I have always wondered what was to become of Alucard after Integra's death. Would his curse pass on to her next living relative, or would he be free? This story, set thirty years after the fall of Millennium and just months after Alucard's return, attempts to explore that idea.
For those of you concerned that this will impact Flesh and Blood updates, don't worry. F&B will still update weekly (hopefully on Thursdays).
As always, please let me know what you think. I appreciate all reviews and PMs, anything that gives me feedback. It helps me be a better writer and you get a better fic. Win/win, right?
Thank you to my lovely beta, AnnaVance92.
-Kano
"For the love of all that is holy, Alucard! What is your problem with fast food?" Integra muttered to herself as she stood in the wreckage of the discount burger joint. Her mood was not improved by the charred leaf of lettuce that fell from the dilapidated sign onto her brand-new blazer, nor was it improved by the packets of ketchup on the floor which burst under her feet with each step. The once-stable discount vendor had been utterly annihilated with superhuman strength. It looked as though a small bomb had gone off inside, quite literally. There was a crater in the cheap linoleum flooring, and the ceiling tiles appeared to have been launched through the gaping hole in the roof.
"This is the last straw," she muttered. Ever since Alucard's strange merger with the Nazi Schrodinger, she could feel her ancestor's curse beginning to lift. He could resist her commands more easily, and had taken full advantage of that fact. Alucard was a menace to society when under her complete control. Now... he was beginning to get too dangerous, and she wasn't the only one who noticed it. Representatives from the Queen's office had contacted her twice now, suggesting that she "cage the beast" or "use a tighter leash." She had done her very best to reign in the vampire who both made her life worth living and vexed her at every possible moment, but the destruction before her... it was a sign.
Integra's hand slipped into her pocket and pulled out a tatter scrap of paper. Ten digits were hastily scrawled on it. Her other hand fished around in her jacket until her fingers closed around the cold object she was looking for: her cell phone. Her fingers paused mere centimeters from the keypad. Yes, Alucard was rambunctious, but he had saved her life more times than she could count. He wasn't the nicest of people, but she had seen evil, and he wasn't it. Did he really deserve the punishment she was about to inflict upon him?
She looked through the cracked glass windows of what had once been a restaurant. Alucard might have developed a soul in his lifetime with her, but he certainly hadn't developed restain. With a sigh and a heavy heart, her fingers danced across the keys. Her toe tapped impatiently as she waited for the person on the other end of the line to pick up.
"Hello?" came the response at long last.
"Hello Justine!" Integra replied. "I'm in the neighborhood, and I thought I might stop by for a visit with my dear cousin."
Integra barely managed to get one foot out of her car before she was wrapped in the tanned arms of her cousin Justine.
"At least let me out of the car," Integra wheezed through the iron grip of the other woman's freckled arms.
"Sorry," Justine said, releasing her cousin. "I got a little carried away."
The blonde woman couldn't help but smile; Justine hadn't changed one bit. The girl had been excitable and full of passion, even back when they were children. "I'm used to it," Integra said with a laugh, stepping out of the black sedan.
"Where are my manners?" Justine wondered as she brushed the hay off her overalls. "Come inside and I'll get you some tea."
Justine Temperance Allard led Integra away from the dusty road, past a corral of lowing cows, and into a quintessential farmhouse, complete with a porch swing. Two german shepherds barked at the approaching visitor from the half-opened Dutch door.
"Down Kip! Down Riley!" Justine commanded as the dogs dashed about her legs, trying to worm their way out the door to give Integra's boots a thorough sniff. The farm wife managed to hold them back long enough for Integra to make it inside. The Hellsing director crouched down and held out her hand for the pooches. After a quick sniff they sauntered away, tails wagging, content that the blonde woman was no threat to their territory.
"Sorry about that," Justine sighed, apologizing for the second time that day.
Integra held up her hands, saying, "It's fine. I don't remember you having dogs."
"I got them last year. They're still puppies, you know." Then Justine's smile faded and her expression grew concerned. "I hoped that they would help Braven, but..."
"Ah yes, Braven. How is the boy doing?"
"The dogs didn't help," the concerned mother sighed. "He never leaves his room, and I'm beginning to think that's a good thing!"
Integra raised an eyebrow. How was the boy's social reclusiveness good?
Justine slid a newspaper across the table toward her cousin. Integra had to squint a bit to read it; her vision had suffered as she grew older, and the eyepatch certainly didn't help. The headline screamed "BARN FIRE RULED AS ARSON." She remembered seeing the burned-out shell of the very barn pictured on her way here. The date in the upper right read 'March 21, 2029.' Ah, the article was a week old. Integra's eyes dashed across the article, skimming it quickly. From what she could gather, the police found the remains of several dogs inside, though the owner escaped with his life.
"Braven did this?" Integra asked, rather taken aback. She remembered holding Braven just a week after his birth. The little tiny thing always demanded to be held, craved attention and simply loved being around people. What had changed?
