Castlevania: Reunions

29: Training

"Nervous?" Ruby asks looking at her brother "Course I am" he says as they enter the house that afternoon "I'm home" Gabriel says heading to the kitchen "I never thought I'd see you two again" Stella says, she's older, you can see that and using a walking stick "I believe you should explain" Ruby says "Right, Gabriel, your friends arrived, I send them to your room". When the three are alone Trevor hugs Stella "I do have to explain" she says "Sit down, there are cookies" "Right" Ruby mumbles inspecting the room, stopping near a recently used crossbow in a glass case "Gabriel died at the hands of demons" Stella says "I would've been dead too if it wasn't for Carmilla, she didn't turn me though, she wouldn't, Gabriel told her to save me" "You have vampire blood in your system, yet you're not a vampire" Trevor says following Ruby's movements through the room "Correct" Stella says "I gave birth to my sons a few weeks later, which left me weakened, so I fled the land and came here, months before the Belmont grounds were moved here, but upon visiting I couldn't find anyone, so I tried your hidden room, but I couldn't sense any of you. One of my kids died thanks to an illness, the other was devastated, but eventually was himself again". Ruby sighs as she sits down "So how come I find that kid on the Belmont grounds hiding from some evil Dracula worshippers?" "He'd been bragging at school about how his great grandmother was still alive, they killed his parents and grandparents" Stella explains "But I'm dying, a drawback from the vampire blood, I live longer, but my body won't be able to handle it at some point, that point is coming" "How did you even know to look for me in the hold?" Ruby asks "Adrian came by that night, carrying you, bloodied and injured, said you guys ran into some of Isaac's stronger leftover demons and that you protected Rose, never saw him leave the hold, but Rose came in the morning and asked me to open the passage for her, I did", Trevor thinks for a while "Still don't get how that's your great grandkid" "Her kids must have had vampire blood, it killed one, the remaining one passed it down" Ruby says, earning a nod from Stella "Yes, they all lived very long, however before he was born I used an old spell to remove the blood, knowing people were looking for it, but in the end I fully erased it, so I could die, I miss him, a lot" "We'll go and find a spot in our family graveyard then" Trevor says eventually "Those guys, they knew, they were about to call Adrian a vampire, meaning they can sense it" Ruby says "But they cannot sense humans" "I thought you guys were dead" "We did bury Gabriel in our graveyard, I remember that, I thought you died after-" "I regret that I wasn't there" Stella says "But I couldn't stay, not with demons and the church after me".

The two say goodbye to Gabriel and they start their walk back "That'll be Tony" Ruby says answer her phone "I thought you were going to be at the tower" Steve says making Ruby chuckle "Give Tony his phone back Steve, also he didn't specify a time, you need me for something?" "Training" Steve says like it's the most obvious thing in the world "I'll go home and grab my weapons, then I'll be on my way" she says before ending the call.

