Freedom Chapter 18

By J.L. Pitard

Standard disclaimer: All characters belong to Kohta Hirano and his publishers. I have no stake in them...

-------------------------------------

Seras?

Almost there, Master.

Find a back way. I need a count of the undead in the tent.

I'm trying, Two powerful vamps, four or five other vampires, loads of ghouls.

I need a good count, Police Girl. Your mind is a quagmire!

Seras stopped running for a moment. Walter, who had been behind her, stared.

"Miss Victoria, what's wrong?"

She stood with her eyes closed and reached out with her mind. She could see in her mind a circular space. She placed Alucard and Katerina in the space. Then three young vampires in the room. Two more were in a back room and one, quite a bit more powerful than those five, was moving fast towards her. About 10 ghouls were guarding the front of the space.

Good.

She opened her eyes suddenly. Heading towards us? "Walter!" Seras shouldered him out of the way just in time as Pudgy came flying at them. She took an elbow to the head, but dodged his hands. His nails were clawing at air as she fell and roundhouse kicked him. She connected but he stood his ground. He grinned at her, drew a handgun and fired three times before Walter recovered and used his cables to snarl up the gun and Pudgy's arm.

I've been shot, she thought, at close range. She felt the hot lumps of lead in her arm, torso and leg. She waited for pain and death, but aside from some aching, she felt fine. Was she in shock? She stood, reaching for her Casull. Pudgy grabbed at the threads that he was caught in and pulled Walter to the ground. As he stood over the old man, Seras kicked him hard to the head. Blood spurted from his mouth as he turned to snarl at her.

"Pretty little thing thinks she can fight?" He jerked his way free of Walter's wires, severing the hand with the gun as he shrugged to a standing position. He still couldn't look intimidating; he just looked too nerdy for that. Still, he seemed unaffected by the loss of a limb, so he wasn't a wimp.

He went for a mental attack. Seras felt hot needles tear through her mind. She instinctively reached for her head. The Casull dropping with a clatter to the walkway. His laughter started soon after.

In her memory, she heard her Master imploring her to think her way out. Seras tried to block the rush of pain. She held out the memory of getting roses in the front of her thoughts. The pain eased slightly. She met Pudgy's eyes. All the good memories she could call up, she did. Her brain started tingling, but she shut him out. Fat lot of good that will do, she thought. If I block him out mentally, he can still get me with normal attacks. A ball of black force knocked into her stomach, as if to reinforce that she was out gunned. Gunned? What a lovely idea! She thought of her Casull and willed it to her hand. Pudgy closed the space between them with a lunge. Seras used her police training to avoid his attack and to get him off balance. He found himself in front of Walter's prone figure as Seras once again stood over him with her gun point blank, to his head. Only Father Anderson, the Vatican's regenerator, could survive that.

"Goodbye, Pudgy," she said and pulled the trigger. His brains decorated the air, before turning to dust.

---------------------

Katerina screamed. Alucard smiled a very unsettling smile.

"You killed him!" She stared at Alucard, as if she was just realizing that he didn't share her vision of their future. He shot her in the stomach with the Casull. He didn't want to kill her yet, but he was getting tired of not shooting things.

Smythe watched her falling over. "D...d...don't shoot me." He raised his hands automatically, before looking toward Waltham and the remaining vamps. "Help me out, you fools." They were dumbstruck, but Alucard was sure the vamps would get their orders as soon as Katerina recovered enough. Waltham looked at Integra.

"Orders, Sir Hellsing?" He asked.

Integra was unaware that she had any soldiers there. "Get me out of here, you dolt!"

Waltham looked to the Hellsing pet vampire. For the first time, he thought he saw some sign of intelligence in those evil red eyes.

"Keep your weapon on the trash, I'll free her." With a swish of air, Alucard's Casull and a glove were gone. He used his fingernails to cut through the ropes on one side. The Jackal didn't waver from Smythe. Integra set about freeing her other arm and leg.

Smythe turned a lighter shade of pale. Alucard approached him, putting away his Jackal and re-gloving his hands. "Master," he said, keeping his red eyes on the man. Smythe opened his mouth to speak, but Alucard continued, "You haven't given me permission to kill this filth yet."

That seemed to help the man find his voice. "Integra, you can't just kill another Knight!"

A hoarse laugh came from behind the vampire as she managed the last knot. "What was it you said I was to do tonight? To die at the right time?" Her head still hurt like a donkey had kicked it. She stumbled next to Alucard.

