The Hargreaves Incident The Hargreaves Incident
A Hellsing Crossover (Sort of)
Disclaimer: I don't own either of the stories, Hellsing or Cain Saga, so don't get upset. Though I do own the great-great-granddaughter of Merry Weather, Lannie. IF you don't know what Cain Saga is, its about a high born son of a mad scientist who Dr. Hargreaves and it takes place in the Victorian era in London.
Chapter 1: The Girl to Be Hargreaves Heir
The house was huge, the house was spooky and for whatever reason, Sir Integra hated every ounce of the Haregreaves mansion which was right next door to hers. She had never felt sorry for the family, well, at least she didn't feel sorry when the oldest member of the house Merry Weather finally passed away.
"Somehow that old lady scared the crap out of everyone," whispered someone who walked with her into the house. "Miss Lannie hasn't been up to see the body, Sir Integra and I don't know why anyone sent for you."
It was an old fact that the Hargreaves gave the Hellsing house to the Abraham van Helsing after his name change. It was clear that members of the Hargreaves were a strange bunch at least the ones who survived, considering the oldest had been Cain who lived to the ripe age of 109, then passed away in his sleep from a drug overdose. In truth the joke was he had intentionally poisoned himself to just get out of listening to Arthur Hellsing's stories about World War II.
Of course there was Merry Weather, the old lady who read Tarot, called Lannie, and for the life of anyone living, could never really find her glasses. The old woman not only made it impossible for Integra to put up with a visit let alone an hour a day of tea with her. There was still the fact that Lannie skipped out on a lot of things in the house and put Integra in her place.
Lannie was about Integra's age, a rather free spirit who had lost her parents at eight and was sent to live inside the Hargreaves mansion and groomed to be the heir. It was hard to say which was harder, breaking the habit of her daily escapades into the Hellsing house, or just the fact she hated the house.
"Integra, please, just go to the wake for me, I'm not good in this situation," Lannie was telling her on the phone that morning. "I would have to be standing there being called Lady Hargreaves all day, do you think I like that?"
"Why me?"
"Why you? Granny loved you."
"No, she thought I was you," Integra wanted to slam her phone down. "Just do me one favor show up when the body is buried, that's all I ask."
"DONE!"
Alucard saw through the act. "She's not showing up."
Integra nodded putting the phone down. "Could you go get her?"
"Hm…Lannie is a rather plain girl with long blond hair, looks somewhat like you, except for some minor difference like wearing contacts?"
"You got it, go get her."
Sure enough standing at the graveyard, Sir Integra saw Lannie standing with Alucard right behind her, as if wanting to push her into the grave itself. It was clearly seen that Hellsing and Hargreaves were always going to have a problem.
Inside the mansion finally, Integra decided to talk to Lannie. "You really are a wonder," she finally said to her almost look alike.
"Oh, come on, Integra, I'm your cousin, do you really think….I'm cut out to be the heir of the Hargreaves?"
"I really wish you would take some responsibility. Aunt Merry Weather just wanted you to have what's best," Integra pushed up her glasses as the blond in front of her sighed. "Look, just do me a favor and at least accept the title of Lady Landra Hellsing Hargreaves."
Lord Richard may have been a jerk and worse, but Lannie or Landra Hellsing was almost sweet natured care free angel. "Please just for once, cousin Integra don't do this to me!"
"You really should just stop running away from it."
That was when Lannie finally snapped. "You have no idea what really happened to grandfather Cain! He didn't poison himself!" She was breathing hard and standing very still. "FATHER DID IT!"
Integra suddenly turned white. "WHAT?"
"I saw him slip something in Grandfather Cain's drink one night, he told him that it was medicine, that old man really trusted father, when even I knew I didn't. I tried to pour the drink out and father smacked me away."
Alucard suddenly appeared behind her. "She's not making it up, she told me everything about the reason she didn't want to come to the funeral."
"He tried have the will changed too, instead of having mine and your names put as beneficiaries on it he wanted his own name on it. Grandfather Cain loved you very much and when I heard about what he did, I tried to stop him. That's why I couldn't show my face in the house and kept running away!"
"What about Merry Weather?"
"She died in her sleep, I already knew she was dead when I got the note this morning after classes." Lannie sat down in a chair and looked around the old parlor. "Integra, listen, I don't think you want to know what else people told me about the Hargreaves and that's why I don't want to accept the name. There is a curse on my family and for whatever reason I think it has something to do with these." Pulling out a deck of Tarot cards with them set a certain way. "These arrived in the post for me, someone just called me the Empress and I was to go somewhere tonight, then another card with your name paper clipped to it."
The Tower was handed to Integra who stared at it. "Lannie, you don't honestly believe in this stuff?"
"Granny did."
