A/N: Just to warn you, there's quite a lot of fluff building in this chapter, it may be little dull to read but it's important in a lot of ways. Read & Review please ;P

I enter the practice range to find Seras and Gabriel practicing. Gabriel is firing his select-fire anti-materiel bullpup rifle, he says that it's standard-issue to cambions and nepilim, the standard Templars use 10X82mm assault rifles, according to him that's the bare minimum needed. Makes me shudder to think about it.

Seras, on the hand is practicing with her Crusader, the guns looks a little big the 5'7 girl, with her seemingly natural, but exaggerated measurements. "Hey Gabriel," I call out. He doesn't hear me and I have to tap him on the shoulder. He jolts a little that takes off his ear muffs.

"Hey, hows it going?" He places his rifle on a table behind him.

"I'm fine, I was just coming in for a little target practice." He nods. Seras has lowered her gun and comes over to us.

"Alright, Anna?" she asks.

"Okay, you feeling better after your brush with Anderson?"

"I was okay by the next day, ya know, doctors wanted to be sure." I smile and nod. Gabriel yawns, he looks exhausted actually, "Gabriel, you okay?"

"Been worked like a slave for the past couple of months, between training Seras, the other agents, plus the strike team in anti-angel and anti demonic warfare and performing field duties, the lack of sleep is finally catching up with me."

"Ya look it," I say with a smile

He yawns and rubs his face, "Integra says that I can have this weekend off, if anyone wakes me before noon tomorrow, I will put a bullet in their head. Anyway, you seem to be bright and spritely this morning."

"That's 'cause I can sleep, what about you Seras?"

"Same as you, I beat Gabriel in hand-to-hand today, badly."

"She pulled a magnificent move that would leave me on my ass when I'm well rested, I think I've said enough," Gabriel says with a smile that's equal parts shame and pride. He pats Seras on the back and she smiles appreciatively up at him, she's about a foot shorter than he is. "I think another month and she'll be ready for initiation."

"Very good, will there be a party?"

"In true Templar fashion, we all head out for a night and make sure none of us can remember what happened the next day." I giggle at Gabriel's little suggestion. "What's the chance that we get Integra to come along?" There's dead silence for a second, then we descend into fits of laughter… it seems almost surreal to picture Integra at a nightclub, or even a pub for that matter. "I'm serious, we should show that woman how to lighten up!" Seras and I can't help but laugh even more.

"Sounds like fun," I say.

"As the Templar's resident connoisseur of revelry, we can make Bacchus blush."

I smile, "Hubris, tsk tsk…"

"May the god strike me down where I stand!" Gabriel shouts while throwing his arms wide and remain silent for a moment, "No, nothing… pussies."

By God, this man know no bounds.

Seras checks her watch, "I think I'm gonna go grab a bite, see ya later."

Gabriel waves at her.

"You doing anything this weekend?" I ask him.

"Sleep is first on the agenda, after that I'm free, why?"

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to head out for an afternoon, get to know each other a little better, get some coffee, ya know."

"Uhh, I'd love to. Will I pick you up, or…?"

"With a ride like yours, hell yes."

"Great, will I go to your apartment, or will you come here?"

"Mine, I'll give you the address."

"C'est bon. I look forward to it." I smile, I the way he shifts between English and French cute. I smile.

"Me, too."

Seras POV

I sit down at the dining table with a bowl of vegetable soup and a bread role. I take my first spoonful and the door opens and Integra walks in on her own. I rise quickly, nearly banging my knee on the table, "Good afternoon, Sir Integra."

"Good afternoon, Seras, how are you? You can sit down now." I do so

"I'm okay, just did some target practice with Gabriel."

"How did you two do?"

"He didn't do very well, ma'am. I think his exhaustion is affecting him a lot. I got a near perfect score, though."

She chortles in her velvety voice, "Yes, he does look tired and you"

"Is there something I can help you with?"

"No, not really, I just came to talk."

"Um, well, what did you want to talk about?"

She sits down and stares out the window, "Nothing in particular, I just finished some paperwork, still have another pile to sort through, and the Round Table is breathing down my neck about the appearance of Lucifer."

"You sound like you could use a holiday."

