Chapter Text
“How are you feeling?” Dr Bennett pressed on the button to adjust the bed angle, helping his wounded subordinate to sit up.
“Good.” Becky had survived the sudden attack from her boss. Her pale face grimaced as her upper body was lifted up to the uncomfortablely upright position. “What about the boy?”
“We got him and we will begin phase 3 today.” The man beamed reassuringly, completely ignoring the grim expression from the other.
A moment of silence passed before the lab assistant let out a weak huff “I really didn’t see that coming from you.”
“And I bet you didn’t see this coming too.”
The head scientist slited the throat of his subordibate with a knife in one hand and used the other to hold a medicine glass to collect the hot, fresh, red liquid flowing out from the clean, deep cut. Cold, tranquil eyes behind the golden-rimmed glasses fixed on the container. As soon as the blood level reached the ‘200 ml’ mark on the glass, Dr Bennett turned and left the room, ignoring the rest of the blood that was still streaming out from the dying body.
- - - -
Giorno was envelopped in the dead sea of infinite darkness, eyes closed. He was asleep, motionless until someone forced his mouth open and poured warm liquid into it. Then, red, light of bright red tore through the blackness like a powerful explosive, pumping strength and consciousness into every single cell of the boy’s weak and tortured body. Heart swelled and pumped with life and force. Eyes snapped open. The boy let out a feral scream as soon as the head scientist came into sight. Fangs extended; Cerulain eyes burnt bright red as he snapped the thick leather constraints that tied both of his wrists to the bed. Dr Bennett was momentarily fascinated by the boy’s sudden outburst of power and rage before pressing down the remote control in his palm. Giorno shrieked in pain and collapsed onto the floor as torrents of shock exploded from his neck. Those bastards had put something around his neck as their emergency plan. The boy hissed in pain and anger. He struggled to get onto his feet only to be put down by a stronger current. Giorno continued to writhe and thrashed around in burning pain before fading into darkness again.
“Transfer the subject to the maximum security lab.”
- - -
Dio hissed as his heart - his century-old, vampiric heart - suddenly rammed against the rib cage; it sent waves of vibration across his broad chest. His heart had never beat this violently, not even when he went all ravenous on his prey. His amber eyes turned red at the alarming feeling of heaviness. In contrast to those puny humans’ beliefs, vampires did have heart beats; It was just that the sounds and pulses were inaudible to mortal ears. Dio looked to the heavily cloaked window on the far side of the room. It was the same presence he’d felt yesterday but this time, it grew stronger, more active, more violent; this time, he knew who it was.
It was the boy , his boy. Something must have happened to him. Something ominous and threatening had caused the boy’s blood, his blood , to rile up to this extent during day time.
Dio closed his eyes, eyebrows knotting as he recalled the dream. The look of despair and pain on the boy’s face would forever be branded to the back of his skull. There were still more than 6 hours before sunset.
The vampire cursed the sun once more.
- - - -
“The subject acquires enhanced senses, speed, strength and cell regeneration far beyond ordinary human physics upon the intake of human blood. Although the effect was only temporary, the result was beyond our original expecation, for the boy remains immune to ultraviolet lights even during the manifestation of his mutant genes. The extent and duration of the manifestation is significantly correlated to the quality and quantity of the human blood consumed by the subject.”
Long, blond eyelashes slowly fluttered at the nearby sound of the keyboard being rapidly typed. When Giorno reopened his eyes, he found his body being held upright, fixed to the long, cold, solid plate pressing tightly against his back. Thick metallic locks clamped around his ankles and wrists, making the boy’s escape impossible. Giorno realized the shock collar was still on his neck as he tried to turn his head; He also realized he’s now shirtless as the aircom blew chill to his skin. His sky blue eyes widened in surprise as he glanced down. The wounds, although still ached badly, had all closed up, even the most fatal one on his lower abdomen. All he saw on his body were dried, nasty dark scabs in different sizes and depth.
“Amazing isn’t it?”
Giorno turned to the source of voice, eyes immediately flared with rage.
“It’s never personal.” Dr Bennett said as he continued to key in his findings. “You just happen to be the offspring of a deceased mutant. Although his kind is commonly termed as ‘vampire’ in the folklores, in the sense of modern science, he’s simply a mutated human.”
“Is that why you guys want to kill me?”
