Chapter Eleven: D mends.
"There's something wrong with the people back home," D said, blankly looking at the wall before him, "Something that affects me too."
D half expected Alucard to laugh and was slightly surprised when he grunted affirmatively instead.
"I forget things." He continued, "I can name every vampire I've ever hunted, down to their rank but damned if I could tell you how I killed half of them. If I try to think about it too hard my head begins to hurt and my vision blurs. The best I can remember is an excited discussion I had with a doctor once about DNA and yellow powder. Every other instance has been improvised or is too fuzzy around the edges for me to latch onto it."
D pulled an old, browned piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to his father. He unfolded it.
"This is a cross…" Alucard said, slightly perplexed.
D flinched, awareness bloomed and shrivelled in his eyes. He blinked and carried on speaking regardless.
"Nobody knows what it is, I've asked everywhere I've travelled. All I know is that it is important."
"It seemed like a good idea, at the time," Alucard said wearily, "Engineering the humans so they wouldn't remember the symbols."
"You would think that a piss-poor trait like that would get bred out after a few hundred generations, wouldn't you?"
"Our geneticists did good work."
"Humans are often glorified savages on the frontier, your 'geneticists' removed the moral drive against incest, for heaven's sake." D spat, trying not to think of the Marcus brothers.
"I have more respect for mortals now." Alucard sighed, "They were trying to remove heritable diseases from the gene pool, I did not consider the effect that might have on human social structures."
"Without meaning disrespect, I don't think you considered much at all when you were embroiled in that period of your life."
"D!" Alucard snapped his teeth, warning implicit. D quieted him with a sad, considering look.
"You left shades of yourself, all over the place." D's voice caught, despite his carefully maintained calm, "I find one every few years and whenever I do they show me the most awful things."
Alucard winced involuntarily.
"A few years ago I visited a town where some of the children were kidnapped and replaced after some… editing… took place. I found an image of you that claimed responsibility for it. It told me I was another experiment. It showed me Mum and it did some vile things to her." His voice trailed, "The children turned to dust a few days after it left, from the strain of what had been done to them."
"Father, there are monsters everywhere and I can't even plan a way of changing things as they are. I need you to fix me, I know you can do it."
"You're not going to like this, D." Alucard frowned and worried at his lip a little.
D shrugged in response.
"It can't be any worse than not knowing."
-------
"You're right, I don't like it."
"It's blood D, the honourable Anne Rice notes its properties with regards to carrying both memory and power." He snorted, "Although she also laboured under the misapprehension that it made us all camper than a row of tent pegs."
D shifted uncomfortably and rubbed his aching hand.
"So, how do we go about doing this?"
"The usual way."
"I can't just turn the vampiric side of me on and off like you do, it happens on its own."
"Usually when you're thinking about attractive mortals of your preferred gender?"
"Dad!" D squawked, before realising just what he was saying.
Alucard smiled warmly, "There's no judgement here, just saying I don't mind who you sleep with so long as it's not your sister."
"I don't have a sister! She's your servant, you said so!"
"Don't go sleeping with the help then…"
"Jesus, you're such a," D flustered, subconsciously relieved that Alucard seemed to have forgiven him for his unsuspecting part in the unpleasantness, "Look, I don't know how make these things work, help me and stop bringing up the, the stuff."
"You're more vampire than you think you are, dolt, or haven't you noticed the fact that your clothes keep mending themselves."
D looked down at his leathers, there were no bullet-holes or patches. They were probably a new set.
"You have no concept of the passage of time at all, do you?" Alucard rubbed his brow ridges, "You were shot, repeatedly I might add, just a few days ago. When you were off playing cowboys with Pip's hired goon squad."
"I didn't change between now and then?"
"You were thrown in this cell between now and then."
"Oh."
"Indeed."
"This explains so much about me."
Alucard turned a quizzical look at his son. The boy had clearly finally gone off the deep end because he was smiling like an idiot. Although, given that they didn't spend much time together, perhaps he was an idiot and that was just a normal smile.
"Twelve thousand years would be enough to make anybody a little complacent about the relativity of time." D's eyes had shed the weight of millennia and he finally looked about as old as his body was, "I need you to hit me."
