Another chapter you say? Yes, yes I do. I'd like to thank all the people who'd reviewed after my last update. It really gives me a sense of confidence that tells me that at least I'm doing something right, right? Anyhow, this one took a little while because I decided to scrap the entire thing and rewrite it. Sorry about that.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, I do however own the plot.

A Haunting Memory Returns

Chapter 13: A Taste of Your Own Medicine

Levi was pissed off. No way around that. Those bratty kids from the- what was it? Live Five? Wive Five? Hive Five? Yes Hive Five. He was stuck with them. Ever since the failure at the Mint Dracul dumped them on Levi's shoulders. He wanted Levi to train them. Hone their skills. They were annoying as hell at first. You'd think they were bloody ankle biters. But Dracul gave him a few tips that lightened the bloody load. Course, now he's disappeared to God knows where. There's been rumors of a trial concerning a man wearing a beak-like mask. But that's all the help the media's given.

All this training was pure bull shit. It would have been easy if these kids were normal. Problem was, they weren't. What the hell was he supposed to make of a Cyclopes with a frail figure? A snot-nosed, infant-sized kid who relied solely on technology? A giant whose mind was constantly on food? A hick of a kid that could multiply his number, but not his smarts? The only one who'd be teachable would be that Kid Flip-ed or whatever. But he was bloody mute! Worthless!

Gato had passed by and snickered as Mini Cyclopes set the old Ferris Wheel on fire.

"I said to use the reflective objects to hit the target! What the hell was that?!" Levi demanded.

Mini Cyclopes turned red and stared at the ground. The rest of his team began to do the same, trying to think of a good excuse for their teammate. That's when Gato broke into full out laughter and doubled over.

"You know what. Go and be Cat's problem." Levi commanded.

Gato's eyes widened and he looked at Levi to see if he was serious. He started to run off but

Levi went after him.

"Oh hell no you don't. They're your problem now. Deal with it."

Gato groaned and turned around to intercept the annoying children. As Levi began to walk away Gato shouted, "Only for today! Ya hear me?!"

Levi turned to face him before replying with, "Screw you!"

He hoped that Dracul came back soon. Or came up with a plan to escape if he was captured. He was not going to take over all the duties that were left open.

Just as Levi was passing the House of Mirrors he heard a spark.

"What the...?"

Levi pulled out a flashlight. It was only noon, but this place made him uneasy. He walked in to meet darkness. He shone his flashlight around, investigating for the source of the disruption. There were shattered pieces of the mirrors everywhere. Something pretty crazy must have happened here. That's when a voice made Levi jump.

"She-she-she-she-she-she-she doesn't want to remember y-y-you."

Levi turned around to find a broken android lying on the ground. Sparks were coming off of its face which had the outer shell ripped off.

"Now what happened to you?" Levi murmured.

…

As soon as Dracul woke up his hand shot up to his left eye by instinct. He felt around and gave a sigh of relief that the texture was his mask. He observed his surroundings. He was on the floor of a prison cell. He sat up, his hat was placed on the bed right next to him. As soon as he put it on he heard footsteps outside. A guard, far larger than he was strutted to his cell with a tray.

"Here's your lunch, scum."

The food slid to Dracul and he found himself looking at a concoction of moldy bread and expired peanut butter.

"And here's your drink dirtbag." the guard growled.

He took the cup that he had held in his hand and forced it forward, resulting in all of the water splatting in Dracul's face.

"Oops. Sorry 'bout that."

He took the cup back and spat in it.

"Wanna drink this instead?"

"Thank you for your consideration, but I'm not very thirsty right now." Dracul snarled as he

wiped the dirty water of his glass eyes.

The prison guard grabbed the bars and pushed his face forward with his yellow teeth clenched.

"I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you and the rest of your lackeys are trash. Hear me? You're worthless and everyone hates you!"

"I presume your name's Everyone. Nice to meet you. Do please learn how to use pronouns."

"Fuck you."

"That's a good lad."

"You think that just because nobody else here knows who you are that I'm gonna let your crap slide?"

"Please, tell me who I am."

"You're one of those assholes from the H.I.V.E. Academy. I hate you people the most."

"And why is that?"

"Because you're the asswipes who convert innocent children into monsters! There's no greater crime than that!" he scowled.

Dracul stood up and paced. His eyes began to glow.

"Ah... you must be Silica's father."

The guard's eyes widened at this. He obviously did not expect Dracul to remember a particular case. Dracul snapped at his fingers as if the guard's name was at the tip of his tongue. Of course, Dracul already knew his name, but it was fun to add some theatrics to it, toy with the man a little.

