Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Son of a Dragon ❯ Impending Destruction ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three: Impending Destruction

Anastasia remained unusually quiet next to her brother as they trekked up the hill that led to their school. Ordinarily, the twins went to school chauffeured by car as their school, Dalmaska Academy, was nearly two hours away from their home. However, there were always exceptions and when they were running late the Hellsing twins would use their telepathy to arrive near the heart of London and then casually stride on over to their school that was a few blocks away. What would usually take nearly two hours would now be two minutes and it was one of the more enjoyable attributes that they inherited from their father. Unfortunately, they were forbidden to use it unless their mother authorized them to.

"Don't let it get to you," Daemon finally spoke up after a minute of uneasy silence. His sister turned to look at him as they rounded a corner. "We're not going to let them get you anyway, so don't worry."

Anastasia frowned at her brother. How can he be so calm?

"You make it sound as if you've got it all covered."

"Hey, I'm trying to cheer you up, okay? You don't have to get all moody on me or anything."

"Why didn't you guys tell me about this organization? I'm in charge of gathering intelligence; I should at least know what's going on in my own home!"

Daemon carefully contemplated on his next set of words, his lips drawn to a thin line. "Mum didn't like the idea at first, either. We don't know when this tiny organization's going to turn their backs on us and every ounce of information we can get from them can be useful to figure out their next move. They're not just scientists, that's for sure. They know about Father to some extent." He glanced at his sister. "They're curious as to how me, you and Sophie got into the picture when, officially, Mum isn't listed as married."

As they neared the school, Daemon resorted to his telepathy as the number of students began to grow around them, politely exchanging greetings.

You're going to intern at that lab in Oxford in a few months, right? You should know how some scientists think.

Anastasia turned her eyes away from him to look ahead as she was beginning to understand. ....I see...

"I'll be heading to France next month to get ready to attend Sorbonne, so we're going to be a little shorthanded," Daemon spoke out loud as he grinned with arrogance at his accomplishment.

It might have been strange for a conversation to switch from mind to voice, but Anastasia had been used to it for the eighteen years of her life. She was secretly glad that her brother decided to change the subject; she really was worrying too much over the issue.

"I can't even believe that you got into Sorbonne with that brain of yours," she coolly commented.

"Hey, don't be jealous you can't speak more than one language."

She turned to glare at him, wishing that looks could kill. Out of all the things that she could excel her brother in -- science, math, literature, and archery among other things -- being fluent in multiple languages was something that Anastasia couldn't do. Her father tried to teach her Romanian once: that didn't work too well. She could butcher an entire language like she could with a FREAK with her pistols. It was embarrassing, what with being the more calm and reasonable twin and all, and her brother's natural talent with foreign languages just made it all the worse for her pride.

"You don't have to rub it in."

As the twins continued to amiably insult one another, they did not notice a pair of hazel eyes watching them in an alley close by.

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It would have just been an ordinary day for Mitchell Riley had he been not given this last opportunity to prove his worth to the world. He was well aware for as long as he could remember his ability to see the auras around every living thing. They were usually bland colors -- the people of the world -- and always lost and engulfed in a sea of black. He never thought of what he could do with this strange ability or if he could improve in it; it just made the world look that much more boring than it already was until he met them: Anastasia and Daemon Hellsing.

It was tradition in Dalmaska Academy for all the incoming freshmen to personally greet one another on the first week of school. The goal was to know everyone's name, their parents' names, what their family background was, what company or other properties were they to inherit, etc., and to find how these links could be for their individual benefit. A crowd of people surrounded the twins who had just returned to England from their father's home country of Romania studying abroad. They immediately stood out from the general population of the Academy with their sharp facial features and dark hair and their equally peculiar eye colors. They were fraternal twins yet they looked extremely similar to each other as if one was the opposite gender of the other. Anastasia had beautiful light blue eyes, eyes that were rare to have with black hair.

Daemon's eyes were red. Like blood. He had explained that it was a weird defect that ran in their family and he unfortunately inherited it. It sounded like a very legitimate excuse, but for some odd reason, Mitchell thought otherwise. Whether if it was because the spirits that hovered over them were bright red instead of blue or whether deep down inside he just knew, Mitchell Riley was highly suspicious as to what Anastasia and Daemon Hellsing really were.

