Let the Symphony Last for Eternity
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: Welp now I know where this was going...
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Trevor wanted to believe he was in the Castle of Dracula.
Strange to say, but true none the less, since being in the Castle of Dracula explained all the monsters roaming around. It explained the strange architecture around him, and the platforms needed to get from one place to another. It even explained what happened to Grant that made the man never return during their search of that one chamber. Since all it meant was that he was going to be freeing Grant from some unfortunate cell or transformation.
Simple.
The door that they had taken to leave the area had slammed shut behind Trevor, separating the Hunter from the Pirate even further. Trevor had jerked the door back open to check on Grant only to find a completely different area of the castle sprawled out before him. No pirate to be seen as he stared into the distance of the room before him. But turning around left him not in the room that he had been when he stepped through.
If not for the doors and this startling way it had of teleporting people around he would have thought he was in a completely different Castle. Maybe one of the castles that Hector found himself traveling to before Dracula's Castle returned. After using the same door several times in an effort to stumble upon Grant, Trevor had resigned himself to turning and accepting that he would have to travel alone.
Thus he found himself eventually walking in on a rather interesting scene between a small army of maids and a series of skeletons, both white and red boned, in white simple coats. Trevor had seen the army of maids roaming around through out the castle, dusting and arranging things in an orderly manner. For the most part 'all' the monsters that he would normally hunt and kill had been busy cleaning.
Occasionally he would come across a room with monsters who would look upon him with distrust. The maids would look in apprehension and rush away or others would openly try to stare him down. But the only thing Trevor could fathom was that, for whatever reason, the monsters had been made alarmed by something. It wasn't the actions of a monster threatening just anyone, they were the actions of victims. They moved like victims of an attack and distrustful of this new person who came among them.
He kept his hand near, but not on his whip and no one accosted him during his trip through various parts of the Castle. But in the rooms where this unspoken sense of distrust came from also was uniquely damaged. The maids had been clearly working on the Castle for quite a while, indeed all the monsters that 'could' work, were. But in these particular rooms it looked like a fight had broken out, tables broken, chairs knocked over.
Trevor didn't know who it was, but it was clear that 'someone' was traveling the Castle slaying anything he or she found. Since such actions clearly upset the monsters and if they didn't actively want to 'be' a problem. Why start one? This room below him was another such room that looked to be the victim of this aggressive visitor. There were two ledges a person had to climb to reach the door, but the elevated view gave a clear view of what had been going on.
The tables had been turned over, legs broken or the table itself just broken in half. Shattered glass littered the ground like leaves during the autumn months. Large chunks or tiny slivers of glass, bent metal and the occasional burning liquid covered the ground. By his side were the skeletons with feet tapping impatiently on the ground and arms crossed. Disgruntled one and all, emotions easily recognized despite the lack of flesh to convey feelings or thoughts.
The maids were in two teams, six were working on a table holding it up and in place, which seemed odd to Trevor. He expected another table to be delivered if it were so damaged, so why hold it up if broken? But the six maids stood there resolute in their determination to hold the table in place. Meanwhile the other six were busily sweeping up the broken glass and mopping up the spilled liquids on the ground.
Which was an event unto itself...
As he stood there watching, the maids began mopping up and suddenly there was a flame shooting up in a plume of blue. The maids quickly began bashing the fire with their mops and the odd broom, the muffled thumps mixing with the tinkling of glass. It was comical to be sure, and Trevor started to feel sorry for the maids when the flame scattered along the ground and then... began to crackle.
Trevor wasn't sure what to make of the hissing, popping and crackling noise until it suddenly shot up as sparks. The maids began to rush about in alarm, amusing the poor confused Belmont in their very life like human actions. Yet they all held those looks that went with being dead in body and alive in clothes. The skeletons to his right seemed smug and the maids holding the table looked anxious, well as much as any undead could.
The sparks and popping began shooting higher in the air, a beautiful plume of light that startled the maids holding the table. They released the table and it stood up on its own, though Trevor could see the faint sinking in the middle. Explaining why the maids logic of just holding the table in place, if the table would self heal. Why replace? The skeletons were broken up between those laughing at the antics of the maids and others that seemed to be trying to see the liquids on the ground.
The light brought by the sparks was rather beautiful Trevor decided, probably the only truly beautiful thing he had found in the Castle in all his trips. The light shot up in plumes of color that cast a multitude of colors against the white washed walls of the room. The towering pillars and still standing glass casting the light further into darken hallways. All the color and light was mesmerizing for Trevor, he honestly wished the group was with him so they could see it. Rather uplifting like a rainbow cast into chaos and for a moment banishing the evil that was around.
