"Any word on a mission?" Amy leaned back in a lawn chair she'd found shortly after waking up. Some big blimps were lazily inching past them overhead; she regarded them with the smallest amount of curiosity she could muster. It wasn't a Noise or a Reaper, so Amy assumed she couldn't fight it.

"Nothin' yet. Them keeping us waiting like this is wack man." Brad stared deep into his palm as though he thought he could summon a mission and timer. Amy glanced at him and wiggled her toes mindlessly. A few other Players had chosen to make camp in a late-night café where they could be seen and served. A few loners were playing with cups of coffee and tinkering with equipment. A few Pin users shuffled through their collections for whatever the night had in store.

"Word, B. And what's the deal with waking us all up twice in a day? I don't think that's on the level."

Some Player girl turned to them. She barely looked a day over eight. "Are you two idiots?"

Brad wasn't fond of the arrogance in her tone. "Yo, you got a problem sister?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "The Reapers woke us up because of those, dummies." She pointed to the zeppelins that had passed them minutes ago.

Amy spun a wheel on her skates. "What, the ad balloons? Unless you Limeys have some sick ramps, I ain't getting up there."

"They aren't advertisements," an older boy said. "Those have swastikas on them, it's a new Arian resurrection."

"Sorry dude, I don't get your Brit moon speak. They have a what and a new huh?"

"Holy shit…" Brad dropped his hand and moved to get a better look at the zeppelins. "He's right. Aimes, those are fucking Nazis!"

A small outcry came from the group of Players, and one by one they began to rise and head out. Amy and Brad looked to their palms, and found a new mission statement. No timer, no nuance.

"Kill all the vampires. Whoever fights and survives the night will be declared a winner."

Amy smiled childishly and jumped to her feet. "B-man, we've just unlocked our endgame!"

Brad shouldered his boom box and returned her grin. "Let's go make some garlic bling."

I can smell a calm agony. The corpses seek nourishment. It is nothing, let the bodies feast. My dish is waiting for me, down below. The smell tantalizes me. So close, so very close.

Tonight I finish my mission.

Tonight I devour the Composer of London.

"Oh God…" Megan gaped dumbly at the corpulent mechanical monstrosities silently crawling their way through the London skies. The crossed eye of annihilation and odium perceived all the frail blood bags of England and found the kingdom plump and lazed, perfectly prepared for its homicidal resurrection. Megan was stricken, frozen into her boots. Somehow these profane zeppelins had incited a feeling of dread that surpassed those that ended her life over eighty years before.

"So…" Rocky breathed, similarly struck with awe at the malignant sight. "Those are filled with vampires."

"Nazi vampires," Richard corrected. "Heavily armed, most likely."

Reece stood in the shadow of the leading warship, staring up as the thing's abhorrence waver out into the very air it sailed upon. His nose wrinkled tightly as he caught the stench of refused Death. "What are your orders, Composer King?"

Annabelle put great weight on her thoughts in that moment. Any wrong decision could lead to a massacre. "We can't approach the warships directly, they likely have heavy anti-air cannons that could tear us apart before we got close. For now all we can do is get the civilians as far away from them as possible. Carry them all if you have to."

"But…" Megan mumbled with some trepidation. "They'll have bombs." The Composer looked back at her terrified Reaper with some disapproval. She sighed and patted her shoulder.

"You hang behind and prepare for the invasion Megan. You're too PTSD for this, if they started bombing you'd either freeze or panic. I don't need you dead tonight." Megan nodded slightly. Annabelle turned back to her other soldiers. "We move out now. Women and children first." She stopped, suddenly realizing the problem with her ranks.

"Where is Malcolm?"

Oni had fallen before. Oni had turned off lights before. Oni had even been eaten once before, but he didn't like talking about that. Going into Joshua's portal was like going blind and being eaten by the devil while falling into the infinite abyss of Tartarus. Oni put his feelings roughly this eloquently:

"FUUUUUUUUUUCK!"

