Let the Symphony last for Eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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"Ahoy there matey!" Grant called out, waving to the blond in the distance that he saw while he climbed along the ceiling. The cave was dark, dank, and generally unsurprising because of what it was, there were bats, toads, frogs, skeletons, mushrooms and the such. Not only that, but somehow Alucard had lost the ability to turn into a bat. Which on retrospect might have been a blessing or a curse he wasn't sure, given that time was split. If Alucard 'retained' the ability to shapeshift in this timeline, but not in the true one, what would happen to the man if he tried?

So now Grant was crawling on the ceiling as the groups 'eyes in the sky', where in the distance he saw a blond in a red and silvery white coat lit by a torch he seemingly found. Said figure seemed to be looking at something far below while the torch provided him with light. Thus when he straightened up and turned to look back at Grants' direction the Pirate could see an honest face. So the Pirate dropped down to the ground the heels of his boots making a thumping sound on the wooden board he landed on. The hollow sound informing him that there was nothing below the board. Meanwhile Trevor and Alucard took up the rear, yet the stranger turned and went back to whatever it was they were looking at.

"Someone is over there?" Trevor asked, as his human vision struggled to see amid the darkness of the mines for him, there was only a wavering warm light in the distance. The difference in quality between Trevor's boots and Alucards' could be heard as they joined Grant on the wooden floor. From the solid thud of Trevor's boots, to the clear solid click of Alucards' own boots. While the floor they walked upon gave way just enough to indicate they were pushing the limits of what the wooden floor could hold.

"Another human, one of whom carries with him a whip, so I would say he is of your clan," Alucard informed Trevor. His voice was as aloof and detached as ever, but he finally managed to settle down from his pure rage and blood lust against the vampire who would ultimately turn him. Which allowed him to travel along with Trevor and Grant instead of trying to go on alone. They had already come across an opening where he could see the broken stairwell that lead to his fathers' Chambers.

"Aye, so this is going to be the first I meet of someone not from my own time, kinda exciting," Grant commented while throwing a glance behind him to his two friends, a chuckle escaped his lips. The shift of the board below his feet made him antsy enough that he quickly took off walking again back to solid ground. "Though kinda rude not to join us huh?"

"I suspect his vision is as limited as Trevors' and his hearing is being overwhelmed by the rush of water near him." Alucard theorized out loud, following in Grants' footsteps and walking across the hollow wooden path before them. Uninterested in the shared glance between Grant and Trevor. After all, given his fluctuating state was this intense level of precision vision and hearing something from being a Dhampire or a Vampire?

"Ahoy! Hey!" Grant called out again, once more distracting the hunter in the distance and perhaps because he kept calling the stranger finally began walking towards them. "Confident one this one, carrying that torch about. Like we aren't any threat."

Not that Alucard could blame any of them, human limitation was a thing and they had no torches or lanterns to use. While the stranger 'did' find himself a torch before he traveled the mines, where as Alucard's own animistic vision was the only thing keeping him from plunging into the water. But given the noise in that direction, perhaps this hunter was concerned about losing the torch hence why he hadn't jumped down?

The light of the torch approached closer to the group and Trevor mentally ran through a series of possible greetings, since the only people he would expect in the Castle was his wife and Hector. With Isaacs' presence it would make some semblance of sense of the reformed Devil Forgemaster also made an appearance in the castle. But a 'blond in a red and silver coat'? Juste was silver haired and in a red coat, so it couldn't be him. Increasing his worry that perhaps the future Hunter was gone from time and maybe it was his fault. They didn't know which Belmont disappeared, and perhaps if Juste had been able to do more than being stuck injured because of Trevor's own negligence.

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The voice was living, for which Leon was most grateful, human or monster was relevant to him at this point. So he walked forward into the darkness, holding his torch up and patiently waiting for whoever to make their appearance. There was no reason to wait and try to detect their foot steps, not with the waterfall behind him. Though if it turned into a threat, he wasn't looking forward to jumping down said waterfall.

But whoever called out to him called again and sounded closer, but again, Leon 'was' the one walking along with a light in his hand. A perfect target for anyone who lived in the darkness, a clear indicator of his confidence. But the illumination revealed a seafaring person if he ever saw one, short and lanky he had the tanned skin of someone who dealt with the winds of the sea. He had a friendly demeanor, waving a open welcome to Leon. It was those with him though that caught Leon's stronger attention, even as he returned the greeting to the seafarer. The first was the warrior behind him, with his long brown hair and earth toned clothes with Vampire Killer at his hip. A clear sign that this was a member of his family down the line, that this man wielded the Vampires' bane.

