Lunar Painting  -  A Sailor Moon / Castlevania Crossover

By Kane Magus -- aplummer@netmcr.com


Disclaimers:  The Sailor Moon universe and all characters in it was 
              created by Naoko Takeuchi and is copyrighted by Naoko
              Takeuchi, Kodansha, Toei, DiC and probably a lot more.

              The Castlevania universe and all characters in it was
              created by and is copyrighted by the nice folks at 
              Konami.

              Both are being used without permission or consent by this 
              author.  This author hopes they don't mind as this fan 
              fic was written purely for fun.

              And for the sake of this author's ego, which has swelled
              exponentially since he finally finished this blasted 
              thing (^_^), feel free to distribute this fic to anybody 
              and everybody you want.  But please, try not to make any 
              money off of it, because I sure know *I'm* not.

Timeframe:    Sailor Moon - a short time after the defeat of Chaos.
              Castlevania - well, it's  close to being 100 years since 
                            the events in Bram Stoker's Dracula, so...
              Both - several months after the events in the prologue

Chapter One
-----------

Things had been relatively quiet since the ordeal with Galaxia.  The 
world was back to normal and everyone was enjoying peace and quiet.  
Well, not exactly everyone.

"REI!!!  WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BE SO MEAN TO ME??!!" Usagi wailed 
as she tried to contain an already messy spill of chocolate fudge. It 
was meant for the vanilla ice cream that was also spreading across the 
table next to it.  Without thinking, she grabbed up the first thing she 
could get her hands on and began to wipe up the fudge.

"Why'd you have to revert back into a klutz?!" Rei argued as she 
hastily tried to move things off of the table and out of the way.  
"Look at all that wasted ice cream and fudge Makoto made, just because 
you had your nose stuck in that manga and weren't watching where you... 
I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!!!  YOU'RE USING MY MANGA TO WIPE IT UP?!"

Usagi looked down and noticed that she did indeed have what was left 
of Rei's manga in her hand.  Usagi flushed a deep crimson and she 
dropped the manga onto the table, adding to the mess.  "Oops!  Uh, 
it wasn't all that good of an issue anyway.  You didn't really miss 
anything."

Makoto, Minako, and Ami came from the direction of Makoto's kitchen, 
with paper towels and a small trash can for the mess, in time to hear 
Rei shout, "Yeah, well, I would have liked to have been able to read it
myself just the same!  Ooooh, you drive me so nuts sometimes!"  She 
picked up the manga and tossed it into the trash can.

"It was a bad idea to leave those two in a room alone together," Minako 
quipped.  "I'm surprised they haven't killed each other in the half a 
minute we've been gone."

"Yeah, really," said Ami.  She was carrying a mop and began to clean up 
what had spilled off of the table onto the floor.

Finally, after several minutes, they had the disaster under control.  
As Usagi and Rei sat on the sofa with their backs to each other 
after the usual heated verbal (and tongue) war, Makoto said, "Well, I 
can always make some more ice cream.  I'll just have to run down to 
the store and get some more fudge.  You guys can watch TV or something 
while I'm gone."

"I'll go with you," said Ami.  She put down her book she'd been reading 
during Usagi's and Rei's rather long argument and reached for her 
jacket.  They went to the door and just as Makoto was about to open it, 
they heard a knock.  Makoto opened the door and let Mamoru enter.

"Hi, Luna said I could find Usagi here," he said.  "Hope I'm not 
interrupting anything."

"Hi, Mamoru.  Ami and I are on our way down to the store to get some 
more fudge.  Come on in," Makoto said as she and Ami made their way 
past him and out the door.

"You just missed the big clean-up after the human natural disaster over 
here knocked over the entire tub of ice cream and fudge that Makoto had 
made.  And to think, this was the same person that saved the entire 
galaxy not too long ago," Rei called from the sofa.  "Hey, Meatball 
Head!  Your fiancee's here!"  She reached over and smacked Usagi none 
too lightly on the back of the head.  

Usagi, who had been silently sulking with her back to the door, spun 
around. "Hey, I heard you already!"  She brightened visibly at the 
sight of Mamoru.  "Hi, Mamo-chan!"

