Hellsing - Blood Heritage

Once the initial shock of the thing wore off, Syn gained Integra's permission to take over the library and dig up Van Helsing's journals. Unfortunately, the man wrote a lot, so she enlisted Seras to help her trudge through the volumes of information. After hours of reading, they finally found a series of documents dated from May of 1898 through the winter of the following year. They divided the documents between them to make the research go faster, then set to work. It didn't take long for Syn to find what she was looking for.

Syn read through the files, growing more upset with every word. Victor Newsom, a great-great-uncle, 15th cousin 3 times removed, or some other such nonsense, had promised Alucard a woman of power from his family, a Nahual, in return for his cooperation with the hermetic seals. It was just like a MAN to do something like that. Oh, but it got better. If Alucard actually managed to find a woman that fit this description and she refused him, the seals would break, and death, destruction, mayhem, and other forbringers of the Apocalypse would ensue. It was like being trapped inside the plot of a cheesy horror novel or something. God, the Devil, the Great Spirit in the Sky, the All Powerful Oneness of the Universe - whatever the hell you wanted to call the guy in charge of everything, must have hated her.

Syn let out an agitated snort and focused on a particular passage.

'It is, of course, the perfect plan for ensuring the monster's consent. A Nahual, such as he was promised, is always male. Just as nature makes the male of certain species more colorful and beautiful to protect the females from predators, so too the considerable power that lays dormant within their blood is impossible for the weaker sex to contain...'

"What a load of chauvinist bullshit." she muttered. "Men are so STUPID. If I survive this bloody mess, I'm becoming a lesbian."

Seras looked up from her section of the journals and turned a bright shade of red. At her embarrassment, Syn sighed. "It's a joke Seras. Chill out." she frowned down at her book. "This word keeps popping up. 'Nahual.' Do you have anything about it?"

"Um..." the blonde quickly poured through her papers. "There are bits and pieces scattered everywhere. It looks like a Nahual is a specialized type of vampire hunter..."

Syn blinked. "You want to run that by me again?"

Seras scooted closer to her and pointed to a specific section in the journal. "This is talking about them being used as bait to draw in vampires." she pulled out a few loose pieces of paper. "And these are concerned with this guy Victor's blood. Something about it being poisonous to us..."

Syn grabbed the papers and read through them. "My blood is supposed to be poisonous!?"

Sure enough, the notes described various enzymes and such present in Victor's blood that were capable of destroying vampiric cells. If a vampire consumed enough of this blood, it would kill them. Van Helsing theorized that this ability was coded into a Nahual's genetics. They had particular characteristics they all shared - a distinctive shade of red hair, vivid green eyes, advanced healing, an inherent talent for magics that repelled dark creatures, an immunity to the bite of the vampire, and this poisonous enzyme in their blood. In essence, he claimed that a Nahual was a rare genetic mutation, a person born into a family that already had certain predetermining factors.

Syn considered the information with a critical eye. "Wow. It's impressive he was able to do this without a knowledge of DNA... I guess that explains why I got my cast off so fast."

"I guess so." Seras replied, frowning thoughtfully. "But I don't get what the hair and eye colors have to do with anything. I mean, isn't that something you inherit from your parents?"

She looked back over the papers, curious about that little tidbit herself. "I've always wondered about that. My mother and I didn't look anything alike..." she trailed off as a thought popped into her head. "Maybe it's a warning mechanism."

"Warning mechanism?"

"Yeah, just think about it. Red and green is a striking color combination on anybody." Syn held up a lock of her hair. "But this shade of red is extremely uncommon. I've never seen anyone 'born' with this color before. And just about any vivid eye color would capture attention..." She dropped her hair and pulled her lower lip in-between her teeth. "In nature, bright colors are used as a warning system. Insects and reptiles that are poisonous tend to be brightly colored. If the genes coding for hair and eye color are tied to the genes for this poisonous enzyme, it would make sense that this color combination would manifest itself when the other is present. What I don't understand is how they were able to use Nahual to lure in vampires if they're so distinctive looking. You would think that a vampire would see the red hair and leave them alone."

She pulled forward the journal that Seras had been reading and went to the passage she had indicated.

