AN; My very first fic so please be kind... Reviews are greatly appreciated. Computers and websites are so confusing...
Integra sat on the hard bench of her prison, drawing in yet another breath of tobacco smoke. The cigars had been one of the few indulgences she had allowed herself during her last decade as the head of the Helsing Organization. At first it had started as a distraction, tinged with wistfulness as she recalled her father and the days of peace and innocence he had come to represent. Now? It was one of the few constants in her life, aside from Walter and Alucard.
Alucard. From the moment her infuriating, unpredictable, tantilizing vampire had knelt in front of her and declared her his Master, Integra had known that the No-Life King would be quite the handful. She wasn't disappointed; he was her hidden weapon that could cut her and her enemies alike, a loyal pet who could claw innocents behind her back, and the one thing guaranteed to get her hackles up. While Walter was the steady rock, Alucard was the one who spurned her on, driving her onwards with ruthless verbal jabs and mocking obedience. A familiar tingling told her of the said vampire's entry.
Perservere, the Queen had said, Judas will be caught. But Integra was no longer the girl she had been when she met the woman she had been taught all her life to live for, die for. She knew that the Queen had not lied. The betrayer will be caught someday, and neither had Her Majesty forgotten Helsing's loyal servitude over the years. Be it a day or a thousand, the truth would be unveiled and justice served.
But Integra Wingates Helsing would not live to see it. Helsing would crumble without her iron rule and protection, its mandate to rid the earth of evil fading away. Becoming just another obedient government branch. The Queen could not- would not- let the wellbeing of a single subject, however loyal, sway her when the country would be in an upheaval over the existence of the Midian. Such things were meant to be hidden, and it had been her duty to ensure that. It did not matter that Integra had been subjected to contempt and prejuidice, merely because she was female and so very young. It did not matter that the Round Table had been corrupt , fearful and envious of Helsing's power, and that she was taking the fall. Integra had failed in her duty to remain a silent specter, and now she had to be replaced. A process that had already begun when the handcuffs had snapped shut around her wrists. Nobody was irreplacible, after all. A neccessary sacrifice, for the good of my country, she told herself, swallowing the bitter rage and betrayal that threatened to break out as a scream. There were guards outside the heavy door of her cage, and while she couldn't care less about them, Alucard was a different story.
He approached her, movements sure and almost carefree in their grace. Integra took in the solid form of her servant, conscious of the burning claret irises boring into her, all the while thinking of the offer he had made. An offer that should sound repulsive. To become what she hunted, what she had always hated. An offer that promised her an eternity of freedom. An eternity with him, the vampire who had intrigued her from the moment she heard him speak. Where both her and the creature who had bled for her countless times would be able to pursue what they wanted. She would no longer have to deny herself anymore, or mantain her Iron Maiden persona for others around her. She could be free.
"Integra... Your orders, my Master..." the voice of her vampire sounded, the usual mocking tone masking equal measures of wariness and hope. "The choice is yours..."
She watched the glass being crushed in his white-gloved grip, the lukewarm wine mixing with his blood to flow crimson. The colour of blood, the bane of her life. The colour of his eyes, enticing and seemingly looking straight into her soul.
You are the leader of Helsing. This is evil, what you were born to exterminate. But was it so? Integra had seen Alucard tear through men and slaughter his own kind without a shred of remorse. Seen what the FREAKS did to innocent children and parents who sought only to protect them. But in the end of the day, those creatures were no better and no worse than the thousands of human monsters who did the same. And the No-Life King was a different matter altogether. She had seen facets of his humanity in his actions, the soul she was taught he did not have behind those crimson orbs. Orbs that never failed to call to the dark side of her. She took another fortifying nicotine-laced breath, attempting to get her roiling thoughts in order.
Alucard looked into the ice-blue eyes of his Master. Day after day she had languished in this tiny cell, in the righfully-named Bloody Tower entombing hundreds of souls. He knew the passiveness did not bode well with Integra, not with his iron maiden. He knew she longed for freedom, for power, to protect Helsing. A faint hope began to pulse in his unbeating heart. He would finally have his own freedom as well, if only Integra would accept his offer of immortality. The idea of the destruction of the Helsing line brought forth a myraid of emotions to the No-Life King. Integra had worthy preceeders, worthy opponents who had fought valiantly, never running from their duty. Each of them he remembered and respected, although he had hated them at the same time for binding and breaking him. For restoring his faith in humanity for brief moments, and letting him down when they buckled under pressure or succumbed to the icy embrace of death. For never being his equal.
But Integra was different. And it was that fact that compelled him to stand before her again. From the moment Alucard had tasted her sweet blood, he had been fascinated. She had the potential to be a full-fledged No-Life Queen, ruthless and strong enough to face the darkness of the world and herself, and yet retaining that stubborn edge of humanity that allowed her to mourn fallen soldiers and have compassion for the families left behind. She had passion and a sense of honour, stemming from deep within her rather than her noble upbringing. He loved these things about her, but right now they poised a problem. Would she stick to the path that had been drilled into her, dying like a obedient dog when her Queen ordered it? The very thought repulsed him.
