Three villains and a baby {Satanic Trio & Tristian}

[Morgana Le Fey]

She had managed to get the child away without encountering any problems, still under the guise of Guinevere, and had quickly spirited him away to the casino, unseen by any unwelcome eyes.  She took the boy through the casino and up to Dracula's office, gripping his arm tightly as she sensed him becoming uneasy.  Once safely in the office, the door closed to ward away any unwelcome watchers, she had thrown him into a corner, conjuring ropes to bind the child's wrists and ankles.

This had happened too soon, she had been forced to act before she was ready, and she felt a rage inside her that threatened to explode at any moment.  She paced the room, breathing heavily as she tried to gather her thoughts and make plans before she had been prepared to.  She had the child - that was a good start.  She had not been seen, that was another advantage she would work well with.  As tempted as she was, she had not stayed to watch the aftermath of her kidnapping - she knew that the child's parents would soon become frantic with worry and despair, the foolish sorcerer would be scared and panicked, and she so longed to see it.  But she had left quickly, bringing the child here, where it was safe, hidden, and where no one knew she would be.  She had time.

She turned to the boy at last, a cold smirk on her face as she whispered some foreign words and her glamour lifted, revealing her true face to the child at last.  She longed to see the confusion and fear in his eyes.

"Hello, nephew."

[Tristian]

Things had got very strange very quickly. Mummy had gripped his arm and pulled him along, he hadn’t liked that and struggled against her, it was making him scared because mummy never did that. She held his hand and when she did not hold his hand then she let him run about because he always came back. He was a good boy. Something was very wrong here. Maybe someone had done a magic thing on mummy. He thought of Merlin, he would know, maybe Merlin will turn up he thought and will make mummy better again.

She led him to a strange building he had not seen before, he did not like it and smelled funny, like the ale in Daddy’s cup, or was it like the wine in mummy’s?

Mummy threw him into the corner and then ropes appeared out of nowhere and tied themselves around his wrists and ankles. He gasped a little as they appeared, but as with all magic things he was delighted. Tristian had grown up with Merlin doing magic, magic was good and fun, and wasn’t something he had ever feared. Mummy might be acting strange but magic was good and so he smiled a bit, even if he was tied up. Maybe it was a new game?

However then something scary happened and that was magic too. Mummy disappeared and a strange dark haired lady was there. He shuffled a little further back into the corner. Then she called him nephew. That was odd, he didn’t have any aunts. Mummy had no sisters, and no one talked about daddy’s-….ooooooh….

He looked up at her and said quietly, with a tentative smile, “hello auntie?”

[Morgana Le Fey]

The child was smiling at her... why was it smiling? Did he not understand the seriousness of his situation? Of course he didn't, the foolish Pendragon boy was every bit his father's son. Her smirk turned to a sneer as she looked down at him, her lip curling. The stupid boy had no idea what was coming, what pain was awaiting him. She planned to make the last few moments of his short life a living hell, just as his parents would be in a living hell looking for him. And finding out he was dead.

"Don't call me that." She snapped at him, clicking her fingers and magically tightening the bonds around his arms and legs so they would bite into his skin. She turned and began pacing again, biting her lip as she scowled. Her initial rage was subsiding, and as she looked at the boy she just felt disgust and frustration. This had not been how things were supposed to go, this was not her plan. Things were happening too fast, and she was not fully prepared for plans to be in motion already.

She moved towards the child and crouched in front of him, taking his face in her fingers and forcing his head up to look her in the eyes. She could feel her nails cutting into his cheeks and she squeezed a little harder.

"Do you know who I am?" She asked, her voice low and menacing. "Do you know what I could do to you?"

[Hades]

"Morgana Le Fey, and apparently child endangerment, if I had to guess," said Hades as he stepped out of the shadows. He'd arrived at the little shindig at the school. technically that had been one of his first stops here, but he'd already checked with Drac. Time was a bit fluid at this school anyhow. But since he'd been there and Drac hadn't, for obvious reasons, he figured that filling in his partner in crime on the whole school issue was a good move.

Imagine his surprise to find Morgana threatening a child.

