Seras sat on the shuttle bus, feeling beyond uncomfortable surrounded by Iscariots who were being ferried to the flight that would return them to battle in their own home territory. She didn't want to go to the airfield. She thought that someone should stay and watch Sir Integra, but Integra had been adamant that Seras should say goodbye to Alucard and Walter. It didn't make sense to the young woman, given how cold Integra had been to them.

Maybe she's sending you to show them she cares? Pip volunteered.

Then why doesn't she just tell them, instead of making us all crazy with her moods?

Chère, think of who we're talking about. Do you think Sir Integra is able to tell the vampire who abandoned her to Millennium and the vampire who amputated her hand that she cares what happens to them? How nice would you be able to be in her shoes? It's only been three days. Give her time.

Why do you have to make sense? You're supposed to just be the pervert who ogles my breasts.

If you'll take another shower in the morning, I'll ogle you as much as you can stand.

"Stop that!" The girl flushed when she realized that all eyes were now on her. She was still feeling giddy from taking Alucard's blood earlier and had forgotten herself. She sat in silence for the rest of the ride, feeling the eyes of all the humans boring into her. Their thoughts were so loud that even her unpracticed mind could catch them and the things they were thinking made her feel sad, self-conscious and more than a little bit angry.

The endless ride finally ended. Seras sat until all of the humans had gotten off the bus. She was feeling very frustrated that every one of them had made assumptions about her that were unfair and unfounded.

She jumped when the bus driver leaned over in his seat to look down the aisle at her and said, "This is your stop, Miss. Shouldn't you be getting out?"

"Yes, thank you. I'm sorry." She disembarked and looked around for Alucard and Walter.

The two vampires were standing next to a pair of coffins having an animated discussion. Seras could guess what the disagreement was over. An impish urge struck her. She dissolved into her new shadow form to reappear in front of Walter and say, "You know you have to ride in the coffin over water, Walter." She grinned broadly enough to show her upper and lower fangs when she managed to make the unflappable Angel of Death jump just a little.

"Miss Victoria, that was rather rude and you're lucky my new reflexes didn't make me do something we'd both regret."

"Angel, how can you argue with Seras? She knows from personal experience how unpleasant traveling over water is for a youngster of our kind." Alucard folded his arms across his chest and grinned.

Walter opened his mouth to argue and then stopped. "Did you just call her Seras?"

"Of course. A full-fledged nosferatu deserves the respect of her own name, does she not?"

Walter's eyebrows shot up and he looked at Seras with new appraisal. She looked the same on the outside, but there was a certain indefinable sense of power around her that had never been there before. To Walter's heightened senses, now that he was looking for it, the small woman was very different – different even from the sense of doubling he had when he looked at her - this was something else, something darker.

"I suppose I should congratulate you, Miss Victoria?"

"You can congratulate me that I don't have to call him Master any longer and that he has suddenly remembered that I have a name." Seras shrugged at him and tried not to look as pleased as she felt.

"Congratulations, it is an accomplishment I envy you. In recent days I have noticed that your Master – excuse me – I have noticed that Alucard has mostly forgotten that I have a name other than Angel any longer."

They both ignored Alucard's chuckle at his mostly sarcastic comment. Walter was surprised when Seras threw her arms around his neck and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Be careful, Walter. We nearly lost you once, don't get hurt again."

"Were you here just to fawn over the Angel, Seras?" If Seras didn't know better, she would have thought he sounded piqued.

Walter knew better and was certain that Alucard sounded piqued.

"No, I'm supposed to say good bye to you, too, but I didn't think you'd take a hug. Why? Did you want a hug or maybe a kiss on the cheek?" Now Alucard and Seras both pretended not to hear something that sounded distinctly like a snicker coming from the very proper former butler.

"I doubt that will be necessary, Seras. Why are you supposed to say good bye to me?"

"You know, Pip and I were talking about that on the way here, and he thinks it's because Sir Integra wants the two of you to know that she does care what happens to you both while you're gone. I don't know what to think, but Sir Integra was insistent that we come say good bye, so here I am – here we are." How do we handle pronouns now, Pip? He didn't reply, just laughed at her concern over something so silly.

"Anyway, good bye, Alucard. I'd tell you to be careful, but you're you, so that's pretty pointless." She turned her attention back to Walter, "You need to ride in the coffin when you're over the water. Trust me, it's bloody uncomfortable even in the coffin. I don't know how Alucard does it. Not that I know how he does much of anything." She shrugged.

"I will take that under advisement, Miss Victoria. If you say that the problem is while we travel over water, I believe that Alucard can stay out of trouble for the short period of time we'll be over the Channel. I can come out when we're over land again. I'm simply concerned about his being alone with Paladin Anderson with nobody to keep him from doing something Sir Integra would disapprove."

"Angel, we both know that right now Integra disapproves every aspect of my existence," Alucard said.

