Deployed
Arthur returned from the Round Table meeting, looking extremely worried and tense, and was meeting with Beatrice, Walter, and Alucard in his study.
He was brief and to the point.
"The Nazis have vampires."
Alucard's faint smirk grew into an enormous anticipatory grin, Walter looked excited, and Beatrice paled. Arthur ignored them to pour himself a large tumbler of scotch, then flopped into his chair. "We've got a lot to discuss. Please, make yourselves comfortable."
Beatrice got herself some Scotch as well, then sat on the sofa, eyes closed for a few moments while the possible implications of what Arthur had said ran through her mind. Walter joined her, but fidgeted, as youth are prone to do. Alucard didn't even attempt to sit on a couch. Inhuman, he remained frozen in position, eyes sparkling and fanged grin spread across his entire face.
"There were suspicions. A Hellsing unit was sent in. They were ghouled, but were able to report that the base they moved against had non-human soldiers." Arthur's eyes were elsewhere as he thought of the best way to relay this new information. "They aren't normal vampires. The ghouls at the base, some of them were children, mere toddlers, yet every vampire was an adult male." A pause again as he collected his thoughts. "The only conclusions I can draw are that either they are unable to produce more vampires by biting, or they raped every child they attacked and-"
Here, Arthur was cut off. Alucard's eyes were BLAZING, and the deep snarl that ripped out of his throat would have made anyone but a Hellsing scream in terror. He was literally SHAKING with rage, hands curved into claws, thick yellow talons on each finger, every sharp and jagged tooth in his maw on display.
If ever a Hellsing had doubted Abraham's conclusion about the root cause of Alucard's behavior with men...this erased any lingering doubt. Not a fool, Arthur turned to Alucard. "We want you to kill them."
Beatrice's cold, calculating voice, the only sign of her inner turmoil at the news, was crisp and clear. "Of course. When, and how?"
x x x x x
Both Alucard and Walter had been sent. Beatrice had fretted about sending the boy, but it was needed. Alucard had been...unbalanced...since the news, and there was no doubt that he intended a bloody rampage through the Nazi lines and a sure death for the vampires. Sure, but slow. He was far too angry, far too emotional, to even begin to be capable of gathering and analyzing any facts or data. Someone else, not so emotionally...invested...would be needed to do so. No one yet knew if the Nazi's had been instructed to kill any vampiric offspring that were not adult males, if they were unable to create vampire children the "traditional" way, or if they had truly desecrated even the tiny children before biting them.
And so, the two of them had left. Alucard had changed to the dainty, feminine form he'd used when Walter was younger. He seemed to find it fitting, that the monster that destroyed the Nazi vampires looked so much like the helpless children the Nazis themselves had destroyed. Beatrice and Arthur had understood why he had done this, but Walter, ignorant of Alucard's history, was perplexed. It was decided not to tell Walter what they knew and thought they knew of Alucard's past. If the monster decided to share that information with Walter, he would. In the meantime, they would let the matter lie.
x x x x x x
Arthur, always the playboy, became a drunken whoremongerer during their absence. Beatrice was somewhat amused to realize that the man had "behaved" himself because their was a child in the house, though she'd been well aware that he'd been a regular customer at a handful of the more fashionable "escort agencies." But with Hellsing paralyzed, its ability to protect English soil removed, he clearly felt useless. His soldiers were gone, his two trump cards gone, and yet reports of local vampire predations continued to arrive. He'd taken to drinking and whoring to deal with the stress.
Beatrice worried, fretted, stewed, and paced for days. Information returning from their special agents' operations was spotty, heavily censored, and often entirely stopped when overworked communications officers dismissed the reports as foolish pranks or German manipulation and failed to send them onwards. The bond between them remained strong; Alucard and Abraham had worked hard to make it capable of reaching across continents without damaging the monster, but it had never been stressed so hard and for so long. She hoped that Walter would be there to help Alucard cope with any problems, but neither she nor Arthur knew what was occurring.
Reports indicated that both were still "alive" and working, with horrific accounts of buildings found filled with little more than blood and ash and palm-sized body parts. Blood, blood everywhere; they had photographs of the carnage, and even in black-and-white, the horror that been inflicted on the Nazis was mindshattering. Damage that could only be Walter's wires showed on walls, doors, and furniture; the imprints of bodies thrown entirely through walls and the sheer level of gore indicated Alucard's work. Many of his victims were human, but the ash indicated they'd been working with the vampires, and Beatrice accepted them as legitimate targets. She and Arthur knew that Alucard and Walter were very effective.
What was unknown was the condition of the two agents.
x x x x x x
Finally, the main base producing the vampiric soldiers was located. A plane was sent to pick up Alucard and Walter and the coffin, and take them to what was hopefully their final target. Alucard had gotten "odd," and Walter's spotty reports of his strange humor and unstable temperament were worrying Beatrice. The vampire was barely sane at the best of times, and the carnage, the bloodshed, the violence, and the prolonged separation from her were a very dangerous set of circumstances. Walter's presence had helped, but Alucard had begun playing tricks with his shadows and seemed unable to differentiate between his pranks and reality.
Beatrice worried.
x x x x x x x
The cargo plane landed, and out...walked...a coffin. Alucard had conjured arms to carry it about, using them like legs, and he bounced out after his coffin, bright and happy smile and white coat adorning the cute little girl. He also was speaking to his coffin, encouraging it along, and Beatrice wilted a bit inside. Her vampire's sanity...what had she done? Behind the coffin sauntered Walter. He wore a bandage over an eye; she knew it was injured, but the medics that worked on him had reported that he would recover use of it. He was bandaged, bumped, and banged, and through his confident and steady gaze, she knew he'd seen horrors, and it had aged him. Though he hadn't had much of a childhood, what stood before her was no longer a child.
She hugged Walter, holding him hard, trying to convey through her touch how very much she regretted what she had sent him through, but also how very proud she was. She stood back, and they were silent for a moment, eyes locked in their private communion. He nodded, accepting of what she was trying to tell him, reassurring her that he was alright, and Beatrice turned to Alucard.
To Hell with his dignity. If he was going to look like a little girl, she was going to use that. Before the vampire could even blink, Beatrice had scooped him up. Holding Alucard tightly, they walked across the tarmac through the afternoon sun to the Hellsing vehicles.
Alucard spent the ride home curled in her lap, gripping her coat fiercely, and sleeping soundly. With the sun up, he'd been asleep before they even reached the car, his purr dying off within seconds as he began to drowse. The coffin rode on top of the car, gripping the room through the open windows. The windows were open as Walter puffed away on his cigarette, pulling the smoke out of the interior.
Beatrice no more commented on the cigarette than on the coffin. She'd sent them to Hell, knowing it would be Hell, and having no choice. And they had gone willingly. Walter was no child anymore to be told what he could and could not indulge in.
But oh, was she glad to have them back. She shifted the vampire a little in her lap, holding him tightly. Any human would have squirmed and complained, but her vampire slept on, Bea's chin resting in his hair.
Arthur would debrief them when they reached Hellsing, but for now, she had her family back.