Note: The Ripley Scrolls mentioned in this chapter are real, and they are where the inscription on Alucard's coffin came from. Google it, if you're curious. I know *jack* about alchemy, so there is a liberal dose of imagination included in this chapter. I really enjoyed creating it, though. *grin*
Ch. 5: Back at the Beginning
Integra squinted at the old, hand-written journal, wondering where Abraham Van Helsing had learned English. Did they really spell things that atrociously in the late 1800s? Oh, wait…that's right. English wasn't his first language. Damned Dutchman.
The notes the man left on the spell used to bind a vampire to the Hellsing family might as well be pure gibberish. They seemed to be some unholy conglomerate of alchemy and mysticism. Modern science would maintain that such a feat was impossible, but somehow, it had worked…and she had to find a way to duplicate it.
Setting the journal aside, she picked up a color photocopy of one of the Ripley scrolls. The key was here, somewhere. She skimmed through the illustrations and alchemical references until she found the two lines she knew like her own name: The Bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame.
The concept wasn't difficult. The seal had to consume Alucard's power to lock it away, but it had to be able to be accessed again when needed. There had to be protocols to follow and requirements to be met for release…an idea blossomed in her mind.
Reaching for the phone on her desk, Integra winced and groaned. She'd moved too fast for the wound in her side. At age fifty-three, wounds just didn't heal the way they once had. The pain seemed to set up a throbbing echo in her empty left eye socket. Why did new injuries always make the memory of old pain flare up again?
Gritting her teeth, she picked up the hand set and dialed the extension for Hellsing's IT department.
"Yo, boss."
Integra winced at the American voice on the other end of the line. Although a genius in his field, Gary Wilson wouldn't know common courtesy if it bit him in the ass.
"Report to my office, immediately."
"Aren't you supposed to be on bed rest, boss lady?"
Integra's hand tightened on the handset of the phone.
"Are you my keeper?"
"Err…no."
"Correct answer. Now get your ass up here."
"Yes, ma'am."
Integra hung up the phone and leaned back in her chair. Yes, she was supposed to be on bed rest, but the longer she took to create a new seal for Alucard, the longer the vampire stayed in his coffin. She couldn't be absolutely sure he was there, even now, but being that there hadn't been any massacres within a hundred mile radius since the riot, she could safely assume that the strength of his desire to obey her held him in place. Too bad that same desire couldn't curb his instantaneous need to murder, maim and dismember when she came to harm. Only the re-sealing of his power could accomplish that.
V^^^V
Integra paced around the outside of the circle inscribed in the stone of a basement room that had been sealed up until two weeks ago. She hadn't known it existed until she stumbled across reference to it in Van Helsing's journal. It made sense that he would have made a permanent alchemical circle for his research. She just hadn't had reason to think about it before.
Now, wires ran along the lines of the circle and bundles of optical cable and neon tubing made up the alchemical symbols around the edges. Gary sat at a bank of computer monitors, frowning as he checked his lines of code one last time.
Four Hellsing soldiers entered through the side door, carrying Alucard's black coffin bound with silver chains and crosses. They had already successfully tested the sealing procedure on three other captured vampires. She planned to keep them as test subjects for other ideas she and Gary had brainstormed for this new blending of alchemy and computer technology.
Leaning on the cane in her left hand, she gestured for them to place the coffin in the cleared center circle. The wound in her side was healing, but slowly. She had finally bowed to the insistence of her physician and started using a cane to facilitate getting about.
Another soldier followed the ones with the coffin, carrying a chair that he placed next to the black box. Integra waved them out of the room as she took a seat on the chair. Gary got up to close the door and hurried back to his station.
"Activate the rings," Integra said, pulling a key out of her pocket.
"You sure about this? He killed a lot of people last time he was out of the box."
Integra leveled a glare at the impudent American.
"He went into this box because I told him to. I will judge when the time is right for him to come out. Now activate the rings."
"Whatever you say, boss lady."
Gary punched out a series of keys and LED lights all around the circle lit up with a bright red glow. The neon symbols flickered to life and the computer programmer ran a quick check on the fiber optic lines to make sure there were no breaks. He gave her a thumbs up and Integra inserted the key into the first lock.
Six locks, six crosses. Integra tossed the last cross out of the circle and shoved the chains off the lid.
"Alucard, No-Life King, Dracula, Vlad Tepes. Come forth."
