HELLSING: ERADICATION

CHAPTER VI

Greetings again! I truly am sorry for delaying so long on this short chapter. My week was pretty hectic and I wasn't able to get a lot of work done, but anyways... Here it is!

Seras felt the burn of the sun on her back. She shrieked, and fell. Luckily, Alik caught her, but the disorientation was too much. What the hell had just happened?

She felt herself lowered onto the ground, felt the pain sear even more, and slipped from Alik's grasp. She struggled to turn, tried to see where Alik had gone, and…

Her vision blurred. She couldn't see! She felt herself held by someone – or something – and then heard whispers. Was death coming for her? Was it her time? The pain lessened. The whispers grew louder, but Seras did not know what they were saying. Maybe it was her time.

And then everything fell into blackness.

Alik had panicked. Seras had seemed to vanish from sight after he had set her on the ground as gently as he could. To his fortune the trench coated man who had thrown those… things at her did not do anything else, but this only seemed to infuriate Alik more.

He had charged at the man, determined to make him pay, but had had to dodge further attacks from the man as he threw more of the sharp objects (were they knives?). Alik had been successful in avoiding them but could not seem to reach the man, always being thrown back whenever he approached.

Curiously, the man had said nothing, at least, nothing that Alik could hear. He didn't even know who or what the man was, or what he was even doing there. But then Alik was thrown back again by the invisible force that seemed to surround his combatant.

This time, he was not as fortunate. One of the knives managed to get past, embedding itself in his shoulder. Alik likened the pain to what he thought acid in an open wound felt like, but suddenly more of the knives flew at him, like a flurry of deadly fireflies.

The pain was like poison in his veins, but he couldn't give up. He had to fight! He had to fight for Seras! He managed to stand, attempted to ignore the pain, and at last he reached the trench coated man, slicing at his arm. To Alik's surprise, he was not forcibly pushed, but the blade connected, and the man's arm was lopped off.

Apparently this was rather unexpected. The wound bled profusely, but the man did not seem quite fazed, merely surprised at the occurrence. As his other arm drew more of the knives from his seemingly infinite storage, a golden light surrounded his wound.

The arm appeared on the man's shoulder again, fully unwounded, and the man then threw more knives at Alik, who was too stunned to react. He was caught in the chest with the barrage, and the pain was too immense. He slumped to the floor, and as he lay there, he saw the man's face contort into a sadistic smile. He then walked past Alik's body, but Alik was not finished.

Incredibly, Alik found the strength to move again. He buried Hellion in the back of the trench coated man, who this time roared in a mixture of anger and pain, and then Alik struggled to reach Seras. He found her as he had left her, and still covered in blood from the event.

He felt weak from the pain, almost delirious, but he had to carry her! He lifted her, and leaned against the wall as he tried to move as fast as he could. The knives seemed to bury into him, but he had to get out.

But then Seras screamed. And Alik fell.

Seras felt herself lifted again. She opened her eyes to Alik's face. It was sticky with blood, but she felt elated. He was holding her, and the coppery scent was all around her. It was amazing.

But then something appeared over Alik's shoulder. Seras could not find the strength to move her arms, so she did the only thing she could: scream.

Alik vanished from her sight and she dropped to the floor. She felt adrenaline overtake her as some of the blood from Alik fell onto her face. It tasted strange, but she felt an inkling of the vampiric rejuvenation begin.

Her opponent was now laughing. Seras did not see her rifle anywhere and instead moved behind an alcove in the hallway, her mind racing to think of something. She had to think of a way to fight the man, but how?

She still felt weak. Perhaps if she could reach the ghouls, then she could feed from them…

No, the man was too close. She would not have time. What could she do?

"Ye can't escape! There is nowhere to hide for the enemies of God!" The man had finally spoken, in a curiously accented voice that carried the tinge of insanity. Great, Seras thought to herself, I always wanted to fight a priest.

She continued to backtrack through the hallway. She was about to reach abject despair when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. What was it? A flash of red, and then Seras recognized it.

"Master!" Alucard had appeared, his expression unreadable. "Where is the other?" Seras pointed to the end of the hallway where Alik had fallen. "We were attacked by some-" She was interrupted as the man in question arrived on the scene.

He saw Alucard, and his grin broke into a twisted smile. "So, look what we have here! The master vampire comes to help his bloody minions!" He drew more knives. "I've waited long for this moment, Hellsing scum!"

Alucard's own countenance remained relatively calm, but a small grin appeared around the edges of his lips. "And here I thought that the Catholics were finished. What a shame. The Vatican will receive your remains in an envelope!"

