Guest

Master and Servant.

Integra was standing behind her desk. She'd been calling her servant for over a minute now, and she was getting upset that he hadn't answered yet. He wasn't on a mission. Integra knew that he'd returned hours ago. He was in the mansion, somewhere. It shouldn't of taken more than three or four seconds for him to respond.

Now, no one would ever categorize Integra as a patient person. However, even she didn't mind waiting a few minutes for someone to answer her page. It wasn't the time that bothered Integra, it was the fact that her servant was ignoring her calls. That could not be allowed. Integra shouted again. It was a rather long, drawn out shout. "A-l-u-c-a-r-d!"

Alucard finally walked through Integra's wall. "Yes, my master."

Integra spoke harshly to her servant. "Where have you been? I've been calling you for over a minute."

Alucard tipped his head slightly, a sign of respect to his master. However, Alucard did retain his usual, arrogant tone. "I apologize. I'm afraid that my mind was preoccupied. It took a moment for your summons to register."

"Really, and just what thoughts so cloud a vampire's mind and make him unable to respond to his master?"

Alucard lied. He seldom did that to his master, but he wasn't going to tell Integra that he was fantasizing about retiring to a farm and raising a son with his fledgling. Such thoughts were not becoming for a master of darkness. Besides, Alucard knew his master wouldn't have believed him anyway. "I was concentrating on the lingering effects of the Millennium Lieutenant's blood. As you know, it has been quite awhile since I got any from the tap, so to speak."

Integra was somewhat placated by the answer. It meant that her servant wasn't ignoring her. He was just wrapped up in his usual perversions, and took a moment to hear her. This was still unacceptable behavior, but it wasn't as bad as if he heard her and simply ignored the summons for sixty seconds. "In the future, I would recommend that you remain more alert during your revelry."

Alucard tipped his head again. "Of course, my master." Alucard had an arrogant smirk on his face as he brought his head back up, but Integra ignored it. She knew that submission didn't come easily to her servant, and he was obviously trying his best.

Integra sat down in her Spanish Leather, wing tipped, office chair. She motioned towards the nearby couch. Alucard took the hint. "I just got finished reading Fletcher's report." Integra held up the piece of paper that obviously contained the report. She looked it over again, although that was completely unnecessary. She'd already memorized the important parts. "It says here, that you didn't show up until they reached the fourth level. Care to explain your tardiness?"

"It's simple. They were doing fine for the first three levels. They didn't require my assistance."

Alucard was, of course, reading his master's mind. He knew her reply before she said it. That is not your determination to make. Integra started to open her mouth, but Alucard preempted her.

Alucard spread his arms in a wide and generous gesture. "Of course, if you would rather your men become completely dependant on a vampire…" He just let the sentence hang. He already knew that he'd made his point.

Defeated, Integra switched topics. "We could discuss this further, but your timing is not the only disturbing thing in Fletcher's report. And I consider the other matter more important." Integra opened the cigar box on her table top, pulled out a Cuban and cut off its end. "I want to talk about Hellsing's expanding list of undead servants." Integra lit up, and allowed herself one long drag before continuing, "A fledgling just wasn't enough, huh? I hear you're branching into ghouls."

"Now, Master, that isn't fair. You ordered me to bring back a live ghoul, and I'm compelled to obey any order you give me."

"And this compulsion forced you to drink the Lieutenant's blood?" Integra sounded unconvinced.

"Master, you already have the report. You know that the ghouls had all been killed before your call came through. In order to obey your order, I needed a live ghoul. The only way to get one was to make one." Alucard lowered his glasses slightly and looked at Integra over the rims. He didn't need to do it. He was quite capable of reading her entirely through her mind, but he wanted her to know that he was watching her reactions. "If you would've preferred, I could of turned a random citizen; but I thought you would rather I bring you one of our enemies. Besides the obvious benefit of not having the other knights complain about your servant hunting down London's residents, you may be able to extract some useful information from the Lieutenant. If you do actually manage to change her back, that is."

Integra took another drag. She briefly wondered if Alucard knew that she smoked because he drove her to it. After dealing with Alucard, one needed a way to unwind. Integra's father opted for alcohol; she preferred nicotine. Integra let out a puff of smoke. "Well, it seems that you've thought of everything."

Alucard bowed his head. "Indeed, Master? You flatter me."

"I do, do I?"

"Why yes. What servant would not be flattered by such praise from his master?"

Integra didn't bother to answer the question. "You just better not make a habit out of turning people to ghouls."

Alucard got up. He took Integra's last statement to mean the conversation had ended. On his way out, Alucard offered up one final reply, "Of course not. Anything I do is in service to you, my master." Alucard walked through the wall and disappeared.

Integra failed to restrain a small huff. Yeah, right. And Jack the Ripper was only trying to clean up London.

Drawings

Once Jason calmed down, Seras took him to the kitchen. The boy hadn't eaten since the plate of eggs she made him for breakfast, and it was already late afternoon. Jason sat at the table, drawing in the pad of paper Seras gave him, while Seras made his lunch.

Seras finished, brought the plate over and set it down in front of Jason. Two hotdogs, with ketchup, side of veggies and a Juicy Juice box, it was a pretty good kid's lunch for someone who couldn't cook. Jason thanked Seras, put his marker down and closed the pad.

Seras sat down across from Jason. "Mind if I take a look?" She pointed to his pad. Jason shrugged and pushed it over to her.