"Yes, actually… that would be nice. Somewhere warm, and quiet, that's the most important part. No cities, no noise," she turns and smiles at me, "no vampires." We chuckle.

"I think a trip to a vila in the French Riviera would do the trick, well for me anyway," I say with a smile.

"Haha, yes, that sounds lovely."

"Running this place sounds tough."

"Yes, I've been doing this for ten years, since I was twelve…"

I gasp, "You were only a child!"

"Indeed, and I had much to learn then, less so now. I took over when my father died… but that's a story for another time."

"So you never had a chance to be a teenager?"

"Not really, I was always working or studying, like I said, I still had much to learn."

"Where did you go to school?"

"I was educated here, on the estate, I didn't have many friends, a couple from the Round Table families, but that's all. I always wondered about the outside world, beyond the walls, fences and gates that enclosed me."

"Like what, there's millions who'd love to have a place like this."

"When I was young, the playground, when I was older, bars, nightclubs and all that."

"To be honest, nightclubs are only good for the first couples of times, after that they get kind of boring, and they're very loud, and people tend to forget how to behave." Why is talking to this woman so easily? I mean, with any other person of her calibre and I'd be stammering.

"Maybe not for me then?" She raises an eyebrow. I smile and chuckle.

"No, maybe not," I respond.

"Still nothing like firsthand experience, do you mind if I smoke?"

"Uh, no, not really." She reaches in and pulls out her cigarillo case, she removes one, cuts one end off and lights it.

She leisurely blows out her first drag. She checks her watch. "Is it that time already?" She sighs tiredly. "I must go." She gets up and walks over to me…

And pecks me on the cheek. She then smiles at me sweetly and leaves the room. I feel all of my blood leap into my face. I'm breathless, did she just… she did.

I'm overreacting, I must be. I look down at my soup. I'm not feeling that hungry anymore…

Gabriel POV

"Can I see your rifle?" Anna asks me.

"Sure." I hand it to her.

"Wow, it's really… goddamn… heavy." She grabs it by the grip and lifts it up so she can aim down the sights.

"We use these when we need to kill demons and angels, yesterday. The design is based on the experimental XM500."

"Those aren't out of testing yet, are they?"

"No, we used published pictures and worked out the rest, has to be said we had it out in six months with most creases ironed out."

"That's quick."

"We used the same mechanism from a Barret .50 Cal and stuck it in a modified XM500 body and loaded it with silver tips and called it the TAM501 Automatic Anti-Materiel Rifle, its even patented."

"TAM?"

"Templar Arms, our weapons division, most of our weapons aren't made by other weapons manufacturers, and the rest are derivative designs, and 'M' is for model."

"I wanna shot it."

We set up a target and Anna takes aim down the sights.

She puts round right in the dead centre of the target dummy's chest. "Nice shot," I say.

"The recoil is a killer." She stands up from the kneeling position humans need to fire such huge weapons.

"Yeah, that thing is within upper limit of what I can fire on the move, even full auto is difficult to handle." I yawn loudly.

"You really are tired."

"Yeah, been modifying Hellsing's equipment to detect demons and angels, in addition to everything else, simple enchantments, but I had to do everything."

"Really?"

"The enchantments don't affect normal functions, just add a feature. I said that to Integra and she said I had better get on with it."

"Hahaha, word to the wise, don't tell your boss things like that."

"She would have found out one way or another, then I'd have been in deep shit."

"True."

"Anyway it's done."

"Tell me about angels."

"Where should I begin?"

"What parts are true and what are not."

"Well, we were the servants of the Judaeo-Christian God. While we served him we had no true free will, we always have been are individuals, but until Confluence in our Universe we had no free will. It wasn't that we had some oath of loyalty or indoctrination from birth, we had to do what He and our superiors said compulsively, like a basic survival instinct. Also we were defined by violence. We lived to kill demons, that's all we were good for." Anna looks up at me with horror. "However some of us found ways to escape, mine was that I was kicked out of Heaven and into Limbo for telling Jesus that he was an arrogant prick, while inebriated, but it was my honest opinion bluntly and crushingly delivered, he nearly cried by the time I was done. Then I found my way to a group of knights who had sworn to fight demons. While in Limbo, I contacted them, along with my brother, Michael, they agreed to allow us into Earth, and gave us two unborn twins as vessels."