Joshua giggled girlishly and leaned back into their descent. He checked the time on his phone: they were incredibly limited. If he and the Reaper couldn't get Seras to at least believe them before the attack begins, he might lose his chance. This was going to be tight, but he believed he could pull it off. The sight of the Reaper was bound to bring back some memory or emotion… probably. Joshua bit his lip anxiously.

"Quit screaming," Joshua said. "I'm trying to think."

Suddenly Joshua saw a dim light and heard a heavy thunk below him. He casually turned his flying back on and floated to the ground beside the crippled Reaper. "Up and at 'em boy-o, nap time isn't scheduled until after finger painting."

Oni gasped painfully as he focused on putting his broken ribs back into place. "Stick it up your arse and die."

"Shut up and walk, dear." Joshua brusquely picked Oni off the ground and led him down the hall. The Hellsing Manor was caught in a standstill: all the Wild Geese were crowding the windows, looking out toward the city to try and get a glimpse of the war balloons. Neku had been trapped at the back and couldn't see anything.

"Neku, where's Seras?" Joshua questioned him. Neku turned his head and flinched when he saw Oni.

"Uhh…" he stammered.

"Yes yes I know, former enemy now an ally, we're all shocked." Joshua rolled his eyes impatiently. "Where's Seras?"

"I don't know, somewhere else? Joshua she's NOT going to like him being here."

"Nice to see you too kid," Oni grumbled. "Thanks again for blowing me up."

Joshua cut in before the two had a chance to prattle on. "Don't care, need Seras." He grabbed Oni by the collar and marched down the hallway, eyes flashing at every side. Neku decided that the best place to be during dead people drama was far, far away. He returned to trying to peak over shoulders at the window. Then he started thinking about Joshua's demented focus.

"… Shit." He followed in the direction they left.

Seras and Bernadotte were lucky in that they were the only people in the Manor with a window all to themselves. Seras in particular could make out the zeppelins with her vampire vision, cutting out their outline from the starry sky. Suddenly the door behind them burst open and Joshua appeared in its crumbling wake.

"Don't worry, that was going to break eventually anyway." Joshua's focus shot to Bernadotte in an instant and he flipped out his phone before he could turn around in shock. "Go to the command center, you are not needed here." A portal opened beneath Pip's boots and he tumbled in with an echoing spout of flabbergasted gibberish.

Seras was permitted to finish turning around though, and caught a few scraps of wood in her face for doing so. "Joshua? What are you doing? Captain?!"

Joshua waved his hand indifferently, taking on his charm and serenity in an instant. "No worries Seras, the good captain just returned to his post. Now…" He paused for dramatic effect and stepped to the side. "I believe you used to know this man."

A sweeping blackness curled into the door frame and inched forward tenderly. Oni was never sure how he might react if he ever saw Seras again, and he found himself caught in a field of discomfort now that he was in her presence. He tried to hide his embarrassment behind some strands of hair, and he couldn't bring himself to look at her. Oni was immediately aware of how… sizably Seras had changed since she was a child. Every dirty joke he'd ever made around her suddenly gave him an unbearable sense of shame. Oni remained stubbornly silent.

Seras was not inclined to start a conversation. His wiry black wings had been obvious the moment he entered the room, and her mind had been piecing together what was happening ever since.

"Joshua," she sighed. "I don't know this guy." His smile wavered for an instant. Joshua had hoped that seeing the Reaper might bring something back up, even if it was hazy. Just enough to make her believe. He barely opened his mouth to start talking when a hand grabbed him by the wrist and escorted him away from the scene.

Neku glared at him. Under less time-constrained circumstances Joshua would've thought it was cute.

"Leave them be Joshua," Neku warned. "Let them work it out, you aren't going to help." Joshua flexed his arm and Neku's grip popped off like a bottle cap. He was taken aback by the haphazard show of force.

Joshua evened himself. "Neku, do not interfere right now. This is very, very important and I need things to go smoothly. You don't understand how badly we both need Seras enthroned tonight before something goes wrong."

