Chapter Three
Family Revelations

Integra was pacing in her office, waiting for Alucard to return with the girl. She had hidden her surprise well, but the girl looked like a redder-blonde, younger (though she was loath to admit that little fact) version of herself. She would have Walter run some blood tests on the girl when she arrived. Technically, she knew this was kidnapping, or abduction, or something like that…but the girl was a vampyre…she had seen that with her own two eyes, and that meant that dealing with the girl was her responsibility.

“Alucard! Where are you!” she called to her agent mentally.

“I’m in the Infirmary, My Master,” he called back. “Anderson loaded the girl with his blessed blades, much to his dismay, and Walter and I are in the process of removing them and reviving the girl herself.”

“All right. I’ll be down there in a few minutes. Tell Walter,” she muttered, and rolled her eyes when she heard his damnable chuckle in her mind like an annoying bug.

“Yes, My Master.”

She pulled off her suit jacket, she was sweating like hell. Pulling her hair back into a ponytail and rolling up her sleeves to deal with the girl, she headed downstairs.

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Gabriella awoke to the most intense pain she had ever felt in her life. Somewhere in her mind, she knew that her papa had accidentally put his blessed blades through her, that she had defended a man-a fellow vampire- that she didn’t even really know, but for right now, her mind was flooded with pain and her head was light from lack of blood in her system. Not being able to see where she was or what was happening around her was scaring her just a little bit, and when she heard voices, she started to struggle, despite the pain in her chest and legs and arms.

A darkness seemed to envelop her mind, but instead of being scared of it, she welcomed it, because it was all together familiar to her. The darkness also cut off all feelings of pain coming from her body to her mind, and helped calm her down.

“Stay calm, girl, while we try to help you,” said a deep voice in her head. She nodded mentally.

“I will stay calm if you will talk to me,” she replied. She sensed agreement to the statement, so began to talk.
“You are Alucard, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Yes. How do you know that?”

“I grew up learning about you and the Hellsing Organization from the books my Papa salvaged from the wreckage of the Mansion.”

“What is your name, child?”

“Gabriella Miranda Hellsing. Papa wanted to give me his last name, but he decided against it. He said it was only right that I have the name I was born with.”

“Papa…do you mean Anderson?”

“Yes. He found me in the rubble of the mansion when I was a year old, and raised me and trained me…though neither of us likes Father Maxwell….he smells like cat piss and acts like an ass.”

A deep chuckle rumbled through her mind.
“You say your name is Hellsing. Do you know who you mother is?”

“Yes. Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing is my mother. I do not say it to boast either…it is all I know of the woman other than what I learned from the books I read.”

“You talk of books. Who were they written by?”

“A Mister Walter Dolneze. Why?”

“Never you mind. Why were you and Anderson at that church?”

“I don’t know…that is where we arrived, and that is all that I remember, other than being attacked by ghouls and those punk-ugly Freaks.”

Another deep rumble of laughter.
“I must go. The darkness surrounding your mind will recede slowly, but you should not feel much of the pain. We’ve removed all of the blades and your skin is mending itself quite quickly. You will see a man with iron grey hair. He is Walter, and he’ll have blood for you when you are fully aware.”

“Thank you, Alucard. I am in your debt.”

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Integra had gone down and looked at the girl while Walter had been busy removing the blades from her body. She had wanted to speak to Alucard too, but his eyes were closed and his hand was on the girl’s forehead…he was talking to her and keeping her calm. Integra had seen him do such a thing for Seras a few months back for a different reason, but the result was the same. So Integra had Walter give Alucard her instructions to come up to her office when he was done with the girl. Right now she was pacing said office with a cigar hanging from her mouth, a glass of iced tea numbing her delicate fingers as she walked.

Alucard walked though the wall, startling her, but not enough to make her drop her iced tea. She just nodded, accepting his presence, and continued to pace while she waited for him to speak. When he didn’t, she prompted him.
“Well, I know you were talking to the girl. What did she say?” she asked irritably.

“She’s claims to be your daughter, My Master,” he said softly, and Integra could hear the laughter in his voice, knew he didn’t bother to try to smother it. “But, of course, Walter will need some of your blood for a DNA test.”

