Quick Author's Note:
Good day (or night or morning) to you, reader! This has been my pet project for a while to prove to myself that I could create a well paced novel-length manuscript. As such, this was originally not meant for others. And yet, why write a pretend novel to test my skill if no one was to read it? Thus, Tied was born. Please keep in mind that I have tweaked some minor details and am aware that I have. Some events or descriptions may not accurately align with the manga or anime.
Also, I have this as mature for some pretty good reasons. There's violence, language, and sexual relations. You, good reader, have been warned.
Please enjoy your read. Did you know that we are in the midst of sick season? Please keep yourself hydrated. I can make some hot lemon tea your throat. Would lemon biscuits be too much? I'm sorry. I'm only worried. See you on the flip side.
Part Fourteen: Oppose
"That one there. Her name is Zorin." Walter pointed to a woman amidst the group huddled in the back of one of the warehouse rooms. The butler and vampire master had combed the area near the bar, Le Perle, for nearly ten minutes when Alucard sensed a great gathering of the supernatural, including one lycanthrope, in the warehouse Lorelei only hours before explained would be filled with baking supplies. Walter could already tell that this warehouse was equipped with devices that were definitely out of accordance to cooking goods. When they poked their heads through a window's crevice, the butler saw trip wires, artillery, maps, and an elevator that one could only assume led down to a dim, gray basement. If he were a betting man like his master Arthur, he would stake his stash of monocles that the Major, Doctor, and Oliver were secreted away below.
The muscular woman in question, Zorin, was commanding a group of ordinary human foot soldiers along with an unfamiliar lycanthrope. It would seem that in the 1960's, the Doctor was only able to turn a notable few of their best soldiers in vampires. The rest of the soldiers must have come to vampiric fruition in the future, and that could be why a straight out attack was launched forty years from now instead of at this moment. This Zorin demon was obviously one of the Major's few favorites if he had not sent her out to pick off the Hellsing team. Walter had not personally met the woman in his timeline, but the Major had described her attributes and abilities when he gave the butler the plan to ultimately destroy Alucard. Walter winced at the memory if his aiding Millennium.
"She can manipulate her victim's brainwaves to make them see what she desires them to see, and as such, she can extract the worst memory a person can offer, distracting her quarry until it is too late." Walter glanced at the impassive Alucard. He folded his arms, sizing up this new enemy. "In my timeline, she was suppose to gain reconnaissance on the Hellsing Manor containing Master Pip and your pupil, Seras Victoria. She must have disobeyed her orders, for Seras came back to the battleground of London severely changed. A true vampire. And smelling of the one she had loved." Walter's stomach churned at his recollection of Seras's ruby red eyes. How her arm was severed only to be replaced by the unwavering energy of the soul she drank from Pip's blood. Could he have done such a thing, to drink Lorelei's blood as a vampire, if she was certain to remain in his soul forever? Would he have been able to stand feeling her inside of him but unable to touch her cool skin? To feel the thrum of her pulse beneath his thumb? He frowned. Seras was a brave and terrifying woman. It was a pity that she did not exist in the here and now.
"I shall leave her to you, then," Alucard harrumphed.
"You shall what now?' Walter's voice almost cracked from his shock. "Oh no, no, no, Mr. Alucard. There shall be none of that nonsense. Remember the last time you left me alone to do your own thing, hmn? Yes, that didn't end too terribly well considering we're still paying for our previous mistakes." He waved his hands at the group of Millennium members standing before them.
"Walter, it wasn't that bad. So what if the dog man beat you to a bloody pulp? You handled it fine in the end, did you not?" Alucard slipped on his mischievous smirk, the one he knew would piss the butler off just that much faster.
"Handled it fine is an understatement, you oaf." Walter scrubbed at his face with the palms of his hands. "Did you not hear the reasoning behind Lorelei's offer to rid us of that Dandy vampire? We need to be together so that Oliver's visions are unable to touch us." He accidentally brushed his pulled back hair in his fidgeting, and a few strands escaped his hair tie. They lazily fluttered in the wind.
"I guess there's no other way," Alucard sighed.
"I am glad that you have finally gathered up some common sense."
"No, you misunderstand. What I meant was that Zorin woman we were speaking of, well, she is already here. No choice but to take her on. You do remember signal blue, correct? Use that when I give it." Alucard's lips pulled up in a sardonic grin.
Walter looked inside of the warehouse to find that it was now empty. He turned to see Zorin and her minions crowding around them with sneers lit plainly upon their angular faces. The butler sighed and pulled at his black gloves. He did not want to make too much of a mess, but if he had to, like Alucard said, there was no other way around it. Walter searched his mind for the signals that Alucard and his younger self used when fighting the corrupted vampires almost two decades prior. Ah, yes, signal blue. That meant Walter would have to do most of the grunt work. That route suited him well enough. He eagerly awaited for the woman with tattoo markings on the right side of her face to speak. She didn't disappoint.
"Well, would you look at this. That old witch was right. You two were standing here all along. And here I thought the good ol' Major had lost his mind when he let Jan and Rip Van Winkle get hijacked from us. This Oliver's powers are something to be coveted." Her voice came out like two stones grating together with no polish to smooth the grit. The muscles along the woman's back tensed and then relaxed. She grinned evilly, her emerald eyes flashing with violent glee. She shouldered a mean looking scythe, the blade of which shone heavily in the light of a nearby street lamp. Her shock of orange, pixie cut hair was like a beacon, a stark contrast between her light gray skin and glittering jewel eyes. In this rugged way, Zorin was more demon than vampire.
