My dudes, this is a very specific AU that caters to my tastes specifically. Anthony Ryan is an author I like and I finished his draconis memoria trilogy a little while ago and seeing it on my bookshelf sparked this. I will be explaining nothing about this trilogy so when I use any weird terms I hope you can just pick up on my meanings using context clues or just accept it even if you don't understand. I have forgotten a lot of things from the books so I'm mostly just using the setting and magic system.

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Noé leapt between the Carvenport rooftops, his strength enhanced by green. He was sticking to the edge of town to avoid detection even though night had long since fallen. A lot of even the most skilled blood-blessed Noé had met fell victim to simple mistakes. With their power they tended to stop thinking or see themselves as invincible. But Noé had learned caution, even if he had yet to learn strategy.

Eventually he came to a stop, crouching low behind a chimney as he watched the street below. Any minute now the man he was after was sure to appear. The man was apparently an unregistered blood-blessed who'd been kicking up trouble of late. Usually such a man would need to be put down so to speak but he was young and harmless enough that taking him alive was easy enough.

Noé wasn't sure why his employers wanted the man alive exactly, and though it interested him it wasn't his place to ask. Rather, he hoped to find out on his own why this target was so special. Unregistered blood-blessed were somewhat uncommon but rarely worth any time. Certainly not worth the time of an Exceptional Initiatives agent.

All Noé had to go off was a description but he was certain he'd recognise the target immediately. Not just because he was confident in his skills but because this man was one of the most flamboyant Noé had ever had described to him. And when, finally, he passed by on the street below Noé had to wonder if he was even trying to be discreet. Noé quickly scanned the surroundings and, confident the man was alone, leapt down from the roof to land in front of the man. The stones below his feet cracked and Noé belatedly realised he'd gone a bit overboard with the use of green.

"What are you?" His target drawled, tilting his head condescendingly.

"The same as you." Noé answered.

"No, you're mistaken I'm afraid. What exactly do you want?"

"I'm here to take you into custody."

"On whose orders? Ironship perhaps? Not that it matters," he pulled a pair of knives from his belt. "You won't be reporting back."

Noé reached out with black to stop him. The man froze in place for a moment before the unthinkable happened. He broke from Noé's hold and surged forward. Noé stumbled back, barely avoiding having his stomach slashed open as his brain worked overtime.

"What are you?"

"You were sent for me and don't even know that?" He grinned, still keeping Noé on the defensive.

"You're an unregistered. But you-"

"Oh, no. I'm not like you, I'm an average human being."

Noé avoided the next attack by jumping onto the rooftops above them, far from the man's reach. His target seemed unconcerned, amused even, and was not taking the opportunity to escape. He watched Noé for a moment.

"What's your name?"

"Noé." He answered without thinking.

"I see. So, Noé, do you still plan to capture me?"

Noé frowned, "I was ordered-"

"No, no. I don't want to hear that. What's your opinion, I'm not a blood-blessed so is it still okay to take me into custody? I'm not breaking any rules, I just scare your employers."

"Why would you scare them if you aren't dangerous?"

"Hmm? You saw what I did to your black. If I can nullify it's effects imagine what would happen if I shared that secret. Your lot would be reduced to the level of us regular folks once again."

"Wh- how on Earth did you manage that? Did you figure it out yourself? Oh, can you nullify any type of product?" Noé's eyes widened as he imagined the possibilities.

"Hey, Noé, why don't I show you something, as long as you keep it to yourself. You seem rather... amusing."

"What if I decide you really are dangerous?"

The man shrugged, "I don't think you will. But feel free to continue with your original objective if that is the case."

"What's your name?" Noé said.

"I assumed you already knew. It's Vanitas, now come on."

Vanitas started to walk off, hands in his pockets. Noé followed behind cautiously, keeping his distance to make sure he had an escape route. Eventually, they reached what looked like a small disused warehouse deep in the seediest part of Carvenport. Vanitas opened the door and turned back to Noé.

