I do not own Hellsing Ultimate or any of the characters.

Assault

Angel held out his hand, blood flowing from his wrist and into the mercenaries' magazines, coating their standard lead bullets. "These won't work as well as your silver bullets, but they'll still kill a vampire if you can get a headshot or hit their heart."

"Much obliged," Pip said. "Hopefully we won't need them. With any luck, we'll be able to kill them all with our goodies."

"Don't hold your breath," Angel said as Seras walked in.

"I've got all of my bullets," Seras said. "And the new gun's all set up upstairs."

Angel nodded. "Are you ready?"

Seras nodded, then sighed and shook her head. "I doubt it."

Angel nodded. "It won't be pretty. War has a way of breaking people in ways you don't expect. Ways that most can never recover from."

Seras hesitated. "Have you ever been in a war?"

Angel nodded. "I was turned a little while before World War Two. Alucard was hunting a vampire that fled to America, which is how he found me."

"Ever kill any famous serial killers who were secretly vampires?" Pip asked.

"Harold Shipman and Jeffrey Dahmer," Angel said.

Pip shook his head, sighing. "Jeffrey Dahmer doesn't really surprise me, but Harold Shipman? I thought he drugged them to death."

"That's what was reported," Angel said. "Really they were sucked dry."

Pip grimaced. "I'm sorry I asked."

Just then, the building trembled. Angel's head swung around to the window, but all that could be seen of the city was an orange glow on the horizon. Except, the glow was usually white-yellow. It was the light of fire and explosions.

"It's beginning," Angel said, holding a hand out to Pip. "Mind if I steal one?"

Pip nodded, handing him a cigarette and a lighter. "And now a vampire's smoking. Were there any books that had it right?"

"Bits and pieces," Angel said. "Seras, let's head upstairs and get ready."

Seras nodded and the two of them walked upstairs, Seras sitting in front of her new guns. It was a pair of semi-automatic Harkonnen cannons, each of them belt-fed with a massive box of hundreds of bullets. The boxes were attached together and stuck on a harness so Seras could wear them on her back, and each box was bigger than Seras. They also included a pair of incendiary shots as big as propane tanks and a pair of extendable legs on the back of the ammo boxes to help support her when she needed them.

"Like your new toy?" Angel asked.

"I'll have to test it," Seras said. "But it looks fun."

Angel smiled and nodded. "And with you using it, no one will be able to get here alive."

Seras nodded stiffly.

"Relax," Angel said. "Our enemies are all vampires."

Seras nodded again, relaxing slightly.

"All you need to do is shoot them down," Angel said. "Once you do, the others can stall them. And if that fails, I'll meet them at the door."

Seras nodded, smiling slightly. "Yes, my master."

Angel smiled, looping an arm around her and pulling her against him, Seras resting her head on his shoulder. "It's going to be okay. Whatever happens, we can handle it as long as we handle it together."

Seras nodded. "As long as you're with me, Master, I know I'll be okay."

Angel nodded. "We made a promise."

Seras smiled, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing gently. "We did."

Angel smiled, resting his head against hers and inhaled slowly, only to allow his eyes to drift open and his smile to fall. "I can smell it. The death. The gunpowder. The blood. It smells like Normandy. No. It smells more like the Battle of Berlin. Not enough ocean smell to be Normandy."

Seras stared toward the orange glow from the burning city. "It won't be long, will it?"

"No," Angel said, watching one of the three zeppelins turning and starting toward them. "Here they come."

Seras nodded and stood, pulling on her new toy. They waited in silence, watching as the zeppelin drew closer and closer. Suddenly, the Major's much larger zeppelin unleashed a massive wave of missiles. However, Seras simply narrowed her eyes, both shining crimson as she focused. She opened fire, destroying all twenty four missiles within seconds.

"Excellent shooting, Seras," Angel smiled, just as half a dozen searchlights came on around the outside of the zeppelin, moving around until they found the two of them.

"Twenty four for twenty four, ma chère," Pip commended over the radios they'd all gotten earlier. "Your new equipment is nothing to scoff at. The Harkonnen II thirty millimeter semi-automatic cannon. Maximum range, four kilometers. Gross weight, three hundred forty five kilos. We're pulling out all the stops against these krouts, aren't we, ma chère?"

"Mr. Bernadotte, would you please stop calling me ma chère?" Seras said in slight irritation, though Angel could tell she wasn't really offended. "I have a name, and it's Seras."

