Author: cruxisbeing
Title: Of Cain and Abel
Fandom: CASTLEVANIA: Curse of Darkness
Pairing: Isaac/Hector
Warnings: Spoilers for the game... all of the game, homosexuality, argh... can't think of anything else right now... will update it if I find something... witchcraft maybe?? 0.o I dunno...
Summary: I didn't like the way the game ended... so I gave it an addendum...
AN: Story takes place the night immediately after the game ends... oh and I did take some liberties with details.. you'll understand when you read it... anything you did find as stuff in the game is a little add-on I thought of... since I know nothing about the time period...
 

Hector awoke to the inky blackness of midnight from a dream that he could not remember.

“That was some dream,” a soft voice commented from across the small room.

In the dim light of the moon, Hector could see Trevor watching him with the same unreadable expression he always wore.

“I’m surprised to see you awake.”

“Is it so surprising? I refused drugged sleep, and the pain is still too great to ignore for blissful slumber.”

“You should allow Julia to give you something to make you sleep. You should not have to bear needless pain.”

“She said much the same thing. And I refused her. Drugged sleep is not something I am comfortable with. But it is not I who should be able to sleep peacefully; You, however, should have no qualms with sleep. Why then, do your dreams haunt you?”

Hector sat back against the cold hewn wall. “I cannot remember.”

“You cried out for him,” came the soft voice, neither condemning nor accepting, almost infuriatingly indifferent. “Something about his death troubles you. There is some closure that you cannot find.”

“Yes. But I could not tell you what.”

Trevor was silent for a moment. “Perhaps you could find… his remains-“ Belmont seemed to be loathe to say ‘what’s left of him’, “-and burry them here. Perhaps, with a friend and a sister to mourn him properly, his soul would not be so troubled, and you could find peace with him.”

“I shall consider it,” Hector nodded before lying back down. Though Trevor said nothing more and the silence was unbroken, still sleep did not come easily back to Hector.

Julia was up with the sun, and thus so was Hector. The Devil Forgemaster said very little as he helped Trevor into a more comfortable position for eating and then stepped away so that Julia could bring in breakfast. Yet sometime during the meal, he disappeared.

When Trevor asked Julia where he had gone, he was given a sad smile. “The Mortvia Aqueduct, he said. But I do not believe that is exactly where he is bound.”

“No, I doubt it is his true destination.”

She raised an eyebrow at his satisfied smile. “I believe you know something about this decision of his, Trevor Belmont. Would you share it with me?”

“He goes to find closure for Isaac’s death,” Trevor responded. “Hopefully Hector will locate his body so that he may burry him.”

“It is a good thing he does.” Julia’s smiled softly at the thought before turning her attention back to Trevor. “Now, let me check how your wound is healing.”

She pursed her lips together when she saw the slowness with which the would was healing. “If you would let me put you to sleep I could work deeper healing magic on it. The magic just won’t take hold the same way when you are awake as when you are asleep.”

“I already told you I find drugged sleep distasteful.”

She smiled wryly at him. “Yes, but it is the only way to work more complex healing spells on it. If I use those, then I assure you that you will be able to get up on your own in a few days and be able to move about how you like by in a sennight.”

A resigned look crossed Hector’s face. “You drive a compelling bargain, m’lady. Fine, do it now then.”

She flashed a brilliant smile at him. “I’ll go fix you something to drink then.”

The battle ID carefully shifted through the rubble from Dracula’s Castle looking for the creature that Master had described to it. It had never fought the red-haired creature Master was now looking for, Master’s Corpsey had been used for that. But Master needed its greater strength for this search; it had been a while since Master had called upon it’s services.

A huge column had fallen from the inside chamber that had been covered with the outside stone. It effortlessly lifted the column and placed it aside. Stones were dislodged at the column’s movement, stones which had formed a small nitch underneath the column when it fell. And in that small space, a read haired figure lay sprawled on a blood stained carpet.

Gently (must be very, very, gentle, Master said), it lifted the creature and carried it’s prize to Master.

Hector looked up as he heard the footsteps of his Liquid Golem approaching and the satisfied hum in the back of his mind that signaled the ID must have accomplished the task he had set for it.

When he saw what the ID held very carefully in it’s arms, he was surprised. Isaac’s body was whole. When he had beheld the ruin of Dracula’s castle he had given up hope that Isaac’s body would not have been decimated by the ruin. Yet here it was, whole. Shakily he held out his hands for it, murmuring words of praise to the Liquid Golem. The satisfied hum in the back of his mind turned into a proud joyful one as he praised it.

The body flopped easily into his arms and Hector beheld the marks his own weapon had made upon Isaac’s body, the bloody sores now caked with dirt and stone. Isaac’s face was not peaceful, as if he were still in great pain, even in death, yet as Hector stood he felt something that almost made him drop the body he held in such care.

A pulse.

Faint. Yet it was there. And now that he looked more closely, Isaac was breathing, very shallowly.

Isaac was alive.

He paused for a moment as his ID looked on curiously at its Master’s actions. What should be done now? He had come here believing Isaac to be dead, yet Isaac was not. Even Julia had thought her brother dead, and she had much more knowledge of such things than he did.

He felt he could not just let Isaac die, not this way. But… could he allow Isaac to live if healing Isaac would only allow him to start his quest all over again? If Dracula’s curse still gripped Isaac, he would seek only to revive Dracula again, and again Hector would have to stand in his way. It would be a cycle, one which he could not allow to begin.

