Reviews are all I ask for. I'm having trouble thinking up a way to make this looming battle very graphic so it's taking a while.

Despite Your Fear

In the eleven hours that she was in the hotel room Cat watched five movies on pay-per-view. She drank the seven sodas that were in the mini fridge and the two one liter bottles of water. She ate the five bags of different chips that were in a basket on top of the fridge and she ate most of the candy that was there as well. Around three o'clock she realized the hotel had room service so she ordered enough food for herself and Alucard. It was not as though the people at the hotel knew he did not eat so she could safely be gluttonous without any unpleasant stares. She ordered some different sandwiches and then more than enough desserts to have a party. What else was she going to do all day? She was not allowed to leave so the only option left was to laze around and eat. It did not matter anyway because she would be working all of the calories off that night.

At around six o'clock she collapsed onto the bed with a terrible stomach ache. She felt full to the point of bursting and even looking at a plate of food made her stomach gurgle boisterously and threaten to heave its contents onto the fluffy white carpet.

After ten minutes of lying on the bed looking like a beached whale she heard the lid to Alucard's coffin slide open. She waited to see him sit up like a jack in the box, but he did not break the horizon of the bed. After another minute she flipped herself over and dragged her body across the bed to peer over the side. He was lying perfectly still with his eyes shut.

"You've overslept and we've missed the entire battle. The wolves did perfectly fine without us and they've asked us to leave immediately for your presence makes them nervous," she waited to see if he had any snide comment for this but he only laid still. "Get up it's a quarter of six. I'm not getting you anything you've been nasty to me," she rolled herself to the other side of the bed and pressed her face into the pillows.

After another minute of silence Alucard rose up out of the coffin and dawned his coat and hat. He went to the mini fridge and pulled out a blood pack that Cat had not noticed before, and then headed to the door.

"Where are you going?" she drearily pulled her head up from the pillows and looked at him.

"To meet with the wolves downstairs. I will chat with them for a moment then I will come back up to retrieve you. Be ready when I get here," he opened the door and began to leave.

"Do I have to go? It isn't as though I'm going to be any help and you know it. I don't even know if I can shoot those guns Walter had made. Have you seen the size of them? They're almost as big as yours! And two! Well that's just unreasonable. I see no point of me being there at all. I think I should just wait here until you get back. You know it really would be a lot easier if I wasn't even there. You wouldn't have to…," he cut her off short.

"Would you stop your prattle!" the pictures on the walls shook and Cat heard the shampoo bottles in the bathroom fall off the rack.

"No need to snap…it was just a suggestion," she rolled off the bed and started pulling clothes out of her pack.

"Be ready when I get back," he turned and left, shutting the door loudly behind him.

"Be ready when I get back, what does it look like I'm doing you dolt. This is so stupid. I'll be surprised if this night does not end in some sort of tragedy. I'll end up shooting one of those ridiculous shape shifters and then we'll end up fighting another mythical creature war because they'll want to avenge their friend. I swear if I live through this I am not taking any more crap!" she undressed in anger and threw her dirty clothes at Alucard's coffin where they fell into it or hung off the edge. She shoved her arms though her Hellsing shirt and pulled on the much too short shorts. Then she went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and fix her hair into a ponytail that would hold up to werewolves. While she brushed her teeth she wondered how long it would take Alucard to talk with the wolves down stairs.

At that very moment he poked his head through the mirror, "Are you ready yet?"

She screamed and nearly swallowed the mess of toothpaste in her mouth. She managed to spit it out so she could scream at him, "Are you mad! Don't do that! That's why they make doors!"

"You should button up, you don't want to draw attention to yourself," he nodded at her shirt and then phased the rest of the way into the bathroom and out through the bathroom door.

She looked down at her shirt and quickly shut it mortified. She had not yet buttoned it while she was getting ready. She was never going to live it down. "Stupid jerk," she spat as she rinsed the rest of the toothpaste out of her mouth and buttoned and tucked in her shirt.

She was not going to let a little blunder like that ruin her night so she harnessed her angry towards Alucard into angry towards the werewolves and hoped it would be enough to give her courage to face them.

She stepped back out into the room and acted as though nothing had happened, "I'm ready to go."

"Where are your guns?" he looked at the Redhawk at her side and the small Ruger Walter had given to her.

"These are my guns, they'll do fine," she patted the familiar metal of them and smiled. Walter had given her the Ruger before she left. He said it was the first gun his father had given him and it had served him well.

"They will not do fine, they will not even do," he stood up and went to the closet, pulling out the hard suitcase her new guns were carefully packed in. He pulled them out and held them up for her to take.

They were both very ugly things in her opinion. They were modeled after Alucard's Jackal, but were only nine inches in length. They were made from a boring mat black metal and on the side Hellsing was inscribed in loopy script. They were exactly identical in every way though they were handmade. When Walter had handed them over he had said, "Un a crea de iad pentru unul de rai." Cat asked him what it meant, but was interrupted by Alucard who had burst out laughing. Walter had also given them names, Rai and Iad. He had declined to answer when she asked about these, but thought it would be easy to look up anyway.

Now here they were, dangling in front of her, waiting to be cradled in their holsters. The metal glistened impossibly, as if the guns were eager for the battle to start. She ruefully unsnapped the holster of her sensible guns and slowly strapped on the one for Rai and Iad. She slid them in part way and then let them drop so they could settle how they liked. She was surprised to find the weight of them was not unpleasant.

"Now you are properly ready for a battle," he tipped his hat slightly and Cat was not sure if he was fixing it or showing some sort of feeble respect for her.

She followed him down the hall and into the elevator. The weight of what was about to happen finally began to settle in the pit of her stomach. It lay there and burned a hole in her, working its way down her legs and into her feet, and then back up them and to her arms. They reached the bottom floor of the hotel by the time her hands started to burn and she followed Alucard out into the lobby. She noticed the desk clerk nod at him solemnly and he in turn nodded back. This struck her as odd, but she did not have time to decipher it, for the burning was now working its way up her neck and into her face. It would only be seconds before it reached the top of her head and then she would be on fire. She was alight on the inside and no one could see it and no one could help her and no one could save her.

"I can't do this," she whispered trying to keep her voice steady.

Alucard did not answer her. He continued walking out of the hotel and across the road to the trees. He stopped at the edge of them and peered into the darkness, "Are you ready?"

Cat thought it was Chaska who answered, "Yes, we are all here. We will follow you until the battle is won."

"Optimistic aren't they?" Alucard looked down at Cat and smiled.

She stared at his face and for a moment was blinded so much by the burning that she mistook the smile for encouragement and love. Then she saw that it was only an ugly thing full of bloodlust and excitement for the killing to come.

He stepped towards the trees and Cat grabbed his arm with a vice like grip. She could not even see past the first couple of trees, they were so thick and it was pitch black. "I can't go Alucard I just can't. I can't go in there blind like this," she felt the burning touch the corners of her eyes and her tears spilled out silently, trying their best to put out the fire.

Alucard glanced at the small white hand on his arm. It was a familiar scene and he felt, for a moment, a longing for the past. He looked into her small childlike face and tried to summon some pity, but none came. Inside of her this was what she wanted; to fight the things that went bump in the night, to tear apart the creatures that so ruthlessly tore apart the innocent. She was glad to be here at the edge of the woods with two guns on her hips and a perfect excuse to use them, even if she did not know it yet.

"Despite your fear, follow me into the darkness as far as you can," and then he led her in, through the thick trees and to the place where the wolves were waiting.