Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Grace In Darkness ❯ Chapter 1

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A tale of how Alucard was brought forth from the basement after the fight and the beginning of an unlikely alliance between human and vampire. (Rated PG-13 for descriptions of gore)

Anime/Manga: Hellsing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: One Shot | Uploaded On: 09.24.2008 | Pages: 19 | Words: 19.2K | Visits: 1.6K | Status: Completed

Disclaimer: Hellsing belongs to its creators, respective owners, and companies. This story stands simply as freelance fan fiction and was written without permission but with great respect to the aforementioned people.

Author's Notes: (Reposted draft: 9/24-08) After eight years or so Hellsing is still going strong and now we're getting kickass gorgeous OVA's. How cool is that!?

Grace in Darkness was my very first Hellsing story, written waaaaay back when the Hellsing anime series first débuted in America on DVD and that anime series was all anybody had for canon. (The manga hadn't even been released nor was it nearly as expansive as it is now!) As such, due to the release of the manga and OVA's in the ensuing years, I feel the need to clarify that this story is set specifically within the anime series and the tone of this piece reflects that, using the history from Episode 10: Master of Monster, and it's more morbid and serious tone.

In closing I would like to say thank you all for your wonderfully kind words and encouragement. This is one of the best fandoms I've had the privilege to be apart of and you all are amazing!

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Herein dwells an evil sleeping in darkness
If you should die before it wakes
Be quiet and let it sleep

Eeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrccccchhhhssssssssssssssssss ss…

The metal door screeched in aged protest seemingly as loud as a tortured scream as it was pushed open ever so slightly. A thin shred of light emanating from the stone hallway pierced through the darkness of the dank hole that the door studiously guarded and the girl carefully peered through the cracked door.

She expected to be nauseated. The thick wet stench of coppery blood should have been overwhelming…but as she pressed her face between the door and doorframe an eye-watering waft of aged musty dust was the only scent that lingered in the air.

The light slashed across the interior of the cell and fell upon a lone figure that was propped up in the corner like a broken and forgotten doll.

Alucard.

He looked just as grotesque as she remembered him, although it had only been just a few hours since she last saw him. Having been encased in this prison of stone and darkness he had been hidden from the public for over twenty years and left to decay. He was slumped over, as though someone had cut the strings that kept him upright and mobile. His long legs were pulled up and spread apart, bent at the knees so that they were level with his shoulders, his arms wrapped so tightly around his waist it looked as though he had been compacted and he were clutching desperately to remain. His head hanging between his knees, the long seemingly endless tresses of brittle hair pooled over his face to fall to the floor like snow between his legs at his crotch and around his waist.

Time and wear had utterly ravaged not only his appearance but the clothing he wore as well because no longer could what he wore be called 'clothes' so much as they were disgusting rags. Adorned in a stray jacket with endless buckles and restraints the once white coat was covered in filth, dirt having permanently smeared and stained it so thickly that it made her shutter at how truly disgusting it must feel to wear it. The jacket was now a very dark bluish/gray underneath the dirt; frayed to thin strings at the elbows, shoulder seams, and edges. The slaughter that had happened in here (he being the one who was so gloriously responsible for it) had left his clothes, pants, and even his hair, splattered in thick gloopy and clotted blood. His boots and pants were in no better condition. The leather gloves that he wore were so thin that she could see his skin through the material and they were covered in dirt from clawing at the walls and blood from literally ripping apart human flesh and bone.

Any sane person would have been disgusted and horrified.

They might have even screamed at the horror of it all.

A lesser person would have started crying.

But she was none of those things.

She was Integral Fairbrooks Wingates Hellsing. The heir and leader of the honorable Hellsing organization, a servant to God, queen, and country. She was the one who would defend England and the innocent from the evil underground army of vampires.

But she was also just a little girl.

Heart pounding so hard that blood was roaring in her ears she peeked through the door to try and see if the vampire was still awake. In an unconscious gesture her left hand reached up and clutched her right bicep where the tightly bound gash that throbbed painfully underneath her now clean long sleeved sweater.

She was utterly silent as she continued to watch the figure in the corner carefully, her bones aching to start trembling but she forced the urge down and swallowed her fear.

She was the leader of the Hellsing Organization now.

She was better then this. This is what she would be facing every single day, night, hour, minute and second.

This was her life.

Uncertainty was singing through her veins as she watched. She wondered if the vampire was still coherent. He had seemed lucid and thoroughly sane, despite his actions and appearance.

But he was still a dangerous and rabid creature all the same despite his words.

She strained her hearing and realized that she could hear the raspy hoarse whisper of breath leeching from him in labored effort. Before Integral could think of her next course of action the creature twitched.

His shoulders spasmed as though he had little control and the head of white hair slowly rose upward at an awkward angle.

Through the cobwebs of tangled hair that still efficiently covered most of his features, a pair of sharp and alarmingly sane red eyes pierced through the organic veil.

Integral wanted to run. Her hands clutched at the door so tightly that her wounded arm nearly buckled in pain.

The little girl in her was terrified.

But the Hellsing in her stayed.

This undead inhuman thing, as frightening as it was, had saved her life.

She didn't owe him anything.

