Chapter 2:

Echoes of Tomorrow

Hellsing Organization

The crimson clad nosferatu sat at the table in his room drinking what looked to be red wine from a tall wine glass, yet that illusion was quickly diminished by the discarded medicinal blood pack on the table and the troubled expression on his face yet to vanish falling into deep reminiscence. Last night, as he continued to destroy the pathetic ghouls on his way to the "head vampire", he couldn't help but pick up on something, though far away, there was no mistaking it, the aura of another Nosferatu, not some FREAK, but a genuine vampire. He had looked forward to the battle between him and this Nosferatu that could conjure so many ghouls, in so many places at once, but to his sheer disappointment, there was no opponent to fight at the end of the seemingly endless ranks of ghouls. He had left the police girl to handle the rest, losing interest once finding there was no pot of gold at the end of this morbid little rainbow of white, grey and scarlet. Even after he had left the ghoul infested area he could feel the same aura, taunting him, ever just out of his reach to be located. In his frustration let out a low menacing growl, and in a swarm of bats headed back to the Hellsing manner.

He shook the memory from his thoughts. There was no need to linger on the past right then while that vampire is still out there.

"Soon… I can feel it; soon I will find this worthy adversary I am sensing. And when we finally meet, the world with once again tremble in the wake of our glorious battle" He chuckled as a wicked grin spread slowly on the dark vampires face.

'Alucard, my office. Now!" He smirked, shaking his head in mild amusement as the voice of his master rang through his head. He sighed, the smirk still on his face as he phased through the walls making his way easily to the office of his master, the heir of the Hellsing Organization, Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing.

"You called?" He said looking at Sir Integra sitting at her desk behind an ominous pile of reports.

"Tell me Alucard, why is it that I do not have any confirmation that you destroyed the head vampire or FREAK?" She asked sounding annoyed, at what, he had only the faintest clue.

"That is because there was none present to be disposed when I arrived." Alucard reported in an almost disappointed tone. "Now if my presence here is unneeded I'll be leaving you to your work master" He grinned as he phased out of the office leaving a very unhappy Integra alone.

Hellsing Manner

Sir Integra groaned in annoyance at the never ending pile of paperwork that seemed to incessantly grow upon her desk like weeds. It had been months since the last outburst, but just yesterday there were already four reports of FREAK activity out in the country side. According to her reports there were over five hundred ghouls seen… Had she not sent in Alucard, and his fledgling, Seras Victoria, she was certain the paperwork would be much worse, as well as losing many more men than she cared to admit she had already lost. The blonde sighed looking down at the reports…

A knock on the door caused the brooding woman to look up. "Enter" she said in an annoyed tone as Walter poked his head inside looking over at the Hellsing heir.

"Sir Integra, Mr. Lupin is here…" Sir Integra nodded.

"Thank you Walter, send him in," the blonde leaned back in her high backed chair pulling out a cigar from her chest pocket, lighting it and taking a long slow drag from it. Walter nodded; his head disappearing from the door. A few moments later another knock on the door let Integra know that Mr. Lupin was there. "Please do come in Mr. Lupin."

The thin wisp of what could be called a man walked inside the large office, his eyes darting from shadow to shadow in an obvious display of paranoia. Had Sir Integra not been use to such things from this man, she might have been a tad disturbed by the strange behavior; instead she gave the grey balding man an amused grin.

"Don't worry professor, Alucard is not here, at least he won't be till you are long gone. You know for a man who has spent so much of his life studying and working so much with the supernatural, I would think you would be use to creatures such as him by now," Sir Integra chuckled, "but please do have a seat."

Professor Lupin took a cautious seat in front of the blonde's desk. Sir Integra looked the professor once, taking note of his causal scholarly outfit, he must have just come from a class. The professor cleared his throat.

"Ahem… well the reason, as you must know, for my requesting an appointment to meet is really quite simple. As you know I am not as young as I once was and require assistance with things now and then. So I have decided to hire a student to be my personal assistant. I know the Hellsing policy about secrecy and so I brought in the résumé of one student in particular whom I would like to hire. I personally think she is capable of doing the job and of gaining your approval, but anyways…" He handed Sir Integra Grace's résumé that was sent to him for the assistant position.

Integra sighed taking the folder, 'Perfect, more paperwork, just what I need.' She thought to herself as she opened the folder looking through the papers. It looked like any ordinary résumé to her. She was about to question what the professor found so appealing about this girl till one section caught her eye.

Previous experience and/or training: Archery -5 years, Hand to hand combat-5 years, Weapons training: marksmanship (use with a variety of ranged weapons)-5 years, swordsmanship/ Dagger play-5 years, pilot training-5 years

After reading the rest of the form she gave him a quick approving nod and handed back the papers.

"As far as I can see, there is nothing too out of the ordinary about this girl. She seems to have had an interesting choice ways to kill time outside of school, though, if she continues with work such as what ever she has done, I may very well be welcoming her into the ranks here at Hellsing. That is to say if she ever got tired of helping you, no offence of course Professor." the blonde chuckled as Prof. Lupin nodded with a smile on his once gloomy face and quickly stood up and left.

England- Present

Never did I feel a truer griefFull of regret and failingI hearEchoes of tomorrowMy heart to borrowI wish to loseMy past…

Eyes suddenly snapping open at the sound of the radio playing, Grace seemed to nearly jump out of her seat in the cab. She had only just touched down in the UK a couple of minutes ago and already she had apparently dozed off. She looked at the cab driver and let out a relieved sigh, no one was dead, no one hurt, and no one the wiser.

"Just a memory, that's all, old skeletons." Grace sighed and sat back in her seat staring out the window at the bustling scenes out beyond the cab. It seemed to her that no matter where her continuous travels took her, life was always the same around her; ever changing, and flourishing. Again she sighed and turned her head away from the outside world and stared up at the upholstered ceiling of the cab. She would be starting her classes soon, a week exactly. Though why she continued to spend the money for her to go from school to school she couldn't figure out, and it was not like there was anything new she actually needed to know…then again there was always the chance something had been discovered, so of course she had to be there to learn about it.

One class in particular she was looking forward to, seeing as it was rare to find it taught in many, if any schools back in the states.

"History 246, supernatural studies." She read from her class list as an amused grin spread on her face. "I wonder who this Professor Lupin that they have a class strictly for the study of what many people call myths and utter bullshit? Ah well, guess I'll find out, going to be working with this old man anyways for a while." She chuckled pulling out the acceptance letter she had received after sending in her transcripts and a résumé to the college. It read thusly:

Dear Miss Perez,

I am greatly pleased that you are interested in the position of personal assistant to me. After reviewing your résumé, which I found to quite intriguing and very diverse, I thought you to be best suited for this position. An after further review with both the school board of Student employment and my own, private funds provider, of whom allows me to carry out my, as well as their research under the very subject I teach, and am pleased to see, you will be studying…

After that the letter simply carried on with the usual praise and generic information as to when she was to start, the pay, and where.

"What the hell is the Hellsing Organization…? Hmm, guess I'll be finding out soon enough." She grumbled as the cab pulled up to what looked like a worn out and under maintained housing facility. She sighed looking at it from inside the cab before she got out and grabbed her luggage from the back and exaggerating the weight of the bags so that the cab driver would get his lazy ass out and help her. Sides, no need to show off her unusual strength when she could do like any other paying customer and make this guy earn his damned tip.