Hellsing - Blood Heritage

I don't own Hellsing, and I'm not making any money from this.

Summer is rapidly coming to an end, and I am scrambling to make sure I have a surplus of chapters so I don't fall behind. Gods, this year will be a whole slew of tough classes. British Literature II, Marriage and Family, Chemistry, and Statistics. Stats is what I'm the most concerned about right now. I SUCK at math. It's pure logic, and Rhian is NOT a logical person. Might as well be teaching me how to read Greek or something.

Which... by the way, I have attempted to learn a little Greek before. It was easier than Math - which should give you an idea of the mental state I'm going to be in over the next semester. GAH! WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THESE NUMBERS!!!???

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the lighter feeling of the previous chapters - 'cause there won't be much of it in the next few. Hellsing is a roller coaster, and you can't go up without coming back down. That's my opinion anyway.

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"We found zhem."

Pip listened to Integra's approving hum issue from her end of the telephone line. "Well done, Captain. Return to headquarters immediately, and keep those papers on you at all times. The last thing we need is for them to go missing after everything you've done to get them."

"Yes sir. We'll be leaving wizhin zhe 'our."

The knight's end of the line went dead and Pip flipped his phone closed. He stepped out of the bedroom that he and Seras had shared during their stay then headed downstairs to join the others as they said their goodbyes. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips when he saw his sister's arms wrapped tightly around the draculina. Nell and Seras had gotten a great deal of 'girl time' in over the course of their stay - and it appeared that the teenager wasn't quite ready to let go of her new friend.

"Do you 'ave to go?" she asked, giving him a pitiful looking pout. "Seras 'asn't finished teaching me zelf-defense yet..."

"Yeah!" Jacques piped up. "And we never did beat 'er at target shooting!"

Remy smacked his brother over the head. "Keep eet down idiot! Mom's not suppozed to know about zhat!"

Pip was certain he would have been driven insane by all of it, but Seras merely shook her head and smiled at them apologetically.

"I would love to stay, but I have a job to get back to unfortunately." she told them, pulling herself out of Nell's embrace. "But I can give you my phone number in case you ever want to call me..."

Pip's siblings all dashed around in a mad rush to find their phones so the young vampire could enter her number into their address books. The mercenary had a hell of a time pulling them away from each other. Even his parents looked saddened by their departure. Henri even went so far as to drag Pip off to the side to tell him that he had finally done something right in his life. Normally, Bernadette would have told the old man to mind his own business - but the fact that he actually had his stepfather's approval for something made him bite his tongue. They had never seen eye to eye on anything before, and it was enough to make him look past the insult and see the complement hidden underneath.

When they finally did manage to get away from the house, both of them turned their attention to the matter of getting back to England. Seras would have to ride in her coffin, and Pip wasn't sure he could force her into the damn thing if she started freaking out.

"I'll be fine. It's only a couple of hours, right?" Seras told him as they pulled up at the airfield. "Just...just don't nail the lid down. I think I'll be able to manage as long as I know I'm not locked in..."

It was a sensible enough request and Bernadette found himself agreeing with her. Most things were bearable if you knew there was a way you could get out of it if necessary. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as they unloaded their luggage from the car. She hadn't been sleeping very well over the past week. She was a nocturnal creature, and vampires didn't do well when they were forced to be up during the day as much as she had been. Hopefully she would get some much needed rest on the flight home.

When everything was loaded and the plane started up it's engines, Pip helped the young vampire into her coffin and watched as she laid down. When she yawned sleepily, the only sign she was something other than human was the glint of her fangs.

"Goodnight Pip."

The captain waited until her eyes fluttered shut to lower the lid into place. True to his word, he didn't nail it shut.

"Pleasant dreamz, Seras."

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Surprisingly, it didn't take very long for the draculina to fall asleep. Being physically exhausted from running about all day had taken away most of the trepidation of being in her coffin. It wasn't bad at all, knowing that Pip was nearby and that he wasn't going to lock her in. But when unconsciousness took her, the dreams weren't exactly what you would call pleasant. They were down right 'strange'.

