A/N: Okay, here`s chapter 10- basically, this is the first half of the story. It's possible that the second half will be longer in length, but i don´t want to drag it out for -too- long... it might die if i run out of ideas.

This chapter actually goes into M-rating territory later, so if you´re not comfortable with that, skip it please. It's not very long, anyway.

Here ends the Dangerous Past story arc, the past is unveiled and part of it is brought to the present time. The next chapter will likely feature a lot of Seras and Noel, and possibly a lot of Ragna and Nu as well. We haven`t seen those two in a while now, haven`t we?

At any rate, without further ramble, let's go.

At times like these, Seras wished for the old days in Hellsing to return… only one order to follow, and the only life she had to worry about was her own, all others were expendable.

Right now, she had two orders to follow- ensure the safety of Noel Vermillion and secure the personal log of Shuchiro Ayatsuki- something she had already discovered and was holding on to.

What the briefing didn´t warn her about was the enemy she was facing- that green haired, suit clad "gentleman" named Hazama… one of the many names Terumi Yuuki used as a disguise.

But she didn´t know that, and as such, she was completely off guard when Terumi used virtually the same release code Ragna previously used to unlock the Azure Grimiore`s power… something remarkably similar to the Cromwell seal. Possibly not by coincidence, but curiosity was pushed aside by the sheer overwhelming urge to survive she was feeling, the shivering of her body in tone with the pulsating of Terumi`s life leeching aura.

"Kyahahaahaha~ Whats the matter, big girl? Are you afraid of me, all of the sudden? Please, Bella, we can`t be together, i´m too dangerous!"

Seras caught the whimsical reference to an old book series revolving around the forbidden romance between a vampire and a teenage girl, and shrugged it off. Her left arm had turned itself into blood matter, ready to become any weapon required, but with the hypersonic bullets of her rifle leaving no effect at all, she doubted it would do her much good in this "released" state of his.

Safe to say, he wasn´t one to wait for his opponent to make the first move- as the snake head on a chain, the true form of Oroburos, raced towards Noel, Seras leaped in front of the smaller girl to catch the biting chain in her hip, a sharp pain and a feeling of dreadful sorrow invading her mind.

What the hell was that? For the brief moment the snake pierced her, she felt utterly helpless and alone, wounded and tired, unable to go on… it reminded her… of that day… those two days…

"Ooooh, was that a delicious memory just now? Tee-hee, little vampire, lets see if we can dig more of that up!"

A second attack was launched by him, something Seras avoided by simply grabbing Noel and sidestepping at superhuman speed- something an average person would describe as a teleport.

"My memories are none of your business." Seras snarled, discarding her useless rifle on a nearby desk. If she was to win this, she would have to rely on her physical abilities.

"Seras… don`t…! Even you… even you can`t win against him!" Noel warned her, her breath failing on her in the sheer terror and fear she had of that man, the man that showed her the true nature of her kind a few weeks prior.

"I`ve struggled with worse odds, Noel." Seras grunted, eyeing the attacker intensively. "Take my rifle and head for the door, i`ll follow as soon as I can. He´ll never be as fast as I am, we`ll just lock him in down here." She whispered, unaware of Terumi`s abilities to teleport himself over short ranges, and long ranges with Phantom´s aid.

"Seras… that's.. that's not going to work…" Noel whispered, also forgetting this part, but generally discouraged given the situation.

"Sacrificing yourself as the hero to let her escape, eh?" Terumi`s grin widened into a grimace. "Don´t worry. You won`t have to- you`ll both die down here." Of course he didn´t forget about the life link that connected him with Noel, and her bond with the Azure that gave her limitless lifeforce- but he´d say anything to scare her even further… and instead of talking all the way, he shot his Oroburos chain at the ceiling, flying over to Seras to decapitate her with one of his knives.

"Tricky bastard, are you…" She responded, her left arm forming a blade to parry his.

"You don´t know the half of it." Just as she was about to grab him and toss him into the nearest wall, a spring operated knife hidden in his sleeve rammed itself into her jugular, something which Terumi thought to be a fitting way to die for a vampire.

However, as he was about to find out, adult Nosferatus regenerated much faster than infantile Tremere such as Rachel- the moment the blade left her flesh, the wound started to close.

A grin from Seras was the answer, and her eyes slowly started to glow. She was in control of her vampireic side, but letting loose every once in a while was necessary and, in times like these, useful.. her arm, previously used to parry the weapons, transformed into a claw and attempted to rip Terumi to pieces, but the sharp ends failed to penetrate his skin, only clutching onto him as she threw him headfirst into a nearby wall.

