For all I have done, I regret none more than what I did to the Valarious family line. They had been so good to me, and in return, I slaughtered them, and barred them entrance to heaven. This is my new journal, a journal in which I detail all of my sins, and the worst of which I shall name first. Anna Valarious, I love you, and I wish I had not done to you what I did. I wish I could take it all back, but instead, I shall try and right that wrong by letting you swing the sword that severs you from me. It is what needs to be done.

-first Excerpt from the Vampire Journals

Chapter 16: The Last Swing

"Before we exit", Alucard said, pulling his phone out of his pocket as the train slowed to a crawl, "Pip, why don't you cue up a song for us?"

"Fuck me", Pip responded.

"I don't have that one", Alucard told him, tossing him the phone.

Pip caught it deftly, and once again hit "random".

"Well, actually, I do have that one", Alucard recanted.

Listen up, you guys!

"Pip, I can't believe I'm saying this", Alucard said, "but you're now my new song selector."

"What, now?"

"Let's kill some werewolves, people", Alucard said, replacing his glasses to his face, and drawing his .454's.

1, 2, 1-2-3-4!

As the guitars began to pick up, Alucard charged the warehouse, dark power coursing around him. He threw his shoulder into the huge warehouse door, and the thing shattered inwards, throwing sheet metal in all directions. It was enough to startle the six men inside, four of whom were playing cards around a folding table while the two others were talking near the far wall.

The men at the table all reached for firearms, and Alucard responded with gunfire of his own, keeping his groups close, but not doing any serious damage. His shots occasionally put cuts into their sides, and mostly put holes in the table, keeping their heads down and their attention on him. As they began to organize enough to return effective fire, the six others entered in behind them, and immediately began pouring fire on the men at the table. The men at the table were absolutely shredded by bullets, not even getting a chance to shoot back.

Alucard holstered his guns and continued his charge towards the last two, who had taken the time to make their transition.

The two werewolves looked hideous, as most werewolves tended to. They had the heads of snarling wolves, broad shoulders flaunting powerful muscles, long arms that ended in clawed hands, and legs that looked like someone did a poor job merging human anatomy with a dog's, the legs almost curving forwards, the feet elongated, and the toes ending in long claws. Neither of them looked how Alucard imagined the two in the police reports to be, both being covered in shaggy white fur.

They both charged him, swinging their claws upward. Alucard vaulted over one of them, putting his fist into the werewolf's spine, stumbling him.

"Donkey punch", Alucard called out.

The next werewolf swiped at him with his claws, and Alucard ducked, declaring, "Missed me!"

Alucard swung around, putting his heel into the side of the werewolf's head, returning his attention to the next one, who had begun to turn on Alucard, beginning a backhand. Alucard planted his foot into the side of the werewolf's knee, popping his leg out of alignment. As the werewolf stumbled, Alucard cocked his hand back and threw a fist into the werewolf's face, hitting him so hard that teeth flew straight out of his mouth.

"Talk shit, get hit", Alucard taunted, as the other werewolf advanced from behind, throwing his claws forward.

Alucard jumped up, flipping backwards over the advancing werewolf. The advancing werewolf, unable to stop in time, careened into the other, his claws piercing the other werewolf's chest. Alucard drifted to the ground behind them.

"Betrayed", he declared in a Halo announcer tone of voice. "Do you wish to kick your betrayer?"

Alucard twirled his body around, picking up momentum, and brought the heel of his foot down onto the top of the other werewolf's back. The large animal went flying, crashing to the ground several feet away.

The wounded wolf stood back up, blood leaking from both his chest, and his shattered mouth. He curled up his lips and spat out a clot of blood mixed with bits of tooth. He turned his lips up into a snarl, as Alucard's curled into a grin.

The creature lunged, throwing his claws into Alucard's face. Alucard stepped outside of his arm, wrapping his own arms around it, and flung himself up over the wolf's back, dislocating his shoulder, and rolling his bones out into gravel. The crunching it produced was like listening to a shooting range from a distance.

Alucard rolled into a fighting stance, and as the werewolf swung his other arm around, Alucard ducked, and threw another kick at his same damaged leg. The leg snapped straight in half, and the creature went tumbling. Alucard pounced on it, and twisted its neck all the way around, ripping its head straight off of its shoulders. Its body, filled with power unsuited for a corpse, began a thirty-minute-long process of disintegrating into red dust.

Apparently, the ambient sound of being at the firing range hadn't stopped with the arm breaking. Alucard turned his head to see the group with guns blazing, Anna included, her big revolvers crashing in her hands. The creature sprinted up the only flight of stairs in the place, leading up to what looked like an overseer's deck, complete with a manager's office. He threw open the door, and disappeared inside.

