I'm sorry, I know that I said this update would be last week, but I had a huge dip in my mental health which delayed things. I'm currently on sick leave from work due to it, and I'll be going back on Friday, so needless to say, I'm a bit of an anxious mess. The joys of having a broken brain; it tends to put a delay on things. But thank you so much for your reviews on the previous chapter, and to those who have voted in my poll. Keep them all coming! And I'm glad you guys enjoyed the previous chapter, despite how I felt about it. Your reassurances were sweet!

Without-U: I'm gonna reply here since you said you like most of my stories, and judging by what you said in your review of Amicus, I'm guessing you've been reading this story too. So just in case you are, you have my permission to translate Amicus into French. The story is only ten chapters long in total, so hopefully that's manageable for you? If you manage to publish it, just send me the link or provide a way for me to find it (since FanFiction hates links), so that I can point people towards it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Anyway, here is the next chapter. I hope that you enjoy it.


8: The Game Begins


The British countryside flew by in a blur of green and brown as Seras sped her way down an unknown B-road in the south part of the country. She had little to no idea where she was, not paying attention to any of the signs that zoomed past them. Lily and Luna had remained mostly quiet in the backseat, watching the world go by while occasionally exchanging glances at each other before looking at Seras' face in the rear-view mirror. Their expressions mainly conveyed confusion and uncertainty. Every now and again, Seras would open her mouth to say something to them, but… what exactly could she say? The draculina didn't know what was going on either.

Back at the manor, it was like something foreign had taken complete control over her. All she could focus on was Lily and Luna, and getting them somewhere safe, far away from everybody else. Everything and everyone was a threat that could hurt them and take them away from her. The further away she got from Hellsing, the calmer and clearer her mind became, like waking up from a nightmare. Only this awakening brought little to no relief. If anything, the reality was worse than the nightmare.

What the hell had she been thinking?! Attacking her friends like that?! She had disobeyed Integra, she had attacked Walter and Pip, and… and… oh god… SHE HAD BLOCKED HER MASTER OUT!

Seras' heart suddenly felt like it was made of lead as it crashed down into her stomach in pure terror. She had interrupted his conversation with his master and had mentally pushed him out. She did that. His servant! Seras didn't have to rely on her vampire instincts to know that what she had done had been incredibly disrespectful. She may as well have desecrated his coffin.

Her master was going to kill her…

Once again, Seras' eyes, now having returned to their normal blue, flickered to the two young children in the back. They were both speaking to each other in an unfamiliar language – probably Romanian – in hushed tones, both looking very serious as they conversed. Seras had no doubt frightened them as well. They were stuck in an unknown world and Seras was only making things worse for them. They seemed to take it all in their stride, though, putting their complete trust in the draculina. That only broke her heart even more. They trusted her, and yet Seras had no idea what she was doing, apart from knowing she was making the situation worse. But she just couldn't stop herself. All rationality left her where the twins were concerned.

Seras' foot pressed down further on the accelerator as the thoughts of all the dangers pounded at her mind again. She had not once taken the car out of fifth gear, her vampire reflexes allowing her to weave between any other cars that she happened to come across. They'd been driving for hours, and the sun was now beginning to rise over the horizon. It illuminated the vast fields, and finally, Seras forced her eyes to settle on one of the signs they sped past. Portsmouth was five miles up ahead. That would do nicely.

Some vague plan had begun forming in the blonde vampire's head. Of course, the rational thing would be to head back to Hellsing and apologise for what happened, but once again, Seras was anything but rational right now. Her fear took control over her decisions, reminding her of what would be awaiting her upon her return. Not only would she have to face Integra's wrath, but her master's as well. She wasn't sure who was scarier. What would they do with her? Would they execute her for her behaviour? Would they imprison her? Bind her? What about that twins? The thought of harm coming to them further cemented Seras' decision to keep running. She had to keep them safe.

"Where are we going, mamă?" Lily's quiet voice finally filled the silence.

Seras froze slightly at the question. How could she even begin to explain to them in a way they would understand? Especially when Seras didn't even truly know herself? She was merely at the mercy of her own unknown instincts that were only just beginning to awaken. This was all new and foreign to the draculina. But she couldn't reveal to them that she was just as scared. In that moment, Seras felt nineteen again, struggling to make her way in the world. What the fuck was she doing?