"I hope you heard me, you were right there on the sofa next to me," 
Rei said.  Usagi's response was to smack her in return as she ran 
over to Mamoru and out of her reach.  She kissed him and said, "What 
brings you over here at this time of day?  (Not that I'm complaining 
or anything.)  I thought you would be gone until this evening at that 
job interview."

Mamoru had been gone most of the day on the first of several job 
interviews he had lined up.  Since he never showed up at Harvard, 
even though it was not his fault of course, his application had been 
voided for that year.  He had called them recently but was told it
was too late to reapply for that year, so he was looking for something 
to do until he could go again next year.

Mamoru and Usagi walked over and sat down on the sofa, with Mamoru 
between Usagi and Rei.  "They canceled the interview.  Something 
about the interviewer having a case of food poisoning or something.  
Anyway, I stopped by the arcade to talk to Motoki and he told me about 
this new exhibit they have at the museum.  I was planning on going 
over there tomorrow and I wanted to know if you guys wanted to go with 
me."

Before anyone else could respond to that, Minako said, "Hey, is that 
what you're talking about?"  She pointed at the television screen 
which was showing the news.  There wasn't anything else on so Minako 
had turned it to that.  

"Yeah, that's it right there.  Someone finally found the tomb of Vlad 
Tepes.  They have it and some other stuff on display at the museum.  
I've always had a passing interest in anything to do with the vampire 
myths so I figured it might be worth a look," Mamoru said.  "Could you 
turn that up a bit please, Minako?"

"Sure," she replied.  She picked up the remote and increased the volume 
on the TV...  a little too much.  Suddenly, the windows began to rattle 
with the extremely high amount of sound coming from the TV.

"NOT... QUITE... THAT... LOUD... MINAKO!!" Rei shouted over the noise, 
her hands covering her ears in pain.

"SORRY!!" Minako yelled as she got it down to a more manageable level.

The anchor on the news show was saying, "...and after months of touring 
across Europe and the United States, the coffin of Vlad Tepes will be 
in Japan for the next three months.  One of the first site will be at 
the museum here in the Juuban district."

"Hey, he's kinda cute, don't you think?" Minako said, referring to the 
anchor.  Just before that, the door had opened, admitting Makoto and 
Ami.  

"Yeah," said Makoto, overhearing Minako, "he looks just like my old 
boyfriend."  Everyone else groaned at this.  "What?" Makoto said 
innocently, heading into the kitchen with the fudge.  

They set the fudge in the refrigerator for the moment and came back 
into the room.  "What's going on?" Ami asked as they found places to 
sit in front of the TV. 

"They're doing a segment on the new exhibit of Vlad Tepes's casket at 
the museum," Mamoru replied.  "I'm going over there tomorrow and I 
came over to ask if you all wanted to go too."

"...but tragically," the anchor continued, "the man that discovered 
this monumental ruin, Dr. Dakota Jones, a professor of archaeology at 
Harvard University, had an unfortunate, fatal accident the day of the 
find.  The owners of the inn that Dr. Jones was staying in at the time, 
as well as other local residents, claimed that Dr. Jones was the 
unfortunate victim of a vampire.  The nature of the discovery only 
added to the suspicions of the locals.  However, authorities have 
determined that the cause of Dr. Jones's tragic death was the rotting 
wood of the banister around the balcony of the room in which he was 
staying.  Apparently, the night of the find, Dr. Jones had been on the 
balcony when the railing gave way.  The balcony overlooked a sheer 
cliff that had a depth of two hundred plus feet.  It is unlikely that 
any sort of..."

"That's... terrible," said Mamoru as he listened to this.  "Dr. Jones 
was one of the people I had been in contact with about going to 
Harvard.  We used to chat on the Internet some too.  I didn't know he 
was the one who made the find, though."

"What's all this about vampires?  Who's Vlad Tepes, anyway?" Usagi 
said as the anchor went on to talk about other things unrelated to
the story of Dr. Jones's death and the museum exhibit.

