Hello, and I have finally brought another chapter out to what few readers I have within this AU!

If this one is pretty short for you, I am sorry about that. I just felt that I had to get it out there as soon as possible, especially because I had been heavily distracted from trying to continue one of my other fics some days prior.

That being said, now you can behold who is the first Hollow Bastion vampire to go bye-bye without mercy due to the mind of yours truly! Enjoy!

As usual, constructive reviews are welcome. Rude comments are NOT!

I own nothing except my OCs.

Read, leave a review, but no flames allowed.

Chapter 23: Fight or Flight

Forcing the door open, Mary hurried inside to find Mina on the sofa, seemingly in a dazed state as though she were undergoing a headache. Though she was relieved to find that nothing serious happened to her, she couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with her younger sister at this time. Perhaps she could ask after they've found who the other intruder is and put a stop to it as soon as possible.

Fortunately for her, she was able to hear the panicked gasps of Jane coming from upstairs, and it's quite clear that her elder sister felt endangered by a predator and that she apparently can't find a way out of it on her own. Not wanting to lose another member of the family after Caroline's demise, Mary immediately booked it up the stairs at full haste and forced the door open with all her might and – true to her worst fears – she found Jane cornered by another one of Xemnas's followers, Marluxia. The moment she did force the door open, though, the pink-haired man turned around to find that he had been caught in the act.

Needless to say, he didn't take this too well as he turned to confront her. "Miss Mary. You weren't supposed to have returned yet. I thought your…sister…would've succeeded in doing the job after what Xaldin did to her. But it would seem that she failed to do her job as a newborn night creature."

"Were you expecting someone to kill me off? I know what your ilk has done, and I found out what you all are," Mary retorted dismissively. "You are no men, but those vampires of legend, feeding on the blood of any victim you can reach your devious hands upon!"

Considering how vicious her words were, it didn't take too long for Marluxia to get irritated enough to dart away from Jane and aim to grab Mary. But before he got the chance, a splash of water suddenly flashed past Mary and splattered across the intruder's face, causing him to recoil back in pain as a hissing sound resulted from the impact. She turned back to find that the professor had a glass bottle with a cross pattern and water kept inside; it makes her wonder how he was able to come prepared that easily, but that would be worried about later as soon as the pink-haired intruder has been taken care of.

"Look before you, Miss Jane. Now you, too, will see the true face of the fiend who threatens you so!" Eraqus alerted boldly.

At the right moment, as Marluxia regained his footing from the unexpected attack, he showed blood-red eyes and sharp fangs while growling angrily at the pain he received, his face badly disfigured by the spots where the water had hit him before starting to heal itself without an easy explanation. The instant she saw this, Jane let out a terrified scream of horror at the discovery of her attempted assailant's true colors before she collapsed to the floor from shock.

Realizing the disadvantage he was in and that he had been exposed for what he really was, Marluxia immediately made a mad run for the window and jumped off the edge towards the ground. That meant only one thing for them: he knew he was in trouble, and he is intending on making an escape before anything worse could happen to him.

"Professor, he's getting away!" Mary growled as she hurried down the stairs.

"He knows that he is at a disadvantage now that we returned. That is why he fled outside of the room," Professor Eraqus warned her, "He is in a fight or flight instinct. What he might do from here depends on how we deal with him."

"Then we'd better get out there and find him before he escapes the premises," Terra insisted.

"I agree. We have to prevent him from fleeing," Aqua was in agreement on it. "He might have some information we need to track down the leader of the fiends. If not, then we'll dispatch him on the spot."

"What about Jane? Will she be alright?" Ventus asked out of concern for the shocked sibling.

"Call the maids, and help them see to Jane and Mina. We'll go out there and find that vampire before he goes too far," Eraqus ordered.

The blond nodded before he ran off to get help. "Right away, Professor."

While Ventus stayed behind to get help inside the house, everyone else hurried out of the house and into the yard to hunt down Marluxia, hoping that he hadn't disappeared. But by the time they reached the backyard of the house, it was immediately sensed that something was slightly off about the night-filled environment. The entire area – from the small garden to the storehouse to the stable entrance – was eerily quiet, with no abrupt noises sounding off aside from the occasional crickets chirping faintly from a distance.

This uncanny silence brought a powerful shiver down Mary's spine as she cautiously made her movements across the grass, not certain as to where the monster could be hiding. Although she has come to understand more about the nocturnal creatures that are tormenting her family and what their lore consisted of, she never thought that she would have to investigate the formation of the vampires and possibly connecting them to the denizens of Hollow Bastion, much less ever have to fight one face-to-face to save her kin. It made her wish she had been more prepared for a violent confrontation like she should've been when inspecting the conditions of her now-dead sister Caroline before she had been purified of her vampiric corruption…

Without warning, the sound of a swift slice reached her ears, and – on instinct – she dived off to the side to find that one of the tree branches had been cut off, almost as though it was meant to crush her.

"You disappoint me…What makes you think that you can destroy us, us who have endured centuries while all of you fight to maintain fleeting lives?"