It was pure darkness at first. Not the type that inspired fear - but a comfortable, soothing darkness. Similar to what a child experienced inside it's mother's womb. Seras wasn't entirely sure that she was dreaming until she heard the voice. It was unlike anything she had ever heard before. A deep, slightly imposing male voice that definately wasn't Pip - or her master for that matter.

"Seras... Seras..."

The young vampire's eyes slid open to find that she was no longer in her coffin. Bright, vivid colors were everywhere. It appeared as though she were laying in a meadow or clearing of some sort, though there were no trees to be found. The sun was beaming down upon her body happily and she could swear that it had a huge smile on it's face.

"What the..." She sat up, wondering where she was. The sun didn't 'smile' at people. The sun wasn't supposed to have a face at all. But there it was in the sky, beaming with pleasure and bouncing around as if it were the happiest sun in the world. The girl half expected an army of pink fuzzy kittens and ponies to show up. 'Dear god, I've finally lost my bloody mind...' she thought mournfully.

"No you haven't." the voice replied to her mental assessment. "I brought you here so I could talk to you."

Seras froze then slowly turned her head to look behind her. There, floating in the air, was the strangest, 'fattest' man she had ever seen in her life. He had curly white hair with faint traces of ginger in it, and was clothed in a rather expensive looking set of robes. The man didn't do anything more than look at her as he hovered a good foot off the ground. Presented with such an image, the young vampire did the only thing that seemed reasonable at the time.

She screamed at the top of her lungs and started running.

"Hey! Wait!" the man called after her, making a motion like he was jumping up and down though he didn't really move from where he was. "Don't run! At least don't run that way! I'm here to help you!"

His words brought her to a screeching halt. Help me? What the hell? she wondered. She did an about face turn and addressed the strange apparition. "Who...who are you?"

The man puffed up proudly and thumped his fist on his chest in a grand manner. "I am the great and all-powerful Baron Vladimir Harkonnen!" he boomed. "I am the spirit of your cannon and I am here to give you my full support!"

"Huh?" she sputtered.

What the hell was going on? This guy was the spirit of her gun? What kind of... Seras stopped herself in the middle of her train of thought. Syn's gun had a spirit. She remembered her master's mate saying something about the guns she made having a life of their own. But she never expected for her weapon to actually show up in a dream... and certainly not looking like... like 'that'.

"You..." Seras began, still looking at him warily. "You're my gun?"

Harkonnen grinned a massive grin and bobbed his head at her. "Yuppie. You've been working so hard lately, and I just wanted you to know that I'm here for you no matter what! You need anything, you just ask 'ol Harkonnen!" He stopped then and glanced around, as if he expected something to jump out of nowhere and attack them. "But this isn't the time for asking questions. You're in great danger..."

The draculina's eyes went wide. "Danger?"

"Yes. At this very moment."

"Righ... right now?" she questioned haltingly.

Harkonnen gave her a solemn nod. "Any 'second' now. You really need to wake up before the... Oh crap."

The spirit and the vivid, happy world faded back into nothingness. Seras' eyes flew open just as an explosion rocked the plane and sent it tumbling out of the sky.

There was no time to react to it. Seras' stomach tightened in dread while everything around her shook as if rocked by an earthquake. She threw the lid off of her coffin in time to see the room around her split open and the ocean below grow closer and closer as she plummeted toward it.

Falling from such an incredible height, the water did little to soften the blow. The coffin, which was already damaged from the explosion, took most of the impact and shattered - leaving the terrified and confused draculina to the violent machinations of the ocean. The moment the water touched her skin, Seras found out why the coffin was necessary for her to travel.