"Than explain it to me," Neku said. "And while you're doing that, they can warm up to each other instead of you forcing them to interact."

Back inside, Oni was still lost for words. Seras had crossed her arms, further crushing him with shame and self-disgust. His feet were doing a nervous dance, and his hands went in and out of his pockets like paranoid gophers. Seras was starting to feel more pity than caution. This Reaper wasn't trying to kill her, he looked like he was about to wet himself.

Then she realized just how much of an opportunity this was to finally get some straight answers.

"What's your name?" she asked, trying to sound amicable.

Oni appeared to take damage. He'd been slightly hoping that she wouldn't acknowledge him. At least not until he had the courage to either speak first or gouge his eyes out, whichever seemed more reasonable. He took a deep breath and struggled to maintain eye contact with her.

"Malcolm. Ah… you… my friends call me Oni."

"Malcolm," Seras repeated, and a million needles stabbed at Oni's heart. "I'm Seras."

Oni began to lose his voice. "Yes, I, um. I know. You've… you've grown since I last saw you." He laughed nervously and scratched his neck, hiding behind his arm.

Seras bent her head, almost appearing disappointed. "Oh." She couldn't think of words for a moment or two. "So… it's true then? About me being a Composer."

Despite fully expecting this, Oni was still taken by some surprise. "You really don't remember any of it?" She shook her head. Emotion began to fill Oni in a way he couldn't remember having ever happened to him before. His body moved without his own consent, and it independently chose to dash forward and embrace his little girl.

"I'm so sorry," Oni wept tearlessly. His body was cringing, but his hold was firm. He couldn't see the woman that Joshua introduced him to; in his arms was the tiny Seras he remembered from her childhood, eyes full of wonder and love. "I should have found you sooner. We all thought you were dead, but I should have looked for you. I'm sorry Seras, I'm so sorry!"

Seras was struck by the rush of emotion coming from the Reaper, and could return none of it. She had no empathy to offer the man, no notion of sadness or regret. Not even a word of comfort would come to her. There was nothing she could offer Oni except a weak and awkward hug.

After a few endless moments Oni managed to take back control of himself and separated from the new Seras. A total stranger, he realized. This person was a total stranger who he had never met, and who never met him.

"Ahem," he coughed, tugging at his cuffs. "That was weird, right?"

Seras said nothing.

"Yeah. Thought so." He smiled in a poor attempt to level out the spiking tension. "Sorry about that, kid. Old men like me get a little worked up sometimes."

Back outside, Joshua grit his teeth in a strenuous attempt at a smile and clenched his hair in a fist. "Neku dear," he hissed between his teeth. "You are not appreciating just how screwed we are if Seras doesn't get enthroned right now. We are really going to need the backup, otherwise-"

Suddenly the world decided it was tired of waiting, and a series of distant explosions sent shockwaves rumbling through the Hellsing Manor. Pillars of fire cast a hot light into the eyes of the soldiers watching the horizon of London.

Neku jumped out of his skin and dashed to the nearest window, which was inside the room Seras and Oni were. The three looked out to the city skyline and saw it being burned to the ground. Balls of fire were being propelled from the zeppelins and combusting in a spectacular fashion. Joshua stood in the background, cursing himself.

"What the hell is going on out there?!" Neku exclaimed in Seras' ear.

"Millennium," she breathed. "They're actually attacking the city!"

A sharp tone went off from Oni's phone. "Anny's summoning me. Shit! The invasion is going to be starting soon."

"Invasion? This isn't just a bombing?"

"Not according to the Composer over there. He said that London would be invaded by an army of Nazi vampires."

"Nazi vampires?!" Neku threw up his arms. "Am I the only one out of the loop here?"

Seras turned back. "Composer? You're a Composer?!"

"Did I not mention that?" Joshua responded, truly unsure if he had or not. "Whatever, doesn't matter. They'll be heading to the Manor in an hour tops. Neku, let's get ready to intercept."

