Sanctuary to the Lost and Damned

Chapter 22.1: Dogs and Men

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Late at night...

The Baron lied in bed thinking about what the fuhrer had planned to discuss with him. He groaned as he thought about a particular general he was sure would be there with Hitler at the meeting. That was the general who had questioned his family's loyalty to the party. He had been making his loyalty well known since 1920.

The aristocrat had always been weary of Semites and their ways which were strange to the German man, but he was convinced that they were evil after what had happened (the event which occurred) in the late fall of 1919. He had since then to not only vowed to never employ a Jew again, but also to never even associate with them in any fashion. Naturally when the Nazis party rose and he discovered that he shared the views of the Nazis party, he joined. Of course they were also the only political party in Germany.

He had done much to show his dedication to the party. The werewolves were a perfect example of this; he had sent these creatures out numerous times to carry out party business. Yet he had continued to receive opposition from this general. The last time he had spoken with this man the soldier had suggested that he might have sympathizes for the enemy.

The baron snorted as he continued to look up at the ceiling.

The baron had no love for the enemies of the party, particularly the Jews. He knew that his daughter didn't either. He had raised her to know who her enemies were and was confident that she understood why they were a threat to the family and the whole of Germany.

There was a knock at the door.

Surprised by this, the baron bolted up in bed.

"Who is it?" he shouted sounding angrier than he had intended. But this behavior could be forgiven as he had asked that his servants not disturb him unless it was a matter of great importance.

When no one answered the baron asked to the person in come in.

Standing before the aristocrat was the largest werewolf in his employ.

"What are doing here?" the baron had made each new recruit well aware that they were not allowed in the house without direct permission. "Who said that you could be in the house?"

The werewolf then pointed to a portrait on the night stand of Rita, his daughter.

"Rita? What about my daughter?"

The werewolf continued to point to the portrait.

The baron was confused. Not only had the werewolf not conveyed who had let him in, but he was trying to tell the man about something with his daughter. Sometimes the aristocrat wished that the werewolf talked.

It then occurred to the baron that these two people might be the same.

'No' his mind told him. He did not want to believe that the beast could be let in by his daughter who only weeks ago, he had discovered on top of this werewolf, kissing him and god knows what else might have happened if he hadn't interrupted.

"You mean to tell me that my daughter has allowed you into the house."

The werewolf nodded. The silent werewolf knew that the only way to override Rita's orders was to get new ones from higher up in the command chain: Her father.

The baron sighed as his hand came to his head. He didn't want to believe it but the werewolf was not likely to lie to him, not after the last threat the baron made to him. More so was the fact that he had noticed his daughter develop a strong liking to the werewolf. She had been seeking him out at parties and just standing with him when she should have been attending to the guests. He hoped that this was not the reason for her rejection of all the other suitors.

"Go wait for me in the hall." he ordered the werewolf.

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The dark haired aristocratic woman sat at her vanity seat. Her image mirrored her in a state different from what she normally looked like for now she wore make-up. It was poorly applied since she had always had a maid apply it on her before the various social events which her father had her attend.

She brought her brush through her long dark hair as she quietly sang a tune from the opera that she and her father attended the previous month.

Rita heard a knock at her door.

She put down her hair brush. "Yes?" she asked whoever was at the door. When she got no answer she got up from her vanity set.

She walked to her locked door and moved one of her blue eyes to a small peering glass looking hole. It was one of several security features of her room, including her window which was inaccessible from the outside, which her father had set up for her protection.

Standing there was the werewolf known as 'Silent Hans'.

She had been planning to visit Hans, but having him to come to her was a fantastic sign, she believed. It suggested that he was returning her feelings.

She quickly opened the door. "Hans!" she shouted excitedly, before leaping up and putting her arms around him. "I'm glad to see you!"

"I'm not." said a familiar, but currently unwelcome voice.

She slowly turned. Standing against the wall purposely out of sight, was her father.