It was like being ripped apart from a thousand different directions at once. It was as if the water was a living entity and her presence in it was the worse type of sin imaginable. The young vampire had never experienced such torturous pain before. She felt it surrounding her as well as deep inside her body - crushing the un-life from her soul itself. Her stomach clenched violently. What little blood she had in her spewed from her lips as her body overcompensated - doing everything it could to fight off the attack and going about it in all the wrong ways. Seras could see the remnants of the plane floating nearby, could hear the crashing waves around her and feel the wind chilling her drenched flesh. But none of that truly sank into her mind. To her, there was nothing left in the world but the most painful suffering imaginable. Seras could actually feel the strength leaving her body and knew that there was nothing she could to do stop it.

She floated aimlessly in the water for what seemed like hours - or perhaps it was minutes. Seras couldn't tell the difference any longer. Time always seemed to slow down when the body was drained of life and energy. The draculina was so lost within herself and what was happening that she didn't register the hands that slipped under her arms and jerked her up from the water.

"Bloody fucking 'ell!" Pip's familiar voice swore somewhere above her.

Pip fumbled around wiping the worse of the bloody vomit from her face. He swore in a combination of English and French. Through the pain she felt, Seras found herself thinking that she should ask him to teach her the language. Even the curses sounded beautiful...

Another wave of nausea washed over her, and she sputtered as bile and blood welled up in the back of her throat. Pip helped her lean over the edge of the inflatable life raft so she could retch into the water. When he pulled her back, the young vampire heard him swear again as he searched his pockets for something. Seras heard him emit a pained grunt, then he pulled her back against his chest and pressed something warm and wet to her lips. The draculina's eyes flew open in shock when she tasted fresh blood.

The moment she realized what he was doing, she started flailing. She couldn't drink from him. She would go into a blood-lust and hurt him. She fought to remove herself from his grip, but every time she managed to get herself free Pip somehow managed to grab her again.

"Damn it girl! 'Please' don't make me fight you!"

Seras squirmed in discomfort when he finally managed to pin her arms down. "I don't want it..." she whimpered.

"You need eet more zhan I do." he admonished, pressing his wrist back to her mouth. "Take eet, Mignonette."

Had she been strong enough, Seras would have resisted. But the sweet taste of his blood called to her. Her weak body lusted for it. She had lost so much of her own, it needed to replenish itself. Bernadette kept her arms pinned between her back and his chest to prevent any further struggling as she opened her mouth to feed. The second the first drop touched her tongue she felt her strength come back. Not much mind you, but enough to fight the influence of the water that surrounded them.

"Good girl." he said, running his fingers through her hair. "We'll get out of zhis, I promise you. Just keep drinking..."

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At Hellsing, the Wild Geese were enjoying 'playing' with the new armor Edmund had brought for them. They had all been a bit leery of such a lightweight armor at first. But after Edmund bravely demonstrated what it was capable of, they all decided to start shooting each other for the fun of it. It was the strangest thing Syn had ever seen in her life.

"Maybe this was a bad idea." she commented, glancing sideways at the knight standing next to her. "They're going to think they're invincible now..."

Integra took a long drag from her cigar. "Hopefully they'll get it out of their systems here." she replied. "I would much rather have an injury during training than out on the battlefield..."

Syn could see her point. Letting them get out their exuberance while in a controlled environment was the wisest course of action. Honestly, they couldn't be blamed for how they were acting. The mercenaries had just received a wonderful knew toy. And boys always did seem to have a thing for playing with new toys until they found their limits. She would probably do something similar herself, though not to the extent that these guys were taking it.

As the women kept watch over the playful mayhem taking place in the armory, a side door opened and Walter stepped in. Syn looked up and noticed the grave expression on his face immediately.

"Sir Integra, I've just received some rather troubling news." he stated informatively. He handed Integra a document he had brought with him. "The plane carrying Captain Bernadette and Miss Victoria went down about 15 minutes ago."

The action in the room came to an abrupt halt at the butler's words. Edmund and the Geese all stared at him in a mixture of shock and concern. Integra gaped in blatant disbelief before leaping into action.

"ALUCARD!!!"

