Disclaimer: I do not Hellsing. Hellsing belongs to whatever wonderful
human being created it (I salute you!). Please don't sue.
A/N: This fanfic is based solely on the anime, as I have not yet seen the manga (though I have it reserved when it comes out here in English) so don't expect any appearance of the Millennium Organization thing to appear in this story. Thank you for reading! Please review!
Chapter One: Children of Darkness
"The night has come, the time when all children of darkness rise, the time when all the inhibitions of the day can be laid waste by those who would be forever free of the flimsy bindings of the light. Such pretensions are without use in this world. Between light and darkness, there exists only the most frail and fragile of inhibitions, and I have long since let those pass."
Seras Victoria looked upon her master with the slightest, most indistinguishable of grins. He had always been so candidly mysterious around her, explaining concepts that were, to her, as odd and complicated as any subject could possibly be as if they had not the slightest trick to them.
"You are confused, Police Girl?" He grinned. He was prone to that as well, seeking every imaginable opportunity to flash his elongated canines, the truest sign of the vampire. "You have not yet been a child of death long enough to understand the true difference between light and darkness."
"Yeah, right", she thought. She very much doubted that she would ever understand. "Master-?"
"Yes, Police Girl?" His grin spread a bit further upon his countenance, not comically, of course, but far more smugly than any human would dare.
"How long have you, er, been 'a child of death'?"
"Hmmm. . . long enough, Police Girl." He raised himself upon his feet, and, still grinning, disappeared into darkness.
"'Long enough'? How. . . how very. . . Oh just forget it, Seras." She looked out over the landscape. She was standing upon the mighty clock tower, affectionately known as Big Ben. She'd forgotten how she had gotten so high up. Staring across the platform to where her master, Alucard, had stood only moments before, she silently cursed him for leaving her there.
"What's this, Police Girl?" Alucard whispered, apparently from within Seras' own head. "A vampire afraid of heights? Come now, such things are very unbecoming, and I would think that a former Policewoman would have developed more nerve. . ." He laughed softly. Seras could almost feel him smile again.
"Master, what do you expect me to do, then? It's not like I have wings. . ." She felt very, very ignorant. After all, hadn't her master disappeared out of thin air two minutes ago? Certainly he could help her do the same.
"I think I'll leave you to figure this one out on your own, Police Girl. . ." Thusly, with one last amused chuckle, did Seras Victoria know she was not destined for any help on this night.
"That, that. . . Oh, of all the bloody. . . " She sighed, then set off in search of a flight of stairs.
**
Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing looked about her tiny, mortar brick cell disdainfully. How had she ever gotten herself put here? And more importantly, why? Was she locked away for safekeeping? The queen's men had stated that the Judas had been punished. Then indeed, why would she still be under guard, locked away in a dungeon, left to rot?
"What crime have I committed?" She asked again. No answer. The Bloody Tower's walls were thick, as she had come to know. She had been sitting in this cell for months, for whatever reason. No one had bothered to tell her. Not that it mattered anymore.
"You do not see the irony, Master?" Stepping from the shadows, Alucard emerged, quizzical and mysterious as ever. He looked at her through his orange sunglasses. She could not see his eyes.
Integra sighed. "Of course I see it, Alucard. I do not, however, see the reason behind it."
"Cannot the irony be justification enough, Master?" He grinned.
"Why would Her Majesty do such a thing, Alucard? Amusement?" She stood, and made an attempt to move her arms, which did not spread far apart at all. She was suddenly reminded that she was bound, however cutely and uselessly, by small white leather cuffs. They were more for her benefit than anything else. What other means could remind her so frequently that she was a prisoner?
"You realize, that if you desired it, you could be free of this place, don't you?" He backed into the shadows again, resting his palm against the far wall. Grinning ever broader, he let his hand pass through it. "It is, as it has always been, your choice."
Integra sighed again, this time allowing a ghost of a smile to spread upon her lips. "I know, Alucard."
"Then why do you not take the opportunity? I will never understand it."
"I will await Her Majesty's judgement."
"Why?"