"Didn't know you and Drac had a rugrat yet. Kinda figured he might be shooting blanks but miracle of modern medicine,' Hades paused to study the kid for a few moments. He didn't seem all that magical, and he didn't look a thing like either of the parents Hades would've identified him as having. "Or did you guys decide to adopt? Pass on the whole genes for death and destruction to a new generation of disenfranchised orphans. He does got that scruffy, my parents are dead look. Best get him before he puts on an animal costume and starts punching things."

[Vlad Dracula]

Why was there a child in his house? Why was there a human child in his house? Casino. Current place of residence. Whatever you wanted to call it, it was Dracula's lair, and there was a child here utterly uninvited. Not for the first time, Dracula dearly wished that the rules of invitation also applied to human beings. It seemed a bit unfair that he had to be invited into people's homes, but random children could just waltz into his establishment without so much as a please.

It only took a moment's observation, though, for him to realize that this child was here because Morgana had brought him here, and that sent Dracula dangerously close to the edge of one of his legendary fits of rage. What was she thinking? Was she trying to endanger their whole plan? Did she intend to kill this child immediately? She'd better be intending to kill it immediately, otherwise it was going to see him...and it had already seen her, which put their whole operation in danger.

What is the meaning of this!? He said the words not aloud, but loud enough for both Morgana and Hades to hear in their minds unless they were being particularly vigilant to guard against such things. He moved down the stairs faster than sight, standing beside Morgana. He'd thought of staying out of the child's line of sight, but really, if this came to it, he could rid the boy of that memory easily enough, and with any luck, it wouldn't be necessary because the little brat would be dead before he was even at risk of sharing Dracula's identity with anyone, especially in the context of this ill-advised kidnapping. He was unamused by Hades' attempt at humor; any other time he might have appreciated the cultural reference, but at the moment, he was nearly livid.

"That," he said aloud, to Hades, "is not mine. I have never seen this before in my life, and I am waiting, not very patiently, I will specify, to hear exactly why it is in my home at all."

[Tristian]

“Ow!” Said Tristian, partly because it hurt and partly because he wanted to let the mean lady know of his displeasure at this tightening of the ropes.

He was starting to get a bit scared now, this lady was using magic but it was bad magic. This magic was sore. None of Merlin’s magic was sore, and now the lady was snapping at him. He didn’t like that either and it made him that little bit more afraid. Daddy shouted a lot and that wasn’t scary because he never shouted at him, mummy never shouted, she just gave people a look.

Tristian knee that knights and especially Prince’s weren’t afraid and so he tried not to be scared. He tried to think, what would daddy do?

He glared and huffed and said, “Well you started it, you called me nephew.”

The low tone was even scarier than the snap, but he tried to keep up the frown he hoped looked just as scary as his dads. But then he thought about her words and his expression softened a little.

“Oh no, I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are, I suppose you’re my aunt cause you called me nephew, so youre probably an aunt,” he said encouragingly, “do you not know who you are? I’m guessing you can do magic, that’s cool!”

Then another man appeared out of the shadows and he gasped again, it was scary, the dark wasn’t good, but even Tristian had to let out a, “cooooooool.”

Then the man spoke a lot and quickly and a lot of it went over his head but he did catch one part.

“My parents are not dead,” he said huffily, back to frowning like dad, “and when they turn up you’re going to be in trouble,” then he momentarily looked scared, “I’m going to be in trouble,” he nodded slowly, “we’re all in trouble.”

Then another man appeared out of nowhere and that was even more cool, there was a lot of magic going on here. It was scary, but magic was good wasn’t it? And if this lady was his auntie she wouldn’t hurt him would she? None of his uncles would do it made sense that his aunt wouldn’t. Although those ropes has been tight. This was very confusing.

He looked up at the new man and gave a little wave with his fingers and a smile, “hello.”

[Morgana Le Fey]

This brat was definitely Arthur's son. She scowled as he spoke to her, his father's cockiness shining through. She opened her mouth to threaten him, to scare him, considering a well-aimed backhanded slap, when she was interrupted by the presence of another.

She stood and span to face the new arrival, her eyes glowing gold as she waved her hand. A letter opener that had been lying on the desk flew through the air and into her hand, as she held it threateningly while she studied the man through narrowed eyes. She assumed he must be an associate of Vlad's for him to be here in the office, but that did not make her trust him, or lower her guard. She opened her mouth to speak when he finally stopped talking, but felt her anger flare further when the child spoke first. She turned back to Tristian, her eyes gold as the letter opener left her hand and hovered inches from his face. "Silence!" She hissed, glaring at him. "Say another word and I will cut out your tongue."