Pip laughed. "Apologies ma chère. Tell me, can you see Londion right now?"

Angel walked to the edge of the building, focusing. He could see it. It still looked small to him, even with his enhanced sight, but he could see the destruction, the fire, the dead. There were so many.

"...or we'd go whoring at this cat house filled with the ugliest girls you've ever seen," Pip was saying. "But you know, they were all nice to us, and they had the saddest eyes."

"That's probably because they had to sleep with you," Angel quipped.

"Oh, so rude!" Pip said, then chuckled, only for it to turn into a heavy sigh. "There was this lady with the place on Versailles road. I never ordered fish and chips, but it's all she'd serve me. She'd say, 'Here love, have a taste of some right proper British fare.' Every time. I wanted to tell her it was too greasy, I couldn't eat it, but I didn't want to offend her, so I choked it down, bite by bite. I'm not really going to miss this London, but the people who lived here, that bartender, and the whores, and the fish and chips lady. This pissing match was never theirs to lose. That little Major, and Section Thirteen, the Last Battalion, even Hellsing itself, meant nothing to them. But now, they're all dead. Corpses feasting on each other. And that is something I just cannot abide. Let's avenge them. You and me, Seras. Do it. Blast them clean out of the sky."

Seras' eyes turned crimson again as a pair of legs deployed from the back of the ammo containers, helping her stay upright for the next part. "Yes, sir. For those who've died, and for London."

"Now ma chère!" Pip shouted. "Target the enemy dreadnaught! Fire upon my mark!" He paused for a moment before giving the command. "Fire!"

Seras' guns exploded to life, a spray of bullets speeding through the air and slamming into the zeppelin. With the zeppelin at a slight angle, not a single shot missed.

"Hit those Nazis!" Pip shouted before dropping his voice into a snarl. "Send them down into the pits of hell!"

Two of the searchlights were smashed. Explosions began to go off inside of the zeppelin, spreading fire through the balloon rapidly. Two of the engine mounts were shot off. Seras' shots began to grow a little less accurate. In ten shots, two would miss. More explosions. Seras began to fire faster still, sacrificing a bit more accuracy. The zeppelin began to descend, setting a course to crash land them on top of the mansion.

"Seras, get out of there!" Pip shouted.

"Incendiaries," Angel said calmly, forming himself his scythe. "Bring them down."

"Yes, Master!" Seras said, pressing the button to ready the incendiaries.

She swung the guns up into the air as the boxes deployed the incendiaries, both swinging up above the barrel on a pair of mechanical arms. As soon as they were over the guns, they deployed barrel extensions to attach to them before she swung them back down to take aim, four flaps opening on the back of of the incendiaries, exposing the red underneath.

"Those are the Harkonnen's incendiary grenades?" Pip asked.

"Missiles would be more accurate," Angel said. "Fire when ready."

"Mon Dieu!" Pip said. "They're so big!"

Seras unleashed a cry before firing, Angel driving the blade of his scythe into the ground to keep from being blown away by the incendiaries' thrusters as they sped away, Seras barely remaining in place, even with the support legs. The incendiaries sped away, zig-zagging through the air quickly before spreading slightly and exploding into the right and left sides of the zeppelin in front. Instantly, the zeppelin began to drop. Angel grinned, pulling his scythe out of the roof. The zeppelin continued to explode as it fell, then slammed into the ground and erupted into a massive fireball. Below them, the rest of the Wild Geese began to cheer.

"We're not done," Seras said, she and Angel staring at the vampires who'd managed to survive.

"You heard her ladies," Pip said. "Don't call it a night yet. They're still coming."

"Can you hit them from here?" Angel asked.

Seras focused for a moment before nodding. "I can."

"Fall back and reload, ma chère," Pip said.

Seras looked to Angel, and he nodded. "Right."

She dropped the ammo crates and turned, bringing the guns and the belts hanging out of them with her as the two of them ran to the edge of the roof and dropped to a lower level, heading inside.

"No more foreplay!" Pip was saying to the Wild Geese. "These Nazis want it rough and I'm feeling generous. Let's give them a wild night! Lock and load, men!"

Angel and Seras walked into the second floor hallway facing the crashed zeppelin, where most of the mercenaries were gathered.

