Bloodbloodbloodbloodblood. I was so thirsty; I needed to feed and the smell of that sweet, carmine liquid was strong in the air, taunting me. I could not reach it, chains restrained me and much as I fought them they would not loosen.

"I warned him, he tried to keep you away, tried to save you but you were getting close." Did my ears detect some mad muttering? I tingled with excitement as a feeling of kin rushed through me and a spark in one of my minds seemed to rush out in greeting. "Heh heh he interfered too much so I tried to pin it on him, I knew you would come looking for a Toreador and where best to look for a Toreador, the theatres of course and there's only one theatre in town that's all but impossible to search. He knew of course, a wonderful irony he was privileged with searching when the Baron pandered to you, he knew better than to come to this theatre. None of the rest of them thought of it, they didn't fall for my ruse but not because they're clever, oh no, because they are so vain, so unwilling to believe that a Toreador could do this. Well they're right! The dainty pretty vampires could never sink to this, not unless they were Sabbat, the Sabbat appreciate the beauty oooh he appreciates it too, doesn't want to but he does. He's a Sabbat at heart but he's loyal to Isaac so he can't admit it, can't give in."

"Oh just shut up," came an annoyed groan. I looked about in interest for the source, somewhere to my right, oh a horrid stench of sewer.

"Sewer mouse," I purred.

"Shut your hole!" came the furious retort. "Think I'm talking to you? The Hell I am you're just another idiot prisoner!"

"Hush now hideous thing," the first voice, the familiar male, said warningly, "I'm narrating now, patience, let the author have his turn. Heh heh."

I turned and winced as barbed wire seemed to sink into my throat, wrists and ankles, slicing through skin and causing beautiful crimson to leak out. Oh beautiful, sweet blood, so much pain and hunger.

A hand reached out to me, grabbing my neck and wrenching it round, causing the wire to sink in tighter and deeper. I let out a groan of discomfort as my vision rolled between black and red before finally settling and focusing on the mad one who had my head in his grasp. "Alex," I murmured, "sweet conqueror you are so delightfully mad."

"Mad?" He blinked those catlike eyes and shook his head. "No, he might be mad, Alex, but not me, and I'm not him either, I hate that comparison! I'm Xander, I'm the one who wants to understand our condition, who wants to see how far we go, how far the pain can last. Humans are so vulnerable and yet when faced with death they last, their love for life is so strong, even in the most despondent who claim otherwise, the things they can survive, it's amazing. The Kindred can survive more of course, but we come from humans, they are our blueprint, to see their limits, to see what we came from, what we could endure and then to compare, to see how we have advanced. It's interesting comparing our species, for all their tough facade the Ventrue didn't last long, pampered things."

"Ah you kidnapped Sebby's pets?" I acknowledged. "They did not make it to the golden Sewer Lord?"

"No," came the growled response, "but that was not my doing, that was him, loyal Alex, devoted to the Anarchs and their cause. He saw the Ventrue sneaking in town, overheard their plans, go to Gary, make an alliance between Camarilla and Nosferatu and destroy the Anarch base in Hollywood from under them. He couldn't let it happen, loyalties make one so weak, I told him to ignore it but he couldn't, he took one and then the other. He had no plan though, idiot, would've been lost without me, heh heh, I brought them here like all the others and thought it best to take advantage of the situation. I'd never had a Ventrue to experiment upon and now I had two, the female lasted longest but not by much. Perhaps I should have brought my pets better blood, they sniffed upon my offerings of common Kine."

"He's a sick fuck!" The stinky female again. "He tortures people and Kindred!"

I heard a fist collide with a jaw and barbed wire cutting through flesh once more but oddly not mine this time. "I said let me finish!" he snapped angrily. He was before me again, his green eyes studying me curiously. He jerked a hand to the other prisoner in the shadows. "That one was wandering about looking to get revenge on a model," he informed me, "probably would've mucked it up and caused a violation. Silly Nosferatu, she's done well so far, but then they are used to filthy things, doesn't like the fire mind."

I heard the female whimper at those words. "Fire's good," I enthused, "you can cook marshmallows on it."

