A/N: Such patient reviewers. Here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do NOT, in any way, own Hellsing or the characters in it. It is owned by Kohta Hirano, Dark Horse Manga, and any other business or people who assisted in creating these fascinating characters!

Honest Dishonesty

Integra shuffled through mountains of papers and closed her eyes for a brief moment. Turning to a different pile, she shuffled through the last bits of photographs of Lord Ethridge's office. The crime scene pictures showed nothing out of the ordinary, nothing suspicious, nothing questionable; and like the first time Integra had laid eyes on the photographs, she couldn't find anything worth double-checking. There were no secret notes, no mysterious writings in a journal. The only thing that kept popping up was a number that had called his office phone. But it hadn't led anywhere in Albert's discoveries. She rubbed her temples and began to continue forward when Albert barged into her office.

"SIR!" he shouted as he gripped his chest for breath, "Have you heard the latest from our attaché?"

Integra frowned and stood up, "No, what's happened?"

"It's Chief Makube, Sir," Albert stated almost apologetically, "He's dead."

Sir Integra's eyes widened to concern, "What?" she whispered.

Albert cleared his throat, "Sir, the report just arrived. The Chief was last seen in his quarters. But upon evening mass, agents discovered his body. He'd been stabbed with a katana."

"Was it suicide?" Integra quickly asked.

Albert threw up his hands, "No one knows at this point. Some say that he's been murdered; others say he took his own life."

Integra, realizing that she had been standing, sat back down in the comfort of her chair. Her mind tried to wrap around the idea that a Section XIII Chief would kill himself. Of course, there was the fact that the agents knew they were going to Hell, that they wanted to go to Hell, and the fact that they wanted to stay there and fight demons for all of eternity…But Integra still couldn't believe that a Chief, Maxwell's replacement, would find it beneficial to kill himself. A thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Albert, what sword was used?"

The butler looked down at the ground trying to remember what he'd said. His head snapped back up to her, "A katana."

Integra closed her eyes and nodded, "Thank you."

"Why?" the man asked.

"Because," she stated slowly, "There is only one person who could possibly use it after her friend, Yumie, died."

Albert felt his fists tighten around his cuffs, "Heinkel."

Integra opened her eyes, "Heinkel."

Albert disappeared for a moment and then cleared his throat, as if to warn Integra that they had company.

"Sir, we have guests arriving," he stated formally.

Sir Integra sighed in her chair and nodded with a wave of her hand to allow them inside. Two men a moment later entered her room without an escort as Albert left them to talk amongst themselves. She sighed again, too tired to become angry and stood, recognizing both individuals instantly.

"Sir Hayworth, Sir Penwood," she shook hands with both well-dressed men as they walked up to her. They each pulled up chairs and sat down before her desk restlessly without speaking.

"Sir Hellsing," Sir Penwood began, "It has come to our attention that a certain Convention member has…committed suicide."

Integra lit a fresh cigar, "Then you have heard correctly."

Sir Penwood exhaled with a forced smile, "We are here to…make sure that this investigation goes rather smoothly."

Sir Integra stopped mid-inhale and stared back at the men, looking them over with more than just a cursory glance, as she had done when they first entered her office. "What are you talking about? You think that I can't handle this by myself, with my own tools and resources?"

Both paused and glanced at the other.

"No," Integra interrupted their clandestine exchange, "If you're going to tell me what is going on, then do it now before I dismiss you out of this mansion."

"Integra," Sir Hayworth delicately stated, "We've heard that Lord Ethridge's death might not have been a suicide at all, but rather…a forced execution…"

The Hellsing director tapped her cigar, "It is possible," was all she answered.

Hayworth tried again, knowing all too well that she had come to the same conclusion moments before, "We are here to make sure that no evidence should…be swept under the carpet in an attempt to…hide the truth of what happened…"

"And the Convention believe that I had something to do with his actual death," Integra calmly stated. Her manner sent chills down the back of Penwood's spine.

"Believe me, Integra, it wasn't my choice to investigate you," Sir Penwood apologized and began to babble, "But the Convention voted, and with the majority leader being Sir Irons…he practically ordered us to follow your evidence trail and make sure that it added up correctly. Apparently, we have to take 'necessary precautions'."

Sir Hayworth butted in, "Insignificant formalities we must perform, you know. No one, I think, truly believes you killed him…"

She took in a long whiff of her cigar, "HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF MURDER! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE SACRIFICED FOR THIS AGENCY AND FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF THIS CONVENTION? OVER THIRTY YEARS I HAVE DEFENDED THE CONVENTION OF TWELVE! I'VE SEEN YOUR GRANDFATHERS PERFOM IN THE FIELD, AND AT LEAST THEY KNEW THE WEIGHT OF HONOR! I AM A VETERAN OF THIS AGENCY, AND THIS IS HOW YOU TREAT ME?"