"Good evening, Madam. How may we be of service?" Walter bowed elegantly. As he leaned over, he surveyed the soldiers and turned lycanthrope. They were holding machine guns and a few palmed some grenades. The butler knew his limits, and machine gun rounds were slightly difficult to avoid. Only slightly. What he was worried about was the movement he caught just beyond Zorin. His best guess was a hidden assault. Alucard repositioned himself to better reveal his two guns. The silver metal jackets gleamed beautifully against the crisp night, and Walter had to admit that it felt good to be at the master vampire's side again.
"Don't give me any of that bullshit." Zorin heaved her scythe over her shoulder, directing the tip at Walter's prone form. "The Major has to reconstruct his machinations all over again because of you. I've waited far too long already. I surely would have gone mad letting the full fifty years come to term. But now, now it is all for naught! I shall reap you both over and over until there is nothing left but your shredded souls!" She growled, pulling back her lips to reveal sharpened teeth much like a shark's. Her irises shook in her corneas, making her seem as if she had gone mad.
"Why does this Major never teach manner's to his fledglings? Walter, do you have any inkling as to why? Maybe they are blue?" Ah, the signal. Alucard slowly turned in a circle. He was quick at pulling the triggers on both of his guns, letting each soldier, including the lycanthrope, surrounding them fall in a dead heap from his accurate bullets. Zorin yelled, but she was too late. While Walter had been bowing, the hand behind his back was working as fast as he could to string a web behind the female vampire and trap her. She screamed bloody murder in protest to their signal blue, and yet she still held tightly to the scythe in her iron grip.
"No, sir, I cannot fathom as to why he would allow such whelps to scamper about untrained." Walter tugged at his wires, pulling Zorin's shoulders closer. It was amazing how the butler got accustomed to his new found youth. The complicated wire techniques that he taught himself over and over never failed him with these young, sturdy fingers. He flicked out his middle finger, letting a wire slap the female vampire's cheek. She roared, green irises ablaze. His choice movement was not lost on her.
"I will not be as easy a catch as you would believe!" Zorin hurriedly mouthed a few words. As she commenced, a red eye blinked into existence upon her forehead as her previously stationary tattoos blared to life. Ancient runes tumbled down her cheek like a gushing waterfall. Her entire face was dancing with unrelenting action, and Walter attempted to fling wires over her mouth to stop her chanting. The wires were flicked off and away from her face by some unseen force. Walter cursed. He was too late.
"Alucard, we need to leave!" The butler turned to his friend only to find that the master vampire had been caught under Zorin's witch spell. His gaze was blank and unknowing and he shook with such a ferocity that he tumbled to his knees in a type of supplication. His white skin became translucent and red eyes flickered into a warm brown. He wavered from his strong, red ensemble to the black skin suit kept together with belts. The vampire master leaned over, hands to the ground, breathing as if he sucked in his last breathes. Droplets of color as red as sweet wine plummeted to the ground. Alucard was crying. Walter faltered, unnerved by the display of weakness. What was Zorin forcing Alucard to rewatch? The wretched past? The unforeseen future? "Wake up, Alucard! It isn't real! I told you her visions are exactly that. Just visions!"
"Oh, but it is real!" Zorin whooped from in front of him.
Walter was able to avoid the sudden attack that came from his left. A streak of blond hair and clean cut black clothing followed by the stench of gunpowder. He caught just enough motion to confirm that Luke Valentine had reappeared to join the fight, and because of the butler's sudden movements, Zorin was now free. Walter felt his stomach squeeze and drop. Blast it all to Hell. He had been worried about Lorelei, but she should have been the one to worry for him.
No. I shall not let her down. I will not waste this second life!
Walter redirected the propulsion of his body and faked running towards Alucard as if to aid his friend. Luke immediately locked onto Walter's specific movement, aiming his the muzzle of his weapon at where he thought the lithe butler was going to be next and pulled the trigger. At the last millisecond, Walter flung himself to the cobbled ground, rapidly rolling at a stop, and like a viper, flung his wires at Luke. The powerful recoil from Luke's pitiful weapon kept the blond vampire from properly reacting in time (he was still a newborn in vampiric terms,) and he was flung back into the warehouse wall with Walter's wires helping the blow. Planks of half rotten wood and clumps of asbestos littered the vampire's stunned body, and he hacked a few times from the strong impact of flesh to broken wall. He lay prone in a pool of his own silky yellow thick of hair.
Before Walter could again stand, Zorin was already on him. There would be no time to gloat over Luke's misgivings. Zorin's lethal scythe sliced into the muggy air, humming with the eagerness of tearing skin and ripping tissue. The butler was not fast enough in his dodge and his foot was skewered by the hungry blade. Pain beat through the back of his mind in a brilliant trill, but he ruthlessly shoved the angry swelling aside. There was no time to feel, only react. He reached over and yanked the scythe out, grabbing at the cold metal with both of his hands. The blade cut through his gloves and bit into his soft palms, but he was set in motion. Walter used his end of the scythe to jab the handle of the weapon into Zorin's gut. His plan actually worked and Zorin staggered backwards with surprise, the air temporarily knocked out of her. A shot exploded into the air, and Walter could feel the odd sting of a bullet wound at his right hip. Blood had already spread, darkening his already tight black pants. Luke shot him, the bastard. Walter inwardly grinned.
