Author's note: To my reviewer AttackingHentaiChibisLoveFluff: sorry, please be patient. First of all, I'm still in primary school only and have an over-protective mother so I haven't written even the tiniest bit of fluff yet. So I really need time to make things all work out.
Disclaimer: Hellsing does not belong to me. It belongs to Kouta Hirano, Dark Horse Comics, Geneon Entertainment and Gonzo Animation.
Chapter Three:
Forged Friendship
Waves crashed against boulders and rocks, disappearing into foam. The cycle repeated, over and over again, with hardly a care of the world.
The strong and relaxing breeze ruffled leaves and Seras' hair.
It was such a pleasure to sit by the shore and do nothing but gaze to the horizon. But did she deserve it?
In all things, there are cycles. Mistakes and triumphs repeated themselves, so did killings and sacrifices. So did birth and death.
Did she herself really deserve to continue living her un-life? Was she to continue to have others sacrifice themselves for her sake, her life? Was it worth to forfeit so many lives to death for one?
Although grateful of their care and concern, Seras felt it unjustified for her to suffer of something that she did not want. It is very ironic that living was like a torture to her and that she loathed something that others hold on so dearly to. She felt that she owed countless others her life, but was unable to repay them.
She would rather die than be forced to live on without her loved ones.
She did not know what awaited her after her death. She had heard many theories. Many proclaimed that they would be judged and sent to either heaven or hell while others claim that they would be re-born after an amount of time, depending on their karma.
All these assumptions, true or not she did not know. Or would it simply be that they die and everything ends at that?
"Pip," she whispered. "I miss you, Pip."
But she cannot let her existence reach its end. Before Bernadette's demise, he requested that She lived on for his sake. And didn't those who died for her do so to give her a longer life? She would be ungrateful to their sacrifice if she were to give up.
"Oh, Pip. It's so lonely here. I wish I could be with you."
"Live for me, Seras," she remembered, as if in reply. "Live for me."
Seras got up and flew back to her and Alucard's quarters.
She would live for Bernadette and the others, but she would not enjoy her existence while they had suffered.
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"Police Girl," called Alucard the moment he stepped in.
Seras jumped, startled. She still had not got used to Alucard's habit of appearing without warning.
"Yes, Master?"
"I want you to meet me tomorrow evening."
"But where?"
"Oh, you'll know," he replied, laughing. "You'll know soon enough."
With a last chuckle, he left in the same fashion as he came, strolling through the door.
"Master…" Seras half-whined. She did not know why she was whining, but knew that something about her ex-Master's order was troubling her. She had a feeling that he was about to do something bad, and her intuition was getting quite accurate. But it was a "quite".
It was just as well. She would have to wait till the next evening to find out.
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At exactly five in the evening Seras stood outside the door to Alucard's dungeon of a domain. Hesitantly, she raised her hand to knock on the damp oak doors.
Just a few hours before, she came across a note written on the wall of her room. The writings were illegible and she could only just make out what it read:
Come dusk
Go to where there is dust
In the place considered filthy by humans
Lie in wait an undead demon
The place you hardly visit now
Is inhabited by the servant of the "English sow"
Arrive punctually
Or regret your moment of folly
It was a riddle; entirely unanticipated. But it was Alucard who wrote it, no doubt—he had left behind most of his poetic abilities along with his mortality.
"The place you hardly visit now"… There are many places she hardly visits. Many. Which is the one of which he speaks of?
"The place you hardly visit now"… If it was "now", it means that she had entered it frequently in the past but stopped doing so recently. Where had she stopped visiting not too long ago, and why?
The answer was clear: The dungeon in which Alucard lived while serving Integral. Seras had never visited the mansion itself since the fall of Hellsing, for the memories it brings are those of which one would prefer lost.
A booming voice emitted from inside the room.
"Don't just stand there like a statue, Police Girl," said Alucard. "But I daresay it would be useful in the event of war where stealth is needed."
Embarrassed, Seras turned the doorknob, putting on a straight face just before entering. The smell that greeted her would have had normal humans knocked out, such foul and strong a stench it was.
"You wanted to see me, Master?"
"Yes, Police Girl," Alucard paused, choosing his words carefully so as not to arouse suspicion. "Have you finally decided to hunt for blood?"
"I haven't," she replied, eyeing him suspiciously.
Ah, suspicion cannot be avoided then.
"Why would you go to the trouble of composing a riddle just to get me here?" she continued. "And what a crap riddle, if I may say."
"Getting witty now, are we? It should be best in your interest to start pleasing me… And I do not give you permission to say so."
"I don't see why not," Seras replied waspishly. She had been in a rather tetchy mood of late, and for a reason she did not quite know.
"Now, now, Police Girl. You don't want to rile me up, or your assignment will be even more tedious."
Seras started. She had expected many things to come out of his mouth, hunting among them.
But an assignment?
"Ah, you didn't expect it, did you not? You are not as all-knowing as you act, it seems."
Seras ground her teeth in frustration. Has annoying her become one of his favourite pastimes? She still had a long way to go if she wanted to steel herself and minimize facial expressions.
The smirk on Alucard's face grew wider and more annoying still.
"Yes, yes, I didn't expect it," said Seras impatiently, ignoring his comment.
