Some would argue that there is no such thing as a hero. Scratch the surface of any great, inspiring figures' life story and you will find the sordid, unsavory details they'd rather you not know about. From world leaders, to vampire killers, to great artists. All of them are better known for the artificial image built up by their admirers than who they really were. Nobody wants to admit that someone can be both a nasty piece of work and a great writer, that a great war hero also carried out atrocities, or that a champion for the oppressed can still support the other kinds of prejudices of their time.
Perhaps the one exception to this however is Gina, the legendary warrior from the age of Tairos. A woman who became just as notorious as both an ally and enemy to the vile vampire horde. Whose dark past always stayed with her, but who was still able to do great things and prove vital in humanity's triumph over their vampiric adversaries.
This is the story of how she became ensnared by the undead and how she later not only broke away from their evil, but became their worst nightmare.
The age of Tairos was both an Eden and a nightmare for humanity. It began 100 years after the earth had been invaded and its surface destroyed by a hostile race of alien monsters known as the Hylexans. These Octopoid like creatures relied on magic rather than science to travel the universe and invade planets. They bombarded our own world with the darkest magics they had gathered on their travels across space. Almost all life on our planet was destroyed or twisted beyond recognition, except for one small island in the most remote place on earth. Point Nemo.
Protected by magics that had been built up over the centuries, the people of Point Nemo would 100 years after the Hylexans bombardment create a spell so powerful it was able to regenerate the entire earth from the Hylexans attack, covering all of the lands in a large beautiful, magical forest. The magic also restored the oceans that had been reduced to sludge by the Hylexans, turning them into golden waters, teeming with life.
This new magical world was christened Tairos and it was populated by the survivors of Point Nemo, though the magic that had brought the world back, would also bring back many of those who were killed in the Hylexan attack, as well as several animals, including even those from before the invasion. Dinosaurs for instance once again walked the earth, or Tairos as it was now known. (Though not all of them were brought back as they once were, leading to an even greater variety of Dinosaurs than before.)
Unfortunately however the vampire, mankind's greatest and most relentless predator soon infested this new paradise too. According to legend only one vampire had survived the destruction of the earth and it had been horrifically mutated by the Hylexans magics to the point where it was more than just a regular vampire. For 100 years it stalked the barren wastelands of the earth alone, and insane with rage and bloodlust, until the forests covered the earth once more. Using the restorative powers in the magics that had brought life to the planet, along with the book of Khastran (from the pages of which all vampire races had been created) the last remaining vampire was able to bring other members of his kind back, though he could only do so to such a large extent in the early years of Tairos, just after the planet had been restored.Afterwards he could only bring a very limited amount of vampires back afterwards. More than that however, he was also allegedly able to control them mentally to some extent thanks to his mutation from the Hylexan magic. The vampire race became unified like never before as a result, with the vampire who had made all of this possible coming to be known simply as the Emperor. His real name and identity remained a mystery for many centuries to come.
Despite their power and ferocity, the vampires had never been able to create a truly united society throughout human history before the Hylexans attack. They had only ever managed to form small settlements and groups, disconnected from each other, due to the fact that they were such selfish, greedy and amoral creatures.
The Emperor however whilst still allowing his followers to think for themselves and control their own actions, could sense whenever one of them would betray him and could stop or even kill them before they tried anything. He couldn't read their thoughts however. It was more an advanced form of empath reading.
This new vampire army, who became known as the vampire horde, also brought back and recruited many allies of the vampire race from before the attack, such as werewolves, ghouls, and the Turok Han to create the strongest army of demons ever seen in our planet's history.
These unholy creatures were sadly more unified than even humanity themselves at this point in its history. After venturing out into the new world they had created, it didn't take the survivors of Point Nemo long to start the usual infighting over petty differences. It's tragic but not surprising that the only time we were all truly unified was during our darkest period.
The survivors of Point Nemo later scattered across the world, as would the humans who had been revived by the magic, All forming into different communities.
The vampire horde at first struck at the smaller, more isolated towns and villages to rebuild their forces, though they soon became strong enough to attack the larger cities too.
As always the goal of the vampire race was to exterminate humanity, in order to complete their father and creator, the most evil and powerful of all demons, Khastran's curse which stated that when his children. The vampires, outnumber humanity, he would live again to take his vengeance on the rest of creation.
Gina was born during a period of Tairos' history when the larger cities had begun to form alliances with each other. Having finally woken up to the threat the vampire horde represented. Sadly the alliances were still loose, and many of the larger cities, in an effort to dominate their rivals kept new weapons and spells to themselves.