"What is the meaning of this?" the man demanded of his daughter. "Hans informs me that you have allowed him in the house. Now I see you hugging the beast."

She let go of the werewolf and tried to think of what to say. "The Irish she-wolf and Schrödinger have married-"

"Animals do not marry." her father stressed.

"The two are now living together, so Hans doesn't have anywhere to sleep."

"Dogs sleep outside Rita, you know that!" The baron yelled at his daughter without any reservations about the fact that Hans was standing there.

"Hans still needs somewhere to sleep, father. Even dogs have houses."

"Fine." her father agreed in his tone that let her know that, as far he was concerned the matter was settled. "We will find him somewhere else to sleep; somewhere outside the house."

"Good." she produced a false smile. "I will be glad when he had a place." she continued trying to pretend that this was the only reason that she had invited him in.

"Then why do you not sound happy?" Her father did not want to believe that his daughter had intentions to mess around with the werewolf, but he was all the same suspicious.

"Surprised, Father. I'm surprised, not unhappy," she lied.

"Well, then you won't be bothered if I take him with me on your trip to Berlin then. He will be my bodyguard there. These are dangerous times."

She held back a gasp. Her father was leaving with her Hans. "With you...No father, it does not bother me at all. Hans is strong. I am glad that you will be safe on your trip." she held her hands behind her back as she said this. This allowed her to cross her fingers during some parts of this explanation.

"I'm happy that you still have some love for your father, but you cannot do things without asking for my permission. You cannot just invite anyone into your house without my permission, especially furry ones. We have had this talk before Rita."

She knew that her father was talking about what happened when she was 7. Her father had shot a wolf on the property which had been attacking some of the livestock.

Rita had discovered the wolf's two pups the next morning. After learning that the pups' mother was dead she had tried to care for them as pets. When her father had found out he had been furious. He had told her that one does not bring a wild animal into the house. Her father had taken the pups out and shot them citing that they would only grow up to attack his livestock.

She knew that it was more than the fact that they were wolves; she knew that her father didn't like even the common dog, no he downright disputed them. She considered that her father hated Hans and the rest of the pack in the same way. Why he had a couple dozen werewolves on his property, her didn't know.

She felt as though she could cry. She had spent time preparing for this. The secret space between the rooms, which her father had been completely unaware of, had been cleaned. She also felt as though fate were on her side when lightning struck the cabin, then there was the wedding...She could remember thinking that everything was falling into place. She believed that it was fate that they should be together.

"We leave tomorrow morning. I hope to see you at breakfast." her father said as he departed from her path.

Rita watched as Hans turned from her and followed her father. She felt tears start to form in her eyes. She couldn't help, but feel that her only chance to have Hans love her had just slipped away.

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Walter lay in his bed looking up at the moon.

He knew that Alucard would not be coming that night. He was instead busy doing his duty to Sir Hellsing. He was the favorite after all. He had even heard Arthur refer to the vampire as his 'special servant'.

He hoped some day to surpass the vampire, but a small part of him doubted that would happen as long as the creature was alive and considering that the creature was nearly immortal he serious doubted that would ever happen.

Walter massaged his sore arm. The training had been tougher than he thought it would be. He liked it though. He liked that Alucard did not treat him like a child. He was a child, of course, of only 9 years, but he was more mature than any of his peers.

He then thought about the kind of person, if a vampire could be called a person, this Alucard was. He was obviously respected for both his reputation of character and his deeds.

He then wondered what the vampire was capable of since He had seen the vampire do some very strange things in his time around him, despite how little it was. He suspected that the vampire had barley shown him his capabilities. This made the boy feel a bit depressed; after all how can one surpass someone with whose powers, you are unaware. It would be like a blind man fighting a person with perfect vision.

Walter recalled the events of the previous night.

Last night...

"What?" Walter demanded.

The vampire stood there just looking at the boy. "If I am to be your teacher, then you should actually listen when I speak Mr. Dornez."

"I was listening!"

