Thank you to all my reviewers! Looks like the story has started off pretty well, so I'm going to continue this fic. Inspiration comes from many places, but special thanks to the writer for "The Lost Priest", Millie M. Banshee, for her help!

A hooded and cloaked figure swayed almost unsteadily on their feet before standing attentively. Behind it, another figure did the same. Another rouse, followed by another, until about a whole army of the figures stood in front of the young man inspecting them. All of the cloaked figures were tall, strong, and unfeeling. Of course, corpses can't actually feel, can they?

A cruel smile spread out over a slender face.

An axe was dropped in front of each cloaked figures' feet. Slowly, the cloaked figures bent down and picked them up. There was no heavy breathing or grunt from the figures as they lifted the heavy object. Any observant person would know from there these figures were…inhuman, for the lack of a better word. Hence why all these cloaked figures wore gas masks. It would appear as if those breaths were simply muffled. Their movements were slow now, but they were very capable of moving quickly.

They were the Auto Jagars, the foot soldiers of the Rosenkruez Orden, the toys of one Marionettenspieler.

The owner of the slender face, Dietrich von Lohengrin, smiled as he watched his puppets moved; looks as if more then enough of them had been transported with him back in time. Light chocolate brown hair framed his angelic features, but his red-brown eyes spoke of a deep malice. His puppets straightened, their weapons poised, awaiting his orders. Orders which he would deliver with a mere swish of his fingers, and they will depart on his command.

"What are you doing, Marionettenspieler?"

The boy didn't even turn around to acknowledge his mentor's presence, but he answered truthfully "I'm bored, and I want to enter the stage of this current world."

"You are preparing soldiers; I take it you don't plan to go out yourself yet." The taller man observed. Dietrich's smile grew more arrogant.

"I don't know how interesting it is outside first, and I might as well see how much they can handle."

"You and I both know that those two are in custody"

"The Inquisition Squad of our time is cruel, and more then often hear only what they want to hear. If Hellsing is anything like that, the Father and Esther will not last long. I am, in my own way, helping them for now." He looked over his soldier to where Issak stood. "Don't deny it, you as well will prefer having someone you know to torture for a while." Without waiting for an answer, the boy moved to the side again. He sat down in front of a desk which had a computer sitting on top of it.

"This one's a pretty old model, but it should do the trick. I just wish to deliver a little message, to both the cultist group and our…acquaintances."

Issak smiled, but said nothing. Dietrich turned back to his puppets and gave them one simple order.

"Attack the Hellsing Headquarters"

XXXXXXX

It was like any old interrogation room, nothing special. A plain room, a table, a few chairs, and a mirror that was no doubt for other observers to secretly watch the proceedings. There was a polygraph set up as well, fitting for its time. A bright light caused Abel to blink and squint for a few seconds, before his eyes readjusted to being free from the blindfold and his senses cleared from whatever drug they had given him.

Across the table sat two men, both uniformed and bearing guns – no doubt to be used in case he tried anything they considered a threat. Though they tried to hide it, Abel could tell that the men were tense and desperately wanted to be out of here. The two must have been among the troops that had arrested him, since Abel knew his first appearance wouldn't have scared anyone. No, these men must have seen his Crusnik form.

Abel looked back at the polygraph. By his time, polygraphs were ruled as inadmissible evidence, even before Armageddon started a majority of the countries had decided it won't be evidence in court(A/N: Europe and Canada are two examples as they no longer consider polygraphs as evidence due to the numerous ways a person can trick them. Some jurisdictions in the US still use them, but not all. Polygraphs are still commonly used for screening potential government employees in many places). He briefly considered tricking the results, but knew that the men most likely wouldn't appreciate the joke, so he decided against it.

"Good, you're awake" the larger man spoke. "Judging by your actions, you seem to know what's going on, so let's cut to the chase. Name?"

"Abel Nightroad" Abel answered truthfully.

"Occupation?"

"Traveling Priest"

"Age?"

Abel paused, unsure of how to answer that. He wasn't a very good liar, so he knew he couldn't deceive the polygraph. "Do you really need to know?"

"Answer the question"

"You won't believe me if I tell you"

"Answer the question!"

"It's not…"

"ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!"

"Okay," Abel huffed "If you really wanted to know, I'm about nine hundred years old"

Long silence greeted his response. Abel watched them calmly; well aware that the polygraph was recording his steady heartbeat.

"Vampire?" One of them tried.