"Seras…" Noel whispered, but the vampire didn´t respond. She kept her back at Noel, trying her damn hardest to protect the shorter female and fighting Terumi at the same time- a feat that was no easy task.

"That aura of yours… it steals life force, doesn`t it." Seras commented as Terumi got back up from the ground. "I was wondering why I felt like I was weakening every second i´ve been enclosed in it."

"Why, obviously." Terumi retorted, almost sarcastic in tone. "Can´t you tell? My enemies can´t hurt me, but I hurt them plenty. And I –like- it." A barrage of knives flying her direction followed that sentence, and Terumi stormed forward to get in reach of her again… without Seras being able to react to it, however, Noel raised her guns from behind Seras and fired at him, blasting the knives in midair to drive them off of their path, then stopping Terumi´s advance and temporarily disabling his aura.

The aura was gone everytime he was hit…? Seras decided to keep that in mind, though she still had no idea how to inflict damage on this guy.

"Noel! Keep your head down!" Seras yelled at her, but the small girl already cartwheeled out from behind her, firing off short bursts from her pistols while she recoiled off of a wall with a jump. She could see what she was trying to do- disabling his aura for long enough until she would find something to beat him with, but that was easier said than done... hmmm..

A support beam hanging above them came into her vision. That might do it...

Her left arm extended onto it, clutching to it on almost its entire length, then breaking it out of its support- she ripped an AA gun out of the Milleniums flagship once, this was nothing compared to it. Oh, how she wished to have an Eight-Eight right now.

"Here`s something to stuff your big mouth with!" With a battle growl, she launched the beam into his direction- Terumi actually looked quite shocked, but a second later his trademark grin reappeared.

The impact left a lot of dust getting kicked up from the walls, consoles, desks and the surrounding area- the entire wall he was flown into was broken into pieces, and just a few seconds later, Terumi reemerged from behind the crack in the wall.

Limping, spitting blood, but breathing and alive.

"Hehh... that... wasn`t bad. You... certainly caught me off guard with that, girl... but that's not enough." His grin grew wider, and Seras just realized she was out of options. If this didn`t hurt him in the slightest- her only choice was to bite him, and she really wasn`t fond of the rotting blood of her foes.

Thankfully, a blade slashed down towards Terumi, who was now even more shocked than before. Blocking the cut with his own two knives, he was knocked back a bit, and had to parry a second slice from a second blade the moment afterwards.

"You...!" He snapped, breathless.

"You are an eyesore I thought I could go without this time. Damnit, I might actually have to work to kill those two now."

The new arrival said nothing in return, as he landed in front of the two women, fangs baring from his feline face.

"Sorry ta disappoint, Terumi, but this old cat ain`t gonna let you do that."

Old cat... cat was right. Seras could do nothing but stare at the oversized housecat standing on its hind legs, holding a sword with two tails and a second in its teeth.

Its paws were concealed by large sleeves of the coat he was wearing, bearing weapons of its own- two huge metal claws extending from the sleeves themselves.

The hood of his coat made it difficult to see his face from her standpoint, but... she actually had a shiver running down her spine from his surprisingly manly, gruff voice- nothing she would`ve expected an intelligent, bipedal cat to sound like.

"Mr Jubei! Thank goodness you`re here!" Noel exclaimed, which Seras noted as 'she knows who he is' and lowered her guard around him again.

"Just passin' through, Noel. Could already tell Terumi would try ta get the notes on the Lynchpin sooner or later, if he`d be that damn interested in the thing." The cat named Jubei grunted. "Didn`t think he´d try to kill you, though."

"You didn`t..? You`re smart enough to figure out I would want his log, and you wouldn´t think I would get rid of a tool thats no longer useful to me?" Terumi snarled disappointedly, spinning his blades in his hands as Jubei launched another attack on him.

The cat`s attack pattern seemed random and downright insane- fighting with four weapons, four entirely different weapons not to mention, was Seras couldn`t even imagine to do.

Yet, Terumi blocked, deflected and avoided the blows and slashes like he`d done so for ages. However, Jubei kept the pressure on him high enough, he couldn`t do anything to counter attack. She didn`t even think about aiding him- firing into his attack pattern to hit Terumi might distract him too much.

"Yer not gonna find anythin useful here, Terumi. Ayatsuki took most of the secrets to his grave, and without the key, yer never gonna be able to use the Lynchpin." Jubei mentioned, keeping the pressure high.