She looked at him haughtily. “She does, does she?” She sighed. “Very well. As much as I’d like to, I cannot dismiss the possibility that the girl is related to me. Not just anyone could claim to be a Hellsing, but the girl does actually have physical resemblance to me…what is her name?”

“Gabriella Miranda Hellsing…or so she claims. But I could sense no lie in her mind or heart when she gave me the name…and her blood smells like yours, Master.”

She thought a moment, taking a drag from the cigar as she paced. The girl could very well be her daughter, but she didn’t know how. She was no where near anything resembling pregnancy and she had never had a lover…ever…so that would make it impossible, wouldn’t it?
“Alucard, did she say where she was from?”

“Actually, no, she didn’t. I asked her why she and Anderson were at the church, seeing as it is in our jurisdiction, and she told me something to the effect of “that’s where we arrived”. Sounds a little like they got dropped there from the sky, eh?”

“Yeah…”

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Gabriella sat quietly, sipping at the blood pack that the old retainer, Walter, had given her. He had taken blood from her for a blood test, he said, and she had let him. No use resisting when she was completely surrounded…plus, she had read enough about Alucard to know that she wouldn’t be able to escape…easily. So she sat there, after tying her hair back into a knot, sipping the blood quietly.

She wondered how her papa was doing. The last thing she remembered was jumping in front of Alucard when her father attacked him, and she remembered getting the receiving end of his attack. She remembered his face, his electric green eyes wide with shock that he had hurt her, and she remembered the elder vampyre behind her grabbing her and pulling her through darkness much like her own. Her heart ached suddenly, for the man she had called Father all her life. He must be frantic, but from what she had gleaned in her short years, he knew exactly where she was because he had been Alucard’s number one constant enemy.

She also knew why he didn’t retrieve her immediately. His orders were, upon arrival in this time, to travel to the Vatican, and give the Maxwell of this time a long letter that their own Maxwell had written. She grinned for a moment. Upon arrival in this time, the Anderson of this time had disappeared, leaving her papa. Something to do with time travel or something…

The old retainer walked back into the room, another blood pack in hand. He smiled gently when he handed it to her, and she set it on her lap until she finished her first one. In his arms he also held a set of clothing, and this too he handed to her.
“Sir Integra has graciously given these clothes for you to wear at the moment, until I can repair yours, Ma’am,” he said gently, bustling around the room, grabbing towels, a washrag, soap, and shampoo and conditioner. “There is a shower at the other end of the room. It is an open shower, so I will leave the room until you have finished. Please call me back in when you do, Ma’am.”

Gabriella smiled. “My name is Gabriella,” she said softly. “Gabriella Hellsing. And sure, I’ll call you back in as soon as I am finished, I promise.”
Walter’s eyes widened like saucers for a moment, before he composed himself, nodded, and left the room. Gabby just chuckled as she continued to drink her blood.

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He couldn’t breath. He felt ragged, and tired, and utterly miserable. He was on his way to the Vatican, the letter for the Iscariot Director safely secured in his pocket. He knew what his mission was, but he could think of nothing more than going immediately back to London to find his daughter, to protect her, even though she was with her biological family. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he was scared-scared for her, scared for himself, in some sense, just plain scared. Not that he’d let that affect his actions or judgment of course. He would have to get to the Vatican, wait for the Director’s instructions, and then he could go and get his daughter.

A few hours later, he sat in Maxwell’s office, while the director read the letter from himself to himself. Anderson respected this one a little more than the one back in his own time, because he knew when he had changed…he had been there to witness it. But after reading the letter, Anderson had no doubt that he would become as screwed up and ruthless as the Maxwell from his own time.
Yeah…that’d be just wonderful.

Anderson was letting his fingers run across the scar on his jaw when Maxwell finished reading the letter, and looked up, a strange glint in his eyes.
“You’re from the future, are you?” he asked, a dark gleam in his disgusting eyes.
Anderson nodded mutely, barely hearing the question, his mind overrun with concern for Gabriella.

“So what happened to MY priest?”

“Ah doon’t know. Ah behlieve he disappeared, and woon’t be coming back as long as ahm here,” he responded tersely, just wanting to get out of there and take his daughter out of the hands of her protestant family.

