Valkyrie is recapping! Valkyrie has no idea what this means! But Valkyrie's head
hurts from all the... stuff in her brain that she never used to have in her
brain! Valkyrie has been told that if she tells some of it to you, the pain will
stop! Valkyrie likes that plan!

Valkyrie enjoys some of these memories! Valkyrie remembers when she and Mistress
Telulu killed Kaede fondly! Valkyrie actually pretty much only did that, but she
remembers it fondly! Valkyrie doesn't care much for other memories of
unimportant people!

Valkyrie dislikes that girl Nabiki! She defied the mistress! Valkyrie is glad
she tried to read the boy Ryouga's brain and got sad! Valkyrie is amused!
Valkyrie dislikes that brat Hotaru! Valkyrie is glad her dad is dead! Valkyrie
is glad she is sad and Mistress 9 is eating her soul! Valkyrie fills with happy
thoughts when she thinks of that!

Valkyrie also dislikes sailor senshi on general principle! Valkyrie is glad
Sailor Pluto was sad! Valkyrie is glad Sailor Mars was sad! Valkyrie is NOT glad
they are getting over it! Valkyrie doesn't like that! Not at all! Valkyrie
wishes Chizuru and Shiori had let them continue to suffer!

Valkyrie is pretty certain "V" is a sailor senshi, too! Valkyrie hopes Rip Van
Winkle kills her! Valkyrie likes Rip Van Winkle! She is very good at killing
things! Valkyrie appreciates that! Maybe Valkyrie can invite her over? Valkyrie
and her could kill things together! Valkyrie wants her to kill Ukyou and Ranma,
too! They defied Mistress Telulu! Shame! Valkyrie also knows she dislikes
that girl Nanami! She has a magic horse! Valkyrie doesn't know why, but this
offends her!

Valkyrie also likes that girl Pink! She also kills things! Like little boys!
Valkyrie wants to kill little boys, but Mistress Telulu keeps telling her no! It
makes Valkyrie sad! Valkyrie is glad Pink has better magic plant powers now!
Mistress Telulu has magic plant powers too! Valkyrie hopes they get together!
That would be fun! Valkyrie thinks Pink's friend Chris just needs to start
killing people more! He would feel better! Valkyrie thinks he should start with
that whiny girl Akane! She never opposed Telulu, but you KNOW she wants to!

Valkyrie is not certain how to think about Bison! This confuses Valkyrie!
Valkyrie thinks he is evil, but doesn't seem to kill people! It makes Valkyrie's
head hurt! Maybe Rip Van Winkle will kill him when he shows up in England?!
Valkyrie hopes so! Go Rip! Valkyrie supports girl power!

Valkyrie is also not certain how to feel about Chronos! Valkyrie likes Aptom for
killing good, and Gyro for killing loudly, but Mistress Telulu says we have to
stay hidden from them! Valkyrie is also confused about the Dark Kingdom!
Valkyrie is wondering why the "Dark Generals" are wandering the world looking
for ways to prove themselves to a woman who can't even kill an unstoppable all-
powerful god-like entity of death! Valkyrie has no respect for people who can't
do that!

Valkyrie really misses Alucard, however! Valkyrie never met him, but he killed
people really well and everyone seems convinced he is an unstoppable killing
machine! Valkyrie is also an unstoppable killing machine! Valkyrie wonders if he
and Rip would have gotten along?! Valkyrie will never know, since Sailor Venus
killed him! Shame!

Valkyrie... wait... is "V" Sailor Venus?! Valkyrie hopes so! Valkyrie could
watch Rip kill them both, at the same time!





			      C&A Productions Presents

                          A Work of Blatant Self-Insertion


                                   Hybrid Theory


                             Chapter 18: A Place For My Head



	"Bestaubt sind die Gesichter,
	Doch froh ist unser Sinn,"
	V could make out the words of the singer now. The woman singing didn't
have any formal training that V could discern, but she made up for it with sheer
enthusiasm and raw talent. V couldn't understand the German words, but she could
tell from the tone they were sung at that this was a song of war. A song meant
to boost the spirits of your allies before battle.
	"Ist unser Sinn;
	Es braust unser Panzer."
	V smiled grimly as she moved. It was dark, the sun having just dipped
below the horizon a few minutes ago. Hunting at night was a dangerous business.
The vampires were strongest without the sun overhead. But V had learned that now
was the best time for hunting. They kept too close together during the daylight,
fortified in bunkers and deep in the tunnels of the Underground. Trying to
launch an assault on such places was suicidal.
	"Im Sturmwind dahin."
	No, the best way to fight them was on their own time, but not on their
own terms. The trick was that they were arrogant. They believed themselves
immortal, invincible... and why shouldn't they? Compared to mortal men, they
were. But V was no mortal. She was an avenging angel, a sun-born knight... a
hero. She now knew why she had come to England.
	"Mit donnernden Motoren,
	Geschwind wie der Blitz,"
	It was not to fight the Dark Agency. It was not to draw away a crippled
enemy's eyes from a princess. She was here to fight the vampires. She was here
to rain holy light upon them. She was here to bring that light into every dark
hole they tried to crawl into and burn them away. And she was very good at her
job.
	"Dem Feinde entgegen,
	Im Panzer geschützt."
	She had made her share of mistakes at first. She had struggled along,
fighting them like a child. But even when they thought they had won, V had
always found a way to escape. And she had returned to the field wiser,
stronger... better at her job. For awhile she had joined up with the small
militias, the survivors of that first apocalyptic night, and fought by their
side. But they were gone now, and she was alone.
	Almost alone.
	"Voraus den Kameraden,
	Im Kampf steh'n wir allein,"
	The people had cheered her. She was a symbol and a weapon. The Shining
Knight, the Golden Champion... she had even altered her costume once again to
further emphasize her new role. But one champion did not win a war. She had
watched too many good people die. She had let too many die because of her
foolish childish incompetence. The last of the fighters had fled the city almost
a week ago, seeking what small refuge they could in the countryside. Most of
them that had left spoke bleakly of abandoning England.
	"Steh'n wir allein,
	So stoßen wir tief"
	She had watched them leave and wished them well. Perhaps there were
survivors in the small villages. She knew the vampires, the Nazis, had launched
a perfect attack. She knew that no community of over five hundred people had
been spared. Even a single vampire was more than enough to destroy a town. And
the enemy's numbers seemed endless. They could create more of themselves... how,
V did not know.
	"In die feindlichen Reihn."
	V touched down soundlessly on the roof of what had once been a doctor's
clinic. There was now a large hole in the side of the building. The crater next
to it still had the partial remains of one of the V2 rockets in it. The streets
were littered with rubble, and fires still burned fitfully up and down the
street. V had seen the photographs of the Blitz, like every other child in her
class. She had seen the devastation this once proud and defiant city had endured
during the raids of World War II. They paled next to the carnage she had seen
here, with her own eyes.
	"Wenn vor uns ein feindliches
	Heer dann erscheint,"
	V crawled over to the edge of the building carefully. Her armour was
very bright, but despite that it only tended to catch the light when she wanted
it to. The monsters down below didn't notice her. There were five of them. She
had quickly learned the meaning of their uniforms and medals. She had learned
more about the Nazis in the last few weeks then the rest of her life combined.
They had always been such a small thing for her until then. Like every good
Japanese student, she was taught only the basics of the real truth. Her people
tended to whitewash history, downplaying the atrocities of their allies, and
that they themselves, had committed in war.
	"Wird Vollgas gegeben
	Und ran an den Feind!"
	Not that any other country was any better. V resisted the urge to sneer.
Where was America now? Where was it while its ally died? And all the other
enlightened countries? Nobody had come to England. There was no cavalry. There
was only her.
	"Was gilt denn unser Leben
	Für unsres Reiches Heer?"
	She examined her targets and shoved down her disgust. Too much emotion
left you vulnerable. You had to think clearly, cleanly. You didn't win the war
by letting your emotions get the better of you. There were three soldiers below,
below, all in the standard bulky gear they usually wore. Each was carrying a
weapon that would have been an antique if it hadn't been so lovingly maintained.
She noted three assault rifles, a pair of sidearms, ten grenades and
miscellaneous bladed weapons among them. The fourth was a sergeant. He wore no
helmet and his face was scarred. Something he must have gotten before he had
been turned.
	"Ja Reiches Heer!"
	None of them were paying much attention to their surroundings. They were
all instead watching the woman sitting nearby. V took a long look at her as
well. She was nothing like any vampire, or any Nazi, she had ever encountered.
She was tall and willow-thin, with a face that belonged on a girl studying shyly
in a corner, not in the middle of a war zone. She had freckles and thin glasses
and long black hair that fell in messy tendrils, like an oil slick, down to her
knees. She was wearing a black suit and sitting on an overturned bus, her long
legs crossed.
	She carried a long musket on her shoulders. Not an antique rifle, a
musket. V had learned a lot about guns, bombs and the other weapons of war
since... since that terrible night. This wasn't just an antique, it was
obsolete. It was one of the old-fashioned kinds that needed to be loaded before
each shot with powder and bullet and... what kind of an idiot carried such a
useless weapon onto a battlefield?
	"Sergeant, it is un beautiful night, is it not?" the woman asked, as she
stopped singing suddenly. Her English was thickly accented. The vampire with the
scar nodded and looked up. The stars could be seen overhead, and the thin sliver
of the moon shined feebly down from the heavens. On a normal night they would
have been blotted out by the lights of London, but in the unnatural darkness
that had settled over the whole city, the stars now shone in a dazzling display
overhead.
	Had V been a different person, she might have found such a display
breathtaking. She had never seen such a brilliant sky before, in all her city-
dwelling life. As it was, she gave it only a passing glance. The light would aid
her more than the vampires. They did not fear the darkness.
	"Ja. It is good to get some fresh air, for a change." He laughed. "This
town is stuffy und cold und it rains too much."
	"Vat a terrible place this is." The female vampire sniffed the air. "Ve
did it a favor by burning it to the ground, don't you agree?"
	The vampires all laughed. "As you say, Lieutenant," one of the soldiers
agreed cheerfully.
	"But nights like this are waluable beyond price, you see," the vampiress
said, her voice suddenly deadly serious. She stood up. "A bright night, perfect
for hunting." She paused and turned to stare directly at the roof V was hiding
on. "Don't you agree, fraulein?"
	V froze up. She heard the vampires cursing and hissing as they all spun
to face her, drawing their weapons. She narrowed her eyes, but stood up slowly.
As she did, she raised her hands into the air. The vampires all leveled their
weapons at her. Her new armour couldn't hope to stop so many bullets, and she
didn't fancy her chances of dodging them all.
	She resisted the urge to smile.
	"You must be 'V', ja?" the vampiress said as she waved cheerfully at
her. "You haf been making yourself quite a nuisance. Killing our men, ruining
perfectly good ghouls. Shame on you." V didn't reply, she just stood on the
roof, her hands still raised. The woman hadn't made a move to remove her own
weapon from its resting place on her shoulders. V could see the light glinting
off a medallion she wore around her neck, a swastika that hung on a chain that
came down almost to her navel. "I haf been instructed by Major Krieg, commandant
of the Letztes Battalion, that I am to personally escort you to no less than
fifty separate locations across the city simultaneously." She grinned, a huge
pleasant smile that made her look much younger than she probably was.
	"Come again?" V said, speaking for the first time.
	"Ah." The woman bowed slightly. "I'm sorry. I shall haf to explain it in
a vay you can understand."  She paused, making a grand gesture of thinking about
it.  "Bang bang. You're dead. Is that clearer?"
	V smiled now. "Better than you have tried."
	The woman's grin disappeared. "No. No, they haf not."
	"We'll see." V judged that enough time had passed by now. She drew a
deep breath and yelled. "Artemis!"
	A white streak dashed out from under the bus. It was small, and it wove
between the feet of the vampires. In its wake, tiny balls clattered to the
ground. V smirked and snapped her wrist down, the detonator falling easily into
her palm.
	The vampires were yelling now, beginning to fire their weapons. The
bullets marched steadily up the wall towards her. The vampiress was only
grinning to herself, not even moving. V leapt and hit the button.
	They were just flash bombs. Nothing more than loud bangs and bright
flashes of light. But just as darkness was the vampire's ally, light was their
enemy. The monsters gasped and staggered, shielding their eyes from the dozens
of blinding flashes all around them. Given time, they would recover.
	V did not give them that time. She brought her other hand down as she
sailed over them, spreading out her fingers. "Crescent Meteor Shower!" she
roared.
	Avenging light fell from her fingers. Beams of pure holy gold light
speared down like pinpoint rays falling from the sun. She drew her hand across
the intersection, the beams firing from her fingers like a gatling gun. The
flares of the flashbombs and the dust kicked up from her attack obscured the
entire intersection from sight for a moment. But V could hear the screams of
dying vampires.
	She landed with a flourish on the building opposite her starting point,
having easily cleared the entire intersection in a diagonal leap. She glanced
back at the wreckage from her attack. There was nothing but a billowing cloud of
dust from where her attack had burned all the vampires into ashes. The bus and
the pavement were littered with small holes. She grinned to herself.
	She turned and leveled a finger at the bus. With a thought she unleashed
a beam of light, carving a 'V' into the side of the vehicle with two quick
slashes of her arm. She shook her head. That would make them think twice about
trying to defeat her. Now all she had to do was collect Artemis and rearm him
with some more flash grenades and...
	Why was somebody clapping?
	V turned in shock to see the Lieutenant sitting calmly on the edge of a
nearby building. Her musket was now resting in her lap, and she was using her
free hands to clap, slowly.
	"Wery good! Wery good!" The vampiress laughed. "I vas beginning to think
this vas a vaste of time."
	V didn't gape. She only turned to face the woman grimly. But now she
knew something was wrong. She hadn't even seen the woman move! From the looks of
her, she hadn't even been so much as nicked by the beams. V dropped her
detonator and began to summon her magic again.
	"Who are you?" she asked, trying to buy time.
	The vampiress stood up and bowed once, holding her musket in one hand.
"I am the huntress, Rip Van Winkle." She grinned again, but there was no
humanity in this grin. It was all sharp teeth and her eyes blazing yellow in the
moonlight. "My varhead... vill punish all vithout distinction."
	Then she raised her musket and fired.
	The shot was louder than it had any right to be, and a wake of dust
parted before it. The ashes of the vampires V had slain scattered in opposite
directions. V didn't think, she only dodged. She heard a tremendous crack from
behind her as she flew down into the street. She looked to see the brick wall
she had been standing on shatter.
	She landed well and rolled, coming up to face Rip again. But the woman
wasn't even moving. She simply stood, her face partially obscured in the shadows
from this angle so that all you could see were her eyes and teeth, holding her
weapon loosely in one hand.
	"Run," Rip Van Winkle advised.
	Then V heard it, a high-pitched whine in the air. She spun and saw it, a
black streak flashing across the street. It spun and turned, moving in
arcs impossible for any mere projectile. V realised dimly that it was the same
bullet, twisting back through the air towards her. She leapt again, dodging as
it flew under her. But it was already spinning around in a sharp angle. It would
come straight up after her.
	Her opponent doubtless hoped to catch her in the air, where she had no
chance to dodging. V was not about to die so easily.
	"Love Me Chain!"
	With a flick of her wrist, a long chain of golden, heart-shaped links
sprang from the tips of her fingers. She snapped her hand around one end even as
the other shot out and snapped tightly around a still-intact lightpost. She
pulled hard, dragging herself to the side as the bullet shot through where she
had been.
	Or, that was the plan.
	Pain exploded through her body. She gasped and watched in horror as her
right thigh simply dissolved into a geyser of red gore. Some part of her kept a
hold on her chain, and she pulled even tighter, turning her momentum into a
swing. This saved her life as the bullet whizzed back at her. It clipped through
her long hair, sending several strands billowing away on the wind.
	V landed on the pavement again and her injured leg simply folded under
her like it was made of rags. She screamed and rolled along the ground. Her
armour sparked and dented as she skipped along the pavement before crashing into
the remains of a car. The car's alarm went off.
	V felt the sudden absurd urge to laugh at that, despite her wound. She
realized dimly she was going into shock. She could see that her thigh was
intact, but that there was a hole the size of a grapefruit through the center of
it, only centimeters from her hips. Her yellow skirt was torn around the hole.
	"Minako!"
	Artemis? No, that didn't sound like Artemis.
	She glanced up, dimly seeing a young man land on the pavement near her.
He was Japanese, short compared to the boys she was used to seeing here in
England... and had a kind and worried face under a messy mop of black hair. He
had blue eyes. She groaned. Why was she looking at his eyes? She felt groggy.
	"Get her out of here, Ranma!"
	"But..."
	"Do it!"
	V looked vaguely in the direction of the other voice. A woman was
standing in the street, between Rip Van Winkle and the boy. She was wearing a
long black coat and was staring up at the woman. For her part, the vampire
looked down at the young woman with the long black hair with the glee of a hawk
that had just spotted a mouse in the middle of an open field.
	V felt herself being lifted into the young man's arms. He carried her
with ease.
	"Senshi or not, she'll die with that wound!" The woman called back over
her shoulder. "You know where to take her."
	Ranma nodded.
	"I'm afraid that von't be happening," Rip stated as she raised her hand
and snapped her fingers. Her bullet, which had gone flying off into the air,
spun back around and flew straight down at V again. V groaned. The boy tensed,
obviously trying to figure out which way to dodge as the deadly lead shot spun
erratic circles through the air as it closed in.
	Then there was a loud snap and the bullet fell limply to the ground. V
stared at the palm-sized silver spatula imbedded in the tiny lead shot. It had
cut halfway through the ball-bearing sized projectile. Something so small had
done so much damage... V groaned and almost fell out of the young man's hands.
	"I'll be your opponent," the woman declared in a voice as cold as ice.
	"Damn," Ranma swore softly. "Hang on, lady!"
	V wanted to thank him, but at that point she slipped away into darkness.

*

	Rei rolled her teacup between her hands. The tea inside it was cold. The
air in the courtyard was hot. The tables and chairs in this place were metal,
and a bit uncomfortable to sit in.
	"You have that look again," Shiori said.
	Rei looked up at her. "What look?"
	"Like you don't want to be here," Shiori replied.
	Rei blinked. "It's not like that," Rei explained slowly. "I just..." She
paused. "It's just today, I guess."
	Shiori smirked and took a sip of her own tea. "So, what did Usagi do
this time?" Rei gave her a long look. "You always look like that after one of
your infamous study sessions. And you usually blame it on Usagi."
	"It was nothing she did..." Rei replied. Really, Usagi and her hadn't
said two words to each other on the entire mission. Well, maybe exactly two. Rei
had just been too busy trying to figure out why her spiritual senses had been
screaming at her the whole time.
	"If you say so," Shiori said, backing away from the subject.
	Rei considered briefly bringing up Juri, but decided against it. That
was still a sensitive subject, and she wasn't that annoyed by Shiori's
questions.
	"Hey, you're Usagi Tsukino's friend, aren't you?"
	Rei looked up at the new speaker. It was a girl, a little younger than
Rei, with not-quite-curly hair that fell to her shoulders. She wasn't dressed in
a school uniform. Instead, she wore some sort of vaguely military pantsuit that
was cut a little too tight for a girl her age, all in a garish yellow with black
trim. She was looming over Rei with her arms folded. Her expression was cross
and had just the right amount of haughty upperclass snobbishness that reminded
Rei of all the girls she used to hate back at her old school.
	Rei opened her mouth to say something snappish back. Then she closed it.
	There was... something about this girl. It brushed at the back of her
awareness. Ohtori was a place that felt wrong. Everywhere Rei went, it smothered
her. Everywhere she breathed the air felt too fresh, the colors too vivid. The
people who laughed here did so with a genuineness that rubbed Rei's nerves raw.
But this girl... there was something right about her. Rei felt herself relaxing.
	"You could say that," she replied after a moment. "My name is Rei Hino.
And you would be?"
	"Nanami Kiryuu, acting student council president!" the girl proclaimed
proudly.
	Rei groaned and buried her face in her hands. "Okay, what did Usagi do
this time?"
	"Oh..." Nanami said after a moment's pause. Her voice continued,
sounding slightly confused. "I'm not actually here about... well. I did hear
about the results from the last tests and was... but that... I actually just
wanted to talk to her..." A longer paused. "And you, come to think of it."
	"Well," Rei drew her hands away and gave Nanami another long look. What
was it about this girl? "Have a seat then, if you want to talk."
	Nanami pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. She looked at Rei.
Rei looked at her. Shiori sipped her tea.
	Nanami continued to stare at Rei. Rei continued to stare back.
	This continued.
	"I have class," Shiori excused herself.
	Both Rei and Nanami said goodbye. She left.
	They stared at each other some more.
	"Damnit!" Rei slammed her hand into the table hard enough so the table
bounced slightly. "Talk already!"
	Nanami flinched, only a little. "I.. um..." She trailed off. "I'm not
quite sure what I wanted to talk to you about."
	Rei sighed. This was getting them nowhere. "Was it about school?"
Apparently not. "Was it about the student clubs?" No, not that either. "Okay...
sports?" No. "Politics? The weather? The price of tea in China?" No. No. No.
	Rei grumbled and leaned back, crossing her arms. "So what... was it
about an ancient society of magical princesses on the moon or something?" she
asked in frustration.
	Nanami snapped her fingers. "Yes!"
	Rei's jaw dropped.
	"Although..." Nanami started, sounding contrite, "I'm not certain why."
	Rei slowly collected her wits, and took a deep breath. This didn't make
sense. The only people that knew about the Moon Kingdom and the Sailor Senshi
were them, Ukyou and her friends, Chris and his friends, Akio and all of
Chronos... wait, well, maybe it could make sense. "And where exactly did you
hear anything about that?" Rei asked, suddenly suspicious.
	Nanami shrugged. "I don't know." Nanami's expression grew somber. "I
just have to talk to Usagi. I just know I do. It's important."
	"What ab... nevermind," Rei waved her quiet. "Listen, I don't know how
to get in touch with Usagi. We barely speak to each other."
	"But... you four are friends. You all transferred in together. Everyone
knows that." Rei raised an eyebrow. She hadn't really been paying attention to
school rumours. "I've been trying to get in touch with her for weeks now. But
everytime I try to schedule a meeting something comes up, and either I have to
take care of student council business or she's off on some errand or vanished
with friends." Nanami tapped the table with her nails lightly. "So I tried to
talk to that girl, Ami. The one that's hanging around Miki. You know him,
right?" Rei didn't really, but she nodded anyway. "He's on the student council
too, so I thought could get him to set us up in a meeting, but she's always busy
with something else, and then Miki himself started having to run more and more
errands for the fencing club, and with his piano recital coming up he's always
busy..." Nanami was beginning to sound frustrated. "So I talked with Juri, do
you know Juri?" Rei's expression darkened and she nodded slightly. "Anyway,
she's also on the student council and apparently that friend of yours Makoto has
been chasing her around trying to get her to teach her how to fence so, of
course, I thought I could get Juri to introduce us. But Makoto never showed up
because of some stupid study session, and now Juri keeps getting distracted
because some friend of hers is back in school and she's moping around all the
time..." Nanami's voice was now taking on a hint of desperation. "So finally I
came to you."
	"I... see..." Rei wasn't quite sure how to react to all that.
	"So could YOU please introduce me to Usagi?"
	"I..." Rei pinched her nose. "I have no idea where she is. We get
together for... study sessions every couple of nights but that's it. We're not
as close as we used to be."
	Nanami screamed and threw her hands into the air. Then she slammed her
head into the table.
	"Did that hurt?" Rei asked.
	"Yes..."
	Nanami pushed herself upright again. She rubbed her forehead. "If I
didn't know better, I'd swear the entire school is conspiring to keep me away
from her." Nanami laughed to herself, but Rei had gone stiff as a board. "But
that's just silly."
	"Is it now..." Rei said slowly. Chris had told them that Akio was evil,
that he was tricky and that this was his domain. All of Ohtori was a place he
controlled. That was why the Senshi could hide here without fear of discovery. A
zoanoid could wander right past them and it wouldn't see them. Not that zoanoids
even made it into Ohtori. "Nanami, can I ask you a question?"
	"Hmmm? I suppose..."
	"Does anything at Ohtori ever strike you as... wrong?"
	"Wrong? What do you mean?"
	"Like Nemuro Memorial Hall, or that forest out behind the school, or the
rose garden in the courtyard?"
	Nanami's eyes flashed a little at the mention of the forest and she
rubbed a ring on her finger. It was a rose signet ring. Rei focused on it,
narrowing her senses she had been training on for years. The ring... yes, the
ring was a part of this place. It was like a brand, a little piece of Ohtori
that this girl was carrying around with her. But the ring didn't seem to be a
part of her. There was something like a layer between her and it. A pure, golden
light that separated the wrongness from her person.
	Rei gasped and jerked her head back. Nanami had been saying something
but Rei had missed it. Whatever that girl had in her, it was immense. She hadn't
felt anything like it.
	No. That was wrong. She had felt something like it.
	The Ginzuishou. It was like that.
	Rei stood up.
	"Excuse me, I have to leave now."
	"What? But we aren't finished..."
	"I have to be going, I'm very sorry," Rei stated in a hard voice, then
turned and left.

