A/N In which the team begin to discover the origins of their new guests.

THREE

"So are you two guardians of the temple?"

The pale man and woman had both awoken, and seemed content to remain docile. They sat up in their shallow tanks, but were still fixing Will with piercing, accusing eyes. Finally, the man nodded.

"Are there more of you?"

The man absently played with the surface of the water, the tips of his fingers almost seeming to stick to the liquid more than usual. He was reveling in its sensation, but turned his focus back to Will. "Not anymore."

The fact that they were both naked tested Will's concentration, but those last words sent a chill up his spine. He immediately felt sorry for them. "Are you… are the only ones left?"

They both nodded gravely. The woman whispered, "It happened a very long time ago."

"What happened?"

She uttered a word that he did not recognize. It was in their native tongue. There was still some vocabulary that they did not know, and had to resort to their original language. Will was finding it difficult to help them find substitutes for certain terms in English, but they were making progress.

"How can you both speak our language now? Earlier, I know you couldn't understand me."

The man and woman both looked at each other and shared what seemed like a grin. A mildly sinister grin. The man looked at Will intently and said, "Breath."

Will didn't know what that meant, but jotted it down in his notes to think about later. "Now that you've both rested, do you want us to take you back home?"

Dark looks passed over their faces, and Will could feel the sharp accusation in their eyes again. It made him want to hang his head in shame.

The man growled lowly, "We have no home anymore."

When Helen entered her office in the morning it was to find Tesla still poring over the scrolls on her desk. He obviously hadn't slept the night previous, but infuriatingly showed no signs of exhaustion. He was scribbling notes in his own illegible script, sipping on yet another glass of wine.

"You'll drink me out of my home. What have you found?"

Nikola passed the second scroll towards her. "There's still too many ciphers on the first scroll I can't find any context for, but this one's been easier to translate. These seem to be records of an ancient city. And I don't think it's actually El Dorado."

Helen looked at the pictures on the scroll, as Nikola slowly went through the script, patching together the sentences he could.

"…many have fallen…those who are true and not true…to reverse the tides of time…one salvation remains…the silver lady's breath…sacrifice…those chosen as worthy can find the lost…"

Helen's eyes excitedly scanned over the pictographs. "Find the lost… what?" Nikola smirked, spreading his hands wide. "That's the joy of a mystery. I have a theory though."

He brought out all three scrolls, pointing to various pictographs on each. "Every single one of these has some mention of vampires. Your unwelcome guest recognized me the other night. These two come from an ancient civilization that once must have been in contact with sanguine vampirus."

Helen nodded her agreement, that much seemed clear. She could tell Tesla wasn't done however, his excitement was creeping into his voice and he had that gleam in his eye, which Helen knew always ended in trouble.

"Or… they might be descendants of sanguine vampirus. A different clan perhaps, with a different civilization, way of life, history than those we encountered in Ancient Egypt. Their Aztec cousins. They escaped sterilization being in a different part of the world and evolved into those two we find today."

Helen exhaled heavily, everything Nikola was saying was possible and the implications were extraordinary. "The evolutionary product of sanguine vampirus…" She suddenly snapped up to look at Nikola, her mind racing a hundred miles an hour as to what this information meant to him. "I don't know what you're planning, Nikola… but I think I can safely say already that I don't approve."

Nikola laughed airily, making only a half-hearted attempt to quell her suspicions. "What is there to plan at the moment? Right now is the beautiful moment of true discovery, which is something we are allowed to relish less and less as time progresses."

Helen would not be put off. "We still don't know what they are, or what these mean exactly. I wouldn't be planning any family reunions prematurely if I were you."

"But where else can I wear an ugly Christmas sweater?"

Helen sighed and snatched the half-empty bottle of wine he was reaching for, staring sternly at his pout as she corked it. "When have you ever been one to respect convention? Especially with drinking wine at ten in the morning."

He sprawled back in her chair languidly, his lopsided smirk baring just a hint of his canines. "I'm obviously trying to get drunk so you can take advantage of me."

Helen chuckled and shook her head. "No chance," She said as she picked up her notebooks and made her way to the door. She paused and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Did you want to come with me to say good morning to our guests?"

Helen felt slightly unnerved by the two new abnormals in her lab. They were cooperative, and seemed as if they didn't meant to cause any more harm, but she could still feel hatred emanating from them. They allowed her to take samples and run tests on them, docile as house-cats, but there was always a current of tension running through their bodies as if they could strike out at any moment. And she wondered why they didn't openly seek retribution when she and Will had effectively, if unknowingly, destroyed their ancestral home?

