Order 4: Returned Memories, hard choices
-Our memories are who we are, when we forget them we become a new person, but when they return we are confronted with the choices and results of the two lives that we led. Should we return to our old life, or continue the new one? Or is there a third option that we can find?
Timestamp: four months ago (days after Nathan's death)
Location: Gates of heaven
"Do you understand Nathan? What we are asking of you is no small thing. For five hundred years, you will be a guardian of mankind, battling the fallen angels and protecting the innocent from those that seek to do them harm."
"I understand fully." Nathan replied. It was strange, when he first got here it wasn't like anything that he had been led to believe. There was no bright light at the end of a dark tunnel, no dead relatives here to welcome him. God being here to meet him was nice, though he was told he wouldn't be able to recall his face when he returned, in fact all of his memories would be erased at least temporarily for a time.
"Now, what would you like in return for this my son?"
Nathan didn't have to think about that, he knew exactly what he wanted.
O4-RMhc/
Timestamp: three months ago (moments before crack house mission)
Location: Hellsing Memorial's graveyard
It was a peaceful night, all nights seemed peaceful for the truly dead and the few living that guarded their bodies from grave robbers or any other entity that would take an interest in the dead. A full moon to the far end of the sky revealed the snowfall, it was truly beautiful, a beauty that escaped most mortals simply because they spent this time in their beds. An owl hooted off in the distance as two ghostly forms walked along the rows of head stones. Unseen by human eyes the bodies of the dead stirred in their places of rest as the holy being walked by.
No one saw them; mortal or undead eyes couldn't see them as they approached the grave that they were searching for. The other spirit seemed hesitant for a second, like he was second guessing a choice he had made but he was quickly reassured by the other. It was strange, he had always been told he was a soldier of God, now he was literally going to battle against demons, not the ones that the church dictated were or weren't, but what he knew.
"Are you ready?" the elder one asked.
Nathan nodded, it was going to be an uphill battle, but it would be worth it and at the very least, he knew that he would be happy in heaven after this was all said and done.
"Very well, the first few moments will be confusing, but when your head clears you will be among friends, good luck."
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The first thing that he realized was it was pitch black. No light what so ever existed where he was, and yet, that didn't bother him, nor did the small space that was supposed to be his final resting place. But what did bother him was the utter lack of what to do next. He had no memory of his past, just an image of a place that he was to go to, but how to accomplish that.
He knew he had to be in a box of some sort, but that didn't seem to matter. Slowly, thoughts became to make their way into his mind, not memories, but more like a menu from a computer had been activated that was displaying his various abilities. Several options offered neat and quiet ways out, but something nagged at him, an overwhelming desire to announce to the world with a bang that he was back. If he had to put a label to this feeling, it would be sheer fun. Somehow, he knew of the power that he had, knew its full extent and wanted to try it. The feelings assured him it would be thrilling, like taking your first roller coaster ride, the feeling of going sixty miles an hour with nothing but a simple harness holding you back from death.
With a light chuckle he began to concentrate. Instantly light flooded the place of his confinement and he could tell he was laying in a coffin. Strangely it didn't matter to him, it was like a small animal standing in the way of a larger, more powerful creature. He was in no means "drunk" on his power, but rather sure of himself. With a slight push the light became fire, it was surprisingly comforting to him, like a mother's embrace he felt instantly at home in the burning flames. With a little more force he felt the pressure of the flames building rapidly in the enclosed space. He watched as the flames began to dance across his body, it was almost fun to watch, like little pets running across their owner's body simply for his delight.
Finally he heard the roof of his container begin to crack and splinter as the heat ware away at the woods integrity. He instinctively understood the reason fire was so pure, so destructive and so essential. Everything could become fire, the purest form of existence; all the impurities were removed from themselves. It could destroy entire cities and at the same time everything needed it to survive, at some level fire was in the living, even in the dead fire exists.
With a burst of joy he felt his power erupt out from his confinement, pushing away the frozen dirt and wood. For a moment he saw the moon and clouds as the snow fell around him only to melt to water than turn to steam. Jumping up into the air from the pit he took on the form of a fireball as he flew up into the night sky, not caring for some reason if others saw him.