"You cannot understand, Alucard. I serve the crown, this Protestant country, and nothing else. I have been bound by those I serve. That is all there is."
Alucard let his grin flatten out, and he waited a moment, in thought. Then suddenly he smirked again. "Your Queen did not herself bind you, did she, Master? You do not serve those who keep you here?"
Integra reflected a moment. The Queen herself had not sent her here, had she? She smiled. "She did not, I suppose."
"Then free yourself, Master."
"Is it really so easy, Alucard?"
He paused again, and sighed. "Run from this place, Master."
"You didn't answer me, Alucard."
"Death is the only easy thing in this world."
Integra sighed. "I'm sorry, Alucard."
"Then you will not join me tonight?"
"No."
Alucard shrugged. "Then this night will not be as perfect as it should be." He turned from Integra, and walked through the wall.
Integra sat upon her bed again. Staring about the room, she let her eyes rest upon a bottle of wine that sat upon the modest table her captors had provided. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't quite tell what it was.
The cell on that first night. . . Green concrete bricks, a simple wineglass upon the table. . . A bottle of wine resting in a bowl of ice, its contents red, red as blood. . . Alucard, in his beautiful blood red jacket that fell about his ankles, old in style and yet so new. . . He was grinning, picking up the wineglass. . .
"The choice is yours," he whispers, at which he crushes the glass, the red wine pouring over his gloved hand and onto the floor like so much blood. . . dripping finally, the last remnants of the glass seeming to drip with them. . . A tiny pool of blood-wine at his feet. . .
Alucard offering her his blood. . . Just a taste, just a taste of his blood, and she'd become more than she could ever possibly have imagined. . . She was strong, for a human. . .
Had she taken him up on it yet? Why not? Where was the hesitation coming from? You can't imagine, wouldn't understand, just how much stronger you could become. . . just how much better, faster, wiser. . . If only you would see. . .
Just a taste. . .
"Alucard!" she shouted. "What do you think you're doing?"
From the ceiling, slowly and deliberately, Alucard's head emerged. He was grinning again. "Showing you what you need to see, Master."
"You will not intrude in my mind again unless I specifically tell you to, understand?" She grimaced. She wished she hadn't said that.
"Specifically tell me to?" Alucard laughed. His elongated canines seemed especially apparent now. "Does that mean, Master, that you will ask for it eventually? Just as you will eventually partake of my blood?"
Integra fell silent. Then, slovenly, she lifted her head to where she could see Alucard's. She wondered for a moment if he was remaining in the room.
He was still there, waiting patiently for her response. His sunglasses were off now, and he was staring at her through his crimson pupils. His hair fell around his face, and it occluded his left eye. But Integra could still feel it upon her. It was looking inside her again.
"Your strength is beyond that of any normal human, Master." He smiled broadly.
"Alucard, what is it that you're looking for now? Am I really that amusing?"
"I wish to see why you are strong, Master. Take it," he chuckled, "as a compliment."
"Cute."
"Then will you taste my blood, before I leave?" He was still looking inside her.
She sighed. She didn't mind this intrusion as much. "Eventually, Alucard." She smiled, and deliberately let her voice grow harsh and cold. "But not tonight, understand?"
"Yours, O Queen, is the task of determining your wishes." He smiled. "Mine is the right to obey orders." With this, he withdrew his head from the ceiling, and was gone again.
**
The mighty Paladin Alexander Anderson shuddered as his breath caught the London air. He despised the city, the whole country for that matter. "Nothing but a crowd of sinners unworthy of the Grace of God", he mused with a smile. He looked about him, his eyes falling on each person standing before him, sure that when the Time of Judgment were at hand, each and every one of them would come to realize their mistake.
He strode forward onto the sidewalk, feeling that with every footfall his purification might be felt upon the poor ungodly land, which might as well have been true.
Hellsing had been wiped off the face of the earth, gone for three months now, and as such, the Vatican's Section Thirteen, Iscariot, had free rein over all of England. Anderson could hunt and dispose of the filthy demon- kin and their ghouls without a single word of resistance from that mongrel Hellsing or her pet Vampire.