"Excuse me?" Neku turned to Joshua. "We can't stay here, we need to go to the city to help!"

"No way," Joshua said, putting his foot down. "Out of the question. We're staying here to make sure Seras lasts the night."

"She's a vampire with a trained army," Neku argued. "The yard is filled to the brim with explosives, she'll be fine. A few Reapers can't protect all of London, without us people are going to die!"

"So?"

Neku stopped. Joshua's eyes were ancient and cold, and they bore into Neku like pin-needles through insects. Seras caught a glancing blow of his gaze and was crushed by it. Her will crumbled at the very sight of Joshua's cruel apathy. Oni was struck with the recollection of Reece when he'd first met the Producer. Suddenly he couldn't tell how old this Composer was, but he could tell he was timeworn enough to let an entire city die without a second thought.

Neku lowered his head, obscuring his face with his bangs. His arms hung limp, loose and seemingly useless.

"You still don't care," Neku said. "About anyone."

Joshua gave a crooked smile. "Come on sweety, that's unfair. I care about you, don't I?" Neku didn't respond. His smile melted. "Neku, this is more important. It's our job to put Seras back on the throne, not stop the war. It's fine, they lose anyway."

"'More important?' One person's life is more important than a million? A JOB is more important than the fate of an entire population?!"

Joshua approached him, a sad look in his eyes. "Your life is more important than a billion. You go out there, you're going to die. But if we stay here, you'll be safe. Neku, you're my best friend. I can't let you die. Not outside of Shibuya where I can't bring you back. And I can't take you back to Shibuya unless we finish this job." He touched Neku's arm. "Please, understand the position I'm in."

Oni shuffled his feet awkwardly. "Umm… I should head to the city. Can't keep Anny waiting."

"Yeah," Seras nodded with a similar awkward feeling. "Good luck Malcolm… after all this, if you want to come back?..."

"Maybe," Oni said, crestfallen. "I don't know. Between Anny and Rocky… It might be for the best if I don't come back. Otherwise you might not be safe."

"Oh… okay. I'm sorry about all of this."

"Same here, little Composer. Same here." Oni opened the window and crawled out. He gave Seras a melancholy smile and took off towards the city.

The instant he entered the air, a weight fell on his back.

"Fly faster." Neku gripped the collar of his trench coat for dear life.

Joshua stood frozen to the floor, dumbfounded. A moment ago Neku had been standing right in front of him, the next he had vanished and reappeared on the back of a Reaper approaching the speed of sound.

"Neku?" His bemusement began to contort and shift into rage. Power began to exude from his body. His feet left the ground as the loose articles of his form was blown by an unseen force. He turned to Seras, and if she wasn't a vampire she couldn't have even begun to comprehend his entire form. The look in his eyes brought a feeling of Archean lifelessness.

"Victoria, if you die before I get back, I swear by every god above me that I will follow you into the depths of Hell and tear apart your filthy vampiric soul!" There was a burst of charged light, and Joshua was gone.

"Damn…" Brad watched fire and shrapnel dance across the night sky, only to become curtained with smoke and screaming. He looked down and inspected the garlic cloves he'd strung around his neck, and felt ridiculous.

"Glad we didn't wake up around the big clock," Amy said. "It looks like they ran out of bombs."

"Which means the soldiers will be coming down next."

She chuckled lightly. "Rambo vampires. Now don't that sound like a wicked movie? And here we are, the rad heroes ready to save the day!"

Brad did not share her enthusiasm. "Let's just go find some people, 'kay? They'll probably attract the vampires, so we can kill a few and get our prize. Bring along any other Players on the way too."

"Hey hey, nice thinking B!" She slapped him on the back. "An army of Players against an army of Nazi vampires! That's the kind of gnarly action only you could dream up. This is gonna be a party to remember!" She knelt down, and Brad climbed onto her back. A quick spin of her yoyo and the two Players were screeching down the road.

