The war between humanity and the vampire horde has not only spread throughout our entire history, but across the universe and multiple timelines too. Whilst many great figures and organisations have all played their role in stopping our demonic rivals from claiming the earth and reviving their vile creator, the demon god Khastran. (Who it is said will walk the earth again only when his children, the vampires outnumber humanity.) No organisation has proved more important in the battle against the undead than The Soldiers of the Nexus, a strange palace in the centre of the time vortex.
Before we explore their role in holding back the vampire horde however, we must first look at how The Soldiers of the Nexus were formed.
It all began with a member of the Cushing family, near the end of the 21st century named Alistair who was born in the year 2045. The Cushings were arguably the most famous and influential family of vampire killers. Unlike the Van Helsings who ensured whatever they learned about the vampire and the paranormal in general was shared with as many people as possible. The Cushings kept their knowledge of the supernatural to themselves in order to gain power. Eventually however at the start of the 20th century, the Cushing's main base of operations was destroyed by vampires, and the survivors fled around the world. Some of the surviving Cushings abandoned their old ways and tried to live normal lives. Others meanwhile attempted to make up for their forebears selfishness and spread their information, whilst others tried to rebuild their former power. One group of Cushings was later able to regain a footing in the city of Marsters near the end of the 20th century, with the city having been a hotspot for vampires. Ironically it was thanks to the actions of a disgraced member of their lineage named Vincent Cushing that the family was able to regain a small semblance of their former power in this city. Vincent had been rejected by the other surviving Cushings simply due to the fact that he had been turned into a vampire, but he had been able to control his thirst and ultimately became a great hero, though sadly he was dead by the time Alistair was born.
Alistair used the Cushing wealth primarily to hunt vampires and demons like his forebears for the first 50 years of his life and achieved many incredible victories against the vile undead. His greatest adversary however was the ancient vampire king Xandros Gatiss and it was as a result of this bitter feud that the Soldiers of the Nexus would later be founded.
Xandros was a born vampire. There are many different breeds of vampire, but they can all be broadly divided into four categories.
The differences between breeds comes about through how the demonic infection grows and spreads. Pure vampires are when the demonic energy vampires inject into their victims (through a bite, blood, or both depending on the breed.) Infects the human's soul and transforms it into a demonic soul. All positive emotions such as love, remorse and compassion are purged and not only is a killer instinct added, but all negative traits the person had in life are heightened. These include the vast majority of vampire breeds on earth. Savage vampires are when the demonic energy ejects the human soul from the body and grows into a demon that reanimates the corpse. These vampires are among the strongest and possess no humanity whatsoever. They are as single minded as animals, and are driven solely by instinct and desire to kill. Soul vampires meanwhile are at the bottom of the vampire hierarchy. They are when the demonic energy grows into a demon inside the human, but the human soul is not ejected. Instead the demon soul represses the humans positive aspects, adds a killer instinct and heightens their negative, dark, twisted desires. Whilst the overwhelming majority of soul vampires are evil and bloodthirsty it is possible for them to fight the demon's influence, unlike savage vampires where no humanity is left, and pure vampires where humanity is purged. There have been examples of these kinds of vampires fighting their darker urges and even using their powers for good such as Varney, Carlene, and most famously, the benevolent time travelling vampire hero Professor Fang.
Born vampires finally are the children of two pure vampires, though only a few breeds can have children. Born vampires are the most powerful, and though they age unlike other vampires, it is only until they are adults. Born vampires will almost always function at the top of any vampire, clan, society or organisation they are a part of.
Gatiss' family tree meanwhile were royalty and came from before recorded history began during the age of the gods. Whilst few records of them survive, and the kingdom they ruled over, Halliar has been lost to time. According to Xandros himself, they were already filthy degenerates even before his parents were turned into vampires by their court jester. Xandros, after reaching maturity, naturally turned on and killed both of his parents, and took over the kingdom. However his cruelty was such that even the people of Halliar whose will had seemingly been crushed under his parents rule, could not bare it any longer and turned on Xandros, leading to him destroying Halliar using black magic.