But she did want answers.

The vampire started at her for a long moment, it's mangled and twisted body remaining knotted up as the orbs of blood color studied her through the crack in the door.

Something glistening slowly started to drizzle from underneath the white hair and Integral nearly winced as she realized that it was spittle that dripped to the floor obscenely.

Spli-splat.

She should have closed the door.

Closed it and locked it forever and ever and leave him there to decay away into nothing.

But something still held her back. As she carefully observed him, she slowly became aware of the fact that he wasn't drooling over her, over the blood that coursed through her veins. Bloodlust was always apparent in these creatures' eyes. It was an underlying current of lustful desire and a need that boarderlined on the rabid. Before him she had only seen one other vampire before in her entire life. Her father had had specifically captured so she could see one. It had been a lawyer before it had become one of the undead, dressed in a carefully groomed suit.

That thing had looked like an everyday human.

But in it's eyes it held a gleaming pit of that lust hidden beneath the color that was very apparent to those trained to notice it.

Every human it had looked at it had seen as food.

This one didn't have that look.

Oh, to be sure he did look hungry, the lust for blood insatiable. But he didn't look at her like that. It was more of a carefully studied glance, knowing that she was food because she had a pulse.

Because she was human.

But he didn't look like he wanted to eat her.

He was drooling because he had opened his mouth and the starvation he had endured gave him little control over his body. She held blood in her that he was refusing to eat. He had regained some strength but few bags of blood wrapped in flesh couldn't revive him completely just yet…

"Master…"

She blinked in surprise as his voice croaked out from those mangled cobwebs of hair. His voice was low, smooth, very collected. He could have been a prince standing in the middle of a dinner party speaking of politics for his tone held that same elegance.

Integral swallowed, trying to moisten her suddenly very dry mouth but she straightened up just the same, the steal in her eyes as clear as it had been when she previously faced off with him.

The steal that had buckled him down to her will.

The girl knew that facing him weaponless and essentially helpless was incredibly foolish.

She should wait for Walter to return later tonight.

But…

Her father had entrusted him enough to protect her.

“Integral, if the time should ever come when all other hope is lost…if you should find yourself surrounded with your enemies closing in, go to the last cell of the deepest dungeon of the estate. There lies one of the Hellsing family's darkest legacies. It will be the instrument of your salvation.”

Those were his dying words to her.

And he had been right.

The vampire had proven to her that he was trustworthy to the point that only he wouldn't kill her…

Yet.

She cleared her throat and pushed the door open fully, the hallway lights blossoming into the cell slightly to illuminate it better. She walked in, forcing all the childish things like fear and intimidation down into a tiny place in her heart and buried them.

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at him straight in the eye.

The vampire never moved.

"You…um, said…that my father called you Alucard." Integral said slowly. "Is that what you want to be called?"

She wasn't sure why she had asked that. But it seemed to the young Hellsing that if she were to speak with him then she should know his proper name. Calling him something and having his name actually be something were two completely different things. She wanted to address him not the name that her father had dubbed him.

The vampire's eyes narrowed and the arms around his waist squeezing tighter as his body jerked in subtle movement, the sounds of leather buckles and material scraping across stone like nails on a chalkboard.

"Call me whatever you want." The elegant voice emanated from the corpse.

Integral frowned as she watched him cautiously.

"Do you have a name for yourself?" She rephrased.

The corpse scraped in movement again and the eyes winced at the brightness of the light that was washed over the cold stones. It took her a moment to realize that it was his equivalent to a nonchalant shrug. "For us," He said. "The only thing that is forever is our life. Beyond that, as humans say, nothing is forever. Especially names." There was a deep rumbling of sardonic and condescending chuckling that bubbled out of his lips. "Names are just letters of sound strung together and sound eventually fades as does the person holding it as time passes by…like leaves in autumn, fading into different colors and eventually dying off their branches.

"My name changes as does everything else in this world as the years continue to pass. I was Alucard for you're father. I will be Alucard for you. If you wish me to be something different, as you command it, it will be done." He tilted his head. "It doesn't matter to me."

Integral was silent as the absorbed his words. It was strange, hearing such things from him, a vampire. In a way she almost picture his kind as mindless rabid dogs whose bloodlust and need for death drove them. And by all rights many of them were. Having only read about them and meeting only one in her life that was all she had to base an opinion on.

However…he was different.

Integral pushed her wire-rimmed glasses up higher on her nose, the movement flashing a quick burst of light. She was unsure of what to do. She had so many questions that she wanted to ask but now, facing him once more, she was at a loss of how to approach any of them.

The vampire's eyes slowly drifted down her cheek to her neck. She stiffened when he did that but they continued gliding down her shoulder to her tightly bandaged bicep. The gash that had been ripped into her flesh by a bullet. By a betrayal.

"That needs stitches." He said amused.

Integral was startled. Her hand immediately clutched the bandages around her arm. She knew that it was her blood that had moved him to begin with, her blood that had fueled his savageness of the massacre of her traitorous uncle and his underlings whom had been intent on killing her.

He already knew what she tasted like. She knew this. But at the time everything had been so hazed in adrenaline and fury that it hadn't really registered in her mind and so she found herself startled by the realization.

