"So what's the plan?" Seras stood between them, two fingers pressed together, as she waited for Sir Integra to elaborate.

"We bluff. Alucard, do you think you can create illusions of your familiars inside the Basilica?"

He pondered the possibility. "I can. They will only be illusions, however."

Integra nodded. "That is all we need. The Basilica is protected by the best air defense money can buy. I would not presume to destroy anything touched by Michelangelo anyway. Therefore, we will have to draw him out."

"I found the quickest route!" Seras chirped.

Integra had the misfortune of her ear being only inches from where Seras had suddenly exclaimed her discovery. She already felt a headache coming on.

"There's a tunnel down here that leads right beneath the Basilica. It won't let my bird cross though."

"Seras, you might be very handy to keep around," Integra said, half-jokingly.

"So this is the tunnel," Integra sighed, getting out her flashlight.

Seras shrugged. "We just have to make the opening a little bigger."

Integra sighed. "Why do I feel like I am going to regret this?"

Seras attempted to rush the wall with her shoulder, but it didn't budge. Rubbing her shoulder, Seras was about to try again when Integra intervened.

"Alucard, if you would do the honors?"

He grinned and both women were smart enough to move aside. Rearing back, he punched the wall, which was followed by an explosion when his fist contacted the stone, dusting everyone with a layer of grit. "Your door awaits you," he bowed.

Integra, attempting to keep her cool, delicately removed her glasses and cleaned the dust from the lens. Her physical therapist counseled her to always count to ten whenever her temper soared, but her therapist had never met her vampires.

"That's a little extreme," Seras muttered.

"I have to say, the lighting isn't that great."

"Number one, Seras. You are a vampire and can see in the dark. Number two, we are in a tunnel, and it feels like we are a quarter-mile below the surface. It's impossible to tell because we've been descending for the past thirty minutes. Alucard, are we descending to hell? Because I am not about to let you two drag me down with you."

Alucard looked thoughtful. "Seras actually discovered something interesting. Humans haven't walked here in centuries."

"You mean it's unexplored! Oh, I always wanted to be an explorer," Seras declared. "Do you think the Vatican will recognize us? Um, on second thought, don't answer that."

"I'm surprised there haven't been any traps," Alucard rumbled.

A loud 'thwap noise' and Seras, who had been leading the expedition, found herself impaled through the stomach on a sharpened log which had swung down from the ceiling.

"Ow, that hurts."

Alucard inspected the scene. "A little higher, police girl, and we would have a time reviving you."

Admittedly, Integra had jumped at the commotion, and no matter how used to violence one can be, it was disconcerting to watch a person be gruesomely killed. Of course Seras was a vampire, and though she looked to be in a lot of pain, she wasn't dying. "You need to watch out for this stuff, Seras."

Seras groaned and rolled her eyes. "Thanks, master. That helps so much. Now would one of you get me off this thing?"

"You can't walk around with a giant hole in your middle."

"You need to dissolve and put yourself back together like a proper vampire, police girl."

Seras huffed. Her body proceeded to melt into a gooey black substance, pool on the ground, and then reform good as new. "Happy now?"

"I think we're here," Alucard drawled.

Both women turned to look, and before them stood a stone door inlaid with gold, silver and emerald. Intricate patterns were etched into the surface and even what looked like letters, though Integra did not recognize the language. "Alucard, can you read it?"

"It is old coptic, older than the version I am familiar with, but I can relay the gist. 'No one is without fault'."

"What do you think we'll find in there?" Seras whispered.

Integra froze. "What do you mean, 'what do you think we'll find in there?' Aren't we following the instructions of your bird?"

Seras smiled apologetically. "It took a vent or something. We would have never fit."

"So, you are telling me we are lost?"

Alucard interrupted. "There is always a second exit. Most likely, we are close to the Basilica boundary. This tomb was no doubt one of the earliest constructions, perhaps prior to the birth of Christ."