Alucard drew his .454's, and advanced on the stairs.

"I'll come with you", Anna declared, jogging to catch up with him.

"It'd probably be best if we split up anyhow", Alucard said almost absently. "Police Girl, stay down here with the Mercs. I'll follow Anna."

"That's a terrible idea, actually", Pip began.

Alucard cut him off quickly, saying, "We need to make sure there's no escape for him. He's wounded, but he's still ferocious. In a gay sort of way. Would one of you mind repeating my sentence, but in a gay voice?"

"He's goiy", Pest said in a gay voice that was incredibly deep, "and furocissss!"

"Beautiful", Alucard conceded.

As Alucard finished talking, he hit the first set of stairs, and his shoe made a wet squishing sound. Glancing down was enough to confirm that the creature had left behind a literally river of blood for him and Anna to follow. He wasn't surprised; the thing had been plugged with so many bullet holes, he was more surprised that he was even able to move at all, much less make it up the stairs.

As Anna sidled up next to him, he began his advance up the stairs. His feet struck metal as often as they struck blood, and from the sound of it, it seemed as though Anna was following a similar path. Alucard was a little bit surprised that she wasn't more hesitant to turn on the werewolves she had undoubtedly been taming and training for years. Had she really become so cold, so unfeeling, so heartless in all of this time? She almost seemed like a completely different woman, consumed as she was by her single-minded pursuit of Dracula.

He wanted the old Anna back, who was tough and fearsome, but also gentle and sweet. The old Anna, who would slaughter vampires by the dozens, but would stop fighting to drag wounded men from the field. Who was understanding in a way he had never known before, who understood him in a way he never had been.

As they neared the top of the stairs, Alucard made a last-minute decision.

He had to tell her the truth. This pursuit of hers had to end, one way, or another.

He kicked down the door and barged his way in, only to be greeted by a room that was darker than dark. While it was certainly true that vampires had night vision that was superior to regular humans, it was still possible for a room to be dark enough to be too dark to see.

The sound of feet pounding the ground threw him straight into combat mode. He raised both of his .454's, prepared to send a hail of devastating fire towards whatever was dumb enough to ambush him. He was only a moment from routing power to his eyes, which would have lit up the room for him, when it suddenly occurred to him that the footsteps were running away from him.

Suddenly, the steps stopped. The sound of something being forcibly slid around scraped against his eardrums like nails on chalkboard, and suddenly, he realized what was happening. The realization hit him just as the light did.

The scene that struck him was one of brutal irony. To his left, Anna Valarious now stood on the outside of a window that had clearly been cut into the office as an afterthought. Behind her was the open sky, marred only slightly by the adjacent buildings.

Directly in front of him lay the quivering remains of the werewolf. He was back in human form, with blood pouring out of his naked torso, crawling towards what had to be a pile of almost fifty pounds of explosives, all of which was covered in small silver ball bearings, and dotted with small silver stakes here and there. He noticed, almost as an afterthought, that the werewolf in question had several needles embedded in his skin; adrenaline stimulants.

Alucard met Anna's gaze, holding her in place. He asked no questions, he needed no answers. But she provided them anyway.

"For my Gideon", she sneered, turning around and jumping off of the small ledge she was perched on.

So she knew. Or, at least, she thought she knew.

There was no turning back.

Time to set the record straight.

Alucard noticed that the werewolf was crawling towards a detonator, cleverly hidden within the pile of explosives.

Alucard took three powerful steps, beating the werewolf to his own party.

And putting powerful machines back into motion.

...

Seras had never even considered where an ambush might have come from in a place like this. She was pretty much aware that Anna was planning to betray them after her discussion with Pip, but as she scanned the open area around them, all she saw was open space. All that meant when her rifle lowered was that what happened next was her own fault.

When Six Gun shouted, "Heads up!", she initially looked around, confused. Apparently, Pip followed suite. By the time the first shots started firing, she realized she was too late.

She looked up on impulse, and above them, werewolves were dropping from the sky. There were five of them, all of them dropping directly on top of them. Seras brought her rifle up, sparing the briefest glance at Pip. Pip still hadn't gotten the idea; his rifle was still down, and his head was on a swivel, searching for targets that weren't there.

If a werewolf landed on him, he would be ripped to shreds. But she only had enough time to get a single shot off. Working the bolt of this rifle would take too long to save the both of them.

