A/N: Hi Folks! First off, I apologise to those of you who were reading 'Hellsing: The Return', but I have taken it off FanFiction for now as I believe it was not yet ready to be posted. Which translates into 'I didn't like it'.

THIS story, however, is ready for posting. And I have thoroughly enjoyed writing it as I believe there aren't enough stories that cover the time period following Alucard's re-awakening. As always, I cannot guarantee a specific update schedule due to how hectic things are, but I will try and post one or two chapters a week at most, and one a month at the very least.

Here's chapter 1, its more of a prologue really but I loved writing it.

R&R as always, you lovely people :D

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hellsing, its characters, or anything affiliated with it.

The Vampire and the Knight

He had known darkness for so many years that he thought himself mad when he felt the light. Well, he was already mad, but now he thought that even his base senses had taken leave of their enduring reliability. But that would mean that his hearing had also faltered, and his sense of smell too; and they never failed him.

No, he had heard the sound of footsteps above him. They were loud, heavy, and without care as to who heard them, for the owners of the feet were surely confident they had been alone. Three pairs of feet thumped along the stone floor above, and there was something else there as well.

Something was scratching. No. Scraping? Yes, that was a better word. He could here something scraping, pulling itself along something that reverberated and thundered. Metal? Whatever it was, it was drawing close. The feet were getting closer, too, but the one scraping with the metal was faster, nearer, louder.

Then there was a noise, a loud noise. The scraping one had jumped and landed on something hard. The stone floor? Ah, so that was it; whatever it was, it had been crawling through the...things. Things? They had a name, dammit they had a name! They were long, hollow structures of steel and iron; a stagnant wind was pushed through them by the ancient systems that lay under the...the house? Yes it was under the house! And...and the hollow metal things...the air vents!

So it had been crawling through the air vents, and was now...running. It was running! Loud feet thundered on the ground, sending ripples through the solid foundations of the house. The loud clapping of feet echoed through the place...the hallways? Yes that was it; hallways under he house...the dungeons!

It was now running through the dungeons, and the feet...the other three pairs of feet were chasing it! Their pace had quickened, and though the other one had a significant lead over them in distance... they were faster.

It was a hunt. There was a hunt in progress, here, now, at this very moment. There was a hunt!

And he...he could do nothing about it. He was trapped.

How long had it been? Years? Surely decades, at least. The ebb and flow of time had become impossible to measure years ago, and all attempts to cling to it failed. Eventually he'd abandoned the notion of time altogether, but now he was forced to try and recollect its passing.

Yes, it had been years. So many years had passed without so much of a whisper of activity. He had only known blackness, the darkness of his...cell? Yes he was locked in a cell, and his master had thrown away the key.

'Master...'

That word, it held familiarity to him. He had a master...no, he had a master. The master was dead.

He didn't know how, but he could feel it. Something was missing, something that was tangible before, detectable, measurable and ever present; but now it was gone. It made him sad, he didn't understand why, but it did. It made him very sad.

And then the light had erupted before him...

'...There lies one of the Hellsing family's darkest legacies...it will be the instrument of your salvation...'

"Father...is this my protection?" Integra asked in despair. Her hands unconsciously shaking at the dried husk (of a man?) that lay before her in the musty room. "These dry, rotten remains will defend me from harm?"

No answer. Of course there wouldn't be, her father was dead, and like her mother he was never coming back. All she had as a parting gift was this corpse, this thing that she found in the deepest regions of Hellsing's dungeons. She hadn't even known that it existed, she knew about the under-labs, but this was hidden even deeper! What was this place? If she had to take a guess, it looked like a prison, and this was a prison cell.

Her father had said that whatever it was had been there for over twenty years; a weapon so dangerous in its efficiency that it was locked up out of fear. Only someone with truly nothing else to lose would dare unleash it, or so her father had told her. But this thing was no weapon, it wasn't even alive! It was useless!

