Darkness spread across the room and a myriad of red eyes opened within it. Alucard watched as Alhambra dissolved in a flurry of playing cards to reconstitute himself unharmed. Rip was eying the pieces of her former commander as they began to crawl back toward a central fragment like ghastly slugs. Her lips drew back from her teeth as she stomped on a gobbet near her foot. It flattened under her shoe, but began to reform as soon as she stepped away.
No pieces of the Major had touched the woman on the wall. Alucard considered whether that was accident or intent. He decided that it was intentional. The Major would not want to damage their Magna Mater. It indicated remarkable physical control. Excellent. He wanted to give his enemy a fighting chance, otherwise, this would be over too quickly. He watched as the pieces rejoined their master. The process sped up as more pieces joined the central mass. Soon the Major stood before them, unharmed and smiling.
"Fascinating," came a voice from the shadows. "You will be an interesting challenge."
"Indeed," replied the Major. "I would not expect victory to be easy were I you, Alucard."
Alhambra and Rip felt Alucard's hooks in their souls pull at them. The message was clear. Attack.
ooo
Anderson heard voices. One was the distinctive bass of Hellsing's master vampire. The priest's pulse sped and he hurried toward his enemy.
Anderson's body blocked the door into the room. He took stock of the situation. There were three people in the room that he could see. None of them was Alucard. Two of them were clearly unnatural creatures of darkness in the most literal of senses. The third was a short man in a white coat, facing away from him. It didn't matter. There were no innocents on this ship of the damned, not the vampires, not him, not the Hellsing woman, no one. Anderson was coming to the conclusion that innocence no longer existed in this world of blood and flames.
He didn't understand what scene he had come upon as the two dark demons attacked the third. One threw a flurry of what appeared to be playing cards at the man in white while the other aimed an absolutely enormous...rifle? No, a musket...an enormous musket at the short man.
The cards were an unexpected weapon. Anderson watched in amazement as they slashed across their target, leaving dozens of bleeding wounds across his body. Ah, much like my holy writ.
The sound of the musket was a tremendous explosion in the confined space. The already bleeding man's body jerked as it was hit. It jerked again and again as though hit with a fusillade of bullets when only one shot had been fired. The slim gunner lowered her weapon and watched the continued jerking of the target.
Suddenly the man stilled. He held out his hand and dropped the musket ball on the floor. He looked at his two attackers and spoke for the first time since Anderson had arrived, "Do you feel better now, my lieutenants? Allow me to retort." He lashed out, palms together, and buried his hands in the tall man's chest. No, Anderson revised his thought, his hands had gone through the other man's chest. The small man then spread his hands in what would have been a gracious gesture if he hadn't been up to his elbows in another person's body. Instead, it was a killing gesture which tore his victim in two. The tall man dissipated into shadows which went up like smoke around the man's hands.
He turned. "Lieutenant Van Winkle, it's true that you are in Samiel's clutches, but I can release you. Come to me. Come to me, Rip, and let me free you."
The gunner swayed. From Anderson's vantage it seemed that she wanted to go to him, but was restrained. Her face displayed her emotions clearly. Anderson was surprised to see a demon cry. Black tears rolled down her black face and she snarled toward something he could not see in the shadows in the back of the room. Anderson was transfixed by the confusing drama unfolding before him.
Slowly, she raised her musket again. "My warhead will punish all without distinction." Her voice shook, but her gun did not.
Her opponent shook his head and lunged before she fired. He violently pulled her gun from her hands and threw it behind him. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her face down to his. Anderson heard his quiet, "Aufwiedersehen, Rip," before he savaged her throat and tore her head off of her body. She dissolved into misty shadows.
The victor turned toward the back of the room. "Do you have any more of my people to throw at me, Alucard, or shall we bring this down to just the three of us." Anderson started when the man glanced over his shoulder directly at him. "Did you enjoy the show, Catholic?"
So Alucard is here, is he? "It is a pleasure to watch demons do my work for me. It illustrates why evil can never prevail. It feeds even on itself."
Alucard's laugh drifted from the back of the room like a curse. "No, Major, no more preliminaries. I can't tell you how happy your power makes me!"
Dozens of red eyes shone from the part of the room Anderson had merely thought unlit.
Gunshots rang out. Apparently the sounds of this battle had attracted some of the soldiers left on the blimp. Anderson felt the burn of bullets as they lodged in his flesh. Reluctantly, he turned from Alucard and the Major to deal with more immediate problems.
ooo
Alucard watched the Major as he advanced. What was this man going to do next? He could hear the Judas Priest as he disposed of the trash that had arrived. It was good that he had come. They weren't worthy of his personal attention. The Vatican whipping boy could take care of that filth.