The vampire king then built up his forces over the centuries establishing a reputation as the most feared and powerful vampire king on the planet. Through a combination of his cunning and willingness to sacrifice his own followers, Xandros lived through the reign, war and eventual departure of the gods. He later took part in the Trajan wars, and then the vampires war with their most hated rivals, the soul devouring vandals. His actions during the latter conflict were ultimately responsible for the horrors of what has been called the worst year in our recorded history, 536.
Using the blood of over 200 witches that he personally killed. Xandros cast a magical shield over the earth which blocked out the sun for 18 months, covering the entirety of 536. The vampires subsequently under Xandros' leadership ran rampant and killed more people in this single year than any before it in all of recorded history.
Ultimately however the vampire's reign of terror came to an end when Xandros was slain by an alliance of witches, demons and vandals. The vampire king had deliberately engineered the spell that blocked out the sun to only last as long as he lived. He did so to ensure the vampires would never turn on him and it worked, allowing them to be more united than they ever were before or after until the age of Tairos. In the end however the vampires still underestimated their enemies. Following Xandros death, the magics became unstable with nothing holding them together, leading to an explosion which destroyed Xandros base of operations and the bulk of the vampires elite soldiers and weapons (as well as all of Xandros' killers too who willingly gave their lives.) The vampires arguably never recovered from this loss, which along with numerous other races uniting against them due to the horrors of 536, ensured their defeat at the vandals hands several centuries later, which in turn led to the vandals ruling Europe from behind the scenes for centuries, until their reign was brought down ironically thanks in part to the Cushings. The year 536 lived on in infamy however even among official historians, but the cause of the sun being blocked out was later attributed to several volcanoes.
Alistair Cushing first encountered Xandros, when an elite group of vampires restored him to life. These bloodsuckers worshipped their creator Khastran with a religious fever, and were dedicated to learning the full history of their kind. They had in their research detected some of the surviving magics that Xandros had used to block out the sun all those centuries ago. Not all of it had been destroyed in the explosion. Fragments of the enchantments continued to drift aimlessly as nothing more than an echo throughout the area of Xandros death (which was uninhabitable for over 1000 years after.) Though there were a few occasions where the magic drifted beyond the vampire king's resting place and collided or interfered with certain spells or creatures in the nearby area, creating magical upheaval. This further helped to make the area of Xandros death a no go zone. These vampires however who were worshippers of Xandros, and had retrieved several lost records of what really happened in 536 were able to deduce what was causing them. They used that very magic that was still linked with him, even in death to anchor Xandros Gatiss' soul back to our world, and restore his body as well. Sadly however this left very little of the magics for the vampire to use to block out the sun afterwards (something Xandros killed his resurrectors for.)
Still over many years using what little that was left and the blood of more witches, Xandros was able to restore the spell and attempted to block out the sun once more. Thankfully Alistair who was drawn by the rise in vampiric activity in the area, and using a team of vampire killers he had spent years working with, as well as several members of his family attacked Xandros' base. All of Cushing's hunters were slain however, and it was only thanks to their sacrifices that Alistair was able to still barely stop Xandros' plan, destroying seemingly the last of the vampire king's magics in the process.
The vampire king vowed revenge and pursued Alistair back to the city of Marsters, which he then terrorised for almost an entire year. Xandros killed literally thousands of people, men, women and children, all to make Alistair suffer by undoing his and his forebears' life's work in keeping their new home city safe since the days of Vincent from the supernatural. Its people who had previously viewed Alistair and the Cushing's as heroes (with the supernatural being an open secret in the town.) Came to condemn them for bringing the fury of the vampire king down on the city. Most of the Cushing's were wiped out trying to defend Marsters, with Alistair only being spared continually by Xandros so he could live with the shame. Not since their destruction of their original base of operations in the early 20th century had the Cushing family suffered such a devastating loss.