"He can't be" the other said, almost shaky "if he was, there would be no heartbeat in the first place!"

"Correct, I am not a vampire, I am a Crusnik"

XXXXXXX

"As the two of you know, we had surveillance cameras set up to watch the building earlier." Integra explained as Alucard and Seras followed her to another room. "We managed to get some footage of the threat, so you can see for yourself what happened."

"Sir Integra, may I ask, what happened to the Sister?" Seras questioned.

"As promised, she is being treated by our best doctors. She will recover; they've managed that, at least." The three of them entered the room. There was already a soldier there, along with a television. Seeing the trio, the soldier silently pushed a tape in and clicked PLAY.

The video was of poor quality, but it was good enough for the two vampires to recognize the place as the outside of the building, just where they had taken Abel into custody. The tape had obviously been prepared for viewing, because in just a few seconds, Abel and Esther appeared on screen as they jumped out of a broken window. The vampire Barbara followed them shortly afterwards and threw a heavy object. It hit Esther at the side of her head, and she fell. Seras couldn't help wincing in pity. The static and poor sound quality didn't make it clear what Abel said, but judging by his actions he had called out Esther's name.

Abel then ran to Esther's side, examining for an injury, but was distracted when the vampire finally emerged. The vampire was laughing with hysterical, and the change in Abel's expression couldn't have been more obvious. The Father stood and removed his glasses before saying a few words that the observers couldn't hear clearly enough. The metamorphosis the Father then went through stunned even Seras and Alucard.

Flaming, ruby-red eyes took over sapphire blue. Silver hair lifted and formed a crown of glittering spikes, thorn-like but still regal. Pearly white teeth gleamed in the dim light, while sharp claws shone in lethal beauty, and as he spoke to the vampire a magnificent red scythe flowed out of his hand. A few more words were exchanged, before Abel attacked. While the vampire, now only existing with half its body, lay staring in terror Abel gave her a few more words. Then the scythe lifted again, there was a flash of red, a scream, and the vampire was finished.

Alucard whistled.

Abel looked as if he was about to go to Esther, but the arrival of more ghouls stopped him. There was only a second's hesitation as the Father's eyes went from Esther, to the ghouls, then back to the ghouls. Then the decision was made, and Abel leapt forward and attacked. It wasn't much longer before only the remains of the ghouls surrounded him. Abel knelt down, picked up his gun, and pocketed it. Almost smoothly, his hair then flowed back down, the eyes shifted back to blue, and the vampiric traits, along with the scythe, disappeared. Abel quickly tied up his hair before kneeling down to Esther's side. He tenderly pulled her up to his side, before a strong light was suddenly flung over them. Integra than stopped the tape and turned back to Alucard and Seras, the former had a large grin on his face.

"Ha! The young Father looks quite interesting, Master! He certainly looks like fun!"

"Sir Integra…what is he?" Seras asked. "He doesn't look like the typical vampire or ghoul"

"I, too, don't believe him to be of those two categories" Integra turned to put the tape away "and judging by your reaction, Alucard, you don't recognize his form either"

"No, I've never seen anything like him" The grin spreading over Alucard's face would have made the devil proud. The two women realized what Alucard wanted, and Integra refused to allow it.

"Don't you dare kill him, Alucard, at least not until we know what he is and why he's here."

Alucard frowned, but stayed where he was. As it turns out, he soon got another chance to fight.

"Sir Integra!" The woman turned as a soldier ran in, panting heavily. One look at the man told her they were in trouble, the man was bleeding and injured. He stared at her with wide, frightened eyes "We're being attacked!!"

"WHAT?!"

"What's the situation?" Seras asked.

"We don't seem to be getting attacked from your average ghouls! They were cloaked and wearing gas masks! You'll think we can get rid of them quickly with our firepower, but its not working! They wouldn't stop attacking!"

"Have you at least discovered who or where the head vampire is?!"

"No! Security checked the tapes, but there's nothing! We're literally just being attacked by canon folder!"

"Sir Integra, could it be some new FREAK vampires?" Seras voiced out.

"Possibly" The Hellsing heir chewed hard on her cigar. "Alucard, Seras, deal with those invaders. I'll see if I can organize our troops quickly."

"I hope the attackers are as interesting as this Abel" Alucard mused, though he didn't sound too hopeful.

XXXXXXX

There was a ringing noise in the interrogation room, and upon hearing the noise the two men questioning Abel looked at each other in surprise and a hint of fear. Abel looked at them curiously and watched them exchange words.