Then these men in black approached him one day as he was on his way to his part-time job. They were well aware of his abilities and offered him a hefty sum as well as a strange suitcase filled with green vials of liquid. His job was to keep an eye on the twins and their activities. For the past eight months, he had been trailing the Hellsing twins up to the point where it became a near obsession for him to do on a daily basis. What he found was nothing out of the ordinary; they were just like him, except for one exception: they killed.

It was by accident that he stumbled upon this. A small quarter of London was experiencing a string of strange deaths during that week, and the twins strayed away from their normal activities to circle around town. Since they were easy to find, Mitchell could watch them as far as the Thames with his abilities that were enhanced by the curious green liquid that the men in black gave him. It was then, with his enhanced ability, that he found out their "other" job.

Two or three other people always went with them and their spirits were similar to the twins with the fact that they were dark red. The twins never spoke much about their family to the other students except their mother who, from their stories, everyone perceived to be from an extremely noble bloodline. There was no mention of their father except that he was from Eastern Europe.

But Mitchell couldn't help but wonder as he continued to watch them if one of those other red colors was their father.

After that incident, it seemed that the twins had unconsciously caught on to his observations and Mitchell remained fruitless in his efforts for a period of months. The men in black robes had come for a second time -- this time in front of the apartment building where he lived -- and gave him a simple message along with another suitcase filled with the green vials that he slowly became addicted to: find out what the Hellsing heirs were or else his life would be the price.

Mitchell chuckled bitterly to himself at the reminder as he stepped out of the alley and followed the twins to school.

Maybe his ability was worthless after all.

"How much longer?"

"Not long now. As long as the boy can grab their attention, we can infiltrate their headquarters."

"...Are you sure, sir?"

"We can't waste any time. That man...no, that monster must be obliterated before we can continue our research."

Alucard paused in mid-step in the hallway of the basement and turned his head as a familiar note sung in his head. This note he had heard somewhere before, a sound that dredged up a memory that had long lost itself in the midst of his five hundred and odd years of age. The former human now vampire wasn't quite sure where to exactly place this memory note yet it sent Alucard a dark, foreboding feeling.

The young woman who had been walking next to him stopped and turned around once she realized that her master wasn't next to her.

"...Master?" Seras Victoria asked him, watching her master cautiously. Out of the nearly twenty years she had been in the Hellsing organization, she hadn't seen Alucard tense before. It was slight but after the years of observation she could see that there was something wrong.

"Master, is there something the matter?"

"Policewoman, did you hear that sound?" came the answer from the shadow of black and red behind her.

The red head quirked an eyebrow. "Um...no, I didn't."

Alucard frowned a little. Of course the woman couldn't hear it; she was still not as keen on her hearing capabilities as he was. He swiftly turned back to where he came from, melding into the walls to get to his new destination.

"What--" Seras was about to say, but Alucard cut her off.

"Go find your silver-haired mate. And keep his area secure. Make sure that no one is to enter here, understand?"

As he disappeared into the wall to travel upstairs to Integra's office, the grounds shook and the alarm of intruders sounded.

"And so, in order to work for the future, you must continue to strive for success and for the pride of Dalmaska!"

Daemon released a loud yawn as the dean of the Academy continued is "pep talk" to their graduating class. He wanted to sit down but they had to stand, all 316 graduates this year, as the dean spoke to them at the ceremony. Daemon could care less about what the old man had to say but his sister next to him kept on elbowing him in the ribs whenever she would catch him falling asleep. Anastasia somehow thought that this speech was extremely important to them regarding their hopes, dreams, and ambitions of the future...or whatever nonsense he remembered hearing from the principal's lectures countless of times before.

Dalmaska Academy was not a very large campus, comprised of two main buildings and a gymnasium, but its reputation as a highly esteemed school meant only for the elite was pretty common in most of England and in some parts of Europe. The students were given the "best" of the best teachers in Europe and consequently students from Dalmaska had the "best" education.