"Father...this isn't funny..." She whimpered. Without any real thought or consideration, Integra leaned against the wall of the room, slowly sliding down to sit next to the corpse. They were now sitting in the same position, heads bowed, their backs to the wall. She looked at it, where the eyes should be, not really knowing what to do, and vainly hoping that this strange thing would magically give her the answer. No answers came, of course. It was dead. Like her father, and her mother, it was dead. She sighed.

"Well, I have nowhere else to go..." She shrugged despondently. "You won't mind me here, will you?"

The silence of the corpse was her only answer, Integra hopped that whoever it had once been wouldn't be too put out her her presence in his cell.

Time passed. Integra sat with her mummified companion, waiting for the inevitable. She couldn't help but feel utterly crushed by disappointment, why had her father led her down here? What had he hoped to achieve, other than give his daughter a bleak tomb for her uncle to execute her in.

"I thought a knight in shining armour would await me, instead...this," She mumbled, pushing away any tears of despair that dared present themselves. "If only such fantasies were reality...I would be so happy...leaving a man here for twenty years...oh father, why have you done this?"

Again, there was no reply. She was all alone. There was nobody to help her anymore, nobody to turn to, nobody to depend upon. She had nothing.

"I don't want to die...I really don't..."

She heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

"We've found her!"

A noise, a loud noise. A bang. A gunshot? Yes, there had been a gunshot! His ears screamed in agony, the noise tearing into them like jagged knives on silk. Then there was a cry, high pitched and loud; it was laced with pain, clearly a victim to the gunshot. He had forgotten about the other sounds. The gentle voice that was soft, the warmth that he had felt beside him, the single tear that had landed on the cold floor. They were gone, and they were here now, the three pairs of feet, they had caught up with the one from the vents. Their intentions were clearly hostile.

Hostile?

There was a spark, a flicker inside him. What was it? It felt warm, yet cold; it was restrained, yet violent...angry.

Angry?

Yes, he was angry. Angry, angry, ANGRY! He was angry that they had shot the one from the vents! He suddenly burned from anger! It boiled within him, breathing life through his body, if it could still be called a body. Oh yes, he was oh so very angry! Very, very angry indeed!

But why was he angry? Why did he feel compelled to feel such anger?

It was as if something was forcing him to be angry. But what could it be?

And then he tasted the blood.

It had come from the gunshot; or rather, had been caused by the gunshot. But there was blood...BLOOD.

His vision cleared, the blinding light gave way to blurred shapes and discernible shadows. His body was overcome by internal convulsions, and a flame that burned a long, bright path to the one who had landed but a few feet from him. The flame burned, it burned and burned until it reached her, igniting a connection that had not felt vitality in over twenty years: the Hellsing family's seal.

'Master?'

No it wasn't Arthur, he was... dead. But that smell, that...taste...it could only be his child, the blood of a Hellsing! Proof of that were the glowing runes on the back of his gloved hands; they glowed so bright, or perhaps they seemed bright because they had been dormant for two cold decades? It did not matter. He knew what he had to do, or rather, what his body was willing him to do.

He bent down, hunting the spatter of blood that had graced the floor of his cell; he sent out his tongue, long and snake-like, to lap it up, and his body relished in the pure taste of the Hellsing lifeline.

The effect was instantaneous. His vision sharpened a hundred-fold, his hearing became bat-like, he smelled every fine odour, and he wheezed as his dried lungs inhaled their first full breath in years. What he smelled made his anger grow even fiercer.

'Richard!'

That slimey bastard was never worthy of the name Hellsing! Oh how he wished the man had curled up and died in some hole years ago; but no, he had endured, and now...now he had shot Arthur's daughter;Integra.

A fatal mistake.

The seals gave way, removing the protection over Richard that the Hellsing blood would normally give. He had attacked his own kin, and the seals now mandated that he die.

And die he shall...

Integra watched with horror as the 'corpse' started licking up the blood...her blood. Richard had shot her arm, apparently he wanted to have a bit of fun with her before ending his little game; and now the creature was licking her blood. It became matted with its long, white hair, red smears sat boldly against the ebony strands. She could hear a gentle growl, no, it wasn't a growl...it was purring...oh god...

