Arrival at Xedilian

AN: Um, I really don't have too much to say about this chapter other than I hope you enjoy. ;p

When the planes arrived at the small island of Xedilian, they circled around it, searching for a place to land. The island was a forgotten relic, a leftover from a previous age and as such had no airport or modern runways. However the beach to the north did possess a long, smooth and flat surface of compressed sand, and the pilot who first happened upon that beach figured that the area was just about the right size for his small plane, and he guessed that the hard sand could stand the weight of such a flier. At least he hoped it could.

His passengers were not exactly an understanding bunch – not from the rumors he'd heard. And he wasn't sure if he would survive informing them that they'd come this far and were forced to turn back because there was no safe place to land. Heck, if half of what he'd heard was accurate, they'd be more likely to storm the cockpit and force an 'emergency landing' in the ocean than let him turn the plane around now. So, the man gritted his teeth together, crossed himself and said a prayer as he began his descent.

Fortunately, the sand did hold, and the plane stopped just short of the far tree line. The pilot breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back in his chair. For a few seconds he just rested as he waited for the adrenaline high to finish running its course. Then he radioed the other planes and informed their pilots of the primitive landing strip, and then he let his own passengers know that they'd arrived safely.

Integra's plane was the first on the ground, and her and her followers were already out by the time the others started to circle the landing strip. Summoning her pets to her, the lady knight gave them instructions to offload what cargo the group had with them and then set to the task of clearing the recently landed planes from the long end of the beach so that the remaining ones could land. Vampiric strength, the knight reflected, did have it's advantages after all. Even still... since only one plane could land at a time, it took over a half hour before the combined forces of the Order and the Hellsing Organization were fully assembled.

And once that occurred, Alison found herself the ungrateful recipient of a young Order mage's unwanted attention. "I see you used the coffin we provided," the lad began obliviously. "Glad to see that you're not holding a grudge. I've..."

He was interrupted as Alison's eyes narrowed to red slits and she cut in, "A grudge?" she growled. "Your Order abducted me, strapped me to a table and tortured me with lightning, ice and fire for days on end. You experimented on me. Cut me, starved me, and drowned me – repeatedly! The first days of my... 'life' I knew nothing but pain, suffering and misery... and you think I'm not 'holding a grudge'?" she seethed.

"Boy, if it were up to me, I'd slaughter every last one of you – tear you into pieces, rip the flesh from your bones and leave your carcasses sprawled upon this beach for the birds and the beasts of the field to feast upon. I used the coffin your organization supplied because I was ordered to by my master – not because I've... I've 'forgiven' you... or anything like that. Now get away from me – and stay away from me – before I forget about this 'treaty' and tear off your arms and choke you with them!"

The young Order mage gulped and all the color drained from his face as he nodded dumbly. He then turned and very quickly made his way back over to where the rest of the Order members had gathered upon the beach.

"'Not holding a grudge', honestly?" Alison commented in disbelief and then felt somehow disturbed, her vampiric senses warning her that she was being watched. The young vampire turned to the tree line and stared at it for a moment, until the foliage sort of melted into the background and her supernatural senses picked out a pair of glossy white eyes peering out through the sea of green and brown. "Er, guys," she called as she turned back towards the rest of her group, "I think we've got company."

Those were the last words spoken before the killing began, for no sooner had they left Alison's mouth than a pack of unholy undead burst from the tree line. They came in like a flood... a slow moving, lurching, moaning flood. Yet their numbers made it an accurate analogy, for as the Hellsing and Order members readied to defend themselves, a veritable sea of pale, sickly green corpses advanced upon them.

Alucard's guns were the first to sound as they drove blessed silver into the heads of the advancing swarm. His aim was superb, perfect, every single round landing right where he intended it to. But something was wrong, the creatures continued to advance. He switched from head to heart, yet they still came. "What the?" Alucard asked in surprise as he paused to stare strangely at the smoking barrel of one of his gun.

"They're zombies, not ghouls," Keith explained, "Shooting them in the head or heart isn't important, and silver rounds don't make a bit of difference. You've gotta either burn them with fire... or pulverize them past the point of regeneration."

"Oh, is that so?" Alucard asked and then broke into a crackle of dark laughter. "How novel. This is going to be fun," he cooed as he sheathed his guns within his coat. "Come, Seras, lets play with our food."

"Oh like you really needed an excuse to close in and get your hands dirty," Seras commented as she fired a Harkonnen shell into the center of the advancing mob.

Alucard laughed once more, and Seras brandished her left arm, reforming it into a long, curved blade of darkness. And then the two charged together, dancing, cutting and ripping their way through the center of the zombie horde.

