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Sangster had always prided himself on never getting too attached to others, knowing that in his line of work that it never ended well for anyone especially, not himself. He remembered when he was younger and had first started working with the Polidorium, he could remember the pain he felt each time one of the people he trusted were taken by the monsters they fought daily.
Then there was the accident, the accident that caused others he trusted to abandon him and try to get him removed from his position where he was formally based. There were also the ones that wanted him kicked out of the Polidorium, but that hadn’t worked.
In the end, he was transferred to Geneva, Switzerland to stop the uproars at where he had once been. Sangster hadn’t minded though, just thankful to be away from the hell he had been through. There he became a teacher at a boys' boarding school for the rich and he was still an agent for the Polidorium, using the slight lingering effects of the bite to make him a better fighter.
Over the years he made what he called drinking buddies, not actual friends since with where he worked that having friends' things would never work.
Of course, he had met a few people that had wormed their way slightly into his heart, for example, another agent from America named Amelia Armstrong who was once in the Air Force and who had seen many evils in her few years both in humans and in monsters. Then there was the leader of the Geneva agency, Xavier Carerras; the two had high respect for the other and would sometimes grab a drink in Carerras’ office and a few times Armstrong had even joined them.
Through all of that though, Sangster did his best to keep them at a distance and he could tell that they were doing the same. None of them wanted to get too attached because with their job anything could happen and none of them wanted to be hurt.
For years, even after meeting Armstrong and Carerras; Sangster kept his heart under an enormous stone wall where nothing could hurt him again.
At the completion of the wall, he thought he was safe from any attachments that would hurt him, but that had all changed on one bitterly cold night years after he had been relocated to the Geneva Polidorium.
The night that Lord Byron codename Icemaker had entered Geneva ready to kill everything in sight was also the night he had spotted a child on the side of the road hiding in large bushes trying not to make a sound. It’s only when the kid had been attacked by one of Icemaker’s clan members could he see who the kid really was. Alex Van Helsing was his name, and he was one of Sangster’s students. He had somewhat been watching over the boy since had gotten to the school knowing that because of his last name that Alex could be in danger. It seemed Sangster had been corrected and without thinking took off after Alex and the vampires that chased him.
When had finally found the kid it surprised him to see Alex had killed at least three vampires with a thick branch he had yanked from a tree. An old branch wouldn’t be enough though, and that became even more clear as more vampires started to surround the fourteen-year-old who looked scared out of his mind. That’s when Sangster had snapped out of his thoughts and took a few of the vampires out one by one.
When he had finally killed a good number of them he had ordered Alex to get on the motorcycle and when he finally had after a few moments of being stunned Sangster took off towards the Polidorium. It had taken screaming and the use of Alex’s last name for them to finally get access to come into what everyone called “The Farm House”.
After they were in and safe, they had spent exactly two more hours there, both with Sangster, Armstrong, and Carerras explaining to Alex what the Polidorium was and how it operated, then explaining to home how his family had been a part of the agency for centuries before finally having Alex get mad at something they had said about his mother which Sangster could completely understand. It had all ended with Sangster taking Alex back to the school and making sure he was safely inside before heading back.
When Sangster had gotten back he couldn’t help but shake the feeling of Armstrong and Carerras knowing something he didn’t. He tried to push those thoughts away as he got back to work trying to figure out how to stop Icemaker before he killed hundreds if not thousands of people.
It was only months later after spending time with Alex and going on life-threatening adventures with him did he know what Armstrong and Carerras were whispering to one another behind his back.
He cared for Alex; it had struck him hard as he sat in the helicopter that was taking them back to safety, back to their home in Geneva. Alex had been leaning against him completely passed out and looked like he would be for the next few hours.
Sangster hadn’t dared moved unless it was to brush a few stray hairs back into place, which earned him a warm look from Armstrong herself.
As Sangster looked at her with confusion in his eyes it was only when he recognized that the look she was giving him was the same look she had given him all those months ago after he dropped Alex off.
Upon realizing this, Sangster felt like he was going to choke on his own air but stopped himself from moving as Alex started to stern. He forced himself to relax and tried to ignore the pointed gaze Armstrong was giving him as she tried not to laugh.
Though Sangster knew what she was thinking since he was thinking the same thing.
Where was the Sangster that promised to never let another living soul into his heart?
“Apparently turned to ash alongside Alex’s first kill,” Sangster thought to himself as he looked down at Alex once more, letting out a sigh of relief as he saw that his student had settled once more.
As Sangster tried to ignore the way Armstrong was looking at him he let his head fall back against the helicopter’s metal walls before letting his eyes slide shut.
He knew that when they got home that they would be put through a long debriefing and he knew that at that moment evil things could have been watching them, but for the moment he just didn’t care.
Sangster let himself feel calm for the first time in years as he felt the weight of his student against his side just thankful that the first person besides Armstrong and Carreras that he had truly cared for in years, the person he saw as a kid brother if not a son was safe from harm for at least the time being.
And for Sangster, that was enough.