Order 5: Hell's Gate
London, England - Present Day
Finished his evening duties, Walter had retreated to his private reading room next to his own quarters in the Hellsing mansion. He had been their steward since he left the Royal Protestant Organization several years after the war ended. But no matter how long it had been, he had never forgotten his time in Poland.
"Rain, I knew someday you would wake up..." He whispered to himself as he sat near his desk.
"Who is Rain?" A voice asked behind him. Walter went silent; he knew who it was without having to turn around. Celes stood the doorway, looking to Walter whose solemn gaze had fallen to the floor.
"She was an orphaned fallen angel." He said as Celes came into the room. "I had met her in Poland during World War II when she had been searching for her Master who had been kidnapped by Nazi's. When I saw the photos that Lady Integral had, I knew it was her. She had a certain way of killing her enemies." "Is she hunting because of the Anti-Semitism?" Celes asked. "And what do the FREAK chips have to do with her? Why is she collecting them?"
Celes's mind raced with questions of the mysterious girl that she wished to know more about. Walter's gaze rose as he turned to look at Celes. "Although she hates the Nazi's for what they did, Anti-Semitism isn't her main reason for hunting. The first FREAK chips had been developed during World War II by Nazi scientists. They were created using the original DNA taken from a captured Vampire that they had obtained."
It took a moment for Celes to piece two and two together. "It was her Master, wasn't it?" She asked, her eyes widening.
"Yes. Pieces of him were used to create the first FREAK chips and because of that they are all she has left. She hunts for her Master." He explained, leaning back in his chair as Celes found a place to sit. "But you said that she would one day wake up. What did you mean?" Celes questioned. "It's a long story." Walter replied. "Not you're typical bedtime tale..."
"Please Walter...I want to hear it." She pleaded, knowing that finally hearing the truth of Rain's past would aid in stopping her. Walter took a deep breath and sighed, turning to look at the dim light of the lamp upon his desk.
"I met her in Treblinka, Poland. She was searching for clues that would lead her to her Master. When she discovered that her Master was being kept at the Auschwitz Death Camp, I couldn't let her go alone..."
The day itself had been uneventful. Walter slept with his back against the wall near Rain's cot and as Rain wished, no one had disturbed her. As soon as night had fallen, Rain's eyes were open and she was preparing her next move. "So where are we off to next?" Walter asked, watching as Rain check the ammunition in her guns and put them into their holsters.
"'We' aren't going anywhere." Rain said. "'I' am going to Auschwitz."
"Auschwitz? That's over 200 miles away." Walter said.
"Yes and if that Nazi bastard was right, my Master is there." Rain answered, walking into the hidden basement room with the entrance to the upper part of the house. Quickly Walter jumped to his feet from his position on the floor, brushing himself off as he followed her to the staircase. "It's suicide to go to Auschwitz alone." He said sternly, stepping into her path. "I'm going with you."
"I don't need your pity-" She hissed.
"No, but you need my help. I'm going with you." Walter replied, pushing himself forward so that they were face to face.
"If you get in my way, I'll kill you." "Fine." Walter answered, moving out of her way. Baring her fangs she turned away and began to walk up the stairs to the entrance, where she left, not even acknowledging the Jews that had helped her.
'She excites me.' Walter heard the cool voice of Alucard whisper over his shoulder. Although he would usually reply to him, this time Walter said nothing. They definitely had a differing opinion of Rain. His job was to stop any FREAKS; Alucard's was to silence any vampire who didn't live up to his level of worthiness of being a child of the night. How did Alucard see Rain? To Walter, her quest was a noble one. She was a strong fighter and he knew that she did respect life. If she didn't, she would have allowed Christoph to die. She had a heart, and a part of her was human. She knew her heritage and she was proud of it.
But what was Alucard thinking? The mysterious vampire whom he knew personally little about, but entrusted his life, seemed oddly taken with the vampire girl. Perhaps it was the fact that Alucard had not seen one of his true kin in a long time. Being a vampire was one thing, but living up to its true name was another. Time after time, Alucard had fought pitiful vampires who knew nothing of what it meant to be a true No Life King. Although Rain was only a child, perhaps Alucard knew her true intentions. Her dedication to the night and the honoring of her heritage proved to him that she was worthy to live.
"Lord Walter?" Walter was suddenly jarred by his thoughts by Christoph's voice behind him. Looking around over his shoulder, he saw the Jewish boy standing there, supported by his Aunt who helped him stand. "I couldn't help but overhear that you were heading to Auschwitz. My sister had been sent there over a month ago – although I pray every night, I fear that she is lost to this world. Most women and other specially selected prisoners are sent there by cattle train every week on this night to that camp. If you go north from our home, you may find the train that goes there. All you have to do is wait at the tracks." Christoph said. Walter's eyes widened for a moment and then softened as he nodded.
