YOU' RE BACK! I am no longer floating in a sea of loneliness! Thanks guys, I felt like I was talking to myself again. I love what I did to Maxwell last chapter. Think of him rushing off to various annoying tasks all day, then have someone ask him about his religion and compare it to one he hates. Poor guy must have nearly lost it. Now that I think back, he did lose it. I knew there was a reason I didn't make him die horribly last fanfic! (Much as I was tempted) This time, this time he will die a horrible and gruesome death, I promise. (Ideas will help, because what happened to him in the Ova can't really be topped by anything I can come up with) Zara is now going to be swarmed with misfortune and I'm going to say sorry in advance. SORRY! Ok, nasty stuff now. Also, sorry about the two day wait, but I had to do homework.
Zara's POV:
Well, it was certainly a subdued plane ride back. Pip, who had driven down, nearly yanked his braid out when he heard what I did. Integra had given me a really long lecture, and made it clear if I ever did anything like that again, she would fire me. But in both of their lectures, I detected a hint of pride. After all, I had managed to make Maxwell look like a crazy nutjob. But it was still a really subdued atmosphere. I sat hunched over in the farthest corner away from Integra, who was still glaring at me. I smirked a little, remembering something Pip had said mid lecture "Merde! I wish I didn't have to be with the mercenaries! I would have given up vodka to see that!"
When we landed, I scuttled over to my room, figuring I'd best lay low for a while. When I got there I fell on the bed, instantly going into a thankfully dreamless and nasty-relatives-less sleep. I woke up sometime later, noting that I was still alone in my bed. Thank god. I don't know if I could take another beating like that, even if I do heal. Then I realized it was still dark out. I was instantly on alert. My life, both sides, was not one where you just wake up in the middle of the night. My instincts were just as finely honed now as they were three years ago. And right now they were wondering what woke me up. What did I hear? A tiny rustling sound came from my window, and I drew one of my knives.
"Mew?" a tiny kitten's voice came from the shrubs by my window, and I relaxed. I went over, slowly opening the window and looking down. A pathetic scrap of sodden black fur mewed again. Tiny yellow eyes blinked open and it wailed, showing its tiny milk teeth. "Poor thing!" I gently picked him up, cradling him in my arms. "What are you doing here?" His thoughts came, very blurred and disjointed. Momma? Cat-momma? Bad men came, picked me up with big hands! Momma! I stroked him, realizing coldly he was barely old enough to have opened his eyes. "I don't know where your momma is. What did the big-hand-men smell like?" He whimpered.
Candles, silver, dust. Bad mens are close by! I jerked away from the window, but I was too late. A tiny feathered dart hit my upper arm, and I knew I had seconds before I blacked out. Listen to me! You need to tell this man- I showed him a smell-sound-image of Alucard. –that I got taken away. Show him exactly what you showed me, and what these people look like! I'm counting on you! I wrapped my arms around the kitten, pushing as much of my need and memories into him, before l blacked out and let him fall to the floor.
Kitten's POV:
I almost cried out in fear when large-cat-momma dropped me, but I scrambled away like she had showed me. I watched from under her bed as the bad mens came and dragged her upright. I tried to concentrate, seeing the shiny disk-collar around their necks and their mean faces. I mewed angrily, realizing they were going to take her away. One bent down, and picked me up by the scruff of my neck. I hissed and spat, trying to get away. "Leave it Anderson." One of the shorter ones said, and I stopped in wonder, because I could actually understand what the big hands were saying, unlike before when they sounded like barking dogs. The big hand named Anderson threw me against a wall, cradling the wound I had given him earlier.
I felt a crack in my side and wailed in pain. I slid to the ground, barely staying awake. I saw the big hands leave, and struggled to my feet. Large-cat-momma had given me an order, and I would do it. I limped down a tunnel, smelling the scent she had showed me. It grew stronger as I went down, and my fur bristled in fear. The smell was thick in the air, and it smelled like power and the scary creatures momma had told me about once. I almost turned and ran back up the stairs, but I stumbled on, remembering that large-cat-momma had said she was depending on me. I saw a door, and scratched at it weakly. It swung open, and I cowered on the floor, seeing the huge big-hand that occupied it. He looked down, and picked me up by the scruff of my neck, just like the Alexander big-hand.