Good, they were focused on him. Not good for the painful wounds, but this was what he had planned for.
Walter dodged around his enemies taking a few more superficial hits. Whenever Zorin acted as if she were to activate her witch spells, he managed to slick his wires over her mouth before she was immune. Soon, her lips were torn and bloody because of his forethought. Zorin did not like that at all. Not one bit. She threw herself onto the butler, and yet every time he slipped out of her frenzied attacks. Eventually, Luke ran out of bullets and fumbled around in his black jacket to quickly reload.
When these two specific elements aligned (Luke out of bullets and Zorin blinded by rage,) Walter grabbed his one and only chance at surviving this mess without mercy. He redirected his wires, letting the delicate strands loop around Alucard's neck. The master vampire was still stunned, trapped in the terror filled world of his own creation all thanks to Zorin's manipulations. Walter could have sworn that both Luke and Zorin's eyes would have popped out of their heads. They had not expected the Angel of Death to direct his instrument of demise upon his ally. Well, they weren't going to expect this either. Walter prepared himself, took a breath, and yanked his wires down. In doing so he decapitated his friend.
Alucard's head tumbled off of the stump of his neck, rolling along his arms and halting in between is splayed legs. There were still blood tears streaked down his cheeks, still the expression of utter desperation painted on his lips. With the way Alucard's body was propped, almost cradling its severed head, Walter could not help but think of Buddhist priests willingly mummifying themselves for the sake of escaping Samsara.
"I…I do not understand. Were you on our side all along?" Luke Valentine stuttered. His glasses had fallen off during their brawl and were laying broken on the flagstones. The boy's straw colored hair was matted with his own blood and acted like some macabre hair gel. "If so, why did you kill my brother, you bastard?"
"You idiot, do you really think beheading that beast is going to do anything?" Zorin growled at Luke from deep within her chest. She grasped at her scythe like a child would with her white baby blanket, trembling with either terror or excitement. Perhaps both. Alucard's body and head were not moving, sitting stagnant in their own blood. A perfect scene to become a painting. Zorin shook her head and began to chant her spell through her shredded lips, but she was now understanding that Walter's stunt had broken whatever hold she once had over the vampire master. Her words were not taking hold. She shouted them out. Cried through them. Begged. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!"
"Right now, I would suggest a healthy dose of praying if you want to make peace to the god of your choice. Otherwise, please enjoy your extended stay in Hell" Walter grinned. He waved his bloodied fingers in the air, touched his belly, and bowed.
"No, no, no!" Zorin screeched, green eyes blazing. The red eye like a beacon on her forehead, flashing. She sprinted at Walter, raising her scythe above her head for a killing blow. She halted in mid step, gasping as white hands appeared at either side of her head, snaking through her orange locks of hair, and slithering around to brush her eyes, nose, and copper smeared mouth. They wriggled onto her being like fat, wet maggots digging into the feted skin of carrion. She whimpered as those very hands, many hands, hands over her throat, torso, legs, chest, clung to her like a dead lover, letting her take in the moment where her demise was peering at her through her bedroom window, waiting to claim her each night of every day until today. Now. The twitching, overly long fingers of those crawling hands wearily hung back for a second, a minute, and then they plunged into her like a vulture to fresh roadkill. Emerald irises and white cornea exploded in a muscular filled mess from the intrusion, her slithering tongue plucked from its socket and flung to the earth as hands squeezed and shimmied into her screaming mouth. Her ribs were cracked like that of one digging into a steamed crab and spread open, letting her steaming innards squelch free as the white hands slipped in, covering their pure white digits in heart red. The stench of urine and excitement permeated the spot before the warehouse. Zorin fell spluttering to her knees until what was left of her face smashed into the pavement. The blended liquids of what used to be body congealed around her.
The hands, unrelenting even in Zorin's demise, still consumed the female demon until she was only a puddle of stinking, convulsing remains. From those remnants arose the joyous visage of Alucard reborn. The tall shadow, smeared with streaks of mud and life, jerked as his spine aligned. His head cracked from side to side like some vengeful ghost. He climbed out of Zorin's carrion like a spider, scuttling to his knees and eventually to his feet. He lifted his blood red eyes to Walter, tilting his head like a puppy. A piece of Zorin's lung plopped off of him.
"Thank you for the meal, Walter. You've outdone yourself."
"My pleasure, sir." The butler watched as Luke Valentine vomited onto the side of the warehouse. The idiot actually ate human food before the battle. Who taught this novice? Walter lifted his hand, indicating Luke. "Are you still hungry, Alucard? This one here made such a racket while you were dealing with the other, screaming and pulling at his hair. I think he could not properly wait his turn."
"I couldn't imagine taking away from your plate, Walter. Please, it's your turn to dine," came the dark, jovial reply.
"Very well, sir."
"N-n-now w-wait, just a-a-a minute. Can't w-w-we all—" Luke did not finish his plea. He staggered, expression set into that of shock, as he split into meaty pieces to pile in a steaming heap at the warehouse's foundation. How odd that everyone, in the end, becomes a glob of leftover mass. These two just needed some help along the way. Walter sniffed at his handiwork and then clutched at his hip.
