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
