Blood Red Moon Part 7: The Transformation

     This is a crossover fanfic including the characters from Tenchi Muyo, and
CastleVania, more specifically, the newest version out for the N64.  All
characters belong to their respective copyrights, and I take no credit for
them beyond their usage in this story.  Comments, quips, insults, flames, and
death threats can be sent to Platinum_Dragon@usinternet.com
     This is based on the OVA characters in the Tenchiverse - but don't be
surprised if you hear one or two TV references.  The original concept came
when I noticed that Carrie Fernandez sort of resembles Ryoko in powers and
looks, save that Carrie is only twelve.
     In the last chapter, Tenchi, Reinhart, Carrie and Ryo-Ohki met back up,
in the inner part of the castle.  They looked around, and found a huge arena,
on the other side of which was a badly cracked wall.  Unfortunately, it was
protected by a powerful seal, but Tenchi thought that a good blast might knock
it down.
     Turning back, they began to climb into the castle.  On the second floor,
Carrie, who was inspecting a statue, was attacked by a man made of blood.
Reinhart came over to help, and it eventually died off.  Before they could
finish inspecting the statue, though, they heard Tenchi shouting. They found
him curled into a ball, with convulsions wracking his body.
     When they finally stopped, Carrie recognized the first stage of the
vampiric curse.  Reinhart confirmed that when Tenchi had been scratched by the
vampire earlier, he had been infected, and that the curse had spread through
him at an incredible rate.  They moved on, Tenchi separating himself from them
for a time.
     Reinhart, Carrie and Ryo-Ohki found a man who had been turned into a
demon, who told them about Magical Nitro, which could knock down the wall.
When they went to get the Nitro, they found Malus.  He said some disturbing
things, and then disappeared.  They carried the Nitro back down to the Arena
very carefully.
     Unfortunately, the seal was still on the wall.  Just as they were
wondering how to dispel it, a small ball of light floated over and into it.
With a blaze of power, the seal disappeared.  While they were still staring,
Ryo-Ohki set off the Nitro, and the wall was demolished.  Tenchi rejoined
them.
     Entering, they found a huge treasure, and a giant crystal.  Carrie
unleashed the magic sealed within it.  Just before they left, they found one
of Renon's contracts.  They decided to summon him, and see if he knew of a way
to undo the curse on Tenchi, and Rosa.  The demon salesman had told them that
a legend held that a light of purest kind may dispel it on a very young
vampire, or possibly permanently destroy an ancient one.
     On their way back to the room with the lift, Rosa appeared.  She asked
them if they still intended to battle Dracula.  When they affirmed it, she
said that she had no choice but to battle them.  Reinhart stopped Carrie and
Tenchi, and stepped forwards.  After a short battle, she fell to her knees,
and begged him to kill her.  He had raised his whip, but couldn't do it.
Death came, and took her away.
     On the next floor, Actrise was waiting for them.  She too brought a
challenge, in the form of a vampire woman, who had been a Fernandez before
being captured.  Carrie battled with her, and with one final, powerful blast,
bested her.  The woman whispered thank you into her ear just before she died.
Carrie collapsed, exhausted from using so much magic.

