Chapter Two
Unknown Possibilities

Year: 2005

It was early summer, and though Integra was loath to admit it, even to herself, she was absolutely stifled by the suit she was wearing. It was so hot in this office, and Walter had yet to find someone to fix the bloody air conditioning. She ran her fingers through her almost platinum blonde hair, pulling the sticky wet strands from her face. Pressing a button on a control panel, she spoke.

“Walter,” she called into the speakerphone.

“Yes, Sir Integra?” came the aged retainer’s voice over the intercom.

“When you get a minute, please go to my rooms and find something suitably respectable,” she sighed from the heat, “and bloody COOL for me to wear. And find out when that blasted maintenance man is going to get here! It’s boiling in this house!”

“Yes Sir,” Walter replied. “Your clothes will be ready in ten minutes, Sir. I just need to take Alucard and the Police Girl their nightly rations, and it will be done.”

“Very good, Walter. Thank you.” She said, and clicked the microphone off.

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Alucard in the gilt chair beside his coffin-bed, his legs propped up on the table in front of him, said chair tipped back on two legs. His wide-brimmed red hat was pulled low over his eyes, and his red-clothed arms were crossed over his chest. His eyes were closed, and he listened with no particular interest to the sounds around him, though he recognized a few, such as the sound of the former Angel of Death’s footsteps as he brought Alucard and his fledgling, Seras, their nightly rations. He smirked slightly.

Walter opened the spelled door to Alucard’s room, carrying two heavy pails, both with a pack of blood, into the room with ease. One of these pails, he set upon the dark mahogany that was Alucard’s table, with a murmured “Good Evening, Old Friend,” before he was back out the door and down the hall to Seras’ room, setting her own ration on her table. Alucard knew that his fledgling was not out of her coffin yet, because he could sense no change in the subtle pattern that her mind made while dead to the world during the day.

Sighing softly, he dropped his feet to the floor and grabbed the blood-pack from the pail atop the table. Gently, as not to spill any of the precious blood, he sank a fang into the pack and emptied it into the silver and crystal goblet that was sitting beside the pale. Deftly, he tossed the empty pack into the trash-pail near the door, grabbed his blood, and went back to his former position of sitting. Pulling his hat off, he let his ebony hair hang loosely as he sipped at the cold blood and stared at the be-spelled ceiling. He then let his thoughts wander.

Something was troubling him, he knew that much. A strange feeling -stranger than usual, that was- seemed to pervade all his senses as it had been doing for the last twenty-four hours. He did not yet speak of it to his Master, for she would dismiss it out of hand, and Alucard, after five or more centuries of living…or un-living… learned long ago not to dismiss any strange feeling that he might have. It might have been pure instinct, but his hunches usually led to something bigger… and he had almost always been right about it…whatever it was. It was just a feeling saturating his being, that something was not right...again, more so than usual.

He felt his fledgling awaken in the next room, and his sighed softly as he took a drink of his blood. Damn girl…she drank the blood, all right, but only when she was absolutely forced to. He did not have time to play her petty games. She would either drink the blood willingly soon, or she would be of no use to the Hellsing Organization. Alucard would have to eliminate her. Now that he thought about it, it was not a prospect that he wished to entertain. In a sense, he was raising her to become what he was, a true midian of the night…he did not want to lose one of his dark children, since he had made so few in his long life.

He felt a pull in his mind, insistent and raw. Integra was summoning him, and with him, his fledgling. He felt her drinking her blood in the next room, frowned grimly, emptied his own glass of blood, and walked out of the door. Seras came out of her room at the same time as he did.

“Come, Police Girl,” he said as he started to melt from view into a puddle of darkness. “Our Master summons us.”

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Integra sat behind her desk, now infinitely cooler in the thin cotton pants and almost sheer cotton blouse. She wore no tie, but a gold and silver cross on a linked chain around her neck, and her platinum blonde was pulled back from her face in a low ponytail. Her glasses were perched on the tip of her nose as she read over some of the paperwork on her desk, and instead of her usual coffee, an ice tea sat beside her right hand, glistening with moisture. She had summoned her vampyres a few moments ago, and knowing Alucard, he’d show up well before his protégé.
As if on cue, a large swirling mass of darkness appeared on the floor, and Alucard rose through it as if he was on a god in the floor machine. His customary smirk was plastered to his face, his crimson hat pulled low over his sunglass-ed eyes. She rolled her eyes, and waited for Seras to enter the room -out of breath from running full speed up the stairs to try to beat her master here…she would definitely have to learn that trick soon!- before she started speaking.