The Major drew a knife from its sheath on his belt. The silver shone on the relatively short blade, a mere eight inches. Apparently the Major feels he has nothing to compensate for. Alucard's laugh rang out unexpectedly.
With a speed that would have staggered Luke Valentine, the Major swept across Alucard's spread out body. The knife drew a line of burning pain along its path and Alucard was surprised to see his blood flowing black from the wound. It was shocking to find a weapon that would injure him in this form. The pain was staggering, which made it all the more welcome.
He reached out with a dozen arms but found that he could not get a grip on the Major. The man was too fast and it seemed as though he knew every place that Alucard's grasp would fall.
"I made use of the best of the experimental findings, Alucard. You expected that, ja?" He ducked in and drew another line of fire across his enemy's "body."
"I acquired a speed to excel that of the elder Valentine." Another burning slash.
"Alhambra's interesting ability to 'go to pieces.'" He cut again, dodging another attempt by the writhing shadows to grab him.
"And Jolene's marvelous use of her opponent's psyche." Instead of another cut, the Major shot his fist into the air and Alucard was overwhelmed with memories.
Mina. She was so strong, so lovely, so rare. He could not resist her from the moment he saw her portrait in Harker's locket. She was to be his true bride. One who came to him of her own will, with her own strengths...
Flashes of their time together came at him fast and furious. Mina in the moonlight. Mina, head thrown back in laughter. Mina, clinging to him as he drank from her. Mina. Mina. Mina.
AND THEY TOOK HER FROM ME!
Mina with the scar of the Eucharist on her forehead. Mina, weeping as she was dragged away from him. Mina, as she grew old and died as he watched from a distance, bound by the damnable Hellsing seals to never come anywhere near her.
The Major stared blankly forward, seeing what Alucard was remembering rather than his enemy's amorphous form writhing in agony before him.
ooo
Things had gone quiet when Anderson returned from his vermin extermination. He didn't expect that Alucard would have finished off the strange German so quickly. He stared as he entered the room and saw the German standing motionless while Alucard's demonic form flailed around randomly. What manner of vile sorcery is this?
It was irrelevant. What mattered was destroying the creatures of darkness before him. Anderson threw a binding spell on the walls before advancing to destroy the first of his remaining enemies.
His holy blades easily removed the Major's head. He was utterly taken by surprise when the man's headless body turned, grabbed him with inhuman strength and threw him against the wall behind Alucard.
ooo
Alucard returned from his memories filled with pain and rage. The paladin flew past him and he heard bones crunch and blood splatter as he hit the wall. The vampire was no longer having fun. Of all the ways to harm him, the Major had found the only one that could take away his delight in mayhem. Alucard was done playing.
His mass rose up like a tidal wave and swept over the Major's body and severed head as the body was reaching for its lost part. They were absorbed into him as though they had never existed. Alucard returned to his more comfortable human form and stood unmoving, staring at the floor while he recovered his emotional equilibrium after the Major's ill-considered attack.
A woman moaned behind him.
He turned to see that Anderson had hit near Geraldine. The dent in the wall made it clear where he had been thrown. There was a clear stain of blood on the wall from where it had sprayed from him on impact. Geraldine was in its path and it had revived her. Anderson was slumped on the floor at her feet. What looked like a thorny vine seemingly grew from her chest and was wrapped around him, feeding from him and taking the blood, the life, to its Mistress. Roses blossomed on the vine and Geraldine's eyes opened and fastened on Alucard.
ooo
The glider circled in the updraft, gaining altitude quickly. "Sir Integra, this craft is capable of taking us practically anywhere in England. It's quite possible we could cross the Channel into France as well, but that is slightly more risky. I'd prefer to stay over land. What are your orders?"
Seras cut in, "We need to get as far from London as we can and we need to find a hospital for Sir Integra." She felt Integra stiffen against her. "I'm sorry, Sir Integra, and I know I keep saying this, but my Master is going to make an even worse mess of the city soon and I am very worried about you and the amount of blood you have lost."
"Birmingham, Walter. There's an airport, a hospital and an armory. We'll take care of all of our priorities in one place." Integra looked over her shoulder at Seras, "If 120 miles isn't far enough from London, I doubt that anywhere will be far enough."
"Birmingham it is, Sir Integra. We'll be there shortly."
A/N Forgive me for the Pulp Fiction quote. Hirano does it often enough and I just couldn't resist. One more chapter, kiddies. I told my SO when he asked back around chapter 11 that I thought it would take two or three more chapters to finish. He asked me again today how long I thought it would take and I told him two or three chapters. According to him, at this rate, I will be writing a five book trilogy. Heaven forfend. This little endeavor has been taxing enough.