Freeing Cerberus
He looked at his surroundings in amusement. A good proportion of the cell that he had been thrown into was made up of barred windows. Less observant a man would be tempted to chance an escape. However, his present circumstances had not distressed him to the point he would fail to notice the armed guards keeping watch outside. He had no doubt that their weapons were suitably armed with blessed silver.
If his end was to come, it would not be in such foolhardy and ignominious a fashion. He would not be shot like a dog nor would he rot in here quietly. If his captors wanted him dead, it would have to be at the hands of one worthy to slit his throat. And if he knew his enemies well, he would be publicly dealt with – their petty sense of justice dictated it. For another, they had to deal with him publicly to restore the hopes of the people and it would truly make him immortal for he would be remembered for all of history.
Although it was a pity he would go down in defeat - this time it was dealt to him more crushingly than when he had last crossed swords with her father but he would go with no regrets. He would miss his bloody Ethiopia but his assured place in the annals of history and the fact she had given him a good fight, more than made up for everything. His short period of victory when her precious England was bathed in bloodshed and chaos was truly the proudest moment of his life. He supposed that the human saying that all good parties had to have an end was true. But when he was to meet up with Doc and the rest, perhaps he could arrange for a coup d'état in hell?
Now that could be a real treat.
A terrible chill in the air announced the approach of one of his captors.
"So how is your Master doing," the Major asked, nonchalantly for someone who was responsible for her injury. He had meant to kill Walter and it surprised him that she threw herself in the way of the bullet. He had no use for the old man but he was still hopeful that she would reconsider her loyalties. In the chaos that broke out thereafter, he was not even sure where he had got her. He only remembered her slumping on the ground like a broken doll. The next thing he knew, Alucard appeared, cradling his master's form even as his familiars held the Major to the ground.
Although he did consider killing her after her butler if she continued to stubbornly refuse his kind offers, he found himself strangely drawn to her. He was genuinely curious as to her present condition. A part of him remarked cynically that his undoing had mostly been due to his morbid interest in her. He should have killed her from the start instead of wasting time. How he cursed himself for it but it would seem that the blood, which ran in both their veins, had an odd way of manifesting itself.
The vampire's response was dreadfully unexpected. He did not berate or make any moves to inflict pain on the Major. Alucard said nothing but merely stared malevolently at the Major from behind the bars as if refusing to accept the answer he must now give. Was it a look of hurt that crossed Alucard's eyes? Minutes passed before the vampire finally replied.
"She is dead and no more."
The Major shrugged. A strange turn of fate considering she had won the war. She was his enemy but he was objective when it came to judging people - she had truly been a worthy adversary and it was a pity that she was no more. He wondered if his master had the same feelings towards Churchill and Roosevelt as he took his life abandoned in that bunker.
"Judging from things, I don't suppose she died immediately. There would have been ample opportunity for you at least to take your revenge against her family. Why did you not offer her your immortal kiss," questioned the Major. If information from his spies had not been as inaccurate as they were on Seras Victoria's development, he would have supposed that, in light of the reported affection his old nemesis had for this particular master of his, Integra would have been reborn to be the furies she was meant to be. Would Alucard have let go of this chance so easily?
Alucard said nothing but stared sullenly. Despite himself, the Major found the expression on the vampire's face disturbing: perhaps he had an odd way of staring at the moon in the night sky through the bars?
It was as if he had been robbed of a prized treasure - one he would always see but never hold in his hands.
"She refused me to the end. It doesn't really matter. I am free of my pathetic bond to humanity. Ironically, I have you to thank for most of it."
The Major raised his eyebrows as he leaned carelessly against one of the two walls in his cell.
"So what are your plans now? Continue with taking over this world like you meant to do before her great grandfather caught you?"
"Maybe or kill everything in sight," said Alucard with a shrug. "Who knows, who can tell?"
"I suppose I could either assist you or start today's count. How do you intend to extract sweet vengeance for once again being deprived of your Mina?"
The vampire grinned. "I will kill nothing more this night. The day is too sacred to me. Consider this the day I will always remember as 'Liberty Day'."
