It's her again.
Flowing golden locks cascaded down a taught back, vibrant sienna skin stretching above her head as he pinned her fist above her head. Within one hand was a golden saber, a family heirloom that he had come to recognize as her favorite weapon. In her other, however, was a gun loaded with silver bullets, which she pointed right between his eyes. His hand was centimeters away from her neck, large claws extended. If she hadn't blocked him at just the right moment, his blow would have left a nasty mark.
But she always blocked.
It was moments like this, moments of stillness on the battlefield that allowed the king of monsters to fully admire the human sworn to kill him.
A confident smile curled her dark lips even when her arm trembled as it kept his claws away. "So, Count. We meet again."
Alucard chuckled lightly, not budging one inch. Even though he could easily overpower her, what would the fun be in that? "Indeed we do, Countess. Am I to assume you've come here to finally collect my head?"
"Don't be so conceited," she chastised. "I came here for the smaller prey. This was merely a happy coincidence. And am I to assume you're here to continue your hopeless endeavor to defeat me?"
The vampire hummed with pure amusement. One dark shadow curled its way from his shoulder to teasingly flick a strand of her beautiful hair out of her face. "My endeavor shall never end, my dear. However, I'm here for the same reason as you."
An entertaining silence ensued in which red fire locked with blue. Neither adversary budged as they stared one another down. The vampire's sharp, ferocious grin was matched by the cold, dominating sneer of the human.
And then, a gun went off as a head simultaneously fell to the floor, having been torn like an old dishrag from the shoulders.
"So it seems I won't be killing you tonight," Integra mused as she wiped blackened, rotting blood from her cheek.
"Not on this night," Alucard agreed, grimacing at the putrid blood that stained his pale hands. Ghouls had begun to pervade their hallway, breaking apart the banter that the vampire in all honesty preferred to the hunt he had arrived for. He sighed and turned back to her. "I grow tired of this chore. Shall we proceed to hunt the vampire together, then?"
Integra tilted her head to the side, the lenses of her glasses a reflection of the glorious moon. "Given up already?"
"Hardly," he answered immediately, the shadows jerking around him as if to punctuate his response. "It is simply too beautiful a night to die. So for now, I'll just toy with you."
She hummed, trusting not one word from his lips. More ghouls had arrived. "How considerate. Very well. Shall I lead this dance?"
"I would expect nothing less, Integra Hellsing," he replied, turning around and lowering to a near crouch. The woman had replaced her gun back into its holster upon her hip, as she was wont when she felt herself in the mood to play. They stood back to back as they faced the hordes of undead, human and monster, devout and secular.
And then, they moved.
In an artful leap, Integra curved her arm in a calculated swoop through the air, effectively slicing off one head, then pivoting midair to amputate another. From where she landed, a ghoul attempted to leap upon her exposed back. It suddenly met its bitter end when her saber suddenly snapped back and impaled it straight through the chest, tearing a gaping hole into its heart.
At this same moment, the vampire strode forth and used his bare hands to sever arms, legs, and other assorted parts from bodies. His work was far messier, and he reveled in the unholy screeches of the dying things as he made their ends painful. Necks were snapped, along with many other bones. His pacing was not as fast as Integra's but it was unnecessary to move quickly when he was not trying to be neat. He moved with inhuman grace, however, as a panther might weave through a jungle.
In the end, both were bloody. Integra had only been sprayed; her suit and white dress shirt were dotted only with the occasional streak. The vampire's arms all the way up to the elbow were drenched, and his duster was splattered an even deeper crimson. Clearing his throat, he rose to his full height, at least two heads above Integra, and huffed in amusement. "I win."
More ghouls had entered his side of the hallway, so naturally he had killed more. Of course. Integra rolled her eyes. "Hm."
Silently, he crept forward, staring at her the whole while. Integra tensed, readying herself for yet another attack when he got within three feet of her. He came to a stop barely an inch in before her, staring right into her eyes from where she glared up at him. In one quick movement, his hand came up and grabbed something just over her shoulder, and her hand jerked on her saber. He made no movement after that, and so she deemed it safe to throw a very quick glance at whatever was in his hand.
The head of a still very-alive ghoul. As soon as she looked, his fingers clenched and cracked the skull inwards, crushing it so that brain matter exploded from the back of the head. Her glare became less warning and more annoyed, and he grinned back mischievously. "You missed one."
Like the cutting edge of the iceberg that sank the unsinkable, Integra pierced his soul with her gaze. "Perhaps I did."
They did not move. Alucard did not breathe, for he had forgotten to do so. He became enamored with how glorious she looked in that very moment; how strikingly human. Her physique was incomparable to that of a goddess, for her muscles were too lean from fighting; her blue eyes were far too sharp to be compared to a crystal sea, for within them brewed a violent storm; her scent was an odd, for within it mingled a strange combination of tobacco and jasmine; and he had never felt so wonderfully stricken. And he, in that moment of strangeness, said to her: "Lead the way."
She, the human, swept past him to continue her hunt. Until the day the Earth was submersed in fire and darkness, until the day of reckoning was finally upon them and he was cast down to its depths…
He, the monster, would follow her.
I really enjoy toying around with the idea of what Hellsing might have been like if Alucard were not a servant to the organization. So then I thought: what if he and Integra ran into one another if that were the case? I figured that they would have an even stranger relationship, but at the same time, I thought things would remain relatively the same. Alucard admires Integra, and even if he were free, I think he'd admire her even then. And there'd be so much sexual tension, too. Hmm...