Diplomacy Mission
Ketti: Look, a post-Christmas present! A complete story! An old one, actually. The characters Tani(Sotie), Esque(Sotul) and Ruddiger are actually guest starring from the fic VanquishLithium and I made them for. Those of you familiar with my travesty of a story What Could Have Been will recognize facets of Nekette/Grin in the latter two characters. ;) Because, as everyone knows, you can never have too many Nekette incarnates.
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Seras Victoria tugged her sleeve nervously as she fidgeted in the backseat of the taxi. It was one of the rare times she wasn't wearing her uniform as Hellsing's property, and though it was by far more modest, she felt exposed. It was stupid, she knew that, but there was just something so comforting about the familiar outfit… Her red eyes – hidden by a set of her Master's glasses she'd found one night tucked into his bookshelf when she went snooping out of loneliness – flicked between the back of the driver's head and the empty road. She'd get there faster on foot, or by shadow-wing, but Sir Integra insisted she take the mundane route. She was not to draw undue attention to herself, and possibly set the coven off on the defensive. Hers was not a hostile mission – yet – and she was thankful for it, though she felt a pang in her chest at the loss of her weapons.
Well, after all, what sort of potential peace treaty was negotiated with the ambassador of the hunters packing enough heat to blow up half the island?
'What do you need guns and bullets for, Police Girl? You are a weapon.'
Her lips curled in a fond smile as she lost herself in memories of her Master. She remembered that lecture well – they'd been sent to exterminate a nest of ghouls, and she'd run out of shotgun shells early on. She'd make the mistake of complaining to the battle happy monster who was her Sire that none of the ghouls carried guns for her to confiscate for her own use.
As would be expected, the night ended in a bloody mess, and Seras' uniform was ruined with the amounts of stale ghoul blood and other unmentionable fluids spattering her form from tearing them apart by hand. (Master was delighted, of course.)
"-iss? Miss? We're here."
"Huh? Oh! Thank you." Seras chirped, handing over the proper fare as she slid out of the cab and surveyed the empty street with a serious air. The driver hesitated a moment, as if expecting her to change her mind, and get back in, but he drove off after a moment and Seras was relieved to no longer have his eyes upon her. Her left arm rippled, and she frowned down at it as the pale cream of her skin color darkened to black. "Damnit."
She'd learned to form her shadows into an arm shape rather quickly after all the hubbub died down from Millenium's attack, but morphing it to look human had taken years of practice, and the tricky limb had the tendency to revert if her concentration broke.
Just leave it, Mignonette. You might need it.
Pip's voice soothed her, and her tense shoulders relaxed. Shoving her shadow hand into her coat pocket, she took advantage of the jacket's long sleeves to hide the unnatural state of her arm, and started off down the street. She had a job to do, after all.
Well, first things first; find an informant. Seras wandered the seemingly deserted town until she came upon the shops district where the bar's lights shone like a beacon into the early evening hours. Good a place to start as any, right? Right.
Because clearly, there was nothing suspicious about a stranger in town in a brown trench coat, dark denim jeans, knee high biker boots, wearing tinted sunglasses at night. Her fingers twitched and she fumbled in her coat pocket for a pack of cigarettes. She blamed Pip for the terrible habit, but smoking calmed her nerves – she suspected it was just using her lips in a sucking gesture, rather than the nicotine, thank god vampires are immune to addictions. The ghostly laughter of the Frenchman echoed in her head as she lit the tip and exhaled a ring of smoke into the still night air.
Nudging the bar door open casually, she scanned the inhabitants and zeroed in on a raven haired woman sitting alone at the counter. Something about her just drew Seras' eye, and she was one to obey her instincts, so the blonde sauntered over and took the empty seat next to the girl.