"Are we going home?" Luna then followed up with her own question.

"Umm… we'll see," was the only answer the blonde vampire could manage.

Luna huffed before quietly muttering to herself, "That's what grown-ups always say."

"Are we meeting tată?" Lily added.

"Errrrr…"

"Are we moving to a new nest?"

"We're in the past, stupid, remember?"

"I'm not stupid!"

"I'm sorry, you're right: you're just dumb."

"Mum, Luna's picking on me again!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"You're the one who keeps forgetting we're in the past."

"Stop making out you're so big and clever!"

"Well, somebody has to be!"

"ENOUGH!" Seras ended up yelling as she skidded around a lorry, practically flying onto the motorway on the outskirts of the city. Horns honked loudly around them, but Seras ignored them, one eye twitching in irritation as her hands gripped the steering wheel so tight that it looked like it was about to snap in half.

Both twins immediately fell silent, but Seras could see that they were still glaring at each other. The draculina grinded her teeth together, desperately resisting the urge to slam her own head in the car door repeatedly. Anything had to be better than listening to them whine and squabble. How did parents cope? Then again, human children were probably far easier than vampire ones – Alucard's vampire children no less! Ugh, fate had dealt her a terrible hand. However, she forced herself to take a deep breath.

"Look," she began, "I don't know much about what's going on myself. All I know is that we need to be far away from everybody else and find some way of getting you back home. I'll get you both to some place safe, and then I can try and figure things out from there. But right now, I really need you to behave, got it?"

"Yes, mother," they both grumbled at the same time.

Seras sighed. Being a mother was hard.

The draculina forced her attention back onto the road, once again occasionally glancing at the twins as they looked out of the window, taking in everything they saw. They debated with each other about what each different object in the outside world could be, making Seras frown slightly. Had they really been kept so well hidden from the world? They seemed both excited and apprehensive over everything new that they saw. Luna would pretend to know what something was, insisting that an aeroplane that flew over them was what humans called a 'bus'. Well… she was close at least. Lily could never make up her mind whether she believed her sister or not.

"What's that?" Lily asked for the tenth time as she pointed towards the ferry port that Seras was heading towards.

"It looks like a weird looking ship," Luna responded, narrowing her eyes slightly as she tried to get a better look.

"It is a ship," Seras replied. "More specifically, a ferry."

"Ferry?" Both twins tested the word.

"Are we going sailing, mummy?" Luna asked.

"I thought large bodies of water were bad for us," Lily uttered nervously.

Luna sighed. "Wuss. Maybe we'll get to fight a giant squid!"

Lily perked up slightly. "Or see some mermaids."

"We can take over the ferry and sail to faraway lands and conquer them all!" Luna was practically bouncing in her seat while Lily giggled.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but we're not getting a ferry. We just need to make it look like we are," Seras explained, parking in the huge car park for passengers who weren't taking their vehicles with them.

Both girls groaned in disappointment.

Meanwhile, Seras took a deep breath as her plan began to solidify. She needed the twins to give her as little hassle as possible, so maybe she could turn this into some sort of game for them? No doubt they were very tired at this point with the sun rising higher in the sky, but Seras just needed them to hold out just a little while longer. The draculina then turned her attention towards the dashboard where she knew a tracker was embedded. This ruse should work to distract Hellsing enough for her to at least get a decent head start. With a nod, Seras then turned towards the twins again.

"Okay, listen closely."

The girls shuffled towards her, their eyes wide and full of excitement.

"We're going to play the biggest game of hide and seek ever!"

Lily and Luna gasped happily.

"We're hiding from Integra, Walter, and mas – your father. They're going to be trying to find us and we need to keep running and hiding. If they catch us, we lose the game," Seras explained, really hoping that they'll buy into it.

"Daddy's playing too?" Lily giggled before groaning. "But he always cheats."

"I swore revenge on him for the next time, remember?" Luna sounded giddy as she rubbed her hands together with anticipation.

Seras blinked. Her master… played with them? Then again, she supposed that she shouldn't be surprised. No one loved a good hunt like her master. And of course he would cheat. There was no such thing as a fair game if her master was involved. These poor girls would probably never stand a chance against him. But… if they had done this before… maybe they would know a lot of the tricks that her master may use to find them. Seras was still successfully blocking him out, though she could feel him pushing against her steel walls every now and again. She was unsure of how she managed such a feat, nor how she was keeping it up. Even more reason for him to kill her once he found her.

