Ch 9: Secrets II
Constance lay on the cold stone floor of a cell in one of the dungeons that were contained underneath the Hellsing manor. She was in for it now, she thought. She had revealed one of the secrets of who she was, and while it had postponed her death for a while, she still thought herself doomed. Under normal circumstances, she would have been way too nervous to sleep, but her punished body would not allow her to remain conscious. Squirming to find a position that caused her ribs to hurt the least, she slipped into a fitful sleep.
Constance was overjoyed to see her guide this time. She was in trouble and could use some good advice.
"Now what do I do?" Constance asked.
"The only way to save yourself is to reveal your greatest secret." The guide answered quietly.
How can he say that so calmly? Constance wondered. She knew that when she revealed her true self, it would be much harder to keep her enemies away.
"There is no other option. They think that you are a spy sent by their enemy. They will not hesitate to kill you unless they learn the truth." With that, he was gone, leaving Constance alone in her dream forest, silently cursing the guide for his advice that was about to make the whole situation a lot more complicated.
Constance was awoken by the loud clang of a metal door. She sat up hastily, but the pain in her side would not allow for quick movement. As she looked to where the noise had come from, she found herself starting at Integra, Walter, Captain Bernadotte, the tall man in the red coat and a woman much shorter than the rest of the group. The short woman was wearing what appeared to a police woman's uniform and had the same red eyes as the man she had battled last night. With a grim satisfaction, Constance noticed that he seemed to be favoring the shoulder that she had stabbed.
"On your feet" Integra demanded. "I want to know who sent you to spy on us."
"No one sent me, and I was not spying. I just wanted to find out.."
"Shut up!" Integra shouted. Constance could see the rage glittering in her blue eyes and swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. "My agent told me that he caught you in the library, accessing the secret files. What do you call that if not spying? Now, who sent you? I will not ask you again."
Her agent? Constance asked to herself as she looked at the man in the red coat. He was standing behind the others with a slight grin on his face. He was the only person in the group who was smiling but it did not make him look any less menacing. That nut works for her? As Constance shifted her attention back to Integra, she knew from the look on the blond woman's face that there was nothing that she could say that would convince her that she was not a spy.
By this time Integra had had enough. She turned to Pip and ordered him to surrender his side arm to her. After checking the clip, Integra pointed the gun at Constance's head and said "If you will not tell me who sent you, then you can carry the secret to your grave. Constance's eyes widened as she saw Integra's finger go white as she began to squeeze the trigger.
"Don't shoot, please!" Constance exclaimed, knowing that there was no way to live other than revealing the secret she had kept for the past year. "I'll tell you what I can."
Integra relaxed her grip on the pistol. "Start talking." she said, handing the gun back to the Captain.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so I will have to show you instead." Constance said, smirking slightly. "You might want to shield your eyes."
In that instant, the room was lit up as brilliantly as day. The light was so bright that Integra and the others had to look away. Alucard recognized the light as the same from the night before, the light that accompanied the wind that had thrown him 20 feet as if he weighed nothing.
After a long moment, the light subsided enough that Walter, Integra, Pip, Ceras and Alucard could look into the cell. There they saw the doctor, looking as she usually did save the large wings that were now visible on either side of her body. They were brown in color and the tips of them reached down to her knees.
"Wha.What are those?" Pip asked in utter disbelief. Ceras looked at him as if to answer, but she herself was so surprised that all she could manage was a strangled squeak. Walter's eyes were also riveted to the doctor, his monocle having fallen from his face and now dangling from the chain that held it.
An angel, Alucard thought. That explains a lot.
The only one who spoke in the next few minutes was Integra. "What kind of trick is this?" she asked sternly "Do you think that you can fool us with cheap special effects?"
"Typical" Constance spat as she looked directly into Integra's eyes "Everything you do, you do in God's name, but you hardly believe that he exists. Certainly not enough to believe that he might send someone to watch over the things done in his name." Constance turned to Alucard and said, "Let me see the wound in your shoulder."
Alucard, already knowing to the depths of his being that the doctor was telling the truth, shed his overcoat, his tie and his suit coat. He unbuttoned his shirt enough to expose a nasty wound in his shoulder. When he walked over to the cell, Constance placed her hand on the wound. There was a small shuddering of the air in the dungeon and the wound disappeared as if it had never been.