Eventually however Xandros detected the presence of another trace of his original spell, that had survived for over 1000 years. It had in the ensuing centuries drifted to Italy where it was preserved by a witch hoping to try and harness its power, which she never did before her death. Still it remained there separate from the rest of the spell. Alistair, despite having failed to protect his people, and having been left virtually a broken man from what Xandros had done to Marsters, still did not give up and followed his vampiric nemesis to Italy.
Their final battle took place in Capri, where in its famous blue grotto, Xandros attempted to rebuild his magics. He was able to create a powerful magical anomaly deep in the caves, but before he could bind it to his will, Cushing attacked him by surprise and was able to push Xandros into the unstable magic which took the form of a sphere, where the vampires body was seemingly torn to pieces.
Unfortunately however the magic did not fade as a result of Xandros' death like before as he had not had the time to link it to himself. Alistair tried for months using all the magics he and the surviving Cushings could to try and shut it down.
One misguided spell from Alistair who grew terrified of what the magic could do unchecked, led to the anomaly growing in size and power, resulting in Alistair himself being pulled into the magical sphere. He was not torn apart however. Instead Alistair was pulled through time and space itself and hurled through the vortex for goodness knows how long until he eventually arrived in the nexus.
This strange place is similar to the Abyss, the dimension that time travellers who change history are banished too, in that it simply has the appearance of a wasteland, but unlike the Abyss, the rules of time and space do still apply here. You will age, you can die etc. Furthermore, unlike the Abyss, no one quite knows what the purpose of the nexus is. It appears to simply be an isolated mini world, from which potentially every other point in history is accessible. It is not just as simple as stepping out of any part of the nexus and you will find yourself somewhere in time however. You still have to navigate the vortex that exists all around it to get to your proper destination, or else you may be in danger of just drifting through the vortex for all eternity.
As soon as Alistair arrived in the nexus he saw that he was not the only one to discover it. There was in fact a gigantic castle, filled with hundreds of people, that was also surrounded by a beautiful forest and lakes.
Alistair, who was welcomed by those in the castle, soon discovered that he was hundreds of years in his future, and that his tinkering with Xandros' magics had huge consequences, bigger than he could have imagined. Thanks to Alistair's and others' since's efforts, Xandros' spell upset the balance of the natural order in the earth, leading to a small rip in the time vortex itself within the sphere.
Not long after Alistair's disappearance in 2097, other members of the Cushing family used their resources to ensure select groups of hunters stood guard over the magical anomaly in the blue grotto to prevent the vampires from using it to complete Xandros' plan. They were given aid by the Van Helsing family, who had also risen in prominence by this stage, with Peter Van Helsing being the one to secure the alliance. (Prior to this the Cushings and the Van Helsings had generally despised one another due to their differing methods. It was only with the help from the Van Helsings however that the Cushings were able to protect Xandros' sphere and Peters tireless research proved vital in understanding it.)
Generations of hunters from both families continued to stand over and experiment on the sphere, even after human civilisation fell in the 22nd century. A botched resurrection attempt of Khastran, the father of the vampires alerted humanity to the existence of the supernatural in the 22nd century, leading to human civilisation eventually breaking down as not only were humans unable to cope with knowledge of the supernatural, but the vampires and supernatural creatures themselves panicked after their identity was exposed and became more bold and daring in their attacks.
Still the Cushings and the Van Helsings, guarded the sphere with an arguably even greater determination afterwards as neither family wanted the vampires in that situation to secure their victory with its power. It was during this time that the tunnel was first created, when one of the Cushings became lost in the anomaly. After she was rescued, the two families became interested in seeing where the anomaly led, having previously believed that no one could survive it. They hoped they could perhaps learn about and potentially change their future after discovering that the sphere led to the vortex. Further experiments eventually led to the families creating a tunnel that led straight through the vortex, to the nexus itself.