"He wasn't even fit as proper dog food," Walter commented.
"Can you make it to where the Major is hiding, old man?" Alucard quirked an eyebrow. He was in his black attire and he almost blended perfectly into his surroundings. There were almost no sign that the vampire had been reborn from a pile of pulsating innards. Well, there was some leftover strands of orange hair on his shoulder. Walter's butler instincts urged him to clean the mess, but he brushed the need away. Not now.
"There's a wound here that requires binding, but other than that," Walter took a step and remembered the hard way that his foot had been skewered. The scythe had definitely split the bone and, he couldn't be for sure, but he thought a couple toes had been severed. He winced and was unable to quickly hide the flash of naked pain. Not to mention, his hands hurt like hell. His favorite black gloves were beyond repair.
"Stay here, butler. I do not want you to keel over too early," Alucard offered. He had noticed the hair at last and plucked the pieces off one by one, letting them flutter onto the heap of bones that used to be Zorin. For some reason, she and Luke had not turned into blue flames. Walter had no doubt that the Major knew and chose not to let them burn. What was the point when Walter and Alucard were so close already?
"I can make it. I have to see this through. Besides, I have information that you do not readily possess." Walter gripped his injury on his hip and trudged back to the warehouse's opening. He was limping heavily with droplets of blood dribbling down his leg.
"You're not going to wait up for me?" Everything halted. That wasn't either one of the men or their fallen enemies.
The two men saw Lorelei galloping over to them at full pelt. She was a blur of strawberry red hair and flashing turquoise eyes. Walter barely had time to register the bandage around her neck before she tumbled into his arms. On instinct, he held her tighter, inhaling the rich scent of vanilla mixed with sweat and blood. He ran his hands over her soft hair and stiff shoulders, surprised all over again that she was real and alive and healthy. That she was his and still wanted to be with him despite everything. Lorelei pulled completely away without warning, leaving him to embrace the cold autumn air instead of her warm form. He open and closed his hands, confused. Lorelei saw Walter's puppy dog violet eyes and sighed.
"What do you think you're doing stumbling into the next fight while all battered up like that? At least dress your damn wounds. Bleeding equals loss of blood equals eventual death, you moron!" Lorelei scoffed and pulled a first aid kit from inside of her black over coat.
"What happened to your throat?" Walter did not bother to argue with her. He knew that was one battle that would not be won as quickly as they killed Zorin and Luke Valentine. He heard Alucard muttering something under his breath about how the butler wouldn't listen to him when he said to keep back, but Walter blocked the rest of the master vampire's jilted ramblings.
"Dandy decided that he wanted me to have a nap. He nearly got to the main artery in my neck and I lost enough blood to black out. Luckily, I recovered enough to wake right back up. It also doesn't hurt that I packed some sugar candies in my first aid kit to regain my strength." As she produced gauze from her kit Walter could see the aforementioned candy. Peppermints it would seem. If he focused, he could smell the leftover tang of the candies on her breath. As if drunk by her scent alone, he leaned over and kissed her. She gasped, but returned the kiss with a fervor that he craved for. She skimmed her tongue over his bottom lip, and he shivered from how she transformed from a shy maiden to seductive nymph. Walter cupped the back of her head in his hand, keeping her close. His blood flooded to his groin and he fought the instinct to lift her up and take her to his bed. Unfortunately, his bed was quite some distance away.
"Ahem. I'm feeling like the third wheel here. Should I join you two to feel included?" Alucard interrupted them, peering over their entangled forms. They broke free from each other. Lorelei blushed, her freckles being over taken by the flash of red. Walter rolled his eyes and peeled the side of his trousers down to allow Lorelei to dress his wound. Luckily, the bullet had passed through and did not settle into his hip. All Lorelei need do was clean and cover the wound. She then quickly plucked off his boot to cleanse and bandage the open mark from the scythe. Only one toe was actually severed, barely hanging on through a thin sliver of flesh, and so Lorelei had buddy tapped the appendage. The process did not take long, only around seven minutes. Walter would only leave when he made sure that Lorelei's neck wound was as firmly bandaged as the ones she had just dressed for him. The aching pain was still lingering, but they were as ready as they could be given the circumstances.
"I've deduced that the Major, the Doctor, The Captain and Oliver should be the only remaining enemies in the basement," Walter listed as they entered the warehouse.
"I feel as though we're forgetting someone," Lorelei wondered out loud. She shook her head. There was definitely someone else, but for now she wouldn't worry. As they entered the warehouse, Lorelei took aim and activated the tripwires. They exploded taking crates of herbs and flour with them, but now they were no longer a problem. She also surmised that the Major and his crew were already aware of their presence since they sent Zorin and Luke Valentine, so a few explosions never hurt. In fact, some fire always added to the fun. "Also, I believe that Millennium needs to recruit people with actual names. The Major, The Doctor, The Captain, did their parents gives them perfectly good names just to have the thrown away for useless nouns?"
"There is no need for the dead to be named," Alucard chuckled. He popped his knuckles, letting his red attire creep back around his form like a live creature. A swarm of bats swept over the pale light of the moon and disappeared, lighting the odd angles of Alucard's grinning façade. The trio descended deeper into the warehouse's guts, drawing over to where the lift loomed.