*


	V woke up slowly, her entire body filled with a pleasant sensation. It
was warm and strange, sort of like that feeling when her feet would fall asleep
if she sat on them too long, only comfortable and reassuring. She moaned and
lifted up her head, and saw a soft white light flowing around her thigh.
	The light was cupped in between the hands of a little girl. She couldn't
have been much older than twelve, as she hadn't yet begun to bloom in the way
that all young girls did eventually. Her short black hair was in a bob-cut, and
her vivid purple eyes were staring intently down at the light she was projecting
into V's leg. Beads of sweat were running down her cheek.
	Suddenly she gave a great sigh and her hands fell down to her side. The
light lingered along V's leg for a short time, before fading away into sparkling
afterimages. V blinked. She remembered clearly that the vampire's bullet had
torn a hole through her thigh, but there was nothing there now but smooth,
unmarred flesh.
	"You shouldn't stand on it right away," the girl said in an out-of-
breath monotone. She sat down heavily next to the bed that V had been laid out
in. "Your strength will return, but I don't think I healed it all."
	"Healed..." Then memory returned to V. She glanced down at the little
girl. "There was a fight. I was injured..." The girl nodded. "Who are you?" she
asked sharply. "Where am I? Where is the guy who... saved me..." The vigour
drained out of her voice as she spoke. Vivid memories of being swept up in his
arms filled her mind before V brutally beat them back. She couldn't afford to be
distracted by such girlish things...
	"My name is Hotaru." The girl sat down. "You are in an apartment in the
suburbs of London." Her voice sounded oddly empty, like the girl didn't really
care about anything she was saying. The poor thing was in shock. V quite
understood. She had been forced to deal with a lot of people like that while
they were still trying to smuggle the few survivors out of London. "You just
missed Ranma. He just stepped out a few seconds ago to go look for..."
	"AHHHH, CAT!"
	"Ranma, wait!"
	"Ah, that would be them now..." Hotaru sighed and looked at the door.
	A fraction of a second later the door to the apartment burst open,
literally. Fragments of the shattered wood flew through the air. V blinked as
the splinters embedded themselves in the walls, but miraculously missed her and
the girl. The boy from earlier leapt through the debris and landed in a crouch
behind a couch. He had looked so strong and confident when he had shown up to
save her, but now he only looked like a tiny frightened child. V had seen that
panicked, mindless look of sheer terror too often. She had seen it on the ones
who freaked out, the ones who lost it.
	She had no patience for them. She glared at the boy as he shivered.
	A moment later a young woman rushed into the room. She had long black
hair and was wearing a long trenchcoat which flapped in the air behind her,
although the entire left sleeve was missing and blood was running freely from
her shoulder and down the limb. Five strange parallel scars were on that
forearm, the blood running down through them like little rivers through tiny
canyons. Other than that she wore a tight white shirt and black leggings. She
was carrying a white cat under her good arm like a rugby ball.
	"Artemis!" V called out. The cat looked at her and smiled, in that
strange way Artemis could smile like no other cat could. His eyes sparkled in
the light from the hallway, and his golden crescent mark also glittered.
	"Art..." The young woman cut off mid-way through his name. It was hard
to judge her age. She looked not much older than V, but carried herself as if
she was. "Oh damn... his cat phobia. Sorry about this."
	Then, without preamble, she tossed Artemis out a window.
	"Artemis!" V roared and leapt to her feet. She tried to summon up her
power, but realized vaguely that she had transformed back into mortal form
sometime while she was unconscious. She reached for her henshin wand.
	"Whoa!" The young lady backed a step away from V. "He's okay! There's a
balcony out there."
	"A balcony..." V paused, her wand in hand, but not yet raised for
transformation.
	"I just needed to get him away from Ranma," the woman in black said as
she held up her hands defensively. V glanced over at the boy, who was glancing
carefully over the edge of the couch.
	"Is it gone?"
	"Yes, Ranma, it's gone..." the young woman began.
	"Now see here!" Artemis pushed his head in through the window. "That was
rude!"
	Ranma made a strangled sound and fell back behind the couch, then
grunted in pain as the back of his head clunked against the wood. The young
woman whirled on Artemis, faster than V could follow, and kicked him outside
again.
	"Don't come in again!" she shouted. Then she grabbed the window and
slammed it shut with a bang.
	"Hey!" V protested as she stalked towards the woman. "Nobody mistreats
my cat but me!"
	The woman gave a long suffering sigh. "This is not the first impression
I wanted to make."
	"You always have a problem with that," Hotaru spoke up for the first
time since all this had started. She walked over to the woman and tugged on her
bloody arm. "Sit down," she ordered in a placid tone.
	"It's not that serious, Hotaru..." the woman seemed suddenly nervous.
	"What use am I to you except as a walking med-kit?" Hotaru returned, her
voice placid but filled with a deep resentment. "Now sit down."
	"Hotaru..." The woman closed her eyes and muttered something under her
breath. "You know I don't feel that way about you."
	Hotaru only stared up at the woman and the woman could only stare back
helplessly. Finally she relented and sat down, letting Hotaru reach the wound.
Now that V could get a good look at it, it was really nasty. Something had cut a
deep groove up the back of her arm and into her shoulder.
	"How can you even move with that injury..." V breathed.
	"I've had worse," the woman explained, not looking at V. Her eyes were
locked on Hotaru. Her expression, however, was cold and distant, impossible to
read. Hotaru, for her part, moved efficiently to place her hands over the wound.
She began to concentrate and the white glow of her power spread from her palms
and down into the woman's wounds. The woman shivered, as if someone poured
icewater on her.
	"Is it gone now?"
	V turned at the voice. Ranma was still hiding behind the couch. He had
addressed her, however. She turned to see Artemis sitting in the window. He did
not look happy, but there was little he could do with the window closed to him.
She sighed and motioned for him to get out of sight. He frowned at her, but did
as asked.
	"Yes, he's gone now," V answered.
	The boy gave a relieved laugh and scratched the back of his neck as he
stood up. "Not that I was worried or anything... Ranma Saotome don't worry bout
nothing!" He glanced at the window, but it was free of cats. "I was just...
uh..."
	"Hey, you're speaking Japanese," V pointed out, suddenly realising this
herself. It was her native tongue, and she had slipped into it so easily she
hadn't even noticed.
	"Shouldn't I be?" Ranma asked, confused.
	"Well, no..." V frowned. "This is England. You know, birthplace of the
English language? How could you be living here and not speak it?"
	"I don't. Live here, I mean," Ranma explained. He straightened up
suddenly. "We're here to help."
	"Help?"
	"That's enough, Hotaru," the woman said in a soft, gentle voice. She
reached over and grabbed the girl, pulling her hands away. The girl blinked
owlishly at the woman, then slumped forward slightly. "You're exhausted. Sleep."
Hotaru nodded weakly and let her eyes close. The woman in black picked up the
little girl easily, cradling the pre-teen like she was a baby. Her icy
expression had vanished, to be replaced by one of wan sympathy... but even so,
her eyes were...
	"Demon!" V shouted, snapping up her henshin wand again. The woman cold
only stare at V, her arms occupied as she called out her transformation phrase.
"V Crisis Power, Make Up!"
	V floated off the floor, her body singing with the raw power of her
transformation. Ever since that terrible night, she had forced Artemis to teach
her more and more about her own powers. Dragging information from the cat was
like trying to catch water in a sieve. Not because he wasn't willing, although
sometimes that was part of it, but mainly because he couldn't seem to remember
most of the important things. But V had learned to control the transformation.
Just like she had learned to alter her regular Sailor Venus attire to the more
anonymous Sailor V, so too had she learned to access more hidden depths and
build a stronger battle form from them.
	She landed, the golden lights around her dimming to nothing. She was
clad now in a reinforced breastplate of molded gold, with armored gloves and
knee high metal boots. She pointed two fingers at the black-eyed woman, her eyes
narrowing behind her golden half-mask.
	"Not this again..." the woman moaned.
	"Hey there!" Ranma grabbed her arm and pulled it up. V hadn't even seen
him move, and while his grip was gentle, it was as firm as steel. She could no
more have moved her arm than she could have parted the ocean.
	"Let me go!" V insisted.
	"I'm not lettin' another of you crazy Sailor chicks try and kill Ukyou!"
Ranma shouted at her. "She's human, just like me and you. She just got her eyes
messed up in a fight awhile back, is all."
	"Messed up..." V looked at Ukyou again. The girl was gazing back at her
levelly. Her eyes weren't that inhuman. At first they appeared to be totally
black, but you could just make out the subtle change in hue as her iris became
her pupil, and even if the whole thing was shaped like an exotic flower... "Let
me go," V requested, her tone more mild.
	Ranma considered her request for a moment, then nodded and stepped back.
"No funny business, okay?"
	V nodded and reached up to the side of her facemask. Ukyou quirked her
head to the side. "I can see the truth, look past illusions using this," V
explained.
	"Indeed..." the black-clad woman said slowly. She was still holding
Hotaru, but her posture and tone had changed somehow. "I'd be interested to find
out what you see." V blinked, but dismissed the odd statement. She triggered the
magic with a tap of her fingers and looked at Ukyou's true nature.
	At first, V wasn't sure what she was seeing. She looked exactly human,
exactly as she appeared right there in front of her. But it was like there was
another Ukyou there as well, two of her in the exact same space. Yet at the same
time there wasn't. V felt a headache coming on as she tried to squint and focus
her eyes on what she saw as the 'other' Ukyou.
	She looked almost exactly the same. She was the same age, the same
height and weight and hairstyle; even the same clothing. But a series of strange
tattoos trailed down the right side of her body, looking like circuit diagrams V
had once seen in her textbooks. Three circles of light floated around the young
woman, made up of mathematical figures and formula. She was also carrying a
weapon, a long and vicious-looking polearm that nonetheless looked slightly
silly and vaguely familiar at the same time. Then there was the symbol on her
forehead. It was flaring brightly, and V had to look away, unable to see what it
was.
	But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was what seemed to be
between the two Ukyous. It was like there was some terrible, formless nothing
there. V couldn't even call it a void, because even voids had boundaries and
definitions. There was something between the two Ukyous, something separating
them that was both there and not there at the same time. It was what let there
be two of them. It was what made them one and the same. V could feel her mind
shying away from it and she suddenly wanted to look at something, anything but
Ukyou...
	She gasped when she looked down at the girl in Ukyou's arms.
	"So you see her, do you?" Ukyou asked, her voice calm.
	"What is that?" V asked, pointed at Hotaru. There was something evil
there. It was coiled through the little girl's body like a snake, a miasma of
distilled evil. It pulsed and throbbed, weakly, but alive nonetheless. V thought
she saw the centre of it in the girl's heart.
	"It calls itself Mistress 9," Ukyou explained as she put Hotaru down on
the bed. She paused for a second to tuck the girl in. The girl was asleep, but
her face had not relaxed. If anything, she looked sadder now that she was
unconscious. "Hotaru was caught in a deadly accident two years ago. Her wounds
would have killed her. So her father made a deal with... a monster, a demon that
seeks nothing less than the annihilation of all life on this world. It placed
one of its servants into her body, healing her but also turning her into its
vessel." Ukyou ran a hand through the girl's hair. "Mistress 9 is still weak.
She can force control over Hotaru, but only when the girl is exhausted or
emotionally vulnerable. Even though she saved Hotaru's life, now all she is
doing is leeching it away, making Hotaru weak and sick. And in time, as it feeds
on her pain and life force it will grow stronger until..." Ukyou trailed off
ominously.
	"I... that's terrible!" V knelt down and grabbed the girl's hand as she
slept. She looked up at Ukyou. "Isn't there anything that can be done for her?"
	"I was hoping you might be able to help with that, actually," Ukyou said
softly.
	"I..." V sat back. "My power is strong against evil, but it's more in
the direct attack kind of way. I don't think I could harm the thing inside her
without harming her first."
	"Indeed," Ukyou said with a sigh.
	"So is that why we found her?" Ranma asked, crossing his arms.
	"Found me?" V asked.
	"Yeah, Ukyou tracked you down specifically." Ranma glanced out the
window. The sun would be rising soon, from the looks of the sky. "I just wanted
to find the bastards that did this and hunt them down."
	V gave him a long look. "You came from Japan... to help fight
Millennium?"
	Ranma nodded. "I made a promise to..." he trailed off and cleared his
throat. "I promised someone that I would help people. Fight my own battles the
way I choose to." He grinned at her. "And I choose to fight here."
	"That... that's it?" V shouted suddenly, leaping to her feet. "Vampires
destroy England... burn down the cities, eat the people, unleash hell in a way
that I didn't imagine possible and this is all that comes?" V clenched her fists
and turned her back on them. "Two martial artists and a little girl with a demon
in her? This is all the help we get? Can't the people out there see what is
happening here! Don't they realise what it MEANS?" She walked over to the window
and pointed out to the east. "They won't be satisfied with this country! They'll
spread! I've seen it! They're already preparing for the next war, and the next,
and the next! We have to stop them here or millions... billions of people will
suffer! Don't the fools out there realise what is going on!?"
	"MINAKO!"
	V turned back to look at Ukyou, startled. "How did you-"
	"First, I'm going to ask you to keep your voice down," Ukyou insisted,
cutting her off. "Next, I'm going to ask you to take your head out of your ass."
	"My... you..." V sputtered.
	"Do you think they don't want to help you?" Ukyou crossed her arms. "I
can forgive you for not knowing what is going on. You must have lost contact
with the outside world fairly quickly once Millennium attacked." She glanced at
Ranma, who looked somewhat uneasy with the scene that was occurring around him.
She sighed. "This isn't the only place that has fallen on hard times, Minako.
The Americans dropped a nuke on one of their own cities to prevent a plague of
zombies from destroying their country. They are also desperately scrambling for
resources to fight a war against an army of monsters that has secretly
controlled their government for decades, if not centuries. They aren't the only
ones. Japan too is infested with monsters who walk around as men and control
everything from the shadows. No less than three other demonic cults out to wipe
humanity from the face off the planet are also making Japan their first target.
There are places in Romania where the sun never shines, the sands of Egypt are
striking against the people who live there, and in the dark places of every
country of the world things stalk... werewolves, ghosts, psychopaths with the
ability to kill with a thought or twist your mind to their own purposes..."
	Ukyou trailed off, then her expression softened before she continued.
"I'm sorry about what you must have gone through here, Minako. It was terrible.
I could never understand it, and I'm not going to insult you by saying I do. But
the sad thing, the really sad thing, is that this is just the tip of the
iceberg. The reason England fell and nobody came to help isn't because nobody
cares, it's because it's all anyone can do to hold on anymore."
	V could only stare at Ukyou. She had forgotten to turn off her mask's
power, and thus she knew that every word the girl had spoken was the truth. She
reached up and dismissed the magic, then calmly fell to her knees. "That..." She
took a deep breath. "That doesn't change anything. I'm still going to stop
them." She looked up at Ukyou. It was much easier now that she looked like just
another girl. "I'm going to destroy Millennium by myself if I have to!"
	"Hey," Ranma stepped forward. "That's what we're here for." He offered
her his hand. "To fight monsters. The worst of the lot. And now that you have
Ranma Saotome on your side, you can't lose!"
	V glanced up at him. She let him help her to her feet but walked away,
crossing her arms. He shrugged.
	"I hope you've got something to back that up," V said after a long
moment of silence. "Millennium isn't something you can fight with just fists and
feet. I've seen other people like you, in the resistance here, before everyone
either gave up London to the monsters or..." She trailed off and fought down the
memory of Birdie. His mocking laughter as she had been forced to flee. The
screams and pleas of the people she had been forced to leave behind. "Or worse,"
she spat. Ukyou's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing. "Two martial artists
aren't going to change the course of this war. I'd be better off on my own."
	"Hello, we did save your ass today, didn't we?" Ranma groused.
	"Ranma..." Ukyou said softly, but the boy immediately calmed. She looked
at V. "Listen, Minako..."
	"Stop calling me that." Ukyou looked at her oddly. "I don't know how you
learned that name, but stop calling me that."
	Ukyou seemed to consider her request for a moment, then she nodded. "V,
we have a secret weapon. Somebody who will turn the tide of this entire war."
	"Who? The girl?"
	"Hotaru is not a weapon!" Ukyou snapped, her voice containing more force
than V had heard up until now. She took a moment to calm herself. "No. A man, a
vampire-" V glared at her. "Not just any vampire, Mina... V. His name is
Alucard, and he is the closest thing to a living god you will ever encounter. He
is as much above other vampires as vampires are above mortals. He can't be
killed, he is literally unstoppable."
	V frowned. Why did that name sound so familiar? "Who is he? Where do we
find him?"
	"Well, that's the strange part," Ukyou admitted. "He should already be
here. He should have already stopped all this... or at least the worst of it.
He's been in England all along. He works for an organisation called Hellsing
that specializes in fighting and destroying vampires and other creatures of the
night. I would have suspected he would have already come into play." She thought
for a moment. "You said you worked with a resistance at first? Did you ever meet
a woman named Integra Hellsing? No? Maybe you've seen Alucard himself... he's
about this tall, wears a red trenchcoat and matching fedora and sunglasses
and... Minako... why are you looking so pale?"
	"Oh... oh god..." V began to tremble. "You mean... he would have stopped
this?"
	"Minako..." Ukyou stepped towards her, suddenly looking worried.
	"No... he couldn't have." V began to laugh nervously. "I killed him with
one shot."
	"You WHAT?!" Ukyou's mouth gaped open.
	"Alucard, I remember him now. Back before all this started. I fought him
in a warehouse..." She paused and looked down. "Well, not really fought. But he
was threatening me!" she snapped suddenly. "I hit him with one of my attacks and
that put him down."
	Ukyou paused, then she began to laugh. She clutched her stomach and sat
down, she was laughing so hard. "Oh, thank you, you had me worried for a
moment."
	"What are you..."
	"I seriously doubt anything you could have done would have more than
inconvenienced Alucard," Ukyou explained, still chuckling.
	Now V was feeling a little peeved. "I put a hole through his chest the
size of a beachball!"
	"He once had his head chopped off and his body crucified," Ukyou replied
with a shrug. "I doubt that really hurt him. He must just have let you go
because you're a human, and he can't kill humans unless Integra orders him to."
	"I have holy light energy!" V shot back.
	"The person who beheaded him had blessed silvered bayonets," Ukyou
replied confidently. "No, Alucard is still out there. I'm sure of it." Then she
frowned. "I just have to find him and find out why he hasn't joined the fight."
She frowned deeper. "It's possible something might have happened to Integra..."
She shook her head, then stood up.
	"No use wasting our time with what-ifs," Ukyou pronounced. "I suggest
you get some rest. Today we're going to go pick up Alucard's trail at the only
place I know for sure he's been."
	"Hey, who put you in charge?" V asked as she stepped forward.
	"Do you have a better plan?" Ukyou asked directly.
	"I..."
	"I didn't think so." Ukyou turned around. "Don't worry... 'V', you'll
get plenty of chance to kill vampires. The place we're going is where Alucard
used to live and where the vampires have established their most powerful
stronghold in the city... the Hellsing Mansion."

*


	It was on a small hill, with a cherry tree hanging over it. The sun rose
behind it each morning, and set so that the words written on it would be
illuminated. It was quiet and alone. You could see the city from the hilltop,
but it seemed far away. It was some other place, filled with other people's
problems. This was a place where you were alone, alone to mourn.
	'Kaede Kunikida
	1976-1992
	Daughter'
	Kusanagi rested his hand on the grim stone marker. It was cold and
rough. It was stone, worse than a dead thing, because it had never even been
alive.
	"I thought I'd find you here."
	"Leave me alone, old man," Kusanagi said without looking back.
	"You weren't at the funeral," Kunikida pointed out. There was a rustling
sound as he resettled his trenchcoat on his shoulders. "I was wondering where
you were. Where you have been." Kusanagi just leaned forward and looked at the
stone marker for a long moment, as if trying to discern some hidden meaning in
the words. "I've come here every day, waiting for you." Kusanagi nodded
absently. "You turned off your phone."
	"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Kusanagi responded finally. The old
fart wasn't going to leave him alone.
	"Where have you been?" Kunikida asked. Kusanagi glanced over his
shoulder. Kunikida was standing just outside of the shade of the tree. He had a
fedora pulled low on his face to block out the glare of the sun. The loud and
angry words Kusanagi had been about to say died in his throat.
	Kunikida looked like hell. His face was pale and drawn, lines had etched
themselves into the corners of his eyes and his forehead. His cheeks were thin,
almost hollow. His eyes were bloodshot. There were grey hairs sticking out from
under his hat. He looked like he had aged twenty years in three weeks.
	"You look half-dead," was all Kusanagi could say.
	"I'm... tired..." Kunikida sighed and walked over to the cherry tree. He
leaned up against the trunk and slid down until he was sitting. He reached
absently into a few pockets until he fumbled out a pack of cigarettes and
matches. There was a short hiss as he lit up. "Filthy habit," Kunikida said
after taking a long draw. "I should give it up. It'll be the death of me."
	Kusanagi stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned to face the old
man. He looked down at his feet.
	"Where have you been?" the man repeated.
	"You know where I've been!" Kusanagi barked.
	Kunikida nodded. He breathed out a cloud of smoke. Kusanagi's nose
itched at the acrid scent of it. "Any luck?"
	"No..." Kusanagi admitted after a moment. The word came out forced,
regardless. "She's an elusive bitch, I'll give her that. Three weeks, and not a
peep."
	"I see..." Kunikida said with a sigh. He paused. "We need your help."
	Kusanagi nodded his head. He knew. He wasn't blind. It was all over the
news. Constant attacks, every day. The death toll was in the hundreds now, and
growing by three or four every day. Not much in a city of millions, but for a
place where the annual murder rate could be measured in the double digits just
last year?
	"It's Murakumo," Kunikida explained. "Him and the rest of the aragami.
He's looking for her, too." He glanced at Kusanagi, and there was reproach in
his eyes. "They're even less careful than you are."
	"It was only one building!" Kusanagi protested.
	"It was a school," Kunikida pointed out needlessly.
	"It was at night," Kusanagi growled out. "Nobody got hurt."
	"Did you find anything useful?"
	Kusanagi didn't respond.
	"We can't afford to be wasting energy like that," Kunikida said, his
voice hollow. "Chronos is working too. Monster attacks. The media thinks they
come from the same place as the aragami, and nobody is making them think any
different." Kunikida paused to take a puff of his cigarette. "I wish I knew what
they were after. This general confusion... it's not their style."
	"Who gives a shit?" Kusanagi cut him off. "I don't care about Murakumo
or Chronos or any of that! I want that bitch who killed Kaede! I want her dead!"
	"You think I don't!" Kunikida shouted suddenly, standing upright with a
spryness that belied his worn appearance. "That woman killed my child. MY CHILD!
You didn't have to watch, Kusanagi! I watched her tear out her soul and swallow
it! And worse yet, she used ME to do it! She turned one of my people. She took a
kind and decent woman and turned her into a monster, and made me trust her. I
should have seen it! I should have stopped it, but I didn't!" Kusanagi backed
off, the back of his knees banging into the top of Kaede's monument. Kunikida
was practically in his face now.
	"But I can't afford to live for revenge," Kunikida continued, his voice
calm again. "I have a city to protect." He looked down at his coat. "I've been
fighting a war with children, Kusanagi. You remember that girl Akira, and her
friend Kyosuke? They have friends, a lot of them. Entire gangs of them." He
grimaced. "I'm their coordinator, a glorified dispatcher. Yaegashi combs the
police bands, finds the latest attacks; I contact the nearest group." He turned
around and walked away, thankfully giving Kusanagi some space. "I send them to
fight monsters, to protect people. They do it willingly. They're good kids, all
of them." He paused. "But they aren't enough. If it weren't for the Sailor
Senshi, a lot of people would be dead that we couldn't get to in time. Even
with..."
	He spun, his coat flaring behind him. "You want revenge? So what? People
are dying out there, Kusanagi. We need you. You have speed and power that none
of those kids have. You could save lives."
	Kusanagi frowned at him. Then he crossed his arms and bowed his head. He
closed his eyes. "No."
	"Kusanagi-!"
	"I don't care about saving people, old man," Kusanagi replied flatly. "I
will find her. I will kill her." He turned around.
	"Why?" Kunikida asked suddenly. "You thought she was dead before... why
is this time so different?"
	Kusanagi didn't say anything. How could he? He had known, even when he
had thought she was dead. There had never been a body. And there had been her
words, on that cold night at the construction site. He had known. Now...
	"What about Momiji?" Kunikida asked, his voice full of bitterness.
Whether it was directed at Kusanagi, or himself, wasn't clear.
	"Tell her..." Kusanagi trailed off. What was there to say?
	He leapt up, landed atop the cherry tree and with another bound was
gone.

