"Master has cancer." The words still hung in the air oddly. Alucard didn't know how to understand them, didn't know how to deal with them. It had been ten years since his return, and though he'd become closer to Integra, had kissed her, had loved her… "Master has cancer. And it's in the late stages. Master isn't going to live very long. I'm scared." The dead tone of his words set him on edge, made him tight. It hurt his cold, dead, uncaring heart, and he didn't know how to even begin to understand.

Ten years since he'd returned, ten years since he'd seen how frail her body had become. Yet, through all of the wrinkles, through the missing eye, through the racking cough, through her voice which was weakening day by day, he loved her. Oh, Alucard loved Integra so much that he would give his unlife to her to extend hers by one day. She was the most important person in his entire universe, and he was watching her crash and burn.

Integra coughed sharply, wheezing to take a breath. "Father died similarly. I'm simply following in the Hellsing name, Alucard." She could see the way he looked down at her, smiled at the expression of sadness. "It's going to be fine. You'll be free, finally." She closed her eye. "You can walk the night unhampered by a mere mortal. You can use your entire set of abilities to wreak havoc upon the earth without the Hellsing Organization holding you back. Alucard… Dracula. From the time I became a young woman, you were my friend and my servant. I set you free."

The words hung in the room like mist. Alucard's mouth opened, his fangs glistened in the dim lights, but not with blood lust. With horror. "Master… No."

"I'm no longer your master. Alucard, you're a free vampire. Go and spend the rest of your unlife doing what you wish to do instead of following the whims of an old bat that's breathing her last." As if to accent that sentiment, she fell into a coughing fit. Alucard smelled the taint of blood in the air when she withdrew her hand.

"Master, you can't leave me alone in the world."

"Utter nonsense, Alucard. You've been a grown man for the past five hundred years, before I was born. You'll unlive on past my time and then on past the time that Seras should have died… And you'll be with her for a long time. A long, long time." Integra smiled up at him, taking a deep breath only to start into racking coughs again. "You'll do as you wish for the rest of my life."

Alucard swept himself down into an arcing bow, eyes closed. "Then master, I wish to remain, to care for you in your time of need."

"You've always done that. You've always been at the beckon call of a human, always done what I asked even though you didn't do it to the letter."

"Ah, master, I didn't do it to what you imagined as the letter of your commands, but in the end, your objectives were always completed, and you were always left alive." He leaned over her, smiling as his face neared hers. She was still as beautiful as the day he'd met her as a teenager. She reminded him of her father, always strong-willed, always sure of herself. Even in her dying moments, she reminded him of years past, of her laughs, her smiles, her crying fits, her screaming fits, her anger, her depression, her envy, her pride, her sins. She was most human when she was sinning. Otherwise she would be an angel. He sucked in an unnecessary breath and then grasped her hand, holding it tightly. "Master… Please don't leave me."

"I have to leave you, Alucard. Cancer. I'm dying, remember?" She smiled up at him, started gasping for breath. "That's the way things go. Something is given life, then life is taken away when it's time. This is the way that things are supposed to go. And I'm so tired, Alucard."

He dropped his voice to a seductive whisper, leaned in closer, lips barely inches from hers. He lapped at the blood that was left behind there, cleaned them off for her. "But master… You could walk the night, live forever. The opportunity is there. You're still able, you're still a virgin. All of these years… You've waited. What have you waited on? For me? Did you wait for me master?" He knelt on the edge of the bed, staring into her eye. Blue met red and he could sense the smile that formed on her face though he didn't look down to see it. Tears of blood speckled at the corners of his eyes. "Master, you waited for me, didn't you? You planned for this? To go until you couldn't go anymore? To wait to walk the night when you had no other choice?"

"Alucard-"

"Master, let me help you. I don't want you to die. I have to hear your voice. Please let me hear your voice. I'm begging you. I never beg. Please fulfill my wishes. Haven't I been a good servant? You've been a very good master, and I know you're still a good master. Please join me."

Integra took a slow, rattling breath. She still held the smile on her face as her eye closed. "Alucard, I can't join you."

"Please, fulfill my wish. Have I ever asked for anything from you, master? Anything at all?" He could hear her heart stopping. "Master, please! I never say please, PLEASE." Her heart stopped beating.

Alucard stared at her face as it relaxed, then dove in, sank his fangs into her throat. The gush of life pooled into his mouth and he closed his eyes, drank, even though he knew that it was too late to save her. He had to try.

**********

Seras sniffled as she stood in the rain, staring down at the grave. "Master… She's gone. Master, why can't you let it go? You're free now. Why can't you move on?"

Alucard didn't move a muscle as he sat atop the headstone. She watched the rainwater drip from the black strands of hair, but her master didn't say anything.

Freedom was very relative to the time and situation, and the No Life King was anything but free.