Gina and her family came from the city of Drasgaria. Her father, whose name was Gragian, was part of an elite group of witches and warlocks, whose goal was to create the ultimate weapon against the vampire horde using small samples of the Hylexans dark magics that had remained buried deep in the earth.
Their base of operations, or lab, was actually the ruins of an old castle, just outside the city. Gragian was a very accomplished warlock, who had already been part of the war against the vampires for over 100 years before Gina's birth. (Thanks to the planet's new magical nature, the life expectancy of people on Tairos was extended to over 200 years.)
According to the stories he used to tell Gina, Gragian first learned about magic when he was captured by the vampires themselves and placed in one of their death camps. His use of magic ultimately allowed he, and his fellow prisoners to escape. Whilst there is no denying that Gragian did free his fellow inmates using magic, it was not where he learned it. In actual fact he had shown both an interest and a talent for the black arts since he was a very young boy. Still this story made his natural talents and skills seem all the more unbelievable and the young Gina (as well as the people of Drasgaria) were happy to buy into it.
Gina's mother whose name was Taskina meanwhile would have a more significant impact on her, for better and for worse. Taskina was a great and noble warrior who took part in many prominent battles against the undead. Ironically even though Gragian had played a bigger role in repelling the vampires through the invention of several weapons, Taskina's exploits always fascinated their daughter more. In all fairness Taskina was actually out there facing the monsters in direct combat, whilst Gragian, other than his time in the camp, had been spared the undead's company up close throughout most of his life.
Whilst they may have competed in trying to impress their daughter, Gragian and Taskina were a genuinely loving couple, and the first five years of their daughters life, despite the ever present threat of the vampires, were happy.
Sadly their peaceful family life fell apart when Taskina was killed by a pack of vicious Turok Han who had overrun a small settlement. Drasgaria made a point of protecting the smaller settlements, not out of any kind of altruism, but because it felt that by gathering all of the smaller villages together, it could build a bigger army.
This village meanwhile had held out from their help, wanting to remain independent, until the vampires brought in the largest group of Turok Han yet against them. The Turok Han were considerably rarer than regular vampires, so much that Taskina had never encountered one of them before. Tragically as a result of this, she and the rest of the soldiers were hopelessly unprepared, overpowered and torn to pieces by the super demons.
Gragian threw himself into his work after Taskina's death, becoming more determined than ever to wipe the horde from the face of Tairos. Sadly this just led to him becoming more distant and at times somewhat colder to his daughter. He didn't mean to be. He genuinely thought that he was doing the best for Gina, by not only avenging her mothers death, but helping to create a world where she wouldn't have to live in constant fear of the threat of the vampires. At the same time Gina also came down hard on her father, accusing him of being a coward for not going out there and fighting the vampires himself like Taskina. She also came to idolise her mother to a far greater extent than when she was ever alive. The dead always make for better heroes as they can't remind you that they are just people.
Gina became determined to follow in her mothers footsteps and become a warrior in the army, though her father was against it after what had happened to his wife. Sadly this just led to further clashes between them, and by the time she was 17, Gina and her father were no longer on speaking terms.
Gina arguably got ahead in her military career, more because of who her mother had been than anything else. Whilst she did show some potential, everyone was more desperate to work with the daughter of the legendary heroine Taskina. It wasn't just Gina that had built her mother up into a mythical figure. Taskina along with others killed in the Turok Han attack were held up by Drasgaria as martyrs for the war. It was about the only thing the city could salvage from that crushing defeat.
Sadly out on the field, Gina's lack of experience soon caught up with her. Her first few hunts were successful, as they were targeting small vampire outposts along with a team of professionals.
On her fifth hunt, Gina's team was completely overwhelmed by a pack of vampires riding on the backs of several Allosaurus. Vampires had an affinity for Dinosaurs as their creator, Khastran had created their race when he was possessing the body of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Khastran crashed onto our planet at the end of the age of the Dinosaurs, after his first body had been destroyed. He then possessed the dead body of a Tyrannosaurus (the largest and most ferocious creature on earth) and devastated the surface of our planet, killing off the Dinosaurs, before taking to the stars again.
66 million years later he returned to our world whilst still possessing the Tyrannosaurus and created the vampire race in the early years of man, before his second and final death.
