I don't fucking believe it. How, in the name of insanely hot vampires everywhere, did this happen?! (does happy dance) I can't believe you guys actually like this story. This was just a little ramble of mine done in response to a video that I was deeply obsessed with, and look what happens: I have the next 5-6 chapter written. All that needs to be done is some major cleanup and match-up.

And do you know why I'm really psyched? My fic is featured in Altherin's Archive! "Wha-?" I can hear you saying. But it's probably one of the best C2's around here. They mostly do slash, so the stories with no slash appears to be good- really good.

I can, in no way, shape, or power, imagine how my fic got in that C2. It's good (I'm not a very modest person) but it's not that good. So, ummm, yeah.

School sucks, YouTube is the bomb, and my cat is retarded. Yeah. That's life.

DISCLAIMER: Hellsing and Sailor Moon is not mine. I do not own it, and I do not intend on owning it anytime soon.


Requiem Overture

Chapter 4: Ruminations of the Immortal

By: Ceris Malfoy


The next few weeks were interesting, to say the least.

Usagi had to go to school, come home, receive lessons from her various tutors, leave to go to whichever private lessons her adoptive parents were paying for (currently it was violin and dance), come home, and pass out. How she managed it was beyond her, but she wasn't just managing, she was excelling. She supposed parts of it came from the fact that she didn't sleep very long any more -her nightmares woke her shortly after three-to-four hours of sleep. Any free time she had, she spent lying on her bed staring blankly as she communicated with her new-found 'pet'.

She had been relieved to note that their new mental 'bond' had barriers. They had reached an unspoken accord -she minded her own business and stopped snooping around his memories and thoughts, and he would give her the same space. Which basically meant two things: a) he didn't know about the growing …fondness she had for him, and b) he knew absolutely nothing about her dreams.

The matter of feeding him had been rather tricky, until she had located a blood-bank. She knew it wasn't right, but she needed the blood, and so took it -it did count as saving a life, right? For every blood pack she stole, she saved an innocent human life. It was a weak attempt to rationalize the crime, she knew, but every time she started to worry about it, an odd feeling -something cold and ruthless- would rise in her, and she would just not care.

Getting the blood to him was another matter that had been rather tricky. She couldn't go anywhere near the basement without getting yelled at. And Alucard -that was his name- wouldn't leave the basement until he was needed. Something about seals and conditions. It confused the hell out of her, so she didn't look into it too much. Something told her that if she did, she would come to hate the Hellsing name.

She eventually realized that there was no other way; she had to brave her parents' anger. The first few times she had been caught, but she quickly began to realize the 'optimal' periods of time when both her parents would be completely distracted. Ironically enough, it was Shingo who provided the distractions: seemed the little spore was quite talented at getting into trouble, and could be persuaded to deliberately do so …for the correct price.

Usagi was finding herself to be quite the accomplished barterer.

It was through careful negotiation that Usagi had arranged for Shingo to start an argument with her parents -an argument that Shingo had been itching to have for awhile now. One which hinged on one basic principle: she was allowed to do something that he wasn't. A grim smile played across her mouth. Ah, the follies of youth, how she adored them.


Usagi trembled slightly as she listened to her parents argue with Shingo. She was not sure whether Shingo would adhere to their deal or not, but knew that she would be severely punished should she be caught. It didn't help that she had a small cooler filled with blood packs to be placed in the basement fridge for Alucard's convenience.

How in the name of all that's Holy could she even attempt to explain that?!

Hearing her cue -a rather loud "But Kaa-san, Usagi's allowed to stay out all hours of the night!" and the rather nasty explosion of her parents -"WHAT WE ALLOW YOUR SISTER TO DO HAS NO BEARING ON WHAT YOU ARE OR ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO!!" She quickly unlocked the basement door with the key she had snitched this morning before school, opened the door, grabbed the cooler and darting onto the landing before swiftly turning around, shutting, and relocking the door.

Just in time.

She heard her parents storming through the hallway -her mother towards the kitchen, her father to his study. She breathed a sigh of relief, shifted her grip on the cooler, and turned.

And promptly bit deep into her lip to hold back her scream of sheer terror.

She closed her eyes, desperately trying to calm her rather excitable mind. She only opened them when she felt like she was in no immediate danger of absolute lunacy.