She turned her rifle, and fired, putting a hole straight through the forehead of the werewolf that was falling down on Pip. His eyes went wide, and his jaw went slack, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

This got Pip's attention, and he turned his head up, shifting his stance. His foot slid on an empty shell casing, and his legs went out from under him. The werewolf fell on top of his prostrated form, his rifle flagging in Seras' direction, as she turned the barrel of her Gewehr towards the werewolf above her, getting the bayonet stuck in the creature's gut. As his force exerted itself over her, the rifle created a pseudo-spring-cushion, forcing the werewolf to extend his limbs downward to catch himself and avoid more pain.

The rifle's barrel twisted violently, making the end result look like how a child would draw a bolt of lightning, and the wood furnishing almost completely shattered. But the end result was that instead of the creature crushing her flat, she was instead bowled over. She quickly returned to her feet, charging the werewolf that had begun to stumble to his own feet. The bayonet had broken off inside of him, and it came up with him as he rose to his full height.

Seras threw a right cross, knocking the creature across his muzzle. Unlike when Alucard threw a punch, however, Seras didn't have nearly enough power behind it. The werewolf's head was turned slightly to the side, until it fought against the force of the blow, and met Seras' startled gaze with a wide, toothy snarl.

"N-n-n", Seras began, throwing up her hands in sign of surrender, "nice doggy!"

The werewolf lunged, his powerful jaws opening to reveal massive sharp teeth. Seras instinctively threw up her arms to guard herself, and the jaws snapped shut around her left wrist. The force of the bite alone instantly fractured her arm, the teeth biting so deeply through the muscle that they made divots in the bone.

Seras screamed in pain, trying to pull her arm away from the threat. She only succeeded in widening the holes in her flesh, her blood leaking into the horrid creature's mouth. Its jawline widened in a grotesque smile, and its tongue dragging across the wound, lapping up the red essence. His arms reached up towards her neck, his hands set to strangle her to death.

The sound of automatic fire going off beside her, and the werewolf unclenched its jaw, stumbling back to howl in pain. The sound snapped her mind into creative mode, and suddenly, the bayonet in the creature's side seemed like a viable weapon. As she lunged for it, she noticed that holes had been stitched into the creature's side, blood leaking out from them rapidly. As soon as she wrapped her hand around the severed hilt of the bayonet, the wounds became irrelevant.

She yanked the silver bayonet out of his side, and jammed it up under the creature's chin. It slashed through the creature's brain, and pierced its skull, poking out of the top of its head. Its eyes glazed over, and the creature fell over, slowly beginning to disintegrate into red dust.

Seras glanced back at Pip, who was still trapped under the lunking mass of disintegrating werewolf, dropped the FAL that he had been almost miraculously firing one-handed, and gave Seras a thumbs-up. A blush began creeping over her face, and she quickly gave a thumbs-up back to him.

Suddenly, the air was sucked straight out of her chest. Her hearing left her completely at once, replaced by a high-pitched buzzing. Her body was picked up, and slammed straight back into the ground. She felt like a fish out of water, unable to force her body to pull in air. A wave of darkness enveloped her vision, and she fell unconscious.

...

Anna ran fast and hard through the twisting, shadow-covered alleyways, keeping her sword clutched tight to her side. She had the layout of the place memorized; another turn, and she would be in a wide lane with only one exit. Rounding the corner put the alley in view, and she skidded to a stop. She turned around, and faced the opening, keeping the sword clenched tightly in her hand.

It was a terrible place to attack. No cover, no high ground, just a level playing field.

For once, a Valarious had chosen the ground to fight upon.

The fog dissipated around him, and he melted from the shadows. He had donned that ancient armor again, tinged black, with his cloak secured around his shoulders. Since he couldn't break his own restraint down to zero, he was using his own power to make his face look exactly how it used to, back when he was known as Dracula.

"You know", he said, "if you're going to leave a guy, you should finish him off first."

She glared back at him, her head held high.

He took a powerful, commanding step forward, meeting her gaze with inquisitive eyes that seemed to already know the answers they sought.

"When did you figure it out, Anna?"

"Well", she began, "I could say that it was during The Great War, when you conjured up that fog. Or when I first saw your sword, or even when you told me that you knew me before I had known myself. But, in reality, it was when Abraham first approached me with a proposition."

He already knew where this was going, but he played along anyway.

"What kind of proposition?"

"The kind that lets me decide your fate. I am the third party. And I knew who you were as soon as Abraham walked through my front door."

"What gave it away?"

"At first, it was pure intuition, but when I saw the name, I knew it for sure. I mean, seriously? You thought spelling your name backwards would be enough to fool me?"