Timestamp: present
Location: Nathan's Nest
Nathan sat silently on the roof of the warehouse; it had been an hour or so sense he had returned with the two women in tow. The Japanese woman he remembered was called Yumiko when she wore her glasses, without them Yumi, Yumiko's berserker state would be awake, that would have been a complication while Williams tried to stop the bleeding. Luckily she was unconscious when they arrived, allowing Williams to do his work quickly and thus saving the girls life.
The other one, Heinkel, seemed to keep a distance away from him sense they had arrived. Personally, Nathan didn't mind the solitude. Well, it wasn't truly solitude, he could sense to some degree the other guardians in the area, and they understood his recent situation and were working to cover his share of hunting. Then there was the connection he had to God, it wasn't a kind of connection one would have like in conversations that people would have with each other, but more like he was in his presence, and that was enough to calm him and allow him to think clearly about his next move.
His next move, he felt like this was a game of chess, he was controlling his side but his enemy was cloaked in shadow. He had encountered the enemies' pawns, the clones and suspected even a knight, Anderson. Anderson, that man, Nathan remembered him all to well, his teacher, mentor, brother, and murderer. Was he his murderer? His memories surrounding that night were still hard to follow. Feelings of hate, love, confusion and pain always surfaced when he tried to recall the circumstances of his death.
His death. That was another thing that he was sure Heinkel was thinking as well. He was indeed killed and yet here he was, still breathing. Did that make him undead? Most likely, the definition of undead was after all, to have died and returned to a state of living. But he had learned for his own experiences and inherit instinct that not all the undead were evil, just more inclined to be moral if they didn't wish to go to hell. He would have to communicate this point very clearly to his friends. Then there was the other piece on the board, the young strawberry blonde vampire, Seras Victoria.
Nathan knew her, he knew the history they shared, and yes, the feelings that both seemed to still harbor for each other. Something nagged at him when it came to her, she was important to him yes, but, he couldn't figure out why but he was reluctant to encounter her again. Why? He didn't know or understand.
O4-RMhc/
Heinkel watched as the elderly man worked carefully on her companion's stump of an arm. The bleeding had been stopped and the wound disinfected but a lot of work still had to be done. "So, you know Nathan?"
"Yeah, though when I met him neither of us knew his real name, so I just started calling him Kid." Williams said, not bothering looking up from his work.
"What, what is he? Something that heathen of an organization Hellsing created?" Heinkel said with some disgust in her tone.
Williams only chuckled at the girl's ignorance of the truth. "Nope, Nathan wasn't made by man or the undead. Do you know the myth of the Phoenix?"
"Of course, a mythical bird of fire that early Christians adopted as the symbol of rebirth, supposed to die every five hundred years only to be reborn as another one. What's that got to do with Nathan though?"
Bighting down on the string Williams was using to stitch a wound up he finally looked up at her. "Nathan is one of God's soldiers, his left hand if you will. Most of the myth of the phoenix is about Nathan's kind."
"What are you talking about?" Heinkel asked, this old man wasn't making any sense.
"The phoenixes are the second race of guardians of man, hand picked by God after death and returned to life. No doubt as you have seen, Nathan and his kind can control fire just as easily as you or I control our bodies. They can use fire as portals and much more, heck they can even shape shift into almost anything they want."
"Sounds like a lot of power, surprised it hasn't gone to any of their heads…" Heinkel said, she didn't believe that a group of undead would be so kind to man let alone obey God. "What do you mean by second race anyway?"
"You got a lot to learn girl, just because someone is undead doesn't instantly make them evil. There was once another race charged with guarding man one time, unfortunately most of them eventually turned their back to God. As a result God created the phoenix."
"So, does this race have a name?"
"Their vampires." A voice called out from the catwalks, a moment later Nathan jumped down from above them, landing on the concrete floor silently. "The original guardians were vampires."
Timestamp: present
Location: Section thirteen, Vatican city
Anderson sat on the medical table grinding his teeth as the doctors droned about injecting various fluids into his body designed to keep his body technically alive. When they first revived him, he was informed that he had been decapitated in a rather painful fashion and that most of his neck was synthetic muscle. Even with his powers to regenerate it seemed like his body was longing to remain dead despite his desire to continue hunting the undead.