At first the nexus became a useful base for both families in fighting back against the vampires and demons threatening to overrun the earth. The castle and the forest were built by the Cushings and Van Helsings using magic during this time. Eventually however they no longer had any need to hide, as in the 23rd century humanity was able to re-establish itself with the aid of two alien species, the Zeta Reticulans and the Venusians who helped humanity overcome the supernatural horrors plaguing their world, which in turn lead to the golden age where the human race became a part of the Federation.
Both the Cushing and Van Helsing families played an important role in helping to re-establish human society, which would not have been possible had they not had the protection of the nexus. Over the course of the 22nd and 23rd centuries, before the Venusians and Zeta Reticulans arrived, the families were also joined by other warriors and allies from around the world establishing the first order of the soldiers. The Cushings and Van Helsings continued to experiment with the magics of the vortex that were unlike any on earth after peace was restored, which in the late 23rd century led to the discovery of the power to look into possible timelines.
Every single moment in time has its alternatives, though obviously only one is able to manifest due to our actions, and the environment around us. Still through the use of time travel sometimes we can create our own past by travelling backwards in time and setting the events that shaped our own history in motion.
This is what the leaders of the nexus warriors learned when they saw multiple possible timelines where the vampires won through various means in both the past and future, which were only foiled through their intervention. The warriors soon set about making sure their own history came into existence. The war to save earth that they had just been through in the 23rd century was just one of literally thousands against the vampire horde that they would have to fight.
The new government of earth gave the warriors, who were made up of far more than the Cushings and the Van Helsings at this stage, the resources to master the magics of the vortex to the point where they could travel to any period either before or after that they needed, and even across space. In the time of the Romans a few Martians (who at that point were a thriving civilisation) had visited the earth and one of them became infected by a vampire, with the Martian vampires subsequently destroying their world and then going on to spread the curse of vampirism to thousands of other worlds.
Despite their many victories, whenever the Soldiers of the Nexus as they became known stopped one vampire triumph, another would pop up in another time to take its place. It seemed to the soldiers that a vampire victory was an inevitability, but thankfully they didn't give up. They also began gathering soldiers from all of time and space to help in the battle too.
All of this was done in secret from the rest of earth society, except for the government so as not to panic the population.
Alistair meanwhile was pulled from the vortex at some point in the 28th century. The Soldiers of the Nexus, revered Alistair and had somewhat exaggerated his exploits, as he was seen as the father of the nexus. Some tall tales even argued that he had created the rip knowing full well what would happen after receiving a vision from the future. Naturally when their instruments to monitor the timeline became advanced enough to detect him floating aimlessly in the vortex, they plucked him from it as soon as they could, though very little time appeared to have passed from Alistair's perspective.
Sadly however, Alistair did not quite live up to their expectations. How could he? He was from a much more primitive age and had a hard time even understanding a lot of their new weapons and technology. As a result he was not made an elder, that descendants, or survivors of the original hunters as well as the most skilled who ruled the castle and constantly monitored the timelines were.
Still he did over time train to become one of its greatest soldiers, with the magic extending his life span and he was subsequently sent on hundreds of missions across all of time and space to battle vampires. In time the elaborate stories that had been told about his life on earth, became nothing compared to his exploits with the soldiers. Even then however he still did not become an elder, though many suspect this was his own choice as he preferred to be on the battlefield.
Alistair was also even given command over his own team, and it is through this team's exploits that we know anything about the Soldiers of the Nexus. His first recruit was a young woman from the 20th century, named Ferne Shelley. She had learned the truth about vampires when she stumbled upon a small town in Germany, Lista just after she had graduated from University. Lista was overrun by vampires not long after her visit, with her best friend being transformed into one of the undead. Ferne and Alistair developed a particularly close relationship, with she in many ways being like the daughter he never had.
His next recruit meanwhile was the last of the Kresnik's or at least the last of their kind on record at that point. The Kresniks were a race created by a witch from the same book of Khastran that had given rise to all vampire breeds. They were not monsters however, in fact they were able to retain their basic morality, but they did still possess supernatural powers which allowed them to hunt vampires to a greater effect than any normal human. This was why they had been created in the first place.
