A cold wind spread ashes over the London countryside. Sirens echoed in the distance, helicopters hovered over the skyline. Emergency rescue teams from neighboring cities were pouring in to attend to the survivors before their homes crumbled on top of them. It was all ever so far away, yet always visible from Hellsing Manor. Seras and Annabelle were too absorbed with each other to pay them any mind.
A tense silence followed Seras' initial challenge as the women sized each other up. It was no concern of Seras' what had become of Annabelle's hand, just as it wasn't Annabelle's what had become to Seras' arm. The purpose of each was apparent to them both. Seras let out a single humorless laugh and ran a hand through her hair. Annabelle smirked patronizingly and puffed out her chest.
Another moment. Then Annabelle snapped her fingers, and a monsterous flame lifted its head behind her.
"Burn in Hell, Seras."
The fire Noise shot forward so quickly it sounded like it was coming from a high-pressure hose. Everything burned in its path, both the ground and the air around it. Eyes widening, Seras disappeared behind the wall of fire. The conflagration devoured everything up to the manor itself, dead bodies and abandoned weapons.
A crack and pop sounded beneath Annabelle's feet, and out came Seras from the ground with teeth and claws bared. She intended to rip out Annabelle's throat in one swift motion. Annabelle reacted quickly, grabbing Seras' face with one hand to hold back her vampire fangs, and thrust her other arm toward her heart. Seras grabbed the sharpened bone, and the two struggled against each other for several moments, wrestling to eviscerate the other's vitals first. The Noise looped back and roared behind the combatants, opening its maw to swallow Seras whole. A Familiar tendril shot out and dragged Seras out of Annabelle's grip before the Noise reached them.
"Careful, mon cher!" Bernadotte said from behind her brain. "Let this inferno flank us and we're done for!"
The fire regrouped with Annabelle as she stood and scowled in frustration. "What's the matter Seras? I thought hellspawn liked fire!" Annabelle began to float off the ground, stretching her hands and straightening her back so she could look down on Seras. Utter hatred glowed in her sickly green eyes. Wires of flame danced around her form, practically turning Annabelle into a shadow.
"Tsk." Seras wiped some dirt from her chin. "Take a look at yourself Anny."
"Shut up!" An explosion knocked Seras off her feet as the Noise threw a fireball where she had been standing. "You don't get to lecture me, vampire! I played the Game! I followed orders! I did everything that was ever asked of me! I EARNED my status! My power! You couldn't even know what I've had to do to get where I am today!"
Seras grit her teeth and dashed into Annabelle, swinging her fists. "I know exactly what you did! You ripped me away from the only family I had left, you bitch!" Her knuckled audibly cracked against Annabelle's jaw and ribs, but Annabelle wouldn't let her see her flinch. She bore into her just as ferociously, deflecting blows and stabbing with her exposed bones wherever she could land a hit. Meanwhile all around them fire and Familiar energy twisted like a violent tornado, Noise and Bernadotte biting into each other.
"I cannot hold it, Seras!" She growled and retreated again, and Annabelle gave chase with her fire close behind her. The two darted across the field and into the sky, landing blows against each other like peels of thunder.
Inside the manor, Integra lied in bed with a pillow wrapped around her head. The shocks were causing ash to sprinkle onto her from the floor above. "I don't care, I don't care, Seras can handle it, I don't care..."
Seras rolled away from the Noise's burning grasp. She stood back up with a discarded assault rifle and unloaded the clip into Annabelle. She didn't even have the fire burn the bullets away, they simply passed through her ineffectually. Seras threw the gun away and cursed. "Damn Nazi's couldn't even get blessed fucking bullets?!"
"Too be fair mon cher, they were mostly attacking regular humans."
"Yeah I know Pip, let me be mad okay!?" Annabelle swun her fists like hammers into Seras' head, and she winced as the tip of her tongue fell out of her mouth with a spurt of blood. She swung her leg up, and Annabelle barely blocked it with her good arm and skipped away.
"'Pip?' What, you talk to the poor soul you have imprisoned in your fetid veins?"
Bernadotte's face materialized in the tendrils of Seras' arm. "Imprisoned? I signed the lease and paid my rent, putain! And it's leagues above your degoutante body!"
Annabelle smirked. "Oh how cute, you have a blood slave for a boyfriend! I didn't know you were so kinky Seras."
Seras' lips tightened. "Pip, 'oot 'er."
"Oui mon cher!" His face vanished into the smoky blackness and was replaced by the muzzle of a revolver. The gun went off, and the bullet tore a hole through Annabelle's shoulder. Her teeth grit and contained any hint of a grunt, but the wound was easy to see. Her Noise however screamed in fury and blasted forward like a tidal wave. In its anger it allowed its feminine core to come into Seras' view, just for a moment, but long enough for her to remember how it worked. She flew away as fast as her Familiar wings could carry her, the Noise directly behind her.
Pip, I have a plan!
"I had the same one just as you thought of it. Also, I healed your tongue."
Merci.