She turned back to Hades, her face lined with anger and frustration. She opened her mouth to speak, but was again interrupted by Vlad's voice invading her mind. Suddenly he was beside her and she turned to face him, her eyes locking on his as she tried to control her anger. She knew that acting in the midst of such rage was not wise, she needed to be calm in order to be cunning and clever, but it was proving increasingly difficult. Especially in the midst of the rage that was emanating from Vlad, and she fought with herself not to cower under his gaze and keep her eyes on his.

"My hand was forced, Vlad." She spoke quietly, but her anger was clear in her voice. "My name was called - they will know I am here. I had to be the first to act." She glanced back at the boy, loathing in her eyes. "I had to bring him here."

[Hades]

Not Vlad's? Hades looked to the kid, not at all surprised. Except it didn't take much to realize who the kid probably belonged to: one of their enemies, probably one of the heroes that Hades had warned Vlad about antagonizing.

"Kid's got good taste," said Hades, smoothing his suit. "Also ain't wrong. We're all in trouble if you went and poked the heroes."

So they somehow knew that this other girl, who Hades was pretty sure had to be Morgana was in town and making motions? Hades frowned, looking at the kid, then at the witch who'd kidnapped him. "So you're big plan was to sent up a big old signal flare? You mighta well as put up a giant billboard saying 'hey, evil lair here. come kick some villain ass heroes!'" Hades weaved his hand in the air, and he was starting to smoke.

"Gotta admire the moxie,' said Hades, chuckling. He walked over, kneeling beside the boy. "I'd have just poisoned him or something, especially if he's gonna mess up your plans. Kidnapping just gives those emotional scars,' he reached up and ruffled Tristian's hair. "Kid'll grow up hating you. 'cuz if his parents are heroes, it ain't a matter of if they find us, it's a matter of when," he looked back at Morgana, brows raised. Hey, he was still willing to hear her plan, even if he was already pretty convinced it would be a stupid one.

[Vlad Dracula]

No, very much not Vlad's. Not Vlad's at all, and not making Vlad happy, either. He looked back at Morgana incredulously. "You thought your cover was blown, so your first instinct was to kidnap someone?" He gave Tristian a disdainful glance in response to that stupid little wave. "Be still, and keep quiet, adults are speaking."

He looked over at Hades. "I am not concerned with his taste, I am concerned that, as you have so astutely pointed out, we have provoked the masses much earlier than I intended. Morgana, what do you intend to do with this child?" This was such a headache, and Dracula didn't even get headaches. Why would she do this? Just because someone announced her name? They'd probably announced dozens of names. "Whatever you're going to do, I suggest you do it quickly, and without leaving trace of your presence. What are you hoping to accomplish here? What exactly is your aim? That they notice this brat is missing and say 'Oh, such a shame, the annoying child has gone missing, this can't possibly be related to any dark plan, we'll just have to make another one'? And why would you bring him here?"

He stepped a little closer to Hades, hoping that they were a united front on this. "There are only three ways I can think of that this works out in our favor, and I am not optimistic about any of them. My favorite plan is that you do away with this child in whatever way is quickest and easiest, and we relocate before his enraged parents descend upon us and decimate everything I have been building so carefully."

[Tristian]

Tristian gasped as the knife flew towards him, hovering in front of his face. He lifted his tied hands to his face to stop it getting any closer. When it just sort of howveres there he relaxed a bit, leaning in a little closer to take a look at it. Magic was so cool, scary, but cool. Remembering who has put it there he looked over at his possible aunt and stuck said tongue out at her.

The shadowy man was in front of him and talking quickly again, then he had the audacity to ruffle his hair. Tristian scowled and tried to move backwards away from him. Only mummy got to touch his hair and even then it was not ruffled. He reached up to smooth it down again which was difficult with his tied hands, and without a mirror. Stupid shadowy man messing up his hair. Although he had to admit that shadowman had good hair.

Not as good hair as mysterious magic man. Tristian just sort of gazed up at him with an awed expression. When he told Tristian to be quiet he nodded and tried to stay as still as possible.