Sir Heyworth and Sir Penwood shrank in their seats until both were slouching. Integra had risen from her own chair and had shouted down the men's throats. She had crushed her cigar completely in half and had thrown it across the room in a blinding fury. But her eyes had narrowed down, and her tall stature had begun to relax; her face had fallen into a comfortable frown, and the fire in her eyes had dimed to their natural blue glow once more. The director took a moment to inhale deeply and chuckled darkly, sitting back down.

Integra relaxed in her chair and smiled at the scared men, "I have nothing to hide…Come gentlemen, I'll show you exactly what happened. I was just writing my final report and was going to send it to Sir Irons and to the King and Queen," she stood up and proceeded to make her way to Autopsy.

Both men looked at the other in confusion, but stood up and followed her nonetheless.

"Hello, Heras Hictoria," Heinkel chuckled.

Seras gripped at her Harkonnen rifle in reflex but stood her ground, "Why have you come?"

"Hthere his hno hone but hme," she reassured to Alucard as he was glancing around for more agents, "Hi hcame halone, hand Hi shall hleave halone."

"Then are you here on a suicide mission?" Seras asked.

"HI hask hmyself hthat hevery hday, Heras," Heinkel lowered her weapon, "Hand heveryday, HI pray hthat hit's hmy hlast."

"Are you going to tell us your purpose of intruding onto English soil, or shall we torture it out of you?" Alucard asked, refusing to lower his weapon.

Heinkel turned to Alucard and smiled, "Hso, hyou really hare hback? Hit hwasn't hjust ha hnightmare. Hit hwas hreality. Hyou hare hback."

"Indeed, I am," Alucard raised his pistols to level with her head.

Heinkel swiftly turned to Seras and stepped forward, "HCan Hi hask hyou ha hquestion?"

"What?" Seras's eyes widened in confusion and shock at the way the agent politely confronted her.

"How hfar hwould hyou hgo hto hobey hyour hmaster?" she asked.

"Uhh," Seras glanced at Alucard who was frowning in confusion as well at the presentation of the question.

"HOW HFAR HWOULD HYOU HGO?" Heinkel's body tensed and balled her fists, demanding an answer.

"To Hell and back!" Seras blurted out.

Heinkel burst into laughter and clutched her stomach. Alucard grinned and lowered his weapon; Seras stepped back and towards her master. The agent was able to recover her strength and stood up normally once more, her expression suddenly going blank.

"I wish I had your conviction," Heinkel whispered. She threw scripture to the ground and watched it engulf her.

Seras shielded her eyes and covered her ears from hearing the prayers that were whispered. Scripture flung out of her robes violently and encircled both vampires briefly. It even burned Seras's ears to hear the paper crackle in the beating wind as the agent was consumed within the flying scripture. When the young vampire revealed her eyes, Heinkel was already gone.

"Master, what the hell was that?" she practically screamed, turning to him.

Alucard cocked his head to one side, "I'm not entirely sure," he double took as he noticed a piece of paper still rolling in the wind after Heinkel's theatrical disappearance.

His fledgling paced on the ground in tight circles, "It's almost as if she was crazy. I mean, I already knew that Section XIII agents were crazy…but she looked seriously disturbed."

"By something," Alucard finished as he picked up the piece of paper. The elder examined it as well as its writing very carefully.

"What is it? A paper Heinkel conveniently left behind?" Seras smiled, walking to him.

He was about to chuckle when Seras's phone rang.

She stopped and picked it up hastily to open it, "Seras Victoria speaking."

Alucard considered what happened. She looked more distressed than usual. Her body was rigid, her eyes wild, her movements unpredictable. It reminded him when he was falling into the downward spiral of insanity himself. The elder wondered if she were experiencing the same symptoms as he. But before his thought could mature, Seras gasped and silently agreed, quickly ending her phone call. Alucard looked at her expectantly.

"That was Sir Integra. She needs us back immediately. Sir Penwood and Sir Hayworth are investigating her on Lord Ethridge's actual death."

"They think that Integra killed him?" Alucard growled and turned to the east.

"She's under investigation…" Seras paused, "Yes."

Alucard formed into a huge flock of bats, "Then we'd best get going so that we can prove those stupid grunts are incorrect."

"Actually," Seras stalled and looked at the ground, "She told me that Sir Irons is head of the investigation…"

"Sir Irons? His grandson? The new Sir Irons?" Alucard asked in disbelief, "He doubts Integra…"

Seras shrugged, "Let's find out."

