CHAPTER 4: Victory

The wind whistled through the young man's ears as an eerie silence fell around him. There was rubble and dirt. Trash and dust flew through the air.

And he was alone.

Taking a deep breath, Walter sat on his rear. A strange feeling of sadness mixed with a foreign emotion washed over him and he started to laugh. He couldn't figure out why he was laughing. Perhaps it was to mask his pain. Maybe he was finally going out of his mind. Who knew? He didn't, that was for certain.

He was alone. And Alucard was gone. Walter laughed louder, harder, as if his predicament was the most humorous thing. Maybe I am going crazy… Once his laughter quieted, the butler decided it was time to go.

But wait…where would I go now? My home isn't…mine any longer. The reality of his actions were finally permeating his brain and he realized that he had nothing left.

Even his life wouldn't last much longer. Walter's youthful body was starting to break down. The convulsions were starting to get worse and came on more frequently. "Dammit…" he spoke, trying to stand. He latched onto a large chunk of concrete, pulling himself into an erect position. "Is this really…what I wanted?"

A sharp, searing pain pierced his abdomen a few inches above his belly button. He looked down and realized he was thrown back against the concrete block he'd used to stand. He was being shot at from afar.

Though thoroughly beaten, Walter concentrated a moment, his vision reaching far enough to see the one who shot him. Oh it's you…the little priest from earlier. He chuckled. What did it matter if he died now? The burning in his stomach was already starting to heal. "Really…you're not going to be able to defeat me with those normal bullets, you buffoon."

He looked down at his fresh blood that had formed a puddle under his black dress shoes. "Eheh…a fitting end for a piece of shit like me. The Traitor, that's what I am now." He looked to the priest who was off in the distance and smirked. "Come on. Shoot me. Just shoot me already."

Heinkel wasted no time, landing a few bullets in the butler's arms, legs and even one across the face. The mummified priest dropped the rifle and loaded new magazines into the pistols in hand. With a raspy voice, Heinkel charged headlong at the butler. "H'll hill you…H'll hill you!" (I'll kill you…I'll kill you!)

Walter snorted. His wounds were already starting to heal in a slow manner. The mangled face of the priest came into view.

No…thought Walter. Wire flew from his fingertips and latched onto the gun-totting arm of the Iscariot priest, ripping it off like a twig from a tree. "Yeah, I'm sure you could take me down easily. But…it won't be you who kills me." Lowering the wire, Walter huffed. His regenerative power was slowing to a halt and the wounds were pouring large amounts of blood.

But he wasn't about to let some idiot priest be the death of him. It was too cliché; a vampire killed by a man of God. So instead, he left, unsure where he was going.

He was tired. Dammit, was he tired. For a moment he was sure he had blacked out and yet somehow managed to stay standing. He had used a half-crumbled brick wall for support. Looking over one shoulder, he saw a complex smear of crimson following back to his form. "What a mess I am…" he laughed.

Looking up, he noticed an oval shadow pass by: it was the Deux ex Machina from earlier. "Oh Major…don't you get it? It's all over now. Time for us wankers to leave the battlefield. Heh, here let me help you." Walter collected what was left of his supernatural strength and called his wire forth, slicing portions of the dirigible.

It was then he continued to walk. But it was really more of a stagger. His feet were taking him somewhere that he didn't know. Such things didn't matter to him now. It was a slow and painful road to death and this was merely a distraction from it all. Just as Alucard had said he was running from his fate. Even now he was trying to escape from everything.

For a moment he closed his eyes and decided to sit. When his legs would not bend he decided to let himself fall and hit against a table. Any other time Walter would have uttered a noise in reaction to the pain. Could he even feel pain now? His body and mind were so numb.

He looked down at the pooled blood under his legs. "Alucard…" he said faintly.

What had happened? When did he become such a detestable piece of crap? He was junk, an incomplete and broken experiment. He wasn't a perfect vampire, nor was he human any longer. Walter drifted somewhere in the middle of both. He was nothing more than a man with a broken heart.

A few hot tears threatened to drip down his cheeks, but he wouldn't let them. Walter choked on his sadness, believing he had no right to cry. "It's my own fault this happened…" he scoffed, fishing his pocket for a box. "Damn…" he said when the box could not be found and rested his hand at his side. "Where did I put that box of American Spirits?"

Leaning back, he looked up at a ceiling. Somehow he had managed to find his way into the Doctor's domain. It was a medical room laden with notes upon notes tacked together like cheap wallpaper. Gurneys and tables lay overturned, painted in blood and dusted with dirt and debris.

"A fitting place for me…" Walter thought out loud. "Heh, I really am just a snot-nosed brat. Alucard was right. Even after all that happened, he was still right." He laughed again. "I wonder why he let me do this…and didn't even bother to say it wouldn't work."