"Vlad III Tepes was a Wallachian prince that lived hundreds of years 
ago," Mamoru explained.  At the blank stares he received from Usagi, 
Makoto, and Minako, he continued, "Wallachia is a region in the 
southern part of Romania."

Minako, still confused but trying to help out, stated, "Hmm, Romania?  
I met a gymnast from Romania once, back in England."

"Actually," said Ami, going back to what Mamoru said, "Vlad Tepes was 
born in Transylvania.  I read somewhere that his father was there 
trying to get help to take control of Wallachia from their rivals."

"True," said Mamoru, "Transylvania is another region of Romania that 
I'm sure you all have heard of before.  Anyway, like I said before, 
he was a Wallachian prince.  He fought against the Ottoman Empire 
during the fifteenth century.  What he is most well known for, however, 
is his practice of impaling his enemies on stakes.  He supposedly 
impaled thousands of victims during his rule.  That's what Tepes means:  
'Impaler'."

"Eww, what do you want to go to an exhibit about someone like that 
for?" said Usagi, as she made a face,  "I didn't know you knew so much 
about this kind of stuff.  I still don't get what that has to do with 
vampires, though."

Rei spoke up this time, "You've never heard of Count Dracula, Meatball 
Head?"  Once, she had borrowed Bram Stoker's Dracula from Ami, so she 
wasn't as totally in the dark as the rest of them seemed to be.

Usagi stuck her tongue out at Rei and said, "Of course I have, Pyro.  
Do you think I'm totally clueless?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Rei asked sweetly.

Other than a nasty look tossed in Rei's direction, Usagi ignored her 
and said, "But anyway, would somebody please explain what that has to 
do with vampires other than the fact that you said this Vlad guy was
born in Transylvania."

"Yeah," Makoto added, "what's the connection?"

"Vlad the Impaler," said Ami, "was thought by most people to have been 
the historical figure upon which Bram Stoker based his book Dracula.  
That's what is so interesting about this finding.  It will shed some 
light on the man behind all the myths and legends of Dracula."

"Well, you girls up for a little trip to the museum with me tomorrow?"  
Mamoru asked again.

"I'll go with you," said Ami.

"Count me in," said Rei.

"I don't know if I want to spend the day in some stuffy museum looking 
at stuff about some dead guy that tortured people long ago," Usagi 
said dubiously.  She looked over at Minako and Makoto, who seemed to 
be as hesitant as she was.

"Oh, I forgot to mention," said Mamoru, "that I ran into Seiya at the 
arcade too.  He said that he, Taiki, and Yaten were planning on going 
too.  He seemed pretty psyched up about it, too."  The Three Lights
had decided to stay on Earth for a while after the Galaxia incident,
although they were no longer a band.  They didn't need to be since
they had found Princess Kakyuu, who had returned to their homeworld
after everything was back to normal.

"Well, now that you mention it," said Minako, "a little stroll through 
the museum never hurt anyone."

"Yeah," Makoto said, smiling, "Okay, I'm in."

They all looked at Usagi.  "I still don't know..."

"Please," said Mamoru, giving her his best attempt at puppy eyes, 
"just do this one little thing for me?"  He pouted his lower lip out 
melodramatically.  The other girls broke out into laughter at the 
sight, especially since it was usually Usagi giving the puppy eye
treatment to Mamoru.

Usagi laughed too and put her arms around him.  "Oh, how can I resist?  
You knew I wasn't going to really say no, didn't you?"

Mamoru winked at her and said, "Well, I doubt we'll be there all day, 
anyway.  How about I take you to the movies afterward?  The rest of 
you too, my treat?"  That sealed the deal.

They spent the rest of the day just sitting around, watching TV, and 
eating ice cream.  This time they avoided the huge mess.

**********

"Hey, son, how was class today?" Sinclair Morris asked as he walked 
into the small two-story house that he and his eighteen year old son, 
Janus, lived in.

"Hi, dad.  It was awesome!  Master Kaine sparred with me today!"  said 
Janus, known as Jan to most of his friends and family. 