Maxwell nodded slowly. “This letter says that you raised Integra Hellsing’s daughter Catholic and to work with the Vatican’s Section XIII. I suspect something must have happened to the girl, otherwise she would be standing here by your side, would she not?”

Anderson nodded, a quick flash of shame shading his eyes for moments before he regained the shred of composure he had lost. He loved his job, yes, and he loved…well, used to love taking out the “scum” of the earth. But he was miserable sitting here listening to this man talk. He wanted out of there as fast as possible. Maxwell was not yet the total corrupted bastard that he was in Anderson’s time, and he saw the misery in the adopted father’s eyes.

“Anderson, go find the girl. Find your daughter. Once you have secured her, call me back on this,” he tossed the priest a set of cell phones, one for him, one for Gabby, “and I’ll give you further instruction.” He pulled a large envelope out of his desk and handed it to the priest. “Here are funds to get you back to London and put you up there till you can get her back. Good luck, my old friend.”
Anderson stood and nodded his thanks, and then he was there no more.

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Gabriella dried herself off, enjoying the feeling of being clean, and the unique scent of the juniper berry soap that had been provided for her. Her red-blonde hair smelled like fresh strawberries and she smiled to herself as she dressed herself in her mother’s clothing. They were almost exactly the same size in height and build, so the clothes fit comfortably. She was in the process of brushing out her hair while sitting on the hospital bed when she heard voices outside the bedroom.

“Sir Integra,” came the faint voice of the elderly retainer. “I have received the results of the blood test. The girl is related to you…” there was a pause. “But she is also related to….”

“To?” came the impatient voice of her mother.

“Alucard.”

Gabriella’s jaw dropped open, as she imagined what her mother was doing. Alucard was her father? She composed herself and finished brushing her hair, pondering this new discovery. If Alucard was her father, that would explain her vampyric side and her vampyric powers. It would also explain why she was not perturbed by his darkness, and why she was not afraid around him, as others no doubt were.

A void of darkness opened up in the wall beside her, and out stepped Alucard, a smirk on his lips but a slightly shocked look about his eyes at the revelations that he had also no doubt heard.

“A daughter…huh,” he murmured, looking the girl over.

She smiled up at him, still brushing her waist-length hair, her fangs glinting in the harsh light of the infirmary.
As he looked closer at her features, he did indeed notice that the girl had some of his attributes…her vampyric abilities and such, for one thing. He noticed she also had a smaller version of his nose, and her mouth was wide and generous, a female version of his own. She was also quite tall. Standing mother and daughter together, he would suppose she’d be just a smidgen taller than his master, which meant that she had also gotten her height from him. And yet she called Anderson “Papa”. Perhaps she had not known that he was her father.

When she finally put the brush down and swept her thick hair back into a braid, she spoke.

“Hello Alucard,” she said softly, a gentle smile on her youthful mouth. “Looks like we’re related, eh?”

He nodded. “The test results came back. I’m sure Master will see fit to rant and rave like a lunatic for a while before she actually believes it though.” He said with a ravenous smirk upon his pale lips.

“I can hardly believe it,” she said. “Not that it’s a bad thing, mind you, having you be my biological father. It certainly does explain a lot about me now…” she trailed off, letting her thoughts stay in confusion. Alucard, never much of one for talking, let her.

“There is a way to prove indisputably if you are my daughter,” he said after a few moments, his dark smirk returning, along with a strange, hungry look in his eyes. “Are you willing to try it?”

Gabriella looked at him suspiciously. She knew that this man was her father, because she could sense Truth like one senses another person staring at them. But he was older, much older than her, and she knew, from the books Walter had written in her time, that he was devious.
“I see that you don’t trust me,” he said, his smirk widening. “That is wise-very wise. Never trust someone you’ve just met. You were taught well by the Vatican-dog.”

Her eyes flashed angrily. “Do not call my Papa a Vatican-dog,” she practically hissed. “That man raised me, and taught me, and nurtured me. While you, if you really are my father, left me in the rubble of this bloody mansion for the birds to pick at.”
Alucard’s eyes narrowed angrily, but he stayed calm for the most part. Raising both of his hands, he said, “I surrender. I won’t call the priest a dog…around you. But are you willing to try my method of testing?”