"You possessed children?"

"Not like that, we simply took the place of the souls that would have otherwise occupied them. They were conceived then at the appropriate stage we entered in as their souls. We used magic to modify them to be suitable to our needs. We set our powers to unlock at certain stages of development, that's the story of how I was freed and became a cambion. Before that I was the Messenger of God to humanity, and before that I clawed up the ladder from legionnaire to archangel."

"There's a hierarchy?"

"Yep, Legionnaire, Principes, Powers, Ophanium, Potestas, Archai, Dominationes, Cherubim, Seraphim and finally at the top; archangels, those are the Templar designations, from lowest to highest. We're a species wide military."

"Is that the case now?"

"No, both angels are trying to find a way to carry on without a definitive leader. Currently we are governed by an elected council, as are the demons. Many now wander around looking for purpose. We were born and bred warriors, many of us never imagined that we'd ever have to choose our own path, we'd always thought that it would be dictated to us by someone higher than us. The demons have adjusted far better, many have turned around and set about building a better world for themselves. Which is ironic, when you look at it."

"Yeah, I thought the demons would have collapsed."

"Actually that's the angels' greatest strength and weakness, we operate as unit. We move as one. Watching angels in combat is like watching a work of art, Sun Tzu would weep with pride. We move and strike as one in perfect coordination. That however relies on a strict Command and Control system. Remove that and we cave like a castle built on sand. The demons are our equal and opposite, they much more individualistic and better at seizing the initiative. They are innate guerrilla fighters. They flow like water, with malleable plans and command structures. This led to the assumption among humans that angels were agents of order and demons of anarchy. This is not true, like I said, we crush with finality, the demons duck and dive and whittle you away to nothing with constant small operations and forces spread over large areas. We are two sides of the same coin."

"That is weird, but I suppose makes perfect sense."

"That's why I love being human. You have both abilities inside you, the discipline and the anarchy. Okay, sometimes it can be hard to balance it, but nothing is perfect, same as angels, God, demons and Satan." I feel myself becoming progressively tired, but I shall persevere until she is happy that I have answered all her questions.

"Are you okay, we can continue this another time."

"No, you're okay. As a new demon and angel hunter you need to know this."

"Alright, cambions and nephilim, tell me about them."

"They are the terms used to denote hybrids. Cambions are angel-human or demon-human hybrids. The weakest cambions are on par with a well trained human soldier in terms of physical prowess, and about an average human in terms of intelligence. The higher up you go the more powerful we become. Since I'm an archangel, I am among the most powerful, at my level cracking a planet and destroying it is possible, though heavily exhausting, and would most likely kill me. Also my physical strength, stamina and toughness are way beyond human. Nephilim are angel-demon hybrids, and are always at very minimum as powerful as seraphim cambions, in magical talent and physical prowess. Capable of levelling nations at their full potential, depending on the school of magic they specialise in, Tara, for example is a powerful bloodmage, or if you want to be pretentious and pompous, sanguimagus. She is capable of dealing huge damage, but she needs spilt blood to fuel it. But she can't just unleash huge spells that devastate cities, because the power in blood is a lethal to the user as it is to the opponent. One single mistake and can cause that stroke spell to hit you. It fact it's a better support school, as you can transfer life-force from the blood, either strengthening them or healing them, or yourself."

"Does she use human blood?"

"No, she uses pig, horse and cow blood. Pig is best for healing, horse for enhancing and cow for offensive spells."

"What kind of magic do you use?"

"At lower levels, Ghosting, so phasing through walls and turning invisible. I can manipulate gravity to large extent at any level, as that is how angels fly in this world. I keep my wings clipped, as they make sitting down an issue. I can summon them at anytime if I need to fly. Though gravity manipulation is mostly used for running along walls and ceilings, using it against others means creating areas of high-gravity that pull you in as well. I also use it to generate forcefields. When at higher levels I gain access to hard-light control. I can summon blades of it, shields, all sorts of things, it's also one of the most draining schools in existence. The disintegration that happens when I 'die' can also be done voluntarily, allowing me to travel through vents, but needs calm weather to be used outside, wind can blow me off course by miles."

