For an hour, Will was himself. He perched on the edge of the medical bed, head bent down focusing on the ground as he steadied his breathing. Helen was beside him, rubbing along his back and over his shoulders trying to settle the quivering muscles.

He'd been asking after Ashley, but no one at the Sanctuary had heard from her. At the present, Helen was counting that as a good sign.

The other two watched from the main lab. Henry's desk was buried in a pile of paper work; mostly print outs from Tesla's private files. Henry had carefully stapled relevant pages together and set about highlighting important passages. It was disheartening though, when Helen walked away from his work calling it a waste of time under her breath. Henry may not have the nous of his colleagues but his paranoia was second to none and it had him convinced that this Tesla person was up to something sinister. Helen tried to reassure Henry that that was just his natural state.

"I'll just put it over here," Henry said to himself, piling up documents in the corner of the back bench which was quickly becoming his library on all things Tesla.

"He's changing again, Helen," Bigfoot swiped his card over the door and it dutifully unlocked. The Perspex sheet swung silently open and then closed behind his furry figure. He paced toward Helen and Will, carrying a tray on one hand, presenting a needle laid on a white cloth. It was almost like the tray of tea and biscuits he had brought to Will so many times before.

Helen wiped the side of her eyes before lifting her head to her approaching friend.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "We can't give him anymore. It will kill him."

They'd found a measure of success in one of the sedatives. In large doses, it temporarily reversed the virus's effects. She hadn't decided whether this was doing more harm than good. It was a painful process for Will, returning to human form and then mutating back into the bastardised creature he was destined to remain for the rest of his life.

"Helen," Will rasped. He struggled with a glass of water, sipping it slowly. "Helen," he repeated more firmly. She held him tightly, wrapping another cotton blanket around his shoulders. "You know what this is," he said. He wasn't talking about the virus.

"Don't even think it," she replied, unable to tame a stray tear. "It's never going to come to that."

He laughed.

"We've already been there and back again," he said, smiling slowly. "Please?"

She couldn't do it. Will was her recruit. A protégé and friend handpicked from decades of candidates. There was no way that she was going to... Her stomach wasn't strong enough.

"But it'll still be you..." she said, holding his face gently in her shaking hands.

"You saw them, Helen," Will took one of her hands. They were young and soft even though Will knew that Helen had seen more lifetimes than he ever would. "Whatever they may have been, good men – loving friends, they all ended exactly the same. I don't want to become that. It is no way to spend a thousand years."

After a very long time spent resting on his shoulder, Helen nodded.

*~*~*

"This way? No... He went down that dark, narrow looking one."

Nikola rolled his eyes. "And who crowned you Lord of the Underworld?" He ducked into his preferred choice of tunnel, sniffed around and returned to Druitt's side. "Lucky guess..."

"But lucky for whom, I wonder," said John, lowering his voice when he heard something move ahead of them. "I do believe we're about to have company. Would it be too much trouble to ask you to become a little more, how do I say," John's voice rolled over the words with amusement, "scary?"

Clenching his fists together, Nikola brought about his vampire side.

"Should even the odds a little," he all but hissed, blinking as his eyesight improved. The wound across his face still stung from where the sand creature had attacked him the last time. It was a fast creature, faster than Tesla was comfortable with. He had never been fond of competition.

*~*~*

Joe Kavanaugh grimaced, holding his shoulder in pain as he lay against the cement wall of the tunnel. It was dark around him except for the faint nightlight at the far end. He kicked some of the gravel away from his feet as he tried to stand again. This time, he was able to use the wall for support as he struggled to his feet with a groan.

"Oh..." he inhaled sharply. His legs quaked and crumbled beneath him. He landed on the floor in a puff of dust, coughing as sweat dripped through his hair.

There was a blue set of eyes watching him. They crept about, slowly circling Joe.

The sand creature unfolded its limbs and stretched them out. Its claws scratched over the floor as the creature curved its back into an arch. Bones cracked back into place. Always, it kept its ears aligned with the passageway. There was a commotion further down the tunnels – it could smell the squabbling humans in the distance and they were getting closer.

The sand creature did away with its camouflage, revealing its truly beautiful natural colouring in the half light. Nearly crimson, it seated itself directly in front of Joe.

"Shit," Joe coughed, holding his arm in pain, "you didn't have to grab so hard."

There was a dark bruise where the sand creature had seized and dragged Joe all the way from the Sanctuary. His leg bled from the initial scuffle in which the sand creature had knocked him onto the table outside the cell by accident.

"No choy-ce," it replied, struggling to speak the awkward language. It didn't like this new world. The air smelt of poison while strange noises paced through the night, wailing in the distance. "Ho-ome."

"That is arranged for tomorrow. I can get you back to the desert but on the conditions we talked about. You say you know my father? I want to meet him in person and not be killed for the trouble. Can you ensure my protection from the others?"

"We are uuu-mans not mon-st-ers," it snarled, dragging its claws through the gravel, tracing out an ancient pattern. "Take me ho-ome."

