Chapter 10: Duels
Trafalgar Square had been transformed. The bodies of the soldiers of the Ninth Crusade were everywhere. All had been impaled, side by side with the Nazi soldiers found by Dracula's familiars. The square was now a macabre forest like that the Impaler had created in years gone by. In the centre of the arrangement was the TARDIS, untouched. Before its tightly sealed doors Dracula knelt, facing his master.
The head of the Hellsing family stood formally, holding her sheathed sword at her side. Seras stood behind her; having just flown the survivors Integra had saved to Hellsing Manor where the remaining members of the Wild Geese could protect them.
"My Count, you have returned."
"At your pleasure, my Lady." Dracula's voice was richly accented, now that he inhabited the form he owned in life. He stood alone now that his powers had been fully manifested.
"Hi!" Seras said tentatively. "It's- Really nice to have you back, master."
The Impaler's ancient eyes stared back at her through the unbound locks of his hair that fell over his pale face.
Cringing in fear, Sears ducked back behind Integra for protection, but was unable to resist pointing out what was, to her, the most shocking aspect of his transformation.
"You seem to have grown a moustache, master."
When her master gave no reaction, Seras pointed at her upper lip to clarify.
"A- Moustache."
Standing, Dracula reached out to Seras, his armour clanking slightly as he moved. She flinched as his steel gauntlet rested gently on the top of her head. He ruffled her hair affectionately, smiling warmly now.
Seras didn't even realize he knew how to make that expression.
"Yes, Seras." He said paternally, his tone fond and proud. "My Seras Victoria."
The three stood in silence a while, Hellsing and her vampires reunited at last.
However, the peaceful moment was shattered all too soon, as three new players violently entered the square.
Gallifrey was located near the centre of the galaxy it inhabited, in a densely-packed region of space containing innumerable stars at all stages of development. This meant that the planet was bombarded with intense amounts of solar radiation. In addition, the planet's climate and position around its sun produced an exceedingly harsh environment with wicked extremes of heat and cold. The mountainous terrain was also all-but uninhabitable, and the atmosphere was very thin over most of the surface.
This arrangement caused the Gallifreyan race to be perhaps the hardiest and most resilient group of humanoid life forms in the universe. They shrugged off radiation, fatal electric shock, burning heat and freezing cold. But, most importantly, Gallifreyans could absorb blunt physical shocks that would shatter a human skeleton, and possessed reserves of physical stamina, strength, and agility beyond even the most exceptional human athlete.
So when the Master, channelling his limitless passion for combat into pure strength, threw the Doctor through the stone wall of a nearby building, sending him flying across the square toward his TARDIS, the Time Lord simply sprang back up to his feet, taking a moment to brush the dust from his coat as his enemy approached him.
At the same time, Anderson appeared with a blur of paper and ink in the air directly above Dracula, plummeting toward him, yelling a wordless battle cry.
Bayonet-tip met sword-tip as the two foes clashed. The shock of the blades meeting shattered Anderson's bayonet and threw him clear of the trio. Seras immediately gathered Integra up with her shadow arm, speeding her to safety.
The four men now stood in a loose gathering. Dracula and the Doctor had their backs to the TARDIS, where the vampire's coffin still lay. The Master and Anderson squared off against them.
"Nicely done, my nemesis." Dracula praised, focusing only on the Iscariot paladin.
The Master leapt upwards impossibly high in a standing jump, snatching a ceremonial sword from the belt of an impaled Millennium officer. Cuts and bruises were present on both of the Time Lord's faces, their clothes dirty and torn from their destructive bare-handed fight.
"Shall we cross blades once again, Doctor? By my count, this will be round three!"
"I am a servant of God," Anderson recited, preparing for his own duel. "An agent of divine punishment on Earth. I am called upon to cut away the flesh of infidels." He once again arranged his blades to form a cross. "And remove from the Earth all those who would defy God!"
"Doctor!" Integra called from a nearby rooftop, hurling her sword down to him. "You are still a Knight of the British Empire!"
The Doctor caught the sheathed sword out of reflex. He was interrupted in his protestations by Integra's shouted orders.
"In Her Majesty's absence, I charge you to defend this land from all who would destroy it!"
Turning back to the Master, he noted that his opponent's wild eyes did not look back at him… but at the TARDIS behind him.
Sighing in resignation, his face changed to a look of grim determination as he violently drew Integra's sword from its sheath with a flourish.