"Even if I am willing to give up my humanity, become a creature under your control, what of you?" Integra's voice broke him through his thoughts. "What of the consequences of your freedom, Vlad the Impaler? I would no longer be able to control you. Why should I unleash you to the country I swore to defend?" His grinning mask became genuine. There was the fire he adored, the reason he could not let her go. She brought his otherwise empty world to life. "Master, you wound me with your assumption. Why would I harm the good citizens of England?" he watched with delight the familiar narrowing of her eyes which signaled the beginning of a verbal clash. "Why indeed. Your exploits in your human and vampire days are legendary. Genocide, inventing impaling as a method of excution... Not to mention the records Helsing has of your battles," Integra paused,"Come to think of it, battles are not the word. Battles are when both parties have a chance of winning, however slim. Your opponents have no such thing."
Alucard sat down at the opposite wall, pulling a leg up to prop his chin on his knee. He gave her a wide-eyed, innocent look he knew drove her half mad with fury. "But you and your preceeders were the ones who gave me the orders. Although I will gladly shoot your enemies, the will behind the trigger is solely your own."
"So you claim to be... What? The fact remains, Alucard, that you openly relish what I can only describe as slaughter. Combined with the bestial behaviour of your kind I have learned and seen, it only serves to cement the belief that vampires are merely souless abominations in the eyes of God."
"You said the belief, Master, not yours. Then what is yours? Tell me what you think, not what you were taught. Am I, and Seras Victoria by extension, souless? And what of the No-Life Kings and Queens you have never seen or heard of? They live in shadows, but you never saw them because you never had reason to. The ones you saw during your lifetime were the scum of the undead, the very worst and lowest of my kind. You are judging us all by them."
The words of her vampire servant struck Integra momentarily speechless, plain and sharp as they were. They were the very essence of her conflict and more, rattling the already-brittle foundation of her world.
"It will be running away if I join you," Integra admitted softly, a rare moment of vulnerablity showing underneath her composure. Alucard counted himself lucky to be among the few- just two, actually- who could witness it. "I... I do not want to die, not to appease the crowd and not helpless like this."
She could never be helpless, Alucard thought, but Integra wasn't finished.
"Becoming a vampire... I would disappoint my father. Become a disgrace to the Helsing name, which should fade away with honour, not shame. Her Majesty may not have the power nor the inclination to save me, but I cannot abandon my duty and pride for my sake alone."
"You know you will not leave this place alive, Master." her vampire said quietly. Integra nodded. She had never felt so cornered as she had sat in her cell, forcing her wandering mind to do anything but think about the future. Before, the objective had been simple; Search and Destroy. Eliminate the problem and protect the Queen and country with everything you have. Now, after listening to Alucard and stripping away everything but the barest facts, she was faced with a ridiculously simple choice. Die as a human and leave her burden behind, or become undead and face that burden. I'll never give up! I'll die before I give up! That is my duty and pride as the leader of the Helsing Organization! The words of her younger self echoed in her mind. She turned to her vampire servant...
And the door burst open.
"Integra Helsing, by the order of Her Majesty the Queen and the Parliment Court, you are to be excuted come tomorrow." the speaker was the same portly man in a suit that had delivered the Queen's message before. Was it her imagination, or was there sympathy in his gaze? "Her Majesty convies her thanks for your service, Sir Integra, and knows that you had done your maximum best for the country." he turned and left. A bitter smile graced Integra's lips. Well, that confirmed it... The leadership of Helsing would never be hers again. Her old life was well and truly lost to her.
The odd thing about time is that it flows the exact opposite way one wants it to. It had been decades Alucard had last concerned himself with it, but Integra caused exceptions without even realizing it. The time of the excution was drawing closer and closer- much, much to fast for his tastes- and his Master had not said a word. He had nearly convinced himself to try to hypnotize her before she threw her life away when she spoke. "I'm still not convinced of your morals, vampire,"her cool voice masked a world of pain. "But to give up now, to embrace death and leave my people behind for the sake of entering Heaven... Now that is a greater evil. Free yourself, Alucard... But give me your word you will not control me as you did Seras."
"Gladly," the No-Life King whispered, and before his soon-to-be fledgling could see the joy in his eyes, darted for her throat.
It wasn't like any other near-death experiences and situations Integra had gone through. It was different in the sense that of course this time, she would actually die. There was that twin flares of white-hot pain when his fangs sank into the soft skin of her throat, then a sense of lethagy as she felt Alucard draw on her lifeblood, lapping up every drop. Integra closed her eyes as a strange mixture of peace and pure terror stole over her. Slowly, she could feel something other at the edge of her mind. A presence that was alien and forboding, yet familiar. Alucard. She knew that from then on she'll always have that sense of him, her sire, even when Alucard held true to his word and broke the blood-bond. She knew him, not the kind of knowledge gained from observations and such, but one that came from thoughts and spirit mingling together. Vaguely, Integra felt his cool lips leaving her skin and automatically reached out, seeking the one stable presence in the whirling, suddenly fluid world. "Alucard..." she whispered. "I'm right here, Master," she could hear the smile in his voice, even if she couldn't see him.
Despite the situation, she felt a brief stab of annoyance at herself, clinging to someone-even Alucard- like a newborn babe to its mother. The dark-safety-world presence in her mind brushed reassuringly against her. So like you, a true daughter of Helsing. But this is your new birth, is it not, Integra? Alucard whispered. A sweet, heady taste was on her tongue, warming her cooling body in ways she had not thought possible. His blood, sealing her transformation. Twisting her head, she bit down blindly on his cool throat with teeth sharpening from the first hints of fangs. To her surprise, he let her, cradling her against his body. Sleep now, he sent. I will keep you safe. She believed him; who could have not after seeing each other's souls?