Dinosaurs were among the few creatures vampires didn't treat with cruelty. In fact some vampire cults even revered Dinosaurs as holy beasts. That said, they were still not above using the larger and stronger meat eaters such as Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, Giganotosaurus, and Allosaurus as mounts, and using dark magic to make them even stronger as well as more bloodthirsty.
Gina's team weren't prepared for Dinosaurs, having been led to believe the vampire faction were low on resources, and almost all of them were torn apart by the great reptiles.
Gina herself only survived because she tried to flee rather than fight. It's always a mistake to show any kind of weakness to vampires. If they think they can make you beg and plead for your life, they will extend your suffering for as long as they can. Gina however, who had never been in such a vulnerable position before wasn't thinking straight and ran as fast as she could.
Unfortunately, whilst they may have been over 30 feet long, Allosaurus were fast and agile and one of the beasts soon scooped Gina up in its jaws and brought her back to its vampire masters. The leader of this vampire faction, Clasia, who also commanded over the nearest vampire death camp wanted to keep Gina alive so she could have some fun with her. At the same time she also thought Gina might have potential. Vampires preferred to turn those who were already broken, twisted, and bitter people as they always made the most effective members of their kind.
Having already seen her greater anger at the vampires due to her mothers death, and her greater cowardice, coupled with her age and strength. Clasia believed that Gina would make an excellent vampire, but she would have to be tested first to see if she was truly fit to be one of them.
Gina was taken back to the camp, where she spent a few weeks doing menial labour with the other prisoners. Those the vampires didn't either feed on or turn, were put to work in the mines, to harness more magic and resources from the earth to aid the war effort.
Within her first week there Gina was already part of an escape plan. It was actually orchestrated by a double agent of the vampires in the mine, who had been promised death by the bloodsuckers if he did this for them. Clasia wanted to test Gina's reaction to something to see if she was fit to be one of them.
During her time in the camp Gina had met and befriended a young boy named Clareska, whose village had been the one Gina's mother had died defending. An obvious manipulation tactic by the vampires, but one that neither Gina nor Clareska were aware of.
Clareska's entire family had been killed by the Turok Han too, but he had managed to escape into the wilderness, where he lived the life of a nomad until two years ago when the vampires captured him.
In spite of the torture he had been through, he remained hopeful that the vampires would fail, having seen up close how much more desperate they had become.
Clareska was also able to give Gina some comfort by telling her how her mother really died, in a blaze of glory against a bloodthirsty Turok Han. Granted Gina always felt deep down that he was lying, but it was enough to get her through those long and hard nights.
Eventually after a month or so, Gina and her new band of allies. (Some of whom had even bought into the hype of her being Taskina's daughter.) Put their escape plan into action, but they got as far as the small patch of forest outside the mine, before one of the vampires pet Dinosaurs, a Triceratops stopped them in their tracks.
Gina however, again thanks to the vampire's manipulation was able to flee, as the Triceratops turned its attention towards her allies. Clareska was wounded in the process by the reptile's horns. Rather than try and flee like the last time, Gina instead did her best to try and distract the Triceratops and at one point she even tried to drag Clareska to safety. The difference was that she had actually had time to bond with Clareska, unlike her fellow soldiers, who she had a strictly professional relationship with. As a result she saw him as a human, rather than just a tool to use against the vampires and found she couldn't leave him.
It was disappointing to say the least for the vampires. They had become thrilled with the idea of the legendary Taskina's daughter becoming one of their own and had therefore put greater effort into testing her than they had done with most of the others.
Clasia sadly didn't give up and she would orchestrate a few more direct tests. First she tried to lock Gina in a room with a Raptor and unarmed, promising her that she would let Gina go if she gave her a signal to murder another prisoner she had there, a young man. Gina however called the vampires bluff, knowing that Clasia was going to a lot of effort to try and break her and therefore would most likely not just let her be devoured. After a few minutes she stopped trying to evade the Raptor, forcing the vampire to intervene. Sadly the male prisoner was killed by Clasia anyway.
Clasia would next try to break Gina by showing her that nobody back home cared that she was missing. Even Gina's own father who seemingly hadn't insisted on mounting a rescue mission. Gina had simply been presumed dead and the city had moved on. Gina's father was of course in truth overwhelmed with grief. In fact so much so he didn't return to his work, the only thing that had kept him going during his wife's death, for three years afterwards. He had genuinely tried to pressure the city into looking for his daughter and even tried to go out himself, but sadly the city didn't let him, as he was considered too important.