It was understandably easy for Joshua to catch up with Oni and Neku. With Neku weighing him down, Oni could just barely break the sound barrier and reach the edge of the city before Joshua appeared in front of him and, appropriately, inspired the fear of God within his heart. But the instant they'd passed the city limits Neku had jumped off his back and was speeding his way over rooftops.

Neku could see the black outlines of zeppelins in the distance, and humanoid figures descending from them. He couldn't make out a single parachute, so he figured the Reaper had to be right: Nazi vampires. If he weren't racing at a speed faster than his living body could maintain, Neku would be considering how ridiculous his life was.

"What are you doing Neku?" Joshua appeared floating beside him. He kept pace with Neku without as much as a drop of sweat, even when he teleported.

"What I said I was going to do," Neku panted between steps. Gunfire and screams echoed across the city; Neku turned to follow the nearest outburst. "These people need protection."

"It's not our problem," Joshua said, typing a few things into his phone. "Let the Reapers handle them." A portal gaped open in Neku's path. He managed to dodge around it and teleport over an opening.

"We already discussed this Joshua. I'm going to help, and if you don't care than you can fuck off back to the Manor." He leapt over another portal.

"You'll die out here Neku."

"Then stay and help. We work better as a team anyway."

"Yes, we do," Joshua agreed. "Which is why we should both go back to Seras so we can team up on the vampires that will go there!"

"How do you know they'll go after Hellsing?"

"They're vampires, of course they would go after the only threat to their victory."

Neku slowed at the edge of the roof. Down on the road below was a squad of vampires shooting down citizens. A few of them were already eating corpses.

"Well than," Neku said, pulling out all of his Pins. "They'll have to come at me first!" He dove off the building and clicked a few pins in his hands. Before the troops could react, spears of ice shot through their bodies and pierced several of their hearts. A flurry of fire balls and boulders were hurled at them from above, crushing their skulls. Neku landed and sliced off the head of a survivor with one clean wave of his hand.

"Huh," Neku pondered, scanning the bodies. "That was easier than I thought it would be."

Joshua's voice came from behind him. "Gee, I wonder why?" Neku turned to see Joshua levitating a ball of vampire bodies writhing and biting at the air, reaching for their lost firearms like infantile chimps. A laser pierced through the air and rendered the soldiers ash. "They had you surrounded Neku, you would have been shot and eaten."

Neku looked at the space the vampires had been moments before. "Yeah, probably. But they didn't."

"Because I was here to protect you," Joshua sighed.

"Well, keep it up. Because I'm not done." Neku readjusted his headphones.

"But-"

"Look, Joshua," Neku cut him off. "Neither of us are going to agree on this. I won't force you to stay with me, and you aren't going to make me leave these people to die. So you can try to cut me off with as many portals as you want, and I'm going to keep dodging them."

Joshua didn't respond, but after a moment silently nodded his head.

"Good," Neku said. "Then let's get going." He turned to run and nearly crashed into a portal. After a short correction he starting running again, and nearly tripped into another one.

Joshua giggled behind him. "You said I could keep trying."

Seras was suiting up on the roof of Hellsing Manor. She had to drag the weaponry up here as well, since no one else could lift it. She could feel the vibrations of scrambling boots below her as the Wild Geese prepared for battle. She spoke into her headset.

"You alright Captain? That looked like quite a fall."

"Oui," Bernadotte's voice responded in her ear. "It was quite the surprise, but I landed on a very soft chair. Are you prepared yet mon chère?"

"Just about," Seras grunted, strapping on the hefty ammo pack. "Bloody hell this thing is difficult. It's way too big…" She stopped mid-sentence, just barely catching herself. There was silence on the other end of the line.

"What was that, mon chère?"

"Captain, not a word!"

There was some static in her ear, which could have been snickering. "I don't know what you mean."

Fire. I'm burning. Odd.

People. Corpses. Gunpowder. Bullets are touching me. Nothing important.

I smell souls. Players. Reapers. No Composer. Too bad.