Meanwhile, miles away in the city, Joshua and Reece were fighting at a pace that made people in the RG shiver if they wandered too close. Joshua flew through portals in rapid succession, appearing and disappearing at every angle, firing lasers and throwing punches at every opportunity. Reece Nayake however stood rooted in a single spot, swiveling on his left foot, going through an arsenal that would make militaries blush. At any moment he could be firing assault rifles, automatic shotguns, handguns of preposterous sizes, explosive ordinances, and a very dangerous slingshot. All designed and customized by the Producer, each one deadly to any resident of the UG. Joshua was riddled with holes that even his Pins could barely keep up with, and Reece took each blast like a rock or ducked under the attack. Both wavered under the other's power, but neither gave the other an inch.
Suddenly, in that noted spot at the back of his brain, Reece felt a nerve twinge. It was not the urgent alarm that he felt earlier that evening, but it was noteworthy. What is Annabelle doing in another fight?
The momentary pause gave Joshua enough of an opening to dash in and knock him out of his spot. Reece spun around with a double barrel and blew him across the street. He skidded into a portal and popped up behind Reece again, and then shot a laser into his back forcing him to the ground.
"Heh, I know that look," Joshua said when he saw into Reece's eyes. "Somebody important just took a good hit! I wonder who could do that?" He smiled, licking away a dribble of blood from his chin. Reece pushed himself back up, bleeding but nothing more. Even his clothes were custom, prototype armor. Joshua made a mental note to have Mr. Hanekoma pick up the slack.
Reece didn't answer. He sent Annabelle home, why was she not there? What was she doing outside of London? He closed in on where the sense was originating from. It wasn't far for him. Without a second thought Reece sprouted his wings and took off into the sky.
But Joshua wouldn't let him go so easily. A portal opened and out came the foreign Composer, fist swinging. He popped Reece in the jaw and sent him reeling.
Joshua wiggled his finger. "Tsk tsk, naughty naughty Producer. You're not allowed to interfere with a Composer's inheritance. Cut off their fight and you're breaking the rules." Reece shot Joshua in the eye with a magnum as his retort and took off again. Joshua was fast on his heels.
The burning Noise refused to give Seras a millimeter of breathing room. It licked at the heels of her boots nonstop, and she was powerless to halt its pursuit. Annabelle zigzagged around the battlefield, coordinating with her pet and heading her off wherever they went. Each time she stabbed at Seras' heart, and Seras was barely able to evade the attacks. She had gouges oozing blood and flecks of Familiar all over her chest and stomach from Annabelle's strikes. She was closing in for another attack.
In a moment of spontaneous movement Seras leapt as high as her legs would lift her, clearing the top of the charging Noise by a hair's breadth. She could feel the hairs on her neck sizzle away and heat her skin. The fires parted where Annabelle stood staring up at the vampire, smiling giddily at the futility of her acrobatics as giant tendrils of fire arched toward her.
"You can't win this Seras!" she jeered, jumping up with bones poised to impale her heart. "One way or another, I'm going to destroy your black heart!"
"Funny," Seras growled, and with a flap of her Familiar wing she suddenly reversed her momentum and slammed head first into Annabelle. "I thought you'd had enough when you broke it!" The two slammed back to the earth. Seras had her pinned by the arms with a vice grip. "I was a child!"
"So were the rest of us!" Annabelle spat back, lunged her head forward and buried her teeth in Seras' arm. Seras recoiled, weakening her grip and allowing Annabelle to free her damaged arm and stab Seras through the throat. "Don't act like you never participated in the slaughter of countless children, you're no more innocent than me."
Seras tried to make an angry retort, but there was an arm bone in her esophagus so the only noise coming from her was a bloody gurgling. The Noise's flames loomed over their bodies, waiting for Annabelle's word to burn the vampire to cinders. Bernadotte would not give her the chance. His arm suddenly struck out of Seras' shoulder and, borrowing Seras' vampiric strength, chopped through Annabelle's bone in a single stroke. Seras quickly rolled off of her as Annabelle yelped from the pain and shock, and her Noise instinctively dove and made a protective dome around her.
Seras stood haggardly, bending her knees for balance. She took hold of the bone jutting out the side of her neck and ripped it out in one neat pull, spewing blood before Familiar energy plugged the wounds. She noticed that her uniform shirt was on fire, and quickly removed it. Standing in her tank top and a skirt, she would have felt ridiculous under different circumstances. Okay, Seras thought, that's the stake dealt with. Now for the torch. She crushed the bones in her hand and waited, preparing for Annabelle's next strike. The dome of fire spun, giving it the appearance of a ball of string or a tunnel-spider's web. A draconic face gazed out of the flames, eyeing Seras like a wild animal but not attacking. Seras remembered enough of her past as a Composer to know that fire could burn anything to nothing in seconds, so making any attempt to penetrate it was futile. She had nothing to do but watch and wait, and never turn her back.
Then, the ground behind her exploded in a pillar of fire, carrying Annabelle with it. She swung her leg at Seras' head, but she ducked under the attack and countered with a gut punch. Annabelle barely winced, striking Seras with the partially healed, partially cauterized stub of her arm. Striking with it seemed to hurt Annabelle more than it did Seras, but she continued jabbing and hammering with it despite the pain. The two women struggled against each other, caught in a deadlock of bludgeoning and scratching, dodging and countering, it was an untraceable chaotic brawl.