Clasia naturally kept this detail hidden, which was easy to do as the city didn't want the knowledge that they had failed the daughter of Taskina to be known. Sadly as the weeks turned into months and Gina was left to rot, Clasia's lies seemed more real to Gina and slowly began to break her will.
The vampire however grew impatient and soon resorted to more direct, brutal methods. Specifically a form of dark magic, that could keep its victims alive in the most unspeakable agony which she placed inside Gina's skin through a device. Even the other superiors in her camp were against it, as they felt this form of magic was too unpredictable, and worse if Gina died during the torture, (when most believed she would given her previous resistance.) It would send an even stronger message against the vampires, that the daughter of Taskina had been able to resist their most advanced torture methods and died a hero.
Still Clasia kept on, and Gina managed to hold out for only one day after which she broke. The pain was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. It cut its way deep into her soul. After the session was over, Gina swore she would do anything she could to resist another bout of torture.
Clasia would first use Gina to infiltrate and destroy a soldiers camp. The device under Gina's skin could allow the vampire to activate the black magics whenever she wished, effectively keeping Gina on a leash. Gina pretended she was an escaped prisoner who was being chased by the vampires to the soldiers who took Gina back to their camp, which was hidden by magic. Unfortunately however Gina was able to use a device known as a sencos given to her by the vampires to break the magic defences down from within and allow the bloodsuckers to attack. All of the soldiers were butchered. Gina would then be used as bait in a few more traps for soldiers and even small settlements in the coming months. The vampires would always make sure that there were no survivors from any attack involving Gina so that no one could identify her. They did intend to reveal her eventually to break their enemies, but for now she was in some ways, one of their most useful weapons.
Gina tried to resist a few more times, but she would always be broken by Clasia reactivating the magic inside her.
After one year of betraying her own people, Gina was given her final test by Clasia. It was one thing to set people up for slaughter, but now Gina had to prove that she actually had the stomach for direct murder.
The vampires brought Clareska to her. Along with all of the others who had taken part in Gina's botched escape attempt (including even their own double agent,) Clareska had been subject to torture at the vampires hands for the last year. Even though the vampires themselves orchestrated the escape attempt as a test, they still wanted to send a message to the rest of their prisoners that none of them should even try. The others had eventually been tortured to death, but Clareska had been kept alive just a bit longer on orders of Clasia herself, for this sick game.
Clasia gave Gina a sword and told her that she would be tortured unless she cut the helpless Clareska open. Gina of course refused and Clasia activated the dark magic within her body. For the first time however, Gina actually fought through the pain. She lifted her sword up and tried to strike Clasia, but the magic was too overwhelming and she soon collapsed before she could even bring her sword down.
"Why put yourself through this suffering?" Clasia taunted.
"This pathetic creature will die no matter what? Look at him? He is already dead. Everything he was, has been broken in our dungeons? Put him out of his misery."
Indeed Clareska didn't even seem to react that much to the threat, though when he first saw Gina a small smile came over his lips that had quickly been beaten out of him by Clasia.
Unable to cope with the pain anymore, in desperation Gina plunged the sword straight into Clareska's stomach and sliced him open.
Clasia, who normally tried to maintain a poised, and dignified stance couldn't help but burst out laughing, stating.
"Now you are truly fit to be one of us."
This final act of torture broke Gina mentally. After this she willingly took part in more traps, and even slaughtered some of the human soldiers themselves. In the subsequent five years she worked for the vampire horde, Gina would be responsible for the deaths of over 500 people, directly and indirectly.
She never expressed any joy in her killings, and certainly not any remorse either. In fact she didn't express emotions of any kind during the entire time she worked with the vampires. The murder of Clareska had made Gina pretty much dead to everything.
Clasia however continued to take a special interest in Gina. She could have turned her at any point, but she saw Gina as a special project and felt that she was more useful as a human slave who could infiltrate their defenses. Most disturbingly however, Clasia began to see herself as a mother figure to Gina. She would regularly try to convince Gina that unlike her father or mother, she would never abandon her and always put Gina above her work. Sadly after several years, Gina began to see Clasia that way too. Strangely enough the only moments of any kind of emotion Gina ever showed was the odd bit of affection for her "mummy". Clasia also filled Gina's head with her own twisted philosophy that the vampires were the true heroes. She argued that both vampires and humanity were capable of great evil (hence why neither could form a cohesive society) but that the vampires were honest and could therefore see what their evil was, and that by exploring it to its full potential now, they would understand and be able to control it one day. Humanity meanwhile by denying their true nature would never understand the darkness inside them and would eventually be consumed by it.