“Perhaps they don’t. They work for this company while I work for the government, not the one your parents pay tax to. I borrowed their workplace under the pretence that I am on their team.” The man continued in his native English accent while his eyes kept fixing on the computer screen “I believe you have witnessed enough of what your inherited genes are capable of. Can you imagine the amount of the money that could be generated, the amount of the government’s annual budget that could be saved if we could produce hundreds and thousands of enhanced soldiers using the mutated genes from you? Like I’ve said earlier, it’s never personal. It's just that you have something that I want and…” The head scientist slowly turned to the boy, a subtle, sinister smirk on his face ”I always get what I want.”
Giorno only glared back with cold daggers in his eyes. The amazing strength had left his body so he could only watch as the scientist stuck a tube that connected to a mechanical syringe into his right arm.
“Enjoy your last day of stay.” Dr Bennett packed up the files, stashing away the unused blood packs into a drawer then left, switching off the light as he exited the door.
Every passing second felt like eternity;every drop of his blood that landed into the syringe ticked away his life. Giorno, still chained to the cold gallow, let his tears silently escape to the forlorn darkness. Crying was useless, for he never cried once in this life, but the cold, cruel betrayal from his so-called parents had become the last straw that broke him. He’d never had any expectation from the wretched couple. The constant negligence from his mom and the abuses he’d received from the hypocrite of the man when he was small, he thought that were the worst coming from them but never had he imagined the day that that bastard would actually trade him off to some sick hands in order to satisfy his grotesque greed. Knowing his mom, she probably didn’t even realize that her son was gone and would be dead soon. Tears continued to flow and drench his shoulder. Maybe death was the only way, he thought. Maybe it was the way to escape the cruel reality once for all; maybe after that, he could finally see the man he’d been dying to see.
- - -
“Sir, please show me your identification before entering…”
Dio responded by crushing the security’s neck with one palm and throwing the body away like a dirty rag. He tsked as he saw the floor plan of the building next to the elevator - there were 20 fucking floors in this building. The vampire began to storm through each level with inhuman speed, slaying all living things along the way.
Where are you?
It didn’t take long for the vampire to reach the top floor, for there weren’t many humans to kill on the other floors. Dio caught a distinct juvenile scent as well as the scents of other humans as he reached the entrance. He had to be here, the vampire thought. The intensified obnoxious scents and the footsteps of the security guards proved him right. Several guards emerged and fired lame bullets at the blonde intruder. Dio didn’t blink. He ripped their necks with claws on one hand as he dashed past them. Tracking the scent was his sole focus now and no time should be wasted on these worms. The scent grew stronger as the vampire reached the innermost lab. Dio tore up the fortified metal door like it was made of nothing. He froze at the sight in front of him.
The boy, his boy, was chained, imprisoned by cold metals and machines made by the vermins. A collar was fixed to the boy’s neck like he was an animal, not the son of God. Hairs golden and wavy as his own scruffily draped around his shoulder; loose curly bangs covered part of his young, beautiful visage. Dio silently approached the motionless boy. His eyes were closed but Dio knew they were sky blue. He would never forget the moment their eyes locked in the dream: those beautiful, clear, cerulain orbs were calling to him, signalling him to come closer. Fresh, gruesome scars scattered around his topless, sculpted body; the shapes and positions were identical to the wounds he saw in his dream. Had the boy not had the vampire blood - his blood - in him, he’d be long gone, destroyed by the hands of those worms. The boy was still alive. He could hear his feeble yet steady breathing and heart beats. The motion of a driplet caught his sharp eyes. Dio spotted a tube planted into the boy’s right arm. It was slowly stealing, siphoning blood from his body into a small cylindrical tube, drawing his life away drop by drop.
The world and time stopped around the immortal blond as the next drop landed on the dark red surface inside the almost half-filled tube. Nothing existed except the invisible, searing sorrow that pierced through the vampire’s heart like a hot iron stake, petrifying every single cell of his immortal body, robbing away all his senses. Dio, for the first time in his long life, felt pain other than his own, like every scar and scab on the boy’s flesh were equally carved on him, mocking him, defying him and scorching him like the cursed sun if not worse.