The draculina wondered and worried what would happen to the twins if that happened. Would they fade from existence? How exactly did time travel work? How were they able to be here without essentially breaking the universe? Seras had watched enough Doctor Who and Back to the Future to know that time travel always came with risks and consequences. This thought only served to make Seras more panicky and protective. She needed to get them home before anything like that could happen!

She quickly shook her head and began speaking again. "Okay, we're going to have to blend in among humans a little bit, so I need you to be on your best behaviour. Do not leave my sight for any reason, and do not talk to anybody else. Do not use your powers in front of others. These are all the rules we need to follow."

The girls nodded.

"You can shape-shift, right?" Seras asked.

They nodded again.

"Okay, can you do me a favour and change your eye colour? They might give away our position."

"Are we going undercover?" Lily asked.

"Using guerrilla warfare tactics? I like it," Luna practically purred, sounding scarily like Alucard in that moment.

"Errr, yeah, something like that." Seras twitched nervously, but then watched in fascination as the two girls easily changed their eye colour to a shade of blue that looked similar to Seras'. Seras wished that she could do stuff like that. She was aware that sometimes her eyes changed to red depending on her emotions, but the draculina had no control over it. In fact, she had no control over pretty much all of her powers. Seras was going to have to rely on her brains for this 'game'.

Seras nodded in approval at their appearance, before opening the car door, the cool sea breeze hitting her in the face in an instant. The air smelled salty, and seagulls screeched above, rotating in the sky as they scavenged for food. Cars, trucks, and lorries loaded themselves onto the ferries destined for the many southern islands that were dotted around the British Isles. Hopefully this would be enough to make Hellsing believe she had headed to Jersey or Guernsey or something. It had been Seras' initial plan before realising she had to outsmart some of the best tacticians on the planet. Not to mention the car was easy to track. Instead, she would have to lead them on a wild goose chase.

Now there was just the question of shaking off Alucard, since no doubt he would be sent to hunt her down. The car's position might be enough to lead the Hellsing soldiers here, but Alucard would easily be able to pick up Seras' scent and track her anywhere in the country she fled to. She needed a way to break her scent trail. Something to throw him off completely.

She helped the twins out of the car before staring down at the keys. She couldn't take any chances. For all she knew, there could be a tracker in there too with as paranoid and meticulous as the Hellsing Organisation was. The sea was but a two minute walk away, and Seras came to stop by the metal railing, separating the land from the English Channel. Pulling her arm back, Seras used her vampire strength to throw the keys as far as she could into the sea, hopefully making it look like she had dropped the keys while on the decks of the ferry. It wouldn't fool them forever, and it may not even fool them at all, but Seras had to try.

"Alright, let's go," Seras announced before grabbing one twin in each hand and leading them out of the car park and further into the main part of the city. Ideally, she could do with stopping in a hotel and allow them some rest, but she just couldn't risk it. That would give Hellsing all the time it needed to catch up with her. Plus, she still needed to figure out a way to break their scent trail.

Lily and Luna stuck close to her side, seeming more quiet and intimidated now that they were among crowds of humans. She gripped their hands tighter and rubbed soothing circles into them with her thumbs. They were practically glued to her, but Seras didn't mind. In fact, the closer they were, the better she felt. But there was still so many people, and the draculina feared going on a crazy rampage again. She could already feel her control beginning to slip. Too many dangers. Too many things that could hurt them. She needed to get them away!

The sign of a train station soon came into view, and Seras paused to stare at it with a smile.

Perfect.

"This should hide our scents," Seras explained out loud, pulling them into the building where crowds of humans scurried about. Some watched the timetable flicker and change, while others ran through the ticket gate, no doubt running late for a train. Security guards were stationed every few yards, watching the crowd and helping anyone who needed it. The line for the ticket booth wasn't too bad, with rush hour now having ended.

The draculina then turned back to the giant timetable, her eyes scanning each destination as she weighed up her options. Going north seemed to be her best bet. Perhaps she could even make it up into Scotland. Then again, Hellsing also had a base in Edinburgh, so maybe going as far as Scotland wasn't the best idea. She needed somewhere that had plenty of wide open countryside for her to find a hiding place in. There was a map of the country just to the right of the timetable and Seras narrowed her eyes at it. The north of England was covered in national parks, so perhaps Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Northumbria were her best bet.

