Hellsing: Amen
by Notan Rappa

Chapter 9: Seras's Defiance

Alucard looked from the still figure of Walter to the weeping figure of Integra. His eyes narrowed.
"Being with such exceptionally strong humans for such a long time, I seem to have almost forgotten just how weak humans really are." He looked down at Integra, who looked back up at him with a tear streaked face.
"Alucard, take us back to the Hellsing mansion. That's...an order." Alucard nodded, and picked her and Walter up. As they disappeared, the room shimmered for a moment, and then stood still. A few minutes later, a guard looked into the room and saw Integra at her desk, diligently working on her paperwork.

A few hours later...

Seras had to kill him. He had seen her drinking the blood of his dog. And why, if she had to kill him, should he go to waste? Besides she was still thirsty.
'Gee, I sure do need a lot of this stuff.' Seras thought to herself. She burned the bodies, and afterwards, wondered if it would be a lot simpler if she just locked herself up in her room. 'Sure would keep me from killing off the men. I don't mean to, well, I do, sorta, but not on purpose. I just can't control myself sometimes. And fresh blood tastes so much better than that old donated stuff.'

Meanwhile...

"Will he be all right?"
"I believe he will, master." Integra nodded, and stood up.
"Let's let him rest, then."
"You seem like you could get some rest, too, master. Fancy political jail cell or not, I doubt those beds are very comfortable."
"But what if they check in and find me gone? I have to go back. Plus there is the paperwork..."
"I have taken care of it. If they look inside your cell, they will see what they want to see. A quiet, content Integra, working quietly and contentedly at
the paperwork she so desperately wants to finish." Integra looked at Alucard, who in turn looked back at her. No words passed between them, simply an understanding of one's silent thanks and the other's quiet acceptance.
Their wordless conversation was interrupted by a loud shouting coming from
the foyer downstairs.

"What in blazes is going on!" Integra yelled, running from the room. Alucard hovered on the ground next to her.
"Don't overexert yourself, master." he said quietly. Integra burst from the room and walked briskly down the stairs. She managed to hear the general meaning of the shouting...
"Vampire!" "Monster!" "Murderer!" "Beast!" She heard the voice of one of the men shouting out through the din...
"She did not! Where's your proof?"
"Stop this shouting now, all of you!" Integra yelled. The effect was amazing. The crowd grew so quite, you could have heard a pin hurtling its way down to the floor. As she walked through them to the center of the commotion, they moved aside, none of them daring to speak. When the last of them parted, Integra saw a nervous, and somewhat angry looking, Seras, backed up into a corner. "Just what exactly is this all about?"
"She killed two men, and some of our pets to feed her unnatural blood lust!"
"Prove it!" yelled the one man. At this the entire crowd started yelling again.
"QUIET!" Integra yelled. Everyone went silent. Integra reached out a hand and gripped the wall to steady herself. That yell had taken up quite a bit of what little energy she had left. 'Maybe Alucard is right.' she thought. 'Have to get this sorted out first, though.' She turned to the men.
"You." she said, pointing at one of the men at random. He snapped to attention. 'Good. Their discipline isn't too badly degraded.' "At ease. What exactly are the accusations against Miss Victoria?"
"She killed and drank two men and two animals. The men were Pvt. Gary Hall and Sgt. David Ray. The animals were Sgt. Ray's dog, Maggie, and my cat, Romeo. Ma'am." Integra turned to Seras.
"What do you have to say about this, Seras?"
"I have no idea what they are talking about. I did no such thing." Seras smiled to herself. She was proving to be a fairly proficient liar. Integra turned back to the men.
"I believe Seras. I don't believe she is capable of harming anyone of you."
"Ya, but you're biased!"
"Integra is right! Seras wouldn't do something like that!" yelled that one man who Integra remembered to be Pvt. Jason Trelore. The men yelled at him, obviously not believing a word of it.
Alucard appeared out of nowhere, in-between Seras and the men. He turned to Seras.

"Well, Seras?" The men grew quiet once again. "Did you kill those me? Tell me the truth." 'And will she obey me,' he wondered, 'or will she finally defy me?'
Seras looked down at the floor. She couldn't lie. Not to Alucard. Not to her master! Then Seras remembered in her dream, Alucard telling her that he was no longer her master. She bit her lip. She scrunched up her face in anger, lifted up her head and stared directly into Alucard's fiercely cold eyes. Her gaze never wavered.
"How can you ask that? Of course I didn't kill them! I can barely stand to drink donated blood, you all know that! Why then do you suddenly think I would be willing to drink from the living?"
Alucard smiled to himself. 'Hahaha! Her gaze! So cold and defiant! Oh
it makes my blood boil! At last she accepts her true nature
!'
"We...thought...maybe...well, since..." One of the soldiers stuttered.
"Oh give it a rest!" yelled Seras, now turning her gaze on the man, who cringed away from her; away from her gaze. She walked through the crowd to her bedroom. No one said anything for a moment. Everyone watched silently as Seras walked to her room. One thing that everyone in that room agreed on; that Seras wasn't the same person anymore.
"She is innocent. Bother her no longer." Alucard's voice was barely above a whisper, but everyone in the room heard him clearly, and understood just as clearly the unspoken threat.

Later, in Integra's room...

"What are you so happy about?" Integra asked Alucard, feeling jealous that he could smile after that loud ordeal, while all she got from it was a splitting headache.

"She finally defied me! Resisted me! She is now a true vampire, in both body and spirit!"
"How did she defy you?" Integra really really didn't want to know the answer. She knew that the answer would only serve to make her headache worse. However, she had asked.

"I told her to tell me the truth about those men..."
"Are you saying that she did kill those men?" Integra's earlier intuition was correct. Her headache was now the size of a smallish planet. Alucard smiled. Integra sighed. "Then I shall have to figure out a way to control her."
"That would not be a good idea."
"Because you don't like it?"
"No. She is already learning to control to her appetite. You failed to order those extra blood packets. Also, if you put controls on her at this early stage of her development, she will not gain any new strength or power."
"So what? I doubt we are going to need anything more powerful. I'm confident that there is no single threat so great that you can't handle it alone." Alucard just stood there for a moment, then turned and headed for the door. When he reached the doorway, he stopped, and looked up.
"I have a feeling..." he said slowly, quietly, "...that you are wrong." He reached out for the doorknob. "Get some rest tonight, master." With that, he closed the door. In the dark Integra got dressed for bed, and as she did so, she thought about her encounter with Incognito, Walter's condition, Seras' developing power, and now this new, cryptic comment that seemed to indicate that there was something out there even more powerful than Alucard. As she got in under the covers, thinking about these things, she thought to herself, 'How can he possibly expect me to get any sleep now?'
As it turned out, it didn't matter. She fell asleep moments later, exhaustion winning out over worry.
End Chapter 9