A flock of heavy footsteps from far drew the vampire back to the dark lab. Only then did Dio realize the involuntarily changes in his own body: His blonde hair had retracted in length; his lips had sinisterly darkened; his fangs and claws had violently extended; his amber orbs had turned red, blood red; his muscles along with the underlying dark veins had engorged by rushing blood. Only then did Dio realize that rage, primal, unprecedented and uncontrollable rage had fueled his body with power and an immense thirst for vengeance. Dio stormed out of the lab. No filthy worms would go near his son ever again.
A special armed unit, ranging from 20 to 30 men, marched through the dim hallways in search of the intruder through the tactical lights on their machine guns.
“Freeze!” All of them turned and aimed at the ominous tall figure that strode into their sight.
- - - - -
Giorno stirred as his ears were bombarded by sharp, thunderous gunshots and agonizing screams. An image was projected to his head. It was vague yet vivid and loud, like he was there himself. He was seeing red everywhere again except this time, it was extremely gruesome, chaotic and hellish. Blood, organs and other body remains were splashing everywhere, walls, floors, even on the ceilings. None of the bodies on the floor were intact. Along the hallway, Torn heads, limbs and broken torsos mingled with shards of machine guns and armours and soaked in pools of sticky blood on the floor. The image zoomed to the source of the ongoing gun fires and horrid screams. Then he saw it. It looked like a man but it was massive, monstrous and fast. It went completely berserk on the armed men, shredding their bodies like if they were loafs of bread. Guns were still firing but didn’t not slow nor faze it by the slightest as its sharp fangs bit off another man’s head. Within seconds, all men had been reduced to blood and carcass. Then everything faded into blackness again….
Consciousness was sipping back to the boy as he felt something was being gradually taken out of his right arm, causing a little pain. Someone lifted him out of the constrainst and slowly laid him down. Someone was holding him, wrapping his shoulder, letting his head rest against something hard and pulsing. Then he felt a hand, big and firm, gently cup one side of his face, caressing his cheek. It felt comforting. He’d known this affectionate feeling before.
“Wake up, my child.”
He’d heard this deep voice before.
Thin, blond eyelashes batted before unveiling the sky-blue orbs. Giorno hazily stared into a face above him. Residual of sedative was still withdrawing from his body.
“Why are you here? What have they done to you?” Dio already had the answers but he needed to check on the boy’s consciousness.
Giorno winced at the slight migraine as the cloudiness finally exited his head. “I…” painful memories gathered together before foming into sentences, “They captured me and did experiments on me. They said something about my blood….my genes that I have inherited from my late father……” The boy trailed off abruptly as the man’s features gradually registered into his mind.
Giorno had seen this face, although it had been a bit different in his memory. The blond hair was now shorter and spikier; the eyes were now red with visibly menacing slits; the lips were tinted with dark venomous green; dark, dry blood which was not his own smeared one side of his masculine face, stretching from the cheekbone to the strong jaw line. The man now looked more intimidating and devilish than he had been in the boy’s dream, but he still recognized him nonetheless.
“You….”
He’d alway known him and he’d always wanted him. Shocking realization began to well up across the boy’s bewildered eyes, rendering him speechless.
“You were calling out to me, my son.” sharp, predatory red eyes softened and landed on the boy. “I’ve come for you.”
“Father….” Giorno couldn’t hold it anymore. Hot tears cascaded down his pale cheek as he dove his face into the older blonde’s bulk, muscular chest, letting all the suppressed feelings run free at once in the form of uncontrollable sobs.
“I miss you papa, I thought you were long gone.” Giorno clung to the older blonde, pressing his smaller form further into the massive body, feeling the concrete realness of the man he had been dying to see. Should this be merely another delusional dream of his, he would rather die in it than ever wake up from it.
“If only I could know about your existence the moment you were created.” Dio tightened the hold on the small sobbing form. Giorno gasped and stopped sobbing all at once as he felt a pair of warm, plush lips pressing tightly against his neck. Affection and reassurance, Giorno closed his eyes as the man’s mouth lingered on his exposed skin, planting those wordless messages into his quivering body. Dio held the firm kiss on the tender skin until the boy’s breathing steadied. The boy’s pulse on his lips felt incredibly soothing, so soothing that the vampire was almost too reluctant to retrieve from.