"What makes you think I want to -use- the Lynchpin, huh? Its just as primitive as everything else that man designed. A big rock with powerful magic enchanted on it... give me a break." He huffed, rolling his eyes. "The thing Relius is building can´t even be compared to it- The lynchpin is just like a light switch, turning the boundary on and off. Our device is more like a switchboard... no, not even that. More like a whole computer. Can you imagine that?! Manipulating the boundary to deliver energy wherever you want it to, doing things Ayatsuki wouldn`t even dream about... if we`re not careful, we might bring all those who died in the dark war back to life. Gee, won´t that suck, right?"

Jubei just kept quiet and slashed at him, pressing him out of the room. "Ayatsuki might`ve been a madman, but you two are worse. I reckon its not even yer own motives... more like, hers."

"Geez, give me a break. I can´t kill all of you at the same time!" The green haired man sighed, retreating further, much to his annoyance. As Seras and Noel advanced in Jubei`s back, he sighed even deeper.

This was not going to end well... oh, who cares. So long as he dodged Musashi good enough...

But then, an ice cold hand was planted on his shoulder, and he looked up to see into the concealed face of Phantom, who had appeared right behind him to bring him out.

"What?! Phantom, I didn`t call you here! Get lost, I need to-"

Without being able to finish his sentence, the ghost disappeared with him in another portal, leading back to the throne room underneath the unfinished Nemesis Horizon.

To -her- throne room.

"Oh my god, thank you so much Mr Jubei..!" Noel squealed as soon as her guns were holstered. She didn´t give him time to sheath his, instead she just ran over and hugged the cat... Seras actually felt jealous somehow, seeing that. She worked her ass off to let them escape, but the guy who appeared in the last second gets all the praise. Actually, she was used to it by now- for some reason, the vampires always seemed to draw the shortest straw- in a way, that made Ragna sympathetic to her. He too never received any praise from what she could tell.

"Ah, nothin to thank me for, Noel. Ol' me just happened to pass through." Jubei responded with a laugh, patting her head after he retracted his claws. "Now now, no need to get all worked up. Yer safe now."

His gaze turned to Seras, and just now she noticed that he was missing an eye... or at least, one of them was covered by an eyepatch.

"Yer a damn lunatic, tryin to kill Terumi with a slab of metal like that." He chuckled, though he wasn`t seriously scolding her. "Good one, though. Didn`t try that myself yet. But lemme give you a warning- Terumi ain`t no fool. He wouldn´t show up without knowing he`d win in the end... and with ordinary guns like those, yer not gonna make his annoyin smirk go away."

His swords slid into their sheaths, the one he had in his mouth was simply tossed into the air, landing in the scabbard as if guided by magic.

"Yeah, I noticed that too. He took sixty, seventy bullets without a scratch on him." Seras commented, slinging the rifle she brought onto her back again. "Thanks for that, though. I don`t die so easily, but he might´ve hurt Noel... or killed her."

The smaller girl lowered her head a bit... maybe it was time she told Seras who she really was, that she didn`t die of something like that either... but then she noticed that the voices she heard were back. Judging by Seras´s expression, she heard them too...

"Mr Jubei, do you hear that?!" She gasped, a bit out of breath.

The old beastman nodded.

"The Murakumos ain´t very happy about our visit here... seems like Terumi intimidated them just enough so that they`d hide for a while, but i`m 'fraid if we stick around here too long, they`ll do things to us you don´t even want to imagine. So for now, lets just get outta here."

Seras nodded in agreement, a cold shudder rushing down her back. "Right. I`ll radio Kokonoe and tell her we`re ready for pickup."

The name Kokonoe made Jubei twitch, and he eyed Seras carefully, before he decided it was no longer his business.

His daughter had made a lot of mistakes, siding with Alucards offspring might not be the worst of them.

Facing the Imperator Librarius, Terumi groaned in disgust. His coat tails were shredded and his hat was missing, this was no shape he wanted to be seen in, least of all by her.

But since he was summoned here, it was not like he had a choice.

"Greetings, Terumi." She spoke. "It seems like your quest was not awarded with success."

"No, but I would´ve gotten the fucking thing if it wasn`t for Phantom." He growled, crossing his arms. "Sure the cat was there, but he was the only real threat down there. That vampire whore couldn`t even hurt me."

The crimson eyes of the purple haired woman narrowed, and her small body ascended from her throne. Terumi twitched, seeing the royal stand up was never a good sign.