"I'm perfectly capable of first aid!" She warned, having no way of knowing whether or not that was a threat.

It was a reminder of what he was, of how vastly more powerful he was, even in a crippled condition.

"Fine." Alucard said simply.

They fell silent and stared at one another again.

The Hellsing shifted for a moment, before coming to a decision and she walked into the cell. The soft clomping of shoe soles on stone echoed around her and she came to a stop in front of him.

Standing in the middle of the cell was like standing in the bottom of an abyss. Death and blood lingered in the air and she took a deep breath steadying herself.

She was Integral Fairbrooks Wingates Hellsing.

This was her life. Her father entrusted her with this mantel.

She would do him and its position the honor they both deserved.

The vampire looked amused by her and she felt an icy sensation of calm flow through her and she straightened up as tall as she could manage.

"Then Alucard you will remain." Integral said.

Alucard nodded in agreement.

"Then yours I shall be." He said quietly.

Integral wasn't sure she truly understood. He had said before and now that she was his master but what exactly that meant was something she couldn't quiet grasp.

Why father? She prayed silently. Why did you leave me thisand no answers?

"You said you belonged to my father." She said. She crossed her arms over her chest, ignoring the sharp stab of pain from her arm and looked down at him calmly. The last visages of nervousness and fear was completely gone.

She could handle this.

The vampire remained silent, watching her carefully.

Spli-splat.

"What does that mean?"

Spli-splat.

A dark red tongue slowly slid out from between dried out lips and flicked across them.

"I serve as a member of the Hellsing organization. As servant under the direct command of Hellsing family. As you command, I shall follow." Alucard said, a slow grin twisting his lips. Integral could see a flash of light reflect of the wetness of spittle that coated over sharpened animalistic teeth.

She wasn't frightened. She should have been but wasn't. This vampire didn't seem as terrifying as he had at first, at least not to her. She could feel power radiating off of him in waves like bottled up radiation but as deadly as it was she could feel that it was aimed at everything else but her.

"My father has died." She said, forcing no emotion into that sentence as her heart contracted painfully with the words.

"I know." Alucard said just as emotionlessly.

They both feel into an uncomfortable silence, staring at one another, each finding themselves studying a contradiction and unsure of what to make of the other.

"What does that mean for you?" Integral asked. Deep inside her she knew the answer but felt the need to hear it aloud for confirmation.

"As you have inherited the mantel of the Hellsing Organization so chosen by your father, you inherit me as well. I have found you to be worthy, impressed with your passion and spirit. As such I have pledged myself to you.

"You are my new master."

Suddenly there was a veil of what felt like moist air that ghosted across her brain. It was like the dead reached out and stroked her mind in passing glance. It didn't hurt but it was surprising and she blinked owlishly behind her glasses.

He was reading her mind!

He wanted to know about her, and she suddenly felt that moist air seeped between the cracks and crevices of her brain, glancing at her memories as they passed.

Anger suddenly burned through her at the incredibly personal intrusion.

"Stop it!" She snapped.

Without warning the moist air suddenly drained from her so quickly that it left a chill inside her skull and she was left alone.

Alucard's body didn't move but his head twitched.

"My apologies." He said easily. "I was just curious."

Integral sighed, rubbing her eye underneath the lens of her glasses, trying to organize her thoughts. She knew that Walter could help her when he got back and it would be best to consult with him…but she wanted to deal with this herself.

She was a leader.

When she lowered her hand to her side she suddenly realized something was off about the cell. When she turned her head to look around Integral was momentarily confused as to what could possibly be out of place in this hellhole…

No blood.

It was a stark revelation. Four men and her Uncle Richard had chased her into this hole, and she had been the only one to emerge. She had watched as Alucard literally ripped apart and ravaged every single man, ripping off their heads and throats in gushing oceans of red, gray brain matter splattering, crushing their ribcages, snapping bones, chunks of flesh ripping in splays, tearing out arteries, and shredding muscles. The dirty stonewalls and staircase had been drenched in oily sticky hot blood, splayed and splattered on every single inch.

And it was all gone.

The entire cell was as bare as it had been when she had run in here to get away from Richard. As every inch had been coated in blood, every inch was now bare and clean.

That's why it hadn't smelled when she had opened the door.

She slowly absorbed the state of the cell as her eyes scanned the entire cramped area.

He…licked…up…everything…

Alucard had licked up every last drop of red that coated everything, desperately soaking in the blood that he had been so long denied.

Integral's wide-eyes fell to the opposite corner of the cell next to the staircase were Richard had stood, armless after being wounded by Alucard.

There, against the wall, stacked neatly one on top of each other was the four bodies of Richard's underlings…or rather…what was left of them. Arms, heads, torsos, the chunks of flesh, pulp, and clothing had been stacked in the corner in a disturbing pile of neatness. Even that had been completely licked clean. The bodies had been utterly drained of every drop of moister in them, what was left of their skin now ghastly gray.

Integral raised an eyebrow and Alucard's dark red wine eyes follows to where the little girl was looking.

"You didn't eat him." Came the quiet response.

Off to the side of the pile of the dead…

Was Richard Hellsing, her father's brother.