The stairs were gone. That was the first thing she noticed -she was carefully avoiding looking up. She did not want to look up. There was nothing but a black void of shadows and nothing-ness where the stairs were supposed to be. The only sign of something normal was the landing she was standing on and the door behind her. She concentrated on the landing, noting the smooth grain of the wood, before she realized she was avoiding the problem -and that could be dangerous. Gulping, she steeled her nerves, and looked up.

Her teeth went further into her lip, and the pain kept her from loosing it.

Within the black void were the eyes. Thousands, millions of eyes; all perfectly formed. Each was a swirling crimson or a burning scarlet; each was sublime and unnaturally beautiful. They were as terrible in their beauty as they were terrible in their agonizing vigil. All of them, gleaming blood and fire, crimson and scarlet, entwined with shadow and death. She shuddered and fought not to turn around and scramble to get out; fought not to scream like the terrified 11-year-old she was for her mother to save her from the monsters she suddenly knew were real.

This was no dream; this was not something she would wake from. This was reality; this was her monster.

Her teeth went deeper. Blood, heady in it's coppery taste and scent played along her senses, and she realized her eyes had slipped shut as she concentrated on the pain. She deliberately bit deeper.

Teeth met teeth through flesh and blood..

Something moved.

She quickly opened her eyes, noticing that the door behind her was no longer there -nor was the landing she was standing on. She was alone in the void of shadows and eyes. She whimpered, and clenched her teeth around her flesh.

She would not scream. She could not scream.

An eternity passed.

The eyes assessed her and gradually, as she became aware that nothing was happening, she began to assess them back.

They were remarkably beautiful eyes. Despite not being attached to anything. In fact, they were the same color as Alucard's….

She started when one eye closed. And then another. And then another. And still more. And as they closed, the void began to recede, and she became aware of light -sweet beautiful awe-inspiring light. God how she had missed the light. The light was coming from the phantom fireplace. (Although where in the Hell it came from was completely beyond her. In fact, the whole basement seemed to have been remodeled since her last visit. And she somehow knew that Alucard was the one responsible, so didn't bring it up with her parents.)

And even better, Alucard was sitting in that throne-like chair, apparently waiting for her.

With a strangled sound, she raced down the stairs and towards her "pet".


Whatever people would think, it had never been his intention to scare or otherwise harm his Little Master. Any who viewed his actions without knowing him intimately would assume that he was merely carrying on with his vendetta against the Hellsing family by terrorizing this newest member. Others, those who knew him better than most, but not well-enough at all, would assume he was continuing the games he had played with the child's biological mother.

Neither could be farther from the truth.

He didn't love her -she was too young, and he sincerely doubted he could truly love anyone anyway- but he did have an inordinate fondness for the little girl. It was an itch, an uncontrollable itch that begged to be scratched. One that lived just under the skin and could only be soothed when he held her close, breathing in the scent of cherry blossoms and moonlight. His Little Master, his moonlight child.

He was an immortal being, so much more than what those Hellsing dogs had dared to grasp. The first one, Abraham with his cold artic-blue eyes that bore into one's soul….That one had called him Dracula, had called him Vlad the Impaler, the Prince of Walachia. He had only been half-right. Vlad Tepes had merely been an identity of his -he had been what he was now for centuries longer than some cared to recall.

He was truly the first, truly cursed.

The closest theory he had found was the one that claimed he was Judas Iscariot, cursed by God for betraying His son, but even that was only so close -he had never been a follower of Christ, had in fact been in a different country at the time. No, he had been an Egyptian Prince, one of Ramses II's many sons, cursed by a Hittite Priestess during the Wars. He had seen Empires rise and fall like the dunes of the shifting sands, had in fact been the cause of most of them failing. He glorified in death and pain, but even he had limits.

And praying on the fears of children had never been his style.

Thus, when he had sensed an intrusion into his new 'domain' he had reacted accordingly under his expectations, and by the time he realized that he had been wrong and just who it was, it was too late. He had not known of her intent to see him that eve, had in fact thought her rigidly against defying those good enough to raise her as their own. He had anticipated a curious son, wanting to know what the fuss was about, or even one of the parents, wanting to protect their daughter from the perceived danger.

By the time he had reigned in his madness along-side his powers, the girl was petrified, scared, and bleeding profusely from a wound she had inflicted upon herself in her sheer desperation not to scream.

His Little Master….