The vampire appeared at her side within seconds, and they worked out a plan right where they stood. Though they couldn't be sure about the captain, Alucard knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Seras had survived. He would have felt the connection between them break otherwise. However, the information they had suggested that the plane had gone down over water. Vampires could only cross open water at the high or low tide - which meant that Seras would not only be weaker than usual, but her strength would slowly wane until it gave out.

Integra ordered the Geese into two teams - one to go search the channel for survivors and the other to fly ahead to Bernadette's family home. If those responsible were still in France, it might be possible to track them down. Syn would go with the rescue team to make sure that Seras received what she needed to survive the trip home. Alucard was unable to go himself due to the influence of the tides - and he didn't trust any of the men with his fledgling's well-being.

As the men scrambled to get their equipment together, Alucard brought his coffin up from the dungeons. When he placed it on the floor in front of Syn, she stared up at him in shock.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with that thing?" she demanded.

"The Police Girl will be weak from the ocean's influence." he replied smoothly. "If her coffin is damaged, you will place her in mine to retain what strength she has left."

The red-head had no idea what to say to that. A vampire's coffin was like an extension of their very being. Seras hadn't had hers long enough to forge an attachment - but Alucard... Alucard's coffin was a different matter. He was protective of the thing to the point of unhealthy obsession. Sure, she had been inside of it before, but he had been there as well. She couldn't imagine him letting his precious box out of his sight, much less sending it off on a mission he couldn't go on himself...

"But..." she began.

Alucard's eyes bored into hers and she felt the tickle of his mind brush across her consciousness.

'I trust no one else.' he said through their connection. 'Do as I say and let no one else touch it.'

Syn glanced down at the coffin laying at her feet. The thing was huge and probably weighed a ton.

"Alucard... there's no way I can lift this by myself..."

He chuckled at the comment, and when she looked up he had that odd, mischievous grin plastered to his face. Syn had been around him long enough to know what that grin meant. He had something weird up his sleeve.

"You wont have to lift it." he told her.

Still smirking, he leaned down and ran his fingers across the coffin's lid. As he pulled his hand away, shadowy tendrils - much like the ones he enjoyed using so much - poured out from the sides and twisted into arms. The coffin lifted itself up off the floor and began crawling around of it's own volition.

Now, Syn had seen some pretty off the wall things in her lifetime. You couldn't be around Alucard any length of time and 'not' see something strange. But the sight of a large black coffin crawling around on the floor was incredibly disturbing no matter how you looked at it. The red-head opened her mouth and said the first thing that popped into her head.

"I can't believe this. I've actually slept in that thing..." She had to fight the urge to jump when the big box crawled over to her and rubbed against her leg, much like a contented cat would do.

"Oh my god." she said, not believing what was happening. "Does it purr too?"

Alucard smiled. As if in response (which it probably was) an odd gurgling sound issued from the coffin. It wasn't exactly a purring noise, but it was close enough to answer her question. Syn's eyes rolled up to the ceiling and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. The vampire king allowed himself the briefest of moments to enjoy her discomfort before returning to a more serious manner.

"Keep it safe and bring my fledgling back to me."

The animalistic glint in his crimson eyes was all she needed to see to know how serious he was. If she didn't get the draculina home alive, there would be a killing spree of unimaginable proportions in store for those responsible. Syn could see the various fantasies of torture and death he was entertaining already - she didn't even want to imagine what he would come up with if her team came back with no survivors...

"Alright, come on." she said to the box.

The thing followed her to the waiting chopper. The Geese already inside started in surprise when they saw the coffin crawl inside and lay down at her feet. They wore expressions similar to what hers must have been as the shadow arms withdrew back into the box. Thankfully, they knew better than to say anything or stare for too long. The rest of the gear was loaded up, and the helicopter lifted from the ground and flew off to their destination.