Suddenly, as though thrown from the heavens by God, Joshua and Reece plummeted into the earth less than a hundred meters away from the women. Both were bloodied and beaten by both each other and the sudden impact, but both were on their feet in an instant.
"Annabelle, Seras, stop this imme-" Joshua jumped on Reece's back like a monkey and put him in a choke hold with his legs. The Producer grabbed at the Composer ineffectually to shake him off.
"Doing great Seras, keep it up!" Joshua shouted, throwing a thumbs up and then jabbing it into Reece's eye.
Annabelle and Seras both stopped momentarily at this, but Seras refocused just slightly faster and took the advantage with both hands. She grabbed Annabelle by the head and the shoulder, bared her bloody fangs, and lunged toward her pale neck. The Noise saw this and flashed forward, moving so fast it didn't even give off smoke. The core emerged from its fiery hideaway, an expressionless feminine figure formed of solid fire, reaching out and screeching in what could almost be terror. And as the Noise came, Seras stopped just as her fangs touched Annabelle's skin, and grinned. Gotcha.
It all happened in the blink of an eye, but Annabelle saw it all more clearly than she had seen anything in forty years: the girl sprinting toward her, holding her hat against her head, screaming for her to "Look out Anny!" The man emerging from Seras' hellish appendage, cloaked in blood and darkness, holding a simple revolver. The evil grin on his face, mirroring his hellspawn master's against her neck.
"Au revoir."
BANG*
The bullet went straight through Jacky's head, trailing blood and fire. A piercing scream erupted out of Annabelle before she forced herself out of Seras' grasp and ran to catch her falling body. The fires surrounding them dimmed into embers as Annabelle dropped to her knees, holding the burning Noise in her arms. Jacky looked at her, her eyes as big and brown as the day they met. That first day, oh so long ago...
"Jacky?" Annabelle trembled. The girl smiled and reached to touch Annabelle's cheek. Her fingers were cold as ice. And then, she was gone. The fires died, and Annabelle's arms were empty.
"Jacky?" she sputtered again. Tears began to brim in her eyes. "Nooo. No not again. Jacky please, no!" Annabelle clenched her remaining hand, skinny and pale and utterly empty. Tears ran down her cheeks and dripped onto her one hand, and they were cold. Nothing remained of the Noise but smoke evaporating into the blue sky.
A shadow fell over Annabelle's kneeling body. She could see it, past the fog of her tears: the shifting shadow, the wretched arm, she imagined she could even see her eyes in the darkness. Seras Victoria, casting a shadow the size of a giant over the land.
"Yo-o-o-u..." Annabelle said over her muted sobs. The giant stared down at her from the hills and the towers in the distance. Its hands stretched and they cradled the horizon, claws extended to finish her off. Something beat in Annabelle's chest.
"You!..." she said again. Another beat, and Annabelle felt it. It spread through her body, slowly at first. It leaked from her wounds, poured from her eyes, drip-dropping on the ground beneath her feet.
"You KILLED her!" She grit her teeth, and her chest beat again. Heat steamed from between her teeth.
"You killed my friend!" The fog in her eyes cleared, only to be replaced with red. The whole world turned red, the sky, the ground, the city beyond. Everything but that black giant standing over her. Its hands closed in on her, she could feel them against her back. Those eyes staring into her like daggers!
"It was just a Noise Annabelle," Seras said, and the giant echoed all around her.
Annabelle felt her heart pounding for the first time in forty years, and it filled her veins with molten ichor.
"SHE WAS MY FRIEND!" Annabelle raised her foot and shook the earth, and stood to meet the giant that dared stand over her. She turned and faced Seras Victoria, screamed in fury and agony, and grabbed her by the throat with her one hand. Seras was caught unaware by the ferocious speed Annabelle attacked her with, and was tossed into the air like a doll.
Annabelle screamed again. She pulled her bag out of her inner breast pocket and took a handful of Pins she had chosen expressly for this fight. They stabbed into her flesh and hooked securely, glowing in response to her power. By then Seras regained her balance, and saw spears of lightning circle Annabelle before hurling themselves at her.
Shit, she's got Pins! Seras thought, dodging around whizzing streaks of electricity as Annabelle roared and jumped to come after her.
"Whoops," Joshua scratched his head. "Probably shouldn't have given her that tip about carrying more Pins... Oh no you don't!" Joshua brought a laser down on Reece right as he tried to fly into the fight. Reece turned back to the Composer and fired a hail of bullets in the spot he used to be. Joshua reappeared to the side and kicked him in the jaw, but did not retreat fast enough for Reece to grab his ankle and slam him into the ground.
"Stay out of my way!" Reece ordered with several blasts of his shotgun into Joshua's stomach. He spread his wings and darted up into the sky, but before he could even get close his shoulders suddenly exploded with pain and he fell back to the ground, bleeding from to feathery stumps. A portal ascended into the sky before eventually vanishing.
