Chapter 3: Answers and Liberation
Hans sat in the back of the Hellsing helicopter, silver handcuffs around his wrists sapping power and life from him, making him feel pathetically mortal. The minute the words Millennium and werewolf had escaped his lips Integra had ordered Alucard to put him in silver chains and point his gun at his head and escort him to her helicopter. Hans really couldn't blame her for her decision, Millennium had been the single greatest threat that humanity had ever faced from the supernatural world, and the fact that it might have survived and that one of it's agents had just presented himself to her was cause to worry in his opinion. Apparently Integra was of the same mind.
Hans rubbed his forehead, he really hated feeling helpless, and these cuffs were one of the few things that could do just that. The silver dulled his senses to human levels, reduced his strength substantially, and rendered him human for lack of a better term. He sighed and put his head in his hands, at least they hadn't killed him outright. He would rather Integra do it if it had to be done, rather than Alucard who liked to play with his food before he quite literally ate it.
"Um... Mr. Gunsche." said a timid voice. Hans looked up to see the young blonde British woman whom the Iscariot had tried to kill earlier. She was looking at him like he was made of dynamite and a lit match was sitting right next to him. "I.. I don't believe we've been properly introduced. My name is Seras, Seras Victoria." Hans said nothing merely blinked at her.
Seras Victoria, it was such an utterly British name. She was of course beautiful, one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. But in all truth, Hans was not sure what to think of her. She was a vampire, he could smell that much. Was this Alucard's newest fledgling?
After another moment of analyzing her Hans finally said. "Fraulein Integra sent you to pump me for information did she not?" he asked in his heavy German accent.
"Well what else would I want to pump you for?" she said quite innocently. The moment she realized how the words sounded she blushed bright red and covered her mouth. "I really just said that didn't I?" she asked terrified.
Hans chuckled. "It is okay, you can stop ze ditzy blonde schoolgirl act. I know all about interrogation."
She frowned at him and became deadly serious, a hint of red flashing in her baby blue eyes. "Alright then. If you must know, Master Integra didn't send me. No one will tell me anything about Millennium so I was hoping you would be kind enough to give me some answers."
Hans nodded, approving of the commanding tone in her voice. "You are Alucard's newest fledgling ja?" he asked. Seras nodded. "Tell me about how you came into hiz service. Zen I shall tell you about Millennium."
Seras glared at him but sat down in the bench opposite him crossing her arms and legs. She calmly related the events that transpired that fateful night in Cheddar, how the vampire priest had turned everyone in the town into ghouls except her, how Alucard had shown up and torn the ghouls to shreds, and how he had killed the vampire by shooting through her. "He forced me to make a split second decision about whether or not I wanted to live. And I said I did." she concluded. "That's about it."
Hans nodded, it suited the vampire lord's sadistic nature to force something like that onto an innocent. Hans, if he was going to make someone suffer, would have just killed them. He would never condemn anyone to an eternity in the dark. Even werewolves died eventually after a couple thousand years at most. Vampires on the other hand were immortal, and eternity was a long time when you could only walk in the light of the moon.
"I've told you my story, now you tell yours. What the hell is Millennium?" demanded the draculina.
Hans sighed and began his story. "At ze start of Vorld Vor 2, Herr Hitler began a program known as Millennium, a top secret research group interested in ze occult. They were intent on making an army of vampires to take over the world, a motive not even ze Fuhrer knew about. They were close to succeeding when Alucard and ze Hellsing butler Walter attacked our base in Warsaw. That was the first time we fought, and I like to zink zat I put up a good fight. I was still only twelve back then and much weaker-"
"Wait." said Seras. "You were twelve, and you held your own against Alucard?"
Hans nodded, allowing a satisfied smile to cross his face. "Kicked him in half at ze waist. It vas only because Valter vas zere zat I did not finish him off."
Seras blinked at him and scooted towards the front of the jet just about an inch. Anyone who could take on Alucard and come out on top of all things was a force to be feared in her opinion.
"Vell, to be fair I did have the aid of a serum vich accelerated my growth to vhat you see now." said Hans with a shrug.
"So... Millennium is still alive?" she asked nervously.
Hans nodded, not saying anything.
"And why did you work for them?" she asked with a not unsurprising amount of venom and suspicion in her voice.
Hans looked down at his hands, still bound in silver chains, but they were still preferable to the chains Millennium had put around his soul. "That is a much sadder story." said Hans quietly.
Seras could hear the grief in his voice, and the despair. "I vill tell you." he said quietly. "But I vill only tell it once, to all of you. It will be the last time it shall ever leave my lips." his voice could easily have been mistaken for a corpse's, it was completely empty.