"Heh. Heh. Perhaps I'll try it on you; I've yet to experiment on a Malkavian, should be interesting. It's hard to capture the Kindred, especially with Alex's interference, he didn't like me taking the Kine either, considers himself close to their nature, as do all those pampered poodles, but he was so afraid when I took Kindred that I'd take one of his friends. He made me stay away from the Toreadors and then you when you showed up, but you were sniffing around, being a good dog to Sebastian, he was worried you would get too close and then I would find you. He was right. He tried so hard to keep you away though, making you frenzy when he needed a distraction or when your thoughts became too clear, sending you to the grave guard when he had to check the bodies. Those zombies, another interesting side effect, all those Kine still angry and frustrated in death, and in pain, frightened I suppose, buried in others' graves, if I had known I would have dumped them elsewhere, minor inconvenience though, they can't talk.

I had to dump them elsewhere when the zombie shooter showed up, he's too observant at night, irritating, no more new zombies though; the bodies go quietly into the sewers, heh heh, no sharing down there, food for the sewage beasts."

"That was you? What a neat trick! Teach me?" I pleaded. What fun it would be to raise the dead!

"Heh heh," he laughed again, "you don't get it, they rise because they have no graves, they cannot sleep, it frustrates them at night."

"How did you make me frenzy though? I suppose it was easy, I am always so thirsty. Did you dare one of my minds do to it? Suppose you did, two of them always love a good dare," I mused.

"I did not!" he snarled angrily. "He did it, to protect you, to keep your minds from using their foresight to solve the murders, to distract you, to protect himself when I started to pin it on him. He was warned and he did not listen. I left that rose; I knew someone would notice it and know it for the Toreador symbol and I knew he would panic and implicate himself in an attempt to turn the evidence away. Poor Alex, an easy pawn in the end. He tried to stay close to you, tried to stop you from becoming a victim but he failed in the end, because it wasn't the only secret he wanted to keep from you. Too many secrets, too distracting. That's why he terrorised that mortal I suppose, she recognised him, he was afraid she would make you remember, his secret shame."

"Sam?" I guessed. "Ah poor Sam, we never did solve the mystery of the S cult. Dear Alex you mistrusted her, made me paranoid, drove me to kill dear Sam with your words, didn't you? So good with words Toreadors but you're no Toreador, so strange, the poet is lost, gone to the madness, a deception unknown even to him, the best kind of course is when you can trick even yourself."

"Gah!" He vanished from my sight briefly before returning with a strange looking spiked device of metal. Into my chest, carving through the flesh with those tiny spikes, whittling against bone, an odd sensation, one which had me screaming. "I'm not Alex! Alex is a weak, simpering Toreador who denies himself! He loves beauty but it's a dark beauty, he sees how artistic the flesh can be, how admirable my work is, how I create even as I destroy! He sees it and he loves it but he won't admit it, won't join me!" Ah the cutting had stopped, what a welcome relief. He lifted his other hand with another strange tool at hand, silly me for assuming the madman had only grabbed one weapon. Into my stomach like a corkscrew, gyrating within the muscle and against the bone, round and round, turning my blood like a washing machine, hope it was getting clean.

"You were a mistake, I realise that now, I just wanted to spite him. He wanted you, saw your love for art, and thought you were a kindred spirit,"I laughed at that and he frowned, "but I saw the things he missed. I know you heard the voices, didn't you Sarah?"

I flinched, Sarah, sitting at her desk sketching, staring out the window at the moon, clutching her head, screaming, willing them to be silent. "He wanted a Toreador but I knew you had better potential than that. He took you, tried to turn to you, brought you to the beach, wanted it to be beautiful of course, stupid Toreadors, always obsessed with looks, thought he had and left you in your room to finish the change, I came back though, sneaked into the room where he left you, and I turned you, yes I, my fangs finished the job. He had tainted you though, I couldn't stop that unfortunately, and it was enough for him to be tied for you, an irreversible error."

"No," I retorted calmly, "the man in the moon did it, I am a moonchild!"

"Ah that fool, yes he watched you too, stupid, crazy beast, he just wanted your blood. He followed Alex, of course he didn't notice, he wasn't smart enough to keep his guard up, I noticed him though, saw him lingering before I came to you, let him linger. I knew the Masquerade would need a patsy or questions would be asked when you were found, I let him go in when I had left, then I went and told the Masquerade, a tipoff, pointed their noses in the right direction, good sniffers they were. It was a gamble, the crowned one might have killed you, but such is fate, whatever was meant to be would be. I never stayed to find out and neither did Alex, he didn't trust me to go off on my own; he knew what I would do. He thought he could stop me, silly thing. Then you showed up, he was so hurt when you weren't a Toreador, of course like everyone else he blamed Moon Boy, never thought I could have done the deed."