Alucard looked at Integra and could tell that she was still not convinced. Integra knew that he could heal any wound quickly. "Master" he said quietly "Are any of the swords in the library blessed?"
"No. It didn't seem necessary to bless blades that are just for show." Integra answered, wondering what this bit of information had to do with the matter at hand.
"The blade that she stabbed me with was blessed, even more so than Paladin Anderson's" Alucard remarked as he nodded toward Constance. "If the blade was not blessed before, than it became blessed the instant that the doctor touched it. Special effects, as you call them, cannot do that."
"Now, if your questions are answered, perhaps you can answer some of mine" Constance said as she looked straight into Integra's eyes without fear. "First off, I want to know how a man I pronounced dead hours before was walking around outside. I think I know dead when I see it."
Integra struggled with her disbelief for a few more seconds. She looked into Constance's eyes and didn't see any signs of the deceit and self-interest she had so often seen in the eyes of others. Integra felt as if she were about to leap from a cliff into the unknown as she took a breath, preparing to tell an angel, of all creatures, about the affairs of the Hellsing organization.
"The man you saw that night was a ghoul." Integra said. "He had been attacked by an artificially created vampire and drained of blood. When that happens, all that can be done is to wait for the transformation and then kill them using a blessed silver bullet. In this case, the guard who was waiting for the fallen man to transform was careless and allowed him to escape." Integra nodded her head toward Alucard and Ceras as she continued, "These two are vampires as well, but were created naturally and are agents of the Hellsing organization."
Integra went on to explain to Constance that the Hellsing organization's sole mission was to protect the Queen and the citizens of England from the onslaught of the undead. Constance thought it odd that an organization that was supposed to kill vampires would employ them, but kept silent, understanding that drastic times sometimes called for drastic measures.
"Let her out of there" Integra ordered. "I think that we can trust her at this point. However, we cannot trust anyone else with this information. I don't know if anyone could use it, but I'm sure that they would try." Walter and the other agreed to keep the doctors identity, which was now hidden again as Constance's wings had disappeared on her command, a secret. However, there was one person, a guard who had been dismissed from the room by Integra before she spoke with Constance, watching the scene through the slightly open door who did not make that promise.
Constance lay on the cold stone floor of a cell in one of the dungeons that were contained underneath the Hellsing manor. She was in for it now, she thought. She had revealed one of the secrets of who she was, and while it had postponed her death for a while, she still thought herself doomed. Under normal circumstances, she would have been way too nervous to sleep, but her punished body would not allow her to remain conscious. Squirming to find a position that caused her ribs to hurt the least, she slipped into a fitful sleep.
Constance was overjoyed to see her guide this time. She was in trouble and could use some good advice.
"Now what do I do?" Constance asked.
"The only way to save yourself is to reveal your greatest secret." The guide answered quietly.
How can he say that so calmly? Constance wondered. She knew that when she revealed her true self, it would be much harder to keep her enemies away.
"There is no other option. They think that you are a spy sent by their enemy. They will not hesitate to kill you unless they learn the truth." With that, he was gone, leaving Constance alone in her dream forest, silently cursing the guide for his advice that was about to make the whole situation a lot more complicated.
Constance was awoken by the loud clang of a metal door. She sat up hastily, but the pain in her side would not allow for quick movement. As she looked to where the noise had come from, she found herself starting at Integra, Walter, Captain Bernadotte, the tall man in the red coat and a woman much shorter than the rest of the group. The short woman was wearing what appeared to a police woman's uniform and had the same red eyes as the man she had battled last night. With a grim satisfaction, Constance noticed that he seemed to be favoring the shoulder that she had stabbed.
"On your feet" Integra demanded. "I want to know who sent you to spy on us."
"No one sent me, and I was not spying. I just wanted to find out.."
"Shut up!" Integra shouted. Constance could see the rage glittering in her blue eyes and swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. "My agent told me that he caught you in the library, accessing the secret files. What do you call that if not spying? Now, who sent you? I will not ask you again."
Her agent? Constance asked to herself as she looked at the man in the red coat. He was standing behind the others with a slight grin on his face. He was the only person in the group who was smiling but it did not make him look any less menacing. That nut works for her? As Constance shifted her attention back to Integra, she knew from the look on the blond woman's face that there was nothing that she could say that would convince her that she was not a spy.