Interesting as meeting someone of his future bloodline may have been. It was when the third person in their group entered into the light of the torch that he was struck with surprise. His mind automatically going back to the paintings he saw upon his arrival in the Castle. With that question he had long ago pushed aside suddenly rushed to the front. For this person had Mathias' features, from the eyes to the shape of the face. When Leon thought back on Mathias, the person approaching him appeared like a pale stern version of the man he once called friend.

His gold eyes already narrowed as he realized that he was the one that Leon was more focused on, and Leon felt rather conflicted on the matter. It was rude to stare while at the same time, after everything Mathias had done, running into Lady Elizabethas' spirit, it was just turning into a day.

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"Hello Matey, glad to find someone we don't already be knowing!"

"Indeed, I am most grateful given the situation," Leon agreed shifting his eyes down back to the Seafarer.

"I suppose that leaves me to introductions..." Trevor noted aloud. "My name is Trevor Belmont, and these are my friends, Grant, who first greeted you, and this is Alucard." As he gestured to each of his friends, noting how Leon suddenly focused more on him, a faint, barely there, smile in his eyes.

"Ah I see, you're Sophia's husband, well my name is Leon. Leon Belmont."

"So she is here!"

"You saw Sophia!"

Both Trevor and Grant seemed excited at the news, but Alucard was aloof over any type of excitement.

"You are also a Belmont," Alucard stated, rather than inquired, he was unsure about why he had received the initial look from the hunter. There was no real hostility, but it was the feeling that this Leon person was trying to place him somewhere in the man's memory. Alucard recalled a 'Leon' that Trevor spoke of, but was it possible this was the progenitor of the clan and not someone else?

"Indeed, and if the paintings I was shown upon my awakening here spoke true, I can say that perchance, I know your parents." Leon acknowledged with a slight bow of the head. "Before he became a vampire."

"'The' Leon Belmont, Grant. He's the founder of our clan and through his blood we were born with this unnatural strength that scared off the towns folk," Trevor explained in a quieted voice for Grant. Though Alucards' own quick ears caught the words as well.

But it was the words 'I know your parents' that set the room on slight edge. For Leon acknowledged not just Dracula, but Alucards' own mother in that statement. Both Trevor and Grant glanced up at Alucard hoping that this wouldn't push the Dhampire into anything.

"However, I am baffled for when I knew your Lady Mother, she passed away of illness before they ever had a child. Yet there is a hallway with paintings of both you and her, and while at the time I merely thought your paintings were wishful thoughts. You live and breathed, so how is it that you are here?" His inquiry was polite, respectful and yet Alucard could not find the words to give answer, or even the emotions to lash out.

Somehow this one human had managed to freeze him in place with surprise and disbelief. Here stood a human, a Belmont no less, who claimed friendship with both his mother AND father? He never recalled this human in the Castle, and saying that he knew of the time when his father was still 'human'?

"The same way Soma exists," Trevor interjected, hoping to take some of the scrutiny off the Dhampire. As Leon's gaze shifted to him in question, Trevor offered, "there was a man in this castle named 'Soma'. It would seem that Dracula had 'not' been in the Castle at the time when the Castle started bringing us here. Soma was one of those brought, and though he 'is' Dracula, that version of him was also human. How this happened was referred to as 'reincarnation' a topic that the three of us know woefully little about."

Leon blinked, his expression half hidden behind his long bangs as he switched between Trevor and Alucard. "I fear I also know nothing on such topics, when it came to the arcane arts or tactical advice I relied on Mathias... To my current chagrin."

"Well this is all well and nice here mates, but we really should keep moving on, all things considered," Grant pointed out. He was honestly feeling pretty good at not being in the center of focus for this discussion, but a mine wasn't a place to have deep discussions. The library would have been nicer, well anywhere above ground and lit would have been nicer. Relying solely on Leon's torch left everyone a little less protected from ranged attacks after all.

"Ah yes, well the thing is that there is a rather steep fall that way. I couldn't make out if it was safe enough to jump without risk to the torch. And while there 'is' a path under the wooden floor back where you came, there are..." Leon began only to oddly enough cut himself off. His posture turned ridged and he grew quiet causing the others to look among themselves in confusion.

"Leon?" Trevor cautiously inquired, extending his hand in open concern for his ancestor.

Leon blinked as his focus went back to Trevor and he gave an apologetic sigh, "forgive me. I had just made acquaintances with a group of hunters in this castle. I don't know what happened but down below I came upon the body of one of them, a young lady."