*****

     Tenchi approached Carrie as she fell to the ground, reacting on instinct.
It was just before he reached her that he realized that the instinct was the
one to try to drink a hypnotized creature's blood.  He forced himself to pull
up short, and look away, pushing down the impulse with disgust.  Reinhart came
to stand next to him, and Tenchi felt the now familiar pain he had begun to
feel whenever the vampire hunter stood near him.  He supposed that it was
Reinhart's... no, Tenchi reflected, it was probably not best to think about
blood.  Reinhart's line, from what he had told Tenchi, had battled vampires
almost since they had first appeared, using a power that was carried on by
each member of the family.  It sounded something like the Jurai power, just
not as strong.
     "Reinhart... You had better carry her...  I don't think that it would be
a good idea for me to," he said.  Reinhart looked at him sideways, but nodded,
understanding.  Reinhart bent to pick her up, and she murmured something
quietly.  He shushed her, and stood, Carrie in his arms.  They walked to the
lift in the center of the room, and found that it now worked.  Tenchi pushed
the button in, and the platform came down the shaft.
     "That crystal must have been sealing the magic that operates this," said
Reinhart.  Tenchi nodded, and they got on, Ryo-Ohki jumping in just as the
gate closed.  Slowly, the lift ascended.  Tenchi stood quietly, yet as the
time stretched out, slowly, he began to hear something.  Just out of earshot
at first, it grew louder, a steady thump-thumping.  As the sound became
clearer, he realized that it wasn't one sound, but three distinct ones- the
first, steady, and powerful, the second, quieter, but with a faster tempo.
The third was a constant thumping, almost no stop between one beat and the
next.  It was a strange sound, yet he could feel it calling him.
     Tenchi looked around, wondering at the source of the sound.  As his eyes
fell on Reinhart and the others, he noticed that the sound became its
strongest.  Tenchi shook his head, but the sound only became louder.  With a
start, Tenchi realized what it was he heard.  Their heartbeats.  Tenchi closed
his eyes, and slowly pushed the sound out of his mind.  The lift shuddered to
a stop, and they stepped out.  They were in a roughly circular room, with four
side passages leading off of it.  In the center of the room, a tall double
door stood, with four locks. Tenchi walked over, and looked out the window.
Outside, the sun was just going down.  He squinted, as it struck his eyes, and
grunted slightly in pain.
     The sun slid under the horizon, and Tenchi had the strange feeling that
it might be the last time he'd ever see it, rising or setting.
     "Each corridor leads to one of the corner towers of the clock.  In each
tower, keys to unlock the center door.  Once that is open, nothing stands in
our way of getting to Dracula," said Reinhart.  He looked down as Carrie
opened her eyes, and looked around.  "Feeling better?"
     "Much.  I just needed to sleep a little to recharge my reserves."  He set
her down lightly, and she stretched.  "How long was I out?"
     "Not very.  We're almost to the tower peak," answered Reinhart.  Tenchi
stepped toward one of the doors.
     "We'd best get moving.  I'll look down here.  Why don't you -"  Carrie
shook her head.
     "No Tenchi.  We're coming with you.  You've been there to help us when we
needed it, now it's time to return the favor."  Tenchi looked at them for a
moment, and then nodded.  He recognized the look in Carrie's eyes.  Ryoko got
it whenever she made up her mind to do something - which was quite often.  He
pushed down the inevitable surge of anger at the thought of her being trapped
     They entered the first corridor, and began slowly looking around.  It was
a long hallway, lined with doors, and from somewhere they heard howls that
made their hair stand on end.  Werewolves.  One by one, they began to check
the doors.  Some led to empty, black space, a true void, while others tempted
with visions of paradise, rolling green fields with creatures of great beauty
running in them.
     "Traps, all.  If you were to step into them, you'd fall until you died of
hunger, but your body would never land," said Reinhart.  Carrie shivered, and
stepped back from one that opened into a small village, with children running
and laughing in the sun-lit streets.
     Tenchi wasn't sure when it started.  If it was as the hallway that they
were in seemed to stretch onto eternity, or if it was when he opened a door
and saw his home, in perfect detail, with Ayeka and Ryoko both waving him
toward them, Sasami looking out the window, and Mihoshi as usual crashing her
ship into the lake.  Somewhere, the rage that had been building in him
suddenly began to bubble over the top.
     He slammed the door shut, and looked at Reinhart and Carrie, and suddenly
he could hear their hearts beating loud again.  Ryo-Ohki turned, and looked at
him, and hissed loudly, drawing Reinhart and Carrie's attention.  They looked
at him, and their eyes widened, which only made the fury rage harder, and boil
over more
     "Oh my god...  It's happening," breathed Carrie.  She looked at Reinhart,
who nodded.  She turned, scooped up Ryo-Ohki, and began to run as fast as she
could.

*****

     Reinhart stared as Tenchi bent over, clutching his hands to his stomach.
A loud scream escaped his lips, and the last of the color in Tenchi's skin
disappeared.
     "Tenchi!  Listen to me!" he shouted.  He saw Tenchi slowly force himself
to look up at him, his eyes blazing crimson in the dark corridor.  "You're
experiencing the Rage, the final step.  You have to hold on.  Before it will
stop, a terrible blood lust will come upon you.  Carrie and I will lead you to
those werewolves."
     Tenchi nodded just a little, and Reinhart turned and began to run after
Carrie.  He made a little distance before Tenchi's screams of pain were
suddenly cut off, to be replaced by a new sound.  The sound of footsteps that
seemed to come too fast for them to be natural.  Reinhart ran a little faster,
and saw Carrie slow to let him catch up.  He risked a look behind himself, and
saw Tenchi, almost flying towards him, his face contorted into a mixture of
pain and sheer fury, hot enough to seer the flesh off a person.
     "Fight it Tenchi!  We're almost there!" shouted Reinhart, as he and
Carrie ran down the corridor.  Tenchi  ran behind them, his eyes blazing red
in the dim light of the corridor.  Tenchi's fangs stood out from his mouth,
and sweat was pouring down his face.
     Reinhart knew that even Tenchi's will power could not hold him back much
longer.  If they didn't find a room that had some werewolves in it, Tenchi
would rip him, Carrie, and Ryo-Ohki apart in the bloodlust that marked his
final transformation into a vampire.
     The sound of the wolf men drew closer, louder.  They saw the corridor
come to a sharp halt ahead of them, with a single double door set into the
wall.  The howls came from behind there.  With a final lunge, he grabbed the
handle, and yanked it open, as Carrie flattened herself against the wall.
Tenchi flashed by, a blood-curdling howl of rage escaping his lips.  He dove
into the room, and Reinhart slammed the door shut.  They slid to the ground,
shuddering as they heard first the roars of the werewolves, and then, slowly,
growing, the yelps of terror.

