"Vampire Genesis"
Chapter 11: "Death March"
Disclaimer: Teen Titans belongs to DC Comics and Warner Brothers, not me. Hellsing belongs to Kohta Hirano, not me. Most other vampire concepts/characters used don't belong to me, either.
Author's note: Well, things have just gotten worse for Robin, haven't they? He's gone and massacred the entire Fourth Reich and he hates what he's done. That's the major difference between Robin and Alucard; while Alucard has more-or-less accepted the fact that he's a monster, Robin is struggling to retain some degree of humanity. Oh, and Alucard will have something to say about the events of last chapter. Here goes.
Robin found himself back in his secret headquarters, blood tears streaming down his face. He collapsed on his knees, sobbing. "I don't want to be a monster . . ." he murmured in between sobs.
Just then, he felt ethereal arms wrap around his midsection. "I told you before," an equally ethereal voice spoke. "You are not a monster. You are a god. Embrace it."
"Embrace it?!" Robin yelled. "I killed five people! Five!"
"You killed five pathetic dogs that imagined themselves monsters," L'andira answered. "They were nothing but pathetic shadows of true vampires."
"That doesn't make it right," Robin muttered. "I can't kill. I have no right to take other people's lives. I'm not God."
"But you are a god," L'andira stated. "Please do not think you are beholden to the same laws that govern mortals. Not when you have ascended."
"I didn't ask to 'ascend!'" Robin exploded. "I didn't ask for these powers!"
"I'm sorry you feel like that," L'andira whispered. "But you'll accept it in time."
"Quit your whining," a familiar deep voice spoke. "And get off your knees. It's not a proper place for a vampire such as you."
Robin rose to a standing position. "Alucard."
Alucard materialized through one of the walls of Robin's hidden base. "I had time to watch you. You were beautiful."
"Beautiful?!" Robin yelled. "You call what I did 'beautiful'? What the hell kind of monster are you?!"
"At least I recognize that I am a monster," Alucard answered. "You, however, seem to have a hard time dealing with your own monstrosity."
"I'm not a monster!" Robin yelled.
"That sword you recently acquired seems to tell me otherwise."
"Shut up!"
Alucard threw his head back and laughed. "They deserved to die, anyway. They were nothing but dogs. Dogs deserve to be put down."
"What do you mean by that?"
"A dog is someone who blindly follows his master. He has no thoughts of his own, no code that he follows save that of his master. Such a creature is not worth being called a monster or a man. You did the world a favor by killing those five dogs."
"What if I don't see it that way?"
"You will, in time."
"I'm not a murderer!"
"Aren't you? What about the one called Dagon? Didn't you kill him?"
"I had no control of myself! Every time I use these damned powers, I lose pieces of myself!"
"I see." Alucard smirked. "The shadows you manipulate are a manifestation of your bond with L'andira. Unfortunately, they're slowly consuming your soul . . . because you don't know how to control them." He threw off his sunglasses and fedora and drew two guns, one gray-silver and one black, pointing them both at Robin. "I will teach you control."
Robin drew the sword he had created from Reichsmark's steel coating. "And you're going to do that by shooting at me?"
"Learning is best done in the heat of battle."
And that was the only warning Robin got before Alucard began shooting at him. Robin dodged the bullets, moving with even greater speed than before. He flipped over Alucard and spun to kick him in the back of the head. Alucard's response was to whirl and shoot him in the stomach. Robin fell back with giant holes in his torso, holes that quickly sealed up.
He got up and charged at Alucard with sword in hand, moving with inhuman speed. Alucard seemed prepared for him, shooting at him again. Robin simply weaved between bullets and sliced Alucard in half. Unfortunately for Robin, Alucard's shadows reconnected the two halves of his body and the wound healed. Robin barely had time to dodge yet another volley of bullets. One of the bullets took his arm off at the elbow . . . and it was his sword arm.
Robin could already feel his arm regenerating, first as shadow, but quickly forming into flesh. He telekinetically called his sword to him and rushed Alucard, who continued shooting at him. Robin dodged the bullets, although he wasn't sure whether Alucard was just that bad a shot or whether the older vampire was deliberately missing to lull him into a false sense of victory.