Seras opened up the pad and was surprised to see that he'd already filled the first fourteen pages with drawings similar to his painting. She wondered how he was able to draw the pictures so quickly. He couldn't have been alone more than a half hour since I gave him the pad. The drawings weren't masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination. They more resembled the pages of a comic or manga, lacking only the words. However, Jason had done a good job of maintaining the sizes of his characters and objects, also the pages were fully colored. Seras noticed that the borders around the objects were a slightly different shade from the interiors. The boy must draw the outlines using the colored pencils then fill them in with the markers.

Seras flipped through the pages and noticed that they portrayed a sequential series of events. The first one was an almost exact duplicate of the boy's painting. The second picked up where the painting left off and showed Jason balling up his fist. In the third, he swung at the red eyed creature and momentarily stunned it. The red snakes seemed to take notice of this, for they stopped slithering across the floor and turned toward Jason and the monster. In the fourth page, Jason used the monster's stunned state to twist out of it's grasp. The snakes drew closer. The fifth page showed the monster recovering and lunging at Jason. In the sixth, the monster knocked Jason to the floor, and fell on top of him. The snakes came ever nearer. The seventh showed Jason struggling under the monster. He gained some leverage in the eighth, and the two combatants began to roll around on the floor. The snakes started to slither closer to each other. By the ninth drawing Jason pinned the monster. The lines between the snakes began to blur. In the tenth painting, Jason wrapped his hands around the monster's throat. The number of red snakes decreased, but the remaining ones were considerably larger. In the eleventh, the monster interlaced its arms with Jason's; and in the twelfth, it pulled his hands from its throat. The snakes were nearly to Jason and the monster. As Jason and the monster continued to struggle on the ground, the snakes slithered over them in the thirteenth . The fourteenth drawing had only been partially colored in. It showed the two combatants completely covered by the snakes.

Seras thought about the drawings. She wasn't sure if they were a representation of what really happened, before they found the boy, or his psyche attempting to deal with what he saw by creating a scenario of being able to fight back. Seras was tempted to favor the latter since the red snakes were an obvious deviation from what she did know happened. However, the snakes might have just been the boy using some artistic license. Either way, it must be a good sign that he's fighting with the monster now, instead of drawing it choking him to death. Still I can't help but wonder about the snakes. Why add them, and why show them combining? What could they mean?

Seras decided to ask Jason. "You know, these are pretty good; but I'm a little confused about the snakes. There weren't any snakes in the church, were there?" It was another question Seras already knew the answer to, but she figured it was the best way to get Jason to talk about them.

"No."

Seras waited a minute then pressed further. "So, what's with the snakes."

Jason hesitated a moment before answering. "They're one of the symbols from the Valley of the Elders."

"Valley of the Elders?" Seras had never heard of it.

"It's a… I mean it use to be a crystalline valley, to honor those who came before us and laid the ground work for peaceful civilization."

"Use to be? What happened to it?"

"It was destroyed, a long time ago." Jason sounded sad.

Seras didn't ask about the valley's destruction. It was obviously a sore spot. "So if the snakes are a symbol, what do they represent?"

"Contained within a diamond shield, the winding, red serpent is a warning not to return to the ancient dishonesty and violence of more barbarous times."

Seras looked at the drawing again. "You didn't draw any diamond shields. The snakes are all free."

Jason answered with a simple, "Yes."

Seras waited, but Jason just took another bite of his hotdog. It was obvious that he had no intention of elaborating further. Seras prodded him again. "So, what do the snakes mean when they're free?"

Jason didn't answer, instead he stared a little too intently at his vegetables. Seras knew that the boy was hiding something. Maybe he knew more than he was letting on. "Jason." Seras waited until he looked up, then she smiled encouragingly and continued. "What is the red eyed creature, really."

Jason stared at her for a moment then replied, "He is: Ares, Mars, the second horseman who heralds the apocalypse. He is war, unbridled hate, anger and rage."

Seras thought about Jason's answer. It was eloquent, the kind of answer given by a philosopher or prophet. She hated those kinds of answers because they were deliberately designed to conceal the truth. Maybe it was the 'police girl' in her, but Seras liked nice, simple, straight forward answers.

Seras was about to question Jason further, but they were interrupted by Walter, Integra's butler and angel of death. "Excuse me, but I'm afraid that Abby requires a bit more blood."

Seras let out a sigh. "I'll be right there."

Walter replied, "My apologies, I'm afraid that I wasn't clear enough. Abby doesn't need anymore blood from you, Miss Victoria. She needs some more from the boy."

(Okay, that's chapter eight. I'm going away for the weekend, so I might be a couple of days late with the next update. Sorry. Anyway, reviews are greatly appreciated, as is your opinion on the Master and Servant scene. It's the first time I've done Integra trying to deal with Alucard. I hope I got their relationship right. Even with removing any romantic undertones, they have a pretty complicated relationship. And it's not that easy to write.

Have a good day, and God bless.

Metropolis Kid.)

(To Dizzy: Thanks for the review. I'm glad that you think I'm "succeeding really well." Good point about Dracula. I hope you continue to enjoy the story.)

(To Doomforyou: Thanks for the review. I'm glad that you're enjoying the fic so far. I'll try to keep a better eye on the homophones, though I'm sure some mistakes will still slip through.)

(To SakuU: Thanks for the review. It's good to hear from you again. I hope that you enjoyed/are enjoying your trip, and I hope that you are also continuing to enjoy this fic.)