He shrugged, then held me over his mouth, and I wailed when I realized he was going to eat me. "Large-cat-momma sent me!" I shrieked, twisting desperately in his grip, sending him an image of her. He choked and dropped me, but caught me before I hit the floor. "What the…" he stared at me, and I tried to explain best I could. "Large-cat-momma said bad men takes her, and said to show you!" I mewed, showing him what she told me too, and the images of the big-hands who took her away, and the Alexander big-hand who picked me up. His grip on me tightened, and I yelped. He immediately adjusted it, and ran somewhere. I crouched down in his hands, feeling nameless things swirl by me, and wailed.
Alucard's POV:
I crashed into Integra's office, and told her everything the kitten had showed me. I dumped it on her desk, and it mewed again, this time in pain. "Side hurts! Where's large-cat-momma?" Integra stared at it. "Did that cat just-" I cut her off. "Zara's been kidnapped. Iscariot took her. The cat somehow gave me a mental image, and I recognized Anderson." Integra went white with rage. She grabbed the phone on her desk, speed-dialing and holding it to her ear. "Hello, Sir Islands? I just called to tell you that the Pazúry girl has been kidnapped. Yes, of course we suspect Maxwell, but he's still in Italy isn't he? Yes, I know you can't do anything without proof. I'll get right on that. Goodbye." She slammed the phone back on its receiver. She sighed, and I blinked.
"Alucard, we can't just go charging after her. People will not accept that our sole proof of her kidnappers is a cat, and a young kitten at that. " I felt a surge of anger. "Master, I can-" She cut me off. "I know what you can do perfectly well, so don't say it. The fact is, although Maxwell is the prime suspect, we can't just barge into one of his secret bases on the chance that Zara might be there. She could be anywhere in the world." I wanted to argue, but deep down I knew she was right. "Fine." I said, seething. "What do we do?" She rubbed her forehead, scowling.
"Look for clues in her room, ask our spies to scout around, everything we can do. She won't die a second time, I promise you." I nodded, heading for the door. "Alucard." She said, and I turned. "Yes master?" She was smoking a cigar, and gazing at me levelly. "You love her, don't you?" I froze. I could feel just a tiny hint of pink in my cheeks, and mentally cursed. "Master?" I asked, feigning confusion. She smirked, just a twitch of the lips really. "Are you denying it? I won't judge you." I took a deep breath. "Yes. I do." I said shortly, before turning and walking out the door. I heard her chuckle behind me, and wondered how on earth the conversation had turned to my relationship with Zara.
Zara's POV:
Seriously, is it like family reunion week in my head? I couldn't even be knocked out in peace. First and the others drifted before me, and I braced myself, getting ready to deliver my most impassioned tirade of all. "You have been kidnapped." He said clearly, and I rolled my eyes. Nothing gets by you does it? I would have never figured that out on my own. Any other helpful bits of wisdom? He sighed, and surprisingly drifted away. "I'm leaving you with some of our familiars. You'll need them. Other than that we will not interfere with you at all until you escape. You'll need a clear mind." I felt a slight thumping sensation in my chest, which calmed almost as soon as I was aware of it.
Suddenly the thought of being all on my lonesome seemed pretty scary. Sure, First was a huge jerk, but he was still technically on my side in all this. Going solo was really nerve-racking, especially when I had a vague idea of who kidnapped me. WAIT! Aren't you guys going to stay and help? I can't do this by myself! I felt something breeze past me, and got the sensation they were all laughing at me. "You will have your familiars, and the cat-boy! You won't be alone at all!" Oh, great. I have (no offense intended to my familiars) a bunch of animals and a dead German ghost to help me out. Vhy aren't you vorried about offending me? Schrö's voice drifted up in my head. Dead ghost is quite hurtful. If I could've, I would have glared at him. Because I don't like you.
