Wings of the Damned

Sapphirewyren

Chapter 3: Bad News Barer

Disclaimer: I do not own Hellsing

Authors Notes: So here we are at chapter three. The Arch of the Bells, where Integra met with that unknown man from the Vatican is the entrance of the Vatican City.

Enrico arose early that morning, late the previous night he was told by the Pope himself that he would be his successor. Now Enrico knew how popes were elected, but to be a candidate was a dream come true. He would be able to show the world just how important he truly was just as he had promised Anderson all those years ago. After yet another Mass and breakfast two Cardinals introduced themselves as Jorge Espada and Pietro Romano. Cardinal Jorge Espada was a native of Spain, his tanned skin matched his chocolate brown eyes and hair. He looked like the love child of Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas. Cardinal Pietro Romano wore his goatee like a five 0 clock shadow and his graying hair was cut close to his head. His brown eyes darted in every direction as if he was expecting danger at any moment. Both Cardinals shared the same lean body structure And wearing the traditional garments of their station which were the typical scarlet cassock, sash, and a skullcap called a biretta. The ensemble came with a scarlet hat that reminded Enrico of a McDonald's happy meal box, but none of them were wearing it at the moment. As the three walked the grounds of the Vatican, people respectfully nodded greetings and the occasional child who ran up to them, despite their brightly colored bodyguards, to ask them questions or for a blessing. "Many things have changed in the past years" sighed Cardinal Romano. "It would seem that the Catholic Church is tolerant of everything to the point of being lazy. There was a time when only the truly faithful were allowed into God's house, now it's like a public beach." He was talking about the 'citizen vampires' who made an appearance in many different countries several decades ago. Some of them have even taken up the practice of going to church.

"They even have human supporters, a group the Iron Grin" snorted Cardinal Espada. "They must be feeding those monsters with their blood. What human supports a monster?"

"And it's not just the monsters," bemoaned Cardinal Romano. "Humans have also changed. The many new 'genders' springing up." At this, he gestured at the gay couple publicly showing their affection for each other. As Maxwell was about to go and forcibly pull the two apart, Cardinal Espada took him by the arm and shook his head, "The Catholic Church now teaches tolerance and forgiveness towards this and many other sins."

"WHAT?!" Enrico practically roared. This of course earned the three Cardinal stares and strange looks.

"Nothing to see here, good people," said Cardinal Romano.

"But this is preposterous, you mean fornication, abortion, homosexuality, contraceptive, sins like those are now tolerated?"

"Yes, they are sins that God forgives, therefore who are we, man, to refuse forgiveness?"

The look on Maxwell's face made Cardinal Espada chuckle, "This is the way it is now. But I have heard rumors of the Pope allowing the 'citizen vampires' to attend mass." Cardinal Romano nodded his head in agreement, "Right now there have been rioting in the streets outside the Vatican City and most of the economy have been spent trying to deal with this turmoil. The country is nearly broke." The country was essentially tearing itself apart over vampires and what to do with the citizen vampires. Any country that had them barely gave them rights, but with a major religion such as the Catholic Church willing to support them, the political side of the country was now divided, some agreed with the Church and others didn't. It also took a lot of money to pay extra for the soldiers who had to kill rogue vampires and other monsters in the absence of a proper vampire killing organization. Enrico was beginning to miss the days he and Hellsing fought over jurisdiction to kill vampires that were not 'citizens', but satanic pests that needed to be slain. The rest of the tour was mostly of new architecture and infrastructures, but Enrico only half-listened to what was being said. Enrico wondered what Integra thought about 'citizen vampires', whenever the topic of Hellsing came up, the subject was quickly changed. There was no love for Integra in the Vatican. It must have been that crucifix comment. But right now, she was probably the only person who felt the same way about citizen vampires as Enrico did. He was going to talk with the Pope when he came back because at this rate the Catholic church would be a pale shadow of what it once was. "Perhaps I can persuade His Holiness that he needs to change the direction of the church" suggested Enrico. Both the Cardinals gave him a look as if he sprouted a second head. "Good luck with that" scoffed Romano "He will just tell you that tolerance has been a new feature in the Church and we should learn to embrace it." Cardinal Espada ran his hand through his hair, "Don't forget about what happened to the last person to try and talk him out if this 'direction', he was sent to some small church in the sticks." Enrico sighed this was not what he wanted to hear, surely others disagreed. The Cardinals confirmed this but stated that the Pope was just happy to have more people in attendance at church and that former Popes had adapted this new idea of tolerance of different lifestyles.