Joshua grinned maliciously. "See, this is exactly why zoos have to clip the eagle's wings! Otherwise they fly off and disturb the other exhibits." Reece's face contorted with frustration, and he pulled a chaingun out of his pocket. "Man, has anyone ever told you that your attack style is kind of like a cartoon character's?" The handheld turret revved up and unloaded pounds of lead, and Joshua scrambled to evade them. He fired another laser and knocked Reece off balance with the heavy weapon, and then came in and drop kicked him to the ground.
"Meep-meep!" Joshua honked mockingly, infuriating Reece further before leaping into another portal as the Producer chucked a grenade at him. He popped back up in the distance and called on a volley of lasers, beating and burning Reece from a distance. Reece reached into his pocket and replaced the chaingun with a scoped rifle, and suddenly a portal opened right beside him. Joshua flew out, yanking the rifle from his hands, and disappeared into another opening. "Thanks boss, just what I was looking for!"
Meanwhile above them, the air exploded with thunder and lightning around Annabelle and Seras, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Annabelle collided gracelessly into Seras, slamming against her with all her force, spitting acid and breathing fire while electricity lit the air and shockwaves battered both of them. There was no planning or aiming of Annabelle's attacks, only sheer chaotic rage and bloodlust.
"YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!" she screamed as she wrapped her chain around Seras and beat her with her fist. "MY POSITION, MY REAPERS, MY BEST FRIEND, MY LIFE! YOU NEVER STOP TAKING AND TAKING AND TAKING! WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?!"
Seras broke the chain and grabbed Annabelle by the head, nearly cracking her skull, and repeatedly punched her in the stomach before throwing her back down to earth. "Me leave you alone?! YOU came after ME! YOU stole my memory! YOU stole my family! YOU came after me again after ten years of nothing! I did NOTHING to you!" Annabelle looked up at her with deranged eyes and deaf ears: she could hardly see Seras through the giant standing over her. When Seras saw that look of mindless anger, it gave her pause. She had expected the hate, the anger, the violence, but not this... insanity.
Suddenly a shot rang out and Annabelle's side exploded in a shower of blood. Off in the distance lay Joshua with Reece's rifle. "Darn, how do you use this thing?" he muttered, tinkering with the levers on the side and wondering how it cocked. Then as if from nowhere Reece's foot slammed on Joshua's neck with an audible crunch and he brought down an enormous magnum on his temple.
"I swear Kiryu, I WILL kill you if I have to!" Then at that moment a fireball seared through the air and exploded against Reece's side, throwing him off Joshua. There stood Neku, hand outstretched and with a thousand Pins circling him.
"I wouldn't recommend that," Neku said, and a firing squad of Pins formed a protective barrier between Reece and Joshua. Neku extended his hand to Joshua. "You alright man?"
"Neku!" Joshua said happily and took his hand. "Tag in for me, I have a Composer to enthrone!" And he disappeared into a portal, leaving Neku alone with a complete stranger holding a very large gun. Neku blinked, sighed, adjusted his headphones, and stared down the Producer of London.
Reece leaned back. "You REALLY don't want to fight me kid."
"No," Neku agreed. "But I've fought a lot of stuff I didn't want to. And I'm still more alive than anyone else around here."
Reece let out a heavy sigh and switched the clip on his magnum. "I can't promise you'll make it through the Game a second time, but I'll root for you kid."
"Dude, I'm a three time champion. And I do not intend to go for a fourth round."
Joshua made a beeline into the fight and quickly took stock of the situation. Annabelle and Seras were tearing at each other like wild animals, Pin powers were going off randomly around them as though power was simply flowing through them freely. Annabelle's bullet wound was healing, but very slowly. She was too adrenaline-fueled to notice and properly focus on her healing Pin, which was all the better for Joshua. He flew into their midst, ready to team up with Seras and decimate Annabelle... and was almost immediately flung back out by the sheer ferocity of power being expelled by both. This wasn't a fight anymore, this was a mauling, and Joshua couldn't get in to shift the odds with both women ripping and tearing through anything between each other.
"Hmm..." Joshua stroked his chin thoughtfully as two separate fights exploded in front and behind him. Neku was taking heavy fire and pounding Reece with every element under his control, and Annabelle and Seras were practically a dust cloud. He shrugged, flipped open his phone, and dropped himself and the women down a portal. In the confusion Seras and Annabelle split apart, and Joshua swooped in, pushed Seras out of a portal, and closed every opening.
Seras rubbed her bloody head. "Joshua? What the fuck?" The adrenaline was affecting her thought process. He'd have to ease her into this.
"Hi Seras." Joshua smiled. "Listen, I don't actually know how well these portals work as a containment device, so let's just assume we're short on time and listen to me, 'kay?" The air behind them bubbled out with a furious sound. Joshua just continued smiling like it was all a part of his plan. It was not. "Have you ever read Dracula?"
Seras squinted at him like he was going looney. More than usual anyway. "What? Yeah, duh, there are probably a hundred copies in the manor. Integra gave me that before she gave me a gun."