Baskerville licked his chops as he saw the bloodshed and soon his own taste for it drove him into the fray. He pounced, pinned and then set about tearing out the throat of a zombie. When that failed to kill it and it still squirmed beneath him, the dark beast moved its attention south. Its jaws tore through the rotted flesh and bones of the walking corpse's chest, and the Hound of Hell feasted on the creature's innards until it stopped moving and he lost interest in it and moved on to his next victim.

Fluffy followed her master into the fray. Her smaller size, relative inexperience at being a vampiric animal and lack of overall psychotic mentality kept her from doing as much damage as Baskerville. Yet, she was able to provide a decent distraction, keeping the attention of multiple enemies, as she clawed them and used her enhanced speed to easily evade their clumsy attempts to grab or harm her.

Alison was not as quick to charge at the enemy. She possessed significantly higher intelligence than the vampiric beasts, and she wasn't nearly as experienced as Alucard... or even Seras. So, not driven as much by instinct and still feeling somewhat unsure of her capability when faced with such inhuman adversaries, the young vampire stayed in with the humans. That is, until the scent of the slaughter, the smell of spilled blood and sweat and adrenaline, and the call of the kill caused her eyes to flash red and she too gave into her baser instincts.

The humans – Hellsing and Order – alike stayed together. They did not possess the regenerative abilities or raw strength of vampires. They were more venerable – though just as deadly. And there was strength in numbers. In a close circle, the humans held against the zombies who continued to advance from the left and right flanks. Wave after wave of the undead abominations broke upon their phalanx, like waves of the ocean crashing against unyielding stone.

And then as the number of enemies on the beach thinned and the vampires continued to cut a swatch deep up the enemies' center, the time came for the humans to pull apart and join the advance. They separated into pairs, duos, with one person taking point and the other acting protectively as a 'wingman'. Integra and Debra found themselves naturally drawn to run another.

Perhaps it was because they were both female warriors in roles traditionally occupied by men. Perhaps it was because they'd dueled against each other before and each had a good idea of the other's style. Perhaps it was because they both wielded medieval, melee weapons so their styles complimented one another. Or perhaps it was simply because everyone Integra would've felt more comfortable fighting beside had already gone off and Debra didn't fancy standing with witches or warlocks.

Whatever the reason, the warrior nun and English knight naturally fell in together. Integra took the lead, as was often the case with the Hellsing Commander. Her flaming sword was ideally suited to dispatching the zombies they battled against. And Debra filled the role of wingman, as she twirled her long Halberd around to to strike and hold the horde at bay.

Keith found his partner in one of the younger order members, a male in his mid teens who'd either not yet learned to shave off his 'peach fuzz' or was making some kind of vain attempt at growing a mustache, an attempt his hormones weren't developed enough to back up. The kid wore the robes of a mage and though he never once shot any lightning or fire or ice from his hands, his staff was capable of kinetically effecting whatever he aimed it at. And while Keith's shotgun shot out twenty-foot blasts of flame, his partner seemed to be having fun throwing zombies around like rag-dolls, even if it did little more than keep them from getting close enough to maul the two.

And so the assortment of vampires, mages and good-old-fashioned human soldiers continued on, past the edge of the beach, through a stretch of tropical trees and bushes, and into a wide opening surrounding what looked like a large, very old ruin. And death and destruction followed in their wake as they left their enemies, dismembered, burned and inanimate. The mindless horde of zombies never really stood a chance as they were driven all the way back to the stone structure they'd come from... and then eradicated utterly.

Once the fighting was done, Integra stared at the dead corpses that littered the area around the ruin. Sheogorath had indicated that these creatures had been trying to find a way through to the outside world for quite some time. Yet, with the shear number who'd already crossed the dimensional barrier, it seemed strange to Integra that they would've needed to find a way through the Xedilian maze. Why hadn't they simply made their own way out? With that many drones how long could it take to tear down a few sections of the old, stone walls that made up the structure and create a new opening?

"I wonder," the lady knight mused aloud. "Seras, do you have a Harkonnen shell left?"

"Yes, Sir, I believe so," Seras replied as she unslung her backpack to look through their ammo reserves.

"Good. I want you to fire it at the side of that structure."

"Excuse me, Sir?"

"You heard me, Officer Victoria. I want to test a theory."

"Ah, yes, Sir," Seras responded and fired off a quick salute before reloading her weapon and taking aim.

The shell ripped down the Harkonnen's barrel, flew through the air and struck the side of the ancient structure with a great 'Whoooop' sound that startled those in the area who hadn't been paying attention to the two girls or their conversation.