Mary turned to find where Marluxia is – only to find that the blade of the scythe was already dangerously close to her throat, threatening to lop her head off at any given moment. Needless to say, it was pretty clear that he was very irritated at being hunted.

"How can you and an old man possibly stand opposing the master," Marluxia questioned her harshly, "when you already know that your family is marked for death? What do you think you can do to resist us?"

Three gunshots rang out, and Marluxia was suddenly forced away from her in pain.

"That's because this 'old man' knows of the situation, and will use any means necessary to protect this family from the fiends that dare torment them!" Eraqus answered as he kept his gun ready for use.

After being momentarily caught off-guard by the shots embedded into him, Marluxia recovered his footing long enough to begin regenerating from the wounds he received. However, despite his inhuman power, he quickly noticed that the wounds were not fully healing as efficiently as they should be; that was a sure warning that the bullets buried within his body was composed of one particular metal that is apparently dangerous to his species!

Taking advantage of the distraction, Mary shuffled off the ground and retreated to the stable to find something that she can use as a temporary weapon until she can figure out what to do. At the moment, the first thing she could grab from the rack was a short axe – which under normal circumstances would've been solely used for chopping wood than anything else – and brandished it for self-defense. Sure, it wasn't exactly the best tool to use against something much more powerful and monstrous than anything she's ever had to deal with in her life, but what other options did she have? She'll need to make do with a mundane tool until she can learn how better to deal with a vampire.

But just as she did, though, she had to act quick as the scythe came back to try and take another shot at removing her head from its original spot. This was her warning that Marluxia was seriously ticked off that things just weren't going his way.

"You really believe that that you can put a stop to us, after what you and your family have learned?" he growled bitterly as he kept swinging his scythe, "What could you possibly know about us? Whatever it is you've learned, you will not be able to stop our master anyways. He knows what he wants, and he shall exact his vengeance on you."

"Not if the rest of us have anything to say about it!"

Right when it was least expected, Mary got a bit of a surprise when Marluxia was smacked aside by Terra, brandishing a pitchfork as a weapon (most likely noticing that his young cousin came into the fray with little experience in self-defense).

Taking advantage of the distraction, she took a swing at the scythe-wielding vampire and managed to hit him in the back hard enough to cause some pain. But this didn't last long when he turned back and slammed her hard enough to make her crash against the bushes; clearly this was a stroke of dumb luck because if she had been thrown against a wall or anything harder, she probably would've received worse injuries than she normally would've gotten.

But the absurd luck she got was cut short when she watched as Marluxia reached behind his back and pulled the axe out of his back like nothing. Knowing that her situation has gotten a lot worse, Mary dreaded what else might come her way, or the possibility that her life is about to vanish before she could do anything to save her family…

The swift sound pierced through the air in rapid succession rang through as the pained cry of the pink-haired monster echoed simultaneously, persuading Mary to look past to find that Ventus had arrived in the nick of time with a crossbow on hand; not long after, Aqua joined her fellow trainee as they armed their crossbows and fired round after round at their adversary.

"Do not allow him any chance to regain his strength," Eraqus instructed his pupils sternly, "If he is to be stopped, he must be destroyed!"

While this was happening, Terra hurried over to Mary and helped her regain her footing after the stumble she had, mostly to make certain that nothing serious happened to her.

"Mary, are you alright? Any injuries?" he asked her in concern.

"Let me worry about it later. We have to do something about Marluxia," Mary insisted strongly, not wanting a problem to go unchecked, "especially since we don't want Jane to be haunted by that monster forever." But then, she got an idea. "Terra, try and use that pitchfork to pin him somewhere. That might get the job done faster."

Following her instructions as carefully as possible, Terra cautiously waited until the volley of arrows was finished to ready the pitchfork for an opportunity to take a shot at the vampire minion. No sooner had the arrows stopped firing, Marluxia was about to shift his attention towards the professor and his students in order to exact his revenge when – right when he least expected it – he felt the strong pierce of the prongs from the mundane tool through where his stomach would be.

Upon noticing that his torso was impaled through him, Marluxia realized too late that he got himself caught with no escape. But while he was too busy trying to remove the pitchfork against the surprisingly resistant doctor, Professor Eraqus seized this open advantage and helped his former pupil force the vampire against the wall of the stable entrance until it was pretty clear that the fiend cannot fight out of being pinned too deeply. Once he was trapped in one place with no escape, the professor pulled out a silver kukri knife from his hidden holster and – with one precise swing – swiftly removed the vampire's head from the rest of his body, causing the creature to shrivel away like a plant deprived of its nutrition for too long.

Though Mary was relieved that one of the Hollow bastion vampires was eliminated before another sister of hers could suffer the same fate as Caroline, she couldn't shake off the feeling that Marluxia's destruction was only the beginning of the hunt for the remainder of the nocturnal fiends.

"That is one less vampire to dread for tonight, but this one is just the start," the professor spoke as though he knew what Mary and Terra were thinking, "It's only a matter of time before the master and his remaining followers change their objectives to vengeance against all of us. But before we discuss how best to handle the situation, we'd best destroy the remains as soon as possible."

"You're implying that it would be best not to let anyone else know what happened out here, am I right, Professor?" Mary asked.