Anderson stopped for a moment, the smile that had developed on his face flattening. "The Vampire," he whispered, "Alucard."
That problem still loomed over the Godly Knight's head, seemingly taunting him in every moment of strength. The immortal demon seemed to defy all logic, would never stop hunting and feeding, and, quite frankly, did not stay dead for long. He, not Anderson, still had his filthy bloodstained hands wrapped around this country's borders. He had been the one that had destroyed that true undead demon, Incognito. Not Anderson.
Though to be fair Anderson had never had his shot. Such things could be rectified in the future. All that had to be accomplished was the removal of the fabled no-life king, and Anderson felt certain that he could-
Anderson stiffened, his nostrils slightly flaring. "Speak of the devil," he began, taking a short second sniff. "No", he decided, "not Alucard." It was something else. He glanced all about him, in every direction. His eyes settled upon two dingy looking street bums, each in an aging black trench coat. Anderson wondered for a moment if he should just disregard the pair as street urchins with a foul smell, but then he thought better of it. The pair, he noted, walked too upright and proud to be proper poor retches. The smell, also, was not of human origin.
He could not in actuality see their faces especially clearly, however. Still, he mused, if he could see them as they were he knew that two pairs of glittering teeth might stare out at him hungrily. He smiled, baring his own slightly elongated and sharp teeth.
Anderson decided to follow them until he could be absolutely sure that he could dispose of them without much notice. He fell in step roughly twenty meters behind them, hoping that they would dodge into an alley or something so that he might do what was necessary of him.
He noted that one of them was especially tall, lanky, perhaps even similar to Anderson in build. The other was much shorter. Anderson was not too concerned with that one. He could smell weakness on it. The other, however, was of a different sort. Anderson smiled. He knew this had the potential to be a very enjoyable night.
"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," came his familiar prayer. "Amen."
Next Chapter: Blood, Bones, and the Regenerator
Anderson discovers the identities of these two patrons of the night, another visit to Integra in her cell, and Seras gets off the giant clock! Oh, and Alucard makes an appearance as well. ^.^
Enjoy! Please R&R!
A/N: This fanfic is based solely on the anime, as I have not yet seen the manga (though I have it reserved when it comes out here in English) so don't expect any appearance of the Millennium Organization thing to appear in this story. Thank you for reading! Please review!
Chapter One: Children of Darkness
"The night has come, the time when all children of darkness rise, the time when all the inhibitions of the day can be laid waste by those who would be forever free of the flimsy bindings of the light. Such pretensions are without use in this world. Between light and darkness, there exists only the most frail and fragile of inhibitions, and I have long since let those pass."
Seras Victoria looked upon her master with the slightest, most indistinguishable of grins. He had always been so candidly mysterious around her, explaining concepts that were, to her, as odd and complicated as any subject could possibly be as if they had not the slightest trick to them.
"You are confused, Police Girl?" He grinned. He was prone to that as well, seeking every imaginable opportunity to flash his elongated canines, the truest sign of the vampire. "You have not yet been a child of death long enough to understand the true difference between light and darkness."
"Yeah, right", she thought. She very much doubted that she would ever understand. "Master-?"
"Yes, Police Girl?" His grin spread a bit further upon his countenance, not comically, of course, but far more smugly than any human would dare.
"How long have you, er, been 'a child of death'?"
"Hmmm. . . long enough, Police Girl." He raised himself upon his feet, and, still grinning, disappeared into darkness.
"'Long enough'? How. . . how very. . . Oh just forget it, Seras." She looked out over the landscape. She was standing upon the mighty clock tower, affectionately known as Big Ben. She'd forgotten how she had gotten so high up. Staring across the platform to where her master, Alucard, had stood only moments before, she silently cursed him for leaving her there.
"What's this, Police Girl?" Alucard whispered, apparently from within Seras' own head. "A vampire afraid of heights? Come now, such things are very unbecoming, and I would think that a former Policewoman would have developed more nerve. . ." He laughed softly. Seras could almost feel him smile again.