"The blade of Sir Doctor of Tardis is yours… my Lady."
The Master's manic grin widened.
The Major applauded slowly from his seat on the airship's bridge as he watched the lead-up to the two fights. The duels he had been waiting for had finally begun…
"AMEN!" Anderson shouted as he charged.
"EN GARDE!" The Master bellowed as he swung his sabre.
Anderson blazed toward Dracula like a comet, a corona of pages materializing around him as holy script glowed in front of him like a shield. Bayonet met sword in mid-air; the two foes straining against each other; their full power on display. Pages combusted themselves around Anderson, falling gently through the air in flames around the duo as the paladin expended his magic, once again forced to withdraw from the clash. Dracula's counterstroke was too powerful; his guard too perfect to be broken with raw force.
A single cut stood out on the vampire's cheek; a faint line of red blood against the perfect whiteness of his skin. Anderson's pulse quickened: It could be done! Alucard was finally in a form he could do damage to.
As the second, more ancient pair of enemies crossed blades; the two duellists remembered their previous sword-fights.
Fortress Island, where the Master had lost resoundingly…
"How many times have I told you?" The Doctor said, quoting himself with gritted teeth as the two locked blades. "Violence will never get you anywhere!"
And 13th Century England in the court of King John, where the Doctor proved victorious once again against his disguised enemy. But as always, the Master had had a trick up his sleeve.
"Oh my dear Doctor…" The Master said smugly, quoting himself now as he broke his opponent's guard and renewed his flurry of furious attacks. "You have been naïve!"
"You've become a formidable warrior. I'm impressed." Dracula spoke respectfully.
"Ready for more?" Anderson asked eagerly, his face concealed by his arms as he stood in a guard stance.
"Yes…" Dracula hissed. "Bring me more! Try to pierce my heart with your bayonets! Five hundred years ago… one hundred years ago… Now you come back to challenge me and awaken me again: My beloved nemesis!"
"Don't even need to ask." Anderson grinned behind his blades.
The opponents battled once more in a furious series of thrusts and parries. Anderson's whirling acrobatics and limitless supply of blades tested Dracula's guard more and more with each thunderous crash of steel. The vampire leapt above the priest, striking down at his back as Anderson charged, hitting only the ground below. Now that a distance had once more been established, Anderson summoned two handfuls of his sword-bayonets, hurling them at the vampire.
The Master's sword spun out of his hands as the Doctor completed his complicated manoeuvre, once again proving his peerless expertise with a blade. Before he could bring his own sword-tip to the Master's neck to force his surrender, the Doctor's weapon suddenly grew unbearably hot. The blade melted away from the hilt in an instant as a blast from the Master's laser screwdriver rendered it to slag.
Making a few deft adjustments, the black-clad time lord thumbed his weapon's control switch. A beam of golden light flared from the device, extending a meter and a half before looping back on itself. The result was a glowing blade of plasma and energized particles which extended from the screwdriver like a sword-blade from its hilt. The air hummed around it viciously as the Master waved it about himself in a grandiose flourish.
The Doctor stared in utter disbelief.
"…You have got to be kidding me."
The weapons shattered in mid-air as multiple gunshots, each as loud as a cannon-blast, rang out across the square, one hitting Anderson's left hand. They were fired through the vampire's cloak, which then unfolded itself from around him, revealing his restored, usual form.
"Pure silver Macedonian-processed mercury ammunition in Marvell's NNA9 cartridges." Alucard quoted unconsciously as he produced his two pistols, favouring the shining black monstrosity he held in his left hand. The memory of Walter's presentation of the weapon seemed to be replaying itself in the vampire's head as he continued to monologue. "Thirty-nine centimetres long, weighing sixteen kilograms with thirteen-millimetre armour-piercing rounds: The Jackal! This weapon is perfect, Walter!"
Striking his left hand with his right to aid in the resetting of the bones and the regeneration of his flesh, (which seemed to be taking a worryingly long time), Anderson bellowed in agony and rage as he charged his foe once more.
Alucard dodged nimbly, firing at the priest with his silver gun. Anderson deflected the bullets with his summoned blades. Grinning, Alucard produced the Jackal, cocked the hammer back, and fired once.
