It was raining outside. The sound of raindrops pounding against the window woke him up, and Hugue opened his eyes, disturbed by the sudden feeling of not knowing where he was. He was lying in a bed, and as he looked around in the room, he slowly recognized his surroundings. He was back at the church of the town; they had spent the previous night here, and this was the room where he had slept.

"Ah, you're awake," a familiar voice called from nearby. "You got lucky there, you know, Hugue. The lightning fried that vampire, and although the hit was indirect, you still got zapped good." There was a pause, the speaker - William Walter Wordsworth, whom Hugue knew to be the owner of the voice - then continued. "Your hair looked like Abel's in Kresnik form when I got here. I spent quite a while earlier trying to get that in order."

The blond didn't answer. He closed his eyes for a moment before suddenly remembering the end of the fight, and he raised his left hand and looked at it, then frowned. He found himself unable to move his fingers, and he turned to look at William, who was sitting in a chair next to the window.

"Oh, about that," William noted while studying his pipe. "The blade went through the cybernetic part quite neatly and I doubt you even felt it, but it damaged some small parts in there. I tried to fix it a little already, but I need a couple of specific tools to complete it. But don't worry, I'll have it-"

"Master," Hugue cut in. He sat up slowly, his gaze quickly checking the room for his clothes. They were on a chair by the bed; he looked at them for a second, then turned to the other man again and asked, "What happened?"

The older man looked at him and smiled. "Well," he said. "Guess it would be a good idea to tell you that too. Now then. If I remember correctly, this mission started when the Vatican got the word about the vampires causing trouble around here."

Hugue looked at William for a moment, and although it didn't show from his face, he suddenly regretted asking that question.

"So Abel and Tres were sent here, and since you had just finished another mission to the north of this area, I told Kate to contact you and tell you to come here as well," William explained while trying to light his pipe. "I figured you'd be valuable as a backup, and I was right! You got here the day before yesterday, and by then Abel and Tres had already found out where the vampires were staying-"

"Day before yesterday?" Hugue interrupted.

William turned to look at him. "Oh, right. It's tomorrow from your point of view. You were unconscious for most of the night and the morning. It's around noon now. Well as I was saying, Abel's decision was to attempt to reason with the vampires, and yesterday evening the three of you..."

The blond lowered his face, frowning slightly. "I told him it would be useless." He wanted to add 'And I knew all this already' but kept quiet. It appeared William felt like ranting about things he already knew, and he again regretted asking. Hugue just didn't bother to voice his opinion; he figured it would have been useless anyway. Besides, they were getting to the part he didn't know; he had, after all, been told to stay outside.

"Oh that it was, but it was worth a try," the older man continued. "So from what I heard, there were five of them-"

"Six!" Someone suddenly cut in. The voice was a little muffled, like the speaker had been in another room - which was exactly the case. Hugue raised his face then just stared at the wall indifferently; William meanwhile leaned closer, smiling.

"Good morning to you too, Abel," he said. "You've been listening to my story?"

"The walls here are thin," Hugue stated dryly. "I noticed during the previous night."

William tilted his head, appearing curious; Abel meanwhile suddenly sounded annoyed. "Wha- you...? That was absolutely nothing, and...!" He continued rambling while William looked at Hugue questioningly, then suddenly grinned and listened to Abel go on. "It's not like it would make that much of noise! And and... It was all because Tres couldn't sleep, that's all! And there were six of them," Abel quickly added, trying to turn the subject back to William's recap.

"All right. Six," William repeated. "Well now, Tres' report here," he tapped a couple sheets of paper on the desk nearby. "Tres wrote that they were not willing to listen at all and just attacked. He took down three before they got close and got occupied trying to shoot at another one. Their leader then attacked Abel and managed to stab him..."

Hugue looked at the older man, disinterested. He could, however, easily guess where the story was going.

"...However," William continued. "Half-way through the Kresnik transformation one of the remaining ones managed to cut the chain holding a large chandelier above Abel, and that dropped on him, hitting him in the back of his head and knocking him unconscious. That's why he's wounded. Tres had to stop shooting at them and go lift that thing off of him before it crushed him. The two remaining vampires..." He paused. "Wait, but if there were six, where's the last one? Abel?"

"My head hurts," came the reply from behind the wall. Abel's voice sounded quite miserable now. "And that was the one Tres was shooting at before he had to stop to help me. Where did he go anyway and why is he not here? I could use some help here..."

William shrugged. "I think he went to check what's left of the mansion. He'll be back later," he said. "How about you try to get some sleep meanwhile? Now then, as I was saying..."

"But my head hurts!" Abel complained. He was ignored, however, as William turned to look at Hugue again.

"The leader was the wounded one that you killed," he finished. "The other one set the mansion on fire and escaped. You should know what happened next. Except for the part where Tres came to check what was taking you so long and found you from the edge of the woods, unconscious."

Hugue nodded slightly. He then looked at his hand again, his expression darkening. William looked at him then leaned back in his chair and glanced outside. It was still raining heavily, and the sky was dark. He shook his head, then smiled to the younger man.

"You'll have to deal with it for now," he said gently. "I'll go get the tools needed from the Iron Maiden and fix it. The damage isn't too bad, and you can thank me for being alive, dear boy. You see, I made sure there wouldn't be problems with your hands ending up in contact with extremely hot or highly electric surfaces, them being metal and all, so it wouldn't conduct to your body..." He paused, then stood. "It reduced the shock, although not completely. And the result is there; I need to fix that hand of yours."

He moved next to the bed and patted Hugue on the shoulder. "It's fine. Just stay here and rest for the day. I'll go get those tools and will get to that in no time! ...Hmm?"

Hugue stared at the window, a dark look in his eyes. He thought he had seen something just then, but it was gone. He tried to get up and go take a better look, but his body suddenly resisted, and he gritted his teeth, then lay back down.

William looked at the window, then shook his head again. The smile returned to his face as he petted the younger man's blond hair. "Just rest. I'll be back soon, and things will be fine then." He then moved away, walked to the door and left.

The rain continued beating against the window, and Hugue just closed his eyes, silently hoping he could have gone as well.