Vampires naturally had orchestrated the slaughter of Kresniks for centuries, until eventually only one small family was known to exist by the start of the 21st century. A man named Adam and his teenage daughter Antonia Una.
Adam's wife was also a hunter, and they had continued their careers even after Antonia's birth. Whilst they loved their daughter, they weren't able to spend much time with her, and as they were constantly on the move Antonia never really found the time to get to know anyone else either. Worse, her parents were obviously very strict about her ever leaving the house, knowing that she had inherited her fathers condition and that the vampires and other supernatural creatures would be able to sense that and hunt her.
All of this not surprisingly made Antonia a rebellious teenager to the point where she eventually ran away from home when she was just 17 years old. She skipped town and later fell in with a crowd on the streets who took her in where she met her first boyfriend. Sadly however this group of teenagers were soon targeted by vampires who viewed the kids as easy meat. They got more than they bargained for however with Antonia who using her Kresnik powers was able to easily slay the weak and cowardly street vampires.
Following this Antonia returned home to her parents, having finally seen the importance of their war against the undead, only to discover that in her absence they had been killed. In their desperation to find their daughter they had let their guard down and fallen victim to a vampire queen named Michelle, a long standing enemy of her family. Antonia became obsessed with taking Michelle down and trained her friends to become an army of vampire hunters. She did so under the pretense that it was the only way they could ever be safe from another attack, which they all readily believed. She was later able to lead them to Michelle's city (where the vampire had a reputation as the owner of a large company.)
At first Antonia kept her reasons for wanting Michelle dead from the others, and when it did come out, they very nearly turned on her, though by that stage they were in too deep to simply retreat from Michelle who had considerable influence in the city. Antonia's team put many of Michelle's operations out of action and caused her considerable losses. Michelle eventually responded by placing several new species of savage vampires, captured from all over the world onto the streets which led to chaos and the town eventually being overrun. Even though these vampires forced Michelle to leave the city, she was happy to do so if it meant defeating her archenemy. She had about seven bases all over the world she could retreat to as a result of her wealth anyway.
Almost all of Antonia's team were killed by the vampires, with those who weren't fleeing. Antonia elected to remain behind, believing that she did not deserve to live for dooming the town in her quest for revenge.
It was at this point that she was approached by Alistair who was able to convince her to join the Nexus Soldiers. Sadly he wasn't able to appeal to her better nature. It was only through the promise of revenge against Michelle that she agreed to join him.
Antonia was something of a wild card among Alistair's team, though she and Alistair still nevertheless formed a close bond. She was like his more troublesome daughter compared to Ferne.
Another recruit of Alistair's was Gina, who came from the age of Tairos. This period will come several hundred years after humanity joins the Federation. At some point after the 25th century, the Federation will come into conflict with a hideous race of octopoid creatures known as the Hylexans who will eventually destroy the earth with magical missiles. Only a few covens of witches and warlocks will survive on the remote island of Point Nemo, where over the course of 100 years they will use a spell to restore the earth, covering it in a magical forest, with many life forms being revived as an unintentional side effect. Dinosaurs will once again stalk the land, and the vampire horde will be restored and be at its most powerful on earth at least.
Gina's mother was killed by vampires and she was subsequently taken in by them and broken into being the bloodsuckers servant, who in turn helped sell out other human cities and communities to the undead for years afterwards. Following a battle against the vampires enemies, Gina was captured and tortured by vengeful humans, but she managed to escape and separate from the vampires who had broken and twisted her. On her own she soon saw the error of her ways.
Desperate to make amends, Gina ironically became one of the vampire hordes greatest enemies, earning the nickname of the Queen of the Forest. After the war however, Gina lost her purpose somewhat. She was over 100 years old, though thanks to the magics of Tairos she only looked in her early 30s. Alistair recruited her from this period, allowing her to continue her war against the vampires to a greater extent than she thought possible.