"Not just this, I'm afraid," Justine confirmed. "He stole a jewelry box from under an old woman's bed, left accusatory letters for the family of a man killed in a car accident. He's dug up graves in the dead of night... Do you know that the police won't answer calls from our house anymore? Braven called them so many times with the strangest of stories that they refuse to listen to him anymore. What if a real emergency happens? I'm at wit's end here, Integra."
The Hellsing director smiled benevolently and reached across the table to pat her cousin's hand in a comforting manner. "What if I took him off your hands?"
"Braven?" Justine asked, confused.
"Yes Braven! Who else?" Integra said with a laugh. "He can stay with me, come to work at the office... maybe he'll like the big city."
"It's about the only thing I haven't tried," Justine admitted. "My husband wanted to send him to military school!"
Integra noticed that her cousin had avoided the question. It was no matter. She had cleared her schedule for the day for this express reason; there would be plenty of time to convince Justine. So she played along. "Thom? Oh how is he?" she inquired.
Justine suddenly smiled widely. "You mean Wing Commander Thomas Allard?"
"The navy promoted him! Congratulations!"
As quickly as the smile had come, it faded. "Maybe Braven would have turned out a little... nicer if Thom wasn't always off saving the world."
"I'm sure he's very proud of his father," Integra admonished.
"You haven't heard the way he talks about his father," Justine shot back. As if she realized that the subject was volatile, she changed topics. "So... you're staying for dinner, right?"
"Sure," Integra agreed, accepting the invitation.
"I'll barbeque us up some fresh tri-tip. Just butchered the cow this morning."
Integra laughed weakly and tried to sound enthusiastic as she said, "Oh really?" As a rule, she tried forget that most of her meals came from live animals, not that it was an easy feat with Alucard at the other end of the table loudly slurping a glass of blood.
"Fresh corn too!" Justine added. "I'll go fire up the grill. Would you see if Braven would like to eat with us? Maybe a new face will have a better chance at getting him out of that dark room..."
Integra nodded, and got up from the table.
"Up the stairs. Second door on the right," she heard Justine shout from outside.
The stairs were a little creaky, though solid, but their noise gave away her presence before she could even make it to Braven's room. She heard the click of a lock before she even made it to the landing. Even if Justine hadn't told her which room to look for, Integra could have spotted it from a mile away. She could see glue marks where Braven had presumably put up signs, only to be ripped away by his mother, or so Integra assumed. She could even see where he had scratched 'Keep Out' into the wood, despite Justine's attempts to paint over it.
Her hand closed over the handle, and predictably, it didn't budge. Integra shrugged, reaching into her hair and producing one silver bobby pin. If the boy was going to come to live with her, and she wasn't taking no for an answer, then he would just have to learn to deal with a lack of privacy. It was a simple lock, one that any person could pick if they stuck in a bit of metal and wiggled it around a bit. The door swung open, leaving Integra feeling a little proud, and a little apprehensive.
"Get out."
Integra should have expected that greeting. The door specifically told her that she was not welcome, not that she cared. And now, so had the eleven-year-old lounging on the bed.
Alucard's future master was playing video games. His eyes were glued to the game device attached to his wrist, where little holographic figures darted about shooting at each other. His crop of unruly blonde hair fell into his eyes, which made Integra wonder how he could even see what he was playing. Around him was a mound of empty chip bags. The clothing, scattered about the messy room, smelled just as stale as the crushed chip bits that clung to their foil wrappings. Slowly, he turned his head, abandoning his game to stare at the intruder who hadn't budged an inch.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"I am Sir Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, and-"
"Bit full of it, aren't you?" he intoned as he rapidly lost interest. "Just leave me alone."
"I'm your aunt, well... first cousin, once removed to be correct."
"You're totally a doctor," he spat, rolling away from the door and showing his unwelcome visitor his back.
"Actually I fight vampires for a living."
That got his attention. Braven slowly, cautiously, turned back to her, regarding her skeptically. "And a liar too."
Integra rolled her eye. She peeled back her eyepatch to reveal the gruesome wound underneath. "Bullet hole, courtesy of mad Nazi cyborg. Happened in an airship floating over London thirty years ago."
"What kind of gun was it?" Braven asked softly. It was the first interest he had shown in anything Integra had said to him so far.
"Walther P38."
"Did it hurt?" he continued.
"Of course. It still bugs me occasionally, when it's cold outside."
He flicked his eyes to the window. The curtains were drawn, but even so, it was clear that the weather was overcast. "It's always cold outside."
"Yeah," she replied. "At least I made him pay for it." She placed her hand on the door jamb and started to leave. "Well, nice meeting you," the wily woman said, waving over her shoulder.
"Wait!" Braven called. "Where are you going?"
"Well you wanted me to leave..." Integra replied, pointing to the scratched message on the door.
"That was for my mom," he replied.
Integra chuckled softly. Apparently she hadn't read the fine print. But she didn't turn around. "I should go anyway. Dinner is almost ready."
"I'm hungry."
