Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Hellsing belongs to Kohta Hirano.

I took a long hiatus from updating this fic. The thing was all done, it was sitting on my computer, but I just wanted to see what people would think of what I had so far. ummm...apparently everyone loves it. Which I don't think is the case. Probably the people that realized it was crap decided not to waste their time writing to tell me what was wrong with it (good thing I have a real job). But among my many pet peeves with fanfics, incomplete stories, particularly of stories that I enjoy, piss me off. So to those people that actually liked what I wrote, here's the last of it.

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Integra sat in the car morosely looking out the window and wishing the whole thing hadn't happened. The alcohol and the pervasive atmosphere of stupidity must have gone to her head. It would have been better if she had listened to Caroline and not brought that gun with her, or that she had reacted in a more civilized manner to his unexpected groping. Like punching him in the face. Integra hoped it didn't come up at the next round table meeting.

Beside her Caroline could not stop laughing and was in fact wiping away tears of mirth from her eyes. Integra had been grateful for Caroline's presence in the hall, when she had marched across the silent and shocked room of party-goers and demanded to know what Geoffrey thought he was doing. She had been grateful for Caroline's quickly whisking her out of the room while loudly complaining about chauvinistic male swine who tried to take advantage of every woman and necessitated nice girls like her having to resort to neanderthal methods to protect themselves. What she was not grateful for right now was Caroline's lack of sobriety about the whole ordeal.

"It wasn't that funny."

Caroline wiped away a tear from her cheek. Between her peals of laughter she tried to regain her breath. Somehow she managed to inarticulate a sentence, "I know, its not, and it definitely was. I do hope you'll be invited back again."

"I wouldn't go."

Caroline smiled. "So long as you know what you're missing. Really, I haven't had this much fun on a night out in ages!"

They had reached the drive to Hellsing HQ. Integra pushed upon the door and climbed out of the car before anyone could offer assistance. She was marching up the stairs of Hellsing when Caroline shouted to her, "I'll come by soon to see how you're doing, okay? Just go and relax. You'll feel better after a hot bath."

"Lady Caroline," Walter greeted her. It had been several days since the unfortunate evening. There had been some brief mention in the tabloids, but they had quickly switched subjects (with help from Ashcroft) when Lady Seton was caught in the course of some inappropriate activities with a young married man half her age. Who knew she was still so limber, Caroline thought jealously. Walter took her umbrella and sodden coat from her and was rewarded to her ever ready smile. She tried in vain to fluff her soggy hair, but it refused, preferring instead to plaster itself in wet clumps to her skull. It didn't matter anyways since she was just visiting Integra and didn't have any other engagements that evening.

"Integra is in the library right now, which is three doors on the left past where you had tea last time. If you like, I can bring up some hot cocoa up straight away. Integra could use a little break-- she's been in there all day."

Caroline gave a little wave as she dashed off around the corner. She hardly ever saw any other help around this place except for Walter, and she wondered whether the poor old man (he looked like he had to be in his 70's), took care of Integra and this great big place all by himself. Integra really needed to get some more help. No offense to Walter, but the place was burying itself beneath a layer of dust. She found the library and pushed open the door only to be greeted by piles of books all stacked on the tables of the library and in many of the chairs. The shelves were all quite full, so either the books had always been piled like this or they had been brought up from somewhere else. As Caroline passed them she noted that a great many of them were hand-written and their pages had turned yellow and delicate with age. No doubt all these books were quite rare and priceless; the Hellsings would do well to digitally archive them and then hermetically seal them all away.

Caroline plucked a book off the top of one stack and carefully opened it up. Latin? Interesting...what is she up to?

"Make sure you put that back where you took it from, they're all in chronological order," said Integra from behind a towering stack of books.

"Are you reading all of these? Whatever for? And are they all in latin?" asked an awed Caroline.

Integra came around the table's corner and shook her head. "I would prefer not having to read them all. Just until I find what I'm looking for. Unfortunately I've gone through nearly all of them and I'm pretty sure I won't be finding anything of use. These are merely journals describing or detailing experiments and ideas. It seems that my ancestors had a tradition of passing this knowledge down orally..." Integra's voice trailed away. It was best not to talk of these things to an outsider.

