Good Evening,

This is a 30 AU challenge with the Mad Child! This is 6 out of 30. Afterwards, please go check out the Mad Child's version of this AU if you hadn't already!

The theme of this AU is: Punishment!

The TV show 'Lucifer' inspired me for the version of Hell in this.

Oxford Not Brogues

An Endless Nightmare

"Where is she?" One of his many children asked angrily as they stood before one of their two fathers in the parlor. Sebastian, annoyed and tired, kept his head down with his eyes closed while his children bitched at him. They were all fully grown, some of them were nearly a thousand now with the youngest being in her late forties. But they all looked like they were in their twenties. Some were full vampires and the rest were hybrids (part vampire and part demon). "Where are our mother and father? Why haven't you been able to locate them yet?" The eldest child, Vincent, growled through gritted teeth. Finally Sebastian opened his eyes to give his children such a dark look. No longer having the guts to cross him, each one of his mate's children backed down.

"Sometimes I think, boy, that you forget that I am also your father." The demon practically snarled and he balled his hand into a tight fist. His mate didn't believe in hitting. He had never so much as thought of striking one of his children until today. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "I've been looking for her and your father nonstop for the past three years. Hell is a very large place with multiple levels. Do you have any idea how many occupants there are down there? It could be another few years before I find either of them." He told them carefully since they didn't seem to understand the first twelve times he's told them this.

"Then why did you come back to the surface just to disappoint us again?" Vincent asked, speaking for the rest of his siblings. The demon watched as his sons and daughters nodded their heads in agreement. Sebastian sighed deeply and hung his head once more, but this time in exhaustion. Demons didn't really require sleep, but for once he could actually use a nap.

"I've been mated to your mother for nearly two thousand years. I think I know Seras better than the rest of you and know that she would want me checking in on our ungrateful little monsters." He snapped at them. "I'm doing the best I can to find your mother and father. And I'll remind you lot again that once I do find them, you still won't be able to see them. Not until you've met your demise. So, I advise all of you to live your lives and be with your mates. You think you have forever, but you don't. And don't worry about your mother. I will find her and Alucard."

"You tell us not to worry?" Vincent questioned with a dark look in his eyes. "How can we not worry when our parents are suffering in hell? How can you stand here when your mate is somewhere, in pain and suffering? Who knows what kind of hell she's going through?!"

Sebastian let out a deep breath of disappointment. His children had every right to worry. He wasn't truly mad at them, but mad at himself for not being able to find his mate after all this time. It's been a year since he had that conversation with his children; which meant that Seras and Alucard have been in their own hell for four years now. Every second was a decade to them. No wonder why his children hated him. Ever since that conversation he hasn't faced them because he just couldn't disappoint his children again. Hell was not how the humans imagined it at all. There were no pits of fire with demons rummaging around and the Devil on his throne. Hell was cold and dark. Doors were everywhere, but looked as if they led to nowhere. Opening one, a person or demon would be entering someone's personal hell that could take place anywhere, most likely a place from that person's past life.

As Sebastian wondered around hell, going through each door, he started to wonder if he was the one who had died and went to hell. What if he was on this endless loop of trying to find his mate and Alucard, but never being able to and knowing how much they were suffering all the while knowing that his children hated him? When will it end? Was any of this real? Any other time he would find his way of thinking ridiculous. But it's been four years. Four long years, each second feeling as if it was dragging on for years. How was he to know if he was in hell or just putting himself through hell? He went through door after door after door, searching for a familiar face. This man's hell was strangling his children, watching the life drain from their eyes over and over again. He was unaware that he was on an infinite loop, forced to feel regret as he strangled the life out of his young ones. In this woman's hell she was naked and completely mutilated. The body she once loved was destroyed and was now huddled in a corner of a filthy room. She muttered to herself and rocked back and forth like an insane person.

This man's hell was cutting his wrist over and over again. But the wounds would heal and he would have to start all over again. Blood dripped between his fingers as he held the rusty razor blade in his shaking hands. He sobbed loudly as he dragged the razor down his arm and cried out in pain. Sebastian closed the door and headed to the next door. He'd witnessed so many different hells, so many people suffering, but he didn't care about them. He didn't care about any of them. He just wanted Seras back. The next door he opened his ears were greeted with loud, child-like sobs and his eyes were met with a familiar face.

