Choices

C7: Violent Memories

[Disclaimer: Kouta Hirano owns "Hellsing."  I own whatever I write/create.  Don't steal and don't sue.]

The mission assignment had been an interesting one this time.  Syn was grinning rather madly as she walked right into the nightclub.  Inside, strobe lights flashed and colored lights swept the expanse of the dance floor.  The vampire chuckled sadistically.  She could smell the blood in the air, and hear the forgeries laughing.

Her grin grew larger.  Each person in the club had been turned into either a freak, or a ghoul of the freaks.  There was going to be much dust on the floor soon.

A fast song began to play from the speakers hidden in the rafters and shadows.  Syn's eyes narrowed in glee as she waded through the freaks into the center of the dance floor.  She pulled her staff from its sheath on her back.

"IN THE NAME OF GOD, IMPURE SOULS OF THE LIVING DEAD SHALL BE BANISHED INTO ETERNAL DAMNATION!  AMEN!"

There was only a moment of odd looks from the freaks and ghouls before they became enraged.  Syn had stabbed one of the freaks in the forehead, laughing as she did so.  The ghouls were ordered to attack and destroy the person, whoever she was.

"Go ahead!" Syn shouted in return, "Fire all your guns!  Hell, get a damn bomb if you want!  IT DOESN'T MATTER!"  She pulled the Blade from her jacket, firing a few rounds into the swarms of ghouls.  They disintegrated, leaving nothing but spots of blood on dust.  The lesser freaks rushed next.  A few of them got in a few shots from their guns, but were swiftly dispatched by choice swings from Syn's staff.

"Isn't there a single one among that can give me some kind of fight?" Syn cackled, "Come on!  You're all pitiful!"  After a few more shots from the Blade, there was only one freak left.  He was sitting rather peacefully in a booth behind a table, his eyes closed.

"So, can you give me a good fight?" the vampire murmured, "Show me, freak-boy!"  The freak lifted something from his side and stood.  The table suddenly fell apart, cut evenly into two pieces.  He held a sword in his hands, a sharp, double-edged broadsword.  A grin was on his face.

"Are you some kind of vampire hunter?" the freak asked, "A worthless human commissioned by the human government?"

"No one gives me orders!" Syn replied, "I hunt for the Hellsing family!  And I'm no human!  You face a true vampire!  Now face me!"  The freak frowned, but rushed forwards with blinding speed.  Syn grinned, but did nothing to dodge.

A plume of dust rose up and the freak stood in an end-stance, the sword down as if he had swung it.  Moments later, a wave of blood erupted from a gash in Syn's body.  She was still grinning, even as she fell backwards to the floor.  The freak looked back with a smile, leaning his sword on his shoulder.

"And so ends a stupid imposter." he chuckled.  He turned about and started for the door.  Before he could take two steps, he heard a chuckle rise up from the body on the floor.

"An imposter?" Syn's voice seemed to echo in the death-laden club, "You call me an imposter?  You're quite the jester."  The freak slowly turned about.  Syn was rising up on her feet, her feet flat and her hands limp at her sides.  Her back arched sharply, and she stumbled as she stood straight.

"That's not p—"  The freak couldn't finish his sentence before Syn had thrust her staff through his throat.

"If I have to hear a freak say it's not possible, I'm going to go on a very gory rampage." Syn muttered as she pulled the staff back roughly.  The freak vanished into dust, and the true vampire left the club.

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If there was anyone that had a wondering look on their face, Syn didn't notice.  She walked calmly through the swarm of people, her silver staff again strapped to her back.  The overcast sky hid the sun unto the point where it almost seemed night, but the sun had not set yet.  The vampire hoped to get back to the Hellsing mansion by sundown.  Integra had said something of speaking to her about her memory.

THUNK.

Syn slid back on her heels an inch or so, a sharp sting in her chest.  She glanced down.  A small smoking hole was in the middle of her chest, and it stung as though it were one of the blessed blades from Iscariot.  Her red eyes scanned the rooftops, looking for anything that might be there.  One glint of light on metal caught her eye, and she smirked.

It seemed that she had another little fighter from Iscariot trying to kill her.  The bullet had been from a silenced gun, and it had not gone to her head for one reason—the person shooting didn't want to be found out by anyone but Syn.  The vampire started walking again, and no further shots came.

"I accept your offer." she murmured under her breath, "I look forward to our fight, whoever you may be."  She soon vanished away.

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"Is that from one of the freaks?" Integra asked as her second servant walked into the room, closing the door behind her.

"They don't have blessed bullets." Syn replied, fingering the hole in her jacket with a frown, "Do you have any idea of who it might be?  An Iscariot bastard looking for revenge?"

"I doubt it." Integra shook her head, "Andersong doesn't use guns, and all the soldiers were discharged and stripped of their weapons.  I doubt they even cared about Iscariot."  Syn let out one small chuckle before looking seriously to her master.

"You said you had something to say to me?" she asked.  Integra nodded, looking down to the book on her desk.

"I've been reading about an incident recorded from four hundred and twenty years ago." the Hellsing explained, "It is the nature of the Hellsing organization to house documents that include possible vampire incidents.  In this document, it says that an entire village was found slaughtered by what seemed like wolves or hounds.  Women, children, and even the animals kept as pets were killed.  The blood had soaked into the ground by the time other people found the bodies.

"I bring this up because it may or may not have something to do with you.  It is consistent with the time you said you began to call yourself 'Syn.'  But I cannot come up with anything more.  I can't see why a vampire, even a very hungry one, would kill an entire village just for food."  Syn blinked slowly and walked to Integra's desk.

The document was just sitting there, but Syn looked at it as though it were alive.  She touched it with her fingertips and turned it so she could read it.  The village had been one in a deep forest, and far north in Britain.  The words of the men who had found the bodies showed they were terrified and sickened.  They ended their passage by praying to god that whatever beast had torn the village apart did not come to them.

I'll …for what…done!

The words rang in Syn's head as loudly as a shot from a cannon.  They were fragmented, but she heard more of it as the seconds passed.  Images appeared before her eyes before it all blurred together and she had to try to separate real from memory by force.

"Syn?"

The word snapped in her ears and the vampire opened her eyes.  Integra was looking at her with a brow raised.

"Do you remember something?" the human asked.

"It appears that those men found my first bit of handiwork." Syn shook her head with a laugh that made more sense to her than her master, "I used to live there.  A man turned me into a vampire…though I don't recall why, or for what purpose.  I forgot everything that happened before those moments, until now.  I went back to the village, and I killed everyone there."

"Why?"

"My family cast me out of their house when I was just a child.  No one gave me a second glance, and barely any food.  I never had a name.  I was just the wandering child that nobody wanted and everyone hated.  I managed to survive to my twentieth year, and then I collapsed in the forest, nearly dead.  The vampire turned me into one of them, and gave me his blood soon after.  He vanished after giving me his blood and turning me into a no-life-king.

"I went back the village after that only because I thought there might be something there for me.  I had a profound sense of hatred when I saw those people with my vampire eyes.  I killed them then and there, laughing as I did.  Oh, how I savored the blood and carnage.  My demons helped by tearing them limb from limb.  And now I remember it…"

"Why did you choose the name 'Syn'?" Integra asked, her head lifting from her hands.

"Because I'm a different kind of sinner."

—to be continued—