Disclaimer: All characters in this fiction belong to the great master Kouta Hirano. This story is posted for free and there is no more benefit from it than reading the awesome reviews and getting loving faves ;)

(Re) Building an Empire

First day

A black shooting star was clearly illuminated by the Londonien bloody sky. There was no one to see it, for the city being broken and the possible witnesses were all dead.
The morning sun was warm, but to the couple flying over the massacre the heat was far from comforting. Two young women, seeking for reassurance in that hopeless morning. One had lost the energy; the other had lost the health. Seras looked frantic to her responsibility, the woman who had hosted her when she had nothing left, not even the life, was a semi unconscious mess of tangled emotions in her arm. It was hard to assume the iron woman Integra was so broken after that night events, everything she had had was lost. She no longer had her two more faithful servants, her mansion was wreckage, the round table was probably extinct, no more wild geese, no more proud England.

Seras propelled with her newly awakened powers from one point of the city to the other. A hospital, she had to find one!
Remains in here, embers in there. St. Thomas Hospital was just a pile of rubble. Here the sun turned so much for her. The police girl let go of her boss to lie on the floor next to her. Far away she could hear some sirens announcing someone could still be saved, she didn't doubt that, but her strength had diminished because of the sun. She had even forgotten how to reform her lost arm. So hot, hungry, so tired; she had never felt that when she was yet to turn a fully fledged vampire.
Eyes half closed she smiled, at least they had saved England; she would have loved having taped in video the Major's face when his precious protective crystal had been shattered. Then the smell of spilled blood brought her back to reality, she was lying under the sun and she couldn't do anything about it. Not sure if she wanted to stand up and see the misery around her. Not sure of what she wanted to do with her 'no life'.

"What are you talking about Mignonette? We have an eternity to know each other!" A sweet voice inside her cheered, she recognized Captain Bernadotte's. "You have to stand up and fight, that's the girl I've fallen in love with."

She almost could feel his teasing as a tickle.
"I can't move. The sun...I don't have the energy." It was amazingly stupid that she, powerful enough to destroy a werewolf with her bare hands, was losing the battle against a fireball that was miles away from there.

"Look around! It's not just about you, there's a person that needs you!" the scowl made her turn the head to where Integra was lying unconscious. Who knows if her eye could be saved, she was losing a lot of blood through the bullet hole.
As the red liquid sprouted from the injury, Seras gulped. She was so hungry.

"Seras..." Integra's voice was less than a whisper "drink if you need it..."
The statement was less reassuring than expected, the draculina wondered if she could be able to stop; she still had the fresh memory of eating Captain Bernadotte, the urge to continue sucking even of there wasn't a drop left. She pulled herself to her boss, taking her tongue out, she licked the bullet hole. The flavor of gunpowder flooded her taste buds. While drinking, she felt a mindless boost asking, pleading her, to swallow more. Faster. More.
"Enough Mignonette!" Captain's voice brought her back to reality. She took the mouth out of Integra's injury. She was unconscious again, but at least the hemorrhage had stopped.

Seras felt her body warming up. A recovered energy let her to stand up. The sun laughed at her from above, but now she felt like shooting it a mischievous grin back. She picked Integra and started to run, she'd have to cross the Thames by foot but now she was sure of where to go.

Everything in her mind was about plans. She couldn't allow herself to fall into misery. Remembering Alucard's death and Walter's treason were too much for the intense moment. As soon as Seras propelled both out of the crumbling zeppelin, she had already planned where to go, to the Hellsing manor. Seras had said the place had been completely torn apart, but Integra wanted to see it with her own eyes.

Eye.

Then a hard pain numbed her thoughts. She had been shot. She knew it. The burning pain started to control her body. It wasn't the first time her flesh had met a bullet, but time had made her forget how painful it was. Her body started to tremble, suddenly losing all the heat in her, only the oozing hot blood falling alongside her cheek. No. The mansion could wait. The dead soldiers under her charge could stay there a little longer. She had to survive. Had to. No other idea running free on her mind.

"Seras..."moving her jaw made the pain a thousand times stronger "look for a hospital."

The draculina looked at her with panic. Was her state that miserable? Her mind was slipping by, but no, she wanted to stay conscious. Even when her cold sweat was mixing with the burning blood, even when her fingers had lost feeling, she wanted to stay calm, to focus in living. Unfortunately, that brought her nightmares, memories. Walter's treason was mixed with all the years he had shared with her. Back when she was a small child asking him to hide her from other kids she was playing with; years practicing fencing with him as opponent after her instructor had told her she would never be good enough for a tournament; nights when he had brought her hot cocoa after coming back from a terrible meeting or running from a downpour; and then his disgruntled face filled with hatred towards her.