The library door opened and Walter came in with a tray of hot cocoa, marshmallows, and more of his delicious cookies. Caroline looked positively thrilled and helped the aged butler to clear away a little corner of a table and some chairs. She seated herself and flipped open one of the books she had moved aside; this one was in aramaic. "What are you looking for? I minored in several dead languages at university, you know, because I thought they'd help me figure out why all the space aliens quit visiting us, so maybe I could give you a hand? My latin's not bad, but I don't know much in the way of aramaic at all.

"Say, this is about alchemy! Do you actually believe in this sort of stuff? I mean if you think about...okay well if you think about it vampires don't exist so...this actually works then?" Caroline's eyes turned distant, and she absently tapped the book she had picked up against her chin as she thought.

Integra seated herself nearby and picked up one of the mugs. She spoke softly, but still managed to startle Caroline from her reverie, "Yes. These are about alchemy. Why?"

Caroline laughed nervously. "Oh, no, its probably nothing. I was just thinking that I'm pretty sure we had books about alchemy and 'occult' stuff at home when I was growing up. I think we even had some of Newton's writings. I don't know whether they belonged to father, or if they had been there from before, but if you're saying that most of these...journals, right, keep making assumptions then maybe if any of our books aren't just a bunch of tripe you might find them of use."

Integra hesitated, then asked Caroline if she could bring some of these books with her the next time she came around. Walter quietly excused himself to attend to other business.

"Why wait? Let's go now. Walter said that you've been in here all day. I think some fresh air and a drive will do you some good. Besides, you've never been over to my place and I've been here like three times already. What do you say?"

"I..."

"It'll only take like an hour, I promise. Walter will barely know you've gone."

"Yes," said Integra slowly. "Let me just grab a couple of things and I'll meet you downstairs." Integra stepped back behind the table of books that she had been reading and taking notes. Caroline is a ditzy rich socialite...who knows Latin, Aramaic, keeps books on Alchemy, and has known about the round table since she was a child. She checked on her gun and ammo, then penned a quick note to Walter which she left on the serving tray. Caroline didn't seem like anything other than a ditzy socialite, but that didn't mean she shouldn't be careful.

The soldier gingerly rolled the corpse over to its back with his foot. It was still warm, and two fresh puncture wounds marred its throat. He put a bullet through its head and continued moving down through the ship. His squad mates advanced behind him. In five minutes Hellsing forces had done a complete sweep of the ship. Several ghouls had been put down and another bloodless corpse taken care of. Alucard watched from the warehouse roof above while sipping on medical blood. He listened to the radio chatter of the troops below. Too slow. The vampires that had crossed over from the continent on this ship had already disembarked before authorities had realized something was wrong and called for Hellsing. They must really be desperate to risk a crossing like this. Master... Alucard heard his fledgeling's call, squeezed the last few drops of blood from the package, then dropped down to join her.

She had followed the scent of the escaped vampires half a mile down the dock to an empty warehouse. The human troops could handle the few ghouls and fresh corpses in the vessel. She crouched outside the doorway, listening. They were in there shuffling around nervously, hiding. She waited till she knew that Alucard had settled himself outside the only other exit to the warehouse to watch, then kicked in the door. Her eyes made out the dark interior and noted that the shuffling and whispers had ceased. She stalked the corridors, rifle in hand, between stacked crates in the direction that she had last heard sounds coming from. Something moved behind her and she whirled about as a vampire leaped through the stacked boxes and knocked her over. Several rounds were released harmlessly into the air, but she knew and her assailant knew the sound would draw the soldiers over. It tried to put her down quickly, not realizing what it was facing, and was surprised to find itself over-powered and pinned to the ground. It was silenced by the butt of her rifle caving in its skull. She put a silver bullet through its heart just to be sure, then moved on.

Several others-- how many had been on the ship?-- were now trying to escape out Alucard's direction. No need to rush. The first priority was to finish sweeping through here and make sure that no one was left inside and no one escaped behind. She turned a corner and looked into the shocked expression of a teenage vampire--no, there was no telling its actual age. Please, it mouthed, you're the same as us. Please, help... Seras put a bullet through its heart and moved on.