"Well, shall we descend into the foreboding basement, Mistress? Alucard?" Walter stood at the ominous lift. It was a metal grate painted yellow with metal sides for workers to hold onto when they maneuvered crates onto the site. There was a large orange button for down and a bright green button for up.
The butler's hand wavered over the orange button, mentally preparing for what was up ahead. Their enemies must know by now that they were steadily getting closer. That Jan, Luke, Dandy, and Zorin were dead. That Rip Van Winkle had been somehow neutralized and unable to burst into those blue flames by Alucard. They must be waiting. Biding their time. Walter recalled all of the sheer destruction caused by Millennium when given time. What would they do now that their time was cut short and they were backed into a corner like a rabid fox? Once more, Alucard was with them. He was the object of the Major's obsession. There were no plans here that would save the Major from Alucard. Not even his pet cat could…Walter clenched his fists. That was the last piece of the puzzle and the person Lorelei had been forgetting. Had Schrodinger been created yet in this time line? It was best not to take chances and proceed as if the boy was already alive and ticking.
"Before we descend, I need to warn you Alucard. Do not take any blood. Not one drop. Your demise in my timeline was due to the properties belied to a creature called Schrodinger. He was able to exist in any time and place. To be both dead and alive. You took all of his lifeblood and gained his properties. Yes, you were able to save us because of Schrodinger's aid, but it wouldn't do for you to fall into the same trap now."
"If you admit that you both would miss me terribly, then that is when I shall make promises." At both of his friend's sullen looks, Alucard relented. "Fine. I shall not partake of any fallen blood. My Master's orders were to search and destroy, and so that means living through this fight to complete his will." Alucard popped his collar. "Now, if we could just get to it. My fangs are in pain from the waiting."
"Very well, sir." They gathered onto the lift, and Walter pressed the orange button. The platform groaned, trembled, and...did nothing. Walter quirked his brow and tentatively pressed the green button meant to raise the lift. The metal trembled and shot up at a blinding speed. Lorelei feared that they would all three become greasy smears on the warehouse's ceiling until she realized that there was another opening hidden by the shadows that would allow the three safety through. She sighed with relief. It was a small blessing, but she would take it. Walter, on the other hand, was glad that he did not bet his monocle stash on the Major hiding out in the basement after all.
Out of all the situations the trio thought they would face, that did not expect that their enemies would be waiting right there in the attic for them. Yet there they were. A small, subdued yelp echoed in the attic, but none of the men before them were the Major lounged in an elaborate red armchair much like the one Alucard favored in his own basement dwelling. He wore a black dress shirt buttoned up to his neck, gray trousers, and golden rimmed glasses. He also was adorned with his ever present smirk. His white gloved hands were perched at his knees, and the dirty blond hair he usually kept clean and crisp was mussed and out of control. To be anything less than well pressed perfection meant that the Major was backed into a corner. Or at least, that was what Lorelei hoped. The Doctor, always in his insane white costume all with belts and mid-drift showing, hid behind his odd ocular device. He was not grinning, which was a pleasant plus. The bean stalk man grasped an unfamiliar device that seemed to be more of a worry-stone than something that could be used as a weapon. To the right of the Major was the ever stoic Captain. There was the usual off shade of green jacket, gray-white strands of hair poking from his cap, and shoulders hunched as if he wanted to snap out of existence. He frowned at Walter who in turn cracked his knuckles without knowing he was doing so. Walter may have turned a new leaf, but that didn't mean that he would become bosom buddies with the werewolf.
The scene unfolded inch by inch as the trio's lift finally made a halt of screeching metal against metal. All at the once, the particles in the air shuddered in anticipation of the crucial face off. Walter quickly squeezed Lorelei's hand before they departed from the lift and drew close to the imposing counter trio. His touch lingered, and she wished he could stay just for a millisecond longer. She ignored her urge to bite her nails and pushed onwards. She would crush these people underfoot without hesitation. There were no other options but to win. Anything other than victory would mean the destruction of all who she held dear. Unlike that night when she was only thirteen, she would save the ones she loved like she couldn't save her father in her moment of weakness sixteen years ago.
"Ah, welcome!" The Major's high pitched accent grated against their sensitive ears. Lorelei felt a sharp twinge at her back from the sound and shuddered. Everything about the man mad her physically ill, even his lavender cologne. Yuck! He waved at them, beckoning them over. "Come, come! We have eagerly been awaiting you. Oh, please do forgive me. Your cohort, Integra Oliver Donell, has also awaited your arrival." The Major jerked his shoulder and the Doctor dragged a shuddering form from behind the armchair. She had been previously out of sight, but Lorelei knew she heard some type of whimpering when they arrived. She gnashed her teeth in anger. What had they done to Oliver?
The woman was bound with duct tape around her wrists, ankles, and knees. They had cut her shiny blond hair up to her ears and sprouts stuck haphazardly from every which way on her scalp. Her mouth was taped shut with icy blue eyes shot through with terror. The Doctor held her by her neck, and from the dim lighting provided from the large overhead light, the trio could plainly see the bruises mapping up and down her light brown skin. Her shoulders slumped as if in defeat when she saw that she may be rescued. That was not a good sign. What had she seen in her future visions that would deserve such a disheartened response at the prospect of safety?