“There have been increased reports of Freak attacks here in London and in the surrounding countryside for at least five miles,” she said, pushing her glasses back onto her nose, her eyes narrowed as she watched her two vampyre agents. Alucard stood stock-stone still, but Seras fidgeted as though something were biting her. Integra figured it might be Alucard trying to piss off his fledgling, knowing she couldn’t do anything about it.
“I want you both, plus two of our First Action Units to go and clear up the problem. Silence all targets, and do not “make” any survivors, if there are none there,” she said pointedly, nodding her head at Alucard just enough for him to perceive it. He knew she was talking about the time he made Seras. He rolled his eyes behind his glasses.

“Walter has an extra set of rations for both of you because we are going to need both of you at full strength for this fight. According to the reports, there are five Freaks who have been creating ghouls, and they have banded together, actually making a small but strong force against us. We cannot allow them to take more civilians and pollute her majesties subjects!” she said, passion for the fight in her eyes for a moment, making Alucard smirk. She calmed down though, and sat back in her chair.

“You leave in an hour, so go and get yourselves ready. I expect you on the training grounds in half an hour, no exceptions. Dismissed.”

Alucard turned on his heel and walked out of the room without bothering to open the door, melting though the walls like a knife though butter. Seras blushed and bowed slightly to Integra before she left, sighing because she had still not learned to walk through walls yet.

Integra sighed tiredly as she picked up her iced tea and took a long swallow, then lit the cigar that had previously been sitting unlit in her hand. After a long intake of the cancerous smoke, she hit the buzzer for her retainer.

“Walter,” she said, and she couldn’t keep the exasperation out of her voice, “Get my battle outfit ready. I’m going to accompany the troops out to the site.”

A chuckle could be heard at the other end. “Yes Sir Integra. I’ll make sure it’s a summer suit, Sir.”

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Gabriella sat up, rubbing the back of her sore head. After looking around for a few moments, she spotted Anderson on the floor a few feet from her, out cold. With a small grin, she scooted over next to him, and gently shook him awake. Green eyes blinked up at her uncomprehendingly for a moment before he finally oriented himself, then he too sat up and looked around.

“What happened to us, Papa?” she asked him softly, her crimson eyes sparkling strangely. “Where are we?”

Anderson stood, dusted off his coat. After helping her up, he spoke, his voice low, kind of in wonder itself.
“Weh’ve been dropped intah theh pahst,” He said, “Maxweel used vahmpyre magick an’ sent oos back intah thon past!”

Where as she might have been surprised or in awe when she was a small child, now, Gabby just took it in stride that they were somehow transported to the past; she just smiled and walked to the church doors, to see if they were unlocked. They were, and after a good tug, she stepped outside…

Bang!

Anderson ran up behind his adopted daughter to see a group of ghouls closing in, and silently cursed himself for not coming out there with her when he saw her head towards the door. Quickly, he pulled out two of his bayonets and ran into the thick of the ghouls, slicing their heads off while Gabriella put a blessed bullet through the heads of the ones still standing. Yet the ghouls still kept coming. Apparently a Freak had turned an entire town into ghouls, because that’s what it felt like was coming after them!

Suddenly both Gabriella and Anderson heard a dark laugh that seemed to echo with the night itself. Gabriella felt no fear from this laugh, it felt familiar, but Anderson, he knew exactly who that laugh belonged to…and he’d be damned if he’d let Alucard anywhere near his daughter, even though the girl was technically the vampyre’s.

“Gabby, come ohn chit, weh’ve got’ta go!” he shouted over the din of the ghouls and the shots from her gun.
She turned her head to look at him, and at that moment, something grabbed the back of her jacket and pulled her straight into its arms. She tried to get a look at what it was, but she couldn’t turn her head more than a few inches to either side. She knew that it was not a ghoul though, because it would’ve been bitten her by now…or something. Her guns were forced out of her hand though, and she was left defenseless…or so her captor thought.