"Master, what do you expect me to do, then? It's not like I have wings. . ." She felt very, very ignorant. After all, hadn't her master disappeared out of thin air two minutes ago? Certainly he could help her do the same.
"I think I'll leave you to figure this one out on your own, Police Girl. . ." Thusly, with one last amused chuckle, did Seras Victoria know she was not destined for any help on this night.
"That, that. . . Oh, of all the bloody. . . " She sighed, then set off in search of a flight of stairs.
**
Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing looked about her tiny, mortar brick cell disdainfully. How had she ever gotten herself put here? And more importantly, why? Was she locked away for safekeeping? The queen's men had stated that the Judas had been punished. Then indeed, why would she still be under guard, locked away in a dungeon, left to rot?
"What crime have I committed?" She asked again. No answer. The Bloody Tower's walls were thick, as she had come to know. She had been sitting in this cell for months, for whatever reason. No one had bothered to tell her. Not that it mattered anymore.
"You do not see the irony, Master?" Stepping from the shadows, Alucard emerged, quizzical and mysterious as ever. He looked at her through his orange sunglasses. She could not see his eyes.
Integra sighed. "Of course I see it, Alucard. I do not, however, see the reason behind it."
"Cannot the irony be justification enough, Master?" He grinned.
"Why would Her Majesty do such a thing, Alucard? Amusement?" She stood, and made an attempt to move her arms, which did not spread far apart at all. She was suddenly reminded that she was bound, however cutely and uselessly, by small white leather cuffs. They were more for her benefit than anything else. What other means could remind her so frequently that she was a prisoner?
"You realize, that if you desired it, you could be free of this place, don't you?" He backed into the shadows again, resting his palm against the far wall. Grinning ever broader, he let his hand pass through it. "It is, as it has always been, your choice."
Integra sighed again, this time allowing a ghost of a smile to spread upon her lips. "I know, Alucard."
"Then why do you not take the opportunity? I will never understand it."
"I will await Her Majesty's judgement."
"Why?"
"You cannot understand, Alucard. I serve the crown, this Protestant country, and nothing else. I have been bound by those I serve. That is all there is."
Alucard let his grin flatten out, and he waited a moment, in thought. Then suddenly he smirked again. "Your Queen did not herself bind you, did she, Master? You do not serve those who keep you here?"
Integra reflected a moment. The Queen herself had not sent her here, had she? She smiled. "She did not, I suppose."
"Then free yourself, Master."
"Is it really so easy, Alucard?"
He paused again, and sighed. "Run from this place, Master."
"You didn't answer me, Alucard."
"Death is the only easy thing in this world."
Integra sighed. "I'm sorry, Alucard."
"Then you will not join me tonight?"
"No."
Alucard shrugged. "Then this night will not be as perfect as it should be." He turned from Integra, and walked through the wall.
Integra sat upon her bed again. Staring about the room, she let her eyes rest upon a bottle of wine that sat upon the modest table her captors had provided. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't quite tell what it was.
The cell on that first night. . . Green concrete bricks, a simple wineglass upon the table. . . A bottle of wine resting in a bowl of ice, its contents red, red as blood. . . Alucard, in his beautiful blood red jacket that fell about his ankles, old in style and yet so new. . . He was grinning, picking up the wineglass. . .
"The choice is yours," he whispers, at which he crushes the glass, the red wine pouring over his gloved hand and onto the floor like so much blood. . . dripping finally, the last remnants of the glass seeming to drip with them. . . A tiny pool of blood-wine at his feet. . .
Alucard offering her his blood. . . Just a taste, just a taste of his blood, and she'd become more than she could ever possibly have imagined. . . She was strong, for a human. . .
Had she taken him up on it yet? Why not? Where was the hesitation coming from? You can't imagine, wouldn't understand, just how much stronger you could become. . . just how much better, faster, wiser. . . If only you would see. . .
Just a taste. . .
"Alucard!" she shouted. "What do you think you're doing?"
From the ceiling, slowly and deliberately, Alucard's head emerged. He was grinning again. "Showing you what you need to see, Master."