"Well it's time to meet the soldiers that you will be commanding," said Romano.

A car pulled up beside them and a Swiss Guard got out. "Here's our ride," said Cardinal Espada. They were driven to a gray three-story building. Behind this first building, were several smaller one-story buildings that served as barracks for the men and women that would make up the units of the Iscariot Organization. Outside the building stood a large man with cropped hair. He had sharp hazel eyes and a thick curly dark brown beard. The man wore simple priest clothes and a crucifix on a leather string.

"What do you know, Father Castenello actually showed up on time" chuckled Espada. He nudged Enrico "He's a very dependable man, but notorious for being late. The man does not know what punctuality is." When Enrico was introduced to Father Castenello, the handshake he experienced was bone-shattering.

Enrico was excited to see the troops, kind of like a child about to open their birthday gifts, but more dignified. He imagined priests dressed in the black robes, armed with silver Desert Eagles, loaded with blessed silver bullets, disciplined and ready to fight the satanic vampires in God's name as His weapons on earth. What he saw took that excitement and stomped it into the ground. The sight that greeted him was far from what he imagined. Some soldiers were play wrestling, others sat at small table playing cards and drinking beer and laughing loudly, probably at some crude jokes. Some of the soldiers looked at the Cardinals and then went back to what they were doing. Enrico cringed, these reprobates didn't even have enough respect to salute their superiors. One of the soldiers called out, "Hey Father Castenello, who's the white-haired girl?" Enrico practically flipped out, "I AM CARDINAL ENRICO MAXWELL! YOU WILL ADDRESS ME AS SUCH!"

The soldiers found Enrico's outburst to be funny, much to the man's chagrin. "Wow. Such, you don't have to yell so loud."

"What?"

"Well you said to address you as 'Such', so that what I'm doin'"

The other soldiers laughed uproariously until Father Castenello quieted them down, "This is the commander of Section XIII, the Iscariot Organization, Cardinal Enrico Maxwell and you will…."

"Address him as such?" interrupted a female soldier, causing the troops to laugh again.

"No," said Father Castenello patiently. "You will address him with the same respect you give the other Cardinals." One soldier raised his hand and said, "I don't respect the Cardinals, I just tolerate them cuz I gotta get paid." While Father Castenello smiled, he said, "Well Cardinal Maxwell is my boss, so I would appreciate it if you showed some respect." The soldiers looked shocked and soon there were loud protests. "No way!" "You fucking jokin, right?" "This girly looking guy?" "Man, I'd rather the blond chick, she had balls." Enrico heard the words 'blond chick' and demanded "Who are they talking about?" Espada and Romano gave each other nervous glances until Father Castenello said, "Sir Integra Hellsing came by a couple of days ago."

"SHE WHAT?!"

"Calm down, she just wanted to see the troops."

"I thought she was gonna be your boss, Father Castenello," said one soldier.

"Iscariot Organization will NEVER work for Hellsing!" said Enrico. With that, the Cardinal stormed out. This was not what he had expected. Those soldiers were completely useless! Where were the priests who were willing to become God's weapons on earth to eradicate the vampires? Those troops looked like they would sooner join the vampires than kill them. The Iscariot Organization would never thrive at this rate. And what was worse was that Integra had seen this sorry excuse for soldiers. She must have been laughing back to London! The other three men finally caught up with the very angry Enrico, who whirled on them, "Can one of you tell me, what the devil was that?! Those rejects that you call soldiers are not fit to be the Iscariot Organization!"

"It doesn't matter who you think is fit, those are all we have to work with," said Espada stiffly. "They volunteered and were trained for a year now."

"Trained doing what? Lazing about and being undisciplined?!"

"They were trained to fight vampires, exactly what the Pope wanted. Not many people stepped forward to do this."

"Are they even Catholic?"

At this question, all three men shuffled on their feet uneasily, the Romano said, "It was hard to get enough people to…."