"It fooled everyone else", he said, taking a heavy step forward, "but I should have known better. You're not just anyone, Anna. I can't deceive you forever."

That gave Anna pause.

"I have a confession to make", he told her, opening up his hand. "I did kill Gideon."

Anna clenched the sword at her side tightly, but otherwise showed no sign of outward emotion.

"But", he continued, "I didn't do it when you think I did."

Anna narrowed her eyes.

"Did you notice anything different about Gideon, after he returned from his first trip to Germany?"

Anna took a shaky step back.

"No", she said in a strong voice.

"Don't lie to me, Anna", Dracula berated. "You never were a good liar."

"NO", she reaffirmed, taking another shaky step back.

"He never went to Germany, Anna", Dracula told her, taking a step forward, "he came to me."

"NO!"

"He sold you out in exchange for immortality."

"NO!"

"So I immortalized him", Dracula concluded, laying a hand over his midsection, "in my stomach."

"NO!"

Anna fell to her knees, beating the ground with a fist. Dracula watched the display, wondering how such a disloyal, sniveling worm could have held so much weight in her eyes. He wished he held the same weight.

"The truth is, Anna", he told her gently, "I was Gideon, after that trip. There was no one I trusted more to spy on you then myself."

"LIAR!"

"Why deny what you know to be true", Dracula asked. "Why else would Gideon do the things he did? How else would I have known the things I knew?"

He took a tentative step forward.

"Why else would I love you so?"

She turned an angry, tear-filled glare upwards.

"When I conceded my head, and asked you to take it from me, my only stipulation was that you would tell me you loved me, if only that I would die with a shred of happiness in my heart. You had told me it once before, though those words and that kiss were meant for another."

The realization of what he said sunk in to Anna, and she began to sob uncontrollably, wailing like a newborn child.

"But I wanted more than anything for those words to be mine. Because you, Anna, are the only person who, ever since those dreaded years in a Turkish prison, made me feel like I was meant to be something more than an empty shell. I had never once in my life felt loved before, not by my family, my subordinates, by no person on this earth had I ever received a shred of love. But you made me feel like I could do anything, be anything, and that feeling was so overwhelming that there were times that I burst into tears in your presence."

Her sobbing slowed, and she began to breath carefully, trying to regain her composure.

"I do not expect your love", he told her, "or your forgiveness. But you had to know the truth. I couldn't lie to you anymore. Because I love you, Anna."

Anna stood to her feet, wiping her eyes, and drew up her sword.

"The more you talk", she told him, "the more I want to tear out your vocal cords."

Dracula stood there, unwavering, his hair blowing in the slight breeze. He stared at the woman he loved, leveling a calculating gaze. Finally, his hand lowered, and he let out a sigh, his shoulders slumping with the motion, yet somehow maintaining its commanding aura.

"You don't get it", he told her. "Maybe I didn't explain it right. You've already won, Anna. You melted the coldest heart in history. Destroying me would be a mercy. And after you've given me that mercy, I want you to move on, and bring that mercy to others who are denied it."

Anna didn't quite seem to know how to respond to that.

"Treat this battle how your God would want you to treat it", he told her. "You've already won. Now, you just need to defeat me."

"You have been the centerpoint of my life for far too long", Anna told him, spitting on the ground. "Now, I can erase you from my life. I will kill you, here, and now!"

"And what makes you assume this time will be different from any other", Dracula asked flatly.

"Because this time", she explained, "I have weakened you... and now Ihave the advantage in stamina!"

"You just don't get it", Dracula concluded with a sigh, unlocking his sword from the sheath with a thumb. "Very well. I will not hold back this time."

"Neither will I", Anna said with a wicked sneer.

Dracula stood absolutely still in the moment. He inhaled slowly, drinking in the smells of the night. Nearby, a cat dug around in a trashcan, searching for some measly scraps of food. The smell of Cynocephalus blood was on the air, stronger than it had been previously. And nearby, a sad, scared, lonely boy expelled his rage.

Anna immediately attacked. Dracula dodged, continuously moving his body to avoid the sharp blessed blade, ducking, dodging, and weaving like a dance he had been performing all of his life. A slash came in from the outside, and he saw his opening, using his thumb to push his sword out of the sheath, and exposing the blade far enough to block the strike.

He yanked the blade the rest of the way out, shielding himself from Anna's strikes, blocking, and hitting the occasional parry, allowing her to do the attacking. The sounds of their swords clashing might have been mistaken for an entire Renaissance recreation battle, with how often they struck each other. The sparks that flew from their swords could have caught an entire forest on fire.