Seras let go of her embodiment of a human and focused on changing into her own flock of bats. She felt herself morph, and although it took practice to herd them around, after years of experience, she felt her individual parts separate into individual bats and fly toward her master. She group all of them together and then headed off toward Hellsing Manor, pulling up alongside Alucard.

"Ah ah!" Albert shielded Lord Ethridge's head, "I wouldn't touch that, if I were you."

Sir Penwood swallowed from gagging and stood his distance. Sir Integra returned to the room and Sir Hayworth circled his long-time friend.

"He was one of our friends," Sir Hayworth murmured, "Not just a colleague."

Albert ignored the rambling and pointed to a Petri dish that contained contents of the lord's wound. "That, gentlemen, is what concerns us now."

Sir Penwood and Sir Hayworth slowly approached the dish and peeked inside. There appeared to be strings, or fibers. Crumpled up next to it looked like a wadded up piece of paper. It was angular and both men could tell it had four corners to it. But both frowned in confusion and glanced back up at the coroner.

"What is it?" Sir Penwood asked.

Albert nodded, "Of course. I found fibers connecting to that," he pointed to the wadded up 'piece of paper'. "It's not what you think either."

Integra sighed, "Albert."

The butler chuckled, but obeyed, "What you see is a circuit board chip of sorts. It looks like the thing was implanted into the lord's head, and was therefore able to…take control over his body."

Sir Hayworth whirled around so Integra so quickly that his tall hat almost fell off, "You're telling me that this chip was implanted into him and that something clicked into his head, making him lose control of his body?"

"Precisely," Integra nodded, "Alucard and I were in his office explaining to him that we lost his daughter when his head snapped back…and his body when completely rigid and motionless. He stood there for a couple of seconds and then grabbed my pistol from its holster and pointed it at himself so fast, I could barely even think to move."

"It is possible that in that moment, the chip activated itself," Albert sifted through his treasure, "I only have fragments of it because the bullet almost entirely destroyed it."

"I see," Sir Penwood slowly muttered, "So what exactly are we dealing with here? A very sophisticated group of people? A sociopath? A psychopath?"

"Sir Integra," Sir Hayworth interrupted, "If they are going after Convention members, then I suggest that we get you into protective custody. You are the most valuable member of the 12."

Integra laughed so hard that her cigar nearly fell out of her mouth, "I can't even stay safe from my vampire servant! You think that placing me into 'protective custody' will save me?"

"W-well," Sir Penwood started, "I think it should be a necessary formality we must abide by."

"Sir Penwood, with all respect, no," Integra shook her head, "I will not cower in some safe house with body guards while my duty calls for me. There is no need for that. I have survived for over fifty years in the face of ultimate threats like the vampire."

Albert chuckled at her tone. Many times he had heard it before. The butler was just about to place the Petri dish into his locked cabinet when two figures formed in front of the sliding doors to Autopsy. One was a man dressed in dark red, the other in a Hellsing uniform. She made him softly smile at the sight of her. But he turned around nevertheless and cleared his throat. It gathered him everyone's attention.

"I believe Alucard and Seras have arrived," he stated.

Integra turned around to see her servants walk through the door and into the room silently. Their faces looked stricken slightly, and the Hellsing director felt suddenly threatened.

"My master," Alucard began, "All targets were destroyed…all but one…"

"One?" she asked.

Seras cleared her throat, "Yes…about that…Heinkel paid us a visit, and she looked rather strange."

Albert tore off his latex gloves and walked up to them as well. Sir Penwood and Sir Hayworth were listening intently. Everyone seemed to tense as Alucard held up the piece of paper.

"This was something…left behind from the site. Integra, I think you should have a look," Alucard handed it delicately to her.

She took it and headed out of the room, waving the three of her servants to follow. She didn't want Sir Penwood nor Sir Hayworth to see what she was holding, or what it could say. Alucard and Seras phased through the door and watched as their master glanced it over. She then read it more thoroughly and looked up.

"This is…" her eyes widened.

"Yep," Alucard smiled, "I knew you'd want to see it."

"A name. You gave me a name. The…"

"E.O.H. The Equilibrium of Humanity," Alucard pointed to the bottom of the crumpled paper.

Integra raised her glasses at the nearly illegible specimen, "It's almost as if Heinkel wanted us to have it."

Seras nodded, "Leaving it behind for us to pick it up was no coincidence, Sir. But that paper…It has the seal of Section XIII on it…"

Integra closed her eyes, "So…was it Iscariot the whole time? Was it they who created this mess and made this Equilibrium?"