*****

     The vampire saw the man stop, and open the door, and the last piece of
his mind that was Tenchi forced him to go through it, instead of ripping the
humans to shreds.  He landed inside the room, one knee touching the ground,
his arms clutched around his body, facing down.  The pack of wolf-men that
were waiting in the room looked at him.  They smelled something a little
strange about this man, but the scent of blood was all too clear, and they had
not had fresh meat in a long time, only the scraps that the serving vampires
brought to them now and again.
     The alpha of the pack howled, and they leapt forward.  The vampire felt
them coming closer, but remained where he was, as the rage pushed higher and
higher.  Closer, and closer, until they all leapt forward, ready to tear him
to shreds.
     They thought that an easy meal had come to them.
     They were wrong.
     He was the one who had come to the easy meal.
     The vampire leapt up, somersaulting up and over the werewolves.  They
crashed into one another, and were quite surprised to find that there was
nobody there.  Jumping straight up, he grabbed onto the ceiling, his razor
sharp claws sliding into the stone it was made of like it was merely paper.
The wolves looked around, sniffing at an air gone suddenly empty of scent.
The vampire crawled along the ceiling, until he was above the heaviest group
of them.
     He dropped down, his claws stretched out to kill.  Landing on one, he
reached around and ripped its throat out, and laughed with glee as the feeling
of warm blood bubbled onto his hand.  Using his first victim's back as a
spring board, he pushed off, flipping forward, and ripping through two more of
the werewolves, blood spraying all over him.  One yelped as it died, and he
thrust his claws through its eyes, ripping up and out, shredding its skull.
     Two of the werewolves leapt at him, claws out.  He back flipped, and then
charged forward, lashing out with his own claws.  Another two fell to the
ground, one with its head only attached to its shoulders by a thin flap of
skin, the other with a hole in its chest where its heart had been.  The
vampire brought the heart to his lips, and took a deep bite out of it.
Throwing down what was left of it, he looked around for more victims.
     Another one leapt on his back, his claws ripping and shredding.  The
vampire reached back, and grasped its head.  With a sharp pull, and the sweet
sound of ripping flesh, the head came free.  The vampire threw the head at the
werewolf that was springing toward him.  It instinctively caught it, the
werewolf's last mistake.  He rushed forward, before it had the chance to
recover, and proceeded to slice it into ribbons with his claws, tearing off
its arms, then its legs, and finally freeing it from its life by disemboweling
it with a swipe of his claws.
     A lone werewolf was left, the alpha of the pack.  Seeing what was left of
his once powerful pack, he backed away from the vampire.  The vampire smiled,
and reached out with his mind, mentally stroking the werewolf's pleasure
centers.  It shook its head at first, but slowly calmed, and came to the
vampire.  He walked in a dream, where he had been freed of his lycanthropy,
and being controlled by Dracula, walking towards a bright light.
     When the vampire bit down, his fangs sliding easily into the werewolf's
neck and finding the vein which pulsed with its lifeblood, it felt nothing,
not even the rush of Death coming to claim it.  The vampire sucked hungrily at
the red nectar, stained as it was from the evil in the wolf-man.
     When the corpse was drained, the vampire let it drop to the ground, and
was surprised to find that the incredible rage was gone, replaced by a
strange, empty feeling.  The bloodlust was still there, but was sated for the
moment.
     "So, the boy has finally accepted his fate."
     The vampire turned, as mist formed behind him and drew into the form of
the bearded man.  In a deep corner of its mind, he felt something push
lightly, and in another, a tiny, weakly flickering flame danced on the edge of
going out.  He said nothing, as the ancient vampire approached him.  He wanted
to bask in the flow of evil that poured out from the man, but somehow, that
tiny, flickering, nearly dead flame kept him from quite enjoying it.
     "Come to me, Tenchi.  You belong to me now.  Serve me, and I shall give
you your Ryoko, to do with as you please."  Tenchi.  Ryoko.  They sounded
familiar, for some reason, and at their mention, the little flame stopped
flickering, began to burn a little more evenly.  The pushing sensation
increased too, and he took a step forward.  The vampire shook his head,
confused.  He knew that he had a greater purpose, and that it didn't lay with
this man.  The flame burned a little stronger.  The elder vampire smirked.
     "So they still have a hold on you, after all.  Don't worry, the son of
the Belmonts and the Fernandez child will be taken care of soon enough," he
said.  The vampire frowned, and the flame died down just a little as he took
another step forward.  Slowly, he began to reach his hand out, toward the
ancient vampire.
     "Miya?"
     The vampire stopped, and turned his head toward the door.  A small, furry
creature had poked its head through the door, and then came the rest of the
way in.  The vampire shook his head again, as the flame began to burn a little
brighter again, growing within his mind.  The pressure on the other side grew
too, and he could feel himself being pressed between the two forces.  The
furry creature walked toward them, looking at the vampire, and for some
reason, he just couldn't pull his eyes away.  Memory scratched at the edge of
his mind, but stayed just out of reach.
     A bolt of energy flashed out from behind him, and the little creature
hopped backwards to avoid it.  The vampire stared at it, and its gaze pressed
into him.  The flame grew bigger, raging within him, and slowly, the pushing
sensation in his mind faded.
     As if a flood gate broke open, images started to pour into his mind.  A
short girl with freckles and a ready smile, always laughing.  An older, purple
haired one, who held a regal bearing but had a temper like a bull.  A tall,
tanned skin blonde, who always seemed to be messing up.  An old man, his hair
white, but with reflexes faster than any vampire.  And on top of it all, a
cyan haired woman with golden eyes, and love seated so deep that she didn't
know how to show it.  The flame exploded into a raging fire, and he heard a
shout behind him.
     Tenchi turned to see the bearded man holding a hand, burned black.  His
hand went to Tenchi-ken, and he brought it up, the blade hissing to life.
     "You!" he shouted.  The man looked at him, rage dancing in his eyes.
     "No one can resist the curse!  It's not possible!"
     "Tell me where you took Ryoko!" yelled Tenchi, charging at him.  The
vampire floated aside, but Tenchi twisted, and drew a long line down his
shoulder.  With a shout of pain, the vampire grabbed his shoulder and turned
himself into mist.
     "If you want to find Ryoko, than you'll have to come to me, at the top of
the tower."
     "Come back here, demon!" shouted Tenchi, leaping for the mist and
slashing down, but the mist was gone before he got there.