There was no moon out and the stars provided little illumination for the search. The chopper's spotlights danced across the dark waters, frantically looking for any sign of life below. Syn's eyes widened as the lights washed across the wreckage of the plane. You could hardly tell it was an aircraft from the amount of damage that it had taken. The main bulk of the plane had already sunk beneath the waves, but the water was still littered with scraps of twisted metal. As the helicopter lowered to allow for a better look they saw the seats from the cockpit floating amongst the wreckage - the charred bodied of the pilots still strapped to them.

'Holy shit.' Syn thought. 'This is bad. Please let them be alive...'

"Look!" One of the Geese exclaimed, pointing out across the water. "Over there!"

The red head's eyes shot up and followed the direction of the man's finger. Several yards away was a bright orange life raft. As the chopper positioned itself over it, they all could see the huddled forms of Seras and Captain Bernadette. The mercenary raised his head and waved at them.

Seeing the two of them alive made everyone in the chopper breathe a small sigh of relief. The Geese hooked up a basket to be lowered down to the pair below. They pulled Seras up first. Syn had never seen the girl look so awful before. She had a ghastly gray pallor and was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm.

Syn wrapped her arms around the girl's shoulders and pulled her over to Alucard's coffin. "Open up!" she commanded.

The coffin's lid rose up on it's own, and the red head maneuvered the draculina inside of it. Seras' eyes opened and she looked up at her in confusion.

"S..Syn?"

Syn gave her a reassuring smile and wiped the drenched hair out of her face. "Yeah. It's me baby. We're gonna take you back home."

She glanced up from young vampire as the Geese pulled Pip inside. The man must have had some sort of obscure French deity looking out for him because his worst injuries were a few scrapes and bruises. However his steps were clumsy, as if he were lightheaded from blood loss. He was paler than usual as well. The men didn't notice it, probably thinking it was the result of shock, but Syn picked up on it immediately. Alucard took blood from her often enough for her to recognize the effects of feeding a vampire when she saw them.

"Captain...?" she questioned, her eyes flicking to his wrist which he had wrapped up in his coat.

Bernadette's eye flicked toward her and they shared a look of understanding. Syn knew what he had done, and he had somehow figured out that she knew. She nodded in his direction, then turned her attention back to the draculina.

"Alright Seras, we'll be home soon. Just try to relax and rest yourself."

She moved to lower the lid down but halted when she heard the girl whimper.

"Please..." the young vampire said, looking up at her with pleading eyes. "Don't...don't shut me in..."

Syn's heart climbed up into her throat. The poor thing had just gone through a very literal hell. She was still frightened by it, and being inside of her master's coffin alone would probably make the feeling more intense. She considered the girl quietly, then made a decision.

"Here." she said, helping her sit up. "I'll stay with you. Would that be better?"

Seras looked like she wanted to say something in protest, but closed her mouth before the words came out. She gave her a weak nod and used what little strength she still had to move so Syn had room to crawl inside with her. Pip was the only one in the chopper that wasn't staring at her like she had lost her mind.

"You aren't seriously going to..." one of the men began.

Syn stopped him with a harsh look. "You take care of your captain, and I'll take care of my vampire." she snapped. "And don't you 'dare' touch this coffin or I'll just sit back and watch while Alucard rips you apart for it. Understood?"

She didn't wait to see the reaction to her statement. She laid down and wrapped her arms around the still quivering draculina as the coffin's lid shut on top of them.

"It's going to be okay baby." Syn cooed, holding the girl's head to her chest like a mother would with a small child. "You're alright, and we'll be home soon. You're going to be okay."

Seras sniffled and buried her face into her shoulder. The two of them remained curled up in the coffin as the helicopter changed direction and flew back towards Hellsing.

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Death was everywhere.

You couldn't often say that death was a physical presence. It was usually a concept that drove human beings insane with thoughts of the dreaded 'end'. But on the tarmac of a small airfield in France, death was indeed present in all it's wondrous and terrible glory. The bodies of the smugglers had been ripped apart; their blood used to satisfy the demonic thirst of the Nazi soldiers responsible. Radu had held them back until the plane carrying Alucard's fledgling and her companion had taken off. They had already seen to it that the ocean would take care of them. All that was left was to leave behind a sign that Millennium was not to be trifled with.