"Murphy was it?"

"You know my name?"

"Of course I do. Silica always spoke so much about you."

Silica was a girl who had been forcefully kidnapped by the H.I.V.E. when it was discovered that she had powers. She had a mane of ivory-colored hair and was very popular amongst the young men. In fact, she surrounded herself with them. She resisted at first, but was easy to convert. Why? Simple, here she was adored by everyone. Her father never gave her enough attention apparently. So when all these boys swarmed her she had no choice but give in to human instinct.

Murphy shook his head, leaving his mystification, before scowling and grabbing at Dracul's neck.

"You tell me where my little girl is!"

Dracul choked out a laugh.

"I wouldn't know. They kicked me out."

Murphy's grip tightened.

"Fine, lie to me. Just know, nobody gets outta Murphy's prison."

With that he let go and left Dracul with a moldy sandwich at his feet.

…

It's been a week now. Murphy comes by every now and then to curse him out. Other than that, there's no one there but him. Dracul and his moldy sandwiches. He didn't even have his staff, which made him uneasy. Of course these idiots didn't know how to read Italian, so it wasn't like they'd know what the word on the staff said, but he still didn't like the idea of those prison guards' filthy fingers all over the staff. Yes indeed, he was all alone in this dump heap. He didn't mind, often his mind would go back to H.I.V.E. Academy due to Murphy's glare-downs.

He remembered that one day when the Headmistress had called him down to her office.

"May I help you?" Dracul had asked.

"Ah, I'm glad you came down Mr. Dracul."

"I didn't have much of a choice did I?"

"Please," she gestured, "sit down."

He did as she said.

"As you know, the H.I.V.E. Academy is here to train young adults in the arts of evil."

"Yes. Did you call me down here for a specific reason or are you just trying to interrupt my classes?"

"And we want the children to feel like normal teenagers."

"Your point being?"

"We're going to have a choir."

Dracul snorted, hard. He knew that the kids needed to feel somewhat normal, but what the hell were they supposed to sing? Halloween songs?

"You can't be serious."

The Headmistress pursed her lips, she obviously was not happy with his response.

"I'll have you know that I'm very serious."

"And how is this relevant to me?"

"I want you to play maestro."

"What?"

"I want you to be the conductor and play the piano."

"What makes you think I know a damn thing about music?"

"I don't. None of the other teachers wanted to do it."

"So you force it on me?"

"You've proven reliable, I'm sure you'll find something out."

Dracul got up and paced a little bit, this kind of request needed to be put through consideration before he said yes. But he probably wouldn't have the choice of no. Blasted woman contradicted every statement without taking a second breath. Dracul turned back to her, his eyes meeting with hers.

"Fine, on one condition."

"And what is that?"

Dracul smiled.

"I only play in the key of C-Minor."

"Hey asshole! Asshole! Asshole!"

Dracul shook his head, he'd been brought back to reality by the ever-rude Murphy. He held rope in his hands, and there was a mischievous, now-you're-going-to-get-it look on his face.

"Hmph, and what makes you think I'll go quietly?"

"This." Murphy smirked, before raising a gun to Dracul's chest, and shooting him right between the bars.

Dracul felt the bullet even before Murphy shot. It wasn't a killing bullet, no, it was just a tranquilizer. It had to be. This felt nothing like an actual bullet. A real bullet put you in the ground, choking and croaking, clawing around at nothing in an attempt to climb out of the void pulling you within. When you know what's about to happen, and your life begins to flash before your eyes. When "I am." becomes "I'm not." No, this was not a real bullet. But you could almost argue that is served the same purpose, except that you're not intended to wake up after taking a real bullet. Dracul knew this very well as he lost consciousness.

…

Dracul woke up in a dark room, with only a single light bulb over his head. His hands were bound by rope, he was tied up in a chair. Three people were standing over a table talking to themselves. Dracul recognized Murphy and the Kid Flash, and he was sure that the other person was that bird boy, what was it? Robin. They didn't seem to notice him waking up, and after five minutes of murmuring from them Dracul began to whistle. They all turned to him.

"Nice of you to finally wake up." Robin said.

"I'm going to enjoy this."Murphy said, cracking his fists.

"We all will. This asshole is gonna get what's coming to him." Kid Flash smirked.

"Will I?" Dracul sneers defiantly.

"Yes. Yes you will." the fast one says.

An interrogation begins. All of them ask him questions, what his motives are, how he's related with the Hive Five, why he blew up the pharmacy, things like that. Of course, he never answered seriously, just gave witty responses which would result in beatings.

