Disclaimer: Hellsing belongs to Kouta Hirano and Studio Gonzo. Alice and Elise are mine, not they're great characters, but they served their purpose.
Author's notes: This is set after the Tv series, it contains some spoilers, so if you didn't watch the series, go back.
MORPHEUS: You should have gone to her funeral.
ORPHEUS: Why?
MORPHEUS: To say goodbye.
ORPHEUS: I have not yet said goodbye to Eurydice.
MORPHEUS: You should. You are mortal: it is the mortal way. You attend the funeral,
you bid farewell. You grieve. Then you continue with your life. And at times,
the fact of her absence will hit you like a blow to the chest, and you will
weep. But this will happen less and less as time goes on. She is dead. You are
alive. So live.
Orpheus, The Song of Orpheus, Chapter Two (The Sandman)
Ashes to Ashes
An utter silence ruled the grey morning of England, the recent events about mysterious attacks of rebellious forces were long forgotten in the flowing of another news. Other issues took their place: Irish terrorist attacks, animosity between USA and Arabian countries, simple and dull normal problems. Almost none-one remembered the 'guilty' squad behind the destruction.
Almost...
"We are met in this solemn moment to commend these brave soldiers who died
in service of our country into the hands of Almighty God, our heavenly Father...",
the minister started the service ceremony, the quiet was interrupted by his
voice and the sobs of those present.
Behind the mourning crowd, stood a young girl, dressed in black and dark grey
clothes. Her stare was blank as she beheld the funeral service in front of her.
In her right hand was a piece of army uniform, it had a hole, as a bullet had
passed through this to reach the heart of his owner.
"I wont cry, I'm not human any more," thought the young woman
as she bit her lip, thin line of blood came from it, but that was useless and
tears started to flow from her ruby red eyes.
Sgt. Seras Victoria was alone once more, she had lost her fellow soldiers, and
she couldn't do anything about it.
"Oh, but I could," she mused bitterly, "If I wasn't
so busy in my so-called detective duty, I could have been with them. Fought
along them. If I wasn't so hesitant, Commander Ferguson wouldn't have died,"
as her fangs dug deeper into her skin. She looked at the fragment of military
attire she had in her grasp, the words 'Hellsing' were still visible even though
it was covered with dark dry blood.
"Hellsing, I'm the last agent now...," she paused, "Well,
not the last. Master is still there, wherever he is. Also Walter, who is very
injured, and Lady Integra who is in jail. But I'm the only remaining member
of Hellsing that came to this bloody service... I miss Ferguson, he was the
only one who treated me like a equal. The only one who fully accepted me, as
a vampire and as a soldier," she sobbed, as her tears fell to the ground,
"He said to me that I should be proud of my job. He w-was p-proud of
m-me, l-like a f-father and now I l-lost h-him f-forever."
Seras wanted to feel nothing, she wanted to remember how much she enjoyed to
killing those bastards who had caused Ferguson's and the rest of the unit's
demise. The adrenaline and the excitement of losing control. But the moment
was gone in the bat of an eyelash, and now she only had regret and sorrow...
She was alone, lost and disoriented, with no one to look to for comfort. Everyone
that got close to her, suffered a horrible death. The D-11, Helena, Harry, and
now Ferguson. She was tired of feeling this way, maybe her master was right,
perhaps it was for the best that she forgot and turned her back to her human
nature.
She was so busy in her internal mussing that she did not notice that the funeral
had finished. She was standing alone in the middle of the rain, but someone
have convered her with a black umbrella.
"Are you alright, dear?", came a kind voice behind her.
Victoria turned around and discovered that the umbrella was from an elderly
woman with almost-white hair and kind blue eyes.
Closing her eyes, Victoria only nodded sadly.
"What's your name, dear?", the old lady asked in a soft tone.
"Seras Victoria", the young vampiress' reply almost as a whisper as
she opened her crimson eyes again. The woman noticed the color of her eyes.
"You're one of them", this one wasn't a question, but a statement.
Victoria turned her head in shame, "Of course, the last thing that someone
who lost part of her family because of the undead wants is meeting one of them,
now." Victoria might be naïve, but she was no fool. She started
to moving away but a hand posed gently in her shoulder to stop her.
"I'm sorry, dear. It wasn't my intention to sound harsh", the old
lady apologized, "My name is Alice", she paused, "Alice Clay
Ferguson"
Seras stopped dead, "F-Ferguson?", she asked a bit hesitated.
The old lady smiled sadly and nodded, "Yes, Miss Victoria. Care to join
me for a walk?"