The Doctor's sonic screwdriver was in his hand, his fingers working the semi-telepathic control surface frantically. He had been unable to do anything but dodge as the Master's new blade sliced through the air, forcing him into an endless retreat as the madman cut through the forest of impaled victims, burning long, faintly-glowing furrows into the pavement as he kept up his destructive, chaotic assault.
Finally, the Doctor found the setting he needed, just in time. The Master's laser sword was stopped by a sonic barrier. It was a small shield that appeared as a vague distortion in the air; just enough to deflect the blade. It vibrated on a precise frequency; just enough to 'harden' the air within a certain area, resisting the laser screwdriver's ability to energize the particles into a beam of plasma.
The duel heated up once again, the Doctor barely able to keep pace with the Master's strikes, dodging and throwing up more sonic shields where he could as his opponent slowly wore down his defences; the amber beam coming closer and closer to maiming him with each exchange.
The explosive round blew Anderson's left shoulder apart in a spray of blood and puréed flesh. Heedless of the pain from the wound which refused to heal, Anderson swung again, but hit only familiars. Alucard had summoned them in an instant from the pools of blood at their feet to block the blessed blades' strikes. The vampire now used them as cover to retreat further, snatching the Doctor up by the back of his coat just before the Master could decapitate him.
The TARDIS dematerialized of its own accord, wheezing and groaning as it repositioned itself on top of a pile of rubble a block away; where Alucard and the Doctor had just landed. The street in front of the vampire and the time lord was now populated by a sea of Alucard's familiars, standing cheek-by-jowl between Anderson and the Master and their targets.
As a final blow, one of Rip's magic bullets twisted and spun its way through the sky, punching through Anderson's torso. It was closely followed by a half-dozen playing cards, which sped through the air, further shredding the paladin's chest and abdomen.
"Now what?" Alucard asked from his perch, illuminated by the glow from the TARDIS' windows behind him. The Doctor was on his hands and knees beside the vampire, gasping as he tried to catch his breath.
"What will you do? Your Dragon stands before you, Catholic. You're going to defeat me, is that right? What do you think your chances are? One in a hundred? One in a thousand? In ten thousand? A million? A billion maybe?!"
"I am more than prepared to destroy you, you monster-" Anderson was barely standing, his entire body painted with his own blood. "-no matter what the odds are against me."
The Major luxuriated in his comfortable armchair, flanked by his two Captains. Walter stood just behind him. The SS Officer's relaxed calm was in complete contrast to the increasing terror of the pronouncements flooding in on the airship's intercom as the remnants of the Last Battalion were hunted down and destroyed by Alucard's familiars.
"Contact with Nordland Platoon has been lost!"
"Respond to what?!"
"Communiqué from the aerial cruiser: The Burgerbraunkeller is out of ammunition!"
"Nobody is responding!"
"Oh Butler?" The Major asked, talking unconcernedly over the panicked death throes of his army. "Mix me up some Van Houten cocoa and bring it right away- And don't hold back on the cream and sugar."
Walter bowed silently to the man, walking away to accomplish his task as the Major began to summarize.
"London has been destroyed, the crusaders have all perished, and the Last Battalion is dying in the streets. Alucard is down there… and I sit up here."
"It's perfection!" He declared triumphantly. "Everything is proceeding just as I planned!"
Coughing blood, Anderson fell to his knees for a moment, only to spring back upright and hack two familiars to pieces. The Master stood in the distance behind him, his blade deactivated to conserve power. He weighed his options as he watched the paladin hack his way through the army between him and his enemy.
Ranks of men and women from centuries of history still stood before the priest. Their faces all wore the same grin and glowing crimson eyes of their master.
"What's the matter, Christian?" Alucard taunted, the Doctor watching Anderson's progress from his side. "Your Dragon is waiting! You're bruised and bleeding; your arm is hanging by a few strands of meat. What are you going to do? Will you die like a dog? Or on your feet like a man?"
The horde of familiars slowly advanced, arms reaching out to grab ahold of the paladin; to tear him apart.
"What does it matter, vampire?" Anderson asked softly. He leaned his head down to bite at the coat-sleeve of his dangling left arm, hoisting it up to where the blade it still held might do some good in a fight.
"You think a cut on my arm will stop me?" he growled, his voice muffled. "Now shut up! And come at me! Come on! Fight me!"
Alucard and the Doctor gaped at the spectacle. The man could barely hold his limbs together, but still he stood, bearing his blades and shouting challenges at his foes.
