Hellsing – Even (Integra + Alucard) - Chapter 4
Soundtrack:
- Assassinate the Target (Assassin's Creed - Revelations OST) -
- Of Life and Death (Assassin's Creed - Revelations OST)
- - (couldn't find a good one that fit all the parts - suggestions are welcome!)
**AN: Insert standard disclaimer here – I own nada!
I had some trouble with this one, some good ideas but I was worried they would drag out too long.
Remember! Reviews make me stronger!
The targets were mocking her.
Integra scowled at the spread of perfect holes across the paper.
"You would think being a vampire would make me better at this."
The rich and bitter laugh behind her only added to her frustration.
"You have to relearn how to shoot. Human reactions are slow, so you compensate by adjusting your aim. Now you are faster, you have to adjust back the other direction. It took Police Girl months to get used to her new reflexes."
"We don't have months. If what you say about Maegor is true, we might not even have days." Integra's scowl deepened as she blasted another half dozen holes through the paper silhouette. The grouping was closer, but still not up to her standards.
A gloved hand closed around hers and plucked the SIG from her fingers. Before she could growl in protest, a different pistol was set in its place and her fist wrapped tightly around the cold metal.
Alucard's Casull was twice the size of any gun she had ever fired; the grip alone nearly dwarfed her delicate hands.
"You expect me to shoot this?"
"Of course. I think you will find that it is a weapon more fitting to your new abilities."
Integra's lips twisted in a grimace as she hefted the over-sized pistol and sighted down the barrel.
"Do you know how expensive the rounds are for this thing?" she grumbled.
"Believe me, they are worth every shilling."
Integra blew a deep sigh, set her feet and carefully squeezed the trigger.
The Casull sounded like a cannon in the deserted shooting range. Though she was prepared for it, the recoil still slid her backward into a wall.
A wall wearing a Victorian trench coat.
Integra glared up at the elder vampire, but he didn't offer any comment beyond a slight smirk.
"Must you loom all the time?"
His expression faded. "If I had, you would not be like this."
She still wasn't ready to process the guilt simmering in his ruby gaze, so she turned back down the range to line up the next paper target. "Perhaps not. But crying about it now won't make me human again."
The Casull barked through a full clip, punching fatal holes in the silhouette 50 yards away.
"Enough," Integra growled. "Why are we here?"
"You have had a lot to deal with already today, I thought something familiar might help you focus."
"Right now, all it is doing is making me angry. I know very well how to shoot. Teach me something else," she handed him back his pistol. "Something I don't know."
"As you wish," he said simply and broke her arm.
Seras looked at the shovel as her companion rummaged through the potting shed.
"I was going to ask if there was something the matter, but I believe that I can guess."
The young vampire bit her lip, turning to meet Walter's knowing gaze. She mused that the lines around his mouth and eyes looked deeper than she remembered.
"In answer to your silent question: Yes, I dug the earth for your own coffin when you arrived at the Hellsing estate."
Seras squirmed, feeling strangely guilty about how she had acted during her first nights as a Draculina. "I never thanked you for that, did I?"
"You were part of the household, it was my duty and I didn't mind."
"But weren't you a vampire hunter? Didn't you have a moment…well, a time that you hated having to serve one?"
The butler paused.
"That was a long time ago. I've come to understand that not all monsters have fangs." He leaned over and tapped the tip of her nose with a gloved finger, "and not all of those with fangs are monsters."
Startled, Seras blushed pink. "Thank you," she whispered.
"Think nothing of it, Miss Victoria."
Chewing her lip again, the young vampire glanced up at the mansion. "Do you think Sir Integra will be ok?"
Walter sighed, running his hands over his tightly bound hair to smooth it out.
The nervous gesture did little to settle her anxieties, but Seras waited for his reply.
"Not for a long time I fear," he said finally with a sigh. "But until she does, woe to the enemies of England while she works out her frustrations."
Walter was pleased to see Seras smile.
"I think we should head to the rose garden, the flowers give the earth a sweeter scent."
