Reversed

 

Disclaimer: Castlevania belongs to Konami not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Alucard . . . then he’d be mine.

 

Rating: PG-13

 

Authoress note: I am still unsure why I wrote this, but it started as a small idea and then took on a life of its own. I apologize for any OOC, this was wrote to show the slightly more humane side of Dracula, it is also meant to be quiet light hearted although there are meaningful points raised.

 

NOT part of the Renaissance series

 

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Chapter Three

 

“What happened next” a smaller girl cried

 

“Well, we were restless and so we planned a scouting party in order to find out how powerful this fragmented creature was” Maria nodded

 

* /\\/ * /\\/ * /\\/ *

 

Maria yelped dodging the scythe as it descended a millimeter from where she now was.

 

“What’s wrong with him” Alucard shouted at his father who now stood behind Death

 

“He’s been taken under the fold of the creature” Vladimir shrugged

 

“You don’t seem” Richter began dodging a falling scythe “to worried” he ducked again, lashing out with his whip, causing death to fall back slightly 

 

“Death!” Vladimir bellowed “you useless anthropomorphic personification”

 

Death froze suddenly, slowly Death’s eye sockets seemed to glow a pail blue light coming from within, he shook himself a few times before spotting the people around Vladimir

 

“Master!” he shouted pulling his scythe up to strike

 

“Calm down old friend” Vladimir reassured “we have a . . .  odd situation”

 

The walk back to the library was long enough to bring Death up to speed. Maria found it odd explaining things to a floating skeleton, but even weirder was that she was becoming used to having Dracula peering over her shoulder and was actually starting to feel safer with the master vampire lurking close by. He reminded her of Alucard only different, slightly more in tune with his demonic nature instead of conflicting with it.

 

She didn’t approve of being in tune with your more demonic side but maybe it was like being in tune with your inner child, Vladimir certainly seemed happier than Alucard even although his castle was over run with minions no longer under his control, then again he probably found this amusing or entertaining.

 

Death took the new ‘situation’ better than expected and was soon conversing with his master on how to renovate it. Richter seemed to be taking prolonged exposure to Castlevania worst although he was dealing with it in his own way, staying in a foul mood and attacking almost anything.

 

 

* /\\/ * /\\/ * /\\/ *

 

“You found Death in the scouting mission?” a young boy towards the back of the group asked

 

“We did” Maria nodded

 

“Was he scary?” the young girl at the front asked

 

“At first yes, but once you spoke to him, he seemed strangely reasonable” Maria replied with the same answer she had given a hundred times

 

“What else happened” the young boy at the front asked

 

“We returned to the library and tried to find more out about the creature we were battling” Maria smiled

 

* /\\/ * /\\/ * /\\/ *

 

 

“One minuet it was a daemon then a human then a daemon again” Death explained

 

“I knew it” Vladimir smirked “it takes the form least likely to invoke anger; it didn’t know what to change into with you”

 

“It was strange my Lord, please forgive my weakness” Death apologised, Dracula waved him off

 

“Do you still think we can win” Maria asked “I mean we don’t even know what it looks like”

 

“Of course my Lady” Vladimir smiled sending shivers down Maria’s spine “we have many advantages after all”

 

“Such as” Maria asked

 

“I found her!!” the voice of Alucard suddenly proclaimed as Alucard almost bounced down the stairs towards the group “she was right here”

 

“Huh” was the unanimous response

 

“Bat” Alucard smirked holding up a card before flicking it, the card hurtled up in the air virtually exploding into the form of a bat, one that immediately dived to Alucard and disappeared in his hair.

 

While Alucard tried in vain to remove the overly affectionate creature from his hair, Maria found herself giggling watching while Richter rolled his eyes in a friendly manner, it was nice to see the dunpeal doing something he obviously enjoyed and now he could tell people he had seen Alucard bounce.

 

Vladimir smiled slightly glad for once his son was not moping about with his usual woe-is-me expression, he returned to his book when he heard the cry of ‘NO!’ and he was hit quiet sharply on the side of his head, the small bat landed on his book, looked at him for a second before launching itself at him, he felt a bite on the tip of his nose and tiny claws scratched his cheeks, he managed to gently pry the tiny creature of his face and held it struggling between gentle clawed hands.

 

“Don’t you dare hurt her” Alucard snapped

 

“I wasn’t going to, her attack was half expected” he smiled “she is brave and highly protective of you, you have a most excellent familure Adrian” he opened his hands and let the tiny bat return to Alucard’s shoulder. 

 

Vladimir ran fingertips over his face finding it had already healed he smirked.

 

“Did you have a familure sir” Maria asked resettling herself opposite Vladimir

 

“I did, never as many as Adrian though” the count smirked “I had a wolf familure and a small daemon”

 

“Alucard has a daemon I think” Maria replied the count nodded “where are your familures, lost in the castle like Alucard’s were?”