Their hands moved expertly, quickly arranging themselves in whatever order they were needed in, like a painter knowing the strokes before his brush ever made them. For Dracula, his hands swapped from left to right and back again, and Anna deflected deftly with her two-handed grip, unfazed by the unorthodox.

Dracula batted away her sword, and spun, gaining an incredible amount of energy. Anna brought her sword up just in time for the blow to knock it straight out of her hands. The sword clattered to the ground, sliding farther and farther from them. Dracula spun back into an attack position just as Anna lunged for her sword. She stumbled, and overextended herself. She finally got her hand around the handle, and stood up just in time to witness the power growing around Dracula.

"Impossible", Anna breathed. "I had solved your enigma! You shouldn't be able to draw more power! You should be exhausted!"

The power launched itself at her, dark spikes set to impale themselves into her. She turned her head, bringing the sword in front of her. The sword began to glow blue, and suddenly, it exuded a blinding light. When the light dissipated, the dark power had vanished, and Anna was still standing.

"The blessing has not worn off of your blade, I see", Dracula told her.

"You've... encountered this before?"

"Why do you think I didn't use my power against your father?"

Anna sneered, gripping the sword, but it was no longer her advantage. Dracula flung himself towards a wall, and ran across it to where Anna stood, launching himself towards her. He struck her hard enough for her sword to almost be reverberated out of her hand. She brought her sword up in time to deflect another bone-jarring strike, as Dracula righted himself and swung his sword from the outside. He spun around so fast that the human eye would have missed it if it were to blink. The strike was hard enough to send Anna scraping across the ground, the soles of her boots smoking from the friction. Dracula readied another strike, a jab aimed at her chest. She brought her sword up just in time for the tips to strike against each other. Both swords, the hardened steel that they were, bent on the impact, and righted themselves as light and dark pushed against each other, sending both Anna and Dracula flying.

Dracula, the cat he was, landed on his feet. Anna landed on her knees, quickly jumping to her feet. Dracula raised his sword in an overhead grip, wrapping his left arm around his body, his sword appearing like a scorpion's stinger prepared to strike, and began pacing. Anna righted similarly, and began pacing as well. The two circled around each other, each never taking their eyes off of the other, always searching for an opening. Eventually, the two stopped pacing, and stood locked in place.

Anna gave a barbaric yell, and charged forward, and Dracula quietly followed suit. They locked swords, spinning them around the other, trying to find an opening, weaving with their feet, unable to move back or forth.

With a final motion, the sound of metal clanking on the ground filled the night.

Dracula, now unarmed, drew in a deep breath, as Anna righted herself for a thrust.

"You've defeated me", he told her. "Now what?"

"Now you die", she told him, as she thrust the sword forward.

He extended his hands, weaving his armored fingers in between each other, catching the blessed blade in the fold. Dark energy surrounded all of his fingers, and continuously throbbed about the now captive blade.

"That's not what I meant", he told her, as he squeezed the fulcrum, shattering the blade into a shower of shards.

Anna stared at the hilt of her sword. All that remained of the huge blade was a nine-inch protrusion that ended in a wicked point.

It seemed that at that moment, the life drained from her body. Her arms went slack. The remainder of the sword fell from her hand. She dropped to her knees, her head lolling forward. Tears fell freely from her eyes, but she made no sound.

"You have defeated me", Dracula repeated. "Now, what are you going to do with your life?"

"I failed", she said quietly.

"No", Dracula corrected. "You defeated me. Now, what do you plan to do next?"

"I should die."

"Why?"

"I failed."

"We could verbally run around each other all day", Dracula said with a sigh, "but we both know that will accomplish nothing. Anna, is there a life after Dracula for you?"

"Why should there be?"

"Because if there isn't, I win", he told her, opening his palms. "I don't want to win. I want you to live like your life means something to you."

"Life is meaningless now."

Dracula let his arms fall to his sides.

"Anna", he began, "there was a time when you had plans for your future. Ambitions beyond imagine. You could have rid Romania of all of its dark corners. You could have been the next Vlad Tepes III."

"But you took that from me", she said plainly.

"Yes", he admitted, "I did. And now I want to give you something."

He dropped to his knees in front of her.

"Anna", Dracula said gently, "I want to release you from me. But before I can, you must first release yourself from me. You must find more purpose to your life than my destruction... because there is more to life than me."

"How can you say that", she suddenly began screaming, "when you have been the object of my existence for nearly two hundred years?!"

For a moment, Dracula was silent.

"When I went to war with the Turks, I had only two things", he began, raising two armored fingers, "my faith, and my hatred. When the King of Hungary turned me against my will, and left me in that cage, I lost my faith. All that remained was my hatred. And that hatred led to the creation of you."

