couldn't help but notice how many women are part of your group."
"That's sort of thanks to me actually. I managed to recruit most of my sorority, with a little of Reverend Jim's help."
Ami began to survey the rest of the crowd a little more closely. As she scanned the group, she found two very familiar faces sitting by one of the windows. They were the faces of none other than Erica and Satoru.
"What are those two doing here?" Ami asked.
"Oh, you mean Petrov and his little friend?" Irene responded. "They've been members of our little group for a few weeks now. You can talk to them later after the official meeting."
Ami couldn't help but be alarmed by this turn of events. It was starting to look like her initial assessment of Satoru and Erica had been right all along. They really were the enemy.
Author's Note: Sorry for the somewhat short chapter. It couldn't be helped because of where the desired cliffhanger ended up being. Anyway, the main purpose of this chapter was to explain Ward's backstory. In the end it was basically a summary of what happened in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, so for those of you who haven't actually read the book you should be pretty much up to speed on that front. I found however that I actually had to reread the novel just to make sure I could concieveably get away with my explanation of how Ward could've been revived from the dead.
Please review and let me know what you think.