"I don't think that's possible, Sir," Albert interjected, "They do not have the capability of this. A chip implanted into someone's skull?"

"But Albert, Section XIII is an apocalyptic cult. The night of their little crusade thirty years ago, each agent blew themselves up screaming 'Apocalypse Now!' Do you think that within thirty years, they couldn't possibly be able to find devout followers who would sacrifice their lives?"

Albert lowered his head to look less adament, "No, Sir, I'm saying I'm not entirely sure it is Section XIII for the reason that we're talking about loyal Convention members siding with the Vatican. Section XIII practically needs funding from the state to stay alive as it is. Now what on earth would make Convention members turn their back on Hellsing? Why would one of them want to follow Iscariot?"

"There's always the option of force," Seras countered, "Someone could have forced Lord Ethridge into this and implanted the chip."

Albert narrowed his eyes, "Yes, the organization might have been the ones all along who stole his daughter. Look, all I'm saying is that it would take a hell of a lot of convincing to make a renowned Protestant Convention member to turn on his own."

Integra scoffed, "There were traitors running rampant three decades ago, and their reason was desiring to become all-powerful vampires. It does not take much to poison a mind. It takes luring your prey in, making them think there is no way out, and that your option is the only one that will make them get out alive."

Alucard laughed, "Yes, you would know from experience, master. Your family would know, as do I."

Integra gave him a warning look, "Let's stop guessing and start thinking. What do we know?"

Seras looked down, trying to think hard, "We know that Lord Ethridge did not commit suicide. He was forced by something that was able to control him."

"The only time I ever saw something similar to this was-Sir!" Albert gasped.

Integra turned to him anxiously, "What do you know?"

"I…we know that the lord was forced into killing himself…and that the chip somehow activated itself and was able to take control over his body…"

"Yes," everyone stated impatiently.

"Well, I saw something similar when I studied abroad at Oxford years back when I was tring to obtain my doctorate in engineering. Soldiers would wear implanted helmets in combat that had computers in them. It was the first of its kind. Very primitive. There were many bugs in the system, and most times it wouldn't work anywhere near optimal levels. One time, the chip inside malfunctioned entirely and infected the suit with garbled messages and commands, causing the soldier to start firing at his own team mates. There is no ignoring the similarities of now this situation. Ten years, maybe even five years later, it could be possible to implant those kinds of chips into the skulls of humans, although i detached myself from the military branch years ago."

"Are you talking about a kind of...Artificial Intelligence? An AI?" Seras asked.

"Yes. I am," Albert answered, "Because we're talking about an organization, they have followers, it's guaranteed. Perhaps hundreds of followers, each with a chip in their head," Albert paused, "...But this still isn't enough."

"What isn't?" Integra pushed.

"Hundreds, maybe thousands of implanted chips just like the one I found in Lord Ethridge's head. What I mean to say is that when I was at Oxford, we engineers found it benificial to have the implanted helmets, but what made them opperate close to optimal levels was when we realized that one supercomputer could organize and order all of the AI's much faster than we could individually order them. It was more efficient to be on the other side of a huge computer since it could execute orders to whole divisions of men ten times faster than we could ever dream of."

"So the Equilibrium might have a supercomputer. What advantage over us does that have?" Alucard folded his arms.

"Well, we don't know who's a part of them and who isn't. Obviously, whether forced or not, Lord Ethridge was a part of this organization, and he was a Convention member. And we don't know who else," Albert turned to him, "And the fact that we're assuming they have one huge supercomputer means that they can deploy and control thousands of people, anywhere, at any time, at any place, at any given moment."

Integra's jaw tightened as she tried to find another cigar in her pocket, "The worst news is that we also know their cause, their purpose."

Everyone turned to her, waiting.

"Think about what that name means. The Equilibrium…of…Humanity," Integra felt a smile threaten her lips, "It's an organization based on exterminating anything that is not human. Meaning vampires. They mean to balance the world back in favor of the humans. Equilibrium."

"Sir," Sir Penwood and Sir Hayworth interrupted, both peeking out from the door.

Integra whirled around in a fury at the thought of them possibly eavesdropping; but she quickly contained herself.

"Yes, Sir Penwood?"

"We have to leave. Orders called in from Sir Irons. We will be back, though," he stated reassuringly with a smile. Integra was not reassured.

Seras, Albert, Alucard and the director watched as the two men treaded lightly on their way out, neither looking back in fear of being yelled at. And once both were out of hearing range, Alucard scoffed softly.

"They may have the support of presumably thousands of followers, but what do they intend to use to exterminate vampires?" Alucard grinned, "That's the real mystery."

Done! Finally...

wow that chapter was long.