AMoS Chapter 7-3

[eiahmon]

Title: A Moment of Stupidity Part 7: 1568 - 1619
Rating: R for language, and mentions of RAPE and M/M SLASH. Don't like, then don't read.
Disclaimer: Castlevania and its characters and situations are the sole property of Konami. I am making no money or profit off of this fanfiction and no copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: AU. What if Joachim Armster had lived through his fight with Leon Belmont? What might have been different? Well hang on, because Joachim is going to tell you all about it. From his kidnapping and forced turning to his rescue from the ruins of Walter's castle, and from Trevor's birth and to Richter's death of old age, he tells all - and blames it all on Leon while he's at it.
Section Summary: Part 7 covers Order of Shadows up to Christopher's death.

3.
Drawing Near

The day after the funeral, Christopher spoke to the whip's memory. Like it had years ago when it had last spoke to Soleil, it brought up the memory of Trevor to explain what little it knew. The whip could not see, only sense, so Sara knew that Soleil was in a fight for his life and the life of his wife, so she granted him her full power as he battled to save them, but he had no chance without any magic. Trevor's memory only knew that Soleil's opponent had been a powerful sorcerer and nothing else.

None of us drew any comfort from that news. A powerful sorcerer that was bold enough to attack Lord Belmont was someone to be feared, and we waited anxiously for him or her to make their next move, but that move never came. Nothing else happened as we went about our business, and no one knew if it was due to everyone being extra cautious, or if it was because the sorcerer had accomplished their goal and was content to bide their time. There was also the possibility that it was just a random crime, that Soleil and Irina were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Christopher didn't think that was the case, and I agreed with him, but we had no proof any way or the other.

The children took the loss of their parents as one would expect. Two year old Delores, after spending several days crying and calling for them, seemed to forget about them entirely. Zoe clung to her grandmother and would burst into tears at any mention of her mother or father. Desmond's grief was quiet, and he could often be found staring at his father's portrait or sitting by his grave. He cried in his sleep, but he kept quiet while awake.

It was without question that they would remain in the custody of their grandparents, though there was concern about 59 year old Christopher and 56 year old Simona being able to keep up with three active children. This was worsened as Soleil had been in charge of the hunter's training, and now Christopher was forced to take care of that again.

Desmond, already a veteran of such work as he was the named heir, began to take his training with a new intensity that surprised no one, but still worried a number of us. As he was still young, his training mainly consisted of things to slowly build up his strength and endurance over time. In a few more years, he would have started working with the whip, but now he asked his grandfather to start that early. Christopher refused of course, citing Desmond's age, but the child kept insisting. We all knew, of course, why he was so insistent, but Christopher kept refusing.

"If you injure yourself now, Desmond," he warned him, "it may never heal right, and you will never be able to take your place."

That sent Desmond crying in frustration to me, and I wiped the boy's tears away and let him bawl on my shoulder until he had cried himself out. Surprisingly though, it was Hector that got through to him.

"I felt that way once." he said, and Desmond raised his eyes and looked at him. I had my back to Hector, so I couldn't see him, but I could clearly feel his presence standing the bedroom doorway.

"Like what?" Desmond asked as he wiped at his dripping nose.

"Hurt, angry." Hector replied. "Looking for someone to take it out on."

Desmond let go of me and stood up, and I moved away. "How do you know?"

Hector took a small step into the room. "Because that was me once. I nearly let my anger and my vengeance consume me, and it nearly cost me my soul. A man that I thought of as a brother wasn't as careful, and he paid for it dearly. Ask your grandfather about Dracula's 1479 resurrection, and believe me when I say you don't want to go that way."

Desmond turned his head to look at me, and I nodded without saying a word. He scrubbed at his eyes for a moment, and then he turned and ran out the door while Hector walked over into my arms. He hid his face in my hair, and I rubbed his arms and rocked him a little before I walked him back to bed.

******

Christopher did tell Desmond about the events that led up to Dracula's 1479 resurrection, including Isaac's possession and how he had tried to do the same with Hector, with Hector's resisting his rage and throwing off the curse at the last minute preventing it. He also explained what that would have meant for the world at large with Trevor gravely injured and Hector used as a vessel for reviving Dracula. Desmond seemed to take the warning seriously, and while he still went through his training with a fierce determination, he stopped trying to push ahead.

Still, I was surprised when he and Zoe appeared at my door one day. I let them in, and once treats had been handed out, the two of them perched on the couch and asked me something that I had not been expecting.

"Did you know Trevor, Uncle Joachim?" Zoe asked in her sweet voice.

I wasn't able to contain my surprise. Obviously the Belmonts knew that I was alive back when Trevor lived, but none of them really knew that he had been my godson and my son in all but blood. The relationship between me and Trevor had just been forgotten as the generations moved on, with Liron being the last one to actually consider me kin. To everyone else, I was a favored, close family friend and nothing more.

