I'm going to still have the points of Zara/Pisica POV be called Pisica, because she is currently the dominant, oh, I don't know, personality. When she gets all her memories back, and accepts them (which may be at different dates) it will again be called Zara POV. Also, I am toying with the notion of TechnoxSoarece. It might do his character good to be in hopeless love, plus it makes for some really good awkward scenes. Let me know if you like this idea, and I'll go on with it.

Alucard's POV:

I let out a quiet sigh of relief when Zara trudged by, feet dragging. She had almost reported me to Sir Integra, who had no idea I was following her around. I couldn't help it, I kept worrying about her. But she kept almost catching me, which, although confirming my theory about her being somehow enhanced, was not very useful when I was trying to follow her. Night vision, extremely fast reflexes, supersensory hearing and smell, regeneration, she was turning out to be quite the little scrapper. I wondered how long she would last against me… but fighting with her was probably not the best way to help regain her memories Oh well.

Pisica's POV:

I kicked at my door despondently. Okay, Techno and the other mercenaries needed a break. Fine, perfectly normal and aboveboard. What I didn't get is why Soarece and I needed to come. Soarece, who had somewhat of a privacy issue these days, melted through the wall next to me. "What's wrong with you? Sir Integra give you a weird answer?" I swallowed hard. "No…we have to go to the beach with Techno and the others." She stared at me. "Like…with no Alucard, or Seras, or the Wild Geese?" I nodded. "Yeah."

She hugged me tightly, causing my vision to go spotty for a second. "What are you so gloomy for!? We get to have fun with no grownups! C'mon, we need to get swimsuits and stuff!" She dragged me rapidly down the hall, not listening to my protests. "BUT I DON'T WANT TO GO TO A PLACE WITH PEOPLE!" I shrieked, cutting off her chatter. "But… there will be boys." She said, staring at me in bewilderment, saying boys like they were some kind of necessity. I barely managed the urge to smash my, or better yet her, head into a wall. "Precisely the reason I don't want to go."

Her mouth firmed into that thin line that meant I was in trouble. She grabbed my ear instead of my arm and yanked me along the hall. "You are going to come to that beach with me and the others-" she said, ignoring my yelps of pain. "-and you are going to enjoy yourself, or I'll want to know the reason why. Got it?" She let go of my ear. I rubbed it, scowling at her. "Yeah, sure, fine." She nodded, no doubt already planning some other things for our little "vacation".

***Time Skip***

I stared distastefully at Soarece's latest suggestion. "First off, I'm not wearing hot pink. Second, that's a bikini. Third, and most important, that's not even close to my size." She pouted, putting it back on the rack. "Well, what do you want to wear? We're almost out of choices for bikinis!" I rolled my ears, putting my head in my hands. "Here's a thought. Maybe we should try and find one that covers more than the bare minimum. Like, say, a one piece. I'll even say maybe to a tankini." She sighed. "Okay, fine. Don't blame me if no one takes an interest in you."

She came back with another armload of suggestions. I looked through them, occasionally offering comments. "No, too frilly. Oh my god, I didn't even know pink could get that neon. Ow! This one hurts my eyes! Too many straps, I mean, it's like a ball of yarn. This one would have been okay, but they put way too many beads and junk on it. Eww, this one looks like you drenched it in snot." Finally, after three piles of such garbage, I found one that was mostly acceptable. It was so maybe that I changed into it and showed Soarece.

"Wow, that one's great!" she said, walking around me. I looked down at myself. Light green and dark blue swirled together with tiny gold flecks, a bit like the sea on a sunny day. It was a one piece, with a slightly open back, crossed by two straps. The neckline was actually somewhere above my belly button. It would do. "If you say so." I said slowly, going back in the stall to change back. We had already purchased goggles and such, so after we bought our swimsuits we went home. I slid into my room, putting my shopping bag on the floor. I felt the now-familiar woozy sensation when I looked around the bedroom. Soarece had helped me piece together a coherent theory, namely that the First and his bunch had brainwashed me, and whenever I saw something that reminded me, they short-circuited my brain.

Sadly, this kinda backfired for them. If I saw an object that I would know in my past life, I might forget about it. If I saw it and felt a wave of dizziness, sometimes accompanied by headaches, it was a lot harder to forget. The cat necklace was a prime example. I always wore it, but I forgot about it so often that when I felt it swing on its chain, I got a fresh wave of nausea. The idea was to wear out the fail-safe, and I don't know whether or not it was working yet. Desperation on my part could contribute to that.

I sat down on the bed, thinking. Maybe I could ask someone. If First had said I was getting to close to the wrong person, who should I ask about it? Soarece wasn't from my past life. Techno couldn't hold a serious conversation. Maniac, Auger, and the others would have it spread all over the place before you said "gossip". Integra probably had no clue who it was. Seras might, but she shared a mind-link with Alucard, whom I certainly did not want to know I was asking around. So that left…Roger. I brightened. Roger, despite the fact he made laundry tie itself in knots that he called folds, was a rather nice guy. I would ask Roger.