"That's a signal telling us we're under attack, right?"

"I think it means evacuate if needed, fight if possible?"

"But since we have a prisoner here, I guess that means we evacuate" The two men nodded and addressed Abel "Okay, let's just do this the easy way. Follow us out, unless you want to get into the line of crossfire"

"Of course" None of them brought up the fact that Abel could easily join in the defence of the Hellsing Headquarters. The three men simply unattached Abel from the polygraph and left the room, heading to an exit; or at least, that had been the plan. When a large blade sudden swing at them, the three jumped back, away from the exit and closer into the building.

A cloaked figure wearing a gas mask moved in front of them, a large axe in his hand. The two Hellsing soldiers braced themselves and each drew out a gun, which they began firing. The Auto Jagar seemed to flinch and fall back, but that was only probably due to the first shock. It passed quickly as it lurched forward and swung his axe down. One of the men didn't move fast enough, and a blood curdling screech filled the air before dead silence followed. Abel's eyes widened as he stared at the attacker.

"Auto Jagars?!"

It didn't response, but merely focused its attention onto the other soldier, who soon became too busy dodging the attacks to question Abel's knowledge about these new invaders. Abel, never one to simply watch a fight, snatched the gun up from the dead soldier and fired. He mentally wished he had his own gun, but he didn't know where Hellsing had stored it, so he would have to use what he got.

Abel dodged a swipe from the axe, and couldn't help but wonder how the others were doing.

XXXXXXX

Seras fired her gun, again, and again. Across from her at the end of the hall, more and more masked figures carrying axes approached. Several of them were blown away by the force of Seras' gun, but others continued moving forward. She was starting to pant now, but she loaded her gun quickly and started firing again. This attack, though threatening, was not as serious as the one the Valentine brothers once launched, and for that, she was grateful.

Still didn't mean it was easy though.

The number of those attackers was tiring her out. Angry, frustrated, and hating the strong sense of déjà vu, Seras loaded up the gun again. This time, as she fired, she advanced forward. The bullets went off at a faster rate, and more of those masked figures fell. Their gas masks and cloaks prevented her from identifying them, but mentally she classified them as another band of FREAK vampires.

Eventually she got closer to the outside. There was a momentarily silence as she regarded the area, littered with those cloaked FREAK vampire bodies. Her vampiric hearing picked up some more noise, and her eyes narrowed. She stormed forward to one of the windows and pointed her gun down. Without hesitation, she began firing again.

From below, those wraith-like figures were thrown off several feet back to the ground. Seras' eyes saw they were almost everywhere, crawling over the walls in an attempt to reach the windows and get inside. She sent another rain of bullets until ammunition ran out. As soon as she did, she dived out towards the balcony, which gave her more space to swing her large weapon, load it, and fire in several directions. It worked only for the first wave of those wraith-like FREAK vampires.

Three of them suddenly jumped up and threw their axes forward. Seras jumped out of the way, the axes digging deep into the floor she was standing on moments before. That little break was more then enough to allow a dozen or so of the invaders to run past her and jump inside the building.

Seras swore, and considered going after them, but the next wave of Auto-Jagars jumped up. She quickly started eliminating those figures, but the dozen that were inside escaped deep into the building.

Those dozen rushed into the building, slashing away anything that hindered them with their axes. It was pure coincidence when the group came upon the surveillance camera room. Sensing humans inside, they started hacking at the doors. The men inside tensed and drew out their guns. They waited with bated breath for their attacker's appearance, watching as the slash marks on the door grew bigger and bigger.

After a particularly hard slash, a good sized hole was torn through.

The masked head suddenly peered at the men, who tensed in fear. The hole wasn't big enough for the wraith-like creature, so it raised the axe again. A voice effectively stopped him "Wait."

The Auto-Jagar turned to the sound of the voice. An old man dressed as a butler stood there "That's as far as you go, vampire."

The masked figure didn't respond, merely turned to the butler and pounced. The butler, Walter Dornez AKA Angel of Death, only smiled viciously. Before the Auto-Jagar could react, silver wires were thrown into the air. The Auto-Jagar was promptly torn into pieces, and its kindred followed the same fate.

Once the remains of the creatures littered the floor, Walter straightened and looked around.

At another area, Alucard did the same to the Auto-Jagar remains now surrounding him. By his side was in injured soldier and Abel, uninjured and unharmed.