That alone was enough to worry the trio, someone who one moment was alive and later found dead in a different part of the Castle? This was the first time they were getting to encounter someone who hadn't been separated and who knew of other hunters.

"We might be able to be helping with that," Grant commented shaking his head at the thought of a dead hunter. "One of your future kin has been captured somewhere, once he disappeared all who came after him done disappeared."

"Or were relocated into fatal locations." Alucard pondered aloud, "neither of you have returned to your own time after all. If we think of time folding in on itself its possible that she had gotten aid from someone further down the line than herself. With that aid taken away..."

"Indeed her clothes had heavy stains of blood loss and rips from some previous event. Though I knew Lady Charlotte for less than an hour, I know she was aided by her friends. And that..." Leon closed his eyes and brought his free hand to his forehead in mental and emotional torment. He could still hear the sisters screaming for their father to save them. The sound of Eric begging them not to go, the howl of anguish and loss and then... "Six noble hunters, suddenly all gone. I could have ascended higher in the Castle, but could not abandon them so I turned my steps back and began investigating the Castle again."

"Six? Were any of them Belmonts?"

"That many?!"

Trevor and Grant both, again, exploded in surprise and barely subdued excitement for all of a moment before they recalled that one was already dead.

"Indeed, but no other Belmonts directly, as I said there was Lady Charlotte and her two friends Lady Estella and Lady Loretta. They seemed to have all come from the same point in time, while the twin sisters father, Sir Eric was... I got the impression he came from before he would be their father. Then there was Lady Shanoa, who seems to have come from a time as well before any of those four, and finally Lady Maria, she claimed herself a Belmont by distant relation and closer one, for her adopted sister Annette was married to a 'Richter' Belmont." Leon recounted regretting his inability to help any one of them though now... If one of his future descendants being captured caused this, then it was imperative to rescue said Belmont! "Beyond that I encountered your lady wife and Lady Elizabetha's ghost at one point."

Trevor barely could keep his composure at the mention of a 'Lady Ghost' as he recalled Alucards' mother also being in the Castle and that was the 'one' presence he didn't want discussed in front of Alucard. At least not without a 'serious' amount of prep time for Leon if he was to bring 'her' up.

"Lady? You mean Sophia?" Grant asked with a twitch of the lips before he started to laugh. "Right you've got all the markings of a noble, but you don't have to be 'that' polite 'bout it! When we first met her she was disguising herself as a man after all!"

"If you would, describe this 'Lady Maria'," Alucard asked his thoughts going back to when the Master Librarian spoke of the new Lady of the Castle. A 'Lady Annette', raising a question in his mind as to the possibility of who this 'lady' originally was.

"Ah Lady Maria wore a small emerald green ensemble, her hair long and bound via ribbons and she had doves that stayed by her side. Though a dragon would appear upon her command, a lady talented with animals I would wager," Leon answered his thoughts going back to the woman in question when he noted the startled looks from the two humans with them.

"Then it is as we feared, the change in time has reassigned people from one side to the other," Trevor spoke the thoughts aloud that the three shared. It was not just a matter of people disappearing, some were literally forced into working for the opposing force. That a Huntress of Vampires would become a champion of those very beings..." Trevor shook his head in concern at what he heard, his thoughts going back to the time they encountered Dracula's followers.

"You have clearly seen Lady Maria, but I fear it was not in good terms," Leon noted his gaze going to the ground. Even if he had just met the group, the fates of all those people were bringing him down.

"I'm afraid so. But perhaps we should start at the beginning? Who knows how long its going to take before we find Sophia and anyone else." Trevor suggested before giving a light shake of the head, "how can this possibly get worse?"

"We find out we're all that's left, that's how Trevor," Grant suggested thoughtfully. "We've found Leon who is from the past, but everyone who came from the future has disappeared or been brought over to Dracula. Can't help but fear we're all there is standing between Dracula and the destruction of the future."

"Is there no way to fix what has happened?" Leon asked as he turned back the way he came and the others began to fall in step along side him.

"Perhaps, if we can rescue the Belmont who was captured we can restore the original time line, however; if we fail, we ourselves could be wiped from the time line as well." Trevor explained falling in step with Leon as they began the transverse the cave path.

The dark cave grew brighter with the light of the torch that Leon carried, the soft sound of water flowing into a waterfall began to finally be picked up by the ears of the humans in the group. While Alucard kept his gaze on the back of Leon's head, still trying to puzzle his way through the blonds' presence. A Vampire Hunter 'friend' of his parents?

"I awoke in a long hallway, it was filled with paintings that I now realize were the family Mathias now has..."