"Hey, can I bum a fag?" The question startled her a little, considering the speaker had a hypnotic quality to her voice, that drew the listener in. Seras' lips quirked at the edges, and she chuckled breathily, exhaling another ring of smoke onto the wooden counter. "Yeah, sure, why not?" Digging the pack from her pocket once more, she offered them out, and observed the delicate hands as they plucked a cigarette from its confines and lifted it to coral pink lips. Seras might have felt embarrassed about staring, but she knew from experience – with her Master – that it was hard to tell what she was looking at behind the shades, and she offered her lighter out with a slightly seductive curl to her own blood red lips. The woman hummed her thanks, leaning forward to light the cancer stick with the dancing flame, before it was cut off with a sharp snap. Seras loved the old fashioned lighter, it made a very satisfying sound when she was done with it.
"Thanks. Whassyer name? You seem new to town."
"Seras."
"You can call me Tani, Seras. What brings you here? Sight seeing?" She questioned, and her black slender brows rose dubiously. Seras snorted and tipped her ash into the oval tray at her elbow. "You could say that. A bit of business, really."
"Mm?"
"Yeah, see, my boss was thinking about setting up a shop here, but with the rumors flying about…" She gave the impression of looking sideways at her newfound companion, despite the goggle sidings to the rather large frames.
"Vampires." Tani said flat out, and Seras noticed that the other occupants of the bar were giving them a wide berth despite their attractive appearance.
"You don't believe in all that, do you?" Seras questioned with a chortle, hoping to egg her informant into giving away a clue or two.
Tani smirked, turning to look the Draculina right in the eye, and Seras felt as though those eerie gold eyes were seeing right through to her very soul. "You know better than that."
Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, all too aware of her left arm, Seras stubbed out the cigarette, and wished she could handle alcohol the way her Master could. "Yeah? What makes you think that?" She hedged, trying to laugh it off.
Tani scoffed, and stood from the bar after putting down a twenty. Shooting the vampire a look, she made her way out the door, and Seras – after a look at the nervous faces around her – decided to follow the girl.
"Piece of advice," Tani cooed, leaning against the doorjamb in the open air, "human noses are dull, but a town infested with vampires learns to recognize the smell of blood hanging around the new arrivals." After shooting her a mocking grin, she added with a leering smirk, "and nobody wears sunglasses at night."
Seras grunted in agreement, and pulled the frames from her face, tucking them securely into her chest pocket for safe keeping. "Right, so, you know. You're not afraid, why?"
"Everyone knows about the great Seras Victoria, savior of London." Tani called in a sing song tone as she turned and skipped up the street, back towards the residential district.
"What... Ugh!" Running her right hand through her hair and mussing the blonde spikes into a gravity defying tangle, Seras Victoria sighed heavily and stole a glance back at the pub she'd just exited. The townsfolk didn't seem very willing to talk to her, and perhaps it was because she was a stranger – pff, perhaps, yeah… - and just maybe…
Well, she wasn't very good at mind reading yet. The journals she'd found buried in the sub basement library about vampires suggested she needed to drink more blood to develop that skill. Not that she didn't use the blood packs Sir got for her, but…
"Stop getting distracted, Victoria." She muttered to herself, using the same hand to smooth down her hair into a semblance of order before setting off after the mortal. Her shadows oozed out of her sleeve and latched onto the buildings around her, drawing her into the darkness. Nothing of her would be visible save her eyes – she'd not yet figured out why, perhaps it was an intimidation technique inherent to her powers? – and few humans would notice them, pass it off as a trick of the light.
'…Why does this feel too easy?' Seras questioned grimly, and was unnerved by the silence in her head; no half forgotten words of her Master, or snarky input from the mercenary…
Seras' senses flared outward to monitor the dark streets as she followed Tani, eyes flicking about every which way to catch even the slightest hint of movement. Ten minutes later, they arrived at a set of rusted wrought iron gates, and Seras waited patiently as the ravenette squeezed through the gap, following with ease. It was only ten steps onto the property that Seras was thrown back against the bars, and Tani vanished with a shriek.
In the moment it took for the Draculina's head to clear, the grounds were as deserted as they'd been just a minute prior, and she snarled, "What the hell? I came here to find vampires, and get attacked by werewolves?"
This was so completely fucked.
She was half tempted to abandon the mission and come back with her precious Harkonnen II, but… She sighed, and levered herself back to her feet. "Sir owes me for this."