*


	Artemis leapt up onto the roof. The sun was glaring down on it, having
just reached its zenith, and he shook off the heat. He was just glad he shed
during the summer, else the temperature would have been unbearable. Of course,
the alternative, in this city, was gloom and rain and darkness. He supposed he
would rather the heat.
	"Hello, Artemis," Ukyou said calmly. She was sitting lotus-style in the
center of the roof, her hands cupped on her knees. She hadn't opened her eyes.
	"Isn't that jacket a little hot for this weather?" Artemis joked.
	She shrugged. "It's as cold as I want it to be."
	He sighed and walked over to her.
	"I'm sorry about earlier..." Ukyou opened her eyes a fraction to regard
him. He glanced up into her strange, inhuman eyes for a moment. Then he tossed
his head and flicked his tail, letting a smirk cross his features.
	"Don't worry about it," he responded. "You haven't done anything worse
than what Minako usually does on a daily basis."
	This caused Ukyou's mouth to twitch upward, but just for a moment. "I
take it the others are asleep?"
	"Yes." He laid himself out in front of her, stretching to get the kinks
out of his back. "That Ranma boy can sleep like a log, and Minako has learned to
sleep whenever she can catch a few stray minutes."
	"Good..." Artemis blinked in surprise as he found himself lifted up
unceremoniously into her lap. She then began to pat him, her hand firm but soft.
She even expertly scratched that stubborn spot he could never reach just before
beginning her stroke. He sighed and purred, absorbing it like an utter hedonist.
"At least you haven't changed that much," Ukyou noted wryly.
	"Pardon?" Artemis didn't shift position, since Ukyou was lavishing such
an expert amount of affection on him. "Have we met before?"
	"No," Ukyou replied swiftly. "I... used to think I knew you. I'm not so
certain, anymore." She shrugged. "Did Luna ever mention me?"
	"A little..." He chuckled. "Mainly to say that she didn't trust you, and
to complain about how rude you could be."
	"Yeah..." Ukyou's voice went suddenly cold again.
	"Do you... want to talk about it?"
	"What?" Ukyou started. "About what?"
	"You didn't like being the person I saw downstairs." He forced himself
to stand and step gingerly off her lap. She was glancing down at him now, her
expression unreadable. "Don't try to deny it. You aren't nearly as cold-hearted
as the things you said to Minako would make you seem."
	Ukyou clenched her hand into a fist and looked away. "You have no idea
what kind of person I am."
	"Ah, to be young and foolish again..." Artemis sighed dramatically.
	"As opposed to old and senile?" Ukyou said with forced venom.
	He waved his paw at her in a tsking manner. "I may be thousands of years
old and have a memory made of swiss cheese, but don't expect such a shallow ploy
to get me to back down."
	Ukyou seemed to consider this for a moment. "Why are you even bothering
to talk to me? Shouldn't you be more worried about Minako?" Artemis's heart
caught in his throat. He glanced down as Ukyou continued: "This way she's
acting... it's not healthy for her. I would think your first priority would be
helping the person you love rather than a complete stranger... or are you
abandoning her?"
	Damn her! Artemis arched his back and hissed under his breath. She knew.
She knew how much this was tearing him apart. But he forced himself to take a
deep breath and calm down. Getting mad was just what Ukyou wanted. She wanted
him to be full of anger and guilt and leave her alone. He wasn't about to play
into that game. The young woman had taken a bullet for him, literally. She had
saved Minako's life. She had stood up against an enemy that could easily have
killed her without a hint of fear.
	He owed her. If she didn't like how he chose to repay it, then that was
too bad. He wasn't an advisor and guide for nothing!
	"She won't let me in, anymore," Artemis explained. "She's too afraid
that I'll die too. That she won't be able to save me. So she just refuses to let
me get in anymore." He scratched at the roof absently. "In time... I know I'll
get through to her."
	"Or she'll end up being the evil she opposes."
	"That will never happen!" Artemis whirled on her, his back arching
again. Ukyou merely raised an eyebrow. Her expression said 'had enough yet,
cat?'. He calmed down again. "You're very good at this," he commented.
	"At what?"
	"Being an ass," he replied absently. "Must have had a lot of practice."
	"Indeed," she replied without inflection.
	"Ukyou, I came up here to speak with you because you saved my life and
you saved Minako's." He walked over and sat in front of her, schooling his
expression to seriousness. "I know you aren't a bad person. I saw the way you
treated Hotaru, I saw the way you looked at Ranma when he wasn't paying
attention. I've listened to all of Luna's stories about you... and while she
wasn't the most complimentary, she did insist that everything you had done, you
did for good reasons. Why are you pretending you don't care about any of this?
Why are you deliberately aggravating Minako?"
	"Because I'm not a good person," Ukyou explained, and her voice was
soft, but warmer than it had ever been in the entire conversation.
	"Why do you think that?"
	Ukyou paused. "I killed a man." She looked straight into his eyes, and
he forced himself to remain steady despite how unnerving those cold black lotus
orbs were. "You think I came here to help you?" She snorted. "No, Artemis. I
came here because you are going to help me. The girl I have with me is Sailor
Saturn." Artemis gasped. He staggered back a bit. He wasn't sure what the
words meant, but he knew they were bad. "I see at least part of you remembers. I
needed you to help fix her. She's broken, in her soul. There is a demon there.
Unless I exorcise it, it will destroy the world. And I can't. Only Sailor Moon
can. So I need you. Because you know Luna. You can find her. And where Luna is,
so shall be Sailor Moon.
	"So you see, I didn't take a bullet for you because I thought it was the
right thing to do. I did it to save my own skin." She stood up. "That's why I
did everything, Artemis. I see that now. I told myself it was because I wanted
to be a better person, or because I wanted to save my friends, but I don't think
that was true. It was all because I wanted to save my own skin and protect my
precious ego. I ranted and raved about morals and ethics and the abuse of
power... and for what? To make myself FEEL better!" Her voice was rising in
volume and pitch, slowly turning into a shriek.
	"And I can't even cling to those pretty words anymore. Because when the
chips were down, I killed a man. And if I did it once, I will do it again." She
glanced down, as if her eyes could pierce the ceiling beneath them and peer at
the sleeping figures below. "I would do it for him. Because..." She trailed off,
and her voice returned to an even tone again.
	"You're a good... person, Artemis," Ukyou said finally. "I can see you
just want to help. But save it for people who are worth saving. Minako needs
you. I'm already doomed." She closed her eyes and chuckled. "I just don't want
anyone else to be dragged down with me, at the end."
	"Ukyou, are you even listening to yourself?" Artemis shouted back. She
glanced at him. "I've heard Minako make the same argument a thousand times. She
thinks she's going to die in this fool's quest. Maybe she's right. But that
doesn't give her an excuse to close off her heart! The only thing you'll
accomplish by driving away everyone who can help you is making sure you end up
exactly where you think you'll go!"
	"I don't think anything can stop that, Artemis," Ukyou replied. "One
day, I will stand on a field under a cloudy sky and I will destroy the world."
She grinned mockingly. "Or so that's what they tell me." She looked away. "I
swore I would never end up like that. I clung to anything that would help me
prevent it, but nothing seems to work. I can't trust my own judgment. Who can?
Who can control the way they feel? Who can control love and hate?"
	"What are you talking about?"
	"Ask Sailor Pluto, if you ever meet her again." Ukyou grinned. "I'm
certain you'll see her again. She's on her way here already, to kill me." Ukyou
looked around the city. "And she will try. She has allies and strengths I can't
fight. She should win, but she hasn't yet." Ukyou shook her head. "I won't let
her win. I have things I have to take care of first."
	"Let her win..." Artemis balked. He had heard that tone of voice before.
The man had been a punk. He wore a leather jacket and a bandana with the union
jack on it. In the resistance, he had been a devil on the field. Artemis had
once watched him shove his multi-section staff through a brick wall with lazy
ease and stake the vampire on the other side. But then, one day, he returned
from a rescue mission. He had been carrying a tiny locket in one hand, a locket
covered in blood. That was when he began to talk like Ukyou was now.
	Artemis wished he could remember the punk's name. All he could really
remember was the man standing in the center of the burning warehouse they had
been using as a base. The massive form of Birdie looming over him, the traitor's
demonic yellow eyes wide as he stared at the staff sunk deep into his stained
walnut skin, right over his heart. Minako had long since left, pursued by the
dozen other vampires that Birdie had taken with him. This fight had been
private. Artemis had begged the man to flee with her, but he just looked down at
Artemis with dead eyes and patted his head once.
	Artemis tried to shake away the memory, but couldn't get the image of
the bloody gash in the punk's neck from his mind. He couldn't forget that last,
quiet and empty pat on the head. He had never told Minako what had happened.
	"What are you planning, Ukyou?" he asked, almost breathlessly.
	"Nothing..." Ukyou walked over to the fire escape. "Stay up here. I'm
going to get the others. We had better finish this before we lose the sun."
	Artemis stood up on the roof for awhile longer. The sun beat down on
him. He closed his eyes. "I'll remember your name..." he said to himself.

*

	The witch waited by the door as the wind of razor-sharp bones moved
through the room, ripping her flesh but leaving all else untouched.  Presently,
the doorbell rang, as the witch had already known it would, for that was why she
stood there.
	The witch opened the door, and gazed upon the princess, putting nothing
of her hatred into her gaze.  Instead, she smiled cheerfully.  "Why hello there!
You must be Usagi Tsukino.  Can I help you?"
	The princess smiled back, rocking back on her heels, her Ohtori uniform
well-suited to her blue eyes.  "Right!  And you must be... uh... Anthy, wasn't
it?"
	"That's right," the witch replied.  "And what brings you here today?"
Probably she should have led the conversation back to that only after a certain
amount of small talk, but every moment the witch spent in the princess' company
was a greater torment than all the shredding of flesh, powdering of bones and
boiling of vital fluids the witch had endured for countless centuries.
	"Umm, yeah..." the princess said, a little nonplussed.  Then she laughed
nervously.  "Well, I'm actually here to see your brother... you know, about
school stuff.  That is, if he's not busy doing something, uh, evil."
	"Oh," the witch said brightly.  "Well, I'll have to see if he can make
time, in his schedule of burning down orphanages and causing wars, to corrupt
your soul."
	The princess' only response to that was a single, long, slow blink.
	"Just kidding," the witch said.  "He always has time for students.  I
believe he's gazing at the stars now.  Why don't you follow me to the
planetarium?"
	The witch turned, walking over white-hot razors towards the elevator.
After a moment, the other girl followed across the marble floor.  As they waited
for the door to open, the princess leaned in conspiratorially.
	"He's not REALLY evil, is he?  I mean, Chris said he was, but he can't
be that evil, not really evvviiiilll evil, right?"
	The witch paused thoughtfully for a moment as they stepped into the
elevator.  "I suppose that answer depends on how evil you consider burning down
an entire building full of students merely to accomplish your goals is."  The
princess gaped in shock at that, and the witch turned to her and smiled
cheerfully.  "Just kidding."
	A small chime announced their arrival, and the door swung open to the
planetarium.
	Her brother, anticipating the arrival of this specific guest, was not in
his usual state of casual undress.  Instead, he was sitting upright on one of
the couches, gazing up at the projected stars on the ceiling and occasionally
leafing through a notebook.
	The princess looked at the witch's brother for a moment, and then a
longer moment, with the slightly dreamy expression the witch had seen in
uncountable others.  Abruptly, however, she shook herself out of it, bopping
herself on the head with both hands.  For his part, the witch's brother appeared
not to notice.
	Steeling herself, the princess marched forward, finally stopping in
front of the man.  With one hand on her hip and the other pointed accusingly,
she demanded, "Aren't you in charge of discipline at this school?"
	The witch, her part in the matter done for the moment, sank back into
the shadows between the projected stars.
	"Yes," the witch's brother answered, not raising his head.  "And don't
think I haven't heard about the trouble you've caused for your teachers."
	This caused the princess to flush in embarrassment, and hastily strive
to move the topic back under her control.  "This isn't about me!" she stammered.
	"Of course not," the man responded, finally raising his head and gazing
at her with his fathomless turquoise eyes.  "I'm certain you're not the sort of
girl who would come here complaining about your own problems."
	The princess visibly grew more confident.  "That's right.  I remember
you said you would protect us here!  Well, one of my friends is being bullied,
and I want you to protect her!"
	The witch appreciated for a moment, as much as she was capable of
appreciating anything, the irony of her brother being asked to rescue a
princess.  Her brother appreciated it as well, though it did not show on his
face.  In fact, his eyes narrowed slightly, as if annoyed.
	"I see.  Has she been physically hurt, or molested in some way that I
should be aware of?  As you may now, we take such infractions very seriously at
this academy."
	"Uh, well... no, not really." The girl paused and collected her
thoughts.  "It's this girl, Kozue is her name.  She keeps stealing Ami's notes,
burning her schoolbooks, and vandalising her term papers.  It's really upsetting
for poor Ami, and I want you to stop her!"
	The man nodded thoughtfully, putting aside his clipboard.  He then
leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands.  "That does sound like something
that might require my involvement.  However, have you made every effort to
resolve this matter without getting teachers involved?"
	This caused the princess to cross her arms and stomp around a bit in
frustration.  "I've tried talking to her, but Kozue is so... so... she has this
idea her brother Miki and Ami are in love, and that's just silly, because they
haven't even been on a single date yet!  I mean, they've studied and played
piano together, but that was just for classes!  But Kozue won't listen to
reason!  And she's accusing ME of trying to set them up as a couple, now, and
says she'll do the same things or worse to me if I don't back off!"
	The man arched an eyebrow.  "Are you?"
	"Well, of COURSE I am!" the princess declared.  "But that's no reason to
threaten me like that!"
	The witch's brother leaned back, resting one arm on the back of the
couch.  "I see.  It seems this is indeed a problem.  I know the girl you speak
of, and her twin brother.  It is quite possible reason will not work."  He
smiled slightly, a dangerous smile.  "I could intervene.  I could certainly MAKE
her stop.  Is that what you're asking me to do, Miss Tsukino?"
	The princess opened her mouth to declare her agreement, then her eyes
fell upon the man's smile, and her mouth snapped closed like a trap.  Her
posture slumped, and then she began waving her hands in front of her.  "No, no,
nothing like that!  Can't you do something without being, um, evil?"
	The man chuckled softly in the back of his throat, the sound almost like
a purr.  "I'm afraid I am only capable of doing things for wicked purposes, Miss
Tsukino."
	The witch frowned.  There.
	For a long moment, the words hung in the air.  Then the princess spoke,
and her next words would have caused the man to smile, had she been unable to
see his expression.  "You're not serious about that, right?  You're just kidding
like your sister was."
	"I'm not lying to you, Miss Tsukino.  Indeed, I swore not to do so to
our mutual friend."
	The princess looked slightly embarrassed at that.  "Well, I know Chris
said a lot of... stuff about you, but we've been here a while now, and I haven't
seen you go out and hurting children or attacking the Earth with your evil
empire or anything."
	"Empires, and the fate of random ten-year-olds, are no longer concerns
of mine."
	"You see?  I knew it!  You're not all bad!  You talk like it, but it's
like the super evil-pretty-boy-angsting-mystique thing you've got going, right?
I see characters like that in comic books all the time!"
	The man sighed, and the sound carried layers of meaning.  "I'm afraid
not, Miss Tsukino.  While I will admit to putting on displays for the benefit of
certain students, with you I promised to say nothing but the truth.  If you
leave this meeting with any notion, the one that would be most helpful for you
is to understand that I am evil to the core, can never be redeemed, and should
not be trusted under any circumstances."
	The witch could see the impact of his words on the princess.  With each
declaration, he only succeeded at convincing her more and more of the opposite
conclusion.
	"Everybody can be saved," the princess said stubbornly, and for a
moment, the undiluted, primal faith in her voice caused even the witch to pause.
Then reality came crashing back down, and the witch hated her all the more.
	The man smiled indulgently.  "I once thought as you did. Back before the
words 'time' and 'place' had meaning, I believed there was goodness in all
people.  Shall I tell you a story of that time?"
	The princess, not quite knowing what else to do, simply nodded.
	"Very well. Once upon a time, there was a prince.  He stood in a high
castle, and all the world was without.  And atop the tallest parapet, the prince
would gaze into the world, and see the troubles that plagued mankind.
	"The people loved the prince's benevolent gaze, for when it fell upon
them, their troubles were no more.  Even though many of their hearts were filled
with malice and jealousy and greed, the prince loved them all, and he aided them
all equally.  For he saw in them the pure things they could be, rather than the
base things they were.
	"And of all the peoples of the land that loved the prince, those who
loved him most were the girls.  For in this land outside the castle walls, all
girls were either princesses or witches.  And no matter how dark their heart
was, any girl the prince's gaze fell upon became a princess, and she need not be
a witch any longer.
	"And yet, there was one girl who was always a witch.  The prince took
her into his home behind the castle walls, and he loved her like a sister.  But
no matter how much love and affection the prince gave her, she remained a witch.
Perhaps a happy witch, but who can say what lives in the hearts of witches?
	"In time, the witch, who was the only one to see the prince in his own
home, came to understand the prince's great sadness.  For all other things he
could elevate, but he alone had to endure the malice and greed and jealousy he
was taking from the world.
	"And the witch, seeing this, decided that she loved him, and wanted him
to endure it no more."
	The princess was rapt in the man's words, which had the measured cadence
of a master storyteller.  She had fallen back upon the couch, her legs unwilling
or unable to support her.  The witch's brother's velvet voice encircled her, and
he drew her ever deeper into the story.
	"One day, while the prince was resting from his heroic endeavours, the
witch stepped outside his castle doors, and barred them forever.  She declared
in a loud voice: 'You people of this world, who give nothing to him but malice
and jealousy and greed, do not deserve the prince any longer.  I alone have not
burdened myself to him, and so I alone deserve his love.'
	"A great uproar rose across all the lands beyond the castle, and the
people came to the castle, drawing their flashing blades and demanding entrance,
but the witch was adamant.  And so, in their rage and grief, they fell upon her.
And that would have been the end of it, except such sins can not be punished
merely by simple death.  And so the witch has lingered, forever tormented by the
swords of those who had been deprived of their prince, since time started again.
And with each passing day, she grows more twisted by her punishment."
	The man's voice died away, and there was a moment of silence almost
immediately broken by a loud honk as the princess blew her nose.  Then she threw
her head back, wailing, "That's a terrible story!"
	The witch's brother smiled slightly again.  "Only storybook authors
should believe in happy endings."
	"But... but what happened to the prince?  Can't he come out of his
castle and help the poor witch?"
	The man shrugged, holding up his hands helplessly.  "I tried."  The
princess' eyes widened, but the witch's brother continued regardless, "But I
found that the only way to escape the castle walls was to leave behind all that
made me a prince."  Now he did pause, and his next words sounded reflective.
"At first, it was quite novel.  I enjoyed living without having to take all the
burdens of the world upon me.  At first, I truly believed the witch had done it
to save me, out of love.  And for awhile, I thought that my belief in the
goodness of all things had been justified."  His expression darkened, lip
twisting slightly.  "In time, however, I came to understand: what she had done
had not been done out of love for me, but out of the same malice, jealousy and
greed that all other people had within them.  And I hated her for it.  With each
passing day, I grew less and less interested in saving her from her eternal
punishment, and more and more interested in saving me from mine."
	The princess suddenly bolted to her feet, her long hair and skirt
rippling around her as she stood.  Pointing her finger toward the projected
image of the moon, she declared loudly, "I can't stand leaving it like that!
That's a terrible ending to a story!  I'm going to make sure you have a happy
ending, whether you like it or not!"
	"That is a fool's quest, Miss Tsukino," the man noted simply.  "There
are some battles that cannot be won, even by a princess."
	The princess looked down upon him, and pity shone in her brilliant blue
eyes, somehow unmarred by the tears that still glittered there.  For a moment,
the witch again felt the pure power of her belief rushing through the room like
a torrent.  Dimly, she realised she had never felt such a strong faith before,
in all her centuries. "You're wrong," the princess stated, and her voice no
longer sounded like that of a fourteen year old girl.  "Winning battles like
that is why I'm here."
	Without another word, the princess turned on her heel and strode from
the observatory.