He let his hand fall to his side.

"You see, Anna, I have been your opposing force since the beginning. I slaughtered your countrymen, your family, and the man you believed loved you. But now, I want no part in your life. I love you, Anna, and now, I'm letting you go. Now, you have no opposing force. All you need do is spread your arms and take flight."

Anna was silent for a moment, staring at the damaged sword lying on the ground. The tears ceased to fall from her face, and the creases softened. She gently reached down, grabbing the sword by the handle, and lifting what remained of it up, standing with it.

"Then", she began, her voice at first shaky, then suddenly much more confident, "I no longer want you in my life. I want to move on. I want to help the world to the best of my ability, and I cannot do it while you weigh on my heart."

"There you are", Dracula said with a smirk, and he quickly rose to his feet, and thrust out his arm, forcing Anna to slide back through the alleyway.

Dracula turned to his sword, and whispered in an ancient and forgotten language, "Curse Break: Valarious family line. Unbind from Dracula."

The symbols on the sword began glowing, and the sword began vibrating. Anna charged him, raising the shard like a dagger.

"Yes, Anna, YES", Dracula said, charging towards her as well. "Spread your wings, angel! Take flight once more!"

Anna leapt into the air, and Dracula followed suit. Their swords glistened in the moonlight, either aimed at the other. Their ascent was accented only by the air whipping about them.

A wet crunch filled the night air.

...

Seras woke up quite suddenly, her head feeling as though it was trying to tear itself open. She had had the wind knocked out of her before, but that explosion had felt like the hand of God forcing her to the ground. She wondered if vampires could get brain damage from oxygen deprivation suddenly, and then just as quickly dismissed the thought with the general logic that if she was able to have such thoughts, then brain damage was the least of her concerns.

Well, at least, her own brain damage, that was.

She tried to stand, finding it nearly impossible on her first try. A second wind brought her to her feet quickly and without much trouble. She did her best to not wobble, and took a few dainty steps, seeing if her feet would still cooperate. Satisfied with their performance, she turned to the other mercenaries.

Pip was still stuck under his werewolf, mumbling something in French. It had decayed significantly since she had last seen it, and she absentmindedly wondered how long she had been out. Turning around, she found Six Gun actively trying to remove the werewolf from himself with his bare hands and leverage. Next to him, Pest was moaning, and doing his best not to move. Next to him, Cali-Swag had been impaled on the very arrows he had shot into the creature. He was losing a significant amount of blood from several punctures. He softly moaned and tried not to move as well.

Seras knew right away that removing these large creatures from these small men was going to be a two-vampire job, so she tried to concentrate on her Master using her vampire-mind-talk. She was still new to the concept of telepathy, so finding the right brainwaves or whatever was still rather challenging. She squeezed her eyes shut, scrunched up her face, and put her fingers on her temples.

Master, hey, Master, Seras said into the void, I need some help here, where are you?

Seras, someone thought back, I'm dying.

That didn't sound like her Master; it sounded like a man with a powerful, deep, Romanian accent.

Find me quickly, he continued. I don't have long.

When he said to find him, it suddenly became clear where he was, as if her eyes had been opened to him. She decided that since he was dying, she would need more medical expertise than what she had at her disposal. She turned towards Six Gun, trying to lift the large werewolf body off of himself, and wondered how good typical mercenary medical training was.

She rushed over, and while he was lifting, thrust her shoulder into the large werewolf, giving Six Gun the leverage he needed to move it off of himself. He scooted out from underneath, and immediately rushed over to where Pip was laying.

"Wait", Seras told him. As he ignored her, she continued, "Alucard is in trouble! He might need medical attention."

"Then help me grab Boss", he told her. "He's patched me up so many times I've lost count."

That sounded like a bright idea to Seras, so she grabbed the legs of the werewolf stuck on Pip, and dragged it off of him. Pip groaned as the burden was lifted from him.

"Have I died and gone to Heaven", he asked Seras. "I didn't know all of the angels would be British Police girls."

"Mr. Bernadotte", Seras said quickly, "I need your help! I think Alucard is in some kind of trouble! He might need medical attention!"

"Very well", Pip said, leaning up. "On one condition."

"That being", Seras asked inquisitively.

"I would like to make a pact with you, Mon Chere. Since we seem to be such a good duo, what say we continue killing every filthy werewolf that comes across our path?"

"Sure, whatever, let's just-"

"Come now, Mon Chere, don't just tell me yes without putting any meaning behind it! I don't want to make a commitment only for you to run off on me the next morning. I'm not that type of guy, and I don't think you're that type of girl, non?"

