What Seras was noticing was the presence of two people she didn't know. And that she was in an unfamiliar coffin. And that the two boys, both of whom she recognized in some way, were vampires.

The last detail had her scrambling out of the coffin and trying to find the best place to have the most advantage against two vampires at once. These two weren't just a couple of Millennium foot soldiers.

Alucard laughed. With this form, it was higher pitched, lighter; it should have sounded more innocent, but the jaded nature of that laugh made it chilling instead. "We aren't your enemies."

Walter had been trying to return to the appearance of the man Seras had known before, but his teenage self exerted a fascination he found difficult to let go of. The form influenced the thoughts in some strange way and it was exhilarating to have that sense of immortal unstoppability that he'd had when he was a teenager. Before he'd learned that he really could die.

It also meant a state lacking shame to a large degree, since he was already on display with Alucard's arms wrapped around him. He turned around, rubbing his hip across the front of Alucard's trousers along the way and dropped the other vampire's hat back on his head.

He pulled out of Alucard's arms and took one of the chairs they had been sitting in to watch over Seras while she was unconscious. He was grateful to slouch down and cross his legs, hiding his erection.

So many sense memories. Walter would have killed for a cigarette right then even though he had quit smoking more than forty years ago.

Seras had put the coffin between herself and the boy, and was trying not to gape at him. She recognized his rather idiosyncratic costume. She knew no one else who wore a waistcoat and crisply starched white shirt with sleeve garters. The gloves, as well, made her think of Walter Dornez. This boy was the very image of a picture of Walter she had seen on the wall in Integral's office.

The other boy looked just like Walter's companion in the photograph. Which would mean he was…

"Alucard?"

Alucard bowed mockingly and changed forms to one he had worn in the 1950s. He looked older, taller, and more masculine than he had moments before, and also more familiar. The white suit and fuzzy hat were gone, instead he was wearing a somber grey suit and had his hair short and slicked back.

"Walter and I were just taking a trip down memory lane."

Complete with souvenirs, thought Seras. How many people could have a moment of nostalgia and actually turn into the people they'd been at the time they were nostalgic for?

Who cares? What really mattered was where were they? Why was she sleeping in someone else's coffin? She did not want to know why Alucard and Walter had been acting like secondary school kids engaged in a bit of heavy petting. But she did want to know what Alucard had meant by hands-on versus hands off approaches. Which question to ask first?

Start at the bottom and work up. "Where are we and how did we get here?"

"We're at Sir Penwood's estate," Alucard answered, and followed Walter across the room to take a place standing behind the seated boy. He smiled down at him and ran his fingers lightly across the back of Walter's neck. Seras' eyes widened to watch the boy seamlessly become a man who wore a similar, yet different costume from the one she'd always seen Walter wearing. "Hellsing will require months of work to be useful, if we even bother."

Seras remembered the man in the black pinstriped shirt. She remembered what she had seen this Walter Dornez do on the battlefield and she covered her mouth in a mixture of shock and terror.


She'd first seen him from the air.

In the midst of the sea of shadowy figures, she had seen a circle opening. It had started small around a single figure, black clad among the black forms, a pale face occasionally visible. The circle grew and Seras flew closer, curious to see the person or creature in the center of the empty space.

Then she realized that she was watching a single man in a deadly dance. He did look like he was dancing as he spun, feet moving nimbly among the pieces of bodies his art left strewn in the street, hands and arms following a rhythm of their own as he wove a glittering sphere around himself.

And then she had gotten close enough to recognize him.

Walter. But not Hellsing's Walter, Millennium's Walter. He was young, he was a vampire, and he was cutting a swath through humans and vampires alike with hardly a pause in his step. She could not imagine how this had happened, but in the past hours, she had learned that there were humans who had weaseled their way into positions of great trust only to be Millennium turncoats.

Her lips skinned back from her teeth as she snarled her disgust with Walter and prepared to fly down to kill him. Alucard had stopped her. His voice came sharply into her mind, Do not try to attack Walter, Seras. He will destroy you, and if he did not, you would harm him before he can be dealt with.

Seras had thought that harming the traitor would be dealing with him.


Walter was mildly surprised by the unintended change of form for the second time in just minutes, but not overly so. He knew that he was reacting to Alucard's changes in some manner, although he couldn't say with certainty whether Alucard was manipulating Walter's form intentionally or if it was Walter's own unconscious reaction to being with Alucard in such an intimate manner. They had left such affections behind many years before, when Walter had told Alucard for the last time that he would die a human and that he would brook no argument about the matter.

He could read Seras' facial expression. She was remembering what she'd seen the Butler doing to the Vatican's fanatics and to Alucard's own army of enslaved souls. Walter tilted his head back to look up at Alucard. "You should tell her before she tries to find her Harkonnen and shoot me."

Not that she would hurt him. Seras' power had grown tremendously since the beginning of the battle for London, but Walter had changed as well. He wouldn't place any bets if they were actually determined to destroy each other, but Walter was certain that he could hold her off if he had to take a strictly defensive stand.

Alucard's smile broadened and he ran a finger along the line of neck that Walter exposed in that posture. "It is your story."