"Thank you." He answered, turning to face the young Jewish boy.
"No, it is I who should be thanking you. I am in your debt forever."
Walter nodded and then followed in the direction Rain had gone. Making their way north towards the train tracks, they left the safe haven of the Jews behind, perhaps never to see Christoph and his family again. But Walter thought of them, hoping that they would finally be able to live in peace. Waiting for the train to come, no words were spoken and honestly, Walter didn't know what to say. It had been well into late evening before he heard the rumble of a nearing train, another train transporting the Jewish prisoners like cattle. Even though Rain hid behind an expression set in stone so the pity that she held for the human captives would remain concealed from Walter, but somehow he knew. Silently and swiftly as the train approached and passed, they jumped aboard, remaining between the cars so that they weren't seen by the soldiers who guarded the Jews. There wasn't a time when Rain didn't feel the other 'presence' follow them. She knew it to be Alucard, the vampire who had made himself known to her the previous day by putting a gun to her head. But at no time did she say anything. Enough was said during her dream where he made it clear that she was saving him from his boredom. Everything was a game. That fact disgusted her and she prayed inside that she would never have to see him again. Pulling her jacket in closer to her chest as the train sped down the tracks, she leaned against the front of the car, trying to keep her balance upon the metal ledge. Mile after mile passed like a blur as she felt herself growing closer to her destination.
'Master... I am coming...' She thought to herself, her hair whipping around her. Closing her eyes for a moment, she let her mind drift away from the world. She took a deep breath in and then exhaled out slowly.
'Rain...'
She opened her eyes and looked up. Her eyes widened as she came face to face with her Master. But something was wrong. His beautiful silver and red eyes had been ripped from their sockets as scars crisscrossed across his face. She jerked forward, a panicked cry escaping her lips and suddenly her eyes flew open again and the image was gone. But before she realized that she had been dreaming, she pushed away from the train car and lost her balance, nearly falling down between the cars. Quickly, Rain's hand was caught by Walter's. Staring down at the moving tracks below her as Walter pulled back up, Rain could do nothing but shake with fear filled disbelief.
"Rain? Are you alright?" Walter asked, pulling her back beside him. "Y-Yeah... I'm fine." She said timidly, taking a deep breath as she looked away from him. There was moments pause before she continued: "Thanks..."
"Hey, don't worry about it. I knew you were going to need my help." Walter smiled. Suddenly Rain looked at him, surprise in her eyes. "You just can't seem to keep yourself out of trouble." Walter grinned and then laughed, and within a few moments, Rain, without realizing it, had a small smile tugging at the corner of the mouth. "Ah, I knew you had a smile there somewhere." He teased and she smiled a little more. Perhaps the journey wouldn't be so long, after all.
The passing countryside became nothing but a haze as the night pushed on, but at all times, Rain knew how close they were getting. A familiar feeling deep in her chest hauled her forward and she knew for a fact that she was finally going in the right direction. Several hours before the dawn of day, the train began to slow on its approach hell's gates – the entrance to Auschwitz. Rain's heart began to race as both she and Walter stood. "How shall we introduce ourselves?" Walter asked, pressing his back against the back of the cattle car, Rain beside him. Reaching down she withdrew her guns from the holsters and readied them. "The best way we know how." She replied. Simultaneously as the train passed the gates and gradually came to a stop at the inner station of the camp, both Walter and Rain spun around the corners of the cattle cars on either side of the train and opened fire on the unsuspecting guards. Steel wire and bullets whipped through air and as the siren of the camp began to ring out; all the guards within the court yard lay dead.
"Let's go." Walter said.
The killing hospital was even more horrid than the one in Treblinka. As Rain and Walter burst in through the doors, killing the soldiers as they did, Rain stopped dead in her tracks for a moment, sniffing the air as her pupils grew small.