Gina was only too happy to get out of Tairos. In spite of her heroic actions, many had not forgiven her, and she had also endured many horrific losses during the war. In other times she could at least slip into the shadows and focus entirely on her work against the vampires.
Whilst she and Alistair had a strictly platonic relationship, they nevertheless served as surrogate parents to the other members of the group due to their advanced years.
The final member to be recruited was Daniel Winn. Born in the year 1703. Daniel grew up in the town of Galus, which was ruled over by a vampire king. Much like with Dracula and Klausenberg, the villagers were too terrified to lift a finger against the vampire, that is except for Daniel's father. Sadly however he was not the great vampire killer his son would later be, and not only was he killed, but his actions brought the vampire's wrath down on his family. Daniel's mother was brutally killed in front of him. (He was only 13 at the time.) Daniel himself was spared only because he begged and pleaded and kissed the vampire that butchered his parents feet on his command with the vampire thinking it would be a more fitting punishment to let him live out his life in shame..
Sure enough Daniel became a laughing stock among the rest of the villagers. Ironically even though all the villagers were cowardly, he became a useful way to ease their conscience.
After five years of shame, Daniel finally decided to avenge his parents and joined a far more effective team of vampire hunters who had also set their sights on the village. Alistair, Gina, Antonia and Ferne. They had arrived as the vampire king that ruled Galus was preparing the transfer of several tame Jaing Shi, powerful savage vampires to use at strategic points against the last of the Vandals powerbase.
If not stopped here at this point, this single vampire's actions could lead to a timeline where the supernatural were exposed to the wider world centuries earlier, leading to a full out war across Europe ending in a vampiric victory. Using Daniel's inside knowledge of both the castle and the village, the soldiers of the nexus destroyed the vampire king's castle, his minions, the Jiang Shi and finally allowed Daniel himself the honour of slaying the king himself.
Afterwards Daniel was recruited by Alistair who saw potential in the boy. Over the next few years as a result of his training, and experiences on more missions throughout time and space. Daniel became one of the most effective and skilled vampire hunters in the entire nexus army.
Sadly however things became somewhat complicated as over the course of their adventures together Daniel and Antonia, who had always had the closest bond and were of similar ages fell in love with one another. They tried to keep it a secret from Alistair. Antonia even used to joke that "papa would have shot Daniel if he knew." When Alistair did find out however, he was surprisingly supportive. Whilst he did warn that perhaps their feelings could compromise their mission, at the same time given his love for the team as a family, he acknowledged that he was in no position to judge them.
Antonia and Daniel remained together for many years, and faced several powerful adversaries together, though their greatest adversary was ultimately Xandros. Sadly the vampire had survived, having simply been thrown through the vortex as well much like his archenemy. The vampire king eventually after centuries of drifting aimlessly through the vortex, managed to break his way into nexus high command where using their own time travel equipment he teleported numerous vampires into the nexus castle from all over time and space. This proved to be the single most devastating attack on the nexus command there had ever been. In fact they were very nearly destroyed, and whilst the soldiers were barely able to stop the vampires from overthrowing their castle. Xandros still made off with several of their magics. (His time in the vortex had lasted much longer than Alistair and he was also able from there to monitor the nexus soldiers.)
After the attack Xandros fled to an unknown corner of creation. Some have speculated it was the deepest, darkest pit of the hellish realm, others beyond even our omniverse itself in the void, or possibly in the ruins of another reality, whilst the most common theory was that it was at the very edge of not just the universe, but the Sentenza omniverse in general. Wherever it was, Xandros' castle was certainly a place where no natural laws existed, and any natural creature that dared venture there would be instantly consumed by the environment and trapped in a state of perpetual agony.
From this nightmarish place Xandros built his own army of vampires who served as the archenemies of the nexus soldiers, constantly trying to alter history in certain ways wherever he could so that the vampires would eventually triumph.