"Seras!" Sebastian exclaimed, elated to finally see her after four long years. But she didn't acknowledge him. Almost instantly he knew that she wasn't real. This replica of his mate stood in the center of the room, facing someone else. Pure hatred and fear glistened in her eyes as she held a knife at her side.

"I hate you!" She screamed before she slit her own throat. Not a second later, she was back standing in that same position with a gun at her side this time. "Who could ever love a monster?!" She bellowed before she shot herself in the head. She again reappeared with a noose around her neck. "You're disgusting!" The rope of the noose shot upwards, snapping the girl's neck. In front of Seras, as she rewound to start over with a different result, was a child no older than twelve. He was on his hands and knees before her. His face was wet and red from crying for god knows how long. He stared at her with deep red eyes and begging for her love and forgiveness between sobs.

"Alucard?" Sebastian whispered, recognizing the child instantly. It was a younger version of the elder vampire. His black hair was long as it poured over his shoulders and curled at the end. He wore old noble clothing, but they were tattered and filthy looking. His feet were bare and his fingernails were chipped and dirty. The demon entered the room and walked right over to the crying child, blocking Seras from him so he wouldn't fall back into that trance. But the child ignored him. He tried looking around the demon to see Seras kill herself over and over again because she hated that she was mated to a monster. Sebastian knelt before the boy, cupped his face in his hands, and roughly turned his head so Alucard had to look at him. "Alucard! Wake up! This isn't real!" He yelled at the boy harshly. The boy slowly stopped his crying, but he looked awfully confused. And strangely enough this man looked really familiar to him. Without hesitation, the demon slapped him hard across the face in hope to awaken him from his nightmare. The boy stopped his crying completely as realization hit him. His eyes widened and he gasped softly. Alucard slowly shifted his head to look back at the demon.

"Michaelis?" He whispered. The second Alucard came back to reality and he remembered where he was, he returned to his adult form in his normal red attire. He could hear Seras' voice, but it sounded like it was getting farther and farther away until it disappeared. The room they had been in, Alucard's hell, entirely vanished. They found themselves crouched outside where all the doors were. The vampire was silent for a long minute as he took in his surroundings. His eyes flickered from side to side before he glanced back at the demon. "Seras," He whispered while he thought back to his room. He briefly remembered that she had died before him, but that didn't sound right. Was that just part of his hell that Seras had died? "She didn't kill herself…She doesn't…hate me?" He asked, sounding and looking hopeful. Sebastian shook his head.

"No," He whispered. "Seras would never hate us." But the demon didn't look happy in the slightest. "And she didn't kill herself." He finished, causing the vampire to frown.

"She is really dead then." Alucard muttered to himself. He then recalled how she really died. "Vampire hunters," He went on while his head slowly dipped. "They staked her, carved out her heart, cut off her head, and shoved garlic in her mouth like in those old silly myths. They desecrated our mate." The next question shook them both. "How?" Alucard snarled with a dark look in his eyes.

"They used those old Hellsing runes against her. Bounded her like some animal and destroyed her before we could rescue her." Sebastian reminded him. "We wanted them dead, we were going to kill them, but the last minute you had a change of heart. You let them capture and bind you as well. You let them kill you so could die beside your mate." Sebastian continued on and with each passing second his eyes became darker and darker with fury. "I slaughtered them on my own. I avenged our mate on my own. And then I had to go and tell all of our children that I couldn't save their mother and that their other father had willingly died beside her. Now our children don't just blame me for Seras' death, but they blame me for yours as well. For four years, I've disappointed each of them when I didn't come with any news of their parents. I'm sorry for the hell you've bene through, Alucard, but I've been through hell too. Now, pick yourself up off of the floor and help me find our mate."

Neither of them knew how much time had passed. It could have been hours, days, months, maybe even a year or two. Time worked differently in hell after all. They searched about over five hundred thousand doors, maybe more. Sebastian had already been exhausted from his four year long search, but now he was completely worn down and extremely hungry. But he wasn't going to eat until he knew that Seras was safe in his establishment. How much longer could it be until they find her? Another couple of years? Soon? A few seconds? Minutes? Hours? Never? When? They went through another couple of hundred doors. This man's hell was being stabbed over and over again by his victims from his past life. This woman's hell was driving nails into her eyes for never speaking up for what she saw in her past life. This man's hell was being skinned for the constant racism throughout his past life. Door to door, like girl scouts selling cookies only to find disappointment behind each one.