"Then you did not understand. You need grow. One can never grow without change; not without adaptation. "

"I have already explained this to you, Mr. Vampire. As long as I get them first, I win. It is simple!"

"It is not simple! Your philosophy is flawed. You cannot imagine how many people like you I have encountered, Arrogant and cocky. I often allow them 'get me first,' before I return from what they believed to be my defeat; and then I destroy them. They 'get me first', but I always reign victorious." the vampire laughed. "It pleases me to do so. To see the fear in their eyes and to smell that sweet smell panic in their souls." the vampire gave a dark chuckle. "Your tactics are rough and require, shall we say, an updating."

"What do you suggest I do? Do you want me to pick up a gun and become some sort of Yankee cowboy gunslinger?" Walter then made a mocking motion with his hands in the shape of guns. He then flexed his wires in view of the vampire. "I use my wires. They are my weapon."

The vampire shook his head. "You tell me that you are listening, but when and where in our conversations have I told you the problem lies with your weapons? I haven't; it is your approach little fish. You require some variety with your attack and you need to work on some defensive strategies."

Walter thought about this. While it was true that some variety of technique might be effective, the boy was not willing to give the vampire an inch in the measure that the creature might be right, even if he was his teacher, because a part of Walter's mind told him that in some way this was all a means for the vampire to better him somehow.

"I refuse to be caught in a defensive position." the nine year old boy declared. He had, in with exception of that vampire at the lord's estate, even then only having to avoid a few sliced from the pervert, always taken the offensive in his attacks and felt that that was all that would ever be required of him. As long as he could stay on the offensive, as long as he held ground he would never be in such a weak position. He preferred to be the aggressor.

The vampire smiled. The creature then charged at Walter, knocked him over, onto the ground and held the boy's hands together preventing him from using his weapon. "How about now." the vampire laughed. "For someone who refuses to be in such a position, you seem to be quite helpless, little fish!"

The boy struggled against him. "That's wasn't fair!" the boy struggled against the vampire, but as he did the vampire applied more pressure to his hands.

"That was the point Mr. Dornez." the vampire grinned with amusement. The creature then applied some pressure to one of his arms.

The boy held back a whimper as this added pressure started to hurt that arm. "But...We are allies!"

The vampire snorted. "Allies can become enemies very quickly, Mr. Dornez." the vampire let the boy free, "Especially in war."

"Why?" Walter asked as he stood up.

The vampire reminded himself that the boy before him had probably only ever read of war in books, if at all.

"Traitors are a natural part of war." the vampire explained as if explaining that the sun arose every morning. Alucard then looked at Walter in the eye. "I have killed enough traitors in my time to know that one should never expect complete safety with even one's closet friends..."

The vampire thought about all the advisors and Generals who had betrayed him through the ages; all the men who he trusted as friends who had betrayed him. But he knew that traitorous behavior was not something that he could forgive. He knew that on its most basic level allowing a traitor to live would only encourage more sabotage and espionage and he could never allow his country to suffer for his emotional mistakes.

Walter might have felt a little sympathetic for the damned creature if not for the fact that he had often wondered about what would motivate people to turn on each other like street rats. He had grown suspicious of all people in general. He did not have the experience of being betrayed, but he knew from listening in on the confessions in the priest's confessional booth that people hid things from each other.

He knew that they hid a variety of things of various topics. He had heard people confess things that no one in their close circle of friends of family members knew. He contended that it might be human nature to hide information, and so it might also be human nature to betray other human beings. But He was raised by a priest, and so He believed that he was above such behavior.

"Let's continue." Walter moved his body into a combat stance.

The vampire looked at him as if wonder what to do with him.

"Leave!" The vampire commanded

"What, but you said that you would train me! You said that you would teach me! Sir Hellsing said-"

"I can't teach a student who won't learn!" the vampire growled irritated.

"I am learning!" Walter yelled at the creature.

"No, you are clinging to your old ways of thinking!"

"My ways have served me well!" Walter was referring to two events one being the thief who had tried to steal from his church; the second being the man who had tried to kidnap a little girl from the orphanage across the road from where he and the priest lived.