Nikola had been particularly fascinated by them, but Helen convinced him to stay out of sight and observe them only from the cameras in the inner part of the laboratory. He incessantly read the test results over her shoulder, however, always grinning in satisfaction at something but refusing to tell Helen what had pleased him so.

"Fascinating…" He muttered for the twentieth time that hour, as if it were a secret to himself that he couldn't help announcing that he had. Helen irritably flicked him away from her line of sight, examining the data for herself.

"Their blood does resemble ours… it has vampiric DNA in it." She observed.

"And yet it holds new strains and some remarkably subtle differences from true sanguine vampirus."

Helen sat back in her chair, her mind reeling at the information they were seeing. "It looks as if you were right, Nikola."

"Oh do try and mask some of the surprise in your voice."

"Here you go, guys." Henry came over with a tray laden with cups of different juices and broths. The two new abnormals had indicated no interest in solid food yet, so he had tried to come up with some diet that would appeal to them. It hadn't helped that they had stone-faced him when he tried to ask about their dietary needs… and the fact that it was very hard to remember to always look them in the eye and not lower…

They certainly spooked him a little, with their incredibly fluid movements and talent for stillness. The werewolf in him also couldn't help but prickle at sensing something very other that was also a potential threat. But they smiled languidly at him, the female in particular, and as he leant over to set down their trays, her long, slender fingers snaked out and touched his collar.

Henry felt his breath catch in his throat, as he watched her fingers rub at the material and the curiosity and pleasure flickering through her eyes as she reveled in the sensation. So close to her, it was hard to keep his eyes trained at her face and not skirt down to her naked breasts.

"What is this called?" She purred. Henry choked and finally managed to stammer, "F-f-flannel."

He could see her nostrils twitch as she leant into his neck and picked up his scent. What he didn't realize, frozen to the spot, was that a thin mist seemed to be leaking out of his mouth that she began to drank in.

"Henry…" She purred into his ear. He gulped and nodded. "That's my name."

She leant back a little bit so she could look into his eyes. "Hunger. Fear. A darkness inside of you. A love for intricacy. Not human. Virile."

Henry's brain was reeling at what she was saying, and he choked again when he processed the last word she uttered. "H-how did you know?" He felt hypnotized and like he had been rooted to the spot.

She smiled demurely instead and leant back into her tank of water. The man followed suit and soon they were both still and motionless, ignoring the entire world around them. Shaking, and grateful that the experience was over, Henry rushed out of the room and fled back to his computers. He'd leave dealing with them to the Big Guy next time.

"I hope you forgive some of our misunderstandings. As you know, I'm Doctor Helen Magnus. And I just realized a grave oversight on my part, that I do not as of yet know any of your names."

The pale man and woman looked at each other, a hint of confusion, as if consulting each other on the meaning of what she had said. Finally the man looked to her. "We have no names."

Helen was slightly taken aback, but did not let it show on her face. Her smile remained warm and friendly. "Well, there must be something we can call you."

The man somberly intoned, "We will know when you call us." Helen nodded defeat, it seemed some things were lost in translation. She couldn't exactly call them Thing One and Thing Two, but she'd come up with something.

"As you know, this place is called the Sanctuary. It's a safe house for Abnormals, to live away from being hunted and feared. If you two wish, you can stay here as residents. Or if you prefer, we can put you in touch with the Sanctuary back in the country you came from." Helen hoped that she hadn't gone over their heads, it was still best to stick to simple conversation due to the language barrier. They looked at each other, she suspected they could communicate telepathically…or perhaps they had an advanced form of facial communication.

"You house… many beings here." The woman finally said. From the brief flash of anger in her eyes, Helen knew she was intimating Nikola. Helen nodded slowly. "Yes, we do. I'm afraid that there is not much we know about you. This is also a place of learning. We would like to learn from you, about your ways, your culture, your history…"

The man spoke this time, in hushed tones. "You already know of the Family. It is enough."

"The Family… do you mean vampires?" Helen hoped that would get her somewhere, even if an upset reaction, but they stared blankly back at her and she realized "vampire" was a word they had never used and didn't know. "The Family" seemed to be their term for it… but it had so many implications that she could only guess at without further elaboration.

She tried her luck. "Those scrolls that we found in the temple…" The pale man quickly shook his head, discouraging her from continuing. "If you are worthy of them, you will know them."

"What was lost?"

But the pale pair shook their heads and fell silent, and Helen could not encourage them to speak further on the matter.