"Well it makes no sense so I guess it's true," I accepted sorrowfully. I was not the daughter of the moon master then, how sad, but instead the spawn of dear Alex, poor Alex, lost to his own mind, a prisoner of his madness ah but then were we not kin and kindred after all? So similar, yes I could understand how troublesome it was to argue with ones many minds, how easy it could be to be dominated by them. "Alex take control," I urged, "come back, you're more fun than this voice, so much less painful too, I like you, I don't like this one. Come out and play Alex, you owe me so much lost play time!"

"What are you doing?" The high pitched Nosferatu again. "Who are you talking to? You are both crazy!"

"Come out, come out wherever you are," I urged, "I want to egg Ash's club and mock poetry night, I want to chase ribbons down the streets and adopt kittens! Come and do it with me Alex!"

He looked at me, shuddered and let out a snarl before his head began to twitch in a rapid blur. I grinned; it was an almost nauseating thing to watch and would probably give him a sore neck. "Come on poet, I miss your company."

He went still, blinked and twitched again before looking about in a panic. "What is this? Oh no, not here," he moaned, "not this place."

"Oh not this shit again," our lumpy faced companion complained. "You are fucking mad."

"Ariadne?" He looked to me with horror, an unfair irony I thought, I was the one in chains who should be doing the looks of horror after all. "Oh no, he got you too, I knew I shouldn't have let you go to feed alone. I'm so sorry, I tried to protect you from him, tried to keep you away," he murmured softly.

"Let me go Alex," I said calmly, "the barbs have stopped tickling."

He looked at me in confusion and then sorrow. "No, I...he'll get you again and me too, he threatened to bring me here, to torture me with the others." He glanced about the room in fear. "He's here somewhere, isn't he?" he choked out. "He'll torture us all."

"Well yes and no," I retorted happily. "Come now Alex loosen the chains, I'm bored now, I want to feed."

"He'll destroy us both if I do," he whimpered, "he's so powerful, he only let me stay free so I could be his scapegoat. You thought it was a Toreador, he wanted you to think it was me but it wasn't, I couldn't do this."

"Look at your hands you crazy asshole!" Our female Nosferatu snapped.

Alex looked down at his bloodied palms and shuddered. "A messy kill," he dismissed quickly, perhaps too quickly.

"Alex Toreadors don't do messy," I reminded him gently.

He looked up at me and shook his head again. "Ariadne please, he's framed me somehow, his name is Xander, he's a Malkavian and he's the one doing this, I know I should have told you all sooner, and I know it looks bad that I didn't but he threatened me and he threatened you, please believe me!"

"Oh I do Alex," I said sincerely, "the voices threaten me too, especially when I beat them at checkers, they get so angry then."

"Voices? No, you don't understand, he's a Malkavian, he tried to frame me, he was going to kidnap and torture you if I said anything."

"Oh sweet Alex, who took the Ventrue? Who went whispering to the graves? Who made me a child of the night? Was it him? Was it you? Was it both? Are there more delightful voices for me to meet? I have five, perhaps you have too."

"What? Ariadne no, he's lied to you, tricked you, I don't know, don't believe him; I've nothing to do with this! I don't..."

"You find the morbid things beautiful Alex, you always said so, the beauty that comes from someone's anguish, the darkness of their suffering and pain, you enjoyed it."

"Yes but in a form of art, not like this! Please, don't think I did this!"

"You did," the Nosferatu growled, "you bastard."

"Alex, you are like me, ah poor thing so misguided, you need to acknowledge the voices, they can offer such amusing conversations you know. You can only silence so many of them and you've silenced the wrong ones. Kill Xander, he's a nasty vamp, destroy him."

"I can't, he's too strong," he replied in a low voice.

"Do try Alex," I urged, "and please unchain me, the blood makes me so thirsty." There was a Kine here somewhere, perhaps several, I smelt death in the air mingled with the blood.

"I..." He glanced about nervously and then the twitching starting.

"Damn so close," I grumbled.

The redhead sniffed the air and growled. "He was here," he snarled.

"Of course he was, he is you!" The Nosferatu grumbled. "Stupid mad asshole!"

"Shut up! I told you before, we are not the same, we just bear a resemblance!" he yelled at her. He looked back at him and slapped me hard without warning. "You are the problem, you lure him here even when he knows better, once you're gone he will stop challenging me and threatening me."

I smiled widely at him. "You are not much fun Xandy pandy, so angry, so dull."