A traitor.

Alucard had slaughtered everybody and had ripped off Richard's arm but in the end it was she, just a child, who had picked up the gun he had dropped and, with utterly no regret, taken his life. The vampire had sworn his loyalty to her and had proven it when he had blocked the shot Richard had fired meant for her with his arm.

And in retaliation she shot Richard.

It surprised her how little remorse she had. She was guilty of taking a human life but it didn't really bother her. The man she had killed wasn't a vampire but he had been the worst sort of creature…a traitor. Made even worse by the fact that they were bound by the relation of blood. Life was weighed by the value of it in her family's organization and Richard, blinded by greed for power, and conceit of what he saw fit as his right to inherit the mantel of Hellsing…he had crossed the line by betraying it's leader- her, and by betraying her father's trust that he had left him when he had died.

Richard lie sprawled against the wall in exactly the same position that he had fallen in when Integral had shot him in the forehead. His business suit, once so posh, was now grimy and bloody, twisted up. A gigantic splatter of blood, pulpy brain matter, and chips of skull that had exploded when the bullet ripped through the back of his head was embedded into the wall coated the stone. He had slid down, trailing it behind him and smearing it, and he lie slightly contorted on the ground, his arm that Alucard had taken great relish in ripping off from him, laying across from him now just a branch of skin, blood, and white gory bone that protruded from the extension. A large pool of dark red blood had clotted gloppily underneath and around him like syrup. His eyes, wide open and frozen in vacant in horror were staring at nothingness for all eternity.

The vampire hadn't even gone near him. He hadn't touched or moved Richard at all.

Alucard barely spared a glance at Richard, hugging his waist even tighter, the scraping of his boots scratching across the stone as he brought his legs up farther to his chest as though seeking warmth.

"Should I have?" He asked, an underlining chuckle in his voice.

"You're a vampire. A starving vampire. I'd have thought you'd have wanted to." Integral said, turning back to him.

"I have standards."

That was not the answer the girl was expecting as she stared at the dusty, bloodied, mangled undead corpse as he continued to squirm, hugging himself so tightly that bones popped, desperately swallowing more drool.

"Oh." Was all she could think to say.

That's right! She thought to herself as she remembered back to the few spare hours ago when she had first met him and Richard met his death. Alucard had knelt in front of her pleased by the passion of her spirit (that's the first time he called me Master…) but had turned to her Uncle and sneered in contempt.

"You're blood rots." He had spat in disgust at the man's bitter and slimy aura that oozed out from every pore and infected the very air around him.

He thought Richard was to disgusting to eat!

"I…well…thank you."

Alucard frowned, his head sinking lower as if he hadn't the energy to hold it anymore, and his hair fell over his eyes.

"For what?"

"For saving me." Integral said softly. She couldn't believe that she was actually thanking a vampire but in the end it had been he who had rescued and protected her.

Not the man with the title of 'family'.

What does that say about the world? She thought to herself.

~I think you mean, what does it say about humans? ~

The mental voice echoed around inside her mind. Alucard's voice. It wasn't the same sensation of moist air sliding around her brain like when he had been trying to read her thoughts; instead it was almost like listening to him talk through a set of headphones.

Almost like he had said the words out loud.

"Yeah. I guess I do." She agreed, looking at the floor as well.

The vampire was silent, not looking at her. She wondered if he had passed out but then, far more quietly-

"You're welcome."

Spli-splat.

For a while, she was unsure of how long it was exactly for it felt like a eternity, she continued to stand there watching him. Alucard was clutching his waist so tightly that his hands might have met behind his back, and he was breathing that raggy pant, the only sound amongst the shadowed world of the cell.

I shouldn't be doing this. Integral thought to herself as she clutched her arm tighter, watching from behind the sheet of glass and wire of her glasses as the spittle from his mouth splattered on the floor in a disgusting puddle.

It's against everything Hellsing stands for…

But her father had trusted him enough to her to him and he had done more for her in two minutes of the battle between her and her uncle then Richard had ever done for her in her entire life.

Her servant…

'Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer.' How true that is. Integral thought.

This was an ally. One, who when standing next to, she'd have to keep a knife up her sleeve just in case, but an ally non-the less.

She walked over to him and knelt down. Alucard was suddenly surrounded with the scent of sweet flesh and blood and the vampire jerked in surprise. His eyes looked up through his hair at her as Integral, wincing, grabbed the buckles of his straight jacket. The material was so coarse that she was surprised that the vampire's skin wasn't bleeding raw, and the grime actually felt oily (although some of it might have been blood).

She grunted, pulling up to make him stand with rough scraps against the stone.

Even slightly hunched over from exhaustion he was ridiculously taller then she but he was so emaciated that he was nearly a skeleton. Once he was standing his long white hair fell like a curtain around him in a waft of stale muskiness, like the scent of thick wet dirt. The movement parted his hair and underneath it she finally caught a glimpse of his face. She could see gray skin stretched like worn leather across his bones. The blood he had consumed had helped strengthen him immensely but it hadn't been enough to repair all of the damage of starvation. If he filled out he could have been very handsome but now was literally a corpse. Even standing he continued to hold his waist as though it were an anchor and he swayed drunkenly for a moment. She carefully steadied him making sure he could stand without falling and her fingers fell to his forearm. She was startled to feel…a hole there.