"Yeah?  How'd it go?  Ol' Kwai Chang didn't beat you too badly did 
he?" joked Sinclair, as he sat his briefcase on a nearby table and 
headed into the kitchen.  He too had studied martial arts under Master 
Kaine years ago.  He rubbed his head as he remembered the times he had 
sparred with Kaine.  The man's name was actually David, but when he'd 
started teaching years ago, one of his students had nicknamed him Kwai 
Chang.  The name had stuck ever since.  He sure fought like the Kwai 
Chang Kaine from the movies and television, as most of his students 
learned the hard way.

"Believe it or not, I actually scored on him once!  Everyone was 
shocked... especially me.  Master Kaine didn't seem too bothered by it
though.  He just commented that I had taken advantage of a momentary 
flash of light reflecting off of Master Wall's head."  

"Ha!" Sinclair nearly choked on his drink at that.  "That certainly 
is an original way to say 'the sun was in my eyes.'  I'll have to 
remember that one.  But that's really good, son.  Not many have the 
skill to score on Master Kaine.  I know I never did anyway."  

"It was luck mostly.  Of course, he then proceeded to wipe up the 
floor with me, but I had kinda expected that would happen," Jan said.  
He absentmindedly rubbed a slight bruise on his arm that he had gotten 
not from Kaine, but from his somewhat painful collision with the wall 
after being thrown by Kaine.  He'd failed to properly catch himself.  
Kaine's disapproving glance was worse than taking the fall.  But other 
than that, he'd held his own as much as he could have hoped to against 
his seemingly unbeatable martial arts teacher.

"Even so, I'd say you did as well as could be expected.  Better even.  
Well, anything else interesting happen while I was at work?"

"Grandpa Emmett called about a half hour ago.  He said he'd be over 
here as soon as he got some stuff together.  He told me to make sure 
you didn't run off anywhere because his reason for coming was very 
important."  Jan looked up at his father.  "He sounded serious."  

Sinclair's whole demeanor changed at that.  "Hmm.  My father and 
'serious' are two things that rarely go together.  I wonder when he'll 
get here?"

As if on cue, the doorbell rang.  Jan got up and opened the door.  
Emmett Morris walked in carrying a huge leather duffel bag of some 
sort over his shoulder.

"Sinclair, we have to talk," he said as he set the bag on the couch 
next to Jan.  "Hey, Jan, I have another bag like this out in the car.  
Could you run out and get it for me?"

"Sure, grandpa."  Janus got up and left the room.

"Sinclair, turn on the television.  Put it on CNN."

Sinclair did as he was told.  The sight on the screen shocked him to 
his core.

"...minutes ago!  Now the mysterious castle which has appeared over 
Tokyo has apparently consumed, for lack of a better word, the museum 
over which it appeared and is using it for a foundation!  Witnesses 
say they saw four figures that appeared humanoid actually hovering 
near the top of the castle before heading for ground level.  Their 
current whereabouts, or even what they are, is unknown.  Japanese law 
enforcement officials are aiding in the evacuation of the surrounding 
area.  As of yet, the nature of the mysterious castle and the intent 
of whoever or whatever is inside is also unknown at this time.  
Currently..."

"Oh my God... Is that...?"  Sinclair said, dumbfounded.

"Yes, son.  That is the very same Castlevania that has appeared in the 
stories throughout the Belmont clan's long history.  I knew that when 
those people found Dracula's coffin a few months ago that nothing good 
would come from it.  I'd hoped I would be wrong but...  You know what 
this means, don't you?"  Emmett looked at Sinclair with as serious an 
expression as Sinclair had ever seen him use.

"It means we're going to Japan for one thing.  It also means I was a 
complete idiot not to tell Janus about..." he was interrupted by a 
muffled explosion from outside and Jan's startled cry.

---

Jan went outside to his grandfather's car.  He looked through the back 
window and saw the bag that his grandfather mentioned.  He opened the 
door and picked up the bag.  It was much heavier than it appeared, 
causing Janus to drop it.

The string holding it closed came loose spilling some of the contents 
of the bag onto the ground, one of which was a long, elaborately 
designed whip.