Clasia's "philosophy" was nothing more than a pathetic attempt to try and justify her own sadism. Even before becoming a vampire Clasia had been a cruel and depraved individual. She had been part of a small, but vicious group of petty criminals prior to the Hylexan invasion. After being brought back in the creation of Tairos, she willingly offered herself up to become a vampire simply to survive. Just as in life, she was nothing more than a lackey at first, but becoming a vampire would unleash Clasia's more ambitious side, and gradually over the centuries she had risen through the ranks to become one of their most prominent generals, who ran one of their most prominent death camps. The fact that she was allowed to indulge in this sadistic side project with Gina alone, showed how much pull she had in the vampire ranks. Still the vampire queen's cruel ideology had an effect on the young Gina and helped her sleep at night for the time being.
The only good thing to come from Gina's time with Clasia was that she was able to learn and master far more advanced fighting techniques from Clasia and the other vampires. Ironically Gina finally became a truly great warrior like she had always wanted, though definitely not in a way she could have imagined. Clasia also fed Gina magics, which whilst not making her a magical creature, still gave her higher than normal healing capabilities and a greater resistance to magic.
After five years of being groomed by them, the vampires would send Gina to deal with the person she now blamed for all of her misfortune. Her own father.
Gragian had finally returned to work, with his and the other scientists' decades of research in harnessing the Hylexans magic having seemingly paid off to some extent.
The bomb they had created with the Hylexans magic was still unstable, and there were fears that this much concentrated Hylexan magic unleashed could have the same effect as before. The vampires however had an advantage through Gina who could be used as a spy, due to her connection with Gragian.
Gina agreed, not just to escape the torture they would have inflicted on her, but because she wanted to make the city of Drasgaria suffer for abandoning her.
Using knowledge her father had given her when she was a little girl, and she had come to visit him at his place of work. Gina was able to infiltrate the castle and tried to steal plans for the weapon. Unfortunately however she was spotted on her way out by none other than her own father. (Though some think she did this on purpose, wanting to make her father suffer by knowing how much he had failed his child.)
Gragian instantly recognised her and was so overcome with emotion that he burst into tears. Unfortunately Gina, thinking it was a trick, attacked him and tried to flee. Not wanting to lose his daughter a second time. Gragian summoned the security. With no other choice, Gina was forced to flee back to the main room where she had stolen the plans, where she threatened to set the bomb off. In the tense shootout that followed, the bomb was hit by a stray gun. Gina was still able to escape, though not without losing the plans first. Unfortunately despite their best attempts the scientists were not able to stop the bomb from going off. Not only was the lab consumed, but a good chunk of Drasgaria was too. Thousands of innocent people were slaughtered in the blast, including Gina's own father, who stayed behind until the last second to try and shut down the bomb. Only one scientist named Mastia escaped from the destruction. Ironically he had been a friend of Gina's family and had known her growing up. She even considered him to be something of an uncle. He was in many ways just as heartbroken as her father, but that despair soon turned to anger and rage at Gina for betraying her father and he made sure that all of Drasgaria knew who the traitor was.
Gina soon became the most wanted woman in not only Drasgaria, but all the major cities in Tairos that had formed a loose alliance with it. The leaders of Drasgaria had hoped that the Hylexan weapon could better unite the cities and smaller communities by providing them with a weapon that could make a real dent in the vampire war machine.
Now however not only was the weapon gone, but all of the research it had taken decades to build up had vanished with it. A truly devastating loss for the alliance and humanity in general.
Gina's reputation soon overshadowed that of both her parents. In fact, tragically some of the leaders of the alliance even attempted to denounce her parents, so as to save face. Her mother was rebranded a coward whose successes were all down to other soldiers, whilst her father was even smeared as a traitor who helped Gina sneak her way into the laboratory, much to the protest of Mastia.
Gina had destroyed everything she had ever believed in and was now nothing more than a pawn of the monsters that had in turn destroyed her. Even more tragically by this stage she either couldn't see it, or even cared. In fact the only person she thought had her back was the very same demon that had turned her into this.
Gina would continue to help the vampires in direct battles for the next five or so years. Clasia still didn't turn her, despite facing pressure from above to do so. She was too fascinated in seeing how far she could push Gina and felt the fact that she was a loyal human soldier sent a better message.
Unfortunately for Clasia, a little over ten years after she had first abducted Gina, her "daughter" would finally find a way to be free of the vampire queen's demonic grasp and rediscover who she really was.