Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ The Order of Lilith ❯ Midnight in the Garden ( Chapter 4 )

AN: I'll keep this short - just want to thank everyone for their patience and, as always, for reading.

Take care!

Stella

The Order or Lilith

Chapter 4 - Midnight In The Garden

"Sir Integra, there is a message from… oh, excuse me."

Integra's eyes flicked up to greet the steward as he slipped through her office doors. She raised a gloved hand, motioning for him to stay, and turned her attention back to the phone.

"Yes, and forward his report over here. I'd like to see what the Oxford historian came up with in regards to the object."

The voice on the other end of the line assented and took down the fax number before asking if there was anything else. Integra quietly cleared her throat, making sure the orders she gave would be concise and easily understood. She tried to shrug off the dizzy, somewhat detached feeling that had been hanging over her head since yesterday. In a quick flash, she saw the smooth black object that had been hidden in the box with a blade lodged deep inside. Integra tucked her wounded thumb under the fingers of her right hand and she spoke slowly into the mouthpiece.

"Be certain it's closely guarded, especially during the night hours. There are two other factions vying for possession of that thing, and both are equally dangerous. I suggest you increase security measures at the police authority building to at least three times the usual force and call in soldiers from the army. No, I'm not kidding."

The leader of Hellsing let out an exasperated sigh and hung up the receiver, scribbling down a few notes while Walter approached her desk. When she looked up again, he held a letter. She recognized the seal immediately.

"From Her Majesty?"

Walter nodded. "It would appear so. The messengers informed me it was most urgent."

Integra tore at the envelope and intently scanned the writing on the page inside. A gasp caught in her throat. Her jaw slackened and she let the paper flutter down to the desk's polished surface. She felt as if a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped over her entire body.

"Sir Integra? What is it, is everything--"

"They're coming here, this afternoon."

Walter leaned closer. "They? Who is coming here?"

"Her Majesty informs me that she has commissioned select members of the Round Table to act as…" Integra swallowed hard and looked down at the message again, "advisors to the Hellsing Organization in its time of restructuring. The committee plans to meet here today to 'inspect our progress.' I don't believe this."

She slid parchment across the way so that Walter could read the words for himself. The lines in his forehead deepened and the butler shook his head.

"Not that it's my place to question Her Majesty, but what could the Queen be thinking? The Round Table has certainly blamed Hellsing for problems that arose in the past, but certainly the Queen always saw through it. I can't imagine why she would do this."

Integra folded her hands on her desk and sat up straight in her chair. Her pulse was racing so fast that she had to fight to keep her body from shaking. "These are royal orders and we must accept them. For now. The committee is to arrive at four o'clock, Walter. Please prepare the conference room."

He took a hesitant step back. She knew he was unsure as to whether he should really leave her at this moment, but all she wanted was to be left alone with her emotions. Integra's hand found the letter again, smoothing over the piece of paper before violently crumpling it into an unrecognizable wad while her fist slammed down on the top of the desk.

"I said, go, Walter!" She snapped. Rage clouded her vision so completely that she barely took notice of the older man giving a quick bow and making a brisk exit. Integra tossed the mutilated correspondence into her wastebasket and rested her forehead against her palms, leaning on the desk and attempting to take slow, even breaths. Why? Her mind asked in rapid fire. Why would the Queen do this, why? Why!

"I told you before, they still don't trust you."

The body to match the voice slipped through the gray stone wall and strode forward. The dark figure took no heed of the shafts of light reaching over the floor and when he finally stood before her, the sun seemed to flee the room altogether.

"Not now, Alucard."

The corners of the vampire's mouth twitched upwards and he gave a slight shrug. "You asked a question, I merely came to offer an answer."

Integra's body began to relax slightly, and she wondered for a moment why her servant's presence seemed to calm her. Alucard stood with his hands at his sides, staring down at her as though he were waiting for her to finish her contemplations. She lit a cigar and settled back into her seat.

"Is that everything, Alucard?"

He shook his head. "Those decrepit old men have wormed their way into the Queen's good graces and convinced her that you need them, that Hellsing cannot be rebuilt by you alone." He fixed his gaze on the shredded envelope and torn seal, then set his fiery eyes back on her. "All they want is to control you."

"But Her Majesty has never doubted my abilities before."

"You never gave her reason to. They, however, have."

Integra shot up to her feet and steadied herself on the edge of the desk. "But she knew the truth, Alucard. 'Stand strong,' that is what she said. The traitorous bastard is gone from the knighthood; Hellsing is restored. I don't need them."