The rest of the ride was spent in silence.
As they rode in the helicopter Seras couldn't help but examine him. He was of course rather attractive even if he was a Nazi, or a former Nazi if he was telling the truth. Truth be told Seras had never really had any time for things like romance when she was a police officer, and when she became a vampire that had pretty much tossed all hopes of family, no matter how distant and dim those hopes might have been.
But there was something about this werewolf that gave her hope. She was by no means in love, she didn't believe in all that love at first sight nonsense. But she felt it was more a girlish crush, not her first to be certain. Who knew, if he was honest about being a friend then maybe this little crush of hers could become something more.
But that was ages away. Right now he was a prisoner and she was a jailer, simple as that, cut and dry, the end.
Still, he was a handsome bloke, that she had to admit.
(Hellsing Manor)
The soldiers of Hellsing looked at Hans as though he were a sideshow freak on display. Hans was used to it, he had put up with it at Millennium, but he didn't like it. Lucky for him he soon found himself inside the manor. Integra and Alucard lead him down the steps to level four of the dungeon.
It was a small room, ten feet by ten feet with the only furniture being a small cot and a toilet in the corner. "It iz better than some places I have been," commented Hans dryly as Integra watched his from the door. "At least zere is no Iron Maiden." he said turning towards the well dressed British woman.
"You will remain here until I decide what to do with you or I decide I actually need you for answers." said Integra to the werewolf. "Whichever comes first."
"Can I at least get these chains off?" he asked. "Zey are a bit uncomfortable."
Integra knew full well that the silver was rapidly going from uncomfortable to downright torture for the werewolf. Prolonged exposure could very well kill him, or at least make him very sick. Integra chewed the butt of her cigar thinking hard. She took out her radio and contacted Walter.
"Walter." said Integra. "The door to the dungeon four cell is made of a mix of steel and iron correct?" she asked.
"Yes sir." said Walter's polite reply. "After mine and Alucard's encounter in Warsaw your father saw fit to make a cell made to hold a werewolf should the opportunity and necessity ever arise."
Integra chuckled. "It's ironic, apparently that same werewolf is the one that we are currently detaining."
"What!" cried Walter. "It- He;s alive!" cried Walter in a very uncharacteristic voice.
"Yes actually. He popped up in Ireland, saved Seras's life, and promptly handed himself over to us. It's all rather odd."
"Whatever you do Sir Integra," growled Walter with surprising venom. "Do not let your guard down around that monster, not even for a moment. Next to Alucard it is perhaps the most dangerous supernatural being there is."
"Thank you for the advice Walter." she said curtly and promptly hung up. "I'm probably making a mistake by doing this," said Integra in a resigned voice. "but yes you may be free of the cuffs. This cell was designed with you in mind after all." Hans calmly walked forward and held out his hands. Integra promptly removed the cuffs and Hans respectfully stepped back into his new cell, rubbing his hands in relief. "At least you have manners." said Integra taking a puff of her cigar. "Ta ta for now fascist." said Integra in a slightly sarcastic voice as she shut the door and bolted it shut.
Hans sat on the cot feeling loads better with the absence of the cuffs. He could feel his true herculean strength returning as well as his senses being restored to their old power. He could even think clearer. Now he put his not inconsiderable brain power to work on a single subject that he had neglected to consider at all.
Walter.
Walter was the Major's secret weapon. He had a low powered FREAK Chip in his brain, subconsciously forcing him to betray the organization he had given his life to. Poor dumbkoff probably didn't even know it was happening, or at least thought it was his decision. Hans smiled to himself. With Walter he could kill three birds with one stone, atone for one of his crimes for it had been him that had put the chip into Walter during their bout in Warsaw, win Integra's trust by liberating her best friend, and stick it sideways to the Major by removing Walter from his equation.
Revenge was sweet.
As he sat on the cot he allowed his thoughts to drift to each of the people who now jailed him. Integra he knew quite a bit about from surveillance and what he had seen of the Hellsing heir was impressive enough. She had never lost her cool once that evening, even when Hans had revealed himself as a werewolf and a former servant of Millennium. It was a testament to her character that she could take a situation like that out of the blue and handle it like a professional.
Alucard, uggh. The less he thought of the No Life King the better. Alucard was one of the few creatures that Hans feared, and rightly so. Not only could he level a city if he wanted to, but he was more than willing to do so.
Then there was the fledgling. She intrigued the werewolf. The evil was in her, but it didn't rule her like it did so many of her kind. There was something special about her, something different about her that made her absolutely fasinating to him, no doubt what Alucard had also seen in her.
Hans waited patiently in his cell for Integra to be ready for him.