"Wh-what was that?" one surprised Order member asked. "I thought the fighting was over."

Integra ignored the other woman's question as the lady knight instead watched the impact point and waited for the smoke to clear. And when it did, Integra's lip curled, for her theory was correct. The explosion that should've blasted a whole right through the ancient stone wall had merely seared and chipped away a small section of it. Furthermore, as the knight continued to watch, the very fabric of reality itself bent and twisted around the injured stone, returning it to normal. The place may have looked like an old ruin, but it was much more. It was tied to this... 'other Earth' in some mystical way. It existed out of some necessity and could not be destroyed. Perhaps that was why the once human ruler of this realm had been unable to seal the portal contained within?

Perhaps... but such considerations were ultimately unimportant and irrelevant. Integra now understood her situation. It was time to think tactically. "Okay, we need to set up bunkers around this area," Integra ordered as she indicated the only visible entrance to the Xedilian maze. "These undead abominations are crossing over into this reality somewhere within that structure, and this opening forms a natural choke point. It'll funnel the enemy to us... But we also need to know if this place has any other exits." Integra stopped and looked around for a moment.

"You," she said, pointing to a small gathering of four Order agents, "pair off into two teams and circle around the building. One of you take the right path and the other the left. Look for any other way out of the structure. Then, when you meet back up on the other side, return here and report your findings to me."

"Now, just a minute, the current leader of the Order," protested. "These are my men. They follow my orders, not yours."

"We need a chain of command here," Integra countered, "Someone has to be in charge of both groups or we're not going to be able to properly coordinate our efforts."

"And that 'someone' is you?" He questioned, obviously unpleased by the idea.

"Yes," she replied simply.

"Uhuh, why?"

"Because you cannot lead my followers. My vampires would never obey you."

"And you think the members of my organization will obey you?"

Integra grinned. "You tell me," she replied as she pointed at one of the two man teams who were already making their way around the old building.

The current leader of the Order just scowled and walked away grumbling. And without another word of contention or any clear admission of subservience from him, Integra Hellsing became the unofficial head of their allied forces.

She chuckled slightly and then heard the roar of a plane high above. Looking up, the lady knight saw a great cargo plane soring over the island and several specks of white slowly drifting downwards. Integra's hand went up you shield her sensitive, blue eyes from the blazing, tropical sun as she squinted at the far away objects. A few seconds passed and they came close enough for her to make them out: parachutes. And dangling from the lines attached to the parachutes were brown crates of varying sizes and shapes and one figure who's outline roughly resembled that of a human.

Without her knowledge, the corner of Integra's lip curled upwards. Michael had showed up after all, just as he promised. And he'd managed to gather a rather large assortment of... well various supplies. For the exact details, the knight would have to wait until the crates started striking the ground.

Fortunately, for the sniper the wind was light and steady at the moment and it did little to disrupt his trajectory. He floated softly down into the clearing around the old ruin, and most of the crates landed fairly close to him, though a few did drift off slightly beyond the tree line.

Michael touched down, and rolled as his body struck the ground. Then he unhooked his parachute and looked around. He was more than a little pleased to find that Integra was already making her way over to him. And he grinned.

His grin then fell as the lady knight approached and said, "You're late."

"I am not," Michael defended. "I said twenty to twenty-five hours and it's only been twenty-three hours and fourteen minutes."

Integra shook her head. "Doesn't matter... You're still late." She pointed over at some scattered and charred zombie body parts. "I'm afraid we had to start the party without you."

At first the sniper looked confused by his boss's comments and attitude. He'd seen her throw accusations at him plenty of times before, but her tone and mannerisms were different now. She didn't seem angry, or upset, and her words didn't match her demeanor. And for a moment, Michael wondered what was going on.

But then an idea struck him. Was... was this Integra being coy? Playful? It did seem possible. He'd never seen her act like this before, at least not to him. And given their past, the sniper figure that he'd probably seen just about every negative reaction in the lady knight's repertoire. So, by process of elimination, if her accusation wasn't meant to really be negative, then she had to be being coy... right?

Michael decided to test this theory, by playing along. "Hmmm, guess you're right. I missed the hors d'oeuvres, but I'll be here for the dancing and the main course. And I did bring a bundle of... 'party favors'," the sniper replied with a smirk and was rewarded with a light laugh from the lady knight. It seemed his theory had been correct after all.

Well, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the new chapter. Please drop me a review and let me know what you thought of it. Thanks. ;)

Have a good day, and God bless.

Metropolis Kid.