Victoria replied nothing and started to walk along Alice, they both stopped
when they arrived to Ferguson's grave. Alice put some lilies in the tomb and
prayed silently for a couple of minutes. Then she broke the silence.
"Peter used to tell me about you a lot, Miss Victoria"
Victoria blinked at this, "He did?"
The old woman smiled, "Yes, you see... You reminded him of our daughter,
she died in a ghouls' attack thirty years ago, that's why he joined the Hellsing
Institution. To save another people's children"
"I reminded him of his daughter," she mussed, "Well,
he was like a second father to me."
"How old was she?", Seras' cheeks flushed in embarrassment, "I'm
sorry, I should have not asked this, miss"
Alice shocked her head amused, "Now, I see to what Peter was referring
to when he spoke about you. She was very shy and naïve, but she had a great
spirit when she got angry", she opened the locket she wore as necklace,
"Here, this is her, Elise", she pointed out.
Inside the lock, it was a pictured of a young woman in her teen ages, even if
the picture was in sepia tones, she seemed to have blond hair. She looked remarkably
like Seras, but her hair was curly, instead of spiked.
"She was very pretty", Seras blurted out in awe.
"As you are, dear", the woman replied.
What Alice did next, surprised Seras a lot. She took a white cotton handkerchief
and cleaned up the blood that had poured out the young vampires' self-inflicted
injuries.
"Don't hurt yourself, Victoria. Peter wouldn't want this"
"B-but", she protested.
The woman stopped and looked at her eyes, "What were his last words to
you, Victoria?"
Victoria froze, she avoid the old lady stare, "He said 'don't come, please'..."
"And you know why he said that?"
Victoria raised her head once more, "B-because he d-didn't want me to get
hurt?"
The woman nodded, "Exactly. Now, you're hurting yourself, you think that
would have made him happy?"
Victoria shooked her head in defeat, "N-no"
The old woman patted her on the back, "He's dead, darling. You are alive,
or at least not dead. You must continue your life, do it not only for yourself,
but also for him and for Elise", she said, "Please?"
"I will", promised Seras, a little more confident, "Thank you
a lot, Miss Alice"
"You're welcome, dear", she sighed in relief and then added, "Now,
if you excuse me, I must go, I have a flight to take."
"You're going somewhere?", she asked with a sparkle of curiosity.
The woman nodded, "I'll visit my nephew who is in United States. I probably
wont see you again, so farewell miss Victoria, and remember your promise"
"I will, miss Alice!", she said as she waved the walking old lady,
"Have a nice trip!"
After Alice's departure, Seras gazed silently the whole cemetery, thinking about
everything she had experienced these last few months.
She kneeled before Ferguson's tomb.
"I will make you proud, Commander. I'll live and hunt down the ones
who planed all this. I'll obey and honor my Master's master, who you served
with such a fierce loyalty. And I swear that I'll save for you not only the
children of the citizens, but also the parents of the children. Because, once
you lost one, hurts like hell."
She cleaned her tears and smiled. Before stood, she put the piece of Ferguson's
old uniform beside the bouquet of lilies.
"I will fulfill my promise, Sir", she said aloud, "Sgt Seras
Victoria, dismissed", she saluted to an invisible Ferguson.
The sun was setting behind her, Seras walked away from the cemetery and all
the way to the inner city. There, she heard some screams and a hysterical laugh.
"FREAKs," she realized quickly, and grabbed a sharp object
to replace the lack of her Halconnen, "I will fulfill my oath, Commander."
She jumped with blind fury onto the lesser vampire and dismembered him in
a couple of minutes; the FREAK's victim escaping before Seras had finished off
their attacker. Panting, Seras cleaned herself of the other vampire's blood,
her tiny smile not reaching her eyes.
"This is a new start," she thought as she threw her weapon
away. She then turned around and walked away from the alley, losing herself
inside the always busy crowd, muttering: "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes,
dust to dust"
The rain stopped falling, but it's impossible for a rainbow to be formed without
sunlight. Only a bloody-painted sky along with the full moon were the rulers
of the night...
End
Final notes: Seras has quite the temper, one minute she acts kind, naïve and angsty, the other she goes berserker ñ_ñ. I hope, she wasn't so OOC (I know she was...). This is a 'prequel' to my Duty series (one of my few, longer fics). Alucard is busy taunting Integra every night, that's why he isn't there. Ah, yes, I know this is a plotless fic (sorry), but I feel like I want to write something about Seras (even though, she never was one of my favourites characters).
Special thanks: To Docky (a.k.a. DanceswithElvis) for being my beta
in this one!