It was also very expensive and difficult to get in since there was a limit as to how many students the school could accept. This wasn't much of a problem for the Hellsing twins, but once their first year started, Daemon immediately became the source of trouble among students and faculty alike. The upperclassmen did not like the way he interacted with everyone and how most of his friends were "commoners" or likewise. The professors saw his hot temper and lack of manners as a sign for disaster. The only reason why he wasn't kicked out of the Academy were his grades. He was among the best in the linguistics area at their school, even outsmarting many of his foreign language professors, and he was ranked number one in the United Kingdom in competitive fencing. He was both good and bad, and the good sides that Daemon provided heavily outweighed the bad sides. Dalmaska didn't want to lose such an academically outstanding student from their hands.

Despite all that, the faculty and Daemon were more than ecstatic to be rid of each other.

As he stifled another yawn, and preventing another poke from his sister, something began to vibrate against his pant leg. Daemon looked down and immediately stuck his hand into his pocket to take out the vibrating object, his cell phone. Taking a quick glance down at the number, he quickly grabbed Anastasia's arm and the two weaved their way out of the line of students into an open area. Their movement caught the attention of some of the faculty, much to Daemon's disappointment. One of the professors began to head towards them.

"Brother!" Anastasia hissed as she shook her arm free from his hold. "What in the world--"

Daemon held up a hand to silence her as he answered the phone. The sounds of gunshots and concrete exploding filled his ears.

"Daemon, the both of you get your asses back here now!" his superior and "uncle" shouted before Daemon hung up.

He turned to Anastasia. "Annie, we have to go."

"But what--" Anastasia began to say.

"Mister and Miss Hellsing," the faculty member, a balding man in his forties with hazel eyes that Daemon remembered as being his former British history professor, addressed them. "May I ask what is so important that you must disrupt the ceremony and step out of line?"

Before Anastasia, the one closest to him, could answer, Daemon quickly replied, "Family emergency. Our grandfather was in a car accident."

He began to drag a still stunned Anastasia away from the ceremony as he politely smiled and waved at his former British history professor, "Tell Doctor Emerson to send us our diplomas and his wonderful speech home, okay?"

The he began to run, letting go of his sister as she followed. Mitchell Riley walked up to the balding man and excused himself to go to the W.C.

"What's happening at home that's making you hurry?" Anastasia asked him as they raced through the streets of London at an unthinkable speed. Telepathy would have been faster, but it required both to simultaneously concentrate on the same place -- something that Anastasia couldn't do as fast as her twin brother could.

"I don't know but Uncle Max was yelling to come back home," Daemon replied as he hopped over a flower cart stand, smiling back at the stunned owner in apology and in amusement since no normal human could jump over a six feet flower cart in one leap. "It sounded like a battlefield there."

"Somebody's attacking the organization? But why?"

"I don't know, but I bet it has something to do with the hack by SPAW---"

The twins jumped out of the way as a bullet sliced in between them, shattering the shop window next to them and sending panic among the crowd. They swiftly turned in the direction of the bullet, glaring at their unknown attacker on the roof of one of the nearby buildings.

"Who's there?" Daemon demanded.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ack, I apologize once again for a LONG delay. To put it simply, a lot of things came up during the completion of this chapter, including a busy period at work, Anime Expo 2005 to attend, and plain ol' writers block. If you ever read my profile, I hit writer's block often, even if I do have a layout of what I want in the chapter right in front of me. So again, I extremely apologize for the delay of this chapter as well as the entire story itself. I know it's not fun reading through this part (even though it's fun for me, since, well, I know how this is going to end up), but never fear there's only one more chapter of Daemon's past to go before I jump back to where I ended off in Chapter One. Plus the next chapter is fun for me to write because, well, there will be some action in it ^^.

Another note is that, no, Dalmaska Academy does not exist. I made that up. Sorbonne University, does, though. That's located in Paris, France. I'm trying to be geographically correct about London (but I don't think I'm doing a good job at it), so if I'm wrong in some parts, do tell me. (No flame, TELL. Telling is something totally different)

Since school has started once again, I may even have even less time to write, but that doesn't mean that I'll abandon this fic. I'm determined to finish it -- from start to finish -- even if it takes a long time to do so. Anyway, until the next chapter! (whenever that will be...)