Her eyes went back to the timetable, and only one destination in that area appeared to have a train leaving anytime soon: Leeds. Leeds it was then. She could hire a car and head into the Yorkshire dales from there. However, there was just one small problem that suddenly occurred to the draculina: she had no money. Her bankcard was back at the mansion, and even if she had it with her, Hellsing would be able to trace any purchases that she made. She also had no cash on her. Fuck!

"Is this an airport, mummy?" Lily asked, using her other hand to cling onto her skirt. That reminded Seras that they could also do with changing clothes as well. She could take her Hellsing jacket off on the train at the very least. But again, Seras had no way of purchasing anything.

"What? Oh – umm – no." Seras grew more frazzled. "We need a way to get on a train without money. I could sneak us on, but then that would cause too many problems down the road. This all requires hypnotism at some point, and I don't know how to do that."

"Wow, you really were weak in the past." Luna giggled.

Seras' eyes widened. "You two know how to do it?"

They both nodded.

"It's easy!" Luna declared.

"Can you teach me how?" Seras asked, pulling them both towards a bench on the outskirts of the station, much further away from everybody else.

"You just have to maintain eye contact and be assertive," Luna explained, sounding very much like an expert. "Just looking into your eyes should be enough to overwhelm their small, weak minds."

"Luna's the best at hypnotism," Lily admitted grudgingly. "She once hypnotised me into impaling my favourite doll." She pouted at the memory.

"Hey, I fixed it for you afterwards."

"Only because mummy made you." Lily stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"Okay, okay!" Seras quickly interrupted their new developing argument. "I'm going to give it a try! Let's go."

The draculina led them towards the ticket booth where there was only one person in front of them, who was already finishing up. Seras then stepped forward, biting into her lip as her stomach tied itself into knots. The old woman looked at her expectantly with a polite smile before it dropped into a confused frown when registering the expression on the blonde vampire's face. Both Lily and Luna facepalmed next to her.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked.

"Ummm, yes!" Seras squeaked, startling the old lady. "Ummm… one adult and two children to Leeds, please."

The woman raised an eyebrow before sighing and typing into her computer. "Would that be a return ticket?"

"Oh, no… ummm… just one way, please."

"Are you sure?" the ticket lady inquired. "The return ticket it a lot cheaper."

"No, no, one way is fine," Seras replied, growing even more nervous. This was it.

"That'll be one hundred pounds for the three of you then."

Seras did her best to remember what Luna had told her as she slammed her palms down onto the desk and stared deeply into the startled woman's eyes, trying to be as intimidating as possible. Seras was scaring the lady alright, just not in the way that she was hoping to.

"Everything is okay, we don't need to pay for it," she spoke, her voice shaky as she tried to remember the times she had watched her master pull the same trick. She felt awful doing this. It felt like she was betraying her old police badge. What she was doing was wrong; she was stealing. It had been her job to stop people like this, now here she was, turning into the very criminal she had sworn to protect the British public against. She was a horrible person. She was going to hell.

"Um…" The lady looked around in disbelief as if looking to see if anyone else was seeing this. She then turned back to Seras with a small laugh. "Yes, you do."

Seras twitched nervously. "No, everything is fine."

"Miss, are you okay?" the lady asked. She looked down at the young girls next to her who gave her a blank, innocent look. "Do you need me to call someone for you?"

Seras sighed. "No, I just need you to give me the tickets." She tried again, but the lady only grew more and more concerned.

"I can't give them to you unless you pay for them, so either pay, or I'll be forced to call security."

Seras huffed in annoyance at this. And Luna said this was easy? Why couldn't she get it right?

Luna mirrored Seras' annoyance and impatience before standing on her tip-toes so that her eyes were peering just over the counter. Her little fingers curled around the edge, and she looked the picture of innocence as she stared up at the lady. Lily was struggling to contain her giggles as she placed a hand over her mouth.

"Everything is fine; hand over the tickets." Luna's voice was commanding, never one breaking eye contact as the woman's once brown eyes turned a faded shade of red. Her gaze became unfocused, looking like an uncanny puppet who was under Luna's complete control. All Seras could do was watch with wide eyes as Lily continued to giggle.