"It's simple, Angel. It's because it didn't matter. You are the butler and trash man. I am the pet dog. Aside from our squabbles on the battlefield, we are not meant to mix."

Walter turned to his right. He could have sworn Alucard was there whispering something to him. His petrified stare soon relaxed, showing how exhausted he felt. "I must be going senile in my old age…"

Or maybe it was an old memory resurfacing. Walter had experienced a flood of flashbacks once his skirmish with Alucard had started. Maybe even now he was just thinking of the past.

"Alucard, you blathering idiot…" Walter began as if Alucard was there to listen. "What was it you even said…that I wouldn't understand even if you told me? Of course…leave it to you to say something like that." The former Hellsing butler heaved a sigh. His chest felt tight with a sudden burst of raw emotions. "I wonder what you meant by that…"

Closing his tired eyes, Walter let himself drift into a state somewhere between conscious and unconscious. For a while he felt comfortable and at peace with everything. Those memories were bubbling up and he couldn't beat them down any longer. In this state, he allowed those tears to stain his face. Even he wouldn't be able to acknowledge their existence if he remained half asleep.

So he let them fall. One, two, three. At first they were singular. But once started they continued to trail down the valleys of the youthful butler's cheeks.

Alucard…his thoughts began. What was it that drew me to you? For a man, you were quite beautiful. The first time we met, I didn't know what to think. I believed you were about my age; a cocky little Russian who was trained in similar fashion as I had been. Only after did Arthur tell me what you really were…

Dracula… Nosfertaru… Vampire… It was hard to believe that I was fighting along side the vampire of legend.

Walter laughed. Dracula…I must be an idiot not to think of you as that. You were my partner…I never thought of you as more.

Throwing his head back, Walter allowed himself to wake. "What a load of bollocks. Nothing more than a partner, huh?" He continued to patronize himself. "Then what was all of that for?"

Leaving his question rhetorical, the previous butler continued. "You've always had an endless amount of fans, those who read Stoker's novel, and those who celebrated you as some unusual super hero in comics and stories with Hallow's Eve paraphernalia.

"But there were also those who sought you out and wanted to fight you; they wanted to walk away from an epic battle, saying, 'I'm the one who defeated Alucard.' After all that happened, even I wanted that. But I suppose I can't say that."

Blue eyes followed down his right arm to his leg, then finally on the loose oval of blood on the ground. "What a joke...This body of mine...I couldn't handle even the surgery…" He looked to the sky. The sun was completely visible, surrounded by gray clouds. "I really didn't give you a good, last fight…But, I won't apologize. It's too late for things like that."

Walter tried his other pocket, desperately wanting tobacco. "Ah…there it is." He removed the box and a match and lit the thin stick. The dark youth wiped his damp cheeks with his shirt sleeve before placing the cigarette between his lips. "That's better…" The familiar smoke filled his mouth and lungs. His heart beat a little slower, gentler in his chest.

"But, Alucard...you didn't only have those who wanted to defeat you. There were others, others who were entranced by your looks and aristocratic grace." Walter smirked. "Such a lady killer you were with that face. You wooed Mina and myself."

His tongue rolled the burning stick about his lips idly. It felt good to concentrate on something as small as the cigarette burning in his mouth. "I don't know what it was about you…perhaps you'd put a charm on us humans. Or maybe we're all just daft fools. I know I'm one. I wasn't the first to be drawn in by your looks. But maybe, I was the last. Heh, who knows anymore?"

Closing his eyes, Walter concentrated on the silence around him. In the distance he would hear the Major's blimp burn and crumble.

"I wonder how Sir Integra and Miss Victoria are doing…" He laughed darkly. "I'm such a fool. Even now I'm worrying about them. I'm such…an old fool, nothing more than that." He expected a rush of tears to come streaming out, but nothing came. "So, I'm beyond crying now?"

Walter laughed again. Laughing at tragic events seemed to be his newest hobby. "Alucard…I wonder where you might be now. Hell...Limbo? Ahah...Heaven, even? I wouldn't know."

A shuffling of footsteps entered the room. Feet slid against the multitude of paper scattered about the floor. Walter fell silent and listened. So…who would this be? That hellish priest again?

"Ist this the end? No, not, it can't be…"

Oh, it's the Doc. Walter thought with an amused grin. How like the buzzards to come and reap the spoils of war. He looked to the side and saw the mad doctor collecting papers into an open bag. Seems he hasn't noticed me.

"Ist won't be. Technology will fuel the world on. Not like thist. I haven't reached my goal. Vhat was missing? Vhat?" He adjusted his unusual spectacles, gazing at a cloth covered portion of the wall. It wasn't like a curtain, but a large sheet masking something from view. He stood, straightening out the heaps of documents stuffed haphazardly into the bag. "I'm missing something important. But vhat could it be?" Sharp teeth nibbled on his gloved finger in thought.