"Integra here has proved to be more trouble than she is worth. She squirmed much like a gnat, and like the insect she is, she will soon be squashed." The Major spread his hands out into the air as if to ask but what can you do? He chuckled to himself and continued. "You all are too silent. Very broody." There was a small table next to the man with a glass of red wine sitting innocently on the glass top. The man grabbed the wine and drank deeply. The Captain blankly stared past the trio as the Doctor bit his lip in frustration. "The main point here, lady and gentlemen, is that you have won today. Today you should revel in your victory. We were somehow outwitted when we were so close to the cusp of victory." He shrugged his shoulders in what seemed to be good nature. "We knew you were coming and pitifully sent Zorin and Luke to give us the time for what we needed to do. Tell me, Alucard, what vision did Zorin immerse you in?"
"None of your business, Nazi scum," Alucard's voice rumbled from deep within his chest. Okay, that hit a nerve. Lorelei touched Alucard on the arm, but he ignored her.
"Come now. We're friends, aren't we? We both have grasped at the strings of strength, honing our skills, making the sufficient sacrifices, all to lap at the well of power. Although I was never to see you again with mine own eyes, I feel as if this meeting here, face to face, was the true path and demise I was to partake of after all. Although, I would have very much loved to see my ruined plans grow to fruition, the best I can do is use every card I have to its fullest extent." The last vestiges of wine clung to the Major's lips, staining them red.
"You are speaking in riddles. If you have something to sane to say before you die, then you might as well spit it out." Walter readied his wires. It was time to end this little dance for good and before events spun out of control. He refused to let his injured hands let him down.
"Butler, yes. I have you to thank for my sudden downfall. Were you to see events my way, then perhaps all could have been done differently." The Major sighed but still grinned. "In any case, I would like you three to understand that though you may kill me, my doctor, and my wolf, there is one other that I can still rely upon." He held up one patient finger. "He may seem a kitten by your perspective, but he is a wonderful asset. My Schrodinger even now has been set off to find your Sir Arthur Hellsing. Thanks to Integra's certain confirmations, Arthur shall die by Schrodinger's hands. Soon after, my pet will disappear and rebuild the empire I had wished to unleash on the world. And you, Alucard, you will live through the loss of your Master and soon the murder of your friends just as your vision from Zorin predicted. So I suppose that in the end, this will still be my win."
"Not very likely!" Lorelei growled. "Arthur wouldn't be killed by a kid like Schrodinger. He'd find a way to be rid of the brat!"
"Ah, woman, you are also someone who refused to play by the book. I do so hate it when the dead speak." The Major shook his head. "And alas, there is no way to destroy Schrodinger. He is everywhere and nowhere. He is both opened and closed. Night and day. I could add more used and dry references, but I believe you have the point. The meaning is, if your Arthur ever, by some insane circumstance, escapes my pet, he will be hunted for the rest of his life. He will perish from the fear of the cat in every corner. Every crevice. And when he does loose his very last breath, that is when the world's final defense will fall, for Schrodinger will be there to meet humanity's end."
"My creation has been built as such," the Doctor interjected as if he wanted one last pat on the back from his commanding officer.
"Yes, and that is the brilliance of it all. If he could not be used to his initial purpose, then he might as well see to it that the world perishes," the Major agreed. The Doctor flashed a true smile from the praise.
"You all make me sick to my stomach," Walter sneered. "I'm done with your games. I care not whether Oliver's predictions are true or nay. All I foresee are your imminent demises." He lashed out, letting a loop of wire fly directly at the Major's face. Unexpectedly, Alucard let his arm block the attack. The limb became entangled in the blue wire, and, not ready for such resistance from his ally, Walter pulled the wire back, cutting through flesh and bone. The arm flopped like a fish scraped from its life water. "Dammit! Alucard, what on Earth are you up to?"
"Walter," Alucard coughed. He ran a shaking hand along his face, his bangs covering his eyes. "I need to handle this one. I have a right to." Alucard trembled. The movement was nothing subtle. His whole body shook, waving from side to side in a violent intensity. He roared with either fear or exhilaration, Walter did not know. The vampire threw back his head, jerking in a heaving unnatural spree. Lorelei, frightened, searched all the people in the room. Everyone was just as startled as she was. Even the Major bore an expression of disgust and fascination, but he still did not know what was occurring either. Wait, there was one other. She was staring at Alucard with such a frigid intensity that she may as well bore a hole into the master vampire. And, although he was in a wild frenzy, Alucard met her gaze. Something was happening. Something big.
Alucard slumped to his knees. The Major stood to his feet to take a better look at his sworn enemy. The rapid movement before them settled, and everyone held their breath, gawking at the vampire master. He began to laugh. Low at first but ever growing in volume. Smooth and seductive, they were frantic laughs of triumph.
"It sure is pleasant to possess a solid figure once more." Alucard revealed his face from behind his long, black hair. To everyone's horror, they found that the man did not posses a face in the sense of the ones humans and the supernatural were used to seeing. Usually a person possessed just one face, a singular placidity. But Alucard? It was if there were many faces, hundreds, thousands of features, eyes, noses, hair, lips, and dimples fighting to be the dominant landscape. Blue, green, yellow, red, purple, brown, black, tan, freckles, scars, cleft lips, thin, fat. They blurred and warped, battling for dominance. Lorelei felt her stomach churn from merely glancing a few seconds at the unsettling monstrosity. She knew who this was. She knew with her entire being. This was the Alucard from the alternate timeline. The one who saved her and Walter from a grievous fate. Her insides squeezed knowing that he was still trapped within the confines of Schrodinger's curse. But just how did he get here?