 

“Not as such no, you see when I grew powerful enough to look after myself safely; I offered my familures their freedom. However they chose not to go, but to meld with me” the vampire explained

 

“Meld with you?” Maria repeated and questioned

 

“Yes, they became a part of me, that is why my wolf form appears larger than most and has a true wolfish quality to it that other shifters lack and how I have the ability to become more . . . demonic if I wish”

 

“So you didn’t have to give them up” Maria smirked the count nodded they both turned to look at Alucard who was nursing bats wounded pride, gently stroking her with a gloved finger.

 

“I think Bat would most defiantly stay with Alucard if he offered his familures their freedom” Maria commented

 

“I do believe you are right my lady” Vladimir nodded

 

Maria looked across at Alucard and the tiny bat resting in one of his gloved hands while a gloved finger stroked her back.

 

“Is she alright” Maria asked Alucard approaching him slowly waiting to be told -politely of course- to go away.

 

“She is unharmed but is confused” Alucard answered “she is used to fighting against my father, I have explained the situation but I doubt she grasps it fully, but I think she knows not to attack him again”

 

“That’s good” Maria nodded Alucard smiled slightly, his usual half smile as if incapable of managing a full one

 

“I do believe my father flattery helped her pride somewhat” he looked to his bat “isn’t that right, most excellent familure”

 

Maria giggled as the little bat did indeed lift its chest slightly and perked its ears before taking to the air to fly in small circles around Alucard a few times.

 

“she is indeed very protective of you” Maria gently shooed the bat away when it got to close, Alucard’s grey eyes lit up a little and his half smile returned

 

“Bat” he called, the tiny creature landed on his shoulder trying to become buried in his hair “I want you to guard Maria, she is very precious to me and I shall be most grieved if anything were to happen to her” they both watched as the tiny creature sprang to its task and circled both of them with vigor.

 

“Really Alucard” Maria asked

 

“Hhhhhmmmm?” Alucard hummed watching the bat circle them

 

“Would you be . . . grieved?” she asked, Alucard’s half smile disappeared and he turned slowly, looking at her a few moment before the tiny smile made an attempt at reappearing

 

“Yes I would” he admitted smiling a little more before turning back to his book.

 

 

* /\\/ * /\\/ * /\\/ *

 

“How long did you live in the library” one of the shorter boys asked

 

“Three days” Maria replied “we left the library in ones and two’s occasionally bumping into monsters from the castle that tried to kill us”

 

“Why did Mr Dracula call Alucard Adrian” a little girl towards the back asked

 

“Because it’s his name” Maria explained, the girl looked new and seemed not to have heard this tale before.

 

“If you lived in the library for three days what did you do all that time” the eldest boy of the group asked

 

“We researched what we were fighting” Maria smiled “but it was dull, we found . . . ways of entertaining ourselves”

 

“Like what” Maria wasn’t sure who asked

 

“Well Alucard and Vladimir argued about everything, we went on more and more scouting missions and grudgingly did research”

 

* /\\/ * /\\/ * /\\/ *

 

 

Vladimir slumped delicately on the table resting his head on the book he was meant to be reading. He glanced around green eyes looking from one person to the other.

 

“Tie your hair back. . . . You look like a hooligan” he suddenly snapped at Alucard

 

“What!” Alucard looked up, perplexed

 

“You heard me! Tie back your damn hair” Dracula muttered glaring at his child from the slumped position he had taken.

 

“Your hair’s lose” Alucard pointed out

 

“only because I lack the effective means of tying it back, yours is longer than mine anyway, any longer and you’d look like a mermaid/Venus weed gone wrong” Vladimir smirked smugly

 

“Are they joking” Maria turned asking Death who hovered just behind her, Death sighed in a tired fashion and muttered

 

“Unfortunately not, they argue about everything” he explained “they never used to, before all this business they used to be quiet close. When Adrian was young it was hard to get him and his father apart”

 

Maria smiled at the idea of the two Tepes having ‘father son moments’ and giggled, the mental image of Dracula helping a smaller version of Alucard ride a bike (AN: did they have bikes then, well if not a horse will do). Her giggle caused both Tepes to look up, both rolled there eyes in exactly the same way before returning to what ever book it was they were now both reading from.

 

“If you pointed this out to them they’d both explode at you” Death muttered

 

“I know, its called denial” Maria looked up to the glowing eye sockets and smiled slightly

 

“he said he couldn’t understand the castle” Maria whispered half hoping Death to turn around and laugh comment that the count was lying, the laugh came but not the words she was hoping for

 

“yes, he and Alucard used to get lost quiet often, they would go missing for days at a time and turn up in a cupboard somewhere, it was a game of sorts” Death laughed quietly, his laugh echoing around his hollow body

 

“Oh, I had hoped he was lying” Maria muttered

 

* /\\/ * /\\/ * /\\/ *

 

“You seem to be getting closer to Death” Alucard pointed out later when they were both sitting sharing a book, Maria sighed heavily and leaned against the blonde dunpeal

 