However, adults talking was boring and so he started picking at the strands of the rope that were currently being used to tie him up. He wasn’t trying to get free, he was just bored. He heard ‘annoying child’ and felt sorry for that person because that was almost certainly not him, he was a delight, his mummy said so.

He did catch the tail end of the conversation however and said in a bored manner, “You could use magic to make me forget. Magic can do anything. Then can I go home?”

[Morgana Le Fey]

She was getting angrier by the minute, and having the two condescending immortals speaking to her as if she was a child was not helping. She threw Hades a filthy look, but otherwise ignored his input - she didn't know who he was and she didn't care, but she wasn't a huge fan of his sarcastic tone. "They don't know where we are." She spoke more to Dracula than to Hades, speaking through clenched teeth. "No one saw me, no one followed me."

Her jaw clenched as Dracula fired questions at her, hands in fists by her side. She wasn't entirely sure how to answer him - yes, her first instinct had been to take the child which on reflection perhaps wasn't the best idea, but in the child she saw a way to cause pain to those she hated so much. She made a noise of irritation, almost close to stamping her foot in frustration at the two men questioned her. "Yes, my first instinct was to take him. I would have killed him there were it not for the crowds." Her voice was almost a hiss as she spat the words at Dracula. "Anyone who saw us saw the boy and his mother, I am not stupid." She threw the last comment at Hades, along with another filthy look.

Her scowl deepened as Dracula stepped towards Hades, noting his distancing from her. This was not how this was supposed to go. She opened her mouth to speak, and again was interrupted, this time by the child. With another sound of anger and frustration, she flicked her hand towards him, her eyes glowing gold, and the letter opener moved to his throat, the blade pressing against his skin - if the child moved it would cut him. "Magic will kill you if you do not shut up, you arrogant little brat!" She glared at the boy, before taking a breath to try and calm herself, turning her attention back to Dracula.

"There will be no need to relocate." Her voice was tense and strained. "There are options here, Vlad. I will happily kill him, but consider the other choices." She took a step closer to him. "We control his mind and send him back to them. Have him do whatever we want." Another step. "We wipe his memory of us, of this place, leave him somewhere they will find him." She was not a fan of this plan. Where was the vengeance in that? "We keep him, hidden and bound, and let them tear themselves apart looking for him. Then strike while they are weakened." She attempted a smile, ignoring Hades completely, and trying to bring Vlad back to her. "Vlad, I told you, no one saw me leave with him. I wore his mother's face. No one will think to look for him here."

She glanced at Hades, narrowing her eyes. "I told you you can trust me, Vlad. But I don't know this man. Do you trust him?"

[Hades]

Hades' gaze kept switching between Morgana and Vlad. He'd talked with Vlad, hashed out a plan, forged an alliance. That alliance had included Morgana as a matter of course, but the two of them hadn't officially met. There was a lot of anger in that woman, anger that Hades could sympathize with, certainly. Oh, he wanted to talk though, but he remained quiet while the two lovers' quarreled, at least.

You know, up until Morgana dragged him into it.

"Me and Vlad got a deal worked out, Morgana, and I'm definitely on your team. Don't think that the one making decisions on their own should be talking a big game about trust right now. After all, I'm not the one who went rogue," he looked over at Tristian again. Kid was smart. That was trouble.

"Morgana's right though, Vlad. She definitely wasn't there in the bee-you-tee-ful flesh," his gaze flicked to Vlad. "I woulda saw someone who looks like her. Plus, everyone's attention was on the two guys trying to kill each other on stage. kinda reminded me of home," he looked back to the boy. "We definitely gotta move the kid though. Stash him somewhere else. The dogs'll be coming soon, and I don't want them sniffing out where we're actually at." He flicked his wrist, summoning a sickly green sucker out of the air, which he all but tossed to Tristian. "Stick that in your mouth, kiddo. adults are talking."

He looked back to the others. "The heroes are already squabblin' about who should be in charge. Toss this hand grenade, and they're likely to implode, get the mess all over. Leave us some wiggle room to get up in there,' he smiled ghoulishly. After all, of the three of them, Hades was in the best position to take advantage of that wiggle room. Something he fully intended to do.

[Vlad Dracula]

Dracula was not in the mood for introductions, and he had fully intended for Hades and Morgana to meet under much better circumstances than this. He had boasted so much of her abilities, her sensibility, her beauty, all those things, and here she was, demonstrating nothing so much as how impulsive she could be. It was as much of an embarrassment to him as it was to her, although she didn't even seem to realize what a truly stupid thing she had done.

