Team Seven Heroes III Chapter 22

22.

Van Helsing woke up to a throbbing pain on his shoulder. He reached for this metal arm and found the bandages. He wanted to scream out in profanities but the body was not responding. He was numb in his body, and he saw the cause of it. There was a tube attached to his other good arm, and it may be stifling his desire to kill someone.

“You are awake. That is good.” Van Helsing turned his head to look at the voice. He was not surprised to see his nemesis there, backed by the four warriors.

“You tore my arm off. Why? You collecting souvenir now.” Dracula laughed at Van Helsing. “We actually did a favour for you.”

Dracula displayed the metallic arm.

“Tell me when did you get this fitted? I did not tear off yours. It was broken and needed time to repair.”

Van Helsing tried to forget the event that caused him to get the metallic arm. He was battling Dracula and got defeated. He was hurt and thought he was to die. He woke up with the new arm dumped in some alley in London. It too him time to adapt to the new arm and there was the doctor who attended to him. He was not to know the doctor’s name but the three months of recuperation made him complete once more. He never saw the doctor again.

“I don’t know. What did you know?” It was not a question. It was an accusation.

“You were…battered. I have to admit the punishment inflicted on you was severe. I requested the help of an associate. He cured you but there was a price.”

“The Emperor?” Van Helsing asked. “Why are you doing this? We are enemies. Lifetime ones.”

“We are but without one of us, we are incomplete. I am Dracula, your dark conscience and nemesis, and you are the light of mine. I was never in the foreground except in name. Vlad Tepes was …crucified on my name, and the legacy continued. I would have defended Vlad but I did not. I have lived generations incognito until then. I found the new fame exciting and spawned my own army. An army attracts another. I could either fight them like your ancestors or allied with them. I chose the to save you; better the enemy I know then one unknown. I was right then but wrong now. The arm you have is the works of one named Doctor Moriarty. James Moriarty with the help of his brother, Frank. They decided to implant you that to battle me. Our alliance was at best then shaky but the Doctor with his skills agreed to save you. Soon I was to know it came with a price. The price of keeping me in check by the Van Helsing, my foe to be wary.”

“Doctor Moriarty? I hardly knew him. I mean I knew him by his reputation but I was hardly in his territory at London. I was mostly in Europe.” Van Helsing was puzzled by the claim by the one he knew as Dracula. “I was …”

“Moriarty did not value you as his ally. He needed you to counterbalance on me.” Dracula laughed. “He borrowed your skills to eliminate my army. And myself maybe. Just like the Emperor used me to take my blood.”

“I have no one to ally with except my enemy now.” Dracula looked at Van Helsing. “We can defeat all of them, Moriarty and Fu Manchu in one battle. They are at Jiayu Pass.”

At that moment near to Jiayu Pass, the solitary figure stood on the small rise looking at the long wall. He was dressed in his familiar gown with the dragon motifs while his right hand stroked the thin drooping moustache. He had travelled far to sought the elusive elixir of life, and finally his journey was ending. The elixir may there at Jiayu Pass; secretly taken by Marco Polo on his final return to the west. He was not to know then for he had then an emissary of the Khan.

“Minister Tao, tell me what the Khan want to send back to the West?” Marco Polo had then settled for the evening meal with his guest. There was only two of them in the tent lavishing on camel milk and some dried meat.

“It’s a gift that the Khan have decided to return to its rightful owner, the Macedonian once ruled by Alexander the Great. It was given to him as a gift by the Macedonian then who got it from the ancient Greeks. It was to prevent the invasion of the Mongols then. Marco did not know the value of the gift until the Minister told him. It was the formula of longevity. The Minister himself was the guardian of the gift. He was then over a hundred and twenty years. He would live on to another hundred, but at Jiayu Pass the Minister fell ill.  His body was racked with pain and travel was impossible. He told Marco to go on and have the Macedonian collect the gift later. Marco returned to his home and found himself at war with the Republic of Genoa which were then the masters of Macedonia. He fought the Republic and was imprisoned. It was there he recorded his travels with a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa. He left out the part on the Jiayu Pass secret but he did have it recorded later in the scrolls which was kept in the archives of the Church when he became a devout Christian. The Church saw the importance and was moved by locations to avoid the discovery. Its last known location was in Oxford, England.”

The very place where Fu Manchu or Fu Xia then studied, but he was not to know of the secret till much later. He had longed for it to lengthen his lifetime. It was always quoted that in one’s lifetime, you may not accomplish it all but Fu Manchu reckoned he could do his accomplishments if he had another hundred or more years added to his life. His unaccomplished task then was to remove the imposter on his throne.

“Tu Xia, I will come for you.” Fu Manchu muttered.

“Emperor, I have news.” The Emperor turned to his aide there at the remote location of his empire. “We have news that the other have mass an army to come here. Besides that, your other nemesis Holmes are on route, and … the Princess will be here.”

The Emperor smiled for his plans was coming to the final stage. He had staged Princess Fa Lo Suee as the distress daughter while leading his enemies to here. His enemies will battle his other enemy for the enemy of your enemy will be your ally. He was told that Dracula once his ally and then enemy after the Emperor betrayed the other. That vampire was also coming there. So was the British finest and all of them were not for his safety but the recovery of the gift.

“Let them all come. I am prepared to battle them all. Their blood will soon flow into the sands here.”

“Emperor, we lost the Wolves vanguards. The tales we heard was they have been converted into vampires and fight for Dracula. Most of the Wolves warriors have been compromised. They have capture Van Helsing and their trail leads to here.” The aide bowed to the Emperor. “Our ally had betrayed us.”

“It’s unfortunate for the Wolves were worthy ally. The gyaling they loaned to Van Helsing was the few tools to terminate Dracula. Nevertheless, we have to be more vigilant for the killing field may be getting crowded.” The Emperor turned to look at his own assembled army. He counted forty of them called from the nearby cities to serve him as their Emperor.

“Emperor Fu Manchu, I heard dire news on your predicaments.” The Emperor did not turn to look at the figure dressed smart whom he met occasionally at the British Isle. The figure was dressed in the expensive Savoy finest and sporting the homburg hat for head piece which was a farce to the suit. He was twirling the ring on his left index finger. It was a new quip since he arrived at Jiayu Pass.

“Doctor…”

“Moriarty, please. I will address you as Fu Manchu if I may.” The figure stepped up towards the Emperor. His facial expression was revealed to show the clean-shaven chin and the oval face with the deep set of eyes. His steps were slow and careful as if he was testing the ground with the walking cane. The doctor was not alone; his personal two guards were a distance away with their guns openly displayed. One was the infamous Colonel Sebastian Moran.

“You invited me here to partake in the demise of my rival, Sherlock Holmes, his brother and the troublesome Doctor Watson. I could have told you that their survival in London was on my leash.” Doctor Moriarty could not help but gloat on his influence in London.

“Spare me your ego, Moriarty. I hold a bigger empire than yours and more to it, the dockyards at Dover are mine. Do spare me the threats and yet you came despite your grumbling. I brought you here to end our woes. Our enemies are coming here. Yours included, Dracula will be there. So is Van Helsing’s arm. Dracula tore it out.”