I jumped out of bed and skipped towards the door. I yanked it open and stepped out, running into something very stiff and immovable. I backed away and looked up, seeing Alucard occupying my doorway completely. "No." he growled, and I blinked, confused. "No, what?" I snapped, feeling a little angry. He stared at me, folding his arms. "You are not going to ask Roger, or anyone else, about who you "liked" in your past life." I clenched my fists. I was getting very tired of males (First certainly sounded like one at least) who ordered me around with no good reason. "Why" I asked through clenched teeth. He raised his eyebrows. "Because I told you to." He said, slightly shifting position.

I glared at him, folding my arms as well. "You don't have any authority over me." I snapped. A slight smirk appeared on his face, and he moved again. "You can either listen to what I say, or I'm going to hypnotize you into doing it. We both prefer the first option." I sighed. Okay, he wins that particular discussion. "Why don't you want me to ask anyone about it?" I said, feeling faintly curious about it, even if I was really mad at him. He looked away from me, not answering. Pieces started falling into place.

I stepped forward. "Why don't you want anyone to know?" I asked, my voice getting slightly louder. He clenched his teeth, still not saying anything. I sighed, feeling the anger simmer down in me. I turned away from him, heading back to my bed. "Fine, don't say anything. I'll just stumble around in the dark some more." I could hear the bitterness start to seep into my tone, but I couldn't stop talking. "After all, I've been doing it for three years. I'm blind to my past, and blind in the present, and I'll most likely stay blind in the future."

I knew I was starting to overstep here, but the words spilled from my mouth like water from a broken dam. "I can't even see in the real world. The light burns my eyes like I'm on fire all over again. I'm light-blind and dark-blind. Do you know what it's like? Do you know how it feels to not remember anything, just waking up covered with burns? To have your whole life just one big blank? To sometimes wake up in the morning, and think you've forgotten your new life as well? Stumbling in the dark is all I can remember how to do."

I felt him slam me into a wall, finally cutting off my flow of words. He looked just as mad as I had felt a few moments ago, and I wondered how long he would take to kill me. He hissed, and I smiled. "Go on," I choked out, feeling his grip tighten. "Squeeze just a little harder, and I'm dead. Put me out of my misery." He blinked, looking surprised. "No." I felt a wave of disappointment surge through me. "Why not?" was all I could think to ask. He looked away from me again, then let go. I slid to the ground, refusing to gasp and get my oxygen back.

He looked back at me, and I was surprised to see blood on his face. How had he gotten cut? Was it from me? I looked down, but I was not bleeding anywhere. I looked back up at him, feeling confused. I heard him say quietly "Even if you don't remember anything, you're back. Losing you once was bad enough. I will not lose you a second time." I stared into his eyes, feeling very sleepy all of a sudden. He sighed, and I realized dimply I wasn't blinking. "Go to sleep." I heard him say, and felt myself fall forward, unconscious before I hit the floor.

Alucard's POV:

I gently picked her up, silently adding the command for her to forget about our conversation. She sighed, squirming slightly. I smiled sadly, even though she had forgotten how to resist mind control and mind-reading, she still had trouble accepting orders. I put her in her bed, arranging the blankets so it looked like she could have pulled them up herself. I saw a tiny spot of red appear on the blanket and frowned. Then I realized the blood from my tears was still on my face, and I quickly absorbed it. I knew Sir Integra, and probably some of the other people here knew about my feelings for Zara, but it was one thing for them to suspect and quite another for them to have the suspicions confirmed.

Pisica's POV:

I woke up the next morning, feeling extremely groggy. "Oog…" I moaned rubbing my head. I must have really remembered something to have this head-ouch. I straightened up, hearing happy shouts come from across the hall. I moaned again, burying my face in the pillow. Please let them forget about me, please let them forget about me, please let them forget about me, please let them forget about me, please- "WAKE UP!" Soarece slammed the door open. "C'MON, LET'S GO, WE GOT THINGS TO DO THIS FINE MORNING, AND THEY DO NOT INCLUDE GETTING YOUR LAZY BUT OUT OF BED!"

I flipped over, covering my head with the pillow. "But I like being in bed…" I groaned into it. Typical of Soarece, she ignored my heartfelt plea. I felt a cold hand on my ankle and she literally dragged me out of bed, kicking and screaming. She tossed me in the bathroom, throwing my swimsuit and towel in after me. "If you're not changed in five minutes I'm changing you myself." I threw my swimsuit on, brushing my teeth and thinking over how successful I would be if I tried to sneak silver into her blood packs. True to her word, she phased through the door precisely five minutes later, and started brushing my hair with rapid, painful strokes. She dragged me over to the kitchen, throwing an apple and a box of cereal at my head.

I caught them both and started eating, watching her gloomily as she heckled the other H.D. members for being late. I wrapped my towel around my shoulders after I finished, dozing in my chair. I felt her next to me and quickly tried to escape, but to no avail. She grabbed my ear, hoisting me upright. "GET UP!" she threw me bodily out the door and the mercenary group all commented sympathetically. "She didn't get any sleep last night." Said Maniac, chewing on a pear. I winced, getting to my feet. "I noticed." I walked unsteadily over to the van, piling in with everyone else as we waited for the Screaming Death to appear so we could leave.