"They have served you for defeating common criminals." Walter had boasted about this to Arthur, who had once told the vampire about these occurrences. "We hunt much larger game in this organization, boy."

"I can take care of myself."

"You are only human!" the creature reminded Walter. "You are not invincible, boy!"

"I will be fine."

"You won't. You will be dead. Or some pervert's plaything."

"You want me to leave? What should I do? Should I go twiddle my thumbs?" Walter folded his arms.

"I don't care what you do, but do not return here until you are both willing to learn and ready to practice without applying some ill logic to your thinking.

"You're supposed to teach me!" the boy repeated. 'Damn vampire', Walter thought, 'damn vampire delegating his duties to me!'

"Must I repeat myself? A teacher can only teach a willing student. I suggest that you teach yourself something's on your own before you return to me."

"No, you asked me if I wanted a teacher. I said yes. And now you won't teach me!"

"You are young so I will give you some information about some of the greatest warriors in history. Many had teachers who were not warrior, but often Philosophers. This should tell you boy that there is more to fighting than pure violence; There is a mental component." the vampire noticed a confused look on the boy's face. "I could teach you how to be more violent, but only you can teach yourself how to be faster and stronger. I can only guild you, boy; I cannot do this for you."

"Well you could let me in on what that missing fourth element is to that victorious battle formula you told me about. Skill, will, Technique, and something else which you seem to wanna keep from me!"

"Formula?" The vampire had lived under the scientist Abraham for long enough to know many medical terms and had a general understanding of medicine and some procedures. Alucard laughed. "What you are trying to learn is not a science Mr. Dornez; it is an art. There is no formula in art but those four factors can only help you if you truly understand what they mean. As I have said before this is something which you must teach yourself."

"Can one win without the final component?" Walter asked hopping that he might not need that last component.

"I suppose, but it would most certainly be by chance, and thus not a true victory..." Alucard explained to the boy.

But it is possible."

"Anything is Possible, Mr. Dornez." the vampire looked up at the moon. "I have better things to do than to teach you what things which you are not prepared to receive..." the vampire then turned into a grouping a bats.

"Hey!" Walter shouted at the cluster. "...but..." Walter said now sounding like a young child, "You're supposed to teach me..."

Present...

He hated how the vampire was always leaving him with questions. He had at time wondered if there even were answers to these questions or whether the creature was amused by sending on these pointless quests.

He thought again about the vampire. He was an enigmatic figure. Both his history and his character. At times he seemed to be a respectable man while other times he was the bane of everyone, well except for Arthur Hellsing and Alfred Parker, the butler.

While training under the Nosferatu, Walter had learned two distinct things about the vampire that he had not known before then. The vampire was a tough teacher, and he was also an asshole.

Walter had observed the vampire taunting members of the organization and some of the staff. He of course was on the list of people that vampire taunted, but he were to examine the ratio of the insults he received in comparison to the others he would have noticed that he received fare fewer than anyone else.

He knew that the creature would always be an asshole; this belief let the boy wondering how he would deal with the vampire when he became a fully fledged member of the order.

The boy pulled his journal out from a drawer in his night stand.

He then wrote down that day's thoughts as he had done nearly every night since he was seven.

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10:33pm...

The Nosferatu, Alucard, stood in front of his master who was sitting at his desk.

Islands had told Arthur numerous times that if he would just get up earlier then the man wouldn't be up so late at night doing paperwork. Arthur had always shrugged his shoulders and assured Islands that as long as the work does gets done then it is of little concern when.

Alucard found Arthur's late night workings a good opportunity to speak with the man without having to be awake during the day-time or worst yet having to disturb him in bed. Arthur had taken over the master bedroom as his sleeping quarters; the same room where Alucard conceived his first child. So the room had since then unnerved him. He had decided even before he went into hibernation, before his son was born that he would not enter that room unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Is there a reason that you are here, Alucard, or at you going to stand there all night."