Seras sighed, and knelt down next to Pip.

"Mr. Bernadotte", she said, "from this point on, we're gonna kill every bloody werewolf we see."

Pip grinned.

"I accept. Now, before we worry about your father-"

"FATHER", Seras practically screeched.

"Ah, Pest, you imbecile", Pip said with a smile, enunciating the insult, "you tell me all of these great things you find on the internet, but you can't tell if two people are related?"

"Sorry, sir", Pest responded, "I promise not to use the computer so much... not that the nurses are gonna allow a paraplegic to do shit like that anyway."

"Oh, Pest", Pip responded with a grin, "if you have spunk enough to bitch, you have spunk enough to heal your spine."

"Mr. Bernadotte-"

"Mon Chere", he interrupted, concern suddenly creasing his face, "let me look at that wound on your arm."

"Uh, why?"

Seras turned her wrist up to herself, and saw that her bite marks weren't healing. In fact, the skin around them seemed to be taking on a black hue. She wasn't a doctor, but she imagined it was the kind of wound that used to get your arm amputated.

She untucked her sleeve, and rolled it down over her arm.

"One thing at a time, Mr. Bernadotte. Let's go see if we can save Alucard first."

He gave a questioning glance at the sleeve, but responded, "Then let us not waste another second!"

Six Gun hoisted him up by his arm, and the three of them immediately began running, the two Mercs following Seras, and Seras following her intuition. She twisted and turned through the back alleys, following what seemed to her an invisible string connecting her to her Master.

They finally came to a big alley, almost a street. The street wasn't very well lit, but there was a scene underneath a single streetlight that caught her attention. Anna Valarious was knelt over a prone figure, with what appeared to be a shattered version of her sword sticking out of his chest. The man in question was clothed in red, with long, curly brown hair reaching past his shoulders, a long brown mustache crossing his face to stop at the end of his cheek bones, and the most intelligent brown eyes she had ever seen.

"Thank you, Anna", he told her in a thick, deep, rich Romanian accent. "You have finally set me free."

"But", Anna began, "how will I know if I've set my family free?"

The man pointed to the sky.

"As the LORD is your witness", he told her, "He is also your Savior. See?"

She looked up at the sky. Seras followed her gaze, and was greeted with a sight she couldn't quite explain. It was like the sun coming up in the middle of the night, but under a heavy cloud cover. In the clouds were faces of men, who were smiling back at Anna. She cupped her hands over her mouth, and tears began rolling down her cheeks.

"They are free, Anna", the man told her, "and now, so are you."

He put a hand on her shoulder, shoving her away.

"GO", he told her, "go live your life, for God's sake!"

She stood, her eyes still cast down upon him. Slowly, a smile creased her face; a genuine smile, one that he hadn't seen since the mid eighteen hundreds.

"I will", she responded solemnly, "Vlad."

She bent down, and picked up what appeared to be Alucard's sword.

"I'm going to need this", she told him, "now that mine is broken."

"Take it", he urged her. "Take it and go. Remember me every time you swing it."

"I will", she told him softly.

With that, she turned, and raced off into the fading light of the streetlamps.

Six Gun drew his sidearm, yelling, "Yeah, ya better run, ya asshat!"

"Come now, my Texan friend", Pip told him, holding out an arm, "let's let this man have his moment, eh? While he kicks the bucket, we should go find-"

"Alucard", Seras said questioningly.

The man turned his head to look at Seras.

"Yes", he responded, "and no."

He turned his head back around to look up at the sky, and observe the faces that were disappearing with the light.

"This was me a long time ago", he told her. "A time when it was me against the world. Before I met Anna, or Abraham", he turned to look at her again, his eyes twinkling as he said, "or you."

All at once, it was like the light left his eyes. They glazed over, as he rested his head on the concrete. Seras dashed over to him, grabbing his head, softly denying what was happening.

"No, no, no", she said gently, yet urgently. "Please don't die! I-I can't be alone again!"

Pip removed his hat, setting it gently on his chest, a look of pity on his face.

"Welp", Six Gun butted in, "guess that's the end of my paycheck."

He walked over to the man's corpse, and put his hand on the handle of the sword, saying, "Might as well pawn off this heavy-lookin' thing."

As he drew the sword up from his chest, Alucard, face and all, leaned up, gasping for air.

"MOTHERFUCKER", he screamed. "Icannothold my breath for very long!"

"Master?!"

"Sup, bitch?"

"I-I thought you were dead!"