Alucard backhanded him.
"Why?"
D grimaced and his teeth were red and pointy.
"Helps me bring them out."
Alucard pulled his coat-sleeve back and ran his thumb nail across the most obvious vein. Black blood oozed down his wrist. D's jaws sprung open like a snake's and he bit down.
He pulled back after the shortest moment, gasping for air. Alucard hmmed in an impressed fashion.
"You've got good self control, I'll give you that." He said, "Tell me what you know about the family business, then."
"The .454 Casull is 39cm long and takes explosive silver-core rounds specifically designed for combat with the undead. It has a fifteen round magazine, although you cheat and make it larger using your now limited ability to open dimensional portals." D blushed despite himself, "And you prefer blondes."
"Which is roughly all we need to worry about in terms of our traditions of violence and womanising almost everyone."
They sat back for a moment while D savoured his new-found clarity.
"Hey, how come you never warned me away from your Master?"
"Didn't have to, she's not your type and she'd kill you if you tried anything."
"Oh."
"So, now that we've covered the basics in this little tête á tête, I want to ask you a favour."
"Name it."
"Let me send you back." Alucard frowned slightly, "I know it's abrupt and I will need your help to do it because of the wards…"
D cut him off, "You don't want to leave her there on her own, I know."
Alucard reached into his pocket and pulled out the letter that had inadvertently started their rift in the first place. He gingerly passed it over to D. D admired his father's flowing script for a moment, the stored it carefully inside his breast pocket.
"You likely won't believe this but it's been good to have you wandering about the place," he grumbled, "Exactly like the old days."
"Mum used to get quite angry about that, didn't she?"
"She was always on your bloody side too."
"Like hell," D swung into a falsetto, "D, you should show more respect to your father, you know he means well."
D turned towards his father, face showing more vulnerability than it had in a long time.
"Was I an experiment?"
"Ah, so that's what you meant about seeing vile things about your mother."
"Alucard…"
"I have done some terrible things in my day and only some of them were well intentioned." he clasped his gloved hands and rested them on his knees, "I may have been playing God at the time but I have always loved your mother and we both wanted you."
"Thanks."
"On the other hand, you have been a giant pain in the arse since those misguided days spent in anticipation of your birth."
"Likewise, you lecherous buffoon."
Alucard stood and tugged the edges of his gloves.
"I can open the door home but you will have to run the yards yourself and find the right path." Alucard crossed his wrists, "You should be able to tell by scent and Lefty can help you with directions."
"I'm not sure that's an excellent idea."
"It's in his nature to cause mischief but I do think he knows better now." Alucard bared his teeth, "He knows I take family matters very seriously."
D shook his hand and felt Lefty shift for the first time in over a day. He could feel his symbiont twisting its lips and nodding reluctantly. He was going to invest in a pair of gloves the minute he got home. Some things could not be forgiven so easily, even with a history like theirs.
Alucard drew his arms wide and the room was enveloped in shadow. Lefty breathed in and D tasted the dusty smell of the Frontier.
"Do you have anything else that you would like Seras to know?" D asked, already seeing home in the distance.
"Tell her the Geese are all worried sick but I'm going to reassure them. Make sure to give her my note and send my good wishes. I know everyone is going to miss her terribly but if she gives herself enough time and doesn't rush, she'll be able to make it back soon enough… I've written it all down for her." He paused, "Make sure she drinks every now and again, there are plenty of moral reprobates around the place, remind her not to be too trusting of strangers and… Tell her that I'm very proud of how she's handled herself these past few weeks."
"I will."
Alucard sighed a little.
"I'm pleased with how you've handled yourself as well, ignoring you drinking yourself insensate and, well, I'll visit as soon as I can." He flexed his warded gloves and seemed to trip a little over his next words, "I think you've grown up a bit since this whole thing started."
Alucard and D looked at each other for a long moment. D held out his right hand and Alucard clasped it warmly in his. Then he gave him an awkward, one-handed hug.
He let go after exactly two seconds.
"Take care, Dad."
"Bye, son."
Then D turned towards the Frontier and didn't look back.
This is the penultimate chapter, after this ther's only chapter 12 and the epilogue to go.