Seras Victoria- Reanimator

Disclaimer: Hellsing belongs to Kohta Hirano. Herbert West and his formula belongs to H.P. Lovecraft.

Notes: This is in the mangaverse and people who are SxP WILL hate me by the end of this fic so you have been warned. VERY DARK!

Seras signaled Phillips that the hall was clear. He nodded and motioned for the men to start sweeping the rooms. She liked working for Phillips; he was one of the Wild Geese who had miraculously survived that night. The result left him in command of the new mercenaries Integral hired and a very quiet reserved person. He treated Seras like any other soldier albeit with a few extra talents. He was a good commander, but he was no replacement forÉ . Seras shook her head violently, she had enough time to mourn at the funeral. Right now she had work to do.

There had been reports from a few frantic people about zombies stalking the halls of Oxford. It didn't have any signs of Millennium's machinations, so it was marked up to a wild FREAK. Since Alucard was away chasing down every last one of those unholy bastards he was unavailable to take care of such a petty problem. As a result the responsibility came upon Seras, Phillips and Howard, the two remaining Wild Geese, and a flock of bright, eager, ignorant, mercenaries.

Seras walked down the tiled halls of one of the world's most prestigious schools. When she was very young her parents, in the style customary to all parents, attempted to groom her so she could study in these hallowed halls. It was a nice attempt but Seras' grades, while not being disgraceful, were far away from any sort of a scholarship. Couple that fact with the salary of a civil servant and that parental dream had quietly disappeared. She grinned at the thought of her going to Oxford. Transforming into a quietly little mousy girl in the library, going to class, and other forms of routine until it would be difficult to seperate herself from the ghouls she fought dailyÉor nightly as the case may be. The thought surprised her a little, at what point did she start to become a philospher certified to ponder the merits of a life well lived. Strike that question, she resigned to the fact that she was most likely going barmy. Master would have just remarked about the pitiful attempts of humans at understanding anything. He would have made a crude jokeÉno, she couldn't start thinking about him every time you went on a mission. Memories were not a luxury she could afford herself anymore. With all the time in the world left to her if she let herself get lost in memories then that would be the first step to going mad.

"Seras over here." Phillips was standing to the side on a door where a faint light could be seen through the frosted glass. "You ok with taking point?" Seras nodded. Being unable to be killed with a mere bullet was a useful talent but it also designated herself as the one people hide behind.

Seras kicked open the door and ran in her sidearm ready. Three facts became quickly apparent to her very quickly. Firstly, these were not ghouls, the sickly grey pallor to their skin was gone. Secondly, the one creating these things was a human holding a hypodermic with a bright neon green substance in it. Third, these things were actively talking, it was babble but babble with intelligible words in it, and these things were faster than ghouls. Much faster.

Seras swore to herself as the four things attacked her in utter silence having suddenly stopped their babble. She should have been able to deal with something like this, but instead she had just expected some slow moving ghouls and as a result of her arrogance, was caught off guard by these creatures' speed. A stupid rookie mistake. The one nearest to her in a letterman jacket to a hold of her and began to shake her. Almost immediately she felt the presence of Howard and Phillips behind her blowing the head off the ghoul that wasn't a ghoul. Ghouls or not, if you blew off a creatures head seven times out of then, Sears had discovered, it would go down and not come back up. Free of the creature's hold she leveled her gun at the man in the lab coat standing over another corpse, casually she swung her gun to the side and blew off the head of a fetching young co-ed in a lovely cheerleader's uniform. Strangely that gave her a small sense of satisfaction. The other soldiers charged in and made short work of the things like the over eager to please twits they were. Seras approached the human cowering behind a dissection table, a very fresh female cadaver lying upon it.

The man, actually he couldn't have been more than 25, squealed as he saw this "You don't understand! I'm so close to perfecting Dr. West's work! You can't stop me now! I mean imagine it, a world where people need not die! No one would have to suffer! I'm sure you understand what it's like to lose people you care for to death. With Dr. West's formula no one has to die again!

Seras' reply to the man's impassioned and slightly eloquent speech was to put about twelve bullets into his face screaming. Breathing heavily she turned to Phillips and Howard staring at her. "Self-defense. He came at me with that needle." She looked at the two commanders with a mixed expression of fear and a hope that the two would understand.