Integra took a deep breath. "Very well. Alucard, gently this time?"

He bowed his head and did as instructed. He slowly pushed the stone to the side using his monstrous strength, revealing a large chamber inside, the edges of which could not be discerned in the darkness.

Integra started to enter, when Alucard obstructed her with his arm. "My master, we should turn around."

Displeased, Integra reminded him. "I say where we go and where we do not. Now, what makes you so antsy about this room?"

Alucard shook his head. "We're not alone. And that phrase on the door. It would make sense on the mouth of hell. Are you prepared, my master, for what may lay within?"

Seras' eyes almost popped out of her sockets, and she wanted to scream, but she held her tongue, knowing that she would be forced to go wherever her master went.

Integra closed her eyes and meditated. She knew not to take Alucard's warning lightly. She had never seen him this serious, the closest time was when he confronted Walter. "We do not have time to turn back. Any second Britain could be forced to retreat, and this whole offensive would have been in vain. No, we go through no matter what we find. If my convictions aren't enough to pave a path through this hell or whatever you want to call it, then there is no hope for me."

"Eloquently put, Master."

They stepped through the threshold.

"Look there, on the wall." Seras pointed to their right. Integra turned that direction and saw wall paintings that extended as far as the flashlight shone.

Alucard walked closer and traced one of the figures depicted. "Sekhmet. She's drinking the blood of her enemies. How appropriate."

"What do you mean?" Seras wondered.

"Sekhmet is thought to be the source of the first-what in the English language is called-vampires. Her followers drank so much blood their humanity eroded away." He walked further down the mural. "Interesting. Sekhmet is angry with her followers trying to be like her, so she taught the Egyptians how to severe the undead's soul from their body, rendering them mostly toothless to the living. I imagine they feel a great hunger by now and never able to satiate it."

Seras gulped. "You think they're down here?"

"We're not in Egypt, but it's possible."

"I would like to look at cave paintings all day, but I'm afraid we have a battle to fight," Integra admonished them. "Seras, you lead the way and keep your eyes open this time."

"Seras," Alucard began, "you will need to use your third eye to navigate this place. Don't disappoint me."

A serious expression on her face, Seras nodded. She proceeded further into the room, her mind focused on all of her senses, logging the slightest shifts in temperature and air movement. Eventually the flashlight showed instead of rock they stood on a tile mosaic, which had rings and at the very center a hole in the ground the size of a person.

"Stand toward the edges," Alucard warned. He perused the paintings which had not decreased since their first intrusion. "This is really old Egyptian. I cannot decipher it, but judging from the mural, this is either the place where they turned themselves into monsters or where they had their souls separated from their body." He studied further. "These figures here are the Pharaoh's equivalent of vampire hunters, comprising an organization like Hellsing or Iscariot. It shows them entombing the vampire's body deep inside the earth, and the hope was their spirits would never figure out the way to the surface."

"Where did they entomb them exactly?" Seras asked, spooked. Her eyes widened in realization at where Alucard pointed next. A triangle imprinted on the wall. "But they're on the surface."

He shook his head. "There is a reason there is no end in sight. This cave is a lot bigger than we ever would have imagined. Follow me."

He continued at a brisk pace down the hall while they trailed behind. Eventually, he came to a sudden stop and held out his hand. "Do not get too close."

Strangely, for the first time, there was a light aside from that of her flashlight, a red glow with no discernible source. They stood at the mouth of the tunnel, overlooking a massive pit. At the bottom rose a pyramid, larger than those at Giza, which soared high above them and still did not touch the ceiling.

"This cavern is huge," Seras muttered.

Alucard hummed. "This does not bode well for our return to the surface. Between our two packs, you only have rations for two days at most, Master."

"We should have been in the Basilica two hours ago," Integra noted.

"But you're so close to the lake of life," Seras whispered, her eyes fogged over. She stood motionless with her arms at her side.