Eraqus nodded grimly. "Unfortunately, Mary, that is true."

"Not everyone continues to believe in the superstitions of the bygone days," Aqua added in agreement, "That is the only reason why these creatures have been able to endure through the centuries."

"After what I have seen so far, I am not interested in making any more denials," Terra confessed, "The epidemic of blood loss and the attempted destruction on my cousins must not continue."

"On the matter of the family, Jane and Mina have both recovered," Ventus added in, "Perhaps it would be best to inform them of the matter and determine how best to handle their protection."

Mary couldn't agree more on that. "One of them have almost endangered my elder sister Jane, and I am certain that the others will no doubt stop at nothing to continue their pursuit of vengeance so long as one of us is still living another day."

Unbeknownst to the Chastain family and the professor's party, just as Marluxia was destroyed by human hands, Xemnas felt the excruciating pain of one of his own vampiric spawns being killed off without mercy. Being the creator of his own nocturnal kin, it was unavoidable that he would sense the destruction of one of his own.

However, this was a completely different matter; Marluxia was no more, and it was pretty clear that their enemy is about to become more dangerous than ever – and it was very obvious to him that Professor Eraqus will make their deadly hunting game more difficult than before. Perhaps Mary might have acquired more knowledge after the forced turning of her eldest sister Caroline, and the professor revealed more about his kind to her so that she would be able to prepare for them at the right time. If that is the case, then that means he and his remaining disciples will have to take drastic measures in order to ensure their own survival against their new adversaries; the game has become a fight for survival, and even he has to use every cunning if he is to live another night.

"My lord, has something grievous happened to one of our own? Marluxia has not returned from his hunt."

Regaining his composure – knowing that his minions had sensed that something was out of place tonight – after that moment of inner pain, Xemnas turned to his followers to answer their question as to what went on.

"One of our kin was slain mercilessly, and by human hands, no less," the master announced to them, "It would seem that our adversaries are becoming more dangerous than we believed before."

The instant they heard this, there were various reactions to the news. Xigbar and Luxord turned to each other with horrified looks on their faces, dreading on the notion that another one of them could be next on the execution block at the hands of newly forming hunters. Xaldin tensed up, bitterly frowning that his actions had been thwarted by an old man and a nosy woman. Saix, on the other hand, growled angrily as his fists clenched tightly to the point of blood trickling between his fingers.

"I'll be damned…I suppose Marluxia failed to play his cards right as he pursued the fragile of the sisters, and that got him killed as a result," Luxord sighed sadly. "What will become of us now that the newcomers have gained a footing against us?"

"Damn them! Turning Caroline was a brilliant way to intimidate them into playing our hands, and an old man had to ruin all of it," Xaldin cursed bitterly.

Saix turned to Xaldin with a glare. "Perhaps if you had taken into account that her younger sister is smarter than the rest, you would have considered directing your plaything into killing her on the spot instead of simply leaving her to her own devices."

"As if that would help! Did you not see how the girl in the glasses was acting when she was near the tomb a few days ago?" Xigbar had to disagree on it. "There was suspicion in her eyes, no doubt about it. Clearly she must've had reason to suspect what she had seen back when the four ladies stayed at the castle, and that carried over to Caroline's 'untimely death' and subsequent transformation not long after they thought they found safety within Twilight Town."

Now that was something even Xemnas wouldn't dare to deny; Mary, the third of the four sisters, was unquestionably gaining more awareness and knowledge on the events that have transpired, and the arrival of that travelling professor was not helping things for them in the slightest. With Caroline purged of the corruption Xaldin had influenced into her body and soul, and now Marluxia eliminated for his follies on attempting to advance on Jane, the tides of the hunt were starting to turn against them. It was only a matter of time before the Chastain family and the travelling professor would form a hunting team with the intention of destroying every single one of them for good.

Ah, yes, that truth was not worth questioning or turning a blind eye to…but that didn't really mean that there aren't still more opportunities to fight for their undead lives. After all, Xemnas already knew enough about the surviving sisters and how they worked while they stayed under the roof of his castle. True, Marluxia failed at his chance to make a claim on Jane and now the family has gained allies at the most inopportune day, but that doesn't mean there aren't others that could make noteworthy targets to either eliminate or to change into nightwalkers just as they became all those centuries ago.

And besides, Xemnas gained an advantage from the moment Mina invited him into the house of Terra Lander, their cousin. Perhaps he might be able to provide the necessary openings for the rest of his followers by exploiting the generosity he was already given…

A small, sinister smile snuck its way across his face as an idea crossed his mind. "Perhaps this unfortunate disadvantage might be of benefit to us. Though Marluxia's slaughter was an unfortunate miscalculation and unforeseen allies have come to aid the family we are hunting, that doesn't mean they have already gained an upper hand against us. There are others we can dispatch of at the first opportunity, and despite Mary's growing awareness, she still has yet to understand how much power we have and what we can do should she continue to oppose us." He paused to watch the admiring curiosity crossing his men's faces. "Tell me, how do you feel about paying the Lander residence a little visit for a few days? Let's give our new opponents a little more trouble to worry about…"