"Are you coming or not? With or without product you look stronger than me so what's the problem?"

"This could be a trap."

"And why would I even want to trap you?"

Noé frowned, unable to come up with an answer. Vanitas sighed after the silence had stretched for a few moments. He gestured for Noé to follow before slipping inside. Noé hesitated by did eventually decide to pursue Vanitas. As he stepped over the threshold Noé's jaw dropped. Inside the warehouse was what looked like a lab with vials and breakers of what he knew was product. There were notes strewn everywhere and the walls and floor had been used as blackboard, chalk equations scattered around them getting scuffed under his and Vanitas's boots.

"Welcome to my lab," Vanitas grinned. "Impressive, right?"

"How have you been running this without getting caught? And how much product do you have? Surely you can't have the funds-"

"I steal sometimes. I have a good information broker."

"You steal? Then, wouldn't you have an even bigger target on your back?"

"Maybe." Vanitas shrugged. "But if people like you come for me I'm sure I can weasel my way out of their clutches. And if I happen to get on the bad side of an independent blood-blessed I can handle them on my own."

"What are you trying to do?"

"You saw, I'm counteracting the effects of product. Black is easy enough, all I have to do is ingest a certain product of my own design then I'm impervious to black. Anti-product I suppose. But the others can only be dealt with by injecting the blood-blessed, not that blue really poses a problem."

"Why would you do that?"

"For one thing, if I perfect this and patent it I'm sure to get a lot of money. For another, I find your powers unfair, I want to even the playing field for myself."

"If your aim is money why not take your research to a company and ask for funding? You get things done quicker that way, probably have a team to work with you."

"No way. If I try to make deals before it's even finished I'll lose some control. Though rumours seem to be circulating now. Tell me, who sent you?"

"Like you asked before, Ironship."

"Figures they'd catch on. So, what do you plan to do? Are you going to tell them about this place?" Vanitas raised an eyebrow.

"No... Ironship already has a monopoly on product, I don't know if handing them your anti-product is wise."

"Interesting. So you aren't loyal to them?"

"I am. They protect the interests of the people in most cases, but it's a company first and foremost, there's always greed especially amongst those in charge. I think it would be wise to avoid telling them about this."

"And what do you think of my research... personally?"

"I think it shows a lot of dedication. It's a good idea and I'm surprised you were able to pull it off to any degree."

"I knew it!" Vanitas exclaimed, "you really aren't afraid of this like most blood-blessed. Help me with my research, Noé!"

"Huh? No."

"Why not?"

"I already have employment and besides, I don't like you."

"Come now, I saw how your eyes sparked at my research. You're obviously interested."

"I said I'm not." Noé turned to leave.

"Feel free to drop by any time," Vanitas called after him. "I'm sure you'll enjoy it."

Noé tried not to go back, he really did, but his curiosity got the better of him. Maybe a week passed before he gave in and slunk back to the lab in the dead of night. He was surprised to find Vanitas was working, another man sitting on a benchtop and chatting to him.

"Noé, you came!" Vanitas called as he saw Noé peering through the doorway.

Sighing, Noé walked inside, "hello, Vanitas."

"This is the guy?" The other man asked Vanitas.  "Doesn't look like much to me."

Noé blinked, "pardon?"

"He's been going on and on about this powerful blood-blessed he met that took an interest in his schemes. The way he talked I thought you'd be one of those tough-as-nails stoic type guys. You seem pretty normal to me."

"Thank you?"

"Don't listen to Baldy. He's just here to tell me about a shipment of product I could nab. Anyway, ready to help?"

"My name is Dante, not Baldy!"

"I never said I'd help."

"Then why are you here?" Vanitas's lip quirked.

"I was just curious?"

"Well, you may as well help me out while you're here," Vanitas steered him into the room. "So, have you got any red in your system?"

"No-"

"Okay, here's some that you can drink.  Just give it a small test to make sure you can use it."