'It is most advantageous to use the Nahual when attempting to lure the vampire from it's place of rest. The vampire, for reasons as yet unknown, is drawn to them like a moth to a flame. It is as if their blood is so enticing a meal that the creature cannot sense the danger lying within it. Nature has afforded these people the blessing of a quick recovery from the vampire's bite as well - healing the damage and replacing the blood loss within a few days.'

"Like a moth to a flame..." Well, that certainly explained why Alucard never gave her a moment's rest. She shook her head, turning to the next order of business. "What about these experiments? I've read through what they did to Victor, but nothing about Alucard..."

Seras let out a dejected sigh. "I can't find anything either. There are mentions of what they did to Master in the journals, but no notes." She closed the journal she had been reading. "Do you think they destroyed them?"

"That, or Victor took the notes about Alucard with him..." Syn froze.

"What?" Seras asked worriedly.

"They're at Jonas' house."

"Huh? Why would..." the young vampire began.

"Jonas had a secret room off of his library that he kept all the books on magic in." Syn explained. "If Victor took the notes with him, that's where they'll be."

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Syn waited until the next morning to go out to the house. Walter was busy with other things, and Seras, who was more than willing to come, wouldn't be able to get past the wards on the property. She figured it was for the best that she handle this part of the investigation herself. She didn't give a rat's ass what Alucard thought of her knowing about the experiments done on him - but Seras... well... she figured it would be awkward if the young vampire found out any 'deep dark secrets' about her master. Syn wasn't sure why she should be concerned about that, but she took it into account all the same.

The room that housed the sum of all of her family's magical knowledge was hidden behind one of the bookshelves in the library. As a child, she had always wondered why they had needed a separate room for those books - and why she wasn't allowed inside.

"There are some things that aren't appropriate for girl's your age to be worried about." he had told her.

"But Uncle Jonas..." her younger self said with a pout. "That's just mean. You can't tell someone about a secret room, then tell them to never go inside! That's like... putting one of those big red buttons in front of someone that says 'do not press'."

Jonas had laughed at her analogy. "I didn't say you could 'never' go inside, just that you can't go in there now." he patted her on the head. "One day, when you're all grown up, I'll let you in. But until then, you'll have to be content with letting it be a mystery."

Syn hated herself for not sneaking inside before now. She could remember watching Jonas work the locking mechanism a thousand times. It would have been all to easy to slip inside the forbidden room and snoop around while he was away on business. But she had never questioned him, or the odd rules he gave her.

She pushed the bookshelf in question out of the way, then entered the combination for the hidden door. The heavy steel slid open, revealing what had always been a mystery to her before now. For all the intrigue, it was a small room - tiny compared to what her imagination had come up with. It was circular, with shelving lining the walls, each filled with ancient tomes of magical knowledge. Some of these books she had seen before; most she hadn't. Syn wondered briefly if she shouldn't take them back to the manor with her to study. But none of the books on the shelves was what she was interested in. What she was looking for was a small stack of journals and papers neatly arranged on the round table in the center of the room. On top of the stack was a note from her Uncle. She took a deep breath and picked up the letter.

'My dearest Syn, I knew this day would come from the moment you came to live with me. If you are reading this now, you have no doubt discovered the 'arrangement' our ancestor made with the Hellsing family, and their vampire, Alucard. Knowing that incredible mind of yours, you have no doubt been hard at work putting together all the pieces of the past to discover the how's and why's of it. As such, to lighten the burden which I know you must now be feeling on your shoulders, I have placed everything in order for you. I can only pray that you do not think less of our family for doing these things, and me for not telling you of them before hand. You suffered so much torment from such a young age, and my only wish was to provide you with as normal a life as possible. I cannot offer you any words of encouragement or advice except this: in the darkest night, there is always a small ray of hope to be found. The greatest among us are always tested more harshly than the rest. Do not see it as ill-fate, or the punishment of a God for something done wrong - but as an opportunity to bolster your strength, and provide that strength to others. Of all my accomplishments, you were the one that gave me the most pride. Stand firm my girl, and you will find your way.'

Syn realized in that moment just how much she loved the man who had raised her, and how much she missed him now that he was gone. She folded the note and stuck it in her jacket pocket, then picked up the stack he had put together for her lord knows how long ago. She walked out of the room and sealed it behind her. She didn't know what lay inside of these old books, but it could wait until she returned home.