By this time Integra had had enough. She turned to Pip and ordered him to surrender his side arm to her. After checking the clip, Integra pointed the gun at Constance's head and said "If you will not tell me who sent you, then you can carry the secret to your grave. Constance's eyes widened as she saw Integra's finger go white as she began to squeeze the trigger.
"Don't shoot, please!" Constance exclaimed, knowing that there was no way to live other than revealing the secret she had kept for the past year. "I'll tell you what I can."
Integra relaxed her grip on the pistol. "Start talking." she said, handing the gun back to the Captain.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so I will have to show you instead." Constance said, smirking slightly. "You might want to shield your eyes."
In that instant, the room was lit up as brilliantly as day. The light was so bright that Integra and the others had to look away. Alucard recognized the light as the same from the night before, the light that accompanied the wind that had thrown him 20 feet as if he weighed nothing.
After a long moment, the light subsided enough that Walter, Integra, Pip, Ceras and Alucard could look into the cell. There they saw the doctor, looking as she usually did save the large wings that were now visible on either side of her body. They were brown in color and the tips of them reached down to her knees.
"Wha.What are those?" Pip asked in utter disbelief. Ceras looked at him as if to answer, but she herself was so surprised that all she could manage was a strangled squeak. Walter's eyes were also riveted to the doctor, his monocle having fallen from his face and now dangling from the chain that held it.
An angel, Alucard thought. That explains a lot.
The only one who spoke in the next few minutes was Integra. "What kind of trick is this?" she asked sternly "Do you think that you can fool us with cheap special effects?"
"Typical" Constance spat as she looked directly into Integra's eyes "Everything you do, you do in God's name, but you hardly believe that he exists. Certainly not enough to believe that he might send someone to watch over the things done in his name." Constance turned to Alucard and said, "Let me see the wound in your shoulder."
Alucard, already knowing to the depths of his being that the doctor was telling the truth, shed his overcoat, his tie and his suit coat. He unbuttoned his shirt enough to expose a nasty wound in his shoulder. When he walked over to the cell, Constance placed her hand on the wound. There was a small shuddering of the air in the dungeon and the wound disappeared as if it had never been.
Alucard looked at Integra and could tell that she was still not convinced. Integra knew that he could heal any wound quickly. "Master" he said quietly "Are any of the swords in the library blessed?"
"No. It didn't seem necessary to bless blades that are just for show." Integra answered, wondering what this bit of information had to do with the matter at hand.
"The blade that she stabbed me with was blessed, even more so than Paladin Anderson's" Alucard remarked as he nodded toward Constance. "If the blade was not blessed before, than it became blessed the instant that the doctor touched it. Special effects, as you call them, cannot do that."
"Now, if your questions are answered, perhaps you can answer some of mine" Constance said as she looked straight into Integra's eyes without fear. "First off, I want to know how a man I pronounced dead hours before was walking around outside. I think I know dead when I see it."
Integra struggled with her disbelief for a few more seconds. She looked into Constance's eyes and didn't see any signs of the deceit and self-interest she had so often seen in the eyes of others. Integra felt as if she were about to leap from a cliff into the unknown as she took a breath, preparing to tell an angel, of all creatures, about the affairs of the Hellsing organization.
"The man you saw that night was a ghoul." Integra said. "He had been attacked by an artificially created vampire and drained of blood. When that happens, all that can be done is to wait for the transformation and then kill them using a blessed silver bullet. In this case, the guard who was waiting for the fallen man to transform was careless and allowed him to escape." Integra nodded her head toward Alucard and Ceras as she continued, "These two are vampires as well, but were created naturally and are agents of the Hellsing organization."
Integra went on to explain to Constance that the Hellsing organization's sole mission was to protect the Queen and the citizens of England from the onslaught of the undead. Constance thought it odd that an organization that was supposed to kill vampires would employ them, but kept silent, understanding that drastic times sometimes called for drastic measures.
"Let her out of there" Integra ordered. "I think that we can trust her at this point. However, we cannot trust anyone else with this information. I don't know if anyone could use it, but I'm sure that they would try." Walter and the other agreed to keep the doctors identity, which was now hidden again as Constance's wings had disappeared on her command, a secret. However, there was one person, a guard who had been dismissed from the room by Integra before she spoke with Constance, watching the scene through the slightly open door who did not make that promise.