While the soldiers enjoyed themselves with their early evening meal, the dark haired vampire turned his attention to the one human left alive. He wasn't the leader of the operation, but he knew enough to be of use.

"Where were they staying?" Radu asked, his voice steady and calm.

The man had been reduced to a sniveling lump of meat after all he had witnessed. These humans had never witnessed the carnage dealt out by vampires before. He whimpered in terror as Radu tightened his grip on his throat and narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"I asked you a question, human!" he snarled, spitting out the last word like it left a nasty taste in his mouth. He let go of the whimpering mass' neck and jerked him up by the hair. The man screamed when a large chunk of it was ripped from his scalp. He collapsed to the ground and curled into a fetal position, as if that would save him from what was happening.

"Th..th..that way..."

His pitiful voice cracked with pain and fear as he spoke. He knew he was going to die - like all his comrades had before him. He answered the monsters' question out of the frail hope that by cooperating his death would be a quick one. Radu followed the outstretched finger with his eyes, then glanced back down at the man curled into a ball at his feet. Without saying a word, he slammed his booted foot into the man's face - shattering his skull into tiny shards instantly. Blood and bits of grey matter splattered across the vampire's face at the impact. He let out a satisfied snort, then turned to face the Nazi's who were still eating their ghastly meal.

"I hope you have room for seconds." Radu announced, a malicious smile spreading across his face as they looked up from the corpses. "We are far from finished here."

The soldiers looked at each other; every one of them thinking the exact same thing. More humans to play with and more slaughter to indulge in. Laughing at their good fortunes, they left the remains of the smugglers behind to rot as they followed Radu in the direction the unfortunate human had indicated.

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I've been wondering about how I was going to introduce Harkonnen and Jackal into the story. I really didn't want to wait until the Rio incident, so Harkonnen happily volunteered to show himself a bit early! You gotta love Baron Harkonnen. ^.^

I have no love for the Jackal at the moment. He's being a reclusive bastard. Thinks he's better than everyone else for some stupid reason, and doesn't want to mingle with the rest of us 'common' people. (I imagine he's hiding in a dark room somewhere plotting evil things to do to Lasher. XD) But I'll drag him out eventually. Mark my words.

For those of you who don't believe that Alucard would be affected by something as simple as the tides, I urge you to go back and read the manga chapters where he's stuck on the battleship. Alucard wasn't sitting out there doing nothing because he wanted to give the Nazis a head start. The major wanted him out of the way so they could do as much damage as possible - so he got Alucard into a situation where he would be stuck out in the ocean for at least 6 hours. (I'm not 100% certain about the time span between high and low tides in Europe, so that's approximate.)

I just wanted you guys to know that so you wouldn't think I was pulling it out of my ass or anything. ^_^

I feel I should give you guys a heads up for the future. There's some stuff that happens in the next chapter, and several things I have planned for down the road that might not stay true to cannon. Not that this story is going into blatant AU territory or anything (that's debatable, but oh well.) - but there are some things that will be happening sooner than they do in the original manga. I also have some stuff planned that doesn't take place in the manga storyline (duh) and a couple of events that will change A LOT. If you couldn't tell, I am trying to show the slow progression up to the final conflict. Wars don't happen overnight, as I'm sure you're all aware. I'm giving you guys a warning now, because I know some people get up in arms about playing with cannon events too much. So if you're one of those people, just keep your shirt on and try to hold your patience until the end. I'm either going to make a lot of people happy, or very very upset, depending on your point of view.


Now that that's over... longest chapter yet! And it 'still' wound up being a bit of a cliffhanger. I feel that I have accomplished something.

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~looks around~ bet you thought I was going to ask you to review, huh?

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~reads what she wrote above~ ... Damn it.