Sorry for forgetting an Author's note last time. Funny, I began writing by with a fanfic, and here I am, a (hopefully) much more seasoned writer, doing fanfiction again. And it's all your collective faults, for writing such cool stuff. It make me want in on the action. Well, here is my next part of what I hope will be an interesting change from the typical "Hellsing new recruit" story (that's not to say there haven't been good ones, of course). Well here I am babbling when I should just let you read.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hellsing. It owns me.

Chapter II: Born Again

His eyes came slowly into focus on the face of the blonde girl he met before. He had never gotten a good look at her face, barely enough to recognize her. She was kindly, gentle, and most of all, beautiful. He felt…comforted, as a child would in the care of its mother.

"Are you an angel?"

She chuckled. "Not exactly. My name is Seras Victoria. What's yours?"

" Jake…Jake Rivers." He uttered, forgetting pleasantries.

"Nice to meet you." She said cheerfully. "How do you feel?"

"I don't know." He said dreamily, looking up at the ceiling. "It's strange. I'm not in any real pain…but it's as if my veins have been emptied out. I can't even figure out what's keeping me awake right now, or allowing me to talk to you…"

"Well, that's easy, you're hungry." Out of his field of vision, the girl took out a bag full of red liquid, reminiscent of a clear Capri Sun pouch.

"Can you sit up?" she asked. Jake nodded. She broke the top off it and handed it to him. She was clearly some sort of medic…that would explain her bedside manners and the fact that she was the last person he saw.

Too hungry to ask any more questions, he downed the entire bag quickly. It had a bitter, slightly coppery take to it, and yet he swore he had tasted nothing better.

"Better?" she asked, clearly relieved at something. Jake wasn't sure what.

"Yeah." He said, a little surprised as he felt his strength returning.

She paused nervously. "Jake, what do you remember about what happened?"

He looked away from her a moment, trying to pick through the linty haze of last night.

"Me and my friends are in a band. We were on our first tour together, from LA. We were doing this show at the 'Typical Freak' club as an extra thing, just to grab the huge paycheck they offered in their ad…and then."

His eyes shot open. He remembered a spray of blood in the crowd, panicked screams, people rushing toward doors that were locked. Seeing people getting… eaten? All before he was pushed of the stage and fell unconscious. "Oh god…my friends…those...things…what happened to my friends!?" he shouted, a little louder than he meant to. "Are they ok?"

Seras glanced at the tiles on the floor, and looked back up at him, her face downcast. "I'm sorry, Jake. They're gone."

Gone? How? This wasn't just some clique he hung out with on weekends, or a group of stoners that he hoped to grab a free ounce from. They were his band; his family, the only real consistency in a life plagued with failed chances and disappointments. He was nothing before them. And he was nothing now.

Jake found that tears were running down his cheeks. He reached up to wipe them, but found that they weren't clear and watery anymore.

"Blood…?" he mused, not quite understanding. "Are my eyes bleeding? What's wrong with my eyes?" he found he was trembling a little. Seras was looking at him awkwardly, searching for the right words. She placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him.

"Listen to me. I know this is hard to believe, but the creatures that killed your friends…were vampires."

Jake's face went blank. She had to be joking, this had to be some kind of prank, where the hidden cameramen were waiting come out and say 'you got punkd' or something inane like that. He was looking for a crack of a smile, a tensed cheekbone, or some other sign that this wall all a cruel joke. Nothing. Just an apologetic grimace.

"I work for the Hellsing foundation. We're a secret order dedicated to the elimination of the undead."

Jake blinked.

"They used the club you and your friends were playing at as a deathtrap. That's why they locked the doors when it started. We got there as soon as we heard, but by then everyone, that is, everyone except you, was already dead. A vampire picked up your unconscious body and ran off, probably to use it as a hostage if we caught up to him. I shot him as he was jumping over the fence, and then he…dropped you onto it."

He remembered that part well enough. Suddenly realizing what that meant, he felt his stomach.

"No wounds…but how?"

"Remember when I asked you if you wanted to come with me? In order to do that, I had to… turn you."

"Into a….?"

"Vampire?" said a deep, fluid voice to his right.

Jake whipped around and saw a face he'd never forget. A pathological smile that could put the Joker to shame. Eyes as red and wide as streetlights. Even sitting down he could see he was huge, at least six and a half feet, but the worst was his teeth. The canines were lot longer than they should have been.

"Jesus…" he uttered.

"Not even close." He said, clearly amused at Jake's reaction. He straightened the collar of his long red coat.

"Dammit, Alucard!" shouted Seras. "I said give him time!"

'Alucard' looked slyly over to her. "Simply because you are no longer my fledgling, does not put you in any position to give me orders, Police Girl." He turned smoothly back to Jake's horrified face.

"Put simply, boy, you have been sired from my former fledgling, and thus, you now have the honor of being her fledgling. She is your master, and you will treat her as such. Understand?"

"But…how could I be…a" he still couldn't bring himself to say it.

Alucard's smile widened. "Did you think that was cherry juice that the Police Girl fed you?"

Jake eyes darted to the empty bag still in his hands, and for the first time, read the label: Medical Blood, Type AB+. He flung the bag off as if it had stung him.

Alucard picked up a small, handheld mirror on the table beside him, and said, "Face it, you're bloodsucking creature of the night. You can either deny the fact, or," he brought the mirror in front of Jake's face, "You can look the devil in the eye."

Jake looked into the mirror, and realized, to his horror, that he was staring straight at an empty chair behind him, the one he knew Seras to be filling.

He stammered some nonsense for a while, trying in vain to keep his frail conceptions together. He watched Alucard leave, through the wall, and turned to his new master.

"What's gonna' happen to me?"

She placed her hand on his, somehow warm even though dead. His blood ran into his cheeks, and she smiled the same way she had before.

"Don't worry, Jake. From now on, we're in this together, ok?"

He and his world had been disemboweled just hours ago, and here, standing beside him, was the only person who seemed to give a damn. How could he not trust her?

"Ok…master"

I hope that wasn't too cheesy. Please review, it's been a loooong time since I last wrote a fic, and this is my first posting of one on this (or any) site. The next chapter will arrive.

PS (Massive amounts of Coke (the liquid kind) and Rock music were consumed in the making of this fic.)