She leaned over and carefully examined it in the dim lighting. He had casually thrown out his arm to block Richard's bullet from hitting her and now there was literally a grotesque hole in his skin. No blood dripped from it and the skin was curled back slightly from it with the material of the straightjacket. As she examined it she could see, buried deep inside that the bullet was still logged there.

She wondered if it hurt and without thinking she patted his arm, like her father would have done for her when she got hurt.

This bullet would have killed me.

"What are you doing?" Alucard asked curiously, tilting his head curiously as the little girl backed away and wiped her hands on her dress, trying to free the ugly coarseness and grime off her skin.

She straightened up and looked at him square in the eye and she could tell the vampire was impressed once more with her resolve.

"You smell." She stated bluntly making the vampire raise an eyebrow. "And you're gross."

Alucard, completely unaccustomed to this treatment, narrowed his eyes, the curtain of hair framing his features and darkening his expression.

"Come along." She commanded, hoping that her new role as 'master' to this…Alucard…would move him with her command.

She turned and walked towards the stairs.

Integral didn't look back behind her but she didn't stop walking. For a moment nothing happened and she feared…just feared…but it passed quickly when she heard the first scrap of a boot slide across the floor.

"As the master commands." Came his amused response.

It was strange. As if he didn't take her seriously but he followed her anyway.

Alucard silently crossed the cold stone floor, following the little girl, crossing out of the shadows of the cell towards the stairs.

Together, the human leading the vampire, they walked up the stairs and out of the cell.

~ + ~

"Arms out." Integral commanded.

Standing in the middle of her father's room on the soft burgundy colored carpet, Alucard frowned uncertainly as he looked down at the little girl who was standing in front of him, holding out a black jacket.

Powerless to do anything else and clearly wondering what was going on, Alucard slowly raised his arms and held them out in front of him over her head.

"No no no, to the side. Like a scarecrow." She corrected and proceeded to demonstrate the proper arms-out position that she was speaking of.

Alucard complied, copying her pose.

"What are you doing?" He inquired, remaining still as a statue as she held up the jacket in front of him, squinting as she visually scrutinized and measuring it in front of his body to see if it would do.

"I'm not having you walk around the house looking like you just climbed out of a grave." She informed him stiffly.

"Rather appropriate don't you think?" Came the snickering reply.

She ignored him.

"This will do." She decided out loud, lowering the jacket and folded it carefully. She gently set it on top of a pile of clothing that she had gathered and placed on the bed.

She glanced at the old polished grandfather clock that was steadily ticking away on the other side of the wall of the bedroom and noted to herself that it was 7:00 p.m. It had only been an hour since she had brought Alucard up from the basement and hopefully Walter would be returning within the next few hours so she could discuss the situation with him.

Until then, she felt that her new vampiric servant needed to look somewhat presentable, if anything to make her feel more at ease with him. While the amount of power she could feel radiating inside him was frightening she could feel that he was carefully and with very controlled effort keeping it locked inside, directing it away from her. It was soothing in a way but she did know that that could change at any moment.

But he still hadn't done anything to prove he was anything other then what he had claimed to be and he had been complying with her so far.

Carefully she placed the pile of clothing on top of the boots she had dug out from the closet and gathered the bundle up in her arms.

She turned around and walked past Alucard.

"This way." She directed as she passed and the vampire turned around to follow, still clearly amused by the little girl's antics.

She walked across the bedroom the door near the right side of the bed that lead into the master bedroom's lavish bathroom.

The light snapped on brightly illuminating the room and reflecting off the polished surfaces and tile.

Alucard stopped in the doorframe and leaned against it, his eyes scanning the area as Integral walked over to the toilet and closed the lid, placing the pile of clothing on top of it.

"Use a lot of conditioner." She was saying as she headed towards the linen closet. She withdrew bright red and sinuously fluffy towels from it then gracelessly kicked the door closed, pushing up her glasses again, and walked to the shower, hanging the towels on the rack. "It'll make combing out your hair easier. If you don't mind I'm going to give you a haircut."

Alucard looked at the cobweb of hair that fell down to his knees and shrugged, reaching up to caress the strands between shaky fingers. The idea of being cleaned and dressed up like this little girl's new doll didn't hold any appeal whatsoever, however he held no desire to remain as filthy as he was.

"Fine." He said.

He watched as she collected a few more things. A comb from the medicine cabinet, which she put on top of the clothes she had chosen, deodorant onto the counter, a bar of flowery soap from under the sink, which went inside the shower. Along with the soap she retrieved a large black trash bag from under the sink and snapped it open.

"When you change, put the clothes that you are wearing in here." She said to him. “I think you'll agree that there's no reason to salvage them.”

“Mm.”

She paused a moment and glanced at the vampire.

"Do you need a razor?" She asked, gesturing to his face. He didn't look like he needed one since he didn't appear to have facial hair but she knew men shaved daily even though Alucard wasn't a normal mortal man.

"No."

A nod of response and she went back to work.