*

	Rip Van Winkle stormed down the hallway. There were a few other vampires
here. More instants, more freaks. Not everyone had been killed. The Major needed
an army, and just ghouls would not have been enough. So he recruited. Men of
power, prestige and skill. He pressed them into service with the promise of
immortality, and made them monsters.
	She glanced coldly at one of them and the pathetic limey rushed out of
her path. What did these people know of monsters? She wished she had the
control, the little device that Doc carried around. With it, he had access to
all the freak chips he had implanted in each and every one of them. He could
read the senses of them, examine their bodies... and destroy them. For a moment
she reached up and clenched a fist over her own chest.
	She wasn't sure where the chip was in her own body. She suspected it was
the heart. It was funny how such a tiny thing could make so great a difference.
Her mind shied away from the operation. She only remembered being led by the
Major into a dark room, deep underground. Her keen hunter's nose had made her
sick at the smell of the place, so like a charnel house. She remembered standing
up, her cheeks burning. She couldn't stand appearing so weak in front of him,
the man who had believed in her when no one else would. But he had only laughed.
	'Fraulein, it is not a bad thing to admit to your own weaknesses,' he
had said, and gently lifted her head up, wiping the vomit from her chin with a
pristine white handkerchief. 'To understand what is weak about us only makes us
better warriors. For in understanding it, we can excise it. As I shall excise
all human weakness from you.'
	But he had left her alone in that terrible room. The room full of dark
tubes and sparking machines and terrible ominous darkness. The man who had
greeted her was tall, with stringy blond hair and a leather suit stained with
awful substances. His eyes had been hidden behind a pair of goggles and he had
grinned at her the way a spider does. Beyond him had been the table...
	And Rip remembered nothing more. She only remembered waking up and
feeling power. It had coursed through her dead veins like cold fire, accompanied
by the terrible certainty of her own death. But in her death she had found the
scent of life, all the world's flavours, increased a thousandfold in contrast.
She had been excised of all her human weakness and made into a monster. She had
waited patiently, almost fifty years, for these glorious days. Her inhuman
strength, her 'magic bullet', her hunter's uncanny instincts... all of them paid
for gladly with prices that would make others sick just to think of them.
	And for what?
	Her boot kicked open the door with enough force that it flew off its
hinges. The heavy mahogany crashed to the ground with a deafening clatter. All
motion on the other side of the door ceased for a few moments.
	But only a few.
	"Whoa, chill, bitch. If you wanted me that badly, all you had to do was
ask." Rip's eyes narrowed as the sick little man leered at her. He wasn't very
tall, and he had dark skin that made him look almost Mediterranean. His hair was
short and greasy, but mainly hidden under a cap with an Egyptian eye stitched
into it. She wondered briefly if he wore the cap to make up for the hideous ruin
that was his left eye. The eye had obviously been badly damaged at some point,
and now there were only twitching remnants of it. But other than the cap, he was
completely naked. A young woman with crew-cut blond hair was sitting on his lap,
wearing a black leather outfit of some kind. "Just let me finish with this thing
and I'll be right with you."
	Rip walked over to him slowly and methodically. Then she reached up and
adjusted her glasses with one finger. She smiled, a demure and childish
expression. "I'll allow myself to overlook your wulgarity und lack of sufficient
discipline for now. I only ask zat you refrain from talking to me in such a
disrespectful manner und conceal your shame, post haste."
	"Huh?" the man blinked, a sickening process. "Shit. I don't think I have
any idea what you just said, bitch."
	"Ja... I see..." She took a deep breath. Then she reached out and
grabbed the vampire whore by the neck. With a single twist she ripped the
creature's head from her torso and tossed the bloody body away. "I said stop
talking like zat und put some clothes on now or I vill kill you!" she said
sweetly, this time smiling with all her fangs showing.
	The man looked at her for a second, then he laughed. "Oh yeah. I think I
like you."
	"Vat part of 'now' do you not understand?" she hissed. The man only
flowed off the couch and stood in front of her, an irritating smile on his face.
She would have loved to wipe it off, and most of his face with it, but the Major
had ordered her to not harm these fools.
	"Mainly the part about obeying orders," a new voice said. In comparison
to the dark-skinned vampire's annoying high-pitched whine, this one was cool and
collected, almost regal. She gratefully took the chance to glance away from the
wretch in front of her. The man standing in the doorway was tall and handsome,
with long blonde hair and country-club good looks. He wore a richly tailored
white suit and stood with the grace of a male model. He flashed perfectly white
teeth at her. "I guess you would be the help the Major sent us to deal with-"
	He cut off sharply as Rip threw the object she had been holding in her
other hand at him. He leaned his head to the side almost lazily, the object
imbedding itself into the doorframe mere centimeters from his ear.
	"Hmmm? What's this?"
	"Oh, a present," the other man said. "I think she likes you, bro." He
continued under his breath, "He gets all the chicks."
	Rip choose to ignore him. The tall, handsome one had pulled her
projectile from the wood with a bit of effort. He was looking down at the thing
in his hand with idle curiosity.
	"It is exactly vat it looks like," Rip said, approaching him. "A lead
shot, with a silver-coated spatula embedded in it."
	"I see..." The man continued to inspect it, as if expecting some great
revelation to come from it any moment.
	"I haf another, just like it, if you vish to see," she offered sweetly.
He glanced up at her, then his eyes widened as she snapped out her hand and
grabbed him around the throat. She easily lifted him up, banging his head
against the top of the doorframe. "Now kindly tell me vhy you haf never reported
this to the Major."
	The one-eyed man was laughing now.
	"I have no idea what you're talking about!" he said, force slowly
returning to his voice. Rip held him up for a minute longer. He looked down at
her coolly, no fear in his eyes. Finally she released him and he landed on his
feet with a dancer's grace.
	"I believe you," she said simply and turned to walk away.
	"Wait!" he called. She paused in mid-step. "What is this about? If it is
something affecting my city, I think I should know."
	Rip kept her disgust from showing on her face. The thought of these
two... but she dismissed it. The Major had ordered her to work with them, and
she would obey his orders until her mission was complete. She was the huntress,
Rip Van Winkle. No prey escaped her.
	"Earlier today, before daybreak, I escorted a small squadron of wampires
into the city. Ve ambushed und nearly killed the girl known as 'V'. At the final
moment, her life was saved by the sudden appearance of two martial artists. Vone
of them used a throwing spatula to knock my bullets out of the air." Rip did not
elaborate on how impossible that should have been. Discounting the fact that her
bullets traveled at almost Mach 3, discounting the fact that they could rip
apart a tank or pierce the armour of a battleship, discounting all that, she
still could control the speed and path of her bullet as if she were directing
her own hand. No martial artist, no matter how strong, should have been able to
do that.
	She knew this for certain. She had been one of the special elites, the
unit known as Werewolves, that had been sent into that pitiful military camp in
the country they had been hiding in for nearly fifty years. The Major had grown
concerned. The mercenaries had somehow learned of his infiltration of the
Brazilian government and begun to hamper his movements. Their man on the inside,
a worthless cardshark by the name of Tubalcain, had even been fool enough to get
himself killed in a one-on-one duel with their leader, a man named Heidern.
	Rip allowed herself to grin. It had been great fun to splatter Heidern's
brains across the grey tarmac of his base. Especially with that blue-haired girl
screaming at her the whole time, unable to do anything as the Captain held her
down. She could do nothing against his relentless strength. But then, they had
been ordered to take as many of them alive as possible.
	"So... you attempted to kill V, did you?" the tolerable one said
smoothly.
	"Ja," Rip replied. She reached behind her and unlimbered her long
musket.
	"And you failed..." he continued. Rip narrowed her eyes.
	"I vas not told about the continued actions of martial artists vithin
the city. According to all the reports you sent to the Major, the only active
resistance in this city was from V. Are you saying zat you sent faulty
intelligence, Luke Valentine?"
	"Nothing of the sort," the man replied quickly. "This is a new player. I
have seen nothing from any of my intelligence to indicate who this person could
be. Martial artists tend to be quite unique in their choice of weaponry and
styles." He looked down at the spatula in his hand. "I suspect we are dealing
with a newcomer to the city and..."
	He trailed off as Rip began loading her weapon. It was a long process.
First one had to place the powder, then one had to ram down the wax. This was
followed by placing in the lead shot. She had learned to do this all with a
speed that was impossible for mortals, but still took some time at it. She
bitterly remembered the desperate rooftop battle as she struggled to keep away
from that implacable woman in black, who simultaneously tried to prevent Rip
from reloading her weapon with all her considerable skill. It was like the enemy
had known all her tricks beforehand.
	"What are you doing?" the man asked.
	"I am preparing a veapon of var, little man. It is generally done on the
presumption that one shall use it in the near future for the fulfillment of
var's primary objective. That is, it shall be utilised in the removal of the
capacity for recovery, resistance and retreat from an opponent." She smiled
pleasantly at him.
	"Dude, she's talking like a dictionary again," the intolerable one
replied. Rip glanced at him. At least he had put some clothes on while she
wasn't paying attention.
	"For the benefit of those of considerable unintelligence, I shall
explain..." She spun her gun and aimed it at one of the walls of the venerable
old house. She took a deep breath, drawing in the scent. "I am preparing to kill
someone. I suggest you do the same, for we haf company."
	Rip grinned. It appeared that this hunt would be over very quickly.

*

	Ranma knew something had gone wrong with the plan the moment the window
blasted outward. A high-pitched whine shot through the air, and Ranma could just
barely see a streak of grey as it curved through the sky and fell towards them.
Ukyou cursed something and grabbed him and V, jerking them to the ground. A
moment later the tree Ranma had been hiding behind shot out a geyser of
woodchips and sawdust, a hole boring through the thick wood. He flicked his
eyes, trying to follow the path of the projectile as it curved through the air
away from him, but even so it was out of sight quickly.
	"It's too fast..." Ranma muttered.
	"Doesn't matter!" Ukyou snapped as she stood up. Her hand dipped into
her coat as she ran forward, angling her steps to run nimbly up the side of a
tree. The underbrush she had just left was torn up as the bullet passed
beneath her. Before she even fell her coat snapped behind her as she threw her
hand down. There was a silver flash and then the buzzing stopped as the bullet
spun harmlessly into the trunk of another tree. "Get going."
	"This is insane," V said, climbing to her feet. "The Hellsing mansion is
the base of operations for these people! There must be thousands of ghouls in
there, and some of the strongest vampires!"
	Ranma keep his eyes on the mansion.  It had the look of age to it, with
several sprawling buildings arrayed around the complex and linking gardens. Most
of the windows were busted, and hundreds of small holes decorated the walls.
Statues and gardens had been torn up, vandalised or otherwise destroyed. It
didn't look like a place where people would live. But then again, nobody did
live there.
	"All the more reason to only stay as long as necessary," Ukyou pointed
out.
	V shook her head and clenched her fist. "If you want to level the place,
I can do it. A few shots and I should be able-"
	"NO!" Ukyou grabbed V's wrist and pulled it down. "If you fire
indiscriminately into that place, you'll erase the very thing I'm after."
	"What? This Alucard?" V shook her head. "This is a fool's errand.
I'm..."
	"Get down!" Ukyou commanded, pushing her down. A moment later a grey
blur blasted through the air over V's head. V blinked. "We don't have time to
argue. Just... keep them busy!"
	And Ukyou leapt up into the air again, bouncing from one treelimb to
another. The bullet arced through the air, but followed her. Ranma stared at his
friend as she reached the end of the forest and took one long leap across the
open space between it and the mansion. The distance must have been close to
thirty meters, but he could tell Ukyou would clear that with ease. She was
getting stronger, he reflected.
	Her coat cracked as she flung another spatula at the pursuing bullet. He
could just barely see it juke right to dodge her attack, but she had already
thrown another. The second caught the bullet, sending it plummetting to the
ground.
	"Come on," Ranma reached out his hand, helping V to her feet. "We can't
stay out here forever."
	"This is suicide..." V groused. Her eyes were hidden behind her beak-
like mask, but Ranma could see the annoyance on her features. He laughed.
	"No, it isn't," Ranma said, serious again. He turned and looked at the
mansion. The windows were being kicked open, and he could see dark figures
lurking in the shadows inside. Long slick barrels began to be pointed out of the
mansion towards the forest. Ranma started towards the edge of the woods. "Ukyou
has a way of surviving. She has a way of winning, even when you think she has no
right to. And she thinks bigger than us." He began to pick up speed, and V had
to rush to keep up with him. "We'll win this, just you watch."
	"Right... I just wish Artemis was here..." V murmured, just before Ranma
burst out of the woods and into the clearing around the massive mansion. Then
her words were drowned out in the roar of machinegun fire. Ranma laughed and
tucked himself low. With each looping step he pushed himself left and right at
random. The unmowed lawn flickered and blurred under his feet as he poured
everything he had into his legs. All the speed training Ukyou had made him do
paid off, as he sprinted across the ground too fast for the enemy to get a bead
on him with their guns.
	He was coming up to the wall now, and briefly considered which window to
go through. They were all full of dark figures firing hundreds of rounds a
second. Then he laughed again. Who needed a window?
	The wall shattered as he burst through it, his arms crossed in front of
him to protect his face. The pulverised masonry floated around him like a cloud
as he drifted into the hallway. It was made of wood. He grinned. There were
probably fifty ghouls in the hallway, all moving slowly to draw a bead on him.
Before he even landed his hands lashed out, fifty times. Each time, a hand-sized
piece of the destroyed wall was sent flying with uncanny accuracy to embed
itself in the heart of one of the creatures.
	He landed in the hallway, dust kicking up from his slippers. The remains
of the wall clattered around him. The ghouls landed a second later, with more
final-sounding thumps.
	A second later he was joined by V. He could hear the sound of the
machine guns still firing outside and he wondered idly how she had run through
the gauntlet. Then he saw her lower her arms. There was some kind of golden
shield there, but Ranma realised as soon as he looked that it wasn't a shield.
It was a series of crisscrossing links, each shaped like a golden heart. In both
fists she clenched an end of the glowing chain. She looked at him and smirked.
	"Wink Chain Shield," she explained. "Not quite as suicidal as running
thirty meters across no-man's land."
	"Neat trick," Ranma commented. Then he paused, and spun, knocking V
against a wall with his shoulder.
	The report of the gun going off was almost deafening, and he only had a
second to feel the sudden pain in his shoulder before he was spun in the
opposite direction and fell off his feet. He rolled expertly and came to his
feet further down the hallway.
	At the intersection further down a man was standing. He was tall, with
long flowing blonde hair and an immaculate white suit. He was standing side-on,
one hand extended. Gripped in his gloved hand was an old-fashioned pistol. He
was smirking.
	"That should have taken your shoulder off, and most of your arm," he
said in an urbane tone. Ranma frowned and probed his shoulder. The shirt was
gone, torn to shreds where the bullet had hit. But aside from what was going to
be a huge bruise, the skin was unbroken.
	"I'm tougher than I look," Ranma commented.
	"You martial arts types always are..." the vampire commented. V was
rising beside Ranma now, Ranma knew the shot had been meant for her, but he had
felt the rise in the chi just in time. Whoever this was, it was no ordinary
vampire. Ranma hadn't even sensed him approach.
	"Get out of here," Ranma told V calmly.
	"We're supposed to stick-"
	"This is my fight," Ranma informed her. The monster at the end of the
hallway raised a manicured eyebrow and his smile widened slightly. Ranma felt
his spirit rising inside him and he didn't even try to hold it back. The air
around him began to shimmer as his hot chi radiated out.
	"I see you are well-trained," the man said, stepping forward. Ranma
narrowed his eyes. "But don't think you intimidate me. I'm not just any instant
monster. I studied your ways, before I was turned. I know all about the secrets
of the spirit." He began to laugh. "No mortal martial artist can hope to fight
me and win."
	"I can," Ranma said. He felt his anger swelling inside him, and he
embraced it. But at the same time he felt the excitement... the NEED of the
battle filling him. This monster that stood before him, with his cultured words
and pretty-boy face, he was drawing something out of Ranma. Ranma had felt it
simmering inside ever since he had come to England. He had tried to draw it out
in every fight since, but it had refused to come. But something about the way
this man moved, it blew past that barrier.
	"Ranma, if we fight together..." V began.
	"I'll have a hundred ghouls here in a few seconds," the man replied.
"No, you run along, girl. This is the kind of fight I've been looking for for a
long time. If I can't have my duel with Alucard, maybe you will do in his
place?"
	Ranma frowned. V was hesitating. "Remember the plan," he hissed. "Get
going, we have a job to do here." That seemed to force her decision. With a nod,
she took off down the hallway. The fair-haired vampire had stopped approaching,
his polished leather shoes only a few centimeters from the sunbeam Ranma's hole
had let into the building.
	"I am Luke Valentine," the man introduced himself. He lowered his gun
hand and bowed fractionally, crossing the gun hand across his chest as he did
so. Then Ranma saw it. He was just like Vega.
	Ranma smiled. "I don't care," he shouted, and leapt across the beam.
Luke met him, and Ranma couldn't have been happier.

*

	"Stupid idiots," V shouted as she ran through the Hellsing mansion. The
ghouls around her were not like normal ghouls. They carried guns and knew how to
use them. Most of them wore body armour, and carried large riot shields. Not
that that protected them. The Love and Beauty Shock flew in front of her. Its
mere passage blasted through metal and flesh alike without slowing, and the
monsters exploded into showers of ash and dust in its wake. A second later the
hallway in front of her was clear.
	She skidded to a stop at the next corner. She glanced around, and just
managed to pull back before a stream of gunfire tore her apart. There were
another hundred of the things marching down this hallway. "Stupid Ukyou, with
her stupid plan." Make a diversion. Make a diversion? What kind of plan was
that? She had no idea why she had even agreed to come along on this suicide
mission.
	No, she knew. Because it would HURT them. In all her time with the
resistance, nobody had dared suggest something so reckless as this. But she had
been itching to do it for weeks. So, she had leapt at the chance. She clenched
her hands.
	The ghouls were almost to her location, by the sound of it. Time for
them to learn why they should fear her. She dropped her hand to her side and
wordlessly summoned the Love Me Chain. Then with a cry she snapped it out and
the links snapped around the corner. She heard and saw the gunfire start, but
she ignored it. She had learned that the chain did not act as normal chains did.
It had no momentum, no inertia unless she wanted it to. The entire thing moved
only in reaction to her thoughts. So she controlled it as one would an arm,
causing it to dart around the corner and strike like a snake.
	She felt the chain snap through their bodies like a hot knife through
butter. She grimly continued her work, waiting until there was no more gunfire.
Then she smiled and stepped around the corner. The problem with ghouls was that
they were stupid. They kept firing, even when there was no hope of winning. And
they never retreated or found cover. Against normal opponents, their
supernatural resilience was enough to make up for this. But the slightest touch
of her magic reduced them to ash.
	She strode briskly through the mansion, stopping only briefly to
eradicate any ghouls she found along the way. But she knew it couldn't be this
easy. The real enemy wasn't these pathetic beings she was sending along to the
next life, but who had made them.
	Just as she was thinking that, V stepped into the grand foyer of the
mansion. It was like something out of a period novel, with two arching
staircases leading up to a balcony overlooking the marbled ground floor. A
crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, and along the walls were a series of
tall iron candelabras. She frowned and paused in the entranceway.
	Directly across from her, sitting on top of a couch that was covered in
unidentifiable gore, was a vampire. He was short, dark-skinned and wore a black
outfit. He was draped casually over the couch, smoking an cigar. He turned to
look at her, and V's mouth tightened. One of his eyes was missing, but he hadn't
bothered to hide this fact behind an eyepatch. A golden Egyptian eye stared out
from the rolled up brim of his ski cap.
	"About time you got here, bitch," the vampire said. He tapped the cigar,
knocking ashes onto the couch. "I've gone through half this thing already, and I
was not gonna light another. Do you know how expensive cubans are?"
	"No." V glanced around. She could see the ghouls lurking in the shadows.
They waited in all the entrances, just waiting for the command to enter. She
grinned. Let him think they would save him. She stepped inside. "I don't really
care. I'm here to kill you."
	"Wow. That is, like, so strange!" He stood up. "I mean, here I was,
about to say the exact same thing, when you just stole the words right out of my
mouth." He smiled and stuck the cigar in his lips again as he said that,
continuing to talk around it.
	V raised her hand and pointed it at him. "Are you going to shut up, or
do I shut you up?""
	"Oh, a test!" the vampire replied, grinning. "Wait, wait, I never did do
much good at multiple choice." He closed his eye and tapped his chin, pretending
to think over the answer. "Ah fuck it. School is for chumps, anyway. I'll just
take option C: I kill the fuck out of you, so you don't have to listen to me
anymore!"
	He snapped his fingers and the ghouls filed into the room with military
precision. The clatter of their boots and the echo of their guns being trained
on her blocked out all sound for a second. V didn't move. She knew she wasn't
really as fast as Ranma, or some of the other martial artists she had met. Her
armour couldn't block bullets. But she had advantages that none of them had.
	V was made to kill them.
	She didn't even say a thing, instead her hand merely snapped up. The
Love Me Chain materialized above her, snapping into the chandelier. The ghouls
began firing, but they were too slow. V didn't have to climb or swing up the
chain, she could just will it shorter, and it was. It lifted her right out of
the line of fire and into the chandelier in an instant. Then she snapped both
hands to her side, extending her fingers in all directions.
	"Venus Full Circle!" she roared, and light flew from each of her
fingertips. With a kick, she sent the chandelier spinning, and so the beams spun
around the room. Where they passed, ghouls became dust. They didn't even have a
chance to adjust their aim to fire at her.
	She grinned and stopped the chandelier with a hand she pressed against
the ceiling. Then she saw the dark-skinned vampire grinning at her. He was
rising from behind the couch, which had shielded him from her assault. And on
his shoulder he was carrying a rocket launcher.
	"Dodge this, bitch!"
	V's eyes widened and she let herself fall from the chandelier. The
rocket flew up into the ceiling, leaving a trail of smoke. The vampire was
laughing so loud his braying voice could be heard just over the roar. V landed
on the ground easily, and the ceiling above her exploded. The chandelier fell,
burning shards of crystal raining down around her. She rolled to the side,
trying to get out from under the debris. That was when she saw the man drop the
first rocket launcher and raise his other arm over the couch, where he carried a
second.
	The next thing V knew, she was lying on the ground groaning. She was
buried under a pile of rubble, only her head and one arm free. She looked down
and saw her outstretched hand gripped around her flickering chain. The other end
was tied around a bannister rail on one of the stairwells, only a few
centimeters from her hand. Her ears were ringing, and she had a splitting
headache. But she had avoided the other rocket...
	There was a crunch as something heavy stepped onto the rubble she was
under. She looked up and blanched as she stared into the barrel of a rather
large gun.
	"Fuck yeah," the vampire said. "Totally fucking beat you like a bitch,
didn't I? Can't believe anybody had any trouble with you." He grinned around the
cigar in his mouth. V frowned.
	"You going to gloat all day?"
	"Nah." He grinned. "I think I'll just shoot you. Who the fuck cares if
you're still screaming when I eat you, anyway?"