"The-the corpse, it's regained its life!"

"Sir Richard, how is this possible?!"

"I-I don't know, my...my brother never told me of this place!"

"It's moving!"

"Don't just stand there! Kill it! KILL IT NOW! SEND THEM BOTH TO HELL!"

The creature gave a mighty swipe with its arm, cleaving the closest man's head in two. Integra felt herself bolted to the floor with fear as she watched it drink the blood pouring from the man's body; and then the slaughter began.

It tore through the men with brutal efficiency, rending them limb from limb, its great tongue digging into their gaping arteries to better direct the flow of blood into its maw, a maw lined with teeth...and fangs.

Vampire...

"Oh god!" Richard screamed, his hand trembling to such extent he nearly dropped his weapon. "What are you?!"

"Garbage..." It hissed, licking a large smudge of blood from its lips. "You are garbage..."

Richard screamed as the vampire leapt forward with inhuman speed, grabbing his hand and tearing it off, the gun clattered to the floor. The vampire laughed the entire time. Richard fell to the ground, rendered silent by the agony of his lost appendage, he looked on in horror as a large pool of blood collected by the torn stump that was all that remained of his wrist.

Integra's attention was snapped from the grotesque sight as the vampire started to walk towards her; she froze, instinct kicking in and telling her not to move, vampires liked moving prey. The vampire came close, and closer, and closer, until finally stopping barely a foot from her. Integra wanted above everything else to shut her eyes, but she would not; she was a Hellsing, and if she was going to die by a vampire's hand, then she would do it facing her death.

But the killing blow never came, instead, to her utter astonishment, the vampire lowered himself down to kneel before her. He bowed his head low, his body bending in a way she was sure a human could never replicate.

"Are you well, Miss Hellsing?" The vampire asked, raising his head so that Integra was staring into his burning red eyes for the first time. She had always been told by her father that the eyes of a vampire burned with hate, greed, and above all else, hunger. This vampire's eyes did not look anything like that, they looked...concerned. "I am at your service and await your command."

Vampire? Wizardry? The Hellsing organisation has a vampire?! Why? What sort of research was father doing?

"HELLSING WILL BE MINE!"

Integra nearly screamed when she heard the gunshot, but her voice was stolen when the vampire's arm suddenly flew in-front of her to take the bullet. A low, feral snarl escaped it's lips as the vampire gave Richard a look that made Integra's blood run cold.

"Richard...your blood has an unusually foul smell, as does your brain...you shall never be my master!"

Integra saw the gun lying by her feet, she hastily picked it up and rested it on the vampire's arm for support.

"Who are you?" She asked, lining up her uncles petrified face in the gun sights.

"Your father, my master, and his ancestors, called me... Alucard" The vampire replied softly.

Integra's finger pulled on the trigger, the gun fired, and Richard's head snapped back as the bullet him him square between the eyes; he fell back to the floor, dead.

The gun fell from Integra's hand, the adrenaline of the situation fading away as her body recognised that it was no longer in danger. Alucard caught her as her legs gave way, gently cradling her in his arms. He stood up, rising to his full height, and made for the exit of the dark (and blood-soaked) room.

"What are you doing?" Integra asked, slightly alarmed at being carried by an undead monster. It was one thing to be saved by a vampire, but to be carried bridal-style was another matter entirely!

"You're injured, my master," He said, nodding to the bullet wound in her arm. Integra hadn't paid much attention to it until then, there had been a heavy throbbing sensation but that was it. As soon as she registered the wound properly the pain began, and she winced. Alucard's grip tightened slightly. "You need medical attention, does the mansion still have an aid station?"

"There's a small one in the west wing that the soldiers use..." Integra had almost forgotten it was there. Alucard nodded his understanding and set off through the hallways.

Fatigue began to take hold, the stresses of the past three days had finally caught up with Integra. She began to drift off to sleep, in the arms of a vicious vampire, of all places; but not before she noticed the strangely affectionate grin on Alucard's face.