In the training room Nat catches the gun "Told ya that you needed it" the assassin says "I shot someone's knee, idiot wanted to accuse Adrian of being a vampire within Rose her earshot" Ruby comments "Now how does this training work?" "First you go through this parkour, you can change the design over there, then you'll spar against those who has around the same time" Tony says "And what's with the bear fur cloak?" "Hiding weapons?" Ruby asks "But I don't want it to catch fire so I'll put it over there with Barton's bow and arrows, still prefer a crossbow, you can't convince me otherwise", the other Avengers are surprises to see the heavy crossbow, but that's put on the ground along with the matching arrows, still silver, and the cloak "That's... a whip" Tony says "Yep, what about it?" "No one even uses that anymore, besides the Belmonts, they have some weird one called Morning star" Steve says "Which is made purely of silver and very effective in killing vampire, demons and werewolves" Ruby says "I am a Belmont, I've seen my brother use it, never used it myself, but that's fine, now where can I change this?" "That panel over there" Tony says. When the changes are saved they are surprised "I didn't even think of that, Jarvis, save these settings" Tony says "Already did sir, will everyone be using this?" "Yes" Steve says, making Ruby grin "This should be fun" she says "By all means, go ahead" Natasha says. Ruby runs up the ramp, jumping at the last second to reach a bar and swinging over some rubber spikes before swiftly dodging the moving fire pillars with some extra speed and jumping over a gap "She's good" Thor says "But why is she take a few steps back?" "To gain more speed?" Clint asks, using her whip Rubyl latches on to another beam hanging overhead and she slides down to avoid the lasers, easily jumping the floating platforms and dodging the last spikes obstacles before landing at the ending point. "Impressive" Jarvis says "Messed up my landing or I would've been able to go faster" she says "Why did you hurry through the fire pillars?" Natasha asks "I didn't-" "You did" Tony says earning a sigh "I watched my house burn down to the ground" Ruby says showing the faded mark on her back "The same house you rebuild?" Bruce asks "Yeah, I had help from Adrian and his parents". Turns out Ruby's opponent is Barton and both ignore their weapons in favor of close combat "Wouldn't be fair otherwise" Clint says "Agreed on that, here take a dagger" Ruby says tossing him one of her non silver daggers, of course she has to hold back a lot, so they are somewhat evenly matched, but when they both land a blow Clint watches the cut heal instantly and he narrows his eyes, but he doesn't comment on it. "Okay that's enough" Tony says "Ruby, why on Earth are you holding back?" "Cause I don't want to kill him?" she asks "What do you mean with that?" "I held back during the parkour, held back two days ago when Hulk tried to squash me for whatever reason" "You made him angry that time. Wait you held back?" "When I was on the road I fought a lot, demons, clergymen, I will explain that one another time, vampires, werewolves, I didn't have to hold back because I wanted them dead, there was this one guy who made me bring down his hideout" "What'd you have against people from the church?" Steve asks "Personal stuff, not gonna answer that right now" "But you're describing Peter's history book, just differently" Tony says earning a shrug "Point is, I'm constantly holding back because I can" "Then fight me, I can handle a lot" Thor says "You sure?" she asks "I don't have my sword". Thor can handle a lot, but Natasha sees the point the damphir stops holding back and she dodges the thunder in a blur of red, appearing behind Thor, who dodges her next attack only half "I haven't even started yet" she says doing a back flip to dodge the hammer and she grins "This is fun" she says. In the end Thor loses because he's running out of energy and Ruby holds her crossbow aimed at his head "I can see why you hold back" Steve says when Ruby dumps the crossbow with her cloak with an "I'm getting rusty". Steve tries lifting the weapon, but he fails "That is not a matter of being worthy" Thor says "Correct" Ruby says "It's a very heavy weapon, I have a sword I'll bring another time, was that all?" "Yes" Tony says "We've all learned a lot today". Adrian welcomes Ruby back home "Rose is at Stella's house, catching up" he says "I made dinner" "Great, I'm starving, Tony made us run a parkour and the fight whoever had the time closest to the other, although I could fight Thor at three fourth of my current power, that felt good" "Current power?" Adrian asks earning a nod and he understands "It's been stressful lately" Ruby says "And it is more believable this way, it's why you and Rose are resisting too" she adds quietly earning a sigh "Good news, Sypha and Lisa got some information out of Carmilla, seems the guys after vampire blood attacked her, but she disappeared before they could do anything else" Adrian says "But the advise was not to visit, promise me you will be careful and if you need it, do not hesitate to drink" he whispers the last part "Alright, but we cannot hide that way" Ruby mumbles "When Rose is back we'll go to the castle and decide what to do there" Adrian says "Agreed?" "Agreed, you know, I'd feel safer if we'd get her". Stella's house is on fire when they arrive and Ruby runs in without warning, quickly finding Gabriel and Rose upstairs "Mom get out!" Rose says, but Ruby grabs them both before jumping out through the window "Where's Stella?" she asks "She was in the basement when the fire started, mom your arm-" "Go to your father" Ruby says going back inside the building and she kicks open the basement door "Ruby" Stella says when the elderly Belmont sees the dhampir "You're a fucking Belmont, protect your house against fire" Ruby says and she drags her niece up the stairs "Sorry Ruby" Stella says. Outside the firefighters are surprised to see someone already went in "Let's go" Adrian says "Where?" Gabriel asks "Somewhere safe" Ruby answers.