"Hmm.  What is all this stuff?  I never knew Grandpa Emmett had such 
a collection of old weapons like this.  This is sort of like that stuff 
he always talked about in his stories.  Why's he got it here in these 
bags, I wonder?  Why'd he bring them over here?"  Jan said as he 
reached down and started to put stuff back in the bag.  He gripped the 
handle of the whip and began to place it back into the bag.

Suddenly, with a violent explosion, the entire length of the whip burst 
into red hot flames.  With a shout of surprise, Jan dropped the whip.

Emmett and Sinclair rushed out of the house to see what was going on.  
"Son!  Are you all right?  What happened?" a worried Sinclair said as 
he looked his son over.

"Well, I don't know really.  I picked up Grandpa Emmett's bag and was 
bringing it in the house but I dropped it.  This stuff fell out of it 
and I picked up that whip to put it back when it caught on fire!"  He 
looked from his father to his grandfather for explanation.

"Hmm," was all that Emmett said at first.  He picked up the whip and 
looked it over.

"Flames you say?  Here, take it again."  He handed the whip back to 
Jan.

Jan took it and again, although not quite so violently this time, the 
whip's length caught fire.  Jan just stood there holding it looking at 
it blankly.

"Not since Simon..." Sinclair started to say, but Emmett put a hand on 
his arm.

"Jan, you remember those stories I used to tell you long ago?  You know 
the ones about our family's history?" Emmett said, looking sternly at 
his grandson.

"You mean those fables about our ancestors being vampire hunters and 
defeating Dracula?  Like the stories you used to tell me about my great 
grandfather John?" said Jan as he looked up from the flaming whip.  
He had a feeling now that those stories held more truth to them than 
he had given them credit for.

"Those were not mere fables, my boy.  You hold in your hand there the 
legendary Vampire Killer.  However, not since your many times great 
grandfather Simon Belmont has it glowed with holy fire like that.  
Richter was able to make it flare too, but only for short periods
of time.  This just has to be an omen of some sort, as cliched as that 
may sound.  What with Castlevania reappearing, albeit in Japan of all 
places, and then you wielding the Vampire Killer like this..." Emmett's 
voice began to trail off.

"Jan, do you know what this means?"  Sinclair said, "You have the 
potential to be greatest vampire hunter in the history of the Belmont 
clan.  I didn't train you like I should have or even tell you about 
the truth in hopes that John's seal on Dracula would actually hold and 
you would be able to lead a normal life.  Obviously, that was extreme 
foolishness on my part for as your grandfather said, Castlevania has 
appeared again."

"We were both fools," said Emmett, "I mean look.  It has been over 
eighty years since John erected that seal.  It was hoped that it would 
hold Dracula for the rest of eternity.  And yet, somehow, history has 
repeated itself once again and here, nearing the one hundredth year 
anniversary of my grandfather Quincey Morris's battle with Dracula, 
the evil is being unleashed again.  It's right on 'schedule' actually.  
You know the stories, even though you thought them only myths.  But 
we never bothered to formally train you in our arts.  We must begin 
your training immediately, and hope that it's not too late.  Then we 
must go to Japan at the soonest possible opportunity and confront the 
evil before it grows much stronger."

Jan looked back down at the whip and then back to his grandfather and 
father.  "Whoa, hold on just a minute...  you are telling me that I 
am a vampire hunter all of a sudden?"

"Oh, yes, my boy.  And from the looks of it, a very powerful vampire 
hunter.  Come, we must get inside.  Sinclair and I have to give you 
a crash lesson, so to speak, on your duties that have been so long 
neglected.  I just hope that it isn't too late."

The three of them went back into the house, with Jan looking dubiously 
at his grandfather.  The still flaming whip dragged the ground, 
forgotten by Jan as he tried to absorb it all.  Sinclair reached down 
and took the whip from Jan, saying, "Ah, we don't want you burning down 
the house now."  Thus began the training, however short and sudden it 
was, of the next Belmont.

**********

Kara sat on the roof of a building adjacent to the museum in which 
she knew the coffin was on display.  With a pair of binoculars, she 
studied the museum hoping to see something out of the ordinary.  
Anything.  

She had followed the coffin of Dracula across the United States.  Then 
she had returned to Europe with it and had continued to follow it 
around inconspicuously, hoping to find some small clue that would prove 
to her that she was not wasting her time.  So far, she had found 
nothing.  