Integra sat down in her office and put her head between her hands releasing a sigh of pent up frustration. Now she had a name to put to the faceless organization that was plaguing her homeland: Millennium. She didn't know much about the original organization aside from the fact that they made the Third Reich look like playground bullies.
Now a werewolf, a race she thought had gone underground permanently, had popped out of the woodwork and claimed to be part of the very organization she had thought wiped out and then claim he was defecting to their side.
It was enough to give an archangel a headache.
"Sir Integra?" said Walter entering the room, a concerned tone in his voice.
"Oh thank God you're here Walter." said Integra in relief, finally glad she could talk to a member of her group that wasn't a naive girl, a perverted soldier, or a psychopathic vampire warlord. "I need someone to speak with, as well as some information."
Walter nodded and sat down across from his employer. "what do you wish to know?" The aged Vampire Hunter was anticipating a request for advice about the werewolf, information bout Millennium, perhaps some personal advice, but not what she said.
"Tell me everything you know about werewolves." she said quietly.
Walter was slightly taken aback by the question, but took it in stride. Fortunately he was quiet informed on the subject of the children of Fenrir.
"Well," began Walter, "werewolves as we know them first came from the Scandinavian regions of the world during the Golden Age of the Viking people. It is theorized that the first modern werewolves were Viking Berserkers who, through dark magic of some kind, gave themselves the power to turn themselves into the wolves they worshiped, as well as a the form of a twisted cross of man and beast. They became the scourge's of the ocean's of Europe, but new discoveries mention werewolves, or at least an ancestor of the one's we know today, first appeared in the days of ancient Rome, specifically, it's foundation."
Integra frowned in puzzlement. "Really? I would never have guessed, but what do you mean an ancestor, did the curse evolve?"
Walter nodded. "In a way. The Roman werewolves that are first mentioned are Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome and the sons of Mars, the God of War." The butler gave a wry smile. "I guess the legends of Rome being founded by wolves was true in a sense."
"How did their power differ from that of modern werewolves?" asked Integra.
Walter's face darkened. "While modern werewolves have a great amount of control over their inner monsters, the wolves of Rome were decidedly more vicious, and far closer to the primal animal instinct. Furthermore, they seemed to have some sort of control over animals, as well as mind control over those who fought in war. They could make as vicious and as merciless as wolves."
"My God." said Integra breathlessly.
Walter nodded grimly. "That is one of the reasons that the campaigns of the Caesar family were so effective, being werewolves, or lycans as they were known back then, themselves they could make their men into wild beasts, with little emotion, and no feelings of pain." Walter took a breath before continuing. "Not only that, but Roman werewolves could summon the spirits of fallen warriors from beyond death to serve them until they deigned it time to release them."
"So what happened to them?" asked Integra.
"They appeared to go extinct along with the Roman Empire, but due to their reappearance in Scandinavia some years later it is clear that some line of Romulus and Remus survived and found it's way to the northern regions of Europe."
Integra nodded. She found the history of werewolves interesting true, but how did it apply to werewolves now, like the one in the dungeon. "What about werewolves today, what are they like."
Walter frowned. "They seem to be peaceful enough towards mankind, in the sense that they prefer not to have anything to do with us if they can help it." He frowned. "That's why I was so surprised to find one serving the Third Reich."
Integra nodded. "Have you met any besides the one in the dungeon in your life."
Walter shook his head. "Just the one, but it was not an experience that I would care to repeat. If you would like to talk to someone about the nature of modern werewolves I believe that Alucard would be a more accurate source of information." Integra nodded.
"Thank you Walter. Now, I want you and Alucard to bring the werewolf up here now, I need to question him and see if he's telling the truth, and the extent of his powers."
Walter frowned at her in a concerned manner. "Are you sure Sir? I still think that even having the werewolf here is a bad idea."
Integra nodded. "But he did save Seras's life and he shot an Iscariot. Both of those things have to be worth something don't they?" Walter grudgingly nodded.
"I'll contact Alucard Sir." said Walter with a curt and professional nod. "We shall bring it to your presence immediately."
"He" said Integra leaning back in her chair.
"What was that Sir Integra?" asked Walter as he stood to leave the room.
"He. Not it." she said simply
Walter nodded. "As you wish Sir Integra."
Hans lay on his cot in the dungeon dozing in and out of sleep, bored out of his mind. He was a wolf at heart, and he needed some open space dammit. He spent so long in a prison of flesh, he was not eager to spend too long in a prison of stone. He had shed his coat and his undershirt and was wearing nothing but his hat, jack boots, and his brown jeans.
He jolted out of his doze when he heard a voice directly over his head. "My, my. It seems that the doggy is asleep."