One of the bullets hit Robin in his eye and went through his head, taking out a lens of his motorcycle goggles. He collapsed, bleeding severely from the head. After a few minutes, he began to stir, pulling the ruined motorcycle goggles off his face. He sat up, his wound healing itself. His eye wasn't as lucky, being replaced by a luridly glowing piece of shadow. Fortunately, the ultimate eye he had acquired from Pride had been left untouched.
Robin threw off his cape. "No more. Now we get serious."
He sped all over the base, making himself a hard target. He could predict the path of Alucard's bullets with the ultimate eye and he used it to his advantage, staying several steps ahead. He continued running, putting his even greater speed to use. He jumped onto the walkway, only for Alucard to follow him up there. Robin swiftly slashed at him with his sword, causing Alucard to lose an arm. Alucard merely regenerated that arm, along with the clothing covering it.
Alucard resumed firing at Robin, only for Robin to flip backwards repeatedly to avoid the bullets and do so at extremely high speeds. When Robin ran out of room to back-flip, he sprang off the wall and into a fast, forceful kick that smashed Alucard's shoulder. He flipped off Alucard's ruined shoulder and whirled to slice Alucard, but Alucard whirled as well and fired into Robin's shoulder. The bullet took Robin's arm off, just like the first time they fought, and just like before, that arm grew back. This time, it grew back as flesh.
Robin landed on the walkway and sprang at Alucard again, who continued firing at him. Robin took the bullets as the price he had to pay to get close to Alucard, striking him in the face. Robin tackled Alucard to the ground, pinning his gun hands. Alucard merely laughed at him, as though he knew something Robin didn't.
"What's so funny?" Robin asked angrily.
"You actually pinned me," Alucard replied. "But can you hold me?"
Alucard turned intangible, passing through the bottom of the walkway to land agilely on the floor beneath. Robin snarled furiously and lunged at Alucard with his sword in hand. Alucard whirled and shot him in the head, dropping him on the ground. That wound healed as well and Robin twisted his hips, throwing himself into the air and landing on his feet. He placed his sword in a sheath of shadow and withdrew eight Birdarangs from his belt, holding each one between his fingers.
"What are you going to do with those things?" Alucard asked mockingly.
Robin threw them all at him, only for Alucard to shoot them all out of the air. Unfortunately for Alucard, the Birdarangs were explosive and when his bullets hit them, they detonated. The detonation sent Alucard flying backward and Robin lunged through the explosive cloud, tackling Alucard again. Alucard spun around, throwing Robin off him. Robin skidded on the floor, shifting into a fighting stance with his sword.
"Come on!" Robin snarled.
"I have to say, boy, you're just about as entertaining as the Judas Priest!" Alucard complimented.
"Shut up and fight me!" Robin yelled.
"As you wish!" Alucard shouted, lunging at Robin with both guns in hand. Robin dodged Alucard's bullets and swung his sword at the red-clad vampire, only for Alucard to dodge and place one of his guns at Robin's temple. Robin pointed his sword at Alucard's throat, poised to take off the elder vampire's head.
"Stalemate, isn't it?" Robin mused.
"If you say so," Alucard answered.
Alucard pulled the trigger . . . only for Robin not to be in the same place he once was by the time the bullet exited the chamber. The elder vampire's eyes widened in surprise, just before Robin stabbed him with his sword. Alucard grabbed Robin's wrist and threw him into one of the LCD screens that had once shown the vital signs of Robin's friends when Slade had infected them with lethal nanobots. Robin bounced off the screen, flipped into the air, and threw several explosive pellets at Alucard, who dodged them all. The pellets detonated on the floor, Alucard jumping into the air to shoot at Robin, who flew around the bullets.
It was this scene that Raven happened upon when she came in an attempt to comfort Robin. Acting quickly, she created a raven-shaped telekinetic barrier to separate Alucard from Robin. Fortunately, the barrier extended all the way to the ceiling, so it wasn't as though Alucard or Robin could jump over it to attack each other. Unfortunately, it wasn't as though either one was really grateful for her presence. Alucard had the look of a child denied a toy and Robin was pounding the barrier with rage, trying to shatter it with his fists so he could get at Alucard. With a simple act of will, Raven compelled the barrier to throw Robin away from it.