Integra turned to her companion and spoke deliberately, "What. Did. You. Say?"

"No doubt one of the spirits I told you about," Alucard informed her. "Though how it retained its sanity, I do not know."

"What, did Seras just let it in?"

Alucard smirked and addressed the new presence. "If we are close to the lake of life, we are close to the lake of fire, are we not? Your mutterings do not concern us, and compared to me and my fledgling you are but a candle in this grim darkness."

"Even creatures like yourself fear destruction. You will not have this chance again."

Alucard laughed this time. "Truly, your greed has blinded you forever to think we are all like you, so desperate to live for eternity. Hasn't anyone ever told you that you can have too much of a good thing?"

"I can show you the way to the surface."

Alucard narrowed his eyes. "In exchange?"

Seras pointed at the pyramid. "Open."

Alucard frowned. "Do you think I am stupid? You have already been to the surface. Along with others. I see now." His eyes flashed. "I know you feel everything that my fledgling feels. The difference is you're a coward and will wilt first." Alucard roared and in the span of a blink, he was on top of her, reigning down fists.

"Alucard!" Integra shouted. "Stop! What are you doing?" Integra felt helpless at first until she remembered that Alucard was under her complete dictatorship. "Alucard, I order you to stop!" But the damage had already been done. Seras was unrecognizable, her limbs twisted in weird directions.

Alucard retreated, the back of his hands glowing from the runes.

Integra rushed over to Seras' side, noting the tears, and for the first time she felt genuine anger for her servant. "It's alright, Seras," she patted her hair. "Just heal."

Alucard observed solemnly, his own heart not pleased with what he was forced to do.

"Alucard, you better have a good explanation for this." Integra slowly stood up, her firsts quivering. Sometimes she was reminded that he was a monster at the core.

"The spirit will not be back, but I fear it may be too late to contain them. My suspicion is that some escaped and went to the closest community."

Integra quickly connected the dots. "This whole war, the birds. It was all planned by these...creatures?"

"As indiscriminate as Iscariot can be with their judgement, they were never this extreme."

Seras began to stir. Integra bent down again, and was reassured by the sight of her skin and bone healing, and blood pooling back together. "Seras, are you alright?"

There was a subtle nod, and Integra knew that she had to set some new limits. "Alucard, before you ever lay a hand on Seras again, you will ask me first. This is an order. If you ever violate this mandate, I will put you so deep in the darkest hole in the mansion, no one will ever find you again."

Alucard bowed. "Your word is my command."

"Good," Integra huffed, helping Seras to her feet.

Seras seemed to waver for a moment where she stood, but she balanced herself, and held a hand to her head. "Yeah, at least ask her first. Wait...what about me? Shouldn't you consider my opinion?"

"Your welcome, police girl, for purging the spirit from your body that you in your weakness let in."

"Alucard," Integra warned.

"I think I see some of my brain matter over there."

Integra tried to focus on anything else.

"...you should probably put it back."

This time it was Seras attacking Alucard.

Heinkel knew from the beginning that something was fishy with this whole affair. Jessup had always been a fool but to compromise the security of the Vatican...there was something else afoot with him, and she could not put her finger on it.

As she was leaving the Basilica, it was pure chance that she noticed a lot of dust gathered at one of the doors which led to the basement. She decided to take a look.

She followed the trail of dirt and dust down to the lowest level where construction cones were spread around, along with large digging equipment. Her anger growing, she ambled around the barricades and beheld a hole dug through the walls and into the earth. A clear excavation site that was not approved by the Vatican. "I'm going to kill him."

"Alucard, if these creatures as you say no longer possess physical bodies, how are we to stop them? They are eternal nuisances at best, and like right now, manipulating the world into chaos."

He grinned. "True, physical weapons will not kill them, but there are other weapons in this world, are there not?"

Integra grimaced. "It's going to be an interesting conversation."

"Heinkel is alright," Seras piped up.

hope you enjoyed.