Seras flew from one hospital to another, as it seemed everything was destroyed and most of the buildings had stop activities. Integra pretty much couldn't see where they were going, just hearing some reassurance words from her subordinate, followed by mumblings swearing the bastard Nazis that had scattered the city. It was the first time Integra heard her sweet vampire so angry, so frustrated.

A glimpse to the floor showed her they were crossing the Thames. And losing height in the process. It was predictable, the sun had risen and running waters had diminishing power even for Alucard. The recently created vampire was on the verge of her powers, Integra could even hear her panting as the girl left her softly on the other side before falling herself heavily on the floor. Seras was probably dealing with her new change. As a fledgling she could stand sunlight thanks to her bound with Alucard, but now she was all alone, it was a matter of surviving with her own means.
That was it, Integra shuffled, trying to focus on the place she was. The view was familiar, she looked from the river to the land, she recognized St. Thomas Hospital. Except this time it had been reduced to cinders. That was it. She had lost so much blood her state was nearly conscious. And her protector had lost her powers due to the early morning light. Amid her panting, Integra could hear the young vampire gulping. Then the Head of Hellsing brought her back alert just enough for react to the situation.

"Seras..." Integra's voice was less than a whisper "drink if you need it..."

At first the vampire hesitated. It was a good signal; it meant Seras was far from losing her humanity even in that tainted body. Then she draculina leaned to lick her wound. Her dry cold tongue touching the eye socket was similar to one hundred needles stabbing her skull. She had remembered the pain. Fortunately this gave the opportunity to her unconscious state to slip by.

Morris closed Jean Claude's lids. Looking at the hallway, stained with the remains of his partners he realized it was a useless effort, nevertheless he walked towards Iram for doing the same. Then to Richard, then to Mark. Suddenly Bruno started to shake, a non human trembling, his face turning a pallid green, looking at the Wild Geese survivor with void eyes. Morris cursed, having to spend his last bullet on him, but damn he was giving his friend a decent burial.

The bullet pierced the head. Leaving a truly dead body behind.

Aiden appeared the other side of the hall, a ball of blankets resting on his shoulder.
"Let's give them a little more decency." He said while covering what was left of Mauricio.

As members of the Wild Geese they were supposed to pick up the corpses of their mates. It was all part and parcel of their job. But this was too much.

When they were enrolled by Hellsing they knew this was not going to be child's play. Some had bet it was going to be like in Ghana; however nothing in the carnage the survivors were seeing that resembled to the battle in Ghana. It was more similar to the nightmares of an insane man straight jacketed in a sanatorium after a wild dose of pills. They'd rather wake up in some old barn covered in shit than being in this broken manor.

Jules appeared by the hall.
"Hey, we have a survivor!" he flashed heading to the kitchen "Emmanuel it's alive, he's on the barricade, I'll go get some supplies!"

Aiden and Morris changed tired sights, most of the other 'survivors' had been in so sorry state that they had asked for ending their suffering. Even so both wanted to stay by his friend before his departure, then rushed towards the end of the hall, where the team had stood their ground until the last breath. Clever that Aiden was still carrying the blankets, they covered the corpses in the room after checking on the doctor of the team. Emanuel had lost one leg in the pzantercrust explosion and was sweating heavily. Jules had made a tourniquet around his it for preventing any hemorrhage, but it was so mangled there was no way to save it. Even when he was the doctor, he was in no state for giving instructions of what to do. Jules appeared by the door with a bucket of cold water and towels. Lowering the fever was important, but the only option was to amputate.

"Have any of you done that before?" Aiden looked to Jules, then to Morris. Both shook the head. "Bring me a saw or something heavy. I remember seeing an ax on hanged on the wall of Sir Hellsing's office."

"An ax? Seriously?" Morris gulped. "Have you done this before?"

"Of course not, I'm not doctor." It was surprising how brave Aiden had turned after seeing Seras giving her last hint of humanity to save their sorry asses about one hour ago. "But I'm won't stay here just looking how a partner dies!" In fact, he was ashamed of his panic attack back then. Had he been more valiant, the captain wouldn't have died. "Also, search in Emmanuel's sack for medicines, anything you find relating painkillers."

The task was the most unpleasant thing they had done. Granted they had seen a lot of blood in battle, but severing a leg was nothing they had in their schedule when enrolled as mercenaries. They had long time ago understood their lives were short and expendable, and yet they gave their best effort to save one sole life. Under Emanuel's right knee there was only a stump left.
Surrounded by lumps lined with red stained blankets, debris, and scattered gunpowder, the single moment his friend turn conscious to look at them thankful, they felt like ascending to heaven.