"What are you doing?!" Robin snarled, his right eye regenerated but crimson with fury. The three slits in his ultimate eye had dilated with the effort required to "see" Alucard's next moves.
"Saving your stupid self from doing something suicidal," Raven replied. "Honestly, I come to comfort my best male friend and he's busy getting himself ripped apart by a lunatic vampire."
"I'm finishing this," Robin hissed. He flew up to the ceiling, crouched on it, and dive-bombed the barrier. The speed and force with which he crashed into it caused it to shatter, flaying Raven's mind, and Robin tackled Alucard, who grabbed him by the wrists and spun him around. Robin and Alucard wrestled viciously, but Alucard gained the upper hand and turned Robin's head toward the barely conscious Raven. Robin's eyes widened in horror and the bloodlust faded from his mind. "Raven . . . ?"
"Your fault, you know," Alucard said. "Should have listened to her."
Robin telekinetically threw Alucard off him and ran to Raven, clutching her close to him. "I'm sorry . . . I'm sorry . . . I'm so sorry . . . I'm sorry . . ."
"You love her, don't you?" Alucard mused.
"She's my friend," Robin replied.
"No, she's more than that," Alucard contested. "She's your soul mate."
"Soul mate?" Robin echoed. "It's not like that between us!"
"Not in the sense of being lovers," Alucard clarified. "In the sense of a connection that goes beyond friendship, beyond romantic love, beyond family, into the very soul itself."
"Have to . . . have to make this right . . ." Robin muttered. He gently pressed his forehead against the chakra gem in Raven's forehead, tapping into the bond they had.
"Raven!" Robin called out in her mindscape. "Raven!"
"Hello, Robin," a voice simultaneously like and unlike Raven's purred.
Robin whirled and found himself staring into the face of a red-cloaked Raven with four red eyes staring at him from beneath her hood. "You must be Raven's inner evil. I thought we got rid of you when we got rid of Trigon."
"No, you didn't," the red-cloaked Raven replied. "You merely gave Raven better control over her powers, without Trigon's fury feeding me."
"What do you want?"
"You, even though Raven's too much of a coward to admit it," Red Raven replied. She pulled down her hood, revealing Raven's face, smiling evilly at him.
"And what if I say no?" Robin asked.
"Then I will take you by force," Red Raven answered. She threw off her cloak, revealing a black leather half-shirt so small that it revealed the bottoms of her breasts and black leather panties with Raven's gem-belt wrapped loosely around her hips and thigh-high black leather boots.
"What's with the outfit?" Robin asked.
"Let's just say I absorbed a few other aspects of Raven," Red Raven answered, smiling seductively at Robin, a smile that terrified the Dark Squire.
"I won't let you take over Raven's soul!" Robin exclaimed, rushing at her. Unfortunately for him, Red Raven easily blocked his outstretched hand and flipped him over. Robin landed on his feet and swung his leg back at her, but she knocked his kick aside, thrusting the heel of her palm at his chest. The strike, combined with a telekinetic pulse, sent him flying down the desolate mindscape.
Robin sensed Red Raven flying underneath him and spun around in midair to confront her. Red Raven attempted a kick, but Robin blocked her. With her other leg, she kneed him in the groin, knocking him down to the ground. Robin grumbled irritably.
"I wear a cup, you know," he commented.
Red Raven landed before him. "Lick my boots, bitch."
Robin chuckled. "Already gotten into the swing of the whole dominatrix thing, huh?"
"That wasn't a request," Red Raven answered coldly.
"Go fuck yourself," Robin retorted, rising to his feet.
"I'd rather fuck you," Red Raven responded with a sadistic smile.
Robin shot a telekinetic pulse at Red Raven, one she easily absorbed via a telekinetic shield. Red Raven proceeded to attack Robin in close quarters, striking quickly and viciously. Robin retaliated just as brutally. After all, this wasn't the real Raven, just some perverse shadow of her.
The two soon began grappling, Red Raven taking every opportunity she could get to grope him or to press her body against his. Those opportunities never lasted long, as Robin was always pulling away from her. "Are you trying to kill me or screw me?" Robin asked, fed up.
