The lost composer of London

The Butcher

Walter, now a vision of youthful potency, brought his heel down upon Anderson's crumbling remains. He locked eyes with Integra.

"This is trash," he said brutishly. "When people die, they become trash. And trash has no need to be mourned. Isn't that right, Integra?"

Seras was completely taken aback by Walter's words and actions. It did not fit into the cast she'd formed Walter into. "Walter," she called out to him. "What have they done to you?"

"What have they done?" Walter mimicked. "They captured me, made me a vampire, brainwashed me, and sadly enough, forced me to fight against my former master." He paused, and for the slimmest second Seras almost believed it. "If that were my answer, would it satisfy you, Seras?
"I stand here without having been given orders by anyone. I stand here as myself. I stand here as Walter C. Dornez. I am planning to cut you up here, at daybreak, with full intent to kill."
"Walter..." Integra's fist tightened. "Why, Walter?!"
"Do not call me by name!"
What specifically triggered Yumie wasn't quite clear: it could have been Walter's attitude, or the constant shouting, or even just the steep building of tension in only a few short minutes. Whatever it was, Seras felt a surge of motion as the Japanese woman dashed forward, her hand on her weapon.

"No, don't!" Seras shouted, but her warning fell on ears deafened by rage. Yumie drew her blade and charged straight ahead toward Walter, yelling.
"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! I don't give a damn about your master-servant business!" She shifted her blade up to her shoulder, and a strange blue light enveloped her body. "Makes no difference to me!" Yumie disappeared into the blue light as it seemed to carry her through the air at an inhuman speed. It passed through Walter and spat Yumie back out, and in one graceful movement she cleaved through the air that Walter occupied.
"Shimabara Sword Style, 'Shoki!'" she pronounced. "I got you!"

Walter stood unfaltering. "You got nothing," he stated, bored. "I got you." The wires, almost imperceptible, sliced through steel and flesh all at once. The Japanese nun fell into bloody chunks, her life snuffed out instants before she even realized it.
The other, whom Seras decided to refer to as a man until proved wrong, screamed.
"Yumie!" he cried, pulling out his gun. In an instant the barrel of another gun pressed against his cheek. At the end of the barrel, which was longer than most swords, was the shady Nazi man Seras recognized from earlier that night. He fired, blowing through the other's mouth and knocking him off his feet. No one had even noticed the Nazi's approach.

"No one can stand in my way," Walter said. "I will allow no one to interfere with my revolt." Alucard didn't seem to notice any of it, not Walter or Iscariot or anything. He knelt on the ground, watching the scraps of Alexander Anderson float away on the breeze.
"Get up!" Walter challenged him. "Get up and fight, Hellsing! Alucard!"

At first it seemed like silence would answer Walter's challenge, but suddenly Alucard could be heard chuckling under his breath.
"Hey there, Reaper!" he said. "You once said Englishmen looked forward to growing old, didn't you? You said that you declined any glory that was easily won, didn't you? In your aged form, you were billions, even trillions of times more attractive. What an ugly form that is. Have you become a reaper, both body and soul?"

"That's right," Walter answered unfaltering. "This world is but a single night's dream within a much larger battleground. At the moment of daybreak, I have at last become its Reaper! Get up and fight, Alucard!"
"You and I are both just dogs now," Alucard responed. "Running dogs. Dogs which do not bark for themselves." He pressed his face into the cold ground, bowing to Integra.
"Orders!" Alucard said. "Give me orders, my lord. I can kill. Without the slightest hesitation, and without the least regret, I can strike someone dead." He raised his head up to see Integra's expression. She appeared stoic, without feeling. "That is because I am a monster. And you are... Integra. I will stand with guns readied. I will take aim with them. I will load ammo in their magazines, pull back their slides, and I will release their safeties. However, any killing will be done at your will. Now, what will it be? Your orders, Director of Hellsing, Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing?!"