After a moment she finished setting things out and walked out of the bathroom behind him and before he could think of a response the girl shoved him at the small of his back to nudge him into the bathroom.

"Meet the so called standards that you spoke of before." She told him pointing to the bathroom.

The vampire slowly walked into the middle of the bathroom, cautiously scanning the area as though he expected the floor to drop out and send him falling back to the cell beneath the estate. It was strange, the little girl thought as she watched him, a completely rotted and decaying corpse standing in the middle of her fathers bathroom. His words and actions spoke he was everything but the former, but appearances is what people judged upon first and what he looked like was a monster.

A monster her father had kept yet vowed to destroy the rest of his kind.

"Fine." Came the quiet reply.

Integral nodded and grabbed the doorknob, pulling the door closed to give him his privacy.

She walked to the side of the doorframe and sat down on the soft carpet, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging her shins. Behind her, through the door, she could hear muffled movement then finally the hiss of water rushing through the spout in the shower.

Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss ssssssssssssssssssssssssssss…

Once the water started running, Integral let out a gasp of breath she hadn't been aware she was holding.

What am I doing!? She thought to herself. I'm helping a vampire!

She wasn't even sure what kind of vampire he was.

All she knew was now she owned him.

Integral still wasn't sure what that meant. People and the Hellsing Organization she could control and command easily, for it had been trained and engrained into her since birth as her right, destiny, and her duty.

But order and control a vampire?

~Do not think for a moment that you control me my little fledgling master.~

The girl almost gasped but quickly clamped down on it and she tightened her grip around her legs. All she could hear was the water running of the shower behind the bathroom door.

"What do you mean?" She asked aloud, unsure of how to response in both the manner (aloud or mentally?) and words.

~I serve my human masters willingly.~ Alucard's voice drifted amongst the air around her. ~It's a manner of loyalty not control.~

"Am I supposed to believe you're loyal to me?" Integral asked sardonically. She wasn't sure she trusted Alucard that far quiet yet. Whatever it was that she felt now wasn't trust per-say…it was more of a logical necessity that allowed her to be near him. Trust would be for her to know without a doubt in heart, mind, or soul that he wouldn't turn on her.

She did not trust him.

~Believe what you want. It's what actually 'is' that matters.~

"Fine. Then what actually is?" She asked, leaning forward to rest her chin on her skirted knees.

~Do you fear me?~

Integral froze.

The Hellsing pondered that question for a very long time in silence while she listened to the quiet sounds of water running.

She ran the question over and over in her mind.

She waited patiently, drowning in her thoughts for over an hour as the vampire remained in the shower. Eventually the sound of muted water slowly faded away to silence.

Integral was playing with fire by dealing with Alucard and standing on a gasoline puddle while attempting to do so. One touch of flame to her skin, one mishandling, she would be burned alive so she had to be very very careful.

Alucard must have been in the bathroom for nearly two hours (which wasn't surprising given the state he had been in) but Integral hardly noticed the length of time. She was so lost in her thoughts that she jumped in surprise when the doorknob turned suddenly and the bathroom door was pulled open.

Jumping to her feet she bounced in front of the door and stopped to stare at what stood framed in the doorway.

What had once been a filthy decaying skeletal corpse was now something semi-human; a stark difference from the creature she first encountered huddled in the darkness. With the grime and dust washed off his flesh it revealed that his skin tone wasn't actually gray but a soft powdery white, smooth and even, unblemished by time and darkness. Black eyelashes and eyebrows framed his eyes, a beautiful deep wine red color. His long tresses of what had once been tangled matted mess of cobwebs with blood and dirt clumped in it were now flowing cascades of pure undisturbed snow, falling down behind his back. With it combed out straight it fell down to his shins like a phantom.

Integral had no proper clothing for him to wear so, against her better judgment, she had gone through her father's closet and dresser to find something to fit him. She briefly wondered what her father would have thought, giving his clothing to a hated enemy but she had had no other alternative. She had managed to find dark gray dress pants and a white button up dress shirt and a black jacket. He had taken off his gloves along with the dirty straight jacket, revealing nimble and beautifully shaped hands, like a pianist. The shoes had definitely been the hardest judgment call so she had rummaged through the back of the closet until she found a pair of black snow boots.

The problem was that the senior deceased Hellsing and undead vampire were drastically different in measurements. Her father had been much broader then the considerably skinner Alucard which made the clothes horribly baggy around him and it appear that they were hanging on him strangely. However, what in broadness Alucard lacked he more then made up for in height as he wasincredibly tall. The baggy pants fell to his ankles, grazing the tops of his boots and the arms of his shirt and jacket fell to his forearms.

He stood there sullenly, not looking at all pleased with this assortment of clothing.

Integral took a step back and regarded him carefully.

"You look…clean." She offered, for lack of anything else. He didn't look nice but to be fair he didn't look bad either. He just looked…rather odd in those clothes. She could still see the gaping hole in his arm because the edge of the sleeves brushed against it and it stood out most horribly amongst his beautiful skin.

"I don't think you should wear gray though." She said, more to herself, not aware she was speaking out loud. While the black added nice splashes of contrast color to his albino features, the gray pants clashed with his skin so badly he looked sickly.