"Well, duh, I'm a vampire."

He stood up as Seras tried to correct herself, and walked straight over to Six Gun, and pulled the sword handle out of his hand, declaring, "Yoink!"

He swung the sword about, mumbling, "Now, a little bit of power here, a touch of power there, and..."

The pieces of the sword began levitating, and slowly began to float towards the big sword, piecing themselves together into a large, sharp, blessed blade. Once they were all done, it was like the sword was brand-new again. Alucard gave it a few practice swings, and a grin crossed his face.

"With these upgrades", he said in a much more British voice, "they'll never stand a chance!"

He opened up the rift at his hip, and inserted the sword into it. The blade smoked as it passed through, but it went in without much more resistance.

When it had retreated all the way into the rift, and the rift had closed behind him, Alucard turned to Seras.

"So, Police Girl", he said with a grin, "did you need something?"

Seras was stunned. She knew she needed to ask for his help for something, but she didn't quite knowwhat. Instead, she decided to ask the first thing that came to mind.

"How are you not dead?"

"Easy", Alucard said, reaching into his duster.

He withdrew a Holy Bible that had a large, vertical cut in its center.

"My bibble got diddled", he explained. "Which is fine by me, I guess. This version was kinda boring anyway. They get less exciting with each new edition."

He tossed the holy book over his shoulder, his grin remaining even as it passed through some poor sap's window, waking up his cat. As the poor sap raged in a muffled, sleepless stupor, a puzzled look grew upon Alucard's face.

"Police Girl", he asked, "weren't there supposed to be two more of you?"

Finally, the question that she was supposed to ask snapped into her mind.

"T-two men are wounded", she told him. "I need your help if we're going to be able to get them out of here!"

"No problamo, amigo", he said with a grin, beginning a confident walk towards the warehouse.

Seras followed behind, along with Pip and Six Gun, wondering why she bothered to waste her worry on her Master.

...

"Well, you should be all patched up, Cali-Swag", Pip said, wrapping up the last of his puncture wounds. "But try and remember next time; the goal is for you to do the penetrating, not the other way around!"

"Yeah, yeah", Cali-Swag said, as Pip pulled him up to his feet. "Tell you what? Next time, if I need some penetration advice, I'll ask Pest instead! He's got the fewest reverse-penetrations on record!"

"Wish I could laugh with you boys", Six Gun said soberly, "but I'm pretty sure Pest broke his damn neck."

"It's all that extra I've been puttin' in", Pest told him with a soft chuckle.

"Maybe if you weren't always leaning into that damn computer", Pip told him, "you'd have a nice, healthy spine, like moi!"

"Maybe", Pest said, still facing away from him, "but I'd probably be lacking in the ocular department! Because, you know, it helps to duck sometimes."

"Oh, Pest, always avoiding the bullets. Everyone knows they can't hurt you if you don't fear them!"

"Tell that to your missing eye!"

"Touche. But first, you might want to think about your missing neck!"

"Pest", Six Gun butted in, "we're gonna have to leave you behind, bud. We'll call you an ambulance, but if I try to move ya, you're gonna severe your spinal cord."

"Don't bother", Alucard said, withdrawing his pistols, and tossing them onto the ground. "They're already here."

"Who?"

Suddenly, the whole exit was filled with police cars. None of them had their sirens on, but their lights were flashing and blinding. Seras blinked as several police officers crossed the threshold into the warehouse, their weapons aimed at the standing occupants. By now, the remaining werewolves had mostly disintegrated, leaving little behind in the form of evidence of the supernatural, but the bodies of the men who hadn't change still remained whole.

They were, indeed, in a bad situation.

The Mercs immediately threw down their weapons, surrendering without a fuss or fight... all except Pest, who couldn't move his arms. Seras, slowly, began raising her trembling hands, tears filling her eyes. Her worst nightmares had finally come to fruition.

Police Girl was going to jail.

...

Schrodinger looked down on the broken mess of a werewolf, wondering how hard it was going to be to clean his knife of all that fur, among other things. He slowly bent down, plucking the knife from the creature's neck. Getting it up into the moonlight revealed that it very much so did, indeed, look like a lost cause without some proper oil and water.

He slowly slid it into its sheath, wondering if he would be treated much the same upon his return to the Millennium airship.

Thinking of which, he turned towards the video camera that lay on the ground by his feet. He gently picked it up, examining it carefully. It looked mostly intact, but the small folding viewing screen on the side had been cracked, and broken glass spider-webbed as if to give him a foreboding omen.

He swallowed hard, and cradled the camera in his arms.

Time to face the music.