"Well then," Integra answered, smiling at the child she had so easily manipulated. She gestured down the hallway and toward the stairs. "Come along."
He padded silently behind her all the way to the kitchen table, where they sat across from each other. It was a staring contest of sorts with both parties peering into the other's eyes, trying to understand what happened behind them.
"Who are you?" Braven asked at last, breaking the silence.
"I'm your Aunt Integra. And you are?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.
"I'm Braven Allard," he answered. "Did you come to see me?"
"And your mom too. My house is big and lonely, and I thought you might like to come stay with me for a while."
His eyes widened. It was clear that it wasn't the answer he had expected. "Why?"
Dammit. How could she explain to a child that she wanted to bring him back to London to bind his soul to a homicidal vampire with an ancient family curse? The only answer was to dodge the question. "Would you like that?"
Braven nodded. "It's boring here."
Now it was Integra's turn to nod. "I can see that. I live in London. It's the big city, where there's never a dull moment." The truth was that it was Alucard who kept things lively, not the city, but Braven didn't need to know that. At least not yet.
She could practically see the boy's ears perk up. "Do you think they have any new games for my Game Screen?" he asked, holding up the device on his wrist. "All I have is Battlefield, and it's like five years old now."
"Probably," Integra thought.
The reclusive little boy, who only minutes ago had laid lethargically in his room, barely conversing, had come to life. It was a miraculous change. She knew he was coming home with her, but there was one more step.
"Now we just have to convince your mother to let you go," she said.
As if attracted by the conversation, Justine returned with the hot slab of meat and charred corn. She started when she noticed her son sitting at the table. Her reaction told Integra that the other woman had never expected that her child would leave his room, no matter who asked him to.
"How?" she whispered in Integra's ear as she set the heavy platter on the table.
"Later," Integra whispered back.
Justine grabbed a pair of tongs and placed several slices of the medium-rare meat on her cousin's plate, and the small talk began again. "So how's the family business going?" she asked.
"Things are getting busy. I've just finished training a new batch of rookies. They can't hit the broadside of a barn yet, I'm afraid." It was then that she caught a glimpse of the red wooden building through the window, and rethought her use of the colloquialism.
"I know it's been quiet for the past several years. Maybe a little excitement is for the best," Justine commented.
"You know, it's nice for a change," Integra confirmed. "And how about your clinic? How is that going?"
"Things have been picking up. There has been a huge rash of accidents throughout the area," Justine said sadly. "Why just yesterday, I had a man show up with a fork stuck in his hand. Poor guy had no idea how it got there. He claimed that it stabbed him while he was sleeping in his armchair. He probably just fell asleep with a plate of pie and rolled onto it, or something. And then there was Farmer Browning. He got kicked by his favorite horse. It's not his favorite anymore!" She chuckled a little at her own joke and kept going. "And then there's Carol from down the road. Burns all over her arm, the poor dear. She spilled a whole pot of soup on herself."
Integra pursed her lips. Interestingly enough, it was similar to the calls that she had received lately. A woman's body laying on top of a pentagram drawn in human blood had been ruled as an elaborate suicide. A mudslide that killed ten people in the middle of the summer had supposedly been caused by a ruptured water main. And Alucard did claim that Mo's Burgers had exploded 'all by itself'... Interesting, indeed.
"Perhaps Braven would like to join me in London for a while, if you're so busy," Integra mentioned, repeating her earlier proposal.
It was clear from Justine's furrowed brow that she didn't like the idea. Perhaps she viewed Braven as her problem, or perhaps she thought he could get into more trouble in a place with more people. Either way it came as no surprise when she said, "I don't know."
"Please, Mom!" Braven chimed in.
Justine looked from her son to her cousin and back again. "You do realize, Integra, that this is the first time he has said 'please' in two years, right?"
Integra's face went through several emotions. Really, what does one say to that?
"Oh alright," Justine continued, finally giving in. "Braven can you go with you."
"And what do we say, Braven?" Integra prompted, wheedling the child into using the manners his mother had taught him. She mouthed out the magic words for him.
"Thank you," Braven said flatly, clearly annoyed. It delighted Justine nonetheless.
Integra had to wonder if he would still be thankful when she explained her real reasoning. Would Alucard be thankful for a new master? She nearly snorted, almost managing to propel her corn through her nose. He wouldn't be thankful; he was going to kill something. There was little doubt in her mind that Seras would be forced into babysitting duties. There was another person who certainly wouldn't be thankful. Was she doing the right thing, enslaving Alucard for another generation? Was this what her father would have done?
It was then that she remembered his words. "Doing the right thing doesn't always make people happy," he told her every time she was in trouble. "It doesn't always make you friends, and people might even hate you for it, but you'll know inside that you are right. Your heart's opinion is the only one that matters. Listen to your heart, and you will have true integrity."
Today was the day to live up to her name, the name her father gave her. Today was just one more day that she would live her life with integrity and damn the consequences.
Stay tuned for next chapter when Integra informs Alucard of the continuation of his curse and when Alucard meets his 'new master' for the first time.