"What is it?" Joe asked, when the creature suddenly camouflaged itself again. It didn't answer him, instead choosing to scamper off into the darkness to Joe's right. Suddenly, Joe heard the hushed voices approach.

"Now?"

"Yes, now!"

There was a scuffle in the darkness. Claws and hands scratched at each other as the sand creature tried to fend off the two men that had been hunting it all evening.

"Urgh, ow..." moaned Tesla, as the creature ripped a line next to his spine. His jacket and shirt beneath it were both ruined and hung open revealing his bare skin as the three of them continued to rip and tear.

"Can't see anything in this pitch," said John, fumbling blinding for the creature as it whipped around them in circles, taking nicks out of them with every pass.

"Let there be light," said Tesla, plunging his hand into one of the power sockets dotted down the tunnel. In a hail of sparks, the tunnel lit up, revealing its plainness in fine detail. It was a good deal less ominous, but the same could not be said for the creature that had vanished with the darkness.

"Still can't see it," said John. The sand creature had retreated in the sudden brightness. "Oh, it's here. No need for you to worry about that."

Back to back, John and Nikola surveyed the room. Nothing moved except their feet as they wore circles into the ground.

A nervous shiver ran down the back of Nikola's neck as he realised.

"Above us," he whispered.

The two of them lifted their eyes to the ceiling and then flung themselves out of the path of the falling creature. They all landed at the same time – John and Tesla in untidy bundles and the sand creature well poised on its feet like a cat.

It went for John first, leaping onto his chest and scratching at his face. John crossed his arms over his head protectively, trying to roll onto his side but the creature's considerable weight had him pinned. Tesla crawled across the ground and grabbed hold of the air where he thought the creature's ankle might be. It was a well calculated guess. Tesla pulled sharply, setting the sand creature off balance allowing John to finally breathe.

"Gotcha now," he squeezed down on the creature's limb as it tried to escape. "Little help would be good though."

The creature spun around to face Nikola, narrowing its eyes with an angry sneer.

"You're so impatient!" John growled, wiping the blood from his eyes. His face was covered in painful gashes.

Tired of all this fighting John, still laying on the floor, pulled a gun from inside his boots and held it over his head. Stretched out with his back on the ground, he lined the creature up and rolled the trigger.

A loud crack echoed in the tunnel, startling Tesla as the bullet whipped past his face and into the sand creature's skull. It fell limp at once, slumping to the ground fee of life.

There was no final moment of life – no flicker of soul. Its body simply lay still, going cold on the ground. Tesla released its ankle, breathing heavily. John was still on his back, exhausted and injured.

"One sand monster," said Tesla. "Delivered as instructed." He didn't want to admit a flutter of sadness in the pit of his stomach.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" John rolled painfully off his back onto his equally sore shoulder.

Tesla raised his eyebrows and then lowered them into a defensive frown. "You? I guess you helped a little..."

"No, you fool," John rocked himself onto his knees, replacing the gun in his boot. "Helen said that there was a missing detective."

"He's dead," assumed Tesla.

John knew that Tesla was only guessing. "Maybe so, but Helen asked us to make an effort and actually look for him."

"Be my guest..."

It was therefore to Nikola's great surprise that they found a crumpled body reclined against the wall not far up the next tunnel. The man was unconscious but alive. Nikola shrugged.

"Stray?"

"Nikola!"

"Okay, okay..." He bent down and grabbed the detective by his feet and began to drag him over the gravel. The detective's body slid down the wall until it thumped onto the floor with a shuffle of gravel.

"Stop," instructed John. Nikola gave him the famous Tesla what? Look. "You can't drag him all the way back to Helen's."

John had to be kidding. "Not a chance. You carry it if you want to be charitable." Nikola didn't like the way John's smile curled.

"I'm dying – might kill me..."

"So could I," he snarled, heaving the body onto his shoulders under protest. Nikola made certain to complain the whole way back to make life as unpleasant as possible for John as punishment. John thought about killing Nikola but didn't fancy the prospect of carting both bodies on his own.

*~*~*

"God – you scared me."

"Don't I just."

"Normal people use the door," roused Helen, when she found Nikola and John in the hallway. It took her a moment to see Joe deposited in a heap on the floor behind, bruised but otherwise unharmed.

She didn't like that Tesla wandered in and out of her house when it suited him, but even more so, she didn't like that he'd brought John along for the tour. "Stop appearing in my house," she continued, in a more agitated than usual manner. "And don't teach him," she pointed at John who was trying to look as innocent as possible, "anything that I wouldn't ."

"Is that a challenge?" Tesla whispered under his breath but was interrupted by a groan behind them as Joe came to. He sat up, holding his head in his hands. "Now he wakes up..." muttered Tesla, pushing past Helen on his way to the drinks cabinet.

Helen knelt down beside Joe, sweeping his damp hair off of his face. "Are you all right?" she asked him, inspecting some claw marks and bruises. He replied that he was fine, trying to brush her off but Helen was determined. She had to be sure that there were no bite marks. Thankfully, the detective had avoided serious injury.