*

	Ukyou's lungs were burning. Sweat was pouring down her face in sheets,
and it was all she could do to keep it out of her eyes. Not that she was really
using her eyes to navigate anymore.
	A split-second warning was all she got. Reacting to Aaron's mental
shout, she kicked up the wall, backflipping as the lead shot tore through the
wall beside her and then vanished again through the other side. She didn't
pause, she just kept running. A pair of ghouls were in the hallway, but she just
charged between them, her hands flashing out and beheading them with the
spatulas she held.
	She had to fight the ghouls on her own, but it was no real challenge.
She was moving too fast for them to really manage to gang up on her. And while
she was nowhere near as fast as Ranma, she was still fast enough to close in and
finish them before they could draw a bead on her with their guns.
	It would have been easier, if she could have spared to energy to enhance
her Wind Chakra to its maximum. But Aaron needed every spare mote of power they
could spare. He was keeping track of too much at once to let his concentration
slip for an instant, so most of their chi was being delivered into their Void
Chakra. Even now he was following the path of the bullet as it curved through
the mansion to try and get them. He was also keeping a mental note of Rip Van
Winkle. She was easily the strongest source of dark energy in the mansion, and
he could follow her as she ran from room to room. He also kept tabs on Ranma and
Minako, as much as he could. All that, and he was still looking for some sign of
Alucard.
	It was a deadly game of cat and mouse they were playing with the vampire
sharpshooter. He focused in, locking on the trajectory of her magic bullet. As
he did so, he pictured the myriad paths it could take in his mind, a thousand
imagined lines flickering through the air to show where the thing would come
from. With each split second, more and more of the lines vanished as the
projectile grew closer. Until at last there was only one line it could travel.
	Ukyou flipped a spatula from her coat, throwing it at an innocuous part
of the hall. The bullet hadn't even cleared the drywall before it was struck and
went dead in the wall. But even as he did that, he felt Rip fire another shot
from deeper in the mansion. She was good, and getting better.
	He had almost missed a few key feints already. A shallow nick on their
leg and a bloody gouge across their ribs proved that. This was nothing like the
battle they had fought last time. Then it had been him chasing her across the
rooftops, desperately trying to prevent her from reloading before she could
fire. Then he had enjoyed the benefit of wide open space to move. Now there was
no way he could reach her before she could reload her musket, and Ukyou's dodges
were getting razor-thin. In a few more minutes, Rip would have their number.
	It was a good thing he had never planned on fighting Rip Van Winkle.
	Ukyou paused for a moment in her flight as they passed by a ornate door.
The door was off its hinges, and the mahogany had been burned and covered with
gore, but you could still tell the value of it. Aaron had told her to stop, to
go inside, and she did so.
	The door crashed down as Ukyou walked into the large bedroom. A four-
poster bed stood as the centerpiece, its upholstery ripped and torn. Corpses,
too mangled to even serve as ghouls, had been left to rot here and there. The
wardrobe and closet had been torn to shreds and the remains of clothing
fluttered feebly in the draft from the shattered window. All the clothes were
masculine, but of a feminine cut.
	Aaron took a moment to focus on the bullet. It was buzzing around the
room, circling them. Rip was biding her time. Aaron had discovered that she was
not quite as good as telling where he was as he was with her. Her senses must
have been keen, but she seemed to have some trouble homing in on him
specifically. More than a few times, Ukyou had not even had to dodge as the
bullet flicked by them. It was his only advantage in the fight, and it seemed to
grow when he was moving slowly. Now, standing still, was she having trouble
focusing on him?
	Whatever the reason, he decided not to waste it. He closed his eyes and
felt the world around him, shifting all the energy they had left into the mental
ethereal chakra that fueled his senses. He could feel the tremors of the chi
around them, sick and tainted. It was like sticking your head into a cesspool,
or something worse. He could feel the tremor as Ranma fought somewhere in the
mansion, his hot energy vibrating through the building like a beacon. His
opponent was all cold, dead force. Whoever it was, they were matching Ranma blow
for blow.
	That was not good.
	They could feel Minako. Her magic stood out as well. For a brief moment
it flared, spiking much higher than it had before. Almost immediately there were
two explosions, one after the other. The chi didn't react much, so they must
have been mundane. He felt Minako's energy suddenly weaken. He frowned and
reached into his pocket.
	No... they couldn't call Artemis yet. They still had a job to do. Ukyou
personally doubted the cat's ability to pull off his part of the plan with only
his paws... but then again, Aaron remembered that Luna could manipulate computer
disks and type with them, so maybe he could do it. He had agreed with her idea,
after all.
	Aaron thrust those thoughts aside. He probed deeper, deeper into the
spirit of the place around him. If the chi of the world was a web of connection,
Aaron was brushing aside those webs, reaching deeper. And under those webs were
more webs, but they were dry, faded with time. The echoes of the past. He grit
his teeth and pushed deeper. He pictured the data like a tickertape in his mind.
This echo he labeled with a single symbol, and a figure. Measuring the intensity
and the location. The mathematics of chi, a process he had been working on with
Tofu and Matsudaira... he allowed the world to slowly settle until all he saw
was the data.
	Then he found it. It was deep, but strong. It was a taint on the chi of
this room. A taint of darkness that was so strong it made the taint that had
crept over London appear pitiful in comparison. There could be no doubt. He had
found it.
	"Alucard..." he said, opening his eyes and grinning. He burned the
signature of the taint into his mind. It could be noone but Alucard.
	Just as he opened his eyes, the wall exploded. The bullet whizzed by,
just in front of his nose. Ukyou reacted without thinking, already knowing where
it was going. Her spatula hit the thing and stopped it dead. She resisted the
urge to count her remaining throwing spatulas. She was beginning to discover
that if she didn't think too much about it, then she always seemed to have just
one more.
	But she did flip the communicator out of her coat. It really belonged to
Minako, but Ukyou had borrowed it. She tapped the button he had shown her and
the cat's white face appeared  on the screen.
	"Sunlight," she said, and clicked the device off. She was already
running, because the bullet was coming. And she needed to get to Minako.

*

	Rip Van Winkle snarled and tore another packet of powder open with her
teeth. Her hands went through the mechanical motion of reloading her musket,
even as her feet steered her on auto-pilot from room to room of the great empty
mansion. Her mind was occupied elsewhere.
	She could feel her magic bullet, a tiny sliver of her soul, spinning
nimbly through the mansion. But it was getting harder and harder to find the
girl. Rip could smell her, her expert nose picking up the slightest hint of her
on the drafts of the house. She could hear the soft thump of her footsteps, the
slow rhythm of her heart. She could feel the vibration of her motion as the
young woman ran through the house, seemingly at random.
	But not as well as she had. With every step, the black-clad woman's
presence seemed to... diminish. And now she could hardly feel her at all. She
could still scent her, still hear her heart beating, but the scent seemed to
flow from nowhere and the sound echoed strangely. And how was she pinpointing
her magic bullets with such precision? At least that last shot had forced the
woman to reveal her exact location again.
	Rip had no real doubt she would win this duel. She knew the woman -
Ukyou, hadn't she called herself? - was weakening. Her bullet had scored blood
twice now, and even as she focused she could feel the woman's presence beginning
to return. From her sound, she was moving faster now, but Rip didn't care about
that. She could hear her laboured breathing, and she was still making no
progress towards the huntress herself. Despite her preternatural senses, Ukyou
was still human. She tired.
	Rip Van Winkle did not.
	She raised her musket in front of her, aiming vaguely in the direction
of her prey. This time, she swore silently, there would be no escape. She
flooded her energy, her very spirit down the barrel of the weapon. It was like
putting on a well-worn glove. Rip knew every inch of her gun intimately. "My
varhead will punish ALL, vithout distinction!" she cried and fired.
	But the blast was not supposed to be that loud. She staggered as the
entire mansion shook. She grimaced as her concentration broke and the bullet
plummeted from the air, having barely travelled half-way to her target.
	"Vhat vas zat!" she roared, propping herself against a wall. The vampire
that had been carrying her spare ammunition only stared at her dumbly, his mouth
opening and closing. She snarled and grabbed his radio from his belt.
	"Valentine!" she roared into it. There was a screech of static, then
Yan's voice came over the receiver.
	"Yo, tall, dark and flat-chested! I'm kinda busy at the moment..."
	"Vhat vas zat explosion?"
	"Fuck if I know." There was a chuckle. "Would have loved to see it,
but I have a woman to shoot in the head..."
	The radio crackled again and a voice came over it. "Sir, the munitions!"
	"Vhat?"
	"Somebody snuck into the munitions and set them off!" the voice replied.
	Rip blinked. "All of them?" From what she remembered, the Major had
taken every single piece of salvageable equipment and stored it in the catacombs
under this house...
	A second explosion rang through the mansion. This time, it was much
closer, and Rip felt a wave of heat as a geyser of fire burst through the floor
somewhere not far away. The voice on the other end of the line screamed, then
there was only static.
	Rip stared at the radio. She knew how much ordinance was under this
mansion. Enough to start a small war. Some fool... some fool had set it all off.
The explosions and fire would spread. She realised, as another explosion rocked
her off her feet, that this entire place was about to go up like a fireworks
display.
	She could hear her prey escaping, running towards where she knew Yan to
be. It had been her... Rip snarled. She could survive the explosions, she knew.
Ukyou and her friends would too. But outside, the sun had not set. Soon, there
would be no building left to protect them from its harmful rays. While she
herself was powerful enough not to burst into flames with the merest touch of
the hated sun, she knew trying to fight under it would severely weaken her.
	"Yan, get out of there!" she ordered into the radio. Then she dropped
it. Either he would hear her, or not. There was no choice. She would have to
survive this encounter. If she thought for a moment that she could have killed
her targets at the same time, she would have stayed, but she could not be sure.
	So she ran. For the second time she ran. But she swore she would not
flee a third time.

*

	It felt anticlimactic. Akane was certain, when she had left, that they
wouldn't be in Tokyo again for months, maybe even years. She wasn't sure what
she had been picturing that morning when they had left the abandoned restaurant.
Something like out of the storybooks, she supposed. Well, in the storybooks, the
heroes didn't come crawling back home with their tail between their legs. They
certainly didn't hide like frightened schoolchildren.
	Akane slid open the door to the bath and stepped inside. The room was
dusty, like it hadn't been used in weeks. The entire house had that feeling to
it. The closets were empty, and only the larger appliances still remained. Here
and there things were knocked over as if someone had moved through the house in
a rush. The place was abandoned.
	Akane began to undress. The water, at least, worked here. The
electricity was still on, as were the phones if they cared to use them. Chris
had cautioned against that, however. Whoever the family had been that had lived
here, they had departed in great haste. Akane couldn't blame them. Tokyo was not
a safe place to live anymore.
	It was on the news each night, in the papers each morning. The radio
broke into emergency broadcasts once or twice a day now. The monsters were in
Tokyo, and they weren't hiding anymore.
	That was why they were here. Akane paused, letting her weights clatter
to the ground. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and repressed her
frustration. Not that they were here because they were trying to make a
difference. Akane would have been in favor of being out there, rushing off and
fighting the good fight, so to speak. But they weren't. They were here chasing
the people who did... or at least one of them.
	There was a splash as Patoratsyu leapt into the tub. Akane glanced at
her land octopus idly as it swum around in contented circles. A small part of
her mind pointed out that octopi were seawater creatures, but she had long
since learned to ignore such thoughts. He, at least, had the right idea. A
relaxing bath - the first one she'd had in weeks - would hit the spot right
about now.
	It was hard to keep clean when you were constantly fleeing for your life
from a psychopathic madman. Goenitz was like a bloodhound, always one step
behind them. He was tireless, and they'd escaped only by the skin of their teeth
more than once. Cologne's arm was still in a sling from their last encounter.
Akane shook her head as she walked across the bath towards the cleaning station.
She herself was getting rather tired of fighting Vice all the time. That woman
was possibly even more insane than her boss.
	At least Chris had a plan now. Akane sat down. He had seen some woman on
the TV, a woman that was with some other group of Sailor Senshi as they fought
off the daily monster attacks. Apparently this 'Chizuru' could help them with
their Orochi problem. Akane certainly hoped so.
	But the bath was supposed to be relaxing. She wasn't supposed to be
thinking about any of her problems-
	"Hey, let me wash your back, over!"
	Akane stiffened. She glanced over her shoulder, hoping that it had at
least been the other one. No such luck. Pink was standing with her back to
Akane, sliding the door closed. Up until Ryugenzawa, Akane had always found it
difficult to tell the twins apart at a glance. From the back, it had been all
but impossible. Not anymore.
	Pink had a new outfit. More specifically, she had gotten Chris to
acquire a new outfit for her. It was a short, gold-trimmed cheongsam of light
green silk. The tails of the dress fell to her mid-thigh, and on her otherwise
bare limbs were loose arm and leg warmers of the same fabric and trim. Wrapped
around her waist was a tight scarlet sash, the same kind one might use with a
kimono except it didn't have the traditional bow in the back.
	But her outfit was the least of the changes. The sash was exactly the
same shade as the flower petals that now grew, in a grotesque but somehow still
oddly natural way, out of her shoulders. As Akane looked at them, Pink spun to
face her, posing slightly as if she were fully aware of what Akane was doing.
She was still human. It would have taken most people a moment to notice what was
wrong with her. The vivid green eyes, slitted like a cat's, and the tiny points
at the tips of her ears might have gone unnoticed, and even the petals might
have been mistaken for a part of her outfit. But the blue seed embedded between
her breasts, artfully displayed in a chevron-shaped opening, with the pulsing
flesh that surrounded it... no one could mistake that for anything natural.
	"I hope you don't mind, but I felt like a bath and it's big enough for
two, over," Pink said as she began to undress. She gave Akane a sidelong glance,
smiling a wicked little smirk as she did so. Akane felt something bump into her
thigh and looked down to see her pet shivering and trying to keep her between
him and Pink. Akane patted him idly and her free hand twisted slightly.
Unfortunately, her sword was over with the rest of her clothing.
	"Then don't let me disturb you," Akane said slowly. "I have no problem
waiting."
	"Nonsense!" Pink laughed and began walking towards Akane, naked now. She
was keeping herself between Akane and the door. "Without anyone around, we can
have a girl to girl chat. It'll be fun, over!"
	Akane frowned. She had been meaning to talk with Pink... well, ever
since the two had met, actually. But up until now, Pink had been avoiding her
like the plague. Akane's hands curled into fists. Oh yes, she did have a lot to
talk to Pink about.
	Killed by Mature and Vice in the confusion. That had been Pink's story.
Chris had swallowed it whole. Pink was the only witness. She had been alone with
him. Akane managed to keep her anger out of her expression, but only barely. The
worst part was that Akane knew, KNEW, that leaving the boy alone had been a bad
idea...
	Pink was suddenly looming over Akane, smiling expectantly. Her hands
raised from her side, the fingers uncurling as she reached for the soap. Akane
started as she remembered Pink's initial offer.
	"NO!" she shouted. Pink didn't pause, her smile only widened. Akane
fumbled desperately and grabbed the nearest thing she could. It wasn't a weapon,
but her mind came up with some use for it anyway. "That's what he's for!"
	Akane snatched up the soap and lathered Patoratsyu's tentacles with
manic energy. The land octopus made a small, disapproving sound before she
slammed it against her back. Pink raised an eyebrow. Patoratsyu began to slide
slowly downwards. Then suddenly he picked up the idea and began to spin and
crawl along her back. Akane blinked. Wow. He was pretty good at this.
	Pink laughed suddenly. "Are you scared of letting me touch you, over?"
	"Frankly? Yes." Akane narrowed her eyes. "I saw what you did to those
police in Nikko."
	"Oh, Akane..." Pink shook her head slightly and made a tsking sound. "If
I wanted to make you my slave, I wouldn't do it like this." Her smile widened
slightly. "You're such a sound sleeper. One could walk right into your room at
night and caress your cheek and you wouldn't even notice. Especially when you're
having one of your nightmares, over."
	Akane blinked, taken aback a bit. She hadn't told anybody but Shampoo
about her nightmares. Pink, however, wasn't paying attention to Akane anymore.
Instead she was glaring at the cat-sized octopus. Patoratsyu paused, sliding a
bit down Akane's back, and then leapt from her and scurried off into the corner,
leaving a trail of suds.
	"Now stop being silly and let me help you wash. That's what you Japanese
do, isn't it, over?"
	Akane opened her mouth, closed it, then grabbed the rinsing bucket and
dumped it over her head. "Actually, he did such a good job that I'm done," Akane
lied badly. Not giving Pink a chance to object, she stood up so fast she knocked
over the stool.
	Pink's smile shrunk a little and she leaned over to set the stool right.
She shrugged, causing the petals on her shoulders to billow, and then sat down
smoothly. She turned her back to Akane. "Okay, then you can do mine. Being
polite is also something you Japanese do, isn't it, over?"
	Akane stood over Pink for a few seconds, not sure what to do. Then she
uncurled her fists and let her anger seep out. It was actually getting a bit
easier to do that, now. "Fine," Akane agreed, grabbing a handcloth and a bar of
soap. Still, the vicious little part of her mind made her work with a bit more
pressure than would have been strictly necessary.
	After a few seconds of this, Akane decided that there was no need to
dance around the issue. Pink knew what Akane had been trying to talk to her
about for weeks now. If she didn't want to talk about it, she never would have
come into the bath.
	Akane's hands stopped moving. She looked at the floor. She needed to say
it. "Pink... did you..." She paused a split second. "Did you kill him?"
	Pink paused for a moment, then she spoke in a voice that was apologetic
only on the surface. "Oh, Akane. I didn't realise that was still bothering you.
Such a tragic end for a boy so young. If it makes you feel any better, he was
just going to be killed in another few years regardless, over."
	Akane grit her teeth. She stood back. "Just say it, Pink. If you're so
damn proud of it, just say it!"
	Pink glanced over her shoulder, her expression a study in mock concern.
"If you're so certain I did it, why even ask, over?"
	"Because I know you did it!" Akane insisted loudly. "I know you killed
that boy, and I'm going to convince Chris you did it. And once he knows what
kind of a monster you really are... he'll... we'll..." Akane trailed off. She
had no idea what came next. Imprison her? Drive her off? Kill her?
	That last thought left a bitter taste in Akane's mouth.
	Pink snickered. "Akane, Akane, Akane... Chris already knows I did it.
He'll never admit it, of course." She turned her back on Akane again. "He does
need his illusions. They comfort him. Speaking of which... you missed a spot,
over."
	Akane was caught flat-footed. She just stood there in the bathroom,
naked and dripping, for a long moment. "How..." Akane whispered. "How can you be
such a cold-hearted monster?" Pink just glanced at her, smiling enigmatically.
"Don't you realise that was a person's life you took? Your sister, she
understands. She may be a little cold, but she studies medicine, not poison! She
understands the value of life! Why... I don't understand how you can be so
different!"
	"You don't understand anything, Akane.  But of course, nobody does.  So
let me explain it to you, over."  Pink rinsed herself with the bucket of water,
standing up.  She turned to face Akane, and her emerald eyes gleamed.  "Link
isn't my sister.  She's my TWIN.  We were born one person, and fell into the
Spring of Twins at Jyusenkyou when we... I was a child.  A very young child.
Too young to even understand.  That's what split us into two.  But we're the
same person.  Do you understand that, over?
	"No, of course you don't.  We're the same.  Two in one.  Do you wonder
why we end everything we say with 'over'?  When we were children, we used to
complete each other's sentences, interrupt with what the other was going to say,
finish each other's thoughts.  Sometimes we nearly lost track of who was who.
We needed some way to stay separate, to signal when one of us ended and the
other began.  Of course you don't understand.  You, growing up with your normal
family and your normal life, how could you, over?"
	Akane just stared, transfixed, as Pink turned to step into the bath.  As
she sat down with a deep sigh of contentment at the far end, the petals on her
shoulders lifted slightly in the steam from the hot water.  A sweet scent, like
flowers in spring, filled the room.  Pink opened her eyes, which had been closed
blissfully, and met Akane's gaze again.
	"Even that was something somebody could learn to live with, I suppose.
But, you see, it's not just that.  The magic of the spring isn't infinite.  We
can never get too far away from each other, or one of us will disappear forever.
They told me it happened once, barely a week after the initial time we fell into
the spring, but we had been accidentally splashed in cold water again before
anyone could return to the springs to 'cure' us, and in any case Mother liked
the concept of twins, over."  Pink's lip twisted into a sneer of contempt as she
mentioned her mother.  "I hate her for that.  Because of that, because of her
stupid desire, we've lived out our lives never knowing which of us was the real
one, which of us was the illusion.  Knowing that every single day, every moment,
one of us could vanish, and it would be like we had never existed, over."
	Akane fidgeted uncomfortably.  She wasn't supposed to be feeling...
sorry for Pink.  "But couldn't you just... whichever one of you was left
after... just use cold water again?"
	Pink chuckled dryly.  "Of course.  But the twin that would come out of
that wouldn't be the one that disappeared.  It would just be a twin of the one
that remained.  The one that vanished would be gone.  All of her memories, all
of her feelings.  She doesn't exist.  Every day, I look around and wonder if I
exist, or if I'm just a wrinkle, a reflection, a shadow that can fade at any
moment. If I'm REAL.  That's what we've both always had on our minds, our whole
lives. At least until now, over."
	Pink lifted a hand from the steaming water and pointed at Patoratsyu.
"Look at that pathetic creature, quivering in the corner.  A stupid little
animal.  But he's REAL.  He knows that.  You know that.  Everyone knows it.  He
can be hurt, he can die, even his body can be burned to ashes, but he'll always
have been there.  He'll always have BEEN.  I don't have that comfort, and
neither does Link."  She curled her hand into a fist, and smiled viciously,
causing the octopus to squeak and scuttle even further away.  "But look at him.
How he reacts to me.  I've never even touched him once, but he fears me.  And
he'll carry that fear with him for the rest of his little life.  Try telling HIM
I'm not real.  He won't believe it.  To him, I'm a great and powerful predator,
over."
	Pink looked at Akane again, and now her smile was small and secret.
"He'll never forget me, even if I vanish tomorrow. Neither will those police in
Nikko.  Neither will the blonde secretary bitch, or her stupid priest master, or
their oh so very dark and terrible god!"  Her voice was rising towards a
crescendo. "The scars I leave will never fade, even if I do!  They make me real!
Every time I reach out and touch the world, I'm proving it, over!"
	Akane was aghast.  "That's monstrous!" she shouted.  "Just because...
just because you... you hurt all those people just so they'll remember you?"
Akane felt the water on her skin drying as her aura filled the room with heat.
"You think that excuses what you did!?  How could you!  Your sister-"
	"Oh, yes, my 'sister'," Pink sneered, cutting Akane off.  "Chris thought
she was so much different and more noble than me, too - at least until he
figured out she hated him.  Link really isn't different from me at all, Akane.
You think Link gives a damn about anybody she's ever saved?  You're an idiot.
She's ME.  And I'm her.  The difference is just how we deal with being US, over.
	"Link is really very simple once you know her.  She just wants to
understand.  Always studying life, and ecology, and evolution, and religion, and
science.  Looking for answers, over."  Pink's voice became sing-song, dripping
with contempt.  "Why am I here?  Where is my place?  Why did I fall into that
spring?  Link thinks that when she can answer every question, she'll look at the
big picture and see where she fits into it.  But she's a fool.  There is no big
picture, just the stories we make for ourselves.  The only reason she isn't just
as 'monstrous' as me is because she can't stand being like me.  The first step
she took on the path to knowing her place was the step she took away from me, so
she could tell what was her and what was not, over."
	Akane's voice came out in a low growl.  "You think this changes anything
between us?  If you thought this would make me forgive or forget what you've
done, you're wrong.  Chris isn't an idiot.  I'll make him see that you're...
you're evil!" Akane couldn't really think of a better word to sum it up.
	Pink laughed derisively and shook her head.  "Up until recently, Akane,
that might have scared me.  I hated you, you know.  You can't believe how angry
I was when you somehow came out of that mountain alive, over."  Akane couldn't
help but flinch, causing Pink to smirk.  "I hated you before I ever saw you.
Ever since I got to Japan, and all Chris could do was moon over you, and think
about you, and angst and whine and snivel about how you thought what he did was
so wrong."  Pink's nostrils flared with the memory of the past anger, but then
her expression became placid, almost cheerful.  "Ah, dear Chris. At first he was
just a tool - a powerful one, but one you were making so much harder to use.
But I've come to realise that I love him.  I really do.  We're such a perfect
pair.  He's a killing machine, and I'm a killer.  He NEEDS me, over."
	She laughed again, at some private joke.  "And you know what?  You
don't need him, Akane.  That's why we're having this conversation.  It's your
consolation prize, to know why you've lost, over."
	"Lost?" Akane said slowly.  Her mouth felt dry.  "Chris isn't some sort
of prize."
	"True.  He's more like an angel.  He fell from the sky and gave me
everything I could ever have dreamed of.  And I give him everything he needs in
return.  The things you never will.  Comfort.  Support.  Love."  She stood up,
stretching languidly.  "I see now how stupid I was to hate you.  You were never
a threat, because you were never his friend.  You were just his keeper.  You
didn't come along because you believe in him, and you're not planning to share
his life.  You just want to 'help' him.  You think he can't see that?  Like you
said, Akane, he's not an idiot.  He abandoned you to Goenitz - all of you! - to
rush to save me.  That's when I knew."  Her smile was triumphant.  "He doesn't
need a 'moral compass'.  He needs me, over."
	Akane stepped forward, opening her mouth to shout-
	'Trust me, Chris is a monster! If he's trying to win your trust, he's
only using it for one of his own twisted purposes. Either that, or he wants to
get you to believe in him to make himself feel better. He's sick like that. He
can justify anything to himself, as long as someone he respects believes in
him.' The memory of Ukyou's voice flooded into her mind.
	"No."  Akane's voice came out far more shaky than she'd intended. "I
can't accept that."
	"Well, then, that's your problem," Pink said, striding past Akane as she
wrapped a towel around herself.  "I really don't care what you do anymore.  But
I'm glad we could have this nice girl to girl chat, over."
	Behind Akane, the door opened and closed.