The Major resisted an urge to tease his old nemesis. If anyone was best at hiding his true feelings behind irreverent jokes, it was Alucard.
Was it not almost like yesterday that his own grandmother was telling him of the behavior of her visiting Dutch lover's caught pet? Alucard was chained and thoroughly subdued but he was laughing to the end as if his capture was a big joke. But the Major remembered more than just the tales his grandmother had told him. He also remembered sitting as a child in a corner of the room, trembling even while his grandmother recalled in hysterics the last night she saw the cruel man. Did the Hellsings know of how his beloved grandmother had lived after she had been so cruelly abandoned by him?
His reminiscing was cut short by Alucard's laughter. It rang out loudly within the dungeon. The laugh carried no joy within it. Instead, he could hear what he knew was only a hint of the vampire's anger and bitterness.
But at what? His lost years of freedom? His chance to reverse the tables on the family responsible?
"You shouldn't hope for too much. I will not free myself of one human to serve anything as pathetic as you. Only those worthy will I recognize. Well then, do you like your surroundings or did you think your cell was a careless choice on my part?"
The Major glanced around warily. "Do you intend to exhibit me impaled like your fellow rats and birds, for the world to see?"
It was not as grand as he would hope but it was no denying that it was a novel idea. Thousands, perhaps millions would visit his grave. Immortality had different ways of manifesting itself and the more unique it was, the better.
Alucard ignored his taunting. "Tell me, have you figured out why you freak vampires cannot tolerate the sun like we true vampires do?"
He was wary of giving the vampire any reason to gloat but the Major shook his head in all honesty. "I don't know. The Doc tried for years to rectify the problem but we could not quite resolve the intolerance to sunlight. You cannot fail to realize that the freak chip was based on the blood stains you left in that attack fifty years back. I suppose we have taken the bait if you had meant it to be that way."
"Is that so?" Alucard said no more but turned to leave. "I assure you I had nothing to do with your failings. Perhaps the darkness will not have you and the light whom you have deserted looks upon you with no more kindness?"
The Major chuckled. "I never knew you to be the poet. But perhaps Mark Anthony will be Caesar now that Julius will soon be no more?"
"You think too much of yourself. I fancy you more a foolish Icarus."
The Major chuckled. "Don't tell me you intend to glue me with feathers and throw me out in the sun from the top of the London Tower to meet my end?"
"There, there. There is no use in trying to cloud your thoughts. A public end would exactly be what you want, won't it," laughed the vampire. "No. Quiet and quite forgotten ... simply returning to the dust that you are. That would be more befitting for one as insignificant as you."
Fighting the despair that threatened to consume him, the Major yelled in defiance. "Considering I have freed Cerberus, I should think myself more of Hercules. If I die, it will be in a blaze."
Alucard replied serenely. It was almost eerie hearing him so calm. "No, it will not. No one will remember you. No one will realize you were ever in existence or that you are now gone. No one will know and no one will care. And this is your Achilles' heel, is it not?"
The vampire smirked as he watched the look of disappointment on his quarry's face. The man had his grandfather's face but none of his spirit. Right down to the last minute of her life, his niece was more the Hellsing than this pathetic worm was. As he left the dungeon, Alucard dealt his one last blow for the Major.
"Did you truly think your cell was for you to admire the moon?"
He fell to his knees in defeat, staring at the manor in the distance. He could see the whole manor from his cell and he supposed that anyone in the manor looking out could see him in his despair. And then it all fell in place. The colors of the sky confirmed his fears – his cell was built to face East. There would be nowhere to hide once the sun rose. Even as the first rays entered his cell, he cursed Alucard for refusing him the violent death he so desired.
'You're not even worthy to die by my hands.'
On the third story of the manor, where he had been surveying the rising smoke emitting from where the Major had been held, Alucard turned and slowly approached the cold stiff body of his previous master. Stroking her cheek affectionately, he smiled as if he was coaxing a child to wake.
"And now Orpheus will seek his Eurydice."