Alucard bowed. "Sorry master, I was just...that is I have been wondering how the Harker's visit went." the vampire stopped. His memories went back to nine years ago when Abraham told him that the Harkers would be visiting. He thought about his excitement believing that he would see Mina Harker, the woman whom he believed was the reincarnation of his true love from more than 500 years ago while he was still human. Abraham had been quick to destroy this hope.

The vampire was sure that she would now have a great many wrinkles. She had been a young woman in 1898, which was more than 40 years ago. But this did not bother the ex-count who had long ago understood the changes of the human body as something to be expected, and in his mind revered.

"The Harkers?"

"Jonathan Harker aided your father in the events which led to my defeat." he vampire saw Arthur's face show some recognition, but there was still something that Arthur did not understand. "They visited about a week after I was sealed." the vampire added a time line for his master to use as a tool of recollection.

"I was at school then..."Arthur mumbled. "Alfred." Arthur called the butler, who had now changed his sleeping patterns to match Arthur's. "Do you remember the Harkers visiting...?" Arthur thought back to when it was that the vampire was sealed. "In April of 1930."

The butler put down a picture which he had been hanging. "The Harkers visiting... April...1930...April ...?" the old butler thought about this for a moment. "I do recall Mr. Jonathan and Quincey."

"What of Mina?" the vampire asked.

"Wilhelmina...Jonathan's wife..." the old butler thought aloud. (1)

Though Alucard hated to think of her as that man's wife, He nodded. "Yes. His wife."

"Jonathan and his son arrived, but there was no wife." the butler did however recall a large crate being brought to Abraham's laboratories. The butler's first thoughts about this box, which was a rectangular shape, were his belief that it was coffin. He had asked Abraham about this box, but the doctor had ordered him silent and more over, to never speak of it to anyone.

Alfred could remember watching with interest as Jonathan moved his hand down the crate in a manner which he could only describe as affectionately. Even odder was the fact that he spoke to it; he had called it 'my dearest'.

"Was there no woman?" Alucard pressed. "Sir Abraham Hellsing told me that Mina was coming with her husband and son."(2)

The old butler thought about this. There was a middle-aged man and a recent graduate of some University, but there was no woman. "I did not see a woman... No woman accompanied them, Alucard." the old butler said as compassionately to the monster as he could.

The vampire turned away. He wondered if Abraham had lied to him. Or rather if that was nothing more than a test of loyalty.

The Scientist had ordered him to stay in his room and not to make his presence known. Perhaps' he wondered, the master lied to him, perhaps Mina was never expected. Perhaps saying that she was coming was merely a ploy, bait, to test him. This idea did seem to make sense to the vampire especially considering that Abraham had already assembled blame on the vampire for all of the items which had gone missing, and had become aware of Alucard problems with his authority and colleges. Furthermore the creature wondered if the man had been searching for some reason to test his theory that vampire could exist in hibernation for an extended period of time. Alucard suspected that with all the accusations, many which were true, the old man did not have any concrete evidence.

It was not until the scientist had gone to the vampire's room at that one unfortunate time when he was absent that the scientist, could prove the vampire was being disobedient.

Alucard knew that he had left his room and the property, not to try to greet Mina, but to deliver his child to what he hoped would be a better environment; he knew that to the human it must have looked very bad. It was not a far reach to believe that the leader may have believed that he had gone out to search or even to wait for her. Not that the vampire could have told him the truth.

Alucard then wondered if perhaps they were coming and he had simply lied about the day that they were coming to get him to leave his room then to catch him not in it as he was ordered, but why then did the butler not recall seeing a woman?

"Well then," Arthur addressed Alucard. "If Alfred says that Mrs. Harker was not with them, then I believe him."

Alucard briefly wondered if the old man's memory was failing, until he recalled that there were large bits of memory of his own which were missing. He considered that if Abraham had done this purposely, if he had removed memories, then might it be possible to also change the memories.

With these possibilities floating in the vampire's mind he did not think that he could press the issue any longer.

