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Nope, Hellsing still isn't mine. Thanks for checking back.

Thanks for the reviews; they give wings to my typing fingers. Or some metaphor that would make sense if I'd slept more than four hours. Durn meds.

Chapter 5, and I'm beginning to see the end of this beast peeking over the horizon at me. Fetch me my dartgun, squire.

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Walter and I saw the series of images flash onto the computer.

A satellite feed is a wonderful thing. We watched the fight unfold, frame by frame. Alucard and Integra were getting down to housecleaning, wiping out every nest of supernatural activity they could find on their home ground. Walter and I both knew they'd leave London soon.

"No ghouls," I commented. "Is that a good sign?"

"Typical, I'm afraid," he said. "Integra thinks they're fairly useless. Alucard scorns them."

It had only been two weeks since Walter and I had left England, but I now thought of him as a friend. A somewhat uncomfortable friend, but a trusted ally nonetheless.

It was amazing how many people had already quietly realized what was in store for Section XIII. The Pope had moved at least half of our soldiers to the other organizations, figuring that he only had so many he could afford to sacrifice. Maxwell had only heard halfway through my report before he had begun calling the Vatican library for books and translations. Heinkel and Yumiko had been sent afield-no sense in letting two useful agents throw away their lives.

I had refused my posting, pointing out that Alucard and Integra both held something personal against me. Walter and I agreed that they'd likely attack us before they went after Maxwell. He wouldn't listen to us.

Walter and I had become skilled at making our own plans. Every day that went by, we added to them.

I still don't know what might have happened had Seras not elected to reappear.

And naturally, she chose Walter to come confide in.

I sensed her on my way back from picking up some metal that the Pope had seen fit to bless for us. I found her and Walter speaking with each other in the garage. Walter took one look at me and stepped in between us.

"Have you forgotten what happened after you consorted with that last vampire?" I asked him gently, holding two swords at the ready.

"I'm not like that!" Seras snapped.

"You will be in a year, or five, or ten," I said wearily. "You have to know what happened to Integra's resolve."

She wilted a little. "I'm sorry. They're angry with you." She appealed to Walter. "I had to leave."

"Do you know when they'll be coming?" A hint of their timing would be invaluable.

"Look, if you're going to treat her as an ally, put away those silly swords before you cut someone," Walter snapped at me.

"Oh, they've left England." She perked up a bit as I sheathed my blades. "They're going to go slow, crossing in foreign countries. Integra's still learning."

Walter and I both winced. We'd had no success with trapping her last time. She'd be an even harder opponent this time around.

"You need an angel for this, not a paladin who's forced to put up with being around a vampire," I said, leaning heavily on a nearby car. "It's too bad that the largest group of knights I can think of is--" I paused, tasting my words, thinking.

"What?" Walter saw my expression.

"Maybe we're going about this the wrong way," I said thoughtfully, looking at Seras, then at Walter. "Or maybe being around this creature has already corrupted my thinking. But I have an idea."

Nobody liked my idea. Seras thought it was icky, Maxwell thought it was sheer heresy, and Walter thought it was lunacy.

"Explain once more," said Walter. "There's something here I'm missing."

Seras was sitting out this meeting. We didn't want to push Maxwell over the edge, so we hadn't mentioned her to him. Maxwell generously took over the explaining for me. Showoff.

"The Knights Templar were a small band of, well, knights that acted badly in the Crusades. They had no faith and no self-control. They were as bad as the Moors claimed that all Christians were. They were cursed, some say by Allah and some say by our true God, to undeath. They were forced to ride the land seeking virgins to consume." Maxwell frowned at me. "Obviously it was demonic retribution brought about by the tribes the Knights Templar set upon, since our God would never foster-"

"The point is," I cut across Maxwell's lecture, "the Knights are still in existence. The Church couldn't kill them, so we sealed them in a tomb and built a sanctuary on top of them. The church still stands, but the towns around it have dried up. I suggest we go sic the Knights Templar on Seras Victoria. Integra and Alucard will be forced to help defend her. We wait until they've cut apart the pack of Templars, and then we attack them with our weapons."

"There are several problems with your plan," Maxwell said drily. "The most glaring is that you also happen to be a virgin, and are more alive than Seras. I think the Knights will ignore her and come straight after you."

"In which case we still have a fighting chance, because Integra wants me alive." I tried not to think of facing a pack of knights that the Church at its high point had been unable to defeat. "What I like most about my plan is that we'll be far away from population centers. The idea of Alucard discovering the orphanage has given me nightmares."

That was a selling point. Maxwell leaned back in his chair, rubbing his gold cross thoughtfully against his chin. Walter began to look as though he might be taking me seriously. Maxwell came up with another flaw.

"And how are you going to 'sic the Knights Templar on Seras Victoria?' I was not aware that she was going to wander along to a remote Spanish church to be attacked by long-dead warriors."

For starters, I thought, she's hiding in your garage. What I said was, "she's avoided Integra ever since the Protestant weakling took her place. Walter knows how to contact her. If Walter were to call her, she would come straight to him."

"Interesting," Maxwell conceded. "You realize that you'd have to time the release of the Knights Templar well. That might be difficult with three vampires coming down on you."

"Honestly, no harder than defending you against Integra and Alucard," Walter commented.

"Ah. Point. Now, why would the two come to Spain to witness Seras (or possibly you, Anderson,) being attacked by undead knights?"

"They won't come to see that. They'll come for you," I answered.

"Anderson, this is one of the strangest plans you've thought of. And I've seen you impale yourself to kill a vampire standing behind you." Maxwell stared up at the stained-glass window set high in the wall. "But. . . is it worse than waiting for them to come kill me?"

"If Alucard wins, he'll be weakened, and we'll come down on him with everything we have. If the Knights Templar win, we already know it's possible to trap them again. Perhaps we can kill them with modern-day weapons." I leaned forward in my chair. "This is Integra's strategy, using the night against the night. But whichever force wins, we'll cleanse the earth of the victor."

"If Alucard attacks the abandoned church, it will be infinitely better than letting him desecrate this hallowed ground." Maxwell stood. "Pack your equipment. I'll go spread the word among my men."

Walter and I exchanged glances, a single thought passing between us:

Now we have to sell this to Miss Victoria.