"It matters little. They see you as a threat to their power and position." Alucard mimicked Integra's stance by placing his hands down and leaning in, until his face was close to hers. "If you exposed them for the cowards they really are, it would mean their end. More than anything, my Master, they are afraid of you. They are afraid of the power that Hellsing wields. Fear can be a dangerous enemy."

Integra closed her eyes, letting her shoulders sag as she drew in a deep gulp of air. A chilly breeze rolled passed her cheek, and when she looked again, Alucard was gone.

* * * * *

They filed in accompanied by the rustling of expensive overcoats and the scent of tea and bland pipe tobacco. Walter gestured towards the chairs around a massive oak conference table and waited politely until the four men took their seats. Their watery eyes collected the details of the room as they settled into to their places: studying; observing; criticizing. One of them shivered when his stare lingered for too long in a shadowy far corner. He sat up even straighter when he thought he saw the outline of a tall figure flash against the stone; the man paled and looked away. Alucard suppressed a laugh. Most of the time he didn't waste his time prying into the thoughts of people like these, but sometimes, it afforded at least a bit of entertainment to pass the time.

"Sir Integra will be in directly," Walter informed the visitors over the screeching sounds of wood being pulled across the tile. "Tea will be served in a few minutes." He turned on his heel and left the room without as much as a glance behind him. Even the seemingly calm Angel of Death was having trouble hiding his disdain. His Master, the vampire was sure, would be making no effort whatsoever to mask her own.

The large doors opened once again, and she strode into the room with her usual air of command. Her face was expressionless as she regarded each of them in turn, greeting her fellow nobility with just a curt nod of her blond head and the gleam of steely nerve in her eyes.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. I trust that you have a clearly outlined agenda for this meeting, so I ask you to deliver it promptly as I have neither the time nor the desire to make this into an all day affair."

Integra remained standing as if by taking a seat, she would inadvertently allow this ordeal to take any longer than it possibly had to. She folded her arms and waited, Alucard knew, for one of them - any of them - to say something. A few seconds of disjointed mumbling and throat clearing followed until a silver-haired man in a brown suit gained his feet and turned to Integra.

"Sir Hellsing. We are here by order of Her Majesty. You would do well to be as accommodating as possible. We are to give the Queen a full report on your progress."

"That may be so," Integra answered, "but as it stands now, this committee is keeping me from my work and halting my progress. You are wasting my time. Tell me what it is that you want."

"We want to be sure that the task of running Hellsing is still a duty that you are fit to perform," another man answered. "There are some who still believe that you and your organization should be banished from this island, as you do more harm than good. There is also a question of loyalty."

Alucard could see her shoulders start to tremor. The muscles in her neck tensed and became even more drawn with each passing second.

"Hellsing has endured and will continue to do so." The strain in Integra's voice was evident as she visibly fought to keep her tone low and even. "Certainly her Majesty knows that we will always defend England as we have sworn to do. My family does not take its duty lightly."

"Your oath, Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing," the silver-haired man spoke up again, "Is no longer fully yours to keep. One does not simply erase the brand of 'Traitor to the Crown.' Even if you've been pardoned we as a group feel that there must have been some truth to the accusations. As of now, Hellsing will answer to me."

Integra's arms dropped to her sides and she glared at the speaker over the silver rims of her glasses. "I answer to no one except God and Her Majesty. Now get out."

"Excuse me?"

"I said get out of my house."

The older man made a series of sputtering noises as tides of red rushed into his angular face. "You do not give me orders, you spoiled child. I thought your father had lived long enough to at least teach you proper manners. Do you even know who I am?"

"I don't care," Integra growled. "Leave here at once! You have no right to come into this home and insult the name of my family and the honorable work of Hellsing. There is nothing we have to discuss. You may leave."

"You do not dismiss me! I am Sir Reginald Hargate!" the man barked. He threw back his chair and it crashed against the floor as he surged up the length of the table. "I am the chairman of this committee and the new leader of the Round Table. You will address me with the proper respect that one should give a superior. You will answer whatever I ask and I will take however long I choose to ask it."

He took long strides and within moments, was face to face with the seething Miss Hellsing. It was clear to Alucard that the battle to contain her temper had finally been abandoned. "You have no right to be here. You know nothing! Nothing of what this organization has been through, nothing of what we have fought to-"

The sound of a palm connecting with Integra's cheek echoed through the room. Her icy eyes widened and she moved her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out. Everyone present in the room seemed frozen in place, shocked expressions carved into their immobile features. Integra lifted a hand to the mark on her face and leveled an unreadable gaze at the man across from her.

