Hellsing – Even (Integra + Alucard) - Chapter 3
Soundtrack: What Came Before (Assassin's Creed III OST) - Lorne Balfe - (doesn't quite fit as well as I would like, but still has a good atmosphere)
**AN: Insert standard disclaimer here – I own nada!
Sorry this is a few days late from my regular posting schedule, but I was out of town for my niece's graduation from nursing school (so proud of her!).
This chapter has been tweaked and diced more than a few times - I had trouble getting it to sync up in my head with what I wanted to show. I ended up cutting a big chunk out because I thought it should be saved for later, so this is shorter than originally expected.
Just a heads up: June is going to be a super super busy month for me, so Chapters 4 and 5 might be a little delayed.
Remember: reviews make me stronger!
Walter stared at the sliced apple, watching juices leak out over the cutting board and drip into the sink. The strike of each droplet seemed to echo through the silence like a tolling bell.
The apple had been an unconscious choice: part of the snack tray he was preparing for Integra's evening tea. Something mundane, normal.
But today isn't normal, is it? a voice whispered through his mind. Nothing will be normal from now on.
Something akin to anguish squeezed around his heart for a moment, but he crushed the emotion ruthlessly before it could show on his face. His wrinkled hand tightened its grip on the paring knife.
Integra was dead. But she was still herself, still his master.
Still a Hellsing.
Yet now she was more.
She was a monster.
Leaning against the counter, Walter sighed. It was bound to happen at some point. The occupation of vampire hunter did not lend itself to long lives.
He had just hoped he wouldn't be around to see it happen to her.
"Why?" he asked quietly.
The No-Life King didn't answer.
Alucard had already been in the kitchen when Walter arrived. The butler couldn't guess as to the reason.
He had expected the vampire to be anywhere else: with Integra, hiding in the dungeon, blowing fist-sized holes through a dozen targets on the firing range.
Celebrating, possibly.
Not sitting quietly at the table, waiting like an old man heading to the gallows.
Walter turned around, smothered grief sparking into anger. "Tell me," he demanded.
The words echoed hollowly in the room, but Alucard didn't respond.
With strength belying his age, Walter turned and snatched up the vampire king by his coat lapels.
"You bastard!" Walter's fury was a terrible thing as he growled into Alucard's face.
"It wasn't him," came a quiet voice from the doorway.
Startled, the butler looked to see Integra leaning on the wooden frame, her face gaunt but determined. Seras shifted nervously in the shadows behind her employer.
Alucard seemed to fold deeper into himself, as if collapsing under the weight of his master's presence.
"You should be resting, Sir Hellsing," Walter said, shooting a glance at the police girl.
"I will rest soon enough, but right now I want answers."
The butler finally processed what Integra had said earlier and looked at the vampire in surprise: "Wait, it wasn't…?"
"No."
Walter slowly released his hold on Alucard's coat, letting the taller man settle back onto his chair.
Silence filled the room. It blanketed the company like a thick miasma, full of unspoken things so heavy they should have left dents on the floor.
Vampire or not, Integra was true to her nature and forged ahead first: "What was his name?"
Alucard didn't answer right away. When he finally spoke, his voice was almost mechanical, stripped of emotion. "Maegor."
"What happened?"
The vampire king closed his eyes. "A mistake."
"Explain."
Alucard seemed unwilling to continue, but forced the words to come out. "He was a peasant boy from Walachia. His mother caught my interest for a time and he sought to avenge her. I took Maegor as a childe instead."
"He's like me?"
Alucard's face twisted into a mocking sneer. "No, Police Girl. Maegor has none of your soft sensibilities. He is cruel, sadistic and above all: patient. I released him as my servant not long after creation, one of many that I sent into the world to grow stronger. I had hoped that there would be a day that one of them would be powerful enough to challenge me.
"Most of my childer have met the True Death, but Maegor excelled at being a vampire. He has learned much over the centuries, including how to keep himself cloaked from my senses. I thought he had perished in Athens, but it appears those reports were exaggerated…"
"And where were you?" Walter asked, his voice hard.
A muscle twitched in the vampire king's jaw. "Maegor had powerful childer of his own, he used them to keep me distracted."
"You should have called for backup if you knew he was that dangerous!"
"And you would have been destroyed, Police Girl. Until you are stronger, you would be nothing more than easy prey for one such as him."
Seras trembled with helpless anger, fists tight at her sides as she glared at her shoes.
Silence reigned in the room once more, then there was the familiar click of a lighter.
Integra drew on her cigar, letting the fragrant smoke fill her lungs.
"Alucard, look at me."
Ruby eyes finally dragged themselves from the varnished table top to meet hers.
The indomitable spirit he had always admired was burning through the haunted shadows in her gaze.
"Tell me what we can expect to happen and what his weaknesses are. Maegor may have started this, but I will finish it and I don't want any more surprises."
-o-
I saw her picture.
Whose?
The King's Whore. It was on Master's desk.
What were you doing there? You know we're not—
I was servicing the Master, of course.
Turkish slut!
You're just jealous that he is tired of you and your dried up—
Sisters, this is not the time for petty squabbles. We should be celebrating.
Celebrating? You're not the least bit worried about his latest conquest?
Why should we be? She isn't a conquest so much as a tool for the Master's schemes. Truly, both of you are being foolish. I am as much threatened by the Whore as I would be of a half-starved rabbit.
I don't know...if the King is under her spell...
She has him blood bound; that is hardly fair play.
True, but if she was strong enough to catch him—
The King is old, Sister. Age and boredom can rot even the best minds.
Well, I know I have nothing to worry about. From her picture, the Whore is flat as a board and dresses like a man!
Like a man?
She even has a cravat and everything. Maybe she's not really a woman?
Well, we shall see for ourselves soon enough...
AN: There's the Iron Queen Integra we know and love...