Smythe turned to the vampires with Waltham. "Do something," he implored. They shifted nervously. The one closest to Waltham looked away to the table where Katerina was now rising. She looked back at her servant and he nodded. Waltham knew that if he mistimed it, he would be dead. Heck, he might die anyway once the flames caught the tent fabric. Flames shot out as the second vampire turned on him. The third seemed smart enough to run out the back before the fire could catch him. Waltham tried to limit the flame, but the vampires didn't take well to being flambéed. They flailed about in their pain, before turning to dust. That was enough to get the walls and the fabric going. Waltham ran towards Integra and started to drag her out.

She tore her arm away from him to face Smythe and Alucard.

"Do it. However you like." Waltham looked as shocked as Smythe. He had assumed they would give his former boss to the authorities. That was the sort of place he thought Hellsing was. The good guys. Now it was Integra who was dragging him, though she could barely see. Seras and Walter came running through the burning back doorway. Walter ran to Integra. He and Waltham directed her out the front and through the ghoul guards. Some had fallen as their vampire controllers died, but there were still a few confused ones milling about. Gunshots rang out as the Hellsing troops arrived in the large transports.

Inside the tent, Seras rushed to Alucard as he held the trembling man. The sounds of soft chanting at the ritual table were drowned out by screams as Smythe tried to beg the vampires.

"Drink." Alucard held the man firmly in his hands and held him out to Seras.

She looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding truck. Her hesitation angered him, but Alucard decided to reason with her. "He is dead either way. Let his warm blood unlock your powers." The man looked at her and shook his head, whimpering.

Her body started to move closer. Teeth bared, she closed in. She put her hands on his shoulders. Alucard bent the man and held him tight so that she could strike. She was so close, she could smell the expensive aftershave the man had used that morning. Her teeth aimed for his jugular. Her animal needs were fighting with her horror. No, she thought, I am more than this. I am not a monster. She pushed away. Alucard eased the man closer. Smythe passed out from fear.

A red light had begun to gather over the ritual table. It gleamed, reflecting the firelight that was gaining strength and speeding along the tent. The seals on the back of his gloves were starting to glow a matching red and the world was starting to become unreal.

Alucard wanted to watch Seras, but was distracted by the work Katerina was doing. He pushed the foolish 'blood bag' almost on top of her and let go. He looked back at the fire, now burning in unnatural colors to his eyes and figured they only had a few minutes to get outside.

"Releasing control art restriction to level three, level two, level one. Situation B. The Cromwell approval is now in effect. Hold release until targets are silenced."

He looked at Katerina. She was surrounded by the patterns of the seal. Glowing with wispy tendrils of gray smoke, she asked, "Why?" Her voice weak as her lungs were still trying to re-knit.

"I told you that only a human could do it. If a no-life king could control these magics, I would have done so a century ago."

To his eyes, she had turned orange with anger. "You traitor to your kind... you DOG!" He stood looking at her, letting himself appear more wolf than human, but some small remnant of his rational mind counted down the time to escape the very real flames that were threatening the structural integrity of the tent. Police Girl was no longer even trying to eat and sat watching the interaction.

Katerina started a mental attack. Bad choice, he sent that thought along with a torrent from his irrational mind. Somewhere among them, the exact pitch of the scream from the Hellsing cleaning woman who had wandered into his dungeon cell after he had suffered several months of 'redemptive' starvation at the hands of Abraham Van Helsing, leading them to tighten the bonds of the seal to include employees of the family. So many years ago. That scream had been a thing of beauty, even today he relished it as he included it in his onslaught of sights, sounds and thoughts. Katerina's scream was also lovely, but it didn't measure up. She was starting to cough up blood, though and that shook him from his reverie.

"Is that all you have? You Turk bastard! Gypsy whore! Is that it?"

Seras was shocked, but it unleashed a torrent of curses from the other vampire, most of which were in languages that Seras couldn't understand. It ended with something that sounded like "...you dishonor the names Dracul and Tepes." Seras narrowed her eyes. She'd heard him called that before at the meeting.

Go, now, Police Girl.

Seras lifted the fallen Knight, still living but like dead weight, onto her shoulder and started to head out the only exit the fire hadn't torn into yet. She looked back.

Alucard walked towards Katerina, upending the table between them. He entered the red light surrounding her. Alucard embraced her, and then pulled away, looking down at her small frame. "Thank you, Princess." She searched his eyes, confused. His arm thrust quickly through her chest; his hand exiting with her heart. Seras thought he looked supremely happy.

His look changed when he turned and saw her. His eyes burned in an insane manner. No, she thought, we can't fight; we've got to escape. He strode up to her as if they weren't in a burning circus tent. He pointed at the man she carried. "It can' t be allowed to live." She shook her head, trying to decide if she should try to save the man.

Alucard plucked the man from her shoulder and tore him nearly in two. He dropped the body in front of her. Blood and entrails showered Seras. Alucard licked his fingers, turned and left her there, his shoulders slumping slightly. Targets eliminated, he communicated.