A sudden bright purple light cutted in and ruthlessly ripped their union. Both of them tumbled backward but only Dio hissed in pain. His great reflex brought him to the nearest storage cabinet for cover. The light burnt like hell. A large part of his muscular body was charred and emitting smoke. Dio gritted his teeth. He knew this cursed light too well but never had he thought these vermins were able to turn it into their weapon.
“PAPA!” Giorno wanted to reach the injured man but froze behind the other cabinet as he heard the voice of the enemy.
“I thought you were dead.” Dr Bennet, in full armor and night vision, vigilantly advanced with the ultra-violet light mounted machine guns, eyes scanning between the obstacles. “Or do you come back from the dead to take your son’s place?”
Pain and rage boiling in his veins, Dio wanted to shredd this worm into thousand pieces but the range of the cursed light was too broad that it was almost impossible for the vampire to go near his enemy. The worm was getting closer to his son’s hideout so he must act now. Multiple bullets were fired as Dio swiftly moved to his left, from one obstacle to another, drawing distance away from his son. The vampire knew that the worm would have to take him out first for his son was all that worm wanted.
“Your power is also your weakness, Dio, which is why your half-blooded son is far more valuable than you.” The man advanced with a smug look. “After all, it’s useless to create an army that can’t walk under the sun.” The cursed light was getting closer and the vampire’s current hideout was rather confined. The scientist suddenly shrieked in pain as something stabbed into his right thigh from behind. Giorno leapt onto the man from behind with one arm snake around his neck, attempting to strangle him and stab him with the broken glass again. Years of close combat and field missions allowed the scientist to have the upper hand. After a brief moment of struggle, Dr. Bennett swiftly flung his attacker to the ground before relentlessly and repeatedly driving his left heel into his attacker’s guts, eliciting a string of painful screams out of the other. The scientist quickly re-scanned his whereabouts with the ultra-violet ray, waiting for the vampire to resurface for his son. After detectng no movement or sound within the current area, the scientist turned back to the writhing victim once more.
“Looks like you are ditched by your parent, again.” Dr. Bennett sneered as he plucked out the broken glass, one leg still fixed on the boy’s stomach. “You think I won’t hurt you too badly just because I value your blood?” Giorno coughed out blood as the man’s leg exerted more pressure into his stomach. Both of his hands desperately gripped and yanked at the man’s ankle, which didn’t budge at all. Dr. Bennett bent down to spit more sadistic remarks to his victim “Like I said, it was never personal and I did plan to go easy on you, but now I must say that I do enjoy seeing you suffer as much as possible..” Giorno felt that he’s fading out again yet he still glared back with an intensified rage. “For example, I can remove both of your legs now.”
Just as Dr Bennett pointed the gun to Giorno’s knee, a ghastly figure lunged through the large window from the other side of the room with a beastly snarl before stumbling to the floor. Dr Bennett’s eyes widened in utter confusion as he recoginsed the horrid figure - It was one of the security that worked in this floor. The man got up from the floor and charged toward the scientist with a drooling maw. Dr Bennett immediately aimed the light at the man, who immediately shrieked and twiched as the light burnt him. The scientist then fired bullets at his head, putting him down completely.
Dr. Bennett tentatively approached the dead corpse on the floor and found himself baffled by confusion again: There was no blood flowing out of the body. The body was sunken and it was stark white judging from the unburnt parts, like he was already dead long before the scientist shot him. Dr Bennett then spotted a deep dry lethal cut on the man’s neck, which further proved the scientist's point.
Animated corpse?
A bunch of ghoul-like snarls erupted from the background. Before the scientist could make sense of the situation, more moving corpses, a.k.a. zombies had emerged from all directions, surrounding him. Dr Bennett opened fire as soon as those undead creatures lunged at him with rabid mouthes. The room was suddenly boomed with rapid, thunderous gunshots and monstrous snarling. With the aide of the UV light and his deadly aims, the scientist managed to put down the undead one by one before they could even reach him. Grisp sound of empty shells busily bouncing off the floor inadvertantly muffled the advancing footsteps of the enemy that the scientist had overlooked. Dr Bennett yelled in pain and stumbled forward just as he managed to shot down the last zombie in the room. Giorno,who had recovered from the injury and regained some of his strength through the blood pack stashed in the nearby drawer, just cut off the scientist’s tendon on the right knee with a glass shard. Dr Bennett turned to aim at the boy only to have his weapon kicked to one side. With a ferocious scream, Giorno pounced onto the scientist before repeatedly stabbing the glass through the bullet proof vest, into the torso, with wild force. Soon, the scientist was puking out blood, limbs flat on the floor.