Seras watched the two men interact so intimately and felt acutely embarrassed. She had always thought that Alucard's affections, such as they were, were reserved for Integra, but these two acted like old lovers.

"We are old lovers," Alucard said with a self-satisfied smile down at Walter. He didn't need to read Seras' expression when her thoughts were an open book to him. "From long before Integra was born."

Seras frowned, "Is this what you meant by hands-on?" It made sense, she guessed. Look at them. They looked like they were so comfortable – with each other and with what they were. If Alucard was hands-on with Walter, less so with Integra, and hands off with Seras, what did that say about her in her sire's eyes?

"Would you rather I was more hands-on with you the way I had been with Walter when he was young?" Alucard tugged on Walter's ponytail to make him expose the line of his neck still more. It was an almost sacrificial posture and Seras wouldn't have been shocked if Alucard had cut Walter's throat open and drunk the blood.

Perhaps she wasn't so wrong. Alucard drew a fingernail along the other man's neck, leaving a thin line of blood behind.

"I've tasted him." Her sire looked away from the scarlet trickle on Walter's neck. "Would you let her taste you, Angel?"

Walter shifted slightly, crossing his legs and folding his hands on his lap in a manner that he hoped hid the fact that he was only growing more aroused by Alucard's words and actions. "I would."

Alucard smiled approvingly. "Walter is rarely argumentative or defiant, Seras." He stroked the line of Walter's throat, across the adam's apple and up to his chin. "With me," he amended.

Seras watched in disbelief. This wasn't the self-contained Walter Dornez she knew. This was just like Alucard, but Walter? This was not the man who had stepped on Jan Valentine's fingers until the bones snapped and who ran so many aspects of Hellsing without breaking a sweat. This wasn't even the ruthless killer she'd seen in the killing fields of London.

"This is as much Walter as those other men you're thinking of, Seras. Are you only the vampire who ripped another vampire to shreds with her bare hands? Or only the girl who made a flat joke to Walter about 'silverware?' Or even the girl who was screaming and crying in her coffin when we flew to Brazil?"

Walter tipped his head down, pulling against Alucard's hold on his ponytail. "While you two were talking, that little scratch has healed and now my blood is drying on my skin and itching."

"Such a waste." Alucard leaned down and licked the drying trickle of blood off of Walter's skin. He let go of Walter's ponytail and walked across the room to Seras. "You should have tried it."

Walter laughed, "She still can."

Alucard followed Seras when she tried to turn away. "I can show you what I meant by hands-on."

"Don't do me any favors," the girl snapped and turned away from him again, walking to the window where she'd seen Alucard and Walter standing when she woke. She looked at her reflection and scowled to see Alucard following her again. She met his eyes in the mirror of the window and frowned.

"You're alive aren't you? That's a considerable favor." Behind Alucard, Seras could see Walter stand and take a few steps to get a clearer view of the two of them. He caught her eye and nodded before going completely still.

Ask your questions, whispered through her mind and Seras stiffened. She hated when Alucard did that.

"Why should I? You already know what they are."

With an effort of will, Seras didn't pull away when Alucard brushed away the lock of hair that so often drooped over her right eye. He was standing closer to her than he had since Cheddar and part of her wanted to relax against him the way Walter had.

"But Walter does not already know." Alucard trailed his fingers through her hair and down her neck to rest his hand on her shoulder. "Ask your questions."

There were so many! She just didn't know where to start. The more she saw Alucard and Walter, the more questions she had.

Of the many questions she had, many of them very practical, the one that popped out of her mouth was, "How can you two act like nothing happened? The world pretty much ended out there! And you," she spun around and pointed past Alucard at Walter, "were helping them end it!" She glared up at Alucard, "And you are cuddling up to him like he didn't betray us."

Instead of becoming angry at her impertinence as Seras mostly expected, Alucard laughed and chucked her indulgently under the chin. "This is why you didn't need much hands-on work. You've had this in you the whole time. It just took a true war to bring it out. That's all it was – a war; not the end of the world, although it always feels that way when you're in the middle of it."

"Unless you're Alucard," commented Walter dryly.

"Stop it! Both of you." Seras balled her fists and glared at Alucard and past him, at Walter. "Answer my question: how can you two act like nothing happened?"

"Because this isn't our first war, or even second or third," or fourth or fifth or sixth, in Alucard's case. "And we won. We do the fighting and killing for those who can't, and in return, they clean up afterwards."

"And Walter? How is he part of 'we' when he's one of Millennium's lackeys?" The way the two of them had dodged this question made her nervous.

"I am not one of Millennium's lackeys." For the first time, Walter sounded something other than languidly amused. Seras liked this tone of irritation better; it fit the moment much more than his placid good humor.

"This is your story, Angel." Alucard stood aside and Walter stepped closer. Seras shrank back against the window for a moment before squaring her shoulders and glaring defiantly at him.

"Tsh, Seras, I'm not going to hurt you. If I were, I would have done it while you were unconscious and helpless." Seras blinked at his casual mention of harming her while she was helpless.

Walter took her arm and led her back toward the coffin and the chairs next to it. "Sit. Please. We'll both sit down like civilized beings and I'll explain why you can trust me not to do any further harm for Millennium."