A Legacy Of Sky And Sea

~*~{Chapter Two}~*~

Alucard: 

Anderson was the son of this lunatic? " I'm sorry, what the hell, Anderson?! Why didn't you tell me?!" 

" I didn't think it was relevant! As for my mother, I always thought she was Scottish given I was raised in a Scottish orphanage." 

" No, my son, you are a Rapture child as much as Lilibet is a child of Columbia. You are just as much as a son of mine as you are a son of hers. We were both young and stupid, and given you were born in her Sacred Sky City, you are a native born to Columbia. I dropped you off at a orphanage, not realizing until too late it was a catholic one, and by the time I had gone back to fix my mistake, you were shipped off." 

I knew Ryan's type; A man with grand ambitions that override any sense of right or wrong.  " I believe we got off..." 

Ryan instantly slapped me across the face, hard. "Silence Parasite! You know why I chose the ocean of all places to build my utopia? I hated the world above, down here things like you would never bother us! Tell me of what lineage are you? A lost Romanov? Rasputin's brood? Victor swan...typical Russian name for a Russian dog, filthy fucking commie! That's why you wear red, right, for your fucking Communists agenda?!"

" That foolish charlatan impostor wishes he was me." I spoke with a wicked smirk. " However, if you ever hit me again, I'll swallow you whole like the snakes of Eden's garden as if I were the devil himself. I am this one's guardian angel down here, his protector, so if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you never called me a Commie ever again, you filthy Russian hound, or this Romanian wolf will consume you and all you hold precious will sink into the fathoms below."

" Then why the red?!" 

" So when I kill little shit stains like you, the blood doesn't stain." 

 "I see," Ryan paused, years of board meetings may be enough to hide his fear from most people but not me. "Well then, I guess I will have to be wary of you indeed." 

He turned from me and back to Anderson." Tell me, my boy, what is it you really do on the surface? I know artists and you are no artist."

If Anderson was panicked, he didn't let it show with how quick he just adapted. "Okay, Ryan, you caught us. Me and my partner here are private dicks, paid to find the bonnie lass here and bring her home to her mother and sister. Color it strange, how she hired me of all people to do it, and now here we are swimming in truth like it's a free flowing fountain of giggle water for us all to drink from."

"My mother, as she would put it, can see behind all the doors. She knew what she was doing." The woman spoke with a venom in her tone.

"What do you mean by that, lass?" Anderson ask, no one but me having noticed he had already, one by one, started to dislocate his fingers.

"Never you mind that, my boy," Ryan interrupted walking over to the intercom. "Sullivan, I want these two escorted to an apartment nearby, they are not to be harmed and make sure they are watched closely. We have much to discuss." He hung up and strode over to the liquor cabinet. 

"Andrew, we should shove them out an airlock and be done with it."

"They are in Rapture now, my dear Betty. We must see if they are men or slaves first."

" Uh, mind your words, Ryan. Victor is very touchy with the word slave." 

" Noted, now, come along." 

As we were escorted, I very carefully slipped my cuffs and had a small chuckle as Anderson did the same. 

" Oi, Sully, you might want to invest in better cuffs, mate." 

" Why-" 

We tossed ours to him, the sound of bones snapping back into place as the smug grin on Anderson's face made me laugh. The sly smirk on Ryan's face did little to calm my mind. We go to a room that had a view of a sunken department store. I felt my heart bottom out from the sight, worrying even more if I was going to die down here. A vampire has never been underwater before and lived to tell of it. There's a reason we don't go swimming.

" Here you go, gentlemen. I'm going to be quite busy, so here is an allowance to go have some fun in Fort Frolic. Please play nice with the ladies, and don't make a mess you can't clean up. Sashka, since this one here is your guard dog, may I borrow him for a little errand I need done?" 

" Depends, what is it?" 

" I have a problem that needs to be silenced. Think that's possible?" 

" What kind of problem?"   

" The kind which must be dealt with quietly. Mr. Ryan thinks sinking the bastard Fontaine to the bottom of this stinking ocean was enough, but one of his followers is causing us quite a bit of trouble."

Anderson paled on the name, it clearly meant something to him. 

"Fontaine... he's here in... in Rapture?"

"He was aye, he was a business Rival of Ryan's so he sunk him into the trench."

" Is he still...alive?" 

" Why do you sweat, dear boy?" 

" I owe that SOB a lot of money. He...he used to be my dealer before he vanished and after that, I was forced into sobriety." 

" Fontaine sold you drugs? How old were you and what kind?" 

" Cocaine, heroine, and booze. I was 17 when I started as a mule for him, getting my first hit when I was 18. I got sober a few years ago and I haven't looked back." 

The genuine rage in Andrew Ryan's eyes was a rage I knew all too well. It was a rage only a father could feel when their child was messed with in an unforgiveable way. 

" I want to send Victor to the Fontaine Department Store just to make damn sure he's dead and none of his minions make too much of a ruckus up here in Rapture. Think that's possible, my boy?" 

Anderson looks at me with unknowing eyes, ones that knew not to trust him, but wanted to give him a fair shake, but I felt awful about this. 

" Anderson, don't trust him. Remember what Miss DeWitt told us. Only trust in each other. My gut is old, and I know this trick, given I've played it before. I'm not to let you out of my sight, and this feels wrong." 

" He's my dad, Victor. I want to learn more. Why else would Lady Comstock send me down here?" 

" To clean up her mess for one final time. She's not the only one who can see behind all the doors." 

"Is anyone gonna explain what the bloody hell that means?" 

"Trust me it's Rapture. That kind of shit is the least of your worries." Sullivan mumbled.

As if to emphasis his point we happened upon a group of small girls, the oldest of them couldn't be more than ten. They all wore masks but that would disturbed most, but that wasn't what disturbed me. It was their blood, in all creatures I could see it pulsing in their veins but in these small children, it... it glowed a radiant light. The red hew it gave them brought an instinctive  revulsion to my stomach, it wasn't black magic, it wasn't magic at all in fact. Judging by the way Anderson looked at them, he couldn't see the same glow.

"What's with the wee lassies?" He asked. "And why the masks?"

"They are a necessary evil down here my boy, now will you help me or not? "

" Answer him. What's wrong with those little girls, and why do they look so...sick?"