“He knows a lot” she excused lamely

 

“That he does but please my lady do not forget what he is, when this is over he will be after your soul” Alucard tried to warn

 

“I know but it will be strange after this to go back to killing each other” she paused “it was easier when they were less human, it must be hard for you having lived here for so long to now fight them”

 

“This untimely reminder of how humane they can be is most unfortunate” he agreed, Maria giggled a little trying to lighten the mood

 

“Couldn’t you have just said yes” she sniggered

 

“Board” Vladimir muttered rolling a pen between his claws; he stood and made towards the door

 

“Where are you going vampire” Richter snapped

 

“Scouting human” Vladimir snapped back

 

“Stay put” Richter yelled “the more we venture out the more likely it is that the creature will locate us”

 

Vladimir sighed he knew this was true the young Belmont was not totally foolish then. But he was board, really board.

 

“I’m going to rearrange the books then” Vladimir muttered storming off to the darker areas of the library.

 

Alucard snorted when the count was out of ear shot

 

“What” Maria Asked

 

“He gets board a lot” Alucard muttered quietly “it can be amusing at times”

 

“Speak for yourself” Death snapped

 

“Huh” Maria was a wee bit confused

 

“The master has a habit of . . . entertaining himself when board” Death explained

 

“He plays” Alucard translated “his games are a bit different to yours though, one time . . .”

 

“I’m not deaf AdrianVladimir’s voice snapped Alucard snorted once again before going back to his book. 

 

Vladimir sighed as he wandered the shelves they knew little, almost the same amount as when they had started, the only new piece of information they had found was that the fragmented gods, in their fear would destroy everything, they were like paranoid monarchs striking out at invisible enemies.

 

He grumbled to himself as he lifted a random book, he wanted this to be over with, sitting still always drove him nuts, he became edgy and even more unpredictable than usual. He yawned widely, he was tired, very tired, maybe when this was over he would let the castle fall and return to sleep for a century.

 

Yes, sleep sounded nice.

 

Maria wandered the shelves of the library in search for the book Alucard had named, she found the right section and began trying to locate the book, when a clawed hand holding what she was searching for fell down in front of her, and she looked up taking the book.

 

“Thank you” she smiled a little at seeing the count spread out like a large cat across the top of the book shelves “Comfortable” she asked

 

“Its very dusty” the count commented and rolled down landing silently, Maria smirked at the dust covering him which he was brushing off, without thinking acting on a maternal instinct of sorts she went behind him and brushed his back down,  

 

“Did you roll in it or something” she scolded forgetting momentarily who she was talking to,

 

“Not really, it just spreads” he shrugged,

 

Maria smiled a little and sighed, it was strange how similar Vladimir looked to his child like this, she was used to him, dressed in all his finery, small beard and hair curling down his back elegantly, but seeing him in a ripped shirt, looking no older than Alucard himself, it was unsettling. Something in her stomach flipped.

 

“Are you well my lady” Vladimir asked sitting next to her

 

“I am fine . . . just confused” she explained

 

“About what young one” the lord of darkness lifted a pail eyebrow in query.

 

She looked up at him then and saw Alucard, her Alucard who would protect her, who would miss her if she were gone, who was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen walk the earth and who were half vampire.

 

“I think I’m falling in love with your son” Maria whispered, Vladimir smiled,

 

“That is understandable” he answered

 

“its just that . . .” she paused “this is starting to get to me” Maria snapped suddenly breaking away from the conversation “I’m in the middle of Castlevania fighting monsters, falling in love with Alucard . . .”

 

“Adrian” Vladimir whispered in her outburst

 

“Bloody Adrian and then talking about my life’s problems with their former leader” she took a very deep breath and was about to say more when a clawed finger touched her bottom lip silencing her

 

“Never underestimate the human’s ability to adapt” he smiled keeping his mouth closed; he was almost handsome when he did that, if you could forget about the fangs behind the smile.

 

* /\\/ * /\\/ * /\\/ *

 

“It was strange” Maria explained “it was so easy to talk to him” she shuddered wondering if Dracula had used magic of some kind on her, she hoped not.

 

“He has a nasty habit of making you forget who he is” Alucard had explained running gloved fingers over her shoulder “it has always been like this with women, I doubt he even does it deliberately”

 

“What do you mean” Maria asked lying back against the dunpeal and settling her

 

“Well” Alucard seemed to think for a moment “its always one extreme or the other, women either feel soul burning lust for him, or . . . How did Elizabeth put it” he muttered “ah yes, they want to put him in their pocket”

 

“Huh?” Maria grunted, sitting up and turning to look at the dunpeal

 

“They . . .” Alucard made a few hand gestures struggling with his words “want to look after him, mother him as it were”

 

“Oh I understand” Maria smiled leaning back, Alucard wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes. They slept like that till morning.

 

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Authoress Note: Hoped you liked, sorry this chapter took longer but it was strange trying to write it, I wasn’t happy with most of it so I had to keep re-writing it.