Nora looted the Gunners, procuring what was essentially an armory's worth of guns and ammo among other supplies, and we moved on shortly after. I offered to carry them for her, but she said that she wanted to do it herself. She told me that she would trade them to the Brotherhood for caps and other items. We were nearly at the Cambridge Police station where Nora's liaison to the Brotherhood, one 'Paladin' Danse was. I had mostly stuck to the south central and south east part of America during the last fifty years after returning from Mexico, and hadn't heard much news on this particular faction. Something about it did have an almost imperceptible familiarity to it though.
"We're here." Nora called out breathlessly as we arrived at what looked to be a fortified brick and mortar building. There were around half a dozen heavily armed and armored people milling around the perimeter of the compound. They were using what looked like a newer version of the power armor that Colter had been wearing when I tore out his heart. I doubted it would put up much more resistance than his had.
"Fancy armor." I noted as we were waived inside, one of the guards giving me a sidelong glance.
"Power armor, energy weapons, you name it they got it. Even have a huge blimp near the airport." Nora explained as she adjusted her hoard.
"It's not a blimp, it's an airship." One of the male members of the Brotherhood corrected from the doorway to the police station. He had his helmet off, revealing a rugged, if handsome, man. Though the hood he had on detracted from it.
"Psh, I know, Danse. Just teasin' ya." Nora gave a short chuckle and knocked a fist into the armored chest of Danse. Something was off about him. His blood smelled wrong. I couldn't place it exactly, but it was vastly different than a normal human.
Danse cleared his throat. "Yes, well. It's a good thing you're here, recruit. Elder Maxson wants to meet with you. Your, ah," He spared me a brief glance. "companion, is of course welcome to accompany you." That name struck a chord with me. Maxson. The only Maxson I knew was in California and had likely been dead for over a hundred fifty years.
Then it clicked. Roger Maxson was the man I had crossed paths with him just after the bombs dropped. He had been leading a large group of people to some bunker and lost his wife about a month before I met him. I helped him get through the four month journey to the bunker before I departed for South America, following up a lead on Alucard. Roger had been the first human that I had ever met that hadn't outright thought I was lying or hated me when I told them what I was. He was also the first man I had grown to love since Pip. I hated leaving him, even more so once I had gotten to my destination some years later.
The lead had turned out to be a bust and it had taken me nearly a hundred years to make the round trip between Argentina and Texas. Knowing that Roger was likely dead, I settled down, spending about thirty years in a town. Both protecting it from those who wished it harm and helping to take care of its needs. They had, unfortunately, run me off once they realized I wasn't aging.
"Seras?" Nora called out from the doorway.
"Sorry, I just got lost in thought." I actually felt a bit embarrassed at having been caught flat footed like that. Nora fixed me a small smile. "Well, c'mon. The Vertibird is waiting on us." She had seemingly unloaded her hefty baggage during my internal musings. A short walk found us on the roof of the building, with a VTOL spinning up on the helipad. I felt a small spur of nostalgia as I stepped onto the Vertibird, fond memories of my days in Hellsing taking trips via helicopter. The VTOL was leaps and bounds better, Nora, obviously no stranger to having ridden in one of these things, was sitting at the side mounted turret.
The journey to the airship that Danse called the 'Prydwen' was short, less than a five minute flight. We met with a man called Lancer Captain Kells who directed us up a short staircase into the ship proper.
As we approached a viewing room, I saw him. If my heart hadn't stopped nearly three centuries prior to this, I would have said that it skipped a beat. This Elder was practically the spitting image of Roger, if a bit younger than when I had met him. Emotional wounds I didn't even know I still had opened up. I was speechless, and practically on the verge of tears. Nora had yet to notice my plight, too enamored by the speech that he was giving.
"I don't believe it." I whispered softly.
"What seems to be the problem?" The familiar voice of Danse spoke from nearby, making me jump. I turned to see him, in his full suit of power armor, standing there giving me an inquisitive look. How he had snuck up on me I'll never know.
"I- I'm sorry, it's just that your Elder looks like someone I knew a long time ago. Someone I was fond of." I told him, turning back to stare at Nora and this new Maxson as they talked. Danse waited around for a moment longer, before realizing that I had nothing left to say to him, and clomped off to do something else nearby. Nora turned to me and waved me over, completely oblivious to my internal turmoil. A bit reluctantly, I composed myself and headed over to her and the Elder.
"Seras, this is Elder Maxson, though he told me his real name is Arthur." Nora explained. Unable to help myself, I barely kept in a snort of laughter.
"Is something funny?" the Elder asked incredulously, making Nora blanch.
"No, it's just," I let out a sigh of amusement. "Did you name the ship or was it someone else with a copy of the 'Culhwch and Olwen' handy?" He relaxed almost immediately at the realization that I understood what his ship meant. "Though I'm left wondering who down there in the Commonwealth takes on the role of the Ysbaddaden?"