"I understand Master." the vampire said giving a slight bow.

"Shouldn't you be training Walter?" Arthur asked changing the subject.

"I have given the boy some time for some self learning." the vampire explained. "I wanted to ask about something else, too master. I want to ask about my request."

"Oh yes. I have used my connection both in Britain and elsewhere, Alucard. " The Knight then put his hands on the desk. "Over the last ten years no one had found any werewolves. The last known werewolf hunt, on both official and unofficial channels was led by my father..."

"Your father said that they chased a pack. This pack escaped." Alucard could recall Abraham's frustration after losing these werewolves, as the German police suddenly appeared and apparently argued with the man about jurisdiction.

"Well all I can tell you, is that either that pack is in a state of hibernation, which your kind can enter or-"

"They are hiding." Alucard knew very well that such creatures could easily hide. "They could have relocated to a more remote region." the vampire suggested.

"I was going to say dead, Alucard. Even the long-arm of the Vatican claims to not have found any." Arthur laughed inwardly. "Remote areas? The Vatican has authority in some of the most remote parts of the world."

"It has been my observation that your family and organization have had many arguments with their 'section 13' division, I believe it is called. Do you trust these people?" Alucard questioned his master who sounded quite placid when he spoke about these men.

Arthur laughed. "Hell no, but they would not miss the opportunity to brag about such a hunt. The leader sounded quite bitter about hearing about the hunt that my father conducted nine years ago. It's possible that they have been wiped out."

Alucard once entertained such a theory, that was until he met that female werewolf in that abandoned building in Germany. "That she-werewolf told me that they were kept in the employment of a German aristocrat."

"I remember Alucard. That is why I took special interest in the matter. Especially with things being what they are." said Arthur referring to what appeared to be an impending war with Germany.

"We must search harder."

"I'm afraid that given things I have done all that I can." Arthur said to Alucard sincerely.

The vampire thought about what his master had just told him. He knew that Arthur was new to his duties and that he was much more lax in his in getting his work done than his father had been, but all indications of the man told Alucard that he was a capable leader and overall a good man.

"Thank you master."

"Until tomorrow then, Alucard." Arthur said picking up his pencil.

The vampire tipped his hat respectfully as he phased through the wall.

Arthur returned his attention to his papers.

"Sir..." Alfred started. "I did not want to say this until Alucard was gone but..." The Butler seemed very nervous to the Knight.

"What is it?"

"It's about Mina, Sir. Shortly after that visit your father told me that Mina...went missing..."

"Missing?"

"Yes. She just vanished it seems." the butler could recall an argument between Jonathan and Abraham regarding Mina. Jonathan seemed to blame Abraham for something happening to his wife, but was not clear about what that was. The old man could also recall how the Harker's never visited again and further how Abraham had started praying more in the small chapel which existed below the west part of the Hellsing mansion.

"Was," Arthur cleared his throat He was almost afraid to hear that she was found mangled or murdered; Arthur considered that the butler wanted to keep Alucard from rage. Arthur suspected that such bad news would send the vampire on a killing spree. "When... was she ever found?"

The old butler sighed. "...She wasn't, Sir...She is still missing. After 9 years she has yet to be found."

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END of Ch 22

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AN:

Wow! That was a long chapter. It was longer, but I had to break it apart. I hope no one minds…

To address a question about Anderson...he had yet to appear. But to any fan, you will have to wait a little bit.

(1) – Mina's full name from Bram Stoker's novel was Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, later taking on the name of Harker when she married Jonathan Harker. The name Mina, was the shortened version that everyone used for her. The butler is inclined to use formal names.

(2) – for the scene that Alucard is referring to see chapter 11: Lies and Consequences.

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Preview of the next chapter: Dogs and Men Part 2

"Is She...Is She dead?" Schrödinger asked her.

His wife might have rolled her eyes, but she simply sighed. Though she loved her new husband, she knew that the werewolf could be an idiot sometimes.

"Of course She is."

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