"These enemies are not humans, they are vampires," Pip said. "They are stronger and faster than any man alive, and they'd storm Heaven itself for a juicy goose dinner. To them we are marionettes, wobbling on strings. They know the moves we make before we do. They'll dodge our bullets and take off our heads before we realize we've missed. Ma chère, Angel, does that about sum it up?"

"Just about," Angel said. "Of course, you forgot one thing. Bullets are useless even if you hit them, except for the silver ones. Now that I've added my blood to your normal ones, they'll be able to kill them, but only if you can destroy their hearts or brains. Don't expect a wounding shot to slow them down at all."

Just then, several explosions went off in the grounds between the mansion and the zeppelin. The mines the Wild Geese had set up. Then, the Nazis stopped.

"They got wise," Pip said. "Hit it."

One of the others clicked a trigger for a claymore several times. Explosion after explosion began to go off, Seras spinning to the window.

"Like that?" Pip asked. "It's what you get for underestimating me."

"Your men...boobytrapped the yard?" Seras asked.

"Boobytrapped?" Pip asked. "You make it sound so dodgy. Serves them right for charging in. If our foes are going to play dirty by going vampire, the least we can do is try to even the odds. Sixty claymores packed with blessed ball bearings all detonated at once. Let's see them try to dodge that. We are not the greatest fighting force. Engaging the enemy in the open is such a messy affair. This is more our speed. Third floor grenadiers, fire! Constant bombardment, men! Keep those leeches pinned to the dirt!"

More and more explosions rocked the field.

"That's it!" Pip said. "Tear that perimeter to shreds! Rifle squads, concentrate all of your fire into one spot at a time! Anything twitches, you shoot!"

Just then, a feminine voice reached Angel's ears, chanting. He glanced at Seras, who nodded, and they both turned, running along the hallway toward where they'd get a better view. However, as they did, a mass of some form of purple fluid began to rise, rapidly growing into the shape of a human. Then, it began to change, becoming a towering female with short, messy hair, a tight, sleeveless, black shirt, some kind of writing tattooed onto the right side of her body, a pentagram on her forehead, and a huge steel scythe in her right hand.

"Holy shit!" one of the mercenaries shouted. "What the hell is that thing!?"

Everyone stared at it in shock, no one firing. After a moment, Pip sprinted into the hallway to see what was happening, only to stop as the massive woman crouched down beside the window, grinning wickedly in at all of them.

"Mon Dieu!" Pip breathed. "Nobody said they could do...this!"

The woman stood up and pulled back her scythe before slashing. The blade sheered through the building with ease, but as she pulled it out, it caused a blast of wind and debris that hurled everyone away from the broken section. Bits of the building began to collapse, crushing arms and legs.

"This can't be!" Pip shouted. "We're getting torn apart by a giant!"

The woman slashed again, the explosion-like tailwind ripping through the hallway. As she pulled the scythe back out again, a chunk of debris fell toward Angel, only for him to bat it aside with his scythe. Except, it felt wrong. It acted perfectly, and he felt the impact and the weight. But it just felt wrong. He frowned and focused, and suddenly, the giant was gone. The damage and injuries were gone. He quickly darted to Seras, kneeling beside her and cupping her face, forcing her to look at him.

"Focus, Seras!" Angel said. "It's an illusion! Use your third eye!"

Seras closed her eye for a moment before opening them again, both glowing crimson. She looked around in surprise before nodding. Angel pulled her to her feet and looked out the window.

"Shoot her," Angel said. "If she dies, the illusion will be broken. She might also have to remain focused in order to hold it."

"Yes, my master!" Seras nodded, grabbing her machine gun and running to a window.

"I'm heading downstairs!" Angel said. "They'll be able to get in now!"

Seras nodded just before opening fire, shot after shot speeding away from her gun. Angel paused at the door to the stairs, looking back at her.

"Be careful Seras," Angel said telepathically. "Stay safe."

"You, too, Master," Seras responded as Angel began to sprint down the stairs.

He sped through the building to the foyer, stopping in the center of it and watching the Nazis speed toward the front door. A pair of them fired a rocket into the front door, blasting it wide open. Several pieces of shrapnel and broken door grazed him, only for the wounds to instantly seal again. Then, they spotted him, opening fire instantly. Bullets slammed into him in a massive flood of agony and lead, but he simply narrowed his eyes, solidifying blood around his heart and brain, keeping them from killing him. Then, they were through the door and Angel focused, roaring in effort as he reformed. Just as he finished, a bullet hit the chain of his necklace, breaking it. Angel felt his power spike and roared, sending out tendrils of darkness from his cloak, the darkness lashing outward and slaughtering the first wave of zombies. The next wave surrounded him as he retracted the shadows, aiming at him but not firing yet. Angel narrowed his eyes, looking around.