Seras stretched her neck as far as it could go, but there were no more movements.

There was a crackling at the intercom, and then Integra's voice, laboured with heavy breathing, echoed throughout the area "All soldiers report to the main lobby immediately, I have contacted for medics and the injuries will be attended to. All soldiers to the main lobby, and Alucard, please bring Nightroad there as well."

Alucard looked at Abel, who was helping support the injured soldier, and waved his hand "Let's go, priest."

Abel didn't argue, he went quietly. Neither of the two spoke to the other, and by the time they arrived, most of the living was already gathered. Alucard greeted Seras and Integra, both of which appeared relatively unharmed. They watched as Abel helped the injured soldier to a stretcher before Walter greeted them.

"I don't suppose any of you found a head vampire?"

"Nope," Seras shook her head. Integra looked around the room, eyes lingering on both Abel on their attackers.

"Gas masked attackers, the bizarre appearance of a Father who isn't something even Alucard knows, what is going on here?"

"Well, for someone of your generation, it's fine to not have any knowledge of my creations Miss Hellsing." A stranger's voice suddenly spoke up. Everyone in the room quickly tensed and looked around, but the owner of the voice wasn't standing there among them.

The security cameras on the wall suddenly blurred in static, before switching to a visual, except it wasn't of the corridors. All the small screens were suddenly showing a large visual of one boy. Chocolate brown hair elegantly framed his face, while rich red-brown eyes regarded them all with false sweetness. His skin was so pale he looked ghostly, but his features were obviously of a pretty sort. He sat regally on a smooth chair, an air of refined beauty surrounding him.

He almost looked like an angel, but at the same time, something of him spoke of a dark aura.

"Your latest attackers are some of my toys. I sent them here to test your forces, and though shaky, I will take note of the fact you dealt with them effectively. The few people who could deal with them are few, but you and your subordinates have become one of them. Of course, this attack was decided last minute, but you've shown me all your tactics and strengths, exactly as I have planned." Integra's eyes narrowed, from behind her Abel slowly stood up. Those red-brown eyes saw him quickly.

"Father Abel Nightroad, how have you been doing?"

"Dietrich" Abel returned, and he moved forward to the screen "So you decided to come along"

"Well, not intentionally" The boy laughed "As for you, to become a Hellsing hound so quickly, you really like mingling with the religious fanatics, don't you?" Abel frowned, but didn't rise to the bait or even tried to correct him. Dietrich lazily examined the room with his eyes before turning back to the Father.

"I see Esther isn't here yet, pity, I would have loved to see her. Ah well, knowing her, she will recover soon." Still smiling, he addressed Integra again. "Miss Hellsing, you are probably wondering what Abel and Esther are. I can tell you that Esther is human, and a very kind one at that. Our Vatican Father here may seem like a fool, but you have already seen his strengths, did you not? It is nowhere compared to his true potential, let me tell you that. He is more dangerous, and quite capable of giving even your Nosferatu a hard time."

"Dietrich" Abel spoke up "What are you planning now?"

"Plenty, but if I tell you, it wouldn't be as interesting, would it?" Dietrich countered mockingly "However, since I like Esther and Esther likes you, I should give you a clue shouldn't I?"

Abel's eyes narrowed "I can't trust you, the last time Esther did, you nearly killed all of us"

"Knowing the amount of times the two of you like to throw your life away for some other person or cause, you two would have preferred dying to starting another war anyways" Dietrich leaned back against his chair "How about for the sake of my amusement and my lord?"

Abel gritted his teeth, and Dietrich continued.

"If you are going to miss out on hearing the melody I have prepared for this beautiful night, than I guess its fine for you to reflect on your powerlessness there" He quoted. It took only a few seconds for Abel's thoughts to place those words into context, and his eyes widened.

"You can't do that here" Abel answered "you can't change the course of events!"

Dietrich tilted his head to one side "I can, and I will, as for changing the course of events, that's why you will have to stop me, isn't that correct?" Abel didn't say anything "After all, you're the one always trying to save lives. I will need time to prepare for taking them, of course, but it won't take long. Maybe you can tell Miss Integra here to prepare for the next part of my plans. Assuming you prepared for the right things, of course. Oh, and don't expect me to be quiet, I get bored quite easily, so expect more visits from my toys." Dietrich raised a white-gloved hand "And I think that's all I have for you now, see you." With those words, his image disappeared. Static replaced the screens before the visuals of the corridors returned.