Alucard and Sebastian didn't so much as say a word to each other the entire time. They were much like zombies, dragging themselves to the next door and groaning when seeing that it wasn't Seras. But when opening the next door, all of the energy they had lost came swarming back to them, making them stand up right. It was a room full of dead bodies. A large pool of blood soaked into the carpeting. Bodies were piled on top of one another and some were even hanging from the ceiling. Flies were buzzing over their lifeless faces. The stench was horrible, even though it wasn't exactly real at all. The reason why they stopped is because by the pile of bodies someone had neatly laid out dead bodies in a line, wanting to separate her loved ones from the rest of the pile. Alucard and Sebastian stared down at themselves with a line of their children (only younger versions of their children) on either side of them, along with a man and a woman they recognized from Seras' old family photos, her parents.

The sight before them was absolutely horrific because this was their family. Their daughters' clothes had been torn from their bodies and their arms and legs were bruised and clawed. Some of their sons were completely mutilated, making them almost unrecognizable to Alucard and Sebastian. The rest of their sons were missing limbs and eyes, some even their scalps. Seras' mother was partially naked with a ripped and bloody blouse, bra, and skirt. Her father had a bullet in his head and looked badly beaten. The only two that looked relatively fine were their own bodies. And lying there between her mates' bodies was a sobbing Seras. She was curled up into such a tight, little ball with her face buried in her arms. Her hands were fisting her hair tightly, pulling it at the roots. She was purposely trying to inflict pain onto herself so she wouldn't have to feel the pain that was weighing on her chest.

"Seras," Sebastian whispered his mate's name. The small blonde froze when hearing a voice for the first time in years. But she didn't move from her spot on the floor. She waited to hear that voice again, unable to tell if it had been in her head or real. Alucard and Sebastian entered the room cautiously, trying to be careful of the bodies on the floor even though they were only a part of Seras' imagination. They approached the curled up woman who wouldn't so much as look at them. The demon knelt in front of her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Seras jumped when feeling someone's touch. New tears burned her eyes and trailed down her face, but these were of relief.

"Se-bas-tian?" The little vampire whispered when recognizing her mate's tender touch. She shook and sobbed harder. Was this a cruel trick? Wasn't her mate dead beside her?

"Seras, it's alright." Sebastian whispered to her soothingly with a loving smile. "Come on, darling. Look at me," The small blonde did as she was told. She moved her arms from her face and peeked at him from the corner of her eye. The second she saw his face, saw how alive he was, the girl broke into tears. She shot right up into a sitting position and tackled her mate with an incredibly tight hug that just about strangled him. But he didn't care. Just as happy to see her, he wrapped his arms tightly around his mate and held her close to his body. He closed his eyes and stroked her hair while breathing in that familiar scent that calmed him all the more. She sobbed in his shoulder and played with his hair between her fingers. Oh, how did he miss the way her fingers twirled strands of his hair. Oh, how he missed the way her arms wrapped around him with the feeling of her face in his chest. He missed her so much. He missed everything about her. Even the bad habits he absolutely hated. He missed it all. He missed her so damn much. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and hugged her for as long as he could.

"Seras," Alucard whispered her name as he knelt beside them. He reached out to comb his fingers through her hair. Seras shifted her head to stare at him in shock.

"Alucard!" The little vampire exclaimed before she flung out her arm to wrap it tightly around his neck. The male grunted as his strong Draculina pulled him down into a tight hug. She didn't let go of either of them. She just wanted to sit there and hold onto them forever. Perhaps they would stay safe in her arms. Perhaps they will be invulnerable to death there. She knew that wasn't true, but she didn't care at the moment. She just wanted to familiarize herself with their scents again, their touch, their warmth, their hugs, and so on. She wanted to remember it all. As they minutes ticked by, Seras slowly calmed down until her tears had dried and she was smiling and purring again. When she was in the right state of mind, her room vanished. The pile of dead bodies disappeared along with the line of their dead children. They were back outside with the line of doors they no longer had to look through because they had everything they needed right there in their arms.

"Where are our children?" Seras asked. She now understood that what she had gone through was hell, but she still worried about her children. Were they alive and well? Or were they somewhere in hell with them?

"They're alive, Seras. They're healthy and happy. Don't worry about them." Sebastian told her, but she knew that he just wanted to sit there and hold her. She was alright with that for the time being. She rested her head against Alucard's shoulder as she held them close, never wanting to let them go ever again.

The End

I hope you guys enjoyed this AU! Please go check out the Mad Child's version of this AU if you hadn't already!

Oxford Not Brogues