Alistair became completely fanatical in his desire to destroy his archfoe meanwhile. Not just to avenge his family, but out of guilt for having allowed the vampire to gain access to the nexus' knowledge to create his army of vampires.
In Alistair's mind, all of the good he had accomplished was undone by the fact that thanks to him Xandros was able to spread the curse of vampirism like never before throughout all of time and space.
Sadly in one such battle with Xandros forces, thanks to Alistair's carelessness in his desire for revenge, Antonia was bitten and infected by one of his vampire minions. Any Kresnik that is infected by a vampire will eventually transform into a Nelapsi, the most powerful, evil and dangerous form of vampiric creature. Sadly even with their knowledge, the Nexus Soldiers could not cure vampirism, though they could at least hold it off for longer periods.
With their treatments, Antonia was able to live a few years, but towards the end as the evil from within began to corrupt her, she was forced to isolate herself for long periods. Daniel tried to remain by her side as often as he could, but Antonia herself shunned him. She could feel the love she had for Daniel, slowly draining away as the vampiric power within became stronger. It was something that Ferne knew only too well, having seen it happen to her friend who went from the person she loved more than anything in the world, to her bitterest enemy.
Antonia ultimately sacrificed herself to stop Xandros' attempts to resurrect Khastran. Through his time travel facilities, Xandros had enslaved several planets in a remote, otherwise insignificant part of the galaxy. Using magics and technology he had gathered from all over time and space, he had finally been able to achieve what no one else ever could. The potential to resurrect Khastran exactly as he was, before his first death when he was at his strongest. Without the creator of our omniverse to stop him, and with the gods power crippled due to their civil wars. Khastran in this form would be able to take the universe by force. Part of why Xandros was able to bring Khastran back was that he was able to steal a tiny part of his flesh, when his first body was destroyed, which coupled with the most powerful magics spread out across millions of years would give him just enough power.
It was the greatest battle The Soldiers of the Nexus ever fought, and whilst Alistair was finally able to slay his archfoe, they only triumphed due to Antonia sacrificing herself in destroying Xandros machine just as it was about to bring Khastran back. She died not only as a hero, but as herself before the evil of Khastran had been able to claim her.
Daniel was utterly devastated and things were never the same between him and Alistair afterwards. At the end of the day Daniel understood and even respected Alistair for never giving up in his desire to avenge his family against Xandros (when he in contrast for years had sat back and let the two bit vampire king that killed his family continue to slaughter others.) Still it had been at least partly Alistair's fault what happened to Antonia, and in time Daniel left Alistair's group and soon took on his own protege, Kelly DeLorenzo, a young girl from Los Angeles in the early 21st century. Kelly who was born in 2003 had become aware of the supernatural when during a huge earthquake in 2023 she and her family who were trapped within a damaged building were attacked by vampires who were taking advantage of the disaster to pick off stray survivors. Only through Kelly and another man named Julian Marsters' determination were she and her family able to escape both the disaster and the vampires.
Julian and Kelly who entered into a relationship were subsequently involved in helping to rebuild LA afterwards and hold off the vampires who continued to try and exploit it for their own ends. Sadly in 2025 Julian was killed, which led to Kelly burying herself in her work to a greater extent than ever before. It was at this point that Daniel recruited her. He served as something of a father figure to her, ironically as Alistair had once served to him.
Daniel and Kelly however were later abandoned, alongside Gina by The Soldiers of the Nexus in the year 1969. The soldiers did not want to leave them, but sadly they had no choice, as their history said that all three were stranded in the year 1969, and that all three had subsequently taken part in many important battles against the supernatural in 20th century earth.
Alistair did not want it to end this way, but he was powerless to stop it. Sadly this also meant that Kelly was also separated from her parents too, who she had also left on bad terms.
Still Daniel, Gina and Kelly soon joined the contemporary organisation known as Rentros, ironically founded by another member of the Cushing family to combat supernatural threates. All three of them had worked twice before with the British branch of Rentros when they were part of The Soldiers of Nexus. During those two adventures, one of which was to stop an invasion from the Martian vampires. The trio worked with a man named Rick O'Connell, the captain of the British branch of Rentros.