*

	The wind blew a dark fog down the narrow valley. The clouds hung low
overhead, black and ominous. The ground was moist, the water still and brackish
and the trees hung with moss from their thin bony branches. Ranma put up with it
all without complaint. He was wet and female and this place was far from the
places he knew, but he'd been through worse.
	The girl Minako was with him. She was dressed down, wearing a simple
pair of hiking pants and a leather jacket instead of the golden armour she wore
into battle. Her long blonde hair had been tied back after one too many
encounters with the twisted branches of the fen.
	Between them sat Hotaru. The girl seemed right at home in this dismal
place. When she walked, it was without a sound, her casual steps causing less
disturbance than Ranma's despite his years of training. It was eerie.
	Ukyou and the cat were gone. They were somewhere up ahead, trying to
find the mysterious Alucard. Ranma wasn't sure he knew how that made him feel.
On the one hand, it meant he didn't have to deal with the cat. It also meant he
didn't have to deal with Ukyou.
	Ranma fed a twig into the pitiful fire he had managed to get going. It
barely offered light, much less heat, in this forsaken place. "So... where are
we?"
	Minako looked at him. She looked fairly miserable. "Scotland, I guess."
She crossed her arms and leaned back on the log she was using as a stool. "We've
come far enough north, anyway."
	Ranma grunted. Hotaru merely stared into the fire, her eyes not even
blinking. It gave her normally deep purple eyes a dangerous red glare. Ukyou had
asked him to keep an eye on the girl. She had told him to watch for signs of her
'turning'. Ranma had no idea what to look for, but he felt dangerous red eyes
were a bad sign.
	"The better question is why are we here?" Minako hissed into the
silence.
	"Ukyou is-"
	"I know!" Minako glared at him as she cut him off. "I know why she's
here. Why are WE here?" Ranma wasn't sure what she meant, and his expression
must have said as much because the blonde continued, "We should be back in
London. Millennium is still there. You think blowing up one mansion even slowed
them down? We should never have left." She unlaced her arms, clenching her hands
into fists. The veins stood out along her neck as she gritted her teeth. "We've
been walking for DAYS now, and still nothing! No magic saviour capable of
killing all the bad things in one fell swoop. Not even so much as a trail." She
gestured around them. "Look at this place. Do you honestly think anything lives
here?"
	Ranma kept his opinion to himself. He merely grunted and crossed his own
arms.
	"You agree with me." Minako leaned forward. "I saw your face when she
dragged you out of that mansion. I saw the way you looked at the pretty-boy
vampire as he laughed while we ran." She pointed at him. "You knew that we
should have stayed and kept fighting. We had them off-balance."
	"Ukyou saved your life," Ranma pointed out. He hadn't been there, but
Ukyou had said she had arrived just in time to prevent one of the vampires from
blowing Minako apart with a rocket launcher. If it hadn't been for the ceiling
of the room collapsing in, pouring in sunlight, she probably wouldn't have even
arrived in time to do that.
	"And I thanked her," Minako pointed out. "But that doesn't mean I have
to waste time with her crusade."
	Ranma silently clenched his own fists and said nothing. He had gotten
into this exact same argument just after the fight. He had screamed at her, and
waved his arms. He had told her that he could have won that fight. He could have
killed that pretty-boy bastard despite his speed and his guns. Ukyou had
weathered his words without comment. Then she had calmly and methodically picked
his position apart point by point.
	One vampire didn't win the war, she had said. Even if he had won, there
were still dozens of other vampires in the place. Millennium was huge, a power
of one thousand vampires and countless ghouls. They had weapons - rockets,
flying fortresses and whatever they had scavenged off the British army - and the
will to use them. Three people, even three people as powerful as Ranma, Ukyou
and V, couldn't hope to win against that. They needed allies. They needed to
find the remains of the resistance, to forge them again. Organise, build,
strengthen and strike with decisive force. She had quoted Sun Tzu and Musashi at
him.
	She was right.
	"Let's not talk about this, okay?" Ranma asked, sounding more tired than
he wanted to.
	"Ranma, listen. You saved my life too," Minako said slowly. "And I've
seen you fight. You're a step above other martial artists. I could use your
help... but if I don't get it, I'll head back on my own." She paused. "Someone
needs to fight..." Minako trailed off as Ranma stood up suddenly, holding up his
hand for silence.
	His eyes narrowed, and his ears flicked slightly as he strained to hear
it again. He could have sworn he'd heard a branch snap, not that far away. He
glanced side to side, trying to pierce the gloom. There was nothing. Then he
felt it, that tickle on the back of his neck.
	Danger.
	Ranma relaxed, his muscles untensing. Minako was standing as well,
holding the tiny rod that would transform her into her magical battle form. He
wondered idly if it was special just to her, but maybe all the Senshi could do
that. Like that Ami chick and her visor thing. "What is it?" V mouthed. Ranma
shrugged and gestured to her and then to the right, then to himself and to the
left. He glanced at Hotaru and motioned for her to get down. She did so.
	Ranma had taken two steps when the shot rang out. The trunk of the tree
next to him exploded in a brief cloud of sawdust and splinters.
	A voice shouted out something from the darkness. It was a woman's voice,
but Ranma couldn't understand a word she was saying. But her tone and the manner
in which she introduced herself made her meaning clear. Ranma considered his
options. He could dodge bullets, with effort, but even he would be hard-pressed
to do so if he had no idea where they were coming from. He knew that most
bullets couldn't even pierce his skin, but that didn't mean the things didn't
hurt. If it weren't for Hotaru, he would still have welts from all the times
Luke had tagged him in their brief battle.
	If it had been just him, he probably would have made a fight of it. But
Hotaru was here. The thought of what a few stray bullets would do to her was all
Ranma needed to make him put up his hands.
	A few seconds later they materialised out of the fog like ghosts. There
were four of them, all women. One of them couldn't have been more than Hotaru's
age, wearing a red hooded cloak over a lacy white dress. She had short unruly
blonde hair and was carrying a pair of automatic pistols which were trained on
Minako. Minako still had her rod in her held-up hands.
	Another was a short brunette with glasses one size too large for her.
She had a mousy, but cute, face and wore a tan trenchcoat over a vest and a
short skirt. She wasn't carrying a firearm, and looked almost distracted,
glancing curiously at the three people in the clearing. In her left hand she was
clenching a few pieces of paper. Despite the moisture and the breeze, they
remained rigid. Some sort of variant on the iron cloth technique? Ranma pegged
her as the weakest link, should he need to do something.
	The third one was a tall and busty blonde wearing a blue police
officer's uniform that was tailored to hug her curves. Combine this with the
hemline of her miniskirt and her thigh-high boots, and Ranma figured she was
more likely an exotic dancer than an actual policewoman. She was carrying a huge
gun with ease in one hand, even though it was fully as tall as she was and had
to weigh over a hundred kilograms. There was something off about her. Besides
the gun, anyway. She had a vibe that made Ranma's gut twitch, and her red eyes
made him nervous.
	The apparent leader was taller than any of them. She had long rose-
coloured hair that trailed down to her waist and matched the colour of the
petals sewn into the white silk shirt she wore. Her skirt trailed down to her
knees. Her face was beautiful but cruel, with green eyes that flashed in the
light of the fire. In one hand she carried a long sword made out of crystal. Far
more than the blonde, this woman set Ranma on edge. There was a feeling of...
nastiness that seemed to flow from her like a bad stench. It was familiar,
annoyingly so. Ranma had felt something just like this before.
	Why did it make him think of shrines?
	The leader stepped fully into the clearing, saying something sharply to
Ranma. It was the same voice as before, but she was still speaking English. Then
she got a good look at him.
	Her eyes widened and her face drained of all colour. She just stared at
Ranma, eyes unblinking. Ranma frowned right back at her.
	"Listen, lady, I don't speak English, okay?" he explained. She either
didn't hear him, didn't understand, or ignored him. Minako translated for him,
her own English sounding slightly stilted and unsure.
	"You have any idea who these people are, Mi... V?" Ranma asked over his
shoulder.
	V shook her head, but she wasn't looking at him. Her gaze was on the
girl with the red eyes. The blonde seemed nervous under Minako's stare. She
backed up a step, shifting her weapon from one hand to the other. Then a flash
of recognition passed across Minako's face, followed by pure rage.
	"Vampire!" she screamed. "V Crisis Power, Make Up!"
	"Aw, shit," Ranma grumbled as the clearing suddenly filled with light
shortly before all hell broke loose. He stepped forward, then rapidly ran up the
still-stunned leader of the ambush party. He made sure to hit every pressure
point as he climbed up her and she fell like a log. Using the momentum of his
run, he backflipped, spinning in mid-air and aiming himself at Glasses.
	She shifted to the side and his kick made a gouge in the soft earth. Her
hand flicked up and Ranma swayed back. He felt one of the ties on his shirt come
loose and saw a few strands of black hair fall as her razor-sharp paper almost
clipped him.
	Gunfire filled the air behind him as Red Riding Hood opened up with both
her weapons on full auto. V had leapt back, just out of the stream of fire, and
was pointing her fingers at Police-girl. Beams of golden magic lanced out from
her, peppering the fog and forcing the vampire chick to dodge like mad.
	And Hotaru was crouched behind a log that was being chewed up by
bullets.
	Ranma cursed and backed away from Glasses. She followed him, her hand
coming clear of her coat and flinging a dozen spinning white disks at him. Ranma
made a quick decision and moaned to himself.
	He ran through the projectiles, twisting and spinning so they only left
shallow cuts along his arms. He was thankful that his female form was so much
smaller than his male one; he was certain he would have lost a limb trying this
insane stunt as a guy. His hand flicked out and he caught the last one just
before it bisected his skull. But he fell back, conserving the momentum of the
paper and just pulling it down with him. He flung his arm to the side, creating
a wide arc before releasing it again. It whizzed through the air on its new
path.
	A moment later Red Riding Hood's guns stopped firing. She blinked and
frowned down at them as the barrels slowly toppled from the grips. Glasses was
staring at him, totally open, but Ranma didn't have time for her. He landed on
his back and immediately rolled back, coming to his feet again. With the help of
a convenient tree he launched himself forward, grabbing Hotaru in his arm and
shooting safely from the clearing into the cover of the swamp.
	He landed in a pile of mud. Hotaru groaned underneath him. "Are you
okay?" he asked frantically.
	"I'm fine," she said softly, but Ranma could see a fine red line forming
on her arm from where a bullet had grazed her. He grit his teeth and rolled off
her, looking back towards the clearing.
	There were a few more flashes of yellow, followed by a series of
explosion and the by now familiar roar of gunfire. Into this cut a loud crack,
then the gunfire slowly petered out. Ranma stared. There was no more light.
	No.
	Not again...
	"Please come out." It was a new voice, softer and with a British accent
but speaking perfect Japanese. Ranma frowned and crouched protectively next to
Hotaru. He could see the shadows of the people in the clearing but not much
more. "We didn't hurt your friend. I just restrained her. Please, we promise not
to hurt you." The woman sounded so earnest that Ranma found his legs responding
before he realised it. He turned to Hotaru and briefly motioned for her to stay
put. She just stared up at him emptily and placed a hand over her wound.
	Once Ranma was in the clearing, he saw what had happened to V. She was
against a tree, with what looked like half a library's worth of paper wrapped
around her body like a tight blanket. It was also covering her mouth. She looked
pissed off, but unharmed.
	Glasses was standing at the front of the group now. She had both hands
held at her sides. They were empty. The vampire policegirl was sitting against a
tree behind her, trying to revive their former leader who was still out cold
from Ranma's attack. The little girl grinned, a dangerous manic grin, and
leveled a bazooka at him.
	"B.B.! NO!" Glasses said.
	"She broke my guns!" the girl replied in Japanese.
	"She's not a monster," Glasses insisted. "Did you see what she did for
that little girl? Those wounds were caused because she chose not to dodge. And
she could have hit you with that paper, not just your guns."
	"I want to kill her!" B.B. growled.
	"You will not."
	Ranma turned as a new presence entered the clearing. She wasn't tall,
but she carried herself with a regal bearing that made her seem so. She wore a
long green trenchcoat and a pair of man's pants. Her long blonde hair was
styled so one lock fell across her face, just brushing against her thin glasses.
In her lips was a cigar, and on her hip was a rapier. The cigar looked like it
belonged there more.
	"But boss!" B.B. whined.
	"You have your orders," the newcomer snapped. B.B. sighed and somehow
tucked the bazooka away under her cloak. Glasses sighed in relief.
	The newcomer looked at Ranma, the kind of look one warrior gave to
evaluate another. Ranma respected her with a similar glance. She didn't look
like much, and she carried herself like a person who dabbled rather than truly
learned to fight. But she had the bearing of a warrior... no, a general.
	"You are Ranma," the woman said, her Japanese as stilted and accented as
Minako's English. "I am not impressed." Ranma grinned. The woman glanced at V,
then at Glasses. "Cut her down. We have a long walk back to camp."
	"Camp?"
	"Yes." The woman glanced at Ranma. "Your friend said she needs to see
something we're storing there."
	Ranma followed the woman's gaze as it shifted off him and he saw Ukyou
walking out of the mist. She was carrying Hotaru in both arms. She glanced at
the clearing and sighed. She said something to the regal woman in English. The
woman grinned and chuckled, nodding. Then she glanced at Ranma. "Do you just
start fights with everyone you meet, Ranma?"
	"I..." Ranma paused and shrugged. "Well, yeah, pretty much..."

*


	ZX-Tole stood at attention, despite the wind. The rotors of the
helicopter pushed his short hair back and swirled the grass around him in
concentric circles. The machine wasn't large, only big enough to fit about three
passengers and a pilot. He kept his face carefully neutral as the craft
descended into the section of the yard they had cleared hastily only a few
moments ago.
	It was a little too obvious for his tastes. He would have preferred to
keep a low profile. With the executive towers of Chronos Japan having been
destroyed by the Guyvers months ago, this was their only real base of operations
in Tokyo. And it wasn't nearly as defensible as he would have liked.
	Plus, who knew how any of the plants in this place would react to
strange things? The clean up crews were still being very cautious with them.
	The helicopter settled to the ground with a mechanical hiss. The rotors
started slowing down, their roar dulling to something that was only partially
deafening. Before the blades could come to a complete stop, the side door
opened.
	The man who stepped out of the doors was tall, with Aryan good looks.
His blond hair was slicked back, and it looked like his hairline might be
receding slightly. Aside from his elfin pointed ears, there was nothing inhuman
about him. ZX-Tole knew better. He could sense the man's sheer presence, even
though he was doing a lot to suppress it. He wore a long white cloak pulled
around his body. The cloak descended from two huge gleaming metal shoulderpads
and a wide metal collar.
	"ZX-Tole," the zoalord said, stepping down to the ground. He didn't
speak up. There was no need. Any zoanoid he wanted could hear his voice, and
none he did not want. "Where is Commander Gyro?"
	ZX-Tole fell to one knee and bowed his head. He grit his teeth. "I don't
know, Lord Purgstall."
	"Don't know?" Frederick von Purgstall said softly.
	"Commander Gyro doesn't see the need to share his plans and location
with me," ZX-Tole explained.
	"Rise," Purgstall suggested, not commanded. "I want your opinions and
loyalty, not your reverence."
	"Y-yes, Lord," ZX-Tole rose to his feet.
	"And call me Purgstall, or even just Frederick."
	"Yes, Purgstall," ZX-Tole agreed.
	The zoalord gestured towards the house. "What is it the Japanese do at
times like this? Have tea?" ZX-Tole nodded. "Good. Let us do that while you
report what is going on."
	"Yes, sir," ZX-Tole agreed and led him into the house. At least most of
the house had been cleared out by now. Purgstall sat down in one of the chairs
provided and ZX-Tole caught a glimpse of the skintight black bodysuit he was
wearing under his white cloak as he did.
	"I assume you have already read all the reports I sent in, sir," ZX-Tole
said as he stood nearby. Purgstall did not wave for him to sit, which ZX-Tole
was grateful for. He was too much of a soldier to be comfortable with the kind
of atmosphere this new zoalord seemed to radiate.
	He was completely unlike Gyro and Valkus, the only two zoalords ZX-Tole
had ever met. Valkus was distant, god-like in that ineffable way that wise men
whose minds were concerned with matters beyond you were. He spoke in a tone that
carried no hint of command, but every expectation of instant and total
obedience. Gyro was a tyrant, a man who liked order and control. He micromanaged
his zoanoids, constantly changing his orders on a whim. He rewarded obedience
and punished failure.
	Purgstall seemed to be a whole other type of animal, and it put ZX-Tole
on edge.
	"Yes," Purgstall said, accepting a plate of tea that a servant brought
for them. "That is why I am here. The increasing chaos in this city is not
something we can well afford right now. I'm certain you're aware of the
situations in Europe, America and Africa, are you not?"
	"Only vaguely..." ZX-Tole admitted.
	Purgstall frowned. "It's getting worse out there. Too many people are
finding out about Chronos and fighting us. Worse yet, too many of them are
winning." He frowned into his cup. "Zoanoids are a match for any conventional
army, but not for what else seems to be out there. Even hyper-zoanoids are hard
pressed."
	"Certainly you must be exaggerating!" ZX-Tole gasped.
	"I never exaggerate," Purgstall's voice was cold.
	"I see..." ZX-Tole frowned. "But even then, we still have the advantage
of numbers and we still have you." Purgstall looked up at this last statement.
"The zoalords, sir. You have to be more than a match for anything else out
there."
	"Perhaps," Purgstall said. "But there are only twelve of us, and we
can't be everywhere at once." He sighed. "Plus, orders from on high have come on
down. 'Zoalords are too valuable a resource to risk in direct confrontations at
this time. Barring an emergency or unavoidable situations, every effort must be
made to keep zoalords out of battle.'"
	"Orders from on high?" ZX-Tole had been under the impression that there
was nothing higher than a zoalord.
	"We all have our masters, ZX-Tole," Purgstall commented cryptically.
"Now, I've read the reports, but I want to hear what is really going on."
	ZX-Tole hesitated. Then he sighed. "The monsters attacking Tokyo are not
zoanoids, per se. They are called 'aragami' and appear to be based on plants
rather than humans like we are." He frowned. "We haven't figured out much about
them, or why they have increased their attacks so much in the last few weeks. We
do know that they are reporting to a new commander, some being known as
Murakumo. That's all we know.
	"As for Commander Gyro... well, he is pursuing the Sailor Senshi, sir."
	"I was aware," Purgstall commented dryly. "Valkus thought sending him to
deal with the girl that humiliated him would be a good lesson in obedience."
	"You think differently, sir?" Purgstall looked at ZX-Tole sharply and
ZX-Tole realised he had stepped over a line. "Not that I would ever suggest
anything..."
	"Don't be so defensive, ZX-Tole," Purgstall suggested mildly, his
expression warming. "Your loyalty and value to Chronos is without question." ZX-
Tole relaxed. "The problem is not Gyro's mission, but how he chooses to go about
it."
	"Yes, sir." ZX-Tole paused. "I don't have any proof, but I believe he is
using zoanoids as bait. He keeps setting up attacks throughout Tokyo, each one
bigger than the last. He wants to draw out the Sailor Senshi and capture them
like that." ZX-Tole paused and felt it only fair to add, "Our own efforts to
locate them through more traditional methods have failed. The Senshi seem to
have the ability to disappear into the system without a trace. No sooner have we
tracked them back to their current hideout than we find that the place seems to
have been abandoned for years.
	"The commander isn't sharing his plans with me, sir. I have been able to
piece it together, since all his requests for new zoanoids have to go through
me. But he's been getting them into constant battles with both the Senshi,
Guyver III and the purely human 'martial artist' protectors of the city."
	"This is unacceptable," Purgstall said coldly, his eyes flashing.
	"He is wasting a lot of..."
	Purgstall waved ZX-Tole silent. "That isn't the problem. Gyro's methods
might have been tolerated before, but the Council has reached a new decision on
how to proceed from here on in." He stood up. "Attacks by zoanoids on innocent
human targets are to stop at once."
	"Excuse me, sir?"
	Purgstall walked over to the patio doors and slid them open. The view
from the doors fell down a gently sloping hill, and just over the walls you
could see the rooftops of the Nerima district stretching lazily into the
distance. "Look at all those people. Do you know what they are, ZX-Tole?"
	ZX-Tole figured it was a rhetorical question, but answered to the best
of his ability anyway. "Humans?"
	"No," Purgstall said simply. "They are us. They are the nation of Earth.
Inside every zoanoid, every hyper-zoanoid... and even the zoalords, is the same
DNA. We are all born from the same stock. Our race is one. We..." He gestured to
ZX-Tole and himself. "...are simply more enlightened. We have unlocked the
mysteries of our DNA. In so doing we have elevated ourselves above the masses,
but not apart from them.
	"We live in this world as examples. It is our responsibility, as greater
beings, to guide and nurture humanity. Of course our natural place is at the
top. That does not make us gods. It makes us kings. They are our subjects, our
responsibility. We exist not to rule them like cattle, but to elevate the whole
human race from the mud." He clenched his fist. "This is the thing Gyro does not
understand. The thing you must never lose track of. We are not monsters, ZX-
Tole. We are prophets of the new age."
	"I see..." ZX-Tole bowed his head. He didn't, really. He was a soldier.
He understood the chain of command. He understood loyalty. He understood
brotherhood. Philosophy was something best left to people like Purgstall.
	Purgstall laughed. "You don't," he said with a chuckle. "But you will,
one day." He continued to gaze across the city for a long moment. "Now, about
the other problem..."
	"The rogue zoanoid, Aptom?"
	Purgstall nodded.
	ZX-Tole frowned. "We have no idea what he's after."