He walked away and I knew he was going to return with some new instrument of pain, how predictable. My head drooped, my head seemed to sing and dizziness overtook me, there was a high pitched screaming from somewhere, perhaps the Nosferatu, perhaps me, I was too thirsty to care. My eyes were red, my nose burning with the scent and my mind taunting me with thoughts of it.

"Ariadne!" Oh that voice, real? Hmm didn't really matter, it was nice to hear regardless. "Ariadne!" Hands jerking at me, shaking me, how rude!

"I'm not a doll," I grumbled. Bloodbloodblood. I hissed and arched my head back as my stomach growled.

"Here, this one still has some blood." Something pushing me forward, blood, oh growing stronger, yes, yes! I sank my fangs in and my mouth was flooded with warmth, I drank hard and fast, ignorant to the feeble struggles beneath me. More, more, more! I drank and drank until someone tried to pull me back. I snarled at them, kicked and flailed like a wildcat but they were stronger. They pulled me back and restrained me until I went still.

I opened my eyes warily and found Alex backed against a wall, clutching his head in his hands and sobbing whilst Kent stood before him, watching him careful.

"How did you know?" I queried curiously as I looked up in Isaac's golden gaze.

"We didn't," Isaac admitted, "Kent heard word of strange goings on in the theatre, people complaining of loud noises, something like an explosion or crash, he came to me, and I knew of course the gargoyle was doing it."

"You knew about stony?"

"Yes, he's been a nuisance for a while. Well we couldn't risk the Kine police finding him, so Kent and I came to see what could be done and I smelt your scent nearby. I questioned the gargoyle, though he wasn't willing to talk, he babbled about Kindred invaders in the theatre bringing death and that was it before he went on a rampage."

"I almost lost an arm," Kent grumbled.

"How did you get past him?" I pondered curiously.

"We Toreadors are known for our speed," Isaac admitted haughtily, clearly unhappy to admit he had run from a foe.

"I'm going to blow the big git up later," Kent vowed. "But first you, Alexander, I always knew you had an odd obsession with the beauty of the darker things but this?"

"He didn't do this," I spoke up quickly. "It was his twin, Xander."

"Twin?" Isaac echoed.

"Lies!" The Nosferatu shrieked. "They're both mad! He did it, he's a crazy psycho, he tortured Kindred and Kine in here!"

"I didn't," Alex protested, "he framed me, I didn't do it!" He lowered his hands from his face and looked past Kent to Isaac. "Please I'm loyal to you, I wouldn't do this, I wouldn't."

"He's a Toreador," I said calmly, "he couldn't do this, not unless he was Sabbat."

"But you were so sure a Toreador did this," Kent pointed out as he glanced over his shoulder at me.

"And I was certain leprechauns stole my cowboy hat but it was the dwarves," I replied seriously, "sometimes I can be wrong."

"What about the rose carved on the victim?" Isaac pressed for information.

"He was trying to frame me," Alex said vehemently, "because I knew it was him doing this. I wanted to tell you Isaac, I swear I did but he threatened to frame me and he threatened to take Ariadne and she...I..."

"You?" Isaac looked from him to me with a frosty calmness. Oh dear, the Baron's eyes were tinged with green.

"He bit me in the night," I murmured, "on the beach, he tried to kill dear Sarah, wanted her for her art but he left too soon, abandoned her in a vulnerable state to the mercy of a Malkavian."

"What?" Kent sneered. "No way! That's too rich, and tragic, you tried to turn her and you failed?" He looked from me to Alex. "Then she could have been one of us, sophisticated instead of bat shit crazy!" He laughed. "Oh that's just sad."

"Is anyone going to untie me?" the screech of the annoying sewer mouse. "Or are going to continue believing their lies? He did all this, I've been a prisoner long enough to know my own captive, he's a Malkavian, he argues about himself all the time, he's mad!"

Kent and Isaac both looked to the Nosferatu and wrinkled their noses instinctively. "Well Alexander you do have an odd interest in the morbid and brutality," Kent murmured, "but then again, it's hard to believe anything a boil faced sewer dweller says."

"Oh you Toreadors, always sticking together," the Nosferatu complained, "typical, you're too obsessed with your movies and books and art to pay attention to reality."

"Just who are you?" Isaac demanded.

"Imalia," came the hot retort, "and as soon as I get out of here I'm going to make sure everyone knows who the killer is, maybe Gary will do something about it!"

"The Nosferatu confuses Yin with Yang," I murmured, "Alex is Alex, he wants to be a Toreador and so he is a Toreador, loyal to the Anarchs but Xander is Xander, a Malkavian Sabbat who experiments on Kine and Kindred, seeing their pain thresholds. Alex can kill Xander though, he knows him best, he will find him and destroy him."