"How dare you-"

"You pompous little bitch, don't you say another word!" The knight seemed ready to strike her again. Blustering outbursts sounded from the other men who were all rising from the table, but none could be understood over Sir Reginald's booming voice. "Over two hundred men killed in the last six months! Death and destruction wherever you go. Her Majesty should have never let you out of that tower. Every single one of those deaths is on your head." His taller stature loomed over her as if he were attempting to make her sink into the floor. Integra did not so much as flinch, but Alucard would hear no more. He silently made his way out of the shadows and crossed the room unnoticed. Everyone's attention was still riveted to the loudest of the knights.

"God will never forgive you!" Hargate continued. "You sully the honor of this venerable order and disgrace the knighthood! I will not rest until I see you stripped of your title and--"

"Who is the true disgrace?"

The sharp, metallic sound of the Jackal's safety being disengaged shifted everyone's focus to the newly materialized red figure behind Sir Hellsing.

"How dare you lay a hand on my Master when you have done nothing to defend this country except flaunt your title and abuse the position given to you. You are weaklings, whelps who have to rely on deceit and idle threats to keep you where you are."

"I assure you, none of my threats are idle," Reginald spat.

Alucard took a step forward with the gun at arm's length. "As are none of mine."

The man stumbled backwards, nearly falling over the rest of the stunned committee members who had left their seats. "Integra Hellsing, did you call him? The gall… threatening us like this."

"Oh no," Alucard replied, moving in until his over-sized gun was pointed directly at the head of Sir Reginald. "I'm threatening you on my own. You have to rely on my Master to tell me to stop. And right now, I don't know that she really feels like it."

"Integra Hellsing!"

The blond young woman simply smiled and fixed her gaze on her servant.

"To be honest," the vampire went on, pushing Hargate back with the tip of the Jackal, "I don't remember whether the clip is full or empty. How would you like to help me find out?"

The older man quaked where he stood. "Sir Hellsing…"

Integra's voice cut through the tense air. He could sense her mind pulling him back, calling for his retreat. "Alucard."

The dark figure licked his lips and flexed his finger against the trigger. "Let me shoot him, Master. Let me wash the walls with his pathetic blood and brains; let me make a whole in his skull big enough to match the one he speaks from. Let me fire this gun and rid the world of his useless presence."

"Alucard. No. Holster your weapon."

"I know your true thoughts," he smiled. "Miss Hellsing."

"Alucard, do as I command."

The vampire let out a disappointed sigh and returned the massive gun to the mysterious folds of his blood-red coat.

"Yes, my Master," he whispered with a bow. The vampire curled his lips back and snarled at the unwelcome guests in the room before dissolving into the air. He did not need to remain. Even from his place in the sublevels, he heard Integra's footsteps carry her away from the room and into the solitude of her office. They would be back, of that he was sure. Those cowards could seek to control Hellsing, but they would never lord over Integra as long as he served the only human ever fit to be called his Master.

* * * * *

It was well into the evening when she finally stepped outside after hours of being left alone with nothing but her work and the reverberating words of Sir Reginald Hargate. Integra breathed in the scent of fresh darkness and slipped onto the stone walkways outside the main house. Since she had returned from the tower, she often made her way out here, at first because the doctors had told her that a short walk and fresh air was necessary to aid in the healing of her battered body. But there was something else.

The young woman rounded a corner and stopped at the edge of the path. Line after line of twisted shadows met her from the space beyond, stretching over the darkened ground. There were two hundred and twelve of them. She didn't have to count. Integra knew they were all there, planted in neat, sturdy rows like the men they represented. And she had stood by night after night, until they were all committed to the solemn ground that had been consecrated with their blood. A fitting tribute to her fallen soldiers? Hardly. But while their bodies lay rotting in a graveyard, their memories should live on in the place where most of them so violently met their end - at their posts, doing their duty: To their queen, their country and… to her. Then there were the others killed in the Tower, some of them barely with the organization a few weeks after the Valentine brothers' rampage in her home. There were names she didn't even recognize, while at the same time, there were others that she knew all too well: Gareth. Pickman. Farguson.

The night wind carried the hint of a chill on its edge, but she hadn't bothered with a coat. Nothing to worry about, no frost that would harm them. Integra took a deep breath and found herself again in the garden surrounded by the rose bushes, each with a small silver plaque that bore a name and the Hellsing crest. The fragrance hung heavily in the foggy London air, so sweet and so very different from the scent of blood and gunpowder. The scent of death. She stepped lightly across the damp, upturned earth and reached out to touch one of the red blossoms, fresh and newly opened. Her eyes caught the glimmer of metal at her feet and she felt her eyes automatically rove over the engraved letters below.

A flash-flood of images clicked in her mind like the systematic firing of a gun. They hit her with the force and pulse of an emptying chamber and she heard Sir Hargate's voice again: "Each one of those deaths is on your head."