"Screw you first," Red Raven replied with an impishly sadistic smile. "I'm only fighting you because you're fighting me."
"Like I said, I won't let you take over Raven's soul," Robin reiterated.
"'Take over Raven's soul'?" Red Raven echoed. She laughed maniacally. "I am Raven's soul, you fool! She's just too much of a coward to realize it! Those damned Azarathian monks have blinded her to the truth!"
"You're not the truth!" Robin yelled as he fought her. "You're just the part of Raven that belongs to Trigon, the seed of evil he put in her, and I'm not going to let you have your way!"
"Believe what you wish," Red Raven retorted, "but by the time this fight is over, her body and soul will be mine . . . as will you."
"I won't let that happen!" Robin vowed.
Robin skidded on his left foot, spinning into a kick to Red Raven's exposed stomach. The kick sent Red Raven flying, but the she-demon quickly righted herself and flew at him. Robin rose into the air and flew to meet her. Red Raven threw knives of focused telekinetic energy at him, but Robin dodged, retaliating with explosive Birdarangs. Red Raven shielded herself from the Birdarangs, but when she dropped her shield, Robin used the cover the detonations had provided to viciously pummel her.
With one strike, he sent her plummeting to the ground. Robin flew down after her to ensure she stayed down, but to his surprise, she kicked him when he neared her. Robin flipped back onto his feet and watched as she got up. She sent scythes of telekinetic force flying at him, but he cleaved them as he rushed at her. Red Raven blocked his strikes, but he grabbed her by her wrists and held them above her head.
"You like this, don't you?" she purred lustfully at him.
"Shut up," Robin hissed.
"Don't tell me you've never been tempted," Red Raven purred, just before she kneed him in the stomach. The knee came with enough force to loosen his grip on her wrists, allowing her to wiggle loose and punch him. She followed it up with a kick, knocking him to the ground. She kneeled beside him and grabbed him by his spiky black locks, pulling his face close to hers. "My sweet Robin . . ."
"I'm not your sweet Robin," Robin snarled.
"Yes, you are," Red Raven purred. "Just my sweet Robin. No one else's. And I'll kill the little bitches that think they have any more of a claim on you than I do."
Robin growled fiercely. "Ooh, I like it when you get like that," Red Raven commented with sadistic seductiveness.
"Then I hope you like this," Robin answered, placing his hand on her bare stomach and firing a telekinetic pulse right into it. The pulse sent Red Raven flying away from him, but she managed to land on her feet, just as Robin got to his. I can't go on like this. This is her mind. I'm fighting a losing battle here.
As if sensing his presence, other Ravens began to rise up. They were the ones who had not been absorbed by Raven's inner demon and they came in a variety of colors. From among them stepped out Raven herself, the core Raven.
"You could use some help, couldn't you?" she remarked.
"Yeah," Robin admitted.
Raven absorbed her remaining personality fragments, her cloak, leotard, and boots turning white. Red Raven looked at her doppelganger with disdain. Both Ravens gathered the totality of their powers, focused it into their hands, and then loosed those energies against each other. The energies – white and onyx-and-blood – clashed against each other, writhing and twisting and screaming. After what seemed like forever, Raven's power won out over that of her inner demon, and Raven's bravery and lust were loosed from Red Raven, being reabsorbed by Raven.
Red Raven, now wearing a simple black leotard with red cloak and red shoes, glared at Raven. With the glare fixed on her face, the inner demon dematerialized into misty red energy that was absorbed by Raven, turning her cloak and shoes blue and her leotard black. Raven looked at Robin and smiled, before walking up to him and slapping him.
"I suppose I deserved that," he said.
"Damn right," Raven retorted. "Where do you get off endangering your friends just to continue a pissing contest with a psychotic vampire? Unless you're just as psychotic as he is!"
"No, I'm not," Robin answered, "but I feel like something is taking over me. I killed Dagon. I slaughtered the Fourth Reich. The more I use these powers, the more I lose myself." He looked into her eyes. "I'm scared, Raven. I'm scared of what I'm becoming. I see what Alucard is and I don't want to end up like that."
"I won't let you," Raven whispered. "Just trust in that, even if you don't trust in yourself."