He glanced at Hades, then back to Morgana. He wasn't sure she deserved an explanation at the moment, but in the interest of avoiding a fight between her and Hades that might result in the casino being replaced by a crater, he offered one anyway.

"I trust no one, you know that," he told her, "but this is Hades. He is, for the moment at least, on our side." As evidenced by Hades supporting him in the whole adults-are-speaking venture, he thought. But she was right, she didn't know this man from any other random who might have strolled through their doors, and she had no reason to trust him. "We can all spend some time getting acquainted later. We have a much more pressing matter to deal with right now."

This boy, he realized, was quite a sharp little brat. He knew they could send him back with no memory of having been here, and that wasn't a terrible idea, but it wasn't good enough. Even if he didn't remember where he had been, his parents would know he'd been gone, they would be suspicious, they would ask dozens of questions. No, they were going to have to come up with something better than that.

"Even if they didn't see her," Dracula said, bristling slightly at the compliment Hades had paid her, because if anyone was going to be calling Morgana beautiful here, it would be him, and certainly not when she was irritating him like this, "they know he is gone. They'll be looking for him. I don't want to be around with him when they find him. We are not the only ones with magic on our side, they are not so helpless as they seem." He looked back at Morgana, and closed his eyes for a second or two, thinking. "We cannot simply make him forget. He might forget, but they will not forget that he has gone missing. Even if you looked like his mother, she will know she did not take him herself, and how many people do you know who can make themselves look like someone else who would have motive to do something like this?" He shook his head. "There is one other way, though I hesitate to suggest it." He hesitated to suggest it with words, perhaps, but he drew his lips back ever-so-slightly baring his fangs, which left little to be imagined.

[Tristian]

When the letter opener hurled itself towards him he tried to move further back, however there was nowhere else to go. It was starting to get really hard not to be scared now, especially with the letter opener so close. Every time he tried to relax his shoulders his neck got too close it and he felt a tiny pain. He could feel the tears pricking at his eyes, but he didn’t want to cry, if this was daddy, daddy wouldn’t cry. He had to be more like daddy and not cry just because the Scary Auntie Lady was being scary. Magic wasn’t supposed to be used to bad things, why was she doing that?

He was just trying to be helpful…

Then the Shadowman was throwing something at him that looked gross and green. Tristian didn’t like the colour green, it was the colour of broccoli and he hated broccoli. Not that he could have moved to catch it even if he did want it; the letter opener stopped any chance of that happening.

This really wasn’t fun anymore. He wanted to go home. He wanted his mum and dad.

Magical Mysterious Man was talking again, Tristian liked his voice. It wasn’t scary like Scary Auntie Ladies or too fast like Shadowman, it was smooth and cool. Then he started showing his teeth and Tristian saw the fangs. Before he could stop himself he excitedly shouted, “You’re a Vampire!!! My daddy likes vampires!”

[Morgana Le Fey]

She glared at Hades as he spoke - regardless of Vlad's introductions she didn't care who he was, especially if he was going to question her actions. Without speaking to him, she turned away, her attention back on Vlad. "They will not find us. I covered my tracks, we are safe here. There's no need to jump to the worst conclusion and pack up shop." She sighed slightly. "He is right though. They will be a mess. Their democracy hasn't worked as well as they thought it would - their leaders will tear each other apart without any help from us. The rest of them," she scoffed, "they might be heroes, but they let their emotions rule their heads. This will stir their emotions more effectively than anything we could do to them directly." She glanced at Tristian, a small smirk on her face. "Whatever we do to him, it doesn't matter."

Although, she began to change her mind as Vlad spoke, as he bared his teeth and she heard Tristian's shout. Her face darkened, and she moved to stand between Vlad and the boy. "No." She spoke quietly but firmly, anger and a hint of jealousy in her voice. "No, Vlad. You will not turn him." Not before me. "How will that help? How will that help my cause?"

If they boy became an immortal, then he could still take the throne. All she wanted was her son on that throne, ruling from a place of darkness, destroying everything Arthur and her father had built. She did not want Tristian on that throne. She wanted him dead.

"Kill him. Kill him and throw his body back to his parents. But you will not turn him."