He had scared the child, and so when she ran to him, crying, he was not surprised. He sat on the chair in front of the fireplace and waited for the anger to awaken, for his punishment to begin -Integra had been older, more knowledgeable of his darkness, and had still been so terrified she had confined him for weeks without hunting privileges within his room. So when she called out his name, and flung herself bodily onto his seated figure, clutching at him as if he was the last thing on this God-forsaken plane of existence that could possibly protect her, he was startled.

He expected many things, but not her.

Hmph. Maybe that's why his skin itched when she wasn't near.


So? What you think about the newest chapter? I know it's been awhile, but I was waiting for something significant to burst through: the latter part of this fic. So, ummmm...I'm gonna go clean up the latest chapter of Demeter's Daughter. It should be out within the next day or so.

Ja,

Ceris Malfoy

NOTES:

Again, not really notes, but stuff I want you guys to read in order to fully understand the chapter. My thoughts, if you will, of things that happen and how they affect things before and later on.

1. First things first. I'm going to be murdered by every Hellsing fan out there. I know it, I expect it, and I still did the blasphemy mentioned above. (blows raspberry) But I will attempt to explain my reasoning, so that perhaps the blasphemy doesn't seem too blasphemous. I was going for the whole Ancient thing, a creature old enough to remember the world when she first began: a true First among vampires.

I mentioned the theory found in Dracula: 2000 (Judas Iscariot), but I understand that that was a warped version of the true myth; it was supposed to be the Roman soldier who thrust the spear through Jesus. Who, in doing so, created the Spear of Destiny and ended up condemned to wander the Earth for eternity in soulless existence.

I like the whole Vlad the Impaler theory, but to my vampire lore, it doesn't fit. He was said to be the father of Vampires, but Vampires have existed in legend centuries before Vlad Tepes was born. SO in order to keep Alucard as the true First, the Father of All Vampires, I resorted to Anne Rice's solution.

Well, not towards vampires, but still, the theory was interesting to relate to Vampire lore. In her novel, The Mummy (or Ramses the Damned), she introduced an Immortal Ramses II, a great Egyptian Pharaoh who chased down a Hittite Priestess and took from her an Elixir that granted immortality: the effect of which changed his eye-color from deep brown to an inhuman shade of bright blue. I warped that theory. (Obviously.) I made Alucard Ramses II's son, and had him cursed by the Hittite Priestess upon her rather abrupt death. Thus, he's ancient, powerful, and not Christian or Protestant or whatever the hell they're calling themselves these days. Back then you were Roman Catholic or you were Pagan.

But I'm getting off topic.

Alucard is still Alucard though, because I didn't want to die. I'm not that stupid, nor that much in need of a death wish. He was still captured by Abraham von Hellsing. He is still Helping's "pet". He is still a psychotic sadistic asshole on the battlefield -he's just got a larger history. And, no, he doesn't even remember his original name. It has, after all, been quite a few eventful millennia.

2. Second thing. His seals. I was re-watching the anime and the OVA, and realized that my big scene with the eyes could not have been possible if he was under the seals, and at the strength that I reveal in a later chapter. (This is the match-up part. Sometimes my imagination goes wild and I start to embellish and add stuff, so later I have to re-read everything I wrote as a cohesive whole and fix things here and there to fit other bits and pieces.)

But, never fear, I do have a plausible explanation for this: the seals mutate with every new owner. Hellsing hasn't had time to realize this because the Heads of the family never write down their experiences with the vampire, or his powers, (so that he can remain a secret weapon), so have no way of knowing if the seals are the same. In my severely twisted mind, Integra's seals were stronger than her father's, but weaker than her grandfather's. Usagi's are stronger that her great-grandfather's, but not by much. And they're different based off how they each viewed the vampire.

Integra's would have been the strongest of the bunch had some part of her not still have been the scared 13-year-old who saw him as her savior. (Remember, this is in my mind!) Usagi is a complexity to explain, and one that I'm not going to try to hard to do. I'll allow you to draw your own conclusions about her from now on. But her seals are strange, even by Hellsing standards. The usual power restrictions are in place, but are supremely flexible. This is supposed to aid the defense of Alucard and Hellsing, instead of waiting for a very big problem to announce itself when its too late to do much about it. Also, a newer seal, imposed by Usagi's own innate magic, designed to force coherency of thought, as well as restrictions against harm of herself or those she deems worthy.

I have a feeling I'm explaining this entirely too badly, so perhaps someone can submit their own musings? Credit will be given, of course, for the wordage, but I'm hoping that someone out there can pull sense out of my musings above.