"Report." A voice echoed in the room, looking over his shoulder Anderson watched Maxwell enter the medical room with a rather displeased look on his face.
"First and second degree burns though those were nearly fully healed by his regenerating powers when he returned though some of the seals need to be replaced. He used up a lot of the serum though we are replacing that now." The head physician reported.
Maxwell walked over to his prized weapon, the regenerator had been in worse shape before but it was rather strange that fire was used in this latest encounter with Hellsing. "Well old friend, your either losing your touch or they found a replacement for the Nosfarutu."
"Nay, this lad seemed to control the fire like I can, the way he fought was like fightin a mirror image."
"What do you mean?"
"Neither of us were able to land ah hit on each other, it's like we each knew how to counter the others moves."
"Interesting, I wonder..." Maxwell trailed off as he suddenly left the lab, leaving the doctors to their work of maintaining Anderson's body.
Time Stamp: Present
Location: Hellsing Manor, Seras chambers
Seras sat in Alucard's old "throne" pondering the events that had taken a strange turn of events. Now that she had time to think about it, she was positive it was Nathan that night. Why didn't he recognize her? He seemed to have lost his memories but when she called out his name, it was like it physically hurt him.
'What happened to you Nathan?' Seras thought to herself. Nathan was most defiantly not a vampire of any sort. If he had turned, she would sense him, being the one that turned him. Was it something that the Iscariot had planned all along? Was that why they wanted his body? But if that was the case, why did they give up so quickly when they came for it? Things just weren't adding up to her.
Getting up, Seras walked out into the hallway, fazing threw the door like her former master favored. She headed for the Mansions library, she had learned awhile ago that the shelves contained a large number of books about the occult, myths, legends and almost anything else about the supernatural. Walter and his predecessors had each spent countless years going through each book and removing the ones that they knew rang false. Thanks to their efforts, anyone in the mansion could read a book in the library and know that the accounts were true. Be them journals kept by long sense dead decedents of the Hellsing family or facts and figures about vampire movements through history.
Entering the large room a sense of age and ancient knowledge flooded her senses. Even a human nose could pick up the smell off the old books, to a vampire, the smell was intoxicating. Then again it may just have been her love of books. She always felt comfortable in libraries and around books. "Oh police girl, something I can help you with?"
"Walter!" Seras exclaimed. Of all the people she had met sense Alucard turning her, Walter was still the only human that seemed to be able to sneak up behind her these days. She decided that it was most likely from his work as the former angel of death, and not something he used in his pass time. He was also the only one that still called her that annoying nick name, but she thought him as her grandfather, she knew he only called her that out of fun.
"Oh, so sorry Miss Victoria, didn't mean to startle you. Is there something I can help you with?" the old butler asked.
"Yes, actually there is Walter, do we have anything on a supernatural creature that could control fire as a weapon, disappear in it and shape shift?"
Walter chuckled at the request. "Why Miss Victoria, have you seen a phoenix?"
"A phoenix?" Seras echoed.
Walter began walking toward a few book shelves. "Yes Miss Victoria, a phoenix is a mythical bird of fire. Quiet common actually in a few religions, early Christian's used it as a symbol of rebirth and resurrection. Other ancient cultures such as the Egyptian, Chinese, Arabic, Greeks and so forth have a verison of the phoenix"
"Oh? Now that I think of it I think I heard my father once talking about them. Something about them dying and being reborn in fire?" Seras said
Pulling a few books off the shelf, Walter continued walking down the rows of book shelves. "Well that's just part of the legend. They are called keepers of the fires of creation, protectors of all fire and so forth. We have a few accounts of the bird actually being seen though we haven't any reports of it within the last four hundred years."
Walter handed Seras the books that he had been gathering, she guessed that they all had something to do with the topic. "Um Walter, is there anything about maybe it being in a human form?"
"Hmm, now that you mention it..." Walter trailed off as he headed toward another section of the Library, Seras trailing behind with several books in her arms.