"Excellent." Alucard said, another genuine smile on his face now. "Humans are such fascinating creatures… aren't they Doctor?"
The Doctor nodded, for a moment forgetting that this singular Iscariot paladin was his enemy, and simply marvelling at the man's strength; his sheer will to keep fighting.
"Indomitable." He agreed softly.
Anderson charged again, slicing through the horde with shocking speed. Disabled as he was, still he ran through the crowd of enemies like they weren't there, leaving only bloody limbs in his wake. He threw a chain of blades, summoned from nowhere, into the masses before him, clearing a path as the blessed bayonets detonated with immense force, laying his route bare. The priest swung his ruined arm about him like it was a flail attached to the ruined stump of his shoulder, doing almost as much damage with it as he did with his uninjured arm.
"I WANT MORE!" He bellowed, drawing closer and closer to Alucard. "MORE! MORE! MORE! MORE!"
"OUT OF MY WAY!" Anderson shouted as he was confronted with a massive, muscular familiar. He stabbed his right bayonet through the familiar's mouth, piercing its brain. As the giant fell, he was met with the sight of a cavalry charge. Wallachian knights bore down on him in a wedge formation, an ornate blood-red letter 'V' standing out from their banners. Their lances were levelled to impale him on their master's command.
The Knights fell in a hail of gunfire. Blessed bullets passed through their heavy armour like it wasn't there, knocking the familiars from their horses, breaking the formation of Alucard's elites.
"Damn it!" Anderson yelled, turning back to face the men who had saved his life. "I said leave! You stupid meddling idiots!"
Heinkel stood in front of the massed ranks of Anderson's contingent of paladins. All of their pistols were smoking. The blonde priest spat her cigarette from her mouth to angrily reply.
"And what did you expect us to do? Just pack everything up and run back to the Vatican? What sad sort of thing would that make us? Because none of us would be soldiers of Iscariot anymore."
"By the cry 'amen' and the slaughter of the unworthy, the world slippeth back into place!" Yumie quoted, slicing down the remaining familiars near Anderson with one stroke of her katana. "Those were the words you taught us, aren't they? Did you think we would abandon our righteousness? You are the idiot."
"You are such a fool!" Anderson continued to berate his subordinates. "I just- wanted someone to survive, and carry on with our work!"
As Anderson spoke, the Master emerged from the mass of Iscariot paladins, the crowd parting slightly to allow him through. The priests kept their weapons trained on him as he silently walked forward to stand before Anderson.
The time lord looked the man in the eyes seriously, though he was unable to stop from smirking slightly as he spoke. "I don't know what your quarrel is with the Vampire, priest, but so long as he guards that blue box, we share a common enemy."
Anderson looked at the Millennium agent carefully before studying the faces of his paladins; all of whom he had trained from their youths.
"Too many have gone to Limbo today…" He said sadly.
He clapped his right arm down onto the Master's shoulder, squeezing tightly, a manic glint returning to his eyes.
"But since I'm charging full-speed into hell, I might as well have some company…"
Anderson, the Master, Heinkel, Yumie, and all of the Vatican's agents bore the same eager look now as they closed ranks, marching to the same drumbeat. Heeding the same Call. Anderson and the Master led the formation, the time lord's laser sword flaring to life once more. Heinkel and Yumie stood behind the unlikely pair, followed by dozens of gun-toting paladins.
"Guess we're gonna do this together, then." Anderson said grimly. "Let's tell them who we are!"
"We are the soldiers of Iscariot!" The priests chorused. "We are Judas Iscariot!"
"Countless little lives struggle and writhe together." The Major mused aloud as he sipped his cocoa, watching the paladins' charge. "Like tiny cells making up a great beast; struggling towards its own illumination: Seeking blood… whilst spilling blood. Continuously multiplying and receding; fighting against itself without end."
He set his cup back onto its saucer.
"Whether they seek that enlightenment through their faith in a God, in the name of Nazism, in the creature called Alucard, or even in the man who calls himself The Doctor, we are all now united by the same thing!"
The drumbeat thrummed through the Major's being.
"It's a dream come true, isn't it? My dark brethren!"
Paladins were being speared on pikes, setting off the explosives strapped to them with their last breaths: Suicide charges to clear the street as explosions tore through the army of familiars.
"'til death!" They cried.
"Amen!"
"Go to hell!"