"Yes," I said after a moment, "I knew him."

"Can you tell us about him?" Desmond asked with an eager smile, the first smile I had seen from him since his parents' deaths. "What was he like? Did he come over here and have snacks too?"

I smiled faintly as I remembered the day Trevor had made himself sick eating an entire jar of jam. I sat down across from them and made myself comfortable.

"Trevor was my godson." I said fondly, and I heard Zoe gasp in surprise. Desmond, too looked shocked.

"Really?" he asked, and I nodded.

"Trevor was Dracula's grandson, and few wanted to associate with him because of it. For that reason, there was no one willing to step forward and sponsor his baptism, so his mother asked me if I would do it. And I agreed."

Zoe's lip trembled at the idea of a child not being liked by his family. "What about his Mama and Papa? Did they want to be around him?"

I sighed; trust her to ask the hard question. "Adrian – Dracula's son and Trevor's father – never acknowledged him, even when they met years later. Trevor's mother..." I sighed again. "She did at first, but I think she realized that she would never get what she wanted from life with him hanging onto her. When he was seven, she gave him to me to raise."

"She didn't want him anymore?" Desmond asked. "But.. but why?"

"Was he bad?" Zoe added.

I smiled. "No, Trevor was a very good boy, if a bit mischievous at times. No, she just didn't want Dracula's grandchild under her care anymore, so she left him with me. For Trevor, that worked out well. I didn't live on the Belmont lands then, so he was able to get away from everyone and enjoy a better childhood with me."

"So you became his new papa, Uncle Joachim?" Zoe asked, and I laughed quietly.

"In a way, yes I did, though he called me Uncle just as you two do."

"What was he like?"

"Well..." I spent the next hour telling them stories about Trevor as a child, and then we moved on to how he had become the heir, the challenges he had faced from the rest of the clan, and his 1476 defeat of Dracula. Desmond then told his sister what he knew of Dracula's 1479 resurrection, and I filled in about finding Trevor near death and caring for him afterward.

"Is that when you turned Hector, Uncle Joachim?" Zoe asked, and I felt my heart stutter.

"No," I finally said with a shake of my head. "Someone else would turn Hector later, but he wouldn't come here to live with me until 1540, five years after Trevor passed away of old age."

"Trevor didn't want to be turned?" Desmond asked, and I winced at the old stab of pain.

"No," I said quietly, "he did not."

Desmond gave me a searching look, and I stood up from my chair and ushered them into the library, where I showed them the portrait. They had been in my library before, and they had seen the portrait of Trevor hanging in the Lord's house, but the portrait in my library was much more informal. He was dressed in his hunting clothes, and sporting a bit of a grin on his unscarred face. The one in the Lord's house had him wearing a more solemn expression, while dressed befitting his station as Lord Belmont.

"How are we related to him?" Zoe asked.

"You two are descended from him through his oldest son, Jacob. Trevor is your great-great-great-great-grandfather."

"Wow."

"That's so neat."

I smiled, but a stirring from Hector's end of the bond made me shoo them home. It was rare for Hector to wake during the day, so I went in to check on him. I found him sitting up in bed, yawning and rubbing at his eyes.

"Hector?" I asked as I stepped into the room and shut the door behind me. "Did something wake you?"

"I don't know," he mumbled in a sleepy tone, "but I think I heard you talking about Trevor."

I sat down beside him and smoothed his hair back. "Desmond and Zoe were asking about him."

Hector made a small noise of understanding, and then he crawled onto my lap. I chuckled quietly and held him, and all was quiet for a few minutes.

Hector yawned. "I wonder sometimes," he said once it was done, "if he... if he had anything to do with my escape."

I was startled. "From Actose?"

Hector closed his eyes, snuggled in, and nodded. "Mmmhmmm."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Just... I always felt someone was down there with me, in the cellar. I suppose it could have been some unfortunate soul that Actose or one of the others had killed, but it always seemed to be.. concerned about me. I never saw whomever it was, but I heard him speak once. He told me that you would take care of me, if I could get to you."

"When did you hear this voice?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't have a way to keep track of time down there, and he left me down there so much."

"Trevor died only five years before I brought you home, little one, so I doubt it was him."

Disappointment filled the bond. "Oh," he whispered, "I had hoped..."

I gave him a light squeeze. "Do you know how you got here?" I asked. "You were too weak to hold your head up, much less stand and run, when I claimed you."

"I don't remember. I remember years of being hurt, and things are a fog for a while, and when the fog began to clear, I was here with you. I remember hearing the voice once, but I can't remember what it said. I remember them... doing things to me, but I could feel the movement and not really anything else, and then I remember hearing you telling me I was safe."

I remember the night I had claimed him as clear as day, and those weak, muffled screams he had made made my heart ache to think about.

Hector raised his head and looked at me. "You didn't want me at first."