"Perfect! Okay, you remember the part where Dracula sails into the harbor as a wolf and the ship is cloaked in mist? Kinda like what he did earlier tonight."
Seras sobered slightly at the thought of her master. "Yeah... I remember."
The air bubbled again, this time much larger. Joshua could hear Annabelle cursing his name in some very colorful language through the dimensional barrier. "Great! So that was real, right? And you are a fully bloodied sire of Dracula himself. Ergo, you should have all of his powers to a certain extent, including the weather control. So, what I need from you is to bring down a fog that makes pea soup look like dirty glass."
Annabelle finally burst through the lining of Joshua's pocket dimension and tumbled onto the ground. She planted herself squarely, prepared to lunge in any direction, and found herself in a plane of absolute grey. She stood up and examined her surroundings: the fog was all-encompassing, so thick she could not see farther than ten feet in front of her, and even that far was hazy. The sky was completely blotted out. Annabelle scoffed.
"Please." A Pin on her arm lit up and a shockwave burst out from Annabelle's body. The fog dispersed in a solid bubble, but almost immediately filled back in. "Hmm." She floated up and out of the fog, high enough to get a vantage. Off in the distance she saw Reece fighting that Living Player she had heard so much about. The boy was putting up a good fight, she gave him that. It was clear how he won whatever Game he participated in, even without the absurd amount of Pins. She also noted that Kiryu was not in the fight with them, which led her to the natural conclusion: he and Seras were in the fog, trying to ambush her. Fine then, she thought ruefully. I'll kill you both without the other even realizing. And so she descended back into the fog and started walking.
Annabelle walked confidently, taking full strides with her head raised, scanning her path. She did a few circles, waiting for a slight noise or a flash of movement, but nothing. Annabelle seemed to be alone.
Alone. Annabelle stopped and clenched her one fist. Her eyes misted, briefly, but she stopped to wipe them. Completely alone.
"Annabelle." Annabelle turned and shot a lightning spear in the direction of the voice. It disappeared into the fog, hitting nothing. She narrowed her eyes and peered deeper into the fog. Nothing...
There! The vampire's glowing red eyes, piercing through the mist like headlights. Annabelle swung her chain out to snare Seras, but it struck only air. The eyes darted away as quick as they came.
"Annabelle, why do you hate me so much?" Annabelle spun around and saw Seras standing only a few feet away from her. She had gotten another shirt apparently, this one yellow instead of her blood red. And her arm had grown back entirely. Damn it, she's toying with me so she can heal! Annabelle pounced at her, but connected with nothing but fog. She landed on all fours and looked back in confusion. Seras had vanished.
"Answer the question!" There she was again, back where Annabelle had jumped from! Except her arm was still that black energy. Had she been mistaken? Annabelle pounded the ground and the earth shot toward Seras. The view was obscured for a second, and then she was gone.
"Just shut up and fight me!" Annabelle yelled into the air.
"Anny, what's wrong?" Behind her again, but this was no vampire before Annabelle's eyes. It was a little girl, blonde haired and blue eyed. Annabelle recognized her instantly, her image couldn't be erased from her mind.
"You're what's wrong you fucking pest!" she shouted and struck out at the child Seras. Seras flinched, narrowly avoiding Annabelle's fist, and fled into the fog.
"What did I doooo?!" The question echoed over the courtyard and through Annabelle's head. Her frustration was growing more and more palpable every time the beast spoke.
"Would you just shut up already?!"
"Why are you so angry Anny?"
"I'm angry because you're a spoiled fucking brat who won't shut up and DIE!" A shockwave burst out of Annabelle's body and revealed the child Seras standing alone a short distance away, looking at her with an intense fear.
"What did I do wrong Anny?" she asked with big blue doe eyes. Annabelle ran at her, but the fog swallowed her up and she disappeared.
"Everything!" Annabelle bent over and screamed. "Everything you did was wrong! You're the worst kind of human, and now you aren't even human! You're a filthy monster!"
"What did I do Anny?" Seras was crying now, scared out of her wits. Annabelle spun around, looking for the child so she could rip out her heart. "I only tried my best!"
"You're best isn't good enough! You didn't deserve to be Composer, you earned nothing! The most powerful position in all of London, more powerful than the Queen herself, handed to a child who hadn't even died yet! You're a disgrace!"
"It wasn't my choice! I didn't want to hurt anybody, I just wanted to be good!"
"SHUT UP!" Then Annabelle saw her, fallen on her knees crying just a short distance away. Little Seras Victoria, never a Player, never a Reaper, but handed the keys to the UG and told to drive. Annabelle's rage flared, and she leapt up into the air to drive her fist into the girl's head. The sun flared behind her, Seras was just below her, it would be over in a second...
"WHAT DID I DO?!" And there it was. The giant, leering over them. Annabelle saw it standing over Seras, a small child, its arm raised to crush her like a bug. Annabelle saw it, and instantly she felt her own fear, that fear of the giant that plagued her since she had died and played the Game. The fear of the thing that consumed her, and Jacky, Megan, Bob, Rocky, Butch, everyone who ever came near it. Annabelle saw it, and she knew it.