A small smile appeared on the Elder's face. "That would be whomever is leading the group known as the Institute." A resurgence of emotion threatened to overwhelm me at seeing the smile. I had seen that same smile on Roger many times. It was all too much to bear. I needed time to think things over.
"Um, it's been nice meeting you and all, but do you have a lavatory? I'm feeling a bit sick after the Vertibird ride." I lied easily. It was the cowardly thing to do, but just looking at this Maxson was forcing feelings I had thought long since dead to come shooting back to the surface and threatening to overwhelm me.
"Sure, it's one level up the ladder, down the stairs on the right." He spoke without hesitation. Clearly he was the master of his own ship. I nodded my thanks and hurried off, leaving behind a somewhat confused Nora. The bathroom was right where he said it was, though it wasn't exactly a private one. It did have stalls, which I policed one and all but threw myself in there. Despite trying my hardest to not to, bloody tears leaked out.
So I sat, and sobbed, for an indeterminate amount of time. I already regretted coming here. Pip had told me to never let go of what makes me human. I had honored his words for as long as I could, but there was only so much turmoil I could withstand. So I pushed it down, fully embracing being a vampire and all its perks. Then Roger came, and he had shown me that it wasn't so bad opening up. The short time I had spent with him was one of the happiest things I had done in the time after Hellsing. I had completely forgotten that in the years between, writing him off as dead and done, once more embracing my heritage. Until today. Today, that had all been thrown out the window. The vampire part of me wanted to burn it all, reduce this 'Brotherhood' and all its people to scrap and ash. The newly reasserted human side wanted nothing more than to run to this new Maxson and confess everything. I hated both.
"Seras?" I heard Nora's voice call out tentatively. "I swear I heard crying." Reluctantly, I pushed open the stall to reveal Nora, now donning a spiffy looking gray jumpsuit. "That was you?" She asked in disbelief. "Why?"
"One of Arthur's relatives, great grandfather I'm guessing since they share the same last name, was a close friend of mine just after the bombs. We parted ways and I never saw him again. That man in there is the spitting image of him and it dredged up some feelings that I thought I had gotten over." Even as I spoke them, the words left a bitter taste in my mouth. The vampire side of me was gaining precedence in my mind, along with the urge to snuff the life out of something too.
Nora didn't say anything, but the distraught look on her face told me that she understood. I wiped my eyes and pushed past her. "I'm getting out of here. Before I do something that I regret." I had managed to make it all the way to the ladder before Nora caught up to me.
"Wait!" She called out. "What do you mean 'before you do something you regret'?" I didn't have to tell her a thing. I could have kept walking and there was nothing Nora could do. But the human side of me told me that I needed to talk to someone about this, before the feelings festered and I did something that I would actually regret. So it was with a reluctant sigh that I turned to face her.
"Part of me wants nothing more than to go to the Arthur, which I know is completely ridiculous. Another part of me wants nothing more than to destroy this entire ship and everyone on it, to purge the unwanted feelings from my mind." Nora blanched, but otherwise didn't interrupt me. "I'm choosing to do neither and instead am leaving to go turn some raiders or super mutants into paste."
With that out of the way, I made my way out to a small platform that overlooked the airport. Nora followed me to the doorway, but otherwise remained silent. I spared one last look back at her and then jumped. Falling several hundred feet to the ground wasn't exactly difficult, but the impact still rattled me. Thankfully, it didn't seem like anyone had seen my fall, so I quickly dusted myself off and started walking. The dark clouds that had been building up over the last hour or so finally released their payload in the form of a pounding, cold rain.
The downpour was a mild hinderance to my sight, but nothing that I couldn't overcome. I closed my eyes and focused, trying to pick out the heavy, rapid sound of a super mutant heartbeat or the slow, methodical rhythm of a human. Rain after the apocalypse had played Hell on my senses. In the early days, it was because of the radiation, but now it was just inconvenient. A few moments later, I heard it. A powerful heartbeat, almost sounding like war drums, that signified the presence of one or more super mutants. Not the easiest to consume, but over the years I had adapted well. I withdrew my senses and started forward. Even through the constant din of rainfall, I could hear their warbled grunts and guttural language. The thought of a meal, even a super mutant, spurred me forward.
"Puny human!" A mutant yelled to my right, surprising me. It swung a large sledgehammer at me, hard enough to rattle me as I caught it. The mutant seemed confused as he tried to pull its weapon back, only to find that I wasn't letting go.
"Puny human!" I mocked in a childish voice as I crushed the wooden handle of the hammer. It recovered quickly from the sudden loss of its weapon, moving to stab me with the splintered handle. I batted it aside, raised a boot, and kicked it in the chest. It flew backwards, through a brick wall. I stepped through the newly made hole to see the mutant coughing up blood.
"Brothers will kill you human!" It grumbled breathlessly. Grabbing its throat, I pulled it up to eye level with me, drinking in the sudden fear that it felt.
"Let them come," I whispered with a smirk of satisfaction, before sinking my teeth into its neck.