"Granny was an old senile woman who lost her glasses and always mistook me for you. And usually called Walter, Arthur."
"I'm not doing it, I'm not going to call myself Landra Hellsing Hargreaves, Integra, nothing in this world is going to make me part of it. Even if it means going to the United States."
It was clear that something was wrong with the Hargreaves family, something that traumatized Lannie. It was clear that something was strange, Integra walked about the Hargreaves mansion and tried to find the office that her uncle had taken as his own.
She found her way into Lord Cain's poison collection instead. "I really hate this guy," she sighed and looked at all the poisons he had collected over the years. "It's a wonder no one has poisoned him sooner," she whispered looking through the records on his old desk.
Somehow the hidden area was pretty much hidden from nearly the whole house, she knew about only because he had shown it to her when she was child. "Your father would kill me if he knew I was showing you this," the old man laughed holding her hand. "But of course Integra, this your legacy, I wouldn't trust Lannie with this. Remember the black sheep."
"The black sheep!" Her eyes were wide as she ran down toward what had been a hidden part of the Hargreaves estate, a small chapel that was half overgrown in the back yard. She wandered into the old chapel and walked around the strange room, Alucard appeared and looked around. "What is this?"
"This is the old Black Sheep," Integra touched a small black sheep painted on the wall, she then saw the old baptismal bowl suddenly appear on a pestle in the middle of the room. "It was given to the Hargreaves almost two hundred years ago, but I wouldn't touch the bowl unless you want to be stabbed in the back," she pointed to a strange looking piece of armor.
She walked over to the bowl and looked inside, there inside was a strange looking bowl was an envelope. She looked at the statue of the armor which moved as she decided to remove the glass, it only jolted slightly holding the spear, then as she moved to a side where it could not reach her, she took out the envelope.
The yellowing paper was soon opened and a small tarot card was dropped out, then started in shock. "The Fool?" she blinked, then saw the letter.
Dearest Integra,
I am glad you remembered this, I am going to say this much to you. My murder was expected, even if it was a little belayed by your uncle. I had told your father about this and gave him the warning to change the will, it was I who witnessed it.
My sister, Merry Weather may have been an odd one in her old age, but she knows you better than anyone. The problem has arisen within, it appears a spector of the past has decided to descend upon both Hellsing and Hargreaves.
The poisons are not always the answer to your problems, Integra, so I would seek out someone who knows more than I. Try the answers in the books. After all, even I kept record of them and of course, I would say this to you. "Be ware of the Delilah."
Your in loving care,
Lord Cain Hargreaves
"Delilah?" She blinked and then went back to the house. "Why that?"
Walter was collecting the records from the Hargreaves house, mostly from the library in which Lord Cain was always hiding in. He pulled one book out and then another to look into the records. "Huh, I never thought I would see these things," the old man laughed handing one book to Alucard. "Lord Cain was around during the 1900s and was considered quite the gentleman."
"I wonder why I did not meet him," Alucard thought out loud. "If he was…"
"You spent your time with the peasants, Madam Mina was not one of those higher ups, Lord Cain was one of the higher lords and was an aristocrat. Though Lady Merry Weather was from a simple background, but grew very different from that."
The vampire blinked and found himself staring at a picture of young Merry Weather who was in a portriat with her late husband, Oscar who was smiling happily. He really had no class whatsoever as Alucard remembered how hyped the man was in World War II. "I suppose it is just me, but I don't think what she's looking for is in here."
"Actually, it is," Lannie walked into the room and pulled out the records. "Grandfather Cain was never good with keeping notes, but if you look at some of the records he kept of the poisons, you might pick up something of the code words. He knew enough to keep an eye on father enough times."
She had been sitting staring at the lists of poisons. "Look at the way the numbers run and repeat, these are recipes for different types of poisons that can be used. Then if you take the numbers and situate them in a manner where the code is like this." She printed the numbers onto a paper and then turned it over. "All you need now is the alphabet to make the code work."
She blinked as she set up the code, then blinked. "Huh, that's weird, its all Tarot card names, High Priest, High Priestess, Hang Man, Fool, Strength, Stars, Moon," she read off the list, then stopped at the last one. "Tower."
"Destruction?" Alucard blinked.
"Actually, these are titles from a group that Father was part of, Delilah," Lannie finally spoke up. "Delilah used Tarot cards as their mode of communication. Though in truth, they were supposedly destroyed in 1912."
Lannie's eyes were down as she thought about it. "Maybe they didn't die with Father."
It was clearly a strange bit of information that even Alucard had to swallow down, he had always thought it was strange that even members of the Hellsing organization had some how skipped over this information. Lannie was of course a look alike of Integra's, but she was very different.
The girl was terrified of her father, in most parts she was terrified of what would happen if her relatives were found out about what her father had done.