Two hours later in the morning. The bodies were carefully arranged in the entrance of the mansion. Some body parts were probably mixed, but Jules knew his ex partners wouldn't mind. He caught a crimson light by the corner of his eye. Different to the proud one he had seen this dawn, the current was shuffling, touching the land more often than the wanted. Seras stopped abruptly, lifting a good portion of ground under her feet, right before him. Jules didn't even have time to flinch, but he was sure his heart had lost a beat; if had she been his enemy, he would never know who have killed him. Before him there was a young blonde girl, probably the cutest one he had seen on his life, aside from the fact her lost left arm had been replaced by a black yet tangible shadow. Her red eyes spoke murder until she sighted him, then her expression changed to fret.

"Julius, Sir Integra is..." the words died in her mouth, as it was clear what she meant. In her arms, the head of Hellsing was a hunched woman in pain. There was a nasty bullet hole right beside the eye, or that was what it looked like with all the blood pouring from there.
Immediately they ran with Emmanuel, who was still convalescent but thankfully conscious. He didn't lose a second giving instructions, it was an unsanitary place but he damn had to operate. Jules, Aiden and Morris carried both the doctor and patient to the less shattered place of the house, Sir Integra's room. Emanuel had to make the surgery lying next to her, resting all his weight on his right elbow, unable to reach the implements needed, Aiden offered to work as nurse. Cleaning the blood, bringing up more towels, applying antiseptic. With the fresh memory of cutting off his friend's leg it had not been an easy task.

She paced back and fro by Sir Integra's room door. In no way she resembled to the monster Alucard was. She helped in whatever task she could, even looking for some specific medicine all inside the house. By noon Emmanuel called everyone inside. Sir Hellsing was out of danger, he had removed all the skull scattered pieces from the injury; being shot this close it was a miracle that the brain was undamaged. Obviously Integra had lost the eye, but knowing the head of Hellsing it was unlikely she would miss it.

The girl was unwilling to go rest. The house was a wreckage, her efforts for fixing what Zorin and her troops had done were fruitless, she had placed planks and rearranged walls, yet everything was tearing to pieces. Sir Integra's office had gotten direct damage, the bright sun lighted the place by a huge opening in the middle. She shook her head, there was no way she even TRYING to fix that early. Even in late hours in the afternoon Seras continued making the house half decent, using what she had left of her powers at least the house was concealed and a little cleaner now that she had mopped the blood on the first floor. She hadn't participated in the ill task of burying the corpses, Morris and Jules had told her to step aside, that why when she found Captain Bernadotte's body on the second floor her stomach sank. Seriously? No one has taken the time for burying YOUR Captain? She looked each side of the hallway where she had gotten her first and last kiss. Stepping of the remaining Zorin's cinders, she picked her loving captain's body. For her, it was nothing but a vessel, and it weighed less than imagined.

Outside the sun was about to set. Aiden, Morris and Jules were resting on the garden grass next to a line of recently removed ground. They didn't look surprised when the draculina appeared with their captain resting on her arms.

"We thought you would like to be at his burial." Aiden implied, giving a tug to his cigarette. "We were planning to wait for you to wake up but you haven't stopped all day."

"It doesn't matter." She placed gently Captain's dead body in the grave his mates had already prepared. Then she smiled with saddened eyes "It's not that I would die of overworking." They covered the tomb with ground, each one saying some words of praise. None of them cried, used to death more casually than the common of people. Seras grabbed some lilies from the gardens to place on flowers over each tomb in such a way that all of them looked the same, as each Wild Geese member was as important as the other. Their deaths had been her fault, if she had had the guts to drink blood before she could have saved them all. She would have been able to protect, like she did with Integra. And even so her boss has lost an eye. She remembered how her Master patted her, why she didn't drink his blood...what was she afraid of? She felt a fool standing undead before those tombs. Now she had an eternity to apologies to her fallen comrades.

"No need Mignonette. We were mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, bounty hunters, filibusters; we knew our destiny was to die in this place. And for a woman like you, with your strength, your charm, I would give my life any other day" Pip chuckled "and no money involved."

"Sir. I took it from the kitchen; my guess is that you haven't had a meal today." Jules pulled a bag of blood from an icebox to throw it to the Draculina, she grabbed it mid air with her shadowy arm.

Seras turned smiling; for the first time in her existence, a single blood tear fell by the corner of her red eye.

Author's Note: I wrote this right after watching the last Hellsing Ova, it's set in the mangaverse. I have to admit the fanfic Aftermath, by Ludifer and A Bond not of Blood by Volitional inspired me to do this. There are not many fics related to Integra and Seras and I think there's a lot of material for a story. I hope you liked it and... review please?