Hans opened his eyes, and then jumped to his feet in panic, smashing the cot. Alucard had entered the room like a shadow and had made his way over to Hans completely silently.
"Vhat do vant Alucard." snarled Hans dropping into his combat position.
Alucard held up his hands. "Simply to talk my furry friend. Unless you wish to find out which of us is truly stronger?" he said with an almost playful grin.
Hans frowned. "Perhaps later Alucard." Hans turned to mist and quickly reformed on the opposite side of the room, away from the creepy vampire. "Now vhat do you vant?"
Alucard turned to face Hans, that creepy grin still on his face. "Is Millennium truly still around? Are they truly still active?" he spoke with something akin to hope.
Hans nodded. "Ja, they still live."
Alucard was silent for a moment, then he started to laugh. It started quietly at first, but gradually got louder as his mirth increased. He was soon doubled over in laughter as it boomed forth with the force of thunder.
To say that Hans was freaked out would be an understatement. But to say he was surprised would be untrue. Hans knew that Alucard fed on conflict as much as he did blood, and the prospect of World War Three was a positively orgasmic notion to the child of the Devil.
Alucard may have fought for the side of good, but there was no doubt that the No Life King had a soul blacker than the pits of Hell.
"A revived Millennium, a new Last Bastion, glorious!" he said, his laughter finally dying. "What would I do with out these idiots in the world."
"Alucard, come in Alucard." came Walter's voice over Alucard's radio.
Alucard grabbed his radio and clicked a button. "What is it Angel of Death?" he asked still chuckling slightly from his previous mirth.
"Make your way to the werewolf's cell. Sir Integra wishes to speak with it- I mean him." said Walter in a professional voice.
Alucard nodded. "Coincidentally I am already here. Go to Sir Integra's office, I shall escort our furry guest to Master's study." Alucard disconnected the connection.
Hans, still shirtless, sat opposite Sir Integra at her desk feeling like a schoolboy being grilled for information about a prank by the principal. In the cosmic sense that wasn't that far off from the truth if the prank involved killing millions if not billions of people. Walter stood slightly behind her and to the left while Seras waited in the corner, her ludicrously huge rifle at her side while Alucard was at the opposite end of the room directly behind Hans watching the proceedings with mild interest as though it were a rugby match.
"Alright Mr... Gunsche was it?" said Integra. Hans nodded in confirmation. "Well, I'm afraid that I am going to need you to tell me everything you know about this new Millennium. After that we will have to g-"
"Pardon mein interruption." interrupted Hans. "But before ve can do zat, I need to tell you somezing very important." he paused and Integra narrowed her eyes at him, but gave him a small nod to continue. "Zer is a spy in your organization." said Hans quietly.
Seras gasped in the corner, Integra's eyes narrowed even further and Alucard laughed in amusement behind him. But Hans was looking at Walter, watching him, gauging his reaction. Walter's face, stance, or position did not change at all, but a sliver of fear entered his eyes.
"And just who would this spy be?" asked Integra.
"It really izn't his fault, he has a FREAK Chip in his brain subconsciously controlling him. Probably doesn't even know it's happening." Hans rambled, his eyes never leaving Walter.
"Who the bloody hell-" snarled Integra before once more being cut off by Hans.
"He's standing behind you." he said simply. The moment he said the words left his mouth Walter's gleaming blue wires shot out at Hans.
It was the moment that the werewolf had been waiting for.
Hans's hand shot out, grabbing the wire's in his fist, at the same time standing up with such speed that his chair clattered to the floor. Hans yanked the wires towards him pulling Walter to him. As the butler was near him, Hans delivered a perfect side kick to his chin sending him crashing onto Integra's desk.
"Seras!" barked Integra at the fledgling Draculina.
"NO!" cried Hans. "Let me help him!" cried the werewolf. Not waiting for a response Hans flipped Walter over and pinned him to the desk.
"You abomination!" roared Walter. "Get off of me! Help me you bumbling fools!" cried the butler. Not waiting for Any of the Hellsing members to respond or commit themselves to any one course of action Hans sunk his claws into the back of Walter's neck, finding the chip quickly enough. It was smaller than his and Rip's, but that was to be expected due to it's nature. With a mighty tug and a spurt of blood Hans ripped the thing out. He felt Walter immediately slacken beneath him and Hans released the now unconscious man.
Finally aware of the world around him again Hans saw that both of Alucard's guns were pointed at him as well as Seras's rifle. Even Integra's pistol was trained directly at his face, nonchalantly as he could. Hans tossed the chip onto the table beside Walter's now prone form.
"So," he began casually, "what do you want to know?"