"What are you?" The Doctor screeched managing to sound both terrified and curious.
"I am the many you stripped of being one. I am the all who shall be the none."
"Oh dear, I fear I do not understand," the Major clucked.
"Take a better look around, fool," Alucard's shell snapped.
To the Major's right was Schrodinger. The werecat was not in his youth group garb. He was dressed much like his creator, the Doctor. All white. All angelic features expanded upon. Rosy cheeks, big cat eyes, and soft yellow hair the shade of the setting sun. He glanced around the warehouse attic, clearly confused.
"Where is the Captain?" The Major asked. His mouth was scrunched as if he had a particularly unappetizing steak. "And Integra. Where did she go?" True enough, both the hulking werewolf and the woman who was once caught in the iron grip of the Doctor were gone. Gone a replaced with a nonplused cat.
"I…" Schroginer gulped, "I was right behind Arthur Hellsing. I had the gun within my hand. But now…now I am here against my intent." The boy turned to the Doctor, still perplexed. "And yet, I also remember being here all along, listening to the Major and his speeches. I remember him sending the Captain and Integra to Arthur to taunt the prey, to kill her, and then kill Arthur himself all because the Captain insisted. The Captain…he never asks for stuff like that." His shrill child's voice cracked. For the first time, the boy was twisted in a knot of fear. He eyed Alucard, who had during the boy's recollections, shambled closer. One step, another, another. Closer…and…closer.
"W-what are you doing?" Schrodinger yelped. He backed away from the master vampire's reeling shell.
"Major, I distinctly recall you telling this body here that there was no possible way to kill your pet cat." The Alucard husk did not lift his head to speak with the Major. His attention was solely on the golden haired boy.
"Y-y-ou must have d-done something with I-I-Integra!" Schrodinger's baby eyes glistened. Lorelei was surprised to see this boy in such a state of fear. Through Walter's eyes, she saw how nonchalant he could be in the face of a gun's muzzle. Hell, he smirked at the mask of death many times. What was different now? The Alucard thing ignored the boy.
"I am taking a sinister gamble here, but I am willing to give this a go." The Alucard thing snapped up Schodinger's face in one hand lifting him off of his feet until they dangled helplessly inches from the tiles. The vampire master's hand alone fully encompassed the boy's face. Schrodinger wriggled and clawed away at the Alucard husk but to no avail. When that method was exhausted, the cat attempted to blinked out of existence. Blink. Blink. Blink. For whatever reason, the cat boy could not escape, and the terrified, high pitched yelp muffled by Alucard's palm were proof enough that the boy was near his end. "If I drink your blood as I am now, then surely a negative and a negative will nullify and produce a positive." The many faces licked their different lips in anticipation. "I shall be rid of you at last. I can return to my Master Integra and pupil Seras. My rightful place. The ones who are mine and I theirs." The husk laughed bitterly. "I wonder how long I might have been absent from them." He extended his fangs, the tips pointed like knives. "These souls in my body all leave my entity once you are gone!"
Schrodinger screamed when the Alucard husk bit into the boy's neck like one would crunch into an apple. Immediately, the child kicked, clawed, and scratched at the hand keeping him adrift. It was no use. The boy's plump red skin drained, sinking against his bones, his nutrients stolen from his natural luster. The husk did not stop. He drank and drank and drank. All the while, each face that appeared on him like a mask cried out and died. Death upon death. Five, six, eleven, thirty-three. Schrodinger was a shell, a thing with white clothes hanging from strings. If he even lived, there was no certainty for the echoes of his screams still hung around the warehouse, there but not there. The husk was now again the other timeline's Alucard. There were no more faces swimming around his extremities. No more battles. Once Schrodinger's body blipped away, popping out of existence, that was when Alucard wept his tears of swollen blood. His hand was still held out as if he were holding the boy.
"I'm coming," he whispered. He fell to his hands and knees, heaving, and then was still. Lorelei paced over to the being on the floor. Who would she find in the place of the vampire master?
This was Alucard now. The one meant for this timeline only. He shook his head, clearing the frenzy that must have been clattering inside of his skull.
"Alucard, I that you? The actual you?" Walter ventured over to his friend. The vampire master had grown a new limb to replace the one the butler accidentally removed somewhere in the frenzy of what just happened . Lorelei kept an eye on the Major and the Doctor. They were both statues in their shock. The Doctor was particularly aghast, for his pet had been demolished right before him and so easily at that. The jury had come back. Schrodinger's cat was dead.
"Yes, Walter. I am myself. At least, that is the hope." The vampire master straightened his knees, standing once more.