Alucard drew both pistols and fired, the bullets connecting with the man's head, and he toppled. Seras thought he was dead, but when he suddenly stood back up, she could not – would not – believe it. "Bloody vampires!"

The priest charged at Alucard, wielding the knives as swords, and Seras took this opportunity to get past him. She heard the sounds of battle, but at that moment her mind returned to Alik and she was determined to find him.

Seras reached the hallway where Alik and the ghouls had fallen. She knelt at the nearest ghoul and began to drink of its remains, feeling revived as she did so. Her strength returned, and though not in full force, she felt able to do what she did next.

She located Alik's body, and tried to think rationally of how she could help. He was mutilated; his eyes glassed over, and blood streaming from the knives' wounds. She fell to her knees again, and managed to pull out the knives that were embedded in Alik's flesh, and then she looked into his face.

Seras found herself distracted by the way he lay there, frozen. She was not sure if he was dead or simply comatose. She then moved closer to his face, her hand acting of its own accord, and stroked his cheek.

She was not entirely aware that she had done so until blood had seeped onto her glove, staining it quite brilliantly. She flinched, but then discovered with surprise that she did not want to move her hand away.

Seras was not sure when she had begun to feel differently about Alik. He had an air of sadness about him, something she found compelling, but in the vampiric bloodlust she had felt when fighting the ghouls, her perception of him had… changed.

In that moment, she had felt as if there actually had been a literal magnetic connection between them, as if she was a fly drawn to a light. She could smell the blood on him, its aroma intoxicating, and she found it impossible to ignore.

Seeing him now in a state of unknown health, she did not know what to think. But then she realized that he might not survive if she just stayed there. With reluctance (but also resolve), she tore herself away from his eyes and moved to the nearest ghoul, dragging with her back to Alik.

She ripped off some of its flesh and moved it to Alik's mouth, hoping with all her might that he would drink from it. Relief flooded her when she saw that he did, perhaps unconsciously.

At this, she also noticed that his body slowly began to heal. The wounds had stopped bleeding. She tore off another piece of the ghoul and this time, Alik ate of it without her holding it.

Alik's eyes refocused, and when he saw her, he smiled a little, as he was not aware of doing so. Seras smiled back, taking his hand and helping him stand. He braced himself against her, and she felt her heart race.

Then Alik seemed to remember what had happened. His eyes widened. "Where is the man? I need to kill him!" Seras pointed in the opposite direction. "Master came. They're in the hallway."

Alik looked around, grabbed his pistol and his sword, and proceeded into the hallway that Seras had told him. As for herself, she finally located her rifle (discarded next to a ghoul), and followed suit.

As they entered the scene, the man and Alucard were poised to fight again, but Alik reacted first. He aimed his pistol, and fired as the man turned around.

The man's neck spewed blood as it was impacted. "Damned heathens! How many of ye are there!?"

And then the most stunning thing that evening happened.

Alik was about to fire again, when he noticed the appearance of someone he least expected. Sir Integra walked into the hallway slowly and purposefully, though for all the show she made in doing so, it was surprising to Alik that everyone turned to face her.

She carried a pistol, casually levelled at the priest, and walked to him. "Ah. Alexander Anderson. I was wondering when Iscariot would interfere."

The priest's face rippled with anger. "Iscariot claims jurisdiction in Ireland! You Hellsing bastards have no claim here!" Integra remained calm. "Hmm. It seems a moot point, especially considering you are surrounded."

She looked at Alik with a faint smile. "Mr. Roth?" Alik glanced up. "Kill him."

Alik nodded, grinning. "With pleasure Kommandant." He fired, but at that moment the man raised a book. The bullet connected with the book, but broke on impact with it. Alik realized it was Bible.

"All of ye will regret this! Retribution will be delivered by the hands of God, and ye'll be destroyed!"

The man opened his Bible, then a swirl of golden light appeared around him, and then he was gone. Alik guessed that he could teleport like his own Master could, but somehow the odd priest seemed out of place doing such.

Seras turned to Alik. She hugged him, which startled everyone present, but she whispered into his ear as she did so. "You're alive." It was a statement. Alik was confused.

After he had managed to move away from her grasp, his face a deep shade of red (and not because it was heavily bloodstained), he noticed Alucard watching. "Hmmm…."

He appeared to be deep in thought, though as to what occupied his Master's thoughts Alik hadn't the slightest idea. Integra began whispering furiously to Alucard as she motioned for the fledglings to follow them out of the building.