Now she was in Tokyo.  The coffin had finished its American and 
European tour and was now in Japan.  Still she had found nothing that 
validated that strange feeling she had had on the day of Dak's death.  
The day that Dracula had been released from whatever was holding him 
in.  She just wished that she would find something that would tell her 
one way or the other whether her intuition was right or not.

As her gaze passed over the entrance to the museum, she saw a man in 
an expensive looking suit walk out.  She gasped and nearly dropped the 
binoculars.  This was the something that she had been waiting for.

"That's... it can't be..." she said as she set down the binoculars and 
began quickly rummaging through a leather purse that she had always 
carried with her since she had left Romania.

She pulled out one of the several bound scrolls of parchment that were 
inside.  These had been in her family for centuries.  They recounted 
the history of her family as well as told of their vampire hunting 
methods among other things.  She had thought little of them until 
the day she and Dak found Dracula's tomb.

Upon opening the scroll, she finally found something that confirmed her 
suspicions.  On it was a copy of a detailed painting that some unknown 
artist had made of Dracula with some notes scribbled in the margins by 
various members of the Belnades family down through the ages.  In the 
painting, to Dracula's left was a young woman that Kara didn't 
recognize.  The name "Elizabeth" was written in the margin next to the 
woman.  To her left, was another woman with the name "Actrise" written 
next to it with an arrow pointing to her.  To Dracula's right was a man 
that she also hadn't recognized... until now.  The man looked identical 
to the man that had walked out of the museum.  Scribbled to the side 
was the name "Shaft" with a line pointing to this man.  

"Shaft," said Kara to herself, "head priest of whatever twisted 
religion it is that worships Dracula.  Now I know what I have to do.  I 
just hope I'm ready."  She placed the scroll back in the pouch and 
muttered, "Be careful what you wish for, Kara."

She got up and went toward the door that led to the elevator.  Just as 
she neared the door, she felt a presence behind her.  Spinning 
around, she saw that she stood face to face with Shaft.  Instead of
the suit, he was now wearing the same purple hooded robe that he wore 
in the painting.

"Ahh, so our phantom stalker has finally decided to take some action, 
eh?" Shaft said, looking at her disdainfully.

"What... how...?" Kara said, flustered.  Then, regaining her composure,
she said, "Prepare yourself, Shaft.  I'm going to put an end to this 
right here before it even begins."

"Oh really?" Shaft snickered.  He began to float a few feet above the 
ground.  Several large, translucent orbs appeared and began to circle 
around his body.  "Do you really think that you can even get past me, 
much less defeat the master?  Why even now he is awakening."

"I hope all that practice pays off," Kara thought to herself.  To 
Shaft, she said, "I will not allow you to bring that monster back into 
the world."  With that she pulled a staff from beneath the large hooded 
robe she had been wearing. 

"A piece of wood," Shaft said mockingly, "how... quaint.  What do you 
plan to do?  Club me to death with it?"

"No, I plan to do... THIS!" Kara said as she pointed the staff at 
Shaft.  A large fireball erupted from the end of the staff and flew at 
him.  She could see nothing of Shaft for several seconds until the fire 
had dissipated.  

Shaft merely stood there, pointedly studying his fingernails.  He 
looked up at her.  "Hmmph, that was a rather pathetic excuse for a 
fireball I must say.  Why Sypha and Carrie would be turning over in 
their graves if they knew that such a weakling was their descendant."

He began to move toward her.  The orbs began to spin more quickly 
around him.  "Now, my dear, I have enjoyed watching you act as if you 
are some kind of detective but I'm afraid I can't really allow you to 
even try to stop my master."

Electricity began to arc between two of the orbs, and they flew slowly 
toward her.  

There was a flash of light behind Shaft.  Kara, who was standing 
directly in front of Shaft and his spinning orbs, could not see what 
was going on.  She heard an explosive sound and suddenly Shaft lurched 
forward toward her, falling to the ground in the process.  The orbs 
with the lightning arcing between them ceased their approach and 
rejoined the rest of the ones that were spiraling around Shaft.

