Disclaimer: Let's not abuse are already over-burdened legal system…I don't own Hellsing and I'm just a poor boy from a poor family…(cue Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody).
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love - Goethe
It had been one week since Integra had murdered her uncle. One week since she had ascended to her rightful station. She tried to think about it all in pragmatic terms: kill or be killed, the law of the jungle. After all, what did the world lose through Richard's death? A coward? She would not feel remorse.
"This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes," stated Integral firmly, staring at her father's portrait.
The sun was setting and casting an orange, expectant halo around her father's desk. Integra focused upon a fresh pile of paperwork with a renewed sense of duty. She would know everything about her organization—from the names and personal history of every soldier to the most minuscule cases her father had handled. No one living or dead would ever be more qualified than her.
"You may have many a wiser prince sitting in this seat, but you never have had, or shall have, any who loves you better," Integra said softly as she took her father's place and began to read.
The sun had long disappeared when she heard a knock at the door.
"Miss Integral?" Walter inquired, slowly entering.
"Walter." Integra smiled warmly at her family's most devoted friend. His loyalty was superlative to others, for he had choice. And with all the freedom in the world, he had elected to stay by her side, and her father's before her.
"Nosferatu Helena has come to request an audience with you."
"Where is Alucard?" Integra asked, alarmed.
"Currently entertaining our guest," Walter sighed apologetically. "She will not harm you here. Even if she so desired, your servants would not permit it," Walter added reassuringly.
Integra nodded, trusting her butler.
"Send her to me."
After Walter's exit, she stood erect and straightened her skirt and glasses. She also retrieved her gun from the top desk drawer. She trusted Walter, perhaps even Alucard. But she also trusted herself.
Shortly she heard an otherworldly, tinkling laugh, like a delicate porcelain bell. Integra disliked the sound immediately, and she wasn't sure why.
Walter opened the door to reveal a young girl, perhaps Integra's age, walking alongside an eight-eyed black dog. She knew the animal to be Alucard, so the other was the Nosferatu Helena.
Integra was unnerved. This girl was the second vampire she had ever seen. She was eerily beautiful, built more delicately and fair than Integra. A china doll to match her laugh. Integra's eyes narrowed when she saw the girl caress Alucard's fur and whisper something too soft to be overheard. It didn't help matters that the dog and girl had carefully observed her reaction.
Walter followed the pair in and stationed himself next to the desk; a position to supply support, but not command. Alucard, on the other hand, sank lazily to Helena's feet and Integra discovered that dogs could indeed look smug and self-congratulatory. At least this one could.
I know what you're about, Integra thought fiercely.
Raising her eyes, Integra was annoyed to see an expectant, almost challenging smile on Helena's face. They faced each other silently, measuring each other, and Integra was pleased that she was the taller of the two, even if Helena had the face of an omnipotent angel.
"You must forgive my fondness for Alucard…your family has murdered many of my former companions," Helena said with feigned idleness. Her eyes were sharp and conveyed the weight of everything spoken and left unspoken.
"Please be seated," Integra said gruffly, ignoring her taunt.
"So this is the new director of Hellsing," mused Helena, her comment and gaze aimed at Walter. It lingered there with almost warm familiarity.
"I am Integral Hellsing," spoke Integra proudly, trying to interrupt whatever had occurred without her. She would have to ask Walter more about his past later.
"You are very young to be so terribly important," Helena observed coolly. Her words could have been sympathetic or an honest reflection, but Integra found them rather condescending.
"I am very young, and perhaps in many, though not in all things, inexperienced, but I am sure that very few have more real desire to do what is right than I have," Integra stated defiantly.
"Speeches pass away but acts remain, Miss Hellsing," Helena replied simply.
Integra remained silent, considering Helena again with mixed feelings. She found herself simultaneously admiring and hating the vampire. They were similar in appearance, carriage and intellect. As the old saying goes: like likes like. Under other circumstances, they might have been friends.
On the other hand, under other circumstances they might have been bitter rivals. They certainly were something of the sort now. Integra didn't like being manipulated via her servants, nor did she like feeling inferior in both astuteness and power.
"What is it that brings you here?" She asked finally, growing weary of the questions and doubt Helena had brought with her.
"After seeing my kind mercilessly hunted, tortured and enslaved by your organization, I sought a truce with your grandfather; a truce which your father honored. You can read it all here," Helena said without preamble. A weathered scroll materialized on the desk.
Integra immediately recognized her grandfather's hand, bold and direct, briefly describing terms of the treaty. No ghouls, no vampires sired…no efforts to threaten or undermine Hellsing. Integra re-read the document twice searching for loopholes, but it appeared to be binding, somewhat like a mild version of the seals on Alucard.
You are quite old indeed, Integra thought as she studied Helena's carefully written script, which reminded her of monastic calligraphy or the Canterbury Tales.
Seeing her father's graceful amendment and reaffirmation of the treaty, Integra was at once overcome with a sense of compulsion, for the better or the worse.
"Why?" She murmured aloud.
"Your family has a long legacy of experimentation. I am their experiment in coexistence. Conditional coexistence, of course."
"No, why should I sign this?" Integra replied smartly. It was a selfish and abusive question, and Integra half-despised herself as soon as she had said it. She felt like Richard. Then again, casual cruelty could be useful. Integra was conflicted, and she knew that the feeling would probably only grow in the future.
"A great people may be killed, but they cannot be intimidated. I will not beg for your mercy, nor appeal to you as your father's daughter. I will not threaten. If you truly desire to do right, then I believe that you must decide what that is."
Integra's face turned a flustered pink as she heard her own words echoed impressively. She had known the proper thing to do from the beginning, but she had delayed due to the more spiteful and base parts of her nature. Picking up her father's pen, she began to scrawl out her full title, pausing before she completed to look to Helena.
"Why did you change over?" Integra asked, suddenly and with a voice that she herself didn't recognize. It sounded hurt and reproachful, with traces of accusation and anger.
"Love."
Integra finished her signature with disappointment. A silly, stupid thing like love was always an inducement and a poison. Helena was just a victim of cliché.
"It was a lust for knowledge, Miss Hellsing. Books and learning."
With that, both girl and contract disappeared from the room and Integra was left with words swirling in her mind. She was distressed. For Integra loved something too, and she wasn't quite certain she could resist the lure of loving it for eternity. Hellsing…England.
The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason, Integra recited, with an internal cadence. Her eyes wandered warily to the hellhound. Alucard returned her gaze conspiratorially. A serpent offering an apple.
"Walter, I think love is dangerous and selfish," Integra said grimly, straightening her papers nervously.
"Yes, Miss Hellsing. Love is a vice as much as it is a virtue."
"And yet we all submit to it eventually," Alucard whispered darkly.
Author's Note:
The "selfish" bit at the end was a bit of foreshadowing, so to speak, for Episode 1 of the anime. (Integra accuses Alucard of doing a selfish thing by changing Seras and insisting she be part of Hellsing.)
Quotes attributed to Queen Elizabeth I:
This is the Lord's doing…
You may have many a wiser prince…
Quotes attributed to Queen Victoria:
I am very young, and perhaps in many, though not in all things…
Quotes attributed to Napoleon:
Speeches pass away but acts remain…
A great people may be killed, but they cannot be intimidated
Quote from TS Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral:
The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason
Indirectly ripped from Virgil (Alucard's final quip):
Love conquers all; and let us submit to love.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who reviewed my maiden chapter of History Rhymes...and anyone who reviews this. I need all the help I can get.