Integra grit her teeth and tried not to pass out. She wanted to scream, but refused to give the twice cursed vampire the satisfaction.
"Your body is a frame of mind, it is only as physical as you believe. Picture your arm as it should and always has been: slender, straight, lithe muscles, blood vessels like branching webs under the smooth skin…" Alucard's voice was infuriatingly calm; almost sensual, while she writhed in agony.
Try as she might, the shrieking pain sliced through her focus, making it impossible to concentrate.
"I—it's too—" She curled up on her side, afraid she would be sick. The movement pulled twisted muscles to fresh heights of suffering and she moaned in agony.
Alucard took off his hat, and used it to hide the grotesque angle of her shattered forearm. Grasping her chin, he forced her to look at him. "You can do it, Integra. There isn't any pain at all, your arm is just as it was before. Your arm is fine."
"Goddamn you! My arm isn't fine!"
The vampire's pale face narrowed with disapproval. "Such language from a Lady."
"FU-"
"The more time you waste cursing at me, the longer you will be in pain. Now focus!"
Integra bit down on her snarled reply so hard she tasted blood.
"Your arm is fine," Alucard repeated calmly.
"My…my arm is… fine," she stammered, furious tears glittering in her eyes.
"Your arm is fine."
"My arm…is fine."
"Your arm is fine."
"My arm is fine!"
And it was.
The blinding pain was changing, becoming something more like the prickle of pins and needles.
Integra had seen Alucard regenerate himself on many occasions. The way his flesh, and even his clothes, knit back together like a time-lapse photo was both horrifying and fascinating at the same time.
Looking down at where her arm disappeared under the cover of Alucard's hat, she imagined the chips of bone being ushered back into place by snakes of corded muscle, blood cells tumbling back into the ruptured veins like swarms of ants-
Stinging ants, if the burning tingle was any indication of what was going on-
A sharp crack made Integra hiss in pain, but Alucard held her arm still before she could snatch it away.
"Keep focus!" he admonished.
Integra bit her lip, and struggled to force the image of her undamaged arm to the forefront of her mind. She blocked everything out: the smell of spent gunpowder, her harsh breathing, his strong grip on her elbow…
Alucard moved his hat and revealed the perfectly straight line of her forearm.
Integra stared in amazement, her breath still short from exertion. She flexed her fingers and twisted her wrist to make sure everything was back in place. "That's incredible…"
"As I said: a true vampire's body is only as physical as they believe," the vampire king's tall and lanky form began to shrink. Moments later, standing in his place was a ruby-eyed girl that winked at Integra from under ebony bangs. A heartbeat passed and the girl exploded into a thousand bats that swirled through the shooting range and pooled together again into Alucard's familiar masculine image.
"Always so theatrical," she muttered. "Just how long did it take you to learn that?"
"More years than I care to recall." He gently lifted her healed arm. "Repairing wounds is rather simple. But trying to take another's form is much more difficult. Your body remembers its true shape, and will naturally gravitate toward what it knows. To become something else, you would need to be intimately familiar with all aspects of its form to the finest details."
"Is that how you learned to be a girl?"
Alucard's eyes kindled like embers as he brushed his lips against her wrist. "Would you like to find out?" he said in a low purr.
Yanking her hand free, Integra tried to ignore the tightness in her belly. "I'd rather not. I think you've caused enough trouble already."
The No-Life King chuckled, but did not protest.
Integra studied her arm, frowning. "You said it wouldn't hurt."
"I never said that," he admonished. "The trick is not minding that it hurts."
"So much for the theory of being super-human."
"Vampires are not super-human, my dear," Alucard's voice was strange. "They are not human at all."
For the sake of her pride, he pretended not to notice her shoulders flinch.
"Now," Integra glanced up in time to see a wicked sparkle of a devilish grin. "Are you ready to learn some real tricks?"
AN: Sorry for the delay! Things went kinda crazy and I almost spent as much time away as at home this past month. I have the framework for the next chapters laid out, but don't have anything written yet - so there might be a longer publishing delay as I get things how I want them (drawbacks of being a perfectionist).