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Alucard arrived at the church before his fledgling or even his Master. He enjoyed it more that way. Upon arrival, he was immediately set upon by ghouls, and dispatched them easily, as if they were no more than the paper targets back at the training compound. Tiring of the easy kills, he left a fair amount of the ghouls for the troops and Seras to deal with, knowing that they would get rid of the ghouls almost as easily as he…maybe.

Letting his darkness create a black void, he melted out of view, a laugh of pure joy at the coming kill flowing deep from his chest to echo in the night, letting the Freaks know that he was after them, and intended to have fun getting rid of them too. He reappeared moments later in front of the church and was again set upon by ghouls. Annoyed by the fact that there were still more, he dispatched a large portion of them and cleared a way to the church. His mouth almost dropped open at what he saw.

Paladin Anderson was chopping off the heads of the ghouls around him, and a girl, wearing an outfit suspiciously like that of Alucard’s, was fighting a Freak. A pair of guns lay discarded on the ground near her, but instead of going for the guns, she was kicking the Freak’s ass with her own two bare hands. When she turned toward him, he caught sight of her face for a moment, and lo and behold…she looked just like a younger version of Integra!

He quickly hid his surprise as he pulled out his own two guns and began getting rid of more of the ghouls. He could hear in the distance his fledgling and the troops making their way successfully through the lines of the undead, and had a feeling that they would be here in a few minutes themselves. He smirked grimly, his wrap-around glasses glinting in the moonlight.

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Anderson finished with the ghouls in front of him, all piles of dust now, and turned to see his daughter fighting with a Freak. Anger boiled raw in his heart and mind, and he went to help her. Unfortunately he was stopped by the tip of a gun and a familiar face.

“What are you doing out here, Anderson?” Alucard said with a dark smirk, his wide-brimmed red hat pulled low over his eyes. “London and its surrounding countryside are not in your jurisdiction, now is it?”

Anderson gave the vampyre the most disgusted look ever. “This iss not theh night teh fight yeh, Alucard. Move, she needs help.”

Alucard looked over his shoulder at the girl, who had finally just thrust her own white-gloved hand through the chest of the Freak, effectively killing him as his heart burst. She pulled her hand back, and licked the blood off of her glove, cleaning it expertly.

“You mean that?” his smirk widened. “Nope…doesn’t seem as if she needs any help at all, Vatican-dog.”

Anderson sighed angrily, but did not attack the vampyre as he would’ve once done. “Ahll not go intah a pissing match with yeh, Vahmpyre. I need teh go tah theh girl. Move.”

Gabriella watched her father talk to the man who was dressed, strangely, like her. She knew immediately who this was, from the pictures and histories that her Papa had shown her, made her learn. It was Alucard, number one agent for the Hellsing Organization.

“Papa, are you okay?” she asked as she walked over to them. “Do you need help…?”
Then the world went black…

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“Gabby!” Anderson shouted as his daughter went down, another Freak standing behind her, the girl’s blood upon his hands as he pulled his sharp nails out of her back. He pushed past Alucard and ran to the girl, moving her out of the way before he prepared to fight the Freak. Realizing that Alucard would probably know more of the situation than he, since he was apparently here to fight Freaks and Ghouls, Anderson looked back to him.

“How many Freaks?”

Alucard strode over to him like he was out for a pleasant evening, just a little surprised at the reactions of the usually stoic Regenerator. Alucard knew the girl was a vampyre, so why was Anderson protecting her? It also surprised him that the priest had just asked for his help, though he did not let it show…only a smirk to placate the priest.

“Well, there were five, but the girl just finished off the first, so I’d say four left, Regenerator,” he said, his guns out and trained on the other Freaks as they started appearing. Anderson nodded and in moments they both finished off the rest of the Freaks as if they themselves had been ghouls. Nothing was left but dust.

When Seras and Integra arrived at the church, it was to see Alucard training his gun on Anderson, who was bent over a girl that looked like a younger version of Integra, with red-blonde hair. Integra kept her surprise well hidden, but gave orders nonetheless.
“Alucard, get the girl, and meet me back at the Mansion,” she said as she turned and strode away, hiding her confusion and a strange sense of something more as she walked, Seras right behind her to protect her, as were her master’s orders.
Alucard grinned. From the way Anderson was protecting the girl…well, this would be fun.

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Anderson heard the orders given to the vampyre, but ignored them as he gently turned Gabriella over to inspect her wounds. They were already healed, so he sat her up and pulled a vial from his pocket, feeding her the contents. She did not wake, but the beyond-deathly pallor that had clung to her skin receded and her breathing became normal.