When everyone had recovered from the initial shock, Integra whirled around to face her prisoner "He was responsible for the attack here?"

"Yes" Abel answered truthfully

"Who was he?"

Abel paused, it suddenly occurred to him that Dietrich's name might be recorded in history if he told them, but Abel was sure a 'Dietrich von Lohengrin' never existed in the records. So he answered vaguely "His name is Dietrich, also known as the Marionettenspieler."

"German descent?" Alucard guessed.

"Anything to do with Millennium?" Integra tried.

"Yes" Abel answered Alucard "No" he told Integra. She then folded her arms and looked at him.

"How did you know what I meant by Millennium?" She asked, suspicion obvious. Realizing his mistake, Abel's eyes widened. For a split second he saw hostility in her eyes, and even her words were ice.

"You arrive out of nowhere, appear in a building which is very obvious vampire-controlled, and reveal yourself as something the world has apparently never seen before."

Abel's body tensed.

"You appear to be very powerful, and according to the boy just a while ago, that wasn't even the true depth of your power."

He could sense which direction the conversation was going to go to.

"England has enough trouble with vampires and Hellsing has their hands full trying to keep Millennium at bay"

He drew in a sharp breath.

"The last thing we need is for you to be outside free like a loose canon that can obviously bring trouble."

It was amazing how much he can hear Catherina in her voice.

"Not to mention, this new threat the German boy brings is going to be more then what we can handle at the moment, and he seems to be focused on your presence."

She was going to order his death or imprisonment soon.

"So in order to come to a compromise, especially since the Sister is still in our hospital, I have a proposal for you."

Abel blinked, surprised, as she continued.

"Hellsing has to deal with rogue vampires and whatever Millennium has thrown out against us, it pains me to say this but if today's attack was last minute, there is no way we can handle an orchestrated attack from that boy's supposed 'toys'. More importantly, Hellsing can't deal with such attacks on three fronts. To counter such odds, I would like you to work for Hellsing temporally, at least until the threat is removed. You will be paid and if you wish, you may stay here with your own room. As incentive, it's not far from here to the hospital where the Sister is staying at. Of course, it is ultimately your choice."

Abel knew well enough that it wasn't 'ultimately his choice'. Integra knew he could be dangerous, and would probably pass an order to kill him should he refuse. What was more, he knew that him staying here gave Integra a chance to keep a close eye on him. Nevertheless, he had nothing in England and could guess he wouldn't survive long alone. Plus, as a Hellsing agent, visiting Esther would be much easier. He allowed himself some cheerfulness after the doom and gloom atmosphere.

"I'll really like to take you up on your offer! Thank you very much! I promise you I will work hard and do my best!" His loud and cheerful voice caused several people to jump, and even Integra nearly did so based on instinct. Luckily, she managed to stay calm and keep her dignity.

"I must let you know I am quite strict with my subordinates and will not tolerate failure."

"Sir Integra, I think I've picked that up early on already" Abel said this with a cheerful smile, indicating he meant no offence. Integra allowed the comment to slide as she addressed another person.

"Walter, take the Father here to one of our spare rooms. After today's events, you'll most likely want a shower and a bed to sleep in. We shall discuss your admission to Hellsing in more detail tomorrow night, and you are to tell me what being a 'Crusnik' truly means."

"One of the things is that I can sleep at night and walk in the sunlight" Abel answered "so, it may be during the day I will come to your office."

"Very well then" Integra nodded "Walter will come for you tomorrow; we will discuss further plans then." The two bid each other goodbye before Abel left, following Walter to the spare room. Once he was out of hearing range, Alucard turned to his master.

"You don't trust him, do you?"

"Of course not," Integra snapped "but I'll rather keep him here then let him loose outside. What's more, he is probably the only one here who could effectively deal with this new threat. I don't understand what is going on, but I can tell if I want to finish this new threat quickly, having the Father on my side would be more effective. Which reminds me…" She folded her arms, her gaze harsh "I will have to contact the Vatican and see whether Abel is really one of their clergymen."

"I doubt we need to" Alucard sneered "Once news of today's attack comes out, they'll come to us, if Abel really belonged to them. If not…they'll come anyways, and demand for information. Unless we cover the incident up really well" He let out a chuckle "A new threat and the Vatican again, here I thought Millennium was interesting."

And Dietrich has made his move! Hellsing have taken Abel under their wing at last. Who's up next?