*****

     Carrie looked at Reinhart, as the sounds of the werewolves being killed
came to an end.  They slowly stood, and backed away from the door.  Only
Ryo-Ohki stayed.  She sniffed at the door a moment, and then miyaed.  Carrie
watched in amazement as the furry little creature walked straight through the
door.
     "No, Ryo-Ohki!  Don't go in there!"  But it was too late.  The cabbit was
already through.  She looked at Reinhart again for a moment.  They slowly
turned, and began to reach for the doors.
     Before they got close, the doors suddenly burst open, and light flooded
out.  A figure stood, silhouetted by the dawn's light flooding in through the
windows.  Carrie and Reinhart shielded their eyes against it, but couldn't see
who it was.  The figure walked forward, and the doors closed behind him.
     "Tenchi!" exclaimed Carrie.  Somehow, his clothing had changed.  The
coat, shirt, and pants were gone, replaced by a strange brown tunic.  Around
his arms and legs, white material flared out, bright in the darkness of the
corridor.  On his forehead, three green, sharp points had appeared, and he
held his sword in one hand.  Ryo-Ohki sat on his shoulder, holding a key.  She
ran to him and hugged him.  It was startling to her when she felt the chill of
his flesh.
     "I've just about had it with this place, you two.  What do you say we get
on with this show?  We've only got one day left," he said.  Reinhart looked at
him, and smiled.
     Tenchi put his hand out, palm down.  Carrie placed hers on top of it, and
Reinhart above hers.  Ryo-Ohki slid down Tenchi's arm, and placed her paw on
top to complete the pile.
     "Until either Dracula is dead, or we're in the ground."

*****

     Here is a preview of the next chapter:
     Tenchi stepped back a bit, and took a running leap.  It was quite to his
surprise when he felt himself change, gain wings.  He opened his mouth to
shout in surprise, but instead of words, the cry of a hawk came.

---
The Platinum Dragon
"The rising sun will eventually set,
  a newborn's life will fade.
  From sun to moon, moon to sun,
  Give peaceful rest to the living dead." - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of
Time
http://dragonsanime.dreamhost.com - Dragon's Masaki Shrine of Tenchi Muyo
Proud Member of the Ryoko Forever Fan Club