"What are you planning?"

"To not take this question seriously."

A punch to the face.

"Why are you dragging the Hive Five around?"

"Because it's impossible to drag yourself."

A kick to the stomach.

"Why'd you blow up that pharmacy."

"Handing out meds just pisses me off."

A gun's butt to the jaw.

He didn't care honestly, let them hit him. Dracul had to bide his time if he was to succeed. He felt the blood ooze down his mouth, and he chuckled. He sucked it in, he mustn't let any of that blood escape, it had to continue to run through his veins. Some of it went down his unknowing esophagus, some of it went into the several cuts in his mouth and flowed back into his veins.

...

His vision was blurry, everything around him spun in irritating circles. They came down to the final question, the most important question apparently. He didn't see why it was so important.

"Final question, where's Jinx?" Kid Flash asked.

His face was in a frown, a cold frown that demanded answers. Murphy left the room, he didn't want to hear anything about the H.I.V.E. Academy. Robin went back to the desk and sighed. It was pretty obvious that this boy, this naïve little boy, was the only one who cared about poor Jinx. Too bad.

"Well? Answer already!"

"Why do you want to know?" Dracul choked out.

"Because she's my girlfriend and I love her! I want her back!"

"Stupid boy." Dracul shuddered.

The "stupid boy" punched him straight across the face. His breath was getting heavier. He wasn't getting all of the blood back into his veins. He knew that it was only a little bit lost at a time, but it wasn't safe for him to lose it.

"You lie. If thy ever didst thy lady love, then-" he howled in pain.

His hands tried to shoot up to his head, but they were bound. He began to shake uncontrollably. The blood loss was getting to him. It always got to him, he'd had more violent swings than this.

"If you ever did truly love her," he corrected himself, "then you would let her go."

"She never left intentionally!"

Another fist collides into his face.

…

Milliliter, centiliter, deciliter, liter, decaliter, hectoliter, kiloliter. How much blood has he lost so far? He was now twitching violently, you'd think he was in a seizure.

"Why won't you answer me?"

"Why should I answer you? You stupid boy. You're like a pup, following her around the way you do. It's disgusting, it's sick, it's wrong."

"Wrong?"

"Yes, as in that will be the first to go when I tear this world to shreds." Dracul growled.

His breathing was heavy.

"Hey old timer, you never told me you spoke Old English. Or plot the world's downfall."

"I dabble in the arts."

…

It was after class. Everyone had left, but she stayed behind.

"Excuse me Mr. Dracul." she had said.

"Why yes? What is it?"

She walked towards his desk and showed him some algebra homework she had received in a different class. She needed help with it. Of course she did, the Academy always threw kids in without telling them which way was up. So she asked him, because she'd grown increasingly close to him.

"Sure I'll help you."

As he explained the equations, the expressions, etc., she listened thoughtfully. It was plain to see that she was bright, not as bright as Gizmo, but she could certainly be a prodigy if she put in enough effort. All he had to do was go two steps into the problem and she'd blurt out the answer. He smiled, it was good to see someone who wasn't an idiot walk through these halls. When they finished her face lit up.

"Thanks dad!"

As soon as she said it she regretted her lack of self control. It was easy to see it on her face.

"I'm-I'm sorry."

Her hands went behind her back and she was staring at the ground, her face going pink. He however stood up. He patted her on the shoulder and said, "If that's how you see me then that's what I am."

She looked back up at him, a slight smile on her face. She hugged him, and he just stood there uncomfortably. It was so amusing to him, how she could possibly see him as a father, so he went with it. Just the irony of it all, it was far too tempting. Her whole life was irony intertwined within his, who wouldn't find that amusing?

…

They sent him back to his cell, he couldn't tell them anything. He couldn't even remember the last bit of the interrogation. He was just out of it. He staggered around, unable to figure out what was what, until he finally staggered into a bed, and his mind was transmitted far off to be repaired. His body has entered calm mode as it worked to replace the blood cells lost. He'd be back to normal by the next day. And when he did wake up that next day, he'd have no choice but to smile, because his plan would have taken the next step as he was sleeping.

End of Chapter...

And that concludes another chapter. I'm sure you noticed that as the interrogation went by, the conversations became more and more disorganized and out of place. is It's supposed to show Dracul's reaction to losing blood. You may have also noticed how as the interrogation went by, Dracul became referred to as "He" more and more. This is again, supposed to show Dracul's reaction to the loss of his blood. Anyhow, I'm really excited for the chapters to come, now we really start to dig into Dracul's motives and plans, so stay tuned. That's all then I guess, read and review please.