Might as well have an appetizer.

Kill. Kill. Kill.

Oni blew down the streets, firing explosive energy and any vampire he encountered. Most were too slow to dodge his shots, some were able to return his fire with useless bullets. As long as the Reapers existed purely in the UG London, anything other than the vampires themselves was nothing but a mild irritant. They were too dependent on their firearms.

But when some of them did get in close, Oni was at a disadvantage. They could rend flesh from bone with their fingers while he had above-average strength punches. Against the living he was fine, but the vampires had to be kept at a distance. Which was why Oni silently panicked as two soldiers dashed around him and literally nipped at his face.

He ducked under one jab and countered with an uppercut to the creature's jaw. It was launched into the air, but landed on its feet and continued the assault. "You know," Oni said as he beat the second one off his back. "If you guys weren't so murdery you'd make very durable punching bags."

"In that case, let's string a couple up." A black tendril reached around the first vampire's throat and dragged it into the air. Its decapitated body fell back down, but the head was gone. Rocky approached the scene, his newly-healed body already damaged and leaking Noise.

A wet gashing sound came from behind Oni. He turned to see the second vampire fall apart limply in bloody chunks. Richard swung the tainted blood off his silver short sword with a grimace.

"Glad to see you finally showed up," Richard said. "There are a lot of these things infesting the city. Must have killed fifty already, but more keep coming."

"That is how an invasion works," Oni joked. "Where'd you get the sword?"

Richard looked down at his blade. "What, are you kidding? I've had this since I died; it's blessed with holy water."

"Did you steal it from a church?" Oni laughed. Richard just smiled mischievously, an odd look for him.

"More or less. Story for another time though."

"Agreed. Rocky, how's the fight looking?"

"Megan is still at HQ, waiting to pick off any stragglers that get too deep into the city. Mr. Nayake and Composer King split off at the impact site so they could form a perimeter and block off the Nazi's progress. Players are fighting the main body of troops."

"Players? We can't have any more than twenty Players this week, how effective can they be?"

"How effective can four Reapers be?" Richard answered. Oni acquiesced to that. "Anyway, you need backup. Rocky, you go ahead and join the Players. Oni and I will help maintain the perimeter and meet up with you later on."

Rocky nodded grimly, but Oni could sense the Noise inside him grinning. That thing seriously creeped him out. Rocky leapt up to the roofs and was gone in an instant.

"So," Richard said once he was sure Rocky was out of earshot. "You met Seras?"

Oni's shoulders fell a little. "Yeah. It's bad man. She's a different person entirely now."

"Well of course, she's a teenager," Richard said, trying to make light of the situation. Oni wasn't any lighter.

"No man. Not like that." Richard thought about this, unsure what to feel. He'd lost the ability to have "voids" in his heart a century ago, but he knew the pain Oni must have been going through.

A pack of vampires appeared ahead of them. They brought up their guns and shot at the two Reapers. Oni and Richard barely noticed.

"We can worry about Seras later," Richard declared, brandishing his blade.

Oni raised his arms and charged a volley of shots. "Yeah."

Zorin Blitz was on standby waiting on orders from The Major. Her eyes lit with excitement as the thought of stamping upon the Hellsing insects filled her loins with murderous glee. The Major appeared on one of the monitors before her, and Zorin's body tensed with anticipation.

"Zorin, Start your attack." The Major ordered with a familiar air of violent joy.

Zorin nodded. "Acknowledged". The screen shut off and she looked up to face her crew. "Restart Zeppelin 2's engines! The Zorin Blitz squad is now attacking!" she yelled with the voice of a raiding Viking lord. The engines roared to life and the airborne vehicle of death lurched forward. "Target Hellsing headquarters!" she commanded. Her demonic crew of glorious fiends and ravished beasts steered the zeppelin toward a distant field. Upon that field rested a little mansion, with a little army and a little vampiress. To Zorin it appeared a doll house, and she found great pleasure in burning doll houses.