I gave him a sad smile. "No," I said softly, "I didn't. You were so ill when I brought you home that I was never able to have a moment's rest. I stayed here just long enough to feed, bathe, and change you, and then I had to go out hunting for your next meal."

His eyes widened slightly. "But it doesn't take that long to hunt."

"It does when I needed to give you so much, so often. You fed every six hours for the first six weeks, and I had to hunt on your uncle and grandfather's territories too, because you needed more than mine could supply. As a result of that, I spent a lot of time traveling to and from."

He blinked, and then he laid his head back down and snuggled in. "Why did you take me then?"

I rocked him slightly. "Because I saw this sick, dying child being hurt by the one that was supposed to love and care for him. I couldn't leave him there, not with the knowledge of what awaited him once Actose got him home." I kissed his hair. "I demanded you in compensation, but it wasn't until I got you home and cleaned up that I realized who you were."

"I'm glad you did." Hector whispered, and I held him tighter.

"So am I, little one." I rocked him back to sleep, tucked him back into bed, and then I laid down beside him and held him as the sun moved across the sky.

******

Time moved on, and it angered Christopher to see how quickly Soleil was seemingly forgotten by the rest of the Belmonts. The child had made no friends amongst his relatives and none were bothered that he was gone, save for his parents and his children.

Delores, having already forgotten her parents, was just fine. She ran and played and grew into an adorable little tomboy. Some of the clan were shocked and scandalized at her behavior, but a glare from Christopher stopped them from voicing it. In 1610, Zoe, then aged nine, asked her grandfather for permission to join Desmond's training. Christopher was surprised, but after making sure that she was serious about it, agreed to let her. Desmond was twelve, and he often went out with his grandfather on training hikes in the forests. Sometimes I went along to act as the quarry like I had done so many times before. If the weather was warm and dry, Hector went with me and helped out when he could on the night hunts.

At age 14, Desmond was officially given the title of Vampire Hunter and heir to the Belmont legacy. It was, unfortunately, the age he was told about his father's actions years before. A late night knock on my door interrupted a quiet evening with Hector in the library, and I answered it to find a distraught Desmond standing on my porch.

"I need to talk to you." he said in a voice that shook, so I stepped aside and let him in. He walked over to stand by the living room fireplace, and he was silent for a few minutes.

"Grandpa told me what Papa did." he burst out without looking at me. I said nothing, and Desmond turned to face me with a desperate look on his face. "Tell me it's not true, Uncle Joachim."

"It's true, Desmond. All of it."

"Why?" He took a step towards me. "Why would he do such things? Run away from home? Cooperate with Dracula? He hurt Hector! Why?"

I saw Hector poke his head out of the library as I walked Desmond over to the couch and sat us down. He scrubbed at his eyes.

"I can only guess, Desmond, and your grandfather has likely told you the same already."

"Tell me."

I took a breath and let it out. "No one knows why, but you father... There is no delicate way to put this. Your father was a rotten brat for years. When he was very small, he was a sweet child, if a bit mischievous, but as he got older, his behavior worsened. He didn't care who or what he hurt, as long as he had fun. He even once frightened Hector so badly that Isaac felt the need to defend him, and then he demanded we destroy the Innocent Devil for attacking him." I felt Hector's surprise through the bond then. "Nothing your grandparents or anyone else did seemed to stop him. He had no friends, inside or outside the clan, and we can only guess that he ran off to try and make us sorry."

"And then he met a weakened Dracula." Desmond whispered.

"Yes. No one knows why he decided to cooperate with him. I know he told Dracula about Hector in an attempt to get even with me for Isaac's attack, but that is all. He kept his reasons to himself. When he came home, he was a changed young man, and he grew up into the man that you remember as your father. If it helps, think of that Soleil when you remember him. Don't think about the person he used to be."

"It's hard, Uncle Joachim. I used to get so angry at everyone for the way that they talked about him, and now I find out that they have reason for it?"

"Whatever mistakes your father made as a boy, Desmond, are no excuse for speaking ill of him now."

"I know, and Grandpa's being getting on them when he finds out, but... I remember them telling me that I would make a better Lord Belmont than Papa, and now I know why they said such things."

"You are the next Lord Belmont. Next time you hear such things, just throw some authority into your voice and tell them that that is enough."

He managed a watery chuckled. "I suppose that I could try that."

I reached out and placed my hands on his shoulders, which prompted him to raise his head and look at me. His blue eyes were red rimmed and puffy. "Desmond," I said in a gentle tone, "I know it's hard to hear such things about someone you love, but this changes nothing. He still loved you, your mother, and your sisters with everything he had. He accepted his mistakes and did his best to make up for them, and I've no doubt at all that he fought as hard as he could to protect your mother and himself, so they could come home to you and your sisters."

Desmond leaned into me, and I let go of his shoulders and wound my arms around him. He laid his head against my shoulder, and I held him as the minutes ticked by in silence.

Chapter 7-2 -- Chapter 7-4
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