"You're perfectly right Victoria. Self-defense." Phillips said lowering his gun that was also leveled at the spot where the doctor's face had been. He turned to the new recruits that had been standing their mouths hanging open, stunned. He rolled his eyes and mentally apologized to his commander for being to put up with his ineptitude when he began. "Gather up what you can and lets get out of here." The geese left the room.

Seras picked up the hypodermic and a sheaf of papers yellowed with age. They seemed to be the notes from Prof. Dr. Herbert West. Suddenly the woman on the table sat up. "No! Please! Get away from me, please put down that knife!" She turned and looked and looked at Seras and the corpse on the ground. "Thank youÉ" The woman then gagged on a mouthful of a hideous syrupy liquid complete with little bits of flesh floating in it and collapsed back onto the table.

Seras was stunned. That woman had been brought back from the deadÉand she still was human. In fact, Sears could hear her heart racing in her chest! A quick look at West's notes again. Then she slipped the entire manuscript, the vial of the green solution resting on the table, and the needle all into her ammo box for the harkonnen.

The next evening she was at the cemetery. It was stupid. It was far too late; Dr. West's notes specifically mentioned that embalming the body completely ruined it beyond any chance of his formula working.

"Hello yes?" A silvery voice intoned behind her. She jumped a millimeter in the ground. She turned around and saw an elder Middle Eastern gentleman looking at her with the soft, sympathetic smile people reserved for treating the mourning. Seras glanced at her watch and grimaced she'd been standing there for a good half an hour before this man appeared.

"I am so sorry Miss, the cemetery is closing in fifteen minutes, yes?" The old man continued to smile at her, changing subtly from the Mourner's Smile to the Get Out I Want To Close And Go Home, But I'm At The Point Where I Can Still Be Polite Smile. He had to be the caretaker, or gravedigger, or some other occupation that maintained these grounds.

"Sorry. I'll be on my way." Seras turned to leave, she would turn in the materials she had to Sir Integra. No use holding onto some hope that had no chance of coming true. She had gone two feet when she heard the man clear his throat.

"You were here from Mr. Bernadette yes? I remember you from funeral, yes?

Seras paused and turned to look at the man. "Yes, what about it.

"You police woman yes? Saw you in uniform, yes? I have body of Mr. Bernadette stored. You here to collect for examination, yes?

Sears almost felt her heart start up again. "YesÉplease take me to him.

She followed the old man who introduced himself as the groundskeeper with the peculiar name of Neil Tip.

"When first came, old groundskeeper made fun of my praying to Mecca. Call me Tipping Kneel. When he left the name stuck, soon got changed to Neil Tip. I like name a little, make me sound more ÔJohn Bull' yes?

Seras just nodded politely, her mind was elsewhere. When they reached the house of the groundskeeper Neil lead Seras to a room that closely resembled a morgue. He walked over to one drawer and pulled it open. She felt her heart Ôbeat' again as she looked at him. He was all cleaned up, the wounds sown together, and most importantly, he had been lying in a freezing drawer that was packed with dry ice. Then she noticed the smell, or lack there of, he hadn't been embalmed.

"I thought to myself that Mr. Bernadette died strangely yes? That police might want to look at him yes? So I didn't embalm him and put him in freeze to keep him good, yes? You take Mr. Bernadette away, yes?

Seras just nodded and motioned for Neil to assist her in preparing the body for transport.

Neil Tip smiled as he watched Seras quietly steal into the night with a large, very well preserved and unembalmed bundle on her back. Never mind the obvious questions and easily spotted warnings and inconsistencies. ÔIt's still so easy to trick mortals.' Neil thought to himself and smiled as his yellow amber eyes crinkled in glee while he walked back to the morgue whistling. The tune was old and long forgotten, almost as old as the one making it.

A.N.: Yes I admit I was largely inspired by ÔChildren Of An Elder God' for the encounter with ÔNeil Tip'. No prizes for knowing where the last two Geese's names come from. As always review, flame, whatever. Those of you who have read the story Herbert West-Reanimator and have figured out what's going to happen, you may begin to call me a bastard. (For the record I'm a big SxP supporter. Canon shall prevail!)