Integra continued to stare at Walter. Why hadn't he destroyed Seras? She knew full well that the wires could slice through bone as easily as flesh. Were those locks as inpenetrable as the Major thought? Walter's face betrayed nothing.
The mad doctor was standing over Seras. She was an interesting subject. The shadowy appendage seemed unhindered by the wires that were cruelly cutting into the rest of her body. The puddle of blood she was resting in was spreading. Doc couldn't resist stooping down and dipping a finger in it. Bringing his finger to his mouth, his eyes closed behind his odd lenses and a rapturous expression spread over his face. "Major, you really must try this, she is simply delicious."
Seras was revolted. Pip spoke up and she was surprised to hear herself speaking the words to the creep standing over her, "We're not a steak you pervert." Hush you twit, don't piss them off until we know what's going on. She tried to see past the man leaning over her. She could just see Sir Integra on her knees with her hand strangely held in the air. Well, at least we know where she is. What do we do now?
Doc was looking down at her, muttering to himself. "What to do with the little girl? She's all tied up right now. Probably for the best, but how do I get her belowdecks? Ah, yes." He stopped muttering and looked her in the eye. "You will be released from the wires. You will cooperate and come with me or Walter," he stepped aside to give her a clear view, "will begin to remove pieces of Fraulein Hellsing, starting with her right hand."
Walter! Seras had to force herself not to cry out to him. How could he? What was wrong with him? Seras, he's not the old Walter, look at him. He's young. Seras looked more closely and realized that she was seeing another vampire - the movement, the speed, the youth - this was Walter at his prime, even beyond his prime with the vampiric enhancements. When had they done this to him and how?
The Major had stepped closer to drink up the pain that would inevitably come from Seras' understanding of Walter's new position in unlife. He was not disappointed, but was intrigued by the way her face seemed to show two different sets of facial expressions, flashing across her visage with no real constancy. "My dear, you seem to be of two minds about this."
Rage had always been a means of opening Seras to her vampiric heritage. She reached for the rage while trying to keep enough presence of mind to focus it properly.
Learn or die, Police Girl. That has always been the way.
Master? Her focus was lost as she saw the bats crest the zeppelin and rush toward them. She had enough time to hope for rescue when they continued past without slowing and swarmed through the opening that led to the interior of the craft. Looking up at the Doc and Major she saw two different reactions. The Doc's face registered fear above all else, while the Major's rapturous expression was almost obscene.
He clapped his hands together and turned. "I must go welcome our star performer. Doc, get the women inside and don't forget our new toy." He gestured to Schroedinger and they headed for the entrance.
Integra had not looked away from Walter during this entire exchange. She knew that Alucard was now inside the zeppelin, but his failure to stop and help her was a clear sign of his freedom from servitude to the Hellsing family. She could not count on him. Seras was wounded and bound. She could expect no help from that quarter. She was on a blimp floating above London with no hope of anyone else reaching her. Walter was a vampire and seemingly under the full control of Millenium. Integra's options had become scarce.
Wait. Walter was a vampire. He had been a vampire for only a few hours. A brand new vampire would have virtually no control over its bloodlust, that was a learned skill. Seras had been lucky in that she hadn't been exposed to massive bloodshed right after turning. Walter was in a different situation. Would the pressure of her presence and words combined with the overwhelming vampiric instinct for blood perhaps be enough to get through those damned locks?
"Walter, it's me, Integra. You practically raised me. You've been my closest confidante, the closest thing I have to a friend. Let me go. Remember your duty to me and to the Queen. Let me go!" There were only a few ways this could end and Integra was tired of waiting for it to finish. She glanced back to get an idea of where she had dropped Anderson's blade, when Walter tightened the wire on her wrist as a warning, instead of freezing, Integra pulled against the wire. She had remembered correctly, the wires did cut through bone as easily as flesh.
Seras moaned when she saw Integra's desperate act. There was so much blood. She watched helplessly as Integra reached behind herself for something.
Oh God, there was so much blood. She focused on the blade, she must get to the blade. As her fingers closed on the handle, she felt hands on her, pulling her and she lost her hold. Fingers scrabbled across her body and she was wrenched around to see Walter's face twisted into an expression of hunger she would remember in her nightmares. She felt a small amount of triumph in realizing that he had released his hold on Seras' wires to come feed from her. He pressed his face to the source of the blood and began to feed, making small noises like a hungry animal. It was horrible to watch, made more so by knowing that she was going to slam a silver blade through his heart. She reached behind her again and managed to find and grab the weapon once more."In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished..."
Rage, fear, pain and the scent of Hellsing blood opened the pathways Seras needed. She allowed her shadow wing to spread, she drew the shadow into herself, remaking herself as a creature of pure shadow. Slipping the wires was nothing. All she need do was will it. She moved toward Integra, but it seemed that the scene between Integra and Walter would be played out before she could get there.