Shaft got to his feet.  Without turning around, he said, "Ah, welcome 
Alucard.  I wondered how long it would take you to realize that your 
stupid seal no longer held the master.  As soon as I dispose of this 
troublemaker, I'll deal with you."  He raised his eyes to Kara and sent 
three of the orbs hurtling in her direction.

Before she could even think, a column of light appeared to her right.  
Suddenly, she felt herself being propelled to the side by powerful
arms.  As she hit the ground she looked up to see a figure dressed 
in chain mail armor over which he wore a long coat.  His black pants 
disappeared at the knees into equally black boots.  He wore a long 
flowing black cape with a lining that shifted colors between a glowing 
red and black.  He had long flowing white hair and pale white skin.  
His noble face contorted in anger as he looked at Shaft.  His 
gauntleted right hand held a long, deadly broadsword.  The length of 
the blade was surrounded in a mystic blue flame.  On his left arm was a 
large, sturdy looking shield that bore an elaborate crest.

"It's him," Kara thought to herself excitedly, "It's Alucard, the son 
of Dracula.  The one that has fought against Dracula for the past five 
hundred years.  The one that fought at my ancestor's side."

"Shaft," was all he said, his voice dripping with a fury that it had 
not held in a long while.  The three orbs ricocheted off of Alucard's 
shield and returned to their positions around Shaft.

"Alucard, so have you come for round three?  Well, I would love to 
oblige you, but I'm afraid I have sudden business elsewhere at the 
moment.  Don't think I'm merely chickening out on you though.  The 
time of the master's awakening is at hand, and I must be there to make 
sure it comes about without any problems.  Oh, by the way, how's the 
wife?  The kids?"  At that, Alucard lunged toward Shaft, swinging what 
would have been a killing blow with the sword.

The sword passed through the apparition of Shaft that was left over 
after he had teleported back into the museum.  Its mocking laughter 
echoed against the nearby buildings.  

Alucard stood there in Shaft's place.  If Kara didn't know better she 
would describe him as infuriated, but this did not fit with any of the 
stories she had heard about the calm and collected Alucard.  The 
Alucard that had fallen in love with the first of the Belmonts that
fought against Dracula, Sonia Belmont, and had fathered her son.  The 
Alucard that had aided her ancestor, Sypha Belnades, and his own son, 
Trevor Belmont, in another of the earliest battles against Dracula.  
The same Alucard that had helped Maria Renard save her step-brother, 
Richter Belmont, from the dark side and single-handedly defeated his 
own father more than three hundred years later.  She knew very little 
of Alucard after that time.  But in all the stories she had heard about 
him, he had never been one to show intense emotion as he was now.

Alucard noticed that she was staring at him.  He quickly, but 
consciously, gathered himself and walked over to her, his 
uncharacteristic flash of anger buried deep.

"So you are a descendant of Sypha Belnades," he said in his deep, rich 
voice.

Kara climbed to her feet, but could do nothing but nod in affirmation.

"You seem to know a good deal about what is going on or you wouldn't be
here, but there is much you do not know.  We do not have time to 
discuss anything now, however.  As Shaft said, the rebirth of my father 
is happening.  I can feel his presence.  We must hurry before...."

At that moment, with a deafening roar, the air above the museum began 
to ripple and waver.

"...it is too late," Alucard finished, watching the sight before them.

Without Kara noticing, the sky had somehow become filled with looming 
black clouds.  Now the clouds above the museum parted.  A large, gothic 
style castle began to ripple into existence above the museum.

"It begins yet again," Alucard said, "Castlevania has formed every one 
hundred years for the past half millennium, and now it is materializing 
yet another time.  Come Kara, we must leave this place for now and 
prepare as best we can.  It is too late now to stop Dracula's 
awakening.  Besides, there is someone I think you should meet.  We will 
be returning here shortly though as I have unfinished business with 
Shaft."  The anger flashed briefly as he said this last.

She nodded absently, mesmerized by the spectacle before her.  Alucard 
placed his hands on her shoulders.  In a brilliant column of light, 
the two disappeared.

***************

TBC...