*


	It wasn't much of a camp. There was one building, an old church that was
covered in mold. There were holes in the peeling walls. The steeple was leaning
to one side. The tents they were using for camp were set up further into the
treeline. They were brown and covered with green netting, but they looked clean.
	There were probably about fifty people there. Aaron didn't recognize any
of them, and from the feel of their chi they were just normal people. Each of
them moved about the camp with grim faces and quiet intensity. Here and there
they sat in twos and threes, cleaning weapons, preparing food, consulting
charts.
	"This few?" Ranma muttered.
	"They're enough," Integra replied sharply.
	Ukyou glanced at the woman. She stood straight, her shoulders held back
and her jaw firm. But her eyes were bloodshot, her cheeks and brow flushed as if
with fever. Ukyou wondered when Integra had last slept.
	"Ranma, why don't you take Hotaru over to the food tent?" Ukyou turned
to face Integra. "If that's okay with you?"
	Integra nodded absently and gestured for the boy-turned-girl to leave.
Ranma gave Ukyou a long look, then took Hotaru's tiny hand in her own. "C'mon,
let's get you some food."
	"Very well..." Hotaru replied softly.
	"Let me help!" Yomiko said brightly, grabbing Hotaru's other hand. Ranma
glanced at her and the girl flushed in embarrassment. "It's the least I can do,
after nearly getting you both killed."
	"Don't think nuthin' of it," Ranma replied cheerfully, waving the past
aside. After a moment of standing there, Minako threw up her arms and followed
them. At least she had gotten over being papered to a tree quickly enough.
	"Um, Miss Hellsing..." Victoria began, her voice almost trembling.
	"Spit it out, vampire," Integra growled sharply. Her eyes fixed on
Victoria and the young woman seemed to wither slightly. She bowed her head and
rubbed her feet into the ground.
	"I just thought I should take Crystal to the medical tent-"
	"Yes, yes..." Integra cut off Victoria's hesitant words with an angry
snap of her hand. "Do it and then take Hood on patrol. There's no guarantee
these four haven't been followed."
	"But it'll be light soon..."
	"Then I suggest you find a way to deal with that." Integra crossed her
arms and glared at Victoria. The girl shuffled and nodded, before turning to
pick up the prostrate form of her rose-haired friend. Aaron frowned, wondering
who that was. Somebody from the later Hellsing manga he had never read?
	"Why do you always have to pair me up with her?" B.B. Hood complained as
she sat down on a log nearby. She pulled out a knife from her cloak and began to
sharpen it on the side of a moss-covered rock. It made an irritating scraping
sound with each pass.
	"I need someone who knows what they're doing," Integra explained, her
voice much more level than it had been when dealing with her own ally. B.B.
seemed to consider this, then shrugged and continued to sharpen her knife. Her
expression was prosaic, almost cheerful. Except for the knife, and the dank
swamp, she might well have been an innocent child from a storybook.
	Ukyou gestured for Integra to step away from the child, and the young
woman followed easily enough. Once they were out of earshot, Ukyou began.
	"How did you meet up with her?" she asked directly.
	"She came to England when she heard about the vampires." Integra smiled
grimly. "She may not look it, but she's an experienced monster hunter. She was
looking to make a few bounties and got caught here when everything went to
hell."
	"Do you trust her?" Ukyou said after a the moment. She had been about to
summarily declare that B.B. Hood could not be trusted, but decided against it.
In the Darkstalkers games, she was a human with such a vile and deranged mind
that she had been mistaken for a demon. But Ukyou and Aaron had learned that the
'canon' only told the surface of a story.
	"I understand her," Integra replied coolly. "She wants money, and I am
willing to pay. The pound sterling may not be worth anything, but Hellsing has a
lot more assets than just paper money and a single mansion. A few tonnes of gold
and silver buy her loyalty."
	"Indeed..." Ukyou glanced away. She saw a flash of white on the steps of
the church. It was Artemis, and he nodded at her. Ukyou let out a sigh.
	"Ah, yes..." Integra nodded at the cat. "Your talking cat."
	"Not mine, Minako's."
	"You mean V?"
	"You've heard of her?"
	Integra snorted and crossed her arms. "Who hasn't, in this part of the
world?" She glanced at the young lady as she sat at the table nearby. Minako was
looking at Ranma and Yomiko. The former was holding a napkin in one hand and
flicking it now and then, incessantly asking Yomiko questions. Yomiko, for her
part, ignored him as she tried to read a book to Hotaru. "Everyone who escaped
from London has seen her at least once. Many of them owe her their lives."
	"So you've met a lot of them?" Ukyou asked. She shook her head. "We
didn't get much chance to talk before I sensed the fight, so you'll have to
forgive me if I'm curious. I understood that Hellsing was England's first line
of defense against things like this... why weren't you there?"
	Integra's face darkened and her eyes traversed the camp, locking on the
form of Victoria as she and B.B. departed into the mist-filled swamp. "I was
there." Her voice was as hard as diamond.
	"And Alucard?"
	That caused the woman to glance at Ukyou. "You certainly seem to know a
lot for a foreigner."
	"The existence of Alucard is an open secret to those who know what to
look for," Ukyou replied. It wasn't really a lie.
	"I suppose so." Integra rested one hand on the hilt of her rapier. "If
you came for him, you're out of luck. He's useless to us."
	"Maybe." Ukyou turned to stare at the church. "I still want to see for
myself." Ukyou's eyes narrowed. "I can't believe Minako alone could kill him."
	"Neither would I." Integra didn't sound at all surprised.
	"You're not angry at her for what happened?" Ukyou asked as they
approached the rundown building.
	"Why should I be?" Integra glanced at Minako again, then back at Ukyou.
"From what Victoria told me, she was being menaced by him. She struck out at
what she thought was the enemy. Such things happen in war."
	"You sound bitter."
	Integra paused, her hand on the door. Then she pushed it open. "The only
person to blame for what happened is me. I should have known what I was sending
him into. I failed as a commander."
	Ukyou would have responded, but she found her attention drawn to the
coffin in the center of the room. It was jet black, with gold trim. A prayer was
etched into its lid, with a small golden cross just above it. But it wasn't that
which caught her breath.
	It was the power of it. She stepped forward, her hand outstretched - and
Aaron felt the currents of the place wash over him. Standing in that distant
room, under fire from Rip Van Winkle, he hadn't even touched the surface of
this. He realised suddenly that it was exactly like the wishing sword. A well of
power seemingly without limit. But unlike the sword, this power was chaotic,
dark, necrotic... evil. There was no other way to describe it. If there was such
a thing as distilled, refined, purified evil... then this was it. It seeped into
the world like a tumour.
	"What are you doing?" Integra asked, but her voice was far away.
	"Ukyou?" That was Artemis, and he was even further.
	Ukyou was moving on auto-pilot now. She had to SEE. Her hand reached out
and grabbed the lid of the coffin. It crashed to the ground a second later. The
body inside was desiccated, its long hair thin and black. There was a hole where
its heart should be, and from that hole sprang a soft golden light. Ukyou felt
something inside her quicken. It was a feeling that was at once familiar and at
once strange.
	She reached down and placed her hand over the hole. The soft light
warmed her hand. But it was Wrong. It was fundamentally wrong in some way she
couldn't put to words. She stared down at the body, and saw them emerge.
	They were thin, black as a caved-in mine and had the forms of snakes and
millipedes and other things that were long and crawling and venomous. They rose
from the body, shades without substance, writhing around the edges of The Wound.
She could only stare as they reacted to her hand, crawling slowly up her arm.
	Then they rose as one and she knew they were going to strike her but
there was nothing she could do and-
	Ukyou was standing in a field under a red sky. The sky was the colour of
blood, and a mad green sun whirled and twisted its way across it. The ground was
made of bones, crushed and whole with blood and gore dripping from the sockets
of a million grinning skulls.
	No. This wasn't real...
	"You have come."
	Ukyou turned and saw him. He looked young and vital. His face was
exotically handsome, with long black hair and intense eyes that stared right
through you. He was naked, his body crucified to a structure made of interlaced
skeletons. The Wound glowed softly where his heart should be.
	"Alucard?" Ukyou asked. Her voice echoed strangely, as if she were
hearing it from outside her own head. "You did this?"
	"No, you did," Alucard said with a grin. "I have been waiting for you
for a long time."
	"Waiting..."
	"You are the one who will end my suffering, and free me from this hell."
	"I..." Ukyou blinked. That was what she had been hoping for, but his
tone had not been the way she had expected it to be. Alucard was supposed to
sound happy, even enthusiastic. But when he spoke of being freed, it was with
resignation.
	"Come, girl! You have the power inside you! Take what is mine and let me
die!"
	"Let you die?" Ukyou frowned. "What are you talking about?"
	"I have no time for your games!" Alucard snapped. "Do it! Consume me!
Even now, my power sinks into your flesh. But you hold it at bay. Why? Isn't
this what you came for, to finish the job He started?"
	"He?" Ukyou stepped forward. "Who did this to you?"
	Alucard laughed, a bitter sound. "You don't know?" Seeing her expression
he laughed louder. "Another pawn!" He smiled at her, the smile of a very bad man
explaining something to a child. "God."
	"God..." Aaron clenched his fists. "I don't believe in God."
	"He believes in you," Alucard said, laughing. "Don't tell me you haven't
seen it? I can see into your heart, Aaron Peori. I can see everything that is
happening in this world." He paused. "This world... Should. Not. Exist."
	"No..." Ukyou murmured.
	"One Sailor Senshi, defeat me?" He laughed. "As if it would have ever
gotten that far? Why was she even here? I thought mankind was engineered by
aliens as weapons... or perhaps descended from Jurai? Maybe they all came from
the moon? So much history..." He trailed off and let his head fall. "Do it. Do
what you were brought here for. You can feel it, inside you. The same power that
caused this wound, it beats in your breast."
	Aaron staggered back, shaking his head. But it was true. The reaction,
the reaction to that wound. It had been the same with Chris. It was the Third
Circle. The alien other that had been with him and Ukyou since the beginning.
The power that seemed to break all the rules. The power that consumed his flesh
and soul in exchange for it.
	"Use it!"
	Ukyou made a sound halfway between a sob and a shout.
	"It's your Destiny! You know it! Consume me!"
	Alucard's eyes rose, and there was nothing but madness in them now.
	"I have felt His will. I will be part of the end. You can take it, my
power. Use me. You know you can!"
	"No..."
	"Do it!"
	"No!"
	"DO IT!"
	"NO!"
	"DO-"
	Ukyou screamed and fell back. She continued screaming and scrambled
away, moving on her hands and knees. She needed to get away, away from it...
away from him and...
	She crashed into a pew. It was old and fragile and cracked under her
weight. But it brought her back. She was in the church. The coffin was lying
almost three meters away. Ranma was sitting next to it, looking like he had been
thrown to the ground. Integra was next to him, and so was Artemis. They were all
staring at her with worried eyes. None of them seemed to notice the dark things
slowly retreating into the body.
	Ukyou looked down at her arm. It was the arm with no scars. For a
moment, she feared that something had been tattooed there by the dark shapes...
but the shadows faded and were gone.
	"Ukyou," Ranma said, standing up. "What the hell happened? I came when I
heard you screaming..."
	"I think..." Ukyou gulped. "I think I'm okay now..."
	"Oh, good." Ranma heaved a sigh of relief. Then he looked behind him.
"AH! CAT!"
	The walls of the church proved no more sturdy then the pews.

*

	"...then the dragon looked down at the princess and in a voice like
rolling thunder, said 'And I suppose you know nothing about this?'
	"'I wouldn't know what you are talking about, your dragonship!' the
princess gasped in mock surprise.
	"The dragon shifted and groaned, writhing his serpentine body and
rubbing his long whisker with his vorpal claws. 'I leave to sack one village and
somehow, while I am gone, my tapestries burn down, and my fine horses run from
their stables and my crystal goblets are shattered...'
	"'A most unfortunate series of coincidences!' the princess gasped again.
	"'Perhaps I should eat you,' the dragon threatened.
	"'But you yourself said that a dragon is nothing without a lady princess
or a treasure hoard for her to attend,' the princess pointed out shrewdly. 'Plus
you choose me in particular because I am, as you say, the most vain and snobbish
princess in all the kingdoms of the world, so I could never bring myself to
destroy such priceless treasures.'
	"To which the dragon could only sigh and nod and slump off to his cave
for another night..."
	V looked back at the pair. Yomiko made an excellent storyteller. Little
Hotaru sat in her lap as the woman sat against a tree. The book was open in
front of them, and Yomiko was reading from it intensely. She would deepen her
voice, making it growl and snap like the dragon for the proper lines and soften
it, making it high and squeaky for the lines of the princess. Hotaru was
fascinated, her eyes riveted to the page as Yomiko flipped through the tiny
book. It helped that Yomiko was doing something to the pages, making them twist
and fold like the pages of a children's pop-up book but with far more animation
than V had ever remembered such things having.
	From what she knew of Hotaru's age, she suspected the book was a little
too... young for her. But Hotaru didn't seem to mind. She would start and stare
as Yomiko guided her through the passages of the story. She looked far more
normal than at any time since V had met her. For the first time, the perpetual
cloud of doom that seemed to hover about her seemed to have lifted.
	Then the wall of the church exploded outward and Ranma came flying out.
She was screaming something about a cat at the top of her lungs as she vanished
into the swamp. V could only stare.
	She really had no idea what to think about Ranma. He was certainly
strong and skilled. But at the same time he was so vulnerable. A little thing
like a cat made him flinch, and then there was his curse. It was hard to take
his macho posturing seriously when a splash of cold water turned him into a
buxom girl a head shorter than V. Seeing him change the first time had been a
shock, but after a moment it had actually made her laugh for the first time she
could remember since...
	A moment after Ranma's departure, the door to the church reopened and
Ukyou walked out. She was leaning on the older woman (Integral? Integra?) for
support. Her long black hair clung damply to her head and she looked drained,
like she had just run all the way to London and back. V idly wondered what the
scream had been about. Whatever it was, it was enough to get Ranma to come
running.
	V chuckled. Perhaps the mighty Ukyou had a secret weakness too? Puppy
dogs? Spiders?
	Whatever it was, V didn't see why Ranma was so loyal to her. She could
sense the tension between them, but Ranma seemed willing to follow her into hell
and back. V found herself disliking Ukyou. She had met a few people like her in
the London resistance. They liked to think they were in charge, that they knew
better. But they were just scared and lost like everyone else, clinging to a
veneer of authority to hide it as much as possible. She obviously had some
issues, but V couldn't care less what they were.
	Ukyou slumped into a chair with a mumble of thanks. The leader of this
merry band nodded and sat down beside her. Artemis jumped up onto the table. He
gave V a long look and then walked over to Ukyou. He placed himself beside her
hand and she began to pat him, her arm obviously moving on autopilot. V frowned.
She hadn't been able to spend much time talking with Artemis ever since those
three had walked into her life. With Ranma's fear, he couldn't stay within
eyesight.
	She found herself... missing his company.
	"What happened in there?" Integra asked, pulling a cigar from an inner
pocket. It wasn't really a question so much as a demand.
	"I..." Ukyou trailed off. "Integra... do you believe in God?"
	Integra snorted. "Of course I do." She ripped off the end of her cigar
with two fingers and lit the stump. "I am Integra Wingates Hellsing of the Royal
Order of Protestant Knights. Our purpose is to defend the Church of England from
the dark things in this world."
	Ukyou looked up, and seemed to notice V for the first time. Her eyes
narrowed slightly. "I don't think Minako was responsible for crippling Alucard."
	"Not this again..." V murmured. Integra and Artemis merely waited
patiently for Ukyou to elaborate.
	"At least, not wholly." Ukyou frowned and looked up at the sky.
"Something interfered with their confrontation. Something changed the way it
should have gone. Not just who won and who lost, but on a fundamental level. The
power of Sailor Venus, it might have hurt Alucard, but I don't believe it could
have hurt him as much as it did." She turned her gaze back to Minako sharply.
"Minako, what attack did you use on him? Specifically."
	"Attack?" V sighed and closed her eyes, trying to remember. It seemed a
lifetime ago. But then, once she focused, it was easy to remember. It had been
the first time she had unlocked the depths of her sailor senshi abilities. "The
Love and Beauty Shock, it's basically-"
	Ukyou cut her off. "I know what it is." Ukyou pulled her hand away from
Artemis and crossed her arms. "The problem is that the Love and Beauty Shock is
your Super Sailor attack. You shouldn't have been able to access it until you
were infused with power from the Golden Crystal."
	"Golden Crystal?" V wanted to deny Ukyou's words, but something about
what she said rang true in her head. She knew... something about the Golden
Crystal. It struck a chord in her memory that refused to make itself clearer.
Artemis had once told her she was a reborn princess from an ancient and
forgotten magical kingdom. Perhaps this was a memory from her past life? Yes.
Yes, that seemed right somehow.
	"Something interfered. It unlocked Minako's full potential, and I think
it altered Alucard in some way..." Ukyou trailed off. "No, not just Alucard. All
of them..."
	"What are you talking about?" Integra snapped. "You're not making
sense."
	"All the vampires!" Ukyou stood up suddenly. "I've seen it. The way her
magic slices through them like a hot knife through butter. The way it vaporises
them instantly. I've seen vampires hit with silvered knives blessed by the Pope,
I've seen them hit with bullets forged with fragments of the true cross, I've
seen them struck by attacks considered the holiest in the world, but none ever
reacted the way these ones did!" Ukyou was ranting now, her voice reaching a
fever pitch. "It didn't just change Alucard. It changed ALL of them! Every
vampire! Every ghoul! The very nature of what they are!" She spun and pointed to
the church. "And in there is where it happened."
	Suddenly the energy seemed to drain out of Ukyou again. Her arm slumped
to her side. "One wound, not in Alucard, but in the very nature of what he
is..." She reached up and clutched her hand over her heart. "Just like the one
inside..."
	"You're saying..." Integra frowned. "Something has altered all vampires,
all at once? That's insane. It would take a power beyond science or sorcery to
accomplish something like that. It would take..." Integra trailed off.
	"It would take God," Hotaru said softly. Everyone glanced over, just now
realising the girl had approached. Yomiko shrugged helplessly, still carrying
the storybook. Hotaru was looking at the church, then she turned to look at
Minako. "He chose you. He made you a weapon against them."
	"Me?" V blinked. She opened and closed her mouth. She had never really
believed in God. She had been raised Shinto, like her family. But she knew what
it meant to be chosen, to be the shining knight standing against the innocent.
She saw it as a great destiny. She knew it was a purpose she could never
abandon. But Hotaru had not sounded like she was happy for her. She sounded like
she was pronouncing V's doom.
	"Don't be ridiculous," Integra stood up. "God helps those who help
themselves. I don't need your heresy."
	V couldn't help it, she just blurted it out. "God helps those who help
others. Not those who hide like children."
	There was a flash as Integra turned on her, pulling her blade from its
sheath. V was aware of Artemis jumping in front of her, screaming her name.
Yomiko was yelling as well. Then there was a loud clap and Integra's blade
halted only a few centimeters out of its sheath. Ukyou was holding her wrist.
For a moment, Integra struggled. Then she seemed to calm down.
	"Don't EVER say that to me," Integra hissed at V. Her eyes were full of
feverish intensity. "I am not running. I am fighting a war. Unlike you, and your
petty acts of guerilla justice." She glanced at Ukyou, who released her and
stood back. "At first, I had ten thousand people here. Survivors. Military.
Police. Navy. Those who escaped the purge. I knew where to find them, I gathered
them together. We found martial artists, psychics, magicians... I forged an
army.
	"Then they began to slip away."
	She bowed her head slightly. "Bloody fools. They lost their heart. They
said there was nothing here worth fighting for. Millions dead. Entire towns,
entire counties cleansed of all life. We fought a retreating war, and they lost
their heart. They left, one after another. For Europe? For America?" She
snorted. Her eyes raised. "But I will remain. Even if the Queen is dead, even if
the only thing left of my country and my church is me, I will fight these things
to my last breath. And I will WIN. I will drive them from my soil and I will
PUNISH them for their temerity!" Her voice had risen until she was screaming.
"If you think I'm a coward, then get the hell out of my camp or I will kill you
where you stand. Go fight a one woman war. I will say a prayer over your corpse
when I stand victorious."
	V had risen to her own feet by now, and was glaring at the woman. "We
can't win by hiding. Can't you see it in the faces of your men? They're scared
and tired. You need to take the battle to them! All staying here is doing is
wearing down their spirit!"
	"Calm down, both of you," Ukyou snapped. They glared at her in unison,
but she weathered their looks with cold indifference. "Neither of you will win
if you turn on each other."
	V crossed her arms and raised her nose, turning away. Integra spat out
her cigar into the mud and began to walk away.
	"Wow, what did I miss?"
	Ranma had walked up behind V so silently she screamed and leapt when she
talked. There was a loud yowl as Ukyou grabbed Artemis and shoved him under the
table so fast he became a blur. Ranma glanced at her, and Ukyou grinned tightly
and nodded.
	"They were just discussing... uh, spirit," Yomiko pointed out.
	"Ah." Ranma nodded. Then she laughed and rubbed the back of her head.
"Yeah. These guys are pretty down in the dumps. I guess I have to show them how
to be a man about it!" She grinned, thrusting out her chest. It bounced.
	V laughed. "Ranma, at the moment, everybody with any spirit in this
place is female."
	Ranma gave her a glare.
	"Everybody?" Ukyou chuckled herself. "What about him?" She pointed
across the camp. V turned and looked. The woman with the rose-colored hair was
standing near the church, glancing into it. She was doing a very bad job of
trying to look inconspicuous.
	"You mean Crystal?" Yomiko blinked.
	"Yeah," Ukyou nodded. "He seems to be spirited enough, though he is
avoiding me..."
	"Ukyou," Yomiko coughed. "That is a girl."
	"What?" Ukyou frowned at her. "No he isn't." She turned her attention
back to Crystal, and her eyes narrowed. "That is a male chi I sense..." Then her
eyes narrowed further. "Yomiko... when did Crystal join you here?"
	"Uh... actually only a few weeks before you showed up." She laughed. "We
were lucky, actually. An extermination squad had found one of our patrols, even
though there weren't supposed to be any in the area, and she showed up out of
nowhere and destroyed them all with some kind of magic. Saved Integra's life
personally, if I recall the story correctly..." Yomiko trailed off. "Uh,
Ukyou..."
	But Ukyou wasn't listening. She charged across the field, her coat
snapping behind her. She moved like the wind, her footsteps tearing divots from
the ground. Ranma started and then followed her. V blinked, then took off as
fast as she could.
	Ukyou reached Crystal and her hand snapped out like a piston. Her
fingers clamped down on the woman's neck and she lifted her into the air. With a
cry she leapt forward, across the yard and smashed Crystal into a tree. It
shuddered, and Crystal cried out in pain.
	"Ukyou!" Ranma gasped.
	V had already retrieved her transformation wand. She could hear Yomiko
following her, and saw that most of the camp was looking this way.
	"Zoicite!" Ukyou hissed.
	"I..." Crystal gasped as well as she could with her throat in Ukyou's
iron grip. She glanced down into Ukyou's inhuman black lotus eyes and V saw
Crystal begin to tremble with fear. "I have no idea-"
	"Don't toy with me," Ukyou cut her off, tightening her grasp and causing
Crystal to choke. "I can see through your disguise." Ukyou smiled grimly. "Not
just an illusion... some sort of physical disguise? Not shapeshifting... ah, of
course. Just like in the series."
	There was a loud click and V turned, seeing Integra standing nearby with
a gun in one hand. It was pointed at Ukyou. "Put her down."
	"This isn't who it looks like," Ukyou informed Integra without looking.
Her free hand was fumbling at the back of Crystal's neck. Integra was about to
say something else, but her words died in her throat as Ukyou gave a small 'aha'
and pulled up. Crystal's face distended then lost all shape as Ukyou pulled up
the back of her neck. Her hair, scalp and face pulled away like a hood.
	Underneath was a pretty-faced man. He had straw-blonde hair pulled back
into a ponytail, and cruel green eyes. Ukyou smirked at his look of shock, then
she pulled down further. Crystal's clothes peeled from his body, and his entire
form seemed to melt and shift away. Finally there was only a pile of white silk
at his feet, and 'Crystal' was revealed. It defied logic. He was taller, for
one, and even given the false woman's bust size, he was now thicker around the
chest. He wore a coal-grey uniform with green piping.
	"That's..." Integra lowered her gun.
	"Uh... isn't that still a chick?" Ranma rubbed the back of his head.
	Ukyou ignored her. "What are you doing here?" she demanded. Cryst-
Zoicite stammered something. Ukyou's eyes flashed, literally flashed with cold
white light. "Answer me!"
	"I... was sent here!" Zoicite's voice was deeper than Crystal's, but not
by much.
	"Sent?"
	"Well..." Zoicite seemed nervous, but Ukyou had reduced the pressure of
her grip. She still held him against the tree. "Not really. I was supposed to
scout the world. Discover what was happening. I..." He glanced at Integra. "I
couldn't infiltrate Millennium. I could disguise myself and get access to the
next best thing... an expert on vampires and a powerful sample I could bring
back to my Queen."
	"Alucard," V said dourly. Why did everything come back to him?
	"What does Beryl want with vampires?" Ukyou asked. "I thought she was
only interested in the Ginzuishou."
	"Not Beryl..." Here Zoicite grinned. "Tethys."
	Ukyou reeled back, releasing Zoicite. She looked stunned. "Tethys..."
Ukyou shook her head. "That isn't possible."
	"I believed it less than you," Zoicite was grinning now, rubbing his
throat. "I can't believe she's scared of y-" Then there was a flash and Zoicite
stopped in mid-word. He glanced to the side, at the silver spatula imbedded in
the wood. A few hairs fell on his shoulder and a drop of blood trailed from his
ear. "You cut me..."
	"I'll do worse." Ukyou promised. "You are going to leave here. You are
going to tell Tethys that this place isn't for her. Tell her that if I even
think she's anywhere near me I will go up to the North Pole, track her down and
kill her in her sleep." The words came out so cold that V did not doubt Ukyou
meant every word of it.
	"Leave?" Integra held up her gun again. "I think not."
	"Let him go, Integra," Ukyou said, her voice brooking no argument.
Integra looked like she was about to argue anyway, but then Zoicite vanished in
a swirl of rose petals.