As if to catch them off guard, the Doctor whipped a gun from his back pocket. He shook like a tree in a hurricane, but foolishly aimed the weapon at Alucard. He tried to pull the trigger, but redirected his efforts towards the butler's back instead. He must have had second thoughts. Lorelei growled, her throat humming with pain as she did so, and snatched her throwing blades. She countered the Doctor by throwing her own stock at his forehead. Her blade hit the mark, slicing right between his eyes and severing the ocular device. The beanstalk of a Doctor fell to the floor, dead. As if in a dance, a tango, Walter began moving, turning to string up his wires. They dangled around the Major, catching him in the butler's spider's web like so many others before. Alucard shakily smoothed out his red jacket, knowing what had to be done. Again, the vampire master stalked over to his prey only this time, the intent on his face was his own. No tortured souls to be seen.
"Alas, I have no blood for you to dine upon, Alucard." The Major was somehow able to still shrug and smile his smug smile in the midst of the web. "If you bite into my flesh, I am afraid that there will be something different there to greet you."
"Will you cease with your inane prattle? You've given me a severe headache just from your pig's whine alone," Walter tugged at his wires, tightening the Major's limbs. The butler feigned a pain in his head by slightly brushing his shoulder across his forehead when the true pain was still pounding around his hip and foot.
"Should I slash off his lips to silence him, Alucard?" Lorelei over eagerly flashed around her shiny metal sword, gripping the hilt with ease.
"No, woman. I shall handle the swine." Alucard's teeth flashed in the overhead light, glimmering in their dangerous capacity for destruction. After his possession from the other Alucard, this one was slightly worse for wear. He limped as he drew closer to the Major, but this infirmity did not take away from his bestial nature. In fact, his odd determination to overcome his pain and weakness only to end the life of one man was something straight from a horror story. A vengeful ghost set upon the life of one man until he eventually screamed for mercy upon deaf ears.
Something of the situation must have finally dawned upon the Major, whether it was the crumpled body of his companion or the erasure of the cat, Lorelei didn't care t know. The Major's smile slipped. The act was only for the barest of moments, but it was there all the same. Alucard had the upper hand, and that unnerved the man. He had planned for twenty years and was prepared to wait thirty more to strike when the vampire was most vulnerable. But now, the pawn in this game was the Major himself.
"I am not going to be taking whatever you account for blood today," Alucard seethed. "I am after something far more precious than your copper." Behind his large glasses one could see the Major's eyes widen in realization. This Alucard knew the motivation behind the Major's actions because Walter was able to relay all of what he learned of the man to him. Alucard knew of the Major's need to best him one soul to his many. The Major here was still driven by that one goal, and now that the vampire master somehow understood, that he somehow discovered the Major's fear, that was when the man began to panic.
"No. No. No, no, no!" The Major squealed. "Don't do it! I must be myself. I have to be me and only me. Don't, Alucard, no!" But the vampire master was unable to hear those pleas. His own mind was clouded with memories not just from his own timeline but the others as well. He knew that when he grasped the Major's wiggling shoulders and sank his teeth into the man's neck that there would be resistance. He knew that when he pulled at the broken flesh that there would be no blood. He also knew that if he let the Major be, then he really would be a monster that humanity had claimed him to be. And so he dug deep, searching, rooting with his fangs until he found the Major's soul. It was inky black, unappetizing, and swelling with terror, but Alucard tugged hard, taking the thing from the Major's body into his own. There was some resistance. The Major had a strong will. Almost as strong as Alucard's. The key word being almost.
Walter and Lorreleiwatched in an odd fascination as the screeching Major suddenly became limp. One moment he was a twitching bug and the next, he was just...nothing. The tantamount climax, the moment the trio had been chomping at the bit for, all of those years of suffering and conflict, all concluding to not even a whimper. Not even one sound. The man known as the Major was no more. He had been taken into his eternal Hell, joining the souls within Alucard, the No Life King. Walter let his wires fly, and the heavy, almost metallic clang from the Major's contact with the floor below jolted the trio's stunted senses.
"What a way to go," Lorelei commented. She sheathed her sword and came over to Alucard to inspect him. "Are you alright? You didn't get food poisoning from that swine, did you?" She scrunched her nose in apparent disgust.
"No, woman. Although he did taste like rotten pig flesh." Alucard smiled. "Humans and their persistence to become powerful has always been a game. Some lose and others lose even worse. I lost a long time ago. The Major was the closest to winning I had ever witnessed." The vampire master bent to touch the blank Major's corpse. "I would have never gone as far as this one. His drive, his eagerness almost brought him to victory." He rapped his knuckles across the puncture wounds he delivered upon the Major's throat. There it was again. A metal clang. Lorelei and Walter joined Alucard in their curiosity.
"I knew the man was insane, but I was not aware that he was this insane," Walter mused as he viewed the mess before him.
"He was a robot? He did well hiding that," Lorelei scoffed.
"I was able to discern what the other Alucard saw after he perished drinking Schroginer's blood. He hovered in existence when the Major of his timeline fell under the hand of Integra and let me know of t Major's weaknesses. I instantly saw my chance to cast the Major into purgatory just as he did with the other Alucard. An eye for an eye." He chuckled, shrugging his large shoulders.
"But wait," Lorelei placed a hand on Walter. "Wait, we can't settle down yet. The Captain still has Oliver. We have to get back to Arthur and Rip Van Winkle before the Captain hurts them!"
"Shit, you're right," Alucard growled. They couldn't reveal in the Major's odd determination any longer. He didn't deserve any more of their precious time. Not anymore. Never again.
"We'll leave the trash behind for now," Walter indicated the Major and the Doctor's shriveled bodies. "We must make haste and save the Master."