She landed inches in front of the terrified Seras. She stared straight at the blasted earth, unable to look at the girl. Her mouth flapped, stammering for words that Annabelle herself did not quite understand.
"... Nothing." Annabelle answered the little girl. "You didn't do anything, Seras. You didn't deserve what I... what I did to you." The memory of that night flashed in Annabelle's mind. The taunting. The lies. The beating... She was an innocent little girl. "I... You... you did nothing wrong. And I destroyed you because of that."
"Wow," Joshua's voice rang out like a dog whistle in an echo chamber. The child Seras faded away before Annabelle's eyes, showing Joshua a distance behind her holding his phone's camera up. "And you only had to kill her four times to realize how bad of a person you are!"
Annabelle's face contorted into an animalistic rage. There, right behind Joshua, was the giant. It was feeding him power, power to kill her. Joshua smiled, and the giant smiled with him. They waved at her, taunted her, and she charged to kill them both. Annabelle had lived in the giant's shadow for decades, since the day she was born. But no more. The giant would fall, and the Game would fall with it, and the Higher Ups, and whatever accursed god set all this into motion. She would kill each and every one of them!
BANG*
Annabelle's momentum stopped. She took a single gasping breath, then looked down at the bloody hole where her belly had once been. Seras knelt behind Joshua's legs, holding Reece's rifle against her shoulder. Annabelle looked back up, tried to widen her legs to keep balance, and slipped into a crater.
The fog lifted over the grounds, and the sun shined down on Annabelle at the bottom of the hole. Seras and Joshua stood on the lip of it, gazing down at her.
"That's not going to kill her on its own," Joshua said. "You'll have to shoot her in the head to finish her off."
"I know." Seras grabbed the muzzle of the rifle and slammed the butt into Joshua's nose. He squealed through a broken nose and stumbled backward. "That's for being an asshole," Seras said, and she stepped down into the crater.
Annabelle struggled to crawl out of the crater on her back, trailing blood from her slowly healing stomach. Seras stepped on her arm and halted her, and she slid back down to the bottom. Annabelle panted, staring at the vampire. Seras' face was unreadable. Her Familiar arm stretched out several tendrils and unhooked the Pins from Annabelle's arm, rendering her nearly powerless.
Seras looked down at the broken, bleeding woman who had so cruelly taken away her life, and she could not bring herself to feel even a little happy. "Hey Anny."
Annabelle looked up at the girl who she had hated for so many years, completely at her mercy, and could not bring herself to feel even a little angry. "Hey Seras."
The two women stared at each other for a while, unsure what would come next but knowing what had to happen. Seras was visibly uncomfortable, shifting in her boots and constantly adjusting the strap of her tank top.
"Annabelle," she eventually said. "Why did you hate me?"
Annabelle almost laughed at the question. "Does it even matter at this point?"
"Yes," Seras said immediately, eyes locked on Annabelle's. "It does."
She looked at her for a while. "I hate you because you were handed everything I ever wanted on a silver platter after I worked so hard to get them." She looked her up and down with a slight scowl. "Even your vampirism. You didn't earn that. You were given it."
"But why does that matter?!" Seras threw up her arms. "I didn't ask to be made Composer, Reece just showed up in my bedroom one night and said 'Hey, you're a queen now.' I was maybe six, I didn't get a choice."
"It matters." Annabelle insisted. "You didn't deserve that power. Butch did, or Megan, or Richard, or me! But no, the Higher Ups picked a girl who hadn't even played the Game. Probably wouldn't have even won if you had."
"Man fuck off, I stabbed a guy in the eye with a fork." Annabelle surprisingly laughed at this, and the laugh turned into a bloody cough.
"Heh, alright maybe you would've put up a good fight. Still though... you have to earn it. You HAVE to."
"Mm." Seras sat back against the opposite slope of the crater, cradling the rifle on her knees. She watched Annabelle for a while, and Annabelle stared up into the sky.
"So..." Seras said. "You always hated me? Just because of that?"
"From day one." Annabelle said simply.
"Hmm." Seras furrowed her eyebrows and hugged her knees, thinking. "Hey, you remember that night my parents were going out and had to find a babysitter?"
Annabelle groaned. "Oh please don't do this..."
"And I came to HQ and got you to come be my babysitter. You showed up at my place dressed like a catholic school girl." Seras laughed, remembering the strange looks her parents had given her.
"It was the only formal wear I had at the time!" Annabelle defended herself.
"Babysitting isn't a formal job Anny." Seras chuckled, then returned to her reverie. "I remember you made mac and cheese that night, and you didn't understand how to turn the stove on so you just had your Noise boil the... water." She trailed off as she saw Annabelle's face darken. "You called it Jacky. I hadn't come up with Tamed Noise yet, you gave me the idea to pair Noise and Reapers. You just carried it around with you."
"Her," Annabelle snapped. "Not 'it.' Her."
"Right... You know, I was a cop before this."
"Like your dad, I know."
"How'd you know?"