Outside three vampires burst out of the door that Alucard was watching. He sat on the steps with his back to them as they came out. They slowed in uncertainty; they recognized their kin but couldn't understand being hunted by one of their own. The new regenerator, on the continent, they pleaded to be saved from its purging and served only as snacks for Alucard. He tasted their blood, sipped at their memories of fear and escape, and glorified in the presence of a new enemy.

The drive in Caroline's car to her mansion had been short and punctuated by Caroline's attempts at conversation. Her mansion was palatial in size and she seemed intent on showing Integra every room of it; Integra's hopes for a short visit were crushed.

"You said that..."

"Oh, I know, but just this last thing and then I'll take you down to the library. I think you'll appreciate it."

Integra expected she would find anything more enjoyable than the hall of stuffed exotic animals that Caroline had personally shot. This new hall was lined with historical weapons. There were English ones that had been passed down through the generations of Islands, but also a number of foreign items, both swords and guns, that had been acquired more recently.

"I used to collect things like spoons, butterflies, and shotglasses when I was child, but those are really so common. And there's not much challenge in getting them. But these things here, these are interesting, don't you think so, Integra?"

"Yes. But they're not the reason I came"

The study that Caroline led Integra to was opulently furnished and completely spotless. Caroline plucked an old manuscript off of the top of a stack of books on the desk and passed it over to Integra. The beginning of the book covered things that her father had briefly gone over with her when she was a child. Integra set the book back down on the desk and looked down the spines of the books that were stacked there. It was odd that they had come over looking for these books and they were already sitting out. It was almost as if they had been recently used. Integra reached for the gun in her shoulder holster (also odd, the lack of Caroline's continuous chatter) and turned just in time to see the door to the study swing closed-- locked.

Integra went to the door first-- stupid-- she stumbled back towards the desk with her gaze fixed on the huge bay windows beyond. The air in the room was being pumped full of something. She felt her mind blacking out, pulled the gun out and aimed it at the windows, tried to aim it at the windows...but if she did that then they would break and there would be glass everywhere. And that would be very bad. She felt sure that Walter would be annoyed. It wasn't good to play indoors, she really ought to take it outside.

There had been so many dead ends in their investigations. Ashcroft hated vampires, but his dislike stemmed from the recent events of his father's death at the hands of Millenium created vampires. It didn't give him enough time to have researched and planned this, and their only other lead on how he could have obtained such knowledge had turned out to be false. A simple inquiry to Lady Seton had turned up that the strangely dressed man at the ball was there at her request. He was a modern Rasputin and made his way through life telling people their fortunes. In the end, Walter had kept returning to their profile of Caroline Corinthe Islands. She had been raised alongside her brother and would have taken up the family duties after him, but then when she was thirteen her father adopted her cousin. He scrolled through her school transcripts. The only language she had studied at university was French, so the other languages she knew had either been learned beforehand or on her own in a very short span of time. Walter checked his watch. He should go up soon to see how the two ladies were getting along.

Alucard phased through the wall and came out into the room behind him. The Angel of Death acknowledged his presence silently and without motion.

"It's interesting, on the continent," said Alucard.

Walter took a sip of tea and continued reading through the screen in front of him. "So I've heard, but it doesn't yet concern Hellsing. Besides, its a young regenerator. I recommend giving it some more time."

"Integra is aware of them?"

Walter replied in the affirmative. Since Maxwell's failures the Vatican had stepped up its own internal policing. They had swept through the ranks from cardinal down to alter boy, and then they found themselves a new regenerator. Divine will, they had called it, and now they zealously hunted every living vampire on the continent. Perhaps once they had rid themselves of their own scourge they would come after Dracula himself.

"You're looking thoughtful, Angel of Death."

Walter tapped his finger on the screen in front of him. "Caroline's missing cousin was supposed to have just arrived in the countryside the night London was attacked. The servants there claim he never showed up. They thought that something came up and he decided to stay an extra night in London without informing them. There were a few things today in the library as well that she said... I should go up right now and speak to Integra."

Alucard shook his head. The floor above them was empty.