"So, Grand Professor, what creation shall you grace us with now?"

"Ah…Valter?" The tall blonde man turned, noticing his bludgeoned experiment looking at him.

"You and me are the few remaining Nazi's? Hah, that's hardly a joke." With a grin he took the fag from his lips and chuckled. "How sad."

"How sad? Look at yourself. You've been a loser from the start."

Walter laughed through his nose. "Of course I am. I'm a loser. A peace of shit created by a piece of shit. You're just like me." He moved to sit more comfortably, legs bent and his arms resting upon them.

The Doctor gnashed his teeth together.

"This comedy is over. Run along now. It's time you and I both left the stage." His head pounded with every word spoken. Ah…It won't be long now…

"Comedy, how dare you!" The Doctor dropped his bag. "You have a big mouth for a defective product."

Walter twirled his cigarette, making faint figure eights in air. "It's all been a one-night act. And I merely wanted a part. We're no longer needed, Doc."

Walter looked up at the table and noticed a shredded cloth hanging from it. With what little strength he possessed, the butler lifted his hand and grasped it, pulling his body up. The muscles in his arm protested and shivered. Getting up was proving harder than it ever was in old age.

He stood wobbly as his arm fell limp. The arm he had used to stand snapped and dangled from the socket in shoulder before disintegrating, a rush of new blood joining the old at his feet.

But he grinned through the pain and stood as tall as possible before the Doctor. "Alucard was correct, I must be a fright." There was a chuckle that seemed to accompany everything he spoke.

"You insolent arschloch!" (German insult, Google it for fun!) The Doctor yelled. "What are you doing…laughing at us? You must be laughing at yourself. I'll be damned if you insult my vork." He pointed to the clothed object behind him. A metal plate read, 'NO. ANFANG, THE SHI' that secured the fabric. "Mein research, mein theorems. They were brilliant. Ist you that's not. A failure from the start."

"Stop trying to run away from it, Doc. It's our fate." He walked slowly towards the Doctor who pulled out a remote control. It was his master control that had detonated a self-destruct in each of his experiments.

"You shut your mouth!"

Before the Doctor could act, his arm had been ripped from the socket. He fell against the 'THE SHI', grasping at the cloth with his remaining hand. Crying out the Millennium doctor slid to the floor, pulling the cloth with him.

From that cloth emerged a vampiric skeleton. A metallic plate similar to the one upon the cloth had been plastered on the skull which read, '-MINA- NO.00000'

Walter looked at the Doctor who writhed in pain. He passed him to look at the skeleton. "Ah, I think I understand this now. Mina Harker. So this is what you used to make the vampires.

"It makes so much sense now, Doc. You lot exhumed her body. Of course…she was in a sense like Seras Victoria, created by Alucard. But she was an incomplete vampire." He grinned down at the Doctor. "And that was your first mistake: using something incomplete such as her."

Closing his eyes, Walter realized the truth. It's time I stop running from my fate. He smiled before his lips twisted into a jaunty grin and prepared his wires for a last time. "It's about time we accept our fates, mein Arzt." (German: my Doctor)

The blue-tinted wire flicked and twirled about as Walter caught sight of a fire starting at the other end of the operating room. He smirked, noting a lot of oxygen and gas tanks, slashing though them. A small explosion sent Walter and the Doctor backwards. The butler landed on his rear while the latter was crushed by a series of concrete blocks.

The Angel of Death snorted, sitting back in the most comfortable position possible. He took a few puffs of his cigarette with a curl of his lips. "Dammit…it's really the end now, isn't it, Alucard?"

The fire raged around the butler who sat watching with admiration. Those flames were hot and wild, dancing about with so much energy. They enticed him, beckoning him to come and join their heated celebration. "Ahah…just like Alucard. So dangerous…and so inviting."

He looked to the ceiling which was masked by billows of dark smoke. "Why not go out like you did…bidding our Master farewell." With a flick of his only hand, he removed the cigarette from his mouth and smiled sadly. "Goodbye, my Lady," and then he let it drop.

Alucard…I lost.

I'm sorry, I guess. I wanted to free you from all of this.

From your despair...from those invisible shackles that bound you to Hellsing. You existed for far too long.

I can only hope that the Major's plan worked and that you're finally gone now. That's all this old, bumbling fool can offer you.

We had a lot of fun, did we not? Our battles, our nightly meetings…If I could go back to then, I would. Back to the time when all I had to care about was Arthur…and you.

Mea draga...osăne întâlnimdin nou. (Romanian: My dear one, let's meet again.)