"Not only did you fail the task I bestowed you with, you have also told our fiercest enemy part of our plans."

"Big deal. As if the cat didn`t already know." He groaned, rolling his eyes. "Rachel tells him everything anyway."

Her eyes were still stern, but her tone dropped a notch, both in volume and in language. "And there was the risk of losing you involved. The Nox Nyctores Musashi is a serious threat to you."

His eyes met hers, and a smirk appeared.

"So thats what this is about. You were worried about me?"

"Do not be so full of yourself, Servant. I simply cannot afford to lose you."

Terumi Yuuki slowly walked towards the woman, grinning slightly until his hand reached out- caressing her cheek.

"Or maybe you don`t -want- to lose me."

The royal`s expression softened a bit.

"Maybe. I`m not obligated to tell you my thoughts."

"Nope. Your eyes say everything you wanna say."

"Then you know what i`m about to do?"

He opened his eyes wider, his yellow snake eyes meeting her crimson rubies.

"You`ve excused all the guards and Phantom is off to rest, Relius is doing field work and you`ve summoned me here, of all places... I don´t even need to guess."

A smirk appeared on the girls face.

"Correct."

And with that, her robes slid off of her frail body, exposing her pale, but toned body- even though she was small and vulnerable, her muscles and curves were a perfect work of art.

While her chest was not the most impressive, her legs, belly and her face resembled more a painting than any normal person. Her firm, well rounded buttocks and trained back didn´t leave anything to wish for, either... between her collarbones, dead center under her neck, the reason for this remarkable beauty was tattooed into her satin skin- the symbol of the Murakumo project, and the number one.

"You never cease to amaze me, Saya." Terumi purred, running his eyes up and down on the naked girl in front of him. She, in the meantime, helped herself and opened his trousers, discarding his double belt into the corner and pulling down the zipper with her teeth.

"I hope so. If you´d be bored with me, I would have to take drastic measures... to make you feel excited." Her eyes peeked up at the hard, thick shaft that sprung up into her face. "...but it seems thats not necessary yet."

"Nah, i`m fine." Terumi smirked, running his fingers through her long ponytail. "So is this going to be just another session where you have your fun with me, or do I get to do something too this time?"

Gentle strokes of her tongue, trailing up and down his throbbing member made him gasp for air in the middle of that sentence, and her slender, delicate fingers tracing his length didn´t help it either. A devious, downright devilish smirk was the answer.

"Next time, Terumi, I shall be yours. But you`ve failed your mission... I will have to punish you."

As her mouth engulfed his length, Terumi just turned off his usual personality and let himself go. Even assholes needed some time out every once in a while.

Kokonoe didn`t react to the incoming radio transmission, in fact, she ignored the blinking red light on her switchboard. "Tager, answer that call. Its probably just Noel and Seras anyway. I`m preparing the time-space rift."

"Roger that." Tager responded, linking his hardware with the switchboard to answer the call directly. "This is Tager. …. alright. We`ll EVAC you as soon as possible, try to find a serviceable landing strip for the jet in the meantime. ….no, we can`t get you out right now."

The cat girl groaned loudly. "Just tell them we`ll be there in an hour."

"We`ll pick you up in an hour. ...alright, got it." Tager closed the communications channel and looked at his superior. "They`ve secured Ayatsuki`s log... and they`ve obtained information about Terumi`s plans."

A smirk- Kokonoe liked it when things went right for once. "Hell yes. Sector Seven one, NOL nothing. Actually, if this works, thats TWO for us and zero for them!" The screen finally showed that the pre-rupture checklist was complete, and the teleporter was ready to proceed.

"Okay~ Connection through the Boundary established, date, place and person locked on. Lets do this. Three... two... one... and, click!"

Her left hand slammed onto a big red button, while she pulled a small lever slowly upwards with the other. The transporter hissed, coming to life- for a second the room was dipped into the total darkness of the boundary, then the machine shut down again... and on its transportation pad stood Caelica A. Mercury, younger sister of the legendary Nine and daughter of Shuchiro Ayatsuki.

Kokone grinned widely in triumph while the young brunette witch looked about rather confusedly... this was the second strike against them.

With Seras`s information and Caelica`s memory, obtaining the Lynchpin itself was merely optional.

"Okay, Tager... i`m feeling generous today. Tell the pilot to get his ass moving and pick them up right away. I need to celebrate something."

She walked over to the new arrival, holding out her hand for a greeting.

"Welcome in the 23rd century, Auntie."