"We'll have to tailor something better for you." She murmured, squinting as she tried to picture what would look better on him. "Something that fits your personality and physical appearance…"

"Are we finished?" The vampire asked curtly.

Integral shook her head. "Arm and a haircut."

Alucard frowned and looked at his injured arm as though he couldn't quiet understand that concept. Integral turned and walked over to a chair that was standing next the dresser. She dragged it into the bathroom, the legs scraping on the tile. She expected the room to be hazy and hot from the hot water but there wasn't a speck of water on the floor or anywhere. The red towels had been refolded and hung on the rack to dry, the comb and everything else replaced in their rightful places. The bag full of the bloodied and dirty straightjacket, boots, and gloves was neatly resting next to the toilet, the only indication that the room had been used.

Integral put the chair in the middle of the bathroom and gestured for Alucard to sit down. As the vampire quietly followed, cautiously sitting down in it as she exited the room once more to return a moment latter with her assembled barbers 'kit'. It was a pair of elegant gold scissors, a few black plastic combs, and first aid kit.

It took only a few minutes to treat his arm. She wasn't entirely sure how to fix it because he was clearly in no pain and there was no blood. She wasn't entirely sure how to make the hole go away and when she had inquired as to how long it would take to heal, Alucard had been evasive so she simply assumed that he was so badly underfed that that was why it wasn't healing. She removed the bullet (a process that nearly made her ill but she had swallowed up the nausea and done it. It had felt like removing a bullet from a piece of wood because his skin was so thick and dry but the vampire never flinched throughout the entire process) and used iodine to clean it (though she was unsure if that was actually necessary it just seemed like the thing to do) before wrapping it up tightly in very thick amounts of gauze.

"Thank you." The vampire said quietly, pulling his freshly bandaged arm back to him.

Then came the haircut.

"I've never been good at cutting hair before." She warned, carefully wrapping her small hands around his shoulders to bundle the mounds of white hair behind him. "It's just a basic cut to get this all out of your way."

"Fine." Alucard said easily, crossing his arms over his chest.

They sat in silence, the little girl and the vampire, as she began to work on his hair. He had so much! She carefully combed through it and slowly began to cut it away. It was shocking to feel, despite the fact he had taken a hot shower and was immaculately clean he was incredibly cold, his hair cool like fog.

Alucard sat perfectly still the only movement from fingers as they traced the edges of the bandages around his arm while she worked, letting her do what she would.

~Why are you doing this?~

It was amazing how easily Integral was getting use to hearing his voice suddenly in her mind. It wasn't as startling or disturbing as it had been before.

Her fingers carefully ran through his hair, the blade of the scissors hissing softly as they closed, cutting away layers and layers of white. The soft whish of hair floated down to land on the tile floor.

"You're a monster." She said quietly, unashamed at such a possibly insulting comment. "But you shouldn't have to look like one."

~Being able to see what monsters look like separates them from everyone else by sheer appearances and could keep you alive longer.~ Came the highly amused response.

"I know. But I've already seen you as a monster and now I know. I don't want to keep looking at one when I already know who and what you are."

~Do you fear me?~

More layers of white softly died, falling to the tile in thick piles as the gleaming gold of the blade of the scissors glided through his hair.

Integral thought about the question in silence as she continued to work, rolling it over in her mind once more.

The vampire certainly did frighten her due to his nature but she knew that wasn't his question. She knew who he was. He was Alucard, a vampire, an intelligent individual, in control, and very cunning. That wasn't in dispute.

Did she fear the power that he held? The sheer, raw magnitude of untold abilities and powers and darkness that he possessed that she didn't yet know of.

She was startled by the answer she found inside herself.

"I…respect you…" She said slowly, pausing her hair cutting as she formed the words. "To battle something you must understand it and it's abilities and respect it for possessing it. I may fear you but fear makes you stronger and overcoming it makes you more powerful."

More hair started falling again.

"Why were you locked up?"

There it was. The unspoken question that had been hovering between them since they had emerged from that cell of death that was now her uncle's grave.

It was the make or break question. He had belonged to her father, so he claimed his loyalty had been given to him, yet still he ended up locked away like a dirty little secret. Chained like the dangerous animal, and hidden in the shadows away from polite society.

Underneath her small hands Alucard started to tremble.

Integral stopped and blinked.

It then took a moment for her to realize that he wasn't trembling.

The shaking in his shoulders and upper body shook with…laughter.

He was laughing.

Integral pulled her hands away from his hair and stepped back him to regard the vampire as he wrapped his arms around himself in a hug laughing. It was the same condescending amused laughter he had been cackling in the cell as he ripped apart those four men.

"Little fledgling master, how young you truly are." Alucard laughter slowed down, and he wiped at his eyes as he continued to shake with near silent uncontrollable laughter. "Yet, a child far far wiser then your father ever was in his adult age."

Alucard turned around in the chair to face her, twisting his legs to he could accommodate the position and they stared at one another, wills and strength clashing as their eyes met, red against glass covered blue. Integral had cut away much of his hair at this point so the remaining layers fell down to his chin, framing his face, complimenting his features.

Right now those elegant features were narrowed in cold and dangerously knowing amusement.