"I kept tabs on you." Annabelle shrugged. "I was the only one who knew what orphanage you lived at, I kept an eye on you over the years. Wanted to make sure the memory wipe stuck. Then you died and I thought okay, that's done. Heh, I even almost felt bad that you were gone, if you believe that. I liked the you that became a cop. Then in comes Bob telling me you discovered the Reaper Game and here I am thinking you died an adult, that doesn't make sense. So I sent Bob to check it out, knowing you were probably an undead."
"You... KNEW?!"
"Why else would I send Reece as backup, I figured you could be a dangerous undead and might kill Bob. Honestly I'm glad you did kill him, that poor boy was breaking. He wasn't made for Reaper life, but Georgie... well. Not all Composers strictly follow the rules." She pushed herself up onto her elbows so she could better stare at Seras. "What are you trying to do?"
"What?"
"With this." Annabelle indicated the two of them. "Do you think we're going to have a friendly chat, share some old memories, and then we're going to be all buddy-buddy? All attempted murder put behind us or something?"
"Annabelle," Seras said sadly. "Do you know how many people died tonight? Do we really need to increase that body count by one more?"
"Thousands." Annabelle answered. "Thousands of people. But also thousands of people who DIDN'T die. You know why? Because I was there! I went into the city and I saved people. And Megan saved people, and now she's dead." Seras' mouth slacked. "Yeah, you didn't know that did you? Megan died tonight, but she died SAVING people. My Players died tonight, every last one, except for one. That girl is waiting in HQ right now waiting for the reward that she earned. They saved human lives tonight. And tell me Seras, where were you during all this? How many people did you save? Based on the man in your shoulder, I'd guess not a lot." Suddenly she pushed up with her shoulders, balanced on her feet for a moment, and tried to punch Seras. She dodged the slow strike easily, scooting to the side as Annabelle fell on her face.
"Bitch," Annabelle mumbled into the dirt, and she began pushing herself up again.
"Annabelle stop this! It's over, you lost. There's no point in us fighting anymore."
"NO!" Annabelle turned and yelled. "That, that right there, is EXACTLY your problem. You don't understand what it means to be beaten down with no way to win, no blood to drink, no one else to support you, and to keep fighting! I will NEVER stop, Seras. Every breath I take, every moment of consciousness I hold onto, I will keep getting up and fighting!" She wavered back on her feet, blood still dripping out of the hole in her stomach, and stared down at Seras. "One of us is going to EARN that throne, Seras. Either you're going to lay down and die because you're not willing to sacrifice for it, or you're going to kill me and finally earn the power you have."
Annabelle lunged again, faster this time, and Seras stepped out of the way. She spun around with the rifle aimed for Annabelle's head.
"Last chance Anny," Seras said, almost choking on the ultimatum. Annabelle looked into her eyes. There was no hate there anymore, no anger, not even insanity. Annabelle's eyes showed only nothingness.
"I gave up my last chance the night I stole the throne Seras," she said. She pulled on a gold chain wrapped around her neck, and Seras gawked at her old pendant. "I believe with all my heart that this belongs to me. I'm all in, no regrets, no apologies. I'm not afraid to kill you to prove myself. What about you?" Annabelle procured a bayonet from behind her back and charged at Seras, the point aimed true for her heart.
BANG*
Reece's brain cracked open, and that spot where he had been connected to Annabelle was abruptly severed. A paralysis of horrible realization gripped him as Neku continued to beat him down with stones and fire. Neku noticed after a moment that the man had stopped fighting back and lowered his Pins.
"Uhh," he said, looking confused at Reece's distant face. "Did I hit your off button or something?" Reece did not answer him. His body slowly turned in the direction he heard that shot come from, and his feet lurched forward. His lurch became a walk, and then a run, until Reece was sprinting toward the crater.
Neku reached to stop him, but a hand fell on his shoulder. "It's fine," Joshua said nasally, adjusting his broken nose. "Our job here is done. Now the pieces all find their place themselves."
Reece's vision became blurry, tunnelling to that singular spot. It couldn't be, not again, he couldn't have failed twice...
The sight stopped him on a dime. At the bottom of the hole, laying in a pool of her own blood. Annabelle King, Composer of London, with dead eyes and a bullet hole the size of a football through the top of her head. She had already faded away to her upper torso, and the rest of her was disappearing before his eyes. And standing over her was Seras, holding a gun he had built with his two hands. The brown haired girl stood over the horseman's bleeding body, and the horseman stood over the girl. Visions blinded Reece, and he could do nothing but stand and watch. The horseman loomed over him like a metal titan, pointing a spear up into the sky decorated with two heads... no, it was three now.
"You can't escape me," the horseman said to Reece. "No matter how deeply you hide yourself, you will always feel love. And I will be there to rip it away from you. You cannot fight it, you cannot die. You can only watch..." The horseman rode past Reece, offered him a reassuring pat on the back as three pairs of dead eyes stared into his soul, and rode into the distance.
Seras wiped her face of what few tears she could bring herself to shed for Annabelle, and turned to leave when she saw Reece standing above her, face obscured by shadow. "Reece..."