Noé wasn't sure what else to do so he sent out a small blast of red, careful to avoid damaging anything in the room. Seeming satisfied, Vanitas brought out a syringe of something and began approaching Noé with it. Noé immediately retreated a few steps and Vanitas frowned.

"What do you think you're doing Quack? People aren't going to let you inject random substances into them without explanation."

"I see. Noé, this should keep you from using any of the product you just imbibed. Now please allow me to give it to you."

"Huh?!"

"Are you afraid of needles? No, that can't be, any blood-blessed working for Ironship would be used to this kind of thing."

"I'm afraid of people I don't know approaching me with needles!" Noé yelled.

"But you drank the product I gave you."

"That's different! Do you even know if whatever that is will work?"

"No, that's why I need to test it."

"What if it has bad side-effects!"

"Nothing in this can kill you. I tested it on myself earlier to make sure it wasn't lethal to humans."

"You what!? Are you crazy?"

"Possibly. Now, give me your arm."

Half-dazed Noé pulled up his sleeve and gave it to Vanitas against his better judgement. Vanitas injected the dubious substance into his arm. It hurt a little but mostly Noé was just worried about what it would actually do. And why he had agreed to this in the first place.

"Try and use red again."

Noé did as told and found he couldn't even produce a spark. It was unnerving. There was still product in his veins but he couldn't use it. It was weirder than Vanitas resisting black because Noé could still use it on anything else. With whatever Vanitas just gave him he couldn't use red at all. Experimentally, he used a little bit of the green he already had in his blood and found that he could still use it to strengthen himself. That was something.

"That's really incredible Vanitas," Noé said, almost forgetting his dislike for the man.

"So he is a weirdo after all. You didn't even have to pay him like the others you experimented on," Dante said.

"I could have been payed for this?"

"Of course not. This is volunteer work," Vanitas said quickly. "I think that's all I'll ask of you tonight."

So Noé left. He came back to Vanitas's lab if he felt like it when he was free and every time he went Vanitas would always be there working. He got used to letting Vanitas use him as a lab rat as strange as it was. He was intrigued by his work and found Vanitas never tested anything dangerous on him. Sometimes Vanitas  wouldn't even test anything, he'd just take a blood sample or chat with Noé and continue with other things.

Sometimes Dante would be there but he rarely stayed when Noé showed up and if he did he changed the subject from whatever he was talking about before Noé arrived. On rare occasions there had been other blood-blessed that Vanitas had helping him. If he ever needed to work with blue he brought in Amelia to test with Noé. It seemed inconceivable that Vanitas had this seemingly revolving door of people and still remained mostly unnoticed.

At a certain point it seemed like Vanitas should be finished his anti-product but he had yet to patent it. He hadn't used Noé as a test for weeks and there were no new illegible scribblings on the walls or floor. It was almost as though he'd stopped working. But Dante was still coming around so surely that wasn't true. Noé wasn't one to beat around the bush so he just asked.

"Haven't you finished your research?"

"I have." Vanitas confirmed.

"Then why haven't you gone public, patented your ideas?"

"Eh, if I did that they'd have reason to suspect me for stealing a lot of the product I used for my experiments. Then I'd be imprisoned and wouldn't get any of my money anyway."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"I've already started doing Noé. I've been having Dante distribute my anti-product and its recipe, for a small price, to various people in the area."

"What for?"

"I make a little money off of it and I get to stir a little chaos. It won't take long before everyone knows how to make anti-product and blood-blessed will lose their stranglehold on the country."

"What's the point?"

"I want change. I've grown up in Carvenport and I've seen what happens when companies like Ironship get a bit too big and control one of the most valuable resources in the world. If we reduce the worth of product I wonder what will happen? Sure, we still need red for thermoplasmic engines and the like but every other kind of drake blood? Suddenly much harder to use. And if a single chemist can create a counter to product perhaps a single inventor could create an alternative to thermoplasmic engines."

"I want to see how this changes things too," Noé decided. "I want to see through what your trying to accomplish until the end."