Integra expected the coffin lid to come flying off with explosive force, but it simply lifted, roughly a centimeter, and slid to the side. Alucard lay inside, arms crossed over his chest in classic corpse style. His skin had bleached to a pasty translucence and his flesh had sunken in around his bones. His hair lay stark and white against the straps of his black leather bindings. His eyes opened, glowing red and hungry.
"Integra. My master."
His voice croaked out of a throat gone dry with lack of nourishment.
"Alucard, my servant. Do you recognize this place?"
Those hungry eyes roamed over the ceiling and then the sunken eyelids closed over them.
"The room of binding."
"Then you know what we're about to do."
A smile curved Alucard's lips, a look of perfect contentment settling over his ravaged features.
"You will bind me once again to the Hellsing family, sealing my powers away to serve your whims."
Put that way, it sounded vaguely…obscene. Integra wondered at the serenity on the vampire's face. The others had all left the circle terrified. The process was apparently rather unpleasant. Did her method differ so greatly from her ancestor's? Only Alucard could answer that question.
"Good. Remove yourself from the coffin. We need you on top of it."
Smirking, Alucard began to levitate, wind whipping the hair around his face in white tendrils. His body cleared the coffin and the lid flew up the take its place below him.
"Show off," Integra muttered as he settled into position on the black surface. He just grinned at her.
Reaching into her pocket, Integra pulled out a pair of white gloves with black alchemical symbols inscribed on the back. Alucard's eyes latched onto the items. Did the skin around his eyes tighten a little? Did that Cheshire grin melt a touch around the edges? She held the gloves out to him.
"Are you going to do the honors or do I have to?"
"All you had to do was ask."
He reached for the gloves and Integra realized she had never seen his hands bare before now. He had long, elegant fingers with tapered nails that reflected light like glass. Raised scars marred the perfection of the pale skin, specifically in a whorl on the back of each hand. Frowning, she watched him slip first one and then the other glove over those elegant fingers. He settled back on the coffin, hands at his sides.
"I am ready, master."
He had obviously done this before. Integra stood and pulled one last thing from her pocket: a black leather case with a sterilized scalpel inside. Pulling the steel blade out, she unbuttoned the cuff of her shirt and pushed the sleeve up to her elbow. Alucard watched her movements the way a starving man watched a table being laid with food.
"Are you ready, Mr. Wilson?"
"Sure am," he said and then muttered under his breath, "I hope you know what you're doing."
"Just run the program, Gary."
"Yes, ma'am."
The computer tech typed in a command and pressed enter. A series of purple LED lights flared around the circle, painting the room a lurid crimson. Alucard's back arched and his mouth opened, fangs straining as though a current of electricity ran through him. The symbols on the backs of his new gloves flared with the same crimson color as the lights around the alchemical circle. His fingers dug into the coffin lid beneath him as the black, polished wood began to glow…if black could be considered capable of glowing.
Integra held her wrist over his straining mouth and slashed it with the scalpel, careful to cut in such a way that she wouldn't bleed out. Blood welled up and dripped down into the vampire's open mouth. His throat worked, swallowing as fast as the liquid entered his gaping maw, lest he miss even a single drop.
"In the sea without lees; Standeth the bird of Hermes; Eating his wings variable; And maketh himself yet full stable; When all his feathers be from him gone; He standeth still here as a stone; Here is now both white and red; And all so the stone to quicken the dead; All and some without fable; Both hard and soft and malleable; Understand now well and right; And thank you God of this sight."
Alucard's arched back slowly relaxed as Integra's blood flowed and her voice spoke the words to seal the binding. His eyes closed as his flesh filled out and his hair flushed to black.
"The Bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame."
The lights of the circle flared as his rich voice sealed the incantation. Integra lowered her bleeding wrist to his lips, knowing that his fangs would not pierce her flesh. She willed it so.
End Note:
Yeah, so…try reading the Ripley Scroll. Makes no sense…but I think that was partially the point. I've always loved the inscription on Alucard's coffin, though, and felt like it had a strong influence on the seals that Van Helsing must have put on him. After all, those ARE alchemical seals on the backs of his gloves…even if they never appear the same way twice in the Manga and have a tendency to have names of random animes on them. (Don't believe me? Check out the top frame of page 20 in Volume four of the manga. The inscription on Alucard's gloves very clearly states 'Trigun, Excel Saga, Comic master' on the outside edge. …I have issues for having noticed that. I really do.)
Whoever left the anonymous comments on chapters one and three, thank you. I wish I knew your name, though. I'm glad to know my genius (insanity?) is not alone in the world. Heh.