"You will not intrude in my mind again unless I specifically tell you to, understand?" She grimaced. She wished she hadn't said that.
"Specifically tell me to?" Alucard laughed. His elongated canines seemed especially apparent now. "Does that mean, Master, that you will ask for it eventually? Just as you will eventually partake of my blood?"
Integra fell silent. Then, slovenly, she lifted her head to where she could see Alucard's. She wondered for a moment if he was remaining in the room.
He was still there, waiting patiently for her response. His sunglasses were off now, and he was staring at her through his crimson pupils. His hair fell around his face, and it occluded his left eye. But Integra could still feel it upon her. It was looking inside her again.
"Your strength is beyond that of any normal human, Master." He smiled broadly.
"Alucard, what is it that you're looking for now? Am I really that amusing?"
"I wish to see why you are strong, Master. Take it," he chuckled, "as a compliment."
"Cute."
"Then will you taste my blood, before I leave?" He was still looking inside her.
She sighed. She didn't mind this intrusion as much. "Eventually, Alucard." She smiled, and deliberately let her voice grow harsh and cold. "But not tonight, understand?"
"Yours, O Queen, is the task of determining your wishes." He smiled. "Mine is the right to obey orders." With this, he withdrew his head from the ceiling, and was gone again.
**
The mighty Paladin Alexander Anderson shuddered as his breath caught the London air. He despised the city, the whole country for that matter. "Nothing but a crowd of sinners unworthy of the Grace of God", he mused with a smile. He looked about him, his eyes falling on each person standing before him, sure that when the Time of Judgment were at hand, each and every one of them would come to realize their mistake.
He strode forward onto the sidewalk, feeling that with every footfall his purification might be felt upon the poor ungodly land, which might as well have been true.
Hellsing had been wiped off the face of the earth, gone for three months now, and as such, the Vatican's Section Thirteen, Iscariot, had free rein over all of England. Anderson could hunt and dispose of the filthy demon- kin and their ghouls without a single word of resistance from that mongrel Hellsing or her pet Vampire.
Anderson stopped for a moment, the smile that had developed on his face flattening. "The Vampire," he whispered, "Alucard."
That problem still loomed over the Godly Knight's head, seemingly taunting him in every moment of strength. The immortal demon seemed to defy all logic, would never stop hunting and feeding, and, quite frankly, did not stay dead for long. He, not Anderson, still had his filthy bloodstained hands wrapped around this country's borders. He had been the one that had destroyed that true undead demon, Incognito. Not Anderson.
Though to be fair Anderson had never had his shot. Such things could be rectified in the future. All that had to be accomplished was the removal of the fabled no-life king, and Anderson felt certain that he could-
Anderson stiffened, his nostrils slightly flaring. "Speak of the devil," he began, taking a short second sniff. "No", he decided, "not Alucard." It was something else. He glanced all about him, in every direction. His eyes settled upon two dingy looking street bums, each in an aging black trench coat. Anderson wondered for a moment if he should just disregard the pair as street urchins with a foul smell, but then he thought better of it. The pair, he noted, walked too upright and proud to be proper poor retches. The smell, also, was not of human origin.
He could not in actuality see their faces especially clearly, however. Still, he mused, if he could see them as they were he knew that two pairs of glittering teeth might stare out at him hungrily. He smiled, baring his own slightly elongated and sharp teeth.
Anderson decided to follow them until he could be absolutely sure that he could dispose of them without much notice. He fell in step roughly twenty meters behind them, hoping that they would dodge into an alley or something so that he might do what was necessary of him.
He noted that one of them was especially tall, lanky, perhaps even similar to Anderson in build. The other was much shorter. Anderson was not too concerned with that one. He could smell weakness on it. The other, however, was of a different sort. Anderson smiled. He knew this had the potential to be a very enjoyable night.
"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," came his familiar prayer. "Amen."
Next Chapter: Blood, Bones, and the Regenerator
Anderson discovers the identities of these two patrons of the night, another visit to Integra in her cell, and Seras gets off the giant clock! Oh, and Alucard makes an appearance as well. ^.^
Enjoy! Please R&R!