Suddenly the images of my family began to fade, and I felt myself waking up. I fell off a couch, landing on the floor. I instantly adjusted, whipped out one of my knives, and got ready to have a real rough-and-tumble. Except that I wasn't. I looked around, feeling bewildered. I was in a living room, a perfectly ordinary living room, with a TV and everything. I had just missed a coffee table, and was kneeling on the rug that stretched all the way across the room. So far, so normal. I stood up, moving cautiously towards a door by the TV. It opened up into a bedroom, with a plain bed and bookcase filled with random books. No windows, here or the living room. I scowled, stepping into another door in the bedroom, to find myself in a small bathroom, also with no windows.
I looked in the cupboards, and saw normal female stuff, makeup and tampons and all that jazz. Tooth brushes here, hair brush there, toothpaste and floss, nail clippers, razor, everything was standard. I moved to another door, and that was a tichy little walk-in closet, complete with cloths in my size. I backtracked to the living room, and saw another door by the sofa, and stepped through there to find a tiny kitchen, one that actually had food and stuff when I looked in the cupboards. This room, big surprise, NO WINDOWS. I scratched my head. Either this was someone's poor idea of a joke, or I was still dreaming. Then I looked down by the counter.
Two shiny hypodermic needles, both filled with a strange clear liquid, lay on the flawless granite. A tiny screen was embedded in the counter, and there were words on it. "Take your medicine." I glared at the message. I knew talking to a screen was stupid, but this is me. "Not until I know what it is. Where am I anyway?" The message disappeared, then a new one formed. "Just something to help us keep track of you. You don't need to know where you are. You are here, and here you will stay." I grabbed one of the needles. "How long will I stay here?" I asked in a neutral tone. The screen changed again. "Until we decide to let you go. There is no use trying to escape, we will find you."
I suddenly threw the injection to the floor, holding my shoe over it in a clear threat. "Not if I smash this." The screen buzzed, then a new message appeared. "You can smash it if you want. Look at your neck." I looked down, pulling the high collar of my shirt aside. A thin metal band encircled my neck, flashing with tiny lights. "YOU COLLARED ME!? What the bloody hell?!" The screen hummed again. "Language." I glared at it. "English. You have exactly two seconds to tell me what this does before I try to rip it away with a knife." The screen flickered. "It will be better, and more amusing, to show you." I was about to yell at it again when I felt a wave of electricity slam through my body, sending me crashing to the floor. My body was twisting in agony as the shock waves hit me again and again. I arched my spine, gasping as one final burst of electricity hit my body, then stilled.
I painfully sat up, using the counter as leverage. I dragged myself to me feet, feeling pounded. "You can shock me as much as you want, but I'm not sticking myself with those." I rasped, pulling my shirt back up so it covered my shock collar. The screen blinked, and I could swear I felt the mysterious typer's smugness from here. "Then you will get no food from here until you do." I swore and launched myself at one of the cabinets, but all the food in it was gone. I closed the door, resting my head against the wood surface. "When I get out of here, I am going to make you pay six ways to Sunday. The only thing anyone will ever dare to say about your death about it is that it was too gruesome to describe."
The screen died, so I felt my threat was sufficient. At this point, I had three options. One, take the damn medicine. Two, ignore it and wait for starvation to set in. I chose three. The TV may have been rather small compared to the one at Hellsing Manor, but who cared? It had Ondemand. So I spent the rest of the time until I keeled over on the couch watching movies. I didn't forget I was a prisoner, or that I was trapped in a cage, or that I had two ominous needles on my counter, but I had a long memory and fertile imagination. Whoever kidnapped me was going to pay through the nose and how, I just had to get out.
Yes, it was Iscariot. Sorry if this doesn't really fit their image, but I needed bad guys, and I figured they would slide under that bill. Alucard finally admits it! Well, only to Integra. Zara still doesn't know. But he still admitted it! *Sigh* It gets even worse from here. I'm really sorry. But it was all my idea, and I like it. Again, feel free to say what you think she should do to Maxwell and the others. I still haven't figured out anything, although I may have the tickling of an idea…no it's gone. Dang. Oh well, maybe it'll come back to me. On the plus side, no more snow! On the downside, we replaced the snow, with POLLEN. I honestly prefer the snow, because it can't cause you to sneeze every two seconds and have snot dribbling down your front. Review, Request, Rcomment. Auf Wedersien!