"Well then… I want you to go to the Riverside forest. I want you to stay there for a while, learn survival skills."
"What ever for?"
"You will stay there for at least six months," he continued, brushing aside her query. "Now go."
"But I don't even know where it is!"
"In the west of England. Covering eight thousand hectares."
An image shot through her mind. It was an image of a vast patch of vegetation; bird's eye view. Alucard must have sent the picture to her through telepathy.
"Yes, I did. I will, however, help you a bit."
"H-help me?"
Suddenly, Alucard grabbed her arm and they soared out of the mansion into the otherwise still air of the night. Not a moment too soon, Alucard landed with a slight stoop in the middle of undergrowth, whereas Seras thumped hard onto the unforgiving ground, her arm only just released.
"You will say here," said he, "until I think that you are strong enough to return."
By the time the pain on her bottom had subsided to a tolerable amount and she had tried to absorb in the surroundings, the No-Life King had already left.
The burning question now was how she was to survive. Surely the terrain was not home to carnivorous animals and plants?
She shook her head hard. No, she would not be able to survive if she were to continue being a weakling with no survival instincts. She was a vampire, and vampire instincts she must have possessed. The vampire blood of Alucard in her was taking over. This is where vampirism would be evidently seen in her. Something which had not happened to her in over fifty years, since the notorious Valentine brothers' attack on the Hellsing mansion.
Suddenly, the leaves of the vegetation in front of her ruffled, suggesting that someone, or something, was approaching. She tried listening for the frequency of the heart beat of the being but found none. It was indeed very odd. What had no heart beat but moved like an animal or human?
Only one known being is capable of that.
A vampire.
Seras immediately adopted a fighting stance, wary of the possible dangers.
From the bushes emerged a man dressed in a dirtied and worn uniform. He was wearing heavy black military boots, an army cap and Lt-General stripes on his breast. The German army's emblem, though grimy, glinted on his cap.
The vampire was a German Nazi.
"Hi," said he, trying to display an intention of friendship.
Hi? wondered Seras. "hi" was not a word you would hear often from a Nazi. Nevertheless, she kept her stance. He could be baiting her.
The vampire must have realised that she did not trust him and even considered him a foe, for he raised his hands and said: "Do not fear me, Fraulein. I do not wish to hurt you. It seems to me that you are lost, and I am willing to aid you. I am. Please believe me, please! for if you do not, I will be oh so low in spirit. I have been exiled, and snubbed and hated for my foolishness of joining the German army.
"I thought that it would do me good, to be a vampire and fight for my country, but was wrong. When Hitler was beaten, I was stoned, subjected to abuse and other torturous actions. Believe me, I know that there were stories of us Germans torturing the Jews in concentration camps and massacring of hundreds in merciless holocausts, but I was not part of it, otherwise forced. I never enjoyed tormenting prisoners, civilians or not."
Seras looked intently into his eyes, expecting to see the dancing of evil and lies, but saw instead earnest. When he had finished speaking she never dropped her gaze, still trying to spot the look of dishonest triumph.
All that was in those red, watery orbs was sorrow and earnest.
He had managed to convince her.
Her arms dropped to her side, no longer assuming the vampire to be an enemy. "Well now," said she, "What is your name?"
"I am Rudolf Carleton," he replied, relieved. But he could not reveal his last name for he was infamous for enjoying tortures of civilians before his capture. "How about you?"
"I am Seras Victoria. How did you get here?"
"I…I got lost in this place"—he gestured to their environment— "during the war. I could not find my comrades after I offered to go and hunt for meat. They either left or I had taken the wrong path back. Sadly, I could not find anyone else since."
Seras nodded, accepting his tale. Even if it was not the truth, what could she lose and he, gain?
"So—Do you need help of any sorts?"
"Well, I probably do, but am not supposed to."
"Why so?"
"My Master sent me here to "learn survival skills"."
"I see then. Doubtless you hate his idea?"
A nod signified a reply.
"Who is your Master, by the way?"
"My Master? Alucard."
"Alucard…hmm…"
"Penny for your thoughts?"
"Normally, yes. But" (for Seras brightened up) "I am very sure that you have no penny. Yes, I know it was a figure of speech, but no one else but myself knows what is on my mind."
Seras' face twisted into an expression of slight disgust and disappointment. First Alucard, now him. Just why do male vampires take pleasure in picking on females like her so much?
However, Meltzer must have realised just how annoyed she was for he quickly apologised. "I didn't mean to upset you, Fraulein. Truly sorry about that."
Seras nodded in acknowledgment. "Apology accepted," she mumbled, barely audible. He is quite nice, well mannered and a gentleman, she admitted.
"So, um… Would you like to see where I live, Miss?"
"Oh, oh yes! Certainly!" she said, taken aback by his sudden invitation.
And so they left for the jumble of wood of a tree house. Seras concluded that it was safe to confide as much as she wanted in her newfound friend. Or so she thought.
It had never crossed her mind that he was working for Alucard, her once Master and his Master.
If she had known what lay in store for her when she would return to her so-called Master, she would have so dearly preferred to stay put in the forest or else just kill herself. The emotional tirade that she would experience after she returns to her "Master's" side may well destroy her worse than death.