Alucard was curious…and seeing as Anderson wouldn’t leave the girl alone, he decided to question the Vatican-dog before he erased him from this world or took the girl…or both, if he could get his way. He sat down upon a boulder near the front door of the church and smirked slightly.
“So why has the Regenerator who has vowed to kill all of my kind caring so diligently for a vampyre girl?” he asked, his eyes twinkling with dark humor behind his glasses. “Or have you become soft, in your old age?”

Anderson sighed and kept his eyes on the girl, making sure she didn’t wake up and hurt herself or something. Somehow that Freak had had silver nitrate, blessed silver nitrate, on his nails (though how he had stood the pain of it, Anderson would never know), and it had seeped into her blood system. Given, Anderson had trained her to be resistant to silver, but this was strange, new somehow. He decided for the time being to answer the vampyre’s questions, though he knew that he probably shouldn’t. But what choice did he have, while he was trying to protect his unconscious protégé?

“She’s mah adopted daughter,” he said almost too silently to be heard, but heard him Alucard did.

“A vampyre, your adopted daughter?” he chuckled darkly. “So which vampyre woman did you steal the child from? Or did you kill the woman and then take the girl?”
Anderson snorted in derisive laughter. “Ah keeled no oon for theh girl. And either way, eets noon of yer business.”

Alucard chuckled again, a smirk of decisive victory upon his lips. “Well, it doesn’t matter to me, Regenerator-dog. Just answer me this…how come you did not fight me?”

Anderson shook his head, and did not answer him. He didn’t fight the vampyre because it would kill his daughter if he killed the biological father before she was conceived. They were in the past approximately five years before she was to be born…he just couldn’t do it. He also didn’t fight Alucard because though she had never met him before, Anderson knew Gabriella would hate him for the rest of her very long life if he was to kill her biological father before she got to know him. He sighed with frustration.

Alucard shook his head, tired with talking. He stood and walked over to Anderson, his Cassul pointed at the priest’s head.
“Are you going to give me the girl, or do I really have to fight you, you pitiful Vatican dog?”

Anderson stood, pulled two bayonets from his seemingly fourth-dimensional pockets, and faced the vampyre. “I weel not give up mah daughter so easily, Hellsing scum. Doon’t expect me tah either.”

Alucard grinned. “So be it.”
And the fight began…

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Gabriella awoke groggy, the silver nitrate still coursing through her veins, though not as bad as before. Pushing her more-red-than-blonde hair out of her face, she realized that her hat was missing. At the moment, though, that didn’t matter, for when she awoke, she heard the sounds of fighting. Her papa was fighting the Hellsing agent, Alucard. She knew that since she was a Hellsing, she technically had right to order him to stop, but since he didn’t know that, she didn’t think it would work. The thing was, she was watching her father get his butt kicked because he was not fighting at his fullest. It looked more like he was trying to dodge the vampyre’s bullets to get to her. He was getting a few good shots in with his bayonets though, managing to slice off one of Alucard’s hands at one point…but of course, the darkness around him just put it back on. She stood shakily, finding that she still had her guns in their holsters. That was good.

Anderson noticed that Gabriella had finally awoken, and was about to call out to her, but Alucard got off a lucky shot then and got him right between the eyes with a blessed bullet, effectively turning his warning to the girl into a bellow of rage and pain. Alucard merely smirked as he watched the priest regenerate and push the bullet out of his forehead.

“Having fun yet, Priest?” he asked, flashing a smirk at the blonde regenerator.

Anderson rolled his eyes, and forgetting himself, sent an onslaught of bayonets and daggers at the vampyre. Alucard did not move fast enough to get out of the way, not even to get into the darkness and have that swallow the blades. But the thing was….Alucard was never hit.

Gabriella stood in front of him with her arms out, her body riddled with the blessed silver blades. Her eyes watered slightly, filming over with red. Anderson dropped to his knees in shock at what he just did. Alucard, on the other hand, took the opportunity to grab the girl and walk into the vortex of darkness he had created to get back to the mansion.

Anderson didn’t move as his daughter was taken away…he felt like lead, and his heart almost broke when he heard the last words that his adopted daughter said before she disappeared.

“I…love you…Papa…”

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