"You're the best friend I could ever ask for," Robin whispered, laying a brotherly kiss above her chakra gem.
The two returned to the real world, only to see Alucard looking at them with an expression that betrayed some deep sorrow. "Alucard?" Robin asked.
"Yes, Boy Wonder?" Alucard asked, returning to his usual personality.
"Thanks," Robin replied. "I appreciate what you were trying to do, but I can't . . . I can't bring myself to dehumanize others like that, even if they're not necessarily human."
"That is your own softness, Robin," Alucard stated, "but at the same time, I almost envy you. To be worthy of the love of one such as Raven . . ."
"What are you talking about?" Raven asked.
"I see it when you look at him," Alucard replied. "But I have done enough here. Farewell." The red-coated vampire walked out of Robin's secret base, passing through the wall.
"We should get back to the others," Raven said. "They're worried about you."
"They're not afraid of me?" Robin asked.
"Some fear, yes, but they're more worried for you than they're scared of you," Raven replied. "Argent smacked some sense into Kid Flash when his anti-vampire attitude began to rear its ugly head again."
"Heh," Robin remarked. "Let's go back to the Tower."
"Gladly," Raven answered, teleporting them via her soul-self to Titans Tower.
When Robin and Raven reemerged inside Titans Tower, the other Titans and Mai swarmed around them. "You guys all right?" was the repeated question. The answer both Raven and Robin gave them was a simple "yes."
"Dr. Mid-Nite wanted to talk to you," Kid Flash said.
"About the blood sample he took from me?" Robin surmised.
"Yeah," Kid Flash replied.
Robin walked up to the Titans computer and linked up to the Justice Society's communications frequency. The one to answer was Wildcat, who glowered at Robin. "What do you want, Batboy?" he asked.
"Dr. Mid-Nite wanted to talk to me," Robin replied. "I'm available now."
"I'll get him," Wildcat said.
Soon enough, Wildcat's face was replaced by Dr. Mid-Nite's. "Hello, Robin. It's good to see you again."
"You wanted to talk to me," Robin said. "What about?"
"Mr. Terrific and I analyzed your blood sample," Dr. Mid-Nite explained, "and we found some very astounding things about your DNA through it. For one thing, every single segment of your DNA that went unused as a human has been activated since your vampirism. In essence, you no longer have junk DNA and it is that jump-started DNA that is responsible for your abilities, which we can only speculate will grow with time . . . something you have plenty of. There is a flaw to your genetic code, though . . ."
"What is it?" Argent asked hurriedly, her worry for Robin showing.
"Your genetic flaw comes in the form of an inability to sustain hemoglobin," Dr. Mid-Nite replied. "That is why you, and other vampires, need to drink blood. However, your need comes with an additional complication. When you drink the blood of another vampire, or of a metahuman, your DNA re-sequences itself to adopt that vampire's or that metahuman's abilities, adding them to your own not-inconsiderable power-set."
"Wait a second!" Beast Boy shouted. "You're saying that if Robin were to drink our blood, he'd get our powers?!"
"Yes," Dr. Mid-Nite replied. "It's blood-borne power mimicry."
"Is there anything else to this?" Robin asked.
"Other than that, you're in tip-top shape," Dr. Mid-Nite replied. "You won't be dying for a long time, if at all."
"Gee, thanks," Robin mumbled.
"Don't worry," Dr. Mid-Nite said. "You should be all right as long as you can maintain control over yourself or a steady supply of blood . . . not from your friends."
"I feel much better now," Robin remarked sardonically.
"I certainly hope so," Dr. Mid-Nite answered. "Have a nice night. Mid-Nite out." He closed the communication channel.
Robin slumped in the chair and spun around to look at his teammates, friends, and family. The look on his face was one of abject misery. The moment they saw that look on his face, any incipient fearfulness of their leader faded away, replaced by a determination to wipe the sorrow off his face any way they could.
"Robin?" Starfire asked.
"I'm turning into a monster," Robin replied.
"You're not a monster, Robin," Cyborg said.
"Aren't I?" Robin asked. "Those bastard cultists put this woman who imagines herself to be some sort of deity in me and now I feel like my humanity is being corroded with every passing second she remains in me."
"You just have to learn to control it," Mai said.