"...into eternal damnation. Amen." the prayer was completed by the man kneeling in front of her. Walter was no longer feeding from her. He had hold of her stump, but rather than bathing in the flowing blood, he had wrapped his hands around her wrist and was applying pressure to slow the bleeding. "Sir Integra, if you'd be so kind as to kill me after I finish your tourniquet? May I have your tie?"
Seras wasn't sure whether she should believe what she was seeing, but there were too many matters to be dealt with. It was easier to believe that Walter was helping Sir Integra than that he'd been the one who cut off her hand in the first place. One thing at a time.
She raised herself into the general shape of a human form and turned on the mad scientist.
"No." Doc didn't believe it. "You're too young to do this. You can't do this. You can't do this!" He backed away from her and into a wall. A wall? He looked behind him and up.
"And where do ye think ye're going?" Alexander Anderson smiled down at the already terrified vampire and clamped his hands in a cruel grip on his arms. Only someone as inhumanly strong as the paladin could restrain a vampire in this manner.
Seras found that bringing her body back from shadow form was not as difficult a task as the initial change had been. Her body remembered itself solid much more than as a shadow and it remembered being whole more than it remembered being maimed. When she resolidified, she had two good arms, but still only one eye. Sorry, luv, I think that part is my fault. She stalked up to the Doc but gave her attention to the paladin restraining him. "Are you going to try to kill me now?" She was unconsciously flexing and stretching her newly regained arm.
"No, not right now, she-devil, I was here for your master and just happened upon your moment of need."
"Good, can you give me a moment before you go kill my Master?" He nodded curtly and she turned away. "Sir Integra," she called, "is it really him?"
Integra looked at Walter's face as he busied himself with stopping her bleeding and bandaging the stump of her right arm. She was very weak from blood loss, but thought she could trust her judgement on this. "I think so, Seras, at least for now. That bastard in front of you did this to him, though."
Seras looked at the Doc. "What did you do to Walter and what are you carrying on this zeppelin? I know it's horrible, what the hell is it?"
The Doc shook his head at her. He remembered himself and stood tall, "I'll tell you nothing. The Angel of Death will be ours again, your master will be destroyed and we will overcome."
Seras only looked at him. Anderson watched with interest to see what this surprising little creature would do next.
I don't want that evil sod inside me.
I don't really want him either. I don't do guys, but he has the intel. Knowledge is power, Seras and we don't have much time.
Do you think we can crush him between to two of us and just get the memories?
I don't know. I've never done this before.
Okay, I'll do it, but let's consider ourselves in battle mode. He comes in, we crush him and take only what we need.
Yes sir! and a moment of shared laughter.
Anderson watched as Seras finished whatever train of thought she'd been riding. From the smirk that flitted across her face, he could guess it had been interesting, at least.
Seras moved still closer to the Doc until her body was pressed against his. She wrapped her arms around his neck to pull his head down to her and spoke intimately in his ear, "Do you know, that before tonight I never fed from a living being? I didn't want to be a monster. I could barely bring myself to drink medical blood. But you and your monsters have changed that. If I have to be a monster to help the people I love, I'll be a monster." Her face changed and she buried it in Doc's throat. He tried to pull away, but he was as helpless as a human in her grip.
Anderson stepped back in disgust. It was one thing to lend a bit of aid to the Hellsings during this time of war, it was entirely different to be party to this unholy feeding. It seemed that the pretty monster didn't need his help any longer anyway. He turned away from her as she savaged the other vampire. His gaze fell on Integra where she was being tended to by her retainer. Helping the wounded was more within God's purview. He crouched down by the fallen knight. She was pale from blood loss, but Walter was a veteran with many years of field medic experience under his belt. If they could get Integra some real medical care, she would pull through.
Walter was another matter. Anderson had missed the revelations regarding the butler. It now struck him that this man, while still the familiar Hellsing family retainer, was greatly changed. When Walter glanced up at him from his work, the source of the change was clear. Anderson hissed between his teeth and reached into his coat.
"No! Paladin Anderson," Integra's voice was weak, but clear and still commanding, "if you kill him, you are likely killing me as well. I am certain that there are many more enemy vampires you can destroy inside this ship."
Anderson struggled with himself. This had been a night of wracking changes for him. He had helped the Hellsing woman. He had defied an archbishop. He had betrayed so much that he believed in. He was a true disciple of Judas. But he had done all these things because at the time, they had seemed right and that to do otherwise would have been to sin. He stared at Integra and then stood and walked away, murmuring, "Apostle yet not apostle. Disciple yet not disciple. Believer yet not believer. Traitor yet not traitor. God help me." Anderson's form disappeared into the zeppelin.
Integra looked for Seras. She was lying on the ground, curled around herself. Integra couldn't tell from where she was what was wrong with the young vampire. "Walter, I'll be alright here for a moment. Go see to Seras." She watched him walk over to the fallen girl, wondering if he was really back or if things would change once more.