When he smiled, it revealed what he truly was truly. His teeth were sharp, glistening in the artificial light of the bathroom, razored and as finely pointed a needle.

And still bloodlust undercurrent his eyes, and yet not directed ather.

That's what held her in place as she stood her ground, clutching the scissors un-intimidated.

"I served my master for years before ending up buried in that hole." He said in a low purr. "I wasn't put in there for anything I did. I was put in there because of what I could have possibly been."

"What do you mean?" Integral asked, fascinated as she tilted her head.

"Humans fear what they do not understand and they fear what is more powerful then themselves. I am both one hundred fold." He said, eyes lazily looking off in remembrance as he ran nimble fingers through his now shortened hair. It was a strange sensation, for so long had he worn his hair near down the ground, almost like a blanket that wrapped around him and it now it lie separated from him on the floor. It felt like someone had cut away his clothing.

"I have powers that no mortal can begin to comprehend." He continued. "Your father knew this, used it to his advantage. My master…my commander…but eventually doubt, like a cancer, began to infect his mind. He knew I possessed powers beyond all imagining yet continuously I held back in every situation, never revealing or demonstrating my true and full potential. It was because I held back that he locked me away. I demonstrated vast abilities that were un-comprehendible even to him and as he realized that, despite some of the magnificent things I could do, I was still holding back and he became more worried and frightened. For if I could do even more then what I was demonstrating then there was no telling how truly deadly to him and the world I could be."

Alucard leaned back in the chair, slowly licking his teeth and he smiled.

"So, in order to control me…he locked me away. Starved me to the brink of insanity. Yet I remained and did nothing in retaliation even though it was well within my power to do so because…" He trailed off.

"He was your master." Integral concluded so quietly even he, as a vampire, had to strain to hear her voice.

Alucard had willingly allowed himself to rot away in the basement, fully capable of freeing himself, or retaliating with measures beyond deadly force, yet he had remained. As his Master had commanded him, had condemned him…he obeyed and remained imprisoned because it was her father's and Alucard's Master's will that he do so.

That was complete and utter loyalty. It hadn't been control it had been honor.

Until she, Integral had rescued him as much as he had her.

She wanted to deny it. Wanted to scream at him that it wasn't true because it distorted the kind humane façade of her father but she logically knew otherwise.

Alucard looked more like a human now but he wasn't. He was a vampire. Any Hellsing in her father's position would have done the same thing. Alucard was too valuable to kill (if he could be killed at all) but far too deadly to handle so they would have hid him.

They would have left him down there in that cell…

But she, Integral Fairbrooks Wingates Hellsing, was different.

And Alucard knew it.

She wasn't like the elder Hellsing's. She was fearless. She knew what it took and what was more was she knew it at her tender age. Alucard was too valuable to hide. Loyalty was what he had endured, a twenty-five year test of starvation and solitary confinement down in the basement where he had remained at his master's bidding.

She was in charge of the Hellsing Organization now.

With time came change and she was change.

She suddenly felt moist air start gliding through the inside of her mind as Alucard began to read it. It was wet and slimy, seeping slowly into each crease, fold, and crack of her brain.

Integral closed her eyes; clutching the scissors tightly as she concentrated and felt Alucard drift towards her concentrated thought.

Her thoughts of the future.

~This is what I am capable of.~ She thought as he floated around her vision. ~This is what I am going to do. For God, country, queen and my father. But most of all for myself.I'm here to change things. And they willwork because I have the will and power to make it happen.~

He smiled, deadly teeth gleaming.

She opened his eyes as he slowly drizzled out of her mind. He lifted his beautiful hand, palm up in a gesture of bequeath.

Integral nodded and slowly pulled her hand away from the scissors and gently laid her small hand in his large one, hers warm, his cold.

He closed his hand, fingers encircling her in a gentle cage, as if handling a fragile bird and held on.

"Master." Alucard said reverently, bowing his head to her.

She nodded.

"You're going to tell me everything." She said. "You're going to tell me everything my father never thought and was too afraid to ask you. I've studied vampires but books and stories cannot tell me what a vampire truly is and you can because you are one. You are going to tell me every single power you hold, every single drop of power that flows in your veins, everything you held back in battle you will tell me.”

Alucard raised his eyebrows.

"You will tell me." Integral said. "I'm not going to lock you away or make you a servant. I'm going use you."

The vampire looked intrigued now.

She was going to learn all about him. And use him to his full potential. He was a warrior and she a leader. Together was an alliance that could strengthen the Hellsing Organization to unfathomable degrees.

He nodded.

"Very well." Alucard said with a slow smile spreading across his face. He gently released her fragile and small hand, turning around back properly in his seat and he leaned back, drooping his head back lazily, eyes closed, waiting for the finishing of his haircut.

Integral walked forward and continued cutting his hair.

Master…

With bated breath hovering on your lips
creep silently though the tunnels
Be still in fear, for the slightest scent will disturb the air
And awaken things unknown

The eyes of evil watch you
Meet the gaze through the blanket of night and do not blink
Awake or asleep
It's always there

There but for shall you walk amongst darkness in grace,
Therein you will find your light inside to illuminate the path
Unknown as the path may go,
Follow it