*

	Aptom was, at heart, a simple man. He had a few basic desires. He
desired vengeance, for instance. He wanted to have his revenge on the Sailor
Senshi, for killing his brother. He wanted to have revenge on Chronos, for
tormenting him and enslaving his mind. Most of all he wanted revenge on that
boy, Ryouga, the boy with the yellow tunic and the fangs. The boy who had
defeated him like he was nothing.
	He had come here looking for him, but couldn't seem to find him. So he
spent his time indulging his other principal desire: power. He rose up in front
of the remaining zoanoid, a Vamore. It was shaking as it stepped back from him.
Its rodent-like face twisted into as close to an expression of fear as its
inhuman features would allow. The large pods on its shoulder were open,
revealing the stunted bio-laser weapons it carried. Aptom could hear the low
bass whine of its system recharging the weapons.
	He grinned and stepped forward. He could have killed the Vamore in a
second. One touch and his infectious DNA would have invaded its body, corrupting
it and transforming its flesh into nothing more than another carrier for Aptom.
He would have gained its strengths, its ability to mutate into a powerful
biological artillery piece. But Aptom preferred to toy with his prey.
	He had already absorbed a Vamore once, and he would get nothing from
this one except more flesh. The thing twitched. Its weapons were almost
recharged. Aptom only smiled, his dangerous leer splitting the scar that ran
down half his face. He could have willed the scar away, but it amused him to
carry a reminder of his torment. There was no injury that he could not survive
now. The Vamore had already vaporised him once, after all.
	"Back away from him!"
	Aptom spun at the new voice. He saw two people rushing down the street
towards him. One was a leggy woman with long black hair and stylish glasses in a
short white coat and even shorter mini-skirt. Her partner was a middle-aged man
with thick glasses and short hair. His outfit would have looked perfectly normal
on any Japanese wage slave, except for the thick fingerless sparring gloves and
insewn metal shoulderpads.
	They were moving so fast it was hard for Aptom to believe. They had just
rounded the corner, almost five blocks away, and in the time it had taken Aptom
to notice them had closed to only two blocks.
	The man screamed something, thrusting his hands forward. A ball of blue-
white light erupted from his outstretched palms. It roared across the black
asphalt, sending up a wave of dust. The blast struck the Vamore in the chest,
sending it staggering back.
	Then it hit Aptom. These were martial artists. Just like the boy who had
beaten him.
	Aptom felt more than saw the Vamore getting to its feet. It roared and
fired again, twin lances of angry red light flashing out from its shoulders. Its
target was Aptom. He had inherited enough strength and speed from his victims to
easily dodge the blast, but he deliberately slowed his reactions. The lasers
tore through his arm without pausing, shearing it off and sending the limb
falling to the ground. Aptom did not have to fake his gasp of pain. He had to
remember to turn off the nerve-endings in his body if he was going to do stupid
actions like this.
	He fell back, staggering against the wall.
	"Kyoko!" the man yelled, charging straight at the Vamore. The woman
nodded and broke off, coming in towards Aptom. The Vamore had no time to react
as the man smashed into it with his shoulder. A roar escaped the man's lips and
the light around him seemed to dim even as his own body grew brighter, flashing
with blue light. Then he was flying into the air, his fist rising as if it were
carrying him upward with the sheer force of his blow. The Vamore fell back, blue
and black light trailing down its body. Aptom could see it was dead. Its neck
had been snapped by the force of the strike.
	"Don't move," the woman named Kyoko said as she approached. Her face was
filled with concern. Aptom lay on the ground, moaning and clutching his stump.
"I'm a nurse, but I need to see your wound if I'm to do anything...." She knelt
down next to him, stretching out a hand for his wound.
	Aptom grabbed her wrist. "You don't need to see my wound," Aptom said
sweetly. His voice was not filled with pain, but triumph. The woman had
stiffened in his grip. "But then again, you don't need to see anything anymore,
do you?" Kyoko jerked, and her eyes clouded over a moment later. "At least,
nothing that I don't see as well."
	Aptom stood up, detaching his hand from his new body. He felt his
connection with the brain of the other Aptom severing. Already it was
reconfiguring the brain into his own, even if for the moment he allowed it to
retain its original form.
	"Kyoko..." Aptom faced the man, who was walking forward hesitantly.
Behind him, the Vamore was already finishing its own self-destruction as Chronos
engineering eliminated all evidence of the monster. "You. What's going on? How
are you still standing?"
	"Kyoko is dead," the Aptom in the form of the woman said. She crossed
her arms under her breasts and smiled wickedly.
	"Her body and power are now a part of me," Aptom explained. He shrugged,
and a surge of organic material burst from the stump of his arm. It pulsed and
expanded grotesquely before suddenly contracting into the shape of an arm.
Aptom held up the limb for examination. It looked exactly like the arm of the
woman he had just killed. He then shrugged again and the arm expanded, the flesh
darkening until it matched the rest of his base form.
	"What?" the man screeched. "I don't believe you!"
	"Then believe this, old fool," the Aptom-as-Kyoko roared as she charged
forward. But her movements were slow, her steps unsure. Kyoko herself had run in
these high heels like it was nothing. She had moved like the wind. But the body
was moving clumsily, as if it were unfamiliar with how to fight in such awkward
footwear. That was impossible. Aptom hadn't changed a thing about her. Every
muscle and nerve and tendon was exactly the same as it had been before he had
taken her. He should have had all the woman's speed and strength, but from the
way the man was easily sidestepping the clumsy strikes, it was obvious he did
not.
	The man finally growled and struck out, his backhand catching the Aptom-
as-Kyoko across the cheek. He flew back five meters before colliding with a
mailbox hard enough to rip it from the sidewalk.
	"You monster!" the man screamed, charging at the male Aptom. "What did
you do to her?"
	Aptom frowned. The man was rearing back for a punch. Then he grinned,
and braced himself. With a roar the man struck out, his fist smashing into
Aptom's head with enough force to shatter steel. Aptom's skull cracked and blood
began to trickle from his mouth and nose. If he had been a normal being, he
would have been dead. But his grin hadn't even faded.
	The man stared, his eyes slowly clouding over. The bare skin of his
fingers was twisted and deformed as the skin of Aptom's cheek sunk into it.
Aptom chuckled to himself as the man died before he even realised his mistake.
Then he stepped back and shook his head.
	"Why didn't it work?" he asked his new body.
	"I..." The body flexed its hands, the old man's face looking frustrated.
"This is just a normal human body. There's nothing special about it at all. Not
in the DNA, the arrangement of organs or muscles... just perfectly normal."
	"It must be something else..." Aptom mused aloud. "Perhaps a learned
skill that allows these martial artists to challenge a zoanoid?" Aptom grunted
to himself as he considered that. His only limitation was his inability to
absorb the memories and skills of his hosts. It seemed he would have to limit
himself to zoanoids and those plant beasts if he wanted to gain more power...
	Aptom spun around at the sound of someone clapping.
	The woman was standing in the middle of the street. She was tall, with
shoulder-length black hair that flowed sensually down her scalp. She wore a
dress cut from a thin black fabric that hugged her understated but feminine
curves. Her vivid brown eyes had no pupils. However, Aptom was not really
watching her: he was more concerned with her companion.
	It was a giant creature, standing over two meters tall. She looked like
nothing so much as a modern art statue, a parody of a woman made out of the
parts of a jet plane. Her eyes glowed and she shifted on her tiny feet as she
looked down at Aptom.
	"Very, very good," the smaller woman said. "I must say, you were
everything we've heard you were."
	"Heard?" Aptom said. His new body moved to stand beside him.
	"Oh..." the woman tilted her head at the former human's movement. "Well,
I do so hate talking to a large class." She raised her hand and snapped her
fingers. "Valkyrie?"
	"Valkyrie is engaging!" the metallic woman screamed. There was a roar as
hidden jets on her back fired and the thing raised into the air behind her
commander. The backwash sent the loose skirt of the woman's dress rippling
around her thighs.
	Aptom leapt to one side and his other self went the opposite way. The
thing roared and its breasts detached. A moment later that had morphed into
missiles, streaking in on his old man body with uncanny speed and accuracy. The
body couldn't begin to dodge. Aptom was blown against the side of a nearby
building by the shockwave, the bricks cracking.
	He fell to the ground and looked at the crater where his other self had
been. There was nothing there except smoke and vapour. The body had been
completely atomized. Even as he was recovering from this, he felt something
falling towards him.
	He snapped up his forearm to block and there was the crystalline sound
of glass shattering. He felt a warm liquid splash over his entire body. It
smelled vaguely of apricots.
	Aptom looked up as the woman approached. She came to a stop with her
hands on her hips, only a few paces from him. Her war machine settled down just
behind her.
	"I don't believe I have introduced myself," she started. "I am Azuma;
Master of Chemistry and chief researcher of the Deathbusters." She smiled. "You
are Aptom - close to the perfect killing machine. I have been watching you for
some time now, ever since you arrived in Tokyo. I've been impressed by your
efficiency and your ability to absorb the qualities of your opposition."
	"You have?" Aptom asked slowly, changing his position subtly.
	"Oh yes," she responded, laughing. "You see, we need you to perform a
certain task for us-" Her voice cut off as Aptom launched himself forward, his
hand slamming around her throat.
	"Shut up, useless woman!" Aptom growled.
	But Azuma was smiling. Aptom blinked. He could feel her skin beneath his
hand, but it was like he was touching it through a thin layer of fabric.
	"That would be Azuma's Ultra Strength Biohazard Prevention Gel, patent
pending, that you are experiencing," she said, smirking.
	"What?"
	"A creation of my own design. It coats your entire body with a molecular
sheath that your infectious DNA attack can not penetrate," she explained, then
raised one hand to her mouth.  "Now you realise the power of chemistry!"  She
laughed. Aptom remembered the vial shattering against his arm now.
	"Fine, I'll just kill you the old fashioned way!" he growled, and willed
his body to morph into a powerful combat form so he could snap her neck like a
twig.
	Nothing happened.
	"That would be the optional Azuma's Anti-Zoanoid Demutagenic Enzyme,"
the woman said with a smile. Then her face went stonily serious. "Now, if you
won't remove your hand... Chemical Buster!"
	The woman waved her hand and for a moment Aptom saw a small tube
concealed in her dress, then he fell back, screaming as his arms dissolved. He
stared dumbly as the limbs simply liquefied into puddles of goo in a matter of
seconds. He fell to the ground, staring up at the woman.
	"Don't worry, none of this is permanent," Azuma stated. "We need you at
your best if you are to be any use to us."
	"I am not your servant!" Aptom roared, rising to his knees.
	"Oh, not even a little?" Azuma frowned. "I swear you'll enjoy it. After
all, the reason we picked you was because you have a personal grudge against one
of our problems. We know where Ryouga is, you see, and we want him - or more
accurately the girl with him - taken out of the picture. Plus we're going to
turn you into an even more perfect killing machine. No more weaknesses at all!"
	"No deal," Aptom said, smiling. Then Aptom-as-Kyoko jumped onto the back
of the metal woman. The woman's eyes widened as the second Aptom began to laugh.
Then her laugh died down.
	"What..." Aptom-as-Kyoko was stunned. "But I was never touched by the
liquid! I should be absorbing all your abilities!"
	"Valkyrie is made of space age materials!" the machine-woman stated
enthusiastically. Then her jets came to life, and the lower half of Aptom-as-
Kyoko was vaporised by the flare. She roared and released Valkyrie, but the
machine moved too fast. It grabbed her and flipped her into the air. "Valkyrie
is deploying nipple nukes! Fox-three!"
	Aptom could only watch in horror as his other body vanished into a plume
of fire and smoke when the breast missiles slammed into it.
	"Now, before we were interrupted..." Azuma mused as she turned back
towards Aptom. "I believe I was making you an offer you couldn't refuse." She
gestured and suddenly there was a small object in her hand. It looked like a
small grey egg, ribbed along its length. "Welcome to the team, Aptom."

*


	"And who are you?" The man swirled his cape around his shoulders. "More
importantly, why should I not kill you where you stand?"
	Zoicite grinned. He could sense the power of this man from where he
stood. It was immense, like a dark inferno. With power like that, one could
rival Beryl. No, with power like that, Beryl could have been crushed like an
ant. But Zoicite kept his back straight and his grin confident. He was not
afraid. He could see the figures encircling him, a half dozen young women in
scandalous outfits. He ignored them.
	"Because I have what you want," Zoicite informed him.
	"What could you have to give me that I could not take?"
	"I believe you are searching for a young woman, with long black hair and
scars on her arm, goes by the name of Ukyou?" Zoicite paused and held up his
hand, weaving an image of the bitch over his outstretched palm. The man's
glowing blue eyes narrowed, and on some unseen signal his warriors ceased their
movement. "Do I have your attention now, Lord Bison?"
	"You do."
	Zoicite's grin blossomed into a full blown smirk. It had been so simple,
once Tethys had given the order. Dangling such a limitation in front of him had
been an irresistible temptation. Plus, this Ukyou had managed to destroy Jadeite
as well. So Zoicite had learned everything there was to learn about her.
Including the names of most of her enemies.
	Zoicite reached up with his free hand and brushed back a few locks of
hair. He could feel the tiny cut on his ear. Such an insult could not go
unanswered. While he had been commanded not to directly attack or interfere
with Ukyou, there had been no explicit order to avoid her enemies.
	"Then I suggest you go here..." Zoicite summoned up a three dimensional
map of the island, marking Ukyou's location with a glowing silver light. "But I
suggest you hurry, Lord Bison. Otherwise, your rivals at Millennium will get to
her first."
	Zoicite didn't wait to see his reaction. He raised his wrist to his
mouth and laughed delicately as he vanished in a swirl of rose petals.

*

	Rip Van Winkle walked into The Major's command center with her head held
high. She knew she was going to die, but she would walk to her death with
dignity. Her companions could choose to face death in whatever manner they
preferred, and her only real hope was that the Major would have her killed last,
so she could watch.
	Yan strode casually beside her. His hands were in his pockets and he was
hunched forward. He was grinning that irritating grin of his. His brother moved
with more dignity, but with obvious fear in his eyes. His normally immaculate
clothes were dirty and wrinkled, his hair in as close to disarray as Rip had
ever seen.
	As usual, the command deck of the Ex Machina was almost totally in
shadow. Even Rip's vampiric eyesight had a hard time piercing the perpetual
gloom. Figures moved just out of sight, updating the boards and computer
displays that doted the walls.
	The Major himself sat on a dais in the center of the room, his fat and
unthreatening form perched comfortably in his command chair. A single spotlight
shone down on him from above, making him the only thing that anyone could rest
their eyes on. Sprawled at the Major's feet, his head resting just underneath
the man's right hand, was the deceptively young form of Schrodinger. His boyish
face split in a fanged grin on seeing her, and the cat-like ears on his head
twitched.
	"Lieutenant Rip Van Winkle, reporting as ordered, SIR!" Rip shouted once
she was within a dozen paces of the command chair.
	"Yo, Major Krieg!" Yan did not stop with her. He walked forward,
grinning impudently as if he owned the place. His hand fished out from his
pocket and extended towards the ultimate commander, the very heart, of
Millennium. "Pleased to finally meet ya face to face! Nice digs you got here."
He grabbed the Major's hand and shook it vigorously.
	"Charmed," the Major said with a laugh.
	"Though the place could use some lightening up." Yan used his one good
eye to examine the command center. "Maybe some bitches pole-dancing, or a few
snack bars with children chained down... ya know, down to earth touches that
really make a house a home."
	"Yan..." Luke said dangerously.
	"Oh right, this is my brother Luke," Yan explained, gesturing at the man
as if the Major did not already know this. Then he stage-whispered, "He's kinda
antsy about this meeting you wanted. Practically wet himself on the way up."
	At least Luke seemed properly mortified, his face draining of what
little colour his undead flesh had. The Major, for his part, was merely
grinning.
	"Yes, Mr. Valentine, I vill take zat under advisement." He cleared his
throat. "But ve haf business to attend to and miles to go before ve sleep, and
all zat."
	"Sure, boss," Yan said, stretching and walking back towards Rip. She
glared at him for a moment, then fixed her gaze on her ultimate superior.
	"Lieutenant Van Winkle," the Major nodded. "Report."
	Rip took a long breath. "I haf failed in my mission, Major." She bowed
her head. She would offer no excuses or apologies. They already knew everything
she knew, through the chips implanted throughout her body. They knew about her
effort to defeat V, and the rescue by... that woman. They knew about the
confrontation at the mansion, and the escape of the resistance... apparently
with whatever it was they had come for. They knew about Rip's pursuit across the
English countryside, her constant pursuit. How she had put every minute bit of
her hard-earned training and vampiric prowess to the test, trying to find the
trail of the fleeing rebels. How she had found their trail numerous times. How
she had come so close, SO CLOSE, to finally cornering them. How that woman - the
damnable woman! Always that woman! - had always managed to find a way for them
to escape. Her fists tightened, but she kept all her thoughts inside.
	"Raise your eyes, Rip Van Winkle," the Major said. She did so, and saw
he was smiling. "I do not sacrifice useful officers for no good reason. And I
did not summon you here because you failed." His smile split further, revealing
his fangs. "In fact, I haf learned exactly vere your target has fled."
	"You... you haf? How?"
	"A little bird told him," Schrodinger spoke up. "In fact..." He looked
at the Valentines and grinned. "He told us many things. Like how ze rumours of
ze death of Integra Hellsing vere greatly exaggerated."
	"She... has joined up vith Hellsing..." That worried Rip for reasons she
couldn't quite put to words.
	"Yes," the Major explained, extending both hands to his sides in a
placating gesture. "So I have called you here to expand the scope of your
orders. You will track down V, all her friends, Integra Hellsing, all her
companions, and wipe them out to the last man."
	"Now we're fucking talking!" Yan screamed. "I've just been itching to
get another shot at that bitch!"
	"With all due respect, Major," Luke said slowly, "why take us here to do
that? You could have just told us our new orders and given the locations of the
rebels via the radio."
	The Major nodded approvingly at the blonde vampire. "Very astute, young
Valentine," he said. "I think perhaps your team shall require slightly more
support for such an important operation." Suddenly he brought his hands
together, clapping loudly once.
	A light shone down on another part of the command center, one of the
side entrances. It was a massive door made of metal with strong bands. Beyond
that door, Doc did his work. There was a hiss as the doors unlocked, and the
massive deadbolts slid away. In a cloud of steam they opened.
	From the steam stepped a woman that Rip did not know, but who
immediately set her on edge. She was tall, with ethereal blonde hair that flowed
down her body to her hips. She wore a dark evening gown and white opera gloves.
Her face was aristocratically beautiful, despite the slightly iridescent green
veins that shone just under her eyes. Rip could sense a power in her, something
primal and dangerous but also tightly restrained.
	Then Rip staggered as the next presence entered the room. It was in a
cage, a giant box with bars so thick they would have rivaled tree trunks. The
cage rolled into the room behind the woman, who smiled and strutted as if her
presence was a favour she gave them. But Rip no longer cared about her, because
something moved in that cage. The shadows made it impossible to make out, except
the fact that it was human-sized, and the occasional flash of its mad red eyes.
	Whatever it was, it reeked of power. A terrible, dark power into which
all other powers sank like stones into the abyss. It didn't radiate, it
consumed. It was madness and hunger and terrible, terrible purpose.
	"Zamiel..." Rip whispered reverently.
	"Ah, Lady Alexia, I take it she is complete?" the Major asked calmly.
	"Yes, Herr Major," the woman said, inclining her head slightly. "Your
lab is crude, by modern standards, but serves very well. I doubt we shall ever
have a better test subject, but the experiment in combining our techniques seems
to have worked out well."
	"Excellent, excellent," the Major said, clapping. He turned to Rip.
"Alexia here represents a concern of certain corporations amenable to our cause
and who have found recent events in the world not to their liking." He smiled, a
vicious and dangerous smile. "In exchange for our harbouring them, she has
offered her expertise in weapons manufacture. And I can think of no better way
to test our prototype than on your mission."
	"J-ja..." Rip Van Winkle nodded, not really taking her eyes off the
cage. She had stopped praying to God a long time ago, but she almost wished He
would have mercy on whoever that thing was unleashed upon.
	Almost.


				To Be Continued...



Author's Notes:

Blade: Well, I can't imagine us getting any complaints about this chapter.  I
mean, it had Akane and hot wet tentacle action!  Seriously, people, what more do
you want?

Epsilon: Plot?  Poetry?  Pugilism?

Blade: We always have lots of the latter.  And, uh, the former.  Mostly the
latter.

Epsilon: Yup, we have so much of the latter that we won't have any room for the
former for the next couple of chapters!

Blade: Yup!  Next chapter is when we officially run out of ideas and start the
tournament arc!  Just like Naruto!  Except with less sexism!

Epsilon: Yup!  And just like Dragonball and Yuu Yuu Hakusho, we're certain this
will skyrocket us to popularity!  Plot and character are passe.  TOURNAMENTS!
That's where it's at!

Blade: So, the next few (dozen) chapters will be us taking every possible
faction in Hybrid Theory and turning them into three-person teams, which will
then fight each other in 100K battles until we run out of combinations!

Epsilon: So which of your henchbabes are on your team?

Blade: Well, y'know, I'd like to take Pink and all, but... uh... I think I want
to win.  So I'll take Cologne.  And, eh, I dunno, Tethys.

Epsilon: Okay.  But only if I get Arkanphel and Resurrected Alucard.

Blade: Hey, that's cheating!

Epsilon: When you write two thirds of the fanfic, you can cheat all you want to!

Blade: I wrote two thirds of LAST chapter!

Epsilon: Okay, fine, we'll leave it up the audience.  So okay, audience, this is
the FIRST OFFICIAL HYBRID THEORY POLL!


***

FIRST OFFICIAL HYBRID THEORY POLL!

"Who do you want to end up on Chris' and Aaron/Ukyou's teams?"

Rules:

#1: Blade and Epsilon get votes.

#2: You do not.

#3: Ha ha ha ha ha.

***

Blade: Remember to tell us your opinions now, so we can print them off!  These
Canadian winters, after all, are pretty brutal and you need tinder from
somewhere.

Epsilon: On a related note, here's an excerpt from next month's chapter, which
may change according to your vote!  But probably won't!



	Artemis could only stare in horror. Everyone else had stopped moving
too. They were all staring at the little girl now. Her transformation had blown
away most of the church, letting everyone see the end coming. Sailor Saturn
stretched her arm up, holding the Silence Glaive up to the sky. When it fell,
her power would destroy the entire world. Sailor Saturn's mouth opened, and she
began chanting the final thing anyone would ever hear.
	"DEATH..."


			Hybrid Theory Chapter 19: And One