“What do you have to do?” she asked warily.

“Just take some blood, to taste it. I can taste the differences in my blood and my masters, and if mine indeed does flow through your veins, I will know. Will you try?”

Gabriella nodded. “Fine. Whatever. Just get it over with already.”

Alucard’s smirk grew into a devious grin, and he moved slowly to stand beside the girl’s bed. Pushing her hair back from her neck, he mused for a moment that the girl really was gullible, letting him drink from her, but he would be able to tell if she had his blood running through her veins. He heard her gasp sharply as his fangs gently pierced the pale flesh of her young neck. Immediately he tasted traces of his own blood running through the girls, along with the sweetness of his masters, and the headiness of the girl’s own. He could’ve stopped there, but he didn’t, instead pulling more of the girl’s blood from the small puncture wounds he had created. He hadn’t drunk fresh blood in so long that he could not help himself.
She struggled against him, her ruby eyes wide with fear, and a mental plea for help ringing in her mind.

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Integra looked up sharply from the blood test paperwork that she was reading. She was standing right outside the infirmary, waiting for the girl to get done with her shower and get dressed. But she felt a dangerous pull in her mind, like the girl was afraid. There was nothing to be afraid of in the mansion except for…oh hell. She turned and opened the door quickly to find something unexpected. She didn’t know what she had expected, but apparently it was not stepping in to see Alucard drinking from the girl’s neck. Gabriella was struggling against him, hitting his back and sides with weaker and weaker force as the other vampyre drained her of her life’s blood.

“ALUCARD!!!” Integra screamed, her face contorted with anger. Dammit, that was her daughter! She was going to kill that bloody vampyre. “GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!”

Alucard looked up from the girl, his mouth covered in blood, his tongue running over his teeth, so that not a single precious drop fell from his mouth. His nails gripped the girl’s arms painfully, and she was now unconscious, from the combination of her own father drinking her near dry, and the initial shock of his darkness slamming into hers. He gave Integra a look of pure hunger, a look that suggested she would be next if she didn’t run, before he disappeared through the floor. When he let go of the girl, she fell off the table and onto the floor, for she had been sitting on the edge anyway.

“Walter!” Integra yelled, taking control as she usually did. “Get in here NOW!”

Walter bustled in and saw the girl on the floor. He immediately lifted up her lithe form and placed her gently back on the table. Seeing the puncture wounds on her neck, he guessed that Alucard had tricked her somehow into letting him drink, and he didn’t stop. Walter knew his old friend’s thirst. He got a warm washrag from the sink across the room and cleaned the girl up, bandaging her neck and changing her shirt, not a single blush crossing his features.

Integra just stood there, her mind finally numb with the shock of everything that was happening. She would never admit it to the creature himself, but she did love Alucard. If this child, this woman, is what would become of that love, she was not going to argue it. But her mind was still reeling from the fact that she had an eighteen year old daughter sitting in her infirmary and Integra was still a virgin! Alucard had mentioned something earlier in her office about the girl reading up on her history of the Hellsing Family from books that had been written, apparently by Walter. So why had the girl let Alucard drink, knowing his hunger? Or maybe the little lass hadn’t realized her true father’s hunger. Integra strode all the way into the room and watched her retainer care for her daughter.

She picked up the girl’s hand and noted how soft, how cold it was. Except for the sharpened nails, their hands looked almost alike. Except for a lot of stuff, they were a lot alike. Anger flared up in her suddenly. Not at the fact that a Hellsing was part vampyre, which would be a problem to deal with later, but the fact that Alucard had known the instant he drank blood from the girl that she was his own daughter, and yet he had persisted. Right now, Walter had a blood drip attached to Gabriella’s other hand, giving her back the blood she had so recently regained only to lose...again. Integra’s normally cold eyes softened as she watched the vampyre girl struggle to stay alive, for alive she was, being half human…being a dhamphir.

After planting an uncharacteristic, soft kiss upon the unconscious girl’s forehead, Integra got up and left the room, making sure Walter kept close watch on her. She then marched down to the underground levels of the mansion, where Alucard would no doubt be waiting.
Integra smiled, and all who saw her as she walked by knew that somebody was in for a very, very bad hurting.

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