The shadows of the maids rushing about in their purple uniforms amid all this light was comical enough to almost make Trevor start laughing. Until the maids noticed the amused scientists and Trevor and got narrowed eyes on all of them.
"What? You think this is funny? You making us have to do all this work?!" One of the maids demanded, planting her hands on her hips, her head up in righteous French fury.
Trevor raised his hands to passively express that he wasn't part of what caused the problems, his eyes having already scanned the room. He knew there was no hope for him, if he got in trouble that was it, he was getting dragged into whatever the skeletons got dragged into. The fact that these were all monsters of Dracula only vaguely having any influence on his thoughts. If the Skeletons were saying anything though, Trevor couldn't hear it amid the clacking of jawbone and skull.
One of the Zombie Maids stalked up to him, eyeing him seemingly for any potential smirk of amusement at the struggle of the maids. Near him he could hear the click of the door, meaning some poor soul was about to be exposed to a good number of angry maids. Trevor didn't fare well against strong, angry women, he wasn't very good at talking them out of their anger. So he had learned to just shut his mouth and let the anger take its course.
So when he heard the click of the door above and behind him he was torn between being grateful for the distraction from the irate maid. As well as concern for who would possibly walk through the door, after all 'someone' was rampaging through the castle. His senses rose up in alarm at the stranger who walked in.
A long white coat with a fur trimmed collar, white hair on his head, coupled with pale features. The shirt was black and the pants were long and blue with a bell like shape around the feet. Which given the toes off the edge position the stranger took revealed him to be wearing black boots. Trevor could feel the power of Dracula around this guy, yet he was completely weak, the aura of power that someone possessed by Dracula should have been stronger. The retired Devil Forgemaster was stronger than this guy!
"ITS ALIVE! ALIVE!"
Trevor jerked back in alarm as a mad voice cried out from somewhere in the room, a voice that belonged to no one. The guy in front of him had yet to open 'his' mouth after all, as music blared out of the same nameless source. While the guy in question froze mid-step with a shocked expression before throwing his head back. Stared hard at the ceiling and shot back for the room in general, "Seriously? You're going to play 'Weird Science'? THE SONG HAS NOT BEEN MADE YET!"
Maybe Dracula was bidding his time before he possessed this person?
Said person threw up his hands and hopped down from his perch to the lower ledge, having not noticed Trevor yet. For which he was grateful for it allowed him the chance to study this stranger with the weird shaped eyes better.
The maids looked mortified as they rushed towards the steps, curtsying before Soma. "Please, do not come this way! The floor is not cleaned yet, it is a danger for you to come in here!" One of the maids made a sweeping gesture towards the various areas of fire that stood burned on the liquid splattered around.
Sweeping the room with a glance brought Soma's eyes upon the people to his left and right, with its rows of red and white skeletons in lab coats. With the taller form of a Hunter standing along with them, as trapped by the liquids as the undead. Soma could still recall when Julius got his memories back. The Hunter had an innate knowledge that allowed him to identify 'Dracula' on sight, leading Soma to believe that 'any' Hunter of that level of strength would have it as well.
The look in the Hunters' eyes said that he 'did' recognize Soma for what he was and the feeling to run before he was stuck in a hopeless battle 'was' strong. Yet the Hunter didn't bother to make a move, allowing Soma a chance to try and figure out the rest of the equation of the room. Namely...
The incessant chattering of the skeletons, "why are the maids so lazy? They're taking forever!"
He looked at the skeletons, who froze from their toe tapping and mutterings to look at Soma with their empty eye socket heads. Soma was slowly getting a handle on how to read those lacking flesh to express themselves. The chattering that someone could hear, somehow became words in Soma's head, allowing him to hear that pompous huffing that people gave when avoiding something.
"So why are you standing here and not helping them?" Soma asked, calmly, forcing himself to focus on the skeletons and not the hunter a short distance to his right.
"We're scientists!" Several red skeletons chatted at in the distance in that tone that could be counted on when a scientist heard 'budget cuts'. That wheedling tone that was both exasperated at a 'lower intellect' holding the deep pockets and fear of offending said pockets.