"I think she has ample reason for her disapproval, Alucard," Walter retorted.

"Oh, would you two stop it and get on the plane? The sooner you leave, the sooner you'll get back and I can stop worrying about you."

Seras looked away from the two vampires – half of Hellsing's entire personnel – and over to the airplane. She saw Alexander Anderson standing with two women and she felt an inescapable twinge of fear. He hadn't harmed, or even threatened, her during the fall of London, but he still scared her. She would never forget the feel of his knife piercing her throat. When he began to walk over to where they were standing, she forced herself to suppress the rise of terror and stand firm in front of the towering Iscariot.

"Have ye come to see off yer kin, Draculina?" he growled down at her.

"Yes, Father Anderson, I'm here to say good bye to Alucard and Walter." Seras stared up at the towering priest and tried to look sure of herself.

Where do they grow them this big? came Pip's amused thought.

I don't know, but I hope there aren't any more of them where he came from, she thought back.

Anderson watched the small woman as her face changed and a smile flickered across it, and was reminded of the scene on the zeppelin. She looked harmless, but he remembered all too well seeing her tear the throat out of another vampire and devour his blood. She was as inhuman as - he felt the familiar pain that came to him every time he thought of his divided loyalties – the girl was as inhuman as his own Mistress. If he was willing to give his soul to a goddess among vampires, how could he condemn this child? He shook himself out of his thoughts to realize that all three vampires were watching him closely. "What are ye looking at?" he nearly shouted.

"Nothing!" Seras yelped.

The tall man took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. They weren't threatening him, there was no reason for him to want to pull scores of blades from the space he carried as a part of himself and riddle the creatures in front of him with holy silver.

"Seras Victoria, I must introduce ye to someone." He turned and motioned to the women he'd been speaking with.

As they approached, Seras recognized them as the women who had attacked her and Integra when they had come to Anderson's aid in London. If Alucard had not stepped in, the towering Nazi vampire would have killed the paladin. The two women had attacked; thinking that she and Integra were there to harm Anderson, not help him. The taller, blonde woman had been the more rational of the two, listening when Anderson had told them not to attack. The smaller woman with the glasses and the ugly gash on her face, had seemed like as much of a monster as Seras was accused of being, fighting until the other woman had somehow talked her out of her rage.

Seras watched them warily, wondering what Anderson's motivation was in bringing them over.

"These are Sisters Heinkel and Takagi. Sister Takagi will be staying here when we leave. She'll be lending her skills to yer leader. Since ye two will be working together, I thought I'd introduce ye now. Sister Takagi, this is Seras Victoria of the Hellsing Organization. Ye'll not allow Yumie to hurt her, do ye understand?"

Seras was puzzled as to who this "Yumie" was, since she didn't see anyone else around. She also didn't understand why the nun seemed so embarrassed by what Anderson had told her. She put that aside and smiled and tried to be pleasant to the Iscariot woman.

"So you're bringing your delicious companion with us, Judas Priest? How considerate of you."

Count on Alucard to stir things up, said Pip as Anderson's face shifted to his more familiar snarl.

They were all surprised when Anderson and Alucard were both cut off by the woman in question, "Father Anderson, I can take care of myself."

Wolfe Heinkel stepped forward and looked scornfully at Alucard. "It's not going to do you any good to keep making these comments. I'd put a bullet in my own head before I allowed you to take liberties with me, and you're not going to do that because your Master wouldn't permit it. You can just stop playing your little penis games now. I'm not playing with you."

She turned gracefully and looked up at her new leader, "And as for you, Father Anderson, you may be in charge of Section XIII now, but I'd like to remind you that I have been executing heretics and traitors for many years, and not once have I had your assistance in doing so. Save the macho pretences for somebody who needs it."

They all watched, dumbstruck, as the woman strode away across the tarmac to the plane. She mounted the stairs without a backward glance. The three vampires began laughing, each for his or her own reason – Seras was thrilled to see a woman put Alucard in his place, Walter was amused to see a woman strong enough to shut up both Alucard and Anderson, and Alucard was simply delighted by the challenge she presented.

Yumiko Takagi shook as the world's underpinnings became a little less secure: Alexander Anderson joined the three laughing vampires with his own laughter. Yumie shouted from the back of her mind that it was wrong that an Iscariot paladin would be laughing along with three members of the undead. She begged Yumiko to take off her glasses and let her out to silence the three demons that were stealing her leader's sanity. Her clamor became a little quieter when Anderson stopped laughing and fixed her with a steely gaze.

"Yumiko, remember what I said about telling Sir Hellsing about Yumie. The Hellsings are our allies for now, do not forget it." Without another look back, he followed Heinkel's path into the airplane.

In unison, Walter and Alucard each shouldered his coffin and walked away, leaving Seras and Yumiko as alone together as either of them could get.