"I can feel him." Rain said, walking inside. Coming upon a flight of stairs, her pace quickened and she wasted no time in descending. Faster her steps became and as she reached the basement, she did not wait for Walter to burst into the only door at the bottom. As the door flew open, several startled doctors turn to face it. Rain entered, pointing her guns at them. They were gathered around a steel table that supported something covered by a large bloodied sheet that at one time or another could have been white. "Get away from that table!" Rain hissed, her grip tightening on the triggers. She stepped forward, her eyes tracing slowly around the room without her target faltering. Next to the table and doctors was a smaller table. On top of it was a holder where several vials with FREAK chips were being kept. The doctors obeyed Rain's command, putting their hands up in immediate surrender as they backed away from the table and allowing Walter, who was standing several feet behind Rain, to take over. With some manipulation, the doctors had no choice to be still since now; wires of steel were wrapped around their necks and upper bodies. Alucard, who had appeared unannounced beside Walter, was now pointing his gun at their heads.
Rain's heart stopped, her face visibly paling more so than before. Silence gripped her as she walked into the now opened room. Like the room in Treblinka, the walls were covered with photos of bloody dissections, but this time, they were familiar. Rain, with an expression of both confusion and hurt, looked up to the pictures before her – they were photos of experiments done on Frost. She could say nothing as she suddenly found her arms grow weak. The guns dropped to the floor and Rain could do nothing but stare, her eyes filled with shock.
'Rain...'
Immediately she spun around towards the sheet covered table in the center of the room. A panicked breath escaped her lips as her eyes traced the outline of a torso and head beneath the sheet. Where the mouth was, she saw the fabric of the sheet rise and fall. Several tears rolled down over her pale cheeks. Walter was silent as he watched her tears trace half way down her cheek, suddenly stopped before they reached the line of her chin. There they stopped and at that moment, Walter noticed the sudden change in room temperature. It had suddenly become so cold, that he could see his own breath rising from his lips. The tears upon Rain's cheek hadn't simply stopped; they had frozen, leaving small icy flecks upon her skin below her eyes. Rain's quivering breath rose up before her, the moisture crystallizing into thousands of tiny shards which hung gently in the air for several moments before floating with the graze of soft snow to her feet. A trembling hand reached out, pulling back the sheet. Her world immediately shattered like glass as her eyes fell upon the defiled body of her master. No longer did he have arms or legs and what was left of the body he did have, was nothing more than stitched together pieces.
"Rain..."
Rain's trembling hand reached forward slowly towards Frost's scarred face.
"This cannot be reality..." She asked with traces of franticness in her voice as her eyes looked about at his defiled body. Her knees went weak and she now leaned against the operating table for support. His silvery red eyes, strangely left untouched after the experiments inflicted upon his now ravaged body, looked back at the face of his pupil, child and lover.
"Rain..." He opened his mouth and whispered. "D-drink..."
"Shhhhh... Master... You mustn't speak." Rain replied, her voice trembling as she held her finger tips to his lips in protest as worry enveloped the expression on her face. "We need to get you out of here. You need to feed."
"There is no time..." He answered his voice rough and tired. "You... must drink my blood."
Rain's eyes widened in surprise, her Master's command was unthinkable. "Master..."
"Rain... I command you." Frost continued, showing no signs of pain as he lay in Rain's arms. He seemed as though his entire being was at peace now that he had been reunited with his lost child. "You must drink my blood... only then will you become a true No Life King and be free of the mortal chains that bind you."
Time stopped as she stared at her Master with growing fear in her teary eyes. "You can't leave me again..." She sobbed her voice cracking as she spoke. Although Walter only knew her for little over two days, it pained him to see her like this.
'I will never leave you' His voice caressed her mind as tears filled her half shut eyes. The feeling was gentle, but did not reassure. Her thoughts trembled at its touch as it tried to calm her. 'It is my time to leave this plane... My soul will travel the night sky forever... We are eternal... We will see each other again... I promise you. Grant me my last wish. Drink my blood.'
Good-bye --- You have gone to the place where we can never meet again
I can't accept the coldness of the eternal parting
I wish I could have heard from you
That I had certainly been loved by you
Only once, even if it had been a lie
-Ayumi Hamasaki
He leaned his head back, revealing the dirtied skin of his neck. His mental touch enticed her forward and she could do nothing but follow one last time. Rain leaned forward, her jaw twitching as she the fangs sinking into his soft flesh. Hot blood immediately hit the roof of her mouth, and it was that a wave of complete pleasure would follow in it wake. The sound of Frost's heart beat echoed in her ears. She could hear every faint breath he took as if it was apart of her own thoughts. Walter could do nothing but watch as Rain fed from Frost. But within a few short seconds, that almost seemed to extend off into an eternity; she drew back, her lips coated with blood, and the pupils of her crimson eyes shrinking to small black pinpoints. It was as if she had taken some sort of hallucinogenic human drug. Her Master's figure blurred while colors danced in front of her eyes. Her blurring vision was left with enough clarity to witness the last breaths of Frost's life before she was carried away into a dreamlike state of blood lust due to that oncoming change. Against her control his figure suddenly became light in her hands and without warning, disintegrated into nothing but a mound of white sand and dust on the floor at her knees. Sounds of panic escaped her lips as a deep rooted piece of herself suddenly crumbled. She reeled back from her Master's remains, the grip of the change about to take hold. It was hot, as if there was some sort of fire traveling through her veins. It was familiar and she knew exactly what it felt like. It felt like the power she felt when she touched Frost. Now that power was concentrated into every vein in her body. His power pushed through her with every pump of her heart. It caused her perception of reality to spin as she looked about the room around her; the walls were almost completely covered with pictures of how they had experimented on him. Up until this time, everyone within the room had been dead silent. With a combination of Alucard holding a gun to their heads and Walter keeping his deadly wires around several of their necks, the scientist and doctors had co-operated without any trouble.