"Did I stutter?" Soma shot back, his annoyance growing as the Castle kept on playing 'Weird Science' coupled with the fireworks going on from the chemicals on the ground. He was pretty sure this was Yoko's influence over the Castle while the trio continued to suppress it. Soma didn't object to being de-powered, since just having his soul kept a Belmont from killing him outright. He hoped. But this was still an Alchemy Lab playing a song from the 1980's based on a movie. Which didn't 'exist' yet.
With the Trio holding the Castle back, he found it easier to adapt to his own innate dark powers, but clearly letting Yoko have 'any' access to the Castle was a mistake. The skeletons froze to a pinky and then began climbing down, many turning to check on Soma. Hoping that the Dark Lord wouldn't tear into them for not immediately leaping to his command.
Sure cleaning the lab was beneath them, but being slayed by a Hunter was far better than being slayed by their Lord. At least Hunters couldn't drag them back and turn them into Blood Skeletons... The maids quickly grabbed onto the numerous skeletons and were dragging them off to do various things. The whole of the room turning into a place of constant activity with mops and brooms coupled with more skeletons holding table limbs and tables.
"You can understand the monsters?" Trevor inquired, his eyes slightly narrowed while the scar over his eye pulsed softly to the remembered incident.
Soma glanced at the Hunter from the corner of his eye, uncertain of where this was going to end up. Personally Soma didn't want the Hunters to know he was Dracula, but from what Julius had pointed out once. Was there any way to avoid it? If he could make it to the door he could easily lose this Hunter, but he honestly didn't want to have to take that route. Running implied he was something that should flee, something evil and he wasn't.
"Well anyone can understand each other if effort is made. All the monsters that have vocal cords can talk. Haven't you tried to speak them yourself?" Soma countered with a shrug, while a rudely made statement from a skeleton got his head smacked off with a broom.
Trevor found himself rather conflicted on the path he should take by that point. This wasn't someone hosting the powers of Dracula, instead this 'was' Dracula. This pale, strange eyed stranger who felt wholly human, was the Evil Count. Yet not even the evil part remained, so how was this even possible? Well, if Hector could renounce his affiliation with Dracula, Trevor was trapped with the option that so too could Dracula.
"Its rude to stare at people you know?" Soma asked, all the while a virtual neon sign was blinking over this Belmonts' head reading 'How do you like your stake'?
"Dracula. You're Dracula, and that means you know exactly what's going on here." Trevor didn't even grace him with the option to argue. Merely stating facts in a tone that was a mixture of marveled disbelief and pragmatic seriousness.
"Don't call me that. I'm not like that anymore," Soma sulked at the name and identity that went with it. "For that matter, don't be so loud. There are people who would just 'love' to get their hands on me if they knew. Thirdly, I don't know exactly what's going on, just the bare bones of it."
"Well don't keep me in suspense," Trevor countered, pulling Vampire Killer from his hip and giving a mocking bow towards the teen.
Which earned him a narrowed and highly annoyed expression, "like I'd tell you! Julius may be a stoic, grumpy old man, but he has a right to his attitude. You don't have to be such a jerk!"
Soma humphed and dropped down to the floor below him, earning him the panic of the maids who began desperately trying to clean the floor before him. For his part, Trevor couldn't bring himself to pursue the man before him. His eyes thoughtful as he thought about how odd the monsters had been, how stranger still was the Lord of the Castle.
But halfway across the room the stranger staggered and seemed to struggle to stay up, causing the maids to go into a higher panic. If that was even possible. They rushed to him as he collapsed to his knees and Trevor felt a twinge of concern. If this human Dracula was in pain, what would that mean for the rest of them? The maids and skeletons got in his way, blocking the way to the Dark Lord with their bodies and while normally he would have just slain them all..
No. Something greater was going on here, something that deserved his self restraint and his focus. Thus he forced his way past these undead servants and knelt by the Dark Lord, only to see the stranger looking about almost as if blinded. His eyes darted about in confusion, right hand at his chest, left hovered over his throat as though he couldn't decide if he should grab it.
"What has happened?" Trevor asked, grabbing Soma's shoulders and trying to get the Lord to look at him directly.
"I need Arikado... The Castle is merging back into one..." Soma found the stranger before him as the only solid thing in his field of view and put all his focus on that. "History is changing, someone in your bloodline has died, without them the future generations are being wiped away. Without a Belmont to defeat me, leaves the world vulnerable to me, because Sara will still be here. The vampires who are trying to control the Castle though... How will they now play into this?"
Trevor was floored at that, so Juste wasn't the only oddness of the place? "So what is wrong with you?"
"My past is here... reappearing in the Master Chambers..."