"Well?" Angel asked. "Let's get on with it!"

As one, the Nazis opened fire, but Angel was already moving. He formed a sharpened playing card from his blood and hurled it, one finger on the edge to spin it, and it severed one's head before bouncing off the wall into an arced trajectory, killing three more. As the Nazis tried to adjust to his counter attack, Angel reformed his scythe, except this time, he didn't restrain it from its true form. Unlike the all blood version he usually used, this time it formed with the shaft as a spinal column, a smooth spike of bone on the bottom, a diamond-shaped bone blade opposite the scythe blade, and the scythe blade itself with segmented bone along the outside of it, short spikes sticking up from each segment, and the blade made of hardened blood but heavily serrated. He streaked around the circle, decapitating all of the vampires, only for double the amount to flood into the room, trying to get past him all at once. He spun, hurling the scythe and splitting two across the diaphragm. It stabbed into the wall before exploding into a cloud of playing cards, shredding a dozen of the vampires. However, the rest escaped the room.

"Fine," Angel sighed. "It's time for..." He stopped, looking out of the mansion again as he saw reinforcements coming. "Shit." He raised a hand to his communicator. "Pip, reinforcements incoming. They're still at a distance, and they're going around the minefield. I'm going to go give them a proper welcome."

"Alright," Pip said. "I sent Seras to circle around behind the Nazis that were in the first group. Did any get by you?"

"About half," Angel said. "Hold out as long as you can."

"Understood," Pip said. "What was it Sir Integra says? Good hunting?"

Angel smiled. "And you."

Then, he formed his scythe again, rocketing out the building in a jump and landing at a sprint. The Nazis opened fire, but Angel wasn't in the mood to be shot anymore. He helicoptered his scythe in front of himself, deflecting the bullets before launching himself forward again. As he fell, he slashed, his scythe splitting the first line of Nazis before he landed, bending forward and sending tendrils of darkness streaking out from under his coat, the tendrils raking through the Nazis with enough force to rip them apart, even being as thick as his arm. As the tendrils finished their sweep, he shot forward, ripping into the Nazis with his scythe and the tendrils. Guns crackled to life, bullets whizzing past his head in every direction. Every so often, one would hit him, but he kept a hardened layer of blood around his heart and central nervous system. As he came to a stop to slash a semicircle of Nazis with his scythe on one side, then with the tendrils on the other, the Nazis he hadn't slashed on the way there moved to run for the mansion. Before they could get far, Angel's darkness swirled together, forming the massive set of jaws he liked to use to copy Alucard's Baskerville Hound familiar, then shot out, snapping close on the entire line of Nazis, crushing them. Then, the darkness retracted and he spun, slashing a line of Nazis before launching himself forward. Twelve left. It was over. He landed in the middle of them and spun, his scythe killing six. Then, his trench coat blew open as darkness tendrils surged out, wrapping around the last six and crushing them so violently that they were ripped into pieces.

"Done and done," Angel said, turning to look back toward the mansion.

He stopped, eyebrows furrowing. There were no gunshots going off. Something was wrong. He took off at a sprint. He needed to get to the remaining Geese. Seras would be there. He shot toward the mansion just as a flood of grief and pain assaulted him through his telepathic link with Seras. He stumbled, regained his footing, and jumped, a pair of blood wings bursting from his back and flapping once, sending him rocketing into the mansion through the window. He landed inside the room the Wild Geese had barricaded themselves in, only to find the door open and the cunt with the scythe outside the room in the hallway, holding her left hand to the ground and spreading a layer of purple magic and black symbols over the hallway. Two of the Wild Geese stood between her and the room, but between them, next to the wall, Pip was lying, riddled with bullet holes, a huge gash all the way through his torso from the bitch's scythe, and Seras over him, her teeth sunk into his neck. She was also coated in blood, with her left arm missing, her eyes carved out, and a vertical wound from the scythe through her torso just below her heart. His entire body went cold. He'd failed her. He'd promised to keep her safe, to keep her from being hurt by anything and shield her from sadness, and now Pip was dead and she'd almost been killed as well.