"Quite be repertoire you've got there," she says

I chuckle, "Indeed, madamoiselle, I've spoken enough."

"Okay, you've heard my story."

"Not how you became involved with Hellsing."

She sighs, "I suppose I could tell you. It was when I was just out of college, a best friend of mine got a boyfriend. There was always something off about him, like he wasn't always quite right in the head." I can see where this is going. "About six months since then she dies in an animal attack, in the woods. He was with her but that he claimed he ran. Then he shows up in the middle of the night at my apartment. He tells me that he's a vampire and that I'm his next victim, after my friend. He tries to attack me but I make a lot of noise and thrash about the place so he bails before the cops show up. I had known that girl since childhood, she was like a sister to me. I… I swore vengeance against him and started hunting vampires."

"I've heard a lot of stories like this, but go on, if you want too, I know just how stressful sharing this sort of thing is."

"I quickly learned that silver stakes through the heart of a vampire was the best way to kill them and to strike during daylight when they slept. About a year and a half later, I found that bastard. I couldn't catch him while he slept, as he had a gang of ghouls to protect him, so I took them out one by one, and when he was on his own I moved in to make the kill. As I approached his apartment, Alucard came out. I froze, he seemed so unnatural. I'll never forget that face or his eyes. He swept towards me, and said, 'What are you doing here, girl?' I backed away and he noticed the stake in my hand, 'Killing vampires are we? A mere human girl killing the creatures of the night, it's almost romantic.' Then he laughed, and it was so horrible. 'Is this your first?' he asked me. I said 'no'. 'How many have you killed?' he asked again 'Ten or twelve, maybe,' I stammered out." She has my rapt attention. "'Impressive, you have skill, when do you strike?' 'During daylight, when they are asleep.' 'Very clever, sneak into their rooms while they sleep and ram a stake throughout their hearts. I commend you. Come with me.' That was the last thing he said to me before he brought me to Integra. Then I was chucked into the Hellsing training program, after that I joined Company C and then an agent was killed in the field, I went for the position and obtained it, and here I am."

"That's almost a stereotypical story where I come from, getting someone close to you killed by a vampire, angel or demon or whatever, vowing to slay the killer and either continuing on as a vigilante or giving up. We found out who many of them were and frequently recruited them into our ranks. Tell me, how did you obtain a silver stake and how did you fund yourself?"

"I had just graduated and my parents were reasonably wealthy, I never lacked money, and I went in to do my Masters. I bought some silver bars and found and payed a silversmith to make two stakes, and payed him a little extra not to ask any questions. I found some occult bookstores and read a lot of vampiric lore. Most of it turned out to be true."

"In my world it's the opposite, but that's because demons used vampirism as a control mechanism to control followers. They give you pseudo-immortality, you are ageless and immune to disease, but you must leech your eternal life off others. Demons also used magic to turn blood into a narcotic, you could survive on normal blood, but the treated was more satisfying, to the point that vampires suffered withdrawal symptoms when derived off it for too long, it was an effective interrogation technique. It should be noted that our vampires are living humans with a special dietary requirement, than undead monsters. We just used the term 'vampire' because it's familiar to the most people, really 'bloodsucker' is better."

"Wait, interrogation technique?"

"Co-operate and you get the sweet stuff, don't and we deprive you of it and you get normal stuff, had the greatest success rate, and was one the least invasive methods."

"What about if the vampire simply told you what you wanted you to hear?"

I tap my temple a couple of times, "mind reading charms, if they lie we know about it, and only Templars are able to use magic in our holding cells." She nods. "Anyway enough talking about vampires…"

In a dark alley in London, under an overcast night sky, two men stand facing each other, one held an envelope, he was dressed in a black suit, in his late seventies and wore a monocle, the other was young, handsome with long blond hair that reached his buttocks, tied off with white ribbon, while dressed in an impeccable white suit.

"Do you have the information our boss requested?" The young man asks in a refined American accent.

"Indeed," the older fellow responds in an equally refined English accent. He hands over the envelope. "Our employer will be pleased," a sinister grin sneaking across his lined face.

"Oh yes, he will be…"