How many of them had she shot herself on the night after the Valentines' attack? She didn't count then as she picked her way through the carnage, numbly reloading the bullets and listening for the groans of the dying. Her mind had taken her somewhere else in those moments, but the echoes had searched her out and made a home forever in her memory. She shuddered.

Footsteps over the cold stone floor; low moans of a men transforming into ghouls; the crack of her pistol; the dull thud of a bullet hitting flesh and bone…

"You mourn them like a widow. And flowers won't grow any faster, even if you water them with tears."

The moon had hidden itself behind a sea of clouds, and a deeper darkness seemed to fill the space around her. He made no other sound as he approached, but all the same, she sensed he was there, right behind her. Integra pulled her hand away from the plants but didn't turn to look at him.

It was the eve of their betrayal, the night that Incognito had captured the tower of London. Integra watched the image on the monitor, barely able to stand. A shot to the head and a shot to the heart. Peter was gone.

"It is only fitting that I should. I am the cause of all this."

Alucard materialized behind her, his solidarity announced by the low rumble that danced up from his throat. His laughter seemed even louder and somehow more cruel when it cut through the sacred silence of this place. "Ah, so it was you who invited the Valentine brothers to Hellsing? I should thank you, then, for the older one. He was a bit of fun. Slightly disappointing in the end, though. The same could be said for Incognito."

"No more." A fleeting wave of anger washed through her. But by the time she turned to face him, it had ebbed away back into the sadness. The unfamiliar presence of moisture still clung to her eyes, and one word ran softly over her lips. "Please."

Red gleamed behind his dark glasses and he gave a slight nod. His lips pressed into an uncharacteristically sullen line and he gestured towards the lighted windows of her office.

"You are needed back inside. There are other matters that require your attention."

Her feet still refused to move. She looked away from the vampire, noticing newly emerged moonlight peeking out from the thick, night sky. It trickled over the garden. "Soon enough."

"So you say, my Master."

The air grew suddenly lighter and Integra felt sure that he had gone. What could he have to say that might comfort her? He who would stand by and let a thousand men fall unless their dying would somehow distract him from his intended target. But she… she did not deserve comfort, even the awkward mocking sort delivered by her vampire. After all, who comforts the dead, now cold in the ground?

A light breeze touched the side of her face and stirred the cascade of long hair over her shoulders. It carried with it a whisper, not unfamiliar to her, but in a far gentler tone than she was accustomed to. "Listen to me, Master. This is the fate of one who was born to be a leader of men. All men die. When you lead them into a war, they die all the sooner. Those fools who came here this afternoon do not understand that, but you must."

"Does that mean that I shall ever learn to bear it?" She asked the night.

"You will," it answered. "As you have bourn everything else."

She finished a silent prayer and hugged herself against the increasingly cool winds that had picked up in the last few minutes. The distant whine of sirens sliced through stillness, drowning out the midnight chime of Big Ben. Integra glanced in the direction they seemed to be coming from, but able to see nothing, turned to make her way back inside when Walter's voice caught her attention from the window above.

"Sir Integra!"

"What is it, Walter?"

"I just received a call from downtown. It seems there's been a security breach at the police authority."

She raised a hand to her temple and squinted through the darkness. "Don't tell me."

The butler let out a long breath and gave her a look that confirmed her suspicions. "I'm afraid so. The relic has been stolen. The thieves were caught on the cameras at the very least. Two officers and one scientist were killed in the attack. The bodies were discovered at the change in shift. It seems culprits--"

"Those idiots. The last thing I said to them was to make sure they kept that area secure until we knew what the thing was. Get the car ready, Walter. I need to get down there."

"I've already taken the liberty of sending Miss Victoria. She was a police officer after all. She knows how to process a crime scene." He paused for a moment when the shrill cry of another siren hit the air. "It was a FREAK attack. The dead men were not turned into ghouls, however. Just horribly mutilated. Miss Victoria has been instructed to completely purify the area regardless."

Integra nodded her approval. "Send Alucard out as well. If there's any chance he can track them, perhaps we can learn something. I want information, Walter. What is it? Why do they want it?"

In reply to the query, the steward held up a handful of papers. "That was the other thing. We just received the report from the historian at Oxford. I… You'd better have a look at this."

*** *** *** *** *** ***

I also wanted to invite anyone who might be looking for some other Hellsing fanfiction (general fics and AxI stories) to the archive at Blissful Ignorance:

http://www.blissfulignorance.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=47 </ p>

There are some fics that you'll find here, but also some that won't. And we also have several forums for other series, too. Hope to see you there!