"Rain...?" Walter asked his eyes wide. Never had he had witnessed the change of a half vampire to a No Life King. He looked to Alucard who was looking to Rain as well, his lips curled into a smile of pure amusement and Walter, for the life of him could not understand why.
Rain could hear his voice; it was recognizable but sounded different than before. It was sharper and when her gaze connected with his, there was a visual difference as well. As she stared at Walter, she could slowly begin to see each line of veins beneath his visible skin beginning to glow a dim red. She could see them pumping with blood... She needed blood. Rain turned her body towards the group from her position on the floor. Her eyes were locked on Walter and he knew exactly what was on her mind. With the grace of a cat, she began to crawl towards him. Quickly Walter shot Alucard another glance, but received no reaction from the vampire who continued to stare at the girl. Gradually in her movement, Rain rose to her feet and walked forward, black hair hanging in front of her eyes. She stopped only feet from them and simply stared forward at the 16 year old member of the Royal Protestant Organization. Without warning her figure shot forward. Walter wasn't even ready for it. He reeled back away from her, soon to realize that she didn't want him at all. She pushed past him in a blur. She was after the doctors. Alucard stepped back, not phased in the least as more blood splattered the walls by Rain's hand. Walter's eyes were wide once again as he watched her reach through each of their chests, grabbing the hearts within and ripping them from their bodies with one hand and decapitating them with the other. He, like Alucard, had seen carnage before, but it simply surprised him that it was Rain causing it in this way. Within moments, not one doctor was left standing in the room. At the center of the body parts and blood, stood Rain licking the blood off of her hands.
"Rain..." Walter whispered. Immediately her gaze shot to him. She hissed, baring her fangs before she turned, her body suddenly dispersing into a black cloud of mist. Walter thought she had vanished completely from the world until the near closed door next to them was torn off its hinges and thrown to one side. Without a word to Alucard, he pursued. Running back up the stairs after her he went. It was easy to follow her because of the soldier's corpses that laid in her wake.
"Rain!!" Walter shouted, leaving the grounds of the hospital and into the snow and cover of the neighboring black forest near the gates of the camp. He could see her tracks. He saw how they went from perfect imprints in the snow to stumbling marks and then to almost a distinguishable crawl. Within moments, he was in a small clearing of trees that was covered by snow. Her black jacket and hair were contrast to the ivory drifts that looked almost blue by the light of the winter moon. Sprawled out in the snow, she was lying like a broken doll. As Walter drew closer he could see that she clenching something in her hand. She was holding another vial containing a FREAK chip and he wasn't sure whether or not it was the same one she had taken from the doctor in Treblinka or one from the room within the hospital. Walter walked forward and stopped only feet away from her unconscious body. He knelt down, pity stirring within him.
"You never wanted the gift did you?" Walter said solemnly, reaching out to brush a strand of hair away from her pale face. "You just wanted Frost..."
"What happened to her?" He demanded to know, his eyes filled with concern as he looked over his shoulder from the unconscious girl to Alucard.
"Rain has become a true Master of the Night, a No Life King." Alucard answered. Walter looked back. The blood on her face had almost completely evaporated from her pale skin, leaving no imperfection.
"We have to get her back to Lord Hellsing." Walter informed.
"No." The Vampire said. "If you return with her to Lord Andrew, you will forfeit her freedom. She is not yours to take, Angel of Death, Walter."
Dear my love, how did you wanted to be with me?
Dear my love, how did you want to be free?
I can't keep pretending that I don't even know you and
At sweet night, you are my own.
- Amy Lee
Author's Note:
After much time, I have finally been able to re-edit this chapter to my liking. Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are finally all taken care of. I hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.