But he could not just let Isaac die this way. Isaac had been a dear friend, and a loyal friend, whose only fault had been to lash out at Hector to cause him the same pain Hector had caused him when he had left Dracula. They both had been in the thrall of the curse, Isaac luring Hector to the destructive power Dracula wanted, and Hector seeking an almost unholy revenge. Hector had shaken off the curse’s power… could Isaac… no, would Isaac do the same?

At last Hector looked up again at his Golem. “Let us return to Julia’s house. Will you please clear the path for me?”

The ID hummed happily in the back of Hector’s mind as it walked off in the direction of the Aqueduct and the warp, merrily clearing the path of all rubble as it went so that Hector would not jostle Isaac by having to jump over fallen stone.

Hector was not well versed in the art of healing, and he did not pretend to be, but he knew from his own experience that Isaac would respond more to the healing provided by a fairy ID than Julia’s arts in his condition. Of course, he would best respond to the healing of his own fairy ID, but Isaac was in no condition to summon one at the moment… if he even bothered with them anymore. Hector could not remember Isaac ever once using a fairy ID, at least in his presence, during the time he spent chasing him down, even though Hector himself had used several.

Hector called out to Julia to bring all of his fairy IDs to him, as he entered her shop and quickly made his way to the room he and Trevor were currently sharing. It was the only place where he could put Isaac at the moment. Hopefully Trevor’s wound would keep him from doing something rash.

Trevor did not stir as he entered and laid Isaac on his bed. A quick glance told Hector that the Belmont was asleep, and deeply asleep if his breathing was anything to go by.

Julia then arrived with his four fairy IDs who instantly gravitated to Hector like bees to a flower. His mind was filled with their happy chatter, and then their curiosity about the injured man on Hector’s bed.

“Please little ones, I need you to do all that you can to save him,” Hector murmured.

They twittered happily and set to work. His Tiara nestled herself under Isaac’s chin, applying a steady stream of level three healing spells to his largest veins, in order to keep his heartbeat steady. His Comet Star and Probiscus Fairies set to work on the many cuts that were caked with dirt, small stones and blood. The Probiscus Fairy would cast Restore to remove any infection that might be setting in, and the Comet Star would following with the level four healing spell to close the cuts so that the dirt would not settle back into the cuts. His Tiaramisu hovered above Isaac’s chest and set to work on the larger gashes, with the use of her golden healing spell.

Hector watched them work with a worried frown. Isaac’s breathing had steadied, but it was still too slow to be called healthy.

Julia entered later with a bucket of warm water and cloths, and they set to work cleaning off the rest of the dirt that caked on Isaac’s skin. So intent Hector was on this task, that he only slowly noticed the tear tracks on Julia’s face.

“Are you alright?”

“I am afraid for him,” she said in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. “I am afraid the curse will not leave him. Even though I am joyous to see him alive, a part of me feels guilty for that joy. If he continues in the madness caused by the curse, would it not be more merciful to-“

“You will speak in circles if you continue,” Hector cut in soothingly. “I considered all of that when I found him. There is no answer. We will not know until he wakes, what trappings of the curse still hold him. Until then, we can only speculate. But I could not in good conscience just leave him there amidst that ruin to die.”

Julia smiled weakly. “He would not have forgiven you for that.”

Hector found himself smiling as well, as he though of her words. “No, he would not; you are right.”

Julia had long since gone to bed after Isaac’s breathing had returned to a healthier rhythm, but Hector still sat by the bed watching Isaac. Of his four fairy devils, three had burned themselves out helping Isaac, so now only his Comet Star stood watch with him as the other three rested. Anticipation gnawed at him as possible scenarios of Isaac waking circled in his head, yet one in particular seemed fixed in the forefront of his mind: the one in which nothing had changed and he would have to kill Isaac. It was hard enough to do so the first time, and he the thought of doing so again made him feel sick inside.

There was a rustle of cloth and Hector looked up; first to Isaac, who remained motionless, then to Trevor, who had awoken.

It took Trevor only moments to re-orientate himself to his surroundings, and to notice Isaac. “I see you found him.” The Belmont vampire slayer did not seem at all surprised that Isaac was in a less-than-dead condition. Sometimes Hector envied Belmont’s control on his emotions.

“Yes. He hadn’t died.”

He could feel Belmont’s stare on his face but did not look up from Isaac. There was a small sigh before he spoke.

“You look exhausted. In fact, you look as drained as you do after a strenuous battle. You should sleep Hector.”

“Sleep eludes me.”

“Or do you elude sleep? Go rest, my friend. I will watch him in case he wakes. Believe me when I say that I highly doubt he will wake tonight. These things take time.”

Hector nodded slowly. “Would you like me to help you sit up? Or would you rather be lying down.”

“Sitting up.” A wry smile graced Trevor’s features. “This is the last time I’m allowing myself a severe chest wound; it’s such a bother while healing it. Although the pain is almost non-existant now.”

“That’s a great leap from last night,” Hector commented, as he helped Trevor sit up. “Julia must have talked you into sleeping.”

“I protested the entire time, I assure you.”

“I’ve no doubt you did.”

The blinding pain that had laced through his body had lessened, yet he could not open his eyes. His eyelids were still too heavy. And his limbs to sluggish to respond to his will. But the pain was much less, and he was no longer lying face down on hard stone, but face up on something soft. That was improvement.

On the edge of his hearing there were voices murmuring to each other. He felt he should know these voices, but he could not remember. Yet they were soothing, and he slipped back into the deeper darkness of sleep easily.

Trevor looked over at the sleeping Isaac with thinly veiled amusement as Hector left.

“You know,” he told the other man quietly, “It’s strange Hector even had a wife, with how much he cares for you. What did you do to push him away, I wonder.”