The Producer stepped down into the hole with them. His eyes seemed a thousand miles away when he stared at Annabelle's vanishing corpse.
"I didn't want to," Seras said, feeling weak and wretched as the words came out of her mouth. "She wouldn't stop unless I..."
Reece knelt down by Annabelle's body, ignoring Seras' words. The fire had gone out in Annabelle's eyes, leaving nothing but cold ashes. He closed them tenderly as she faded away completely. In the spot she laid was the golden pendant, soaked with blood but still glittering in the daylight. He had made that too, Reece remembered. Made it especially for Seras' birthday. He picked it up, and in the reflection he could see Seras. She was a little child, smiling and crying and still so full of life. She was a vampire, standing behind him with a look on her face like she might break down crying if he continued to say nothing. He thought he would if he did say anything.
He turned, bloody pendant in hand, and placed his hand on Seras' little head. "I know Seras. It's..." Tears ran down his face, and the words came out in a sob. "It's okay." Seras wrapped her arms around him and supported his weight as he stood limply, holding onto her like she was the last person left in the world and stifled his sobs.
"When did you get so damned big?" Reece asked, and Seras had no answer for him. It had simply happened. She didn't know if it was given to her or if she'd earned it, but she knew it was true. Seras Victoria had become larger than ever.
Joshua and Neku sat in the dirt and watched from a distance, finally allowed to rest. Neku could feel his wire of energy wearing off and eventually he would collapse from exhaustion, but he wasn't ready to sleep just yet. Joshua held his head in his hand and watched expressionlessly as the Producer and the vampire walked back out of the crater.
"This has been a stupid week," Neku eventually said.
"Agreed," Joshua nodded tiredly.
"I think I fought an old Conductor that ate people and used their bodies to create a flesh monster?"
"Yeah," Joshua sighed. "That sounds about right. London is a messed up place."
"Why did we do this again?" Neku asked.
Joshua played with a strand of his hair. "Because when you keep several Players in a Game for almost a month and threaten to blow up your city for a social experiment, the Higher Ups get upset. If we didn't do this I would've been erased, at best. And if we failed, well, same story."
Neku grunted. "No more social experiments."
Joshua shrugged and grinned to himself. "I can only promise to try." A tone sounded from his phone. Joshua pressed a couple buttons and looked intently at his screen. "Looks like we're clear. I can call up our ride home whenever we're ready."
"Okay," Neku said, standing to meet Seras. Joshua floated up in his seat, but stood regularly when Neku elbowed him.
Neku and Seras looked at each other, not wholly sure what to say.
"So, umm..." Neku said, rubbing his head. "Are you okay?"
Seras visibly deflated. "Not at all, no."
"Yeah, me neither." The four stood there in silence, and then out of nowhere Neku chuckled. "I swear, every time I make friends some dumb tragic anime bullshit happens. I must be cursed." Seras laughed with him.
"Neku, I am in the same boat." Bernadotte suddenly rose out of Seras' Familiar arm and gave Neku a friendly slap on the back.
"Hey, at least you'll have some insane stories to tell the girls back home, eh! Make sure you keep the gun as proof, women love a man with a gun!"
Neku, so taken aback by Bernadotte's appearance, decided to just roll with it and not ask. "Uh, you don't know Japan very well do you?" Bernadotte grinned mischievously at him, and Neku thought he might have winked. It was hard to tell with the eye patch.
Meanwhile Reece was staring hard at the half-visible man coming out of Seras' body. "Who is this?" Bernadotte and Seras looked at him, Seras with a heavy blush. She pulled Pip back into her body and rubbed her shoulder.
"Uhh, long story. Tell you later?"
Joshua tapped Neku. "We should get going dear, no guarantee this portal will stay on my phone."
"Right, right." Seras extended her hand to Neku, and he took it. Her grip was tight and hot, and she smiled a genuine smile at him. He returned it.
"Don't fuck up," Neku said.
"Ha, right. And you stay out of the Game."
"Trust me, I intend to grow into an old man before I die again."
"Good plan. Life is much easier when you're alive."
A large portal opened up behind Neku and Joshua. Joshua nudged him and the two turned to leave. Back to Shibuya, in their own time.
"The world would be so much simpler if people just died when they were killed," Neku commented.
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Joshua said, grinning back at Seras. "I'll give you a call when he get home. You and I have more to discuss."
"I look forward to it." Seras did not look forward to it.
And so the two boys who fell out of the sky stepped through the portal and vanished. The hole closed, and Seras and Reece were left alone.
"So," Reece said. "What now?"
Seras looked back at the manor, blown to shambles. Rebuilding would take a great deal of time, but for now everything was peaceful. Finally, after so long, peaceful. Integra would likely sleep for the rest of the day at least. She had time.
The pendant glinted up at her, black and white and gold and red. She toyed with it for a moment, wondering if she even really wanted the throne. No one had ever given her a choice until now. She could easily say no, give the Game to someone else. But...
"Now," Seras said, tying the golden chain around her neck. "I earn my place as the Composer of London. I believe I have a winning Player to reward, and a whole lot of souls to judge."