"I told you that I was fine," said Joe, allowing Helen to help him to his feet.

Nikola returned with two glasses of scotch. The one with ice clinking inside, he handed to John.

"Hi, we haven't met." Tesla waved at Joe. "Let me introduce myself. I'm your friendly neighbourhood vampire who just carted your arse all the way down that lovely tunnel the city's got tucked away under there. All that exertion made me a bit peckish – fancy a bite to eat?"

Helen shook her head. She was too tired for this.

"Ignore him," she instructed Joe, who looked more than a little worried as Tesla sipped his scotch. "He's only part vampire and not particularly friendly. Nikola..." she walked right up to him, leaning up to his ear. "Start behaving."

"Happy to oblige," he tilted his head toward her, but Helen darted out of the way.

"Where's Ashley?" Helen asked, checking her watch. She had expected her to return with Nikola. She didn't bother asking what John was doing around. He always had a knack for showing up in times like these. Questioning usually proved useless.

"About that..." Nikola prodded John sharply. He was the daddy – he could confront Helen.

"Helen," John set his glass down on one of the coffee tables. She glared at it, eyeing the absence of its coaster. "Ashley has found a way to save Will."

Helen's eyes immediately fell to Nikola.

"Don't look at me like that," he raised his hands defensibly. "I'm trying to help."

"Where is she, Nikola?" Helen demanded.

"The Sanctuary of the Moon," interrupted Henry. He had seen the intruders on the camera network and immediately gathered together his papers. Henry appeared beside Helen, handing her a printout. "That's right, isn't it Mr. Tesla? I mean, it's what you've been searching for all this time and now you've got someone with goals that match your own to help you find it."

"Henry, please," Helen interrupted him. "There's no such thing as a hidden sanctuary of vampires in South America. Now Nikola, tell me where Ashley went or you'll have more to worry about than the Kabal at every turn."

John tapped Tesla on his shoulder when the silence dragged on. Tesla coughed and then ran a hand through his spiked hair.

"Are they my private documents?" Tesla took a step towards the scruffy individual, hand outstretched. Henry backed away in fear.

"Ah-" Henry opened his mouth.

"Where is my daughter? Last chance."

"The airport," said Tesla simply, withdrawing. All he felt next was searing pain where Helen had slapped him hard across the face.

*~*~*

The cobble street glistened with the fallen snow, reflecting the street lights in sad circles. A bullet cracked through the night air. People that had been huddled at their windows ducked out of sight, cowering on the floor. Helen's eyes slowly opened, searching for what was left of John between the shadows of the street opposite.

He grinned back at her, lifting his hands to the side to show that he was unharmed by her ill-aimed shot.

"If you wanted to shoot me, I would be dead," he said, leaning against one of the lamp posts.

Helen's hair fell over her shoulder in a glittering sea of blonde underneath the lace hat. She placed another bullet in the gun and re-aimed, holding him firmly in line of the barrel.

"You are mistaken," she whispered, unable to shake the image of her father's body cold and lifeless on the floor of the attic.

The snow continued to fall around them, spiralling through the night like wayward stars crashing to earth. Freezing wind burnt her delicate skin as tears slipped from her eyes. John had killed so many since the experiment but she never thought that he would kill her father in cold blood.

"I don't understand why," she said, pacing forward to the edge of the pavement but deliberately not onto the road. "We were helping you. All this time, John. I have to know."

He felt like laughing. The experiment that had destroyed their lives and he had ended up with the worst of it. His body and soul were ripping away from each other and every day he was one less shred of himself.

"The answers do not lie with me," he replied. "Dead or alive I cannot help you in this, Helen."

"Did you kill my father!" she screamed.

John crossed the road in four long strides, too fast for Helen to think or shoot. With truth and sincerity he answered her, "No..."

Sometimes she thought that the John she loved was just buried in those brown eyes, hiding somewhere amidst the violence and blood of the John she had created.

"No," she repeated his words, first in a manner of hope, then again in disbelief and finally in a rage. "No, I don't believe you!"

John turned as she unsheathed her knife again; lunging toward the man she loved. He didn't move in time, groaning as the blade cut beneath between his ribs.

He staggered, pulling away from the knife.

"Helen..." Someone grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her side. "Sh – calm down," the man muttered, desperately trying to keep a grip on the struggling woman.

"Let me go Nikola," she snarled.

"Just go," Nikola nodded at John. "I have her."

John ignored the other man and approached Helen once again, but this time with an air of caution as Tesla held onto her.

"I did not kill your father," he said solemnly, holding her face gently in his bloody hands before vanishing into nothing dragging the universe with him.

Both the gun and the knife fell to the ground at their feet while Helen collapsed into Nikola's arms, no longer trying to break free.

"We'll find who did it," Nikola hushed her, stroking Helen's hair gently. "I promise you that we'll find them even if we have to search forever."

THE END

For the continuation of this story, please look for 'Sanctuary of the Moon' and 'Love in the Time of Science'

Thank you to everyone who has been reading this. Please, if you have a moment, leave a review.

*ellymelly*