"I've been trying," Robin replied. "I've been fighting these temptations to slaughter my enemies, but sometimes I fail and then . . . you saw what happened. You saw."
"Kid, you are the single least monstrous guy I know," Red X said. "If you really were a monster, you'd have no remorse. You wouldn't give a shit. That's what a monster really is and you're not one. Quit talking like you are, or I'll stick a stake in your heart."
"That probably won't kill me, but it's the thought that counts," Robin mused. "I'm going to rest." He stood up and began to walk out of the living-slash-ops room.
"Mind if I join you?" Argent asked.
"I'd like that, but I need to be alone right now," Robin replied. "You're welcome to 'sneak up' on me later, though."
"Sure, love," Argent said.
Robin went to his room and collapsed on his bed, ruminating on what he knew. When he'd drank Captain Nazi's and Baroness Blitzkrieg's blood, he'd not only absorbed their power, but also their knowledge. He knew what they had been distracting him and the other Titans from, and that was Millennium's and Slade's master plan. They had bioengineered an army of artificial vampires, created from the neo-Nazi skinheads littering this particular state.
"Shit," Robin muttered. "We're going to be in for it."
He closed his eyes, only to become aware of an ethereal yet very real weight on his body. He looked up and found himself staring into L'andira's eyes. "I'm trying to rest. Do you mind?"
"Do you know why you really have no control?" she asked. "Because you keep fighting me. If you would simply embrace me, you would have the control you need."
"And who's to say that I don't lose myself in you?" Robin retorted. "That I don't lose my identity, my personality, my self?"
"That's what trust is about," L'andira replied. "Do you trust me?"
"I can't," Robin answered. "The more I tap into your power, the more of myself I lose."
"And there is your problem," L'andira said. "You think of it as my power, when it is really our power. Embrace it. Embrace me." Her voice dropped to a pleading whisper. "Please."
Robin looked into her eyes, and his heart broke. "I can't . . . I can't . . . I'm sorry."
L'andira never broke eye contact with him, but Robin suddenly found himself plunged into a different time, a different world. He saw visions, visions of a woman with hair like flexible blue needles, slate skin, and red eyes. She wore a skintight suit of animal hide and held an energy scythe, which she used to cleave the vampire-like monsters known as Wamphyri. As she fought, portals opened around her and hands reached out of those portals to grab her. She fought hard against them, but they pulled her inside.
"What are you doing?!" she asked.
The beings behind those hands did not answer her. They simply shoved her down, down into a white abyss that would come to be known as the Silent Zone. There was nothing in it . . . save her . . . and a soul-crushing emptiness. She was cut off from everything and everyone, her priestesses, her worshippers, the humans she would have given everything for . . . everything.
Robin awoke back in the world he knew, sobbing. "Was that . . . was that you?" he asked.
"Yes," she whispered ruefully.
"So alone . . . so alone . . . oh, God, how could they do this to you?" he asked, his voice choking from the sobs wrenched from his throat.
L'andira held him close, kissing away his tears. "That's why I need you, Robin. I don't want to be alone anymore."
It was this scene that Argent happened upon. Her scarlet eyes widened in shock, seeing the ethereal yet perfectly real woman holding Robin as he wept. Despite the more sinister inferences that could be drawn from this scene, Robin's pain was palpable, and Argent wanted to ease it. She floated to the bed and wrapped her arms around Robin, pressing herself against his back while L'andira covered his front.
"Toni . . . L'andira . . ." Robin murmured.
"Shhhhh . . . we're here, Robin," Argent whispered in his ear. She could feel Robin relax against her, something she was grateful for. She looked up into the ruby eyes of L'andira and the dark deity smiled warmly at her before nestling into Robin's embrace.
End Notes: That's a good way to end the chapter now. The next chapter's going to feature the showdown between the Titans, the Initiative, Hellsing, Iscariot, and Millennium, and it's going to be an all-out brawl. In that chapter, you will see Slade's real reasons for joining Millennium, as well as abilities in Robin and Argent that you've never seen before. Plus, depending on how things pan out, what L'andira was telling Robin in the beginning of chapter 10 can come true, too. In the meantime, slip me some feedback on this chapter.