"Can he?" Kent queried cynically. "Alex and Xander," he muttered, "oh shit, you are a frigging Malk. Now how could I missed that? I knew you were different, darker, dangerous and hiding something but this? Really?"

"I'm not him!" Alex protested. "Xander is the Malkavian, he did all this! I am a Toreador, I would never do this, I'm on your side!" He turned from Kent to look at Isaac imploringly. He tried to step past Kent in a blur to reach us but Kent was just as swift in blocking him.

Isaac sighed and looked to me. "Ariadne, what if Alex can't defeat er...Xander? What if Xander wins? Hmm? What should be done here?" Ah my Baron, more insightful than I gave him credit for.

"Isaac what are you saying?" Kent demanded, without taking his gaze off Alex.

"He is her sire in a respect, at least he wanted to be, and he is still the Alex we know and care for. It is possible he is strong enough to become the dominate persona, it has happened before with Malkavians, one last battle is forced upon themselves before accepting the madness and submitting to the voices. Often it is outside circumstance that forces this battle, outside influence as it were, which determines the victorious persona. The madness does not go away but one personality can prevail and continue to remain dominate. Ariadne may be driven by many voices for example but she is just one personality."

"Right," Kent replied bluntly.

"He's too strong," Alex groaned.

"But he's boring," I argued, "come now, you will forever be in danger if you cower, we all will. I will even listen to your poetry if you do this, I promise, well maybe just one poem but still!"

Alex chortled faintly at this. Then the sickening blur of his head shifting and shaking back and forth began again. "Alex we will forget him if you do," I promised.

"You are loyal," Isaac called to him, "and a good friend to us. He is nothing, an enemy to be crushed, a disgusting Sabbat."

"You led them here! You fool Alex; they will blame you, and destroy you for this!"

"I...I didn't do this."

"You did, you enjoyed watching them squirm, you found it beautiful how the blood swirled down their bodies, you are a Sabbat at heart like me!"

"I'm not! I don't like things like this, it's disgusting, perverse, you did this! You forced me to keep quiet, tried to frame me but they know the truth now." Green eyes looked at us hesitantly. "Don't you?"

"Yes Alex," I assured, "Xander is a fiend, a clever, mad fiend! You are a Toreador though; you don't get your hands bloody."

"What the Hell is going on?" Imelia shrieked. "You are one and the same!"

Kent went to her in a blur, punching her hard enough in the face to shatter some fangs. He glanced down at his fist and winced in disgust. "Quiet now sewage, I'd rather not touch you again," he warned.

"Yes, yes," Xander I assumed, "one and the same, Sabbat together."

"Together?" Alex echoed. "No, I'm not you, I'm not, I'm a Toreador!"

"Oh yes, most definitely," I enthused, "only a Toreador could speak like you and write such dreadful poetry and insist on attending beatnik clubs and browsing art galleries, you do those things Alex, and drag me along too, you are definitely a Toreador."

"Yes, yes I am."

"Well it doesn't matter, you're weak, always on the sidelines, always in the way, keeping me from Kindred, well it ends now. I will end you and then our mistake, Sarah, next."

"Sarah?" It was like watching a ping pong match with no balls or paddles, just two pupils darting back and forth. I could understand, I did so often like to debate with myselves about which hat to wear and where was the best place to go unicorn hunting. "No, no she is Ariadne now and you won't ruin that, you won't ruin anything anymore! You have killed too many, I should have stopped you sooner! And I will, you are a threat to all Kindred with your actions!"

He moved in a blur before anyone could anticipate his actions, going to the table where the instruments of torture and play lay. When the blur resumed normal form we were treated to Alex stabbing his supple throat right through with a stake. He screamed as the blood began to gush out and his eyes rolled back in his head before he slumped to the ground amongst the decaying corpses.

We were all still for a moment and I found myself filled with an unexpected rush of fear and sadness. I turned from him and burrowed my head in Isaac's chest, afraid to see which of them would stand- Alex or Xander?

So which plot twists did you guess and do you enjoy them both? I debated a lot about making Alex a Malkavian, originally he was just a Toreador antitribu, a Sabbat, and Ariadne was a Malkavian because Moon Boy finished siring her but I liked this idea better. Naturally it was largely inspired by Tourette, dear Jeanette and Therese. I thought it made Alex's character slightly more redeemable.