Thankfully she was pretty quiet on the ride there, and I managed to catch up on a few hours of sleep. So, when the sea came into view, sparkly and shiny and pretty, I could appreciate it with everyone else. The beach, by some miracle of nature, was not all that full, and we could all stretch out our towels and stuff if we wanted to sunbath. I didn't see the point of it, so I walked hesitantly over to the water's edge. My goggles were pretty dark, so I could see fine. I dipped a toe in, noticing the fairly warm temperature. "Cannonball!" Techno shouted, splashing into the water next to me and soaking me thoroughly. I shook my head. "Thanks."

He grinned at me, almost completely submerged. "I try to help the unfortunate. Do you know how to swim?" I shrugged. "I guess I'll find out." I said, backing up to take a running start into the water. I jumped, landing in the deep water with a splash. I blinked my eyes open, seeing the bubbles around me slowly start to disappear. Then I realized two things. One, water was not good for the lungs. Two, I did know how to swim. I kicked off the bottom, spluttering and hacking. "What's wrong?" Maniac asked, sliding over to me like a torpedo. "I forgot to hold my breath." I said, gasping.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's important. Don't forget in future." I shrugged sheepishly. She swam back to shore, where the others were haggling with a man for his surfboards. The shop sign above him said "18 and over" but they seemed to be convincing him otherwise. Soon the surf around me was covered with teens, laughing and splashing each other. Techno was the instigator of this, as he seemed to be able to make a squirt gun by clasping his hands together in some complicated fashion. I dove back under the water, noticing with interest that I could hold my breath for about five minutes.

The next ten minutes were spent knocking Techno off his surfboard, which got him so annoyed he paddled off to a spot farther out to sea. I then created havoc with the others, until some figured out a trick to stop me from capsizing them. I dove deeper, looking for some form of entertainment. I heard a voice, which seemed really odd sounding, coming from my right. "Food, food. Turtle-food? Food. Hungry. Need food. Turtle-food." I swam off towards the voice, interested in whoever could talk underwater, even if all they talked about was food.

I froze, seeing a shadowy shape in the water under Techno's surfboard. A shark was looking up at his board, and it looked hungry. Speaking of… "Turtle Food? Or seal-food? Food. Hungry. Want food." I gaped in shock, even though I was underwater. The shark talked? Or, now that I came to think of it, it wasn't actually talking. I was hearing him think or something like that. "NO!" I screamed, even though the water rushed down my throat. The shark jerked to one side, and I could see its fins had white tips. "MY FOOD!" it rushed towards me, and I streaked upright.

"Not food!" I said, spitting out more water as I did. The shark circled a few meters away, looking suspicious. "Turtle-food. Seal-food." It somehow showed me a mental image, a blurry one that looked a bit like a person on a surfboard, only fatter. "Seal-food." It showed me another image, one much shorter and wider than the first one, but still blurred. "Turtle-food." It jerked its nose upright, at the surfboard. "Food." I shook my head, frantically thinking of ways to show that Techno, and his board, were not food.

"Not food…umm, shell! Float-shell!" I pointed upward, thinking of a shell drifting above us. The shark looked doubtful. "Float-shell food?" I shook my head. "Float-shell bad, taste like…" I thought frantically of what a shark might dislike. "Like sea slug." The shark backed away, looking, if this was possible, disgusted. "Float-shell bad. Shark-not-shark right." I cocked my head. "Shark-not-shark?" it suddenly rushed at me, and gently prodded my chest. "Talk like shark, but not like shark. Smell like shark, but smell different. Move different, but same. Shark, not-shark."

I gently patted the shark's nose, glad to be over our little disagreement. "Shark-not-shark. What's your name?" It paused, as if thinking. "Name?" I waved my hands in the water. "How do you stand out?" I suddenly looped around me, twisting in the water. "No name. Just markings. All different with markings." I shrugged. "Well, I'll call you Mark. Mark the shark. Bye Mark!" I swam upwards, waving to him. He watched me go, drifting sideways. "Bye shark-not-shark."

I surfaced next to Techno. "I have just had word that you look like a seal, and/or a turtle." He looked affronted. "Who said that?" I grinned at him. "Oh, nobody. Just a shark who was about to ram you. He says you looked exactly like one." Techno immediately drew all his limbs out of the water, huddling on his board. "Relax, I called him off." I said, winking. I dipped my head back underwater, seeing Mark swim off into the open ocean. "Mark owes shark-not-shark. Mark comes if shark-not-shark wants. Call Mark." I withdrew my head. "And apparently sea slugs are poisonous to sharks."

I have no idea if they actually are poisonous, but sharks can't eat everything. I think one particular species actually is, but that's just something my little sister told me. She's like a shark master, so she might know. Yes, they aren't done at the beach, because I'll need input on the TechnoxSoarece question first. Say yes, or no, please, even if you've never reviewed before. I will listen to you! Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. I'm picking up again, so hopefully I've left this writers block down in the dumps. I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope (Five hour interlude) I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope, I really do! R, R, Rcomment. Auf Wedersien!