Angel roared in rage, exploding forward as his wings left his back to form his scythe instead, but as he slashed, the bitch leapt away. Then, Angel sensed the change beginning and glanced back at Seras. Pip's blood, which coated the ground and wall, was flowing backward, surging up around Seras. It formed around her clothes before sinking into her wounds, leaving her uniform restored and stained crimson. Her face and eyes regenerated, the gash in her abdomen sealed, and as she sat up and opened her crimson eyes, tendrils of darkness formed from her amputated arm. The bitch staggered backward as whatever illusion she'd placed shattered before Seras's presence.

"She's mine!" Seras snarled, her voice distorted slightly as a true vampire, then dropped her eyes to Pip. "Thank you, Captain. Rest in peace. But not yet. Not yet! I did what you told me, and in return you're going to help me send these Nazis to Hell!"

Her darkness spiraled behind her as Angel walked over to her, setting a hand on her shoulder.

"Rip her apart," Angel said, Seras nodding.

Then, he stepped out of her was and she charged. The bitch shot forward, slashing, only for Seras to duck under it, then grab her by the face and leap forward, taking her off her feet before smashing her head into the ground as she landed, the bitch's scythe spinning away. She began to squeeze, slowly crushing her head, only for the bitch to begin slamming punches into Seras's head. Finally, Seras bit into her hand, taking off her thumb and fingers, spitting the bits she'd bitten back out.

"Even if I were about to die, I wouldn't drink a single God damned drop of your evil blood!" Seras seethed, squeezing harder. "I don't want you inside of me!"

The bitch's skull began to cave in, and out of despiration, she raised her right hand, grabbing Seras by the face as violet light shone from the symbols on her arm. However, something seemed to be wrong. Even as Seras released her head and recoiled, the bitch's face contorted in frustration and rage. Then, Seras grabbed her by the head again, taking off down the hallway with her, grinding her head along the wall.

"How does it feel having someone fuck with your head!?" Seras shrieked. "How does it feel, you bitch!?"

Then, a moment later, what little of the cunt's head hadn't been ground into paste already shattered. Seras shrieked in rage, hurling the corpse away and began to gasp and pant for breath. As the body burst into brilliant blue flames, Angel wrapped his arms around Seras. She turned into him, wrapping her arm and darkness tendrils around him as she began to tremble. He could feel her tears falling even before they began to dampen his shirt.

"I'm sorry," Angel breathed, voice broken from pain that wasn't his to feel. "I'm so sorry, Seras. I should have been here. I should have-"

"Master," Seras said, her voice as broken as his. "None of this was your fault. I should have drank blood sooner and accepted what I am now."

"I swore to protect you, but-"

And then, he stopped. Or rather, she cut him off. She silenced him by covering his mouth with her own, and after the millisecond it took his brain to register that fact, his eyes closed, his arms pulling her tighter as his lips moved against her. Her tongue sought his, brushing his lips to request admittance, and his own met hers. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't a romantic setting, or a fairy tale first kiss. And yet, he didn't care. For as imperfect as it was, it was perfect. Because it was her. Because in that moment, it was only her. Nothing else mattered. Not the Nazis, not the Wild Geese, not Pip. London could burn. The Nazis could slaughter everyone. Alucard could be the antihero who saved the city by slaughtering its invaders. He didn't care. In that moment, all he cared about was held in his arms.

But the moment wasn't allowed to last. Because as much as he may not care about the rest of the world, the rest of the world still existed, and the city still needed them. Seras pulled away from him, remaining in his arms, but breaking the kiss and resting her forehead against his.

"We need to go," Seras said.

Angel nodded, stepping back and looking to what little remained of the Wild Geese. A handful of members, including the two that had been in the hallway, both of whom saluted.

"Stay here," Angel said. "Tend to your dead and wounded. After this is over, Hellsing will make the proper arrangements as needed."

Both of the Wild Geese members standing in the hallway nodded, and Angel and Seras turned, sprinting down the hallway to a broken window. As they leapt out of it, Seras's darkness reached back to form a pair of wings vaguely shaped somewhere between a bat's and a butterfly's, both the exact same shape as Angel's own blood wings always were. Once both had their wings formed, they flapped them twice before taking off in a pair of streaks, racing toward where they could smell Integra's blood.

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