O'Connell had first discovered the truth about the supernatural in an expedition to Egypt where he ran afoul of the resurrected Mummy, Imhotep in the 1940s. It was also during this expedition that O'Connell first met his wife, Evelyn, with the two having a child, Alex born in the 1950s.
O'Connell welcomed Daniel and Kelly in when they were trapped on earth, and even set them both up with accommodation too. The two developed a very close friendship with O'Connell, though now and again there were clashes, as O'Connell like most in Rentros had a dogmatic view of the paranormal and viewed them in a similar way, something which Daniel naturally knew not to be the case given his relationship with Antonia.
Ironically Ferne had trained with the European branch of Rentros, during the 20th century too, though her future partners ensured they did not meet her earlier self, so as not to upset the timeline.
Daniel went on many adventures during the 70s and 80s with Rentros. It is not known if he ever was able to reconcile with the soldiers of the nexus. It is possible that he may have encountered their agents, or even Alistair again, but he certainly never joined them again.
In spite of this Daniel would travel through time again. His second, briefer journey through time and space was with a woman named Chat who he had fallen in love with. Chat was in actual fact the vigilante known as the Thief Catcher and later a member of the celebrated group of superheroes known as The Heroic Trio.
Sadly however after the death of one of their number, the two surviving members of the Trio disbanded and Chat eventually came to work for the reformed vampire Professor Fang. It was through her work with Fang that she first met Daniel and the two eventually fell in love. Despite Rentros' own distrust of Fang, Daniel sought his help on a number of occasions as he had ironically encountered the vampire's future self on missions and knew he was a hero. Sadly however when one of Fang's earliest time travel experiments went wrong, Chat and Daniel were sent through time and space to another world in their attempt to contain it. Only with help from Fang who was still able to contact them telepathically through a link with his magics were Daniel and Chat able to find the other anomalies created by his spell which took them through numerous different periods and worlds before they eventually arrived back in the 20th century. Daniel and Chat's romance sadly was not to last however. Her activities often put her on the wrong side of the law as she was a bounty hunter first and foremost. Whilst she usually only hunted supernatural creatures, she wasn't afraid to target those in high places who protected them either, and eventually even Fang was unable to protect her forcing Chat to go on the run.
Daniel in his later years moved to Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland in the late 90s and lived there for the rest of his life.
During his time in the Highlands, Daniel came to work for Scathach, an organisation that had been set up to deal with the paranormal in Scotland many centuries ago. Scathach differed from Rentros in that it had a more tolerant view of the paranormal. Scotland had been a hotspot for the supernatural since the days of the Roman empire. As it had been one of the few countries that had resisted the rule of the Romans, then numerous vampires, demons and monsters had fled there following the Roman emperor Trajan's wars against the vampires.
Scathach meanwhile was a famous Scottish warrior and it was her protege, the legendary St Colombia who established the organisation in her name to protect her native Scotland. Daniel was made the head of the Aviemore branch, which ultimately ended up being the last surviving branch during his time there.
Daniel also later worked with another reformed vampire Carlene and her best friend Lam during his time in Aviemore too, as well as a young vampire hunter named Lindsey Kate McIntosh who many years later travelled ironically with Professor Fang and whose older time travelling self had helped a much younger Daniel when he worked with the Soldiers. Daniel finally passed away in 2017 aged 89. Kelly who had since settled down with a family read the eulogy at his funeral. Sadly what became of Gina is not currently known though she was last sighted in Bonnybridge, the UFO capital of the world in the 1990s.
We also don't know what became of The Soldiers of the Nexus. It can be assumed that they continue to fight the good fight against the vampires, given the timeline we live in.
Still at least through Daniel we were able to gain a small idea of their accomplishments and what we owe them, as well as the true extent of how dangerous the vampire horde truly are.