"Everything is fine. Here are your tickets." She raised her hand to push the tickets towards Seras through the gap in the glass. Her tone was emotionless. The effects vampire hypnotism had always given Seras the creeps.

Seras took the tickets before anything else bad could happen, and was about to turn away when Luna did something mortifying.

"You, smell like poo," she said in her hypnotic voice.

"I smell like poo," the lady declared as instructed.

Lily and Luna then burst into fits of giggles as Seras could feel her face flushing both in anger and embarrassment. She grabbed hold of their wrists and yanked them away, leaving the woman to shake her head and remain oblivious over what had just happened. Their pearls of laughter continued as she dragged them through the gates with a scowl on her face. Sometimes it was easy to forget that at the end of the day, the two little vampires were only young children. But still, Seras had expected better of them. Especially since they had promised to behave and not draw attention towards them. They couldn't risk any stupid, daft pranks.

"Did you see her face?" Luna spluttered as Seras sat them on a bench on the platform before joining them, sulking.

"It was priceless!" Lily agreed.

A few of the other waiting passengers shot them an odd look at how well-spoken the toddlers were, but most people didn't seem to notice. Seras tried to ignore the ones who did, hoping they would just chalk it up to a high IQ or something like that. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with anything else happening. She just wanted to get on that train and get out of there.

"Uh oh," Lily whimpered, her giggling coming to an abrupt halt. "It looks like mummy is about to explode."

Seras felt Luna's eyes drift onto her as well. "Mummy?"

Seras took a deep breath to expel her frustration. It helped a little, but unfortunately not too much. At any moment, the blonde vampire still hoped that she would wake up in her coffin and that all of this had been one weird nightmare. Everything felt surreal, and the draculina wasn't sure how much more chaos she could take before she simply broke down and cried. Because of all of this, she had disobeyed Integra, she had disrespected her master, and she attacked the only people responsible for keeping her alive. How was she ever going to get herself out of this mess?

"Why are her eyes leaking water?" Luna asked her sister in a hushed whisper.

"I think… I think they're tears…" Lily replied, her voice soft and guilt-ridden.

"Mummy?" Luna crawled onto Seras' lap while Lily stood to hug her shoulders. "Did we make you cry?"

"No." Seras sniffed. "I'm fine. It's not your fault." She wiped away her traitorous tears with the sleeve of her shirt before wrapping her arms around the two girls. Feeling them fall into her embrace was the most comforting sensation Seras had ever felt. This was all so overwhelming, and once again, the draculina had failed to take into account how they must be feeling. She was such a lousy mother. Why did they look up to her so much? All she did was make mistakes, get them into more trouble, put them in danger, and break down on them. She should be comforting them, not the other way around.

"We're sorry for what we did," Luna apologised, nuzzling her face into Seras' neck. "It was only a bit of fun."

"It's not that, I promise." She hugged them back just as tightly. "Am I… a bad mother? In the future I mean?"

"No," they both answered at the same time.

"You're the best mummy in the world," Lily declared, squeezing Seras tightly.

"But maybe you could let us have a later bedtime – OW!" Luna growled as Lily smacked her on the head before sighing and falling back into the embrace. "We love you forever and ever and ever. You and daddy never let us down."

Seras couldn't resist placing gentle kisses on their foreheads as she cuddled them close. "I'm going to find a way to get you both back home. And I'm never going to let anything bad happen to you again. I promise."


Train tickets in the UK are daylight robbery, yo. Especially if they're last minute. And Seras is nowhere near as stupid as Hellsing believe her to be mwah ha ha ha! Sorry if this chapter felt more like filler, but y'know, it's all necessary. I'm not too sure when my next update will be, but hopefully sometime within the next two weeks. It all depends on how much stress work decides to give me, plus I plan on sitting some more exams to boost my qualification level. In the meantime, please leave reviews and let me know your thoughts. It helps me out a great deal. Until next time, take care!

NEWS: I have a character profile of Luna now available on my blog as well as an image of her. So if you're curious about some of her background and trivia about her character, feel free to take a look. As of right now, it should be the first post you see on there. Just head on over to tauruspixie dot blogspot dot com (stupid FanFiction and its allergy to links). There may be some minor spoilers in there, mainly some bits of information that haven't been revealed in the story yet, but nothing major that spoils any of the plot. Lily's will also be posted within the next few days.