It had been a surprisingly short ride back to Hellsing, at least to Alik. Mainly because both he and Seras had almost been killed by a psychopathic Catholic priest, and not to mention that there hadn't even been a single leprechaun on the entire mission!

As much as he had been through that day, Alik was content, however. Ever since they had begun the mission, he had noticed Seras acting differently, and though he did not know the cause, he appreciated the results.

Her distinctly feminine mood, in which she constantly asked if he was feeling alright, touching his hand to reassure him that everything was fine, as well as being very friendly and not the tomboy that Alik had come to know was a change of pace and actually quite strange, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Of course on his part, Alik was trying to forget the less-than-platonic moment that had occurred between them when the bloodlust had threatened to overwhelm the pair of them, but he wasn't about to complain.

It was strange, but then again, everything about that day had been. Perhaps it really was the heat of the moment? It wasn't that Seras wasn't attractive in her friendly mood (which she was, as much as Alik refused to admit), but the raw gravitation that he had experienced was gone now.

He wasn't sure what to think about that.

Training resumed the following day. Alik noticed the lack of action on the part of his Master, and Sir Integra as well. Everett usually stayed away. Destroying training dummies, athletic conditioning, and extreme obstacle courses seemed to be the only real events that took place for a long while.

Again, Alik took the time to sort out his thoughts. Seras had since returned to her tomboy-ish state, but other than small talk had not said a word to him about the mission, which occupied all of his mind's discussion.

What if he had died? What if she had died? What if they had killed the priest? What if Alik had been faster? Then he could have saved Seras the pain…

Such things tormented him for the majority of the training sessions, often making him lose focus and miss a dummy, to Seras' evident amusement. The whole thing was just so damned annoying that Alik was wondering why he even thought of it at all.

Finally, after what Alik assumed to be two months (he had a terrible sense of time), Alucard sent for Alik via Walter that he was to meet him in the library.

Given that Alik did not know that the estate even had a library, it took his mind off of the mission almost instantly. He had then hastily scampered after Walter and asked for directions, then proceeded on the prescribed path to reach his Master.

Alucard waved Walter away as he sat in a chair opposite Alik. He motioned for Alik to sit, and he did so, and then Alucard began speaking. "Fledgling." "Yes Master?"

"Do you know who the man who attacked you in Ireland was?" Alik frowned, trying to remember. "He was from… Iscariot, was he? Our rivals." Alucard nodded, though showed no expression. "Yes. He is called Alexander Anderson, a formidable weapon that the Vatican has unveiled. You are quite fortunate to still be alive, fledgling."

After a pause, he continued. "Another subject I seek to discuss: When Sir Everett showed you the augur, you received a vision. What happened in it?"

Alik thought well before answering. He did not think that his Master was referring to his meeting with the demon, but he also knew that he did not want to tell anyone about Seras' presence in his dreams. It was too strange for him to explain.

"I met a demon. My demon." Alucard did not react. "Nothing else?" Alik shook his head, and at this gesture Alucard's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure?" Alik nodded.

"Very well. Go about your training, fledgling."

Alik stood and walked out of the room, wondering exactly what had just happened.

Seras was dreaming again. The training had been good for her, allowing her to think but not think too hard on anything in particular. Truth be told, the mission in Ireland had affected her much greater than she had ever expected it to.

Colour flared as thoughts swirled in her dreaming mind, recollections of that mission playing around her vision. She did not forget what had happened between Alik and herself; how could she? That moment had reoccurred in her dreams, though often she found it in… variations.

Though she could barely compare, she knew that she had not felt so strongly about… well, anything, before that moment. And what she felt, exactly, was the question that she wanted answered. Was it adoration? Possibly. She felt like she could trust Alik, even though she knew that others would deem her mad for thinking so.

But yet what was it? She had begun to wonder if blood was the only thing that her vampiric state lusted after. Granted, she did have more carnal desires that appeared occasionally, but she felt different towards Alik. She cared about him, cared for him, not for his looks.

…

That was a lie. She definitely cared about those too. But mostly him.

She could not even name the feeling that she guessed was her own. She could not dare to, not now, not ever. Obviously it was just some sort of stress, a result of the trauma of being stabbed and almost dying. It wouldn't last long.

But she wanted it to. She wanted it so much more…

So...

What do you think? Rate, review, all that good stuff. Although this time, I am curious to see what people might say. I would be lying if I said that I did not enjoy writing Anderson, but I am unsure as of right now whether or not he is going to stay that way. I like the Irish accent, but I could also see him being a Brit, so...

Hopefully, if my schedule permits, I'll have Chapter VII up pretty soon, as I have made some progress on that. In the meantime, review, and peace out!