"I'll take that as a 'no'' interjected Enrico angrily.

"Some of them are Catholic, maybe not the type to go to Mass every Sunday, but Catholic," said Romano weakly.

"We shouldn't be picky, Maxwell. There is a mix of all religions and beliefs, and even some who are atheist" said Espada.

"WHAT?! How can an atheist be a weapon of God if they don't even believe?"

"Maybe instead of looking at them as weapons, see them as humans putting their lives on the line to protect their country, it might be easier" ground out Father Castenello.

"What else should I know about this 'elite' group?"

"Some of them may not have always been…. law-abiding citizens, so this was an option instead of jail time," said Romano softly.

"Great! We got criminals! Criminals, atheists and if I remembered correctly, one of those brutes spoke about getting paid, so we can add mercenaries! This should be great, with soldiers this prestigious, vampires all over the country will fear us." All of this was said with a nasty sneer and in a very sarcastic tone of voice.

ENOUGH!" bellowed Father Castenello. His voice was so loud, soldiers, people and other clergy members stopped to see what was going on. "I have had enough of your complaits! You are acting like a spoiled child! These soldiers do not have to be here! They volunteered to do this! You stand there making demands as if you know what it takes to lead men into battle! You will not be fighting the vampires, you will just be sitting on your useless ass and giving orders!" Before Enrico could reply, the angry priest stormed off back towards the barracks. The people watching fell deathly silent, soon one by one they went on doing whatever it was they were doing. Espada wore a look on his face that was between shocked and trying not to laugh. Cardinal Romano looked grim and tight-lipped.

"I WILL be having a serious talk with His Holiness" seethed Enrico. He wished Anderson was there, the regenerator would have been able to whip those soldiers into shape. He would try and see if there was some way to get new people for the Iscariot Organization. And he would talk with a certain Hellsing director, how dare she stick her nose where it doesn't belong.

That night, to say that the talk with the Pope didn't go well would be a grave understatement. Enrico had complained about the direction of the church's view on tolerance, and then he slammed the state of the soldiers. He must have gotten the Pope on a bad night because the older man did not want to hear it. "If you haven't noticed Cardinal Maxwell, while you practically slept through some of this country's worst conflicts, I was living through it! Economic wise we cannot afford any of the luxuries, you are so gracelessly demanding! You must work with Father Castenello and the troops he picked out. No priest is going to run around killing vampires. They are not trained for such duties! We barely have any people attending masses and we are not going to send any priests out to risk being killed by vampires! When you are Pope, you may make all the changes you want, until then you will abide by the rules that are already set. You are to make sure that the Iscariot Organization is doing its job properly and nothing more! Now, I am going to the chapel to pray and I suggest you do the same!" That was the end of that conversation. As he watched the Pope walk off, Enrico hadn't forgotten the little 'chat' he wanted to have with Integra. He finally got her on the phone, after getting through her insufferable butler. How does she manage to find only the most annoying ones? Enrico ranted about the fact that she had to have known what type of people were now in the ranks of the Iscariot Organization, "How dare you do what you did?!"

"And what is it that I did?"

"You and the Pope got together and gathered the worse degenerates you could find to be members of the Iscariot Organization!"

"Now to be fair, the soldiers you have now are a step up from the ones you had before, they were the true degenerates."

"So, you admit it?!"

"If I say 'yes', you'll continue to bitch all night and if I say 'no', you would call me a liar and some idiotic slur about being Protestant. But I'm going with 'no' and hanging up."

Integra hung up the phone, leaving Enrico staring open-mouthed at the receiver in his hand. He tried calling several more times, but got Philip on the phone, who told him in a very annoyed voice to stop calling about nonsense and that Sir Hellsing was busy. This pissed off Enrico even more, but right now there was nothing he can do. But he remembered what the Pope had said to him "When you are Pope…" Enrico smiled to himself, all he had to do was become Pope.

Chapter End

Author's Notes: You can feel free to google what the Cardinals wear to give you some insight on what Maxwell would be wearing. I am glad to have gotten this far and to have two dedicated readers. Hope you enjoyed it and see you in the next chapter. Meeting with the United Nations is up next.