"One of Sir Integra's ancestors mentioned in his journals a woman that he mistook for a vampire of some sort. It took some convincing on her part, mainly willingly allow the man to stab her with a silver weapon, that she wasn't anything like a vampire."
"That's all and very well and interesting Walter, but what does this have to do about the Phoenix?"
"Ah here it is, it's been a while sense I've haven't taken inventory in this section for a while but you should read it all the same. It's one of the journals of Jonathan Hellsing, you might find what your looking for in here."
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Seras sat down in the reading area of the library, the window allowed enough moon light for her eyes to see the print on the books. Most of the books talked about the various cultures that the myth was mentioned, apparently whichever Hellsing ancestor that first commissioned the library apparently ordered anything that multiple cultures held in the same belief in to be included on the shelves.
Almost everything was the same, a few different accounts but what really was interesting was the journal. Halfway in was where the old Hellsing mentioned his encounter with an undead creature claiming to be divinely commissioned by God. They teamed up for a time to hunt down a vampire. He gave several examples of the woman's abilities and powers, toward the end he mentioned something that strangely disturbed Seras.
-she told me that she was running out of time and now I finally understand why. She asked me to watch her decommission, such a strange word that she would use. I asked her to explain what she meant and she told me that unlike other undead, her race had a set time limit to exist, I didn't press the issue about her time limit as it wouldn't be proper but now that I write from my memory I feel like I should have as it would most likely explain a few things.
The night before her time ran out, her body began to rapidly age from the beautifully young woman that I had grown to know to a gracefully aged elderly lady. It was this night that she told me how she became what she was, she had been hand picked by God to return from death to life to protect humanity from what she called the old guard and demons, not to interfere with the rest of the world. In return for not staying in his presence, she would be granted one wish of her choice. When I asked her what it was she simply smiled and informed me that even as a phoenix that she was still a woman and was entitled to her privacy.
She told me though that she was at peace and content with her deeds. I could see in her eyes now that she was indeed old, no ancient, though being a gentleman I did not say anything though I believe she knew what I was thinking. The night went by peacefully, something that I have not known for years. The following night I recall we had gathered enough wood for a bon fire. After we had the fire going full swing she looked at me into the eyes, she told me we would meet again, that she was sure of it. After words she entered the inferno, all the while she was singing softly in her native tongue. I watched her carefully, half expecting the fire to take hold of her, instead it seemed to softly embrace her. She didn't scream or show any signs of pain. Then without any warning the fire pulled tightly around her and shot straight into the air, leaving only ashes behind.
I watched the night sky for a time but I soon realized it was futile, she was gone.-
Seras just looked at the old pages, nothing seemed to want to make sense about what she believed Nathan had become. She had to find him again, maybe she could help him remember who he was as well as what he meant to her. Getting up she headed for her room to decide on how to go about her plan. She failed to notice that an owl sat in the bare tree, or that it spent its entire time watching her. As she left, the owl flew toward the room, passing through the window the owl quickly took on human form.
O4-RMhc/
Nathan stood darkened room that his former love had been in for the better part of an hour. All the while he had watched her and she had not noticed his close presence. He didn't understand why he felt the need to return to her, his memories for the most part had returned so why did he need to be near her. It was simple actually, when he thought of her it was like he was remembering a part of himself, was he that close to her?
Looking down at the books on the table Nathan chuckled at looking at the contents. 'The fate of all Phoenix, the return home. Should I go forward with this knowing my fate?'
Almost to answer his question his mind said no while his heart and desire for Seras said yes. Needless to say neither supplied him with a compelling enough answer to do either. With no reason to stay or go he sighed, a part longed to seek her out, another reminded him of his duty. Almost painfully he returned to his owl form and passed through the glass effortlessly back into the cold winter night.
Authors Note: Yeah i know this chapter was rather slow, but i felt it was needed and ussally in my Reprieve stories it picked up in the second half of the story. The story is starting to go somewhere and a few things will be revealed in the next chapter or so. Nathan confronts Seras about what he is and his mission, the sourse of the clones might be revealed and someone's past will finally catch up with them, Wont be who you think and you will be surprised.