Heinkel's guns blazed, hitting her mark with every shot. Yumie and Anderson's blades flashed in the moonlight, cutting through servant after servant. And everywhere there was the Master, his laser sword shearing through dozens of the vampire's slaves as he waded through the bloody battle untouched, drawing ever nearer to the Doctor and his TARDIS.
In the end, Anderson and the Master stood before their foes, the light of the TARDIS shining down on the four of them once again. Alucard's familiars had been completely decimated, thanks to the sacrifice of almost the entire force of Iscariot priests. Heinkel and Yumie stood a distance away, leaving Anderson to face the vampire king on his own terms.
"You stand before me…" Alucard said. "I'm impressed… I'm impressed, Iscariot! Show me more, Alexander Anderson!"
The Master's laser sword finally fizzled, the massive amounts of power needed to sustain it finally draining the screwdriver dry. Frowning in annoyance at the now-useless device, the Master stared up at the Doctor defiantly.
"I wouldn't look so confident." The Doctor said haughtily. "You've still got to get through us."
Anderson produced a long, wooden box. It was partially wrapped in cloth which hovered weirdly about the wooden container, no seeming to be affected by gravity.
The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees as it was produced. Both the Doctor and the Master felt a twinge of foreboding; though Alucard seemed outwardly unconcerned.
"You are not the only one who carries a mighty weapon, vampire." Anderson said.
"So is this the toy that's going to defeat me?" Alucard asked confidently.
Anderson increased his grip on the box's end, causing the wood to crack. It looked as though the process was being helped by whatever was inside the box. The contents seemed to be attempting to burst free.
Now Alucard felt it, too. The chilling aura emanating from the container finally reached him.
The box fragmented into splinters. The shards hung suspended in the air before falling, orbiting the weapon inside for a moment like planets around their parent star.
Within the box was a nail; an ancient six-inch spike of metal held together with metal wire.
The Master took an instinctive step back from Anderson as the nail was revealed. The Doctor blinked in shock, looking to his fellow time lord in disbelief.
"Is that-" he asked, fear present in his voice.
"No." The Master shook his head. "It can't be-"
"A nail?" Alucard asked, confused. His expression became bored as he began to recite. "The Shroud of Turin, the Holy Grail, the Lance of Longinus... Should I assume that you're threatening me with the last of the Holy Artefacts of Rome?"
"Oh yes." Anderson rumbled.
"It still smells of blood and miracle." Alucard pronounced distastefully as he recognized the legendary relic.
"The Nail of Helena"
Anderson extended his arm, the nail pointed toward his chest. "Prepare!"
"Anderson! Stop it!" Alucard shouted, his face showing signs of panic. "Do you know what that thing will do to you? You'll become one of God's monsters! Maintain your humanity; don't succumb to power! Either side, it amounts to the same deal. Whether in the name of the divine or demonic, you're still a monster in the end. Do you intend to use that scrap of miracle to become nothing but a scrap of miracle yourself? This duel between us… would you really push it this far? Into the realm that lie beyond mortal life?"
Alucard passed his eyes over the Time Lords.
"A monster such as myself… a creature of such weakness that I could not bear the weight of a human life. If I am to be defeated, it must be by a human."
"He's right, father!" The Doctor called to Anderson as he remained poised, ready to use the nail on himself.
The quest for power, for invincibility and immortality… it changed Rassilon from the well-intentioned and wise founder of our society into the blood-soaked monster that drove the universe into the Last Great Time War.
"If that nail is what I think it is, there's no coming back!"
"He might have a point, father…" The Master tentatively agreed, still backing away.
"Don't do it human." Alucard's expression was weary now, mournful as he witnessed a man about to commit the same mistake that he had over five hundred years before. "Don't become a monster… a monster like me…"
"I want nothing more than to be a bayonet." Anderson said softly, choosing his last words carefully, regarding each of the three men around him in turn. "A bayonet wielded by the hand of God. I would have been happy to have been born a storm, or a divine threat… A mighty explosion or even a terrible hurricane: A divine force of nature, without a heart, or pity. And if this relic can transform me into such a thing… then I am happy to abandon my humanity."
Anderson fell to his knees and drove the nail into his heart.
Author's Notes: The Doctor was knighted by Queen Victoria in Tooth and Claw (2006).
The Master and the Doctor have crossed swords twice before. In The Sea Devils (1972) and The King's Demons (1983). The lines they quote are from those two stories respectively.