Another drabble/ficlet collection, this one for Walter C. Dornez,
my favorite Hellsing character, as can probably be guessed by looking
at my story list. These are shorts (100 - 600 words generally) of various genres and styles written
for writing challenges, writing exercises, and just for the hell of it.
Hopefully you will find something in here you will enjoy. There are
some later volume spoilers and some blatant speculation to be found
among these ficlets. My suggestion is to give them a mental AU label.
He looked in the mirror, fingers dancing nimbly over the cloth, turning a long strip of fabric into a neatly knotted tie. Some things never change.
He looked at the youngish man with black hair and red eyes who looked out of the mirror, wearing the tie he had so carefully tied. Some things do.
Walter wasn't sure he'd ever get used to this. A life spent hunting and killing vampires and here he was, the walking embodiment of irony.
But it was worth it. Every drop of blood that passed his lips, every time he thought of the people he had killed before breaking loose, every time he woke in the middle of the day with nightmares that would have left him gasping if he needed to breathe any longer.
They were all worth it.
Because when it came down to those telling final moments when he faced Integral Hellsing – unbent, unbowed, proud woman that she was – Walter had known who he was and whom he served and he had acted accordingly.
When human, Walter had been unable – twice – to best Captain Günsche. But with the Doctor's little gift, Walter had avenged himself.
Walter was a tool of the Furies in their eternal fight against hubris. If Millennium had left him human, Hellsing would have fallen. If the Major and the Doctor had not thought that they were gods among cattle, Millennium would have taken the day. Their humor at his expense was their undoing.
While Alucard was busy fighting Lilith; while Seras struggled with Schrodinger; while the Iscariots fought among themselves and against both Hellsing and Millennium; a human Walter would have fought the Captain and died. And the looming German would have taken Integral and done to her what had been incompletely done to Walter.
Millennium saved Integral by doing to him what they did. And if he hadn't precisely fulfilled his order to return to Integral alive… He knew she understood how the balance of power had been shifted by his death and change.
An old man dies. Reborn as this.
A young woman lives. Reforged as something stronger than her previous steel.
Fair trade.
Written for a Sin City quote challenge. The quote:
Hartigan: An old man dies. A young woman lives. Fair Trade.