Giorno, eyes all burning red, wanted nothing other than crushing the life of the filthy man beneath him. Just as he was about to strike a final stab at the man’s neck, he felt a large hand wrapped around his wrist.
“That will be too easy, my sweet” Dio gently pulled his seething progeny behind him.
The scientist flipped on his stomach in a feeble attempt to get up only to be paled in fear as his eyes met a wall of zombies that had gathered behind the blond vampire, who was sneering at him, a look of pure sadism on his partially burnt face.
“If it’s an army you want. It’s an army you will get.” Phrase venemously spelt the doom of the pathetic being on the floor. Dio wrapped his unburnt arm around his precious son before turning to leave.
“Eat him slowly.”
All the undead bodies swarmed past the blonde duo to the head scientist at once. Dr. Bennett’s agonising scream tore through the floor as countless hungry maws munched on his body, tearing off the flesh and organs chunk by chunk in a horrifyingly slow fashion as their creator had instructed. Moments later, the only sounds that still remained in the scene were those of bones crushing and flesh chewing.
“Where are we going?”
“Home, our world.”
Two blondes, father and son, disappeared into the dark end of the corridor
- - - - - -
The sound of the door bell ringing made the middle-aged man mumble. Putting down the half-finished beer can on the table scattered with other empty ones, the man lazily got up from the sofa and slowly made his way towards the door. As soon as the door opened, he was immediately greeted with a stab to his guts. Giorno charged into the stout man and drove a knife to his stomach. The man yelped in pain and fell on his back with a loud thump. He writhed and resisted, only to get stabbed on another spot. Giorno ruthlessly ran the knife, again and again, into the torso of the despicable being that was legally termed ‘step father’, drilling deep wounds on different spots. Cerulean Eyes glowing in cold anger, the boy unreservedly wrecked his anger and hatred on the man who sold him to those filths that almost killed him. The man couldn’t even form proper screams as he was now choked by blood flowing out of his mouth. Giorno finally cooled down as the human trash lay completely still beneath him. Blood was still warm and fresh on his hand and knife. He initially intended for the man to suffer in slow death but somehow he got carried away by the rush of vengeance that had made him see red the moment the man came into his sight. The sound of something dropping onto the floor caught the boy’s attention. Giorno snapped his head to the door, cold eyes blinking in slight surprise.
“Giorno….” By the door frame stood a brunette female, who froze in sheer horror at the appalling scene before her. Giorno slowly got up from the bloody mess he created while staring at the woman who unplannedly gave birth to him. He wasn’t really expecting this woman to return this early. The woman was visibly shaking. The stark contrast between the blood dripping down from the blade and her son’s calm demeanor further added to the silent horror. She turned and ran, but a big hand quickly grabbed her curly long hair and flung her into the house, her body harshly landing by the boy’s feet. Dio slowly strolled into the house. He rubbed the hand that just grabbed the woman's hair against his sleeve as if he had touched something dirty. Dark lips streched into a wide smile of pride as the vampire saw the bleeding body on the floor. This little blonde truly took after him; this little blonde was truly worthy of his love.
The woman gasped in disbelief as she recoginsed the blonde man “D..”
“My name escapes from your filthy mouth and I will slit your throat woman.”
“Giorno…what is going on?”
With the knife still on hand, Giorno slowly advanced to the woman curling up, trembling on the floor. He didn’t include this woman in his original plan but now that she was here, she left him with no choice.
“Did you know how many days I’d been gone? Did you even try to look for me?” Giorno swallowed hard as he bit back his anger.
“Giorno please….”
“Do you have any slightest idea of what your husband has done to me over the years?” He wasn’t expecting any sensible answers in return. He just felt the need to spit out the questions that had leeched on the back of his skull for ages.
“Giorno please I lov…”
Giorno abruptly cut her off by driving the knife into her heart. A single tear of indignation silently rolled down his left cheek. Enough of the nonsence already, he didn’t need to hear any more of it.
As the woman collapsed to the floor, Giorno turned and moved towards his waiting father. He tilted up his head at the taller blonde, a faint smile on his blood-stained face.
“Let’s go home, papa.”
The end